Hamish McLachlan on the Last Three Percent
Aug 03, 2026Episode 43 · Sports broadcasting, presence and preparation · 68 min
With Layne Beachley AO & Tess Brouwer
About this episode
For more than 20 years Hamish McLachlan has held the microphone while other people had their biggest moments, sitting a few feet from Olympic champions, AFL greats, prime ministers and Kobe Bryant. This week Layne and Tess flip the format, taking Hamish through what he calls his own life MBA: the lessons picked up over two decades of watching greatness up close.
It opens with a voice note from his mother introducing her own son, and closes with Hamish reading a message back to her, live. In between: Kobe Bryant’s last three percent, Dennis Cometti’s presence ritual, and the sixteen months he took his family travelling instead of chasing the next broadcast.
Key takeaways
- The last three percent. Kobe Bryant chose his own interviewer from four audition tapes because he refused to leave anything to chance.
- Good units, bad units. The habit Hamish uses with his own kids to spend each day well, borrowed from an NRL coach.
- Presence has a ritual. Dennis Cometti’s post-broadcast scone and tea debrief turned six minutes into a masterclass in being present.
- Deal friend or real friend. A simple test his ten-year-old now runs on every phone call that interrupts family time.
- Sixteen months, not sixteen years. Losing the Olympics broadcasting gig became a family trip around the world instead.
Chapters
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Transcript
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0:02Cold open: meeting the student, not the broadcaster▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (0:02):
You're tuning into a wake-up call which is your weekly dose of purpose packed with science-backed tools to beat burnout and boost happiness hosted by us Test Brower and seven-time world champion Lane Beechley. We're the founders of awake academy
This podcast mixes raw life lessons, expert wisdom and practical tips to help you stop sleepwalking through life and Start living it on your terms. You ready to wake up and thrive? Let's go Season three is proudly brought to you by AIA
A leading life, health and wellbeing insurer supporting healthier, longer, better lives. Protect what matters most and AIA will help you to do it for life.
0:42The Life MBA: interviewing the interviewer▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (0:42):
Welcome back a dream team. Today's guest has had one of the best seats in the world. For more than 20 years, Hamish McLachlan has sat just a few feet away from world champions,
gold medalists, premiership heroes, business leaders and some of the most remarkable people on this planet. And Bruce McIvani. Yeah, Bruce.
After thousands of conversations with extraordinary people, you begin to notice patterns. You learn what greatest looks like before the cameras even arrive. You discover what pressure really feels like.
You see the difference between confidence, ego, resilience, toughness, masks, success, and fulfillment. We call that a life MBA. Not one earned through lecture and theaters, but through a lifetime of learning from extraordinary
people willing to share their extraordinary and normal moments. So today, we're not interviewing the broadcaster. We're interviewing the student.
And Hamish, we want to take you to life MBA school through your eyes.
1:46A voice note from Hamish's mum, Sylvia▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (1:46):
So to kick us off, I ask the person who knows you the longest to give you the real introduction of who is Hamish McLaughlin. So I'm going to give you this iPad now. And this is from your mum.
I'm getting emotional already before. Introducing this very special person, my second son. He's a big deal for me. I do it with great joy and pride. Life doesn't come with a manual, it comes with a mother. And if it depends how you've
been dealt with this card, but you've got to make the best of it. I have been best several times over as a mother. They all have a great love and respect for each other, to which I think is one of my greatest achievements. As a little boy, I think of him as being a little
shy, loving, athletic, competitive and superstitious. When we were going to competitions, here and I used to lift out feet up over any railway line and we both still do it to this day. Now the shine is as gone and I'm so proud to see a very polished product in front of
the cameras. People here are confident, amusing, sympathetic men. I see all of that and the same old sharp wit outrage is often.
me laugh till I cry. And a gentleness that has gone from the boy through to the man. I often feel in danger of becoming a bit blas-aid, getting so used to how wonderful you are my darling boy. I love you. Oh wow. You're supposed to cry? Bravo mum. Yeah she's good mum. She's an
Incredible woman. Yeah. Very emotional woman but she so if you said to me you're a product of Angus and Sylvia Angus was loyalty, integrity, hard work, it's light going work dark come in. If you say you're going to do something do it, Mum was a much softer version. He was very hard. We
used to call him singlet because he was always on her back and Mum would soften things up a bit. So what did you call her? Always mum or Silvia, her name Silvia.
And it was funny, like no one else called them mum by the first name, but we'd always say Silvia and it was sort of how it was.
And when we were growing up, she was such a hard-working woman. When her about five or six would be, she'd go and load the Udap and go to the end of the drive
and feed the horse on the other side of the road. I look back at that now. Gillen was seven, I was five.
Banjo would have been too. My mum, that was quite a big thing to do. He said, we...
Did you like your adults and you behave like your adults and we trusted you? Like my kids come like the bed. Yeah, so You know she's a great woman. I say about you as a father. That's what I said to the other I said
I think I've failed on the basis that she said they haven't no yet. You're a very good Uh, you're very good father But you you parent differently. I remember I said to dad years ago. I said
Why didn't you tell us that you loved us? He said you knew you didn't you? It's like well, I assumed But like I tell my kids that every day and he said I wish I'd done more of it and now
we speak and he does. He'll finish the call with a love you. When we were growing up he was like Clint Eastwood from dirty Harry.
I mean he's softened to sort of Clint Eastwood from bridges of Madison County. Did his dad ever tell him that he loved it? Great question, Lane.
So no, is the answer and he was a product of that. And because we were a product of mum and she would tell us all the time, it was natural for us till our children. So you talk about learning from people and doing life MBA. The hard work
and the climb to the top of the mountain don't hope you're full there from dad and from mum know the name of the butcher and the butcher's dog as much as you know, those that are higher positioned in like everyone is the same and that's how we've always been brought
up and she's been incredible on that front. Wherever mum goes, hi, self. Wherever you are, I remember she used to ride in the Adelaide show.
You could never get a car park, but for 35 years, there was an old lady who she just knocked on the door of one day. She said, if I give you $10 every day that I park here, does that help you?
Is that gonna be amazing? In the end, she used to park on Have a Cup of Tea, then go to the show. And this woman became a part of our life, you know, just because that's how mum always
was. So hearing that of your mum and I was fortunate enough to experience the great skills. What an incredible woman. And you shared with me that she helped form your EQ.
6:41What Sylvia taught him: there is no hierarchy▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (6:41):
Yeah. And you're reading people. What has she taught you about being in the moment with someone and reading them and bringing the best out in them? I think there's probably an assumption that
people are great, really good. And there's always good in them if you can, you know, allow that to shine. The one thing I think that she was incredibly clear on is that there is no hierarchy. And if you can see life like that, then everyone is a part of your sort of your clan.
