How Social Media Fuels Our Insecurities - Mike Thurston

male body dysmorphia is on track to overtake female body dysmorphia within the next few decades does that surprise you no I think it's always been a thing but especially now with how big social media is and how jacked so many people are uh I think of course it's a it's a big problem but do you know there's a guy who's really good at calling people out for editing their photos have you seen that guy I don't know his name but he's got quite a big social media following and basically anybody who has photos shops their photo or videos he gets them oh wow so he's doing a good job he's making sure that people are being truthful with the things that they're posting but that makes you think how many people are editing even people who are literally jacked and shredded they are still editing their photos further to bring in their waist bring out the lats and just it's crazy so especially with women as well imagine how bad that is for the average person who's comparing them M El to all these people and a lot of those people are actually still editing their photos to look moreable peaked they've just trained they've got a pump they're in good lighting they've got a good photographer a good camera good lens they've got a tan blah blah blah and then on top of that they're editing their photos as well yeah it it's you know I think that that's it's one thing that messed me up a little bit when I competed so I competed twice and obviously when you compete that really is the best that you are going to look probably in your life especially for me in terms of how low I got my body fat percentage so when I would look in the mirror particularly after the show when it was like more memorable I would be like pretty fat because you had yourself because I was comparing myself to the sub 10% body fat person that I was looking in the mirror which is like that says it all that not only can you have other people out there in the world for guys and girls that make them feel uncomfortable about their body or they're taller or more jacked or more whatever but you can also be that for you too you know this is I wanted to talk about this like you know you're 34 33 33 I'm 35 and we're getting to the stage where we're like right okay you know recovery from workouts takes a little bit longer recovery from nights out takes an awful lot longer a couple more wrinkles on the forehead my photographer keeps reminding me of that cheers Rob don't listen to them don't listen to them uh yeah just thinking about as that happens you almost use yourself as well I used to be X or Y as I used to be this able to get up and and train hard or lift this much or be this lean or eat this many calories or whatever and then you can't so you use yourself as your own barometer and you know the discomfort that's associated with that of not being as jacked as you used to be not being as able to recover from work as you used to be it's like a harsh realization like the the body smoria I think with me in particular I've I've not really been that person that's always compared myself to others but more so I'm always comparing myself to myself and how good I have looked in the past that's what I'm always comparing myself to and you're right I think fortunately for me now I still feel like I'm I I don't know if I have peaked I think especially if I was to fine-tune a few things the peak is still yet to come but when I do have these thoughts of okay well onlyy downhill from here yeah then I'm like you do know that I I think about that and this whatever you want to call about it like aging gracefully as a man whatever that means right uh probably not taking all of your selfworth from the way you look might be a good place to start and I think God you know how difficult it's going to be recovery from the workouts and not being as jacked not being the fastest guy in the room or the strongest guy in the room or whatever but then you realize that that's like women from age 25 yeah I think we we as men have got it good like we can we can get older and age and get the the the gray whiskers more wrinkles and if anything it's still kind of it might even make you look better like I remember I looked back at some footage from when I was even like 20 27 28 and I feel person I look a lot better now like I had like maybe it didn't help that I was like clean shaving myself all the time but I looked you grow into with your style a little bit but yeah you know for for all that I can be chronically fearful of my own mortality and getting older and all the rest of it thinking yeah but the speed of descent isn't as rapid as it is for yeah women so yeah the male body dismorphia thing being on track to overtake female body dysmorphia kind of doesn't surprise me I think you you probably just have be careful with who you're following and who you're comparing yourself to like if if you were an average guy and you are following the like top 1% of athletes in the world the top 0.01% of course you're going to feel pretty small in comparison to them so it depends like for someone like me if I am following like the elite you trained with Kai green this morning yeah so but in town at the moment so if I if I'm following them I'm the type of person that gets inspired by it like I get most moated by that but other people can take it the opposite way and be like oh that's unachievable I'll never get there and I feel worthless yeah what's your relationship like with social media now oh I think I would love to not have to be on it so much but I know it's something which I need to be doing regularly more than ever like you especially with what we do in today's day and age you have to be everywhere um even to this day I don't like how I still get sucked into it every single time in terms of the the Doom scrolling I go on there to do a task then I get distracted by something and then I'm scrolling then I still haven't done the I'm like oh 15 minutes [ __ ] hell hang on I didn't do the thing I supposed to it so you have to go back onto it again so I think um yeah from that point of view I hate how good it is at just sucking you in and rewarding you for just getting like a notification or whatever um in terms of like YouTube and stuff I'm I'm I'm quite selective with what I consume like when I go on to YouTube I like to watch things which I'm going to No Doubt get educated by I like to watch a lot of podcasts anything which I'm going to learn something by Instagram as well it's it's it's a bit of a mess I have it I like now to employ as many people as possible to just run the platform yeah so that I don't have to go onto it I still actually it's a recent thing I don't look at comments anymore okay that used to still mess with your head I think particularly like with the the gym related videos I would do a gym workout or try and do an educational video talking about like uh how to do this exercise or whatever and then the comment section is all steroids steroids steroids steroids steroids why are you lying to us fake Natty and it's just like I'm I'm trying to help people yet the the whole conversation is about whether or not I'm natural and it used to annoy me so much that I actually pivoted away from making gym videos because it was so annoying because no one's talking about your supposed steroid use in a lifestyle Vlog in Marb yeah so like the the less gym related stuff in it there's kind of less uh negativity dude I mean that's that's something that's really true that the audience gets to influence the direction of the Creator in a lot of ways and if they make them feel very uncomfortable about whatever it is that they're doing start to lean away from that type of content it was one of the reasons why I got a hair transplant cuz when I was losing my hair and it was thinning really badly when I look back at it now I was like like it was pretty bad and I was like I don't ever remember it being that bad I was there was a six-month phase where probably should have just shaved it like you know how when everyone's losing their hair they try and just cling onto it and you just got like little strands just you know it's looking pretty pathetic and lonely and the whole comment section was just about ah he's losing his hair like oh the steroid again and it was just like I'm making these videos yet all everybody wants to talk about is the hair loss yeah when we spoke about this the last time that I had you on I I mentioned that I admire the fact that you've chosen to stay out of Internet drama as best you can I think that's partly both yours and my disposition which is I'm just not very conflict person I quite like having been chill and and peaceful and relaxing and I'm not in it for the beef but but there's certainly it feels extra unfair if you haven't done made a career out of like James Smith right my partner in neonic he made a career calling people out for like [ __ ] Fitness advice or for lying about stuff or for editing photos or for do being you know unethical it's kind of Open Season for him because guess what like that the way that you went about things I knew like as we were in the buildup launching this drink and he started doing call out videos about Prime and everything else and I was like J you do know that by doing this you're just making it open season on us but anyway for him it's like all right well you know if you've spent a lot of time criticizing other people it's kind of Open Season on you that's not to say that people who've never criticized should be uh insulated from any criticism but it's just like hang on what have I done to you why you dragging me into this yeah in a way I was it's kind of good in