S1E94 · Tom George: Floating and Holistic Living

Welcome back to the Virtus podcast, this is episode 94. With me today, I have Tom George, owner of the Privacy Wellness Center in Mornington. Lachlan Wallace, co-host as well. We had a fantastic chat today. We talked about the business that Tom and his family have established. Thriving business, all about flotation, recovery, relaxation, holistic living. Highly recommend, check it out. We also talked about Tom's story, about his travels and experiences abroad, and the lessons he's brought back. Had a super fun time recording the podcast. I hope you really enjoy it. Take some lessons from it, and enjoy.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) 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. (upbeat music) (laughing) - Nice. - Go Bikku, you'll try. You do have a bit of like Adrian Brody going on. - Oh, is he the guy out of "The Pianist"? - Don't know how I've seen it. - He's on "Peaky Blinders", he's the... - 'Cause I get that guy a lot.

Or when I did have long hair, I had Zlatan Abramovich. - Yes, "The Pianist". - It is? - Yeah, go see it, good movie. - I don't know, I haven't seen it. (laughing) People just say I look like him, so I know that he's in it. - What else is... Okay, well let's hit the ground running. - And there's the start. - First question for you. - Please. - What gets you out of bed in the morning? - What gets me out of bed? At the moment, yeah, I guess I would say work, but not on the premise of I have to get out of bed to go to work.

I think work is where my passion lies as well. So I get out purely to enjoy work, which I think is, you know, it's... Work is, I'm learning a lot from it, like it's the first time kind of being in business, especially in business with mum and dad and everything like that as well. - Shout out. - Hey, Tim and Lynn George, shout out. - I'll press that, thanks. - Sorry. (laughing) So I can't just keep throwing shout outs? - Yeah, you can. - Okay, cool. Yeah, I don't know, it's all just about experience for me, I think.

And the best way I can learn at the moment is being in this kind of situation in work. Like there's not many others, unless I go back to study or something like that, the amount that I'm actually learning from being in business is probably the reason why I think I'm getting out of bed. - What was the catalyst to, one, you going into business with mum and dad, and two, the whole thing happening at all? - From the start? - Yeah. - Well, yeah, the reason going into business is because flotation is kind of my thing.

Just love it, and I know the benefits are there, so I just kind of want to preach that heaps. And the opportunity came up in such a beautiful way, so I was like, why not? I've done my travels, so let's jump into this now. It's the next step. But yeah, the reason why it all started was, I'm gonna have to shout out Joe Rogan. (laughing) (bell ringing) - You're so basic. - Sorry. - It took us four minutes. - But it is the main reason, and why flotation has come back into the kind of common realm now as well.

But yeah, just did it once up in the city when there were only maybe two or three in Victoria, and loved it, had this cool experience of I was sitting in this airplane cockpit kind of thing, and looking around and seeing all the villagers below me, and then came back and started preaching to mum and dad, like, this thing is crazy. And then they went and did it, maybe a couple weeks later or something like that, and then three months, the lease was signed for the new premise. So quick turnaround and everything like that. But

yeah, dad's always said, 'cause it was heavy in the '60s, and resurfaced kind of in the '80s and everything like that for different reasons, and dad always said that it's something that he wanted to try and get into it. So when I kind of came back and brought it back into his realm, so he's like, yes, let's go do it, Lynn, let's go have a crack at it. - Awesome. - Yeah, everything kind of fell into place where always happens when you're not ready at all, but the location came up, which was such a cool location that we used to have, and everything just fell into place where we could kind of kick on with it.

But at the time I wasn't in the business with them, it was just mum and dad making that venture forward, which was super powerful. - For the uninformed, what the fuck's floating? - What is floating? (laughs) Cool. - Go. - Give you a little spiel. (laughs) So basically, flotation therapy is like, the process of relaxation, or is like a stepping stone to relaxation and mindfulness, I guess. It's common term or it's old term is sensory deprivation. - Oh. - Bit of a scary term, which the industry don't like to use anymore. They use flotation rest, which is like restricted environmental stimulation therapy, kind of alone.

- Yeah, good. (laughs) - But yeah, basically what it is trying to do is like cut out all your senses, and it's done that by really only three senses, is like sight, sound and touch. Sight and sound, super easy, just soundproof and make it dark in there completely. And then touch is eliminated by being in the water itself, is set to the surface temperature of your skin. And the water has roughly about 700 liters to 350 kilos of epsom salt in there. So it creates that buoyant effect on it. And you are floating on top of the water, in that warm water.

So after a while you sort of start to lose that feeling of touch and kind of become one with the water, to use that term. And when you do kind of disassociate yourself from your senses, there's nothing really connecting you to reality itself, 'cause that's what kind of grounds you to reality. So your mind has nothing else to think about, because it's nothing it can connect to, except kind of past memory, past thought, what's happening now, which does genuinely quiet after being a good 10, 15 minutes in the tank anyway. And that just leads to

like naturally lowering yourself into the parasympathetic response, or the sympathetic response from the parasympathetic response, causing immense amounts of relaxation, lowering cortisol levels and everything like that. So it's just creating this awesome effect of relaxation and mindfulness, I think. You know? - I see. - Yeah, and you guys both done it. - Multiple times. - Multiple times. It's a good thing. It's a nice little reset on the body. - Yeah, so it's a weird thing to go into, because you kind of go in there with this expectation of being like, okay, I'm going to enter into this tank, and then I'm just going to be zen.

- Yep. - But I found it, like your monkey mind has gone crazy in there, I think. - For sure. - At the start. What I found useful was just going there with no expectation. - Yep. - And just being like, what will happen will happen. If I fall asleep, then that's cool. If I just like am thinking about a ton of stuff that's going on in life, then so be it. But you just kind of got to trust the process and try and be present. - I've always found it highlights my current state of mind.

So rather than getting me to a certain place, the place that I'm at when I go into the tank usually is just amplified. So if I'm like wide on just thinking about things, my mind will go a million miles an hour. But the hour we're in there, or if I'm super chill, I'll just kind of like, just hang out and float and not really think about much. And if I'm like cactus, I'll just fall asleep. - Yep. - Hopefully not face down, usually face up. Get a little snorkel. - Yeah, people have asked, people have asked if they can bring snorkels in and everything like that.

