Navigating Burnout and Growth: Insights with Nile Said

In this episode of Printing's Alive, Nile Said from GoOneUp joins to discuss his journey from a diverse background to becoming a coach, sharing personal insights into the evolution of coaching and his experiences with burnout. The conversation explores recognizing burnout signs, the critical role of self-care, and navigating a nervous breakdown through daily habits. Listeners learn about overcoming negativity bias with self-awareness and acceptance. The transformative power of personal challenges is highlighted, along with the significance of personal achievements and strategy sessions.

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Hey, everybody.
Welcome back to another episode of Printing'sAlive with me, Warren Warbet.
Today, I have another guest, special guest.
This one's actually really special, because Ithink most of you listening will relate to him.
We have Nile Saeed.
Did I get your name right?
You did, thank you.
Okay, because I practiced.

(00:32):
Nile's from Go One Up, and I was introduced toNile a little while ago, just from a friend of
mine, and we just started talking.
He does coaching and mentoring and motivationalspeaking.
I'll let you tell everybody what you do in aminute, but I thought about having Niall on as

(00:54):
a guest because of what he does, because we allfind ourselves in our daily lives in need of
some ideas, some tips, some tricks on how tomake us move forward.
But more importantly, I really wanted him onbecause for myself in talking to him, I
realized, oh my God, I'm not alone in my ownhead.

(01:16):
And when you're busy in life, and life and workand kids and everything together, it could be
pretty overwhelming.
I've been fortunate along the way to get somegood help, get some good advice, and the timing
of meeting Niall was just perfect.
So Niall, with that, just tell us who you are,basically what you do, and how did you get into

(01:44):
what you do?
Yeah, I appreciate that.
That was awesome.
And I could relate to what you were justdescribing and the timing of us meeting, thanks
to a mutual friend.
It's incredible.
So I'm really thankful for that.
So, I've been actually coaching and fell intothe industry, at a young age, to be honest with
you.
So I did a lot of soul searching, and I know wespoke in the past, but the idea of trying to

(02:08):
find out more about myself in my teen yearsand, fell into the areas of personal
development and and personal success and tryingto figure out the self awareness part for
myself.
And I seem to always gravitate to wanting toserve others and find out more and help them
become more self aware and be able to taketheir game to the next level.
So with that, in 02/2009, I've been coachingsince 02/2009 and, quietly coaching since then

(02:33):
because I've been in a number of differentindustries from the Internet world, ecommerce,
distribution, fulfillment, fitness.
And so there's been a number of differentchapters to my life as I've always been
coaching.
And, and now more recently, I coach people andmore specifically entrepreneurs and business
owners to, to really ensure that they don'tfall into a trap of a lack of mental and

(03:00):
emotional capacity to function.
So I'm just laughing because I'm just thinkingabout how the head spins.
Right?
And we're not alone because everybody's headspins.
But first, I wanna just point out somethingbecause you mentioned you've been coaching
since 02/2009.
Yeah.
So for people that are listening, coaching in02/2009 was cutting edge.

(03:24):
Today, you know, coaching, there's coachingcourses everywhere for anyone who wants to
become a coach, but not everybody's able to bea coach.
You have to have some really good lifeexperiences, and you have to have a reason why
you wanna be a coach if you want people to feelyou and understand you on the other side.
So I just wanted to say that because everywhereI turn, my whole feed, every time I mention the

(03:47):
word coach, it's coach, coach, coach.
And, you know, there are some really amazingcoaches out there, but there are, I think, a
lot more that aren't so good because they justdon't have what it takes.
They just did the course.
In any case, from our conversations, you know,you basically got into it way back then because
you were going through your own life shit,right?

(04:08):
Nothing better to call it.
You had a business, you built it up.
So just give us the story of how you got intoit in your own your own track in life.
Well, to be honest with you, I actually took acertification back in 02/2009, always keeping
my eye on it.
As you just mentioned, back at the back in02/2009, coaching was just coming about.

(04:29):
It was just coming about.
So it was really just about being a life coach,and that was it.
Obviously, over the last few years, I wouldsay, ten years or or so, you've had to come and
really niche down because everyone could justbe a coach.
But if you have expertise and really know whatyou could experience and bring it forth to

(04:51):
someone else, then it's another it's a gamechanger.
And you could help people more specificallyrather than a general sense.
So that's important to decipher and determine.
But I actually was in the corporate world upuntil 02/2009.
I earned my certification as a coach and camefrom the Internet world.
Even pre Internet, I was in desktop publishing.
Was there at the .com days, horizon fall andthe crash.

(05:14):
And, and at the same time, always was taking onleadership roles in a content management team,
in in, development, in in working in thecorporate world for a major bank here in
Canada.
I was in the training and development,department and working in the back end of their
intranet for the back end employees and theirtraining to to to train employees on the on the

(05:38):
levels of credit cards and bank accounts and soon.
But it always lent itself to the coaching side,you know, being able to add a level of guidance
and structure and frameworks to helpingsomebody achieve their goals.
And so that's where it is.

(05:59):
But the corporate world, I I don't I don'tthink that there's anything wrong with the
corporate world for for anybody, but it didn'twork for me.
Unfortunately, there were a lot of falsepromises, being made, and, and I got pretty
burnt out, pretty wiped out.
So I bit the bullet, and, I'll tell this littlequick story, and I don't there's this is

(06:20):
interesting to me because I was a little takenback by it.
But the day I was walking out of the out of myoffice with the box in hand, and all the, you
know, colleagues were coming to me saying, hey.
Where are you going?
What are you doing?
What organization got you?
And I'm thinking, I'm going out on my own.
I I can't do this anymore.
He goes, what?

(06:41):
Are you kidding?
Right.
How how how can you do this?
Like, what?
I could never do this.
I'm a lifer.
It's the first time I've ever heard the termlifer, and and I recognize that there is a lot
more that people could find within themselvesto achieve more than they want and what they're
doing and achieving at that time.

(07:02):
That was even more of another catalyst in megoing forward in wanting to get into coaching
and helping people find their happiness andfulfillment in whatever they do.
So there's there's a number of different ebbsand flows to my journey that brought me to the
point of now wanting to serve people on themental and emotional and even practical small

(07:22):
business frameworks and and capacity, and it'sbeen fulfilling ever since.
So but, I mean, you had your own business.
Right?
And you were I I it was a gym or something orYeah.
I had a
couple of different operations and so on.
Okay.
A number of years ago, became an exclusivedistributor for a fitness brand in Canada,

(07:46):
built the entire ecommerce operation,fulfillment operation to serve the entire
nation.
Many people didn't know this, but I was a oneman show except for the three p l and the
distribution center that I was working with andone assistant to help me with customer care.
And and it was it was incredible.
Like, I'm so thankful for it.
But at the same time, I I really burnt thecandle at both ends.