And I think I would hope that that's how I am now. So we have an incredibly close family, three brothers, sisters and law, mom and dad separated but still very tight. And then we've got the 10 grandchildren. And I would hope that we all look at the world
in a way where it's absolute equality because of mum to a certain extent. And my 14-year-old daughter asked me maybe six or seven years ago, I don't understand how racism started. It's like, that's an interesting question. What do you mean?
choose well I understand what it is but I don't understand how it started it's a good question it's a great it's a majority taking advantage of the minority in essence choose but it was such an arbitrary thing skin color could have been hair could have been eye color
could have been height it could have been any of that it was such a nice innocent way of thinking and I just hope, I hope that my kids view of the world as like that ongoing. Like, how does that happen?
And mum was always a bit like that. If it's wrong, make sure you let people know it's wrong. Yeah, or question way it is so.
If you see something going on that's not right, you make sure that you step in and say what you feel. In the boarding house, if a kid's being bullied, or if you can see someone is in the line
and can't pay for something, you pay for it. And she's always been as simple as that for her. And dad was incredible, God, her as well.
But she was always, she simplified everything. Everyone was always equal. And I think she was a big believer in treat people as you would like to be treated, have
great manners, be respectful, the rest will take care of itself. Beautiful. Beautiful values to live by.
Yeah. And I hope that you pass them on down. I started watching a series called The Medicine,
which has got Michelle Farfer and to another Tyler Sherrod. and you know, you're right, Yellowstone and Dutton Ranch. And it was husband and wife living in New York.
The husband always found time to go and fish in these incredible mountains. And his happiest place would be in a very simple hut. He dies.
She's never been there. She goes and she looks around and all of her children in New Yorkers. They say, let's go to here.
Let's go. Let's sell this place and let's go. She says, no, no, no.
I now see what he sees. And he saw the simplicity is where the beauty is. Yeah, we're born with nothing.
We die with nothing. It's the experiences you have in between. Yeah.
And the memories that you create. Yeah. And today, this hour will be fabulous.
Meet someone you, reacquaint with someone old. 10:05 The hours become great.
The days become great. As opposed to, if this happens, then I'll be happy. It's like, just be happy.
I have T.O.s, comfy chair, great people. And a beautiful message from your mother. And Tiri from mother.
And I won't take it to part that you said I'm old. Oh, thanks. Oh, thanks.
Hey, Mish, you have told your story so many beautifully times on the resilience project and with Trent Conchin. And so if you want to know the background to aim,
I highly encourage you to listen to those interviews. but we're fascinated with wake-up calls. And the thing that I feel you see the most
is a lot of people sitting in front of you with different wake-up calls. So as an observational humanity
and of the people that you've interviewed, whether that's greatness or the greatness in your mum, what do you notice about people with wake-up calls?
11:04What every wake-up call has in common▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (11:04):
There's probably a couple of observations. One is it's not until there's a catastrophe
close to a catastrophe that some people see there's a different way of living. We all get so busy striving for A's at school or trying to win the sports championships that they become the chase and the journey as opposed to, you know, an Ash Party is very
good at this and the lane knows this well, but it's like, if I'll win, I'm not a better person if I lose, I'm not less. I think most of my early days were trying to prove probably to other people as opposed
to myself what I could do. My wake up calls probably came when I realised that whether you're a seven time world surfing champion or not, it's lane beachley that people want to know, not the surfer.
And I think if you went back and said, did you win the school athletics championship in your seven, I can four of us would know that I did. The other nine billion people, but at the time it was so important.
And I thought probably if I won it, then dad would be proud of me. So I think the wake up call for me early was the human is what people are keen, the human is what people are keen to get to know not the performer.
And the wake up calls separate to that, you were not here for long. So what do I want to do for me personally? As opposed, what do I want to do for everyone else?
And when my eldest daughter was born, long program with IVF, at eight months she started having seizures and we were told that she was a 10% chance of dying in hospital, 80% brain damage for life, 10% getting through.
She got through, but it was then that you realized, gee, this is fragile, this journey. An agacy talks about, tomorrow is not guaranteed. So many of us assume it is and for a lot of us it is until it's not.
13:04The last three percent: the habit behind every high performer▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (13:04):
You talk about the high performers, the co-bees and the bruises and the lanes and I think there is a innate desire to perform.
And there is a genetic gift in there somewhere. But the common denominator for me is they all realise without the work and the obsession you won't get to where you want to go.
And the sort of the, whether that's from a lost somewhere or an observance of someone else who they want to be. The one common denominator of all of those guys and women that have achieved incredible things, the self-police and the nature and the nurture and the desire to do more than
anyone else. Like Kobe, when I spent some time with him, he did two hours before breakfast every day. Then he would take his kids to school, then he would get to Lakers training an hour earlier because he was so scared that he wasn't going to be all he could be.
and he thought that the thing that would let him down was not doing enough. So it's always two more. And if you look at so many people, they're disappointed with their outcome. But then if you ask them, did you actually, you could have almost always answered his no?
Yeah. Because your character is defined by who you are when no one's watching. So if you think about the co-bees and the lanes and all the things, all the little things that we did when the cameras weren't on, where the peers were still asleep,
or the sacrifices, the compromises, which essentially were choices at that moment in time. That's what gave us the distinct advantage.
So what are the little things that you do? What are your competitive advantages that you know help you stay at the top of your game
and perform to your highest potential?
14:44What his kids see when the cameras aren't on▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (14:44):
What's the character that we don't know that makes you who you are,
especially when the cameras aren't on? It's funny you say that now two days ago, I'm standing next to one of my daughters,
top of the mountain, she's about to race. And she sort of got a lancess and I said, have you done the work?
He said, yep. I said, you're the quickest on this mountain. By a long way, it's going into it.
Went in one and we're talking about it that night. And Lex, the boy who'd won the school cross country and then went to the next round and got through
to the third round. And he said, how do you think I'll go? I said honestly, and he said, yeah, I said,
I don't think you've done the work. And it was a bit of a high chance, but it was the truth.
It was a boarding schoolboy answer. It was a boarding schoolboy answer. But to your point on that,
and when you're asking that question lane, it was work but also marriage, that I was thinking about,
what is it that you do to make sure that? And Gillon, the older brother and I, I have this sort of view that the last 3%
is the really important bit in anything, becoming the seven time, becoming the best podcast, becoming a good commentator, but the last three percent
is often left undone.
16:02Good units, bad units: Billy Slater's rule▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (16:02):
So you take that to marriage, and I know that so far it's me to walk into the house
and not be on the phone. So where do you put it? I know the kids don't want me on the phone.
So, has that been spoken or expressed to you, or is it just an understanding? I want you to be present with me.
Yeah, it's always present, isn't it? I want you to look me in the eyes and listen to what I say, and then let's have these.