And we kind of have to say, just in case, no thank you. But yeah, I really think the tank will bring out like what it needs you to bring out, kind of thing. Like it's, you can't go in there and with those expectations to like, okay, today I'm going to sleep or today I'm going to have these crazy visuals. It's just like, whatever happens is like, what's meant to happen at that time. - Yeah. - And it does like, you can start to play and kind of dictate a little bit what does happen in there with the timing of the day that you do do it.

And well, I guess the diet that you might have in it, like if you do a faster float in there as well, it does differ to like, obviously heavier float after eating and everything. Time of the day, time of the week, it's-- - Post coffee. - Post coffee, yeah. Not going to sleep too well in that one. - No, I find it really interesting that I guess what you actually get out of it, because I always, I find it kind of sparks, no matter what mindset I go into it with, it always sparks a kind

of bit of creativity and a bit of maybe that thought loop changes a little bit from it, what's the research behind like the psychological effects of it? - Well, there's like, I think there's a lot of, there's this one dude who basically is like the head researcher for brain research as well on flotation, Dr. Justin Feinstein, Dr. Justin Feinstein, Feinstein. (bell dings) Ooh, okay, there you go. - Dr. J. - Dr. J. And he's like the head neurologist researcher director at Loretta Institute of Brain Research. And he does all these incredible like research on anxiety and depression, high-state anxiety, PTSD and everything like that.

And it is basically just like working to quiet the mind. And then it does like the, I can't remember what it's called. The inner, like the inner cortex, it has like a proper name in the brain where it basically just can like silence that. So it is like working specifically on the brain and then you're not thinking about the things that you may generally think about with like high-state anxiety. - Is that like your amygdala, the reptilian brain? Is that got to do with that or is that different? - I think it does, like I don't know what happens with the amygdala in there, but it's, oh, I can't remember what it is.

But it's like maybe the prefrontal cortex might ring a bell, where there's like, I guess that's where your pineal gland as well highly activates that and then quiets one side of the brain as well. I'm not really too sure, 100%. - Awesome. - Yeah. - What's the difference between floating and I guess, not to use the term sensory deprivation, but that sort of environment to meditation or mindfulness? - Just a cheat code, I think. Really just a cheat code, like mind, like yeah. People have probably tried to meditate before and you sort of sit there for five minutes and you're like trying to get into your breath.

It's not working, you start thinking about everything and then you can hear the cars outside, the birds and everything like that, like you do have those distractions. And it does come up a lot where flotation therapy is like a cheat guide or like a little stepping stone into like the levels of meditation that monks can do, like where you can get like visualizing states, you can kind of control certain parts of like your nervous system and everything like that, where it's been known that they can do it and everything, where it'll take you years of practice just in standard meditation or whatever it might be to kind of get to that state.

So it's just a really easy way. - Fast forward button. - Very much so, yeah. - What was the original intention with the privacy before it started, like if you went to mom and dad, what's your elevator pitch, what would they have said? - I think just change for them was like the main thing, 'cause obviously didn't know much about the business at all. Yeah, much about flotation therapy at all. So that was all the learning curve. So the reason wasn't to actually bring what it is now, which is just the immense amount of benefits and just trying to give that to everyone that we do know and our local community and everything like that.

But I think, yeah, just then was everybody like mom and dad were kind of in between jobs and it just, that opportunity came up where they can create that change, even though it was a massive risk for them to take, putting everything they had into this. Yeah, I think the biggest thing for them is just to kind of just shake it up a little bit. They've always kind of been like that and I think it's just another step for them. - How's that evolved over the last four years? - Four years. - Four years? - Yeah, four years, 2014 we opened.

2014, December, so. - Five years, almost five years, it's exciting. - It's very exciting. - Has that shifted and changed? 'Cause it's probably been through a bunch of different iterations. - Massively, yeah, for sure. Especially now that I'm kind of in it where I was on the outside of it before, so I can kind of see where it is going now and like, yeah, basically it's, now that we understand, and it's more like just the anecdotal evidence that comes from our clients where they're like, this is, and that's been like five years of evidence for us.

Like, this has helped me with this, oh my God, my relationships with my parents are so much better with this. Like we've connected like father and son together after like three years of not talking and everything like that. So it's just like, you know that the benefits are there. So it's just, that gives you like that drive to just be like, let's get this out there. Like, let's just try and get this out to as many people as possible. And that's what I think is like our main premise. But now we are with the wellness

center trying to take a bit more of like a holistic approach rather than just like, just quiet the mind and kind of do that relaxation. And that's why we've introduced a bunch of different services and all the allied health and practitioners as well to kind of whatever it might be that you kind of are facing. And we can kind of tackle like the mind, body, spirit, soul, mental aspect, everything and try and help you out in any way possible. - So how's that reflected or mirrored or different from your journey over those last five years? - To what it is now?

- Yeah, like, 'cause obviously there's gonna be parts of that that's kind of grown and changed in tandem, but there's probably gonna be like, you've gone off and done a few different things along that journey. How's it different slash the same? - Yeah, it's weird how similar it is from like the scale that it is at now as well. It's everything is just a lot bigger and a lot larger. So yeah, I don't, yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't say a lot is too dissimilar from what it used to be, but just on a larger scale for sure.

- Yeah, awesome. Where do you guys wanna take it? - Well, yeah, I think I said stupidly when we were building and it's always nice to aim high, but I like to say that I'd like to make this like the kind of prime relaxation and recovery center in Australia and kind of have people come in from everywhere, like having legit sports clubs and having kind of all these incredible speakers come in and everything like that as well. 'Cause we are like beginning to host those workshops and just have it as a place that's just incredibly massive and just has so much to offer.

And hopefully we can get to that level. It is like stepping stones to get there and it's a long process to get there. But I do wanna make it that for sure and just have it as like a prime location for relaxation and recovery. - Does it sound that stupid? - Doesn't sound that stupid, no. It sounds like a lot of work, which I think we're all willing to do. It's like your email that just went out, lucky. (laughing) - Self praise. - Weekly wrap, jump on the website, subscribe. - Yeah, it's all about the long game.

