S1E24 · Simon Cooper

Hey guys, welcome to the Virtus Performance podcast. This is episode number 24. I sat down with my good friend Simon Cooper who is head and chief operator of marketing here at Virtus Performance. He's one of our performance coaches. He's someone who I met at uni all those years ago and after a couple years away from us, moving over to the UK with his wonderful, wonderful girlfriend, he managed to find his way back to the peninsula and we've been able to reconnect and we took him in, took him in and looked after him and gave him a job and he's paying it back two-fold.

So this is a really enjoyable chat for me and I hope you guys get a lot out of it too before we get stuck into it. If you are enjoying the podcast, if you are listening to it, I would love you guys to share it to your friends. It would be really appreciative if you could rate and review it so we can start working our way from the bottom up to the top of those iTunes charts and start getting a few more people listening to it and finding different ways of improvement like we are. So thank you very much for tuning in.

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. Simon Cooper, welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much for having me. Mate, first poignant question, poignant question of the day, do flyers have homes? Mate, it's an interesting question. Well, it should be, you brought it up. I know, I know, it's just a thought that struck me this morning.

Do flyers have sentiment? Do they have sense of belonging to their family or home? Surely not. I don't know. Other animals do, like bees, they have the hive as a home, they have a sense of family with moving towards one goal or towards one outcome. But we don't know who flies. So did you think about it and research it or did you just think about it? No, I just thought about it. Just the philosophical question. I was just going for a walk down the beach and just flies from home and I was like, man, go home.

But that's pretty cool. I was listening to one of Tim Ferris' podcasts where he was talking to someone and they were kind of unpacking Leonardo da Vinci and one of his things was he just write notes about the things that he was thinking about and the things that he was questioning and there were things along the lines of, you know, what does a woodpecker's tongue look like when it's banging its head against the tree all day and little things like that. And I think it's it's an interesting rabbit hole to go down with all those very strange thoughts but not many people have them.

No, I think questioning, just questioning things. Regardless of how significant or insignificant they seem, it's important. Let's get stuck in. What gets you out of bed in the morning? What gets me out of bed? Changes daily, I suppose. Yeah. Some mornings it's coffee. You're not the first and you won't be the last person to go to bed. That was the default answer, I think. What gets me out of bed? I guess every day I am moving towards either being better in my own personal development, in my own sense of self, or to create change, to foster positive change in the people around me, to make the world just a little bit better, to make a better place.

In what ways do you foster positive change in the world around you? Definitely through my role here at Virtus Performance. First plug of the day. Good. First plug of the day. Get it out there. So I'm a performance coach here at Virtus. I love seeing change in people. So I love seeing people move forward toward their own goals and ambitions. And if I can just be a little part of that and to help them get there and see that sense of pride that they have in achieving their goals, then that's a win for me. Excellent. That's really cool.

That's probably why I hired you. Yeah. I hope. I think that this is a unique place in that a lot of people who are attracted to this cool place that you've developed is exactly that, is creating positive change in people's lives. That's pretty much it. That sums us up and that's a collective vision for the team is just to help create that positive change through all of our different avenues because I think it's really important to identify that training is just one of them, nutrition is one of them, physiotherapy plays, all these other things are different ones.

And your role at Virtus isn't just coaching is it? No. So I'm taking a bit of responsibility for some marketing and I guess a little bit of business development as well with you. Yeah definitely. And I've come into the business only recently so it's been interesting seeing how the business has taken off in the last two years and then coming in 18 months down the track and taking it to that next step and building it from what it is into something even greater. What do you find the main challenges are coming in to a business that's already up and running and kind of operational but being able to identify all those different issues and room for improvement?

Yes I mean coming in and finding and identifying my role within the business has been important and something I'm probably still looking at identifying. And I mean the business is still young so it's constantly evolving and everyone's roles are constantly evolving so that's always going to be a bit of a work in progress but also building relationships with people so not just the coaches and the LA health professionals that make up the staff but also the members that come through the doors every day. Yeah well that's imperative to success as our business in our business. That's why we're doing what we're doing.

Yeah we want to make the world a better place right? Yeah building relationships I think that's what separates us from not just other competitors within the industry but within other businesses. Businesses in general. Yeah building relationships and having value to people's lives. That's good that's really cool yeah yeah that's what we're trying to do. Talk to me about I guess growing up and where did it all start for you? So I'm a Mornington Peninsula boy. Well actually that's a lie. I was born in the... Waleses. One of the Dandenongs. That's when my parents were living when I was born.

Yeah moved down to Mornington when I was about two. Do you know why your parents made that move? No I don't. It was just when my little sister was born. My sister Tess. So there was five of us at the time with my twin sister Grace moved down to Mornington and then to Metalizer where my brother was born, Tim. And we've been there ever since. So I went to school in Metalizer and then on to secondary school in Mornington, Padua College and so grew up in the area. Awesome. What was it like growing up on the Peninsula?

Because I grew up carrying down so a little bit a little bit away and didn't really kind of enhance or didn't really jump into the Peninsula lifestyle till a little bit later on which is why I've kind of set up our base here because it's an incredible place. What was it like growing up here? I think you'd definitely take it for granted. I know I did. It was a fantastic place to grow up and it's so close to the beach which I love. Everyone knows everyone which is a blessing and a curse. Definitely. I know a lot of people probably said that about the Peninsula.

