EP - 2 Mental Fitness Under Pressure - Peter Ferreira

Transcript

Alex 0:00

Welcome to MC Hammer Time Beyond the Badge! Real stories, real pressure, real leadership. This is where emotional intelligence hits the frontline and purpose drives everything. Let's dive in!

0:14

G' day legends and welcome back to another episode of Mc Hammer, time Beyond the Badge. Now, listen, I know you've probably got a million things going on, site pressures, deadlines, coffee going cold, but today I want you to stop for a moment and tune in this one's close to my heart, Mental Health's not just something we tick off. It's something we live with lead through and sometimes quietly battle. So I brought the big guns in a good mate of mine, Peter Ferrera, Pete's a top bloke, leadership coach, and someone who's helped me help more people than a sausage sizzle on a Bunnings weekend. He's worked across construction, mining, aviation, you name it. And he's here to talk about what it really means to be mentally fit, not just physically fit, and trust me, he's got some Gold. So grab your coffee or your high vis smoothie and let's have a real honest yarn about mindset leadership and keeping it together when the pressure's on. Mate, welcome to the podcast. For our listeners who don't know you, can you give us a rough 60 second version of who is Peter Ferrera, the bloke I've known for over 15 years. Cool. Thank you, MC Hammer for having me. Basically, I run a leadership consultancy called E-Cue. My background is in behavioral science and for over 25 years I've coached across construction, mining, aviation, and finance. At the core, my work is about people. We think lead and stay resilient under pressure. It's a pretty broad aspect, you and I have had some pretty honest conversations over the years, especially around the mental strain that comes with leadership and the high pressure roles. Can you share what first sparked your interest in mental health and resilience? That's a great question, Michael. Seeing people struggle quietly, and that's not just leaders, people in all walks of life struggling, and I realize that, wellbeing cannot be separated from performance. You can't sustain one without the other and that's one of the things that drew me into this resilient and mental fitness and also in fact, you know, like most people, most of the listeners probably can relate to it either personally, or through their networks. We've all been touched, in some way or another by mental illness, which is pervasive in society. Mm-hmm. Yeah, very true and as we've discussed before, Pete the audiences are far and wide from executives, directors, company owners, right through to Joe Average. I know that, in a personal note myself, I've dealt with, many different, people over the years, even as a police officer in political negotiating people. Do the right thing, or more importantly, even in construction today where, people today there's such a wide audience. So given your work across construction, mining, aviation, and even financial services, what are some of the common patterns you see when it comes to mental health challenges in these environments? There's quite a few in my observation, Michael, but, so top of mind, the long hours. Today's modern business environment is there's more work with less people and less resources. That's just, a norm. Mm-hmm. There's pressure to deliver once again, the economical situations is putting that pressure on, on organizations and thats what I've noticed, like a push through culture where people just ignore their own needs because there's so much to do, so much to hanging off their careers and their work. They actually self-sacrifice to push through. Isolation is another big one. Whether it's A-F-I-F-O or leaders feeling they can't share the load because leadership sometimes can be lonely and sometimes some leaders has got a perception. I'm the leader. I need to be the strength and actually about articulating, not feeling right or I'm fatigued, may be perceived as a sign of weakness by my team or my stakeholders, which is quite erroneous. We'll speak about that a bit later. And then what is interesting, like, so I work across many, many different industries have been sonar for a long time, but a lot of these are very similar and I call'em human, human struggles. People have a tendency to, take such a load on themselves these days. Particularly leaders and as you said, you know, like you, your directors, your managers, and even young people today who want to be leaders, or are currently leaders. It might be for their football club or it might be for somewhere like that. You work closely with leaders and teams. What are some of the early warning signs that someone might be struggling, but not say anything if you know what I mean? No, that's a great question. And as a matter of fact, my leadership programs, and some of the resilience work I've done over the years and even in personal circumstances, it's about looking for the signs and the clue is looking for changes in behavior. For example, like somebody becoming more withdrawn, if it's somebody that you know, it's extroverted or outgoing, if they become withdrawn for a couple of weeks or so, that's usually a