00:00:00
I'm recording okay you ready here we go Mark Mo welcome to my podcast thanks
00:00:23
so much for having me Dom um can I um start by sharing the little off mic moment that happened yeah yeah toally so
00:00:31
uh you were very courteous you you just went to um put your phone into flight mode and it was me who reminded you that
00:00:38
you're on baby watch at the moment [ __ ] so pigheaded I can't believe I I forgot
00:00:43
about that for that brief moment I think it's probably because I'm a little bit
00:00:46
nervous about doing the podcast and sometimes you know when you're a bit nervous you yeah you forget things are
00:00:51
you are you nervous so hopefully my partner and my wife doesn't see this cuz
00:00:54
she'll be like you're going to put your phone on flight mode we're about to have
00:00:57
a baby any day the DU dates like 5 days away it's your first baby first and normally come after the due date they
00:01:03
say but are you are you nervous about doing yeah I always get nervous about these things um we're sort of talking um
00:01:11
off mic before but you know like I've I've always been not the greatest Communicator verbally um I'm more of a
00:01:17
I'm a person that create uh communicates great with written word I can I can
00:01:22
write you the most insane email that will express my emotions and everything and then you'll write me an email back
00:01:29
and I've got time to Pro process it and then I'll send you another email back
00:01:32
[ __ ] it's a lot of [ __ ] you know not doing the verbal communication it's um
00:01:37
yeah that's the creative in you I guess it is yeah and I think a lot of um a lot
00:01:43
of creatives are they're quite sensitive people and they do struggle with communication verbal communication and
00:01:51
that's why they become creatives because the stuff or the things that they create
00:01:55
or the brands they create the products they create that's uh that's how they
00:01:58
communicate to the world yeah that Mak sense yeah it's quite yeah it does it makes perfect sense it seem
00:02:04
yeah it does seem like there's this big sort of Jacker position between this
00:02:07
amazing brand that you've created and um and the dude behind it because you you
00:02:11
are like I we know each other sort of briefly and passing over the years and you are you're like quite a sensitive
00:02:17
guy you wear your heart on your sleeve you've got this um this I don't give a
00:02:21
[ __ ] [ __ ] you sort of brand you know which is very black very skull and snake
00:02:25
heavy yeah I'm a walk in contradiction in that way some times I feel like it's
00:02:31
quite it's quite odd isn't it the sensitive guy but also I like I like the
00:02:35
rock and roll sort of aesthetic a lot and that can be quite dark and angsty and but then I'm very soft and feminine
00:02:42
and I think that's that's probably to do with my Heritage really and and my uh my
00:02:46
parents and how they were as people cuz I'm basically a combination of them um
00:02:51
of course yeah and if we break that down I mean my my father was a you know was a
00:02:56
rock star in the 70s and ' 80s and a wildly successful one of that um he didn't have anything to do with me but
00:03:03
then my mother was like this amazing artist and very spiritual and you know very sensitive and stuff and so yeah I'm
00:03:11
I'm the combination of those guys of course you are yeah and um yeah we want
00:03:16
to get into all of that I I just noticed you you took your jacket off and you've
00:03:19
got a tto on your left arm saying in loving memory of h mark Hunter Dad this is my first tattoo actually and um the
00:03:26
the the band um that you're talking about that he was involved with was a band called Dragon yeah and um the
00:03:33
actually he is he's the writer and the performer of one of the biggest songs in
00:03:37
New Zealand history April sun in Cuba so good um thankfully he he he sung um but
00:03:42
he didn't write the problematic song are you old enough yeah greatest but you we we we'll um
00:03:49
yeah we'll get into that it's a fascinating story because um he he was kind of an absent dad and and his um the
00:03:56
sort of apex of his success was I suppose when you were a toddler like three four five years old yeah um but
00:04:01
then as you were getting older he kept on like popping up again with um like songs like young years in the 90s yeah
00:04:07
yeah yeah so there's a there's a lot to unpack with that first um I'm get to
00:04:10
focus on the brand a little bit yeah let's do it so stolen girlfriend's Club
00:04:13
it's almost 20 years old [ __ ] it just blows me away to even hear that yeah you
00:04:19
know it doesn't register that often I mean sometimes you probably don't uh
00:04:23
stop to smell the roses so you're like you just the time goes by so fast 20 years [ __ ] yeah
00:04:30
what an achievement when you when I mean it is how have you survived when when there's um the the the fashion landscape
00:04:37
it's full of corpses it's brutal um how do we survive I mean never taking your
00:04:43
foot off the gas that's one thing um and then this is going to sound kind of bad
00:04:48
but I'm never I'm never content I always think we can do better um even when
00:04:53
we've had success I'm like oh there was something wrong with that like we could
00:04:56
have done this better and I think almost that's helped us survival these years
00:05:01
because we've never been content to just rest on our Laurels you know and a lot
00:05:05
of people do get into that sort of state and that's the most dangerous State
00:05:09
that's when people come and steal your furniture you know you're not even aware
00:05:12
you're just zening out and you're so like content with what you've done um
00:05:16
and we've never been like that we've always been challenging ourselves to to
00:05:19
always improve to you know we're on this quest to design the perfect product and
00:05:23
it probably never exists but you know that keeps you going and that keeps you working through I think adversity as
00:05:29
well because in fashion it's always going to be tough it's never going to be
00:05:34
easy there's no elevator to the top you know you got to take the [ __ ] stairs yeah well that's a it's a growth
00:05:41
mindset thing isn't it yeah yeah like just never being sort of satisfied or content totally yeah totally so so um
00:05:49
where did it start what are the origins so it was an art art exhibition you you weren't you weren't even thinking about
00:05:55
starting your own label there was a little bit of a thought there but not not so much not a not a a fully
00:06:01
developed idea as such but um at the time I was a I was a huge Aid Surfer um surfing was it was a big part of my life
00:06:09
and I had a um a snowboarding accident wasn't bad but it [ __ ] my back um lower back like l5s one disc um bulge
00:06:17
hitting on my spine I couldn't really walk that much it was terrible um I was
00:06:21
losing my mind cuz I couldn't Surf and so I picked up the paint brushes because
00:06:25
I remember kind of enjoying art at school and I was kind of good at it and my mother's an amazing artist um so I
00:06:32
picked out the paintbrushes started painting and then I was like [ __ ] I've
00:06:34
got to like I've got to turn this into an art show you know I could I could have a One Night Gallery and have all
00:06:40
these paintings that I've created and but I need a theme for that you know I
00:06:43
need a story um and so at the time when I was sort of thinking about the idea um
00:06:48
for this artwork that I was working on I landed on this theme stolen girlfriend's
00:06:53
Club because I'd always witnessed um my mom kind of dating guys that were kind
00:06:58
of douchebags when I was young and it made me always wonder like why do girls accept love like this you know like when
00:07:04
they're so much better uh and I noticed this with girlfriends that I would go
00:07:08
out with too and some of their ex-boyfriends would be [ __ ] and so I invented this kind of fictional group
00:07:13
this stolen girlfriends club that would steal girls away from shitty relationships basically yeah and that
00:07:18
formed the idea it was cute it was cute back then um and I did all these like paintings it was like acrylic on canvas
00:07:25
and um some of these like big window pieces that were from old villas with big word slogan kind of play and um had
00:07:32
the art exhibition that I mean the herald covered it it was full um Stellar Artois um sponsored it Red Bull
00:07:38
sponsored it and then oyster magazine and Sydney actually presented it so it became this big deal even though I
00:07:44
essentially wasn't an artist I was a rookie I was making it up as I was going
00:07:48
along um and then everyone came and and we sold all the artworks on the night one night [ __ ] crazy and um you know
00:07:56
the artwork wasn't that great but it was the idea people love the theme more than
00:08:01
the art I think and that taught me a lot right then about branding and having a story to tell yeah cuz you were quite
00:08:08
old at the time he like late 20s I love how you say quite old no it feels like it's um I don't know like I suppose
00:08:15
that's a late bloomer in terms of like having your first art exhibition 28 yeah
00:08:20
um I think when I had the art exhibition and you're right I mean [ __ ] I was a
00:08:23
late bloomer I've been a late bloomer with everything in my life you know I don't think I got like hairs on my ball
00:08:28
so I was like it was so [ __ ] embarrassing at school I had like this high pitch voice and mom
00:08:34
was like don't you worry mate when you're like 50 you're going to look way
00:08:38
younger than everyone else oh my God I was exactly the same I went to an old boy school and we we you know it was my
00:08:45
my best mate Matthew he he was a late bloomer as well and then one day P was like oh [ __ ] Matthew's got hair on his
00:08:52
balls now so I was the very last I was so self-conscious about it to the point I I I started shaving my underarms in
00:08:59
the hope that like whatever whatever wasn't there in the first would grow back quicker I'm jealous of you though
00:09:05
cuz you had someone to share that Journey with Matthew I was alone it was tough man we didn't have the internet to
00:09:12
like Google what the [ __ ] happening to me right it was terrifying out there uh
00:09:18
um okay so how do you go from having this art exhibition to becoming what do you do you start by screen printing a
00:09:24
couple of t-shirts what so at the time um we both uh me and my friend Luke Harwood we' both been uh working in the
00:09:31
surf industry for a long time and uh very disillusioned with the surf industry cuz it was just all about
00:09:36
selling units and making money and not really about creativity as much um it was about you know filling the stores as
00:09:42
full of stock as you could and then watching you know all the units fly out the door and so we were kind of like
00:09:48
[ __ ] we want to start something that's more about creativity and art and we
00:09:52
want to we want to make something that matters and so we're like [ __ ] we should
00:09:56
start a brand one day and this was just after or around the time of the exhibition and um so we're like let's
00:10:01
call it stolen girlfriend's Club because that name really resonated with a lot of
00:10:05
people and we need a great name and so we you know we had this idea to design the the best T-shirt in the world um it
00:10:12
was a little different to the one you're wearing actually had a really low scoop
00:10:16
neck really tight cap sleeves and then an unusually long narrow body that was almost knee length at the time we
00:10:24
thought it was the best [ __ ] t-shirt in the world and now I'm I wouldn't wear
00:10:27
it wouldn't be caught didn't it but have you have you still got one somewhere
00:10:29
like one we've got one in the archive at work yeah the the original first one um
00:10:34
but it was revolutionary at the time and it was the right place right time people
00:10:38
loved it um we also had a slogan print on it it was like a tribute to Frankie Goes to Hollywood Frankie says relax it
00:10:45
was like stolen girlfriend's Club says relax as as you're wearing today the
00:10:49
black on black version by the way I'm as you know I'm a huge fan of your brand
00:10:52
and I pulled this one out today cuz it's specifically because it's the oldest
00:10:55
shirt I've got I think the oldest stolen shirt it's what we would call Vintage
00:10:58
right like ourselves um yeah and so I mean we did the slogan te um we did a few just a few units but it was again
00:11:06
right place right time because slogan prints hadn't been popular since sort of
00:11:11
the ' 80s I guess and then they were about to they were kind of coming back around cuz everything's cyclical in
00:11:16
