Latest / The Intelligent Rebellion / 034: Tanya Cambey

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034: Tanya Cambey · The Intelligent Rebellion

• 0:00
  Intro: This is The Intelligent Rebellion.
• 0:14
  Intro: Welcome to 10 Minutes with a podcast by The Intelligent Rebellion about
• 0:18
  Intro: Compo and the humans within. My name is Rhea Mercado
• 0:22
  Intro: and I am your host.
• 0:35
  Rhea Mercado: Hello Tanya, it's Rhea here. How are you doing? Good,
• 0:39
  Rhea Mercado: how are you? I'm very well, thank you so much
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  Rhea Mercado: for taking my call and for coming on to 10
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  Rhea Mercado: minutes with. I'm looking forward to it. Now I know you, um,
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  Rhea Mercado: but for the people that don't know you, so we've
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  Rhea Mercado: got 10 minutes, right, so don't go into like a
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  Rhea Mercado: long-winded introduction of who you are, people will link in
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  Rhea Mercado: you later. Just tell us, give us your name and
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  Rhea Mercado: like what it is that you do.
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  Tanya Cambey: Uh, so I'm Tanya Cambey. I'm an advocacy advisor in
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  Tanya Cambey: the medical sphere where it pays to care, and in
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  Tanya Cambey: my full-time job, I work for WorkCover Queensland.
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  Rhea Mercado: Now, Tanya, you and I met what, 18 months ago
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  Rhea Mercado: when I started with It Pays to Care, and you are a superstar. Um,
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  Rhea Mercado: you were up at the PIEF. You got a commendation.
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  Rhea Mercado: How did that feel? Yeah, it was very cool actually,
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  Rhea Mercado: very surprising, but, um, and embarrassing but really lovely to
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  Rhea Mercado: have had the recognition, so very cool. You were so
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  Rhea Mercado: cute up on that stage, you're like taking all your
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  Rhea Mercado: photos and things like that, but.
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  Rhea Mercado: You're in workers' comp, I'm in workers' comp, but like,
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  Rhea Mercado: how did you, give us an origin story. Yeah, so, um,
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  Rhea Mercado: it's really quite funny, it was never a, a career
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  Rhea Mercado: trajectory or a planned career trajectory for me. I, way
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  Rhea Mercado: back when,
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  Tanya Cambey: Started out doing victims of crime for the Department of
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  Tanya Cambey: Justice and felt very strongly about trying to, you know,
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  Tanya Cambey: help people in their moment of need and then went
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  Tanya Cambey: from there to working with, um, people who had death
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  Tanya Cambey: and disability claims and then fell into a role at
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  Tanya Cambey: WorkCover and,
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  Tanya Cambey: You know, have loved it ever since, so it, it
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  Tanya Cambey: really aligns for me with, you know, what, what is
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  Tanya Cambey: important at my core, which is really about helping people
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  Tanya Cambey: and making sure we do the right thing for them. Yeah,
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  Tanya Cambey: but like you, people say that, like I want to
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  Tanya Cambey: help people and do this, but,
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  Rhea Mercado: Why, why did you choose workers' comp? Like how, how
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  Rhea Mercado: is it workers' comp that's your vehicle, because you meet,
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  Rhea Mercado: we meet people and they're like, you work in workers' comp, oh,
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  Rhea Mercado: it's that real visceral fucking reaction that they have, right? Yeah,
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  Rhea Mercado: it's true, it's very true, but you know what, you,
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  Tanya Cambey: We're at work so much of our lives, right? And we,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, live to work, work to live, whichever way
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  Tanya Cambey: you take it. But, you know, you should be able
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  Tanya Cambey: to go to work and work safely and come home safely. Um,
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  Tanya Cambey: and what really, really did it for me was, um,
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  Tanya Cambey: ironically enough, when I was working, doing death and disability,
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  Tanya Cambey: I had a gentleman who was a um.
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  Tanya Cambey: An emergency, a first responder, and, you know, he, he
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  Tanya Cambey: had a terminal illness, and I was talking to him
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  Tanya Cambey: and he's like, you know what, I love what I do,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, and he didn't regret a single moment of it,
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  Tanya Cambey: and that passion and that,
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  Tanya Cambey: Desire to do right really resonated with me, like it's,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, he, he was, he's always my North Star,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, I know you, you shared a story about
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  Tanya Cambey: your North Star and your experience, um, yeah, he's my
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  Tanya Cambey: North Star.
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  Tanya Cambey: And, and I think
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  Rhea Mercado: In all of that though, right, how did you come
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  Rhea Mercado: to be the person that you are, right, cos like,
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  Rhea Mercado: surely somewhere before he came along.
