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Hello Awesome Humans! In the podcast studio today we have sports lover, Rob Verhoeve. Rob chats about growing up in Melbourne in the 70's and how he went from an almost 30 year banking career to following his dreams and doing what he loves. Tune in today and listen to this episode's totally Awesome Human, Rob Verhoeve!
Awesome Humans is a podcast by Brett McCallum. Entrepreneur, author, speaker, and all-round Aussie bloke, Brett McCallum has been in the IT business with his company Virtech for over 15 years, alongside many other ventures - with a range of successes and learning experiences along the way. In this series, Brett interviews all sorts of inspiring humans from varied backgrounds to share their stories with the world. Many of Brett's guests have an entrepreneurial background and an amazing story about their successes and failures along the way.
Podcast by Podfire.
Speaker 0 (0s): This is a podfire production. This podcast, I have explicit themes and swearing and might not be suitable for children. The world is full of amazing people. And once a week, I get the opportunity to interview. One of them. My name is Brett McCallum, and this is awesome humans. Sometimes people come into your life for a season. Sometimes people come into your life for a reason. Today's awesome. Human coming to my life for a reason. And we're still working out what that is. But at the same time, he's become family.
He's become a brother. He's become a business partner. And at the same time, he's become one of my awesome humans. So today on the podcast we have Robert Verhoeven, the great man, however
Speaker 1 (44s): Good. Hey Britton. How are you?
Speaker 0 (45s): But I'm super. I know you haven't listened to one of my podcasts. So other than disappointed, I'm
Speaker 1 (51s): Angry. I said I hadn't listened, but I've listened to a bit of a couple,
Speaker 0 (54s): A bit of a couple. Let's go drive up to Brisbane. Okay. Cool. Bye. Well, this is all about you. The whole idea of awesome humans is to find out who people are, what they do, where they come from and all that sort of stuff. And we haven't done one for a little while, so I'm very, very excited that your first mandolin series, sorry,
Speaker 1 (1m 10s): I'm a little bit nervous, but that sounds cool.
Speaker 0 (1m 12s): Maybe the thing is that don't be nervous cause it's about you. It's all. It's all good. What I love to do with this podcast is start at the very beginning. So I have my question is what's your first ever memory?
Speaker 1 (1m 23s): My first ever memory, my first ever memory is going to a football game. You won't be surprised by
Speaker 0 (1m 27s): How old, where
Speaker 1 (1m 28s): I was about five and I screamed that I wanted to go home at half time in the reserves.
Speaker 0 (1m 35s): Why?
Speaker 1 (1m 35s): Because it was too loud.
Speaker 0 (1m 37s): Oh really? Where was that
Speaker 1 (1m 38s): At? At the Western oval. Yeah. And so it was Footscray versus Richmond. I still remember it.
Speaker 0 (1m 44s): You remember like the game or whatever
Speaker 1 (1m 45s): The game vividly.
Speaker 0 (1m 46s): Yeah. Who are you there
Speaker 1 (1m 47s): With with my dad. So, which was pretty important to me and my dad worked really hard and just getting away on a Saturday afternoon for the football was something that wasn't easy for him. So for him to make that effort was big.
Speaker 0 (1m 58s): And at the age of five, you knew that
Speaker 1 (2m 0s): Now I didn't, but now it's becoming more important. Yeah. It's become more important over the years.
Speaker 0 (2m 4s): Yeah, definitely. So where were you born?
Speaker 1 (2m 6s): Born in Melbourne sunshine hospital.
Speaker 0 (2m 8s): Yep. And where'd you grow up
Speaker 1 (2m 10s): In the Western suburbs of Melbourne in a place called deer park,
Speaker 0 (2m 14s): Deer park. So we're first school.
Speaker 1 (2m 16s): First school was some Peter Chanel, primary.
Speaker 0 (2m 18s): Cool. So Catholic school, Catholic school, we bought up I as a Catholic, well mom and dad devotes or anything like that?
Speaker 1 (2m 28s): Not really. It was just the best school in the area. Okay. But my mom's side of the family were Catholic. My grandparents were, you know, went to church every week and all the rest of it. And I guess I was instilled with those morals, if that's a way to put it
Speaker 0 (2m 43s): Belief, Somalis,
Speaker 1 (2m 45s): Oh, you know, no, not beliefs, not beliefs because one of the beliefs I have is it. And this is definitely the way my mom looked at it as well was you don't have to go to church to be a good person. You just need to live the morals of what a good person would do. You know? And
Speaker 0 (2m 58s): That's my philosophy in life with my kids is the fact that I I'm not even an atheist, cause I just don't give a shit. But at the same time, I want my kids to become good human beings. And if it's the, they're got to go to a Christian school to do that. Cause that's where they teach them beliefs and how to be a good person, then good on them.
Speaker 1 (3m 16s): That's exactly right. And you know, the school I went to is by father, you know, it was the only private school in the area. So mum was very keen for me to go there. And it was also the closest school, which made it easy as well.
Speaker 0 (3m 26s): So what mum and dad do?
Speaker 1 (3m 28s): Dad? My dad is like a Jack of all trades. So he moved to Australia. I think he was about 15.
Speaker 0 (3m 34s): How do I say,
Speaker 1 (3m 36s): Well, the Dutch will save well hooker
Speaker 0 (3m 38s): A whole lot. So I'm pretty close with . Yeah. Very close.
Speaker 1 (3m 42s): It has. Who has multiple ease in their surname?
Speaker 0 (3m 45s): hope
Speaker 1 (3m 48s): For hope is the way we say it here.
Speaker 0 (3m 49s): Okay.
Speaker 1 (3m 50s): So your dad came over in the early sixties and he went straight into the workforce.
Speaker 0 (3m 56s): So was he, how old was he then?
Speaker 1 (3m 57s): He was about 15, I think. Okay. So he went in, got an apprenticeship as a carpenter and that was his first job.
Speaker 0 (4m 3s): And did he come over with his parents or design or?
Speaker 1 (4m 7s): Okay. He came over with his family from Holland.
Speaker 0 (4m 10s): So like a 20 pound Palm back in the day,
Speaker 1 (4m 12s): We still call him the clog walk today because he still has a little bit of an accent. Always use lighter.
Speaker 0 (4m 18s): Isn't it amazing that I never lost it?
Speaker 1 (4m 20s): No. And then mum came over at a random, at the same time
Speaker 0 (4m 24s): As well. So mom's from Holland
Speaker 1 (4m 26s): And, but she had no accent at all because we think it's because she went to school in the Australian system. So as a kid, you talk like the people around you.
Speaker 0 (4m 34s): So it was my much younger than that.
Speaker 1 (4m 36s): I think mum was about 12 or 13 when she came here. So she went to school and finished her schooling here where dad just went and got a job. So he started as a carpenter and then decided the carpentry was something that was cool. But he found technology and taught himself how to be a TV technician and did that for many years, until that until people threw away TVs, it broke. And then he ended up with toll roads. You know, the machines you throw your money for the day. Yeah. So that's what he was working for a company that made those.
And I don't know, you know, he, he was doing the technology behind that, which was pretty cool.
Speaker 0 (5m 12s): So back when you were in primary school, he was doing what
Speaker 1 (5m 18s): He was a TV tech
Speaker 0 (5m 19s): TV tech. Yep. So he liked the Corky cause your all man was in tech?
Speaker 1 (5m 23s): No, not really. I was the, I let him down because I didn't know how to make my own radio. That's all he ever wanted me to do. Do you remember those things where you got a Dick Smith
Speaker 0 (5m 31s): Now with Tandy, Tandy, Tandy, electronics, that's right.
Speaker 1 (5m 34s): Build your own wireless. And he that's all he wanted me to do and I had no interest in,
Speaker 0 (5m 39s): So my old man was a master builder, like a carpenter as well. And the fact that I was useless at it, I think disappointed him.
