Laurie Smale on Reinvention, Mentorship, and Technology

Laurie Smale on Reinvention, Mentorship, and Technology

Nigel Rawlins: Welcome to the Wisepreneurs Podcast, a place where we share stories of starting over no matter where you are in life. Today I'm thrilled to introduce Laurie Smale, a 79-year-old who makes you wonder if there's anything he can't do. Picture this, a kid working in a junkyard at 13, a university grad at 37, and now a YouTube storyteller lighting up screens.

Lori's life isn't a straight line. It's a beautiful, messy map of courage and curiosity. With a little help from mentors and a lot of grit, he's turned fears into triumph. Fear is fear. It doesn't matter if you're 78 or 18, he says, if you've ever wondered what's next for you, Lori's story might just spark an answer.

Come join us on Wisepreneurs to hear how he did it and maybe find your own next step.

Laurie, welcome to the Wisepreneurs podcast. Can you tell us something about yourself and where you're from?

Laurie Smale: Well, I was born in a little place called Donald about four and a half hours drive from Melbourne, a long way away. And, I was living there because my dad had TB. And, sadly, we thought that the weather had something to do with ameliorating diseases like that, but it didn't. And he died when I was three.

So I've never really known a father's, a father's love, a father figure in my life, so I substituted other people as father figures, and they're these key mentors that have made a difference to me as I've, as I've traveled along. One of the first ones was old Bill Menzies in the junkyard. Uh, I, I still, I still worship that man.

He was just such a beautiful human being and look, with my three other brothers, we battled along and I dunno what happened, but somewhere along the way when I was a little boy, I, I, I just didn't get maths and I sort of became so frightened of it. It's actually got a technical name nowadays, but it, it tormented me for the next 30 years of my life.

That was one of the reasons why I found myself working at manual jobs. Later on in life, computers were equated with this math fear. Hence why I'm starting this exciting new journey at 79 to face these fears. And, and deal with them. I did deal with them earlier, but I didn't know that the computers would rear their ugly head and become this math thing again. I was behind the eight ball when, when they came out.

Nigel Rawlins: So, you left school at 13, so what did you go and do?

Laurie Smale: Well, I ran away from school at 13. I didn't leave school. I, I ran, uh, I, I was, I was belted. I was belted by the maths teacher and humiliated every day, and I just couldn't take anymore. So that's when I went to work at the junk yard because I, Old Bill didn't do that to me. He taught me all about, all about antiques and scrap metals, and I still have that knowledge today. I can walk into an antique shop and I'm knowledgeable about things like that. The Antique Road show. I love it. And I found myself working in a, an Italian glass factory at Frankston, the Murano Mosaic Tile Factory, and these were the days of the Dago and I was frightened.

They were looked down upon by us Aussies, and I was led to believe, not from my mum by the way, but just the general population that they were dirty, they ate rats, all this sort of stuff. And I found that they were wonderful, warm people and they ate things that I never dreamed of off, and I wanted to be like them.

And I worked as this little boy, 13-year-old. Seven days a week. I lived in that factory. I slept beside the furnace. It was nice and warm. They fed me with lasagna and all sorts of wonderful things. I lived like a king, so much so that I wanted to be an Italian. I. I wanted to learn their language, and I've spent the rest of my life learning it, and finally ended up going to university when I was 37 and majoring with honors, I might add.

But that school thing took me decades to have the courage to take that first step. I was uneducated. I'd never read a book in my life until I was twenty-two and I was quite proud of it. How sad is that?

Nigel Rawlins: Now that's an interesting point 'cause I wanna come back to that. Obviously you had a thirst or a hunger for learning and, and something motivated you. But let's go back to the junkyard, Old Bill. Now, it's interesting, I, I was a teacher and look a, it was basically what they were trying to teach you was arithmetic in those days.

