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Dion Nash Reflects on Business Journey, Cricket Career, Cannabis Controversy & More!

June 09, 2024 / 02:24:53

This episode features Dion Nash discussing his cricket career, business ventures, and personal experiences. Topics include sponsorship, cricket history, and family life.

Nash reflects on his early career, mentioning his first sponsorship with the podcast and how it helped establish credibility. He shares anecdotes about his cricket days, including nicknames and favorite music, and discusses the challenges of transitioning from sports to business.

The conversation touches on Nash's experiences with injuries, mental health, and the impact of his family's history on his upbringing. He also shares insights into his marriage with Bernie and their family life, emphasizing the importance of communication and support.

Nash candidly addresses the infamous 1995 incident involving marijuana, discussing its repercussions on his career and personal life. He reflects on the lessons learned and the importance of resilience.

The episode concludes with Nash expressing excitement for future projects, including a fragrance line, and the importance of remaining engaged and supportive in both personal and professional relationships.

TLDR

Dion Nash discusses his cricket career, business ventures, family life, and the impact of a past marijuana incident on his journey.

Episode

2:24:53
00:00:00
[Music] [Applause] [Music] D on N welcome to my podcast thanks I made it I'm so pleased this finally uh
00:00:33
finally happened I think it's worth probably um opening with um so the podcast has been going about two and a
00:00:38
half years now when it was um maybe a month old or three or four episodes in you reached out to me um for a chat
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about like sponsoring like real early on and you were the first sponsor I had on
00:00:50
the podcast ever yeah well we we loved it like you you got you're doing some
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great stuff actually I've been doing some research cuz I thought oh man I better see what you're talking about you
00:01:00
know I've got something to say um and so I've spent the last couple of days just
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watching the podcast and I I've loved it real surprise ones actually you know
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Matthew Ridge who knew you know it's like awesome just all those names from the past and people that you haven't had
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those insights so that was why we liked it at the start and you've continued on
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it's great no oh it's it's one of those um things that that I'll never forget
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you know so we had a meeting and um you you gave me a little bit of money and you said it's not a lot of money but I
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don't have a lot of marketing money but you know once other businesses see you've got a sponsor on board maybe
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it'll start a sort of tipping Tipping Point effect and it it kind of did in a
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way and I'll um I'll never forget that it's really cool thanks and I've been a
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big fan of views for um a very long time as you know there's even um I even emailed you a couple of times over the
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years trying to buy like a small share of your company I know I know we should I
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probably should have taken you up on that now no I I love what you do at [ __ ] and disaster and this is going to
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be this is going to be a great chat we can talk about the business stuff uh rewind the clock talk about the Cricut
00:02:05
stuff and but basically I just want to know what makes you tick really um but let's start with um these two little
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books I found oh yeah uh put out by shell Cricket called the Great Little Cricket signature book so this is uh
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this is um back pre- social media when you were playing Cricket for New Zealand and I suppose um people wouldn't come
00:02:28
and get selfies they' just get autographs right yeah yes very much so this was a profile of Dion NES so I've
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got when was the last time you saw these books by the way oh gosh it's been a
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while I'm pretty sure my mother bought one there's one somewhere floting at
00:02:43
home Margo butcher put these out she did a it was ahead of her time really like this is now you know bread and butter
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for sports people they do it all the time on social media but yeah I guess you know hard copy social media so I I
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thought I'll run through some of the some of the questions that were put to you by Margot butcher in the early '90s
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and see how your answers compare now 30 years on so nicknames uh nashy would be it now but
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back then it would have been Woody or woodshack or Dasher I suppose you why Woody uh Woody was um well initially
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when I went to University I was a bit of a cruel nickname cuz I you know I met this new bunch of guys and I was some of
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them were older Cricket guys who a couple years older at University than me so I was trying to fit in so I kept
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asking dumb questions so one of these guys Carlo daa nicknamed me Woody off chairs you know because I kept asking
00:03:40
dumb questions and um but then over time the rest of the cricketers sort of like
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could I it became woodchuck because you know how much wood could have woodchuck chuck whatever and then chucker and then
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all the sort of sort of the derivatives um and I think they I was always grateful for the net that they evolved
00:03:59
to a point where it moved away from Woody from cheers and into some sort of other but interestingly when I got um
00:04:06
picked in the New Zealand team when I was still at University I was I was 20 and um I got picked and I a whole bunch
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of people came up to me after I got selected for the black caps and they were like wow I always thought your last
00:04:18
name was wood I was like I was like Woody you know I was like um so anyway so I I obviously hadn't done my job in
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telling them my proper name so if you catch up with any of the the old guys from the '90s now does anyone still call
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you Woody I if I hear Woody called out I know where that person's from and I I I
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know I know them well yeah um favorite music oh yeah shoot well I jazz is probably if
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I had to pick one that I had to live with forever I would probably go Jazz um where I think back then I was probably
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fully into my grunge scene um I still like grung and punk and alternative music probably um been doing a little
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Darkness sort of di Deep dive of late I've been watching his um podcast or or
00:05:10
Channel Justin Hawkins yeah yeah and um I've been loving it and he's just sort
00:05:15
of got this really nice demeanor but I went and saw them live at the power station and what amazing musicians they
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were and so I've sort of like been I don't know I could find myself enjoying
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which is I guess a little bit Glam glamrock meets meets um grunge but um yeah Jazz I guess you back then it was
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blues and rock but you you've always been into your music eh you you you play
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guitar um yeah yeah well Define play yeah badly you badly I've um always I've
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got a Gibson SG which is uh I got from America years ago so which always reminds me of when I was growing up
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there was a guy in daral where I heard um a gr Nial Force scoop which was the most expensive bat you could buy back
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then um but he didn't know how to use it and so I was I I met when I bring out my
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SG in front of actual musicians I always feel like feel like that guy and I'm
00:06:05
like oh I'm always just sort of embarrassed that I've got it but um but I love it you know oh you you go right
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don't you like you've got a you got a fun band with um um Jeff Ross the 42
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below they still a thing the camel toes oh yeah in fact they're trying to get
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something going again now it's been a long time between drinks yeah je from 42
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below in Aquia candles craigan is one of the greatest New Zealand league players
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all time is it a threepiece or anyone else no we got another guy Nick Ross who's lead singer and he's no relation
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to Jeff but he um he's great front man and then um heus G from the Fiers has
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sort of like floats around um yeah in the background there and um Dave um Rollins from clap clap right Pops in
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every now and then and does a little sort of helps they they sort of help give us a bit of structure and support
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when we need it coaching the musical version of the black Clash there's a couple of very much so very much so yeah
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uh worst job worst job you had this was your answer by the way in the early '90s
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well my worst job over here was well would probably still be picking squash or working in my father's Timber Mill I
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can't it's it's a pretty fine line between the two what did I say then
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pumpkin picking oh yeah there you go squash yeah pumpkin yeah yeah right um best thing about being a cricketer oh
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this is going to make your toes curl shoot this is not a great answer God what did I say uh the best
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thing about being a cricketer would have been um the big lunches I supp like great lunches there you go you look you
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look back now as um as a like a retired former you know New Zealand cricketer and New Zealand cricket captain what do
00:07:40
you think now on hindsight from the perspective of a dude in his 50s oh shoot yeah early 50s Tom early 50s um um
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what do I think now what is the best thing that is it's a it's almost tougher
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to answer that retrospectively um I think the the the um expulsion of of of uh B the burden of sort of expectation
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and talent I think getting a little bit of that monkey off your back and the confidence I think that you gain from
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that is probably what Cricket offered uh enough that's a really answers it but in
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terms of the cricket itself I mean I would have to say the achievement of within a team and and within a group and
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I I did at one point our our era really got it together and the work that we had
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to go into doing that and understanding the sacrifices and the effort made to get to a point where we were were sort
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of a competitive world class side um it took sort of probably four years of buildup to get to that point you know
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and that then at lasted probably 18 months or two years before we sort of dropped off that form but the work and
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the team effort and the commitment as a group is what probably the the biggest takeway that is a great thoughtful
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answer I mean the easy answer would have just been to say like you the relationships or the friendships or yeah
00:09:02
whatever I I appreciate that I even saw um Chris kin on Instagram yesterday like
00:09:06
getting excited about the 25 year reunion of the 199 team oh good yeah oh so that's cats out of the bag yeah no
00:09:12
well we're trying to do that down in Wellington um yeah I mean well that's
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probably the era of the team that for me and maybe Kenzie and a few other people
00:09:22
that around that time that we got our we got our [ __ ] together you know and we
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prior to that we you know these photos in this era we were sort of a talented bunch of young Young Guns Young Guns you
00:09:33
know but we had no framework no guidance a lot of the senior players left in 92 after that 92 World Cup so we were sort
00:09:41
of left to our own devices to a lar extent we only used had one coach at the time and sometimes they were in and out
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really quickly so there wasn't the support um and so we just were left um so that era finally got it shipped
00:09:54
together in late 99 yeah so seven years after this and if there's one thing I
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really hate it's what what is it now what do I hate now uh taxes at the end of the financial years really yeah
00:10:08
God Oakland Council Oakland transport yeah um yeah slow drivers um I think I don't know what do I really hate I I'm
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trying not to hate anything I'm trying to be more mow in my Approach um I I'm
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hating how uh hard it is for me to change my own behavior that's what I'm
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hating at the moment hm what do you want to change I would like to sort of be calmer
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and less vocal I see I I suppose our interactions have only been sort of the occasional
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meeting or the occasional thing so maybe I haven't been long enough time with you
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but you you seem C and mellow oh yeah I I put on a good I put on a good front but no I mean what I what I would mean I
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yeah I think I probably am experienced mostly it's around my my kids in the Sport and expectations and sort of any
00:11:02
competitive environment I was such I was always so competitive a competitive environment
00:11:07
that I have no control over which is watching my kids place for example oh hello oh here he is Kanye hello
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Kanye it's JJ here JJ come in hey how are you everyone how's it going are you do you want to do you want
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to do you want to say good out for a second hey take over oh wow tell about your CLA to fame have you seen anything
00:11:34
Tom him yet hi Dion JJ he remembers me so that's a good start do you remember your first ever
00:11:45
interview on the radio oh no to remind me remind me thought you always remembered your
00:11:54
first well I probably do but tell me what did I do do I stuff it up badly no no it was uh way back in
00:12:00
1991 maybe 92 I was in uh tanaki working on nfm oh no I think I do and you came in for an interview and you said this is
00:12:09
my first time on the radio I think I do remember that now gosh that's years ago so we were been at
00:12:17
Pokey Cur Park that would have been like um one of those Queens I think we would
00:12:21
have been playing Australia that would oh my gosh there was a that's right before it all kicked off it's so funny
00:12:27
that you remember what what games you were playing when I just don't even remember that I just remember who I was
00:12:32
interviewing oh I remember I remember cuz um Alan border was playing and was and you poy Park is so beautiful you
00:12:38
can't forget it right and um I remember I walked out and you know when you're
00:12:43
playing in front of the absolute heroes of like these guys were like 35 year old
00:12:48
I was like 19 or something yeah and they were just like my heroes and I bed so meekly and quietly in the end of like
00:12:56
about an hour which i' done survived pretty well Alan bord said wellplayed boy or something like that and honest my
00:13:04
chest and my swelled like this I walked off floating on air was like my God spoke to me that's amazing was it the
00:13:11
Richard Headley days yeah he was just finished I think but Martin Crow was around and they are legends that was a
00:13:19
really big time in cricket oh yeah okay you he doesn't even remember interview I
00:13:25
do well it was really great to see you okay to it fine get your own podcast I like he was really interested talking to
00:13:34
me that it's fine I'll leaving with you dropped Richard Hy cuz that's the only
00:13:37
name you think obviously I don't know much about Cricket except you don't want to be
00:13:43
hitting the googly see you guys all right get out out um yeah you would have you would
00:13:49
have hated media commitments back then I suppose cuz you're the new guy on the
00:13:52
team it's like oh getting nashed to do the radio oh gosh I didn't yeah it's
00:13:56
like and you were just so bad at it like you know we were just I had no idea what
00:13:59
to say I remember I do remember after in getting infed by Paul Holmes once and I
00:14:04
was in London and it was overnight and we'd finished and he was in the morning
00:14:07
so it must have been for his radio and he said like something like um uh where are you and we're at this Cafe on Baker
00:14:13
Street called Cafe suie we're having a you know celebrating this game and and I
00:14:18
said oh you know it's where um Sherlock Holmes used to hang out and there was
00:14:22
this like really long pregnant pause when I when he must have been thinking does he think she homes is
00:14:33
real oh my God that's amazing was that interview because when when you played
00:14:37
at Lords okay we'll get to that that's going to be one of the to this day one
00:14:40
of the highlights of your life oh yeah for sure for sure for sure okay sh we've
00:14:45
been got qu now already I'll just there's a couple of other bits in this
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book uh best breakfast wheat bcks and cold milk coated in Sugar yeah which is so if you were a professional athlete
00:14:54
now and that was your answer yeah I mean it'd be good for potential sanitarium
00:14:58
sponsor yeah yeah um best piece of clothing ever owned bright yellow Daisy shirt that
00:15:03
attracts insects oh yeah I did love that shirt yeah I was trying all my see all my friends were we were all a bit fruity
00:15:11
at University right we weren't beer drinkers like most of my mates were all sort of I don't know bit more on the
00:15:17
Arty scene you know smoked a bit of pot and and hung out in in the park you know
00:15:21
they were sort of like so I sort of caught that that dress code a bit so trying we're always trying on different
00:15:28
shirts different sort of you know strange um Jack opposition that way between having those Ary sort of friends
00:15:34
and also being this like jock for lack of a bit attemp yes yeah I yeah I mean I I think Cricket probably lends itself to
00:15:41
it more than some sports and I don't know that like in some ways it was a bit
00:15:46
of a coping strategy as well I think you know a little bit of trying to make uh a
00:15:50
life outside or away from that competitive environment um and you know I I just found them really good guys as
00:15:58
well they you know they were into interesting stuff right you know so they were off on ski trips or mountain
00:16:03
climbing or you know doing going to theater or doing stuff which was just for my world was like wow this is crazy
00:16:11
you know and and and interesting so I I found it like a nice a great outlet and I still do you know like all of those
00:16:18
mates most of those mates are still my best mates today you know yeah when you look back on that guy um what are you
00:16:25
most proud of and least proud of I I I I'm really proud of that guy like that guy had come a long way you know he
00:16:32
come from dargaville and ended up at University and he was on his way just about breaking into the New Zealand side
00:16:38
at 20 uh life was you know I'd achieved a lot you know and I I didn't think of it
00:16:47
from coming from a you know a background that that that was tougher to achieve those things you know but you know I
00:16:54
just but um yeah I'm there's nothing I'm you know obviously as it turned out I wish I could go back
00:17:02
and give him some sound advice on how to be a professional Sportsman how to look
00:17:06
after his body how to um you know how to mentally get through it you know like um
00:17:13
not long after this I got about two years after this I got a contract to go and play in England for 6 months and you
00:17:19
know it that was a huge honor back there there were only 17 International contracts in the world so you know I was
00:17:26
