and all that does. It comes from the military, right? It does. And making sure that you get inadequate sleep and rest in when you can. All these things, all these things have stemmed from military, which essentially has helped me on my journey and is what I want to basically show to my clients and to everybody that I come across is, it doesn't need to be that complicated. It doesn't need to be confusing, It doesn't need to be overwhelming. Let's just start to integrate these daily actions slowly over a period of time and you'll be surprised at how simple, not easy, but how simple things can be. Hey guys, welcome to the live train perform podcast. I'm your host, Sean Cobra and joining me today is rob morrigan in the first episode we covered off on a lot of his earlier life and his military career and then how he transitioned into starting his own business, Kiss fitness uh, and the philosophies and principles that he built and we pretty much led up to the point where I met him in 2015 on soy toyed at unit 27 in today's episode.

We're going to be covering off on essentially the last five years, how his life has changed during that time and the lessons learned through that period rob morrigan. Welcome back to the podcast mate. Hey Sean, great to be on the show again mitt, good stuff mate. You've obviously listened to the last episode. Yeah, I had a chance to listen through that this morning when I was walking back from the gym. So yeah, hopefully um we can kind of finish that off. I know I like to chat a little bit so hopefully we'll try and we'll try and finish that off in this episode and I think that's important to give people that background knowledge in that context of you know you didn't just become a pt and this is where you're at right now, like there's obviously lessons learned throughout life and um you're constantly learning you constantly growing. So I think it's important to give that background context. But um today we'll dive into essentially uh you know you leaving unit 27 building your own business Uh and where you're at now. So um what was the path that you talked to end up where you are now?

Like 2015? I met you you said that you know 27 for a little bit longer and then you transition from this uh and then you went traveling for a little bit didn't you? A little bits and pieces. Yeah little bits and pieces. I was basically a unit until The end of 2016. So by the time I left 27 I was there for for two years um during the time I was there kind of went from being like a strengthened additional instructor on the on the gym floor and running a crossfit classes and the S. And C. Class is that they have then transition a little bit into developing more of a transformation program there which was aimed more at kind of um like uh almost like a higher end V. I. P. Transformation program to work with people on more of an individual basis to create bigger changes in their in their lives. So guys we're really looking to create a change in their lives, you know, physically and mentally I'm working them for You know, number one on a on a closer 1-1 kind of base, it's number two for a longer period as well.

So you know guys that come out to Thailand and commit to four weeks, six weeks to months and beyond and you've seen yourself, you know, people have come out and they end up spending up to six months out there sometimes and some got sometimes guys they don't even leave, right? So I spent that time there then kind of the second the second year mainly Developing that program for 27, working with people there on that on that kind of level and creating some big changes to their lives and create some really good transformations with people. Um and develop myself as a coach. Obviously I learned a hell of a lot when I first got to unit 27 with the guys the coaches they're working out at the time and kind of almost threw myself into the deep end with that with that move um you know kind of going from where I was, we discussed in the earlier podcast from from being in London and having a small business there to then being in, you know, this this kind of world renowned gym, which it was by then and having people flying in from from all corners of the globe to train and a lot, you know, kind of high level athletes, high level coaches coming through there as well, so kind of cut my teeth as that and then developed this, this the transformation program, because that was essentially um what my main kind of passion and my main inspiration was, I'm sorry, was to help people create significant changes in their lives and that's what gave me the satisfaction from doing the job that I did.

And then when we got to the back end of that, of that second year, I came to another little bit of a crossroads, I was in a relationship at the time and I've been living with somebody out there in poor cat fur uh I think it was a year and a half by the time, by the time we left there and during my time you and I kind of been made all these, all these offers, you know, people come through there and uh from all parts of the world really to whether it's to kind of build a gym in a different country or to start a new project with somebody that wanted to invest and I was getting all these offers to do stuff and obviously I had some ambition and I had belief in myself to, to create something of my own and at the time, the girl I was seeing wasn't really that happy in pocket. Um, so I kind of made the decision, I'd, you know, I'd wake up and feel with the offer as I made a decision to to go ahead with the new project with an investor.

So a guy was going to invest into a project and we're going to up sticks and leave poor Cat, which we did In the December of 2016 and than within the first, I don't know whether it was four weeks or six weeks or the first phase of that project. It became clear to me that it probably wasn't the right move for me. So obviously when we had our discussions in terms of what we were looking to do, what our values were, what the vision was, what we were looking to achieve, we seem to be as as though we were on the same kind of song sheet, on the same hymn sheet, but when, when it came to the crunch, um, you know, the guy, although he was supposed to be an even partnership and even split 50 50 split because he was the investor and he was, you know, he's fronting the money, he kind of felt that he had more of a pull with a lot of the decisions that were being made and so I kind of saw some red flags there in the, in the sense that As far as I was concerned, I was going to commit, you know, 3-5 years of my life to this project, but I felt as if I didn't have control and it wasn't really um what I kind of envisioned when, when I first, when I first kind of thought about what the project would be, so I kind of decided to pull the pin on that and pop smoke before we got too deep into the, into the project because there was a construction, there was a build and everything that needs to be done to get to get that off the ground.