When you want to make calls, go make the calls, when you're with me, don't try to do both. And there are these little things like Lex, the boy, the 10 year old, the joy of being with him one on one, he is absolutely present
with you. And somebody said to me, the greatest respect you can give anyone is your presence. And I found myself the other day, we were in a car and we were just waiting for someone, car on the side of the road, I quickly flipped emails. And he said to me, hey, good, you
units? I said, no, they're not. And the reason we say those billy sliders said to me once, I said, what do you do with the Queensland State of Origin team when you have them? You said, well, they're the best players. I'm really not teaching them. It's because I'm
trying to get just a 1% more out of all of them, 2% compound. I said, give me an example of that. And he said, well, the other day, I was talking around spending your units well. You said, you got 100 units in each day, 30 or 40 of them are sleeping. What do you do with
the last 60 units. When you wake up, do you have a breath? Do you meditate? Or do you scroll? Do you go and have a coffee or do you go for a walk with the glass of water? When you do have the option of a drink, you have water or sugar drink, you're going to have a bet on race one at Flemington
and be annoyed or you're going to read 15 pages of Google. Spend your units well. So I relay this to my kids. I'm walking past Lex Lex is ready for school. He's obsessed by fishing and I say you can have learn, yeah, look at the fishing videos, tying knots, what sort of lures, etc. I walked past
and he'd gone from the fishing to something else. I walked past and I came back and was clearly not fishing. I said, good units or bad units, yes, shit units. So was it wasn't porn? He's 10. He was 10. He's aware. Like are they good units or not?
He called you out. He called me out on it. And we're reading a book.
I was reading a book in, yeah. Had a year off in 25.
I just wanted to take the family around the world and just spend time before senior school, university and everything.
It's a bit. And I was reading a book called Strength to Strength. And in one of the chapters it talks about how a boy, the author,
was taken fishing, fishing both father. And as they're getting out of the car, the phone rings and the dad says, I'll be down soon.
18:50 and the boy says, who is that? He said, I just a friend and he says,
a real friend or a deal friend? He goes, what do you mean? He said, a real friend is gonna be there
at your funeral and maybe even speaking. He's in your bridal party. The deal friend is he was trying to do commerce.
He guess it was a deal friend. He guess odd choice. And I relayed that story to Lex.
And whenever in the car now, if it's the phone that goes, he'll read the name out and he'll say,
Tom Smith and I'll say, deal friend, he guess puts it down.
19:30Deal friend or real friend▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (19:30):
And they're all sponges. So you talk around lane, what is it that you do?
But for me, the last 3% everywhere, phones away, eye contact, units well, Bruce is the best I've ever worked with in terms of preparation. When I was on air for the first time in 08, I met with him the Friday before.
They'd given me a football show. I was out of my depth and I said, can I have five minutes with Bruce McIpani? He said, lovely to meet you.
I don't know much in his humble way. But I do know these things. You've got to do this much preparation.
You'll only use this much of it, you don't know which it's going to be so dull of it. Then he said, don't go on air feeling like you're wearing something, you'll be distracted by, you need to be really focused.
His message there was, whatever you do, be focused. You want to be a good parent, good brother, good friend, good to interview with you on the podcast, just be focused.
20:23Bruce McAvaney's lesson before his first broadcast▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (20:23):
The third was, he said, don't try and be anyone else. You'll be a very bad version of us, or Dennis or Brian, be the best version of you.
preparation piece, present piece and I read something years ago and it said 8 billion people experienced today differently, like that empathy piece. So we've got a couple of people in the room with us who are brilliant producers of this podcast that what's going
on at home, you know, how are they traversing through this journey? We've all got something going on. And if you said put your hand up right now if you don't have a significant problem in your
life. Yeah, we're all going through it. Yeah. That's so that I think is from mum to everyone's God issues. How can you help them? What did it unlock in you when you heard her? A lot of memories of my childhood. Interestingly, I don't know whether this was related or not. I was driving
and this is because I now have children. The thought of my kids ringing me when I'm older would be my favourite part of the day. So I always try and ring mum and just to check in. And even if it's mum, it's an headbreak. I just need to tell you I love you. I gotta go.
That would be the most perfect call I could ever receive from one of my kids. But she said to me last night, what do you miss about being a kid? Well, right. Have you been torturing the lane? Tears? I don't, It was such an unusual thing for her to ask.
Yeah. And I said, I think been completely uninhibited from a mind stamp, which you already made.
I said, well, when we were growing up, there wasn't anything that was impossible. I will play Davis Cup tennis for Australia.
I'll be full-forward for Norwood. I'll probably end up flying to the moon. I'm going to do all these things.
Suddenly you're 50 and you're thinking, I'm not playing Davis Cup tennis for Australia anymore, which is a said, well when you're young, you meet someone, I met James today, he's my
best friend. How long have you known him? Like nine minutes. You're only so simple. You know, life was just so easy. It's like I'm riding my bike. Our neighbours were five, six Ks away the next farm and Jeffrey Wright, I wouldn't have
said that name for 30 years, live next door. I'd ride my bike five or six Ks over the hill. would or wouldn't be there. And if it wasn't here, just right home. It was just all so easy. So, you know, having no inhibitors seems a long time ago. It was a good question, actually.
23:01What he misses most about being a kid▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (23:01):
Yeah, it's a brilliant question. What do you miss from time? What do you miss? Yeah, the spontaneity, the playfulness and the freedom, you know, the streetlight rules.
Yes. You leave the house when the streetlights are on. Yeah. Well, when the streetlights go off, sorry, unless you're nocturnal. Yeah.
And you're home by the time the streetlights... come on and that were the only rules you had to live by. Yeah.
I missed the freedom of that. Not having a mobile phone or connection, knowing that the voicemail at home,
if you're lucky enough to have one. And then just the imagination that you had to deploy to go and escape and enjoy every single day.
Keep yourself safe, trusting your instincts, building that street smart, connecting with people, meaningfully, finding who you try bar.
Like you find out where you belong in the world when you have that element of freedom and playfulness. I think I missed that the most,
but I'm also grateful that I had that. Like I grew up at a time without mobile phones and the freedom to go and play and make mistakes
and fail without the consequence of ridicule, harsh discipline. Except I mean my dad was a tough love, kind of guy. You know, I was a single.
So he was a single. He wasn't always on my back though, like unlike your dad. He was just always, I mean, similar to your dad probably,
he wanted, as you have expressed, my dad wanted the best for me. And as parents, we believe that what we want for our kids
is the right thing, but as you've so beautifully said, what you want and what is right may not be well aligned. But my dad basically just wanted me to get on with it.
