just jumping in here quickly to let you guys know that I have recently created a facebook group for listeners of the lift train performed podcast. So this private forum is the place to connect with other podcast listeners and guests as well as to interact with myself and other coaches who have provided content for the coach's corner episodes. So in this forum you can ask questions which I can then answer in the group or I can use them for episodes, former Q and A sessions, post relevant articles you can share memes. The goal is to create a network of like minded people um so that everyone can interact with each other. Um you guys are listeners, the audience members can interact with the network of professionals in the fitness industry that have provided good quality content for the podcast. To gain access to this private group. All you need to do is leave me a rating and review what this does is allows me to bump up the ratings, draw bigger names and bigger guest to the podcast for your listening pleasure. Um once you've left a rating and review, take a screenshot of that, send that through to my instagram at coach underscore codes ko bes once you've done that, go onto facebook type in live train perform that group will come up request access, answer the three questions and I will grant you access, I am in the process of building out my online business.

One of the income streams is going to be from the facebook forum, So I'm going to be allowing 50 people into that forum for free after that, it will be paid access only, so get in early, be one of the OGS. Thanks guys, much appreciated, Yo, what is up guys, welcome to this episode of the live train perform podcast, I'm your host Sean Cobra and joining me today is Leroy four, who is a former soldier turned entrepreneur, he is the owner of fit dad lifestyle and fit dad fuel Leroy, welcome to the episode mate, Thanks sean, happy to be here, Happy to have you here brother, you are also a swiss aid ambassador as am I and for people tuning in who may not have listened to the podcast before or who have only recently come on board Suicide is a proactive mental health model designed to allow people to structure in and schedule eight pillars of health and wellness. Now those pillars of health and wellness are sleep, nutrition, time management, discipline, fitness, personal growth, mindfulness, and minimalism.

Leroy for you may have to do any of those pillars stand out for you in your life right now. Yeah, mike definitely, um I think time management is one of the biggest things and it's something that I try and preach quite a bit to not only my community, but also take onboard myself is trying to get the most out of every day and not use, I guess being a father or being, you know, with the demands of the business and everything that we're trying to do their take away from any other aspects of one living the life, but to trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle and keeping active every day and ultimately being that example that we want to set for the kids and probably one of the things that, you know, to go at the time, which also ties into, I guess the fitness and the personal growth and everything else that's sort of all interlocks into each other is, you know, I get up at four o'clock every day now, I run my own business. I do not need to get up at that time.

You know, I could get up, so it doesn't matter, but by me getting up at that hour, I get to one, you know, work on the business side of things and deal with people from different time zones. But then I get to go to the gym, I get to have that time to myself, listen to an audiobook podcast or something like that and then get home. I can walk the dog and I can get, you know, those first few major goals sort of ticked off before the family even wakes up and then I don't have to, you know, take away from the time that I want to spend with them and getting breakfast ready and, you know, the start of their day where we might go for a bike ride and, you know, I'm not sort of then going to go do my own stuff and taking away from that time. So I think it's just about Working out what works for you and yeah, you might have to sacrifice staying up watching that extra movie at night or sacrifice flicking on the socials to 11 pm and get to bed a little bit earlier. But it sort of takes my goals, it takes the family's goals and you know, they're probably the principles that I would say are the most important to what we go through.

Mm I love that man. That's very well said, well we'll come back to that in a moment. But where did you learn how to build that discipline and create that time management protocol that would allow you to focus on yourself for the first couple of hours of the day, fill up your cup. So then you could pour from that cup towards your family. Yeah, I think obviously, you know, and we've all been through the military system. I think that the first part of the discipline obviously derives from there because I joined when I was 19 or 20. So before that it was 40 school party, you know, that was sort of about it. So I think the discipline the usual first. Yeah, that's right. So it's I think that's where ultimately started from. But then once I left the military, I started my own group, fitness business boot camp nursery before I sold that a couple of years ago and I ran that for about six or seven years because I had no other qualifications behind me.

It was just a pT certificate at the time. And um I think that sort of had to self teach myself very very quickly won the early mornings because obviously in the pt game it's early mornings, late afternoons and on top of that you know just sort of scheduling the rest of the day and then fast forward to having kids and realizing that hey I can actually you know being a P. T. I can spend from nine or 10 to 3 or four every day with my son. So if I can get everything done the training sessions, my own training and everything before that nine o'clock then I've got this big chunk of the day in the middle that I can you know be dad and help out the wife or do whatever and then the afternoon I don't have to then take away and do my own training session. I can just do what is required and come back and help out with nighttime routines. I think it's sort of naturally progressed. But I think being in the military and then sort of just forcing those habits. Um we're probably how it started and how it was built into what it is now mm hmm let's go back to your time in the military, how long were you in for?

And what did you do? Your an infantry soldier at two R. R. Is that right? Yeah mate, so six years or just under six years. So it was four up in Townsville to our er and then it was 89 for the last couple. So I just want to go to 89 because they were raising battalion at the time, we just got back from timor and I always wanted to get back down towards the sunny coast and I thought you know, getting to Brisbane was the next best thing new battalion. There was a lot of potential there to have that fast sort of growth for support courses or you know, subject courses. Not that I did any subject courses but I just said it as a new um new routine and a way for me to probably much like you guys in Darwin get out of that garrison city. That was the one thing that never really sat well with me like you were, you'd go out in town or and you obviously been known because you're with 10 other guys or you know whatever but you were labeled an age or labeled exactly good, bad or otherwise before you started.

And I think coming down to Brisbane gave me that name milady of just being able to be go to work from seven or four and then literally knock off and become you know a everyday person, we actually lived in calandra. Exactly. And yeah, so you're not Lance corporal corporal, whatever, that's right. And yeah, we lived in breezy, so we moved to the sunny coast and we're just traveling down busy every day for work. You come home, you go for a surf or take the dog to the beach and you're just a normal person because he always used to get early knocks and your home by two or three in the afternoon back to the sunny coast and made it was, it was a great lifestyle. It really was. Mm hmm. So you got out in what year? 2011? March 2011. Yeah, yeah, I got out in March 2012. So we've been out for roughly the same time a decade, man, that's gone faster. I know I was only thinking that it was 10 years from me, this, this march just going, I kicked in a couple of months ago I was going through because we just bought a new house and I was unpacking some old boxes with all Military stuff and like seeing the discharge papers like Holy Ship, that's been 10 years already.

Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah man, but dude, like I did a post on social media a couple of days ago, we're recording this on 29 September this will probably go live like maybe first or second week of November. Just because I've got like a project coming up after this where I'm going to be um, I'm not going to have like any time to record podcasts, I'm like back loading them right now. But I did a post a couple of days ago on um you know, being a decade since like this time, 10 years ago, I was 11 years ago, I was like in the usa about flying to Afghanistan just being bombed up, briefed up, I was just about flying to Afghanistan man. I was like, you know, thinking back to that journey from then to now and all of those lessons that I learned through that deployment in particular, I deployed three times, I went to Iraq East timor Afghanistan, so I hit the trifecta in six years, so I'm really grateful for that. But you know, I've taken those principles that I learned from my time in the military and then applied them to my life and like they've served me very, very well.

And a lot of people when they do get out of the army, they lose their purpose, they lose their direction, they lose their self identity. And you know those lessons, those S O PS they learned those, you know, habits that they formed, they kind of just fall away because you end up rebelling, you're like right, I've been so regimented for the last six years, you get out, you're like funk it, I'm not getting out of bed, I'm not going to shave, I'm not going to do this, I'm not gonna do that man and you know, that's where people lose their way, but it took me about 6 to 9 months ish, kind of just floating once I got out before I was like, you know what, like when I was at my best I was doing this and I was doing that and I was doing that and I was like, why don't I just start doing that stuff again once I started doing that stuff and just repurposing those S. O PS that I had been taught and taking those principles from my military career and applying them to my everyday life man. Like things started getting better and like the more I do that stuff and the more I'm in control of my day, looking after those principles I spoke about, um you know, the better I'm performing.

Have you noticed anything like that for yourself? Yeah, definitely. And I think I've sort of been lucky and probably very similar to you to get straight into that health and fitness sort of space straight after. I've seen a lot of friends who were in the military at the same time and you know, they're going to get corporate jobs or mines or become tradesmen and you know, it isn't as easy to get back into those habits of training and looking after yourself, but then still feeling relevant and yeah, I think, you know the way, like, cause I got bad knees, back back and shoulders and stuff like that, you know, some related to military, some post service as well. But um I find with myself both mentally and physically, you know, if I train every day and it could be just some pull ups out the back here, it could be you know, just something with the kids or you know it might be a gym session or a light run or a bike ride that it just gives me that tick in the box that I can sort of you know, continue on and I feel like that first goal, that first task that first part of the day is done, um I can't really train in the P.

M. Not that you know, I physically can, but I just don't feel like I can get in the zone and you know, I just like doing it either before the sun comes up or now that the sun is up a lot earlier up here in Queensland, that's sort of allows me to get outside and you know, just sort of connect and as I mentioned the start, just sort of had that time to me where I know the phone's not buzzing, you know, they haven't got kids demanding my time, you know, I can get out of the house and I'm not taking away from any of that and I think that by looking after myself, you know, one of the body stays healthier and fitness obviously improves, but to it just helps me stay focused and you know, I don't then have to try and fit in something at the end of the day when the kids might have sport or a meeting gets sprung upon you, you know, randomly or traffic stops, you getting to the gym on time or you know, whatever the case is. So I figure, you know, by doing everything at the start of the day then no matter what happens for the rest of the day, you know, you can't take away from what I've already achieved.

Yeah, I'm 100% agree man, like I love to get my training in first thing in the morning, you know, obviously when you're in the army, that was, that was the first thing you did exactly rock up, you go on parade, get your name called Sweet straight into PT, then you have breaking down the hangers, draw weapons, go through skills and drills, whatever, then I would go to the gym after working all day and then I would go to Rugby training man, I was like training 23 times a day when I was in the army um but now that I run my own business, I do work for Tiger Muay thai and the head strength conditioning coach there in Thailand, but you know that's my main job, but then I also have my own business on the side and I find that, you know, if I'm not doing my training first thing in the morning, I've got so many other things going on that if I don't get it done, then my attention is drawn in so many different areas throughout the day because, you know, as you said, things come up, you're emailing people, you've got to reply to things, you've got business opportunities, you've got, you know, so many other things that pop up throughout the day and you're constantly putting out fires.

So, you know, I'd like to get in early, get that stuff done, get the things done that are important to me first thing in the morning, again, that ties back into that time management stuff and I think a big part of that time management stuff is understanding what you value and what your priorities are for me, getting that training in is, you know, it used to be about all about performance and now it's still kind of is somewhat about performance because I know that when I do get that training in, you know, I do get that mental cognitive boost, I do feel good, I get those feel good. Endorphins flowing, get the blood flowing, get the heart rate up. You know, I feel good after my training sessions, I feel sharp, so then that carries over and complements the rest of my day, you know, so understanding what you value, understanding what your priorities are, is very important for being able to schedule your day and as you said that first two hours of your day, that's when you're getting the most important stuff done. You've got no distractions, no one else is up.

You've got no nothing, you know, pulling your focus in different directions so you can really hone in on the things that you need to do. Is there anything you want to add to that? My not really it's I forgot that you worked at the tiger moutai over because we used to run a fitness like holidays around the world. We used to take groups over the bali and Thailand and Everest base camp and yeah, we used to train out of action point in railway beach as well and I remember going to tiger moutai a few times just to show clients there and check it all out. So it was yeah, just sprung my memory when you said that, that we used to do that a few years ago. So Nice mate. Well when you when when the borders opened up again, you've got to contact the tiger now. So yeah, definitely go back there. Yeah. Cool man. Alright, so you discharged from the Army 2011, what did you have any issues when you went through that discharge process? Like did you kind of fall off the wagon a little bit, lose your self identity, your purpose, your direction. And if so what did you do to kind of get out of that hole?