Um and at the same time then there was a little bit of soul searching done in terms of the relationship, because there was a little bit of conflict there as well. Obviously the move, the change brought some stress um in terms of the direction that we would go in and then what we're gonna do, you know, we kind of up sticks and moved um no, it kind of, not necessarily a failure, but not something that, that kind of worked out quite as we planned, so um the way it worked out, I'd actually decided then to end that relationship, So at that point, having left 27, uh you know, the new project, not quite taking off as well as what I liked as well as what I envisioned and then decided to end our relationship because we were kind of on on a different course if you well and wanted different things out of where we were at that point in our lives or I did a little kind of little bit of traveling around and went home when uh I think we went to Turkey and went over to Tunisia and places like that and then ended up coming back to Thailand on my own.

Um and then yeah, I spent a little bit of time kind of soul searching and trying to work out what the next move was going to be. Um and that's when I just decided that, you know, I had, I knew the skill set that I had, I knew what the vision was that I wanted to create. I know I stood for and I know you know, my values, so I had a little bit of money saved up from my time in uh you know, in the contract in are in the Middle East as we spoke about the last podcast. So I just decided to go all in and create the vision for myself, which is essentially what I was looking to do anyway. Um and that's when uh you know, that's when revival escape was born essentially and the vision was to give people a platform to create change in their lives while being in a tropical environment that protect gives you and having an amazing time. Um, just some, whether they can really focus on, on their well being and their personal growth. Um, so yeah, I launched revival escape.

It took me a few months to get everything off the ground and to, to secure location and to get, you know, to get my money through and all that kind of stuff, but then just put everything I had into into launching that business. Um, and yeah, just really trying to work with people on a much more individual, personalized basis to help them create change whether it was through, you know, I had a whole variety of different people through with different goals and different ambitions for different reasons. So working with them on that to create a change in their lives, you know, whatever that change, whatever that change meant to them essentially. So yeah, yeah, that's uh, that's really cool man. Um, I just want to go back because there was something you said earlier and my brain is ticking and I'm trying to connect the dots and um kind of see how your brain was working at the time.

So obviously you had your own business back in London, you're doing predominantly pts uh as well as some group coaching classes. Yeah. Then you came to Unit 27, the first year was essentially group classes. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. So for the listeners that haven't been to sauteed in Thailand or fitness street, whatever you want to call it. Um it's it's pretty much a destination. It's like a street that's about a kilometer and a half long, that's just full of gyms. And Tiger muay thai was one of the first gyms there and um you know, it brought people from all over the world to train and to change their lives and give them a kick start in moving in the right direction and You know, the number of other gyms popped up and unit 27 was one of them and they developed a really good brand and a good reputation very quickly tight and fitness popped up and I think now there's a man, it's probably like 12 to 15 gyms along that one street. Um you know, not too many catering justice, strength and conditioning but there's a lot of smaller moy tai gyms and things like that as well.

But obviously your group coaching group classes and then you went into the process of building out the transformation um program. Now, what was the difference between going from that that group class environment into more of the individualist um transformation program process. Yeah, so I was I was doing the group coaching classes but also concurrently with that, I was I was doing more more kind of Pts, one on one PTS because like I said, people go there for for a period of time and some people are happy with the group classes and group fitness and that's enough for them, but there's other people that need a little bit more kind of individualist support and helps, or I had been working with people on that level through that first year and again had had some really good success um working with and some people on that element, but it kind of as you develop yourself as a coach, right?

And when you start off in the, in the industry, um you know, the first thing you really do is gain a pt qualification and you realize, right, I need to, to help these people create change on a physical level, through through training and exercise and then usually what you do is you learn a little bit more about nutrition and okay, now I'm getting these people moving again, I'm exercising and I also need to make sure that I'm helping them eat the right foods and nourish themselves properly. But then on a deeper level than that, then you also have to look at kind of human behavior and the kind of the psychological effect and what's preventing them from from, you know, eating the right foods or what stresses or traumas are they dealing with that is preventing them from creating the changes that they want to create. So I kind of spent a lot of time working on that aspect and and kind of studying a lot more about that in order to to to figure out how to help people create these changes and not just create the changes, but make sure that they were sustainable changes that they could maintain.

You know, not just for the time period that they were there training with me, but when they went back home to their to their lives and to their kind of natural environment and so as I developed myself as a coach and started to pick up all these, these skills and the knowledge myself, I then wanted to pass that knowledge on to the clients and the people that I was kind of coming into contact with, man. That's so awesome to hear because my pt journey strengthen edition journey is very similar, you know, working with general population clients and um particularly uh in soy tied in in Phuket and Thailand, you know, it is a destination jim, so people come over for a week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks and you know, they're training 2345 times a day, they're eating cleaner because you know, there's not many um poor food options and you know, they're literally just focused on training. They don't have the external stresses and um distractions and all that type of stuff and that's awesome whilst there um here training, but you know, what do they learn, what can they take back, what can they apply to the everyday life and you know, this is something that I figured out along the way and obviously you figured out and that's why you transitioned into your own coaching business, which we'll get into in a moment.

