Hey guys, welcome to the live train performed podcast, I'm your host, Sean koba. Now the structure of the episodes this week is going to be a little bit different to what I have been running over the last couple of months and that is because I'm going to be interviewing my man Jamie O'donnell of the Life livers Academy podcast and I was a guest on his show back when Lockdown kicked off in late March, early april so I'm going to be re broadcasting that episode today and then on thursday I'm gonna be interviewing him, that episode is going to drop and we're going to be discussing many things including mindset, resilience facing adversity and all of the lessons that he's learned through the life that he's built for himself. Let's get started. What's up everyone? Welcome to the Life livers Academy, I'm Jamie O'donnell and the purpose of this podcast is to connect you with the people, ideas, mindsets and inspiration to empower you to chase your dreams, unlock your potential and live life to the fullest each day.

Get ready for some inspiring conversations and incredible insights from people who are out there, living life, having fun and dominating their chosen path. I appreciate you tuning in Now, let's get this episode underway Yeah, Radio, it's my pleasure to welcome my guest on Today, Sean Cobb's Shawn's got a extensive background, he has played represented Australia and rugby uh through the Australian defence force side. He was in the military, who served in Afghanistan as a military sniper, being deployed multiple times during that time. He actually was awarded the commendation for gallantry, which is a pretty special award that's not given to many as far as I understand that there's only 68 people across the Australian defence force who have received that level of honor uh and that represents acts of great heroism on the battlefield. He is a decorated man when it comes to his military career, but he is now in a different phase of his career where he worked as the head strength and conditioning coach at Tiger Muay thai in Thailand.

He is the owner of performance functional training. He is a NLP practitioner, Swiss eight Ambassador, nutritional therapist, his coach, many world class athletes and currently works with a long list of current UFC stars. I'm excited to dive into this one is a good friend of mine Sean, it's good to have you on bro, how you doing may, I'm good, how am I supposed to? I'm supposed to step up to those standards bro. I was, I was nervous just reading the intro, I had to get it right now. I really, really appreciate your time and I'm really interested to chat you. Uh like obviously we met in forget through training and I was always really impressed with your professionalism and the way that you went about things I didn't know too much about your background probably until I got back to new Zealand. Um and obviously I followed you online and we've, you know, we've become friends over that time, but There's so much to your story that I'm interested to dive into. And I think in the current circumstances with COVID-19 the way the world is, you know, half the world wars and lockdown, people are struggling.

There's a lot of stress and anxiety. I think your mindset skill set, a lot of your experience is going to be very valuable for people, man. Thanks man, I appreciate it. I honestly think that there's going to be, you know, anxiety, depression were already on the rise over the last 10, 15 years or so. And I think that that's only going to explode in the next couple of months when, you know, you got to think, man, you know, how many people have no purpose outside of work. Once they lose their work, then they've got nothing else to do. Like they lose their purpose, their drive their self identity. You know, like this is where people need to have a look at their values and and start to start thinking about and have an honest conversation about what they actually find valuable. I couldn't agree a few more. That's why I haven't actually thought about that purpose outside of work during this particular time. But that's a fascinating point because you're exactly right. I've spoken to people on both sides of that equation, like in the last couple of weeks, I've had people who have had to pivot their businesses and are more busy than ever trying to find a new angle to take online and they're like thriving, even though things are stressful, they've got so much purpose throughout the day, and then on the opposite side of that, I know people who are sitting around and I'm like, All right, so it's 2:00, what are we having for dinner?

You know, people, people are struggling when they've got nothing to do. Yeah, I mean at the end of the day mate, we're just talking about the mindset book that you've got sitting next to you. Um I've read that book a couple of times, it's a brilliant, it's a brilliant book and it goes into the difference between a growth mindset and fixed mindset and I think that pretty much sums up, you know, where people are at right now, you're either thriving or you're surviving 100%. Let's talk about that, because I'm halfway through reading this currently and so far it's it's already like a growth mindset, something that I understood, I think it's something it's a concept that people understand, but it's harder to actually embody. And I think a lot of the time, even in my own experience in the past, I have wanted to have a growth mindset and when things when challenges have been thrown at me, I know that I know how I should react to it, but I still haven't truly appreciated what's going on in the moment, I think with, it's been fascinating to look at business owners in particular over the last couple of weeks.

One thing that I've seen that's just completely hamstrung people is that when people think that their skill set is their skill set and the current situation is the current situation and have lost all hope already, whereas someone else out there is looking at it and going, all right, I need to learn the skills, they need to do this, there's opportunity here, I don't know how to do that yet, but I'm going to go and take that on and so that's what you're saying, right? It's like that mindset is hugely important at the moment. Yeah, definitely man. And again, it goes back to what I was saying before about identifying what your values are and having an honest, honest conversation with the person in the mirror and going, right, what what do you actually value right now? And for every, every person is going to be different. You know, for me, um my values right now, maintaining health and maintaining a strong immune system. So I'm doing everything that I can to maintain that that's, you know, those values are going to then determine the structure and the routine that I put throughout my day. So I'll literally get up in the morning and I'll I'll go through my morning routine and I'll schedule in the things that are important to me.

Um so for me, you know, like I said, my values are maintaining a strong and healthy immune system, so I'm making sure I'm eating good food. Um I'm doing some meditation, I'm getting some exercise in, but also growth and development is very important to me. So I'm also working on a podcast at the moment, so I scheduled in some time to do that, create some content. I've got a Youtube channel, which I'm creating content for. I'm also doing a podcast course, I don't know anything about podcasting, some figuring shit out as I go, but you know, I'm putting one ft in front of the other and I'm just just cracking on man, just getting it done, learning the podcast tools along the way. And I'm also diving back into my, my coaching philosophy and training philosophy and doing a course on anatomy and physiology. So I've got a lot of things going on that, I mean at the end of the day, once I get out of, once this, these restrictions are lifted and we go back to normal life, so to speak, then, you know, I've up skilled and I've used her time wisely to add to my current skill set. Yeah, something that really stood out for me, We were exchanging messages a couple of weeks ago and you said um you're going to come out of this better with uh you know, a new skill set, the better body or you're going to come out of this in a worse situation and uh that was, I had the same thing at the time, but I was, I was so refreshing to hear someone say that because a lot of people were in panic mode and I was like, you know what?

This is such a fantastic time to double down. We're both launching a podcast during this time, which is ironic, been reading and doing stuff. How much is your daily routine jake? You're a man of routine. Anyway, I noticed that when we were in Thailand and we've got to got to see you, you're very uh strict with yourself, you're very disciplined that I take it, that comes from the military, but how different is daily life for you at the moment anyway, you're pretty routine guy to be honest. Maybe it's not too much different other than I don't really have to leave the house and go to work and this is the thing, this is, this is this is where the people that are going to thrive and get through this the best are those that had that structure in that routine, in that in their life and they had that structure and purpose and you know, they knew what they self identity was and they knew what brought them value and made them a better person. So, you know, if you don't have those things in your life and then all of a sudden you lose your job and you're stuck at home, you can't see your friends and your family. Then, you know, like I said, that's, that's a massive hit to your ego, your personality and who you are as a person.

So, you know, I think the people that will struggle to get through this, those that haven't change gears that haven't changed direction and had a look at what their values and purpose are and put the processes in place to allow them to be the best person. How grateful you for the lessons that you learned during your time in the military at the moment because you guys faced adversity every day, faced fear and uncertainty all the time. Um, and a lot of self isolation and time on your own anyway. So surely a lot of those lessons that are quite natural to you now and those mindsets and ways of thinking, uh, paying off in a big way. Yeah, absolutely made. I think the overarching concept there is to realize what you can control and what you can't control. You know, and if you're focusing on the things that you can't control, then you're gonna put yourself in a bad headspace, you know, so you can only, you can only focus on you and what's within your control. So this is where again, looking at values and identifying those processes that need to be put in place so that you can be your best, uh, you know, when we were, I would go out, I would go out Bush for, you know, two months at a time on pre deployment exercises and things like that.

