1
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:05,759
Welcome to the Energetic Radio podcast. This episode is brought to you

2
00:00:05,759 --> 00:00:09,440
by the school of play dotco, hosted by Dale Sibonham and

3
00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,255
Paul Campbell. Each week, we'll bring to you tips, strategies, and ideas

4
00:00:13,255 --> 00:00:16,535
on how you can bring more joy and happiness into your life and those you

5
00:00:16,535 --> 00:00:20,055
share with. Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome

6
00:00:20,055 --> 00:00:23,675
to the Energetic Radio podcast episode 340.

7
00:00:24,850 --> 00:00:27,570
Wow. We we're getting there, Darwin. We're we're racking them up. We're racking them up.

8
00:00:27,570 --> 00:00:31,330
Oh, yeah. And today's a cracker. We've got a special guest on today.

9
00:00:31,970 --> 00:00:35,330
And the best thing about this special guest is up until 2 weeks ago, we

10
00:00:35,330 --> 00:00:39,114
had no idea this man existed. We had not crossed paths

11
00:00:39,114 --> 00:00:42,554
yet, but let me tell you, we are bloody glad and bloody wrapped that we

12
00:00:42,554 --> 00:00:46,175
did, because you're gonna come to love him just as much as we do.

13
00:00:46,954 --> 00:00:50,714
But our special guest today is Marcus Veerman. Welcome,

14
00:00:50,714 --> 00:00:54,500
Marcus. How you going, guys? Great to be here. Really well. Thanks.

15
00:00:54,500 --> 00:00:58,340
Thanks for joining us on energetic radio. Just for you guys playing at home, what

16
00:00:58,340 --> 00:01:01,960
we love about Marcus, he's a creative mastermind.

17
00:01:02,180 --> 00:01:05,700
He's got an amazing social conscience. He's a bloody good

18
00:01:05,700 --> 00:01:09,435
human. We strongly believe here at the School of Play that

19
00:01:09,435 --> 00:01:13,275
kindness and play are superpowers. And let me tell you,

20
00:01:13,275 --> 00:01:17,035
this man has them in spades. And when

21
00:01:17,035 --> 00:01:20,795
we heard his story literally a week ago now, we we we crossed paths and

22
00:01:20,795 --> 00:01:24,080
and heard his story. We instantly went, we've gotta get this done to the podcast.

23
00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,440
I think I stopped in midlife and said, just do you wanna do a podcast

24
00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:31,280
as well? Keep talking. 100%. And and the cool thing

25
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:34,340
is, Marcus used a term called a nowist.

26
00:01:34,985 --> 00:01:37,865
You know? And and, Marcus, you're gonna piss yourself, but I've used that term a

27
00:01:37,865 --> 00:01:41,705
few times since our meeting, with business calls and business meetings,

28
00:01:41,705 --> 00:01:44,345
and I've used the term now. So it's gone it's landed really well, to be

29
00:01:44,345 --> 00:01:48,185
honest with you, mate. So, I think that's a movement that might stick bigger

30
00:01:48,185 --> 00:01:51,600
here at the school play. So before we get going, thank you for

31
00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:55,360
introducing us to the world of Naos. And, the man to my right

32
00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:59,140
is definitely Naos. No. No. You're a Naos, so, that's bloody brilliant.

33
00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,400
Marcus, before we kick things off, Dale hates it, but I love it. I'd like

34
00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:06,075
to I'd like to start our podcast episodes with some useless

35
00:02:06,075 --> 00:02:09,914
stats based around about, what episode we're up to. We're up to

36
00:02:09,914 --> 00:02:13,675
episode 340, people. And let me tell you, finding stats is getting increasingly

37
00:02:14,395 --> 00:02:18,190
Kinda metric. Harder and harder. But here we go. So stats

38
00:02:18,190 --> 00:02:21,950
for 340. At the recent Paris Olympic Games,

39
00:02:21,950 --> 00:02:25,790
there were 340 shooters at the games. There you go. Spare few

40
00:02:25,790 --> 00:02:29,629
athletes. Yep. The world record got 2 world records for you. 3 world

41
00:02:29,629 --> 00:02:33,365
records, actually. The world record for the largest stack of casino

42
00:02:33,425 --> 00:02:36,725
chips is from Travis Stitch, and it's 340

43
00:02:37,185 --> 00:02:40,865
casino chips stacked up vertically before it fell over. Wow. Not

44
00:02:40,865 --> 00:02:44,325
bad. And the largest drum set in the world consists of 340

45
00:02:44,705 --> 00:02:48,099
pieces. Can you imagine playing a drum set for

46
00:02:48,099 --> 00:02:51,939
340 pieces? Where the hell would you start? I can't imagine you got 3 stats

47
00:02:51,939 --> 00:02:55,780
for 3. I'm pretty impressed with those ones. I'm pretty impressed. If you can see

48
00:02:55,780 --> 00:02:59,219
Marcus' face right there, he's like, what if I get through here? I'm just trying

49
00:02:59,219 --> 00:03:02,965
to imagine, like, having arms, like, having that that many pieces and

50
00:03:02,965 --> 00:03:06,165
having arms, like, how would you arrange them so you could reach them all and

51
00:03:06,165 --> 00:03:09,705
reach them? Agree more. And I haven't seen a visual of these 340

52
00:03:09,845 --> 00:03:13,125
people, obviously. Real? So it might not be real, but I thought Google told me

53
00:03:13,125 --> 00:03:16,850
yesterday, oh, chat JPT. Found me some rippers. But, yeah, what a what a

54
00:03:16,850 --> 00:03:20,450
couple of stats to open up our episode. But, anyway, back to you, Marcus. So

55
00:03:20,450 --> 00:03:23,090
I won't steal your thunder too much, but I just wanna explain the to our

56
00:03:23,090 --> 00:03:26,450
listeners, why we fell in love with you, straight away.

57
00:03:26,450 --> 00:03:30,245
And so Marcus is the CEO of Playground Ideas and

58
00:03:30,245 --> 00:03:33,225
the founder of what's an amazing concept called the noodle cart.

59
00:03:34,245 --> 00:03:37,945
And my favorite thing is since 2010, he's built 7,212

60
00:03:39,285 --> 00:03:42,850
sustainable playgrounds in a 143 countries that's

61
00:03:42,850 --> 00:03:46,070
impacted over 3a half 1000000 children globally.

62
00:03:46,210 --> 00:03:49,730
Bang. Huge. I should

63
00:03:49,730 --> 00:03:53,570
say, just for the listeners out there, I cannot take credit for the

64
00:03:53,570 --> 00:03:57,245
vast majority of those. We run an online platform

65
00:03:57,625 --> 00:04:01,144
that supports, like, thousands of amazing people around the

66
00:04:01,144 --> 00:04:04,685
world to do that work really cost effectively

67
00:04:04,825 --> 00:04:08,424
themselves, and we just give them everything they need to make sure that

68
00:04:08,424 --> 00:04:12,240
it's, you know, adventurous and well designed and safe and all of

69
00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:16,000
that stuff. So I, yeah, I can't take credit for the vast

70
00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,760
majority of that. I have built a lot of playgrounds in really absolutely

71
00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:23,575
amazing places, around, you know, along

72
00:04:23,575 --> 00:04:27,175
the Taibang border for refugees and other things, which maybe we'll talk about. But, yeah,

73
00:04:27,175 --> 00:04:30,475
definitely, I need to give huge amount of kudos to the community

74
00:04:31,095 --> 00:04:34,935
who picks up the challenge every day and builds a playground somewhere

75
00:04:34,935 --> 00:04:38,110
different, which is you know, the they're the real heroes. So I'm not trying to

76
00:04:38,110 --> 00:04:41,470
be sort of, you know, foe humble about it. I'm proud of what I've done,

77
00:04:41,470 --> 00:04:45,310
but I definitely, you know, I can't I I always I always

78
00:04:45,310 --> 00:04:49,150
just try and be really clear that I have not physically traveled to all those

79
00:04:49,150 --> 00:04:52,905
countries into wood and, you know,

80
00:04:52,905 --> 00:04:55,645
done stuff. I did a lot of that in my early days, and I I

81
00:04:55,705 --> 00:04:59,065
expended way too much energy trying to kill myself doing

82
00:04:59,065 --> 00:05:02,824
that. And, you know, I'm really glad that we engaged a community of people who

83
00:05:02,824 --> 00:05:06,090
jumped on board and done that. I love that. What what's the saying you, you

84
00:05:06,090 --> 00:05:08,410
give a man a fish, he eats for a day. You teach a man how

85
00:05:08,410 --> 00:05:11,530
to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Right? So that's what you're doing. You're you're

86
00:05:11,530 --> 00:05:15,070
educating these people in third world countries how to sustainably

87
00:05:15,210 --> 00:05:18,890
build their playgrounds and therefore they can then spread that to ripple effect. Right? And

88
00:05:18,890 --> 00:05:21,875
then they can then teach other people, and it goes from there. So it's a

89
00:05:21,875 --> 00:05:25,635
really sustainable practice, BB Krater. But, you know, at the start there, I

90
00:05:25,635 --> 00:05:29,075
said he's a bloody good human and how's that? Already already humble already humble off

91
00:05:29,075 --> 00:05:32,755
the bat. You know, I can imagine how he saw a thumb you should have

92
00:05:32,755 --> 00:05:36,420
from Belton in play 7,200 playgrounds. Jesus

93
00:05:36,420 --> 00:05:40,260
Christ. Yeah. I'll definitely have I love it. I love it. Marcus, one of the

94
00:05:40,260 --> 00:05:43,720
questions we love to kick off on the pod is is a really simple question.

95
00:05:44,660 --> 00:05:47,880
And it's it's what has lit you up in the last 7 days?

96
00:05:51,104 --> 00:05:54,705
That's a really good question. What has lit me up? I think the big thing

97
00:05:54,705 --> 00:05:58,164
at the moment, so within so

98
00:05:58,705 --> 00:06:02,290
you mentioned noodle cart. We now have to call it kinda noodle

99
00:06:02,290 --> 00:06:05,570
because we've got the carton, the row for schools, and then we've got this new

100
00:06:05,570 --> 00:06:08,630
one, the pod, the noodle pod for homes. And I think,

101
00:06:09,970 --> 00:06:13,570
we have finally we're currently shipping, like, a 1,000 of them

102
00:06:13,570 --> 00:06:17,185
to families around the world. And what just has just set

103
00:06:17,185 --> 00:06:21,025
me on fire is we've got this so I didn't wanna just

104
00:06:21,025 --> 00:06:24,625
make a toy. I wanted to create a community of people. And so now

105
00:06:24,625 --> 00:06:28,385
there's something like 4 to I guess it's 4 to 500 families who are part

106
00:06:28,385 --> 00:06:32,010
of this private chat group just for families so that they sort of feel

107
00:06:32,010 --> 00:06:35,850
confident to share their stories and the stuff that they're doing. And,

108
00:06:35,850 --> 00:06:39,690
you know, we've built, you know, hundreds of different

109
00:06:39,690 --> 00:06:43,449
configurations of our toy that kids can play with toy replacements and then other

110
00:06:43,449 --> 00:06:47,105
kooky strange, crazy toys. But just in the last week,

111
00:06:47,105 --> 00:06:50,625
we've had so many people just have just blown me

112
00:06:50,625 --> 00:06:53,764
away with new and crazy cool ways

113
00:06:54,385 --> 00:06:58,210
to design stuff for their children, but then also children feeding

114
00:06:58,210 --> 00:07:00,770
back. They just leave this thing in the middle of the room and children building

115
00:07:00,770 --> 00:07:04,530
these just super cool just cute little super

116
00:07:04,530 --> 00:07:08,150
cool creative things that children have just been able to just experiment

117
00:07:08,210 --> 00:07:11,745
around until they come up with stuff. And that that just, you know, that

118
00:07:11,745 --> 00:07:15,445
just warms my the cockles of my heart to see families

119
00:07:16,145 --> 00:07:19,605
face to face, screen free, just,

120
00:07:19,905 --> 00:07:23,750
you know, in that flow creative flow state between a

121
00:07:23,750 --> 00:07:27,110
parent and a child or siblings even. We've had a whole bunch of videos of

122
00:07:27,110 --> 00:07:30,870
siblings, you know, older kids pushing their little, you

123
00:07:30,870 --> 00:07:34,710
know, baby siblings around in a little toy pram or a cot or something

124
00:07:34,710 --> 00:07:38,285
they've just created. All that kind of stuff is just it's, you know,

125
00:07:38,345 --> 00:07:42,185
like yeah. That that's that's some good quality stuff. It's rewarding.

126
00:07:42,185 --> 00:07:45,865
Right? It's rewarding to send you yeah. What what it's kind of fruition. I won't

127
00:07:45,865 --> 00:07:48,425
lie to them. I because we we did some research once we met you, and

128
00:07:48,425 --> 00:07:51,945
then we went and I did some research. And, I came across you

129
00:07:51,945 --> 00:07:55,500
noodle pod, and I'm blown away with it. I think it's a

130
00:07:55,500 --> 00:07:59,120
ripping idea. I've already shared it with a few of my mates who have,

131
00:07:59,740 --> 00:08:02,379
just had kids or have got young kids. I'm like, you guys, this is a

132
00:08:02,379 --> 00:08:05,895
great Christmas idea. Because not only is it is it wooden, and parents

133
00:08:05,895 --> 00:08:09,735
love wooden things because Plastic crap. You know, you kinda mind drawing this plastic crap

134
00:08:09,735 --> 00:08:13,515
every day. It's fine. But it's it's beautifully made and crafted,

135
00:08:13,575 --> 00:08:17,195
but what I found is it it would turn your children

136
00:08:17,335 --> 00:08:20,855
into toymakers, into engineers, into creative little

137
00:08:20,855 --> 00:08:24,490
souls. It would just do wonders for them creatively.

138
00:08:24,629 --> 00:08:28,470
And, yeah, I think it's a brilliant idea. And as you said,

139
00:08:28,470 --> 00:08:31,909
that one little pod, that one little idea you've got can be

140
00:08:31,909 --> 00:08:35,370
transformed into hundreds of different activities or ideas or concepts,

141
00:08:35,934 --> 00:08:39,774
and it's endless. Right? And I think it is a brilliant concept. For those of

142
00:08:39,774 --> 00:08:43,054
you who haven't checked it out, jump on. Just just Google noodle card or noodle

143
00:08:43,054 --> 00:08:46,514
pod. I think it's a ripping business, Christmas idea.

144
00:08:46,894 --> 00:08:49,040
I wanna throw on the spot Mark. Because I'm not sure if you can throw

145
00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:52,400
us a discount code for a Christmas gift card through our listeners or something. I'll

146
00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:56,000
Oh, yeah. If that's alright. No. If you go to the

147
00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,620
the actually, the best thing that you can do is just go to the website

148
00:08:59,920 --> 00:09:02,180
and join the VIP club. It costs $29.

