123 Daniel Gorringe The Paradoxical Make Up Of Afl_S Favourite Larrikin

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I'm Mike Boris, and this is Straight Talk.

I'm not your therapist, but do you...

No, we can...

You can be. Let's go.

You're so fucking good at the show because the numbers are proving it. How'd you know you had some comedy in you?

In school, early. The only reason this really started my whole what I'm doing now was the comedy was a form of coping and self-defense.

Gold Coast Sun.

I was a pick 10 in the AFL draft.

Seg Club?

Carlton.

Oh my God, your dream club.

Yes, dream. Probably more realistic view is that my heart was never in it.

That's the reality of it. And that was the start of me going to the bottom of the barrel.

Like, as in mental health?

As in mental health, as in everything.

The day that I decided to check out was, and I haven't told the story about it, so it's obviously very open to me saying it now.

The day I decided to do it, I remember feeding my dogs.

I then shut the door on them.

I got my phone out.

And in my phone, I texted a message to my mum and my dad.

And I said, I love you guys, but this is too hard.

I'm not shy away from this stuff.

No, totally.

I think it's important for people to talk about it.

I get great joy out of knowing my purpose on this earth is to be here and to create content that makes people laugh.

Daniel Gorringe, welcome to Straight Talk, mate.

Thank you, mate. Thanks for having me on.

It's not very often I get AFL or former AFL players, but someone who actually has a big AFL audience,

which is a national audience, for your show, your podcast.

And your podcast, by the way, congratulations, very successful.

Thank you.

Yeah, things have been crazy at the moment.

It's just, I don't want to say I've been lucky, but I've just built a cult following of AFL footy heads who love talking footy

and being funny around it and creating jokes around stuff and a bit lighthearted.

So everything's super different at what we do.

So things are good, mate.

It's exciting.

I'm very happy to be here.

So thanks for asking me to come on.

Well, and I want to.

I want to sort of dive into the AFL stuff.

I mean, everyone knows that I'm an NRL guy, but it doesn't matter.

I still follow Collingwood, I would say, very meekly.

Oh, no.

I know.

It's an issue already.

Mate, I know.

Everybody says that.

I don't know why.

Why do people hate Collingwood so much?

I mean, you're a Colton fan.

You guys, you know, you're just arrogant, you lot.

Serious?

Yeah, last year was a good year for you guys, and I get you celebrated.

I haven't started so well this year.

Well, your hangover's big.

It's a big hangover.

Totally.

It must have been a big party.

It was a big party.

So you can be forgetful.

Given.

Yeah, I don't know.

You guys just rub us the wrong way.

I think when we see big clubs be successful, it just, we don't like that.

It pisses you off.

Yeah, it pisses us off.

We don't like that.

Collingwood's different.

Are you sort of losers or what?

Oh, massively.

Collingwood's like an establishment joint.

Like, what was it?

You guys had, I don't know, the blokes from the Foster's Beer.

Yeah.

Some really rich dudes behind your club.

Yeah.

In the past.

I mean, you're like an establishment club.

Yeah, pretty much.

I feel like Collingwood's different.

Different?

My God.

Collingwood, the black and the white just gets you on the wrong way.

It's just, I don't know.

It's you against the world.

It's our success.

Probably.

Yeah, your success.

And then Eddie back in the day, I'm a massive fan of Eddie,

but he used to come out and say some outlandish stuff

and that would get people the wrong way.

I like it.

But yeah, I just like the fire being there that everyone hates Collingwood.

Well, that's important.

It's like here in Sydney.

I'm on the board of Sydney Roosters.

I've been on the board now for 21 years and everyone hates us.

Literally, everybody hates the Sydney Roosters.

But we just keep aiming up and performing

and winning grand finals and or getting in more grand finals

than anybody else.

And we are, of course, the original club,

the only original club who's played every season since 1908.

See, they are.

I don't even follow the NRL, but I hate the Roosters already.

Already.

Exactly.

And to be frank with you, we don't mind because we work with that hate.

You like your back against the wall.

Yeah, totally.

We play better.

And that whole sort of mentality where it's a bit of a siege mentality,

everyone else hates us, that makes us –

play better.

I think it keeps us together better culturally as a team.

Yeah.

But let's talk about you, Danny.

Yes.

So, mate, you're a tall dude.

I just had George Kambosis in here you saw on the way out.

George is, compared to you, I reckon he comes up to about your waist.

Yeah.

How tall are you?

I am 6'7", 6'8".

Wow.

So, yeah, I did saw – I saw George bog past me.

I thought he could still just beat the living shit out of me.

He's just a killer.

Yeah, he would kill me in three seconds.

But actually, funnily enough, outside of the ring is the nicest,

quietest, meek, mild, well-mannered bloke you'll ever meet.

Yeah.

He's just a lovely family man, the whole thing going on.

And when it –

There's a switch.

Could you just take me through how you became an AFL player?

So was it just because you're tall?

I mean, how does that work in AFL world?

I mean, a little bit.

AFL, there's obviously the pathways where normally what would happen is

your family would put you in an Auskick, the junior program,

when you're 4, 5, 6.

And then you go through the ranks from Auskick to your school footy,

from your school footy to a state league side, a rep side to, you know,

going to the championships, playing senior football.

And that's the funnel normally to the AFL.

I played soccer until I was 11.

And all my mates – I switched schools.

I bounced around schools growing up.

And I went to this new school and all my mates that I'd made

were playing AFL on the Saturdays.

And I was like, well, they all come in on Monday and say how fun that game was

and they have all the jokes.

And I'm not inside those jokes.

I'm out on the soccer field.

So one random Monday, I turned to dad and said,

I'm not playing soccer anymore.

I want to go and play something that I have no right to play at 11 years old.

Age?

11, which is a late, late start.

You know, these guys have been playing for 5, 6, 7 years.

And that's how I got into it.

I'd started and I was horrible at the start.

Horrible.

I remember my first game, not bending down to pick up the ball

and just kicking it on the ground.

Like it was a soccer field still.

But I fell in love with it.

I fell in love with it.

And the journey started from there, from Adelaide.

And working my way up through these different teams and programs

and got to what they call the top in the AFL.

And it was a lot different when we got there.

So you were born and bred in Adelaide?

Born and bred in Adelaide.

Gorange, what nationality is that?

Gorange is English.

My mom is Yugoslavian.

My dad's from England.

We grew up in Adelaide.

As I said, I bounced around.

My mom and dad split when I was three.

So I was between two homes.

I come from housing commissions.

So we bounced around with the commissions

because they would kick us out of our house

and then we'd get rezoned to school.

