Turning Your Life Around with Cameron Stewart

This episode of the Get Fast podcast is brought to you by Tribello Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. You are joined, as always, by your hosts, Australian Ironman champion Jared Donnelly. And I am Jordan Donnelly. In this podcast episode, we are interviewing a really inspiring story by a guy, current Tribalo athlete of ours, and we decided to get him onto the podcast not because his story is anything to do with professional accolades or the greatest sporting or athletic achievements in the world. In fact, it's quite the opposite. And when we say he's a trivelo athlete, he said himself in his own words that that's a bit of a stretch of words. He doesn't even call himself an athlete, but his story is inspiring nonetheless. From coming, in his own words, from a really dark place to turning his life around and using cycling to completely change his life in all aspects, this is a really incredible story and something we wanted to share and get a tribal athlete on so you could hear part of his stories and hopefully it can help you in some way. And, yeah, it was quite a great interview, wasn't it, dad?

Definitely. Jordan, what you've just summed up there about his athletic ability, it's absolutely got nothing to do with that. It's a journey for Cameron, and, you know, he first came to me two and a half years ago, and it's been one of the more enjoyable stories and partnerships that I've had. And, you know, I say partnership because every athlete we coach, we feel like it should be a partnership. And, you know, what Cameron has been able to achieve personally, from, you know, literally 135kg down to 95kg, from building his business from near the bottom of the the ladder to flying, to having a struggling family relationship, to having two great kids and a wife who loves what he does now, all because he just got his life sorted out and had structure and had goals set and organized his week and days. And everything about this story, it's not about winning, it's about personal journey. And sometimes people need to understand that there's only going to be some so many few winners in everything we do in life, whether it's a business, family or athletic achievement, but it's the journey that you take yourself on. And this is what I really wanted to get across to the listeners. And I've just been so inspired by his attitude and his positivity towards everything that he's done in that two and a half years that I've known him. And it's a really Inspiring, motivating story to hear and just gives you perspective to understand that we all struggle at times, you know, in our daily lives on any given week or day or month. And it's just how you deal with those struggles is gonna, is gonna make you or break you. And, and I think, I think that's the story we want to get across today.

Yeah, we hope you really enjoy it. Cameron is a unique character. You'll find that out in the interview. You know, he says what's on his mind. He's completely honest about his own story and about his own life. And I think that what's made his kind of comeback and his story pretty special is that he's a little bit different in his beliefs and he puts himself out there, but he really is congruent and aligned with his own beliefs and that's what's made him so successful in his own right and in his own goals, which is the most important thing. And so, yeah, we hope you enjoy what he has to say. We certainly did. So, without further ado, here is the interview. Just a final note, with this interview, the interview does go into some serious mental health topics and the topic of suicide. So if you or anyone you know needs any help with mental health or suicide, you can call Lifeline on 131-11114. That's really important to mention. Lifeline is always available to help. On 13 double 11 4, Cameron Stewart on the podcast with us, a Tribalo athlete, an epic rider and an epic person. We can't wait to hear Cameron's story. Cameron, thank you very much for joining us.

No worries, mate. I think putting me in the athlete category is probably a bit generous, but.

That'S a good start because that gives some to your story and you're forever telling dad how grateful you are for being on the program, for being with Trivelo and getting fit. It's really amazing to hear that so consistently. And so we wanted to get you on here to tell your story about where you've come from and how getting fit and really focusing down on some discipline has really helped you in your life. So I'll let Dad say some words about you, Cameron, and get us started in that way.

It's been a good almost two and a bit years now that the journey Cam and I have been on together and, and I've been pretty amazed at where Cam started on our training life journey and to where he is now. It's a story that I really want others to hear and there's so many positives about what has happened in Cam, not just in his health and well being, but he's told me many times how, how it's improved every other aspect of his life because he's got structure and he's got some things to work towards each day and each. The stepping stones have been really helpful in his journey from where he was a few years ago to where he is now. And that's sort of the first question. Where I want to start with Cameron is tell us, before you and I had a little chat on the phone two and a half years ago, where were you in your physical state as an athlete?

