Shownotes
My guest today is Mitch Langman, successful martial arts business owner of Dark Carnival, leading martial arts facility, offering Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Strength & Conditioning and Personal Training for all levels of experience here in Canberra, Australia.
He is a seasoned Martial Artist him self who likes to challenge the status quo of martial arts and peoples own beliefs on what they can, or can't, achieve.
Special Offer:
If you live in Canberra, come train at Dark Carnival - First week for free
For rest of the world, check out Dark Carnival Online Academy
All details on www.darkcarnival.com.au
Links / Mentions
- Dark Carnival
- (00:48:05) - BOOK Recommendation: Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This way comes.
Highlights:
- (00:00:55) - How did Mitch get started with martial arts
- (00:06:01) - Body is not made to sit
- (00:08:13) - Dealing with stress through Martial Arts
- (00:14:35) - How can martial arts help you deal with conflicts
- (00:18:26) - Other examples of how to deal with conflicts
- (00:21:17) - How to find courage to get started
- (00:35:43) - How does grading works for each martial arts
- (00:37:02) - How age doesn't matter when ti comes to keeping fit. Everyone can do it if they put their mind to it.
- (00:43:38) - Mitch's career journey from delivering milk as 13 y.o. to successful martial arts gym owner & operator
- (00:47:53) - Where did the Dark Carnival brand name came from?
- (00:59:30) - Overcoming Challenges
- (01:11:20) - Definition of leadership by Mitch Langman
- (01:14:41) - If you're looking to start your own fitness business.
- (01:17:09) - Top 3 tips from today's interview
- (01:21:28) - Special offer for Canberra Locals!
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Transcripts
Welcome to the Success Inspired Podcast, a business and personal development
Speaker:podcast to help you accomplish more in life and realize your true potential.
Speaker:And now here is your host Vit Muller
Speaker:Hello, everybody.
Speaker:Welcome to another episode of the Success Inspired Podcast.
Speaker:My name is Vit I'm your host, and today with me, my guest today is a
Speaker:successful martial arts business owner of Dark Carnival leading martial arts
Speaker:facility, offering Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Strength and Conditioning
Speaker:and Personal Training for all levels of experience out here in Canberra Australia.
Speaker:He is a seasoned martial artist himself collects the challenge the status quo
Speaker:of martial arts and people's own beliefs on what they can or can't achieve.
Speaker:Please welcome to the show Mitch Langman.
Speaker:Thank you very much.
Speaker:Good sir!
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:Great to have you in the show mate!
Speaker:What I want to say, press.
Speaker:Been being a member of this facility.
Speaker:I'm very impressed what you've done, but obviously nothing happens overnight.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So where did you, where did you begin and how did you began with this?
Speaker:So when I started training Muay Thai, when I was 13 and I got into it
Speaker:with, uh, because my older brother.
Speaker:So a typical thing, he started doing it.
Speaker:Uh, so he's three years older than me.
Speaker:He's here to be in 16 and him and his mates are doing
Speaker:it and I begged him pleaded.
Speaker:And then when he said, no, of course I just pulled the ACE card made my mum,
Speaker:tell him to take me to training, uh, 13.
Speaker:13.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I like that you used seasoned, uh, it's a nice way of putting it.
Speaker:Um, uh, so yeah, went along, loved it from the get go.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah.
Speaker:What are we now?
Speaker:25 years.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So you're a 38.
Speaker:Yeah, 38 and um, yeah, never really stopped doing Muay Thai,
Speaker:um, doubled with Rugby a bit and other, other styles of martial arts.
Speaker:But yeah, Muay Thai was just the constant throughout 25 years.
Speaker:When you talk about like a season season martial artist I mean, that's.
Speaker:That's a, that's a long time doing martial arts
Speaker:and, uh, still learning, still learning.
Speaker:So there's not one way to teach it there, not one way to learn it.
Speaker:And every day there's something new that comes out of the woodwork somewhere.
Speaker:It's fantastic.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:What are some of the benefits, obviously in 25 years, you know, initially you
Speaker:experienced the benefits, but let's talk about like a short term initial
Speaker:benefits that you've experienced in your first few years, doing martial arts.
Speaker:To, to benefits more of a life benefits that you, that you've now know about
Speaker:more of a wisdom based kind of thing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I mean the, the, the initial ones that straight to mind is it's fun.
Speaker:It's fitness, you're getting stronger, fitter, faster,
Speaker:you're learning new skillsets.
Speaker:It's amazing.
Speaker:But the wisdom part is, uh, it's kind of what is most important for me and rings
Speaker:true, uh, because, you know, w when you're 13, And, you know, you watch the action
Speaker:movies, you watch the typical things.
Speaker:When you're a kid, you're already to learn how to defend myself and
Speaker:realistically, anyway, especially in Australia anyway, in Canberra, in
Speaker:particular, there's not really that much, you know, uh, uh, gang violence.
Speaker:There's not anything of that nature.
Speaker:Um, but there is still the typical schoolyard bullying.
Speaker:Um, you know, he might have familial situations, all that kind of thing.
Speaker:Kind of in the back of your head, this plan.
Speaker:Okay, cool.
Speaker:If it goes down, I know how to defend myself.
Speaker:That seems very important and it's very empowering, but it was always something
Speaker:that I realized that as I got older, uh, I don't think I valued it anywhere
Speaker:near as much when I was a child, a young teenager and a young, young male.
Speaker:It was only when I was 32, 33 34 went, oh man, this is actually really useful.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:So the reason that you were in valuing it back then, and he said, because he didn't
Speaker:really experience bullying yourself.
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:So I got big ears.
Speaker:I had a funky haircut at the time and younger, massively bullied.
Speaker:And, uh, just because of shit that happened during my childhood did
Speaker:definitely go bullied, but, um, It was something that, uh, again, you
Speaker:kind of think that, okay, I don't have to fight or I don't have to.
Speaker:Um, whereas when, when you get older, you realize that you don't
Speaker:really have to fight like ever.
Speaker:Uh, it's always eager waffles effectively.
Speaker:So, you know, you can't pay a mortgage with street credit.
Speaker:Uh, but when you're a kid, you think that's super important how people are
Speaker:gonna think, or I was going to say, and you know, in this day and age of
Speaker:now, you know, keyboard warriors and et cetera, and people jump online, they
Speaker:can absolutely talk crap about you, but it doesn't matter at all because
Speaker:they are not going to come to you.
Speaker:They're not going to say it to your face.
Speaker:They're not going to anything.
Speaker:And even if they do.
Speaker:They're probably not going to hit you or actually mean you violence.
Speaker:They just try to assassinate your character effectively, which as a
Speaker:child is the most important thing.
Speaker:And then as you get older, John man, personal wise to tellers Tom,
Speaker:thinking about what others thought of me or gave me, that kind of thing.
Speaker:And that was probably the biggest takeaway from it is that, um, you
Speaker:know, as a kid, you they're going off gonna make everyone happy.
Speaker:I have to, uh, kind of keep up appearances and then you kind of go up.
Speaker:Why is that?
Speaker:Obviously it, as a kid, you don't have that maturity.
Speaker:So every day is about, you know, what are the people like?
Speaker:How, how do you fit with that?
Speaker:You know, if the other kids or it's about that status, right?
Speaker:You don't want to be the last one that everybody points the finger at.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, absolutely.
Speaker:And then when you get older, like it's a lot easy to shake things off.
Speaker:So what would be some of the benefits for, older people, for adults?
Speaker:So obviously.
Speaker:Bullying for kids that aside, um, very important, um, to, to get kids in
Speaker:this, but for adults, um, how can, how can martial arts benefit somebody out
Speaker:there?
Speaker:Massively!
Speaker:Um, So from a health and fitness standpoint, obviously for a lot of
Speaker:people sitting at a desk and odd drive a desk for, you know, uh, seven to 10
Speaker:years, thereabouts in public service and your body is not made for sitting
Speaker:for, you know, eight to 10 hours a day.
Speaker:It's just not, it is also my understanding 10 hours a day either, but you know,
Speaker:martial arts one hour, two hours possibly.
Speaker:Maybe two or three times a week that you can just move your body
Speaker:in this really dynamic fashion.
Speaker:That's multi planar so if you're doing Muah Thai there's big rotations and
Speaker:turns and this kind of thing, the Brazilian jujitsu you're down, you're
Speaker:up, you're turning, you're trying to not get crushed to try to catch someone.
Speaker:And so you're using your body almost how it's supposed to be used.
Speaker:Uh, so the longevity of the physical aspects is one thing, but then to.
Speaker:Be able to really embody mindfulness and meditation in motion.
Speaker:So it's great to be able to sit and Zen, like, you know, meditate, most
Speaker:people don't get an opportunity.
Speaker:Uh, for majority of people, they walked through the door and, uh, they
Speaker:could have had the worst day possible.
Speaker:I could have this big meeting tomorrow or, you know, things that have to resolve
Speaker:tomorrow or the things haven't there.
Speaker:And, uh, they jumped on the mats and your brain can't be at work,
Speaker:your brain can't be at home.
Speaker:Your brain has to be on the mats because for Muay Thai, your calling pads,
Speaker:you might be sparring doing drill.
Speaker:And if your brain's elsewhere, then you'll be reminded.
Speaker:You need to be here now,Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Speaker:You're trying to, you know, not let someone pass your guard.
Speaker:Uh, and if your brain is elsewhere, the next thing you know, you're stuck
Speaker:in the side control and it sucks.
Speaker:Then you got to escape and your brain has to come back to you and
Speaker:go, okay, let's get out of this.
Speaker:So you're forced to be in that moment, which I think is just priceless,
Speaker:Gives you opportunity to also, uh, Gives you opportunity, you
Speaker:know, to have to think about work.
Speaker:Cause I think that's another thing that we looked at in the current society.
Speaker:We live in where, so like there's more in demand on getting more done
Speaker:at work as you know, um, deadlines and especially in the corporate world,
Speaker:you know, people on the pump, living fight or flight for most of the day.
Speaker:That's another thing.
Speaker:People don't balance out that between homeostasis and Firefly.
Speaker:And for those of you guys listening to see understand homeostasis is the ability
Speaker:to, um, And for your body to recover rest it's rest and recovery, right?
Speaker:That's when your digestion starts to kick back in and everything just function.
Speaker:And so impatient.
Speaker:To balance those two scales, actually talk about it on one of
Speaker:the episodes with Robley on, if you want to listen to that specifically.
Speaker:But so back to the martial arts, I think perfect example, like a lot,
Speaker:a lot of people might not be able to do the Zen thing, do the meditation.
