That’s the message former NRL player and Dubbo resident Daniel Conn wants the community to know.

Mr Conn is an ambassador for R U OK?. On Monday the national suicide prevention charity will be in Dubbo with their Conversation Convoy, encouraging the community to invest more time in the people around them.

The ambassador has been very open with his own mental health struggles, admitting he came close to committing suicide. Now he’s using his own experiences to make a difference. Mr Conn said he wanted mental health awareness to be his legacy.

“I think for me personally it’s showing people that it’s okay to not be okay. People try to hide that and they hide themselves away when they’re not having a good day, but I think it’s important to realise that you don’t have to be happy every day or be perfect every day,” he said.

“It’s okay to have a bad day. Once you realise that than you might actually feel quite better about it.”

Even within himself Mr Conn said he was learning that not every day was perfect. He was taking it one day at a time, he said.

More than 3000 Australians commit suicide each year – about eight people every day.

One of Mr Conn’s main goals is education. He wants people to learn the red flags to look for within themselves. By learning the warning signs, such as anti-social behaviour, Mr Conn said he hoped to prevent “some of these sad stories we keep hearing”.

“I’ve got a lot of my friends where if I’m not having a great day I let them know. They’re probably sick of hearing from me,” Mr Conn said.

“If your girlfriend’s not having a good day and she told you that it’s a lot easier than copping it from her all day. If you understand that she’s not having a good day than it’s a lot easier to talk about these things.”

While R U OK? Day is September 14, Mr Conn said he wanted people to to check-in with loved ones on a more frequent basis.

“Ninety-nine per cent of the time Aussies will probably go ‘yeah, nah I’m fine’ but it’s about actually sitting down, looking someone in the eye one-on-one and saying ‘listen, I noticed you’ve been really quiet lately and I just want to check in and make sure you’re okay’,” he said.

“The most important bit is following up it’s not just a one time a year type question. It doesn’t mean you ask every second person on the street if they’re okay just sometimes you look at your phone and message a few friends you haven’t seen lately.”

The Conversation Convoy will be at the rotunda from 8am to 9am on Monday.

The convoy has hit the road for six weeks, travelling 14,000 kilometres and visiting 20 communities, in a bid to give everyone the skills, motivation and confidence to start a conversation with anyone they may be worried about.

Mr Conn admits he had a “country boy mentality” growing up.

“The country boy mentality is that people out there are quite hardened and quite tough individuals in the bush. I guess there’s always been a bit of a stigma. When I was younger and a country boy, having a conversation about those topics wasn’t something that I knew much about,” he said.

Now it was something more people were willing to talk about he said, and the stigma was slowly going away.

“I learnt to put my hand up when I needed help and that was a big step for me. If someone like me can do it than other people can do the same,” Mr Conn said.