S4E04 · Rick Mirabella

G'day and welcome to Rise Up With Rick and I'm here with the Virtus podcast. We've got a mash up. We've got a mash up. I'm here at Lottie Wallace's joint. We're just doing a 20, 24 year review and guess what? We have planned exactly nothing. How are you brother? Very well mate. Very good to see you. Thanks for having us. Pleasure as always. It's nice to be in the room with the goat in the flesh. Mate, please. I love coming down here. Mornington Virtus is the beautiful, beautiful setting. You just feel so, I feel at home here and obviously I'm 40 minutes away.

I just love this joint and you've done so well. So congratulations. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. Of course, Virtus performance and Virtus podcast, which is your first one in a while. This is the first one in a while. Done a mash up. Re-launch for 25 and what better way to start than with you? A recap of 24 yet again and the best way to do it, Loc, is with zero planning because then we are, we both are very, we are authentic and we just want to let it roll off the tongue. So how have you been mate?

How's your last few months been? How's it been in here? I guess for, for my guys that don't know yet, I know that you've been on one or two shows in mashups before, but how's it been the last few months in here running a gym? I saw some awesome interns just leaving as I was rocking up. Just you're doing good things, brother. How's it all going? Thanks mate. No, it's going well. It's going well. It's always, I really enjoy this time of year when footy finishes up. Obviously that takes a fair bit of energy and, and resources and you kind of just clear air a little bit.

We've had a big, big 12 months from, as a from business sense with big changes in the team and tweaking a few things about how we run the gym. You know, being 10 years into the caper in this space, it's kind of like you want to keep freshening it up and creating excitement, things like that. So we're dialling in a few changes to kick off 2025 with, so really excited for that. But yeah, the team changes have been the big one. We've been able to kind of do almost a full transition with the team this

year to get us to probably the best place we've been in terms of personnel being in the right seats and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, last few months, bit of coaching, kind of step, like this year has been a big coaching year for me, stepping out now a little bit more into the running of the business again, which is really enjoyable and having that little balance between coaching and then just hanging out with the girls, being dad and yeah, looking after myself a little bit more for once. Yes. Yeah, we'll get to that. I reckon that's important.

Absolutely. Very important. So you got, you got the dog, the dog down there. She's beautiful. Thanks. Yeah. What are you doing? Billy, Billy sitting here before Billy and loose billion loose. Yeah. Well, or the age of the moment. Loose is turning five next week, which will be, which will be insane. She's going to school next year and Billy's just turned three, so she's going to kinder next year. So they're both chomping at the bit to get, to get to their respective places of education. Every day, every day is that lost in education. Look at it. Every day is a milestone at those ages and, and to be honest at all ages.

So enjoy every minute. It's good. Like I said, it's, um, locks done this in this space for a decade and, and he's been in the game for a long, long time. So well over a decade and, uh, he's played footy concurrently with that, um, at some really good levels and still playing at YC, which you mentioned him obviously having, um, always been in the coaching space in football. This time of year is a good time. The other four weeks of, uh, obviously you're still doing things. If you're coaching, you're training, you don't have to, you don't have to be locked in and, and you don't have to be showing up.

You can show up for yourself or, and for your family. And I guess with businesses and families, it does get hard of all those things. And I guess you've dabbled in, um, running and other sports as well, especially, um, your junior athletic career we've spoken about before, but yeah, the stuff that you've, you've done for yourself over the next 50, 60 years. And that's, I guess a big space that I'm in at the moment. Just trying to really, um, make time for yourself and footy as long as it's still serving you and you can still give, which you can, um, is going to be part of that.

But I think, um, there's little ways that you can work in your own stuff, uh, in the mornings and that and, and not having to always be coaching or worrying about the business, which, um, I've found myself in a lot over the last 10, 15 years as well. Um, did you get to the point over the last four years? So we're coming out of COVID four, we're in late 2024, obviously not to date this, but have you found, have you found in the last three or four years, your own physical, mental, emotional wellbeing, um, kind

of dipping and having dips and sometimes in dips, we talk about the ability to rebound pretty quickly, but sometimes when you're giving and you've got a finite amount of energy, which we have, um, you're giving too much than the dips start to last longer. And all of a sudden you turn around and go, fuck, I, um, I'm really not in great physical or mental. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think when you, you know, and you feel this, I'd imagine in different ways is when you're concentrating on building a business, maintaining a business, building, maintaining relationships,

you know, raising a family, being dad, husband, friend, leader, whatever, you know, family member, brother, there's so many places where you can put your resources and learning how to manage those and prioritize, prioritize those, I think is a superpower if you nail it and do it well, which, you know, you go through periods where we're peaking and everything's going well and you're like, yeah, I'm nailing all this and I'm looking after myself and I'm training and I'm moving and things like that. But when things start getting a little bit tight, you know, there'll be timelines financially, um, expectations, whatever.

I think the first thing that tends to go, especially I see for a lot of coaches, you know, I'm sure you've probably been through this as well is, is your, your own health and wellbeing and your own fitness. Cause you're in it because you want to see other people succeed and you want to see other people grow and develop and get better and, and progress and adapt and all of those kinds of things. So you tell, you know, the stories we tell ourself is our reality. And I think you can tell yourself the story that your health isn't as important as everyone else's or, you know, your, your wellbeing isn't, isn't, you know, top of the priority tree.

Um, and you know, on the constant journey, the last couple of months has been for me, uh, a realization that I need to look after myself better because otherwise the person that's showing up to help everyone else isn't, isn't the best version of me. You felt something similar? Oh my. Yep, absolutely. I felt that it's been absolutely prominent the last few years, but, um, and I've definitely tried to work on it and done a lot of work away, um, with some professional help as well and, and really working regularly, um, with, with psychologists and that as well.

But definitely you give, you're giving, giving, giving 120% you want to only because, um, we care about me and you actually genuinely care, um, about every person, whether they're, um, being with a seven and 18 years, um, whether they're online, whether they're overseas, you do, you just, you can't not care. Um, so you die, you are giving and then obviously we're five kids between us and all the sports and everything. And then you just want to show up for everything. Like you said, you don't want to be the best you can be at every single moment.

