Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief - R U OK Day with Barry Du Bois
Transcript
- 0:02A listener production.
- 0:04Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
- 0:06Today, a special episode with a message or purpose to promote R U OK Day.
- 0:11And one of their ambassadors is coming on.
- 0:14So let's talk about it.
- 0:16G'day everyone, Rusty here for this ep of the shortcast.
- 0:19TV presenter Barry Dubois, home Renault legend from The Ten Show, which was a bit of a Friday night institution for so long.
- 0:27The living room is coming on and we have some car and motorbike yarns that we'll weave in with him, including the time he went two up
- 0:34on a Honda Australia Superbike at Sydney Motorsport Park and the cool ute that he's restoing as well.
- 0:40But the main reason for the chat is something I feel is important and so does listener, and that is R U OK Day.
- 0:47It's traditionally the second Thursday of September.
- 0:50We're releasing to coincide with that, so...
- 0:53It's today, the 12th of September 2024.
- 0:56Baz is incredibly passionate about this and about making a difference.
- 1:01Quick plug for a recent shortcast that we did with the entrepreneur and owner of several circuits in this corner of the world, Tony Korshaw.
- 1:08when we were overdue a catch-up.
- 1:10Will Queensland Raceway, which has undergone and continues to go through improvements, return to the supercars calendar?
- 1:17What he thinks of Will Brown, Brock Feeney and the new-look Triple Eight management structure that he's a part of, and some philanthropic things he's doing around supporting young racers on the pathway and road safety.
- 1:29Keep an eye out, too, for a gripping new feature episode, a two-parter,
- 1:34with Tom Randall from Tickford Racing, who came into the studios for a chat that covers all sorts of subjects ahead of the Sandown 500 and the big one, the Bathurst 1000.
- 1:45During my time at 10, I was fortunate to meet and work alongside some great people, not just in motor racing, and today's guest I've retained good ties with.
- 1:54We don't see each other face-to-face often enough.
- 1:57but he is this power of positivity and my feed might be full of motorsport cars bikes whatever but from time to time i'll get this nice message that just reminds you to keep doing what you love baz g'day mate thank you so much for coming on
- 2:12Rusty, I'm really pleased to be here.
- 2:13It's great to be talking to you.
- 2:15As you said, we don't see enough of each other these days, and I think that's part of problem with society.
- 2:20In the intro there, I was hoping you were going to say all those things and a great mate of yours.
- 2:26Because I guess it is social media and that, but we did have such a great time at 10 together, and through social media, we were able to follow each other's lives, I guess, to an extent.
- 2:36And I still feel very close to you and all the team there.
- 2:41And it's just great.
- 2:42It's great to be on the show, Rusty.
- 2:43Thanks.
- 2:43It's great.
- 2:44Great to have you with us, mate.
- 2:45Probably worth starting with why you are so driven about this initiative.
- 2:50And it is a bit of a story around your own health battle, and I'm sure some tough moments that you had along the way in dealing with that.
- 2:58Yeah, mate.
- 2:59Are You Okay Day, when I first got onto TV, I knew that that media platform was going to be a great one to share a story.
- 3:06As you know, I'd just gotten through my first round of cancer and TV being what TV was, they said, oh, we love your cancer story.
- 3:13We're going to align you with a cancer charity.
- 3:15And I said, I don't love my cancer story, but I do love Are You Okay Day.
- 3:20And it was really funny because that was only like 12 years ago, Rusty, and both the executive producers there stepped away from me when I said that and said, oh, Baz, that's a suicide awareness thing.
- 3:31We don't really want to be looking at that too much.
- 3:33And, you know, we went with it anyway.
- 3:36They had faith in me and we went with it.
- 3:37Now I think R U OK?
- 3:39Day and the words Gavin Larkin started back in 2009 are a part of the DNA of every mental health and men's health group.
- 3:49sort of narrative in the country.
- 3:51But you've come a long way.
