287. Beyond the Day Job: Hobbies as Healthy Coping Mechanisms

In the third episode of our Healthy Coping Mechanisms mini-series, Debs is joined by railway operations professional and radio presenter Lee Everest to explore how hobbies can help us cope, recover and reconnect with ourselves.

Lee works in a high-pressure rail environment where clear decisions, safety and service all matter. He shares how, after years of bringing work home in his head, he found a powerful release through community radio - something he had dreamed of doing since childhood.

What began as a hobby became a 'happy place': a way to switch off from pressure, rebuild confidence, create community and give something back. Lee talks about the difference it has made to his mental wellbeing, especially when working shifts, handling demanding days and needing a healthy escape from the intensity of work.

This episode explores why hobbies are not just 'nice to have' - they can be a vital part of staying well, building identity beyond the day job, and creating space for joy, creativity and connection.

Lee also shares the importance of boundaries. When something you love grows bigger, it still needs to fit healthily around real life, relationships and rest. His reminder is simple: find something that lights you up, protect time for it, and don’t be afraid to give it a go.

A warm, practical conversation about switching off, finding your release valve, and remembering that we are all more than our work.

You can find Lee’s radio work at: www.danceradioshows.com

Transcript

Catching Up And Life Speed

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Debs. Law, how are you doing this week? I'm doing very well this week. I've been meeting lots of interesting people.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Enjoying again the benefits of just taking some quality time for people to be able to process, connect, catch up, because life is full on these days, isn't it, Debs?

Why Healthy Coping Mechanisms Matter

SPEAKER_02 0:23

It definitely is full on. And you just think, wow, you one runs into another, and then you forget what the day is, and then you look at the clock, and it's like, how's that gone so fast? And yeah, loads of juggling and bits and bobs to do.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Which is why we thought in the second half of the shape-shifting decade in not only the landscape at work, but life in general, that actually we would build on the program workshop that we ran for a rail client at the start of the year called Healthy Coping Mechanisms. And that was designed for people that have really quite difficult, stressful situations, emergency situations they're dealing with. And off the back of that, we thought, actually, this is these are life skills, not you know, regardless of the industry you're working in, what are some tips and ideas that we can take that enables us to have healthy coping mechanisms when we're dealing with the ups and downs of everyday life? And as last week when we had Incredible Tom, when there are really big difficult things that happen, what does that then mean to learn from other people to be able to give us some of those healthy coping mechanisms? And so this one I think is going to have a bit of a lighter take on it, isn't it, Debs?

Meet Lee And His Role

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Yeah, it definitely is. We had the privilege of speaking to um Lee Everest as well as his day job, but he also um DJs and has his own radio station on the side. Um and it was fascinating to listen to him about how that is definitely helped and supported him over the years. So shall we take a listen, Laura? Welcome back, everyone. Um, as you know, Laura and I have been talking all about healthy coping mechanisms. And as we said right at the beginning when we started the series, um, we are talking to people that live and breathe this stuff every single day. And we thought, what better than to hear from people that are in great pressured, stress jobs, having to react, having to think about what's next, how to do it, planning, prep, all of that stuff. And as part of the workshops that we ran with them all, we had some amazing people speak to us about what they do to help to cope with help healthy coping mechanism, to cope. Well, I get my words out. Um, and therefore we wanted to, you know, wanted to get them on our pod. So as you can see, I'm joined by Lee. Hi Lee. Hello. Nice to meet you. Thank you so much for time. So, um, Lee, tell us a little bit about who are you, what do you do, um, and I suppose why is this sort of topic about healthy coping mechanisms super important for you?

The Pressure Of Running Railways

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Well, I am a effectively wise an air traffic controller for trains. Okay. If you were to put it in layman's terms, so I sit in a control centre, I and run I run the railway. It's a high pressure job. It is it's it's you've got to be on the ball, you've got to know what you're doing, and you've got to be confident in what you're doing, and you're expected to make decisions that are um going to be the best thing for the passenger, for the performance of the train service, for the network.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