Get yourself moving in the right direction? So I I stuck my back in my final year in the army. So I've got a couple of bulging discs in my back and slipped vertebrae as well. So that was sort of the reason I end up leaving. And I was just lucky enough that when I was in there I studied to be a personal trainer on the side just in the spare time actually started online whilst we're over in timor because it was just a lot of downtime at that time. And then I finished it at fit nation in Brisbane once I got transferred down there. So I was sort of lucky that I had that behind me. I had no skill with no business knowledge or no, you know straight from school basically straight to the army. So of course I started the boot camp company because leaving the military that seems to be what you do at that at that time. So I was lucky enough to you know once I discharge move up to Noosa and it was a tough first year because I was lucky that my wife grew up here in Noosa.

So we had 10 of her friends to sort of come and they were paying like five bucks a session like very basic to get started. But then it was sort of the start of social media back then in 2011 as well. So It wasn't now where you post something in 2% of your following bases actually seeing it back then it was you post something and everyone seeing everything so we could very quickly capitalize and we built that up to 220 members over the next year and then it was fine. We were doing, you know, 10 hours a week and it was actually, it was like a dream. You're doing 10 group sessions a week and earning all this money and living the dream, Living the Lifestyle. Yeah, you could surf, you could chill out. You're, you're finished by 7:30 AM not going back till 5:00 PM. Yeah, it was, it was very lucky, but it was also very tough in those first six months and a lot of learning curves, a lot of mistakes made because you know, the military, especially coming from an infantry background. It doesn't set you up for running your own business or understanding tax or understanding payments or websites or social media and you know, so I've never done any formal courses or formal qualifications apart from that Petey certificate and basically just self taught myself through Youtube.

Even to this day, I still make all our own websites, We do all our marketing, our own podcasts, videos, all that kind of stuff. And it's just trial and error through, I guess the University of Youtube, I like to call it and you know, there's just that much information on there about everything that you want to do that. I don't think people need to go Study and do you know, 234 years of university unless they need to with like a doctor or lawyer or something like that. But yeah, to get to where we are today and you know what we're doing at the moment from there 10 years ago is pretty good. Talk to me about that journey mate because you obviously started those bootcamps straight out of the military, easy transition. Um Living a good lifestyle. You've since been scaling your business. I'm assuming in that time you've had a couple of kids as well and that's how the fit dad lifestyle kicked off. Talk me through that process and how having Children then changed your thoughts around training, time management, etcetera.

Yeah, so we started, as I mentioned back in 2011 it was just group fitness outdoors at the time. We then got a warehouse and probably doing very early model like mixed between f 45 crossfit, just indoor circuits, but in like a just a warehouse with a torch and bars and kettle bells and big truck tires and all that good stuff. And yeah, and then we obviously started the fitness holidays about 2013 or 2014. We're taking groups over the Everest base camp and then bali and then Thailand which was sort of You know four or 5 trips a year until about 2018 was our last trip. Um And yeah then I think just naturally because our Children, we had our first born Harry in 2013 and we've got two more kids now. So tanner he's nearly five and then mia she's five months old. Um And the kids were always involved in everything that we did so my wife should come down and would run mumps above classes for her and her friends that have babies around the same time and you know the nighttime sessions outside of those times we made like a little cray sure we had the kids you know just something random set up in the corner for them and if we did take groups to Thailand or bali you know they were on the plane they were coming over there as well just being involved and being around and you know we used to just randomly pick up um you know like just different villas or different stuff we're doing in different pictures of us training with the kids or us doing videos at the villas or something like that and um it was actually I went over to Kabul and did a bit of private security at the embassy a couple of years back and um I was the same thing so a lot of time on your hands and you know I developed an e book like I had all these content all these pictures and I spent three months whilst we're over there just putting this book together thinking it was going to be the next Kayla it's sign sort of became anybody died sort of thing for dads and we're going to sell millions of copies in the first month.

And anyway spent three months had all these got professional photos done like professional designers, all this information and I think I saw one copy in the first two weeks after that. It just like it was the most depleting thing ever. But I thought it was a home run anyway they probably put fit dad on the shelf for about another 3 to 6 months because it actually beat me down that much thinking that I had this amazing product. So anyway that got put to the side and then about 3 to 6 months later went back to bali during one of the breaks from over there and um yeah we just started posting workout videos with me and my wife and you know one of the guys said you know do you mind sharing different workouts you can do with my kid? And I said oh yeah I'll make a facebook group and just added a few dads I knew in there and a few old clients that were fathers as well and Yeah I just started posting random stuff in there and it just naturally they kept that in their friends and then it just kept growing growing. I think today we've got just over 5000 dads in that private group now which is good and e books cells 5-10 copies a day so that just is whatever, it just keeps going out the door and we've got about 3000 clients without supplements now and you know like where things were 2.5 years ago too and where they are today is completely different in every which way.

Like I never thought it was going to be a business model, I never envisioned doing supplements. Um it was always just a group to share your workout tips and maybe do a bit of online coaching in between. But yeah, every couple of months it just seems like there's a new opportunity or something else that we can evolve into and utilize what we've already built in the community that we've already got two just take it with both hands and I don't think I'm afraid anymore to take that risk or You know, failure actually like if I had that evil thing happened to me now, I think I'd love it and give me 10 times more energy to go after it because I'm not relying on it as much as probably what I thought I was back then. Um yes, so I mean it's been a bit of a journey, it's last 10 years, but you know, I think every one of those failures, every one of those, you know, starting the business and learning social media and youtube and you know, I guess building a community in person and both online and then traveling the world and seeing how all that connected and then, you know, building the e books and building all this different stuff has probably led to where we are right now and it's probably a lot of those, I guess wins.