And it was by rote, it was shoved down your throat and, I'll be honest, I think most people run a mile than try and do basic arithmetic. You try and give some change at the supermarket and they dunno what to do with the the coins. They can't figure it out. And, and so arithmetic is still a problem today, but I remember when I was teaching in a primary school, this was many, many years ago, it would've been over 40 years ago in a little country town called Moonambel.

Across the road, there was a woodyard and the old guys who worked in there were in their seventies. They were lean, leathery and wise to the world, and it just sounds like old Bill. These guys.

Laurie Smale: just.

Nigel Rawlins: They were smart, they were intelligent. They didn't have schooling, but they were knowledgeable and I think, I think that's one of the issues today that we underestimate people.

It doesn't matter if they haven't been to university, they're still wise and they can pass something on and if we overlook them, yeah. Okay. So. Basically what you found is, is that you were mentored. I would suggest that you were mentored when you were in the Italian factory, but what I was trying to think about, you've gone from Donald to Frankston, that's a long distance away from home.

So how did you end up in Frankston?

Laurie Smale: Well, it, it was all, all because of necessity. There was my mum, twenty, twenty-two or something with three kids under four and we ended up in a little place called Moe. Now Moe is near Yallourn or big coal mines were and the power station. And we lived in a government house. We lived there for a year. And then Mr. Kessel one day loaded us on the back of his truck, just like those jalopies you see in the dust Bowl of America with the, those people that fleed all the dust and the poverty. And we made our way to Seaford, which is next to Frankston, and that's pretty well where I grew up. That's where the junkyard was, sort of between Seaford and Frankston, and it was still wilderness.

I go there now and I don't, you know, you've ever gone back to a place when you were a little boy and you, you're lost. You think it's, it's not the same. Well, that's what Seaford it is today. It's all built up. But there were rabbit snakes and foxes, literally thousands of swans in the wetlands where we lived, we called it the swamp.

But you don't do that nowadays. You call it the wetlands. Thank you. A lot of money to buy a house there now, but not when we went there. And, uh, there was my mum and, and we had no electricity. No water. The, the 'Night Man' came, we call him the dunny man, and um, it was really something straight out of the 1850s, no electricity.

So we had the old, um, kerosene lamp and when the Tilley lamp came out, you pumped. It was just unbelievable, this bright light. So I've got lots of interesting memories. But all the while I had a lot of enthusiasm for life, but I was just a, a, a wild urchin who, uh, had a insatiable cur curiosity for the world around me, and I've never lost that.

Um, but I ended up being uneducated really, until I was 30 years old.

Nigel Rawlins: Well, when you say uneducated, do you mean school educated or university educated?

Laurie Smale: School education, which which became a big fear for me. However, I did learn a lot about life. I learned the art of handling people by listening to people like Old Bill Menzies, listening to people like Sandy in the Concrete Gang when I worked for the Chelsea Council, because I didn't think I had a story to share.

So I'd listen to these guys for hours. And I soak in their worldly wisdom, which you can't get at a university. And, uh, I didn't realize how enriched I was becoming. And I draw on this in my role now as being a mentor to other people who spend their lives running from their fears, whatever they are. I sort 'em out.

I say, do you want to be like me? Do you wanna, because help's around the corner. It really is. But if you're on the run, you don't see that.

Nigel Rawlins: Now it's interesting. We were introduced by. Sue Ellson, she was the guest on the podcast, would you say that she's mentored you into this new part of your life that you're doing? So tell me a bit about that.

Laurie Smale: She, she was a female, Bill Menzies, and he was a wonderful, wonderful person in my life as indeed the Italians and other figures that have, that have passed my way. And I've soaked in old Sandy on the concrete gang, and Sue has now part of that pantheon of wonderful, wonderful people that mean a lot to me.

Nigel Rawlins: So tell me, have you not been working for a few years or you've been working or suddenly at 79, you've decided I've got more to add.