149
00:09:03,665 --> 00:09:07,345
That $29 will get you, by the time you factor

150
00:09:07,345 --> 00:09:11,185
in, free shipping and the 30% off discount that

151
00:09:11,185 --> 00:09:15,024
we're offering at the moment, you're getting it for almost half price. And without

152
00:09:15,024 --> 00:09:18,704
wanting to hustle people, when you get this, we are we are having to

153
00:09:18,865 --> 00:09:22,460
we're sort of going out of that launch Kickstarter phase

154
00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:26,140
and into, like, just a normal sort of, you know, ecommerce

155
00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:29,800
kind of thing, because we've just

156
00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:33,525
we've we've almost delivered all the Kickstarter pods. And once that's

157
00:09:33,525 --> 00:09:37,045
done, we've got a we've actually got to run a business and make it

158
00:09:37,045 --> 00:09:40,805
work. So all of that all of that will go away because we're starting

159
00:09:40,805 --> 00:09:44,485
to get real recommendations from real families going, hey. This is a great investment. You

160
00:09:44,485 --> 00:09:47,980
should do it. So but right now, if you join the VIP, you're

161
00:09:47,980 --> 00:09:51,660
getting, like yeah. It works out to be almost 40% off, which is

162
00:09:51,660 --> 00:09:55,180
100 of dollars. Wow. Yeah. So you are That's better than any

163
00:09:55,180 --> 00:09:58,940
code. 100%. You've I exceeded most of the time. I was gonna

164
00:09:58,940 --> 00:10:02,745
get a 10% discount code today. That's what I was I was gonna get a

165
00:10:02,745 --> 00:10:05,430
10% discount code today. That's what I was hoping for. I was like, surely, he'll

166
00:10:05,430 --> 00:10:06,345
give us a discount. He's given us 40%. Thank you. I appreciate that. That is

167
00:10:06,345 --> 00:10:09,305
awesome. I can give you a QR code if you wanna put it on your

168
00:10:09,305 --> 00:10:12,264
page or whatever. The ping pong scan if you want. I can we can totally

169
00:10:12,264 --> 00:10:15,360
do that. We can do that. So listeners, for sure, let's let's do that. So

170
00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:18,420
we'll throw a QR code up there, for sure for listeners,

171
00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:22,959
and you can access it. Honestly, it will make a great Christmas present, for

172
00:10:22,959 --> 00:10:26,800
your nieces, your nephews, your kids, whatever it might be, your grandkids. I

173
00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:29,200
guarantee the parents won't be upset when they pull that one out of the box.

174
00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:32,615
No. They won't. Because it's not plastic crap. Yeah. It's not a screen. It's not

175
00:10:32,615 --> 00:10:36,315
a screen, and it will do wonders for their little minds. That's for sure.

176
00:10:36,615 --> 00:10:39,495
Anyway, let's get away from the the noodle cart and the business itself. We wanna

177
00:10:39,495 --> 00:10:43,095
hear a bit more about you, Marcus. So, tell us a bit of that story,

178
00:10:43,095 --> 00:10:46,615
mate. Yeah. Yeah. You activated us, after I'd

179
00:10:46,615 --> 00:10:50,430
blabbled and you said you've got ADHD, so do I. We connected

180
00:10:50,430 --> 00:10:54,190
very well over that. We both love play. But then you just proceeded to

181
00:10:54,190 --> 00:10:57,890
tell us one of the most elaborate stories that just kept getting better and better

182
00:10:57,950 --> 00:11:00,975
for your journey of what you've been able to achieve to where you are now.

183
00:11:01,214 --> 00:11:04,095
So give that to our listeners, mate, because we wanna hear it again. Yeah. Where

184
00:11:04,095 --> 00:11:07,694
did they start? Where where did where did play Playground Ideas and the Noodle

185
00:11:07,694 --> 00:11:11,375
Cuddle begin with your kindness? So okay. I'll try. And just tell

186
00:11:11,375 --> 00:11:15,190
me just tell me to shut up or move on. I

187
00:11:15,190 --> 00:11:18,390
go down like like, if I go down too deep down to rabbit warren rabbit

188
00:11:18,390 --> 00:11:22,070
hole just a little bit. I think the the very first thing was I

189
00:11:22,230 --> 00:11:25,750
so this is an education podcast. I am a trained

190
00:11:25,750 --> 00:11:29,425
teacher. I, studied

191
00:11:29,425 --> 00:11:32,945
both I started at Latrobe and did a bit of my end study at,

192
00:11:33,185 --> 00:11:36,725
Victoria Uni, and I was really lucky throughout that process to study health,

193
00:11:37,505 --> 00:11:41,220
specialization in health and outdoor education, sort of as my sort

194
00:11:41,220 --> 00:11:44,680
of specializations for it was a prep to 12 degree.

195
00:11:46,020 --> 00:11:49,620
And I think having that focus gave me a broader aspect of child develop

196
00:11:49,780 --> 00:11:53,535
childhood development and sort of what we're trying to do as teachers, you know,

197
00:11:53,694 --> 00:11:57,055
not just focusing on curriculum, but actually a holistic view of what is a

198
00:11:57,055 --> 00:12:00,735
child and and, you know, how do we

199
00:12:00,735 --> 00:12:04,495
want them to go through education and parenting as

200
00:12:04,495 --> 00:12:08,110
well to come out the other side to thrive with the skills that you need

201
00:12:08,110 --> 00:12:11,950
to do well in life as opposed to, you know, we look. I think

202
00:12:11,950 --> 00:12:15,470
it's well known these days that just because you do well in school doesn't mean

203
00:12:15,470 --> 00:12:19,070
that you do well at all in life. You know? That that that they're not

204
00:12:19,230 --> 00:12:22,985
those things are are not correlated. And I think also you

205
00:12:22,985 --> 00:12:26,204
can be, you know, along with that point, you can be an a grade student,

206
00:12:26,745 --> 00:12:30,505
but, you know, there's a lot of things that we don't call mental health

207
00:12:30,505 --> 00:12:33,964
issues or mental illnesses or disabilities. But if you're chronically

208
00:12:34,024 --> 00:12:37,779
shy or you're lacking in confidence and, you know, the

209
00:12:37,779 --> 00:12:41,540
ability to put yourself out there in this kind of new gig economy world

210
00:12:41,540 --> 00:12:45,000
where you kind of, you know, just gotta kind of make

211
00:12:45,380 --> 00:12:48,839
make your own path. You know, you don't have some career dude who's gonna

212
00:12:49,025 --> 00:12:52,305
go, right, you know, start as an internship and then move up through the ranks,

213
00:12:52,305 --> 00:12:55,365
and then you get a gold watch at the end of your life. We're

214
00:12:56,065 --> 00:12:59,825
we're really, really. We don't live in that world. Like, I mean, decades

215
00:12:59,825 --> 00:13:03,525
ago, that's changed, but I feel like we're still stuck in this kind of

216
00:13:03,650 --> 00:13:07,010
world where we expected if we just do this thing, there'll be a path for

217
00:13:07,010 --> 00:13:10,690
us. But, actually, what we're seeing is that that's that's not true. You know? And

218
00:13:10,690 --> 00:13:14,530
with house prices the way they are and other things, you've gotta kind of hustle

219
00:13:14,530 --> 00:13:18,050
a little bit and sort of find your way through these things, to be

220
00:13:18,050 --> 00:13:21,845
successful. So first of all, I I think I was lucky to sort of

221
00:13:21,845 --> 00:13:25,285
see things from a holistic perspective. 2nd of all, I was

222
00:13:25,285 --> 00:13:28,964
extremely lucky, just totally by chance that the the

223
00:13:29,125 --> 00:13:32,690
my last year of uni, there was an opportunity to

224
00:13:32,690 --> 00:13:36,529
do the last 6 months of my study in the Philippines. So I went

225
00:13:36,529 --> 00:13:39,670
to, developing, you know, low income nation.

226
00:13:40,370 --> 00:13:44,050
I was very lucky to study at a really premium university there,

227
00:13:44,050 --> 00:13:47,605
but, you know, you'd walk out of the gates of the school, and I was

228
00:13:47,685 --> 00:13:49,785
you know, there was just abject poverty,

229
00:13:51,445 --> 00:13:54,904
everywhere. Right? And so we were we were also

230
00:13:55,204 --> 00:13:58,745
became honoring members of the University of the Philippines mountaineering

231
00:13:58,805 --> 00:14:01,890
club. So we got to travel the whole country top to bottom and did them.

232
00:14:01,890 --> 00:14:05,730
It just it was an incredible time of just opening my

233
00:14:05,730 --> 00:14:08,610
eyes because I've never I've I've never even been on a plane when I was

234
00:14:08,850 --> 00:14:12,130
Oh, wow. In my life. In the Philippines. I I don't know how that my

235
00:14:12,130 --> 00:14:15,885
my dad is like a hardcore environmentalist, so we just didn't fly. You know?

236
00:14:15,885 --> 00:14:19,565
We would we drove to Queensland to go on a holiday once to go to

237
00:14:19,565 --> 00:14:23,245
expo 88, you know, things like that. So, that was it was just

238
00:14:23,325 --> 00:14:26,925
it just blew my mind. So I left university after this last 6 months of

239
00:14:26,925 --> 00:14:30,640
going overseas with this sort of, like you know, it's just so ready

240
00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:34,320
and ready to go. So, basically, the 1st 7 years so

241
00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:37,700
this is really where it started was I spent 7 years,

242
00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:42,080
working at a whole bunch of schools and then eventually working all over the

243
00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:45,745
world with kids in outdoor education, mountaineering, sort of

244
00:14:45,745 --> 00:14:49,504
mountain guide sort of settings. And I think when I look

245
00:14:49,504 --> 00:14:53,285
back on that, although I didn't recognize it at the time, I was getting

246
00:14:54,225 --> 00:14:58,064
an education in education by watching

247
00:14:58,064 --> 00:15:01,770
these kids in open ended environments where we did on a

248
00:15:01,770 --> 00:15:05,530
daily basis know what the outcome of today was gonna be. You know, whether the

249
00:15:05,530 --> 00:15:09,130
storm was gonna come, whether we're gonna make it to our destination or not, whether

250
00:15:09,130 --> 00:15:12,810
someone was gonna get sick, whether we were gonna burn the pasta and go

251
00:15:12,810 --> 00:15:16,305
hungry that night. You know, I watched kids in that

252
00:15:16,305 --> 00:15:19,925
environment thrive and adapt to that

253
00:15:20,145 --> 00:15:23,745
heightened challenge of real life hitting them in the

254
00:15:23,745 --> 00:15:27,505
face on a daily basis and then having to respond to that

255
00:15:27,505 --> 00:15:31,330
in real ways. You know? And so for me, it was just right from

256
00:15:31,330 --> 00:15:34,930
the get go. I could see there's this fundamental need for

257
00:15:34,930 --> 00:15:38,770
children to rub against the real world if we want

258
00:15:38,770 --> 00:15:42,290
them to be mature and confident human beings. You know? And and and

259
00:15:42,290 --> 00:15:45,945
education can sometimes feel quite insular and

260
00:15:45,945 --> 00:15:49,305
closed off from the real world. Like, they're sort of seen as 2 different things.

261
00:15:49,305 --> 00:15:51,084
So I was quite lucky in that sense.

262
00:15:53,144 --> 00:15:56,665
Then I got to a point when in my late twenties where I would literally

263
00:15:56,665 --> 00:15:59,945
look at my backpack on a I got to the point where I wouldn't even

264
00:15:59,945 --> 00:16:03,280
pack until, Monday morning. So I did get

265
00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:07,120
and I would see look at my backpack on a on a Monday morning, my

266
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:10,400
empty saggy backpack, and be like, I just don't know if I can do this

267
00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:14,080
anymore. Like, I was just completely burnt out. You know, I was I was working

268
00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:17,855
30 to 35 weeks in the bush every

269
00:16:17,855 --> 00:16:21,695
year. So think imagine that you're teaching, what you're doing, what you're teaching. Imagine that,

270
00:16:21,695 --> 00:16:24,595
but you're in on a mountain, rain, hail,

271
00:16:25,055 --> 00:16:28,654
blazing sun, freezing cold winters every day,

272
00:16:28,654 --> 00:16:31,830
waking up on a rocky thermarest, you know, all that stuff.

273
00:16:32,390 --> 00:16:35,350
Asthma attacks in the middle of the night. You know, it's just it's pretty it's

274
00:16:35,350 --> 00:16:37,610
a hard job, and it's not very well rewarded.

275
00:16:39,350 --> 00:16:43,190
So then I I heard about this guy, Russell Kerr, really inspirational guy. Some of

276
00:16:43,190 --> 00:16:46,995
your listeners, I'm sure, will, know of his effect through the hands on

277
00:16:46,995 --> 00:16:50,295
learning program. Again, amazing program.

278
00:16:50,755 --> 00:16:54,595
At the time, he was running it in, like, maybe 2 to 3, maybe

279
00:16:54,595 --> 00:16:58,355
4 or 5 schools, I guess. Basically, they this

280
00:16:58,355 --> 00:17:01,715
had the same vision. Right? You take kids out of their classes for a day

281
00:17:01,715 --> 00:17:05,380
a week with the recognition that there is a lot to learn in the

282
00:17:05,380 --> 00:17:09,059
real world as well as in education. So we can get these not not

283
00:17:09,059 --> 00:17:12,819
just disadvantaged kids, not just the naughty kids who are really, sort of

284
00:17:12,819 --> 00:17:16,099
causing a lot of problems in the classroom, but just the kids who'd really

285
00:17:17,505 --> 00:17:21,105
we saw potential in them because they were more creative and more open and

286
00:17:21,105 --> 00:17:24,945
wanted bigger challenges and, you know, wanted to be more responsible for what for

287
00:17:24,945 --> 00:17:28,705
their learning and stuff. Took them out of their class, and we did crazy things.

288
00:17:28,705 --> 00:17:32,550
We built full sized classrooms. So Frankston

289
00:17:32,590 --> 00:17:35,750
I think it's Frankston College was the very first one who built this beautiful straw

290
00:17:35,750 --> 00:17:39,270
bile workshop in the school with kids from the

291
00:17:39,270 --> 00:17:42,925
foundations all the way up a full construction. And then, you

292
00:17:42,925 --> 00:17:46,565
know, bike maintenance, and we donate the bikes to disadvantaged kids, and

293
00:17:46,565 --> 00:17:50,245
we did park furniture and all like, I mean,

294
00:17:50,245 --> 00:17:53,685
over the years, I've done crazy things. I helped

295
00:17:54,085 --> 00:17:57,710
that was my first kind of go at getting involved with the start

296
00:17:57,710 --> 00:18:01,549
up idea, and I helped to write the manual and to sort of set that

297
00:18:01,549 --> 00:18:05,390
organization up for success with Russell. And I

298
00:18:05,390 --> 00:18:09,195
was unbelievably blessed and lucky, and I have endless

299
00:18:09,195 --> 00:18:12,555
amounts of gratitude for the fact that we were chosen by Social Ventures

300
00:18:12,555 --> 00:18:16,255
Australia as one of their, like, high intensity

301
00:18:17,035 --> 00:18:20,730
mentorship programs where we got to be mentored by,

302
00:18:20,809 --> 00:18:24,490
you know, accountants and lawyers, and all these corporate people came in and

303
00:18:24,490 --> 00:18:28,250
helped to support us to grow that program. So, I

304
00:18:28,250 --> 00:18:32,090
did that for a few years, and that's now still absolutely in

305
00:18:32,090 --> 00:18:35,675
existence, and our belief is in hundreds of schools around Australia, and that's

306
00:18:35,675 --> 00:18:39,315
an incredible program. The reason I left was because I got

307
00:18:39,315 --> 00:18:43,155
married to my wife, and she said to me, I'm not marrying you unless we

308
00:18:43,155 --> 00:18:46,835
go and live overseas and do some development work. She's

309
00:18:46,995 --> 00:18:50,740
like, for a while. She wasn't you know, this image of a

310
00:18:50,740 --> 00:18:54,180
of a swooning wife that I say, will you marry me? And she says, yeah.

311
00:18:54,180 --> 00:18:57,140
I I was expecting to come in and say, I'm not marrying unless we go

312
00:18:57,140 --> 00:19:00,340
back home to Australia. We do this, we do that, but not quite the opposite

313
00:19:00,340 --> 00:19:04,015
of her. No. No. It's like, right. We if we don't go well, I'm not

314
00:19:04,015 --> 00:19:07,855
marrying you unless you promise me that you will allow

315
00:19:07,855 --> 00:19:11,055
me to do this thing where I wanna go overseas and live for a while

316
00:19:11,055 --> 00:19:14,755
and do some development work. And I was like, sure. No no problem. So

317
00:19:14,895 --> 00:19:18,139
I did so literally a year after we,

318
00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:22,120
got married, she came to me instead of just won

319
00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:25,580
this, Australian Volunteers International Project to work

320
00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:29,500
with a theater organization, that creates,

321
00:19:29,615 --> 00:19:33,395
like, theater shows that tour through refugee camps to educate people

322
00:19:33,855 --> 00:19:37,235
on all sorts of topics, everything from washing your hands to

323
00:19:37,455 --> 00:19:41,075
active community citizenship and, you know, all sorts of stuff.

