Getting Fit With Kyle Hubbard | ProActive Podcast #130
Kyle Hubbard joins Chris on episode 130 of the Proactive Podcast to discuss plant based eating, his incredible weight loss journey, and the link between individual health and business performance.
Video Transcript:
- [Announcer] Welcome to the "PROACTIVE Podcast" brought to you by MeMedia.
- G'day, Chris Hogan coming to you from Memedia Studio here at Burleigh Heads for episode 130 of the "PROACTIVE Podcast." And today I have with me the co-founder of Mind Body to Lead, Kyle Hubbard, how are you Kyle?
- I'm great, thanks Chris, thanks for having me here.
- Thanks for coming on mate. There's actually a part of your story which I resonated with, which I also have a similar story. So let's start with that because I believe that's what inspired you to get into the fitness space. And if you want to share that story, and I understand there was quite a large figure. Well, I would consider it large, in terms of weight on top of your current body and frame, that honestly, to lose that amount of weight is actually very impressive in itself.
- Thank you, yeah, so for the audience, hi everybody. Thanks for listening. And so I used to be 125 kilos. And I currently weigh 80 kilos, so it's yeah, 45 kilo weight loss. And it hasn't been, obviously it hasn't been overnight, that was now 12 years ago that I used to be 125 kilos. So it's been a gradual process and I can kind of go through that a little bit of how the process was.
- What got you to the 45 overweight, so the 125.
- What got me there.
- And what age were you then?
- So I was, I was 19/20, so like, right really in my prime years, just before university. And what got me there in the first place was just lack of knowledge, lack of knowledge, my parents, again, they did the best that they absolutely could, but they didn't understand nutrition the way that I understand nutrition now. And I ate what was kind of put in front of me and I didn't enjoy exercise. When I say, I didn't enjoy exercise, I think when I was at school because I was overweight, I wasn't good at it. And I wasn't good at PE, as it was back then. So I was always picked last for the team. When we did cross country, I was running in last, and I just associated subjects, like I was good at maths, but I was bad at PE. And so I think that had a really huge impact on me wanting to exercise and me actually, not just seeing, I thought I had to be good at something to do it. And I thought, because I'm not good at it, I'm not going to do it. So that was kind of 19, I was 125 kilos. And then I actually, at the time I broke up with my girlfriend or my girlfriend broke up with me, should I say. And I stepped on the scales and I remember seeing that huge number. And I just wasn't in a happy place, I really was. I was sad, obviously that I've broken up my girlfriend, but I really didn't like the way I looked, I felt, my emotions were very much down. And ironically, I was working in a gym because I was a lifeguard at the health club, at the local swimming pool because I grew up swimming and then I kind of just stopped it, but I was always a good swimmer. And so I became a lifeguard to get me out the house and earn some money. And I was working at the gym and I remember it so clearly, it was 10:30 AM in the morning, and I was in the member's lounge, and I had a pie, a meat pie and chips, that I'd heated up from the night before. And the manager tapped me on my back and said, he said, if you're going to eat that, can you eat that out the back? And he was saying it as a joke, but at the time, obviously I was 125 kilos, I just broke up with my girlfriend, it was literally like a dagger to the heart, and I felt so, so low. And I told my best friend at the gym the story, and being my best friend, he just laughed at me, but he was a personal trainer and taught group fitness. And he said, Kyle, why don't you come in and try a Body Pump class, which is a Les Mills, weight space class. And I thought, do you know what? I'll give it a go. And I went into the studio and I just remember it so clearly, I found something I was good at when it comes to exercise. Because there was no, I didn't have to lift a heavy weight, I love music, and I was moving my body to the music. And it was more of a, I dunno, my whole body just felt alive for the first time when it came to exercise. And I remember leaving that class going, yes. Like I just loved it. So I was moving my body and I felt good after being in such a low place. So that was the absolute turning point. And yeah, my journey, obviously over the last 12 years, you know, trained up now as a personal trainer and nutrition coach, I've been on, and partially been on a Les Mills Masterclass over in New Zealand. So that was a whole journey of in itself. So it's been a huge journey over the last 12 years that's got me to where I am today. But that was my biggest, yeah, turning point Chris.
- Oh, that's really great mate. And I understand how education around what to eat, it can impact lifestyle and weight and mood and all of those things. And do you feel like now, where you are now, there is a plethora of that information, more so then when like you were overweight or is it just that you're attuned to that information?