Speaker 1 (5m 47s): My father is
Speaker 0 (5m 48s): Some of the shit they make you look at that now and go, wow, that would be worth a fortune just from the way that they're made inside. That's
Speaker 1 (5m 55s): Right. Yeah. And our house was full of half working TVs. So we'd have all these TV
Speaker 0 (6m 2s): TV.
Speaker 1 (6m 3s): Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 0 (6m 4s): We've got lots of them.
Speaker 1 (6m 5s): TVs and videos, video players. We loved the video plays in your house.
Speaker 0 (6m 10s): Will you VHS and Betamax,
Speaker 1 (6m 12s): VHS, but know whatever, whatever broke down that, that fixed.
Speaker 0 (6m 16s): We'll just test it. What's that video. Do you remember the first ever VHS you watched? Oh, why do you have a re-play overtone? I
Speaker 1 (6m 24s): Think it might've been BMX bandits or something
Speaker 0 (6m 25s): All back with the copayment. So mom was a police academy one and I remember we watched something like 15 times over a weekend. Now we weren't, they were at my auntie's house and outreach. So they got all these really cool shit. We didn't. And I remember by the end of it, like, I still know now come park here, Mr. It's like, no, in the woods to the whole show
Speaker 1 (6m 45s): These kids today, they just,
Speaker 0 (6m 48s): Oh, they got no
Speaker 1 (6m 49s): We're remaking Beverly Hills cop. I heard today, like really Eddie Murphy apparently. Oh. Cause coming to America to work so well for him.
Speaker 0 (6m 57s): Yeah, exactly. That went straight to Amazon. Didn't he? Or something like that. What's the school called
Speaker 1 (7m 2s): Some pages Chanel.
Speaker 0 (7m 3s): And were you a good kid? Bad kid. Nerd jerk. John.
Speaker 1 (7m 9s): I love my sport. I always loved my sport and still do. I was pretty quiet. Kept myself very
Speaker 0 (7m 16s): Smart.
Speaker 1 (7m 17s): I did really well. Yeah. Really well.
Speaker 0 (7m 19s): And truly, or did you have to try hard?
Speaker 1 (7m 21s): Never tried.
Speaker 0 (7m 21s): Just try naturally.
Speaker 1 (7m 23s): So I love numbers and maths and all that kind of stuff. So I used to love all that kind of stuff. But at school, yeah. I,
Speaker 0 (7m 30s): I wouldn't have been cooler with it. No,
Speaker 1 (7m 32s): Not at all.
Speaker 0 (7m 33s): So where the other kids, we were you part of those cool kids or you on the bit on the outside,
Speaker 1 (7m 38s): That was well and truly on the outside kind of stuff. So you get bullied in the day. I probably didn't recognize it as such, but yeah, there was an element of that, you know, and yeah, it was, it was a different,
Speaker 0 (7m 52s): I think the bullies knew that bully anyway though, because a lot of this stuff's obviously learned behavior and that's what their parents did to them. And like your dad gets home from work, has 16 schooners and then starts fucking yelling and screaming at you. So then the learned behavior is that you yell and scream at kids are smaller than you or whatever at school it's. Yeah. It was different back in those days.
Speaker 1 (8m 12s): Absolutely different. And growing up in the Western suburbs of Melbourne, it's such a diverse,
Speaker 0 (8m 18s): So what, what culture was there like, cause I ain't, Melvin's very cultural, Greek, Italian. Yeah. Holland, all that.
Speaker 1 (8m 25s): Okay. I mean, in the Western suburbs when, well, definitely the school that I went to had a little Maltese Italians and as I got older, it was the Croatians and the Yugoslavs was a big,
Speaker 0 (8m 36s): Were you seen as the Dutch boy?
Speaker 1 (8m 38s): No, not at all. For a little while. At high school, they used to call me Skippy
Speaker 0 (8m 42s): Skippy because
Speaker 1 (8m 43s): I was the most striking kid there. I guess I had the blonde hair and loved football and cricket. So
Speaker 0 (8m 48s): What, what high school together?
Speaker 1 (8m 49s): I went to, I went to an interesting high school, which is a hybrid really? From grade seven to 10. It was all in the same, in the same
Speaker 0 (8m 56s): Area as the primary school, no nine
Speaker 1 (8m 59s): To 10 was St. John's college and it was an all boys school. Yep. And then for some bizarre reason, someone thought it'd be a good idea for grade 11 and 12 on the same campus to bring the girls in. So
Speaker 0 (9m 11s): 10 boys was,
Speaker 1 (9m 12s): We used to hang out the window just staring as they walked past. So yeah, that was so that was St John's and then it went to Chisholm college.
Speaker 0 (9m 19s): And so back then, because there were very similar ages that was obviously the highest school still getting new south Wales. So at the time in, in Victoria VCA, I had to go on that.
Speaker 1 (9m 31s): You know what?
Speaker 0 (9m 31s): We have pleased.
Speaker 1 (9m 33s): Well, yeah, I was pleased. I got to do what I wanted to do after that. Okay.
Speaker 0 (9m 37s): So, so was your aim when you were young, what to play footy, play cricket or going to university?
Speaker 1 (9m 44s): I was going to play cricket.
Speaker 0 (9m 45s): You're a cricket,
Speaker 1 (9m 46s): Cricket and golf
Speaker 0 (9m 47s): Or golf. Yeah. Be good at
Speaker 1 (9m 48s): Golf. Yeah. It was really good at golf.
Speaker 0 (9m 50s): What'd you get down to, I
Speaker 1 (9m 51s): Go down to six,
Speaker 0 (9m 52s): Six. That's great. At golf live tour,
Speaker 1 (9m 56s): I could really live to I'll tell you what I did except 140 million.
Speaker 0 (10m 0s): I think it was an upfront. Yep.
Speaker 1 (10m 2s): That's crazy money. But now I loved golf and I think it was because I used to, so our school was so small in area size that they couldn't fit all the students in. So what they ended up doing was they said, okay, from seven till 12 half you come and from one to six. So for most kids that meant studying in that other time for Robert meant, there was
Speaker 0 (10m 23s): Absolutely
Speaker 1 (10m 24s): Say if we had an afternoon school, I was at the golf course by seven playing golf. But for me it was really about that ability to, to find somewhere where I could just go and do something on my own.
Speaker 0 (10m 36s): So where did the love of that sport come from dad from
Speaker 1 (10m 39s): Golf? Oh, my dad is the worst sportsman in the history of sport.
Speaker 0 (10m 43s): So where'd the love come from?
Speaker 1 (10m 44s): I have no idea.
Speaker 0 (10m 45s): Just was there
Speaker 1 (10m 46s): A lot of it's a lot of it. What, what started me with, with cricket was the numbers behind it. Okay. I loved it. And I started watching the game. Then I started playing
Speaker 0 (10m 55s): The stats and all that
Speaker 1 (10m 57s): Kind of stuff. I was mum always used to laugh that I'm probably from the age of five, six, I would sit there and I would get
Speaker 0 (11m 5s): Score, score,
Speaker 1 (11m 8s): And I'd be laying on the, on the, on the carpet, in the land room, just watching cricket for hours and hours on end.
Speaker 0 (11m 13s): I still remember when I was a kid may end up buying them, going up the road. We used to commentate the cricket and he had this stupid thing where he turned into a cat was kitty cat cricket. And so all the names of the players and everything back then the border, the lives of these random names. So we used to sit there for hours, commentating the cricket.
Speaker 1 (11m 29s): Did he invent that Ricky Ponting cricket or that game?
Speaker 0 (11m 33s): I love that. Love that. But that was funny because you look back now and you look what we used to do as kids alone, without kids doing and the youngsters today. And it's really, really interesting
Speaker 1 (11m 44s): Insight.
Speaker 0 (11m 45s): Yeah, exactly. Like they're only they're playing why kids don't go and saw very often because they're out playing basketball or whatever. But most kids now when the video games not, I suppose we didn't have them back then. So
Speaker 1 (11m 54s): My next one,
Speaker 0 (11m 55s): Paul,
Speaker 1 (11m 56s): Oh man.
