Ep 54 Survival - National first aid supplies with a real mission & branding twist

• Provide Basic Emergency Life Support (VOC Refresher HLTAID002/HLTAID010)
• Provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (VOC Refresher: HLTAID001/HLTAID009)
• Provide First Aid (VOC Refresher: HLTAID003/HLTAID011)
• Provide First Aid in an education & care setting (VOC Refresher HLTAID004/HLTAID012)

TRANSCRIPT

Brendan Torazzi
Welcome to Episode 54 of the Australian Health and Safety Business Podcast. I'm Brendan Torazzi, the host of the show and today I'm joined with Mike Terrell from survival, first aid emergency services, a whole heap of great things in the first aid space. How are you this morning?

Unknown Speaker
Very good. Thanks for having me, Brendan,

Brendan Torazzi
it's network with tic tac toe a bit to get you on the show. How's the last few years been for survival? I guess a lot of people would have been getting their housekeeping in order in businesses and that sort of thing around first aid?

Unknown Speaker
Yep, definitely. Look, we've, we've probably worked harder than we've ever had, for probably not the same type of results or outcomes, and mainly trying to keep ourselves above water, you know, just like every other business has been going through. And, you know, and everyone in a personal situation, you know, with the last couple of years of COVID. So, it's been challenging, we did a few things that we probably, you know, shouldn't have done, in terms of in terms of trying to turn our business in a different direction, which wasn't our core, you know, core aspect of it, just creating more work for us. And, you know, more and more pieces have to pick up later. But we're still here. And it's, I think we're 34 years plus and counting now,

Brendan Torazzi
are amazing. So for people that don't know the survival brand, can you tell us a little bit about what you do?

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, definitely. So look, survival started back in the 80s. Where my old man Tim and and Jerry, they started the business and they both had two critical incidents occurred that basically spurred them to, to want to create survival. And one of them was Dad found me as a four year old, covered in blood pools, whether as far as like as a toddler, but yeah, blood head to toe came in. And he did not know what to do, how to how to treat how to respond. And he felt pretty helpless. And he pulled out a book, which was a medical book about what to do, but it kept you know, it's one of those paperback ones that kept closing on him. And he just felt inadequate at that point in time, obviously, I survived. I'm here and, and survival there. But he basically wanted to create something to help parents and help people in an emergency situation to have a good chance to respond to a situation. And then my uncle went through another situation where, sadly, they were unable to actually help the individual at that point in time. And it was, they were already, they're already dead. But he felt that they didn't know the right method of how to treat that situation. And so both both of them ended up creating survival with their objective of trying to empower and educate people to have a better chance in an emergency situation. And fast forward to now that's, you know, 34 years plus, and we are still trying to innovate and make things better and easier for people in those situations.

Brendan Torazzi
So predominantly, you're supplying this at first aid kits to workplaces and individuals? Is it more than that?

Unknown Speaker
Look, it started. So how it happened in the 80s was they they did a game, it was called survival game trying to like help people in a in a survival situation. Then they had the book, and the books really weren't got survival on sort of the, on the radar where they created it with a magnet. So if you go on your fridge, you probably seen them on people's fridges across Australia, there was like over 2 million copies that went out, which is huge for like a book, it won an Australian design award, you know, all that sort of stuff that was there because of the functionality and ease of use. And that was all through the 90s and that there was heaps of it. I remember man going to all the schools and doing like fundraisers there and people like that. That's how that you know, the chocolate type of fundraisers? Yeah, that with a first aid book.

Brendan Torazzi
All right, so you were giving them or you were selling them through schools as a fundraising technique?

Unknown Speaker
Yeah. So that families, parents could have it in the school, you know, the school would get, you know, a clip back on for every book that was sold. So

Brendan Torazzi
what an amazing way to distribute a book right to the heart of where I go to the target market that really needed it.

