Level Up with Duayne Pearce
I take on the role of an authoritative voice that fearlessly communicates truths drawn directly from my lived experiences. With a genuine sense of ownership, my insights are free from any hidden agendas – they truly belong to the audience. My stories and journey add remarkable value, the key now lies in harnessing its power effectively to help others.
My purpose is to create a new residential building industry. My mission is to inspire unshakable self-confidence in my colleagues in the industry, empowering them to orchestrate prosperous, enduring, and lucrative businesses that bring exceptional projects to fruition for our clients.
My goal is to foster a deeper comprehension among clients about the identity and functions of builders, redefining their perceptions.
Level Up with Duayne Pearce
How I Created an 8 Figure business In 3 months.
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Ever wondered how something as simple as cold water can transform your life? Join us for an eye-opening conversation with AJ Williams, the visionary behind Revel Saunas and Ice Baths, as he recounts his extraordinary journey from being kicked out of house and home at age 14 to creating an 8 figure business in 3 months.
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D Pearce Constructions
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QuoteEaze
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Your story is absolutely incredible. From a young age, I knew that I was going to break the cycle. It was a really, really toxic environment.
Speaker 2:You mulled the lawn or something in your bud you smoke this. Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 1:It's far out there. You're the real deal. I genuinely still pinch myself.
Speaker 2:You tell it how it is. You're putting yourself out there. G'day guys, welcome back to another episode of Level Up. We are back in the shed for a bit of a chilly one this afternoon. It's a cold day here in Brisbane, but we have definitely got a cracker for you today. So today I've got AJ Williams with me from Revel Saunas and Ice Baths. This story is incredible Built an eight-figure business in three or four months plays footy.
Speaker 1:Uh, mate, you're an inspiration. Thanks, mate.
Speaker 2:I'm I'm super excited and privileged to be on your podcast today mate, the reason I reached out is because, like I cold I don't know if I call it therapy like I started doing the cold showers and things, but just the cold has really helped me in what like, just I guess, learn to commit to things. Yeah, like, why did you get into the business of ice baths?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I suppose with ice baths and that I always utilised ice baths in my sporting career and they weren't like there was no real science or anything behind them.
Speaker 1:Back then it was we'd get garbage bins fill them up with ice, jump in them after footy, with no concept of how long to stay in, and most guys would just jump in and jump out and not knowing that, like their benefit of what the actual ice bus could do for them Basically did that throughout my footy journey could do for them basically did that throughout my footy journey.
Speaker 1:And then over the recent, I suppose six years, there's been that big shift in movement in actually educating around why people use saunas and ice or well, ice baths in particular, and sports teams still don't know how to use them exactly.
Speaker 1:Right, um, but there's more benefits to just recovery. Um, for instance, back then, when we were using we're putting ice in the actual garbage bins and as soon as you jump in and that thermal layer that you build around your body was just wiping out any um any sort of improvement that your body would have had or any reduced um inflammation that your body would have because your body's heating up the water, yeah, um, so knew the benefits of that um side of things, but then just started seeing this like big movement and big push, with people utilizing ice baths for more than just recovery, for, like mental health. Um, I grew up obviously having mental health issues with depression, anxiety and PTSD and starting to see the shift in regards to people using it for that and building resilience and tolerances and started doing a bit of breath work and noticing the impact that breath work and ice bathing had on the life as well.
Speaker 2:It's powerful stuff. Hey, we'll just talk a little bit off air. There's a heap of stuff we're going to try and get through. Today, aj's definitely got an incredible story and I think that's going to be a bonus.
Speaker 2:Like I said, the reason I reached out was for the cold, because a lot of people reach out to me now and ask what are you doing? How are you staying on top of things, how are you staying so motivated all the time? And for me in the early days, it did start with just that two minute cold shower, like just having that commitment to stand there cold or straight in cold water. Two minutes, three minutes, and just something as simple as that just started. Yeah, growing my consistency, growing my commitment, my, I felt I started the day better, felt more energized. And then, um, like I was just talking about, like we went to everest and stuff swum in some glacial ponds and, um, like that was just insane. And then, yeah, then just seeing everybody starting to get into the ice baths. But it's I just recently. I don't really want to talk about it too much because we got beaten last night, but I see you've done some work with the Queensland Maroons, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:We supplied all their saunas and ice baths to the camp and now pretty much every one of their players has a sauna and ice bath at their house. Yeah, they love it. They froth it. There's been a big shift in the way that footy players recover and stuff, so we can't blame the Saunas and Ice Bars for their loss last night, mate, they will need your Saunas and Ice Bars.
Speaker 2:That was one of the hardest games ever. Last night it was crazy To remain trialess until what? Was it like 57 minutes or something Ridiculous?
Speaker 1:I just haven't seen that high impact people being able to hold that threshold for that long.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the intensity was just off the charts. It's crazy. So you're still involved with football.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I play AFL down at Southport for the Southport Sharks. I have a bit to do with the Gold Coast Suns still, it's the way that I sort of give back and sort of can help influence the younger generation into being better humans and having somebody to connect with. That isn't the typical sort of person that's just there to like check boxes and stuff. I suppose a fair bit of lived experience for myself and relatability to what they're going through and what they might be trying to hide as well yeah, I like.
Speaker 2:So we've been, um, so where my wife and I want to get a sauna and ice bath at home. So, yeah, I think that's why you popped up on my feed and then I saw your, your um, saunas and stuff and then I like I always like to look into the person and see what's going on with the business but, like, your personal page is pretty unreal. Like you, you do some pretty inspiring stuff on there. Yeah, I feel like a lot of people don't realize the power of personal development. Yeah, like everyone's looking for this magic answer, whether it's to life or business. Yeah, but it really can be some of the simplest things. Hey, like, just committing to standing in a shower, jumping in an ice bath, jumping in a sauna, yeah, um, but I see, with a lot of your stuff you're doing like you're actually talking to people about.
Speaker 2:This is why it's beneficial which I haven't really seen done too much on any other. Um, like, there's ice baths everywhere at the moment yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:So I feel like you've got a bit of an edge there because you're very passionate about it yeah, I think, um, just based off like lived experience and knowing how it's improved my life, like dramatically, and being able to communicate that in a way that is relatable, like there's so much science and data and people out there and podcasts, and so I do a heap of self-development. I listen to so many podcasts and books Like I finish an audio book every week. I'm not a great reader. I left school in year nine with personal circumstances and so I find it easier to listen to books.
Speaker 1:And sometimes I'll be driving and I'm like, oh, far out wherever I've driven to, because I'm so deep in the book. Or I'm like I arrive to where I'm at and I'm like, oh, how did I even get here? Like I can't remember if I changed lane or drifted off. But I just love the personal development side of things. But it's really hard to understand what, especially for someone like myself or like yourself, like you're a tradie, some of the words that scientists and stuff put out there. You're like what the what the fuck? Can I swear on this? What the fuck?
Speaker 2:did he just say like I?
Speaker 1:don't even know what that means, and being able to break that down for um the average person, you go. That's what that does.