And also a lot of the mistakes that has allowed us to, you know, probably get to A level now where we're now starting to expand our team and expand into the retail and distribution and expand overseas and you know, I think, um yeah, it's exciting journey and it still honestly feels like we're only beginning. You know, I still get excited by, you know, some of these new things because we're going into Uncharted Territories with a lot of things that we're going to, it's it's going back to that day, one of that learning hurt and you know, making mistakes again and then figuring it out that being able to connect with the right people and you make it happen. Mm Yeah, that's a great point mate. I was going to ask you how you felt like when you're, you put all that time energy and effort into creating that e book, you knew you had a good product, but maybe it wasn't marketed right? Maybe, you know, for whatever reason it flopped, like how did that make you feel, knowing that you've spent so much time energy and effort in doing that and probably money as well creating that with the professional photos and all the other things that go hand in hand with that and then it was a failure.

Like obviously you shelved it for a while, how did that make you feel my at the time? It was um yeah, painful honestly was very, I've sort of had up until that stage, everything we were touching sort of yeah, turned to gold sort of thing and there was, there was wins after wins and to then launch something thinking that, you know, I mean I put it on amazon and I put it on google, I'm gonna put it in Itunes bookstore and you know, put it for 10 bucks, you get 1000 fathers buying a month, which is nothing and just having all these plans and thinking that it was just going to, you know, go crazy. It really hurt because I put probably three months into it, a lot of time, energy and money and um yeah, it was, it was one of those things that I end up actually taking myself back to. Yes, so about three months after that failed, I think I had a month off for two months off and I took myself over the action point actually by myself for five days and I just wanted to train, get my head right and figure out what my next move was because I didn't want to work overseas anymore.

It was taking too much time away from the kids and I knew that I wanted to be in the space, I knew that I wanted to be doing something online with the father and I think that's where the group might have started and that's where I come up with the name that fit that lifestyle. And then I was showing shaft the owner of action point. Um, the plan, he goes, this is really good. You just need to, you know, re jiggered and get actually someone who actually specializes in publications and books to give it a bit of a touch up and yeah, that evil we still use today. Obviously it's had a lot more information added to it. But the pictures are still the same. A lot of the information about goal setting or reverse engineering or strategy and meal plans and all that sort of stuff that's in there is exactly the same as what it was when I first launched and failed that. It hasn't changed because it hasn't needed to. We did like that. They give the job when we first did it. And yeah, just by changing the cover and changing a few things around, it's really allowed us to now reap the rewards of pushing that out there.

Mm hmm. Absolutely mate. Um, that is an investment. There's so many things that you just said there that reminds me of my own journey. We've got a very similar journey by the way. Like I got out of the army and went straight into pT, um, started my own business etcetera, etcetera. Um but I'm I'm in the process of building out my own business now, So 2017 um I broke up with my now ex girlfriend of five years, came over to Thailand, you know, took up an intern contract at Tiger muay thai for two months. I didn't know what was going to happen man, I had a two month contract, didn't know if I was going to get a job there, I didn't know if I wouldn't be offered a job, I had all these options of, well I'll apply for a job at Tiger will apply for a job at unit 27 at Titan fitness. I want to live in Thailand, I want to work there. If that doesn't happen then I'll take my backpack and I'll go traveling the world or I'll go and live in new Zealand whatever. Like I had so many options, but when I first went to Tiger or when I first went to Thailand, I had my online coaching business which I've been running for probably about two years and I've been building that up progressively over that time, it was never like a, it was never like a full time thing, it was always a bit of a side hustle, but once I went to Thailand I was like I'm going to build up my online business, I'm going to really push that and if I can live in Thailand and make enough money for my online coaching and not have to dip into my savings, make enough money to live, then I'm good man, I'm happy I can live really good lifestyle.

Then I got offered a full time job at Tiger two months a month later and then I became the head coach at Tiger like five months later, so that then became my number one priority and you know that plan of building the online business, I never really took off, I've always got my online business going, I've always got somewhere between 6 to 10 clients. I never advertise it, it's never something that I push, it's always just something on the side to help some people, But now is the time where I'm starting to build that out and part of that process is creating content for the podcast. I think this is by the time this comes out, this will be about 140 episodes that I've got for the podcast man. And you know, I haven't been paid a cent for the podcast, that's actually cost me a lot of money, a lot of time, energy effort, as you know, you've got your own podcast which we'll talk about in a moment, but for me that's an investment, right? So I'm putting together all of this content so that because people message me all the time on instagram or people come up to me after a training session at Tiger and be like, hey coach, I want to know about this and that and blah blah and they're asking these black and white questions expecting black and white answers.

I'm like, it depends, it depends, it depends. I don't know anything about you. So you know, I was like, maybe I'll start a podcast and I can start putting together this content. So when someone asked me a question, I can just send them a link, you know, so 100 and 40 episodes, by the time this one comes out, I've actually started transcribing a lot of the episodes, which I'm then going to co locate all the information that's relevant to specific topics, put them together into e books and then I'm starting to film training programs and things like that. I don't even have a website man. So I'm creating a really good product, then going to put it on a website and have something to sell and kind of sounds similar to what you went through a couple of years ago, but I think that's important to invest that time energy and effort into creating a product because now you had that product and then once you start building some momentum, once you start getting your name out there, once people start coming to you looking for good quality content, you already have it built rather than going the other way where people try and build a website and then add things, they try and build a name, they try and build a reputation for themselves, they want to become an influencer and all they have is these cookie cutter bullshit programs mate, you've hit the nail on the head and that's one thing that people don't realize about fit dad as well and much the same of exactly what you're saying.

I had the podcast, the group, The Facebook page, Instagram page for 18 months before I sold or made $1 out of fit that lifestyle. I gave away All my content or everything I knew I helped people with like said programs and nutritional plans and even just picking up the phone if someone was on the edge because they were going through something with their wife and you know, I did that for 18 months before I even launched the supplements and the supplements sort of by product because I kept getting sick of people asking what supplements do you use and what do you recommend? And then someone randomly wrote in the group one day or you should just bring out your own and then you don't need to do it. And um my business partner is actually, well that's it and yeah, I didn't realize that the time business partner and one of his friends was in the group and he owns one of Australia's largest manufacturer that he was in there as a dad, you know wanting advice, his dad and you for fitness and he reached out and said, hey mate can come up and see you and that's where the supplements come from.