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  Rhea Mercado: You had a sense of wanting to help people and
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  Rhea Mercado: a sense of purpose. Like where does that stem from? Like,
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  Rhea Mercado: is that I blame, I blame my mum, you know,
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  Rhea Mercado: a single, a single mum, two girls, eldest of 3,
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  Rhea Mercado: you know, she was always the, the, the go to
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  Rhea Mercado: lady for any family crises, and then,
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  Rhea Mercado: You know, obviously, um, you know, when she got sick,
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  Rhea Mercado: she went through a cancer journey herself and, um, unfortunately
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  Rhea Mercado: ended up passing away, and I kind of stepped into
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  Rhea Mercado: her shoes, to be honest with you, like, you know, I,
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  Rhea Mercado: I learnt from my mum, picked up where she, she
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  Rhea Mercado: left off, yeah, picked up where she left off exactly right,
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  Rhea Mercado: exactly right. And that's the one thing that um,
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  Rhea Mercado: I've always felt about you, like the the warmth that
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  Rhea Mercado: you have, we barely see each other because we're in
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  Rhea Mercado: completely different states, but when we see each other, there's
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  Rhea Mercado: this warmth about you, um, Tanya, um, which I think
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  Rhea Mercado: people who've met you know you.
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  Rhea Mercado: Um, and have felt that about you, but I want
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  Rhea Mercado: to share a story, um, I, when I was away
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  Rhea Mercado: in India, I actually sent some photos to our group WhatsApp,
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  Rhea Mercado: and when I arrived home, this is the type of
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  Rhea Mercado: person that you are, right? And to the, to the
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  Rhea Mercado: people listening to this, this is the type of person
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  Rhea Mercado: that Tanya is, I sent some photos on the WhatsApp
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  Rhea Mercado: group and I got home, and they had been, uh, framed, um,
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  Rhea Mercado: and put into frames and sent to my home by you, Tanya,
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  Rhea Mercado: because that's the type of person that you are.
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  Rhea Mercado: Um, and that's the warmth that I think you bring to,
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  Rhea Mercado: to everyone and, and, into the, into the industry that
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  Rhea Mercado: we're in, and I think,
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  Rhea Mercado: While you were just this beautiful person, what is it?
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  Rhea Mercado: That you want to see in workers' comp, like what
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  Rhea Mercado: is it when you bring your heart and your soul
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  Rhea Mercado: and that absolute give a shit, right? Yeah, if, if
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  Rhea Mercado: you had one message and you had a billion dollars,
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  Rhea Mercado: and you could change the system, and money was not
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  Rhea Mercado: an issue, if money was not an issue, actually it
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  Rhea Mercado: doesn't even matter about the money, we, we all have
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  Rhea Mercado: the ability.
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  Tanya Cambey: You know, and I know you've heard me harp on
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  Tanya Cambey: about this, Rhea, so apologies for you, but for the
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  Tanya Cambey: people listening. It's one thing, if we can all just
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  Tanya Cambey: do one thing differently, there are so many of us in,
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  Tanya Cambey: working in this sphere.
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  Tanya Cambey: That if we, you know, align to evidence-based practise, if
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  Tanya Cambey: we have really transparent, open communications, that, you know, we
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  Tanya Cambey: all do that one thing, you know, the 1 percenters
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  Tanya Cambey: add up. I had someone, you know, I regard really highly,
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  Tanya Cambey: say to me, it's all about the 1 percenters, Tanya,
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  Tanya Cambey: those 1%s all add up, and, that really resonated with me,
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  Tanya Cambey: because it's true, we don't need to try and, you know,
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  Tanya Cambey: Turn the Titanic, we can just do one thing, every
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  Tanya Cambey: one person doing one thing makes such a difference. What's
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  Tanya Cambey: the one thing that,
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  Tanya Cambey: Somebody can do today, like give us, give us, give us,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know what, give us 3 things. What are the
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  Tanya Cambey: 31 things that makes sense. 31 things, you know, my,
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  Tanya Cambey: my first one thing is, you know, we work in
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  Tanya Cambey: this this system day in day out, right? We know
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  Tanya Cambey: it like the back of our hands, but for, for,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, for providers, for,
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  Tanya Cambey: Workers, for employers, this might be the first time they've
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  Tanya Cambey: ever encountered this. They've ever had an experience with the system. So,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, my, my first one thing is, look at
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  Tanya Cambey: it from their lens. If it were you on the
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  Tanya Cambey: other end of that call, what would you need? What
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  Tanya Cambey: would you want to know? Why? How would you, you know,
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  Tanya Cambey: how would you want someone to approach that conversation with you? Like,
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  Tanya Cambey: it's so easy just to get caught into what we do,
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  Tanya Cambey: as I said, day in, day out, that we kind
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  Tanya Cambey: of forget to,
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  Tanya Cambey: To step back, um, the, the second thing would be,
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  Tanya Cambey: Be honest. Be honest, be, be open, be transparent, communicate regularly. Like,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, to, to coin your language, actually, you know,
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  Tanya Cambey: give a rat's spur how that person really is in
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  Tanya Cambey: that moment. Um, and then, if I'm honest, the third
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  Tanya Cambey: thing would be,
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  Tanya Cambey: Park our bias, right, we have done this for a
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  Tanya Cambey: very long time, you know, we've all got the, you know,
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  Tanya Cambey: the horror stories, the, the worst of the worst, but,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, in that moment, that person needs you, right?