324
00:19:41,455 --> 00:19:45,040
And I was like, okay. So I traveled to so, basically, so of within

325
00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:48,080
about, I think, a few months, all of a sudden, my world got turned upside

326
00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:51,680
down, and I put everything I owned that I couldn't sell in a

327
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:54,960
garage sale in a backpack, and I ended up in Thailand. And I had for

328
00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:58,800
the first time, and I was turning 30, 10 years of working my

329
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:02,575
butt off, like, you know, just doing all these crazy things that I

330
00:20:02,575 --> 00:20:05,855
loved, and I landed a country at it. No idea of the language. So in

331
00:20:05,855 --> 00:20:09,695
Thailand, Thailand was never colonized like the rest of Southeast Asia. So

332
00:20:09,695 --> 00:20:13,055
almost no one speaks English in terms of, like, English speaking rates. If you go

333
00:20:13,055 --> 00:20:16,730
to the Philippines, other places, English is well spoken, whereas we

334
00:20:16,730 --> 00:20:20,490
were just I mean, I was just at sea. There was just when when we

335
00:20:20,490 --> 00:20:24,330
were living in this, like, remote, village about an hour and a

336
00:20:24,330 --> 00:20:28,030
half north of Chiang Mai, and it was absolutely

337
00:20:28,090 --> 00:20:31,745
stunning, but, like, no type. So had to learn a language

338
00:20:31,965 --> 00:20:34,845
and then work then work out what on earth I was gonna do. And it

339
00:20:34,845 --> 00:20:38,685
just so happened that someone asked me to build a playground. And

340
00:20:38,685 --> 00:20:41,505
this and so I did that,

341
00:20:42,365 --> 00:20:45,700
based and the reason they asked me that is because I had done a couple

342
00:20:45,700 --> 00:20:49,160
of projects in, Madagascar

343
00:20:49,780 --> 00:20:53,220
and Vietnam where I built 2 little playgrounds with high school

344
00:20:53,220 --> 00:20:56,820
kids. And they heard about me telling that story because it only happened

345
00:20:56,820 --> 00:21:00,665
recently, and they said, can you build playground? And I was like, sure. So I've

346
00:21:00,665 --> 00:21:04,185
I've built this really cool, I think it was a

347
00:21:04,185 --> 00:21:07,525
dodecahedron cubby house. Dodecahedron is

348
00:21:07,945 --> 00:21:11,650
the most complex planar shape, I think it's called.

349
00:21:11,650 --> 00:21:15,330
You guys are educated. You know that? Like, there's the cube. Keep

350
00:21:15,330 --> 00:21:19,090
talking. Both both PET. You're like no decohedrons. That's going by the

351
00:21:19,090 --> 00:21:22,770
overhead. So Anyway, it's It sounds like it's a good thing. I don't know. I

352
00:21:22,770 --> 00:21:26,390
built that little slide coming off. It was next to this beautiful lake, really stunning.

353
00:21:26,475 --> 00:21:30,235
And then a little teeny tiny I mean, like, you know, I'm I'm 6

354
00:21:30,235 --> 00:21:33,615
foot 4. This I'm probably 3 and a half foot high

355
00:21:34,395 --> 00:21:38,095
Thai principal turned up on a little 1000000 year old

356
00:21:38,155 --> 00:21:41,670
motorbike with these 2 I remember she had these 2 massive bags of rice

357
00:21:41,830 --> 00:21:45,670
on each handlebar, and she was riding way up into the mountains because

358
00:21:45,670 --> 00:21:48,090
she was educating this particular,

359
00:21:49,910 --> 00:21:53,670
Darang community, which were kind of like sort

360
00:21:53,670 --> 00:21:57,370
of second class Thai citizens. They moved from Tibet, I think,

361
00:21:57,755 --> 00:22:01,195
to this remote region of Thailand, and they had a very, very

362
00:22:01,195 --> 00:22:04,955
poorly, or school that had a playground. I just wanna give

363
00:22:04,955 --> 00:22:07,615
you a little sort of picture for the listeners.

364
00:22:08,635 --> 00:22:12,410
There's one element very common in Thailand, a little metal

365
00:22:12,550 --> 00:22:16,230
ladder. Imagine, like, 3 or 4 steps going up to a 44 gallon

366
00:22:16,230 --> 00:22:19,910
drum where the ends have been removed. You crawl through the

367
00:22:19,910 --> 00:22:23,655
44 gallon drum, and then you slide down a little slide on the other side.

368
00:22:23,815 --> 00:22:27,255
Right? Classic. You see them in Southeast Asia. Everywhere, they're really cheap to

369
00:22:27,255 --> 00:22:31,015
make. When I arrived 20 years after this

370
00:22:31,015 --> 00:22:34,775
thing had been installed, there was, like, like,

371
00:22:34,775 --> 00:22:38,250
some rusty stub stubs of, like,

372
00:22:38,250 --> 00:22:41,530
ladder edges so that the middle part of the ladder was removed, but it was

373
00:22:41,530 --> 00:22:45,310
still the upside bit and these little bits, and you you crawl up these rusty

374
00:22:45,370 --> 00:22:48,990
these rusty stumps. And then when you got into the 44

375
00:22:49,050 --> 00:22:52,785
gallon drum, the bottom of the 44 gallon

376
00:22:52,785 --> 00:22:55,525
drum, because it had water sitting in it, was just this pockmarked

377
00:22:56,544 --> 00:23:00,385
bunch of holes, rusty holes in the 40 4 gallon drum.

378
00:23:00,385 --> 00:23:04,060
And then if you manage to make it to the end of that, then you

379
00:23:04,060 --> 00:23:07,500
had to do the, I hope I don't get tetanus jump off the

380
00:23:07,500 --> 00:23:11,340
end because the slide was completely gone, and

381
00:23:11,340 --> 00:23:14,320
all that was left was the 2 rusty sharp

382
00:23:14,700 --> 00:23:17,980
stumps poking up from the end of the slide. That was it. Right? Was it

383
00:23:18,060 --> 00:23:21,025
were were there any kids still playing on this thing? Were there for the year?

384
00:23:21,025 --> 00:23:24,525
It's usually. Yeah. Yeah. So so if you look on

385
00:23:24,685 --> 00:23:27,325
people can go to YouTube. If you look, like, 10 years ago, the video is

386
00:23:27,325 --> 00:23:31,165
still there of that of that story of that playground. So I remember

387
00:23:31,165 --> 00:23:33,970
there's a bit of video that I I recorded where I was like, this is

388
00:23:33,970 --> 00:23:37,650
the worst playground I have ever seen in my life.

389
00:23:37,650 --> 00:23:41,250
Like, you know, the fact that kids weren't all walking around with limbs

390
00:23:41,250 --> 00:23:43,990
removed from tetanus was just so

391
00:23:45,095 --> 00:23:48,455
that was the first big sort of playground we did. We did they had a

392
00:23:48,455 --> 00:23:52,215
teak teak tree plantation within the school,

393
00:23:52,215 --> 00:23:55,975
which is kind of weird, but beautiful. It is beautiful old

394
00:23:55,975 --> 00:23:59,640
shade covering trees. And we built, like, tree houses. We had

395
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:03,340
huge slides coming off the tree, big sand pits, and,

396
00:24:04,679 --> 00:24:08,280
seesaws, and all these kind of crazy stuff under this beautiful forest. It was

397
00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:11,825
just really it was stunning. And the whole and the community was amazing.

398
00:24:11,825 --> 00:24:15,664
All these people came out, and helped us to build it, and we had local

399
00:24:15,664 --> 00:24:19,424
builders who, you know, like, they were helping to learn teach me tie and

400
00:24:19,424 --> 00:24:23,140
learn how to get material. These guys were so amazing

401
00:24:23,140 --> 00:24:26,740
at finding cheap materials, and, you know, we went and pulled car tires out of

402
00:24:26,740 --> 00:24:30,500
old swamps from the back of the rubbish dump. That was amazing. It was a

403
00:24:30,500 --> 00:24:33,960
really amazing trip. Anyway, am I going on too long?

404
00:24:34,020 --> 00:24:37,855
No. Keep going, mate. So then very soon after

405
00:24:37,855 --> 00:24:41,695
that playground build, we were moved to a completely different area. We went from a

406
00:24:41,695 --> 00:24:45,075
very Thai town right to the Myanmar.

407
00:24:45,855 --> 00:24:48,835
A lot of people know it as Burma border on the

408
00:24:50,350 --> 00:24:54,030
west side of Thailand, where literally a river

409
00:24:54,030 --> 00:24:57,870
that's, like, you know, in dry season is, like, a 1 or 2 feet

410
00:24:57,870 --> 00:25:01,630
tall. You can literally stand on that river and see refugees just walking

411
00:25:01,630 --> 00:25:05,475
across the river, going backwards and forwards to the village. They were common in Burma

412
00:25:05,475 --> 00:25:08,835
at that time. You know, there were it was common for villages to be burnt

413
00:25:08,835 --> 00:25:12,675
down. There was a there was a huge amount of trauma just constantly coming

414
00:25:12,675 --> 00:25:15,715
backwards and forwards. You know, there were guys who would take 10¢ and with a

415
00:25:15,715 --> 00:25:19,235
big car tire and take an old lady and just push her across the

416
00:25:19,235 --> 00:25:22,690
river so that she'd get out of a village. So it was it was amazing

417
00:25:22,690 --> 00:25:26,450
to sort of watch that see that area and sort of, you know, it was

418
00:25:26,450 --> 00:25:30,290
raw. You could see it real time. Anyway,

419
00:25:30,290 --> 00:25:33,865
we're living in a village called May Site, and

420
00:25:33,924 --> 00:25:37,284
we arrived and went to a bar just to have a

421
00:25:37,284 --> 00:25:41,044
beer at night, 1 early on. And I met this amazing

422
00:25:41,044 --> 00:25:44,825
guy called Greg Antos from an NGO, the World Education

423
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,460
Consortium, huge, well funded US based

424
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:53,200
NGO. And he was just a he's just a legend.

425
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,640
Like, you know, just sitting there, I told him what I've been doing, and he

426
00:25:56,640 --> 00:26:00,375
was sharing his story. And that night, he said, oh, my mother-in-law

427
00:26:00,595 --> 00:26:02,775
just randomly, like, gave me a $1,000.

428
00:26:04,755 --> 00:26:08,275
Do you wanna build another playground? Like, we've got all these schools, and they've not

429
00:26:08,355 --> 00:26:12,070
they don't have any playgrounds at all. I'll just give you the

430
00:26:12,070 --> 00:26:15,429
money. So he just literally just gave me the cash and,

431
00:26:15,990 --> 00:26:18,710
lent me a car because we've never had a car before. I mean, we had

432
00:26:18,710 --> 00:26:22,230
this crappy motorbike that was always breaking down. And,

433
00:26:23,110 --> 00:26:26,250
and I was just like, sure. Okay. So I just started building a playground there.

434
00:26:26,684 --> 00:26:30,445
And from that experience, he then said, I'll tell

435
00:26:30,445 --> 00:26:34,284
you what. We every couple of months, we have this meeting with all the

436
00:26:34,284 --> 00:26:38,125
NGOs to try and collaborate. It was pretty amazing, actually. All the NGOs, save the

437
00:26:38,125 --> 00:26:41,799
children, all these big world vision, they come together and sit down and go, this

438
00:26:41,799 --> 00:26:45,320
is the stuff we're doing. Let's make sure that we are

439
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,919
efficient and effective at kind of collaborating our efforts to help these

440
00:26:48,919 --> 00:26:52,360
schools and also that we're not giving, you know, 2 lots of

441
00:26:52,360 --> 00:26:55,975
money to one school to do the same project but claiming, you

442
00:26:55,975 --> 00:26:59,815
know, that kind of stuff. And, anyway, I was invited to

443
00:26:59,815 --> 00:27:03,575
launch the meeting. We it was amazing meeting, actually. By the end of it, we

444
00:27:03,575 --> 00:27:07,390
had this sort of list of all the schools on the Thai Myanmar border,

445
00:27:07,450 --> 00:27:10,890
and then we basically culled that down to a list of about 40 schools, which

446
00:27:10,890 --> 00:27:13,870
was ones who had a a noncorrupt, you know,

447
00:27:14,410 --> 00:27:17,930
hardworking principal. They needed a long lease on their

448
00:27:17,930 --> 00:27:21,304
land, like a stable place because there's no use building a playground in a in

449
00:27:21,304 --> 00:27:25,145
a little shop front that you rent. And they needed to have

450
00:27:25,145 --> 00:27:28,345
over a 100 kids because some of the these schools are huge. They have thousands

451
00:27:28,345 --> 00:27:32,070
of kids, and some of them had 10. Right? And then literally

452
00:27:32,130 --> 00:27:35,890
for the next 2 years, I just every 2 weeks, we built a

453
00:27:35,890 --> 00:27:38,930
playground at each one of those Oh, wow. How many years?

454
00:27:40,450 --> 00:27:44,290
So we would we would start on a Monday. We build until the

455
00:27:44,290 --> 00:27:47,745
following Wednesday, like the so we a week, like, 10

456
00:27:47,745 --> 00:27:51,425
days. The next Wednesday, we go visit the next school and

457
00:27:51,425 --> 00:27:55,185
do, like, a community consultation where we talk about you know, measure the

458
00:27:55,185 --> 00:27:58,865
land and talk about what they wanted and blah blah. Find out if they

459
00:27:58,865 --> 00:28:02,110
had, a few dollars that they could put towards it because we'd sort of say

460
00:28:02,110 --> 00:28:05,490
we have this much. If you've got a bit more, we can do more stuff.

461
00:28:06,910 --> 00:28:10,670
And then and then after that, we'd go back to the old original school

462
00:28:10,670 --> 00:28:14,285
that we're working at, finish that off, and have a big opening ceremony

463
00:28:14,285 --> 00:28:17,265
on the Friday. And then on the weekend,

464
00:28:18,445 --> 00:28:21,485
I I I missed a piece. I would I just had these flyers that I

465
00:28:21,485 --> 00:28:24,925
put in the cafes. What was amazing was that people

466
00:28:25,165 --> 00:28:28,970
there was a huge refugee camp, just outside of the

467
00:28:28,970 --> 00:28:32,570
town we were living in, and all these backpackers from all over the world

468
00:28:32,570 --> 00:28:36,330
would come as part of a just a sort of an experience to

469
00:28:36,330 --> 00:28:39,945
kind of drive past and see these refugee camps and get educated. You know, there

470
00:28:39,945 --> 00:28:42,904
were 2 companies that you could see it and get educated about what was going

471
00:28:42,904 --> 00:28:46,345
on there and, you know, it was good because people would start to understand the

472
00:28:46,345 --> 00:28:50,105
issues a little bit more about, you know, the refugee crisis and, you know, have

473
00:28:50,105 --> 00:28:53,820
a bit more of a holistic view about the complexities of being a refugee

474
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,720
and, you know, maybe sort out some of these ideas of boat

475
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:01,000
people and, you know, who's who's in the queue and who's not and what why

476
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,760
people make these decisions. Anyway, then

477
00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:08,465
they come back to our village called Maison, and they have a coffee or

478
00:29:08,465 --> 00:29:11,505
something in the local cafe. And I had these little, you know, these little classic,

479
00:29:11,505 --> 00:29:14,804
like, I've lost my cat tear off. Yeah.

