The Speak & Share Pod
Real conversations about mental health, community and life. Hosted by the founders of Speak & Share - Australia's preventative mental health charity. The Speak & Share Poddy dives into the mental health journeys, stories and learnings of our team, community and guests from across Australia. Because a problem shared is a problem halved.
The Speak & Share Pod
The Speak & Share Podcast Introduction
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We are proud to bring you the Speak & Share Podcast, produced by our team, in our HQ, speaking to our community. Speak & Share is a preventative mental health charity dedicated to transforming Australian communities by breaking down stigma and inspiring real, meaningful conversations. Join us as we discuss the important topic of Mental Health with our team, wider community and special guests. The journey starts here & who knows, you might just enjoy the listen!
Hi and welcome to the Speaking Chair podcast. I think this is pretty cool. My mum tells me that it is important to talk about my emotions and how I'm feeling. So I think we all need a speaking chair. Now it's time for this week's episode. See you later.
BenHow good.
NathBig Byron.
BenBig Byron.
NathBehind the mic. Who's Byron, Mace?
SpeakerYeah, so Byron's my nephew, and he's bloody pumped to be part of that intro. He uh what you don't see in that is it's about 35 clips. We went about word for word in that. And uh it's come together well, and he's very, very proud to be part of the Speak and Share podcast intro. And there's uh there's a second part to that, I believe. There is a second part, Benny. Do you want to touch on that?
BenGuitarist, yes. We have our lead facilitator, Lockie Gill, uh, who won the voice a few years ago getting on the guitar with Byron, so it's come together very nicely. It is pretty cool. We actually did it all together, so it's all in-house. Uh, we had Gilly playing the guitar, we had Byron on the mic, and then we just cut it up, put it together. So pretty cool the way that it's uh spun. Hey, we're sitting here, the speak and share podcast. Pretty crazy.
NathYeah, we we spoke about this idea for five years or so, and you know, we've flirted with it here and there, and uh it's taken a bit of time, but yeah, we're finally here. We're in our in our new factory, so it's uh it's all in-house, which we're super proud of. And Macy've done a lot of work to get us here. So great to recognise that and good to be here, hey Benny.
BenYeah, it's gonna be awesome. Get a few guests in, uh get ourselves behind the mics and sharing stories, and hopefully people can jump on and learn something while listening. Yeah, you both touched on it there, but we are very proud to be produced in-house. So we're sitting in our warehouse right now. Uh, we're gonna try and give it a go at cutting it up, but it won't be perfect, that's for sure. But I think it's good to show that side sometimes as well. But uh very proud of the uh the effort of the team to get it to this stage, and as we've said, it's been a bit of a journey. We've been a few years of talking about it, but uh we're pumped that it's uh got to this stage, and hopefully it looks all right, and people can enjoy the listen as we go. Um, just a hello from our team, I suppose, as well.
NathYeah, yeah. No, that's uh well, me, Nathan, for those that don't know. And we um we've obviously had uh a lot of people following us for the last five years, but we've also got lots of new people coming into our community and following us along. So um I'm sure they're gonna be people out there that have heard us on other podcasts and lots of new people, so it's gonna be great to share more of our story as we go, eh, Benny?
BenYeah, I think the cool thing now, it's not just the three of us, we've got a team behind us. Um, I'm sure you'll meet them during the podcast season as well. So got people working away with us. Uh, never would have thought that we'd be in this position now, but it's been a wild journey, so keen to share some of that through the podcast and get our team members on as well. Yeah, and then myself, Mason, they're we're probably the three voices you'll hear the most interviewing, asking questions, speaking to our community, getting on our other team as well. Um, as the boys said, then we've got a great team behind us that we want to try and get on here and chat to and pick their brain and share that with the wider community. Probably get sick of mine, I reckon. Alright, yeah. Mace's got a nice soothing voice and great for a podcast. I don't know how. We just uh adjust the mic volumes as we need. Um, what are we aiming to achieve? I suppose it's there's a lot of podcasts out there. We already know that. Um, it's a very big market, which we think is awesome, and we're now adding to that by creating our own. Why do we want to do this? What are we hoping to achieve? Do we think?