I mean it is an amazing place especially moving away and coming back has definitely given me a bit of perspective about how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place. I made some great friends down here and still see them regularly. Still one of my best mates in the world is a friend I made for primary school. So yeah I mean it is a cool place. Did you have an idea when you were growing up down here and going through primary school and then high school as to what you wanted to be when you grew up?

I always had that interest and love for sport. I played soccer for maybe 11-12 years until I was about 16 when a series of injuries put me on the sidelines. But then I had a year off to focus on school. I played a year of AFL for Mornington and again got sidelined with injury and after that I got into the gym. So I guess throughout my whole school life I was interested in physical education, activity and noise moving. And that kind of translated when I went to uni and studied my bachelor's in exercise science. Why did you choose exercise science?

And that's I guess where I met you and how we kind of developed our relationship. But why did you pick exercise and sport science? It was just that love for exercise. I guess it was selfish reasons a little bit. I hope that course choosing would be for selfish reasons because if you don't want it for someone else it's probably the wrong way to go about it. You want to grow up and do something that you love. And I love sport and I loved learning more about how you can develop yourself into a high-performing athlete and increase your health, not just for athletes but general population, to build your health and live optimally.

Yeah, that's really, really important. What was your main takeaway, obviously spending three years at ACU doing your exercise science, what was your main takeaway in terms of how you lived your life? Did anything change? Especially, just in general, did you take on things on board in terms of your health and fitness and injury rehab and stuff like that or was it more of a... Yeah, definitely in terms of my own health and performance I learned how to properly develop athletic capabilities and how to move properly and that's when I started spending a lot more time in the gym.

I started doing a little bit of coaching and that sort of thing. I guess professionally I developed the skill to study and to learn. Yeah, which I think is an important skill. I was definitely never the best student. I was lucky enough that I was somewhat fairly intelligent in a lot of ways but I was never that sick. That's definitely up for discussion. I'm more than happy for people to take potshots at that statement but that ability to actually just sit down and knock over an assignment regardless of whether you thought that was important or not I think is an important skill to kind of start to harness that little bit of work ethic or whatever it is.

I was about to say work ethic is probably the number one thing that I took away from uni. I mean the course content and everything that was great but it's actually the process of learning, of building that work ethic. It's something that can translate to work down the line. I always like we have a lot of I guess clients that see what we do and see how much we love or how much we love the things that we do every day and interns that come in as kind of PTs and they kind of say well

should I go to uni and I think my answer is almost always yes depending on the person because some people just aren't cut out for uni but my answer is almost always yes because it teaches you how to one, unpack ideas that other people have had and it teaches you not to take everything said as gospel and it teaches you the ability to go you know I disagree with that because of this reason and this reason yes reason and you can actually question the way people people think and I think too many too many people

grow up and necessarily don't go to uni and they'll read something online they'll they'll automatically think that it's written by an expert yeah whereas as we know it's certainly not the case especially this industry yeah yeah yeah I think we're definitely in that industry where people can manipulate data and write up write up things and show a certain perspective that isn't necessarily the right one yeah which yeah yeah that's for me that's what uni teaches yeah I agree I think like what you said about questioning things stuff we came back to before just that's why

questioning questioning everyday things questioning people's opinions and I don't know why exactly start with why why do we why do we do this why do people behave a certain way or why do people think a certain way and if we get to the root of why then we can start to give you a framework to build and grow and improve from it I think yeah after uni what happened you are you made a few yeah big life changes so after university I took a bit of time off and did some travel for a couple of

months where to went to the United States of America awesome which was a great experience I did most of it by myself which was a fantastic experience daunting yeah and I learned a lot about myself on that trip travel I always say travel gives you perspective and I'll always stick by that gives you perspective on on life what you want on your relationships yeah and coming back from that trip I was definitely in a better place I knew who I wanted to spend my time around and it did make me question about where my career

was gonna go so I I ended up getting back and working for a company called Iron Edge which is a high-performance strength they fit it out of you back in the day that was so I was in there for just under a year yeah in a sales role which which is great because I was still in the fitness industry which I loved but from a different perspective I wasn't training people or coaching anyone I was selling equipment and from that I sort of stayed in the south in a sales position up until recently after Iron

Edge I moved to the UK with my as you do partner as you don't just a casual the love to the lovely self yes Sally Ann I went over with her and her family and we were there for just over two years living and working and traveling why did you make that decision to pick everything up and go with them initially it was with Sally Ann's family her parents had just retired yeah and decided to be closer to family that's where Sally Ann was born so she had relatives there and Sally Ann was going to

go so for me it wasn't really it wasn't really an option to stay yeah it was a good time for me as well I mean I've been working full-time for a year I was ready to do a bit of travel again and explore new opportunities what was it like I guess that first first week over there when you like kind of picked everything up and moved over what was your mindset like is it more was it a can't wait to attack this new challenge or was it kind of like holy shit this is this is

different a bit of both yeah first first week or so I guess we were still easing into life over there yeah and we didn't really expect the amount of work and effort we'd have to go into to set up a life for ourselves over there it's all a little stuff that you don't think about like bank accounts drivers licenses health insurance all that sort of stuff which takes a lot of time to set up so and not well I've been over there before Sally Ann had grown up for a few years there but I guess

just exploring yeah yeah and just I mean it's a similar society England but different the same time so it was interesting getting where mess we set up we're in Portsmouth so that now is south of London awesome nice place fairly low socio-economic sort of area yeah it is the fun fact it's the second most dense part of actually not the most dense area in England people per capita that's now you believe it on top of each other man you go through some streets and it is just like sardines it's madness that's crazy all the all