480
00:29:15,505 --> 00:29:18,865
And they just call me up. So within, within weeks, I had an

481
00:29:18,865 --> 00:29:22,289
architect. I had these incredible mural artists.

482
00:29:22,830 --> 00:29:26,510
I had, like, you know, corporate, you know,

483
00:29:26,510 --> 00:29:30,029
like, you know, telecom company managers and other

484
00:29:30,029 --> 00:29:33,070
people, and they would just join me. So at at any one time, I'd have

485
00:29:33,070 --> 00:29:36,695
between, like, 3 to 10 volunteers working

486
00:29:36,695 --> 00:29:40,455
completely for free. And they would just come along, and

487
00:29:40,455 --> 00:29:43,815
we'd work together on the weekend, design a playground, and then on the next Monday,

488
00:29:43,815 --> 00:29:47,275
we just start again. And we did that for a few years. Yeah.

489
00:29:47,700 --> 00:29:51,392
Absolutely, man. And some of those volunteers, they came for 2 days

490
00:29:51,392 --> 00:29:54,899
and stayed for, like I remember one of them, this woman, Marietta, from

491
00:29:54,899 --> 00:29:58,740
Slovenia. She stayed for, like, over a year. Like, she

492
00:29:58,740 --> 00:30:02,475
was just in every playground. If you look at our original work, almost every

493
00:30:02,475 --> 00:30:06,015
one of those playgrounds was was painted by her. Just,

494
00:30:06,555 --> 00:30:10,235
like, just amazing. Like, just the most beautiful murals all

495
00:30:10,235 --> 00:30:13,355
over the school, and she just spent 2 weeks doing it. She just had a

496
00:30:13,355 --> 00:30:16,315
ball, and we loved her, and it was just so that was a really

497
00:30:17,755 --> 00:30:20,750
I mean, that time was it was completely exhausting because we just it was just

498
00:30:20,750 --> 00:30:24,350
literally 7 days a week, but it was so you know, I look back on

499
00:30:24,350 --> 00:30:27,950
that time as being one of those you know, it was like a like those

500
00:30:28,030 --> 00:30:30,830
like, you know, the movie stand by me. You know, there's there's moments where it's,

501
00:30:30,830 --> 00:30:34,615
like, you know, there's incredibly young experiences where you're just full of

502
00:30:34,615 --> 00:30:37,835
life, full of energy, and you just the whole team is just

503
00:30:38,135 --> 00:30:41,755
humming with energy every day. It was incredible. Anyway,

504
00:30:41,895 --> 00:30:45,595
that's where the play comes in. You know, I just we just saw

505
00:30:46,190 --> 00:30:49,870
kind of this incredible accelerated pace. Just these kids going

506
00:30:49,870 --> 00:30:52,450
from no playground, no play space,

507
00:30:53,230 --> 00:30:57,070
hardcore, rote learning. Like and when

508
00:30:57,070 --> 00:31:00,450
I say rote learning, I need to explain, like, what that means.

509
00:31:01,845 --> 00:31:05,205
Sometimes, rote learning is like, you know, I'll say

510
00:31:05,205 --> 00:31:08,804
something and you tell me the answer. I've

511
00:31:08,804 --> 00:31:12,565
seen rote learning, which is I will I will sing

512
00:31:12,565 --> 00:31:16,410
out the question and the answer, and you

513
00:31:16,410 --> 00:31:20,170
just tell me the question. You just say exactly what I've said. There's no

514
00:31:20,570 --> 00:31:23,790
like, no cognition. Just memorize

515
00:31:24,090 --> 00:31:27,930
this information for hours and hours and hours in a

516
00:31:27,930 --> 00:31:31,304
day. Like Crazy, isn't

517
00:31:31,304 --> 00:31:34,825
it? What do you expect to get from a child in for 12 years of

518
00:31:34,825 --> 00:31:38,345
education when they're getting that kind of Yeah. You know? They're just

519
00:31:38,345 --> 00:31:41,965
running these these freeways between, like, memorization

520
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:46,640
and the other parts of their brain that need that information as opposed to

521
00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:50,480
going, you know, what are all the ways

522
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:54,240
that I can solve a problem? You know, that for

523
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:57,695
me, creativity, and, you know, doctor Tim

524
00:31:57,695 --> 00:32:01,135
Paterson, who we work with a lot about what is creativity, you know, one of

525
00:32:01,135 --> 00:32:04,755
the key things is, can you solve this problem in 5 or 6 different ways?

526
00:32:05,535 --> 00:32:09,155
Right? Do you do you hit a hurdle and go, oh, it's okay. I'll just

527
00:32:09,710 --> 00:32:13,310
I'll just hack a solution around the edge. Or do you get stuck and

528
00:32:13,310 --> 00:32:16,990
go, I only have one way to solve this problem, and I'll be

529
00:32:16,990 --> 00:32:19,870
stuck. You know, we see that with a lot of people. Right? You see that

530
00:32:19,870 --> 00:32:23,315
kind of reaction from people where they just you know, you get those nos all

531
00:32:23,315 --> 00:32:26,095
the time from people where they're we can't do this. And I'm like, but

532
00:32:27,275 --> 00:32:31,035
what if we can we just, you know Yeah. Like

533
00:32:31,355 --> 00:32:34,235
Give it and go another way and and redo it and go another angle and

534
00:32:34,235 --> 00:32:37,660
go from there. And that's what society needs more of. Let let's be honest. Needs

535
00:32:37,660 --> 00:32:41,180
more people who can think outside the square, pivot, go another way, find another

536
00:32:41,180 --> 00:32:44,700
solution. And I think we're coming back to that. I reckon

537
00:32:44,700 --> 00:32:48,460
we're slowly starting to come back around Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think we're

538
00:32:48,460 --> 00:32:50,620
coming back to I think, you know, we touched on the importance of play and

539
00:32:50,620 --> 00:32:54,235
and creativity. I think we're starting to really unlock the power of it,

540
00:32:54,475 --> 00:32:58,315
and the importance of getting our young minds to learn through play and

541
00:32:58,315 --> 00:33:01,675
learn through engagement more so than, you know, pens and paper in your hand and

542
00:33:01,675 --> 00:33:05,180
whatnot. I think I think so. I think

543
00:33:05,180 --> 00:33:08,380
definitely when I, you know, I get to talk to principals every way, you get

544
00:33:08,380 --> 00:33:11,280
a bunch of events and different things, and I'm definitely,

545
00:33:12,940 --> 00:33:16,540
I think we're in that sort of middle stage where there's an

546
00:33:16,540 --> 00:33:20,345
emphasis on on that and and really knowing that

547
00:33:20,345 --> 00:33:24,105
it's important. But sometimes I think there's a struggle

548
00:33:24,105 --> 00:33:27,865
still that, you know, particularly in the Australian curriculum of, critical

549
00:33:27,865 --> 00:33:31,545
and creative thinking and personal and social skills, still think they're a

550
00:33:31,545 --> 00:33:34,640
bit too low on the pecking order of

551
00:33:35,580 --> 00:33:39,040
what's important. You know? Yeah. And and really explicitly

552
00:33:39,900 --> 00:33:43,500
teaching those skills, breaking them down, teaching them to some kids because there are some

553
00:33:43,500 --> 00:33:47,260
kids who just they're just not gonna get it unless we teach it. Yep. And

554
00:33:47,260 --> 00:33:50,424
it's funny you bring them up, Marcus. Jeepers. We've we've,

555
00:33:50,745 --> 00:33:54,184
sorry. This was intended to come up today. We've we've created a curriculum, the school

556
00:33:54,184 --> 00:33:56,904
of play, and we're we're literally in the process of it. We've been mapping it

557
00:33:56,904 --> 00:34:00,424
against the Victorian curriculum and the Australian curriculum the last few weeks. It's been a

558
00:34:00,424 --> 00:34:04,080
mind numbing process, but, and it's all about those critical skills and those

559
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:07,919
personal social capabilities. Right? And and we found that out. We've really honed in on

560
00:34:07,919 --> 00:34:11,760
them, and our curriculum hits so many of those areas because

561
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:14,880
that's what we feel is one of the most important skills that these young people

562
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:18,635
need to focus on and develop. Yeah. And and so, yeah,

563
00:34:18,635 --> 00:34:22,175
some hearing you. Right? Yeah. That's what blew me blew me away. Like,

564
00:34:22,395 --> 00:34:26,235
so doctor Tim Paterson, is has written a couple

565
00:34:26,235 --> 00:34:29,614
of books, but, he's from the University of South Australia. And he

566
00:34:29,889 --> 00:34:32,530
just blew my mind when I spoke to him, and he said, you can teach

567
00:34:32,530 --> 00:34:36,369
creativity. It's not a gift. It's not something that is blessed and bestowed

568
00:34:36,369 --> 00:34:40,130
upon some people. You know, you can one of the he he

569
00:34:40,130 --> 00:34:42,929
said, here's one of the things you need. If you wanna be creative, you've gotta

570
00:34:42,929 --> 00:34:46,675
have high levels of openness. And I was like, okay. That sounds a bit waffly

571
00:34:46,675 --> 00:34:50,435
and hard to how do you teach that? It's actually really easy when you

572
00:34:50,435 --> 00:34:54,195
really think about it. Openness is just the ability to be open to new ideas

573
00:34:54,195 --> 00:34:57,955
and to absorb them and give them a try. So, you know, I think

574
00:34:57,955 --> 00:35:01,470
about openness. A really good way to think about that is in terms of when

575
00:35:01,470 --> 00:35:04,910
you put a plate of food in front of a child, I've really tried to

576
00:35:04,910 --> 00:35:08,430
work with my kids to be like, you may not like this the first time,

577
00:35:08,430 --> 00:35:12,125
but I'd like you to be open to tasting

578
00:35:12,125 --> 00:35:15,965
this food and trying to understand why why on earth someone

579
00:35:15,965 --> 00:35:18,685
else would like it. Do you know what I mean? You know what I mean?

580
00:35:18,685 --> 00:35:22,305
Just be open to the Yeah. To get them to be curious.

581
00:35:23,020 --> 00:35:26,220
Yeah. Like like like, you know, if you get some someone from Europe and you

582
00:35:26,220 --> 00:35:29,980
say, this is Vegemite, sometimes you gotta be like, just

583
00:35:29,980 --> 00:35:33,280
pause. Instead of you tasting it and just your brain immediately

584
00:35:33,820 --> 00:35:37,605
rejecting it before you get into anything, just take that

585
00:35:37,605 --> 00:35:41,205
moment to get your mindset right to say, I am

586
00:35:41,205 --> 00:35:44,885
gonna give this a shot with the understanding that it is

587
00:35:44,885 --> 00:35:48,725
not this like, not unpleasant for other people. They actually

588
00:35:48,725 --> 00:35:51,880
really enjoy it, and there must be a reason for that. So I'm gonna give

589
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,560
this one a taste based on understanding. And it and

590
00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:59,400
so many things. You watch kids and you're like, you're really

591
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:03,160
low on openness. You can see it. When you when you understand it, you

592
00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:06,545
go, woah. You can teach that skill because I can see it in you because

593
00:36:06,545 --> 00:36:10,305
I've identified that it's something I can put in a box, and I can

594
00:36:10,305 --> 00:36:13,905
assess a child. You know? So one thing we do with noodle cards, we

595
00:36:13,905 --> 00:36:17,730
just we're going all over the place, but That's that's good, mate. If you

596
00:36:17,730 --> 00:36:20,130
if you so he Tim Tim said it to me. I was like, well, how

597
00:36:20,130 --> 00:36:23,750
would you teach a kid that? And and

598
00:36:24,050 --> 00:36:27,890
I and I he said, well, what if you just took gave each kid, you

599
00:36:27,890 --> 00:36:31,730
know, 10 5, 10, 15 pieces from a noodle cart? And you said,

600
00:36:31,730 --> 00:36:35,565
I'm gonna give you 5 minutes, and you've

601
00:36:35,565 --> 00:36:38,525
got a a device like a phone where you can take a photo. And I

602
00:36:38,525 --> 00:36:42,365
want you to, under very heavy time pressure, to build as many different

603
00:36:42,365 --> 00:36:46,125
configurations of things as you can in 5 minutes and take a photo of

604
00:36:46,125 --> 00:36:49,049
each one. And And it doesn't matter if you don't if you get stuck. As

605
00:36:49,049 --> 00:36:52,730
soon as you get stuck, just start pushing pieces together. Something will come. Just

606
00:36:52,730 --> 00:36:56,569
be open that the answer will come over time if

607
00:36:56,569 --> 00:37:00,185
you commit to continue to explore. The second

608
00:37:00,185 --> 00:37:03,625
your brain you go into that mode of, like, shut down, shut down, shut down.

609
00:37:03,625 --> 00:37:07,225
I'm not gonna you know, it's too hard or I'm gonna fail. I'm getting nervous.

610
00:37:07,225 --> 00:37:10,745
I'm losing my confidence, whatever. I'm getting you know, we have names for it, like

611
00:37:10,745 --> 00:37:14,505
writer's block or Yeah. There's lots of industries. We have these words for when you

612
00:37:14,505 --> 00:37:18,140
get stuck. But openness is one of those things that you is

613
00:37:18,140 --> 00:37:21,579
the is the practice of, you know, feeling uncomfortable, but

614
00:37:21,579 --> 00:37:25,099
just leaning into it. You know? And I I just that just I mean, as

615
00:37:25,099 --> 00:37:28,715
an educator, I was just like, oh, just totally changed my perspective

616
00:37:28,715 --> 00:37:32,555
on A 100%. How you get kids to learn because you can teach

617
00:37:32,555 --> 00:37:36,315
them these, like, what I call meta skills. It's not about learning

618
00:37:36,315 --> 00:37:39,935
numeracy or literacy or whatever. It's teaching the openness

619
00:37:40,155 --> 00:37:43,870
to to engage in your experiences and we

620
00:37:44,030 --> 00:37:47,630
you know, if you if kids don't have that, you don't get lifelong

621
00:37:47,630 --> 00:37:51,470
learners. Yeah. You know? And and I wanna thank you. Passionate about life.

622
00:37:51,470 --> 00:37:55,275
Like, we're we're Sydney as 2 parents, and and I wish everyone

623
00:37:55,335 --> 00:37:58,295
listening to us could have seen our reaction. We we looked at each other and

624
00:37:58,295 --> 00:38:02,135
went, that was gold. Like, I'm gonna bloody try that, mate. Because I'm gonna go

625
00:38:02,215 --> 00:38:05,015
my one kid hates peas. The other one loves them and this and that. But

626
00:38:05,015 --> 00:38:07,655
as if you're a parent, like, we love dropping bits of gold in our pods

627
00:38:07,655 --> 00:38:11,330
for not just educators, but for everyone. Right? And and

628
00:38:11,330 --> 00:38:14,770
if you're a parent out there listening to that, give that give that a whirl

629
00:38:14,770 --> 00:38:18,450
as openness, and and that way of explaining to your child that, hey, someone in

630
00:38:18,450 --> 00:38:21,170
the world loves this. So try and have an open mind as to why they

631
00:38:21,170 --> 00:38:24,075
would love that and give it a few attempts to like it. And I reckon

632
00:38:24,075 --> 00:38:27,835
you'll get them most times. They'll come around to it. Right? I'm going to

633
00:38:27,835 --> 00:38:31,115
try that tonight at the dinner time. I guarantee it. I'm gonna try. What's the

634
00:38:31,115 --> 00:38:34,474
purpose to make it a bit more fine grain for you. Go for it. With

635
00:38:34,474 --> 00:38:38,190
my kids is I say, if I'm I love cooking.