It's all about the fulfillment option, I think. (laughing) - Good, very good. We're playing the infinite game. - We are playing the infinite game, yeah. - Yeah, it's been really cool from outside in to obviously get to know you guys really well over the last couple of years. To see, hey, there's this float tank center in Moreington and then to actually have a float and then to get to know your parents a little bit and then to get to know you and to see it goes through multiple evolutions over the last couple of years. - Yep.

- And I think it's something that everybody needs more of. It's like just taking that pause and taking that moment to fill your cup. And the way you guys do it is very similar to us in that holistic approach. - For sure. - Is you don't wanna just worry about the physical. It's everything, it's all encompassing. But I guess let's stop talking about that for a little bit. Let's talk about you. - Let's talk about me. - Fill us in. I wanna know you. (laughing) - How would I describe myself? - Start from the start. - Start from the start.

Born in Frankston. - Shout out. - Shout out. I think a lot of us were, maybe. I don't know about you guys. - No, I wasn't. - No, you weren't? - I was Clayton. - Oh, we've had this conversation. - Wanna switch? - That wasn't right. - There you go. Well, to you guys then listening. (laughing) Not these guys. Grew up on the Gold Coast 10 years there. - Did you? - Did touch a surfboard once. (laughing) - She was on the waist. - And then yeah, like I guess the big change there was like I had this cool little like friend group and everything like that.

And then mom and dad again shook the bag a little bit and decided to take us all on a sell the house and take us on a three month trip around Europe. - Awesome. - And then make the change back to Victoria, which yeah, I think everyone was really kind of taken back by that, but that's their risk taking kind of nature that they do have. So as everyone started from zero, I was starting from zero with zero friends. They were starting from zero from like having no job, work, bank account, no house. So everyone just restarted and my sister, she was like, just about to start VC in Queensland, not VC, whatever it is called then, HSC.

And then came back. So it was like a massive change forever, but it's distilled so much in us. You know, like I've traveled a bunch now throughout the world just because I think they've put that in me. My sister left when she was 18 to go work on cruise ships around the world. Didn't come back till she was 28. - Wow. - Yeah, yeah. And now she's back with the baby. - Awesome. - Love that. And a beautiful partner, Robbie. - Ding. (laughing) - I feel cautious saying names as well. - Shout outs, shout outs are good.

- Yeah. - What are the values that if you look back at it now that you think that the courage for your parents to be able to sell a house, take you guys to Europe, move back to Victoria where you have to start fresh, what values do you think that's helped you guys with building it? - Like definitely, obviously courage has put a big one in us but like a lot of fear and understanding fear and just like not kind of, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Fear in the way of knowing that it's there but being able to approach it in a way where it's like find comfortability in it a little bit.

And that was so scary for me to experience. Like being a 12 year old, like, hi, I'm Tom, let's be friends. And then to see my friendships grow from that. So it's like, there is never like a state of worry. You're always kind of comfortable and there's always gonna be good that does come out of it. So they've, yeah, they've taught me a lot about that sort of stuff, which is cool. - Have there been like any defining moments or people or places in the story of your life that have kind of influenced where you are now and what you're doing?

- Definitely my entire family. Like we've got like that tribal kind of growth family, even though we grew up in Queensland and everything like that, we're always coming up, always coming down. And it was like, I think dad has, I'm gonna get it wrong here, but maybe like seven brothers and sisters. And then from that cousins, grandchildren. So it was always just, every Christmas was this massive community that we did have together. And just learning everything from each one of them because they're all super interesting. Like a bunch of them are different kinds of artists and it's just like, everyone kind of feeds you these different values from such a young age, which you learn from so much.

And yeah, so I don't think it's like a singular person that I can name. There's one teacher who was super, super wicked during my VCAL. - Cool. - And I think because he didn't have the responsibility to like, this is what you have to learn. It was VCAL so much more chill. So he just took like a very kind of relaxed take to that and was just super welcoming with like everything that we would put forward to him. And he would kind of come back to us. Like I would still have a beer with that guy.

But yeah, no true massive mentors that aren't in the family circle. And now I'd say definitely you guys are. - Yes, you have to say that. - I do have to say that. Thanks for that. (indistinct) But yeah, I guess just learning from every person that I can, whether they might be like a super influential person, but just whatever they have to say, kind of taking that in and trying to learn as much as possible. - Everyone's got like a story to tell, right? And lessons to impart. It's like the ethos of this podcast, right? Like everyone has a story and you can take something away from it.

Whether it's like these truly life-defining moments or people that they meet, or whether it's just like struggles or things that they've gone through and they've passed through this like tension or hard parts and it's the things that they, or how they've come out on the other side and how they've adapted or evolved. That can then inform you on how to move the needle further. - For sure, yeah. I like to look at it as like, I've been alive for 26 years and like the amount that I've learned and what I know, pretty much everyone has that capacity to know the same amount of stuff, but it's just, it might all be different.

So it's like, everyone's got a wealth of knowledge. It's just depending on how they kind of express it to you. I think, yeah. - It's the beauty of long form conversation like this. - Definitely. - We get to actually break it down and you learn from other people's experiences and you've had plenty of experiences along the journey. Fill us in on your travels. - Travels. - 'Cause it's such a broad term travel. - Yeah, yeah. - Why, what, how, when, fill us in. - Spontaneous why. - Yeah. - Just had two friends heading over to South America.

So I think we got back from a festival and we're like, oh man, it's just so fun. There's not being like in that work life and everything like that. And it just popped up like, why don't we just go overseas with these guys? - How long ago was this? - 2015 was like my first big kind of solo trip. And yeah, I was like, had 10 months, I think, of my carpentry trade left and was like, oh cool, I'll just pack up. I told my boss, I'm like, oh, I'll come back. I'm coming back. - I promise.