So that was obviously not a difficult childhood,

but it builds great character straight away as a kid to be like,

okay, I have to piece together what's going on here.

We're moving constantly and you have to make friends more often.

That's interesting you have to piece things together.

So do you consciously remember at some age, maybe six, seven,

thinking, well, it's a bit different than everyone else in my class

and I'm in a new area.

I have to start to get all the jigsaw puzzle together.

So work out where I fit in.

Yeah.

I remember, yeah.

Early on, I think I remember just feeling like every four,

every term it almost felt like we were moving schools

or we were moving house and never got comfortable.

And maybe in some way that's how I do business now,

not ever being comfortable in the way I do things.

I'm sure that has a connection.

But what do you mean by that?

Not comfortable.

I don't think I've ever been comfortable in my life, ever.

I was never comfortable in school, making friends.

I was never, I haven't been comfortable in my own business.

I wasn't comfortable playing footy at all.

I find most things in my life very uncomfortable.

And when you say uncomfortable, do you mean you feel a bit disturbed

or do you mean you just, you don't feel like you fit in

or you're the odd bloke out?

Yeah, a bit like that.

Probably the odd one out.

The odd one out, definitely growing up as a young kid,

definitely felt on the outside looking in.

Growing up, football was my connection to fitting in

because I was good at it.

So that was the key.

Football in terms of AFL?

AFL, yeah.

Not soccer?

No, not soccer.

AFL was my key to fitting in.

And then now that I'm doing the podcast and all this other stuff,

I very much have an imposter syndrome.

Like I don't see what everyone else sees.

And it's great when, you know,

you said congrats on everything I'm doing and an event last night,

people said the same thing, but I don't see that at all,

which is that feeling of not really feeling like I fit in.

That's really interesting.

And if you don't mind, I'm not your therapist, but do you?

No, you can be.

Let's go.

But can we just explore that a little bit?

Because I've had sort of similar feelings,

different sort of growing up background,

but I had sort of similar feelings in some respects because,

you know, people want to say to me, oh, wow, blah, blah, blah,

about how well I'm doing.

And I don't really see it that way.

I don't think about it like that.

So you are very successful, particularly at the moment

in relation to your podcast, but you don't really see it.

No, not at all.

What do you see?

Honestly, not much in the mirror,

which is kind of a little bit weird and sad and dark.

I feel that –

I just do stuff because I think it's good for me.

I don't really see the waves and ripples that it has out there

in the community or online.

I'm just doing stuff because I think it's good.

And I really – sometimes I wish I was able to sit back

and be more proud of what I'm doing,

but I just have this weird emotional response

that I just am very much an imposter.

But Daniel, what do you mean by that,

that when you say you –

you do what you think is good

as opposed to what everyone else is looking at,

is that – do you mean that you're more transactional?

So in other words, you're not very strategic

in relation to your business and your podcast

and how it gets rolled out,

but you're more like sitting in front of a guest

and you're just going for it.

You're talking about shit and –

Pretty much.

Saying whatever comes to your mind at the time,

maybe playing on comedy a little bit.

Yeah.

You know, like someone I can think of who's very similar to that

that I can draw a parallel to is Matty Johns.

Although Matty is much older than you

and he's become a bit more –

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's become quite strategic in relation

to how he runs his business now.

He's got his sons involved, et cetera.

But I think in the beginning he was very transactional

and he was just looking for the reactions.

Yeah.

And the reactions gave him a little bit more energy

and it set him off into another path.

Yeah.

And then he just kept going down the path.

Is that who you are?

A hundred percent.

I mean, there has to be a little bit of strategic stuff

behind the business and, you know, as you do,

when you plan your shows or you plan your content,

there has to be that there, a little bit of a base.

I'll be honest with you, I don't plan any fucking thing.

I mean, I'm serious.

I don't.

All the dudes around here do it for me.

It's all planned for me.

But I am transactional.

Yeah.

I come in and I'm seeing Daniel today.

I read the brief before I get in.

Yeah.

And I think, oh, this is going to be interesting.

I wouldn't mind sort of going down this –

Yeah.

Traveling down this territory.

You know, Sam O'Reilly will give me like a two-minute brief,

what he thinks is interesting, some of those things I might run with.

But really what I'm trying to do is I'm being transactional.

I'm just trying to find stuff that interests me.

Yeah.

I love your audience.

I am.

Trying to do what you want me to do.

But at the same time, I'm trying to do what I want to do.

I'm sort of a bit selfish about it.

I am.

I'm trying to find out – so for me, it's selfishness.

Do you find a level of selfishness – I don't mean it in a bad way,

but a level of selfishness in it?

Not well.

What interests me type thing?

Yeah.

I think in my world, creating the content,

I'm going to do what I think is funny and what I think will get hits.

I don't really care what other people want or think is funny at all.

I'm just doing stuff because I think it's funny and it's out there.

But that's very much the way that I'm going up against the big traditional medias

in football especially, your Channel 9s, your SENs, 3RW,

all these established companies who are so structured

and they deliver the same mundane rollout.

So in terms of what I'm doing, it's like what do I want to listen to?

What would I want to watch on a social media app?

And that's what we're doing.

There's no real strategy behind it.

It's just whatever happens on a day-to-day basis,

let's roll with it and put it out there.

I suppose that is a strategy though.

You're saying how can I be different?

What's unique about Daniel?

Or can Daniel bring that is unique to an audience?

You won't get to the whole audience because maybe older dudes

don't want to listen to you.

Maybe they think, what the fuck is going on?

This guy is off his head.

Probably.

Yeah, probably.

Probably right.

They probably are right.

I am off my head.

But that doesn't matter.

No.

But there is also a strategy that you implant comedy into it.

Like I am not a funny person.

I'd never do that.

I've tried to bring out of you what's interesting to my audience.

There's no way I could be fucking funny.

I mean, I like to laugh at what other people say,

but I don't really have a funny bone in my body, relatively speaking.

How do you harness your comedic part?

How did you know you had some comedy in you?

In school, early.

Yeah.

I wasn't good on tests and on paper or anything like studying,

but I could make people laugh.

You could in an audience?

Oh, yeah.

If there was a test of making people laugh in school,

A pluses all the way through.

And I knew.

I knew that was always there.

In footy, and the only reason this really started,

my whole what I'm doing now was the comedy was a form of coping

and self-defense to take the piss out of myself

and say the stuff that I know you're all saying about me out there

and I'll say it about me first so you guys can't use it against me.

For example, how do you mean?

So I was a pick 10 in the AFL draft.

Number one is your best pick, 18-year-olds,

best in the country going to pool.

Pick one's the best.

Pick 10's the 10th best in the country.

Not bad.