636
00:38:38,190 --> 00:38:41,890
Right? I I as a creative person, you know, I love

637
00:38:42,430 --> 00:38:46,190
putting different things on the plate all the time. But if you know you made

638
00:38:46,190 --> 00:38:49,845
something that you like and you they probably aren't gonna like, Sometimes what

639
00:38:49,845 --> 00:38:53,365
I'll do is, you know, I'll get the spaghetti bolognese out of the fridge, and

640
00:38:53,365 --> 00:38:56,565
that's I know because I know they're not they're not gonna eat the tuna mornay

641
00:38:56,565 --> 00:39:00,405
or I don't what whatever let's just say whatever I cook. That'd be boring,

642
00:39:00,405 --> 00:39:03,225
but it's something something that I may I'm trying to.

643
00:39:05,340 --> 00:39:09,020
My kids are really struggling with, meats. My wife's a vegetarian, so they haven't eaten

644
00:39:09,020 --> 00:39:12,700
a lot of, protein based stuff, but really need some protein at the moment. So

645
00:39:12,700 --> 00:39:15,980
I've been serving them all sorts of different things, and they get a bit iced

646
00:39:15,980 --> 00:39:19,440
by it, and I get that. What I'll do is I'll say, here's your meal,

647
00:39:20,445 --> 00:39:22,765
but on the edge of the meal, on the edge of the plate, in a

648
00:39:22,765 --> 00:39:26,225
separate little not touching anything else thing, that's your food experiment.

649
00:39:27,805 --> 00:39:31,565
Right? Just a little one portion, you know, maybe 1

650
00:39:31,565 --> 00:39:35,410
or 2 spoonfuls. So you're not getting that you're not getting that,

651
00:39:36,130 --> 00:39:39,970
pushback where they've gotta fill themselves up on a whole meal of

652
00:39:39,970 --> 00:39:43,730
stuff that makes them wanna hurl. You're just going it's just a

653
00:39:43,730 --> 00:39:47,090
food experiment. We're just experimenting right now. We're just gonna be

654
00:39:47,090 --> 00:39:50,785
open to giving something a shot, but I do not expect you to like

655
00:39:50,785 --> 00:39:54,545
it today. But I believe that if you were to try these

656
00:39:54,545 --> 00:39:57,985
things more, you'll like them more in the future. And the great benefit is that

657
00:39:57,985 --> 00:40:01,585
if we go and travel or if we go to other places in the

658
00:40:01,585 --> 00:40:05,250
future, you'll feel more confident and comfortable with people, and you

659
00:40:05,250 --> 00:40:08,150
won't be freaked out by weird things that they serve when you

660
00:40:08,770 --> 00:40:12,530
have sleepovers or whatever. Because no one likes that kid. Right?

661
00:40:12,530 --> 00:40:13,670
No one likes the kid.

662
00:40:15,935 --> 00:40:19,695
Social social suicide rather than a 100%. Yeah. Like, no one no one likes the

663
00:40:19,695 --> 00:40:22,575
kid that when you serve up a meal, they go, I just ate Vegemite toast.

664
00:40:22,575 --> 00:40:25,955
You know? Like Yeah. Anything you want. Nuggets and chips. Nuggets

665
00:40:27,615 --> 00:40:30,335
and chips. I think yeah. Yeah. You go to a pub and it'll eat nuggets

666
00:40:30,335 --> 00:40:34,099
and chips. Yeah. So I that my the perfect experiment is if

667
00:40:34,099 --> 00:40:37,460
you wanna try it, you know, like, try it in your lowest common

668
00:40:37,460 --> 00:40:41,220
denominator size before you go up to that, you're stuck in

669
00:40:41,460 --> 00:40:45,220
Brilliant tip. Honestly, man, I got to creative, though. The only

670
00:40:45,220 --> 00:40:48,865
thing behind it, and I think that's anything, is the storytelling. The story

671
00:40:48,865 --> 00:40:52,545
you've created around that experiment to be open. Like, you're

672
00:40:52,545 --> 00:40:55,744
making it so they're the ones that are really deciding that, oh, I can do

673
00:40:55,744 --> 00:40:59,185
that because I wanna, you know, I wanna be this big person. I wanna be

674
00:40:59,185 --> 00:41:02,360
able to travel. I wanna do things. You're not telling them. I think that's my

675
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:06,120
biggest down point to Sydney going, oh, wow. No wonder they're not eating anything besides

676
00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:09,800
nuggets and chips because I'm telling them they have to. As if they're

677
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:13,240
gonna listen to me. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really good point that I

678
00:41:13,240 --> 00:41:17,085
don't expect you know, I'm on your side. I am not

679
00:41:17,085 --> 00:41:20,925
forcing you to take a step from here where you're comfortable at nuggets

680
00:41:20,925 --> 00:41:24,765
and chips to there knowing that you don't wanna

681
00:41:24,765 --> 00:41:28,045
be there yet. Right? But at least you can go, look. It's just that we're

682
00:41:28,045 --> 00:41:31,820
just taking the first little step there, and who knows? You might even like

683
00:41:31,820 --> 00:41:34,540
it. I've got more in the fridge, and we can have that tomorrow if you

684
00:41:34,540 --> 00:41:38,060
like it. But I get it. I'm I'm because, you know, I think

685
00:41:38,060 --> 00:41:41,420
empathy is a really, undervalued skill. Like,

686
00:41:41,420 --> 00:41:45,155
seeing seeing the like, really genuinely

687
00:41:45,295 --> 00:41:48,815
understanding from the perspective of a child. And I think dads and moms are

688
00:41:48,815 --> 00:41:52,335
probably, I think, generally better at this. Yep. In

689
00:41:52,335 --> 00:41:56,095
perspective from the child's perspective where they're like, I literally this

690
00:41:56,095 --> 00:41:59,790
is horrible. You're making this horrible for me. So instead

691
00:41:59,790 --> 00:42:03,630
of going doing that going, here's a little bit. You know? I get

692
00:42:03,630 --> 00:42:06,670
it. You're probably not gonna like it. You can even spit it out in the

693
00:42:06,670 --> 00:42:09,790
toilet if you need to, but just I just want you to try. And and

694
00:42:09,790 --> 00:42:13,605
then you get rid of all those hurdles of creating that sort of

695
00:42:13,605 --> 00:42:16,665
defensive, you know, head to head

696
00:42:16,965 --> 00:42:20,245
combat with a child where you can get around on the other side, and they're

697
00:42:20,245 --> 00:42:24,085
not gonna go hungry with cold broccoli sitting on the plane. You know? You

698
00:42:24,085 --> 00:42:26,860
know what I mean? Where you're like, you're not getting up off the table, but

699
00:42:26,860 --> 00:42:30,560
you're also pushing them. You know? I'm not don't I'm not one of these parents

700
00:42:30,780 --> 00:42:34,540
who's just like, oh, honey, you know, whatever you wanna do. You can just eat

701
00:42:34,540 --> 00:42:37,740
chocolate for dinner. You know what? Like, I'm not I'm I come from a Dutch

702
00:42:37,740 --> 00:42:41,445
background. I'm actually pretty strict, but I think that the

703
00:42:41,445 --> 00:42:44,905
strictness is coming into this. Like, I want you to be

704
00:42:45,205 --> 00:42:48,585
an open, confident, independent

705
00:42:48,805 --> 00:42:52,345
person in the future, and you get there by taking challenging

706
00:42:52,405 --> 00:42:56,120
yourself to these little things. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I wanna come

707
00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:59,560
back, Marcus. You spoke about creativity and the importance of creativity for young

708
00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:03,320
minds, and you would have seen it firsthand the impact that when you

709
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:07,160
create these environments for children to play on and and create their games,

710
00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:10,505
you would have seen them flourish and thrive and be happy little human beings. But

711
00:43:10,505 --> 00:43:14,025
I imagine you also would have seen adults, thrive and

712
00:43:14,025 --> 00:43:17,785
flourish from from being creative as well. And we don't wanna just make this just

713
00:43:17,785 --> 00:43:21,625
about children education. Like, you know, you touched upon here the importance of creativity, and

714
00:43:21,625 --> 00:43:24,445
I imagine the same goes for adults. Right? Like, if we as adults

715
00:43:25,890 --> 00:43:29,650
can lean into being uncomfortable and try something new and get creative

716
00:43:29,650 --> 00:43:33,170
ourselves, that puts a bit of a pepper now step as well. I know my

717
00:43:33,170 --> 00:43:36,369
wife and I had a had a got pottery a little while back for our

718
00:43:36,369 --> 00:43:39,944
anniversary and spinning the wheel bloody hard, bloody crazy.

719
00:43:39,944 --> 00:43:43,785
But we walked out of there incredibly lifted up and bonded

720
00:43:43,785 --> 00:43:47,464
and whatnot through just being something creative and something different. So what are your

721
00:43:47,464 --> 00:43:50,424
thoughts on on adults the importance of adults being creative as well? You would've seen

722
00:43:50,424 --> 00:43:54,160
that a fair bit in your time. Yeah. I'm when you're

723
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:57,840
telling that story with your wife, I'm just imagining, what was that, like, nineties movie

724
00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:01,600
where the Patrick's face. You guys like, ghosts. Yeah. But the Patrick's eyes I

725
00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:04,820
was Patrick's eyes. Just imagine imagine a bit of Patrick's face

726
00:44:07,945 --> 00:44:11,145
like ghosts on a pottery wheel and having this Sander said, it was it was

727
00:44:11,145 --> 00:44:14,505
romantic. Let me tell you this. Pottery, I think that's

728
00:44:16,505 --> 00:44:19,570
Pottery has that nice balance balance of, like, if you fail, it doesn't matter. You

729
00:44:19,570 --> 00:44:23,250
just throw into the ball. There's no I understand. No, like, risk of mucking

730
00:44:23,250 --> 00:44:26,930
something up and it being permanent. You just, you know, chuck that clay in the

731
00:44:26,930 --> 00:44:29,970
bin and recycle it and then start over. That's what I love about it. I

732
00:44:29,970 --> 00:44:33,675
actually have a pottery wheel, and I I love it. My body does

733
00:44:33,675 --> 00:44:37,375
not surprise me. You're you're a crazy you're a creative mastermind.

734
00:44:37,595 --> 00:44:41,035
Look at you. You've got a pottery wheel. I think I think with

735
00:44:41,035 --> 00:44:44,715
creativity, so interestingly, just yesterday, I did a

736
00:44:44,715 --> 00:44:47,855
a massive training for, one of Australia's

737
00:44:49,180 --> 00:44:52,800
largest early childhood providers, hundreds of centers.

738
00:44:53,820 --> 00:44:57,580
And I had the Victorian, leadership teams in the room, and

739
00:44:57,580 --> 00:45:01,280
I got them building stuff out of the pod. So this is our

740
00:45:01,420 --> 00:45:04,240
smaller one, this one here. And

741
00:45:05,315 --> 00:45:08,914
I couldn't stop them. God. That would that was really annoying. Like, I I was

742
00:45:08,914 --> 00:45:12,674
like, I don't think I just a little snippet. I was just training one

743
00:45:12,674 --> 00:45:16,275
little section within a, like, a whole day training, and I only had 30

744
00:45:16,275 --> 00:45:19,809
minutes. But I really wanted to talk to them about their experience. And just

745
00:45:19,809 --> 00:45:22,390
getting them to stop, you know, because I I gave them,

746
00:45:23,410 --> 00:45:26,930
the the pod comes with a, this really cute, like, classic,

747
00:45:26,930 --> 00:45:30,069
like, 19 fifties. You know, these, like,

748
00:45:30,609 --> 00:45:33,030
like, tints. You know? Yep.

749
00:45:34,210 --> 00:45:37,945
And I would just take the cards and just give

750
00:45:37,945 --> 00:45:41,305
them 1, and I just got them first of all, completely uncreative. I

751
00:45:41,305 --> 00:45:45,145
just got them to build, you know, whatever was on the

752
00:45:45,145 --> 00:45:48,985
card, and I specifically selected some simple things to get them started a little

753
00:45:48,985 --> 00:45:52,240
bit like a taste experiment. Once they were comfortable with it,

754
00:45:53,260 --> 00:45:55,740
then I was like, okay. Now is the time to have a proper meal because

755
00:45:55,740 --> 00:45:58,619
you've enjoyed it. Just I just want you as a group of 6 just to

756
00:45:58,619 --> 00:46:02,460
try and build something creative. I couldn't stop them. Honestly, like, even

757
00:46:02,460 --> 00:46:05,895
when I was talking to them at the end, they still look I just wanna

758
00:46:06,055 --> 00:46:08,235
and I think that what's going on there is

759
00:46:09,895 --> 00:46:13,735
that, both like, they talk about children being neophilic. Have you ever heard of that

760
00:46:13,735 --> 00:46:17,495
term? No. Educated ones. Neo meaning

761
00:46:17,495 --> 00:46:21,059
new and philic meaning, like, love or

762
00:46:21,059 --> 00:46:24,420
desire or sort of, you know, being drawn

763
00:46:24,420 --> 00:46:27,940
to. So children are

764
00:46:27,940 --> 00:46:31,780
drawn to new experiences. So here's

765
00:46:31,780 --> 00:46:33,400
an example. Imagine, like,

766
00:46:36,475 --> 00:46:40,155
I'm gonna like, you know, if you buy a a set or a

767
00:46:40,155 --> 00:46:43,295
kit of a certain brand of plastic,

768
00:46:44,395 --> 00:46:48,235
block like blocks. Something to keep

769
00:46:48,235 --> 00:46:51,930
it. Right? It's a car or a truck or a

770
00:46:51,930 --> 00:46:55,770
helicopter or whatever. The neophilic nature of

771
00:46:55,770 --> 00:46:59,210
of that product is you see the thing on the box, and then you get

772
00:46:59,210 --> 00:47:03,050
the pieces, and then you master that task by going through the steps

773
00:47:03,050 --> 00:47:05,470
to build that car, truck, helicopter, whatever.

774
00:47:07,115 --> 00:47:10,635
The neophilic part of a of a human's brain says, okay. I've

775
00:47:10,635 --> 00:47:14,395
mastered that task. Although those blocks can

776
00:47:14,395 --> 00:47:17,850
do thousands of things, that

777
00:47:18,010 --> 00:47:21,610
box has told me that it has a function, and I've mastered that task. And

778
00:47:21,610 --> 00:47:25,050
now I need something new to stimulate my

779
00:47:25,050 --> 00:47:28,750
brain because new things create new connections

780
00:47:28,810 --> 00:47:32,510
in the brain. Right? And so

781
00:47:33,984 --> 00:47:37,765
I think that we get a lot of hormonal,

782
00:47:38,464 --> 00:47:42,065
like, good, like, dopamine and, probably

783
00:47:42,065 --> 00:47:45,765
oxytocin and some other things when we're socially connected to people doing creative

784
00:47:45,825 --> 00:47:49,500
open ended things because we're constantly doing new things and

785
00:47:49,500 --> 00:47:53,340
making new connections, and our brain rewards us for keeping that

786
00:47:53,340 --> 00:47:57,100
brain flexible and nimble and worked out. And I

787
00:47:57,100 --> 00:48:00,780
think that's why you and your wife really enjoy that

788
00:48:00,780 --> 00:48:04,325
pottery is because you're both there's a lot pottery is

789
00:48:04,325 --> 00:48:08,165
great great example because you're doing something new. You're

790
00:48:08,165 --> 00:48:12,005
connecting your head, heart, and hands. It's a social activity with your

791
00:48:12,005 --> 00:48:15,685
wife. You've got your brain engaged because you've gotta design and

792
00:48:15,685 --> 00:48:19,079
create so that something that you want in your mind, And it's connecting with your

793
00:48:19,079 --> 00:48:22,599
body, your balance and your fingers, it's fine and

794
00:48:22,599 --> 00:48:26,440
gross motor skill to create this vessel or whatever you're doing. It's very

795
00:48:27,240 --> 00:48:30,974
it's a very organic connected process through your whole body. And

796
00:48:30,974 --> 00:48:34,095
having a room of pottery wheels where people do it just turns that up to

797
00:48:34,095 --> 00:48:37,075
give you the social aspect as well, and all these new experiences,

798
00:48:39,855 --> 00:48:43,535
work really well. And so that's why I was I would always say with

799
00:48:43,535 --> 00:48:47,300
plastic blocks or newer pod pieces, just buy the box of

800
00:48:47,300 --> 00:48:50,580
stuff. Don't get to the box with the thing because you don't wanna trip that

801
00:48:50,580 --> 00:48:54,340
neophyllic. You can buy another box and another box and another

802
00:48:54,340 --> 00:48:58,180
box and another box. You wanna open so that the child

803
00:48:58,180 --> 00:49:02,025
sets the challenge on their own. Yep. And that when they set the challenge the

804
00:49:02,025 --> 00:49:05,545
next time, they'll set it on their own instead of going, I have to

805
00:49:05,545 --> 00:49:09,385
complete that task, and I have to complete the helicopter. I have

806
00:49:09,385 --> 00:49:13,145
to complete the, you know, the whatever. The what's it called?