- I do have every intention too as well 'cause I enjoyed the crew that we're with, but the work itself, not a massive fan. - It was work. - It was work. And then decided to go away for that five month trip over just in America, a couple of festivals there, Mexico, Central America, and then moving a little bit into South America there as well. And then yeah, came back and didn't go back to carpentry. (laughing) And then, yeah, so that was like a super cool trip, which I ended up also spontaneously doing it by

myself, which I was supposed to do it with one of my best mates, but he lost his passport maybe two months in or something like that. So I was kind of forced to be by myself with no expectation of being by myself, which was an absolute blessing. Like I know-- - They're two different trips. - Two different trips. And I could say a word and he would know what I'm about to say kind of thing. Like we are super connected. So like, not afraid to like go up to people and everything like that, but it's still put constraints on, which I didn't realize until you are traveling solo.

And when you start doing that, you just like, oh my gosh. - It's a whole new world out here. - Whole new world, yep. And it just puts you out there on the back foot, which makes you have this, you know, push forward on the front foot a little bit. So then I decided to do my 2017 trip completely solo. And that was just all of, well, just supposed to be South America itself, but the entire thing, but really only did Columbia and Peru because yeah, they're incredible countries. So much, yeah, you could spend, I would almost live in Columbia.

Like the places that they have there is just, like they're people, because I think they've gone through such hardship with the cartels and everything that has happened there. They haven't had tourism come a lot through their place. So when they see you, they're like, oh my God, a tourist, what can I get for you? Let's go somewhere, let's do this, yeah. Where you go to Peru, which is still such a beautiful place, but because they've had such tourism for like Machu Picchu and everything like that coming in, they're kind of a bit more used to it and a bit more kind of, exactly.

- Have you read the book "Tribe" by Celestia and Younger? - I have not. - Highly recommend it. It talks about how like levels of happiness and fulfillment in different communities that have been through hardships like that. - Right. - Some of the examples that he uses in the book are around war-torn countries and how when the measure of the gross happiness within the communities is higher than it is in the developed, what we call civilized Western culture. - Yeah. - And it's mind-blowing. Like what are your experiences with different communities and obviously doing the U.S.

and South America and Central America. - Yeah. - And how the happiness changes. - Incredibly. - Yeah. - It's crazy. Like the U.S. is also like visually such a beautiful place as well. Like the landscape changes so crazily, but everyone knows it's just a little crazy here and there. But I think my first experience but then I still remember it clearly was in Mexico. We're just chilling on a beach. I think we had our tablets out on the beach, just like, I don't know, standard tourists. And these little kids came running up to us with like a plank of wood with like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and a little screen.

And there's like, yeah, we have a phone as well. And they were like so joyful about it and everything like that. And we're like, oh my God, like this is where it's at. So we just like threw the tablets away and just started like playing with the kids and everything like that, which was, yeah, I think a pretty, I don't know, not life-changing, but like kind of like an eye-opening moment for me where you're like. - It's pretty powerful. - Yeah, you know, and it's such a common thing, but it can be reiterated in a bunch of different ways, but happiness can be found in so many places and in so many different ways.

- Yeah, I mean there's a stick or a ball or a ball. - Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Simple things, right? - They play rock soccer. - Yeah, they were playing rock soccer, it was crazy. - You mentioned festivals and chuckled a little bit. Why? - Well, the first, the first leg of the first trip, oh, first leg of the, yeah, first leg of the first trip. Firstly, Portland was having the solar eclipse happen there, and they found where it was gonna be in most totality, they would hold a festival there, and that's like a

40 to 50,000 person festival, which at the middle, I can't remember, maybe in the middle of the festival or something like that, at 11 a.m., the solar eclipse happened. So everyone's there all together and everything like that, and you experience the solar eclipse, which is just one of the most incredible, like universally powerful things that you'll ever chakra align in, like any word you could use, you would use it right there. You can see the moon come across the hills, just the shadow of it and everything like that, and it draws this massive cold breeze with it.

It was like a 35 degree day, 11 a.m., and it just, cold gust of wind, everyone started chucking jumpers on when it hit totality. Birds started going crazy 'cause they didn't know what was happening with their sleep cycles and everything like that, and then stars came out, and it was like two and a half minutes of primal, crazy energy. Everyone's screaming like, "Where's the sun, bring it back!" And then it just goes back, and it's just back to a 35 degree day. Everyone's just kind of sitting there like-- - What just happened? - That was the weirdest two minutes of my life.

It was so weird. And that was purely incredible. So that's happening again next year in Patagonia. - Go on. - Yeah, where do you got my ticket? - Wait. - December. December next year. So if you guys are around, Solar Eclipses, people were walking around with t-shirts saying like, "I've been to this Solar Eclipse, I've been to the--" And we're like, "Come on, guys." You know, we've talked it up. At that one, I'm going, "I went to Portland Eclipse," because I fully understand it. You chase those things now. Once you feel that, it's just the most-- - Yeah, incredible feeling.

- That's insane. KP, if you're listening, I'm going to be busy. - Yeah. Bring a one year old, you know? - Yeah, yeah, wow. - And then after that, two days later, trekked into my first experience of Burning Man and Nevada Desert, Black Rock, The Plier. - Explain that to us. Explain the idea of what Burning Man is to the uninitiated and the, I guess, the experience. Give us like a one word that summarises the experience. - Yep, one word would definitely be like, peak. It is the peak, because it's like, I'll come back to your question in a second, but it is the peak of literally everything.

It's the peak of creativity. It's the peak of expression. Like, there's no limits of what can happen or what can be done there. The entire festival itself, and I'll come kind of linking in with yours here, but the festival itself is an arts and music festival, but it's not really that at all. They express it as like a global change, a global initiative kind of thing to create like a bit of consciousness, I guess, around community and socialism. And it's just like these 10 days where there's this perfect world where no money is exchanged whatsoever. Everything is all a barter system.

There's no value to anything. So you can trade a hug for a three course meal or you can trade a high five for, God knows, everything, like a trip on a Boeing 747. Like someone went up on, they have an airport there. I mean, it's a massive place. And I can't remember what she traded, but she ended up going up on the plane just with one of the private jets that were there. The pilot took her around and just flew her around and then took her back down. Like everything is possible there. The entire festival is created by the people themselves as well.