Pretty good.

I'll take that.

Normally your first top 10 picks in the AFL draft,

the clubs bank on you to be a 200, 300-game player,

win a flag, win a couple of best and fairest.

You're supposed to be a superstar.

I played 26 games.

I left two clubs.

I was sacked from my first club and I retired before the second club could sack me.

First club?

Gold Coast.

Second club?

Carlton.

Oh, my God.

Your dream club.

Yes, dream.

The narrative around my career once I left was this guy is a spud.

He was such a bust.

He let so many people down.

He never had any talent.

So I thought, I know what you're saying about me.

Let's bring it into light and I'll take the piss out of it as well.

And then once I did that, people actually enjoyed that side of,

hey, this guy can have a laugh at himself.

He doesn't take anything too seriously.

He doesn't really care what we think of him.

And it just snowballed from there.

But initially I did that because I was so self-conscious about what they were saying

about me.

I just wanted to get to it first.

If I get to it first, you guys can't use it against me as ammo.

Well, that's a strategy in itself as well.

So, so far we've discovered three strategies.

Maybe I am pretty strategic now.

Think about it.

Yeah.

And sometimes when we're defensive, we're very good at being strategic.

And so I want to just sort of move into that, why you would be defensive.

One, am I correct?

Are you a bit defensive about who Daniel Gorringe is?

Or maybe who other people perceive you to be?

I think definitely as a young kid, like an 18 to 25, oh no, younger if we're talking about

my childhoods, childhood, so 10 to 25, super self-conscious.

I cared about what everyone said.

I went looking, trying to feed this narrative in my head, you know, online articles, what

they're saying in forums.

Let's go find it so I can confirm to myself that what they're saying about me is right.

But good or bad, we're talking about here?

Bad.

I was like, let's go with bad stuff.

I want to see it, what they're saying.

And then I believed I was that person.

You look for it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Went out and looked for it.

Went out and looked for it.

Is that a bit destructive?

So destructive.

So destructive.

But back to this thing of being a top 10 pick, I was like, I'm not supposed to be this person.

So let's see who they think I am.

You know, I'm supposed to be the, I'm supposed to have played 200 games already and, you

know, done all these other things.

I've played 20 odd.

Let's see what they're saying.

And then create my own personality off that.

Why did you only play 20?

I mean-

Why didn't you play 200?

Probably a better way of putting it.

Yeah.

In fact, you stopped playing, but-

Yeah.

I mean, me growing up, I was very much, I played in the rucks.

So the big guy in the middle who taps the ball down at the start of the games.

And my ability in that position was to be very mobile.

So quicker than the ruckman.

I could jump higher than the other ruckman.

That's why I probably went pick 10.

Once I did my first Achilles, I lost all my ability to jump.

I lost all my ability to sprint.

Once I did my second Achilles, lost it more.

By the time I did my fourth Achilles, I wasn't the same player at all.

So that's, there's that.

But then there's also the very, probably more realistic view.

Is that my heart was never in it.

Never in it.

My goal was to get drafted.

And once I got there, the foot came completely off the gas.

I said, this isn't for me.

I don't want to be here really.

Why?

I mean, for some people that's a dream.

But why is it, once you got there, you didn't want to be there?

Just going, yeah.

I mean, I went to the Gold Coast.

So the structure wasn't there to be, I felt wasn't enough around the footy club

to promote development in young kids and not just football players, but people.

And I just got to my point where I said, I don't want to compete for positions.

I was very much used to being the best player on the best team.

Give me the ball.

I'll do the rest.

Get the fuck out of my way.

Got to the AFL and that just changed completely.

No one's giving me that ball anymore.

You want to be on the ball?

You go get it.

I did not have the heart to go get it.

That's the reality of it.

And is it, I mean, Gold Coast is a, would be a tough place for a young guy,

particularly from out of Adelaide.

Oh yeah.

Bright lights.

It's, when I say tough, it's not like going out to, I don't know what the equivalent is

in Melbourne, but like, it's not like going out to the West of Sydney where it's, you

know, like they'll eat you alive.

Yeah.

It's different.

A bit different, like I said, but you can get eaten alive in the Gold Coast in that

you get sort of swamped by what goes on there.

And it's beautiful near the beaches, lifestyle, you know, fucking, you know, get up, it's

a beautiful morning, everything, everything's wonderful.

Yeah.

And you don't need to get seduced.

Yeah, you do.

Into everything.

You do.

I walked down Cavill Avenue and I saw Mita Maids and I said, how good is that?

And you're six foot eight.

Six foot eight.

It's not as if you're going to, they're not going to notice you.

Six foot eight.

Yeah.

The Gold Coast is just a different, as you said, from Adelaide, then go to the Gold Coast

and it's just like, okay.

I mean, I'm 18.

I'm being paid good money now.

I've made it.

I've never seen, I've made it.

So I was like, I very much got comfortable.

No incentive.

No, none at all.

None at all.

I knew, and I had a three year contract at the start.

I then signed a two year contract extension for the Suns.

I got sacked after that and then got another two years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was gifted these long contracts where it was easy to be comfortable.

And when they sack you, they pay you out.

Well, when they sack you, you, you have a contract for say, my first one was to 2015.

At the end of 2015, they made a decision on my contract not to extend it the next year.

So essentially your job's done like that in a month.

Yeah.

And then, but why did they come and pick you up?

Well, once you get delisted is what they call it, taken off a list, you go into a pool of

all these other delisted people and then other clubs can come and poach you and say, hey,

we know what you did.

You've been there for five years.

We kind of liked that.

You did this in three games.

Let's see if we can get more of that out of you.

And Carlton did that.

They saw something in me and picked me up and said, come to, come to Melbourne.

Let's see if we can kind of rejuvenate your career.

Being delisted though, that's a bit like being abandoned to me.

I mean, did that sort of set off any alarm bells?

Yeah.

In Daniel's head?

Yeah.

Again, back to me trying to find, am I this person that people are saying about me?

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This guy's abandoned.

They don't want him.

And then all the more articles came out, top 10 pick gets taken off list.

Yeah.

It was probably, I think that was the start of me going to the bottom of the barrel.

Like as a mental health?

As in mental health, as in everything as a person, that was a start.

And then going to Carlton for the two years after was, I found a little bit of my mojo

back, but I was just, I was just hanging there by the end.

So can we just, I mean, it's, it's a big issue.

Not often people want to talk about it.

A lot of times people aren't brave enough.

to talk about it, but the mental health thing, what does that mean?

Is it, what do you, does, does that mean like, maybe I should question a bit more direct.

Does that mean loss of confidence, loss of identity?

