EP009 - Fitness, Fatherhood and Focus - James Golden

So, James golden, welcome to the whole Man Academy podcast episode. Something we're racing through the podcast episodes now so quickly that I've kind of lost track of at what point they'll be released. So first question is, how are you today?

How am I today, Anthony? Well, it's Friday and we are in the midst of, as you know, a lockdown in our normal lives. So. So head spinning a little bit off this week. We're adapting to our new sort of regime and routine in life. So I'm okay. We've survived and we will. This will make us stronger in the long run. So there is different my normal routine of life.

Well, I know we met each other briefly before we started recording and you said you had a bottle of wine in the fridge ready for this evening. So for people that don't know, you've got four kids, I've got two, but you've got four, so you're done better than me there. But it is tough at the moment because everybody's stuck indoors. So how is it for you?

Well, I try and see the positive from any challenging and negative situation. And from my perspective, I'm getting more family time. It's out of the norm. We're not on holiday. We're not. And we're not sort of taking some volunteer time off. This is kind of, you know, just, just come at us at an angle we didn't expect. So we are adapting to it and we're just finding a way. But we're having fun. We're just trying to keep the children entertained. Thankfully, the sun has come out to, to help us out this week. That's made life easier. And living in the country now we can get, you know, we can actually get out into the countryside and just get a bit of fresh air. Trying to keep to some sort of routine has been the challenge because we're quite routine as a family. I'm very routine as a. As a person and that's been the challenge. So the utmost respect to school teachers because I have no idea how they can with little people. It's not easy.

Well, we're going to come back to being a dad as a topic a little bit later. But you're on here mainly to talk about your role working in fitness. And we always send the guests a few questions beforehand, then we kind of pick some important points. One of them is that you've always been interested in sport from an early age. So tell me about that. When did it all start?

Well, for me, I guess I just grew up in a sporty family. So it was kind of then encouraged from my parents that sport was kind of ingrained into me really. So I just had a huge kind of energy and I guess support from family towards sport. So. And fake. I was always just. I just wanted to play sport all the time. I'm from sort of a family that we just wanted to be outdoors and was kicking a football at the age of four or five. And then it just carried on for me. So sport was a big part of my childhood and sort of growing up through life and then I just took that forward into my teens and it was always going to be something I would, would like to do for my career. So obviously to be a professional sportsman is the ultimate. To actually make a living and play sport, that's the dream. The next best thing for me when I was in my late teens was to actually work alongside the athletes and try and actually be involved in sport and make a career that way. So that's where I kind of half the career studied sports science and moved myself into the fitness industry.

So you did a sports science degree?

Sure.

So at what point had you decided that fitness and sport was going to be your actual career as opposed to something, you know, a hobby that you really enjoyed?

GCSE year when I was starting to work out some career path and you're starting to take the advice. It wasn't really something my parents necessarily supported because back then the career, the opportunities were limited, There wasn't many clear and present kind of roles that you could move into. So there was a little bit of conversation around, is this the right thing? So I sort of researched and sports science was starting to become quite a course to do that could move you into working professional sports clubs, working with athletes, and that was kind of my passion. That's what I wanted to do at quite an early age. So probably at the age of 15, 16 was where I started to see opportunities there and started to actually. Well, actually, that's where I would like to sort of move in that direction, see if I can make it work.

And you said that, let's say being a professional sportsman is that. I mean, for a lot of us, was that is or was the dream. Of course, if you could have been a professional sportsman, what would you have been?

I have to say, football players always, you know, is always the dream, isn't it, for young kids growing up? I think also for me, I probably played most competitively tennis, though tennis was probably one of the sports that I could have probably excelled in, but very difficult to do. And a very, very small, finer, you know, small amount people do crack it. So, yeah, I played every sport from cricket, athletics, football and tennis were my main sports. But I have to say, scoring a goal in front of 30,000 people would be a dream for my sort of childhood club, qpr. That was my dream growing up, really.

I spoke to Ben Nunn, who's a professional footballer, on Tuesday. I mean, he's a defender, but, you know, he said that, that feeling of playing in front of a, you know, even if it's a few thousand people, I think for me, the most I played in front of was about a thousand people. And that was at the Valley. And even then, just with a thousand, it sounded great. So you can only imagine what it's like if there's, you know, when you're talking 50, 60,000 people. And what football team do you support?

Well, Queen's Park Rangers and it's a family thing for us, so it's been one of those things where there was no choice. So literally where all of our family from West London and QPR was the team of choice and all of us cousins, uncle, so all of us are qpr, big QPR supporters and we were season ticket holders and used to go to a lot of the games when I was younger. Not so much since moving to the Cotswolds. We're further away and life gets in the way a little bit on a Saturday afternoon at 3 o'. Clock. Not the opportunities that I used to have. So now with family, you know, attending football matches, very few and far between. So I haven't seen him this season. I did go to a couple of games last year. Now Woody's going to be four in the summer, so he's getting closer. So maybe, maybe in the next two or three years when he gets to a point and if he gets interested in football, he'll be. He'll be a super hoop as well. So I'll. Maybe we'll start going again. So, poor old Woody, you've got no.

Choice, like it or not.

That's it, mate.