Speaker 1:Like that makes sense, like I'm glad it's not just me understand that, like, like you asked me, like there's no way in my world or on my Instagram I'm ever going to try and pronounce one of the scientific terms for ice baths or saunering, because I, one, I can't pronounce it and, two, I don't even know what the fuck it means. So I'm just going to go, I'm going to work out what it means and how that relates to the normal person, and I'm going to try and communicate through that way. But, for instance, with your journey and the way that you got into ice um through the cold showers, that that's like one of the hardest things to do. Like ice baths it's easy because you, you jump in it and you know what you're there for.
Speaker 1:With showers, like we're super programmed to be like, this is my hot safe space. I'm going to get in the shower. It's going to be nice, hot, relaxing. When you turn it on to cold, you're forcing yourself to be in a really uncomfortable, um, environment. Yeah, that your brain's like telling you you, you need to get out of this. This needs to be on hot. Like you've done this since you were born. You've showered in hot conditions since you were born, so it's like your brain is trying to overpower. It's a real, it's a real hard thing to come over.
Speaker 2:I think that's why I got so much out of it, because it was a battle like and whereas like. I'm at a point now where it's just natural, like I jump in it's. I don't even have it on the hot, it's straight on the coal, but it's pretty good and you get out of the shower buzzing, but it still doesn't give me the cold shower, definitely doesn't give me the buzz that I get when I have an ice bath no, definitely not.
Speaker 1:I think on the cold showers at the start of it and the ice bathing in general, it also forces you to breathe. I think, um, everyone now like is so on their phone all the time and um, everything like seems to agitate everybody a fair bit or like it's really hard to take it in. I find even now when I'm writing an email, like hold my breath a lot, but when you jump into the sauna, into the ice bath or the cold shower, you're like forcing you've got to breathe, cause it's like your response is like I'd breathe through this. I've got to calm down, like my nervous system.
Speaker 2:What's your technique when you first get in an ice bath?
Speaker 1:um, now it's pretty good, like I. I am such a sometimes, so still like, as soon as soon as I'm in the water I'm good, like I'm, I'm sweet, but it's still like a mental battle, I'm like, do you take a breath, get in the ice and then slowly let it out?
Speaker 1:or no, I um jump in and I just start taking, like breathing big, deep breaths through the nose and like just working through it. That way, never close my eyes, because that's another thing. Like, if you close your eyes, your natural responses are like fight or flight mode. It's like you're taking yourself to a place you don't need to be. So, excuse me, always keeping my eyes open and just just breathing really consistent breaths in and out, and it just becomes easy. But at the moment I've been going on tiktok live when I'm in the ice bath, um, as well, and that makes it even easier because, I'm so invested in what people are saying, getting my budgie smugglers and jump on the live and people, people love it.
Speaker 1:It's random, as it could be pitch black out in my pool area, cold as, like the wind gets me, but it doesn't feel like too much. But yeah, it's still pretty pretty hard.
Speaker 2:I think breath is a massive thing for how, um, how's the tiktok go, like where?
Speaker 1:it's something we haven't really branched into, like what she does a little bit on there but yeah, well, I've posted a few videos um on my tiktok before and they've done pretty well, but they're just, they were like during covid and they were like random dad jokes that were inappropriate.
Speaker 1:And I was in my budgie smoke I always wear budgie smugglers, but I was in them so I pulled them down and I went the other week I'm like I'm just going to go live in.
Speaker 1:I did did the gold coast half marathon and I didn't train for it and um, I was buggered, I was so cooked after I jumped in the sauna and I, um was like I'm just going to go live. So my title was like just finished Gold Coast half marathon, cooked um in the sauna and then I had a heap of people jump into it, ask heaps of questions, and then just ran at some random as people and I thought, oh, I might be onto something here. And then I went into it again and more people come and like I've been like a couple of weeks into it and so many people just jump on and ask questions and I'm like, if you get me to 20K likes, I'll jump in the ice bath at four degrees in the middle of the night, like at dark, and they just love it. I jump in, and it just love it. I jump in, and it just makes it more I know, more interactive.
Speaker 2:It's like being in this little environment, you know, isolated. Mate, do you mind if we share a bit of your story? Yeah, because one of the it's become a real passion, like this podcast has really, uh, been become a bit of a platform to share people's stories and yeah, um, I like to really show people in the building industry that it doesn't really matter your background or what you've come from, anything's possible. Your story is absolutely incredible and I think Shane might have reached out to you to get a bit of background knowledge and stuff and he found out you've recently been on the podcast. What was that podcast called Unemployable and so, yeah, I listened to that and I was like holy shit, this guy really does have an incredible story like and it just goes to show you like it does not matter your the way you've been brought up, the school you went to like how smart you are. Yeah, like you've definitely proved all that wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm pretty sure that, um, any of my teachers would have been like oh, he's gone nowhere, like he, he's gonna be in in trouble, but yeah so did that?
Speaker 2:did that play on your mental health, like because you thought those people were thinking that of you?
Speaker 1:100% like the. The fear of judgment was so real up until sort of recently, um sort of anything that you do or the way things you go about it. I think I've only just like learnt to detach from like I don't care what people think anymore, but up until recently I really struggled with like one I'm not good enough to do this or I'm going to be judged for just putting myself out there, and heaps of like imposter syndrome and self-sabotage when things do go well would always like my internal um brain would try and fuck things up for myself in some capacity as well it does it for all of us, I think, and that's why I like sharing these stories, because the guys or girls that are out there that have maybe had a shit day at work and they're battling with their, their mind, telling them a shit story like we all have those stories, for sure.
Speaker 2:It's just how you choose to deal with them, or push them to the side, like I tell people on my socials, like I deal with my demons every day. It's just the decisions I make get me to another position, or I push them to the side, or I think about something else, or whatever it is. Yeah, so what? Like can we go back to? Like you said, you only went to year nine. Yeah, what's the story?
Speaker 1:there, yeah, I suppose. Um, so I um, I'm one of seven kids. Um seven kids. We grew up in a um housing commission house that was three bedrooms sort of I would I reckon it would probably be about the same like smaller than this shed, for sure. Um, there I had a stepdad, my mum and my biological father separated when I was nine months old. Um, my, my real dad was an alcoholic. Um, like a functioning alcoholic um, not not abusive or toxic, just really selfish um. And then my stepdad moved in pretty pretty quickly after that. I think I was about one and he was an abusive alcoholic. Um. So I grew up in in a household with seven, seven siblings or seven kids.
Speaker 1:Um, every Thursday night, like being a tradie, get paid. He worked on the roads but go down to the local pub um, come home, got full of piss, abused mom I was a young kid, I'd try and get it um in between mom to try and protect her, and it just was really really toxic environment. That cycle went on for years. Like mom, we would end up staying in the car we had like a van, or we'd go to a motel and spend the night there, and thursday nights was always hectic for us, like it was. You knew it was coming. Yeah, I knew it was coming and still, like to this day, I have trouble sleeping on a thursday night. Yeah, right, um, and I've only just been able to realize oh, that's like, because that's, that was the night you spent so many years just dealing with that same thing every week yeah and um, it wasn't just thursday night, but like that was the, the main, the main one.