It was never and vision will never thought the whole thing I sort of did was I think that the Gary v sort of jab, jab right hook or that book that he brought out was which basically means give, give, give, give and then asked and I think that's the way that we sort of built to fit that lifestyle. We had about 2000 dads in the group before we offered one online training program, one workout on our training and then obviously the merch and the stuff on top of that but they see the glitz and glamour of where it is now. But don't realize that you didn't get paid one cent for 18 months and had to self funded through working overseas and working random jobs here and opening up doing pt on the side and Exactly the same as what you're saying and you know, it is funny make that journey and that similarities between us, you know, over the last 10 years is crazy. Mm hmm. Yeah man. Um let's discuss the fit dad lifestyle.

So obviously you became a father, you realized that you know, you need to make some adjustments to your daily routine, your schedule, your priorities so that you could be a good father could be, could be a good partner and contribute to your family. Talk to me about that transition from kind of having a lot of time for yourself, spending time with your wife, but then having Children and then having to change those priorities And then how that transitioned and became the 5th dad lifestyle and why you started putting out this content for other guys to be able to take this content on board and apply to their own lives. Yeah. So like back in 2013, both by the boot camp business, my wife was working full time as well and obviously she fell pregnant and then gave birth to our first son. You know, I never wanted her to work, you know, I wanted to work within the business and stuff like that.

So because I really wanted the kids to not be at daycare after six months from turning your leave ends and her back at work. And so we were in a position where we were pretty lucky, you know, business was doing the right and we could support both of us or her just helping out the business and doing that. So, you know, I was probably very lucky in that respect that she had also been very close to her sister at the time who had a kid who was two or three, so she had been involved with her sister quite a bit and looked after the kid from when I was a baby. And so she already had those sort of mothering instincts, whereas when father would come around for me, it was like smack in the face, You know, there's no rulebook, there's no blueprint, there's no nothing and it really is, even now with the third one about six months ago, it's still a totally different culture shock and it's, you know, it's even though you've got a bit of an understanding being the first girl as well, there's all these different other things that sort of get thrown into the mix.

So going back to, like when you mentioned about time management, nothing really changed too much. I still work in the morning, still work in the afternoon, but instead of my wife being at work during the day, I actually got to just hang out with them and, you know, if she needed a rest or you know, we took the hurried down to the beach or we took him to the park once he got to a certain age and or did stuff together, you know, went out for lunch and stuff. So it actually probably just built our unity and our relationship stronger because we got to spend a lot more time together. So it was probably, it was probably, you know, looking back now, it's probably one of the best things that, you know, having kids because it was always just me during the day because I'd have the start and finish today and then you should be working through the middle. So it was sort of like, you always by yourself either trying to fill in time or doing whatever. it was probably yeah, one of one of the best things to happen and then naturally number two and three come and yeah that's sort of how it then evolved into the fifth dad and being an online based business um you know I can be at home at one o'clock and do a podcast store.

I can, you know like the other day like I was just looking for my son for a two day holiday camp, so I just sat down there and got to watch him, you know take a couple of phone calls here and there, but you sort of not needed to be somewhere from seven till five or you know whatever the time is, you can sort of pick and choose like I can go back to the warehouse and do another five hours after this or I can go outside and play basketball. It's sort of that freedom now to pick and choose what you do and not have anyone else to answer to I think is one of the beauties of what were developed and we have developed it with that whole Lifestyle approach to it because you know we do value our family time but at the same time if I do need to put in 10 hours tomorrow then that's what's required. I'll do it. But if I've got nothing on tomorrow and we want to go to the beach or go do something as a family for the day, then we can also do that as well. So, you know, if that means on sunday that we all as a family have to go to warehouse and pack boxes because we had a massive day then so be it.

But if it means on a monday we can take the car at the beach and hang out together and go surfing, then we'll also do that as well. So we're sort of, You know, we don't have a 9-5, so that it is 24/7 to a degree, but also completely in our control of how that looks and you know, if we I don't need to be working hard than we won't, and we can also double down and get stuff done if we need to mm hmm. There's gonna be times when you're putting your head down, you're working your pass off so that you can give yourself that freedom that time to, you know, go to the beach for the day or whatever, definitely being proactive rather than reactive, let's talk about your primary message for the dads out there, that, you know, what's the main point that you want to get across to your community in the fit dad lifestyle. Yes, So, the main thing that we try and teach people is that they do have enough time and to try and increase their own confidence levels in themselves. The biggest thing that when we ask questions or talk to people and you know, I don't have enough time to do training every day or I don't have enough time to meal prep, er I don't have enough time to spend time with my kids and it's like, well there's 168 hours in a week, you know, open up your screen time app and we're getting into it in front of our face or in video zoom and you're like, okay, so that's six hours on facebook, four hours instagram three hours Youtube netflix did that.

The young, the list goes on, it's like the time that you just told me you don't have is right there in front of you, is that your priorities are not matching what your goals are and because you aren't hitting those goals, it's also taking down your confidence levels and because you don't have confidence levels, you know, it's just aspiring out of control. So yeah, we're really trying to, you know, get dads to not only believe in themselves, but realize that they do have the time to do stuff if they plan it properly and if they get that time management back in line and you know, that the kids are imitating everything that we do, you know, so the kids more often than not following in what we're actually doing than what actually saying, even with our kids, like obviously it's a bit different because they're part of videos, they see dad working out there all the time, So if I'm out doing a workout at the backyard or playing basketball, just something random by myself, I can guarantee that the kids will be down there within a couple of minutes.