cue, something that's not right, people making more mistakes than normal or they just become introverted going very, very quiet. There's other signs include things like irritability, you know, people quickly fly off the handle. Poor sleep and I get that a lot actually. A lot of my clients struggle with sleep. They know they fatigue, they know they stressed, but then they still can't sleep'cause the brain is overactive. But they become disengaged and so forth. So there's, and it's sometimes, it's little things. It's not major things, a lot of itself quiet things. And it why it's so important for you and me and all of us to be aware with people that we, particularly if we know them well, is to pick up those subtle nuances. Yeah, you're so right. I mean, I know in this career as, as a safety manager for a construction company, and in my past as a police officer, and even as a personal trainer, people have your day to day and you see people walk in, particularly if I'm training them and they're walking fairly cheery, nine times outta 10, they're not happy to sort of go through the personal training, but. What they do bring on is usually some happiness and so on and so forth, and how your day is, but you can usually see a bit of a slump in the shoulders, and, you know, they're a bit tired, more tired than what they normally do. So, look, Pete, you've worked with a, with some big crews over the years, directors, general managers, site leaders, frontline workers. How do you tailor a message? So mental health doesn't get seen as a weakness, but as a strength and performance. Actually, that's a great question, Michael. I call it mental fitness, just like training our bodies for strength. We can train our minds for resilience and linking it to performance flips it from a weakness to strength as a matter of fact, particularly, maybe gender specific. But I think for us, blokes always, I certainly grew up in an environment where. Any, anything talking about this, about emotions, how we feel is actually perceived, as a sign of weakness and, and I think, it's about breaking that stigma by actually speaking about things more openly, articulating how we feel. Even saying, I need help. That to me, is a sign of strength and that's the path of building resilience by opening up and beginning. It's, it's a cultural thing too. I know. In the years that I was a young fellow when I was playing football, it was the old harden that up so and so and you know, get up off the ground, you'll be fine. Whereas today I think we're, we are taught more about being able to take on our emotions and take on other people's emotions as well, which leads me into the next question, like you've often talked about mental fitness instead of mental illness, and we all know what the stigma that mental illness had over the years. Can you, explain that shift in mindset? I, I sure can. Or my interpretation of it? So, mental illness is real and it's serious. As a matter of fact, the statistics is not great. Like a quarter of the population at some states, in their lives will suffer from some type of mental unwell, if you like. So it, it is real. So. Mental fitness though, is about prevention. As I said earlier, it's like, it's like the same thing as training a, muscle for strength or endurance. We can train our minds and it's, it's daily practices, to keep your mind strong and it's being proactive, not just reactive, because I'm sure you see it in your work. I see it all the time. My work, because people, coming back to your question earlier, Michael, around the, trends we see with people under pressure, long hours, worried about their jobs. Particularly these days, the financial pressure with high mortgages, whatever people override the signals that thinks it's not right. And then, the problem with that is, and the first time a lot of people realize they've got a problem is when they're not well and then so hopefully out of this podcast will give some ideas and tips to be proactive around it. How can we actually. Build our resilience so that we can actually deal with the, the challenges, stresses of day to day just living. You're so right too, Pete. I mean, look, you look at the fact that, the challenges in our life, if we want to lose weight or we want to get fitter, and I think we've discussed it in the past, that we have a tendency to keep moving on, and then all of a sudden the body itself just goes, you know what? You need to stop. Yes. And either we faint or we collapse or we start to get chest pains and nine times outta 10, it's not necessarily a heart attack that we're having.'cause stress and anxiety can have the similar symptoms. And I know I've gone through it myself over the years when I was a policeman. And I think at the end of the day, we just try as hard as we can to become that better person. I think it's about taking a bit of a time outside of what we're actually doing and getting that mental fitness, and you can do it. By, just being open and transparent with our partners and our friends and our family. So what are some of the simple daily habits or rituals you'd recommend for people to build their mental strength, if you know what I mean? That's a well framed question, Michael, because it