Well, I know you spent, you know, roughly 20 years in health and fitness, which I know people when we especially you might sound young, but obviously you and I only look in our late twenties, wise, mature, but still youthful. So for your twenty years in the health and fitness industry, I know you said about, you know, different fads come along. What's your thoughts on that and how are you seeing the moment with the different fads of even the dieting as well as the fitness?

I've kind of seen 20 years of change, really. So when I first got into fitness, there wasn't so many opportunities. I mean, health clubs have always been there, leisure centers. And then you've got the kind of the variations of different health clubs where David Lloyd created more of a rackets theme and then you've had sort of the various sort of members clubs like Fitness first and Homms Place start to. To evolve themselves in the uk. So there's been different trends within those and I've just seen lots of variation of group fitness concepts, lots of variations of approaches. Now you're very. At this moment in time, we're very much into those kind of virtual classes as well. Peloton has really taken off and become hugely popular. Certain things I've seen come and go, know not last much more than 6 months, 12 months. The one big thing that I got involved with in the early days was spinning right back in the late 90s, early 2000s, and that was something that was actually not. There wasn't a lot of confidence, I think, in actually how this was going to. Did it have shelf life? Was it still going to be around in three or four years time? And I was actually part of the, what's called the Johnny G Squad that was sort of launching it in the uk and we started off at Holmes Place and they were the first to kind of take it on board and it was literally just a little boombox and seven bikes in the corner of the gym and it was like, instructor will get seven people on the bikes and just perform a group fitness cycling class to music. So we were kind of involved in that and people were just looking at going, this is just not going to work, this is not going to take off. You know, cycling to music, you can't, you know, he's only so much a bike can do. Aerobics was, you know, you could move, you could change, you could do grapevine side steps and all these other movements, but in a bike you can't move. This is. This is not going to be. This is not going to take off. But it did. Gradually, gradually you started to build, feel this momentum. And then classes become 10 and they become 12. Then fitness first took it, then it was starting to roll out across these, these groups of health clubs and then it become, I would say, the biggest thing that hit the group fitness timetable for many years and it's still there today. And now you've got boutique studios that just offer spinning and they pack them out. So in 20 years, spinning has been the biggest thing I've seen come into the industry and it's here to stay and it's evolved in so many different avenues. That is, I mentioned peloton and it's different other virtual forms of, of cycling classes.

For those who don't know what peloton is, in a dummy's guide to Peloton.

It basically brings a spin class into your, into your home environment. They are virtual classes where you have a specific bike and the technology to deliver a class. But the classes, they've created this real following and also a cult where they deliver live classes and you can be involved with maybe 40, 50,000 people all in this class, delivering it in your own environment so you don't have to leave your house, go through the process of parking your car, getting changed, going to the gym, getting onto your bike and going to class. You now can just have your bike wherever you want it in your garage or in your office at home and you can do your home workout. So they've brought it into, they brought a real life spinning class to you and it's very smart.

Good timing when you're about to be self isolating.

Their sales, I'd imagine last two or three weeks have ramped up quite so it's probably been quite good for them.

So for you yourself, would you be, if you had to do a class or if you could only do one class the rest of your life, would it be spin or would it be circuits?

Well, I've come away from the sort of group fitness. I was a master trainer in group fitness for quite a few years in my early days. Too old for it now. I still write some group fitness concepts and create some classes for different clubs. But HIIT training for me is always that's 100 years proven concept. Bring the heart rate up and recover. Bring the heart rate up and recover and you can change that in various ways. Very interesting. You've seen lots of HIIT concepts now create, be created over the Last sort of 3, 4, 5 years with different styles using straightforward body weight and F45 and Dygme 2 that are quite popular in London at the moment and surrounding areas. So for me HIIT can be so you can be so versatile and you can create what suits you. So you create different forms of intervals and you can select the movement, the exercises that are specific to you as a person. Because ultimately there is never, my philosophy has always been there's never one size fits all approach. So we can't just go into one group fitness class and expect it to service everybody because Some of them are just too aggressive and high intensity for certain people. But the whole idea of HIIT is you work your heart rate up, you drop it down, you can make it as intense as you like. So I think HIIT training is always the one that's going to be a winner for me. I guess.

So it's as you say, you don't necessarily have to have loads of equipment, you don't need loads of space and you don't need a load of time.

That's right. And there is no, there's no set parameters on like you say time. We can get away with a good effective 20 minute, 30 minute interval based workout that's very simple. We can do it at home, we can do it at home with certain exercises that, that suit us and they can effectively get the heart rate into those training zones that optimize what goals we want to achieve.

So.

With the sort of choices are vast with HIIT training and interval training.

Generally with a guy that's listening to this, who maybe is not into his fitness at the moment or is looking to get into it, what kind of advice would you give for getting started with fitness?