- 3:52If you want, I can share with the listeners why I'm so passionate about it.
- 3:57Go for it.
- 3:57You know, I'm like, I'm probably as old as everybody's that's listening to your podcast right now.
- 4:06So I've had a lot of life.
- 4:08And back in my 40s, midlife, if you will, I was that classic alpha male.
- 4:14Actually, I was 40 years old when this started.
- 4:17And I sort of,
- 4:18had everything around me, and then a whole bunch of things sort of popped up one after the other.
- 4:23The first one was physical pain, which many men go through.
- 4:26I'd been a footy player, a boxer, and I'd done motocross, all that sort of stuff, as you know.
- 4:30So we get used to pain.
- 4:32But I fell off a building in Bondi Beach, and that was a 14-metre drop, broke my back in three places, broke my leg in two places, broke a couple of fingers and popped a shoulder.
- 4:43I think then a rib as well.
- 4:45So I had incredible physical pain, and that's a trauma that you have to deal with.
- 4:49So many men just ignore that trauma.
- 4:52I put on a bit of weight.
- 4:54Leonie and I were trying to have children, as you know, and that wasn't working out.
- 4:59So I had all the normal traumas of life that we all go through, and I started to use my physical pain as an excuse why I...
- 5:09was starting to step back away from my mates.
- 5:13When they'd ask about the, you know, how Leonie and I were going, I said, ah, you know, I got too much on at the moment.
- 5:19I'm going through treatment for my back and that.
- 5:21I don't really want to talk about that.
- 5:22But inside I was really getting eaten up with that.
- 5:25Then along came grief, which is another trauma, and that was my beautiful mum passed away in 2004 of cancer.
- 5:33And again, I didn't deal with that trauma the right way either.
- 5:37I didn't deal with grief the way that we should.
- 5:41And again, I started to step back even further from friends and then relatives as well and started to create this narrative in my head that somehow these things were all my fault.
- 5:54Yeah.
- 5:56As you know, Leonie and I had been trying for a long time.
- 5:59We'd had, I think, 11 attempts of IVF at this stage, and a year after my mum had passed away, I heard that very familiar scream from the bathroom.
- 6:10Sorry, Rust.
- 6:12It's something I'm very familiar with, and it's a miscarriage.
- 6:16We were pregnant with twins at the stage, 17 weeks, so we'd been through everything, all the joys of that.
- 6:24Again, I really now had what's called a borrowed chore.
- 6:29Many men go through this.
- 6:30Many men and women go through this.
- 6:32It's me taking on the trauma of not just our failure or us not having luck as a couple, but I was blaming myself because Leonie had to go through so much pain.
- 6:48That miscarriage, unfortunately, we discovered now Leonie had cervical cancer.
- 6:53So I'm not sure I'm out on numbers now, but I'm up to about four or five really traumatic things, which I was refusing to deal with.
- 7:01And it just got darker and darker.
- 7:03And, Rusty, what I say now in hindsight is...
- 7:08If I was the same person today, you of all people would recognize it because I didn't have the same sense of self-esteem.
- 7:16I definitely didn't love a chat, but you know how much I love to talk.
- 7:20I wasn't curious on how I could do things better.
- 7:23I wasn't competitive.
- 7:24I wasn't interested anymore.
- 7:27And I used to do what I asked men to look out for other men doing, taking the long way home.
- 7:33Rather than go home, I'd
- 7:35go and have a drink i'd just sit and look at something on the phone not talk and and just deal with it look for it look look for excuses not to deal with it so i didn't have to go in and talk about what our next steps were i thought i'd failed as an alpha male i was blaming myself for our failures and and to cut a long long story it's about a seven-year story because you don't wake up on a monday morning depressed it takes a long time to get in but
- 8:03I got to a point in my life where I thought it was gonna be better off for everybody.
- 8:07I'd manifested this conversation in my head that somehow my wife, my friends, everybody in my life would be better off if I just took a quick trip to the Gap, quite frankly.
