#16 Q&A - Transform Your 2024: Essential Steps for a Productive Year

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Welcome to episode #16 of The Game Plan podcast.

In today’s Q&A, I delve into a range of topics - from setting impactful goals for the New Year to managing fitness routines, social media predictions, and personal development.

I reflect on my experiences and share advice on fitness, diet, personal finance, relationships, and mental health. Tune is as I unravel the intricacies of balancing life's demands while pursuing success and well-being.

If you love what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please drop a 5-star rating on Spotify and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. 

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(00:00) Preview 
(02:31) Planning The New Year: Goal Setting, Vision Boards, Habit Building
(08:52) 2024 Social Media Trends
(09:40) Diet Soda vs Water for Fat Loss
(10:31) Diet Tips For Weight Loss
(12:50) Coping With Christmas Weight Gain
(14:22) Do I Track Water and Fibre Intake?
(16:16) My Role Models 
(17:26) New Projects for 2024
(18:16) Wedding Plans and Future Plans for Villa Lipsett 
(19:47) Will I Always Live in Marbella?
(21:52) Three Tips For Someone Moving Abroad
(32:43) Being Single vs Dating in Your 20s
(35:17) How to Become Better on Camera?
(36:51) Do I Eat Junk Food?
(38:19) Hardest Period of My Life
(41:39) My Advice on Investing
(44:16) Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
(47:11) How to Build a Fitness Routine That Lasts?
(48:50) My Thoughts on the Carnivore Diet 
(53:06) Social Media’s Effects on Mental Health

Transcript

Rob Host00:00

You want to get to 10k steps per day. You want to vastly improve your diet. You want to start tracking calories. You want to get to the point where you're in the gym four to five times a week. You want to improve your strength in the gym. You want to sleep eight hours per night. You want to drink three to four liters of water per day. That's very overwhelming. So I said about five different topics there. Really, start with one per week. So you might think, oh God, it's going to take me five or six weeks before I even start getting things moving. Trust me, you will burn yourself out, you will get sick of things, you will get overwhelmed. If you are not losing weight and you want to, you're not in deficit or something's going wrong with tracking, with aging. It really comes down to weight loss and that's also by default. You're going to have a healthy diet there as well and drink plenty of water and sleep, and they're the main things. I'm not even big on skincare at all.

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01:56

What is going on? Everyone? Welcome to the final podcast Q&A of 2023. It is a solo episode once again because it's pretty much Christmas. Everyone's gone home, no one's in Morbea, everyone's doing their own thing.

02:11

It's kind of that time of year where people would clock off, relax and chill out a little bit. So it is just me and you for today, so let's get into it. We got some epic questions here. It's the morning time. I've got a nice big shaker of electrolytes. I've already been caffeinated, so I'm ready to go OK.

02:31

So first question how to plan for the new year Goal setting, vision boards, habit building, big goals versus small goals. So my best piece of advice and I've made this mistake so many times before is setting too many small goals. Instead, what you want to do is you want to set one massive goal and keep going until you achieve that, and so that could take you four, five, six months. It actually might take you the entire year. But that one goal that will change your life, change your entire year. All these other small goals, they're just kind of distractions and oftentimes, once you achieve that main thing in your life, it could be starting that passion project, that passionate business that you know you should do. That's calling your name. It could be completely transforming your health and fitness. Probably, in my opinion, would sort out a lot of people's life if they just focus on their health and fitness.

03:29

But I think it's everyone has this one big goal that they know. If they do, it'll sort everything out, and for me, that one is actually YouTube. I need to get more consistent, I need to pick up the camera, I need to get better video ideas. I need to kind of. I will still use all the other apps like Twitter, instagram, of course, tiktok, everything but I need on YouTube shorts, all this vertical content. For me, I need to just concentrate on YouTube long form, as I think that is what I'm best at. I think that's probably like I know I've got more fan audience on Instagram, but for me it's the fact that I've built such an amazing YouTube channel that I need to keep going with it. I wanna hit that 500K. So that's my goal, and doing that will sort everything out. More fuel cakes will sell because there'll be more eyes on the business. My coaching will go to the next level. It will scale because, again, I'm doing more YouTube, providing more information. I'll be happier. Everything you know, it'll all just sort itself out. So for me, that's my one big goal. I'm disregarding everything else in 2024 because I know everything else will be sorted if I just go really hard on this YouTube channel.

04:39

So my biggest goal setting advice is to get all these little goals, set one goal and then, whenever that's done, then move on. But do not move on until it's done. I've made that mistake and I've also set all these little goals. And first of all, you're a mile wide in HDP. You don't actually achieve any of them because you're so scattered and you've no focus and focus is such a hard thing to come by in today's day and age and you end up achieving nothing because you're trying to set all these goals, you're getting distracted and you're getting pulled all over the place. So set one big, massive goal. And another thing is, when you set all these small goals and you don't achieve them, you feel really bad about yourself. You're like oh, I'm a screw up, I messed up, I didn't achieve all these things. So set that one big, massive goal.

05:26

And with vision boards, this is powerful as well. So one thing that I've seen people do I've done it myself is set their screensaver as something that motivates them. Maybe a quote, an image, maybe your goal is to buy a house or get an insane car or just anything. Just every time you see that and you pick up your phone, it is just a reminder to stay focused on that goal. I know people like they have these big, massive vision boards, that they have loads of things on them, but I think they're good, especially if there's somewhere that you will see. Often it's very motivating when you have that vision board and then you see it come true. But I think I hate to say it, but I think the phone is the most powerful as unfortunately, that's where most of our attention is nowadays how to finally get in shape in 2024.