Unknown Speaker
Totally. You know, that's where they went. And it's funny, because we're sort of looking at revisiting that now for, for the sort of some first aid stuff that we've got coming up, you know, going back in there because the we started basically, because there was that knee, there was that lack of knowledge about what to do. And everyone in Australia, you know, it's a bit of a generalisation. But lots of people sort of think, Oh, she'll be right. Yeah, you don't really want to think about that first day situation until it really happens. But if you're in that type of mindset, you pretty helpless to help your young ones. Look, that's where they were. And so the book was there until the 90s. And, and then in the early 2000s, my uncle who's an architect He said, Look, he's looking at all first aid kits out there, and they're all tackle boxes that you open up and you can't find anything. And he's like, there's a better way to do this. And he's a bit of a creative genius. And that's where our first aid kits came. So we, the books have still been going, and we still sell the books, but we just don't go through the same volume of them as we used to, everything's sort of going digital. Now, and we also put it on to a digital platform. So we've got an electronic handbook, which is the same as our, our paper book, and we've made it free, so that everyone has it, everyone, there's no shipping, no barriers, everyone's got access to that book. But you know, first aid kits and actual components, you can never replace with the digital technology. Like, it's always going to be needed, you know, we're always cutting ourselves, you know, your kids are always needing band aids because of fell over had a bruise and they're crying, you know, and then you go through to a major emergency situation, you can't use a phone to fix it might help diagnose stuff, but you still need to be able to respond with some type of equipment. So that's where the first aid kits came in, in the early 2000s. We've been continuing to innovate and try and make them better. So it's ease ease of access, to find things easily able to replace them when you've used them. So we basically have the motto of trying to make first aid simple.

Brendan Torazzi
One thing that really struck me I actually a couple of years ago, I was looking at first aid kits, and that's how I came across you guys. And I've thought in the marketplace, you guys bought by far and away had the best branding, who who's been responsible for that? Because it's a lot of the other brands just seem a little bit too clinical, whereas yours has got a bit more of a warmth. And I don't know that there's a design aspect to it. Yeah. Yeah. So I was just curious how you how that came about. Because it to me, in my opinion, it's far and away much better than anything else out there in the marketplace.

Unknown Speaker
Look, I'd say that the survival brand itself was obviously started back in the in the 80s. By Jerry, you know, my uncle, he's a creative genius. And he's the one

Brendan Torazzi
he's the architect, right. So there might be that maybe that's part and parcel of the aspect.

Unknown Speaker
Yes, he is the design there. But obviously, then when there was trademark back in the early 2000s, which is pretty incredible to be able to get that word syllables trademark, but then the actual like, you know, where what you're seeing now in the market and, and sort of our presence of the brand. I've got a big shout out to my best mate Jordan, Jordan green, who's our director of marketing. So we went to school together, and we're lucky enough to be able to work together on a regular basis, you know, on a permanent ongoing basis, which is awesome. And, you know, he he's helped sort of grabbed the vision from my uncle Jerry and from Tim and sort of continue to continue to push it. And if anyone's seeing the brand suavely out and about there, it's it's a lot of the work just coming from Jordans sort of creative genius overseeing it. Obviously, we've still got my uncle Jerry, who's the quirky architect, super passionate, you know, running 1000 miles an hour, I've got the twins here. They're identical twins, Dan and Jerry. So yeah, regularly, we regularly catch up. And they're hitting us with all these new plans and stuff. And you know, it's great. And they're one of their this year 67. And they're still, you know, pumping out plans and ideas with heaps more innovation to come. Yeah, it's a team effort. But a lot of the stuff that you guys are seeing sort of out there now is a result of, you know, Jordan, and sort of his vision and putting his flair on what's been set up by my own Nana and uncle.