NathYeah, well, my sort of take on it is the last five years we've been very active and proactive with mental health awareness and trying to destigmatize mental health as much as possible and make it a conversation that we can sit down and talk about. And I think moving forward, we sort of want to take the approach of becoming more educational, giving people the resources and the tools that they can use within their lives, especially the younger kids coming through. Um, so whether that's having guests on that people look up to or people can connect with and providing a bit more education. Um, because I I know when I listen to podcasts, I always take one thing away from it and I always try to implement that in my life, and there's just lots to soak in and take take away.
BenYeah, pretty similar to Nate. I think you can learn so much, and I personally do learn so much when you listen to two people sitting down having a conversation, whether it's just a local person in the community or someone that's played sport at an elite level or a psychologist. I find when I personally jump on and listen to a podcast, I always take away one thing. So I'm excited to share that with the people that jump on and listen. Absolutely. I suppose the only other thing I'll add is we love that there's many different pieces of the pie, and a podcast is just another element we can add to speak and share. That you can like our social media, you can access it from anywhere. Uh, and we like to put a positive message out on our socials, so let's do the same by jumping behind the microphone. We have these amazing people in our corner that help us out, so let's get let's spread their message, get them out uh through our podcast, and that way people can be driving home from work early in the morning, going for a walk, and you can tune in. Hopefully, you might get one or two things out of the episodes that we put out as well.
NathYeah, and to to add to that, sorry, probably we want to provide more access to what speak and share does. A lot of people see you know the highlight reel on Instagram, um, but as you said before, that it's a it's a much bigger team than it was five years ago when it was just us three. We've got board members, we've got facilitators, we've got office staff, we've got lots of people on the ground helping us, and a lot goes into getting to this stage to put a podcast out there or to run an event. So we want to showcase what that looks like and bring people along for the journey more with a bit more behind-the-scenes action.
BenI think because we have a unique approach, we are a mental health charity, we play in the preventative space, but we are very unique in terms of other organizations that are out there or other messages that are pushed, so uh, and which we like to be unique. But um, our approach, do we want to touch on a bit of that? Like why we like to do this sort of thing, while we like to spread our message a problem shared, it's a problem halved. Yeah, I think the main one probably for the podcast is going to be the menu setup that we'll go through during the podcast. So during our programs, for people that have done the programs, um, the main activity is a dinner date or a lunch date, and people break off into groups of three or four, provided with prompts that they work through as a group, and we'll do a similar thing through the podcast. I think it's a great way to have a conversation with someone, someone, nothing's forced. Um, and by by providing questions and prompts, the conversations go anywhere, and you learn so much just by putting some questions in front of people. So I think that approach will work really well for the podcast.
NathYeah, to that, we're just like we've always been really big on connection, providing those opportunities for people to connect. Um, and we'll have people on here that we connect with and um and we'll provide activities hopefully for people listening that they can take away and you know try at home or try in the car, wherever that may be, with the people around them. Um yeah, we're we're just we've always just been big on connection and trying new things and um starting the conversation because you never know what that can lead to, eh, Mace?
BenYeah, that's right. I think asking questions is a real relatable approach that you'll always have your own unique answer to a question, and we like to say there is no right or wrong, and there certainly isn't when it comes to your mental health and what works for you. So we thought if we adapt that approach into our podcast, then it might just be a structure that flows and keeps it relatable for our audience that is listening. Um, drawing on our amazing community, we've spoken to them a little bit, but the type of guests we want to have on, the people that we want to bring in. I know for myself, I'm just uh very excited to sit down alongside some of these amazing people that uh we will be able to have on our podcast, but just to sit and listen to the experiences that they've gone through, the things that have shaped who they are as a person. What are you boys looking forward to in uh hearing from our community? Do you think?