fashion and so we were at the Forefront of when slogan prints were coming back into fashion not that we had like
00:11:23
actively created that on purpose it was just again right place right time and so
00:11:28
the slogan thing blew up and then all of a sudden all of the magazines wanted to
00:11:31
borrow these two [ __ ] t-shirts that we printed and then before we knew it we were in every magazine and every
00:11:38
editorial and then we had the phones were ringing and going where can I get this t-shirt we hadn't even learned how
00:11:43
to do produ production yet we didn't have factories um so there was that and
00:11:48
then on the other side we were we had wanted to make jewelry for ourselves and we were struggling to find jewelry that
00:11:53
we loved at the time because everything was really masculine and we felt like super like kind of cliche rock and roll
00:12:01
like giant skulls and big snakes everything a little bit kind of garish and then on the other side it was
00:12:07
everything was really classic like beautiful like Tiffany's engagement rings and stuff like that and so we
00:12:12
wanted something that was kind of rock and roll and attitude but also had some femininity to it a little bit
00:12:18
androgynous and so that's how our jewelry was also born you know it was a product of that time you know 2005 I
00:12:24
think the year was and so we have this slogan tea That's popping off and then
00:12:28
we have this jewelry that just feels different to everything else that's out
00:12:31
there at the moment you know it spoke to a certain group of people that really kind of embraced it you you must have
00:12:37
thought you did you I mean did you think you were a genius like you know you you
00:12:42
had this you had this art exhibition then you thought you'd get into clothing
00:12:45
and suddenly it just pops off you must have thought so me now I was I was about to say no we didn't think we were
00:12:50
Geniuses but then I had to tap into younger Mark you know 28 30-year-old Mark um yeah we thought we were [ __ ]
00:12:56
Geniuses at the time um man you just think you're so cool when you're young
00:13:00
um you're out to get the recognition and stuff and you're out to shake [ __ ] up
00:13:03
and yeah we thought we're kind of geniuses but were you were like it worked like it reated straight away it
00:13:10
was a lot of luck too and maybe I'm big on intuition I've always had a crazy
00:13:15
intuition I get that from my mother um so there was a bit of that but [ __ ] we're still not Geniuses right always
00:13:21
learning did you did you think then that 20 years on you'd still be doing it and
00:13:26
I did believe that Y what I what I felt like like I was creating was forever um and I'm old school I I wanted to create
00:13:33
something that would last forever that maybe my kids could work out one day or family could work and yeah friends could
00:13:40
well no maybe something that friends can't work out cuz I've made that mistake too many times in my life oh
00:13:45
have you yeah like commercializing um friendships yeah cuz you mentioned um Luke before he was like your BFF are you
00:13:52
still is he still involved in the business you still mate no no we don't speak um we we haven't spoken for a long
00:13:58
time actually it's quite heartbreaking when I think about it cuz yeah we were
00:14:02
best friends I was the best man at his wedding and stuff and you know we created this thing initially together
00:14:07
and we were both both dreamers and and very creative um the only problem was we both wanted to be the same thing in the
00:14:17
company so we both wanted to be the creative director I guess that was sort of the skills that we both had um and in
00:14:24
hindsight if we had different a different set of skills that complimented each other it would have
00:14:28
worked but um yeah it was really tough like in the in the first couple of years um obviously you don't take a salary
00:14:35
from the business and I don't think we took a salary for 3 years or so while
00:14:38
we're building this thing from scratch and we're building it in the weekends
00:14:41
and and the evenings after work um and I think after the first year there was a lot of media retention we started
00:14:47
getting a lot of traction but not sales right and Luke made the decision to move
00:14:53
to Sydney to chase his girlfriend trying to get her back or something and he just
00:14:58
left me to sort of run this new thing which I'm running in my spare time you
00:15:02
know and it was a lot um and he just left and that was a pretty tough sort of pill to swallow for me um but I accepted
00:15:10
it and I let him sort of do that and then he came back sort of a couple years later and then we sort of let him back
00:15:15
into the business um and he was actually reluctant to come back into the business
00:15:19
in in all fairness um he was like you know I probably don't deserve a shot here because I've gone off and you know
00:15:25
chased the girlfriend while you know you've built this thing by yourself basically
00:15:30
and so we let him in cuz he's your best mate what do you do uh and then we got
00:15:34
another couple of years and then we started getting some traction then we were able to to pull small salaries out
00:15:39
of the business but mediocre at best you know you pay other people more than you
00:15:43
pay yourself when you're a startup um and then yeah he just wanted to move overseas again he wanted to move to
00:15:50
America and live the American dream but we were just never big enough to fund one of the directors chasing his dream
00:15:57
and moving overseas like it's just Hands-On when you're a small business
00:16:01
and you start up you can't have like silent partners and you can't have directors that are not working in the
00:16:05
business 247 yeah it's like dead weight in a way isn't it it was yeah dead
00:16:10
weight yeah I couldn't put it per um couldn't put it better than that but it
00:16:14
was tough and I'm a bit of a softy so you know I kind of probably let him take
00:16:19
a little bit of advantage on with that and me being soft and um but we had a mentor at the stage um this this lady
00:16:25
Penny Thompson who was she was a battle ax man she she ran um Estee la like austral Asia
00:16:32
for she was the only like female CEO that had or something like that for years and she was our Mentor at the time
00:16:37
and she was like this is [ __ ] we're not putting up with this you know she was almost the one that kind of um
00:16:44
pulled us in line and stuff and was often quite kind of a mediator but she was like look we just can't afford to
00:16:50
pay a director that's living overseas it's just not realistic um and I think of this was
00:16:56
when the the global recession the global cial crisis what we call it colling the
00:17:02
GFC so maybe 2008 2007 yeah 2008 through to 2010 was a really tough time because
00:17:09
we were we had like um representation with showrooms and like I think we had uh Tokyo London New York and Sydney at
00:17:19
that time so we were starting to do all right and then when the recession hit we
00:17:23
basically got dropped by all these beautiful stores like Liberties of London and restur and Tokyo um and
00:17:29
overnight we were paying more for our showrooms um and our PR representation in these cities than we were getting
00:17:35
back in sale so we basically folded the whole thing and brought it all back to New Zealand so it kind of coincided with
00:17:41
a lot of ways with Luke trying to like live that American Dream but we weren't
00:17:44
selling any product anywhere but New Zealand that stage we had to withdraw the business um it's just a realities of
00:17:51
doing business you know and I mean you have a lot of heart especially when you're a sensitive creative dude and
00:17:58
you're young and trying to like navigate your way through it but you've also got
00:18:01
to think with your head a little bit yeah yeah so was so when was the last time you guys spoke um so he came back
00:18:10
briefly and he was like okay I'm going to give it a go I'm going to work in the
00:18:14
business and we're like cool and he's like I'm going to be CEO cuz I don't
00:18:18
feel like you're doing that great a job I was like okay fair enough cuz say what
00:18:22
you're again I'm a I'm a creative trying to like run this whole business and do
00:18:25
everything and you know I probably wasn't that created it uh definitely working outside my skill set so he
00:18:30
stepped in for a while and then he got over it after about 6 to 9 months I think and then he was like [ __ ] I just I
00:18:36
don't like New Zealand and I want to move back to America again and then that
00:18:39
was it and then our Mentor stepped in and she was like we don't we can't pay
00:18:43
you a salary if you move we need you like all hands on deck in New Zealand right now it's a tough time for the
00:18:48
business um where cash flow like you know negative and yeah so it was it was it was a really tough time really tough
00:18:55
thing to go through and you know this is my best mate and um and we didn't talk I
00:19:00
don't think we spoke again after that when he he just was like I'm leaving I
00:19:03
don't care went to America never heard from again I think I we got a lawyer's
00:19:08
letter from him maybe 6 months later saying he wants out of the business it's
00:19:13
just going to sell to the first person it comes along um which was yeah which was pretty tough so we had to get on
00:19:19
this mad scramble to sort of um find a new business partner that would have skills that they could bring to the
00:19:25
business that would actually grow the business yeah crazy Journey it's it's
00:19:29
it's tough because there'd be something um be incredible journey to go on with
00:19:32
your best friend like you're like [ __ ] bro can you believe we're doing this but
00:19:35
by the same token if the if the relationship goes sour then you potentially lose lose a mate in it as
00:19:41
well the first five years were incredible like totally like ups and downs but some of the best moments that
00:19:47
I'll always remember we did some crazy [ __ ] together um we unlo we unleashed a
00:19:52
fire hose on this nightclub in Sydney one time at Sydney fashion we just cuz we were being [ __ ] and being a bit
00:19:57
cheeky but we were just like you're in your 30s by then we would always dare
00:20:01
each other through the most stupidest [ __ ] and we were very immature but we had some fun you know well that's cool
00:20:09
how how have you navigated the um your creative versus the business side of things because there's yeah they're very
00:20:16
different skill sets so and you you can't expect someone to be good at everything right and you're you're very
00:20:21
good at the creative side of things so how um how difficult was that it's been
00:20:24
a really tough Journey um so you know again being a small business owner and and being the guy sort of in soulle
00:20:31
charge I I did have to sort of run everything I to run the operation so doing the hiring and firing and taking
00:20:37
care of like lease negotiations and stuff like that and that leaves little time and room for being a creative and
00:20:44
as a creative having white space and like you know downtime is equally as important as like when you're doing the
00:20:51
work and coming up with the ideas but you need both um to really come up with with beautiful ideas that are going to
00:20:56
work so running the business there I was yeah I was running running out of creativity pretty quick I was pretty
00:21:03
burnt out I mean there was there was days where I didn't want to go to work and and you always you have this feeling
00:21:08
of being a constant failure when you're like not actually focusing on your strengths so I was spending all my
00:21:14
energy trying to be good at being like a an operations manager whereas I should have been
00:21:19
focused on the creative side cuz that's where I was good at and that's where the
00:21:23
business would benefit from yeah and get get a good get a good operations manager
00:21:27
and give them um like a can see how the [ __ ] they get on yeah yeah true so I'm not a good one for sort of
00:21:34
asking that question about the balance of you know business and creativity um and then there's the argument of um so
00:21:41
I'm all about creating cool [ __ ] right I'm not I'm not about sort of designing
00:21:46
stuff that sells millions of units that doesn't get me out of bed at the in the
00:21:50
morning um so that's a conundrum there as well so cuz with business you know
00:21:54
it's about the balance of Art and commerce you need both yeah yeah is that a constant battle you like you must have
00:21:59
business development managers saying you know fast fashion or you know yeah it's
00:22:05
