16. Personal challenges, mindset, addiction and self-awareness

Absolutely huge episode. One of my favorite episodes. This one, everyone, I hope you enjoy. We went really deep on a number of different things. One of them was my recent trip to Dubai. I'm currently in Dubai and just around how difficult it's been to adapt to a new country. Fell in the traps of using my phone a lot. Finding I felt a little bit lonely. Was using my phone to cover up some of those lonely sort of feelings and how I got away from that, how I've sort of moved on and realized that dopamine loops. It keeps you in this, like, addictive nature and how it can really cause additional stress and pressure on yourself, which you don't really need. So we talk about all that. How to get away from the smartphone addiction. If you've got it, please tune into this episode. Also, being vulnerable with each other and the value you can get and being self aware of areas within yourself and at work. About how being vulnerable and open people can actually help you on that journey and open up. You do open up to new different areas of thinking. So, yeah, really, really good. What else do we talk about, mate?

I love this episode. We went so deep. We learned a lot about each other, helped each other out. We're there for each other and it just really just struggles within life. You know, we talk about a lot of stuff and mindset, but we're not always there and we talk about our experiences, the hard things that we try to do, how we actually tackle them, what difficulty levels are playing on. This episode was just tops for me, man. It was awesome.

Amazing bergs. As you mentioned. I am getting absolutely smashed out here in the desert. It is hot. I'm in Dubai, mate.

You. You still look pasty as you've got no tan whatsoever. What are you doing? You're hiding in the shade. You're hiding in your hotel.

I don't know where my. Well, for starters, you know, going outside for more than 10 minutes is just a. It's a train wreck. And I have this big bottle of sunscreen I take everywhere so I don't get burned. However, I miss the inside of my belly button. You can't see it. The inside of my belly button is burnt and every.

What are you wearing, like a bloody crop top or something with you with your stomach hanging out, mate?

No, no, it's by the.

What are you doing? How are you dressing over there?

I was by.

Is it like SPF 4000 or.

What are you doing?

What are we rocking here?

I was by the pool, thought I'd get a bit of Tan on, bit of sunscreen up. Missed the inside of my belly button and now it's sore as hell.

You're like every tourist ever. This is like when people from the UK come to Australia and they just fly out lobsters. So you're by the pool in the desert and you're like, she'll be right, mate. No worries, dude.

I was literally like. They had the umbrellas and I went out for like four minutes and got absolutely crispy because I should not be in the sun.

Mate.

Okay, so you're, you're in Dubai. I can't believe you actually went. Tell me about the journey there, mate. How did you get out there? Was it horrendous? Was it all right? Did you make it? Well, you made it, but, you know, did you make it in one piece?

So out to Dubai, been here for nearly a week now. Came over here on Saturday as overnight flight. And I've come over here for some crypto conferences. So I was paid to speak at event, meeting with investors, many partners doing media, doing all sorts of stuff. Dubai is a really growing crypto area. So, you know, there's a lot going on here. So I thought I'd come over and Meeting a lot of potential investors, a lot of capital over here. So it's just good to be over here. But you know, I was, I was second guessing coming here Bergs, like, you know, know I don't. For any of our listeners that have been to Dubai, it's, it's a different place. And I'm not gonna lie, the first couple days were rocky, man. It was because I came over here on grand final day. So grand final day traditionally for me is a massive day. Always catch up with my mates. You know, 20, 30 of us catch up. It's a big day or on the Source. We're having a great time watching the footy. And for the first time I was over in Dubai, I couldn't get KO Sports, I couldn't load it up, wouldn't work anywhere. I was tired. I was just like this, I don't want to be here. Get me home.

Game was anyway, mate, don't worry.

But yeah, honestly, the first two or three days was tough and I think it was most tough. I definitely felt a sense of loneliness and sense of like a long way away from anything. I know. And you know, it was a new place, uncomfortable. Things are in different language, food's different. It just made me feel disconnected, I think is the word.

Yeah.

And, and sort of rattled a little bit. And I think that what was like amplified by that was, you know, jet lag, you know, couldn't really sleep. I was on a different time zone. It was, you know, it's just all a big mix, culture shock, culture shot. Don't really know anyone over here. So it was a lot, right. So you know, what I did was I. The first three or four days I found myself going to. Trying to feel some sort of connection. So I found myself going on social media a lot. You know, I was on Instagram going tick tock. I was going on like Snapchat. I was just like, you know, Twitter. Spending a lot of time on social media in my downtime. Just because I just. That was the only thing that was really making me feel like I was like not normal but. But still connected at.

Still connected.

Yeah, home. And I had a bit of time to journal and realize that like, okay, I'm here for a long time, I need to fucking get my shit together. Like I can't just do this. So what I started to.

I got my routine in order. So like one night I smashed a lot of melatonin, slept for 12 hours just to get my like body in order. And that was good work out a good time. And then, you know, meditated, journaled. And when I was journaling I started to really get that self awareness back of, you know, what was what was going on and realized that I was using social media and my phone to, to have that connection. It was that sort of dopamine hit, right? So yeah.

I also was journaling and talking to myself around like I felt a similar way when I was in the US So when I went to the US.

Alone a few months ago when I first went to New York, that was after I, you know, recently broke up with my ex girlfriend. I felt the similar feeling of this like really sort of lonely solo traveling, new environment, new place. But I remembered it disappeared after three or four days. It like, it was intense but it got better. So I reminded myself of that. And by like Wednesday or Tuesday this week, after four or five days.

It disappeared. And now a week on.

You know, what I've done is really honed in on going to the gym each morning. I've been going to the pool and journaling and really just like get. And then I scooted around. I like, I like to see places when I get to different locations to really get a feel for things. And I think after four or five days I finally have sort of settled and starting to actually enjoy it because one of the other things I did was, was realized around this Social media stuff. And it was funny. Like, I was. I don't know what I was doing. I was like, I was getting a massage or something and. And during that I was like, you know, message is a funny way of. Like, sometimes I get these really, like, really hallucinations, like sort of deep meditation when I like you so relax. And you go into this state of like. Yeah, like not unconscious, but your conscious mind is starting to go into this different world. And I actually started to feel. This was early in the week. I felt sad. I was like this depressive.

Really.

It was really intense. I felt really shit. And I was like, wow, this is fascinating. And what I realized, I think it was like this attachment to my phone or attachment to constant dopamine when I stopped and just did nothing for an hour. My brain was craving more of it and it wasn't getting it. So it started to have that drop off. Like it, you know, like it. Like an addiction. Right. Come down, come down here, come down. And that for me was like a oh, fuck moment. Like, you know, I. I know that I have used while traveling, my phone, I guess as a. As a way of decreasing the feeling of loneliness rather than sitting in the feeling and being okay with it and moving on. And, you know, because I like, I love, like, don't get me wrong, I love to be on my. On my own. I don't like talking to people like.

You know what I mean?

Like, I travel solo.

Yeah.

But in moments where I. I go on a.