And you know, we'd be living in the dirt, will be patrolling every day. We'd be eating rations, we only have one shower, you know, every month or something like that, you know, long nights of no sleep and you know, just running on fumes man. So yeah, I've been some pretty shitty situations. So it's, it's, it's definitely set me up for getting through this. I will say. However, a lot of the, the feelings and uh, you know what people are going through at the moment. A lot of the same things that veterans have actually faced once they got out of the military, they lose their self identity, they lose their purpose. You know, they have no drive, no direction. and I mean it was, I got out of the army in 2012 and kind of float around for a little bit and I stopped getting out of bed in the morning when you know, when the, when the alarm went off, I stopped shaving, I stopped exercising, I stopped doing things, the standard operating procedures that uh, and the habits and routines that I built over those years that have made me such a good soldier. And you know, end up floating through life a little bit and I kind of lost my way.

And I was like, fuck, who am I what am I, what am I bringing to the world? What am I, what am I contributing to society, you know? And once I realized that I started um repurposing those standard operating procedures and restructuring them to allow me to focus on the things that were important to me, that did allow me to be the best person, so many lessons them in. Yeah, that's fascinating. Was there any particular um like for isolation for like for times when we've got more time on our hands than what we used to? Obviously mind control, like you said, there's a big part of it and controlling what you can control, but control, saying control your mind and control your thoughts is easy, it's hard to do in practice. Do you have any tips for people that you picked up during your time there or that you've, you've learned along the way for doing it? Great observation firstly, mate. Um at the end of the day it comes down to conditioning, like I said, we were operating on standard operating procedures in the army, so it didn't matter, I'd have my before I went, snipers were working in 10 man sections, so within a section would have standard operating procedures, if this happens, we do that.

If that happens, we do this, like everyone knew what the drills were right across the board for every single scenario that came up, you know? So it didn't matter if I moved platoons or move sections or we got a new guy into the section, everyone knew what the standard operating procedure was and that was that was our habits, that was our drills, that was our routines and, you know, that's what allowed us to follow our drills, follow our instincts and our training wants the shit hit the fan, you know? So I think it really comes down to creating your environment. You're a product of your environment, but you also create your environment. Yeah, so yeah, so you gotta, you gotta structure in the things that are important to you and then you got to be disciplined enough to do that, you just got to condition yourself to do that. An example of this is for me, I'm not sure if you're the same man, but I've spoken to a lot of people who come from a military background or an athletic background that just want to get after every single time they train. Yeah, so uh for me it takes me more disciplined and not train when I'm run down, when I'm tired, when I'm fucked, you know?

So, um, it's just identifying uh, your strengths and your weaknesses and then working within within them and progressive overloads a big one as well. Another example is when people want to make some changes, they want to lose some weight, they want to build some muscle, improve athletic performance or whatever they throw everything in at once, you know, that's not the way to do it, that's not sustainable man, at the end of the day, it's all about consistency, consistency over the long term rather than short term intensity. Yeah, awesome, that's powerful stuff, man, it's funny because talking about the exercise side of things, I mean, I've, I've always trained, I mean, don't get me wrong, you're trained for your physical appearance and you trained to be fit and healthy, but the major component of my training since I was a teenager has always been for mental health, I've always used it as a tool to strengthen myself daily. Like I like getting up and training and doing something hard and knowing that I've done something hard and then I've pushed myself and I find that sets me up, you know, I've also got through a lot of the adversities in my life, you know, whether it's business failures or losing friends, um you know, sick family members, whatever it is by training my way through it.

And I found myself having to hold back from training at the moment in isolation. Number one from boredom, but number two is just so good to reset the mind. Um, talk to me about the mental side of training view is that the same view I take, I know that you this is your passion and this is your obsession, but how much of it for you is about setting yourself up mentally, Maybe that was a brilliant reflection and I absolutely agree. And one of the things that I want to make a point about is what you said about for you training is building that mental capacity and you're essentially conditioning yourself. If you think about the world that we live in these days, uh we have everything at the touch of a finger tips, you know, we live in these um live in these homes with regulated temperatures and we've got all the close to deal with whatever the temperature is outside and we've got fucking heated seats in our cars and shit like that. So people just don't know how to be uncomfortable these days. You know, we've we've we've evolved and we've, our generation has grown up being comfortable.

People don't know how to be uncomfortable now and people don't know how to be with their own thoughts. They don't know how to sit by themselves and not have technology and be distracted by all this other shit that's going on in their lives. So, for me, in this day and age and training is one of those one of those things that you can really take advantage of and condition yourself uh to that adversity and build that mental toughness and that that physical fitness and um you know, push yourself to your limits and see what you're capable of. 100% Yeah. That it's funny, it's funny because I think it will be interesting to see when we like to say go back to normal life after all of this, whatever that looks like uh it will be interesting to see whether there is a big shift in values and you know the way that people go about things because I've been looking at the people that have been through the most adversity of the people that are thriving right in my experience, the people that have dealt with tough times and then because I've seen people that are in really shitty situations at the moment are thriving and I've seen people who have millions of dollars in the bank and very little to worry about who panicked and stress.

That's that mindset bro. Yeah, it goes back to that mindset man and that's the thing. Once you condition yourself that growth mindset is about right, I'm going to adapt and overcome to whatever the fuck the situation is, you know that fixed mindset is, I'm this person, I am a ceo of a big company and I've got millions of dollars in the bank, but once I lose that, what else have I got? Actually, that's a great point, you've read the book, this is something that you know more about than me for people out there listening now who come across this, who feel like they are in that fixed mindset, what are some steps that they can take to shift towards a growth mindset? I think the first point would be again, going back to having a look at the person in the mirror and asking yourself some hard questions, who am I, what do I want to achieve? You know, set some goals, and then you've got to put the processes in place, you know, so, um and and and again, one step at a time, you don't have to do everything at once, but just choose one thing that you want to work on. It might be growth, it might be development, it might be um, you know, shifting direction, uh taking your business in a different direction, might be spending more time with family for every single person.

That values are going to be different. And, you know, we look at all of the different components of life, man, you've got your um your relationships, social and um what's the word I'm looking for? Romantic, social and romantic, then you've got finances, you've got your growth, your development, uh your career, physical fitness, mental health, you know, there's so many different aspects of life. So you need to have a look at what those things are and what's the most important to you and then start investing time and energy into it. That might be something as simple as reading books, listening to podcasts, doing some online courses, um, whatever it is, but you've just got to put one ft in front of the other and and start moving man. Here's the thing, like so many people are stuck because they they don't know which direction to go. We live in this world of information where all the fucking information that we have is at our fingertips but there's so much information, it's paralysis by analysis. People don't know where to go, you know? So the people that are the people that are thriving are those that figure shit out on the way, you know, like like us man, we're starting this podcast, I don't know shit about podcast, but I just bought all the equipment when I was at home on a recent trip and I was like I'm going to start playing around with this and start recording some content, I'll start practicing my craft.

It might be shit to start with and it is shit. I was listening to some stuff last night and I was like oh that's rubbish, I need to redo that. I was like no, fuck that, leave it man, that was, that was who you are at that time. Leave it in there, that's that's authentic, that's the truth. You know? So um yeah figure out the direction that you want to be moving in and then and then choose one thing per day to do that's going to move you in the right direction. That's right, yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. And saying that talking about the podcast, we are doing this on the fly, I hope this is recording and working. I think a big aspect of it as well as just understanding that the human ability to adapt is crazy. Like we can learn anything. Like no, like for example, take podcasting, we look at people, people get paralyzed because they look at people who at the top of the podcast and gave their like, he's amazing and he knows how to do that and I don't like that, I didn't come out of the womb knowing how to podcast in the same way that you didn't come out of the womb, knowing everything you know about nutrition and training and mindset and athletic performance. And I think if I was to reflect on that, I think people just look at the current skill set and don't believe in their ability to change.

