Hi, I'm Keisha Pennant, executive producer of this podcast and welcome to Not an Overnight
Success brought to you by Shure and Partners Financial Services.
In this podcast, our host Gus Wallin sits down with some very successful people from
the world of business, entertainment and sport and they chat about their life's journey and
what got them to the position that they're in today.
In today's episode, we are chatting with Ben Fordham.
Ben Fordham is a journalist, a radio broadcaster and a TV personality that I have no doubt
you have seen at some point.
For him, this environment has been his whole life.
He started when he voluntarily did work experience at just 15 years old and made his way through
the ranks over the course of time.
In this episode, Gus and Ben speak about the importance of the people that you surround
yourself with and how that can change the trajectory of your life.
Ben speaks about his experiences taking over the most successful radio program in Australia
and the stress and the weight that he felt going into it.
He speaks about his family and how they all make it work in their family.
Personally, I'm not a fan of 3am alarms, but for Ben, it works in the Fordham household.
Gus and Ben also speak about some pivotal moments in Ben's career that led him from
opportunity to opportunity.
As for all of these podcasts, Shoreham Partners have generously donated $10,000 to the charity
of choice of each of our guests and this particular one is very close to Ben's heart.
We discuss who that money goes to in this chat.
This podcast is hosted by Gus Wallin with production assistance from Kelly Stubbs and
Let's get into our chat with Ben Fordham.
Ben Fordham, how are you brother?
Gussie, I'm doing really well.
Mate, I'm very well.
I like how you check in on me.
Usually it's not sitting in front of a microphone and sitting in front of a camera, but you
do check in often.
And sometimes I think you said something to me on a text message once, you said leaders
So how are you doing?
So and I went on because I don't see myself as a leader, but I lead a team of people on
radio and yeah, I suppose I've got a responsibility to check in on them and it's nice to have
someone check in on me.
Well, the reason why you are such a good leader is because you actually don't quite understand
how much leadership you're actually doing, which is why you're attractive to people because
you're, you know, you're doing it in a way that's really quite relaxing, but you know,
you stand up here every morning at five 30, you know, and you tell the world what's going
on everywhere, all around the planet.
Like I listened to your show this morning and I got a little bit of love interest.
I want those two people to get together.
I got all the news.
I got all the traffic all in about seven minutes.
What could possibly go wrong?
You just never know what we like as a kid, Ben.
I think I was energetic, adventurous, spent a lot of time outdoors, didn't always pay
a lot of attention at school.
I really enjoyed the social side of school.
I fell in love with most of my teachers, including Miss Bowron in year two, who I thought I would
marry and it didn't work out.
Do you know what's happened to her now?
Yeah, she's now Mrs. Pike and she's, we're in contact.
She's happily married and so am I.
But yeah, no, I was, I was always, I think I probably gravitated towards the adults when
I loved playing with the kids, but the moment there was a dinner party going on at our place,
there'd be a kids table and an adults table and I would just find a way of finding myself
on the adults table because I realised, wow, there's some really interesting conversations
Well, Freddie Fittler said to me, hang with old people, but listen to the youngsters.
That's a good philosophy.
You know, and it sounds like you got there without even realising that.
And I think I've got a mix, I've got a pretty good mix of young people in my life and older
people in my life.
I've got a lady in my street called Clary, who's 93, who's actually over for dinner at
our place this Saturday night because during lockdown, I thought I'd better check in on
Clary to see how she's going.
So we started doing this thing where I'd ordered dinner for our family on Friday night and
I'd order an extra dish for Clary.
And then I discovered her love of chocolate mousse and so then I just started filling
it with chocolate mousse and she's this wonderful woman who's 93.
And you know what was interesting, and this is kind of right up your alley because of
checking in on people.
When I first started talking to Clary on the street one day, she was a bit suspicious of
me because, you know, older people have been told, hey, you be careful.
You know, you've got nieces and nephews who are saying to you, listen, Clary, you be careful
because there are people out there who'll take advantage of you.
So I see her one day on the street and she walks about one metre every 30 seconds, you
know, she's got the little pusher in front of her and she just kind of makes her way
So I started talking to her one day and I said, oh, look, we're having some drinks
for Helen, who was our next door neighbour who's now passed away, you should come along.
And I could see that she was a little bit suspicious.
She's thinking, hang on, this is one of these things that my nieces and nephews have told
me about, some bad man who's trying to steal my money.
And so I said to her, I said, I know, I said, I'm a good person, my wife will be there,
my children will be there, there'll be other neighbours there, but she didn't come along
on that occasion.
But then from that moment, we kind of hit it off and we check in on each other and,
and she'll be over for dinner.
So it's going to be an all in on Saturday night at our place.
But I've, I've always liked hanging out with kids.
And in my street, when we moved into our street, got to know all the kids straight away.
In fact, the day that we moved into the street, there were kids jumping out of a tree at the
front of our place and onto a mattress that the people before us had left behind.
And as I walked in, they said, is this your house now?
And I said, yeah, yeah, it is.
And they said, can we swim in the pool?
And I said, yeah, sure.
When they went now, I went, okay.
So they walked through the house.
I said, what are your names?
They said, oh, Bo and Kai and Jasper and Odie.
They just took their gear off, threw it on the lawn out the back, just left the undies
and stuff on and jumped straight in the swimming pool.
Jodie was upstairs directing the removalists.
And when she came down, there's these four random boys in the backyard.
And we were busy doing other things.
And she goes, who are those kids?
I said, I don't know.
One of them is called Bo, I think.
And they've been hanging around ever since.
So yeah, I liked that.
But say that again on the young people and the old.
So you want to hang, you want to hang around with old people.
And listen to young people.
I'm going to remember that.
I'm going to steal that.
Well, either way, it's good.
Hang around and listen to both of them.
What it basically means is you have a balance in your life, you know, rather than just,
you know, oldies have got nothing to offer and the youngsters know everything.
That's not the case.
I'm going to pinch that and I will claim it as my own.
So who told you that that line?
Forget about Freddie.
You speak to more people than Freddie and I, so you can claim it.
What was your family makeup?
Mum and dad and an older sister, Sarah, and a younger brother, Nick.
Mum and dad started a business in our house when we were growing up.
And that was a really interesting thing to see because they worked for bigger
companies and then they went, you know what, we're going to back ourselves.
So they converted our garage into an office and I can still remember saying,
what happened to the garage?
I said, it's gone.
And now it was an office.
So they turned it into an office.
They put in a telephone.
So we had the, the home phone and then the work phone.
And then they'd, they'd pretend that this was some kind of professional office
environment and that was a really good eye opener for me because I got to see my
mum and dad doing their job and that gave me a bit of a love for what they do.
They ended up managing public relations for companies, travel companies, mainly
and wineries as well.
And then they started managing people, started managing sports stars and
celebrities and, and I saw them working hard to help other people and to set up
a future for people, including young footballers who didn't really have a clue
about what to do with their money.
