September 14, 2022 • 38 mins
Exercising every single day sounds like playing the game of fitness on the hardest mode, doesn’t it? It sounds like the kind of regime only the ultra-disciplined, shredded-to-the-teeth among us can ever truly achieve. But… what if it was actually the easier option?
Sam Wood, founder of Australia’s number-one home fitness program, 28, exercises every day. But it’s not because he’s some kind of workout robot - it’s because it’s the simple approach: it’s the decision that eliminates a thousand decisions. If your routine is to move every day, there’s no room for the endless internal battles that come up when you’re free to shuffle your rest days around.
As a business owner, podcast host, husband, and father to young kids, Sam knows all to well just how hard it can be to fit exercise into a busy schedule, but he also knows a healthy body is key to a healthy mind, a healthy soul, and a healthy level of productivity!
Connect with Sam on Instagram or at the 28 by Sam Wood website
***
My new book Time Wise is out now. You can grab a copy here.
Connect with me on the socials:
If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co
Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.
Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au
CREDITS
Produced by Inventium
Host: Amantha Imber
Production Support from Deadset Studios
Episode Producer: Liam Riordan
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're listening to How I work, I imagine you're
the kind of person who lives a pretty busy life.
And if you're busy, you're possibly also constantly struggling to
make time for your health and well being. Whether you
can't sit still for five minutes of meditation, or you
have no idea how people manage to fit ninety minutes
(00:20):
of weight training into every workday, You're not alone. So
how does Sam Wood stay so fit? You might remember
Sam when he graced our TV screens on The Bachelor app.
Sam then went on to create the mega successful twenty
eight by Sam Wood, an all encompassing health and fitness app.
(00:43):
Sam also hosts The Wood Life, a brilliant podcast about
all things health. Oh and he's got four daughters running
around too, So how does he run an entire wellbeing
empire and still find time for his own health, fitness
and family. My name is doctor Amanthea Immer. I'm an
(01:08):
organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium,
and this is How I Work, a show about how
to help you do your best work. So when I
conducted this interview with Sam, his youngest daughter was just
three months old, and when we met at the studio
he looked very fresh and full of energy. So I
(01:32):
wanted to know how on earth this was the case.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, well it's an illusion. I'll tell you that right now.
The answer I gave you add in the foyer was
absolutely the only real answer, and that is my wife
is incredible and she's superwoman and has somehow given me
a little bit of sleep. I did wake up with
my four year old this morning. I'm not even sure
she shares this thing. It's like something out of the
(01:59):
sixth sense. She just appears and she's she's the most
silent walker, and she watches you sleep, and her height
is probably not that far off my lying in bed height,
and I'll open my eyes and her eyes are about
two inches from my face and I'll say, well, what
are you doing. She's like hi, daddy, and I'm like
(02:20):
you want to get in? Yeah, little nod anyway, So
I sleep quite well with her. She's when she falls asleep,
she's a fidgitter until she falls asleep, but when she's
already tired, she's actually very cozy and warm. So I
had a very cute little night sleep with my little
four year old last night and feeling pretty good.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
That's good. What daily rituals do you have around your
health and well being?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, well sleep, sleeps one of them. I think with sleep,
it's about what happens the day before. I think in
a year year a consequence from a sleep perspective of
what you did in the lead up to going to bed.
And I think the biggest mistake we make with sleep
is the scrolling through social media and the Netflix binging,
(03:05):
when you kind of say to yourself, I can't go
to bed before eleven thirty or twelve o'clock, And there's
probably it's much easier to find an hour at that
time of the day than it is to find an
hour at some other part of the day. So yeah,
I mean I don't have baths and meditator or anything
like that, but I make sure I don't have any
(03:26):
screen time in the last hour before bed, and I
make sure that none of that is happening. So if
I know I want to go to bed eleven o'clock,
I won't do any of that between ten and eleven o'clock,
And and I have some great conversations at that time
because none of that stuff's going on. We're usually pretty
tight and delirious, but we have some really good chats,
my wife and I and yeah, reading and I love
(03:50):
to read, but I can't read lots, you know. I
find I find ted pages and I'm usually conked out
at the end of the day. But I do like
to read, and I do like to get off the
screen time at that time of the day. And then
from a that's sort of the catapult, if you like,
for mornings, because I'm a massive morning person, moving in
the morning, and then all of those same principles applying
(04:14):
to working in the morning. I'm a massive believery Now
at the moment, I'm my normal schedule of trying to
get into the office at eight o'clock in the morning
and hitting the ground running is not happening because we
have a three month old. As she said, little Harper
is only very new, so I'm doing school drop offs
and all of that kind of thing to help out
stairs and as I should. So everything's just been pushed
(04:37):
back a little bit. But that doesn't mean I compromise.
I still get up before the rest of the family,
and I'll make sure I exercise from six to seven,
and whether it's a run with the dog, or it's
going up to our little home gym above the garage
and doing a workout, or even going out to my
own gym doing the early class and being back before
sort of anyone else rises. I'll make sure I get
that exercise in. And it's so much for my mental health,
(05:00):
is my physical health. I think it wakes me up,
It gives me energy, It puts me in a good mood,
and I feel like something's missing when I haven't done it.
I'm a bit of a creature of habit and I
think that's one of my good habits and it really
sets me up for the day. And I do that
seven days a week. It doesn't matter if it's a
workday or a school day or not. I'll you know,
(05:20):
might work out a little bit later on a Saturday Sunday.
But I just don't sleep in it. I like to
get up and get amongst it.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So with your seven days of exercise, how do you
break that up between CaTiO strength based training? What are
your routines there?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So I don't even look at it as exercise. I'll
get a movement, you know. Some of those that might
be a bike ride around the park with Willow that
might be a sixty minute walk with my dog listening
to a podcast, you know, or it could be I'll
try and do at least three strength training sessions a week.
(05:58):
As I get older, I feel my body responds really
well to staying strong and maintaining some muscle and better
for my posture, and the more lean muscle I have,
the easier it is to you know, not put on
too much fat around the belly and that kind of stuff.
And then I'll try and do two higher intensity sessions
that are usually a bit of a hybrid between some
(06:19):
endurance work. It might be some boxing or some body
weight exercises, or some intervals on the treadmill or the
roller or the bike. And then you're too much more relaxed, casual,
still burning calories, but just going nice and slow, and
it's almost it's almost a bit of an active meditation,
just getting out and burning some calories and getting some
fresh air and some sunshine.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Do you have mornings where you just don't feel like
exercising or moving?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah? Lots. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
How do you push through that? What strategies are you using?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I'm quite good at bottling in a weird way, the
feeling I have when I finish, you know, like whenever
I initi a hard workout in particular, I'll take a
little moment of reflection to God, I feel so good
right now. Like I hated that, and I was dreading that,
and I nearly didn't do that, but I did it,
(07:13):
and I'm kind of proud of myself for doing it.
And I sort of bottle that feeling and that's and
I then draw on that feeling when I need it
in the mornings. But again, I'll listen to my body
a bit. You know, I'm pretty flexible with it. You know,
I'll know if I'm really not feeling it, I might
(07:36):
just take the dog for a walk, you know, which
to me is completely pleasurable and there's no real discomfort there.