807
00:49:13,145 --> 00:49:16,799
Millennium Falcon or whatever. Yeah. Once that's done,

808
00:49:17,020 --> 00:49:20,700
have have you noticed that with your own kids? Like I'm I'm I'm mind blown

809
00:49:20,700 --> 00:49:24,540
here because I'm putting myself Dale's son, Sonny

810
00:49:24,540 --> 00:49:28,335
is a jet at building things out leg Lego blocks. No instructions. Just builds

811
00:49:28,575 --> 00:49:31,295
structures. It builds house and house. And every time I come over to the new

812
00:49:31,295 --> 00:49:34,494
one, I'm like, that's amazing. There's windows and doors on and on the opposite, and

813
00:49:34,494 --> 00:49:37,135
now my light bulb is going off, man, I've been doing it wrong because I'm

814
00:49:37,135 --> 00:49:40,195
a set builder for Lego with my son Hunter, so I will buy a set.

815
00:49:40,255 --> 00:49:44,089
And the latest one is a Star Wars Darth Vader spaceship. So it's funny

816
00:49:44,089 --> 00:49:47,569
you said them all in full. And the same and we build it, we finish

817
00:49:47,569 --> 00:49:50,369
it, and then we roll around and then play with it. And then it tends

818
00:49:50,369 --> 00:49:54,050
to sit there and not get then give it another thought. I

819
00:49:54,050 --> 00:49:57,455
really like I love, like you know, I think there's a lot of merit to

820
00:49:57,455 --> 00:50:01,135
building something and then having that beautiful thing as a decoration in your

821
00:50:01,135 --> 00:50:04,975
house. No problem. What my child would do is they would

822
00:50:04,975 --> 00:50:08,735
deconstruct it usually after they've dropped it on the floor and

823
00:50:08,735 --> 00:50:12,420
had a total freak out because it's like you know? And and and

824
00:50:12,420 --> 00:50:16,260
also the desire to fix it is not there anymore because it's the task

825
00:50:16,260 --> 00:50:19,880
was finished. Yeah. So then it would just literally slowly get deconstructed

826
00:50:20,180 --> 00:50:23,940
into a box of things, and then they just want an upset. And so

827
00:50:23,940 --> 00:50:27,575
the expert, whatever, would come along that they would yeah. So

828
00:50:27,655 --> 00:50:30,615
Yeah. So for all you parents out there, we're better off and I think this

829
00:50:30,615 --> 00:50:33,494
is gonna be right. I think we're better off just buying a massive tub of

830
00:50:33,494 --> 00:50:36,454
blocks of Lego than and let them free play. Right? Let them be creative and

831
00:50:36,454 --> 00:50:40,150
let them create their own pieces of piece of work,

832
00:50:40,150 --> 00:50:43,910
and and that's better for them. Yeah. It's absolutely better for them. There's

833
00:50:43,910 --> 00:50:47,670
there's I I don't I I would I would almost challenge

834
00:50:47,670 --> 00:50:50,550
anyone in the world listening to this thing. If you can if you can show

835
00:50:50,550 --> 00:50:54,205
me that following step by step instructions is better for a child's brain, I'd

836
00:50:54,205 --> 00:50:57,985
love to, like, argue that out. Thanks. Must. True.

837
00:50:58,685 --> 00:51:02,525
You know, once you've mastered the art of reading some instructions, like an IKEA

838
00:51:02,525 --> 00:51:06,220
catalog, and are able to put together a bit of furniture I mean,

839
00:51:06,220 --> 00:51:09,920
really, what else is more to learn there? There's there's nothing. Whereas

840
00:51:09,980 --> 00:51:11,840
you said, you know,

841
00:51:14,140 --> 00:51:17,980
if you say to the child, here's a bunch of random stuff, create

842
00:51:17,980 --> 00:51:20,960
something of value that's new,

843
00:51:21,855 --> 00:51:25,455
interesting to you, and and or someone else and

844
00:51:25,455 --> 00:51:29,235
that, you know, makes the world a better place. I mean, that, you know,

845
00:51:29,375 --> 00:51:33,215
like, adding value to the universe is Right. Is the I know it sounds a

846
00:51:33,215 --> 00:51:36,660
bit awkward and kind of No. It's it's but it's true and it's beautiful. Oh,

847
00:51:36,740 --> 00:51:40,520
Oh, it's a bit cliche, but I think, you know, being a producer of things,

848
00:51:40,579 --> 00:51:44,020
you know, I think is, or a, someone who

849
00:51:44,020 --> 00:51:47,799
can solve problems. You you know, it doesn't I don't mind if you're, like,

850
00:51:48,020 --> 00:51:51,855
one of those you know, if you're working for Greenpeace and trying

851
00:51:51,855 --> 00:51:55,535
to save a forest or you're, you know, creating some new financial system

852
00:51:55,535 --> 00:51:59,215
or whatever, I'm agnostic on the the end or, you know, what

853
00:51:59,215 --> 00:52:01,955
industry or whatever thing you end up doing in your life.

854
00:52:02,975 --> 00:52:06,750
But the ability to see, you know, each

855
00:52:06,750 --> 00:52:10,430
next step of your journey, take responsibility for that, and then

856
00:52:10,430 --> 00:52:14,270
create a solution to those problems, is

857
00:52:14,270 --> 00:52:17,310
just so important. You know? And and I think that I can sum that up

858
00:52:17,310 --> 00:52:21,125
actually as saying that I've always had,

859
00:52:21,365 --> 00:52:24,405
that I had for years on my wall, and I'm just remembering it's gone now,

860
00:52:24,405 --> 00:52:28,165
is that success is just the ability to

861
00:52:28,165 --> 00:52:32,005
fail time and time again and keep going. Yeah.

862
00:52:32,005 --> 00:52:35,769
That's the only difference between people who suck at

863
00:52:35,769 --> 00:52:39,390
things or are not very successful is that

864
00:52:39,769 --> 00:52:42,569
or at least, I mean, at least that's true in my life. But Yeah. I

865
00:52:42,569 --> 00:52:46,329
agree. Look it up. We haven't done very well. It's just that they stop. You

866
00:52:46,329 --> 00:52:50,089
know? Like, if you just keep going and keep trying things, most

867
00:52:50,089 --> 00:52:53,915
things you know, there's a lot of things that will eventually work. And it might

868
00:52:54,315 --> 00:52:57,435
I don't mean that, like, if you've got an idea, you should religiously stick to

869
00:52:57,435 --> 00:53:00,335
that idea, you know, and just

870
00:53:01,275 --> 00:53:04,809
commit to it. You've you've gotta you've gotta get feedback. That idea might

871
00:53:04,809 --> 00:53:08,410
morph and change into something completely different. But most

872
00:53:08,410 --> 00:53:11,690
ideas, if you keep working on them, if you've got a kind of a kernel

873
00:53:11,690 --> 00:53:14,809
of a good idea there, eventually, even though it might be something completely different in

874
00:53:14,809 --> 00:53:18,575
the end, the success will come from you just Yeah. Working through

875
00:53:18,575 --> 00:53:21,454
the challenges to make it work. You know? Because every file we talk about a

876
00:53:21,454 --> 00:53:25,214
lot in this podcast and in our office, the importance of failure and embracing

877
00:53:25,214 --> 00:53:28,575
failure. Right? Because that's what that's the only way you learn. You learn nothing through

878
00:53:28,575 --> 00:53:32,335
success. You really don't you you learn far more through your failures that

879
00:53:32,335 --> 00:53:35,910
lead to your success. Yes. So never never give up after the first failure.

880
00:53:36,070 --> 00:53:39,910
Ridiculous. Expecting that you're gonna be successful even I

881
00:53:39,910 --> 00:53:43,610
mean, who's that, tennis player? I think it was Roger Federer that said,

882
00:53:43,750 --> 00:53:47,255
when he looks over his entire career, you know, one of the most, successful tennis

883
00:53:47,255 --> 00:53:50,775
players in in the world, I think that he wins. If you look at it

884
00:53:50,775 --> 00:53:54,615
on a point by point basis, he wins 52% of

885
00:53:54,615 --> 00:53:58,455
his points. Yep. Is he playing hard? He

886
00:53:58,455 --> 00:54:01,890
is playing against hard opponents who are trying to crush

887
00:54:01,890 --> 00:54:05,650
him. Right? So it's only that tiny little extra

888
00:54:05,650 --> 00:54:08,789
bit that he does over other players to win the game

889
00:54:09,329 --> 00:54:13,170
and expecting that so, you know, just sort of putting in perspective what success is.

890
00:54:13,170 --> 00:54:16,815
It's just a tiny little bit more than than, the other person. Not being

891
00:54:16,815 --> 00:54:19,535
perfect, is it? It's not being perfect. There's no such thing as perfect. There's no

892
00:54:19,535 --> 00:54:23,234
such thing as perfect. Don't you chase it? No. Yeah. Absolutely. And there's a fantastic

893
00:54:23,455 --> 00:54:26,435
Michael Jordan video where they've compiled, like,

894
00:54:27,055 --> 00:54:30,250
him taking shots and missing them all. Yeah. He's like game

895
00:54:30,790 --> 00:54:34,069
winning shots. I've seen that as well. He only hits he was good. Yeah. Trust

896
00:54:34,069 --> 00:54:36,869
with the gaming shot x amount of times and missed it more than he more

897
00:54:36,869 --> 00:54:39,430
than he hit it. Right? But everyone remembers him for the few times that he

898
00:54:39,430 --> 00:54:42,630
hit it. So he's spot. But he but he learned from those times. He missed

899
00:54:42,630 --> 00:54:45,645
in career career resilience and whatnot. And he still wanted that shot. And I think

900
00:54:45,645 --> 00:54:48,765
that's the key. That's yeah. I love that point. He still wanted that shot. Even

901
00:54:48,765 --> 00:54:52,125
though he'd missed before, he didn't say, no, give it to Pippen, give it to

902
00:54:52,125 --> 00:54:55,245
Longley, give it to Steve Kerr. He goes, I I still want it. Let's be

903
00:54:55,245 --> 00:54:58,940
honest. Give it to Longley. No. No. I don't know who Longleaf

904
00:54:58,940 --> 00:55:02,780
is. Yeah. So Marcus Marcus looks a little bit light. Longleaf come and think, oh,

905
00:55:02,780 --> 00:55:06,540
he's a little bit shorter. Oh, long distance sport. Was it? Yeah. Really?

906
00:55:06,540 --> 00:55:09,980
Was he at all? Okay. Yeah. He's massive. He's massive. Now so,

907
00:55:09,980 --> 00:55:13,275
obviously, we've mentioned so many things today. And I think that's the beautiful thing about

908
00:55:13,595 --> 00:55:17,275
connecting with superstars, Marcus, that we get so many

909
00:55:17,275 --> 00:55:20,315
different things out of these podcasts, and we think we're gonna take away. We're very

910
00:55:20,315 --> 00:55:23,674
selfish because I've been sitting here, things I need to hear

911
00:55:23,674 --> 00:55:27,275
individually that I didn't actually know today Yeah. That I can take away.

912
00:55:27,275 --> 00:55:30,890
And, I love that around just being open. So getting

913
00:55:30,890 --> 00:55:34,730
back to the noodle pod because I think, yeah, so many people out there are

914
00:55:34,730 --> 00:55:38,410
looking for ways to be creative. Talk us a little

915
00:55:38,410 --> 00:55:42,250
bit about how it came to be. More importantly, you had an

916
00:55:42,250 --> 00:55:44,755
awesome kick start campaign, and now they're going gangbusters.

917
00:55:46,355 --> 00:55:49,955
Little bit of an idea of how you created that and where the concept came

918
00:55:49,955 --> 00:55:53,715
from, mate. Yeah. So, actually, that I'm glad you brought

919
00:55:53,715 --> 00:55:57,495
me back to that. So picking up on that story of how we got there.

920
00:55:57,875 --> 00:56:01,570
So I was in Thailand, and that that

921
00:56:01,570 --> 00:56:05,090
sort of, you know, that Thailand experience has absolutely been

922
00:56:05,090 --> 00:56:08,690
monumental to having the understanding to create the

923
00:56:08,690 --> 00:56:12,050
noodle pod. So I went to Thailand, did that 2

924
00:56:12,050 --> 00:56:15,615
years, came home, completely burnt out, exhausted. I was

925
00:56:15,615 --> 00:56:19,315
like, I gotta stop traveling. You know, I I can't

926
00:56:19,375 --> 00:56:23,055
get, like, some, you know, nasty gut bacterial or dengue

927
00:56:23,055 --> 00:56:26,575
fever again. You know, I really it was an amazing time, but it was

928
00:56:26,575 --> 00:56:30,349
also tough on my body, tough on my health because we're just working so

929
00:56:30,349 --> 00:56:34,029
hard. So that's when I started Playground Ideas, which

930
00:56:34,029 --> 00:56:37,789
basically took everything I've learned in Thailand, put it online, and

931
00:56:37,789 --> 00:56:41,549
just went, you know what? I reckon there's probably 20 people in the world

932
00:56:41,549 --> 00:56:45,365
right now who would who need this

933
00:56:45,365 --> 00:56:48,245
information. You know, that kind of classic sort of Instagram post of, I don't know

934
00:56:48,245 --> 00:56:51,605
who needs to hear this right now, but here it is. That went from 20

935
00:56:51,605 --> 00:56:55,205
playgrounds a year to we doubled it 40 to 80 to

936
00:56:55,205 --> 00:56:58,980
whatever. And, Pre COVID, we were somewhere

937
00:56:58,980 --> 00:57:02,660
between 700 a 1000 projects, and I think post COVID now, we're

938
00:57:02,660 --> 00:57:06,500
sitting about 5 to 700 per year, something like that. So we're

939
00:57:06,500 --> 00:57:10,040
just getting back up to that, to that level again, which is exciting.