In periods, I'd say I sort of fall off my. My momentum or my. My daily routine. And when I lose that daily routine, I start eating bad. I don't go to the gym. I start using my phone more, get shit sleep. That's when I find myself going down this path of not really feeling my best. I go from like a seven or an eight to like a four. And yeah, I was listening to Iman's podcast yesterday, Alfalfa podcast. They were talking about this around, like.

You know how people are sometimes binary, and I'm certainly this binary and like thinking that you're either good and you're in your. In the zone and you're killing it, or you shit, you're either an 8 or a 10 or you're a 2 out of 10 per day. Right. And that I feel as though I am in that binary state. Like, I feel as though me, I'm a very sort of. I have an addictive behavioral mindset, you know, Like, I am very, like all the time I want to do Many things at once. I'm always like, go, go, go, go, go. And that. Go, go, go. Addictive behavioral mindset when I'm not feeling my best turns into phone, it turns into laziness, it turns into eating shit. It turns into like just this constant, like dopamine trying, like.

Seeking it out in non productive.

You know, sort of sessions. So one real lesson that I'm starting to really focus on is not trying to get to a 10 and not, not getting to having a bad day and letting that be the reason why I stay at a tour of three for days on end. I want to become better in understanding that's okay. You will slip up from time to time. We use our phone a bit much. We'll have a shitty food, but then let's get back on the train. Let's get back to an 8. Let's not sit and mope and stay in that lower, you know, feeling.

All right. I, I absolutely love this because you've just described me to a tea where it's either I'm a God or I'm a piece of.

Yes.

Like there is no in between whatsoever. And this, I struggle with this all the time. Right? Where. And, and this is the thing. Why are we like this as humans? And I know the theory behind it and I know what I should be doing, but if you miss like one meal, you're like, oh, my. Oh, you eat a bad meal. Oh, my life is. I might as well just eat for the rest of my life, you know? Or if you miss a workout as well, and it's like, why the am I thinking like that? Whereas if I spoke to any other person, I'm like, bruh, if you get it right 80% of the time, you're fucking crushing it. If you get 80% of your workouts in, or you eat clean 80% of the time or cook 80% of your meals, you're fucking there. Or if, when you're investing, you get it right 80% of the time, you're an absolute gangster. Okay, I want to bring something up now. So we were talking about creating a new segment, right? And this segment is the hard thing of the week. We're going to do that right now because I definitely had a hard thing of the week, and you've had quite a few as well. And I want to get back to your, your Dubai one. But my hard thing of the week. So I do a lot of hard shit in my life and I make sure that I do it, I'm always doing it. And this is going to sound so lame, but this was my hard thing of the week, and it was. It was working out, right? So I wanted, like, you know, every second day, I'll work out and I'll lift. Wasn't feeling well. The second day. Wasn't feeling well. The third day comes to the fourth day, I'm already feeling like trash. I hate myself. I've been on this awesome routine. I've been lifting. I've been feeling great. And I'm like, oh, you haven't lifted. You're a lazy piece of. You're gonna get fat again. You're gonna lose all your strength. Your back's gonna hurt you. And I'm like. And I'm like, oh, am I really? Like, this mental struggle was insane. So I'm like, am I not feeling well or because my daughter was sick, Am I. Or am I just a lazy piece of. And this is a mental thing. So I get myself ready, you know, I start stretching, put my shoes on, go to the gym, do get well. My garage where I work.

And I start lifting. And I'm like, it's a bit heavy. But of course, you know, the ego comes in and it starts playing up. So I'm lifting, lifting heavy. And I do one set, and I'm like, oh, you know, I did a set. I can do this. Go to the second set. And I was like, hell. Like, I started to feel dizzy and lightheaded. I'm like, look, I'm just gonna stop this for a while. I'm gonna go inside. An hour went by. I lost my appetite. I'm like, right. I'm de. I'm definitely crook. I shouldn't be lifting. But seriously, man, like, the mental game between. You're lazy. You need to do more. You're gonna lose everything you have if you don't do this thing. You're a piece of. You might as well just be fat. Your whole life. And the ego playing into it where you need to lift. You should be doing this. Why aren't you doing it? And even things like David Goggins is playing in my head where he's like, listen to your little inner. You need to shut that up. And I'm like, am I just being a here? But then afterwards, like, this went on for hours afterwards, I'm like, okay, I am crook. I need to cut myself some slack. Even if I take a week off, I. I'll just get back to it. I'll lower the weights a little bit, and I'll be able to get back in. And the hard thing of the week for me was actually getting there, starting that workout, but then going through that process and understanding what it was. And normally I'd be able to see that clear as day, but when you're in the funk, it is so super hard, man.

Dude, I resonate so much with that. Not from a workout perspective. I actually. Just a quick side note, I'm actually feeling fit at the moment. I looked in the mirror the other day. I hadn't actually looked myself in the mirror the other day.

You like your tight?

Yeah, I was like, I was wearing. I was wearing a tank top because I fucking haven't worn a tank top. You know, Australian winter. I was like, oh, shit, I'm actually looking pretty good.

But that mental model that you just described, I have for work. And I feel same.

Same.

Yeah. Okay, so you're far. You're completely fine.

But that that mental thing of going, you lazy bastard, you haven't, you know, you've got this to do list. You haven't done, you know, you've worked 12 hours, but you haven't done 16. All the. The success of the business is on your shoulders that you're the only person that's going to, you know, like, if you don't work more, that it's all gonna fail. Like, you are the only person that can do this. And if you're not doing more, then you're a piece of shit, basically. Like, that self talk is so intense. And I have that, yes all the time. And I physically am incapable of. Of taking time off. And I feel as though that, that, that thought and those thoughts is so counterintuitive and counterproductive to actually looking after yourself and putting in more productive, efficient hours than working 100 hours a week. And you're completely cooked and you're sick and you feel like shit and you're stressed and you're tired and you're negative and depressed. But I physically cannot at this point in time get myself to that stage. It is very difficult.

All right, so before when you were talking about when you are either.

You know, a 1 or a 10, and you should be somewhere around 8 and this is something you want to implement, how do you know you're an eight?

Have you thought about this? Oh, you don't have a strategy yet.

It's definitely. It's definitely not a, like a metric. I can't give it like a. It's a feeling for me. So, you know, if I was to describe an eight day, for me, if I'm, you know, writing myself, I get an eight out at a 10. I have a good sleep. I sleep at least eight hours. I haven't used social media the night before before bed because I get a shit sleep when I fucking scroll before bed. Get a good sleep. I shower, I meditate, I journal, I go to the gym and I don't have any meetings or start working till at least 9 o'. Clock. So I have time and my head's not convoluted. I don't use social media to. About lunchtime, I'll check and I have a good productive day and I feel generally good. I'm out of the house, I've eaten good food, I've had a good cup of coffee. Like, and it's, and it's positive. And I don't use like more than at least a couple hours on social media because I feel as though that's where really social media is such a, and just phone in general is such a. Just, just makes you feel really cloudy and like that's a good descriptive word.

