0:00

And I had to ask myself some tough questions about exactly

0:02

what I was doing and why . And

0:05

a lot of it come from a

0:07

child approving others wrong and approving or

0:09

do things when others said I couldn't . Now

0:11

I've just got so used to stretching

0:14

myself and succeeding and

0:16

pushing myself beyond what people say

0:19

is okay and succeeding and

0:21

doing it again and again and

0:24

again and not accepting

0:26

what society considers

0:29

the ceiling and creating

0:31

my own ceilings . And you know , when

0:33

I quit my job

0:35

$110,000 a year with

0:37

three kids under three , three mortgages

0:40

and no guarantees and everyone

0:42

told me I was crazy and all my staff mates

0:45

, my workmates , took bets on me to how long

0:47

it would take me to fail and come groveling

0:49

back . That comes from continually

0:52

pushing those ceilings and

0:54

that comes from self-belief . That comes

0:56

from going . You know what , if I can lie on the floor

0:58

of the blue hole at 90 metres

1:01

alone , you know if I can punch

1:03

through and do things and win world

1:05

championships when people say you can't

1:07

and I can do this

1:09

and I can do this again

1:11

and again and again

1:13

and again . And we did . We started

1:15

the electrical business and it

1:17

went on to have fantastic success

1:20

. And we started the development company and

1:22

it's had fantastic success . And

1:24

then my coaching business is really flourishing

1:26

and people want to stifle

1:29

because of their own set of belief systems

1:31

and they're not my beliefs . There's

1:33

only a reflection of the things you can't tolerate

1:36

or accept within yourself , and that is

1:38

no longer my problem . I'm just

1:40

getting started .

1:42

Hello , ladies and gentlemen , and welcome to Grand Slam

1:45

Journey podcast , where we discuss

1:47

various topics related to finding

1:50

our passion and purpose , maximizing

1:53

our potential , sports , life

1:55

after sports and

1:57

transitioning from one chapter of our

1:59

lives to the next , growing our

2:01

skills and leadership and

2:03

whatever we decide to put our minds into

2:06

. For my guest today

2:08

, brett W Smith , areas

2:11

of all of the above . I've

2:14

been thinking about how to introduce Brett

2:16

and our conversation , and

2:18

the truth is that I find very

2:21

few words to describe

2:23

what Brett had shared in

2:25

the journey of his life . Brett

2:28

is someone who seems like had packed

2:30

three or four lives into

2:32

the duration that he

2:34

has lived thus far , and he

2:37

has a long and exciting

2:39

list of things and shattering

2:41

ceilings ahead . I've

2:43

always considered myself a driver

2:45

, but the experiences

2:48

that Brett has gone

2:50

through and learning to navigate

2:52

the human experience , as he

2:54

calls it , is , in

2:56

many ways , making me speechless . As

2:59

is typical for my guests , brett

3:02

has grown up being an athlete . Being

3:04

from Australia , he grew

3:06

up playing rugby and

3:09

then discovered boxing . Life

3:12

adventure had taken him on

3:14

travels through different countries and adventure

3:17

becoming a master

3:19

diver , where he has explored

3:21

depths of

3:24

95 meters with

3:26

oxygen , something

3:29

I still cannot fathom After

3:32

returning back home from

3:34

his travel and exploring

3:37

the depths of the ocean

3:39

in Egypt . He then returned back

3:41

home , picked up boxing again

3:43

and became the WBF

3:45

and WBU world champion

3:48

in boxing . After

3:50

his boxing career , he then went

3:52

on to open two businesses

3:54

, one being an electrician and

3:57

one developing homes , and now

3:59

he is on his path of starting

4:01

his next passion project coaching

4:04

. Brett is someone

4:06

who has gone through so much

4:09

in life , including

4:11

dying at 6 months

4:13

old , being kidnapped

4:16

and then somehow escaping

4:18

at age 7 or 9 . He

4:22

has gone through so much and

4:24

has worked on himself so much

4:27

to overcome some

4:29

of the mental model challenges

4:31

and the boxes that society

4:33

often wants to fit us into , that

4:36

I have no doubt he'll be a great coach

4:38

and serve many others to

4:41

uncover their passion , their

4:43

potential and help him get on a journey

4:45

of whatever they define as

4:47

their success . This is

4:49

a long conversation and I

4:51

could have asked Brett thousands

4:54

of different questions . We talk

4:56

about sports , navigating

4:58

life's challenges , entrepreneurship

5:01

, mindset , the mind

5:04

and body connection , mental

5:06

health , shattering glass ceilings

5:09

and navigating the

5:11

human experience . I

5:13

hope you enjoyed this conversation . If

5:15

you do , please share it with someone

5:18

you believe may enjoy it as well . Consider

5:20

leaving a review on Ampo Podcast

5:22

or Spotify , and don't forget

5:25

to subscribe so you don't miss the

5:27

next episode . This is your host

5:29

, clara Egochova . Thank you for

5:31

tuning in , and now I bring

5:33

you Brett W

5:35

Smith .

5:37

I had that really challenging

5:39

time recently . I did the

5:41

Sunshine Coast marathon and

5:45

I've trained my whole year for this . This

5:48

is my now , this is my boxing , this is my

5:50

world and I've

5:53

trained the whole year for this and I've got a coach

5:55

for it . I've been pushing

5:57

for that sub three hour time . You

6:00

know 415km

6:02

or 650 miles I suppose

6:04

it would be Paced time

6:06

. It's been moving . It took a lot of work . I

6:08

actually crossed along a 306

6:10

, did underpaced . I've

6:12

got a bit of six minutes faster than my previous

6:14

best . It was a really good run , really

6:17

enjoyable run really spiritual run like I really

6:19

went within , called all my guides

6:21

. I had my whole team behind me spiritually

6:23

, pushed me on and supported me

6:26

when I fell short

6:28

on the previous attempt . A little

6:30

bit before that , but

6:32

the two weeks leading into it I had a family

6:35

. I've got a family of six , a wife and four children

6:37

and myself and they

6:39

all got chronically ill , bad

6:42

flu , like really bad flu

6:44

, not COVID . Well , we don't know because we didn't test

6:46

, because

6:49

we've never tested the children , but

6:51

my wife and myself have both

6:53

had it twice in 2021

6:55

or something like this , and we just

6:58

act professionally or

7:00

adequately and just stay home and

7:02

rest . I'm not

7:04

too worried about the diagnosis

7:07

these days . You know you're always going to get

7:09

a bit of a bump . Everyone was sick and I've

7:13

actually got a coach right now helping

7:15

me explore

7:18

my healing abilities as

7:20

an energy healer , and she's

7:23

a lady that helped me heal my son , who's

7:25

now five in November , so almost

7:28

four years ago it's all about now . He was really

7:30

sick in ICU and

7:33

it come up

7:35

to me then that I just had to go . This

7:37

was actually here for me , coming

7:40

through him , because he is my

7:42

little mirror and he is my clone , so

7:46

I had her support me then to help me help

7:48

him heal himself . For me be

7:51

a part of that it was a huge

7:53

moment in

7:55

my life and also connection to my son's

7:57

eye level of himself

7:59

and anyway

8:01

. So , like four years later , I got this calling

8:03

to that . I'm ready

8:05

now , as I'm stepping more into the coaching

8:08

and I've removed myself from my

8:10

monetary business this year to a certain

8:12

extent . I'm still the director , I

8:14

see everything , but I have made time for

8:16

him and for myself

8:18

to explore what's next and it

8:21

come up to me to engage her

8:23

. So I've got her as a spiritual coach

8:25

for a three month extensive

8:28

block and the first thing they come up was

8:30

healing anyway . So all

8:32

the kids and my wife got sick before this

8:34

marathon and she's like this is here

8:36

for you . And I'm like I cannot get

8:38

sick . She goes this is here for you , like this

8:40

is what you want , this is what you

8:42

want to explore . It's now your time

8:44

to sit in that disease

8:47

and heal them and not

8:49

allow yourself to succumb , because you

8:51

are here to support them . And

8:53

I did that for two weeks straight . For

8:55

17 or 18 days straight

8:58

, I spent every night with each individual

9:00

child as they fell , supporting

9:03

them , healing them , calling on whatever

9:05

they told me they needed from a higher level

9:08

. And I did that for 18 days

9:10

. And the day before

9:12

the marathon I said I'm done , I'm

9:14

going to mum and dad's , my parents place , because

9:16

they live very close to the marathon , on the

9:18

Sunshine Coast , by the beach . And

9:20

I said I'm done and my wife goes , you're leaving me when

9:22

I'm sick . And I said babe . I

9:25

said this has been like 18 days . I'm

9:27

running a marathon Sunday

9:30

. It's Friday evening . I'm going sat

9:32

day to spend some time alone . And

9:35

I did that and I was completely

9:37

exhausted . The sat day

9:39

at my parents and they said you look terrible . I

9:41

said I'm just energetically

9:43

fatigued , I haven't

9:45

done anything , but I've been calling on energies

9:48

that are greater than me and they've been passing through

9:50

me , and you try to tell this to

9:52

your parents from the industrial era

9:54

era , who are just like

9:56

you're just crazy , son . And

10:00

they understand me and understand

10:03

my energy . They've learned to just

10:06

be with me and work

10:08

with me at whatever level I'm at . But

10:10

yeah , I was completely exhausted

10:12

and it was not my

10:14

physical being , it was from having something

10:17

I can only explain pass

10:19

through you that isn't yours and

10:22

I feel like I was passing energy through me to

10:24

them to support them . And

10:26

it took a toll on me

10:29

. But I ran a PB on the Sunday and

10:31

I woke up Sunday and I

10:33

checked out my Garmin watch which showed

10:35

me complete other body stress

10:37

. The 24 hours before made no

10:39

sense because all I did was rest , but

10:42

it was the stress of something greater than

10:44

me . And then I woke up on the Sunday

10:46

morning 5am for the marathon

10:48

. I checked my watch it was all blue , it

10:51

was all ready , it was energetically

10:53

supporting me and I remember

10:55

the whole race , particularly after

10:57

30 kilometer mark when it got quite challenging

11:00

. I was just calling my gods . I just

11:02

keep calling them in and calling them in and they

11:04

kept supporting me and although I didn't

11:06

get the sub three hour , I had

11:08

a way more enjoyable race than

11:10

seven weeks prior

11:13

where I was all alone and

11:15

I learned some tools to call in something

11:18

great of me to support me , and I

11:20

only wish I had these tools when I

11:22

was at the peak of my boxing

11:24

career , for example , but

11:27

, that being said , I have

11:29

them now , in the biggest

11:31

part of my life . You know , talking

11:34

about getting sick . Sorry , I got a bit sidetracked

11:36

.

11:36

No , that's great , well done , but

11:39

I didn't get sick .

11:40

I didn't get sick and that

11:42

was a big key moment

11:44

for me Because it meant

11:47

I've made substantial progress

11:50

with a space I'm trying

11:52

to truly explore and

11:54

you know it's not for everyone

11:57

. You know calling yourself an energy healer and

11:59

you know , for me being

12:01

a full tradey working

12:03

class blue collar

12:05

construction , it's

12:07

an interesting space to be exploring .

12:11

Yeah , the purple bunch of stigma

12:13

that comes from your background

12:16

to where you are now , so

12:18

100% interesting . Thanks

12:20

for sharing that story and congrats

12:23

again on the performance . That seems fantastic

12:26

and how great you are able to achieve

12:28

your PR despite all that has been

12:30

happening with your family

12:32

in the previous two weeks , so

12:35

that's an amazing recovery .

12:37

It's just a super interesting experience

12:41

to kind of realize that

12:43

it is always greater than you and this

12:46

what you take . You

12:49

know you get to choose what the

12:51

experience is , and for me

12:53

it was an experience of growth to test

12:55

and stretch something I was trying to explore

12:57

versus the

13:00

victim mode of poor me , and

13:02

then I'm sure I would have succumbed to serious

13:04

illness had I allowed the emotions

13:07

to drag me to that position

13:09

, if you know what I mean .

13:11

Yes , the mind and body

13:13

connection is definitely

13:15

interesting and something I hope

13:17

we will continue to dive into

13:20

in our conversation today

13:22

and , if anything

13:24

, the past seven minutes is

13:26

probably a great example of what

13:28

is yet to come for the

13:31

following hour or so . But

13:34

before we dive into many

13:36

more of these topics

13:38

your athletic journey , entrepreneurship

13:41

, and now transitioning to coaching

13:43

and spirituality I

13:46

want to maybe pause for

13:48

a second and give you an opportunity

13:50

to introduce yourself to our

13:52

listeners , please .