Speaker:It's difficult, whether it's practically not possible because of time or
Speaker:they're just not really inclined.
Speaker:I mean, I know myself, I'm not really into meditation.
Speaker:Um, but I, I do find different workarounds.
Speaker:I may be if I have a lunch.
Speaker:You know, trying to eat mindfully.
Speaker:So try to not look at the phone and just really focus on 15 minutes, just focusing
Speaker:on the food that I'm eating and in a way that that's, that's that's way for me
Speaker:to, um, uh, to de stress and just switch off from work because that's in a way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:And at one point during the day, do you do something for yourself
Speaker:and that is something for yourself.
Speaker:So you rock up on the mats and as much as they are.
Speaker:A team of people, uh, who there you're in coaching, you training with
Speaker:you, holding pads for you, sparring you rolling you, whatever it is,
Speaker:this is a individual sport, but you walk that road with many people.
Speaker:So, you're not here as part of a team, you're here for yourself, but
Speaker:others help you actually achieve.
Speaker:So it's just really nice, um, kind of feedback loop that you get.
Speaker:So you've got to be a good training partner, so your training partners
Speaker:can be good training partners view and so on and so forth.
Speaker:But at the end of the day, it's all for you.
Speaker:It's not for the sake of your training partner, but it just comes part and
Speaker:love it.
Speaker:So
Speaker:That's actually true.
Speaker:That's actually true.
Speaker:That's one thing I realized.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For the most of my time training in being in fitness was, you know, lifting
Speaker:weights that sort of bodybuilding style training, and then more of a functional
Speaker:stuff kettlebells, but always just my own training, but doing this over the
Speaker:last, you know, year in your, how long you've been, you know, sort of a newbie,
Speaker:um, but how long I've been doing it?
Speaker:Uh, I have noticed that, um, that it is that learning curve.
Speaker:Like every day you come in here, you learn something of somebody
Speaker:else, whether it be, um, what.
Speaker:Somebody on the same level, like me and newbie or somebody that's much, much
Speaker:higher ranking and you role with them.
Speaker:And, you know, everybody's very, um, friendly and willing and supportive I've
Speaker:not experienced any like competition in here as a, I mean, there is
Speaker:competition when you're rolling in a way, but it's a friendly competition.
Speaker:There's no aggression,
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:That's exactly it.
Speaker:And sorry, it's a challenge.
Speaker:And so of course I roll.
Speaker:You know, in competition, um, if it's myself and some of the other coaches
Speaker:role, uh, you know, to see who will win, but it's not win at any cost.
Speaker:It's not win, you know, like survival is on the line.
Speaker:Um, but it is that, that really healthy challenge of going okay,
Speaker:I'm going to challenge myself.
Speaker:I'm going to challenge you in the process.
Speaker:Uh, you're aiming.
Speaker:This is the challenge.
Speaker:That that's, that's the respect that we get.
Speaker:That's why we slap in bump.
Speaker:It's unrespectful.
Speaker:They're going to try and, you know, stop blood going to your brain or take
Speaker:your arm out of joint or whatever it is in more time we bow, we touch gloves.
Speaker:I'm respectfully going to try and punch you in the face and I'm
Speaker:literally acknowledging our yep.
Speaker:I'm going to try and do the same thing back to you.
Speaker:There's nothing personal about it.
Speaker:There's nothing.
Speaker:Um, you know, vindictive or spiteful and malicious, it's just purely the combative
Speaker:art and that's, what's so unique about it is embodies that know the physical
Speaker:attributes, but you have to be mentally on and you have to be emotionally
Speaker:sound because if you get angry yeah.
Speaker:I was going to
Speaker:say that is one thing I've definitely noticed that controlling your
Speaker:emotion is critical, correct?
Speaker:You have to leave the emotions out of the door and the moment you start to lose
Speaker:your shit is the moment you, you stop thinking rationally and your IQ goes down.
Speaker:It's the same thing, like stress when we're on the fight or flight where
Speaker:we're pumping work and day to today.
Speaker:And the little stress your IQ goes down.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Same thing,
Speaker:simple things like the technique you've spent years learning.
Speaker:You can't remember.
Speaker:I distinctly remember.
Speaker:I think it was my third fight in Muay Thai, you know, dude posted
Speaker:out and I, for the life of me could not think of what to do.
Speaker:And I spent three rounds on the end of his dude's like just post.
Speaker:I don't know what to do.
Speaker:And my coach at the time was just yelling at me, going, you do this every day, you
Speaker:know exactly what to, I couldn't remember.
Speaker:Uh, you know, you were in the cliche, jammed me up and I was
Speaker:like, I don't know what to do.
Speaker:So I know exactly what to do, but because of the stress and because
Speaker:that the performance decreased intelligence decreased could nothing.
Speaker:to save myself, what the hell did I have to do?
Speaker:And just shows how much stress we can kind of create out of
Speaker:this event and this environment.
Speaker:And yeah.
Speaker:It's all good.
Speaker:So it's good because, uh, you know, it's very stressful when people first walk
Speaker:in and, uh, it changes very rapidly.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:And at first it's walking through the door is the first, the first test, so
Speaker:to speak, and then they step on the mats and there are new person amongst
Speaker:other people or makers that, oh my God, they're so much better than me.
Speaker:So they started exactly where you're not really been training three weeks long.
Speaker:Oh, my God.
Speaker:It's like, yeah, it's, it's a process frozen started so well
Speaker:done, but it is very stressful and that stress can exactly put us in
Speaker:that fight or flight immediately.
Speaker:And most people just want to run off from that's straight away.
Speaker:So no, no, no, stay, stay, stay.
Speaker:It's okay.
Speaker:It's okay.
Speaker:Trust it's okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, we find it.
Speaker:So these one thing that, um, that is seldom talked about in martial arts,
Speaker:which is, um, the benefit of adults.
Speaker:To be able to test, uh, what their belief is.
Speaker:So some kids went through school and they were able to, you know,
Speaker:uh, kind of bullshit their way through physical encounters that
Speaker:were the bigger kids, or that was smaller kids with a really sharp wit.
Speaker:And they may or may not have ever had to have thrown down with someone
Speaker:they've never been physically tested.
Speaker:Uh, you've got other kids that that'd be horrendously bullied.
Speaker:You know, they were actually physically assaulted as kids, and they've
Speaker:never revisited that as an adult.
Speaker:And so the development that and the kind of growth.
Speaker:So in the first instance and in the true usage of the word is to be humbled.
Speaker:Uh, this person thinks are tempered told them Bulletproof, et cetera,
Speaker:and then they'd come in and a person, you know, half their size.
Speaker:Just molds them on the mats and they cannot pin them.
Speaker:And it's, you know, they're being submitted electronic center.
Speaker:Beautiful.
Speaker:That is true.
Speaker:And they have this, they have this decision then.
Speaker:Well, everything in my life I thought was true is false.
Speaker:Now, what do I do well now?
Speaker:Now you're actually learning to honestly be a congruent as opposed
Speaker:to living this false story.
Speaker:Um, and on the flip side of it is someone who's very meek and mild and, you know,
Speaker:I've gone through horrendous bullying and that kind of thing, as I said, an
Speaker:incident in their life, and then they'd come on the mat and they discovered
Speaker:that, oh, well, I can actually do this.
Speaker:I can actually be violent and I can actually take a punch.
Speaker:I can actually, wow.
Speaker:And confidence I've been terrified of this because the last time
Speaker:you encountered violence, you are seven or 16 or something.
Speaker:You were a child, you wouldn't, you were not built for it and you were not
Speaker:prepared for it, but now you've got an option and they go, this is amazing.
Speaker:I was terrified of confidence.
Speaker:Yeah, it would affect me at work.
Speaker:So if I would, uh, you know, get into a conversation with someone
Speaker:and you know, our boss would come down and get a book and I know that.
Speaker:And, you know, but now that I've kind of been exposed to violence I'm not worried
Speaker:about that other thing that might happen.
Speaker:And so, uh, to see that growth in people is amazing.
Speaker:And then for me personally, to have that experience several times, working
Speaker:in public service, you know, dude will come down super aggressive, super
Speaker:angry, cause he got the very sharp uniforms and metals and whatever, and
Speaker:that they're tearing into you and you just kind of, you're not going to hit.
Speaker:So, can we please sit down and have a conversation here?
Speaker:Stop trying to intimidate me.
Speaker:It's not going to work,
Speaker:but you to be able to be so direct with them and say that
Speaker:if you didn't feel confident.
Speaker:. Correct, because if I'm worried
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Even that's not being real realistic anyway, but correct.
Speaker:It's just based on the past beliefs
Speaker:. And if you bullied as a kid, no, no, it's happening again.
Speaker:Oh, I've got to get my, yeah, exactly.
Speaker:And intelligence here.
Speaker:Next thing you know, you're in the role, whereas especially if you
Speaker:know, you're right, fight for it.
Speaker:Just go.
Speaker:No, you're wrong.
Speaker:And I know I'm right.
Speaker:And here's the data and I know you're very upset and emotional right now.
Speaker:Let's keep it a to facts.
Speaker:Let's
Speaker:keep, it gives you a stronger ground to stand on.
Speaker:Very, very good example of resolving conflicts, right?
Speaker:This is a good example.
Speaker:Any other good examples of how much loss can help people resolve conflict?
Speaker:The, the funniest, the funniest thing that I've always been asked is, oh, you must
Speaker:have gotten in to heaps of fights when you were younger but I was like, no,
Speaker:actually I walked awayfrom all but four.
Speaker:And the four, one of them was made as being 18 year old, you know, drunk and
Speaker:stupid and not being situationally aware.
Speaker:I didn't start the fight.
Speaker:I definitely didn't end the fight because I ended up being jumped, like
Speaker:literally stumped by three people.
Speaker:It was interesting experience that's for sure.
Speaker:Um, and you know, the other three were just, uh, instances, which, you
Speaker:know, I was able to resolve because of skills you know, sweet, that's great,
Speaker:but every other time it's happened, self-preservation and just the, the
Speaker:knowledge that I don't have to do this allowed me just to walk away
Speaker:from violent confrontation, because again, like punching on it the age of
Speaker:17 or 18 in the city, You go to court.
Speaker:I go to court, you go to hospital.
Speaker:I go to hospital.
Speaker:We both go to the hospital.
Speaker:It's like, what's the point?
Speaker:This is ridiculous and over what?
Speaker:So it gave me that, that understanding that this is not
Speaker:necessary, this is not worth it.
