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That is what wisdom is right . It's just like

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have a blind spot or a shortfall , but

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1:19

Welcome back to Waves powered by Arcade , a

1:22

show for marketers , creators and entrepreneurs

1:24

who want to stop chasing the tide and start making waves

1:26

online . We're your hosts , mike and Mitzi

1:28

, and today we're joined by Valentin Ozich

1:30

.

1:31

Valentin , otherwise known as V

1:33

, is the founder and creative director of the fashion

1:36

brand I Love Ugly , which

1:38

he started out of his bedroom 15 years

1:40

ago . With no business or fashion experience

1:42

, he's focused not only on building a great

1:44

business , but is passionate about living

1:46

life to the fullest . He joined us a year

1:48

ago to share the story of building to the brink of

1:50

bankruptcy and his return this year

1:53

by popular requests to dig more

1:55

into the topic of mindset . Valentin

1:58

, we're so excited to have you back on the show . Thanks

2:00

for joining us .

2:01

No problem , I'm really excited too . Thank you for

2:03

having me back .

2:04

Yeah , just a disclaimer I'd say for anyone listening

2:07

if you haven't yet heard our first interview

2:09

from a year ago , I'd encourage you to hit

2:11

pause quick on this one and go back to episode

2:13

58 from August of last

2:15

year to hear Valentin's story and then come

2:18

back to this one as a great part too . But

2:20

that said , let's get into it . I feel like we've got

2:22

a lot of good stuff to cover and just never enough

2:24

time . But , valentin

2:26

, it's been a year since our first interview . A

2:29

lot can happen in that amount of time . Catch

2:31

us up a bit on how things are going . What's

2:34

happened with you and the business since we last

2:36

sat down together ?

2:37

Yeah , wow . Yeah , we were just reminiscing

2:39

before how quickly that time is gone

2:41

. But yeah

2:43

, it has been a pretty wild 12

2:46

months for me , both personally

2:48

and in the business world . We've

2:53

opened up a couple of new shops , which have been

2:55

great . I've been very involved in that project

2:57

, which I'm always . I always enjoy

2:59

some aspects of it , but the whole project

3:02

management aspect of it I don't enjoy . But

3:05

it's also nice to have a

3:07

physical representation of the brand and

3:09

people coming in and engaging with the brand

3:11

. That's been real nice . They've been a real

3:14

success as well . So we've had that . We've

3:16

also launched Woman's Wear , which

3:18

was in the making for a couple of years

3:20

. So we launched that in November , I believe

3:22

, or late October last year and that's also

3:24

it's done really well . Probably not

3:27

quite as well as what

3:29

we expected , but at the same time

3:31

as well , I also

3:33

need to kind of practice what I preach and also know

3:35

that , whatever sometimes

3:38

you decide to do things and launch things

3:40

and they don't always quite go out or

3:42

begin how you intend them to and you

3:44

have to adapt and learn and make

3:46

the necessary adjustments . So that's been really

3:49

good . Yeah , the businesses

3:51

has grown and continue to grow exponentially

3:53

the team I think now there's maybe

3:56

65 of us , including all the retail

3:58

and warehousing just

4:00

going from strength to strength . In that regard , from

4:03

a personal perspective as well just

4:05

what we mentioned on the show I lost my brother

4:07

in May this

4:10

year , which was pretty hard just

4:12

through mental health and just kind of navigating

4:14

out with him before

4:16

it happened and then also post

4:19

what happened , just

4:21

with my family . We're quite

4:23

a close family . There's

4:25

six kids in my family , obviously

4:28

five now and just navigating out even

4:30

with my children and then just giving

4:32

me it gave me a real , just

4:34

perspective on what is most important

4:36

in life and in

4:39

due to that , like I was . You know

4:41

, this year marks the 15th year of doing . I

4:43

love that and I knew that . I

4:46

knew that something within me was changing

4:48

and I almost had to . I was at that point where

4:50

I had to step out of a way in order for people to

4:52

rise up and coincidentally

4:55

, I'd made that decision before my brother's

4:57

passing and I would have announced it to the staff

4:59

and I'd actually stepped

5:01

away . So essentially resigned from the day

5:03

to day but still involved in , say

5:06

, big projects , special projects and sitting on

5:08

the board , and I

5:10

think that was . It's

5:12

quite a hard step to take

5:15

as a founder of a business

5:17

to actually step away and have

5:19

the whole operation run without you

5:21

. So that's been a bit of a journey

5:23

in itself . And I've been moving . I'm now

5:25

moving out of Auckland

5:28

, new Zealand , to a smaller town with

5:30

my partner , my new partner and her two little

5:32

girls . So my , my three

5:34

kids and I are going to be moving here in the new

5:37

year , which will be really nice , just a bit more of a balance

5:39

, and that's basically

5:41

been that . So it's better . It doesn't

5:44

sound like much , but a lot of those , a

5:46

lot of those things individually have been quite

5:48

, you know , quite big and quite they've

5:51

almost shaped my character and who I am , quite

5:53

significantly . Yeah .

5:55

Wow , that's been a lot .

5:57

Yeah , it's not a little bit , that's a

5:59

lot .

6:00

Yeah , absolutely Sorry for your

6:02

loss . I have we were chatting about this and

6:04

I have a brother myself and I can't imagine

6:07

the pain that you'd go through , um

6:09

experiencing something like that unexpectedly

6:12

. So , um , yeah , feeling

6:14

for you , man . It sounds like a lot's

6:16

going on with the business . Cool to

6:18

hear about women's wear um then

6:20

seeing some of the new shops that you've been opening up

6:22

as we just follow along on social . Um

6:25

, maybe a funny question , but you mentioned you're moving

6:27

to a different town . Um , but

6:30

I feel like last time we chatted you had kind of moved into

6:32

the middle of nowhere , right Like you're

6:34

close to Auckland but kind of out in the bush .

6:36

Yeah , yeah , Pretty much in this place , yeah

6:39

. So I just felt a bit I was

6:41

just feeling a little bit isolated and I

6:43

always had a . I'm moving to a place called Raglan

6:46

, which was a pretty famous um

6:48

little . It's another surf town , but

6:50

it's also very creative

6:52

and entrepreneurial town , Like a lot of young

6:55

families and you got a lot of people

6:57

from Europe and South America and

6:59

Australia . They really gravitate

7:01

towards , towards this place . As I

7:03

said , it's quite bustling in the sense of , like , a

7:05

lot of people go there with work

7:07

, flexibility , obviously , enjoy

7:10

the outdoor lifestyle

7:12

, like the lifestyle , work , work balance

7:14

. Um . So , moving there , and

7:16

I think just my daughter she's , you know , she's an avid

7:18

surfer , she I want to enroll her into the

7:20

surf Academy there as well Love it . It's

7:23

a little bit different but at the same time , it's only a couple of hours

7:26

away from Auckland , so I can still drive up during

7:28

the day if need be . You know , hopefully don't need to do

7:30

that too often , but you know , maybe

7:32

once a fortnight I come up for a couple of nights

7:34

. Um , yeah , I just want to change . I

7:36

think change is good and when you

7:38

feel uncomfortable doing something , because

7:40

it's a little bit scary , I think , for me

7:42

personally , it makes me know

7:45

, makes me really realize that I'm on

7:47

the right track and it's almost been my

7:49

guide throughout life . And I think

7:51

the more I've learned to trust that

7:53

and lean into that um

7:55

, the the better the results

7:58

it just yields for me great results

8:00

. I think a lot of people shy away from things

8:02

that a little bit unfamiliar , but

8:04

I think a lot of um , you know , a

8:07

lot of great , great stuff is behind

8:09

closed doors , at closed doors

8:11

that a lot of people are too scared to open . So

8:13

, um , I'm just in that stage of my life

8:15

so I'm looking forward to a bit of a first start

8:17

.

