Automatically transcribed, so expect the odd wrong name or word.
Hey guys, welcome to the Virtus Performance Podcast. This is episode number 16. Today I sat down with Elise Buckin who is a performance coach. She's a former client, she's someone who has undergone a really big change over the last kind of 12 months in going from being a conveyancer to being a coach. We talked about her struggles and getting through an eating disorder when she was 16. For about six years she dealt with that and was able to come out the other side a stronger, happier human. We talked about how her mindset changed for all
that and I guess the way she looked at food and exercise and how she was able to change the way she looked at all those kind of things. We spoke about her doing the internship and what she learnt from it and I guess all of the things she's learnt becoming a coach and changing careers over the last 12 months. This is a lot of fun for me. I'm sure you guys will enjoy it too. If you have any questions or queries shoot us an email or send us a message. Enjoy! My personal and business goal is to be just a little bit better every day.
I believe everyone especially normal people have a story to tell. The Virtus podcast exists to help us all find small ways of consistent improvement by discussing the journey and experiences of each of our guests. Elyse Buckin, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. I'm super excited. First question for you. What gets you out of bed in the morning? Probably knowing that I'm going to train. Awesome. I love training. It's probably something that kind of pushed me out of bed at 5.30am most mornings to either be trained by you or train myself. So yeah, I still love
just knowing that I'm going to train the next day and how I'm going to push myself, how hard I'm going to push myself, what I'm going to learn. I love that. Awesome. What's your favourite part about training? I like the way your body feels during it, especially when you have pushed yourself pretty hard. Yeah. You work through that, not being able to tell yourself you can't do it. You work through it to be able to tick it off. Yeah. It's satisfying. Or when you go to do an exercise and you found it really hard one day and then you all of a sudden do it and you're like, "Yeah, that was pretty cool."
So the improvement, the constant improvement. Yeah. And just afterwards feeling really energised for the rest of the day. And it kind of sets you up for the rest of the day as well with your food and everything like that. Yeah. If you tick training off in the morning, then you're going to eat well and you're going to drink water and you're going to have a good sleep and all those kinds of things. Did you always love training? Not really. I've always loved living an active lifestyle, but it was never something I enjoyed doing until I really learnt about what I was doing.
Otherwise, I was kind of just doing it to try and stay fit. Yeah. Yeah. What are the main, I guess, things you learnt about training and about yourself and about how to go about it that's helped you kind of get on the track of being a weapon? Well, I guess going way back, my background, I was really unwell for a long time, which was something I kept to myself for a really long time, for about six years. When you were a teenager? Yeah, I started about 16. Just started to, my body started to go through these changes and I was always so tiny growing up.
Then all of a sudden, I saw my body changing. I was like, "Oh, I need to watch what I eat now. I need to start going to the gym," but it kind of turned into a really unhealthy obsession. That eventuated into an eating disorder for about six years. It wasn't until I really was on the path that I wanted to get better that I decided to join a CrossFit gym. Awesome. Looking back now at that kind of eating disorder phase, what were the traps that you kind of fell into? It was definitely nutrition. In my head, it was you had to eat minimal food to stay thin.
I had no idea about anything about nutrition. I wasn't educated on it, so pretty much anything that I thought of eating was bad. That affected going out with friends because I couldn't control what I was eating. It would leave you with the feeling of guilt. What was your main mindset change? Obviously, there's been a big change and a lot of things have changed. We'll talk about that as we go, but from a purely eating point of view between you look at yourself now and we go back since you're 16, what's been the main mindset change?
The main mindset change would be that I now know that my body needs food in order to exercise, so I look at food as fuel. When I first started doing weightlifting, I went into it still not quite well and I could barely lift weight. I felt really tired and lethargic and I thought, "I can't do this unless I fuel myself," so I started eating to fuel my exercises and then it shifted my mindset. That's super cool. That's really cool. How important was jumping into CrossFit to kind of getting you to where you are now? It
was probably the first stepping stone, so I was probably just joining that group setting of being pushed by other people and being motivated and inspired and wanting to be strong and healthy, not skinny. I guess I started to go to CrossFit trying to get your top scores on the board. It wasn't about going and trying to... Be skinny. Yeah, it was just being strong and then that's what started to fuel my exercise. Yeah, that's really cool. Being strong rather than skinny, that was the turning point in terms of mindset. Yeah, and I guess I turned an unhealthy obsession into a healthy obsession because I am still pretty obsessed with exercise, but it's different.
It doesn't rule my life like it used to. It's not a chore anymore. That's really cool and you actually look forward to it and you look forward to improving and challenging yourself and things like that. Yeah, and I know the way my body works now. That's awesome. I know how to manipulate it if I want to. I know what food, what it does to my body, so that's cool. Understanding. What advice would you give to someone who might be 16 and might be struggling with their eating and their mindset? What advice would you give them, having been through it all?