And the main thing is our main aim is to get everyone home, whether heading home or heading to work, is to get everybody to where they're going to safely as quickly as we can, yeah, and as efficiently as we can, and as safe as we can.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Which is sometimes that means we have to take difficult decisions, and that is cancelling a train, and and it's a horrible thing when you have to say, I'm sorry, that train can't go any further, and you know there's probably a thousand people on there going to be booted off. You think that is a horrible thing to do to someone, because I wouldn't want to be there having that done to me, but we have to do it sometimes. Yeah, so it's a very pressured job, and it's it's like a big pressure cooker waiting to explode. Okay. That's the way to describe it. It's building up and building up and building up, and as you if you have a run of bad days, because the railway does have bad days, sure, things happen. I mean, I literally, as we speak, yesterday I went to London and I got caught in an incident going up towards London and had to wait. It took me two hours to do a 55-minute journey yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Wow, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

And it it and then going home, somebody I met for some dinner, then was going home to the northeast of England.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Um, they we we were sitting having a drink before they went, and they had to their train got cancelled because someone got hit by a train. Oh so then they had to go, believe it or not, they were going from London to Sheffield and they went via Doncaster to get home.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Oh wow, okay. All the way up to Doncaster. All the way up and back again. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

To get home, but it was still quicker, and and I sat because I got home and had a look, it was actually quicker than the train from London.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

So oh really, so yeah, so that person still got home. But I I think as you said, you never know, right, what potentially is going to be coming through to you in any one moment. Um, and being able to just I suppose have the um sense of purpose, mind, knowing what to do, when to do it. I I think that's what plays on. So, how do you keep your mind healthy enough to cope when something happens? Because you never know what it's gonna be, right?

Discovering Community Radio

SPEAKER_00 5:44

No, exactly. And um, it's you need to have a release, you need to have a distraction from it, and you need to have an escape from it. So I I mean, I walk a little bit, I I watch a bit of TV, I'll lose myself in the film preview, normal stuff. But the thing that I did in 2017, 2018, I think, 2018. Yeah, I always wanted to be on the radio as a little boy.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

I was a little boy and I was sitting in my mum's front room, in my parents' front room, playing tapes on a hi-fi and CDs pretending to be a radio DJ and do a little radio show. So there's this thing that happened called community radio.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Which was a thing that was started by Ofcom, who's the regulator.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

And the CMA, who are the community media association, and they started doing this thing called community radio, which was more localized radio for little areas. So it was it's not like uh the whole of a county, right? For a town or a couple of towns.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

But it's it was a good way to get into it. So I walked in, I saw I was walking down in the town where I've lived for the town I've lived for um at least 20 years.

SPEAKER_03 7:03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

I was walking down the town one day and I didn't know we even had one.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

And I walked past and I saw there's a radio station there. Yeah. Is that real? I was like, is that real or is it just some sort of and I had a look in, there was a bloke sitting there.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Oh, okay. Doing his show.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

He was doing the show.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

And so I went home, I didn't go in that day, I went home and listened to it. And I kept listening to the station and thought, this actually sounds alright. There's people doing shows.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Could I have a go?

SPEAKER_03 7:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

So I emailed them, and and that was at that point I had no escape from the pressure of the job. Right. And I needed something, and and literally the door opened for me. And I walked in. Uh uh, you know, I emailed the guy, and and literally he took me in and he he interviewed me, and he I had to do a little audition, and he showed me how to use all the buttons, and before I knew it, I was doing my own show.

Switching Off From Work Thoughts

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Brilliant. What so tell me, what was the difference from having nothing to then finding something that was especially connected to you as a young boy around what you'd always want to do? How has that helped you deal with the pressure and the stress of your everyday?

SPEAKER_00 8:15

I used to come home and think about work. I used to come home and think about work and think about what's happening with this. Did I do that? Didn't I do that? Is he coping with that all right? Has he have I left him in trouble? And now I come home and I think, right, when am I doing my next radio show?

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

And it switches it it's sort of a coping mechanism for switching off, getting away from it. It's like a happy little bubble you go into.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Yeah, yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

And before I knew it, I had my own home studio, and I'm now on this week, I'm recording to show 266 of that programme.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Wow, congratulations!

SPEAKER_00 8:53

So I don't know how many years that is, 266 shows.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

I was gonna say, well, I can say we're probably at 280 episodes, and that's taken us five and a half years. So it's probably about four. Yeah, it's probably around the same time-ish, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

And that and that wasn't show one wasn't show one for them. I was probably on about show thirty for them.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Right, yeah, got you.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

So it's probably more like 290 shows that have actually been done.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

And I've I've baked it into a it's now classed as one of the most professional sounding shows that are on the community stroke local circuit.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Yeah, yeah. Wow. And what's your radio station called?