is simple daily habits. It's not rocket science or major. Chains. It's, and it's consistency and like I said, I'll use a person example. So, and you know this, like one of my highlights every week is I belong to a. A group that paddles on the Brisbane River every Thursday morning at, 6:00 AM till seven, and it's like a gym worker workout. So any listeners that lives in Brisbane, if you're looking for something to do on the six o'clock on a Thursday morning under the story bridge, but I guess my point, that is one of my habits. Like I don't actually even live in Brisbane, but I make the point of coming in for that. Because there's consistency. I get physical exercise, but I'm also around other people's like-minded people. And it really lifts you on so many levels. But to cut to, to, to, um, to answer that. More to the point. So it's move your body, move your body to whatever capacity you are. Don't go and run marathons if you've never run one. But movement, our bodies are designed for movement in some sort and consistency once again, regular so what I try to do, is most days to do some form of movement. And whether it's walking, whether it's a walk run, whether it's kayaking, digging in a garden, et cetera, et cetera. Or even vicarious exercise, you go to a shopping center rather than get no five heart attacks and stress, no issues. Trying to get the closest parked to the door park way out the back. You get a car park easy and you've gotta walk. Yeah. So you can become creative. So, that is, that is a big one. Some type of movement. It's, it's huge. So, but then there's other ones. It's protect your sleep. And we spoke about it earlier. A lot of people don't get enough sleep. And sleep is, helps us bodies restore and so, it's finding ways and means, to sleep properly and we good time in this podcast, but happy to share some, some techniques with that. And the other big one, Michael, and this is why you and I are great mates for many years now, is stay, stay connected. Absolutely stay connected with other people that you can confide in, that can, you can have a banter with, you can have a laugh. It's not, nothing beats that, eh? Absolutely not. And look, you, I think you're 100% right there. I mean, particularly as you said in relation to gender. Males have a terrible, history of, bottling it all up and I know that, we've both known people that we've lost people and we've, who people have actually got to the point where they just couldn't handle it anymore and they haven't reached out to the people. I think also, the body is amazing thing, particularly the brain. You might go for that walk or you'll train hard, or I'll train somebody and they'll walk in and they'll be sorry that they were there and say, oh, look, I didn't nearly make this session. So you'll put'em through a grueling training session, but then all of a sudden. They'll walk out going, oh my God, I feel so good. And that's that natural endorphin that is built up through them. I'm absolutely shattered. I can't walk. Yes, I'm lucky to put the keys in my car to get it home, but. I feel bloody fantastic after it kicks in. I know a lot of people have a tendency, particularly males, that instead of going home and kicking the dog and grabbing a beer out the fridge, basically go for a bit of a walk or go to the gym or get some form of exercise. It might even be just jumping on a bike in the gym and just getting it for about 10 or 15 minutes. You'll find that usually connects it. Can I, do you mind if I share a bit of a personal please Scenario? Yeah. Because, i'm 60, just about 63, and, and for the last decade, I'm in a habit. It's habit habitual to the point. Now, if I miss out on my exercise, my, some, my mind, my body tells me this is not right. You need to move. But I wasn't always like that, Michael. Particularly in my mid-career and my corporate life, the, the classic and a lot of our listeners probably can relate to this, you're busy. You're busy with long hours with stress. Flying, traveling and then raising families. It's just crazy busy. Now I very quickly made excuses then to not exercise.'Cause I'm busy, right? Which is just at the end of those excuses. But, then I, used to get to a point,'cause I always was interested in sport and stuff like that when I was younger and, and then I get to a stage where I feel so unfit and unhealthy. I'm sick of myself and then I get motivated and then I put in right, and I get myself to a regional level of fitness, feel good, but then I fall off the wagon again. And so peak and trough. And so I wasn't consistent. That, that you are talking about the habits. And then credit to a very dear friend of mine, that I've known also for now almost 30 years. This guy, his brain works if he wakes up and he, he runs his own business, very successful. If, if he opens his eyes, he looks out the window. Ah, nice weather. Yeah. What can I do before work? Can I play nine rounds of golf? Can I go for a run? Can I go for a swim? Et So he, he's just geared around fitness and he also heads up a, he is a president of a surf club here and on the Gold Coast. But anyway, so he, he's kickstarted my habits, my consistency about a decade ago. Wow. And what he did, I went through, I