I enjoy every second of it. Get a coffee, go
for a walk, whatever it might be. Whereas, if I'm
feeling a bit more motivated, I'll challenge myself with one
of those harder workouts that we spoke about. But you know,
one of the bits of advice I give to tens
(07:57):
of thousands of people nearly weekly is it's the workouts
you do on the days that you don't feel like
at the count the most and I almost you know,
have that imprinted on my own brain. But I also
it just gets easier over time. I genuinely believe that,
you know, once this does become a habit, I don't
there's not too much thought involved. I mean, I don't
(08:18):
wake up and have this you know, debate with myself
or there's not too much doing and throwing. You know,
you know you need to do this, but do you
really It's kind of just like, yeah, this is just
what I do now, and and yeah, I really do
feel it mentally. You know, the physical side of things
(08:38):
is great, but there wouldn't be that much of a
different physical benefit if I'm trained at midday. It would
just be less lucky to happen, and the world gets
chaotic and all these crazy things happen and then disrupts
your working day and all these other things. So and
I wouldn't feel as good mentally. I just I'm a
bit grumpy in the mornings, you know, when I say,
I go and exercise and then I get with the
(09:00):
rest of my family. That's to everyone's benefit. I'm a
bit you know, I'm a bit of a slow waker
opera and I think, you know, getting some water in
and having a black coffee and getting some exercise in
and then having the energy to tackle for crazy kids
and a wife trying to juggle it at all is
a good thing for all involved.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I like the idea that it's every day and it
just it's just what you do. It reminds me I've
had me a freedman on a couple of times, and
for her, she exercises every day, and one of the
reasons why she does that is there's no room to negotiate.
It's not like should I exercise because of course you
exercise because it's an everyday routine. And I thought that
(09:43):
was quite interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I love that black and white rules are much better.
Gray rules are dangerous, I think, and I see that
with lots of people that I work with every day,
work with in the office, but work with to help
them get into good habits. And I agree with me.
I think, if you can tell yourself, no, let's just
make today one of the two days I don't exercise,
it's very easy for that argument to sneak into your
(10:06):
head almost daily. Whereas if that argument doesn't exist because
there's seven days in a week and you move your
body seven times, I think, I think that I can
understand exactly where she's coming from, and I agree with
it totally.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Where else do you use that those black and white
rules or black and white thinking to your advantage in
how you approach your work or how you approach just
general health and well being.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I'm a little bit more flexible with work, and I
think the reason is I'm reliant on more people. And
you know, I've got two different businesses and sixty staff.
And I think you can't be too rigid because it's like, oh,
the world arroves around Sam and you know I moved
for him for a meeting last week, but he's not
willing to, you know, return the favor this week. You've
got to be a bit flexible. And you know, I
(10:51):
do podcasts and all these other things where you kind
of you need to work around guest availability and all
these things. And I love doing I love the variety
and the the you know, the spread of everything that
I do. It's that it keeps me saying I don't
like doing the same thing too much. But in principle,
you know, I call them my power hours. The morning
(11:12):
is where I get most of my work done, and
you know, particularly hours of dat. You know, from nine
till it used to be from eight, but now it's say,
from nine to one. I try to, you know, do
all of my most important stuff in those four hours,
so all of my important meetings, all of my urgent
(11:35):
email responses, not get distracted by any social media or
any innovation at that time. It's more like this stuff
that's absolutely what needs to be done. And then if
it's so. For example, at the moment, we're looking for
retreat venues for our next wellness retreat that we want
(11:57):
to hold here in Victoria, and that's a new you
an exciting thing, and it's really fun. You know, you're
visiting venuesn't it. But I'll make sure I don't do
that before lunchtime because it'll take up a whole one
of those You know, we're only talking about twenty hours
in my week. It's not a sixty hour work week
or anything. It's just twenty really efficient hours. And if
(12:18):
I can get that done, it's almost like what happens
after that time doesn't matter. Now, of course it does,
but I've almost given such a good, clear, concise version
of myself to everyone that needs me or to any
responses that are needed, or any writing that needs to
be done in those hours. That then I can spend
(12:38):
some time doing some fun marketing stuff for my gym,
or visit venues for a wellness retreat, or you know,
work with the marketing team on some fun new merchandise
or whatever it is. It's almost like the icing on
the cake. It's not the cake because I've worked on
the cake for the four hours each day.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
How do you decide what goes into those four hours?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Really comes back to what is the core of my
business and what is the best the best use of
my time? Where am I serving the core of that
business best? And for me, that is you know, I've
got a very simple business. It's an online fitness program.
And effectively, we have three ways that that business can improve,
(13:27):
and that is we get new members on the program,
we keep existing members on the program longer, or we
get old members on the program back on the program.
And you know, of course there's a million ways to
do each of those three things, and it's never that simple.
But if I'm spending time doing one of doing something
that is attributing to one of those three things, that's
a really good use of my time. And if I'm not,
(13:49):
then that should be part of the icing that's happening
after one o'clock.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I like the idea that you're doing all the important
stuff in the morning, and that almost like the afternoons
are guilt free, like you could be doing anything, even
though that's theoretically part of a typical eight hour workday.
I find that a really interesting mindset and it helps.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
It helps a lot because I used to be really guilty,
and I used to be really bad. I used to
I'd be damned if I did damned if I didn't.
I'd either be not spending time with my kids and
then feeling guilty about not spending time with my kids,
or spending time with my kids and feeling guilty that
I should still at work and I it wasn't making
(14:32):
me very happy or very productive, you know, either to
be honest, you know, if you're with your kids but
you're not truly present, what's the point. I mean, they
can pick it up in her heart, but they don't
miss a trick. Or if you're missing out on important
work stuff and you know, the guilt happens the other way,
that doesn't work either. So I mean, for example, my
little girl Charlie had her third birthday on Saturday and
(14:54):
she got a new bike, and I've taken her bike
ridding every day after school pickup this week and there
hasn't been a a second of guilt and it's just
been it's been great to do that. So to be
how to do that every day and still know you've
been highly productive is a great feeling.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
We will be back with Sam soon talking about how
he manages his social media presence and also how he
learned to deal with the paparazzi and media after being
the Bachelor. If you're looking for more tips to improve
the way that you work, I write a short fortnightly
newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered that
(15:36):
helped me work better, ranging from software and gadgets that
I'm loving through the interesting research findings. You can sign
up for that at Howiwork dot com. That's how I
Work dot co now. As well as having two businesses,
you are a brand and a business. I guess in
your own right as Sam would, and I'd love to
(15:59):
talk about social I was on your Instagram last night
because I knew that I was interviewing you today and
looking at this very aspirational healthy life, and I'd love
to know how do you think about what you will
post and what you will share?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
It's interesting. I go through peaks and troughs a little bit.
A lot of people tell me you'd be much better
off posting more, and I get exactly where they're coming from.
But I have days or weeks where I'll post ten
times a day, you know, my inster story, and then
other weeks where I go completely missing, and it's I
(16:41):
think it's it becomes very time consuming, very but if
you get someone else to do it, it loses all its authenticity.
So it really does sort of need to be you.
So it's a bit of a time thing. It depending
on what other projects are going on. But I mean,
I'm a huge I don't like social media. In fact,
(17:03):
I hate it, and if I didn't have twenty eight,
i'd get off all social media forever and never have it.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I hate it, So why do you hate it so much?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I just think it does so much more harm than
good to people from you know, I've got a teenage daughter.
I see how it impacts her. I've got three other
little girls who will one day be teenage daughters, and
I would give my left leg that they didn't ever
get on social media, but I know they will. So
it's about, you know, managing that as best as a
parent can in this world that we live in. But
(17:33):
I just and at the same time, I'm never I'm
not sitting here. I don't want people to go, oh mate,
Without social media, you probably wouldn't even have I wouldn't.
I'm not. Probably I wouldn't have the business I have,
all the success that I've had without social media. So
I'm absolutely not saying social media has been wonderful for me.
But if I had the choice, I wouldn't. I wouldn't
(17:54):
have it. I just I don't. I don't think it does.
I know, you continually compare yourself to others. You're continually
focusing on a world that's not even a real world
of someone else's life, and you miss your own life.
And you know, I just think. You know, when I
don't have my phone and I go for a walk
(18:16):
with a dog, or I take the kids for a
bike ride and you don't have things beeping and distractions
sort of all the time, it is just such a
powerful reminder to what laugh's all about and the simple
little pleasures that you can that you can find and
I think when you're just into that social media of vortex,
it's so hard to pull yourself out. And yeah, I'm
(18:38):
not a fan.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
So given that, like when whenever you post something, it's
it's being beamed out to hundreds of thousands of engaged
fans and followers, how do you decide what to put out?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I don't think about it that much. I mean, I'm
not terribly strategic with it, and it stands thinks I
I should think about it more because she loves how
sort of Grid looks and all this kind of stuff.