8:18

Makes me think of a couple of books I really like , one of them

8:20

being the war of art . I don't know if you've read that

8:22

.

8:22

Yeah .

8:24

I've . I read it years ago and then closed the way .

8:26

Yeah , yeah , yeah , the grind holiday

8:29

fan . Yeah , there's a great books .

8:31

Yeah , I was actually just in a conversation a couple of days

8:33

ago where we were talking about the war of art and

8:35

I was like man , I feel like that's a book I need

8:37

to revisit right now .

8:39

So I'd have to pick that one up again .

8:40

Anyone listening that hasn't read it . You got to check it out .

8:42

Yeah , I'm the same actually .

8:44

Yeah .

8:45

All right , so we're going to get

8:47

together , start a book club why

8:50

not ? But uh , hey

8:52

, you've gone through a lot of ups and downs

8:54

with Isla of Ugly over the last year

8:56

um , when , I mean the last

8:58

15 years , to be honest and we really got into it

9:00

in that first interview . But for this conversation

9:03

specifically , we want to focus

9:05

more on mindset and even discipline

9:07

. So , to start off that part of the

9:09

conversation , talk

9:11

to us about how you keep your mind in the right place

9:13

through both the wins and the losses

9:16

, and how do you keep a

9:18

good perspective .

9:49

Yeah , I think that , um , I

9:51

think it's a great question as well . Like

9:54

, to be honest , even in the last few days , I've kind

9:56

of felt quite drained and depleted

9:58

, um , but at the

10:00

same time as well , I've not let

10:02

the way I feel let me get

10:05

off , you know , uh , drop , dropping

10:07

my good habits and good habits . So the

10:09

way I kind of stay on track is I've been

10:11

like journaling is just such an amazing

10:14

tool I can't remember if I touched on that last

10:16

time , but it's essentially giving yourself

10:18

therapy every single day and you're just

10:20

getting , you're essentially

10:22

just clearing your mind , getting your thoughts on

10:24

paper , and you can then go

10:27

through and start to dissect and

10:30

, um , unravel and unwind

10:32

, you know , feel the emotions or the or

10:34

the clutter in your mind that is is going on

10:36

. I think it's a fantastic way just

10:39

to just to give yourself

10:41

, um , uh , almost

10:43

you're reflecting back on your mind what's going on

10:45

in your mind . So that's , that's a great one . Uh

10:47

, obviously , exercise sunlight

10:49

, you know , moving your body , even if it's five

10:52

minutes , 10 minutes . A lot of people , you

10:54

know they uh are too

10:57

lazy , whether it be laziness

10:59

or scared to start on , you know , fitness

11:01

regime , but all it takes is a couple of five

11:03

minutes , to just go for a walk for five minutes and

11:05

your , your body will start vibrating . Um

11:08

, you know , you'll just start to feel , feel good

11:10

. I think , just standing guard of your mind

11:12

as well , like if you , if the first thing you

11:14

do when you get up is go on your phone

11:16

, you're just going to basically deplete yourself

11:19

of all the dopamine receptors in your brain and

11:21

I think , just kind of staring clear of your phone for

11:23

as long as possible , you know

11:25

, staring clear of your phone and staring clear

11:28

of caffeine , at least for the first hour of a day

11:30

, I think it's going to set you up to

11:32

have a good , a good day . Because

11:34

you know you're just hormonally

11:37

and emotionally there's all sorts of shit kind of going

11:39

on in that first morning . But if you're

11:41

starting to jack it up with caffeine and then

11:43

you know , and uh , stripping out

11:45

all your dopamine receptors first thing through what's

11:47

going on on Instagram or TikTok

11:49

, it's just going to make you feel a little bit off

11:52

balance . Um , so for that

11:54

I fast every day as well , to around

11:56

one o'clock and I think that really helps me

11:58

just to stay focused and gives my system

12:00

a bit of a , a bit of a reset mentally

12:03

. I feel a lot clearer and sharper because

12:05

of that , um , but I think

12:07

also , like you know , maintaining

12:10

the perspective . It's just like understanding

12:12

, uh yeah

12:15

, and life is going to be ups and downs and

12:17

and then when

12:19

you have , when you have the wins , like

12:22

really enjoying them and just savoring

12:24

it , but also , at the same time , knowing

12:26

it's not gonna , not gonna last forever

12:28

. And when you have some losses , understand

12:31

that these losses are actually a gift wrapped

12:33

up in disguise , like these can be your greatest

12:35

lessons , your greatest teacher , and

12:38

they can really sculpt you to become

12:40

a better human , being , a better person

12:42

. And that's the

12:44

way I kind of view it and keep my perspective

12:47

and just knowing that this life is short

12:49

and , you know , after losing my brother

12:51

, you know , 30 years old , it just really

12:54

gave me perspective on

12:56

how short life is . It

12:58

can happen , you know , like

13:01

the odds of us even being here are

13:03

pretty slim to none . And then when

13:05

we are here , you know you

13:07

, we just end up , as we become older , just

13:09

burdening ourselves with all these frivolous

13:12

bullshit , you know

13:14

. But you actually realize that . You actually

13:16

realize that , you

13:18

know , once you kind of strip away , like the stresses

13:21

of work and bills and being

13:23

a parent , like life

13:25

can actually be . You know life should be

13:27

celebrated as much

13:29

as possible and you know it should be there to be lived

13:32

every day as much as possible . It's easy , easy

13:34

, easy to say , it's hard

13:36

to do , but I think for more you kind of

13:38

practice doing it , the better you

13:40

know , the better even the mundane

13:42

moments can become . I don't

13:44

know if that can answer your question . I want to , but

13:47

yeah .

13:48

I think it's great because I think , like

13:50

as entrepreneurs or business owners

13:52

, it's so . It's almost like you're always

13:54

looking ahead and you're not staying

13:57

focused on , like , what's in front of you and unless

14:00

something's going bad , I feel like , for me at

14:02

least , I really can

14:04

dwell on things . When things feel hard

14:06

or tough , it's really hard for

14:08

me to mentally get over it

14:10

. And then when things are going

14:12

well , or even like when things are , you

14:15

know I have a win . I speed through

14:17

it because I'm thinking what's next

14:19

, what's the next quarter look like , whatever

14:21

our plans like , and you know

14:23

that's . In some ways , you know that's good , that's

14:26

what drives me , but in other ways it's

14:28

like it's not serving

14:31

me when I think about my career

14:33

and longevity as an entrepreneur and

14:35

making sure that I like really celebrate

14:37

those moments , because you need that in order

14:39

to get through the losses .

14:42

Absolutely , absolutely . Otherwise , it's

14:44

like what's the point ? You're just grinding and

14:48

I know life is a grind

14:50

, but at the same time , you know

14:52

when you do have those wins . I think it's so

14:54

important and doesn't have to be a ridiculous

14:57

celebration . It could be something

14:59

kind of small , like just yeah

15:02

, I don't know , it's like today I might take

15:04

the afternoon off and just chill

15:07

with a friend or my partner

15:09

or myself or you

15:11

know , not feel guilty about it , just really

15:13

save of a moment and just be like okay

15:16

, I'm going to celebrate this and take

15:18

it in and just enjoy this feeling

15:20

that I'm getting right now . I think

15:22

it's yeah , no harm in that . I

15:24

think , yeah , entrepreneurs do have a tendency

15:26

to be very hard on themselves and

15:28

I think it's and that's one thing I've really

15:30

learned in the last couple months is like it

15:33

can really serve you extremely

15:36

well . But at the same time , you need to get to

15:38

a point in your life where you no

15:40

longer need that . You know

15:42

you no longer need that feeling

15:44

of constantly being hard on yourself

15:46

just to charge

15:48

through turbo , charge everything to get the

15:50

job done , to get the task done , to get the

15:52

business it needs to get

15:54

. It comes a point where it's just like , okay

15:56

, cool , I don't need to be so hard on

15:58

myself , I can just start to start

16:01

to take the foot off the gas and just

16:03

see where , see where life

16:05

kind of takes me by not

16:08

being hard on yourself , just being a little bit more

16:10

Going for flow . You

16:12

know , and it feels quite nice

16:14

. It's real weird to get used to , super

16:16

weird to get used to . Once

16:18

you get used to , it starts to get , you just start

16:20

to slow down and you notice your heart , your

16:23

heartbeat . You know , I got myself an Apple watch

16:25

and I'm starting to like measure and you just notice

16:28

such a profound difference when you just

16:30

a little bit more sure and just open

16:32

and yeah that's good .