13:55

Yeah , brett W Smith , I guess I

13:58

struggled to describe

14:00

what I am these days . I guess

14:02

I'm shown up here now

14:04

and 2023 is a big

14:07

year for me to reflect

14:09

on the coach that I've become , both

14:11

within and and , yeah

14:14

, it's become time to step into that space

14:16

of creative space to do it . Yeah

14:20

, I guess I'm a coach now , but I've been

14:22

blessed to have success

14:24

in sort of multiple business startups

14:27

and have a pretty

14:29

strong sporting background through

14:32

every league , through boxing and

14:34

also marathon running . Now , as

14:36

a 42 year old , I've

14:39

been learning that for me , sport never stops

14:41

. You know , the music may stop

14:43

in whatever professional or

14:46

serious sporting side

14:48

you might be operating from , but

14:50

really , when the music stops , it feels

14:52

like , now more than ever , it's just the beginning

14:55

and an opportunity to explore

14:57

what's next .

14:59

That's kind of me now Awesome

15:01

and I'm always curious about

15:03

the upbringing and how we find

15:05

some of our first at least athletic

15:08

endeavors and journeys

15:10

Was your upbringing . Like Brett

15:12

in Australia , I have international

15:15

guest list so I'm always curious

15:17

what's like to grow up in different countries

15:20

and different times and

15:22

just what shaped us into who

15:24

we become at that

15:26

point in time .

15:27

Yeah , sure , I mean , I grew

15:30

up in Sydney , australia , a place

15:32

in the southern shy , so

15:34

south of Sydney . I come

15:37

from a working class family

15:39

. You know , my father was a third

15:41

generation underground coal miner from

15:44

a tough mining town . So

15:46

we grew up with working class values

15:49

, something I'm very proud of

15:51

and hold strong to

15:53

my successes

15:55

not through academic

15:58

success , I guess you might say

16:00

, but just from sometimes having to grind

16:02

it out and work harder than the rest

16:04

to succeed . And although

16:07

I'd like to try and think I work a bit smarter

16:09

than harder these days , I

16:11

do both . You know , and I feel when you can

16:13

work harder and smarter , you are the point

16:15

of difference in the environment that

16:17

you're surrounded by , and I

16:20

think that's been my point of difference . I had

16:22

those values instilled to

16:24

me from a young age . But

16:26

yeah , I grew up in southern shy

16:28

, sydney . I

16:31

played sport from the youngest age

16:33

I can remember I started

16:36

playing rugby league at four and a half years old . My

16:38

father was always a coach

16:41

of the local A grade or the

16:43

, you know , under 18s , under 20s

16:45

. You know a good caliber football teams

16:47

and winning premierships and you

16:50

know a lot of the players that went on to play first

16:52

grade rugby league over

16:54

here , which is , you know , it's a significant

16:56

sport in Australia . It's one of the leading contact

16:59

sports , I suppose you might say . But

17:02

yeah , as I have been

17:04

asked of these questions

17:07

of late , as I've started to explore , I've

17:09

started to look back what's kind of got me to where

17:11

I am and my well

17:13

no , it's not a childhood memory I've been

17:15

blessed to go back and do what they call a regression

17:18

session on some stuff to do

17:20

with . You know past life and kind

17:22

of life traumas , and you know

17:24

I suffocated and died at a

17:26

very young age , at six months old , and my

17:29

father resuscitated

17:31

me and brought me back to life , although

17:34

at six months , in this human experience you don't

17:36

remember that in a physical

17:38

being per se . The

17:40

trauma and the things that are

17:43

instilled in your being beyond

17:45

that are something I never even discovered

17:48

until I think I was 40 years old . I had

17:50

what they call a regression session and really

17:52

shine some light on why not

17:54

why , but you know parts

17:56

of why I might have made some decisions I've

17:58

done or validated myself

18:00

the way I had , and

18:04

when I looked back on it , when I went

18:06

back to that event , my father

18:08

breathed life and you know , I

18:10

think I was searching for his validation or

18:12

he was doing with searching to bring

18:14

me back , you know , and there's

18:17

a lot of things that go on in our experience that

18:20

often shape the direction we

18:22

go . I

18:24

clearly remember I

18:26

don't remember my age , but I was sort of eight

18:28

or nine years old and I was dragged into

18:31

a car by a guy I could only

18:33

say a guy , an old

18:35

holding vehicle . I escaped

18:37

, but

18:39

like those moments when you

18:41

start to go

18:43

and dive deep into the territory

18:46

I've been blessed to explore , I mean

18:49

my late you know I'm a late years and

18:51

my 40s . You know the last 10

18:53

years I've spent debriefing

18:55

my previous 30 years before

18:57

that and we start looking into those

18:59

events at a very young age . They are what

19:01

shape your current

19:03

reality , you know . You look

19:05

at those pivotal years between

19:07

zero and seven and they

19:10

are where a lot of your current

19:12

police systems that you operate from . Unless

19:14

you decide to unpack them , they are where you operate

19:17

from potentially for life

19:19

and the impact

19:21

they have are massive . And

19:24

yeah , so that's , I guess , a little

19:26

bit about my growing up . I went

19:28

to a state school . I I

19:31

left school at 15 because I felt

19:36

I wasn't meant for there . I've always

19:38

been very anti-establishment

19:41

, anti-authority . I guess I'm not

19:43

so much that anymore . I've just learned to

19:45

accept the environment . Not

19:47

accept , but work

19:49

with the environment that I am in and

19:52

let the environment that I'm in think it

19:54

has my support or it doesn't . But I

19:57

navigate it to see what

19:59

is within me . I believe

20:02

our perspective and our view is very much

20:04

governed from within . We

20:07

see what we choose to see and

20:09

we sculpt our own reality . It's

20:11

not by forceful , by choice from

20:13

the external environment . It's

20:16

a little bit about me , I guess .

20:17

Wow , there's a lot of factors

20:19

there . Brad , Maybe Curious

20:22

if you could talk a little bit more about the athletics

20:24

you did mention your dad

20:26

was obviously in the sport , so it seems

20:28

like you had the common sports

20:30

passion there . How did you

20:32

get into the first passion

20:35

I guess rugby . That

20:38

didn't end up being the main

20:40

sport . You transitioned to boxing

20:42

, which is really what got you popular

20:44

, at least in the athletic world . What

20:46

was that journey like and the discovery

20:49

of the different sports that you

20:51

have been part of ?

20:53

Like I mentioned , I played rugby league

20:55

from a very young age . I probably played

20:57

, I think , about 150 games

20:59

for junior rugby league . I was a

21:01

good young footy player , a halfbacker

21:03

, a playmaker , I might say , I don't

21:05

know . I would be the quarterback of the

21:07

NFL world , but you know the playmaker

21:09

, the ballmaker , and

21:12

I played from , like when I

21:14

was four and a half . I got into

21:16

sport because my father was coach

21:19

in those sports , like I mentioned , at a very young

21:21

age and yeah

21:23

, I played right through to I was about 14

21:26

years old . I broke my leg in a grand final

21:28

. So the final , so

21:30

that competition , we won the game , but

21:33

I broke my leg and I was already realizing

21:36

I was getting a bit small for the sport and

21:39

at 14 , people are starting to grow and evolve

21:41

and hippoturity and I kind of was like

21:43

stalled there . At the same time I wasn't growing

21:46

and I'm still a very small guy now

21:48

and , yeah , I decided

21:50

I'd often been , I'd been

21:52

doing boxing as a

21:54

side sport for two

21:57

or three seasons . I was a very busy kid

21:59

my parents get me very occupied

22:01

outside of school because

22:04

I actually had this conversation with my

22:06

mother yesterday , over the day before , about

22:08

she goes . I didn't think there was

22:10

a diagnosis of that back then . I said , well , there

22:13

was , because some of the kids at school had

22:15

been diagnosed with this and that

22:17

. And I said but you guys just

22:19

kept me busy and you kept me stimulated

22:22

, and I appreciate that because you

22:24

know that is a key ingredient to being

22:26

a good parent , I feel . But they kept me busy by

22:28

boxing your own pros . So

22:31

football over here , rugby league is played

22:33

in the winter season . The other six

22:35

months a year I'd go and learn the box

22:37

and I really took to it and I really

22:39

enjoyed it and I really enjoyed A the

22:41

combat , b the idea

22:44

of there's no one else to pass that ball to

22:46

or run from , it's just you in there , and

22:48

that was a real stimulant

22:50

for me . That really really attracted

22:53

me . I've always been , I

22:55

think , a loner , a soul

22:57

. Well , I'm very what

23:00

do you call it ? An extrovert . I

23:03

have also been very shy . I'm very if

23:06

parts of me is not that , and I

23:08

always like the solo

23:10

, the lonesome part of it , and it

23:12

is very lonely sport in a lot of ways , and

23:14

it's just you in there and there's no one to

23:17

blame and say I

23:19

was in . I started boxing

23:21

at 12 , 13 years old . Like I said

23:23

, at 14 , I broke my leg in the grand file

23:26

and decided to go into boxing About

23:28

at 15 , so at 15 , I think I had about

23:30

six amateur fights for four

23:32

or five victories on

23:35

a state a novice state

23:37

title , so a state title for kids that

23:39

had had up to six fights or

23:41

10 fights or whatever it was , and

23:44

I did quite well and then the

23:47

music kind of stopped for me a little bit . At that point in my

23:49

life I

23:51

took some hard roads in different ways . I

23:54

fell into drug and alcohol

23:57

abuse and substance abuse at

23:59

a young age and it wasn't the first like

24:01

it happened at 16 . It was

24:04

like a catalyst at 16 . Like you come

24:06

to a screaming head and I'd

24:08

left school I think I'd mentioned prior

24:10

. I've been working from 15 years

24:12

old . I had decided

24:15

that I was my own man , although I was just a boy

24:17

and just a child . But I was working

24:19

with grown men , not

24:22

always the right role models or examples

24:24

. For sure I don't blame anyone for my

24:27

self because I was always going to gravitate

24:29

to the naughty kids and the naughty men . But

24:32

yeah , I kind of spiral a little bit out of control

24:34

at 16 . At 17 , I went back to rugby

24:36

league , funnily enough , and we had a really successful

24:39

year . We won the comp . I won Best

24:41

in First in some way , even though I was

24:43

very off the rails . And

24:45

then my life did definitely spiral out of control and

24:48

I ended up in a really bad way

24:50

in a rehabilitation detox

24:53

facility at 19, . My

24:55

19th birthday at 21 . I

24:57

left the country when overseas and I was

25:00

gone for four years . I

25:02

had some amazing experiences , lived in some amazing

25:04

countries . Lived in ski

25:07

resorts in America , accident , vermont . I

25:10

sailed yachts from Miami

25:12

to Rhode Island , lived on a

25:14

yacht for I don't know

25:17

, I think , four months . I worked in construction

25:19

in Rhode Island . I

25:21

lived in Egypt for a year

25:23

and a half and really found myself

25:26

there . Yeah , I really really found myself there

25:28

. I got riding and technical diving there

25:30

, which was a really pivotal

25:33

change in time in my life

25:35

. I really kind of found myself as I was

25:37

out of control , ozzy . Still I

25:39

really found myself and

25:42

realized that that was

25:44

something coming through me , greater

25:46

than me . That really intense

25:50

level of me was actually me . It

25:52

wasn't someone searching to be someone

25:54

else or trying to be or trying to prove themselves

25:56

Like I'd spent 21 years or 22

25:58

years , 23 years doing it . At that point

26:00

I really found myself as that person

26:03

and that was okay . When I got

26:05

riding to technical diving , I

26:07

pushed for a hundred

26:10

meter dive , which was a really insane

26:12

dive or attempt on air . There

26:15

was no mixed gases at that point

26:17

. I mean , there was training , I just didn't have the training

26:19

. So diving on air to 100 meters

26:21

is considered quite inappropriate

26:25

, not acceptable . Anyway

26:27

, we're doing a lot of that . That dive

26:29

went really terribly wrong

26:31

and the diver that I was diving

26:34

, english diver Ben , disappeared

26:36

from me at 85 or 90 meters and

26:38

he , as it turns out

26:40

, shot to the surface and got severely

26:42

bent , spent about three or four weeks

26:45

in the chamber . Thankfully they

26:47

had a chamber in that part of each by that stage

26:49

, because there wasn't . It was literally

26:52

installed that year . He

26:54

got severely bent . He was not a

26:56

cripple but really struggled for a long , long

26:58

time . I've fallen out of contact with Ben

27:01

now , but I thought I'd witnessed

27:03

him die . I then had to spend an hour and a half

27:05

to two hours decompressing alone

27:07

. I think you know I witnessed that I wasn't

27:10

till I got to six and three meters for the final

27:12

part of my decompression , a lot of support

27:14

divers come in looking for me because

27:16

he basically popped out of the surface

27:19

no fin , no mask

27:21

, like he was a mess when they found me

27:23

and they wrote on their slates . They wrote on their slates

27:25

that he was okay with the surface , he

27:28

hadn't died , which I'd thought I'd witnessed doing , which you

27:30

can imagine . An hour and a half of anxiety thinking that

27:32

had happened . It's funny when

27:34

you start looking about . So

27:37

he did survive and become very clear

27:39

that no one would dive in Egypt anymore

27:41

, in that part of Egypt and the other . Like

27:43

this is crazy what you're doing . I

27:46

started exploring those depths solo

27:48

. One of my deepest dives

27:50

solo is 90 meters at the bottom of the blue hole

27:53

in Daha , which is clay . Many , many

27:55

lives , many , many technical divers lives

27:57

and I ended up laying

27:59

on the bottom of the blue hole for 10 minutes alone

28:01

because no one else would dive with me . So I just went

28:03

and decided it was something I'd do by myself

28:06

. So there's lots

28:08

of tough questions . I say similar to the ones

28:10

that you're asking in round 10 , 11 , 12

28:12

and a championship boxing match

28:14

or what you're asking at 35 , 36

28:17

Ks , you know , a gold time of running

28:19

marathons .