Laurie Smale: I, I never dreamed that I would be sitting here with you, Nigel, uh, two years ago. I thought I'd miss the boat as far as computers. They'd tormented me for years. I was a notable, as you recall, and renowned and respected business person in the communication field, in the field of helping other people believe in themselves and communicate with confidence.

But I was still living in a world I thought I'd get away, I could get away without having to deal with computers because it wasn't really a computer world even in the eighties. We could still use emails. Yeah. Yeah. I'll use that. You'd do the mail post out, you'd send out thousands of letters and you'd do thousands of phone calls and you'd go and meet people and that, but then all of a sudden, almost overnight, I was redundant and all these things that I've got to share. They'd had their day. I had no outlet. Everyone was talking about social media and this, that, and the other, and it overwhelmed me. It scared me. And for 15 years, I, I began to realize that I had my day. And then I heard about a person called Grandma Moses. I just happened to hear about her, 78 she was. And, someone discovered her.

The truth was she'd been painting all her life, dabbling in her own little way. Someone saw her, liked what she did. She even has some of her paintings now having hanging in the White House. She's a an American icon, Grandma Moses. She lived to a hundred, still painting. I thought, wow, if she can do it, I'm gonna ask for help. And there I was at 78 when most people at 78 have got their feet up in their chair with their rug round them, and it was all downhill from here, not me, because fear is fear. Doesn't matter whether you're 78 or 18, if you are scared of something, you've gotta seek help, and I help people who have got some sort of fear about something, get help.

And lots of times I can be the help. I can throw the switch. So that from one day to the next, they're on the new path. And that's what happened to me with Sue. I thought I'd write a book, I've written three books, all about helping yourself communicate with confidence. Believe in yourself. Know, you've got a story to tell. Know, you're not an empty vessel and bad luck for you 'cause that's what life dished up for you. No, we've all got a wealth of experience to share. Our story is that wealth of experience, our personal stories. How many people tell me, oh, I wish I could be like you, you live such an interesting life. I haven't, it's been pretty mundane and I stopped them there.

And I said, now listen, you've got a very interesting life I've been listening to over this chat. And, believe me, your story's my story.

Nigel Rawlins: They haven't been heard have they?

they

So how did you come across Sue?

Laurie Smale: So I wrote my books, and then I thought, I'm good at telling stories. Oh, by the way, don't be ashamed. I tell people, of saying I'm good at something, others will put you down. So I say I'm good at telling stories, which I had been. Why don't I, why don't I put my book, Finding Me, Finding You, that's the title of it. Before you can help someone else find themselves, you've gotta find yourself first. That's one of my mottos. Get the other person right first. So I did, I sought out a man by the name of Dave Stokes, made a little sound studio, sought out some help with a techo guy to set it up so I would sound professional. I. And I did, and I do sound professional and I share this lovely, lovely book of inspirations, other people's stories, my story to help them cast off fears and start walking tall, looking the world in the eye. And when I finished that, I thought, well, I'm probably ready for this next step.

I said, do you happen to know someone that could help me a little bit with LinkedIn? He said, I know just the person. Now, that little, that little question that asking for help changed my life. So I rang up Sue. It was funny after about two sessions, she said, to be quite honest, I didn't know what hit me.

She said, you were such a breath of fresh air. She said, and and the age you are and, and we've been on this journey, the journey of changing. Talk about educating Rita. This was educating Laurie. I didn't even know what a hashtag was. I can remember saying what exactly is a hashtag. I'm 78, mind you.

And I've gone from there in one year to being here with you, a respected, professional podcaster, respecting me as one of your interviewees. I manage my own website. I've got my own Magic Minutes, which thousands now watch, and, I'm going places in this new world.

Nigel Rawlins: And it's fascinating because what's obviously gone through your career is that you've come across the right people to help you stay on track and move forward, and you reached, and obviously with Sue, that's through a network. And I should say that I came across you more than 30 years ago when I first quit teaching and joined the national speakers.

