Episode 1: Living life Unbounded with Nick McNaught

All right. This is going to be fun. Thank you for joining. This is. This is. It's. It's interesting because you're one of my best friends, and we're sitting down to have this conversation, and I'm just excited to share who you are and what you're up to and your journey with. With everybody who's watching. For all of you, I'd like to introduce you to my good friend, Nick McNaught.

Hey. Hey.

And, you know, Nick and I, we have known each other since, well, eight years. Seven years. Seven.

Eight years.

Yes. So we met through our previous lives. When I was competing, I reached out to this company called Fuel Foods and started using their program, eating their delicious meals. And Nick and I met through the. Through the service, and we met and connected and kind of clicked right away. And, you know, you supported me through the whole fitness journey. And, you know, Nick and I, we've traveled the world together. We've. We've built bunk beds in Guatemala. We've hiked volcanoes, we've driven from coast to coast. We've enjoyed many different experiences together. And, yeah, one of my closest friends was one of those guys that I would say is, you know, if your car breaks down in the middle of the night, he's a guy you can call.

Yeah.

And I'll share his number. So in case you do break down, you can call him. He'll come get you.

But another business I can start.

There you go.

Yeah.

So, yeah, and speaking of that, you know, Nick is. Is a serial entrepreneur, has had, you know, multiple companies, and I'm super proud of what he's doing now. He has created an incredible company, service modality. I obviously will get into it. You can share all about it called Unbounded. And I'd love for you to just share about your journey of going from, you know, Fuel Foods and, you know, what you went through with that. You know, the time in between when you were figuring your shit out and this, you know, this new company that you've created. As you know, my podcast is called Pivot to Purpose, because many entrepreneurs are going through this point of reflection, consideration, and asking, you know, what am I really here for? What really fulfills me? What do I want to wake up and do every day that actually love and lights me up? And I'm so happy that you found that for yourself. And now you're sharing, you know, your beautiful work with people. So I'm going to hand it over to you to share with everybody watching or listening a bit about the Nick McNaught journey.

Thanks, man. There's a lot to. To cover there. First of all, thank you for the kind introduction. I feel the same way about you. And when I think about kind of some of the highlights or greatest moments that I could think of in the last decade or three quarters of a decade, most of them involve you and the experiences that you actually brought to my doorstep. So the feeling is very mutual. And, yeah, I think that, you know, if I was to look at those experiences and the path that I've led and how I've kind of arrived at where I am now in the moment, I could have never predicted the spot I'm in each time. And now looking at where. Where we're sitting today at this table, doing this podcast and both of the various brands that we're building and companies that we're building and the paths that we're leading, it makes sense, looking back to us. Well, okay, naturally, I went from there to here, and I pivoted to this company or to this path, but in the moment, it never really struck me. So, yeah, I probably am in one of the best places I've been and in the happiest states and feel the most fulfilled with Unbounded, the experience brand that we've now built surrounding breathwork, cold exposure, adventure travel, all the things that we hope to kind of allow people to feel a little bit more themselves than they might do on a regular day. Walking around with all that chatter in their head and kind of all of these expectations and, like, anxiety. There's a lot of discomfort in the world right now. And so our goal is to kind of create spaces within places and create environments that allow people just to be a little bit more them. Be that fire, be that water, be that, you know, a conversation community. Yeah. So to, you know, I. I would have always wanted to arrive here, but it's kind of like I couldn't have got here without the path that I've fled, which did start with, as you mentioned, Fuel Foods, but before Fuel Foods.

You were a trainer.

I was a trainer.

Trainer.

That's life.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you've got that fitness background.

And before that, I was a life insurance salesman for a couple years. And, you know, it's. It's just one of those things that I think the, you know, if anyone's listening that's kind of looking to, what. What should I do? What should be. It's just to become a more capable human. You know, don't worry about kind of like a specific skill. Work on yourself as a human being and your Capability and your aptitude for things will have you excel in the places that you land. And so, yeah, there was life insurance a million years ago. And then I was a personal trainer. And then as a personal trainer and having had decades of body dysmorphia and discomfort growing up, I was like, well, what. How do I. How do I reach the top while I do a fitness show? Okay, as you well know, right. There's that chapter. And I did three fitness shows. I did the WBFF Worlds, and then I did the UFE Pros, and then the UFE North American Pros. And those were the three shows that I was like, I'm gonna do these and I'm gonna have ripped abs and I'm gonna feel great. I'm gonna be the best looking on stage. And after I did do those accomplishments, there was none of that validation that I was actually looking for. There was none of that success that I was hoping for. But I didn't clue in at the time that that was the wrong path. I noticed that there was still kind of a seeking. And when I was training clients again back to the gym, there was a need for people to be able to eat healthy as well as do their workouts. And thus was born the Healthy Meal delivery service. So I started giving a few meals to some clients of mine and then some more clients and then other trainers clients, and then you, and then a whole bunch of other people. And out of that was born really, like an incredibly successful meal delivery company for its time. Back before we had Uber Eats and all these companies that you can go get food from instantaneously, we had, you know, a really healthy meal option that people could order to their doors. And the convenience was just. It hit at the perfect time and we took off. And through that, I made all these amazing relationships and connections. I got to spend more time with myself. And then around 2019, we closed up Fuel Foods, and I ended up taking a. An opportunity. Well, before that, actually, there was novel evenings, which was a quick blink of an eye. Right, right. Which was a. A book club that was also kind of not your average evening out combination that ended up growing to about 450 people, which was really cool.

Yeah, you built that community pretty quick.