a constant battle um luckily I have really good people around me um I have structure now and you need that you know
00:22:12
creativity still needs discipline and structure otherwise it just becomes [ __ ] Fury dust what why isn't that
00:22:18
your goal are you you just not driven by money or I'm getting more driven by money as I
00:22:24
get older um but this also part of me when I was younger you're almost afraid
00:22:29
to admit that too you know cuz [ __ ] he always hate that when you you know you you're sort of you know doing this for
00:22:35
for money um but as I got as I'm getting older I am like I want to make money out
00:22:40
of this but that's probably my sort of focus or Logic on that has shifted because I'm about to have a baby and I
00:22:47
think that that really puts [ __ ] into perspective you know it's not just about
00:22:51
me I want to provide for my family and I want to grow this thing so it can be a success and maybe one day we could sell
00:22:58
it or maybe one day it'll just be a huge family business I don't know um but I
00:23:04
want to grow this thing and I want to make money out of it yeah are you proud of where it's at I am really proud of
00:23:09
where it's at yeah it's been a crazy yeah as you say 20 years I think it's 19
00:23:14
years and a bit it's been an incredible journey a huge highs and lows I don't
00:23:20
know if I'd go through it again if I'm honest um but I definitely it's helped
00:23:24
to shape me into the person that I am today and I feel a lot wiser for it um I've got a lot of fortitude for it um
00:23:31
yeah yeah say if you took like a like a drone eye view on it over the past 20 years what are like some of the some of
00:23:38
the pivotal moments or sort of like Tipping Point moments um I mean our first sort of few years when where the
00:23:44
New Kids on the Block was pretty crazy and a bit of a whirlwind bit of a roller coaster almost like you you'd want to
00:23:51
make a film out of it it was pretty cool like our sort of not rise to fame but yeah it was it's very it's quite quick
00:23:57
for those days I mean this is for social media it was more like Word of Mouth you
00:24:00
know but we had this almost notoriety or we were quite Infamous we were the bad boys of fashion you know and media loves
00:24:07
to give you like some fire hoses and we kind of I guess we played up to that in a way cuz we felt like
00:24:14
fashion needed that at the time it was a bit stale and it was a bit it was a bit
00:24:18
elitist as well at the time and we kind of wanted to smash that down a little bit um so that was a great moment the
00:24:23
first few years and that sort of rise to almost fame um but then there's been
00:24:27
times along the way way that like I guess our first fashion um show at New Zealand Fashion Week when we wouldn't
00:24:34
really feel like we were a serious fashion brand you know and then they had invited us to Fashion Week and then we
00:24:39
had sponsorship on the table so we could actually do a show um that was an incredible moment for us because I
00:24:45
realized the importance of the brand and how we could bring people together you know our first show was there was 1,200
00:24:50
people in this tent it was over subscribed and the atmosphere was electric you know we' growing up going
00:24:56
to fashion shows and they were always very quiet um you know people were just sort of
00:25:00
looking at each other and seeing what everyone was wearing and very serious you know critiquing the clothes and we
00:25:05
were like [ __ ] we want our shows to be like part runway show cuz we're serious
00:25:09
about our craft but we want people to have a [ __ ] good time even if they're
00:25:12
not there to critique the fashion or they're not from the fashion industry and so we were like our shows need to be
00:25:17
half runway show half party half rave party half rock and roll gig You Know M and so there was this really electric um
00:25:25
atmosphere with the shows that we created so that's always been um a highlight all the shows that we've done
00:25:29
at Fashion Week over the years um I mean another highlight for me what I'm proud
00:25:34
of with the business it's going to sound a bit soy but sappy but um I'm really
00:25:38
proud of we created something from nothing you know and not a lot of people can say that I've always had the saying
00:25:44
like something from nothing thoughts become things and that's basically you know how to describe our brand and now
00:25:51
this thing that we created from nothing it it sort of employs 30 people and it gives them careers and that i' I take a
00:25:57
lot of pride that yeah you should it chok me up actually cuz it's one of the
00:26:01
biggest buzzers I get from from the business and I never thought it would be that would be one of the biggest buzzers
00:26:06
When We Were Young and starting this thing um navigating it through you know recessions and and pandemics and stuff
00:26:13
that's another thing that I'm proud of you know that we were agile enough to
00:26:16
get through some of that [ __ ] yeah that hiring that many people that is something to be proud of hey I think
00:26:22
that's something really [ __ ] cool um what what about the celebrity uh Factor
00:26:26
how how did how get celebrities on board like Teddy swims he was in the country last week I saw him in some stolen gear
00:26:33
too she's a is she a friend or a fan what's the relationship she's a good
00:26:37
friend yeah um she's one of my best friends um wives so yeah I said that like he's got multiple wives one of
00:26:44
us um wouldn't surprise me yeah how do these relationships come about are they
00:26:48
sort of organic like this like quite yeah they're quite organic um very we've
00:26:53
always been very happy gol lucky with that um that side of thing so we we haven't um since we withdrew from like
00:27:00
all our PR offices around the world and stuff we've sort of had to bootstrap it
00:27:04
and do a lot of it ourselves so um you know there's been a lot of good opportunities that have come from it
00:27:08
through people that we know those are always the best opportunities you know through people that you know I remember
00:27:14
there was this one time and uh I had a a stylist friend who was working up in Los
00:27:18
Angeles and she I think this was 2015 or 16 and she was like hey send me some stuff up like um you know on DHL or
00:27:27
something I'm doing I'm styling a um music video for the weekend like next
00:27:31
weekend and we were like [ __ ] okay he's pretty cool and you know he's got a lot
00:27:35
of um got a lot of followers and stuff so we we prepared a kind of a care package and just sent this up to her and
00:27:43
a few weeks later I was like oh you know how did the shirot go um how did our stuff look like in the shirt and she was
00:27:48
like oh so sorry we went a different direction um The Stylist the other stylist just didn't think it was working
00:27:54
for the video and I was like oh no and she was like but there is this and then she just sent me this photo and it's the
00:28:01
weekend performing with Taylor Swift I think the song was I can't feel my face
00:28:05
oh my God yeah biggest hits yeah and they were performing it together and he was wearing this bomber that we had made
00:28:10
on the stage with this crazy Panther on it and it was all that tapestry like woven it was like a Bogan blanket but
00:28:17
made High fashion and here he is wearing it on the stage and it was incredible and that went round the world yeah yeah
00:28:23
so when when that happens that must be immensely satisfying for you huge moment yeah and does it does it
00:28:31
reflect an immediate sales of that garment no no it's an ego ego boost really everyone
00:28:38
wanted everyone that's watching and listening has probably wanted me to say yes we sold 100,000 units um but that's
00:28:43
a problem with us we've always produced in really tiny runs and I think that
00:28:47
jacket we probably made 40 units in hindsight right we've always produced small small runs you know it's what
00:28:54
we're about it builds more value into our product if not everyone can get same
00:28:58
thing um so we didn't see a lot of sales in that jacket but you know it gets our
00:29:02
brand on the map and the world and and creates brand awareness and that stuff's
00:29:06
really important and you can't measure how far that goes yeah and I suppose good for team Morel in the office for
00:29:11
you and your um who else is there uh Miley Miley wore your gear yeah she was um wearing our sunglasses actually and
00:29:18
again that was through a friend of a friend so um amazing Miley was here U with her stylist and then it was a ma of
00:29:27
mine that was uh hanging out with the stylus in a nice way um yeah sleeping together I think and he was like hey
00:29:37
give me some [ __ ] and I'll give it to The Stylist and then she'll give it to
00:29:40
Miley and so yeah The Stylist came in and picked out a few things and then Miley was wearing our sunglasses and
00:29:45
stuff and that was that was pretty cool [ __ ] that's so cool and the kid ly yeah
00:29:50
um so that one was he this is the best one actually because we think that him or maybe if he's got a stylist they went
00:29:57
and just bought bought this from um our biggest account up in Canada uh in Montreal called Essence this huge web
00:30:03
store that we stock um and they they stock a lot of these Cardigans on there and so yeah they bought one from there
00:30:10
just yeah just like a regular consumer amazing most flattering thing yeah right that's a huge endorsement um do you give
00:30:17
a lot of gear out to people that you've never heard of and just on the hope it's
00:30:20
going to pop up like it pop yeah uh not a lot not a lot no we we like to cultivate relationships first so if
00:30:28
there's a mutual appreciation you know on the on the DMS and Stu we've got the
00:30:32
team that manag the the social media then you know and if the person kind of is right they got the right look for the
00:30:37
brand then yeah we'll start sending them some stuff and it's quite coolant quite
00:30:43
natural um that's been we could talk about your business and the business um
00:30:47
side of things forever but um I'm ke to explore other aspects of your life yeah
00:30:52
totally um and we were messaging backwards and forwards the other day and you were like you were like I'm I want
00:30:56
to go deep yeah yeah time you um yeah I do as much research as I can for these things but you are quite um enigmatic
00:31:03
there's not a lot about you out there no I've been quite uh secretive haven't I
00:31:08
haven't let a lot of people in why is that I've just yeah I've just always
00:31:11
been quite quite private um and even just with the way I communicate and stuff I'm not super outward like I guess
00:31:20
my work is what does the talking for me um even if I'm like with my friends you
00:31:24
know I'm not the one that's like budding in and and coming in with the chat all
00:31:28
the time I'm happy just to sit back and observe a lot and take it every take
00:31:32
everything in and process and I've I've always been like that like a kind of a
00:31:37
pretty chill almost quiet demeanor yeah kind kind of introspective in a way very
00:31:43
introspective and so I guess I haven't done a lot of media interviews I haven't
00:31:47
made myself available in that way or put myself out there so much yeah whereas I
00:31:52
probably should have been um but also there's a big self-confidence thing there or a lack of self-confidence that
00:31:57
would always you know in my own head would hold me back from wanting to put myself out there or why does your
00:32:03
opinion matter you know sit down it's quite funny it just goes to show you can
00:32:07
never you can never you judge someone from what you see on on the outside you know cuz everyone would assume that
00:32:13
you're this I don't give a [ __ ] badass just by the by the by the clothing you
00:32:17
produce but you are you are a sensitive dude but I'm the guy sitting at home
00:32:21
crying while I'm watching Shark Tank oh some of them are very very some of them are very very emotional aren
00:32:28
they oh my God I can watch that show for hours do you watch it on Samsung TV there's a 247 Channel devoted to
00:32:37
shark tanker is like Utopia Samsung TV are you [ __ ] kidding me it is the best free toar plat there's 24-hour
00:32:45
judge Duty channels shark tent channels whatever you want my God Baywatch me and
00:32:50
my wife were talking about the other day and we're like [ __ ] should we just
00:32:52
cancel Netflix and neon and Prime and just go all in on Samsung free TV there'll be so many people watching this
00:33:00
or listening to this they have no idea what we're talking about get a Samsung
00:33:04
um okay let's talk about your childhood so you you born in regand born in regand
00:33:08