28:19

I do see a lot of similarities there .

28:21

You're very alone , you're asking tough

28:23

questions and at those depths you're severely

28:25

you got heavy depths

28:28

of narcosis and

28:30

you're always thinking straight . But

28:32

, yeah , a bit sidetracked there with

28:34

the travels . But I come back

28:36

from overseas at

28:39

26 . I had some

28:41

things not go perfectly well . I moved

28:43

to the Sunshine Coast . My

28:45

parents were there , I had a

28:47

bit of a bad experience or bad

28:50

relationship and I

28:52

was over in a really negative space mentally

28:54

. I didn't know anything about mental

28:56

health . Agile was my mental

28:58

health prescription or

29:00

management plan , you might say . And

29:03

yeah , I found myself in a pretty average way at 26

29:06

. And I decided to go back to boxing and

29:08

that's when my real sporting

29:10

success began and

29:12

it dragged me out of addiction

29:14

. Once again . It was always there for me . Boxing

29:17

, the sport of boxing , has always been

29:19

there for me in the darkest

29:22

times of my life and although I'm

29:24

not in those places

29:26

anymore and I've managed to navigate

29:28

and manage my life better now , it's always there

29:30

for me when I need it . It's always there for me

29:32

. The punching bag is right here behind

29:35

me in my gym and workplace . It's

29:38

always there to let off some steam . But

29:41

yeah , I was blessed to have a pretty successful professional

29:43

boxing career which come out of nowhere . It was

29:46

there for me in my darkest

29:48

times of my life and I

29:50

did what I always done . I worked harder than most

29:52

, I trained harder and I went on

29:54

to have a pretty brief senior

29:56

image of boxing career . Like I said , I had

29:58

six image of fights . As a young kid I

30:01

had him walk in the gym bar then just

30:03

to punch a bag and kind of help

30:06

myself through some darker

30:08

periods in my life . But I hadn't really done any boxing

30:11

properly from 15 to now

30:13

26 . And

30:15

I went on to have a little amateur fights . I

30:18

turned professional , very raw , still

30:20

very angry . I watched some

30:23

. As I start to load my YouTube

30:25

channel up now , I watched some very early

30:27

professional fights just these past

30:30

two weeks and , geez , I was raw

30:32

and God , I was angry . But

30:34

you know what ? I want them by knockout

30:37

, I want them with dominance , I want them on

30:39

walk through the people in front of me because I

30:42

hated myself as much as I hated the person in

30:44

front of me . At that point I truly feel and

30:46

, yeah , I went on to have a

30:48

pretty good professional career

30:50

. I won a state like Queensland State

30:52

title over here State title

30:54

professionally . I held the Australian

30:56

low way title for , I think

30:58

, two and a half years , defended a few times

31:01

. I went on to win an IBF Australasian

31:04

regional title , a WBA Pan-Asian

31:07

regional belt and a WB

31:10

UNIWBF World titles , which

31:12

are minor world titles , I guess when you

31:14

compare them to the bigger , the bigger belts

31:16

like the WBC and WBA

31:19

. But nonetheless it was more than I ever

31:21

ever set out to achieve in sport

31:23

and once again saved my

31:25

life . And yeah

31:27

, although there are different battles now and different

31:29

challenges in life , whether it be parenting

31:32

or relationships or

31:34

business , it's always there

31:36

for me . I run marathons now as

31:38

a multiple business startup with four children

31:40

, I run marathons and

31:43

it is my go-to now and I

31:45

still have boxing . I'm still involved with the sport

31:47

, not as much as I would like

31:49

, but as much as I have the capacity

31:51

to do and do well . If I'm going

31:54

to do something , I like to do it well and do it to the

31:56

best of my ability , and I give about

31:58

one day a week or the fight

32:00

nights when I operate as a cut

32:02

man or a strategic

32:04

coach or a specific

32:07

coach for specific parts of the sport

32:09

or performance of mindset coach to

32:11

certain athletes . I give them

32:13

what I can give them , because

32:16

I know that that is me and my capacity and that's

32:18

all I can operate from at this point . So

32:20

that's a bit of a lot about my

32:22

sporting Shona .

32:23

Yeah , but there is so much to unpack

32:26

with that . Fred , I'm even just curious

32:28

. You mentioned I just decided

32:30

to go travel overseas

32:32

and seem like you just pick random places

32:35

. What drove you to that decision

32:37

and how did you pick ? I guess

32:39

US , I can understand , speaks

32:41

English , so , but like Egypt

32:44

, it's very different , plus Arabic

32:46

. Right , there's a very different culture and

32:49

just getting around If

32:51

you're in not a touristy

32:54

area , I mean that can be difficult

32:56

itself . So what made you decide to do

32:58

that and how did you pick those places

33:01

you wanted to go to ?

33:03

They picked me , clara . I

33:07

went away . I think I was going to travel for six

33:09

to 12 months . I was gone four years . I

33:11

just got lost and

33:15

I went to London . I

33:18

lived in London , the UK , for a year and

33:20

a half . In total . I went there for six months

33:22

. I had a friend of mine who was one of my

33:24

best friends . May he rest in peace , jay

33:26

Superfly Rose . He was

33:28

one of my closest allies and friends

33:31

after school . He was

33:33

about five years old . He was a real rap bag

33:35

in high school but he was in like

33:37

year 12 . So he was in his graduation year when

33:40

I was coming into high school in year seven . So

33:42

the age gap is very significant at that

33:44

part of your life . By the time I'd left school at 19,

33:47

. I was 18 , 19, . I was very much off

33:49

the rails and Jay

33:51

was always like a big brother , but he also

33:53

he got me . But he was a very deep

33:56

person as well as crazy as

33:58

he was . He was actually really deep and we really

34:00

really leveled up each other and

34:02

we had some really deep conversations at a young age

34:04

and just I love that guy . And

34:06

he unfortunately asked

34:09

the way . I think it was 13 years ago now , 12

34:11

, 13 years ago in Nice in Paris

34:13

. But it was one of my closest

34:16

friends . I went to London and

34:18

I it felt

34:20

like I'd left the Sutherland Shire in

34:22

Sydney and moved to the Sutherland

34:24

Shire in London , because everyone

34:26

I went to we'll live in with people from

34:29

where I grew up with . You

34:31

know every part of me went to was people

34:33

from school . You know London is a big

34:35

vibe . It's a big place for South

34:37

Africans , australians and

34:40

New Zealand people to congregate

34:42

. It's a good place

34:44

to start . You can get a job . As

34:46

you mentioned , it's English speaking . The

34:48

visas are quite acceptable , like in

34:50

America , it's not easy to get a working

34:53

visa for an Australian . We're . London is

34:55

a place to go and base yourself and at least

34:57

start , and I was going away for the six to

34:59

12 months . I wanted to do a little bit of Europe and

35:01

I did that . I was there six months

35:03

. I couldn't get a job as an electrician . I'm

35:05

an electrician . I left school 15 to

35:07

become an electrician and I

35:09

couldn't get a job . So I

35:11

found out in a

35:13

magazine over there called the TNT , which is

35:15

like a travel . I

35:18

don't know what it even stands for , but it's a travel

35:20

magazine for New Zealand , south Africans

35:22

and Australians . It's such a big community

35:24

there . It's a good place to get work

35:26

. And I couldn't find a

35:28

job as an electrician . There was a barbecue

35:30

chef's job advertised at

35:33

a local salting club in the docklands in

35:35

London and I rang them and I said are

35:38

you after a chef or somebody who cooks barbecues

35:40

? Because I'm an Aussie and I can cook barbecues

35:43

really well . And they said

35:45

please , come down . And

35:47

that's where I started my working journey in London

35:49

. I couldn't get a job and even when I got a job

35:51

as an electrician , I kept working there . It was a great

35:53

community . I learned to sail there and

35:56

also I've met some really great people who are outside

35:58

of my Australian community . And even

36:00

when I went back so I went from there

36:02

I went further overseas , to

36:05

America , first in Egypt . I always went

36:07

back there and worked because I've built

36:09

such a great community and a bunch of friendships

36:11

that was different to what I was used

36:13

to , because I was used to my Australian

36:16

cultures . And anyway , jay

36:18

, my friend , like I said , who unfortunately

36:20

may arrest in peace he was back in London

36:23

and he said we're

36:25

going to the States and we

36:27

found this job opportunity in the TNT

36:29

magazine and I was looking for snow

36:32

makers in Vermont . As you might know , where

36:34

are you from again ? Where are you in the ?

36:35

USA . I'm currently in Texas

36:38

, in Austin .