It's. Yeah, it's not you, it's someone else. It's other people's thoughts in your head and there's, you have no chance against the apps and it's too many thoughts beamed into your head. If you notice about everything you just said then Ben.

99 of it was not work related. Yeah, right. It was sleep, meditate off social media time. To myself, none of that was like, I want to achieve this or this with work. Right. And if we're talking about I want to go hard at work, I want to do all these things, none of them were goals or outcome driven or anything like that. It was about getting your own physical mental health and things you need during the day and that'll automatically make you successful at work. It'll allow you to balance those things.

Yes. And, and it's, it's fascinating because like you're 100% right. And that is right because if I don't have a good sleep or I don't meditate or don't journal or I eat shit or I'm on social media in the morning, the day is over, mate. Like I generally just have a shit day. I feel, and I feel as though it's such a, like a fine balance in, in my life anyway with just the velocity of that. I feel as that's going on in my life with work and stuff, it only takes a small thing. I don't meditate. Like I didn't meditate this morning because I had a sleep and then I had to start early. So I went to the pool, whatever. But then, then I'm in the. Then I'm in the. The. I'm in a rut. I feel as though I can't get out. Like I'm back to, you know, the day's done. I'm fucking written off the day before it's even started.

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly it. When you get to that feeling and it's those loops in your brain start playing that code running in your head and it's automatically gone to the bad day code and you start spiraling downward. And this is the whole, like, Tony Robinson as well. Like, if you want to play in the prime time, you got to prime yourself for prime time. What are the things you need to do in order to be the Ben Simpson that you want to be? So in work, I've had 16 years of working with nuclear people, right, where they're just, they're surgeons, they're physios, they're researchers, they're everything. And they just go. They sprint marathons. That's what they do. They all burn out. It's absolutely crazy. And I brought this into collective shift. And I specifically remember the first three months I had covert and I still went super hard. We went through my quarterly review and I smashed it. Let's be honest, man, I crushed it. I exceeded everything I wanted to do and I even wrote it all down. And I'm like, look, this is what I've done. Like, I wanted to achieve this and I achieved fucking four times as much. And I still remember feeling like I could have done more. And I'm like, you lazy piece of shit. You fucking lazy prick. That one day, why you could have worked more.

Where does that come from? Why do I say that?

So this, this comes from. Oh, for me, it's a, it's a, it's a learned behavior, definitely from. Definitely from my mum and also from my. Some of my mentors and my boss. I think it's almost self selecting where if it comes across your plate, you better swing. And it's also like an Asian kind of pride thing where you always try to do your best, you always try to please. And also innately I've been given all these gifts that my parents have sacrificed. Why should I sit on my ass? I should be going as hard as I can. The problem I have is I like going really hard and I don't stop until I get sick, basically, you know, And I've set up my life in that way. So what I've had to do to Combat this is set the goals ahead of time. So every week I will set up. These are the things I want to do in the morning and these are the must haves in my week. And if it has been a good week at work, these are the things that I want to achieve. Because otherwise if I'm, if I'm going hard and I'm talking to people and I'm building product and, and I'm talking to customers and I'm doing strategy and we're doing all of this stuff and I'm going to eo. I can't gauge if that's a good week or not. You know, it's just me doing things and me being in motion feels like work and feels like achieving. Although during that time I may not be achieving that specific goal. But if I write the goals down and be like, I want to release our NFT product in two weeks, these are the things I need to do. If I'm achieving those things along the way and I only achieve that thing, I'm doing really well because I cannot decide that in the moment or when I'm super revved up and my brain is on fire. That's, that's not a good way to do it.

Yeah, I agree and I feel, but I feel as though. So for me, right, I don't think work's not the problem for me. Like I, I feel as I'm, I'm actually really productive, like especially the last couple of weeks, you know, I've got two main focuses, capital raising and the website rebuild. Right. And I am pushing on all fronts. There's a lot going on that I'm doing, know, pushing a lot of that, whether it be new chip accelerator meetings, investor deck, strategy pitch calls, executive summaries, like, you know, there's a lot. And then there's the website strategy and everything else is going on. I feel as I'm very productive. Where I struggle is the wind down. If I'm going at, you know, sixth gear all day, by the time the day ends, one, I don't want the data in terms of like, I can't stop the day because I just keep going to the 2 list. Yep. Or I go, yeah, right, I'm done. I'm completely cooked. And then I go straight to my phone to keep the brain going at that level because it's craving that pace. Does that make sense?

Yeah, and that's, yeah, definitely. And I, I have a lot of sleepless nights and I'll work nights as well, like because of that. Right. And it doesn't happen as often as it used to and just as you start in the morning for me what has worked is having a wind down as well like having those must haves during the day and just at least doing those things because your day is always going to get blown up and if I'm able to achieve those or even if I don't just mentally acknowledge that hey even if I get it right 80% of the time or even 70% I'm doing really well like today could have been a write off I got some stuff done I didn't get done what I needed to do My to do list is always going to be there right it's going to be never ending there's going to be 10 work for every one Berg that is something I have to accept but in the afternoon like around 4 or 5 o' clock I'll kind of start to wind down I'll. At about 4 o' clock I'll turn kind of slack off and I'll do some stuff that I need to do but then I'll physically disconnect so I earn with my mind so I relax with my hands so I'll go and do. I'll make some pizzas or I'll go for a walk or take my daughter to the park and stare at leaves and throw hunky nuts in the water something to physically make me disconnect and I leave my phone at home I.

Like that I know you've been right so.

So there's like that's it yeah like getting going outside getting sun on your face having different sitting away from the screen looking at further things or going for a drive that physical kind of disconnection that works for me and then wind down spend time with my family and read books try not to get on too many screens have my phone somewhere else only calls can come through nothing pings and it's. It's bloody hard to do but once you do it your life just is.

So much better yeah I think for me the, the things that have started to work in terms of switching off is. Is trying to go and do things that. That are outside of the office or home like you said like you know hey top golf or playing golf or going to the pool or going to have dinner on my own somewhere you know where I'm just like outside and in a different environment yeah but it's.

Hard because we're playing the long term game where knowledge workers and we have lots of conversations with lots of people we're constantly ideating and crafting strategy and you can't turn that off. There is no separation, it does not exist. Or you'll see something like out in nature and that'll make you think about a work problem that you had and that will come back to your brain. Right. It is getting more and more complicated and challenging to deal with.

Do you time block in a sense of Aman was talking about the I really like this idea on his podcast around time blocking. So you know he checks social media between four to six bit. This isn't actually, this is not what he does but he's. The explanation was for example, you time block. So you're on slack between these two hours. You check social media in the afternoon, you do emails here, you do this strategy work here, you know, and it's all. So you're not doing six different things at once. Because I think that's the other thing like multitasking, checking my telegram goes off, I've got an email, then I'm trying to do this thing. It's like just constantly like doing you know, four or five things at once. It's probably spiraling that dopamine and that like that, that fast paced nature of like holy shit, like I gotta keep going.