But I think, or I know that it's not humanly possible. Um, and there was a big correlation with my physical health, um, and specifically fitness, let's just not say for health because physical fitness, um, when, when probably the business like you, you go ballsy and you go all chips in on, on, on obviously facilities and apps and money and so you've just got to make it work. And then apart from that, then you still got to show up for those hundreds and all thousands or whatever. And you're having conversations hundreds of weeks. So it's really important to just take a step out.

And there's a lot of the programs I run these days are about helping people do that. But then it's taken me longer to actually do it for myself a lot better. I'm a lot further down the line. I think me and you, I saw a post you did the other day, which was awesome. Uh, really well said. Um, and um, we got a thing called runner's vibes on the, the runners out. There's just interviews with members and at one hour a interview podcast form, but it's only for, it's just, it's a very, um, it's a very real safe place and it's good for connection people over the world, but it's not released to lock on Apple podcasts.

And anyway, um, we've had about 80 episodes, but they're keen to get me on, but I am going to get on late January because I haven't, I've, I've, I'm the one normally on the other end of this and I obviously need to probably be a bit more, uh, within the hundred heroes programs. I do open up a little bit, but again, it's not about me, it's about them. So I think people, I think it can be, it can be about you as well. Right. Cause you're, you know, you're, you're running around with exactly the same physiology as everyone else, right?

You're, you're showing up to be the best version of yourself, the same stuff that you're talking about day in day out. It's, it's, sometimes it's really helpful, I think, to be able to take your own advice for lack of a better term, to be able to actually, you know, do the shit that you say is important and when you do it, you're like, Oh yeah, I feel better. There's something in this. Well mate, we, we, we know that don't we? And we both know that the trajectory of our day and then the accumulation effect of those 20 minutes, 40 minutes every day.

And we talk about health span, lifespan, all that stuff. But that aside, I think, well for your posts on that, I think me and you and a few other people that are genuinely in it and love it and in it for the people. You, there was a time I think the last decade where you just love the coaching and the physiology, psychology, helping people, all that stuff. And obviously the business side of it then becomes a bit of an obsession because like a sport. Yes. And we're very, I've been, I've been guilty of not wanting

to show up on socials and not wanting to be, cause a lot of my idols, coaching idols and, and, and philosophers and psychologists and physiologists, they, they, they're not getting their bloody six pad out running around social media, like all these other fitness influence, whatever you want to call them. And I think man, you probably will before that time. And then we came through that time. So every man, his dog's doing it now. And I was very, very against doing that. And that's my own issues. Like I don't need to be worrying about any of those guys, but now it's just about me and you making the best out of it.

What we've got, he said, people walking around, we can keep getting better every day well until our eighties, nineties and beyond. Yeah. I think there's a happy medium in terms of being genuine and being just being who you are on social media. Like I lent out of it. Like we, like you said, we've been running this business for a long time and you go through stages of like, I really got to commit to the socials to make sure that we're delivering our message and and all of those kinds of things. And then you pull back

because you see so much of what it, what it turns into in terms of, you know, just, you know, egocentric, egocentric, you know, self-love essentially. But I think I, you know, and again, the cycle continues, but I'm in that phase now where I'm like, it's such a powerful tool to be able to express your message and express your values and what's important to you. And you get to choose how you use it. You get to choose who you follow, how you post, what you say, you know, what you focus on. And, you know, I, I maybe had maybe six to 12 months off socials or at least posting being active on it.

And, you know, I kind of made the decision a couple of months ago, I want to be more active on it, but I want to only talk about shit that I think is important. I'm not going to do it, do anything for any other reason that I want to. And I think that's been really helpful me in expressing values and, and what I think is important so that you can have those conversations around, you know, the coach that posts photos of their six pack, six days, seven days a week, rather than talking about their athletes and talking about things that are actually important to them.

Yeah, I think that's important. And then being able to, you know, manage those expectations and resources that you have on yourself and go, well, if I'm posting things that I enjoy talking about, that conversation gets easier because you're actually fired, it fires you up. It's a very good point. And I think we talk, talk social networks is like anything else in life. And we talk about, I've got no doubt you do like you think about at this stage of life, like I'm a decade older than you, but we go through, you end up where you want to be in life and you want to, you want your kids to be like this as well.

But anyone really to point them in this direction of really talking about and trying to work in a big intersection of your passion, passions, talents, I guess where your knowledge base or what you're keen to learn more about passions, talents, knowledge base, and what does come naturally. So authentic to you, those four little intersection there. So if you're passionate about something, you're quite knowledgeable, you're keen to learn about it or keep getting better at every day. You're quite, you've got ability and then it does come naturally as far as authentically, like, you know, you feel like this is in line with your soul, then then that's what we're doing for living me and you.

So why can't we probably talk about that? That's the thing. Yeah. Do you have, do you have like a framework or a process you follow to make decisions around what you do and what, what, you know, like, not even just socials, but in terms of like, so your business has changed fairly significantly over the years in terms of how you deliver your, your coaching and how you bring Rick to the world. Do you have, uh, like a process you follow to, to make those decisions? Yep. So if you're talking about how many, as far as

how much contact hours or, and that, so yeah, so yeah, we definitely, we knew it had to change cause I was on the, yeah, I was pretty cooked, um, mentally and physically. So if you go back to those runners HQ days, similar, um, to a fact that you're very tapped. I was white, well, white listed and it was very hard to, we had to have a lot of really good staff, but as far as trainers and coaches, it's just a hard thing. I've gone and went through like 25 and just try anyway. So that's not

the point, but I was capped and we already spent a lot on the app and we knew that was a good way to get out there. Couldn't get out there and then COVID hits and that's what happens like at COVID and it's really good. So I guess we've got a live model that I'm happy with that I show up online twice a week, um, and to the world and then anyone can join that and then they're on the app as well. So that's just enough. The framework was always going to be runners. I'm just on the coach, but I don't, I can't be giving my everything to that cause just not feasible.

I was going to kill myself for that. So the app's great and there's always added content there and then people just jump on and if they do one session a week, if that they're laughing, you know, if they got the, then the, the, the live community that's on the lives kind of get that HQ vibe. And I kind of knew that I wanted to keep that cause the community is pretty special. We sat at hall of fame the other day and there was 44 people that have been with us since 2015 or before. It's phenomenal. Yeah, it is.