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  Tanya Cambey: And then, if you're, you're having your vision and your
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  Tanya Cambey: perception of this person coloured by someone else's experience, you're
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  Tanya Cambey: not being true to that person in the moment.
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  Tanya Cambey: So, I think we just need to park the bias
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  Tanya Cambey: and kind of go, right, I, I'm dealing with Tanya
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  Tanya Cambey: or Rhea, or whomever it is, going, this is what
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  Tanya Cambey: they need right now.
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  Rhea Mercado: And, and it's taking it for face value as well, right,
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  Rhea Mercado: to your point, and this is where I mean people
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  Rhea Mercado: have talked, like, listen to me harp on about the
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  Rhea Mercado: empathy piece and how I am actually against empathy because
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  Rhea Mercado: I think that is really limiting. Empathy is about trying
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  Rhea Mercado: to understand and walk in the shoes of somebody else,
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  Rhea Mercado: but I'll never truly understand that person, right? But I
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  Rhea Mercado: think if we show them some curiosity and some kindness
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  Rhea Mercado: and some compassion, right, and we actually care for them,
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  Rhea Mercado: to your point, in that moment, in that exact moment
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  Rhea Mercado: in time.
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  Rhea Mercado: And be almost very, like, I think we're always scared about,
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  Rhea Mercado: we want to see a bigger picture, we want to
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  Rhea Mercado: see strategy, we want to see those things, but we
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  Rhea Mercado: need to be really insular sometimes and really, really focused
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  Rhea Mercado: in that exact moment and on that exact phone call,
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  Rhea Mercado: and that exact, and it's funny, you know.
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  Tanya Cambey: The system though, doesn't it? Yeah. Oh yeah, it does,
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  Tanya Cambey: but you know, it, it's funny circling back to that,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, story I shared about my mum. She used
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  Tanya Cambey: to always say to me, and I actually say it
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  Tanya Cambey: to my 12 year old, it costs you nothing to
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  Tanya Cambey: be kind. Right, it costs you nothing to be kind
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  Tanya Cambey: in that moment. It really doesn't.
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  Tanya Cambey: Great, it might be a 32nd extension to your phone
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  Tanya Cambey: call or you know, whatever, but, realistically, that, that's, that's
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  Tanya Cambey: nothing if that person on the other end, feels that
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  Tanya Cambey: you've heard them, that you are helping them, that you
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  Tanya Cambey: are on their side. Yeah, and I think that's such, such,
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  Tanya Cambey: you learned that kindness and that love and that compassion
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  Tanya Cambey: from your mum and you're trying to carry on, um,
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  Tanya Cambey: the work that she did and, and, and her legacy.
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  Tanya Cambey: Do you wanna, in the last minute, Tanya, do you
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  Tanya Cambey: want to share a story about your mum?
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  Tanya Cambey: Yeah, um, so, with, you know, we, single mum, two kids, um,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, we grew up very, very poor. You know,
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  Tanya Cambey: at one point we were living out of a car,
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  Tanya Cambey: and even in though, in that time, mum used to
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  Tanya Cambey: always take my sister and I, and we would go
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  Tanya Cambey: volunteer at the local, um, charity shop, sorting clothes, you know,
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  Tanya Cambey: doing whatever they needed to, um, just to help, because,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, there, there are always people who are in
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  Tanya Cambey: a worse off position than us, so.
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  Tanya Cambey: I, I equally, I do the same thing with my daughter,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, every Christmas, you know, we have very lucky,
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  Tanya Cambey: we're very lucky, we have really generous people in our lives,
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  Tanya Cambey: and she, you know, is very well loved, but, you know,
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  Tanya Cambey: we go through all of her clothes, all of her toys,
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  Tanya Cambey: and we go, right, OK, what's really good quality? What
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  Tanya Cambey: can we take to the local shelters, or, you know, to,
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  Tanya Cambey: you know, the, the charities that, that can be used,
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  Tanya Cambey: and that can then help someone else.
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  Rhea Mercado: And Tanya, with that story about your mom and your
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  Rhea Mercado: legacy and your wonderful, beautiful daughter who I've met as well,
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  Rhea Mercado: who's just like you, she's a mini me. So the
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  Rhea Mercado: world and the well, the next generation's in a better
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  Rhea Mercado: place if, you know, the Tanya Cambey line continues with
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  Rhea Mercado: her as well and the, and the kindness that you show.
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  Rhea Mercado: But with that, I want to say thank you so
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  Rhea Mercado: much for spending 10 minutes with me. You're an absolute legend. Anytime,
• 11:18
  Rhea Mercado: always happy to do it. All right, thanks, Tanya.
• 11:34
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• 11:36
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• 11:40
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• 11:43
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• 11:46
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