I don't know whether that comes back to work ethic and just not having that commitment or they let themselves down so much in the past and they haven't progressed in anything. So they have no belief that they're gonna do it. But a big part of it has to be just understanding that like nobody out there who's doing anything great was born with, it is all developed and learned skill that's all growth that's ever happened over a lifetime. Like we said before conditioning, go to condition yourself, That's right. I've conditioned myself to failing time and time and time and time again. So, you know, am I, am I nervous about putting out a podcast, Am I nervous about how people are going to perceive it. Yeah, a little bit, I'm a little bit anxious about it, but then I'm like, you know what, fuck it, man, like the people that are going to listen, they're gonna listen. They're going to be my fans if they don't wanna listen, I don't really care. It's no skin off my nose at the end of the day, I'm doing something that I enjoy that I think is going to bring people a lot of value and that's what matters, man. It doesn't matter how it's perceived if I can only help one person, if one person messages in after I've launched and I've been running for two months, one person messages and says, hey, thank you so much, you've helped make a massive impact on my life, then I don't give a fuck that's worth it, totally, man, totally.

Hey, let's go back, let's go all the way back because I think you said you're a product of your environment was one thing that you mentioned a couple of times I know that you've had quite a quite an adverse upbringing. You've got a lot of, um stuff from when you're young, your childhood, uh, which has, you know, which, you know, you face a lot of adversity, but in a way that set you up to do and achieve all the things you have done, Can we rewind it all the way back to the start, so that people get a bigger perspective and a picture of what you're upbringing was like, and sort of where you come from. Yeah, sure thing that, so I left home when I was 14, my step dad was abusive came from a poor family, I was kind of getting caught up with the wrong people and going down the wrong path and I was stealing and doing drugs and Shit like that. So I realized that I had to get out and had to forge my own path, otherwise I was basically just going to turn into my step dad. So I left home at 14, moved to Darwin, stayed up there for a couple of years, was laboring for a couple of years, my mates or the guys that I knew were going to school and I was going and slinging fucking concrete bags and driving forklifts and she actually got my forklift license before I got my car license.

Crazy, I don't even know how that's how that's legal, but whatever. Um so yeah, I stayed in Darwin for a couple of years. I was actually working at the rugby as a caterer, was serving hot dogs and fucking Chiko rolls and stuff, hey, can I swear, is that all right, Go for it. If you cut that out, man, that limits limits my vocabulary. Anyway, I was working as a cater at the rugby and I just went up to a random dude, I was like, hey mate, what game is this? Because I grew up playing rugby league and he goes, oh this rugby union, bring your boots down tomorrow, I don't have any boots, you guys will bring your runners whatever you've got. So I rolled in the next day, had some games and yeah, I had a lot of fun. And then within six months I was representing Northern Territory in the schoolboys competition and then the following year got selected in the Combined States team, which was the best players of Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia victoria and Tasmania. So I went to Sydney played in school boards competition down there against Sydney, sorry against new south Wales, Queensland a ct got picked up by a scout, offered a scholarship in Sydney.

I went there for a couple of years. Um got offered a gig and a small contract to stay there once I went from cults to seniors but I had a couple of injuries and decided I was, I actually want to go and join the army, which is what I was going to do before I got the the contract in Sydney. So um so yeah, I left, Sydney moved back to Darwin joined the army with one of my best mates, we didn't know how long that was gonna take. So I lived with him and we worked together and train together and rode motorbikes together, went out on the piss together, you know, had a heap of fun and then like two months later we both got in the army, I think I got in maybe two or three weeks before him, went through to CUca Did my basic recruit training center, Singleton in a holding pattern for about 5-6 weeks And then got sent to Darwin. We had a three month course up there, which was super intensive. We've got absolutely hammered. And then after that we marched down and we're told that we were deploying to Iraq within 7-8 months.

So I started ramping up training for that, went to Iraq for six months. Got back was only back for about nine months I think and then went to East Timor for eight months And then about a year, maybe 15 months after that went to Afghanistan discharge from the army 2012 met a girl moved down in Tasmania with her all together five years, awesome chick, had a great time there. But you know, we're going in different directions. We had different values at the time. So I had to have an adult conversation about that discuss where we're both going and I decided that I wanted to move over Thailand and put myself in a position to take any opportunities that present themselves. If something did come up, I came over as an intern where I basically worked for two months. I had a two month contract After a month. They offered me a full time job and then 5-6 months later I got the head coaching gig and I've been here ever since. So yeah, that's a stalemate that was going back going back to the early dyke, I'm fascinated in the early stages.

I know I've seen you put up stuff saying, you know, like some of the time you were living in a tent with your family, stuff like that, like, you know, couldn't afford the train is like, you know, some coming from a decent state of poverty, from what it sounded like, how much of how much of your drive and ambition was forged early. Yeah, I think that's a, it's a great question, but it's also difficult to answer because there were times when, you know, maybe I wasn't that fixed mindset where I was like, well I've got nothing going on in my life and I'm fucking never going to escape this. So, you know, I'm stuck now, so I may as well just crack on and go hard and steal shit and do drugs and you know, whatever. But then then I realized that I was going down the wrong path and that's something that I didn't want to do. And I wanted to basically, I wanted to become the man that my step dad wasn't because I was following, I was following in his footsteps and I was like, all right, I can either take this as a role model for good or a role model for bad and I decided that, you know, all the things that he stood for and who he was and things like that, those weren't going to be part of my traits.

So yeah, so I had to get out and I had to go and I had to figure shit out on the way man, I lived in tent for about six months. Um, my family lived In a small town in Southeast Queensland and my stepdad and I moved to this property of 30 acres that didn't have anything on it. There was no um, nothing, it was just trees man. So we moved there lived in a tent for about six months as we laid the foundation. Um, you know, put up, uh, put up posts and built walls and put a roof on and things like that. And then the rest of the family moved up. So we didn't have any electricity or running water for six years of my life from eight until seven until 13 or something like that. So yeah, so that was the sort of stuff that kind of set me up for moving forward. It put me in a good position to excel in the army and then also, you know, that also set me up and build the foundation for then expelling once I got out of the army as well.

Are you grateful for that then? And in that case when you look back on it now, is that something that you have a lot of gratitude for their harder, definitely man. Yeah, I mean I hated it at the time. I'll get teased and bullied at school for being a blocky, you know, we, like I said, we didn't have any running water for six years of our lives. So you know, we wouldn't actually fucking bathe every day. We didn't have a shower or anything like that. We had a bathtub that we would set up on some, some rocks and you know, we'd light a fire under to uh all the water up and the whole family would roll through like every three days or something and bathe in the same water and things like that. So, you know, I get teased for that sort of stuff at school and I hated it at the time. Um never had any money to go to birthday parties and things like that. But man, I look back and I really appreciate that now because I have built the person that I am, the lifestyle that I have coming from those times and that's, it's really given me an appreciation for everything that I do have when you said that you decided that you weren't gonna be, weren't gonna follow in your stepfather's for your father's footsteps?

Was there a pivotal moment where you were like, hang on a minute or was that a series of events, Is there anything that stood out to you? Like was there a certain event where you should just sit when you just had enough and you're like, whoa, I've got to sort this out or was that something that just gradually happened and you just sort of slowly went in a different direction. So, um there was a pivotal moment, but there was a lot of things that built up to that pivotal moment. So that pivotal moment was like the last straw. So basically, we'd, like I said, my step dad was abusive, he, he hit me, hit my mom threatened to kill her and cut her up in little pieces and things like that. He was a fucking piece of work man. But anyway, Um I was 14, 13, 14, we just moved from that property in Tara and we moved up to a place called Collinsville in North Queensland. Um and I've been there, we've only been there for about a year, I had a good start in the place, you know, we pretty much rolled in and had the athletics carnival and things like that.