- That's a great question. I think there is probably more information now, 100%, because it's more accessible as well. And the messaging that we're getting from so many different, you know, quote unquote experts, you don't know who to believe. And even now, 12 years on, having studied nutrition, I'm still learning. And I know I will always continue to learn because I think that's the best place to be. And I read something and you always have to, I always then take a step back and go, why is that person saying that? Or what reason has that person got to be saying that? And I think sometimes when you take a step back and you don't just take it on face value, you just have to have that analytical mind, that's when you can start to dive a little bit deeper. But I mean, ultimately I think every single diet or nutrition knowledge that's out there all stems down to the main thing of whole foods, and every single diet has that kind of intention when it comes to its knowledge. So that's probably, I'm glad I probably didn't have all of that knowledge back then, because I think it's so confusing that you can try one thing and then you think, am I doing it right? Or am I doing it wrong? And I think I just really stuck to my lane and it wasn't actually the nutrition part, even though that's essentially the main part, you know-
- It's pretty much 80%.
- It is nutrition, correct. And I didn't know it back then, and I was, you know, I was working out, feeling good, but I was still going out of the weekends on Fridays, Saturdays, even Sundays, maybe sometime, drinking, eating takeaway on the way home. And my diet actually didn't change. But it was the movement piece that got me thinking about, okay, if I want to feel good, maybe I do need to look at my nutrition. It was a slow, kind of slow process, but yeah, I'm so glad that I didn't have all of that knowledge out there 'cause I would have been so, so, so confused.
- So did you have a passion for research and knowledge when you were at school or did it kind of come after?
- I think it probably came after, my passion actually at school was, I actually went to university to study acting. So my degree's in acting and I was very much a performer as a kid. And I loved the music as I mentioned, so music, I did dance and performing arts, but I also studied maths. So I had maths along with all of these kind of performing arts subjects. And so my analytical mind has always been there, but I've been very much about performance, but I think that really helped me explore different avenues. And that's why I think I really, like I said, enjoyed moving my body because I've always been that person who did really at my core, enjoy moving my body, I just didn't think I was good at it, so I just didn't do it.
- Was there anybody in your life that sort of instilled these values on you, around your passions and what I guess you wanted to live your life out like? Was there anybody early on or is there anybody now that inspires you?
- Yeah, I mean, back then I give my mum huge credit because she allowed me to try everything and my passion for acting came right back to a summer school when I was 13 years of age. And I went, it was a two weeks summer school where we rehearse for a week and then performed for a week. And I just loved it so so much. But my mum, she did, she made me try, whether it was swimming as a young kid, diving, played football or soccer, back in the UK, and then acting. And so I think by allowing me to just explore who I was and give me those options, allowed me to find my passion, which was essentially performing. But alongside a lot of other things. I think that even to today, my life now, I love trying new things and I love exploring things and failing at things or going, I don't like that. And I think that's so important to do that, to go try it, nope, maybe I'm not as good as I thought I might be and I don't like that, so let's try something new. And I think that's so important in life, and even in business as well. So I know a lot of your listeners, obviously listening, around businesses is yeah, try new things. And I love trying new things when it comes to business as well.
- Massive, massive, and there's plenty of statements around fail forward and all of this, sort of fail fast. And that I think message has being shared quite a bit, especially in the last five or six years, I think with the proliferation of more and more content coming out, so with content marketing becoming a thing, with vlogging and digital nomads, and all of these trends that have come about, and YouTubers, et cetera, that there is a plethora of content, and so much of it that I've digested, it has, I guess, has all this messaging in it. And that is that it's okay to fail. So who are you helping now, like with regards to this Mind Body to Lead? Or what's sort of your life purpose at the moment, would you say?