the main similarities to I guess mornings and potential life and Portsmouth life very different there weren't many similarities yeah one of the things that Sally and I used to love doing was going over so Portsmouth was essentially like a little island and you go there's a big hill at the back South Downs where we go over and then all of a sudden it's just open it open space so we used to love just getting out of the city and going over yeah and spending time through going down like little country lanes and to open fields

and walking through woods and that sort of thing so just enjoying space yeah yeah which in the peninsula you're not lacking that was that was nice and it's sort of fell I found a little bit it was fine there for for two years in Sally's family fantastic and it's great to get to know her relatives there and obviously the travel as well yeah what was it like being able to kind of be in that hub to kind of go more or less wherever you wanted yeah fairly easily it's awesome it's everything's just so close you we for example one weekend we went to Paris I think and you do left work at 4 p.m.

on well but we could go to that lane if we wanted true that's right let's work at 4 p.m. just went that went to Paris for the week yeah like on the ground in our apartment by like 6 or 7 p.m. and it's like crazy but yeah it was really cool so we just tried to get away as much as we could we were both working full-time so made a little bit difficult yeah and of course you gotta have a bit of balance of work and play so yeah we tried to get as much as

we could and did some really cool trips what what uh what was your favorite trip needed and how long was it for so we did a big road trip for about two weeks we had some I've got a close group of friends who actually live all interstate the gentleman's club and we a few of those guys came out on Madison we went for a two-week road trip through Eastern Europe cool which was really different yeah so he started in Slovenia and then went through Serbia Bosnia Montenegro Croatia what was that like different really different in

what way it's just a it's a different life over there so it's just so foreign that area of Europe in particular is still recovering from war yeah so it was pretty I've been walking through streets and seeing buildings with gunshot yeah it's just something that would have been completely fine to us yeah and like driving through a big city a city big city yeah in for in Serbia for example and the roads are just like pothole like a middle of the city there's just it's not wealthy part of Europe at all yeah and seeing some

people living in poverty but it's just accepted there is just a normal yes and all yeah and the corruption of this pretty bad as well yes another story I think yeah what um what roles or what did you and sell both do for jobs all you're over there yes so I was working in a health club again working a sales position so essentially selling memberships yeah so I did that for 18 months fish did you join coaching all over there informal informally so I actually did look at doing some sort of personal training coaching when

I first got over there but without a network there was yeah it's hard to set myself up definitely so so I took one role in health club which I made but it's a great friends over there and I was it was a really fun place to work sales wasn't exactly what I wanted to be doing and I ended up it was one of the reasons we decided to move back really I was looking to do something different yeah and we decided to come back awesome what what was that the main kind of reason you decided

was it both of you together you know let's yeah I'm free time to go home we were ready to come home we'd been over there for two years we had caught up with most of my family then come over and done trouble yeah I mean sort of different bouts which was really nice they we weren't missing our friends yeah and we were both ready for that extent we both done work we've done the work we wanted to do we'd seen see what we want to see we're sort of ready just to take on the next

challenge and for me in particular the I wanted to do something different and I thought University was way to go so straight back into after studies yeah I remember so it was how long before you actually came home did you know you were coming out not long we arrived in May maybe this year and we probably booked tickets that's gone by quicker yeah yeah so we decided probably in about February yeah that's when Sal left her job in England yeah I finished the end of March and then second or if not equal best trip was

hiring a van and doing five weeks around the UK that's cool so that was it for our last hurrah yeah before we came home yeah I think I want to talk to you just before you've done that and I might have said something along the lines of like when are you coming home or something and you I think you gave like a real coy answer yeah so like I kind of had maybe an inkling that maybe you were coming back around then and then you did the trip I was like oh he's just going on

a trip so he won't be back for a while and then ran into you at the brewery yeah as you do funny I was like I remember messaging you and saying I can't be fine I might have said something about coming home or yeah yeah I was funny I was just thinking I was walking through the bruins like huh we're gonna message locking and catch up and then what the fuck this is a normal that was cool because it was like holy shit you're you're home yeah you're home was so you didn't tell many people

I didn't make it I didn't put a big phone post up on Facebook yes I everyone I'm coming home yeah told my my family and a couple of close friends but to be honest I wasn't I'm not trying to advertise my whole life yeah that's why I'm happy just to tell people I'm close to and yeah then the magical meetings at the brewery wouldn't happen I think I saw you at the brewery twice in like six days I know I promise you they're the only two times I was there for like six weeks but yeah

sorry you got you get back and you kind of get settled back into peninsula life yeah and then straight into a business degree yes so started what business I always regretted not regret it I don't regret anything but I was just one that didn't do business stains at school it was always something that I was kind of interested in but not interested enough to pursue it and working in sales working in the health club in the UK I started to I guess take on a bit more responsibility within the business and I had a pretty

close relationship with my my managers there yeah and it sort of sparked the idea of I guess that sparked that interest in business and I really wanted to just learn more that's cool so I the way I looked at I could either try to get some experience somewhere you know in a firm or a small business and just learn the ropes or go back to study light up on some theory and exactly right yeah so study was most opinion option yet so you looked in and we're six months six months down what's been the most