Speaker 1:and then, um, I was 14 years old, um, so just coming into year nine, um, and I just had enough of him coming home pissed, um, he'd get up in our face and one night he was like, oh, come on, then let's, let's fight. Mum would always take the brunt of it. I just one day went well, fuck this. And just punched him. It was a pretty decent hit. It knocked him out and Mum just said you've got to leave, told me to leave. I grabbed my sister and I went and stayed with my friend and she went and stayed with her boyfriend at the time. And then we found a unit in Palm Beach real cheap. It was cheap back then At 14? I was probably about almost 15 by then, yeah. And then, yeah, we got a private rental in Palm Beach right across from the beach, for like it was like 250 bucks a week. It wouldn't be that now down there.
Speaker 2:but so how did you like you're obviously very resilient Like how did at 15, like to do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, started bricklaying. I was trying to go to school at the same time as well, but it just didn't work. Like it was impossible. I was doing bricklaying, I was unloading containers, um, I was trying to do as much stuff as I could, just doing heaps of labour and probably hanging out with still toxic people because I was so used to that environment.
Speaker 1:So it kept chipping away, um, until I was sort of 23 and realised I need to do something better than this and then met my current business partner back then, who owned one of Australia's biggest fitness equipment companies and he obviously seen something in me, offered me a job and just started working in his warehouse there picking and packing orders. And then built a relationship with him and he really took me under his wing and taught me product development. So I learned all about that, Went to China a fair bit and learned about like manufacturing, started learning about like e-commerce and online selling and marketing and stuff which sort of led me to where I am now yeah, and you um like used sport, didn't you as well, through those times to get you through, and that was a bit of that, was your hobby, that was your safe spot yeah, I always thought like that I was going to be a professional AFL player.
Speaker 1:Uh, while I got like pretty close, um, there was just no chance. Like it's 0.3 percent. Everything has to go right. You have to be pretty, pretty bloody good to do that. Just that was just something that I attached myself to. I was like I'm going to make this um, or make something out of it at least, and, um, the reality of it's near impossible.
Speaker 1:But the, the footy environment, um, was such a family to me, like that was my safe haven. I had all these older blokes to look up to that didn't know what I was truly going through, obviously knew that I was a bit of. You'd look at it like a delinquent child, but like somebody that needed some guidance. So I always had those type of people to look up to and I think that's what really taught me like my teamwork and building like a really good culture within the company so that everyone's like working together for one outcome, I suppose, and a lot of the stuff that I use in business. Now I think, oh jeez, we use that in footy or like that's like a strategic part of the footy.
Speaker 1:But yeah, footy was a massive outlet for me and my, like, mental health. And when, when I sort of tried, I tried to give it up around about 25 or so and I had a massive mental breakdown. I couldn't work out why. And then it just I was speaking to someone and they're like, oh, you do realize, footy's, like your, your family and your, your identity and something that you've built, um, and you're trying to give that away.
Speaker 2:So really, you're like pushing away your family and your ability to have a, yeah, outlet it's incredible way how, like I'm a huge fan now of um one of the things that I work on personally myself and I I feel like I just wish everyone in the world could could realize it like we all. I believe a lot of people don't and they're not actually the person they could be. Yeah, like they're just stuck in this world that was created by the people that are around growing up, the family members they have, the community they're hanging around.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they're too scared to break out of that mould because they might upset someone or they might offend someone or all these types of things, and so they never actually truly get to realise how successful that could be or they might be able to have a different career. There's so much that can come when you start to sort of break out of your, your comfort zone and your and what you're used to for sure um, I think, um, a lot of people just hang on to.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is what I was brought up in like. From a young age, I knew that I was going to break the cycle. I always thought it was going to be through um, footy, um, but I was always trying stuff to break the cycle. I always thought it was going to be through footy, but I was always trying stuff to break the cycle, like I've never been a massive drinker or whatever, but I've always known I'm out of here. And I think that there's still people in my family that won't admit to their truth that they've been through, just because they feel like that's them and there's no way out for them. Yeah, there's a lot of people that will just stay in that cycle because they don't feel deserving or they don't feel like they would get the opportunity to break, break the cycle or, um, yeah, they don't feel like they deserve it either. So all right?
Speaker 2:well, let's definitely set the scene to uh like so then, how do you go from that to building a seven, eight figure business in three or four months?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, quite interestingly, I started a few different business, so I jumped into that fitness equipment company. During that time, I was always looking for, like, oh, what's my outlook? What's this gym equipment business gonna be for me? Like, where am I gonna find my, my exit? Um, excuse me, I started a clothing company.
Speaker 1:Um, I get real addicted to things, right, Like so easy. Not like not um drugs or um booze, Cause I know the outcome, what happens when that. When that happens? Um, but like, for instance, I got really addicted to golf and I just was that adamant that I was going to start this golf brand clothing company. And this was about in 2014, I think. So about 10 years ago. I started this golf clothing company and I sold a few things of it, but it was just too early, the golf case hadn't started, so I scrapped that. Like never try and sell mega amounts of apparel because just so you order all these things that you think you're gonna go. Well, that's the, what we spoke about off air. It's like validate the, the product before you um go through it. So that was a lesson in um, in that, I suppose.
Speaker 2:And then just kept chipping away, kept kept learning still got some of them in the in the closet probably somewhere I think um, my, my biological father he still wears some play golf.
Speaker 1:He's probably got endless amounts, but um, yeah, um, so I did that and then, um, just started a few, tried to start a few different things. Try to start like uh, I started, I got decent at like doing Facebook ads and stuff. Try to start like a ads agency once. That was probably a bit too early.
Speaker 2:So how are you getting the skills to do this.
Speaker 1:Oh, just trial and error, like. So, for instance, when I was like 16 or 17, there was this online computer game, had a laptop in this exact unit. I still remember the same situation and one day I was like I'm just going to build a website and build a radio on it, and I just taught myself how to build, like how to completely code a website. I was never smart at school, obviously. It went to year nine, but I just had this relentless like ability to just keep trying things. So I built this website and built like a radio in it and I could like host the radio. I don't even know if anyone listened to it, but I just did it based off this computer game. And then so I just like tinker with things and learn how to do stuff. My mum would always say that I was really good at taking things apart and analyse them. I was never good at putting them back together when I was a kid, like push bikes and stuff, so I'd just learn all these new sort of skill sets, tried the facebook ads agency and that was probably not going to work, and then was doing heaps of product development. And then, um, just before covid, I mean, um, the guy that owns the fitness equipment company, dan. We're like, oh, let's create a sunglass company. And we designed these sunglasses that had like an adjustable earpiece and they would go over your ears so like when you're doing CrossFit or like a workout, like they wouldn't fall off your head. They would have probably been good for builders. And we got a pattern on the sunglass and so I left working for his business to start this business and we launched it and it was when covered for like just kicked off.
Speaker 1:Um, and it went pretty well. Obviously people had heaps of disposable income and they were just buying stuff online. We partnered with an influencer in the fitness industry to be the face of that business and I just didn't love it. Like I was in there. I was in the grind.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed launching it and building this product and building all of the assets and marketing around it, launched it, but I didn't enjoy running that business and it slowly just broke me down and then there was sort of some infighting with the shareholders in that business and me and my best mate, dan, started not seeing eye to eye because we didn't realise there was this external factor going on. I decided to exit the business rather than keep trying and Fighting it. Yeah, fighting it really. It was a really shit toxic environment to be a part of at that stage, because the business started going downhill and I was blaming myself. I'm like, oh, this is not good. Anyway, we ended up communicating through that issue and working out that obviously it wasn't me or wasn't the root cause of it, because anyone else I think any of the two mates would have just been like you're dead to me, like with what was genuinely happening and what I was getting blamed for and what was coming out was, yeah, it could have broke anyone.