it was a bit of an ego boost but also so a huge honor but I had no no coping strategy I had I wasn't fit enough I
00:17:34
wasn't strong enough mentally tough enough you know just it was just exhausting um and so it would be nice to
00:17:41
be able to go back and say Hey you make you're about to get some opportunities
00:17:45
here's some bitter ways to go about making these decisions but was anyone physically strong enough though like I
00:17:50
like the knowledge we have now in terms of strength and conditioning and rehab and everything else yeah no not really
00:17:56
and the ones that we got lucky I think you know um and you know I tried really hard when I went over there and it was
00:18:03
just so long like we would play and if you if you're in a successful team which
00:18:07
I was um you would play four day game and then in the middle of the four game there there'd be a one day game so that
00:18:15
meant you were playing for five days in a row and then for there was always a sixth day which was another one- day
00:18:20
competition and these competitions just sort of begin and began excuse me ended so if you're a bad team you dropped out
00:18:26
earlier and you got a bit more of a break but if you keep winning like we did meant you playing six days a week
00:18:32
for virtually for not for for 6 months and then quite often on the seventh day you drive to the next venue which would
00:18:40
be you know every second week would be away so I remember one day where you finished on a like a Monday or Sunday or
00:18:47
whatever it was and ended up driving to Durham from from London you know it's
00:18:51
like 7 hour drive or something so it's just crazy you know is that is that why
00:18:56
your back ended up [ __ ] just too much yeah I think so yeah I always remember um Tom moody this Australian West
00:19:03
Australian big tall guy he was the Worcester Pro and I'm I played against wora I did quite well against him and
00:19:09
after the game he pulled me aside and he just came over and it's just me and him
00:19:13
time he goes man you got to learn how to Bow within yourself you know and just slow down a bit go off a short run
00:19:19
otherwise you're never going to last and I was like I remember thinking is this
00:19:23
guy Aussie guy trying to stitch me up here and you know have me on and I was like but he's the only guy and the whole
00:19:29
time he tried to offer me some actual sound advice and I just wish I had a listened oh yeah yeah there's that
00:19:37
saying um that youth is wasted on the it's like too much testosterone or something man just yeah I did one of
00:19:45
those um uh Treasure Island shows years and years ago with with doly and he he was [ __ ] as well like there was some
00:19:50
nights where he couldn't even lie down properly his back was that soy are you
00:19:54
okay now yeah no I'm good now I am I am I've got a new hi just got a new
00:19:59
replacement so that's all good um but um no back wise sweet you know I think
00:20:05
generally it's helped me keep fit because you I I'm sort of conscious that
00:20:09
got to stay on top of my phys you know physicality just to avoid all those things cuz like doly i' had stress
00:20:16
frates either side just collapsed so those things never fully heal so you sort of just put up with them but you
00:20:22
sort of just become stiff and a bit you know that that fuses itself over time um
00:20:27
but yeah no doly was well we played a lot together doly and yeah we used to share our um
00:20:34
volaran dosing was like it was a bit like you know would dose up he he he always had doly was a big fan of the
00:20:43
ones that you put up your bum and I was like h i having to try them one and I was like a doly I think I just stick to
00:20:49
the swallow I'll run the risk with the stomach stomach off broo the suppository
00:20:54
gets into your blood how much quicker how much time are you sa oh we hit all down pet you know if you take an aspirin
00:21:00
with them it thins the blood gets through faster was like yeah sweet is that a true story yeah are yeah man we
00:21:07
were all sopping notes yeah yeah okay let's um there's so much about the
00:21:11
cricket stuff that I want to get into but I first of we'll focus on the the business stuff so um so you finished
00:21:17
playing Cricket for New Zealand then this I've listened to heaps of podcast you've been on and the story goes um
00:21:24
you're working out at a gym or something Jeff Ross who's um done very well for
00:21:28
himself with um eoa and before that 42 below he comes up to you and you asks you what you're doing did you know him
00:21:34
did you have a relationship with him or well it it it actually wasn't it wasn't
00:21:38
Jeff um it was his business partner um so um so Grant Baker was sort of like the
00:21:45
um um uh there was this they had this great sort of Duo and Grant Baker was the business head in the na um Steve
00:21:54
Sinclair was the sort of numbers guy um Jeff was the um you know sort of the creative so they were uh this sort of
00:22:03
magical um team so yeah so I went to a uh a gym with um one of them and then they just s said come on what do what
00:22:10
are you doing with yourself and um and I said I actually I'm going to a bottled
00:22:14
water you know I thought do this bottled water and um he goes oh we want to do a
00:22:19
bottled of water come on and and and meet the teams and he said WR it bring it bring in your business plan so I was
00:22:24
like oh yes sweet so went home went to my went to Bernie I don't even think we're married or maybe we were bit and I
00:22:29
said [ __ ] I've got a business plan was was there Google then or no no no [ __ ]
00:22:34
no no this is like know yeah 2003 or something yeah I don't know it was a long time but um anyway it was a great
00:22:42
introduction and met them and they they pushed them my business plan to one side
00:22:46
pretty much straight away you know and said oh yeah okay well let's have a look
00:22:50
come and do it with us we'll build the plan together shall we so that was a and
00:22:54
that was like business 101 you know it was just like coming inside with these hard notes some hard-nosed young sales
00:23:00
guys some really creative guys and just this energy of in sort of um entrepreneurial energy that was just
00:23:08
happening at the time in an exciting category you know vodka was blowing up around the world it was sort of you know
00:23:14
parties parties were sort of all involved all the time so you felt like it was like just fun um but at the same
00:23:22
time you're learning all these quite good business sort of things and it was
00:23:26
all about sales like that when it's sold everyone had to go about 42 below being
00:23:31
just a marketing story but internally the culture was so hardcore sales right every Monday morning every Monday
00:23:38
morning we'd have these meetings and it was like from the person on the front
00:23:41
desk to the you know accountant if you all expected to have sold something in the last week you know and and so it's
00:23:48
just either to friends or family or overseas and so it was a really good environment to learn and cut your teeth
00:23:55
in so what was your job there were you sort of in marketing no so we did did a water business and20 420 and so they let
00:24:02
me I bought I paid bought in 25% and they funded 75% and and we were sort of a subsidiary of the 42 and we would go
00:24:12
and try and sell it into the bars the idea was you know you people would drink of water every town every now and then
00:24:19
between the their drinks and responsibility corporate respons St to come in so we there's this idea that and
00:24:25
if we could call it the 420 water is the water that's in the Vodka so it's pure
00:24:28
driven snow and all that sort of stuff so it was just that was the idea um and it was it sort of worked quite well we
00:24:34
we're going okay um and then um it got sold with it got tagged along when they
00:24:41
bikard bought the the Vodka so it was a a good exit and you know after know two years maybe 18 months no two no two and
00:24:50
a half years actually sorry um it was like in and out you know it's like wow
00:24:54
this business Li it's easy did you do quite well out of it oh well I got tagged along so we were
00:25:00
all part of the 42 below shares we all had to buy into the big company and then I had to buy into that one and that got
00:25:07
valued um in probably a generous valuation to be honest because it was like let's just get this deal done you
00:25:13
know no wants to mess around so it was just sort of easy you know and I didn't
00:25:16
have to actually do like I'd done all the building of the business and The Branding and the selling and traveling
00:25:22
around i' done and sourcing all so I'd done all of the work but when it came to
00:25:26
selling it I just got tagged along so I didn't have much to do on that part of
00:25:30
it yeah I feel like this is part of your like I've listened to so many podcasts
00:25:34
over the last few days with you on and you you do seem to downplay a lot of stuff in your life is this oh yeah well
00:25:41
I yeah I don't know when when you've done something well are you good at at
00:25:45
owning it and saying yeah I [ __ ] did really well then or are you just a deflector well I'm from darville right
00:25:51
and it's like if you T poppy thing yeah I think so you just like I was conscious
00:25:57
growing up that do a sh off right and you know I you you stand out when you're
00:26:02
a sh in a small town in New Zealand and sometimes that's good sometimes not so
00:26:07
good you know and I I remember being very much aware of when I was sort of probably too late catching on that
00:26:16
I'd just push myself out into the middle of the ring you know with without realizing it you know what I mean and I
00:26:23
and then it's like ah SH now you know I've done it again you know um and then
00:26:28
you know sometimes I'd be able to box my way out of it and other times you know
00:26:33
there'd be too many people to take down you know so it was like so I think partly that forms it but then the other
00:26:40
part is like internally I don't know there's not I I think I I think I could probably do with
00:26:48
being a bit easier on myself that's part of like I think what I was talking about
00:26:52
before you know trying to re shape or reframe that mindset so that it's um um
00:26:59
you know less self-critical and and maybe U but it's it's also hard wide to
00:27:07
some extent you know it's hard yeah you and I are about the same age and um so
00:27:11
yeah being a blo hard was a thing the last thing you wanted to be was a blow hard which I I suppose part of being a
00:27:17
blow hard is like just talking yourself up about anything yeah well I just would
00:27:22
mine was more physical I would like cuz I was quite good at my sports or doing anything so i' I would always just show
00:27:28
off physically and and verbally but like physically mainly you know and then when
00:27:33
I when I threw you know when I jump on the court bare feet and no and everyone else has been practicing whatever and
00:27:40
I'd throw a three or something from on the basketball court and just you know I
00:27:44
couldn't help myself but tell get bit's face and tell them you know um and that
00:27:48
stuff like that you know just times 100 oh yeah cuz you were really good um you were just a good allrounder right good
00:27:54
at Cricket obviously um but good at rugby and basketball as well lot like Jeff Wilson a je waser well Jeff was a
00:28:02
amazing allrounder um yeah I mean Jeff was my com predator in cricket early on for sure like I actually to such an
00:28:11
extent we would been going at it from an age group he was the he was the number one allrounder and I was like The
00:28:18
Pretender up and coming almost he's a six months younger than me I think but
00:28:23
he was the one in the south is and then I came late into it I grew late so sort of all of a sudden I was challenging him
00:28:30
um and we just used to go head forhead you know and I was like it was great but you do something well and he instead of
00:28:38
him trying to put you down Jeff would just come out and do it better the next time you know and so then you were like
00:28:43
well I'm going to do it better and say and we ended up playing together at Taro
00:28:47
and it was like that and it was such a healthy competition I've never known anyone any competition of after that
00:28:52
that was as healthy as that cuz he just he had this inner belief that he was so good when you did he'll do it better the
00:28:59
next time um and so we used to we used to beat teams by us two Fielding at Mid on and mid off in cricket and just being
00:29:06
we would just compete each other like he'd dive for a ball and miss it by six
00:29:10
feet right and I'd be like what are you doing a show off and then eventually
00:29:14
he'd do the same thing and then he'd get a fingertip to it he'd jump up run after
00:29:18
it pick it up throw and run the guy out and I'd be like so then I'd have to try
00:29:22
and do the same you know and so you just we were just competing each other we weren't even worried about the opp we
00:29:28
were playing so when he got picked for the All Blacks it was just like it was like a I didn't even see it coming I was
00:29:33
like oh my God this like guy's been pulled out of my life who I've been competing with and um and yeah obviously
00:29:40
is a great rugby player as well great all black yeah it's it's mind-blowing
00:29:44
really okay Alo back to the business stuff so yes so 42 below sales to bikard um you still work on bikard though right
00:29:52
I and I heard a story this is where the idea of um getting into skare came about
00:29:57
some dude in a new York moisturizing his hands yeah well I sort of like I did I I
00:30:01
left when the guys left so we all you know got got out um and then um they the guys set up a thing called the bakery
00:30:09
and they invested in about five businesses and I invested in one which was a a a outerwear sort of a like a
00:30:16
gortex a natural gortex out ofwar using Marino wall anyway the um after about a year the science of it failed we
00:30:23
couldn't get enough hydrostatic head and so it sort of we just de we've lost lost on that one so we'll
00:30:31
do that and I got sort of they asked me to come into the beer and I was like ah actually I'm sick of doing alcohol so I
00:30:38
just sort of said oh no I'll step aside and um at that time bardi needed a marketing director so they said oh well
00:30:45
would you like to come back in and work in the marketing for and and you know work under bicat so I was like yeah it
00:30:51
sounds interesting and so I did that for 3 years after after from there and um probably learned more about what what
00:31:01
not to do or just like you know how different corporate life is to ENT entrepreneur life but I it was equally
00:31:08
it was probably ultimately a bit frustrating so it's trying to make a decision within a big corporate
00:31:13
structure that I found really hard you know um so much red tape and you take a rainbow and you know everyone would feel
00:31:22
compelled to add a new color to it or to just change the colors a little bit slightly and so by the time you got to
00:31:27
the end of of it you sort of had this gray cloud because everyone had messed with it you know and it's like trying to
00:31:33
get that idea through that is really was really hard within that environment um and I I but I sort of found it
00:31:40
challenging but I learned a lot um and I sort of also learned the confidence to realize I knew enough about business at
00:31:47
that point too you know it was almost like an endorsement of what I'd learned
00:31:51
with the entrepreneurial guys because I I was able to walk into meetings with guys with double NBAs and hold my own
00:31:56
and you know bounce back ideas and and because I worked on the street selling and doing all of that I sort of knew the
00:32:04
business Inside Out whereas some of them had come in at top level and didn't
00:32:08
really um they knew the theory and they had jobs above me but you know having that confidence of knowing what I was
00:32:14
talking about was was gold so so why skare yeah such a random thing did you have the idea so Random back then well
00:32:24
it was random well mainly because I was trying to find something to do myself I want the challenge was I was I was
00:32:30
ultimately bored that bicardi asked me to move to London um and live over there and at that stage we had I think one if
00:32:36
not two kids very young and I just thought I'm going to be on a plane the whole time away Bernie's going to be
00:32:42
stuck in London by herself with two kids um you know it's not conducive I'd
00:32:46
already lived in the UK um and I just thought I I'm not super inspired about
00:32:51
being in this job you know and I was like if I'm going to ever leave I was still in my 30s um if I'm ever going to
00:32:59
leave and have a go do my own business it's now and ever so I sort of took redundancy instead and left and um uh
00:33:06
when and the last the the story you were referencing my last meeting was with a agency was in New York and um it's about
00:33:15
probably 2009 I guess and there's this the coolest guy in the room was this guy
00:33:19
with a waste coat and a sort of a um sleeve ttoo you know and about halfway through the meeting he pulled out a
00:33:26
woman's hand cream you know and sort of like rubbed it on his hands and I was
00:33:30
like what the heck I was like and I sort of just I guess just pondered on that on
00:33:35
the way home and it was like I mean I've always used moisturizer cuz of cricket
00:33:40
you know we're in the sun I remember find reading an article on Rod Stewart and and how the secret of his Youth and
00:33:48
he said are you always wear Oil of Olay you know and I was like [ __ ] my mom's
00:33:52
got some of that so I remember like filing through her cabinet when I was about 18 finding this pink pot of oil of
00:33:57
o and going little do you know and hiding it in my Cricket coffin I nearly got busted by Ken raford when I was
00:34:04
playing at at Taro he would have been I thought he was this grizzly old guy thinking back he must have been about 32
00:34:09
you know but like I was like I was like about 19 18 and I'm I'm sitting in the
00:34:15
in carisbrook back then you used to have to come under as old carisbrook and the
00:34:20
the the dressing room was up the top up the stairs and at the back and and um so
00:34:25
it's quite a long walk and Ken was a 10 throw really bad and so he we' just
00:34:30
finished bowling he had opened the beding got out cheaply and um I'm I'd
00:34:34
been in the shower so was oblivious to all of this so I've got out of the shower and I'm dipped my hand into this
00:34:39
pink pot of moisturizer and I'm mid downstroke and um the door slams open and his back goes flying across smashes
00:34:49
into the opposition opposite wall and then Ken just sort of stops and he looks at me as I'm like uh you know put my
00:34:55
hand on my face he goes what are you freaking doing and I was like he goes why you putting sunscreen
00:35:01
on this time of day and I was like never never be too safe again and all I going think was so far
00:35:11
outside his framework that I could be putting a moisturizer on you know it's
00:35:14
hard to tag him in it was like it didn't even exist to him so I was like that's
00:35:18
the only thing that saved it so I always thought if I could build something that
00:35:22
was cool enough that if Ken ruford caught me using it it wouldn't be the end of the world cuz it was was so
00:35:28
Innovative at the but by the way that's an interesting story like um we'll get
00:35:31
into more of that with the cricket stuff cuz it's um interesting how different
00:35:34
people react and I feel like Behavior like that probably wouldn't be acceptable now um it's probably still
00:35:40
the odd one yeah but yeah but um like it it doesn't seem very Innovative now
00:35:45
under the 2024 lens but you I mean there's so many competitors as you'd know better than anyone but back then
00:35:50
I've always been a moisturizer guy but I think there was um maybe a limited Clarance range or L'Oreal perhaps for me
00:35:56
but there was [ __ ] all right yeah yeah and what I found actually weirdly cuz I
00:36:00
used it because it really did help in cricket right you're in the Sun the whole time like you so you'd come in and
00:36:05
after a full day in the Sun and you're just like wanted some relief and that's
00:36:09
why I I used it and then you to get this then it extended to getting the sunscreen off you just used a scrub or I
00:36:15
remember there's a Blackmore scrub which they don't make anymore and I remember
00:36:19
going when I finally realized it was selling out I went around to about four chemists and tried to buy up these
00:36:23
things oh like a facial scrub yeah and I was like and cuz they didn't have it and
00:36:26
I was just like so good to clean all that [ __ ] off your face and then to moist but I remember like buying all the
00:36:32
expensive ones as I got as I start earn money i' buy start buying expensive ones
00:36:37
or boring girlfriend's ones or stuff and I just found that actually the way A guy
00:36:41
uses it I want it on and gone I wanted to slap it on I want instant hydration you know which oil of ol was awesome for
00:36:48
um and so I was like man that's the so I sort of stuck with that and then when it
00:36:52
came to developing the product and the range I was like man I've got this sort
00:36:55
of industrial knowledge if I just applied it and then applied The Branding and the marketing side that
00:37:02
I'd learned at 42 I thought you know if I'm into it maybe there's a market there
00:37:07
that was sort of the extent I if I if I did it all again I think I would probably challenge myself harder around
00:37:14
you know the like the perfect I'd start with the biggest possible field of of
00:37:20
who can buy this thing and then work backwards from there you know and because the perfect business is
00:37:26
something that you could only you can make and it's one product and everyone
00:37:30
in the world needs it all the time you know so if that's the if that's the
00:37:34
perfect business yeah you know sort of like you want to sort of like keep as much of that in in the framework as
00:37:41
possible yeah but I mean your products are cool and they're very good as well
00:37:44
yeah thank you I love them I I think early on I messaged you as like have you considered doing an under ey serum so I
00:37:52
think I've been more forward than maybe your average customer oh no we've
00:37:55
appreciated your feedback all all the all the time actually so no we've got a
00:37:59
long long history of every time your you would pop up on the online order where people would run up do is purchased yeah
00:38:06
I I love giving it as um gifts they're just great products um yeah yeah it just seems like such a