(08:10):
And and I I came to a point where at the end ofit and I'm not I'll just say what it was.
It was it was a nervous breakdown.
So it's kinda scary when you could face asituation where you can't think, you can't
complete your sentences, you can't evencomplete your thoughts.
I consider myself as an extrovert, but at thesame time, I I was afraid to be around family,

(08:37):
let alone friends.
And so that frightened me.
That scared the hell out of me.
Yeah.
No.
That's I'm sitting here shaking my head becauseI know what that is, you know, when I had my
business.
And and nervous breakdown, anxiety, depression,they all mean to me the same thing, slightly

(08:57):
different, guess, depending on the level thatyou're at and how far into that curl you are in
the bed, where you don't want to talk toanybody.
And it's pretty amazing because I too, likeyou, extrovert, not introvert.
And when I, you know, when I, you know, kindalost my business, not when I kind of, when I
did lose my business, you go into a shell andalthough everyone around you is quite nice and

(09:24):
comforting, it's your own brain thatencompasses you and freezes you where it gets
to a point where you don't where I didn't wantto talk to anyone.
I didn't want to look at anyone.
I didn't want to go out.
I had all this shame embarrassment right for noreason because I didn't do anything wrong.
But you do something, people see you, youbecome something, or you become something in

(09:46):
your own head, and then you have to work aroundit.
You know, on that point, I'll just mentionthis.
It's incredible how quickly we as humans canfall into what would be defined as our own
personal identity, and then we attach ourselvesto that.
And when it doesn't follow through and it feelslike it's fizzling out or you hit a wall, you

(10:07):
feel as though your worth is tied to thatidentity, even though that that doesn't exist
anymore.
And that's what leaves us with the unknown.
That's what leaves us with the uncertainty.
That that's what leaves us with the sense ofhow am I being perceived, which shouldn't
matter.
How should I move forward is another betterquestion.
And how could I reclaim my ownership of who Iwanna become when it comes to that?

(10:33):
So I just wanna share, I'm very well aware ofhow identity is tied to what we do, but it's
not entirely tied to what we do.
It's tied to who we wanna become and how wewanna operate.
And I just wanted to because he brought thatup, I want to share that.
You know, I know.
So so I was I've been with a a life coach,business coach for the last four years.

(10:58):
When I met them, I hit a rock bottom point inlife where I had a trail of it.
I'll just tell you quickly, I lost my business.
Sixty days later, I lost my mother after abrief illness.
Sixty days after that, my mother-in-law passed,you know?
Old age, that wasn't so bad, and she was a nicelady.
Then I'm taking the summer off because of thebusiness thing and just to regroup, and someone

(11:20):
stole my boat.
And then I'm thinking, okay, what does Warrendo, Warren two point zero?
And as I'm thinking and I'm planning, COVIDcomes in, I get wiped out again.
And then as we go into lockdown, I'm in aneight year relationship that comes to a
grinding halt.
And I hit the wall where I could not speak.
Like, first of all, forget lockdown when you'realone, no one to talk to, but I couldn't speak.

(11:41):
I couldn't think.
It was a depressing thing.
It was you start thinking, what did I do?
What did I do?
Actually, it was my ex wife who's one of mybest friends today, mother of my children,
which that's a whole other thing, and peopleshould work at that level so your kids are
better.
But she suggested a friend of hers who was alife coach.
I picked up the phone fifteen minutes later andgot into sessions right away.

(12:03):
And I'll tell you, the first couple months, mysessions were, I don't even know, I don't even
remember what they were because there was tearsrunning on my face the whole time because I
just didn't know who I was, where I was, what Iwas doing, I didn't see how I was gonna get out
of it.
And the first thing that I learned then, youknow, from her was about the mind, about

(12:24):
subconscious, and how it all plays an integralrole in what goes on, your subconscious is
there to defeat you, basically, right?
And I'm not gonna get into the whole detailbecause I'm not that qualified.
But the basics that I learned were yourthoughts become your beliefs, your beliefs
become your actions.

(12:45):
And most of us in the thought process, it spinsand you keep playing it over and over.
And what I learned right away was, well, I wastold, suggested what I should do right away,
took me a little while to get into thatpractice, but you have, I was, you know, I was
told that when you have those thoughts, askyourself right away, is that true?

(13:10):
You know, like one of the thoughts was, am Icapable?
I don't think I'm capable, but I have to becapable because I'd been doing what I've been
doing for twenty seven years.
I got to where I got.
And then as hard as it is, and I said tomyself, oh my God, that's not true.
And I moved on to another thought.
Now, I spun on the other thought.
The point is, by putting yourself out there andasking those questions, you stop yourself from

(13:34):
sliding down another slippery slope, right?
Absolutely.
And then there's a whole bunch of other things.
So what can you tell us about, you know, whenyou went through your situation and your
burnout, first of all, can you tell us howmight somebody recognize burnout is starting?

(13:59):
There are
a lot of signs.
There are a lot of signs, and I think a lot ofus are aware of them.
I'm gonna first touch on one thing that youjust mentioned before I go into this, if you
don't mind.
Sure.
You mentioned about recognizing whethersomething was true or not, And I think it's
really important.
Hey.
It's awesome.
I always gotta promote Bass
Pro.
So It's it's important for for for everybody ifyou're able to, and this is it comes down to

(14:23):
that self awareness that I mentioned before.
And that's the idea is oh, wow.
I'm out of focus here.
There we go.
Doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter.
You'll come across.
Going, it'll always focus on.
And what it is is if you operate in liferecognizing what's truth, the difference
knowing the difference between truth andfiction, things will be a lot easier.

(14:47):
But the problem is we're clouded and bombardedwith so many different nuances of what facts
could be or maybe that we make them facts asthough something is real.
And it you know how we jump to conclusions?
We know that fear you know, there's so manydifferent that's an acronym.
You know?

(15:08):
False evidence appearing real.
It's false.
I mean, we don't fear is something of theunknown.
And, again, if we know, like, oh gosh, I didsomething crazy at work or in the office.
I hope my boss doesn't actually, you know, comeback and scold me.
Now you're running through all the scenarios ofhow you're gonna position yourself.
How are you gonna explain yourself?
How are you gonna, you know, take ownership andresponsibility over it?

(15:31):
And then all of a sudden, you're fearing allthis and then nothing comes out of it.
The boss might come to you and saying, hey, I'maware of this.
It didn't kill our budget.
I'm aware of this, but and we also now knowthere's a problem to our process and systems.
Can I have your help with fixing that now thatyou are in it?
And nothing actually happened, but we spunourself in such a bad direction that it we we

(15:53):
brought on so much anxiety, which again impactsour beliefs, our abilities, our capacities, our
abilities, our our capabilities.
And so it really snowballs.
As for warning signs, it is it's incredible howmuch we all know what the warning signs are,

(16:14):
but we dismiss them thinking it's just amoment.
It's just a moment.
But here's the problem.
If you have a warning sign like you're shortwith somebody or you're you're feeling a little
edgy or you're feeling lethargic or uninspiredto something that we inspired you just a month
ago, a week ago, You figure out what's goingon.

(16:37):
Why am I not turned on by this project I wasjust working on yesterday?
Am I tired?
Am I feeling short?
I feel like my thoughts are being shortcircuited.
And if you realize that there's a lot ofdifferent nuances, it's not like, oh, okay.
I'll just continue to grind and push myselfthrough and and let's figure this out.
And it it it there's a lot more to it.

(17:00):
And and the last thing I want is for that tokeep on stacking on top of each other until you
find that cliff and you fall off.
Nobody should fall off.
I don't wish that upon anyone considering whatwe've both explained and shared with each other
and what I know I went through.
This is why I do what I do today.
If we could see the warning signs and fine tunethe approach to making sure that we are owning

(17:22):
our purpose, and and it's not about allpurpose, and I'm not talking about get getting
all, oh, passionate about life.
And there's there's reality too.
But at the same time, we need to be able toknow where the buck stops.
And at the same time, what can I do to betterserve first myself and then others around me

(17:44):
without, you know, breaking my legs or bangingmy head against the wall?
Yeah.
No.
It's really it's it's, you know, like, thisthis conversation, I mean, I I I keep thinking,
my brain keeps moving in different directionsbecause there's so many different things.
Right?
And we as humans I mean, I just everything I'mgonna say, I just speak from the me

(18:05):
perspective.
Right?
Because I only know me.
But I have been through so many things, so manyhighs, so many lows, so many moments of self
doubt, so many moments of fear, right?
And it's really, it's the brain that creates itbecause when I sit down, and even when I sit
down with my coach and we go through things,and she's like, Is that true?