So I really enjoyed that.
And then my sister, Sarah is a wonderful human being who's a very talented artist.
And my little brother, Nick now runs my mum and dad's company, the Fordham company.
So we've all kind of turned out all right.
And the best thing is we all love each other.
There have been times in our lives where we haven't all loved each other wholly.
You know, I remember a few years ago, my sister and I, for some reason we had an
argument, didn't resolve it.
And mum said one day, when are you and Sarah going to sort that out?
Cause it went from over a weekend to a week, to a couple of weeks, to a month or so.
We were still being pleasant to each other when we'd catch up as a family, but mum
could tell there was an underlying issue.
And then mum just said to me one day, I'm done with this.
And I'm not going to cop it any longer.
So you two sorted out, you're now impacting my health.
And when you hear the big kahuna, as we call my mum, laying down the law like that,
I just called Sarah and said, so it turns out we've got a bit of a catch-up to do.
And we've been closest as mates ever since.
And I sometimes think about Prince Harry and Prince William and what happened to
their relationship, which even though I don't know either of them, it hurts me a
lot knowing that these two were these sweet little brothers and they had a
wonderful mum and a caring dad.
And I often think about Prince Charles and think, why hasn't Charles muscled up
and made the phone call that the big kahuna made saying, sort this out?
This is not going to go on any longer.
Cause the longer it goes on, the harder it is.
And you know, with my little brother, we can be at each other's throats and he'll
ring me an hour later and say, what are you up to?
You know, because it's that classic bloke thing.
And I think, hang on, is this the same bloke who was threatening to disown me
as his brother an hour earlier?
But I love that about, uh, about my brother that he just, he's, I think
he's got the attention span of a goldfish.
So he just kind of, we'll have a blow up and then he just moves on.
Some of those sports stars and entertainers that your dad and mum used to
look after, who was some of the cool people that walked through the garage?
Oh, the bloke who probably has had the biggest impact on my life is Ricky
Stewart, who coaches the Canberra Raiders.
Because I saw Ricky as a young rugby player playing for Manly.
Dad was always involved, involved in rugby union and then later on rugby
league and the big game changer for mine was one day when dad said, Hey, listen,
uh, Ricky's moving out with a couple of mates.
They've got no money.
So we're going to have to give him your bed.
And I went, how does that work?
And he said, mate, he needs a bed.
So we're going to give him your bed.
And he said, don't worry, you'll get a new one.
So, and I know I've never forgotten it because it was an upgrade from me going
from a single into not quite a double, but a bit of a, a big kid bed and Ricky
got my single bed and I, I look at the mansion that he now lives in, in Canberra.
And I think, you know, I should probably be hitting him up at some stage.
I would hit him up at the super league time.
Well, you know what, when I went to Canberra as a political correspondent later
in life, I called Ricky and I said, Hey, where should I live in Canberra?
Give me a list of suburbs because they didn't mean anything to me.
And he said, just move in with me.
And I said, no, I'm not going to move in with you.
That's not why I'm ringing.
Cause I felt really weird.
And I said, just give me some suburbs.
Give me, I've got a pen out.
What he goes, mate, I'm not giving any suburbs.
You're moving with me.
So I said, well, I'll move in with you while I look for a place.
And I never left because he had a pool table and no one to play pool with
because Steve Walters used to live with him.
The hooker for the Canberra Raiders boxhead had moved out.
So he had me in there and I was hopeless at pool compared to Steve Walter.
So Ricky loved it.
Just carving me up the whole time.
And it was only when he got engaged to his girlfriend, Kayleigh, that I said,
Hey mate, come on, it's time for me to go.
I've got to get out of here.
So, uh, did you sleep on your own bed?
Was it, was it, was it, was it the same mattress or had he moved on by then?
He'd moved on by then, but it was another one of those signs of repaying someone's
loyalty and I've noticed that as well.
Sometimes with repaying, not only the loyalty of your mates, but sometimes
it's the loyalty of this person's mother or father, you know, where you might've
had someone who's been very good to me.
And then all of a sudden their child is looking for some advice or looking for a
start or looking for a helping hand.
And I think, well, I mean, I like to give people a start anyway, but particularly
if I think, well, hang on their mum, their dad, their mate, or someone they know has
been good to me and looked out for me over the years, the least I can do is
That's all about the village that we talk about it gotcha for life.
You know, looking at the village, I believe I am the mayor of the village.
Well, you the town cry around with the bell.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Exactly gotcha for life.
And you've been great support for that.
And I appreciate that over the years.
And I think we've probably got each other's backs.
I love, I just love what you've done with gotcha for life.
And from the moment I heard it and I heard about mental fitness as opposed to
mental health, you'd know that whenever I talk about mental fitness on the radio
now, that's the way I describe it because you explained it to me really well.
I've often given people the example of turning up to a barbecue at Christmas
And I think I probably pinch this from you, just like I'm going to pinch that
other line from Freddie Fittler, which is the idea that you turn up to the
barbecue and there's always going to be someone who has been working out and the
boys will say, geez, mate, what have you been doing?
You know, because they've muscled up or they've dropped a few kegs and there'll
be someone else who's been in a good paddock and people will be saying, geez,
mate, have you swallowed a sheep or what's going on?
And the shepherd.
And we have no qualms about talking about what it is that we're doing in our own
life in regards to our physical health.
And you made a really good observation.
Well, why don't we have the same conversations about our mental fitness?
And people can easily, male or female, young or old, can understand that idea
of, am I in a good place at the moment?
Am I out walking?
Am I working out?
Have I had a period where I've kind of been sitting on the couch and feeling
sorry for myself as a time that I had a little bit of a kickstart here and the
same conversations can happen, even though maybe not as easily, but it all starts
with people reaching out and checking in on each other.
And, and I've really made an effort since getting to know what you guys do.
It got you for life in having those conversations with people and just
touching base, even if they're not in the mood to have a chat, that's fine.
I mean, practicing it's the key.
Like we practice, you know, physical health really easy.
We practice a lot of that stuff because we do it so naturally.
So we have to practice to have these difficult conversations and like
anything, if you practice it enough, it'll become easier.
I think some people fear difficult conversations.
I think one thing that I got from my parents is never fearing having those
tricky conversations because it's a lot easier just to pretend like the elephant
is not in the room or when someone isn't really in the right mood to have that
conversation thinking, all right, well, they don't want to talk about it.
So I won't talk about it, but you, you hear that pressure valve, don't you?
Where you hear that, that sound almost coming out of someone when all of a
sudden they're having the chat, they're having the conversation.
And if you can be the person to start that conversation, it's a lovely
gift to be able to give people.
And the thing is that, uh, you know, the more you have these conversations,
they are, and also you realize it's not quite as bad once you say it out
loud that it is in your head.
Well, I mean, when you're in the middle of it, you can't see anything else.