06:20

So this is going to be kind of like a New Year's theme Q&A, new Year's kind of theme podcast, and so when everyone's starting out and this goes for even if you've got quite an advanced physique and maybe you want to just get healthier, or maybe you want to get leaner, or maybe you want to get bigger and stronger and again, you need to concentrate on one goal at a time. That actually it's so applicable to fitness because so many people they're like I want to build muscle and lose fat and then they're just spinning their wheels. So pick one goal at a time and if you're more of a beginner who's getting into things for the first time, you already want to make that change. I would say create ultra, ultra small habits, like a list of things to do, and make slow progress per week. Okay, so let's say this is what I'd say. Let's say you want to get to 10 K steps per day. You want to vastly improve your diet, you want to start tracking calories. You want to get to the point where you're in the gym four to five times a week. You want to improve your strength in the gym. You want to sleep eight hours per night. You want to drink three to four liters of water per day. That's very overwhelming. So I said about five different topics there. Really, start with one per week. So you might think, oh God, it's going to take me five or six weeks before I even start getting things moving. Trust me, you will burn yourself out, you will get sick of things, you will get overwhelmed. So week one just focus on getting the steps in and that's a habit. You got that lockdown. Week two focus on getting to the gym Tree four, five times per week. Lift and weights, weed tree, get your water and take and check Something that people overlook. So so much I get so simple I was just drinking water, I didn't even track water, but it's something that so many people overlook. I think, actually, that people are chronically dehydrated. I think that's like a little ping in today's day and age. And then so next, which is the hardest one in my opinion and I'm going to go in on it a little bit more is get a good sleep routine in place. So there's so many different facets of fitness and try and do them all at once is going to end up in disaster. So small habits that compound Predictions for 2024 with social media trends.

08:52

I think it is going to go back to a lot of unedited raw stuff podcasts, long form style like this. I think people they still want information, they want motivation, they want comedy. You always have to give the audience some sort of value. That's how it is. But I think people are going to be less impressed with the big edits and doing big kind of Mr Beast style challenges and just kind of seeing a little bit of realness as well, because things come and go in trends Like remember that, like 2016,. Casey Neistat vlogging era my favorite, to be honest. I think that's going to make a big comeback and people will want to just see someone on a mission documenting their journey being fitness business property, whatever niche of YouTube or social media that you're in.

09:40

Diet soda versus water for fat loss. So there's actually research showing that people who include zero calorie drinks that are delicious and taste the exact same as normal thing are better and more consistent at losing weight. What an absolute shock. And the people that say, oh, it's unhealthy, oh, it's going to give you cancer. It is like the equivalent of drinking 40 cans of Coke Zero every single day. Ok, it's just. I think it's actually way more than that. Either way, it's just not going to happen. It's not realistic. You can drink crazy amounts of water and die. Ok the dose. The poison is in the dose, so don't worry about that. I will be drinking on my zero calorie delicious beverages, I think the 12th or 15th year in a row, pretty much my whole life.

10:31

Stop losing weight and I'm in a deficit. What do I do next? First of all, you're not in deficit if you stop losing weight. And there's a few things here. I'm starting with the most common and that's adherence. You're simply just sick of being in a diet and, whether you realize it or not, you are eating more. You're grabbing some stuff from the fridge and it's not really registering. You're being less consistent when tracking that's another thing, or you're simply not tracking.

10:57

There's just maybe another one that happened to me once. I was like by this sauce that was for like. It was like a chili con carne sauce and I was reading the calories and macros on it. Wrong, this is like many, many years ago and I was adding it to all my meals and I was like, why am I getting leaner? Why am I shutting up? I realized like it was like insanely high in calories and like I thought it was healthy, I thought it was fine. And until I had a closer look and I realized it was like the only things are like per serving and only 100 calories and it's like, oh well, that's like a thousand in the fucking in the thing. So there's probably some inaccurate tracking going on.

11:36

There made considerable progress. You've lost, you know, maybe five, 10, 15 kg, whatever it is, and your new maintenance and your new deficit has changed. So when you think about it, if you started at 100 kg and you're now 80 kg well, you're picture this right. You're not carrying around a 20 kg dumbbell per day. So you've you've like got a 20 kg dumbbell. You've stopped carrying around. That's my best analogy for it. When people's maintenance changes, you're gonna burn a lot less calories. Imagine you're gonna weight a vest, you know, and it was 25 kg. You stopped carrying around, you stopped walking up the stairs without weighted vest, you stopped going on walks without weighted KG vest. Well, that's basically what happens when you lose any amount of weight. So your maintenance calories change. That is the weighted vest. Well, that was a great analogy. I need to use that more. So you need to recalculate your cutting diet. You need to either increase cardio you need to increase your physical output or decrease your calorie intake and calculate your new maintenance and maybe also take a diet break as well. That can help a lot with adherence. But if you are not losing weight and you want to, you're not in deficit or something's going wrong with tracking Head to cope with Christmas weight gain.