Well, put it this way, we have a big hill just down the road from our house and at that point when we started chatting, I always sort of tampered with mountain biking and played around with it, but more just tried to go down hills more so. But there's a big hill down the road there. It's probably around, you know, 600 meters long. I couldn't even ride up it. That's how unfit I was. And I, I think I was around 130 kilos. And my fitness was terrible. My, my mental state was terrible. I was well two, two and a bit years ago. So I was kind of really starting to come out of one of the biggest down times in my life from a mental standpoint. Around the time I started training, I, we dropped several million dollars off our portfolio and our property portfolio and we got ourselves into a fairly stressful sort of predicament for financially we hadn't gone bust or anything, but we had, we had significantly reduced our wealth, etc and I had been in a really terrible head space, like, I mean like severe anxiety, depression. My dad had just died, we just had a baby. Our relationship was a little bit tough because I was so stressed and it was really a bit of a crappy time. And it was about that time actually my cousin, because he was up, we had bought a house from. And we were just having a, we were getting on the lash, having a few beers in the shed and he said he can't even remember the conversation. So he shows you how much whiskey we drunk that night. But he told me about this mountain bike race he'd been doing down in, in Wanaka in Lake Hawea. And I, in my state of intoxication, somehow that got engraved in my brain. And the next day, or the day after I signed up for 160km or mountain bike race without ever doing a mountain bike race in my life. And I rang, rang up Brett and I said hey mate, I've signed up for that race. And he goes oh yeah, what one did you sign up for? And he go, he goes, this is where I realized I'd maybe done the wrong thing. He goes, oh. I said oh, the 160 because oh you idiot, you shouldn't have signed up for that. He said you should have only signed up for the 85 or the 90 or whatever it was. And I thought oh okay. And so I proceeded to ring Craig, who's a good friend of Gerard and told him what I'd done and Craig said, oh okay, you probably should have a chat to Gerard. So that was kind of. It was all a. It's a story of my life. Everything's fairly erratic and I don't really think things through too much. I'm not really over analytical about anything. And Gerard would have seen this in the earlier phases of trying to get me started with technology and all this stuff. I lose the plot trying to get stuff going. I'm like 100 miles an hour and everything I do. And anyway, so I rang up Gerard or Gerard rang me and we had a chat and I think I just said oh, I'll just tell me what to do and I'll do it. And that's kind of how it started with Trivalo and you know, to fast forward from that point, you know, going back to that hell that I was telling you about that I can't even ride up or I can sprint up that now on my bike.

Yeah.

You know and like it's pretty crazy to think that you can jump on your mountain bike today and just bang out 100ks and you're still good to have a beer if you want, you know, like where in the early phases of my training I'd do 20k and I'd come back and I had to go to sleep, like that's how unfit I was.

It's a great start to the story and thanks for that introduction. So just on a 130 kgs is where you started with your weight. Where are you at right now today?

Around 95. Fluctuates a little bit sort of between 95 to 96, but it's around that range.

Have you noticed anything Cameron, about everyday Life's things that 35 kilo that you've taken off has enabled you to do differently?

Oh just everything. Like I'm a, I'm a, you know, I'm a hunter for example, I go way up in the bush hiking and, and we, I went away with some mates a couple of months ago and I was just peeling up the hills. Like usually I'd have to like stop all the time and I just don't get puffed anymore, you know, and just, you know, running around doing all the things because like I say, when I say I'm 100 miles an hour, that. It's hard to explain what, how that looks, but it's. There's a lot going on at any given time in my life. I think losing all of that weight and being fit and having a clear mind makes you a lot more functional. Where I actually, when I look back at where I was at before, I don't even know how I functioned, to be honest with you. I was really. I don't know, I just. It's really hard to think how I was functioning like that because if I have six beers or something now, I. Oh man, I hurt big time. Where, you know, we used to have. We've got a thing in New Zealand called Crate Day. And that's where you sit down, you knock off a 12,750mils of beer, 12 bottles. And. And I used to be able to drink a crate and a half on Crate Day and I wouldn't have even touched the sides. And I'd wake up the next day and do it again. And that was kind of like the extremist part of my personality is everything I did.

Yeah.

Was a hundred percent good or bad. And I suppose, you know, just cutting out the drinking. I hardly touch alcohol these days and, and you know, I just, I don't touch drugs. I don't touch anything like that anymore because I don't, I don't need to. I, I find the cycling gives me the endorphins and the happiness that I need. I don't need that crap anymore.

That's fantastic to hear that. And what about your business? You talked about being really financially down from where you were. How's this healthy lifestyle and approach and attitude affected your business?