One of our other, uh, guests who's been on the podcast, Meredith Fuller, suggest I get out and network. And in those days, the only way to network is you had to physically go places. You, you know, you can't just email or, or like somebody on LinkedIn. And that's where I came across you. And I realized in those days that, uh.

And you know, I do remember they used to say you had to get on the phone, you had to get meetings, you had to write letters, you had to really work. But I was too young. I was also not young. I wasn't young. I was too naive to understand how it worked. I mean, years later I do, but it shifted. But networking was really important.

Who do you know and who do you know? And can you ask for help? Which is what you've just told us that you did. Okay, so let's move on a little bit. You've had a varied career. Who would you say you are today then?

Laurie Smale: Who am I today? I'm, uh, I'm a wealth of worldly experience who can humbly share this with others who now knows that many people, and we look up to them, but they're harboring stuff that are holding them back and never shed it, never cast it off. So I don't go up and, and, and preach and say, Hey, listen, I can, no, no, no, no. I've got a, I've got a be at the right place at the right time, and someone might just say, oh, I can't do that, or I can't do this, and never have always been scared of that.

And then I can share a story or two to get them thinking.

Nigel Rawlins: Seems like old bill.

Laurie Smale: just like old bill.

Nigel Rawlins: He had time, didn't he?

Laurie Smale: Yeah.

Nigel Rawlins: I think that's the difference. Today, I dunno if we've got that time to hear.

Laurie Smale: In fact what you said is lovely. I'll take that away from this little chat. I've become an Old Bill with, with young Laurie's, wide-eyed and bushy tailed, and eager to know about the world, and I'm talking about 30, 40, 50 year olds behaving like young Laurie, when the right person's in front of them.

Nigel Rawlins: And it's lucky if they can come across you. Alright, let's move on to something else now. Technology. Now, we had a bit of a, a tech hiccup when we were starting this, so, um.

Laurie Smale: I was gonna bring

that

up

Nigel Rawlins: Well, look, it happens a lot, um, in producing this podcast, I use an online studio, a virtual studio, so we have to log into it.

We can see each other like a Zoom meeting, but we've gotta make sure the recording is working. So we need a mic and we need the hearing, and, and we had trouble figuring it out, which obviously is an issue when you're a bit older. I'm not saying you are old, but technology is something you've grasped onto, and I think with Sue's help as well.

YouTube, with your Magic Minutes how have you adopted technology to work at 79?

Laurie Smale: Well, I think, I think we've, we've gotta, we've gotta run with it. This is the world and, uh, y young people, when I say young people, people under 40, that's how they communicate.

And, if we don't, we are seen as old fogies living in another world. And then you'll see older people, some in their sixties or seventies, freely, freely on social media, talking to the grandkids and whatever, and well, I wasn't part of that. Two years ago I wasn't part of it. I'm gonna share something with you now, which was, which was something I was ashamed of. Just two years ago before I met Dave Stokes and did my book. I reverted for a year to gathering scrap metal off nature strips. I went back to the junkyard. I said, well, at least I know about metal and, and I'm gonna spend the whole year gathered. So I gathered these heaps of aluminum and stainless steel and brass and gun metal and copper and all that. And the big day came and I took it down to the scrap yard about five trips, and I can still remember what I ended up with after that years of work. $928 I, no, no. What the hell are you doing? You've been this wonderful, knowledgeable person and changed the lives of thousands and you've been doing this for a year. And that's one of the reasons what sparked me off and said, you're better than that. Not looking down on people. I put myself in that position and, um, and so I know I'm excited about this and, but I'll tell you now, while we were trying to figure out all those wires and you were getting me to look at my settings and that the panic, the panic did rear its ugly head a little bit, but now it never runs my life anymore. I didn't sound frightened, did I? When we sort.

Nigel Rawlins: Mm, no, we did.

