EP075 - HEALTHY MIND, HEALTHY BODY - DARREN BRANCH

So this is the whole Man Academy podcast, episode 75, 25 away from 100, which is quite exciting. My guest today is Darren Branch, who we're going to talk very much about him with mindset, fashion, fitness, lifestyle, fatherhood. And Darren has also been to one of our Whole Man Academy events. So, first of all, Darren, how are you and where are you?

Very well, thank you. I'm based in P to Borough, and to be quite honest with you, I really appreciate you offering me this chance to tell you my story a little bit as well and answer your questions regarding mindset and things like that, all the subjects you just spoke about, to be honest.

Yeah, no, there's a lot. There's a lot to get into. And I've been scrolling your Instagram and it makes me feel very underdressed when I see how stylish and all the bits you put together and we'll be putting that in our whole mannequin, but that's the point. And we, you know, for the guys that don't know who you are, we're going to talk more about that. But one of the things I would say when I look at your side hustle of your Instagram kind of portfolio of all the fashion side of it, is that it looks like. I always think it looks effortlessly stylish without trying too hard, if that makes sense.

Yeah. What I try and do, Anthony, is I keep all my lifestyle and my fashion sense simple, easy and simple, even like this interview. Now, to be honest with you, just keep it simple and it works for me.

Yeah.

I see a lot of guys online, they try too hard and that's only my opinion. Don't try too hard.

Yeah.

Make sure you close properly and that's it. And try and look as natural as possible. That's all I've ever tried to do.

Yeah.

What you're seeing here is what you get as well. There's no fancy lighting in here, as you. As you know, I'm sat in my lounge. That's it.

Yeah.

Just got back from the gym.

Well, that's the thing. I know on your Instagram stories you've been speaking, you know, speak about mindset and fitness and different stuff. So for the guys that I know, some of the guys in the whole Mountain Academy will know you because they either follow you on Instagram or, you know, you'll have been to. They'll have been to the same event as yourself. But tell us a quick bit about the kind of. The backstory of yourself and how you now become to be someone that A ripe old age. Are you? What, 50?

50 years old? Yeah, 51 in July.

He's hot on Instagram as well, because most of 50 year olds I know don't even know what Instagram really is, to be honest. So, yeah, give us a quick bit of background.

Basically what happened was around five years ago, my partner was having pictures taken professionally with a photographer and one day said, why don't you have a picture? And I said, no, camera shy. I was too shy. A few months later, basically I had this idea of myself and my wife walking over a road as a natural as possible. And he said I was off my head. I said, well, let's give it a go, make it look like a paparazzi shot. I can even go and fetch the picture somewhere and show you if you wanted to see. And it went from there, basically. And my confidence grew. It helped me reach out to a lot of people, helped me be myself. I don't class myself as an influencer. I class myself as just someone that's sharing content of how I like to dress, what I like to say, what I like to talk about. What you see is what you get. And that's how it all started. And it just grew and grew and grew and grew and grew. The following, the comments, the friendships, which is very important. It also took over my life a little bit, to be quite honest with you, up to about a year ago, because I made this pla, this pledge to do one post seven days a week for the whole year of 2000. It was 2019. It nearly broke me. It's too much pressure with running a business as well.

Yeah.

And that monotonous. But I did it and then I calmed down. Nowadays I'm only posting two to three times a week, maximum. Sometimes just two times a week. I do stories seven days a week. And it's normally positive mental attitude, pma, as I say to my kids, which.

We'Re all about, you know, the level of positivity that, you know, someone's projecting from themselves, I think is so important. And always say it's about the people that you hang around with as well, isn't it? Because if you're, if you're hanging around with people that are, we'll say like mood hoovers, it can, it can start to get you down. And I know with, even with the whole man academy, you know, Instagram is our most kind of used platform, as it were, but actually for me, I remember thinking, oh, we've got to be posting every day. And some days you'd be Thinking of, what can I. What can I post today? As opposed to thinking I've got something useful to post. So I basically pretty much scaled it back so it was like you're just posting the podcasts when they're out and anything else that's interesting that comes up as opposed to that pressure. And I wonder for you being, again, not, you know, we haven't grown up. Neither of us have grown up with the social media. How have you found it affected you? Because, you know, sometimes you get great comments, sometimes you get negative comments.

I've never ever had any negative comments.

Good.

That's a lie. My pictures get shared on big accounts, for example, like Memory street style Memory class. Just this week's been on Bell stuff. I work with Barber and I had one negative comment once. So I just completely was on their site, not mine. And I just. Basically all I did was reply in such a positive way of thanking those people for being so negative. Basically, they took the comment down. I think my comment was along the lines of, I've just had to look at your profile and I can see that it won't be too long before you're being advertised on this page like I am today. Yeah, it won't be. It went off.

Yeah.

And to be honest, I'm pretty grateful and thankful that I don't suffer any abuse or any negativity. It's always positive.

Yeah.

And I think you are what you attract, if that makes sense.

Yeah.

I'm gonna get the few people say, always a bit old. Hello, Grandpa, to be honest with you.

Yeah.

I'm not a grandpa yet and I don't want to be, but. Yeah, that's it.

Yeah.

Oh, that's good. Because I know when, when I interviewed David Gandhi and that still, unsurprisingly, is our biggest podcast, when we had kind of, you know, thousands and thousands of listens and views and downloads and what have you. But he spoke about talking to a guy, a younger guy online who had written something about him and he actually bothered to. I'm not saying that everybody should always try and interact with someone if they're writing negative stuff, because some people, you're never going to get through to them. But actually went back and had a. Had a conversation and the guy was like, oh, actually, like. Yeah, like you're actually a really good guy and I appreciate you. Oh, good. You know, we've. We've changed things a bit now. Let me ask you about the whole man academy now. You came. It seems like a long, long time ago now, but you Came to one of our events in 2019, and it was our biggest event. It was at Geese and Hawke's number one, Savile Row. Tell us what your kind of experience of that was and why you came along to it.

Well, first of all, my experience to the flat was I walked in with David Gandhi, which was in Aura. What a nice guy. Managed to have a picture with him and sat next to him, pretty much opposite him all the way through the speeches. And the setting was fantastic. Everyone was made to feel welcome. Everyone was open and honest. Some good contacts there. And I'd love to go to another one. I'd even stand up and talk. Now I think I've got more confidence. So, yeah, the whole experience, can't fault it was a fantastic event.

Nice. I'm always one of those people that it's about creating the kind of the feeling of going to the events. And I always said I didn't want them to be in a, you know, in a normal hotel room with, you know, crappy colored carpet and everybody sitting around and it feeling a bit crap. Basically, you wanted something that had a real level of feeling to it. And that's why we had, you know, the Soho House to start with, or gigs and Hawks, because most guys were like, we've never been in the building, let alone with the history of it as well. Right.

Yeah, it was classy.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's. It's something. I mean, we spoke before we started recording. But how, you know, when I feel like if and when they'll end these lockdowns, then I will start putting in place some more events. But it's not easy. But funny, just before we start recording this, and my partner, who was leaving with the kids so that I could have some peace and quiet, said to me, who are you infing today? And I explained who you were, and I said. And I was writing down, I said, you're a kind of guy. I see. That's living life with adventure because you're doing something that you really enjoy. You're doing your Instagram stuff, you're doing the fashion, and it's about. I don't know. I know a lot of guys who are over 40 and 50 that are a bit bored with life and feel like they're declining slightly, whereas you still seem like you've got a lot of energy about you. So how do you keep your energy up?