uh born in Oakland okay um did a few years there um here uh first seven or eight years I believe and then Mom moved
00:33:17
me to Raglin so um mom was a solo mom she had me all by herself uh she was 20 years old 1975 that's going to show my
00:33:25
age Deone that's great um um she and my dad had been together for about 3 years
00:33:31
prior and then he had decided he was going to Australia to pursue the band um they were just starting to take off I
00:33:37
guess and he was really young as well I can't imagine what that would have been
00:33:42
like in the 70s and he was he had heaps of groupies and other chicks he was hanging out with you know very rock and
00:33:48
roll um so mom decided to have me her parents basically disowned her um so she just had me totally all alone all her
00:33:56
friends told her not to have me what the [ __ ] are you doing you're going to ruin
00:33:59
your life um and remembering this is 1975 no Playbook uh no no podcast to listen to No Tik Tok influences to teach
00:34:08
you what to do um so she just purely Instinct just was like no I'm having this baby had me in Oakland um yeah
00:34:15
first seven or eight years here and then realized I was deeply unhappy as a child
00:34:20
a little bit lost um very quiet very insular and for some reason she go she just thought I'm going to move to Regin
00:34:28
um this little Seaside town you know 2 hours south of here on the West Coast 4,000 people yeah can't imagine what
00:34:34
Regin was like in the late 70s early 80s there wouldn't have been much going on
00:34:37
though right it was pretty cool I mean I'm going to say it saved my life because why were you why were you so so
00:34:44
un happppy at that age I don't know Mom reckons I was always looking for something better and she said I used to
00:34:49
run away a lot like when I was little she reckon when I was four I took off on my trike and rode off along the Newton
00:34:54
bridge and [ __ ] and then the police put me up [ __ ] weird um but she was like
00:34:59
I was always hunting for something else and I'm not going to blame it on my dad
00:35:03
I'm not here to put blame on on him he was young but I I I I I've always felt
00:35:08
like there was something missing in me and I think that was maybe not having a father around um you know this is saying
00:35:14
like most of us have holes in our souls the Sheep of our fathers I love that saying and it's it's true for a lot of
00:35:19
people and I've always felt like that and I think maybe subconsciously when I
00:35:23
was young too just not having the father figure around there always felt like there was something missing
00:35:28
um but thank God you know Mom realized I was unhappy and a bit quiet and moved us
00:35:33
to Ragin randomly and that's where I fell in love with surfing and that's
00:35:37
where I I think I felt I found myself yeah I found this thing that I got really [ __ ] good at and so I I got
00:35:45
significance out of Surfing cuz I was good at it and in turn that gave me self-confidence of that makes sense
00:35:52
makes perfect sense yeah yeah it gave you some sort of validation yeah um yeah so you Mom let's talk talk about your
00:35:58
mom for a little bit Victoria Mo this photo I found online how good is that so cool look at what's up with your hair
00:36:06
that's like it looks like an actual helmet I was going to say it was a killer bow cut like the kitchen was you
00:36:13
know is like proper B no you called it it's a [ __ ] helmet it's perfect it's
00:36:17
so symmetrical so Mom was actually a hairdresser so she outsourced she wasn't
00:36:23
yeah so that was a that was a piece of art that one the helmet yeah yeah so she was so she was 20 when you were born 20
00:36:30
yep yeah and and so her relationship with your dad Mark so they were together for three years yeah off and on she
00:36:37
reckons he would always sort of come back fall around come back um and she always had a soft spot for him you know
00:36:43
she was always like that was the love of my life um she was like there's never
00:36:47
been a man like that just she she just said his Charisma and stuff was just it was all consuming and he just sort of
00:36:54
attract people you know well there's there's a book about his life called um
00:36:57
facing the dragon the life and death of Mark H and I I haven't read it but I
00:37:00
read some reviews about it online and it says he's um had this just crazy Charisma and talent um but said he was
00:37:08
like a had narcissism and alcohol issues so destructive yeah yeah really affected
00:37:14
people around him unfortunately so what was your relationship like you you you had a relationship with him no not
00:37:19
really um he he would pop in and and visit me randomly um when he was back in New Zealand on some kind of tour or
00:37:26
something I have this vague memory I think I would have been like I could get this wrong but I feel like I was about
00:37:34
eight or 7 or eight and I I remember that he came to visit me one night and sort of mom woke me up and was like this
00:37:40
is your dad and I was very shy as as you would be um so that was one of my earliest memories and then I didn't hear
00:37:48
from him for years he went off and sort of started other families and stuff like
00:37:52
that in Australia and and um got married eventually which is great and had some um had some great kids um yeah but he
00:37:59
was pretty quiet he went quiet from about the age of yeah sort of eight or n through to 18 or so I didn't hear from
00:38:07
him that's so sad yeah it was it was quite sad you it it breaks something inside of you so you you never feel like
00:38:16
you're good enough cuz you feel like you're not worthy cuz that person didn't
00:38:20
choose you um and a lot of people that are listening to this or watching this will relate to that you know it just
00:38:26
makes you feel yeah a little bit broken yeah like I'm not worthy and you have
00:38:30
that in your in your in your brain all the time and that and that sort of forms your confidence or lack of yeah cuz JJ
00:38:38
and I when we were married we had a like a an internal family adoption so um one
00:38:42
of her nephews came to live with us at four years and 11 months 11 months cuz JJ's brother who who was his the kid's
00:38:48
dad he was being incarcerated and um he this C it was F was heartbreaking for starters um he just had his had this
00:38:59
Almost Hero complex with his dad did you have the I had the hero complex it didn't help that his [ __ ] famous that
00:39:06
made it so worse cuz he was a hero to other people [ __ ] massive it like playing stadiums and [ __ ] and people
00:39:11
like singing all the lyrics and stuff and so I've always I always had him on a
00:39:15
pedestal but then that made it worse that he was famous as great man that everyone loved you know everyone would
00:39:20
tell me stories about him and he has this guy that this great man that didn't
00:39:23
choose me so almost like puts salt in the wound it makes it worse you know that's tough and and that's got
00:39:30
to be so tough for your mom as well like heartbreaking for her yeah I never I never really um opened up about it much
00:39:37
with mom um because she did an incredible job and I didn't want to Discount that you know but boys do need
00:39:43
their fathers as well you know just like girls need their moms and [ __ ] like that
00:39:48
but yeah it did it did give me a weird complex and it really attacked my uh confidence majorly but here's the weird
00:39:55
thing about it it also gave me this weird fuel so I turned into a fuel I'm good at [ __ ] taking lemons and making
00:40:02
lemonade out of it right um so I use it as fuel him not choosing me and me feeling not not worthy so anything that
00:40:09
I would do whether it was surfing um I was never naturally talented at surfing but I applied myself way harder than
00:40:16
anyone ever did to get myself to a level where I would be good at surfing be in the magazines be sponsored doing well in
00:40:22
competition so that my dad might notice you know that was why I did stuff and if
00:40:26
I started a fashion label I would do it cuz I wanted my dad to notice you know all that stuff wanted him to be proud of
00:40:32
me so inadvertently I it gave me this fuel but it also attacked my self-confidence so I would always be
00:40:40
quite quiet never put myself forward for things didn't really back myself in a
00:40:44
lot of ways um so I was like almost like that animal what does that doctor do little animal to push me pull you you've
00:40:50
got this these different motivations really shy and not confident and then using this fuel to prove to your that
00:40:57
you're worthy so trying to be the best at everything it's [ __ ] weird it is
00:41:01
weird um yeah and I suppose what you you've been through it's going to ultimately make you a bit of Father yeah
00:41:08
I think it will yeah yeah yeah cuz you understand early days yet but I'm ready
00:41:14
I'm ready for it and I'm excited to be a good dad um and I'm so lucky because my
00:41:19
you know me and my wife Lou we just have the most incredible relationship um I actually never believed that I would end
00:41:26
up with such an amazing woman when I was young and she is just it she is like so
00:41:31
hot as [ __ ] she's the most sexiest girl in the world but she is so beautiful
00:41:35
inside and she puts others first all the time and she just melts my heart what why did you why did you not think you'd
00:41:42
end up with someone so amazing it's that lack of confidence and um and just thinking you're not worthy
00:41:49
you know um I heard this podcast a while ago and they were talking about how everyone subconsciously has a question
00:41:55
that they ask in their head and that sort of and that forms their kind of their path in life and and I realized
00:42:02
that my question in my head was like how can I prove that I'm enough you know how
00:42:06
can I show the world that I'm worthy and that's been my [ __ ] subconscious
00:42:10
question I've always had in my head and that's that's led me to sort of where I
00:42:14
am and and how I've got here um whereas you know your question should be how can
00:42:18
I reach my true potential as a human being you know that's a more positive subconscious question to have in your
00:42:25
head [ __ ] it's seems like um yeah your your internal voice and mine are probably quite similar yeah are you
00:42:33
quite a bully to yourself at times [ __ ] I the harshest critic Dom like I'm so tough on myself man even if
00:42:41
I do something kind of good I'm again just I could have done this better and
00:42:45
that could have been done a little bit Slicker and um yeah it's [ __ ] weird
00:42:51
it is it's not healthy it's not helpful but and every time um I hear myself
00:42:56
doing it to myself I try and pull myself in but it still remains there luckily we've got wisdom on our side so you can
00:43:02
you know we're able to identify it a bit more now and cuz I I think that there's
00:43:07
two things and I want to I want to teach this to my daughter eventually when she's old enough but I'm like just don't
00:43:14
be so hard on yourself like this is one thing that's really important to remember don't be hard on yourself but
00:43:20
be honest with yourself and they almost contradict as well but they're two very
00:43:24
important things you know like don't fool yourself like be honest with your yourself but also don't be [ __ ] hard
00:43:28
on yourself cuz if she's going to be like half like me and half like Lou she's probably going to be a little
00:43:34
tough on herself some time so I hope that I can help with that I think that's
00:43:37
cool that's a cool lesson so um April sun in Cuba one of the one of the biggest New Zealand songs ever comes out
00:43:44
in 1977 so you're four three two two okay yeah so you yeah remember remember
00:43:52
coming on the radio or anything yeah um but I have heard it in I've heard it at rugby games all blacks
00:43:59
games I've heard it on the radio when I've jumped into a cab just straight off
00:44:03
the plane in Sydney um I've heard it at nightclubs I used to DJ it a lot when I
00:44:09
was playing um under the thing people of Paris we used to play that and that would sort of um get everyone going
00:44:15
pretty good yeah well it's one of the one of the biggest New Zealand songs ever and your dad wrote it and performed
00:44:20
it um there other big songs are you old enough and Rain which came out I guess when you were like sort of it was an
00:44:26
older one sorry a newer one and then there was still in love with you was a really great one oh that's a did you Dad
00:44:32
write that uh I don't know if who wrote it yeah beautiful but do you when you
00:44:36
when you hear those songs like what what do you feel is it sort of indifference is it anger is it a bit of Pride what is
00:44:42