But that's, I mean, that's that's the thing, man, like a fucking coach is someone who looks at the other 23 hours of the day, Right? Like you need to make the most out of the other 23 hours a day day and optimists those hours so that you can get the most out of that training time. And I mean, anyone can just fucking put someone on 345 sessions a day of training and cut their calories down 1500 and you know, they're going to get good results. But what happens when they go back to their normal life and they've got these, they've got to go back to work and they've got these financial stresses and they've got these relationship issues and they've got these life life just gets in the way, man. So I think you and I are very similar in that sense where we're looking at creating long term sustainable change. You know, we're giving advice, we're giving actionable takeaways that people can implement into their Um, their daily routine essentially to lead them to long term success. So, um is that kind of one of the um the driving forces behind you transitioning from unit 27 into going into revival escapes.

right? Yeah, 100%, like you said, you can only impact if you're working with somebody for one hour a day or two hours a day, there's only so much you can impact, but you really need to spend time focusing on The other 23 or hours of that day and the rest of their week and taking time to focus on everything else that they need to do not only when they're in that train environment where everything's set up for them to succeed because they don't have the distractions and they're in the perfect environment and it's very supportive and everybody there is in a similar situation with them. But then how do we create a strategy for you to implement that when you go back home into a normal life and, you know, to be honest, I did manage to create some some some good transformations with people, but I saw because they did it in such a short period of time in that environment, You know, some of them sadly weren't able to maintain and sustain it because when they went back, they just reverted back to their old habits and behaviors and the same routine with the same people doing the same things and eventually it kind of led them back to where they were previously.

Saw a big part of my focus was then, alright, let's create a strategy, let's not just do the work while you're here, but you know, what does your life look like? What else have you got going on at home that we need to consider and how can we strategize towards creating? You know, like you said that sustainable, long term change. That's fucking awesome man. So what is some of the stuff that you worked on with your clients? So I obviously came to um you know, we do a little bit of work together when you weren't available, you went away for a month or so and you would give me a client here and there to look after whilst you're away. Um and I saw what you had going on at your retreat man, I was super impressed with what you're doing and how you're conducting it. So for the listeners, can you explain how those retreats were working and what you're focusing on? Yes, so we would essentially look at all aspects of health and fitness from, from their training to their nutrition. So we would do basically, the business model was that would take up to four people at a time, you know, when I had essentially, it was like a small resort Villa, obviously you came down and saw that you were done yourself, so had the villa, you know, try to grow a team to help deliver this product, um that was not only training but educating them on why we were doing this training.

So there was workshops on nutrition and workshops on the training itself, training principles, the mindset mindfulness, I had a meditation practitioner coming down, we had yoga going on, um you know breast work workshops, um pretty much leaving no stone unturned to make sure that people had all the tools and the techniques that they needed when they returned home and basically opened up their eyes to a whole plethora of different techniques and tactics that they could use depending on where they were in their own situation. Yeah man, I'm assuming this is how your online coaching business started, because that's kind of how mine started, I mean I started my online coaching business like five years ago um and when I first moved to Thailand that was my goal was to build out my online coaching business and kind of use that to sustain myself before I I got offered a job a full time job at Tiger and then before I became head coach, but um you know that's something that's definitely come back into um my game plan is that online coaching, So I do get people that I'm training with one on one at Tiger and they might be around for a couple of weeks or whatever and you know, I open their eyes to all of these other aspects of life that needs to be managed so that they can get the most out of their training so that they can improve their body composition, their performance and their health markers and all that sort of stuff.

So I really saw a massive market in transitioning those one on one face to face clients into online coaching clients to kind of build the foundation whilst I was with them, get them to focus on the things that were most important and then kind of follow up on that and ensure that they were moving in the right direction and give them some tips and guidance whilst they were back in their home location. Because like you said, man, when you're in a specific your environment plays a massive part on everything right, whether you're moving in the right direction or whether you're sabotaging yourself and you can give people all the tools and techniques when they're in the right environment without those distractions and they're just focusing on their training and their nutrition, but as soon as they get back into their home um life, all of those stresses and distractions and that environment just leads them back into basically what they were doing before because essentially people fall back into their own habits. So I think that online coaching component was a massive part for me to kind of filling the gap and provide that guidance in that direction for once they did get home.

Is that what you found as well? Yeah, definitely. Um I'd actually started my online coaching when I made the move from London to uh to poke it. Obviously I had my client base that I built there in London, so I kind of, I made the transition into creating the online platform so that I can continue to work with them and probably I'd say maybe 50% of the clients that were working with at the time in London then came on board as as as online online clients with me. So it's something I kind of started working on then um and then obviously it took a little bit of a back seat um while I was at unit because of all the, you know, the hours I was doing on the gym floor and all the rest of it, but I still I still maintained a small client base through that. But then yes, definitely when I when I created a revival, the online aspect that I was able to offer to support them when they went home was was a massive benefit for them because it was like, right, giving you all this information, I'm giving you all this this knowledge and these tools now and when you go, I'm going to continue to support you through this online online program, the online platform that that I built.