Well, first of all, if I didn't exercise, I wouldn't be very well in my mind. It's one thing I realized, and it was nine years ago, nearly 10 years ago, actually, that I wasn't feeling very well because, a long story short, I went to the doctors and the doctor gave me these pills, antidepressants. I cried, I put them in my car, put the boot down, got in my car, tears down my eyes, thinking, oh, my God, I'm depressed. I looked on Google, did all the usual searches, Tick, I've got that, I've got that, I've got that, I've got that. Out of the 10, I had nine of the symptoms. Panic stations.

Yep.

Basically decided I've always been into fitness and well being and looking after myself to a degree, but I really deployed myself into my fitness back then. I was 40 years old. Went back to the doctors a couple of months later and said to him, I feel a little bit better. He goes, you want some more pills? I said, well, to be honest, I've not taken one. And I didn't.

Yep.

Because I was ashamed and I didn't want to take depression pills nowadays. I think you should, because if you've got a headache, you take a paracetamol, you know. The doctor said to me, he said, the good endorphins that you're getting from the gym is doing exactly the same as what the antidepressants would do for you over time.

Yeah.

I made a pledge to myself every single Monday morning of my own logo. My own saying is, hashtag, never miss a Monday. I've never missed an exercise. Move my body, move my mood on a Monday, at some point of the Monday for nine years. So now it's taken around roughly nine years for it to finally catch on. Over the last year, people now tag me, Never miss a Monday. Thanks to me. Never miss a Monday. I'm in the street. I was in the street on Saturday in Peterborough and I'm literally sat down with my dog. A group of lads come over in their mid-20s, late 20s. You have a nod and you say hello, and one of them shouted out, hey, Darren, never miss a Monday. What that kid doesn't realize is it absolutely made my day.

Yeah.

Last Saturday afternoon I thought, wow, who is this guy? I wanted to torture him, really. But he was drinking and doing what they were doing and going off. But the fact that he said no to Monday told me he obviously follows me and he listens to my stories.

Yeah.

So the hashtag never miss a Monday is going to be forever and ever as far as I'm concerned. Because if I didn't exercise, I would have a problem there. I don't actually Exercise for a massive six pack or big, massive muscles. I exercise to keep my mind, my focus, my energy, and you never know who's watching. It's helped my lifestyle in the last 10 years even more so than ever has done. I started to understand how to look after my body better, look after my mind. Healthy body, healthy mind. It just goes cap in hand, really. It makes you feel positive. I get a buzz these days out of doing stories more than do pictures. Just by talking to people and the interaction that I get roughly around 12 to 1500 views per story. But the feedback I get knowing you're helping other people, it's such a nice feeling.

So that's another reason it's that thing of having impact and not we said earlier about the podcast, like you never know who's watching or listening or taking some value out of it. And it might not be today, it might be in, you know, we talk about the podcast, you know, they're there forever until, you know, until the Internet gets shut down. But for us, it is that thing of, you know, we've had guys in different countries messaging, saying, and this is the important part, they might have listened to a whole hour's conversation, but they might have just taken one golden nugget away from it and implemented it. And for me, that's a win. And that's what I see with your stories. It's like, you know, it's little and often as opposed to trying to dump a load of information on someone. It's just like some of it is about keeping going and staying consistent.

I've always been consistent and always had a routine with my Instagram. Even if you look at some of my captions, there's a meaning in there. Normally not just involved the picture or the advertisement for a jacket or a shirt or whatever for a brand, which I'm very fortunate enough to work with some good brands. It could also have a double meaning of positivity really and mindset. You just like you say, you never know who's watching, who's looking, who's pressing likes. It's that many. I never don't really know anyway. But when you hear the things like the never miss Monday, Darren and the thumbs up, you know, registering. I was always a little bit shy of sharing my stories onto my Facebook back in the day because I've wanted to keep my Facebook more private just for my real friends. Is that the right word to use?

Yeah.

So many messages since I put my stories on my Facebook as well as my Instagram from people locally to me Saying and my age group and a little bit younger and a little bit older. Wow, you've motivated me. Wow, you've inspired me. Wow, you've. From people I would never expect to get a message from. That in itself keeps me going and what's going to do it. And I make myself accountable. I get up in the morning, I make my stories normally live and well they're all live like this is. And also within 10 minutes of being up, then I get on my run or the gym or whatever I'm doing. It just sets me up for the day knowing I've spread that message of positivity out there. Gone and done a bit myself. Hopefully someone's got inspired by it, even if it's like one little part of it. Yeah, that's it.

That's great. And I think it's the thing with social media. I know, you know, we could talk about there's always negatives with social media and there's positives but it basically is a free chance for you to impact, you know, possibly millions of people across the world depending on, you know, what, what platforms they go on and sharing them across the foot for free. Which I think is great for making, you know, some, some positive impact. And I know you'd. This is my thing with, when I was looking at your gallery with the, with the clothing and the fashion side of it. I see that as a lot of guys, especially when they're in their, I know in their 30s and 40s maybe don't actually put any thought into what they wear from what I. If I look at my mates and probably me as well, when I worked in the city, you know, it was basically had gray suits and black suits and you know, Fridays you wore tan shoes and you wore TM Lewin shirts and that was it. And then the weekends you wore jeans and a T shirt. So I wonder for you, did you always take care in the way you put stuff together? And also about the brands, is it a mixture of high street stuff? Because obviously some guys can't afford the more expensive stuff. But everything's a bit more intertwined now with trying to mix the two. The more the high level brands and the more high street ones.

Right. For myself I've always been fairly casual which is pretty much predominantly what you see on my pictures normally. White sneakers, jeans, T shirt, jacket, whatever. Some of my stuff's quite high ish end would say, well without mentioning any particular brand but let's just say I don't know Diesel or Hugo Boss or whatever. Yeah, but I Also mix and match that also with the high street. Yeah, I think again these are all my opinion, so don't go shooting in flames. But my opinion is if you're dripping in high end designer gear from shoes, socks, pants, shirt, I think that looks a little bit chubby. Have a nice piece of item with a nice piece of from the high street, I think works.

Yeah.

But the most important thing is if it fits you properly and you feel good in yourself. That's pretty much it. Really. I don't think there's no, there's no rules in my book for fashion. If you like it and you. And keep it simple and it works for you then and it makes you feel confident.

Yeah.

Wear it. I never ask anyone's opinion, do you think I should wear this or wear that or he's got that so I need that. Yeah, I don't do that. I just keep classic and simple.

Have you got an eye for it yourself? Because you know, some people are basically completely clueless on what stuff to put together and you know, one person's as you said, is about what fits but also about the colors that they're wearing as well. So I just wondered have you always been good at that or have you kind of taken some inspiration from other people who've, you know, got a great, what do you call it, like a lookbook.