Speaker 2:You've got to be tough, be tough. Hey, to be business partners, 100, you gotta be definitely committed 100 it's hard work, it is for sure.
Speaker 1:And um, so I chose to exit that. I lost any, anything that I put in it. Um, all of the the couple of years that I put into it, um got nothing out of it left it and I was thinking, fuck, what am I gonna do? I was like I don't want to go into another business with um like Dan just, I don't want to lose him as a friend. He's been like a great mentor to me, taught me everything I know.
Speaker 1:And then, um, I started a, um a company that went pretty well. Um, I was like consulting uh to back to his company with like a team and I just and it was another thing that I just didn't love Like I didn't, I didn't love it at all. I didn't like managing it, I didn't like managing the people in it and it wasn't fulfilling like my bucket. And I still didn't know what I wanted to really do. And then I met up with Dan and we were like, okay, I didn't know what I wanted to really do. And then I met up with Dan and we were like, okay, covid's been really good for the fitness equipment industry, but we need something in the business that's parallel to the business. Still, in the health and fitness industry that can be like can de-risk the core business. So let's build something out to make sure that it doesn't risk his main business, which is a really significant size business.
Speaker 1:And then so we did this innovation cycle where we chose three areas we wanted to look in. Actually, it was four. We wanted to look into sleep, because we knew that people were having issues with sleep. I have issues with sleep.
Speaker 1:Nutrition Nutrition's already been done by a lot of companies so it's like it's such a saturated market so we scrapped that pretty quick. Mental health was on the rise, like during covid or post pandemic, was massive issue and it was an area that we could, um could, look into. And then there was the sauna space or like we called it, like hot and cold therapy area. We then um put out, put a bit of research out. So we did like a research paper, got uh, over 5 000 clues that we built up from different podcasts, different thought leaders, different research papers.
Speaker 1:Did our own research paper with the consumers that we built up from different podcasts, different thought leaders, different research papers. Did our own research paper with the consumers that we had access to, which was a couple of thousand, and then we did one-on-one consumer interviews. So once we started seeing like some clear indicators of opportunities, we started interviewing. We interviewed a thousand people to try and get some consistency with what area we should look into in those four, four areas. So we'd scrapped nutrition, scrapped sleep pretty quickly, like we sleep was a massive issue for all these people that we interviewed but nobody was willing to invest in it or they would rather spend their money elsewhere so how did you know to do all this stuff?
Speaker 2:or is it like it's?
Speaker 1:just a bit of like test, uh, testing iteration. It's just like innovation is putting something out there, getting some validation or some consumer insights, and then building like a product around those consumer insights, um, and then validating them, so putting it out into the market and seeing if there's actually an opportunity. So it's just something I've learned over the years of that.
Speaker 2:I tell traders and builders they all think they can't do this type of stuff. But you can send a questionnaire to every client you've ever worked for and say why did you choose me? What were you looking for? What were you worried about?
Speaker 1:Getting information back from people is so powerful to a business. Oh, 100% like goes back to like marketing. Like you can then create a communication style for your marketing, because I know what, to what people I need to market to now and what they want to hear not, I'm just assuming they want to hear I want this type of house or whatever it might be for that. Um, you can also then build product around what that consumer insights is. Um, yeah, it's just like endless amounts of stuff. But to get back to how we landed on saunas, um, we went down the mental health route. Like we seen, saunas was like a massive opportunity, but at the same time we were like, oh, this has been done before, because there's so many spas companies out there and so we sort of car parked that. And because of my background, I was like I really want to do something for mental health. I want to create a product that I can stand behind and that would generally help myself and there's an opportunity here.
Speaker 1:So I created we called it the escapist. I got a pattern on it, created a noise cancelling headphones, so like a pretty much both headphones, but we put ecg readers into the outside so they could read the ecg in the back of your temple and on your earpiece, and then there was a band that come down and it went on the front of your head, um, and it read you read your ecg uh, eeg, um, like brainwave activity, yeah. And then from that we created an algorithm that would get those data points and speak to each other and then it would be able to tell an app where your brainwave activity was when you're meditating, so that when you're um, you're not in like a meditative state that is actually productive for you. It will, like the voice guidance, will kick in and tell you like guide you back into that meditative state. Um launched that in the us and a fair few people bought it, but it was just costing so much to educate the consumer.
Speaker 1:So I was finding our cost of acquisition was higher than the product um itself, which is yeah, gonna kill your business like yeah, yeah and like, even if you got millions and millions of dollars of investment, your cost acquisition is going to chew your business down um yeah, it's pretty, pretty straightforward, um well, yeah that, or quadruple your sales price.
Speaker 1:Oh, 100%, and that's not going to happen for a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. And I was like, well, maybe it's too early. We're trying to educate the consumer on why they need to have it. They don't subconsciously know that they need to have that product. So I refunded all of those customers their money and just left the pattern there so that that product's sitting there and then we'll like we've.
Speaker 2:then that's when my wife said to me no more businesses because I I chewed I chewed up a fair bit of money in that business, so you would have have had to spend some money on the product on everything.
Speaker 1:So on all the like, because it costs money to research people, so like there's programs out there that we paid to get access to people to interview people. Um the pattern that does like design of that, because I I couldn't do the technical side of the algorithms and stuff like that um pattern wasn't cheap at all. Um, all of the ad words, like so we chewed up a fair bit of mining, um dan's, my, dan's money there.
Speaker 2:And then, yeah, caitlin was like no more businesses you're going to work for someone like it's funny, but because, uh, like this has come up in another conversation this week like people don't see what's going on behind the scenes. No, like, if that, if that, if those headphones had it gone crazy, yeah, and made you millions of dollars, yeah, people wouldn't have considered the. I'm sure it was years one, two, three years all those research, all the money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you probably had, like I don't know. I can only imagine you've probably spent a few hundred thousand or yeah, that's a fair bit, yeah it. It takes a lot to get like, and I just I'm sitting here like inspired as me, like because you just keep going and going, like all these businesses you've just kept pumping money into yeah, like, so, yeah, and then so I'm assuming the next one's the big one.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I thought, fuck, we don't have much money now, what am I going to?
Speaker 2:do so. Yeah, Sorry to cut you off. Like, are you? Yeah, Like I'm assuming you're really battling with the stories you're telling yourself at this stage. Oh, 100%.
Speaker 1:You're bashing myself.
Speaker 2:You're like nothing works Like. What am I going to do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the imposter syndrome was real. It's like like you are not you, you mustn't. You've, like, you've done something bad, You've smashed a million mirrors before you got no good luck.
