S1E09 · Caleb Podhaczky

Hey guys welcome to the Virtus performance podcast this is week 9 featuring the great man Caleb Podaski. Caleb recently joined Virtus a couple of months ago after spending the last four years in the US. Caleb's a coffee roaster he's a power lifter and one of the most genuine and interesting guys I've ever met. He's also personally responsible for getting me out of my lifting funk that I've been in for the last couple of months so he's been an awesome support and someone who cruises in the mornings with with coffees and muffins and and gets us

all lifting so it's really cool to be able to sit down with him and talk about his philosophies and his his past and everything he's done and and all his successes and failures and things like that and yeah learn a little bit about him so enjoy. My personal and business goal is to be just a little bit better every day. I believe everyone especially normal people have a story to tell. The Virtus podcast exists to help us all find small ways of consistent improvement by discussing the journey and experiences of each of our guests. Mate, how's it going?

Pretty good, good type. How's your day been? Days been great, relaxing. What have we done? Chuck shit really. No, brekkie, coffee, a little bit of me time. We've lifted now we get to talk rubbish for a little bit. Yeah. Tell us about yourself, what do you do? Not much really. Coffee is what I do. Whether it's roasting, being a barista, drinking it, serving it, hospitality is probably what you would call it. Not in the traditional hospo sense but I like sharing and food is probably the one thing I love sharing most. Good. Coffee. How'd you get into coffee?

When did the journey start? Started, I was probably 18, 19. My mom actually was working in a cafe just part-time. Yeah. Through a family friend I guess and yeah I needed some extra cash. I was interested, went in and I think I got hooked on the social side of it and I didn't even really drink coffee before that. Oh really? Yeah. Back in the days where you had like mountains of foam on the cappuccino. Trying to stack it up as hard as you could. Yeah so what's that nearly 15 years ago. Awesome. A long time. When did it turn from a I guess a job into a passion?

Probably maybe four years after that when I really decided to say hey like I'm sick of just working in a chain or putting vanilla syrup in lattes. That's how I got started on coffee. Yeah must be. I never used to like it then. Irish nut cream. Just vanilla syrup and Bob's your uncle. Yeah extra nuts. Yeah it's actually kind of a funny story how I got into roasting and into the specialty world which is what I love. Yeah hit me. It was a local company or back then it was local Five Senses Coffee. Yeah. They're actually based in Mornington originally.

Awesome. And Perth. Two roasteries. I was out looking for work. I was sick of working for a chain. Just wasn't really floating my boat. Yeah. And most people that know me know that I pee a lot because I drink a lot. So I was out busting through her piss and just behind Main Street was a public toilet block. Went in there. Came out and saw a sign Five Senses Coffee Roasters. Yeah that's cool. Are you kidding me? So I went in and went in. I was like hey I'm Caleb looking for work. I love coffee. Whatever.

And the owner then Gavin Hogan, Mornington local. G'day Gav. Had a, so we chatted for a bit and they were kind of like yeah we're getting busy we might need some help. And he's like I recognize you from the local paper. I competed in a barista competition for the coffee club which was great. Yeah. Not really. And he had a paper cutout, newspaper cutout of me in the office. Really? Didn't know the guy. That's cool. This is amazing. And you just got in there asking for a job. Amazing and slightly creepy, sorry Gav. At the same time and he's like coming for a trial and a decade later I'm where I am.

Cool. Where's coffee taken you? It hasn't just been in Moreton. Yeah. Where'd you go from working at Five Senses a few years ago? So Five Senses started just banging coffee, hopping out. Got into roasting. Took over the Melbourne forestry which services basically the east coast of Australia. Awesome. Met amazing people. Got to travel to Indonesia and India buying coffee. That's cool. Checking out farms, helping build worm farms. Fertilizer and whatnot. And then 2013, Tash, my wife and I were okay. Ready for something different. Both lived in the area pretty much our whole lives. Yeah. And just looked at originally Canada and then the US.

Yeah, cool. I know we've four different offers from around Canada and the US and decided on ceremony coffee roasters which was just out of DC. Yeah, cool. And then from there I went to Mexico as well buying coffee and got to travel a lot even around the states which is cool. New York, West Virginia, North Carolina. Pretty much everywhere. That's awesome. Coffee is taking you around the world. Yeah, pretty much. That's awesome. What for us normal people who don't spend their lives around coffee but coffee kind of consumes our lives for lack of a better term.

What are the things that what's the process that comes from the farm to get coffee from the farm to us? Yeah, totally. We as Western consumers are probably just the tip of the iceberg really. Yeah. We get the final product. So the farm, you know, it's like any farm. It's pretty rough. Usually up high altitude. Coffee grows best at high altitude. Off the beaten track. So to get there sometimes you're in a truck or whatever for eight hours. They grow it. It looks like a cherry but it is basically fruit. That's cool. It takes usually a few months between when the fruit is picked to when it's either exported or stored.

It's fermented and dried and popped and blah blah blah. You don't get too deep into it. Yeah. And then it's usually more and more you see these days people buying either directly from farms or working they call like relationship coffee if you like. Yeah. Cutting out as many middlemen as possible to give. Probably win for the farmer. Farmer and win for us because you kind of have a hand in helping them quality wise etc etc. Yeah. But it can spend anywhere up to six months between picking and when we get it depending on which part of the world.