Speaker 0 (11m 57s): Hagel was Paul
Speaker 1 (11m 59s): All
Speaker 0 (11m 59s): Of a sudden Commodore 64
Speaker 1 (12m 1s): Way before then even I'll really, I don't even know what it was like the
Speaker 0 (12m 5s): Mega 500 probably.
Speaker 1 (12m 6s): I mean, hopefully I'll never hear this. My, hopefully they do, but I never liked them
Speaker 0 (12m 11s): When I got pong. Oh really? Then
Speaker 1 (12m 13s): It
Speaker 0 (12m 13s): Was like,
Speaker 1 (12m 16s): I think they were Croatian or use lobbies
Speaker 0 (12m 18s): Because I grew up next to him. The kid's name was Wolf. Yep. And like the fuck's walk for like, what's this all about? And then there were German obviously and Wolf side Ellie's name was one of her easy these days. But the big thing there is that yeah, they did. They had a big screen TV was what was probably
Speaker 1 (12m 34s): Projected.
Speaker 0 (12m 34s): That was probably 15 inches or something. But the thing is a big screen. Like we used to watch him mom and dad's bedroom. It was up 10 each still daily. And it was all wow. Kind of Wolf's house to watch the week dilly.
Speaker 1 (12m 44s): Yeah. That sounds like the, did you ever, when you talked about Commodore 64 by the magazine, so you could write in the code?
Speaker 0 (12m 52s): Yeah, yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. That was the best. And you can actually make your name guy. Chris is great.
Speaker 1 (12m 58s): I don't remember my parents arguing very much. Except when mum would be reading out the code, the dad had to type in and then she'd get confused somewhere and dad would lose it
Speaker 0 (13m 8s): Really
Speaker 1 (13m 9s): Quick. And he goes, you know, you just ruined the whole thing. And it was like, the kids would run away because we were always scared of dad for some bizarre reason.
Speaker 0 (13m 18s): Yeah. Well that was, that's what it was back then. That wasn't it, it was like, you look at him now, like obviously my father's passed away, but you look at them now and they're filed in all people and you're going to hell the fuck. Was I ever scared here? I, but I'll tell you
Speaker 1 (13m 31s): I am still scared of him. And, but yeah, in those days that was the way it was.
Speaker 0 (13m 37s): So what mum did,
Speaker 1 (13m 39s): Mum looked after us to us, my younger sister, Linda, she looked after us. How
Speaker 0 (13m 45s): Much younger is Linda?
Speaker 1 (13m 47s): I don't know. A couple of
Speaker 0 (13m 48s): Years. Something,
Speaker 1 (13m 49s): Something like that. A couple of years
Speaker 0 (13m 51s): You lost her memory.
Speaker 1 (13m 53s): No.
Speaker 0 (13m 53s): You just get on as kids or .
Speaker 1 (13m 56s): I think we, I think we Fortnite. You like most brother and sister would, but not to an extent where it was. It was never,
Speaker 0 (14m 2s): When anyone comes to ECC and talking to me, it, it wouldn't protect you.
Speaker 1 (14m 6s): We've never, never been in a fight or an argument with anyone in my life. Really never thrown a punch
Speaker 0 (14m 11s): Only really last week.
Speaker 1 (14m 12s): Yeah. That was, I must be getting old and cranky.
Speaker 0 (14m 16s): 'cause I with your sister? Like you just gone well as brother and sister and
Speaker 1 (14m 20s): We're okay. She's a little different to me. She's a lot different to me, whatever I do, she does the opposite and I don't know. Yeah. It must be hard at being the little one and the two, two
Speaker 0 (14m 30s): As well as the little one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14m 32s): I'm not surprised.
Speaker 0 (14m 33s): And it's no, it's very, very the same thing. So I'm thinking, wait, whatever he did or didn't do or vice versa.
Speaker 1 (14m 39s): And my sister to this day, I still say she's the smartest person I've ever come across. Who really, who was sick as dogs?
Speaker 0 (14m 44s): Oh man. That's the one daughter. She smiled as dumb as human on the planet.
Speaker 1 (14m 48s): So my sister could have done anything. Like I, I did really well at school. I don't know. Yeah. You know, I was never that top student. Yeah. My sister was a top
Speaker 0 (14m 58s): Student. Oh, okay. She dry she a
Speaker 1 (15m 1s): Studier. I don't think so.
Speaker 0 (15m 3s): Okay. She was just smart too.
Speaker 1 (15m 4s): Yeah. My sister was
Speaker 0 (15m 6s): Your parents bred them. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1 (15m 7s): She, something was right. My sister was I think the first female to be accepted into aerospace engineering at QUT
Speaker 0 (15m 15s): Fuck way.
Speaker 1 (15m 16s): Yeah.
Speaker 0 (15m 16s): So that was impressive.
Speaker 1 (15m 18s): Yeah, it was. And I remember talking to her when she was offered that place and I just knew it wasn't for her.
Speaker 0 (15m 27s): Oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (15m 28s): But
Speaker 0 (15m 29s): Did she?
Speaker 1 (15m 30s): No, she didn't. And of course, so we're,
Speaker 0 (15m 32s): So you were a Debbie downer cause you assigned and all that sort of shit.
Speaker 1 (15m 37s): I always, you know, I saw my sister, she loved engineering and she wanted to do that. So that's where that engineering thing came. And it's funny. Hey, I wish I could have had my time back because this is 1990. And we talked at the time, I said, you've got to get into environmental engineering. This is the future. And 30 years later, I mean, it's, it's
Speaker 0 (15m 54s): The future.
Speaker 1 (15m 54s): It is the thing. But she went in the aerospace engineering thing. She, she was flying helicopters. No, unfortunately not. And that's where, you know, that's where sometimes I just wanted to shake her at the time because it was like, you could have been anything. And now you're working at Harvey, Norman, but then that's where I started to realize that she was happy.
Speaker 0 (16m 12s): That's all
Speaker 1 (16m 13s): Why, you know,
Speaker 0 (16m 14s): So true.
Speaker 1 (16m 15s): Don't do it for someone else. Do it for yourself. Yeah.
Speaker 0 (16m 17s): Yeah. So you finished high school, you got your certificate. You're done. Did you go to uni? Yes. Well university
Speaker 1 (16m 23s): Too. So this is where we moved. We moved to Queensland
Speaker 0 (16m 27s): In that summer. So mum and dad moved. Yep.
Speaker 1 (16m 29s): Yep. So they moved and I had the option of staying in Melbourne and going to Melbourne uni or coming up to Queensland. It was like, and you know,
Speaker 0 (16m 37s): So do you have a group of mites or you're very much Alona.
Speaker 1 (16m 40s): Yeah. I had some, I had some good friends, but they weren't,
Speaker 0 (16m 44s): You weren't besties.
Speaker 1 (16m 46s): I was a loner in that respect and I guess it's too, you know, you talked before about bullying, whether it was bullying or not. I don't know, but I was always, I didn't feel confident enough in myself to, to be that person to stand up for myself ever. So it was an easy decision because it was cheaper as well to come to Queensland.
Speaker 0 (17m 2s): Okay. And what do you need?
Speaker 1 (17m 4s): So, and the problem was that Queensland university acceptances were done before the Victorian results were published, Actually got, I actually missed out. And I went to, there was a uni is now QT, but they, they used to have a campus. It was a place called, cause it was Q it at the day. Everyone's an Institute of technology. And then there was this place called the Brisbane, advanced Brisbane college of advanced education. I'd worked out that they were going to merge with QR team become QT. So I went and talked my way into the, the business degree there, ask the guy, the guy said to me, you guys look all right, we'll, we'll put you in.
I said, when does it start? He said, well, tomorrow morning. So that's what
Speaker 0 (17m 44s): I ended up thinking about. Just
Speaker 1 (17m 46s): Get stuck into it. And it was pretty cool. And that's where I met friends that are still my friends today and we'll be forever.
