S4E03 · Tyler Frost

Beautiful people, welcome back to the Virtus.Performance podcast, for the last time for at least 9 months. Frosty, how are you mate? Unless we do an online one. We could do an online one. But yes, unfortunately. Workout time difference and stuff. First one in about 9 months and last one for at least 9 months. I know right, what's been happening? Just moving away, just bouncing. Frosty's getting out of here, it's heartbreaking. Such a shit answer but yeah, the last few months has just been occupied with planning to move onto the other side of the globe. Love that.

We'll talk about why and what led you to the decision and all of the processes you went through. But what's the plan? Give us the quick download. There's probably two main pillars that are driving the move. First is business related and second one is just fulfilment and travel related. Not that the business doesn't also lead to fulfilment. But yeah, very much want to lean into just my sole focus being just growing my own business. As Lachie stands up and checks the camera, we're rolling. I just had a thought, I was like did I press record? I've done that a few times as well.

Yeah, the first one being I just want to solely focus on growing my own business. I guess that old where attention goes energy flows adage and sort of feel like probably the last 5-6 years of my life I feel like I've been chasing multiple rabbits but catching none. So I just want to chase and focus on one rabbit being my business and also wanting to lean into an online space as well. It's a good opportunity to have exposure to maybe hundreds if not thousands of people that you otherwise wouldn't have had exposure to. And then the second one as well just very much being travel like you're on Europe's doorstep.

You've got access to other countries that you otherwise wouldn't have had access to being in isolated old Australia. And you scratched the itch a little bit a couple of years ago right? So did that trip kind of bring you down this path or was it something else? Yeah, absolutely. When I got back from that trip there was this itch to scratch where I was like it would be cool to properly live there and immerse and not just stop over for a few week visit but actually what would it be like to live in another country.

But I know then I just got stuck back into work like obviously there were a few things that that trip sort of that's the first time I've had 3 months essentially doing nothing in my whole life. So that was the first time I had time to sort of be bored and do nothing and in those times you sort of learn a lot about what you actually want to do to fill your time. And one of them was to lean more into sort of growing my own stuff which I was sort of like doing a little

bit dabbling a little bit like I've been dabbling since like 2019 when I was in Ballarat but never just had it be my full focus or wanted to lean more into that. And the second was to play tennis which I did that for a little bit and then fucked my elbow and we're back in that now. And then yeah third was to actually what would it be like to properly immerse in another country. But yeah just got back and got stuck into work and probably felt like I owed Virtus a little bit as well like

to essentially what you did for me when I first moved here like gave me a place to rest my head and a place to a community to be a part of. And the amount like you invested in me and my sort of business development and sales and leaning into the partnership stuff felt like I owed a bit there so I really wanted to get stuck in and sort of pay it back to Virtus but then also lean into my own coaching as well. And sort of a year down the line was just back into it and moving away just seemed illogical.

And we'll get into it in a moment but then a few things sort of changed and it seemed like a real opportunity this year to sort of lean into that and not a last opportunity but it sort of felt like it's just as good an opportunity as I'll ever get this year. Well there's stars aligned in this year that makes it a little bit less friction to get over there right? While we're on it talk us through that decision making process like obviously was it 18 months now you got back? Something along those lines? September 2023 I got back.

So yeah I'm back for me. I'm usually terrible with timelines and then you kind of leant back in and you've been working hard on Virtus stuff and your own coaching for the last 18 months essentially. So what took you from like the life essentially you're like this is the life I want to live to now like let's try something different? Yeah it was probably mid last year where I mentioned in like a little video I did to the Virtus members I mentioned how like I've never been so fulfilled and comfortable but at the same time that comfortability is that a word?

Comfort. That comfort is probably a better word. That comfort is also sort of bred at times unfulfillment and boredom and like fuck is this as good as this is, is this it? Is this actually all there is? Which like you know you don't want to get into the trap of life just being a perpetual chase for something more. Yeah well there's that balance between like risk and comfort that you know there's kind of times where I think you need to lean one way or the other and times where you need to lean back or you lean whichever way you feel as though you need to at the time right?

But yeah I was very very comfortable and I wasn't abundant by any means but my head was above water with business I could pay rent could pay my bills could live a somewhat fun life but I was just cruising I was very at times at bred complacency and was just cruising and I think for me to take that next step for where I wanted to get with my business and success and income and everything else it was it was time to like stop chasing multiple rabbits and just lean into. Yeah good make the one thing the one thing.