(18:26):
And I'm like, No.
Well, can you do that?
Sure.
Well, then why do you feel that way?
And then you get into a different conversation,and, you know, there's a lot of things that had
come out that maybe I didn't wanna face evenbefore, right?
And, you know, you have to peel back, what didshe say?
We have to, well, we're gonna peel back thelayers of the onion, right?

(18:49):
And I'm not gonna say that everything's relatedto your mother and your father, but
unfortunately there's a lot of stuff that goesback to your early days of, you know, how you,
when you were brought up and what you did ordidn't do, etcetera, what you were taught or
not taught.
And that's a whole other area that you gottaget through.
But you go through it, well, I went throughthat quickly because I was pretty okay with it.

(19:13):
But then after the reflecting upon yourself ofwhat you do and then you think about how you
speak to people or how you wanna speak topeople.
And it's just, it's really brutal.
But once the, actually the first thing that wassuggested to me was to sit down and to work on

(19:34):
doing some meditation.
And it's not the meditation where you sit thereand you're for like two hours, because it
doesn't work that way, right?
The medication that I was doing was I got anapp.
I did the twelve week course, started off fourminutes a week, and when I'm sitting there,
yeah, your brain goes sideways, but you pull itback, but those fifteen minutes of just

(19:58):
breathing, and what, you could talk aboutbreathing after and how that changes
everything.
But those fifteen minutes of in the morning ofjust being by myself and first laughing and
then getting used to the person whose voice isguiding the meditations.
But I didn't realize it until later on that itwas almost a calm setting start to the day.

(20:21):
And then I found myself at different times ofthe day just taking a moment to do three deep
breaths, which took the angst right out of alot of things because when you're feeling what
I was feeling, and you know, let me know if youhad the same thing or other people, but you get

(20:41):
tight inside, you get twisted where you can'teven get it out or the slightest thing sets you
off.
Know, the guy at Uber delivers three minuteslate, my egg roll's cold and I'm like ready to
call them up and fight with them.
Like, who's fighting with Uber?
They don't even care, but who's fighting withUber?
Right?
Yeah.
And then, so the breathing.

(21:01):
Before I go into a meeting, three deep breaths.
I mean, and that was just the beginning, butwhat I was really amazed about was three deep
breaths changes your whole place where you areat that moment.
Yeah.
It diffuse it.
It could diffuse you.
It does.

(21:22):
And here's the the thing, unfortunately, webreathe naturally without even consciously
thinking about it or doing anything about it.
This is just the nature of us.
We as we're alive, we breathe.
We take it for granted in regards to how ourbreathing is patterned, what we're consciously
doing and subconsciously doing throughout ourdays.

(21:43):
Even when we fall asleep, our breathing justcalms and it allows our bodies to rest, go down
a notch.
And it's incredible, but when we do theconscious breathing, and this is just one
aspect, you're sending more oxygen throughoutthe body.
You're clearing your mind.
It's not gonna be a light switch, but,unfortunately, today, everyone expects

(22:04):
something like to be literally knock you overthe head as a change.
It's not gonna be that way.
But as you just alluded to, over time, yourbody started to recognize over I don't know how
many days or weeks was your program?
You said twelve days?
Or Well, I I was twelve days, but it's beenfour years
since meditating.
Yeah.
Starting it.

(22:24):
Like, just starting it and building on it fromday after day, your body's gonna start
recognizing the difference between tense andshallow breathing and hunched over to relaxed,
full breathing, shoulders back, and and justexpansiveness that our bodies go through.
And it's just it's an incredible shift thatallows our minds and our subconscious and our

(22:47):
nervous system to recalibrate.
And this is just that's one exercise.
And and if we feel like we need to recalibrateor we're short with somebody or feel like we're
burning out and so on, breathing is just one ofthose simple free things we could do.
And why wouldn't we?
But, again, it's not the first thing that comesto mind because we do it twenty four seven.
But if we consciously do it, there's one aspectto it.

(23:09):
Again, to adding other elements to that, wehear about it all day and night, about self
care, going for the walks that you need,changing your environment, seeing green.
Even just seeing green because our innatenature as humans, we were born in nature in in
that sense.
Like, it's a natural we're a natural being.
Being in a natural environment changes things.

(23:32):
And greenery and oxygen inducing elementschanges even our perception.
It helps ease the mind.
I'm not a spiritual guide.
I'm not a spiritual coach.
But at the same time, I'm very familiar withthe different practices that we could do as
humans that will help ease the strain andbecome more gentle.

(23:53):
Again, first, being able to fill our own selveswith with with strength and with purpose and
with capacity.
That's the main thing I'm talking about,capacity.
Then we're able to serve everybody else.
And I think that's what comes with itnaturally.
And we ultimately, at the end of the day ashumans, we wanna serve others.

(24:13):
I I think there's there's studies that showthat if you put yourself in isolation, you're
literally shortening your life.
That's a bold statement, but you're shorteningyour life when you put yourself in complete
isolation.
Oh, listen.
I I couldn't agree more with you.
By the way, the breathing thing, you can do iteven in your car at a red light.
Yep.
Three deep three deep breaths, and I'll tellyou, I'm smiling because I was laughing because

(24:37):
I'm in my car, and I'm doing it, like, when Istarted, and I'm doing.
And then when I'm, after the third one, I'mlike, oh my God, I feel a little lighter, and
then I start cracking up to myself, like as ifI'm a crazy guy, but it works.
It really, so anybody listening, honestly,three deep breaths just to start before you go

(24:58):
into something, or if you're feeling uptight,or after you're done something.
It really is, it's kind of like mind boggling,right?
It really is.
It really the more you do, and then I findmyself suggesting to people that they should
breathe.
Not that I wanna be a preacher, but I'm blownaway that it works.
It works.
It really works.

(25:18):
What but what let me ask you.
Do a % of them actually say, yes.
I'm gonna do it.
What's your honest opinion?
Oh, god.
No.
Most of them just laugh at me because ofeverything else I say.
Right?
Then the few and then the few but the few whowho the conversation is a little serious do it,
and then I'll then I'll suggest a website orsomewhere because even meditation, you don't

(25:39):
have to go crazy.
Five minutes, ten minutes.
You could do it lying in bed.
You could do it sitting in your chair.
You could sit on the floor in a meditationcushion.
There is no right or wrong place to close youreyes and to zone out for five minutes.
And it's okay to allow your mind to scatter.
This is the point.
It's actually because your mind is alwaysscattering to try and reel it back in by doing

(26:01):
this practice.
It's not easy.
Your body's your body's defaulting to thescattered state if that's the state it's always
in.
And that's why it's important to be gentle.
Be patient.
Allow yourself to grow.
If you wanna start with two minutes for twodays, then the third day go to three minutes
for two days, then go to four minutes.
Again, in a week's time, in two weeks' time,you're gonna get up to eight minutes, ten

(26:25):
minutes, and that's that's time well spent.
That's the way I see it.
And that's just one component.
And we all deserve the time that we couldregroup so we don't snap at our family.
We don't snap at our colleagues.
We don't snap over a project that we're workingon.
And I I mean, just and I don't even thinkpeople realize how pent up some of that stress
and aggravation is because everything you knowwhat?

