Day 2963 - Last Minute Media Request

Hey everybody, welcome to Rob Evans 365. I'm not sure what the day is. I'm sorry I'm back. Early morning, it's just after 5am. I'm in the mobile studio again. Go figure. I rarely drive and yesterday was a horrible experience by the time I got home. It was six hours. By the time I got close to the four-hour mark, I said, "Right, that's it. I'm getting off the freeway and went to a factory outlet store to spend, well, about an hour walking around and the shop's open. I stayed there for about 45 minutes before returning home. It was just horrible. It was a car accident, everything. So I've looked this morning and my trip is supposed to take about 43 minutes. So we will see if that is actually true. But I'm leaving extra early. Now why am I in the car again? Well, last night, I was coaching client six o'clock. I got a text message. Actually, it was a phone call first. Unknown numbers. So I don't take phone calls from unknown numbers anymore. If they really want me, they'll leave a message. So they did leave a message. I am grateful for the, I don't know what it's across all phones, but certainly the Apple technology where it identifies who the person is. But anyway, she left a message anywhere and it's, I'm assuming a producer from the ABC radio requesting me to do an interview this morning on their breakfast, 774 breakfast radio show with Waleed Ali, I'm not sure if I pronounced his surname correctly. And about the changes to the law that have been announced by the government around the algorithms and social media and stuff. Now, the, often the government will reach out and say, hey, can you come to the camera for the announcement, etc., etc. That didn't happen for this. And they made the announcement yesterday. So I heard, Annika Wells, a snippet of what she said on a real, I thought, okay, is that, has that just happened or because you never get the context from a real, has, has the date on it. So obviously, I knew something had happened, but not exactly whether it was just a conversation or whether it was, hey, these are the chains we're putting in place. So, yeah, that's what they wanted to do. Now, they gave me two options. I said, do you want me in studio or, you know, on the phone. And they said, look, you can do it on the phone, but you're certainly welcome to come into the studio as well. So I thought about that. And I've done an interview over the phone before. Now, you can't do the interviews on speaker because it echoes and all that kind of stuff for them and their end. So you have to hold your hand, you know, the phone to the ear. I don't know about you. When was the last time you held your phone to your ear to take a phone call? I just people don't do that anymore. It sends them bizarre. But because of the way that we use our technology, and what they're using, you know, air pods or, you know, that or, you know, whatever I tend to use speaker, let me just don't do it. Yeah. So I've done it once before and it's horrible. It's so hard to hear the person coming down that little speaker in your ear. And I've also heard the result of the recording and it comes out horribly, which I don't really understand why because you think they have great technology and all that kind of stuff. But the last one I did it with it was the Sydney Radio Station. And it wasn't an FM radio situation. And it came out terribly. I thought, all right, well, I haven't actually, I've been to ABC Breakfast TV, haven't done breakfast radio before. So what, and I go in and do it. So that's why I am up early. It's breakfast radio. And given my experience on the road yesterday, I am not going to to chance it and have a two hour trip. So I thought, oh, I'm always much rather than get up early, get to my place and then I can do work or whatever while that's, you know, I know I'm there. And it's just one less thing to have to worry about. So that's where I'm headed this morning, especially on around 8.30 now. Yes, I'm 3.5 hours early, but it's also raining this morning. And if there is a problem on the freeway, it could easily be shut down by two hours. And, you know, I just don't want to be in that situation. So yeah, that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. Then of course, you think, all right, well, they've actually come in. There's been an announcement yesterday. And I don't know how long the interview will go for, but they're obviously going to be talking about what it is that was announced yesterday. So I had a really long day. I was exhausted. I woke up at two yesterday and did get back to sleep, but it took me probably an hour and then I, I think I had the alarm set for five. Get up, get ready, et cetera, and go. So by the time I got to yes, that was really, really tired. By the time I got home, I did my work things. And then I had a bunch of clients coming in from five o'clock. I did my first session at five and then I had a 30 minute break and I'm like, I'm so tired. I just don't know how I'm going to get through. You know, this next batch of clients was then I was back to back to 730. And I ended up having a 15 minute nap. I had about ten past five. No, it's actually five past five, no. I'll set the timer, the alarm on my watch. And I just need to, even if I just lie down and stop for a bit, it'll help. So I did end up falling asleep after only a couple of minutes, then the alarm woke me up and got up, got into it. And then of course, it was around, it was after six. I got this message and I thought, oh, well, I'm going to finish tonight, shall we get ready for bed, etc. And then work out. Obviously, I need to look at my morning schedule. And so I'm looking at that last night thinking, oh, before I commit, it would disrupt two clients. And in doing that, I thought, well, can I re-schedule, etc. So I went with the re-scheduling option. And excuse me. And then thought, all right, well, I will go in there. So I let them know fan at the address and it is at the same place where the TV station is in the city. And so then thought, all right, well, I'm going to get the suit ready. Even though it's radio, you've got to look really, really good because these days, they film it as well, because they did ask if they could film it. And I said, sure, that's fine. And so they have cameras everywhere in the studio and stuff. And they'll put together various clips, etc., etc. If they want to use them, they'll use them for AVC TV as well. So then I'm sitting there