- I think it's actually funny you say about purpose, because I've just watched, yesterday in fact, on, I want to pronounce it right, Gaia, G-A-I-A, and it was all around finding your purpose and it gave you the whole hero story circle. And my true life's purpose is I think having been through this journey myself of losing weight and knowing what it does, knowing I've got so much more energy, I'm more confident, I'm excited for every time I wake up in the morning, There's just a different energy and buzz about me and how I feel. And so my wish is just that every everybody that I meet just feels this way as well. And I know from our original conversation, I just got a lot of that energy from you, Chris. 'Cause I know you're passionate about just learning about nutrition and fitness as well. like you said about your journey. So that to me is my purpose, is helping people feel that way. And with Mind Body to Lead, it actually started, as I think a lot of things did, during COVID. And our other business is an IT recruitment business. And obviously when COVID hit, nobody was hiring and it was, if anything, people were getting let go. So my wife and I sat down and she is super, super passionate about mindset and mental health. And I'm passionate and I love learning about that, but obviously my piece is the nutrition and the movement piece. So we sat down at the start of COVID and went, right, what do we want to create now that's gonna essentially leave our legacy or inspire others? So we really kind of racked our brains and we tried a few different things. But ultimately the movement piece is online workouts. So coming from that group fitness background, you know, I mentioned about Les Mills Body Pump that I started, that I trained up in Pump, I trained up in Body Attack, CXWORX, Grit, the whole Les Mills brand, and I love group fitness, and I still teach group fitness to this day. So I started filming all my workouts. Well, when COVID hit, I just went live. And I thought, no, let's structure this now. So we created 12 months worth of workouts with yoga, I've got a really good yoga friend and instructor, who I filmed to do the yoga piece, and also Pilates. So we mapped out the workouts for an entire year. We then looked to the nutrition piece, and my knowledge comes from Precision Nutrition, which are probably one of the leaders in nutrition over in, I think they're based in Canada, but they are one of the leading nutrition companies globally. And what I love about Precision Nutrition and how they train their coaches is yes, they come from the science and the knowledge standpoint, but they always get you to, again, look at things with an analytical brain and they're diet agnostic. So whether somebody might be paleo, vegan, vegetarian, whatever diet they might be on, that's okay, because that might be working for them. And it's not just one diet fits all because that doesn't exist, but it's what are the nutritional fundamentals? So we kind of started, they use a habit style approach, and so we built that into our programme as well. Eating to 80% full, slowing down with your meals, starting to understand proteins, carbohydrates, fats, eating whole foods, calories from liquids. And just being aware of that, and we structured that again, into the programme. And then with the mindset piece as well, where my wife came in, structured habits as well. And as I'm sure a lot of the listeners do is practising all these habits. And sometimes we haven't necessarily reinvented the wheel, but I heard this on another podcast, and coaches aren't necessarily in the creating new things, and we always want to think we're creating new things, but sometimes I think coaches are just in the reminder business. And it sometimes, and I know myself, I need reminding sometimes. Oh, I forgot to meditate today, let's try and meditate again. Or, you know, whether it's down to journaling. Oh, okay, I've lost that practise, let's try and get back to the journaling practise. A morning routine, we've got friends staying with us at the minute, so our morning routine's a little bit out. And we've structured again, all of the mindset habits across a 12 month programme as well. So essentially that is the Mind Body to Lead. It is a 12 month transformational programme with movement, with meals and with mindsets, we call it the 3M formula.
- Excellent, yeah, that's fantastic. There was something you said earlier around, I think, when you became that person, that felt so awesome. And you wanted to share that experience with everybody. It's really common, it's super common. As soon as you've gotten to that stage in your life where it's like, hang on, hang on, I feel bulletproof. I've never felt like this before. I need to shout it from the rooftops. And it's a funny thing because it's happened so many times, there's actually a joke about it. And it's a vegan, an atheist, and a paleo walk into a bar, how did you know? They told everybody. Right? 'Cause they would feel so good.
- Yep.
- And it was their way that was the right way. But I love how you went about, it's diet agnostic. Because, you know, I've been vegan, I'm definitely a plant-based eater now, I'm probably 98 or 99% vegan, but still can't call myself one. And I don't get into too much of the politics around that. And I also learned that when I've asked my family or people to, you gotta get on this train, you gotta do this, nearly started a podcast and a blog and a website all around that. I realised that hang on, it's different strokes for different blokes. Everybody has different ways that they need to consume food to exercise and sleep and all that sort of stuff. And the habit stuff that you were talking about is a super effective way of just seeing how to fit these things into your lifestyle and making that change. So I lost 20 kilos 10 or 11 years ago when I went vegan. And it wasn't like cold turkey either, it was like, tomorrow I'm going vegan. And I went, whoa, wait a minute, what am I going to do?
- What am I going to eat?
- What am I eating? And funnily enough, I went raw. Albeit, I stumbled, stumbled was like, I'm just going to have to do meat for a little while, until I figure this out, and then I went, okay, I'm just gonna go raw. And it was like cabbage and kale and lettuce and tomato and whatnot. And not only did my energy levels, like over a two week period, just like drop dramatically, I had this weird, like, it was like a detox. And I didn't even know what detox was, and effectively, like I broke out in pimples all over my body, it was disgusting. But yeah, it was funny though, 'cause it was like, oh right, that's what a detox does, it was actually getting rid of all this stuff in my system that you know. And funnily enough I did that detox accidentally and I had to fix myself up along the way. Now there's heaps of heaps of information out there, and just like your programme, that's fantastic. So I understand, let's move on to the next topic-
- [Kyle] Well, actually I would just point out-
- Yeah, go, go, because I'm so passionate about this, it's amazing you said you're like about 98% vegan, because I'm probably the same. And the best way I think, where people potentially go wrong and I don't want to say wrong and right, sometimes, but I think where people do go wrong with nutrition, is it's an all or nothing approach. And when we look at plant-based eating, and I'd consider myself a plant-based eater as well, but I do eat, I sometimes would occasionally eat fish if I'm out and I know where it's been caught and usually, you know, it's sustainably caught. I do really make sure because of that. But then like you said, I can't call myself a vegan. And again, I'm not going to shout that and I don't ever really shout it from the rooftop, but the best way it got described to me is think of it like a spectrum, where on one end of the spectrum, it's you are a vegan, and therefore, and it's not just a diet, vegan is not just a diet, it's a lifestyle.