Brendan Torazzi
Because it's not just the logo, it's actually the packs themselves the materials that the packs are made out of how you get into them. And they're organised that.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So that the whole the whole sort of package, like the actual product itself, it's Jerry, you know, like he, he saw those tackle boxes, like I referred to before, where people are trying to find a triangular bandage or a major wound dressing, and you pull, it's literally tipping it out and searching for it. And still people still buy those first aid kits today. And, you know, we're an advocate for people who just have first aid stuff in general. So it's better to have that than nothing, because you can actually have a chance to respond. But if you're going to buy first aid kit we're all about, you want to have something which is going to be durable, rugged, long, long standing, which is what you know, that's how we sort of made the sort of outer shell and then when you open it up, you actually want to have something that helps you navigate on find the right item for that situation that you're in. So that's why we were labelled that we tell you what the component is, what it should be used for, you know, whether it's for burns blades, whether it's a utility, you know, for if it's shears, we, we label that on there, and then we tell you how many of those components should keep in your kit. So for a compliance aspect for workplaces, that's great, because they've always got to keep it updated. But you know, for families and, and the general traveller or the person in the car, it's good to know, if something's missing in there, before you go on a big trip that, you know, you can quickly at a glance, see what you need to restock up and that should be part of the checks that you do.

Brendan Torazzi
So you touched on compliance there. Can you just run us through? What are the like? Is it legislation that's mandating that I don't have a first aid kit? Isn't every workplace or just bring us up to speed on? Yeah, for sure what the legalities are on for workplaces?

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, so Safe Work Australia have a Code of Practice for first date in the workplace. And they basically have a set of typical injuries or emergency situations that could occur. And and, and they highlight that you need to have a first aid kit that could respond to these to these situations at a minimum, and then they list out in the code, sort of recommended lists that a first aid kit should have. So this is sort of all changed. Because back in the day, you know, 10, or 10, plus years ago, every state had a different set of requirements for workplaces. It was a state by state type of approach, and they've tried to unify it, to bring it all so that no matter where you are in Australia, it's like, you know, it's the same type of system, I think it's still got a little bit to go there. Like I know Western Australia, we're still slightly separated, which seems about right with some of the stuff going on the last couple of years. But look, I think it's in general, that's that's the sort of the mandate that's out there, you shouldn't have this recommended list of items, and it should be kit. So that's what most people these days, why workplaces have to have a first aid kit because of that code, and then it's up to the state by state, you know, whether it's I think it's Safe Work Australia, or whatever it is for New South Wales that would be governed by the governing body and the same for Victoria, that then carry out the sort of compliance of it. But you know, if you're, if you're an employer, and your employees are going to have an accident at work, you need to have a first aid kit. And if you don't, then if something serious happens to your employee, like a serious injury or death, you know, we shouldn't even be having this conversation that there's nothing at work, you know, like, if your employer, you've got a duty to your your employees, and you want to provide them with the right equipment to be able to respond, like it's pretty simple. Now that this compliance doesn't stem over to much else in Australia that I'm aware of like, you don't have to have it in your own car for your own personal circumstances, you know, you don't have to have it in your in your own home. And there's no mandate over it. But it's funny that you do some of these activities on the weekend, where you put yourself at such greater risk than what you do when you go into work. But yet, people still don't have the right equipment for them when they go on out on these situations. So it's a, it's a bit of a contrast, but yeah, workplaces do need to have the first aid kit and they should be checked at regular intervals, they say, you know, minimum 12 months, we have people that like to do a three monthly six monthly or 12 month, you know, type of thing. And it all comes down to the level of risk that that workplace really is exposed to, they've got like classifications like low risk, high risk, that type of stuff based on the nature of the work.

Brendan Torazzi
Yep. So have you got any stats on I don't know how many people are actually trained in first aid across the country.

Unknown Speaker
Now, not Not off the top of my head, but like, I know that you've got that that workplace. A lot of people have that sort of mandatory training, which is generally most people get the first aid training purely because it's a work requirement and the girl turn up for that three year type of thing or, you know, educators all that sort of stuff. They've got that regular but the general Panther, the mom and dad, like unless they're good, they've got that as a requirement. They're not really getting first aid training either,

Brendan Torazzi
huh? Yeah, no, exactly. Any. I mean, that's pretty much with all training. It's like, people only get it done because it's, they're told they have they have to, for the most part,

Unknown Speaker
totally ticking a box, you know, we always advocate it should be the person DL player that's just about to get their P's you know, you should have appropriate first aid training, you know, there it's the same with moms and dads to be you know, that's really where it comes home to, to hit like I'm a father of three now. And is having that same feeling that my dad had about, you know, the young ones about wanting to make sure I knew what to do if that situation. Being prepared beforehand.