Laurie Smale: And, and luckily you were a kind person and, and stuck with me and said, yeah, okay, it took us about 15 minutes, but, but you didn't, you know, look down on me and make a big

deal

Nigel Rawlins: No, I'm used to it now, to be honest. Um, yeah, no, one of, one of the people who've been on this podcast three times has the same problem every time. You know, I, I wanna scream, but I don't, and you know. We've got time when we're a bit older, that's one, one of the luxuries we, well, we dunno how much time we've got left, but we have a different approach to time at our age.

So what do you recommend for others? Well, obviously what I'm, I'm nearly 70 so from the age of 60 on say, what do you recommend they look at in terms of digital tools and online stuff? If they're not really comfortable with it, how do they approach it?

Laurie Smale: Well, the whole thing can be overwhelming. Not can be it. It is. Now, we don't have to know how everything works. All the little binary yes nos going behind the billions of little on offs with, we don't need to know about that. In any little operation I've found there was probably four or five key things to press.

And we can change our lives with those key things to press. And so do one thing at a time like I do with, with with Sue, I just do one little aspect of it. I will watch her zoom that she sends me each day religiously for 10 minutes. So that that soaks in and reconfigures my fear with those five or so six things to press and I end up being able to write, produce, and be be the participant in my Magic Minutes. It all came from not trying to do everything. And so I say to older folk, don't be overwhelmed, just stick to a little thing and master that. Master that first. Baby stuff. But no one knows that. When they see you do it, they go, ah, this guy's clever.

Nigel Rawlins: They forget the little steps that come to it. All right. So what tech are you actually using?

Laurie Smale: tax?

Nigel Rawlins: sorry, technical stuff or technical equipment

Laurie Smale: Oh, technical stuff. Oh, well, um, I've got an incredible little camera and apparently if you look at my Magic Minutes, apparently it's of movie quality.

Now I didn't know that. I went to this company and I just said, I want a good camera. Oh, well this is the one we use. Well, apparently it's really top notch and, um, and it only cost me $800 and it just gives you these beautiful movies.

So what did I do with that? I phoned up someone to help me with it. And do you know, that wasn't easy. I, I remember I went to, um, a big department store and I went to the computer department and I said, hey, look, I'm, I, I've got a camera and I'm not sure how to use it. Um, oh, well, you know, call up the company or read this or read that and it's all too much.

And so I looked up audio, audio technician. Now I thought that they'd go in and, you know, just sort stuff out. And I just found a guy who came all the way out. He normally deals with large companies, you know, doing movies. And he, he liked my enthusiasm so much. He liked my genuineness. He could see I was, I desperately needed help, but I wasn't gonna waste his time. And he set me up. I paid him his professional fee for his hour. I did about 10 hours with him. He showed me how to use this camera and make my Magic Minutes, a lovely, lovely man.

Nigel Rawlins: So what camera is this that you're talking about? What type was it?

Laurie Smale: Uh, it's a Sanyo, just a little, little square one. Little tiny one that fits on a tripod. I've got certain things to do, but before I do a Magic Minute, I've got an hour set up each time and then I've got to, to rehearse it and which I do on a tablet, which clips into the front of my teleprompter.

And so I don't read it, but it's there so that I can be natural and, and you know, I've gotta tell a story that's got a beginning, middle, and an end that's captivating. That means something that's entertaining, that's inspiring all in 60 seconds.

Nigel Rawlins: And yet it takes you an hour to set it up.

Laurie Smale: Well, it's taken me a lifetime to set it up.

Nigel Rawlins: But even more, what do you do after you've recorded it?

Laurie Smale: Well then after recorded, this is all thanks to Sue. Then I edit it. I download it, I upload it, I sideload it. I do all those things that I, I didn't even know anything about. Two years ago I was collecting junk and thinking that was where Laurie was gonna end

up.

Nigel Rawlins: You'll laugh. I'm, I'm thinking about Steptoe and Son that nobody young would probably know. Remember Steptoe and Son?