So I ended up becoming a champion there and made a hip friends and had a completely different change to my uh my previous friendships and circle. Um so I was, I was kind of a popular kid there and then, you know, kind of didn't get caught up with the wrong people, but was associated with some of those people, and one day the police came around and knocked on the door and my step dad came out the back and was like, fucking cops are here, what have you done? And I'm like, I haven't done anything. So I walked out the front had a chat to the cops and they basically accused me of breaking into the golf club or something like that and stealing a heap of shit. And I was like, I haven't done anything anyway, the cops left. And I said, look, you can, we can, you can take my fingerprints and you can dust and do whatever. I was like, I wasn't there, it was not me. Anyway, they left and my step dad beat the shit out of me because he didn't believe me. And I was like, and I was fucking bawling my eyes out and I was like, I'm going to go to the police and he's like, you fucking go to the police, I'll kill you. Um So yeah, that was kind of the pivotal moment, man.

And I was within probably two months I was was gone. All right, man. It's crazy. It's hard for a lot of people comprehend. I mean, yeah, it's amazing as I can, I can see the connection now, like between how far you've carbon all your achievements and your mindset and your determination and stuff, but that, that's quite a story. Yeah, let's go to the military. I don't think I've actually told that story before. Well that's thank you know, this, this is the stuff that we need to get out in these kind of conversations, man. I mean, people put an agreement, people talk far too much about all the good stuff and I mean I'm guilty of it as well, and with instagram and everything else going on, we all talk about all the good stuff and don't talk about the bad stuff, but I personally getting to the point where I realized that there's more power in the bad stuff or as much power and positivity and the bad stuff, if you can harness it in the right way. And uh I think the more we share that type of information, not only does it help people who are currently going through it right now, I go, well he he got out of that situation and did that, I can do that too, but it's just hopefully creates an environment where we start talking about that type of shit a bit more.

100%, man. No, I'm I'm absolutely happy to talk about this stuff. Um I mean that's something that's probably made me a little bit different to a lot of people on the social media platforms, is that I do talk about this shit man, I do talk about my life and um you know, some people, some people enjoy it uh get a lot out of it and some people like I was just looking for sympathy, I don't give a fuck man, I'm just sharing this stuff with the people that it's going to help, you know, I'm not doing it for sympathy man. I mean I've got no, you know, I don't have any issues with, with sharing my story with other people, if it's going to help them. Yeah, I've seen you. I mean a lot of your posters stop being the tracks man, and I've read them and they could, I'm sure that if you're going through that right now, there's nothing more helpful than seeing that from someone who's gone on to create something of themselves. So let's let's go into the military, right? Like um military stories and books and podcasts and stuff. Fascinate me because it's kind of the ultimate alpha scenario. Um you're in a situation where you're literally trying to train to become a beast, you're going into battle literally.

Uh the mind, the mind is everything, uh there's super high levels of expectation and discipline. Um and you have to show up with courage and you know, your forged into a pretty special or unique type of character. What are the greatest lessons that you took out of the military? What are the hardest times and what are the biggest lessons that have set you up from military life? Mhm biggest lesson is don't take anything for granted. It can all end in an instant, it doesn't matter where you are, man. Doesn't matter what you're doing, you could be walking across the road and get hit by a bus or if you're a little bit older, you might have a heart attack. One of my, one of my old footy coaches actually just had a heart attack and died recently. He wasn't too old man and nobody saw it coming. He was a healthy guy, lived a really healthy life and just killed over and that was it, man. Um so that's probably one of the biggest lessons. Um it's an interesting situation to being in the army.

It's how I kind of explain it to people about the bond that's created with the guys that you're with, is that you're like, how many jobs do you, how many jobs have you had? Where your workmates are your best mates? You live together, you go out bush together, you work together, you go to the gym and train together. You go out and get on the piss together, You know, you try and seduce girls together, you know, um and you go on like a nine month deployment to Afghanistan and you're living with these guys every single day and you know, the most intimate details about them. But then you get back from that deployment and you go out and get on the piss together, You hang out with them and have barbecues and beers on the balcony man. You know, you go through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows together. What other, what other person in your life can you say that you've shared that experience with? Yeah, very few man, very few. What was the first deployment like? I mean going in and doing the training must have been initial training, must have been hard and I'm sure you get pushed and challenged and stuff.

But the moment that you're told that you're flying into a war zone, Talk to me about that uh First deployment was Iraq in 2007. Like I said, I joined the Army 2006 in March, went through my initial recruit training for three months and then was in holding between for about a month and a half and then went through its initial employment training for about three months as well. So it had probably close to 7.5 to 8 months going through that training as soon as we marched out of our training and into the battalion, we got word that we're going to Iraq. So a lot of our section commanders, the dudes that were in control of our sections opportunities, they had already been to Iraq, they already had a deployment there, so they knew what it was all about and what it was like. So they pretty much took charge and shape the training that we went through for the next what would have been seven or eight months before we went to Iraq, um which I'm really grateful for and I really appreciate because they'd been on the ground, they knew what the they, you know, they have gone through the S.

O PS and they um gone through after action reviews and discussed what worked and what didn't work and then they pass those lessons on to us when we went over. So I was really grateful for that opportunity to be able to work under those guys as my leaders and as my mentors. Um but I think another thing was the another thing that came into play was the mindset of people you could tell with different people, they had different mindsets. Um and for some people it was, I don't know if they realized that they were going into a war zone and they didn't have the correct mental preparation and a lot of times these are the same people that have struggled with some anxiety and depression and things like that over the years is because she'd happened on deployment that you weren't you can't be ready for. But at the end of the day like maybe they didn't set themselves up correctly mentally and physically before they went on deployments. You know um I know before I went to Afghanistan for example, I sat down with my four man sniper team, the other three guys and we had a really long discussion about what was going to happen.

You know, we need to be prepared for anything. We our job, you know, we could potentially pull the trigger, you know, we could potentially be you know dragging our mates into cover who have been shot or being killed or lost the leg from an I. D. Or whatever. So you know we had that conversation it was honest it was open it was raw and that put us in the right mindset to basically say well at the end of the day I prefer not to do my job and pull the trigger if I can bring all your boys home safe. And unfortunately that didn't happen. You know two of my boys and my foreman sniper team got shot. We did pull the trigger, we did patch dudes up. We had guys that were killed unfortunately and a lot more that were injured and things like that. But you know we had to set that mindset before we went over there. Otherwise it was you know going over there and hoping for the best was not a really good strategy. So um Yeah hopefully that that tied everything in one 100% man. Was that that that circumstance that you're talking about, there were a couple of guys got killed. Was that when you was that the situation where you were given the uh commendation for gallantry?

I was awarded with that. So let me tell you a little bit of a story about that. So we've been in country for only two weeks and we were just doing the handover with six. Are are they were there before us. Uh So we had a couple of partner patrols where they took us out and they showed us the grounds and you know where the dodgy areas were and you know where the good people were and um key areas of interest and things like that. And uh once they put once they got on the chin look to fly out, we went out on our first partner on our first solo patrol. Uh and uh yeah our sniper team got ambushed. My team leader was hit, I had to return fire um dragged me to cover follow through uh etcetera etcetera. So that was one time, that was two weeks after we got into the country. And then the second time was my uh standing team leader was shot as well a couple of months later. So basically had the same thing, just had to return fire dragon to cover apply a tourniquet patch him up, put him on a helicopter.

Um So I was nominated for the accommodation for gallantry for those two situations in particular. But when I got back from Afghanistan I'd actually been in contact with one of our Oc is one of the, one of the guys that were higher up the chain of command and he was a big rugby head and he was part of the rugby mafia. He was like, dude, you need to get in contact with this guy, he's the coach of the Australian Defence Force team, blah blah blah blah. So I got in contact with him and there was a trial match when I got back from Afghanistan down in Canberra. So while the other boys were going out and getting on the pierce and you know spending all their deployment money and having fun and having a month or two off. Yeah, I had some time off but I really got stuck into footy training, got into the gym and wanted to make the Australian Defence Force Rugby team. So I really committed to that, flew down to Canberra, had a trial match, had a had a bit of a blinder, got selected for the team and then went away for two months to Sydney Canberra and then over to new Zealand to play in the Defence Force Rugby World Cup. But when I got back from that, once I got back from that trip, I had a letter in the mail saying you've been nominated for the commendation of gallantry, can you please reply to us whether you accept or not by this time?