Mine's a bit of a dog's breakfast. But I mean,
I like I like being I know, a lot of
people follow us as a family, and that started as
(19:12):
a couple with and then with Ev and we get
so many beautiful comments, you know, and I realized it's lovely,
you know, like there's a real connection to all these people,
you know, whether there are people on my twenty eight
program or that just follow us through our social media platforms,
(19:32):
you know. And it all sort of started. We were
overwhelmed by how many single mums reached out to Basnag
and when we got together, because she was a single
mum when we met on the show, and I'm talking
about thousands of single mums saying, seeing your relationship and
now seeing that it wasn't just a TV thing, it's
(19:54):
it's real, has given me faith that I will one
day on someone again when I'd almost given up hope.
Like lots of beautiful comments like that that you just
I never would have thought, you know, just naively. I mean,
it made sense to me when I heard the comments,
but that's something that never would have entered my mind,
(20:15):
and it really gave you opened up a thought, Oh,
look at the you know, I just it must be
so hard. And then that would stimulate a conversation between
Snez and I. She's like, yeah, to be honest, I
didn't think i'd ever meet anyone. You know, I totally
understand where these you know, lots of women single mums
are coming from, because I was the same. You know,
(20:35):
I wasn't really looking for someone. I was very content
with it just being Evy and I for the rest
of our lives. And you know, that's just one example.
But when when you can connect with people on that
sort of level, and then obviously I get to know
them at an even deeper level when they join my
program and it's a real family and their genuine friendships
(20:55):
and genuine relationships that there's some really good that can
come out of it, don't get me wrong. And the
reach is just crazy. It's just it's hard to find
the off switch, and it's only getting harder, and there's
only getting more and more social media platforms at once,
which means, you know, it's now seven things rather than
two things, and I think it's only gonna get worse.
(21:17):
As most people would tell you it was correct, So yeah,
I I don't know. I'm just a bit old school.
I like quality time, face to face with people and
not getting too caught up in what the Kardashians are
up to, so that's sort of my preference. But at
the same time, I absolutely acknowledge how much it's helped
(21:38):
me and helped business and how much it can connect
you to people. So I'm a bit torn with it.
But yeah, I don't overthink what I put out what
I put out there. Really, it's more just sharing things
that I find funny or I find sweet, and if
you find them funny or sweet, that's nice to share.
But I don't overly care if you do or you don't.
You know, people message you and go that was stupid,
(22:00):
but I'm going to unfollow you. I literally don't give
that a second thought. I've developed pretty thick skin over
the last eight years since the Bachelor. It was such
a sharp, intense, you know, rise in notoriety and everyone
(22:20):
know who you were. Literally almost in about seven days
from complete anonymity to that was just so full on
that if you survive it, and not everyone does because
it's pretty full on. I'm actually having having a breakfast
tomorrow with Matt who Matt ag knew he was a
bachelor on the season just a couple of years ago,
and he's the loveliest bloke. He's an astrophysicist, so way
(22:42):
too much to be a bachelor. But he really struggled
after the show and he had depression and he sort
of went into a bit of a recluse and he's
coming good now. But yeah, I'm having breaking with him
tomorrow to sort of not not to check it. I'm
not you're bloke and seeing her. He's going he's just
a friend of mine now and we're doing a work
(23:03):
out at my gym and then going out for breakfast.
And be nice to catch up. But I'm curious to
see how he's getting on with it all after sort
of taking some time out, and he's gone and done
other things and tried to get away from the limelight
because he really didn't like it.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
What were the hardest things for you from going from
someone that could walk down the street and go to
the supermarket unnoticed to absolutely not being able to do
that anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, I didn't mind it until your kids are involved.
That's kind of where the line gets crossed in my eyes.
And the paparazzi are assholes. I think I'm happy to
make that statement and make it as a blanket statement.
I've never met a nice one. They're just I get
it's their job. Again, they get paid to get a photo,
(23:48):
but they have no boundaries, you know. They would wait outside,
they would bribe people at the airport to find out
what flight were on, and they'd be jamming cameras in
their faces. Second you get off a plane with your kids,
they would be camped outside my gym. They would be
camped inside our house. They would nearly run us off
the road trying to follow us through traffic when we're
(24:10):
trying to just be by ourselves. It was pretty horrendous.
I mean, it's not like that now. And I get
they were getting paid a lot of money when we
were so relevant in the Australian media landscape. I totally
get it, and you know, each to their own, but
they're just you can't you know, the more you try,
and I'd try and naively try and reason with them, like, guys,
(24:33):
give us a break. You know, they're literally a bit robotic,
like there'd be no compassion, no care for how this
was impacting you at all. So it made until your
photo doesn't get me a lot of money, I'm getting
your photo and you just deal with it, and so
(24:53):
you kind of I don't know I've said this before,
but it actually just makes you go inward a little bit.
And that I don't mean I wasn't the same bubbly
confident person, but I just wanted to spend time with
my friends and family that knew me before this show,
and I had no really interest in going out to
places where you're going to get spotted and photographed. It
(25:14):
was more come over to our house for a dinner
party and people, you know, So we just did a
lot more of that.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You're seen as obviously a very aspirational couple, and I
think it's you know, it's it's you know, for me,
I don't watch a lot of reality TV, but certainly,
like with with any kind of a dating show, I
think everyone's surprised when the couple ends up staying together.
What what rituals or things that you do regularly, Like
(25:39):
do you still do as a couple to maintain that connection.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
We have a babysitter come on a Wednesday night. Wednesday
Night's date night. Yeah, I mean going back to my
morning routine at work. I mean that does allow Snares
and I to even if it's picking up the kids
together from school or you know, something a lot of
couples get get to do when you haven't been a
dad and then you you know, school pick up and
(26:06):
that kind of thing. I think it's a real eye
opn't it, because you're you're looking around it even childcare
more so, you know, I pick up Charlie usually around
four o'clock and she's one of the first kids picked up,
and you know, all of the other kids sort of
swarm to you and like tell you know, Charlie, Dad's here.
(26:27):
And then they're like calling you dad and you're not
their dad. It's funny, this funny experience. But they're beautiful,
you know. But they're more saying my dad will be
his soon or my mum be his own. But there's
been one occasion where I had to pick up Charlie
at five point thirty. That was just a one off
thing and she was still there and there was probably
still ten kids there, and it was this real and
of course, I mean it was just dumb in my eyes.
(26:49):
I get there at four and everyone else gets there
at four thirty.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
It was sort of stupid. But because of that flexibility
I have having my own business, and because of you know,
the team that I have around me, and you know,
so many people I'm grateful for that allow me to
do this. It's just a real eye opener, I think.
And then that carries over into the stuff snation I
can do as well, and it's always it's always what
(27:15):
my greatest fear was as a personal trainer. I remember,
before all of this, I was a personal trainer for
sixteen years doing kids fitness stuff and adult stuff and
I mean I was doing five thirty am starts and
working till eleven twelve, training myself, doing having lunch, training
(27:35):
kids and then adults again from sort of three to
eight Saturday mornings. My books would be full as well.