Speaker 0 (17m 54s): So uni was the place where you sort of became yourself or you could be yourself. I could be
Speaker 1 (17m 58s): Myself
Speaker 0 (17m 59s): Because you moved away from Melbourne. I think so. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18m 2s): I love Melbourne. Oh no, I get that. But it was just that I was out of my own and kind of, I almost had a chance to reset.
Speaker 0 (18m 9s): Yeah, well, no knee. You could actually go and be a long head rockstar. You could, no one knew who you were. You know what I mean? And see what you want. That's a really good opportunity. And I think I really encourage people to actually go and do something different or we moved to the UK and we were supposed to be there six months with nine and a half years to come up with two kids. But at the big thing there is because we, because we decided let's go and try something different. Yeah. We rocked up there. No one knew who we were. No one knew what we knew, what we didn't and then we just worked our way forward. But that's like you coming to Queensland, it's like, well, I'm new Rob now.
Speaker 1 (18m 40s): Yeah, exactly, exactly. And you know, I got to meet those guys at university and now they're still, they are my friends now.
Speaker 0 (18m 47s): That's awesome. And so you go from university and you finished.
Speaker 1 (18m 52s): Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What
Speaker 0 (18m 53s): Do you mean corner?
Speaker 1 (18m 54s): Well, I finished,
Speaker 0 (18m 54s): Yes. You got your Stevia. You got your degree and someone's got a bachelor's degree in business from
Speaker 1 (18m 59s): Business.
Speaker 0 (18m 59s): Yeah. And then you went, what the fuck am I going to do there?
Speaker 1 (19m 3s): No.
Speaker 0 (19m 4s): Okay.
Speaker 1 (19m 4s): Because I got halfway through my degree and found out what I was going to do.
Speaker 0 (19m 8s): Did you know where you wanted to do when you started your degree?
Speaker 1 (19m 10s): I was seven years old and I was going to either be a park ranger or a bank manager.
Speaker 0 (19m 15s): You know, it's funny. You're the only other person ever personally that I know that did this. Right. I always wanted to be the blah. Oh. I always knew in my head somewhere. I wanted to just do my initials.
Speaker 1 (19m 26s): That's the bank.
Speaker 0 (19m 27s): Hey, I always, I always had this picture in my head that I had this job where I just did my initials all the time. Right. And in the bank, that's all you ever fucking do is write your initials. You sign off on stuff. And I remember when I, and we'll go there shortly. But when I first started in the bank and I was sitting there doing these, just all these flashbacks just started in my head go. This is where I'm meant to be. Yup. It was really bizarre.
Speaker 1 (19m 48s): Well, I was seven and I told mum that I was going to work the bank. Do you know why? Or I love the calculator. The bank manager had it really good. So we'd go into the bank. And the bank manager would let me go into his office and I'd sit there. And there was his calculator and I thought I was the king of it. And
Speaker 0 (20m 1s): He let you play with, did come out with the little ribbon thing. And
Speaker 1 (20m 4s): Now it wasn't like that. That was a real cool, I don't know from what I can remember, but I still remember that bank today. You know? And
Speaker 0 (20m 11s): So you were halfway through your degree, you knew what you wanted to do. So what'd you do?
Speaker 1 (20m 15s): Well, I actually did not. I was working for pizza hut, delivering pizzas
Speaker 0 (20m 19s): As we do. We'll do.
Speaker 1 (20m 20s): And I, there was an order and you see, get paid a dollar per delivery. So
Speaker 0 (20m 28s): When you left that night or you just
Speaker 1 (20m 30s): One, but yeah, there was this delivery for the bank across the road and I thought it's a dollar and I just have to go there. So I'm taking that one. So it took it across there. And the girl who opened the doors for some staff function that night, and I know how we even started talking,
Speaker 0 (20m 49s): I
Speaker 1 (20m 49s): Was 21, 21. Yeah.
Speaker 0 (20m 53s): So what do you need second or third year uni.
Speaker 1 (20m 56s): Yeah. So yeah, she said, she said something and I said, well, how did you get that job? When I told her? And she said, oh, I want an extra job. So she ended up coming to work at pizza hut. I trained her there, but then she said, why the hell are you working at pizza? If you want to work in a bank, why don't you start working in the bank now?
Speaker 0 (21m 11s): And was that an AB that you went? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21m 14s): So the irony was she quit working at pizza hut after two shifts. I was obviously very good at training and I'm
Speaker 0 (21m 22s): The master pizza trainer.
Speaker 1 (21m 23s): And then I went to the bank and I remember it was down on the gold coast and I was having breezy and I was like, shit, how am I going to get there? So I caught a bus and did the rest of it, got down there and I got back and there was a letter in the mail saying, thanks for your interest in the job, but we don't have one or what the hell
Speaker 0 (21m 37s): You've already started.
Speaker 1 (21m 38s): Now I'd already had a, I had an interview that day and I really should have seen the writing on the wall about how, how,
Speaker 0 (21m 43s): How that was going to work.
Speaker 1 (21m 44s): That was going to work. But yeah.
Speaker 0 (21m 46s): So you got the job. Yeah. Do you remember when you first got the job when you went, oh shit. What am I going to wear to work tomorrow? Yeah. But then they send you this catalog of NAB clothes. Yep. And it's quite funny because I started in the bank when I was nine. I think it was a Friday, I think. Yeah. We at night date anyway. And I remember I got this catalog and I took it home to mom. Yeah. What do I do here? And she goes, yeah, you pick what you want to win. And there was like different Stripe shirts. It was this. And so I put all this stuff and the cover was about three and a half grand right now.
Fuck that. I bought one shirt, one pair of pants, actually two shirts because mom would wash one, one. Normally whether they went the next day and two separate tours, let's see. And then as you went on, you started accumulating more clients
Speaker 1 (22m 29s): And then you get all those bank uniforms and you just everything and go, holy shit. I reckon when I finished in the bank, I reckon I had about 15 different bank ties still. In fact, one of my jobs, one year I knew a girl who was working in head office and she sent me a message saying, we need you in a head office for a week. I went before she has just come. She has, it will be fun. And it was to approve the next lot of glows
Speaker 0 (22m 51s): Clothes.
Speaker 1 (22m 52s): So there's this room and I'll never forget it. There was like about 10 of us around the room. I was the only guy
Speaker 0 (22m 56s): In Melbourne and Brisbane.
Speaker 1 (22m 58s): I was the only guy in this room and I'm looking, I'll have Jen never hears this because they'd say, what do you think of that? And I would just go, oh, she looks nice. I wasn't looking at the clothes. I was
Speaker 0 (23m 9s): Just, I was
Speaker 1 (23m 11s): Like 23. And actually it doesn't look too bad and I'll tick that box and then, oh shit, I don't know what she was wearing. But,
Speaker 0 (23m 17s): So what was your first ever job in the bank?
Speaker 1 (23m 20s): I was, my job was, I was a teller and my job,
Speaker 0 (23m 23s): You didn't have to do the back office.
Speaker 1 (23m 25s): I started just after the, I'd got rid of those batch things.
Speaker 0 (23m 30s): That's Michelle. Yeah. So I was there before. Yeah. Cause I was
Speaker 1 (23m 34s): Much younger
Speaker 0 (23m 34s): When I was in, I never went to university. So I did for that
Speaker 1 (23m 37s): It's to balance a stamps like the physical Australia post stamps. That was my job was to make sure that as many stamps, as we said were in there and every day you have to sign off. And in Queensland, we also had two people that had a checkbook had to pay stamp duty on every check. Oh. So one of my jobs was to get around to the post office. Then the queue for God knows how long by $20 worth of these 10 cents stamp duty stamps. When you give a checkbook out to someone,
Speaker 0 (24m 3s): You have to give them the stamps,
Speaker 1 (24m 4s): Leek, the stamp stamp.
Speaker 0 (24m 7s): Oh
Speaker 1 (24m 7s): Yeah. What a job.
Speaker 0 (24m 9s): So you do see, you started working in the bank when you're still uni. Yeah. So are you in uni at night or you're just,
Speaker 1 (24m 15s): That was it at night. So my last year I took over two years, like did
Speaker 0 (24m 20s): It over two years. Yeah. And
Speaker 1 (24m 21s): Just did it that way.