one sense because it's exposure but when it is a person of authority talking [ __ ] about you then they have a a huge audience who do listen to every word that they say big influence and it's kind of a it's a only one argument is being put forward of course you could do a response video and give your side of it but where does it end and then they're like yes he I've got him I've got him yeah yeah but I think you know even for the people that aren't content creators everybody especially with Tik Tok Tik Tok is so the number of followers you have basically doesn't count if you put an insane video on Tik Tok guess what there's a million likes on it you know if it's really really good and you catch the algorithm at the right time etc etc which means now that everybody content creator or mother that happens to take a funny video of her dog doing something is open to the entire internet saying oh that's that's animal abuse or whatever you know what I mean like there's just everybody's open to criticism and I think some kind of education about how to deal with criticism from strangers on the internet would probably be a pretty good thing yeah for everybody to learn yeah uh well I remember when I started with YouTube I think whenever you're on a platform that people can post anonymously they'll go harder they'll be more Relentless with what it is that they want to say and I think that took me a bit of getting used to and I almost had to learn okay I got to develop thick skin here in order to just carry on with doing it I mean even the people who are like the the nicest guys ever that you would just and girls you just think how can you not like this person like such a likable person they're still getting hate tons and tons of distaste yeah well there's an idea called the bystander effect do you have you heard of this no so um you have a a crime let's say somebody's being attacked right in the um Courtyard of a bunch of flats somewhere and everybody that lives in the flats hears the attack going on and there's someone you know screaming for help or saying please ring the police or whatever all of the people think that one of the other people will do the right thing and call the police or whatever the bystander effect and there's kind of a an anonymity equivalent here which is when you know that you're not going to be found out you can almost lean in and be a little bit be way more mean no one's going to come after you you're not going to be held accountable for the things you say it's a burner account on YouTube like you know I mean so dude some of the stuff like anti-Semitism and stuff that's happened this year on on like random comment threads and I'll see people talking in code about like or like you know whatever reverse anti-Semitism crazy crazy crazy stuff one of the things I was interested in one of the reasons I asked about the male body dysmorphia thing and and your relationship with social media I don't think ever asked you this what drove you in the first place to dedicate so much time to going to the gym and building a business and and doing stuff like that because it's been a very very long road significantly more consistent than most people are and now it might be habit but what was it originally I think originally on the back end of when Facebook was at its peak and then when Instagram started I think I just liked being able to Showcase all the hard work that I had put in with the gym I was like oh like this is an opportunity to show the world like this is what I've achieved but what about before that what about when when you started training like why did you start training so I think it was probably a combination of a few different things because I've playing rugby for a solid nine years and I enjoyed it but I think near the end of last few years of playing rugby like it's maybe I didn't like the idea of being in a team and I I've became very frustrated sometimes when I wanted to do something like I wanted to switch this game around but I had to rely on the other 14 players to sort their [ __ ] out that I felt like a lot of the time I was out of control so I like the way that the gym thing was a very individual thing it was like it was just about you you in complete control um I remember the first time when I I I remember just walking into this the gym at the school that I went to I probably 17 years old and nobody was there wasn't really a thing there was no I had no idea what I was doing but I I put like my favorite music on the speakers and just start like just using a few of the machines and I was just super happy doing it and then I remember looking in the mirror and saw a little bit of a pump and I was like [ __ ] hell like I look good so it was the the instant reward that you would get from going to the gym which made me almost want more of it and then I think I always wanted to just be a bigger guy because I remember there was one point when I was on um I don't know if I was 15 or 16 ended up getting mugged on a bus so I was I was on a bus you from leads leads yeah yeah double deck of bus and yeah these two guys came on and basically just started [ __ ] with me and then wanted to take my money and I felt completely useless I couldn't do anything about it I was like a little skinny hi back then so I was shook by the whole experience and I felt like completely unprepared for any kind of Confrontation um that I thought well I need I need to put on some size like I don't know maybe I should learn how to fight but the easiest thing for me to do right now is just to look like the typee of guy that you probably wouldn't want to get in a fight with and it's been I think it's been pretty good the fact that I've been able to put on size I I'm not the type of person that people come up to and want to start a fight with which is good most of the time which is good I I I never go looking for trouble you can overshoot that there's definitely a size that you get to where people want like I want to [ __ ] drop this guy exactly you're in the you're in this goldilock Zone in the middle yeah I think um it's so nice to hear that to hear and it was the same for me like I was you know skinny kid picked on sometimes in school for not being as as like big as everybody else or whatever and I didn't want to be like that I wanted I wanted to feel like I had more physical formidability and um I don't I don't know if it had something to do with me I used to be like really awkward with girls as well so I don't know if that had a maybe my chat was so bad that I thought well to compensate for this horrendous chat that I have at least I can look good and then I don't have to do as much work my social anxiety doesn't matter as much yeah but even with that man like all of these things are the pure beautiful reasons why guys start going to the gym and a good chunk of that I think has been lost in talk about body dysmorphia and comparison and and you know uh unrealistic male body image standards and stuff like that but so much of it is just I want to feel more like a man when I've still got kind of the body of a boy and I want to be more attractive to women and I want to be more confident I I I don't understand why all men don't want to try and improve their physique and the way they look because so much of what I have achieved to this point in time has come from my physique like it's it's crazy how many doors that's opened for me but at the same time just the the confidence that it gives you I know there's quite a lot of Big Jack guys who are you know just don't have that confidence but if if you are unhappy about your life or this something not going right the easiest thing you can do is just to at least try and sort out your physical appearance and usually once you sort that out good things start coming after that the bars set pretty low as well if you go if you do push P leg split three times a week for a year you're probably in the top 1% of that's that's really all all you need I think a lot of people they get um confused and they think oh well if in order to look like that or if I want to look better then I have to go to the gym six times a week and I have to start eating this boring stuff every single day in reality you don't need to do that it's it's just the the consistent efforts every single week but most people they go through periods whether it be a few weeks or a few months where everything's going good and then it just it stops and then people come up to me and they're like oh yeah yeah I'm just kind of unhappy with my shape at the moment I'm like so well tell me about your training what's it been like and they say oh if so I haven't really been to the gym for the past 6 months I'm like how have you not been to the gym for the past six months like of course you're not where you want to be because you've done six months of nothing like you should be doing something every single week even if you have a bad week and you train twice it's still better than doing nothing in other news this episode is brought to you by element element is a tasty electrolyte drink mix with everything that you need and nothing that you don't it's a healthy alternative to sugary electrolyte drinks and it is the best way that I have started my morning every single day for over 3 years now it contains a science-backed electrolyte ratio of sodium potassium and magnesium with no sugar no coloring no artificial ingredients or any other junk your adenosine system that caffeine acts on isn't active for the first 90 minutes of the day but your adrenal system is and salt acts on your adrenal system so if you want to be more awake want to regulate your appetite curb cravings and have better brain health