S02E12 A diamond tiara or nothing at all: the neurodiverse brain with Becky Blake

In the season finale, Michael and Dino chat to Becky Blake – tutor, mentor, mother and musician. Having a lived experience of ADHD, Becky discusses the benefits of a brain that is wired differently and how it assists her in her music and teaching.

In the season finale, Michael and Dino chat to Becky Blake – tutor, mentor, mother and musician. Having a lived experience of ADHD, Becky discusses the benefits of a brain that is wired differently and how it assists her in her music and teaching. 

Becky gives the listeners an insight into her family life growing up in country Australia and how it shaped her interest in music, how ADHD has supported her creativity and the importance of an effective work-life balance – including time to entertain others! 

Becky’s website 

https://beckyblake.com.au

[00:00:00] Michael: Hello, and welcome to the integration station, your go-to Pediatric Occupational Therapy podcast, brought to you by the O T F C group. In this episode, Dino and I are joined by Becky Blake and in an integration station. First, the introduction is recorded live.

Here we go. All right. So Becky is a professional musician, mentor, tutor, and Educationalist who has been providing mentoring and tutoring services within Adelaide for over 20 years.

Becky studied piano and voiced the Adelaide Conservatorium and has a degree in psychology, a graduate diploma in education. It was from this that Becky went on to service young people in Adelaide with tutoring and mentor support. Becky is also a member of the well-known Adelaide and internationally recognized band, chunky Custard, as well as having performed her own Fringing Cabaret shows over the many years.

She joins us today from our mile end studio, where she shares her insight into learning music, the busy brain, and how a positive outlook can impact a life’s course. So Becky, thanks for coming in today. My pleasure. Was that okay?

[00:01:16] Dino: That was awesome. Mine. It’s all done live

[00:01:18] Michael: for the first time. Live on air.

Well, thank you very much. Um, again, uh, as you heard from that introduction, just a bit about, um, your, your background. But Dino, you you were gonna start, you had some, something you wanted to start with

[00:01:31] Dino: first up. Oh, we were talking off air initially about where things are at for Becky in terms of, um, her, her practice, her business, and, um, because my children have access.

Becky’s services and have done exceptionally well with her support and help. And to say, particularly my son, no, no. My son who was like, I’m not going, won’t. And then after he came out, I said, was she okay? He goes, yep. He said,

[00:01:58] Michael: we can come back. I

[00:01:59] Dino: said it. Okay. I love your boy. He’s good. So everyone says that about Noah.

So he, if you wanna over Noah, then you know, there’s lots of, and that’s why we refer lots of families to, for that extra bit of help. So where are you at now?

[00:02:11] Becky: Tell us. Well, essentially, um, I think the biggest part of my job is to help kids get their mindsets straight towards their learning and to give them strategies that are gonna maximize, um, their learning potential, whatever, um, issues they have.

Um, and so, um, where my business is at now is that it’s expanded so much and I’m being so busy that I have, I now employ five, um, other tutors. Who help more with the education side of things, but I’ve also trained them up to help within, um, the, the structures and strategies that I put into place. So I, I mean, for example, um, high school maths is not my strong point.

Mm-hmm. Particularly after about, I don’t know. And, and now, like, it’s after about year nine now, because, you know, everything’s done on the graphics calculators. Mm-hmm. I’m not up with a lot of that and the latest curriculums. So, um, yeah, I’ve got some really, really wonderful specialist maths tutors and specialist science tutors who, um, you know, uh, are just really, really great to help.

With that. So at my offices now, it’s a bit like Grand Central Station. I think on a, on a Monday night, I have 28 kids coming through. Wow. Um, some of them are in groups and some of them are, um, individuals with other tutors. So, yeah. Um, so that enables me to, um, up the level of my service because not all of that is my area of expertise.

Um, but also then it frees up my time a little bit to be able to work more one-on-one with the kids, helping them with, uh, getting their mindset straight. Mm-hmm. Helping them understand that, um, just because they have what we call in society a disorder mm-hmm. It doesn’t mean that it actually has to define them or, um, or certainly, um, limit them.

[00:03:56] Dino: That’s a really good point, because I think going back to Noah, that’s what he felt. He, he would often refer to himself as as being dumb. Oh, yeah. I get that a lot. And he, what he gained from coming to see you was that. He can actually, like there’s a pathway for learning. He’s a little bit different, but he’s certainly.

Um, growing confidence and then when, like with us, when confidence is there, then there’s willingness to persist.

[00:04:21] Becky: Absolutely. Mm-hmm. And, and with a bit, bit of understanding and, and I guess a lot of these kids, um, have had so many people tell them that they’re not up to par and they’re not doing things the way they should be doing it.

Mm-hmm. So their self-esteem just plummets. And it, you know, absolutely breaks my heart. Sometimes when they come in, they say, oh, you know, I’m dumb at this and I’m hopeless at this. And, and, um, actually a, a comedian that I was listening to, um, uh, Deborah Francis White, she’s on the guilty feminist and she got recently diagnosed and, uh, with having a D H D and, and she said, um, I dunno why they call it disordered.

She did a great, great analogy. She said, look, it’s like, it’s like my brain is a vending machine that sh that’s supposed to disperse kit cats, right? But on any given day, you might get a diamond tiara or you might get nothing at all depending on when you press the button. And she said, you know, so you’d look at that and you’d, you from one perspective, you’d go, well, that’s disordered.

But then on the other perspective you go, well, there’s so many, there’s so many good things mm-hmm. That potentially come out of this. You might not get a Kit CATT though. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

[00:05:29] Michael: Did you, um, have any inclination when you were younger that, that you felt that. Because you talked about, you know, on your website, busy Brain and ADHD yourself, so mm-hmm.

That lived experience. Did you feel that when you were younger, did you have experiences or that you always found it harder to learn in particular ways? Or what was your

[00:05:48] Becky: experience growing up there? Well, then, yeah, I was diagnosed when I was two. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. You must have been busy. Okay. Back in those days it was playing on hyperactivity.

Yeah. Um, it wasn’t, wasn’t, you know, that didn’t have the ADHD thing. Um, but I think, um, I mean, obviously I was, I was a big disappointment to my mom because she, she just wanted a baby that would, you know, that would sleep, that she could just, you know, dress up and play with and all that sort of thing. And I was just not, um, I think part of the reason for that, I mean, part of the reason it really stood out I think was because my mom and I are still very much polar opposites.

Mm-hmm. So she’s very much a homebody. She’s very much someone who just likes peace and quiet in her own little plot. Whereas I’m st you know, I just love. A change of scene her every five minutes. Yeah. So I think that was, you know, there was the environmental thing there and, and you know, we, we lived away from her family and she missed her family and things like that.

Um, and I was just busy and didn’t sleep. So, um, she did put me, um, on Ritalin for a, a short time. And, um, she said, look, um, she said it did settle you down. Mm-hmm. But she said it kind of made you a little bit like a zombie. And she said, I didn’t want that either. I didn’t wanna stamp that out of you. So I’m glad that she saw that about me.

And so she managed things very well. Um, I was on the fine gold diet from a pretty young age, which just cuts out all, um, natural and, uh, artificial, uh, sugars basically. Okay. So

[00:07:14] Dino: what, what year are we looking? What year are we looking at that? Cause that’s pretty, you know, I’m, I’m only thinking because now there’s two points.

One, yeah. One is to be on a diet like that from where I’m imagining how many years ago that is, is, is quite remarkable. Cause it wasn’t really known at that quite at that point. And the other one is medication at that stage also wasn’t very well prescribed in terms of dosage. So you did have children that were presenting more, like they were just, um, sedated and, and pretty much, yeah.

And whereas look, nowadays it’s such a different process. But the diet one really that’s, she was ahead of her time. Yes.

[00:07:54] Becky: Yeah, very much so. Um, and so yes, she, it was very, um, it was a lot of fruits I even couldn’t have on this diet. Yeah, absolutely. With, with the sugar content fruits, although as a baby as well, I don’t think this helped either.

Um, uh, The nursing mothers told her to give me condensed milk. Oh,

[00:08:12] Michael: milk. That doesn’t have much sugar in it doesn’t.

[00:08:14] Becky: No, no. And then they wonder why I’m bouncing off the wall. So they,

[00:08:18] Dino: that’s okay. Becky, they used to tell our parents to give us a little bit of whiskey in the dummy and the That’s true. Help you go to sleep.

[00:08:25] Becky: That’s times have changed. Yeah. Oh, they certainly have it’s different methods. Yeah. Yeah. So she managed me pretty well. And, um, I think a lot of, at, when I was at school, I, I would be so good at school, I’d, I’d keep a lid on it. I’d, you know, keep everything, but then I’d get home and she’d see the emotional overflow of that, that, you know, all that energy has to go somewhere.

Um, so I was perfect model child and she’d go to school and say to my teachers, what’s going on with back? They go, oh, she’s perfect. Oh, she’s wonderful. Um, but then mom had to learn how to, well, how, firstly, how she could manage me better. And then secondly, to teach me how to. Manage myself a bit better and that was just, you know, basically when I came home from school I needed to go and, you know, sit and mo go and blow off some steam in my room.

Yeah. Do you have siblings as well? I

[00:09:10] Dino: have five siblings. Yeah, I was gonna say, I’m pretty sure you had a, a few, so, well you what, what number? I’m honest you. Yeah. So number, even after you, your parents had more children. Wow. There’s no others of your level of. Hyperactivity from a young age? No,

[00:09:26] Becky: no, no, no, no.