- 8:22I only live 1.5 kilometers from the Gap and I was sitting in the car on a Thursday night, just crying, sobbing to myself.
- 8:34Looking at everything I had because on the facade I had it all.
- 8:37Beautiful home in Bondo Beach, a fantastic business, gorgeous wife.
- 8:44And I'd hidden so much of the darkness that was in my life.
- 8:47No one could recognize anything different.
- 8:49Leonie did, of course, and she was telling mates to, you know,
- 8:53try and talk to me, but I just refused to talk to anybody about it.
- 8:56I said, I've got a broken back.
- 8:57You know, what do you expect from me?
- 8:59Of course, I can't play touch footy anymore.
- 9:01Of course, I can't do these sorts of things.
- 9:03Of course, I could, but I used that as an excuse.
- 9:05And thankfully that night, a great mate of mine, Gaz Cotradorma, rang the phone.
- 9:11It was about 7.30, I think, and I didn't want to answer it, but I've known this kid since he was an apprentice of mine nearly 20 years earlier.
- 9:22And I love him with all my heart.
- 9:24And he'd had three girls and he'd just had his third child.
- 9:30And he said, Baz, what's going on, mate?
- 9:32You haven't called me for ages.
- 9:34And I said, I'm okay, Gaz, what are you doing?
- 9:37And I just wanted to get him off the phone.
- 9:39And he said, well, it's Thursday night, so we're out of money.
- 9:43I've come down the bottle to get four cans of beer and Simone's making toasted sandwiches at home.
- 9:48We're going to watch the footy show with the kids.
- 9:52And I just burst into tears.
- 9:54I couldn't control myself anymore.
- 9:57I just kept saying to myself, why can't my life be that simple?
- 10:03Why can't I be happy?
- 10:04I've got everything.
- 10:05I'm still not happy.
- 10:07It was a long night.
- 10:08Gaz stayed on the phone for about an hour, hour and a half with me, and he insisted that we catch up the next morning.
- 10:14He could tell.
- 10:16As it happens, Gaz's dad had committed suicide, and I was like a father figure to him.
- 10:21I don't know.
- 10:22We've never discussed about this part of it, but I think he recognised how lonely I was for someone that's got a lot of people around him.
- 10:30You know, I won't go too much into the detail, but we met the next day.
- 10:34And as I said, that was the start of about 18 months to two years of me getting back, becoming curious again, becoming happy with myself again, understanding that I had to deal with those adversities and out of that I gained a resilience.
- 10:50And it all came out of those simple words before they were famous.
- 10:53Baz, are you okay?
- 10:55And it saved my life.
- 10:56That's amazing.
- 10:57I could not be passionate about it.
- 10:59No, exactly right.
- 11:00Firstly, we're incredibly grateful that you've shared that because I know that you're doing that, hopefully, for the benefit of others.
- 11:09One of the great things about RUOK and their website and so on is for people that might be listening to this conversation, if they are perhaps a bit upset, maybe it's triggered similar emotions in them.
- 11:20It's really important, Baz, isn't it, that you...
- 11:22Reach out.
- 11:23You reach out.
- 11:26A, firstly, the thing I love about podcasts is, A, it's conversation.
- 11:29So start talking with mates, family, whatever it might be.
- 11:33And then, as I say, if it has struck a chord with you for whatever reason, that's okay.
- 11:37Use some of the tools that are there and take some steps, hey?
- 11:41Yeah, it's good not to be okay every day.
- 11:43Yeah, if this has struck a chord with you, you're going through what most of us go through.
- 11:48And the thing is, we can't turn a negative into a positive, but we can use a negative.
- 11:52You can use these negative feelings right now as stepping stones to a better place.
- 11:57And that's where I'm at now.
- 11:59I'm not surviving.
- 11:59I'm thriving.
- 12:01Yeah.
- 12:02It's good to know.
- 12:03And Rusty, you know my story of being told twice I don't have very long to live thanks to cancer.