Brendan Torazzi
We had we had a situation on we our family owns a wedding venue and on Saturday night, we got a call at about seven o'clock at night saying if we got a defibrillator on on site, and somebody was having a heart attack, and of course, we didn't have one. But it got us thinking, you know, like, you know, we've got first aid kits and stuff like that, but that's not going to really, that's not going to cut the mustard obviously. Do you know anything about that? Like, work? Do workplaces also need to have defib units on on site? Or does it depend? Or? It's, it's a tricky one? Because I mean, how you can't really account for every emergency situation that's potentially going to pop up?

Unknown Speaker
No, I definitely look, I don't know, the, the exact legality on the on the DVD, because it's, it's not a core product, but it is something which was introduced into our Go range. And we've partnered up with Guy leach from heart 180 All right, and so guy, you know, absolute champion, you know, he was the Ironman that we all knew back in the, in the 90s. And he had like a pretty traumatic situation happen, where he actually lost a training partner during training, and they didn't have a defib nearby either. And so that's led to his crusade of, of getting a deep dive into, or access, you know, within 60 seconds, every Australian. So look deep, I think in terms of workplace, there's a lot of the workplaces that we're working with, they are getting DMS on site, because it's just, it's one of the most critical pieces of equipment that's going to save a life like, you know, we the stats clearly show. And so, even if it's not mandated, everyone should have it, you know, like every street should have defib that's a group, you know, it's a great group purchase. And for your, your, your wedding venue. Like if you thinking about the type of people that are coming through, you got all ages, but you're gonna have a lot of elderly there too, aren't you? Because the elderly are there to celebrate the younger generations? You know, vows and and the party that comes with it? Yeah. Yeah, having a dated there is just a critical type of thing and wish we're huge advocates for it.

Brendan Torazzi
Yeah, we certainly, like hadn't thought of it before. But uh, definitely going to go ahead and do that. Now. Thankfully, everything was fine with that person turned out to be a seizure, not a heart attack, and the ambulance turned up, and it was all okay. But it was like, you know, even if you flip it the other way to be able to save someone's life, because you do have the equipment there. That's like, that would be an amazing, amazing contribution to, to make to, you know, to that situation.

Unknown Speaker
Yep. To the end to the community. It's I think it's like what we should all be doing it, we know that they're so critical. And so to have them as access, like, I know, we bought it for our street, so that the neighbourhood knows that it's available. You know, it's just one of those things that I think we're well behind what they've done over in the states having access to dealerships. But I hope with people like guy that are out there advocating and everyone else trying to push that message, like it's huge. Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm glad that that individual, yeah,

Brendan Torazzi
everything was okay. But yeah, it does definitely start to thinking about what's your, what's your risk management in place to, if something like that ever happened again?

Unknown Speaker
Yeah. And that's how a lot of people like respond with first aid, like we get so many people call us to say they had a near miss, you know, on the weekend, or they turned up, they first had a scene and an accident, and they realised I had nothing in their car, you know, and so then they're sort of digging themselves out. And we're stoked that actually, like there's a, there's a catalyst to get that person to change their point of view to, you know, to make sure that they're prepared. But we were also trying to work out, you know, how do we get this message out to people that, you know, just be being prepared beforehand, you know, having that type of awareness, that type of assurance that you've got, you know, it's the first aid kits, like an insurance policy that's there, you know, we don't, you don't want to have to access it at all. But having it there should be enough to help prevent a serious injury or save a life and so every Australian needs to have access to it, you know, it just it's one of those things that we're really passionate about, because if you don't have it, then you're gonna have to MacGyver that situation with whatever you've got at hand. Yeah, you're not really giving yourself a fair chance Yeah, yeah, for sure your loved one or your loved ones a fair chance you know, that's what it really comes down to you don't want to ever fail your loved ones.