Yeah, think about it. You're shortening those dopamine loops and with all the apps that you have open and all the things that you're doing. So I absolutely time block it. But I actually do the reverse where it's the time I don't want to have those things. So during the workday I do zero social media. I might jump on LinkedIn for like 10 minutes or something if I have to post something. But it's zero social media. During the workday I'll have. One thing I'm bad at is I have slack open but I'm always in high contact with the team. But then I do close slack down if I need, you know, an hour or two to do specific stuff. Facebook. So I go on Facebook maybe once every couple of days. It's on desktop only. I don't have the app so it never pings at me. And I'll set a 10 minute timer so that's the maximum that I'm allowed on there.

Timing yourself and that just shortens that.

So much that people know now know not to contact me there. I'm never there, I won't respond and guess what? Nothing happened. If it's urgent, they'll give me a call.

Dude, I like it.

And yeah, yeah, within that 10 minutes I need to get done what I need to get done. And it only allows every two days that 10 minute hit to my brain. So I am never thinking about Facebook at all.

Never one thing I've done. So I don't, I've deleted Twitter and deleted LinkedIn. I do have Instagram. It's, it's tough because for me I definitely, you know, and consuming too much. But I use it as an outbound platform for the business side. You know, I need to work on that. But one app that I've got recently is this on my laptop is a focus app. So you click the Start focusing button and it blocks all social media. So rather than, you know. Yeah, it just, just allows you to really hone in and do the, do that work that you need to do and then go, you know, maybe you can check it every couple of hours if you need to but for a few minutes and jump back into it.

So this week I was, I was feeling it, I was feeling a bit of, bit of pressure. Haven't really gotten away for a while. So I went for, for two nights I worked there the kind of Tuesday and then Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday I went two nights into the city. Just a quick getaway with the missus stated stayed at a hotel and daughter went to the grandparents. And the first night we were there.

The missus just looks at me and she's just like, are you feeling twitchy? And I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, she's like, what the fuck is that? And I'm like, it's life. Like we're feeling like disconnected. Like we have to like we literally just got there, put our bags down and we're just lying on the bed and it feels like, oh, I'm not being productive. I need to do something. I need to check this out. I need to do some work. What if this person needs me? And it is seriously like coming down from addiction. It was. And I'm like, this is. Let's have a quick shower. We're just getting out there. So we got out there, went to the river, did some stuff, got an ice cream and just started experiencing life. Like we filled it with something else. And then it took a good like day and a half for that to just go away and not look at our phones and not feel that I'm a lazy piece of. I need to be productive. And you know, we, we're human beings, we're not human doing. We don't always have to be doing and we need to be okay with not doing but to deprogram yourself because You've been so conditioned is one of the hardest things. And you can do it by going away and disconnecting. But then how do you keep that? That is such a challenge, and it's going to get worse over time.

So the podcast I was listening to yesterday on the that's Helpful podcast with Ed, she had a scientist or a doctor on and said that addictions last for basically three months. If you really want to break an addiction, like a phone addiction, it can take over three months for that trigger in your brain to reset and not crave it anymore. And one of the things that humans naturally crave more than anything and the most natural form of dopamine is actually when other humans recognize us for something. So one of the best or the best ways to break an addiction is actually alcohol is anonymous. And the reason because of that is because you're in a peer group and you get there every week. And the thing that creates the dopamine to beat your dopamine.

Addiction is the fact that you haven't had any alcohol in that week, so your peers recognize you for doing that. And that feeling of being, you know, like, satisfied about other people's opinions is the thing that breaks your addiction. How crazy is that?

That's so interesting. Where it's not even. It's almost like a replacement of a better thing. Like, your addiction will never go away. It's an. It's an unmet need. You met that need with alcohol or whatever it may be, and now you're meeting it with other people. And this. I had this meme, and it's like, I'll just read it out because it's not a fancy one. My parents are age 22. We should move to a new city and buy a larger home so our two children can have space to play and develop. Me at age 22, my meme got 11 likes. And, like, this had me in stitches, but, like, three seconds later, almost fucking cried because Jesus Christ, what the fuck is happening to us? Yeah, like, that is. It's like, holy. And can you imagine the. On, like, okay, so I grew up with the Internet. My childhood when I was really young, didn't have the Internet. Got the Internet when I was probably 13. And, you know, it wasn't as hyper as it is now. It wasn't social. I'm not a digital native. You probably are. You might have just escaped it a little bit. But honestly, man, like, the people in the world that they're growing up in now, just the. The attention spans. When I go out to dinner like people are on dates and they're literally just on their phones and I just want to slap them and be like, look at each other's eyes and talk to each other and like make a connection. And then you got these shorter and shorter dopamine loops. Like we have people that come into our group and they're like, it's been three days, why am I not rich? And it's like, it doesn't work that way. Like, you know, and even relationships like, oh, this one thing happened and it's not perfect. It's not a happy ending. It's been like one week, that's it, it's over. And then people aren't connecting. They, we are. They're going to have as much children, they're not going to have long lasting relationships. It's. This is a huge societal problem where it's moved from. Our biggest diseases were heart attack and stroke, from basically smoking and eating too much and living unhealthy lifestyles to anxiety and depression. Like how that. Anxiety and depression of the diseases of our, my generation and your generation. How depressing, mate.

That's crazy, dude. That's crazy. Well, these apps, they're built, they're built to hook you in, right? The reasons why the likes are there and the views are there and the notifications there is because it's, you know, they, the more attention you give those apps, the more time you spend then the more money they make.

Exactly right. And I really wonder what's going to happen where if in the future they're going to have to.

Somehow police apps or make it. Make more Bennett like or tax them or make more benefit for the people that actually, you know, are on the receiving end. Like there's, there's literally like addiction for Internet addiction, gaming addiction, on and on it goes. Like these are just, they're so accessible now and it's almost. The challenging part about this is you almost excluded if you don't participate, but when you participate there's no rate limiter on that. You just go completely in. Now I wanted to ask you something. So I, I caught up with my nephew for, for brekkie and he's an absolute lad. He's getting amongst it. He's reading the books that I read. Man, he's so ahead of his time. He's 21 and he was talking about you and I was like, yeah, I agree. He's an absolute prick. I don't know why I work with him, you know. Nah, honestly man, he, he loves you. He wants to meet you and he was saying every time he tunes into the podcast, like he's. You're doing a new thing. You're absolutely playing on hard mode. You're a sucker for personal growth. You're con and you're just nuclear. You're like, now I'm flying to Queensland. Oh, and I'm doing a keynote speech and I've got a TedX talk and I'm speaking with Judy now I'm going to Dubai for like an investing mate. It's absolutely insane. Do you ever reflect on this and be like, am I playing on the too hard mode or is it just right? Or how is that for you, man?

Dude.

Because you like throwing yourself in the deep end. You enjoy it, you thrive in there. But, mate, is it all a bit too much?

It's a good question.

I don't.

Look, would you even know if it was too much?

It's not enough. No, I like.

Ah, here we go.

It's not a. It's.

Here we go.