So I had that there as well, which obviously is so important because you can give everybody or to give people everything they need, but then they're not not not necessarily going to have the accountability or the support or the guidance they need to then maintain that further down their lives. All right. Yeah, man, that's super important. And that's I mean that's an issue that I see with a lot of retreats is that people look at these retreats as you know, I'm going to fix myself and they go to these retreats for two weeks and they're training three times a day and eating 1500 calories or whatever. And of course they see good results, they lose weight and majority of the time they're going low carb and they're just fucking depleted the glycogen levels, they just lose water weight or they're in a massive calorie deficit and they lose a heap of muscle mass. But these retreats aren't actually showing these results for their body composition is just showing, here's your weight loss. How are you feeling like I'm feeling really good because they've cut out processed foods and there actually moving in their training and they've reduced their stress and all that type of stuff.

But then once they get home they fall back into those old patterns. And you know, they they essentially six months later, get back to the point where they were before hand, then some and then they go, oh I know what got me in shape. Last time, let's go back to that retreat. Like it's sucking good marketing, it's a good marketing deal, but it doesn't actually helps people long term. And I think that's something that any good coach like yourself myself, we're looking at this long term sustainable change. Yes, we want to give this information, we want to give this advice, but we also want to provide guidance along the way and you know, it's it's been a big thing for me where I've had clients like online coaching clients. I run three months online coaching blocks and a lot of the times I've got these clients and you know when things are going well, they're like, yes, we're, I'm checking in, I'm, I'm doing my body composition testing, I'm tracking my food, tracking my steps, I'm tracking my sleep, I'm tracking my waking heart rate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then I'll touch base with them and they were like, hey, I don't want to check in this week.

I don't want to do my body composition and I don't want to do this because the last couple of weeks I've been stressed out of change jobs. I've had some issues with my relationship and blah, blah, blah blah. And like I just don't want to see those results. I'm like, this is exactly when you need to see those results. Like when you're doing the right thing, it's all well and good to check your progress and go, sweet, give yourself a pat on the back. But the important thing is, you know, when things aren't going well to make sure you check your progress because, well this is what's been happening over the last three weeks and this is how it's affected um my body composition, but not only my physical health, my mental health, you know, so it's important to check in on those things and what you said earlier was extremely important. And this is the first place that I start is looking at the psychological and behavioral components of clients before we do anything before, I don't give a meal plans or anything like that. But back in the day I'd give people a training program, I'd give them the meal plan. I'm like, sweet, let's get after it.

But you know, I obviously didn't know what I know now and it's that psychological and behavioral component that plays a massive part in, you know, how they um, how they move forward and how they um look at all of these components that fit in together that make up their life. Is that something you found as well? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I I used to tell every client that came to revival escape. I would say, you know, I don't determine the success of this program based on what's going to happen in the next three or four weeks. I determine the success of this program on what's happening in 12 months time, one year, three years down the line. So for me didn't, it wasn't obviously how we wanted to help them create a change in that period. But I didn't used to spend too much time worrying about what they would achieve in that time period. It was a lot more important to achieve that kind of long term success. I like you said, they're, you know, people when people, when things are going well, people are responsive, they're engaging their tracking all their workouts, they're tracking all their food, they're very community communicative.

But then as soon as something happens, like you say, whether they have an issue with their relationship or their job or whatever happens, you know, as as sad as to say that a lot of people kind of go, they go silent, right? Radio silence and you don't hear of them for a couple of weeks and then they check back in and say, oh sorry that this happened, that happened. And it's like that is that is the most important time to to check in on your actions and your behaviors. And not only that it's the most important time to tell your coach what's going on so they can help guide you around those situations, situations. That's may, that literally weighs up my my mindset my thoughts on that as well. You know, I say to my clients when things are going well, anyone can be a good coach, but it's when things aren't going well, that a good coach actually starts fucking working, actually steps up and starts doing their job, right? So um I think that's awesome how you weigh that up, man.

Um the next thing I want to move on to is uh we've both obviously ex military, but um we speak about mental health a lot and, you know, optimizing mental health through all of these principles that we spoke about in the last Episode of Swiss eight, but also the kids, fitness principles of movement, mindfulness, nutrition, sleep, personal growth, minimalism, all that type of stuff. So if people are struggling with their mental health, is there any advice that you can give to them? Um Yeah, I think the best advice to give is that it's okay to talk and it's okay to seek help and to show weakness um because so many people are dealing with things that that they don't discuss, they don't talk about and they just bury them deep within deep inside, you know, whether it's guilt or shame or regret or fear or whatever these emotions are, and they just bury them deep inside and they don't feel as if they can confide or talk to anybody about it.

Um and that's when you create all that internal stress if you will within within yourself. But the simple act of being able to share a problem can have such a profound effect on it, and like I said then going back to the things I was doing with revival now, I'm no I'm in Norway an expert in this field, um but it's something that I have helped people with overcoming these sorts of issues. Um and you know, during some of my coaching sessions, I've had people literally break down um you know, burst into tears and literally pouring their hearts, so to me with things that have been buried deep within within them, that they've never been able to confide in people and they've been carrying these burdens, which have been paralyzing them um in life. And to get to that point, obviously, you need to build an element of trust and somebody needs to kind of have that relationship to be able to to confide or or to trust in you, but it doesn't necessarily need to be a friend or a relative or a family member.