00:38:14
fascinating thing to get into like you wouldn't know where to where to start um
00:38:17
but you you look back now so how old's the company now 13 yeah now 13th yeah
00:38:23
are you happy with the name you chose you happy with everything else oh I would do loads of things differ I love
00:38:30
the name um the name's personal to me comes from that red Kipling po if which
00:38:35
my dad who just passed away actually um he gave it to me when I was about 13 I wasn't the great I was a I was a mouthy
00:38:42
Lippy shitty son for most of my teenage years so and he was a stoic farmer so we
00:38:48
didn't talk a lot and um I remember him coming home from Oakland just throwing
00:38:52
this plaque down on my bed one day and saying rude that boy and I sort of graffi all around the outside of it um
00:38:59
but I hadn't I didn't touch the poem and it was such a beautiful poem with all
00:39:03
these wonderful pieces of advice you know um one of which is if you can meet with Triumph and disaster and treat
00:39:08
those two imposters the same um but it's all these other things like you know if
00:39:12
you can walk with Kings and not lose a common touch if you can you know Heap up all of your winnings and risk it on one
00:39:19
coin toss and lose and never breathe the word of your lost you know there just these wonderful ideas as a young man I
00:39:25
got goosebumps just heing just wonderful like that actually that one that putting
00:39:31
all your winnings and losing it all and never breathing with still that I'm the
00:39:35
same I just get sort of like ah man that's such how life is Right you've got
00:39:40
to you've got to live that way you know risk and reward and humility and honor
00:39:44
all those things so um yeah so I'm sort of so the name's great I also think even
00:39:50
if you don't know the poem you know the idea of our lives are part Triumph and
00:39:54
disaster using skin care as part Triumph and disaster so I like all of that um I
00:40:00
think I would you know probably I should have moved to America if I'm really
00:40:05
honest you know like um that because it's a niche um businesses that probably
00:40:11
I I think haven't done as good a job as I did have already blown up and sold in
00:40:16
America in the same time frame so you have to be in a big market and with there breadth and size um New Zealand's
00:40:24
been great don't get me wrong but you know it's ultimately 5 million people
00:40:28
you know spread across a a whole country so we've had to do it the hard way by
00:40:33
traveling and doing Distributors and things like that but you know I it's also got to fit with your lifestyle
00:40:38
right so I wanted my kids to grow up here I I love New Zealand love living here and you know our our lives have
00:40:45
been great in a whole bunch of other ways by staying here so you can't you know I wouldn't change anything really
00:40:52
it's it's hard like 1% of um the New Zealand Market versus 1% of the American
00:40:56
Market 1% of the American Market you're you're hanging out with Zuckerberg and
00:41:01
um what have been the the hardest challenges cuz you you've been through a lot of the global financial crisis was
00:41:06
that were you just after that or just after yeah so just after sort of started at the end of that um the biggest
00:41:12
challenges of have always are always cash flow you know like um and managing that and and you know dealing with the
00:41:23
fear of running out of money and the fear of spending all the you know we sold our house when we started it and I
00:41:30
took a bunch of money off off out of that and put it in and then you know um so you know you walk around with the
00:41:37
sort of guilt of like spending not just my money but my wife's money um and um
00:41:43
and you know so so there's all of those things but I mean it's been you know
00:41:50
learning how to manage staff learning that I've I've had so many great staff
00:41:54
all the way through but staff leave you know sometimes you've got to let good
00:41:58
stuffff go too just through circumstance that that's horrible um other times good
00:42:04
stuff leave and that feels like that's that feeling of like you can't help but
00:42:09
feel that you a bit let down but you but it's just their life that they're going
00:42:13
on with you know so then you've got to sell the dream to the new person whilst
00:42:16
feeling a little bit hurt that the person's left you know like a breaker it's like it's like you know there's all
00:42:21
these things you got to learn how to manage and I didn't have any experience
00:42:25
with any of that um so um uh yeah what but this last bit with the pandemic was really hard I think
00:42:33
emotionally a lot of small businesses in New Zealand have been emotionally rung out
00:42:39
um you know you this the people own small businesses by proportion of the population was a
00:42:45
really small percentage right and so no one care everyone if you're a business
00:42:50
owner everyone thinks just assumes you're going to be rich or you're rich
00:42:53
or whatever they don't give us stuff that you what you've had to go through
00:42:56
to get there and so and that's fair enough everyone's on their own Journey
00:42:59
but I think um through that period you had to carry the um so the worries of all of your staff you had the
00:43:07
uncertainty for all of them and financial uncertainty and just just their anxieties and their Partners
00:43:13
anxieties and whilst not knowing what the future for your own business was so there was a a big period of time through
00:43:20
there where it was like just emotionally draining and I think coming out the other side you know a lot of the
00:43:26
businesses that maybe are no longer or small businesses have just W that was probably more the emotional just you
00:43:33
know exhaustion than the financial side of it in many cases so I think that that
00:43:39
was tiring getting through that and now of course right now it's again really
00:43:44
tricky so just constant challenges eh yeah yeah well actually um you know Shane McKellan who was actually actually
00:43:50
the guy got me into 42 below and um he always said um business business is just prob solving problems you know and it's
00:43:58
sort of true like um it is just solving the next problem and finding solution and just accepting that there is just
00:44:08
constantly going to be another another Boulder face and I think I think well I think there a difference to sport see
00:44:13
sport you have like um there's an end to it you know you get to play a game win
00:44:17
or lose and then celebrate or or you know uh start again um whereas with business it's like just constant there's
00:44:25
no not really any end and um I I think that lowlevel constant pressure is harder that for me to deal with
00:44:34
personally than Peak pressure like you know I I used to relish the peak pressure um not always succeed with it
00:44:42
sometimes that would you know you'd fail miserably under it but I sort of enjoyed
00:44:48
that whereas the long slow sort of grind pressur is I find a little bit more tiring or you've got to find coping
00:44:55
strategies to to deal with did has has there ever been any occasion where you've thought about just closing the
00:45:00
doors or just throwing it in selling it selling it to someone in the last week or or over the whole time every
00:45:11
every second day no um no oh yeah look yes and no I think you have bad nights early
00:45:19
on early on you have lots of bad nights where you can't sleep and so you um you
00:45:24
know spreadsheets become your friend because especially when you're burning money
00:45:29
ahead of the curve like you know it's invoid it's unavoidable right you you
00:45:34
only making 50k a month and you spent spending 70k a month it's like far out
00:45:40
this is how much longer can I keep doing this for you know and so um the the spreadsheet you wake up you know when
00:45:47
you wake up at 2: in the morning and you're like oh my God what am I going to
00:45:51
do what can I tell my wife and then so I used to when I had those nights I'd go
00:45:55
and I'd just open up a spr sh and I'd like run all the numbers and I'd be like
00:45:59
how many shops do I have to get how many units they have to sell I'd just like do
00:46:03
all the math and I'd get to the end of it after an hour or so of like pointless
00:46:06
exercise and it would be like oh I've only got to get 15 more accounts okay I'll just go and do that but that that
00:46:13
that was sort of a coping strategy for a while and then at a certain point you know you you learn to deal with all of
00:46:19
that um just the E and flows the business yeah yeah yeah and what about the future of the company um well we
00:46:26
still it's not done yet and I guess you know coming back to your point about you
00:46:29
know being before getting too self Cong what's the word congratulatory congratulatory yourself on the back yeah
00:46:37
before I get like that I I think like um I don't feel like it will have really
00:46:42
succeeded until um you know either I can either it's making so much money that I
00:46:46
can step out of it and not have to worry or or it's wealth it's worthwhile for
00:46:52
someone to buy it you know and um and you know those it's um you know those two things are still a we way off it's
00:46:59
like um you know we've got I'm emplo I'm an employee I get paid by the business
00:47:04
but it's um you know there's still a growth curve needed um and you know a
00:47:09
lot of that was probably has been extended out a few years due to that Co so and not alone in that you know that's
00:47:16
probably three years going sideways we didn't account for no knowing what you
00:47:20
know now you just was your stay in marketing maybe not with bikard but no no no I don't I don't I like like you
00:47:28
I'm really I am really proud of what we've done and achieved and I like I've
00:47:31
just personally it's so stimulating you know it's I got into it because it was
00:47:35
the only thing that scared scared me you know and I'm sort of I needed that um
00:47:40
you know I needed to be playing for real um and I felt like um I still am you know I'm still in the game which is
00:47:49
which keeps me getting up I get up every morning I love going to work um you know
00:47:53
I've I'm I'm trying to find new new ways to build the business there's always new
00:47:59
things to learn um you know we would have lik to have done done it quicker better yes of course um but what would I
00:48:07
do after this you know you got to you got to do something with your time right um and so I think staying sort of
00:48:14
stimulated is is super important for me and you know as long as I'm stimulated
00:48:18
I'm okay yeah I I agree like um I even think like retirement is a bit of a hoax
00:48:24
in a way like you need a you need a purpose e like you need a reason to get out of bed in the morning oh 100% yeah
00:48:31
no I I think my father worked to as 84 he sold this farm at 84 and I reckon you know that that was sort of The Benchmark
00:48:41
it's like I I sort of feel like you've got to just keep working you got to be
00:48:44
stimulated right I think there's different ways of work I think you know dropping back to four days a week you
00:48:50
know doing different types of work do if just grinding out the same work over time maybe that's that becomes a bit
00:48:55
more tiring but yeah you got to be stimulated involved but I I also just like I'm you know I'm
00:49:02
enjoy my kids sport and coaching and you know just getting involved in other parts of the community now as well you
00:49:08
know so I think you know there I say it like Community is where it's at you know
00:49:14
I think like you got to be involved eh you know that the all the ills that we see out there at the moment my big thing
00:49:20
is like lots of people have lots to say about it but [ __ ] all people are getting
00:49:25
out and getting involved in their in their Community you know yeah oh good on you okay let's let's get back to the
00:49:30
early years so you're from Northland daville yep and what what's s of farm
00:49:34
what sort of farm will you race on was it a dairy farm no no not don't thankfully was yeah I was the worst fun
00:49:42
boy either like we I I came off the farm not not really being able to drive a tractor hard could hardly ride a
00:49:48
motorcycle was dangerous with a gun you know like I was like you know shoot I got all the [ __ ] jobs I was dead would
00:49:55
like in you know had to go and round sheep and we had dry stock so sheep and cattle and I just just man I think back
00:50:03
now I cringe I cringe how I perform for I remember driving across the farm one day and sulking and dad was and you know
00:50:11
I was trying to make it and would have been about 14 or 15 something maybe 16 just that age where you started to push
00:50:17
back and challenge authority and I just said to my father one I said said you just don't get it then and he and he
00:50:25
goes he looks at me and I go and I'm I'm a race horse not a cdale and as soon as
00:50:30
the words came out of my mouth as soon as the words came out of my mouth I was just like oh I just I
00:50:37
never worked so hard as I did that day you know I was like oh man I've just lost a Year's Grace you know I can't it
00:50:44
was so bad what did he say like an old an old um an old Grizzly F from up North did he just buy his t or he didn't need
00:50:50
to say anything because it was just I was so embarrassed once it came out I was like oh where did it come from did
00:50:55
you see it on a movie on a TV oh I don't know I was just like I just felt like he
00:50:58
was working me too hard like you know like I you know all my mates would be at the beach and I'd be going out you know
00:51:04
feeding out hay or doing some sort of shitty fencing job and I was just like oh man come
00:51:09
on so yes so you he was older are you dad like he was uh yeah yeah so Dad yeah 40s when he had you 42 I think yeah so
00:51:21
um yeah so I'm the baby baby of six yeah and um a disabled sister uh yes well H so yes she was the next
00:51:30
one yeah Sharon so she she just had the umbilical cord around her right and because of small town hospital they they
00:51:38
didn't really if she had have been in Oakland probably would have been fine they would have just got on to it
00:51:42
quicker but you know you know I don't know 10 seconds too long with without oxygen at the birth and that that sort
00:51:48
of causes that brain damage she's I mean she's um she's one wonderful um you know
00:51:55
in emotionally huge part of the family but um you know can't really couldn't live
00:52:01
in a flat by herself or cook a meal for herself she could go and eat get herself
00:52:06
sort of organized but can't can't talk so nonverbal um but you know um you know
00:52:14
but totally you know what she's on about you know in terms of um if particularly
00:52:18
if it's an emotional thing um she's and and I think to that end you know she's
00:52:23
sort of the almost the core of the family way [ __ ] I can't imagine how tough that was for you you like your
00:52:29
parents in particular I've got some friends like that John PJ who are just wonderful parents and um they've got a
00:52:34
son son and daughter and uh the the yeah the daughter similar sort of thing at Birth and um yeah they'd go out on
00:52:41
family holidays and Vonnie just couldn't adjust to the time zone so she'd be up
00:52:44
at 3 in the morning stomping around and then uh like later on they'd just go on
00:52:49
holidays with with sha and leave Vonny behind with a caregiver and you know they're just the most wonderful parents
00:52:54
and the wonderful family but I can't imagine the guilt they f without even doing that yeah H yeah and I Look to be
00:53:00
to be honest like I remember you know i' i' when it was just me and chairing at home I remember going
00:53:07
and waiting at the bus stop you know and standing to one side not really associating you know and I I always look
00:53:15
back and I'm like you know what can you do you're young and stupid you're craw
00:53:19
kids are craw you don't even realize it um what was it yeah like what was your
00:53:25
relationship like with your dad like cuz it's um I mean you and I are in our
00:53:29
early 50s now so it it doesn't seem that old at all but when you're young you
00:53:33
just want to I don't know I'm probably projecting here but you just want to fit
00:53:36
him with every everyone else you don't want to have an old dad no and dad was
00:53:39
an old dad like well actually we we weirdly I think at the end they've stay they stayed really young but when I was
00:53:46
when I was young they seemed really old you know cuz all my mates they 30 year-old my dad M mine my 50s you know
00:53:53
and it was like and um so yeah I mean how' I get on oh look dad was great um but he was an older dad so
00:54:02
he'd been through the mill with everyone you know and baby of the family yeah his
00:54:07
job's done the older kids can raise you and I probably benefit both benefited
00:54:13
from that but also probably rallied against it you know like I probably wanted but he was always involved he
00:54:18
drove I mean man mom and dad drove me um I mean mom's interesting as well like
00:54:22
Mom is was a paraplegic so um so Mom was in a wheelchair from about 22 um they got married when they were 20 so they
00:54:31
got married real young and um through a medical misadventure um she had appendix
00:54:37
and they something went wrong and they they damaged her spine in the in the operation and then when the when she had
00:54:45
her my older sister the that that that exacerbated it and so she sort of lost the use of her legs um and so you know
00:54:55
Mom and Dad tried to had to live through all of that and you know it wasn't like
00:54:59
a complete it didn't happen like just like that you know it happened over 10 years
00:55:04
that that she sort of lost um and people tried to have operations to fix it so that would have been a really trying
00:55:11
time way before I was bornn um and so I sort of like always felt a little bit like man these these guys have been
00:55:19
through a lot and you know they're driving me all around the place and so I was always sort of quite grateful but
00:55:26
yeah it always felt like the nashes were turning up you know I'd turn up and dad
00:55:29
would turn up in a big Falcon and an old dad with mom in a wheelchair and my handicap sister and I was like and then
00:55:35
I'd be like this like running off to play cricket you know so it was a you get older and you have so much guilt
00:55:41
about that stuff like you look back but at the time you just want to fit in and be like I could I was just trying to get
00:55:46
out into the middle as quickly as I could but yeah and what about the rest of the family cuz one of those books
00:55:50
that I started with um there's a a throwaway line on there was like you say something like your greatest achievement
00:55:56
in cricket is getting your brother to turn up to one of your matches yeah well he wasn't much of a cricketer he was he
00:56:02
was a um yeah my brother was uh thought I think he thought he was Jim Morrison for for a while so he was a bit of a
00:56:09
loose rugby player up from up North you know he play was very talented rugby player talented artist and but ended up
00:56:16
working on the farm with Dad so I think he was he had his own battles for dead I
00:56:21
think um so yeah their oldest son classic oldest son expected to work on the farm and you know I think he was
00:56:28
just you know trying too needed to probably get away himself um but no he he eventually came around to enjoying
00:56:36
cricket and watching it and you know they're all really proud of me so and you know I've got great relationships
00:56:43
with them all really but they all are quite different you know and I think you do over over the course of that that
00:56:49
nature nurture thing you know that you know you do I am different to them you know it's like
00:56:56
I grew up in a different era almost to to them you know they were almost 60s 70 70s children you know you know and I
00:57:03
grew up really for at least a decade if not more 15 years um different um and it's just different times parents were
00:57:12
much more chilled out all the dramas of you know whatever that they that kids got up to back then what had run through
00:57:20
and I I was just left to walk through walk through behind you know that was pretty sweet um was was it
00:57:29
was it quite a strict discipline household though like yeah it was Dad was dad was we you know we grew up um
00:57:36
Mom and Dad were catholic so they grew up in like quite a not not super religious but it was always there you
00:57:42
expected to go to church on a Sunday and I I rallied against that quite you know
00:57:47
I just couldn't understand why I had to do that um and you know but and dad was
00:57:53
a quite a quite a stripped guy like he was a boxer and um and and a hard worker and
00:58:02
so you know between between all of those there wasn't a lot of sort of give and
00:58:07
take you know it was like here's how it's going to be and you know like like
00:58:11
it ormp it you know so um but you know there was always love and care and you know I never felt physically threatened
00:58:19
or you know I had a great upbringing really but you know you do rally against discipline I think as a young youngster
00:58:28
don't you yeah that sounds um that sounds so similar to mine like religious household felt like I was I look back I
00:58:34
feel like I was getting whacked with the belt all the time all the time mom wouldn't never do it she like you wait
00:58:40
till your father get home gets home and then hours later wouldd be over the bed getting the belt for something you
00:58:46
couldn't even remember what and then if if we got in trouble for something and
00:58:49
Mom couldn't prove if it was real or not she would just be like well God will
00:58:52
punish you God sees everything [ __ ] I remember being marched up by the nuns marched up in the middle of the
00:58:59
afternoon uh for something I'd done and I at school and I was just like all I
00:59:04
could think of was like you guys have got no idea how bad this is going to be when my father gets home please don't
00:59:10
take me in there please don't take me in there [ __ ] you I did that once to the
00:59:14
police me and a bunch of mates we had some um little fireworks like double happies or whatever we went around and
00:59:20
we like knock on someone's doorstep light one and then run away and then we got taken home by the police and I was
00:59:25
after leave when Matthew got dropped off I was dropped off and I was like please
00:59:28
please can you just drop me off around the corner like you don't understand what's going to happen to me I was
00:59:33