I think ultimately there's always foundations that's got to be established first. So if we took the word fitness and just broke that down and what it means, everyone's perception would be slightly different. For me it's understanding those five key components. So cardiovascular, so our respiratory system, heart, lungs, how well they perform when we start to exert ourselves. So ultimately we've got to be able to, to improve that with what we do. But we don't want to overexert, we don't want to challenge the body in a way that it's not going to cope. We've got to work in our guidelines and where our sort of parameters are. So it's establishing where those are first and foremost and building on that, then we're looking at how strong somebody is their strength. If we don't exercise our body, if we don't have a knock on effect of our well being as well. So I'm always kind of encouraging people to, to engage with some level of strength conditioning program that doesn't need to be anything too fancy, we don't need to be swinging kettlebells over our heads, we can use body weight through that. Innovations like TRXs have been great as well. Talking about innovations, I think again one of the greatest bits of kit that come onto the market last decade, our flexibility. A lot of our lives, a lot of our time in life can be spent at a desk because of our work commitments. So we lose the elasticity and the movement in our hamstrings, our back becomes pressurized so we don't move as well. So again, we might not be engaging our core, our motor skills. All the messages come from our brain and our endurance. So you're looking at kind of all those little elements of what makes a fit and healthy body. And then I'd always try and encourage someone to work out what's. What the goals are and then try and create a bit of a regime routine that fits and do things that are fun.

I was going to say, I remember we obviously spoke together at an event back in January with Ed Draper, Sky Sports presenter at Daylesford. And I remember you said there was. Which had people nodding their head is find out, find what you enjoy.

Correct. Yeah, I've always had that, that approach with. With anyone I've worked with, anyone where I've provided advice to, is to. To do what you enjoy. If you don't enjoy going into the gym environment, you feel like you have to, but you don't have to. You can find ways of actually exercising your body without being in the gym environment if it's not where you enjoy being. So I always encourage people to find out what we're not when there is so many methods and we're not all engineered the same way and there's different approaches. Find the approach that really satisfies your needs and makes you feel good about it.

I remember when, before we moved up to the Cotswolds, we had a really big, virgin active gym very, very near our house, which I used to go to a lot, and there was a really big park right next door and they'd launched whether it's still going like a green gym. So it meant, you know, getting out and they would be doing exercise whilst doing bits of gardening and. Yeah, for the average person, I loved going to the gym and could go every day for an hour quite happily. But at least for other people, that I need you, they would say you're doing some exercise, getting the heart rate up. But the thought of being in the gym with a lot of other people.

Filled them with dread. Yeah, I mean, we're probably in the minority there when it comes to actually enjoying a gym environment, because I've always enjoyed the gym environment. It's a little bit my sanctuary. It's my little escape. Probably not. So as I've got older and family, I probably am less efficient now or spending less time there. Probably more efficient with the Time. Sorry, but spending less time there or enjoying it. So my workouts are typically 40, 45 minutes. Where once upon a time I could easily do two hours.

Yeah.

You know, two hours for me now is not even work.

Not when you've got kids.

Doesn't work. And you know what? I don't have the concentration like I wanted to do it. So my goals are different. So we're all moving along a conveyor belt where life is gonna change a little bit. So we're not, you know, I don't think everything stays the same.

And you. Let's say you're in the gym and you've got, you know, it's a magical time. We actually get some time alone and you're gonna go to the gym for an hour. Are you listening to podcasts music? Is it silence? Where is it for you with what works?

It's changed for me actually. I was always once more time. Probably a bit more social and headphones I always found sort of the antisocial. So. And I think now because my workouts are quite sharp and I just like to get them done, I often have my headphones on. I use the time. I almost doubled the time up and try and maximize it. I've got into podcasts in the last two to probably this year. I started around December time listening to podcasts first off in the car. And now I've taken those podcasts into my headphones in the gym. But prior to that I've always kind of been one to have music on. But now the music's become podcast. So I've kind of changed how I go about it.

What about podcast? What are you listening to?

I listen to a mixture actually. You mentioned Ed Draper because I know Ed personally. I do listen to his sport and life. I've listened to quite a few of those and the BBC podcast and they just launch one match of the day. So I just started listening, listening to that because I do have a real interest in football. I still switch onto some fitness podcasts. But my life. Sometimes I like to experience some different topics being discussed. So I'm really just so. But the BBC, you've got one at the moment I'm listening to it. It's called Manhunt. So it's totally off the beat. Manhunt. And it's like a. A detective. He used to. What's. What was. He was. He was a. Not say he's a public figure but he was on a TV show. It was called Hunted. I never watched it.

Right.

I heard it advertised on BBC and essentially the guy's trying to work, you know, trying to. There's a guy that's been on the run for 15 years and he's trying to track him down personally. He's a retired detective. Very interesting. So I'm episode 8 of 10 at the moment.

So that's funny what you can, you know, on podcast now, there's such a random selection that, you know, everyone can find a little podcast that covers a niche that maybe other people won't find interesting. I actually saw that advertised today because there's. There's so many podcasts coming out. If you were listening to music, what kind of music would you be listening to in the gym?

I'm old school, Anthony. I'm still stuck in the late 90s, early 2000s, mate. I'm always reminiscing. I like. As you sort of like you do get older, my kids listen to something and I just stick to my kind of R and B in my garage from back in the day.

Yeah.

So it's still there with me. I'm still kind of like in those days in those party modes, whatever.

I remember you consulted. You consulted for the government on fitness. So what did that entail for you?