It's not a. It's not a question of like, oh, like, you know, I shouldn't like the TEDx Talk or the Juddy thing. It's not like a question. I actually relatively confident around those things. Yes, I'm nervous and like, I get scared about going up there and doing. Doing that. But it's like, it's not a feeling of like, I shouldn't be doing this. You know, my feelings.

I don't reflect on it like that. I reflect as if, what is the thing that I need to do to fucking win right now? And there's a lot of things I'm not doing, then that's what I need to be doing. It's constantly the next thing and the, you know, focusing like, how do we win? It's not even a. It's honestly not even a thought. The only consideration I have, like, for example, here, I'm here in Dubai, is like.

Should I be in Dubai? Is Dubai the best place that I could be right now to win? Should I be here? Should I actually be in America or should I be back in Australia? Where is the highest ROI of my time in our capital spent for us to win? That's honestly all I think about.

So. So from an outsider looking in, you always do the hard thing and you're like, what is it going to take for me to win? And I need to do that thing. So you'll literally be like, what is the hard thing? All right, I'm going to go and do that. It's absolutely crazy.

It's funny as you say that that's a good. Like that you. It's. It's interesting for me to hear you ask that question, because that's not the question I ask myself. Nor is it. Nor do I even think about, like, that idea of leveling up. I, like, I haven't even thought about that. It's more of just a.

That's what I've got to do.

Yeah, that's what you need to do to win. And he's, okay, let's say you're like, this is what I need to do to win. Is there any fuck, I don't want to do that? Or that's just too hard, or is it more. How do I do that thing?

Oh, there's definitely. Like, that's hard. Like the thing I need to do right now. We're raising capital, right? And it's fucking hard. And it's defeating and it's like, makes you feel shit because you just get, you know, all these no's and, you know, questions being asked of you and all this sort of stuff. And it's like, sometimes you want to jump off the balcony, you know, like, you know, not literally, but it's. It's tough. And no, I don't want to do it, but it's the thing I have to do.

That is the thing that makes you a winner. And this is the same thing that I saw with, with Fiona as well, where it's like, what is the hardest thing that I can do right now? I don't want to do it. It sucks. But I'm gonna do it because the thing I need to do in order to win. And you know, it's the thing because it sucks. Like, that is how, you know, okay.

So here is a actual real life example that I've just like realized and remembered. So it was Tuesday night. I just put in like a 12, 13 a day. I had my webinar from 8 to 9:30pm I hadn't eaten. I went and had dinner. I was in bed by 11:30. I had a mastermind that I had to attend to for fundraising at 5am it was currently 11.30pm I had to get up at 4.30am so five hours sleep and I do not function on anything less than like seven or eight hours. I feel like. And probably four to seven times I consider going, nah, I'm not going. You know, I'm not going that I. What, what could I do with that extra sleep? Like, that's gonna be. So we're gonna sit there and do God knows what, but it's a, it's a compulsory requirement to get through the new Tube accelerator.

And.

The only thing that got me through was the fact that right now my number one priority is to raise capital. How do I raise capital? I need to go through a new Chip and Felix accelerator. How do I do that? I need to attend this mastermind. It's like, fuck it, right? I'm fucking getting up to the alarm. We set a 4:30 and we got up five hours later and did the, did the Mastermind. And I did not want to do that at all.

Oh, I. Okay, so I have this all the time. Like there's always something I'll commit to and I'll either be going too hard or I'll be. I'm constantly under slept anyway. But I would just not want to go. And I'll be like this, how do I get out of it? And I think about like 20 times like, I'm gonna go, it's gonna suck. This is gonna happen. My time's better spent here. And I've used, I've used a technique from how to stop worrying and start living. And it's okay, you don't, you don't want to do the thing or you're worried about the thing or something's happening. What is the worst possible outcome? And the worst possible outcome is some. Usually something like, it's gonna suck, everyone's gonna hate me, I'm gonna shit my pants. That's probably like the worst outcome, right? Like, that's the worst thing I could think of. It's like doing a talk of shitting myself and I'm like, okay, cool, that's never gonna happen. And then like mentally. So that's what's the worst case scenario. Second, can I accept that? Yeah, that's fine, Give. Fuck. And then immediately after that I'm like, okay, how can I make that better? So after I've thought about the worst case scenario, like, you know, going to this thing and not knowing people and people gonna be weird to me and they're gonna hate me and all this kind of stuff. In reality, I wouldn't give a. Anyway, like, I don't bother, I'll just turn around and go home. Great. Worst case scenario, how do I make that better? You know, I could hook up with someone beforehand, talk to them, meet up, learn something about some people there, anything that I want to do and then just go and do the thing. If I've already accepted the worst case scenario, it's not going to be that. And it's never that. Like yeah, it sucks. And you feel crap in the moment, but it's really choosing between what you want now and what you want most. And if you don't take those shots with the things where you. That are going to move you towards what you want most, you will never achieve your goals. That is the thing that separates people from achieve that. That actually achieve their goals from those that don't.

Yeah, dude. I think it's hard though, isn't it? It's definitely hard. And then I think the mindset is a. Is a big one, like just trying to believe. But in saying that, like, you know, I think there's a downside of that. Like I've. I've. In overworking recently and doing all of these things, I. I get quite negative. And I think that's a aftermath of me being feeling like I'm overworked, I'm tired, I'm stressed, and I get negative. So there is like, you know, to the listeners at home that, like, I don't want to portray myself as this fucking, like, you know, guy that just like win at all costs. And, you know, we're all la dee da working hard and like built like a brick shit out cemently great. Because that's the absolute opposite. I feel as though that sort of mindset comes with so many downsides that I'm still trying to work through. You know, they're constantly needing feeling like you need to do more, constantly feeling as though you're not doing enough, constantly feeling like stressed because you're not achieving that. And then it's this loop, right?

Yeah. During the week, I was actually very, very proud of you, man. You dropped a vm, A voice message in the exec chat to the rest of us. And I don't know, do you remember what you said? You're basically describing what you were feeling. So I think you were walking down the street or something, pick up your phone, drop us a voice message. And it was something to the effect of, boys, we've got so much going on. This is just fucking ridiculous. This is happening. This is. I've got to do this thing. I'm in this really negative mindset. I'm down about these things. It's completely. And just to be able to talk to your fellow executives and say that is amazing. But this, this very rarely happens. And what was even more impressive was the response because straight away we were like, bro, like, even a man got in first. He's like, bro, I feel you, man. This sucks. This is happening. That is happening. Let us know how we can help. Let's jump on a call just immediately kind of coming to your aid and validating what you are feeling. And I've seen this in other businesses and even ones that I've worked for where people don't even want to tell other people how they're feeling. Like, people are going through divorces or health challenges and they just. The culture is such that they want to put on a brave face. They don't want to say, I'm struggling. They don't want to say things are hard. They don't want to be like, I've been going so hard, I haven't slept. I've got so much pain in my body that I've got a negative outlook because I've got all this niggling stuff going on. And it's more like, well, suck it up, get on with it. This is your job. This is what you need to do. You need to sort it out yourself. So my point here is, like, being able to have open communication with your peers and your team and being willing to get vulnerable and doing that, and you've done it a couple of times since, and just letting us know how you're feeling and the things that are going on, it's just awesome because otherwise we'll see. Like. Like, you're spot on. I do the same thing. We talked about this before the pod, actually, and I'm like, oh, we should save this for the pod. And it's like, you know, when you're overworked, you're stressed, you're burnt out, you haven't slept, you haven't exercised, you're eating bad food. You know, there's. There's an element of. For me and for you as well, it's a thing called hyper vigilance, where you're always on the lookout for certain things. And because a lot of things are out of your control, you grab a specific thing and you make sure it's perfect because you can control. And why isn't this thing done and this little thing there? And you, you kind of. Like, you've pointed out a couple of things in the business. And I'm like, this isn't very Ben, what's going on here? And I'm a piece of. So I take it out on my Mrs. I'm like, why is that thing over there? Why does this happen? And she's just like, you're a fucking idiot. She gives it to me because she's fantastic. Right? But you know what I mean? Like, it's like when you. When you're not looking, doing all those things where you need to be Ben. And you feel comfortable and you feel loose and you feel like you can do those things. You're kind of hyper vigilant. You start to go to that place.