From what I've been through, if they're looking at wanting to exercise, to find a coach and be educated on proper training and nutrition. As soon as you're educated and you understand, you know what, I guess, am I trying to say it? When we know better, we can do better. Yeah, it's just understanding just changes the mindset. Otherwise, you think that you have to exercise to be skinny and you have to eat less food when it's the complete opposite. I'd definitely say just find a coach and just be educated. Yeah, and I guess that's something that
it's been really cool to see your journey over the last two or three years now, going from a friend to a client to an intern to seeing you as a coach now. It's been really, really cool. How's that journey been for you? Obviously, let's start way back from the start when you weren't coaching. What were you doing and how did you get into coaching? I was doing conveyancing. I just fell into conveyancing because I had a reception job as a 17-year-old and it just kind of got me into that job. I always liked, through high school, I liked the thought of being a personal trainer, but I thought, "No, I just like being fit myself.
I don't know if I want to do that for other people." Then my partner, Paul, started... Shout out to Paul here. Yeah. What a man. Started being trained by you and he always went on about it and how good it was. He stopped doing CrossFit. He was the reason I got into CrossFit. He stopped doing CrossFit and started seeing you. He was like, "I think it'd be really good if you just come and see Lockie." I was like, "All right, I'll do that," because I was starting to have a few issues with my back and stuff like that.
Yeah, it just sort of eventuated into me reaching out to you, learning... Train for a little while. The right way to train. Back in the shed. Yeah, yeah. I still remember my first time walking in there. I almost remember feeling almost frustrated because I'd gone from CrossFit where you're lifting weight and you're doing so much and then you really stripped it back. You wouldn't put weight on the bar. It was very technical, but I'd always leave feeling like I gained something that I really knew what I was doing, picking something up each time. That's cool. I just kept at it.
Then slowly, you'd be like, "All right, cool. We're going to pop some weight on." I'd be like, "Yes." I was always waiting for that little step in my hand. The stepping stone. It wasn't obvious at all. No. Yeah. Then just the more I started doing that, I was seeing you pre-religiously for every week. The more I started to learn, the more I loved learning about the way you lift and the way the body works and all that sort of stuff. I remember just one day saying to you, "I don't want to be a conveyor anymore." I remember that day because you came in and you were really upset.
You just were so salty. You were giving me nothing. I'm like, "What's going on?" You're like, "This is the best part of my week." I was like, "What do you mean? I look forward to training every week." I'm sitting there like, "Why are you upset? That's good." You're like, "Well, this is what I want to do." That was the turning point where you're like, "This is what I want to do. Let's start planning out what we do from here." I remember you saying, "Don't leave one foot half." You're like, "If you're going to do it, you've just got to take that leap."
I can never articulate that quote properly, but I think it's if you leave your foot in one door, you can never walk through the next. Yeah, something along those lines. I was always like, "All right, I've just got to do it." I remember just one day going into work and on my lunch break, just looking up courses because I was like, "Loki, what do I need to do?" The first step was just getting all the fun. You're like, "You need to get your cert 3 and 4." I was like, "Okay, cool." I just went into work that day and I applied for a course.
I was like, "Cool, I'm going to do it online, just keep working full-time." I just pretty much smashed that out. I was like, "What else can I do?" You're like, "Do the internship." I was like, "Cool, I'll do that." You're like, "We've got a 12-week course coming up." I was like, "Cool, I'll do that too." You ticked all the boxes in a very short period of time. Yeah, but it was a lot to deal with at the time. I knew what the end goal was and I wanted to get there so bad, so I just did everything I could to kind of fast-track it.
Yeah, it was really, really cool. How much of a change was it for you and what were the main struggles with it from going from being a conveyance art to having all this extra coursework and you're doing the internship at the same time plus you're still working? What were the hardest parts of it about making that change? I guess I didn't really have that free time anymore, so at least my lunch breaks were studying. I'd get home and I'd study then weekends and I'd almost make myself a little bit anxious if I was out doing something because I would think, "Oh, I could be studying, getting it done quicker."
It was just wanting to fast-track it, which was hard. But it wasn't too bad, I guess, because it still had that income coming in. But it was the easiest part because you knew there was an end goal and you knew what you wanted. Yeah, and I didn't particularly know where I was going to be when I got qualified at all. I was just like, "I just need to get it and then I'll figure it out from there." Yeah, that's really cool. I guess so many people will sit there and tell themselves that they hate their job or hate what they do, but very few of them actually pull the trigger and make it happen, which is super cool.