940
00:57:11,244 --> 00:57:15,005
But a few years ago, I was asked by a

941
00:57:15,005 --> 00:57:17,905
government development like, a the development,

942
00:57:19,005 --> 00:57:22,224
imagine, like, USAID or AusAID, but a different government

943
00:57:23,085 --> 00:57:26,730
to we won this contract to build playgrounds in

944
00:57:26,730 --> 00:57:30,250
a very young fledgling nation in the

945
00:57:30,250 --> 00:57:32,110
world. And,

946
00:57:34,330 --> 00:57:37,690
there were 3 we needed to build 300 playgrounds all over the

947
00:57:37,690 --> 00:57:41,494
country, like, from forest to

948
00:57:41,494 --> 00:57:45,335
beach to crazy mountain areas to rural areas and

949
00:57:45,335 --> 00:57:49,174
in city areas. It was a really hard project. And for lots and lots

950
00:57:49,174 --> 00:57:51,515
and lots of reasons, corruption,

951
00:57:52,930 --> 00:57:56,450
just challenges with those environments, materials, all that stuff. The

952
00:57:56,450 --> 00:58:00,130
project went very, very badly, and and it really left me in a

953
00:58:00,130 --> 00:58:03,830
hole, for lots of reasons. Some of them

954
00:58:04,130 --> 00:58:07,765
was a big learning for me. A lot of them were

955
00:58:08,225 --> 00:58:12,065
other things out of our control, but I I really sort

956
00:58:12,065 --> 00:58:15,905
of as I clawed myself out of that hole of just feeling like, you

957
00:58:15,905 --> 00:58:19,585
know, we just really done a disservice to this new country and

958
00:58:19,585 --> 00:58:23,240
how we could help the kids. I had this kind of thing of

959
00:58:23,240 --> 00:58:27,080
like and again, this is this, like, failure and success is

960
00:58:27,080 --> 00:58:30,760
just I had this thing of like, what if, again, what if we

961
00:58:30,760 --> 00:58:34,359
could circumnavigate all of the challenges that we had

962
00:58:34,359 --> 00:58:37,785
faced to just get a play space to those

963
00:58:37,785 --> 00:58:40,765
kids directly. And my idea was

964
00:58:41,785 --> 00:58:45,065
what if we had something in a box that was flat packed on the kind

965
00:58:45,065 --> 00:58:48,869
of IKEA model that you could just put in the post and get it

966
00:58:48,869 --> 00:58:52,549
to the to a, you know, a location in that country and then disseminate it

967
00:58:52,549 --> 00:58:56,309
out and sold a bunch of bulbs. So this and

968
00:58:56,309 --> 00:58:59,829
that became the concept of the noodle cast, the

969
00:58:59,829 --> 00:59:03,515
original noodle cart, And crazily at that time,

970
00:59:03,734 --> 00:59:07,494
this absolutely phenomenally talented woman called

971
00:59:07,494 --> 00:59:11,035
Emma Ribbons, who was a Belgian

972
00:59:11,415 --> 00:59:14,955
kind of toy wooden toys on a high quality educational

973
00:59:15,255 --> 00:59:19,040
toys, contacted me and said, hey. I'm in a

974
00:59:19,040 --> 00:59:22,560
bit of a loose end. We get these all the time. Can I help you?

975
00:59:22,560 --> 00:59:25,520
I'd like to I wanna build a playground. I I wanna do something. I've been

976
00:59:25,520 --> 00:59:28,080
working in this thing, and I I need to get out of get out of

977
00:59:28,080 --> 00:59:31,895
town and do some. And we on a very first phone conversation, we started

978
00:59:31,895 --> 00:59:35,735
cooking up this idea. What if you could create something better than

979
00:59:35,735 --> 00:59:39,355
a playground and better than a toy that

980
00:59:39,495 --> 00:59:42,395
that did that that embodied the

981
00:59:43,110 --> 00:59:46,870
the values that we as sort of

982
00:59:46,870 --> 00:59:50,090
humans want in our children because in a lot of ways,

983
00:59:51,030 --> 00:59:53,690
here's 2 sort of another factoids. First of all,

984
00:59:55,725 --> 00:59:59,565
like, what value does a slide I've built, I should say, I've built hundreds

985
00:59:59,565 --> 01:00:03,005
of slides. Right? But what value does a slide

986
01:00:03,005 --> 01:00:06,605
have? What do you have? You know? Like Yeah. A

987
01:00:06,605 --> 01:00:10,349
slide is super fun, but, really, for me, a slide fits into the

988
01:00:10,349 --> 01:00:14,109
category of play like like Netflix fits into

989
01:00:14,109 --> 01:00:17,630
education. You know, there can be some good stuff there, but, really,

990
01:00:17,630 --> 01:00:20,985
it's kind of mostly entertainment. Right? Yeah.

991
01:00:21,785 --> 01:00:25,245
As opposed to a playground that has something like a shop front.

992
01:00:25,705 --> 01:00:29,465
Mhmm. They're like a shop front. In that environment, children are

993
01:00:29,465 --> 01:00:33,305
interacting. The outcome is unknown. It's open ended, and it changes

994
01:00:33,305 --> 01:00:36,970
on a daily basis. The value of a pretend shop front versus a

995
01:00:36,970 --> 01:00:40,810
slide is is chalk and cheese. Yeah. You see what I mean? In terms of

996
01:00:40,810 --> 01:00:44,250
play and design. And we were like,

997
01:00:44,250 --> 01:00:47,630
well, what if we created something

998
01:00:47,770 --> 01:00:51,615
that embodied these values that we want of

999
01:00:51,615 --> 01:00:55,375
social connection and social skills development, you

1000
01:00:55,375 --> 01:00:59,135
know, cognitive challenges constantly changing, and

1001
01:00:59,135 --> 01:01:02,755
physical challenges where you could create something which adapted to your abilities.

1002
01:01:03,320 --> 01:01:06,680
Where it's instead of having a, you know, like a like a, I don't know,

1003
01:01:06,680 --> 01:01:09,720
a pretend key a pretend kitchen that has a bench height that's this. You could

1004
01:01:09,720 --> 01:01:12,760
just build something that worked with whatever ability. If you're in a wheelchair, if you

1005
01:01:12,760 --> 01:01:16,520
have a cognitive impairment or whatever, you can build spaces that take

1006
01:01:16,520 --> 01:01:20,085
you from where you are now to the next wherever you're

1007
01:01:20,085 --> 01:01:22,965
going. Right? I know that's a vague statement, but you can kinda get where I'm

1008
01:01:22,965 --> 01:01:26,805
going. Right? It's something totally, genuinely inclusive where

1009
01:01:26,805 --> 01:01:30,345
you create that world. And in the process of creating, you enjoy

1010
01:01:31,660 --> 01:01:34,400
taking those challenges to the next step. And that

1011
01:01:35,180 --> 01:01:38,940
that became well, the first one was like a garden

1012
01:01:38,940 --> 01:01:42,220
cart with a bunch of milk crates in it and a bunch of, like, just

1013
01:01:42,220 --> 01:01:45,655
recycled stuff. And then that

1014
01:01:45,655 --> 01:01:48,535
very, and then we did a trial in,

1015
01:01:49,494 --> 01:01:53,255
Lebanon with refugees, and they stole everything. Like, these are

1016
01:01:53,255 --> 01:01:56,405
super important and

1017
01:01:57,380 --> 01:02:01,140
plates and cups and spoons and see and and whisks and

1018
01:02:01,140 --> 01:02:04,820
all that stuff. They they they pocketed everything. And I and I was

1019
01:02:04,820 --> 01:02:08,180
like, what an idiot. That's totally of course, they did. We've

1020
01:02:08,180 --> 01:02:11,715
got, you know, 3, 4, $500 worth of kitchen

1021
01:02:11,715 --> 01:02:15,555
items here, and we and we're giving them to kids who don't have kitchens at

1022
01:02:15,555 --> 01:02:19,075
work. Right? So, you know, they just everything just disappears. So that's when we

1023
01:02:19,075 --> 01:02:22,675
transitioned, and we went, you know what? We're gonna create something where all of the

1024
01:02:22,675 --> 01:02:25,895
pieces are only usable and valuable to children,

1025
01:02:26,650 --> 01:02:30,270
and they can create everything, but they're not so things will go missing.

1026
01:02:32,490 --> 01:02:36,330
That process cost a huge amount of money because we tested in a

1027
01:02:36,330 --> 01:02:40,105
bunch of refugee camps around the world, and that's obviously very expensive. So in the

1028
01:02:40,105 --> 01:02:43,785
final trial in, like, maybe early 2019, we tested

1029
01:02:43,785 --> 01:02:47,305
in 12 schools this loose parts box all made from

1030
01:02:47,305 --> 01:02:50,925
plywood and silicone and fabrics and all this other stuff

1031
01:02:51,620 --> 01:02:55,460
in Australian schools. And 8 of the 12

1032
01:02:55,460 --> 01:02:57,780
said, can I buy 1? And I was like,

1033
01:02:59,540 --> 01:03:03,380
I literally just I was like, I I never need this. I'm

1034
01:03:03,380 --> 01:03:07,165
like, alright. Like and then all of a sudden, like, sort of

1035
01:03:07,165 --> 01:03:10,685
processing that information, I was like, oh, what if we could have our charity of

1036
01:03:10,685 --> 01:03:14,285
Playground Ideas? And that could be funded through

1037
01:03:14,285 --> 01:03:18,125
amazing schools who wanna move into this area of open ended learning

1038
01:03:18,125 --> 01:03:21,970
and and getting more engagement, and that flow statement

1039
01:03:21,970 --> 01:03:25,809
from kids where they can then take teachers can observe that and then jump

1040
01:03:25,809 --> 01:03:29,490
into the curriculum or say or even say, hey, Fred, what you just

1041
01:03:29,490 --> 01:03:33,089
did there by balancing those two things together, that's called leverage. Can you tell the

1042
01:03:33,089 --> 01:03:36,018
class what how you managed to get those things to do that? And all of

1043
01:03:36,018 --> 01:03:39,724
a sudden, you're doing the curriculum, but in this really organic Through

1044
01:03:39,724 --> 01:03:43,565
play. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Through play. Through the just experiment exploration,

1045
01:03:43,565 --> 01:03:47,325
whatever. And you gain STEM skills and social skills and all personal

1046
01:03:47,325 --> 01:03:50,970
social, creative and creative thinking skills. They're all there, and in a

1047
01:03:50,970 --> 01:03:54,810
real way, you can actually assess kids. And that's where we sort

1048
01:03:54,810 --> 01:03:58,590
of shifted to say, we will sell these

1049
01:03:58,730 --> 01:04:02,410
to Australian schools and other, you know, western people who can afford them. We'll sell

1050
01:04:02,410 --> 01:04:06,224
them to NGOs, and we will continue to

1051
01:04:06,224 --> 01:04:09,825
do our development work where occasionally we have grant rounds and

1052
01:04:09,825 --> 01:04:13,665
donations of arts and rollovers to different countries and different things.

1053
01:04:13,665 --> 01:04:17,470
So at the moment, I'm actually just working on, I just

1054
01:04:17,470 --> 01:04:20,990
got a donation yesterday of, a few

1055
01:04:20,990 --> 01:04:24,510
$1,000, which will turn into a grant to

1056
01:04:24,510 --> 01:04:27,570
donate pods to domestic violence

1057
01:04:27,870 --> 01:04:31,664
shelters for women who've left home with

1058
01:04:31,664 --> 01:04:35,505
children who leave everything behind and and don't

1059
01:04:35,744 --> 01:04:39,525
because it's a it's a great sort of therapeutic thing for kids. So

1060
01:04:40,224 --> 01:04:43,920
that's where we started from was this failure, and I

1061
01:04:44,000 --> 01:04:47,680
and, also, we also had problems with when we were building playgrounds. Sometimes the materials

1062
01:04:47,680 --> 01:04:51,280
would get stolen overnight. So that we you know, we'd order all the materials, and

1063
01:04:51,280 --> 01:04:53,920
we'd be about to build a playground. Someone would jump the fence and steal all

1064
01:04:53,920 --> 01:04:57,760
the steel. Or, or another problem was, like, we'd be

1065
01:04:57,760 --> 01:05:01,575
building a playground in India, but it's monsoonal. Right? And, you

1066
01:05:01,575 --> 01:05:05,415
know, Bangladesh or India, sometimes the play space would be a meter

1067
01:05:05,415 --> 01:05:09,255
underwater for, like, 3 months of the year. How do you build a playground in

1068
01:05:09,255 --> 01:05:12,215
that environment? So then the both of you got a noodle cart is you can

1069
01:05:12,215 --> 01:05:15,700
bring it inside and just use just push the desks aside. Yeah.

1070
01:05:16,240 --> 01:05:19,920
We literally worked on a project where the school was an island. The the school

1071
01:05:19,920 --> 01:05:23,760
building was, like, literally a raised bit of earth, and all around it had

1072
01:05:23,760 --> 01:05:26,880
stepping stones to get out of the school, and then in the dry season, they

1073
01:05:26,880 --> 01:05:30,685
could play. You know, this noodle cast has solved a bunch of these really

1074
01:05:30,685 --> 01:05:34,285
weird problems that we had to deal with, but just so happened to

1075
01:05:34,285 --> 01:05:37,425
also create this amazing educational stimulation

1076
01:05:37,805 --> 01:05:41,405
creativity open ended tool for you know? Well

1077
01:05:41,405 --> 01:05:44,599
done. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. So that that's kinda how we got there.

1078
01:05:45,140 --> 01:05:48,980
And now what we've got is we've got the noodle cart for 30 kids.

1079
01:05:48,980 --> 01:05:52,680
So that's our big, super robust industrial

1080
01:05:53,220 --> 01:05:56,905
sort of version. And the reason it looks so industrial is because it's designed to

1081
01:05:56,905 --> 01:06:00,744
go to into refugee camps, and I never wanted to create one for

1082
01:06:00,744 --> 01:06:04,445
poor kids and one for rich kids. It's the same thing that goes everywhere.

1083
01:06:06,505 --> 01:06:10,290
And then during COVID, we really you know, obviously, schools

1084
01:06:10,290 --> 01:06:14,050
don't want a product that everyone's touching, so we just put went head down, bum

1085
01:06:14,050 --> 01:06:16,710
up, and we created the rover, which is,

1086
01:06:17,970 --> 01:06:21,730
a small group tool. So that's fantastic next to the like, for

1087
01:06:21,730 --> 01:06:25,545
instance, like the AP or deputy principal's office. Instead

1088
01:06:25,545 --> 01:06:29,305
of kids coming out of their classes having a meltdown and you trying to

1089
01:06:29,305 --> 01:06:32,845
talk to them face to face when their brains are exploding with cortisol

1090
01:06:33,065 --> 01:06:36,605
and stress hormones, just give them 20 minutes with the rover

1091
01:06:36,744 --> 01:06:40,440
where they can be self directed, in control of themselves,

1092
01:06:40,440 --> 01:06:43,880
and they can build something which is interesting to them. They get back on their

1093
01:06:43,880 --> 01:06:47,480
base, and then you can have a side by side conversation about what happened with

1094
01:06:47,480 --> 01:06:50,619
mom over Christmas, over over breakfast, whatever.

1095
01:06:51,720 --> 01:06:55,555
So we that's so they've they've been using 100 of schools with the

1096
01:06:55,555 --> 01:06:57,415
well-being teacher or the or the AP.

1097
01:06:59,715 --> 01:07:03,395
After that, we designed one for, hospitals. So

1098
01:07:03,395 --> 01:07:07,095
there's a recycled HTP plastic version of the rover

1099
01:07:07,619 --> 01:07:11,059
because there are no resources for OTs and other people in high

1100
01:07:11,059 --> 01:07:14,819
infection environments for kids who has got cancer or other long

1101
01:07:14,819 --> 01:07:18,660
term illnesses in hospitals. So that's sitting over

1102
01:07:18,660 --> 01:07:21,940
there in the office. We haven't sold any yet with because we we hit COVID,

1103
01:07:21,940 --> 01:07:25,475
and it was just like impossible Yeah. To make that work. Is

1104
01:07:25,475 --> 01:07:29,235
anyone listening who thinks that they could help us to get them into hospitals? I

1105
01:07:29,235 --> 01:07:32,995
would love to talk to you. And then the final

1106
01:07:32,995 --> 01:07:36,675
thing is obviously the pod. So that's this you know, it's if people are

1107
01:07:36,675 --> 01:07:40,330
watching, you know, it's a it's a box full of stuff about the

1108
01:07:40,330 --> 01:07:44,090
size of 2 shoe boxes and comes with sticks

1109
01:07:44,090 --> 01:07:47,470
and wheels and fabrics and silicon pieces and all of that stuff that can

1110
01:07:47,770 --> 01:07:51,530
does two main things. It replaces toys. So you mentioned that sort

1111
01:07:51,530 --> 01:07:54,404
of at the start. Mhmm. Reduces clutter.