Oh, it's been well since I started cycling just because my habits were so much greater, you know, getting earlier starts, you know, having to fit the cycling sessions in, otherwise I'd get anxious because Gerard, I knew he was watching like big brother over my shoulder. And that's how I. I suppose from a business point of view, it's been phenomenal, really. I've gone from. I've like tripled the size of my business. Like income wise. We run a couple of different businesses. We have a network business, we have a property development business. For a long time I was battling with the network business for example, because I just didn't have the right attitude, right thinking patterns. I was unrelatable and through this period of time just being focused with my fitness and all the rest of it dominated there and dominated the property. You know, when I started in property 2009 full time, you know, we were doing $200,000 transactions and today we're putting together transactions and 20 million plus. And you know, it's pretty crazy to think like how you can end up in a situation like that in your life. But it's, it's a compound effect, you know, it's like what you do daily, good or bad, negatively or positively affects you. And I, I think that's really what the cycling has done for me from a fitness like it's just given me a focus that I can't go and do the partying and all those things anymore because I, it will just screw me up when I go riding. Yeah, go ahead, Jordan.

Well, what about your mental health? Because you said it was the probably lowest point in your life. So how's that turned around now?

Well, I've naturally been an anxious personality my whole life. I've been, it's just the way I've been since I was a little kid. It's just been part of who I am. Naturally an anxious guy. And obviously with the cycling and doing the sessions and especially the endurance. What I love about the endurance riding is it's kind of like an out of body experience. You get into a state where when you hit the hurt locker and you don't think you can go any further, you find it's like an inner peace where all of that mental turmoil that's going on in the brain can be. It's like it disappears because of. You go into a. For example. I'll give you an example. It's hard to explain but you guys know this because you're a cyclist yourself. But how I look at it is when you are all anxious and worked up in your mind, you're thinking about the pain in your body. But when you find peace in your mind, you start to hear the stones under your tires, you start to hear the birds whistling, you start to hear the, the branches falling in the forest, you start to. It's a different space, like a meditative state and it's really weird out all of the things that I've done because I've done a lot of different things. I've done NLP coaching of, you know, Tony Robbins events, Grant Cardone events. Like I've spent quarter of A million dollars on different courses and coaching programs and all these different things. And the problem I always found with a lot of stuff, it was a lot of it was a bit rah rah, and there was no real accountability. Where what cycling's and or biking's done for me is it's like a time where I can actually think and I don't have to think about all that other crap that's going on around me. And it gives me clear direction on what I need to be doing. And it's. The only way I can describe it is like meditating for me.

It's incredible, the description you've given us, because that's an example in so many people who have found what you found, that clarity, that simplified thought process and, you know, we can confuse ourselves with so much junk in our head, then, you know, if we strip things back and just concentrate on keeping it simple. And Craig Bellamy, the Melbourne Storm coach, is an unbelievably good ambassador for keeping it simple. And my dad used to say, you know, kiss keep it simple, stupid. And it was, you know, if it's just your role is as Craig Bellamy describes, your role as a forward is to score. Your role as a defender is to tackle. And that was basically his coaching regime. And not complicating it, not getting guys so confused that they didn't know what they were doing when they got out in the park. And that clarity that you're talking about is exactly that in your cycling. And do you think that's one of the things that's helped you not only become lighter in your weight, better focused at work and in business, and also understanding how to go through the process of training for an epic event, like 160 kilometer mountain bike.

Yeah, I just. It does it just once you. I remember going into that event, I don't think didn't matter how much training I'd done, I was never going to be prepared mentally for what was ahead of me. Just to put it into perspective for the listeners, I. My mate and I did that race and I think Gerard had me training for around nine hours. We'd built up to about nine hours and we ended up on the bike for 12 hours. It's like, I mean, like, like, how do you like that? Serious hurt locker.

And just to put this in perspective, when Cameron first said to me that he's picked the race and the goal, and he had picked the hardest event in New Zealand, probably one of the hardest events in the world, for his first go at a race, and even my Background I picked my first mountain bike race and it was 100k and I was still questioning my decision whether I should have done the 50 or the 100 because it was my first mountain bike race and I've been riding a bike for 40 years. Cameron had been riding a bike for four minutes and he picks 160k mountain bike race, the most epic event that he can possibly do. And that's an example of the thought process of Cameron and there's no challenge that I've thrown at him that he won't just go, okay, if you say I can do that, I'll do that. And it's just a great attitude that it's just so refreshing for me from a coaching point of view to have an athlete like you who if I say this is what I think we should be doing, you'll go, how high do I jump? And your way about, you go about going through your whole daily process because you've got a young family, you've got a big business that you're running and you're trying to get yourself fit. One of the things that you think about each day in terms of managing those three incredibly difficult things that you're juggling each day, how do you go through that, Cameron?