And I've had to have those conversations with friends in recent times when they've
been in the middle of a mess and I've had to try and explain to them, look, I
know that you're in the eye of the storm at the moment and you're being pelted
with rain and there's wind blowing around and whatever, but where I'm looking
at where I'm standing 20, 30, 40, 50 meters back, it's not as bad as what
it looks like for you right now.
It's easier for someone to make that observation from a distance or even
from a friendship point of view, because we know when you're in the middle of
it, it feels like, hang on a moment.
How am I going to get out of this thing?
So you're growing up.
You're not necessarily listening much at school, but you're inquisitive
and you're hardworking and you get that from mom and dad.
What steers you towards sort of journalism and writing and all the stuff that you did?
I started doing work experience at two UE radio, working for the continuous
call team hosted by Ray Hadley.
And before that, I did work experience on the Alan Jones breakfast show.
So when I was 15, I went in for work experience, uh, met Alan through rugby
circles with my dad, because when Alan was coaching the Wallabies, my dad was
managing the Australian under 21s that had players like Ricky Stewart in the squad.
So through that dad would occasionally mention to Alan, listen, you should keep
an eye on this player or that player.
And so again, it was a knowing someone through my mom and dad's relationship
and hearing him on the radio.
And, and we didn't have a work experience program at our school.
So I always thought, oh, that's cool.
The idea of leaving school for a week and going into a office environment.
And then I asked school about it and they said, oh, we don't do work experience here.
So I thought, well, I should just do it myself.
So during the holidays in about year nine, I went in for a week at two UE.
I'd never heard so much swearing in all my life.
And I thought, wow, this is amazing.
And then I met the boys in the sports department and they're all so funny.
And that's when someone said, you know, there's a job going on Sundays
on the continuous call team.
I was told I was too young for it, but I offered to do it for free.
And they found that appealing.
Funnily enough, and my job was to buy sandwiches, make coffees, answer phones.
And then eventually I started writing things.
And, and then when they saw that I could write, they said, Oh, maybe you could work
on the Commonwealth games for two weeks, not at the Commonwealth games, but in the
And so I said, Oh, this is fantastic.
I said, I mean, so I went and told mom and dad and they said, when's it on?
And I gave them the dates.
They said, but you're at school.
And I said, yeah, but this is a golden opportunity.
I mean, I, I'd be mad to give this up.
And they went, mate, you're not leaving school for two weeks.
You can't afford that.
So then when I broke the news to two UE, the bloke said to me at the time, he
goes, Oh yeah, you're still at school.
Because they'd only been used to seeing me in there working.
And so then they said, when do you finish?
And I said, Oh, at the end of this year.
And, and then the conversation started about, well, you kind of know what you're
doing around here.
Maybe you should come and do a cadetship.
So I started as a cadet journalist in the two UE newsroom.
So was that scary for you?
Or did you feel that you?
Oh, it was very scary, really scary.
In fact, the first story I covered with the kids from my year who got a hundred
in the HSC, so that was my first day on the job and they lined up all the kids
who got a hundred in the HSC.
I was learning from another journalist who was there with me.
And he turned to me and he goes, what did you get, mate?
And I said, mate, it was a long way from a hundred.
So there was a bit of a, uh, baptism of fire, but I learned early on, look
around you, work out what other people do well and copy them, you know, don't
think you've got to create your own vibe.
Just look at the way other people do things and you don't just do a carbon
copy of person A or person B, but I learned early on, hang on, I really
liked the way Gus does this.
I liked the way Riley does that.
And then you think, all right, well, I can learn a lesson from that person
and from that person on how to do A, B and C.
And then you put them all together and you hope for the best.
So you're doing the cadetship.
That's all going along nicely.
What happens next?
Well, I was covering all sorts of stories out and about, uh, you know, crime stories.
I can remember being an 18 year old reporter and going along to cover an 18
or 19 year old kid who'd been stabbed to death somewhere in Bankstown.
And I was thinking, wow, you know, I mean, it was a real eye-opener as a
young kid to see all of those things.
And then I had a boss who took over the newsroom one day and she called everyone
in together and, and broke the news to us that there were going to be some
changes around here.
And I thought, oh boy.
And at the end of that gathering, she said, you pointed at me.
She said, you come in here, please.
Took me into her office, closed the door and she said, you're going to Canberra.
And I said, Canberra.
She said, yeah, you're becoming a political correspondent.
You've got to go and do this.
It'll be part of your development as a journalist.
I said, well, I'll have to go and talk to my mum and dad.
She said, listen, don't be an idiot.
You're going to Canberra.
Her name was Julie Flynn.
And, uh, she didn't muck around Julie.
She was a take no prisoners kind of boss.
So I packed up the red Mitsubishi Colt, said goodbye to mum and dad
and drove to Ricky Stewart's place.
And I did a year in Canberra covering politics, which was a life changer for me
because I really figured out once you understood how politics works, you get a
greater understanding of how the world works, but I missed my mum and dad.
I missed my brother and sister.
I'd agreed to do one year.
So then I said to them at the end of the year, I'm going home.
So, you know, I was 21 by then.
And then on the morning that I was due to leave Canberra at one o'clock in the
morning, I got a call from Greg Burns, my then boss, who's still my boss.
And he said, mate, something big is happening in Thredbo.
And he said, you better get there.
I don't know what it is, but there's emergency services going everywhere from
Thredbo. And so I went to Thredbo and it was the Thredbo landslide that occurred.
All these people buried underneath the ski lodges that had collapsed.
And that was another big moment, I suppose, to see all of these bodies being
pulled out of, you know, this mangled frozen wreckage at Thredbo.
And here was another case of relying on people who've been around a bit longer
than you after about two days of watching all these bodies being pulled out.
I called my dad and I said, I think I should probably go home.
Because they'd now sent a senior reporter, Justin Kelly, to come and, you know,
take charge of the story because I was still relatively new.
And my dad said to me, I wouldn't be leaving now.
There could be someone alive under there.
And I went, dad, there's no one alive under there, mate.
You know, I was there on the scene.
And I said, I've seen the bodies they're pulling out from under there,
There's no one alive under there.
And dad said, mate, you never know.
And I went to bed that night.
And when we woke up in the morning, they heard a noise under the rubble.
And we went on air and announced it.
My boss, Julie Flynn, called us and said, you better hope that that's a human
and not a bird or a dog or something else.
My heart dropped because I thought, oh no, she said, the worst thing you can
give people is false hope.
You better hope that that's someone alive under there.
And we hadn't said someone was alive, but we'd certainly built it up as they've
heard a noise, a sign of life from underneath the rubble.
And then we got down to the site and then they said, no, no, no, we've heard a
voice and it's a person under there.
It was Stuart Diver, who I've been able to interview in the, in the years since.
And some 12 or 13 hours later, they pulled him from underneath the rubble.
And he came out of there alive.
One of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life.