Just chasing one thing and then a few things happened last year which meant that I had a lot of I guess I had like hundreds like nearly like a thousand dollars of flight credit and I said well I'm going to next year do another trip to Europe like I've got a few friends over there that are on the final years of their visas like it would be good to you know one more time spend that time with them there and maybe do a bit of travel as well but then there was a realisation towards the end of 2024 that I one didn't have the money to go over there for another holiday.

Didn't make sense from a business perspective to sort of just stop growing that here for a few months and then go again for another holiday. So I just thought like why not take the business over there instead of going for another few week to maybe a couple of month holiday just go for a longer stint you can take your business over there grow to you know hundreds maybe even thousands of people that otherwise wouldn't have got to connect with you and get helped by you. You can have a little periods of travel sprinkled throughout and

then you get to have this amazing experience it's that need to live in another country and then I'll be back for the summer next year I've got like three weddings in four weeks at the start of the year so I will be back mum turned 60 as well so I'll try and link that all up. And then you know at this stage the plan is to be back and stay but like has have had conversations with a few people you just don't know what it's a pretty cool like you know look at the next nine

months is like I'm going all in you can you can properly commit to doing what you've wanted to do over the last few years anyway and then if it goes great you've got a life that you love living if it goes great you've either got a life you love living to come back to or you've got the life you've created over there. Or you've got a mix of the two so you kind of I think when you told me what early Jan was like you can't really lose. Yeah yep literally I am you know it's

been hard to walk away from here like one just loving being at Vertison always have and like the summer on the peninsula like it's sort of made me realize like I've I'm I think back to no sorry late 2020 to early 2021 when I was interning here and realized that this is what I wanted to do and that was the logical sort of deal. It was the logical sort of next step and next chapter I'm sort of living everything that I imagined I would like summer on the peninsula is the best time of year like

I'm walking distance I'm a five minute walk to the beach and I can I can do like the sunrise swims or sunset swims and being you know being one of the main coaches here at Vertison living with the house of amazing people beautiful house like everything that I wanted I'm doing but then it sort of made me realize like some of that stuff I took for granted and I thought I would be doing that. I haven't really done much of yeah in terms of like that like the idealistic version of your life was like you

were doing the sun sunsets yeah yeah wake up wake up early and go for a swim and get a coffee which all that stuff I can do and I've done it maybe five times so I've made myself like a little peninsula bucket list of stuff I'm just going to really maximize whilst I'm here so I'll spend as much time at Vertison as I can training. Even like the stuff we're doing with partnerships like it was cool to get to go out to schools and present seminars like I'd watch when I was in uni and I'd

follow people that were in the position I wanted to be I'd watch them have sporting clubs in at the gym and running group sessions it was cool to get to do all that stuff and then mentor the interns all this stuff that I would admire of people that were in the position that I wanted to be I was doing like just everything I was doing I was living. I sort of took that for granted until the move came closer and closer so when you realize you're not gonna have those things I've got everything I want

why am I why am I stepping into this but then I realize maybe in 10 years time what's the growth it's a growth focus step forward right like intentionally going to be uncomfortable because I know it will build your container is human in terms of what your capacity is like I've always loved the quote off just which I've just forgotten what it was. I always love the quote that is the fundamental delusion is there's one thing that will make you happy and fulfilled forever like we've always got to be like sometimes it's okay to I

look at it as like we're always in a phase of either contraction or expansion and like you know I feel like over the last couple of years I've been in a big contraction phase because the focus has been on the girls and being on like you know how do we make sure that we balance I work and and being parents and and all of the other expectations and things that come with that and you know you've. You've felt that with that complacency maybe where you're like in that contraction for maybe a little bit too long

and then it's like alright well that expansion phase again is like what am I doing what who am I talking to what am I exposing myself to what am I experiencing now that is different or challenging to my current state of being. Because I think that dissonance there's only certain amount of time where you can sit in that and that dissatisfaction you've almost got to like intentionally lean into because it's helpful it allows us to level up whether it's you know by focusing on health or travel or whatever. So it's it's it's a pretty cool

move from that aspect I think in like almost intentionally just taking your advice for like intentionally putting yourself in a space we have to adapt it is yeah yeah as I said I could very much stay in the state I am for years and just have my head above water and just sort of cruise along and still live a great life but there's there's nothing wrong with that but it's like right now that's not what. He's vibing with you is not where you want to be yeah brilliant yeah yeah talk us through so obviously a

lot of the vertice members who haven't been here for a long period of time have only known you as a vertice coach so talk us through like maybe what brought you to vertice in terms of like what brought you down the peninsula from Ballarat and what your focus was and what you wanted to create for yourself. Yeah it very much draws parallels to what I'm doing right now it's just I was very comfortable like I was probably the main PT the biggest gym in Ballarat and was comfortable and was in the same position right now I was not abundant but was just comfortable could cruise along.