surprising thing about doing a business degree because it's something that like me as a coach I've I've learned had to learn business through necessity yeah running one but I guess the the idea of going to uni and studying business isn't something that floats my boat very much yeah maybe this it's been a final because you can there's so much you can learn now without a formal education yeah so you can go on the internet and do it learn about business that's self self-directed and I really learn just as much which which I you started doing

you would have thought about that yeah definitely I mean and university not cheap either so it was a major decision to go back yeah I guess the main thing is with with uni is that you get a structured understanding of theory behind behind in my case business yeah and then and having that curriculum is driven by people that are yeah I guess hopefully the top of their field you have something to follow yeah I mean not all of it is relevant in for example like in small business not I don't need to have a really

deep understanding of like macroeconomics or or I don't know whatever else but I think a lot of it you a lot of it can be applied not to any situation or any any business and they're all just extra little tools in the toolbox when it comes to exactly right dealing with a problem or an issue of yeah I'm identifying what needs to happen to grow and I think like you like you've done fantastically diverse building it without any formal business qualification yeah just you know for the first 12 months just winged it yeah and I've

been working really hard on applying a lot more structure the last 12 months we're still very still in our infancy in terms of how the business structured and how it runs and how it works but and that's what like I like that you were aware that you could have done it just by getting experience because I think too many people just kind of go you know I'm just gonna load up on theory and maybe never really use it yeah I mean it is sometimes difficult to be able to apply theory into practice and I think

with uni that's maybe one of the limitations that they teach a lot of theory but the practice practical side is lacking yeah so might learn something but how am I going to use this in the real world which I think they are getting universities in general are getting better at but it's still something that once I get my degree at the end I'll be like okay so I've got all this knowledge how can I start to apply it yeah but you know I mean you learn on the job I'm big advocate of that you learn

much more yeah practice having the framework of the business degree behind you allow you to yeah and then still in in practice if I was in a business then I could see all this happens oh I remember learning that in uni like that's hopefully that's the role you can play it with vertice yeah so the foreseeable future what are your so once the business degree is kind of knocked over and I guess whilst you're knocking it over what are the goals and ambitions you kind of working towards now heavy question on it yeah I don't

have to have any formal written down girls yeah that I work towards for me it's just continuous improvement so even over the summer once I'm finished with uni I'm still going to be learning and putting a lot of investing all of my time and an effort into learning as much as I can and being better yeah so once you once uni is done there's no real end and ambition I'll just sort of take it as it comes see what opportunities are around I love that and just keep applying what I learned to to the life

that I'm leading now no point having all this knowledge you can't actually apply to anything definitely so yeah well you look like and I guess the thing that drew me to you and made me want to want to get you on board when you did come back was that ability to always want to be learning and that ability to always want to develop yourself both professionally and personally which you know depending on who you ask is the same thing anyway yeah and that want to continuously improve like we've seen in all aspects of your life

including like your training with with the strongman company you knocked out in the last eight weeks on that would you learn from it like eight weeks solid training first strongman comp what did it teach you well it was my first I guess competitive sporting event since football all those years ago yeah like six years ago really it was really fun I loved it can Elliot who I did the comp with okay coach can be on this podcast he was amazing he was a fantastic support and to be honest I think I loved the process and

yeah the lead-up both training and mindset and and going through those training sessions with camp was almost if not more enjoyable than national comp itself that's a wonderful thing when you can enjoy the process more than the outcome I loved it I loved showing up for training every day and just grinding it out knowing you had intent like that was your intention for the day just get it done and get done well exactly and working towards the the outcome working towards a goal especially in my training it's not something that I'd had for a while

I mean I'm pretty I think I'm pretty motivated with my training and I try and I train hard and I am structured with my training I know what I'm doing but having that having that focus ending day yeah yeah yeah having a D day where you gotta you working towards that the whole time and having a goal in mind was yeah it was really rewarding having that the day itself was was really fun the nerves got to me a little bit that happens yeah I mean and also didn't hit the lifts that I wanted to

wanted to hit it which is a bit sobering but at the same time we weren't there to win we were there to experience that to experience it to have fun to try something new something weird neither isn't done before yeah and I mean us there weren't bad lifts that I hit in the end I still PR'd and I can definitely take comfort in that but not be having those high expectations of myself is something that I've probably taken taken away from this knowing that you're not always going to hit your desired goal or result yeah

like that's just life but if you fall short you've reassess and pick yourself up and dust yourself off and carry on you almost learn more from failure than you do from winning sometimes oh there's a quote in that someone did did did the company experience of the training lady out to it did that change your outlook on coaching or did it change anything to do with the way you you'll approach your coaching from now on good question yeah I think so we I mean when cam and I decided to do this competition we sat down

and we set how I think it was about eight to six weeks out we sat down and we we made a bit of a plan of how we were going to prepare for it yeah so we organized our training blocks and our cycles and how we were going to lead into the day and we also employed some recovery protocols as well so we really sort of look after our bodies yeah spend a lot more time on mobility and and downtime so and coming back to that having that end goal in mind as well I think

that was so important and that's definitely something I'm going to take away and preach to members of this and my clients that having a an objective end goal is so important yeah because then you can evaluate progress you can see how you can see in the boxes yeah yeah and you're ticking boxes every day towards and it shows that you can actually move the needle and see the improvement do you have have you can't have you you and cam I actually don't know the answer this question have you two sat down and talked about something