There's nothing like the Burning Man organization will say, like, these are the spaces that you guys can have. They organize all like the leases, the permits and everything like that. But then the actual build of the entire festival is done by the people. - It's up to you. - Exactly. So, and there's like the structures there which take months to build. So people are just going there and it's just a pure, like it is expression. Like people are building these crazy art installations just knowing that it's gonna get torn down 10 days later. - Yeah. - You know?

It's such a crazy thing. It builds like impermanence. It builds like immense amounts of community together 'cause you can just, people call you in off the street, dirt street, I guess, I don't know. And they're just like, "Come sit with us." And they'll just give you all this food as much as possible. Then you just hang out with them for like three days. You know? It's, yeah, it's an incredible place. It's a super incredible place and pretty powerful place as well. In terms of, it's called Burning Man because they burn the man. There's like a, every year there's, Burning Man will give a certain art company or an organization the rights to build the man.

And they do like their own interpretation going around the theme of what Burning Man is which I think I'm into like carnival mirrors and something about aliens, I think, not too sure. So they'll revolve it around that. And that's itself is a 70 foot wooden structure that has to be stable for people to climb and everything like that. So it's a lot of effort going into that. And then the Saturday, it's not, yeah, it's burn it. They explode it. Like there's fireworks. There's probably the biggest explosion I've ever seen in my life was blowing up the man.

And it's like insane. Everyone's cheering, all the art cars are crazy. Art cars, I guess, are people with a lot of money. We'll just put like, there was a million dollar art car called El Pupo Mechanico. And it's just this giant metal octopus with eight arms, like giant, I'm saying like two stories high kind of thing. And it shoots fire out of each arm to certain beats. So you can create beats out of it and it drives you around the festival. And there's a bunch of those, like just insane things. So they'll circle around the man and just everyone pumping music, massive party on the Saturday night.

And then the Sunday night is the temple, which is just this incredible sacred space that they do hold throughout the whole festival where you can go in, pay respects to lost loved ones. Say that the right way. And just kind of whatever, yeah, not even lost loved ones, but just anything that you want to pay respect to, you can kind of ride in there, hang some stuff up in there. And then on Sunday, they'll burn that. And it's like fire is such like a primal sacred thing, which everyone can just kind of like immensely respect as well.

So you go from the Saturday where it's just noise, craziness, everything going crazy to Sunday, silence. 80,000 people just sitting there in silence. And like every now and then you'd hear like, "I love you mom," coming out or like just these crazy things. And it's just the thing slowly collapses and everyone's like hugging each other and tears are everywhere and everything like that. - This is like ultimate emotion. Like everything is just like- - It's the peak. - It's peak, yeah. - Like Cirque du Soleil do performances there and everything like that just because they can.

- It's expression, yeah. - It's expression, yeah. Whatever like kind of creative aspect you might have, whether it be like fire twirling, artistry, martial arts, speaking, like the best of the best are usually there doing their thing. - Yeah, you used the word consciousness before. What comes to your mind when you think of consciousness? Oh, that's a fucking weird paradox. What comes to consciousness? But what's your, I guess, definition? I don't like the term definition when talking about something like consciousness, but what do you think of? - What do I think of when I think of consciousness?

- How's the solid clips and Burning Man shaped that definition? - I guess, yeah, I kind of believe in like a global consciousness as well. If you want to get into like the soul, whether people connect those or not, I think they all speak in their own way, but they are all connected. And I've learned that through different kind of eye-opening things. But yeah, I think consciousness is purely coming from the person, but it's coming from like a higher state. It's like there's, I can't remember who talks about this, but there's like this constant wave that runs or like a river that runs above you.

And that's when you like, people are always tapped into that river, but it's like what their insight or whatever it might be, I guess their personal side of consciousness is out there grabbing onto to whatever it might be, the things there that are kind of helping create their own, like, I don't know, little part of their own consciousness. I don't know if that explains it at all. I think it's a hard thing to explain. - It's all abstract, right? - Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I guess just knowing that there are other, like going to experiences like that, there are people that are just like, just insanely in tune with whatever is happening.

And to kind of see that, you know that there is like a higher consciousness that you can draw from as well, I think. - Do you mean like a higher conscious, like a state of consciousness or like consciousness as this thing that you can like tip into? - Yeah, the latter. Like the conscious, like I believe in like the kind of the one soul theory where basically everyone is connected in a way. So like there is, everyone's just like your own different forms of yourself. And that's why people say what you do to others, you're only doing to yourself.

And it's all just like that reflection based kind of scenario. And when you kind of do believe in that, you see it so much more as well. Like judging a book by its cover with the first person that you meet, it's just one of the most like cliche things, but it's just so true as well. When you kind of, someone walks in and you see their kind of attitude in their, what they're bringing in, it's 'cause you're only presenting it to them as well. And as soon as you put on that smile and kind of open up to them, they're most likely to open up to you as well.

And if you, where did I hear this? I can't remember. But it's, well, I thought about, I think about getting everything as a tattoo. And that's bad, but I do. But there was, someone said, write back at ya. And it's because there's always one finger pointed at you to three fingers pointing, one finger pointed at them to three fingers pointed back at you. So it's always in that cycle of coming back to you. - I like that. - You know? - That's really cool. - But I'm not gonna get that tattoo. - Why not? - Well, you know, maybe I will.

- Do you think you'll convince me to do that? - Might get the Virtus logo as well. - Please? - Yeah. - Your free sessions are a week if you get the Virtus logo. - Done. - If you're listening, everyone comes in. - Everyone comes in with a free week. - I've got a tattoo gun, so if you guys want free Virtus weeks, I'll do one of them out of my house. - Give me one. We can do it in Patagonia, actually. - Nice. Happy with that. - And obviously, all of the consciousness talk and all of those things tie in really well to what you guys are achieving and trying to achieve it.

- Yeah, exactly. It's all an educational thing, I think, because a lot of people are super unaware of what's happening in an energy state or in a conscious state that people are attuned to. And I think the services that we do offer kind of help people, if you get into that state of relaxation or whatever it might be, those people become a little bit more aware and so it's kind of growing that community consciousness, to use the word again. - Community consciousness, yeah. - We can think about it as the whole world. What is it, Gaia?