- It's a lifestyle.
- And you're really consciously aware of everything. And on the other end of the spectrum, you're a meat-eater. Now it's okay to be somewhere in the middle, you know? And like you said, be it 90%, 98%, 99%, but it's not putting that pressure on you. And what I like to, in our business, what I really like to focus on is is a deep health approach, which is what the Precision Nutrition, that's kind of their core of their business, is that deep health approach. So when it comes to our physical health, but also our mental health, our emotional health, environmental health, existential health, relational health, but then we also look at two others as well. We talk about financial health and also kind of career or business health, whatever that might be. So we look at really the eight aspects of health. And I think sometimes when I first went, 'cause I like many, when I turned vegan, I watched the documentary and thought like, that's it, we throw everything out the fridge, but we then went out for dinner with friends. And even though my physical health was getting better, my mental health, because I was worried about my friends, what are they thinking? My also relational health started to drop because I wasn't getting invited to certain events. And so even though one area potentially of my health is growing, other areas of my health were suffering. And we always try and look for that fine balance I think across all areas of our health. I like to break it down for me personally in those eight areas. And as I mentioned a while back on the podcast, we've got our friends staying with us at the minute, which is amazing. My relational health at the minute feels like it's a 10 out of 10, but because of that, my career and my business health has dropped a little bit, because I'm not spending as much time thinking about growing that. So it's finding that balance, I think, as we all try and do across all of those areas, but it's not necessarily putting a pressure on ourself, like you mentioned to go, I am this, or I am not this, and shouting about that, so I just wanted to say.
- No, that's great. And that's where I think these labels come in, you know, like actually labelling yourself something, it can be detrimental to not only your relationships and how you are perceived, but also to yourself and your mental health. So the way I put it now is just like, just, you know, I know that I want to be healthy, I know that I want to be fit, and I know that I want to be feeling good, and not getting sick and all of those sorts of things, you know, I don't want any flu disease, whatever you like, to come my way, and my body to absolutely smash it. That's how I want to be. But with regards to when it comes to like eating something, I stand pretty strong on my ethics, I'm a cattle farmer's son, a dairy farmer's grandson. And so, how do I feel about meat now? Now when the cows were in the paddock, mate, It was the most beautiful experience, it's animal husbandry, you're taking care of these beings. And I think we did, I hand reared calves and all that sort of stuff. So I had an ultimate care for these beings and that was a beautiful experience. But obviously, when they leave there, it's not so beautiful for them. And so that that really challenged me. But it still wasn't enough to actually tip me over the edge, until I learned about wait a minute, performance, and what is that meat doing inside of my body? And then I read, I don't have the book behind me, Brendan Brazier's "Thrive," amazing book, and he talks about stressors and how meat is a stressor, coffee's a stressor, all of these things. And I was like, and I was super stressed, alcohol's a stressor, I was super stressed at the time. And it was just like, there it is. So if I take these things out, not only am I going to do better for my immune system, and my body's performance and ability to digest food, et cetera, and combat colds and disease, I'm also gonna reduce my stress levels, wow. And so that was the clincher for me. But then being out and about, or if... I said to my wife, when I was going vegan, I said I'm going to go vegan. She just went, bloody hell, here we go. And I said, don't worry, you won't have to do a thing, I will cook all my own meals, and I did. Now my family partake in at least 50% of the meals, if not a bit more, so that's great. I finally brought them, it only took 10 years. I will nearly always say no to that meat meal or that dairy fueled meal. Eggs, not so much, I'm a little bit on the fence on that. And I know if I really want to perform well, or if I really need to up my game this week, because I've got a big week, then it's like clean eating all the way, no mistakes. Mistakes, mistakes, I use that word lightly. But the biggest thing is that if I want something, and I actually go, I really want that now, I really want to enjoy that cake at this birthday party because that's me partaking in a celebration, And that's me joining in with everybody else, and I've got a pretty good idea that the level of cream that's on that cake is not going to make me feel really shitty afterwards, or the level of butter in that cake, whatever it is, you know? So then I just don't beat myself up about it, because that's stress as well. So when I was talking about stressors before, one of the stresses can be that, oh, geez, I just really wish I could eat that right now. You're in control dude, if you really want to eat it, just eat it.