12:50

So you will hear a lot of personal trainers like me, acting all holier than thou, saying oh, it's no excuse. You know, it's only a few days off the year and you know you can go anyway. Okay, I'm going to be training over Christmas. I just love going to the gym. I'm going to relax on my diet a little bit. I've got a few social events you can do either. Or, okay, you can cut all the way through Christmas. You can stay on top of your fitness regime. Probably that's going to be a better choice. But if you choose to take a break, you know, maybe that's a better choice for you. You know, maybe that's going to help with long-term consistency and adherence. But here's the main thing what you do over the next two weeks is not important as what you do over the next 50 weeks, okay. Bigger picture, this two weeks of the year can't mess up the whole other 50 weeks Like divide 50 by two. It's a fractional time of the year, okay. So whether you decide to train your ass off true Christmas or take it easy, take a complete rest or maybe a little bit of both, there's no wrong answer and just do whatever is best for you. But I just I do urge people to not worry about it at this time of year. You can all see in the gym in January. Don't worry about it at this time of the year, but you should worry about your health and fitness for the majority of the year. So that is my official Rob Lips at Christmas Christmas advice Don't worry about it. Also, weight gain is not permanent. If you gain it, you lose a bike.

14:22

Do you track water and fiber intake? Those go-to electrolytes just really make drinking water so easy. Code lips it for 20% off. No, I do not track water or fiber intake. I just make sure they're getting nailed by just consistently drinking liquids. Try it today. Yes, how much is in this? It's like pretty much nearly a liter. It is 710 ml, so I'll drink, like you know, three of these a day, a few glass of water. Probably have one of these when I'm training as well. Just make sure I'm hydrated, okay, and the color of your urine something to go off as well With fiber intake. Fiber is amazing, okay, just for our overall health and for our satiety. For hunger, if you're hitting your five a day, generally, fiber tends to sort itself out, so it's not something to attract.

15:16

I kind of recommend people they track the bare minimum, like. The main thing is obviously tracking calories and macros if you want results. It's just a way to go. Other things I'd say is tracking your weights in the gym extremely important? So there's two. And the only other thing that I do loose you trackers do my best is sleep, so I haven't got like a sleep tracker. I really want to get one of those eight sleep mattresses that you can heat them up and cool them down. I don't know if I own them, but I do not track sleep for the moment. They're the only two. Things I really track is my nutrition and my training, and my step count as well. My phone does that automatically. I think if you try track, like your micronutrients something impossible. Try track your water intake, your fiber intake, your sleep intake, your steps, your cardio, it just becomes a little bit overwhelming and unnecessary and if you're just doing the right things anyways, they'll just sort themselves out.

16:16

Current role models I look up to so I try not to use the word role models, it can be just a little bit of a strange word. There's definitely people. You know, I don't think we should idolize certain people, but I think we should definitely take inspiration from people. You know, don't put anyone on a pedestal, but yourself, really, you know, you want to be the main character, but there's plenty of people that I choose inspiration from and that I consume. Their content I really enjoy. And you know, if I met them in person I'd be like oh, holy shit. You know I follow this guy online, yeah. So at the moment I listen to a lot of Joe Rogan, of course, andrew Huberman, lex Friedman, chris Williamson really good. And then my friends, you know, mike Thurston, amazing podcast. Christian Max I love Max's podcast one the best, and then I'll kind of just see what guests they have on and then I will, you know, kind of monkey branch from there. So I think if you have, like, your five main YouTubers, five main podcasters and then just see what guests they have on, it's a good way to find, find some respectable individuals, new projects for 2024.

17:26

I am project is out of it. Okay, no more. We got, you know, the game plan app. We have my one on one VIP coaching we have. That is which January is going to be the main focus there. We have fuel cakes, we have the villa, we've YouTube, you know. We've the brands that I work with Alf Lee, ghost. I'm actually taking on two new sponsors for the coming year that you know have nothing to do and so clash of interests with them. There's a lot going on, you know. So there's only so much I can post about, there's only so much I can do and talk about. So I'm like, I think, less projects for 2024. I think I've got. I've got more than enough right there. So, like I said, it's hard if I just focus on YouTube, all those projects will sort themselves out to projects. Actually, I'm not sure if these, you know, these are strictly mine.

18:16

What is the wedding? Me and Linda are planning our wedding, so we're trying to kind of confirm that it's looking like September in Marbella. We're just chatting to a few different venues getting quotes. It's looking expensive and then also this kind of ties in with that we want to use Villa Lipset as, like, a day to venue for the wedding is. That will cut cost a lot and it's a little bit more meaningful, you know, having everyone here.

18:43

And so what we need to do this is the question as well what's next for Villa Lipset? What we need to do is we need to do the outdoor, and that's kind of one of the reasons why I haven't done like the full room tour for the full house tour yet is the inside is done, it's, it's great, it's fantastic. As you can see, it looks like a studio museum. I'm so happy with it. But the outdoor there's a few issues, like that Grass has completely died out in the left, so we're going to have to tile over that and turn it into a seating area or even a workout area. Shut it on that. From the beginning the upstairs leads a pergola and then we need to get rid of the old tiles, like we still have the old tiles. They have like paw prints in them from the previous owner. So we still need to do a lot to the outdoors and I've gotten a few quotes for that and it's ranging anywhere from 30,000 to 20,000, which I was like, oh God, you know, more house stuff. It really is never ending, as much as I do love it. So there, like some kind of the main big projects. So I'll be focusing on for next year on top of the usual things that I have going on.