Laurie Smale: Of course

Nigel Rawlins: loved him.

Laurie Smale: I do. That was me. That was me. And so, so then I edit it, and I did one this morning, actually. It took me about three hours go from beginning to end and pressed the YouTube button.

Nigel Rawlins: I had a look at a few this morning. They are very professional. Um, so have you touched on AI yet? Or artificial intelligence, any of that stuff?

Laurie Smale: No, but, uh, I picked up your enthusiasm for, for it and, you hear all this negative stuff, but I think that there'd be lots and lots of good things that you could do with it. The one thing I'm not afraid of is that there's only one Laurie Smale in the world. And so even if someone copied one of my things and duplicated me, it would never be me. It wouldn't have the soul and heart of who I am. And so if whenever I go in front of an audience. That's my magic. That's the magic I weave on an audience, even via social media.

Nigel Rawlins: Well, the, the main thing about AI for people at our age, 'cause one of the issues is that you can easily trust it and just use it, say, to create social media posts or something like that. But the benefit of our age is that we have got a long history of knowledge so that when we look at the output, we can say, that's not right.

That's rubbish. We're able to evaluate it. Whereas I think sometimes the younger ones are just kicking out 50 social media posts, which they can do with AI. They're not necessarily reading it or making sure that it means anything and, and that's one of the issues for us as older adults or older.

I dunno what we call ourselves when we're older, but, you know, technology

Laurie Smale: Hmm.

Nigel Rawlins: just something that we can use. But I'm, I'm very pleased to hear that Sue was able to get you tuned into it and, and, uh, we will put Sue's information in the show notes. Okay? Let's go back to this. You returned to school to earn a degree in your forties.

So one of the things I do notice, and I can hear loud and clear is that you've spent a life of continuous learning. You're still curious. What do you suggest for other people who are in their sixties and, and you've met some who say, well, I haven't done much in my life, but what should they learn?

Laurie Smale: Well, they, they should learn that, which scares them. When I was 30, I didn't know, I knew what a full stop was, but I didn't know what a colon was of semicolon or a paragraph 30, 30, mind you. So I went and bought a little book. I was in London, working on a building site, and I went and bought a book called, You've Got a point Here, You've Got a Point Here.

And then I bought a, bought another book about, Men and Nations. I still remember it. I was uneducated in a school sense, not a worldly sense. And I sat down overnight in these building sites. They let me live there if I looked after and stop robbers pinching their materials. And I had a little globe, a light globe, and I would read out loud and slowly but surely I began to see how to form a sentence, sentences, one idea, a paragraph is one idea and, and what the different punctuation marks and that meant.

My advice would be to, to tackle that which you are afraid of. Go and buy a book. Go and seek someone out and enroll or learn that. And before you know it, and when I say before you know it as the days, as the weeks, as the months go by. As the years go by you then find what's the next step that I'm scared of?

Because it's all about fear that you've been sidestepping. Or avoiding all your life. A bit like me at 78 with social media. I hit it head on, but baby steps was what I wanted someone to help me with. I once had a guy help me with maths when I was going to uni and he just went straight in.

It was just too much. I wanted baby steps stuff. I wanted to know that if you multiply a number, it gets bigger and you divide it gets smaller. That's where I wanted to be. So there you've gotta take control. I'd tell them. And go back and get someone to help you step by step, and you'll be excited about it because someone's helping you.

Nigel Rawlins: Yeah, but that's the issue, isn't it? If, if they don't understand what the little steps are and they try and give you the big steps, they lose you. And this is the trouble with, you know, being too much of an expert. It's very difficult to explain things to people. But what I'm hearing is basically throughout your life, you've been reinventing yourself.

And here you are.

Laurie Smale: Yeah. But with the help of others. When I first decided to get an education, which was a big fear, it was another fear. I've had these fears I've overcome. Just like social media was more than the fear, it was a, it was a nightmare, hence the Steptoe experience.