- 12:08And I remember the first time they said you had three months to live.
- 12:11It was a day of tests and everything, a big tumour in my brain.
- 12:15And they said, Barry, you should go home, tidy up your fears.
- 12:19You've got three months to live.
- 12:20And I said, you don't know me.
- 12:22I said, you do what you do.
- 12:25I'll take this on, I'll step into the ring with this guy anytime, and he'll want to be good to take me out.
- 12:31And that's the resilience I gain from learning, in hindsight, of course, but learning to lean into those adverse moments, that grief, that physical pain, that borrowed trauma, and that everyday trauma of life.
- 12:45We've got to lean into it and celebrate it.
- 12:47It might not be a good day, but it's going to be.
- 12:50We're talking about a serious thing here.
- 12:52And this podcast, while it appeals, because motor racing's done some great things, Baz, around encouraging the participation of more women in our game and so on, it does have, naturally, a very strong male footprint, right?
- 13:05And you are talking about...
- 13:06stuff here that as blokes we need to probably all be better at.
- 13:12And are you okay?
- 13:14I think one of the really important messages, and while we're celebrating it on Thursday and its annual day, it is...
- 13:23Every day, isn't it?
- 13:24Yeah.
- 13:26Every day for everyone, Rusty.
- 13:28You know, Gavin started it in 2009 because his dad, Barry Larkin, committed suicide and it scared the hell out of him.
- 13:36But unfortunately, in our society, with all the pressures we're getting from life, this is now adolescence with the increase in suicide for women is on the rise.
- 13:47Society is throwing a lot at us and we need to be able to understand that adversity isn't something to bypass.
- 13:57It's something to lean into and find a resolve in that adversity.
- 14:01Great words.
- 14:02Because from that you'll get resilience.
- 14:04You'll get that muscle of resilience and that's what keeps us healthy.
- 14:08And it's also what keeps us alert to our friends, wives, partners, colleagues, mates, buddies at the track.
- 14:17So if you're being healthy in that way, if you're learning to lean into the adversities of life and you've learned the curiosity of how you can make something that's bad good, well, you'll be more open to seeing people that you're seeing a change in.
- 14:32And that's what we say at R U OK?
- 14:33Day every day is if you see a change in a mate.
- 14:37Yeah.
- 14:38Ask the question.
- 14:39Trust your gut.
- 14:40Ask the question.
- 14:41It could save a life.
- 14:42It certainly could.
- 14:42Baz, can we get you to hold on there for us just for one quick minute?
- 14:44We're going to squeeze a break in here on Rusty's Garage.
- 14:47Back with more in just a few moments.
- 14:52Welcome back.
- 14:52You are listening to the Motorsport Brief, our garage shortcast for all sorts of news and stories happening in motorsport, especially, but also cars and bikes generally.
- 15:01Now, Barry Dubois is my guest today as we highlight something that I personally feel is really important.
- 15:06That is R U OK Day.
- 15:08It might be annual on the calendar, as we said before the break, but really important to check in on your mates or your loved ones on any given day of the year.
- 15:18As we circle back to the conversation now, Baz, um...
- 15:21Lean into it is what you said before to try and deal with it, to build that muscle of resilience.
- 15:27And then I guess in addition to that, there's probably good things around social pursuits, could be motor racing, could be physical fitness and so on that are good at helping in some way with this too.
- 15:39It's all about a holistic life.
- 15:41It's funny to say a holistic life and motor racing in the same sentence.
- 15:46But it is.
- 15:47Just talking about things together, what we do, that bond that humans share is a really important one.
- 15:54We are where we are because we learn to communicate like no other species on earth.
- 15:59And we develop that communication stronger and stronger and stronger.
- 16:03Over the last sort of two decades, I feel...
- 16:07particularly with the rise of awareness of men's mental health particularly, but mental health generally, at first there was a stigma and no one wanted to be the weak guy in the team.
- 16:18Whereas we know now just because we're going through some tough moments doesn't make us weak.