probably 15 16 at the time I don't think I got a whack that time from memory and
00:59:36
I think I think that was sort of Line in the Sand like I didn't get a whack after
00:59:39
that yeah yeah there's definitely stiffing points right but um so then so so you um so you finished your school in
00:59:47
ockland right so you're in daville you got a is it Oakland grar for your final
00:59:51
Orland grar finishing school yeah so we were you just like um we were you just like an out Talent so they were like we
00:59:57
need to harness this talent and get this kid to the big smoke or I never felt that oh well yeah I mean I was obviously
01:00:04
talented I'd made it all the way through I was playing rep Cricket for Northern
01:00:07
districts and we played a tournament in in counties and P um out that way and um
01:00:15
with pooi and um uh I remember my f seeing my father talking to the ockland coach we're playing ockland and I
01:00:23
remember thinking like Dad would never speak to the coaches you know so I was like what's he doing speaking to the O
01:00:30
he probably doesn't even know that's the Oakland coach he's talking to you know
01:00:33
and um anyway I remember so we drove topped in the car after the game was the last game of the tournament we drove
01:00:38
home and about halfway home to darville he goes are how would you feel about going to con GMA next
01:00:44
year um and I was like yeah sounds great and then the the opposition coach was the grar uh cricket coach Graham Sim and
01:00:57
I don't know what sort of deal that worked out but next thing I knew I was found myself sort of arriving down at
01:01:02
tb's house on Mountain Road and and I was enrolled at grammar and yeah then I
01:01:08
it was just like it was it was sort of magic you know like I Pro I I was all set to do another my final year at
01:01:14
darville um high and that would have been fine you know I was playing senior Club Cricket for Northland I was already
01:01:20
sort of on my way I was on the I'd been Rec recognized as at that stage so I
01:01:26
probably but but where it did change was like just my schooling and coming across
01:01:34
that Winners attitude that they have at Oakland grammar you know like I ended up
01:01:37
playing getting in the first 15 um as a squad as well you know and um uh I remember walking in at the going
01:01:46
into the headmaster's office after being picked in the first 15 and um he set
01:01:51
everybody down and just John Graham and you know he was this man of immense Manor and sort of staunch as and he just
01:01:59
goes I just want you all to understand everybody who plays you this year will play their best game of rugby against
01:02:06
you and he said you are the number one target every if they if a team beats you and they lose every other game of the
01:02:15
season they'll have had a great season because they've beaten you he said so
01:02:20
zero excuses you know that's how it's going to be every team is going to be a
01:02:25
tough game and it was just the first time in my life that I'd heard you know
01:02:29
that Winner's perspective of like you're number one you know you're are you are
01:02:34
the target um and you didn't don't get that much in New Zealand you know maybe
01:02:39
if you're an all black or or only really sort of at a school like Oakland grammar
01:02:43
and um and for that lesson alone I think it was really really really valuable you
01:02:50
know cuz it was like wow that you can be out in front you can be the number one target you don't you're not always
01:02:57
fighting you know as the underdog you know um and so I really enjoyed that you know and I actually flourished there you
01:03:06
know um it's funny cuz early on you just told that story about you and Jeff Wilson sort of driving each other on so
01:03:11
I'm guessing 16 17 year old Dion from the country in Oakland same sort of thing you're surrounded by people that
01:03:18
are pushing you did you did you um did you feel like hot [ __ ] coming down or did you feel like an impostor like [ __ ]
01:03:26
I don't belong here did you feel like you were good enough to be here I felt
01:03:29
like I needed to prove myself fully like I was really determined to prove myself
01:03:33
I didn't feel like hot [ __ ] I felt I I knew a couple of guys there there was um
01:03:38
you know Blair pook who I'd played against and with um Mike cig um who was a very good cricketer and I played a lot
01:03:45
with um he was around um Matt horn had just left so I sort of had KN known a few people but um uh no I I I didn't
01:03:55
there was none of there I just went down really determined I saw it for what it was which was an opportunity um you know
01:04:01
and I thought I'm taking this with both hands you know and I I I just had a great year it was like you know I I won
01:04:08
the batting award I didn't win the bowling award actually um which is you know probably the one I thought I would
01:04:14
go down and win end up winning the batting award and and I and and just having this great year we won
01:04:20
but being in the hostel you know meeting all those guys hanging out with guys who
01:04:26
were in 7A and 7B academically I wasn't I was in way way down in 7f but hanging
01:04:33
out with them in the hosel and learning how the hard they were studying was like
01:04:37
oh wow so this is just like training you know is okay just go do the hours and you know guess what you get better you
01:04:44
know um stuff like that which I just hadn't been exposed to um and so I just
01:04:50
I just loved it I was like a sponge um and DJ Graham was so amazing as a Headmaster you know the the effect that
01:05:00
that guy had over so many boys that went through those schools you know um that school I should say um you know he he he
01:05:08
just he was a man of principle and and simple basic rules and if you followed those you okay you know and if and but
01:05:18
he he would accept your argument if it was different if he didn't care about it
01:05:22
but if it were half-hearted and it was a flaky argument man he got SP around so quick it was it was like you know um so
01:05:30
yeah no it was it was just great and what also happened is all lots of those guys that I met at Grandma were going on
01:05:36
to University and and so that's what sort of ultimately got me to UNI you know so you went to aago did you yeah
01:05:41
what did you want to do then did you did you want to be a New Zealand cricketer did you have a career plan yeah I no my
01:05:47
only career plan was to make the cricket team and buy enough time from my parents
01:05:50
that I could do it and wouldn't have to work in the mill or the farm so it was
01:05:54
like man I'm just like uni uni sign me up um so yeah I started out I started out doing law cuz you know
01:06:01
that that pleased everybody uh and then I failed well I passed law in my first year but had had to pass much better
01:06:08
than I did um and so I ended up doing a ba um in sociology and his art history and all the the big names how's that
01:06:17
working out for you these days coming in handy actually it was the best degree I
01:06:21
ever could have done it was um so like it's a study of people right so it was
01:06:26
like uh you know it ends up being really great for marketing but I I always say i' I really I learned how to think at
01:06:34
University you know I'd been learning how to just regurgitate things by rout
01:06:39
prior to that and um I always remember in history American history this um uh I was really struggling I needed to get
01:06:48
this paper to finish my La last year and and the exams coming up and I've been
01:06:53
writing longer and longer essays you know and I've been getting C's and C
01:06:56
minuses and I was like man this and this lady Professor I can't remember her name
01:07:01
was just it felt so personal it was like she's crushing me she doesn't doesn't
01:07:06
and I remember meeting a guy who's doing honors and he was in my class and I was
01:07:10
like and I just said man I'm I don't know what I'm doing wrong but you know
01:07:15
I'm just struggling he goes well what are you struggling he goes and sort of
01:07:19
told him and he goes ah dude you just have to imagine that you were there and I was like what do you mean he goes just
01:07:26
put yourself there like you like you know and he used the examples of the of Jackson and the Indians putting them
01:07:33
Jackson put them on the reserves and you know retrospectively it's this big deal
01:07:38
you know these people were put off their lands on the reserves but at the time it
01:07:42
was just Jackson solving a problem and going man I just don't I just want this
01:07:46
problem solved and out of my way so I can get my voters to vote for me and and so when you put yourself back into the
01:07:53
times and think about what he was dealing with it's a Al different aspect of History than what we when we look
01:07:59
back with that lens you know and so thinking that taught me to think you know that's interesting and um was it a
01:08:06
good time down there it was rich for sports right Mark Alis was down there who who who were you rubbing shoulders
01:08:11
with no yeah know well Mark and Josh corfield and sort of Aaron p and and John teu that was the sort of John
01:08:19
Lesley they were all the they were and you know they were the Legends down there cuz they were the in the vity 18
01:08:25
and a Target team um so I was I was off to the side with all the cricketers um but um any cricketers have not who was
01:08:33
uh uh well Jeff Wilson wasn't at Uni but he was playing down there um Ken Rutherford was there so we we did really
01:08:41
well we got into the finals when we we had a good team Mark Richardson came down towards the end um and um who else
01:08:51
yeah there's I've boun just have insulted a whole bunch of people but um
01:08:55
the yeah but the um but yeah no I mean but hanging out at Uni was just great you know and we worked hard played hard
01:09:02
you know it was it was just fun all the time there's always something on yeah
01:09:06
any um any good University stories that you can share CU it was around this time
01:09:10
didn't Mar Ellis get done for like drunk driving he was riding around on a scooter with like a watermelon on his
01:09:15
head oh yeah there was loads of stuff like that I remember uh I mean look yeah most of it you can't really
01:09:21
tell if I'm honest a lot of these stories don't a lot of these stories don't age well yeah no that's right
01:09:26
that's I did hear a story about you on another podcast um you you you were at a
01:09:31
pear jam concert you in the front row Shir off um Eddie VI got a mouth full of wine spat it on the crowd and you opened
01:09:38
your Gob I got a got a good Gob fill in yeah I thought I'd been like blessed
01:09:43
from like you know on high so that sort of paints a picture of the sort of Dion Nash where we dealing within early I
01:09:51
also turned up I one I can tell is I a few years l later that pill Jam were back and um we play we played I think
01:10:00
either Australia or Zimbabwe in Oakland and there's a pill Jam concert at Mount
01:10:04
smart and um that night and so I was like um came back to my flat afterwards you know we' won the game he runs on a
01:10:13
high runs cocktails and stuff and so I put my my fian cow pants sort of pants on that I bought in London I've got like
01:10:21
some sort of like sleeveless top girlfriend's painted like my hands black fingernails you know and probably you
01:10:27
know I don't know what else they had on you know you know and I'm like anyway
01:10:33
we tune up and go to this concert and have this great night with my mates at this concert you know and I'd arrange to
01:10:39
meet the guys at um at uh guasu which is on panel rise afterwards and um anyway so you know about 11:30 at night 12:00
01:10:50
night we've left the console get in there and all the cricket teams in that gr having having their drinks and so I I
01:10:56
joined them and I'm sort of out of the cabin I'm walking in and this guy this older
01:11:03
gentleman jumps up from the table at the front of guasu and comes down and then meets me and he comes up and he sticks
01:11:08
his hand out goes Dion great game today mate and I was like oh all I could see is like my hand was coming out was black
01:11:15
fingernail polished as I was like I was trying to put my hand on the name I was like oh thanks mate like and you know
01:11:23
all the opposition team were in there it's like all you know when you're all
01:11:26
of a sudden you're like oh not everything translates as like it should yeah cuz it's it's um yeah it's worth
01:11:32
like highlighting it's a different time back then as well you guys just weren't
01:11:36
wearing nail po no no it was there it wasn't wasn't done I remember yeah it
01:11:41
was quite well received at the concert people were like went down okay there but not so much with your sports Manel R
01:11:48
different look for different group of friends so um yeah so so so you make the New Zealand cricket team um you you were
01:11:55
quite inexperienced right I don't know a lot about Cricket but it sounds like i'
01:11:58
play three I'd played three games yeah it was ridiculous it was crazy we in hindsight like having been a selector
01:12:05
yourself were you like FasTrack too quickly I mean it worked out good well I yes I absolutely was yeah I absolutely
01:12:13
was like and you know what what happens is you what it what it did AO is fast trct way too quick so I went away on
01:12:20
tour but where it really became problematic was then I I had to go back to domestic Cricket after that and all
01:12:29
of these hardened domestic players who had been overlooked for me then just had it in for me so then I just copped it
01:12:36
really bad for like probably two seasons you know like you know and I was always
01:12:41
you know everyone's accusing me of you know getting screwed by the captain or
01:12:44
you know like and you know blowing the coach yeah it was all you know and and but when you're 20 21 years of age it's
01:12:53
but you don't have the coping strategy to have it when a 35y old man's just
01:12:57
abusing you for an hour and a half at a time you know and it's like you just
01:13:01
don't really understand it you know and you look back now it just wouldn't it
01:13:05
wouldn't be acceptable now you know but like back then the Umpire did nothing
01:13:10
you just young guy just stood there in the middle while you're Banning and you
01:13:14
just have a a team abusing you for two hours and then you you know and you're
01:13:18
like it was just sort of like the the way it was I'm not blaming anyone that
01:13:23
was the culture of the cricket scene and it was sort of ugly um and you know we I'm no saint I went on to do things like
01:13:31
that myself to young players later you know and it's like you look back now and
01:13:35
you're like man what on Earth why didn't someone step in and that that was never
01:13:40
the right way to for any of us to have been behaving but it's also human nature
01:13:44
right like some young punk gets plays three games and gets picked in the black caps and you've played Five Seasons and
01:13:51
you've taken all these wickets and you're clearly a better player like what
01:13:55
you're not going to tune up and give them a easy ride are you you're going be
01:13:58
into them no but I suppose uh the way to do it now would just be to let your Cricket do the talking like bow you know
01:14:05
make this guy look like a fool and there were some players who did that too right
01:14:08
so it wasn't everyone but um but you know but quite often you you know you there'd be a couple of Hit Men Who would
01:14:14
do the majority of it you know do and the fact that you're bringing up now I
01:14:19
suppose this maybe answers my question but it did it sort of taint your experience yeah I I came back from my
01:14:24
first tour and I didn't want to play for black caps ever again wow yeah and it
01:14:28
took me a year in the wilderness to sort of go away and just work out and get my
01:14:33
love for the game back um yeah and you know um I there's a whole bunch to that I was too young I
01:14:41
was too IMM mature emotionally not up for it um got it had wasn't treated that
01:14:47
well um didn't perform very well thing got dropped thing got bullied thing got
01:14:53
you know so it was all of the stuff and you're just like man think I might just
01:14:56
go do something else you know bully by or you know just in the domestic scene you just I just once you got back but
01:15:02
then all a sudden it was like I I actually remember I played a game in luget which they had this all whites
01:15:08
versus All Blacks which was before we were the black caps we were the all and they had this game in lugger and um all
01:15:14
some of the old All Blacks would play the cricketers in um this game and I I got taken along to it and played in it
01:15:22
and I remember afterwards um uh uh it was um Robbie Deans and um uh Ellen houon Robbie Deans Ellen
01:15:32
Houston and Kieran Crowley oh wow sat me down in the this hotel room with a and had a beer and I was just like sitting
01:15:39
with these Le right and and um they said oh so what's the story you've been dropped and
01:15:46
I was like yeah and you know I like oh it's okay you know and they they're like
01:15:49
they like it's okay what are you talking about and I was like oh you know then
01:15:54
you guys they just deserve to be there you know and I was and politically correct and they were like [ __ ] off mate
01:16:01
what do you what do you mean it's okay don't you want to be there don't you
01:16:03
don't you think you're good enough and they just drilled me for and I was like
01:16:08
I remember thinking man that's how Champions think you know what am I doing I'm just suling
01:16:14
being a twit um and I always remember that and I sort of like you know it was that difference between how great rugby
01:16:23
all blacks were thinking and in the environment that was the cricket environment at that time I'd been just
01:16:29
I'd just been left alone and no one had got around me and said hey shake this
01:16:34
funk you know off and get back in on the horse you know um but these guys did they recognized it and far I so
01:16:42
appreciated it I've never I don't think I've seen any of them ever since
01:16:46
actually to say thank you but um and it was one of those things I from that game
01:16:51
on I just had this instant change of attitude and I was like like that was that was me getting back on the horse
01:16:57
straight after that game then ended up making the New Zealand team again and just the reset you needed eh yeah yeah
01:17:03
but it was that winnner thinking you know like Robbie Deans in particular I just remember him drilling me straight
01:17:10
before straight in the forehead going what are you saying mate where are you know I was like oh man I it was it was
01:17:19
just the fire I needed you know it was perfect and in the um the New Zealand team environment and those those early
01:17:25
years when you're a young player is it was it quite a supportive environment or
01:17:29
was it sort of every was it quite clicky clicky um I think the players would say
01:17:34
they were supportive in their own ways and but they had they were the product of their environment right so they were
01:17:40
only it was an individual sport Semi-Pro u a couple of superstars the rest of the
01:17:46
people were teachers in the off season and you know part-time trying to struggle to make it you know travel the
01:17:53
world have a few beers it was sort of so you know I we were the cusp of that early stage of true professionalism
01:18:02
and um you know it was only towards the end of my career that we were actually getting paid properly and professional
01:18:07
and had the support structures starting to come around so um yeah I mean look it
01:18:13
wasn't all bad they were good people all the way through you know um and and but
01:18:18
people were focused on getting their own job done you know that was a hard tough
01:18:22
environment you know guys like Andrew Jones I remember being ad admiring how he went about things but he didn't have
01:18:27
any room for me in that you know cuz it was like he had to get his job done you know Martin Crow the same you know like
01:18:34
um you know th those guys were Legends and and amazing but they didn't have time to build the culture or they didn't
01:18:43
have the enough support around to build a culture that brought everyone else into that or showed the pathway to that
01:18:49
um which you know that I don't put that blame on them at all that's just a time
01:18:55
in place you know if they had have been given the support structures the modern day teams have imagine what we could
01:19:01
they could have achieved yeah would also yeah you you look at the alls at the same time there was a whole like back
01:19:06
row of the bus thing and you know if you're a junior player the senior players wouldn't even talk to you or
01:19:11
acknowledge Your Existence it's just just how it was yeah m m actually made the um remember that there used to be
01:19:16
those old black trials you know the possibles and problems a m mine uh made the possibles one year and he was like
01:19:22
opposite Fitzy Sean Fitz Patrick and he saw him in the the hotel for some breakfast and he went up to him and
01:19:27
introduced himself and said oh you know any chance of sitting down and picking your brains and F he told him to [ __ ]
01:19:33
off I feel like it's a different environment now different culture and and society and sport in general yeah
01:19:40
it's I mean so many things have changed but yeah none of that surprises you right that I can exactly imagine that
01:19:47
happening yeah um I said let's talk some of the highs and some of the lows so one
01:19:52
of the highs I'm guessing 1994 and Lords which is the H Cricket you become the
01:19:57
first person ever to score 50 then take 11 wickets in a test yeah yeah um so you so you went on as a batsman so
01:20:05
you weren't particularly good at batting at that level I I had been a good batter
01:20:09
through youth Cricket you you I I sort of always wish I had have taken my batting a bit more seriously because it
01:20:16
but in the end it's the you know the the quickest and easiest route that you take
01:20:21
right and I ended up that ended up being bowling but as a young player I was probably is got a better as bowler but
01:20:27
over time the bowling took over um so I could always bet um I wish I had have given it more now because that would
01:20:35
have given me longevity and it's also one of those things that I don't feel
01:20:39
like my statistics or my or really do justice to how good a player I was does it do does it bother you now or of
01:20:46
course does it like when like sometimes in the shower is it something you think about
01:20:53
or when you're driving the car just pops up randomly you can't control when it