was one of those sort of, know slump, um, areas, if you like, not feeling great. And he said to me, all you have to do, Pete. Do your ups. And I said, what do you mean by ups John? He said, three sets of, and what he started me, three sets of pushups, three sets of sit up and three sets of pullups. If you've got somewhere, somewhere can pull up. So three sets of thing and that's it. He said, just you can do it in your hotel room. If you're traveling, you can do it in your bedroom. It takes you 20 minutes and and then that's literally a decade plus ago that, that kick started my habitual thing.'cause I started doing that. And then from there, you know, you build a little bit of capacity and then you get the hungry to do more and you do more and then, and then it's, and then, and it catches fire, so to speak. And then it's part of the automatic behavior I've got in my mind now that drives me. And, you know, look, I'm sure you'll agree is that. By doing these sort of things on a daily basis, you then your body gets fitter and then what comes The best part of that is your mind. You know, you, you feel like you're organized. You feel better in yourself I know many people that come to me as a personal trainer and they say, what, do, what do I need to change? And I say, to lose weight or, or to get fitter. It's about lifestyle changes. People say to me, what can I eat? What can't I eat? You can eat whatever you like providing. You do it in moderation and exercise is the same. And I'm sure that with your mental fitness, it's one of those things where I know my mother-in-law, she's a mad Sudoku. Yes. And so she finds that, she can't get around as well as she can when you're eighties now. But she says, my mind is, is kept active by doing crossword puzzles and sudoko and those sort of things. And she still walks with a group of ladies. But by the same token, I think it's that. It's, it's that mental fitness that gets us through that during the course of the day by just doing a little bit of exercise. If I may step just back, that's why for me, that kayaking, session every week, um, is so powerful. One, I like being on a water, but it gives me the physicality'cause it's like a workout. It's not a leisure paddle. We do distance, we do speed, we do different things, whatever. But then the best bit after we finish our, workout on the, on the couch and water. We then stretch proper stretching, and then we go to a local coffee shop and then we banter with, with some like-minded people. There's male females, people of different age brackets there and solve all the problems of the world as we do. But then by eight o'clock we are ready for the day. And you, endorphins, you're right, mentally, you can take on any and everything, um, because of that experience, physicality and social connection, which are too. So it's just whatever the listeners are listening for. What's your thing? Um, not everything, every thing is kayaking, but find something. That keeps you moving. And if you can combine it with some like-minded people, there's a winning recipe. It does it because it actually, in some cases, I know, uh, in my clients, and I'm sure you've had it with some of yours as well, is that. Their, partners will come back to me and say, oh my God, I dunno what you've done, but he or she is like an energized battery. Yes. They come home after the, you've absolutely worn them out, but they're off doing things and off doing that and for me personally, I train early in the morning as much as I possibly can because I find that they kickstart me for the rest of the day. So how can companies, whether it's remote mining operation, embed mental health into our everyday safety and leadership conversations? Oh, right another great question there. Normalize it. Normalize it in every everyday chats. Um, so leaders by even sharing their own experiences. That's a other thing I'm optimistic about'cause I'm seeing more and more senior, senior people and leaders articulating, as a matter of fact the CEO, of a, of a large organization that I've been doing some work with. I, invited him, to come and speak to my leadership group. So after dinner, John asked for dinner after dinner, and then very openly he shared with the group, he's, suffering from a, from a mental illness, but, and he's taking medication for that. And he actually took out the bottle of medication over his pocket. Oh, wow. And he shared it with, and he said, yeah, like that. Combined with, he changed his lifestyle around more fitness and social connection, but he also prescribed medi medication and I, I was looking at the audience and Wow. Like he normalized it. Like it's a senior high functioning individual, but he, he showed some vulnerability and I think that's a big step, that companies can do embedded. But then it's also like with, you obviously do Michael as a professional, but add it into the safety check-ins and make support visible. I, I know some of my clients, what they do as part of their. Discipline before every meeting starts. Doesn't matter what the meeting is, even if I've got a client supplier meeting with them, or if I'm attending a, operational meeting or strategic, they start with, a, a haystack moment or a values moment, a