Speaker:Um, and it was very difficult.
Speaker:My ego was going, no, but you know, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're
Speaker:gonna, they're gonna think less of you.
Speaker:They're going to, people are going to shun you.
Speaker:You're going to be, uh, you know, weak.
Speaker:I was like, no, they don't.
Speaker:And then as I get older, yeah, there's more, it gets reinforced
Speaker:more and more and more and more.
Speaker:And, uh, just several instances of your public service life.
Speaker:Having people very much finger in chest and stop that please
Speaker:on what are you going to do?
Speaker:You're you're trying to physically intimidate me.
Speaker:It's not happening can we please have a discussion or I'm just
Speaker:going to walk away because.
Speaker:You're not going to do anything and you're not getting your point across.
Speaker:So it gave me that, that kind of a, as I said, escalation process, as
Speaker:opposed to just fight or flight, is that the dimmer switch, being able
Speaker:to turn up that little bit, and being able to zero in on it more into, okay.
Speaker:Do I want to be passive?
Speaker:Do I want to be assertive or do I want to be aggressive?
Speaker:And it gives you those kind of three options and then you
Speaker:flush those out even further.
Speaker:How assertive am I going to be?
Speaker:How aggressive am I going to be?
Speaker:When is a good time to be passive and guy that's, this is a situation
Speaker:I probably shouldn't be in I'm out.
Speaker:So yeah, it gave you, it gives me that, that broad scale, as
Speaker:opposed to just one of two options.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we covered benefits quite thoroughly.
Speaker:And, uh, and I hope that this inspires the listeners listening right now, but
Speaker:considering this now, Understanding the benefits of doing something is one thing.
Speaker:But getting started, if you're in really tough spot, psychologically, maybe you're
Speaker:going through some tough time depression and, or you've been bullied, maybe you're,
Speaker:you know, a kid listening right now that, you know, has been bullied a lot,
Speaker:getting that confidence to even step out the front door and going to some local
Speaker:gym, might be actually really difficult.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Very.
Speaker:What would you recommend?
Speaker:So it's about this point I'd like to touch on, uh, the concept and the
Speaker:importance of the story and you know, any, any good book, any good movie.
Speaker:So if I was to ask you, what's your like favorite number one, movie?
Speaker:Number one movie.
Speaker:Oh man, you got me there.
Speaker:Look, I think the one that I really like is, um, you know, Pulp fiction
Speaker:as good example or Fight club
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So Fight club's a great example.
Speaker:Um, because it is a true case in point.
Speaker:So you got, okay.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Who's who's a main protagonist.
Speaker:Who's the main antagonist, you know, all that kind of deal.
Speaker:What characteristics does that individual have?
Speaker:Um, you know, uh, for when I speak to a lot of people, uh, they use Harry
Speaker:Potter as the example, I love the Harry Potter books and the movies
Speaker:are great and all that kind of thing.
Speaker:And you ask for the story of Harry Potter, isn't all the,
Speaker:he's a kid and he's a wizard.
Speaker:And, you know, he, uh, he goes to Hogwarts and, you know, people try to kill him
Speaker:because he's this and that and whatever.
Speaker:And then.
Speaker:Okay, but that's not the full story.
Speaker:What happened to him at birth?
Speaker:Oh, there's more to it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So he had a tragic upbringing.
Speaker:He had the call to adventure and he rose to the call to
Speaker:adventure and he went to it.
Speaker:And what was the outcome?
Speaker:Well, he met friends.
Speaker:There was trials, there was adversity.
Speaker:Uh, there were lessons learned and there was confrontation at the
Speaker:end of the nemesis effectively.
Speaker:and he over came it and, you know, but he's the story of Harry Potter is born.
Speaker:A wizard, went all goats.
Speaker:He lived a happy life.
Speaker:You wouldn't watch that movie.
Speaker:It'd be boring movie.
Speaker:So you get people and they go, okay, well I've been severely bullied or massively
Speaker:overweight or I'm unhealthy or et cetera.
Speaker:Uh, I went through a very traumatic childhood incident happened I'm
Speaker:on a bad end of a relationship.
Speaker:Um, you know, there might've been specific traumatic events that
Speaker:happened in a male or female.
Speaker:Um, and then, okay, but then what?
Speaker:Oh, then I went to a martial arts gym and I discovered myself out.
Speaker:I went to a, even a weights gym and I started to feel a,
Speaker:built a sense of community.
Speaker:So there's the call to adventure.
Speaker:There's your comrades and then what?
Speaker:Well, then I decided to test myself, okay.
Speaker:By doing what?
Speaker:Well, I went in a bodybuilding competition and I went into, uh,
Speaker:strong man competition or, uh, BJJ competition, Muay Thai, whatever it is.
Speaker:And then went on that journey was amazing . Ok so what have you learned?
Speaker:Well, I've learned so much about myself that I didn't even know was possible.
Speaker:You would read that book.
Speaker:You would watch that movie, but here's the story of an individual who is,
Speaker:you know, very, you're terrified you to experience as a youth.
Speaker:Uh, all of these adversities are heaped against them real or perceived,
Speaker:uh, and they avoid it and that's it.
Speaker:And so they've kind of subscribed to that life of mediocrity, which is absolutely
Speaker:fine if that's what you want, but for a vast majority of the population
Speaker:they're not made for mediocrity, you're not made for mediocrity.
Speaker:I'm not made for mediocrity..
Speaker:No, so we haven't done it.
Speaker:Uh, but for a lot of people that would say that is the only option because they're
Speaker:just kind of following the narrative.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Screw that, uh, you know, the, this, you know, the Fight club, which is
Speaker:the best and your, uh, Edward Norton's in there with Brad Pitt and uh,
Speaker:Brad Pitt is in the tub scrubbing.
Speaker:And he goes, I asked my dad, um, you know, dad, what do I do?
Speaker:He goes, oh, I w you go to school.
Speaker:You're in education.
Speaker:Okay, dad, I've got my education now, what do I do?
Speaker:Well, you get a job.
Speaker:I can't, I've got my job now.
Speaker:What do I do?
Speaker:Well, you find, you find a partner.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Now what do I do?
Speaker:Well, you build a house.
Speaker:Okay dad, I've done all those things, now as you told me, I don't know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's like, wow.
Speaker:That is that it is that it
Speaker:it's like, it's like, uh, like instant soup recipe and this is
Speaker:what everybody should be doing.
Speaker:And it's like nah.
Speaker:But if that is for you.
Speaker:Amazing.
Speaker:And people are extremely happy and I do not regret them or try to pull them.
Speaker:No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker:But if you are unhappy in any of that, if it is not fulfilling,
Speaker:It's cause you're not made for it.
Speaker:And you'd know you'd known if you're not being, if, if you're not feeling
Speaker:like you're fulfilling your life, you know it because you feel miserable and
Speaker:you constantly dream, but what could be the alternative, but you never
Speaker:get the courage to overcome the fear.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:And I think a good strategy.
Speaker:That could be what you said, you know, you, you outlined.
Speaker:An example of the alternative and trying to write it down, maybe even think about
Speaker:all the benefits that you can, you can experience by getting yourself outside of
Speaker:that comfort zone outside, stepping out of that front door and visiting martial arts
Speaker:gym in this example, think about all the benefits that you'll you'll experience.
Speaker:How's that going to improve your life?
Speaker:Build more confidence?
Speaker:Um, all, all that.
Speaker:I think that we've covered.
Speaker:Write that down and then think about.
Speaker:The alternative, if you're going to stay where you're at and you
Speaker:know, we only have one life.
Speaker:Um, as far as I know, so trying to imagine it like a scale, right.
Speaker:And where's the scale tipping.
Speaker:Cause if, if currently you thinking about the fear and I don't really want to do
Speaker:it and all that, I'm going to experience all that bullying again or what.
Speaker:No that, that in their, inner voice.
Speaker:And if you just keep telling yourself that, then, then yeah, surely the
Speaker:scale will keep on tipping that way.
Speaker:So you need to start focusing on the, on the, on the alternative.
Speaker:And as long as that list is.
Speaker:The list of positive is longer than the list of the, you know, the other
Speaker:side then, uh, I think that's, that's a good way to make, make that commitment
Speaker:because we talk about fitness.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:When you talk about fitness, you've got those five steps.
Speaker:You've got the first step date.
Speaker:I can't remember specifically, but from memory is the first step you
Speaker:don't really, you're not really like ready in the second step.
Speaker:You starting to think about it third step.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You were actually considering it for step you're actually planning the action.
Speaker:And then the fifth step, you do the action, something
Speaker:along those lines, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, sorry, consideration, uh, sorry.
Speaker:Awareness, consideration, um, engagement, uh, or preparation I should say.
Speaker:And then engagement and then outcome activity.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So again, Um, so if you, uh, and again, talking to you guys listening, if you
Speaker:thinking about, you know, doing the action, then that's like a big jump.
Speaker:Just get yourself to the next step.
Speaker:What is the next step?
Speaker:Well, just trying to get yourself into that head space of considering it.
Speaker:And try and do it every day.
Speaker:So you're totally correct.
Speaker:Um, it's the good old outage of, um, you know, the definition of insanity,
Speaker:which isn't the actual definition of insanity, but we hear it recited a
Speaker:lot, which is doing the same process, expecting a different outcome.
Speaker:So this is one of those things that is, is that difference
Speaker:so difference in the process.
Speaker:So you kind of know what you've done so far.
Speaker:How's that working out for you and exactly who this was in the God's watching this.
Speaker:Now, if, uh, if you've kind of been running this loop, well break the
Speaker:loop, stop, it will be uncomfortable.
Speaker:It will be very scary because, uh, one thing we don't do anywhere near
Speaker:as much as adults is we step into this, uh, state of vulnerability
Speaker:because, uh, we like to think that now I 've got my shit locked down.
Speaker:I've got my mind, I've got my body, I've got everything.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:It is what it is.
Speaker:And I really don't like it.
Speaker:And to go back and address or challenge that you're going to have to put
Speaker:yourself into a state of vulnerability.
Speaker:Um, you know, to have someone, uh, in the workplace, starting
Speaker:new job, people go, okay, fine.
Speaker:I'm going to have a team leader.
Speaker:I'm going to have a manager.
Speaker:I'm gonna have whatever, you know, runs through the ranks.
Speaker:Absolutely fine.
Speaker:But for someone who stepped on the mat and, uh, actually face.
Speaker:Yeah, I can't bench 50 kilos.
Speaker:Shouldn't I be able to bench 50 kilos.