That was awesome to see. Very motivating. Yeah. Certainly got me up for that. What advice would you have for someone who's in that position, who's sitting there going, "Oh, do I make a change or not make a change?" I would say just if you're thinking about doing it, just do it. Don't try to plan it out and be like, "Okay, I'll go here, here, here." Just vision yourself where you want to be and you'll figure it out along the way. I guess I'm all about the positive affirmations if you actually vision yourself doing it, you'll do it.
Definitely. That's everything. That's where I am today. I've visioned myself doing it. It's pretty cool. That's really cool. I can definitely ... I always want to go from a gym, but little things around the gym that I had in my head two, three years ago that were just ideas, they've all kind of eventuated because they were there. You see them and you see what it looks like. When you actually end up doing it, they all happen. Yeah, it's pretty cool. You did the internship. What were the main things you got out of it? The main things I got out of it, I guess was just seeing how you, especially everyone ...
I guess the different coaches, how you communicate with your clients because that's a huge thing when it comes down to that coaching and that personal training, it's personal to them. You might be a certain way to someone, but then you wouldn't do that to someone else. It was just cool seeing that. I don't know. I can't really remember. I didn't get to finish it either. I had too much going on. That was kind of cool as well because you were able to ... We were able to have a good chat and you were able to see that you were taking on too much.
We realized that something's going to give and end up being the internship. I think we finished four or so weeks early. Seeing your development from ... The cool thing was you trained yourself. That's one of the things that we've been on about to the interns is you guys need to train yourselves because then you actually understand what it feels like. When you're talking and fostering those relationships with your clients, you understand where they're at. It's really easy to communicate those things. You'd already done a bit of an internship under me and under other coaches as a client as well, which was really, really cool.
That ability to talk to people and to get to know someone and I'm sure you'd do the same thing at Infinite, which we'll talk about in a minute. When someone comes in here, the first thing we want to do is get to know them as well as possible because that allows us to foster a relationship and create an environment where they want to be. That's one of the most important things too because you could go to any coach you wanted then. Everyone does the same thing, but you'd rather go to someone that you've ... It's more than just the coaching.
It's everything else. It's the way they make you feel. It's the advice they give you. You want to come out of your session having learnt something, every session. Even if it's something about a little cue or something different about how to look at your sleep or the way you're lifting or something like that. Talk to me about Infinite. It was pretty soon after you'd finished everything that you got a job. Yeah. I think Paul had got a text from BT saying ... We've been watching Elise. We know she's doing a fitness course and all that sort of stuff.
We're opening up a gym. We want to meet up with her. Awesome. I couldn't believe that. I thought, "Wow, this has just been handed to me pretty much." I didn't want to get too excited because ... Well, you'd done the work. It wasn't really that easy. Yeah. I don't know how you feel about lucky. It was just the timing was perfect. I'd finished my job in Conveyancing and I had about a month off before I started with Infinite. They sat me down one day out in Patterson Lakes at a cafe and just presented what they were opening up and just said, "We want you to be our female trainer."
Awesome. "This is gym." That was really cool. I was like, "Yeah, I'm bored 100%." I started there 5th of December. All right. That's almost 12 months. Yeah. It's coming up too. Almost. Getting there. Getting there. That's really cool. What were the main things that drew you to Infinite? Was it having, I guess, really awesome mentors like Benny and Steve to learn of? Yeah. Yeah. That was cool. I guess the thing that drew me to it as well is because it was just so new and it was cool that they approached me about it. I was like, "I must be setting some sort of example.
This is something that means a lot to them. They've put a lot of money, a lot of time into this place and this is really long term for them." For them to reach out to me and want me to be a part of it was really cool. Just being like what Ben and Steve were like, they're pretty particular and yeah. So I thought they wouldn't have someone who they didn't want to grow with their business there. So yeah, that was pretty cool. That's really cool. I knew I was just going to learn a lot. I was just fresh.
Yeah. I was so keen to learn. That was the first part about it. Yeah. What was the first couple of weeks like? It was pretty slow. I guess one, I didn't have any clients. I was doing a lot of reception work there because there's always reception during all the open hours. So it was pretty slow and I just wanted to be training people. So I do a little bit of shadowing Ben and Steve and then I slowly, once I got a client, just spiraled and just started to grow each time. So that was pretty cool. And then once that happened, I really felt like more that I was doing my job.
And Ben always said, "We didn't get you in to be reception. We want you off there as soon as we can, but we want you to have, I guess, an income as well." Yeah. So yeah, that was pretty cool. That's really cool. We did that. Was there ever a time, I guess the first month or two months where you're like, "I don't know if I've made the right decision?" No, I've actually never had that. Good. Yeah, I've not had that. There's been times where it's like, "Wow, this is different." It's definitely harder than what I thought it would be.