Well, you just got to manage your diary. Like we, we have obviously the diary on our phone and it's just full, you know, obviously over December, January, it's a little bit slower for us because we don't do much property wise over that period. But you know, February, onwards to November is fairly, you know, hard out. And I think it's just learning to manage your time. Like people, you know, like it's pretty hard to fit in 15 hours a week of training alongside all of the other stuff that we do. Like it's a lot of different moving parts. You know, like property development is no easy game. It's fairly complex. You're dealing with, you know, an l team, around 74 different subbies and employees and consultants and all that type of stuff. So there's a lot of moving parts from that point of view. Then you've got the pressure that goes alongside it that if you're not composed it can really. It's easy to make excuses not to do a bike ride, put it that.

Way.

Because you just get so worked up, you know, about it. And then, you know, outside of that property stuff, we, we do two to three hours a night building our network. You know, we have well over 100 people that we mentor and coach in that arena and that's Growing, you know, there'll be multiple hundreds at the end of this year. Plus we have two boys, lifestyle block, a rental property portfolio. I'm a hunter, I'm a scuba diver. I have a motocross track at my house. Unfortunately, Gerard doesn't like that, but I probably spend four hours a week on my motorbike as well. I don't tell Gerard about that, but I do.

It's a very busy schedule and the only reason I know he's on his mountain bike is when he crashes and breaks his ankle and can't ride his push bike.

The point I'm trying to make is I think a lot of people think that they've got no time. And I think people who say they've got no time just don't have a dream. You know, when you've got a dream and a desire. See, I, I, I, I, I don't ever think I'll be ultra competitive as a mountain bike rider. I just think my limitations because of my injury and stuff, I haven't talked about that yet, but they limit me a little bit. It causes me a fair bit of grief and I just, I might be able to get above average, but I, I, I don't do it for that reason. I do it because it's progression. Like it would be easy just to stop, you know, once you've done a few. Like I did that Waka 100, which was a hundred kilometer single track race, and I, I didn't actually complete it. I failed, I missed the cutoff point. I did 80k and it was a brutal race. I said to Gerard, I'm never doing that again. And anyway, couple of days went by and I thought, no, no, stuff it, I'm gonna go back and beat that bastard. And so I signed up for it again. And you know, like it's about progression. It's not about, it's my own battle. It's not trying to prove a point to anyone else other than myself. And I think it's not driven by ego. I think that's another thing too is cycling's very humbling when you're getting your ass handed to you by 60 year olds, you know, like, you know that, who have been cycling for years and they're just dominating you, passing up these hills and smoking you. It makes you go, well, actually I'm not that good. And it got rid of a lot of ego, naturally egotistical personality. I think you have to have a bit of ego to succeed in life. But it sort of humbled me and made me Realize, hey, I'm not bulletproof, you know, but I am capable of improving. And I'll probably bit of a long winded answer to that question. I probably, I'll go all over the place. My brain goes different directions.

I really liked your answers and that was going to be. My next point is asking you about your challenges at the moment because the story so far is incredible from where you've come from to where you are now. But it doesn't just end, you know, you don't just get to this point and then you're good for the rest of your life. You know, it's hard to maintain it. It's not like you've just gotten here and it's easy to maintain. So what challenges are you facing at the moment to keep it up?

I feel like challenges, I don't look at challenges as challenges anymore. I look at any struggle that I have as a lesson. So I think my perspective has changed on how I look at problems where maybe a few years ago looked at problems that have arisen or stresses. Like we've got things going on in property and things happening all the time. It's complicated. There's always stuff happening, going peer shape. It's just the way it is. But rather than stressing out all the time about it, I've been more solution orientated and it's kind of been like when I've had these little injuries and stuff along the way, you know, like I, I actually fell off my bike a couple of weeks ago and bang my hip up and I've been going to the osteopath, just kind of been riding through that, you know, like I did 100k's with a sore hip the weekend before and I, I, I think your pain is in the struggles that we have are just a lesson. And you know, like I've been reading a book lately, David Goggins, you Can't Hurt Me. And he's pretty tapped out, that guy. And I, I'm kind of, I've, I've always been a little bit like that myself. Anyway.