Speaker 1:But I just you, just you just know, like, even speaking to my mate Dan, it's like we just know that when we land on something, it's it's gonna pay off and it. But also it's like hard to keep taking risks. Yeah, it's hard to really take risks, but the more we were doing it, the more we were um taking calculated risks um as well. So, like they were really strategic and I think that was evident with when we launched um revel um, I sort of I pitched it to him and his exact team in gym and fitness and um and they were like, yeah, well, let's um, let's give it a crack. We're not spending any money on this um, so we're, we're partners in in in the business um I built.
Speaker 1:I went after they said yes, I think. So I think it was like it's actually a funny story when I was pitching it, my wife was pregnant at the time, so that's another reason why she did not want me to start a business and she's she's a civil engineer, like senior project engineer. Yeah, so she's very structured, like she has this methodology, like stage gates.
Speaker 2:And I'm structured like she has this methodology, like stage gates, and I'm like a million miles an hour.
Speaker 1:Let's risk everything. Um, so she's, she's pregnant. It's always gonna be one risk taking relationship, 100 percent. Um, dealing with like morning sickness and stuff. I go into my office at home, pitch, pitch this idea that we wanted. This is um, because, because I still had to do like a fair bit of back background work to sort of go. This is what what I think like it's going to look like on a financial perspective Like this is the indications that I have. This is, if we spend bare minimum, this is what return we'll have so that we can invest that into here. And this is what the range will look like, what it would cost all of that. Do all the discussions with the factory in the background on my own time, pitched it to them.
Speaker 1:Come out happy as and I'm like what's for dinner, darling, she's like I haven't cooked anything. I put like and I'm clean as either. Because she was so sick she didn't want to eat anything, hated the smell of meat, put like two meat pies in the um oven for me and I was so hungry by that time, like super excited, I went. I went to eat one. It was frozen inside. It's sort of like the night just was like perfect, and that that was just so laughable.
Speaker 1:So you remember the night you launched this business by a frozen pie yeah, and then I went back in there and I went fuck, I'm getting balls deep into this. Um, I um jumped on, started building a shopify website, built out the framework. Um was gonna launch it with like a blue color, sort of like that. That blue color that's there, um, as a brand color. Uh, because I was thinking, oh, recovery like Revel, recovery from my background. But then I'm thinking, oh, I've got to think about like the whole market, like there's so many people thinking about like longevity, wellness, all this thing, like there's a massive holistic approach in regards to what saunas and ice baths can be used for. So we changed it to the greens that you'll see now, which is more like a neutral color. It's like green means yes, with everything in your subconscious mind. It also is like earth color relates back to the product a lot more than just a blue.
Speaker 2:Your marketing is fantastic, yeah, your socials and your website and stuff it's all great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I legit built that in one night. Um, obviously, when I was doing the product um design side of things, I'd got some renders built up of what the product was going to look like, um so that I could pitch it to um dan and his business I'm still amazed at who, who, how did you do this?
Speaker 2:because, like, all I hear is excuses from people all the time. Like I can't build a website, like you, you tell people. Like people say, oh, I'm struggling, I can't get jobs, how to, like, I need more clients, I need inquiries, or like, work on your marketing, I don't know what to do. Like you fucking build a website. Who taught you to build a website?
Speaker 1:I taught myself to be honest, like I was like there are some things that you need to get developers to do um, but it was bare minimum. It was just like I wanted to create um because we didn't have any product inventory. In the back end it was coming up with um out of stock and I just needed somebody to create like a pre-order button for my website and I didn't know how to code um a pre-order button, so I just got him to do.
Speaker 2:It cost like a thousand bucks um the reason I like pulling you up on stuff like this is because I want people to see that there is, there's always a way 100 like if you get stuck on something, don't let that pull you up. No, if you got to pay a few bucks, pay a few bucks. If you got to get on google and research it like research it there's so much on youtube now as well.
Speaker 1:Like you, there's like I'm not. I'm not hands-on like for a builder. Um, if I need to do something at home, I'm going to google it, like I'm going to. I'm going to, like um, look it up on youtube and go, oh, is this worth? I'm never going to try it, but, like, if it's something small that I need to do at home, I'm going to look it up on YouTube and I'll work out how to do it. But yeah, like I'm not super smart, I can use a computer and I know.
Speaker 2:You need to change that story, mate. Yeah, from what I'm hearing, you're a pretty smart bloke.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, I think everyone's got this in them right, like everybody has this in them. It's just about willing to like be okay with, like testing things and if it doesn't work, like just keep going, like keep trying or looking into things, and yeah, just, I think the best thing is to not look at a textbook and go this is how it has to happen. I think you put the textbook down. Same with I don't know if you've built something from Ikea, right, you're not going to look at the instructions, I'm going to put them down first, I'm going to build it and if it's not right, I'm going to try and like see how many parts I got left over?
Speaker 2:yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 1:It's like you need to like, put, put it out there, test it. Just try and do it, because the more you're doing something, the more you're like learning what not to do. I think, um, yeah, build it off the back of renders and went live with it. Um, what that? Like that next week? I think like within a couple of days, because I got the developers to do a few things. Um, sent the website through to the team, obviously to go, is this all right? Like, do you think this is cool and everyone's like that's so, like that's awesome. I'm like I, I think it's still shit. Like even when I look at, I'm like there's so much we could change on it.
Speaker 2:And now, the website that I would would have been seen in the last couple of weeks is still the same website.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I haven't changed anything. Put some stuff about like queensland state of origin. Um, we just partnered with range rover, which was pretty cool. We're doing some stuff, so we're putting some stuff on there to like to say that we're partnering with them guys as well.
Speaker 2:So how does that happen? Like I don't want, like there's so much to talk about here, like how, how does that happen? How do you? Have you reached out to them?
Speaker 1:or no, it's, it's insane the amount of reach outs that we we're getting like on a daily basis, like pretty much everyone in the state of origin side on both teams has our product. It's crazy. Like I got a random phone call the other week. I don't normally pick up random numbers. I'll like let them text me or whatever. And it rang me on WhatsApp and I thought, oh, this is like an Indian marketer Cause, like who calls on WhatsApp. And then it called like five minutes later and I just walked into my sauna. I'm like I'm just going to answer this.
Speaker 1:And called um like five minutes later and I just walked into my sauna. I'm like I'm just going to answer this and he's like hey, mate, it's james, how you going? And I'm like, yeah, I'm good. I'm thinking who do? I know that's james. I'm like racking my brain. He's like teddy and I'm like, and I was like tedesco. And he's like, yeah, yeah, and he goes. I got your number from um, uh, such and such, and I just want to go to sauna and ice bath. And I was like what the actual fuck's happening here? Like James Sadesco calls me and then Latrell Mitchell go message me the other day. Like it's just insane the amount of people connections that are happening from this business. It's just one of those things where, um, all the stars sort of aligned. But yeah, range Rover reached out in an email and I just called him straight away and I don't think it's the stars aligning mate.
Speaker 2:I think, like like I said, from following you personally on social media, like you, you're the real deal yeah you tell it how it is.