- Yeah, the guilt is so real when I speak to so many people and we usually work with a lot of females, but the guilt around food that they have. And I always say that, and we like to use a traffic light system, whereby we kind of categorise foods into green light, amber light, red light. And again, something like a cake, would be that red light food. It's don't eat that as much as a green light food, which would be your like you said, your kind of clean way of eating, your whole foods.
- Whole foods, yeah.
- And then your amber light might be a kind of more, they're slightly more processed, but they're still kind of whole foods as well. And as long as we're eating 85% green light foods, we can get away with having the red light food every now and again, amber light foods in our diets. And I like to use the analogy of driving a car, you know, getting from point A to B, if you've got a goal of you want to lose some weight, and you've been told you need to lose some weight because of health. And you just feel like you just need to lose a bit. I don't like to always have weight as a goal. I want to lose five kilos because again, like you said, it's a stressor of like, oh my God, I need to get to that goal. But think of it like driving down the road and the more red lights you hit, the slower you're going to get to your goal. So you can for an occasion, okay, now I'm going to prioritise more of my green light foods, like you said, 'cause I've got an event coming up and I want to be at my best. And I'm currently training for half Ironman. And so, you know, I would occasionally have a beer or a glass of wine, but I've cut alcohol out, because again, I know it's going to impact my performance. So I've now cut alcohol out of my diet. But I know it's for a short period of time. And it's also, like you said, it's a choice that I'm working towards this event. But you know, as you go, as you drive from point A to B, the more red lights you hit, it's just going to slow you down and so, if we can prioritise those green lights, we're on our way. But yeah, the guilt is a real thing. But that also, like you said, it's the chemical responses in the body that creates, that does also have an impact as well, mentally and physically.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's a huge one, it's a huge one.
- So who do you enjoy helping most now? Because for instance, you know, I've changed my life in that regard, 20 kilos lighter than I was, maybe 15 at the moment. And I train and I've got all my ducks in a row and I realised that that was the catalyst for me performing best as a leader of my organisation. So when I see other leaders that are overweight, drinking and maybe, you know, I don't know, not clear of thought or just wish that they were, that they focused more on their health. I really wanna like, I feel like that's my next business, you know, but I can't do everything. So who do you like to, you know?
- Look, I mean, it's funny you say, because you want to say everybody, right, and that's not going-
- [Chris] Who floats your boat?
- Who first my bloat? Like really like a lot of females, but right now, if I say right now, is my family. And like I said, at the beginning, my parents were overweight, my sisters are overweight and that, I want to be impacting my inner circle. And I think when it comes to family, like you mentioned, it's taken 10 years for your your kids and your wife to kind of slowly come around, they don't like, and especially your family, they don't like to be told what to do, and you can shout it as much as you can, and I try and be the inspiration.
- Well, I'll make sure I have a caveat there, I didn't, I just let them, I said, hey, yeah, that's a better choice than that, yeah, but you do what you want.
- You do what you want. And I think I was, they've seen my journey, and they know what I preach and I put out on social media. And we've now obviously had this programme now going for just over a year. And we've had people go through it, incredible transformations already. And not just in their, for weight loss, but also for their, in every other area of health, like I said, because that's what we want to focus on, it's not just, I've got to lose 10 kilos or 15 kilos, but like you said, that performance element for your teams, if you're overweight as a business owner or whatever it might be, it has such a longterm impact. But for me right now, is my family and I am actually so pleased that my sister reached out to me a month ago now and said, I see you're doing a new intake for your programme. I would like to do it with Chris, his name is Chris, her partner. And I was like, that was such a proud moment for me, I was like, yes. And then I spoke to my mum, and obviously they're all back in the UK at the minute. So like, I'm missing them terribly. So I spoke to my mum on FaceTime. And she said, oh, I hear Gemma's doing the programme. She's like, can I do it too? Absolutely, you can, 100% you can. And so they're now going through the programme. And my mum, I do check-ins with them. And not everybody needs check-ins, like weight loss check-ins or measurement check-ins, but it's a really good kind of indicator to see how you're tracking. And in four weeks my mom's lost 20 centimetres across her whole body. And I went on the FaceTime with her, I hadn't spoken to her for three weeks, and I went, oh my goodness, mum, I could see the change. And I was like, there you go. And I felt so, like I'm getting goosebumps right now, because I was so proud of her. And that's who I think I want to be impacting first and foremost, but know it's a ripple effect. And speaking to your listeners on the podcast, I think it's so important. And I do love working with, I've worked with so many business owners, managing partners as a personal trainer, before in the past, and the ones who prioritise their health seem to have better performing teams and better performing, just every everything's high performing. And they understand that. And having those dialogues with those people, it really excited me because I love business, I love talking about business. And when I was a personal trainer, thinking about starting different businesses, these are the chats on the gym floor that really kind of excited me as well. And I just think it's so, I mean, again, I don't want to tell, but your health is number one. And it always comes back to if you're a business owner, and actually it was two weeks ago, I had a cold two weeks ago and it wasn't COVID, I got tested, but I had a cold two weeks ago. And it just knocked me, the only thing I could think about was getting better, the only thing I could think about was getting better, that was the only thing. And I was doing, making sure I was, you know, again, my diet was completely cleaned up, drinking, making sure I was hydrating a lot more, high doses of vitamin C, everything that I was just doing, I was focused on, prioritising sleep. And I couldn't think about anything else because I just wanted to get better, because I know what it feels like to feel amazing. And so that's really the impact, I guess I want to have, is I know if I can, and I love the conversations that I have with business owners, if I can then speak to business owners, because they're going to have that ripple effect on their team.,and I know we spoke just before the podcast and you've got the books behind you of "Becoming a Supple Leopard" and "Deskbound" by Kelly Starrett. And you mentioned that you gave it to your team because you were like, this is, you know, here we go, I want a high performing team. And a high performing team is a healthy team.