Brendan Torazzi
So with your customer base, is it mainly corporate or mainly individuals? How does that Who do you mainly target I noticed you've got lots of kits for specific, you know, like someone on the road or workplace or I don't know if camping.

Unknown Speaker
Yep. We've got bundles like look, it's a bit of a mix. We Eat, we have a lot of businesses because that's the you know, that's the compliance aspect. So we do have a large proportion of that. We have a lot of just say, direct to consumer, where, you know, it's mums and dads and you know, people travelling or going away for the campaign, the caravan. So that saw that segment of the market is a, I don't have the exact stats on, on who's purchasing but like, if you look at first aid, the type of industry, it's very wide industry that you've got the compliance aspect people purchasing for workplaces, your moms and dads, anyone that's travelling, you know, your car should have if you're going away on an overseas trip on a surf trip or hiking anywhere, where you're basically it, I always bring it back to the activity, each activity that we do in life has some type of risk associated to it. And because of that risk, you would then pack accordingly to the risk that you're going to be exposed to. So if you're just driving on the suburban streets with the car, yesterday, you know, something to eat, you might come across a car accident, you need to be able to deal with a major bleed, but you might not have something which is as significant a setup as what you are, if you go remote in Australia, and your hours away from help, you know, or, you know, half a day away from help. Likewise, if you're going overseas to different countries, and you don't have access to medical care there, you're going to have to pack appropriately to make sure you've got enough to buy time until we actually get to that medical care. So it's it really comes down to the activity, I think that you're you're in and and we we basically try to have something available, you know, you we've got a few core products like our large kit, which is our workplace, but we also market for the family. We have a medium sized one, which is our vehicle kit, which is great for fleet vehicles and in our workplaces for the cars, but it's also perfect for the general person car as well. And then we have smaller ones that are just more portable, like our handy Kate. And then we have a snake specific one, the snake bite kit, which is just decked out for that sort of really worst case scenario. And it's not just for snake bites, it's for major fractures, major bleeds, you're going to be able to use it to stop that when you do you know, far away from medical health.

Brendan Torazzi
Yeah, I guess the commonality is we're all humans. So no matter what you're doing, you're breaking it back down to that, that, you know, that shared thing really isn't so

Unknown Speaker
totally, yeah, well, we're always going to have these accidents that happen all the time. So yeah, and you we don't want people to live in fear at all. And, you know, part of our journey is trying to make sure that you spoke about earlier about the brand. And you know, how it sort of stood out to you compared to some other stuff. And first aid is typically dry and boring. You know, it's, it's, people don't really want to think about it. And we try to impart a bit of Jerry's quirkiness a personality into it, you know, he's always behind the scenes pushing, pushing this sort of boundaries, trying to be updated, you know, he's a disrupter. He's coming in, there was already a very crowded space that's out there for first aid and books and first aid kits. And he's always going to do a better. Yeah, and disrupting that so that people have a better product. And you know, that that's what we, I guess we try to impart our personality and make it relatable. Yes, we're, that's what we tried

Brendan Torazzi
to do. So what's the what are the future plans for survival? You said you, you're looking at potentially going back into schools? With it with a book? Yes. Any other sort of major things on the horizon? Yeah, look,

Unknown Speaker
the schools is like a fundraiser type of aspect where we did it with the book, but why not do it with the kids?