I mean, they're professionals out there that can that can help deal with these issues if you don't feel that you can confide in a friend or a family member or somebody that you engage with on a regular basis. So there are people out there. So it's important to to seek help and to reach out and to to not be afraid of, of showing a weakness. And this is particularly hard for men to do. I find because health is kind of socially constructed as a as a feminine concern in particular mental health. So does stop men from seeking help or or having any openness about showing their feelings or their insecurities, particularly to to other men. Right, So mental health illnesses, I've done a little bit of work with this recently. Again, I said, I'm not an expert in the field, but, you know, all the research and stuff that I've done it, it's shockingly disproportionately affect men a lot more due to those reasons, you know, as men were taught to be strong, we're taught to be stoic, and if we lose that element of kind of may truism, it's seen as a weakness.

Um, so being able to confide and to talk to people and to seek out help is the best advice that I can get around that. Yeah, I like that maybe. Um, you know, for people that don't know my story, I come from a poor family, don't know my father, I've got an abusive step dad or had an abusive step dad. Um, And, you know, left home when I was 14, pretty much went out and forge my own path, joined the military. Um, you know, had people are new, killed and injured and things like that. You know, I haven't dealt with mental health issues too much, but that's because I do talk about things. If anyone follows me on social media, you know, you can go back and read some of these posts that I've done in the past about me saying if I had have said that I wasn't afraid of dying, I would be lying and then I'd go into, you know, the whole story about where it was at that time, what was happening, what was going through my mind and, you know, dealing with these kind of, um processes and, and for me that's it's like an outlet.

It's it's something to um use, it's a platform to express what's going through my mind and, you know, um, and I've actually had a lot of people reach out to me and say, hey man, thank you, like, thank you so much, you're an inspiration for me, and you know, I've literally had tears in my eyes reading some of these messages with people saying, you know, you've helped save my life and you've helped me change my mindset and turn things around, and that's simply from me sharing my own experiences, You know, that's not me looking out for sympathy or empathy or anything like that. Like, I don't really give a funk about that. I'm literally just expressing this using this platform to express and put my thoughts into words because a lot of the times, like you said, men just typically bottle things up and they don't speak to anyone about things, and you know, for me, that's that's the ultimate vulnerability is to share this stuff on social media, and, you know, like I said, I'm not sharing it for sympathy or anything like that, but if I can, if someone reads it and that resonates with them and they're like, well this dude's been through that and, you know, he's come out of it on the other end and, you know, he's built some mental resilience and some mental toughness and he's in a good place and you know, what are the lessons that I can learn from him then, for me that's that's fucking the ultimate reward, right?

And I know you've recently shared some stories, some posts on mental health as well. Can you talk about that for a moment? Yes. So similar situation really, you know, using using the platform, whether it's through social media, facebook instagram or whatever to to show men is okay to be vulnerable, to share some of my own experiences and some of the lessons that I've learned and and to show people that it's okay to be vulnerable and not to have to bottle these things up. Um and I kind of pledge this year to try and create more open and honest conversations with men around these issues that are kind of stigmatized or a little bit of a taboo kind of subject to try and get more open conversations um go in. So yeah, you know, similar to you, I've had people reaching out to me and and and telling me how what I've shared has helped them on their journey and reaching out and showing gratitude and and all the rest of it, and if we can if we can do that on our platforms and if it helps even one person, then then, you know what we're doing is worthwhile and useful.

So, um, this year, for me, I've tried to do that a lot more. Um and I've kind of uh well very recently anyway, I created a new program launched a new program in order to help raise awareness for mental health illnesses, um depression, anxiety, PTSD that lead to men committing suicide. So a little bit of a fundraiser and raise some money for the UK charity. Com. And how that came about was um I got nominated to take part in a push up challenge to try and help raise awareness for for mental health. Um but I'd already been nominated for a very similar challenge four years ago back in 2016. So at the time the cause was 20 to kill, which was an American kind of cause mainly at ex servicemen, right, and soldiers that killed themselves or took their own lives Back then.

I did the challenge. I did 22 pushups for 22 days and I nominated somebody every day. You see people doing these challenges and I'm the kind of guy, If I if I do a challenge like this, I'll see it through. And you know, not necessarily everybody's seen it through, but I did see it through. I known as somebody every day, but one of the, one of the guys that I actually nominated on that challenge, you know, a few months later, completely unrelated ble but actually an ex service guy took his own life. So when I got nominated again this year to take part in the challenge, obviously not somebody that backs down to a challenge and it happened to be one of my own clients that had kind of nominated me. So I'm like, do I, You know, start this challenge again and and do the 25 push ups and record myself and post it on Facebook or is there something more I can do? So, you know, if if what I did four years ago, it didn't necessarily have as much of an impact as what I liked, what else can I do to try and create more awareness and have more of an impact on these, on these issues?

So, Um yeah, that's when I decided to launch the new program, 28 straight Number 1 to help man create a positive change in their own lives, physically, mentally and emotionally. But number two, to then donate the proceeds of that program to the UK charity calm to help them in their campaign against raising awareness for these issues May, that's so awesome, man. And again, so many parallels, I remember back in 2016, I went, you know, 2022 pushups between two days, nominate someone etc, etc and I saw the whole thing through and then pretty much similar to you man, I had a number of people nominate me a couple of months ago, um and I just had to reply, I'm like, look, I'm really sorry, as much as I want to help raise awareness, I also don't want to clog up my feed with, you know, the same thing every day that people are just going to scroll past.