Speak about, we speak about that book a lot on the podcast. It's, it's a family of mine.

Yeah. Because, and I think really challenges will continue to come and you know, you never out of the woods. There's always circumstances that happen because that's life. But it's not what happens to you that matters, it's how you overcome them. And my belief system is I can overcome anything. Just give me time. And I believe I can overcome anything now because when you get into a world of hurt on a bike and you just think you've got nothing left. Like, I mean, to the point on that Walker 100, that race, if you haven't, if you don't know what the waka 100 is, Google it. It's a race in Rotorua, New Zealand. I tell you what, if you think it's easy when the border opens up, come over and have a crack at that, because that is brutal. 100k is a single track. But there was a point in that race, I just completely lost the plot. Like, I mean, like, I just hit the wall. I don't know what happened. I just, oh, I lost the plot. I threw my bike on the ground, I just completely lost it. And then I come right and I just banged away and I got back into the zone. But unfortunately I didn't make the cut off.

But.

I suppose the point I'm trying to make in regards to that is sometimes when you get into those states, whether it's in business, fitness, whatever, you know, losing a loved one, someone sick, all of these things that happen to us, it's just a phase that will, that will pass. And if you keep focusing on that particular situation, it won't pass. But if you just go, okay, well, I just gotta turn this pedal one more time, one more time, one more time, eventually that will be behind you. And I think that's kind of like my mentality now. I don't really. There is no challenge. There's. There. It's just something that I've got to overcome to keep moving forward.

That's a brilliant answer again, mate. And you really, you know, you've really emphasized that you can only control what you can control. And the things that are out of your control, they're time wasters and they're actually ineffective for your progress. And, you know, you're on about progress and improving yourself as a person, both in business, as a family man, a husband, a father, you know, and as a mountain biker. You're always wanting to, you know, there's no one who tries harder than you do in the training program. And I imagine I don't know anything about your business or your family, but I imagine you've got the same concept there. And it's a great example for all those listeners that you can go through a horrible experience in your life. No matter how long it goes for, whether it's a month, a day or 10 years, you can still change your attitude, your approach, and turn yourself around. And you're an example of this to Everybody who's listening. It's a hard story to get across because it's so involved. But, but where you've come from when I first met you to where you are now, it gives me such pleasure and pride to talk about you to other people when they might be in their own world struggling with many things that are happening, whether it's personal or business or just in training. You can overcome these things with just the right perspective on what's happening around you. And you're a great example of this. And it's quite incredible how you've, how you've managed to do that because, you know, you have had a, you know, a pretty, as you say, 100 mile an hour lifestyle. And, you know, you people who look at you now think you've probably been doing this like this for a long time, but you haven't. You've come from a, from a place that was pretty dark.

Oh, mate, yes, like majorly dark. You know, like in 2006, I had a major spinal injury and crushed L5S1 vertebrae and ended up having multiple operations, got really sick, got a disease called discitis which attacked my nervous system and just about killed me. I was, I was down to about 70 kilos. I looked like a cancer patient prior to that. I was a fairly boisterous young man and, you know, physical, you know, rugby, you know, fighting, all the things that young guys do, just stupidity. I was in Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and, you know, when that injury happened, you know, it's really funny when you look at where things are at now. You know, I never thought that I would even be alive, you know, let alone doing 100 kilometer mountain bike races. I have a numb left leg, I have nerve damage of my left leg and I have a few spines. I get obviously fairly major spasming and stuff because of that injury. And so if I fall off or anything like that, I pay for it big time. And that's why I take a little bit to recover. But, you know, like, if you look back at that point in my life, you know, I got told I'd never do anything physical. The doctors, you know, they, oh, you want to see this. The reports, the psychiatric reports and all the shit that they did at that point through that compensation period. It's like if you, if you believe what those reports say, you just go and get a gun and end it. Like, seriously. And that, that, you know, you got to be careful what you listen to. You know, what the medical field says is not always correct and that the Human mind is powerful than a. Than a tablet, you know, and you can actually fix your own problems through, like, what we've done here with the exercise. But, you know, in the earlier years of my life, I wasn't doing what I'm doing now exercise was because I was told I couldn't do that. So I believed that, didn't I? So what did I do? I just drunk, you know, took drugs, and that was my way of dealing with that. You know, it was a traumatic experience getting told that you never be able to play rugby or not that was any good. But, you know, I used to love it, you know, like getting out there and thumping people around on the field. I loved it. You know, it's. But you get told you can't do this and you can't do that. You apply for jobs, no one will employ me. Employ you because you fail the medicals, so you're branded as, you know, they're not. People aren't calling you a loser, but they. That's how it makes you feel. So, you know, like, the reason why I've done a few talks and things like this over the years on social media and different things, and I've spoken in front of hundreds of people all over New Zealand, and I don't do talks like this because it's about me. I. I actually just do this because I want to help people because, you know, like, some people are just battling. Like, you look at what's happened recently with COVID 19, and the unnecessary stress and all the stuff that's come upon us because of the lockdowns and the stress on businesses and. And all of these things. And sometimes some. Some people just need to hear that it's going to be okay. There was times in my life that I didn't think it was going to be okay. I wanted to end it. You know, I openly talk about that I wanted to end my life at different times because it was so hard. But anyone can overcome those things. It's just one foot in front of the other. And I think, you know, like, if there's people out there that listen to this that have had serious injuries and stuff, sometimes when you're in the thick of that, it's pretty hard to see the light.