So

[00:09:27] Michael: parenting

[00:09:28] Dino: was easier. Easier. So that’s why they kept having them. Yeah. But that’s lived experience, isn’t it really? You, your connection and understanding of the, the, you know, the people that come to see you. Yeah. Gives you that real, I guess, that stronger connection to really know and understand what they would be going through as well.

And to

[00:09:46] Becky: be able to say to a parent, you know, This is, this is this child trying to regulate their emotions? Yeah. This, this is them trying to find a way and they can’t always use their words. Mm-hmm. Um, and this is one of one thing I’ve really bang on about very big Lee is, is to help kids self-advocate in the school situation.

I had a little boy come in last week and he’d had a relief teacher and his teacher, his regular teacher was fantastic. Had set up these things. He could go out and have some, you know, some, uh, brain. Brain time and, you know, all of this stuff that she’d set up and play with slime on his desk. And the relief teacher wasn’t privy to that and didn’t know that.

Right. So we had a bad week. Mm-hmm. Um, but, but, so we wrote together, we wrote a letter and I said, you can keep a, a copy in your lock and your tray and you can take a, I’ll send a copy to mom and you teach. So they’ve got copies and it just basically said, hi, my name is. Mm-hmm. And these are, this is how I feel.

Um, and I think it’s really important to, for kids to understand terms like emotional regulation or self-regulation because, you know, we are sort of gloss over it and don’t, you know, oh, you know, you’re just having a tanty or you know, tho those sorts of things. And then that we associate that tanty behavior with being bad.

Um, and then kids go, well, I’m bad. And that’s when we get the, I’m, I’m bad and I’m stupid. Um, and then their self-esteem plummets. But when, when you help them understand, it’s actually just my emotions get too big, my, as my emotional control. And, um, you know, if I, if someone can help me, give me the opportunities, this is what I need to do.

Um, please understand that. Um, so we, we, we’ve been writing letters and things, so I think it’s really important to help kids understand, put the, put the vocabulary in them.

[00:11:23] Dino: Absolutely. Is there ever, has there ever been a child or a student that you’ve, that you walked away from and thought, I can’t help this child.

Like I’ve done everything possible and I have been unable to improve their learning ability or their, their, their sense of themselves or how they feel about school or life in general? Has there ever been any of those moments?

[00:11:46] Becky: I, I tend to try not to because I, I do see those kids as a bit of a challenge.

Yeah. So I take on a challenge. I like a challenge. Um, and so generally not, but on occasion, yeah. There have been times when I’ve said to, to the parent, look, I just really feel it’s mainly from an attitude perspective. Yeah. It’s not that they’re not capable, it’s just there’s a block there and sometimes it means going away and coming back a little bit later.

Yeah. Um, when they, but I mean, the seeds have been planted there already if I’ve, if I’ve been working with them. So it might not be quite the right time for those little seeds to blossom, but, you know, it, it’s not like, oh, I’m sorry I can’t help you go away. It’s like, now might not be the right time. Might.

Mm-hmm. So why don’t we give it a break for a bit and then, and then see how we go. Mm-hmm. Um, but yeah, I guess, um, with, with the, the, the busy brain stuff that a lot of that came into play more when I was in high school. Mm-hmm. Um, as it does with a lot of kids. Um, because, you know, up to that point, you’ve, you’ve, you’ve done really well with just.

Going on the fly. Yeah. Um, but then you get to high school and there’s more, um, required in a less amount of time, and that was when I found things a bit trickier. And mom also, although she was great with younger kids, really didn’t know how to talk to teenagers. So, um, I, my grades fluctuated a lot. Um, not because I wasn’t capable, but because, um, I just wasn’t consistent.

Um, I started running my own business when I was 13 as well. I was teaching piano, and by the time I was in year 12, I had, I don’t know, 35, 40 piano students. So I was, and I was playing for playing for dancing classes and, and yeah, had a really good little thing going on because that, you know, that’s the beauty about having a, having a neuro divergent brain.

You, you can do lots of different things. Um, but. And I just, you know, school, just, there were parts of it that just bored me. So you,

[00:13:37] Dino: but you got through, like, you, you, you ended up going to tertiary study as

[00:13:40] Becky: well and Yeah, I think what happened, um, end of year 11, I made a big decision. Cause I mean, I’d done well.

Mm-hmm. Um, just hadn’t done it. Really consistently well. Yeah. Um, and I had, at the end of year 11, I had a friend of mine was leaving and she was gonna go and work in a dress shop, and I went to visit her and I thought, oh, maybe I could do this. And I thought not for, not forever. And uh, and then I looked at trades and you, you know, really for a check.

There wasn’t that much available at that point in time. Still not a lot. Um, and so I went, okay, what if I go back to school? And I think, I think enough of my executive function function had kicked in by that stage to give me something to, to go by. And I just said, look, what if I do or deal with myself and I just do what I have to do.

Yeah. Um, and I think sort of looking at it like, it’s not this massive elephant, it’s actually just these little tiny elephants. And I can, I can, you know, address each of those one by one. Did

[00:14:33] Dino: you have ever have an ally, like in, in terms of a teacher or somebody who took that. Interest because I, I, I would, this is, I would say that I had a similar experience at school, but I, and it, in the end, it was just one teacher who saw beyond.

And then that changed my whole, yeah. Outlook of school. And then I just progressed exceptionally well at school because of it. Just something happened and it was just, I remember the Rob Finnick, if you’re ever out there, that was Rob Finnick. It’s my year five teacher, and it was okay because he saw Beyond the naughty boy.

Yeah. And he. Just thought he just needs a bit of guidance. Mm-hmm. Did you have anybody?

[00:15:13] Becky: Yeah. My year seven teacher, Bruce Ellis, if you’re out there. He was, he was fantastic. Shout out to teachers and Yeah. And I was like really advanced with my, with my literacy skills. Right. So he had me reading Agatha Christie’s and, and doing separate projects Yeah.

On that out. You know, he’d just say, oh, why don’t you read June? Why don’t you read June? And why don’t you, you know, and, uh, write, write this about it. And, you know, so he was always challenging me. So that was cool. And then I got into year nine and um, I had the very, very good fortune of, um, Jeffrey Kong, who I still keep in touch with.

We have, um, really good mates. Um, he took me under his wing, um, as a pianist. So he was my piano teacher. Right, right. And he was the first one that said to me, you know, you are special. You are really good. I can make you. Even better. And he was tough. He was tough. He though he often said, I, I don’t work with very many girls because they can’t take it.

But, um, you know, again, I accept a challenge and, um,

[00:16:09] Michael: saldino stubborn and that’s it. No giving up.

[00:16:12] Dino: That’s, well, you talk about the qualities that you require Yeah. To achieve. And one of them is that being stubborn and it’s not a, it’s not a criticism, it’s an, you know, it’s an advantage in many situations.

Doesn’t always help in some situations. If you can

[00:16:28] Becky: be diplomatic about being stubborn,

[00:16:30] Dino: I dunno the word, it’s, well, it’s, it’s being focused as well, but also the point that he success doesn’t come easily otherwise everybody would be successful. That’s

[00:16:40] Becky: right. Yeah. That’s right. That’s right.

[00:16:42] Dino: So he, he, this is another person, what was his,

[00:16:45] Becky: Jeff Kong.

Jeff Kong, yeah. Yeah. And he, and, and, and I just loved going to school then I’d look forward to going to school and I’d always go to the music things. You know, even, even when I’d, you know, was sort of maybe. Wagon off on a couple of other subjects. Um, but, um, but then, I mean unfortunately, I, I had really poor English teachers in year, um, 10 and 11 and that, that just didn’t help.

Uh, I had a fantastic one in year 12, but I’d already, I hadn’t, I’d missed out on a couple of years of, of really good grounding. Um, but, you know, I still, still did well and, um, and yeah, that, and that year I really pulled it together and it was really surprising at the end of the year, we all got our results and everyone was sharing their results.

Something on more than one occasion, they’d say, you got that score. Yeah. You know, I thought you were dumb. I thought, yeah, great. No, not dumb, just unfocused.

[00:17:42] Michael: Where did music fit into all of that? So you, you obviously still involved in music somewhere along that path. Music. Rung Trudy was the most, as, as something that just made sense to you or allowed you to express yourself? Or how, how does music fit into your

[00:17:56] Becky: life? Yeah, I think it, um, again, it’s a, it’s always a challenge and, um, you know, to learn something new and to master it.

I really liked that. Um, I mean, I started learning when I was four. Um, piano. We, we lived in Outback, rural Outback Australia, and, and there wasn’t a lot for ADHD kids to do. So Mum Funk took me around to the Lutheran lady sport or music, or, oh, there wasn’t even really a lot of sport. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was hermannsburg.

Um, so 160 Ks west of Alice Springs. Right. Wow. That’s not,

[00:18:29] Michael: there wasn’t even, there

[00:18:30] Becky: wasn’t

even.

[00:18:30] Becky: An oval or anything to play sport on. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I, I learned piano and I, and I picked it up really quickly. Um, but then of course, you know, the, the practice is always the hard thing. It’s the struggle to get, get kids to the piano, but, you know, somehow I got enough out of it.

Once, once you get me there, I was fine tinker for ages, but, um, and I, I think, um, I think it just, so then when I left school I was like, I dunno what I wanna do. Uh, so I took a gap year mm-hmm. And did lots of cool things. And, and one of those things was, um, I, I did a part-time TAFE course in commercial music.

Okay. So it was only, it was only six contact hours a week or something like that. And, um, I was put in with a whole group of, a lot of industry professionals were going back and doing this course to then go. Further their, their skills and there’s means little 17 year old with a bad perm and, uh, as

[00:19:26] Michael: you, as it

[00:19:27] Becky: was at the time.

Yeah. And they, and you know, from there they’d, um, you know, one of them just again took me under his wing and said, look, they’re looking for a pianist at the Hilton. Um, I think you’d be great. And so next minute I’m working three nights a week at the Hilton, and then a couple of nights a week at the Hyatt and then down to the ground.

And then a Singapore agent said, um, I’ve just seen, seen you, so, um, do you wanna come and work in, in Malaysia and Singapore? And next thing I know, I’m, that’s what I’m doing. That’s playing and singing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, initially it was just playing and uh, actually when I went to Malaysia and Singapore, I went with, uh, another female for me, female singer.

So I was just doing backings and a couple of songs and then, um, yeah, got thrust into, well, You’re taken over from this and going,

[00:20:11] Dino: was, was your voice natural or was it trained?

[00:20:14] Becky: Um, oh, we did choirs at school. Yeah. But I was never really a big singer. Okay. Um, and it was just kind of added necessity cuz I liked doing the gigs and Right.

So it was like, yeah, okay, I think I can do this. And I had some really good lessons, um, and they helped. Um, but yeah, I’ve had something I’ve had to work at. I’m certainly not a, I don’t have what you call a singer. I’m not a singer singer, but, um, but uh, yeah, I think probably better than

[00:20:38] Dino: me and my car efforts.

And Michael, are you natural at the flute or, uh,

[00:20:43] Michael: he jokes about this all the time.

[00:20:45] Becky: He knows it’s the clarinets,

[00:20:49] Michael: so no. Worked hard, but from a young age. Yeah. I was a mum introduced me to music. I still remember Anne Res, if you’re out there listening, two for music and Kensington there. Yeah. Playing recorder.

And it’s how I got into music as well. And maybe it was just a similar sort of thing. I don’t know. I feel like you see a lot of. Um, particularly something like adhd, a lot of, a lot of performers and artists who said, I have adhd, and maybe it’s the dynamic space of a stage or an or, or the environment of acting or what it, whatever else it is, it just affords that opportunity to be something different time.

And you, you’ve got this, this week of performances, or we’ve got, you know, this is the, the, the schedule for filming for the next three weeks and it just, it suits them. I don’t know. I mean, I’m, that’s just me assuming, but potentially, I don’t know if that’s your experience and Yeah,

[00:21:38] Becky: and, and also I think, um, the neuro divergent brain is very creative.

It has thinks in a lot of different ways and, and you know, in that way you go, oh, you know, you always think, oh, what song could I do or what song could I write and how could I, how could I get that? Yeah. Um, that across, and that’s. Yeah, I think there’s a lot of creativity that comes out from being neuro divergent and it’s gotta go somewhere.

Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:59] Michael: So in your role then, as, as tutor, do you, are you able to access that creativity in the way that you teach or work

[00:22:08] Becky: with your student? Yeah, I, I try to find, um, find what it is that makes that kid tick. And, and sometimes, you know, we can talk about music and sometimes it’s something else. Um, but yeah, I think everyone’s got a way and, and just thought that way of thinking of things, you know, some of the, the, uh, kids on the spectrum that I work with and, and they’ll, they’ll draw me these amazing cartoons and, um, that the humor through these cartoons and that’s, that’s their creative instinct that’s coming out.

And so to do that, it’s, uh, and that’s, I suppose why a lot of kids are into anime and anime and things like that because it, it, it is, um, it’s quite a creative rush for their brain. And, and they’re, they’re thinking, how could I create that and how could I, they get wrapped up in that. That’s very cool. But,

[00:22:50] Dino: but you are coming, you’re also, look, it’s not.

It’s not tuition and it’s not because you are coming at this from a psych background and an education background. And then also, like we said before, that lived experience and having that, so there’s, this isn’t, yeah, it’s more than a, um, like a stock standardon

[00:23:10] Michael: or, no, it’s not. Exactly. It’s not. Which has its role.

It has, its absolutely, absolutely. Well,

[00:23:15] Dino: we tried that one too. Wasn’t my suggestion. We’re gonna sit bagging different. No, we’re not. I, I couldn’t do it either. I didn’t have enough attention to do Kuma myself, so I was trying to, I expect the five and six year old to do this, and why would we do that? Like, it, it’s, it’s like we, we talk about that Becky too, in terms of what do we offer in what, what does OTC offer that’s different to other services and not better, but just different.

Is that different? Yeah. Find where they’re at. Yes. And make the connection. Yeah. And then build the relationship and then work on what we have to work on. Cuz they’re much more willing to, and don’t, it’s not a force thing. And that, that background in psychology and, and I guess, you know, being able to merge that together with their educational perspective is a, is something, you know, why don’t, why don’t more teachers endeavor, do more of the health sciences as a background as well?

I mean, I think the trying two go hand in hand.

[00:24:11] Becky: Yeah. Well, you know, there’s a lot that’s, that’s the unfortunate thing, but, um, and, but you know, imagine how much more, I mean, you know, you see how much more you get out of a child with that, with that sort of engagement. Um, and we have the, we have the, um, the luxury of having that one-on-one time that, that unfortunately teachers don’t have.

And, and I, you know, maybe that should be part of the curriculum in, in that, you know, this is how you. Study. This is how you, um, you know, they, they, I I wouldn’t wanna be attention

[00:24:40] Dino: course how you focus, like it’s the most un it’s the most underrated. Mm-hmm. Underappreciated. Mm-hmm. Under-resourced, underpaid, mm-hmm.

Position, like in, and we’re asking teachers to teach our children. They should be paid accordingly. But the demand, you know, far exceeds.

[00:24:59] Michael: You’ve also mentioned things that impacted your life and you both mentioned teachers. Mm-hmm. So you both

[00:25:05] Dino: mentioned two. I can equally, I can equally tell you the two that were nearly destroyed.

My educational career. Sorry. Cause I remember those two as well. Pros and cons. Um, but you know, like you do, you have to have that connection somewhere because it’s just, otherwise we can learn remotely. You know, we don’t need it. We can have a virtual teacher. And I remember there was a stage where they were considering having these.

What they called virtual teachers and said, well, it’s you. They, they have to have that interaction. Go back to the old, you know, what was it like during Covid? We were all really happy for our kids to go back Oh yes. To school and say, oh yes, hey, the teacher. What’s to do this

[00:25:39] Michael: at home?

[00:25:41] Becky: Absolutely. And that, what was it

[00:25:42] Dino: like for you then in that period of time?

In Covid?

[00:25:45] Becky: Yeah. Yeah. That was, that was a bit, a bit. You know, crap. Um, I think, I think the worst thing, I think 2020 we could do. Yeah. You know, we kind of went, okay, we don’t, this is the unknown, but, you know, I’m, I’m kind of this, I’ve got this infallible optimism as well. It’s like, oh, it won’t be that much longer.

It won’t be that much longer. It’ll be fine. You know what, what can we do? I’m kind of one of these people who swim. I don’t sing. Yeah. You pivoted,

[00:26:08] Michael: didn’t you?

[00:26:09] Dino: Yeah. Yeah. Pivot and

[00:26:10] Michael: swiveled

[00:26:10] Becky: and what else? Pivot? Yeah. Yep. Oh. And all the key words. I remember doing my first Zoom session with, with an ADHD boy, and I was like, oh, awesome.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Right now I think we better, after about 10 minutes, I’m just going, ha, okay. I think we need to set some ground rules here. Um, okay. Yeah. Let’s make some ground rules of No changing the screen. We’re just set. Yeah, yeah. Let’s set, let’s set the screen. Let’s not make ourselves go invisible.

Let’s, you know, and so we set the, you know, the basic ground rules and I, and after that, once you know what you’re dealing with and you know a little bit about what to expect mm-hmm. It’s like, okay, okay, now this, these are the rules. This is what we do. Um, you know, if, if you mack up with those rules, like bam, bam, you’re out.

No. Uh, um, so yeah, I guess pivoting online, that was, that was hard. Um, and just not having my, my release of going on stage. Yeah. I think that was, that was pretty hard. Um, one of the hardest things that I did in that time, the, um, Marion council were sponsoring performers to go and perform in the theater, um, with no audience.

And it was livestreamed. Um, wow. And that was weird. That would be s That was, yeah. So that I did one of those and I did it. My, the first one I did, I did, did two and one I did just solo. I went Okay. Um, went in there. Cause Yeah. I didn’t even know it was a thing. I know, I know. How do you do that as,

[00:27:32] Michael: as a performer like that you feed the off the energy of

[00:27:36] Becky: Yeah.

Yeah. And it was weird because, um, I had in my head, there’s not gonna be any body clapping. Yeah. And that’s okay. You just do your thing. Um, and, but I didn’t, you know, you know when you, well when, when you’re getting ready backstage and you hear, and you hear the audience filtering through mm-hmm. And the buzz.

Yeah. The buzz. Mm-hmm. And there wasn’t that. And I wasn’t prepared for that. And then they, they, you know, one of the guys came back and said, oh, oh, um, Becky, you’re on now. And I went, oh, hang on. I haven’t had my nervous wee, I haven’t had all your prep. And I think for about the first five minutes I was completely rattled.

Mm-hmm. Um, just from not having that. Um, but then after that, I, I settled back in, um, and it was, it was good. But, um, it was just weird not having, not, not knowing, and at the end of it, I felt like I’d run a marathon, you know, I was absolutely shattered because, you know, you have, you have to keep it up that you’ve got no idea if anybody’s even there.

But, you know, constipation,

[00:28:31] Dino: you know, that’s, that, that’s that, uh, that relationship with, with the audience and with, with anybody really. I mean, we can’t, we struggled. I gotta, I gotta be honest. Oh, I did. Yeah. Yeah. I really struggled with the, with the, um, the online therapy. Oh yeah. Because when you, we were so busy, so used to being so physically active.

Yes. Then asking the parents to take on that role for us, it just was so difficult. But you know. Yeah. Yeah. They say, did it? Yeah, we did it.

[00:28:57] Michael: Yeah, we did it. It’s another stream to our bow. Can I say that? If it happens again, we at least

[00:29:01] Becky: we know what to do. Been there. If we know

[00:29:03] Michael: the rules, we know the rules set the ground rules.

No changing your screens in the background.

[00:29:06] Becky: No, I’m going upside down. Yeah,

upside down. Yeah.

[00:29:18] Michael: So then outside of Covid mm-hmm. What do your sessions look like now? So what, what sort of, if you have a session with a, with a, with a client, um, what you call them? Clients. Students. Mm-hmm. What this mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what does a session look like, or It varies depending

[00:29:31] Becky: on the child.

It does vary a lot. Um, and this is, I, I tried to do some online things like, you know, generic that you just buy purchase and it was just too hard. You know, you’ve really gotta, again, feedback off that, off each child individually. Um, so I’ve, I’ve got about five minutes to, to. Win them over. Mm-hmm. I reckon so, you know, they, if they’re younger, it’s like, you know, I’d hide or I go, oh, you know, um, and then sort of engage them that way with, with teens that you can’t do that.

Um, so you kind of gotta, uh, but, but you know, it’s, I think it’s really quite amazing how many teens don’t get asked, you know, Hey, you know, what do you like doing? What are, you know, what are your hobbies? What are, what are your interests? And that’s what I try to gauge that first. And then depending on what, what they’ve got going on.

So quite a lot of the time, um, I draw maps of the brain and show them. So with, with the teen kids, I call it executive function, and I show them which parts of their brain are affected by, by, um, you know, their neurodivergence. Yeah. And, um, and then we talk about, you know, the steps of what that might mean, so that it’s very difficult to see a task, which I even know what the task is.

So I, I, like, I liken it to a recipe. It’s like, you know, um, you’re following a recipe, right. So, um, some, some people don’t even know that there is a recipe to follow, to start with. Um, mum, are they, it

[00:30:50] Michael: makes beautiful food every single time though. Yeah. But n never the same, but anyway,

[00:30:54] Becky: but sometimes they don’t even know what they, what the task is.

Yeah. What, what do I have to do? I don’t know. Um, and then, you know, being able actually, like looking through the whole thing. To the end, and then planning what you’re gonna do, and then getting the ingredients and having them all lined up. Mm-hmm. And then actually, you know, putting ingredients together, making sure they’re in the right order, and then they’ve the right consistency and then you put them in the oven, make sure it’s baked for the right time.

And that is a very good example of, of what executive function is. And that what we have to do with so many tasks, particularly high school kids, that given all these, all these, um, assignments and tasks. And, you know, there was a boy that came to me last year, it was his, um, he was in the last couple of weeks of year 12, and he said, I’ve got this massive, um, coding assignment thing and it’s worth, you know, 40% of my grade.

And he said, I haven’t done any of it. Oh, wow. It’s, and so we, we looked back, we looked back, I said, right, let’s, let’s open everything. Do you know what you have to do? Oh, not really. So we went back to April and we opened all the emails from his teacher and we had all the emails open and all the task sheets and everything they’d been, and he’s looking at it and he’s going, oh.

I’ve done that. Oh, I’ve done that bit. So the, the teacher had kind of been drip feeding them bits and pieces, and he had done bits and pieces, but the fact was that it, it just to him, because he hadn’t seen it as the whole recipe. Yeah. Right. It didn’t make sense to him. Um, so he still had a bucket load to do, but it wasn’t nearly as catastrophic as we were thinking it was.

So, you know, then, you know, we could actually go through and make the list and tick some things off and, you know, then that gets the dopamine going and everyone’s going, yeah, okay. I’m feeling better about this. I reckon I can, I’ve, I’ve got the, the skills to do that now. Um, so it depends on, yeah, I, I guess it, it’s about helping kids understand themselves and I don’t shy away from, from using terminology.

Um, you know, I tell, you know, five year olds that they’ve neuro, they’ve got neurons and they’ve got, you know, that mm-hmm. Um, dendrites and you’ve got, these are little synapses and you know, and, but, but then I’ll say we’ve got brain monsters in there and the brain monsters like to, Mess these things up.

So, so then they draw their brain monsters and how they’re going to get rid of them and, and that sort of thing. So that’s a lot of what I do in the, in the, in the first session. And then we sort of follow up on that with a lot more, um, strategies for listening. So a lot of kids don’t realize that listening involves their entire bodies, not just their ears.

And, uh, then we do little games and activities that, um, you know, help with, um, you know, short-term memory recall and listening and, you know, we have little secret signals for things and, and they, they really quite like that. And we put it all in a book and it’s all written up and they can take it home and show mom and they can take it to school and show their teachers and, you know, then everyone’s on the same page with what.

Terminology we are using. And that’s, that’s pretty cool too.

[00:33:40] Dino: So, so when, so I wanna ask you what I, what do I get asked and I, my answers always no. So have you written the book? The book?

[00:33:48] Becky: Oh yeah. Like,

[00:33:51] Dino: have you, because even the five minutes that you’ve just explained then, and I’m going Well, yeah, I think some, I think a lot of, like a lot of parents would love to know or would really appreciate that information and how to get it out there.

I know there’s lots of different ways, but you know, there’s, yeah. When you

[00:34:11] Becky: spare time. Well, there you go. Yeah. The other, oh yeah, yeah,

[00:34:14] Dino: yeah. This isn’t a second part of this. I wanted to change cuz I wanted to know your perspective. Okay. So all of these skills and all of these young people that you’ve helped, you have two teenage girls?

Yes. How do they receive it? Do they ask you for help? Yeah.

[00:34:28] Becky: Chelsea’s, my eldest has just turned 16 and she’s year 11. Um, so I do study groups. Um, I, I run study groups of, um, up to six kids and I have a couple of specialist tutors in there with me as well. Um, so they come once a week or twice a week and, and, um, and we.

Sit, basically, it’s like, okay, get your stuff out. Let’s have a look at that. Um, online portal, the rabbit hole we call it. Let’s go down the rabbit hole. Let’s find what we need to find. Let’s do it. We, you know, we’ve got little, um, calendar things that we can fill in with what, what needs to be, um, prioritized.

Um, and my, my Chelsea is, she’s really, really organized and, um, very, very studious. So she, she works hard, but she comes to the groups because she feels that she, you know, if she’s got questions, she’s doing the hard chemistry and maths and that sort of stuff that, um, you know, I can help it with all the other stuff.

But, uh, so I’ve got the, my specialist tutors in there that, that will go, Hey, you know, what do you need a hand with? Um, and she’ll, she’ll say, oh, Stuck on this, or I’m not sure about that. Um, my little one, um, she’s nearly 13 school’s, just not hering. It’s not her man. Really? Yeah. She’s really clever and she does well.

Um, she’s a little bit more, um, lax focus. Um, and yeah. But look where

[00:35:51] Dino: apple,

[00:35:52] Michael: apples don’t fall far. No. Right. You said I didn’t. I was gonna, yeah. But anyway. Yeah. You said Max focus, that

[00:35:59] Becky: focus. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something like that. Um, but yeah, she’s look and she’s. Um, I have to take a completely different tack with her.

Yeah. Because, you know, she’s a completely different kid. So, you know, we, I’ve, you know, we’ve had conversations. I mean, she’s in year seven. Mm-hmm. But we’ve had conversations about how she might be able to go to usc, uh, when she gets to year 10. Mm-hmm. Because that might suit her better. Um, cuz she said, oh, I think I should be home.

And I said, no, you’re way too social to be homeschooled or anything. I’m not, I’m not real keen on that. No, no. Or open access. She’s going, I’m like, oh no, I just don’t think for you. But I said, look, um, everything’s on the, everything’s on the table. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, I’m not saying no to anything. Um, but I do need, uh, she’s very secretive, very, um, you know, it was Chelsea’s, you know, mum, how about this?

And this happened today at school and this and this. You know, she’s like, Ooh. Mm. Um, but, you know, it just means I have to take a different tack and she’ll be fine. Look, you know, it, she’ll, she’ll find her little groove. Um, you know, she’s clever and she’s talented and she’s got a lot going for her. So, um, you know, she’ll, she’ll just find her little niche.

You go.

[00:37:06] Michael: I was gonna ask a question, just side note. Just in terms of adhd, like it’s got a massive thing in pop culture, so tos and everything. The last couple of years since Covid, it’s really been. Like massively focused. Do you have any views on that or how it’s been portrayed?

[00:37:22] Becky: Yeah. I mean, generally I think it’s, it’s a positive thing.

Mm-hmm. Because, um, I mean, it, it kind of normalizes it. When I was growing up, people with ADHD were the ones that you saw on a current affair with the screaming children. Yeah. You know, that bouncing off the walls and mm-hmm. That sort of stuff. So it was a very negative connotation. Whereas, you know, these are quite often there’s a bit of humor.

In those, I, I mean, I don’t have TikTok or anything. Yeah. But, but I’ve seen some pieces. I don’t, I’ve seen some pieces. I know what it’s bits and pieces on YouTube. There’s one, you know, there was one that I really liked. It was like, you know, a, a list of things that H P h ADHD people don’t say. You’re right.

And one of them is, I’m walking out of my house with my keys, my phone, and my wallet. You know? And so I guess it, it makes yes. Excuses that you, that

[00:38:09] Michael: do you know, are you,

[00:38:11] Dino: I look, is that what it is? Is it why I’d executive function? Ah, look, I look, I normalizing. It’s great. Yeah. People wanting to be, it’s not, do you know what, do you know what I mean?

Like, when things become popular, sometimes there’s an extension to we’ve, well I’ve got it here. Well, I’ve got it too. Like, and you think Wow. And

[00:38:33] Becky: I think that you don’t Yeah. I, I was actually gonna say that I think is, is the, is the, the, the one draw card with all that because, you know, I is, you know, it’s not that bad because.

Yeah, sometimes I forget my phone too. Mm. Yeah. You know, is that sort of thing. But then also it might see, it might encourage people to seek some help if they’re, if they’re struggling with these things. Yeah. And, and, um, yeah, so I, I, I totally, yeah, I, I that’s

[00:38:56] Dino: across everything too. I think there’s a time there, there is a space where, you know, social media does support normalizing, you know, neuro divergence in, in the community.

But also, again, there are, there are extremes with that. Um, you know, there was that, I was asked to comment on the ABC about that, the high profile young girl who’s on the spectrum, but attended the, um, ed Sheer Ed Sheeran concert. Oh, yes. And didn’t get access to the sensory room when she needed it. And I said, look, if in the instance that.

Um, you know, that that happened. You need to know the, the context around that. Now, maybe there was somebody there that hadn’t been trained in understanding how to allow people to access that space. You know, not everybody knows that. Um, you know, what doesn’t a person with autism look like? You know, what were they expecting?

And there’s so many things that we are critical and quick to jump on people, and then they become more afraid of even discussing it or, you know, exposing themselves to it because they get embarrassed as well. Mm-hmm. And I think that’s, You know, it’s really tricky. There’s a fine line between, you know, becoming, you know, more, uh, more becoming more aware and then excluding as well.

Yeah.

[00:40:09] Becky: Oh, definitely. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, and, and sometimes some of those, some of the traits, some things that, um, I can’t blame everything on my a d d. No. You know, like there’s, there’s some things that I’ll, I’ll do one day and I’ll go, oh, that was my, no, it wasn’t actually, it’s just because I didn’t do it or I didn’t, you know, and there’s, and there’s that fine line too.

You can’t pin everything on a disorder and go, well, that’s,

[00:40:32] Dino: yeah, I get, I get Noah giving me the, it’s cause it got hearing loss, it’s got an auditor processing disorder. I said, yeah, yeah, no, not using that one. I said, you can’t, can’t get your driver’s license then.

[00:40:46] Michael: I was trying to avoid that, aren’t you?

[00:40:48] Dino: Yeah. That’s fun.

[00:40:57] Becky: Okay. Yep. Um.

[00:40:59] Michael: Someone who’s so like, active, busy. There’s, there’s a, I guess it’s a buzzword. People talk a lot about work life balance. What does, what does this look like for you? I’m assuming, based on what you’re telling me, you trying to fit everything in into your day. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So how do you, how do you balance everything out?

[00:41:19] Becky: Um, it’s impor extremely important to me to balance things out because, um, I have gotten to the point a few times when I’ve nearly been on the point of burnout. Mm-hmm. And it’s like, no, we just gotta, gotta pull back. Um, well, few things that are really, really important to me is, um, my physical fitness.

Mm-hmm. Very important. I need to do. Um, I’d, I’d, uh, go to the gym and see a trainer twice a week. Yeah. I go, I do runs. Mm-hmm. So I do marathons and half marathons and things. Yeah. And I do hot yoga. Mm-hmm. So between those, I’m, you know, that’s, and that is a really important for me to find that mind body connection that yoga brings, and also being outside and running in the, uh, you know, I’m a very big fan of the great outdoors Yeah.

And nature. Uh, so I live near the beach. That was a big decision that we made six years ago to have that, that beach lifestyle. And it’s a bit further to go into town, but, um, it’s worth it. It’s definitely worth it. Yeah. And so a lot of the decisions I make now are based around, um, you know, do I have to make a trip down to do that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or actually do I need, I actually might need that. So, yeah. Um, I, I cut back half a day and, um, That half day’s sort of now spent organizing my tutors, but that’s okay. Um, you know, it’s, it’s that trade off. Um, and, and, um, I’m a very social person, so I need, um, to hang out with my friends who are largely neuro divergent, so.

Mm-hmm. That’s fun cuz they’re, you know, everyone’s excited. Everyone who is, you know, adhd, they’re, they’re just always excited about things, so we all get together and it’s just like, yeah. And the creative positive energy, it’s, it’s really cool. Yeah. So I, I, I do need that. Um, I love to travel, so, you know, a lot of that comes into that work, like that life balance.

I mean, I, I do a fair bit for, for the, you know, fair few, many gigs on the road as well. Yes. Yep. So, um, but I really need to ground myself as well with, with my, with my kids. Mm-hmm. You know, have to make the, that quality time to, um, hang with them. I think that’s important to, it’s not, we’re not. Work. We’re not living, was it working to live?

It’s living to work. No other way around. Other around. That’s it. Yeah. So that’s important to me and, and, and to set myself those, those physical goals and, and travel goals as well. You know, it’s always involving some sort of activity. You know,

[00:43:51] Dino: favorite place you’ve been, oh, almost interesting.

[00:43:56] Becky: Oh, um, I tracked Nepal and a Perna base camp.

Wow. Um, that was awesome. Um, he, my, me and my hubby did that, um, canoe down the Zambia River. We did 80 Ks down the Zambia dodging the hippos and the crocodile and the elephants. Um, everyone does that. Yeah, that’s last

[00:44:14] Michael: weekend for

[00:44:15] Becky: me. But anyway, whitewater rafting. Um, un under Fick Falls. Um, yeah, I almost died.

I was gonna say, do you wanna start at a smaller place when I know my raft flipped and I did two? Yeah. Wow. Two rapids with no raft. Just go, hang on. Hanging on. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, no, I wasn’t hanging onto anything. Yeah. With no raft. No raft. Oh, no raft. Okay. Yeah, that was fun. Wow. Um, yeah. Uh, oh. I mean, I loved, um, I love Turkey.

Turkey. I think it’s my favorite country. Mm-hmm. Um, Oh, so many things. Yeah. Sri Lanka was a real surprise. I already enjoyed Sri Lanka. Yeah. I just love, um, I mean, Ko Samui is our favorite little go-to in Thailand. So when the girls were little, we, we just went, oh, we won’t, won’t do so many big trips. Um, but we end up finding this beautiful little hotel in Ko Sammu where we just took the girls for about a month every year and sat on the beach, which was great when they were little.

Now they’re, we’re going back in July and we’re looking forward to that. So, so that’s cool. Um, we went, uh, new York’s my favorite city. We went back in January. Um, The girls were doing a music theater thing. Yeah. Right. In New York. I

[00:45:24] Dino: never had seen so many musicals in my life when we went there. Yeah. No. And I tapped out after about the fourth.

The girls kept going. We were like, we’re not doing another. Yeah. One more. We did WW Christmas extravaganza at Madison Square Garden. That was a four hours of I did a musical on that. No, that was, but I, I, New York is an amazing place. It is. So I never, I actually didn’t have an interest in going to the US until we, we ran the New York Marathon in Yeah.

End of 2016 then, so we stayed on and. It. You, you, you have to actually go there. Yeah. To understand, to see the magnitude of the place. Yeah.

[00:46:01] Becky: Yeah. And the energy. It’s just, it’s got its own heartbeat. I reckon. It just, you know, you just walk around, it’s enormous and all you need to do is just walk around the streets.

Yeah.

[00:46:09] Dino: And there’s enough people there too, if you, yeah. The only thing I found was there wasn’t enough apart from Central Park, there wasn’t enough open space for me in your York, like Oh yeah. It felt like the world was closing in on you a little bit sometimes. Yeah. Particularly

[00:46:24] Becky: being there in January as well when it was cold.

Yeah. And um, you know, you didn’t really see the sun too much cuz you know, the. That’s right. Way up there. And, uh, it wasn’t much of a sun anyway, so,

[00:46:35] Dino: but you get, you get an appreciation for how difficult it is to make it in the entertainment industry. Like when you see at the cafes and the one, the people trying to break in, in the, how talented they are on the, the street in anywhere.

And you think go to

[00:46:48] Michael: California, how pack la la Well, well the

[00:46:52] Becky: waitresses. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:53] Dino: Like it’s, it’s amazing how talented these people are, yet they don’t rise to the top of

[00:46:58] Becky: that industry. No, and, and even like, you know, we, we’ve um, we spent a fair bit of time in this little jazz bar that was downstairs, um, in the hotel we were staying in.

And there were an amazing jazz mus in there. And so you go in there, you see this amazing caliber of jazz musos, and at the end of the set, they’d get a bucket out and pass the bucket around. And it’s like, man, that’s just, you know, that’s so wrong. These guys have. Geniuses. Yeah. And they’ve dedicated their lives to this, this venture, and Yep.

[00:47:24] Dino: You are gonna go and audition for Australian Idol and in six weeks I’m a ready made star. You know, that’s, that’s the contrast. It’s not like a sport. You can’t just audition to play football and then get into a team in, I think they tried that as a, as a show once they did. Yeah. It was a fun show. And then all of a sudden, like, you, you trained for years to refine your skills.

Yeah. Like, it’s not, no, you know, it’s not realistic that, that, that you, but you know, you can create that in that industry and I think that’s such a interesting thing. That, but, but,

[00:47:55] Becky: but creating longevity is another thing. Yeah.

[00:47:57] Dino: Longevity, which you’ve been able to find a way to be able to do that exceptionally well.

Because I’ve had

[00:48:02] Becky: to do the hard yards. I had just been, okay, here’s your, here’s your recording contract from Australian Idol. It’s like, you know, what

[00:48:09] Michael: was the

[00:48:10] Dino: most success you had, in your opinion? In, in, you know, in that industry, in this, in the entertainment

[00:48:16] Becky: industry? Oh. Oh, I think the fact that I’m still in it.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Still going. Um, and I just get asked to do lots and lots of cool things, um, which is cool. You know, when you get to that point where people seek you and they say, yeah, you know, I know you can do this. Can you invent something for this? So like last week it was, um, can you do a, can you do a floor show?

These are for all these delegates coming over from the Eastern states and they’re, you know, they wanna book events in South Australia. And so I, I pitched a few things. She said, ah, You know? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I said, okay, what about if I do a 10 minute floor show where I’m accompanying myself on piano with six songs and five costume changes in 10 minutes?

And she’s gone. Yeah, that sounds great. And I’m like, oh, now we gotta do it. Uh, so, but it is, it is very cool to be asked to do, do, and you

[00:49:03] Michael: still enjoy it, like you

[00:49:04] Dino: enjoy doing the Oh, I mean,

[00:49:06] Becky: it petrified me and, and I think it’s since then, but I got away with it. I mean, there’s so many, you know, with six costume changes in 10 minutes, there’s so much that a five costume changes in

[00:49:14] Michael: 10 minutes.

[00:49:14] Dino: Somebody helps you do

[00:49:15] Michael: that though, surely. No solo. No,

[00:49:17] Becky: that was solo. Yeah. Okay. I know. Certifiably insane. Um, but so there’s been, look, there’s been a lot of heart projects. Um, during Covid, there were a couple, um, one I, um, was, uh, got in touch with my Filipino heritage and which I’ve never had before. My great-grandfather went back to the Philippines when, um, you know, and, and we lost that line.

Uh, but I, we’ve been be befriended by a bunch of very amazing, crazy Filipinos, and so I did a show for Azia and I had, I learnt a disco song in Tagalog. Oh. So that was super cool. Wow. To do something completely different. Is it on YouTube? Can I see it on YouTube? Or Probably, oh, is it? I think it is. I think it is actually.

Yeah. Yeah. It

[00:50:01] Dino: was very cool. We gotta add that into this

[00:50:02] Becky: Michael, Mr. Di. That was, it’s very cute. It’s very cute. And it was just like, it was written for me. It was so cool. And then also during Covid, I, I recorded, uh, a friend of mine filmed, um, a documentary called, I’m Not a Runner, and she took a, a bunch of people over to New York to run the New York Marathon.

And it was like, um, it was about, Um, you know, setting yourself goals and not saying no. And when, when something gets hard, not going, well, I’m just giving that up. Um, so that was the, the whole theme of the documentary, and she wanted to highlight that it’s not just the big stars that go and run these marathons.

It’s actually, you know, some people who might not have been very fit, but have worked towards their goals. And she asked me to write a song for the documentary. Wow. Which is now won two international documentary awards and, uh, won one in Melbourne recently. So, and I’m not a runner as, I’m not a runner. Wow.

Yeah. And my sh my song is called Where my Footsteps tread. So it’s like, I’m the one that decides where I go. I’m just, which foot goes in front of the other? How, how long would

[00:51:08] Dino: it, would it take for you to, um, you know, to produce something that’s original?

[00:51:14] Becky: Well, that one, did it just happen banging like 10 minutes?

She, yeah, she actually rang me at the 11th hour. They were, they were just about, she sent me the rush through of the, of the daco and said, you know, do you think you could write something? And I’m like, yeah. And then, so then I. Sort of put a pitch to her and sent it back to her, and I didn’t hear anything.

So then she rang me on the Friday and she said, oh, we need it on Wednesday. And it was my mom’s 70th birthday that weekend, and we had, you know, catering for 40 people at our house. So, so I just did the whole weekend with that. And then Monday’s my big working day. So I was, you know, working early till late.

And the only chance I had to go into the studio was Tuesday. So I got home Monday night and I went, right, okay, neuro divergent brain, we need to kind of, um, you get kicking. Yeah. And I went to bed and I, you know, kind of, it didn’t quite, you know, there was, I’d written most of it, but didn’t quite work. And then I woke up in the morning, realized that the bridge needed to be the chorus.

And then as soon as I figured that out, it was like, boom, there you go. Uh, and then I went and recorded it. That day. Yeah. Um, and I, I sat down and I put the piano bass down. Arranging in your sleeve by the seven? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Pretty much. Put the, put the bass down of the piano track down. And, and Quentin says to me, he said, do you realize that’s four and a half minutes long?

I said, that’s, it was five and a half minutes long. I said, I said, that’s too long, isn’t it? He said, yeah. So I’m like, okay, cut that one. I didn’t need that, that verse, I didn’t, so does, so did the words come first or, um, yeah. Yeah. Mo mostly I’d been, um, like from the Friday, so I was running around doing stuff for my mum and working and, and so every time I thought of something, I’d just get my voice recorder out and Right.

You know, put a bit down. So, um, yeah, I just sort of had these little. Fragmented bits that needed to come together. But, uh, yeah, I’m, I’m actually, I’m, I’m proud of that song because it, it’s very much my, my ethic. Yeah. It’s my ethic of don’t give up, you know? Um, it running, it’s, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It was very, very, very much spoke to me.

So I was, I was definitely the right person for the project, I think. And, and you know, even if it’s snowy and even if your footsteps are heavy, you got, you just keep going. You just keep putting one foot in front. Do

[00:53:18] Dino: you paid for that? Yes. Does it pay well when you produce something like that? No. No. A lot of work.

But, but when you something that creative and it doesn’t get

[00:53:27] Becky: paid, like, well, when, when you do things like that, you, it also generates publicity. Yeah. So you get asked to do other things. Yeah. Okay. And you get asked to do, um, you know, that it’s a, it’s, it’s, it really is a, a good tool for, you know, you’ve gotta just keep putting yourself out there.

It’s like doing fringe, you know, sometimes, sometimes you do really well outta fringe sometimes, you know. But my point is,

[00:53:47] Dino: you’re not really, you don’t. You don’t do this for the money in, in the sense of, um, like that doesn’t drive you. Is that correct? Or you go, no, I’m doing this because it, it earns like some people can be driven by, by financial gain and that’s, I, I think that’s absolutely fine, but it

[00:54:04] Becky: depends on the project a little bit.

Um, I wouldn’t go and play at somebody’s 50th birthday, you know, so they weren’t paying you crapload? I didn’t play brown eye, brown eye girl all night. If, um, if I wasn’t getting, if I wasn’t getting paid well, yeah, yeah. Um, but with projects like this that I see sense in and I see the opportunity to, um, extend my networks and publicity, then, um, yeah, there’s, there’s, you know, I, I do think about those things and, and, um, charity stuff I get asked to do all the time and I have to be a bit choosy mm-hmm.

About what I ask. Uh, and I, I won’t ask my band to do it. Generally. We did do one, um, with chunky for the. The bushfires, the sa bush fires. Yeah. Um, and I just, that’s the only time I’ve ever asked the guys to play for free. Um, but generally with, uh, something to do with the charity, I’ll, I’ll say, look, I’ll do you a good price.

Yeah. Um, see if you can get production, uh, sponsored. Cuz that’s always a big cost for us. And I’ll go that bit extra and, you know, do a floor show as well as the band. Or I’ll do a, um, I’ll, I’ll donate, uh, you know, a a go play someone’s dinner party. Right. Something like that. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll do So what do you listen

[00:55:11] Dino: to?

What’s your music? Did you

[00:55:14] Becky: Um, I love female singer songwriters. Right. So, um, a lot of my stuff is still nineties in 2000. So, um, my favorites Tori Amos pianist. Mm-hmm. Um, Alanis Morrisette. I love a bit of a rock chick too. Tori

[00:55:29] Dino: Amos Conflate girl. Yeah.

[00:55:31] Becky: Yeah. She’s fabulous. She really is. Um, so I like a lot of that, that, um, you know, the singer songwriter stuff.

Uh, I like funky, groovy stuff too. Mm-hmm. Um, Yeah, there’s a, a friend of mine’s a DJ and he does a lot of that, like has the old vinyl. Um, he actually does a free spot on wow fm on Friday afternoons and that’s Oh, right. Yeah. I love Jason Lee. He, he is got some great, really groovy tunes. Yeah. So I, I love, I, I’m pretty eclectic with my music tastes.

I, is there

[00:56:00] Michael: any song that you have performed that many times and you don’t, don’t feel free. You feel free not to say, but is there any song you’re like, just not again,

[00:56:08] Becky: brown nod Girl brown? Well, I don’t generally do that. It’s usually one of the boys that does that, but, um, well I did, you know, this is when you kind of gotta mix things up a bit and use your creativity cuz um, I will survive as one of those songs that I’m just so over.

Yeah. But what I did, because we’ve started doing this little corporate four piece band, it’s really cool, but everyone asks, do you do, I Will Survive? They say, do you do brown? I go, I go, Gary’s gonna do that one. He’s our, uh, guitarist. Um, and then they say, do, do, I will survive. So what we’ve done is we’ve, we’ve mixed it up.

Um, we start, we start it with like a, like a grunge feel, and then we go into the disco and then I sing a bit in Spanish. Mm-hmm. And then we go into the bump, like kicking the legs up. Ah, will survive. And, uh, so just, it just makes it a bit more fresh. Interesting. Yeah. You do any metal? I love metal. I love metal.

Yeah. Yeah. That

would

[00:57:01] Dino: be

[00:57:02] Michael: you like,

[00:57:03] Becky: well, Wilson. Yeah.

[00:57:06] Michael: Scream as loud as you. Like, don’t care.

[00:57:10] Becky: Um, brilliant.

[00:57:12] Michael: I might ask a few other just towards the end here, so I might ask a few other questions that, um, I think give us a bit of a sense of, we’ve got a good sense of Becky and the things that make you tick.

But, um, music has obviously played a massive role for you and you’ve mentioned some music that you like and stuff that you, uh, not as keen on, but can find

[00:57:32] Becky: ways to, oh, I, I’ve got to say I’m, I’m not a big ABBA fan. Yeah. Yes. Sorry.

[00:57:39] Michael: I’m not a huge ABA fan either, but That’s okay. Putting, putting myself out there.

Um, is there a song that you come back to when you need to pick me up? Like down, I need something to really get me back up there.

[00:57:48] Becky: Yeah, and there’s, I mean, there’s a couple of ways that can go cuz sometimes you wanna be sort of reflective, um Sure. To get you back up again. And there’s one, there’s a song by Enigma.

Mm-hmm. Um, and it’s called Return to Innocence. And there’s, there’s, there’s this couple of lines and it goes, don’t be af don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to be, we don’t be too proud to be strong. Just listen to your heart, my friend. That’ll be the return to yourself. So it’s really, yeah. It’s sort of that.

Um, you know, you’ve, you’ve got this. Yeah. You can just, just take a moment. Just take a breath. Um, but, um, There’s a, there’s a few kind of, if I wanna, if I’m a bit tired and I’ve gotta go to a show and Yeah. You know, Zou. Oh, classic. Yeah. That’s a few, a little bit of zanadu. That’s always gonna give you a bit of a absolutely bit of a lift, isn’t it?

If you can have the video

[00:58:40] Michael: of Olivia

[00:58:41] Becky: dancing as well. Oh, oh gosh. She’s fabulous. Yeah. She really is. Mm-hmm. Um,

[00:58:45] Michael: how about a favorite toy as a child? Oh,

[00:58:48] Becky: um, I was very much into my Barbies. Yeah. Um, yeah. My sisters and I had had a few Barbies. My, I was very disappointed when I got my first Barbie, though. My, my sister had gotten one, her birthdays about, Two weeks before mine, and she got this, you know, beautiful blonde Barbie with this flowy dress, and I couldn’t wait for my birthday.

And I got mine, I got Italian Barbie, and she was, they did an Italian Barbie. They did an Italian Barbie. What did it look like? And I think, oh yeah, Dino. What

[00:59:16] Michael: was that? Dino was,

[00:59:18] Dino: uh oh, Michael, I’m, I have a Italian heritage, I’m allowed to say.

[00:59:23] Michael: I’m suggesting there was a mustache on

[00:59:25] Becky: the detachable mustache.

Oh, no, sideburn.

[00:59:29] Dino: Sorry.

[00:59:30] Becky: Oh, okay. I thought, oh, the funny thing is, I mean, you, it’s funny how you look at, um, kids getting into those stereotypes so, so young, because ours were our, um, this, um, Italian Barbie had a, like a lovely little white Patti coat and a, and a, you know, red, white and green skirt and, uh, little apron.

And so we, we took those off her and gave them to, um, Blonde Barbie. Yeah. Yeah. And she was just left, just left in this little slip dress, and she was the maid. Oh. And it, it’s just, it’s, it’s so funny how kids, and I, I mean, I don’t know how I would’ve known that. Yeah. And I, and I suppose, you know, you get into kids with representation these days mm-hmm.

And, and, you know, kid, um, you know, there’s always, there’s some people are very critical of the fact that maybe, you know, we should have this or shouldn’t have that, and we should have a Barbie with a bigger waist or whatever. But, um, but you know, it, it’s funny how we, we just, um, we have those stereotypes, but also we don’t see ourselves necessarily reflected in, in, um, in culture.

Hmm.

[01:00:29] Michael: Would you rather see the future or go

[01:00:31] Becky: back in time? Oh, I’ll definitely go back in time. I think

[01:00:35] Michael: it’s quite a polarizing one was in usually, although I think when we spoke to Mel, she was like, just the present. I think the present’s good. Yeah, the present’s enough fine. Where, where

[01:00:44] Becky: we we back in time then?

Well, I don’t, I don’t really have any burning desire to see the future. Yeah. Um, really. Although, you know, I suppose if I, if I would, you know, I dunno when I’m gonna ca it, but would like to go and see what happens to my kids after a ca it, you know, I’d like to, yeah. Actually that’s okay. That would be a, that would be the only way I’d go back to the future.

Uh, the past, I don’t know, I suppose, you know, maybe the roaring twenties in New York. Oh, I reckon that would be, that would be super cool. Yeah. You know, gangster city bootlegging. Yeah. Yeah. Prohibition. Prohibition been cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that the, just the, you know, the flap addresses and the. You know, you would look great in a flap dress.

I

[01:01:21] Michael: would’ve been a gangster. Yeah. Yeah. You reckon? Yeah. There you

[01:01:25] Dino: go. Probably I would’ve been a bootlegger. Probably distilled

[01:01:30] Becky: some Really? You would’ve been the godfather Scotch.

[01:01:32] Michael: No,

[01:01:32] Dino: no. I don’t have the, don’t have the, uh,

[01:01:35] Michael: incriminating yourself, Dino. No. Well, no, I’m joking. I love that history. That’s,

[01:01:43] Becky: well, if you were the Bootle, we would’ve been besties.

There

[01:01:45] Michael: you go. Yeah. Delivering. Did you have a favorite TV show when you were growing up?

[01:01:50] Becky: Um, we didn’t watch a lot of tv. Yeah. I mean, growing up in the Northern Territory we had ABC or abc. Um, fair. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, what about radio? Did you much radio? No, we, we didn’t listen to the radio. No. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

We’d create our own fun.

[01:02:05] Michael: So I was about to say music and everything and all that sort of stuff just came from

[01:02:09] Becky: when. Well, also, I, I was brought up in an almost cultish, um, religious sort of thing. Okay. And, um, so it was all singing, music was lots of ah, um, Jesus music. Right. And classical,

[01:02:21] Dino: there wasn’t, what’s the age difference between you and your

[01:02:23] Becky: youngest sibling?

Uh, 13 years. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, okay.

[01:02:30] Michael: It’s, there’s not a lot of tv, anything now that you really enjoy? No,

[01:02:34] Becky: uh, I don’t watch a lot of TV Still, I

[01:02:37] Michael: gonna say

[01:02:37] Becky: there’s probably not a lot of time with everything. No, no. My daughter and I have been, um, Uh, she’s, uh, we’ve been getting into Grey’s Anatomy, you know, doing reruns of that.

And we, you know, during Covid we did Shit’s Creek together as a family. Great. Which, which was, which was good for a bit of a laugh and, um, and that sort of thing. I watched, um, uh, Colin from accounts that was quite cute. Yeah, I’ve heard That’s funny. That was, yeah. That was good. Australian. I like a bit of Australian humor, but Humor.

Humor, yeah. But a lot of the time I don’t, yeah. A lot of my friends like, oh, here happened on this. Mm-hmm. And it’s like, oh no, I didn’t, you know, sort. I don’t know if people get time.

[01:03:12] Michael: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That’s fair. Mm-hmm.

[01:03:14] Becky: Um, and if I do have a night off, I don’t really wanna spend it in front of the television.

You know,

[01:03:20] Michael: why

[01:03:20] Dino: TV watches me.

[01:03:23] Becky: Does it? Yeah. How do you think of that?

[01:03:24] Dino: Because I’ve, I don’t think I’ve, I made it past nine o’clock. Sit down, I sitting there, go, I’ve gotta watch something and then it’s like, bomb. Gone. Yeah. It’s age.

[01:03:42] Michael: Any other questions in, I’ve got a little quiz, but do you have any questions? Go to quiz. Go the quiz. Go to the quiz. Last thing you’re gonna do. Um, I thought, oh gosh. Michael’s quiz. I like doing little quizzes at the end. Just, I don’t know cuz I like quizzes. What can I say? He likes quizzes. Um, look, music’s a big part of your life.

I thought appropriate to

[01:03:58] Dino: Can I be in this quiz

[01:03:59] Michael: or not? Yeah, for this one. Both of you. All right. All right. Appropriate to run a quick music quiz with you. All right. All right. So there’s only, only seven questions. Sevens a good number. You haven’t forwarded these questions to thank you. Afford did not. I didn’t even No.

Didn’t show it to either of you. I just did it myself. Okay. Um, most of them, uh, Um, multiple choice. So you’ve got a few options, okay? Okay. So first question. Um, what does marcato mean in music? Oh, she’s, she’s coming straight away. I’ll, I’ll give you some options. Okay. Uh, this is, okay. Uh, a, in a military style, B, moderate speed.

C emphasized or D, shortened detached.

[01:04:41] Becky: Uh, B, C,

[01:04:43] Michael: I agree. D. Okay. Dino’s going with C and C’s? Correct. Emphasized. Um, okay. Next one. What tool in music? The, uh, start again. What tool in music theory can be described visually representing the relationship among the 12 tones of the chromatic scale? I’ll give you some options.

Oh God, sorry. This is music theory. Dino. A pentatonic scale B circle of fifths. C Dorian mode, or D Lidian

[01:05:14] Dino: mode. Dorian Mode.

[01:05:18] Becky: What was the question again?

[01:05:19] Michael: Just what tool in the music theory can be described visually representing the relationship among the 12 tones of the chromatic scale. Cycle of fifths.

Cycle of fifths is correct. Sorry, that’s one.

[01:05:30] Becky: Two. What made you choose do? Sounded called. I listen to

[01:05:35] Michael: a

[01:05:35] Dino: guy called, is it his name’s? His name is Rick bdo and he, he, um, dissects, he’s a, a brilliant musician and, and I heard the Dian scale once and I thought, oh, there you go. There you go. Now I

[01:05:47] Michael: dunno what it is.

Fair enough. I think, uh, yes. I don’t dunno. Dorian very well. No. Lydian, I think one of the Beatles songs uses Lydian Scale. Yeah. Very famously. Anyway, um, okay. Which of these instruments, here you go, Dino one for you. Which of these instruments is not found? Don’t answer it in, in

[01:06:03] Dino: popular music stores, which, that’s fleet incorrect.

[01:06:05] Michael: Okay. So, so look, focus are a fantastic prog rock band that used. Flute for many years. Okay? And it’s jazz flute anyway. Which of the instruments is not found within an addition within a traditional orchestra? So not found, not a double bass, B soprano saxophone, c obo, or D harp.

[01:06:27] Dino: I’m gonna say harp.

[01:06:29] Becky: I’m gonna say soprano sax.

[01:06:31] Michael: Three. One. Tobe. It is soprano saxophone. No saxophones. Well, I just thought

[01:06:35] Dino: har because it’s, it’s so obvious it’s gotta

[01:06:37] Michael: look not be in, technically it’s not in the original traditional, but it is much more included now, many years. Half a point for me,

[01:06:44] Becky: whereas, whereas, um, saxophones whereas the, yeah, the they.

Um, so Prax is only for, reserved for Kenny. G Kenny,

[01:06:53] Michael: pretty Gucci Cunningham. Okay, here’s one. Um, this is not all of a choices, I have to guess it. What is the highest priced mu Um, what is the highest price musical instrument in the world? Oh,

[01:07:07] Dino: do we have to na I would’ve thought a piano.

[01:07:10] Michael: Some sort like a ST or something.

It it, I’ll, I will make the answer easier. You can just give the instrument if you want.

[01:07:19] Becky: Oh, I know, I know. There’s violins that are like those Strat. Um, there’s strata

[01:07:25] Michael: Strat areas. Yes. Yeah. You’re on, you’re on. I’m gonna point there. Mm. It’s actually a viola. Oh, okay. And it’s a McDonald’s Strat of areas.

Viola and McDonald’s. Yeah. Ronald McDonald’s. I didn’t, I didn’t know McDonald’s. No. McDonald everything. Ronald’s person, the one there. Um, cost any

[01:07:42] Becky: estimation on the oh five. Little bit more. Yeah. Eli? Any Oh God.

[01:07:47] Michael: For some cost. Uh, five than 5 million. Yeah. Higher than five. Oh, that’s 7.5.

[01:07:52] Becky: 7.5. Little bit more.

45. Oh wow. 45

[01:07:56] Michael: million. Yeah. Mm-hmm. US dollar. Sorry. Wow. Um, who buy? Okay, here’s one. Uh, who, who’d buy it? It hasn’t been bought for a long time, obviously. Who owns

[01:08:06] Becky: it? There’s a daco on, on, um, Uh, Netflix or, yeah. That, that, um, that they got was, um, Scott Hicks did it from Oh, okay. And he, they actually got these old instruments out and um, I think it was the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra played them, or was it the Sydney Chamber Orchestra.

Wow. And they, yeah. Check that out then. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Really cool.

[01:08:26] Michael: Name the founding members of Fleetwood Mac. Oh, God, no. Multiple choice here. It’s just Can you name the founding members?

[01:08:33] Becky: The founding members? Mm-hmm.

[01:08:36] Michael: Um, oh, Stevie Nicks? No, I don’t think, she’s not founding, sorry, what was the other one?

Christine, Christy, Chrissy.

[01:08:45] Dino: Fleetwood and Mac Ron Fleetwood.

[01:08:48] Michael: Um, there’s Mick. Fleetwood. Mick Fleetwood is one. Yeah. And he, alright. The answer is McDonald’s. That’s right. It’s not McDonald’s. It’s not Strat ofs. Peter, Peter Green. Oh, Jeremy. Spencer, John MCee or

[01:09:04] Becky: Mc McCoy. Oh yes. So he married Christians. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

[01:09:06] Michael: yeah.

I would’ve also accepted Bob Brunning who was temporary basis before John MCee came. We missed Bob.

[01:09:12] Becky: Yeah. We forgot

[01:09:13] Michael: about them. Oh, I wouldn’t

[01:09:14] Dino: have I, I know who they are and I certainly have listened to Fleetwood Mac, but you know,

[01:09:18] Michael: scorers still free one. Okay. How many UK number ones did the Beatles have?

Oh, how many options? Options? 12 mm. 17? Mm-hmm. 22 or 27? Go 22.

[01:09:35] Becky: I’m gonna go 22 as well. Oh, actually, no. I wanna change my answer because if we get the same, if I might guess so you’ll, I’m, I’m gonna go, was it 17? I’m gonna go 17.

[01:09:48] Michael: I I believe it’s 17. Can I be honest for you? I forgot to write down the answer, but I’m pretty sure when I research I just

[01:09:53] Dino: gonna give it.

Oh, I think it’s 17. I’m pretty sure it’s

[01:09:57] Michael: later in post. And if it’s not then I’ll credit you with a point, Dino. All right, so it’s three two. I’m pretty sure it’s not 22 though. Anyway, four one’s my score. Anyway, last one. This is double worth double. Which guitarist was famously the original league guitarist for Metallica?

Oh, Marty Friedman, Dave Mustain, or Kirk Hammett.

[01:10:18] Dino: I know who it is. Do you know? No, I

[01:10:20] Becky: don’t.

[01:10:23] Michael: Dino Mustang. Correct. Four two. What? It’s your moment to Shine Point

[01:10:28] Becky: for

[01:10:29] Michael: who’s current band is

[01:10:30] Dino: and has been. Oh,

[01:10:31] Michael: well, um, you still won’t winning cause it’ll be four three, but

[01:10:34] Dino: Sure. Oh, well I’m not gonna give it to you then.

Okay. Anyway. Mega death.

[01:10:40] Michael: Mega Death, correct. Oh, see, he’s a lead singer. Oh. They were just, oh, mega

[01:10:45] Becky: Death. They were just last, last week. Yeah. Yeah. Were they

[01:10:48] Michael: Oh wow. Still touring.

[01:10:51] Becky: Right. Played the same night as Rod Stewart, the entertainment and, and guess

[01:10:54] Dino: who supported Rod Stewart?

[01:10:55] Becky: Yeah. Cindy Lauper. Cindy Lauper.

I saw her a couple of years ago. And guess who supported Cindy Laer? John Stevens. Yeah. John Stevens has supported me before. Has

[01:11:03] Michael: he? Yeah. Oh, did he spit

[01:11:05] Dino: John’s? Somebody asked that. I was talking to a dad yesterday here. He’s a big, it’s a thing and he said wouldn’t stay, wouldn’t stand too close to the stage.

Cause he

[01:11:13] Michael: zings, he spit a lot.

[01:11:15] Becky: Yeah. But that’s, I didn’t, I didn’t notice, I must say he was in a bit of a grumpy mood that day. Was he? Yeah.

[01:11:20] Michael: John Stevens. Yep. John Stevens. Noise works. John Stevens. Yeah. John Stevens. Noise

[01:11:25] Dino: works. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

[01:11:27] Michael: Yeah, don’t, not a big fan. He’s a screamer. Well, Becky, thank you so much.

[01:11:33] Dino: There’s a multiple session is covered. Everything

[01:11:36] Michael: we have, look, we did, we, we got down certainly down a music tangent, but welcome to my

[01:11:41] Becky: mu neurodiversity, isn’t it?

[01:11:43] Michael: I think there was lots of fantastic conversation there and we at least, um, certainly there, there was a lot about you, a lot about what makes you tick and, and what gives you a life and I felt a lot of positive energy and as you said, when you’re around your friends Yeah.

Neuro divergent. Yeah.

[01:11:58] Becky: So positive energy. Yeah. So my message always is, you know, neurodivergency doesn’t need to be a negative or shouldn’t actually be a negative thing. It, you know, in the right circumstances, given the right tools, it can actually be amazing.

[01:12:14] Dino: Absolutely. And we should remember to say, if people would like to find out more about Becky Blake and the services, how can we do that?

[01:12:24] Becky: Uh, probably check out my website. Mm-hmm. Which hasn’t been updated in a long time, but it’s, um, becky blake.com.au. We will check

[01:12:33] Dino: that. We will check that

[01:12:34] Becky: it’s, put it in the show now. Cause I’ve got, I’ve got an entertainment one as well and I just, I I was working on that yesterday. Yeah. And then I haven’t, yeah.

But

[01:12:42] Dino: yes, so people go on the website and then they, they fill in the details and then you contact them. Yeah.

[01:12:47] Michael: Excellent. Touch Hopefully. People here and get in touch.

[01:12:52] Becky: That will be awesome.

[01:12:54] Michael: Thank you so much for listening and for your continued support. Please subscribe to the integration station on Spotify, apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And feel free to give us a short review if you have 30 seconds. If you have any questions you’d like to discuss, Dino and I hope to have a q and a episode in the future. So please send any questions to the integration station email podcast otc.com au or via the OTC website, ot cgroup.com au slash podcast and we’ll try and answer them on an episode.

And as always, shout out to you fledge. Until next time, it’s goodbye from me.