As I said earlier, feelings of abandonment, where the fuck do I fit in?

Yeah.

Everything.

That mean that, like that loss of my personality, my identity was gone.

The feeling of no one wanting me, I didn't, for so long in my life, I'd had a scheduled

day every day from being abandoned.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

From being 18, you know what you're doing every day in a football club to then being

25 and not knowing what I'm doing at all.

No direction, no support, no one to say, oh, here, um, come and kick a footy around.

We'll give you a hundred thousand dollars or $200,000.

It was very much like, this is the real world now.

Sort your shit out and you're by yourself.

And my mental health got really bad to a point where I, I've said it before on, on other

videos that we've done that I didn't want to be around here anymore.

I was like, I'm out.

I'm like, I can check out.

Yeah.

I could check out easily.

I could say goodbye.

I could say goodbye to everyone and I'm done.

That's how bad it got.

But fortunately for me, things did turn around and now I'm in a spot where that feels like

such a long time ago that there's, fingers crossed, no way I'd ever get back to that

spot.

A bit dark, but I mean, unfortunately you have to put up with me because I'm, because

I'm running the show.

It's your pod.

But, but, um, but I've often wondered about when someone feels as though they're okay

to check out, um, at a young age.

Um, what does that really mean?

Like, um, I've never experienced it, but do you actually say, man, either the fuck will

they go or not?

I mean, or, or, or, or is it you're so sad you just want to get away from the sadness?

What is the feeling?

Yeah.

Can you explain to me?

Yeah.

Well, everyone's different.

So for me, mine was, I got to a point where every day just wasn't worth being up for.

I was in bed.

I was crying.

I didn't have any mates because they're all at footy and their lives are going so well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the day that I obviously it was bubbling away, but the day that I decided to check

out was, and I haven't told the story about it.

So it's obviously very openly saying now the day I decided to do it, I remember feeding

my dogs.

I then shut the door on them.

I got my phone out and in my phone, I texted a message to my mom and my dad and I said,

Oh my God, I don't know.

love you guys but this is too hard and i got in my car and put the pedal down to the ground aiming

for a tree wow and something said in me as i got close to that tree don't do that don't do that

and you put the brake and you sort of stopped the inevitable outcome yep and thank god thank god

can you what was it i mean i got to send something like that to your mother and father to

say goodbye to your two dogs and put them in another room after you fed them

that's pretty heavy um what drove you forward though to actually get in the car and drive

towards the tree i mean what were you thinking done i was just done man i was at the lowest of

lows i had nothing i didn't have a partner anymore i didn't have any friends i had no job i had no

money i'd blown away a career that was supposed to be done i was like there is nothing here for me

at all at all i don't want to be here this is just like i'm just wasting everyone's time and that's

the thing about the mental health thing is that

when you're that low in a spot you don't think clearly you know people always say

reach out to someone because it's never as bad as it seems and now after going to the other side of

putting my foot on that brake and not going ahead i can see that clearly now but being in that spot

you don't think like that at all you literally think like there is no way out at all so put your

foot on the brake you stopped what was your feeling when you when you pulled up like how

did you feel the moment your car pulled up and you did you

feel relieved happy or what i felt like you're such a piece of shit you couldn't even do this

then you say come down on yourself give me some more time yeah you can't even do that yeah yeah

and now thank fuck i didn't but i was like at the time i remember driving back home and being like

you can't even do that like what can you do what can you do after that the next couple days were

no it was in my phone ready to be drafted right

ready to be drafted so senate got in the car got ready and then just hit the gas but my plan was to

send gas go yeah so i didn't send it so and then what did you do with the message

deleted it deleted it yeah did you backspace everything i probably haven't i've told my mom

the only stuff that i've told mom and dad is that he got dark i mean they know now how dark it got

it's and and i don't i'm not shy away from this stuff because i think it's important for people

to talk about it and i think it's important for people to talk about it and i think it's important

for people to talk about it and it's you know it's um something that as you said a lot of people

do shy away from and it's their own everyone feels comfortable selling their story so i'm more than

open to say it and um and now thankfully i didn't do it i'm here which is great but i did got got

the message obviously backspace what i was going to say to him and the next few days after i said

to my mom i said hey i'm not good here like i'm really really bad i need you to come over

and she came over from adelaide and from that point we had a chat

i had to get some help with the psych and that's when that was probably where things started to

slowly turn and the momentum of being feeling shit and having these bad days and hey i'm actually

getting out of bed now we can tick that off that's pretty good we got out of bed today oh hey you

found a job that's a big tick you went to job five days in a row that's a big slowly started

getting some small wins little wins little wins oh your psych says you know you know you're not

the weirdo that you think you are you're not different because you feel like all these things

in your head are just made up things they're actually real things dick

and we changed and and thank god life is so good right now i love it but

back then like even now it's been a slog to get here

how important is it because a lot of people never really have this opportunity but

how important is it to have someone like your mom who came back over from adelaide to see you

um and i imagine she probably came straight away if that was me and my with one of my kids i

definitely would have left whatever i was it would have gone straight away yeah um how important is

that huge and huge and uh what is the biggest thing that you've done for yourself that you've

your mom do what was the first thing she does when she sees you yes well it's even more big

because it's my stepmom right wow she has been serious the best heavy person in my life my mom

and i don't have a relationship my stepmom has been a mother figure that has been more than the

mother that i ever could ask for she didn't choose to be my mom no sorry she chose to be my mom you

know she she had nutrition and i chose her she's been amazing but she came over i didn't tell her

the details of what had just happened i didn't tell her what i'd done a few days before i just

said i'm not good and i need you just to stay here for a couple days i need you to cook some meals

for me i need you to help me clean up and while you do that in my head i'm going okay we have to

turn some some wheels here and change things but for her to do that is just amazing amazing i tell

her now all the time we send each other's messages about i think she always knew something was up

without saying it it's not a normal chat to have with your mom about hey i'm fucking not feeling

good my mental health is bad

not for anyone that's why people are still so secretive about it and they fight their own

battles by themselves but she's yeah she's probably the the one person that changed everything for me

and i don't tell her that enough well it sounds it sort of sounds pretty simple but it's not that

simple but it sounds pretty simple you know she came over helped to clean up somebody had to talk

to she gave you a hug um she cooked you some meals um but they're pretty basic pretty fundamental

things like probably a little bit of comfort food a little bit of nutrition a bit of regular

yeah just having someone in the room that doesn't judge you just some tlc all you need is a cuddle

have a mag yeah have a laugh yeah you can rediscover yourself yeah like to anybody else

out there who might be suffering at the moment from something similar to my and you know if

they're listening to this hopefully that daniel's got something for you but what is the first step