1112
01:07:55,105 --> 01:07:58,865
Like, kids kids need space to play. If you

1113
01:07:58,865 --> 01:08:02,085
wanna connect your brain and your hands and your feet,

1114
01:08:02,545 --> 01:08:06,390
they're most people's bedrooms these days are kind of storerooms, really. It's

1115
01:08:06,390 --> 01:08:09,910
like a bed and the stuff, and then and then the actual

1116
01:08:09,910 --> 01:08:13,290
place spills out into the the lounge room. But because that's

1117
01:08:13,750 --> 01:08:17,210
a shared space, often it drives parents crazy, so the kids are having to

1118
01:08:17,510 --> 01:08:20,410
shuffle all the stuff back in the bedrooms. The pod,

1119
01:08:21,555 --> 01:08:25,314
by replacing all of your large scale toys like ride ons

1120
01:08:25,314 --> 01:08:29,074
and, rock, rocking horses and standing tables

1121
01:08:29,074 --> 01:08:32,675
and easels and, you know, that little, you know, that little, like,

1122
01:08:32,675 --> 01:08:36,215
hammer game where you hammer pegs into a box or it's like a,

1123
01:08:36,354 --> 01:08:40,090
you know, like a shape sorter, all these big toys. It just does all

1124
01:08:40,090 --> 01:08:42,889
that. So you don't need any of that. So that then goes

1125
01:08:43,609 --> 01:08:47,389
creates a space in the bedroom for the children to do cartwheels and somersaults

1126
01:08:47,609 --> 01:08:51,375
and all that stuff. And then the second big

1127
01:08:51,375 --> 01:08:54,354
thing that it does that I think is is its fundamental

1128
01:08:55,295 --> 01:08:58,974
change that makes it a toy like toys

1129
01:08:58,974 --> 01:09:02,675
were always supposed to be is it gives the child the opportunity

1130
01:09:02,734 --> 01:09:06,550
to develop and grow by creating their own stuff instead of

1131
01:09:06,550 --> 01:09:10,390
just doing whatever some corporation tells them to do on

1132
01:09:10,390 --> 01:09:13,189
the front of the box. I mean, you know, any toy that you look at

1133
01:09:13,189 --> 01:09:16,469
on the box that tells you where an adult can look at and go, I

1134
01:09:16,469 --> 01:09:19,929
know exactly what is gonna happen with this toy.

1135
01:09:21,235 --> 01:09:24,835
It's got one function. And for me, it's a bit of a waste of money.

1136
01:09:24,835 --> 01:09:27,395
It's a bit of a waste of space. It's a bit of a waste of

1137
01:09:27,395 --> 01:09:31,075
resources and plastic and all that stuff. You know? And and for me

1138
01:09:31,075 --> 01:09:34,719
instead, you know, and this is totally biased, but I'm like, buy

1139
01:09:34,719 --> 01:09:38,560
toys and do a 1,000,000 things like the pod, and

1140
01:09:38,560 --> 01:09:42,319
then take your money at birthdays. Here's my big, like you

1141
01:09:42,319 --> 01:09:46,159
know, so do that big investment of the a really high quality thing like

1142
01:09:46,159 --> 01:09:49,599
the pod. And then what I do with my kids at Christmas and whatever is

1143
01:09:49,599 --> 01:09:53,255
I say, I want you to think big. What is the

1144
01:09:53,255 --> 01:09:57,015
craziest thing that you love? Ridiculous. I don't care

1145
01:09:57,015 --> 01:10:00,775
what it costs. You know, for my daughter, it's horse riding lessons. I can't

1146
01:10:00,775 --> 01:10:04,510
afford horse riding lessons. What am I? I'm not a Persian king. Like,

1147
01:10:04,570 --> 01:10:08,170
they're not. Right? So, like, it's it's

1148
01:10:08,170 --> 01:10:11,690
so expensive. So what I would just say is, okay. Then that's what we'll ask

1149
01:10:11,690 --> 01:10:15,450
people for. We'll say that that's what you'd really love. And so she's

1150
01:10:15,450 --> 01:10:19,185
been able to go for horse riding lessons throughout the year because for

1151
01:10:19,185 --> 01:10:22,625
her birthday and for Christmas, that's what she asked for. And my for my

1152
01:10:22,625 --> 01:10:26,465
son, it's been a mountain bike. And this year, he got

1153
01:10:26,465 --> 01:10:29,985
some crazy expensive basketball boots because

1154
01:10:29,985 --> 01:10:33,810
he's, you know, just he got bought a pair of Jordans. And we

1155
01:10:33,810 --> 01:10:36,950
put in a bid for his birthday. And then he asked all of his friends

1156
01:10:37,330 --> 01:10:41,010
and family to put in, and he walked into, you know, this massive

1157
01:10:41,010 --> 01:10:44,770
sports store with literally, like, a a roll

1158
01:10:44,770 --> 01:10:48,364
of cash. And he's like and I was like, good on you. You know? Like,

1159
01:10:48,364 --> 01:10:52,125
this is a great no plastic crap. Something he

1160
01:10:52,125 --> 01:10:55,565
really committed to and love, and I know that he'll use throughout the

1161
01:10:55,565 --> 01:10:59,405
year. And it was you know, he got to be in control

1162
01:10:59,405 --> 01:11:02,710
of that and to have that experience. So for me, you know, things that get

1163
01:11:02,710 --> 01:11:06,469
you experiences and less stuff is is really the

1164
01:11:06,469 --> 01:11:09,909
answer. Yeah. I love that. And that's a brilliant way to wrap up. And I'm

1165
01:11:09,909 --> 01:11:13,750
obviously making some notes as we go along, and it's this pod has gone

1166
01:11:13,750 --> 01:11:17,405
on so many different avenues and journeys and but there's been little

1167
01:11:17,405 --> 01:11:20,045
bits of gold the whole way through it that I'm going to take away personally

1168
01:11:20,045 --> 01:11:23,585
with me, as a human being, but as a parent and as a father.

1169
01:11:24,445 --> 01:11:26,845
And I'm going to try and recap a few things here as as we sign

1170
01:11:26,845 --> 01:11:30,465
off. But Good luck. Good luck. We want to start with perspective.

1171
01:11:31,910 --> 01:11:34,790
Let's rewind the very start of it and and your story to get to where

1172
01:11:34,790 --> 01:11:37,830
you are and how you came about being, you know, the CEO of Playground Ideas

1173
01:11:37,830 --> 01:11:41,190
and just put things in perspective, people. So think about what the other side of

1174
01:11:41,190 --> 01:11:45,030
the world are facing, refugee camps, you know, poverty, etcetera, etcetera,

1175
01:11:45,030 --> 01:11:48,525
and be incredibly grateful for where we are and what you've got, and try to

1176
01:11:48,525 --> 01:11:51,565
always put things in perspective. I don't think it's that bad what we have to

1177
01:11:51,565 --> 01:11:55,005
deal with on a day to day basis, what some people think and feel. Yeah.

1178
01:11:55,165 --> 01:11:58,445
And listen to this pod and go jeepers cross. Look where Marcus has come from

1179
01:11:58,445 --> 01:12:01,960
and what he's been doing over there, and and they would have been happier. Right?

1180
01:12:01,960 --> 01:12:05,639
I mean, when we first met, you said they were incredibly happy communities still

1181
01:12:05,639 --> 01:12:09,159
despite having nothing. So, you know, put things in perspective. Travel,

1182
01:12:09,159 --> 01:12:13,000
people, gold bloody travel. Yes. Marcus, I'm sure you'll attest

1183
01:12:13,000 --> 01:12:16,775
for this. My old man. I'm forever grateful for him. He gave me

1184
01:12:16,775 --> 01:12:20,455
some really standard advice that I need to go and see the world. And it

1185
01:12:20,455 --> 01:12:23,655
seems as though you travelling has changed your life. It's like a fork in the

1186
01:12:23,655 --> 01:12:27,115
road moment. Right? Perspective is everything.

1187
01:12:27,490 --> 01:12:31,030
Travel gives you perspective on where you sit in the universe. Absolutely.

1188
01:12:31,570 --> 01:12:35,170
Yeah. I love that. Sense of community. The

1189
01:12:35,170 --> 01:12:38,850
places you've worked in have had a sense of community in spades, and

1190
01:12:38,850 --> 01:12:42,545
they've been willing to give up everything for that sense of community, give their

1191
01:12:42,545 --> 01:12:46,305
time, give their resources, the guy that gave you a $1,000 without even knowing you.

1192
01:12:46,305 --> 01:12:49,345
You know what I mean? To do something good for their community. People that are

1193
01:12:49,345 --> 01:12:53,040
contacting you constantly to wanna go and contribute to a sense

1194
01:12:53,040 --> 01:12:55,680
of community and then staying there for a year's time. So if you're listening to

1195
01:12:55,680 --> 01:12:58,960
this, I think it's good for your soul, and it's good for those around you,

1196
01:12:58,960 --> 01:13:02,000
and it's good to role model to go and be a part of your community

1197
01:13:02,000 --> 01:13:05,060
and give where you can. A little bit of time, a little bit of energy.

1198
01:13:05,120 --> 01:13:08,965
You what I mean? That sense of community is brilliant. Humanity is awesome.

1199
01:13:09,665 --> 01:13:13,505
I've written here, humanity is awesome. You've restored my faith in humanity a bit today,

1200
01:13:13,505 --> 01:13:17,185
Marcus. I appreciate that. You yourself are an

1201
01:13:17,185 --> 01:13:20,690
unbelievably great human being, and it sounds like you've worked with

1202
01:13:20,690 --> 01:13:24,530
100 of amazing human beings. And, yeah, it's just really beautiful

1203
01:13:24,530 --> 01:13:27,010
to see that there are people in the world that that are really here for

1204
01:13:27,010 --> 01:13:29,910
other people, and and that kindness ripple effect is amazing.

1205
01:13:30,785 --> 01:13:34,545
Creativity, I'm gonna almost finish. Creativity is super important for our

1206
01:13:34,545 --> 01:13:38,245
development, our kids' development, but for our happiness and our connection.

1207
01:13:38,305 --> 01:13:41,825
And I'm gonna throw you something. If you're an employer, if you're a manager, if

1208
01:13:41,825 --> 01:13:45,440
you're running a business meeting, if you're doing anything, get something

1209
01:13:45,440 --> 01:13:49,120
fun and playful and creative for your team to do at your next

1210
01:13:49,120 --> 01:13:52,560
team meeting. Yep. As Marcus touched upon you, and he worked with x amount of

1211
01:13:52,560 --> 01:13:56,160
educators, and he couldn't bloody stop them talking, couldn't stop them going nuts, couldn't stop

1212
01:13:56,160 --> 01:13:59,855
them having fun. And in that moment, they were present. They weren't worrying about their

1213
01:13:59,855 --> 01:14:03,135
to do lists. They were present, and they were connecting with each other in a

1214
01:14:03,135 --> 01:14:06,255
really fun, playful way. And they walked out of that session with a spring in

1215
01:14:06,255 --> 01:14:09,855
their step. And that's just through being playful and being creative.

1216
01:14:09,855 --> 01:14:13,695
So if you're in the position to create that opportunity for people, do

1217
01:14:13,695 --> 01:14:17,140
so. Yeah. 100%. You know, do so. It's super bloody powerful and important.

1218
01:14:18,000 --> 01:14:21,760
This is my bit of gold is food experiment. You

1219
01:14:21,760 --> 01:14:25,440
know, we've got I think this podcast has got a parent with wait. Pop culture

1220
01:14:25,440 --> 01:14:29,235
parenting, get your heart out. This is now, yeah, this is now parenting

1221
01:14:29,615 --> 01:14:32,495
podcast as well, and I love that. And I think people are gonna take a

1222
01:14:32,495 --> 01:14:35,935
lot away from that. Me personally wanna thank you and Dale too because I'm a

1223
01:14:35,935 --> 01:14:39,615
100% trialing the food experiment on my children's plates moving

1224
01:14:39,615 --> 01:14:43,350
forward. And most importantly, mate, just, you know, give back

1225
01:14:43,350 --> 01:14:47,110
to people whoever you can, and don't be put off by your

1226
01:14:47,110 --> 01:14:50,470
failures. You know what I mean? It's not always gonna succeed for someone. Celebrate them.

1227
01:14:50,470 --> 01:14:53,770
Yep. Embrace them. Learn from them. Keep going back to the well,

1228
01:14:54,550 --> 01:14:57,675
and eventually gonna end up in places like you ended up, mate. And you are

1229
01:14:57,675 --> 01:15:01,215
doing incredible things for this world, not just Australia, but for the world.

1230
01:15:02,155 --> 01:15:05,995
And people go out and research. I'm not this isn't a selling point. We're

1231
01:15:05,995 --> 01:15:09,515
not making nothing out of this. But go and have a look at the noodle

1232
01:15:09,515 --> 01:15:13,210
pods and the noodle carts. I think it's a ripper. I'll personally buy one for

1233
01:15:13,210 --> 01:15:17,050
my kids for Christmas, and and use we'll put the the QR code

1234
01:15:17,050 --> 01:15:20,890
up. But, what you've created, Marcus, is a is a truly genius

1235
01:15:20,890 --> 01:15:24,330
little bit of equipment for kids and people worldwide, and it's doing good for

1236
01:15:24,330 --> 01:15:26,995
humanity. And, yeah, from the bottom of my heart and from the bottom of my

1237
01:15:26,995 --> 01:15:30,435
dials, I wanna thank you for coming on our podcast. No worries.

1238
01:15:30,435 --> 01:15:34,275
Appreciate it. And and, look, just one thing I did mention is just we

1239
01:15:34,275 --> 01:15:37,955
also have incursions for kids. So they start at $12. So if you

1240
01:15:37,955 --> 01:15:41,690
wanna try it, there's, like, 0, like, you

1241
01:15:41,690 --> 01:15:45,050
know, obstruction to entry to just give something like this and go. And just

1242
01:15:45,050 --> 01:15:48,410
see see how it works. We'll even give you a free demo if you're a

1243
01:15:48,410 --> 01:15:51,130
teacher. We'll just come to your school and show you that we're that confident in

1244
01:15:51,130 --> 01:15:54,250
it, and it'll and we know that it'll blow your mind. So Yeah. And I'm

1245
01:15:54,250 --> 01:15:57,954
thinking, like, child care centers, like, we've both got kids at yeah. We've both got

1246
01:15:57,954 --> 01:16:00,755
kids at kinders, and I think they should both our kinders they should have one

1247
01:16:00,755 --> 01:16:03,875
of these at their kinder because I think it's way better than the toys I

1248
01:16:03,875 --> 01:16:07,715
see them playing with. So early childhood centers, primary schools, high schools,

1249
01:16:07,715 --> 01:16:11,550
even like Kinder's a 100%. Yeah. Get amongst it. Research it. Hit

1250
01:16:11,550 --> 01:16:15,010
up Marcus, at Playground Ideas and Noodlecart.

1251
01:16:15,390 --> 01:16:19,070
You won't be disappointed. And we'll round that out. So, Marcus, I know

1252
01:16:19,070 --> 01:16:22,350
this isn't the end of our journey together. I'm pretty sure the 3 of us

1253
01:16:22,350 --> 01:16:26,065
will will collaborate at some stage in the near future, and, I'm really looking

1254
01:16:26,065 --> 01:16:29,745
forward to that. And, yeah. Thanks for your time. I really appreciate it. Thanks, John.

1255
01:16:29,745 --> 01:16:31,445
Thanks so much. Awesome. Take care.