My Advice To College Students

Stop! Alright, so first leg day back in Raw. Everything feeling heavy, but whatever, gotta be done. So now that I've linked up with Ben again, long time no see, we're gonna go into this seminar that I've been talking about a couple of videos ago. So let's head down to Galway. So right, the plan for today is we're going down to Galway, NUI Galway, one of the biggest colleges, universities in Ireland, and I'm giving a talk to the Business Society on my story, my kind of rise as an entrepreneur, as a businessman, with mistakes I made along the way, what I would do differently. It's going to be kind of relaxed chat, probably going to go into Q&A at the end. I'm excited, I'm nervous/excited. Like, people think that like I'm always just like super cool with all this, I never get anxiety. I swear to God, I can, I can get like that giraffe from Madagascar real quick. So I'm just gonna go down, gonna get in the zone, and hopefully just boss it. But so we're just gonna get some petrol because it's a 2.5-hour drive down and then we'll kick off the evening. All right, so we got our snacks for the road. I got a Bit Hit and I got some Myprotein beef jerky. When you're going on a road trip, snacks are essential. So right, let's get our driving face on. Is that even a thing, driving face? Let's go. For a minute I just thought it was gonna take my car and I'm like, see ya. Um, so me and Ben were just kind of talking there, looking Look at this weather, by the way. Like, oh my God, just— oh, get me out of this country. But what's that— what's that Greg Plitt saying again? It's like, it's not about waiting for the storm to pass, learn about how to dance in the fucking rain. But anyways, okay, so me and Ben were just talking there, and Ben was like, do you have a script ready for this? And like, or even like a plan of what to say? And honestly, I don't. I'm just winging it. And if I did have a script to stick to, that would make me mess up even more. That's kind of a public speaking tip I have that it reworks for some people. That like, if I thought I was like, I gotta remember this line, I gotta remember this line, it just wouldn't be natural, it wouldn't flow, I would make more mistakes. So I'm literally just gonna go up there, just, I don't know, speak from the heart, I guess. That's kind of just how I do things. That's how I just make things more fluid. All right, so we just rocked up here. Now nerves are kicking in, but I live for this shit. Like, it's just something to get amped up, get stuck in, work the crowd, um, get everyone motivated, get everyone pumped up, and make sure everyone has a good evening. So right, let's go! Oh my God, there's people in there already! Okay, so I got here and we went to the lecture hall to kind of like show me where I'm talking and stuff like that, and they're like, okay, it's completely full house, we're gonna have to move everyone to a bigger lecture hall. And I was just like, oh Great! Literally freaking out right now, but like, I am what I am, you know? Like, obviously I'm really excited, like a little bit nervous, but I'm down. I'm dying to get it started as well. Oh my God, holy shit! First, I want to do a little sound test. Can everyone hear me? Yeah, good. I was going to go on the microphone there, but I kind of speak keep my hands, I move around a lot, you know, so I'm a bit more animated. Basically, today is gonna go, I'm just gonna tell you kind of my story. You're on the Business Society, so that's like perfect. I'm gonna tell you how I kind of started off as a businessman, as a, you know, my rise as kind of an entrepreneur. And kind of the best part about this is my story begins where you guys all are now, you know, when I was about 21, 20, you know, just in first year of college. Just finished the Leaving Cert and kind of just finding myself. So let's kick it off. And if you have any questions, hold them till the end and don't be afraid to ask. No such thing as a stupid question. So, okay, let's start off. 18-year-old Rob, just done the Leaving Cert, okay? 340 points. Pretty shit. Not great, you know? So I was like, okay, right, okay, what am I going to do next? And back then I literally taught the Leaving Cert, the CEO. It was literally the be-all end-all. I was like, yo, I'm stuck in this mentality that it's go to school, go to college, get a job, have a mortgage, have kids, and then die. You know, I thought that was the life cycle. Yeah, I know, it sucks, right? I thought that was the life cycle that you have to go on. And so I just picked a business course, okay? And before I start, you know, college is amazing. If you can get a college degree, definitely do that. But the real kind of take-home message I want to talk about is finding your passion and turning that into a skill and going hard at it. So anyways, I did big business management, I went into DIT, and it was great fun, okay? You know, obviously went out, enjoyed the college life and everything, but I wasn't truly into it. My heart wasn't into it, but I did it anyways and had great fun. You know, went out, got wasted a lot, you know, did the college thing, which is great, but I didn't have a productive year. You have all this free time in college, but yet, you know, you really rarely— not many students really utilize that free time. So I did it. Summer came up, had summer exams, and yeah, they really snuck up on me and they didn't go too well. So I said, okay, first year college, I'm gonna have to repeat. So I'm back again, it's second year college. Well, I wish it was second year. I'm starting my first year again. And the same thing happened. I just, my heart wasn't in it. And this made me feel really bad about myself. I said, yo, is this my fault? It wasn't my fault. It was just that my passion wasn't about it and I just, my heart wasn't in it. And as you can probably guess, my passion is health and fitness and nutrition. Now, one thing that I did that was productive that year in college was on the side, I did a