- That's right.
- And so, and it doesn't mean, I think when it comes to business and I've made this mistake in the past was, it was like work, work, work, work, work, work. And it was all about going back to the eight areas of health, it was all about career health. And I thought that needed to be a 10 out of 10, and I thought it was all about time, but I experienced burnout, you know, where I was in bed for like 23 hours and just could not get out of bed. And I was like that, and I never wanted to go through that again. And now it's like, we don't need to be, all of the research is coming out now around, making sure we are not just having breaks. People say, make sure you get up and have a break, but what does that mean? It doesn't mean checking your phone again, a stressor, it doesn't mean just like sitting down and doing nothing. It means moving your body. If you're having a break, have a break, switch off, meditate, do some stretches, but really making those transitions as well. And I truly believe you don't need to be working for eight hours a day, 10 hours a day, 12 hours a day. You can get a lot done in three, four hours a day. And I think people's teams can, if you are you're healthy and you're a leader, you can really have that impact and have an even higher performing team. But it comes down again to those three M's, movement, meals and mindset. And that's who I want to be impacting, is those business leaders, if I can have more of these conversations. And then also people going through my programme. Right now it's my family, and obviously, my closest circle. We only started it a year ago and we only do an intake every six months. So we make sure we're looking after those people. So our next intake is not until the start of the year, again, it's a great time to do a 12 month transformational programme. But then I like to work with people on a one-to-one basis as well sometimes. And I don't work with many people at a time, but just having those conversations and finding those areas that maybe again, it's just, I'm in the reminder business, people need that accountability. And I'm one of those people as well, I do need accountability. And that was probably my biggest thing going through it. And it's movement, meals, mindset, but mentorship, coaching, having a coach to guide you and just tell you what to do. As I mentioned, I'm doing a half Ironman at the minute, I'm not doing that, I've never done a half Ironman before. So what have I done? I've gone and seeked a coach who is the expert in coaching people to do an half Ironman, and I'm following a programme. Because I know the importance of that if I want to be at my best on the day of the event. So yeah, I hope you can see the excitement that I get from it all.
- Something that I've gotten from this conversation so far is the holistic nature of what you do. And it's funny because we're the same here, in how we're always approaching marketing from a holistic standpoint, looking at all facets of the marketing, the company values, the company purpose, and the founder, or the leader of the team, the team's attitude to the business around core values, et cetera. And that's why I believe one of those things that I want to transition to is in order to make, to take it even further in terms of being holistic is, okay, so what's the fitness of the founder? What's the physical fitness of the founder? What's the health of the founder? And how to take that business to the next level, by doing that and instilling those habits for them and helping them maybe decrease their stress, lose some weight, which in effect, increases their energy. And so when we discovered the methodology, the marketing methodology that we preach and practise. I was so proud to call it PROACTIVE, 'cause I understood that the best things that were happening in my life was things that I was being proactive on. And so it was the marketing, it was the, I guess, caring for the team, making sure I'm focused on culture and stuff like that. And I realised, well, hey, I didn't get here with my health without being proactive and putting good food in and moving my body first and sleeping well and all of those sorts of things. So it was all those practises of being proactive and then how that, all the best things that are happening in my life. And honestly, so where those things are falling down is where I'm not being proactive and I'm not learning about those things and I'm not going... I heard, I dunno who it was, but I have this mentality now is that we need to, we need to be kicking the ball to where we want to run onto it in five years time. So we need to be educating ourselves on where we want to be, what we need to know in five years time, or five months time, whatever it, a months time, so it's all those things. When you're being strategic, then you're able to think like that and you have that clarity to go, where are we going to be in five years time? Right, so these are the things that I need to be putting in place now in order to be proactive, so that when we reach that point, we're actually running onto the ball. If you played soccer, you know exactly what it's like, if you want to hit that ball with absolute precision, it's all of the steps leading up to kicking that ball and where you step at the final thing and how you shape your foot, and how strong your quads are, and how much do you lean forward and all of those types of things in order to kick it into the right part of the goal. So I love that analogy and that's where we're at is that we're going, right, where do we want to be? And mine's a 2030 goal, so I'm like, okay, where do we want to be by then? What are we putting in place now? Et cetera, to make sure we reach that. And so that's I think the same thing with the food and nutrition, et cetera.