I'm like I'm working on launching a podcast that actually going to give people actionable advice. So yes, awareness is fucking good, um and it is important, but you know, it doesn't do anything for giving people the tools and the techniques that they need to start implementing on a day to day basis. So, you know, my friends understood that and I was nominated a number of times and I was like, look, I'm not going to clog up my feed and yes, I do support it, but I'm launching a podcast for that exact reason to give people these actionable takeaways that they can start implementing. So can you make sure that you send through those links that you just spoke about so that I can add them to the show notes? Yeah, man, sure thing. Yeah, Cool, Alright, that's excellent conversation, may I think that's really important. Um so talking about the mental health components, like you've obviously gone through some processes over the last kind of five years where, you know, relationship breakdown and um you know, launching a project that didn't take off and you know, having to change direction and things like that?

So, um was there some mental health components there? And um what did you do about it? And how has your life changed over the last five years? How have you dealt with those setbacks? Not necessarily kind of mental health issues around that? Obviously as humans, we all deal with these issues, right, but it's how we deal with them that determines, you know, kind of whether it's a success or whether it's a failure. So to me it's not a failure because I learnt the lessons from that and you know, when I went through that process, I then knew exactly what I wanted and where I wanted to go and it call it forced me to do that soul searching to to look within myself. Um and again, you know, I got pulled back to Phuket, we mentioned this on the last podcast, is a pocket is somewhere somewhere that kind of keeps or kept pulling me back in. And it's just somewhere that I felt content and calm and a sense of inner peace and for me that environment was somewhere that that I felt that I could be the best version of myself.

Um so if you took me out of that environment for example, and maybe put me in a busy city or or or another country, I'm not going to be the same person as I am operating in the environment and the situation that I meant, So I became aware of that and it was a chance for me to kind of yeah, get get to know myself. And then, you know, as we mentioned, it's revert back to your your your daily actions, your habits and your behaviors of starting to train well and starting to focus on your health and your fitness and your mindfulness and you sleep and when you're doing all these things, you know correctly consistently for a period of time, that's when you feel inspired and more of it than creative to to be the best version that you can be and that's what gave me the motivation and the confidence in myself to then launch the business and you know, kind of try to make that a success. I love that mate. Um I just want to talk about for a second there because this is something that people I think are going to resonate with and you know, you said you did a little bit of soul searching.

What did you mean by that? Mhm. Uh basically taking some time to gain some perspective um and to assess, you know, trying to learn some lessons and take some feedback from from the from the failures or, you know, the failed relationship or the failed business project or wherever it might be, see what you can learn from that and kind of assess what you might do differently in the future and and how that would then impact and affect you. So it kind of just spending some time to go within to be alone with your thoughts. Um look for me, I I can do that in that environment where I'm on the beach, I'm in that, you know, kind of sunny climates, what I'm feeling positive and it's it's kind of feeding my soul um which then allows me to to make better decisions. Um So essentially just taking the time to to deal with these issues because people are so scared of spending time alone with their thoughts and dealing with these negative thoughts and negative emotions, but it's not until you actually sit down, press pause on on life and and close all the noise and all the distractions that you can then create the strategy for where you want to go on what you want to become in your life.

I freaking love that man. Honestly, that is such a brilliant answer and I think it's hard for people to um kind of wrap their head around that because, you know, we live in this world where we're constantly distracted, you know, and if we are having some mental health issues or we have failed or something like that, people start beating themselves up about it and then they, you know, they can't get out of their own head and they're constantly just distracting themselves with drinking or doing drugs or going out and partying or whatever it might be, and they never actually take the time to sit down and bring their awareness to whatever is going on in their life. One of the best analogies I've ever heard in my life, I can't remember exactly where I heard it from, whether it was a podcast or a book was there's two types of people looking at the world um through windows or in mirrors and the first person when things are going really well, they look in the mirror and they give themselves a pat on the back and you know, they are big up themselves for putting themselves in a good position and then when things are going bad, they look out the window and they point the finger at all of these other people and their environment and the bad luck and all that type of stuff.

But on the flip side you've got people who, when things are going well, they look out the window and they look at the people that have helped them along their journey. They look at these opportunities that they've been presented and they look at the environment that they've put themselves in that allows them to take these opportunities and run with them and then when things aren't going well, they look in the mirror and they say write, what have I done that's put me in this situation, how can I fix this? How can I move forward? Yeah, man, that's powerful and it's you know, it's it's taken the accountability and responsibility yourself rather than blaming other people or other things Awesome Man, How has your life changed over the last five years? Um pretty pretty drastically really. Um obviously from from a business perspective and everything that we've just discussed in terms of how have developed as a coach and and kind of tried to launch my own businesses and and and Live through trying to help people create change in their life has then led me to create in change within my own life.