19:47

Do you think you will always live in Marbella? No, I think ideally. So I'm actually going to Dubai in January to set up a few things there. I think I am actually getting my residency, by the way I'm going about it. I need to double check that because it's like citizenship residency. So I'm going to set up in Dubai for a while. That's somewhere where there's just a lot of business, a lot of networking, a lot of people in the fitness industry there. So I'm going there in January for quite some time.

20:17

I'll go back to Ireland next week. Of course, the plan is look, I'll always probably base myself here, but realistically, I really really do want to get a HQ, a base in Ireland, but it is just. I think it's the hardest property market in the world and I've looked at like America, uk, spain was pretty straightforward. You know, getting a place here was surprisingly easy. Of course, the Spanish are so relaxed and chilled, but Ireland is, so you have to jump through so many loops to get a place, so that's super difficult, but that is a long-term goal of mine. But I think like that's honestly like three, four, five years down the road depends how well YouTube goes.

20:58

But I think I will always live in Marbella, between Marbella and Dublin. That's the plan I do also. I just love it here, like today's December. It's pure blue skies and I just generally love the lifestyle here, more and more every year. So yeah, between Dublin and Marbella Three tips for someone moving abroad. So the biggest tip I can say right, I've moved. I've lived in America for three months before YouTube, when I was on like a college exchange, and I've obviously I've spent like three months at a time in America before as well. I've spent a year in London. I've obviously spent a lot of time in Marbella now as well, and I've lived in Dublin. So I've lived in like four different places technically and I've traveled a lot as well, been so fortunate to travel a lot to many different places and not just places for like a week.

21:52

I went to Tulum for a month, okay, and my biggest piece of advice is if you want to move somewhere, okay, go get an Airbnb there for a month. People are like talking about like. Some people ask me. They're like hey, I'm going to get a year lease in Marbella and I'm like, dude, you could hate it. You could like only like the summer and or only like the winter. You don't like a certain time of year. You know, just go there for a month, rent a car, drive around, get familiar with the culture, the locals, the day to day life. Just do one month, ok, one month. And see if, hey, could I see even two months and say, hey, could I see myself living here for six or 12 months. So that is.

22:35

Tip number one is to get an Airbnb for a month. It doesn't. If you don't like, you just leave, it's fine. So that's my biggest tip. Number two is say you know what am I going to do day to day basis here? You know what am I going to do for work? Am I going to make money here to make money online? It's probably not a big issue. And three, just kind of do a lot of Googling, walk around on Google Maps, you know, see what area you'll go to, what's around you with gyms, which shops and what amenities are in your area. So I think if you do those three things number one being the main one you'll be pretty well prepared.

23:12

I want to visit Marbella. This is like the Marbella part of the podcast. I want to visit Marbella. What is the best area for gyms and healthy food? So, in my opinion, it is Nueva and Lucia. That's where our little lips it is, and that is the place just above Port of Anous. So Port of Anous, you, it's like kind of like nightclubs and bars and restaurants and it's where all the yachts are. So it's like very touristy. I don't actually like it too much. Like five is to go for dinner. I'd probably go down towards Puehntor Mano area, but it's still a central location. You know, property is ultra expensive on the port for a reason. But if I was to choose an area and recommend it to stay in, I would say it's called Nueva and Lucia and it's just above Port of Anous, so you're still in the action. It's where all the gyms are, like Paddle Club M13, elements is in San Pedro, but it's very close to Nueva and Lucia and there's like loads of healthy cafes, breathe, roses, there's just so many, there's an infinite amount, and it's also in the suburbs, so you know there's not much trouble around here. There's a few nightclubs here as well, if you want to partake, but Nueva and Lucia, in my opinion, has it all. You also don't really need a car, like I didn't have a car for the first month or so until I got a shipped over and you can walk everywhere. I can walk down Port of Anous if I want. So Nueva and Lucia is my favorite area in my very biased opinion Thoughts on the current situation in Ireland.

24:37

So this is a super tough one for me to answer because I try to stay unpolitical and you know I'm not that interested in the news. I'm not glued to news and if there's something going on in the world I try not to let me if don't necessarily affect my life. You know so many people they get caught up in stress over what's going on in other parts of the world that have nothing to do with them and you know they let that dictate their life and say that's not how you're going to improve yourself and your community by worrying about just something has nothing to do with you, ok, but Ireland does have something to do with me. I'm from there, I'm very patriotic, I love Ireland and I love Irish people and there's basically just a lot of riots going on with immigration and housing and just right now it does not look like a nice place to be A. Conor McGregor has been very vocal about a lot of it, so you can go check out some of his tweets. I think they actually could be gone now, but I just hate to see the whole nation fighting against each other and just in a kind of state of unrest. It actually really makes me sad and when I go back here I think I'm back like two days, three days. I really hope that. You know there's a it's it's mainly just the news is portraying it badly and that walking around town is still a nice experience as I remember it. Calm down below if you've been in town Dublin recently.

25:55

But I think with the immigration, you know, as long as I'm an immigrant in Spain as if I can complain about that, but I think I'm resident actually, because if you buy properly over half a million, you get automatic residency and there's also digital nomad visa. People are looking at that. But to go in on that, if you're going to go to another country, you need to be a contributing member of society and you just need to be vetted and that's as simple as that. You just don't want letting dodgy characters and criminals in your country and I don't think that's a controversial statement and then I think if you are vetted properly, then it's good to go and you're going to contribute society. You're going to assimilate. Then absolutely and I also people say close, open borders. Ireland. Personally, being in the EU, I've found it great being able to move freely around to different countries, have the same currency. So that's my take on it and I think it's pretty simple and most people will agree on that. If you don't agree, comment down below. I'd love to, actually love to hear your opinion.