When I first started going on Instagram it was always be a case of people like Rowan Rowe or Costa Williams, the big names of Instagram. Oh, they look cool, that's good. But I don't actually look at their pictures and say I want one of those. But I do my own thing really. I always have done. And again I use the word keep it simple a lot and classic. If you keep it simple and classic, there's no point in me trying to dress up like a 25 year old. When I started Instagram I was about 46, 47. There's no point to me trying to dress a lot younger because then you look stupid. Again, always a positivity because it's always been pretty simple outfits. Even when I've weather suit on about a pair of sneakers with because I quite like that shirt undone, you don't very often see me in a tie or a suit not saying I wouldn't like it. So if there's any suit companies watching this and they want to send me a suit, if it's a nice one I'll wear.

Putting a nice suit on. I, I have a, I talked to some the other day actually that is now working from home, like a lot of people are. And again, that's got some good and some bad points to it because I think people miss out on a lot of the social interaction that going out, you know, and talk to people miss. But one of the things was interesting we were talking about suits because even for me and the guy I talked to, we were used to. I was working, you know, in the city five days a week. So you wore suits, whereas working from home, you're not going to get dressed in your suit. Quite frankly, a lot of people are very much more in, know, jeans and a shirt now. And it's funny how the, you know, the landscape is changing for the amount of people that be wearing suits because so many people are going to be working from home now. Are you. Are you at that stage where you. If you don't wear suits for often you actually enjoy wearing one because it's going to an event or something.

Yeah, to an event or a wedding or some sort of event or for a picture.

Yeah.

It was. It was actually the Geese and Hawks event where they kindly gave me one of their really nice blazers. And then I thought they were just giving to it. Then they said, no, no, we'll have someone come and tailor it for you and they'll take it away. And it's that thing of. I know you wrote you can buy. You can buy fashion, but you can't buy style.

Very true.

And that's why.

Very, very true.

That's what I see a lot of. So, yeah. Who else is it for yourself that you take inspiration from? Anybody in the public eye at the moment, or if guys were looking to kind of spread their horizons and look at a few different people who have that good mixture of smart casual?

Well, I grew up from the age of around 24 following Davy Beckham.

Right.

He was always my fashion icon idol growing up, obviously he's about five years younger than me. I had the initials DB before he did, by the way. Yeah. So I'll probably go to say, say him, to be honest with you, I've always been a smart guy. He's always looked after himself. You know, he's always pretty positive. And I think he's one of them guys that sort of whatever he wears, he seems to pull it off.

Yeah.

I ain't one of those guys, and that's the truth. So, yeah, I'd say probably him.

And what about for you, with what did you. To give the guys a bit of a background of kind of what you did and what your career was pre the instagram side of you, as it were. Your Instagram side hustle.

I basically run a small double glazing business and I've done that since 2007 and before that I was in sales from 1998, so 23 years basically indirect sales. And before that I was 12 years as a bricklayer.

Yeah.

So it's been a complete mixture of.

A wide variety of experiences on building sites and direct to the public on a one to one basis, commission only to survive. So I've been around the circuit a bit. I'm pretty street wise. I know how to handle situations and yeah, talk to people. The Instagram was a side hustle which ended up turning out from going from a hobby to a small little side hustle without realizing it. And I think the reason why my Instagram has done well is this is only my opinion and from what feedback I'll get is a. My age predominantly got between 25 and 30 year olds is the main group of following. And I think they sort of think actually if that guy can do it, I can do it. Especially with the fitness side of things as well.

Yeah.

And yeah, there's a lot of females there, probably 60% females as well. And I think some of them sort of think I actually wish my partner could look like that or wear that or like that he would like. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

So the side hustle became sort of. It fell on me really all of a sudden and I realized and I could earn a couple of quid by still being myself on Instagram. Let's have a go at this and see what happens. But this is the truth and this is what people don't realize. One of the most common questions is, I get asked in my DMs, how can I be an influencer? Lots of people asking their audience or their followers, what do you want to see? Do you want to see reels? Vote yes. Or do you want to see pictures? Vote no. Do you want to see more suits or more casual? That's a mistake. In my book, if you're going to be an influencer, you don't ask the question what you want to see. You just do your own thing.

Yeah.

Do you agree?

Yeah.

I never ask anybody what they think or do that. What do they want me to post? I'll just do what I want to do.

Yeah.

Destiny. So when you see me making my stories in the morning, it's pull the phone out, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, bosh, have a good day. That's it. I'm doing what I want to do. I'm not. There's no script in the background. I'm not very good at reading anyway, so there's no scripting background. It's just whatever's in my mind at that time. When I press that button, I have a look at it. Yeah, the line's all right, write on it. Send.

Yeah, I think that's so important because so much of what we see online is fake, let's be honest. If you look at it that way, you know, fake people standing behind cars that aren't really theirs. And I actually spoke on a podcast a while ago where one of my friends had talked about that you could hire like a private jet, but it wouldn't take off. You just go in it for an hour and take photos and then piss off again. And you just like, you know, maybe there's a time and a place for that, but as I've got older, I just have less time for, you know, the fake side of it. And that's one of those things that I worry about. The makes us sound old. But the youth of today, when they feel like they don't realize that what they're looking at online is really is life through a lens and it's selective sharing because it's going to fuck with their head, to be honest.

Definitely. Right, it is.

I know it was probably a couple years ago now, but when, when we lived down in London, there was a younger guy I spoke to, worked in the city and he was watching like the Only Way Is Essex. And I used to watch it a bit and thought it was quite funny. But I said to him, you realize that not all 20 year olds are driving around in BMWs, Mercedes, Audi R8s and you know, dressing with all that stuff that, you know, they get given it and etc. And he's. Oh, no, but. And you could see he was being conditioned to feel that he must have that stuff to also be worthwhile.

Yeah, I agree with you.

What's your take on that? Because you see it as you've got 50,000 followers, you've got a real mixture of people that are kind of looking at what you're doing.

I don't watch towie. I've seen it. It's obviously a different age group for me, but too many of the, let's say the millennials. I think that's the right word, isn't it? My own son's 21 years old. He's actually not even online hardly at all. But I see so many of them with the expectation like you just said, they've got to have that nice car, that nice jacket, suit, ring watch, massive watch, latest phone or whatever. I think it's a lot of peer pressure nowadays for that generation. We didn't. I didn't have that problem. I don't know how old you are, but I didn't have that problem. I didn't have a mobile phone. Makes me sound flipping old. I think I was about 28 when I had my first mobile phone.

I was 20. Yeah.

Got a text message. What's that doing? When I run from a Nokia, it was down to a BlackBerry, then to an iPhone. But I just think the kids these days, or the teenagers or the young adults, it's a hard time for them because they are blasted with the Internet these days in front of you, this fantastic, lovely, glamorous lifestyle. Those accounts, a lot of them are fake. They are not riding in private jets. You might get one person doing it, a celebrity. They're not riding around in Porsches, unless they're the one with a silver spoon in their mouth. And they wouldn't know what a day's work is if they started. Does that make sense?

Yep.

You handed everything on a plate, then. That ain't for me. Go out, be yourself, earn your living. Just be happy and be positive and look through all that. Or unfollow them. Don't let it wind you up if it's not real.