It's a lot. And a lot of them have been 07, 08, 09 and a lot of those people, that's every week by the way. Haven't missed a week since 07, 08. It's pretty cool. Do you reflect on how unique and special that is? Yeah, it's, it's not, not often enough, but it's beautiful. The community and the connection and the friendships and the families that have been from that is pretty cool. And the thing is like they're, they're from 2015 and before, but then the ones from 16 and beyond, they are people from COVID mate. There'd be so many listening.

They still feel, I feel like they've been there forever anyway, which is a credit to them. And I guess the community we're fostered, but so runners is to answer the question. Yes, I tried it. We've definitely got plans in place. I didn't get used to it. Runners they're 108 heroes is the encapsulation of everything I've ever done, but it's on a daily thing and it just, so you just can't fail. And it's all about mindset and it's all about routines and systems and it's all about detaching from emotion because you can't possibly be playing in emotion if you're trying to get better.

You just must sit. So that, that's probably my big thing. And then I've got media and bit of footy stuff here. So if you're gonna wind it up in a pie, probably 60% down the middle of 108 heroes, probably 25 to runners and the other 15 to answer your question again, I've really tried to limit my contact the last because I know we've got to do things a bit smarter. So you've got a second phone and show has got me a second phone. I've got Lou, who's a really good assistant and she handled a lot of that stuff.

So I guess I can just start showing up so I can, I can help more people that way. Cause I, yeah, you get pretty burnt and you get pretty sick pretty quickly. Yeah. It chews you up and it's, and you know, on that priorities question conversation before it's like, if you're not managing your resources, you know, you can, you get away with it for years, months. But the, I think the further you go, the more priorities you're trying to split it between the harder it is. And I think having that system where clear strategies for growth, clear strategies for impact, but you still get to be you, right?

Like authentically, you know, I fucking love seeing your posts of the 108 heroes of you sticking your head in the morning. Like what a way to start the morning for a hundred days. Phenomenal. Yeah, it's been good mate. And it's also, it's some of the great success stories have been people that haven't even not, they haven't been on at five AM once cause they might be overseas or some, some older crew that get up at six 30 and now they get their mobility back. And I guess maybe it's cause I'm over 40 now, but like my, I'm so obsessed with health span and lifespan and don't get me wrong.

I've still got a lot of bad habits, but I've come so far in that and my obsession with, and all the science man you would have studied 15 years ago around physiology, metabolic efficiency and that that's still plays in massively to the, to the improved health span and lifespan. And the, but then you know what, it doesn't mean shit if people don't pick up what you're putting down. So then it's about mindset and everything else. So then it becomes a routine and a system that you can't, we can't get a motive. We can't default to old ways.

We need to just keep trusting this. And then me and you know why we're doing things. We know that we're improving things from the inside, but it's not gonna, people won't do it long enough if they keep defaulting. So that's why it's been really good. It's been good for me. I want to get to your daily routine in a minute, but it's been good for me because I love it and it's a huge passion and I could feel I can, I can give to more people in a smaller, I can have more impact as opposed to runners.

Sometimes I was having the same conversation and this is a, I started incorporating corporates as well at the start of 23 and 24 and I was just having these conversations lock 90 minute combos and you walk out of the joint, not convos, sorry, presos. You go, fuck. I thought it was something better work, but how do I know if to even get a stick? One set, one chat. Everyone can sit on that, you know, two, three days of motivation from a talk you had or a podcast you listen to or something you heard. But yes, it's fleeting.

And I think, you know, that momentum building that people would feel day in, day out over those hundred days, like it creates a clarity of like, this is what I want my life to be. So you see that, you see that really exciting view of the future of what you could be if you just kept doing it, whether it be health, mobility, you know, wellbeing, strength, capacity is you start, you go, oh shit, if I was to do this every day for the rest of my life, like we all have two or three days of

being really efficient or really productive at work or without training well, and you know, if you sit there and go, well, how can I create this system that allows me to shop and do this for next 30, 40, 50 years? The potential is endless. It's compound interest is just going to keep paying you back and paying you back and you end up the fittest, strongest, healthiest, highest capacity version of yourself. And it's something I've definitely personally lent away from, from a physical fitness perspective because everything else was more important. But I think that's kind of, that's your foundation that you can build everything else off.

I love that. And it's, it's not being selfish at all. And I tell everyone this in this pro and the biggest thing I think people get out of it, it doesn't matter what space they're in, is they, they might join it to, to physically be bouncing around in 10 years, but more importantly to, uh, they get the other benefits, which is, I'm far less reactive. I'm far less temperamental. I've got so much more, uh, time and space. And that's the thing we talk about routines. And, um, in my twenties I thought I had a routine, but then I was trying to be Adelaide because I wanted to be a bit free.

But routines actually give us freedom. And that's the thing. So routine of these people and it's, some of them are getting the results they expected, but a lot of them are getting those, those weird ones. I just can't believe how much I can tolerate. I can tolerate so much more, um, my energy vitality, but more importantly, this is a big one. I reckon the dips are so few. Um, sorry, they still happen. It's just, it's, that's life, but you're in them for like 24 hours as opposed to 24 days. Um, and that's, that's the key.

And I'll look at, yeah, I've loved it, mate, but it's, it's been big and it's obviously all the, you get lots of success stories, but it's just about trying to make sure that everyone stays the course and, um, there's going to be lots of people down themselves cause that's what we do as human beings. So the doubts are normal and roll with that, but you need to detach from that and just keep, if you keep it about a system and a process, you look at the routine and then no matter how bad things are, especially when they're bad, you stick to the process and you'll come out, you'll come out of it.

But, um, yeah, it's, it's been awesome, mate. So thank you. I'm very, um, I'm passionate about it. The next block starting in March. So I'm passionate about that. We've got about 20 days to go. This can't get about it. Pull the trigger. Pull the trigger. Absolutely. I can't wait. It's the best thing I've ever done by my, by my own business and life. But I want to hear about your daily routine. Optimal. Um, obviously these are all questions about notice cause we're making them up on the go. So you've said you've just got back into it now.