Really quick. Yeah. And I think what, you know, when I look at, as I say, like, looking back, all these things really do. There's, there's hints of them, there's. There's like little, little clues that this is kind of where I've been leading is, you know, the book club. Everyone came out to read the book and to kind of chat. But really everyone stayed because they were meeting strangers and they were connecting, and then they were talking about stuff that you don't get to talk to others about in your day.

Right.

Usually. And they were connecting with strangers, which felt great because everyone kind of walks around in their own shell, tight and anxious. And that is actually what made the book club so successful, become kind of a social evening, is that people were just enjoying that connection element to it. And then I had to make a tough decision and continue to build that or go down to Texas and a friend of mine was building out a glamping retreat property meets festival grounds meets sustainable farm. The one one stop shop for. For, you know, the ultimate place to live, especially if you're in the arts and entertainment. And so I went down there for about a year and a half to help him get that off the ground and build that. And I got to recruit friends and do amazing travel. And then the pandemic hit and go ahead.

Before we jump into that, feel free to cut in.

Can you expand on this?

Because I, you know, I have an intimate understanding of your journey and what happened. You know, I think one thing that's important to just share a little bit about because, you know, many entrepreneurs are going through this right now where they've had a successful company for many years and things are. Have been going well, but then, like you said, the pandemic hits and all of a sudden their business is disrupted and sales are cut by 70%. Or maybe they're having problems with their partners. Maybe they're running out of money. There's this time in an entrepreneur's career where the shit hits a fan and money runs out or problems with partners, and it's like, okay, well, what do I do now? Because our businesses and our business partners, and it's like a marriage and the business is like our child. And, you know, for me, when I chose to walk away from Blowfish, it was. It was. I was walking away from my identity of being Zark the Blowfish King street guy. Yeah, I was walking away from over $1 million of my own money that I had invested into that project. And I was also walking away from what I thought at the time was my credibility. Like, oh, well, if I close Blowfish, my career in Toronto is done. Like, where do I go from here? You know, and of course, without, you know, share what, as little. As much as you want. We don't have to get too, you know, deep into the details. But there was a point where you made a choice to walk away from your business.

Yeah.

Because you wanted to honor what was really true and aligned for you. And you made a brave choice in that moment because I know you didn't know what you were going to do next. You were just like, I don't want to do this anymore. And again, I think it's important to share because there are many entrepreneurs or people out there who are questioning their career, they're questioning their lifestyle, their business, and they're sitting there asking themselves the same questions, looking for the same clarity that you and I had to discover for ourselves when we had that turning point moment that we can now look back on and say, I made the right choice.

Yeah. Yeah. Happy to clarify more on any of these points. Yeah. Fuel Fuel Foods didn't. Didn't close up the way I wish it would have. I had other partners in that, and there were disagreements as to how the business should be run, and ultimately actions were taken that made it difficult to pursue that. And I had to make a choice of. It was in my hands to decide how I wanted to approach that. And I had to walk away, unfortunately, from that. And it was, you know, that summer, that three or four months when it first happened, my identity was so wrapped up in that company, in what I had built from the ground up for almost the last decade. I think in most people's phones, I'm like, Nick Fuel Foods. That's like the name that is there. And it felt. It felt like a defeat, and not like a defeat of something that I had made or owned. Like, it felt like I was defeated, like I was broken. And it was hard. There's no going about it. When you lose your company or when you choose to walk away from your company, it is very much like a divorce or a breakup and a loss of something very emotional, very dear to you. And there. There's really no time is the ultimate healer with those things. But also putting in, I think, the work to understand the difference between who you are and what you're building and your company, and also being open to new opportunities and to your capabilities and not, you know, I always think that it's really easy for us to fall into lows. It's like we're always walking over trap doors. They're there. We'll put them there with our own ego and our own conscious without us needing to do that. It's harder to put yourself into a good space when you're going through something like that. And I think that the more time I spent allowing myself to Just be in that space and specifically with good community and good friends and people that support you and what you're going to be doing with yourself.

So, yeah, and I think that's really valuable for people to understand is what was it that helped you get out of that dark period where you were feeling lost, you were feeling betrayed, you were feeling frustrated, and I know you were even feeling a bit confused as to what to do next. So you went from this place of okay, my business is no longer me, I'm no longer Nick Fuel Foods. And then you began exploring new opportunities like the book club, and then you said yes to going down to Texas. So, you know, how did you go from that to that period of self exploration and you know, saying yes to life to, you know, what you've created now? Because, you know, I think, I think that's really admirable and something that is, it's really what determines whether or not you're stuck in survival mode or if you're able to thrive and come out of it in a better place.

Yeah. And I mean that, that survival mode that like fight or flight that we feel in those situations where maybe you receive an email like your business is, is shutting down or something, where it's one of those like real moments where you can feel the tingle down that, that is very real cortisol, that is very real stress that you are experiencing. That is a very much like you said, a survival reaction. And I think that when I first, like when I first was making what I would say my pivot on my path, I put so much stress on purpose. What's my purpose? What's this thing? And it's such a vague, large thing. It's like, it's not specific and it's not attainable. It's like trying to create this thing that's just gonna be okay, well, maybe it's this. And then what is my true purpose? You can always be following that. The, the thing that helped with me was kind of like rephrasing it and saying what is meaningful work? What is something that's gonna make me feel fulfilled, passionate and feel good. Something where I can express my passion. Something based around community. Because that's what feels good. I mean, the, the tie in with all of these things that I did post, post Fuel Foods was if I look at it, community based, creating places where I got to connect and where others got to connect. And there's, you know, I think that's probably one of the single greatest things that helped was instead of closing off, instead of shutting down instead of just kind of like going into this dark corner. I tried to open up as much as possible. I tried to reach out and connect to people and not to force that, like, oh, I'm fine. But to be like, hey, I'm here and I'm just looking to be a part of a community and connect with people, but I'm also here just as me and like as. Maybe today's a dark day, maybe today's a light day, but continuing to pursue that connection, continuing to pursue community and to try and do my best not to attach an ego to what it was that I would be doing. I think that once you've reached a certain level of revenue and your company's a certain size and there's certain things that come along with that type of success. It's, it's, you know, you're basically starting back at the bottom rung.