01:20:57
pops in but like no I mean also like the um you know I got injured a lot right so you it was just
01:21:07
the bowling side I was always playing injured in the second half of my career so you're always dealing with injuries
01:21:13
and recovering from injury so you even the windows that you got were always never quite pure you know they were
01:21:20
always there was always something limiting you or holding you back or whatever and so being a better and being
01:21:26
a better batsman um than I than my statistics showed I I I probably should have put
01:21:31
that to the Forefront and really driven that side of it but again I just mentally wasn't up for that challenge at
01:21:37
the time you know like you just you get worn down by a bunch of things and you take the easiest route I think but um
01:21:43
yeah I mean I I I I do pride myself I I it's one of those things that you know
01:21:49
like everything is in its place but that I went to a friends one of my best mates
01:21:54
got married in Jamaica Married An American um girl and that they and we went to the wedding in Jamaica and it
01:22:01
was this beautiful amazing wedding in The Cliffs and off the cliffs in Jamaica and um in American weddings you have the
01:22:08
the wedding before the wedding which is of run through but that's when all the
01:22:12
actual speeches take place so it's sort of like it's more formal than a run
01:22:15
through it's actual it's more casual version of the wedding it's quite
01:22:18
interesting and then the formal wedding happens the next night but at that um the the the father of the groom got up
01:22:27
and introduced me to all these Americans and he said um oh this is the ones he was um he was one of the players of his
01:22:33
generation in cricket and I've always thought because i' I'm always uncomfortable with how you you always
01:22:39
you never know how to get how to where you fit in the whole Echelon of of cricket and everyone looks at Statistics
01:22:46
over time and I just thought that was the the best way i' I've ever I'd ever
01:22:50
felt I felt comfortable with how that described me you know like for that era from my era I was one of the players of
01:22:56
that generation you know and it's like you know along with the other guys who
01:23:00
did well in that era and I think that's a really clean way of saying it and it's
01:23:05
like that's all you can be right and in your in your time period are you one of
01:23:11
the best players and and and did you do well you know that's sort of it you you
01:23:15
got to Captain uh for a while like in the history of New Zealand Cricket how many Captain have they been 20 30 I mean
01:23:22
come on yeah it was funny little thing though the only teams I played against as Captain I did uh I think a test mat
01:23:28
couple of what I do three three test matches I think and and five1 days four1 days I can't remember five1 days anyway
01:23:35
but the only people I kept in were ended up both do done for match fixing against so was like hzi Kan and
01:23:43
and Muhammad azen but who were both great players but unfortunately yeah cross the line I always wonder whether
01:23:49
my results are slightly tainted we never know so oh yes so 94 game at Lords um is your name on an
01:23:58
honors board there at all I've had Mark Richardson in the podcast and his name
01:24:01
is on an honors board forgetting a century there and he's never never seen it but he said if he saw it in in real
01:24:06
life it'd probably you'd be quite emotional about it yeah uh of yeah so they've changed that actually so when we
01:24:12
they've changed the the things around so when it first happened um it was on the
01:24:17
other end of the of the r was like sort of quite a a cream colored board and um we got into trouble because Blair po got
01:24:24
up and and scratched my name and a pencil and and it was like Lord and I was like oh my gosh and so that got
01:24:32
covered up as a thing that happened and I um anyway so and then I went back to play there for Middle sex the a year
01:24:40
later so I got a contract so I saw it all the time because I'd just go and you
01:24:44
know yeah it's still there um but I went back recently um 40 cuz trium disaster
01:24:52
sponsored middle sex so I went back and and um we were sort of middle the middle
01:24:57
middle six guys and and they showed me around and I went into the room and they changed it all it's all totally
01:25:02
different and the honors Bo is down the other end and so it's moved down it's
01:25:05
not a big dark mahogany one now so you know even at even at the house of uh the home of cricket they changed things but
01:25:12
um yeah it is emotional it's like all the great events of of that have happened you know and so it it means a
01:25:19
lot there's a lot of great players who don't have their names up there you know
01:25:22
so it's it's a good thing to be yeah oh it's incredible yeah like it's
01:25:27
it's it's there forever like it establishes you as one of the greatest cricketers of all time oh well I I think
01:25:33
I think see that's where I always get uncomfortable right it's like I did I think there's only there's only a
01:25:40
probably three players I would put into that category in New Zealand history you
01:25:44
know and I you know and there's probably a bunch that sit below that and who'll
01:25:48
be totally offended but you know I only put probably Martin Crow Richard Headley
01:25:52
and probably Kane Williamson in that issue on of that I would say great of the game and the rest of us at different
01:25:59
times have done wonderful things some people are pushing up closer into that realm yeah but you know those are those
01:26:05
people sustained it and were the elite in in the in that grouping for their whole careers you know some some have
01:26:13
popped in there at different times and dropped out and others have done one or two decent things so but which is not to
01:26:20
diminish how I feel about my things but the reality is I got you know over a 10-year career I played 30 tests you
01:26:26
know like it's I I I think in the same period of time there's probably 100
01:26:30
tests played you know so I missed nearly two-thirds of my career through injury um so it's just that alone rules you out
01:26:37
of you know having the numbers you know yeah although I mean yeah you're a music
01:26:43
guy so the I mean there's Beatles versus the stones like um the stones have got
01:26:47
longevity The Beatles didn't have longevity but well no well no you're right and look in in of the day like I
01:26:54
we're all just trying to I'm just trying to place it in a way that I feel
01:26:57
comfortable you know like I I know I could have done more and that and but then at the same time you know you come
01:27:05
back to this guy and this guy believed in a whole lot of stuff that was not aligned with being a professional
01:27:12
Sportsman and I'm proud of those things that that he believed in as much as I as
01:27:17
the things that made him good at sport so you know I carry all of that and I'm
01:27:22
proud that I stuck to those things you know spoke up at times and stood out and did the wrong things blatantly at times
01:27:31
you know that I'm as proud of those and as much as I regret some of it I'm also
01:27:36
proud of it you know so all right well let's get into that so you from 1994 inls to um the 1995 weed smoking
01:27:44
incident now a lot of people listening to this wouldn't have even been born at
01:27:48
the time a lot of them won't remember it and maybe this will this will you bring
01:27:52
back some memories but this was a big [ __ ] Nationwide incident at the time this is crazy yeah so where in the world
01:28:00
were you South Africa pal so and you Steven Fleming Matthew Hart Matthew Hart yeah you you all got done for smoking
01:28:10
smoking pot yes yeah we did Big Time yeah it was crazy um a game got called off early it was Christmas um so we we'
01:28:19
been we're touring in South South Africa and there over Christmas so it was a
01:28:24
long time away from home um game got called off because of a dangerous pitch which in itself I think has only
01:28:29
happened twice in the history of the game that a pitch a game's been caught off because of a dangerous pitch what
01:28:35
does that mean well it means when the ball was bouncing it was just hitting going straight and hitting people in the
01:28:40
head or hting them in the toe it was just unplayable so they called the game off cuz P was going to get hurt I think
01:28:45
three people got hit in the head in the first hours right so we ended up with an
01:28:49
extra day um or extra two days that we didn't had accounted for so um and of
01:28:55
course we're in pal which is the wine growing area party area of of South Africa it's leading to Christmas
01:29:02
everyone's partying and we end up getting at short notice involved in this Vineyard going invited to this vineyard
01:29:08
with some of the opposition players and long story short one of our team and one of the opposition team
01:29:14
started talking about pot around the table and there's about 11 of us all around this table maybe more and
01:29:21
um I just we started saying yeah I've smoked it you know I've smoked at University other people said similar
01:29:29
stories and INX saying after it all sort of verbally got involved in this conversation then this big back pot
01:29:36
comes out on the table and it's like I remember thinking ah Shivers you know
01:29:41
you know this is like been sort of now now we're into this uh it was a bit and
01:29:47
I remember there when I remember thinking a fim's here that'll be okay at
01:29:51
least I've got a buddy and fim you know uh we he's a he was a young player um
01:29:57
and there were a few senior players around and you know one guy in particular been pretty vocal and and I
01:30:03
was like anyway all these they started rolling with those joints and Hing them around anyway came all the way around
01:30:09
had a puff and everyone else had a puff and then um I remember thinking [ __ ] the
01:30:15
most vocal guy hasn't had any and I remember thinking ah man that's who was
01:30:20
that a New Zealand guy yeah yeah and I remember thinking oh man you don't want
01:30:23
to say who it is no no no it's not there there's no point in saying any any of it
01:30:28
you know and it's like it's like but I just remember thinking ah that that's
01:30:32
what I I should have I shouldn't have I didn't have to I remember thinking I
01:30:35
didn't have to partake you know was it an element of peer pressure or it felt a
01:30:39
little bit like that I just but not I'm not blaming anybody I I was fully into I did my own thing I made my
01:30:47
own decisions but I just remember thinking at the time a [ __ ] that guy hasn't had me and um and then then after
01:30:54
a little while I remember flim and I must have got uneasy about it cuz we just said oh let's let's get out of here
01:31:00
right and so but we got out of here by stealing a joint so we and for later and yeah and we're like so we went back and
01:31:08
so actually the and this is where I felt really bad cuz you know we got we went back hard the three of us had practiced
01:31:14
so hard we'd stuck together with the young kids on the tour we'd been actually doing really well and so we
01:31:20
went back and got hone and we like hey honey you know we and so we got Hardy involved and then you know that was it
01:31:28
and so then the party went on and didn't think any of it next morning we all went
01:31:33
to this practice venue instead of playing and it started raining so they stopped the practice and they pulled us
01:31:38
all in and they said oh we're going to have a meeting we're going to talk about
01:31:43
what happened yesterday and so can call you in one by one so they went in his room and they said oh Dion can you come
01:31:48
in so I came in and the coaches and Captain and everything and I and they said oh we've heard you a smoking pot
01:31:56
yesterday is this true and I was like yep and then um they said ah we're you
01:32:02
know really diff really sorry to hear that um you know so on on my way and um so next person was walking in was flam
01:32:11
and as he walked past I said I FL this what they're going to ask you and it's
01:32:16
all right I've said I've said yes I've taken the ramp so just deny it you know
01:32:20
and he was like oh mate I can't do that so he walked up in he said yes third
01:32:25
person was hardy hardy walked in he said yes and by this stage we all got back or
01:32:31
I'd got back to the main group and told them what was going on and of course
01:32:35
everyone was just like you stupid what are you thinking you know you know so and and then know everyone else just you
01:32:43
know just said and you know so we just did they and I don't again it was a terrible situation for anyone to be put
01:32:50
in right so I don't blame anyone for for for for it because it wasn't such it wasn't like many of them
01:32:59
probably felt they didn't weren't really involved you know they probably felt
01:33:01
much like I initially did it was a bit of peer pressure you had a couple of Puffs on the way around was like I'm not
01:33:08
fing up for that you know um so you know it was a bit of but then where it really
01:33:14
got ugly is when we flew home cuz they sort of at the time they said okay we know more were involved so end the story
01:33:21
and then we flew home and then at later St uh New Zealand Cricket got wind of it
01:33:26
this about 6 weeks later and Alo the the from a team environment they tried to sort of keep a l on it yeah okay yeah
01:33:32
and then flew home and there a whole lot of other politics going on in the background which I won't bore people
01:33:38
yeah but we we used start done for matches or did you get told off by the senior leadership group or yeah we got
01:33:43
told off disappointed but but we're also think but there were also people who we
01:33:47
knew that soan was like you guys are idiots for owning up but yeah the hypocrisy of it all so we're but you
01:33:54
know we were all sort of like in it together so it was sort of was but also that would feel like a good line in the
01:33:59
C not I'm not talking about it being a cover up but a line in the sand like you
01:34:02
smoked a bit of pot at a [ __ ] party big deal yeah yeah yeah and so we flew home um and we were playing in uh uh the
01:34:11
Shell Cup Final and against I was playing for Northern districts and we're were playing um Wellington at the Basin
01:34:16
Reserve so this is pretty sure it the Shell Cup Final and it was about to go out it's about 9:30 in the morning we're
01:34:23
starting half an hour later or something and the chairman of New Zealand Cricket
01:34:27
meets me in the tunnel and hands me a letter and he goes you might want to get a lawyer for this and I was like what
01:34:35
and he go and then Matthew Hart was in the same game so he hands the same letter to Hardy and we it's literally
01:34:42
I'm about to go and play pH and open this letter and it's like um we've been
01:34:46
called to some court hearing that you've been accused of smoking pot or tour of
01:34:52
South Africa representing New Zealand I was just like all the blood drain out of
01:34:55
my body I was read sitting in the tunnel just reading this thing before going out
01:34:59
into the sh up final and I was like oh my God what is going on and you know you my head was just spinning right I just
01:35:07
thought that's the end of my career you know we played the game and I don't even
01:35:13
I can't even remember the game what happened in it um but um it was remember
01:35:18
sh anyway so then we got went and got lawyers had to lawyer up we all had to go and meet in Oakland and and you know
01:35:24
cost thousands of dollars to go and represent ourselves in the sort of kangaroo court and was it out in the
01:35:29
public at this point or no no no but so we sat in this meeting in this Kang Court to about about midnight or even
01:35:36
later arguing our case right saying because they they had a judge was it like a Judicial some sort
01:35:44
of review but it was pre all of the stuff there was no nothing set up so they just set it up and so we had our
01:35:50
lawyers each had a lawyer each New Zealand Cricket had HED museal on Cricket and lawyers and there was a
01:35:56
judge adjudicating and we all had to present our cases and you know in the in the end they just said you're guilty we
01:36:03
know you're guilty so we're going to suspend you and find you or whatever and
01:36:06
I was like so we just walked out and the next day this is at midnight we walked down the meeting next day it's all
01:36:12
through the papers so they must have already told the papers what was happening way before we left that
01:36:18
meeting and and I remember my but the worst part of it all was when was get having to ring my father but PRI
01:36:26
when I got that letter going home afterwards and and then having to ring my father from Oakland and say Dad uh
01:36:33
you know how well everything's been going recently it's it's about to hit a
01:36:38
hit the skids um because of and so that was one of those phone calls you don't
01:36:43
even really want to make but it like now people go a smoking pop what what's a
01:36:47
big deal but literally that then we had Paul homes turning up to our parents houses you know like we everywhere you
01:36:58
went people were were either offering your joints or or abusing you for being a pothead you know or drug addict were
01:37:06
you as as and when you're fielding and fans on the so so we' play the game was
01:37:12
was New Zealand Centenary so we turned up to Eden Park or the team turned up to Eden Park and there was just the whole
01:37:18
of Eden Park was filled with get off the grass and and they used all the things to make big joints and and you know it
01:37:23
was just you know people were rasar and things everywhere but everywhere you went out afterwards for about 2 years
01:37:30
you go to a pub and some guy would always come up and go hey man you want to come outside and and you're just like
01:37:37
dude are you kidding me um yeah I'm guess I mean you can look back now again
01:37:43
it was almost 30 years ago so you can laugh about it now but I'm guessing at
01:37:46
the time it was not funny for many many years uh it wasn't funny he it was like
01:37:51
intense it was like it what it did do it I think it brought Steven fim it's interesting fim and I don't really have
01:37:58
much to do with each other anymore um and but for a period I think it galvanized a younger group that like
01:38:06
Flyn myself Chris Ken you know Nathan Estel Edam pry a younger group that was coming through I think felt really
01:38:15
galvanized by it and I think it was it helped in a way because it was like hey let's not let's be let's be honest with
01:38:23
each other going forward you know let's let's sort of and let's not try let's
01:38:27
not do that again but let's like try and get some get some things right yeah look
01:38:31
out for each other yeah and um and so I think there was a good things came from it um you know but there was also there
01:38:38
was a bit of scars there for sure you know like it was just like cuz it you don't you just want to be focusing on
01:38:45
that and you don't and you know you don't want to even though a head smok
01:38:49
pot and even though you know you just don't want to be called a po Poe head or
01:38:53
a pot smoker you know it's just you want to be known for the thing that you're
01:38:56
good at you know um and so it was just yeah a side so how was your um how was your mental health at the time like
01:39:03
mental health wasn't even sort of a thing it wasn't something we talked about I watched the the Beckham
01:39:08
documentary yeah which I don't know have you watched that I did yeah where there's where there's people like like
01:39:14
burning and hanging effies of outside bars like I'm not saying for a moment ours was as intense as that but it was a
01:39:21
version of that you know like it was full on we drove home my father made me listen to the TalkBack radio as we drove
01:39:27
up north to go into hiding like literally had to go into hiding for about a week you know I just went hit
01:39:33
out on the back of the farm no ill communicato and on the but my father had been down at the hearing he just like
01:39:40
drove for two and a half hours all the way up and he made me listen to talk back radio the whole way and was sort of
01:39:47
like punishment for your exory and I'd be turning it off and he'd turn it back
01:39:51
on and itd be like I was like and you know you just had those the F honestly You' think we killed people the way
01:39:57
people were carrying on a and of course the radio hosts were like ramping it up and I was just like man it felt intense
01:40:04
um but like it was just like one of those things that you sort of go really the one funny little story
01:40:12
that did happen is I had a middle sex contract I'd already got that contract
01:40:15
but this happened in between so I I got this letter with my work visa to go to the to the UK to pick up my contract and
01:40:25
I was just hanging out to get to the end of New Zealand summer to get out of the
01:40:28
country to go to that and they sent me a work visa to so I could get into the UK
01:40:33
and on the front they rid in this thing saying hey we've we've understood um
01:40:37
that this was that you got caught smoking pot we of course we're disappointed like New Zealand Cricket
01:40:41
but we do understand it was a oneoff it's not part and so as long as it doesn't happen here we're happy to have
01:40:47
you and and live up to our country cool so I was like sweet so I turn up to Heathrow and I walk in and the lady at
01:40:54
the counter is like um calls me up and I go up and I hand over my work visa and she's reading the front L and going she
01:41:03
go she pulls it off and she hands it back to me she goes you might want to hold on to this one and I was
01:41:10
like just I was like oh [ __ ] I like yeah so she goes I hope it was a good time or something as I walked
01:41:19
through and I was like it's I mean yeah I prol down plat too much because a you wear away like representing your
01:41:29
country b um yeah pot we understand now that it's not as harmful as what maybe
01:41:33
we thought it was back then but still it feels like the um the lashing that you guys took definitely outweighed it was
01:41:39
look yeah I mean I I I would I you know I I can't I I I it was bad we we did
01:41:48
some dumb it was dumb but like you know it also probably didn't deserve quite as
01:41:53
bit bigger hit as we took yeah there was no social media at the time either right
01:41:58
like [ __ ] imagine that that's probably good um was after your dad got the um
01:42:03
the initial like anger or whatever out of his system was he um like quite sort of empathetic or yeah he was they s come