this is the way to start your day head to drink LM nt.com sodern wisdom to get a free sample pack of all eight flavors with your first box plus there is a no BS no questions asked refund policy so you can buy it 100% risk-free that's drink LM nt.com slod wisdom what's that sort of Journey taught you about where confidence comes from because it has to come from something more than simply the way that you look yeah I learned that I think it's it's many different areas of life I don't think I was fully I was fully content and comfortable with the person that I was probably at the age of 20 27 28 I just feel like at that point in time I was like okay yeah my my [ __ ] is sorted now I think a lot of it came from being financially comfortable as well I feel like it's quite hard to be com to be comfortable not not comfortable s confident when you have no money in your account like you you could you could look the part you could be you know great with women or great at talking but let's say for example if I was in a room full of very successful entrepreneurs that had a lot of money I would feel the absolute opposite of confident I'd be like wow I really have nothing to offer in this situation right now so the moment I got my finances sorted I was happy with my physique the way I looked the lessons which I had learned from previous relationships and just from previous work experience what about the uh social confidence or the confidence with women as well though I think that came from just experience of having lots of different relationships because I just like now if or past few years when I'd been dating someone the first time or going on first date it's just like oh here we go again like you just know you know what to do you know what to say and everything is is good but I I think as well this being on YouTube has helped massively so I have drastically improved my ability to speak in front of the camera speak in front of like lots of different people to be able to have a conversation with someone to be able to entertain the audience that's watching you that has massively helped with my social interactions because most of the time I'm more introverted like if you look at the introverted extroverted scale I'm more on the introverted side I think be before the days of YouTube I was a lot more introverted like I had my my group of friends and my Social Circle but you never see me come out of my shell unless I was with my closest friends and even then if I was in a situation with like a lot of people I'd be the quiet guy not really saying anything I would just listen so the whole journey through the social media the YouTube has helped me to come out my shell and I'm a lot more you know confident now I have a lot more to say but there's still that introverted aspect to me where let's say for example you had a day full of social socialzing talking whatever I come back home and I'm like dead and I need to be alone just to recharge so it's uh yeah I think I always ask myself this and I want to ask you this as well if there's one thing that you could change about yourself what would it be because for me I think I would like if I could be more extroverted I feel like I would be able to go further with my career and everything that I'm doing because I would just naturally want to be meeting everyone going to events chatting to everyone like just entertaining everyone but to me that's like it's it takes a lot of work for me to do that and even before sometimes before there's an event I have to psych myself up to go because I just want to stay at home and just do my thing be alone sometimes but I'm like I need to go to this thing so I have to you know get myself prepared and then I go and I do it and I'm actually really happy after it's done because I went and did something I didn't want to do and it ended up actually being like really good there's a big hill to get over before you do it though yeah I mean that would certainly be a big it would be a huge change for me if I did that it does um even though standing out the front of a thousand club nights and meeting a million people right across a 15 year career that it didn't feel like socializing I wasn't properly invested in all of these people it was just like a lot small talk yeah yeah which was good um with drunk people with very drunk people but I would have been I I would have liked to have tuned up up the extra version as well because it does take it does take a a good chunk of energy for me to go and do that I've noticed that with these live shows doing the meet and greet at the end it's like a high-intensity interval conversation of 500 600 people in half an hour or 45 minutes that dude Peterson going on this tour that he's done which is basically a permanent a permanent World Tour and uh he's meeting I think you need to get a special ticket or whatever so there's maybe 300 people 400 people a night that have the like big dick ticket that allows you to get the the meet and greet but he's doing it every single night you know like 50 dates 100 dates a year I don't know how many dude it's for me very very exhausting I think that he's kind of a little bit introverted at least as well so that would be that would be a huge change what else do I wish that would change I have a good bit of self-doubt uh around whether or not I'm doing the right thing or whether I'm doing the thing right I think I think you're doing it right I think certainly now there is the results are showing well that's the thing I I feel like when when I see you interview these people I'm like [ __ ] you were born to do this thank you and I think it's like you not even really got started yet well like where what is what is the goal you want to be the number one podcast in the world Rogan's got that title man like the guys are [ __ ] I I liked what Patrick said about the the three main uh characteristics or attributes of a good or the best uh podcaster yeah one of them is having that Natural Curiosity and asking the right questions the other thing is being able to entertain the the guest be a good host and the other one is actually having an audience that really want to hear your own opinion on a specific topic yeah I I had a a conversation about this one of the q& a at the live show asked about um basically are you going to do more solo stuff over the next few years and I was so unconfident and so unprepared to think that I was bigger than I am like who am I to spout my opinion sat at a table with Andrew hubman like it's obvious who's the aside here right it's obviously him he's the one that's got the expertise and the the PhD from Stanford and all the rest of it just let him shine and I'm really good at letting other people shine but there definitely seems to be I don't know there's like it's it's good to develop your own opinions around things and to put those forward and to have faith that what you have to say might be of use or of interest to people and more than that to play with ideas I wonder what happens I wonder what people think about this I've got this idea about this thing I wonder what people think about that but I think for a good chunk of time as well I was just so uh concerned about putting something forward that made me look stupid I'm going to put this idea forward and I'm what the the the live shows no no no no on the show on the podcast so going to have some idea I've got a take on whatever the whatever this thing is like don't comment on things that you know nothing about but when you're sat with an expert you're always you always know nothing in comparison with the expert even if you know almost everything in comparison with a normal person that knows nothing about it right so because you're I've made a career out of being the most stupid person in every conversation do do you feel like there's a pressure for you to uh improve your knowledge in all these different areas because you you've had guested on from every different industry and Market yeah like you feel like [ __ ] I need to learn more about this and more about this and more about this so because being a good host is your ability to just have like good general knowledge about [ __ ] everything that's true so I think I I wanted to do this as a challenge uh a year ago I wanted to do a day of recording where I didn't know anything about the guest I didn't know who they were and I would just sit down opposite them and I had try and hold a conversation together without like the audience realizing and me just going like uh so you know what what do you think most people get wrong about the world that you come from like what do and just like like trying to sort of work out without actually asking them so what do you do um I thought that would be kind of fun to do did you do it I'd consider I'd still consider doing it I uh it's a big long list of things that I want to do but yeah I think one of the reasons why I stayed clear of putting my own opinion forward was I didn't want to feel silly I didn't want to say things the internet can be a bit of a [ __ ] ruthless place with playing with ideas and you know you don't want to you don't want to look like the idiot in the room more than you already are but yeah I I know enough now to be able to hold a conversation with pretty much anybody especially if it's about them right if it's we're talking about Fitness we're talking about psychology we're talking about philosophy we're talking about politics we're talking about whatever it's like I can draw out of pretty much anyone when it comes to me having my own takes on stuff I have things that you know I've got domains of expertise you want to talk to me about training about mental health about