So, obviously I mentioned about the failed relationship for five years ago when I left, you know, 27. So, no, not only my in a position that I'm, you know, I'm kind of um happy or kind of content from from a business perspective, also on a personal level having since then, you know, found somebody that I decided that I want to marry. Obviously, you know, my wife jess, you were at the wedding um last year. Um, so you're getting married and kind of finding my my soul mate if you wish, and somebody that want to spend the rest of my life with And then this year, now having our our first baby, right? So little summer is is 12 weeks old. So having spent that time um going through all those processes that we've just discussed, um, intern trying to become better a coach and a better person and a better businessman has then led me to be able to create better relationships, um, and to be able to create the, you know, a nice balance in my life, to make sure it's not all clients, it's not all business.

It's not all training or fitness, but also to have that that relationship element to to kind of lead me to where I am right now, make a big question for you, if you have met jess five years ago, do you think you'd be in the same position right now? Uh difficult, difficult question, difficult question. Um I'm possibly, possibly not. I would I would have likely have gone down a similar route in a similar road, but maybe just took a different direction uh to get there because we've mentioned about the energy and the effort and the time I put into creating that business, um which is where all my effort and energy went for a period of time. But then once I did start to develop that relationship with jess and decided that I wanted to take it further and obviously we got engaged, um I kind of switched focus a little bit too and I came to the realization that I couldn't give all the time and energy to the business without giving all the time managed to my relationship, which is essentially when I kind of transitioned from changing revival escape to what was then to to what it is now.

Um so, you know, having to take a step back from that and give more time to to my relationship and to develop in that and which led us to then being in a position to to get married and to spend time together as we're doing now. I think that is such an important lesson for the listeners back home, is that your values are going to change over time and when your values change, then your actions need to change as well. Um so that's the reason I asked that question mate was because obviously you went through that break up and you went through that transition period, the the failed project, so to speak. Um you know that will take a toll on you know, the direction that you're moving in, but you obviously learned a lot of lessons from that and you know something they say in the business world is fail forward, fail early, fail fast, learn those lessons and then you know, change course and start implementing those lessons that you've learned. So um I think that's awesome that you can recognize that and realize that, you know, once you go to that point where you met jess, you were in a different point in your life and you had taken those lessons, then you kind of transition and you realize that she was important and you wanted to work on that relationship, which meant that you need to sacrifice somewhere else.

I think that's such an important lesson men and you know when it comes to life right, like there's so many aspects of our life that people just take for granted. But if you want to improve one area of your life, that means you're gonna need to sacrifice in other areas of your life. Yeah, absolutely. Um and that that that's one of the first things that I try and do with with, you know, with my client, it's it's it's the wheel of life, right? So it's all the different areas that you need to be focusing on to kind of create a balance and happiness with your life. And if you spend too much time focusing on one of those areas, you're going to get an imbalance on one of the other areas. So if you spend too much time, you know, focused on your career, is your relationship going to going to take a hit or if you're spending too much time on your health and fitness is your, you know, is your your your finance and your your um your your career possibly going to take a hit. So it's it's about creating that balance and looking at all those different aspects in those different areas to try and maintain a fully inflated wheel.

I like it. I like it. Yeah, but I mean, ultimately it comes down to what your values are right, like at that time your value was to, you know, build this project to build the business and then um you know, once you kind of failed forward and you learned those lessons and then just came onto the scene, you know, you realize this was a girl that you cared about a lot and you wanted to progress your life together. So then, you know, you, that became a value for you became a top value, I'm assuming and then you started nesting more time energy and effort into that relationship, which meant that, you know, other areas of your life, we're going to take a little bit of a hit, but that was a sacrifice that you're willing to make right. So knowing what your values are and and being able to prioritize them, I think I think it's important and and the, the old kind of values hierarchy. So looking at, you know, what you want, what you want to achieve and then and then asking yourself, how does that compare with what I'm focusing on, what I'm putting energy on, what I'm prioritizing right now.

Yeah, awesome man. Um the one thing I want to talk about before we start winding, I'm, I'm just looking at the time and we're closing in on an hour, but there's still a few things that I want to get through. Um is there any outstanding mentors or leaders or people in your, in your life that have had a significant impact on, you know, your development as a person, as a coach, as a husband, as a father. Um Yeah, from from a kind of coaching or professional aspect. Um I guess one of the early mentors that I had was the guy that took me on my, on my PT course. Um I think you might know him actually leave with us, He's out now in uh in Singapore, you fit. So he was actually My tutor on my PT course back in 2013 I think it was. Um and at the time he is one person that kind of lit the fire in me to give me the kind of confidence and to give me the motivation and enthusiasm to go on and become a full time Petey and to develop into a coach and to to lead on the path that I'm now on.

And I've said this like I've remained in contact with lee ever since. And funny enough, he um we spoke to each other this morning because he's recently had a baby girl as well. Um and I've said this one before, it's like if if he wasn't the instructor on that course, I don't know if I would have gone down the path that I've, I've gone down because you know, a lot of the fitness quarters and the courses that I did were run by people that didn't necessarily have the enthusiasm or the passion and to show me what I would be capable of. But the way he instructed and taught that course kind of really did light up the fire of me and then, and then kind of I think definitely led me down initially in those early days and we've done the path that now I'm currently on. Um and then also wanna wanna wanna mention you as well, another guy, you know who is Mark Mariani. So again, in those early days, I think I I mentioned when I first came to Thailand I saw the videos of Mark and woody training down A.