And that date had already passed because I've been away for two months. So anyway, I called my mates up and I was like, hey boys, I'm just letting you know that I've been nominated for this, I don't agree with it, I'm not going to accept it blah blah blah blah and they're like why would you not accept that? I'm like, well it was a team effort. You know, I didn't fucking do anything special. Um I didn't do anything that you boys didn't do, I was just johnny on the spot and I had to I had to do my job man had to let my training take over and do what had to be done in those circumstances and they're like air call, accept it on behalf of all of us. And I was like, mm okay. Yeah, fair enough. So anyway, I ended up getting in contact with Government house and asking them what the deal was and if I could still accept the award and they said no worries. So I had a big investiture at Government House in Darwin and was awarded the commendation for gallantry on behalf of Governor, Governor General of Australia. So yeah, one of one of the proudest days in my life. I bet man, I bet I did some research on it before I jumped on with you and I think the last one that was awarded was 2,015. So they're not just given out.

We actually know those numbers that you said before, you said there's only 68 award in Australia, 68 award in Australia. And 20 of those were given at one time to prisoners of war. So there you go. Pretty cool man. It's amazing. We're going back to when you're talking like you talk so casually about it and you know, there was fire and were hit just had to drag him out of a helicopter as if it's like it's not happened, just happened. Just happen. Do you? Is there fear in those moments? Uh do you have time to process anything or is it so automatic by that point? A little bit of both. I've done a post, I've shared a post a few times about the mindset that I had to have going out on patrol. I mean when when the shit hits the fan, then it's instinct and that's when your training kicks in and I'm so grateful for, you know, being fucking smashed on the basics over and over and over again over again by my teammates and, you know, my, my colleagues and my my commanders and things like that because at the end of the day, like the basic saved lives.

Um but you know, that was in the heat of the moment, that's when the instinct takes over and the training takes over. But there are obviously a lot of times where we're out on patrol and you know, your mind would start playing tricks on, your mind was running free. And there were times where we would be, I could feel us getting channeled into certain areas where the taliban would in place IEDs that were looking to, you know, fucking take our legs off or kill us from a distance without them actually getting involved in a firefight. So, um there was a lot of circle, a lot of, a lot of times where I'd be patrolling along and I was the point man for my sniper team and I'd be patrolling along and I could see the the terrain in front of me that was channeling us toward a certain point I was like, or I'd be putting something there if I was, if I was a bad dude, so I'd have to choose an appropriate route that would that would negate that threat. And my worst fear was not that I would make a mistake and fucking step on ID and lose my legs on my life, it was that I'd make a mistake and the bloke behind me will take the brunt of the explosion or take a round in the chest or something like that.

So that was always in the back of my mind man. Um but again, you can only control what within your control and and that was my job was to select an appropriate route that was going to negate those very real threats. It was in my it was always in the back of my mind that, you know, this could be my last step on two legs or I might be taking my last breath and that was something that I had to deal with on a daily basis and to be honest man, it fucking ruined me for the first couple of weeks, like I couldn't sleep. Um you know, I was struggling, the fear was real, the anxiety was real, I didn't know you know where the next threat was coming from or what it was going to look like. So you know, I had to manage my mind and that literally started with doing some breath work and what I now know is meditation, but I didn't know what it was back then. I was like, man, I'm fucking not sleeping, I am waking up tired, I'm just I'm just foggy, I'm not feeling sharp and I'm a liability. That's just going to increase my my chances of actually making those same mistakes that I was worried about making.

So I was like, what can I do? And I didn't know anything else and I was like, right, just focus on your breathing. So every night I go to bed I literally just sit there and take a deep breath in Long breath out one and I would do that until I fell asleep. Some nights. It was easier than others other nights it was very difficult. But over a couple of days doing that and building that habit and conditioning myself to do that. Then, you know, my mind started settling down and I started getting to sleep and I was having I actually started having restful sleep and I was waking up feeling refreshed and feeling Scharping on, All right, let's fucking go, let's go out and let's get this, you know. So it was funny man because one of my mates, one of my mates joined the, was in the army as well and once he got out he had a few issues with anxiety and depression, things like that and he ended up doing yin yoga to help him get through that ptsd and use it as an alternate therapy to drugs and medicine and he's now become a yoga teacher and it was until years and years later when I was telling him that story, he paused me mid sentence and he goes dude you've been meditating for years, you just didn't know it, it's crazy man, like I I so now I implement like a little bit of meditation um into my day and it's one of those things you look at, people say meditation, it's like oh it's just fucking woo woo shit dude, at the end of the day like meditation is literally just switch off to the external focus on the internal, you know our minds are constantly running free, What if and what about that and fucking all of these crazy scenarios that may or may not happen Uh huh, add stress, she a lot of stress and that's what creates anxiety and depression, you know?

So um just doing a little bit of breathwork, mindfulness meditation fucking call it whatever you want man. Like I found that so beneficial and I notice the difference when I don't do it and that meditation or mindfulness breathwork whatever could literally be just walking down to the beach and sitting there with your toes in the sand and the sun on your face and you know the wind in your hair, listening to the waves roll in, It doesn't matter what it is now. And I do the same thing when I go scuba diving, it's very therapeutic for me, you know, I'm literally just 30 metres underwater, just breathing through a tube and I can't focus on anything else because then, you know, I can't can't impact my buoyancy, I can't, I can't agree more like meditation is not where it some some Yoda shit really, it's like even over the last couple of weeks, it's something that I go in and out of, like I go through phases of it, I do try and try and do it as regularly as I can, but even when I'm not meditating as as such, I'll do things like the 666 exercise, so six second breath in six second, hold six second breath out um over the, well since I was in Thailand actually got really into Wim Hoff and find that that's just like tremendous for any anxiety or anything that comes on.

Like if I feel myself starting to get anxious in my mind's minds running, I'll usually just go straight to the Wim hof breathing and you know, three or four minutes maybe chuck a few press ups in and I've got a completely new state. Yeah, absolutely, man, and that's just like you said, that's just changing that state. It's just being aware of what state you're in and then going, all right, this is not where I want to be, that's where I want to be over there. How am I going to get there? And then the tools, It doesn't matter what the tool is. You know, you could use some Wim hof breathing, I might use some box breathing. Um Someone else might literally just just put on some meditation music or or they might even put on some fucking heavy rock or something like that, you know? And music is actually a really good way of changing your state of mind. You walk into, you walk into a gym, you know, you're hitting one rep max, you know what playlist you're putting on. Likewise, if you're going into a yin yoga class where you're focusing on stress management and recovery and breath work, you're not going to listen to that same playlist. You need to listen to something a lot more Children. So, I think understanding where you're at what, where your head's at what mindspace are my own state you're in and then realizing whether that's where you want to be or not what you want to be, and then going, right, this is not where I want to be, this is where I want to be, How do I get there and then using those different tools?

Yeah, that's awesome. That's so valuable for people right now, um you know, a lot of people are probably not even aware of the benefit of it. I think I did a brendon Buchard course for uh probably three or four years ago now and he was just in the physiology section. It was just a whole bunch of stuff about breathing and it just brought my awareness back to, We just don't, most people just don't breathe in general, like everyone's going through life with a really shallow breathing, never oxygenating the body. Uh and you know, that's where the anxiety and it comes from. And so it's it's the most simplest thing that you can possibly do and it's just very, really done. 100% man. You know, if anyone that's listening right now, if they want to test this is to very simple ways of testing what sort of state your breath work gets you into? Option one, hyperventilate for a minute, see what happens to your heart rate, see what happens to your muscles, see what happens to your mindset option too, breathe deeply to see how long it, see how many breaths It's going to take you to get through that one minute and try and reduce that number of breaths to get through.