I know YC Stone Cats, the famous boys of you've just finished last night I think for the last session. Uh, now we've got next week as well. You always go that one week later. I don't love the like eight weeks off between your Christmas break. Like just push it to the end. Don't start as early. Push it back. Anyway, I'm not, I'm a bit, I'm just, I'm just, the stone cats are famous club. Um, tell me about your average day at the moment. Um, you can have a footy day or a gym day or whatever. Yeah, I've probably got, I've probably got two types of days for me.

It's like, Oh, maybe three like family days, which, uh, you know, I take Wednesdays off just hanging out with the girls. Love that. Which daddy door today, best day of the week. But uh, I've only got about four of those left with five of those for Lucy goes to school, which is heartbreaking. Um, but I kind of have coaching days and non coaching days. So for me a coaching day, you know, I'm only doing two or three shifts here a week at the moment, but I like to like an ideal day would be get here

early and train, but I, yeah, I'm not, I haven't, I've actually joined another gym a couple of months ago cause I would get in here and I would sit and I'd chat to people and I'd be coaching and I'd be trying to do my set. I'd be coaching and I'd be talking and, and connecting and doing all the shit that I love to do. And then I'd look at the floor and go, that needs to be vacuumed. So I start vacuuming and it was post 40 season. I'm sitting there, you know, eight o'clock at night. No one else is here.

You know, at eight 45 I'd done two sets because I was cleaning stuff up and doing all those kinds of things. So I just went, nah, that's enough. So perfect day at the moment is, is probably get up, come in here early, sit at the desk journal. Have a really clear first 45 minutes journal. What do I need to do today? I like brain dumping my to do list or my actions list for the day. Get really clear on what the rest of the day looks like, where I'm going to tick it off, what I'm going to do.

Go through. So kind of the big rocks for me. I'm making sure my team are in a good spot, good headspace, checking in with them, seeing what the, what they need, how they're going. I love the question, what do you need that you don't have right now? And I can kind of ask anyone that. And most people will, you know, with some reflection be like, I've kind of got everything I need, which is what you want. But if there is something that's a really clear, easy fix, then I would like to try and give that to them.

From there, there'll be some, usually some, some member check-ins or, or some programming or something along those lines. Spend some time on the like just admin stuff, emails, things like that. And then like projects for me is like, all right, what are we working on? What's the big picture stuff? My role now isn't really in the daily micro stuff. It's more macro. Like what are we working towards? What are we building? Where's the RFI in our system or our coaching model or our methods or anything like that? Is there anything we need to change from a, from Verticence?

There'll usually be a walk with Banksy out the back in there somewhere. I'll usually catch up, you know, I'm definitely the, the older I get, I'm definitely more being, becoming more introverted. I like my own time and my own space, but there's a big part of me that's an extra like catching up with you, having a chat, catching up with someone and going to get a coffee or lunch or something like that. I get my energy from that. So yeah, the, essentially the morning is, is, you know, admin tasks, projects in, in that order. And then kind of, I like to have like, I've got a 90 minute block most days in my, in my diary.

And I have all of this blocked out in Google Cal as well, but a 90 minute block, which is like Wallace time, which is for what do I feel like I need that day? So it might be, you know, Chuck's music on and go for a walk. It might be sit up here and have some lunch and read a book, or it might be get into the work that's still, still sitting there. But ideally it's for like IdeaGen. It's creating some space for creativity, creativity and working on like, how can I make this place better? You know, we've got better every day on the wall as you walk in.

And it's one of those, one of those things that added no tangible value to the space, but every day I walk and it was more for me than our members, but I walk in there and I look at that and I go, all right, if I can make this place a little bit better today than it was yesterday, we're winning. In another decade there's, you know, quick mass, 3650 days where I've been able to, you know, hopefully move the needle a little bit, a lot of compounding brother, a lot of compounding. That's what we're here for.

So the, so you clear the head and I love that because that's something I've done not very well because you're not going to create, you need space and clarity. It's just one page of journaling. It's not a, you know, sit there for 45 minutes and write, it's one page in the morning. I try and write first thing in the morning. Yeah. And in the, uh, not just in the morning. Um, what's Wallace time? Well, this time it's pretty much just like, what do I feel I need right now? Um, is it reading, is it, you know, writing, is it podcasts?

Is it, is it putting on game of thrones and zoning out 45 minutes? Um, pretty good. Um, now afternoon wise, so you've got to be a dad, clearly a couple of hours with the girls ideally. And then, um, so footy or yeah, footy or like I'm a PM trainer, like, you know, I'm wired at like nine, 10, 11 o'clock at night. So, so lately it's been, um, yeah, we've got our five to seven, uh, schedule routine locked in with the girls. So, you know, dinner, dinner, shower, bed, um, book, all that kind of stuff. Um, girls go to bed, usually spend a little bit of time with KP and then KP will be like, all right, I'm going to sleep.

She's nearly a little bit and I'll be like, sweet, go to the gym. That's awesome. That's interesting, mate. That's cool. There's a lot of night trainers I know and you clearly, it just works. Yeah, it does work. I just, I burned the candle at both ends, obviously being, you know, in here some mornings at six, you know, sometimes I'll be, I'll be 10 45 and I'm still at gym, like I should probably go home and then it, you know, it takes an hour to switch off and wind down and it's cool to get to sleep. But that routine cause you got to know where you're at as well.

What makes you tick as well. That's why people exploring your own personalities or neuro divergences or whatever it may be. It's cool cause you actually understand yourself far better. So your PM stuff, footy's obviously non-negotiable cause she's got to be there. I love the gym. I love the gym stuff at night cause it clears the head as well. Yeah. Well like at the moment, cause I'm injured at the moment, so I'm not, I'm not training with the boys. So you know, I went last night, ran them through the Walmart, ran through their conditioning block, chatted through, you know, where some of the injured boys were at and a few of those kinds of things.

And then I went home, jumped in the gym, 45 minutes home by nine 15. I'm like, sweet. I feel, feel heaps better now just for doing it. And I think in, in the past I would have just gone, no, I've had a big day. You know, I've worked really hard. I deserve to go sit on the couch. Whereas now I'm trying to, you know, still enjoy that couch time. Don't you worry. But I've been trying to go, you know, if I'm training, I'm, you know, building that mental muscle as well as the physicality around, like I want to be an anti-fragile organism, right?