That was a really interesting time because I was based in London, I was looking after some private clients and I was involved in the sort of. The sort of, if you like, the. Let's say that, the explosion of spinning into the uk. But it was starting to really take off and I was a master trainer for the concept of spinning and I used to teach at shows and then I actually took a job role that was directly working for the government. So it was based at the Treasury. They'd converted the part of the Cabinet Office and part of the treasury into a very nice kind of fitness club within. And they needed consultants to work within it. And so those that took a job role there and then we started to actually work directly with sort of the Health and to the Health Department on our approach to fitness. So we used to spend. We used to have regular meetings about how we can help the population, how we can inspire and our ideas and it was fun. I had two years sort of, if you like, working directly with their fitness club, just service the civil. There was about a few thousand of them that worked within the treasury and I had the sort of pleasure of working with some peas personally, as in their sort of fitness trainer. So it's fun. Good couple of years there. Taught me a lot, met some interesting people and it was a really interesting time in my fitness career.

I guess it's good stepping stone. And then was it that you moved on to working with professional athletes?

I did some work with one particular athlete personally. That was alongside that job role.

Right, okay.

And then my, my vision was always to create my own. I sort of always had this kind of desire to do my own gig really. And then I started I that job role because I then start to explore options on actually creating a little fitness club my own. So I wanted to create something that was a little bit like say a small sports science clinic but it helped people achieve their goals. So the name of the club was called Target and I wanted people to achieve their targets at the club that I set up. So I started into work on that business plan where I really started to work on it. And by that time I'd got reached a point where I was pitching for investment. So I was one of the first to qualify for what was called, it was called their back then it was called a small firm loans guaranteed to become the enterprise finance loan guarantees. It was an entrepreneur scheme to raise money for business ideas. So I wanted to create something small, a very kind of concept based fitness club that helped people to achieve their objectives. So we looked half the people individually, we worked on small numbers and we offered everything. It was like a one stop shop where we had small yoga studio, it had that private training area, we had a physio clinic, we had another area where we, where we delivered group fitness classes like HIIT and some other strength conditioning classes as well. So I opened that club in 2010. So it was a very sort of challenging time because I was setting up a business then. I'm changing from what I'd always done to actually going into running a business. So I took some private investment, I'd invested money of my own and I had a bank loan that supported me and we got it off the ground and we opened and we opened it.

What was it like going from being an employee to suddenly kind of trying to run your own business?

Yeah, I mean, I guess I didn't really look in the rearview mirror much. It was all about learning. I had a mentor that supported me with opening the club. So I had someone I felt kind of quite. I felt I had good guidance and I wasn't going into it blind. I knew it was going to be challenging, but it was much more challenging. I could have imagined because you're learning new things, you're not naturally educated that way. So you're learning the hard way sometimes with making decisions and they're not always the Right decisions in hindsight and you learn from those mistakes and you start to employ people and you. And you're managing people in a different way. Because I've managed the health club in London prior to this as well, so I'd have management experience. But it's very different when you're running your own business and you're starting to build a team and you're starting to. You're wearing multiple hats all the time. So I'm the fitness trainer there. I'm essentially now kind of the managed director of the company and I'm building this business that's starting to move in a way that it's like a treadmill that you're running it, you're turning on at 18km an hour and it's constant. You can't really switch it down. So, yeah, I mean we learned a lot from the experience where we, we extended the club further. We had good times, we had some brilliant staff and we had lots of challenges on the way. Like any business, you have to pivot right now. Businesses having to pivot in a way never would have anticipated. I mean, I absolutely really feel for a lot of small businesses out there because it's so tough at this moment in time. So, yeah, I had best part of eight years owning a fitness club. So learn a hell of a lot.

From what you've learned. If a guy's thinking of starting, it doesn't really matter what small business, but maybe let's just say let's pick the fitness industry. What kind of advice would you give a guy who's going into the fitness industry?

I think trust, trust yourself, you know, make decisions and based on you really believing and believing and believe in yourself, it's tough. It is not something you can go into and just fully expect to get everything right. I think you've got to expect to get things wrong and learn from those mistakes. That's the important thing. You can learn from them and if you continuously make them, I don't think, you know, business is probably right for you if you make the same mistakes over and over again. So I think you've got, you're going into going into it knowing that this is going to be challenging in a way that you're out. But getting that work life balance for me was always the difficult thing because when I set the company up, I never had children. By the time the company was really reaching a point where it scaled up and I had relatively big team, I had family life and we, all of a sudden you're trying to find that Balance. And that was one of the biggest challenges of my life at that point. So not being able to actually probably give everything to the business because all of a sudden the family need my time. And it's trying to work out how you strike that balance.

Yeah. I guess what I've seen from guys who are maybe our age, or I should say that starting a business with a family, it's a lot easier when it's just you. Because if you want to work, you know, 20 hours a day, sleep. Sleep in the gym and just.

It's not gonna affect anyone else.

But we're not trying to keep people happy at home.

Yes.

I think for, you know, moving out to the countryside is one of those things also that actually you're supposed to be moving out to have a slightly more balanced life with family. But it is finding that, especially at the moment where people are pivoting, that you do need put in the long hours. It can be. Can be an interesting conversation to have with your partner.

