You see the glamour, the glitz, the gold,
The dazzling stories that unfold,
But miss the nights when dreams run cold,
The hidden trials, the truths untold.
From gig to gig, I roam and strive,
Chasing dreams to stay alive.
Where the next paycheck will appear,
Is a mystery, far and near.
The shows you see, the stages bright,
Hide the endless, weary nights.
Unpaid hours and sleepless days,
Building up through endless praise.
Rejection cuts with silent pain,
Public scrutiny’s harsh refrain.
A single slip, a misstep made,
Can lead to cancel culture’s shade.
In this realm of fierce acclaim,
Many see it as a game.
Who stands by me when lights grow dim?
Who’s there when prospects seem grim?
Competition’s sharp and cruel,
A constant fight to stay in school.
Even when success is near,
Money’s split before it’s clear.
Agents, managers, taxman’s claim,
Take their share, and leave a name.
When fortune fades, and cash runs low,
Love and support may not show.
Invitations stop, the calls grow thin,
The ones who cared, they’re lost within.
Where’s my mental health in the fray?
In this fickle life, where shadows sway?
You see the fame, the sparkle bright,
But miss the trials out of sight.
Behind the scenes and all the cheer,
I’m human too, with hopes and fears.
- @_glennmarsden
Founder Glenn Marsden chats to Australia's DNA Magazine
A big amount of appreciation to Matthew Myers of DNA Magazine for choosing me to be the ‘Straight Mate of the Month’ and writing such a wonderful article.
With several of the faces of the campaign appearing in the magazine over the years and several public figures speaking up about their own mental health struggles towards dealing with their sexuality throughout the campaign, I was hugely honoured to have been asked about the campaigns efforts.
'It was when I was in treatment, that I realised how much music could help (me) & others. - Wes Geer
Wesley Geer has been a professional musician for over 20 years. He first found success as the first founding member of Jive Records artist Head P.E as guitarist, songwriter and producer. After touring the world for 8 years, Wes left the band for a lifestyle change and ultimately landed in Rehab. In 2010, at almost 3 years sober, he was approached to play with the legendary band; KORN. He went on to tour with Korn for the next several years, touring shows, playing to crowds of 80,000 and appearing on a number of recordings, cable and tv shows. His music has been featured in many feature films, video games, radio and television shows. This episode; It was a total honour to be able to find out more about; not only an incredible career spanning the 20 years but also an amazing insight into Wes's own personal story with him speaking openly about his own dark times and ultimately through a recovery that led him to founding, "Rock to Recovery." which has to date gone on and toured all over America helping people through music therapy. To find out more about Wes's foundation: rocktorecovery.org
IG LIVES ALL WEEK - I CHAT WITH THE AMAZING JEN PASTILOFF.
IG LIVES ALL WEEK - Chatting to the incredible Jen Pastiloff
Be sure to keep up to date with all the latest IG Live hangs over on the @_imperfectlyperfectcommunity page
Daily I am chatting to some incredible people and learning so much about their own personal stories and overcoming them.
Yesterday I had the privilege of chatting to @jenpastiloff an amazingly inspirational lady, whose book ‘On Being Human’ just resonated being your authentic self and literally drowning out the noise of when you tell yourself ‘I’m not good enough. A must read for anyone.
I also find out about the incredible initiative towards the food drive over in the USA she has kicked off with some equally as amazing people and so far raised almost 100k !
Subscribe today to the 'Imperfectly Perfect' Podcast for some incredible guests and stories.
The Imperfectly Perfect Podcast ; available via Spotify or iheartradio.
Incredible guests, inspirational stories, some of the most respected and influential public figures within their professions and also just incredible human beings.
What do they all have in common?
They all have a story.... and all have dealt with mental health struggles and I am so honoured for each and everyone of them to be a part of the imperfectly perfect aims by sharing those stories in aims to help and inspire other people to speak up and know they are not alone.