That's the whole consciousness of the entire earth, right? Or we can go really inwards and just think of us, but then one of my passions or the thing that I like tapping into is that community Gaia. Literally, when I think of community at the moment, I think of pretty much four streets. (laughing) - I mean, yeah, we align. So both, I think, mentally and everything like that, a lot of our values were aligned, but physically, we're three streets that way. (laughing) - Common folk level, they're supporting very similar vibes and just like-- - It goes one, two, three each street.

We've just got nothing in whatever the other street is. - Bruce Street, I'll just find something. - There's a post office. - There's a post office? - Yeah, that's the guy from the post office. - Helping deliver the consciousness. - So you like a lot of parallels or not parallels, but things that from your narrative or your life that feed into what you're doing now. Like you talk about happiness that you found in these rural communities in South America. Like there's this collective consciousness, community consciousness from like the Burning Man. - Yeah. - So there's like all these lessons or all these things that you're tapping into that you're kind of like accumulating in this one space here, privacy.

- Yep, yep. - It's cool to see how the narrative that you've lived has informed you of what you want to go now. - For sure, yeah, and it's cool to see, I mean, I don't think we're the only reason for it because I think the change is done via the person, but to kind of instill change in people and to kind of see how much, like people have been with us for the five years and everything like that. And to see their own personal growth just from, I mean, it's super contagious. I think just energy is incredibly contagious.

And I think the energy that the three of us, well, four of us, 'cause my sister's back working there now as well, all hold together, people just resonate with incredibly. Like we're not that clinical place that you walk into, hi, take a seat, here you go. Like we'll make jokes, we're unorganized, walk around barefoot, like we make mistakes. And I think that's what people like about us. Like we are genuine about it, you know. - You've humanized this business. - Yeah. - And that's what people connect with. Like, who was I talking about with the other day?

- I think I was talking about sales with someone. - Like boat sales? Like, I don't know, actual sales. (laughing) - Why are you talking about sales? - Selling things. - Okay, cool. That's so much more on topic. - We can be selling boat sales, sure. - I thought you were going full off topic, hit me. - I was talking about like selling things and how like the process of selling is like it can suck. - Yep. - And it's really hard when I like it. But if you humanize the process and you actually like

want to connect with this person, you get to know them and you understand their story and where they're coming from, then like it becomes fun and it becomes easy because you're just building a relationship with someone. - For sure. And I think you guys do that super well at Virtus. Like, as soon as someone starts, you all know their name straight away. - Yeah, they know their story. - Exactly, like that instant feeling of like, oh, I'm already a part of this. Like, hey guys, like it's my second day, but whew, I'm part of this family.

Like just that introduction into Virtus, I think it's such an incredible thing that you guys have done. And we've tried to take that, but gosh, knowing people's names is an incredible hard thing, you know? And it's even worse when you get it wrong. Hey, Susan. - Damn it. - Yeah, shoots you right in the foot. What are you doing to like build this community around the private sea? - Yeah, so a few things, I guess. Like we are trying to do a bit of like an outreach into the community via, which we don't have properly

set up yet, or we just have some cool ideas for it, but we do want to create a place where not just paying customers come. Like we want to create a place where people can just come. And that's why we will introduce, it's small at the moment, but like a community library there. And we will introduce like a large one where people can come and not necessarily read, but just kind of sit and do what they want. If home or work isn't a place for them to kind of relax, switch off, pick up a book, if it's this craziness or whatever it might be, we can be that space for them.

Or we're going to have basically the workshop space that is constantly there will be an almost always open meditative space. So people can come and just sit in silence if they don't want to be around people, that can be their space for them. And then just kind of community workshops. So, and that's going back to like the educational side of things. We want to open up like talks and information nights, which are non-charged and people could just kind of come in off the street and whatever it might be about, might be just us talking about flotation.

It might be one of our practitioners talking about their craft. It might be you guys coming in to talk about the benefits of like physical exercise and combining that with like the mental aspect of things, like just whatever it is and just kind of building that education back into the community to help them, I think is what we are trying to do. And yeah, there's a few other ideas that we do have, but nothing really implemented entirely yet, but always trying to give back as much as possible. - Yeah, I think that's like your, the generosity that you're showing through having these like this free space or sessions for people just to come in and improve their lives.

- Yeah. - And like, or just even just finding space to be. - Exactly, yeah. - Is awesome. - I think so, yeah. And it's just, once it's just kind of getting out there to let people know that we are, like we can be, we have no training in facilitation or anything like that, but just, we have an incredible amount of like people that do work with us who do have the training. So we can kind of, if you do need it, put you on the pathway towards that or whatever it might be. But yeah, just want to let people know that we are there, you know, if you need it, it's such a cool thing.

- What are the like biggest lessons or things you've taken from like a business perspective, building this thing, like this hub, as well as like the personal lessons that have been a part of this like evolution or transformation? - For sure, yeah. Biggest thing I've taken from it is like, is a lot of people say it, but like learning how to say no and like kind of impairing yourself to be able to do it. And it's like, it's a comfort zone thing again, 'cause if you just kind of keep saying yes to people, like on a minor scale to a major scale, like, yes, you can do this, yes, you can do that.

Or not even saying yes, but just not saying no. Just builds such like stress and anxiety on yourself when you're not kind of acknowledging it, I think. People will sort of, not that they do, but people can kind of twist and turn that to manipulate, I think, words that you might say. So it's just kind of being a bit more stern and like true to myself and true to like the business, to what the business wants, to what we all want. And just kind of re-empowerment. - Yeah, it's tough having those boundaries in place, but it just gives you, it allows you to be able to do what you are there to do.

- Yeah, and at the end of the day, it's like, it doesn't say no, it's-- - It's not a bad thing. - It's not a bad thing, it's like everyone understands, it's just overcoming that in yourself to be able to like, just 'cause you don't want to confront and deal with like that confrontation maybe that it might cause, or just like the kind of ill effect that it might cause, which it doesn't. - Yeah, it's like this assumption that we hold that people are gonna get offended if we say no. - Yep. - When in reality, like rationally, that won't-- - No, not at all.