Yeah, it's very humbling.

Yeah, it's very humbling. You're now wearing all the hats again.

Yeah.

And to do that and feel good and to be able to see the thousand foot view as people, I think that both you and I would align with where you, you're able to see the thousand steps to building this great idea into what could be an amazing brand or company for someone. And not spending all that time being like, okay, well, I just want to be on step 999 or 1000 and being able to find enjoyment and fulfillment in steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, all the way back up. That was a really hard thing for me to do, was to go from having kind of like climbed the stairs to like, well, now I gotta climb them again. And then better get battle hardened and ready for these next few years. But it, each time that I've been able to create these movements, it hasn't felt difficult because it's always been based around community and it's been based around things that I have found. At the end of the day, I feel amazing.

Even if I would say just watching you, you know that you're also building in flow. You're building and it hasn't, you haven't felt that grind or the resistance because you're doing something that's very aligned with, with what's important to you. And often when we feel that hesitation, procrastination, we're resisting moving forward. It's because we're actually not really aligned with what we're doing. But you knowing how passionate you are about community and what you've created, it just for me, knowing you, well, it's like, yeah, obviously, yeah, it's a no brainer, of course.

Yeah, yeah. I do feel like in the moments that I am, as you say, building in flow, I'm not even really aware of it. I'm just, I'm so present to this specific thing in front of me that I do, I do feel very much like in, in flow state.

One thing you also mentioned, I just want to touch back on is you said that, you know, during this time you were really questioning purpose and you were questioning, you know, what am I here for? What am I to do now? Would you say hitting your rock bottom and being in that place of oh shit, what do I do now? Was that one of the key catalysts for you to start asking these questions about purpose and how you can contribute and give back?

Yeah, definitely. I think that it didn't come at first. Like I think when I hit rock bottom, I just kept trying to seek out getting back to the top and not kind of just asking the right questions and spending the right time at the bottom to climb out. And it took a little while of me just trying to, you know, work hard, not smart at my mental state. Really. Like my mental health suffered greatly during that time. And it didn't, not that it didn't need to, but I didn't do myself any favors by just trying to be better, just trying to get something else going right away. Just trying to, you know, there was like this need, I've got to get back on my, I got to do this. And the, it's like happiness, the more you try to pursue it, like the, the more it evades you. And sitting back with that, with that low in that rock bottom did after a while when I was like, I'm not going anywhere so maybe I should just spend some more time getting really present to myself, to my feelings, to what's going on with me, to how I'm showing up in relationships, to how I'm showing up for myself. Okay, I'm feeling fear around this thing. Is that fear of success? Is it fear of failure? Is it just self doubt and starting to like, try to peel back the onion a bit? It's amazing. You peel back a layer and you jump 10 steps forward. It's truly incredible at what, what things you can do with, with mindfulness to, to the right questions around where you're at that will help you propel. It's like hitting that big ladder on the Snakes and Ladders board game where it's like, right, this feels good. This is what I feel called to and you can have this incredible lightning strike. Um, but I think if you're in. If you're trying too hard to seek out what. What those are instead of just sitting with yourself.

Yeah.

It takes longer to get there.

Yeah. And, yeah, thank you for sharing that. And I know that obviously, perspective from the bottom is a lot different than perspective from the top. And when things are going well and we're crushing it in business, you know, we don't ever stop to say, okay, hold on, Wait a minute. Why. Why is everything going so well right now? It's usually when shit hits the fan and the bank account's in the negative and landlord puts the eviction notice on the door that we stop and question. Oh, wait a minute. How'd this happen? Why did it happen? You know, we. We can learn more from our mistakes than we can from our successes. And, you know, there's a quote that says you should never rob anyone of their rock bottom.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Because, you know, often people need to hit their rock bottom in order to have that moment of realization, oh, shit, here's where I am. And they can now sit in it. And what I hear you saying is, rather than being the entrepreneur of doing, doing, doing what's next, what's, you know, moving forward, you chose to just sit in it and just be with it. And in that, you went from the doingness of the entrepreneur to just the being of a human, to feel these emotions, question your beliefs, question your behaviors, and develop a new perspective and essentially create this new context as to what does it now mean to be a successful entrepreneur.

Right.

And what. How do you choose to be successful moving forward? You know, now that you've had this time, to really reflect and ask yourself, well, what do I. What do I really want to do? Like, what do I want to do? Because, you know, so many entrepreneurs, you know, many of us are driven by what we think we're supposed to have. You know, as a man and an entrepreneur. You know, we're supposed to have the house and the car, this and the that. And, you know, we're fulfilling this program or this ideal of what we think we're supposed to be having. But, you know, it's in those moments where you lose everything that you say, okay, wait a minute. What do I actually want? What's going to make me happy? And. And I know that's where you're at now because I could see it in you. I could hear, you know, the excitement when you share what you're doing. So, so. So you're in Texas now and you're working on this project and you're down there for a year. Fast forward back to Texas.

Yeah.

I'm gonna crack open one of these.