I'd be doing sixty or seventy one on one appointments
a week, and I just remember doing that in my
mid twenties, and a lot of the trainers that I
worked with were in their sort of late thirties early forties,
(28:00):
and a lot of them would say to me, I've
got this idea, which is the idea that's going to
get me out of here. And five years later they
were still telling me about this idea that was the
idea that was going to get them out of here,
and I'm like, they're not getting out of here. There's
a lot of talk, there's not much action. Some of
them did, but you know, that was quite common that
(28:21):
that was what I was hearing and that's what I
was seeing. And I just remember thinking, as a sort
of twenty six year old, twenty seven year old, I
cannot be working where it's an hourly rate on an
appointment basis for I have to do a split shift,
which is basically what it was going to be if
I was still just doing PT when I've got kids,
I won't see them. I probably won't have a great
relationship because I won't see my wife either, but I
(28:42):
literally will not I will never be able to pick
up at the kids are from school. I've dropped them
off at school. I mean, I walked to my little
girl to school this morning, and it's just one of
the most beautiful you know, she's completely yours what she's
excited about, and picking her up's even better. Aca she
just vomits this beautyful. It's probably not the right word,
but you know, it just tells you everything that she's
(29:03):
done with such excitement and such detail, and she's not
tired yet, and she's not distracted yet because she hasn't
got home and we only live probably five hundred meters
from the school, so you know, I walk with the
dog and I pick her up and we walk back
and it's just it's my favorite part of the day.
So you know, I'm so grateful that I can do
that with my kids. And you know, I don't care
if they realize that or appreciated. I'm sure they will
(29:26):
one day looking back, maybe, but for me, it's a
it's a real treat.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
It's really it's very beautiful and I can I can
totally relate in terms of doing my own school pick
up with my daughter. It's it's seeing her come out
of the school gate is always a highlight.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
When they see you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, I'd love to know. Like I mean, in the
world of health and fitness, there's always some new gadget
or some new technology or some new trend coming out.
How do you stay on top of what are the
leadest things that might be worth experimenting with.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, it's an interesting one because I think sometimes they
can make things worse. Because one of the reasons I
think my twenty eight program has been so successful is
it's very simple, and we call ourselves the personal trainer
(30:26):
in your pocket because it's about, you know, to go
back like, I don't really do that much differently now
to what I did as a personal trainer. I just
have this wonderful capability to have fifteen thousand people work
out with me in their lanterms every day rather than
one person work out with me at the same time
in the gym. And you know, I always had such
(30:50):
a wonderful connection with my face to face clients, and
I loved training them as much as I never want
to do it. When I had kids, I actually loved
it in the moment, but I kept getting told, what
are you going to do? You can't clone yourself And
twenty eight has allowed me to clone myself and now
allows me to have fifteen thousand sand woods in fifteen
(31:11):
thousand and one on one situations. And so, to answer
your question, Anthea, it is what can increase the personal
connection to our twenty eights And if the answer is
it's not going to do that, it's a bit of
a tech fad because a lot you get we get
thrown a lot of these things, you know, whether it's
you know, virtual reality sort of training and that stuff.
(31:37):
One the technology is relatively new, you know, I'm talking
about you know, people wearing masks and feeling like they're
working out boxing against you and all this kind of stuff.
I just feel at the moment it probably overcomplicates things
and the value to the costs just doesn't necessarily weigh up,
you know, even you know, bots and all this other
(31:59):
stuff you know about how you're communicating with your members.
I feel like everyone's you know, we have eight full
time customer service people that work seven days a weekday
and night on the twenty eight program, which is very
rare for a tech program because the whole thing is
keeping your costs down because they're online. We sort of
go the other way. We charge people a little bit
(32:21):
more per month because we provide this real level of
personal service and personal care. So I'll spend a lot
of my time with our customer service team so they
know exactly how to help those people give them the
right answers, whether it's you know, they're spending time with
our nutrition as to where they're spending time with me
from an exercise prescription perspective, or they're spending time with
(32:42):
the tech team and help improve people's tech experience. But
everybody's getting in shape journey is so individual that if
you try to let technology do it all, it actually
really I think it's the experience worse and less personal.
So yeah, we of course we keep our eye across things.
(33:06):
I mean, everything's getting better from streaming speeds to you know,
for us, it's more we spend a lot of time
in data and looking at individuals behavior data and then
how we can customize what we serve to them based
(33:27):
on them telling us what they like. Similar to Netflix
recommend a TV show based on another TV show that
you like. We spend a lot of time doing that.
We see that you clearly love dance Fit, so you
might like this because it's a very similar workout style,
and it seems like a lot of people that like
dance Fit like this. Or we see that this recipe
(33:47):
or these recipes could be appealing to you because we
see what snacks you chose to cook on the weekend
or whatever it might be. So yeah, just personalizing that.
But so it happens in a really nice, not sales
way where it's almost like, oh, it's like they know
what I'm thinking before I know what I'm thinking. You know,
that's ultimately where we'd like to get to, and it's
(34:08):
a never ending sort of search, but we're getting better
all the time.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
I'd love to know when you were working one on
one with clients in the gym. I imagine that motivation
must be challenging. Sometimes I feel like I'm an anomaly.
I've got a trainer that I see three times a
week and I think I'm the only client. It's like,
can we just do a bit more leg press or
another hack squad, please, James. I'm strange, but I imagine that
(34:36):
is not the norm. What did you do to motivate
people when they just don't feel like working out?
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah, I had pretty good clients, and part of I
think part of it was I was sort of full,
which allowed me to be pretty hard on people when
I was inducting them or screening them or meeting them
for the first time. And it was an unusual for
me to send people away and say you're not ready yet,
(35:03):
call me when you're ready. And they'd be shocked because
I'm prepared to give you four hundred and fifty dollars
a week for three sessions. I'm like, it's not about
your money. You're clearly not here and ready to make
a change, and I don't want to waste your time.
I don't want to waste Mike. I'd be pretty blunt
with them.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
How could you tell that they weren't ready to make
a change, because.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
You have that initial sit down and they're already telling
you reasons it's not going to work or reasons it
might fail. They're already sort of saying yeah, but unless
it's that, oh no, I won't be able to commit
to the food staff, or I'm just too busy at work.
And you don't understand. I work as a sea. You know,
it's like that's okay, I probably don't understand. But you're
telling me you want to lose weight, and then we've
(35:45):
reached the first verbal hurdle and you're already giving me
a reason it's probably not going to happen. That's a
massive red flag for me, and it should be a
red flag for you. They always came back and loved
the brutal honesty. Not once did I ever lose someone
or have them offend all. Never hear from them again.
Sometimes it'd be three days later, sometimes it'd be three
months later, but you always heard back from these people.
(36:06):
So for me, it was very much ensuring that they
were bought in at the beginning. And then you know,
I think you know the great thing about a personal
trainer is your job is to make the medicine taste better.
They don't have to think about what they have to do.
You can give them some of their favorites and some
(36:27):
of the stuff that they need to do. You can
make sure you do the hard stuff at the beginning,
and then they finish with something they enjoy and you
finish with a nice, relaxing stretch and you have them
leaving there better than when they walked in. I think
if you do that and then you follow up, I
think the biggest mistake personal trainers don't make his ownly
care about you for the sixty minutes that they're seeing you,
and you never get the nutritional help, or how do
(36:48):
you feel today, and here's some great stretches that might
help you through a bit sore, or I read this
great article yesterday. I was thinking of you. You might want
to read this. You know, that level of care when
you send that stuff to your trainers and you care
about them for the one hundred and sixty five hours
they're not seeing you, is a game changer. And I
think a message to any trainers out there listening. If
you spend as much time doing that as you do
(37:09):
with your one on ones, you'll be really successful.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Sam. It has been a pleasure sitting down with you
and hearing about your world. For people that want to
connect with you in some way or do your program.
What is the best way for listeners.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
To do that. The pleasure's been on mine. If you
want to find out more about my program, it's twenty
out by Samwood dot com. The website's got all the
information there and would love to work with you or
help you in any way that I can. And even
though we spoke about social media, you probably think I
don't know if I want to Followosek on social media.