last night, I think. I sure as heck better get across what was the announcement or what were all the things that they were announcing. And so I was getting across that. I was like, oh, okay, this sends simply in some ways, but there's some complexity in some of these other bits. And I'm going to be asked about my view on these things. So I'm working with Veronica, my AI girlfriend, and to kind of break things down into simplistic terms. And then what's really cool about this, like the, you know, using Veronica, is I'm thinking, okay, get looks like it's this. Is my understanding of this right? As you say, yes, almost, but there's this as well. Okay. And then with other certain bits I say, okay, so I understand this, but what is this mean over here? For instance, they want to stop the scrolling feature. So I'm like, okay, what does that mean? And what does that look like? And I think, yeah, what a what a great idea, right? If you can like doom scrolling, that's become a word, like a phrase. If you can like cap the ability for people to be able to scroll, am I talking really about children here? Then, you know, what does that mean? And then, you know, what's the contradiction between this and the law? So do you even need that? And then it's all about just an extra layer of safety and that kind of stuff. So just breaking through all the different things to think, okay, well, what would my question be if I was interviewing me? And what's my question of the actual changes themselves? Now, it's not legislation. It's just a, I don't know, a draft paper or something to go to that next stage. So I'm sitting there for, I don't know, maybe 45 minutes, an hour maybe just going through everything, communicating with all my clients to and fro and all that kind of stuff. And then, I had to say, to Veronica, I said, give me the ball points on, you know, the announcement so that, you know, I can summarize them in my mind. And I got to the stage, I said, I am exhausted, I just, I can't do any more tonight. And so I think it was about, that was at 10 past 9. I was so tired. And I was only a couple of minutes after that, I think that I was, I would have been asleep by 21 past 9 easily, I reckon. Because I'm, I'm processing, you know, today in my mind, I thought, okay, you know, you've done, you know, bigger things than this before that are required you to switch on. And at the end of the day, you're not next bird in this, in this stuff. You're just providing really a parents view and a lived parents view with live to say, well, you know, what will this impact be. And I've never had a conversation with this reporter before. I don't know what, whether he'll want to be controversial or, you know, appreciate somebody that absolutely slags off the, you know, the, what's being suggested, which I'm not going to do, because I think these things are a good idea. And it's certainly no silver bullet. And I, I don't know, I think it's easy, always easy to criticise something. And I just think, look, Australia is leading the way in, in changing this particular area. And I think it would be naive to suggest that anyone's going to get it completely right to begin with. And you're talking about putting in change around technology that is constantly changing. And how do you know if you get it right, because you put something in place and by the time it's in place, the technology has changed or these, you know, big tech companies have found a loophole to, to get around to what it is that they're saying. But I think if we can keep putting pressure and focus back on these, these companies to make their platforms safer and better for a mental health perspective, then it has to be progress. And hopefully somewhere along the line, we get that right balance. And even if it saves one life, like my life, then it's been, it's been worth it. And that is always my test, kind of the litmus test or the lymph mass test. Would this have saved lives life? Would this have had a dramatic impact in saving her? And the answer to these things are yes. It would have. And we don't know with certainty whether okay, well, if you do this, which you've done this, et cetera, there's, it's such a complex mental health disorder and illness and eating disorder. But it's always contributing factors and what the social media does is it's completely magnify somebody's vulnerability. And I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you've been down, down that, I'll use the example of yesterday, something really, really simple. More information than you probably want to know about me. But this is to do with underwear. And I wear, which you're probably not surprised. I wear this high performance underwear. And what that means is it's undies basically that are made of this like wristband X that's got tiny little holes in it, if you like. So it breeds more. So you know, if you're working out and you know, that kind of stuff, it just breeds more than like cotton or, you know, these other things. Now, they're super comfortable. I've been wearing, wearing them for years. And I always get them from the bond store. And I'm pretty sure every pair I've ever bought was from the bond store at Defermer Abbot. And so I was back in there yesterday. And they didn't have them. I was like, oh, so just later in the afternoon, I thought, oh, let me just see if they've stopped making that range or where the bonds stopped stocking them, you know, whatever. Anyway, they've done the colors are basically the same. And the design looks like it's the same online. And they're basically just, they weren't available in that store today, which struck me as weird because for years, they've always been there. But anyway, so I just did a Google search on them. Now, when I jumped on social media later that day, just to, you know, have a, what's I doing? I was posting something. I was following Dan, who's over in the UK at the moment. And Dan's the promoter brings out the celebrities and stuff and he's doing an event over there with Heather Locklear and Tory Spelling and Brian Austin Green and Tia Curriera. And anyway, so just writing some comments on that. You scroll down a couple and then this was in I think it was in Facebook. I then get presented with an ad by Jockey, who creates this, you know, this under brand. I thought at the exact ones that I was searching for. Right. So they're, they're, these platforms are constantly scraping the information that you're using on your