- Yeah, I just love, I think business is a holistic approach. and I love that, I just love that you said that, absolutely.
- Thanks. So a funny thing is at the start, I always ask people who are you and how do you want to be introduced? And it was co-founder of Mind Body to Lead, but there was a little bit of, I guess, uncertainty as who to put yourself out there as, is it Kyle Hubbard? My brand, personal brand? Or is it that I'm the co-founder of Mind Body Lead. That's because there's a shift happening right now for you. So what's happening in your life?
- So what's happening right now in my life is my wife and I got, again, super clear, looking at the whole deep areas of our health, like where do we want to be? Or what do we enjoy doing, like our relational health. That's so important. And working with my wife and I've worked with my wife now for coming up to four years. It's having that distinction between, work hat and husband hat essentially, or colleague and husband hat. And we both love to travel so much. And obviously we were supposed to go back to the UK last year, America, do all those things, it didn't happen. And travel has obviously been taken away from us overseas, currently in Australia. So we had this urge to travel Australia and we were thinking about, do we Airbnb? Because we're going to need internet, do we Airbnb as we go around? We thought, no, that restricts us quite a lot, 'cause we've got a little dog as well. And so it restricts... And so we're questioning, questioning, questioning, and we kept asking these questions and the idea of a van came up. And so what we're currently doing right now is we're converting a Sprinter Van that will be ready in about eight weeks time. And we're going to literally pack our home and live out of the van for the foreseeable future. Whether it be one year, two years, three years, we're not quite sure. And so going back to your, I guess your thing about the branding, like how do you introduce me? I think that's where my wife and I are having those discussions at the minute, because we're going to transition away, Mind Body to Lead is going to stay, it's Mind Body to Lead, it's mind and body to lead yourself, to lead others, that's where the kind of the name came from. But even though that's a part of me, it's not like you said, my personal brand, and how does that link in with van life and being a lifestyle-preneur essentially, having that mix and talking about YouTube as well, like you mentioned. We want to start a YouTube channel, but it's around travel, but it's also around staying healthy on the road and what do we do to stay healthy? But that's my personal brand, it's not Mind Body to Lead. So we are going to be changing to Kyleandgeorgie.com, but whereby we'll have the offsets of the recruitment business, So CH Solutions, we'll have Mind Body to Lead, the YouTube. Is there other things? We obviously got the workouts, the meditations, we can then have I guess, a bit more of a, I guess, more option as to what might come up in the future, because I love what you said about the five-year, the goal potentially. But right now, we're probably only thinking about, probably the next three or six months, because we haven't really thought that much into the future, knowing that, well, one, are we going to like it? Are we actually going to enjoy living out of a van? I'm pretty confident we will do, but again, there is potentially that uncertainty. And things we know, things are going to come up. So, that's a great question, and again, I throw over to you as well, in terms of the branding, it's like, we're going to be Kyle and Georgie, but yet it's distinguishing that brand from Mind Body to Lead, and also my personal brand, and who is Kyle Hubbard? Is he Kyle Hubbard, international fitness presenter, personal trainer, and nutrition coach, or is he also inspiring others, lifestyle-preneur, inspiring others, it's not all just about work, it's all about these all other areas of health. So that's where I'm at right now.
- Yeah, well, first and foremost, you're always yourself, right?
- So it's a pretty simple thing, you know, and I love that analogy where the air stewardess says, first put on the mask for yourself and then take care of everybody else. It's the same with the branding aspect, first focus on your personal brand, yourself, and then taking care of all your little businesses. And just because your name is attached to those others doesn't mean that they'll never be a saleable asset either. So that's the other thing that people get caught up on is that, oh, well, if my attach my name to it, then I can't sell that business, it's always got me associated with it. Well, guess what, no, you can sell it. And hey, all of that content that you created with your name all over is still attached to you. And maybe that's the reason why it sells for such a big figure, because you've gone on to other successes and whatnot. But, you know, God forbid you make a mistake and then that brand's-
- Yeah, then it's tarnished.