else or are you just kind of happy kind of recovering from it and letting your body chill out for a little bit definitely happy to chill out I mean I think I've hit one movement session so I'm actually trained properly at Sunday night you've got seven days six days to go but we are I think we definitely caught the competitive bug a little bit yeah we both want to do something else we sort of tossing up a few ideas actually posted yeah because we're not really sure we are gonna sit down watch this space yeah

definitely that's cool and if we can get a bit of a crew going and well your your excitement for it and seeing it happen and seeing how how well you guys train definitely kind of spark something I mean in terms of wanting to do something to do with yes drink sport or something like that like being a somewhat competitive person depending on who you ask yeah but like yeah I'm incredibly competitive and just saying now it's just like like genuinely really excited to watch you guys do it and yeah generally kind of lit a fire

in my belly and whether I do one before the next football season or maybe plan one for this time next year or something like that I don't know but yeah I think that's exciting yeah definitely I think if we if we do do something it'll be started next year give ourselves a few months of later yeah I mean with this strongman competition it wasn't as if like I said we weren't there to win it but the lead up maybe a little bit short yeah eight weeks isn't the longest train program of a bunch but learning

experience yeah but yeah I'm excited to to get back under a barbell keep you in the loop I might jump in on it because well it's need something to train for good with footy with footy free preseason coming up very very very soon yeah touched on on the the wonderful cell a little bit before hmm but how how important having her be a part of the journey with you the last how long now we are coming up to seven years this month seven years that's a long time yeah how important they've been having sell to

share everything with yeah it's been it's been amazing she I mean we've both grown so much together over the last few years yeah moving countries together living yeah and moving back doing travel together going through university together at separate times as well yeah yeah it's been an amazing journey what about what about your family growing out what's it what was it like growing up with you know it's a big family and a twin yes that's awesome I mean the other day people always say like oh you like so much closer to your twin then your

other brothers and sisters and I would say that there is like a special connection with her but at the same time I love my siblings equally yeah I have to say that though I have to yeah no I made my family we're really close we it was lovely getting back to living with them yeah after being away for so long and just having just having them there I mean we a lot I just love having a Sunday dinner with them and having a glass of wine and a roast and talking and just yeah yeah and

just checking in regularly yeah yeah exactly are you all very similar all of you all of your siblings or are you all a bit different we're all a little bit different yeah I mean well I'm similar in some ways we're all pretty social we all we all work hard I think work ethic is something we all share share obviously can't come to your parents yeah yeah I mean my old man Bernie he's uh he's an extremely hard worker he always has been yeah and my mom is works equally as hard to keep the family going

and they're just all good people like they're just genuine genuinely lovely people and that's infectious yeah being being happy and biggest being content with just simple things like I said just sitting sharing a meal together and having good conversation and yeah it's just that you don't necessarily need any more than that no that's that's that's bliss yeah and it's really important to identify that and have that perspective to go you know what like this is yeah this is enough and I think that's just being content with how lucky you are to have a healthy happy

family and people take so many things for granted yeah especially in this day and age where things are so which I say like things that you can you can get things so easily yeah through technology and internet and stuff but the things that are worth keeping just simple yeah family having a home and food and definitely you don't need all this new tech yeah exactly we all go for the yeah the sexy new iPhone or your laptop or whatever but at the end of the day like the things if people were to to have to

choose between all that new stuff and yeah I remember like it's a it's a snap decision that you wouldn't even think about so yeah we let ourselves get material so material is here do you do you have I guess things that you do or all habits that you try and foster to keep that gratitude and and I guess in perspective going yeah so recently with you I've been we've been starting doing generally what a segue I was like how do I bring that into it yeah I've been loving it so every morning right what I'm

grateful for so what was today's three today's was how lucky I am so exactly what we're saying before how lucky we are to have I have a simple stuff so I'm lucky to live in this beautiful place yeah have good friends and good family walk outside look at the sunshine yeah I mean it's pretty it's pretty vague but my vague ones are the way you're going yeah one was coffee yeah especially the mornings yeah I've definitely hadn't had that as one of mine regularly yeah but it's enjoying the little things again something like the fire

thing having a little indulgences yeah and and bad this morning yeah it's nice to have a nice Sunday sleeping perfect yeah and then as a part of that I write down my goals and what I want to achieve for the day you know often this there's been recurring things I think definitely recently is valuing my time and and being present being president is one that I've sort of really been trying to focus on lately yeah yeah take a step back be real with the people that you with give them your whole attention if you're speaking

to them yeah don't spend so much time on technology yeah as a killer yeah and I think it's identifying that and finding the little little little tweaks and things you can make because yeah you spot on my Instagram and Facebook and and things are an amazing resource at times but then when there's someone in front of you and talking to them like that's been a big kind of room for improvement for me over the last six months and like I feel as I'm finally starting to make what make a change and doing little things like

getting rid of the notification so that none of them come up on my phone and so I have to actively get into the app and look at it and get rid of my newsfeed on my laptop and all these little things just like just add to the ability to be be be present yeah it's just a lot it's mindset it is and it starts with awareness yeah knowing that you're spending too much time on technology or knowing that you're not giving someone your full attention when you're when you're with them yeah once you're aware of

something you can make make a change yeah and even if you do keep fucking up every now and again yeah it's coming back to you know what I'm gonna fuck up I'm gonna be human like there's nothing some days I'm gonna forget to journal or not do it or not answering but if you're doing it for the right reasons and you're gonna want to keep doing it yeah exactly right like I've got coming back to like not hitting not doing things that you set out to do like every morning I have my minimums what I