26:56

Best breakup advice so no one break of advice is be selfish. Be selfish for a couple of months. Get your money up, get your physique up, get your health up. That's going to get your confidence up tremendously. And find a project to take you off your mind, off your ex.

27:17

Be, if you're male, female, whatever just find something to stop you Sit around constantly thinking off your previous relationship and it's funny, when we go through a breakup, we it's called selective memory. We have a way of thinking of all the positive parts of the relationship and you don't remember all the fights, the arguments and the stress. You only think of the good things, and so you're like you know, you're just thinking oh my God, should I get back to them? In most cases, you shouldn't. So find something to preoccupy your mind. Finally, pursue that passion project that you've just didn't have the time to. As you know, maybe you're hanging out with Stacy and you just never got around to it.

28:00

Well, now it's the time to be selfish and work on yourself. Become superhero, like literally become the person that you always wanted to be, level up in every aspect. Then, look, I'm going to say something a little bit evil here. Once you do that, your ex is going to start noticing. She's going to be looking. She's going to be like oh shit, I made a mistake. Maybe you got broken up with her or not, I don't know. She's going to be like oh God, and yeah, you'll come out the winner there.

28:26

So my advice is be selfish. Don't actually go out like chasing chicks, chasing tail, going on loads of nights out One, when you're hungover, you'll just feel ultra depressed, with a breakup on top of that. That's not going to be helpful with your health and fitness and finance goals and it'll just be kind of empty and you're just kind of going out and chasing girls for the sake of it and it will also come across kind of desperate and needy. So I would say go in, stay in for a while, focus on yourself, relax, hit the gym, get your money up and just really be selfish for at least six months and you'll look back at those six months and be like whoa, I leveled up and that's the ultimate goal. So best break of advice is that and don't go on the pace, don't go on the rebound. Let's say, if your guy watches which probably are if you wanna let the girl go out and sleep around, then just do it okay and don't be tempted to do the same. In honesty, it'll just make you feel worse.

29:27

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31:17

What are your thoughts on the manosphere slash red pill community? I think it gets like 90% of things right. I think when you go a little bit too far it starts to just kind of hate on women and it becomes kind of incel behavior and then it goes into MiG-Town, which is men going their own way, which basically means like guys who've just given up on women. They think women are evil. But I think the red pill and the manosphere, I think it focuses on just young becoming, leaning into your masculinity, becoming the man that you're meant to be, and also just seeing modern relationships for what they are. I think it's pretty cool. It's taught me a lot about relationships and dating and it's taught me kind of what the focus on to becoming a man. But I think it gets most things right. It's mainly just kind of, you know, turn yourself to boss up, work hard, train hard, you know, get your physique up. But yeah, that's pretty much it. But I think if you go lean too far into it you can go a little bit crazy and a little bit into MiG-Town area, which is, you know it's a dangerous area Like women aren't evil, women are like the most beautiful things in the world, you know. They compliment and make men's life One thing that's like the reason men do anything is like for women. You know why don't I buy a fast car If it's like just a bunch of dudes watching. Most guys wouldn't. So yeah, I think it's interesting and you know it's a massive kind of niche that I dip into from the hand.

32:43

Then Views on being single versus dating in your 20s. So I was in relationship, I think, from I was about 16, 17, up until I was around 24. And then from about 24 to 27, I was single and then 27 now to 31, in a relationship again. So I can kind of compare the two. And when I was in my early 20s, being in a relationship actually kept me really focused and it helped me build a great career in the fitness industry. I think if I was always going on dates, always going to texting girls DMing takes up so much time always going on nights out drinking, and didn't have someone to kind of just stay in with and chill and work, and I think that would have detracted from my mission and what it kind of made me work less.

33:35

Some people say that you know, oh, when you're single it's easier to focus more, and it all just depends on type of partner you have. Like, a lot of guys will find it very difficult to stay in if they're single and maybe it's a little bit too lonely. So then I did have that period right, so I achieved some decent success. You know, I had a nice freedom in my life by the age of, you know, like I said, 24, whatever it was. And then, yeah, those three years I definitely wasn't as productive, you know, as going out traveling more, as partying a lot more, and you didn't have someone, I didn't have someone to kind of keep me grounded. And then, you know, I met Linda, of course, when I was about 27. And then for those two years when we're just getting to know each other, you know, we were still traveling, having fun.

34:19

Then, the last three years, as we've both grown up, we've realized, like, what we, you know, we've gotten so comfortable with each other, we realize what we like and she's just so supportive of my goals, and having a woman in your life to wake up next to her and she just tells you that you're the best and you can do anything and she'll always support me, that's like invaluable, like that's the biggest entrepreneur hack, that's the biggest productivity hack, it's the biggest motivation hack is having that someone to just tell you that and just back you up, no matter what. So I think it depends on the type of woman you have in your life. I think you know you should try a little bit of both. You know you shouldn't be in a relationship your own life, shouldn't be single, your whole life. But ultimately it comes down to what type of person you get in a relationship with. And number one thing, number one green flag, is you've got to find someone who supports your mission. That's it. Find that locker down boys.