Whereas, you know, if I'm sitting on my phone or laying on the bed or watching a movie, then I can't expect my kids to be outside playing basketball. They're probably going to be doing exactly the same thing or like ipads or sitting there watching something on the tv as well and you know, so that's probably one of the things that we try and get across to all these dads is being able to just look after themselves, increase their self confidence, you know, realize that they have enough time to be able to actually do what they want to do in life and by making sure that they have that balanced approach approach to their health and fitness and that they don't need to be training to get that six pack or they don't need to be training to win that next gold medal. Like if they just do something active every day in a passion of theirs, like it doesn't have to be, that's probably one of the in the gym. Yeah, exactly. And comparison and social media is probably one of the things that I find is the one thing, You know, that is haunting and hurting a lot of fathers because they're seeing all, these you know these days all these before and after photos and all these different things and you know, there are deep diving into that coach who's used the same before and after photo for 10 different programs.

He's just change the date to match whatever his new program is that he's selling and you know, it's like, well this guy, he lost eight kg in six weeks and this is the program he did and they're signing up to all this crap out there and it's like, You know, you're not going to get the results that he got and okay for the 5% that do follow everything and have had that training before and can be disciplined enough, you might get there. But chances are as soon as you get there, you're going to fall back into bad habits because you've just had this crash course of just craziness to get these crazy results and then you're going to fall back into bad habits. You know, our biggest thing is, you know, Eat well 80% of the time or eat well when it's in your control. But if you do go to that party, you do get invited to that barbecue. You do have a wedding, a funeral or whatever and there's some cake there or there's a beer there or whatever, then just do it because you know, you've still got to live and you know, if they can train at least 15, 20 minutes a day in something that they love and that might be rock climbing for some bike riding for the other zumba for the U boxing for you.

You know, whatever the case is if you do something you love, chances are you're going to be able to sustain it for the next 2010 to 20 years. And chances are that you'll want to get your Children involved into it as well when they're an age where they can actually do what you're doing and it's going to give you that new lease on life and allow you to pass on your love of that individual activity that you're doing and be able to then get involved at a new level, whether it's coaching or helping out in any which way. 100% agree mate. And a big point that you made, there was phone time um a couple of years ago I listened to a podcast and the guest was saying that the average person is on their phone for, I can't remember, it was two hours 45 minutes or three hours 45 minutes every day. And I was like, all right, I'm gonna check this. So downloading that, check my phone time every day. And I was averaging like two hours 45 3 hours every day. And I was like, fuck. Like that adds up to 2 1/2 months on your phone over the course of a year, right?

So I was like the way that I thought about that, I was like, wow, I need to really reduce my phone time. So I started implementing these practices on a daily basis. And I think I went from, I cut my phone time down to 2.5 hours a day over the course of a couple of weeks and then two hours a day over the course of a couple of weeks and then now it's down to like 90 minutes a day. So when I'm on my phone for 90 minutes per day, that is, it makes me very intentional with what I'm doing when I do go on my social media. You know, I'm prioritizing what I'm doing. I'm not just mindless, mindlessly scrolling. I'm being mindful when I'm using my phone rather than mindless. And I think that's a great point because you know, you do have that time, but going back to investment, what are you investing your time and time is something that you will never get back. So if you're investing your time in mindless bullshit, that is not actually adding to your life, then, you know, you could be investing that time in something that's going to contribute to your life.

So yeah, maybe you're watching Youtube, but instead of watching some random bullshit, maybe look at your Youtube channel or my Youtube channel. I've got like Training sessions, I've got like 10 training sessions on my YouTube channel, 10 sessions in under 20 minutes that people can do anywhere with minimal equipment last year when I went through lockdown I put together I think probably like five or six weeks, three sessions a week over the course of four or 56 weeks where people could train from home using minimal equipment, glide boards, bands, suspension trainers, body weight, um etcetera. So as you said Youtube University, right, there's definitely things that you can watch out there that's going to give you the information and the knowledge to guide you on getting some form of movement and most people think that they need to go to the gym for an hour, right? And If the gym is 20 minutes away then that's 20 minutes to the gym, that's an hour at the gym, that's 20 minutes back.

That adds up to two hours man. Like if you have some equipment at home, very simple equipment, grab a kettlebell, grab some bands, grab a skipping rope, maybe a TRX suspension trainer or something like that. Like You can do so much at home in like a 15, 20 minute block every day and it doesn't even have to be every day. It might be alright, I'm going to commit to doing an hour of training every week And that might be Monday Wednesday Friday, I'm going to do a 20 minute block on those days, Do that for a couple of weeks. If you can do that for a couple of weeks. Alright now I'm going to do Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday and I'm going to increase that to an hour, 20. then I'm going to increase that to an hour 40 and then it might be, I'm going to increase those training sessions by 10 minutes, right? Like that's progressive. Overload one oh one man. Like that's how you start building habits, that's how you start creating consistency. Is choosing a target that you can reach, but it's also going to challenge you and then once you can hit that target, then you moved the goalposts, is there anything you want to add to that or is there any um any specific videos that you have on your Youtube channel that you can send people to?

Yeah, so I think you've hit the nail on the head there and you know, in regards to the training at home, I had a bit of a reaction to the second job about three or four weeks ago. And since then I haven't been back to the gym because it's just, you know, I haven't been able to get the body right, and I've only been training here at home and resistance bands pull up bar and I have got a heap of equipment, like kettlebells, dead balls, Olympic bars and all that kind of crap that I hardly get it out. I literally have just been using to pull up our dumbbells and resistance bands and to tell you the truth in the last month, I've never enjoyed my training more than I am right now. And it's because I'm just mixing things up and I'm doing really basic stuff like 15, 20 minute workouts, you know, just, but I think the beauty that I'm finding is I'm also getting my wife out there. She's getting into the workouts and kids are coming down there. Like dad, can you and your kids are watching you man. Exactly. And you know, in between sets, like I might be having a restaurant doing what I'm doing, but my middle son's like, dad, can I do some pull ups and you're helping him out?