(26:47):
You said it.
Everybody is today.
So everywhere everyone goes, want today, theywant now, they wanna do.
Really is, yeah.
And for people listening, like really listen,if you feel you're all tense and you're tight,
it's okay.
It's normal.
Mean, from working with my coach, it's morerampant than anybody actually thinks, right?

(27:12):
Then there's a lot of business people that Ijust, you know, ask questions like, you know,
How do you feel?
Do you ever feel like this?
Oh, my God.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And there's a reason that there's people likeyou doing what you do, right?
It's almost as needy It's almost more neededthan a doctor, because if your mental state is
good, then your body could be better, Yeah.
Right?
Because it's all what is it?

(27:33):
What do they say?
Stress causes all kinds of issues and diseasesand and and whatnot.
Yeah.
Right?
And and and really, I'm I'm I'm not opposed to,obviously, the medical world and industry and
profession and so on and what could be servedbecause incredible things are happening.
And I know I've had to, obviously move towardsthat.

(27:53):
But if there's something that we could do, evenjust one or two things that prevents the
ailments, then take advantage of that.
Do it.
Like, do it.
And then and it won't hurt, and most things arefree.
So, I don't think there should be any excusesunless you have an ego.
And if you let your ego and lack of selfawareness come into play, then you have to work

(28:17):
on that too.
And I'm being straight about that.
I think that there's an opportunity wherepeople have to build on it.
I was gonna touch on this whether you wannatalk about it or not, but
No.
No.
Good.
Self awareness, personal self awareness inrecognizing that you might be short or spent,
stressed, don't have the capacity.
You know, I have this saying, and I'm I expressthis to a lot of my clients and people I work

(28:40):
with or people I have conversations with.
We all know that we have the capability, but dowe have the capacity to match?
And that's what's important because, again, Ithat's what happened to me before I had my
unfortunate demise of a nervous breakdownbecause I knew I could be as capable, and I
kept on going, but I wasn't listening to mybody or my mind.

(29:01):
So my nervous system shut down.
So if if you're okay, tell us, a little bitmore about the breakdown, know, kind of just
what happened and then what happened after youhad it to move out of it.
Just so if people are listening, they, youknow, they could feel a little bit or

(29:23):
understand.
You know, the other thing is, like, even themeditation.
So now, like, I haven't meditated a couple daysbecause I've been up super early.
I've been out of the house and whatever.
I'm not happy about it.
I'm actually feeling a little twisted becauseI'm not meditating, which tells me that I got
to and that it's good for me, but you gottamake a habit of it.

(29:43):
And and you're gonna and you're gonna hear, youknow, twenty one days makes a habit.
Thirty days makes a habit.
I'll tell you that's bullshit.
Somebody said it once, and it's been translatedever since.
So just, your habit is wanting to make thingsbetter.
That's your motivation.
That's your habit.
When you wake up in the morning, quicksuggestion, then I'm gonna get off it.
Instead of lying in bed and looking at yourphone for twenty minutes, jump up, get out, and

(30:05):
do a quick meditation.
You're not wasting any part of your day.
You're actually doing yourself a favor by notlooking at the blue screen.
Anyway, I'll leave that with that.
But yeah, so let's go back to, you know, kindof maybe, and tell us what you want or don't
tell us what you don't want, but kind of whathappened, how you went, and then, you know,
how'd you get out of it and then move on fromthere.

(30:27):
Yeah.
There's a number of different crossroads at thetime of of when that happened.
Obviously, I felt the strain, but I was didn'thit rock bottom yet.
We never think that we're going to, again, whenwe're pushing so hard, and there's a lot of
stakes.
Like, we I have a lot at stake in keepingthings afloat, and everybody does.

(30:47):
Whether it's family, businesses, parenting, orparents themselves, elderly parents, there's so
many different factors to one's life, but Ididn't see it.
And there was a lot converging.
As that major and main operation of my life,was winding down, my body started to really

(31:08):
feel the effects because I didn't have to keepit going anymore.
And that was under circumstances that werebeyond my control, unfortunately.
Right?
So there was some factors that moved me toliterally have to pause or shut the doors or
transfer, aspects of the business.
And that's that was that was important to dobecause that's the nature of the business.

(31:32):
But, unfortunately, I realized it was only thenthat my nervous system and my body and my mind
started saying, okay.
Now that this is winding down, here's what youdid to yourself.
And now we're gonna show you.
Body, I'm your body, and I'm gonna tell youright now, here's what's and, again, thought

(31:53):
was gone.
Here's what thought was gone.
Couldn't complete a sentence, couldn't do whatI needed to do, couldn't even communicate, and
that was a scary moment.
I could tell you, that there were a number ofdifferent moments where I would search for or
find ways.

(32:13):
Now here's the thing.
I'll back up, and I'm being very transparenthere.
Having studied the areas of personaldevelopment in human behavior since my teens,
as I mentioned before, because I wanted to findout more about myself and what I could do to
better my game and also be better understood,you know, by those that I care for and have

(32:34):
them better understand me and makes me wonderyou know, I wanna know what makes me tick.
But I had some answers.
I knew what to do, but my body couldn't even doit.
So with all of the frameworks, the strategies,tactics that I was well aware of, even again, I
had the capability of knowing what to do, but Ididn't have the capacity to execute on them.

(32:57):
So it was it was a crazy eight.
It was kept just kept on cycling through myhighs and lows without being able to execute on
the strategies that I've learned over years.
And I've served others and be able to help mychildren with and so on.
So that was scary.
That was extremely scary.

(33:19):
But there was times I've had good days with mywalks, bad days with the walks.
I would put headphones in my ears if I had togo to the store, and I I would be walking
through the store and nothing was playing.
I just wanted to muffle out the outside sounds.
Wow.
And I didn't want anyone to even communicatewith me because I was afraid I wouldn't be able

(33:43):
to communicate back.
That's not me, but I had to in order tofunction and still do the the minimum on a day
to day basis.
My journey took about two and a half years out.
That's a long time.
And again, that's why I don't wish that uponanybody.

(34:05):
But one of the things that actually one of thethings that got me, woke me up was some advice
from my brother.
He's a little he's a little older than me.
Wisdom.
You know, some people in our lives, especiallysome family members, have wisdom that they
wanna share and could share.
He said, stop forcing it and just surrender andrelax.

(34:33):
Because I was trying to find and apply all thesolutions and tactics that I've learned over
the years, pushing, pushing, pushing, trying towith all this resistance going on inside of me,
and I couldn't.
My body wasn't even allowing it because itcouldn't function.
So I had to take it back take a step back andallow myself.
But the sooner I was gentler with myself,surrendered to what was experienced and what I

(34:59):
was experiencing, not at the again, stilltrying to be as obviously responsible as I
could be and should be for the operations, forrelationships, for businesses, for parenting,
for all of that.
But at the same time, I needed to become moregentle with myself.
And it was then where I started to see the 1%increase every few days.

(35:20):
Not every day.
Every few days.
I would see a 1% increase.
People would balk at the idea of just having a1% improvement in their lives, but that's what
going up stands for.
You gotta go one up before you can makeprogress in a great way over time.
And it's the incremental steps that moves us togreater heights, to more fulfilled

(35:45):
perspectives, to greater relationships, to adeeper understanding of who we are, let alone
the people that we love and respect around us.
Wow.
I'm sitting here at yeah.
That's big because, you know, when you said twoyears, I'm gonna tell you that it's almost five

(36:06):
years that I'm doing the work, and I'm prettygood.
I'm pretty good with what's around me.
I'm pretty good with how I feel, but I don'tfeel 100%.
I feel there's still more to do, more to learn.
I feel that world is and I That's
good, by the way, because there's never gonnabe a plateau.
See, this is where we need to accept the factthat there is no we shouldn't put a ceiling.