So I cracked my neck surfing as a nine-year-old in the sandbank and he's like lie down, you'll be right, get over it. I ended up with a spine that was going the wrong way for a little while there. So that tough love process
has resulted in me being a silent sufferer because it's not safe for me to express that I'm not going okay. Yeah, but I'm aware of it now. Sometimes she still needs to be caught out on it.
Oh yeah, test call me out on that yesterday. So it's nice to have a dream team of support and also the self-awareness to accept that when someone is telling you, is that a deal friend or a real friend? And you accept, oh shit, I've been caught out, acknowledged that it's coming from a place of love and compassion and empathy, which is a beautiful lesson.
What about you, T.B.? I had this moment the other day lying in bed with my husband and my four-year-old son, Benji. And it was like a Sunday morning and normally I'm up at the gym or walking the dog so my husband and I try to
Swap so that we can at least have some gym time awesome alone time And I was lying in bed and the sun's coming up through the trees And it was just one of those beautiful still mornings
And I decided to stay in bed And it just reminded me of being a kid in my mom's arms like you know how moms were always warm warm or really low, you didn't get to experience that, but I'd always jump into bed with mum
and she was always so warm. And we'd just read books and it was just that peaceful, quiet, nowhere to be, nowhere to go, nothing to check.
And I just laid there and just absorbed his laughter with my husband and we read books together and that's what I miss is slow, gentle time with my mum. So I've got 14, 12, 10.
If I had my time again, I'd be much more disciplined on myself around the presence piece. It's just race through those 14 years. Were you on a mission to get somewhere?
I just don't think I realised how precious the hours were. So I, so it says, you're being too hard, you're incredible. But it's like, I remember I'd be in a room and rather than just having them there and the
phone turned upside down, I might be, what am I doing? Yeah. Good units, bad units.
Bad units, just enjoy this. My daughter that she's 14 other day said, I wish I'd grown up when you grow. I said, why is that?
There are so many distractions. I said, that's an interesting observation. We were in Indonesia the other day.
Great friend called Todd Bennett's got five kids. He said, I've found this island called Sumba, you know, because of the surf. I love Sumba.
Fluve to Bali, another 70 minutes, and then we drove for two hours into the, almost like jungle to this incredible Hawaiian couple would put these 12 huts on a cliff. And then Todd said, after tomorrow, I've got 100 balls, 1000 pens,
pads, we're going to take them to the local village. I've never been to a more remote part of the world. Running water wasn't anywhere near these villages. Kids come out with, you know, sharing water on the heads and no electricity and animals bottom level, work level, family slip together in these huts.
Amazing 5 or 6 hours we go back that. I said to Miller the 14-year-old, in fact I said to all the kids, but Miller the 14-year-old responded, when I asked, what did you take away from today?
I was hoping there was going to be something significant and she said, everyone can be happy if you allow yourself to be. So what do you mean by that?
She says, well, we have what we think is everything, but some of us aren't happy. They have what we think is nothing and they're all smiling. It's like how are we getting so confused with what's important?
We have a quick favourite to ask. If this podcast has been landing for you, please hit subscribe and leave us a rating or review.
It helps us grow the show and keep bringing these conversations to more people. We all need to spend a little bit more time with Miller. Yes, very wise so.
I set you a bit of homework actually. Did you watch the documentary Happy with Family? I didn't watch it.
I should have. I should have. We'll do this in honor of Miller.
There is an incredible documentary,
29:00The documentary that reframed happiness▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (29:00):
which I recommend everyone watches called Happy, and it explores what is happiness.
Yeah. So, and it goes around the world to different cultures. And, you know, the kids playing with a tin can
in the slums of India, kicking it around a happier than the people living in the white picket fence driving a Range Rover.
Yeah. What is happiness to? What is that?
One wife, three children. If in that house. One what under that roof if sof miller and india lex are all happy safe and well that is my nirvana
So lanes don't incredible things on a board Yeah, you've done incredible things behind a mic on a TV screen. The truth is None of that means anything to me compared to so
wife kids are so far over there compared to the rest of whatever the measurement is so if you said measure success for me It's the smiles in the house. And dad said me 35 years ago, older than 15.
He said, you're only ever as happy as your unhappiest child. I didn't know what he meant really at the time. And as a result of having kids, the happiness level oscillates depending on what's happening.
Kid comes home from school, he's been bullied. So I've been bullied. Kids battling with an illness or, I'm battling the illness.
of the illness and it is incredible how when everything is 10 out of 10 or 9.5 out of 10, how the world feels like the greatest place in the world. And when one is at three or four, so in light of today I've been giving lots of different things thought but if you
said what do you want to be, the obvious is loved and happy and healthy. I think content, When everyone is content and to Friday night the week is finished and I'm lying on the couch with one of them here and you can smell what's about to be eaten and everyone's
had a shower and everyone's happy sharing stories like this is it I don't want to be in Paris, I don't want to be in Rome, I don't want to be front row anywhere, this is it and I don't say that to try and be cliched or like that's it. So we're in Simba the
other day with this beautiful family and all the kids were just swimming and playing and they're collecting these, you know, the rocks laying there on the beach is perfectly smooth. Yeah. And ours would disappear collecting these rocks.
Like this has been the best three hours of the year. Waves rolling in kids collecting rocks are sort of sitting there just talking. Not a phone or a mobile tower in sight. Not a footy game in sight.
31:56Defining success: the smiles in the house▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (31:56):
Yeah. So all about simplicity. I just wanted to ask a question. Simplicity is the great word. Yeah. It is simplicity. So we talk about happiness. We're often
told or we're often advised to subscribe to the understanding that obviously happiness This isn't the be all and end all of life because we can't always be happy, but also to find that happiness within.
And your answer tends to suggest that when everything outside of you is happy, you're happy. When are you most happy with the ability to disconnect from what's going on outside of you?
Our friend Ben Croces, right? It's not... the conditions of our life, it's the decisions that we make that truly impact the quality of our lives.
So if you can find a moment or a state of happiness or contentment that's not based on everything outside of you, where is that? Great question.
I think I'm most happy or most content when I feel as though everything in my life is under control there's no pause. I'm never quite content or relaxed or happy if I feel as though there's some way I have to be
that I don't want to be or there's something I've got to do that I don't actually believe in or I'm doing it for the wrong reason. I think I'm happiest when I take it to that most happy other than the rock collecting. Elder brother, Gil who's been busy for 35 years, being busy.
Yeah, and I we went we grew up on a farm and we would ride horses all the time There were no phones and there was just chat and he and I would Come up with ideas on the horses side by side moving cows for hours and we were going to do X and Y and Z and
largely we followed our dreams He rang he said what are you doing on Sunday? I said I'll make you around I don't have anything he said you want to go down to the farm early. It's like yep
34:03Horses, steak and six hours with his brother Gillon▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (34:03):
So we went down to the farm which is next to Mum's farm, he's got a farm here as horses there.