Psych Evolution like all of these things I've got but if we start to push out into how are we going to fix the problems of the Middle East it's like bro like it's not that's not my bag and then working out where the line is between those two uh and not just spouting more noise into the world actually adding some signal which is useful to people that's kind of that's something that I maybe I should do more but then another bit of me thinks well just bring on the guy that knows and be the person that's able to get the best answer out of them right yeah ask the [ __ ] I don't need to go on WebMD and try and self diagnose like whatever ailment I've got it's like just get the doctor the equivalent of the doctor on speak to that person but there's definitely a bit of me that wants to do that doesn't just only want to be the person that plays second string uh uh to the the expert in the room like it'd be great to be considered an expert in my own right and yeah it's uh it's interesting getting past that discomfort or that that uncertainty about whether or not you have legitimacy because everyone else has a a million letters after their name or is a PhD or is a billionaire or something and you go the [ __ ] like why should like I'm just the guy that asks the questions speaking of discomfort what was it like the first time doing the show like the very first show live show yeah were you [ __ ] yourself that was nerve-wracking yeah cuz for me yeah the the thought of that is pretty [ __ ] scary I think as well it's Q&A is fine but to to go up there by your and to talk for an hour or more about something like At first I was thinking what the hell would I even talk about what do people even want to know like I I guess I would have to sit down and think about it I'm sure that there is an audience out there that want to hear me talk about something dude I would I i' attend um but yeah the live shows that I've done I just did one in Dubai and now I fly to Edmonton for 20 hours with James tomorrow morning at 2 a.m. she just going to [ __ ] suck my soul out of me he's managed to Buck us one of those things that's like the side by side seats as well like the with the dividing door I'm just going to put the door open not have to speak to the entire time but standing on stage you know this is kind of old Trope for people that listen to Rogan and they're always on about you working the material and the crowd energy and the room and the vibe and all this sort of stuff but it's wild to stand on stage and just have you know 80 eyes or a thousand eyes or whatever it was in the Dubai show the other night like a thousand people there or whatever like just looking at you and you can't see the end of the room it's like it's just endless and then you look at what Schultz has done he sold out where the Raptors play in Canada or he just did this place in in Australia where it's so far away that they need screen repeater screens to be able to see the [ __ ] dude that's just this little dot down on that and he has the pressure of having to say something funny oh he's got to be funny I mean like nearly every every 10 20 seconds he has to say something you got to get a laugh at least you don't have that pressure absolutely yeah I mean it's so such a good Insight that if you're doing a anything close to public speaking and you manage to get four zingers in the space of an hour like you're hilarious yeah and if you're a comedian that doesn't get four zingers in a minute you're [ __ ] so um yeah the the criteria is very different but it it was it was very nerve-wracking um I the most nerve-wracking one that I did was the very first work in progress show in Austin so I ran this show four times in Austin in front of 40 people at this like tiny kind of rundown Comedy Club East Austin comedy club and I ran that four times in front of 40 people but that's kind of even more scary you can hear like a cough or you can you can hear like someone's phone vibrate in their pocket you can hear everything it's just you in a room I don't even really need a mic I could probably just speak and everyone would hear and before I went on I checked my uh whoop and you know it's got the stress monitor my stress is at like 2 you've been cycling 2.8 exactly nice good evening workout Chris it's just I was just scared um but to be honest man after a while I you're so confident in the material um because it's a set right it's not scripted but the idea is I know this idea is interesting and this idea is interesting and this idea makes people laugh and this idea makes people cry and this idea does whatever and after a while you just have faith that what you're saying is important it'd be like me saying to you like here's a word for word script that you can say that will make people be interested in what you say and laugh learn it off by heart go on stage and say it and I can guarantee 100% that it'll be fine you wouldn't feel nervous what you're nervous about is the uncertainty of whether or not you're going to look silly up on stage and after you've done sufficient iterations of anything reps in yeah it's the same with the show the only difference is that you don't have the live audience in front of you having the live audience in front of you and saying a thing and then watching them and being like please love me like or just at least please don't think that I'm totally terrible um Jimmy Carr told me a true Entertainer says if you don't love me I don't love me and I think that that kind of I can see how someone whose entire industry is the audience needs to give me a adoration and that's where I get my sense of self-esteem from kind of the same you know looking at the bodybuilding World which is ruthless because it's not even a objective metric it's not that's 380 kilos whichever man that weighs 93 kilos picks that up wins it's like subjective and ephemeral and you know it's like he's got better shape or conditioning or proportions or whatever it's very very hard but you're permanently just Outsourcing your sense of self-worth to these [ __ ] judges especially if you're you're competing and it's yeah it's it's the judges you need to impress and if for whatever reason they're not impressed they can big delt are out this year like big thighs are in or whatever yeah it's crazy yeah I but it's it's been very interesting it's been the veils have kind of fallen from my eyes a little bit about seeing super super competent people up on stage because it they're infinitely better than I am but you can just see it's okay it's just one step after the next watching Jimmy car in Wembley he did two hours and 20 minutes of on liners must have been it must have been 400 jokes in like two in a bit hours I was like oh my God and we were with him 30 seconds before he walked out on stage cuz I was checking my watch going like uh you go on stage in 10 minutes you want us to because he might need to do some pregame ritual or whatever get his head in the game he's like no no it's fine stick him up stick him up and then he's like all right ready to go boss and like Jimmy's about to like get the [ __ ] headset on or whatever and walk out on stage and they're like should we leave he's like yeah yeah yeah crack on I'll see you out there unbelievable crazy but you see you know anyone's just accumulated those skills over time and I think it's kind of the same with the first time that you did a YouTube video the first time you did a podcast the first time you did whatever there's just this extra degree of I can see the people watching and it's yeah first time I did a podcast I was like what am I doing who was your first one will will armed the founder went straight into the deep end with a CEO founder of a billion a billion company crazy but yeah it's like the moment you start doing more and more of them it just becomes normal I can imagine like especially for you doing three a week you're what you're in the 700s now this would be 720 something like that yeah it must be so normal yeah it is and that's something that's quite bizarre um to do something very alien I mean think about this Pawn Stars I would love to ask our friend Lauren whether or not it's like whether there's still Intimacy in that because what you're looking at a conversation like this usually very messy very unstructured someone will get up and go and do a thing people are on their phone you know there's like all structural side to things plus then there's cameras plus then there's a team of people plus then there's you know it's going out to an audience and there's going to be scrutiny and there's going to be criticism there's going to be whatever so it's like a something that you're familiar with in an alien environment and I wonder whether Pawn Stars feel the same something that you can be quite familiar with but in a even more alien environment like it's it's this I think I was speaking to Sterling his ex porn star and he he was saying that even there with some actresses there's just an instant chemistry that you can't really explain but it's just like a thing and it just makes things automatically very spicy and flow naturally whereas sometimes it's just like robotic there's nothing there and it's just very forced but yet you have to try and force that chemistry yeah like you tell when you watch porn if it's like if they're having a good time or not how much por do you watch ohd a what's porn yeah a s um but yeah it's weird to think like can people reintegrate this is one thing so I've been doing therapy in uh Austin this lady's great this woman that I've been working with why why why does you need therapy I think that everyone does I genuinely think that everybody would benefit from just I