Harder in what way? I guess just the planning for a PT and just, I put it down to as well my personality and what I'm like, I'm not very out there. I'm not an introvert. I guess I'm kind of in the middle. So for me to be switched on all the time and be motivating and doing that sort of stuff, by the end of the day, it can really take a lot out of me unless you're someone who's just like that naturally. So that was hard, but I've found I've actually gotten a lot more... I can interact with people a lot more now because of this job.
And you probably know when you need time out, when you need some time. Yeah. Sometimes I just want to just not talk and switch off. Which is perfectly fine. I guess introverts recharge their batteries, so to speak, from themselves and spend time by themselves when extroverts recharge their batteries by being around other people. And I guess sometimes you're probably leaning towards one side, sometimes you're the other. Yeah, I'll have different days and I'll be bouncing off the walls. But this job is actually making me come out of my shell so much more. Yeah. Well, you have to.
There are some introverts that are amazing coaches, but to be able to put yourself in a busy hustle bustle environment of a gym, you need to be an extrovert at certain times. I remember doing my first bootcamp and I couldn't sleep that night. I did that before. I felt like my stomach was like, I don't want to do it. And now I run them on my own and it's fine. And I remember I couldn't even speak words in front of people. But now I kind of get there and then people are there to see me and I feel like I'm in charge.
That's awesome. So that's pretty cool. What got you out of your comfort zone to allow you to do that? Was it just a matter of, well, I have to do it? Or was it... Yeah. I guess you just had to do it. Just going through it makes you... Well, it puts you in an environment where you have to do it. Like it's kind of sink or swim. Yeah. Well, Steve would be like... I remember he would always take the start of the class and talk to everyone. And then it was about two minutes before we started the bootcamp.
He's like, "All right, Alicia. You're taking the bootcamp this morning and you're running the bit." And I was like, "What? No, I'm not ready." He's like, "No, you have to. It's like I've told you now because I didn't want you to dwell on it all night. So you're doing it." That's very different, yeah. Yeah. So I kind of went up there and didn't have any time to prepare. So I just had to... I was like, "All right, I've just got to go in and just do it." So I kind of put it on a bigger front and it actually went pretty well.
I feel like I would have said things that I was like, "Oh my God, you idiot." But... But you look back on it and then you learn. Like every... Yeah. Well, the next week it was easier. So you've got to go through it. Every minute you put into coaching pays you back because it allows you to learn and develop and things like that. Yeah. And I guess it's been... We've obviously done sessions on and off for the last 12 months while you've been working, but it's been really cool to see you develop under different people and under different coaches to kind of...
Now you've got your own coaching identity. Yeah. Identity, which is really cool. Yeah. And I guess that's important too. I mean, Steve's very... He's very out there and he's been one of the biggest mentors out of Ben and Steve, just in the sense that we've worked a lot together. And he's very loud and very motivating where I can be like that, but that's not my style of coaching and it never will be. There's just certain things that I take from it and then I'm like, "Yeah, I'll use this, but I'll still stick to how I am."
What's your biggest style of coaching? If you could pitch it to a new client, what kind of coach are you? I'm very eyes on. I love to watch my clients watch certain things that they do that I can tell when they're uncomfortable or struggling with something. And I give positive feedback when it's needed. I don't do it when it's not necessary. That's good. You're not a cheerleader coach. No, no, it's just not me. I don't feel natural doing it. If someone does something really good, I'll be like, "Shit, yeah, that was so good," but I'm genuinely happy for them that they've done it.
Otherwise, I'm not over the top. It's not me. Awesome. Ten months in, pretty much, to be a coach. What do you love about it? I love helping people. I just love seeing people's progress as well. And when they get something, when they've achieved something, you see how stoked they are. It's really satisfying. Then you kind of think, "Oh, it's them," because it's their hard work and their consistency, but it's your guidance that's helped them. It's really satisfying. It's an awesome feeling. Yeah. Really, really cool. Best job in the world. It really is. I love it. It's good.
And it's funny. A lot of the time when I coach people, I'll honestly be watching them do something and I'll think of what you would be telling me when I was doing that exercise. That's cool. I do it all the time. That's really cool. That's helped me with coaching as well. I put myself in that position and think of you when you were telling me how it made me feel. I really like that. Yeah. That was cool. Oh, stop it. You get all emotional, man. What do you dislike about being a coach? I sometimes don't
really like the split shifts because you get up in the morning, you get really up there early and you're up and about and you're motivated and then you chill out for the day, you've eaten, you've sat down, then you're like, "I've got to go back into work now and be up and about." I find that really hard sometimes. Sometimes, I don't like how sometimes you can't feel very satisfied with a session. Like with what you've done or what you've- Yeah. You don't like how the session went or the client doesn't look like they got much out of it.