36:40

So yeah , very hot here opposite of snow

36:42

. But , as you know

36:44

, like the months on the East Coast , it's

36:46

not known for its snow , unlike Colorado

36:49

, or like the West Coast it's

36:51

known for well . It's a

36:53

skier resort by choice , more or less

36:55

Like , if they don't have a good season

36:57

, they employ

36:59

people like us and bring us over and pay

37:01

us , you know , minimum wage , give you a

37:04

working visa , and we blew snow

37:06

, so we will snow makers at night , so

37:08

we'd blow snow all night so that the

37:10

East Coast Americans could ski

37:13

by day . And that's how we found

37:15

that . We found our job there , and

37:17

then we we stayed there for about six

37:20

months . Jay , my friend , went to Florida

37:22

. He had met a beautiful girl from Florida

37:24

and I stayed in Vermont

37:26

. I was pretty crazy in Vermont

37:28

so I was like still out of control

37:31

, but it was a party lifestyle environment

37:33

where you could get away with that lifestyle

37:35

. And then the sort

37:37

of the music stopped and it was like time to move on

37:39

. So I flew to Florida to see Jay . I

37:42

ended up bumping into the girl that I was seeing

37:44

in Vermont , a younger American girl , carrie

37:47

, and I bumped into her

37:49

so randomly in Florida and

37:52

she said you've got to come meet my parents . I went

37:54

to a country club which is

37:56

so American and had Thanksgiving

37:59

or 4th of July , so I really

38:01

profound American day with

38:03

her family in this

38:05

country club and her dad said Bryson

38:08

. He said like I like you , man , you

38:10

need to come sail with me . He said we're

38:12

leaving from Miami in two days

38:14

. You need to get your way there . We're going to sail

38:16

this yacht up the East Coast

38:18

, past Cape Fear and past

38:20

Cape Hatteras and finishing road

38:22

. Oh , and I'm like man , I'm broke . He's like I'm

38:25

going to pay 150 US a day . We're

38:27

going to feed you . You're going to drink it

38:29

as much as you like . I was like man , I'm

38:31

in and that's what that

38:33

just happened . And I'm

38:35

always it's something

38:37

I teach now about creating the

38:40

environment you want to create . I'm

38:42

always in the right place at the right time to meet

38:44

the right people to make the right deals . It's

38:46

something I teach in business now , but energetically

38:49

, when I look back , I've

38:51

always been that guy just always

38:54

fall in and I always fall forward

38:56

. I never say no to an opportunity and

38:59

I didn't . So we sailed this yacht . I worked on

39:01

the yacht for three months just deckhanding

39:04

and cleaning it and then , like man , I'm going

39:06

to go back to England . My parents arrived

39:08

to travel Europe in about two months . He goes you're

39:10

not going anywhere . So then I started renovating

39:13

houses with him , me and his daughter

39:15

actually separated . I mean

39:17

, I was living at their home at that point

39:20

. The music show my time here

39:22

is done . You've been

39:24

an amazing family . You've been so good to me . He

39:27

goes no , no , no , no , it's my daughter or separate . He

39:29

goes no , no , no , we've got a house to finish . He goes I'm going

39:31

to put you up in a rental of mine . And

39:33

he keeps working for me . I'm

39:35

like okay . So I did

39:37

that for a couple of months . I literally flew back

39:39

into London the week before my parents

39:41

arrived to do a month long

39:43

trip through Europe with me , and

39:46

that's what we did . We traveled Europe and I was

39:48

in London for another six

39:50

months . I worked at Chelsea Village

39:52

. I don't know if you guys follow football

39:55

in soccer . I know it's not as big

39:57

over there as it is in Europe , but I worked at Chelsea

39:59

. I worked at Stanford Bridge . I worked

40:01

at their home ground for six months , so

40:04

a lot of live games and

40:06

then I decided it was time to explore

40:09

the Middle East and I left

40:11

England with a couple of friends

40:13

We'll plan on going to Egypt

40:15

. We're going to sneak into Israel

40:17

, although it's not accepted , but then pass through the

40:19

rest of Middle East . We're going to sneak in

40:21

and sneak out and go to Lebanon

40:24

and Syria and then ideally

40:26

finish in Turkey . And

40:28

once again , I left with two or

40:30

three friends and

40:32

I got lost . So

40:34

we traveled to Egypt . We got to

40:36

a little place called Dahab and

40:39

I loved Egypt . I loved that . You talk

40:42

about the shifting culture . You talk about the Muslim

40:44

culture , very different values

40:46

and beliefs , and I

40:48

was very much a crazy guy

40:51

, but I learned a lot about traveling . I learned a lot

40:53

about culture . I really resonated

40:55

with learning more about myself

40:57

from exploring other cultures . That's something

40:59

I really pride myself on . And

41:02

anyway , I was there a week and then we're there

41:04

too , and with one friend

41:07

when I'm going back to London they're on

41:09

my trips over and the other friend of

41:11

mine , simon Duck . He said are

41:13

we moving on soon ? I was like you

41:15

know what , I kind of like it here and

41:17

he goes right , ok , so we stayed another few weeks and he goes

41:19

man , I'm out of here Like I'm

41:22

going to head back . I was like , right

41:24

, well , can't tell . See you

41:26

, see you in the flip side . And , yeah

41:29

, one month turned into two and then I

41:31

fell into a local dive shop owned by the Bebren

41:33

people . So the Bebren people are the

41:36

people of Sinai , the indigenous to

41:38

Egypt . So before the

41:40

for the Arabs , I guess you might say , and

41:42

before the traditional Egyptians , and

41:45

they become my family , you know , I moved into a

41:47

little mud brick home in Aslar

41:49

, a little township out of town , and

41:52

I lived there for eight months and I become

41:54

a dive instructor or dive master . I

41:57

think I went back to London because I was broke , got

41:59

some more money and come back to Egypt

42:01

for another eight months , become a dive instructor

42:04

and really established myself there and really

42:07

enjoyed the people . And I've been saying

42:09

I'm going back there every year for the last 18

42:11

years and I swear we're going to have a reunion

42:14

by the time it reaches 20 years . We're

42:16

going to get back there and I'm still

42:18

very in contact with a lot of the Egyptian

42:21

and Bedouin people . And it

42:23

was definitely a massive

42:26

period of change in my life

42:28

and something that I look

42:30

back on as one of the most pivotal parts

42:33

of that time of life .

42:35

And Egypt is such a fantastic place for

42:37

scuba diving . I was actually just in Egypt

42:40

about a month ago in Sharma

42:42

El Sheikh , so we did a few dives

42:44

, but I feel like we need to have a separate

42:46

conversation for just diving .

42:49

I need to get some of the tips because I need

42:51

to go back .

42:52

There is so much to discover and some

42:54

amazing dives right there

42:56

in the Red Sea . But I'm

42:58

curious . It seems like you are so driven

43:00

to this extreme sports

43:03

and it almost seems

43:05

like pushing the body through

43:07

and past limits to

43:09

you don't even know what the limits are , I

43:12

mean whether it's boxing or

43:14

running marathons or gosh

43:17

diving through 100 meters

43:19

.

43:19

I can't imagine that Not even

43:21

by yourself . 95 was my

43:23

, my back step I found out recently

43:25

in a reunion but 90 solo

43:28

, 90 meters solo , yeah , I've

43:30

always been driven by

43:32

the idea that you're

43:34

only limited by your imagination

43:36

or yourself . I feel that

43:38

we always

43:41

put our

43:43

own ceiling in place and

43:46

that for me it's just glass and

43:48

I like to shout at things and push

43:50

through what is known as normal

43:53

. To be honest , I feel

43:55

and it is something that has come up

43:57

lately , past few years

43:59

, you talk about that regression session

44:02

and and dying at six

44:04

months old and greenery born and then

44:06

you know , a few

44:09

years ago , or not even a few years ago , the

44:11

last few years I explored with plant

44:13

medicine and I was going to have a full

44:15

rebirth and I physically

44:18

died and it was

44:20

something I can't explain

44:22

. It was intense and

44:24

I just always feel

44:27

like my

44:29

life is supposed

44:32

to be explored

44:35

, because you never know when the music is going to stop

44:37

and I really feel

44:39

like I want to not

44:42

die wondering and I push myself

44:44

to get the absolute 110th

44:48

percent out of myself for this

44:50

time why I'm here

44:52

. I am very conscious

44:55

of my physical self these days

44:57

. You know I did my cave dive and

44:59

basic cave diving back

45:01

in 2018 . And then I went

45:03

back and did in Australia and I went back

45:05

and did my try mix because I

45:07

did try to dive 100 meters on air . I was

45:09

trying to be a little more professional and

45:12

dive for try mix and mix helium with

45:14

the gases to

45:16

avoid that narcosis . Then I ended up

45:18

getting bent in 2019 . I spent five

45:20

days in the chamber . I become very

45:22

conscious of my physical burn

45:25

and it's nothing to do with me . I

45:27

don't have a death wish . I'm not looking

45:29

to die . I think back then I

45:31

didn't care . I think

45:33

when I was pushed for 100 meters I really didn't care . I

45:35

didn't have anything to

45:38

preserve myself for by pushing

45:40

myself beyond my limits . Now

45:42

I've got four young children and that

45:44

is a big difference in circumstance . It's

45:47

a big difference in my

45:49

evolution and the expectation I hold for

45:51

myself , and I will not

45:53

allow myself to

45:56

be greedy or selfish and

45:59

die doing something I love , because

46:02

I'm just doing something I love . It's

46:04

a different thing to die on that race

46:06

course of doing a marathon , having a heart attack , for

46:11

example . If that happens , that is

46:13

part of the human experience and my expiry

46:15

has come and that's okay . But

46:18

I'm really conscious of myself these days . I

46:21

think spending five days in the chamber with my

46:23

wife , eight months pregnant , with our fourth child , was a real time to spend

46:25

alone . And

46:28

you're in a chamber , you're in a capsule

46:31

, you

46:33

can watch some DVDs and you've actually

46:35

got a nurse there a lot of the time to moderate , check

46:37

you , but you are spending

46:39

a lot of time alone . I

46:42

had to ask myself some tough questions about exactly

46:44

what I was doing and why and

46:47

I think a lot of it comes from

46:50

a child approving others wrong and approving or do things when

46:52

others said I couldn't . Now

46:55

I've just got so used to stretching

46:58

myself and succeeding and

47:00

pushing myself beyond what people say is okay and

47:04

succeeding and doing it again

47:06

and again and again and

47:09

not accepting what

47:11

society considers the ceiling

47:13

and creating my own ceilings . And

47:16

you know , when I quit my

47:18

job on $110,000 a year

47:21

with three kids under three , three mortgages

47:23

and no guarantees

47:25

, and everyone told me I was crazy and all my staff

47:28

mates , my workmates , took bets on me to

47:30

how long it would take me to fail and come

47:32

groveling back . You know

47:34

that comes from continually

47:37

pushing those ceilings and

47:39

that comes from self-belief . That comes

47:41

from going . You know what ? If I could lie on the floor

47:43

of the blue hole

47:45

at 90 meters alone ? You know if

47:47

I can punch through and do things and

47:49

win world championships when people

47:52

say you can't and I

47:54

can do this , and I can do

47:56

this again and again and again

47:58

and again . And we did

48:00

. We started the electrical business and

48:03

I went on to have fantastic success

48:05

. And we started the development company and

48:07

it's had fantastic success . And

48:09

then my coaching business is really flourishing

48:12

because it's my passion project

48:14

turned into a success

48:16

and people want to

48:18

stifle because of their own

48:20

set of belief systems and they're

48:23

not my beliefs and I don't

48:25

judge you for judging me , but

48:27

you're only seeing . You know the things you

48:29

don't like or the things you don't

48:31

like to hear about . What I'm saying

48:33

is only a reflection of the things you

48:36

can't tolerate or accept within yourself , and

48:38

that is no longer my problem . You

48:40

know , I held onto those beliefs for a lot of years

48:42

and I accepted that . As you know

48:44

, it stifled me and it stopped me

48:46

from exploring the biggest and best

48:48

parts of myself and me . I'm

48:52

just getting started , you know , and I've got

48:54

no intention of stopping because of what

48:56

you or somebody next to me or anybody

48:58

else has to hold on to . You can

49:00

hold on to what you need to hold on to and that's yours

49:02

. You can learn to own that or

49:05

not own that , but maybe I'm just going to

49:07

do what I need to do and

49:09

I won't stop till I get that three

49:11

hour marathon . Yeah , and you

49:13

know that might

49:15

kill me trying , but it

49:18

is a big part of what I do

49:20

and what I do is pushing beyond what

49:23

people accept as limits . But there

49:25

are only limits to other people of

49:27

my own , and I like to think I

49:29

can help coach other people to push to their own

49:32

limits not my limits , not

49:34

the society's limits , not

49:36

the narrative or the inherited

49:38

subconsciously from their upbringing , but

49:41

the limits that are truly within them and what they can

49:43

do within themselves . And that

49:45

is , that is where the magic happens

49:47

. When you learn , come back to yourself

49:50

and you learn not

49:53

accept the narrative and you learn

49:55

to talk to yourself and

49:58

listen to yourself , whether it be

50:00

the subconscious mind , whether

50:02

it be a higher conscious mind , whether

50:04

it be your family , that are guiding you beyond

50:06

this experience . Whatever it is , you

50:09

know when you start to listen to that and

50:11

start to take action on those parts

50:13

of this experience . That's where the magic

50:16

is and that's when you will reach

50:18

your ceiling . Your

50:20

ceiling , not what others to see

50:23

or think they know is best

50:25

for you , but yours , what's deeply

50:27

and truly meant to be for you

50:29

.

50:30

And I have so much what you said , brea . I have so many questions

50:32

just trying to protest how

50:35

we handle everything through the time we have .

50:37

Sorry , I talk a lot of time . No , this

50:39

is awesome .

50:41

You know I'm wondering again . This is , I think

50:43

, part of the unfortunate realities

50:47

of life . I actually wonder

50:49

that sometimes , when you're born and

50:52

go through some of the tough childhood

50:54

things like you know , you describe some

50:56

of these circumstances that had happened to

50:58

you that are just crazy

51:01

to begin with . Maybe it's the

51:03

best way that's coming to my mind

51:05

, because how do you deal with something like that ? I

51:09

wonder if there are certain resilience

51:11

that is instilled

51:13

in you that allows you to

51:15

push to much harder

51:18

things that most people would

51:21

be able to on average

51:23

if you kind of grew

51:25

up in comfort . I always say comfort is

51:27

the enemy of progress , and I

51:29

realized that even on myself . You know , just

51:32

my upbringing wasn't anything

51:35

grand , but I've

51:37

gotten used to a certain level

51:39

of standard of living , especially in America

51:41

. America is all about comfort , and

51:43

the more you create comfort around yourself

51:46

, the harder it is to push

51:48

yourself out of the comfort zone . I

51:50

feel like the body gets

51:53

easily spoiled by that , and

51:56

so how do you kind of navigate

51:58

from that drive

52:01

that in some ways seem

52:03

like serve you ? There seem

52:05

to be two sides right Well , in the athletic

52:07

endeavors , because you have been

52:09

able to push through more

52:12

pain and wanted it more

52:14

than anybody else and seem like we're

52:16

disciplined and even destructive

52:19

to some degree , but your body hold

52:21

up to where , at some

52:23

point , you actually need to be able to switch

52:26

, because that mindset

52:28

will carry you only to a specific

52:31

point . Right , I think ? Even

52:33

looking at my own journey , if we look

52:36

at our strengths , at

52:38

some point our biggest

52:40

strengths will also start

52:42

dragging us down as some of our

52:44

weaknesses , and you need to kind of repivot

52:47

them and play with how you use

52:49

or create different strengths to lean

52:52

on , to compliment them . How do

52:54

you look at it , whether it's your athletic

52:56

journey or maybe your business journey that

52:59

you started later on ?