Well, I think for me what I get from being open about how I'm feeling in different things is A, in is a different perspective on A, the situation and B, how I'm actually thinking. So the last couple of weeks, what I've gotten from you and Aman is so much support and sort of gratitude about.

Where we're currently at and the things that are going on. And yes, it is stressful and there is a lot of shit going on. So first of all that was like, okay, cool. Like it's not just me that thinks this is fucking complete chaos. You know, there's a lot going on. Like there's other guys too. And then there was also steps and you know, things that you could help me with, you know, so that was really helpful. But then second of all, like more recently around the negativity aspect, you know, you're by me opening up and then getting a response back from you guys, it's like, okay, you know, yes, there's all this stuff going on, but look at all this other shit that's going on that I totally forgot about. And that's another way I've got, I'm like, oh, maybe I'm looking at this in a wrong way. Maybe I'm actually slight the negative here.

And you think about your frame of reference. You flew out to Dubai on Saturday, landed like 5am, jumped in, had like three minutes sleep, went to a conference for two days by yourself. And we'll talk about the conference in a sec because that just sounds wild. And then you've been doing all this stuff, you're physically removed from the team. You've got all these investors telling you, oh, now's not the time to invest. Why isn't your company doing this? Why is this happening? All of that really affects your frame of reference and your mindset. And when you come back to us, we're like, hang on, we're doing all these things. We're doing really well. Yeah, we don't have the outcome we want yet, but we're doing the, the correct activities and it helps to be around those people and to reinforce that as well. Because otherwise if you bring that mindset to the, to the team, you're the one that sets the tone and direction that's going to affect the way the rest of the team feels as well, totally agree. That was just a good way to field it. So hang on, I want to. Have you got anything more to say on this or can we move on to. All right, first of all, let's go on to the flight because you mentioned you went on a A380 and I want to know all about it. Tell me.

It's been a goal of mine to get on the A380. Just die. My grandfather used to be a pilot. When I was younger, I always used to want to be a pilot. So getting on the A380 was a bit of a little bit of a fangirl moment. I was flying premium economy.

Look out, big spender. And it was. Dude, it was like a hotel. So we flew Emirates Sydney to Dubai and it was unbelievable. The whole flight was barely any turbulence. Service was great. It's like lined on the inside with like gold. This two story thing, huge stairs. It was like a proper hotel, man. In the air, it was insane. Food was great.

How good is it?

The premium economy, like, you know, it's not business, but it was bloody nice. Like, I didn't get much, didn't get much sleep because of the, you know, you know how it is sitting upright. Just tough to get sleep. But, dude, it was pretty nice.

Oh, I don't have my bed.

Sakes.

Budgets, mate.

Yeah, that's it. Bear market budget. So I've actually been on an A380. I realized this. This was in 2008, just when they'd come out and I flew London to Singapore and it was amazing. Like, the plane over there was just wrecked and the one back was like, oh, my God. Like, it had so much headroom and it had like mood lighting and things were orange and the screens were huge and the chairs went back, but it didn't bother you. And like the airflow was great and you could barely hear anything. The noise was fantastic. Like, every plane needs to be a 380, mate. Like, let's just sort it out.

Like the Melbourne.

Depreciating those assets and increasing the life of them. I want an A380 every single time. Or just build a small version. Like all these bunky planes. We got a bloody fly on, mate. They're just ridiculous. Bloody half full out of the air when you're going like, you know, you, you drive bloody flying along, drop down 10 meters and you can smell old mate taking his in the back. It's like, just get me the A380, mate. Even the toilets were nice. They were really big and you could Actually move around. It's like.

Mate, they need to sort it out. Like, oh, seriously, like, oi, Joycey, mate, if you're listening in Qantas, just bloody do this. Like, just sort it out. I don't care about your balance sheet. I just want an A380 every time.

I'd love to know how many people, like, what random revenues a flight does like that. Like, it had a shitload of passengers and a shitload of staff. Had like six pilots, like probably 20, you know, flight attendants. It was a big operation, man.

All right, I'll tell you what, I'll. I'll do a deep dive into a couple of their balance sheets because they're publicly listed companies because I really like. I really like the airplane game and learning about it. But the reality is they. They earn all money. The fixed costs are insane. It costs a stupid amount of money to buy a plane. The maintenance is insane. There's variability. It is just. It's a crazy, crazy business.

Big, big operations, dude. Crazy now, I think.

Okay, so. So you had the A380, mate, and you landed in Dubai and you've gone to a conference. And during our all hands, you told us about this conference. It sounds very different, mate. Set the scene for us and let us know how actually runs over there. So Ben was at a conference by himself for two days. And what happened?

So it was pretty poorly ran, to be fair. It was their first event. It was a Chinese company in Dubai. It was pretty good. It was a forex finance event and I was. They paid me to go and speak on crypto. Now, unfortunately, just the way that set it up, the stage I was on, no one ever knew it was there. So I spoke in front of maybe amazing, maybe four people.

Had to do it because I was getting paid. So I did it. But then we had the booth and then we had a lot of people come through. And the reason people come to your booth is not for you necessarily. It's for the model that you have to put in the booth. Now, I know for some people that might sound pretty bad, but that just literally is what you have to do. Like, it just sort of came with the booth. Every booth has.

That's the game over there. You have models to attract the people to come in. That's the way it is.

Yeah. And I mean, they might want to come and see you because, I mean, they might not have seen a pasty white man with huge flappy ears before. So that's a bit of a novel thing, mate. You belong in a Zoo over there. So you, you're in the booth, you've got.

Left.

Right, good night. See you later, mate. So you got you in the booth, you've got your model over there and another Booze had like 10, 20 models, right?

Like, yeah, heaps of models and. But then I had to get a translator, so we had Ali as well. Ali was there. Absolute champion. Shout out to Ali. He was like a uni student sort of guy. And he was a translator. So he spoke Arabic, French, Russian, I think maybe a little bit of Brazilian because he's half Brazilian as well. So he. Yeah, he was.