And then it's like, dad, can you show me how to do this and like you're not worried like whenever I'm training in the families around, it's never about a time frame. It's never about reps, it's never about anything. It's when they stop smiling or they stop enjoying it. Then I stopped and I'm done. I don't want to just force them or be down there and be doing something if they're not involved. But the beauty of doing it here as well as halfway through the session, we might have a shooting the basketball, then we might play Tiggy or tag, you know, something like that around and then we might go back and do a bit more and I'm just finding a new love for just also being around them nonstop and helping my wife get back into things after. Um giving birth five months ago and shift that final bit of the baby weight and get back into that routine. Um in regards to the programs, we gotta training app out there as well, which we've run through the train arised platform and it's just 15 minute workout. So we went through that hole process of custom building programs and jim programs and strength programs and all this kind of different stuff out there for dads and it was honestly like we're putting it out there and people like I don't have enough time to do it and when the pandemic hit last year I'm like and half the gyms were shut and because we deal with people all around the world, not just Australia and I just went through the app, I deleted everything out there and made everything a 15, 20 minute workout that you can do from your living room and all you need is a set of hexi dumbbells and that's it.

So all our workouts, we have 200 different, you know, 15 20 minute workouts on there, a set of dumbbells, all you need and we just made it some absolutely ridiculously low price, just one off payment, nothing ongoing. And that's it. And people have been, but there's people in there lost 2030 kg because we give them a copy of the evil with just basic lifestyle nutritional sort of choices and just cleaning up a few things and you know, yeah, people are just getting crazy results and we never showcase any of it because I'm against before and after pictures as I mentioned before, and I just think that they just get used and abused and I don't need to showcase someone else's results to get clients and nor do I want to because you know, that's their own individual achievement and I know that what that person, their results are not going to be able to be replicated by anyone else because their life is different, their upbringings different, their financial position is different, their priorities, their work, everything is different.

So I don't want anyone trying to be copying anyone else just to get that result. So even though they're following the same 15 minute workouts, they're doing it on a time that suits them and in a way that suits them, Yeah, you made a great point about the before and after pictures, you know, so many trainers, coaches influences in quotation marks, you know, they get really fucking lean and they have a photo shoot and then they use all of those photos all the time for years later. And what people don't understand is that, you know, they don't look like that all the time, you know, like that's a that's a process, man. And again, those challenges, I spoke about challenges with another one of my guests on the podcast recently and you know, those challenges, six week challenges, anyone can be disciplined and motivated for six weeks and get really good results and you see the before photo, you see the after photo. But what you never see is that after after photo it's taken six months later when they put all the way back on and you know, they haven't learned and implemented those habits and that discipline that they used through that six week challenge because you know, it was a crash course, it was like let's restrict, let's really dial everything in.

But they haven't actually learned those habits and been able to implement them long term, you know, So six months later they're back to where they were plus some and then they go, oh I know what got me in shape last time. Then they hit this six week challenge again. You know, you never see that stuff man, So it's just that vicious yo yo isn't it? Yeah, yeah, 100% man, let's talk about fit that fuel. Why did you start that? I know you mentioned it before that someone, you know people were asking you about supplementation et cetera. Now the reason I ask is because anyone who has been listening to this podcast for awhile knows that you know, knows my view on supplementation. I did a seven part miniseries on nutrition, one of the one of the first series that I did when I first launched podcast in May last year, but I went through the nutritional pyramid of importance covered off on energy balance macronutrients, micronutrients, meal timing frequency carb cycling, calorie cycling, different diets etcetera. And then supplements were sitting on the top of that pyramid.

And for me you know supplementation is exactly that it is to supplement your diet. If there's something missing from your diet and a gap needs to be plugged then that's where I use supplementation. You know if for example a lot of females they tend to under eat protein and they're typically dieting for long periods of time. Alright let's go through a reverse diet. We need to get your calories up, we need to bump your protein up. What's a simple way of doing that. Alright let's give you a protein shape. That's a simple way of doing it. You know I'm in Russia at the moment with PTR. For his fight camp and the weather is starting to get cold. You know I'm not getting outside, I'm not getting as much sunshine. So this is where I might start supplementing with vitamin D. You know if you're a vegan and you're potentially missing out on you know iron and um you know b vitamins etcetera then maybe supplementing with that is going to be a really good option for you create in as well. So that's my view on supplementation.

Why did you start fit that fuel and what are your thoughts on supplementation and how do you use supplements. Yeah mate. So I'm definitely under the same approach as what you said like supplements are exactly that they're supplement. Ating you know what you're not getting. Um The reason behind why we started it was one it originated from just getting asked non stop. So that's where it sort of started from. But I didn't want to create another fitness supplement. So I don't push even though we're called the fit, that lifestyle and fit that fuel is the actual supplement stuff. We actually don't push it out for people just for the fitness space. And that's why we actually refer to them as lifestyle supplements I guess. So we worked with one of the leading manufacturer in Australia and they've got a team of five food scientists that are based down there. So we worked with them for about eight months developing the product. So our energy is actually designed to hit the pain points that dads have of the baby being up all night not getting enough sleep or you've got a busy day on the tools or you got a busy board meeting but they can also be used on before as like a pre workout as well.

So we wanted to hit every day sort of like as a sort of substitute for the coffee for example because a lot of people just have their morning coffee and either train or morning coffee and then go to work. So we're sort of giving people a bit of an option there. Plus we packed it full of proprietary blend of new tropics as well. Just sort of give them that cognitive benefits The hydration product. That's just the essential minnows and electrolytes. So that's just everyday use or during the session. Um and then the recovery product is our sleep formula. So it's magnesium B6 and zinc is the main ingredients of that. And that's just to help dad's unwind at the end of the busy night. So tuck the kids in the bed, you know have that and it sort of just allows the body just to slow down and reset um and allow them to do it all again the next day. So you know we don't include the supplementation in any meal plans. We don't include it in any programming like that because as you mentioned it's not needed for everyone if people like their coffee, well you're not going to double dose up on the caffeine just to get the hit of it for the ships and giggles sort of things.