Maybe taken back for a second. (laughing) - Excuse me? - Yeah, and then they come to an understanding. - Yeah. - But I'll just keep bringing it back to experience, like that's, I can't remember the saying, and we were talking about it last night at home, but like how you do everything is how you do anything, and it's like training, we talked about this, is training specifically to attach it generically. And just learning from experience, like you can't specifically learn from what people tell you what is good and what is bad, like you do have to experience it.

Like, you know, the stove is hot. Okay, thanks, yeah, mum, I'm sure the stove is hot, whatever. - I don't believe you. - Ah, goddamn, the stove is hot. Like, you know, you gotta truly understand and experience the good and the bad to kind of build that basis and learn from it, and I think that's what I'm doing the most, like I've made a bunch of mistakes and throughout the, well, throughout my life, obviously, but throughout the business as well, like so many wrongdoings, not bad wrongdoings, but just like taking the wrong choice or whatever it might be.

And I think that's also super beneficial because you're like, well, I'm not gonna do that again. Pretty good now, and then you kind of learn what's good and like we were talking about before, just realigning with the core values and taking that right choice. - Yeah. - Hmm. - What, it's like that, have you read "Principles," right, Dalia? - No. - Whereas like the loop where you are seeking these big, hairy, audacious goals and you like fail or hit a setback or an obstacle, and, but you learn from it and then you set bigger, more

audacious goals because you are like in pursuit of like what's possible, like you said before, like the hub, the prime hub of recovery and relaxation in Australia, like that won't become possible, that possibility won't become a reality until you've made mistakes and learned from them and kept setting the bar a little bit higher. - Yep, yeah, maybe that's like, it does put a bit of like a cap in on it as well. If you kind of just always getting everything right, you kind of, I don't think you'll learn, or you do learn the limit, I think, because the limit is like kind of self-purposed, but if you do fail, then you can kind of pass that and surpass that limit.

- What's like the limit for you at the moment? Like what are the edges of your capacity that you're starting to push a little bit to get better? - In myself? - Yeah, personally. - What am I pushing? - Just learning to listen, I think is a big thing. Learning to kind of, I have a tendency to always, like, as soon as someone starts speaking, I'll be like, I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna say this. But it's like, I'm not actually like connecting, I'm like, I'm thinking about, okay, I'm gonna say this and I'm gonna say like, okay, well, I'll move on to that and then go back from that and everything like that.

So that's a big thing that I think I've always dealt with as well. I think a lot of people may deal with is also, and it's just kind of-- - This is like the perfect example of this in this podcast. Like I've got these questions that I wanna ask you, so I'm like, I'm gonna ask this question. - Oh, yeah, right, yeah. - But then like, we'll go off on a tangent and-- - The question's gone, you're like, how do I bring it back up? Yeah. - I think it's just like a connection thing, like connecting with the person that you're with and actively listening to what they're saying.

The questions will just arise naturally. - For sure, yeah. And I think people always, not always, but like people don't understand or they just feel like discomfort in the silence as well. Like they're afraid to, maybe because this is a podcast, I'm not too sure, but if it just sort of sits silence and then you can kind of have a natural thought, like thoughts aren't just like that, you know, like not everything comes straight away. So I think people are a little bit uncomfortable just to sit in that silence, kind of create some form of question or to create an answer.

I think people are getting a bit more used to, like I'm still learning that, but I think silence is bliss, but not on a podcast because we've got to stay engaged. - Maybe. (laughing) Yeah, I think like when you say that being comfortable in silence, I think that's something that I'm okay with. - Yeah. - But like it just brought up for me, my early, like early relationship with Sallyanne and we, maybe this is just like shy 17 year olds, but like we used to just like sit and not really, and not always be talking. And I used to like love that.

- Yeah. - Like I think I connected maybe more powerfully or deeply because we had the ability to do that with each other. - Yeah. - We didn't have to feel the silence. - Yeah. - And I think that, yeah, that silence is powerful. - For sure, yeah. But it is also signs of such a good connection, such a good relationship when you can like just talk and then eight hours passes and you're like, I don't really even know what I was saying, but like just that ebb and flow of the conversation just kind of takes you into different topics and takes you to these places is also such a great thing.

So it's experience kind of both ends of it. - Yeah. - Yeah. - What's in the immediate future for you, for your privacy, what's happening? - For me, I think there's a lot of, is getting back into health. - Sick? - Yeah. It's been, I think last year was such a good year for me in terms of health and fitness. And I know I felt great from it. And then this year's kind of slipped and I'm kind of reinvigorating that again. And that's where my, apart from the business, that's where pretty much all my time is spent kind of learning the field again and kind of engaging in coming back to Virtus.

Yes. Yeah, I had a little time off, but now we're back, which is cool. Yeah. And it just kind of builds your own motivation, just doing the bunch of different things like sitting at home, kind of just pondering or watching TV or something like that. You kind of just start slipping and slipping and slipping and slipping. Where if you do a one day of exercise, you're like, oh, I'm sore, but I feel good. And just kind of getting back into that. And then for the business at the moment is construction and construction. Like we're still in now stage two of the build.

Stage one was obviously getting up and having people through and kind of allowing services, but now stage two has taken place. And it's kind of in that process of construction, which takes up a lot of our time. Like there's so many things that we want to start introducing but can't do until the construction is finished. - So that's like a good lesson in just being patient though, right? - For sure. Yeah, it'll come. Like we know it'll come. And we know that we're going to have a space, which I mean, people already love it. And that's kind of frustrating for us 'cause people come in like, oh, the place is beautiful.

And we look at it like, what do you mean? No, no, no, no. It's not where we want it to be at all. So yeah, just kind of being comfortable with that and being actually patient, like he said, knowing that it will come. And then we can start like working on all the kind of different avenues that the business does have, which is such a fun thing. Like I'm a super fazey transient person. Like I'll go from this to that, this to that. And it always have been like, I think I remember, wow. Yeah, I do remember.