Yeah.

Cycle. How do I open this thing?

I know. This is what I went through right before we started rolling. Wait.

Pull from the white tub. Thank you. Oh, there we go. And then you. Okay. Wow. All right.

It's really quite nice.

Yeah.

So. Yeah.

Cycle plug.

It's. It's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Yeah. It tastes great too. I like the reusability of it. Resealable. Yeah. Good water. Yeah. Something that I think helped. I'll get into Texas, but just to circle back on what you said, it's. There's. There's like a practice you can do that. A friend of mine told me, and it really helped. And it's. While you're in the low or while you're kind of like, what do I do? Any of the. Any of those spots where you're just trying to. Something's happened. Be it like a loss of a company, a loss of a job, you ask yourself three questions. What is good about this? What can I learn from this? And how do I improve this? And when you say, what is good about this? You're genuinely trying to find good things about your company. Shutting down. Yeah. It's like a gratitude practice, but it also moves you into a much more positive, open, creative space. Right. It takes the focus off of this. Bad things happen. Okay. It's happened.

And. And to add to that also, when you're looking at as a bad thing and you're focusing on negative, you're feeling resentment, frustration, anger, guilt, hate, even. And those are very low vibration emotions. When you can shift to what's the good in it, you can then have appreciation, gratitude, you can even be thankful. Oh, wow. I'm. This is. Yeah, it sucks, but I'm glad it happened.

Yeah.

And then you're able to transmute those emotions and raise your frequency.

Yeah. Yeah. And that. That ultimately is what. What happened, be it conscious or unconscious or subconsciously happening. For me was just starting to find the. The positives about the situation that I was in. And then trying to improve it and trying to learn from it and. Yeah. Fast forwarding back to Texas. So the pandemic happened and. And Texas was a time. Texas is a really great time. It's. It's definitely the wild west out there. And it's got a. A special piece of my heart. There's no question. But it is. It is definitely a different world.

You became a full on Redneck down there.

I was. I was.

You were ripping around on one of those. The hovercraft boats.

Yes. Yeah.

Fishing, Wrestling alligators. You're doing all kinds of stuff.

Catching alligator gars the size of me. Yeah, I. I was like, if I'm in Texas, I'm doing Texas. You did it. And I honestly think that it's like one of the most incredible tools in my tool belt now is having that experience down there.

Amazing.

And so many good friends, so many good relationships and memories, and I'll return often and forever. It's. It's an amazing place. Unfortunately, the pandemic just presented like an immovable object for the project. They were trying to get off the ground there. And so in the height of the pandemic, I came. Came back to Canada. And you and I have both shared this lack of affinity towards winter and the cold. I've been able to escape it in Texas, I've been able to escape it in Costa Rica. And I remember I got back to the cottage in July and I was already thinking, like, there's no way I'm doing winter in Canada. There's no chance I got away from this. I'm not coming back to this. And with each passing month, the reality that I would be spending winter in Canada, like, was ever present. And our friend Zach and I continued to swim every day. Every day, Every day, right up until we closed up the cottage on November 1st. And it was obviously, like, a lot colder each time, and we were present to that, but we were kind of creating this adaptation. And then these amazing things would happen while we would go swimming out in the bay. You'd get this huge norepinephrine rush, feel these amazing, like, mood enhancements, attention. It'd be like five cups of coffee to the face. You had these. These really Zen moments in the water where it's like, what I now realize is what meditation is trying to get you to. And afterwards, you feel just so alive and present and, like, peaceful, and you're able to manage your, like, your resistance training, your stress response. Right, really? And so I got. I remember closing up the cottage November 1st and coming back to Toronto at Cherry beach and being like, hey, who wants to come swimming? And everyone's like, what are you talking about, man? It's cold out there. But eight friends, eight totally separate friends all said, yeah, sure, we'll. We'll come for a swim. And, yeah, we went down to the beach, we had a little beach fire. We connected, we did some breath work, we went for a swim. And Then magic happened, and people became best friends in 15 minutes. Like, it was incredible to watch. And every single person who had shown up being like, okay, I'm just doing this for you. And I'm here. I'm here for the Instagram photo of, like, getting into the cold water on the beach.

That's how, you know people love you when they're willing to meet you down at the beach in winter and jump in cold water.

Yeah. In the morning, too. Yeah. There's. There's many confrontation levels to this. It's like, it's dark, it's cold, you're going in freezing water, and it's super early in the morning.

Yeah.

There's like, a layer of objections there that's really difficult to get through. So everyone connected. Everyone was like, hey, we'd love to. We'll do this again, and can I bring a friend? And I remember leaving the beach that day and be like this. I'm. This is something.

Yeah.

You know, like, I'm sure you and I often sit here and look at things and be like, oh, that could be a really cool company. That could be a really cool company. And in that moment, I had not been looking for what I would be doing. I was just kind of going to the beach and enjoying time with the friends that I care about and creating experience for people to get away from kind of the hustle and bustle and stress of the moment. And in that moment, I was like, this could be a company. And. Which is the other part that I think we've both struggled with. And. And I feel really good about creating a company around this because it's something that I believe in and something I think people really do need. And I can authentically speak to this instead of just trying to sell something.

Yeah. Now, in that moment, you're sitting on the beach. You've got eight friends who just jumped into near freezing water. They're now sitting around on beach. They're all talking, sharing with one another. You know, in that moment, what emotions were you feeling? Like what? Because I know that was a catalyst for what has to come. So I'd like you to share a little bit about what were you feeling in that moment. And I'd also like you to think about what are some of your own personal core values that in that moment were really alive and present.