- 16:25As I keep saying, those tough moments are stepping stones to better moments and a great...
- 16:32wholesome, beautiful life.
- 16:33And that's the thing.
- 16:34If you're in the pits, if you're behind the wheel, if you're lucky to be doing that, or if you're just talking to a mate at the track or just talking to a mate in a bar, pub, anywhere, or just checking in for someone like you and I have done in the past, just to see how we're going.
- 16:48That communication is what strengthens an individual and...
- 16:53therefore strengthens community and therefore strengthens the place that our kids are going to live in down the track, which I think we all have to be responsible for that.
- 17:00Definitely.
- 17:01Leading by example.
- 17:03And I know we all lead busy lives, but it only takes a little bit of your time to do that, to reach out and check in with friends and family.
- 17:10Now, before we move into a couple of little fun things you and I have done along the way, can we just quite rightly give a plug to the R U OK?
- 17:20Day website, some of the initiatives that will be happening on Thursday?
- 17:24I can vividly recall your mad mate, Miguel, and going to some morning teas with you guys.
- 17:28There's all kinds of cool things that people can do, can't they?
- 17:31Yeah, on the website, we've got a whole lot of resources you can download or contact us for.
- 17:37But it's all about just raising that awareness.
- 17:39Because what we have to realize on every day, but we think about it most on R U OK Day on the 12th, is that we can't leave it.
- 17:47Like I said in my story, I was never going to tell you that I was struggling inside, that I was that dark inside.
- 17:54So we can't leave it to the person that's struggling.
- 17:56What we have to do is be curious that everybody seems to be doing as well as they can.
- 18:01And if they're not, if they're not engaging in those morning teas.
- 18:05If they don't want to be at those things, then maybe it's time to take them aside and listen to them.
- 18:11Let them know that you can hear them.
- 18:13Ask them if they want any help in doing things.
- 18:18And I think this is – and then follow up.
- 18:19But I just want to go back to listening and asking.
- 18:22It's very important if you have this feeling in your gut that something's not right with someone and they say, oh, yeah, I've just been struggling with my –
- 18:30in my relationship.
- 18:32Well, you don't want to go into telling them what they have to do then.
- 18:37What you want to do is keep asking the question, do you think you can manage this on your own?
- 18:42Would you like to chat about it?
- 18:44Because as someone who was manically depressed, whenever someone, particularly my wife, told me, babe, what you need to do is get into more exercise, I saw that as...
- 18:58And this is wrong, but I saw her as putting me down even further than I was putting myself.
- 19:02So...
- 19:04And she is my rock.
- 19:06And she's beautiful.
- 19:07And she's saved my life.
- 19:08But in hindsight, and this is what I'll share with the listeners, is just ask the question.
- 19:14When someone's depressed, they're irrational.
- 19:16And if you try and rationalize their conversation, it's just going to get darker.
- 19:19So always ask a leader with a question, can I help you?
- 19:24If you thought you needed help, would you let me help?
- 19:27And just questions like that, just...
- 19:29Because even me saying it now, I just remember the relief that came off when Gaz met me the next day and he said to me, we're walking on the beach the next day, I'm really struggling, you know, with life.
- 19:43He was a young man raising a family in Sydney.
- 19:45It's a tough gig at the best of times.
- 19:48And he said, I need to know that you're okay.
- 19:50You'll let me know if you're a struggle because I need you in my life.
- 19:53And just those sorts of things was a real relief to me.
- 19:57And, you know, just to wrap up this part of the convo too, it's not always those that you might think are immediately obvious in struggling to.
- 20:06Sometimes it's the most confidently on the exterior, I'm talking, people that might be having a little battle on the inside.
- 20:14So you just look out for each other.
- 20:15That's the key thing here.
- 20:16There is some stock.
- 20:18in doing things that fill your cup in other ways to give you that boost.
- 20:24Now, you, my friend, threw your leg over a Honda Australia Superbike at Sydney Motorsport Park.