Yeah. It leaves you with a bad taste. Yeah, but that's all part of the learning experience though. There's always going to be good sessions and bad sessions. You hope you have a significantly more good than bad, but there's always going to be sessions that are like, "Well, I didn't like how I did that or I didn't like how I wrote that." Some days, clients will come in and they'll be super grumpy and you just won't be able to get anything out of them. I guess it's just a matter of dealing with it, being aware of it, going, "Is there anything I could change?"
Yes, no, just being self-aware and then moving on from there. That's all part of coaching. It's just taking the good with the bad. But the hours suck. Yeah, the hours are hard. Yeah. What time do you just start? The earliest is 5.30. I haven't done anything before that. Good thinking. Yeah. There are four o'clock session once. Yeah, that's hard. Once, never again. Six o'clock is as early as I'll go. Yeah, four o'clock because then you'd have to be up at quarter past three, 3.30. Yeah, that was gnarly. That was when I was young and stupid. Now I'm just stupid.
What advice would you have for younger coaches coming up? You're someone that's still pretty fresh to the industry, but what advice would you have for someone who's just starting? I reckon would be to make sure you just absorb as much as you can and just take, for people who are, got more experience in the industry and want to give you advice, just take it. You don't have to take all of it on, but just listen to people as well and just learn as much as you can. Because there's just, like you've always said, there's so much you don't know.
The more you know, the more you realise you don't know. So yeah, that's probably my advice. Good. I'm going to change it a little bit. Talk to me about your injuries and I guess dealing with them and someone that loves training and loves the let's work really hard part of training. How hard was it to deal with a couple of injuries, setbacks over a period of time? So I got, I developed a hamstring tendinopathy in both my hamstrings. A double. Yeah, that sucked. That was almost two years, I reckon, a year and a half of going through that and trying to work through it.
And I did therapy and I went to a sports therapist, had like shockwave therapy. We had to strip things back and just work on a lot of, you know, ISO movements and stuff like that. A lot of osmosis stuff and a lot of postural control and a lot of patterning that we kind of had to, yeah, strip back is probably a really good term. Yeah. And that was frustrating because I couldn't do any running and I wanted to keep running. I'd completed a half marathon just before that happened. So I was really set to do another one and beat that.
So that was super frustrating. I couldn't really, I couldn't deadlift. Which is the worst. It was the worst. It is. But you became really, really good at hip thrusts. Yes, I did. Hip thrusts a lot. They're probably actually my favourite exercise. It's because you couldn't deadlift for so long. Yeah. So that was really frustrating, but just staying consistent and really peeling it back and then yeah, it became better. Did your mindset change, I guess, throughout the injury, like throughout dealing with the industry, injury? No. I just worked on other things. I was like, well, I can't really do anything about it.
Like I can and I'm doing what I can, so I just work on other things. That's really cool. I guess so many people look at injuries and just kind of like, poor me, but it was really cool to see your mindset. Like as a coach, it was really easy to coach you through that because you were, well, I know this is an issue. I know we can't do this, this and this, but here are the things we can do to improve it and let's work on all the weaknesses while we're working through it. And that was super cool.
Do you know, I guess, what caused it? Was it a lot of running? Was it a lot of lifting? Was it a bit of both? I think it was a lot of running. Yeah. I was doing a lot of running. I was doing CrossFit and a lot of running and wasn't doing any mobility. I hadn't started strength training with you yet as well. So it was, I remember just being in Bali, running along the beach and I was with Paulie and then all of a sudden I just felt this pain in the back of my hammies and I'd never felt it.
It was really deep, like right under my butt. And I was like, oh, I've got this weird pain in my hammie and I couldn't really describe it. And then it just started to get worse and worse. Now you run. Yeah. And I kept pushing through it because I was like, well, I love running. I'm not going to run. And then it got to a point where it was just, it hurt to do like a fast walk. It hurt to wear high heels. And I was like, all right, I need to do something about it. So I stopped CrossFit and that's when I reached out to you.
Yeah. And then we just had that change of mindset around training where it was, sometimes we've got to kind of blast you and work really hard, but then sometimes we've got to caress and look after your hammies and make sure we're not making it worse. Because I guess like one of the really, really simple things that I follow and we follow in here with injuries is if something makes something hurt, doing more of that thing will probably make it worse. But it's really hard to get your head around it when you can't necessarily do it and things like that.