One of the great nights down at Thredbo, because the grill team used to open up
the Thredbo ski season and me, MG and Matty was with Stuart.
And there was a couple of times he goes, but I wish they left me there, you know,
trying to deal with you blokes, you know, keeping up with their pace, but what an
absolute champion he was.
And there was a, an Ambo called Paul Featherston and he was the guy who had
the job of being the guide on the side for those 12 hours before they could
actually get him out, because if they rushed the job, they would have crushed him.
So I asked Paul Featherston later on.
I said, what were you talking to him about?
Because that's a long chat.
I mean, you're good at having a chat.
That's a long chat, 12 hours.
And he said, I just figured out what he was interested in and he loves skiing.
So I just started talking about all these beautiful, fresh powder ski
slopes around the world and started painting this image in his mind of him
carving through this fresh powder.
And he said, anything that I picked up on from him, I just reflected back to him.
And I just started, he goes, because the bloke was delirious.
And so I just started kind of going into fantasy stuff of, of describing all of
these scenes of him skiing and catching up with his friends and being with his
family and, and, uh, and that's the way that he got him through those 12 hours.
So you're there at thread bow.
You want to go back to Sydney.
Do you go back to Sydney?
Well, no, Stuart Diver was in pulled out and there's a photographer called Mike
Bowers and you see him on the ABC insiders program every Sunday.
He does a segment called talking pictures.
He's a really wacky kind of zany bloke, but very talented photographer.
And I wanted to make sure that it would be my voice that would be on air.
The moment that Stuart Diver was pulled out and I had about 12 hours to plan it.
So what I worked out is I thought, I can't see into that hole from here.
We're on the other side of the mountain, but I thought Bowers can see in there
with that lens he's got on his camera because he's got this giant lens.
So I went and had a look.
I said, can I have a look through the lens?
And I can see, I said, you can see inside that hole.
He said, yeah, mate, I can see everything with this thing.
So I went, I'm going to stick with you.
So we had a bit of a system in place whereby the moment he saw someone coming
out of that hole, he just said now, and that allowed me to go now, put me on,
put me on, and then I just started describing the moment that he was being
pulled out, even though I couldn't see it, but I knew it was happening because
he was describing it as he's going snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap.
And, um, that was the moment that they pulled him out alive.
And I was on radio when it all happened.
So it was just one of those things of a combination of being in the
right place at the right time.
But again, having good relationships with people, knowing good people
and thinking, I'm not going to be able to sort this thing out on my own here.
Do I know someone else who might be able to help?
Which kind of goes right up the alley of what you do.
And Bowers and I had been great mates.
He had something I didn't have.
So he was the one who helped me describe what was going on when they
pulled him out of there alive.
Have you still got that audio somewhere?
Yeah, I've still got it there.
We'll throw to it right now.
No, I'm just joking.
It's like people when they have, oh, you've still got that trophy yet.
It's in the boot of the car.
And I've still got it.
And in fact, I played it on the anniversary of Stuart Diver.
Getting out of the rubble there at thread bow.
So, um, I've got a bit of a squeaky voice cause I was only 21.
But yeah, amazing.
So you're 21 and you're now, I'm imagining you are up and at them.
You're thinking, this is going to be what I want to do for the rest of my life.
I mean, I, I was always going to do this.
I am always going to do this.
And, but I used to look up at the TV in the radio newsroom and we'd watch the TV
reporters at night and during the six o'clock news and we just bagged them, just
bag the living daylights out of them.
Cause we'd do about 15 stories a day.
And so we used to bag them going, Oh, what about this bloke?
This is all he's done today.
One 90 second package for the six o'clock news.
But I thought to myself, you know what?
I better make sure I tick that off the bucket list as well, because I don't
want to be one of those people who's sitting around bagging other people when
I'm not brave enough to have a go myself.
So I thought I'd better go and have a go at TV as well.
And so I've been doing TV for the last 20 years at channel nine.
And I went off to sky news to do a year at sky news.
I had a great boss called Tony Richie who said, come and work for me for a year.
And one of the networks will snap you up.
I got a phone call one day from a bloke claiming to be Mike Monroe.
And I was at Bill and Tony's restaurant in Darlinghurst with a mate of mine.
And I thought it was bullshit.
So I thought it was a mate of mine called Twitcher.
So he goes, get a Ben.
It's Mike Monroe from channel nine.
And I just said, Twitcher, what's happening?
Twitcher, what's doing?
I said, man, I'm, I'm at lunch.
So what's going on, mate?
And he said, I don't know who Twitcher is, but it's Mike Monroe from channel nine.
If you ring me back at channel nine and ask for me, I'll pick up.
And I went, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Monroe.
So, uh, yeah, he got me in and I started working under him on a current affair.
Do you like TV or radio more?
I mean, I, I've described radio as the roller coaster and TV is the fairest wheel.
And that's no offense to TV because I'm a TV guy as well.
But there's nothing like the excitement of being on radio.
And also you, you rely on a much smaller team, which I like, you know, TV
is such a big operation and you're reliant on all these other things working.
You know, whereas, you know, when we broke the news and that this alleged
drug kingpin had been found after he cut off his ankle bracelet two weeks ago
and then escaped, we got a little tip off and that police had found him
through one of our police contacts.
And five minutes later, bam, that police officer is on the air, breaking
the news where in TV, you've got to go, okay, now we need to get a camera crew
to you and we've got to organize the link and I'm not really a technology kind of guy.
So you're relying on all these other people to be able to do their job,
which they generally do, but there's nothing like just being able to go.
Turn the microphone on and just say it.
And that's the other great thing about TV.
There's no chance to kind of go, all right, well, I'll have another go at that
or I'll, I'll try and say it differently.
It's you've got one shot and you just do your best with it.
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And let's get back into the episode.
So let's talk about that sort of next stage of your life.
You're in your twenties, you're doing a bit of TV, you're doing radio as well.
When did love come in your life?
When did the real, when did the, when did the true love come?
And I'm just assuming that you'd be really reasonably difficult at times
because of your work ethic and the fact that you're very committed to everything
So how did that relationship work with you on our beautiful?
Well, let, let me be controversial and talk about love in general.
First of all, I've always fallen in love easily and fallen hard.
And I've never been one to miss out on an opportunity to share love with someone.
So, and I say that because it's a moment of honesty of just kind of going, you
know, I've never been a believer in the idea that there's one person that's meant
for one other person out there.
I don't believe that I'm of the belief that it's more a case that you've got to
find the person who's best matched to you.
And there are a lot of people I think who, who don't really go through the serious
look in the mirror process of thinking, okay, is this really the best suited
relationship for both of us?
Because I had people I fell in love with over the years, but things
weren't entirely right.
You know, you're never going to find someone who's perfect, but there'd be one
thing or another that I was thinking, I'm just not too sure about this.
And believe you me, Gus, there were plenty of people along the way who thought
exactly the same thing about me.