16:33

I feel like having kids for me really

16:36

like took me on that journey of

16:38

you were talking about how life is meant

16:40

to be celebrated , like when you peel back

16:42

your work in your business and

16:44

the things that are causing you stress , and I feel like

16:46

that's been something I've been really

16:48

working through the last couple years specifically

16:51

, but finally seeing some , some

16:53

progress just in myself this

16:55

last year , being

16:57

able to understand like what's what's actually making

16:59

me feel like this , you know , and how

17:01

do I , how do I even like turn

17:03

it into layers so it's not just like one pile

17:06

of all the stuff Kind

17:08

of jumbled together that I can't decipher

17:10

. But actually understanding like business is

17:12

one thing . That's causing certain types

17:14

of stresses and feelings . Family

17:17

is another thing and that's completely separate from

17:20

these anxieties

17:22

that come with the work that I do . And how do

17:24

I leave one in in

17:26

its own bucket or its own layer so

17:28

that I can enjoy the other without tainting

17:30

it or like diluting it and

17:32

Comes down to

17:35

like also like how much you're working to . You mentioned

17:37

like it just ends up being a grind , and

17:40

I don't think grinding is necessarily bad

17:42

. I think there's seasons for that , but also I think there's

17:44

a . There's not necessarily definitely seasons

17:46

yeah , yeah , and also there's a difference

17:48

between grinding and working hard , like you can work

17:50

hard without it necessarily being a grind

17:53

to , in my opinion , and that's kind of

17:55

a balance I'm trying to find is like I'm

17:57

always going to show up and work hard because

17:59

I believe in what I'm doing , but I

18:02

think this season for me , I'm not meant to be grinding

18:04

. I want to be available mentally and spiritually

18:08

and and and everything for

18:10

my kids and my wife and the , my

18:12

friends and my family and the rest of my life . And I think that's

18:14

kind of what you're getting at , if I'm not wrong .

18:16

Definitely Yep , yep , pretty bang

18:18

on .

18:19

Yep , agree with that . Yeah

18:22

, I think that's kind of how you should work harder on yourself

18:24

in your business , and we're kind of talking about that already

18:26

a little bit . But can you unpack that specifically

18:30

a little bit more ?