John, you've just said something really important there about unfollowing. I tried to have this conversation with someone a while ago where they said, oh, this person that I'm following online, I don't know whether it's on Twitter, Instagram. He's really getting my nerves and really winds me up saying, well, unfollow them. Oh, well, no, just press the button. I would say it's like the whole man academy, if there's content that doesn't. You know, I've said before that the whole man academy isn't for all men. And what I mean by that is that, you know, we welcome all guys to be part of it. But some of you aren't gonna like what I say, aren't gonna like how I look, maybe don't agree with. So I'm like, great, there's. There's someone for everybody and you can't. Yep. So it's little Bip. Feel free to unsubscribe.

How have you last month with your previous.

I say, your previous career, but you mentioned, like, working on commission for things as well, and I think that that makes you sharper because it's not a guaranteed income where you can take your foot off the pedal. Talk to me about what that's like.

I've never had a guaranteed income since I left school. I left school at 15, nearly 16, on a building site. If you didn't work, you didn't get paid. No handouts from the government, no holiday pay, sick pay, you know, so I've never had an employed job job with all those benefits of pensions and everything else. Being in the double glazing industry on one to one with a customer in their house. I've been down the national company route. Pressure, pressure, pressure. Selling backed off from that, went to a smaller company, learned a different way. And as I've grown older into my late 30s, I realized that, hold on a second, get rid of the tie, be a bit more casual, smile more often and just be yourself. You win. Yeah, people buy from people. Now whether you're selling yourself on Instagram or selling yourself in the street, in life, people buy from people. If the products right and they trust you and believe you and like you, they will buy from you. You don't need to ram it down their throat. That makes sense.

Yeah.

And often it doesn't matter about the price for some people, if they like you, you know, that's not, it's not always the deciding factor.

People buy from people no matter what it is. I'm not talking about double glazed, I'm talking about T shirts. It doesn't matter what it is. Yeah, people buy from people. I get roughly probably 20 emails a month from different brands and I would say 19 of them are turned down. There's a reason I'm not going to be an advertising machine just for the sake of it, because every time you see a picture online, it's an advert. It's an advert, it's an advert. Now no disrespect to the influencer guys that doing that for a full time job living, that's what they've got to do. I accept that. But for me it switches me off a little bit. Some of my pictures are actually adverts. I've even mentioned it. Yeah, that makes sense because I don't want to run that down your throat. I've had the little tag pay partnership. Oh fantastic. But when you work for Barber you have to put that on some of them. You don't squeeze a little ad. Sometimes it's somewhere. I just don't want to be an advert machine.

Yeah.

Where it's just churning it. I wondered if you could explain to, you know, I know a bit about Instagram and the, you know, the. How brands will approach people. And obviously I spoke to David Gandhi about it, and, you know, having a million followers means that he's got a.

He must get a lot.

Yeah, you get. I mean, I think when he shared the podcast we did on his Instagram stories, and, you know, suddenly you're. The amount of followers and likes and comments you got, you know, overnight when I switched my phone back on, and you're like, shit, what. What's happened here? Well, it was really funny because it reminds you, you know, I think if you had millions of followers, you had to get to stage where when you're getting 700 or 1000 comments or something like that, it must be really hard to even begin to manage it. And that's why you get somebody else to. But for guys that don't know too much about it, do you get companies that are asking you to wear their clothes now just give you them for free and companies that will pay you to do it? Because I know there's that kind of. A lot of companies seem to seem to have it where it's like, oh, we'll give you our product for free if you just talk about it.

Yeah, I get offered that quite a lot. Got to the stage where I really started to take it seriously a couple of years ago, but it nearly took over my life. And this is the point I was trying to make earlier. It went from being a hobby to a business to almost not enjoying it. Because then I wanted to go out and buy a shirt and a pair of jeans.

Yeah.

Because I didn't want it to be for free. I wanted that feeling of, I want to go and buy that. Because I was walking around, going around London, Peter, or wherever I'm going around, we stop and look at each other and I talk and I go, I'm not bought anything that's on me today. Yeah, I spent quite, quite a lot of clothes like that. And I'm like, that little buzz of that has gone. That is another reason I turn other things down. So if I really like something, I'll accept and say thank you very much. And if there's a deal to be made there, we'll make that deal. But if I really, really like it and want to gift it to me just for a story or a picture, I'll do that as well. I always give a little bit more than they ask. Yeah, I think that's a good trait, to be honest with you. And then you get certain brands without mentioning any names or want to throw a 199 watch at you and they want 10 posts and 10 stories and 10 swipe ups and want the absolute earth again I mentioned Barber because it's one of my latest ones. All Bell stuff with them it's very straightforward to work with a good quality British brand, easy to deal with, send the photos, they approve them, very, very good transaction and gives a bit of credibility as well.

Bit professionally. I interviewed Ben Fogle a couple of months ago and he just launched his range with Barber and I was saying, Tim, I'd worn barbers since I was a kid. I was stealing my dad's barber jackets because grew up on a farm but I was trying to think of other British brands. I mean Barbers are kind of an obvious one but yeah, I mean if you could list a couple of them that people either will have heard of or might not have heard of some that are kind of the up and coming ones that maybe you know more about.

Well, Bell stuff obviously is another classic brand. They've literally just shared one of my pictures of one of their jackets on their Facebook and Instagram Twitter that's gained a few followers. Bodhis Skins and the leather jackets brand in Manchester that's very, very Instagrammable, very popular. Just some of your classics really. Everyone's heard of the Barber and obviously everyone's heard of bellstaff Potentially if you're into men's, men's fashion and a gentleman of our sort of age group anywhere 30 upwards, it would fit I, I believe, yeah, with the boat jackets that's more like. Yeah, I'll get away with it still just about but I think you're heading towards you from sort of 25 to 40 bracket potentially that's where they market their self or 25 to 30. There's nothing wrong with the high street stuff. Some of it's not always British though. But again Zaras and H M's I think they're all up and coming these days. You get Davey Beckham advertising before with H and M. That took that brand up there, didn't it? You know, so yeah, always have to work. Or the Ralph Lauren or the whatever, there's another one. Or is that American Ralph Lauren?

It's that thing about all the different design, different designers and different brands and I think, you know, the reminder is for guys watching that it doesn't really matter what your budget is because you know, if you've got thousands to spend then that's great but actually, you know, you could probably go out with 100 quid in your pocket and come back if you're. If you source the right, you know, the right outfits. And often it's kind of just trying to get the basics right. I just wondered for you, when you first started kind of doing the pictures online, was it easy for you to also take. Get the photos? And I know, I think I read that you take most of the photos yourself, or is it your partner does it, or you can use a tripod. But did you have it where you might take 100 photos and you know you're just looking for that one that you really like.

That's every time you saw me earlier trying to get this angle, I think the average is about at least 30. I try and get my pictures to be as natural as possible, as paparazzi looked as possible. And that natural environment, natural angle or whatever, you know, that's just the way I've always liked it and I felt comfortable with doing it. Regarding to my photography, I have people saying, what camera do you use? What lens do you use? How long have you been a photographer? I ain't no photographer. I've always just had a bit of an eye for a mobile phone shot or a camera. I talk my partner as well a little bit, but then I do the cropping because sometimes she gets them a little bit on the piss like this. And I'm like, what are you doing? Yeah, I'm messing around with it, cropping it, put a nice preset on it. I make it look as close to natural as possible and post it. I take all of the pictures as well. So it worked well as a. Like that. I used to use professional photographers. I used to have a tripod. That's hard work, so respect to anybody that's doing that.