53:01

Yeah , like you said , there's a whole lot

53:03

there to unpack

53:05

. So we'll start with

53:07

the strengths being your weakness . And

53:10

in my later life , in my business life

53:12

, I have to learn that you

53:16

know more is not always

53:18

more and sometimes less

53:20

is more , and that that

53:23

bullet a gate and just go

53:26

until you can't go anymore

53:28

, until you stop to your full level . Well

53:30

, that's not a position

53:32

of longevity or sustainability , particularly

53:35

in your business . You know

53:37

I'd work 12 , 14 , 16

53:39

hour days when I started the business and

53:41

I learned the hard way that , like you , can't do that . And then I worked

53:43

the hard way for the poor staff that I had

53:46

. At those periods I expected everybody

53:48

to be like me , to be so just

53:50

driven , and that

53:53

had a negative effect on me and my business

53:55

in parts and the transition . And

53:58

then you learn to grow and

54:00

as I started to scout my businesses , I've

54:02

learned that I'm not the best

54:04

at everything and that my ways

54:06

are not the best actually and

54:09

that just go , go , go is not

54:11

necessarily always productive

54:13

and that as I employ different personalities

54:16

and different personality traits . I

54:18

learned that and it's taken

54:20

me a lot of learning . Thinking me wrong , I'm still learning now

54:22

, but more so as a coach now I understand

54:24

them more than ever . I wish I knew what I knew

54:27

now then . But

54:29

yeah , you learn to well

54:31

. I've had to learn to pull back on

54:33

BME and employ

54:35

people that are better at certain roles

54:38

than me . You know , like I'm a bull at a

54:40

gate , I'm a startup . I'm

54:42

good at that . I'm good at the entrepreneurial

54:45

kind of bang bang and many

54:47

things done at once . You know , very similar

54:49

to an athlete . So

54:51

an athlete's very similar to a

54:54

business person , whether

54:56

it be management leaders

54:59

, leaders in general , team

55:01

leaders . Those personality

55:03

traits are the same as the ones within

55:06

an athlete , and a lot of it is the

55:08

dominance , the decisive , you know

55:11

that really competitive , that really direct

55:13

personalities , results driven , or

55:16

the look at me , look at me

55:18

, the influencers . You know the inspiring

55:20

, the enthusiastic , confident

55:23

, those kind of the charming

55:25

kind of personalities that make

55:27

those leaders . Well

55:30

, those kind of people , people like me

55:32

. As you start to grow and evolve , you

55:34

learn that you're not

55:36

the conscientious one . You know you're

55:38

not the accurate one , you're

55:41

not the compliant one , you're not the detailed

55:43

one , you know we're not the steady one

55:45

who is a good listener

55:47

, and you know you're not stable

55:50

, you're not steady . All

55:52

these kind of attributes which

55:55

create our personalities and

55:57

our behaviors in the different levels

55:59

of different personalities . And as

56:01

you start to grow and learn in business , you

56:03

need all those people . You don't need

56:05

the conscientious one

56:07

, leading from the front talking

56:10

to your clients and being

56:12

charming , but you do need them to review

56:14

the time sheets , you do need them to

56:17

criticize your different work

56:19

method statements , the way you do business

56:21

. You do need the steadiness and the good listeners

56:23

for the complaining

56:26

clients , for example , or

56:28

the staff issues

56:31

. You know , so you learn , as you start

56:33

to understand yourself , that

56:36

the different ways are

56:39

better than yours and there's nothing right

56:41

or wrong about any of them . It's

56:43

just different ways and different personalities

56:45

and no one's better than the other , but it's

56:48

just an ability to take

56:50

a different perspective . I think that comes with emotional

56:52

intelligence is knowing how to communicate

56:55

with people . So my wife's quite

56:57

a steady in nature

57:00

, she's quite relaxed , and my

57:03

driven , intense

57:05

personality can actually have a reverse

57:07

effect on her . It can actually be insulting to

57:09

her and I have to learn to pull back myself

57:12

and try and communicate on her

57:14

level . And I don't know how to succeed , but

57:16

at least have an emotional intelligence

57:18

to recognize that and also recognize

57:21

that within your business world . I think that's

57:23

a big part of , I guess , recognizing

57:25

your strengths and weaknesses and how

57:28

. What served me as a professional

57:30

boxer and an all-nothing

57:32

diver , slash runner

57:35

, slash person in life , slash

57:38

startup business , multiple

57:40

startups , how that has helped me

57:42

do that , but how it hasn't been

57:44

or wouldn't be successful for

57:47

longevity , for sustainability

57:50

, for scaling a brand

57:52

and for growing a business . No

57:54

, my ways are not gonna be the way for that , but

57:57

I will grow it , but I'll employ people

57:59

to do that that are better than me

58:01

in those certain personalities and roles

58:04

. You know you don't go and create

58:06

someone who's an influencer or got a dominant

58:09

personality to be your IT guy

58:11

. You know you want that conscientious

58:13

, stable , listener , detail-driven

58:16

, takes directions . Well , because

58:19

that's their strengths . And you learn

58:21

to take people's strengths and

58:23

you learn to utilize those strengths . That's

58:26

what's worked for me . But those

58:28

early years you

58:30

talk about resilience . Of

58:33

course , of course

58:35

suffering creates resilience . Of

58:37

course hard times build strong

58:40

people . You look at the wars

58:42

that their parents and forefathers fought

58:44

through and went through and

58:47

you look at the weakness in society today

58:50

. I don't mean it nicely , it's not a

58:52

judgmental thing , it's just everyone's

58:54

so weak . You know , it's

58:56

not like I'm a bigot . I

58:58

had a professional fight . Don't ask me why , but

59:00

it was what I was supposed to be doing at that

59:02

point in my life last year , at 41 years old , and

59:05

you talk about trying to relive

59:07

like it was just something I had to do . You

59:10

know , at 41 , it's not as fun getting punched

59:12

in the face as it was . So you talk about

59:14

when the music stops and that there is life

59:16

after your professional sport . There really

59:18

is . I run marathons now and

59:20

that is for me more stimulating because

59:22

I've had the opportunity to go back and be punched in

59:24

the face at 41 . You know

59:26

what I actually get a lot more value out of running

59:29

now than I do getting punched in the face and

59:31

my connection to that sport is

59:33

to help out in corners on big

59:35

fights or to coach one

59:38

day a week with some really high-level professional

59:40

fighters . So that keeps me involved with the sport

59:42

. But you know I was getting off track

59:44

there . But last year I raised $20,000 for

59:47

a mental health organisation which is being

59:49

in Australia called Living , because you

59:51

know mental health is such a big thing . So I'm very conscious

59:53

not to criticise or say

59:55

that it's a weakness . There

59:58

is a big stigma . But I do believe

1:00:00

that there is levels of resilience

1:00:02

that haven't been built or instilled in

1:00:05

this current society and it's

1:00:07

not their fault and it's no one's fault

1:00:09

and we do need support . And

1:00:11

I've been through my own levels of journey of

1:00:14

mental health from a young child and I do

1:00:16

believe a big part of my behaviours

1:00:18

with addiction , with substance

1:00:20

abuse , with validation , come

1:00:23

back to my mental health . It also come

1:00:25

back to things like ADHD and

1:00:27

you know I got diagnosed at a very late

1:00:29

age , at 40 , but those things played

1:00:32

a part . But I also feel it was

1:00:34

a part of not understanding yourself

1:00:36

, not knowing how to moderate

1:00:38

yourself , not being given the tools or

1:00:40

the acceptance in a current society

1:00:43

and narrative where you must do as you're

1:00:45

told instead of exploring yourself

1:00:47

. So that is a really big conversation

1:00:50

about today's society

1:00:52

. But I know for a fact

1:00:55

resilience is not built upon

1:00:57

comfort . Okay , so those

1:01:00

experiences , the heaviest parts of my life

1:01:02

, are what gives me

1:01:04

the grit to get up and

1:01:07

drive forward and be the leader

1:01:10

my business needs , not

1:01:12

the conscientious one , not the steady one

1:01:14

, but the leader , the dominant

1:01:16

. We're gonna walk through , we're going into battle today

1:01:19

and you're coming with me and I will

1:01:21

take you there and I'll be on the forefront

1:01:23

and I will wear it with you . That

1:01:26

comes from those experiences . You

1:01:28

can learn those tools . You can learn them

1:01:30

because I'm teaching them now , so you can learn

1:01:32

them . But a lot of it is familiar

1:01:35

, it's become innate , it's become just

1:01:37

what I do , and that is

1:01:39

the reason that's what I do is because I

1:01:42

had those heavy experiences you talk

1:01:44

about . If your belief systems

1:01:47

are created , this is proven science

1:01:49

. These are subconscious belief systems

1:01:51

created between zero and seven . They're

1:01:53

not created between two and seven

1:01:56

or three and seven or when you

1:01:58

logically believe , you remember

1:02:00

from , say , five and seven , because you know , most

1:02:02

people wouldn't remember what happened

1:02:04

in their experience . That three they

1:02:07

were learning subconsciously

1:02:09

, proven scientific , proven

1:02:11

neuroscience proven that

1:02:13

you learn . Your a

1:02:15

big portion of your makeup

1:02:18

, of your belief systems that you and I

1:02:20

carry now , unless we wanna unpack and

1:02:22

change them , are created between zero and seven

1:02:24

. So I died between

1:02:26

zero and seven , six months old . A

1:02:29

lot of my trauma I never realized

1:02:31

it but that was a part of that experience

1:02:34

getting dragged into a vehicle at seven

1:02:36

and nine I think I was nine , I don't even know

1:02:39

. I asked my parents how old was

1:02:41

I ? We don't remember , was I or not

1:02:43

and these old , my parents were away and

1:02:45

my grandmother was looking up my name and

1:02:48

then a bar and the police were there

1:02:50

and it was hectic and but you know that

1:02:52

is traumatic . Looking back at the time she was

1:02:54

like , hey , you're okay , son , like everything's

1:02:57

okay , because I didn't get dragged away

1:02:59

and it could have been had a stropically worse

1:03:01

. No denying that , people have been through

1:03:03

a lot worse than I've been through , but

1:03:05

nonetheless it is an imprint

1:03:08

. It is imprinted into your belief

1:03:10

systems and you can't change

1:03:12

that unless you decide to deal with it . But it does

1:03:14

build your strength because you survived it . And

1:03:16

then I survived rehab , and then

1:03:18

I survived getting knocked down

1:03:20

and knocked out

1:03:23

and getting back up and

1:03:25

getting the MRIs

1:03:27

and the CAT scans on

1:03:29

the mind . And you know , and I did

1:03:31

survive diving it although maybe

1:03:33

I should not have , I did survive those

1:03:35

crazy , crazy dives

1:03:38

and they do build something

1:03:40

within you that allows you to go further

1:03:42

than the common man , you might say

1:03:44

. But I'm no more uncommon

1:03:47

than anyone else . I've just pushed myself into uncommon

1:03:49

situations and experiences

1:03:51

, some by chance , some by accident

1:03:54

, some by choice and some just forced

1:03:56

upon me at a young age . So

1:03:58

, yeah , and they are definitely

1:04:01

something that the average

1:04:03

consumer of life doesn't

1:04:06

always get to experience , and

1:04:08

I'm grateful , you know . I'm grateful for

1:04:10

all the trauma because I'm different

1:04:12

. We're all different , every single

1:04:15

person , every single person on this planet

1:04:17

is different . But I've been blessed . There's

1:04:19

no doubt I've been blessed with some

1:04:21

levels of experience that have shaped

1:04:23

me , and it's not until I get on and have

1:04:25

these conversations and actually start to

1:04:27

. You know , you ask me a question and

1:04:30

, as you know , this isn't a prerecording

1:04:32

, this isn't a planned conversation

1:04:35

, this is just whatever comes up . You

1:04:37

know , we had a chat or like

1:04:40

a brief idea what we're gonna talk

1:04:42

about . There was nothing to do with diving in Egypt

1:04:44

or travel as a whole . You

1:04:46

know it was there . It was just like it's what's come

1:04:48

up . So you

1:04:51

know , I come from a blue collar working class

1:04:53

. We're working class . Don't get me wrong . We've come from

1:04:55

nothing . But we've built our

1:04:57

, my kids and a different experience to

1:04:59

what I grew up in . So it's

1:05:02

important for me to instill those working

1:05:04

class ethics and the

1:05:06

mindset that's required

1:05:08

to succeed , because otherwise

1:05:10

there'll be another casualty of

1:05:12

this entitled experience

1:05:15

that a lot of people living in yeah

1:05:17

.