would love to have uh I don't if it would be therapy or just to speak to an expert on relationships mhm cuz I feel like that is something every day every year I'm still learning more about relationships and how do they work are you with the right person like what I'm sure there's a lot of things wrong with me I don't think I'm an easy person to date especially with my my job the way I look social media it's whoever I'm in a relationship with they have to be they got to deal with that yeah they got to deal with the fact that I'll get attention and you know probably if I'm with a really hot girl which I have been in the past like they obviously have attention as well but I'm cool with that it's um it's a tricky one and I think like I I've always been pretty horrendous at communicating that's just who I am like I would just I don't know I keep I keep a lot of my feelings to myself and just assume that they know what's going on or that everything's all right but in reality you need to have a pretty hard conversation Neil Strauss the guy that wrote the game who is now kind of this super aligned awakened Family Man uh this [ __ ] awesome quote from him that said unspoken expectations are premeditated resentments Jesus Christ unspoken expectations are premeditated resentments and you know when you're talking about that I I will maybe keep my feelings to myself I won't really mention something that's either bugging me or that I wish that I would bring up but you get the sense that the other person should know or might know or could know or whatever and after a while you almost end up building a conversation with your about the thing that you never said to the person who didn't know it um so yeah I mean Bill Perkins that wrote die with zero one of the most dialed systems guys that I know Ali abdal came out to out [ __ ] wake surfing with us Ali had a bad day but was good at that dude Alex OK Conor Cosmic skeptic came out and stood up first first try Yousef my friend went out e foiling yesterday over there stood up within the first session Ali abdal not like I mean so just insanely smart and I think he's got he's got like I can't remember what he's good at he's good at like some physical sport but like it wasn't [ __ ] wake surfing anyway he asked Bill Perkins what's the number one coach that you've got out of everything the business coaching all the rest of it he's like relationship coach yeah first thing he said relationship coach most important they check in I think both Partners work separately and then they maybe do couple I think after sessions to begin with in the honeymoon period is fine you don't need any help like it just it runs itself but the longer the relation ship goes on for like after a year after two years that's when you have to work at it that's what I've learned you know after a 2year relationship this this the things you got to work on um and there's a lot still which I need to learn I've had a lot of relationships that have been six months put 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meals.com mw50 and use the code mw50 for 50% off your first order a checkout that's factor meals.com mw50 and mw50 a checkout someone who has seen [ __ ] insane growth is Sam suck oh God yeah what do you think about samsul I'm I am this is I'm so fascinated how certain people just pop off on social media like I'm trying to understand the what has the formula been like I didn't I didn't know of him before until it's basically kind of you see the memes first you're like why is there a meme about this guy and then you go onto the Instagram you go on to the YouTube and you just see like the the following and the consistently high views and like oh what what's he what's he doing then and you watch it and it's just like pretty normal there's no fancy edits or anything cinematic it's just I think the reason why it's worked so well is because he's just gotten almost in the opposite direction in in in instead of trying too hard with like the showing off and the the musics the edits he's just like this is just is edits it's just it's like after that first thing it's just as far as I know it's just a camera on a tripod and he's just doing his thing and sharing his thoughts which is very simple but it kind after watching it makes sense why it works he he has some in a lot of insightful things to say I think uh I heard this term the other day growth hacking authenticity um and I think that everybody now is so skeptical of someone that's contriving uh a a version of themselves if you see someone that looks like they're trying too hard or they're putting on a a particular it's just there's discomfort and ick and oh I don't like that and I think Sam's lack of fancy car or fancy edit or fancy thumbnails or like any of that is just a signal of reliability I think that's what people I think it's very relatable if you think about how many men are in a similar situation to him I remember when I when I started the YouTube channel like everything was really basic I was in you know not a very it was a terorist house in Newcastle I was doing my meal prep video in a pretty shabby kitchen my pots and pans were all completely [ __ ] up like there was no lubrication on it it was just sticking to everything and I was just doing my meal prep shopping at little or Aldi and just taking it to work with me and people love that CU so many people could relate to it and I remember the moment I kind of moved away from that staying in more fancier places when I upgraded to my apartment in London and then I left London and came to Dubai it was my audience was divided there was half of them who were like really inspired and they were like wow like look what he's done I want to do this as well and then there's the other half who were just like I I can't really relate to you anymore like I can't relate to your life I mean make make no mistake man if I was to guess the revenue that Sam is making per month forget his hostile uh sponsorship and forget the other stuff just from AdSense I reckon it's at least a quarter of a mil yeah that he's banging out a video nearly every day daily videos of half a m yes probably qu of a mill a month there is always Trends in the industry like something comes along from nowhere and is very popular but there's very few things that remain that popular over a long period of time like will it get to a point where his style of videos are not going to do it for people like it gets to a point where it's oh it's boring now like let me find something what's the next trending thing yeah well there's definitely for every Trend there is a counterculture Trend so I said this before if you want to predict the future look at the trend that exists now for which there hasn't yet been the exact opposite so for every um let's say like Mike thirst well edited Fitness Vlog with like cool [ __ ] cinematic lighting and a guy with a Gimbal and stuff there's a Sam suck which is kind of the same thing but delivered in in a very different sort of a way um summer 2020 everyone's locked down no one can go out summer 2021 Megan the stallion just hot girl summer dress yourself up go out you know like have casual sex like be doled and Glam summer 2022 is feral girl summer which is be a sloth don't shave don't wash you don't need to be bothered even leaving the house just eat beans in your pajamas so like you have culture or Trend and then Counter Culture or counter Trend and I think that Sam largely is not necessarily probably worst example to use you I don't know who he's quite the antithesis of but he's definitely counter to much of the fitness industry that is contrived that's like um you know kind of like the equivalent of the pop Idol boy band that was like pieced together like you're the cool one and you're the whatever one it doesn't feel like that some going about his day but and I I said this on an episode with z and people got mad about it I still think it's the truth if Sam wasn't Elite level jacked people wouldn't follow him I think that what works about Sam if Sam was some skinny skinny fat guy that wasn't in good condition wasn't lifting heavy and didn't have really great insight about Fitness he's just some bloke going to the gym that's a lot of peopley so that's all everyone YouTube that's every person's YouTube channel I think that Sam is a likable relatable guy who happens to be [ __ ] massive and it's like oh like he's me but better yeah he's so much of what we have is relatable and is the same and on top of that he's you know bodybuilder huge was like I look at seum as well like seum has this huge huge like he is the biggest name in bodybuilding now and I try and think okay so why why is that the case obviously he he looks amazing but he's such a nice humble guy as well that I can't imagine why anyone would ever have a problem with him so you combine that super jacked amazing physique with just being a nice humble guy and it does without a doubt get harder to remain humble when you have that many people who are idolizing you and you have like over 21 million people following you to not let that get to your head well there's two two ways that it can get to your head the first one being your ego is being inflated by everyone thinking that you're great the second one is you becoming defensive and bitter about all of the people criticizing you yeah so you it works in two different ways I'm going to become more harsh and and more uh quick to attack because people have done it to me in the past and all of these people are telling me that I'm great and I've got five championships how the [ __ ] am I not like the best in the world and everyone should listen to me like hard it's hard to