(36:29):
And I'm just gonna and I'm just saying thisbecause once we set a ceiling, it's like
saying, I'm gonna do 12 reps, and we've reachedthe twelfth rep and we could do more.
It was the number that's gonna stop us, or canwe do Yeah.
And and I also realize that the world is a lotbigger than me.
Right?
So even today, as I'm saying, it's like, I'mlistening to you, and it's like, it's almost,

(36:52):
it's like, I was gonna, maybe it's not a greatanalogy, but it's almost, I'm thinking for me,
in terms of like an alcoholic, I still everyday remind myself, I still every day have to, I
wanna do my meditation.
I have little notes here and there.
I still have certain conversations with somepeople about it.
More like reminders.
It's so easy to go off track, right?

(37:15):
It's like the, again, like the gym, you go fora year, you go for two, you're looking good,
you miss a day, a week, a month, before youknow it, you're not looking so good anymore,
right?
But it's a big effort.
And when I went through it, I did a wholereview of everybody around me.
I wanted to make sure, at my first circle, thatit was anybody that either made a difference in

(37:39):
my life or that I was able to make a differencein their life, and we had that.
You know?
Because we all have many circles of friends,and what did they tell us?
What did I learn early on that, you know, ifyou get into your later years and you've got
three, four good friends, you've got more thanthe average, right?
Unfortunately, I've got a few more than that,but when you surround yourself with people that

(38:03):
are really important to you and that value youvice versa, it really helps get you through
this a lot easier because they're not askingyou questions.
They're not asking you to do things, right?
When you go into this and I'm sure you havesome thoughts, but when you go into this
situation, you're alone.

(38:23):
And when you're alone, like, pick you know, youdon't always wanna talk to someone about it
because you don't want to hear what they'regonna say or maybe whatever they're gonna say
is always meant to be good.
Their intentions are good, but they don'talways know what to say, and it doesn't always
work for you.
Right?
But being alone in your head, I'm sure peoplelistening are sitting there going, Oh, my God.

(38:47):
Because we're alone most of the time during theday.
Right?
And to contain it, and then it went back toyour thoughts, your beliefs, your actions to
move it out, you know?
But, so what did you do when you were, youknow, you're in it, and great words from your
brother, by the way, because it's always thesimple, easiest words in life, like the cliches
that we don't listen to that are actually true.

(39:10):
Time heals time heals all wounds.
Well, every time you're in a situation someonesays that to you, like, you know, fuck off.
I don't wanna hear it.
Right?
But then fast forward, you're like, oh, maybe Ishould call back and apologize.
He was right.
But you don't do that either because everyoneknows it.
We don't.
No.
So when you're so when you're when you're init, then how did you, like, you know, get

(39:31):
yourself moving?
So you had those thoughts and and
and it's
big it's big.
It's big.
They're really huge.
And for anyone that hasn't experienced even afraction of burnout won't be able to relate to
the idea of, really, it feels like it's life iseverything getting up.
So here's the one thing I made a vow to myselfat the time, and I forgot about this now that

(39:54):
you brought that question up, so thank you.
It reminded me.
I made a vow to myself about one thing.
Every single day, I am not going to become aprisoner of my bed because I know what downward
spiral that will lead to.
So I made a vow.
And and and this was after my brother even sortof reinstated that to me after the fact, but I

(40:16):
started it already.
So I would mention to him, hey.
I'm doing this already.
But here's what I did.
I made a vow to myself.
Didn't set an alarm.
I allowed my body to heal because I wasn'tsleeping properly anyways, so I don't wanna
deprive myself.
But at the same time, I would wake up when Ifelt as though I had to wake up or move out.
But I made sure I got out of my bed.
Whether I made my bed or not, it's a differentthere's a whole other conversation there

(40:40):
whether people believe that they should orshouldn't.
I make my
bed every morning because it makes me crazy.
Right.
Exactly.
But there's other people saying, hey.
If you make your bed, won't be inclined togetting back into it.
Mhmm.
Because it's pristine and ready for the nightthat's coming.
But that's one thing.
I made my bed in some days.
Some days, didn't.
But I said to myself, I am if I do anythingtoday, it's get up, wash my face, brush my

(41:03):
teeth.
If I could do that, everything else is icing.
That's it.
And I wanted to see and have that selfawareness and personal awareness of how did I
feel following doing those.
And if I know I had another ounce of energy todo something that will serve me through the
self care, the personal awareness while Iattend to the built in responsibilities of my

(41:29):
life, then I'll attend to it.
But if I know that I have the strength to gofor a walk, I'm going for that walk.
There's that 1%.
If I know that I could journal somethingbecause I have the strength and a clearer
thought today compared to yesterday, oh mygosh, I had a complete thought.
I gotta note that down.
I would journal it.
I wanna give myself and build on the values andstack on the little wins.

(41:53):
It's the little wins that bring us to thegreater success or whatever we wanna achieve,
period.
No matter what.
You wouldn't be actually having this podcastwith me right now if you didn't take the little
steps in setting this up and then you and Ihaving opening up the conversation in the past
to be able to make this happen.
It was the little steps that led to this.
It's the little steps that lead to you startingmeditation.

(42:17):
It's the little steps of even the parents thatwould teach their children how to walk.
Like, they were there, determined, padding thearea, watching the corners of tables.
They took the little steps to build a safeenvironment that allowed their child to feel
safe with the support and guidance to take thelittle steps to eventually learn how to walk.

(42:46):
That's where baby steps comes from.
Right?
Every We have baby steps.
Every everything, though, starts small.
But, you know, you you mentioned the walking.
So you mentioned bad sleep.
I think you guys are telling me everything thatI do wrong.
But I'm an awful sleeper, and then when all mykind of shit started and I'm waking up at 04:30
in the morning or 05:00, first of all, there'snothing worse than waking up in the middle of

(43:09):
night staring at a ceiling in the dark with noone around you.
That is like suicidal, right?
But what I would do is, because I didn't wannabe in bed is, I would get up out of the house
at 05:00 because the sun's rising, I'd walk,I'm in Montreal, I'd walk to Mount Royal and
I'd catch the sunset and I'd be posting sunsetson my Instagram because it's just cheery, it's
lighting.
Down to people that liked it and commented, itwas actually quite nice as well because it's

(43:31):
brightening up their morning from what I'mtold, right?
And the words of encouragement, just, oh myGod, keep walking.
I wish I was walking.
If I didn't get out of bed, my day would havenot have been the same, right?
Even if I'm in the house working the rest ofthe day, at an hour and a half out, I got in,
like, I don't know, seven, eight kilometers,nine kilometers.

(43:51):
I'm cruising with headphones or no headphones.
Sometimes I just like the wind and the birds inthe morning.
But it was instrumental.
Even now, the other thing that I've learned,because we all sit, we work, we sit in front of
computers, and when you're sitting in front ofyour desk and you can't do anything because
you've got that block, right?
Everybody listening, get up, go outside, goaround the block for a walk.

(44:15):
If you have to, even check out of the office.
The truth is, you know, if you're not doinganything, you're sitting there, you're not
doing anything.
If you're not doing anything, don't be there,right?
And if you have to talk to someone, mention itto them that you're not doing anything because
we don't wanna be timed today just for ourplace, but empty thoughts and empty actions,
right?
It's, yeah, no, it's really, I learned a lotgoing through all of it.

(44:39):
I mean, I've gone through a lot, I feel prettygood, but I'm always amazed at what I hear.
I'm always amazed about the subconscious.
I'm always amazed at, you know, people likeyourself that are doing things and then have
different options for different people becauseeverybody's different in how they deal with it,
but a lot of it is fundamentally the same inthe beginning, right?