And for some reason that that was supposed to help me avoid it. What a laugh. But, it took a lot of courage for me to go back to school to even utter those words, and that happened, I was in a motorbike accident and I remember I was a Mr. Minute. Yet, another thing I've done, I went from engraving to running five stands throughout the Sydney area and Canberra, being the supervisor. And I couldn't add up and they didn't know it 'cause I didn't tell them. In the end, it caught up with me and I had to run away again. And I was in a motor accident trying to get my foot better. It was really bad. And I was walking down a street, I had to walk for a few hours each day and I heard some kids in a school room, and I remember I was 37 and they're enjoying themselves and I looked through the window, I can still remember looking through the window and and I saw a cell, a cell on the blackboard, and the teacher and the kids were interacting and a, and, and this bolt of shame went through me. I did not understand what they were saying, and I was 37, and then and there I decided I was gonna go back to school.

And that's what I say about helping other people. They say, oh, you might, if you throw the switch, they can change their life along the new path from one day to the next. And I did go back to school. I bought a whole package of Time Life books. 20 of them to read everything there is to know about the world.

I thought that was the answer. Of course, it was knowledgeable and I became pretty good at Trivial Pursuit. But, but, but it was a wonderful step along the way. And when I went back to school and I went to TAFE in Collingwood with a, another lot of also rans like me. That's, that's who my classmates were.

I was 40, they were 18, My view of where I was going was to be a park ranger. That's what I thought, if I got year 12, remember I left school in year seven because I didn't get that. Now, how was I gonna attack year 12, which I did. Not only did I get through, but I got enough marks to get into Melbourne Uni. Freak out.

I took a year off. Just to learn typing, learn, and stuff like that. I went to Melbourne Uni a year later. I made friends with four or five young people and stayed with them for, for four years. They helped me and I helped them with life and that's where my whole new path of being an educated literate, confident person, and that's when you met me at the national speakers.

Nigel Rawlins: And so you made the shift, what, what we call working with the hands to working with the mind. Here you are today. So that's one heck of a transition, isn't it? And that's the nature of the world today. We're moving away from using our hands to using our heads. It's a very different world from, you know, when you're lighting that Tilley Lantern.

And we should explain to people we're talking about Australia, 'cause you live in Australia, so some of these places are in the state of Victoria that we're talking about, and Melbourne University is, is there. You relaunched at 78

Laurie Smale: Can't believe it. And, and I've gotta say yes, I've been launched, launched onto the social media.

Nigel Rawlins: And this is the world that we live in. And how long do you think you can keep doing this for? I mean, you've only just started.

Laurie Smale: Yeah. Look, it has no end. It's like a hobby, but I've gotta pace it. I don't need to chase all the business like I did when you met me. I've now had my family, I've done my best, you know, a lot of room for improvement, but, you know, I'm quite proud of the effort I've made.

But I'm quite happy. I'm quite happy to sell a few books, make a difference to people, but not be the big, uh, world renowned guru, but, but certainly be well renowned and respected and have something to say.

Nigel Rawlins: I totally agree with that. I mean, look, I spend a lot of time researching, writing, and I still have a number of clients I look after, but I do not wanna spend the whole day inside in an office. Now I work from home now, have an office, but I can't wait after this conversation to get out on my bike and go for an hour, just get, get out in the bush a bit, and I can't wait to get out in the garden and do a few of the jobs. I don't wanna be like you, you said, I don't wanna be the full-time guru or anything like that, but like you, I want to do the bit where I can help. I.

Laurie Smale: Oh, but if we don't help ourselves, we can't help others. And so we've gotta do, we've gotta have a nice balanced life. I used to be totally obsessed with, 'cause I always wanted to be someone 'cause I was always on the run of, from me. 'cause I didn't think I was worth much. So I became very good at whatever I did.