it it's it's both not anger n I'm not angry that you didn't choose me I'm sad
00:44:47
so I get sad but I also get really proud when I hear it um so it's [ __ ] it's
00:44:53
quite a weird conflicting emotion to have Allin one um but I every time I hear his music yeah no matter where I am
00:45:01
um there been a few times where I've been kind of drunk and it's come on at
00:45:04
you know the half time of the All Blacks game and then all my friends that I'm
00:45:08
with they know the story so they're all high-fiving me and stuff and then there
00:45:11
I am like kind of reminising getting a little bit te and [ __ ] um [ __ ] it breaks my heart when you
00:45:17
say he didn't choose me yeah I mean that's kind of an honest way to put it I
00:45:23
guess and again I'm not here to like knock him cuz he was 22 at the time he was young and men are immature you know
00:45:32
Mom was 20 but and my dad was 22 but in maturity levels he's probably like 15
00:45:38
yeah yeah yeah yeah kids on the big scheme of things like that I'm freaking out about having a baby and I'm like 49
00:45:43
you know right it's a scary thing and I I don't blame him you know like yeah and
00:45:49
you you and I we've had a conversation before like talking about I think we were talking about Kanye at the time and
00:45:54
how you you know if you have like a genius like that you have to accept the crazy as well yeah you have to take the
00:46:00
good with the bad I suppose it was the same thing with with your old man it's
00:46:03
like you know this creative genius but also like an incredibly flawed human being on the other side yeah very human
00:46:10
um and and very broken in a way you know um so different to his brother it's
00:46:15
crazy his brother Todd who is also in the band just always seemed to me like he was very pragmatic and kind of almost
00:46:22
held the band together while his bloody brother younger brother was just out there tearing up hell and trying to
00:46:28
break everything apart that was almost the way I look at it he was a hell racer right like he end up doing some doing
00:46:32
some time in Mount Eden jail and 78 for I think heroine possession or heroine use or something yeah so he was tied up
00:46:39
with allegedly I think it was Mr Asia and stuff like that so there is um there is a character like based on him I think
00:46:46
in that Mr Asia um series that was on a while ago oh right yeah yeah yeah the like a true crime kind of underbelly
00:46:53
yeah yeah so as as as do you have a relationship with Todd um not so much I mean he's sort of tried
00:47:02
to include me over the years and I think I've kept my distance but there's a bit
00:47:05
of pain there and stuff and yeah my grandmother sort of um sort of welcomed me in a little bit over the years and
00:47:12
she just passed away a couple weeks ago which is sad but I think she's like 95
00:47:16
which is pretty good Innings um but I am I am quite I'm in regular contact with
00:47:21
my cousin so Todd's son James um Hunter who actually played for one of the I
00:47:27
think he played for the breakers briefly which is really cool and so while he was
00:47:30
he's from Sydney but while he was stationed here in Oakland um he just reached out and then we just sort of bro
00:47:35
down and and now we've got this kind of cool relationship he's back in Sydney
00:47:39
now and he's got his first child and we just always keep in contact over Instagram messaging and stuff like that
00:47:44
cool it's really cool he's a great dude what about the um your half siblings ah
00:47:49
no contact ever no no no does does it feel like there's a there's a party
00:47:54
that's missing or not really are you sort of over there now no I feel okay yeah yeah totally yeah that's cool and
00:48:00
when did you get the tattooo that was it was 1998 I think that's the year he passed away right 1998 it was um it
00:48:09
was 26 years this week actually so I was just looking at my Eyal for this week and um it was last Wednesday was 26
00:48:16
years since he passed away um which was quite crazy in this podcast and I'm about to have a child and I was like
00:48:22
it's quite weird all the the weird synergies or you know yeah yeah yeah I watched some clips online um so he died
00:48:29
of throat cancer which by all accounts was um sort of self-inflicted in a way through uh lifestyle choices um but his
00:48:37
his last performance on stage uh of April sudden keep was with John faram um and there was Colin Hay there from
00:48:43
minute work and Kate saano and a whole lot of people so yeah you must be yeah must yeah yeah
00:48:49
that was feeling for you yeah it was quite um that was a tough time for me with when he got the cancer because
00:48:57
I think how old was I [ __ ] I can't remember was 18 20 something like that I
00:49:02
get home from work haven't heard from the guy for years and years and years and there's an answer there's a message
00:49:06
on my answer machine that sounds old school on my landline answer machine and it's this kind of deep voice and it's
00:49:12
like hey Mark it'ss your father like and I was like holy [ __ ] just like crazy
00:49:18
moment to know how to deal with it kind of upset me a lot basically give me a call back um I wasn't really ready to
00:49:25
talk but we just started writing letters to and fro um and it was quite cool cuz
00:49:31
it was sort of on my terms and my time that I was able to sort of communicate with them and we took it very slowly um
00:49:37
and we just starting to get to know each other which was quite cool for me and then um I remember I was shopping in
00:49:43
pack and save at the time pushing the trolley and on the radio it was like um yeah rock and roll singer Mark Hunter's
00:49:49
diagnosed with Advanced throat cancer and [ __ ] I was you know he didn't even
00:49:53
tell me through the letters I have to hear it through the radio which was kind of of a bit [ __ ] um so I just
00:49:58
starting to get to know him and then it was like this throat cancer had coming and was kind of taking him away so that
00:50:03
was another thing that just kind of kind of crushed me a little bit yeah yeah you're right yeah I'm yeah
00:50:10
yeah I I can tell it's not easy to talk about even even now no but it it is therapeutic in a way and it's good to
00:50:16
get it out yeah what's nice to hear about that letter writing and that um like you know attempts were to I suppose
00:50:23
make amends or make up for time you know before it was too late yeah yeah it was
00:50:28
it was a nice it was a nice thing at the end it nice to get some contact UM [ __ ]
00:50:33
my last letter that I sent him it actually didn't reach him which was heartbreaking so I sent a letter off and
00:50:39
then um I remember I was surfing one day and this is the only time in my life that I've never been physically able to
00:50:47
stand up on a surfboard so I was surfing out at Manu Bay at ragam beautiful evening Sunset and then my flatmate
00:50:54
paddled out and was like Mark your father's just passed passed away and so I was just like [ __ ] I just had to get
00:51:00
in and it the first time I've P [ __ ] it's quite upsetting sorry it's the first time I've peddled
00:51:08
into a wave and and not been out of been out to stand up physically cuz I was so
00:51:14
upset and just felt like my world had just [ __ ] yeah just blowing up and so my last letter never reached him and
00:51:23
then his wife uh Wendy replied to me eventually and was like your you know your father or she
00:51:28
referred to him as your friend don't know if she wanted to admit that it was
00:51:32
my father but your friend unfortunately passed away and never got to read your last letter but I just wanted to respond
00:51:37
to you and yeah was [ __ ] quite sad [ __ ] you that's touching I've got a box
00:51:43
of tissues under the ID what I'm okay no it's just the lump in the threat it's um
00:51:49
no it's m it's uh yeah it's good to talk about this stuff it's cathartic and I I
00:51:52
have heard you in a couple of interviews um you know call him your dad um um and
00:51:58
as someone that um yeah has hasn't been unable to have my own kids but has raised someone else's um I feel like
00:52:05
it's very generous that you bestow the title of dad on him CU he is your biological father but I feel like Dad is
00:52:11
another yeah and I and I reckon that's only because I never had a sort of a father figure true Father Figure there
00:52:18
was one guy in my upbringing that was probably the most like a father figure to me um but I never really had someone
00:52:24
to sort of step in and and sort of take that role cuz I think if there had been I probably would have never referred to
00:52:30
Mark's dad yeah yeah and and your mom Victoria Mo let's um Shine the Light on
00:52:37
her for a bit another thing I was thinking about you and I are similar ages and um through throughout my
00:52:43
classes in primary school there was only one kid that was um had us was living with his mom as a solo mom was my mate
00:52:50
Craig like that's how uncommon it was now you going to any classroom it's
00:52:53
probably 50/50 I don't know it's no big deal um but back then yeah yeah we yeah
00:52:59
it must have felt um incredibly isolating like growing up like just being raised by a mom it was super rare
00:53:05
back then you're so right actually I'd never really thought about that but um
00:53:09
yeah everyone had a mom and a dad and I remember used to we used to cop a little
00:53:14
bit of flack like you know your mom's on the you know the benefit or the welfare
00:53:18
just kids are harsh man and yeah you guys have got no money cuz we were we were pretty we were [ __ ] poor but Mom
00:53:24
you know she always gave me a pretty good upbringing with what little she had you know we we might like move into a
00:53:30
house and it was a [ __ ] box but she'd get you know go byy paint and you know
00:53:34
she'd paint the kitchen and make it look nice and she'd make it look as nice as
00:53:38
possible cuz she wasn't down the pub like getting drunk every Friday night on
00:53:42
Saturday night like most of the other parents were doing so I was pretty lucky that I actually had a good childhood and
00:53:48
she sacrificed a lot for me but yeah it was hard in school cuz I was definitely and I I always gravitated towards the
00:53:56
the norise kids in school you know and um there was a lot of like um kids that were just from the wrong side of the
00:54:02
tracks in Raglin that just ended up there and I just gravitated towards them and maybe that was cuz they weren't
00:54:07
judging me so much for not having a mom and a dad or you know being the only child and your people sing My People
00:54:14
yeah so I always gravitated towards that and then that made that in turn also made me a bloody nightmare at
00:54:21
school but part part of that is probably yeah maybe you were acting out because um yeah there was this missing piece but
00:54:27
then maybe it's you look at your your Jean Paul that you come from like your
00:54:30
mom was a badass as well I I heard a story about her didn't she so she's from
00:54:34
um Hamilton didn't she she had hiked up to Oakland to see lead Zeeland so yes so
00:54:39
she's originally born in um in England and then they migrated to the South Island initially when she was very young
00:54:45
and then they moved to to Hamilton and stuff but she was always a rebel um [ __ ]
00:54:50
she was so rebellious she would yes so they were living in Hamilton this is the story and then she went to bed her
00:54:56
parents are quite strict very very conservative English um folks and so she she sneaks out of her bedroom window at
00:55:03
night while they're sleeping hitch shikes to Oakland to Western Springs I believe it is I don't know what year it
00:55:09
was and and to see lead Zeppelin she smuggles away over the fence all the way to the front and then um she's there
00:55:16
just watching Robert Plant Jimmy Page and she's like she she notices like Robert Plant's massive [ __ ] weapon
00:55:23
and his tight like Lether pants that's one of her memories I'm like oh my God
00:55:27
like that was so crazy I think she might have been 16 so like that says a lot about her when she was she was young and
00:55:35
yeah maybe a little bit of a a Hellraiser as well you know you never had a chance no half your mom half your
00:55:41
dad you were doomed from the beginning yeah I feel like that rock and roll um stuff is just flowing through my face
00:55:47
that's such a cool story was she quite strict growing up or uh no so she was um
00:55:53
she was very Bohemian with me and she has this philosophy where each generation brings their kids up opposite
00:56:00
to the other so she's like I was very Bohemian very boho with you that means
00:56:05
that you're going to be very Victorian with your daughter when you bring her up
00:56:09
I'm oh don't say that but I I see it in the way that I am almost with our our