- 20:31We were both there on the day.
- 20:32Our mad mate, Darrell Beattie, I think, coordinated all of it.
- 20:35I can't remember who you went with.
- 20:36It might have been Josh Hook.
- 20:38That was a mind-blowing mate, wasn't it?
- 20:41Well, I jumped on with Daryl as well at Phillip Island.
- 20:45But, yeah, that Motorsports Day, that was an eye-opener for me.
- 20:48Someone who's ridden bikes his whole life.
- 20:50At...
- 20:52I just loved it.
- 20:53I said to someone, it was like jumping on Wally Lewis's back in a state of origin.
- 20:57Somehow you're no burden to him, but you're playing the great, you know, but yeah, with any of those guys, you get on, with Josh, he slid us into those balls.
- 21:09Because you're holding onto the handlebars around his waist.
- 21:13I've got to say, Darryl's waist was a little wide to hold onto.
- 21:17That'll get back.
- 21:18That'll get back.
- 21:19But I just don't know how those guys did it.
- 21:21It was an exciting day.
- 21:23And then you got behind the wheel of the Yaris and blew us all the way, if you remember.
- 21:27Yeah, we had a bit of fun over at, I think it was like a motor car or a carna cross.
- 21:31It was great fun.
- 21:32But as you say, they're moments of wonderful perspective because you get a sense of the athlete, which is what you were saying with the Wally Lewis analogy, how they operate and at the incredible level they operate.
- 21:43Yeah, absolutely.
- 21:44Now, you talked about bikes before, a little bit of dirt bike riding and so on.
- 21:48Have you got a two-wheeler in the garage?
- 21:50A couple in the garage.
- 21:51There's a CRFX 450, and I've got the Triumph Bonneville Speedmaster now.
- 21:57Nice.
- 21:57Now, it's a nice bike.
- 22:00I've got the hang bars on it.
- 22:02I'm...
- 22:04I'm not riding as much as I'd like to.
- 22:06You know, I do the gentleman's ride.
- 22:07Lovely.
- 22:08Which I like to do.
- 22:10And I've got a great mate who's – we're getting to that retirement age, but I've got a couple of mates that have retired now.
- 22:16And so we'll do a Wednesday ride every now and then up the New Line Road somewhere and maybe up the Bilpin and really enjoy that catch-up, just have a coffee up there and talk about stuff.
- 22:27It's interesting on this conversation, I've been mates with a guy since we were about 15, 16.
- 22:34And we've had our ups and downs in life.
- 22:38And it wasn't until the last ride we had, I asked him about something that we'd never spoken to, we'd never spoken about for, what is it?
- 22:4945 years, nearly 50 years.
- 22:52And so these conversations are great to develop, to just,
- 22:57I just love talk.
- 22:58I mean, I love a conversation now.
- 23:00A conversation saved my life, and a conversation is what grows a life and allows us to thrive.
- 23:05You're amazing at it too, mate.
- 23:06Now, a little social ride like that is great.
- 23:09Stopping somewhere for a coffee along the way and having a convo.
- 23:12Did I spot, and maybe the project is finished and moved on, but did I spot at one point on your socials a couple of years back, did you have an old...
- 23:20maybe an F100 or something rather.
- 23:22Did you have a resto project?
- 23:23What were you doing there?
- 23:24Still the resto still.
- 23:26Car restorations.
- 23:28They take forever.
- 23:29I know.
- 23:32No, I love the F100.
- 23:34I've got a 1975 model F100.
- 23:36It's been completely rebuilt.
- 23:39It was sort of...
- 23:41I was an old dad.
- 23:43I had my children after cervical cancer, after all those sorts of things.
- 23:48As you know, 12 attempts of IVF.
- 23:52Then we were on the adoption.
- 23:54Then on our seventh time in surrogacy in India, my beautiful twins Bennett and Arabella were
- 24:02I don't know if you remember, but I was buying car things for the kids before they were born.