Yeah, sure thing. I mean, we look back at it and it was a massive learning experience, and we learned so much from it. I couldn't have sat in, you know, couldn't have studied a business degree and learned what I did because I made mistakes. I managed a team, I built, I raised money, and I kind of built a business that had some substance to it. You know, we've gone through the whole journey of building a fitness club, and I always kind of had the vision. It's the journey and the roadmap. Along the way, you pivot, you've got to be able to adapt. Things don't stay the same. And that's something I'd always give people advice to that things do not. It doesn't go the way you always think it's going to. You always going to have to work out some different routes along the journey. It's fun and you've got to enjoy it. Got to do with a smile on your face because it can be very, very challenging and tough and grueling at times.

That's how going on to actually talk about having kids. I mean, for you. So having four children, and we've both. Both of us have recently had a little baby as well, and we know how much that impacts on everything. So how is it for you from going from one to two to three to four children with trying to keep that balance of social life, work life.

Yeah, well, I think. Let's say if we were still. I say we. My wife and I are very much a partnership, and we formed a Very kind of strong bond and we do everything together. We're very. And if we were still in the business today we probably wouldn't have extended our family like we have. We made a decision, the business wasn't working. We got out of it three years ago and we wanted to change direction in our life. It's quite sometimes a brave thing to do but we just wanted some new focus. I've been in fitness for a long time. I had some very, I've looked after some very high profile clientele explore which we decided this was where we wanted to be, that is the Cotswold. So we started to look at an adjustment in our life to move here and it enabled us to think about extending our family which we did. So two to four, when we had two, we really genuinely thought we were, you know, that was life complete. And then third say it wasn't planned but it was super amazing. And number three come along and it was great but we never shut the door on number four. So moving to the Cotswolds, we never see that coming. If we, if you, if you rewind five years sometimes you know you have a plan, this is what things are going to look like in five years. Sometimes they don't but four children, it's like it's a bit of a dream sometimes but it's fantastic. Love it. We're very, you know, we love family for us is our life and we don't have that kind of live to work approach. We work to live now. So a little bit different. So we're not being driven by a business. So we now work in a way efficiently that services what we need in terms of our lifestyle and we have happiness.

What's the best thing about being a dad?

The best, the best thing I think just, I mean every day coming home through the front door and just seeing their faces when they run up to you dad, I mean it's amazing and just seeing them grow and develop and all of my energy and time now is dedicated to seeing those guys prosper and I want them to be, you know that I wanted to fulfill their dreams in life and that's my role in life now. I want them to be the best versions of them. A little bit cliche but. And I just want to support those guys. We've got Sophie and I very much like mentioned before, we do everything, decision making as a partnership and the children are very much just everything in our life. So on having everything. Everything about being a father is of course you need a little bit of breathing space from Time to time. And why Just feel like a human and feel like an adult. Whether it's just date night or whether it's just that you and I go down the pub for a beer. You need that time.

So let's talk about that then.

As a.

Having again, a busy career and four kids and a partner, how would you. For guys, even if they haven't got kids, but especially those that have, what advice would you give for them to keep a good relationship going when you've got a lot of other stuff to deal with?

I love. It's teamwork and making sure that you guys are, as a family, are very much on the same page with decisions and you share the same visions. We like to do things together as a family. We do, you know, we do everything where we can as a family. Yes. We like to get our little scapes. I think having those little escapes that is. Sophie and I have a date night once a month. Not at the moment, probably not for the next couple of months. We're desperately going to need it this time in our life and we just make sure that we have time for each other. You know, we do things together and I think that's important. You create a partnership when you sort of come together and when you have children, I think it's making sure that you kind of share the same values and you install. Just getting the basics right. Lots of love. Lots of love and laughter in our house. That's it for me.

That's all you need. And cash. How did you meet Sophie?

How did we meet? So we met at a friend's party. So we were attending a friend. Well, say Sophie was friends of a friend that was invited to the party. My best friend was having a bit of a gathering for a party and when we met each other and we had brief conversation, didn't go much further than that. And then subsequently she actually stalked me on Facebook. Anthony. So she admitted it. She tracked me down on Facebook and she started messaging me. So therefore she started to. Yeah, she made the first moves and then that was it. We met up and then. Sorry, Ms. Anthony, say again.

Consider getting any kind of restraining order.

I know I looked at the profile picture, said girls talking to that at my mate's party. Where was she coming from? Here. Anyway, it was. It was literally, honestly, we went out first date and she said she wasn't sure about me first time around, I was pretty sure went out for a second date and the rest is history. And we've been together ever since. And we are. We are best mates. And we do everything together.

Well, since then, you've obviously say you've moved up to Cosmods, which is a big. A big change for the whole family and now working in Dalesford. So tell us about Daylesford and kind of your role there.

Well, Daylesford's always been sort of our little escape. When we had our business, we always used to come to the Cotswolds for our little retreat weekends. We used to do little breaks here four or five days. And Daylesford was always our kind of little go to. You know, we used to go for brunch in the morning and we've seen it kind of evolve over the last 10 years.

Yeah, it's grown a lot, hasn't it?