especially if you're combining it with like if you're taking you know some steroids as well like that can also mess up with your mentality and the way that you're thinking yeah yeah I wonder you know that I was watching uh a couple of videos from the trend twins as well and uh they're like I find them like a pretty interesting interesting pair like they're an interesting pair of dudes but uh Sam is just a [ __ ] Phenom at the moment uh what's his face cam Haynes brought him up to Rogan yesterday on uh on his show have you heard of this Sam suck kid it's like there you go Derek from more plates more dates did it as well in a little way I think he you know he purposefully didn't make his uh yeah like he he could have definitely leveled up with the production yep but is that no no people just wanted that like relatability like high level Insight sprinkling of autism like that's what they wanted from there sometimes I try not to get too heavily influenced you know I've had Iman gadzi on the show and the production quality on his videos is absolutely like insane like best of the best and then I'm thinking [ __ ] maybe I need to get to like that level of production but I I don't I don't need to I just just focus on what it is that you're going to say thing cuz if you go too hard with the production it it gets a bit distracting and maybe again it becomes unrelatable how do you think about enoughness you know the the stress and and responsibility and paranoia that comes along for the ride with wanting more and success and money can kind of slap the fun out of it do you think about enoughness I think um it's harder to fall asleep quicker that's for sure cuz when I go to bed I'm just thinking about all the things that I need to do should be doing and haven't done so that's taking a hits I remember in my 20s I never had a I I remember just I just fall asleep straight away now it's a lot harder um and yeah I I think especially right now I'm in a position where if I really want to I Can Go full my head and really take things to the next level like everything is in my favor I have the team I have you know I'm living here in Dubai I'm at a point where I I have a following I have some respect so let's go fully into this but then that's going to come at a price and I know if if that's something which I want to do you know if if you want all the numbers to be increasing the subscribers increasing the views the money you know I'm going to have to say goodbye to a couple of things and it's it's going to be a sacrifice with relationships is going to be a sacrifice to the things which I like to do sometimes that's like to just wake up and do nothing and do my own thing just go for a walk just chill take life easy like I I love nothing more than doing that sometimes which I had a kind of experience of doing that over the summer where I wasn't working as much less productive really just enjoying life and what I've achieved fruits of my labor but then after a couple of days or weeks of doing that you just feel like [ __ ] I'm kind of I'm wasting my potential here and things are starting to go in the reverse Direction and I think that was quite a sort of a scary experience for me I had a big break from doing the podcast I think I got up to um was it was it 20 episodes you know I don't think I'd got myself into that 1% I was just shy and I was like [ __ ] I'm the guy [ __ ] guy I'm that guy that gave up yeah and I know it's when I when I stopped doing the podcast um because I didn't have my team with me I was in like traveling about a bit I just I think I just wasn't for whatever reason I'd lost the motivation a little bit but I just felt um like I was doing a disservice to my audience everyone was asking me is like when's the next episode when's the next episode I was just like I don't know and I just felt like what a [ __ ] waste I am like I have this potential and opportunity to create these amazing conversations with amazing people but I'd rather just go to a beach club or go on a date with this girl or just [ __ ] about well there's a pressure that comes with that and yeah I think about enough a good bit I want to I've got another episode with hosi coming up uh probably within the next few months I want to try and really dig into it because I know that he's 99th percentile of hardworking guy it's very inspiring to be around but I wonder how scalable and replicable that is with people who don't have his very particular Quirk of mindset I I listen to him and I'm like [ __ ] I would like a little bit more of his yes mindset I I want more of that I like to work I want to do more work I want to do less of the the fun things that people want to do but one thing you do realize like saying I want to do less of the fun things like why are you doing more of the work presumably because the work is fun so like the more direct roote to it is is just doing the fun thing I think if you if you can find a way that your your job is fun then that's that helps a lot like me and I you as well having the opportunity to speak to someing people it's pretty it's a rewarding job and having a very positive impact on the world like that's it feels pretty damn good and it doesn't doesn't really feel like work it's a pleasure to be able to do this for a living I think it's absolutely crazy like even this morning trading with Kai green like what I get to train with some of the best bodybuilders on the planet that's a [ __ ] dream yeah and I've been able I've got myself into a position where I can do that there there's definitely a and again this I think this is for everybody you have unities that are in front of you and if you're even remotely competent at what you do you will always have more opportunities than time to do them in MH is it your role in life to take every single opportunity that comes your way what is life outside of those opportunities like how much are you grinding this great quote from Morgan housel that says the best measure of wealth is what you have minus what you want and by this measure some billionaires are broke and it's kind of the same as you what do you want from a an achievement perspective like you know what's good with me I feel like a lot of the things I wanted to do I did in my 20s like I really did there's a list of things I really did a lot of things I wanted to do and I think once you've done them you realize majority of the time it's not actually as good as you thought it would be you do it and you're like uh yeah it was good but it was a little bit of a it was a bit of a letdown like I thought it was going to be better and once you've kind of checked off more things on the list you know you just get like more and more motivated to actually just do do some work and be of use yeah yeah there's definitely like a a bit of [ __ ] that goes on when you're a kid and you you're happy to just bounce around and and have fun but then as you grow up you realize okay well my time's actually [ __ ] limited yeah like so what am I here to do am I here to work and not leave anything on the table or am I here to find time to this is still dude it must be the most common theme of questions that I've probably asked anybody this year and it's maybe um telling given like how this year has gone how can you balance being enough whilst wanting to be more M like feeling comfortable and content and your mind is where your feet are in the moment and being able to take pleasure in the things that you do and the successes that you have whilst also knowing that you don't want to leave anything on the table and you want to try maximize your time here your brief period of 80 years on this planet and it's still you know Sam Harris had this really beautiful idea about the balance of being and becoming that was really lovely but tactically I have to say I'm I'm struggling to still really really get that balance nailed because so much of what you do when you want to become better I want to become bigger I want to become leaner I want to become richer I want to move to a better house I want to move to a better neighborhood I want to be smarter I want to be more articulate whatever all of those things as you posit that ideal you then start to compare yourself to that ideal and you find yourself lacking and in that lack is dissatisfaction that rips you out of the present moment but the only reason that you're doing that is presumably so that when you get there you're like ah now I can be in the present moment but each goal that you hit just pushes another goal it's like oh well like yeah I mean I've done the 21st episode so like now it's it's got to be 50 right like 50 is the next goal or 100's the next goal or it's a million blah blah blah like there's always just another thing I think it's really important to celebrate the wins like to go like if you do hit a particular Milestone just go out and celebrate it and then yeah come back and then set a new goal I think it's the most difficult thing I've had now particularly when I go through phases where I'm super motivated and I want to grow it's like the Friendship aspect and the relationship aspect takes a hit like if you're trying to go full seam ahead with your business and your all these opportunities you have in front of you I've noticed when I've been in a relationship any spare time that I have I have to devote that to my partner which then means I have to [ __ ] my friends off yeah whereas if let's say for example I was single then that gives me an opportunity to spend more time with my friends like to try and juggle everything is really difficult I think Ryan holiday's got uh scene business family pick two you can be a part of the scene you can be successful