Ethiopia can be rough to get coffee out of. Just takes a long time and then yeah obviously it's roasted and hopefully drunk within a month of roasting. Okay so that's ideal. Yeah. Yeah. Anymore and you just start with it's kind of like leaving a coke open or something. Yeah. And then you just lose the good goodness. Yeah. Too fresh is like drinking a bottle of wine without aerating it. Yeah. If you're winky enough to aerate it. Yeah. Now that's a side of coffee that hipsters have taken over a little bit. Yeah. What what are the I guess the things that you wish didn't happen with within the coffee industry?

Pretentiousness. Yeah. It's probably a big one. That whole coffee wanker scenario, lack the better word. It is really you know it's a it's a delicious beverage. It brings people together and I think that's what I love about it. As soon as it becomes something that people are intimidated by or want to know what to order. Yeah. That's when it becomes a little bit, I don't know, I don't like that part of the industry. Yeah. That's probably one of the only parts outside of I guess how technical it can be. Yeah. For the average person. Yeah. But again I guess that comes with the wankiness.

It's all different languages. Yeah. I think jargon is someone's pretentious way of saying I know more than you. Yeah. As soon as you cut out the jargon and bring people in it's you know it should be fun. Yeah. It literally is a beverage so. Yeah. It is pretty simple at the end of the day. It should be just tasty and enjoyable. What are your favorite parts of the industry? What do you love apart from just bringing people together? I think there's a creative side to it that floats my boat. I'm not creative in the traditional sense.

Can't sing. I spoke about this last week in the podcast. Oh nice. Yeah. But it allows me to work with my hands and bring a raw product into something that's hopefully delicious and addictive. Yeah. And there's a fine line I guess with roasting and even brewing to where it is tasty. Yeah. If that makes sense you can screw it up pretty easily and obviously all of that work from farm to there you need to take care of it and I really enjoy that part. I couldn't be a nine-til-five behind a desk kind of guy. Yeah. There is boring parts of the job too roasting.

Yeah. It can be tedious. Had it in, whatever but that's a good balance of everything. Yeah. Well you get to create but you also get to hang out with people and see them enjoying it. Do some hard work like you know McCall being a batch monkey where you're just roasting batch after batch in the US. Well actually five cents is at a 90 kilo roaster so you can be logging you know that much around at a time. Yeah. It's not easy work. People have a romantic idea of what roasting coffee is. Probably same with brewing and winemaking.

You know you got these hips to go. Yeah. You don't see the hours that go into it. Skinny jeans like standing there fiddling away the roaster but it's pretty hot and sweaty and dirty. Yeah. But fun. Yeah that's really cool. That's awesome. What's the most challenging part about I guess your job day to day and being in that side of the industry? Probably keeping people happy. People are fickle. Yeah. You can send them the same product one day and then the next and I guess you rely on other people's moods or whatever which is totally fine because I love people but being consistent and always at least pretending to be happy.

It's probably the same with most people's jobs though is keeping people happy. Yeah. Especially with a business when you're putting out thousands of kilos a week to make sure everyone's happy. Yeah you've got to maintain that standard. That's probably one of the hardest parts of the job because it's the part that changes the most. Yeah. The product is what it is and if we don't do our jobs well then... But in saying that I actually really enjoy the problem-solving part of dealing with people. Yeah. I'm not talking about like cafe you know my coffee's not hot enough.

Coffee's always hot enough for people. But you know like working out why they're not happy or if something did break down in the chain. Yeah. Troubleshooting to the point. Yeah. I enjoy that. Awesome. On that, what do you wish that all us plebs who drink 18 coffees a day knew about coffee? Probably how much work goes into it. And generally if you are, I'm talking outside of chains and where people don't really care too much. If you're in a cafe where obviously they care and the baristas care that they're usually doing their best to put out a delicious product.

Yeah. There's a lot of steps before they actually get the coffee. Totally. When it does take time it's probably a big thing. People are always in a hurry for their espresso. Yeah. It's called an espresso. Get it to me quicker. And even I think people when drinking coffee probably get confused as to what they're tasting. Yeah. You know sweetness, sour. People are like oh it's bitter. Coffee should be a little bit bitter but usually it's a bit sour if anything. Yeah. But I wouldn't really expect most plebs as you say. That's me talking about me. To understand that but in saying that I think Australia after working overseas and seeing overseas, Australia is definitely at the forefront.

A lot of the world including the US look to Australia for coffee industry. In the US you hear about people opening Melbourne or Australian style cafes all the time and it's pretty amazing so I think our general coffee culture is pretty stellar. Why do you think we've got that coffee culture that's ahead of a lot of the world? A lot of it is probably due to immigration to be honest. Yeah. You know Italians coming in with espresso. A lot has changed. I think Australians are pretty adventurous in terms of travel too. We're not scared to go out and try new things, buy delicious coffee.