Yeah. And we moved to the Cotswolds to explore new opportunities. I was still commuting to course in London. I had. I've got a lot of a consult for projects in London. I look after some clients in London. So I was always gonna had the mindset I would be commuting, rather staying a couple of nights a week. I was spa director at Daylesford. I wanted to kind of create a presence here and sort of build my sort of fitness services in the area. And I had a conversation with a spa director and they were. They're looking to expand. I can't tell you too much on this podcast about where the projects going, but they are expanding as they've been doing over the last sort of decade. And they brought me in as the fitness consultant there. So I have my own studio and I've created a fitness service that I didn't have. So we started. I started there and we started to offer a health and a fitness training service. Yeah. So the Hay Barn, which is at the back of the actual farm, and the restaurants most beautiful spa environment where it's got two yoga studios and it's got a Pilates studio, but there's also another private studio. So I've basically taken over. So I now run this fitness service, this private studio on the first floor and it's worked very well. It was almost at Suck it and see and see if there's an uptake a year on. I have a waiting list for my services. There's all gone very well. I'm now starting to transition from my work commitments in London and I'm working very much 70% of my working week at Daylesford.

Yeah.

So we explored the opportunity and it's worked out for both of us, so I'm very pleased.

And you've got an App as well, which I know you allow some of your clients to access. So how does that work?

That's right. So I have a private app that I, That I've created. I mean, it's nothing. It's nothing too. Just, just so you know, I'm moving around that here. I'm just plugging my device in because as you know, if the iPhone gets a lot of activity, the battery starts to. Yeah, okay, back on. So I look after just a. Just a handful of clients and I deliver a premium coach service, I call it, and it essentially just connects us together. So what it does, it gives the opportunity, or me the opportunity to help their lifestyle. That is through the nutrition and just giving them the support and the guidance with that day to day. So if you're training, if you are a fitness trainer, that's training someone once or twice a week, we all know it's how that person is going to live their life around it, you know, 160 hours in the week to maximize that time spent in the gym or whatever they may be doing towards their goals. So I've created, I've basically got an app where I, where I. It's. It allows us to have a platform where I can service them outside of the training sessions. So it just gives the service a little bit more of an air of my time and a little bit more sort of, I think, where someone needs that advice and guidance. So it's not just, here's a training session. Well done, I'll see you next week. I'll train people, not just on a regular basis, but I'll try and give them as much support and guidance with regards to nutrition and.

James, you just lost the sound a minute.

Oh, sorry, are you back on?

That's the one.

Oh, sorry. And I think where I just mentioned there and now sort of hosting some healthy food workshops at Belsford in conjunction with the cookery school.

Yeah.

Essentially alongside the head chef there, we now create a workshop that's got that whole kind of focus on healthy food.

Yeah.

So this is again where people do sort of fall down a little bit. They may be quite focused in what they do in the gym, but sometimes they want the results from that. But it's how they kind of service it with the food they eat and how they live their lifestyle. They drink too much alcohol, etc. So. But I create quite a sort of simple philosophy in life. It all depends on someone's commitment and really what they want to achieve. But we've got to live a little bit as well.

I Know, I remember you saying, you know, first it's, it's for you, it's kind of practice what you preach, but it's one size doesn't fit all.

That's always been my, my focus is, you know, there's never. Or my, my philosophy. There isn't a, there isn't a program, there is no nutrition plan. There is anything we can just say, right, this is gonna, this is. Works for everyone I work with. It's gonna work for you. Yeah, off you go. I'm gonna charge you this fee and it's going to be exactly what you needed. Everyone's different, everyone's response is different. And we got to look at first and foremost the individual, what their objectives are and then create a bit of a plan stroke program that's going to suit them.

So how do you deal with, let's say motivation for a client? And that really applied to a guy listening who maybe their motivation is for all of us it's peaks and troughs. But again, we love going to the gym and doing sports so it's easy. But for guys that know they need to do it, but it doesn't particularly kind of float their boat. Where do you work on motivation with people?

Again, I think we come back to making sure that somebody is engaging with what they enjoy and we're encouraging to do things because they need to do it, but they're not enjoying it. Trying to work with people that actually where's your enjoyment? Where's going to. What's going to inspire you and build on that? Because ultimately you need to build some, some form of foundation first and then you can start to maybe catch a little bit more of a. I think it's like creating that good trend. It doesn't happen straight away. It's going to take you a number of weeks to sort of create a good routine, good trend or breaking bad habits. So ultimately sometimes some subtle changes, if you can change a few little adjustments here and there, two or three of those and all of a sudden you know you're starting to make a big change and therefore you can start to build on that.

So I think that's a good point. And actually we touched on some of this at the event we did at Daylesford. Could you tell the guys really about the event at Dalesford and what the. Well, why Dalsford were putting that on because it was their first ever event for Manifinal.

Well, how this, how this come about and why we did it? One, we have a very female orientated clientele that come to Haybalm because it is naturally accepted. Sorry, Anthony, say again?

What kind of percentage do you think is female to male?