18:31

for us . It's

18:33

quite interesting , like , as

18:36

I stepped away , I've been taking a while

18:38

and I've seen these young , I've got these young , young

18:40

cats kind of coming through and taking my

18:42

role and training up other people that are

18:44

taking other aspects of my role . And

18:47

there's certain things you can see . Everybody

18:49

has blind spots and

18:52

you know very , very killer

18:54

at their job , but you know they could

18:56

be better simply by making

18:58

a few , say , lifestyle changes in their

19:00

personal life . And when you , when

19:02

you , basically , when you come , you

19:05

know , to the job and you're feeling , you

19:08

know revitalize , you're feeling , feeling

19:10

full of energy and abundant

19:12

, you're going to be more creative , you're

19:15

gonna be better at solving problems

19:17

and therefore you do your job better . And

19:19

that's kind of what I mean . It's like work real

19:22

, work hard on yourself . By working

19:24

hard on yourself , you have

19:26

you . You know you start to develop

19:28

the tools and the mindset and

19:31

the attitude that you know when you

19:33

do face the obstacles , you're you'll be able to overcome

19:35

them . When there's a problem that needs

19:37

to be solved , you'll be able to solve it . You

19:39

know when you do need a grind out of twelve , fifteen

19:42

hour day , you have the energy to do it . You

19:44

get all that by working harder yourself

19:46

. And I just feel that a lot of people miss

19:48

that aspect . They almost feel that

19:50

in life they just have to work hard on their job

19:53

and then Be a set of yourselves , become

19:55

secondary and the family

19:57

becomes you know , it's almost like the

19:59

family second and then they become

20:02

on the third , fourth and

20:04

the and the and

20:07

line . But I think that , yeah , just by working

20:09

working hard on yourself , I just think it solves so

20:11

many , so many problems and a lot of people just

20:13

miss that and it's just a bit of a different psychology

20:16

how you , how you know , how you approach your

20:18

life . I stole

20:20

that from a guy called Jim Rohn . He's

20:23

like a pretty famous kind of personal developer

20:25

, old school , old school dude , which is really

20:27

cool to listen to and I recommend your listeners Listen

20:30

to as well , and

20:32

he talks about that and I fully get it . You

20:34

know , if you take care of your diet and

20:36

you exercise and you know

20:38

you journal and you take care of yourself spiritually

20:41

, just become a more whole and well rounded person

20:43

and then when you're more whole and

20:46

well rounded , you just show up better and

20:48

you just kick ass in your job . And I showed

20:50

this guy is , this guy that

20:52

works for me . He's never

20:54

lead means , we're designer

20:56

. And I was like , oh , go see

20:58

this guy who I've been seeing for

21:01

the last 10 years , you know , for supplements

21:03

and whatnot . And then he didn't even realize

21:05

that he was dealing with stress , he was dealing

21:07

with anxiety , he couldn't

21:09

sleep properly , his energy was pretty

21:11

flat , and this guy you

21:13

know told him a bunch of stuff and gave him a bunch

21:16

of supplements , like some lines main

21:18

and things like that . And this guy takes

21:20

me like 10 days after he's like holy shit , I

21:22

didn't even recognize myself and I guess

21:24

that's just an example , it's just like you

21:26

know . But if you do that in every other

21:28

aspect of your life , that will just accumulate

21:30

and compound and you come to the point where

21:32

you become unrecognizable . I

21:34

just definitely recognize being a secret to my successes

21:37

of light . I've spent so much time

21:39

, money and energy on myself and

21:42

like every , every morning , every

21:44

morning I'm making sure that I'm focusing

21:46

on myself is my personal

21:48

well being and mental health and everything

21:50

is the most important thing for everybody , not

21:52

only for myself and for the job , but for

21:54

my kids , for my partner , for

21:57

my friends , for everything . And

21:59

you do that right . Everything else just takes

22:01

care of itself . And I think you

22:03

know , and life it's like

22:05

a lot , of , a lot of . You

22:07

know people success , people

22:10

see it and they just assume that

22:12

they had a kick ass product or they

22:14

just grinded , grinded , grinded . Yeah , there's

22:16

an element of hard work , but I guarantee

22:19

you this is whole different side of it that people aren't seeing and

22:23

it's quite , it's quite spiritual as well . You know

22:25

, it's like having a belief system and in

22:28

place and I've been , you know , I love kind of working even into the

22:30

subconscious mind , and then Setting

22:34

intentions and setting a setting

22:36

a goal is essentially you're

22:38

putting out to the world exactly

22:40

what you want and you're making your brain

22:43

focus , like you're almost

22:45

commanding your brain . You

22:47

want , it's like , and you have to know

22:49

how it all unfolds . It's not your job . So

22:52

when you go to a restaurant , you pick something off

22:54

the menu and you're like sweet , I want , you

22:56

know , this steak or whatever medium

22:58

, and you give it to the waiter waitress

23:00

and then they go back and yeah

23:02

, yeah , it's not your job to think about

23:04

the chef , how he's going to prepare and

23:07

all this , and that all you do is set

23:09

your order . Yeah , off the menu

23:11

, and I think that's what life is like . It's like starting

23:14

with start with your goals , set your order

23:16

which is your intentions , your goals , and

23:18

then just do , do , do the work

23:21

, and then you start getting little downloads

23:23

and your subconscious will start telling you things

23:25

that perhaps you're missing , all

23:27

that you're lacking , or

23:30

that you need a strength , and that , to me , is

23:32

working , working harder on yourself , you

23:34

know , I think everything else will start to take

23:36

care of itself and

23:38

is your best to be a conversation , whole

23:41

conversation on its own , but just

23:43

, yeah , just all the basic stuff

23:45

that , even when I sit on the last , on the last show

23:47

, last episode , is like what

23:49

you put in your mouth , what you put in your mind

23:52

, what you allow into your life

23:54

for people that you surround yourself with , like that's

23:57

working harder on yourself and everything else

23:59

just starts to take care of , start

24:01

to take care of itself . You just start to seek

24:04

the answers . That's all businesses . Really

24:06

. That's a bunch of problems

24:08

In all . Your job is

24:10

is to figure out the

24:12

answers , and a lot of the answers are out there . Yeah

24:15

, there's how much . Yeah , there's been

24:17

so much life lived and pretty

24:20

much everything . You're experiencing someone else's

24:22

experience and they've also recorded it . Your job to go out there and

24:24

try find the answer .

24:26

This is great , like great timing for me because

24:28

I'm coming up on a birthday

24:30

and for me personally , like just

24:33

a reminder of you

24:35

know to work on yourself and other

24:37

things will just feel easier not

24:40

easier , but maybe clear

24:42

, especially when it comes to business

24:44

, and you mentioned something about like starting with

24:46

your goals and then setting your intentions

24:48

when you have done

24:51

this work for yourself . Is that how you started is thinking about what

24:56

you want to accomplish and then figuring out how you

24:58

need to show up in order to achieve those things ?

25:02

Yeah , definitely , I think one of the

25:04

and so I set a goal I wanted to create

25:06

a global brand . And this is when I was literally , you

25:10

know , during until

25:13

two o'clock in the morning just doing designs

25:15

to put on two shirts . But I had these visions of , like you know , people

25:17

in the US or UK or when

25:22

else in the world wearing my product , and then

25:24

I just started to write that down . But I think

25:26

if you write down a goal and

25:28

you accompany it with a reason why

25:31

you want to achieve that goal , you

25:33

start tapping in and to the emotional

25:35

part of yourself as well . And when you've

25:37

got so , writing down the goal is like your

25:39

commanding your brain . But if you have a reason

25:42

behind it and it reasons , you

25:44

know , it kind of evokes some

25:46

emotion within you you're getting

25:48

the heart and the mind and unison

25:50

and that's almost becomes I

25:52

don't want to get like scientific , spiritual

25:54

voodoo or whatever , but I've proved this time and

25:56

time again it almost becomes a letter

25:58

, a magnet , it can you start seeing things that

26:01

you perhaps otherwise wouldn't

26:03

have noticed , and that's simply because

26:05

you , you know , you've got your intentions

26:07

and you've got what you want , working in harmony

26:10

, and I think

26:12

that's

26:14

such a powerful tool and sometimes it

26:16

can happen super quick and sometimes it can take a

26:18

little bit longer . But I think I

26:20

think if you , if you start doing it and practicing

26:23

it , people start to surprise themselves

26:25

around how powerful the stuff is . Everything

26:29

I've kind of written down in the last few years

26:31

where I've started to become a real avid goal

26:33

goal Lister and I get

26:35

to the point where I listed in categories so

26:37

I get all have goals

26:39

for my relationships , more my

26:41

relationship goal for my health goal for my business goal

26:43

for my finances . My children Start

26:47

writing it down like holy shit

26:49

. When you write it it's almost like it

26:51

almost seems a little bit unattainable . Even

26:54

you reflect back on it . So yeah , later

26:56

and you're like crap , I've knocked off 80 , 90%

26:58

of the stuff and 10%

27:00

that's left . It's already in motion

27:03

, like I get . You know there's already a whole bunch of steps happening

27:05

to achieve that . So

27:08

yeah , I think goals

27:10

so so important , so

27:12

so important . If you don't know you

27:16

don't know what you want you just I

27:18

don't know you're you're doing . If

27:20

you don't know what you want , you'll realize that Once

27:24

you do figure out what you want , that a lot

27:26

of the work that you did was actually aimless

27:28

. People get so caught up in

27:30

productivity , thinking

27:33

that are being effective , but once

27:35

you actually know what you want , you just focus

27:37

on effectiveness rather than productivity

27:39

and you just cancel out . So much

27:41

more noise , so much more crap start

27:44

to you know . You start to offload it to other

27:46

people that are more passionate about that

27:48

thing . It drains you emotionally

27:51

, drains your energy , and you're

27:53

not even that good good at it . The only

27:55

way you can get to that place is by figuring out what

27:57

you want .

27:58

Man , this is what I came here for . I

28:00

feel like you're already blowing

28:02

my mind . You're already blowing my mind when

28:04

you said To like not

28:07

just right what you want to accomplish , but why

28:09

that in and of itself was

28:11

enough . To like just like Get

28:13

me going . But then , when you started to talk

28:15

about how that actually aligns

28:17

your head and your heart and

28:20

can like create this like deeper

28:22

, like magnetic motion , like oh my god

28:24

, dude , that was crazy .

28:26

Yeah , I appreciate that's good . I'm real happy

28:28

about it . And I think woman have a tendency

28:30

to , you know , they always speak

28:32

from their heart and for men it's

28:34

a feminine , it's a feminine , feminine

28:37

energy . Men , we're always up here

28:39

, we always try to make sense of stuff and

28:41

even like , say a woman , she's got a problem whatever

28:43

, and you come in and men will come in and we try to solve

28:45

it straight away . She doesn't want to problems

28:48

to be solved , she just wants to be heard

28:50

. You know , and I think it's like having

28:52

a balance , you know , with goals it's like

28:54

if you just come from your heart and it's

28:56

all lofty , that's

28:58

great , that's half of the plan done

29:01

. You know your emotion , but

29:03

you need it , you actually need a plan , you

29:06

know . Otherwise it's just lofty . And

29:08

yeah , a dream without like a goal

29:10

and a deadline is just a fantasy really

29:12

. But if you can get the two in harmony , it's

29:15

incredible what you can achieve . Like

29:17

it's just mind boggling . You

29:19

know some people can do achieve some

29:22

incredible stuff by getting those two things

29:24

in harmony without actually doing the work . It's

29:26

just On automatic

29:28

, it's just giving themselves like a bit of a compass

29:30

, like a bit of a map tears and

29:32

that stuff is being real , real

29:34

fascinating , so fascinating , and there's so

29:37

many great books about it as well . But At

29:39

the same time you need to be open minded and that's

29:41

all faith is . You know , I think religions so

29:44

I'm going real tangent but religions kind of labeled

29:46

faith to the point where a lot

29:49

of people that aren't into religion , you know

29:51

they think it's taboo and it puts them off , but that's

29:53

all . Faith is believing into something . It's not

29:55

quite real yet , but the scientific name

29:57

is Electromagnetic .

