After all, he was speaking in his home community and was staring out into an audience that included long-time friends, teammates from his footballing years, former teachers and a host of people he had acknowledged with a nod or wink at one time or another while walking the streets of Kyabram.
“I thought I was in the wrong room when I walked in. It was like being at a GV Hall of Fame dinner,” he said, referring to the presence of league medallists, game record-holders and a host of other sporting stars of past and present.
Mr Davies, who is now known as The Unbreakable Farmer, said in Kyabram he was more widely known as “Warren who lives down the road’’.
He has been on the Australian speaking circuit, talking about his battles with mental health and the methods he has used to address those issues, for six years.
Despite his prowess at story-telling, he said it was still challenging and reminded him of the early days after he had completed a speaking course, when he sought alternate methods of income after losing his Tongala family farm.
“I planned on treating the speaking course purely as self-development,” Mr Davies said.
“It was a six-month course and at that first session we spoke in front of about 20 people.
“One thing I have developed since that first presentation is an ability to understand why I am doing what I am doing.
“Once I get going, my purpose overtakes my anxiety.”
Prior to “going pro’’, Mr Davies’ only foray into public speaking was as a footy coach.
He is now responsible for inspiring conversations about mental health and empowering people to seek help.
His “warts and all’’ stories are at the heart of his message that while it may not be comfortable speaking about mental health, it was completely necessary.
He shared the story of starting out in the business and developing his brand of resilience and determination.
Mr Davies owned a farm in Tongala for almost two decades and, while he never had a windmill — a prominent part of his logo — on the property, he said the concerned body language of the farmer and the black dog that are also major parts of his brand were reflective of his mentality at that time.
The Unbreakable Farmer brand came as a result of the participants in the public speaking program having to adopt a superhero name to attach to their speaking role.
“One of the blokes shared his idea with me and I registered it on GoDaddy straight away,” he said.
Mr Davies said his story was in contrast to the superhero title, more about being broken rather than unbreakable.
“When I unpacked my story, I found out two things. I’d been struggling with my health since I was about seven (both his grandfathers died within four months of one another and he started at a new school) and I never had a connection to a community,” he said.
Mr Davies said he had been able to identify several events of his youth that had contributed to his mental health status, everything from as serious as bullying to missing out on the school football team and being forced to represent his school in table tennis.
“I don’t know whether I was lucky or unlucky, but 11 of the blokes I went to school with played AFL footy,” he said, explaining he may have been a little hard on himself.
Mr Davies and his family moved from the city to Merrigum early in high school and he found his calling, playing in a Gus Underwood-coached Kyabram premiership not too long after arriving in the area.
School was not his thing and, after leaving at age 16, he chose farming as a career
“I learnt farming and by the time I was 22 I was confident enough to have a go for myself and went into business with Mum and Dad by buying 200 acres (81 hectares) alongside their property,” he said.
Not to totally steal his thunder, in case you want to hear him speak for yourself, what followed was a flood, a family bust-up, going into further debt by buying out his parents, another two years of drought and, finally, Mr Davies walking off the land with his wife and children
That, he said, is when he left the “Warren the farmer’’ identity at the gate.
Years later, he is sharing the story that he hopes will inspire people to recognise and act on their own mental health much earlier than he did.