in business you can be great part of your family but it's really really really rough to do all three uh who I say that seems to have got it all I don't know much about Joe's uh family life although it seems he seems to have got that pretty dialed yeah yeah um he he seems to have certainly got two of them two of them sorted imagine us like we're in a situ situation now we don't even have kids and we're already [ __ ] complaining mental mental mental mental mental but yeah I um I know what you mean Oliver burkeman has this other idea about uh choose in advance what you're going to suck at which is pretty cool so for a period of time you're going to work on your business and you're gonna grow your net worth or you're going to try and double the revenue of your business or you're going to try and get a raise or get a promotion or do whatever that period of life just as important as what are you going to do is what are you prepared to sacrifice for it because you know if you need to stay late in the office three nights a week for the next six months so that your boss sees the work that doing or so that you get more sales in or so that you what do whatever it is that you need to do your trading's probably going to take a hit yeah and when you start to see your condition or your Fitness depreciate over time if you're a type a go-getter you can feel uncomfortable and say oh well I that shouldn't be happening and then you take your eye off the ball of the thing that was supposed to be your thing for the next six months and then go I'll I'll only stay late in the office one night a week and I'll get I'll fit training I'll slot training two more nights you go well that wasn't the plan the plan was put everything into this one thing level myself up and then play catch up with everything else to bring myself back up to Baseline um so yeah choose and Advance what you want to suck at uh is like a really really good tactic because it helps you when other things start to slip yeah it stops IT feeling like uh an error or or um a curse of some kind and actually is like oh this is part of the plan mhm this this this was actually part of the plan part of the plan was I wouldn't get to see my friends as much or my sleep would suffer or my fitness would suffer or my business with suffer because we've just had a kid or whatever like I think that's important and that thing that sucks at the moment it's not going to suck later on precisely like you can easily switch out the suck yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I think like especially right now for the next couple of years next five years I want to go all in on just okay let's try and build a solid business businesses whatever it might be make myself extremely financially comfortable so that later on you know when I get to my late 30s 40s when it's time to you know really raise a family I'm in a very comfortable situation where I can do that and then devote more of my time to raising my kids and being there for my partner that's that's the plan that I I think I've got as well that one of my friends David Perell told me most of my 20s was spent making myself into the dad that my future kids deserve and I really like that idea that you're putting a lot of work in now which is gratifying in the moment it would be like way way too full of myself to be like and all of this is for the sacrifice for my future kids like no it's not like I I take loads of pleasure from the things that I do Matt Matt does Fitness does a great job of raising his kids does he he's a very good role model for being a father like he's Chad to Dad pipeline yeah he's just he's he he's in a position where he doesn't have to go to work he's even built like a home gym at home so he can just spend more time with his family and like you just you can see how well he's raised his two boys like whenever you're around them they're just like the happiest most positive like even comfortable in front of the camera they're already like really skilled at like loads of random different things because Matt has been there all the time to wow teach them educate them and push them but you've got to have that it's interesting what you say I think I always about the finance thing I think I always kind of steered clear of commenting on finances largely because I came from such a [ __ ] workingclass background that money was just never a consideration and it it it wasn't really that much of a discussion always um so I kind of stayed clear of talking about it but you know Tate mentioned it too that until you're financially liberated you're kind of at the mercy of a lot of things and financially liberated doesn't mean like compound in Romania it just means more money than you need to be able to live and not having to compensate by working an insane number of hours that ruins the rest of your life outside of it you have so much more freedom yeah it is it I mean it's funny now as you as obviously the podcast has grown you have more staff to take care of like you've got salaries to pay for now you've got Studios to pay for yeah it's not that you need to earn more money so you can live a better life it's no I need to also earn more money so I can take the quality of my production to Next Level and Ure that I can keep giving you guys the best so I can fly to the other side of the planet speak to this guy yeah yeah it's it's an interesting one man I um I don't know it's it's like a it's been very a very interesting year like quite a disquieting year in some ways like so satisfying but also just rapid changes in status this is one of the things about like kid like Sam who even more than either of us in terms of the rapidity of his change of status people say that they want you know Fame and and Accolade and and wealth but just having it thrown at you is [ __ ] terrifying yeah I had this idea um that I learned from Jimmy car trajectory is way more important than position if you're number two in the world but last year you were number one that is way worse than sitting at number 150 but being on a huge upward slope from number 3002 months ago there's a few reasons for this recency bias if your value is increasing now that means that you have to be popular at the moment by looking at recent trajectory you're selecting for only the people who are trendy right now which really is all that we can remember we can also romanticize where someone will be in future if they're currently hot [ __ ] how high might they go who knows maybe to the top may even maybe even beyond the top humans struggle to realize that everything is temporary including growth and decline instead it's easy to label people as Heroes and losers based on what we know of them right now so we don't have to predict a messy future there's an old saying that there's three types of people on the ladder one at the bottom one at the middle and one at the top which one is the best to be the one that's still climbing this doesn't just work for status but possessions achievements wealth sex and everything else it's not just how we see other people it's also how we see ourselves we know when we're moving up or down when life is getting better or worse Andrew Tate said having things isn't fun getting things is fun another way to look at this is any accomplishment is just a new higher bar for you to get over in future I see this on my own work let's say that we do a new episode that hits a million plays in a day amazing that's very exciting in a new record wow also that means that every video in future is now going to feel unimpressive unless it does 1.1 million views are higher in 24 hours in this way rapid increases in status are more a curse than a blessing so here's a theory which I co-signed with Dan Bilzerian a few weekends ago so you know it's legit even though we might want our goals and accomplishments to arrive immediately maybe a strat a smarter strategy is to stretch out the achievements of our dreams we shouldn't wish for overnight success as we would then need to be able to beat it pretty soon lest we feel like we're declining instead slow consistent progress is a more reliable way to maintain satisfac purposefully aiming for slow success strategy may actually ensure you always feel like you're going in the right direction 100% it's almost like when you if you were to win the lottery like if you were to be given 100 Mil versus actually working your ass off over time your salary or however much money you're earning gradually increases and then you get to that point where okay now I've got 100 Mil which one is more satisfying it's a curse that would I think you would look back on it as almost certainly the best and worst day of your life at the same time you got gifted a unbelievable amount of money or an unbelievable amount of status or whatever how are you ever going to have a better day than that day I always thought that oh God it'd be so cool if I won the lottery but it would it would literally [ __ ] me up in the worst way yeah I would hate that yeah it's weird man it's weird the way that we play with status and um what's the energy that you're trying to prioritize in your life at the moment like what is it what sort of people do you want around you what sort of vibe are you trying to prioritize I think um people who are going to help inspire me I think that's what I struggle with sometimes on a day-to-day B basis with being motivated especially when you when you've got to the point where you've got everything you really need like look I'm in this I have a nice car I have a nice apartment I've got great friends like I what more do I really need in my life when I spend more time with people who are ahead of me financially