We rode horses five or six hours, young horses just off the breaker, teaching them things, the joy of teaching a young horse to stop what it turns. For us, I guess it's like being in the barrel.
No, you're in shock. It's like this is incredible. And then we hoes the horses down.
There were no children, no wives, no brothers, just gillin' an eye. I called Tide Edwards who's the most beautiful horse breaker for countries ever seen. An Argentinian who's just a beautiful guy who makes the horses.
And the AG said, there's stake on the fire under the tree. And we went under a tree and for six hours I reckon, just sliced meat that had a lot of salt and pepper too much.
And just talked. There was no interruptions, simplicity. There was nowhere to be.
There's no one that was agitating. It was just like, and we, Gila and I both looked at each other,
as we're getting in the currency, how do you have a better day than that? Yeah.
And it was like horses, hoes down, under tree, dirty, perfect. Doing something you love with someone you love.
Correct. We work with a lot of, C-suite executives, high performers,
and one of their fears is, FOMO, fear of missing out. But it's not that they don't have
these incredible moments under the tree after a horse ride and the steak. They're there, but they're not present in it. So they're missing the magic moments because they've got a to-do list.
They don't have agency in their calendar, so everyone else is getting into it rather than them having control over it. And they've lost their freedom to feel, smell, taste those magic moments.
So it sounds like in all of that, you've cracked that code of being able to be present, free. And without the cliché smell the roses?
36:00Choosing a promise to his daughter over a work dinner▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (36:00):
The other night, Sunday night, school racing the next day at Mount Bola. Soft's on the committee.
Can you host the dinner? There's 110 kids. You're 3D, you're 6, all the parents.
Yep. No problem. Love it.
One of the daughters, she spoke, spoke really well. And I finished. I said, so I'm going.
Just really? It's like 7.30. It's 6.00 till 9.00.
I said, then one thing. She said, I promised Miller we'd watch an old school in bed together. She said, right, that sounds awesome.
Can I come? It can. There's nowhere else I want to be.
Yeah. And one on one, and keeping A a promise that I wanted her to keep it well because I couldn't wait.
So I've gone past the point of thinking there's better things. My best thing to go back to that in the house with the kids, happy. old school, wheelferral, Luke Wilson and going never getting through that
journey with her, like that's the best down her. I woke up asleep on her chairs, she goes, that was good. If you didn't have that to go to, would your life have let you go? Well she's always been incredible on that front. It's like, you
know, she'll say you need to stay if I need to say it, but she knows you don't stay here. Yeah, right. You've done what you need to do. Everyone's very great. go and jump into bed with Miller.
Yeah. And yeah, it's, I find myself often and gills a bit the same I think.
We'll find ourselves, yeah, there'd be a big group. It's like, I just want time with Lane. And I just want to have, if I'm here for half an hour, I want half an hour, a great chat
with Lane. 37:42 We should have like, that doesn't nourish me.
Yeah. learn something from lane or feel energized from lane or Pete Summers or Nick Smith or whoever it is, I think historically I thought it's going to be something I've just slowed.
38:04The non-negotiables: what gets protected on the calendar▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (38:04):
So when it comes to building those relationships with friends and family, obviously as you're getting older and wiser, you're realising, you're valuing what's important to you, you're prioritising
what's important to you. So what are some non-negotiable boundaries that you put around your time and energy? Nick Rive-Olton, captain of St. Kilda. He lost his sister years ago and I've always tried to help with the foundation and he said,
can you host our dinner again? And I've always said yes. And for the first time, it was on a Saturday.
I said, I can't do it. His hack-up, I said, so I've committed to Lex that we're going down to the farm. And my non-negotiable was now our Friday nights and Saturdays and Sundays with kids.
I do Thursday night football. Chris Jones had a sport who you know lane. He said, what do you want to do?
I said, I want to have Friday nights, cooking sausages at the Grand Fody Club, and I want to go on a party on Sundays.
He said, do you know that two of our three days are Fridays and Sundays? I said, I know.
He said, well, you sure about it? I can't be more sure. So he said, okay, you do Thursdays?
Do it. I do an interview show called Unfiltered. I couldn't be happy with that decision.
90% of the time you spend with your kids is before the age of 16. I can't give up lots of days. And if you guys had said to me, this podcast said, in fact, I think we've changed this because of a kid. So one of the kids was
doing something. It was a cross-country run. It's like, could we change it? Yep, let's change it. Whereas I think historically, I would have said, I think I've got to do the podcast. Whereas now it's like, I am definitely watching the cross-country work the podcast around it. And that's shaping
in terms of the non-negotiable stuff is, what do I love most? Friends, family, kids, everything fits around that.
As opposed to, this is what's happening and everyone needs to fit in, that's the rethinking. Because a lot of people, they're working dead-end jobs
or nine to five's like they're flogging themselves to provide for their family, achieve all the things and have a lot of sheds.
There's a lot of sheds. What's helped you detach from the sheds?
40:11Death, the sheds, and scheduling your run first▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (40:11):
I think death. Death.
And awareness of it? Well, everyone thought it wasn't going to die. Of course.
And a lot of them now have. So Neil Danahur, you talk about life lessons. You talk about Neil.
It's okay. So he's one of the great humans. He's now no longer with us.
Warney. He was going to live forever. Yeah.
He's still with us. Yeah. Okay.
So then I thought, well, when I'm 80, everyone says you won't be lying on your deathbed wishing you'd work more. Yeah. One day, that's what I just thought on this. It's like, it's so true. And years later,
I've found this, which I think sums what we've been talking about and probably sums up a wake up call in terms of underrated life advice. Schedule your run first, the vacation, the dinner, the concert, the weekend trip, put joy on your calendar before work fills it. Most people work first
and then play with what's left. There's never anything left. Book fun like your booky meetings, treat joy like obligation, happiness needs planning too. So when we lost the Olympics in
41:24Losing the Olympics gig and gaining sixteen months▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (41:24):
2024 to 2009, Lewis Martin rang me on Christmas Eve and said, just so you know we're about to lose the Olympics nine I've taken them.
And there was a sense of disappointment mixed with unbelievable joy. I remember taking the call, I was at the farm, walk into Sof and say, the Olympics are off in 2024.
It said, you're disappointed. I said, I am, but you know, we've been talking about doing that year. So let's do the year.
She had always said, let's travel as a family for a year. And it was never going to be the right time. Net is like having...
kids. It's like, it's never the right. There's always a reason why. So I said, so let's do it. So where'd you go? So we took off on December the 15th in 2023, flew to Leon, had four nights there, drove to a town in the Swiss outskirts called Verbeer, put the kids in school there for four and a half
months, finished the winter term, drove down to the south of France in a tiny town called Mujan, put put the kids in school there, gets to October. And so I've said, are we really going home?