(45:02):
Right, we have to start with the basics, thefoundation of it How does our nervous system
behave?
How does our thought processes behave?
Do we develop this identity for ourselves, orare we influenced?
We all know that we have influences everywhere.
And again, as you touched on earlier, even ourchildhood, how we were parented.

(45:22):
I mean, all of these factors come into play.
Now it's up to us whether we want to adopt ordiscard certain beliefs based on what we could
shape for ourselves.
And that's where, again, we have thatunderstanding of what we could own and what we
have to choose to own or choose not to own.

(45:44):
That's I was gonna say, I don't wanna interruptyou, but that's where we have to learn what
some of our capabilities are or not.
You know?
At the same time, I mean, listen, I have I'mmedicated, and I have ADHD and a couple other
little things, which doesn't make it easier.
So even for me, reading is brutal.
To pick up certain attention things are brutal.

(46:06):
So I've learnt that, and then I've learntthere's other things I have to do that are not
so easy to get around some of it.
But more importantly, I think I've owned it soI don't make myself crazy because I'm not doing
what some other people I know are doing.
And I've I've learned not to not to comparemyself to anyone else, but to be good with me,

(46:26):
to be good about my accomplishments, to to evento take in when people offer me up some nice
compliments, to own them and not to shun them.
Right?
Yeah.
People if people what did I learn?
If people are saying kind things to you, it'sbecause they mean it.
People don't say kind things to you if theydon't mean it.

(46:47):
But when you're in a bad headspace, you don'thear it.
Don't hear it.
And then it's not nice for them either.
No.
And you're actually still there's you know, andwe may not even be aware of it, but we're
literally sabotaging a fantastic moment forthem.
Big word.
Big word in
the subconscious.
Right?
And and for ourselves.
And again, you know, there's unfortunately, aresituations where people have negativity biases.

(47:13):
They turn there could be 10,000 positivethings, but they'll find that one negative
aspect of it and focus on that and disregardthe negative the positives that that come with
it.
You know?
And that happens.
That's that's that's that can happen.
That happens a lot with people.
And it's again, it comes down to that selfawareness.

(47:33):
If I come forward to you and I wanna give you asincere gesture, but you're in a tough place,
you're not gonna see it.
Now I don't blame you.
You're in a tough place.
I think that there's gonna have to be thatbetter understanding of of me being gentler and
accepting the fact that you may not haveaccepted it.
I know that you wouldn't, but I'm bringing thisas an example.
But at the same time, hopefully, you have theself awareness to reflect on what happened in

(47:57):
my gesture weeks ago to realize, you know what?
I don't think Niall meant ill will, and Ididn't really accept it well enough.
You know, I'm just gonna reach out and justsay, hey.
How's everything going?
It's been a couple weeks.
Hope you're well.
Just reset.
And I think that's another thing that we needto do even as business owners or humans.

(48:17):
We need to learn to reset.
That's, again, also gonna help us prevent usfrom burning out, becoming short with anybody,
having a short fuse, being able to know that wecould take our our lives to another level, 1%
more, reset.
And I think having a personal reset bymeditating, going for a walk, spending time,
book that time with family or friends.

(48:40):
Do the one thing even if you prefer to be alonebecause you're an introvert.
Do the one thing that you love doing, period.
Uh-huh.
Listen.
I I've learned to pause things.
Right?
I I could get my blood could rise very quickly.

(49:00):
Number one, avoid road rage for all costs.
But even if I have an email that I wanna write,and I know I'm writing it because I'm not
happy, I'm angry about something, wanna make apoint, I now do the right and the leave it,
right?
And then the other thing that I've learned, andit's so important, is that I am me and

(49:22):
everybody is everybody else.
So, you know, I'm pretty quick on my phone whenI get emails and I respond quickly, although
I'm learning to slow down because what did Ilearn?
It's not that important that you have to replyright away.
But more importantly is when you get angry orupset with the people on the other side that
are not replying so quickly, although you mightthink that it's important, it's urgent, or you

(49:44):
need to know.
And I just had this happen the other day.
I was with someone where they were doing that,and they were going off with a little, few
words that weren't so nice, and I said, Woah,woah, woah, woah.
You know, and again, I don't wanna be thepreacher.
I just wanna be the helper, so I'm just sayingthe example, but I said, Woah.
I said, How do you know that person wasn'tcalled into a meeting by their boss, and

(50:04):
they're sitting there for an hour and a half?
And right away, the person went, Yeah, yeah,maybe you're right.
And I watched them deflate, because we don'tknow.
Right?
We we don't know anything about anything else,and we can't assume anything.
So that's another area that puts you in angst.
Right.

(50:25):
And I think the more often we're self aware, Ikeep on bringing it up, but the idea that we're
self aware, then we'll we won't need somebodyto prompt us like you just did with that with
that person.
They you know, you could take a step back andsay, maybe they're busy.
Like, I I I gotta just decompress for a momentbecause I know if I was busy, I wouldn't be
able to respond.

(50:46):
Again, it helps to put yourself as perspective.
The self awareness, the perspective, beinggentle, and understanding that there's so many
different nuances to every situation weexperience, whether alone or with others.
And it's important for us to to be aware.
I mean, just respect it.
It's almost out of respect.

(51:06):
And and and so you have to you know that thenif you the more you can respect, the more
resistance you're gonna face?
And I I think, in my later years, the wordrespect has come up a lot more.
Not the same meaning that my parents had wherethey would scream at me for showing them more
respect.
You know, just acknowledging to me now, justacknowledging that there's other people and

(51:27):
everyone has their ways and things, and, youknow, everyone's right and everyone's wrong,
but not to judge.
Right?
The judging thing is also really bad.
When you're not in a good headspace and youstart doing that, you really alienate yourself
some more, right, with everybody else aroundyou.
Okay.
So we could we're gonna do this again and goon, but there's one thing.

(51:48):
So you came up with go one up Yes.
Which I think is really cool.
So tell everybody what, you know, what One Upis, what's behind it, what you do.
You know, Go One Up is actually, it it reallyoriginally transpired and formed by the idea
for people to know that you can go one up injust incremental steps in any area of your

(52:16):
life, and that is okay.
That's how things happen.
It's the rejections that we learn from.
It's the, you know, making a sales call and therejection happens.
That's we learn from that.
How did I go into that call?
What was the response?
Oh, I didn't have a response to that objection.

(52:38):
I gotta find a response to that objection forso I'm ready next time.
There's an opportunity to go one up in everyfacet of life.
And and I think that, again, doing the reps,exercising health, building better
relationships even with your partner or withyour children or with whoever it is, your
neighbor, you know, the small gestures thatwon't be taxing to you, won't be overwhelming

(53:02):
to others, it's all doable.
And if we just again respect the idea that thisis possible, I do have the power to do this.
I'm not gonna let my ego get in the way.
I'm not gonna let my preconceived notion ofwhat my identity should be, you know, chest

(53:25):
out, shoulders back, being all tough about it,how do I wanna show up?
Well, show up in such a way with integrity,with value, with respect, with gentle care, if
that's what you want, and go one up first foryourself.
And I'll be honest, that's not selfish becausethe more you can serve and elevate yourself to
a point of feeling fulfilled, you'll have waymore to offer your family, your friends, your

(53:50):
clients, your neighbors, and anybody else thatcrosses your path.
So the philosophy of go one up is taking thosebe really enjoy taking those incremental steps
to improve any area of your life.
But there was also a flip side to this, and Iactually saw a lot of great opportunities for
small businesses and entrepreneurs to go up intheir own lives because they're humans first.