Wes Geer leads the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign's Virtual Hang
He has played the worlds biggest stadiums as lead guitarist, songwriter and producer fronting and playing with some of the worlds biggest bands and recording artists for over 20 years, is the founder of the non for profit org @rocktorecovery and this week, I am truly honoured that @wesgeer will be leading one of our Imperfectly Perfect ‘VIRTUAL HANG’s’ with a guided Meditation session and Q&A about his incredible career, his own struggles and finding what has helped him through those times and inadvertently how he overcame his own adversity to go on to help others through his songwriting and meditation practise.
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Australia : 10:00am (Tuesday 14th Apr)
Los Angeles: 5:00pm (Monday 13th Apr)
New York: 8:00pm (Monday 13th Apr)
Uk: 1:00am (Tuesday 14th Apr)
To find out about joining in with the session, simply message me to be included in gaining the access code or email me at
glenn@imperfectlyperfectcampaign.org to go on the notifications list for all sessions.
'The Enemy Within' - Joe Williams Tew.
The former NRL player and professional boxer had just attempted suicide.
"Joe you're lucky to be alive," his doctor said.
"You've got a second chance at life now, what are you going to do with it?"
In the years prior, Williams had managed to kick his addictions to illicit drugs and alcohol. But he had fallen into a destructive pattern of prescription drug use, and was struggling with his recently-diagnosed bipolar disorder.
Williams says that day in Dubbo was one step in an ongoing journey to self-knowledge and recovery, but it marked a turning point.
"It was in that moment, I said to myself … 'I am so thankful to be alive, and every day I get to open my eyes, I'm going to treat that as a gift'," he said....
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Episode 22 - What a truly inspirational story Joe has and I feel so honoured for him sharing it with not only myself but on the imperfectly perfect campaign. Overcoming adversity, working through his emotional struggles and finding out what worked for him is the ultimate inspiration and to further move forward and help others - such a selfless act of pure humanity and kindness.
'Stay Connected With' The 'Virtual Hangs'
With such an immense response to the @imperfectlyperfectcampaign ‘virtual hangs’ and many people messaging about them to get involved since our first 4 live sessions with the incredible @jeremyjacksonfitness @timconlon @wesgeer and @chefjasonroberts leading them, there is now an easier way to keep updated by simply registering your interest for notifications on all weekly hangs by clicking the link in my bio or simply copying and pasting the below link.
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https://mailchi.mp/9daf60c14161/virtual-hangs
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Each week more incredible guests join the ‘hangs’ inc. faces from the campaign, health & wellness professionals & experts amongst many more in efforts to meeely keep us all connected and uplift everybody’s spirits during this time. You may all see some returning faces due to huge demand from their sessions...
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There will be live Q&A’s, guided meditation sessions, health and wellness discussions, Guided Breath work meditations, Live acoustic music sessions, Cooking classes and so much more.....
Imperfectly Perfect launches it's 'Virtual Hangs' during lock-down to keep us all connected.
The Imperfectly Perfect Campaign ‘Virtual Hangouts’
I am so thrilled to be launching the ‘virtual hangs’ initiative during the period of social distancing and perhaps lock-down to anybody who may be going through this. Joining me weekly are some very special guests, faces of the campaign, incredible friends, mentors, and guests coming on board to keep us connected.
We have organised Breath Work Meditations, Cooking Classes to keep routine, Guided Meditation Practise, Live Acoustic Sessions, Fitness Sessions as well as sessions with some amazing professionals in psychology, psychiatry, holistic therapy amongst many.
Running each Tuesday / Thursday in Australia (10:00am)
Running each Monday / Wednesday in the US (5:00pm / 8:00pm)
For more information and to keep informed of all times to gain the session access code; simply email me today at: glenn@imperfectlyperfectcampaign.org or send a direct message with your email. .
What is this 'Blue Tick' Verification doing to us, really?
Disclaimer:
I am all for social media and the draw card for myself; especially with running the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign via all social platforms is CONNECTION.