We love our food and wine and coffee and everything else so we're always looking for the best and I think for us to be pretty much number one in the world for consuming coffee kind of shows what kind of country we live in really. Not to get too deep but after seeing where coffee comes from and and things like that you know we're pretty bloody privileged to be complaining about our espresso taking 10 minutes. Or complaining about coffee being too hot or not hot enough. It's pretty surprising. So you spoke about moving to the US a little bit before.

Why? Why did you move to the other side of the world? I get bored quickly. I've noticed. I've lived in Somerville since '96. Tash in the area even before that I think. Sorry Tash, I don't know that. Shout out to Tash, hello. She probably doesn't listen to this. She hates talking about coffee. I do it enough for us both. That's fair enough. She'd rather bring tea. Never mind. Carry on. We balance each other out. The US, something different, we're just ready to see another part of the world. Like I said Oz is pretty adventurous, aren't scared to move.

And at first America actually intimidated us both. When you moved or just thinking about it? Beforehand. Yeah, it's kind of like that all guns, it's America, whatever you know. But when we moved there we actually fell in love with it pretty quickly. Awesome. Obviously you get homesick but I think we both adapted pretty quickly and Tash got a little bit of an accent here and there. But I don't know why exactly, can't really put a finger on it. Yeah. I think we just needed a change. Yeah cool. And there is nothing like home. Coming back is amazing.

Yeah. But we just needed something different. What I guess made you pull the trigger and actually, like we're better to pull the trigger. Sorry. To all Americans listening, I apologise. You were right to say. Yeah. What made you pull the trigger and actually get up and leave? Because a lot of people talk about making a big change and changing it but you actually did it. I'm a really impulsive person. Very... It's all the coffee. Yeah seriously. So from applying for the job and landing in the US was seven weeks. That's cool. So I sent Tash, I'm like hey I'm thinking of applying for this, what do you reckon?

Just like go for it. I did. Yeah. Skyped. Got our visas in three weeks. That's awesome. Packed up our shit, sold our house. Yeah. And seven weeks later we were there. It probably could have been more thought put into it to be honest. But if we did we probably would have won. Yeah. It's one of those things like there's never a right time to buy a house, never a right time to have kids, never a right time to whatever. Yeah exactly. We just thought, it was actually like looking back we were like freaking crazy. It is crazy but.

Best thing. Awesome couple of years. Oh so good. You know four years later we were you know almost almost wish we had stayed longer but it was the right time to come home. What made you come home? What was the... We were originally going to move to Ireland. This is where it kind of got a little bit challenging. Yeah. Really. We met a couple guys there. We're thinking about opening a roastery with some friends. Yeah cool. And it just we got there and nothing really felt right. Yeah. We were there for six weeks. Two hours. Yeah.

Yeah. We spent about nearly a year planning this. Yeah. Skyping, getting ready, whatever whatever. Like we'll move there, join these guys. Already had a cafe. And nothing really felt like it was for us. Yeah. And we were like let's just go, let's go home. Yeah. So coming home was a little bit messy and a little bit weird but leaving the US our visas were up. See it was kind of half made for you. Yeah. Obviously there's a lot going on there in terms of politics. It's a different story for a different time. Yeah. We just

there was a lot unknown and I think our family and friends all being around the peninsula at least it was kind of like we're ready to move at least. Check out what Ireland's like. If it works it works. It was kind of a... See what happens. Yeah. Yeah. We didn't really put a date on it. Yeah. Didn't work and we're like all right come home. We went you know failing I think for the first time in my adult life in a big way was very hard. Yeah. There's I think being successful in what you do in a traditional sense.

I don't really care too much for the traditional sense of what successful is. Yeah. You know that sounded like a dick. Relatively well known like in the coffee industry and there was a lot of external pressure on me to do well. Yeah. Over there within like the first three weeks of literally in the newspaper that I'd moved there and was planning to. Yeah. Cool. Open a roastery and do all this stuff. Yeah. I was just like like at the time I'm like this may not even work out and I'm already. Yeah. There's already this pressure from people I don't know.

Yeah. Pressure from people I do know. Pressure as you know someone that wants to do well. Yeah. And it didn't work. How did you deal with all that I guess external pressure because it's we put enough pressure on ourselves. Yeah. How did you deal with all the extra external pressure. Like it was fun. I kind of am pretty good at hiding that stuff in a way. Yeah. I imploded. I didn't personally I didn't do deal well with it because I never had to. Yeah. I didn't know how to. Like Tash would probably tell you that no it was like I got stressed.

I didn't want to lift. Yeah. Put on weight. Drinking every day. Yeah. I was just hating life at the time. I'm like I don't know what to do. So it's probably the perfect decision to move home. Yeah. And I haven't felt better actually to be honest. Good. Very very happy. Things are going good. But I think I've learnt a lot from failing without sounding cliche. It's actually really true. Until you have failed you don't know. Yeah. It's like kind of know to a point how to deal with it now and to move on. Yeah. Because teach a bit about yourself.