Speaker:It's like, no, like we know this, but you don't think you should,
Speaker:should not be able to punch someone.
Speaker:You think you should be able to.
Speaker:It's not that easy.
Speaker:Oh, I can wrestle.
Speaker:No, you can't.
Speaker:No, you can't.
Speaker:And you've never have, oh, but I remember years ago when you were a kid.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:No, you haven't addressed any of this.
Speaker:And so to be thrown again in that state of vulnerability and it is again and
Speaker:again and again, because the perceived kind of barriers that we put up, we
Speaker:realize they're false and then we rip them down and then we see more ahead and
Speaker:we go, oh my God, there's more barriers.
Speaker:I'll wait way.
Speaker:They're perceived.
Speaker:Rip rip rip.
Speaker:And then you realize that wow, I was just really working against
Speaker:myself for the longest time.
Speaker:This, this is, this has been enlightening process, but you
Speaker:have to make that first step.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:which is, when then people would go and talk about midlife clock crisis.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:I think it usually between forties and fifties, right?
Speaker:Midlife crisis, you realize, oh shit, I didn't really pursue my dreams.
Speaker:And now you realize that you're yeah, you haven't really fulfilled it.
Speaker:So it is about getting yourself outside comfort zone and continuously
Speaker:challenging yourself because that's how you grow up personally.
Speaker:And like this show is all about that.
Speaker:This show is called Success Inspired Podcast.
Speaker:Whether it be personal development or business, for those of you guys listening.
Speaker:If, if you're living a life of mediocrity and you want to change it, then yeah.
Speaker:Just get your sort of arts at conference zone.
Speaker:And sometimes that might require you to, to, to get, to get
Speaker:somebody to kick you in the butt.
Speaker:You know, I I've been considering for some time, although a bit more
Speaker:difficult now because I've gotten son, but I've been considering the idea
Speaker:of, you know, doing like one of those fitness trips, literally put myself
Speaker:in an like, lock myself down, like, you know, the prison, but like go,
Speaker:going to an environment where there is somebody that will force me to do things.
Speaker:Like, for example, one of those fitness camps, like going to Thailand
Speaker:for a week,
Speaker:Yeah, Thailand is a great example and people do it all the time.
Speaker:And they come back and go Muay Thai was amazing.
Speaker:Or, and they've got so many camps in gyms and whether it be Brazillian
Speaker:Jiu Jitsu orientated or just general fitness, strength, conditioning,
Speaker:orientated, or Muay Thai, there's Yoga retreats there's everything.
Speaker:Um, you know, and yeah, you lock yourself in and you go okay.
Speaker:I'm going to go to this place and you know, they will come
Speaker:around and they'll wake you up.
Speaker:And if you want to live in breathe a fighter for argument's sake,
Speaker:they'll kick you out of bed.
Speaker:You you'll go for five kilometer run in the morning, then you'll
Speaker:come back, skip to pad work, clinch work, whatever it is, eat rest.
Speaker:And then back on the mats for another three hours, rest and then they might
Speaker:take you to fights in the nights and then you sleep, wake up, repeat
Speaker:it's a good awakening because you're, you also learn a proper, proper
Speaker:way of looking after yourself.
Speaker:Obviously they give you the right food, you get the right nutrition, you get,
Speaker:you get disciplined, you get disciplined.
Speaker:Even if it's a short one week or two weeks, I think that's enough because
Speaker:it's so intense that when you come back and that's, I'm just talking off,
Speaker:not experience, but what I believe it is to be that when you come back.
Speaker:That gives you that good reset button.
Speaker:And then you're more likely to actually continue with that
Speaker:discipline, join local dojo and okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Very, very it's um, yeah, people have those experiences and the go ok I'm
Speaker:going to go, uh, climb a mountain for argument sake and they lock in they go
Speaker:to , you know, uh, whichever mountain it is and they do this experience and I come
Speaker:back richer for it because they've gone.
Speaker:They've set the mind on the think and they've done it.
Speaker:And, uh, they might've taken people with them, but generally I do solo.
Speaker:They go for long hike, but most of these things are physical in nature.
Speaker:So they're tangible, they're not necessarily meditation retreats.
Speaker:They're not necessarily, um, you know, uh, just kind of a holiday.
Speaker:They go in, there's an actual challenge and they go, okay,
Speaker:I want to do the challenge.
Speaker:I want to do it for six days or the hike or whatever it is.
Speaker:And they come back and they go, okay, I did that.
Speaker:Well, I did that.
Speaker:It's amazing.
Speaker:I did this thing.
Speaker:Ok now what else can I do?
Speaker:Cause you've, you've kicked that goal.
Speaker:Now let's set the bar higher.
Speaker:Strengthens
Speaker:your integrity, right?
Speaker:Strings your own, um, um, your own, like how your discipline.
Speaker:Yeah, you know, weight lifting is the most tangible out there.
Speaker:Uh, outcome you got.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We're going to start with fixed killers on the ball.
Speaker:You're right.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So now I've done 50 kilos.
Speaker:Can I do 60?
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I did 60.
Speaker:Can I do 70?
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Did 70.
Speaker:And you peak at some point, but then you need to make a decision.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Do I make everything else looped back in so I can keep, cause it's not just
Speaker:a matter of, you know, bench has other muscles grips had other training that goes
Speaker:into it, but seeing how far you can go and how, like how long can I do this for?
Speaker:And you now have exactly, discipline.
Speaker:And that's now the goal and tick, let's go.
Speaker:Because it might just be a case of, well, okay.
Speaker:I'm not going to be able to push past that number.
Speaker:Um, let's say 130kg on bench press I mean, that's pretty, pretty good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And based on your lifestyle, you know, you're not going to
Speaker:be going full-time powerlifting.
Speaker:So it comes to a point where you also have to realize, okay, well, that's,
Speaker:that's the end point, but then it's about, okay, I I'll maintain it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's the maintenance of it.
Speaker:That's what's going
Speaker:to keep my health
Speaker:and
Speaker:then you look to yourleft and there's Deadlifts, and you go,
Speaker:how much can I deadlift squats.
Speaker:Squat.
Speaker:Okay, cool.
Speaker:So now you're kind of expanding the horizons.
Speaker:So for people that do BJJ, um, you know, there's, there's stripes, there's
Speaker:belts, there's, uh, competition.
Speaker:There's so many avenues for that kind of learning.
Speaker:Um, more tide, you know, in traditional Mortara, there's no
Speaker:grading structure, you try new things.
Speaker:Um, but for here at TCM 10, our version of , we implemented a grading structure
Speaker:because not everyone has that time nor the passion to jump straight into the ring.
Speaker:Uh, so it gives them clear, defined, tangible goals to be able to kick
Speaker:sweet, caring for that one thing.
Speaker:It can negative for the next thing and it's harder.
Speaker:And then the next one's harder.
Speaker:It gets harder than it all physical.
Speaker:So, you know, do I expect a 50 year old to be able to perform like an 18 year old?
Speaker:No, but I expect you to kick off as a 50.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:I expect you to punch out as many pushups in a minute as at night?
Speaker:No, but I expect you to work your ass off for you.
Speaker:So don't you rockin go and I'll, we'll see how we go.
Speaker:No, no, wrong attitude.
Speaker:You actually
Speaker:brought up a good point that he's, you know, oftentimes, you know,
Speaker:working fitness industry myself, you know, sometimes people call you that
Speaker:might be interested in joining a gym.
Speaker:And as you get a phone call from somebody older, I don't know, they
Speaker:might be in their fifties or sixties.
Speaker:And they're like, ah, nah, that's, that's not, not, not for me.
Speaker:There's all the young ones or, you know, that's past me, that's possibly that's
Speaker:stuff that I could do when I, when I was a kid, what would you tell them?
Speaker:So the, the oldest kind of active member we had in the gym
Speaker:unfortunately had to, um, to, to Alzheimer's he had to pull back.
Speaker:Um, but he was 82, 82?, too far out.
Speaker:And he would hit pads here at spar obviously, very
Speaker:controlled and very restricted.
Speaker:Um, he'll do jujitsu, all this kind of thing.
Speaker:I mean, he loved it.
Speaker:He was an old school, you know, military and police.
Speaker:He just loved it.
Speaker:And it was the only thing that kind of kept on going
Speaker:until he couldn't go anymore.
Speaker:So, you know, for his safety and just everything that was his processes,
Speaker:he had to pull back, unfortunately.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, I've got, you know, several people aged 60 plus, uh,
Speaker:and probably the biggest, uh, kind of hang up for them is just regret.
Speaker:Why didn't I do this when I was younger?
Speaker:Why did I just decide to do this now?
Speaker:Like I wish I hadn't had the time over and it's like, yep.
Speaker:But don't hang onto that grip because you are doing it now.
Speaker:So of course it will be frustrating when they go, oh, if
Speaker:my back was, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:If I had more foundations.
Speaker:Right, but you don't.
Speaker:So how about let's move?
Speaker:Let's keep going.
Speaker:We can't, we can't live in the past.
Speaker:We can't live with regret.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, for the, for the, for the, you know, the, uh, in, for the
Speaker:elderly, for the, you know, out of shape individuals of the world, man,
Speaker:you got an option and time is ticking.
Speaker:Go do it.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Obviously you need to approach more intelligently, but that should be down
Speaker:to your coach and your trainers as well.
Speaker:So making sure you don't.
Speaker:Cause they have a really good understanding of limitations and
Speaker:pushing those limits, whereas.
Speaker:Some people are coming here, let's go calm slowly, warm up first.
Speaker:Then we just start with the bar.
Speaker:Then we put weight on it.
Speaker:And that kind of thing.
Speaker:I just get frustrated when I feel sad.
Speaker:And when I, when I hear people saying, you know, on I'm tool, um, that's,
Speaker:that's it for me, it's like, I mean, you, you still want to have quality of
Speaker:life and you still have certain things you'd want to be able to do right.
Speaker:Your grandchildren, things like that.
Speaker:So I think, yeah, people should still, if they're in that age bracket, you
Speaker:know, in that older, past 50 type of thing, you know, Um, I think people still
Speaker:should think about your skills again, you know, think about those benefits
Speaker:because you know, I've interviewed people as an example, a couple in their
Speaker:early sixties, they decided to sell the house, buy a boat and they live
Speaker:on the boat and they've got kick-ass lifestyle, you know, they sailing.
Speaker:So they've been physically active and then you go then on a contrary, you
Speaker:might somebody else who is in their sixties, who is not physically active.
Speaker:The body's deteriorated, deteriorated, deteriorating, whatever, how you say that.