Yeah. I mean, the. The. The juggernaut of the feelings in that space was just like, you know, it gets used again and again and again. And it gets used because it's true. It was gratitude. It was like deep gratitude that all these different humans where I am just like a highlight on their life.

Yeah.

Chose to be there in that space and are creating new connections and spending time together. And it's like there's, there's a certain type of feeling that I don't, I don't, I don't know what the word is for it. I don't know if there is a word for it where you're around energy of people like just letting go and laughing and talking and connecting. And there's a, there's a, an energy that's being shared that just gives you kind of this like vibration in the. Right down there in the middle of the chest plate that you're like, this.

Just feels really good to be. And. Yeah. And what you're sharing, it's like.

You.

Know, it's more than a collective consciousness. It's a shared energetic field of people who. It's a shared energetic field of people in that moment who are feeling gratitude, love, bliss, connection. They're feeling, as you said, their brains are turned off from the stress and the, a million one things they got to do that day. In that moment, they're just very present, which is super important. They're also feeling gratitude. They're feeling the love and connection. And everybody's energetic field, everybody in that moment is in a very high vibration and it's intoxicating.

Yeah.

So, you know, here you are, nine people on the beach who are all sharing this high vibrational moment. And, and it's absolutely contagious, you know, and, and the reason why I asked you to, you know, share some of those emotions is because, you know, that's what it's all about. It's about raising our vibrational frequency by doing things that we really love and, and value. So here you are on the beach, Everybody's high off of the high vibes.

And you know, it's interesting you said because it's. I think that we, we over glorify the, the route you have to go or the lengths you need to take to get that feeling. And you know, I think that for a lot of people, even myself in the past, be like, oh, well, I, I've got to book a trip to Costa Rica or I've got to go to this beach, I've got to go to that beach. And then when it's the perfect sunset and the perfect southern destination where there's all these things going, then I can feel. Or you could get that feeling on the shores of Cherry beach in Toronto in winter. Yeah.

And it's the do be have model. When I do this, when I go to Costa Rica, then I'll be happy. Then I could have the life that I want.

Yeah.

Whereas, you know, the be have, do is be do have. When you, you know, when you start from a place of beingness, of being generous, being a leader, being, you know, the, the curator of friends, you know, you then, you know, experience. When you show up in that way, when you're being courageous and stepping into the unknown, you know, you are feeling that excitement, that euphoria. And as a result, you know, you'll do amazing things. You'll. You'll have all that you wanted because it's, it's just you already have the happiness. Because regardless of how that event went on that morning, you had no clue what was going to happen. But you just followed your intuition. You followed your passion of getting people together.

Yeah.

Your passion for jumping into ice cold water, pushing your boundaries, for getting comfortable in the uncomfortable. You know, you just followed your heart in that moment and as a result, everybody else joined you and there was massive heart expansion in that moment through that experience. Right?

Yeah, yeah, it was, I mean, a great indication is always people, you know, we do the experiences in the morning. Okay. It's 7:00am to 8:00am everyone's like, oh, I gotta get to where I got these things. And everyone lingers for like an hour or longer because no one wants to leave. Everyone's like, there's a space here. There's. I feel, this is an area of energy that I feel really good in.

And when they do leave, they're bringing that vibration into everything they do for the rest of the day. And I know you're a big proponent of this, but having your morning routine where, like you said, you don't gotta be in Costa Rica, you don't have to be in Tofino. You can be in your living room, you could be in your backyard, you can be down by Lake Ontario, have your morning routine that allows you to be present, lower your stress levels, tap into that high vibration frequency that you can then bring into your day and take it all on without feeling that anxiousness and that stress.

Yeah. Yeah, it's. It's just like setting the table. You're. You're priming yourself for who and how you're going to be and show up the rest of the day by having that. I become so protective of my morning routine. It's like I, it's the best way that I know how to be a successful human, be a successful Partner, Be, just be. Really just be.

Can you share a little bit about your morning routine?

Yeah, absolutely. I, I try to wake up. Usually I've gotten to the point now where I get up before, you know, the like five minutes before the alarm goes off, your eyes open. Okay. And then you can do that moment where you're like, oh, I'll just gain back those five minutes of sleep and I'll feel great, like I just won something. Or I'll get up. But it's usually around like 6:30, I'm getting up and then the first thing I try to do, drink a whole bunch of water. That's like the very. I leave a huge glass of water beside the bed, drink a big glass of water and then I start getting outside. It's like within minutes I'll be outside. Be it winter, be it summer, be it light, be it dark, whatever it is. I start with just some gentle movement of walking, 15, 20 minutes at least. I find that it helps warm up the body. I'm not going to get into the science of any of it, partly because I just look to science people for the intelligence and I trust them, so I'll be doing that. But the optic flow that's really good for your eyes to get first thing in the morning is really important. The low level horizon sunlight or light, even if it's spattered light is, or overcast, is still extremely valuable for our bodies to take in that light. There's a set of neurons right above the roof of the mouth called the supanuclei pseudo supra nuclei. I'll have to check that later, but. And they respond specifically to atmospheric light from the outdoors. And that's what gives our body this huge cortisol shot in the morning. The cortisol shot that we do want and need to wake up. And then it also sets a Timer for a 16 hour melatonin release in our body, which is important for us to then start winding down and go to bed. So those are kind of like my must dos. When I wake up, which is water walk, make sure it's optic flow. I can be, you know, seeing things, not with sunglasses or anything. And then low level horizon sunlight. And if I can, if I'm near a body of water that's cold or I'm up at the cottage with the dip tank, I'm probably going in shortly after that. And then I'll sit down, spend some time just trying to listen to nature, listen to myself. Usually five to ten minutes of just getting really present to my environment and Then I'll usually, I like to write out my day. I know that as my, my day starts, I can look at my phone. There's gonna be a million things I want to try and set out my to do list. And I try to keep it short. Like, what are my three big things I need to accomplish today? I know there's 25. We'll get to those. But like, what are the three I really want to get to? And then let me take all the other stuff that I'm, I have on my list and it's all here. And I do my best to get it out of my head. And then if by that point 90 minutes has passed, it's coffee time. But yeah, I, I usually wait about 90 minutes to, to have caffeine.