00:56:13
dog Edy I'm like quite strict on her even though I love her I can be quite strict and so I'm a bit I don't want to
00:56:19
be a Victorian dad [ __ ] that sounds terrible I don't think you will be will
00:56:23
you I hope I can just be a little bit of both Victorian when I need to be um and
00:56:28
boho most of the time I feel like you'll be just an incredibly kind Dad yeah I
00:56:33
think so yeah yeah yeah luckily we've got Lucinda who's just this gorgeous
00:56:37
soft beautiful woman who will soften everything out yeah and I found another photo of you this is you maybe you were
00:56:44
like 10 here um but yeah double Denim and what are the shoes like red loafers orange Lo those would still be cool now
00:56:53
Dom those are looking those are so was um was your mom dressing you or did you have your own sort of no I have my
00:57:00
own Flo um I used to borrow mom's clothes a lot um [ __ ] I used to get Flack from this when I was young at
00:57:07
school too I used to wear not dresses and [ __ ] but you know i' would push it
00:57:12
and I was always had a bit of Fleer about what I wore and I understood from an early age that if you were looking
00:57:17
good you would feel good so I understood that that transformative power that fashion can have on you from an early
00:57:23
age not not dresses but we dressing sort of quite minely as a oh I remember she always had this um this vest that was
00:57:30
you know it was by this old New Zealand brand called Jag and I would always steal I remember Jag and then Jag Min
00:57:36
came along and it was like it's the min's version of Jag this was before Jag
00:57:40
Min it was an Australian thing I think yeah I can't I thought it was a New Zealand thing I could be wrong but I
00:57:45
used to wear that over my t-shirts and yeah so I wasn't wearing a dresses or
00:57:50
anything but you know some of my teachers way back used to think that I wanted to be a girl um and that's
00:57:55
probably just cuz mom was my role model and that's all I sort of knew and I was
00:57:59
surrounded by a lot of girls Growing Up So how old's your mom now God she must
00:58:05
be 69 right 69 yeah 70 next year M she in good shape yeah she she is so youthful
00:58:15
yeah my god when sometimes me um so my mom lives next door to us this is crazy most people don't know this she lives
00:58:21
literally next door to us and oh now yeah and so we bump into each other L right we do our morning walks in similar
00:58:28
circuits so most mornings we'll be walking along and then we'll see you know M walking sort of towards us from a
00:58:34
distance but we don't know it's Mom and I always think it's this young sort of
00:58:36
30-year old or whatever she just got so much energy and just the way she dresses
00:58:40
and yeah very youthful youthful Spirit youthful nature looks really young for her age yeah and are you are you good at
00:58:48
um telling who you I've seen some Instagram post that you've done where you've said nice things about her but
00:58:52
are you good at telling her like not so good um yeah sometimes on a sort of like
00:58:59
on Instagram and stuff um obviously special moments like our wedding um 2022 when Lou and I got
00:59:06
married up in barley I sort of gave this amazing speech but yeah I get that a lot
00:59:11
from Mom sort almost being quite Inward and not really communicating our feelings that much um and Mom's exactly
00:59:17
like this so when I did the speech at the wedding she was just crying I was crying everyone else was crying it was
00:59:23
it was quite beautiful um and actually I up with Mom yesterday and we went on a walk and we we had a really great chat
00:59:29
just about childhood and stuff cuz I was like I'm going on this podcast I am a
00:59:33
bit fuzzy about some of my childhood um memories and stuff and just wanted her to confirm a few things and we just had
00:59:39
this beautiful chat it was really cool um she was like I feel so much I feel so much responsibility for not being a
00:59:46
great mom and stuff and you know in the in my 20s I was still working it out and
00:59:50
I was just like [ __ ] mom you have nothing to be ashamed of or feel guilty for I don't blame you for anything it's
00:59:56
as far as I'm concerned you gave me the best upbringing you could ever give with
00:59:59
what you had and I'm [ __ ] lucky and I'm lucky that you chose me when everyone else and everything else was
01:00:05
telling you not to choose me for some reason you did and here I am today and I've had this great life and so please
01:00:11
don't blame yourself like what what do you mean she chose you well she could
01:00:15
have chose to not have me oh okay yeah so I always think you know when you're
01:00:19
you're pregnant you can make a choice to have the child or not and I think with
01:00:24
all the adversity that she was facing back then you know a lot of people would have chosen not I think I could be wrong
01:00:32
yeah [ __ ] I think back then you you had to go to Australia to get to terminate a
01:00:36
pregnancy so oh really okay she's like well yeah I wanted to get yeah yeah she
01:00:43
was saying she was saying yesterday she was like I don't know what it was but
01:00:45
every fiber in my my body was just saying have have this child and even though she was like felt wrong cuz all
01:00:52
my friends were saying it's not going to work it's going to be terrible it's
01:00:54
going to ruin your life and she was like I know why but I just felt like that just a maternal Instinct eh yeah is
01:01:01
there anything that came up on that walk that we haven't talked about that you
01:01:04
wanted to bring up or get out there no no I asked a lot about my dad and I was I asked her about well first I asked her
01:01:13
what what do you think like in terms of um characteristics or traits what do you
01:01:17
think I've inherited from you and and sort of we talked and it was like spirituality uh creativity you know the
01:01:25
youthful kind of young at heart kind of vibe and then I was like what did I hear
01:01:28
it from my dad you know and and we got talking and she was like uh you're Charisma you know he had this Charisma I
01:01:35
can't explain it um and then this sort of I mean this musical ear that I've
01:01:40
always had I've been great with music um and then also a very opportunistic nature she was like you inherited that
01:01:47
from your dad you didn't get it from me what does that and I was like what does
01:01:50
yeah what does this mean she was like you would you wouldn't wait for opportunities you'd go out and create
01:01:54
them you'd make them you'd almost just force them like she was like I remember
01:01:59
you were this young Surfer and you're hanging around raging then like all of a
01:02:04
sudden you come back and you like with this world titled Surfer that you've just bumped into and this amazing
01:02:09
videographer that's making the best surf films in the world at the time and you
01:02:12
just bump into them and then you end up spending like this week with them and like being in the film and stuff and
01:02:18
getting a mention and she like that [ __ ] doesn't happen to normal people yeah if you have that sort of
01:02:24
like that charm or charisma or that force of nature then it does open doors for you but it's quite funny cuz that
01:02:30
sort of is complete opposites to you know being um sort of introverted and lacking confidence yeah it really it
01:02:37
contradicts in a way doesn't it it does it does but I can see how the two the
01:02:40
two emerge together a survival Instinct where potentially you just need to put your out there it might be also part of
01:02:48
me just always thinking that there's something better out there too which is
01:02:51
a blessing and a curse but I've always thought you know it's like that Oscar
01:02:55
wild saying what ises that we are all in the gutter but some of us are staring up
01:02:58
at the stars and that that's me to a tea you know even if we even if I'm growing
01:03:02
up with nothing and no money I'm still dreaming of this world where I'm going
01:03:06
to be you know doing great things and probably finding some success and yeah yeah another thing that
01:03:14
um had never really occurred to me about being like a solo a solo mom in the 70s
01:03:19
or ' 80s I had a guy on the podcast last week Sean planket the controversial
01:03:22
broadcaster okay and his mom was a solo mom and he he he was tearing up like talking about the job she did and he
01:03:29
said she was sort of an outcast like friends that that she had yeah the the the wives you were weary of her cuz they
01:03:36
thought she was going to steal their husbands and that happens I remember that yeah yeah so like it's just another
01:03:42
layer of of [ __ ] or difficulty that like your mom probably had to deal with like
01:03:47
in the 70s or ' 80s and as a kid you don't actually understand that which is
01:03:50
so sad I do now when I look back but at the time I didn't truly understand it
01:03:54
you know about getting teased by the other kids you know well yeah everyone's
01:03:58
so self-conscious but also your mom probably shielded you from all that stuff as well yeah um which makes it
01:04:04
more remarkable the job she did yeah yeah um so let's talk about Lou yeah so
01:04:09
how how did you go what's the age Gap there she's still able to have kids so
01:04:12
she's obviously younger than you she's a lot younger than me Dom um so what are
01:04:18
you 49 yeah age is just a number um so she's 37 soon um so this a few years between us yeah um she just
01:04:30
keeps me on the straight and narrow she's a wonderful human being um she used to be my sales manager actually
01:04:36
that's how we first met um so she was we had heard we were looking for a salesperson and we were like [ __ ] who's
01:04:43
doing a really great job out there we just it's better just to go poach someone really than find someone and
01:04:47
train someone up and then we'd heard that she was an incredible rep for a brand called Roxy a surf brand oh yeah
01:04:54
Roxy Roxy were huge for a while with the slogan over the bum yeah yeah maybe 2005
01:05:00
everyone had a pair of those Roxy jeans yeah they were they were massive um so we basically just put an offer out to
01:05:05
her and she was pretty excited to come and work for more of a fashion brand and get out of that sort of mainstream surf
01:05:12
um industry so we gave her a job and then she jumped on board and then she was just amazing overnight just all our
01:05:18
all our stores all our stockers around the country just fell in love with her and she was able just to sell so much
01:05:24
product um but she had so much integrity and yeah people just loved her and they
01:05:28
trusted her and yeah so we um we became good friends through that we were never attracted to each other which is weird
01:05:34
and a lot of people don't believe this but we actually weren't attracted to
01:05:38
each other while we were working together and then she resigned after about 3 years and then that's sort of
01:05:43
when the attraction sort of happened and it happened literally like that it was [ __ ] up um I think we we'd had a night
01:05:50
and it was it was to it was the last sales trip basically to say goodbye to all the the stores and I was freaking
01:05:57
out cuz I was like [ __ ] this this girl's leaving what are we going to do so I
01:06:01
wanted to go on this trip with her and make sure that all the retailers were happy and they weren't going to drop us
01:06:06
oh my god um so I went on this trip with her and then it was it was basically a twoe trip so we' do you know North
01:06:12
Island and South Island I think it was the the end of the trip South Island something we just celebrated the end of
01:06:18
the the trip and had a couple of bottles of red wine and stuff and then yeah just
01:06:21
and nothing happened like there was no like nothing physical but there was just something in my brain or my heart
01:06:28
changed and I don't know if she felt like that but I remember the next morning I had to drive off early and go
01:06:34
to a surfing competition and um there was just something weird that had changed and just yeah I just looked at
01:06:40
her differently from that moment on [ __ ] hard to explain isn't that amazing yeah it's amazing how how that
01:06:46
can happen have you have you compared notes with her um no not really I don't
01:06:52
I don't no I haven't really spoken to her about that actual moment it was a weird M it was weird it was
01:06:57
when that um when Kane had dropped that album [ __ ] what was the one with the um
01:07:03
life of Pablo was it that album oh yeah life of Pablo yeah yeah um it was when that album had just came out and so
01:07:08
there's a song um on it called ultr light beam that I was just playing over and over and that that just reminded me