I want to be able to show up, be strong for the girls, be strong for the community here, be strong for my team and be capable of, of dealing with more. And I think that when you do hard things has been a motto in here for years and I've probably lent out of it a bit for a little bit, but being able to go, I'm a bit tired, but I know this session when I walk out, I'll feel significantly better. I'll feel, you know, walk out with more clarity, more more excitement, you know, around what I'm capable of because I've looked after myself.

Love that. And that's the thing. Well, you know that and you're doing it, but it does, we've both gone away from it different times because it's not, it's not that we're unmotivated. It's like anyone listening or watching this that is really in bad spots, whether it's physically you might be 50, 80 kilos overweight. You've got a fine on amount of energy to give, okay. And motivation and willpower. So those, all those three things, if you haven't trained the brain to make it automatic and that automaticity then takes over. So you think of people, you look

at people that you work with that might be, I'm talking to listen to now, not lock that, um, that might be doing bloody for two Ironman triathlon a year and just, they find 20 hours a week to try and they got kids, you got all this stuff like burning fat at will because they're metabolically sound, all these things, right? It's actually easier for them than you, but don't because there's a few reasons and we're not going to get into metabolic efficiency and all that shit, but we are going to get into automaticity and the ability for them not to need to use willpower number one and not to need to use motivation because just they do it at that time.

And that's what locks trying to do because he's cooked at night. He could be cooked at night, but he's actually trained his brain is actually you know, you're a pretty good trainer in the PM. So just try to switch around that even though you know, driving there yet, you've got to look on work mind, but I get to the gym and I changed my state like that and you change your state for 45, 50 minutes. But you, if it's just at lunchtime, you could change your state for two minutes. So that's awesome. Um, great man. I didn't know.

That's really good. I didn't know about that. That's I really love that. So listens out there instead of looking at people going, Oh, he's so fit. Oh, what do you mean? He's got it easier than me. He does it easier. That's even worse. Don't push back on that. Just try to make some changes to your system and structure and routine and don't worry about anything else. Don't worry about all my insulin levels with this. Don't worry about any of that shit. I just understand what you can control. Yeah. You need and ask yourself that question like, what do I need that I don't have?

And if it's self awareness around like when are you best at training or when are you best at working or that, you know, build, you build self awareness or reflection, right? Like it's, you know, I'm big proponent for journaling. Like it doesn't have to be anything fancy page. Like I just do a page a day. Um, and again, I've fallen off for periods of time. Um, but being able to write a page a day, you can never write faster than you can think. So, so every time you write a sentence, you think about it three

or four or five times, whether it's true or not, um, whether you believe in it, whether it's actually a story you're telling yourself or whether it's the actual truth. And you get to articulate that as you go through the page. Whereas I think we get lost in our thoughts, negative, negative thought patterns a lot because we don't give ourselves adequate time to reflect on it. Um, I really liked the quote. We're not, you're not your thoughts. Um, you are just a being experiencing thoughts. You can choose whether to believe in them or not. Um, when we allow ourself to do that, we realize what's most important to us, whatever our user, what we are, what we're actually doing it for.

And that self awareness allows us to then make decisions that are based on truth and reality rather than making it rather than based on maybe the stories that we're telling ourselves or the emotional, the emotional, the old habits or the addiction to, um, addiction to guilt or subconscious addiction to guilt, anxiety, depression or negative bias, whatever it may be. And it's very common. Um, you don't have to have, there is a little mental health stuff that's genuine. Um, OCD, anxiety, other stuff that, that is genuine and lends itself to that. But as long as you're aware and you're really aware, um, and you say, no, no, that their thoughts are there.

I can walk alongside them cause I'm, yeah, exactly. I'm just a being and I, I choose to have not that them affects me today. I choose to go through my system and have the most amazing day. Cause then the day where these little dots in this universe, um, and why can't we deserve to be happy? We deserve to be moving. And like Lachie, we started this combo, we deserve to be the best versions of ourself because we deserve that. Obviously we've got kids, you don't have to have kids. If you, you gotta have just be the best version of yourself for you and those people around you or your wife or your husband or whatever.

Um, and then it's not about this, but all the superficial shit. Um, it does, that actually gets better as well. It gets easier. Whether it's money, whether it's aesthetics, whether it's racing a fucking marathon, that does get easier because you've worried about the, not worried, you've put the blocks in place, the things you can control and then all that other stuff just flows a bit more. And that's the thing. We fly not force. That's the key. Yeah. And they're all outcomes that we don't have to focus on as the main reason, but then they're great side effects, right?

Like if you're able to run a fast marathon, if you're happy with the way you look, you know, if you've got, if you've got some, some money as a, as a, uh, safety net in the bank, yeah, like life's good, life's easier and you get to focus on what's most important first. I think if we look at that too much, then people drop the ball straight away. I'll give you, you know, I want to drop 12 kilos. They don't look about how they're going to do it. I want to fucking lucky just ran a bloody 32 minute.

I want to, I know I want to, I can do that. Not anymore. It's not about the hands. Not about that. It's not about that at all. But I think hopefully there you got, you legends are understanding what we're talking about. No doubt you do. But lucky says it really well as well. Journaling, I love writing as well. It's one of those things I think people look at it as another cross to bear, but try to explain how you do it. Cause I think within under here is broken. We've got a system every day that people take it all over.

They can do it. They've got a book they got to, but again, I've found for me when I've had more massively bad breakdowns, um, that I look back and go, I actually haven't checked in on myself the last 20 days. So just actually checking where you're at and really taking stock and going, okay. Yep. All right. Yeah. So there's like a way it's just an awareness thing, right? Like I think again, a quote that I really like is most people think they look like motivation where in really they like clarity. They like a clear path to the person they want to be or what they want to achieve and what it's going to take to get there.

Journaling just, just allow space to figure that out. Um, I've kind of got like a, like three steps from for journaling. Um, and I've got an SOP of this. I like writing SOPs for my life, so I've got an SOP for this. So if anyone wants it, just shoot me a message, reach out to Rick and I'll send it to you. But essentially like, you know, I'm big like James Clear, Atomic Habits, phenomenal book, behavior change 101, but we want to make it enjoyable and make, and we want to look forward to doing it right. Nice pen, nice book is step one.