Okay.

And that's like, that is like for me, Monday to Sunday every day.

Yeah. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. And I hear you on the coffee thing because often, like for a while, I get into a habit of having my coffee right after my meditation. And then I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm so stimulated, I can't even focus, you know, And I love what you said about writing down the three top things because often we have this monster list of things to do, but it's so overwhelming that we. I'm just going to go after the low, low hanging fruit, you know, and you end up checking off all the things that aren't quite as significant because you've got this daunting list in front of you. So when you can really, you, you know, dial it into top three things, then it's like, okay, you know what? I got eight hours to do this. I, yeah, I can do this. So thank you for sharing that. I'm sure, you know, many people are going to get some value from that. And I like the morning light thing. I knew a bit about that with the circadian rhythm and all that. But definitely when I'm back in Costa Rica next week, I'll be getting out there to catch that early morning sunrise. So how do you go from eight people on the beach to what Unbounded has become now? I'd love for you to share a bit about what that journey has been like to build that community. And, you know, where's Unbounded now and what are the plans for Unbounded in the near future?

Sure. Yeah. The, the answer to how does it go from eight people to where it is now is both simple and complex. It's the complex, as you know, is that it's Been community dips and facilitated sessions one on one and chatting with the people in your network that are your lighthouses and continuing to show up and be consistent and good branding and all those things that take it to be that. And it's also a chess game, which I'm not sure if you were familiar with the chess game that I played in the ice with another mutual friend.

Of ours, played with Ron. Yeah. Oh, we got to drop in some B roll of that because it looks really cool where Nick and Ron are literally sitting in the ice playing chess for like five or six minutes or something.

Yeah, it was five to six minutes. Yeah, yeah. This was in. In my early. My early days of unbounded and realizing that there was something here. And I was living up at a cottage in Oak on Oak Lake in the Kawarthas for the winter. And a mutual friend of ours, Ron, was also there. And the ice had just frozen over and there was a good thick layer of it, and we had chopped some holes in there to do our ice plunges and our cold exposure therapies. And we were on our way out and both of us felt like we'd really got to a place where we could manage the cold and we could manage our feelings in the cold and we could kind of get to a point where we could manipulate the things we want to call into our attention. Right. We'd create that blank slate. Very Zen. And then we could focus on the things we wanted to focus on. And we thought, well, okay, what if we challenge ourselves and see can we have even more mental acuity and, like, develop strategy while you're trying to quiet this intense physical survival alarm that's going off? Can you. We're like, well, what does that. What can we do that's got to have strategy in this? Of course, Queen's. Queen's Gambit was like all the rage at the moment. And we're like, we'll get a chess board. And we put the board in between the two holes and we played it. And luckily there was a contractor just like 10ft away that Ron was able to be like, do you mind filming this? Very cool. And, yeah, Ron posted it and I guess just tagged the right media center.

Yeah, it went viral. Right.

It went around the world.

Wow.

Readers picked it up. The International Chess Federation. I did interviews on CTV, CTV News, 6:00pm, like, right at night, main story. It got picked up and shot around so fast. And we knew this was coming because all these people had reached out. And so there was a 12 hour gap between all these People reaching out and all of the interviews and press that came afterwards. And. And when everyone reached out, there was no name, there was no company website, there was no Instagram page. And I remember sitting there, and I was sitting there with my. My other two partners in the business, Lisa and Zach. And Ron was also there as. As an original group member. And we were sitting and seeing this kind of tidal wave of attention coming, and I was like, well, I don't really want to do it. Like, I don't want it for me. And I think this is part of that whole journey of self is like, I didn't. My younger self would be like, oh, I want to. I want my name to be up there. I want to feel good that I'm on the news and I'm getting attention, the press. And I actually had this feeling like, hey, I'd love to direct this energy somewhere. Like, if we're. If we're. We've got a movement, like, let's. How do we put this to use? How do we. How do we really capture the eyeballs that we're about to get? And so in 12 hours, just like boiler room, startup state, we put together, like, a big Instagram page, full grid. We put up a company website. We came up with a name and a logo, color, brand, book, all these things.

In 12 hours?

In 12 hours. And so by the time all these interviews rolled out, I was able to reference and be like, oh, yeah, we're trying to do this thing with Unbounded. And so that was kind of the little nitro boost we got.

Very cool.

And it came really, if I look at, like, for an entrepreneur that might be listening and being like, how do you get that kind of, like, 15 minutes where you can really try and get the world looking at you? It came from me just saying, yes. It came from me just being like, sure, let's jump in an ice hole and play chess, right? And then someone happened to film it, and then Ron happened to tag the right person, and then that happened. But it all started with saying, sure, why not? Right? As opposed to, like, I don't feel like it or why. It's just like, okay, cool. Yeah, I was in a very open. And like, sure, okay, let's do this. Let's create.