01:42:09
around yeah he was good he came around but you know it hung over me for it was leverage you get for him for a little
01:42:15
while it wasn't short of playing the odd little guilt trip on me so so what you went through is
01:42:21
probably like the Australian guys with the Sandpaper thing probably how they feel oh yeah he only accused me of
01:42:27
letting the family down probably once every month for about six months and then you know went out to once every six
01:42:32
months for a couple of years you know and and were you um were you seeing this was pre bun say were you seeing anyone
01:42:38
at the time like did you or did you have a good group of friends that you could talk to about how you were feeling and
01:42:43
oh all all my mates were from University so they thought they all thought it was
01:42:46
[ __ ] hilarious right because I was like oh my God you know and of course I outed all of them and then I always
01:42:52
remember the girl friend I had at the time who she was great and um but she my mother rang up to talk to her to try and
01:43:01
you know ease the get get another side of the story and I always remember um Shelly who was myri time saying um oh
01:43:10
look he hardly smokes any at all he's probably only done it a handful of times
01:43:16
and I was like oh no yeah I know you're trying to like so yeah then it all kicked off
01:43:29
again was like Mom was like sh sh Shel says yeah well it's just an an unimaginable [ __ ] storm for anyone to go
01:43:37
through and um especially when there's no sort of ending sight but has it made
01:43:41
you a stronger person built that resilience do you think in a way yeah I think so I think so uh I mean it's just
01:43:47
what you go through right um I you know you you can't any other experience it's just what it is your
01:43:56
experience and is builds your perception of the world and your um Viewpoint and you know mine will always have these
01:44:03
sort of things that I've that that influence how I perceive things and and you know I would be a liar if I said
01:44:09
they didn't have some negative impact on that you know um maybe was slightly less
01:44:15
trusting after that you know s a little bit sort of angry at people for for a long time you know just felt quite a lot
01:44:22
of injust personal Injustice I always I always had a sense of Injustice for other people and I think but I always
01:44:29
felt you know like I didn't need any and but I think after a while but when you
01:44:34
go through something like that it's like that very intense sense of like that's
01:44:38
unfair on me you know that that and so I think you go through all of those things
01:44:43
um but you just have to shake it off you know and I think we all dealt with it differently um uh you know but um no I
01:44:51
mean I I wouldn't um I would like you can never do it but part of I think when we set up helped
01:44:59
set up that Players Association was just you know it was a recognition at the end
01:45:04
of my career when we were all trying to work out that you need these support structures around you know to prevent
01:45:10
things like that happening people need mental support they need you know advice they need physical support and advice
01:45:19
you know all of those things if they're going to be successful on the part and
01:45:22
um you know I I would say there's still some development to go there um in and
01:45:28
even today but um it's much B than it was so yeah well there's no your duty of
01:45:33
care wasn't even a phrase back then was it um how old are your kids now and did
01:45:38
did you did you bring this up with your kids at any point or you just have they read it online have they asked about it
01:45:43
there's no secrets they know at all um no no they you know they I think they
01:45:48
think it's a little bit funny if I'm D dad was cool once no they don't that
01:45:53
they definitely don't think that I think they think it was funny stupid uh stupid
01:45:58
funny yeah I don't know definitely not cool um but you know they're not but um
01:46:04
no they they're they're cool with it they're like just you know just de yeah
01:46:09
they know what I'm like full stop you know so they know The Good the Bad and
01:46:12
the Ugly so yeah oh that's cool well let's um wrap the B the cricket stuff
01:46:16
with a couple of fun stuff I I found a clip on YouTube of you um taking this amazing catch catching the great Brian
01:46:22
Lara out you're running backwards and you get this catch um any stories about anyone
01:46:28
else any of the greats like wary yeah what was your relationship like with warie um I didn't have a great I didn't
01:46:35
play Australia in test match is a whole bunch but I had a good relationship with
01:46:39
wary he was a just a jovial good guy you know like super competitor best story I
01:46:45
can tell you about wary is I was playing a game of cricket um in in Sydney under
01:46:51
lights one day in like say 96 1996 something like that and um uh he bowls this ball called a flipper and it's like
01:47:01
this it was this mystery ball right and it was big all this press and PR about it right and anyway so old muggins here
01:47:09
Bing away and War comes in the bow and he balls this B and I go to smack it out of the park and I get clean bowled right
01:47:14
and it's like and he just like gives me this big scend off and I walk off and
01:47:19
like you know there's this bit of commentary of going oh what what on Earth was Deon thinking you know and
01:47:24
then anyway so that's in 1996 2000 year 2000 maybe 2001 I'm playing Australia in a test match at the
01:47:33
Brisbane and Shane War comes into bowl and it's the first ball he balls comes
01:47:38
to bowl to me and he comes in you know it's bright sunny day in Brisbane and he
01:47:43
gets about to bowl and he stops and he leans down and he rubs his hand in the dust and he looks at me and goes
01:47:50
remember Sydney nashy and I was just like what I'm I'm like some Joe nobody that you bowled out in
01:47:59
1996 in a one day in Sydney and you you still remember it you know and he was like he just making the point watch out
01:48:05
for my flipper it's coming and and I've got you once ready and I was like man I
01:48:10
was it sort of actually had the opposite effect it made me feel really good that
01:48:14
I even knew how I was you know it was like it's great Shane one so um that's
01:48:18
neat yeah that is yeah but but that's shows you the competitor he was right he
01:48:23
was into everybody he just wanted to he wanted to knock you over he didn't feed
01:48:26
it anything so um but yeah I mean you know I had always had great battles with Ula like I got him out about six times I
01:48:34
was perori was the best keeper I would only ever have Adam be my wi keeper but he did drop um at a SAT and tender twice
01:48:43
so I should have had him eight times um Adam denies it outright but I'm pretty
01:48:47
sure there's video evidence out there that I can find if I work hard enough um
01:48:52
so but tnd do was he was the great him and him and Lara were the two greats of my time um and you know I I had a few
01:49:00
Runnings with Steve War and the war Brothers um but I just loved playing in the era you know it was just sort of one
01:49:07
of those times you had these big big characters um you know Waker yunas Wy mam you know kley Ambrose Ellen Donald
01:49:16
you know like there were just these massive personas that you had to sort of and I don't think you can quite
01:49:23
articulate what it's like to go out against massive egos massive personas and just to exist out in the middle
01:49:30
against those people you really have to you know you have to sort of exude that same sort of like um Persona you know
01:49:37
and fake it because you you know it's not natural to have it but it's like
01:49:42
it's just being part of that is exciting you know it was was a massive Challenge
01:49:46
and when you have those little bits of success against it it's just amazing yeah and I wanted to know about that
01:49:54
it's like um I mean I I suppose I speak on behalf of like almost everyone that's
01:49:58
going to listen to this podcast that will never achieve anything close to Greatness in our life like what was it
01:50:05
like retiring at 30 is it terrifying do you have like a post-career depression like you go through these like extreme
01:50:11
highs that that none of us get to experience and then suddenly it's like your your new life is beginning yeah you
01:50:17
do you um you do it's like it it lasts for for ages is way longer than it should um you know like initially
01:50:25
there's a little bit of a high it's like finally cuz I only retired cuz I was
01:50:29
having so many injuries and I was just so tired of it you know emotionally I'd
01:50:33
drained I just the the the continual getting injured and having all the media say I is injured again and every family
01:50:41
member say oh why don't you just ring bllr or you know why don't you just get
01:50:46
fitter everyone every friend no one understands did you did you ever try medicinal weed
01:50:53
no no there wasn't even a thing then it was it was like yeah sorry probably self-medicated a few times yeah
01:51:02
sorry breaking your flow there yeah no but you know like so you get out of it and you're like um uh you know you just
01:51:09
walk away and and think thank God that's over but then the further you get away
01:51:13
from it the more you're like oh man I didn't achieve as much as I should and
01:51:17
you have all this sort of regret and the sort of a scar tissue from it you know that builds up cuz it's like man I got
01:51:24
you know you feel certain times you're mistreated or you know went you know whatever and then that that lasts for a
01:51:32
long time and I guess why I'm so grateful for having met those guys at 42 below and now for having my own business
01:51:37
is I just managed to stumble into something where I had some another creative outlet and I think C sport is
01:51:45
quite a creative Outlet you know I know people don't necessarily associate jocks
01:51:49
and with with with creativity but they sort of they are qu lined in a way um and certainly from a passion perspective
01:51:57
you know that takes a lot of passion and you deep dive into it and so I think I feel really lucky to have
01:52:04
had that but man for years you know because it's something you've done since
01:52:07
you're 12 it's what your whole identity is wrapped around in is becoming a
01:52:11
crooker and then you do it until 30 that's the majority of your your adult life or your entire adult life and the
01:52:18
majority of your entire life that your identity has been wrapped up with something so then you step out of that
01:52:24
and it's just like it's both frightening and accelerating um it's like taking the
01:52:29
training wheels off and Away um you know riding your bike and it's like man this
01:52:34
this is exciting but [ __ ] terrifying as well yeah and how how do I work the brakes um and and of course what happens
01:52:41
is every now and then you crash right and when you crash you have those bad times that's when you just long for oh
01:52:47
man I want the security of my identity back but I think I worked out at some stage in it that like I us like any
01:52:55
player that finishes I did commentary for a while and even some TV work you know and I just sort of felt that it was
01:53:02
really unhealthy for my psyche cuz it was I felt like I was a becoming a caricature of myself which was something
01:53:09
I was trying to shed shed away from you know and so um I didn't want to go into
01:53:16
that I I wanted to move away from it and so I sort of made this conscious decision not to carry on with the the
01:53:22
the that side of it um and try to get into something else and I I still think that was a healthy decision even though
01:53:30
at times I you know you still sort of you feel like oh maybe it be easy to go back and Dabble and this sort of stuff
01:53:36
but I think certainly at that time for me I needed to make that clean cut and get away you know and try to carve out
01:53:43
something else do you enjoy reminising from time to time like today or is it a pain in the ass I enjoy it no I do I
01:53:50
enjoy tell I I I sometimes sometimes I'm sick of my own voice you know like I and
01:53:55
so I I want to what I want is the next adventure to be exciting and like I've
01:54:02
got this great adventure going on with Bernie at the moment you know like we've
01:54:05
got this beautiful family we've been ber and I have been married 20 years and it
01:54:11
doesn't even feel like half quarter of that time you know and I feel like um you know we're just
01:54:18
getting sort of like started in a way and watching our kids grow and you know trying to be a better human myself so
01:54:28
that they can so I can show them that I can be evolve and change and you know as
01:54:34
as a challenge and I'm enjoying that you know it's like I I'm totally committed
01:54:39
to that and [ __ ] it up often you know like you know way too vocal on the sideline at kids sports you know know
01:54:48
like are you actually are you not conscious that people be like that's [ __ ] qucious but that's it only
01:54:53
drives me on to sort of make it worse you know I'm good at digging holes um so
01:54:59
but like um you know I'm quite good at climbing out of them as well but um but
01:55:04
you know the the of that's that behavior is like you know I my father never was
01:55:10
vocal on the sideline so you know as my father's just passed away I'm like man I
01:55:15
I want to be like Dad you know I want to just show that I can be stoic on the sideline and and
01:55:21
enjoy the wins or loses or whatever but but it's hard man ockland sport kids sport
01:55:28
Inland is so competitive you know and it's like it's full on um so there's all
01:55:34
of those things going on there's like trying to run a business trying to make
01:55:36
sure that I put bread on the table enjoying watching my Bernie's got a great job and she's got her career going
01:55:43
so enjoying watching her she's a few years after you know she was a sort of stay-at home mom for a long time what's
01:55:49
what what is she doing she's she's um she's I don't know if this is by Design
01:55:53
or but she doesn't do a lot of podcasts and stuff or no she's so she's head of
01:55:58
people and marketing at um Hundai Group which is um so it's a really big job
01:56:04
like great she's doing super well um and loving it you know she's having her I
01:56:11
guess sort of corporate time which I I had 10 years ago or whatever and um and I think she's she's feeling she's
01:56:19
getting that success sense of sensation of success so you know people we always need little wins don't we you know to
01:56:25
keep ourselves bouncing along from lily pad to Lily Pad and I feel like she's
01:56:30
having a really um good impact on the people around her there and you can feel it you know she's like anyone she's good
01:56:37
and bad days but that's exciting to watch and and see that develop so I don't know I'm just enjoying I'm trying
01:56:43
to it's I love the moment you can sit on YouTube and sort of you know get all
01:56:49
this advice around how to you know live Liv in the moment how to you know be grateful you know be mindfulness I I
01:56:56
know it sounds cheesy and all of that but I it's so wouldn't it have been
01:57:01
great to have that 25 years ago you know and just you know like from what I know
01:57:06
about you you've been thee of the curve though you would you were journaling
01:57:08
like at a young age like teenage years yeah yeah well yeah mainly doodling right initially and then and then and
01:57:18
then some pretty dodgy poetry you know I remember remember had my own little Jim
01:57:22
marison pH at University where I thought I was you know writing writing some pretty wicked poetry anyway oh so yeah
01:57:30
so Benise for anyone that um that doesn't know like Benise Minnie she was that when you were in the New Zealand
01:57:34
cricket team she was like the the star of the silver FS there was a McCain Z that was on TV all the time where I'm
01:57:41
pretty sure it wasn't her dad but she got a phone she was preparing like a TV
01:57:45
microwave dinner and the phone on The Voice would be I just want to make sure my girl's looking after herself
01:57:50
something like that she's a big star so you guys met you ended up being at sobow
01:57:54
or something and you shouted her tequila it was my birthday I'd been I'd come
01:57:58
home from India injured again so I was I was my my my niece and my um my sister would taken me out almost our 28th
01:58:07
birthday so I was like I was moping around the house thinking a man and then they said come on let's take you out so
01:58:14
I was having this big raging night with my niece and my sister and I ran into a friend and he owned a bar called a
01:58:20
restaurant called lemon ran into him at at some bar and he goes dud come down I'll shout you guys a dinner so he takes
01:58:27
us down to his restaurant and I just walking and just so happen the only table there is right
01:58:33
next to this group of netballers and so I and they just lost the world Champs by
01:58:38
one goal against Australia and that was sort of in the news and they having their debrief I didn't know that but so
01:58:43
I was like oh this is awkward I'm going to sit down I don't know any of them but
01:58:46
I'm going to sit down right the table next to them so how do I navigate this
01:58:51
so I thought oh I'll just come by rounded te killers and bring it back and you know that'll break the ice they you
01:58:56
were a big star at the time though right oh well I don't know well I was well
01:58:59
knowing I was in the New Zealand team had been kept had been kep and so yeah anyway so I brought this round Kil as I
01:59:06
took it over and Bernie always likes to say she she said she thought oh that's
01:59:11
Dion Nash and then one of the other girls said isn't that Dion Nash and then
01:59:15
one of the other ones said who just a time stamp this pre smartphone so you can't just Google and
01:59:22
go oh yeah that's oh that's cute so then how did so how did you end up um yeah 20
01:59:29
years married from that well we just num yeah no well no initially no I I checked
01:59:34
the number down by somehow and then um you know it took a while you know there was it didn't didn't all happen straight
01:59:40
away but eventually I managed to hook up with a date with her when she was in Oakland you know a month or two later I
01:59:47
can't remember and um I took her out for a day night there's a quarry jump where
01:59:52
I was I was always into jumping off high things into water so I did the polis Bridge jump so I was always like right
01:59:58
let's find the next highest thing right and so um there's this Quarry over in
02:00:03
tuna and lake puki and he used to be able to jump I think you still probably can if you but um us we used to go and
02:00:09
jump it's about I don't know eight or N9 M you know it's reasonable you got to
02:00:12
jump out over gors and it's a little bit thrilling so anyway so I I my first date
02:00:17
I took her there and said hey let's go jump into this Lake and she was like okay so anyway so I got her in a bikini
02:00:25
on her first dat and got her jumping off this high C I thought okay this girl's
02:00:29
all good I like her so oh that's cool yeah so then um no so she she um yeah so
02:00:36
that was and then it sort of kicked off from there but yeah amazing all these yeah I suppose um I don't know yeah must
02:00:44
have been good meeting someone that's sort of like a peer like uh that's
02:00:47
that's an equal so there's no sort of power and balance like if if you're if
02:00:51
you're [ __ ] stress pregame or whatever she sort of got some sort of understanding of what it's like in high
02:00:56
performance sport um the highs and lows of all that yeah and and she'd had her
02:01:01
own share of injuries and um she she she was largely quite loved though not not as quite as controversial I always felt
02:01:08
we've got this thing this um we got this thing from the southern times cuz she
02:01:12
was playing for this thing at the time and in Vago and it's the front page or
02:01:16
you know the flyer that they sell the paper with so it goes out and it's the
02:01:19
you know it's just the headline and it sits in the it's the Southland times and
02:01:23
it's like alberes is engaged and I was like oh my God what we got taking on the
02:01:28
Hall of Southland so yeah so um anyway so yeah but that was a buzz you know they were
02:01:36
that was a cool time as well that whole sting thing because Aden H was going out
02:01:40
with Jeff Wilson and um Tanya um Dalton and Dwayne were down there so we all these boyfriends would we were like the
02:01:48
Wags we would fly in from ockland and to watch these sting games it would be like
02:01:52
sort of who's who in the crowd it was quite funny that's neat and um so is she
02:01:58
taller than you yeah yes she is how how was that how was that was that weird in the beginning yeah for both you there
02:02:04
was definitely like a clean out of the Shoe Closet that's all of those ones are
02:02:08
going AR they so um oh yeah well she's she's 6'2 I'm I'm you know not quite 6'2
02:02:15
so it's it's close but no she's definitely taller um and um oh yeah it
02:02:22
was you know it wasn't what I was intending I'm sure it was to be the short person in the relationship that's
02:02:28
for sure but yeah well I just think when you meet she's such you know youve you
02:02:33
know Bernie she's just such a engaging person and we just we're so compatible
02:02:39
we she just loves humans she loves talking um and she brought out that in me you know like I she she got me out of
02:02:46
my shell and you know and you know she is she she's just a wonderful person to
02:02:52
be around and so you talk about creating a positive environment around yourself you know that was the the biggest tick I
02:03:00
could have made you know it was just like wow this person's I just feel great
02:03:04
you know and wouldn't and like you say she wouldn't she would she never D
02:03:09
dwells on things and she never dives off into negativity or or or you know feeling sorry for herself or anything
02:03:16
like that and so you you can't be like that if you're around a person who who
02:03:20
like that you know no it's just you the moment you start having any of that behavior you're like oh my God I'm
02:03:26
letting this show down here you know I got to get my [ __ ] together and get up and play on the same terms you know so I
02:03:32
think um that's been a really positive thing for me you know that's wonderful
02:03:38
and yeah so you've been together like 25 years now like a oh yeah late 9s 03
02:03:43
010203 so yeah so what's it 21 years yeah so yeah so oh oh no sorry that's
02:03:49