want to hit so well not not hit that's wrong word minimums of what I want to achieve that day so like meditate journal drink drink enough water and do movement and have an early night just simple things yeah like they're just little things to keep you keep you accountable keep you moving towards improving this are you good at keeping yourself accountable probably not yeah like I getting better yeah yeah I mean I always say for that Sally and keep me grounded like I've always got these lofty lofty goals I'm trying to achieve like I want

to do all these things today but is that really realistic yeah it's important being able to check yourself and go you know what maybe I'll knock over one or two today and then leave three for tomorrow I think like having you doing the journaling as well has been has been great to keep both of us accountable yeah seeing the other do something and then yeah and just have it like in seeing you walk in with you with your book shit have I read your mind today and I think journaling is an interesting one because there's

so many different theories out there around how you can do it to keep that mindfulness going but I think you've got to find what works for you and what you enjoy is I think it's a wrong way to know and some people want to write everything they're doing for the day some people want to write one thing I've tried to play with do I write every little thing that I do today do I write my intention for it beforehand and see how we go do I do it for them what I perceive as the important

things what have you found works for you depends on the day I am I tend to find that if I do have an earlier night and I give myself 15 minutes a night before to actually write out my next day yeah I'm a lot more accountable to writing and finishing the diary and finishing the day or the journal I find when when we when we stay out playing card games and and Mario Kart last night and I didn't actually sit down and write and sit down and write today's but you know having in my head

I was okay with it because I knew that you know I had a meeting this morning and I was gonna sit in here and do work a couple hours and we were gonna knock this over and I was gonna watch the UFC so I didn't happenlessly feel the need to block out every hour today yeah and I am I'm only I'm kind of only now realizing that well I can kind of pick and choose a little bit when I do it yeah when I feel as though I need it so like tomorrow tomorrow being kind

of middle of a long weekend with it not really a public holiday yeah I'm gonna make sure that I am really on the ball for tomorrow so I'll sit down tonight and do it and then Tuesday same kind of deal everyone else's or a lot of the other people will be having the day off so yeah I look at that as a chance to have a little bit more meantime and a little bit more time to get it done but yeah there's no real answer I'm looking forward to actually like is this one's 13 weeks

the yeah the best self the best self journal for anyone that that wants to give it a try it gives you a really really good framework to set goals and and move forward and like I look back at the goals I said feel is like four or five weeks ago and and it feels like a lifetime ago in terms of it feels like I've been doing this for ages exactly but yeah I'm looking forward to finishing this 13 weeks and just getting a blank diary and just doing what I feel as though I should do

rather than following the how the days set out and the great morning gratitude lessons learned and stuff I want to kind of pick and choose what I feel is important some days that's writing what I'm grateful for some days that's being really anal about a list that I of all the things I need to tick off but again yeah it's just me yeah according to what you want to achieve that day and what your mindset is exactly right yeah but I think it's incredibly important to have those goals down the track as to what you

actually want to want to work towards yeah and to have those goals as malleable and being able to change them and tweak them because like yeah like I use vertices a is a something I set goals for but you know it's changed over the last six months and even over the last couple of weeks it's it's tweaked a little bit and and I guess you've been a big part of that in the the PD that we're doing together in terms of our marketing courses and stuff like that's been a really big part of it ripping

segue number two talk to me about marketing why why is that something that floats your boat it's something that I've just sort of taken an interest in and just kind of gone with yeah I as part of my sales role in the UK I took one bit of responsibility for marketing yeah on top of that what is marketing to you what would you if you could define marketing what would it be marketing is providing value to I guess consumers by delivering valuable content so by informing people about a product or service so and then yeah

cool it's just value just yeah I think that's not just throwing shit out there for the sake of it yeah it's really it's having intention in what you are on the message that you're trying to convey and and being mindful of the content that you're producing and putting out and make sure that he's actually adding value and you're not just doing it yeah not just like likes or likes sake or followers for followers sake yeah you know let's put this out there because it's gonna make someone better it's gonna help that improvement and it just

doubles down on everything else you've spoken about yeah yeah what are you like being the marketing guru of vertice what's your your goals for our marketing over the next two three six months so like we spoke like we spoke about vertices still still young so just expanding the reach yeah so and the awareness of who we are what we're doing the the change we're trying to produce yeah is extremely important and I mean I think over the last two years those has grown exponentially which has been fantastic has come to the stage where we need

to start going through different avenues in our in our marketing and how we do things and just broadening broadening our audience so like I said expanding our awareness and then providing more value to yeah and that's been a big focus of both of us yeah to new consumers and to existing so we're not just focusing on getting more and more people through the door we're looking at growing the value that we have to our existing members and we enhance their experience and yeah and make it a more enjoyable and worthwhile endeavor yeah yeah yeah delivering

our our core product value to them yeah and becoming I guess through our ourselves in this stuff becoming better versions of ourselves like with all the PD that we've been doing recently yeah that value that we achieving through what we're learning we can pass on to to our customers to our members and it's something really important that we've kind of identified in it why yes I feel as though you're such a good addition to the team is because you understand it all to make everyone else better we need to make ourselves better first and there's

no point you know us bitching about people not ticking the boxes and not doing what they said they would do if we didn't do it first so anybody sample I think that's definitely something that all staff and that is a great app we all and being human enough to realize when we fuck up and when we don't lead by example and that guys yeah you can all learn from this yeah we're all accountable for each other we're all like I said we're all human we're all gonna make mistakes we're all gonna have our ups and