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Uh I've got I've got well, my show is called Dance Party Weekly, which is a a brand, uh, it's a show name. Yeah. And it's a show that's what we call syndicated. So I thought, how can I get this out? So a few people wrote to me and said, and I had a had a chat with a few people that did it themselves, and and then I started this work stream. I thought, well, this is just like taking me away from my day job. It's really like, well, I'm not having to think about anything.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

And it really is, it really is a relief.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

So something that started out for you as I just need to find something I love and that I want to do, and you just thought, why not? Plus, you know, helping with the pressure not just at work, but then you had to work your way through all of COVID and reinvent, and and this is what we were talking about on the workshop, wasn't it? That our capacity to come back and find another way and make it work for us. But what do you think sits right at the heart of you as to why it is so important for you to be able to have that release with your show, do what you love to do, create you know, a syndicate radio show that people want. What is sits at the heart of that for you?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Because it it releases you from that daily thing, it distracts you from that daily pressure, and it what sits at the heart of it is the passion of doing it, and uh it's it's refocusing you on something and having a hobby like that. Well, and yes, people call me a hobby jock or whatever you want to call me, but it's having that focus, and you can say, right, today I'm going to do this.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Before I had the radio, it was on a sat on a on a day off, right? What am I doing today? Well, I don't know, going down the cafe, have a fry-up, go and get the car washed, get me a haircut, come home and do the garden, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

And that was it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

And that was life, yeah. And it was like it's sort of like my wife calls it the other woman.

unknown 11:31

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

That's what she says. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

She knows where to find you though, doesn't she?

SPEAKER_00 11:36

She knows exactly where I am. I'm in the in my little room upstairs.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Yeah.

Boundaries That Protect Relationships

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Um, we we we've had to sort of manage it. It's it's important when you do a thing like this as well, when you do something outside of your normal work and your normal relationship, that you actually find time to have your normal life as well.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah. So how have you done that? Because I think that's so important because people do throw themselves in and forget that they have others around them. How did you um create that harmony, I suppose?

SPEAKER_00 12:06

At first, not very well, because I threw myself into it. I was out every day, I was I was out at weekends. I mean, my God, I was out doing outside stuff, but we have got a set of uh my better half and I have got a set of ground rules with it. Nice. And so rule number one is I'm not doing it after home time at night. When my better half comes in, yeah, that's it. I'm not doing it after home time. Right, yeah, at the end of the day, put it away, don't do anything with it.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

And when you think about um how that sits at the heart of you, and I love, I love, love, love the fact you said the boundaries you've created as well. Talk to me a little bit more about how they've helped in looking after you, but also the people around you.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Um, so we create the boundaries um around it. That you know, there's there's not set times to do it, but there's it's times when you don't do it, you know, there's times that we are our time. Nice. But we also do stuff together, we make sure we put stuff in to do together.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

We don't um it's not, oh I'm off out down the pub, I'm off to see the football this afternoon, see you on Tuesday, sort of thing. It's more like you know, we'll book some stuff to do together. So we'll book to go to a see a London show, or we'll book to go and have some lunch together, you know, and we'll we'll put a book in in. We won't just say, oh, maybe we'll go for some lunch up the town next week.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

We we actually book a slot at a restaurant to go in and sit down and have a lunch together and a drink. Nice. And um we'll go to to a London show. We'll go like holidays, for instance. Yeah, you know, holidays everybody does that, but we'll we'll make uh a and and the and the one rule is on holiday, we go on holiday, work, and the radio get left at home.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

I I do currently do 35 radio shows a week for various different as well as my two syndicated programmes. I do 30, another 33 individual shows for radio stations.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

And it I used to be when I first did it, when I threw myself into it, I was I will do my radio for next week on the day before we go on holiday. So I'll spend all day and evening sitting there doing radio shows. Instead of passing. So they're all going out next week when I'm not here.

SPEAKER_03 14:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

But now I I'd put a boundary in with the radio people and say, no, that is my week off. I'm not doing anything for you that week.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

You and what you have to remember is a lot of this is on a voluntarily, voluntary basis. Of course, yes. So you have to say to them and you have to set boundaries because people who are running voluntary organisations will um, I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do something voluntarily because it's a really good thing, but they will try and get what they can out of you. So you've got to put your boundaries in, you've got to say no.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

If I'm not available, then that's my time off. I'll see you in a week's time.