So, yeah. So how are they now? They're so good. They're strong. Awesome. And you can do it now. Do you think, I guess, changing that focus to quantity and changing it to maybe quality with like strength, do you think that's what kind of got you through it? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. And just being consistent with it. Even so, some of the exercises we do for it were like so frustrating. Because they're boring. Yeah. But they've definitely helped strengthen them. So that's good. Awesome. That's really cool. How your, I'm talking a little bit about your social media and your Instagram and I guess what you're trying to create with that.
One of the big changes like since I'm 80 to now has been your ability to get strong and really push how important being strong is. And there's a lot of other things that come with being strong is being mobile and being able to move and all those kind of things. But why do you think being strong is so important? I guess being strong, I feel that it empowers you as well. It's really empowering to be strong. And just to be able to know that your body can, you know, if it's lift heavy weight or lift your own weight is, you know, a really good feeling.
And I guess it just makes your whole, I feel like it gave me a strong mindset as well. Yeah. And it helped me to think of goals and want to reach them because whether it be, all right, I want to be strong and lift this. It also helped me be like, all right, I want to set this goal outside of training and make sure I do it as well. So. That's really cool. Yeah. And is that, I guess, is that your, the message you're trying to push on Instagram, social media to all of your groupies, followers?
Yeah. And I guess just pushing that like exercise, the way you look, like body composition shouldn't be your main fuel to exercise. Awesome. It should be about the way it makes you feel. I guess it's just a, like the way you look is just a byproduct of what you're doing. Yeah. How do you think people get past that feeling of, oh, how this is how I look? Because I guess from a really simple standpoint, like we look at it, the way our mindset works, it's, well, if I do this, I'll get to here. So it
might be, if I eat less like you used to be, or if I train a shoe load, I'll lose weight and I'll look like this. How do you think people get past that? And I don't have an answer either. I just want to see where your head's at. Yeah. I guess for me, if they, if you shift your mindset with your training and say, okay, I want to go to, I want to go to the gym because I want to get strong. I want to be able to do a pull up. You'll start going to the gym and you'll start training to be good at a pull up.
And you won't be that focus of trying to look a certain way, won't really be your main fuel to go in there and train. So you'll start working on ways to get stronger in your pull ups and all that sort of stuff. And your body's just going to change without you even being so focused on it. Yeah. That's what I feel like really changed for me. Yeah. So it was more of a shift from, I guess what you look like to a performance mindset. Yeah. And like, of course for me, I still, the body composition, like that's, I still love that.
I love building muscle and, you know, looking a certain way, but it definitely doesn't control me. Yeah. It's a part of it. When do you think that changed for you? That change in mindset from body comp to performance? Can you pinpoint a time? It was when I started strength training. Yeah. Because I actually knew that, like I used to squat and really not know what I was doing, but when it was really broken down and I was really educated on what I was doing and, you know, you start being able to lift heavier. Yeah. I don't know.
There's just something about it just completely changed and it's been really cool to take some of my clients through that as well. Yeah. Yeah. Is that, what's the most rewarding part, part of seeing your client's mindset change? Cause I guess a lot of people, like a lot of coaches will focus on, Hey, my client looked like this six months or six weeks ago and now they look like this, but what's the most important part of that mindset change? What's the best part about the mindset change? Seeing it. Seeing how, I guess it affects their life and their moods and their attitudes, I reckon.
Yeah. I guess the gym is just a, just a mirror for life. I think when, when people's mindset change in the gym, you see everything else start to tick over. Like the gym is a really, really simple metaphor. It's just you give your body to stress, it adapts, you change, you get better, you give it another stress and you keep ticking, ticking boxes and reaching your goals. And then when people start applying that to their life, they, they get to where they want to get to. Like for you getting to being a coach, a big part of that was probably your ability to see what you wanted and go for it.
Yep. 100%. And that's like, I don't, with my clients, especially like my, I've got a few male clients, but my female clients, I never put an emphasis on the way they look. I don't even, I don't even talk about it with them. I'll, you know, if they do something like I've got a client and she couldn't even do a walking lunge, she couldn't even pull her body weight up from a lunge. And now like I have her lunging with weights and I always like when her weights go up, it's just the emphasis on, you couldn't do that, you know, a month ago.
We never talk about the way she looks ever. And she doesn't talk about it, you know, so that's one big thing for me, I guess, is that I don't, I don't let them come in and think that I'm going to pop them on the scales or talk about their eating. And those mindset changes is something that you've kind of give them the power to have that for the rest of their lives, which is kind of the best thing about it. Like it's not just like a short term change of getting you on a big calorie deficit and smashing them for six weeks.