1:05:18

I feel like it's so much harder nowadays to

1:05:21

even

1:05:23

just help people understand

1:05:26

that and it's hard to explain

1:05:29

. Maybe just an example to give I

1:05:31

was in college

1:05:33

coaching at a tennis club

1:05:36

and I got in trouble because

1:05:38

I told the kid I was

1:05:40

instructing that she needs to pick up

1:05:42

tennis balls because it's part of the sport

1:05:44

. But she was a niece

1:05:47

of the owner of the country club and

1:05:49

obviously she went in complain right

1:05:51

. So that's just an extreme . I

1:05:53

know not every kid is that way , but

1:05:55

if you know how to pick up tennis

1:05:57

ball it's a good scale . First you can

1:05:59

practice it the right way , and if

1:06:01

you wanna play tennis , you for sure

1:06:03

have to pick up a lot of tennis balls during

1:06:06

your life . So there's something

1:06:08

you learn even just from that and running

1:06:10

around the court and trying to pick up tennis balls

1:06:13

. But I'm

1:06:15

curious one of the things you mentioned

1:06:17

is also gaining

1:06:19

confidence , and at

1:06:21

the beginning it seemed like you were driven

1:06:23

by you

1:06:26

can't do this and you wanting to prove

1:06:28

people wrong because they were saying you cannot

1:06:31

do it . How

1:06:33

do you believe that that's sort

1:06:35

of stepping milestone of breaking barriers

1:06:37

and breaking goals that you thought you

1:06:40

couldn't set for yourself really helped

1:06:42

you get that confidence and do

1:06:44

you think there's a different

1:06:46

or maybe easier path than

1:06:49

the path Fred , you have been on

1:06:51

, cause I doubt there's many listeners who

1:06:53

will just decide to go dive

1:06:55

to 90 meters , even right , or

1:06:57

even 50 . So

1:07:00

do you have some sort of tip

1:07:02

on perhaps how to get there without

1:07:05

you know some people who may not

1:07:07

be prone to these extreme

1:07:10

sports or combat sports ?

1:07:12

No , not really , that's just me . No

1:07:16

, I mean , of course I think it's really important

1:07:19

to stretch

1:07:21

yourself , whatever that looks

1:07:23

like . It's not about extreme sports

1:07:26

, it's not , that's just the direction I

1:07:28

talk . It's about learning

1:07:30

to stretch yourself out of your comfort zones

1:07:32

and start small , take

1:07:35

one step and just you

1:07:37

. Look at me like after the whole conversation

1:07:39

we've had , when the previous

1:07:41

conversation before it was very much a deep

1:07:43

spiritual conversation about energy

1:07:46

healing my children . You

1:07:48

know that didn't come innately

1:07:51

within me . I had to go and stretch

1:07:54

myself to push myself to want

1:07:56

to be better and although

1:07:58

I knew deep within me there was a deep spiritual

1:08:01

connection that I've always had , you

1:08:03

know I've had to go and practice and practice

1:08:05

and practice time and time again to

1:08:08

meditate , to learn to quiet my mind

1:08:10

, to get myself to a state in

1:08:12

a position to listen to my

1:08:14

true self and understand the

1:08:16

communication . First , just hearing

1:08:19

it as noise , that didn't come

1:08:21

for me naturally . I just had to start

1:08:23

somewhere and I had to keep pushing

1:08:25

myself . And when I start to stretch

1:08:27

that I'll get a little bit of momentum

1:08:29

. And then I stretch myself a little more

1:08:31

, the mind quiet and a little more , and

1:08:34

then I started to get some communication , and

1:08:36

then I thought I was crazy . But I just started to listen

1:08:38

and I started to take that information

1:08:41

as gospel . I started to take action

1:08:43

on the information that was provided to

1:08:45

me . I started to win . You know , I started

1:08:47

to win at life , and not in a level

1:08:50

of competition against the world , but

1:08:52

a level from within . And this has been

1:08:54

one of my biggest learnings the last 10

1:08:57

years , but particularly seriously

1:08:59

the last five is it's not a competition

1:09:02

. You don't have to beat anyone . The only one you've got to beat is

1:09:04

yourself . You know , it's not even about beating

1:09:06

yourself . It's about being yourself Okay

1:09:09

. So you've got to learn to do whatever's

1:09:11

right for you , whatever that looks like . It's not about

1:09:13

comparing to Brett , who's trying to change

1:09:15

the world with every crazy action

1:09:18

he's done in the past . It's a . I'll

1:09:20

use him as an opportunity

1:09:22

to explore my experience , but it's not

1:09:24

who I am now . I'm not passive

1:09:26

. I'll never be passive and I'm very full

1:09:29

on . But , like I spent

1:09:32

a lot of time coming back to

1:09:34

myself to listen to myself

1:09:36

, to quiet myself , to get the information

1:09:38

, to get my guides , to give me what's

1:09:40

next , now a big part of my running

1:09:43

is to learn to listen . I

1:09:45

carry a dictaphone so I can record

1:09:47

the information because it comes quite intensely

1:09:50

when I run and it's like a meditation for me . I

1:09:52

get a lot of important information . So I

1:09:55

think it's important for people to just do what's right

1:09:57

for them . If they don't know , reach

1:10:00

out to me . I can help you . No

1:10:02

, but find a coach that works

1:10:04

to your level . You

1:10:07

know this podcast when I come across . Well

1:10:09

, I'm quite an intense person and

1:10:12

a lot of my life has been , but you

1:10:14

know , I work with people that aren't that and

1:10:16

you build rapport by matching

1:10:19

them to their style so that you can

1:10:21

help them feel comfortable and bring the best out of

1:10:23

themselves . I think it's important to get

1:10:25

support , whatever that looks like

1:10:27

, because you need to stretch yourself . There's

1:10:30

no growth in being

1:10:32

the same If you're not growing

1:10:34

. I'm sorry , but part of you is dying If

1:10:37

you don't get some growth . If you don't get some

1:10:39

, if someone's not watering your tree for you

1:10:41

, if you're not watering it yourself

1:10:43

, you know it's not gonna grow . And

1:10:45

if you're not growing , slowly but surely , your leaves

1:10:47

are gonna fall off in perish and you're

1:10:50

gonna start to die from within . And

1:10:52

I think it's really important to

1:10:54

stretch yourself , whatever that looks like . If you're

1:10:56

a reader , learn to speed read

1:10:59

. You don't know what that looks like . I can help you

1:11:01

there too . But it's important to take

1:11:03

yourself to another level In whatever

1:11:05

you do . If you wanna meditate

1:11:07

, learn to quiet them on so much that you

1:11:09

, whatever it is . If you wanna build

1:11:11

a charity , if you want to be

1:11:14

the best parent you can be yeah

1:11:16

, you know what comes with being a good parent , being

1:11:19

a good you . It all comes back

1:11:21

to being the best version of yourself . How could

1:11:23

you possibly be a good parent

1:11:25

, a good teacher , a good father

1:11:28

, a good mother , if you can't be

1:11:30

, in true essence , the best version of yourself

1:11:32

? So , for

1:11:34

me , stretch yourself . And

1:11:37

it was a real stretch for me to come back to myself , because

1:11:39

I had a deal of a lot of my baggage . I had

1:11:41

to go back and accept a lot of my parts

1:11:43

of myself that I wasn't ready to do

1:11:45

and then , but I had to fall forward . So

1:11:48

I think that , if that answers your question , I think

1:11:50

it's . No one should be like

1:11:52

me , they should be like them , they

1:11:54

should be like themselves . That is

1:11:56

our true calling in life is to come back

1:11:58

to ourselves . To come back to whatever

1:12:01

you are , whatever you're supposed to be doing , and

1:12:03

I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing . This

1:12:05

is me . This is me and

1:12:07

all those experiences they led me to this point

1:12:10

right now . And if I died today

1:12:12

, I wouldn't die wondering . There's no part to

1:12:14

me that would go . I wish I did this different . Would

1:12:17

I change some things ? Not really

1:12:19

only if there's people or things that

1:12:21

I've done that are inappropriate . I'll hurt people

1:12:23

along the way . Yeah , I'd change that , but I

1:12:25

wouldn't change any of it . Maybe

1:12:28

I would've changed get into 100 beads instead of 95

1:12:30

, but but

1:12:32

I'll get there . I will get there . It's not off

1:12:34

my radar . I'll let you know , clara , when

1:12:36

we're going back to Egypt , because I'm doing 100

1:12:39

, but I'm trying to exist now and I'll let you

1:12:41

know , so maybe we can connect and

1:12:43

catch up in Dahab or Ras Bahamut

1:12:46

or Thistlegorm , and I've

1:12:48

dived all those sites . It's amazing diving

1:12:50

.

1:12:51

That would be fantastic . I definitely want to pick

1:12:53

your brain , because we do have a trip

1:12:55

back . We just didn't have a chance

1:12:57

to meet all the dive sites there . I

1:13:00

had a few more questions that I wanted to

1:13:02

ask . One a little

1:13:05

bit related to taking risks and

1:13:08

it also goes to my background

1:13:10

. I've seen my parents investing

1:13:12

all of their money into the business

1:13:15

they had started and you pretty much

1:13:17

mentioned that's what you have done

1:13:19

. You quit your job in order to start your

1:13:21

new business and what comes

1:13:24

into mind is that there's a

1:13:26

saying I'll probably butcher it , but it goes

1:13:28

something like there is no reward

1:13:30

without a risk . How

1:13:33

would you guide people through that ? And

1:13:35

then , reflecting on that decision

1:13:38

you made , what helped

1:13:41

you get that decision ? Because that's so hard

1:13:43

and especially even if you're getting

1:13:45

money you're getting paid by somebody just

1:13:47

deciding you know what . I'm gonna quit this . I'm

1:13:49

gonna go full on and start my own business

1:13:52

. What was that thought process

1:13:54

like at that moment ?