Yeah, there's so much you can do just with an iPhone these days. And, you know, all these different apps that can. I mean, it's incredible to when you start playing around with these things and get a bit carried away, but all the different kind of filters you can put on and effects you can have, and that's one of the things we haven't spoken much on, on our Harmonic podcast about kind of men's fashion. But I would say, you know, if some people, when they have to have photos, don't realize that you can actually, you know, for a very small amount of money, you know, with an iPhone or something, you can actually get some really good photos. And I was going to ask you, have you still got the photo of you with David Gandhi?

Yep. That will be on my phone somewhere.

I would say you'll have to send it to me. And for you with going forward, I just wondered what what's next for you? I mean is your plan if you assume you've got a plan but with let's call it with the side hustle of the fashion, is it that you'd like to be happy to start on Instagram or would you do catwalk stuff or anything like that?

Catwalk stuff up for the over 50s.

You never know the old silver fox routine.

I don't think that's ever going to happen. Have I got any plans? No, I don't really make plans. I just go with the flow. While I'm getting comments and likes and shares and saves. For example, my last picture with my dog and the other as an advertisement for the loafers that I got given to me on Friday in London. I think I about 107 I shared on my story actually that 107 saves so people 107 times. Someone saved that picture about 1900 likes and about 100 odd comments. All positive. So while that's still vibrant, I'll continue. Yeah, it's not my stories seven days a week positivity. I get a lot more pleasure out of that. There's no filter, there's no swipe left, swipe right. It don't pick it up as long as the lines are and talk. As I mentioned earlier, my photos are preset because I think if you're going to put a picture out there, you might as well do it as best your ability and the best you can. There's no point in, you know, I'm not just going to go click and put it on. If someone wants to do that that's fine. But those same people that are doing that asking me how do I get brands, attract brands ain't through selfies or lift selfies. Do that stories, stop swearing online, you know, clean your act up a little bit, get rid of your food pictures on your page. You know, keep it clean, keep it in uniform and you will attract your own vibe. Don't try too hard. So there's no plan other than helping to motivate people. People with mindset problems get them motivated and thinking better and liking themselves better. Through my stories I will still do the pictures because the brands come all the time. I pick and choose them ones obviously a little bit of fitness as well. All my fitness is normally geared up to the mind and I do a bit of part time PT work which I do through boxer size and in the gym. I've been in the boxing exercises for the last 25 years.

Yeah.

So I know my way around the gym. It's great for the people.

Yeah, I think you said it. But he's great for the brain. And I was trying when I talked to different companies about either Mindset or Men's Health or a lot of it has been morning routine and I spoke at kind of on a Spotify and different banks about, you know, the important of importance of starting your day the right way. And I just wonder for you, have you had any. I know we're always kind of changing with these things, but have you ever had any kind of basic things you do every morning? Because I saw on Instagram stories where you have a little area where you'll have your kind of, you know, just, just to rest the mind a little bit.

Well, basically my routine normally is it starts the night before. So I'll make my breakfast tonight for tomorrow. Yeah, normally my oats, milk, frozen berries, leave it in the window with a lid on it. I'll wake up in the morning, I'll have a quick little coffee, glass of water, back door. If it's not raining, start talking. Or the side gate or the front or in the hallway or in the kitchen. I live in a basement, so downstairs.

Yeah.

And talk at that point. Then I'm normally going off either running or going to the gym or going off to help somebody else. And that's pretty much my routine that sets me up for the day.

Is that one there. I mean this is one of the big things. Russ, you just said it sets you up for the day. And that's what we try and instill into either when you talk to companies or when you're talking to guys, you know, listening to the podcast. Because when you're. One of the big things for me was doing some kind of movement in the morning. And again, what we didn't necessarily mean that they had to do, you know, a thousand press ups and kettlebell swings and bench pressing and whatever it was about finding whatever, whatever it is works for you if it's going for a quick walk outside. And in the last few weeks where the sun's so light in the mornings, I was in the garden by Just after 6 this morning, just again, quick coffee and a glass of water. And my partner was already out there when I woke up. She was out there at like on a quarter six doing a training session whilst the kids are in bed. But getting out there having even with no shoes on. So having your feet on the Grass. Doing a quick workout with the sun shining and the birds chirping is amazing. Yeah, it's one of those things. So have you always enjoyed doing your gym stuff and also did that include playing football? Any team sports at all?

No, I've not done any football before. Got two left feet. My son's a very good footballer. I've always enjoyed punching bags or pads. I've always enjoyed a bit of sparring. I've always enjoyed lifting a bit of weight. Not too much. I'm no bodybuilder, just generally move your body, move your mood.

Yeah.

Because I realised that's what it is, it is if you move your body. Bodies are designed to move. So I say, some people say to me, oh, what can I do to make myself feel better? Because I don't want to go boxing or don't want to go bodybuilding, I don't want to do long distance running. I said, whatever suits you. If that means going for a walk, going for a swim, going for a skipping, whatever it may be, whatever time of day that suits you, just do it. You will not regret a workout, you only regret the ones you don't do. But you have to have 3Ds, this is very important. This is why I've lived by this 3Ds for a long time. You need the dedication, obviously, but the most important D is the discipline. Without the discipline, motivation is worthless. You also need the desire. You've got to have that. You've got that get up and go in you, that burning flame within you. That's. I want to go and have that good feeling. That makes sense.

Yeah.

I get, because of my age, I get a buzz. I go to my local gym and I can sort of keep up with the younger lads in there. They respect that.

Yeah.

And that's happened time and time again. Eventually that's going to go like that. I can only presume they're all getting stronger, I'll up getting weaker, but in the mind I won't. And I've always said if I can't wake up in the morning and bang, 20 press ups there, I'll give in proper ones. So that's it really.

Yeah.

I just wondered as we're talking, what it made me realize was that you've, you've reinvented yourself as it were, by, you know, because a lot of guys, like we say we might get to their. The course we're about to release is about helping guys keep their energy high. And I always feel like if your energy is high you make better decisions, be it what you eat, what you think, what you say, what you do, you know how you react to these things. And one of the big things is about towards the end of the course, we talk about what else is it you want to achieve in life? And you with the let's call it your Instagram life is, say your side hustle. And it just reminds guys that you can reinvent yourself. It's never too late to either start something new that your mates might think is silly, or you might think, oh, I can't do that. But actually you've got to, you know, it's a technical term, but put your in the custard and get involved. And I just wanted. What's your thoughts on that?

I'll tell you a quick story, go on. One of the first pictures when I started doing it, I think myself and my partner was walking through the streets of Chelsea. I had to buy a bag in my hand. T shirt, jeans, pair of white Adidas shoes, posted it. If you go back on my page, and right down the bottom, I'm talking about these first few pictures. I got really called in the gym, where's your bag? You know, no sunglasses.