Speaker:I'll blame it on my, uh, English is my second language.
Speaker:Um, so you know, so you've got those examples in your life.
Speaker:I wouldn't want to be like that.
Speaker:I definitely want to be able to do things and, and, and rely on my
Speaker:body to, to take care of me through life, to be like my granddad,
Speaker:he's 80 and he's still top shape.
Speaker:He's, you know, he's still like, you know, his posture's great and, and everything.
Speaker:So I would certainly want to be like that rather than somebody
Speaker:else who's in the wheelchair.
Speaker:You know, and just letting their posture slouch down and let their muscles atrophy.
Speaker:And, and, you know, I didn't have to rely on others to do so for you.
Speaker:That's bullshit.
Speaker:That's bullshit for me.
Speaker:I don't want to have that life.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:The word I have trouble with is best specificity, especially my brain specific.
Speaker:Anyway, I'm sorry.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:What we are, we tend to have a tendency to do is to stop learning new things.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it doesn't matter whether it's learning to play guitar.
Speaker:I mean, I've got a guitar there with I've tried is now my eighth
Speaker:attempt at learned to play guitar.
Speaker:I still suck.
Speaker:Um, you know, didgeridoo I've played with muck around with,
Speaker:and all this kind of thing.
Speaker:You're not can do it.
Speaker:The cyclic breathing is constantly, um, you know, a new thing.
Speaker:Um, but you get people in, they, they might've played
Speaker:soccer and only soccer Hmm.
Speaker:Football, um, their whole life.
Speaker:And then done is one range of movement.
Speaker:One range of motion that specificity, um, no is.
Speaker:It's detrimental down the track.
Speaker:If you've only played tennis, that's detrimental.
Speaker:If you've only gone.
Speaker:And as I said, if you've only done Muay Thai as dynamic as
Speaker:it is, that is detrimental.
Speaker:If you've only done Brazilian jujitsu, that's detrimental.
Speaker:The good thing about the martial arts that I find though, is they open up to others.
Speaker:So you want to be fit.
Speaker:So you want to do cardio, so you don't just get more tired.
Speaker:You do run, you do bike.
Speaker:Whatever the screaming, uh, you want to be flexible.
Speaker:So you do your stretching.
Speaker:You do my ability to do yoga.
Speaker:You do Pilates, do whatever.
Speaker:Um, you want to be strong.
Speaker:So you do weight lifting.
Speaker:You do to help aid this one thing that you enjoy doing and want to keep doing.
Speaker:So, as, as present, now you're down to one movement pattern.
Speaker:It's actually multiple.
Speaker:Um, in example, you have people selling a house going into a boat.
Speaker:They would have learned how to sail maintenance, all this kind of thing.
Speaker:And so it doesn't matter if he let him.
Speaker:I got a woodcarver whatever, it's a new skillset and forcing that
Speaker:neuroplasticity to be able to rewire and rewind new movements and new knowledge.
Speaker:And it's the key to life.
Speaker:It's what keeps hurting people young is that are constantly learning
Speaker:and doing so not just reading, it's actually making a tangible
Speaker:skillsets and a practical skillsets.
Speaker:It's not just about that physical betterment.
Speaker:It's also mental.
Speaker:Because when you physically challenge yourself.
Speaker:You're actually more sharp.
Speaker:If you, if you improve the cardio, you get more oxygen in your body and your
Speaker:body, your brain gets more oxygenated.
Speaker:You're more sharp in an example of the guy with Alzheimer.
Speaker:I bet you that if he didn't didn't train, um, he is pro his rate of
Speaker:progress would be probably faster.
Speaker:Yeah, correct.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:That's probably why he put it off for so long.
Speaker:And having discussions with him that was very much the case is if it
Speaker:wasn't for training, then it would have been over a long time ago.
Speaker:Quality of life.
Speaker:Now I want to talk about your career and how do you transition into this awesome.
Speaker:awesome gym, so you talk about working in a public sector.
Speaker:Um, so tell us just a bit of a short story about your career
Speaker:transition into business owner.
Speaker:13 years old started off in the milk runs as do most kids, uh, 15 to 18 did my,
Speaker:I did my tour of duty in hospitality, which I think everyone should do a
Speaker:tour in hospitality or retail, because you will learn more about dealing with
Speaker:people, uh, than any time in life.
Speaker:Um, and then from there, uh, I was engaged with the protective service.
Speaker:So APS, uh, doing logistics and Technical support.
Speaker:And, uh, from there we got absorbed into the AFP, uh, AFP.
Speaker:I became an Armourer so, um, in the fire arms identification, uh, and armory team.
Speaker:So I was fixing maintenance.
Speaker:TheAFP's fleet of firearms, which was super cool
Speaker:Like guns for the Australian federal police?
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:All the, all the short arms, long arms, whatever that, that's what we did.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:It was super cool.
Speaker:Um, but as with like a lot of kind of governmental processes, the job changed
Speaker:uh, and I kind of got a bit, nah, it's not what I was employed to do.
Speaker:So it ended up being a bit of a desk job as opposed to mechanical job.
Speaker:Um, so I joined high-tech crime operations and, uh, worked in
Speaker:there for, uh, the remaining years.
Speaker:And I just kind of reached that point where I went on.
Speaker:Not I'm not happy doing this
Speaker:So turnover, um, take turns.
Speaker:So I was training and coaching the entire time that I was working
Speaker:public service and, uh, yeah, kind of got to the point that, um, couple
Speaker:long service leave and went okay.
Speaker:I'm going to try this thing.
Speaker:And lots of things happened so this was, um, December or November, 2012.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, I'd already read the Dark Carnival as a, as a business entity.
Speaker:Um, I was training out of, um, sort of initially my garage and then, uh, uh, the
Speaker:Jinindera super school just using their hall and then Stockade training centre.
Speaker:Uh, that gives you opportunity to run the Muay Thai program there.
Speaker:So like wicked let's jump on board.
Speaker:This is actually like a big gym and everything was going really well.
Speaker:Then I was getting more kind of put off by work.
Speaker:Uh, relationship was kind of the 10 year relationship at the time.
Speaker:It was coming to an end as well.
Speaker:So it was like,
Speaker:Time to reset.
Speaker:Let's do this.
Speaker:Um, so yeah, took the plunge, uh, Took my long sentence live for as long as
Speaker:I could milked it out for leave sick, leave everything just as long as I could.
Speaker:And I was able to get my feet wet during June 6th, 2013, we opened up the doors
Speaker:in Woden at the first Dark Carnival.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah, it was well-received we, it was going well.
Speaker:Uh, initially didn't pay myself anything cause I was still getting
Speaker:my wage from, you know, long service leave and et cetera.
Speaker:And then, uh, yeah, November, 2013, I resigned from AFP, pulled out
Speaker:the safety net and, uh, let's go.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, well, many lessons were learned.
Speaker:Uh, was it easy?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:few years later, uh, my now business partner, Tasha, and she, uh, she bought
Speaker:in 20%, I was amazed that someone wanted to buy in on my business.
Speaker:You want to give me money for training people.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:So she bought in, uh, and then, yeah, we've been business partners
Speaker:kind of being, building their partner of the business sense.
Speaker:And we went from, you know, 175 square meters to 200 and, uh, sorry
Speaker:to 300 square meters to then moving to Phillip, which 330 square meters.
Speaker:And just last year we took her upstairs and effectively.
Speaker:Now we have 680 meters square of a training space.
Speaker:So let's talk about adversity because well, you guys don't.
Speaker:Yeah, so obviously really cool branding.
Speaker:Um, Actually let's talk about that because I'm really curious, firstly, why.com.
Speaker:So, uh, when I was a kid, I read, uh, Ray, Bradbury's
Speaker:'Something Wicked this way comes'.
Speaker:And the whole idea of this carnival of morality, uh, where it's attractive.
Speaker:It's nice, it's big lights and you come and you are tested.
Speaker:And if you demonstrate love care, compassion, and you
Speaker:pass the test, then you are.
Speaker:You're richer for the experience and for visiting the carnival, if you fail
Speaker:you become part of the economy when you're absorbed into the carnival.
Speaker:So you've got the tattooed man, not really related to me having tattoos,
Speaker:but you know, in the volt headers of the people who have been absorbed in
Speaker:and all this kind of thing is, you know, the character, it's only a short story,
Speaker:but something wicked this way comes.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Uh, and it's about a doc carnival and.
Speaker:You know, it's, uh, it's it just kind of set the scene and there
Speaker:were, there was another book called Shadow Shaw, which are ran on the
Speaker:same premises or premise should say.
Speaker:Um, and that was fantastic.
Speaker:And as a young kid, I was like, wow, these are really cool concepts and I like it
Speaker:because it's the duality of it.
Speaker:And the, the concept of duality kind of ran through my entire life.
Speaker:So dark being darkness, carnival being light.
Speaker:Uh, so dark carnival.
Speaker:I see, I understand.
Speaker:It's why I have tattoos and a half of my buddy.
Speaker:Sorry from the head down to the targets, one's hot in my body.
Speaker:It's the potential for two states to exist in one that's the duality
Speaker:of nature, and you can have this really lovely, nice person.
Speaker:It can also be this absolutely ferocious fighter you can have this
Speaker:absolutely feroucious fighter.
Speaker:He might be the most caring, loving individual you've ever met.
Speaker:And for me, that resonated very heavily as, as a child fast forward, uh,
Speaker:to, I think the age of 12, 13, and.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I came across, uh,Insane Clown Posse and they based their whole music
Speaker:on this ethos of the dark carnival.
Speaker:And I was like, rod, they're just fleshed out this concept.
Speaker:Amazing.
Speaker:And so I was like, yep, cool.
Speaker:I've dealt with this, this rad.
Speaker:Um, some of the songs are great.
Speaker:Some of the songs were absolutely terrible.
Speaker:Uh, but I really like the, the, again, the concept and the story
Speaker:behind it, I was like, this is.
Speaker:And then, yeah, just that always stuck in my head.
Speaker:I want to open up a gym called Dark Carnival.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:And that was since little and I just had this idea.
Speaker:I love that there is like a true meaning behind his name.
Speaker:Like there's some people open a business and they just put something that's.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Rings cool.
Speaker:It's, you know, trendy, but, um, sometimes there's not enough history to the name.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Even, even the first logo that we had, which was the DCM T logo, the dark handle,
Speaker:muy Thai, the face split down the center.
Speaker:And it is quite literally me looking at my reflection.
Speaker:So the right side is black and is fiery and has DNC kind of designed and tattoos.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, it looks angry.