T. F. W. And obviously I went down there to train with them and then trained Mark and kind of remained in touch and then when I made the decision to come back to Thailand um he was kind of my first port of call, I had a chat with him and discussed, you know, when he gave me some advice around that, now when I first moved out he was somebody that I would meet up with and kind of pick his brain on on on a few different things and really kind of looked up to and respected um where he was at the time um in in the fitness industry, what he stood for. Um And then of course since then um Myanmar kind of partnering up, partnering up and I'll be coming business partners and know everything that kind of he stands for and the and the values. Um I never hit everything that he's aligned with and I think, I mean it's no coincidence um you know, talking to you um also Mark is an ex military guy, Obviously he's America and he's he's an ex US marine. So there's a there's a common theme in all this, Right, So what from a from a yeah from a guy I guess a coaching and a business and professional aspect, those two guys definitely played their part.

Yeah. Cool man. What about other areas of your life? Has there been people that sorry to put you on the spot here, but has there been other people that, you know have shaped other areas of your life as well? Like maybe a mentor where you're like, well that person is a really good father, like I look at some of my mates man and they've got a couple of kids, they're married and You know, I'm 35 years old, never married, never had kids and you know, unsure if that's going to change, but I look at some of my mates man and I'm like you guys are fucking brilliant fathers and you know, if I ever have kids, I'm going to be coming to you guys for advice because you know how you raise your Children and the values that you're um you know, guiding them through and you know you guys are the role models, Children are sponges man and these guys are role models and I look at them and I'm like if I ever become a father, I'm going to be looking at you guys to kind of give me some words of advice and give me some guidance and push me in the right direction. Is there anyone in your life that's provided that for you? Yeah, I mean I guess I guess my own dad right?

Um I mean when when we were young we didn't necessarily have, you know too much money. I mean we weren't we weren't we weren't really poor, but we weren't we didn't have overly too much money and the job that my dad did wasn't you know the best job. Well he was kind of he was a kind of a laborer and then a Stormont for for the later part of his life. So I didn't necessarily have everything to give in terms of finance and opportunity. But the love, the love that he gave me and my sister and my brother um you know was far outweighed anything material that he could have given me. Um And that's something that then I want to obviously pass on to my Children and just becoming a father myself. Um It's yeah just showing love and affection and being able to do all you can with what you've got and the resources that you've got to do all you can to give your your Children the best childhood and the best life that you could possibly give them.

Mhm. May I love that man to round out the episode. Is there any advice that you would give to 20 year old Rob Morrigan? Yeah I think biggest advice looking back would be just to trust yourself um and to back yourself um with any major decisions that you have in life because I think so many people were kind of paralyzed by any internal conflicts and we're so scared and so fearful of the unknown or scared of failing um that we don't or possibly get what we want our life or reach our true potential. So trusting yourself to make those decisions and backing yourself to be a success or even if you're not success to learn from your failures, because, you know, if you're if you're torn between making two decisions, whatever decision you make is going to be the right one, it has to be because it's the one that you go with. So you need to put Everything that you have into into that decision and that choice and to back yourself to carry that out.

Um and just know that you're going to make some bad decisions along the way. Not every decision is going to be the right one. you're gonna make mistakes? You're gonna fail. But like you said, as long as you're failing forward and as long as you're learning from the mistakes and then it's going to get you to where you want to be. That is part two of the interview done. Absolutely love chatting to you, Make congratulations to you and jess on the birth of your new child. I hope everything's going well for you, my man. Um it's been an absolute pleasure chatting to you over the last couple of episodes and hopefully there's some actionable take away points for the people listening back home. Is there anything else that you want to finish with mate? No, I may have just been an honor to be on the, on the podcast. Obviously big props to you, we we met up kind of when exactly it was. But the last time we met up and chew the fat and had a cup of coffee, you told me that you were going to launch your podcasts and you told me what the aim and the mission and the goal was and then you're gonna bang out these 20 podcasts and I was like, yeah, go for it cubs and a credit to your mitt.

You went there, you made it happen and and you, you did it. And so it's been a big honor for me to see um an inspiration for me to see you releasing all these podcasts. I've listened to a fair feel within myself um and it's been great for me to come on the show and hopefully try and contribute towards that. Awesome. Thank you very much. I just took your advice that you gave to 20 year old Robin just cracked on, made decision and went along with it mate, brother, thank you very much. We've got to do this again in the future. May, it's always a pleasure chatting to you. I'll chat to you next time, rob, cheers sean, thanks for that. The western world is in the middle of a mental health crisis and our veterans have taken action switch sides. Team of combat veterans have built a proactive mental health program that is delivered through a mobile app. The app offers users programs in eight categories of health and lifestyle, all proven to reduce anxiety and depression. This holistic model forms your daily routine, aiding you to build structure, improved discipline and take ownership of your life. Once these habits are formed, the app will teach you new skills, skills that can form identity purpose and encourage physical interaction to rebuild your tribe and reduce isolation.