Confidence Growth Through A Hobby

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Yeah, no, and I think that's really important because you know, if you're naturally enjoying something you're doing, and I suppose, and you want to give over your time and you know you're helping people and you're getting people through it, you're right. But if you don't look after yourself, you can't keep doing what you're doing. Um so talk to me a bit about Lee. When you're in the workspace and you hear people that haven't got anything outside of their work, how do you, I suppose, encourage them is the word I would use to think about hobbies in particular. How do you how do you start to have a conversation with somebody about the the impact it can have on their mind health? How do you start that? Because there must be people that don't do anything outside of work occasionally.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

I I I mean, I know people where I work who are just workaholics.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

They all literally work every hour that they can. Right. Um, luckily, the industry, I mean, is where we're bound by a lot of fatigue rules and safety rules.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

And so we can't do we can't do over a certain amount of hours.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

So because of that, there are people that will maximize that and work to the limit and then have a day off and then carry on again.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

And I say to them, Well, what do you do out of here then? And they say, Well, well, they don't really. Well, I said, Look at what I've done. I said, I used to be like you.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

And have a look at this. Look at look at what and I show them, I say, This is me. Here's me sitting in a radio station. Oh, do you do the radio? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

You create conversations. I never knew you did that.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

I said, Yeah, have a listen to my radio show. Yeah. Have a listen. So uh moving on from that, now I'm delving into a different part of radio. I'm actually a director of a new radio station. Uh I'm one of four directors of a new radio station that's opening.

unknown 16:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

It's been on air for about two years now, but it's okay. Where we've just made it a community interest company, and me and the managing director, so two of us, did all the work for that to get it through.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

It's been a hard slog and a real learning curve of legalities, working our way through companies house, the government, yeah, everything like that, and becoming a community interest company. Yeah. So then now the next stage is we are going to get a studio, we're going to buy somewhere or we're going to rent somewhere to have a studio.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Well, I'm delving into a different branch of it now. I'm managing a radio station as well as managing my own shows. Yeah, that's right. I'm managing a radio station.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

So who would have thought you would have expanded into that world when you were like that young kid, really? Never. And and I suppose for you, it's that um Yeah, what I suppose it's thinking about that release, you're in a high-pressure job, you do load, you have to react, you hand over to somebody else who comes in um and takes over, then you can go and do what you love doing. So if you were to share something with our listeners about the importance of having a hobby for you, what's the biggest difference it has made for you?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

It's been a it's been a release, it's been something, it's been a like I said earlier, it's been a little happy place to go to.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Not, yeah, you're happy bubble.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

When times are hard, yeah. When you're having a hard day. I mean, you you have hard days doing shift work, you have hard days. Sure. My hardest days, uh, I mean, you have hard days when you do nights. Yeah. Working overnight is hard.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Yeah. I've been doing it since I was 17.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

I'm nearly 47 now.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

And and I've been doing shift work since I was 17, so I'm used to it. But working those night shifts are especially the first one. It's not so bad once you do a few, but the first one is the hardest.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

Yeah, I bet.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

And you can get very, very low with it when you are doing doing it. And especially when you're doing night shifts in the winter months when it's dead like middle of winter.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

It's dark when you get home and you go to bed, it's dark when you get up.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Yeah, I'll bet.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

You don't see you don't see unless you unless you jump out of bed about two hours early, you don't see any daylight.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

And it can be very depressing and very, very demoralising.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

So to then be able to go and do this, to think, oh, actually, I'm gonna sit and talk on the radio for an hour and be happy and talk about I'm a celeb go dating or uh married at first sight, or I'm gonna talk about what Alison Hammond was wearing this morning.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Yeah, love that.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Did you see that comment Richard Maidley made? How close to the mark was that? You know, replay it and that having to do that makes you smile a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

And then take you on to the next next shift, and you can take that nice.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

That's so neat.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

And you've always got a story to tell as well. That's the other thing about being on the radio. You've got a story, you've always got a story to tell someone about something. So you can be talking. I mean, I've interviewed some celebrities now. I've had access to interview celebrities.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Um, Fred Seriex off of Thursday because I've spoken to him. I've interviewed him, he's a really nice guy. Um, I interviewed uh Curiosity Killed the Cat.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