Speaker 1:You're putting yourself out there and, like people, connect with that yeah, I think, um, a lot of people can see through when people are faking it, um, and that's one big thing like it's. Like I'm just going to be always authentic, but even like I posted a video the other day and someone in the team said, oh, it was the you know that hocter girl. That went viral. Actually, there's a tur and spit on that thing anyway, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, um, it's a, it's a video that went viral, but I made like a spin on it in regards to the ice bath, and actually it was Dan. He's like, oh, that could be controversial. And I was like, oh well, I'm just, I'm leaving it there and if somebody doesn't like it, one, if a lot of people don't like it and think it's controversial, I'll own up and apologise. But if I don't put that out there, I'm not being like my true self and I'm gonna go and check it out yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty funny, like if you see the original version you'll know why, like the whole backstory of it. But it's yeah, it's, yeah, it's quite funny, but, um, yeah, I think, just putting yourself out there and being okay with um being well, like, I don't think anyone judges. I think they genuinely connect with it because it's like this guy's normal, as like um I'm on the same page as you, mate.
Speaker 2:I believe people see through the bullshit pretty quickly yeah, for sure yeah, if you're the real deal, like you, your videos, like I assume it's your backyard at home like, yeah, in your pool area, I think I've seen one video where you you mow the lawn or something in your bud. Do you smoke this? Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 1:Far out. That's something out there. Yeah, yeah, look, it's just. There's a funny story. That is when the business first kicked off. So we launched. It went pretty well and it was just me Because we're still testing this right we're like trying to validate. Like we put there um on with pre-order to see if we had the validation, um, and like we'd validated it. That was in september, the product. We received the product on um, I think it was like the 31st of december, like it was new year's eve.
Speaker 1:So the container got here, me and dan went up to the warehouse um, unpacked it, uh, checked out the products and stuff and, um, during that time, like lawns going real quick and I really I love my lawn, I'm just obsessed with it. Well, I was until the business went too crazy. Um, now it's going to shit. But, um, I was mowing my lawn and this number kept calling up the sales phone and I'm the only one in the team and I answer it and he's like hey, I'm trying to install my sauna. It was a traditional sauna, so it needs to be wired up by an electrician. And he's like I think it's wired up wrong, the light's not working, or when it turns off, the light clicks off and I'm like I know what's going on here. I'm like I know what's going on here. I'm like just let me FaceTime him. He's like, are you mowing your lawn? And I'm like, yeah, mowing my lawn. It's a Saturday afternoon at like three o'clock, but I think that's just yeah, that's just me. I'm always I was in my budgies too.
Speaker 1:yeah, that's where I was getting with that story. It's pretty funny.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so after all that, you basically launched a business and within three or four months you had a seven-figure business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the first month we launched on September 13th, so middle of the month, and we did like 500K. So if it was a full month we probably would have done Cracked at Mule in our first month, which was insane, and then it just grew super rapid from then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what's your plan? I I see recently you're expanding the range. Yeah, so is that? Um? Is the plan just to be the leader in that space? The ice baths and the saunas yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:So we, we want to have the most, um, diverse range, like everyone has you, you see this, everyone has a different look and feel of how they want their house or like how they see things. So, um, we don't want to restrict our range so that this is what people have to have. We want to give them a bit of choice and I think, um from our like design background, like the first, the version one products, which is something I knocked up together quite quickly, um in regards to the design. But it's like now, how do we iterate on these products and make these products the best in the market, um, that people actually connect with as well, like you don't want to create a product and no one connects with it. Have a really extensive range so that people have options. Um, we've scaled into new zealand, so we're seven months in. Scaled into new zealand. Have a distributor there. Have a distributor um coming on board in france and europe and then?
Speaker 1:um, we're going direct to consumer in in the us as well no, that's freaking unreal.
Speaker 2:Like you must pinch yourself, like what the hell? Like is this awesome or what?
Speaker 1:I think I said it to somebody yesterday I still, I genuinely still pinch myself on, so like it was the Range Rover thing because I, um, when I was going through that like business breakup era like I'm not one that like flashes anything but um, I convinced my partner to let us buy like a real high, high-end Range Rover. Um, stupid idea um. But I was like I own this really nice Range Rover. She drives it now. I just drive her um car around, um. But when Range Rover called me, I was like I'm pinching myself like they, they. So what they're doing is they're launching their new um, one of their new cars like top end hate, I think it's the range rover hv. It's like an electric suv, um, and they've got a house down in threadbow that they hire for the week and they set it up with like range rover branding and they um set up like a whole experience. So they've got a breath work person there. They've got ice but like our ice bath sauna, um, and then they fly their top hundred clients down to the house and take them like they can drive the cars through Threadbow and then come back and experience like a wellness retreat. Yeah, just to help launch the product to build all the content for their product. And they invite all the influences.
Speaker 1:And they called us and they're like we love your product aligns with our brand, which is insane, because Range Rover brands's like top end. Can you send down a couple of saunas and ice baths, like we'll put them together and whatever? And I'm like oh, I'll just bring them down and put them on one of your customers, I'll come down as long as you let me do some content as well. And they're like yeah, we love that. So yeah, I was like man, I'm pinching myself that these opportunities happen. And, um, a guy called me this morning. He's like oh, the today show is filming a thing at cali beach club on um sunday. Have you got a few ice baths we can just put on the set because we're doing a thing for motor neuron disease? And I'm like totally aligned, let's do it like. Now we're on the today show. So just like awesome, but it just shows you what you put out there, you get back.
Speaker 2:Hey, like for sure the um yeah, I think social media is an incredibly powerful tool, like you um 100 if you, uh, yeah, like we've been talking about you, just be yourself, you put yourself out there, you connect with like-minded people and, before you know it, things are just ticking along like it's crazy. The um, like all my businesses pretty much just tick along and grow off the back of me doing this podcast and putting the like, the random bits and pieces I do on my social media.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, obviously connect with a fair few people um, from that, like they, yes, obviously see value and actually connect and believe what you're doing, yeah but just just being real, like, exactly like we said, like everyone can see through the bullshit, like I, like you see so many people on social media now.
Speaker 2:Like they uh like anyone can go and buy like go and get financed by lamborghini and stand in front of it like it amazed me how many young people are promoting their life coaches and they've been successful and they might have had one win or something. You've got to have some runs on the board. You've been through all this stuff. You've got the runs on the board. You've tried and tested. Still won't buy a Lambo Mate. I'm not a Lambo person either.
Speaker 1:But I get what you mean.
Speaker 1:Like it's I legitimately had this conversation on the car on the way up here with my business partner, dan um, about like lambos and stuff and um, the perception and the programming that we have based off. Like social media is a great tool, right, we can like you could post something and somebody in the us that isn't inspired by you might like reach out to you and say something and and you, just you just get so much enjoyment out of that. But, on the other hand, it's like it's a demon for um kids that. Or like younger people that think that everything, like they see this guy on Instagram and he's got a Lamborghini and don't realize that he's financed it and they think that he's just got it from overnight success or he's built a business without having to do hard work. Yeah, a big movement now for people to be more humble, um, in regards to their business and give back and offer actual value rather than going oh I, I have this like flashy car.