Have something that you're proud to write in and proud to hold them and a pen that you enjoy writing with. Sounds silly, but if you're writing a shitty pen, journaling is hard. Nice, smooth ballpoint pen. Phenomenal, right? Um, so that's step one. Step two is like gamify it in some way. So have a way of tracking it. So for me, I write the date on top, top of the page and I write what day I'm up to. So for example, I started journaling 42 days ago. Today was day 40. I've missed days throughout then, but I just, I keep that streak going cause like if I miss a day, that's okay.

I just don't, I try not to miss two days in a row of that. So, you know, I've got, you know, above your left shoulder, um, all those black books. They're my journals from years ago. Um, I did, I did like 1500 days in a row, um, years ago. This is like maybe pre COVID and throughout COVID. Um, I've fallen off the wagon a handful of times since then, but I can look back and go on day 700 what was I thinking? Where was I at? What was I writing? Locky. This is, I've got goosebumps.

So that's the, so that's the second, the second thing is like track it cause then you can, you're actively going and I'm going, Oh, I'm on day 42. I don't, I don't really want to start from zero again. So that tomorrow it can be day 43. I will touch on that. Did you say when you miss a day doesn't matter? Cause I love that. And that's what I'm big on as well because people throw the baby out of the bath water. So that's really good. Keep going. Yeah. So, so like, yeah, if I don't do it three days, so like I didn't do it yesterday cause I was with the girls.

I didn't have my morning, my morning, you know, half an hour over coffee where I was sitting there by myself. But that doesn't matter because you know, like today's is a new fresh day. I get to, I get to have another crack at it. That's awesome. And, and then essentially for me it's one page. I fill out the right hand side of the page and I essentially just go like, if I don't know what to write about, I'll write, I don't really know what to talk about today and then just riff from there. Or it might be an idea or it might be a quote that I've read or seen.

I find when I'm reading more, the writing is easier because I've got more inputs coming in or when I'm listening to a podcast or something like that. Or a conversation I've had with a member or you know, KP or, or, or a friend. And then I leave the left side of the page open. So I don't do every page. I leave the left side of an open page free for a quote, a thought, you know, something that I can refer back to that might add some value or something like that. And sometimes like, you know, you'll see, if I was to grab my journal from the last 40 days, there's some pages where I get two thirds down.

I got, you know, someone grabbed me, my attention was taken away and I didn't finish the page. I intentionally leave that blank because that imperfection I think is part of life. You're going to, you're not going to nail it every day. You're not going to, you know, sometimes it can, the 30 lines of just fucking ramble that means nothing. But I think that you getting that out of your head is super helpful, right? Yeah. Really well said. I can tell you guys, I promise you I got here five minutes before I played with the dog for five minutes.

We've done no planning at all. Not one bit. No, but that's the thing. I've got this wristband, a hundred a hero wristband progress over perfection. And you can say there's a lot of crossover between me and lock. Um, we really only knew each other for a footy and fitness and that was it. So, but the philosophies are the same and I love that. A lot of the authors lock quotes we love and he's just, he's just everything lock. He says, he says it, uh, genuinely too. And that's why I love him. That's why he's on this show.

I really well said, cause the journaling, I reckon for people that go, Oh, I can't write, but the way you just explained that it's just so brilliant. You don't have to be thinking as deep as me or lock it to be in the space every day. You could be, you might just be hyped academia or literature, but, but it's really important for clarity. And that's what lucky the clarity is so important. You started off that sentence by saying you don't like motivation, like clarity. And I was saying five minutes ago about you look at people that you think are quote unquote motivated.

No, they're not. They just, they've got clarity. They've got a system. That's it. So do that for four or five years. We are recently, yesterday in fact just posted um, again, one of the more inconspicuous, beautiful, quiet humans in, in our group. She's been with us about 12, 13 years, but she was once 174 kilos and we had to really go down, go for other routes just to get her, be able to walk to the letterbox and, and, and we had this dream 10 years. We did it differently, but we did it and she's eventually got there two weeks ago.

The Ironman triathlon, um, working single mum at the time, past trauma, um, corporate world, but 174 kilos. And now she did the bustle and Ironman in 13 hours, something. Yeah. For those that, that aren't, that aren't aware, 3.8 K, 180 swim that is 180 K ride and the marathon 42 K. So crazy stuff, but that took 12 years. So I guess what I'm trying to say is 12 years there, um, trust in a process, shit, loads of ups and downs. What you're saying about journaling, exactly the same progress over perfection, miss a day, right? I don't know what to write and then whatever get pulled away by the kids or staff or members.

Um, really good stuff. And it opens up your vernacular. Yeah, he's got one. He's got one of the great vernaculars. I could just wax lyrical all day. It's pretty important part of your, your life clearly. Yeah, it is. It is. And I think it's, it's, it's something that can always come back to the page. It looks the same. It's, you know, there's no pressure for it to be perfect. Like, you know, some days, like you said, the philosophical side, like you dive deep some days and you're talking about, you know, what like what the universe is and what our experience is and all of those kinds of things.

Other days you're just talking about like, I don't really have anything to write today. I'm really enjoying my coffee. You know, the eggs I had for breakfast were delicious. It doesn't matter. But you know, you create, you allow yourself to, to extract thoughts and go, what is true? What is real? Um, like one of my favourite books is principles by Ray Dalio and one of his key principles is just knowing like reality, knowing what truth is and being able to make decisions based on true fundamental truth and fundamental reality so that you're not making decisions based on logic that's flawed.

Um, and from there you can, a second quote from him is you can have anything you want, not everything you want, just make your choice and get on with it. And you know that, um, maybe you mentioned before around, you know, been 174 kilos and into a, into an Ironman, most people would look at that and go, that's impossible. But you know, it's walking to the letterbox and then walking to the street corner and it's just a progressive realisation of the ideals that you're working towards over a period of time with, you know, leaning on your allies for support.