It is what it is. Yeah. You know I think I felt like I failed as a man and you know put pretty much my heart and soul. Everyone was expecting all this shit. You were probably expecting as well. Oh totally. I was like oh we're gonna do this. It's gonna be amazing. We're gonna be here for however long. Yeah. You know we might might make some money and whatever and it didn't happen. Yeah. And I'm totally fine with it now. Good. How long did it take you to get from that point where you kind of failed for lack of a term or hit bottom kind of thing to where you are now in being in seemingly a really happy place.

It was probably about three months because that was only earlier this year. Yeah. Too long. But you know you you kind of do. Three months in the scan of things isn't much at all. I kind of realized that I wasn't doing well. Yeah. And got good people around. So yeah. I think spending a lot of time both at Comapoca and Hero Virtus helps a lot. Yeah. Did I get a free membership there? Keep plugging. But I think I'm talking about that kind of stuff. Yeah. It really helps and it's pretty tough for guys to skirt

around mental health or even just feeling down or whatever you know you kind of are pretty good at hiding it or putting that emotion somewhere else. Yeah. It's not something we need to talk about all the time either. It's something that just being in a positive environment and surrounding yourself with like-minded people is sometimes enough. Sometimes we need to talk about it. Sometimes we need to kind of spill everything and talk but other times it's just it's enough to internalize it deal with it and then put yourself in a positive environment. When I say talk about it I think talking to the right person or people.

Yeah. It's not something you want for like I think you should be parading it as like it's something you need attention for or whatever it's just kind of like you know it helps to talk. Talk to the right person as soon as you're feeling good. Yeah. It's good. You know if you need to talk fine. I think just yeah being in a positive environment. I think I wrote it on the wall the other day positivity breeds positivity. Yeah definitely. And if you know if you're around people that are negative that's going to bring you down positive same thing.

Yeah. How quickly after you got back did you start working at Common Folk? Within like a week. Yeah. I've known Santa Keck and Tommy Teedy and the guys there for quite a while. Yeah. And I saw Tommy like three days after we landed. Yeah. And one of the first things he said he's like hey do you want to come work on the bus on the weekend? I was like yeah sure why not. Busy with bus space. Yeah. And then yeah they're like hey we've got some work if you're keen. Yeah. It's been a long time since I worked behind bar.

I kind of missed it. I love the social interaction. Yeah. Talking with different people all day. Yeah. It can be tiring. I'm an extrovert and sometimes it's hard to know when to switch off. Get home and I'm absolutely zonked. Yeah. But it's it's such a good place to work and the guys there just I don't know until you've worked in a joint like that it's pretty hard to explain. It's just chill. It's fun. Yeah. You look forward to going to work every day. Totally. I spend my days off there. Literally every day I'm there. Yeah. It's good fun.

Yeah. I think there's a reason why common folk and I guess that little community of people is so popular and people want to be there because it's just it's a good vibe and everyone enjoys being around people that want to have fun. Totally. And I'm miserable all day. Good. What you said there's no place like home. What over the last couple of months been the best part of actually coming home after three years away? Teasing my brother about having a small dick. Nah. It's the little things isn't it? Sorry kids. It's definitely the little things. Definitely family.

Yeah. I've been a few kids born since we left. Yeah. Same family. I think being near the beach. Oh man. This makes you happy doesn't it? I love this place. Until you've lived inland or like and the funny thing is Maryland is there's more waterfront property in Maryland than there is in Florida. Really? Yeah. But it's all kind of like estuaries and it's different. Yeah. You don't swim it. It's just like the beach is there's nothing like it. Yeah. I think having something familiar too weirdly enough as much as I like adventure. Yeah. Having a routine for me.

Yeah. Go to shops and all the brands. Get different things out of both. Yeah. And it's just comfortable I guess. Yeah. Good. What's next? Just happy here for a while. Happy here for a bit. It's the first time I think in my adult life and coffee career that it's been just chill. Yeah. It's only been since April that we moved home so not long. Yeah. That's crazy. I feel like I've known you for a long. Much longer than that. It's gone. Yeah. It's weird. I don't know. Chatting to Sammy about a few things. It's all up in the air.

Cool. He's away for a bit. Watch this space. Yeah. Just enjoying doing what I'm doing for now. Yeah. It's exciting. It's really cool. Talk to me about lifting. I like lifting. Yeah. I know you do. What does lifting do for you and why do you lift? It's a weird quote. Not a weird question but there's no real straight answer. Yeah. I know. Makes me happy. Think about it. Yeah. Good. We need to do things that make us happy. Happy is good. Yeah. I think I've always been a very competitive person. Not ridiculously competitive but I've always either been involved in sports.

Yeah. Whether it was athletics as a kid, footy, competing in barista comps. Whatever I do I always want to try and push. Yeah. I find power lifting or lifting just in general. Good time for social interaction, banter, sticking around. Yeah. But also pushing myself to see if I can do something, actually body. I don't know why power lifting. When I was living in the US I was in a commercial gym just doing bringing cable flyers and all that bullshit. Yeah. Like pull down. Yeah. Late press. But you know I was still moving. I was still enjoying it and I met a couple of guys that were monsters.