Brush this bloke and I'll move on and find someone else.
But I wanted to make sure that the biggest decision of my life was going to
be the best decision of my life.
And when I met Jodie, I'd heard her on the radio before, Jodie Spears, 2UE
News, Sydney, she was the police reporter.
And I called Greg Burns, my mate who I mentioned earlier, and I said, mate,
that Jodie Spears has got to be the best reporter on radio in Sydney at the moment.
She's so good live and got a great voice and I'm rapping her.
And he goes, have you met her?
And he said, wait till you see her.
I said, what does that mean?
He said, mate, she's a knockout.
And I went on, okay.
I didn't think anything more about it.
I was then at his 40th birthday party and this girl walked in, in a apricot
She'd just been at the races.
And I said to someone, who's that?
They said, that's Jodie Spears.
And I went, oh, that's Jodie Spears.
So I found a way of talking to Jodie that night.
How did you do that?
Did you stumble and bumble or were you as confident as you are?
No, I think what I started doing is I was just chatting away and Jodie,
it's great to meet you.
It turns out we had met years earlier and I hadn't registered that, but I
had a girlfriend at the time and she had a boyfriend at the time.
So we met briefly in a newsroom many years earlier, just a fleeting hello.
But she said, I don't know, we've met before.
And she was explaining that.
And I said, okay.
So, and then we started chatting away and I thought, how can I move this
conversation along a little bit?
So I started talking about food, great love of mine and yours.
And then I said, I'm going to, I'm thinking of getting out of here, out of
the pub and going and finding some, some real food, you know, I feel like
something really nice.
So I was trying to kind of suggest maybe the two of us could go.
Was she taking a nibble at that?
No, no, no nibble, no bite, not even a whiff.
But then we started talking about food and we're talking about restaurants that
we like and places that we like.
And, and anyway, I said, all right, well, I'm going to duck out and go on,
go and grab something.
And she went, all right, well, it's lovely talking to you.
Oh, and I went, okay, bye.
And I'm like, oh, that didn't quite work out on the street.
Not really hungry.
I didn't even want to go anywhere.
You know what I mean?
So what I did is I left it for about a week and then I called Greg Burns and I
said, mate, can I grab Jody Spears's number?
And he said, what for?
And I said, I just want to talk to her about something business or pleasure.
I said, mate, just give me a number.
So then I called her and I just said, look, I said, I was driving past
that restaurant the other day and I was looking at that restaurant and I'm
thinking, who was I talking to recently about that restaurant?
And I think it was you.
She goes, yeah, it was, it was me.
I said, I knew it was you.
Anyway, I want to go there and I want to go and have that truffle linguine pasta.
Do you want to come?
She said, I'd love to come.
So we went to dinner and while we were having dinner that night, this is that
weekend, I said, how old are you by the way?
And I said, it's not a trick question.
And she said, oh no, it's just that it's my birthday today.
And I went today.
Is this at your date doing the linguine?
I said, you came on a date with me on your birthday.
She goes, no, no, no, no.
I'd already celebrated with my family and my friends, but that's when I
thought I hang on a moment.
Hang on a moment.
I think she might be keen.
And, uh, look, I, I drove that night and dropped her home and I did all the
things that I may not have done in the past.
No, no, which is the moment where she presumed that I must've been gay because
I didn't, same with the second date as well.
I didn't even try a kiss because I had a feeling, I had a feeling.
This is the one, you know, I had a feeling.
I think this is the one.
So I don't want to spoil it.
I don't want to do all the things that I've done a million times before.
Maybe not a million honey, if you're listening to this, but I think it
might just be safer just to, you know, just to play things slowly.
And she did confess that after the second time, she thought, oh, he's,
this has got to be a front.
Maybe he's not really interested in women, but then, um, I don't know
what happened next and I would be too much of a gentleman to even describe it.
But I was going off to New York, I think on a trip with the today show with Carl
and Lisa and Richard Wilkins and Stevie Jacobs and co, because I was on the
today show at the time.
And so I think that's when the conversation started.
I said, I'm off to New York for a couple of weeks.
And, and then she kind of said, all right, so what's happening here?
And I said, well, look, I'm falling madly in love with you.
I mean, that's pretty obvious, isn't it?
And she said, well, you haven't said so.
I said, well, that's the story.
So then the rest is history.
That's beautiful.
We've got three beautiful children, Freddie and Pearl and Goldie.
And, you know, when you talk about the job, Jodie does the same thing.
She's a journalist.
So when we first met, she was the police reporter.
It wasn't unusual for the two of us to be at the beach in the first month or so
of seeing each other.
And then her phone would beep and she'd go, Oh, there's a bushfire up near
the Hunter Valley.
And I'd go, sweet, let's go.
So I go and jump in the car.
And now Jodie says, she goes, that was a game changer for her too, because there
was no kind of guy going, what do you mean?
I thought we were going to the beach for the day.
I thought it was your day off.
Because you just understand in our job, you've got to do those things.
So in fact, that fire up near the Hunter, I drove her there because I was just
wanting to spend every minute with her.
So she said, you don't have to drive me.
I was like, Oh, come let's go.
So I drove her up to the Hunter and she covered the bushfire and whatever.
And that's been a key component of our relationship as well.
Understanding what each other do, being flexible around all of those things and
making each other laugh.
You know, I know straight away what's going to make Jodie laugh.
I can see a video on Instagram and I'll just take it in, just put it in front of
her face in the kitchen or the lounge room or wherever she is and put it there.
And she goes, what's this?
And I just don't say anything.
I just hold it there and she just pisses herself laughing.
And I say that as well to younger people.
I know when they're going through that kind of stage of their life, I'm like,
look, if you don't make each other laugh, forget about it.
You know, because I think it was Jodie Mears who was the fashion designer.
I read a quote in an article about her one day and it said, he who laughs
most wins, and I've always remembered it.
And I thought I've never taken a, you know, a piece of philosophy from a fashion
designer before, but no reason why I wouldn't, he who laughs most wins.
And I really liked that.
And I thought, well, if you can find someone in your life who makes you laugh,
and that's the great thing about kids as well, no one tells you about kids that
they're going to be 24 seven entertainment.
They tell you that they're going to be stressful.
They tell you that you're going to love them.
Like you've never loved anything in your life.
No one points out to you that this is going to be one of the most entertaining
things that you will ever have in your life ever, you know, just 24 seven laughs.
Talking about winning, a lot of winning comes in the morning for you getting up
early, you know, that alarm clock is like, bang, you know, you're, you're
winning now on radio, you're winning onto the today show.
I haven't always, you know, we've had times where we've won and we've
had times when we haven't.
How do you cope with the not so good days?
Oh, look, I, um, I'd be lying if I said that I was always perfect.
We had a major challenge with our radio ratings because I took over from Alan
Jones, who could just never be beaten.
I think he was beaten once in one survey over about 30 years briefly.