35:17

How to become better on camera. So, first of all, I think speaking to camera if that's not a skill that you have already, it's not just by being a YouTuber. It's about, like Zoom meetings, business meetings, anything presentation being more articulate. I've definitely found that it transfers into real life. I've definitely found it massively improves confidence. There's just so much benefits to being able to speak to camera in 2024. Please put that on your to-do list of things to learn.

35:46

The only way that I've gotten better at it is just putting in the reps. I've been doing this for 10 years and practice, practice, practice is the only thing I have found. Maybe there's a course out there that is the speaking camera course. I haven't found it. Perhaps there is, but from my experience, just you got to just put in the reps, put in the volume and don't get it twisted. To this day I still mess up the whole time. You know, just, even in like a day-to-day conversation off camera, I'll like mess up my words because I speak quite fast and so don't let that discourage you that you know you're still 10 years on, you'll still mess up the camera. But don't make that put you off from doing it. But the only tip I have is just do it more and more and more. And it also helps if you've got something prepared. So I don't read off a script but I'll have these questions written out on the float of the conversation. And when I'm doing a podcast, even you know I will have just in front of me I'll have key points that I want to hit. So you don't have to script your videos and read from a teleprompter, but it just does help to have some structure to when you're about to go speak on camera.

36:51

Do I eat much junk food? Not really I think my taste buds have kind of evolved. I think when I was young, you know, when you're in college or teen, you love McDonald's or Burger King, subway, all that. But maybe if I'm going to quote unquote cheat on my diet, hate the words and read doesn't really make sense. But if I'm going to go off plan or whatever you want to call it, I just go for something kind of nice and high quality. Like you know, last weekend we're in Nobu which is like just so nice, really quality ingredients, you know the best ingredients, and it's just sushi, it's like fish and rice and I think that's like the most delicious thing ever. Or if I'm going for a nice steak with some roast vegetables, maybe very high calorie and due to the cut of steak, but it's still quite a healthy meal. It's still very nutrient, dense. So I haven't had like my favorite. If I choose my favorite fast food, it would probably be like a Domino's, like I haven't had a Domino's in so many years. Maybe I'll get a Domino's after this, but not just my taste. If I'm going for something that I'm going out to eat, I like to go to like a high quality restaurant instead. But no, I'm kind of grown out of junk food and it definitely is like some people are a little bit addicted to it. They're addicted to the convenience, they're addicted to like that certain taste off something and you know it's definitely something that you should try and prove your taste for more and more quality foods if you can. But you know, don't eat much junk food or fast food, so to speak.

38:19

Hardest period of your life. So when I started YouTube, I was 22 at the time and just that year before that, when I was failing college at no job I was getting fired from, like you know, little retail jobs here and there. I had no direction. I didn't know what my next move was going to be. I think so lost. That was a tough one. But at the same time, because I was so young, I was like I got, I got time. If I try something that I fail, it doesn't matter because I can just try again. I've got so much time. Thankfully, something did work. But that was definitely a tough period of my life. But more recently was 20, 22.

38:58

So it was the year that I was like building this house as finishing it, and so financially it was very difficult. The renovation came to like 150,000 in total at the cost of the house. I'll never say the exact price, but it was over half a million. So it was very financially straining. And then I didn't have a base. So I was like paying all this money and I couldn't work to my best. I was moving around, living out of a suitcase, going home for a few months at a time. Then I'd come back and know the villa isn't ready. I've got to rent an Airbnb for a month until it's ready. Oh, it's peak summer. What's that? Rent is five crooks. Five grand. Oh great, another five grand that I could have put towards the house.

39:35

Super stressful year, super disorganized year, but you get through everything. You know there's a light at the end of the tunnel always. And then now, 2023. This year I've had the best year ever. You're truly the best year in my life. I can confidently say that. So if you're going through a shitty year maybe a few guys have had a shitty year this year oftentimes when you go through some shit, there's good things coming your way. You've got through the worst of it. The quote that I kept saying myself last year or the year before 2022, whatever was, you've got a 100% success rate of getting through everything. Life is thrown at you, you'll always get through it. You always have. So that's one thing that I always said to myself. So, yeah, the start was a tough and then, you know, 2022, difficult as well, actually, even like the year.

40:30

This time last year, I was not a good place. What do the next 10 years look like for you? So I love when people are like, oh, you're going to do this forever. Guys, I'm 31, right? Personally, I think I'm looking the best I have. You know, physique is definitely the best. I'm mentally, financially now I'm in the best. I got some assets. Personally, I think, like I feel like my life is only beginning. I really do, and you know, men especially don't have a clue what they're doing until they're 30. Like we don't, our brains don't don't start working, they don't start maturing until we're 30. So I'm 31 now and I feel I feel like I'm one year old. You know, I feel like my life just began at 30 and now it's time to really make an impact on the world. So I'm going to be doing what I'm still doing. You know, doing this, everything is going to be revolving around fitness and social media and all that good stuff helping people improve their life, making a positive impact, and I feel I'm really only getting started. Like 21, 20 to 30 was like the intro, and now this 30 onwards is part one.