1:13:56

Yeah , it was a really hard one . You have to take

1:13:58

risks in life , but I do believe

1:14:01

there's levels of calculated risk and

1:14:03

in business I've taken big risks . But

1:14:05

also , as I've matured and

1:14:07

got a bit wiser in business , I've learned

1:14:09

to calculate what that looks like and

1:14:12

when it fails , is it gonna put the

1:14:14

business into a dealership or is it just gonna

1:14:16

be a little bump in the road

1:14:18

and a setback ? But that's okay , because you've got

1:14:20

a risk to get the reward and you've got to

1:14:22

take chances . When it comes to what

1:14:24

I decided to do , it was super

1:14:26

challenging because everybody probably

1:14:28

not too sometimes your family

1:14:30

are your greatest assets , but

1:14:32

they can be your biggest enemy when you wanna stretch yourself

1:14:35

or step outside your comfort zone , because

1:14:37

they don't mean that it's not a bad thing

1:14:39

. They're just trying to protect you , they're

1:14:41

trying to support you , so they don't wanna see

1:14:44

you take risks . You've got children , you've got mortgages

1:14:46

, but sometimes you

1:14:49

just gotta do and it comes with

1:14:51

a level of knowing within yourself there's a certain

1:14:53

understanding that you're not doing

1:14:55

what you're supposed to be doing and you need

1:14:57

to change that and you need to take a

1:14:59

risk to try and stretch yourself . That's

1:15:02

what I did . It was planned . It

1:15:04

was very planned , but I don't pretend it was

1:15:06

without some master

1:15:09

plan . I just said I've gotta do

1:15:11

this . It's now or never

1:15:13

. I'm 35 , three kids

1:15:15

under three , you know . Better off than

1:15:17

being hungry at six months old and hungry

1:15:19

at 12 , 12 years old , no

1:15:21

, but I mean I was just at a point where I needed to change . I'd

1:15:23

retired from boxing . That has a

1:15:26

level of full from grace on its own . I was

1:15:28

very bored . I was itchy

1:15:30

, you know , I was irritable . I needed

1:15:32

change . I needed something to

1:15:34

stimulate my high functioning mind

1:15:36

. But a bit of what I teach with the

1:15:38

performance of mindset side of my business is

1:15:40

getting yourself organized . So I've been

1:15:42

easy on myself , really organized . I was

1:15:45

creating some routine . I'd worked

1:15:47

with a bit of a coach my first coach

1:15:49

who learnt you to come back to yourself

1:15:51

and listen to that information that come and

1:15:53

that's what told me . I had to do that and I learnt

1:15:56

that that is the biggest

1:15:58

strength and never to ignore . If the answer

1:16:00

is yes , you take that , don't ignore your

1:16:02

truth . And the answer was yes

1:16:05

. So I learnt in a really

1:16:07

challenging time to go

1:16:09

. But the answer is yes , I have

1:16:11

to do it and I did

1:16:13

it and it was the best thing I did , because we

1:16:15

got really , really stretched . We learnt

1:16:17

really quickly about budgets , about cash

1:16:19

flow , about managing your finances

1:16:22

, about debt and about

1:16:24

mortgages and what that

1:16:26

meant if you didn't have any money . We learnt

1:16:28

the hard way . We learnt fast and I

1:16:30

don't know what to say , but it

1:16:33

was the best thing we ever did . Because the

1:16:35

question will raise oh , you need to sell

1:16:37

this investment ? We'll say , no , I don't , I just

1:16:39

need to find a way . I just need to find a way . And

1:16:42

you know what , when you put in stressful , challenging

1:16:44

situations , you dig . You dig

1:16:46

those answers out and when the answer is yes

1:16:48

, when you ask yourself a true question

1:16:50

and the answer is yes , should I have this

1:16:52

business ? And the answer is yes and you stick

1:16:55

by it through thick or thin , then

1:16:57

no matter what happens , it was supposed

1:16:59

to happen . Those challenges

1:17:02

that come post-sat whether I lost my home

1:17:04

, whether I you know whatever had to

1:17:06

go groveling back and crawling back to my old company

1:17:08

, whatever it may , it was meant to happen because

1:17:10

you meant to experience that , because it's part of your bigger

1:17:13

journey . So , no matter what , if the

1:17:15

answer is yes , you've got to go and you've got to embrace

1:17:17

those challenges when they come to you and you've

1:17:19

got to take them to what they are and you've got to

1:17:21

realise that they will come . But

1:17:23

you've got to then dig deep

1:17:25

and ask what the answer

1:17:27

is , because you have all the answers

1:17:30

within you , they are all within your

1:17:32

being , they are all there , wait and

1:17:34

be called in . But you've got to call them in

1:17:36

and maybe you need some support on knowing

1:17:38

how to call in . What is that

1:17:40

true level of yourself , or

1:17:42

what is your ego , or what is your subconscious

1:17:45

mind , or what are your old belief systems

1:17:47

, or what is the narrative of learned society ? Maybe

1:17:50

you need some support coming back to that you

1:17:52

, that level of yourself . But when you

1:17:54

do get there and you do know

1:17:56

the sound of your own voice within you , you

1:17:58

know that the answer is yes . There is

1:18:00

no , no , it's not okay , because

1:18:03

you are avoiding the true

1:18:05

essence of what you're here , what your purpose

1:18:08

, what your soul is shining

1:18:10

through , supposed to experience on

1:18:12

this journey , good and bad , so

1:18:15

that is kind of a brief

1:18:17

answer to that .

1:18:18

I think I love it so

1:18:20

much actually , even still within it , how

1:18:23

do you learn to trust your gut and

1:18:26

knowing that it's the

1:18:28

right voice ? Because you always have kind of the fear

1:18:31

on the side . So how do

1:18:33

you delineate ? I find sometimes

1:18:35

there's a great line delineating

1:18:37

between kind of the fear versus

1:18:39

creating space of what you

1:18:42

know is right for you , based on what your

1:18:44

gut is telling you .

1:18:45

Yeah , well , the gut

1:18:48

is connected to the mind , so the gut

1:18:50

is part of your intuition , trying

1:18:52

to tell you something . So that is definitely

1:18:54

a thing . Again , going back to neuroscience

1:18:57

, science-based proof , it's

1:18:59

not just a gut , it's there , it's telling

1:19:01

you something . And for this

1:19:03

modern world of all the narrative , all the

1:19:05

beliefs you've created along the way , all the

1:19:07

acceptance of things in mind not actually be

1:19:09

true . Yeah , it can be very , very hard

1:19:12

to break through , to get back to yourself

1:19:14

, but I coach that . I'm

1:19:16

starting a 12-week program specifically

1:19:19

for men . This round is

1:19:21

more come back to masculine , but

1:19:23

, yeah , I coach people on how to come

1:19:26

back to themselves , to understand what

1:19:28

that voice is within them , understand

1:19:31

the intuition , understand what

1:19:33

might be some subconscious belief systems , but

1:19:35

also the subconscious . You know , when you talk

1:19:37

about your soul , like what's that Tell

1:19:40

me ? It's only all about perspective . You

1:19:42

know your soul , your intuition

1:19:44

, your subconscious mind , your ego

1:19:46

. They're all parts of you and they're all here

1:19:48

to serve you and do something for you

1:19:50

. They're all here to protect you , they're all here to help you

1:19:52

. They're all got a common goal different themes

1:19:54

, they're different parts of the mind , of the body

1:19:57

, of the soul , but they're all here

1:19:59

. They all serve a purpose . You can't ignore

1:20:01

any one of them . But it's really important to learn

1:20:03

how to come back to you , your

1:20:07

true self , whatever that means

1:20:09

. However , you want to verbalize your soul , your

1:20:12

highest self , your true self , the

1:20:14

conscious hooligan within which

1:20:16

is my stamp on my

1:20:18

part of my world , and I coach

1:20:20

that , and I mean now I'm sure there's a million people

1:20:23

that they coach that in

1:20:25

their own different levels and forms . But sometimes

1:20:27

you've got to unpack a lot

1:20:29

of stuff to get to it and

1:20:32

understand what that sounds like and

1:20:34

listen to it as gospel and

1:20:36

to block out that narrative and to block out

1:20:38

that noise , to accept what is

1:20:40

truly in your highest good

1:20:42

. That sometimes upsets some people , that

1:20:45

sometimes loses some friends . It

1:20:47

might lose some family , but you know

1:20:49

what ? If it is you

1:20:51

and you know when

1:20:54

you know , you know . So I coach people

1:20:56

to know . When you know , you know and

1:20:58

when you say yes to you , nothing

1:21:00

else matters because you're never going

1:21:03

to cause disharmony

1:21:05

or create something

1:21:08

negative in your perfect world

1:21:10

of you . If it's you , it's

1:21:12

your true self . You're never going to

1:21:14

neglect your wife or

1:21:16

children . You might have

1:21:19

to come back to yourself and that might

1:21:21

seem selfish at times , but

1:21:23

ultimately you're only showing up as your best level

1:21:25

of view for them . If you can't do that

1:21:27

, you're being selfish by not coming back to you

1:21:29

. That's how I see it . If you can't learn , if you're

1:21:32

a worlder , have the courage and

1:21:34

the resilience and the guts

1:21:36

it takes to come back and deal with your own

1:21:38

garbage in order to show it to be your

1:21:40

best level of yourself for them . That

1:21:43

is being neglectful to them and to

1:21:45

you . You know you've got to come back to you . It

1:21:47

all starts with you . There's no coming

1:21:49

back , there's no living your true life or

1:21:52

your best self without being in connection

1:21:54

to your true self . There's no way to

1:21:56

hide from yourself . I was

1:21:58

just running . You know I run mathos

1:22:00

now because I think I used to run to run for myself . Now

1:22:02

I run to define myself . I

1:22:05

spend myself running to find myself . You know

1:22:07

, this weekend I run for 2,045 minutes

1:22:09

in the bush just with me and my little dictaphone

1:22:11

to take all the recording , because I'll never remember them

1:22:13

all because there's so much of it , but you know

1:22:15

so much information will come . I record it all

1:22:17

. I'm gonna come back and I download it . You know

1:22:20

, when I get time , I listen to it , I create

1:22:22

programs from it . I take the guides

1:22:24

, information . They give me a learn

1:22:26

from myself and the

1:22:28

power that is bigger than me . They teach me .

1:22:30

Yeah , I love that and I like your

1:22:32

tip especially . I've thought about a number

1:22:35

of times when you're running or doing some sort

1:22:37

of exercise , like taking a recorder

1:22:39

, because I always get the best realizations and

1:22:41

idea when I'm active or you're

1:22:43

doing something , you're in motion and

1:22:46

you're going through some sort of physical struggle

1:22:48

. On the note , you've

1:22:51

gone personally again through trauma

1:22:54

, you've gone through some really hard

1:22:56

moments and

1:22:58

even your athletic endeavors we

1:23:00

talked about to help you find yourself

1:23:02

. I know you're very focused

1:23:05

now on mental health in general , which

1:23:07

seems to be one of the biggest rising topic

1:23:09

ever , even after this pandemic

1:23:11

. My theory is that we

1:23:13

locked everybody for two years in

1:23:16

one room or their house and people

1:23:18

just still trying to figure out

1:23:20

what to do with themselves now because

1:23:23

there is a kind of residue of these lockdowns

1:23:25

, I believe , still happening . That's my

1:23:27

hypothesis of it . But I want

1:23:29

to give you still an opportunity . I know this

1:23:31

is something you're looking into deeply , anything

1:23:33

you want to mention on that topic ? How

1:23:36

are you looking at that space and how are

1:23:38

you looking to help people in this area

1:23:40

?