I have no visa, no money, no job, no prospects. And she said, well, you'll find something when you get back. Like, why don't we do another winter?
We did another winter. So we took 16 months. Nice.
And the joy of that trip was in the hidden corners. A gondola broke down our with Miller. race in Italy the two hours on the bus to get there with India.
The first fish Lex pulls out of the ocean together by ourselves near on Teap. We woke up I said do you want to fish tomorrow? He's obsessed by fishing.
He said yeah yeah. I said where are we going? You choose?
We'll go. We go down to the fishing shop next morning. It's not open for an hour and a half.
He knows lie under a pencil pine just chatting. Unbelievably out and half. Go and grab the rods once it opens, drive down to on Teap.
knowing where we're going, we're walking along the foreshore and all these restaurants. And Lex says, how are we getting around? I said, I think he's going to have to walk straight through the restaurant.
These people in the linen, we're drooled. These two Australians walking through and forth towards those moments. He catches his first fish.
We spend the day fishing. We get a pizza on the side of the road and niece on the way home. And he says, you can't tell mum, that's the best day of my life.
If I was asleep on the way home holding a fish in the car, get home, put him in bed, wake So if I'm saying he said it was the best day of his life. No.
They are the moments. They are the moments. And when you were talking about what you missed when you were a child, I was thinking
when you said, and then I rode my bike home. And then the tire pops. And then you have to find it.
And it really is the magic in the moment. And I feel like what you read, then, is Armantra. And why businesses bring us in is to remind people what humanness is.
I feel like you've got a good rate of humanness from within. I'm really interested to know what you've learned about some of the people that you've interviewed. So can I roll through the list?
And can you give us what that person has taught you about being a great human? Yeah. In one sentence, almost.
Yeah. One sentence, almost. Yeah.
And I do want to reflect that you've harnessed storytelling so beautifully that you apply that to your life. It feels like you've made life a movie and that you're getting all of these different snapshots
And to our dream team who are listening today, it's like those movie moments really do exist. You just have to encourage to feel, smell, taste,
and store that memory, because it's those are the memories that get us through when the wake-up call happens.
Or when you need it the most, it's like they really do matter. 45:10
It's, it cannot, I can't emphasize that enough. That is truth. If I'm going to do the AIA thing this morning,
45:21 People that you meet, Gila and I had this discussion about 20 years ago.
We are born, we do a loop, and then we die. How many incredible edits can you put in the Hamschma Glockland that tests the lane movie?
So whoever goes back to watch it says, that was a seriously good movie. What a privilege.
What a privilege.
45:43"What a privilege": a friend's wife and MND▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (45:43):
The water privilege piece, you know where this is. Please go there.
Okay, a great mate of mine, Pat Cunningham. His wife is the first person that I ever knew to be diagnosed with MND.
And she had a very short, better with it. But on one of my birthday, she texted, says, Abby birthed that, I reply back,
getting older, feeling older. And she's replies back with, what a privilege. And it was a clunky response from me,
but it was just such a great reminder. Yeah. I'm 50, I'm through halfway, water privilege.
Mum 76 for a privilege, as opposed to, oh, I'm, this is the youngest I'm ever gonna be, right now. Yeah, and like in those moments,
you lost the Olympics, water privilege. Water privilege. You know, it's just water not resolved.
Exactly. That's what it's all about. Yeah, and I've been like, Lane and I have had a lot of stuff
and happening in our lives and you have two, it's like, How do you make those moments like the, when you, the bad moments,
I proved each moment to learn to grow, to change. Okay. I call them, I call, I mean,
I've always replaced phomo with Jomo. I have a joy of missing out. Because I'm so immersed in the moment.
So to your point around, the stopping and smelling, it all comes with the permission to pause.
And just taking that moment, instead of reacting and going, oh shit, life's God to shit, it's actually,
Oh, actually, I can see beauty in this. No matter what's going on. We drove the other night from Melbourne to Mount Buller,
three hours, Lex started the game in Peran and finished it in Mount Buller. And it is dead or alive.
A life, human plant or things like human. Is it Lane Beach? It's Lane Beach.
I went for three hours. I was in Troy and playing that game for the 10-year-old. No radio, no phone, no football, it's like...
Beautiful. I thought you were going to say it was I-spire. And I was like, that would have gone wrong. Well, we were just doing his version of it.
You've got 20 questions, if you don't get it in 20. Mm-hmm. You lose.
You lose. All right. Talk to us about the life MBA of Bruce McVaney.
He's the most curious, well-prepared, humble captain that makes everyone play better and has an incredibly beautiful sense of team.
Beautiful. Neil Danahar. I met Neil 25 years ago,
but only really met Neil after he was diagnosed. He, with my father and my older brother, Gillen, are the three most influential male figures
in my life. He taught me, when more is said and done, more is said than done, be the doer. Don't let later become never. If you don't like
something change it, if you can't change it change the way you think about it. And those three things for me have reshaped my thinking a lot. He was the best at making any situation a good one.
profound. May his soul rest in peace but his legacy live on forever. Dennis
49:05Dennis Cometti's scone and tea ritual▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (49:05):
Komedi. They say never meet your heroes because they'll only let you down. He became... he went from idle to colleague but always remained my idol. The best
moments with Dennis, I do Sunday football with him in Melbourne. At 559 55, he or I would sign off and say hope enjoyed the football stand by for seven years and we'd say to the producers. Thanks guys loved it. See you next Sunday. Headphones off. Dennis would
then reach down into his black briefcase. He'd been staying at the ground height for 30 years. He would steal two scones from the buffet in the morning. He would wrap them up. He would then unwrap them at 601. I knew my role was to get two cups of tea. He would undo
one past me and he and I would eat a scone each for about 25 minutes. Talk. I'd be mentored and chewed by this beautiful soul. At 625, his driver was called Raj. Hamish, I've enjoyed it. Raj is waiting and so is V. He would get in the car, go to the
airport and fly home to V. And he was, he and Bruce are the best two multi-sport broadcasts that the world's ever seen. The most humble guys, I got to be in their orbit for a little bit, long out to, but beautiful him. I trust the scones are not stale by six o'clock at night.
he would make the napkin moist, so kept the moisture. Oh, he was a genius. Through pro.
Three percent. He knew. Last three percent.
Really matters. Yeah, I was reflecting, because I'd travel a lot with LB and, and Kirk, actually, and we go to a lot of restaurants and, and even just in the street.
And I do have to say there's something legendary about when people meet you guys, like that never met you hero, because they'll disappoint you. you guys always give everyone the time of day the love, the respect because it is a big moment
for people who've idolized both of you in some way, shape or form. What does that take? When you're tired, when you're sober and out and someone stops you, it's like, Lane! You're my idol! It takes 10 seconds to make a commitment to make their lives better. That's all it really takes. It's just
putting them ahead of your own whatever's going on in your world and it takes 10 seconds and it's It's just like, hi, look them in the eyes, connect with them. Nice to meet you.