41:39

Do you invest? What's your advice on vesting? So, first of all, not financial advice there is probably some amazing financial YouTubers that you can go watch but for me, I do invest. Ok, so I guess property now which is gone up a lot in value, so I'm a property investor, I guess, and it is also very expensive to rent this place in the summer, not saying I've rented it yet, maybe I have got to keep the tax man guessing, but yeah. So property I've made an investment in now, but before that I invested in crypto, bitcoin, which again see great returns on it, if you like, if you zoom out, like yeah, it goes, it's very volatile, but if you zoom out, it's never gone down. So, yeah, no, I have cashed out as well, but I always leave a little bit in so that. And the S&P 500, which, again, it doesn't go down, just zoom out, go go. Five years out it doesn't go down. So that's it.

42:40

I don't do any trading, I just do dollar cost average. So it just comes out of my account, you know, and there's also there's a few apps that it can round up. So, let's say, you spend like eight euro on a shop, it'll put two euro into Bitcoin or two euro into the S&P 500. Just plenty of apps that do that. So that's what I do, you know, nothing aggressive, nothing genius, just property, bitcoin, s&p 500 and number one thing that I've invested very heavily in is myself. So, there, the best investment you will ever make is into your own business and into yourself. So that could be self education, I think.

43:20

Laptops, cameras, videographers, hiring editors anything that will help your business is just, it's an immediate return. It's an immediate return. Okay, so that I've invested heavily in, I'd say that is where I spend my most money on myself and my business. You know, be it editors, videographers, laptops, camera equipment, podcast equipment all that, if you want to make more money, it's just an information thing. You can literally pay someone or buy something, be it a book or a course that will just tell you what exactly to do, like it's literally like following an instruction manual, and you're just like oh, I literally do this. Like, if you want to make more money, it's an information thing. It's as simple as that. It's crazy. And once you get in this mindset it's like an abundance mindset with money that you realize it's a game. It's just like a video game. There's so much money out there, then it just becomes a lot more easier and it just feels like a video game.

44:16

Dealing with imposter syndrome I think one of the key traits of any successful person is having imposter syndrome. I feel every single morning that there's going to be a knock on that door of someone just going to be like hey, rob, the jig is up, come on, it's time to pack up your stuff and let's go Go on. You're, you're going. You're going back to Ireland, you're going back to the box room Get in there. And that keeps me on my toes and that like motivates me to not. I don't want to go back to my old life. You know I don't want to do that, but I feel I'm like I should. So I have intense imposter syndrome every day and I'm not sure if I want to get rid of it, because if I do get rid of it then I'll just get too comfortable.

44:59

So I think imposter syndrome is normal. Especially if you're constantly leveling up in life, you'll feel like oh God, you know I'm the old me, I don't deserve this, but you do. But I think it's just completely normal thing that a lot of people who are progressing in their life will have how to stop overthinking. This is something that I haven't gotten the hang of and so I do want to get rid of, and that is overthinking. And something I overthink a lot about is like my content as well. I'm just like, oh well, that person, think of this. You know, oh God, is this going to be good enough? You just have to just stop caring and just do it. And I know that's so simple advice. I'm like I wish I had a hack for you, but I don't. And one little hack is you're thinking that everyone will care about a certain thing. They're not even thinking about you. So once you realize that, then they'll cause you to stop overthinking less and just do your own thing. But it's something that I suffer from, for sure, and that's something I want to change in the new year. And folks, I'm becoming better at just not caring.

45:58

Have I ever felt hopeless? How did I deal with it? For sure, I go through phases of feeling kind of like you know, the imposter syndrome thing, but just this is a bit more intense. I go through phases of feeling like, oh, I'm done for, oh, this is the end, I'm screwed. And again it just takes a little bit of time to get over it and I just say to myself you know, you've gotten through every single thing that you've ever been put against.

46:23

And I've got a tattoo on my leg and says you'll either find a way or make one and I'm not a big tattoo person. It's like tiny. Most people couldn't even notice it. If you're looking at me, it's on my ankle and I honestly, like I always go back to that quote. And when I'm feeling hopeless, you kind of like I picture my life as a movie and I'm like, oh, this is the part where the character is like it's looking like he's going to lose. You know, hope is all gone. Oh God, it's screwed. And then they make like an epic comeback or they figure it out and they overcome whatever hurdle they're going through. So you kind of make a movie out of it and that's that's what I do. I just snap out and get back to it. But of course I feel hopeless. You know, I feel depressed at times, I feel anxiety at times. I'm a very positive guy. But of course we all have these feelings and they're all normal.

47:11

How do I build a fitness routine that lasts? You need to find whatever form of training that you just don't mind doing. This might change over time. Like I know, there's people that start off in bodybuilding and then they go into CrossFit and that's fine. Just whatever it is that you're into at the moment, just something that you won't mind turning up to, and if you can like even rotate these things. A lot of people are going hybrid. Well then that's okay. But for me I've tried, you know, lower reps, strength training. I've tried the CrossFit stuff, actually been doing a little bit of high rocks recently. It's fun, but I just do once every like week or two and for me it has always just been high purse, free pump work, your bodybuilding style training. I don't know why I like never. I don't know why I always stuck with it and never gave it up.

47:59

I honestly think, like when you're pushing yourself in the gym, there's that sick lighting, you're getting a little wrap out and you stand up and like you see you kind of see results straight away, like you see that pump in the mirror. You know, in things or whatever you're training, it's always something kind of new, especially when you're cutting down. You see those new shreds, it's just like. It's kind of like instant gratification. You see, it's straight away. I just always love it and for me, I know I'll always just kind of stick with that. Maybe I want to improve, like my fitness. You know I'll start getting into running a little bit more. I think that actually compliments lifting don't kill me, but as long as you find that thing that you just don't mind doing, it doesn't matter if it's like fucking zoom bar or whatever, just if it gets you up off the couch consistently, then I'm all for it. I'm not going to hate on anti exercise.