Speaker 1:I watched this cool um video on social media the other day and I've I actually loved it so much. It was. They interviewed 10 kids in the us um 10 primary school kids, and they said if you could have anything today, what would it be? And the first one was like iPhone. The second one was like I'd buy a private jet. The other one was like I'll get a mansion, and the other one, I think, may have said like a Lambo or something. It was something ridiculous. And then it pans to these kids in like the desert in iraq or somewhere, and it's like um, if you could have one thing, what would it be today? And the kid the first kid was like um, I would want to live till tomorrow, like I know that I could live till tomorrow. The next one was like I would want to see my dad again. And the next one was like I just want to play soccer with my mates in the field. And it's like they don't see social media, so they don't have these unrealistic expectations. Um, and what they, what they can, can achieve.
Speaker 1:I actually hate like don't hate anything, but I really dislike seeing people um go off the back of like Aussies that are like working hard and trying to find their break, like you see, the Adrian Portellis and that, yeah, they've done really well with their brand and their personal brand and stuff like that, but realistically, they're making their billions off giving people that are hardworking Australians like um an easy way out, like by buying their lottery tickets or whatever. I just don't think, like it just doesn't sit right with me and seeing people post like Lamborghinis online and you're like I just don't, that doesn't inspire me like well. I want to be inspired by like a genuine story where this guy's like I made millions of dollars and then I helped this person. Yeah, I don't, I don't care if you got like a Lambo.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Adrian, I actually like I'd, I'd love to know.
Speaker 1:No disrespect to him, like he's done really well, but it's just, it doesn't, it doesn't sit like too well with me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me, yeah yeah, he's probably one of the ones like that I actually I do like I'd love to uh meet him, like, yeah, and he's, from what I see and hear, like he does give a hell of a lot back but I get what you're saying. Yeah they're making a bad example.
Speaker 2:No, but I get 100 what you're saying, like there, and and there's so many mentors, coaches, whatever out there at the moment and and yeah, my spin on what you're, what you're saying, I think, I think we're on the same page. Like they're, they've only got the lamborghini because someone's paying them a monthly, or hundreds of people, or thousands of people are paying them a monthly fee. Yeah, to hear what they're saying, yeah, for sure, and I like that shits me in mind, at like at the construction industry, because there's um well, no different to yours, like yours, I guess, like you to me, with everything you've got to have runs on the board yeah, for sure like it's so easy, like the ones that really shit me on social media.
Speaker 2:Are these ones that, um, get on there about these I don't even know how it works or what the real name for it is. Like they, they sell shit online. Like they just they purchase something from china and they sell it, yeah, and they do all these posts about oh, I've been going for 11 months and I've made 3.3 million dollars oh, when they show their shopify account.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, like. Yeah, I don't like them as well look, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Good on you. You've obviously put in the hard yards. You've made it work. Yeah, but come back and see me in three years time and see where you're at. Yeah, yeah, like, is that growth going to continue for that long? No, it's not that sustainable.
Speaker 1:Like, in 10 years' time, they'll probably look back and go. That was the worst decision of my life. Yeah, I could have reinvested that money. It's good to celebrate small things, like for sure. Like, I think you should always celebrate small things. But I think the feeling like you need the, it's the hedonic treadmill right. It's like you don't need to have the next best thing, because when you get that next best thing, you're going to want the next best thing and you're going to want this. And it's just super unsustainable when you're just filling a void, whereas if you can get some sort of fulfillment elsewhere by helping people like, yeah, if you're selling a program that actually genuinely helps people, that's like and then you're seeing their results. Like, for instance, you mentioned that you wanted to do you're looking at a business to. Well, your business is coaching people, right? One of them yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what you're doing is you're actually facilitating somebody else's growth and giving them an opportunity to break their cycle, to earn money, to live a good life, yeah, whereas people other people are just like these overnight success people that drive around land, but oh, the ones that annoy me are the uh, the crypto traders. That's the. Yeah, that's the ones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's the reference I should have used, not for the board. I went to this bloody seminar only a couple of months ago and one of the speakers there was a crypto guy. Oh, wow. And he's telling us about all the success and everything he's had and then like, obviously it's a sales thing and at the end of it it's like you had. And then like, obviously it's a sales thing at the end of it, so you can have all this as well for bloody 24 990 dollars like mate, the amount of people in the room that got up and and went and purchased it, I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2:But like he's made his money from you paying him for this shit system, that um, that has a small chance of thing.
Speaker 1:That's what you need to hold up a sign like that says you can find this info on YouTube for free. Somebody will tell you.
Speaker 2:I'm glad we're talking about this because this is something that I'm really passionate about now, because for me I get a lot of people that they book calls now and they can book a schedule in my calendar and give me a call and talk to me about a coaching business, see if it's a fit for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And one thing that Miele and my business partner are very proud about like when we hold our conferences, they're just like us, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like it's no la-di-da.
Speaker 2:Like we turn up people walk around in pluggers and like everyone's just having a good time and chilled out, there's no, there's just no wankers there. Yeah, that's so good. And like I tell people straight up, like if you want the lamborghinis and the mansions and stuff, yeah, we're not the the community for you. Like that's pretty cool. But if you want, if you want to learn how to run a successful building business with all the systems and processes that gives you freedom, yeah to go. And if you, if you get the freedom and you want to go and buy a flash car, all good for you. But, um, most of our members are they want to earn good money so they can have nice things yeah, but it's more about they want to be able to have experiences with their family, with their kids going on holidays, like um, and to me that's freedom for sure. Freedom's not having a million dollars worth of cars not at all. Freedom's having money to, uh, like my thing's always been, I want. I want to be in a position where I can.
Speaker 2:It's all about experiences, oh yeah if I want to do something, I can do it. If my kids want to do something like I don't want my kids to be sport brats, but like if we're on a holiday and we see something awesome, yeah, I want to be able to go shit yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1:I know we go oh look, we actually.
Speaker 2:We can't afford that right now. Like we'll have to do that next time.
Speaker 1:I love that. Like experiences everything hey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I live. I think that was a big turning point for me, like because the way that I was brought up, I never learned about money, yeah, so I was always chasing the money, yeah, and I actually I never had a problem making money, yeah, but I couldn't keep it yeah okay.
Speaker 2:So I'd just I'd make money and then I'd think I'd buy, like I would buy flash. You know, I bought boats and cars and things or invested in properties, but then I didn't know how to maintain that and then I'd be struggling again. So I I think I'm not sure what you think. I think we need to learn more about money.
Speaker 1:I think so too, and I think it comes back to like trying to figure out what actually makes you tick. I think the best way to do it, the best exercise, is to go. It's pretty powerful. I was on a podcast earlier in the week and the girl that was interviewing me, her sister, had just gone, like the day before went to a woman's retreat thing and there was a lady there that had been diagnosed with incurable breast cancer and the doctor said you've got 365 days to live. And when she got asked that question uh, when she got put that, she was like okay, what am I doing these next 365 days? I think the the way that I look at it now. And, um, and I think the best way for somebody to look at it is, if you got told you've got 365 days to live left, what would you? What would you do I? I can tell you now I'm not going to buy a house because you didn't. You're not going to be living in it for much longer, like or a lambo you're going to go.
Speaker 1:Okay, what experiences can I do now that will be within my memories for the next 365 days? I would be like, okay, I'm gonna go experience everything like I'm. I'm massive on experiences. I love experiences and food. You'll find if you went through my bank account, you'd go experiences of food experience.