It sounds a bit grumpy about it. But if you
want to connect with me on social media, probably best
(37:43):
to just go through Instagram, which is at Sam james
Wood Amazing.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Thank you so much, Sam, It's been such a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
I really loved Sam's approach to structuring his day and
how he thinks about the different building blocks like an
hour of exercise and then for d and hours of work,
which allows him to balance being around to do things
like school pickup. I wonder if listening to Sam's structure
has given you some ideas about how you might be
(38:11):
able to do this in your own life and what
an ideal day might look like where you can balance work,
health and family. How I Work is produced by Inventing
with production support from Dead Set Studios. The producer for
this episode was Liam Riordan, and thank you to Matt Nimba,
who does the audio mix for every episode and makes
(38:32):
everything sound so much better than it would have otherwise,
See you next time.
If you're listening to How I work, I imagine you're
the kind of person who lives a pretty busy life.
And if you're busy, you're possibly also constantly struggling to
make time for your health and well being. Whether you
can't sit still for five minutes of meditation, or you
have no idea how people manage to fit ninety minutes
(00:20):
of weight training into every workday, You're not alone. So
how does Sam Wood stay so fit? You might remember
Sam when he graced our TV screens on The Bachelor app.
Sam then went on to create the mega successful twenty
eight by Sam Wood, an all encompassing health and fitness app.
(00:43):
Sam also hosts The Wood Life, a brilliant podcast about
all things health. Oh and he's got four daughters running
around too, So how does he run an entire wellbeing
empire and still find time for his own health, fitness
and family. My name is doctor Amanthea Immer. I'm an
(01:08):
organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium,
and this is How I Work, a show about how
to help you do your best work. So when I
conducted this interview with Sam, his youngest daughter was just
three months old, and when we met at the studio
he looked very fresh and full of energy. So I
(01:32):
wanted to know how on earth this was the case.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, well it's an illusion. I'll tell you that right now.
The answer I gave you add in the foyer was
absolutely the only real answer, and that is my wife
is incredible and she's superwoman and has somehow given me
a little bit of sleep. I did wake up with
my four year old this morning. I'm not even sure
she shares this thing. It's like something out of the
(01:59):
sixth sense. She just appears and she's she's the most
silent walker, and she watches you sleep, and her height
is probably not that far off my lying in bed height,
and I'll open my eyes and her eyes are about
two inches from my face and I'll say, well, what
are you doing. She's like hi, daddy, and I'm like
(02:20):
you want to get in? Yeah, little nod anyway, So
I sleep quite well with her. She's when she falls asleep,
she's a fidgitter until she falls asleep, but when she's
already tired, she's actually very cozy and warm. So I
had a very cute little night sleep with my little
four year old last night and feeling pretty good.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
That's good. What daily rituals do you have around your
health and well being?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, well sleep, sleeps one of them. I think with sleep,
it's about what happens the day before. I think in
a year year a consequence from a sleep perspective of
what you did in the lead up to going to bed.
And I think the biggest mistake we make with sleep
is the scrolling through social media and the Netflix binging,
(03:05):
when you kind of say to yourself, I can't go
to bed before eleven thirty or twelve o'clock, And there's
probably it's much easier to find an hour at that
time of the day than it is to find an
hour at some other part of the day. So yeah,
I mean I don't have baths and meditator or anything
like that, but I make sure I don't have any
(03:26):
screen time in the last hour before bed, and I
make sure that none of that is happening. So if
I know I want to go to bed eleven o'clock,
I won't do any of that between ten and eleven o'clock,
And and I have some great conversations at that time
because none of that stuff's going on. We're usually pretty
tight and delirious, but we have some really good chats,
my wife and I and yeah, reading and I love
(03:50):
to read, but I can't read lots, you know. I
find I find ted pages and I'm usually conked out
at the end of the day. But I do like
to read, and I do like to get off the
screen time at that time of the day. And then
from a that's sort of the catapult, if you like,
for mornings, because I'm a massive morning person, moving in
the morning, and then all of those same principles applying
(04:14):
to working in the morning. I'm a massive believery Now
at the moment, I'm my normal schedule of trying to
get into the office at eight o'clock in the morning
and hitting the ground running is not happening because we
have a three month old. As she said, little Harper
is only very new, so I'm doing school drop offs
and all of that kind of thing to help out
stairs and as I should. So everything's just been pushed
(04:37):
back a little bit. But that doesn't mean I compromise.
I still get up before the rest of the family,
and I'll make sure I exercise from six to seven,
and whether it's a run with the dog, or it's
going up to our little home gym above the garage
and doing a workout, or even going out to my
own gym doing the early class and being back before
sort of anyone else rises. I'll make sure I get
that exercise in. And it's so much for my mental health,
(05:00):
is my physical health. I think it wakes me up,
It gives me energy, It puts me in a good mood,
and I feel like something's missing when I haven't done it.
I'm a bit of a creature of habit and I
think that's one of my good habits and it really
sets me up for the day. And I do that
seven days a week. It doesn't matter if it's a
workday or a school day or not. I'll you know,
(05:20):
might work out a little bit later on a Saturday Sunday.
But I just don't sleep in it. I like to
get up and get amongst it.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So with your seven days of exercise, how do you
break that up between CaTiO strength based training? What are
your routines there?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So I don't even look at it as exercise. I'll
get a movement, you know. Some of those that might
be a bike ride around the park with Willow that
might be a sixty minute walk with my dog listening
to a podcast, you know, or it could be I'll
try and do at least three strength training sessions a week.
(05:58):
As I get older, I feel my body responds really
well to staying strong and maintaining some muscle and better
for my posture, and the more lean muscle I have,
the easier it is to you know, not put on
too much fat around the belly and that kind of stuff.
And then I'll try and do two higher intensity sessions
that are usually a bit of a hybrid between some
(06:19):
endurance work. It might be some boxing or some body
weight exercises, or some intervals on the treadmill or the
roller or the bike. And then you're too much more relaxed, casual,
still burning calories, but just going nice and slow, and
it's almost it's almost a bit of an active meditation,
just getting out and burning some calories and getting some
fresh air and some sunshine.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Do you have mornings where you just don't feel like
exercising or moving?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah? Lots. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
How do you push through that? What strategies are you using?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I'm quite good at bottling in a weird way, the
feeling I have when I finish, you know, like whenever
I initi a hard workout in particular, I'll take a
little moment of reflection to God, I feel so good
right now. Like I hated that, and I was dreading that,
and I nearly didn't do that, but I did it,
(07:13):
and I'm kind of proud of myself for doing it.
And I sort of bottle that feeling and that's and
I then draw on that feeling when I need it
in the mornings. But again, I'll listen to my body
a bit. You know, I'm pretty flexible with it. You know,
I'll know if I'm really not feeling it, I might
(07:36):
just take the dog for a walk, you know, which
to me is completely pleasurable and there's no real discomfort there.
I enjoy every second of it. Get a coffee, go
for a walk, whatever it might be. Whereas, if I'm
feeling a bit more motivated, I'll challenge myself with one
of those harder workouts that we spoke about. But you know,
one of the bits of advice I give to tens
(07:57):
of thousands of people nearly weekly is it's the workouts
you do on the days that you don't feel like
at the count the most and I almost you know,
have that imprinted on my own brain. But I also
it just gets easier over time. I genuinely believe that,
you know, once this does become a habit, I don't
there's not too much thought involved. I mean, I don't
(08:18):
wake up and have this you know, debate with myself
or there's not too much doing and throwing. You know,
you know you need to do this, but do you
really It's kind of just like, yeah, this is just
what I do now, and and yeah, I really do
feel it mentally. You know, the physical side of things
(08:38):
is great, but there wouldn't be that much of a
different physical benefit if I'm trained at midday. It would
just be less lucky to happen, and the world gets
chaotic and all these crazy things happen and then disrupts
your working day and all these other things. So and
I wouldn't feel as good mentally. I just I'm a
bit grumpy in the mornings, you know, when I say,
I go and exercise and then I get with the
(09:00):
rest of my family. That's to everyone's benefit. I'm a
bit you know, I'm a bit of a slow waker
opera and I think, you know, getting some water in
and having a black coffee and getting some exercise in
and then having the energy to tackle for crazy kids
and a wife trying to juggle it at all is
a good thing for all involved.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I like the idea that it's every day and it
just it's just what you do. It reminds me I've
had me a freedman on a couple of times, and
for her, she exercises every day, and one of the
reasons why she does that is there's no room to negotiate.