01:07:13
of her in that moment um so an incredible album incredible song that always to this day reminds me of that
01:07:19
that sort of yeah that moment where my heart changed yeah it is a great album are you a Kanye guy as well yeah I I am
01:07:26
I'm not so much about Kanye the guy but um his his art I [ __ ] love his art
01:07:31
you know to me he's he's a modern day David Bowie to me that's how I compare
01:07:37
him I was listening to someone on a Joe Rogan podcast and they've got a theory
01:07:40
about Kanye that he always tries to pick the most out there um an unpopular thing
01:07:47
to make it popular so when he first came out he was wearing like pink polo shirts
01:07:51
then there's the mega hat it's almost like he's like what can I what can I
01:07:56
what's the most uncool thing that I can try and make popular it's almost like
01:07:59
counterculture right so he's like has he's like got taken counter moves against like what popular culture may be
01:08:06
or popular opinion is and it's almost that thing when others Zig he zags almost and that keeps him sort of ahead
01:08:12
of the pack yeah it's quite cool um the music's bloody great I'm obsessed with
01:08:17
this music even the the latest the latest stuff he's done it's incredible
01:08:20
it's so cool and every album's kind of different in a way and that just some
01:08:25
people get over it cuz they just want they want the old Kanye um but David Bowie was like that too you know he
01:08:30
would he would get into this character like method acting every album you know get into this new character become Ziggy
01:08:38
Stardust and even his friends are like [ __ ] this guy's weird what the hell is
01:08:41
he doing but he was in this character living and breathing it for this album that he's creating and I think Kanye's a
01:08:47
lot a lot like David Bowie yeah I agree is ye's album the first time I heard
01:08:52
that I was like what the [ __ ] is this pile of [ __ ] like it just sounded like industrial
01:08:57
noise then you give it a few lessons and it's like oh this is brilliant yeah it's
01:09:02
really good very industrial that album yeah yeah so um what's the special um
01:09:08
connection with barley so you and Lou you got engaged in barley and then you went back there and got married by the
01:09:13
way how what sort of thought went into the the engagement like how long were you sitting on that did she know it was
01:09:18
coming had you disc no no she had no idea um so barley Barley's always had a
01:09:24
special place for us because she had never been to B before I'd been there so
01:09:29
many times in my in the '90s when I was trying to be like a pro Surfer for years
01:09:32
and so we'd go do magazine trips over there um and I always loved it it was uh
01:09:37
it was the first overseas place that I ever went to outside of Ragin um so I've
01:09:42
always loved barley and then about a year after me and Lou started Lou and I started going out together I was like I
01:09:49
want to take you to Barley cuz I want you to experience this place that that I love and [ __ ] man seeing seeing her
01:09:55
relive barley for her first time and reliving that through her eyes just made me fall in love with it and she just
01:10:00
fell in love with it and I'd never really had that with a girlfriend like had a place that was ours um and so yeah
01:10:07
barley became our place together our special place and so I think it was we went there two years in a row and then
01:10:14
the third year I believe was when I decided I was going to like get on one knee and and pop the question um so all
01:10:20
my friends there was a bunch of about 10 of us traveling together they had no idea um I was basically hiding this ring
01:10:26
sort of in my pocket and we were just on the um Cliffs at IL 2 and sun was going
01:10:31
down and I just pulled out the ring and just asked her if she wanted to be my forever girl and um she [ __ ] just
01:10:38
yeah broke down crying and then all our friends started crying and there was people around us that were cheering and
01:10:43
[ __ ] and it was it was cool it it was beautiful and it was I'm I'm obsessed
01:10:47
with sunset so it had to be at Sunset I love a good Sunset and so a couple years
01:10:52
later we got married and barley and again on on were two Cliff tops at Sunset oh that's amazing yeah it was
01:10:59
incredible it was one of the best days of my life um we had 80 people there I think we had friends that came from all
01:11:05
around the world this was just after um Co after the lockdown year I believe after 2021 in 2020 so no one had really
01:11:13
been traveling it was the first time we'd all traveled and it was this huge reunion and yeah I'll never I'll never
01:11:18
forget that moment actually think about a lot um every morning in my routine when I'm I'm practicing gratitude before
01:11:24
I start my day the wedding is actually one vivid memory that I bring into my gratitude yeah well let's talk about
01:11:32
that then what what is your morning routine um it's pretty yeah it's quite
01:11:37
different to what I used to be I used to be a bit slack um well I saw I saw a YouTube interview of you maybe like 10
01:11:43
or 15 years ago and um I I suppose that's the good thing about these it sort of time stamps a person's life so
01:11:49
back then you were living on like coffee in the morning and red ball in the afternoon and I I laughed when I saw it
01:11:54
because um yeah you're on a sober kick at the moment uh yeah I I've been a
01:11:59
little sober I've been not sober was it sort of like um pregancy solidarity sober yeah yeah I was you know there was
01:12:07
a time there where I was going out every every Friday night and I was I was getting you know pretty lit and sort of
01:12:12
you know a bit of escapism um and having fun you know I love having fun love I love a good party um but after a while I
01:12:19
was like [ __ ] you know like am I am I actually on the track on track to reach my potential this human being you know
01:12:26
like what could I be doing differently that could you know allow me to be better at work to be a better partner to
01:12:31
be a great father and so I thought let's just cut out the alcohol and see how I
01:12:35
go and I just wanted to I wanted to do a month I don't want to put a Time sort of
01:12:39
thing on it I ended up going for like quite a while I think I went for like 3 months and um it felt great I had
01:12:46
ultimate Clarity I was waking up in the morning feeling good I was getting to work on a Monday and and solving all the
01:12:50
world's problems and then so and I had a quite an unhealthy relationship with alcohol
01:12:56
it was for me it was a coping mechanism so I would I would get lit to be able to
01:13:01
walk into a crowded room and feel confident if that makes sense a lot of people like a crutch yeah a lot of
01:13:06
people relate to this 100% um and I didn't I didn't believe that that was a
01:13:09
good use of alcohol um and I wanted to I want alcohol to be more like special occasions for me not just happy Friday
01:13:16
um so just you know like I had a friend's birthday a while ago and um we got lit up for that and that was cool
01:13:23
cuz that's a special moment you know you should celebrate that together um but
01:13:27
there's heaps of Fridays and Saturdays that I don't need to drink and I can go
01:13:30
out and socialize with friends and I can just drink water or I can drink a zero ALK beer um so that's been sort of my
01:13:36
new relationship with alcohol and I feel like I'm in control of it which is way
01:13:39
better and then to sort of top that off I've I've kind of changed my lifestyle
01:13:43
with how I start my mornings and stuff so religiously um I've had a lot of back
01:13:48
trouble in my life so I have to work a lot harder than most to to sort of ward off the back pain so part of that um
01:13:54
that process is always going for a walk in the morning walking the dog we have a
01:13:58
dog so that's a great great excuse to go for a walk and what time is it an early
01:14:02
morning start or so yeah pretty early um I mean depending on sometimes I'll go
01:14:06
walking first or I'll go to the gym first so whatever I do I'll get up around 600 or 6:30 and if I want to go
01:14:12
to the gym I'll go to the gym first and do a workout or I'll do a a kilometer
01:14:16
swim and then I'll do a sauner and then I'll do 20 minutes in the sauna practicing gratitude so um being
01:14:22
grateful for everything that I have in my life um instead of [ __ ] worrying about all
01:14:27
the [ __ ] that I don't have in my life or being envious of others that seem like
01:14:30
they have more than me um cuz that's a big thing cuz then that steals your happiness right so I have to I have to
01:14:35
practice this gratitude in the SAA every day and that's after a workout I feel
01:14:39
like I've deserve it you know I feel like I've earned it and then if I haven't had the walk then I'll have the
01:14:43
walk straight after with my wife and that's a really special time for us too
01:14:47
where we have a great chat and stuff and we get some fresh air and get some oxytocin you know some nature nature in
01:14:53
us which helps and then we started day and we're more equipped to deal with you
01:14:57
know problems and and stuff like that how how good are saers I've only been on
01:15:00
the SAA bus for like the past year but it's a game changer I'm with you bro
01:15:04
like I've only I've only been on it for about a year as well um and I'm addicted
01:15:08
and you know the the statistics and the data on it through the roof you know there's there's a guy that I go to the
01:15:14
gym with and he works for one of the health uh medical insurance companies and I bumped into him when I first
01:15:20
joined the gym and he was like can I have a SAA bra I was like I'll come and
01:15:23
have SAA why not Henry thought about it and he was like you know the the data on
01:15:27
the research on saers it lowers your all cause mortality rate by like 30% you know so it's going to lower like the
01:15:34
risk of maybe getting heart disease or something like that and um he was like you got to get into it bro every day or
01:15:40
at least 5 days a week do 20 minutes minimum and so I'm just addicted to it I
01:15:46
love the feeling of getting you know getting into that sauner and sweating everything out yeah in terms of the the
01:15:51
the benefits for heart health in particular it's just through the roof what about um cold plunge you got to
01:15:56
cold showers cold I do the cold shower but only because we don't have a um we
01:16:00
have a cold Plunge at our gym and it's [ __ ] so shitty it's not even cold you
01:16:03
got to Chuck ice cubes in it and it's like it's warmer than the shower so
01:16:07
after this sauner I go and just have a cold shower it's way more effective yeah
01:16:12
yeah I I mean there's um whm Hoff and all this scientific sort of evidence but
01:16:16
I don't know I can't help but think part of it's Placebo but [ __ ] you feel good
01:16:20
after a like one to two minute cold shower oh it just wakes you up and and it's the first 10 seconds is always kind
01:16:27
of hard and you're you're doing this hting deep breathing and then you're
01:16:30
like wow it's just actually on my skin it's only just hitting the surface of my
01:16:34
skin it's not in my body and then you start to Zen out and then afterwards you
01:16:39
can just you know have a full shower and it's ice cold yeah it's incredible and
01:16:42
and it's discomfort but you know it's not actually going to hurt you it's just
01:16:45
discomfort it's a the the Gratitude thing you're talking about um yeah I've
01:16:51
I've started doing that probably about the same time time as what I've been
01:16:53
doing SAA like a year and it's been an absolute Game Changer I always thought
01:16:57
it was um I don't know like gratitude has sort of like woo woo connotations but it's it's [ __ ] great and whatever
01:17:05
position you are in life you actually you you don't actually have to look that
01:17:08
hard to find things to be grateful about eh yeah like even if you go real basic level like having a a roof over your
01:17:14
head or your people that love you or fresh water out of the tap to drink like you can take it down to a real low level
01:17:20
of things to be to be grateful about but you're surrounded by stuff um but if you
01:17:24
constantly chasing stuff you're you're always looking forward and you're never
01:17:28
sort of stopping to smell the roses of things you've got to be happy for here
01:17:31
and now you missed the magic right I mean and if you're not happy with with what you have um and what you have
01:17:37
around you and stuff I feel like you're not being open to New Opportunities and
01:17:42
and you know having new things and having more love and having more things you I mean you can be gratitude uh you