Speaker 2:No, there's nothing else like, it's just can I ask you um one of your stories? You're it looks like you're on a private jet yeah, yeah what's the deal with that?
Speaker 1:oh that. So this is a relationship thing. Um, so I didn't. I didn't pay for the private jet, um, so I needed to. I got a random phone call. Another relationship one, um the guy that owns appliances online and winnings.
Speaker 1:So that's like winnings is like a big actually you're not yeah, they were like, oh, we want to um, do this range. We've got this opportunity with this other sauna and ice bath company and I was like winnings aligns with my brand so much. I'm like I want this opportunity. And, um, the guy that owns it's a young, eccentric billionaire. Um, uh, john winning. He's also like a dj, has heaps of cool connections and stuff. And they were like, oh, he's going to be at the camera store, um, on, on like wednesday. He'll be there in between these times. And I'm like, oh shit, I'll have a look at flights. And I was like, oh shit, I can't get a flight into Canberra to land that time.
Speaker 1:And my brother-in-law, um, he's, he's a young guy as well. He owns a? Um civil and mining company, um, that does like pile rigs, like rigs. So he, he um rents a private jet from time to time to get to remote areas with his team if he needs to get there quickly, and he just gets paid by the mining companies. So I was like, mate, I need a favor, that private jet, how much does it cost? And he's like, don't worry about it, give me a sauna and I'll get it for you for the day. And I was like, done and I got it and I was like this is pretty cool, but you wouldn't, you know, wouldn't see me um going going on the private jet yeah that's cool, but like, yeah, well, that's an experience, isn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah, well, the the thing about it is, if I didn't take that opportunity, we wouldn't be in winnings and appliances online and I wouldn't have met him because, um, that day ended up being like shit weather, so the the plane that I would have caught would have been um cancelled and he would have been gone gone by the time I was there. And then when I went there, I met him and we just like connected. He grew up in super different household, I did, and we just connected pretty well and he invited us down to um. He's got a restaurant in Sydney like two days later and we just signed a deal there, flew commercial two days later. It didn't feel great, but uh, yeah, it felt like a rock star. Pulled into the um, the hangar parked, the car was wheels up like within five minutes. Yeah, yeah, pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it is cool, but that's the experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's yeah, that was the experience. I took Um. So we at that same time, um, we had, like my general manager started that week Um, and then I took a videographer. That hasn't experienced much like that. I took my business partner. I was like you're coming with me because we've got to enjoy this together, and um, the on the way back, uh, flying back, my general manager that just started sat in their um, their passenger seat, like in the cockpit, and learned how to fly home. And then we've got like content of that, which is pretty cool, like he actually learned um pretty much how to fly a plane on the way home, which is like a great experience for him to go back and tell his family like, oh, this is what we've done, but don't, please, don't tell anyone about this, because they're going to expect it now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's unreal. So, mate, um, before we wrap it up for all people out there listening mainly traders and builders and stuff, because I want them all to reach out to you. I want them all to have someone as an ice bath. What benefits are you going to get out of it?
Speaker 1:So, obviously, because you're heavily into ice bathing, I suppose the biggest thing is it reduces inflammation. That's a massive thing. If you're on the tools all day, um, or on your feet all day, you need to recover um. One, uh, that's a big thing. The resilience, the breathing, um, just getting you in the right headspace to deal with, like you, if you, if you put yourself in an ice bath in the morning, um, you can take on the world that day like you. Just have the resilience to know, oh shit, I've put myself through this trauma. Yeah, I can, I can get through um, whatever it might be, um, and then obviously, um increasing your brown brown fat. So what, what that does it like fat sounds bad, right, but you need good fat, like which is your brown fat, to help with things like metabolism. Um, and all of those different things like it can help speed up your metabolism. Um, there's a few other things that um brown fat.
Speaker 1:I don't know the technical term of them, but um, essentially it helps fight illness and all sorts of stuff yeah, it helps fight illness, keeps off like the cold and flu as much as possible, um, but it can like with tradies, like it's hard to get like good, sustainable food in all the time, right, so, um, it just helps with metabolizing those, those bad, bad foods. And with the saunas, um, the the biggest thing is like it increases your circulation, which then also impacts your heart, so a lot of tradies would have like heart conditions from like back in the day eating like meat pies and I know I've spoken about meat pies before chocolate milks, cokes, sugar, like just to get them through, like taking in all of those calories.
Speaker 1:Saunering like three to four them through, like taking in all of those calories, um, soaring like three to four times a week? Um, there's actual like science and data out there that's saying soaring three times a week for 20 minutes at a time can reduce your chance of dying from heart, um, or like all cause heart mortality by 40, which is insane. So, like, the chance of dying from a heart condition is reduced by 40 percent and that's that's a big, big figure as well. So obviously helps with, like muscle soreness and stuff like that as well. Helps with sleep. Sleep's a big thing. Obviously I suffer with shitty sleep, but um, saunering before you go to bed can really help you get a really good, efficient night um sleep because it raises your core body temperature and then when you get into bed, your core temperature drops, so it's easier to get into a deep sleep um faster. Yeah, um, uh, what else does it do? There's there's a couple. Obviously, whip saunas and ice baths can really help um, like improve your mood and mental health as well.
Speaker 2:So boost your, boost your um endorphins and stuff like that yeah, I can't recommend it highly enough, like for everyone that's listening. Um, so where can people reach out how they get in contact?
Speaker 1:yeah, so on socials, my instagram handle is I am the aj williams, or you can just look at revel saunas on instagram. Um facebook, all those social platforms.
Speaker 2:Sweet Shay will put all your tags and all that sort of stuff on there. Look, guys, make sure you reach out If you're thinking about getting a sauna or an ice bath. These guys are the real deal. And, yeah, follow AJ and his stories because most of them are quite funny to watch and you learn something from. And, as we've talked about, he a real deal. So, um, yeah, hopefully this podcast today has inspired you. Um, like I said, the cold shower, ice bath thing has been I'm not right into the saunas I've only had a few but, yeah, it's just for my consistency, my commitment like it's just really and my mental health. So, um, yeah, yeah, I can't recommend it highly enough but, mate, really appreciate you coming on today sharing your story. I definitely think you've inspired some people and I can't wait to keep watching your growth, mate, and to see where you are in the future. It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 1:Appreciate it. Hopefully there's someone out there that's listening that this inspires them to take the next step in their journey or to help somebody along in their own journey and get through break that cycle. I suppose that's why I put myself out here and really appreciate you having me on and letting me engage with your audience.
Speaker 2:It's all good, mate. It's all good Guys, as usual. Make sure you like comment, share all those things so we can continue to make this Australia's number one construction podcast. Look if you've got any questions. If there's any guests that you'd love us to get on here, then make sure you let us know. We look forward to seeing you on the next one. Are you ready to build smarter, live better and enjoy life?
Speaker 1:Then head over to livelikebuildcom.
Speaker 2:Forward slash elevate to get started everything discussed during the level up podcast with me, duane pierce, is based solely on my own personal experiences and those experiences of my guests. The information, opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only, and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. We recommend that you obtain your own professional advice in respect to the topics discussed during this podcast.