personal trainer sports nutrition course. And you can probably guess that I excelled at this. I passed all my exams without having to study. I didn't open a book. I'm not just saying that, and that went great, okay? And that's really kind of like telling me about something that if you find your passion earlier on, you really pursue that, you don't have to work a day in your life. You know, it's an amazing feeling. So I said, you know what, I'm gonna defer for a year. I'm gonna try my luck off just starting a blog, starting out in the fitness industry, and seeing what comes off it. So we're going to go into like a few Q&As, a few questions, uh, kind of stem from that. They can be about fitness, training, nutrition, business, like any troubles I've had along the way. And then we're really going to kind of go into those questions and stem from there. It's like, I, I used an iPhone sellotaped to the wall to record my videos. Now I have Ben, he's an absolute legend, and like I love working with him. Yeah, um, so like exactly Things like really, they start off slow and they get better and better. But with editing, I literally just got iMovie on my MacBook. I just looked up some YouTube tutorials and I just kind of went from there. I'd have YouTube tutorials open in one tab and I'd be like trying to edit in the other tab. People, and I didn't even meet them that many times, and we just like clicked it off and already become really close friends. Um, so yeah, no, keep that in mind that you're going to meet some cool people over the next couple years. Easy to do as part posting a picture on Instagram. You really have to show your personality. You have to go out there in the world, you know, do backflips, jump around, literally lift weights in the gym. Like, you really have to put in work. Like, it is a full-time job. And people also get more trusting of you, and they kind of get to know you a little bit better. So if a client goes, sees my YouTube, they, you know, I put also put out a ton of free information. That's also another great thing that you can do. And so they'll see that, and then they'll, you know, click on my website, which is linked in the description box. So really good question. And yeah, my main kind of tra— I'm definitely saying it wrong— traffic increaser is YouTube. Yeah, you get some really cool opportunities. Yeah, those meetups are great, and I want to do as much of them as possible. That's why I'm going to actually Orlando on Sunday. We're going to Orlando, Chicago, San Diego, just literally lift and meet people. So yeah, no, there'll definitely be one in Dublin at some stage. Future goals would just be like keep growing my brand and see what comes from it. But like right now it's only year 2, so it's kind of early days. Um, but no, I got a lot of plans. Yeah, questions? Oh yeah, yeah, funny, I was waiting for that. Yeah, yeah, I was there, I was like— but yeah, no, so by the way, these questions are amazing. Like, you know, when I came— uh, so don't be afraid to ask anything. Like, literally, you got me off camera, you can cut that out. 3 main guys I'd go to is bodyrecomposition.com, that's Lyle McDonald's website, uh, he's just like an OG in the kind of nutrition game. The guy is a genius. Alanaragon.com, again, these guys are also people that inspire me. They inspire me in different reasons. Like Gary Vaynerchuk or Casey would inspire me in business, these guys would inspire me to further my knowledge in the field of training. Nutrition. Those two, Brad Schoenfeld, he's another one, just, you know, search his name, you'll get his website, puts out a ton of free content. Omar Isuf, he's another YouTuber, and those guys literally helped me pass my nutrition exam without having to study. An honorable mention, Danny Lennon, he's actually Irish and he has a podcast called sigmanutrition.com. You should definitely all go check it out, this smart guy. Yeah. YouTube? What made you think, all right, I want to start a YouTube channel? I think that— that is an excellent question. I think like out of all the kind of ways to get your message out there, YouTube is the most powerful. It's like having your own TV channel and you got to make it successful. It's like you can even see the views, you can see the ratings, the likes, the dislikes. People will comment, give you feedback. It's literally like even brands will pay to put advertisements in your channel. Like it's crazy. So it, it's like having a TV channel, and I think that's a platform like no other. So I just saw it as a challenge. I saw that it would open the most doors for me, and obviously it takes the most work, so it's good. You're gonna get the most benefit from it, you know. I'll tell you, literally hard work is kind of gonna define everything in life. Something I've learned the last 2 years, that you get out what you put in. Put a lot of pressure on myself. I really kind of stressed myself out, and then the The second time I did it, I did a really short prep. I just entered on the last day and it was just a lot kind of less stress and pressure on me because I was like leaning down for summer as it was. And you know, I was like, okay, I'll just push, push, put the gas on a little bit more and jump into it. So I think if I do it again this year, I'll just do the same. I'll be ready and then just kind of do a short little burst, a short little sprint to the finish line and see how it goes. I follow flexible dieting, and I really wasn't like, you know, I literally just had kind of— I make things as simple as possible, okay? And I just literally aim to hit my protein, carbs, and fats throughout the day in the way that I like to do it the most. Like, so some people are like, oh, you have to eat every 2 hours, and they may work a 9-to-5 job in an office where carrying around Tupperware is an absolute stress for them. That's only going to set them back. So it's really about finding— just making things as easy as possible. I'd say 90% of my foods when I come from Whole Foods, but I definitely