Like you're actually teaching them and empowering them to be able to make the right decisions. Yeah, themselves. And then it won't, you know, they'll just naturally do it or be their lifestyle. Yeah, that's really cool. It's a little bit sadistic, but I like using the phrase with my clients. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I need to make sure that you're going to be okay by yourself. Yeah, that's true. Which is probably not the best way to look at it. But yeah, it kind of makes them think about it. That's really cool. What do you think of the, I guess, the main drawbacks with social media and body and I guess self esteem and things like that?
What are the, what are the negatives that come with social media? I guess a lot of especially females looking at other girls on Instagram and wanting to look like them. Yeah. Instead of just having them as inspiration or motivation, it's like they actually put it as like, you know, body goals, hashtag body goals. Yeah, which is definitely for me with my Instagram is not something I want to promote. I want to inspire and motivate people, but I don't want people to look at it and go, I want to look like that. That's not the message I'm trying to get across because, you know, everyone, everyone's bodies are so different.
And my, I guess for me growing up, I've never, it all depends as well on their genetics and the way they are. There's so many factors. Yeah. And everyone's bodies take differently, different parts. So for me, the way my body looks, I just cause I look the way I look doesn't mean someone would train the way that I do and they'll look the way that I am. Everyone's so different. My body just is the way it is because of, I guess my genetics as well. Yeah. Well, it's like it's your genetics, but it's everything that's happened from the day you were born up to now, everything like has affected it in some way.
Like the way our body, like, you know, but you get five different clients and give them the same program, the same eating, the same sleep, the same hydration, and they're all going to have slightly varied results from it. So yeah, that ability of people to differentiate between, well, I want to look like this person, but there's so many different things that go into it. Yeah, exactly. And it's just, yeah, it's just getting people's mindset around it and it's, yeah, it's good that that's the message you're trying to push because I think the world needs a
little bit more, a little bit more of that and a little bit less objectifying and comparison and things like that on social media because it just kind of creates a black hole for, you know, younger humans who are looking at social media for their identity and what they want to be. All right, I got a bunch of questions for you. You can be as sure and succinct or as long as you want with these answers. Yeah, I'm sure I'll be short. What is success to you? Oh, what is success to me? There's so many, okay, this might be a little bit long.
I think there's just success in so many different ways. I guess success for me is figuring out what you want to do and doing it, you know. Being successful is living like a fulfilled life, having financial freedom. I don't know, there's so many, this could go down so many different avenues for me. That's cool. But successful is just I guess being happy in what you're doing and getting to where you want to be. Awesome. Yeah. Good answer. I'll leave it at that. That's awesome. Where do you draw your inspiration or from who? This is going to sound really, really corny, but I get a lot of inspiration from Paul.
Good. Yeah, he's probably one of the main reasons why I actually got better. So I just get a lot of inspiration because he pushes me and motivates me to keep doing what I'm doing. That's awesome. So yeah, he's cool. He's like, yeah, best bud. Yeah. Love you Paul. Yeah, thanks Paul. What a man. What are you grateful for? You can say Paul again if you want. Yeah, grateful for Paul. I'm grateful for the relationships that I've built with people, like where I am now. It's about, yeah, I'm happy with the relationships that I've built with people and I'm really grateful for it because I feel like it's helped me get to where I am.
Awesome. Yeah. If you could give teenage you one piece of advice, what would it be? That's a hard one. Yeah. Can I come back to that one? No. No? Okay. First thing that comes to you. Teenage you, well I guess it just relates back to when my eating disorder began. Start strength training early. Yes, start strength training early and talk to people, like talk to someone about it. That was something I kept to myself for six years. That was crazy. So I think I would have got through it quicker and dealt with it if I had spoken about it.
Who was the first person you kind of reached out to chat to about? I remember briefly talking to my mum about it, but I didn't really, I only brushed her surface and just said that I was having trouble with my body. Didn't actually tell that I was hung well. So I actually never told anyone. I'd only, yeah, I'd only told Paul when I was getting better. So yeah, actually never. I kind of, and that's what I think back to, and I feel really happy with where I am, is that I actually did it on my own.
I figured it out on my own. Which is a lot, like it's more than a lot of people can say. Yeah. If you had your time again, would you have, I guess, reached out to different people and talked about it? I think so. Yeah. That's good. Awesome. What was the last book you read start to finish and what did you learn from it? I read the answer. And wait, what was the whole question? And what did you learn from it? What did I learn from it? It's, so it's all about the way the brain works and the way we create habits from a really young age to now.
And about, it's about, you know, making vision, like seeing a vision and making sure that you set goals and timelines. And so I guess I've learned now to, if there is something that you want to do, do it. If you're not liking something, then you don't have to do it. Like don't get stuck in a rut of something that you don't like doing. Whether it be if you're in a relationship, like you don't have to be in it. A job, you know, just. Make a change. Make it happen. Yeah. Yeah. It was a really cool book.