Yeah.

You know, you probably see it with some of your clients if they've had a pretty big spell in there, it's pretty tormenting on you if you've been physical your whole life.

Yeah. Look, everything you've summarized there, Cameron, is, you know, every. Every person that is in our Group has experienced a percentage of that. Not probably to the extremeness that you have, but everybody's going through this. And so with that, how important is it for you to set goals or targets or work towards things? How important is that in your structure to enable you to be the success that you are now?

It's 100%. That's all I do. You know, I'm, you know, like, a little bit weird, probably slightly obsessive about the goals that I set, and it's probably a little bit extreme for some people, not compared to a lot of other guys. There's a lot of guys that are way more successful than what I am. And, And. But it's not about others. It's about your own individual journey. But setting goals is key, you know, like, hence why I, I, like, with the biking, I. I just. I know if I sign up for those races, I'll do it. So that's. It's kind of like, I've already put those marks in the calendar, so I'm kind of screwed. I have to, like, train, otherwise going to be in a world of strife when it gets to the waka 100 later in the year. So setting, you know, fitness goals. I never had fitness goals before I started doing the cycling thing. And I think the good thing about the mountain biking, what I do, it's just good because you can just work from event to event. And I find if you don't have a goal, you lose focus. Then you start to eat more pizza and, oh, it's all right to have a few more beers here. And you start to lose, you know, your clarity around what you're doing. But in regards to what I do with my. The property stuff and, and what we do with our network and all the other things that we do, you have to have targets in place. But I think I was saying this to some of our guys. We were doing a zoom last night. Some of our guys, I said a lot of people have big, audacious goals. Like, they have this. This big, audacious target they're trying to hit, but the problem is, like, they're. They can't actually clearly see the target. Like, it's. They know it's there, but it's like they're looking through a scope of a gun. And it's like, so far they can't. They had a shot at it. They would miss because it's just too far out of reach. And I think with goal setting, you've got to. You've got to. You have got to have interim Targets, you know, like, I didn't do that when I signed up for that 160 race. That was, you know, a fairly audacious goal and I just had a crack at it. But in business especially like, you've got to have those shorter term targets and you'll never hit the targets if you're not disciplined, you know, like, I can't say I'm 100% disciplined, but I reckon I'm probably 95% there with the things that I do, like pretty hard out when it comes to discipline. That's how I've got to where I am with all the different things. So you've gotta, you've gotta have, you've got to be able to break your days down. You've got to win your day. So if you want to hit a goal, any goal, first of all, you've got to win your day. If you can't win your day, how the hell are you going to win your week? Or if you can't win your week, how are you going to win your month? You know, then I break it down to quarters, you know, in the year. Well, you've got to be able to break down what are the goals for this quarter, you know, and you know, like, what are the goals for this financial year? So my, my thing has been, well, I'll double my income. Well, how the hell do you do that? Well, you've got a, okay, well two, two ways you can, you can double the activity that you did the previous year or you can get smarter about how you go about doing your business. So do see the doing as many transactions, do bigger transactions or instead of doing, you know, smaller jobs, if you're a tradie, like a painter or plumber, do bigger jobs, you know, like, and have more of those rather than running around like a blue ass fly trying to do everything. And I think the other thing too with goal setting is I think a lot of people just try to do too many things and they, and I'm probably one of them to a degree too because I do have a lot of hobbies. But you, you've gotta, you've gotta know, well, what, what is it that I like, really? What is the life that I want? And I never used to talk like this, but it's like I want to, you know, I want to, I want to be the best dad and husband that I can be. I want to be as fit and strong as I can be. I want to be able to influence and help as many people as I can. I want to be able to contribute to society. You know, I never thought that I'd want to give a million dollars a year away, but that's like something that I've got on my mind that I want to do. I want to get to that level where I can have a charity of some sort, where I can give that away. Yeah. So you get to a certain point where the goal setting is not just about your own little life, it's about what is the biggest, what is the bigger picture here, who can you actually contribute to, you know, what is the impact that or the legacy that you're going to leave behind.