It's not like should I exercise because of course you
exercise because it's an everyday routine. And I thought that
(09:43):
was quite interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I love that black and white rules are much better.
Gray rules are dangerous, I think, and I see that
with lots of people that I work with every day,
work with in the office, but work with to help
them get into good habits. And I agree with me.
I think, if you can tell yourself, no, let's just
make today one of the two days I don't exercise,
it's very easy for that argument to sneak into your
(10:06):
head almost daily. Whereas if that argument doesn't exist because
there's seven days in a week and you move your
body seven times, I think, I think that I can
understand exactly where she's coming from, and I agree with
it totally.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Where else do you use that those black and white
rules or black and white thinking to your advantage in
how you approach your work or how you approach just
general health and well being.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I'm a little bit more flexible with work, and I
think the reason is I'm reliant on more people. And
you know, I've got two different businesses and sixty staff.
And I think you can't be too rigid because it's like, oh,
the world arroves around Sam and you know I moved
for him for a meeting last week, but he's not
willing to, you know, return the favor this week. You've
got to be a bit flexible. And you know, I
(10:51):
do podcasts and all these other things where you kind
of you need to work around guest availability and all
these things. And I love doing I love the variety
and the the you know, the spread of everything that
I do. It's that it keeps me saying I don't
like doing the same thing too much. But in principle,
you know, I call them my power hours. The morning
(11:12):
is where I get most of my work done, and
you know, particularly hours of dat. You know, from nine
till it used to be from eight, but now it's say,
from nine to one. I try to, you know, do
all of my most important stuff in those four hours,
so all of my important meetings, all of my urgent
(11:35):
email responses, not get distracted by any social media or
any innovation at that time. It's more like this stuff
that's absolutely what needs to be done. And then if
it's so. For example, at the moment, we're looking for
retreat venues for our next wellness retreat that we want
(11:57):
to hold here in Victoria, and that's a new you
an exciting thing, and it's really fun. You know, you're
visiting venuesn't it. But I'll make sure I don't do
that before lunchtime because it'll take up a whole one
of those You know, we're only talking about twenty hours
in my week. It's not a sixty hour work week
or anything. It's just twenty really efficient hours. And if
(12:18):
I can get that done, it's almost like what happens
after that time doesn't matter. Now, of course it does,
but I've almost given such a good, clear, concise version
of myself to everyone that needs me or to any
responses that are needed, or any writing that needs to
be done in those hours. That then I can spend
(12:38):
some time doing some fun marketing stuff for my gym,
or visit venues for a wellness retreat, or you know,
work with the marketing team on some fun new merchandise
or whatever it is. It's almost like the icing on
the cake. It's not the cake because I've worked on
the cake for the four hours each day.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
How do you decide what goes into those four hours?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Really comes back to what is the core of my
business and what is the best the best use of
my time? Where am I serving the core of that
business best? And for me, that is you know, I've
got a very simple business. It's an online fitness program.
And effectively, we have three ways that that business can improve,
(13:27):
and that is we get new members on the program,
we keep existing members on the program longer, or we
get old members on the program back on the program.
And you know, of course there's a million ways to
do each of those three things, and it's never that simple.
But if I'm spending time doing one of doing something
that is attributing to one of those three things, that's
a really good use of my time. And if I'm not,
(13:49):
then that should be part of the icing that's happening
after one o'clock.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I like the idea that you're doing all the important
stuff in the morning, and that almost like the afternoons
are guilt free, like you could be doing anything, even
though that's theoretically part of a typical eight hour workday.
I find that a really interesting mindset and it helps.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
It helps a lot because I used to be really guilty,
and I used to be really bad. I used to
I'd be damned if I did damned if I didn't.
I'd either be not spending time with my kids and
then feeling guilty about not spending time with my kids,
or spending time with my kids and feeling guilty that
I should still at work and I it wasn't making
(14:32):
me very happy or very productive, you know, either to
be honest, you know, if you're with your kids but
you're not truly present, what's the point. I mean, they
can pick it up in her heart, but they don't
miss a trick. Or if you're missing out on important
work stuff and you know, the guilt happens the other way,
that doesn't work either. So I mean, for example, my
little girl Charlie had her third birthday on Saturday and
(14:54):
she got a new bike, and I've taken her bike
ridding every day after school pickup this week and there
hasn't been a a second of guilt and it's just
been it's been great to do that. So to be
how to do that every day and still know you've
been highly productive is a great feeling.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
We will be back with Sam soon talking about how
he manages his social media presence and also how he
learned to deal with the paparazzi and media after being
the Bachelor. If you're looking for more tips to improve
the way that you work, I write a short fortnightly
newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered that
(15:36):
helped me work better, ranging from software and gadgets that
I'm loving through the interesting research findings. You can sign
up for that at Howiwork dot com. That's how I
Work dot co now. As well as having two businesses,
you are a brand and a business. I guess in
your own right as Sam would, and I'd love to
(15:59):
talk about social I was on your Instagram last night
because I knew that I was interviewing you today and
looking at this very aspirational healthy life, and I'd love
to know how do you think about what you will
post and what you will share?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
It's interesting. I go through peaks and troughs a little bit.
A lot of people tell me you'd be much better
off posting more, and I get exactly where they're coming from.
But I have days or weeks where I'll post ten
times a day, you know, my inster story, and then
other weeks where I go completely missing, and it's I
(16:41):
think it's it becomes very time consuming, very but if
you get someone else to do it, it loses all its authenticity.
So it really does sort of need to be you.
So it's a bit of a time thing. It depending
on what other projects are going on. But I mean,
I'm a huge I don't like social media. In fact,
(17:03):
I hate it, and if I didn't have twenty eight,
i'd get off all social media forever and never have it.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I hate it, So why do you hate it so much?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I just think it does so much more harm than
good to people from you know, I've got a teenage daughter.
I see how it impacts her. I've got three other
little girls who will one day be teenage daughters, and
I would give my left leg that they didn't ever
get on social media, but I know they will. So
it's about, you know, managing that as best as a
parent can in this world that we live in. But
(17:33):
I just and at the same time, I'm never I'm
not sitting here. I don't want people to go, oh mate,
Without social media, you probably wouldn't even have I wouldn't.
I'm not. Probably I wouldn't have the business I have,
all the success that I've had without social media. So
I'm absolutely not saying social media has been wonderful for me.
But if I had the choice, I wouldn't. I wouldn't
(17:54):
have it. I just I don't. I don't think it does.
I know, you continually compare yourself to others. You're continually
focusing on a world that's not even a real world
of someone else's life, and you miss your own life.
And you know, I just think. You know, when I
don't have my phone and I go for a walk
(18:16):
with a dog, or I take the kids for a
bike ride and you don't have things beeping and distractions
sort of all the time, it is just such a
powerful reminder to what laugh's all about and the simple
little pleasures that you can that you can find and
I think when you're just into that social media of vortex,
it's so hard to pull yourself out. And yeah, I'm
(18:38):
not a fan.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
So given that, like when whenever you post something, it's
it's being beamed out to hundreds of thousands of engaged
fans and followers, how do you decide what to put out?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I don't think about it that much. I mean, I'm
not terribly strategic with it, and it stands thinks I
I should think about it more because she loves how
sort of Grid looks and all this kind of stuff.