to making that or reaching out so you know like daniel had to reach out to his stepmom

how did you do that like what's the first thought that when you might did you think oh

if i do this it's embarrassing or if i do this um i'm not really entitled to ask this question but

how did that all go through your head like it's not comfortable um i made it easy with a parent

because i think a parent will always know and always be there no matter what you need because

yeah yeah there is 100 and i the message was literally i'm not good i need you to come and

but what what was it that gave you the authority or gave you the encouragement to send it send that

message i just need someone i need someone i looked in my life and i'd said who is in my life

that would do that like who do i know that would 100 rock up on my door in the next 24 hours if i

send that message and she was the first person that came to your mind yeah yeah that's amazing

yeah and she made the effort she got there and it's it's simple but it's not it's the simple

thing is just ask someone just to be there naturally as humans we'll pick up on stuff when

something isn't going well for someone you we know that we have instincts we can we can tell

that people sometimes aren't okay and sometimes it's up to them in mental health to decide to

tell you that hey this isn't good i'm not good or they'll just appreciate you being there just for

being there like you said did you did you over a period of time or at any time pretend that you're

all good and uh i mean it was out of the thing for you my whole career really yeah yeah my

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smart ass or a clown or the funny guy again all the fun all the fun to just cope with it and put

up like a guard you know everything's all good let's laugh about this yeah um i i knew i knew

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it wasn't mental health wasn't a thing that everyone hey boys go to the pub and talk about

mental health that didn't happen so i knew that i was one of now many people who come forward that

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we were made for this a lot of sportsmen sports people um suffer from this um and they also

suffer from this so-called imposter syndrome um whatever the right word for it it doesn't

really matter like i don't really deserve a type thing and then they also um are very good at comedy

or taking the piss especially out of themselves

like a suffrage like it's like um i'll put shit on myself and everyone else will laugh at me

and that'll actually make me feel better yeah was that who daniel gorringe was yeah yeah still is

everything's fucking funny everything's funny you know who's the who gets to tell you what's

funny and what's not funny me i find literally everything funny i find dark stuff funny i find

light stuff funny i find taking the piss out of myself funny i find taking the piss out of you

or whoever it might be funny it's up to you if you think it's funny you know like everything's

for me i do has helped me either cope with the shit that's going on my life lighten the room

helped in business that's my thing you know is that a technique you use it do you i mean do you

do you actively use that technique comedy to actually make other people feel happy or have

a laugh or make yourself feel a little bit better around the situation or just sort of you know um

oil the path for you to do whatever it is you're trying to transact whatever the case may be like

it could be a podcast trying to transact with all your audience yeah i'll

grease the the ground by putting a whole lot of comedy out there yeah it's my connection with

people you know whether i met you for the first time whether i've met you you're my best mate

whether you're my parents family that's my connection with people having a laugh having a

good time there's i very much enjoy making people laugh that's my thing i i get great joy out of

knowing my purpose on this earth is to be here and to create content that makes people laugh

and forgets about they get to forget about their shitty day or a bad meeting with their boss or an

argument with their friends for

five ten thirty seconds i love that i get to do that do you do it as a character though like um

how does daniel i mean i wouldn't have a clue about your career comedy i don't fucking know

but how do you do that like um do you plan it or is it just on the spot or do you examine people

and you think there's something funny there i could think it's funny for me so i'm gonna say it

yeah just on the spot yeah and in fact yeah everything's literally on impulse and if i've

met you in the first you know for the first time and my icebreaker is comedy

i'm gonna let something fly and if you laugh then we're away if you don't then hey

maybe i'm gonna say nice to meet you and i'll bounce somewhere else because you and i probably

won't get along that well or you and i are gonna have a very awkward first encounter but that's my

that's my thing do you know what i reckon i mean i'm i've never really thought about it too much

i'm assuming you're thinking about it now as you're talking to me and people who i think are

funny i think are funny that i've thought of funny in my life actually have um a look about

them that makes me feel relaxed and comedic

you got that look

no but you do yeah yeah there's something about you when you walked in the room into the studio

here um and there's something about you the way you talk and there's something about the way you

look maybe the shape of your face i don't know what it is but that looks no no it's it's your

big smile i think oh no one's ever said that i'll take that you get a massive smile thank you it's

normally a massive schnoz thank you and your eyes light up and uh so there's something about the

there's an energy coming out of you like it's funny thank you and it's sort of um probably

not just funny sort of

refreshing great it's quite refreshing um it's a bit very honest yeah well that's what i want to

be you know i don't want to i want to when i when all this is said and done when daniel groen just

said and done i want people to go you know what he was honest as all fuck he was funny and he took

the piss out of himself i'm happy my job's done there you know i don't care what if you hate me

you hate me that's that's fine i there's lots of people that hate other things so this is about

what you want to be as opposed to it really doesn't matter what everyone else they describe

you and it's funny because that's the sort of

vibe i'm getting from you a real honesty and uh and and with that comes something that i'm gonna

laugh at or i'm gonna find i haven't i haven't broken into a hilarious laughter but i find it

amusing great like and i'm not trying to downplay it but you're amusing and i have i'm i'm just

talking to you like uh and i'm getting an amusing sense from you like i just prior to this podcast

had george campos in it like and george is a he's a good dude he's but he's a serious he's

a serious game you know he's fighting world's greatest fighters and uh and winning and sometimes

losing but you know you get a i get a deep from george you get a sense of warrior and fucking

killer you know like it could punch you at any point any time and with you though i'm getting

something totally different i'm i'm uh i you're a big long dude like your big limbs everywhere

totally like it's sort of like like a big giraffe like yeah daddy long legs just on the wall you

keep touching the legs like you're really conscious no no because they i feel like

you're gonna hit my knee in a second like because your legs are sticking out so much

the cameras probably can't see but like his legs legs everywhere like this long that's that's from

hip to knee right and then there's the rest of it but it is this sort of big awkward sort of

giraffe dude sitting in front of me with a big smiley face and bright eyes and just telling me

that um he likes to make people laugh and by taking the piss out of himself and by with a

with a great deal of honesty and that's pretty fucking refreshing like um and how old are you

now i'm 31.