- It's tarnished, right. But so yes, look, you're always yourself. And so one of the things, when I wrote my book, I did the "Key Person of Influence Programme." So founded by Daniel Priestley, he wrote the book "Key Person of Influence." I think it's one of the books behind me and "Oversubscribed, and "Entrepreneur Revolution" and "24 Assets," and another one I can't recall at the moment. So one of the things he says is that if you had two businesses, like the same in every single way, except for this business over here had a key person of influence, a semi-famous founder at the helm, this one would be more successful than this one. Just by sheer personality profile, so that person, that word personality, so that personal brand. I think that's your answer, right? When we focus on putting our name to things and putting ourselves out there, man, do we overcome so many challenges. One of the biggest ones is impostor syndrome.
- 100%, yeah, yeah, definitely been there.
- The second one, the second one is we've probably knuckled down harder than we ever have before on making sure we're really clear, and firm in our understanding of the subject matter that we're putting out there in order to release that under our own name, let alone under a brand name. 'Cause it's kinda like, you know what, that brand is detached from me, so if it fails, it fails, right. But you know, when you put something out under your own name, then it's like, whoa, hang on a minute. This is scary as hell. I'm going to triple check this five times, 15 check it, and make sure that I'm really happy with that. And funnily enough, the book, my book, "Building Brands on Purpose," has been my first experience of actually going, probably not my first experience, but it's been one that I haven't had for a long time where I've gone, this is me, this is my beliefs, this is my experience, this is what I've learned. And this is what I think can help you. And so my name's attached to that and that actually, you know, how do I feel about that now? Well, I'll tell you what, when it released I went, wow, whoa, wow, whoa, hang on, where am I? Yeah, I'm good. So now I'm so grateful for the book. I've read it again and gone, well, yeah, there's a few errors in there, but you know what, first time, first time writer, and I'm really, really proud of it. And so what has that done for me? It's gone, taken my confidence levels, taken my accomplishment levels to a whole new level. And so what does that do to me and my personal brand? Just like Jordan Peterson says, rule number one, stand up straight, right. And that's where I'm at, because part of the story is, I know you haven't read it, not many people have, is that I had that turning point in my life, it was basically a slightly early midlife crisis, and the business was failing. And I had to pick myself up out of the dirt and raise myself up, personally, and the business, in order to basically be here, even having this conversation with you now, in and around Memedia and this business and whatnot. So I think that that's a fantastic ride to go through, without adversity, do we really know ourselves? So that is that whole failing thing, building resilience around that and going, wow, okay, that hurt, but it didn't hurt so much. There was an analogy I heard just earlier today, and that was that your job is a bouncy ball, your friends, your health, what else was it? Something else, but friends and health, they're like a glass ball, job drop it, it bounces back, health, friends, family, that's the other one, drop them, glass. So I think, it's the same with failure in business, and anything that you can slightly sort of detach from yourself or learn from, you will bounce back and you build resilience and sometimes you even getting bouncier.
- A million percent.
- [Chris] Maybe you pump yourself up even more.
- Yeah, well, I know I mentioned right at the, when we kind of first met face-to-face for the first time, and I said about, four years ago when I started a business then it just 100% failed, but I think that was a huge learning thing or time for me, because I did, I put myself, I felt like I was attached to that business. And because the business failed, I had failed as well. And it took me longer than it probably should have to kind of get over that point, because there's a lot of guilt around that failure and yeah, it just, it hurt, it hurt a lot. I felt like I let a lot of people down as well. But like you said, because it's a bouncy ball I'm here right now, I'm still smiling, but it does take that time. But who was always around me? My friends were always around me. My family was always around me, my health again, number one, so I love that analogy.
- So Kyle, let's wrap it up. How do people stay abreast of what Kyle Hubbard is up to? What channels do they watch? What's the handles, et cetera?
- Handle, so I'm Kyle Edward Hubbard on Instagram, LinkedIn, They're probably my two, I guess, platforms that I like to be, my favourite platforms right now. Soon to be YouTube, Kyle and Georgie, we've got zero subscribers right now, obviously haven't even started, haven't got one video up, so of course. But that's where we want to kind of explore, I guess, would be the right thing. So, you know, if you want to follow the van life, style aspect, that's where we'll obviously be putting that type of content along with Instagram and LinkedIn. So yeah.
- Digital nomads in Australia, who knew? The digital nomad hub of the world was Chiang Mai. I think it's happened respectively and every single country in the last 12 months or so. Well done, thanks very much. And thanks for much for watching guys. You can get the book, "Building Brands on Purpose," on Amazon, across UK, US and Australia, .com.au. Just search for "Building Brands on Purpose" and give us a shout out, I'd love to hear what you think about it. Thanks.
- Thanks so much, Chris.
- Thanks guys.