48:50

What are your thoughts on the carnivore diet craze? So that has been definitely, especially if you're on Twitter. For some reason that has been like the most trendy diet I've seen this year, like I've seen the most people convert to it or the most people talk about it, and I actually really like it. I think animal based products are one of the most nutrient dense, healthy things we can eat. I just think, as with any extreme diet, you just go a little bit too far. You know what veganism? Vegetables are amazing. You'll be plant based, great right, but then you just start eating all, you stop. But then you stop eating honey because it comes from a bee and you're just like are you insane? It's fucking honey, for God's sakes. So it oftentimes, when you get these something, it's like these something diet it takes a good thing and ruins it. Okay, so then carnivore like they're afraid to eat vegetables. For some reason, I see, your body doesn't digest some doesn't absorb them. It's just complete waffle and the answer always lies in the middle.

49:55

But I think, out of all the crazy diets, carnivore I do see the appeal to. It's simple to follow, it's easy, it's high proteins, high satiety, it's delicious. To be fair, and look, if you want to call a carnivore, if you want to call caveman, if you want to call it the stone age diet, whatever you want sounds cool, whatever. If that gets the job done for you, I'm all for it. But you're just, in most cases, cutting out a lot of things completely unnecessary and you can get all the results that you're feeling or getting or plan on getting from carnivore diet, from just a normal, healthy diet. Eat your vegetables, eat nutrient dense diet. I'm actually gonna. I'm gonna start something I'm gonna call the nutrient dense diet. I think that's pretty sensible. But yeah, out of all the crazes, I think I eat a lot of meat myself and the carnivore diet, you know I like it, but yeah, it's just, it's just a little bit. A little bit too it's pro sciency.

50:52

How do you age so well? So I have been some people on. How do you age so well, thank you. A lot of people on the internet would say the opposite. Personally, I think facially, I've aged fine. You know, I've been on YouTube or social media so many years, like near decades, so of course you're gonna look different, as like I started off, as like a boy, pretty much like when I see pictures and videos of me when I started, and now I'm obviously a man. So obviously there's gonna be some changes.

51:23

But I think I've generally kept my skin quite good and what I noticed whenever I do kind of look older, it's when I gain weight on the face or when I look puffy or inflamed or whatever it is. And so my if I was just giving honest answer, my biggest tip would just be to stay lean, and that is what is going to make you look old. If you gain all this fat and watering face, your face is gonna look droopy, like it's not gonna look tight. Okay, people, go get a facelift. Okay, all you need to do is go on a diet. So if you're lean, you're gonna have that sharp jaw. Your eyes are even going to be more clear, even around your nose, everything your neck. You're just going to look a lot sharper and therefore younger. So I really think with aging it really comes down to weight loss and that's also by default. You're gonna have a healthy diet there as well and drink plenty of water and sleep, and they're the main things.

52:17

I'm not even big on skincare at all. I have like a little moisturizer use, that's it. I shave, that's it. And also like one thing is when I'm shaving, I do think that kind of like I've always been clean shaving. I've never had a beard. I've been like. This isn't proven, but I think by shaving so much, it like keeps my face clean. But I'm not too sure about that. If you've got a beard, how do you keep your face clean, tell me. So that's the main thing is honestly staying lean, and that's why I'm not a big fan of these massive bulking cycles. I did that, you know, when I first, when I was a teenager, I was first getting into lifting them off of that, but I think as you get a little bit older and more advanced in your training, they become more pointless and there's less return on them, and I think it can kind of mess up your facial aesthetics as well as your physical aesthetics. How do you think?

53:06

Last question how do you think social media affects our mental health, especially younger people? So I was looking at this crazy graph Scott Galloway posted it and it was like the satisfaction with life for younger people, and I think it was in 2008 or 2009,. It just drops off a cliff and a lot of people were commenting. You know there's no clear answer to why I did this, but a lot of people were commenting. This was when the popularity of social media and mobile phones came into play, and I think that makes perfect sense. Dropcom, what do you think?

53:41

But I think it has definitely made us compare each other to ourselves more than it ever has, and this is why it is so important to always go back to my quote don't compare your chapter one someone else's chapter 10. In a world where comparison is just everywhere nowadays, it's when every time we pick up a phone, we see someone with a new thing, we see someone hitting a new milestone and it just can distract from your mission so much and it can make you feel bad. So look at people for inspiration, but don't get too hung up on it, don't dwell on it. I think that's a nice way to finish the pod. But to answer the question, just to go over it again, I don't think that social media affects especially young people's mental health, especially young girls. I think it affects it really badly and that you need to really be careful and curate your social media.

54:34

So, guys, I will see you in 2024, I'll probably do some dubbing videos for that, but if not, I will see then. And let's have the best year ever. Let's literally make 2024 a year where you look back on it and you're like, oh, my God, I'm just so glad that I set those goals and I made those decisions. I'm pumped for it. I have a good, good feeling about it. Like you know, when I went back to my bad year there, I didn't have a good feeling about that year, cause I was like, oh, I don't have a house this year, I'm feeling a really good year, so let's get after it. I love you guys. Keep it real Peace out. Catch you next one.

55:10

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