(54:18):
And if you can't be whole or feel as though youcould operate at at a at the level that you
wanna operate, having the capabilities in yourbusiness, but you don't have the capacity as a
person, as a human, to show up.
How do you expect your business to survive?
How?

(54:39):
You're not a robot.
I say this all the time.
You're not a robot.
And if you need this guidance, you need thesupport, the accountability, the frameworks,
the strategies, it's all available to you.
So with that, I developed Go One Up strategiccoaching on the personal side and on the

(55:01):
business side because I have frameworks andmethodologies that will help ease the strain
that an entrepreneur experiences as a as abusiness owner and, in the in their industry
and also for people at at a personal levelwithin their relationships and health and
wellness.
Yeah.

(55:21):
So important.
You know?
When when you talk about, like, good things, Ifirst of all, I don't think enough people laugh
today.
Right.
Right?
So and I mean, I can't sit there and not makejokes.
I like holding doors open for people when Iwalk in just to just to hear thank you and a
smile.
And in the mornings when I walk at, whatever,05:30, six, six thirty, there's only a few

(55:43):
people on the street.
Love saying hello to people.
Yeah.
Love saying hello to people who who you couldtell were a little taken aback but said hello
because it's not their comfort zone.
Right.
But there isn't a person who doesn't say helloor good morning that doesn't smile after.
Yeah.
Even if it's a wave.
Like, so I go on a dedicated bathroom by my mymy my place, and there's by the time I usually

(56:05):
go midday, and you see a lot of people.
I guess they're taking their time during middayand so on.
And I I might have my headphones in.
They see that or so on.
But I I initiate the wave just to know and asmile.
I mean, that lifts me first of all.
Again, not again being selfish, but if we couldexude and demonstrate a sense of ease and that

(56:27):
we're here in this world together, it it makesus feel less alone no matter what you're going
through.
And I don't have to know your life story.
I don't even have a conversation with you.
But just the idea that, I see you.
Think that there's something that should bethat could be said for that.
I see you.
So I saw on YouTube a bunch of years ago, thisguy standing at a bus stop, crowded bus stop,

(56:53):
knew nobody, and he just start it was anexercise.
Right?
But he just started laughing and continueduncontrollably to laugh.
And before you knew it, there was 22 peoplestanding around him all laughing, and no one
knew why.
But you know what?
They're all smiling.
They're all laughing.
They didn't know why, but what a great place,what a great mind space to be in, Right?

(57:14):
And and when you're doing that, it really takesyour mind off of all your other shit.
And even if it's for a few moments, it lightensyou up and lifts you.
The
power of interrupting a moment that you don'twant to experience is very powerful.
So I know there are moments where I'm feelingclouded, something's not sticking on, or

(57:35):
something I'm working on or developing or or aproject.
I would literally get out, jump up, put somemusic on, and change my state.
Just changing your state alone in a moment.
Again, that incremental step to move beyondwhat I'm experiencing right now in another
promising direction, and who knows where thatwill take you?
It could take you to another step up, anotherstep up.

(57:56):
But at least I know it's not where I'm stuckright now.
I made one Break the thought.
Break the thought.
Break the pattern.
Interrupt what you don't want to experience inan unfavorable fashion.
Like, that's an unfavorable state.
I wanna bring it favorable.
What do I need to do?
Send a text.
I really wanna reach out to this person.
Send the text.
Just send it.

(58:17):
There's nothing wrong.
Like and if they don't respond, that's on them.
They're busy.
Don't take it personally.
There's an idea of recognizing that there areso many nuances to people's lives, respecting
that.
But knowing that you did what you said youwanted to do or makes you feel great is the
stepping stone to feeling more whole andknowing that you have the capacity to do more.

(58:40):
Listen.
Little little things.
Right?
LinkedIn.
Little.
So on LinkedIn, whatever, I've got a bigfollowing, certain anniversaries come up,
business or birthdays or something, and peopleeverybody clicks the happy birthday.
It's the button at the bottom.
Happy birthday.
I don't click that button.
To me, it's disingenuine, Right?
And there's no real effort and there's no realI appreciate the push of the button, but I know

(59:03):
there's no real heartfelt thought in there.
But what I do is I like to reply to everysingle person.
Right?
Part of my networking and staying in touch withyou, but I don't use a LinkedIn response, you
know?
And I might do some copy and paste, but I'llhave three or four different responses that I
thought about that I wrote that I'll send todifferent people because I want them to know

(59:27):
that I took a real minute and the time to comeup with something, just to be genuine.
And I try to be genuine because I think it justit makes you makes it better, easier.
And I think people know when you're genuine.
Yeah.
And you're or you're authentic and you, youknow, you say what it is, and it could be good,

(59:51):
it could be bad, but it's coming out of you orout of me, and it's straight, and if there's a
tear, the tear is real.
There's nothing to hide in life, right?
There's nothing Big guys cry, little guys cry.
Like, it's not a Listen, for every guylistening, if you watched the movie Rudy, you

(01:00:12):
had tears.
And, you know, I like to watch that moviealone, actually, because when they're with the
begin the first time when there's a couplewomen in the room, you're kinda like, and
you're, like, trying to get rid of the little,the little tear coming down the eye.
I'm not afraid to cry.
I mean, that's the point.
Know?
Me neither.
But I'm not afraid.
Right?
No.
But we we have these moments where we feelagain, isn't that interesting that you get this

(01:00:34):
this preconceived belief that, oh, I shouldn'tcry.
You're you're trying to hold back the tearsbecause of the people that you're present to
it.
So where did that come from?
Who who who made that rule?
And and that's the point.
Who made that rule?
Who made that rule?
Like, the idea is, I love I I really doappreciate movies.
I'm very visual.
And so when you whether you notice the musicbehind the scene and so on, that helps elevate

(01:00:57):
the experience.
I like seeing the emotions, feeling theemotions of what the characters are are are
experiencing.
And so I I get crazy emotional in some momentseven when I'm anticipating something that could
be happening.
And it not it may not even happen, but I'manticipating it so I'm more immersed in the

(01:01:18):
experience.
So there is I'm gonna say this to the guysalso, if anything.
Hopefully, they I think the generation hasgrown and matured a lot.
I think that we, as men, share and anddemonstrate more emotion today than maybe even
ten, fifteen years ago, but, I think that wecould show more.
Yeah.
No.
And the other thing is you feel better after.

(01:01:39):
You do?
Like, you you really you really do.
Right?
So it's Because
you're also being genuine for yourself.
You're being genuine to yourself.
You're showing your true true qualities and soon.
And if you can't do that, then how are youliving?
I'm smiling because there's been a few Bellcommercials where I've watched them where
something hit me, and I'm kind of like, youknow, just kind of wipe that tear away, you

(01:02:04):
know, at that moment, right?
So it's pretty funny.
But yeah, listen, I think honesty and peopleputting out who they are all ways is a great
thing, and I think it's great when you'reworking with your, you know, and your inner
circle knows exactly Your inner circle knowswho everybody is and what they do and, you
know, how they react in a lot of ways, so itmakes it easier to work.

(01:02:26):
Okay.
So now I wanna ask you because I wanna go onit, but you have you've put together this
Kilimanjaro adventure.
Yes.
We have to know.
I just, I wanna know what it is because I wantpeople listening to Wanna Ghost that we can
make the trip happen.
Yeah.
I wanna go to Kilimanjaro.
That would be amazing.