you still you come across still as a really young 20s sort of guy you know like you yeah yeah so

you're still fresh face but your your approach is that way so is your podcast geared around what

you consider to be and if i'm accurate then tell me if i'm not accurate tell me if i'm not accurate

but if i was accurate then in that sort of character description end or assassination

but well if that's accurate are you aware of that

accuracy and that is just what you give your you give your audience that accuracy yeah yeah i give

myself i'll give them me and this is me you know i mean there's gonna be times where i'm not like

this shit goes on in my life and this doesn't happen but i'm very much when the mics are on

when the camera's on where there's people around let's give them the best version me at this point

right now like what is the best version of me to give people in this current moment let's give them

that and that's what you're trying to aim for and with the with the podcast it's

going to be the best version of me in this current moment let's give these people that are listening

who make me part of their lives as your listeners do as well they become part of you come out of

their lives you're in their routine let's give them something they've decided to tune into you

they've decided to watch your video let's give them something that they'll actually enjoy because

they're taking time to invest in you and the podcast i think 10 episodes in that we're doing

what we've done only 10 episodes only 10. wow we reflected that yeah so i had a podcast last year

with um a friend but we've gone our different ways yep and this new podcast is going to be a podcast

is 10 episodes deep nine nine ten today ten and and what sort of audiences you're getting now

just people that love their footy i mean we get it i mean the main audience is

probably 15 to 35 40 year old males and there has been such an infrastructure in place with the

media in the afl i'm not sure if the nrl is the same but it's been the same heads the same voices

for years rolling out the same content and i was like i am so sick of this i'm over this there has

been nothing that is more than just me and me and all of my friends who are just watching at the

same time because i could tell that what's going on right now is different because you guys aren't

even talking or engaging with me anymore you're just talking so what can i create that actually

people who listen to say hey i could have that convo with with dan in the pub that's how that

felt and that's how that sounded and that's why we started this whole thing i'm very much going after

these mainstream medias to be like this isn't happening anymore you're just disrupt properly

They know that Dan's doing some shit out here.

So that's interesting because I had Willie Mason in here the other day.

He's an NRL guy.

He's doing something very similar.

And he's been criticized a lot for swearing.

But Willie, he's an out there guy.

He's also got a podcast similar to you, but it's a rugby league audience.

And he cops a lot of criticism from the incumbents,

the people who have always been there forever,

because Willie's doing it his way.

Like, he's a funny guy, but he's really straight, forward, down,

fucking says what he thinks, gets himself in a patrol for saying what he thinks.

But it doesn't matter.

You seem like, to me, you're doing the same thing.

Willie's a few years old.

He might be in his mid-40s.

Your podcast, tell me about the structure of it.

So when you say it's comedy and you're doing it differently,

give me the structure.

I mean, you must have a structure.

You've done nine eps.

So how do you go through it?

We do.

So we do two episodes a week.

Monday is normally the review.

From the round, our Thursday is normally the preview coming up.

Traditionally, what all other footy shows have done,

it's been the same stuff of what can we nitpick and what's negative?

What has this player done?

What's the biggest scandal we can pull out and drag this person through the mud?

We don't do that.

We're not doing that anymore.

We're going to be lighthearted.

If someone fucks up a kick on the field, that's funny.

As if someone does something scandalous off-field, hey, let's look at it.

Let's talk about it honestly.

This person is doing drugs.

Is he a drug dealer?

Is he some kind of drug?

Maybe he just had a big fight.

Maybe he just had a big night.

That's what we're doing.

We're not doing the traditional media type of just boring, mundane stuff.

And judgments.

Judgments.

We don't judge.

Who am I to play 26 games?

Who am I to judge?

Who am I to tell Scott Pennery, who's played 300 plus games,

that was a horrible kick?

He doesn't know who I am.

I don't want to do that.

So our tone of voice is different.

What we preview and what we review is totally different.

We just make up stuff on the fly.

So what is the tone of voice, apart from being non-judgmental?

Yeah, like this.

Take the piss out of teams.

If there's a bad team, we take the piss out of teams.

Let's take the piss out of them.

They're probably taking the piss out of themselves behind closed doors.

If there's a good team, hey, Collingwood, that's a good team.

If Collingwood lose, though, uh-oh, it's a bit shaky now.

If they've got a hangover, uh-oh, maybe you guys need a Gatorade

and some Panadol.

There's some stuff happening here.

It's very interesting the way you just put that, Daniel.

So how important is language to you?

So you just said you called Collingwood's not-so-great start to the season

as a hangover from last year's success.

Use the word hangover.

You just used, on a Gatorade or whatever, you just used,

how important is your language relative to the success of your show so far?

Yeah, massively.

The way that we speak and the words that we use and the phrases,

creating our own phrases, creating names for things,

has been massive, huge, just to get into culture.

The way that people are talking at the pubs or at footy clubs,

I want to be in the culture.

I want to change the culture of the tone.

I don't want to, no one at the pub has ever said, hey,

Eddie Maguire or someone on Fox Footy,

said that they're only going at 54% from the back pocket.

When they go to the midfield, they go 23%.

If they go to the pocket, they kick a goal.

Who speaks like that?

Like that's just analytics that I don't even know what you're talking about anymore.

So the way we talk, the things we talk about, the tone we use,

is all, you know, all purposely driven to bring people in

and make them feel like they're part of a language that only they understand.

That's a pretty important strategy.

I mean, how did you and or others form this strategy?

Did you?

Did you?

Did you actually consciously sit down and do this

or this is just something that you guys do anyway?

You rap this way?

Yeah, I'm starting to think that I'm a lot more strategic than I initially said.

So far you've given me a whole lot of strategies.

Yeah, there's a lot of strategy behind it.

It's just something that I have found from creating videos five years ago to now

has just worked.

Your tone, if you can create little slogans or little phrases or words

or if you can put a team in a certain light and say something about them

and it goes like wildfire, people feel like they're part of something.

So it's been something that I've not really tried too hard.

I just put something down on a piece of paper or out in the world

and it forms its own life.

I mean, my listeners are so creative.

I can say one thing and then they'll take it a whole different direction

and run with it.

And then I jump on their bandwagon and go,

I don't know what that means, but I'll use it.

So yeah, that's the way it's going.

We're so young as well.

Like this is nine episodes in.

We are nowhere near where I think we can be.

So you welcome the interaction of,

of your audience and not only do you welcome it,

but you run with it, run with it.

Yeah.

So you take it up.

So you, therefore you must be spending a lot of time reading this stuff

or some, your team or whatever you've got going on is somehow you're,

you're either reading it and, or, you know,

playing it back and giving them back feedback as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We have a finger on the pulse and everything.

There's so much that happens in the AFL world from games.

We watch every game from videos that players are doing.

They're doing something funny.

I mean,

some players got some wild boots last week and we took the piss out of these

boots.

So we have, we're not the best at what we do at all,

but there's no one else that does it like we do.

So how,

because social media plays a big part in all this authentic Daniel,

the authentic Daniel, as opposed to Daniel, you know,

the actor authenticity always wins by miles in today's,

in today's age.