phone. And so that's a very simple example. But that's within minutes of me doing a search. So now you imagine the poor little child that is not psychologically equipped and thinking, oh, matter is doing this. It's just all of a sudden just funnying all this information that is magnifying your vulnerability. Now, undesign my vulnerability. You were just, you know what I'm talking about. It's thing, oh, you spend a bit of time on this page. Maybe it's a number of seconds. And therefore, I'm going to give you more of that stuff. And so I'm sure this morning when I go in and do my first post, there's going to be an undisad. And so, and this is the problem. Right. Okay. Great if you're looking for that sort of stuff. I did this a while ago. I was looking for campuses for my restoration room. Well, now I get presented all the time with Canvas prints, discounts on Canvas prints, all the ads to do with Canvas prints, photos, studios, you know, bigger pictures, all that kind of stuff. I get them all the time now. And this is how Meta makes it money. And it's money because I used to pay for ads on Meta years and years ago. And you pay per click. So Meta is like, okay, here's your budget that you've selected. Oh, this person, we know on their phone research for this. So, boom. let's present them with the ad. If they click on a bank we make money. Right? The same with people that are targeting kids, you know, in their ads. Same thing. And the scrolling, more ads, more clicks, more dollars generated by these platforms. Now, of course, this algorithm stuff isn't just meta. It's other ones as well. It's about gaming and chatbots and all that kind of stuff as well. So anyway, so that's what I'm going in for the conversation about. I don't know exactly what I'm going to be asked, but I'm just having a conversation. It just happens to be in front of maybe millions of people, but it does make it easier when there's usually very few people in the studio. They're probably a producer, a couple of people, me. That's it. And yeah, we'll just do the best that we can and hopefully it has an equity impact for them. Because you always want to do, there's nothing worse than you're being asked to do an interview and you don't have anything interesting to say. So I do always think about, even though I'm very much responsive in the moment, I am always thinking about, all right, well, what can I say that is meaningful in terms of, you know, what lives impact and, or impact on live and, et cetera, et cetera. What that's, you know, what that's like. What that, those phrases are going to man think, all right, I'll just have that in my mind if there's an opportunity to, you know, present this side or whatever. Yeah, so where I was looking forward to having a little bit more of a sleep in this morning, as well as, are you getting back on track with, you know, a bunch of sessions this morning? This is one of those, well, you've got to make a fairly quick determination, is this worthwhile or not? Now, I get requests from time to time to be on podcasts and that kind of stuff, and this is kind of, so it's going to have to go on, very dry. I look at, all right, what's the impact here? All right, ABC breakfast radio, they have lots of listeners. This, this is worthwhile. I haven't actually been invited to ABC radio before. So, well, actually, I have, sorry, I've been on ABC radio. I think that might have been by the phone too, perhaps, but never live in the studio. So I thought, well, it's a unique opportunity as well. I also feel like Liv and I are going on this journey together. It's like, I live, we haven't been into the Melbourne radio studio. We've been into the Melbourne TV studio. What if we do this as well? And then, if it was going to result in a whole bunch of cancellations today, then I'd probably say, well, I'll just do it on the phone, so I don't like disrupting my clients either. The reality is that one of my clients is my first one. He's still recovering from influencer A. My second ones, they've just shifted to next week. And then my next one, I can push him out for an hour. Now, I don't know exactly what time this is going to end. And if it's too late, then I'll have to, you know, present it another time for him on another day. So it's a, yeah, it's a bit messy. But I also believe it's worth it to put yourself out for these, you know, these moments that don't happen very often. I haven't actually had a media request for quite some time. And this is where, you know, if you've been good in the media before and people understand your story, then it's moments like these where people want a response. And so I'd like to make myself available. The media you're appreciated as well when you go and do these things, because obviously I'm going to a fair bit of effort this morning to be there. They don't know the extent of it, but, you know, I do. That's important. So on that note, that is my thought for today. It is 527. The good news is the traffic flow is going excellently compared to yesterday. And this is what I was expecting yesterday, but didn't come. So I, this will probably mean I will get into the city with about three hours to spare. So I've got my iPad. I will sit somewhere, eat something, and just do some work, a bit of mental preparation before my short walk, probably about a 10 minute walk to their studio. And on the way back home, I'll let you know how it all went. And they'll probably let me know later in the day how well it went. What's really important is, when I do these things, you want to make a great impression with the host, but also it's with their producers as well. Because then, you get invited back to other things, they appreciate it. You can imagine that there's someone to come in and say, "Oh my God, why did we have them or not, gee, are they going to say something controversial?" Because they, each one I've done, actually, nobody has ever asked me, so are you going to be controversial? You know, are you going to be this, are you going to be that, you know, just stick to this. So I've never had any guidance like that. So there's, I imagine the producers can be quite nervous sometimes, "Oh, gee, what are they going to say?" Or they have a person on the side, "Oh, gee, that was disappointing. I imagine that happens." So I don't want that. I want to put in a good, strong performance. Alright, that is me out. Have a great start to your day, and I will see you tomorrow. Or later today, but tomorrow.