And English. What a, what a, what a lady.

He was translating as people coming over and dude, it was, it was, it was an eye opening experience. I definitely say the buffet was the highlight. The food there was phenomenal. Absolutely smashed that both days.

Is that so this, this sounds really. So you've come off a plane, you've landed at 5am, the grand final was you're away from your mates, you have a sleep, you wake up, you bloody walk, you got a sweaty bum crack because it's 50 degrees. You get there and you've got to do the whole day by yourself with a translator in a foreign area, give a talk to four people, go back the next day, do another thing exactly the same. And then you're out of kilter, you're off routine, you're on a different time zone. You are four hours behind me, you're six hours behind the rest of the team. No wonder you're feeling like.

Yeah, when you put it.

Yeah, it's been, it's been a wild few days, that's for sure.

Yeah. And how long you staying there for, mate? You're around for a while, two or.

Three weeks, I think. There's a blockchain. There's a global blockchain conference coming up in a couple of weeks, which I'm going to.

That'll be good.

That'll be sick.

That'll be huge. All the, all the crazies go there, right?

It's gonna be lucid.

Like I'm sure everyone will be there.

So they don't accept. So this conference, right, they don't accept speakers unless you're paying. So if you're organic, speaker, get lost. To be on a debate panel, right, to be one of five people on a panel, you have to pay US$11,000.

So it goes to the highest bidder. There's gonna be a lot of scams.

Keynote speaker, you have to sponsor the whole event, be one of their million sponsors to Be a keynote speaker and have a 30 minute talk. You need to pay US$100,000 to speak for 30 minutes.

Bloody hell. So I take it you're not speaking, right?

I am not speaking. I'm not being on a panel. I'm going as a absolute pleb. And yeah, anyway, be fascinating to see. A lot of money, man, a lot of money.

And speaking about getting out of your comfort zone, you did a talk with sky around Arabia and before this talk you had, was it three meetings about cultural things. Because this is a completely foreign thing for you to do, man. Tell us about this.

Spoke on Sky News Arabia, which is in Arabic, obviously. So I had a translator, they were talking about Web3 education, so I was on there as a guest and they had a translator that was translating the Arabic presenter into English so I could hear them live. And then my answers would go back in Arabic. And we had to do a few warm up sessions beforehand around rules and regulations, around what I couldn't say because Sky News Arabia is owned by the king Saudi prince, one of the king Saudis, which is very connected with different political parties and whatnot. So I couldn't mention a lot of different things. Yeah, but that was surreal. And then on Tuesday, next week or Wednesday, I think I'm going on the Dubai One tv. So I'm going into the studio down in the downtown Dubai. Going into the, into the studio and yeah, doing that. Oh, and I've got, yeah, doing this. I'm going. The NASDAQ presenter. I've got another interview with, with a NASDAQ presenter next week as well, which would be.

Wow.

Yeah, it's surreal, man.

Stepping up in the speaker game. That's awesome. It's been fun and oh, I couldn't imagine how hard that would be like hearing them, but then getting it translated, but then saying it back and you're not the smartest blokes. It must be pretty tricky, mate.

I must have repeated a few times. No, dude, literally one of the. One of the questions was translated. That didn't make any sense, so I just made up the answer. And.

Did you make your own question?

Some guys that spoke Arabic here in Dubai, they said it came across good.

So.

But takeaway is for me, just take every opportunity that you can. Paid, not paid, small, medium, large, whatever it is, just do anything and everything you can. It builds up your experience. Get it recorded. I recorded the speech. So yes, I was in front of four people. But I've got that content and it's cool. You just build that in your Toolkit. And you become better every time you do it.

Just in the last few years, you have a lot more experience than people twice your age in the things that you've done.

Yeah.

And then if you. If you literally had the intersection of, like, crypto, raising talks, owning a company, like all this kind of stuff, it's like you very. There'll be very few people like you with the skill set that you have.

Yes, it's fat. I'm very grateful for the opportunities, I think the being in crypto. There's not many people out there doing what we're doing. You know, Pat's off to. My mum and dad let me quit school when I was 17. Like, everything I've been through, I feel as though it's just been one thing after another. So, yeah, it's been. Been a mix of luck and just good timing and just trying to do anything and everything.

All right, so this was the first time we were doing the hard thing. And built into this, we're going to do an accountability of the week. Right. So I'm going to bring it up now because.

Let's do it, man. I want an accountability of the week, and from you, you can choose your own accountability, but I want one specifically from you. When are you going to take some time off? I want you to book it in the calendar, man.

Okay, so that's. That's a great question because I sat down with Hayley yesterday and we tried to figure that out.

Haley's. Ben's PA.

I've. I've marked earmarked.

Not one, but two days off on the 13th and 14th of October.

It's not enough.

Mate, Mate, let's just start with that.

Your birthday's on the 16th, isn't it?

Yeah, I've got. I've got a couple.

At a couple of days.

It's literally. Mate, it's impossible, right? This. Let's just be fucking grateful here. Two days. So 13th to 14th. Keep me accountable.

All right, I'm going to keep you accountable. The listeners are going to keep you accountable.

What happens if.

And we need to come up.

What's the.

We need to come up with a penalty, mate.

What's something you fucking hate doing this.

Podcast with you, mate.

Fatality. Jesus. Oh, mate. Right in the feelings, hell. Oh.

Fuck me.

That was awesome. All right, we're gonna come up with something to keep you accountable.

We're gonna. We'll outsource it to.

Listen, hit us up on like, like a thousand bucks.

Now, that's because a thousand dollars is just money. It has to be like a thousand dollars and then, you know, it has to go to like your anti charity, like, I don't know, the Nazi something. So we can say that you donated to them or. Or it has to be like, you know, a thousand bucks that goes to someone who's coming over in November and you have to watch them like eat all this food while you can't eat. It's got to be punishing, mate. It's going to be something brutal.

All right, let's come up with something.

All right, I'm going to think about something. All right. And it's. It's gonna mess you up, man. So good.

So, right, let's get into. Let's do meme of the weekend meal of the week, because. All right, yeah, we've gone.

All right, do you. We'll do meal of the week first. Do you want to go first, mate? Because.

Play this video, baby.

You got a little something.

Play this video, baby. All right, for the listeners at home.

Hold on, two shakes.

This is home. We're about to.

I've got to.

We're about to play a video of a restaurant I went to last night. And this restaurant here is in Dubai. And for those familiar with Salt Bay.

Name drop. I went to his restaurant last night and it was phenomenal. I can't even remember what steak I bought was like some sort of like 300 gram porterhouse, something like that. Slithered it up in front of me. They slither, slapped it down. Play this video, Boogs. He's like looking. He's like looking at me while he's cutting it. He's like chiseling it up. Look at that. Looking at me. He looks staring at me. He's not even looking at the steak. Staring down and then just like locks it down. Look at absolutely tender medium salt over the elbow. And then he sticks on the knife, puts it up in the air and just drops it in my mouth. Oh, my God. And then I did a little selfie. Look at this.