health safety environment, community moment where they then give, um, an opportunity for somebody in the room or audience just to share something around mental wellbeing. Or safety that just brings a highlight for people. So, so there's a lot of things organizations can do to normalize it, but also to build it into the discipline by regularly having the discussions and the, the moments of this and, and you're absolutely right too because I mean, the normality in relation to people being a lot more open these days. I credit to the, to the gentleman that, participated and, showed the medication that he was on because, that takes a lot of guts to be able to do that because I think as we spoke before, people have a tendency to, particularly males hide those sort of things because they're, they're fearful of what other people will say about them. But, I think if they're, if they're more open and transparent, not just with themself, but with. Everybody around them, people will have that u utmost respect. And apart from that, they can also reflect, people, I mean, I've, I've had audiences in front of me where people have basically asked questions or I might say something to them, and it's not until after the meeting and then you walk outta the room and someone will come up to me and say, you know what? I can relate to what you just said because I've been like that and I say, look, don't be frightened to talk about it. You know, it's one of those things that people need to profess particularly, guys and girls. Yes. Actually my, I might just quickly land the point. If you don't mind please about that. So, because I'm passionate about this, I'm a commercial person. I run a commercial business, I guess, but, um, I, for, for, for a decade or so, I did voluntary work with the Black Dog Institute. Right? Amazing organization. Non-for-profit, uh, medical research organization, um, based in Sydney. And their work is all around mental illness, particularly mood disorders, things like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and suicide prevention. And, and what's amazing about that, and they do a lot of work combined with the, um, which most people probably know beyond blue. A lot of their material. So they've got a team of researchers, um, in Sydney and they quickly translate their research into practical, um, sort of applic application for people. And, um, so. One, one of the, one of the things that they're big about is trying to break down stigma. Yes. Around this. And particularly, no one's gonna gender thing as blokes not talking about it. It's that it's actually, it's a sign of strength and ability to, to talk about it openly. It's so true. I remember, you know, when I was a policeman, uh, I had the opportunity probably, maybe because I had the gift of the gab at the time, which may not have gone down the good way, but they, uh, they gave me the opportunity to become a police negotiator and I was able to talk to people about. You know what problems that a male or a female, if they're in a situation where they're holding a gun against somebody or they're about to jump off a bridge, or they're about to do something that they should severely may have repercussions, and it was once they got talking and me more about listening to what they had to say, I think that really opened them up. And it's surprising the amount of people over the years that I was lucky enough to be able to talk off that bridge or get them to put down the knife of the gun. That they come back to me years later or come back to the system later and say, you know what, that changed my life. The fact that someone actually listened to what I was trying to say, actually, I, like, I remember I did a, one of the, there's four or five different presentations I did for the Black Dog Institute and it's basically about community awareness, like businesses, schools, et cetera, et cetera. And one of the, um, sessions I ran for them was called Navigating, navigating Teenage Depression. Wow. And I vividly remember I was, uh, um, doing this presentation at the, at the school and um, after hours. So it was basically mostly the parents were there, but it's talking about no recognizing the symptoms of mental illness. Amongst the teenagers and all these people that's got kids in school and, and I listed all the symptoms and then we talked about where not to seek help for them and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But when, when it was finished, I had a, I had a queue of people wanting to further talk to me about it. Wow. About either the children, uh, blah, blah, blah. But one of the dads, he had the suit on, obviously looked professional. He says to me, mate, you know, those, all those symptoms you articulated in teenage depression. I reckon I've got most of'em myself. Gosh. So it actually even got him brought to the forefront in his mind, and then I was able to point him in the right direction, which we'll talk in a minute as well. Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, look, I remember, uh, I was, I was very fortunate, over the years when I was in homicide that, I was a member of the victims of homicide and I had the opportunity of working alongside some people who may not remember this, the Anita Coby. Her parents and, and some of the other parents who had lost their young ones and through, vicious murders. I remember they actually, used to come and speak to, large groups of young police. It was all about getting them ready for some of the outside world because some of the young police officers that were in the, room had never been subjected to the, they had fairly, sheltered upbringings. And it wasn't until that case and then. The amount of interest that it did and most of the young people, particularly the young police, when I used to organize these people to come and speak for us, they would race up and they'd want to talk to them and say, so, so how did you overcome that? And what makes you so strong? And majority of the time, it was a case of most people to, and said, because I openly speak about, this is what makes me strong. By, by speaking about it, I may add to remember your question earlier was about. The patterns across industries and one of us long hours and another example comes to my mind where I actually helped somebody that was suicidal, if I can know and trigger warning hopefully for people. But this, this particular person was referred to me by his company, tried the employee assistance program. Didn't quite work. And he was in a bad way. So when I, caught up with him, he's 41. He's got, he's a site manager in the construction industry and, three, three primary school age children, and he was in a bad way, like no dark thoughts and whatever, right? So anyway, I finding out the circumstances, he hasn't taken a day off in nine months on that project. And it was a project that was not going well. So it's a lot of stress, a lot of pressure. So I said to him, nine months. No, no break, no. Even a most resilient person on the planet will be affected by that. So why is that the case? And then this answer to me was, the issue was him, because like his manager that contacted me about him and being concerned about him, told me about the hours he's working, told him that there's no expectation from the business for him to work those hours. So then when I asked him why he's, working those hours, he told me there's two reasons. One because the project is not doing well. He, felt like if he's not there, he's letting the crew down and the second reason was that he's also got very high standards. There's a bit of a personality connection here that his mindset was, if I'm not there, then the, the, the works are gonna be done to the standard required. Right and I said to him, both those. Thoughts are self-imposed limitations on yourself. Mm-hmm. Your manager, your boss has told me he doesn't expect you to work that way. So, so for him that poss a bit of a, a catalyst opening his mind that he was actually his own decisions he was making or taking towards that project. Was creating the Holy Dug himself in and then we could do work with him, getting himself out for that and, and I said that to all my clients, Michael, and I'm sure you'd be the same. Mm-hmm. It doesn't matter how good organization you work for, how well you're paid, how good your career is, it's not, no organization is worth your mental and physical and family wellbeing. No organization. And I'm prepared to be challenged on that. No, you're absolutely right. I think, companies that I've been involved with over the years, they try to let people know that, like they don't expect you to work the long hours and they, you know, they, they expect their pound of flesh like every company does. If you can't get done in the hours that you're supposed to be done, you, need to address what you may not be doing and that's not necessarily about the work you're doing, it's about managing your time and managing the work that you're doing. Or speak up and say, look, I think I'm under the pump at the moment. Can I get someone just to gimme a hand? It doesn't make you look any weaker, I don't think, as far as that's concerned. So, you know, like if someone's listening at the moment, and there will be, I know this is gonna resonate with a lot of people, and if someone's listening and is struggling right now, whether it's burnout or anxiety, or feeling like they're. Not coping or they're not worth, what's one piece of advice you would want them to hear? My main piece of advice is don't go with it alone. Don't do it alone. Reach out, or like, even just to start the conversation. Amen. And struggling doesn't mean failing now. We all do. It means you're human. So the first step is powerful, but I also like, it's, it's circumstantial. So, and I've done it many times over the years too. If people are not feeling well, I would, I, I highly recommend, and I've done it with people actually in some of my workshops, over the past, is going make an appointment with your gp, make an appointment, and, book a long appointment. Yep. When you make an appointment, because if you don't, they'll quickly process If you, maybe a prescription, which could not be maybe the best diagnosis, but if you, if you, when you make the appointment, say, I need a long appointment. Because mental, mental illness and mental un wellbeing is complex. Yeah. So you, you need time to articulate that properly to the