29:59

Just the heart and the head , get them in unison

30:02

, it's , it's incredible

30:04

man , so good , and what

30:06

you talked about about like goals without reasons

30:08

is just like productivity for

30:10

the sake of productivity , but it's inefficient

30:12

, like that's so . That rings so true to me and

30:14

I'm sure so many people listening

30:17

like you got your people that are like I

30:19

need to work out more , I

30:21

need to get up earlier , man

30:23

, I need to spend more time with my kids or

30:25

things like that . It's all just things that we kind of intrinsically

30:28

know that would would be better for us , but

30:31

we haven't really applied like vision

30:33

or direction to it beyond just

30:35

the activity itself . And I

30:37

think that's why so many people abandon these

30:39

goals or these activities so quickly

30:42

is because they I mean it's pretty

30:44

, it's almost cliche at this point they don't have their

30:46

why .

30:47

Yeah , they don't have their why . And also patients

30:49

, yeah , you know , I mean , like we live

30:51

in this . We live in this culture

30:54

of instant gratification and

30:56

you know , through Instagram

30:59

or if you want any any Answer

31:02

to any question , use Google and it's instant

31:04

. And we just we've almost tricked our brains

31:06

into thinking that's how life is . And

31:09

I think everything that is good Takes

31:11

time , takes a little bit of time

31:13

, takes some patience and some

31:15

perseverance , and just keep Persisting

31:18

on on what you want and just not losing

31:21

, losing your your you know , your faith and

31:23

your goal or your vision . It's

31:26

a yeah , and that's where . That's

31:28

where , like that whole Spiritual aspect

31:30

in the spiritual well-being which is really

31:32

clipped for me , especially this year , it's

31:35

so important , like , because that just opens

31:37

. Everybody has that skill and

31:40

that potential . But it's just like we're

31:42

so addicted to being busy , we're

31:44

too scared to just be present and

31:46

be by ourselves and even be fucking bored

31:49

, you know , because being bored

31:51

, all of a sudden all this shit surfaces

31:53

that you've neglected because

31:55

you've been too busy being busy

31:57

, and that I

32:00

think it's yeah , and that's even

32:02

something that I've been extremely guilty about

32:04

. But this year of Really try

32:06

to make that change and

32:08

just be a bit of a testament to that .

32:11

Mm-hmm , I wanted to ask

32:13

you about your longevity

32:15

as an entrepreneur and a business owner

32:17

and being the same company for 15 years

32:19

. I mean , I've been doing my

32:22

, our , our company , for five years

32:24

and when I think about 15

32:26

, like the commitment and the

32:28

drive and the , it

32:30

just takes so much out of you , especially writing

32:33

all the bumps that come with building

32:35

and scaling a business . So I'm just curious if you

32:37

have any Tips for how to

32:39

get past seasons where you want

32:41

to give up and and then it's

32:44

so interesting to be asking you at this point of

32:46

time because I know you're stepping away from things

32:48

. So I'm sure

32:50

you kind of got got through moments

32:53

or seasons where you were close to giving

32:55

up or close to Stepping away

32:57

, and then what kind

32:59

of inspired you to help ? You know that now is

33:01

the time to let other people Get

33:04

in front and lead the day-to-day

33:06

so that you can kind of step back .

33:08

Yeah , 15 years , yeah , it's a long

33:11

time . It's pretty much for how

33:13

old my daughter is , and every time she turns

33:15

, every time that it's her birthday , I'm

33:17

reminded . I

33:20

wouldn't recommend it for everybody , I

33:22

just knew that I've got it . I've got

33:24

a trait in me where I

33:27

kind of never give up and it's

33:29

kind of , it's kind of good and it's

33:31

bad , because I think it's also very

33:33

Sometimes it can be a very noble

33:35

thing and a wise thing to give up on something

33:37

. But I think for me is I knew

33:40

, I knew that . I just

33:42

knew within me that when this

33:44

task will be complete , the task of Isla

33:46

Buggy will be complete . And All

33:49

those years ago when I wanted to give up was

33:51

because I was just in the shit , and you

33:53

know I was . I was , like you know , nick , deep

33:56

and debt and

33:58

millions of dollars of debt and it was just

34:00

uncomfortable and the same thing to

34:02

do is quit . But why would anyone want

34:04

to continue and almost

34:06

imprison themselves willingly ? It

34:09

doesn't really make sense and I think

34:11

, to be an entrepreneur , it

34:13

doesn't sometimes make sense , especially to

34:15

the people that aren't entrepreneurs , and

34:18

I also wouldn't recommend it to everybody

34:20

. And this is why I'm saying early in

34:22

the conversation is work hard on yourself , because

34:24

it's inevitable that you're going to

34:26

encounter Challenges

34:29

and you're gonna enchant Encounter

34:31

walls and you're going to have

34:33

problems where you've run out of cash

34:35

or you can't get customers . You can't think

34:38

out , think why , like , the

34:40

only way you can actually break through that is

34:42

is is your psychology , and

34:44

I think the way I stuck it through was I

34:46

think I had a why . I had my reason

34:48

, I had my goal of what I wanted to do

34:50

, but when it got hard

34:53

, I didn't want to do it because I couldn't be

34:55

bothered . I felt I was energy depleted

34:57

. But since I had a compelling reason

34:59

to go through with it , I

35:01

got through , and a lot of that was my children

35:03

, and I wanted to provide my children

35:06

with a lifestyle Not

35:08

spoil them , but just , you know , a lifestyle

35:11

and provide them with opportunities to fail it

35:13

into , stay surfing or a certain

35:15

sport . I could provide them with that opportunity and

35:18

also just to show to them , show them that

35:20

you know with , with hard

35:22

work and Intelligence , plus

35:24

all the other stuff that I've been mentioning so

35:26

far . Once you , once

35:28

you stick to that and believe in that , you

35:31

can , you can almost achieve

35:33

anything like almost anything , and

35:36

that's what I and I also ultimately wanted to prove

35:38

to myself as well . But , as I said

35:40

, it's a good trade and it's a bad trait . It can

35:42

serve me very well , but at the same time , I'm in

35:44

a season where I'm a bit more open and

35:46

I'm just gonna go for , go for flow

35:48

a little bit . But I Think

35:51

that I think that Just

35:54

if you are , if you do have something

35:56

or you're starting something a business

35:58

assistant , just knowing that it's a hundred

36:01

percent inevitable that you're going to

36:03

face some massive challenges

36:05

, it's gonna make you question yourself , it's

36:07

gonna make you question your values , it's gonna make

36:09

you question why the hell am I doing

36:11

this and you'll definitely want to quit . But

36:14

I think , if you've got your compelling reason as

36:17

to why you're doing this and I don't think it can just

36:19

be money either , because

36:21

the thing is like I've had , I've

36:23

lost , I've like had no money

36:25

, you know being , as I said , millions of debt

36:27

and had a lot of money and it's

36:30

quite interesting like your money

36:33

doesn't make you as happy as

36:35

as you think , I think people think that money

36:37

solves all issues , as souls

36:39

, as solves a few issues , money

36:42

issues , but it doesn't solve . It

36:44

doesn't solve that kind of that inner

36:46

inner richness , that inner wealth , and

36:49

I think all it does is amplifies who you already

36:51

are . So if you , if you're a miserable bastard

36:53

, you've got more reasons now to

36:55

be more miserable . You

36:58

know , if you're happy , you've also got more reasons

37:00

now to be , to be happy , because then you can

37:02

, you know , start serving others and helping others

37:04

. Yeah , so I don't know

37:06

if I really kind of answer your question , but

37:09

yeah , businesses , yeah , starting

37:11

, starting something and going on this

37:13

journey is it's just understanding

37:15

. It is a journey , but if

37:17

you can , if you can , you

37:20

know , conquer it and

37:22

Get on top of yourself . It can

37:24

be amazing as well , because you it

37:26

just corrects like , you know your , your

37:29

earning capacity is limitless . You

37:31

know you have the opportunity to design

37:34

your life and your working hours

37:36

and where you want to live and the

37:38

freedom associated with it . Those

37:41

are all amazing things that come from starting

37:43

your business . But at the same time , it's

37:45

it's hard . It's hard and I don't

37:47

think everybody is born to do this . Some

37:50

people are . I think there's also

37:52

some people that are completely capable

37:54

and born to do this and Amazingly

37:57

talented and creative , but they

37:59

just don't have the courage , but

38:01

it's usually the people that have the most courage

38:03

and are willing to sacrifice and

38:06

are willing to endure , despite

38:08

not having the smarts and the intelligence

38:10

of other ones that do well , and I think I'm a

38:12

testament to that . Like I , I

38:14

thought I always thought I was done , until

38:17

I started believing otherwise .