Oh my god, Ben. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Uh I've interviewed Clark Dacolo.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Um, I've spoken to the late Darry OG before he died. Oh, okay. Sonic.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Oh, right. So you've had some real good conversations with people as well, which you wouldn't necessarily have had, would you, had you not pursued your hobby and and built on it.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

I'd have never met them, but I've also interviewed the serious people as well. I've had county councillors on, sure. Mayors on, local councillors, I've had people talk about mental health issues. Yeah. I love I love getting it well because I love doing an interview with the radio, and I love getting in someone who is um not the norm.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yes, yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Not talking about uh I don't know, not talking about bad backs or talking about music, it especially music people are great if you're doing that sort of program to have a music person on. But if you're doing a program where you you're covering a variety of issues, getting someone on to talk about um the stigmas of LGBTQ, yes, talking about um autism. I had an autism uh last week I did one about a local autism support group.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

You get shocked the things they tell you about what happens in their world, and you think, well, if I can help you a little bit here, and so you're helping people as well, if I can help you a little bit, raise awareness by doing this, yeah, let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

Why not? Yeah, exactly. And I think that's what came out, wasn't it? When we were talking about that, the whole feeling of community was something really important. And I what I love was I noticed with quite a few people in the groups that we had was that being able to give something back um and help others, like you've just said, and raise awareness to it, which is you know, one of the things we we were doing was around raising the awareness to being able to look after yourselves well so that you could perform in in the way that you needed to. So that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

I I um I mean I love raising awareness about stuff people don't like talking about as well. But the things that people are, the thing, the no go things, the things that people don't really want to talk about, the things that people might think are a bit funny. I like to get those people on and say. Look, these are the what is it, what is it you're about?

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Tell us about your have a conversation.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

On the autism support lady I had last week. Tell us about what you do in the community. Tell us about your charity.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

People just don't know, do they?

SPEAKER_00 22:11

And they they they you wouldn't believe it, but the amount of autistic children out there that are being called naughty children. Oh gosh, okay. And parents, oh, you've look at them, they're not in control of that child.

A Simple Push To Start

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Right. So and it's that I suppose that's the bit, isn't it? Is how do we keep the awareness going? And and part of what you're doing in relation to coping with yourself and managing well to be healthy, to do your job, is to raise the awareness of how your hobby has made a massive difference to your mind health and your mental health. And thinking about um, you know, how do we keep moving that forward? So if you were to give our listeners a call to action when it comes to hobbies, finding something that's gonna let you escape from the day to day. What would be your call to action? What would be your encouragement?

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Think about what you want to do and go for it. Don't be frightened to go and ask for it.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

If you I mean, I was frightened to ask ask for things. Yeah. I was that person, I didn't want to go into oh god, let me go in there and talk about that. Or I'm I'm oh don't know what they'll say to me if I do that. But after I did the radio thing, I my confidence, my self-confidence is like if it was at 20 that when I first did it, it's now a hundred.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Wow, that's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

I used to I used to be very insular and worry about things.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

I used to get quite low mentally. Right. And it's just it's helped me through that. And it's helped me through some bad times, it's helped me through breaking that confidence barrier and being able to talk to people. Yeah, sure. I can now walk up to anybody and talk to them. I'm not frightened too.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

And you wouldn't have done that necessarily too.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

And it's done that for me. Yeah. So that's the the thing, the thing I'd say is don't be frightened to go and do it. If you want to go and work in a food bank once a week, go and speak to them.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Yeah, do it.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Because they'll they'll happily have you. Oh, definitely. They'll happily have you at a donkey sanctuary or a dog walking place. Somebody I know walks dogs, somebody I know at work volunteers to walk dogs a few times a week at a local sanctuary or local uh rehoming place. And he he loves it because he hasn't got to have the pressure of taking the dog home, but he gets to spend time with a dog.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Absolutely. So it's best of both worlds, isn't it? So I just Lee, I just want to say a huge thank you for giving up your time. I think it's been invaluable to recognise the connection between community helping others, leaving work at work, coming home doing something you really love. So I just want to say a massive thank you for your time, Lee. It's been a real pleasure to speak to you, and um, yeah, your words of wisdom will certainly help support others with you know, getting to think about what copy I can do. So thanks ever so much, Lee.

SPEAKER_03 24:51

It's a pleasure. Thanks very much for having me on.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

You're very welcome. See you later.