90% of our regular bookings at the Hay Barn is female. We wanted to increase our sort of male participation in events at the Hay Barn. So I was asked by the events team there would do. I think there's an opportunity for us to deliver a male only event. So I kind of pondered it and thought, okay, well we have a female audience where we can actually encourage them to invite their husbands along. I said, okay, I know a few people that might be interested in supporting me. Yeah, I e1 being you. So you've had a good, you've had brilliant, you've got now experience and you're creating something brilliant in the whole Man Academy. So that's where I approach you to support it. And then it was a case of getting a date secure and starting to build a bit of content. So we went with the sort of the theme of how to take control. Yeah, I felt gonna do something that was interesting without making it too. There's a lot of stigma around that whole kind of, you know, mental health, etc. And put three good people in front of an audience. I thought we'd have an interesting little event. So ie yourself, myself and Ed were coming together as a little, as a little team to talk in front of people and it started to catch on. So we got a good number and we streamed it. We had over 100 people streaming the event live. Couldn't make it and we had 16 people or 17 people in the room. We had a maximum of 20. So we did pretty well for the first time. And considering we've never had that many males in the Hay Barn at one time.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. We're out in the countryside, so it's as opposed to being in London. I mean, we said our first event for the whole Man Academy in Soho, we only had 24 guys. So we know that, you know, one of the hardest things is giving a guy enough confidence that he feels comfortable to come along to an event.

Yeah.

And I spoke about this because we had, I was speaking to comment which guest it was about that event and said we had a real mix of guys there from the chap who's in his 60s, who's got six kids and is a landscape gardener through to young entrepreneurs and a mindfulness or yoga coach and a real mixture.

Yeah, that's great because you know, that is sometimes the challenge. It's getting males to come together like that. Unless there's a reason for it, I. E. A sporting event or, you know, there's an organised gathering, we're going down the pub to catch up. That was the challenge. It's like overcoming that stigma. Women are very good at doing it. They all get together post school, drop off, get together for coffee and there's no particular rhyme or reason for it. They're just good at doing it. With us guys, we're not so open about that. And that was always going to be the challenge, I think. Could we get enough interest or break down that barrier where we could say, we're going to do this Saturday morning. We're going to, you know, put anything up to 20 guys in a room. And you know what we're going to chat about how to take control around our health.

Yeah.

And we're going to have yourself, myself talking fitness. We're going to have Ed, who's a great broadcaster around sport. And it was thoroughly enjoyable. And I think the feedback that I had from everyone that was in the room was that was good fun and that was a good Saturday morning. It was different. So, you know, if we do it again, I reckon we would have all those faces again, plus maybe some new people that. That may. Well, may well want to come along and see what we're all about.

Actually, the funny thing about it also was I only knew Ed Draper through you and, you know, you know him, but haven't known him for many years. Well, I didn't realize that his dad is my gp.

Ah, yeah. I think I remember the conversation around this. Yeah.

Yeah. So it was great also that, you know, I was there to talk about the, let's call it the whole manner side of things, you've got the fitness side. And actually Ed knows a lot about health and fitness, so, you know, he bought. As opposed to just being someone there to ask some good questions, he brought a lot of knowledge himself to the table.

Yeah, he certainly does. He has a lot of knowledge around health and wellness. He's very passionate about himself and he's obviously, his big passion is sport, hence that's what he does for a living. He talks about it.

Yeah.

So we had a nice. We had a nice blend of personalities and the background there. So it was thoroughly enjoyable. And the feedback, I thoroughly enjoyed being part of it and the audience certainly provided me lots of positive feedback. So it was fun.

Well, let's. I mean, that's the problem at the moment. As soon as we're recording this, just as the country went into lockdown, all events are on hold. For a while and whether, you know, once. It's not necessarily when lockdown is released, because I think people will still be wary, but I think that later in the year you'll see a real surge of events again because, you know, there's a lot of interest in them. But obviously, for the moment, no events can take place.

Yeah, well, this is going to challenge a lot of us as well in terms of our sort of mental resilience, because we've. We've probably now, you know, we've always taken for granted, you know, just. Just going down the coffee shop, you know, just being able to go out for a bite to eat, just going here at will. You know, our freezing has essentially been you know, taken away because we need to, obviously, make these sacrifices and changes to our lifestyle to protect people's health at the moment. So it's a. This is unprecedented and it's just. It's not something we've ever prepared for. So it's gonna be a big challenge to a lot of people in terms of their mental resilience and how they're gonna sort of overcome this. Because a lot of us can deal. I mean, me in particular, I'm pretty good at dealing with facts, and I can always deal. But with this one, we don't know where this is gonna change. So we're sort of, as he comes at the moment, and we're. We're not. We're not at that point where we can say it's. It's peaking now. We can see light in the tunnel.

So we've spoken a lot on the podcasts to the other chaps about uncertainty. This is probably the most uncertain time for a lot of us because we don't know when it ends. And, you know, we don't know how it's. If it.

If, if.

And it's likely to get worse and how it affects everybody. Sure. And I guess for some of us up in the countryside, you can be in a little bubble because, you know, as long as you've got enough money to keep food coming to your door and pay your bills at the moment, you're staying in. And it doesn't seem that, you know, that much of life has changed apart from having a bit more time in your hands. But for friends of ours that either live in Spain or Italy or London, especially, that live in apartments, they're the people that you really. You wonder how the coping mechanisms could be very important in the weeks ahead.