And do you think that the incumbent media telling,

telling everybody the way they think everybody should be thinking and

therefore they themselves are not being authentic and therefore you,

you, it's just leaves a wide open for you to take space.

The commentators and the people presenting on radio,

their voices are,

they're being told what to say by someone else behind a back room behind a

wall has just told them what to say.

So it's not even their own, their voice.

So ours is very much like, this is what I think I'm going to stand by it.

I'll cop the criticism,

but I also get the praise if it goes and does its thing on social media,

or out in the world.

So I,

I looked at the traditional media and said,

I will never be that.

I will never be,

you'll never see me in a suit and a tie in front of a TV presenting about

these fence sitting thoughts.

We will be out there.

We'll say some things,

we'll get it wrong.

We'll cop some criticism,

but we will say things that other people will not say.

And I'm happy to do that.

And I mean,

I don't want to bore everybody,

but is there a business model attached to this?

Like,

is it like about advertisers or subscriptions?

How do you,

how do you make a quid out of it?

Sponsors come on board.

And I think the way that's happening right now,

sponsors are,

especially traditional media is changed a lot.

I think people,

as you said,

are looking for that authenticity.

The numbers help obviously,

but we have,

we work with amazing brands.

I work with sports bet who are the best brand in the world.

I work with Gatorade who are also amazing.

I think brands are ready to be a bit more looser with their,

their brands and say,

Hey,

let's get behind something so that it becomes synonymous with,

with Dan or Dan does footy.

And it's,

it's exciting.

I think,

I think the whole space is going to change soon.

I think you'll see very much less of the traditional media suit and ties.

And you'll see more of hopefully people like me going out and doing their own

thing and plugging themselves into places where they can be found.

And that's been the name of the show.

Dan does footy off your podcast.

And by the way,

very cleverly,

you dropped the Gatorade word into our conversation about a strategy.

Now that's tactical tactical.

What's wrong with you?

You play for the strategy.

You play.

I should know that.

That's why I was so bad.

Even though that I was just running around,

but you're so fucking good at the show because the numbers are proving it.

And in nine episodes in,

you're killing it.

And,

and the fact is you got,

you know,

a good sponsors,

really basically advertised with good sponsors.

You have to have,

because you've got to get paid.

You've got to pay for cameras and producers and all that stuff.

People don't realize what goes on behind the scenes.

There's a lot of shit going on,

a lot of expenses.

Where to from here,

do you see yourself as,

you know,

you're going to be celebrating,

celebrating your fifth time 500th episode.

Do you see that?

Hopefully.

Yeah,

I see it.

I think what I have in my head for next year is that it looked very different toward it is right now.

I see that we'll have a full built out panel of people who speak the same language to each other.

And they're very much not versions of me,

but their own people that come together like superheroes to make this great product.

That's where I want to take it.

And then I just want it to grow and grow.

Really.

I just,

I just think I believe in it so much that the landscape is changing.

And that was sick of hearing the,

the same voices that I will build something that people want to chew,

actually want to tune into and not forced to watch before a game.

It's interesting.

It doesn't sound like the same.

Daniel Gorringe,

who was looking at himself with the gold cards and thinking,

I don't know if I can do this.

Crazy,

isn't it?

Crazy.

This is the only thing that I believe in myself,

ever believed in myself in.

I,

and I mean,

I did have to before when I was playing footy because it was compared to it,

but I didn't really,

but this is the first time in my life where I believe in something.

So much that I want to build it.

I want to be part of,

I want to be here as long as I can.

And you want to compete.

And I want to compete.

I want to,

as I said,

I want to be the biggest in Australia.

And we are that,

that do it.

I mean,

there's so many people that do it now.

There's so many amazing creators and people that put stuff in the world around the AFL,

but I very much want to be the best.

And I believe I can do that.

So do you sit back sometime?

Yeah.

Fuck.

I mean,

is this same Daniel who has had his foot on the accelerators driving towards the tree?

Hmm.

Some years ago.

And now I'm here.

I'm sitting here.

I'm in a top podcast in the country doing what I fucking love competing.

Cause I love competing against everybody else.

I've got a proper,

I've got a proper,

um,

objective and,

um,

and I've got a great narrative and it's doing what suits me.

Do you ever sort of pinch yourself?

So that's where I'm still fucked up.

Like I still just don't see it.

You know,

that imposter syndrome,

I believe it.

But when I look at it and I go,

what?

Like,

no,

it's,

it's weird.

It's a weird concept.

Even I know it's weird.

Like I say,

I say it to people.

I say it to my psych.

I say,

look,

everything's going so well,

but I'm still very much like,

you don't deserve to be here.

You don't deserve to be doing this thing.

But for some reason I'm like,

no,

we'll hold on.

Some days I'm like,

you can do this.

Like,

I like to know what the psych says to you,

what your therapist says to you.

Cause I'd like to know.

Cause I sometimes ask myself the same question.

What do they say to you?

Like when you say,

this is going better than I ever thought.

I don't really deserve to be here.

Um,

I always think something's going to go wrong.

Yeah.

Like I always think,

fuck,

I'm going to lose everything or something.

I remember many years ago,

I don't know if you ever heard of Jerry Harvey from Harvey Norman,

but Jerry's like a billionaire and super successful and all that sort of stuff.

And,

um,

I remember one time I was,

you know,

hanging out and,

and,

uh,

it's like maybe 20 years ago,

maybe more.

That was 20 years ago.

Cause my son was 15.

He was playing with,

we were playing with our kids together.

And I said,

Jerry,

why you watch every dollar you spend like still?

And he said,

Mike,

cause I always,

I always feel as though sooner or later I'm going to lose all this and I don't really

deserve it.

And I have the same sort of feeling.

Um,

and I don't know if that's because of how I grew up or where I grew up in Sydney.

I don't know the reason,

but,

but it does actually make me be very sensible about the way I go about business and the

way I spend money.

I'm very careful.

Um,

that's what I call,

that's my imposter syndrome.

Um,

I feel as though someone's going to take it away from me and,

and it's nearly a siege meant.

I don't know what I'm going to do with it.

Um,

but it works for me.

It drives me to make,

I think to make better decisions.

How do you feel about your mentality?

Do you actually want to change your imposter,

so-called imposter syndrome?

Or do you want to go with it?

Cause it works.

I mean,

I'd love to figure out why I'm like this.

Cause something,

as I said in my psych,

something has happened growing up.

That's made me this way.

I didn't ask to really,

I'm sure you're the same.

Didn't ask to feel like this.

I'd love to sit back and appreciate,

well,

success,

the money that everything I'd love that,

but I'm,

I'm just not like that.