You might be looking at 3-4-5 breaths over that minute. What's in a completely different statement? Yeah, that's fantastic. Just just, just quickly. Um how, who's been taught how to breathe. Exactly. Never. Like I said until I did the Brenda bashar, High performance course. I had never, I've never paid any attention to it. I never even thought about it. Who's who's who's who knows about nutrition, Who learns about nutrition. You could ask 10 people, random people were like, hey is what? Give me 10 good foods and they'll be able to name them. Give me 10 bad foods, They'd be able to name them. All right. What about exercise? We learn about exercise, we learn about health, we learn about all of these other beneficial aspects, But what about breathing? We can only live four minutes without oxygen. four days without water. 40 days without food and 40 plus years without exercise. What do you think people focus on bro when you put it like that?

That's one of the stupidest things. We don't pay any attention to that. Exactly, man, right there you go. If you're listening to this, you've been told go and do your breathing. I'm gonna actually try that technique because it is, it is so interesting. Like I just, I catch myself with it now because it becomes a, you know, mind muscle thing and as soon as I start to feel anything like that, I naturally go towards because of sort of trained myself to do that now, But bad, It's powerful stuff now, that's a good, that's a good point, like how did you train yourself to do that. This is an important thing for people to um to take away. How did you train yourself to do that? Yeah, to be honest, as part of that, of course, um the initial things was to set triggers for just reminding yourself to do it. So things that you were commonly doing over the course of the day, let's take that you stand in a line, how many times a day on average do you stand in line? It's probably at least five or 10 times a day. And so it was just building triggers around. Like every time you stand in a line takes six or 10 big deep breath Or every time you hop in the car, take five or 6, 10 deep breaths, deep breaths and you do that for a week.

And every time you go to stand in line or hop in the car, you start doing stuff. It's like when you, you know, people are trying to build confidence or a lot of that comes from the way that you carry yourself for a start and you know, if you stand up to or pull your shoulders back, head up and walk tall, you start to feel more confident what you did before. It's the same sort of thing. It's building those triggers and rather than just saying, I'm gonna, I'm going to create this habit and then having no system for creating the habit, it's all about having the systems in place. You want to be more, be more confident every time you walk through a door frame, pull your head up, lift your shoulders back, walk some pride and every time you do that over the space for week, two weeks, three weeks all of a sudden you're walking around like a more confident person. So for me with the breathing, that was that was part of it, it was just creating a system to implement it into your life. Exactly, mate, there's a difference between goals and systems. A goal is where you want to get to your systems or your structures are the roadmap roadmap to get you there, you know? And what you just said there is absolutely brilliant, something is always better than nothing and adding that trigger of every time I walk through the door I'm going to stand up tall, I'm going to focus on my posture, you know?

That's not taking anything out of your day, that's just implementing something into your day. You don't need an hour to meditate or to go through these processes that you want to put into place, that's going to allow you to be your best person, you just need to implement them into your day, you know? So my breath work that I do now. I mean my pool and my song is closed at my place now, because of this situation, but before that um you know, my my morning routine would be to get up and go to the pool and swim and I wasn't swimming for exercise is swimming for technique because I suck at swimming. So I wanted to get better at swimming and for me that um that intent of focusing on my technique really allowed me to focus on my breath because obviously if my breath was off then my technique was off, So I would only swim 6-10 laps and then I'd get out and then I go and sit in the sauna and I'd sit there and I breathe And I just take, you know, somewhere between 20 to 50 breaths and then I'd have a stretch after that, so I'm not going out of my way to do this stuff, I'm simply just implementing it into my day.

Yeah, that's right, and once you feel the benefits of it, you start to naturally pick up on when you need it and then you just do it without needing those cues, how much do you, let's fast forward to what you do now because you're big, you know, your passion and your work right now is around, you know, training professional athletes, the strengthening and distant coach at Tiger Muay thai, which is one of the top or the top destination gym in the world and one of the top martial arts gyms in the world, you're in a very high performance environment there and you're dealing with uh the elite level athletes, how do you implement that kind of stuff with them breathwork mindset, Like talk to me about the training and and what you're doing for a job at the moment. Yeah, I do implement that stuff, but again it's not um you know, an hour session where we're just focusing on that stuff. Again, I just implement that into my training session, man, you know? So at the start of the session, like Peter john's my main man, he's currently ranked number three or four in the UFC bantamweight division. I've been working with him for two years now and something that I do with him is, I mean, here's the thing man, like if you look at these professional athletes and military and um you know, high achievers, they get after everything they do, you know?

So For him he's training 2-3 times a day and he's hammering himself in these other training sessions. So for me, I'm thinking about balancing his autonomic nervous system. So your autonomic nervous system is the balance between your parasympathetic rest and digest and you're sympathetic, which is fight or flight. So the two completely different physiological states. Um the sympathetic state. Fighter flight is essential for short term survival and the parasympathetic state is essential for long term survival. So balancing these out is what's going to allow people to recover and then adapt from their training sessions because we don't we don't adapt from our training, we provide the stimulus and then we need to pull ourselves into a safe space of the parasympathetic nervous system where your body can actually rehydrate a lot quicker when it when it gets water it can break down its food, the digestive system can do its thing to break down the food into its raw materials to provide the, the energy and resources to all of the other systems of the body.

That's when we make gains, man. So for me, my job really is, people think that I have in my clients and yes, I'm going to fucking get after it sometimes, but I need to have a look at everything else that's going on in their life. My coaching philosophy is if I'm not affecting my clients outside of that one hour training session, I'm not doing my job. Yeah, so I'll get someone like peter yarn, walk in whose, You know, it might be, I trained him Tuesday and Thursday morning, so he might walk in on a Thursday morning and he's fucking tired man. He's already done 10-12 sessions this week and he's got after every other session because every other coach that he's working, with he's pushing him smashing him into the ground. So he walked into a session and I'll see what's going on, I'll have a chat to him and I can see by his body language, you said before, your body language plays a big part on your mindset and vice versa. So I'm watching his body language, is he dragging his feet, his his head down, I'll ask him some questions and um, you know, fighters and these high level athletes and high achievers, they won't tell you when they're tired. So I'm using these, I'm using these tools, my balance and stability warm up drills as my assessment.

He doesn't tell me shit man, his balance is fucking awesome. So if I can see that he's a little bit wobbling is all over the place, then hey, I know that something's going on. I know he's tired, his central nervous system's probably a little bit fatigued and he's in this highly driven, sympathetic state, right? So I need to pull him back. I'm going to focus on. So my job is not, yes, my job is to um make him better, but my job is to do enough to elicit the right response without hammering him and get into his fight injury free. So that means sometimes I need to pull him back and I'm focusing more on, you know, the rest, the recovery, the mobility, um activation work, postural um working on postural muscles and um joint integrity and things like that. So yes, we're gonna be doing some speed, power, strength conditioning based work, but sometimes like that might be 20 minutes worth of work. And the other 40 minutes is all about setting the standard and working through the mobility and working on structural integrity and activation work and all that sort of stuff.

And then when we go into the heavy hard work, then we're looking at building mindset, but it's about balancing everything out, man. I got to look at the person that's in front of you and yes, I've got a program and a structure that I follow, but I need to be super flexible with it and you know, adjust on the fly. Yeah, it's interesting because Peter is a great example cause he's gone from being in the UFC 18 months, something like that has gone from being non ranked having his first fight to, you know, you probably have a title shot in his next fire or next one or two and uh, if his previous performances and what I've seen of them are anything to go by, he'll probably win it if it's beef. Yeah. What makes him a beast? Like, you know, training and programming and stuff aside, what's different about that guy compared to some of the other athletes that you've worked with? I mean, they've all got that mindset, they've all got that like get in, go hard, get after it mindset. Um So I mean, does that make him special? Yes, but doesn't make him different? No. Um what's different with him is he is an athlete, he's an all around athlete, man. Like he's a sort of dude that could probably pick up any sport and invest time energy and effort into it and he's going to fucking dominate man?