Speaker 0 (24m 22s): And then someone was your first branch.
Speaker 1 (24m 25s): I went to Cleveland first in as a teller. That was where I was a
Speaker 0 (24m 29s): Trainee for teller or something like that.
Speaker 1 (24m 32s): Number nine, I think playful was massive because the, I had Stradbroke all in all the other organs. So they had a lot of tellers there. And then I went to garden city, which was an interesting place to go and work.
Speaker 0 (24m 44s): Do you remember balancing out every night? What a pioneer house that wasn't and you're out by 72 cents.
Speaker 1 (24m 50s): 70
Speaker 0 (24m 51s): Days.
Speaker 1 (24m 52s): So you were in the day. So we didn't have the unders and I was, by the time I started, they had a $10.
Speaker 0 (24m 57s): Ah, no, it was to get that shit done.
Speaker 1 (25m 1s): Well, what about the undersigned oversight? Like fair dinkum. I heard the stories about that two bucks. I got put to the side. And if you were two bucks out of you found that $2,
Speaker 0 (25m 10s): Number one, tell them when I first started grade light, he Julie Goldman. And I wanna say he got, and she w I was a batch operator. Right. And then the accountant that we'll call it, which was like a tour. See us by as
Speaker 1 (25m 22s): Though it was the guy who had control again,
Speaker 0 (25m 24s): The guy. Yes, he did. And he also had the, he was like the, the loans guy. He was like,
Speaker 1 (25m 31s): They did nothing.
Speaker 0 (25m 32s): He sat at the end and watched the tellers. Yeah. That was him. He was the account pain
Speaker 1 (25m 37s): Bumps around still. Cause he was an absolute legend.
Speaker 0 (25m 40s): Margot was an asshole. And he was the most, it was, it was a sexist pig. Right. And what happened was Ida neuro kid puts me up on the tellers and puts the teller back to the batch machine because she was a woman she'd been in the bank for 10 years. I've been in the bank for like an hour. Yeah. And it's all become numb, but number two, tele tried off the batch for wall. Right. And then what happened was he moved me the number one teller because he got the shits with the check that was doing it.
I was and she just hide him because the only reason was because she was a woman.
Speaker 1 (26m 20s): That's right. There's so many people like
Speaker 0 (26m 23s): That. What'd you used to call your manager for,
Speaker 1 (26m 27s): Have you, we do work together like we do. And
Speaker 0 (26m 31s): What do you call me every now and that boss, you just fucking makes me laugh.
Speaker 1 (26m 34s): Well, I get, I swore that cause I wanted to be a branch manager. And I swore to myself that if I ever became a branch manager, I would outlaw that word love. And I did, if anyone called me boss, I'd
Speaker 0 (26m 47s): Give them what they ask.
Speaker 1 (26m 47s): It's so cranky
Speaker 0 (26m 48s): Because it was funny because I remember it was an older Digger and he had glasses and he just made all these decisions. And back then, like, it's not like it is nowadays. And it was always Boston probably don't even know his name, like he was boss. Right. And then I remember there was this couple of boys used to come in always a hundred grand overdrawn. Right. He used to have to go down and they want to cash his check for 60. Yep. Don and you always do it because the boss says, as long as you got the bosses, like initials on it, you you're done no problem in the world. I need to have a look. Just fuck them initial. Damn.
They're good. They're good for it. They're good for this.
Speaker 1 (27m 21s): The first real branch I ever worked at sadly closes in two weeks, which really disappointed
Speaker 0 (27m 26s): A bank for the closing ceremony.
Speaker 1 (27m 28s): My truck drove by, I think because I got a letter in the mail because if you, I have an account, that's got that branch. Yeah. They send you a letter when the branch is closing this letter in the mail the other week. And I was really sad. Is that a winner and anyone who knows Wynnum, it's a, it's a unique kind of area. People are very local. And the first, that was my first real branch with a real job. If you want to put it that way, excuse
Speaker 0 (27m 49s): The state.
Speaker 1 (27m 50s): And I was allowed to do loans. The first person I ever saw there was my sister's boyfriend's parents. No, they were, they were in trouble with the loans and I was like, oh, but in that branch, it was, it was awesome. It was three blokes. And we all had the same name,
Speaker 0 (28m 4s): Robert.
Speaker 1 (28m 5s): Oh no. Rob.
Speaker 0 (28m 6s): Oh,
Speaker 1 (28m 7s): So whoever authorized it was.
Speaker 0 (28m 11s): Yeah. I love it.
Speaker 1 (28m 11s): So, and I'm the manager of the time. He was the guy who taught me how to love doing that job. It was just, just a wonderful fella. And I'd had a couple of managers with the rope. Yeah, it was. And, but I remember we'd been working together for about three months and he came into my office and he sat down. He goes, Rob, you know, I don't like being here all the time. And he, Bob loved boats and we were at Wynnum. Right. So he's right. He's in his element. The other Bob was the president of the trailer boat club.
Okay.
Speaker 0 (28m 42s): The
Speaker 1 (28m 42s): Manager, Bob just loved boats. And he said, I might disappear from time to time. I said, I need you to learn how to do my initials. And I swear to God, I can still do his autograph.
Speaker 0 (28m 56s): So I
Speaker 1 (28m 56s): Love it. And that's the way the bank was running those days.
Speaker 0 (28m 59s): And she caught down, like you looking down how high in the bank can't oh my God, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (29m 6s): In the year that I've, since I've left the bank, you know, I went back into the branch for some stuff this week and it was like, oh, I'm so glad because they just do not give their staff the opportunity to shine anymore.
Speaker 0 (29m 17s): Agree. And
Speaker 1 (29m 19s): Yep. And why, you know, I understand why decisions have to be centralized in a lot of ways. Yeah. I've actually been involved in some of the bad things.
Speaker 0 (29m 28s): Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29m 28s): Well, no, the bad things I saw that led to the centralization. So you understand why they had to do it. But yeah, when I, when I went to Wynnum, I was 25 and I was led approval line up to a million dollars for him. And that was, that was a big deal in those days,
Speaker 0 (29m 44s): Especially when your backs back then,
Speaker 1 (29m 45s): When I finished, I've been a branch manager by that stage for 15 years and I was allowed to approve a $25 overdraft on the account. That was it. So that's where, that's where it all changed, you know? And, but you know, things got done. Never did we have a loan that was written off because of a bad decision. You knew what you were doing.
Speaker 0 (30m 5s): He needed the paperwork as well. Like you knew your local community. And the thing about Massey pie. And I still remember when we used it though, there was a west pack down the road and the Commonwealth across the road. So I used to just ring Sally and go, we're going to have to get all the coins you got into yet. You won't cost literally take 10 grand in cash in your pocket. We'll cross get 10 grand and just no security, no nothing.
Speaker 1 (30m 28s): I heard people don't leave their cars unlocked in winter many more, but we walked down the main street with It was such a different world and such a cool world. Yeah. Yeah. She,
Speaker 0 (30m 39s): She changes
Speaker 1 (30m 39s): And it has to,
Speaker 0 (30m 40s): So there's an amazing person that's in your life and she's an amazing woman. And she's one of the most patient humans I've ever met in my life. And at the same time as every time I say her, I'll give her a hug because I would say love a great, great lady. How did that
Speaker 1 (30m 54s): Happen? Oh, Jen,
Speaker 0 (30m 57s): How'd that happen? How did that, how did you guys first meet?
Speaker 1 (31m 0s): We met through mutual friends. I was umpiring footy at the time. Yep. And one of the guys that I am pod with, went to school with Jen and we used to just be at the same place at the same time, Mary straight nightclub, 20 cent drinks long. And so, yeah, we're just in the same group of friends. And after a while we just, I don't know. I asked her out to the movies and we went and saw a movie called ah, Struth. It was with Christian slider. I don't know some movie Christmas later at whatever
Speaker 0 (31m 33s): He's supposed to wear with it.