You know, she obviously lent on you and your community and now she's a massive part of it and someone that I have no doubt is a role model within her family, her community. And, and all that was, was one day where she decided I want to be better than I am now. And I think that you can be, you're all wonderful exactly the way you are, but there is nothing wrong with like having that thought process of like, what am I becoming? How do I build my capacity? How do I build a bigger container of

me as a human so that I could be more, deal with more, accept more, um, appreciate more, you know, do more without needing to, you're not changing who you are. You're just expanding your current capacity. Yeah, absolutely. You said it so well. And that's the thing. Well, the capacity and the ability, the journey is the success as well. So even though, um, this awesome lady completed the Ironman did a great job as the journey of getting there. Like how much of a better mother, partner, uh, employee, how much happier was she day to day? Even if she was going through some bad days, she was, she was shitload better than she would have been 12 years ago.

So the training and the mindset or the meditation or the mobility, whatever it was that day, the reading, the diary, whatever it was that day that was getting her to this one day. Cause if you, if you, if you just living for that Ironman, you're not, you're never going to fucking do the system anyway because the Ironman feels at 15 years away. So then you get it done and you're done. What was that for? Yeah. So it's not about that. The success is in the journey. Um, and me and Locke both speak the same language there.

Yeah. Great stuff. Lockie won a flag. Awesome brother BNF. But it's not about that. It's about the journey. It's the friends you make along the way. It's the journey, the connections, journey, connections, movement. You got the journey, connections, movement, you'll and everything else in a good spot. You'll live a beautiful, happy life to a hundred and that's the key. Um, journaling, great work. Just I want you to round up those last, just really succinct those tips again because I reckon more people would love to do it. So make it, make it attractive. So get a good book, good pen.

Game changer. Yeah. I've got my initials embossed on the front of my book. I'm proud to have it. I'm proud to write in it. Lockie's got one of those pens that when you turn it upside down, it's me in the nude as well. That's for his love. It's actually my background on my phone too. I've got clothes and then he turns the pen upside down and then I get nude. They were good pens, but keep going. Love that. Um, second is track, track your progress, right? So have a clear look at, you know, whether it's a streak, whether you just have, you know, what day you're on, doesn't matter.

I put my date there, the date there so that I can grab, I can grab one of my journals from 2021 and go, fuck, why don't I know this lesson now? But you know, we've got to learn the same lessons multiple times. And then the third thing is, is set your parameters. So for me it's a page. Um, ideally I finish it. If I don't, it doesn't matter. Um, and then it's, you know, don't, you know, if you miss a day, that's okay. But to me just do best to not miss twice. And if you miss twice, just don't miss three times.

Great advice. If you miss twice, don't miss three times. You miss three times, just don't miss four times. It's just that simple. Don't beat yourself up about it because it's that self love that we keep coming back to. I'm a big writer as well, but definitely not daily. And I've kept a lot of my stuff on documents, but Bocky has got at least 20 diaries of them. I love that, mate. I really do. I, um, it's cool to really see that and look back on and it's real intangible. Um, what's the, so we're just chatting at the end of 2024.

Um, obviously business and life and we've got a lot in commonalities. Uh, what's 2025 hold for you mate? 2025 I think is, I don't know, for me, work was hard this year. Um, lots of coaching, lots of input into the business. And I think a feeling that last two or three months that, that pressure's been lifted a little bit. And now I feel like, you know, it's the conversation I've got space to be more creative. So we're changing a little bit around the way we coach, uh, or the way we show up for our members

in terms of like more regular goal reviews, more regular goal goal setting, more regular testing check-ins so that we can kind of, uh, for lack of a better term, create a bit more hype around like the way, the way we're coaching, you know, I'm big on like trainings and means to an end, right? We want to be fit, healthy, strong, capable when we're older, but it's gotta be a means within itself. There's gotta be that enjoyment that in, in, in eight, like I can't wait to get to the gym today. Um, and I've probably lent away from that over the last few years because of that importance of we're training for longterm, right?

So we don't have to focus on enjoying as much as we can now. So a bit more of that. Um, we're actually rebranding or changing the name of our group training. Um, so that we'll probably be launching around the same time that this podcast comes out, I think. So, um, yeah, maybe just after I'm going to tell our members over the next week or so. So the death of VGT. So it's been a pleasure. Um, so I'm really excited for that. And, and yeah, like, to be honest, I'm most excited to see our team grow next year.

Like, um, Jack and Dak, the, the dynamic duo, um, they've, they're both fresh to us this year and they're both phenomenal in their own, in their own ways. So they're going to add a heap of value to our, to our community over the next 12 months and beyond. Um, and Tyler and G they've been around forever, but, um, they're both, I feel like they're really hitting their strides and getting really clear on what they want, what's important to them, um, and how they can best, um, deliver who they are to, to our community. So that's awesome.

There's that. And then I'm trying to get rid of my Achilles pain so I can play some good footy. And, and, uh, what do we have? Tananopathy still? Oh yeah. I had a little bit of a tear, um, this year. So I've played a few weeks longer than I should have because it was to the pointy end of the year, um, jumped into some PRP. Um, and then, but essentially haven't been able to get rid of the pain. So I'm on somebody patches at the moment trying to get rid of the pain. What are we doing here?

GTN patch, glycerol trinitrate. So it's actually used for angina medication, heart medications. And that's seeping in, seeping in, um, have it on for 23 hours, take it off for an hour, put it, put another one on. So essentially nitric oxide release, increased blood flow, increased healing, ideally the teno sites doing their thing. Um, so yeah, they're, uh, traditionally a very low blood flow rate in the body. So that makes a lot of sense. I'm too, um, I'm old and my tendons hate me. So I, and again, at the moment, so this is part, part of the, uh, and oldies aren't right, but part of the, um, he's talking footy terms at good, relatively speaking.

You're right. Um, but part of the part of me looking after myself is making sure that I'm doing the things that I said that I tell everyone else to do. And you know, I'm, I've been strength training for a long time. So when it comes to hitting a max lift or something like that and strength, strength's pretty, uh, strength, strength's pretty honest. It hangs around. So I've been capable of winning our testing over the last few years, regardless of how much I train. So the ability to do a, those power lifts in and exactly it's,

and that's, you've got that neural muscle memory last year, but one of the two K last year and then was proceeded to be injured most of the year. So this year is all about getting my tendons working again. That's impressive. Um, but that, that stuff there is going to, that PM gym stuff is going to be good for you. Yep. So yeah, exactly. Exactly. And now I'm not reliant on how my day's been at Virtus to, to, to do it. So yeah, there's another, hopefully next year, another flag and another flag. Keep the business rolling. Lucy, Lucy starts, Lucy starts school.