01:17:48
can have gratitude for material things too don't get me wrong you know you practice your gratitude you start with
01:17:53
your family and your health and wealth and freedom and then you make your way to your friends and your business and
01:17:58
all that in your experiences in life but then you can chuck a few nice material things but the key with gratitude is
01:18:05
your brain doesn't know the difference between you know what has happened and
01:18:07
what hasn't happened so you can trick your brain if you're on this gratitude
01:18:10
thing so I'll do half gratitude for all the things I have and then the next half
01:18:14
is gratitude for the things that haven't happened yet but I'm visualizing that
01:18:17
they have happened you know um like manifesting yes and so I mix the two together and it's an amazing spiral that
01:18:25
you get into you know and I'll Chuck a really nice car in there and and and you
01:18:29
know there'll be a few things there'll be a few there might even be a beach
01:18:33
house in there some some mornings I'll Chuck a little beach house in there at
01:18:36
the end you know and I'll visualize being on the beach and being with my family and and teaching my daughter how
01:18:41
to surf like I go that deep right I got to try doing that that's [ __ ] forward
01:18:46
thinking it's powerful man do half and half um and what about um have you had
01:18:51
any therapy or anything over the years I had a little bit um I had I think I had
01:18:56
about four sessions it was really good it was about my father um when was what sort of age uh that was
01:19:03
about I reck that was about [Music] 2021 yeah oh so recently quite recent it was this amazing guy Tony um he was
01:19:14
recommended um by a friend and they were just like [ __ ] it's really good to go
01:19:18
talk to someone especially someone you don't know someone unbiased who's not
01:19:22
going to weigh in with judgment or anything and [ __ ] the first I reckon it took about 20
01:19:28
seconds and I was balling my eyes out I walked out of that place going what the [ __ ] just happened yeah how did that
01:19:35
happen yeah yeah ex I i' I've had some sessions I put it off for years and
01:19:40
years CU I was like I don't [ __ ] I don't know where to start I don't know if it's
01:19:43
for me and then you you get in the room and you realize they're a trained professional so that this is what they
01:19:47
do for a job so they get you talking [ __ ] it's amazing something like like
01:19:51
the um the situation with your dad it's amazing how something like that you up
01:19:55
for yeah totally like I'm lucky it didn't [ __ ] me up more you know I'm
01:19:59
lucky I was able to use that as some fuel to get where I am now um I kind of put a lot of that on that that sort of
01:20:07
pain and that that fuel that I use that's kind of how I've got to where I
01:20:11
am in business and that's how I got to where I was in surfing you know not the
01:20:14
most talented Surfer but here I am in the top 10 every year and I've won national titles now and yeah it's cool
01:20:21
yeah um how yeah how's your siing now you want a like a an age script title A
01:20:25
couple of years ago you you had back surgery recently was that to rectify the snowboarding thing from like 20 years
01:20:31
ago same [ __ ] injury so damn had the snowboarding thing had a lot of trouble with my back L5 S1 so dis bulge um 2004
01:20:41
got that operated on they just cut the Bulge out cuz it was um heading on the sciatic nerve
01:20:45
basically 20 years later to the month they were like let's just clear this disc out it's completely collapsed it's
01:20:53
just mush got and cleared it out and then put a synthetic disc like a spacer in the bottom of my spine like a 12 mm
01:21:00
spacer so just opened me up went through the front it's amazing how modern like
01:21:05
science and medicine has advanced in 20 years so no longer go through the back cuz it's too much um risk with hitting
01:21:12
nerves so they go through the front and then they put this dis spacer in sew you
01:21:17
up I've got like the cesarian sort of Scar looks like I've had a C-section
01:21:21
through my tummy um and it's been it three months on the in a couple weeks it'll be three months since the
01:21:28
operation and U I'm going to knock on wood but so far so good yeah feeling great um the back pain that I was
01:21:34
experiencing has gone um I've had to be extremely diligent with the with the
01:21:39
rehabs I followed the physio instructions to the letter um you know doing like an hour and a half of walking
01:21:45
a day and then getting into the pool doing half an hour in the pool and doing all these shitty exercises that don't
01:21:50
feel like they're even doing anything but you know physio exercises they're
01:21:54
the wor [ __ ] that's so mundane I'm like is this doing anything um but honestly I
01:21:59
I followed it to the lad and I and I'm stoked I I did because I'm feeling
01:22:03
pretty great and we're almost 3 months in so oh how good about time 20 years
01:22:07
say how how bad was the pain over there those years [ __ ] it was terrible i've
01:22:11
been I've been taken to hospital um one time [ __ ] this is actually funny um I
01:22:17
couldn't move one night and I got stuck in bed and the next morning I was just
01:22:21
in pain all night the meds weren't doing anything and then Lou Got freaked out
01:22:25
and then she just called the ambulance I called 111 next morning they came and got me in the ambulance and these two um
01:22:32
small girls walk in paramedics and Lou was like [ __ ] they're real little like
01:22:36
they're going to have to lift them out of here and then they just pull out this
01:22:39
green whistle and they're like just suck on this I've never seen a green whistle
01:22:43
before have you seen a green whistle no it's this thing that the paramedics use
01:22:46
it's like this green whistle and you just Huff on it and I don't know what
01:22:49
the [ __ ] in there but I got up out of my bed and walked to the ambulance like two three minutes later and had no pain
01:22:57
and I was high on life it was the most powerful thing ever and I just I couldn't move was could not move it it
01:23:04
would hurt so much would send needles down my legs and then here I am just standing up and walking my ass to the
01:23:09
ambulance and then I go to hospital they do all these X-rays and [ __ ] and what
01:23:13
was that like morphine I don't know I should Google it actually should just Google what's in the green whistle where
01:23:19
can you buy it from but they didn't ask for it back and so I was in the hospital
01:23:23
room waiting for my x-ray and I was just just huffing it and then the doctor came
01:23:28
in and caught me huffing and was like where did you get that and I was like I was like [ __ ] what's wrong like the the
01:23:35
paramedics gave this to me like I haven't broken any laws and she was like they needed to take that back that was
01:23:40
so dangerous and I was reluctantly I gave it back cuz it made me feel amazing like my back pain went never never
01:23:46
experienced anything like that but yeah my back pain used to get so bad it used to just incapacitate me and I couldn't
01:23:52
work and um I remember people would call me creepy Jesus cuz I had the long hair
01:23:56
and I was hobbling around you know bent over it's quite a good nickname creepy
01:24:00
Jesus creepy Jesus yeah yeah yeah yeah um how are you with um with vulnerability are you you good at having
01:24:06
like real open discussions like with I'm getting better yeah totally I'm getting
01:24:10
the last like five five years I'm getting a lot better you know I'm I'm
01:24:15
honest with my emotions and I can be honest with my friends I'm [ __ ] lucky
01:24:20
I've got such great friends around me so many different friends from all walks of
01:24:24
life but I'm able to have really deep chats and you get a lot out of a deep chat right than being surface level all
01:24:29
the time oh yeah 1,000% when you start having those deep chats suddenly your your tolerance for just small talk or
01:24:38
[ __ ] chat becomes less and less you're like what are we [ __ ] doing I bet
01:24:41
that's um a massive case for you too because this is what you do for a living
01:24:46
yeah you you have deep chats and that's pretty much all you're doing every day
01:24:50
and so that would be the worst nightmare for you to go to a pub and just have shitty small talk yeah well I mean the
01:24:56
PA of these conversations like you I've just got so you know it's been such a
01:24:59
good saling Journey for me and you get so much from them and it's so [ __ ] powerful but it's um it's funny like you
01:25:05
and I S similar ages similar demograph and you yeah I feel like we're on the
01:25:10
same sort of path yeah and it often takes a while to get to where you need to be but you get there eventually yeah
01:25:16
and it's not a race and yeah you're right everyone gets here in their own
01:25:19
time you know and that's one an important thing to to know when you're growing up and stuff and you or you're
01:25:24
competitive or you you know you get there in your own time and yeah r% is there um anything that we haven't talked
01:25:31
about that you you want to bring up or um no I think we're pretty good I can't
01:25:37
remember all the questions about the business stuff I hope I'm I'm hoping
01:25:40
that we covered that off I'm just wondering what people out there would would want to hear you know that's on
01:25:47
the on the way here I was just say [ __ ] I hope that our check can help some people that are struggling with
01:25:52
confidence in a way you know like that's kind of what I wanted out of this podcast but then I was like what do
01:25:56
people want to listen are they going to want to hear about the business cuz you know a lot of people know stolen
01:26:01
girlfriend's Club um it's well known certainly in New Zealand um and then not a lot of people
01:26:06
know about me sort of personally Yeah well yeah I mean from my perspective it's been a bloody great chat and I I
01:26:13
think for these things it's just showing that regardless of you know where someone is in life um everyone deals
01:26:19
with the same [ __ ] yeah like I've had Dame Lisa Carrington on you know the
01:26:23
most successful New Zealand Olympian ever five gold medals and she deals with insecurity or you never guess it right
01:26:29
moments where she's like am I good enough am I doing enough and it's like
01:26:33
you realize if if she's feeling that then it's perfectly okay for the rest of
01:26:37
us um I will end with this one um saty funeral and people are standing around and there like is this is ble no no no I
01:26:47
had a guy on the podcast called DG Allen who's um like a multisport guy and he's
01:26:50
in Team New Zealand and he did some Adventure races with Richie mcco and he said in the middle of the night Richie
01:26:55
asked all the teammates you know what three words would you like people to use to sum up you at your funeral and for
01:27:00
Richie um one of the words was integrity and this guy dogle said it's funny because that would have been the word
01:27:06
that I thought of so what would it be for you three words three words to that you'd like people to throw around when
01:27:13
they discuss Mark more passionate would be one um creative would have to be a big one and I think Integrity would be
01:27:21
another major one as well I I'd like to think that you know um my friends might
01:27:26
have another opinion but yeah I think those those three things passionate creative I kind would be high on the
01:27:34
list as well you're a kind person yeah yeah I am very kind a bit mushy sometimes I thought you were going to
01:27:41
ask me what um what song I was going to have at my funeral I was like this is going to be interesting oh no what song
01:27:45
would it be Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here cuz I'd want everyone [ __ ] crying their
01:27:50
[ __ ] asses off oh that's a good one probably be up in heaven [ __ ] looking at them
01:27:56
laughing oh yeah is there a is there a heaven do you think there's anything okay so your religion's a weird one um I
01:28:03
I believe that there's a higher power I don't know if it's God um we we just
01:28:07
released a t-shirt basically it says God is a woman you know is she a woman is she a man who knows have you seen her I
01:28:13
don't know I haven't seen her um but I do believe that it's a higher power out
01:28:16
there maybe it's the Universe um and I do believe that we go to somewhere potentially better when we pass on I'd
01:28:23
like to believe that yeah I like that hey Mark Mo thank you so much for your time today thanks Dom thanks for all
01:28:29
you're doing in the space too mate these conversations are important