And I think that's one of the key defining qualities between an entrepreneur and an employee. It's about believing in what you're doing enough to say yes and step into the unknown and to just. Just, why not? Let's just do it. Let's just see what comes out of it. And, and again, in that moment, you were just following your heart and.

We'Re.

Having fun with it.

Yeah.

I think that's one of the things we get so caught up in. In our heads and just caught up in the strategy and being so serious about things that we forget that, you know, part of the reason we choose to be entrepreneurs is because we want the freedom. We want to have fun, we want to. We want to enjoy what we do, you know, and want to be challenged. We want to be. Absolutely. You know, and, you know, speaking of challenge, you know, that, that is one of the. I think the, the greatest benefits of doing the cold ice plunges is you develop that resilience muscle. You know, you develop that ability to be there in the cold when your body is screaming, get out. And your mind is just quieting the, the noise and quieting the panic. So you get to that point where it's just like you can just be with it and just like training your biceps or legs at the gym, you know, you're developing that res. Resilience muscle that you develop in the ice water. But then, you know, later in the day or at work, you know, you get faced with something that's challenging you, that's bringing up similar fight or flight, panic, emotions. And you could then use that mindset and those tools that you developed in the ice bath in the cold lake to quiet, find your center, quiet down, get grounded, and then respond from a place of consciousness and awareness rather than react emotionally just in the moment, you know, and that, and that's such an opportunity for power and strength is in that pause. And there's a great quote by Victor Frankel, you know, between the stimulus and the reaction, you know, and I'm probably butchering this. You would know better because you've read the book many times, Man's Search for Meaning. But between the stimulus and the response response, there's this pause. And in that pause is where our strength and power lies, because that's where we have the ability to choose how do I want to move forward in this moment, you know, and when you develop that ability, you have the power.

That is the ability. Yeah, that is right there.

Yeah.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think it is. And that's, you know, that's also something that I found. And one of it was one of those. Those indicators that I was like, oh, there's something here was. I noticed that it was very transferable, that feeling of stress that we get going into cold water and that fight or Flight response, that cortisol shot, that norepinephrine boost in your brain, all those things, your body takes that stress the same way as it does the, you know, an email that just has you drop your stomach from, from the bottom out. Hearing somebody like, we take in stress all the same inputs. And so the better you get at developing your stress response, response to the cold will transfer to how you respond to all those other facets of stress in your life. You're very much. You're correct. It's resilience training. Exactly. And I think that that is, you know, to reference another book, no Mud, no Lotus, which I'm a huge proponent of. It's like a life. A life well lived is a life struggled well, you know, and to be able to transfer that ability, because it's not like you're going to wake up, you'll have a million dollars in your bank. You'll have all the things you ever wanted that you should feel good about. And stress will be like, all right, see ya. I'm gone. You'll never see me again. It's like, no, we're gonna feel it every day forever. Stress exists. It's never going away. How we choose to deal with stress and how we show up to that stress is something you have control over. And so that's, that's. I mean, everyone comes to our sessions and our classes and I can get into what we do, but kind of we get found for a whole bunch of different reasons. And for me, it is that. It is that peace where I get to regain my ability to manage the stress that shows up in my life and to struggle well, it's enabled me to have such a happier, peaceful existence, regardless of what work I am doing, what company I'm building. And so to go back to your earlier question of kind of like how we got there and where we did it, we ended up doing all winter daily dips down at Humber Bay, down at Cherry beach, where no one's doing this right now. No one in Toronto was doing this aside from your New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, the big polar plunge. And everyone goes in for one second and they're like, ah, this is terrible. And then they run out and they're like, okay, I did it. See you in the year. No one was really doing, like, cold classes. And that's kind of what our original vision for this was. As much like you would go sign up to a yoga class or go do a boot camp or do a drop in here for a Cycling class. Like you can go down and do a drop in class or schedule a class with a cold water immersion at the lake or in a tub because it's such a beneficial therapy and it's so important for us from a physical and mental aspect. And so we started these classes all along the Toronto shore all winter. And it started with like a few people would sign up and then a few more and then a few more. And then all of a sudden our classes got to be about 20 to 25 people. You know, you'd come down to the beach, be kind of dark, the sun would start to rise, there'd be music, breathwork, fire. Similar. I mean the model hasn't changed from what we were doing just as friends. Yeah, but people are realizing that they can start their morning in the downtown of a major metropolis and I feel.

Like they're in nature and feel like.

They'Re just connections home to their condo at 8:30 and be like I just went for a swim in a lake. I had, I sat by the fire, I had some like great food or coffee or broth over the fire.

Had some beautiful connections.

Beautiful connections. I feel so much different. And now I'm going into my day and that's, it's just.

And that's definitely worth getting up for. That is worth turning off the Netflix at 10pm so you can get to bed so you can wake up at 6am and be in the lake by 7.

Yeah.

Speaking of which, you did that this morning?

This morning, yeah. Yeah, we had a great group at Ash Bridges. A whole bunch of people came out.

And you can't smell it but Nick actually smells a bit like campfire at the moment. I hugged him when I saw him earlier, like oh yeah, yeah, there was a fire.

Yeah. And again it was about 14 individuals, all different walks of life, all strangers. And we did a mindfulness exercise to start the day, then we did some breath work, then we did a swim. The particular session that the facilitator led this time was a sound toning session in the water. So everyone held hands and was hitting different frequencies and then letting out loud, loud vocals to like kind of de stress their body.

Just imagine what the joggers running by.