Yeah. And they were dead lifting and I'm like damn I've never dead lifted before. Yeah. Did it, tried it, hurt myself and then started researching on how can I do this. Just dive down the rabbit hole. Yeah. Watching videos online before I knew it. A year had passed and was just pushing and picking heavy things up and putting them down. It's as simple as that. Seems to float my boat. Yeah. I think after doing a bodybuilding comp. Yeah. When was the bodybuilding comp? That was 2008 I think. Yeah. So well before you left. Yeah. I was yeah.

So when you used to train for that bodybuilding comp was it just your standard machine based program? Yeah. Quarter squats. Quarter squats. As my pictures will show I have chicken legs still. Yeah. But it's just a different environment and sometimes that's great for certain people but I think the one thing I love about powerlifting it's what you can do not how you look. Yeah. I cared so much about how I looked I was it pushed me into being vain. Back doing the bodybuilding comp. Yeah. Oh I can't eat that you know whatever whereas powerlifting is just like I've never felt so healthy and happy.

Yeah. Doing it I did get a little sloppy for a bit because. We'll talk about that. My tall week probably. We'll talk about that. Bit of a potbelly. I've got a little bit too heavy into the calories. I might share the 12-week photo since we're back. But it's kind of like you know you eat and lift and sleep and try and do it better. And enjoy yourself the whole time. So much fun. Yeah. You know it's tough. It's tough on the body. You're tired. Sore. Always sore. Story of my life. Always sore. But good sore. Yeah.

If you're sore your body's adapting as long as you allow it to recover and to adapt. Yeah totally. Then you're going to improve and you're going to get better. Too many people either chase the feeling of being sore all the time and don't actually allow themselves to adapt or they don't train hard enough to actually be sore. Super sore. You want to be a little bit tender and then kind of refresh and go again. But that's really cool. It's funny how that actually translates to so many areas of your life too. It's like being uncomfortable. Yeah.

And being sore in inverted commas pushes you to grow and be better. Sorry to get wanky again. But it's true. It's like unless you're uncomfortable in what you're doing you're probably at least just cruising along. You're stagnant. Yeah. There's nothing worse than being stagnant and having no progress. Being uncomfortable is not a bad thing. I'm talking about you know being adventurous. Doing what makes you happy. Doing fun things. Yeah. Yeah. For me, I'd probably be conquering my fear of heights. Have you done it yet? No. No? Hell no. I was talking to Maddie about it yesterday actually.

Oh no. No. No. No. Because we were talking about tree surfing and I was like what is it? She's like it's just a high ropes course. Do you want to go? Yeah we'll make it happen. We'll make it happen. All right. I'm like I'm so scared of heights that I was telling Maddie this yesterday that I've posted a photo before. I actually have to get forklift. You didn't tell me about that. Tell me through. Take me through the whole story. I was like. This is a good story. You get a hundred and nearly 110 kilo going on a roof.

Yeah. Annapolis is a navy town. The U.S. Naval Academy's there. So every year we watch the Blue Angels which is like fighter jet kind of like show or whatever we get on the roof. Yeah. And for whatever reason the year before I was fine and the year before that getting up and down. This year I got on and I just could not get around and back maybe just because I was 110 kilos. Yeah a little bit bigger than you might have been. I couldn't get on. I just could not do it. I was scared. Everyone's laughing at me.

I got real mad. Yeah. And I literally had to get a forklift and a pallet and I crawled off on my hands and knees. That is the best mental picture ever. A scared little. Just holding on to the health. A scared big 110 kilo human. Oh so scared. That's horrible. That's outstanding. Funny for everyone else. Yeah. But I think one of the reasons I am scared of heights was house sitting when I was maybe 19 hanging out at a swimming pool. Found a ladder and we're like yeah let's jump off. We've been drinking and been dicks and I jumped off.

It was probably a couple of meters up. My feet and the ladder collapsed. Oh no. The ladder goes back. Classic fail video. Yeah. Straight on the concrete. Ended up obviously once I sobered up. Dropped myself to hospital because I was the only one that could drive with my left foot. Yeah. Didn't break anything but tore all the ligaments and stuff. My ankle. Lovely. Blah blah blah. So that's causing you afraid of heights. I guess so. So would you would you suggest that if you were someone else that you would you should conquer your fear of heights and try and put yourself in that uncomfortable position?

Totally. We'll do it. It's one of those things like there's no rational explanation as to why I should be scared of heights more so than anyone else. So we'll do it. Cool. Let's get a little bit uncomfortable. Or a nappy. Good. Very very good. So you mentioned it but you've I guess had gone through a fair bit of a physical transformation since you got back. Yeah totally. Three months ago. Yeah. Talk to me about it. What's what's changed? I think I was so focused on being as strong as I could be in the US competing in my last comp.

I didn't care as to what I put in my body. Yeah. I just wanted to be big as long as I hit. Hit your numbers? Hit my numbers. The macros, protein, fat, carbs at least a minimum. So I was eating 25 000 kilojoules a day on average. Yeah. Too much. Plus whatever I was drinking in beer. Yeah. I got back and just felt like crap. I was tired. Puffed between sets which shouldn't happen. Because you've got sets of what? One, two, three. Yeah anything over fives cardio. That's that same power. Yeah you haven't changed that mindset yet.