You'll cry. You'll cry. Genuinely there will be tears and most of them will be mine. Yeah, that's okay. It's a beautiful moment. You'll cry every day, but that's beautiful. Happy tears. They're beautiful. Good tears. Uh, it's a beautiful thing in school. And like I said, every moment's a good thing. Yeah. So that's 20, 25. So I'm, I don't know. I'm so excited. Life's the best. Life is the best. It's a beautiful day to be alive. I love coming down to Virtus. I'm, I'm excited about you putting some time into you. Um, I really am because that's, that's the key.

And um, man, you got lots of similarities and I think, I think moving forward, you just got to keep bouncing off each other because not many people can, they can say it and they understand, but it's, it's actually, yeah, you're doing it every day. So you're doing really well. Your Achilles will be no drama. You'll be good as gold because you're in the gym now. The fizz is looking after me, so we'll be aces. The fizz is the King. He's a good man. Greg Day. Greg Day. Greg Day. Yeah. Greg Day. Sorry. And also just lastly, Lockie just mentioned there that last bit about he doesn't have to rely on Virtus going well or things going to plan.

So that's the other thing we really want to remove roadblocks and that's that automaticity that he talks about. He knows he'll get to 9pm but he'll still have the ability to do it. And that's the thing, the last thing, or there's many puzzles, parts of the puzzle, but it's simplifying it is just to try to remove the roadblocks. So don't say, well, I'm going to, I'll do it if this happens or that happens. Um, you just make sure you got your clothes out at lunchtime, you're ready to go. If I get to 9pm and I'm a bit cooked, I'd take, take the hint and go to sleep and the next day I get to the gym.

So I think it's, and that goes for that. Over the week you tick the boxes you want to tick and bank the wins and then, you know, show up when you need to and rest when you need to. It's been full of nuggets. Uh, Lockie, I thank you. I thank you for your time, hospitality and gear. How good. I've just rolled down a mourner. I've just said I will catch up on the 13th or whatever the day is 12th and uh, and he's literally rocked up. He's made me a coffee. He's been a beacon of goodness in my calendar for the last few weeks.

I was three minutes late. Apologies, but he's fine. That's not surprising. Time's all made up. Time is arbitrary. He's a star. Now any last words? Great man. I do hope you win the flag next year. No, no, no last words for me, mate. Thank you for coming down. It's a, it's always, always a pleasure. Um, get around a hundred day heroes. Oh, you're a star. Nominal idea. Thank you, mate. It's taken 20 years. Good luck. I thought when I first saw it, I was like, fuck, why didn't I think of that? I love that. I love the, I love the, uh, the new launch, the new program launch.

Now, anyone in the peninsula area, it doesn't matter anywhere. It doesn't matter where you are. Drive 30 minutes to get to this joint. Virtus, high performance. They're open all morning and night. They're beautiful people and you know what? They're genuine. Um, and they in it for the right reasons. And that's number one. The knowledge is absolutely 11 out of 10, but they're in it for the right reasons, which I love as well. Lockie Wallace, I thank you brother. Now we'll do it. We'll do an annual wrap up, but we'll do a quarterly one. We'll just talk some shit.

I'm all for it. Get some different guests and we'll do a book, bit of a mini book club. We're doing 108 heroes club. Yeah. Do you all read the same book? We're doing it when we finish this block because every week we drop a new book or audio in there. Um, just take it or leave it again. Much like there's an online system that you got to do. Like it's with me coaching, but there's a little side thing. So yeah, look, yeah, obviously atomic habits is one of them, but many, uh, the mountain is you, Bruce Lee, um, Bruce Lee be, be water.

Yep. Um, I shit thoughts, but yeah, you'd, you'd be all over that. You're the first, I, uh, cute. The girls have kind of ruined my reading habit a little bit. Again, my fault because I don't carve out the time, but I am try, I am actively trying to get back into reading and whether it's an audio book or whether it's a, the Kindle later than I will, you know, after the, after the nine o'clock gym session when KP is asleep, you've just done six sets of single leg press and you just use the rolling of your Kindle.

You just actually be nice sitting at, sitting at gym on the leg press, on the leg press, but um, better than Tik Tok. Now just lastly, you girls, are you in the blue age? Yeah, absolutely. Have you the blue now? Listen, wait, there's a very fine age. Look, everyone loves me. But like, Vada's already grown, she's seven, nearly eight and they've grown out of it. So they're not watching blue anymore. Girls, they were all over. Girls are all about gymnastics, netball maker, all the, all the whatever. But it's, it's um, that age from two and a half to six, he's just beautiful.

Bluey. Bluey's the best. Bluey and number blocks get smashed at our house. Number blocks is essentially just like a YouTube series. I think it's YouTube, ABC kids, whatever. But just counting. It's all about counting and there's alpha blocks, which is all about reading and learning their letters and stuff. So already getting those. So Lucy, obviously a bit older, loves number blocks and alpha blocks. Billy loves Bluey. So have you, how many times are you calling Bluey? I can have quite a few times. Every second episode. Yeah, they do a great job. They try and zone out sometimes.

So I don't re-release the tears. It's very good. So Bluey geniuses. We love those Queenslanders. They love me right now in the, uh, there's one episode of Bluey, the cricket one. Oh, what's it? Dusty. That if you, if you don't, if you don't cry, you're in dusty. You haven't got a heart. Watch it. Uh, Rocky, I appreciate you, mate. It's a beautiful time out here in Mornington. Virtus, make sure you get down to Virtus performance anywhere in Melbourne, anywhere in Melbourne. Please do. Um, I really appreciate you my brother. Thanks for having me here. It is a magnificent day to be alive.

We've spoken a lot about progress over perfection. Never forget that. Ever forget that. Maybe go back and listen to a few things we both said today because a few little nuggets in there that I hope and I know will make you a much happier, healthier version of yourself. It is a marvelous day to be alive. I thank you very much. It's been a while between, between takes, but ready? Have a good day.