But I didn't really enjoy the environment I was in regards to like Ballarat and there's this saying it was great when I was at uni there because you're living with a heap of your best mates and it's like a little mini country town I guess but they all moved away some of them moved to London some moved to Geelong me doing either of those things would have just been me following my friends rather than me following what I actually wanted to do. So I stayed in Ballarat for a little bit and very quickly realised I just it was a similar thing like nah this isn't it I'm not going to be a PT here for the rest of my life.

What do you think is like innate in you that like makes you make that leap of faith? Well in Ballarat there was a logical next step because I was already interning at Virtus I knew one of the former coaches at Virtus who used to come down and consult in Ballarat every now and then. Coach Cam tweaked my back and Coach Cam was consulting in Ballarat so I went and saw him and I was following Virtus on Instagram for ages actually just like a little lurker and realised if Cam worked at Virtus and then I actually

had a girlfriend at the time and she was from Rosebud but like moved to Hamilton and that's how we met and got together but during COVID mid 2020 I'd always like go to Rosebud and see her. And realised like mornings and that's the gym they'll follow on Instagram maybe I'll pop in and see them one time when they reopen from COVID and then yeah and we split up and whatnot but like I was travelling all that way to go and see her I can travel maybe 20 minutes 30 minutes less and maybe intern at this place and see what comes of that.

And then yeah I realised that you know that saying if you're smartest in the room you're in the wrong room that's sort of how I felt at Ballarat not to fucking disparage the other coaches and whatnot but I just felt like this was the next step for me to grow because I knew probably wasn't where I needed to be from a knowledge and application and business standpoint this was just the next best step and always at that time wanted to get out of the commercial gym environment and step into more of the private sector which you know at the time the people who were there.

At the time the people that I was following and the people that were in the positions that I wanted to be were working private sector and doing stuff with sporting clubs and out at schools so that was the next step for me. Yeah that's pretty cool. And I thought there was worse places to spend the summer and spend your life than on the peninsula and that's where that's where I envisioned that life was. You did the internship online didn't you? No I did face to face. Did you? Because you did an online one mid 2020 during COVID but then once you opened it up I started November 2020.

Oh you stayed with us for a little bit didn't you? Yeah and that's what I meant you gave me a place to rest my head three nights a week. I've forgotten way too much over the last five years. When Lucy was just turning one. Yeah true little pretzel head. Yeah that's crazy. Yeah and that sort of made me realize it's the lifestyle I wanted to live and now I look back on that and I'm sort of living that but also taking it for granted. Yeah what's that like sitting in that headspace of like I wanted all of these things and now I've got them but still feeling dissatisfied?

Yeah that was a tough one and still is a tough one to reconcile. Yeah probably and probably as the move gets closer and closer I sort of realize like what am I doing? I could happily stay here but there I think there is still some untapped growth and whatnot and it's not to say I'm leaving this forever. It's just just a little detour to grow more and then hopefully come back an even better version of myself from a business and yeah whatever standpoint. Yeah you're a big principles guy so like what are your like life principles that have helped kind of guide this decision-making process?

One of them is whether it's a principle or not it's like Parkinson's law and whether this is actually the right application of that principle. I don't know I could be butchering this but it's essentially like your work capacity like expands to fill I guess the time or the pressure that you've got. Whereas where I am right now I could just almost as I said breeze complacency I could happily just sit back and cruise and not be abundant and probably not have the resources I want but I could happily just cruise with my head bobbing above water.

And be close enough and everything's going pretty well. Or you step out of that into an environment where one the Aussie dollar and everything I own is sliced in half. Cost of living is I think the worst in the world maybe behind like Hong Kong and Sydney funnily enough in London. Which is yeah it's gonna force me to really put the foot down and get to work and build and really test out my chops from like my business systems and sales and all that stuff. Yeah so whether that's the correct application of Parkinson's law I don't know but yeah.