We'll get there. Oh 20. I did 20 reps. But just I don't know. I just wanted to feel better. I don't really care as to how I look as long as I'm happy. Yeah. And feel healthy. But I think having the equipment here as well and the people it's like everyone here's you know pushing and relatively fit and I'm like here's this chubby kid in the corner getting puffed from squatting once. We were squatting significantly heavier weights than we were but. But I think just you know I'm not getting any younger either. Just looking after myself.

Yeah. A lot of it's again there's no real I can't say this is exactly why. Yeah well it's like anything it's a combination of things that's changed that's allowed you to drop that weight. I feel like as well if I can get better there it's going to help me in lifting. Of course. If I can be as strong as I was in my last meet at a lower body weight or at least yeah close to higher muscle percentage and fat you know that'd be I'm pretty stoked so I'm shooting for hitting some PRs by the end of the year.

Yeah awesome awesome. In my own little probably private comp here. I went to something hopefully there's one next year. That was the next question. Do you want to compete again? Oh totally yeah there's nothing like competing it's probably like playing footy or yeah or whatever just the environment. I you know different you know CrossFitters don't like power lifters and power lifters think CrossFitters or whatever I'll get too far into that. But just the environment like sometimes there's that rough mentality that goes with powerlifting or you know they just meet heads. Yeah such a good environment. Everyone's really positive.

Oh yeah you know you get a 140 kilo guy chalking your back giving you a little massage. But you know you've got like a couple hundred people in there just cheering you on. Yeah you wanna everyone will see everyone hit the lifts. Do well. You want to push yourself because you know you're in front of people. Yeah you're trying to break I just went in to break my own personal records. Some of the guys in my class were out of control but they went obviously on weight class and then there was tested and untested in terms of drugs.

Obviously I was in tested. Yeah I didn't get tested but it was pretty clear as to who was who. Yeah it does make a significant difference. Yeah but it's a it's a brilliant environment and if anyone's thinking about doing it just do it. I was scared shitless the first time it's really no it's like public speaking. I was like up there and my heart was racing. I was nervous. It actually helps. It would help you literally. That adrenaline just you know people smell ammonia capsules and whatnot to get that feeling. Yeah. Which I did my second form.

Yeah. It's pretty crazy. But yeah good fun. Definitely gonna do it again. Maybe uh probably pushing masters. Not quite. Have you had any big injuries with powerlifting? Also pushing your body that hard can result in some injuries. Nothing big um which is pretty amazing uh to program at the one I had one or two like tweaks when I first started deadlifting and before I had learned how to deadlift. Yeah everybody learned how to do it properly please. Yeah you learn by doing right? Yeah I had a lumbar strain which could have been a lot worse. Yeah and I like couldn't even sit up or down without pain.

Such a shit feeling uh and painkillers in America are so strong. That's very different. Easy to get. Easy to get. I had one I'm like I'd rather deal with the pain than take these bad boys. Yeah. But uh it was just a just a strain I was back to it like four weeks later um yeah a little minor tear strain in my um oblique which was maybe six weeks from comp so that was not fun. It would have affected your prep a little bit. Yeah but it was only out from it was probably good for

a b-load anyway I was out for maybe mainly which is why I didn't know it was a strain and I'll tell the doctor again American doctors she didn't even touch me or make them do anything she's like yeah you've tared it he's painkillers. Oh really? Tared it. Tore it. Tore it. Tore it? Tore it. Carry on. Um your power lifts you don't have to speak good English. No don't speak real good but no injuries uh obviously as most athletes have or people that lift you know little things here and there you always got something sore something going on just by I'm seeing Ash tomorrow.

Good good for massage. Um look at my calves, quads, bicep, chest, shoulder. I imagine we're gonna we're gonna overhear you squealing from upstairs. It's horrible oh so sore. You need that TLC though you need it. Grungy Ash. Yeah yeah and I think that's like being an athlete and I use the term in here that everyone's an athlete. Yeah totally. Everyone you know whether your sport is life or whether your sports powerlifting or football or whatever but being able to kind of if you get injured because injuries are going to happen if you're pushing your body

to improve and adapt sometimes you're going to push it too hard and we need to I guess take stock and and learn from that injury but allows us to focus on other things and and like you said it's usually a blessing in disguise like that like that day low three quads. Totally. That's really cool. All right I've got a couple of questions for you. I've been told that you're really really good at converting pounds into kilos. If it's done in 20 kilos. How many kilos is 222 pounds? 222? Yeah uh 400 and... pounds. Yeah so 222 pounds.

Yeah. How many kilos? 100. Good. 762. Kilos? Yep. Uh like 1650. Yeah pretty good. I don't even I didn't even check. I have a converter on my phone. You would. I didn't even check if that was right. 722. Mate I was just giving you random numbers. I was 50 pounds off 1700. Not bad close enough. All right now you've had some pretty rad nicknames. Talk me through them. So at the moment it's uh DJ Khalib which is now morphed into Habib. Yeah. Thanks. That happened. Uh school was um noodles because I used to have a luscious curly mane.