It would be hypocritical of me to write this piece and slam these platforms as I do believe a lot of good comes from them. For those following my campaign on raising more awareness around mental health and suicide prevention, I chose to use these platforms for the campaign from seeing a continual decline in that very thing I have being trying to pull back in people and that is social connection, and the impact it is having on peoples mental wellbeing with us seeing depression, anxiety rates increasing due to the impact social media was and continues to play in our lives.
‘Much like a lot of the social media platforms now, I wanted to draw the attention to this obsession of attaining the ‘blue tick’ which is used or said to be used to show that an account has been personally verified by the platform as being the real account. Yet if you want one of those ticks you would have to wait for these platforms to decide if you are deemed ‘important’ enough to have one.
So are we lead to believe, that someone, really is sitting behind a desk going through our lives as a mean to determine whether ‘they’ consider us to be worthy of a bloody tick to be ‘real.’
Initially we were lead to believe highly influential public figures were considered important enough to be verified as to ascertain it was that very ‘public figure / or celebrity who owned the account and with so many imitating accounts, copy and pasting their images for whatever means or gains they wanted, I suppose it could’ve been justified.
But….somewhere along the way… social media got squiffed and trying to gain a blue tick to be important came into play and became anyones game. Anyone could potentially be an “ influencer”.
The intended purpose of connecting people worldwide now became almost the competition of life or lifestyle with ‘thy neighbour’. Whose life was better, who wore it better and who could prove they were living the ultimate life through filters and applications, and it sadly continues today.
To add icing to the cake, the blue tick verification brought a sense of superiority in people that by having one meant you actually considered yourself as someone of importance, you were ‘deemed’ worthy or justified enough to be included into the almost ‘inner’ circle and to some extent gave some people a further accolade of narcissism.
Then came the moment it was opened to everyone to be able to apply for verification status regardless of how many followers an account had. You merely ‘requested verification on most platforms. Asked to provide details, ID’s then comes a waiting game whilst these ‘platforms’ determine authenticity and notability of your account to deem whether you are eligible to join the ‘elite’ or not.
Don’t get me wrong, understanding the verification process for legitimate accounts such as for actual influential people, organisations or celebrities, that we see get imitated often, we can see it makes sense.
But often to outlay the ‘status’ of being verified to anyone and everyone to the point that social media becomes a competition between people, friendships and an unhealthy relationship with ones self becomes scary. This has and continues to make an impact onto people’s mental well-being and mental health in at times negative ways. Is this truly what the world needed or still needs?
The process of being verified also posed and still does so many loop holes and people falling through the gaps of not being verified when by all means they are in the public eye, they are deemed of influential status, they are in the press weekly, they do charity work, they own businesses and more yet are still not having a blue tick. Does this mean by a platform’s standard they are not deemed authentic or the real person of the account or even important enough, all while have more than enough accolades, evidence of who they are...
I mean, who is controlling this? Really.
What truly does it take to be deemed worthy?
Take for example; two of Britains biggest names in that of Tamara Beckwith and Lady Victoria Hervey. Both highly publicised influential ladies, each in the public eye and the media weekly, they are in the biggest publications, both attend the most prestigious events and gala’s, fundraise for charities, and are activists and own well known British businesses.
Yet one is verified, and one isn’t.
Make sense to anyone?
Does this mean one is less worthy or deemed less important than the other by... what; a social media platform standard?
Does this mean one is getting far more work than the other or people no longer think one is eligible to be invited to these gala’s or events, or be featured heavily in the press because she isn’t deemed eligible for a blue tick on ‘these’ platforms.
Looking into both these highly influential ladies as well as many more, quite frankly it hasn’t hindered or impacted their careers at all.
I have highly successful friends who are the real ‘influencers’ in life who make an impact on society and leave marks on the world and are heavily featured in the press for their work, whom have all at one time or another fell victim themselves to requesting verification on these platforms as a way to justify themselves or who people see them as more worthy by a tick or important and even been advised by others to do so.