Unknown Speaker
I get you. So yeah, actually put the kids? I think that's a great idea.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah. Getting the kids in there is, you know, is a, I think, an important aspect. And it's just trying to get it so that it's not so you know, the administration that's involved with it doesn't it's not like it used to be, you know, having all these books, and then the book would go out with the kids, and then the kids would go and do the sale to the local neighbourhood and you know, and then stuff would come back, you can't really do that with a physical first aid kit product. Yeah. So that's something which we're sort of working on. And something that we're really keen on. The other things are just we continue to innovate. We've got a new product in the pipeline at the moment, which I can't disclose of, but we think it's a it's a game changer. And again, just one of those things that we might be ahead of the game a little bit with it, but that's okay. The market will catch up and, and see the significant benefits of it. once it's released, the other big thing that we're really focusing on is our is the access to information. Because first age really, to, there's two things that you need, you need to have the knowledge so that you're empowered to be able to respond to that situation. And the step, the easy access the steps, and, you know, if you're first aid trained, and you do it all the time, then you're obviously in a great situation. Most people are somewhat first aid trained, because they've had to do it for work, but they're not doing it on a day to day basis, like the paramedics and the doctors. So really, when you get to that situation, and you're dealing with your loved one that's in front of you, people feel pretty helpless. So we do have the app, the AI first aid app, which we've had in place since 2007. So it's first aid access at your fingertips on your phone, always, it's free. So we made it free, rather than have like a barrier to entry. Well, we want everyone to have it, we're not happy with the you know, the current, you know, where it's at, you know, we're happy with the first a content that's on there, but we think we can do it better. So that's our big project for 2022 is we want to make that as user friendly and accessible as possible. And my old man, Tim, you know, on his tombstone, he wants to have a digital ticker with the, you know, 1,500,000, you know, downloads and counting, you know, type of thing. Yeah, once everyone worldwide to basically have that on their phone, in every type of language, so that everyone's got a chance, you know, that's the sort of like parting parting gift to the world.

Unknown Speaker
So that's called AI first aid is,

Unknown Speaker
yeah, it's aI first day, so it's the, you know, like iPhone, right, and then first aid or one word, and that's a free download. It does have a huge work in progress underway at the moment, and we were excited to release it, the, the information that's on there now is great, it's, it's still going to be it's going to get you out of trouble. But we think we can make it you know, reduce the amount of steps that are needed to get to various aspects, you know, just the user functionality of it. So yeah, to watch this face, and if you don't have it, get it on your phone and and keep an eye out for the updates that are going to be coming.

Brendan Torazzi
That's awesome. So I'm taking it you have a situation like someone's or they've been bitten by a snake and you type snake bite in and it sort of walks you through

Unknown Speaker
step by step what to do. Yeah, which is, you know, critical. And then so the thing is, you obviously need if you need that information, if you don't know exactly what to do, it's a prompt type of thing. The second thing is you got to have the equipment because if you don't, if you don't have a pressure bandage, to be able to apply the the first step in, in the snake treatment to get the pressure to stop the venom from flowing through the lymphatic system, then you're not going to be able to give yourself a chance to survive. Yeah, it's pressure and immobilisation. And that's why you know, the bandage that we've made the smart bandage, we've got an indicator that's on there. So you start as a rectangle. And as you tension it and pull it, you're gonna get yourself to a square that gets you in the range that you need to have to give yourself a chance to get the right pressure for dealing with a snakebite.

Brendan Torazzi
That's great. Well, thanks so much, Mike, for coming on the show. And it's probably a timely reminder for everyone to review what they have currently in place, workplaces, homes, all that sort of thing. I know, I'm certainly going to be doing that. If people want to find out more about survival, what's your website?

Unknown Speaker
So it's www dot survival first aid kits.net.au.

Unknown Speaker
Great. All right, Mike. appreciate

Unknown Speaker
being here. And yeah, we advocate strongly have access to some type of first aid information, whether it's our app or any app that's out there, and having a first aid kit or medical components, again, whether it's ours or anyone out there, it's better to have something than nothing. So you you've got a good chance to deal with that situation. And be better prepared than my old man did. And back in the 80s, which is why we're here today.

Brendan Torazzi
Fantastic. Okay, Mike. Thanks very much.

Unknown Speaker
Thanks, Brendon. You've been listening to an ohs.com.au production.

Brendan Torazzi
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