And we came along and I was handled handed the keys to this, you know,
shiny car and the only instruction was don't crash it.
And then halfway through 2021, Kyle and Jackie O came out on top
of one of the ratings surveys.
I felt genuinely happy for them because I know both of them.
They're both good people.
So that was the good thing that that overtook some of the concerns I had inside.
But I'd be lying if I didn't have those concerns.
I did have those concerns because you start second guessing yourself and,
and thinking, all right, well, what if this is not for me?
Maybe I'm not designed for this job.
Maybe I'm not up to it.
Maybe it was too much too soon.
I started getting a little bit angry as well, because I'd in fact said to my
bosses, I didn't want to do this job.
I felt like I wasn't ready for it.
I felt like it'd be better for someone else to go into bad after Don Bradman
rather than be the poor sucker who sent in there in the pads and go on son, do
your best, but they explained to me that they wanted me to do it and because I
respect them, I agreed, but because that went against my initial gut feeling,
I started getting a little bit angry when, when things were a challenge ratings
wise, cause I thought, hang on a moment.
I didn't listen to my instinct.
My instinct told me no, but then I also reminded myself about the fact that my
mates have instinct too, and my friends, Tom Malone and Greg Burns, who also
happened to be my bosses, their instinct said yes, so sometimes the instinct of
others is more powerful than your own.
And just like that scenario before about someone stuck in the middle of the, the
storm or the cyclone, sometimes you've got to have more faith in the person
who's not in the eye of the storm to be able to look at you and say, mate, trust
me, everything here is going to be okay.
So I relied on their instinct to get me through that.
And I've got a wonderful team of people who work with me, including Riley
Geddes, who's sitting here with me in the studio at the moment.
Riley left school by the way, at 15, left school at 15.
I met Riley when she was about 16 and we shook hands and handshakes a big thing
for me and I went, whoa, how old are you?
She said, I'm 16.
I said, that's a hell of a handshake.
And I thought I better keep an eye on Riley Geddes.
And so Riley and the rest of my team who work with me, you know, kind of helps
when you've got a good team at home, good team at work and mates around you
looking out for you and everything's worked out all right, we're now back on
top of the ratings, but the other thing, and I've said this to you before, there's
only so much weight you can put on radio ratings or things that are out of your
control, you know, there'd be people running a business and there might be a
guy across the road and a lady up the road who've got a sandwich shop as well.
And they sell more sandwiches than you.
And it doesn't mean that they're any better at their job than you are, or the
quality of their sandwiches are better than yours.
There are all sorts of factors that are outside your control and all you can do
is do your best, because I acknowledge that in breakfast radio, in the market
that I broadcast in, there are all sorts of super talented people.
I mentioned Kyle and Jackie O before, they've been together 20 plus years.
Wendy and Robbie on the ABC who are about to call it a day after many, many years
together, Fitzy and Whippa on Nova, Triple M, Pagey and Jess who are working over
at Triple M, Today FM that's got Husey and Ed and Erin, WS, Jonesy and Amanda.
And I look at all of those people and go, well, hang on a moment.
I don't deserve this crown any more than they do.
A lot of that has to do with being in the right place at the right time.
Yes, we all work hard, but there are some factors that are out of our control.
And one factor that helps me is I happen to be on the
number one radio station in Sydney.
So you can't take that away from the equation either.
It's not like I came into this job taking over from Neville, nobody on a radio
station that no one had heard of and then took it to number one, it was
number one before I started.
So I'm very, very aware of the fact that there are many, many talented people who
I'm up against and not all of them had the opportunity that I had when I started out.
Yeah, no, that's very modest of you.
And, but you know, I listened to your show now and like you say, the village
you've built around you everywhere, whether it's your mates, your family,
your home, your work, you do that very well.
Well, I think about say, Fitzie and Whippa on Nova, they work in the same
building that we're in at the moment and they're great mates of mine.
And we bump into each other in the lift and in the car park, but equally, we also
look out for each other as well.
There's plenty of phone calls that bounce back and forth between each other.
Or when you know that someone else is having a bit of a challenge
going on in their life.
I think about, I mentioned Chris Page over at Triple M, Pagey, he came out
not so long ago and said, look, I've got a problem with booze.
And I said that I was having a break.
I was having a little bit of time away from work.
And he came back and he said, that's bullshit.
I've got a problem with booze and I've been in rehab.
And I called him after that and I said, mate, good on you for saying that.
And then I started listing off people in my life who've been through the same
process and then, you know, sharing with him, if you want to talk to this person
or that person, you know, and you do the same thing, like, you know, there's all
sorts of good people out there.
That doesn't mean I don't want to crush them in the ratings, Gussie,
at every single opportunity.
I totally understand.
Just like they want to do me.
But it doesn't mean that you've got to take it so seriously that you can't walk
away from the whole thing and say, you know what, she's a nice girl.
He's a good bloke.
Who inspires you?
Cause I do want to talk about your dad.
Dad died two years ago, but I'd say the person who's had a major impact on me
in my life has been my mum.
A lot of people presume dad because, you know, we're both blokes.
We've both, you know, had similar kinds of jobs as far as working around
the media and whatever, but I've always said, and I've always known that one
of the things that's put me in a good spot is the fact that I've got just as
much of my mum in my DNA as I do my dad, because my dad was very good at making
big calls and doing big deals, but mum was the one who was across the fine
print behind the scenes.
Mum was the one who was second guessing things and going, hang on a moment.
You do realise that this deal that you're just about to sign is going to
put this person in a worse off position than they were yesterday.
How does that work out?
Well, because, because of, and then mum would go through, well, hang on, because
of the tax arrangement or because of the contract arrangement or because of, you
know, so in a business sense, I've really strived to always, and I've encouraged
my brother to do the same.
I said, look, we've all got dad's DNA.
We know that, but make sure you get plenty of mum's because mum's got that
wonderful way of looking out for people, caring for people, but also crossing the
T's and dotting the I's and mum will laugh at the suggestion that I cross as
many T's and dot as many I's as she does, which I don't, but I've always strived
to, to try and have some of that as well.
You know, but I don't know, there's never been a single mentor as such.
I've always had plenty of mentors, you know, people who've been very
good to me in my profession.
I've got a bloke called John Muldrew, who was a mentor of mine at Channel
Nine. He's now retired down the South coast.
And I love going to go and see rain man, as I call him, because he's the smartest
bloke I've ever come across in my life.
There's nothing he doesn't know.
Um, and other mentors as well around the place.
But I, I think I take that approach to have not having a single person that you
rely on, but instead learning lessons from all different people along the way.
Yeah, I love that.
I really enjoy that.
Where do you see yourself?
You're sitting in here at the moment at 2GB, like you say, number one in Sydney.
You didn't want the job, but you can tell now that you want it and you're not
giving it up anytime soon sitting 30 or 40 metres away from that storm that you're
in, I remember texting you every time there's a ratings and, you know, and
sometimes, you know, it's good news.