Like I even remember the road that we were driving on when I was a kid and I'd just gotten a Dragon Ball Z toy. And my sister was just like, oh, he's gonna be over that in a week anyway. And I still remember those words because I'm like, that's completely in me now, wow. But I've always been like that. Like I've done every sport across the board. I've done like whatever it might be, I've done 100% for a short amount of time and then dropped back out of it. So it's this kind of instilling and

trying to get a bit more like effective in the things that I do do, which the business has also taught me as well, because the business has so many different avenues I can follow down. So if I do get a little bit, if I'm putting 100% into one thing, which I don't think I am, it's kind of 1% spread everywhere into a hundred things. But if I do kind of get fed up or do get drained or burnt out on one different aspect of it, I can just move into the other avenue, exactly. Yeah, yeah, there's so many different options.

- I think it's hard sometimes to know whether to go shallow but wide on lots of different things or whether just to like narrow your focus and let's just go deep on this one thing. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's cool to do, like it's, I mean, everything, no matter what you do goes super deep. Like it can go, and it's cool to think like, we talk about this a fair bit at home and it's just like, there's someone who is the best at everything, like there's one person who is just put in like an immense amount of time into one thing to master that craft, whatever it might be.

And I do wish that was me, and it probably can be me if I like put myself to that test. But it just takes incredible dedication, which is such a cool thing for people to be able to do. Like to be able to like, this is my thing, I'm gonna do it. - Yeah, there's a book called "Peak", I think it's called "Peak, the Secrets to High Performance" or something, where he talks about like the, obtaining mastery in something requires, it's like that 10,000 hour thing, which was Malcolm Gladwell in "Outlaws", I think he said that.

But it requires like years of like dedication to this thing and deliberate practice and like deep work. So it's like a willingness and commitment to that thing. - But yeah, it's like the specialist generalist argument. - Exactly, yeah, yep, master of all trades. - Yeah. - Is what I like to be, I think. - Cool. - Except carpentry, 'cause I didn't finish the apprenticeship. (laughing) - Well, maybe. - But yeah, you know, I can always come back to it. But the thing where like, again, experience, like I learned in the three years and two months that I did do it for, I was able to build the center that we're in now.

- Yeah. - You know, like I've learned this stuff and I know the stuff, I don't have the qualification, but I just have the know how to do it. And I took that trade overseas, like I helped build an up and coming, I can't remember the actual name of it, Inti, yeah, I don't know the name of it, but like just like a wellness retreat. So I was building like all these incredible things, like they wanted a pool, so we're building a pool. Somehow I snake my way into like head of construction there. So still

one of these crazy weird things with like timber that I've never worked with and used it twice, it became like a tree house builder in Santa, what's the hills above Santa Monica in Columbia? And was building, got head of construction there and just looking out over this view, building a dope deck, building a tree house, building like these hammock swings and everything, so I was like, I've had the ability to use the trade. You know, it all comes in handy at some point. - Yeah. - In the film. - They're all transferable skills. - Definitely, yeah.

- It's like the narrative comes in again, like the things that you've done in the past have informed how you approach the thing you're doing now. - Yeah. - That's sick. - Yeah. - That tree house, head of construction thing is awesome. - Super funny. - It's definitely the resume. - Super funny, yeah, put it on the resume. Sleeping in there as well and you just look out over the mountains, down into the water, it's, yeah, it's an incredible place. - Amazing. - But you kind of like, you think that you won't use these skills again and then they just pop up and you kind of remember how to do it all, like.

I think a lot of people will resonate with, why do Pythagoras? You know, what's trigonometry gonna do? I've used that multiple times since. - That's awesome. - It's crazy, like working with triangles and everything like that, like building the climbing wall at home, used it so much, didn't get it right, but had the ability to use it, you know? So, yeah, everything comes back, I think. It's all stored up in, not necessarily in like the obtainable kind of thought process, but it's also-- - Subconscious. - Exactly, it's there, it's there, you can grab it at some point if it needs to be grabbed.

- I love it. - Hmm. - Anything else from you? - We've done my life story, we've done the business, we've covered a few topics. - Covered a few. - Yeah. - What's like your three, let's say, actions or things that you would recommend people start doing to be like a little bit more mindful or incorporate some mindfulness, gratitude, relaxation in their life? - Yep, cool. Well, I feel like I'd say flotation, but I'm not gonna say flotation. It's such an easy thing to introduce into your life that will benefit a bunch of different things.

But three different things, definitely clean eating, healthy eating, something that does work with your lifestyle and dietary needs and everything like that, I think is super important. For myself, I don't do it enough, but no, I should, is just getting out in nature, bushwalks, camping. We've organized a cool little camping and climbing trip later this month now, which just so excited. I've been so static and around just fast-pacedness for so long. So just getting back out there and kind of revitalizing. So a little one-day camping trip, go walk out in nature, another great thing. And then for me, I think this is more personal.

I don't know if it does translate to everyone, but intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating has just been incredibly unbeneficial for me. Like I have a very high inflammation level constantly, I think, which causes me, well, caused me to get sick quite a fair bit. So just kind of tailoring my diet and the fasting aspect around that benefits me. So it may benefit you also. - Cool, love it, thank you. - Thank you. - Where can everyone find you? This is plug time. - This is plug time. - Don't go crazy. - All right, so the Private Sea Wellness Center Instagram is @theprivacy, on Facebook is @theprivacyflotation, Facebook won't change us to Wellness Center yet for some reason, it's taken.

Yeah, damn them. And just across the socials, stay tuned for emails, sign up to that through the website. But if you wanna come down, haven't met us yet at the Private Sea, Tim, Lim, and myself, the three owners there at 3 Sartu Way in Mornington, come on down, we can talk you through visually what we are doing and everything like that and show you around and hopefully get you in the tank. - I'd highly recommend it. I try and go down there as much as I can 'cause, well, for the actual thing itself, the flotation and the nometics and sauna and stuff, but just to be around you guys.

- Cool. - You guys are some of my favorite people. - Hey, and I enjoy it when you come in as well. - Yes. Thanks, man, appreciate it. - No worries, thank you.