- 24:08You know, I brought the dinkies and the cars and all that.
- 24:11And I think Bennett was about two – I think the twins were about two years old and I spotted the SF100 in Hobart.
- 24:17It had the compliance, the original compliance and serial number on the engine, the 302, so everything was complete and original.
- 24:25And I brought that from Hobart, so that's an early –
- 24:28eight years ago, nine years ago.
- 24:30And the guys down at OG Customs have been working on that for me for a while.
- 24:35They're great down there and they're taking their time because I haven't got piles of money, but this is something I want done right.
- 24:41And they're just doing it at pace.
- 24:43The engine's completely rebuilt.
- 24:46We did that on RPM one day.
- 24:48We had a segment about that.
- 24:49Me and Katie Peck went down and had a look at that.
- 24:52Absolutely.
- 24:53It's still going.
- 24:54And I reckon by the time Benny's got his license, he'll be ready.
- 24:57Perfect.
- 24:58Perfect thing to share.
- 25:00Now, before we wrap up, you have been doing some – I mean, this blends lots of different things together here, from your love of conversation to your incredible work in the building and renovation space.
- 25:09You've been doing some stuff now where you kind of consult for people that might be needing some assistance, you know, with projects and direction like that, aren't you?
- 25:17Yeah.
- 25:17Yeah, I do a bit of consultancy still.
- 25:20I've got another show coming next year as well, which is great.
- 25:23Yeah.
- 25:25But, yeah, I love the built environment.
- 25:27I think the built environment can have an amazing effect on humans.
- 25:31I'm very passionate about urban architecture.
- 25:33But I do think the building industry is a bit of a broken model.
- 25:38And I do...
- 25:43I like it to work out well.
- 25:45So I feel that if you've got someone who can speak the language of an architect and the language of a homeowner, understands the economics of building, it's a good way to smooth a project and make a project really enjoyable.
- 25:59And quite frankly, if you're going to build something that's going to –
- 26:02give you that sense of belonging and security and protect your family.
- 26:06You want that.
- 26:07That should be the best experience you have.
- 26:09And you blend both beautifully, my friend.
- 26:12Now, you hosted a number of us for an end-of-year celebration on more than one occasion at your house.
- 26:16I think it was Christmas drinks at Baz's with your beautiful family.
- 26:19Miguel Cook, one of the biggest paellas I've ever seen.
- 26:22ever seen in the front yard.
- 26:24My kids are a lot older now, Baz, but they still talk about it.
- 26:27Thank you, my friend, for being you.
- 26:30I'm pleased we could use this vehicle for both of us to go, are you okay?
- 26:34And to share a little bit about the importance of what is happening this week.
- 26:37And I'm pleased that we had a conversation about it.
- 26:41Thanks, Rusty, and thanks to the listeners.
- 26:43Like I said, you can't turn a negative into a positive, but it can definitely be a stepping stone to a positive finish.
- 26:51And enjoy your life.
- 26:52I can tell you as someone who's faced mortality a couple of times, it's the most precious thing we have.
- 26:58For mates in the motorsport family and beyond, take a moment to call someone and just chat with them.
- 27:03Even some of, as I said before, the most confident, even inspirational people you might know could be doing it tough or battling something you don't even realise.
- 27:10And a convo, maybe some laughs, just might help make it a little bit more manageable.
- 27:15I'm a talker.
- 27:16That is what I do.
- 27:16But what's really important here in terms of what Baz has said today is a bit of listening and a bit of action, being a doer, helping them along the way.
- 27:24Pick someone now in your contacts.
- 27:27Give them a call.
- 27:28Go and see how they are.
- 27:30And as I said earlier, if this has struck a chord with you and you need some professional support, please don't feel too proud to seek that out.
- 27:37The RUOK website, ruok.org.au might be a really good starting point.
- 27:43That is it for today.
- 27:44Thanks for listening, everyone.
- 27:46now.