Mine's a bit of a dog's breakfast. But I mean,
I like I like being I know, a lot of
people follow us as a family, and that started as
(19:12):
a couple with and then with Ev and we get
so many beautiful comments, you know, and I realized it's lovely,
you know, like there's a real connection to all these people,
you know, whether there are people on my twenty eight
program or that just follow us through our social media platforms,
(19:32):
you know. And it all sort of started. We were
overwhelmed by how many single mums reached out to Basnag
and when we got together, because she was a single
mum when we met on the show, and I'm talking
about thousands of single mums saying, seeing your relationship and
now seeing that it wasn't just a TV thing, it's
(19:54):
it's real, has given me faith that I will one
day on someone again when I'd almost given up hope.
Like lots of beautiful comments like that that you just
I never would have thought, you know, just naively. I mean,
it made sense to me when I heard the comments,
but that's something that never would have entered my mind,
(20:15):
and it really gave you opened up a thought, Oh,
look at the you know, I just it must be
so hard. And then that would stimulate a conversation between
Snez and I. She's like, yeah, to be honest, I
didn't think i'd ever meet anyone. You know, I totally
understand where these you know, lots of women single mums
are coming from, because I was the same. You know,
(20:35):
I wasn't really looking for someone. I was very content
with it just being Evy and I for the rest
of our lives. And you know, that's just one example.
But when when you can connect with people on that
sort of level, and then obviously I get to know
them at an even deeper level when they join my
program and it's a real family and their genuine friendships
(20:55):
and genuine relationships that there's some really good that can
come out of it, don't get me wrong. And the
reach is just crazy. It's just it's hard to find
the off switch, and it's only getting harder, and there's
only getting more and more social media platforms at once,
which means, you know, it's now seven things rather than
two things, and I think it's only gonna get worse.
(21:17):
As most people would tell you it was correct, So yeah,
I I don't know. I'm just a bit old school.
I like quality time, face to face with people and
not getting too caught up in what the Kardashians are
up to, so that's sort of my preference. But at
the same time, I absolutely acknowledge how much it's helped
(21:38):
me and helped business and how much it can connect
you to people. So I'm a bit torn with it.
But yeah, I don't overthink what I put out what
I put out there. Really, it's more just sharing things
that I find funny or I find sweet, and if
you find them funny or sweet, that's nice to share.
But I don't overly care if you do or you don't.
You know, people message you and go that was stupid,
(22:00):
but I'm going to unfollow you. I literally don't give
that a second thought. I've developed pretty thick skin over
the last eight years since the Bachelor. It was such
a sharp, intense, you know, rise in notoriety and everyone
(22:20):
know who you were. Literally almost in about seven days
from complete anonymity to that was just so full on
that if you survive it, and not everyone does because
it's pretty full on. I'm actually having having a breakfast
tomorrow with Matt who Matt ag knew he was a
bachelor on the season just a couple of years ago,
and he's the loveliest bloke. He's an astrophysicist, so way
(22:42):
too much to be a bachelor. But he really struggled
after the show and he had depression and he sort
of went into a bit of a recluse and he's
coming good now. But yeah, I'm having breaking with him
tomorrow to sort of not not to check it. I'm
not you're bloke and seeing her. He's going he's just
a friend of mine now and we're doing a work
(23:03):
out at my gym and then going out for breakfast.
And be nice to catch up. But I'm curious to
see how he's getting on with it all after sort
of taking some time out, and he's gone and done
other things and tried to get away from the limelight
because he really didn't like it.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
What were the hardest things for you from going from
someone that could walk down the street and go to
the supermarket unnoticed to absolutely not being able to do
that anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, I didn't mind it until your kids are involved.
That's kind of where the line gets crossed in my eyes.
And the paparazzi are assholes. I think I'm happy to
make that statement and make it as a blanket statement.
I've never met a nice one. They're just I get
it's their job. Again, they get paid to get a photo,
(23:48):
but they have no boundaries, you know. They would wait outside,
they would bribe people at the airport to find out
what flight were on, and they'd be jamming cameras in
their faces. Second you get off a plane with your kids,
they would be camped outside my gym. They would be
camped inside our house. They would nearly run us off
the road trying to follow us through traffic when we're
(24:10):
trying to just be by ourselves. It was pretty horrendous.
I mean, it's not like that now. And I get
they were getting paid a lot of money when we
were so relevant in the Australian media landscape. I totally
get it, and you know, each to their own, but
they're just you can't you know, the more you try,
and I'd try and naively try and reason with them, like, guys,
(24:33):
give us a break. You know, they're literally a bit robotic,
like there'd be no compassion, no care for how this
was impacting you at all. So it made until your
photo doesn't get me a lot of money, I'm getting
your photo and you just deal with it, and so
(24:53):
you kind of I don't know I've said this before,
but it actually just makes you go inward a little bit.
And that I don't mean I wasn't the same bubbly
confident person, but I just wanted to spend time with
my friends and family that knew me before this show,
and I had no really interest in going out to
places where you're going to get spotted and photographed. It
(25:14):
was more come over to our house for a dinner
party and people, you know, So we just did a
lot more of that.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You're seen as obviously a very aspirational couple, and I
think it's you know, it's it's you know, for me,
I don't watch a lot of reality TV, but certainly,
like with with any kind of a dating show, I
think everyone's surprised when the couple ends up staying together.
What what rituals or things that you do regularly, Like
(25:39):
do you still do as a couple to maintain that connection.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
We have a babysitter come on a Wednesday night. Wednesday
Night's date night. Yeah, I mean going back to my
morning routine at work. I mean that does allow Snares
and I to even if it's picking up the kids
together from school or you know, something a lot of
couples get get to do when you haven't been a
dad and then you you know, school pick up and
(26:06):
that kind of thing. I think it's a real eye
opn't it, because you're you're looking around it even childcare
more so, you know, I pick up Charlie usually around
four o'clock and she's one of the first kids picked up,
and you know, all of the other kids sort of
swarm to you and like tell you know, Charlie, Dad's here.
(26:27):
And then they're like calling you dad and you're not
their dad. It's funny, this funny experience. But they're beautiful,
you know. But they're more saying my dad will be
his soon or my mum be his own. But there's
been one occasion where I had to pick up Charlie
at five point thirty. That was just a one off
thing and she was still there and there was probably
still ten kids there, and it was this real and
of course, I mean it was just dumb in my eyes.
(26:49):
I get there at four and everyone else gets there
at four thirty.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
It was sort of stupid. But because of that flexibility
I have having my own business, and because of you know,
the team that I have around me, and you know,
so many people I'm grateful for that allow me to
do this. It's just a real eye opener, I think.
And then that carries over into the stuff snation I
can do as well, and it's always it's always what
(27:15):
my greatest fear was as a personal trainer. I remember,
before all of this, I was a personal trainer for
sixteen years doing kids fitness stuff and adult stuff and
I mean I was doing five thirty am starts and
working till eleven twelve, training myself, doing having lunch, training
(27:35):
kids and then adults again from sort of three to
eight Saturday mornings. My books would be full as well.
I'd be doing sixty or seventy one on one appointments
a week, and I just remember doing that in my
mid twenties, and a lot of the trainers that I
worked with were in their sort of late thirties early forties,
(28:00):
and a lot of them would say to me, I've
got this idea, which is the idea that's going to
get me out of here. And five years later they
were still telling me about this idea that was the
idea that was going to get them out of here,
and I'm like, they're not getting out of here. There's
a lot of talk, there's not much action. Some of
them did, but you know, that was quite common that
(28:21):
that was what I was hearing and that's what I
was seeing. And I just remember thinking, as a sort
of twenty six year old, twenty seven year old, I
cannot be working where it's an hourly rate on an
appointment basis for I have to do a split shift,
which is basically what it was going to be if
I was still just doing PT when I've got kids,
I won't see them. I probably won't have a great
relationship because I won't see my wife either, but I
(28:42):
literally will not I will never be able to pick
up at the kids are from school. I've dropped them
off at school. I mean, I walked to my little
girl to school this morning, and it's just one of
the most beautiful you know, she's completely yours what she's
excited about, and picking her up's even better. Aca she
just vomits this beautyful. It's probably not the right word,
but you know, it just tells you everything that she's
(29:03):
done with such excitement and such detail, and she's not
tired yet, and she's not distracted yet because she hasn't
got home and we only live probably five hundred meters
from the school, so you know, I walk with the
dog and I pick her up and we walk back
and it's just it's my favorite part of the day.