38:19

Mm-hmm . Yeah , no , that's super

38:21

helpful for me , I think . I

38:23

think starting a business is easy

38:26

and then I can see

38:28

sometimes the finish line and it's almost like

38:30

romanticized for me when

38:32

people either sell a business or they

38:35

step out of the day to day like you're doing , and

38:37

I think that sounds so awesome

38:39

because you've built something that can sustain

38:41

other people

38:44

but you're also able to have some sort of say

38:46

in it . I think the

38:49

hardest part is like the middle part . It's

38:51

like that feels messy and

38:53

hard to keep going

38:55

. But I think what you're saying about

38:58

like just making sure that you

39:00

have everything that you need for yourself

39:02

to continue and

39:05

you're clear on the why that you're

39:07

in it , that's kind

39:09

of like what's going to help sustain you through that

39:11

.

39:12

Definitely definitely . And I think if you're

39:14

feeling exhausted and tapped out , do

39:17

something different . You know , take a

39:19

break one week , two weeks , even

39:21

though your mind is telling you that you can't

39:23

and that the whole thing

39:25

is going to melt down when you're gone . You

39:27

definitely can , you always can

39:29

, and the interesting thing is , sometimes

39:32

, when you know that's

39:35

the answer of what to do , life will

39:37

just intervene and

39:39

force you to . You know something

39:41

will happen , like you know , you'll lose

39:43

a family member or you might get sick

39:46

or this or that , and you're literally forced to

39:48

. So I think it's really important and

39:50

that's something that I've learned in the last few years in

39:52

order to sustain myself is

39:54

to take breaks and book it in

39:56

, and also book it in when you don't feel like

39:58

you need it , Because by the time you need a break

40:01

, it's almost too late . So if you book

40:03

it in , even

40:05

if you're in a good flow of momentum

40:07

and things are going good and

40:09

you've booked it in and that date is coming

40:11

, just follow through with it . Do

40:14

that also . Taking , you know

40:16

, attending seminars and things

40:18

like that , and just getting yourself

40:21

out of your environment , I

40:23

think is so healthy for you . You

40:25

know , you become so conditioned

40:28

to the environment in which you live in

40:30

every single day and what

40:33

it actually does , it starts to shut off certain

40:36

parts of your brain , and it's not until you go into

40:38

a new environment , a foreign environment

40:40

, where those other

40:42

parts of your brain start to awaken

40:45

and wake up . So and it gives you more energy

40:47

as a result of it .

40:49

Yeah , that's great advice , thank you .

40:51

Yeah , one thing I wanted to talk about I feel like you've alluded

40:53

to a little bit is the

40:55

fact that it can be kind of lonely to be an entrepreneur

40:58

or a business owner , even , I think , when

41:00

you do have a team . And

41:03

I think when you're the boss , you know like not everyone

41:05

on your team really understands what you're doing

41:07

, like , what you're experiencing , the problems

41:09

you're solving anyways

41:12

. But also , on

41:14

top of that , last time we talked one

41:16

of the things you mentioned about , when

41:18

you got into a really tough spot earlier

41:21

on and had a lot of debt

41:23

and made some mistakes , you mentioned

41:25

that you just didn't have a lot of wise counsel

41:27

. So I'm curious , like one

41:29

, how do you manage just the loneliness

41:32

of being the owner or the

41:34

entrepreneur ? And then , two , what

41:36

does counsel look like for you

41:38

today ?

41:39

Yeah , I think to manage

41:41

the loneliness is kind

41:44

of like how you did , mike , is just

41:46

like reaching out to other entrepreneurs

41:49

or business owners , because

41:51

if you're feeling like that , chances are

41:53

they're going to feel like that , and

41:55

then just sharing battle stories

41:58

and just

42:01

sharing talking , because

42:03

it is a hard thing to understand and there's not a

42:05

lot of people that do do it

42:07

, and even some people do their own businesses

42:09

, but you don't really relate to them just because

42:11

, I don't know , you might be a different age or

42:14

just a different personality type . But

42:16

I think that and that's why I said before , it's like

42:18

attending , say , seminars

42:20

and stuff , wherever it be business or mindset

42:22

stuff is a really important and

42:25

healthy way to and

42:27

a great way to be in a room with a whole bunch

42:29

of like-minded individuals and

42:32

I think it's like a really , really good

42:34

way . And I think trying to do it in

42:36

person as well is a bit more

42:38

effective , just because

42:41

so much of communication

42:43

is through body language and I think that's just . You

42:45

only get that through proximity . So

42:49

that kind of is a way to counter

42:51

loneliness and also just like I

42:54

don't know , sometimes like what

42:56

I've found is like as I've picked up new

42:58

hobbies , wherever it be

43:00

, like more and to be outdoors and surfing

43:03

and hunting and things like that . Hiking

43:06

is you start to get exposed to different

43:08

industries and then it's just a great way

43:10

as well to meet people and

43:12

also just see what's going on in a different industry

43:15

, and I reckon a lot of my good ideas have come

43:17

from just exploring

43:20

different industries . It's

43:22

quite , quite , quite fascinating . You're like , oh , that's pretty cool , I'm

43:24

going to start to apply that to

43:27

me . And then your other question was

43:29

so the loneliest thing was

43:31

other part of the question .

43:32

Yeah , you mentioned before that you didn't have

43:35

the right like wise counsel around you . So I'm

43:37

just curious what kind of do you have advisors

43:39

now ? What does that look like ?