You know it is more developed for those pain points of fatherhood and I think that's why it's sort of taken off the way it has because we're not pushing it out there you know like you need this every day or you know like it is designed to be part of the daily staple but a lot of people use it you know to just replace some of those things that you know they weren't getting prior. Yeah I love that man you're using them when you need them and you know this is the great thing about supplements, that's why I do love supplements and you know I definitely don't bash supplements, I've taken every fucking supplement under the sun, especially when I was in the army man when I was trying to build muscle was trying to get massive as a rugby player as well, you know, muscle stack, you always like flicking to the back of muscle fitness and you're like alright, where's all the good ship? Yeah, yeah, I spent a lot of time, a lot of money on supplements that was just really sucking waste of money, but if they didn't give you the tingle on the face and it wasn't good enough and you went to the next strongest and that's how I engaged a good pre workout back in the day 100% man, 100%.

But you know there's definitely there definitely is some great benefits to supplementation if you're using it correctly. And one of those benefits is the convenience, right? Like you know, as I mentioned before, if someone's low on protein, they need to bump their calories up then instead of eating another meal then you know they can simply take a protein shake, have some milk, this is this is my breakfast when I'm in Thailand man, it's like I don't like to eat first thing in the morning, you know, but if I've got a busy day where I know I'm not going to get my first meal in until two o'clock in the afternoon, then you know, I'm just going to have a massive super shake where it's like milk greek, yogurt, protein powder, banana berries, spirulina, some other like greens and um superfood powders and things like that, throwing a bit of peanut butters and cheer sees man and like there's 1000 calories bro, you know that that gives me the energy that that allows me to get through the first, you know, six hours of the day without needing to eat and you know, it hits all the hits all the um gives me the calories, gives me the energy, it gives me the macronutrients gives me the micro nutrients as well and it's easily digestible.

Yeah, I'm exactly the same. I have an energy upon waking at four or five in the morning Hydration during the session and then I have a smoothie as well, about 10 or 11 during the day, which is the same thing, chia, seeds, odes, some of our protein way. And then yeah just like some frozen strawberries and a bit of water and saying 5, 600 calories. But it's enough to get me through. I didn't have the next meal at two o'clock which is, you know, it might be some tuna or crackers, you know, just something, you know, it's plain and simple that gets me through dinner and then have a big dinner and like I don't try to compliment locate things, you know, keep it simple and you know, it works for me and that routine and that Neil might not work for anyone else, but it's sort of once you find what works and but I don't, I'm not stringent on that as well. Like if I got asked tomorrow morning, by the way, hey, we're going after Ricky, I'd have a big plate of bacon, eggs and you know, like I wouldn't care if not, it doesn't have to be like that, but you know when it's in my control, it's hell.

I like to do it awesome man. If people want to get in contact with you, if they want to get some of your supplementation, they want to have a look at your app, get some of those at home training programs, etcetera, where can they find it? Yes. So the fit, that lifestyle dot com is the best place to go for podcast website subs and all that stuff and stuff. And then the fit that lifestyle and all the socials is where you'll find us and if they do want to get some subs use the discount code veteran, all in capital letters and 10% of any of those sales that come through with that code will donate Swiss eight as well, lovely, I will write that down mate, let's quickly talk about your podcast. What sort of information are you pushing out there and what's your audience. What's your target Demographic? Yeah, so we're about 140 episodes as well. So much similar to yourself. Every one of them has been a father and you know, it is we sort of have a core set of about 10 questions, but much like this podcast and all the others out there, you know, sort of go where the conversation leads you and, you know, with different information that gets put on.

We've had, you know, olympians on there, we've had navy seals, victoria cross winners. We've had 10 figure business owners, everyday people out of our community and customers. And yes, so just anything regarding tips and tricks to fatherhood in general, health and fitness advice and even business and success, you know, sort of stuff with some of the bigger name guests that we've had on there and how they managed to do the stuff at the top level that whether they're at currently and how they manage that with kids. So if you're a new dad or you're sort of stuck in your way or in a bit of a rut and just want, you know, to get a fresh inside or, you know, a bit of knowledge of some of these people that you may look up to, or some of these people that you may follow on social media then yes, probably a different conversation to what you've probably heard them say in the past because it is very focused around being a father, Mm hmm.

Love that mate, I'll have all of those links in the show notes. Just to start wrapping up mate. One of the final questions that I asked most of my guests is the name of this podcast is live train perform. That stands for live life to the fullest. Train to your potential and perform at your best. What does that mantra mean to you? But I think as a father and very on brand with what we do is living life to the fullest is just being able to give as much time to your family and you know create memories rather than sort of buying not forgiveness but buying special gifts and stuff for your kids because you're never around and realizing that, you know, if you're not looking after yourself both physically and mentally and looking after that of your family by setting the right example and being confident in the way that you go about things, then you're ultimately going to continuously fall back into bad habits and not be able to be that example and role model for your kids. So, I think with the mantra that you just set just really concentrate on making sure that you're giving yourself the best start to every day because naturally that's going to flow through for the rest of your family and improve every other aspect of life.

I love it mate, really appreciate your time bro. As I said, I'll have all of your links in the show notes. Leroy, thank you for coming on mate mate, no drummers and yeah, once it's live and let us know and we'll share it across all the socials shall do, cheers bro, cheers mate. This episode was brought to you by Swiss eight, which is a proactive mental health program designed by veterans initially for veterans that has been pushed out to the wider community that allows you to structure in and schedule their eight pillars of health and wellness, including nutrition, sleep time management, discipline fitness, personal growth, mindfulness and minimalism. This episode was also brought to you by be spunky which is a male hormone optimization supplement that I've been taking for about a year and a half now. Absolutely rate it is a TJ listed nutraceutical meaning that it's made from all organic produce to help you manage and optimize your stress levels, which in turn increases your ability to improve testosterone production levels naturally, User code codes 10 at checkout for your 10% discount all of those links will be in the show notes, if you've got some benefit from this episode, please make sure you pass it off to your friends and family.

I'd appreciate any shares on social media platforms. If you tag me or if you share it to your stories, make sure you tag me so I can share that as well. Any five star ratings and reviews are much appreciated, much. Love guys, peace