NathYeah, just just the stories and the insight and the tips and tricks that you can take away from someone. And you know, it's not always the the person with the high profile figure that that you connect with more, it's maybe the person that you didn't know a little bit about or you've never heard of them before, or you haven't had the chance to to learn about them. Um, I think um yeah, our direction is gonna be just who and who whoever's willing to sit down and and talk and and speak and share, and um what come from's what comes from that, I'm sure we'll find out a lot more, but that's probably the bit that excites us a lot.
BenYeah, probably echo Nath. Um it's gonna be a wide range of guests, local people, people that have a following, and as I said before, I think you can get a key takeaway from any person that you sit down and have a conversation with. So whether it's someone that has an interesting story that not many people have heard of before, or it's an athlete that a lot of people know of, um, hearing what they've been through and how they got through that is something that I'm excited for. Yeah, I think to welcome them into our space as well, as we said at the start, it is set up in our own studio. So uh we are proud of that, and to be bringing the the community into this space and um for us to learn from them too, and then go out and do what we do is a pretty cool thing as well. Excitement, uh, is there other things, whether that's sitting down, talking to each other, uh it's never easy talking with a microphone in the in the face as well, but uh other things that excite us about the pod? No, we love yeah, we're not gonna shy away.
NathLove learning a bit about Anna and getting stuck into each other here and there. So I'm sure we won't um shy away from that at any at any chance.
BenYeah, I think that's probably why people sort of get attracted to the work we're doing at Speak and Share, especially from the from the start through the socials, is we like to have a laugh. I know I like to have a lot of laughs. Um provide a lot of laughs at yourself. Try to provide a lot of laughs. Um so hopefully people can jump on and listen to a serious conversation, but at the same time have a little giggle as well, whether they're driving to work or driving home. Um I'll try and put my 10 cents in and get people laughing where I can. Yeah, um, so I'm keen for that. Yeah, I think we're spot on because I think if you were to look up a mental health podcast now, you might have a very different uh experience to what you might find through the speak and share pod. And that's been our approach as a mental health charity from the start is breaking down these barriers and these walls to talking about our mental health. And uh in doing that, it can be very much fun, engaging, carrying on a little bit as we like to do, and um putting that out there and and showing how we how we like to do it. Uh now just any final comments, thoughts. This will be our introduction of our podcast. So uh if it was a first-time listener jumping on and they jumped onto this intro, what do you want them to hear?
NathNo, I'll probably love to get a bit of feedback from the audience already. Like let us know what you what you want to hear, who you want to hear from, if there's any recommendations, yeah, drop a comment or we'll uh we'll figure out how that all works. But we might make it interactive, we might give away some merch here and there if people are engaging with the content, um, maybe submitting questions, like there's lots lots to play out.
BenYeah, I'd like to be led by the community as we have since the start of speak and share. So um, this is our first time doing it. We've never hosted a podcast, we've been on a few now, but um, yeah, join the journey and and hopefully you can get something out of it. And as Nay said, we'll try and make it as interactive as possible. Yeah, and if you are somebody or you know somebody that might like to come on and join us, uh, especially if you've got some expertise in this field to guide us along, that would be great. But also, we'd just love to have everyday members of the community that have something that you think is worth other people hearing and sharing, and you're open to doing that. Uh, we would love to explore that. So uh very good. We've got a little outro that we're proud of as well. Uh and within that, we also have our great support of Vendigo Bank as well. So it's uh important we recognise them in our introduction too, because this probably doesn't come together without the support of Vendigo Bank Mount Eliza. So um very good that'll do us, I think. Good stuff, mate.
NathSo that's the first time that sounds, yeah. Yeah, right. Happy days.
MasonThanks for listening to today's episode. Speak and share exists today. So when I grow up, I'm surrounded by a community that checks in with each other and tells their mates they love. A problem shared is a problem halved. Yeah, that was better.
SpeakerThe Speak and Share podcast is proudly brought to you by our good friends at Bendigo Bank Mount Elizer. Bendigo Bank as a whole are great supporters of Speak and Share as a community bank. They've shared over one million of their profit with the wider Mount Eliza community. Visit Benigo Bank Online or near you to learn more. We are proud to bring this podcast to you today on the traditional lands of the Bunerong people of the Kulin Nation.