I'm gonna have a real time squeeze and pressure squeeze to pull my finger out. And you're gonna have to make it work right? I have to build otherwise I'm on a plane home in three months because I'm broken and I have nowhere to live. So what are you talking us through your plan? So this will come out next week so we're mid to late March you're leaving on the 29th of April. You're finishing up on the 12th. Yeah well probably the 19th no the Easter weekend. Let's say Easter Thursday, Tyler's last shift so get in there.

Maybe oh well actually I'll definitely pop in for some. Yeah that'll be your last shift because I'm going away that day so it's yours. I'll pop in for some Good Friday sessions and some Easter sessions so I think I'll still be here over Easter then I think yeah the 21st April 21st Easter Monday is when my room will get taken over and I'll be I'll be out and I'll head to Hamilton for yeah seven or eight days. See the fam and then home. Yeah well then we fly out on the 29th and then and then what so what is the the first month of landing in London look like for you?

Yeah so I'll I'll probably Airbnb for a day or so just to get over the jet lag and just get settled and then I have a I'm 90% sure I've got like a sublet sorted for a month and then I have a I have a mate with a vacancy in August or he might even just move out and get a place with me so yeah cool I just got to find somewhere until August and then I also need to find work as well so I've applied for a few. Jobs just PT gigs I had a

offer from a joint called Equinox which I'm does it like speaking about the top engine yeah so they're very high end like boutique premium gym that's like the USP the unique selling point like just luxury and providing good experiences which I thought aligned with me but then I think back to the two pillars of the move which are business and travel it doesn't align with those two pillars so they want me on as a permanent full time employee. Which is going to be a chunk of the travel which is going to be a non compete

clause or I can't do my online and can't go out and work with tennis coaches and stuff which is another big pillar of my business which I want to lean into and then it makes travel pretty hard as well. So I just want to find a freelance PT gig just at a busy commercial gym and build from there so if any of our international listeners have a job in London hit him up please so I've sent out like a few little video I guess introductions and resumes to a few places. So I guess this is

the wonderful thing about the way the world works now right you could literally just like pick your top 20 that you want to work out send them a video on insta and be like you know just wind up the Aussie accent a little bit. Absolutely yeah when I was there last time I put a lot of mayo on it I think there's already a lot of mayo on it so but yeah I've sent out a few videos but I've just come to the realisation that it may just be a matter of literally getting in front of them.

What most scares you about the next three to six months? How hard I'm gonna have to fucking work out which excites me and yeah frightens isn't the right word but yeah it'll be stressful. I reckon it might have been the second third Virtus podcast ever with Greg we talked like we spent half an hour talking about what scares and excites you that's where you need to lean into so I reckon that's that's perfect what about like outside of how hard you got to work what excites you about like the possibilities of this move? They are limitless.

We haven't spoken about it yet but like tennis is a demographic that I want to lean into like it was my favourite and probably most successful sport I was at if that makes sense growing up and sort of just got a bit lost to the game and fell out of love with it but recently as I said coming back from overseas I needed an outlet that was anything other than strength training, coaching. So I went back into that and rediscovered my love of it and it's done a bit of research it is a there's no

one really doing tennis S&C online and the ones that are I think are doing it really really poorly so yeah it's one it's demographic I understand and sport I love and understand and I think I can do it very very well. So yeah probably right now 80% of my client base is just general population 20% tennis 80% face to face 20% online I just want to flip those two things. I love that. I think I went on a tangent there what was your OG question? Excites, what excites you? Yeah yeah so the potential with that

because it's a big tennis like bigger than Australia and Australia's got a pretty big tennis playing population so it's massive and just seeing what comes of that. Yeah was that like obviously talk me through that process to like follow that niche or follow that like particular target market like it's obviously is it both the business side and the passion side or is it like driven by one of the two? Definitely both probably more so passion I find it like going back to social media I really struggle posting every single day which unfortunately is like success leaves clues and if you want a successful online business let the clues say posting.

Being present online is a pretty big factor I have struggled to do that for the past few years like almost just throwing shit at a wall and just hoping something sticks but yeah I found myself very like creatively bankrupt but leaning into this I could sit there and which again I haven't really done so it's on me. This is us holding you accountable to us seeing it most days when you're not here. If I don't see your fucking lid on the little screen I'm going to be really upset. You will you will but I could

sit there I could have 365 days of tennis content just done but whereas if when you're speaking to such a broad demographic which I was doing before it's like just throwing shit at the wall like am I speaking to body composition clients am I speaking to fat loss am I speaking to other coaches like I was just talking shit. I was talking shit I think some of the stuff was good but it was just. Well you kind of you hit a good thing every couple of posts or every couple of reels where you're like I'm