have some like frozen yogurt or some pancakes in there, just whatever to give me something to look forward to every day so I wouldn't like binge on the weekends or like fall off the wagon completely. Again, like we were talking about over there, adherence and sustainability is really number one because you can give someone the best plan in the world, but if they can't stick to it It's useless. You ever get approached by companies to sponsor you that you don't agree with or that you don't necessarily like? Oh mate, I literally, like last week, this random company, they offered me like a silly amount. Probably because the supplement was so bad, they're like, we're gonna pay him a shitload. And I literally said no, of course not, it's not worth my integrity. That's gonna come back and bite you in the ass. Like literally the viewers and everything would just get fed up with that, and that's not worth any money. Money. So integrity number one, always. Oh, by the way, Sarah was meant to come down and she woke up today and she was like just feeling really ill. She genuinely like really wanted to come down, as you know. I know, I know, it sucks. She's holding down fort. You thought I was gonna surprise you, just jump out of the desk, surprise! But no, no, she actually like really wanted to come down, but like she just woke up with like the morning sickness and stuff. Not pretty, that's not I don't want to go into details. Oh, by the way, she's not pregnant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my God. How do you stay motivated year round to keep your shape? Do you not ever want to just take 2 weeks off and you don't? Oh yeah, and I do. Yeah, absolutely. Even with training, you deload, and with diet, actually, protocol is called diet break. Where like maybe if you're tracking your nutrition, you should stop tracking for a while. You should up your calories, maybe like up your carbs and fats, lower your protein a little bit so it's just a bit more enjoyable. People are just watching less and less TV. Sure, everyone watches Netflix now, you know, you don't watch TV anymore. And so it's really just kind of like, you know, newspaper's dead, radio is like newspaper, and TV is like radio. Like it's all just kind of moving down, and social media is like right now it's at its peak. I was looking at some YouTube stats statistics just recently and the past year, there's more users, there's more views, there's more engagement than ever. So it's on the up, no doubt, for the next 5 years at least. And even when those 5 years are kind of over, there's going to be something else. Like, it's going to be, it's going to be more online. So yeah, it's really looking to be online. Again, another example, WhatsApp. Now in terms of drinking, like, you know, I still go out maybe once, twice a month There's nothing wrong, you've got to have a social life, that's very, very important. But nowadays I just don't have the time to be hungover. Like, you know, nothing to do with fitness. I literally just don't have the time to be lying in bed. I just can't waste a day. So, you know, that's kind of the reason why I don't drink as much anymore. I've also had my fun as well, you know. Like, there's only so many times you can go into Coppers and go swimming along the floor, whatever it is you're doing. But so yeah, I'm kind of past that, you know. I had my fun, had some wild times. I had some memories that I'll take to the grave, but now it's time to put in the work. Like, yeah, you get a bit of hate for it at the start, but you know, literally an anonymous comment on the internet does not affect me in any way. Like, I couldn't care about it less. Networking, do it. Talk, read books, start a rocket company. But, um, 5 more minutes, we're here. I'm enjoying myself, you know, so we'll keep going, okay? Were your friends supportive when you started off your YouTube channel? Thankfully, yes. Yeah, they actually were, so they're like really supportive of it. But yeah, if I started like in 6th year, it would definitely be like a different story. And like Ben said, Ireland has this island mentality. It's like Father Ted, Craggy Island. Like literally when anyone does something, it's like the talk of the town. When I go to America, everyone's always like, "Yeah bro, American dream," you know, like they're kind of like that. But that is the kind of mentality. It's a small town mentality. But yeah, you gotta look past that and stop caring what people think. That's, you know, it's an old saying. First they'll laugh, then they'll copy you, and then they'll ask for a favour, you know? So yeah, absolutely, yeah. Alright guys, I think we're going to wrap things up there. I hope you enjoyed it. Let's all give me a round of applause. Believe, like, that hour just literally flew by. Like, if it wasn't, like, so late— I have to get back to Dublin, it's like 2.5-hour drive— I would literally love to go on, because like I said, meeting people and, like, especially students, like, you guys are, like, sponges. Like, you were in the prime time. I know. Oh, thanks, I'm a sponge. And you guys are SpongeBob. But you guys are, like, in the prime time of your life. Like, you're just, like, you're really at good time to just really chase your dreams, as corny as it sounds, but I swear to God I mean it. So like, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to come down here, talk. I can't believe that hour flew by. I wish it was 2 hours, to be honest. And just have a really good time, and hopefully, hopefully I'll be back again this year. Okay, I'll send it. Right, so that is a wrap. This video. I swear to God, like, the vibes, the buzz, everything in that room was just amazing. Galway, you are awesome. Everyone in the room, the questions, like, we had a laugh. Uh, it was just so good. Like, I'm high right now. Like, that public speaking, connecting with people who watch my videos, that is, that is my buzz. Okay, so just thank you so much. Hope you enjoyed the video. See you in the next one.