Yeah.

Fucking hell. Who do you think you are? David Beckham or Bruce Willis, whoever it was. And I just used to laugh and laugh and laugh. I got ridiculed behind my back. The hate brigade. It went full circle and I said it would do to my wife. There was brands that wouldn't want to touch us. There were brands that, you know, all of a sudden they all come out of the woodwork full circle. Oh, I see your picture. Then they start following. Sometimes we all need a hater, by the way.

Yeah.

Like you said at the beginning of this interview, you'll get people that probably won't like you for whatever reason, but they've never met you. And you'll get people that will still follow you and still look at every single story that you post. They'll never press, like on your picture or they'll never mention it when they see you in the street, or they'll be all over you in the street or then they want you to. They've got this charity thing, they want you to share it. Although I want you to promote them. Yeah, Very self. I spent two, three years doing this game seven days a week. Changed my lifestyle around it a little bit and ended up, you know, nearly broken to the point of. Without asking for a violin. What's the word I'm looking for? Just put a lot of graft In. Then all of a sudden all the good times started to roll. And everybody thinks it all happened overnight.

Of course.

See the first three years with nothing.

Yeah.

And going out my way, going into London, taking pictures, buying decent cameras, promoting all the time, helping other people. That was all forgot about. They only see the latest one when they see me with Barber or Bell staff or, you know, a big brand. All of a sudden it's like, I want some of that.

Yeah.

I want to get involved.

Yeah.

Give you those clothes and pay you. You're joking. No.

Yeah.

Is it? That's part of the. I feel like now we're conditioned for instant gratification. You know, you press a button and your dinners on your doorstep, your shopping's on your doorstep, you know, any film you want is on your phone in two seconds. And people so. Well, often some of the guys I've interviewed who are, you know, in whatever field they're in, are successful, will often say that, you know, people don't see, you know, that the 90% of the work is below the surface of the water where they're churning and they're late nights and early mornings and ups and downs. But people see the bit of sprinkler success on the top and be like, I'm going to do that now.

I'm going to name drop. You've name dropped Ben Fogle and David Gandhi.

Yeah, I've got a few more.

I know how David Gandhi started because obviously one of his friends sent in a picture, didn't they, for this morning program.

Yes.

He was a nobody. No one's ever heard of him. All of a sudden, he's now made it fair play to the guy. Yeah, obviously. So I feel highly honored that you're interviewing little me. Just normal person, so no celebrity. So I'm gonna name drop. I did an Instagram live workout with Joe Wicks, right?

Yeah.

Four years ago. But I followed him for a long time, that guy. Lots of messages backwards and forwards, video chats, and we've kept in contact. And he followed me from the first time I met him. And we just sort of hit it off because he knows I don't blow smoke up his ass. And I'm not trying to, you know, suck up to him or anything like that. It's just somebody that I seem to connect with a little bit. So sometimes we have a little chat like this on online messages, on Instagram. But that guy spent years before anyone really took off. He had people in the field, you know, doing his one to ones and no one turning up. That guy's done so much work below, but all of a sudden now, over the last three or four years, he's doing very, very well. People think it's instant. Yeah, it isn't.

Overnight. He's on my list of people to. He's on my list of people for. That would be good on the podcast, actually.

So one fantastic.

One day, if you can.

If you can get hold of him and to do that. He's pretty big on his mental health and helping that situation. So, yeah, that would be a good one. If you can get him.

Well, you said also, you know, I want the board. The podcast is a mixture because I don't want people with a really high profile on every week because firstly, I'm not sure. How can I put it. It creates such a lot of expectation if people think you're going to have someone that's high profile. And the point is that the normal guy on the street often has much better stories and will actually be more honest about it because they're not worried about, you know, I can't say this and I can't say that, and this company that gives me money won't like it. If I say this so often that, you know, a lot of guys I'm talking to at the moment, we will say that most people would never have necessarily heard of them, but they'll have some. Some good golden nuggets. So that's. That's why, you know, what someone makes like, who are you interviewing this week? And I'll say it's this person. Oh, I've never heard of them. I go, I know, Good. Then you won't have heard their interview before, you know, So I like that.

To be honest with you, I wish that I'd have set up a different background now because your background looks really, really cool. My looks. And I don't like the lighting. But however, like I said to you before, this is live, this is how it is, and this is it. This is me. I'm in me shorts. There's no, you know, ads and graces. I've been to the gym.

Yeah.

I've not got to put a fancy suit on to do this. It is real.

And I was going to say. Does that make you feel better? Can I.

What? Can you put that mine. What I'm trying to say to you is. What I'm trying to say to you is. Now, I've just realized that's not in your house now, is it? Yeah, I need one of those buttons now. All joking aside, that is why I think I've done all right online because A has been always positive, B, it's always been real. Whatever you see is real. Three years ago, you see me next to a Lamborghini or Ferrari.

Wow.

Is that your car? No, I wish it was. You see me next to a black BMW. Yes, it is my car.

So does that mean with. I'm always interested in going off on tangents here. Does that mean that cars are a love of yours? And considering when I spoke to David Gandhi, one of my questions for him was, what was his first car? So, you know, we could talk about all the classic cars, what have you, But I think it was a Fiesta 1.1 and it had, you know, popular Escort. There you go.

1987.

And that was a good year. 87. And that's always what I love about is talking about the stuff that people might not expecting us to. And for me, for you, it was about, like fatherhood, because you're a dad of. I mean, how many. How old are your kiddies now?

My son's 21 and he'll be 22 in December and my daughter's 19 this month.

Yeah, so. So a grown, you know, your son is a grown man as opposed to. For me, you know, I've got a nearly four year old and a nearly two year old, so that's a different kettle of fish at the time. But what was it like for you? Like, how did fatherhood change your life? There's always positives and negatives, but.

Not really negative. How it changed my life. When my son was born. The very next day, I drove my car from my house to the hospital to go and see them because he stayed in. My foot came off and I was a lot slower driving and I realized I woke up with a lot more responsibility. Yeah, makes sense.

Interesting.

What was important to me at 25 wasn't at 30. And what was important to me at 30 wasn't at 35. Because I believe every five years you have a different train of thought and a mindset and different values. So, yeah, cars have always been quite important to me. I've always got told if you've got a nice car, people treat you differently, especially in the sales game. I've always had a nice car because it's my mobile office and I've decided if I work for myself and I can't have a nice car, I don't drink, I don't. I don't smoke. Clean living, fella.

Yeah, what's the point?

I'm not gonna go and get a 9 to 5 job.

Yeah.

So I've always had quite a nice car. Wasted money yet, but. So we're drinking and smoking. No disrespect to anybody that drinks and smokes. That's their life. Your choice, you do what you want to do. It ain't for me. So how I've brought my kids up watching their adults is, don't drink. Don't not say don't drink. They all have a drink. Don't smoke or take drugs or whatever. I've never done anything like that and I'm quite proud of that. Some people would be embarrassed to say that, but I never did the ecstasy. I never did order, whatever it is, just haven't done it. Yeah, it wouldn't suit me. So I've always said to my children as they've grown up, if things was any good for you, your dad would be doing it. Yeah, if it ain't no good for you, I ain't doing it. That's why I don't heavily drink. Heavily smoke. Once they saw me drunk when I was a bit younger and I'll never forget it. They'll be about three and six years old, three year gap between them. And I was throwing up in the sink in the downstairs toilet and they just stood there like that. What's wrong with you, dad? Yeah, back then I was worried to their mom, but then she was saying, well, he's pissed away. Look, that's what your dad's doing. That hit home. I looked in his eyes because I'm ready for football, go to football. All I want to do is grow up and go to bed onwards. I stopped drinking anyway. I've never been a big drinker. That's the truth.