Awesome. Really cool. After you were ready. Yeah. You'd like it. If you could have a billboard on the Monash Freeway, what would you put on it? I don't know. Radio silence. I thought the radio can't see me thinking. Oh, Lenny. My dog's the cutest. What's it like being a mum now? Yeah, it's good. It was hard. At one point I was like, what have I got myself into? How long into it? The top thing Lenny was at? For the first like two, three weeks, he was still really puppy, like really sleepy. And then I reckon it hit about a month and he was just like feral.
He drove me insane. I remember saying to Paul one day, and I felt so guilty after I was like, he causes more grief than he does happiness. And Paul was like, take that back. Now he's like out of that puppy stage. And yeah, we're obsessed with him. We both are. That's awesome. We love him. I actually got home today and Rosemary had picked him up without me knowing. I called Paul crying. I was like, someone's taken the dog. He's like, mum's got him. Do you have any morning rituals? Morning rituals. I get a coffee. Definitely. I have to have a coffee.
I have to. I remember once I was at work and I couldn't get one. So I went on my phone trying to see Uber Eats could bring me a coffee. It's not in this area. That's not ideal. That's an addiction. It was pretty hard. So definitely a morning coffee is probably my ritual. Who are your biggest influences? So it can be anything. Again, Paul, he's a big influence for me. He's a wise man. He's just got a lot to say. So I just, I really take on stuff that he says. And I think a lot of people will get that when they talk to him as well.
And I guess I've got a few in terms of, I guess I was related back to training, but if it was traininess, I've got some influences on Instagram that I look at. And it's not that I look at them and be like, oh, I'm going to do this because they did it. It's learning off of them and seeing. Yeah. And that helps me in my life that, cause that's what I do. I train and I train other people. So that does have a big influence on me. Awesome. Yeah. What's the nicest thing you've ever done for someone?
This is the one question everyone gets stumped on. Yeah, it's a hard one. I did something nice the other day. I don't think it was the nicest thing I've ever done, but I walked into Safeway and I saw a girl who'd obviously gone into Safeway thinking that she was going to get one item and ended up getting hanked. So she had her hands full of all this stuff. She was walking around like that. So I went up to her and I was like, oh, do you want a basket? And she was like, oh, maybe. And I couldn't find a basket.
So I was running around Safeway trying to find her one. And then I found one and helped her put her stuff in. And then I was like, all right, yeah. That was like, just something little like that. I was like, I felt it was satisfying. Awesome. Yeah. Love your work. If you could be remembered in one sentence, what would it be? Oh, that's another hard one. These are hard. That's a different remembered in one sentence. Yep. I really don't know. I don't know. What do you think for you? Some of them inspire people to be better.
That's cool. Cause I think that's what you're doing. Cool. I'll take that. Couple of favourites to finish off. Yeah. First thing that comes into your head. Favourite movie? The mask. Cause it was actually on the other day and porno. First movie. Favourite quote? People are mean, but we're meaner to ourselves. Taylor Swift. Not so good now. Favourite recording artist? Taylor Swift. Carry on. Favourite resource for new information? The internet. Which part of it? All of it. There's so many like social media. Yeah. There's so much because then people's social media like links to websites and everything.
So there's just so much out there. Yeah. But actually probably a good old book I reckon. But more so for me I like ones that are like life coaching kind of business ones. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. I like flicking going from the books I read or listen to from a business one to like a person one to a business one to a person one. Which helps. I haven't read a lot of them. Paul's more like really into them onto the next. Yeah. But I've read some and I aim to I actually just bought a book the other day.
Awesome. It's called like what is it dot com secrets. Sweet. Good. Favourite hobby? Favourite hobby. Well I love training but actually my favourite hobby was probably I don't do it anymore but I loved netball and just running. Will you ever go back? Probably not but I actually growing up I used to play do karate and I'm thinking of doing something like not karate but maybe new tie just something really I like being. Yeah. It's going to be a challenge. Yeah. I've seen something different. Yeah. Good. Where can people find you if they want to hear about you or from you or anything like that?
Hey Cam. See you Cam. So if they want to. If they want to find you follow you talk to you. Yeah. Don't have to give you my world number but. No. Well I guess my Instagram. Yeah. I got my email address if anyone ever has any questions to email me for any advice or even comment on my videos. Oh cool. Let me know if you use my videos and like tell me not to be like oh that's mine but I just want to it's cool to get people's feedback about it as well and what they like how they found it and stuff.
Yeah cool. I'll put all your details and email stuff in the notes of this but thank you very much for coming on. No worries. Have fun. Yeah it was good. Love your work. Thank you. Any more for any more? Good. Love your work. Thank you.