1:23:41

Yeah , okay . So imagine if

1:23:43

everyone had the tools back

1:23:45

then during COVID to come back to

1:23:47

themselves and sit within . We

1:23:49

would have come out of the back of that an elevated

1:23:51

society and something greater than we

1:23:53

would ever could

1:23:55

have imagined . So imagine

1:23:58

if you just took the time to spend that

1:24:00

time to come back to yourself and I

1:24:02

made no claim

1:24:04

that , like mental health man , it's real

1:24:06

. It's a real thing and

1:24:09

it's nothing wrong with you . You're not broken

1:24:12

. You just need some

1:24:14

support coming back to yourself and then navigate

1:24:16

all that stuff that we've already spoken

1:24:18

about . I truly believe all my traumas and

1:24:21

all my addictions and all

1:24:23

the personal problems

1:24:26

I've had with mental health they

1:24:29

were a free understanding myself

1:24:31

. They were free understanding

1:24:34

me and learning how

1:24:36

to come back to me and learning

1:24:39

how to accept me and learning

1:24:41

how the narrative

1:24:43

of society isn't me and

1:24:46

that's okay , and learning to just

1:24:48

go within and listen to

1:24:51

the information and act upon it . When

1:24:53

you start doing that and you start to fall

1:24:55

forward in your truth , you start

1:24:57

, like I said , you start to win at

1:24:59

life and those things

1:25:02

start to dissolve . The mental

1:25:04

health issues , the ADHD

1:25:06

, the depression they all start

1:25:08

to slowly

1:25:10

dissolve and be less prominent

1:25:12

or less significant in your life and you start

1:25:14

to live . You know when you start to live

1:25:17

and you spend every day , spend time with

1:25:19

yourself . I do it at 4.35

1:25:21

am every morning because that's before my kids rise . I

1:25:24

was doing it this morning before we started because

1:25:26

that's when I get my my

1:25:28

me time , you know , and my me

1:25:30

time creates my day . It's before

1:25:33

social media , it's before anything

1:25:35

. I will nearly have to be glass of

1:25:37

water and then I have my coffee , which I

1:25:39

love , and then I go and I do my meditation

1:25:41

and I spend time , ask

1:25:43

myself some questions and I really believe

1:25:45

that is the answer . I'm not saying

1:25:48

you can go from this high

1:25:50

levels of discomfort or

1:25:52

disease or mental

1:25:54

trauma and problems down

1:25:57

the baseline and back into a Navigating

1:25:59

a perfect level of mental health . I don't

1:26:02

pretend to do that , but I do believe it starts . You've

1:26:04

got to start somewhere . You know you might be heavily

1:26:06

medicated for whatever my

1:26:09

be ADHD , depression and any

1:26:11

depressants , whatever that looks

1:26:13

like and like . I'm no physician , I'm

1:26:15

not a doctor . I feel like I'm

1:26:17

a doctor of my own mind . That's about it . But

1:26:19

you know , I do believe we work

1:26:21

and it is that's the thing . A lot of people don't want to do

1:26:23

the work . They don't do the work that I want to listen

1:26:26

to . The rather just escape

1:26:28

. The rather escape themselves by taking

1:26:30

a Prescript , said . They wonder why they hate

1:26:32

themselves or don't want to sit within themselves . They're

1:26:35

running from themselves , they're running from

1:26:37

the noise and I feel when you stop

1:26:39

and spend some time I

1:26:42

don't pretend that I learned this alone . I had

1:26:44

a great coach , I've had some great support over

1:26:46

the years and it's been a long journey you

1:26:48

get to where I am . Be good , start

1:26:50

somewhere . It's never too late . I

1:26:52

feel . If everyone knew how to do it I knew how to do it during

1:26:54

COVID no one would want to come out of lockdown . They'd

1:26:56

be like , ah , it's so peaceful

1:26:59

here , you know , versus like Versus

1:27:01

aah , versus up a puppy dog locked

1:27:03

in his cage in there right now , one of his ever gonna go

1:27:06

skate , you know , because he doesn't know any

1:27:08

different right now . He doesn't know that one already

1:27:10

, now that he's free , you know , you're always

1:27:12

free when you're free in your own mind

1:27:14

. You're free within you . There's no

1:27:16

barriers . It's only a perspective

1:27:19

or a , it's only a set of

1:27:21

lenses You're looking through . Is you need no one's locked

1:27:23

anywhere . Even during COVID , you

1:27:25

had all the time of the world to yourself You're

1:27:28

more than all the time in the world to yourself that

1:27:30

you all want to look at about you being locked up . Now

1:27:32

you're not locked up . Yeah , you got an opportunity to

1:27:34

explore within and

1:27:36

, yeah , but the back of it was there's had

1:27:38

a strong argument of suicide

1:27:40

, mental health and because no one knows the tools , no

1:27:43

one has the ability to regulate

1:27:45

themselves Without some

1:27:47

kind of intervention . Hmm

1:27:50

, but the intervention should be you . You're

1:27:52

the intervention . It all starts with you

1:27:54

always .

1:27:55

What comes into mind , my best tip

1:27:58

intervention right now . I've been doing cold plunging

1:28:00

in the morning . I got the real cold plunge

1:28:02

, yeah , and it's so fantastic to

1:28:04

go down to the 38

1:28:06

39 degrees Water

1:28:09

and just sit there for three

1:28:11

and three and a half minutes and you just observe

1:28:14

the mind going from panic the

1:28:16

first 10 , 15 seconds to just

1:28:18

relaxation , joy

1:28:21

as soon as you get out . So it's

1:28:23

one of my best tips that I've

1:28:25

ever really been enjoying and that

1:28:27

morning routine and yeah

1:28:29

, that's interesting .

1:28:31

Yeah , no , it's a great Concept

1:28:33

and I mean it's free right . Jump

1:28:36

under a cold shower like you want

1:28:38

cold water immersion . You don't have to have the perfect

1:28:40

. I've got a nice bath in my backyard . I've got a sauna

1:28:42

in my backyard . You know I take

1:28:44

um . I also use

1:28:46

them as recovery items

1:28:49

for my sporting , but I take those

1:28:51

Opportunities really serious

1:28:53

and you don't need to have the perfect . That's

1:28:56

something people need to learn . Things don't need to be perfect

1:28:59

to act . Have a cold shower Like it

1:29:01

changes your day and

1:29:03

again , like when you talk about performance of mind . That

1:29:05

that's a big part of that . Part Of

1:29:07

what I teach is about organizing your life

1:29:10

so you can create an epic

1:29:12

routine that sets you up for

1:29:14

success . When you start a Quality

1:29:16

routine , you start creating good habits

1:29:19

, and we do good habits over time and distance

1:29:21

. Good habits have an ability of

1:29:23

creating great outcome . They also eliminate

1:29:25

bad habits . You know when you start creating

1:29:27

good habits , great , and you start

1:29:29

to learn what your goals are . You've got time to Expand

1:29:32

upon your goals and when you know what your

1:29:34

goals are , you learn to focus on them , because

1:29:36

you've got more time and energy in your own

1:29:38

head . And when you've learned to focus

1:29:41

, you learn to take action . When you take

1:29:43

action , you get the results of you that you're

1:29:45

trying to set yourself up for . So it

1:29:47

all starts with the mind . Doesn't in one way , the

1:29:49

other , we all . It always comes back

1:29:51

to the glass ceiling

1:29:53

that you put on yourself , the ceiling you create

1:29:56

. That is only ever created

1:29:58

by you , and that's one thing

1:30:00

. Out of all the extremes you might call

1:30:02

them for , what I do , that's one thing people

1:30:04

can take away is that they might , they

1:30:07

might . That's my ceiling . Your ceiling

1:30:09

doesn't have to be that . But you need to realize that

1:30:11

other people's ceilings are way extended

1:30:13

and expanded beyond yours . So just

1:30:15

get out of your own way and get

1:30:17

a sled tammer , you know , mentally get a sleet

1:30:19

of them and smash through that ceiling

1:30:21

and take yourself to another level and whatever

1:30:24

that looks like Like I said , it could be speed

1:30:26

reading , could be piano , it

1:30:28

could be sport or it could be

1:30:31

whatever it looks like for you . Like I'd

1:30:33

love to go back and obviously

1:30:35

I started with mine . My

1:30:38

Exploring of self

1:30:40

start with me , but I've been so fascinated

1:30:43

with human behavior over the last 10 years . I'd

1:30:45

love to go back and study neuroscience . I didn't

1:30:47

finish school , you know . So I'm

1:30:49

not ruling that out in my future , because

1:30:51

that would be putting a ceiling on what I

1:30:54

would like to do . Yes , so at the time

1:30:56

, right now , no , but does it really inspire

1:30:58

me ? Yeah , so I think it's . Finding

1:31:00

what you're passionate about is

1:31:02

a big part of being your best self , and also

1:31:05

just Seen what that ceiling

1:31:07

looks like and just crushing it , just

1:31:09

choosing to go beyond it and

1:31:11

taking one small step at a time To

1:31:14

get there . You know you're not going to go from

1:31:16

having 10 bucks in the bank they haven't a million dollars

1:31:18

overnight , okay but you can find

1:31:21

a way to make 100 bucks . You can

1:31:23

turn the hundred bucks into a thousand bucks . These

1:31:25

are really sick goals . These are real , really

1:31:27

sick things that you can transition and

1:31:29

then you can put your focus on those goals

1:31:31

and then you can turn that thousand bucks into 10

1:31:33

. What you focus on is what you get , obviously

1:31:35

, but always burning in the right

1:31:37

place at the right time to meet the right

1:31:39

people , to create the right deals , you know , and

1:31:42

that that all comes

1:31:44

back to again . A lot of what I

1:31:46

teach is Solving

1:31:48

the old subconscious belief system , training

1:31:50

you on , you know , really simple hacks

1:31:53

, or sometimes less simple hacks , on how

1:31:55

to evolve and be a better level of yourself

1:31:57

, you know , and yeah , I'd

1:31:59

like to think that I'm living proof that that's

1:32:01

possible for me kid to drop that school 15

1:32:04

to what I've done is . It's

1:32:06

not a bragging rights or a pride thing

1:32:08

. It's more like an example . More

1:32:10

than anything , it's just an example of what the

1:32:13

human mind can do when it starts

1:32:15

creating better habits instead of Abon

1:32:18

Joe .

1:32:19

I love it . Thank you so much , brad . It's

1:32:21

been a pleasure speaking with you . Maybe just

1:32:23

last two questions to close out with , although

1:32:26

Many of your answers probably

1:32:28

Could be the right answer

1:32:30

for the next one I'm about to ask . But there

1:32:33

is a lot of things going on in the world right

1:32:35

now . What would you want to inspire people

1:32:37

to be doing more off or less off

1:32:39

?

1:32:40

I think it's taken me a long

1:32:42

time . Definitely the last three

1:32:45

years I think I've elevated

1:32:47

from a different part of my experience . So I think

1:32:50

a big part of my experience was I

1:32:52

just navigating the

1:32:54

human experience and what

1:32:57

they look like , where a lot of them on my previous

1:32:59

story has kind of the

1:33:01

voles about where I come from . Then

1:33:04

I went into maybe a bit more of the ego , a bit more

1:33:06

of the like I want to build this

1:33:08

and kind of more monetary

1:33:11

and creating and like

1:33:13

look at the you know what I'm creating

1:33:15

for my family and stuff like that . And Although

1:33:18

that stuff's important and it's a requirement

1:33:21

and necessity to survive in

1:33:23

this modern world , we all need money , we all

1:33:25

need a roof over our head and

1:33:28

an abundance is nice too . But an abundance

1:33:30

tends to come when you focus on

1:33:32

providing value and give them back

1:33:34

and contributing to society

1:33:37

. And I've watched my personal

1:33:39

what do you call it

1:33:41

? My abundance

1:33:43

will call it abundance . My personal abundance

1:33:46

Grow both in the monetary

1:33:49

way and both in my four young

1:33:51

people , children and the business as

1:33:53

I do . They've been created

1:33:55

, they have started to really excel

1:33:57

and take off . The more I

1:33:59

give back , the more I provide

1:34:01

value , the more I get

1:34:04

and I think if people could learn that

1:34:06

that they more they give , them all They'll get and

1:34:08

they've been learning in a way that is stimulating

1:34:10

their true . So when I get me

1:34:12

comes back to come back to yourself and what it is

1:34:15

true for you . Because just giving

1:34:17

everything away it's not what I'm saying like giving

1:34:19

the shirt off your back If you don't have any other

1:34:21

shirts is not the right move because

1:34:23

you'll freeze , but giving the shirt off your back you

1:34:26

have others to put another one on is the right

1:34:28

move . I coach netball for

1:34:30

the under sevens this year . Know

1:34:34

nothing about netball my wife does , but

1:34:36

I was more the motivator in the mindset

1:34:38

coach of these seven year old girls . But

1:34:40

I think in a society that needs a more than ever

1:34:42

, if you have any ability to lead and

1:34:45

be a leader and give something back to

1:34:47

community that is going to instill

1:34:49

Values and instill resilience

1:34:51

and give these young whippersnappers

1:34:54

, these young necks , levels

1:34:57

of our society . These are going to be the people To

1:34:59

carry our community forward in 30 years

1:35:02

and we're going to be the old people looking

1:35:04

back and hopefully they're there to look after us . So

1:35:06

I think if you want to see growth

1:35:09

and you want to see elevation of the human

1:35:11

society . I think you need to start giving back to

1:35:13

your strengths . Whatever your strengths are

1:35:15

. This feels like my strengths right now . That's

1:35:18

why I've chosen to go on a path and give them back

1:35:20

. Coaching netball is not my strength . We're

1:35:22

coaching people here . So I decided to try

1:35:24

and step back and give back to my community , the young

1:35:26

age , where I feel I can make an instrumental

1:35:28

difference and also give them some

1:35:31

cool tools in the sporting world , not

1:35:33

just physically but mentally , to

1:35:35

be better the levels of themselves and level up from

1:35:38

a young age . And I do that with a local

1:35:40

boxing gym with some professional boxers

1:35:42

, you know . Let that they get my strengths

1:35:44

and then you own my businesses

1:35:46

I provide value in . You

1:35:49

know if I need electrician , there's no life

1:35:51

without light these days . You know

1:35:53

if you don't have your light in your home

1:35:55

, you're considered living in a state

1:35:57

of poverty . You know it's like if I need electrician

1:36:00

. So that's a kind of more . More

1:36:02

part of my Electrical business

1:36:04

and and my development business is creating

1:36:07

. I don't know what America's like , but in Australia

1:36:09

we have a real Housing crisis

1:36:11

. There's not enough places to live for a young

1:36:14

country growing Expansionally

1:36:16

. It's . It's growing so rapidly that I

1:36:18

have enough houses . My development company provides

1:36:21

housing . So but

1:36:23

providing housing , I feel I'm providing something

1:36:25

to community , but I get rewarded

1:36:27

for that financially . So I think you'll

1:36:29

find that the more value you provide , in

1:36:32

whatever level of society you are operating

1:36:34

from Well , you'll get more value back

1:36:36

, whether it be monetary , whether it be