Have a great day. Can we have a selfie? Sure.
Bye. There's one of my favorite stories. Yeah.
Is Frank Sinatra. So Sinatra had this guy that was always with him. Colin Bridge.
Yes. And Sinatra was the Taylor Swift of the time. Eddie's peak.
And people would wait for the shows as he was about to get in his car for a photo or autograph. This one guy had been waiting and read says to Frank Sinatra,
Tom would love to meet you. Tom's been a fan all his life. So he has a photo with or a signs and autograph, has a chat and then says to Tom, take these cufflinks. And it was just a mind-blowing experience for Tom who then goes off,
getting the car and reds his, Mr. Senature, that was incredible. You love those cufflinks, you see, but it's a pair of cufflinks. When I died there in the box, all the other cufflinks, That family has that story forever.
Meeting Lane Beachley on the side of road, some of that photo sits through it. I met Paul McNamy in 1985 at Memorial Drive,
sitting with Dad on the side of the court, elders had asked us, I love Martinez, I said, Dad, could I get an autograph?
Yes, just run over and see if you can. There was no security back then. I ran over, I sit next to Paul McNamy.
He signs the... Autograph card. And then he says, take this towel.
I've still got the towel. You order. You don't mind.
I mean, don't you find it to your point ten seconds? I'm talking about it 35 years later. Yeah.
That's true. Make moments matter. But fortunately, we don't hurt.
We're not like Tatee or Frank where you've got a hundred thousand people lined up for ten 53:07 You undersell yourself.
Oh, thanks. Seven-time-world champ that makes people's lives better. Yeah, we were on those boundary where people say photos, like for sure, they also had to jump over the fence.
Yeah. The security of a guy, I go on to the ground quickly, quickly come meet Patrick Dain to fill it back in. Or in the lift at half time, you look at the youngest kid in the room and they say,
you're always good. You want to come and watch the second half in the comedy box, like so easy. They might not don't they?
What's it like? Doesn't make any difference to me. Yeah.
I love giving these kids what I would have just died to do. Yeah, like I... Yeah, I am Benji, my son, ran out with the giants on the weekend.
And yeah, and like I've worked with the giants for over 10 years and in us, when I worked corporate, but I've stayed close to the club and I asked Dave, I said, look, it would mean the world to him.
And the way that they moved you through that whole experience and I've done it, they understand the moment. And that's what, to me, that's what greatness is, is understanding the moment for someone
else and helping them see that through their eyes. And I know it'll be a moment, I mean, he hasn't taken the jersey off yet.
54:17Kobe Bryant: choosing his own interviewer▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (54:17):
But other people that have taught you this, Kobe Bryant. I've never known anyone care more about detail.
So he, I was asked by the company that manages me, would I do an interview with Kobe? It's like, yeah, of course.
How do I get involved? They said, he wants you to do it. He said, I don't know who I am.
He said, well, this is the guy. So what do you mean? He said, well, he's been paid a lot of money to come down
and do an interview on stage, 6,000 people. And he said, I'm happy to do it, but I need to choose who's interviewing me.
I said, so how did he choose me? He said, send me four tapes of the most likely 55:01
So the moment comes, the day before, get to go meet him. He's in his hotel room. I opened the, I'm not going to door one of the agents agents agents opens the door next
to the publicist next to the agents publicist and he's sitting on a couch just through here. He looks over, walks over, puts his hand out and said, hey, I'm a shomkobe. I said, yep, you are.
You are nice to ask one question. I said, why am I here? Yeah.
He said, well, I'll chase you. I said, I understand that. But is any of this true?
He said, well, four tapes. I said, well, what was it about my tape? He said, do you know I pretty much the same age?
Our wives have pretty much the same age. You've got three kids. I've got three kids.
You can interview seven year olds on the side of the ground. I've seen you do stuff with Federer. I've seen you do stuff with Proministers.
He had another kid on the way at the time. He said, I think it'll work well. So one of the things that people said about him was he was too demanding, but he demanded
so much of himself, he's letting nothing to chance. Bruce McAvani did the profession. So he said, I'm coming down here getting paid in credit, I need to be incredible.
Part of that is who I'm on stage with. Why would I leave that to chance? That last three percent.
Did he put you at ease? The best. I stand up, walk over, hi, Hamish, I'm Kobe.
I'm like, oh my God, I'm now not terrified. Yeah, at ease. At ease.
Gillian McGlockland. Whatever the situation, he will always solve it for me. He still remains my idol and my big brother.
First guy I call when I'm in trouble. First one to show up too. First one to show up.
When my kid was really crook miller, first time every day, pregnant line in the mouth. If I get to the phone now and something horrific is there, I ring him before I ring anyone else.
Before you ring a lawyer, ring Gil. Ring Gil. What a man.
Roger Federer.
57:02Roger Federer and making everyone matter equally▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (57:02):
I would think that if you're trying to describe him he's everything you hope he is.
So you see a man on court that is completely in control and a beautiful soul cries when he loses, cries when he wins, arm around,
a great rivalry. We would have six minutes before this day to open final with the two finalists individually.
Let's say it was Novak who would walk and say, hi guys, be beautifully pleasant to his six minutes and disappear.
Rodger will come and say, hi, I'm Roger. I'm Lane, hi, I'm Roger, I'm Tess, hi, I'm Roger, I'm Hamish.
Sarah Klein doing makeup, Mark Cullen, Floor Manager, hi guys. Tess, six minutes, but if you need 12 or 15, no problem.
If you need another language, you do it all, you'd finish. And then he would say, everyone happy? Everyone good?
Mark, you happy? Sarah? Not Johnny?
I'm glad you happy, Tess, you happy? Thank you guys, thanks very much. Everyone would just go, I want him to win. Yeah.
He was so aware of everyone's equal importance back to Sealworth. Mark is his important, his Sarah is important, his lion is important as Tess. Lane Beechley.
Well, why are the roll call? I grew up loving sport and I gravitated to the best. I loved music.
So when I read that Lane and Kirk were hanging out together, it's like, imagine being a sort of a surf god married to a rock god. Then one day the world's collide.
I mean, Lane's like, he's so awesome. A bit like the Federal piece. Addies always remembers your name, remembers the last conversation.
Nothing arrogant about it. It's like, that's how to behave when you're the best in the world at something. Or not.
It's the same. Yeah, but you should come to the pool room. Yes, we'll invite you over to play pool
in our trophy room at home. They have a pool room and the pool table is massive, so you've kind of got it.
Move around the size. Yes, full size. That's not full size, but it feels it.