People on the beach were just like what is going on over there? And then we came in from there, we cooked some breakfast tacos on the fire, some, some other little treats and then shared and sat around connected. And now everyone is, you know, I'm getting mess. I was getting messages right before coming here. People being like this person's Awesome. I love. We're supposed to go for coffee next week and we're doing this and this person's company is aligned with mine and we're going to chat about that. It's just, it's so rewarding to have those type of mornings and those have now led us to be like, well maybe do we do these. These on a bigger scale? Like the classes is definitely one. One section of it. Retreats and facilitator training and on all the things that could spread from, from a platform like this. But ultimately the, the model that we are aiming for and like what we offer are these incredible mornings where we will give you a morning routine, a morning class that's going to prime you for your day and it's going to make you feel incredible. And like I said this morning, it was the sound healing. There might be another one that someone does based around essential oils and meditation. There might be.

I love that you bring in different facilitators to add their magic to it. Because if someone's coming and they're dipping with you on a regular basis, you know, then they get to be introduced to someone with their own modality or their own unique element that they could add to the experience.

Yeah.

Super cool. So if somebody, I'm sure many people watching are like, okay, I gotta jump at the lake with this guy.

I hope so.

Yeah. How, how can people sign up? How can people get a hold of you? Obviously we're gonna put website handles and all that below. But what would be the process they go through site register.

Yeah, yeah.

Is there a fee? How does that work?

Yeah, so the, the handle is at stay unbounded and the. Yeah, I was looking for unbound. It was taken. There was just no way. We were 12 hours. We were on a tight schedule. Yeah, exactly. And the website is stayunbounded.com and on there you can book a class. Your first class is 30 bucks. And then from there you can buy different packages. You can also do follow up class and we also have facilitator training certifications on there as well as well as adventure retreats to various parts of the province and various parts of the country.

Amazing.

Yeah.

And speaking of retreats, Nick and I this morning over coffee, I was sharing with him a little bit of what I'm doing with the alive experience. And a couple of retreats I got coming up, one being the men's only experience in February. The Nick has also been to Nosado many times. So there very well may be a stay Unbounded alive experience. Collaboration in 2022 in Nosada and then working on something called a rolling retreat, which I'll share more about. But it's going to start in Scottsdale and end in Las Vegas. And, you know, Nick and I, we've traveled extensively around the world. We've traveled coast to coast from Newfoundland to Tofino. And I feel that even though we were in Toronto, you're providing my meals, we were here running our businesses in parallel. Then we kind of went our own ways. You went to Texas, I went to Costa Rica to do our own thing. And now it seems our paths are about to converge again as we now bring these new skill sets and this new knowledge and wisdom from this. These paths that we've been on and can now support each other in a way that allows us to both, you know, do what we love to do. Expanding consciousness, supporting human transformation, and bringing awesome people together.

Yeah, it's. It's amazing how we got a chance to connect and kind of begin this friendship at. At a distant version of ourselves, you know, many, many layers ago when we were on two very different paths. And now we're, as you said, converging again. And I feel like it's. It's even more. It's even more valuable to me that we're connecting. Yeah, it's.

It's on a deeper level, so greater significance. And there's always been substance there, but now it's like it's not just you and I and what we're doing on our path for one another. It's about you and I and what can we do, you know, to help humanity, you know, and help people to grow and support them on their own path in their journey, you know, So I would love to wrap this beautiful conversation up with maybe having you share just some words of inspiration for that entrepreneur. Right now, who's questioning, what do I do? Where do I go? What choices do I need to make in this moment? What words of wisdom can you impart to anybody watching right now who's in that same spot that you and I were just a few years ago?

Yeah, It. It's going to be hard. But. But life is hard. And I think that there's this compounded difficulty that we add to that as humans. And there's that first incident that happens, which is maybe your company shut down, maybe you've lost your job. What do I do now? And then there's all of that additional hurt that we make that mean and that we push ourselves further down that hole. I'm not. I didn't move the needle far enough today. I haven't figured out what I'm doing yet. This other bill came in and we just, we. There's what is happening and there's what we're making of what is happening, and it's. It's going to be fine. You know this and I know this. We've lost major businesses or closed major businesses, and we've had to start from the bottom again. And there's been. If you look back, it'd be hard to count on one hand, two hands, the number of roles we've played and jobs we've had and companies we've built. But the consistent thing is if you can control as much as you can that space between what's actually happening and the guilt and the shame and the story, you're making all of that mean and kind of kicking out your other leg, then you're gonna be able to survive this.

Yeah.

You know, that's the thing is I've always said is like, survival is progress. It doesn't feel like it at the time. Lateral growth doesn't feel like vertical growth. We want to see, okay, I accomplished this thing. But actually just having a decent day or just managing things or being able to have stuff happen and get through it is progress, even though it doesn't feel like it. So becoming more present to lateral growth as a human being, with your education, with your skill set, with your community, building community as much as you can, even while you're low, reach out to people in your network. Don't be afraid to ask for help. That was something that I took a long time to realize is people want to help. Yeah. And they feel good helping. And the same feeling you get from helping others, give that gift to other people and try your best to let your ego exit that. The best, the best I can say is just try and manage yourself as much as you can in the process and don't make it mean more than it is.

Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I'm so happy for you. Proud of you. You know, it's beautiful to witness all that you're creating and yeah, man, it's. It's been a pleasure to be on this journey with you and looking forward to seeing what we're going to co create in 2022. And for all of you watching, go jump in a lake with Nick McNaught and Lisa and Zach and develop that resilience, because it's. It's in those moments where you're tested that you create your future. It's in those moments that you really decide on who you're going to be in the world and when you know that you're unstoppable and you're unbounded.

There you go. Cool. Thanks, man.

All right, brother. Thank you again for joining me.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, man, thank you.