Speaker:Uh, the left side is white and it's, it has the dark offsets.
Speaker:But when you actually look at the logo, which one's smiling
Speaker:and which one's grimacing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's actually the docs are that smiling and the light side is grimacing.
Speaker:So yeah, it was, it was very good.
Speaker:In one, one of, one of the guys went to school with Jordan, Jordan chick he's.
Speaker:He said ideas.
Speaker:And he came back with that and was like, oh my God, you've literally designer.
Speaker:And, uh, he just went.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:And so far.
Speaker:He designed like 90% of the logos.
Speaker:We have
Speaker:branding evolve based on that idea.
Speaker:And he'll work in putting that creative mindset over it.
Speaker:Correct?
Speaker:That's exactly it.
Speaker:You go onto your website.
Speaker:Um, dark carnival.com.au.
Speaker:No, you guys go check it out because it's, it's really cool.
Speaker:I like those, you know, those, um, those, you know, the cards
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:The cards.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, uh, even that, like, not that it has anything to do with, with
Speaker:gambling, but you've just got to be able to play your cards and having that
Speaker:ice in the hallways is so critical.
Speaker:It's so important to be able to go.
Speaker:Okay, cool.
Speaker:Let's see how you play.
Speaker:And a lot of, a lot of pivot for people that do play cards, uh,
Speaker:Yeah, and you can play other people.
Speaker:And there's, there's a whole lot of, uh, conversational engineering that goes
Speaker:into it and that's no different to life.
Speaker:And one of the branding aside, which is really cool, um, you also have
Speaker:really good culture here in the gym.
Speaker:Everybody's friendly.
Speaker:We kind of talked about it as well, but your coaches are amazing as well.
Speaker:So how do you attract the right talent?
Speaker:Difficult.
Speaker:So very difficult.
Speaker:So as the culture and the vibe and everything goes, uh, again, like,
Speaker:ah, I've got crews around here and I forget that this is actually my gym.
Speaker:It's like, someone's actually created this.
Speaker:It's like, no, you create is, oh shit, I did too.
Speaker:Um, but you attract like people and so we never set out to be a fighter.
Speaker:I train fighters and I train BJJ competitors, but that's
Speaker:not, that's not my interest.
Speaker:That's not my passion.
Speaker:It's part of the story and part of the journey.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But it's not, you know, it's hard for a lot of people.
Speaker:They'll go, well, that's not your Mo tie cause more how you have to find.
Speaker:No, you do have to perform a hundred percent.
Speaker:You have to test.
Speaker:And so that's kind of what the culture has been born from.
Speaker:Uh, so two of my great mentors and really good friends in, in America, um, in LA.
Speaker:So, uh, Jerry wetsuit from central on Jim, he one of the credit breads
Speaker:on threat management and you're on, uh, you're the Australian training
Speaker:director for, and then Chris how-to who is accredited combat base.
Speaker:Uh you're in Brazil.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So Jerry, his kind of motto is what is your test?
Speaker:And the great, you just summed it up perfectly.
Speaker:And for Chris, he just says things straight transport practice, the
Speaker:art, we have to think straight because you have to keep it honest
Speaker:would this work if I needed to.
Speaker:Uh, but you can't train straight street because in that way, he's like
Speaker:one of two outlets either this, uh, touch buttery in the park have killed
Speaker:five people, but I can't trade this.
Speaker:Yeah, that kind of thing.
Speaker:Or you end up injured.
Speaker:I end up injured in training because the moves work, but
Speaker:how do you train it safely?
Speaker:Well, you have to train in a sporting environment and then you, uh, practice the
Speaker:art and the art is your, is the device.
Speaker:So when you look at the martial art, the martial is a physical
Speaker:prowess, but the art is the mental and emotional, the artistic and, uh,
Speaker:endeavor to be able to create more.
Speaker:So not just go.
Speaker:Well, that's not, not that's, that's a dogma to doctrine, that's it?
Speaker:There's no more to be discussed.
Speaker:So now it's constant being created.
Speaker:I heard recently that, um, I think mark Zuckerberg said is some, don't
Speaker:be no at all the learn it all.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So you never stop.
Speaker:You should always pursue continuous learning and always seek more behind
Speaker:the, not taking it as a end state.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And, and, and in that sometimes you will be wrong.
Speaker:I could have swore that was correct.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, okay.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker:And it just changes your whole vibe, so, yeah.
Speaker:Sorry, fighting, fighting coaches.
Speaker:You draw those people in and you identify them, but not everyone
Speaker:has the same goals and aspirations.
Speaker:If it's chasing money to become a personal trainer and become a, you know,
Speaker:a, um, uh, a gym owner and trainer, because the money is not six digits.
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:You're not going to become a millionaire, but you'll be happy.
Speaker:You'll be fulfilled.
Speaker:You get to live and operate with these amazing people.
Speaker:And like you get paid well, but you can also go to public service.
Speaker:And like, I was on just shy of six figures and I'm white on the half of
Speaker:that at the moment, but I love my life.
Speaker:I I've never regretted or resented a day of having to come in.
Speaker:It's once I drag my ass out of bed, is that initial, uh, title?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:But that Collins expect me to come in.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:It's amazing.
Speaker:It's like, boom, I come here.
Speaker:Let's go.
Speaker:That's a really important point as well that you bring in across is that
Speaker:what's a true definition of success.
Speaker:I was going to ask you a question actually, but you, in a way you
Speaker:just said it is isn't, you know, financial is, it's just one element
Speaker:of, of, I mean, feeling fulfilled.
Speaker:Nobody's going to feel fulfilled purely on money.
Speaker:I don't know many people that are purely based on money and the ones who are
Speaker:purely based and money billionaires.
Speaker:I hear often that they're not happy they're living in their mansions alone.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I mean, it, it, it might give you opportunities that
Speaker:don't exist for normally.
Speaker:A hundred percent.
Speaker:And if that's where your fulfillment lies, amazing, great.
Speaker:Some people have fulfillment in just having families, having
Speaker:a kid, having a loving wife, husband, partner, whatever it is.
Speaker:Amazing.
Speaker:Absolutely amazing.
Speaker:If that's where you're fulfilling laws, then brilliant.
Speaker:You are successful.
Speaker:If it's not where it lies, then stop it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, exactly.
Speaker:So if you just chasing that bigger house, if you're just chasing that pasta.
Speaker:Because then you get that bigger county.
Speaker:I'm not happy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's like, no stop doing it.
Speaker:Like you just get stuck in this again.
Speaker:Insanity.
Speaker:You're doing the same thing, expecting a different outcome.
Speaker:The next house, the next day.
Speaker:The next figure and salary will make me happy.
Speaker:It's like, no, it won't
Speaker:people should shouldn't these aspirations because oftentimes they're based
Speaker:on the external, based on something that happened in their childhood.
Speaker:Again, going back to that state dues and trying to chase that
Speaker:highest state, just because they want to be, they want to be loved.
Speaker:They want to, they want to get more, they want to be acknowledged.
Speaker:Maybe there weren't acknowledge.
Speaker:And they think that.
Speaker:Having better house by having fancy you guys now, now they can go and, you know,
Speaker:show off that, you know, and think that that's, that's, that's, what's going
Speaker:to fulfill that, but it's not really it
Speaker:is it.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:And if it is that individual, then you'll never hear them say paid, but
Speaker:for a lot of people, that facade is now what they have to try and embody.
Speaker:It's literally like wearing a mask and that mask does slip and
Speaker:hence we have 40, 50 year old.
Speaker:Oh, my God midlife crisis.
Speaker:I'm miserable.
Speaker:Like, yeah, you are.
Speaker:It didn't really change the rider
Speaker:spray.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:That's exactly it.
Speaker:Um, and on the flip side of it, you might have people that is all about
Speaker:raising a family and then the kids get to 1820 and parents, mum, and dad's
Speaker:seen they're going now, what do we do?
Speaker:And I have another kind of midlife crisis.
Speaker:It was like, well, my whole life was family.
Speaker:Now my family's doing their families.
Speaker:It's like, ah, now you've got another problem
Speaker:and suddenly, huh?
Speaker:To like have that blueprint.
Speaker:Nobody gives you the blueprint blueprint.
Speaker:It'd be nice to have, you know, laid it out for you, but it
Speaker:just, life doesn't work that way.
Speaker:One way you can make sure that you live more fulfilling life is that you make sure
Speaker:that you do what you truly enjoy doing.
Speaker:What were some of the toughest experiences or challenges that you
Speaker:had whilst developing Dark Carnival?
Speaker:COVID COVID aside.
Speaker:I COVID just screw out of so many people, but it also, uh, kind of
Speaker:forced us to pull the trigger on other, uh, programs, packages on the online
Speaker:academy, all that kind of thing, which is still very much in its infancy.
Speaker:Uh it's right at the moment, but we've got so much content filmed over like
Speaker:the four months we were shut down.
Speaker:It's ridiculous plugging right.
Speaker:And produced it.
Speaker:It's just being edited in, you know, Doug hall does an amazing
Speaker:job of, you know, the, the editing and the filming and everything.
Speaker:But my God there that you're never kind of lost return to normality
Speaker:that sits on the back burner and we chip away at it when we can.
Speaker:Um, but I mean, look, the, uh, the hardest part, the biggest problem
Speaker:was starting off as a one man shot, and then it gets bigger than you and
Speaker:you go, okay, I need another person.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:My, my ongoing problem is that it's constantly a lack of resources.
Speaker:It's not finances, it's people, because as you touched on, the
Speaker:people have to fit the culture and I have to fit your style of gym.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So recently we brought on, um, uh, you know, Judy, COVID one of
Speaker:the black belts up in the city that we knew he was out of a job.
Speaker:So we're like, dude, come down, we'll see ya.
Speaker:English is not his first language.
Speaker:Uh, Rodrigo.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hunter.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he's doing a great job.
Speaker:He's getting much better at English, but he, he was the first person I brought on.
Speaker:That's External.
Speaker:I never coached him.
Speaker:I never trained with him.
Speaker:Uh, um, whereas Rowan Dan, uh, you know, Riley, Alexa, Michael, all of
Speaker:these dudes who coach here, I've trained them all, or I've trained with them
Speaker:and so, you know, they know the, how we roll the culture, everything, whereas
Speaker:Rodrigo, he came from his own and he's now trying to find his way in ours.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:It's that constant learning process.
Speaker:What do we need to be mindful of?
Speaker:What does he need to be mindful of?
Speaker:And that is a challenge.
Speaker:It's not a bad one.