43:41

Yeah . So basically we've formed a

43:43

board and it's just my , it's

43:45

my two business partners , so Nick and

43:47

Paul , and also our head

43:49

of digital and

43:51

econ , rick , and especially just

43:53

us four , yeah

43:56

. And then a lot of people ask us like , who's

43:58

your advisors ? Do you have this and that ? And

44:00

we've kind of kept it between us really

44:02

, and it's been a good combination because

44:05

all of us , all of

44:07

us individually , have different experience

44:09

in different fields . Like

44:11

Nick , for example , he's , like it was , came

44:13

from quite a commercial background in Australia

44:16

. And then Paul

44:18

was more traditional , say , bricks

44:20

and mortar retail , and he's older than me , so

44:23

he's just wiser . And then Nick also had

44:25

Rick had his own business , online

44:28

business , and he's also very digital focused

44:30

. And then obviously , for me I'm more brand product

44:33

, the vision of where we're going as a business

44:35

. So it's like a quite blessing in the sense where

44:37

it's a nice healthy balance of

44:39

all different aspects of the markets . And

44:42

then individually as well , we just have

44:44

friends and whatnot through

44:46

industry which we just communicate with individually

44:49

, but not in the formal sense , just in a just

44:52

almost like a friendship . It's just like catch up

44:54

, things like that . And then once a month

44:56

we come to the yeah , just a community

44:58

. Once a month , we come to the board

45:00

meeting in a formal setting and we lay out

45:03

our agenda , and then we just

45:05

basically discuss different

45:07

issues and naturally we all have a different perspective

45:10

on it , and then it just somehow works

45:12

like it's worked really well . I

45:14

think , you know the next

45:16

tear up , you know , once we start scaling

45:19

even to another level , I think

45:21

it would be important to get somebody else , perhaps

45:23

externally , to be the chair , chairman

45:25

of the board . But

45:28

I think that's that's what we've done , and I think

45:30

, just when we've had like

45:32

prior in 2017

45:35

, for that couple years , like I didn't even have a business

45:37

partner , I was doing it just

45:39

solo , and I think that

45:42

having a business partner or business

45:44

partners in my set , in my instance

45:46

, has been really great in a sense

45:48

, where you've got people that have skin

45:50

in the game and they're not there

45:52

just for a paycheck . You know they really

45:54

want to build something . They're very passionate

45:57

about this , they're emotionally

45:59

and financially invested . They

46:02

always do what's for the betterment of a company

46:05

, as opposed to what you know , as

46:07

opposed to , you know , personal

46:09

gains , and

46:11

that's been , it's just been great . That's

46:13

essentially my wise counsel from

46:15

the business sense and then for my personal

46:18

stuff as well . You know I've

46:20

got like a therapist and I'll go

46:22

to different you know people

46:25

for different aspects of my life that

46:28

I put a lot of importance , hold a lot of importance

46:31

on , and I think our stuff's

46:33

really important , not just having wise counsel

46:35

and business , but having wise counsel and life

46:37

, like looking at you know

46:39

, everybody knows someone that you

46:42

admire through how much energy

46:44

and vitality they have . Just ask them the

46:46

fucking questions . It's like , what do you do ? What's

46:48

some advice ? Well , you might say someone and

46:50

they got an amazing relationship and it's like what

46:52

do you do ? What's what do you like ? Give

46:55

me some advice ? Or there's someone that's like

46:57

you know , spiritually more open and they

47:00

, you know , they , just nothing seems to

47:02

phase them . It's just like it's all good . It's like

47:04

, bro , tell me what you're doing . Yeah

47:06

, that's the way I kind of view it . So it's kind

47:08

of I just I'm just a seeker of

47:11

answers and that's

47:13

always been me and I never

47:15

feel ashamed about doing it

47:18

. I think it's actually that

47:20

is what wisdom is right . It's just like

47:22

understanding that you

47:24

have a blind spot or a shortfall by

47:26

having the humility to go out there and ask

47:29

the question , even if it looks right , even

47:31

if it looks makes you look stupid

47:33

. A lot of people love

47:35

answering it and love parting with

47:37

their wisdom . So I think that's

47:40

what I've done , so in the business sense , in the personal

47:42

sense .

47:43

So good .

47:44

It's good stuff .

47:45

So obviously I love how ugly

47:47

you started for you and you're an

47:50

artist and managing a business

47:52

, especially in eight figure businesses a whole

47:54

different kind of beast . So do you

47:56

feel like you still get to be creative

47:58

and how do you keep the vision clear in the

48:01

middle of managing the business

48:03

?

48:03

Yeah , I think I'm in a position

48:06

now where the vision

48:08

become a lot more clear , because I've got a lot

48:10

more time on my

48:12

hands to make

48:15

sure we're not deviating away from that

48:17

or , if we want

48:19

to slightly take a bit of a

48:21

direction . I've got time to do that and

48:24

it's made me realize that , even

48:26

though I'm working less , the

48:29

impact I have is more , just

48:31

because what I bring to the business is

48:33

so it's so much more profound

48:36

and bigger . And then in terms of creativity

48:38

as well , I'm

48:41

, I'm , I've just got , I'm just kind of I

48:43

just do a lot of like , kind of doodling

48:46

and just Kind of mucking around

48:48

doing art with my kids and things

48:50

like that . But it's quite cool now , like , since

48:53

I've got a team that

48:55

actually makes it all happen , I

48:57

can just I just like . I like

48:59

it when they come to the

49:02

, come to the table with a bunch of ideas and all I'm doing

49:04

is sculpting it a little bit and mentoring

49:07

them , and it's almost like for me it's like another form

49:09

of creativity where I can actually

49:11

pull strings and make moves

49:13

and do stuff that I'm proud

49:15

of , but actually not physically doing it , and

49:18

it's just a bit of a different , a different

49:20

skill set , but I think I think

49:22

once again it kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier

49:24

. It's just like making sure that you do carve out

49:26

time just to Just thinking

49:29

, time where you're , where

49:31

you're , you know your , your laptops close

49:33

, your phones on airplane mode and

49:35

you're just literally thinking and you're sitting , a sitting

49:38

, a bit of an intention in the sense where , alright

49:40

, and in this session I just want

49:42

to , you know , figure out where

49:45

the business is going to be in the next kind

49:47

of couple years and what are some

49:49

potential threats or what are some opportunities

49:52

that perhaps I'm not capitalizing on

49:54

. You know , what are

49:56

we good at ? What do we , we care , what do

49:58

we need ? Just things like that , just really

50:00

good questions . Then

50:02

start to kind of stimulate your mind

50:05

and you start to provoke a little

50:07

bit of creativity . And I found the best

50:09

creativity comes when you're not actually

50:11

doing anything . You just you

50:13

know you're going for a walk or a run , or

50:15

you're just driving and things just pop up

50:17

and you're

50:19

like , wow , that's an amazing idea . But

50:22

then it's just like , okay , well , why don't

50:24

you spend more time doing nothing

50:26

? You know it sounds sounds kind

50:28

of crazy , but if you spend time doing nothing

50:30

, like actually nothing , not nothing

50:32

. But you're on your phone , but like nothing in your

50:34

phones , turned off your laptop , let laptop

50:37

shut and you're just gonna in a

50:39

good kind of frame of mind and just see

50:41

whatever flows out . Just

50:43

let it flow out . It might take a little bit

50:45

of time , might take five minutes , 10

50:47

minutes in the first few sessions might be pretty shit

50:49

, but it's just like everything . Like everything

50:51

just needs to be practiced . It's just a muscle

50:54

and then you start . That muscle starts

50:56

to become stronger and stronger and soon you'll

50:58

be able to do it on autopilot . You

51:00

know , it's just like sweet . I'm gonna dedicate this time

51:02

and figure out the answer and , as opposed to taking

51:04

40 minutes , it might start to take you five minutes

51:06

. Yeah

51:09

, so that's kind of . That's kind of what I , what

51:11

I do now , how , yeah , for the creativity

51:13

part as well , and , as I said , like I

51:15

had this feeling that this year

51:18

was gonna be a year where I was gonna step away

51:20

. Once my brother passed , I

51:22

was forced to step away and

51:25

, as a result of it , the businesses still

51:27

continue to grow and people have stepped

51:30

up as a result of that , and

51:32

then I've also had to learn to

51:34

just , you know , figure

51:36

out what . What I'm gonna start to do next , which

51:39

is also being quite , you know , daunting

51:41

in some sense , but exciting and another

51:43

Definitely yeah , that's

51:45

it .

51:45

That's super exciting yeah , I

51:47

feel like to your point . Like they say , the

51:49

best ideas happen in the shower . You know

51:51

, it's kind of like when you finally have the opportunity to

51:53

be bored and you'd like eliminated distractions

51:56

. That's where the yeah , the breakthrough often

51:58

happens . Definitely , so definitely

52:00

a discipline worth chasing , for sure

52:03

.