medical, um, person, like a doctor. And they said, first stop, go to a doctor.'cause then he or she can then make a. More, better diagnosis and then then potentially refer you onto relevant professional people that can help you. Yeah. And it's, it's taking that first step, isn't it? It's, it's like, I liken it too many years ago when I was, a young boy and I was, uh, all my mates were jumping off the top board, the top dining diving board, and oh, I was, I was, I was petrified, but I didn't want them to see, and. I sort of hesitated and I made up all these excuses. Oh, my foot's not real good. I can't climb the ladder and it took months. And then eventually when I jumped, I honestly, jumped thousands of times after that and it was just making that initial jump into that water. It's like with just life itself, if we can make that initial step, particularly in our mental health, because look, there's so many people out there that want to help. It a GP or just talking to your mate, something along those lines. It's just having that, you and I, know we advocate beyond blue and black dog and are you okay days? But the first thing is to learn to your mate and say, mate, how you going? Are you, are you okay? And then the next thing is whether they say, yeah mate, I'm fine. But say, yeah, are you really okay? And then sometimes they might come back and they go. You know what? I'm just doing it a bit tough at the moment, the kids are sick or this is that, and so on and so forth. So I think, you're right. We, we've really gotta reach out and take that first step into that cool water. If I may just add as sort of like a new Australian. Uplifting country. Oh my gosh. Long time. But, but no, we, we, we live in one of the best countries on the planet, Michael, when it comes to the medical support we can get here. Yes. The, the, they are there. It's sometimes it's not straightforward to find the right, skill or person you click with, with psychologist or psychiatrist or even a gp. But my, my advice to any of the listeners, if you and your family members, whoever is dealing with something. Be persistent. Shop around, talk to different people because they are out there and from my own personal experience, we've got some of the best practitioners in the planet in this country. Yeah. And I think also too, I liken to the recent events, which has occurred, in relation to the, final as far as the Broncos and Penrith are concerned. And people often say to me, you know, so how do you think and who do you think, why did they win? For me, it's, it's one word and I, and look, I'm no psychologist. I've just years of experience in my sixties at the moment. But it's about the want. And I think if you want to get better and you want to be able to put yourself on a better, pathway with your mental fitness, you've gotta be able to want to do what you need to do. And if it's not just for yourself, it's for your family, your friends, your mates, because. Look, we've both seen some tragic situations where people have gone downhill fast and you wanted them to sort of get, to get to the, the amber light before they get to the red light. Yes, mate. You just, he that also on the head. Why I'm passionate about this because my, my view of philosophy of life is like every human being. Deserves to live a great life. Absolutely. Not just to exist. Yep. But to to live to the best version of himself. Yeah and we're all human. We all struggle from time to time. Yeah. We all need help from time to time. So I operate by a very simple self-motivation little motto. It's actually a footing of my email signature and it's FSSB 25. Wow. And FSSB is my acronym for. Fitter, stronger, sharper, and better than I was yesterday. Wow. And then, and next year it'll be FSSB 26, and next year it'll be 27. But like, that's my, my mindset is to try to improve myself incrementally bit by bit, mentally, physically, every day a little bit better than yesterday. It's a powerful, simple thing that keeps me on track. Yeah. Particularly when I'm sort of. Not feeling too great or, but angry with the world. Yep. FSSB. Well, there's your next tattoo, Pete. That's boob. Can you do it? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Look, Pete, if you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice of mental health over the last 20 years, 25 years you've been doing this, what would it be? Slow down. Slow down. You don't need to carry it all by yourself. And the second one is as well. Yeah. That's, and that, that's so poignant. I mean, you know, everything we've just talked about, you've coached thousands of people who gives you hope when it comes to, to wear mental fitness and mental health in the industry is heading. What sort of hope does that give you? Well, I'm optimistic and, um, and also I've seen the conversation change. Like you and I wouldn't have had this conversation say 15, 20 years ago. Not at all. These things did not exist. There's so much good research and good work going on in Australian society, if you like, around this. Mm-hmm. I'm seeing it, also more pervasive for organizations like the GBDs and all quality companies provide, you know, safe work practices, try to build cultures where people, where they're