actually talking about something I give a shit about which is the ones that roll off the tongue and then you like feel like you're pushing shit uphill to try and get more content out whereas. Every day you wake up and you're behind again. Yeah in reality if you're like talking about shit you care about all of us can talk underwater. It's effortless yeah and it also almost becomes like a video like I've heard people use the video game analogy when it comes to business. Yeah you just could have level up and see just like you're

just trying to fucking tick off achievements and whatnot I never saw it like that until I started leaning into this and it's like oh this is actually fun like building this out. And I want this to be my sole focus. Yeah. Not to make you too nostalgic but what are you going to miss the most. And again not that I do this much at all but having the ability to wake up and walk and maybe go for a swim and get a coffee which I've done maybe no more than 10 times. You can do it 10 more times in the next month.

Yeah I will and then come into Virtus and hang out and talk shit and maybe do a little bit of training play with the girls. Yeah just the stuff that I moved here to do. Mentoring the interns which I'm doing a lot more of now in probably the past 12 to 18 months. Yeah go up to the footy. Yeah yeah yeah I love being so close to Melbourne that I can do that close enough that I'm actually living in Melbourne. Yeah. Yeah good. You got this again. Now we got port port. Yeah. Gross chance though. Yeah.

You probably probably get up fucking that little burned down if you. Yeah. Gross. Yeah. Awesome man. It's really exciting because I think like so many people and I feel as though we as coaches we kind of have these conversations with people relatively regularly around like not liking their job or not liking their uni course or or not liking what they're doing and I don't think I've there's ever been anyone that's like moved away or quit a job or done something different and regretted it. Because it creates this space of like what do I actually want

to do what do I actually want my life to look like and like essentially now you get to get to lean into creating a life by design because you want to be uncomfortable and because you are hunting growth so like a big part of I think you as a person is you're always looking to level up you're always doing courses or working with a mentor or anything. How is that kind of headspace inform this decision but then also like what your week looks like because I think you've done so much PD over the last few years.

You're someone that I can all of our interns like they already learned massive amounts off you from a technical sense but almost like it's for me I see you and it's almost like you're just who you are ingrained is like I want to learn I want to grow I want to want to build but you're all you never. Not exploring that so what kind of drives that and then like how how do you kind of quantify what to learn all in into. That's a very good question. When I got back from overseas in 2023. Why is learning so important to you before I yeah before I go down the wrong rabbit hole.

Because as a coach that is that other than your ability to connect and build relationships and get by and trust like that's your most valuable asset is the value that you can fight and how much you can help someone which is like there is a experiential element to that you need actually experience taking someone through it you need to do the thing but you need to know how as well. And I've been doing there's always some sort of up skill or seminar or course that I've been doing like ever since I started being consistent always been something I've been doing.

But when I first started here and this was more for me to get my foot in the door of her rather than me following something I wanted to do a chat at which was always on me when I was in turning like just asking for a job asking for a job. So I sort of planted the seed at the start and he said there's nothing I won't. He said look we have this gap here I think you'd be able to fill it just plant that to him and it'll get him thinking. So I sort of

planted the seed of how I could fill in the gap of being like a partnerships manager and growing those relationships with schools business clubs and that became my sole thing I was focusing on which at the time I loved and this is one of my. Someone that I've learnt off in the past named Carl Goodman he talks about missionaries and mercenaries where mercenaries are I think he uses the term opportunistic and they're looking for quick fixes money whereas a mercenary will just help and provide value. It was probably very mercenary behavior as I just saw

a gap and saw the opportunity for big potential which kind of which kind of allowed us to step forward into that space right which then like you've you've spent the last probably. 12 months being more of a missionary. Yeah absolutely in this space. Yeah and so my soul role just as my sole focus was partnerships manager which at the time when I first started I thought it was really cool but it was so far removed from why I got in the industry and I sort of to. Sort of started to fall out of love with

it and fall out of love with my work and then the quality not only in that partnership space fell but probably my quality of coaching on the floor and his quality of everything that I was doing. And yeah speaking about when I was overseas I learnt what I wanted to do with my time. Not once did I think I can't wait to get back and sell to businesses sell the corporates and yeah have and bigger bigger business owner for five minutes of his time that thinks he's too busy to even breathe in my direction. And

Anna who used to she an EP used to EP out of here she was sort of helping me at the time and like not long after a touchdown like got a got a message from Anna like hey like keen to catch up keen to see what you've got in the pipeline is like oh God like I haven't thought about it don't care to be quite honest. And we'd sort of work together for maybe a month or two after I got back and that was just when the ball drop in my foot this this ain't it and then she was just trying to be helpful but.