On one side of the room is lemon cello. Water bar. Water bar.
With all of these shop glasses from all around the world. And then the other three walls are chocker block.
either in excess awards or what takes up most of the trophy room is lane's surfing trophies like world titles, everything. And the ruling...
You have to have a shot of... Oh, we play it now. No, we play Kelly Ball.
So it's a game where you're given a number and we play it in reverse. So the idea is to keep your ball on the table for as long as possible. If you win, then you get to ring a bell because a rip-cow or a folklore, you can't ring the bell
unless you win. That was you're winning, yeah. So in our house, if you win the game, you get to ring the bell.
That bell. That exact bell. Yeah.
The bell. Because I've got three of them in the trophy. You've got three times.
Yeah. And then you have to do a shot. got an abundance of alcohol from a variety of different parts of the world and a variety of
shot glasses from all over the world. And a variety of lemon-challengellas. And we don't want the same person winning all the time. And it is the funnest experience. As you realise you sitting there among so much history and you're like, well, what about that one? And you could just keep going and
going and the stories that come out. As you know, every trophy and every accolade, every award has a story behind it. So pick a trophy, pick a plaque. So again, we'll have you over. That house has so much to tell. I mean, so I watched the, what's the
Michael's talk I called on Netflix? Just pinery's a hutch. Oh yes, music star or something. Yeah. I was watching it. I was just seeing Kirk in it. I've been lucky enough to have dinner with Kirk and Lane with the team at AI and other
times. It's like, it's never about Kirk or Lane. Never. They ask more questions than they get asked.
To be interesting, be interested. Lane is interested. Yeah.
And she deeply care about people too. It's to help them not to put them down and to learn about them. No, non-judgment.
Okay, I didn't always be like I wasn't always one. Yeah, especially as a competitor. Yeah, great I was very fierce. I didn't get what you were doing. I just want to know what you three percent it's I can go five. Okay
61:25What his wife Sophie taught him about needing less▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (61:25):
Sophie McLaughlin I never thought I'd get married because I didn't think I'd find someone I love more than myself and then it hurt
You tell my my dad She is met her and within, I think a week, I'll marry her. A week?
A year later. She's everything I want. She's low key.
There's no craze or graces. What has she taught you about life? That you don't need anywhere near as much as you think.
the happiness is here in the moment that all the stuff that the majority of chasing isn't worth chasing. And you can see that weave through the way that you move through life and notice the
moments.
62:18Oprah, the greatest at disarming▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (62:18):
What about Oprah? So she's the greatest at disarming.
I was terrified when I had to interview her. It was first Swiss multi-vitamins. I flew to New Zealand.
I had to interview her for half an hour before she gave a speech to through 4,000 people. I was at the side of the stage. 62:40
There's nothing abrupt about it. She saw me. She walks over.
I can see she almost says lane test, just hang on a sec. Walks over, she said, Hey, Mish, thank you for coming.
Imagine Sophie's very disappointed you've had two young children with her, but I'm saying thank you.
No, it's my name. No, it's my wife's name. No, that I have two children.
Lex wasn't born. Understands how tricky that is for a mother. Understands that I've given up time to be there.
So you know, it's like reverse engineer this comfort, but she was incredible at making everything easy. So
63:25The AIA Do It For Life toolkit▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (63:25):
On that note, making life easy, we like to wrap every episode with our AIA Do It For Life toolkit, where we explore what people can do now to help them in their lives.
Whether that be to be more present, more connected, more free or just take care of their own mental health and wellbeing, what do you feel called to share as your toolkit? One or multiple.
Give us three. Give us three. You're top three.
Okay. one each. Great. My body I've neglected for probably a decade in terms of movement, input and over the last year I've got back on track on that, I feel completely different.
I've got sort of busy being busy with kids and work and forgot that I walk in the morning for an hour and a half or a yoga session or meditation was where it needed to be every day. So I would think look after yourself as much as you're looking after others. Being
present is the greatest gift that I can give my family and my friends and I've been guilty of not doing that. So that for me is a really key piece. And then I think and Lane mentioned earlier, the simplification. We can all over engineer and over complicate our days. But
If it's school cross country, I'm going to the school cross country. If I can get to take my kids to school every day, I'm taking my kids to school and not got to, I get to.
We didn't think we were going to have kids. We have three. I get to take them to school, I get to pick them up from school.
I heard someone the other day. The question was, who are you jealous of? And the answer from the actor who's in better call Saul.
He said, I'm jealous of the parents who have full cars. Kids are arguing, rushing to the next commitment. Filthy chips and crumbs everywhere.
He said, I get into my car now, it's clean and it's silent and it's dreadful. So I think I'm aware that this journey
that we are on right now is an incredibly fun time. And to be around the kids as much as I can. Beautiful.
Complete this sentence. Your wake up call is not to wait until. It's too late.
Beautiful. That's gorgeous. Hey, Mish. Thank you for bringing all of you to this interview today. Thank you for bringing
your honesty, your humility, your wisdom, your mum. Yeah, mum. What a treat.
66:00A message back to his mum▾
Hamish, Layne & Tess (66:00):
What a treat. And how can people connect with you? I know, because you're busy presenting and giving, but how can people connect with you and learn more from you?
I know the book. When's the book coming out here? Yeah, Mum's said, right, a book of all the stories. It's funny because I'm not really, I've got a, I think I've posted seven times six
or on New York, Danahe. Instagrams where you can find me if you've got a thought. When Miller was sick, it's a funny how people find you on Instagram. They've got these incredible stories and they'll ring and say can we talk? It's amazing how sharing and being vulnerable
can connect you with people all around the world. Yeah. But I've loved today.
I loved our Zoom call in preparation. Me too. Always admired you.
Always loved meeting you and thanks for sharing. Hey, Mish, can we close with a message back to your mum? Am I allowed to cry?
Of course. Because we'll cry with you. Yeah, you have been an incredible mother and I'm proud to be your son and every time I do
something, I hope you're proud of me. I hope you're proud of me. I love you.
I love you. Sylvie, this one's for you. Sylvie, this one's for you.
And to Dream Team has this episode resonated And to DreamTeam, has this episode resonated with you to be more present, to be more connected with you to be more present,
to be more connected with yourself with yourself and just to let go of the shackle. and just to let go of the shackles
and enjoy life in front of you. We trust that this will change you in one way, shape or form,
that you do something for your life, to be more connected to what life is. And happiness really is what I got out of today.
just being happy in the moment so from us to you dream team we'll see you next week. Toodles.
Your hosts
Layne Beachley AO
Seven-time world surfing champion & AWAKE co-host
On flipping the interview and asking Hamish what greatness actually looks like up close.
Tess Brouwer
AWAKE co-founder & co-host
On presence, the last three percent, and what Hamish’s mum taught them both.