So you know, I'm so grateful that I can do
that with my kids. And you know, I don't care
if they realize that or appreciated. I'm sure they will
(29:26):
one day looking back, maybe, but for me, it's a
it's a real treat.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
It's really it's very beautiful and I can I can
totally relate in terms of doing my own school pick
up with my daughter. It's it's seeing her come out
of the school gate is always a highlight.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
When they see you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, I'd love to know. Like I mean, in the
world of health and fitness, there's always some new gadget
or some new technology or some new trend coming out.
How do you stay on top of what are the
leadest things that might be worth experimenting with.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, it's an interesting one because I think sometimes they
can make things worse. Because one of the reasons I
think my twenty eight program has been so successful is
it's very simple, and we call ourselves the personal trainer
(30:26):
in your pocket because it's about, you know, to go
back like, I don't really do that much differently now
to what I did as a personal trainer. I just
have this wonderful capability to have fifteen thousand people work
out with me in their lanterms every day rather than
one person work out with me at the same time
in the gym. And you know, I always had such
(30:50):
a wonderful connection with my face to face clients, and
I loved training them as much as I never want
to do it. When I had kids, I actually loved
it in the moment, but I kept getting told, what
are you going to do? You can't clone yourself And
twenty eight has allowed me to clone myself and now
allows me to have fifteen thousand sand woods in fifteen
(31:11):
thousand and one on one situations. And so, to answer
your question, Anthea, it is what can increase the personal
connection to our twenty eights And if the answer is
it's not going to do that, it's a bit of
a tech fad because a lot you get we get
thrown a lot of these things, you know, whether it's
you know, virtual reality sort of training and that stuff.
(31:37):
One the technology is relatively new, you know, I'm talking
about you know, people wearing masks and feeling like they're
working out boxing against you and all this kind of stuff.
I just feel at the moment it probably overcomplicates things
and the value to the costs just doesn't necessarily weigh up,
you know, even you know, bots and all this other
(31:59):
stuff you know about how you're communicating with your members.
I feel like everyone's you know, we have eight full
time customer service people that work seven days a weekday
and night on the twenty eight program, which is very
rare for a tech program because the whole thing is
keeping your costs down because they're online. We sort of
go the other way. We charge people a little bit
(32:21):
more per month because we provide this real level of
personal service and personal care. So I'll spend a lot
of my time with our customer service team so they
know exactly how to help those people give them the
right answers, whether it's you know, they're spending time with
our nutrition as to where they're spending time with me
from an exercise prescription perspective, or they're spending time with
(32:42):
the tech team and help improve people's tech experience. But
everybody's getting in shape journey is so individual that if
you try to let technology do it all, it actually
really I think it's the experience worse and less personal.
So yeah, we of course we keep our eye across things.
(33:06):
I mean, everything's getting better from streaming speeds to you know,
for us, it's more we spend a lot of time
in data and looking at individuals behavior data and then
how we can customize what we serve to them based
(33:27):
on them telling us what they like. Similar to Netflix
recommend a TV show based on another TV show that
you like. We spend a lot of time doing that.
We see that you clearly love dance Fit, so you
might like this because it's a very similar workout style,
and it seems like a lot of people that like
dance Fit like this. Or we see that this recipe
(33:47):
or these recipes could be appealing to you because we
see what snacks you chose to cook on the weekend
or whatever it might be. So yeah, just personalizing that.
But so it happens in a really nice, not sales
way where it's almost like, oh, it's like they know
what I'm thinking before I know what I'm thinking. You know,
that's ultimately where we'd like to get to, and it's
(34:08):
a never ending sort of search, but we're getting better
all the time.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
I'd love to know when you were working one on
one with clients in the gym. I imagine that motivation
must be challenging. Sometimes I feel like I'm an anomaly.
I've got a trainer that I see three times a
week and I think I'm the only client. It's like,
can we just do a bit more leg press or
another hack squad, please, James. I'm strange, but I imagine that
(34:36):
is not the norm. What did you do to motivate
people when they just don't feel like working out?
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah, I had pretty good clients, and part of I
think part of it was I was sort of full,
which allowed me to be pretty hard on people when
I was inducting them or screening them or meeting them
for the first time. And it was an unusual for
me to send people away and say you're not ready yet,
(35:03):
call me when you're ready. And they'd be shocked because
I'm prepared to give you four hundred and fifty dollars
a week for three sessions. I'm like, it's not about
your money. You're clearly not here and ready to make
a change, and I don't want to waste your time.
I don't want to waste Mike. I'd be pretty blunt
with them.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
How could you tell that they weren't ready to make
a change, because.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
You have that initial sit down and they're already telling
you reasons it's not going to work or reasons it
might fail. They're already sort of saying yeah, but unless
it's that, oh no, I won't be able to commit
to the food staff, or I'm just too busy at work.
And you don't understand. I work as a sea. You know,
it's like that's okay, I probably don't understand. But you're
telling me you want to lose weight, and then we've
(35:45):
reached the first verbal hurdle and you're already giving me
a reason it's probably not going to happen. That's a
massive red flag for me, and it should be a
red flag for you. They always came back and loved
the brutal honesty. Not once did I ever lose someone
or have them offend all. Never hear from them again.
Sometimes it'd be three days later, sometimes it'd be three
months later, but you always heard back from these people.
(36:06):
So for me, it was very much ensuring that they
were bought in at the beginning. And then you know,
I think you know the great thing about a personal
trainer is your job is to make the medicine taste better.
They don't have to think about what they have to do.
You can give them some of their favorites and some
(36:27):
of the stuff that they need to do. You can
make sure you do the hard stuff at the beginning,
and then they finish with something they enjoy and you
finish with a nice, relaxing stretch and you have them
leaving there better than when they walked in. I think
if you do that and then you follow up, I
think the biggest mistake personal trainers don't make his ownly
care about you for the sixty minutes that they're seeing you,
and you never get the nutritional help, or how do
(36:48):
you feel today, and here's some great stretches that might
help you through a bit sore, or I read this
great article yesterday. I was thinking of you. You might want
to read this. You know, that level of care when
you send that stuff to your trainers and you care
about them for the one hundred and sixty five hours
they're not seeing you, is a game changer. And I
think a message to any trainers out there listening. If
you spend as much time doing that as you do
(37:09):
with your one on ones, you'll be really successful.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Sam. It has been a pleasure sitting down with you
and hearing about your world. For people that want to
connect with you in some way or do your program.
What is the best way for listeners.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
To do that. The pleasure's been on mine. If you
want to find out more about my program, it's twenty
out by Samwood dot com. The website's got all the
information there and would love to work with you or
help you in any way that I can. And even
though we spoke about social media, you probably think I
don't know if I want to Followosek on social media.
It sounds a bit grumpy about it. But if you
want to connect with me on social media, probably best
(37:43):
to just go through Instagram, which is at Sam james
Wood Amazing.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Thank you so much, Sam, It's been such a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
I really loved Sam's approach to structuring his day and
how he thinks about the different building blocks like an
hour of exercise and then for d and hours of work,
which allows him to balance being around to do things
like school pickup. I wonder if listening to Sam's structure
has given you some ideas about how you might be
(38:11):
able to do this in your own life and what
an ideal day might look like where you can balance work,
health and family. How I Work is produced by Inventing
with production support from Dead Set Studios. The producer for
this episode was Liam Riordan, and thank you to Matt Nimba,
who does the audio mix for every episode and makes
(38:32):
everything sound so much better than it would have otherwise,
See you next time.
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