Yeah yeah and but it's important it's important like lesson to just do the shit you care about that you're actually passionate about because like yes you're right you can be a mercenary you can fake it for a while or you can like do it because you because you know it helps right you know that you're like what you're trying to sell essentially is a good product and it's a good thing. But if you don't have the kind of if there's dissonance there with like the way you're doing or not in the way doing but what you're doing you're not going to be successful in terms of like where you end up.

Yeah you like the service is the same but your language and the person you're speaking to how you speak to I just didn't want to be speaking to or don't take it the wrong way but like working with that sort of corporate avatar it's just not it's not why I got into the business it's not why I got into the industry and I was almost becoming more of a desk worker. It is very transactional right? I almost felt myself becoming like a corporate. Writing your desk all day. It's funny I was sitting in a meeting

at Common Folk with Anna and Troy McDonagh and this is not long after I got back from overseas I used to have long hair back then and just for a bit of a piss take I just I got all the sides should there be a picture of it somewhere I got all like the side shaved and just left the back so a big disgusting mullet that was running for a bit pretty much a more disgusting version of what I've got now. I was sitting at a table at Common Folk with Troy and Anna who were all dressed up and looking proper.

Talking about corporate and he was like not me. I can't remember who it was. I want to say Paul Wintle. I think it was Paul Wintle after the meeting I was just talking to him and he was like God he looked out of place there. I was like I felt out of place. Yeah and I think that's important because you're right there wasn't necessarily space on the coaching team but you kind of came to me and said why don't we do this as a thing because I think we'd come along to a school program and a club program.

And then went out to Lilydale, Falcons. And then yeah it was like well this isn't a part of our business it's just kind of something we do as you know people ask and things like that but if you want to build it or if you want to like lean into it then I'm more than happy to help facilitate that. And I think there's like and one thing I've learned over the years because there's been so many great interns or so many people who reach out like hey I'd love a job or I'd love to work at Virtus which is awesome and I don't take that like responsibility lightly or that like it feels really good.

But like if we tried to hire everyone it just wouldn't work right. You end up with everyone's got an hour each and you're like alright let's all contribute. So I think that like and this goes for all our current interns or anyone who's looking to add value to a business or connect with a business is like figure out a way how you can grow the pie so that you can have a chunk of it. Like you know because you end up just the pie just the chunks of the pie get smaller and smaller and smaller

the more people you add and there needs to be a way of well this is how I contribute or this is how I grow the business. Whether it be from a cultural perspective or a revenue perspective or whatever and you were able to do that relatively quickly which then created space for us to go absolutely we got this space in our coaching team and and then obviously you've leaned into that over the last few years. So I think it's like there's so much value in the value you're able to add because you actually contributed to it.

Yeah as I said it was more of a way for me to get my foot in the door so I could be out on the coaching floor which was great then then I've also got this other thing that yeah in a way I've got myself into so I need to you know lockies invest in like business development and business coaching sorry and like all the other stuff that we've invested into it like invested into me and I need to and still feel like I haven't really paid that back and didn't get it to a point where it had potential to go.

And there's a part of me that feels bad and wants to pay that back but no need no need to feel bad because I think this is like the distance side of things like I'm someone that started my own business because I wanted to run like I wanted to work myself and I wanted to do things the way I wanted to do them and like I see what the pathway you've been on the last few years is like you're doing exactly what I wanted to do or exactly what I did. So like I've nothing but

respect and appreciation for everything you've done for Virtus and everything you've done for the for your business you're growing for yourself right because like yeah it's like me getting grumpy at you for doing the same shit I would do like it doesn't make any sense yeah and I think you know what you want which I think is most important or at least you're figuring out what you want. And you know there's always been super clear honest open conversation both ways around what's working and what's not and things like that so yeah has our partnerships gone the way we were hoping probably not but have we been able to help a bunch of people and move the needle absolutely so.

Yeah and there's still partnerships that are ongoing in the background as well that are absolutely thriving. Yes absolutely. Probably not as many as I envisioned but like the ones that are humming along pretty well and I hope someone one day can step back into that role and actually really make something of it so I've just spent the last 12 months like stepping back from trying to grow more partnerships and just nurturing the ones we've got and then trying to just pay it back to Virtus in other ways like whether it be mentoring the interns or. Yeah like just trying to pay it back as much as I can.