Our Takeaways Plus Playlist Tip

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Cheers. What a great reminder about how if you've got a job that things happen that your brain can take home with you, like a job like Lee has, as he described himself as like an air traffic controller for the for the rail industry, so I thought it's a brilliant description. Or if you've got a job like um mine and yours, where to to put the laptop lid down and actually leave work where it is and not sort of carry it around with you. Sometimes what can help with that life work boundary is having a reason, having something else to go to, you know, when if that's not um a caring responsibility or more work that you need to do, a hobby, just to give your free child, your inner child some space to play. I thought that was a brilliant reminder and to prioritize hobbies, um, as not just when you've got spare time, but to use that time wisely.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Yeah, definitely. It was so good, wasn't it? And I think just listening to him, you can feel his passion for it and his energy, and the thing that he'd always wanted to do, he's now able to do as well as, and it's a great balance for him as well, in being able to cope really well. So I really enjoyed it. So um, I thought my call to action was off the back of what he said, would have been um to create your own playlist. Um, we sort of linked it when he's DJing, but I would lift get your own lift me up playlist curated. You can do it so easily now, and whenever you feel like that's your go-to songs or tunes that lift you, then make sure they're accessible for you. So create your own playlist would be my call to action law.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Love that, Debs. And I think linking on with that, my share of the secret would be some of these things are like nostalgic, and it's taking you back to a previous time where maybe life felt a bit easier, you know, depending, you know, younger, less responsibilities. So I think if you've got a friend who at the moment is saying they feel overwhelmed with work, or all they've got is work going on in their lives, and maybe the rest of their life is full of responsibility as well, just nudging that person to um put something in the diary, resurrect a hobby, just something that gives your brain some diversity and variety. And what that then does is it just takes away the impact, those difficult, stressful moments that of the job can have when you're falling asleep that night and your brain's got more than just the job to process. You've got more than just your work life as a way to give you identity and energy. So putting it on the uh putting it on the schedule. But sometimes you need a mate to remind you of that, to empower you and give you permission to do that.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Yeah, definitely. And so far, I've just loved chatting um because you know, this is these are you know, like us, real people living their lives and finding ways and guiding, you know, and showcasing that you can do things that enable you to cope really, really well. Um, and I just loved having the conversation. So I can't wait till our next couple of conversations come along either, Laura.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

So that'd be exciting. I know, Debs. And I think I'm really looking forward to our final one in our four-part focus of healthy coping mechanisms, which is going to take a team approach. So, what does it mean then as a team to be able to together cope with the difficult, stressful, um, potentially traumatic moments, depending on the type of role that your team is working in? What does that what does that mean in terms of as a team being able to cope well together? So, Debs, I really hope that your work in Wake Ahead is full of playlists and not difficult moments.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

It definitely is. I love a playlist, yeah.

Uplift Songs And How To Connect

SPEAKER_01 28:32

I've literally inspire me, Debs. What's a song that at the moment like you would put on after maybe a difficult or tiring day? What would be a bit of music that is lifting you up right now?

SPEAKER_02 28:44

So, right now it's got to be Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars. Just random, I know. I love his most recent one, but that one as well comes on, and every time I hear that over the last couple of weeks, it certainly lifts you. Um, and you can't help but sing along. Not that I can sing, but yeah, that would be mine.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Sigressive coach available for harmonies right now.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Mute, mute, mute quickly, don't listen. But yeah, so that's my one of them, one of them at the moment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Love it. Well, my go-to for the last couple of years is if everyone feeling a little bit wobbly or a bit kind of nervous about a big event about to start, the entry tune I always put on is James Brown the boss. Yes, you do. There's just something about that tune. Um, no matter what age you are, no matter what background you come from, there's something about that tune. It is just a cool tune. And I think I must have linked it to right, here we are. We're in that moment. They're only people, don't be scared of them. Come on, let's have a great working day. So that is my go-to.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

You boss it, Lau. That's it. You boss it. Boss it. Love it. Well, I look forward to next week's conversation as well, Lau. Look off to yourself.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

And and also, Debs, there is something quite abuzz of having James Brown as my warm-up act.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

I love that. Bring it on, Lau. Why not? Why not? Oh my god, the ego. I'm gonna download that track now and put that on my playlist.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Oh, have a fabulous week.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

You too, lovely.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

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