Speaker:It's a good one because invariably, we're going to have to do these time and time
Speaker:and time again, otherwise we will be limited because the people don't always
Speaker:present themselves who will suit the job and suit the con uh, the culture.
Speaker:Um, and again, it is rare as unicorns to find a Dan, to find a Raleigh, to
Speaker:find, you know, these guys who just got.
Speaker:I'll do that because I enjoy it here.
Speaker:Wait, if I could clone myself, this would be amazing, but I can't.
Speaker:So I need to find a like-minded but different.
Speaker:Cause it can't just be me, needs to be other people.
Speaker:They need to bring their own flavor.
Speaker:They need to bring their own thought process, but it has to
Speaker:fit in with the culture and the vibe and the direction of the gym.
Speaker:And how did you, in, in an example of Rodrigo being an external, I
Speaker:know he's, he's black belt and
Speaker:Yes he's a legit black belt man.
Speaker:He's an absolutely beast he's had his black belt for 10 years now.
Speaker:I'm like, it's ridiculous.
Speaker:Just looking
Speaker:for black belt to have in house
Speaker:nursery.
Speaker:We weren't looking for anyone.
Speaker:Uh, he just, the opportunity presented itself.
Speaker:And, um, you know, I've spoken to other people in Canberra, but they
Speaker:were already embedded in their own gyms or doing their own thing.
Speaker:And that's absolutely great.
Speaker:Um, and then Rodrigo came about and were like, okay, cool.
Speaker:We'll see how this goes.
Speaker:And he came in and he ran a workshop and like, okay.
Speaker:And he stayed and he did a couple of weeks of closet and like,
Speaker:okay, this is so we put into like a trial period and it was fine.
Speaker:And then from there we effectively just went, okay.
Speaker:He brought his, the entire BJJ program and that wasn't necessarily a mistake.
Speaker:But it was kind of me not realizing how much there is in the background of that.
Speaker:I was like, oh, you'll understand.
Speaker:No, there's so much in the background.
Speaker:And the, the, you know, the, the beliefs of the gym, the direction, the
Speaker:ethos, and the training, methodologies, everything that you assume that
Speaker:well, you've been here two weeks.
Speaker:You should get it now.
Speaker:Wrong.
Speaker:Uh, and so, yeah, so there's, there's learning points and you
Speaker:know, it's no harm, no foul.
Speaker:It's just learning effectively.
Speaker:I've never had to train someone who knows more than I do.
Speaker:It's always been the other way around.
Speaker:So
Speaker:approach training is, I mean, I would assume it's all, hands-on,
Speaker:you know, in-person on the mat stuff with training with staff.
Speaker:I mean, in terms of that stuff, Or do you have any like, sorry, manuals and stuff?
Speaker:So we are only in process or we have, you know, uh, coaches, coaching, curriculums,
Speaker:you know, um, kind of rough framework because you never want to go, you know,
Speaker:this is what you're going to teach, and this is how you're going to teach.
Speaker:Uh, it's more guideline of this is the direction we take, how you get there.
Speaker:As long as all these boxes are too.
Speaker:Uh, and we keep kind of true to the martial art than fun, but more often
Speaker:than not, it is through discussion.
Speaker:So we have a coach's catch up every Tuesday night and theguys
Speaker:will go :, how would you do this?
Speaker:That's cool.
Speaker:How would you do this during the day?
Speaker:Because we're all here, you know, 12 to 14 hours a day.
Speaker:Not necessarily coaching, but the guys will go, Hey, quick question.
Speaker:Or, you know, Dan will be running someone.
Speaker:You'll go, Hey coach, quick question.
Speaker:Uh, how would you approach, what's your protocol for this blah, blah,
Speaker:blah, ah, sweet and endeavour.
Speaker:You'll see them take notes and I'll come down a day later and
Speaker:they'll be doing the exact thing.
Speaker:I just kind of told them to do.
Speaker:They've refined it already.
Speaker:And they've implemented into their coaching game, into their coaching skills.
Speaker:It's like, yep.
Speaker:Sweet they get it.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I think key, you know, all these is that you're not just an owner of this
Speaker:gym, that you're truly an operator here as well, so they get to see you.
Speaker:And I think that openness, everybody, you know, uh, as opportunity to express
Speaker:their opinion, ask question nobody.
Speaker:Um, Like you've got this openness you've been being in the matts coachees.
Speaker:Everybody's very friendly.
Speaker:I think that that really helps.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And again, it reinforces my own and state of vulnerability
Speaker:because, uh, it's one thing.
Speaker:And this, this happens in a lot of martial arts gyms is that, you know, you walk in
Speaker:and you bow to the person on the wall.
Speaker:Who's some legend of the gym, uh, or ancient legend of whatever.
Speaker:And you know, the coaches are above, uh, questioned about it.
Speaker:Uh, any kind of a challenge as well.
Speaker:And whereas I'm on the nights I spar I roll and I get beaten.
Speaker:It happens and it's not ours because of, uh, uh, so no, that was like
Speaker:high five to you legitimately got me in that guillotine white belt.
Speaker:Like congratulations there, why I got caught, but that was you, just, you
Speaker:just like latched onto an opportunity.
Speaker:hi five to you Yeah, it is not a matter of how dare you.
Speaker:How dare he beat me in front of them?
Speaker:No, I'm fine.
Speaker:Well done.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Um, and same deal.
Speaker:The coaches are there and you know, they see me here every day, every morning,
Speaker:late at night, et cetera, and doing stuff.
Speaker:So it's that leadership kind of role and, well, here it is proof in the pudding.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Whereas if you were a business owner, who's just doing it for building a
Speaker:wealth and removed yourself outside of that, you know, facility of business.
Speaker:And I think you'd be, it'd be a little harder to maintain a culture like you
Speaker:have, unless you got some amazing manager
Speaker:who
Speaker:does that.
Speaker:So my dad always used to say to me, uh, you know, um, you're either working
Speaker:on the business or you're working in the business and juggling those two.
Speaker:Uh, interesting suddenlies and sometimes they blur.
Speaker:Um, but working in the business, I'm constantly coaching, running
Speaker:costs is on coaching, the coaches, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker:And then working on the business development, uh, developing programs,
Speaker:the whole backend of the business, you know, the finances experience, et
Speaker:cetera, all of this stuff is what I do.
Speaker:So what's good though, is that I've engaged Dan as a gym manager.
Speaker:So he now is trying to take over a lot of the, the front of house and
Speaker:the day-to-day operation of the gym.
Speaker:So now there's that kind of separation between, uh, business as
Speaker:usual and then the top end or the executive level decisions, which is
Speaker:what Tasha and I do his vision on.
Speaker:But you know, that that's the stuff that he doesn't have to worry about.
Speaker:So does he know about Xero and no?
Speaker:They the accounting, the bookkeeping and the invoices
Speaker:and the taxable, no it's all me.
Speaker:. And he's, by the way, he's,
Speaker:I mean, it's customer skills like his communication
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Fantastic.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Amazing.
Speaker:Amazing.
Speaker:But he's is he's human.
Speaker:And he does in his day of trying to manage 1,000,001 things, he likes things slip
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And it's not a matter of going dad, how dare you and performance
Speaker:managers understand you are super busy, but you forgot to send this
Speaker:email or this person, reached out to us and you did not respond.
Speaker:We need to make sure that the engagement, the experience of that engagement
Speaker:is like number one, please ensure.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:A hundred percent let's go inside.
Speaker:Those errands are becoming more, was less and less.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Have you heard of the book?
Speaker:E-Myth by Michael.
Speaker:No, it's a great book that talks about in business.
Speaker:You need to have three rollers.
Speaker:Initially we started all three when we started as a solopreneur, as running
Speaker:the business, but with just one person kick, and that is, we need to be
Speaker:technician, which is delivering the service technician example, being coach
Speaker:on the floor, they need to be a manager
Speaker:and then you need to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker:And when he started out kind of fulfilling all three ROS, what you just said, he's
Speaker:now got Dan who's managing the gym.
Speaker:You've got great coaches.
Speaker:And then you position yourself more in that bigger picture.
Speaker:Or when you talk though, the backend stuff and the business strategy
Speaker:that's when you want to get to.
Speaker:So the business, uh, the book, sorry.
Speaker:The book talks about a story of a baker that she always liked.
Speaker:Um, her mom's, um, cookies, cookies.
Speaker:It was.
Speaker:And so she really loved them.
Speaker:And then she grew up, she was a teenager and she learned how to baked them.
Speaker:And then she was an agile and, you know, she really liked them.
Speaker:So she makes them for the other people and people start buying them and then
Speaker:a lot more people start buying them.
Speaker:And then, you know, she's, you know, suddenly had big demand and she just.
Speaker:Making the cookies and then she'd just put somebody else in managing that.
Speaker:And she just kept making the bookmaking, making those cookies and started
Speaker:hating it because of the volume.
Speaker:So she, didn't never really, she never really transitioned herself into
Speaker:the next, the next, next position.
Speaker:So it's a really good book.
Speaker:And, um, in a way you've got that set up.
Speaker:I don't, I would still recommend reading it.
Speaker:Um, it's on audible.
Speaker:I
Speaker:will get it.
Speaker:I'm sure they CA it's a quite fat quite non-book.
Speaker:Um, all right.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Great gym.
Speaker:Great branding, great culture, great coaches, and obviously
Speaker:great leadership in place.
Speaker:Um, but on the, on the note of leadership, what's your definition?
Speaker:Cause I like to learn, I like to hear other people's perspective.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, um, I was actually, uh, I think he told the, the president
Speaker:Felipe put up, uh, on leadership.
Speaker:He was a three-part person.
Speaker:He put pretty on LinkedIn and, uh, Yeah, it was kind of drawing on
Speaker:that in like my, my comment and reply was drawing on my experience
Speaker:over the years of public service.
Speaker:And especially when you have the role of a team leader, uh, you've got your team
Speaker:member and then you have a team leader.
Speaker:So there's this specific barrier.
Speaker:And not always was the team leader actually leading the team.
Speaker:Uh, they were just in the role that they, they ticked all the boxes.
Speaker:There was actually a person in the team that led, um, so for me, a leader has
Speaker:to be on the ground, has to be, um, to, they always have to be on the ground.
Speaker:No, but they should come from the ground.
Speaker:So they have to have experience of being led and also being a leader.
Speaker:So being able to direct people to grow people, not only for
Speaker:the benefit of the individual.
Speaker:Of self, the individual of the, the individual team member,
Speaker:but also for the team itself.