The Imperfectly Perfect campaign itself, within only a year has gained international attention and press and is linked to one person running it,and has so much evidential status of who runs it, even being advised I fell victim in that I needed to get verified in order to give the campaign more authority.
Twice I tried but apparently the campaign nor myself were deemed important enough or ‘real’.
Has it hindered its progress to reach the masses or make a difference in changing the face of mental health? No.
Has it not hit mainstream media each month in Australia, or gained attention internationally? No.
Have my friends who have successful careers in their field been effected by merely turned down on receiving a blue tick? No.
Has it closed that many doors for them, for these public figures across the world? No.
Has not being verified stopped users whom have a high rate of followers or engagement not made money from companies seeing their reach to attract attention to their goods or services? No.
So why are people still putting their mental well-being to the back and moving this ideal status as a way to justify who they are to the world?
Have some companies aimed at capitalising off the blue tick? Of course.
If you don’t ascertain to have this many followers or be verified especially in the entertainment industry, you won’t gain an ‘in’ for an audition or a gig. The result as we see, is the effects on people’s self worth and people scrambling to build an online presence in an unhealthy manner.
Are we becoming a little naive ourselves at times, in thinking that these platforms don’t have one thing on their mind from a business stand point in how they keep us engaged to their platform or how do we keep people putting content on our platforms.
Could we attribute the denial of a blue tick merely as a way to get people more consumed, to engage more, post more all to get the prize; being that of the blue tick.
I I mentioned it earlier, but I love social media, I do, the world loves social media and in that they do have their positives, they really do.
I mentioned it earlier, but I love social media, I do, the world loves social media and in that they do have their positives, they really do.
These are actually incredible free resources to connect and unite people worldwide, keep in touch with those you may not live near and a way to build friendships and connections globally.
In saying this what we do need to do is educate ourselves and others on the use of them and teaching not only our minds but those of the younger generations coming into this world getting social media savvy from as young as 5 to merely take them for what they are - a tool to connect and be social.
Most importantly social media is not a tool to almost slam your mind from buying into the constant barrage of perfectly filtered photos that appear on platforms, competitiveness, showcasing the perfect life, the perfect career, the perfect vacations, and more.
We are seeing social media as a drug and we are not only getting addicted to it, we are letting our mental health and quality of life get destroyed in the process.
In 2018 alone, it was reported that more than a third of Generation Z from a survey of 1,000 individuals stated that they were quitting social media for good as 41 per cent stated that social media platforms make them feel anxious, sad or depressed.
That was 2018!
2019 saw a further increase on social media related mental health issues.
So all that said and drawing back to being deemed ‘important’ enough by a platform...Are we to believe that the real influencers in life, the people who are making an impact in society and building the future are then not important enough for these platforms? Will we continue seeing a trend in more social media mental health related issues going up, will we continue seeing connection further being interrupted by people competing for status on a mere social media platform that was suppose to bring them closer OR will we be able to salvage what has happened to us, disrupt social media by uniting as one, utilising them as a mere tool to connect and educate and turn things around for the sake of our mental wellbeing.
I believe we have that time, I believe we can turn things around and by using our voices, our own platforms we have created on ‘these’ platforms we can do. We can also showcase that a mere ‘blue’ tick across any platform should not nor does not justify who we are by not giving into the sheer race of requesting or being bothered by the sight of one.
Glenn Marsden
The Wiggles - Simon Pryce gets behind The Imperfectly Perfect Campaign
Simon Pryce and IPC Founder Glenn Marsden chat about Simon’s involvement with the campaign on Australia’s ‘The Daily Edition’ show on 7.
“Losing a close friend of mine, whom on the outside was looking fine and everything was ok. A ‘rosy’ picture to the world but inside was having all this struggle and turmoil. I got involved because the @imperfectlyperfectcampaign represented exactly what I’d just experienced.” - @simon_wiggle