Speaker 1 (31m 34s): Yeah. But now, but then afterwards
Speaker 0 (31m 36s): Terminated to, oh, I know. He doesn't tell me. I had to was my first day.
Speaker 1 (31m 41s): Take me to the theater. I said, I'll do. She said Batman one, two and three. Doesn't I stole that jacket. That was, I think that's beautiful. Dennis Leary. Thank you. Yeah. So we went out and then she said that she has a, I don't want to get with you again. I'm going to ask stuff. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 0 (32m 3s): 20, 23.
Speaker 1 (32m 6s): Yeah. So yeah. And then we were still in the same group of friends. And after a while she came to a census or was she can cast. I'm not quite sure.
Speaker 0 (32m 15s): Anyway. Bit of both. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32m 16s): Both. I just kept asking, I think, and we went out again and like she's w we're completely different,
Speaker 0 (32m 24s): But that's why it's that perfect
Speaker 1 (32m 25s): Oregon. And it just, yeah, I, I don't, I don't think I've ever gone to bed angry at her once because there's nothing to be angry at. She just, she's always, she puts up with me, but she supports me. She, she helps me with where I need help. And she recognizes when I'm doing things that I shouldn't be doing my own personal health.
Speaker 0 (32m 47s): And she tells her
Speaker 1 (32m 48s): And she tells me, and she tells me as it is. And you can't get any more than that out of a person that you spend a life with.
Speaker 0 (32m 53s): But the unfiltered love in the unfiltered commentary is the reason why me and my wife had together is, is that that's, that's what I say with you. And you almost like when you're being naughty, she'll tell you straight away, but she'll also put it in a way you make the decision. She's not going to make it say you got to fucking fix yourself because it's asked, we're talking about that's exactly right. So you were together for how long before you dropped on that week? One day.
Speaker 1 (33m 16s): I don't know. It was a few years. A few years. And
Speaker 0 (33m 20s): Cause they wined and dined or my truck was gonna be the right one.
Speaker 1 (33m 24s): No, she said, yes. It's as simple as that. I remember we were at a, she used to stop. She's real subtle. Right. She used to stop in front of jewelry shops. Right. And I remember I said to her, I said, look, if I buy you a ring, will we stop having to stop at Jewish stop shops? And she has, are maybe, maybe. And like, that was honestly good enough. I'll take, I'll roll the dice. I said, I'll buy it. But it's up to me when I give it to you.
Speaker 0 (33m 54s): Okay. Did she say it? So you were together when you bought it?
Speaker 1 (33m 57s): We bought it and I on to it.
Speaker 0 (33m 60s): How long?
Speaker 1 (34m 1s): Probably about six months. Oh really?
Speaker 0 (34m 2s): Yep.
Speaker 1 (34m 3s): Yeah. And, but the funny thing was I actually, we had this money box. It was in her because we never, we never lived together until we got
Speaker 0 (34m 9s): Married.
Speaker 1 (34m 10s): So both at each other's parent's house and she had this money box, you know, the big 21
Speaker 0 (34m 14s): And your parents might get sleep in separate rooms. Chill. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34m 17s): And that was cool. Cause that's, that's how, that's how both our families and that was very good. But she had that money box, you know, the, the metal tin ones, a $20 note wrapped around
Speaker 0 (34m 27s): And ,
Speaker 1 (34m 31s): But I put the ring in there
Speaker 0 (34m 32s): Or in the money, well, in the money
Speaker 1 (34m 34s): Box and we were saving to go on a holiday or something. I'm pretty sure I can't be certain. And she probably doesn't even remember, but I'm pretty sure she thought that I was going to ask her to marry me when,
Speaker 0 (34m 44s): On the whole,
Speaker 1 (34m 44s): On this holiday. And so I said to her one night and I had a quick word to a dad and dad said, we'll be at bloody time.
Speaker 0 (34m 51s): What does that do? And
Speaker 1 (34m 53s): I said, I think, and he goes, yep. Her father, her father, if, if I need to know where she got her patients from, Jen's adopted, Jen's living proof that you turn into the person you grew up with. Oh really? So her father was very, he's very, level-headed always proper. Nothing seemed to phase him. He had a lot of medical issues himself and he actually unfortunately passed away six months before we got married. So it did, but he's still a massive part of the way we are both of us because we both got along so well with him.
Speaker 0 (35m 29s): And so you asked him
Speaker 1 (35m 30s): Yeah. And he said, yeah, yeah, whatever. Yeah. That's great. Of course. Why wouldn't we say yes. And that was fantastic. And so I said to her let's we should, over that money box. She has now I don't want to, that's where I hold it. I said, nah, come on. She has whatever. And she goes and gets a, can open it cause you need a one. And she opened it and she tipped the money and she gets, you can count it. And right on the top was the
Speaker 0 (35m 55s): Ring landed on top. Look at,
Speaker 1 (35m 57s): You guys looked at me and she says, how long has that been there? Not I'll look at that. It's fantastic. It was. How long has that been there? Since, since the day I bought it. Oh, sorry. Yeah, that was, and then, yeah, so we were engaged for a little while and then her dad, unfortunately we found out he was really crook and it was like, do we bring the wedding forward? Or what do we do? But he, again, he was such a level headed person.
Speaker 0 (36m 20s): What should you bring your
Speaker 1 (36m 21s): Forward? Absolutely. I said, do you know, should we do it? And he said, no. He said, look, it is what it is,
Speaker 0 (36m 27s): His wishes.
Speaker 1 (36m 28s): And you know, what, if we had a broader 40 worked out when we could do it, it would have been a week, either side of when he actually passed away. So it's kind of like,
Speaker 0 (36m 36s): So you've got to sort of deal with a bit of that and then look, celebrate your wedding.
Speaker 1 (36m 40s): Yeah, exactly. And it was, I don't know what you believe, but I think people know when it's time for
Speaker 0 (36m 46s): Them. Oh, without doubt.
Speaker 1 (36m 48s): And I know that he saw Jen, you know, getting ready to get married. He's son, he's held a son. I know he's house, but one of your sons what's with first grandchild. So he knew that was all happening. And it was like, he said, okay, the family's being after.
Speaker 0 (37m 5s): Well, I don't think I've ever told this story. My old man passed away. I didn't use it yet. And my daughter Abigail, my, my second daughter was due in June and he was supposed to die in February and June in July 28th. He passed away because he waited for that. So then I didn't have to fly back for, I was in the UK, so I didn't have to fly back and do all this stuff. And I look at it and feel it now and just think, fuck, like he knew all that time and knew exactly what was happening.
And they actually, and he was like, I remember he, he spoke to her on the phone, like she's four weeks old and yeah, you look at it now. And it's just sort of brings a tear to the eye. It's, it's one of those things that
Speaker 1 (37m 49s): I don't believe in any
Speaker 0 (37m 50s): Of that. No, I agree.
Speaker 1 (37m 54s): And I hope Jen doesn't mind me sharing this because it's about her family. But 17 years to the day that her father passed away, her mother passed away on the same date. And her mother was very sick and it was a blessing that she passed, but
Speaker 0 (38m 12s): Isn't that amazing.
Speaker 1 (38m 13s): That's the worst thing I've ever seen in my life is seeing someone die. And it's also the best thing, because you could see
Speaker 0 (38m 17s): That there was pain.
Speaker 1 (38m 20s): And Jen said to her mum, it's okay, dad's waiting for you. And Jen's mom waited till her son came in the room. And it was just, just an amazing moment and something that, you know, I feel very fortunate that I was able to share with Jane and
Speaker 0 (38m 33s): That brings us closer
Speaker 1 (38m 34s): Than it does.
Speaker 0 (38m 36s): And that's what true is as a family is that's what all that stuff is. And the fact that you can talk about it is I think an amazing thing. Like I couldn't talk about shit with my old man fees. And I look back down, you actually start thinking about, oh, what like, oh, I did a survey for our newsletter and right. She was my AI. She turned around and said, Hey, five people dead or alive. Who do you have a dinner? So my dad straight away. And she's all. Okay. And then we put some other people in there. It was always the first answer.