Is that natural or is that because he has focused on becoming such a well rounded athlete. Um I think it's a little bit of both. You know, there's obviously obviously some genetics there. Um but he has been training for a long time and he took up boxing as a young child and went through that path for a long time before he transitioned to M. M. A. So, you know, he's been in the game for a long time and he's developed those skills and but again, you know, played a lot of different sports when he was a child and developed multiple athletic um, capacities. Yeah. Which, which then, you know, build this really solid foundation to then be able to um specialist. You know, here's the thing man, a lot of people will go into the gym and they just want to see fucking Lebron James doing uh these trick shots and all of these skills and drills and people go, sweet, I'm just gonna do that. If that's good enough for Lebron, that's good enough for me. Well, hang on a second, the dude's been playing basketball for fucking 25, 30 years. You know, he didn't just pick the ball up and start doing that shit. He built the foundation and he put in a lot of time, effort, energy and reps and consistency.

Time after time after time after time to get to that place where now he can actually start doing these specific skills and drills. Yeah, that's that's that then going to take his game to the next level. That's right foundation first. Yeah, 100%. And that's such a key point across the board, not just with, not just with top level athletes, but anyone who's going in to improve the health and fitness stuff. I've heard you talk about that before. Obviously Tiger is an interesting split because you're dealing with a lot of professional athletes are at the top of their game, but then you're also accommodating for everyday people who are there to transform their health and their life. Let's talk now. It's a better time than ever for people uh, stuck at home. They don't, they can't eat takeaways. They've got no distractions. If there was ever a time to be getting after your health and fitness now is the time. And it's one of those things that people struggle to make meaningful change with. You've coached and trained thousands of people are very effective at what you do for the person that's sitting at home at the moment has been talking about the health and fitness goals. What are the steps that they should take to get after it and get some serious results and go about things in the right way.

Just get started. That's the, that's the whole point, man. Just get started. Like I said earlier, you don't need an hour a day to train to dedicate the training, Okay, just implement some things into your day. Um, that's going to benefit you. Uh, you know, I was on, I was recently on a six week trip where I went to Japan went to bali, went home to my family and then I was on yoga course for two weeks, we're doing 14 hour days man, six o'clock in the morning to a fucking eight o'clock at night, the massive days, you know, we get a half an hour break here and there throughout the day and then like an hour lunch break. So For me my training was literally 10 minutes 2 to 3 times a day, I throw a kettle bell around, I'll do some body weight based movements. Um I get my rings out and play around on them, get a little bit of sunshine, that was it man, do that, you know, three times a day there's 30 minutes, 30 to 40 minutes throughout the day and that's that's literally what it is and you know you can use those tools that you said before um about just implementing it into your day every time you walk through the door do something every time you open the fridge, do something.

You know, we had we had a rule when I was in the army were down the hangars down where officers were and where our personnel carriers were and there was a pull up bar in this this causeway and every time we walked under that pull up bar we had to knock out five pull ups, You know, so some days you'll be fucking knocking out 4050 pull up, what do you think we got really good at? Yeah, that's funny because only when I was managing managing the german anytime we had down time on the floor, we used to do the same thing. We go and pull up competitions and bang them out, like nobody's business. A and actually Steph, She's got an office downstairs at the moment and during this lockdown, every single time she's had to get up to the toilet, should have 50 kettle bell swings, and it's just the way that she just kept moving, you know? Yeah, Nice man. And that's it, just there's there's that's just implementing it into your day, you know, you're not doing anything different, you're just going, hey, when I do this, I'm going to do that. So that's that's actually a really good way of doing it. But again, it comes back down to looking at what your values are. You know, people need to understand that they need to match their expectations with their commitment.

Obviously they don't have a gym to train out there, they're not going to have a shitload of equipment at home, so they shouldn't really be looking at making gains during this time, it should be about Alright Call, I'm going to implement some small habits that are going to add up over time and make a difference to once these restrictions are lifted, then, you know, then I can start looking at putting these processes in place to make some gains, that's some of the best advice I've heard during lockdown about health and fitness right there? Yeah, man? It's it's it's not about um it's not about dedicating a shitload of time to it, it's about doing what you can, and making sure that the time you are investing into it is doing something that's going to be beneficial for you, you know? So for me, as an example, you know, I probably don't spend enough time on mobility based work. So what do you think I'm doing during this time, that's part of my morning routine? Or get up and I'll go and have a stretch on the balcony and then I'll just have a stretch man, I'll have a stretch, a little bit of mobility work, and there's 10 minutes first thing in the morning, then I'll sit down, I'll do my breath work and Boom, there's the 1st 30 minutes of my day where I've already, you know, done a couple of positive things to set me up for the day ahead.

I'm being proactive rather than reactive Yeah, I love that. Um what about on the nutrition side of things, man? Like these things go hand in hand, and, you know, so many people go into the german flog themselves and, and even from a professional athletes point of view, man, it's amazing to see how many top level athletes, uh not paying huge amounts of attention to the fuel that they put into their body um what what advice have you got, Like, where should people start with nutrition and and I'm not just talking about from a weight loss perspective, just from an overall, like, getting the most out of your life, feeling alive. Um And nutrition is more than just dropping a few kilos and calories in versus calories out. But the whole industry just talks about basically that, you know, like there's been a massive narrative recently about just just track your calories and you're fine, but not every calories equal. May I cover all of this in my seven part mini series coming up on my podcast? Yeah, How do people get it? How do people get it? I'll be launching in the next couple of weeks, so I'll make sure I send it through to you bro.

Um But yeah, man, good question. Um This is probably gonna sound a little bit generic, but fuck, reduce your processed foods. I mean, that's it, man, you got to think there's there's nutrition engineers out there whose job it is to make this processed food highly palatable and make you want to eat more. Alright, so these foods, they've got these chemicals in the men, if you pick up the fucking pack of Pringles, can you tell me what every ingredient is on the back of that ingredients list? No idea. All right, how many of those chemicals are actually hijacking your hormones and making you want to eat more, That's their job, man. People are getting paid to do this shit. So, at the end of the day, if you're eating real wholesome healthy nutrition, nutritious, whole foods, you're gonna be sweet. Where's the food come from? Has it come from the earth? Did it fly? Did it walk? Did it swim? Was it grown? That's it man. If you pick up a fucking an apple from Woolworth's, it doesn't have an ingredients list on it. It doesn't have a barcode, it's an apple.

So if you, at the end of the day, if you stick to that, you're going to be pretty sweet because our body has these regulatory mechanisms within it that tell you when you're full, you're eating real wholesome foods? Your body is going to say, All right, cool. I've had enough. Right? You finish a good sunday roast and someone pulls out the ice cream, you're going to fit some more in, right? Why is that? Because it hijacks those hormones? Hi Jack. So sensors. But if someone pulls out another piece of lamb, you're like, no, I'm pretty sweet. Thanks. Good. Yeah, different man. It's so true, man. Yeah. And obviously the mindsets the next pillar, uh, how, because you're such a disciplined person. Do you get frustrated training clients who don't have the same discipline when it comes to like people talking about really wanting a result. Um, obviously it's not so much of an issue with the elite level guys. But with the average joe who wants to lose what it wants to get fit, wants to do this, but doesn't exercise the discipline needed to, you know, stay away from those types of foods or to build those habits.

How do you deal with that? Like how do you deal with those people? Do you have a system for trying to get people into that or like what's your metric formula? Yeah. Look, man, I used to get, I used to get frustrated because I was like, why is it so fucking hard? Why can't this person get it and just start putting this process in place? They're telling me they want to do this, but yet they're doing that and they're sabotaging their results, you know? Um, that was how I used to coach, but I've grown and now I look at it as a challenge. Now I just speak honestly man. And again goes back to matching expectations with commitment. If people come to me and say, Hey, I sit down and have a consultation. Yeah. My goal is to lose, you know, 15 kg. I want to put on three key. I want to lose whatever 10 kg of fat, put on five kg of muscle, blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. All right, Cool. How committed are you to that On a scale of 1 to 10? I'm a 10. All right, Sweetie. Are you sure about that? Um, a 10? All right. Can you eat? Sorry, can you sleep for eight hours per night?