So something's happened that we need to fit.

I need to figure it out.

What happened when I was,

do you need to figure it out though?

Cause I've never figured I'm 68.

I still haven't figured it out.

And maybe not,

maybe not.

It'd be nice to,

to know,

but maybe the part of not knowing is the reason why we're very much similar,

that someone will rip this away from me soon.

And that keeps me on edge to keep driving and going.

It drives me.

Yeah.

That's why I keep working.

That's why I keep doing this.

Like,

I'll go into a speech this afternoon for somebody and people say,

you don't need the money,

but yeah,

but I know,

but it's not about the money for me.

It's about just doing it.

I'm not trying to stay relevant.

And people say,

well,

you do it because you want to stay relevant.

Yeah.

Fuck.

I mean,

like,

I mean,

I'd be,

you know,

I just don't care.

I mean,

I really don't care whether people think I'm good or not good.

I mean,

I don't want to be not good,

but because I want my product to be good,

but I don't,

I don't do it for those reasons.

There's no ego involved in it for me.

It's more that it,

I keep doing because it actually makes me keep doing things and I keep driving

myself and I don't want to be like some of my friends are retired at 65 and

they're just hanging around wondering what the fuck you're going to do.

Like they got,

they're bored off their tits and they're physically unwell and they don't look

great and they haven't,

they don't,

they don't have a purpose anymore.

For me,

that's important to me.

And whether it's some mental health thing that's working for me,

I actually don't want to fucking solve it.

Great.

Cause it works.

Yeah.

Okay.

And you could easily do what your friends are doing,

retire and just take it easy,

like easily.

But I love the fact that you're,

my mindset's the same.

Let's just keep doing shit.

It's working.

Someone might take this shit away from me and then we are done.

And then what do we do then?

But if I keep doing what I've been doing for so long,

then this train might keep rolling.

We might keep going here,

you know,

and evolving and evolving and be better.

And that's massive.

I'd want to be better than I was yesterday,

the week before,

the year before.

What,

how can I get better every day?

What is it?

The point,

if you are thinking about next year already,

and it's only not even April,

it's like we're in the first quarter of this year is pretty important.

You're learning cause you're sort of getting ahead of your audience,

which is great.

You were thinking,

how can I attract a bigger audience?

How can I keep this current audience more engaged or still engaged?

Because your game is about getting new audience and retaining your old audience.

That's,

that's your real game.

For sure.

Cause that's what advertisers,

that's what your sponsors want.

They want to know that you're talking to audience.

If you've got one person listening to you,

the sponsor might think you're really funny,

good guy,

blah,

blah,

blah.

But mate,

they're not going to give you any doubt.

No.

So if you,

as a business person,

you got to think,

how can I maintain and how can I,

um,

um,

expand and how can I influence my audience?

It doesn't mean you've got to tell them to buy a product,

but I'm influenced.

I mean,

by engage them.

Yeah,

you have to.

I mean,

and my,

my goal isn't the business side of stuff at all.

I have an amazing team who do that,

but back to your point of bringing people in to listen,

I can do that till the cows come home.

That's,

that's my goal.

It's just the business model.

Mate,

if I look at another,

the spreadsheet,

I couldn't tell you how the fuck to work that thing.

I hate a spreadsheet.

I'm allergic to them.

My,

my wife,

my business people would give me spreadsheets.

And I say,

if you send me anything on a spreadsheet again,

I might throw up.

Stop sending me spreadsheets.

Stop spending me dollar values and projections.

Just tell me what I need to do in the most basic,

dumb it down.

Like I'm five years old and tell me what you need from me.

And I'll tell you how to do it.

And then we'll come together.

You know,

it's what you're being at.

You're quite a fascinating interview for me.

Um,

so when you first came in here,

and we're going to have to close it off,

but I want to say this to you.

When you first came in,

you said,

no,

no strategy.

Um,

so,

but you gave me about five strategies.

Then we moved from strategy to tactics.

Um,

and then you're also telling me that,

um,

you don't care about spreadsheets,

but I'll bet you any money,

you know,

whether you're making more money than you are spending.

And I'll,

and,

but now you're telling me as on top of that,

you're telling me how you're planning for next year,

um,

how to increase your audience.

And you're only nine episodes in and you're already number one.

So I think Daniel Gorin,

you are,

you are doing something very fucking purposefully well.

And by you're either,

you're either underplaying it to me,

or you are one of those special blessed people who,

despite their protestations about what,

how they consciously think of something unconsciously somewhere in your brain,

it's all being planned and strategized and rolled out and improved and evolving.

And getting better and better and better.

Otherwise you would not have the success that you currently have.

No.

Well,

I feel like an idiot now.

I said,

I have no strategy and I've just gave you the whole business model.

So brilliant.

I'm glad we got it out.

At least we got it now on camera and I can listen back to it.

That's not a bad strategy in itself because right now you've just told the audience everything about you.

And that,

that's goes right back down to authenticity.

Yeah.

That goes right down to,

I don't really give a fuck whether you know my strategy or not.

That's actually quite powerful.

Yeah.

When you tell people that.

I don't care.

There's,

if people are listening or competing with me or people just want to do their own thing,

fucking use it.

Just use it.

That's cool.

But you back yourself though.

Yeah.

I have to.

Because you can't say,

well,

I won't tell anyone about what I'm doing because someone else might copy me.

What you're saying is,

well,

if they fucking find it,

so what?

I back myself.

Yeah.

How good does it feel today that you actually sit around backing yourself compared to the

dude who was at Gold Coast and down the Colton?

Unreal.

And I'd love that.

I back me against anyone.

Give me the same,

in this realm,

in this footy space that I'm in,

I back me against anyone else.

You can have the same model as me,

but if it's you and me,

I will tear you to shreds.

And I back,

I just,

and again,

I believe in it so much.

I believe in what I can do.

I believe that there isn't another me.

There's not another Dan does footy.

There's,

there's lots of things and they might be better.

There might be more polished and they might,

their videos might be cooler.

Their audio might sound better,

but you're not going to find another me.

And I have to think like that.

Otherwise this thing back to why we don't,

why we feel so awkward in imposter syndrome,

keeps me on edge.

Keeps me on edge.

There's be like,

you're the best today,

but tomorrow who knows someone else might come up.

Well,

okay,

let's give him some more today.

Give him a bit more gas.

Oh,

you were so good this month,

but next month,

who knows?

Okay.

We'll go harder again.

Well,

Daniel Gorange,

what you're doing,

and I probably can't,

I definitely can't articulate it from this short conversation,

but my bottom line is give yourself a pat on the back.

It's awesome.

Thank you,

man.

I appreciate it.

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