Most of the time it is, but there hasn't always been, but do you see yourself in
10 years time, 20 years time doing the same thing or do you need variety?
Do you need the TV?
Do you need other stuff?
No, I don't know.
To be honest, I don't know.
That's the honest answer is I don't know.
I love the mystery of life.
I love not knowing what's going to come next.
I can see myself doing this job for a long, long time, but equally, I can see
myself retired at 50 and sitting on a beach somewhere and some people laugh
when I say that and I say, no, no, no, you don't know me as well as you think you
know me, when people go, I know you're a workaholic and you're addicted to the job.
You'll never be able to let go of it.
And some people die behind the microphone.
Some people want to be behind the microphone for the rest of their lives.
And I've got absolute respect for those people.
And maybe I'll be one of those people.
And you know, again, the instinct of those around me would say that I
will be one of those people.
My instinct tells me that you will be okay.
Whereas I say to Jodie, every time we go on a holiday, this is true.
Every time we go on a holiday, I say to Jodie, you know what?
I'm not sure I can keep doing this.
And she goes, Oh, here we go again.
I go, no, seriously.
I mean, why wouldn't we just set up a beautiful cafe here on the beach here at
Evoka or a burger shop or a chicken shop or whatever, you know, we rent out kayaks
and the kids can run around and, you know, I've even said to her at times, I
said, Oh, I could even get a job at the local school.
I think I'd like to teach.
I could run a local radio station or, and she goes, yeah, but you love it.
But I do fantasize about that all the time.
Whenever I'm on holidays, every summer holiday, I convince myself that this is
it because I get used to the enjoyment of just sitting back relaxing and not
having an alarm clock go off.
But when the alarm goes off and when the shower goes on and the light comes on,
on air, the music plays, there's nothing better because it's sit up, take notice.
What time does the alarm go at your place?
Does Jodes get up with you?
She gets up at the same time because she reads the 5am news on channel seven.
So we're both up at 3.10.
It used to be 2.59, but I've now, because I'm so experienced at this job now, Gussie,
having done it for 18 months, I pushed the alarm back 11 minutes and I get up at 3.10.
Jody gets up at 3.10.
We both walk out the door at 3.30 and we go off to work.
I remember getting to the stage.
If I dropped my keys or if I missed the light, I'd be a minute late.
I always got it down to the literally the last 20 seconds.
And MG would be the same coming in from Penriff.
We'd always, we were smoking at the time.
So we used to go and smoke with Kyle and Jackie O up stairs.
Well, what does a dart taste like at three o'clock in the morning?
Oh, they're the best, the best with a coffee.
You wouldn't want to bash me, but it's really, really good.
And we'd have four or five smokes before we'd go in to have like the pre-show
meeting and then we'd go upstairs and, and, and Jackie O would have a glove on
cause at the time she was married and didn't want a hubby to smell it.
Oh, Lee couldn't know about the darts.
And, and Kyle would say, well, it's time for me to go and do what I do boys.
And we'd all high five each other and realized that he's not the
bloke that everyone thinks he is.
In fact, he was great company.
We, we went up from 2.2.
I think we started on the grill team, which is when you used to
come in and do work with us.
And I think we went to a 4.6, like in one server and they walk downstairs.
And I think they were 15 or 14 or something like that.
They both walked downstairs with a big, huge thing of flowers and a card
and walked into a triple M meeting.
And of course we were buzzing and said, so awesome.
We love you guys.
You're not competition.
They're good people.
They're good people.
I'm always happy that Kyle pretends he's like, he pretends like he's this evil
character, but you know, when you, when you tickle him on the belly, when you
give him a little rub, he's just a big, softie.
We love you, Kyle.
So one last sort of question before we do the final five.
So just about people that are in the public eye.
Can you have a bad day?
Can you, if someone crosses you in the traffic, can you honk the
horn and give them the, like, do you worry about that?
That people say, Oh, I just saw Ben Fordham.
You know, he was very good at that.
I had a guy recently.
I was, um, riding my bike and I pulled up at the lights and there was this guy
who this old, old man, and I've got great respect for people who are older
than me, old, old man, who was just a cranky bastard, and he came up to me
and he said, excuse me.
And I said, yeah, hi, how are you?
And he said, you're riding too fast.
Oh, and I said, you're not minding your own business.
Like, you know, no.
So you do it nicely, but you're not, you're not like, do you worry
about what people think about you?
Oh, I think I worry about what people think about me.
Up until a certain point, I don't worry about what dickheads think about me.
And I don't worry about what strangers think about me because why would you
worry about someone you don't even know?
Well, you've got no knowledge of, so no, I don't really, I tend not
to monitor my behavior too much.
I mean, there have been incidents that have occurred and I've had people
around me who've said, Hey mate, do you need to be a little bit careful about
the way you're behaving at the moment?
But if I'm out, I'm having a good time and I'm in the spirit of the occasion
or festive, as my mother likes to say, I want to get amongst it.
I want to have some fun.
You know, I left a Melbourne Cup luncheon just recently.
And as I left it, someone who was there at the lunch said, look, I just
want to slip out quietly because they were someone well-known at this lunch.
And we're on the same table.
So myself and Luke Mangan and Richard Wilkins escorted them downstairs.
But then we went out and stopped traffic in the middle of the city to make a
massive deal about this person leaving.
And there was a light rail thing there.
Luke Mangan put his hand up in front of the light rail.
It turns out it was stopping anyway.
And I thought to myself later on, Ooh, was that, you know, maybe a bit risky to
be behaving like that while under the influence of one or two in the center
of Sydney or Melbourne Cup day, but life's too short to worry about that.
Yeah, I like that.
Have a good time.
The fast five questions, mate, these are all hard hitting into the podcast.
Your favorite quote, is there a favorite quote that you live by or a saying that
someone told you that you live by?
Well, I've always liked yesterday's history.
Tomorrow is mystery.
That's why we call it the present.
And I like your little quotes you do in the mornings.
Yeah, we do a quote every morning, but my one that I live by is love, love, hate,
hate, welcome a difference of opinion.
And that's my own kind of philosophy on life to go, look, I don't, I don't rate
I love love, but I've really got to welcome a difference of opinion.
I don't believe in just hanging out with people who've got the same views as me.
I find that absolutely and utterly boring.
Nothing better than being around a dinner table or a pub somewhere or having a
coffee somewhere and a bit of a Barney starts, you know, between a few people.
And sometimes people kind of go, Oh, okay, guys, come on.
Well, I go, no, hang on a minute.
This is just getting started.
What are you talking about?
Well, you know, whether I'm involved or not, I love that exchange of ideas.
No, I appreciate that.
Favorite holiday destination.
Avoka beach on the central coast of New South Wales.
Absolutely beautiful.
Are you a reader?
Well, during the year, I only read newspapers and magazines and articles.