marriage but yeah no yeah so yeah no yeah pre the last Millennium yeah have you um got I mean you don't
02:03:59
get that far in a relationship without having any rough patches you have you had any counseling or anything or are
02:04:04
you just naturally good at communicating on your own and working through obstacles when they come up ah she's
02:04:10
pretty straight man like it's like if if I'm playing up or doing just you know
02:04:16
she'll just and vice versa to be honest like no we we like anyone of course there's you know rough patches of of
02:04:24
whatever you know but it's but no I mean she's just got my back you know and I
02:04:28
think I've got his and not you know part of all of the dope smoking and the you
02:04:34
know maybe the scar tissue of our sporting careers um it's really important to some feel like someone's
02:04:40
got you back and you're living up to their expectations you know and you did right you've used the scar
02:04:47
tissue thing a couple of times and I think um whenever anything like this happens you just you and this is quite
02:04:53
sad but your circle just gets smaller and Tighter right yeah that's right yeah
02:04:57
yeah 100% And it's like and then you build out a little bit I think now and you know you start to build out a little
02:05:02
bit right and bring the other people into it and change but um yeah no I mean I we've traveled a lot I think that's a
02:05:13
cool thing to do as well we went to South America when we first got together for about 4 months um and we traveled
02:05:20
around went way up and into the middle of the Amazon and you know people couldn't even speak Spanish they were
02:05:26
speaking chiuan and you know we had all these crazy experiences together which was that sort of tested their metal you
02:05:32
know it was like it was like okay if we got through that we can probably last at
02:05:37
least a couple of years of marriage yeah yeah oh how could and how old are the kids now 17 15 13 right yeah [ __ ] so you
02:05:44
guys are going to start being almost like empty nests soon yeah so the oldest one starting to look at universities
02:05:49
he's in his last year at school man it's crazy how quick it it goes through and
02:05:54
um yeah but exciting as as well the best thing we've done recently we we after Co
02:06:00
I had my 50th during Co and we' saved up to have this big party and of course
02:06:05
couldn't have it so we're like well let's go to Europe you know and take the
02:06:09
kids to Europe CU we had saved the saved some money and so we planned this family
02:06:13
trip to Europe and wow what the the perfect ages to take the family away and just to have this family trip somewhere
02:06:22
when in the middle of summer in the middle of Europe was that was the best thing we've ever done you know it was
02:06:28
just like seeing your kids exposed to other cultures and just their worlds opening up you know and just somehow
02:06:35
took a lot of the pressure I think some sometimes being from New Zealand there's
02:06:39
a lot of pressure in the smallness of the place you know like because it feels so competitive it feels like you if you
02:06:46
don't like you know whereas I think seeing the world and just going man the world's so bad
02:06:52
somehow I could my sense was it relieved a lot of internal pressure certainly from my oldest one I was just like wow
02:06:58
this is an adventure out here you know there's so much to do and just seeing
02:07:03
whether it's real or not that was my perception and seeing those little growth things happen on your kids is
02:07:09
just enriching you know and you are you proud of yourself as a dead yeah of course yeah but I'm
02:07:16
also it's I Chris Ken and I we used to Chris Ken and I weren't always mates you
02:07:21
know we some buttheads a lot and we came up with the saying like years and years
02:07:26
ago which was and you know I think we're having an argument here like you just
02:07:31
don't respect me and I said my retort to Kenzie was respect is not something you
02:07:36
earn and keep it's something you keep earning and it was like and he's never
02:07:40
let he's never let me forget it and I and um but he loves that saying now it's
02:07:46
a great line I've never heard that it's awesome yeah and he but he um you know
02:07:50
and it's it's sort of true but I didn't even know what I was saying I was just
02:07:54
trying to win the argument with them I think and um but uh but it's funny like
02:08:00
that that's true of being a parent you know like it's like every time I do
02:08:04
something dumb or I do some silly thing as a parent you know and or react badly or just grumpy and angry when I should
02:08:13
have just been mow and cool um you know I I have to rearn that bit I feel I have
02:08:18
to rearn that bit of respect you know it's like [ __ ] I just blew it it's all
02:08:21
going so good you know because in in our household growing up like in the 70s and
02:08:25
' 80s it was always um you do as I say not as I do I feel like you can't get
02:08:29
away with it now you have to lead by example totally totally Al so yes Kinsey you guys are quite close right are you
02:08:36
quite good friends well we are I mean you know but I think a lot was made cuz he went through all that match fixing
02:08:42
and his problems and now he's obviously got his health issues which he's doing
02:08:46
amazing to come back from um I me I I love following him on Instagram has has junor to teach himself to walk again
02:08:53
yeah incredible right it's the match fixing stuff like whether it happened whether it didn't happen it kind of puts
02:08:58
everything into perspective I think in a way on the big scheme of Life yeah and I
02:09:02
think to be honest like chis Chris and I by the end of our career we're good
02:09:05
mates um you know Adam was a good mate we probably were you know you sort of get a bit clicky in different groups and
02:09:12
we the three of us were probably good mates every we had others as well that as well but that was probably a bit of a
02:09:19
core I would say um and then so you know you stand up for them but look I would have stood up for Steven Fleming or
02:09:26
Nathan Estel or Roger TW or Jeff any of those guys that we did stuff with during
02:09:31
that period they were like brothers really and I still even though there's through all of this sort of there has
02:09:39
been some separation but I still think of all of those guys like that I have ultimately all have their back and I
02:09:45
hope they would have mine um and you know that's part of I hope when we get together in this Union you know we can
02:09:52
sort of just be together again you know um but um but yeah so but now keny's
02:10:00
Ken's doing great and you know it's it's tough right like going back to leaving
02:10:05
the game is tough enough without having to go through all of what he went through and now having all his health
02:10:10
issues and personal issues and and stuff so you know we all yeah we all need to be there don't we for a m yeah 100% [ __ ]
02:10:19
this has been a hell of a cheat this might um this might be the long you didn't have any meetings up did you I'm
02:10:25
sorry this has been over two hours oh [ __ ] sorry mate I I always remember John
02:10:29
Bridges you remember John Bridges from TV3 yes yeah of course so I I went to a function once and he um he uh is a
02:10:37
corporate function and he got up and he spoke and he said he he was giving advice to speakers and he said my the
02:10:42
first piece of advice is when someone asks you to speak just say no and when everyone's like what and he was like and
02:10:49
he goes whenever someone ask me to get up here and speak I say no and then and then it said if they come back and they
02:10:53
ask again I say still say no and then if they come back a third time he said then
02:10:58
I think about what is is they want me to say and if I'm really passionate and
02:11:02
I've got something to say then I might say yes but I might also say no and and
02:11:07
he was basically saying like you know just unless you've got something really
02:11:11
worthwhile saying just don't don't get up there it's not not worth it and which
02:11:15
was a really it was a good message I got it it was like yeah you got to have something to say and so I I you know I I
02:11:24
do feel like I've got something to say but then at the same time I'm like I'm
02:11:27
sick of the sound of my own voice so I I did think as I was coming today this might I might have to offer my
02:11:32
resignation to all podcasts after this one this might I've reached the Pinnacle
02:11:36
I reached Mar's podcast I can now officially retire yeah no more well well if this is your last time on please cuz
02:11:44
it's um you do have a lot to say it's um it's been a a hell of a life and I think
02:11:48
the exciting thing is there's someone that's like the same age as you it's um
02:11:52
you know you get to I don't know when I was in my early 20s I thought life was
02:11:55
over by the time you got to 50 yeah um and then you get here and you realize oh no you can still grow and still develop
02:12:00
and still change as a person and I think that's that's really exciting you good
02:12:03
with aging I'm excited I'm actually really excited I've got so much to
02:12:07
develop like I mean if imagine if it was all done right it would be like so boring um no I'm I'm sort of I'm really
02:12:13
excited I I definitely have some things I need to work on and get better at and I and I want to get better at you know
02:12:20
um I I did meet um I went on this course once and this I was I was being problematic within it this is only about
02:12:27
five or six years ago and I was challenging the people presenting it you know anyway and this lady comes up the
02:12:34
lady one of the presenters comes up to me towards the end out a break and she goes you know Dion with Mana comes great
02:12:41
responsibility and I was like oh oh that was that one that one I have to think about that for a minute but um
02:12:50
is that that from Transformers I don't knower I don't know what it was from but
02:12:54
I was like it was like it was true it was like she was basically accusing me of throwing my way around without any
02:13:01
care you know and um and being SM being smart enough to do it and but not allow not respecting what the group needed or
02:13:10
whatever you know and I thought ah that that was a good timely poking the ribs you know and and so I think that's the
02:13:19
thing I'm probably trying to work on at the moment is just being aware of the
02:13:23
impact that I can have good both positively and and negatively and trying to sort of like you know learn when
02:13:31
learn when I can need to just leave the room and and go and regroup myself cuz you know I'm I'm an oversharer as youve
02:13:40
probably just worked out and an over talker and you know sometimes in doing that you just actually needed to have
02:13:45
stopped half an hour ago probably like this podcast and then um and then um leave then everyone would be fine but
02:13:52
because you stay you over you over analyze it you over talk it or you just end up getting tired and saying the
02:13:58
wrong thing yeah well I think like from my perspective I think this has been great like there's nothing I'd eat it
02:14:03
out and I I appreciate you being so open especially about the stuff and like the
02:14:07
'90s um yeah I heard a podcast just recently that Arley Williams did with um
02:14:12
the between two beers guys oh yeah I've been on their podcast I know you too and
02:14:16
he remember he got done buying some cocaine and Paris Paris um and he said when you you make the news people say
02:14:22
it's all it's tomorrow's fish and chip rapper or whatever he goes and that's
02:14:25
true for everyone else but not the person involved yes and I feel like that's true for you um seems like it was
02:14:30
uh an ongoing thing for a while so I appreciate you you know raking over those old CTS yeah and and look I mean
02:14:37
as I say it's like everyone else that everyone we touched on and that they were on their own Journey you know so I
02:14:43
don't hold any of them I don't hold any grudges that's one thing I genuinely
02:14:49
feel I don't have a single grud against anyone I think anyone how they behaved
02:14:54
was always Justified all throughout you know um so but it but it doesn't change
02:15:01
how what I went through so that you know that that was a personal thing I they didn't have to go that I I did so I yeah
02:15:08
I mean I don't know I I feel like uh it's all it's all just part of the
02:15:13
journey right it's exciting I I want to keep going on but I I watched my father die just couple weeks
02:15:21
ago how old by the way 9094 one month short of 94 so 93 but um never made it to 100 much like yourself
02:15:29
yeah that's right yeah felt short um yeah should have done more should have achieved more
02:15:36
um but um no but it was like one of those things I I don't know you reflect a lot and I don't think I've fully
02:15:43
processed it but I guess my what I would say is like if you if you know have the
02:15:49
conversations you want to have with your parents now because by the time you realize you want to have them it's sort
02:15:55
of too late you know like a the aging process does catch up with people you know my father was and and what I think
02:16:04
happens is they dad was still had all his faculties but you know not to the point where you can have a philosophical
02:16:12
discussion and and by the time I wanted or felt I could have that with with my father I'd left I'd left it too long you
02:16:19
know and so I think having a better relationship with your parents just does can never start too soon you know and
02:16:28
demanding to have those conversations soon it's hard though way because it s
02:16:32
from what from what I've learned about your dad today like he was like just a
02:16:34
quite a stoic hard Northland farmer so if you don't have that sort of relationship not not necessarily a
02:16:41
friendship but that fatherson relationship that a lot of other people have it's hard to just sort of like
02:16:45
manufacture that yourself as an adult it it's almost that that's it and I
02:16:49
couldn't man I couldn't manufacture and in his own way it wasn't wouldn't have
02:16:53
been dad you know so he he didn't but which is not to say Dad was pH philosophical he had like it was just he
02:17:01
was a quiet stoic guy and he there was you know there's that Unwritten thing of
02:17:07
like I don't I don't need to tell you this cuz you already know it and of
02:17:11
course I did but it didn't mean I didn't rally against him going [ __ ] tell me
02:17:16
it though you know but also also um yeah I don't know what was said or what was
02:17:22
left unsaid but um you know he I'm sure he must have been immensely proud that
02:17:27
he gave you the poem If yeah as a posted to as a boy and that ended up becoming the the name of your business like is
02:17:34
that something you discussed no no we never did but You' You' when whenever
02:17:39
you've mentioned Triumph and disaster in the root of the name of your company um
02:17:43
you've mentioned him and um I it was a bege of Honor for him well like I don't
02:17:48
yeah that's what I sort of mean I think it's like we you know you wer a verbal family not
02:17:56
with my no not with my mother yes was like but like Mom Mom was different kid of fish but Dad was like the opposite
02:18:04
and it was like but I admire that in them too you know like I can't that's
02:18:08
the thing I think we we get so wound up in you know all these different things and it's like sometimes a s you know you
02:18:16
can understand people through silence right and just being with them and understanding them right and it's like
02:18:21
we know more about people you know not all communication is is verbal and and I think that you know sometimes I I said I
02:18:29
did find sorry to carry on I'll I'll shut up in a minute but no no I'm good
02:18:34
as long as you good well I did find this thing I my the thing I said which I really like at the moment is this um
02:18:41
intellectual honesty I said this on another um podcast with the guys at mandate actually who are awesome dudes
02:18:47
you should meet up with them they I've been on their podcast people and um anyway but like I found
02:18:54
myself talking about like intellectual honesty and I was like I reog it's the
02:18:57
thing that that social media is really taken away from us it's this ability to
02:19:01
make a statement and then hop out behind a su so if I want to have a proper conversation with you I've got to take
02:19:07
your opinion in the spirit that it's given and within the context that it's
02:19:12
given and it's so easy to take out of context one thing you've said inflame it
02:19:16
and twist it a little bit and Reay it back to you and totally misrepresent present you and what what does it
02:19:22
achieve it helps me win my point but it doesn't help us win a a common goal of
02:19:28
understanding each other or or working towards a solution on a topic you know and I feel like that we need to fight
02:19:35
for that intellectual honesty in all of our conversations that we can possibly have because that's the way we're going
02:19:41
to move forward as a country as a people as you know just generally but also I think when you're really honest with
02:19:49
someone and you really listen it forces you to listen and go and then you can learn and I I think that's what I'm most
02:19:56
excited about trying to do is learn a bit more like I feel like we get you reach a landing and I feel like
02:20:04
sometimes you close down because I've got got all this information that's got
02:20:06
me to this point I just need to consolidate this now and that stops you then bringing in more information
02:20:12
because you want to make the most of where you're at and sometimes and I just
02:20:16
feel like I'm at the cusp of like going actually you know what I actually need
02:20:19
more information and I want bring it in and open up and change and evolve a bit more and I'm open to that now you know
02:20:25
like the Stepping Stones all way some people I think can keep it on an escalator but I I tend to just have to
02:20:31
keep getting to Landings and control it a bit more that's um yeah you've got a
02:20:36
growth mindset so I feel like you're always going to be um trying to grow and
02:20:39
expand and get the best out of yourself and I I suppose um yeah one of the great
02:20:44
lessons that maybe you got from your dad is um how you parent your own kids differently yeah yeah you know you learn
02:20:51
you learn stuff some stuff to do and some stuff to do differently I suppose that's the blessing in a way well I
02:20:56
think I also think the one thing I would say kids are so smart they don't they
02:21:00
don't whatever whatever impact I think what I'm having is just about it's the
02:21:07
reality of it is about 1% of that you know so I'm far less important as like
02:21:11
than I've made myself out to be in like they just or at least in the sense of
02:21:16
what my message is to them they just I can see my oldest son looking at me and going
02:21:21
you know whatever and I'm not and I can sort of almost see it see his mind thinking
02:21:27
going man I'm not going to be like that but I'm going to you're over this side
02:21:33
um so yeah but no no but hey Willison thank you for having me on here cuz I I've enjoyed it I I feel like I watched
02:21:40
you I watched a bunch of them and you know cuz I we watched a bunch of the early ones and then you know you've been
02:21:46
so prolific that I I couldn't keep up but when I thought I'd come on here
02:21:50
and I think what you're doing I was really encouraged by watching it and just going well you
02:21:56
are asking really smart relevant questions and people are responding to that and I think that's a skill right
02:22:04
and that's why you've been successful I think you've like you I'm not just
02:22:07
blowing smoke it's like it feels like it's a really important thing you know
02:22:12
to have conversations like this so I just you know I hope you don't run out of you know kiwis to do it you might
02:22:18
have to move overseas but like it's so ening and I watched I didn't watch them all the way
02:22:24
through but I every person I was like oh man Z Gilford you know when I watched that I was like wow you got Zack
02:22:31
Guilford to offer up some stuff you know like I was like man this this is awesome
02:22:35
Matthew Ridge I was like he was that was an awesome he got the Warriors bit wrong
02:22:40
you you I'd love you need to get him back in cuz you it was two years ago and
02:22:44
it's just before all of the wi is kicked off yeah yeah like we get get him back
02:22:49
in Edam peror your old mate like I haven't watched it I've got to go and
02:22:52
watch some Mark Richardson I saw Mark was great too yeah it's it's bloody it's
02:22:56
bloody great one thing I'm realizing is that everyone absolutely everyone is dealing
02:23:01
with some [ __ ] yes and everyone's going through something and um I don't know
02:23:05
when you realize that it's quite it's quite comforting in a way it makes makes
02:23:08
you feel less aligned with what you're going through of course yeah and it's
02:23:11
just yeah yeah mate I I can't than you enough for your time as you know been a
02:23:16
big fan of your work for a number of years so it's finally it's good to find
02:23:19
I suppose you're one of those I've had on the back bur like Dion's just around
02:23:22
the corner we'll get him on one day um but you've been a great support and I'll
02:23:26
never forget that Triumph and disaster was the you know the first brand to come on board as a sponsor because um you
02:23:32
don't forget these little things no you don't and but thanks it's been awesome
02:23:36
and I'm I'm stoked to see it all going well so you know if we um I'm sure our
02:23:41
paths will cross again 100% now we near doing a fragrance are you going back to working on a fragrance now it's in the
02:23:47
pipeline actually so it's coming um uh and that's I'm more nervous about this
02:23:53
than any of the other ones we've done because it's like it's got to be right
02:23:56
you know so um you don't CU you know this is what you personally wear it as your signature so we've got we're
02:24:05
waiting on three more samples coming in from Europe first round's done so was
02:24:09
probably a few iterations away but hope hopefully we're getting pretty close
02:24:13
after this next set so awesome any um any like sneak peek about what the scent is or how do you describe drop when I've
02:24:21
got the next one I'll come down and you can be part of the process how about
02:24:24
that you smoke some weed can you spray someone disguises it's a I think you can yeah
02:24:31
it's a cheap shot I'm sorry ad on N thanks so much mate awesome good to see
02:24:36
you right [Music] oh