Yeah, no, no, I agree. I mean, you definitely do. You make a lot of. I don't know you in your head, you put yourself in other people's shoes and you think, how are they going to cope and how are they going to do that with the way they live or, you know, whatever it may be. So there's going to be a huge amount. There's a real challenge out there for people, people. But what I do love is the British spirit and how we galvanize. I don't know whether you was on your doorstep at 8pm last night. I was down the NHS, so I mean that for me, seeing some of the fantastic social media footage and my children were really into it last night. Our neighbors were all into it. Their moments, like, will live with me forever. And I always think, I always believe that every cloud has a silver lining and this is a really difficult, changing time. But there will be some good that will come out of it, whether it be that we're just pushing the reset button on where we was in that Habster wheel of life at that point, whether we can just kind of recalibrate ourselves. But I do believe that it might take us, you know, we might not see the good for a year, two years, but there's a reason for all of this and it's going to really test us, but as human beings and our British spirit will be stronger for it. And I'll tell. We'll appreciate going for coffee.

Yeah, it will bring that. It's funny because I know today when I'd spoken to Emma and knowing that I was going to speak to you later, and it's weird how just for a little while, you're still conditioned about the fact that you can be going out because I actually, just for a moment in my head, said to Emma, we should invite you and Sophie and the kids around now the weather's improved. And then you're like, oh, no, what am I doing? That's not going to happen. But we'll get there. Which leads me on to the last question, which we like to give people, which is, what advice would you give to a guy who's looking to do life better?

Okay, so what advice would I give someone to who's going to want to do life better? How about just try and live your dream? I think, you know, we've made a change. Can you still hear?

I can. I can hear you. I can't see you.

Yeah, I've got you back.

There you are.

Can you see? Can you hear me?

I can. I can see your lovely face.

The beauty. I mean, iPhones, you know, touch the screen and sudden so I just tried to be clever and tried to look at something, but I shouldn't have done that. So what advice can I give to actually give someone back? I think, you know what, follow your dream and believe in yourself. Because we always had a dream that one day we'd move to the Cotswolds. We always felt would be somewhere later down the line with life and be brave. And I think, you know, you can change things, you can turn the corner. You're not, you're not set. Everything doesn't have to be set in the same way. You know, I think sometimes you get sort of very stuck in a way that you're not happy with. So don't be frightened to change direction sometimes in life, you know, it's being brave sometimes and whatever you see to be what you. Where you want to be in the next stage of life, then you can make it happen. Make it happen.

Yeah, it's a really good point because it's funny saying, you know, don't be afraid to change direction in life. We were speaking recently at one of the big banks and we spoke about, even as a CEO, don't be afraid to firstly admit you're wrong or pivot and, you know, either make a U turn or move in another direction. And I guess for us guys, sometimes it's hard to admit that we are maybe say, either wrong or that things aren't quite working out for us, but knowing that it's alright to say, do you know what, I'm gonna flip things and just go and do something different or move something different, that's it.

So we made the move here coming up to three years ago, and I have to say, three years on, it has been just for me personally and for my family, has been just the perfect move for us as a family. It might not be for everybody, but we always dreamed it would and it has and it has lived up to that. Sometimes you can have that dream. You think, I'd like to be there or like to relocate myself. And some people would like to live abroad. It doesn't always live up, but for us this is lived up. You can always go back if it doesn't work out, but we've thoroughly. It's worked for us, so I think for me, be brave with your decisions.

You said it. Live your dream.

That's it.

I think you've just given the title.

Of the podcast, Life's for Living. Do have a smile on your face and be happy. That's ultimately this. Life is, you know, we're put on this planet I'm all about positive energy and do the things that make you smile.

I like it. Well, I know you've got a cold bottle of wine in the fridge waiting for you.

Sure have. I'm very disciplined. I do two drinking days per month. I'm quite focused on my health and well being, as, you know, being in the fitness industry. And today, even if I'd had my cheat days, I'm still gonna have that bottle of wine because you know what? This week has been very transitional and homeschooling. Having four kids and a new baby that needs demands and, I don't know, just my alarm not going off in the way that it normally does and me not doing what I normally do. I'm going to enjoy this bottle of wine tonight go down really well.

Friday night, a bottle of wine and a pizza.

That's it. That's exactly what we're doing. Shout out to Cotswold Pizza. Abby runs that. We're going to pick up our pizza tonight.

Especially on a Friday night. We all need our little, little things that kind of, you know, bring a bit of. Bit of extra joy in our life. Well, we will let you know. We will say thank you very much for spending your time on the whole Mad Academy podcast. And if people want to get in touch with you, where's the best place to find you?

My website is thefitnesspro.co.uk my Instagram is aka the Fitness Pro. So my name, the fitness pro, is kind of the. If you like. Joe Wicks, the body coach. James Gold is the fitness pro.

Fair enough.

20 years. Can I call myself a fitness professional?

Hopefully, if I can work out how to do the show notes. I'll put it on there, but. All right, James, well, we'll let you go. Thank you very much for joining us and we will speak to you soon.

It's been a pleasure and this interesting content for you, Anthony. Cheers, mate.