If you like that, is that mainly just because I kind of feel like the moment I
pick up a book, I'm, I'm feeling like I hang in a moment.
I'm not reading what's going on in the world.
And my job dictates that I need to know what's going on in the world.
I only read over the summer break really, or if I'm having a break during the year,
which I tend not to, but there's a great book called Tuesdays with Maury, which is
a book that I absolutely love.
So I won't bother telling you the story, but it kind of goes into the heart of what
we spoke about before about looking out for older people.
So look it up Tuesdays with Maury.
Well, what does everyone say to this Shawshank Redemption?
Mate, literally we've done 20 odd podcasts and 18 of 20 says Shawshank
You know, there's a bit of a gag about that because they reckon that when that,
when they're polling rugby league players or AFL players and they, they do this
thing, you know, and they get to the bottom of a favorite movie, every player
just writes Shawshank Redemption.
Uh, it'd have to be up there.
I, I reckon, I mean, I just love it.
Are you a Godfather guy?
Are you, are you a top gun James Bond?
No, my team always take the piss out of me because they go, I go, look, I've
only ever seen one James Bond.
And they go, what are you talking about?
I go, no, I'm not, you know, no, I mean, I was an
Indiana Jones kid when I was growing up.
You're allowed to be both.
I mean, Harrison Ford will allow you.
I was all about Indy.
But no, they always, and they go, even Star Wars.
Like I remember going to a birthday party in year two and they said, oh, we've
got Empire Strikes Back and I said, what's that?
And they said, it's the new Star Wars film.
And I started watching it.
I'm like, what are all these things?
These bloody storm troopers, storm troopers and stuff.
And then I looked outside and someone was playing cricket.
I thought I'm going to go and play cricket.
I preferred that kind of thing growing up to kind of be outdoors and amongst it.
No, I've never been into the kind of the big kind of movie series or whatever.
And now that I know that people hate it, I'm like, I've doubled down.
Can I ask you about-
Have you seen the new James Bond?
No, I didn't see the last 16 either.
So before I ask you the last question, which is the most important, are you
I didn't ask you that.
I mean, I, I moved away from it in my, probably my twenties or so, because
that's what mum and dad did.
They were managing sports people.
And I think I had a natural thing of thinking, all right, well, and that's
when I got into the politics and everything else, but I love individuals
in sport, I'm more of an individual guy.
I love watching certain people play.
You know, for example, well, so I'll use tennis as an example.
If Serena Williams is on the court, I mean, I just think Serena Williams is
the most incredible sports person that I've ever seen in my life.
And one of my favourite ads is a Nike ad, um, which features her dad and it's
video footage from when she was, I don't know, she might've been eight or nine.
And obviously it was her and Venus, but this ad is just Serena and it's actual
footage from when she's about eight or nine and she's practising and the dad
says to her, he says, Serena, when you serve this ball, just pretend you're
at the U S open and then she throws the ball up as like an eight year old and
it cuts to modern day, bam.
And it's her serving at the U S open.
You know, I just find her so dynamic and so incredible and now balancing
motherhood and everything else she does.
But yeah, she's always been a standout for mine.
I've always loved watching women's tennis.
I've always loved watching because I've found it more entertaining.
Some of the rallies, I enjoy it more too.
And it's one of those sports where you don't look upon it as men and women.
No, it's just, it's just looking at someone and going, wow, could I take
one point off this person?
Maybe a double, double fault, double fault, perhaps favourite charity.
And who would you like to give the $10,000 to today?
Cause Sean partners are giving you 10 grand and I know you've got a very
special place you'd like it to go.
Well, normally the answer would be gotcha for life.
But before my dad passed away, he discovered that there was no real
charity set up to help people with head and neck cancer.
So he set up the head and neck cancer foundation, which we've now changed to
the Fordham foundation because we've discovered it's a bit of a mouthful to
say the head and neck cancer foundation.
And the Fordham foundation is an easier way for us to explain.
Our dad was John Fordham.
He set up this charity and one of the things they came up with was almost
like rapid testing and you know, one of the great things about radio is when
they started this rapid testing, I started talking about on the radio and
people went in and had a rapid test during their lunch break.
You can do it in about 25 minutes.
And I've heard from tradies who said, Oh mate, you're not going to believe it.
They found a thing, you know, so it can be the smallest little thing where
someone goes, and most of the time it's not cancer.
So they go in there and they go, what's that thing?
And it's something nothing to do with cancer, but when they find it and there's
this wonderful doctor I've met, Dr.
Kath Mellor, and she goes, if I can find it early enough, we can zap it.
We can do something about it.
So I'll very happily say that the money will go to the Fordham foundation and
thank you so much for, for the donation.
Cause when I told mom about it, I said, look, I'm doing this interview.
And, and I said, I've got the option.
I was thinking the Fordham foundation and mom was just, you know, when,
when dad passed away, I had this challenging conversation with my mom and
my brother and sister, where I said, now listen with the Fordham foundation, it
was then called the head and neck cancer foundation, but I said, with the charity
and mom said, your dad wants it to continue.
And I went, okay, well that answers that question.
I said, because you know, there's a lot of work involved in doing this, as you
will know, you know, it's a never ending.
Pursuit of trying to get funds and trying to help people out and whatever.
And we all support a whole range of other charities anyway.
So I said, look, we, we've all got a pretty clear conscience in all the
things we do for a range of charities, whether it's a Ricky Stewart foundation
or gotcha for life or a whole range of others, starlight.
So I said, you know, we don't necessarily, mom said dad wants it to continue.
And I said, all right, well that answers that.
So, um, whatever mom says, that's one thing I picked up.
So, um, so the Fordham foundation will live on and, um, and we'll do whatever
we can to help people out who are unlucky enough to get head and neck cancer.
And I'll always help you if you need help as well.
You know, that, and that 10 grand will go to them and might thank you so much
for your time and congratulations on being the number one in Sydney.
Well, thank you for everything you've done for me and for us and for listening
of a morning, cause we love getting Gussie's texts and thank you for changing
the way I communicate about mental fitness on the radio.
I'll do it forever.
As I've told you, and thank you for your support as well of the Fordham
foundation, because my dad would absolutely love the fact that we're
sitting here on the second anniversary of his death, pumping 10 grand into
the foundation that he started.
He would be so thrilled.
That's our pleasure.
Love you too, brother.
Good on you, buddy.
A big thank you to Shaw and partners, financial services who have generously
supported this podcast and also donated $10,000 to the charity of choice of each
of our guests to thank them for their time.
Shaw and partners are an Australian investment and wealth management firm
who manage over $28 billion of assets under advice.
The seven offices around Australia, Shaw and partners act for, and on behalf
of individuals, institutions, corporates, and charities.
For more info, you can check out their website at shawandpartners.com.au.
That's S-H-A-W for Shaw.
Shaw and partners, financial services, your partners in building and preserving wealth.