Unbelievable.

I was like, yes.

You flick the camera around, you look 60 years old, mate. You look like all those boomers that take selfies on Facebook. Jesus, what a pause.

So see this shirt here, by the way? You know how there's an iron behind me? I spent 25 minutes trying to iron my shirt. I put it on, looked in front of the mirror and it was fucking. No shit. More crinkle than when it started.

Do you know how to iron a shirt?

Like, honestly, that's why wear black T shirts.

Oh, mate, you're gonna have to YouTube it or something. Jesus.

Okay, what have you got?

You should just wear it outside in the desert, mate.

What have you got?

All right, now, Ben, I've been sending you a couple of. Couple of little photos here and there. I've been on an eating spree, mate, and I only have to pick one. So let's go.

Just quickly. I've got to run in seven minutes, man. I've got a investor call.

All right, man, no worries. Let's start off with this. We've got a skewy mate.

Nice.

So this is double ipa. It's a Torpedo IPA by Sierra Nevada. Never had it on tap before, but I've drunk a lot of bottles. This was just, like. You could taste just like the mango in it and just, like, the freshest of the hops and, like all the sea hops, like, oh, man, it was just delicious. And it was about. Oh, I don't know, it was 7% or 9%, but it just drank so beautifully. Lots of carapills in there. You can see the beautiful head on it. So we start off with a skewy, and then we go to the restaurant, mate. Oh, one of my favorite beers. Suntory Black. Got one of those, mate. Sensational. Drink this. Or Ibisu Black. Amazing. Now, this is the first thing we ordered. So it's Japanese. Restaurant ordered some fried chicken, baby. So we've got some karago there just. Just to, you know, kick us off. Kick us off. And then, mate, this comes out.

Oh, my goodness, look at this.

Okay, so what we've got here, dear listener, is some sashimi. So we've got tuna, and we've got salmon, and we've got. It's got all these beautiful, like, you know, cut up, like, accompaniments with it. And it's got this little thing on the side, and they've got dry ice in it. It's just pouring fog. Dude, that looks everywhere. It was amazing. So the tuna was sensational. But, my God, the salmon. You put one of those pieces in your mouth and you can taste every band of fat just dissolve. It was incredible. This was sensational. And then. Then the meat comes out here. We've got the pork belly. It's just nice and fatty. Delicious Marble score nine Oyster blade. Thank you very much. Oh, Ben's video. We've got wagyu short ribs, which is just. Can you imagine being this cow? How fat you'd have to be. It's like 99 fat. This is just incredible. Then we've also got, like, onsen egg to like dip in with a bit of soy sauce. Just delicious. Here we are, cooking it up. Just chucking it straight on the grill there. Look at that. Just perfection. Cooking it all up. And, mate, there it is, just served with the rice. So this was yakiniku. This was delicious. And I'm giving this a nine out of 10, man. And the only reason it didn't get a 10 was because they didn't have that truffle oil dipping sauce that I love, even though it's truffle season. What would you rate? Salt, babe? What was that?

1.6. That steak was incredible.

Whoa. That is huge, mate. That is insane.

The elbow was. It was enough for me, mate.

Oh, mate, how good? How good?

Oh, have you got a. Have you got a quick kindness of the week or gratitude of the week?

Oh, you jump into yours and let me think about mine.

Was there something else you want to knock off before we wrap up?

Meme of the week, mate. Come on.

The week. Sorry. Jeez.

Let's do. Let's do meme of the week.

And of course, this meme of the week is you, mate, because last week on the pod, you had an insane cramp. You're like, oh, like smashing yourself, knocking your coffee over, knocking your mic over, mate, it was incredible. You got stitched up by the ape and bird guys. They were laughing at you. So here we've got. I forget his name from the Simpsons, but the caption is drinking water after a big night out. And Ben's just like, my goodness, what an idea. Why didn't I think of that.

Nice soft one. Got another one as well. We've got the red pill and the blue pill. The blue pill is drinking water. The red pill is pounding frothies. And Ben's just got his hand over 10,000 red pills just sucking down frothies. Then we've got the ascending clown. Ben's putting on his clown makeup. He's like, I'll just have a few. Then he starts doing his eye makeup. Maybe just one more. Then he puts his wig on. I'll go out to the after party, but I won't drink, guys. And then he's got his full clown makeup on, seen Greg rock up with shots, and he just got annihilated. And he was just a crampy boy the next day. And here's. Here's a couple of screenshots, mate. There's you mid cramp with your mouth open, mate. Look at that. He's like, oh, frack, look at that face. You're just clenching Your teeth and the mouse open again.

Can I just quickly shout out to. Shout out Greg, back to that meme who. I was actually at the conference after party dying on a chip. I was. No, was choking up my lungs on a chip. Greg's sitting there and he turns to. I don't know who it was. He turns to his right and he goes, ben can't die. Who's gonna pay for the drinks?

Priorities, baby, priorities, mate. You sent me a video of you dancing and it was horrendous.

And look, we've enough pasting. Ben, I've got. This is. This is the true meme of the week. This is.

Goodness me, that's tight.

Yes, this is the. The new king, King Charles. And he's got his sausage fingers and he's got that ring on the finger and mate, no one. Yeah, mate, he's got like massive edema in his hands. They look like chipolatas. And that ring is just choking his finger out. And the caption is, I'm giving the throne to whoever can pull this ring off my finger. How good.

I like that meme of the week, mate. All right, shall we do. Should we do kindness of the week.

And then wrap up really quick? So my kindness of the week. I was in Sydney, was out for lunch, just buying a bread sandwich of some description, like a Subway. But a local version lady comes up, was trying to order a sandwich. Her card wasn't working. She only had Apple pay, which was trying to tap it. Denied. Denied. She didn't have a wallet. I was like, it's okay, I've got you. And I just paid. And she was like that. The, the people behind the counter were like, oh my goodness, are you sure? She was like. She didn't know what to do. She just. It was like 12 bucks, right? I was like, it's fine, I got it. And she was like. She went really red. She was like, oh my goodness. Thank you. Like, she. It was like a very awkward experience for us. Like, it's okay. What goes around comes around. All good and that.

That's beautiful, man.

It made me feel good. She felt good. Everyone was happy, so. And she'd have to go home without a sandwich.

So good. And mine was actually a gratitude of the week. Grateful. Hilarious. After all the stuff we just talked about.

Grateful.

Grateful for my mindset, so just willing to give things a go. I'm very self sufficient. I don't always feel like this, but at the moment I genuinely feel like there's nothing I can't do and nothing I can't achieve. It's just a very strong mindset. Super grateful for that.

Amazing man.

Should we wrap that up?

Thank you, everyone, for listening. My name is Ben. Aaron is Aaron. I think you're listening to the Ben and Burke Show. Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If you like the podcast, please share it with a friend, colleague, family member, whoever you think might be interested. We'd love to hear from you, and we'll see you next week.

Fantastic. Thanks so much.