Like you would just love to sit there and have that conversation. And I know your mum passed recently. And the fact is that that hits people in lots of different ways. And the fact that you can think of all the good stuff and all the memories and all that sort of stuff, I think is really, really important. And I think you have to grieve. You have to cry. You have to be who you are during that process. And
Speaker 1 (39m 28s): My mom's mom I'm here today sitting with you a hundred
Speaker 0 (39m 30s): Percent. You'll often she, she,
Speaker 1 (39m 32s): She told me to
Speaker 0 (39m 34s): Pull you fucking idiot. I think he taught me a bit different way to put it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39m 36s): You just tell me to do something for yourself for once. And it was, I literally went to the bank the next day walked out.
Speaker 0 (39m 44s): So you're at the bank for how many years?
Speaker 1 (39m 47s): 28. Less nine months in the middle
Speaker 0 (39m 50s): Or do
Speaker 1 (39m 52s): I
Speaker 0 (39m 53s): Less nine months in the middle.
Speaker 1 (39m 54s): Yeah. I quit at once.
Speaker 0 (39m 57s): Y
Speaker 1 (39m 60s): Because Jen's mom had just passed away.
Speaker 0 (40m 1s): Okay. So you, with a bad,
Speaker 1 (40m 3s): My mum was crook.
Speaker 0 (40m 4s): You had to look after your family. And
Speaker 1 (40m 6s): I wanted to look after mum. Yeah. Mum was crook and we set some goals for mum and one of them was her to get back overseas and she achieved that. And then basically my boss just got on the phone too many times and I said, oh yeah, whatever. I'll come back.
Speaker 0 (40m 18s): Just kept bringing you back. Yep.
Speaker 1 (40m 19s): So I came back. So I'm the chair. So 28 years, all that day.
Speaker 0 (40m 23s): So many ideas. Did they give you a gold pin or a gold watch? No. Give me a fuck. Hold in there.
Speaker 1 (40m 27s): I did. And I looked, but they gave me a lifetime of friends. They gave me, I've met some, I've modeled myself, hopefully on some of the people that were my leaders during that time. Yep. And I do exactly the opposite of some of the decades I worked with.
Speaker 0 (40m 43s): It's amazing how you learn stuff in it. What we have in a robbery.
Speaker 1 (40m 48s): I walked in on one once, literally walked in. I was meeting someone for lunch at another branch and walked in and the person went straight out past me.
Speaker 0 (40m 56s): Oh, I can see where they didn't have the guns out.
Speaker 1 (40m 59s): Put them back in their pockets. Really robberies. Do, were you ever worried about
Speaker 0 (41m 4s): No, never. Never. Once the thing that worried me was they built a brand new branch. I remember it was like of all places was on the central coast of new south Wales. And when I walked in, it was the first branch I ever walked in that had the screens away. That scared the shit out of me because what it meant was is someone going to come in here and robots, like we'd been in branches that, well, I put pretty much like that now that it's gone full circle. But we used to always, like there was a song, a lamp I used to keep me on a kick with your foot or tap with your, and other than that, that was the only, well, they always said, if someone rubbed, you give him all the money because there was no other way to do it.
Right. And I remember I got caught in the middle of a, it wasn't a robbery, but the guy was using a fake license together to get something done and I've felt it. And I was really young and I felt it at the time I went, this is wrong. I just have to find out a copy of it. And he's gone. All right. And I've gone out and I've gone to the boss. This is fake. And he's got to just find a copy, give him back, take five days, pushy alum. And I'm sending a fuck. The cops are going to come. Why are they scary? Shit. Anyway, long story short is that later on, I'll get a phone call like this, about six months later saying that I was the key witness in a massive drug ring because that guy was buying fight blocks of land and getting learns against that blocks land and blah, blah, blah.
I had no idea who the drug king was. Right. It's kind of cool. But the thing is I started getting phone calls on my phone with death threats, all this sort of shit. And I'm sitting, I was like, no one. I mean, yeah. And I'm sitting there and fuck like, what's he going to do? I rock up at the courthouse. Yeah. And the guy who gives me the death threats is sitting next to me because he turned on the drug guy and he was now on our side and I'm sitting there going, I can't see the copper. And she goes, are you beer hunt? Have you not done a podcast about this? You remember the story. Right. And then, so what happened? I've walked in and I go guys, do you know that fellow?
I've never seen him before in my life because I hadn't, I'd seen the other guy. And he goes, is this your signature? Now it's my initials because a lot my niche. And is this the thing that you saw? And I went through it. Yes, yes, yes. Ends up putting the Galway for 30 years because of the testimony that I linked that car with, that guy, nothing to do with me. But the whole thing is we when me or I might've gone, we used to draw smiley faces on everything. It was just one thing we do. And we do a massive one in pint, on a driveway on, out on the main street, around a garbage bin. And we write Harry, cause it was always Harry smiley.
And I'll go to this course, I'm here, the Fox Harry. And it was all scariest part of my life. And the funny thing was that then when I sat down next to God, like he started to talk to me and he had nobody here. It was never seen me other than in the bank that day and all the way there and went. Yeah, no, that's not for me. I'm not doing that shit anymore. So I got put on the relief team for any of the robberies. Yep. Every time there was a robbery, they pulled us out of the branches and we went and replaced the people. So we would never eat a robbery, but we used to rock up afterwards to then run the branches normal.
Yep. And that's where I was. It was bizarre. I'd always light one day and you had to sit in whatever state was available. I know I started in the business development and just say, oh no one ain't he's old. But because the way relief staff work, whatever your last position was, was your now your position. So I became a self appointed business development manager, got into spec majors, dryer. Here we go. Now look at me now, but it's funny stories like that. You get from all these bankers, some of the shit that they see and some of the shit people do.
And I remember one of my wife's best mates come with a hundred grand in a briefcase. He saw her always behind the camera was going, oh fuck. And then he's gone. Obviously we're in the bank. You can't mention it. Michael. I thought every time I went to his house, he filled me full of piss. I can tell you that because I knew shit that he did.
Speaker 1 (44m 46s): I had a couple of things like that too. Like I was involved in internal fraud.
Speaker 0 (44m 50s): Oh really?
Speaker 1 (44m 51s): That I found, which was, which was pretty difficult to, for me, it was very difficult to handle. And also, do you remember the postcard? Bandit?
Speaker 0 (45m 3s): Yeah, I remember
Speaker 1 (45m 3s): That. All right. So I'm working at broad beach down there and I used to wander around to the bookshop, every lunchtime. And there's this book written by what's his name? Brendan Abbott. And it was in there. So I opened it up and I used to, what I used to do is I used to open up to any page in the book and just read a paragraph. And there was, this paragraph was, I went to the Broadbeach NAB and I was going to Robert, but there were too many people inside the, inside the brand. So I went to Commonwealth bank instead.
Speaker 0 (45m 29s): Oh shit, hold on.
Speaker 1 (45m 33s): Yeah. That was things like that. It's pretty cool. But
Speaker 0 (45m 36s): All the different stuff that happened Springwood
Speaker 1 (45m 38s): Spring, what is Springwood branch? Once as a relieving person, one day walked in there and this little manager, he was hilarious. And he said to me, you guys, do you want to see what the blood Holly's? I said, what the hell are you talking about? He has been an Abbott. The only place he ever shot was here. And I went to move to one of those term deposit, you know, 2.5, turn a positive, move the song. There was a bullet hole behind it and they'd never
Speaker 0 (45m 57s): Fit any place. He shot the bullet
Speaker 1 (45m 59s): And it was by accident and apparently, et cetera, I'm sorry. But you
Speaker 0 (46m 2s): Know,
Speaker 1 (46m 4s): We joke about it and it's okay. And that's because I guess I've never been in it. But then when I was at Wynnum, Brendan Abbott, it's escaped. And one of the ladies who was in one of his robberies of
Speaker 0 (46m 15s): Sick
Speaker 1 (46m 15s): For three weeks because of it. So whilst I can say, I'm really lucky, I've never had it on.