Speaker:Now, should that person go to another team or lead somewhere else?
Speaker:Fine, absolutely fine.
Speaker:You've done your job really well.
Speaker:Or if you've created a leader.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Um, and hopefully they've left with that understanding that they
Speaker:need to lead as well as be led.
Speaker:Uh, and there's that cost balance.
Speaker:In in, in the play.
Speaker:So for me, leadership is leading from the front.
Speaker:It is dead do, as I say, uh, sorry, I should say practice as you preach
Speaker:pretty tight practice, um, practice, how you play, play, how you practice.
Speaker:So it's one thing to be, to say it cannot do it.
Speaker:And so this comes down to that whole level of being congruent, making sure
Speaker:that our good ladies are congruent.
Speaker:Not only can they lead, that can be.
Speaker:But they also do, as they say, it's not just a matter of how you do it
Speaker:or how come you don't have to do it.
Speaker:Well, I'm separated by
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:That's when you got, you got to check your
Speaker:ego, correct.
Speaker:That's exactly it.
Speaker:And they are open to learn.
Speaker:They're open to being wrong.
Speaker:They're open to, um, all of these things and they've just
Speaker:got the, he's an experienced man.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:They might be.
Speaker:So I'm like, are you, but you're wrong?
Speaker:So it will know.
Speaker:Here are the reasons why, and the fact that I know that I'm not, this is why
Speaker:I'm telling you to do this thing in this course of action or whatever.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But he provided an explanation, correct.
Speaker:There's a substance to it rather than just being militant, just
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which is exactly the opposite.
Speaker:And it just closes people, um, up from feeling.
Speaker:You know, valued, valued, and having, having the opportunity
Speaker:to say what it wants.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, and that's what kills culture.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Um, so we're at the end of the interview and I've got a couple
Speaker:of questions there for you.
Speaker:Shoot.
Speaker:First one, any advice you'd like to give someone looking
Speaker:to start a fitness businesses.
Speaker:Start a fitness business, uh, whether it be fitness, martial arts, et cetera.
Speaker:Uh, know what it is that you want to do.
Speaker:So if it is just, oh no, people get fit.
Speaker:That's rad.
Speaker:Why do you want.
Speaker:I understand the how's and the why's what's your motivation for doing it?
Speaker:Um, because again, you want to be congruent with what you actually want.
Speaker:So it's one thing to just go, yes.
Speaker:I'm going to teach people martial arts.
Speaker:Oh, I want to try and be able to fight awesome.
Speaker:And if it's to, um, help people lose weight, then help people lose white.
Speaker:If you understand the full gamma of benefits and make sure you
Speaker:understand the full gamut of benefits, don't allude to them, but
Speaker:never actually explained to them.
Speaker:Um, and just made sure that you follow it.
Speaker:And get it done.
Speaker:Like there's, there's no other way to do it apart from just do it.
Speaker:So have a plan, understand your own plan, make sure that is what you
Speaker:want to do because people, when they train with, you will know whether
Speaker:you're happy to be there or not.
Speaker:And then they're paying for your hour and that time, energy and everything
Speaker:that I've put into that one day.
Speaker:That's priceless.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:I absolutely processed not saying, oh, Alish, do you think it was?
Speaker:I know it cause I'm distilling knowledge.
Speaker:I'm just doing work experience on lived experience and into this.
Speaker:And the number of times I get people rocking and they're here to learn
Speaker:more time BJJ and we ended up talking for an hour on all matters of life
Speaker:and whatever they're going through, that's a very important aspect of it.
Speaker:And all that in summary, it's important because running businesses is tough
Speaker:and you will come across times where it's so tough where if your
Speaker:motivations weren't strong enough,
Speaker:then yeah.
Speaker:If they weren't true.
Speaker:And then you, you, you will fail.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But if you know why you want to do it, why you to open up a gym,
Speaker:what it is you want to achieve?
Speaker:Then there are the darkest, you know, shutdown of Corona
Speaker:or whatever it is you be going.
Speaker:Okay, let's go.
Speaker:Let's go.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:What would be your top three things for the lesson of this podcast?
Speaker:After listening to everything we said today, what would you want them to walk or
Speaker:quote unquote walk away with after this?
Speaker:So number one is you are not made for mediocrity.
Speaker:No one is, um, and.
Speaker:If and our maintenance turtle, turtle, you know, uh, that statement is that you, you
Speaker:are not listening to this podcast because you're just driving home and you're
Speaker:listening to a thing you, you want to be, you know, uh, you want to be inspired.
Speaker:You want to be successful, so go get it.
Speaker:And the second thing would be a challenge the story so what you believe
Speaker:to be true and what you believe to be, you know, what you're limited by and
Speaker:all this kind of deal challenge it.
Speaker:Cause you'll probably find out it's false.
Speaker:It's actually wrong.
Speaker:It never happened.
Speaker:Um, great example of that is you, ask , people had you go with public
Speaker:speaking and they go oh, I hate public speaking and your why?
Speaker:Oh, judge, I've always sucked at it.
Speaker:It's like, when was the last time you did it?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So you did a thing in school.
Speaker:You were uncomfortable with it and now you believe you hate it.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:That's that's big.
Speaker:And it's false did you fail?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Actually got okay.
Speaker:Marks for it, right?
Speaker:Oh, I just didn't like, it was very uncomfortable.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:You just told me you hate it.
Speaker:Challenging challenge the story, because you might find that it's false.
Speaker:And when it's false, you're now left again with decision yarn.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Crap now.
Speaker:Once I, yeah, it's that point of this going?
Speaker:Ah, crap.
Speaker:I thought this was true.
Speaker:It's not, I can actually do public speaking rods.
Speaker:How many opportunities have you missed out on?
Speaker:Because he believed you hated public speaking, man.
Speaker:I didn't do a speech for my brother's wedding because it's like, right.
Speaker:You could've gone and done a conference, but you didn't because you're in harm to
Speaker:public speaking, you could have actually.
Speaker:Who knows where that would have led.
Speaker:Didn't challenge, the comfort zone, correct?
Speaker:It's exactly it.
Speaker:What's number three.
Speaker:Number three would be,
Speaker:life happens.
Speaker:Training is a constant.
Speaker:So it's written on the wall downstairs.
Speaker:It's written up here.
Speaker:It's one of the, one of the things I live by is that life happens.
Speaker:Uh, training is always going to be.
Speaker:So, regardless of whether you are, you know, going through a
Speaker:divorce, you're going through a trial, a tragedy of some sort.
Speaker:Training's always there always full-stop, you might be a very hesitant to go.
Speaker:You might be in a really bad spot, but it'll always be there.
Speaker:And those people will always be there as his constant backup, factually like
Speaker:the number of times I've had people walk in and just sit in the car.
Speaker:Not train, just come in because they just needed to get out of their own Headspace
Speaker:or their own instance and just sit.
Speaker:It's been amazing.
Speaker:But yeah, life happens.
Speaker:Training is a constant it'll always be here.
Speaker:So go get a done.
Speaker:It's about the discipline
Speaker:yeah and also understanding that, okay, I might need to take a week off.
Speaker:I might need to take two weeks off.
Speaker:Training is always there.
Speaker:So when you are healed, when you already, when you've grieved, when
Speaker:you've, whatever, get back to it so that I, no one will think less of you.
Speaker:Oh, I'm only benching 90.
Speaker:I was bencing 134.
Speaker:No one cares.
Speaker:Just keep that continuum then don't stop.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So challenge the mediocrity, challenge the story.
Speaker:And keep on training.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Now Mitch we've got listeners from all around the world?
Speaker:Well, we also have some listeners that might be living in Canberra.
Speaker:Is there anything that you'd like to offer them?
Speaker:Obviously you know, running this amazing place?
Speaker:So we offer, um, we offer the first week of training complimentary because
Speaker:it's super important to understand what it is you're walking into.
Speaker:And, uh, so yeah, you've got nothing to lose.
Speaker:Just jump in, give it a go.
Speaker:You might like it.
Speaker:You might be out of your comfort zone.
Speaker:But be challenged by it.
Speaker:Uh, if general causes, you know, due to a multitude of reasons,
Speaker:uh, might not be your jam.
Speaker:We offer the first one-on-one private training session complimentary.
Speaker:Um, and for those of you around the globe, we have our Dark Carnival online academy.
Speaker:Uh, the links are through our website and it's hosted on Vimeo currently.
Speaker:So you can just jump on and train with us wherever you are in the world.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So how can people find you and this gym, the links again, dark
Speaker:carnival dot carnival, uh, dot com dot a U.
Speaker:Um, is it in one
Speaker:word?
Speaker:No dash.
Speaker:So we have a whole website format in error.
Speaker:Uh, we took out both with the dash and one word and it was formatted on
Speaker:the website as TOK Hoffman, carnival.
Speaker:So we get to correct that
Speaker:really directed to which
Speaker:one they fixed up the next couple of weeks and week.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Sweet.
Speaker:Um, and then, uh, Yeah, we have, um, uh, Facebook.
Speaker:So just look up Dark Carnival Canberra, and you will pop up
Speaker:and then a Dark Carnival_CBR
Speaker:he's jumped on there and yeah, quick follow.
Speaker:We've also got a YouTube channel, um, dot carnival, uh, on, on
Speaker:that.com martial arts and yeah, all that funny stuff is on there.
Speaker:The region randomly plug-in so yeah,
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:There's some really good videos and there's also a good
Speaker:one on how you tie a belt,
Speaker:which is the most common awesome.
Speaker:Thank you for your time.
Speaker:I appreciate you being on the show.
Speaker:Um, lots of wisdom, lots of great value provided to our guests today to
Speaker:our listeners, our listeners today.
Speaker:Um, so thank you for.
Speaker:Time out of your schedule and obviously it's Sunday, today,
Speaker:and you could have been with your family and you decided to do this.
Speaker:So once you, again, thank you, uh, for those guys listening
Speaker:and watching this on YouTube.
Speaker:Um, thank you as well for tuning in and listening to all the way as always.
Speaker:I keep the best stuff at the end.
Speaker:Any specialists, any cool stuff for you as always, I try to
Speaker:work something out for you guys.
Speaker:So thank you for listening.
Speaker:If you've enjoyed today's episode.
Speaker:It provided some from a value to you.
Speaker:Um, then please do me a favor.
Speaker:If you could share it with your mates on social media, um, you know, with
Speaker:the show, you can really help me grow the show and make more impact
Speaker:and, uh, really appreciate that.
Speaker:So thank you again for everybody and have a great rest of your day, everybody.