aware of the pressures on people provide the support through employer assistance programs and other things they're doing. Also the younger generation, I think they. They're also growing up, a bit more educated around some, their wellbeing and better lifestyle choices and holistic living. So yeah, I'm very optimistic and certainly some of the young people, well, they're all young. I'm the old one on the block, but I, I'm really optimistic there's some good brains coming through that's looking at this problem and, it, it'll never go away, but we'll get better at it. I think it's also, congratulating to people like yourself and people who are out there creating these processes. I know. When I first came into the fitness industry, it was, uh, all about hard hats and put your PPE on and don't do this and don't do that, and so on and so forth. But I think particularly in the last probably 10 years, the transition of psychological, hazards in the, industries, not just in construction, but just every industry. I think it's now come to the forefront that. People aren't weaker, but what they are is that they do have problems and those problems could be financial, they could be emotional, they could be relationship. And I think we've really gotta take into the process these days that we've gotta be factored into our risk assessments and so on and so forth. Particularly with young people coming through these days, it doesn't make them any softer or weaker, but what it does make them is that. We've gotta be able to manage their emotions as well. I just wanted to raise a point, you've, and this was a, this is a throwing question, Pete, you've created a book called The Pirate Consultant, with a good friend of yours, Clinton Hoffman. And you've been kind enough to give me a copy and sign it and I'm, I'm very humble and overwhelmed the fact that you've done this. Can you just give us a bit of a 60 second on this beautiful book that you've created, which I'm sure will be on the shelf soon. Alright. Right. Well actually, um, I'll give all credit to my mate Clint. He does what I do, management consultants own business. When I told him it's my 25th year anniversary of my business, he initiated this whole project and what the book is all about. It's a, it's a satire. On my philosophy in life, because I'm a professional person. I work in a corporate sector with senior executives and people all over Australia and sometimes internationally, but as part of my resilience process, I don't take myself to serious. So my alter ego is I'm a corporate pirate. Perfect. And, um, and so I come in, but, but, hopefully I bring more positiveness and the negative for part. So that's what the book is all about. It's just a satire about my methodologies, my approach to life, and a lighthearted sort of look at, at what I do. And I've done for the last 25 years. I thank, thank my friend Clinton for, for the, the beautiful gift he's given me. It's a fabulous, what I've just looked at just briefly and it, it's really one of those easy reads where you can just open up the page and I know. Personally as a, as a mate and a friend and, as an advocate of yourself, I think at the end of the day, it's one of those things that everybody can resonate with. People will really identify certain things in there, to, to coin a phrase, which I opened up before, it says here. You know, I carried that flag with pride, but not as a brand, but as a beacon. I reminded that leadership doesn't need to be allowed to be powerful. It just needs to be real. And I think that is a fantastic line and that's just one sort of line in that beautiful book. So, Pete, the final question, mate. Where can people find you if they want to learn more about what you do or even just have a coffee and a chat? The best place to find me is probably on LinkedIn. Cool. Peter Ferreira connect with me there and I'm always up for a coffee and a chat. Oh mate. Thanks again always a pleasure. For those listening. If this chat struck a chord or made you think differently, share it with someone. Let's keep normalizing these conversations. So, to catch up with you next time on Hammer time Beyond the badge. Stay safe, stay curious, and stay mental health. Cheers.

Alex 38:22

What a powerful conversation. Peter Ferreira reminded us today that mental fitness isn't just something you work on when life gets heavy it's something you build every day. Through self-awareness, discipline, perspective… and the courage to challenge your own thinking. And that's the beauty of this journey we're all on the more you understand yourself… the stronger you become for others. Next week, we take this a step further. We go beyond mental fitness… into Emotional Intelligence Fitness. What it looks like on the frontline. How it shapes leaders. And how it helps us stay steady when life hits hard. I sit down with Jason'Frosty' Frost a man who leads with heart, calmness, loyalty, and resilience. His story will hit home for a lot of people… and it's one you won't want to miss. You've been listening to MC Hammer Time Beyond the Badge. If today's episode gave you something, share it with someone who might need it. Until next time stay safe, stay sharp, and stay purpose-driven. Peace.