downs but it's how we bounce back from those that define yeah who we are and how we how we become better versions of ourselves awesome I love that alright to finish up and sometimes this takes like 20 minutes so it's cool we'll see how we go I've got a bunch of questions for you I want either on the first thing that comes into your head and you can be you can go as long with the answers as you as you'd like you have a mantra the mantra is something that I was gonna ask you about

because I know that you've got your mantra and it's something that I've been toying with recently yeah I I guess no I don't I like with my journal I write my goal for each day yeah I think at the moment my mantra is probably to be present smile yeah and just be positive yeah I like that and then yeah and then that'll it grown adapted yeah and like if you asked me that question a month ago a couple of weeks ago said no I don't have one but yeah here's what I'm trying to do yeah

and I think I really found it valuable to sit down and kind of go why what is something that I want to tell myself every day to make sure that I do it and like mine was why ended up being really simple was just show up smile and make a difference yeah because if I'm showing up then I'm gonna do the best I can if I'm smiling then everyone else around me is gonna smile too and then yeah if I'm making a difference then everything I'm doing is for the betterment of either myself or or

everyone else yeah I think that ability to identify why is that you do what you do is really like and anyone can can improve from this it's just that it stops you from allowing those shitty days and those crappy times and the stressful stuff to get your head into kind of net like kind of shackle you with anxiety and stuff like that because you remember yes I'm tired after coaching all day but yes I'm doing this because I love it yeah yeah I think myself having that being able to smile and be positive translates so

well to other people if I like you said if I come into to notice and on if I had a shit day and I'm in a negative headspace that will members will pick up on that yeah coaches will pick up on that and then that unconsciously just multiplies but if I come in and smile and be positive then again it will not little multiply definitely that the happiness factor is simple and it says something that's so simple but so often overlooked people just forget people forget to smile like yeah down the street people people aren't

people in small but you're right like you write you write gratitude in the morning and yeah that like I always smile when I write my gratitude cuz I was like what am I happy yeah he's kind of the way I think of it well yeah I'm happy for coffee I'm happy for yeah Oh segue number three general morning routine yeah so it's something that I've been playing with over the last I've been fighting with it I mean I wish I was a morning person yeah I was more of one person once I once I get

up and find that getting out of bed sometimes but my morning routine every morning I have a culture so it's like how long you been doing that for I have only had one hot shower in the morning this year oh that's huge so yeah yeah every morning yeah every morning that's now I try and stay in for like for at least 60 seconds just a minute yeah and I do this for a couple reasons one is just to want to wake myself up this is an easy way to do that yeah - I think it

there's value in being comfortable in uncomfortable yeah situations yeah so if I can like I don't I don't necessarily want to have a cold shower every morning but if I can force myself to do that overcome that hurdle and realize that discipline is just the fact that you've just done it is actually making yourself do it mmm and that's a that's a win for the day already like I'm in my first five minutes of being awake and I've already kicked a goal yeah so you start off strong I might I've been fighting with the need

for a morning routines I'm very much a get out of bed like get dressed walk the car jump in the car drive to work that like yeah I'm trying to implement like maybe one thing a day yeah that I mean that to have that kind of that routine but yeah like I'm fighting with what I actually want to do and then the culture I think when a couple of guys I follow obviously do it regularly and get great benefit from it and I'd um if I can pull myself out of bed a little bit quicker being here at 6 a.m.

every morning I'd love to get here at 530 and have culture our year or something like that I think it's a having doing those habits are hard to begin with but how long you how long do you think it took you of having those cold showers until you and you know what this is a thing like this is me now like a couple weeks probably school like if I if I miss a cold shower now I feel like I haven't I've just missed out on it I haven't been like accountable to myself so I feel

like I failed yeah so it's just like part of whatever just get up cause yeah and then after that I usually I try and go through some do some breathing do some breathing and then some meditation so how do you how do you meditate because obviously there's a lot of different ways and I think people go on our meditating is just sitting there chanting I mean differently I don't I sort of changed my terminology sometimes a call meditation other times a call of mindfulness but it's the same time but it is just being mindful of

your of your breathing of your surrounding of how you're feeling and this is where I come to my being present like just take a step back forgetting all the all the stuff that's going on through your head and just being in the moment cool so at the moment I've kind of gone through a few different apps and things at the moment I'm trying it out called smiling mind which is just really cool I've really enjoyed it there's heaps of different like little modules and things on there it's been developed by psychologists as well so with

an actual in-depth understanding of yeah psychology and yeah so there's I've been trying out different routines and things there's no wrong I think whatever works for you and whatever you can but challenging yourself to actually try a bunch of different things and I just get two days in and go you know what that wasn't for me yeah I think at the same time if you don't want every time you don't have to have it's not like I want to but I can't get it sorted I think that's where I'm at it's fine we'll work on

it yeah next up next couple of questions go I want one one sentence answers okay if you could be remembered in one sentence what would it be made a difference cool if you could describe yourself today in one sentence what would it be work in progress oh good what is success to you what is success I was actually thinking about my hair what a success success is success is being true to yourself following your passions and making a difference to other people's lives good answer what's your worst habit what's have it probably technology alone too

much too much too much yeah yeah just and just not being not almost like not being conscious of it like if I I'll just be on the phone sometimes it just to turn it on even if I don't look at saying it's just better so I think yeah I'm aware of it what is your greatest achievement today probably see this was pretty big yes mate that's huge I don't think I could do it I don't like some people said that to me that I don't think we could do it but to me maybe it was