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  • 70
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  • 70
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  • 70
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Episode Highlights

  • Nickname Evolution
    D shares the story behind his nickname and how it evolved over time.
    “I was always grateful for the nickname evolution.”
    @ 03m 59s
    June 09, 2024
  • Advice to Younger Self
    D wishes he could give his younger self advice on being a professional athlete.
    “I wish I could go back and give him some sound advice.”
    @ 16m 58s
    June 09, 2024
  • Healthy Competition
    The speaker reflects on a healthy rivalry with fellow athlete Jeff Wilson.
    “It was such a healthy competition I've never known anyone after that.”
    @ 28m 50s
    June 09, 2024
  • Emotional Toll of Business
    The pandemic drained small business owners emotionally more than financially.
    “It was just emotionally draining.”
    @ 43m 24s
    June 09, 2024
  • Growing Up Different
    Reflecting on how upbringing shaped his identity and relationships with family.
    “I grew up in a different era almost to them”
    @ 56m 56s
    June 09, 2024
  • University Life and Learning
    His university experience taught him valuable life lessons beyond academics.
    “I learned how to think at University”
    @ 01h 06m 34s
    June 09, 2024
  • The 1994 Lords Achievement
    He became the first player to score 50 and take 11 wickets in a test.
    “You become the first person ever to score 50 then take 11 wickets in a test.”
    @ 01h 19m 55s
    June 09, 2024
  • The Weed Smoking Incident
    A nationwide scandal involving him and teammates during a tour in South Africa.
    “We all got done for smoking pot, yes.”
    @ 01h 28m 10s
    June 09, 2024
  • Facing the Media Storm
    After the incident, the player experiences intense media scrutiny and public backlash.
    “Everywhere you went, people were either offering you joints or abusing you.”
    @ 01h 36m 58s
    June 09, 2024
  • A Lasting Partnership
    After 20 years of marriage, the couple feels like they are just getting started.
    “I feel like we're just getting started in a way.”
    @ 01h 54m 18s
    June 09, 2024
  • Traveling Together
    A family trip to Europe opens up new perspectives for the kids.
    “Seeing the world relieved a lot of internal pressure.”
    @ 02h 06m 52s
    June 09, 2024
  • The Importance of Conversations
    Having meaningful conversations with parents is crucial before it's too late.
    “If you know, have the conversations you want to have with your parents now.”
    @ 02h 15m 51s
    June 09, 2024

Episode Quotes

  • I wish I could go back and give him some sound advice.
    Dion Nash Reflects on Business Journey, Cricket Career, Cannabis Controversy & More!
  • If I could build something cool enough, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
    Dion Nash Reflects on Business Journey, Cricket Career, Cannabis Controversy & More!
  • I never felt physically threatened or you know I had a great upbringing.
    Dion Nash Reflects on Business Journey, Cricket Career, Cannabis Controversy & More!
  • I always wonder whether my results are slightly tainted.
    Dion Nash Reflects on Business Journey, Cricket Career, Cannabis Controversy & More!
  • It's both frightening and accelerating, like taking the training wheels off.
    Dion Nash Reflects on Business Journey, Cricket Career, Cannabis Controversy & More!
  • You can still grow and still develop.
    Dion Nash Reflects on Business Journey, Cricket Career, Cannabis Controversy & More!

Key Moments

  • Business Beginnings21:17
  • Life Lessons39:40
  • Community Engagement49:16
  • Harsh Cricket Culture1:13:25
  • Wedding in Jamaica1:21:56
  • Honors Board Discussion1:23:55
  • Court Hearing1:34:55
  • Media Backlash1:36:58

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown