Hello to all of you avid readers.

It isn’t always conducive to be sitting in my closet talking to a microphone wondering if anyone will listen and if they do…whether there is any interest. I also think there is a limit to how often being self-deprecating is amusing and at some point, it just becomes annoying and perhaps whining. I am also aware, it is peak imposter to be acting like this, so, going forward, I will attempt to drop the seven readers or 20 listeners jokes that I have clearly relied on for too long (thanks for the feedback crew, I will take it on board). 

The Team

There has been a lot of things going on behind the scenes which has led to the team doing their own things, taking breaks, doubling down on other interests and general burn out. 

Everyone has their own path to follow and own story to tell and in due course, they may wish to write their own newsletter, do an episode on the pod or attend a podapalooza for a catch up. I’d of course, enjoy if all the Imposters who have taken part would like to get involved in writing this newsletter, write articles or have their own little update occasionally. Imposters - if you are reading this… you are always welcome to write something, add your own photos & updates 🙂 

As for me (it’s Burso, if you haven’t worked that out yet) I will be writing more about behind the scenes, laughs off air and small things that occur that I have taken away that may be of interest or that I have forgotten to mention on the podcast. Or perhaps just musings that come to me (at currently 1am) when I would otherwise be doom scrolling…i’m hoping this will calm my mind and wear me out - sorry to those who have to catch insomnia from reading this. 

Rod Henderson

I would like to start with Rod Henderson. He was my SGT whilst I was in the army and as much as I enjoy giving him grief, he was actually really good at looking after our welfare and deflecting the heat from the bosses. It had been over a decade since I had seen him and of all places to meet him in the middle of Australia in a desert, was very surreal. To then have to try and get him to speak to me on a podcast when he was actually trying to promote a book was hard work. 😉 

I’m not sure if he saw me as a journalist (we have always been taught to never speak to them...) or that a recording seems permanent... or the difference in media being on a podcast you have to try articulate on the spot rather than written format where you can delete and edit. Or perhaps, he just didn’t think his close mates would be as accepting of him due to being in the book he had written. 

For those of you who don’t know, Rod actually called plenty of people about his book to get insights into what happened for his stories. Which I thought was interesting, I wouldn’t have done this unless I was getting quotes from people. Not because it wasn’t historically correct to do so, but it was his story based on his perception. I look forward to reading how he saw the same time period from where he sat. It screams imposter to call and get a different recollection, because he was concerned about not upsetting anyone or telling other peoples stories incorrectly. However his book is An Australian Soldiers story, it’s not a non-fiction documentary, nor does he claim it to be. If it’s anything like the stories we used to love telling then adding some mayo each time, I look forward to laughing along. 

The fact he has written a book isn’t so much what I am proud of, anyone can write a book (as SJ Brand will tell you like she’s not a great writer – imposter much 🙄…) I am more impressed that he stuck to his guns, committing to publish what he had written. Rod had a publisher speak to him about how they wanted to name it something different, they wanted him to remove some parts and write other parts in, but then it wouldn’t have been his story. He bought the rights to the patch ‘stop screaming, I’m scared too’ as he knew he wanted to have it as his title. 

You can hear the full episode here if you haven’t already. 

Since speaking with Rod in the desert, to driving to see him in Canberra. Rod has been on another couple of podcasts, he then (after too much sheep dog whiskey...) wrote to Ben Fordham and Erin Molan to be on their shows. Apparently drunk Rod was writing cheques that sober Rod had to cash and he was packing death being on there. 

To see the Rod in the desert to seeing a line of people waiting to have him sign his book (I have one to give to the imposters he has signed, just trying to work out the best way to raffle it off) was nothing short of inspirational and what I want for everyone we have had on this podcast. He was a new man. He’d also managed to bring together 18 people I hadn’t seen in over a decade to something positive. I shouldn’t say a decade, we all attended the funeral a year earlier for our mate who was in the last MRH 90 chopper crash you may have heard about in the news. 

We all said we should do this more often, said our goodbyes and have gone our separate ways, likely not to get together again until Rod writes another book, so I hope for all of us, he does so. Not only for him, as success looks good on him, but also for our sake as it radiates out to the rest of us. 

Get the book here.

From here, I will likely be writing more newsletters than we will have pods (just due to things coming up in the immediate future). I will elaborate on this in future newsletters. 

Take care everyone and I really appreciate the time you have given me/us be it in listening or reading. I hope you can take away something from each episode be it something positive, motivation to do something you didn’t want to do or had just entertained, or has given you a good distraction from something you may not wish to address in your day just yet.  

I’ll think of something cool to sign off with in future. But until then. 

Bye.

P.S Don’t forget to catch up on episodes you’ve missed - subscribe to the podcast.