Speaker 0 (46m 21s): We can laugh about it's really serious, but it is real
Speaker 1 (46m 23s): Serious. And you know, Paul Pearl, Carol, that she was a great lady and she, it just affected her that badly that she,
Speaker 0 (46m 29s): We can up and say, boy, I remember seeing some scary dudes walk in and they sit there and fuck, is this it is it, it was like a wizard with clenching one day
Speaker 1 (46m 39s): At broad beach. I was the kind of branch manager that I wanted the branch had been five minutes before it was supposed to be. And I was happy to be open five minutes after it was supposed to be, because it was all about looking after your customers. And I remember I let one person in one late one day and the staff just went ape shit at me. They were very unhappy. And they said, I said, what have you done? They said that has got a gun. And he was unknown. I can't remember the guy's name, but he ended up in jail. He murdered to go on the gold coast. Jesus. And they said, he's got to go. We know he's got to go. We don't want him in here now.
And yeah. So
Speaker 0 (47m 12s): Scary stuff
Speaker 1 (47m 13s): Started to be a little bit more careful on who I lead in after.
Speaker 0 (47m 17s): So during all this time, you then got married to Jen. Yep. Where did you get married?
Speaker 1 (47m 22s): Early, straight retirement and earliest people that at least early streets village, which is in Brisbane. Since we knocked down, it was a beautiful little historical village.
Speaker 0 (47m 35s): Right? Di beautiful. You remember it? Yeah. I love that fact that you do. Cause most people don't.
Speaker 1 (47m 39s): Oh, remember every single thing. I forgot the flowers for our lapels. Well done. And I remember saying to mum, mum, well she noticed, and my dad, I think he looked at me. He said, no, she's only been planning this since she was 12. I'm sure she would miss that.
Speaker 0 (47m 55s): When did she notice? Half a day?
Speaker 1 (47m 57s): No, she didn't notice. Well she, no, because now I've got them. Yeah. Dad flew home where they were, they were in the fridge and dad flew home, brought them back and it wasn't until, you know yeah. Those people that used to actually use a camera, real photos and you just have to get them developed. You didn't the them straightaway. So when we go our photos, it took her about 15 minutes. She looked and she goes, why aren't there any flowers in the first
Speaker 0 (48m 19s): 16 photos love that
Speaker 1 (48m 20s): Anyway. And it rained. And we had a celebrant who was just a Nazi. He was running down the aisle because it was an outdoor wedding. And he was running down, telling the people of last week, get out, get out. I've got a wedding to do. Oh, he was weird. But anyway,
Speaker 0 (48m 35s): No minister had dirty shoes. All we looked at, you look down and there's all these filthy dirty. I've no idea. I'll look at your shoes.
Speaker 1 (48m 45s): I'm St can't
Speaker 0 (48m 46s): Be on site, said that. So recently I'm going to say six months ago, I was standing in a cottage up on the gold coast with my two sons, maybe nine months. It might be a year ago, 12 months ago, 12 months ago, I was standing in a coffee shop and these blood walks in and gives my son's a folder of NRO cards. And I was just out of the chat to this bloke and found out that black was you. And from that, just the way these things happen. Right. And then I found that he'd been a collector for years.
You've been the card, like the collect, all these other wheelie random shit. You love your sport. And I'm sitting there. Oh fuck. He's got his hands a lot. Well, I mean, he used to work in a bank and I'm sitting there.
Speaker 1 (49m 25s): I was still working in a bank.
Speaker 0 (49m 27s): Oh, you did too. It was before you left
Speaker 1 (49m 29s): Because it's hilarious from yeah. Cause it was Jen made me bring those cards down here. Did she? She said to me, she goes, bloody hell. Get them out of there. What are they here for? Oh, actually, I don't know. So I said, I'll take them down in a local card shop. Surely there's someone there that will be able to give it to the kids. It was your boys. And I'll never forget them because I were, they were looking at your dad, look, this guy used to play for south. Cause they were pretty old cards. But yeah. And it was funny because it was only three days later that I spoke to James and race or pugs and stash who had been on my case to talk to me about a project.
And,
Speaker 0 (50m 9s): And that project goes with me.
Speaker 1 (50m 10s): Yeah. And then they, they mentioned it and I said, oh, I said, I was in the rip and collect. Right. And you must've mentioned something to them.
Speaker 0 (50m 17s): I
Speaker 1 (50m 17s): Did. Who was this bloke? And then Dave Waldo was sitting with me on the day I quit the bank. They've they've put two and two together and go hang on. We're we're all talking about the same person. So yeah. Then came down and yeah.
Speaker 0 (50m 29s): And then it started. And since then it's been a really interesting ride.
Speaker 1 (50m 34s): It's been great. Awesome.
Speaker 0 (50m 35s): So you got given the opportunity to do something you'd love in a gree love and then you and Chris who works with me yep. Became really good buddies. Yep. And then I got dragged along and then we all became really good buddies. Then we all became business bond. Does that mean what became Hey works. So maybe, and then the
Speaker 1 (50m 56s): Doesn't make sense. Doesn't it
Speaker 0 (50m 57s): Doesn't make any sense. Even trying to explain, but it does work perfectly. And the fact that we have this really, really stupid thing, that anyone that buys a t-shirt of any weed con boys, the other's a t-shirt and my wife hates it because I got so many fucking t-shirts cracks me
Speaker 1 (51m 10s): Up. Let me tell you
Speaker 0 (51m 11s): The thing is at some, since then, we've all gone through a lot and obviously your mum passed your dad's tried to rebuild a shop for us. And he yells at you, which I think is quite funny. And the fact that you love your footie there we on tomorrow night to the
Speaker 1 (51m 30s): Right on the lines
Speaker 0 (51m 31s): And the fact that you've had some health problems as well by you getting through. And I have I'm getting through Chris is just a grumpy busted, but last week I'll look after him. But at the same time, as I said, at the start of this podcast, some people come into your life for a reason, some coming for a season and my you've coming them all off for a reason. And that raised needs to make me a better human being. And I really, really appreciate that you helped me. And at the same time we all help each other. And I think it's funny today, we celebrated the one year anniversary of, of one of our companies and we all watch stuff on the screen and it was hilarious and you've done an audio thing and everyone's just become together when they have these really, really dysfunctional family.
And I find that to me is more important than anything else in this world. And that brings me to the last part of this podcast. What I need to do is ask you some quick fire questions. Are you ready? Yup. Are you pumped?
Speaker 1 (52m 27s): Awesome. A hundred percent. I am
Speaker 0 (52m 29s): Quick for our favorite food.
Speaker 1 (52m 31s): Yeah. If I food. Yeah. That barbecue
Speaker 0 (52m 36s): Personal or people who have influenced your life. Mostly
Speaker 1 (52m 41s): My grandfather,
Speaker 0 (52m 42s): Your grandfather.
Speaker 1 (52m 44s): Sorry. My grandparents actually it's actually my grandmother more, she just 100% trusting me and supported me with everything.
Speaker 0 (52m 52s): Love that favorite song.
Speaker 1 (52m 54s): Favorite song. Okay. A crazy game of poker
Speaker 0 (52m 57s): By
Speaker 1 (52m 59s): I R is the Of, I revolution.
Speaker 0 (53m 4s): If I replace in the world
Speaker 1 (53m 7s): Any way where there's a tree,
Speaker 0 (53m 10s): What's the X for robot or the home,
Speaker 1 (53m 12s): Whatever I want it to be.
Speaker 0 (53m 14s): Oh fuck. I love that answer. Yeah. My, well, as far as I'm concerned, I appreciate you as a human, as a friend, as far as I'm concerned. You're an awesome human. Thank you so much
Speaker 1 (53m 23s): Right back at you, Brett.
Speaker 0 (53m 23s): Thanks for all that. Thank
Speaker 2 (53m 24s): You.