Uh that's the best photo I've ever seen. Um and then some of my closest mates from school started calling me gaybar. As you do. As you do. Just you know and then they still call me either gay, gaybar, Gabriel. Good. It is what it is. I'll take it and potty is probably the most common. Nice. Call me potty which is hard to explain in American because I thought I was saying potty. If you like your nicknames or what? Potty Americans. Can't wear them all. Talk to me about the peroxide burn on your head. I'll try to prod you for this story.

Yeah um so I used to be really into doing my hair. Probably like god made me bald. Very ironic now unfortunately. Very bald um not really I chose to shave my head. So keep telling yourself that. Yeah frosted tips were the thing. I used to frost my own tips and one day I just couldn't get it blonde enough. I'm like it's not going blonde enough. I'm just going to leave this in. Two hours later. Yeah. Um my head was tingling. I'm like oh shit this is not good. Um like it's kind of starting. I'm like

hey mom hey mom can you check this out and she was like gasp uh she's like all right let's rinse it out and I had probably I don't know the size of a hand uh it started losing where my hair was and it like broke out and I had to go to the doctors. I had a massive burn on my scalp. It was very painful and disgusting. If you're giving yourself tips kids take it out. Don't leave it in too long. Or just don't get tips. Yeah I think that's kind of passed a little bit. A little bit.

Except for Cam. I don't know anyone else with tips. Yeah sorry Cam. So I've got a couple of questions for you to finish this up. Yeah. What is success to you? Um to me right now is being happy. Good. Uh and usually if you're happy doing something you love so doing at least the best you can do at that point in time. Yeah. It doesn't really like someone else's idea of success might not be the same as yours. That's fine. Yeah. I think being happy too many people go around life just trying to please other people.

Pleasing other people or just doing the same shit because that's what you're supposed to do. Yeah. And I'm not talking happiness for um just happiness sake but something that truly makes you you know tick you want to get up want to do it. Something that gets makes you jump out of bed in the morning. If you if you love grooming cats and that makes you want to get up get out there and bloody groom cats. You could have gone with powerlifting or roasting coffee but you want to make grooming cats. Yeah fair enough carry on.

Um like I think you know most of us have probably seen enough of what's you know what media tells us success is and it looks pretty shit to be honest. Yeah it does it does. You know don't let other people's ideas of that put pressure on you because then you just put pressure on yourself and it's no fun. Yeah. And just enjoy enjoy doing your doing. I love getting up and making coffee. Good. Um and you know it'll change down the track. I'll probably get back into roasting and I love doing that. Yeah. Very nice. Yeah hopefully I do it well because I love doing it.

Good. Yeah. If you could be remembered in one sentence what would it be? Uh it's a tough question. That's a great question. It's my favorite one at the moment. That guy had an amazing head of hair. That I loved people. I think you know that I was can I go more than one sentence? Yeah mate. Um I think that I was a kind and generous human. Good. That's that's basically anything outside of that you know it doesn't really matter to me. Good. Really good. You might use the same answer for the next one. If you could give every human on earth one personality trait what would it be?

Uh is laughter a trait? What's comedian? There's nothing like making people laugh. Yeah. Um I'd do it too. I don't know. Happiness. Good. Um. Why? It's nothing like it. What's the point of living if you're not happy? Good. I've got pretty deep in this. Mate deep is good. You know I think I think coming out out of you know a couple of things in the you know I don't think it's like yeah what's the point of doing what you're doing if you're not happy? Yeah I don't know if everything's the same here is what's the point if you're not having fun.

Exactly. Yeah if you look if you look forward to doing the things that you do every day then life's good. Like it doesn't you don't have to have a shiny new car or big house or all that kind of stuff if you're enjoying what you're doing every day with the people that you enjoy doing it with then you're kicking off. I think as well like the people that know me well and you guys are probably learning. I mean the one thing that really floats my boat is sharing. Yeah definitely. I'm an oversharer when it comes to.

Still got a muffin downstairs. You brought to me before. I share what I have if I'm excited about something I want people to know about it. Yeah. I'm also an oversharer in terms of bodily functions and stuff that people don't want to know about. Yeah it happens occasionally. It's just money and sex it's fun. Carry on. Speaking of oversharing. But yeah it makes me happy. Hospitality. Yeah. Through and through. It's be hospitable. Give people coffee they love it. Mate everyone loves coffee and if you don't kp worry about you so much. Matty come on. That's me.

If you could give teenage you one piece of advice what would it be? Don't dye your hair. It's simple. Easy. Stop caring what others think. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. Stop caring about what others think of you because they're not usually thinking about you. Which is it? Yeah. I was yeah I was probably a pretty insecure teenager. Yeah. It's one of the reasons I probably got into lifting subconsciously. Yeah. It really doesn't matter if people don't care what you're wearing or how you look usually. Yeah. To be honest. They're worried too much about themselves. Yeah.

Yeah it was probably a big focus. What's the main thing lifting has taught you over the last 15-20 years? Oh um how resilient the body can be. Yeah. How quickly it adapts uh but to probably to push um a lot like I love pushing. Pushing myself so lifting yeah. Make sure you pause while we need to lift some rows and chins and things. Exactly. This one can. Good. What's the nicest thing you've ever done with someone? Oh wow uh like I don't even know. Giving someone a large sum of quality. It was a gift voucher just for being them.