I can't really do that, blah blah blah. All right. You're a nine. Can you drink three liters of water per day? I don't really like the taste of water, but all right, now, you're an eight. Can you can you eat five servings of vegetables a day? I don't like vegetables, my family, blah, blah, blah, blah. All right, now, you're a seven and I just keep going through that process, man until we get to a point where for the most part, people are actually at a fucking three or four, and I'm like, all right, you're expecting these results, but your commitment is only At a level three. So you've got to expect level three results. And how do people does that come back to just having a bigger reason why a lot of people's reason for doing it is vanity. It's not that deep seated, is does that level of urgency just come back to really like what it actually means to you? Absolutely. If you're wise strong enough, your house doesn't matter what what is when it comes to setting goals and a vision for yourself?

I think that's incredibly important. I think that's something that's overlooked people in the motions of things all the time. Do you? How do people, you know, like, what's your process for setting a vision for yourself? How do you decide where you're going and what direction you're taking because you're someone who who seems very clear a lot of the time and maybe you're not, maybe you're acting when you're not clear and working stuff out and you're prepared to sort of fall over and fail, which is something that you touched on. But talk to me about the importance of vision and how people can get a bit clearer on where they're going and what they want and how to sort of take control of their life. Yeah, Good question man. Um, I think writing things down is a big one for me again, doesn't really matter what your tools are, but you need to find something that's going to allow you to, you know, put your thoughts into words. It might be talking to someone, it might be writing things down. I'm not sure if you can see this here. Let me see if I can swing my computer around. Yeah, they're my boards man. My boys are on my desk and every morning I'll get up and I'll go through my morning routine and then I'm I'm pulling my diary out and I'm riding the things that are important to me and I'm scheduling them in for the day.

But again, that comes back down to values, having an understanding of what you what you value and what's going to allow you to bring out the best in you then scheduling that in, you know, an example of this is before I go to bed at night, I have a note pad and pen by my bed, I don't use my phone to turn my phone off at a certain time, because for me, sleep is a massive priority, you know, that comes back down to protecting my immune system and my health. So if I don't have a shitty night sleep, then that's going to affect my whole next day. So I really try and protect the sleep and I turned my phone off an hour, hour and a half before I go to bed and I won't touch my phone an hour, hour and a half after I get out of bed. So um So anyway, I have my note pad and pen by my bed, and then at night, you know, whilst I'm laying there, um you know, turning my technology and everything off and might just be reading, and as thoughts come into my head, I just start jotting them down, you know, and I might spend 15 minutes, they're just writing shit down, I'm not using my phone because then you start getting distracted and scrolling through social media and shit. Um So I go old school and then uh in the morning, basically, you know, it helps me get to sleep, it's doing a brain dump because you'll go through these processes again and again and again, I've got to call this person about a job, I've got to call, I'm gonna send this email to this person, I got to buy some dog food, blah blah blah um you know, so it's doing a brain dump man.

Um, and then, you know, that allows you to kind of chill out and kick off the parasympathetic nervous system so you can rest and digest. And I'm going to get up in the morning, I'll have, I'll go through my morning routine, then I'll pull my, my um, My calendar out and I'll start jotting down the things that are important to me and I'll go back to the note pad from the night before and there will be 15 things written down and there's two things that I need to get done today and I'll just put them into my day somewhere the other 15, the other 13 things and not really a big deal, I just keep them written down and when I get a chance to get to them then I'll get to them. And the other thing is, you know, working with your, excuse me, working with your energy levels, paying attention man at the end of the day, like all of this information is great information, but you need to pay attention to your energy levels. Um, so for me, you know, the last couple of days I've had some really, really productive days and I've been getting after it and creating a whole heap of content and um doing coursework and things like that, but today I'm feeling a little bit, little bit flat, I'm not quite as sharp as I have been the last couple of days, so I'm changing my routine, I'm changing my schedule and things that I'm getting done today to suit my energy levels.

You know, today I'm just gonna be putting my podcast together. Um I've really recorded the episodes, but now I just gotta start mixing and editing those podcasts and uh and then listening back to them. So it doesn't take anywhere near as much energy as actually creating the content to the podcast. So, you know, and and just paying attention to those energy levels and then allocating the time to it man. Yeah, that's a question I kind of went off on tangent then, so no worries at all, man. No, it is, I mean, I think the time management aspect is something that's super important anyway, because if you don't, you can have all the vision in the world, but if you don't get stuff done during the day, you don't prioritize, you don't go anywhere anyway. And that's something that you are very good at? I've noted that even when we're in pocket uh, is watching the way you went about your business, what impact do you strive to have on people? What's the impact that you're trying to have on the world with the work you're doing with the content you put out and the way you live your life. I just want to help people, man. I've, you know, I came from the background that I did and I forged my own path and I just want to share the lessons that I've learned throughout this time, You know, I'm not looking to, I'm not I put out so much content on social media, free content, you know, I do have an online coaching program, but I never push it, man, I never push it and there's there's just so many things that I've learned over the years that have helped serve me become the best person that I can be.

And I want to help people, you know, put these same processes in place so they can become their best person. I want to create my I want to create myself um as an authority in the space people that some are, you know, someone that people look up to respect and trust their word. Um one day I might, you know, capitalist and monetize the podcast or uh you know, start pushing online coaching a little bit more or whatever. But right now, man like that's not my focus, my focus is on helping people. What what's your advice for young kids out there? I think it's so pivotal um having access to good information and good mentors at a young age before you've gone down a certain life path or made certain decisions. What's your advice? Thinking back to young sean? Uh I know you actually do right post back to young sean, but what what is your advice for any young person out there who's got big ambitions, who, you know, is just trying to find their way in life fundamental, find someone or not just a mentor, a group of mentors, find people that you can learn from, people that seem to have their shit together and they're doing the things that you want to do, Start asking them questions, find out what makes them tick, find out those processes and structures that they have in place that allow them to be their best person, you know, that's you, if if you want to do something, someone's already done it ahead of you, you need to find out what that is, you need to learn from them, that's the biggest piece of advice I can get and again, you know you you can't change the people around you but you can change people around you.

Yeah yeah totally bro, it's good a good advice, it's I think it's just so pivotal, the mentorship side of its huge, like I know that times in my life and I've had people around who can shortcut the learnings for me, who can help me steer my direction making for things that I haven't done, the times that I've made good decisions and progress faster than anywhere else and then the times I've made the biggest mistakes, the times I fucked everything up and the times other times that I've been too scared to reach out to people and I've probably been too embarrassed to ask for help, good advice, what how can people find out more about you bro? I know you're busy online all the time. You're trying to add value through social media. Where do people get hold of you? What's the best place? Best places? Our instagram facebook and Youtube? My instagram is at K O. B ES underscore Pft at codes underscore PFT facebook is performance functional training and Youtube is at performance functional training. I've actually been putting out a heap of content on Youtube recently during these lockdown times.

You know, we're putting together training sessions for people to do at home with very limited equipment. So I've put out some sessions with one kettle bell one band, one set of glide boards, body weight, and I've put out three training sessions per one piece of equipment, focusing on strength and stability, skill development, muscular endurance, speed, power conditioning. So all of the elements of strength conditioning. Yeah, fantastic. Highly recommend you check them out is one of the best trainers that I've ever come across in my life? And I spent more than a decade around or in the fitness industry in some way, shape or form. Last question for you, what is the definition of a life fully lived to you? What does it mean to go out there and live life to the fullest living life to the fullest is about doing the things that you want to do without being restricted whether that's you know, hiking, whether that's traveling the world, whether that's, you know, killing it in your career, it's it's doing the things that bring you purpose, bring you fulfillment and bring you contentment.

It's a nice note to finish on sean. You're an absolute legend, man. It's been a pleasure to chat with you. I'm grateful to consider you a friend and have you in my friends circle is someone that I follow and get a lot of inspiration from and continue the good work man, because you're doing a lot of good things out there. You're too kind brother. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Now look forward to chatting to you next time.