That's one of those things though, isn't it? Sometimes you can have that one moment where you might not realize how powerful it can be. But yeah, being chucking up and your son looking at you and thinking, what's wrong with him? Why is he doing that?

My kids have ever seen me do now, really, from what they can remember is. And they do remember that, by the way, but gets up in the morning, that goes to the gym. They don't live with me, they live with their mum now. But they know I'm at that gym every day. They now know my lifestyle over the last sort of five years is on here, which is what they're used to. They see my stories every single day. They know I'm talking positive, they know I'm exercising. In fact, I did a shot today with my shirt off. My son was with me. He goes, put that on your story, dad. He goes, I think you'll be all right. So I've looked at it and thought it. Stick it on. No biscuits or something I bought. And I'm gonna have a cake on my birthday, on my 51st birthday. I felt looked pretty good. Yeah, okay, just stick it on. I've got his approval. Does that make sense? Yeah, but, yeah, just again, with them, with anyone. People say, you know, how old do you think a person is? A child is when they start learning to drive.

Yeah.

Christ knows.

Yeah.

When they open their eyes and then that back seat looking at you. So if you're driving like this with no seat belt, I've been there, done that, got that T shirt and got a lot of points for it.

Yeah.

They're watching. So they're learning to drive from a very young age.

Yeah.

They're also learning about life and how you're conducting your life. So they're getting older, but you're getting older, your parents and your grandparents. I'm very lucky. My grandfather's 101.

Right.

Wow.

That's what that tattoo is for there, the Burma Star association, when my kids were born. But there's a lot of meaning on this arm. And, you know, you look at your parents and they're getting. Or you're getting older, your kids are getting older, but everyone's growing and they're always watching all the time. I grew up in a bit of a negative environment, if I'm honest. My parents were always, what do you want to exercise for? You're not working hard enough. What do you mean? You want a day off, you need to go to work. That type of environment. Very old fashioned. Whereas I've not been like that with mine. But the exercise thing, yeah, I've encouraged it.

Yeah.

But I've encouraged it also to the point where my son's anxiety, a little bit of anxiety, which a lot of the 20, 21 year olds have had, or between 16. The millennials.

Yeah.

And I said, okay, exercise, exercise, exercise. I was sending him Joe Wick's videos, wasn't doing it. He's packed in football and all of a sudden over lockdown. He's lost a bit of weight from his diet, asking me to come to the gym now. And his whole life's gone. He's on again, he's feeling good about himself, you know, he's getting better in the mind, the body and it's all connected. Yeah, it's working.

It's such an important part of the whole message. We Try to, I would say we try to give guys thought provoking content so whenever they're telling people what to do. Because again, what works for one person doesn't work for another. People got different budget. Some people have got kids and have to get up early, others have got flexible jobs. So it's a total mixture. But ultimately if you can try and you know, try your best to live a healthy lifestyle for your mind and your body, you know you're going to reap the rewards from it, you know, very quickly, but also, you know, in months and years to come. But I know some people, again, it comes down to motivation because you can. Yeah. And the discipline because I always say it's like Joe Wick stuff. You know, there's never an excuse that you didn't know what to do with exercise because there's about 5 billion exercise videos online. It's, you know, the resources are there and free if you, if you can't afford to pay someone. But it's about how do they get the motivation to actually want to do it. And that's what I would say is you've got to find what you enjoy.

I think, to be honest with you, what sort of annoys me. And it's, and Joe Wick says this as well, everybody worries about their weight. I want to get fit because I want to lose a, I want to lose a stone in weight before going to the beach in Spain. Don't do it about your weight, do it about your mind. Move your body, move your mindset, shift your mood and it will work. And if you do it consistently, minimum, I've been saying do the minimum, a 20 minute thing for now for, I don't know, years. Even before Joe was advertising doing all those things, I was saying that never miss a Monday and you only need to work out for 20 minutes. If you do enough in 20 minutes, that'll be enough to get northeast racing around, get yourself off. Whether that be run, walk, swim, gym, boxing, no matter what it is.

But.

You'Ve got to do it consistently and treat it like you clean your teeth and go to the toilet. Basically. You do it daily, don't you?

Yeah.

If you do that three, four times a week and have a good, average, healthy lifestyle, your weight will take care of itself, you will tone up, you will feel better, you'll feel more confident, your clothes will fit better how they should fit because most people put a baggy top on unless it's in fashion to cover a belly or something saggy, get those clothes fit in your right, start Learning to look in that mirror and like that person that you see, because that is your worst enemy. If you don't like who you're seeing in the mirror, you ain't gonna like what you're seeing here.

Yeah.

And we can stand in front of a mirror and naked and pick a fault with their bodies. Geez, I've got a million bloody faults. Who hasn't? But you've got to get over that and be happy with what you've got. How you conduct yourself and how you look in the mirror and look at that person and go, do you know what? I actually like him or her.

Yeah.

That's so powerful. When I teach my classes, I make sure they have fun.

Yeah.

Make sure they're raised up. They'll want to come back, not feel like they have to. They want to because they know that feeling. They walk in and get on the scales and go, get off them. You look lovely. You look good as you are. You look good, mate. You know, the ladies, oh, you look really good. Don't be telling them to get on them scales. See how much weight you've lost this week. Because if they haven't lost that pound or two pound, they go, oh, God, yeah, crazy. And then the mood goes from there to there. Yeah, I want to take that mood up there.

That's the thing it's about. I mean, say that comes back to mindset. And I'm trying to think what they're saying was, you know, there's the most important opinion you'll ever have is of yourself. Because, you know, if you're like, you say, if you can look in the mirror and we all know we've all got, you know, I've got a pointy nose and got various things that we all have that we. That we don't like, but generally you're like, you know, what if overall, you can be quite happy with the way you are, the way you're thinking. I put that down as winning at life, to be honest. But I was gonna ask. Yeah, go on.

I was gonna say another one of my signs is if it's important to you, something in general, whether it be fitness or your pictures or your dress or whatever, if it's important to you, you'll find a way.

Yeah.

If it's not, you'll find an excuse. Just don't miss a Monday.

Yep.

Well, I'm going to put that in our. In our weekly letters as a challenge to people to say, look, could you. At least for the next month, you know, especially whilst it's Nice weather. Could they, could they put, put that they trained on a Monday and, and maybe put it online 15, 20 minutes? Yeah, nothing hasn't got me too stressful, but.

And, and also underneath, that's any exercise. They don't have to go boxing, sparring and kickboxing or whatever. Walking, if it means walking or biking, any exercise, just move that body for a minimum of 15 minutes. If they try that for a minimum of 21 days, I'll guarantee you their mindset will change, their body will change, the whole demeanor, everything will change.