52:03

I was just gonna say another thing as well , for , like

52:05

, problem solving is and I've done this

52:07

a lot and I read this in the book it's

52:09

like before you you know there's a couple

52:11

minutes before you goes does often

52:14

to sleep . It's like , just

52:16

say , our subconscious mind , help me think

52:18

of a , help me solve this

52:20

, this problem , and specify the

52:22

problem . And it goes to work

52:24

in autopilot while you're asleep

52:27

. And it's crazy how

52:29

many times I've working up and that problem

52:31

is being solved and it's so crystal clear

52:33

About the solution . And then

52:35

you know I'd been , I'd

52:37

spent weeks or months trying to figure it out

52:39

. If you're not just like , let it go and just

52:41

put it to my subconscious mind , so

52:45

that's been , that's been amazing .

52:46

just the night shift , yeah but night shift , your

52:48

brain's night shift , yeah . Yeah

52:51

, I was just gonna ask a personal question

52:53

because you mentioned you're doing more

52:55

doodling and I've always kind

52:57

of kept up with a little bit . You don't ? I don't feel

53:00

like you don't share a lot of your art , but you share it here

53:02

and there on social . Yeah

53:04

, I'm curious , is there any word like to

53:06

buy your art , or is that just kind of something

53:08

you do as your own practice and you don't really

53:10

make it public ?

53:11

Yeah , it's kind of more of a practice

53:14

, what I usually do . I've got

53:16

like an , a bit of a cumulatio of art

53:18

, but I like to

53:20

gift it to people like people

53:22

that I

53:25

just I don't know close

53:27

to me or close to my heart . I'll gift them a

53:29

piece of art . That's what I usually do

53:31

, but I think , like next year , I want

53:33

to start

53:35

my own personal website and

53:38

it'll be a mixture of , like my art plus

53:40

my other philosophies

53:43

on life and business

53:45

stuff as well , a bit of a hybrid . I

53:47

really want to write a book as well , but

53:50

I'm trying to figure out the concept . I was gonna

53:52

say you should yeah yeah , I think

53:54

it like definitely won't be a moneymaker

53:57

at all , but I think at the same

53:59

time I think it's gonna help people and

54:01

I think that's probably been next , my next

54:03

step . The evolution of myself

54:06

as a human being is like helping people . I've

54:10

now figured out how to grab a product

54:12

and idea and bring it to market and

54:14

scale , but now I want

54:16

to kind of do that more towards towards

54:19

helping people . But I'm not really giving

54:21

out much energy right now because I want

54:23

to be very intentional about this

54:25

next season and actually

54:28

having a break . I

54:31

know how my mind works and once I'm focused on

54:33

something I'll go into it hundred percent

54:35

. So I'm really intentionally just

54:37

like . I know it's bubbling in the background , but

54:40

I'm not really giving it much attention , I'm just

54:42

letting it kind of do it . So

54:45

, yeah , but that's yet for my artwork

54:48

. That's kind of where I'm at nice .

54:49

well , no rush , I'll let you know , take

54:52

your break , but yeah , when I'll be watching

54:54

for that website so I can grab

54:56

something yeah cool cool . Yeah , this

54:58

is the last question we always ask and we asked

55:00

it last time , but I mean , it's been a year

55:02

so there's probably new people on your radar . But

55:04

who , in your opinion , is making

55:06

waves right now , and why ? I

55:09

think ?

55:10

yeah , I'm on a real journey

55:12

now where I'm just almost rediscovering

55:14

who I am as a

55:16

man and father and

55:18

, yeah , what my purpose

55:21

is in this on this planet

55:23

. While I was put here and

55:26

I know that what

55:28

I kind of figure out is one of my purposes my

55:31

main purpose is to like , live life towards

55:33

fullest and then also show

55:35

people how to do that through my own experience

55:38

. And then so because

55:40

of that , because of that epiphany , I

55:42

haven't really gravitated more . I

55:44

haven't gravitated gravitated towards like

55:47

kind of business and cultural

55:49

type people . I've gone on

55:51

like another space in this guy

55:53

called Danny Morales and

55:55

I really like his stuff just in the sense

55:57

where he was like this big I

55:59

think he was from San Francisco big

56:02

real estate agents and it's the

56:04

typical , typical kind

56:06

of real estate agent where he's Gucci , everything

56:08

and all of his happiness and

56:10

his marks and measure

56:12

of a man was based off how well for you

56:14

was , and then he just one day figured

56:16

out that he is miserable and

56:18

then something clicked on him , click them

56:21

, and he's like , basically , so

56:23

rule up and went on this different journey of self

56:25

discovery and like a real spiritual journey

56:28

, he got into all sorts of stuff like plant

56:30

medicine and Healing is

56:32

childhood trauma and things like that

56:34

, and a lot of the story

56:36

really resonates with me and

56:39

he , I think he's doing some pretty

56:41

cool , interesting stuff in

56:43

that space where it's an amalgamation

56:45

of , like Business , finances

56:47

, relationship , health and spirituality

56:50

, but not kind of packaging it in a

56:52

religious voodoo

56:54

voodoo kind of sense . It's like shit

56:56

. I relate to this guy . He's like a real

56:58

human being operating in this

57:00

real life . He's not just like escaping

57:03

to India and meditating

57:05

in a cave . He's like Living

57:09

, living , living his values

57:11

and living his higher self

57:14

amongst working

57:16

and building a business that also is

57:18

to be at the service of others . So I

57:21

think he's making some waves in

57:23

that sense . I think he's definitely had an impact

57:25

on me and just the way he describes

57:28

stuff . He's pretty intense dude , but yeah

57:31

, I think it's pretty cool as podcast , I believe is called

57:33

the higher self by

57:35

Danny Morales . I think it's pretty cool

57:37

and that's kind of who who kind

57:40

of pops up in mind . To be honest , yeah

57:44

, my , my youngest brother , he's an

57:46

absolute beast and he's like running

57:48

ultra marathons and 150

57:51

K runs and iron

57:53

man's and he's just like a next

57:55

level , you know , and I think all

57:58

my all my siblings . I really

58:00

admire the way they've all individually

58:02

, we've all individually , doubt with the loss

58:05

of my brother , our brother . None

58:08

of us , none of us , just resorted to drugs

58:10

and alcohol . All of us just dug deeper

58:13

within ourselves . And , yeah , my sister

58:15

just finished a marathon and she raised a

58:17

whole bunch of money for mental health

58:19

, yeah , and she gave

58:21

it to like a private . It was like a

58:24

mental health trust . Yeah

58:26

, all of them have just , you know , really just kind

58:29

of knuckle down and just it's

58:31

like shit . Okay , let's do this for

58:33

, let's do this for Jerome , our brother , american

58:35

, just incredible , just to

58:37

have a family where we can all inspire

58:40

, inspire each other . Yeah

58:45

, it's truly , yeah , very , very , very cool . So I

58:47

don't know , not the sexiest answer , but

58:49

I'm solid answers , yeah , just being

58:51

real , and that's what resonated , that's what came

58:53

up with me .

58:54

Thanks , man . Yeah , it's good . Good to see

58:56

where your head's at and who's who's

58:58

making a difference in the way you're thinking about

59:00

things . So , man , that's

59:03

a wrap . That's it . That was a lot

59:05

. I appreciate you , as always , coming

59:07

on and sharing your , your insight and your experience

59:10

, and Feel like we'll probably

59:12

end up doing this again , just the rate we're at right now

59:14

.

59:14

But for now , thank you yeah

59:16

, absolutely yeah , and apologies

59:19

if I sound a little rusty . I say

59:21

, as I said , I haven't done this for a while and it's

59:23

like my brain was full of ideas

59:26

and it was trying to . I take

59:28

you later in a certain way , without being a mumble

59:30

jumble , but yeah , I appreciate it . You

59:32

guys . Thanks for having me on again .

59:34

It was all good . It was all good , as always

59:37

thank you , it's great . Hey

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everyone , thanks for tuning into waves . If

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and leave us a five star review . Don't

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forget to follow along on social at hello

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arcade , and we'll see you next time .