Which we love. In other ways. Yeah awesome. Tell me through your coaching business and what the plans are for how you want to grow it obviously like more tennis more online but like how do you actually want it to look. Yeah as I said I've probably got 80% face to face 20% online at the moment I want to flip that so at the moment it's just I sell it isn't the right word I explain it to people articulate it by like it is a business that operates in like a face to face and online capacity

to help tennis players get to where they want to be with their own core potential like not just through S&C but yeah like a holistic approach I think that become a bit of a buzzword that I've fallen out of love with in recent times. Yeah but nurturing not just their strength and conditioning but their nutrition mindset habits like everything that's going to actually get them to where they want to be so totem is derived from a Latin word which like why Latin because there were two gyms back probably when I got that up and running that were influential on me one being a place that actually doesn't exist anymore called Exalto performance in the Sunshine Coast.

It's derived from a Latin word meaning to exalto to grow and then obviously vertice as well so like went with the Latin. We love Latin. Went with the Latin theme totem just is derived from like totality so wholeness so yeah. You should talk about that more. Yeah yeah absolutely. It was like I reckon I knew that but I don't reckon I've heard you talk about it for years. Yeah yeah not many people would know that. Yeah where was it going with that. So yeah it's a business that exists to holistically get tennis players to where they want to be.

Yeah so tennis players hit him up. Absolutely. So there were many layers of that question that I avoided. I went on a tangent again. No that's alright I can't remember what the question was. Shit. Yeah I think I think the yeah I'm super I mean overall like I wanted to get you on today to like talk about like what you're doing and why you're doing it and things like that. What is what is the next and like I know it's very open and super ambiguous but like so this time next year and moving forward. Do you know what country you want to be in?

Do you know what you want your week to look like? Like anything like that? Like what's the cause I think you've almost got this like next nine months kind of like this is what I'm going to do. Yeah the next nine months is very much just in that chamber of trying to build and grow and trying to make sure I don't get evicted from wherever I'm living in London. Whilst also not taking for granted where I am and similar to when I moved here. Not taking for granted and actually doing the travel and making sure there are some trips booked so it's not doesn't just become this thing where I've moved to London and just leaning into business.

I want to very much lean into the travel side as well. But then yeah I imagine I get back in 12 months time and I tick off the weddings and stuff that I've got in in early March and then after that whether I fully realize this and I want to be on my way to having probably 20 to 25 online tennis clients. Maybe a handful of just general population that want to get stronger or lose weight or whatever and then that grants me the flexibility to not have to be in London to go and nurture my face to face clients or not have to be anywhere to go and work with face to face clients.

I can go and do their check ins and whatnot from anywhere in the world and it's not a matter of it's not to say like I'll just be traveling all the time but maybe Mornington is my base and then I have the flexibility in July when it's miserable and wet and cold. It's like right I can actually go to I can go to Queensland or whatever for a month or Bali or I can actually go on another Europe trip for a couple of months without having to. Yeah yeah yeah literally it's I don't think it's

going to be a matter of I'm just going to be on the road all the time like I will have a base and right now I envision that being here the peninsula. Yeah I have the flexibility to do that and maybe come back and do some stuff with the interns or like if you need someone for a club program or something I can I can step into and do do the stuff I really want to do but without having to rely on. Yeah getting up at stupid o'clock to do PTs or don't necessarily want to

do like five or six coaching shifts a week I've just my base 80% of my income is just the online check in that sort of thing and then the other 20% is filled with the stuff that I love doing from a face to face standpoint so seminars. Yeah club sessions. You presented to the anytime PTs the other day. Yeah that was a cool little milestone I look back on one of our old one of our old we do like monthly check ins and we have like goals and stuff that we want to tick off and

one of them I did when I first started it was like to be like one of the be an industry leader and not see myself that way and like do seminars. You should first of all. Do seminars to people that have sort of reached out and want to experience that other than sort of our interns that are in our ecosystem. Yeah so that was a cool little milestone it was the first seminar I'd done to a group of coaches that didn't it's pretty sort of didn't know me and didn't know who I was. So that was really cool.