I, I was a professional bike rider at one stage in my life, but to the detriment of everything else. I slept, ate, and drank bikes. I even had the bike in my bedroom with me and woe betide anyone anyone if they touched it. I had a horrific accident at the Velodrome in Melbourne.

And, uh, and I never quite made it, even though I was on that bike a few weeks later with a broken collarbone and all that. And I, I think it was a, a good thing, a good lesson, that we must not be totally obsessed with anything. We've gotta have balance. There's other people that need our attention and our love.

My bike's got all of that and only my bike.

Nigel Rawlins: Laurie, it's, it's been a fascinating story. How would you suggest others might like to make this shift?

Maybe they've sort of retired, they, they've got some skills and some knowledge, but they're sort of finding life's not what they were hoping that they, maybe they're getting a bit bored or they want to share something. What advice would you give them to help them make this shift?

Laurie Smale: Well, everyone has a story to tell. Everyone. And your story might be that you're pretty good at growing roses. It might be that you've traveled and you've, you've had some experiences. It might be that you come from a different country and you've got a story behind that of how that happened.

Everyone has a story. Now, there are many groups of people that would love you to come and share it. Now, if you've got a fear of public speaking, pull the chair up in front of them, couch it in different terms, and the fear will go away. Say, I would like to come along one evening with a chair, pull it up in front of your group and have a friendly chat and share a few of my travels, and then you're not public speaking and you're sitting down in front of them and you introduce it as just a friendly chat and get them and say, please ask me questions and make your talk with you answering their questions. I would suggest if I knew what I just shared with your listeners then, and I knew it as an earlier stage before I had the confidence to speak, I would've loved to have done that. It's almost like a wonderful interactive question time. Just have a little beginning and a little finish at the end of it, thanking them and hope we all learn something from there, I certainly did type thing, and share what you do. One of the biggest things we do with ourselves, I'm not really good at anything, I've never done anything. What silly comments. What a, a silly overview of your life, of your decades and decades of living, and sometimes the challenges are worth sharing.

Like I shared about me with a scrap metal just two years ago. That's a valuable story that needs to be told. And I told her for the first time in my life on your program,

Nigel Rawlins: And made $925. Was it

Laurie Smale: $928.

Nigel Rawlins: That's, that's an amazing story. Well, Laurie, you've had an amazing life from the sounds of it, and you've made quite a few shifts. You've reinvented yourself and here you are back, back in the thick of it, sharing your knowledge and all that.

Laurie Smale: Can I just say that this is, it really is like a rebirth. It it, it's that exciting. It's like a whole new career, but where I call the shots of the pace and what I want to do, but it nonetheless, it's, that's exactly what it is. It's, it's a, it's a new Laurie. There are generations that have never heard of me or my stories or what I've gotta offer, and they say, where the hell have you been?

Nigel Rawlins: And I can hear the energy in it and the excitement. So it's, it's like you're a new you. Well, Lori, how are people going to find you? How would you like them to find you or connect with you?

Laurie Smale: While I'm on most platforms and the best way to connect with me would be lauriesmale.com, which would take them to my web or simply look up Laurie Smale Magic Minute. And get to know me, just through those Magic Minutes. And should you need to gain from my knowledge on my website you'll see my books, the three books.

One is Finding Me, finding You, which really shows you how to get you right first. Next one is how to be a Conversational Success. Hey, it's not hard if you know how. To go up to a stranger and see them standing all by themselves at a group and say, hi, what brings you here? This book just reveals all the secrets of how to do that.

And finally, how to take the Panic Out of Public Speaking shows you how to bring all this comfortableness and self-belief up before an audience, so you are in effect having a chat with them, not being a public speaker. And that's what they crave for, but rarely get.

Nigel Rawlins: That is fantastic. Laurie, thank you for being my guest. Um, it's been wonderful speaking to you and seeing you again after all these years.

Laurie Smale: The feeling's mutual, absolute pleasure.