because Sally Ann and her family were going so it was just like a given that I was gonna go as well it wasn't like a massive massive thing I mean it's so easy to keep in contact with people that's the thing so and the world is a small place now it's more yeah like big and one of Greg's obviously someone who's lived yeah overseas and worked overseas he said everyone should do it once yeah yeah I definitely great like I said trouble give you perspective yeah you'll ever love it or you hate it but either

way you will get something out of it and you'll learn from it yeah exactly right tell me something very few people know me no that's that questions dead now no who so who are your mentors who are the people you look up to who are the people that inspire you so the moment two of the people I look up to most yourself and stop and coach can good since I've since I've started that issue to have both been awesome inspirations I mean you've both both got your head switched on I learned something new from from

both you every day and you make me smile you make me laugh maybe maybe better so and that's why I love coming to this also because it's a pack full of people who are like that it's just a positive environment I love it good other people look up to my parents they're awesome awesome people yeah cool I'll be remiss without saying Sally Ann again good and lucky there's no real like celebrity or anything that I really look up to or I'd say no Tim Ferriss is a cool dude for those of you don't know look

him up he's got a cool podcast and just a couple of fantastic books he's just one of those people that if you're into improvement and content yeah personal development anyway he's the one to follow because he's he's one of those ones preaching it but living it and chasing it through to the end of the great with his books and podcast and blog and just the ability to commit to doing something is awesome and he does some really interesting things things that I'm interested in yeah yeah sort of health and lifestyle and yeah yeah he's really

cool yeah yeah if you could change one thing about the world what would it be people could just love more yeah I think love's underrated if people loved each other as they love themselves then I think the world would would be a better place people just be more understanding and empathetic towards people yeah yeah good answer if you could have a dinner with three people dead or alive who would they be and white okay so come back to Tim Ferriss in his latest book here three sections that are healthy wealthy wise so I'm going to

use that framework could wise would probably probably be either the Dalai Lama or could Marcus Urales awesome yeah Russell Crowe what's up is who you really want to hang out with right yeah healthy maybe Tim Ferriss yeah oh no change that answer Brian McKenzie all good he's a king yeah love his work at the moment yeah look him up he's an absolute king right and yeah let's do this you first yeah good awesome a couple of quick answers go all right what's the nice thing you've ever done for someone don't overthink it help the door

open for for a lady today nice good what's the nicest thing someone's done for you probably accepting me for who I am with all my flaws Sally Adams good for me what's the greatest piece of advice you've ever received nothing really stands out flip it what's the greatest piece of advice you've ever given live with no regrets it's not yeah what's on recently good if you could have a billboard seen by millions of people what would you put on it I stole that question from the great man Tim Ferriss yes probably love just let love

good no love love your neighbor as yourself do you think do you think people need to love themselves more first yeah I think people are by the nature very critical of themselves there's actually a quote yes which I've been I hate quotes mastering others is strength mastering yourself is true power which is not love related directly but I think it's it's just one of the same yeah I think you can you can flip that and say loving yourself loving others is strength loving yourself is true power I think being able to have the ability to

accept you for who you are yeah flaws flaws and everything is is the only way to be able to begin loving others I agree 100% good couple of favorites finish off favorite movie Oh movie traditionally been the departed film good recently I'm happy yeah that's cool favorite way to spend a Sunday afternoon coffee Sun Beach perfect ice latte if it's sunny yeah favorite book that's a real impression yeah left a mark currently ready tools of times by Tim Ferriss which is really cool to self-help self-help self-help cuz it's got a self-improvement stigma behind it it's

just like that shouldn't exist yeah if self-improvements like life yeah if you want to improve all the time and be content with where you at at any given time but be have that hunger to improve and that's where you should be yeah yeah I KP said something about a self-help book the other day and I was just like all it is is improvements which is a win favorite resource for new information at the moment friends cool so yourself can always give me you or I do use a rabbit holes and doors for hey try this

learn this watch this exactly yeah books new topics anything like I'm not in any I'm not in any way wanting for more things to learn like man of books and podcasts and things that I want to read and listen to and be yeah have you heard yeah I think it's blinkist which it's like summarizes like yes the key messages to a book which I think for the ones that you actually want to sit there listen to by all means go nuts but yeah I think I'm gonna try and dive into that because the I would

genuinely have a hundred books that people are suggesting to me like I've had people send me you're one of them send me reading lists and yeah we check this out and like I've got myself it's just getting bigger and bigger bigger and I even today at a meeting this morning and someone suggested one book and I end up buying five off book depository like without even thinking so yeah so I genuinely have a problem but it's uh yeah I think at the moment I've got about five books on the go that's crazy I try and

only have one book reading and one book listening on the go but finish off favorite quote of all time this better be good because this is the last thing I'll ask you um I've bounced between quotes I think I've got a little list of quotes that I always read through if I'm looking for inspiration or if I just need a bit of guidance or anything yeah I'll just go through all my quotes some will resonate with me more on some days than others yeah that's cool that's important but at the moment what I love is

by you'll love this by our main man Neil deGrasse good Tyson he says for me I'm driven by two main philosophies no more today about the world that I knew yesterday and listen to suffering of others you'd be surprised by how far that gets you and on that note thank you very much very welcome thanks very much for having me