It's such a good attitude that you've got. And you know, always said many times in our own business that if your main goal is to help others improve, in effect you will improve yourself. And, you know, that can never be true. Or word said, I think the people who are so hell bent on improving themselves and don't care about anybody around them, they're setting themselves up for a massive failure. And, you know, you can't be like that. It's great to try and improve yourself. We're not saying it's not, but, you know, if you've got the attitude that how many people can I help along this journey? And in fact, you end up helping yourself be a better human being. And if you're in a better mind, state of mind, you know, your business improves, your family improves, your training improves, and when you go to do that session that's bloody, you know, hard as anything on a Tuesday, you know that you've got the right attitude and you know that this will enable you to have a better day. When you're standing on the start line come race day, because you've done the hard yards along, along the journey and as you said before, each stepping stone along the journey is so crucial. It's not just about race day, it's about how you get to race day, the journey, the process. And I think you've just summarised so many of the things that we try to get across in some of our podcasts. It's been gold camp.

So, yeah, the parallels between what you're saying with breaking down your business goals into quarterly, monthly, weekly, it's exact same with training goals that you say all the time, dad, it's, you want that end goal of the race, but you can't just get there, you know, you've got to have the stepping stones along the way. So I really appreciate that, Cameron. That's a really great way to finish. I think you know, you're very honest about the way you think and the way you go about things. And you say yourself, it's a little bit different, but it's what's made your story so good and so interesting to listen to and to see how far you've come. That different level of thinking has gotten you to where you are. So it's, it's really inspiring to see. And we know you're passionate about telling your story. You tell it a lot in different forms. That's why we wanted you to come on here today and share it, because it can really inspire people and it's really healthy for anyone listening to hear someone's, you know, where they've come from in a negative way and where they are in a positive way, you know, both those things help. So we really appreciate you coming on and sharing that. It's a, it's a really powerful story to hear.

I really think, you know, it doesn't matter where you're at in life. Like I said, I've said to Gerard multiple times, I'm forever well grateful for the people that I have in my life. You don't get to where we are today without the wisdom of others. You know, in this case, Gerard's program, Wisdom Around Fitness has been, you know, instrumental over the last two or but years. And, you know, like, I got a mentor, Craig. Craig, Craig and Anna Dean, like, they've just been huge in my life and helping me and, you know, other people along the way, you know, like my accountant and a whole range of other people that have been there to support you. Don't make it on your own. And I think having people to support you in your, in your circle is just so vital and having gratitude towards those people. You know, sometimes you can get ahead of yourself. You can start to think you are, you know, you're a bit too good, but you should never forget where you come from. And so, yeah, like I say, it's. Hopefully it's added some value to your listeners and, you know, for anyone who's, you know, looking at Gerard and Jordan and what they do with Trivella, all I can say is I was a novice, novice cyclist and now I can bang out 100ks relatively easily on a mountain bike. And that's testament to their program. And so, you know, I'm always telling people about Trivelo and what they're doing. So thanks, guys. Been great chatting today.

Awesome, mate. And look forward to seeing how you go on the weekend in your next journey to your. You're putting it. Pinning another number on and. And seeing how you cope with another exhausting day on the bike.

Yeah, that's going to be good. Bit of character building.

Appreciate it very much, Cameron. Thank you for joining us. And thanks everyone for listening. This has been another episode. We'll see you next time.

Sam.