Awesome. Um I don't know sometimes people just need encouragement whether they're happy or not. Again it's the sharing thing. Yeah definitely. I think there's big gestures and there's small ones just bringing someone a coffee. Yeah. Make their day. I like it. Thank you for all the coffees you've brought us. Oh it's my pleasure. Thanks for coming forward. Yeah. All right a couple of favorites. Favorite quote? Uh life's too small to be you know I don't even have a favorite quote. Come on you said one before that's you're right. Yeah positivity breeds positivity and generosity breeds generosity.

Good. And I uh can put my name on that one because it's one of my favorites. Good. And I made it up. I'm gonna put it back on the wall. Do it. I guess I made it up. I probably stole it from Summer and New York. Yeah but that's how life works these days anyway. Favorite movie? Uh Braveheart. Why? I don't know. William Wallace. About my ancestors. Yeah. I'm stuck calling you William. I just love it. I don't know. It's an amazing movie. Epic. I actually didn't really care for it too much when it first came out really enough.

Yeah. It's just been the last maybe five, five, ten years. And if you can call it a movie, Band of Brothers. Oh yeah. Uh epic movie series. Yeah yeah. I'll play that. Those two. I could watch them over and over. Braveheart was my own line on repeat when I was younger. Yeah. So good. Favorite sport? Uh footy. Good. A lot of footy. What's moving on? Favorite recording artist? Uh oh here's a surprise for him. I like country music. Oh no you don't. Really? Yeah. Now you and Tommy were gonna do a DJ set on Monday night right?

I think I'm gonna let you anymore. Geez. Favorite artist at the moment? It's changed a lot. Yeah. I'll swing between hip-hop whatever. Favorite artist at the moment is Chris Stapleton. So he's one of the guys that writes for a lot of artists. Okay that's cool. Maybe America rubbed off me a little bit. Yeah there you go. Favorite resource for lifting and powerlifting uh information? Uh Juggernaut Trending Systems dot com maybe if that's actually it. Uh it's a program I follow very uh accessible and easy to understand. Yeah. Um and Chad Worsley-Smith the guy that runs it all is an elite.

He's huge. Elite powerlifter. Yeah. Previously a competitive shot putter and all around nice guy. Awesome. But there's so much on there from powerlifting uh I think they do a little bit of CrossFit. I don't know. I don't really look at that too much. It's for losers. Olympic lifting and nutrition. Yeah. All that kind of stuff. It's amazing. Yeah cool. Uh recovery he works with uh quite a few guys that you know PhD. That's awesome. Blah blah blah whatever. So that's where I've got a lot of my info even when I was just learning and I still use it a lot.

Yeah it's good. So it goes through the science behind lifting as well. Totally yeah. There's a lot of it used to be a lot of articles to read. Um also um YouTube or videos now. Yeah. So check it out. Chugging on. Good. Favorite resource for learning about coffee and learning and putting like you're already at the forefront of the industry but how do you keep moving forward and keep improving? Yeah uh Barista Hustle is a good website for everything from brewing at home to the science whatever uh and I think they have a forum as well you can follow on Instagram.

Check them out. There's some books if you're that nerdy to do it. If you actually want to spend money on a book. Uh Scott Rao put out some from filter coffee espresso and roasting. Awesome. Easy enough to understand even just for plebs like us. Yeah should be. Maybe. Favorite hobby? Favorite hobby outside of lifting. I'm pretty boring to be honest. Eating does that count? Yeah yeah I've seen you eat that's a hobby. I think um my favorite thing to do is to hang out with people. Good. When it's warm enough go to the beach. Yeah I like it.

Last book you read start to finish? Geez um it was uh boys in the boat about uh the olympic rowing team I want to say post berlin olympics. I could be wrong. Um they were a college team and basically they were just a you know I won't say a bunch of misfits but they got together. Yeah. Worked well together did well really good book and historically based. Yeah I've been recommended that before I haven't read it yet. I'll do it. What was the main learning point or teaching point you got out of that book? Um

to again to push it's like no matter what happens push uh not stupidly yeah but you know you could be a bunch of misfits versus you know yeah not really no you're definitely true it's you know all different kinds of people but you can all come together for one common goal yeah I like it was and it's one of those books that like palette doesn't really read a lot now I don't I don't really read a lot I'm a very visual person so and I have the attention span of freaking ant um that's why I

only got three reps in this seriously uh that's one of those books that just takes you like I was reading and just I was there I like it a lot so awesome last one what's your favorite coffee uh I'm a big big fan of washed Ethiopian coffees uh generally yoga chef is the region okay uh comic folk have them sometimes obviously they're seasonal yeah so if you see yoga chef in a bag get it you're probably gonna like it good um obviously there's different kinds from them but that's my favorite region if I have to

put it down to a region yeah delicious it's like the IPA of coffee world I like it yeah good for me any more coffees no just any more anything for any more anything uh not really good eat lots eat lots lift lots drink lots coffee have fun well thank you very much this is a lot of fun um I hope everyone gets something out of it yeah me too good Love you, bye. - Thanks.