Yeah I am. So I've had like a contract at any time for a while now because I just trained in the commercial gym because there's obviously some machines and whatnot that we don't have access to. So I've been connected with the PT manager there for a little bit just on a surface level just yeah just chatting as you do and so he followed me on social media and I think it was driven by like I filmed the seminars that we do for our interns and just clip them up and put them on our socials. So

I think he'd probably seen that and just reached out and said hey like do you do seminars like we're looking at doing some for our PT team here at any time would love you to be involved. That's pretty cool. I said yeah I've got these three things built out which I didn't have built out. I then got to work building them out. Well actually I've had the principles. Yeah you've been sharpening that sword for a few internship intakes. It's a great presentation by the way. Thank you. So yeah we did a double presentation so talked for two hours straight which I wouldn't imagine I'd been able to do.

What did you present on? It was an hour of the sort of fundamental training and coaching principles and then an hour of programming and application because I think coaches get really really confused. One people get confused about like what actually drives their progress what's going to actually help them get better at sport or lose weight or gain muscle or get fatter if they want to get fatter. And we lose sight of that because in the social media era there's all these different methods and exercises and ways of doing things which are probably all relatively valid but people don't realize the magic isn't actually in the exercise or the method or the programming structure.

That's not where the magic is. The magic is in the framework and the foundation that underpins that. So it was just helping those coaches reconnect with what matters but then it was realizing it's all good to have this foundation and framework but some people do want some actual applicable substance to it. So we dove into programming. I started it with the caveat of I get a little bit uncomfortable doing the programming one because the reality is as long as it's built on a good foundation and framework principles your rationales for programming would just be every bit as valid as mine.

But here are some stuff that helps me. I hope it helps you too but don't lose sight of the principles and the framework for these methods. Methods are many. You've been in the industry a long time now. We kind of get to the point where you're like fuck none of it really matters. But you have to go through thinking that every little bit matters to get to that realization. So I think you spoke before about experiential learning. You only really get to that by programming for thousands of people over a decade and by programming different

things and seeing what works, seeing what doesn't and creating your own set of belief systems or principles that help drive or help direct what you do. Yeah absolutely and one of the slides in the programming one was like when you're staring at a blank canvas like what do you do and I just said like there is nothing wrong with having templates because templates are literally just your amalgamation of what has worked for the hundreds of people that you've worked with and what you've seen work. It's not cookie cutter. It's not plug and play like oh

okay I've got a 16 year old tennis athlete here so I'm going to give them what I gave to my other 16 year old tennis athlete. No that's stupid. You've got your framework and then you just build off... Here's my fundamentals and here's how I need to tweak it. Yeah and you tweak it based off the person you've got in front of you rather than just like oh I gave this 16 year old tennis athlete this. I'm going to give it to this one as well. You adapt to sort of their training age and their

experiences, maybe their injury history, what they like, what they don't like and then just embracing the fact you're never going to nail a perfect program from week one. You just won't like it's just this constant refining, checking in, how did that go, how did that feel, what worked, what didn't, tweak tweak tweak. Yeah and there's always ways to adapt and tweak it based around the person because fundamentally now we're at the stage where people enjoy it. We're kind of like three quarters of the way there and then we make sure we're making progress. And tracking data in some way shape or form even though Gemma doesn't like tracking data.

We just had a conversation with her on the gym floor which we love. And then we go alright are we getting better, are we enjoying it, are we moving forward, rinse and repeat, freshen it up and go from there. There's a saying, I sort of went blank there while you were talking because I was trying to think of this quote about tracking data and it's not coming to me at the moment. What gets measured gets managed. Start and finish the same way. Beautiful mate, love your work. It's been an absolute pleasure over the last four years.

Don't be a stranger. Like I said there's always going to be a place for you at Virtus, you know that. You might have to work twice as much and get paid half as much but that's fine. Hopefully I'll be in a position where that doesn't actually matter. It's fine. We'll get around you going away in a couple of weeks. April the 12th, it's an open invite. Just pop in, have a beer or have a soft drink or soda water, whatever you want. I might order some pizzas and we'll all hang out. Love it. Beautiful. Any more for any more?

Virtus, Virti fam? Thank you. Thank you for getting around me. It didn't take long when I first started and did my first couple of coaching shifts where you feel a bit, not that other people were thinking this, you feel a bit funny and they're not going to want to get coached by me. I'm worried I'm going to say something that maybe contradicts what their head coach Mitch has told them so I'll just stand back. It was very stand back-ish and it didn't take me long to feel like I could step into a really confident coaching role where people respected me and listened.

It didn't take me long to feel like part of the family at all. Thank you for giving me a family away from my family. Love it. Good for you. Thank you very much. Be amazing. Have a good day.