Yeah, that's.

I'll tell you why that's important. It's, again, it's trying to make things achievable for people because often if you do coach with someone or you're trying to kind of, let's say, put them on the right path because maybe they feel like they're letting themselves down with their health, their sleep, their mindset, their nutrition, all the different things we can, you know, we try and help people with, with. It's like saying, well, you know, what, what's achievable? And we're not asking people to do an hour plus of exercise a day. It is. Can say, you know, if it was only five minutes, it's better than nothing to just get the heart rate going and stuff. So we're actually going to launch where I always say that getting, getting in front of people is a different energy to doing it online. As we know, you know, you and I are having this conversation. We're still not actually in the same room. Stop not actually looking at each other. So at some point we're going to launch it where we'll take one guy at a time to come and live with me for three days. And my partner's a nutritionist, so she would cook and do nutrition consultation. I will sort out their whole life plan and they will go away without any kind of confusion as to how much focus.

How much is that going to cost?

It's 10 bitcoin, but it's that thing.

Breaking the Cotswold that'll do me perfectly.

And that's why we, you know, when we moved out here, that was one of our plans, is to be able to have, you know, we lived in South London. It was all very nice, but it's not particularly inspiring. But where we are now, you know, two seconds from our house, you can be running up over the hills, looking out across north. So, yeah, that's one of those things of helping guys get a bit of focus and giving themselves time, because I don't think most guys give them. They're so busy being busy they don't give themselves time. But I was going to ask you if and when we have another whole Mountain Academy event and you kindly said you'd come and say a few words, what do you think you would talk about?

Pretty much what we spoke about today. Really learn the art of looking after yourself, mentally spending time on yourself. Spend some time alone as well. You know I'm not a big reader. Everyone always goes on about reading, read this book, read that book. I'll get to the first paragraph or the first page and then by the second or third paragraph on struggling and falling asleep. I shouldn't listen to something or do this or talk to someone, but do it for yourself. That's what's the big thing. Keep your life simple. Get your expectations a little bit lower. Because if you're expecting everyone to be loyal around you, you need to buy a dog. That's why I got a dog. Because that's the only loyalty you're going to get. That's the truth. And my little dog, bless him, I've only had him a few months, he's only six months old, but he's so loyal and he brings the family together as well a little bit. You know, just keep things dead simple. With the address sense, I thought I'd answer a question, I'll talk to about what they wanted to talk about. Really?

Yeah.

Because this is pre recorded as you know, I'm sat here on my sofa. You're just. I don't know what you're going to ask me. Yes, I've got that on your email when you first asked me the subject. I'm pretty confident in talking about any of those subjects. So yeah, I think I'll just start off by perhaps tell them a little bit about myself maybe if they're interested. I mean if you get more than 10 people watch this, I'll be gobsmacked. But if you do and it helps one of those persons and fantastic.

Yeah, no, no, I agree. Well, I'll definitely, I think I said beforehand when I. When I'm confident that the government are going to actually give us our proper freedoms back instead of just drip feeding, you know, two steps forward, one steps back, then I will be trying to sort out an event in London and then when we do it.

If it's in that same place as I went to before, can you put a word in for a nice double breasted blazer?

Just something, just something nice like that. I've got.

I didn't mean it like that, but.

Yeah.

I remember looking around there thinking, wow, look at these prices. I'd love to have one of them. Okay. I wouldn't want to afford to. What? I would want to afford to buy one, but that's the word I'm looking for. Just to put one of them on. Feel good, that blazer.

Yeah.

Well, breasted one, please, Anthony.

Yeah.

So I don't care what colour it is.

Yeah, we're not fussy, but. Well, I appreciate all your time. It's always nice to this to say, it's nice to chat to. You know, I didn't know a huge amount about you, which I always think is more interesting sometimes than if you've done hours and hours of research and you know everything that someone's going to say. And I always think that these conversations mean that a guy can listen to it and he might take one or two golden nuggets away from it, basically.

I've got a question for you. Really? Yes. I came to that event with Paul McGregor. Is that why you chose me to do this today? Or how did that come about?

I'd seen your Instagram and I think I'd seen some of your Instagram stories and I saw your stuff a long, long time ago and I wrote a long list of guys that I thought might be interesting because somebody might say, I'm not interested in being on the podcast. And I literally have in front of me there's probably about another 70 people that I just spent one day literally going through all these people that I thought looked interesting that done Instagram stories and was working my way through them. And then I can't remember which one of your pictures came up. And I was like, fucking hell, that looks good. And I was like, right, I've got a message. Message, Darren, get a time and a time and a place. And, you know, also just. Just find those people that have got an interesting story to tell, to be honest.

Well, I really do appreciate that. I really appreciate your time. I feel quite sort of humbled that I've been asked second time now. So that tells me something must be working somewhere that people want chat. And again, if anybody, if this, if this interview, someone take one little piece out of it and it helps that one person. That will make my day.

Yeah.

If it does well for you, that will make my day as well. Where else will this be seen?

This will be seen. This will be seen on Friday on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Geez, you're gonna promote me everywhere.

Yep.

Well, I'm On Facebook as Darren Ranch. I'm on Instagram, as you know, and I'm on Twitter as well with the same name.

Yeah, well, I'll put all these.

Okay. A lot of people decide they want to fake my account. That's happened to me so many times. Report, report, blah, blah, blah. I don't know why people would want to do that. Really.

Yeah, there's a big rise in that. I've seen a lot of that in the last. In this last year where different people I follow are saying, I think it's James Elliott who's the. He's a quite big on Instagram as well. He was on the podcast. He was a. He was an airborne soldier previously, and he's a military resilience coach. But because he's got, I know, 10, 15,000 followers on Instagram, and then he keeps getting these clowns that are, you know, copying the page and I'm like, wait, have someone really got that amount of time that they can sit there and do that?

I don't get it. I just don't. I do not get it. And I think, Darren branch official. And I'm like, what? I'll get people messaging me, oh, why are you offering me this? And what are you doing this for? And I'm like, hold on a minute, that's not me. I've had people from America send me DM saying, is this you? No, but all over the world. And it's a little bit freaky, really, I think. Why do you want to. Why?

Well, we'll make sure. We'll make sure we take the right. The right Instagram account before we put the stuff on.

Yeah, definitely take the right accounts. And I'm up for you to tag it wherever you want to tag it. And if it's like I say, if it helps one person, I know you'll be happy. I'll definitely be happy. So thank you very much.

Perfect. Lovely. Well, Darren, I appreciate all your time and, and all your Instagram stories. And also I. I've been sneaking some of your style tips quietly as well. So hopefully, hopefully when I see you.

That should be quite easy. Jeans, T shirt and a white pair of sneakers.

When you've got little kids and they're getting snot, hummus, God knows what else on you, that's. That's when you need something that's easily changeable. But yeah, we'd love to invite you. Whenever we do have the next event, we'll invite you over and drop a few pearls of wisdom. Lovely, love.

I'll make sure I'm definitely available for you. No problem at all.

Thank you, Darren. Cheers, Ed.

Bye. Bye.