business-wise whatever it might be even just being around them gives me a I don't know it I guess I'm kind of a little bit competitive as well like it makes me want to be oh no I want to get to that level the fire yeah so it makes me think okay there's there's levels to achieve with this um I'm certainly P the days where I was interested in like the the partying and doing that kind of thing I think when we last spoke it was already getting to that point but even now I I compare what what my desires were at the start of this year compared to what my desires are now and they've definitely changed for the better what do you think caused that to happen um I think just coming to the realization of what is like really important um knowing that a lot of things which I've wanted to do I've done and I think I i' put myself in a few situations this summer where I had been at like parties obviously I went to at a couple times doing the usual debauchery and then um just thinking [ __ ] I don't well this is I don't like doing this anymore I really don't like I don't get as much enjoyment from it but I hate the way it makes me feel I think with what I'm doing now you know especially with what we do doing the podcast being on YouTube I have to be on it like all the time and I actually really enjoy this elevated state which I'm at like there is no alcohol there's nothing which is slowing me down so if you do go out and you drink or you do anything negative for your for your health or your mindset just waking up and feeling groggy and [ __ ] is like it's horrible I want to wake up every day feeling as good as I can possibly feel and you know when you know when you have a really good sleep and you wake up and you're like oh my God that was a good sleep feel like you've taken a freaking Limitless pill I I want that every day yeah that's um I I know Iman Gad is a big fan of Monk mode but it's one of the most addicting parts of Monk mode that nothing ever knocks you off that routine yeah that you're permanently in this like hermetically sealed box right nothing is coming in nothing is nudging it nothing is breaking it just perfect routine at all times and all you're optimized for is that and it can be very very addicting uh it's even one thing which I I love to do I used to travel loads but now I'm actually I don't want to travel because I know it's going to knock me off this very good routine which I have going on that's that's something that's cool that I kind of wish I could gift more people if I could gift them a Pursuit that they're they're needing maximum sort of cognitive horsepower and they can do it sufficiently frequently that they notice the the fluctuations between themselves the last couple of days my sleep's just been so wrecked since I've been here I don't know how you do it with the amount of traveling you do yeah it's it's not been easy most of the travel when it's with inside the US it's fine but the one that we did here was was pretty brutal um and last night we were at dinner and I was trying to think of this word I was trying to think of this word I was trying to think of this word and it wasn't there I just know that it's because I'm underslept yeah and but being able to play with that tolerance I guess like an athlete right you know the speed that you're usually able to run at or cut at or you know jump or lift or whatever and you go this isn't there today why is that not there and then you start to investigate a little bit but it's so cool and knowing the knowing the the contributing factors to that and then having a Pursuit that allows to act as a barometer for it is brilliant because you go okay well this is my reinforcement mechanism for me focusing on making myself better because I can feel when I make myself better and I can feel when I make myself worse and it's way easier to make myself even a tiny bit worse than it is to make myself even less of a bit better so yeah I think um focusing on those focusing on like things that are going to help you be better long term is what knocks you off your good routine apart from travel sleep is the main one it's the biggest determinant of how I perform on the podcast yeah um if I haven't slept well if I haven't trained consistently have you ever needed to cancel cuz you're that never never never never never even at my worst I'm still I'm still pretty good so I'm fine to I'm fine to take over and hold it together but I'll know because I'll know what I could have said yeah that that feeling of regret afterwards you're like little bit it's it's usually during I don't have that much regret once I've once we finished cuz I'm like oh look like I can't go back and redo it but while it's happening I find myself chastising myself about Lex has spoken about this you'll say a word imprecisely or you'll say a sentence that could have been nicer could have been more lean and as you're saying it you'll think that was [ __ ] [ __ ] like I must must do better but yeah sleep is a big one sugar is a huge one for me if I've had um I don't know why I would do this I wouldn't do this but if I went and had a a massive arm quason and a hot chocolate or something before I went to go and record all like like inflamed and sluggish and stuff awful but what I found I operate really well on is uh meat and fat and a little bit of fruit on the morning and my my I can pretty much eat as much of that as I want and I don't ever feel a crash off the other side of it so most mornings it's like a the fasted could be a bit risky it is because you risk falling off a cliff and you don't have any energy so I found for me ton of scrambled like four scrambled eggs some bacon uh you know like maybe some sourdough toast usually not uh and then nice bowl of fruit or something mixed berries or something like that and that if I have that at 9:00 a.m. that can carry me through till 300 p.m. easily just off the back of that and then a little bit of caffeine and and and some other stuff will will take me over but yeah man sleep sugar both of those will absolutely ruin you ruin the way that JK food [ __ ] me up what's going on next what can people expect from you over the next couple of oh you've got new t-shirts which you've got on oh yeah you earn one I don't know no I no cuz you the only ones that you were able to give me were on infested with your musk yeah um new products coming out with the the clothing side of things it's an interesting Journey with that obviously you will be aware like releasing a physical product M um I'm going to keep trying to scale that I've got a course coming out mid December Fitness it's going to be more so with social media how to build uh predominantly a YouTube platform but how to monetize it so how to get to the point where within six months you can make £10,000 a month of it wow that is the that's the blueprint um and yeah just keep cracking on with the podcast I feel as though it's doing well um I'm only doing one a week and I feel like hey imagine what you could achieve if you did two a week yeah like it would just grow twice as fast yeah well I mean and then I have my my main Channel which is well you trying to kind of water that as well yes it's I'm trying to figure out what is the optimal way to do everything so that everything kind of grows flourishes yeah I think you should do a news letter I think I told you this last time yeah but I think you know what you have felt as an enjoyment from doing the podcast and having these conversations doing the same thing for yeah writing even if you're not a writer which I'm wasn't before I started and now I 200 1,000w blog posts in like 200,000 words over whatever would you write yourself yeah yeah yeah yeah every single week and I I it's one of the most fun things that I do over a weekend I'll think what what the [ __ ] did I learn this week there's 500 Words and then who's coming up and then give me some I'm always looking out for facts I'm always looking at it's same reason why doing a gratitude Journal is good because you know that at the end of the day you need to find something to be [ __ ] grateful about so during the day you're always scouring for things to do it um but I highly highly recommend a newsletter apart from the fact that it's amazing as a a marketing tool um it's genuinely enjoyable and I really really think that it it brings value to people in a way that even YouTube and podcasting can't it's so lean and it it really it acts almost like a public journal for you and obviously you get to choose the level of uh openness of vulnerability transparency about your own life but yeah uh I'd subscribe the [ __ ] out of that so dude I'm excited I'm excited to see what we get up to over the next year when's the book coming out oh god um should be start of 2025 um if everything goes well but so another year in a bit another year in a bit so six months to write six months to publish is interesting the way that it works but it's the publishing thing is is just such a big slow Behemoth to spin up um but yeah should hopefully be done by then that being said I haven't really thought Beyond this tour I get myself back to Austin on the 11th of December and that's like get up to that point and then limp limp to the UK for Christmas and then just sleep mom and dad's for a week I'm looking forward to that there'll be a at least a week period where I kind of have just try and forget about everything and just being the present especially with family yeah yeah dude I appreciate you thank you for coming on again thank you bro pleasure as always if you enjoyed that episode then press here for a fulllength 2hour podcast episode with Mr Olympia classic physique Chris Bumstead go on press it