(01:02:47):
This
is a pretty I've to Ahmedablam in Nepal, whichis like Which I will tell you, I was there with
four people, walking up, trekking up.
We all had space between us because everyonemoves at their own pace.
The thought and the thinking that you do whenyou're walking up at ten, twelve, 15 thousand

(01:03:07):
feet and the air and the mountains, you're notthinking about your work.
You're not thinking about anything that's notrelevant in life.
The amount of self thought that happens overthat, that I went through then was
unbelievable.
So then when I saw yours, I'm like, okay, triptwo.

(01:03:28):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's awesome.
It's an incredible experience that I createdwith my cofounder Sean Swarner, who's a grand
slam explorer.
That's so what a grand slam explorer is, aperson that's climbed all seven peaks of the
world and has traveled to and got to the NorthAnd South Poles.

(01:03:48):
So he's been and constantly exploring.
Now the incredible, incredible story and featof of Sean is that he's a two time cancer
survivor and and has climbed these peaks andreached these heights and and far reaches, with

(01:04:08):
one lung.
And so and he's climbed Mount Kilimanjaro morethan me, but we've come together.
He's done it 22 plus times, and that's justMount Kilimanjaro.
But with that, we crossed paths.
I reached out to him.
I loved his story.
I loved what he was doing in regards to helpingcancer survivors, and I wanted to support him.

(01:04:33):
And we wanted to then create an opportunitybringing his expertise in peak performance and
leadership and myself bringing strategiccoaching in the areas of personal and business.
Bring that and have that basically collide insuch a way that we could build the most

(01:04:53):
immersive experience in helping people breakthrough their limiting beliefs and take their
lives to the next level.
So what we do, Ultimate Life Climb.
If you go to ultimatelifeclimb.com orultimatelifeclimb.com, that would be where you
get all the information.
But we travel and we hike up Mount Kilimanjarotogether over seven days while we coach and

(01:05:17):
guide and help you achieve greater success inany area of your life while we're collectively
doing it in this very small, intimate, fungroup.
It's an it's an incredible experience becausewe know by midday doubt sets in.
This is this is a great experience andopportunity for you to realize that doubt is

(01:05:38):
just in the mind, and it is doable.
So Yeah.
And take it to the next level.
And then you have the whole team workingtogether.
Whole team together.
Which is which is I've always, in my businessworld of coming up, I always loved when I went
to events or I went to places where they hadteam building, they had speakers doing what you
do, because it really helps you break down someof the boundaries.

(01:06:00):
Because at the end of the day, we're all justpeople, Right?
And when you're all lying in the hospital bed,no one's talking about the stuff you didn't do.
Right.
Or what, you know, they're talking about theimportant things.
So I think it's cool.
How many people I'll tell you why I'm askingthe question, but how many people does it take
to make this trip?
You mean like participants, like people

(01:06:23):
that
you know what?
We keep the groups pretty small and intimate.
A minimum of five, you know, a minimum of fiveto six would be reasonable, but we could go
upwards of 15 to 17.
So it's not a huge group because we want wethis is a really specific and and It's a growth

(01:06:46):
opportunity for every single person that comeson this journey.
And again, following, I'll just add this realquick, following the seven day climb
successfully, we have a ninety nine percentsuccess rate with not only us, but the team
that we have available to us when it comes tothose that join us.
We got our mess tents, tents are pitched, mealsare prepped.

(01:07:10):
It's incredible on the logistics and theoperation that we have in place, and all things
are included.
But, following the seven days, we actually goon a four day Serengeti safari and, in the
wild.
So it's pretty and now you're you're at anotherlevel.
You've just summited Mount Kilimanjaro, and nowyou're experiencing the wild, a nature at its

(01:07:35):
best in their domain, at a in a in a way thatyou've never seen before unless you've been to
the Serengeti.
So but that's, that's an incredible journeytoo.
So I'm sitting and I'm smiling.
So I was I had a trip planned to go actually toAfrica and do a couple safaris.
And the day I was leaving, my daughter gotsick, and we had to cancel.

(01:07:56):
So I never, never got there.
It was also the same day I learned that youalways need to have travel insurance when you
book big trips because there's something if itwill go wrong, it will go wrong.
But you know what?
I'm gonna talk to you offline.
I wanna see what it is to put together a tripfor six to 10 people and what's involved.
And then I wanna put a trip together and Iwanna offer it out to my audience and anyone

(01:08:19):
that I know, any of the followers we have.
So we're gonna put together a little package.
We're gonna put together the good, the bad,like all the good, bad, and ugly reasons why
people go and don't go and the benefit.
And we'll look at I mean, it's only a coupletimes a year that you could do it, so we'll
have to We don't even have
the next date scheduled just yet for this year,but, we could aim for 2026.

(01:08:43):
We provide all the information, all the guides.
I we have a membership side to the site.
We we provide the training guide, the gearlist, all the information you need.
We're here as your guides, we know what's whatto expect and so on, what not to expect, how to
pack, what to pack.
I mean,
we really little to pack.
Oh, you know what?
How little to pack and be efficient, theefficiency behind that.

(01:09:05):
But it's all really doable as long as you'rewilling to to break through and break through
those limitations.
If you wanna take your knife to life to anotherlevel, this is a perfect opportunity.
So I'm excited to chat with you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
No.
I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna we're gonna putsomething together.
I'm gonna put it out there.
I mean, I don't I don't think it's easy, but itcan't be that hard to find people for an

(01:09:28):
experience like that.
I think it's
you know what?
It's a bucket list item, and it's a real it's alife changing experience.
That's all I could say.
If you're looking for a life changingexperience and you wanna take your own personal
well-being and mental state and achievements toanother level, even if you are feeling
successful, this is an incredible experience.
That's all I could say.
And and by the way, this doesn't have anythingto do with success or failure.

(01:09:50):
This has to do with the inner soulaccomplishing something and see And this was
the other thing that when I did I did Ama DeBlam and we got up to 15,000 feet, I was gonna
do some little motivational videos the wholeway, but I couldn't because my brain wasn't
there.
I was so into everything I was doing, and thenwhen I got to the top and I was looking around,

(01:10:15):
and I was gonna do a little video, like, I hadtears running down my face because what a what
a what a peak to hit.
I didn't do the summit, because I was likeanother that's a different operation.
But just to get up there and to walk around ina sense of accomplishment.
And then, you know, when we when we started thetrek, my buddy said, hey, when we make that
turn, you're gonna see Mount Everest.
And I was like, woah.

(01:10:36):
We made the turn, and there was Mount Everest.
And that was a National Geographic moment.
That was a game changing moment because we allknow Everest from the movies, and we all know
them from the TV, National Geographic, and thepictures.
But to see it live and the wind blowing like,know, the snow off the peak, what looked like a
flag almost, unbelievable.
Then you get to the top of where you're goingand this and and, like, base camp, Bama De

(01:10:59):
Blam, and it was just, wow, just game changingthoughts, everything.
And it was like group hug, and anyways, I'mgetting goosebumps and all that other stuff
that comes back with it.
I'm gonna put something out there for everybodylistening.
We're gonna try and fill it up and get peopleto go.

(01:11:19):
We're gonna wrap this up, but we're gonna dothis again and we're gonna do this again
because this is a never ending topic.
There's always somebody who if they didn't knowit then, might need a little encouragement, a
little boost to pick themselves up to go.
Everybody should know you're not alone.
Life is challenging.
The more out there, the more challenging itgets, right?

(01:11:39):
And we get just clouded and filled with so muchcontent, whatever it is and where it's from.
Any anything final you wanna say on the wayout?
Yeah.
No.
I Warren, thank you very much for this.
This is an opportune I love chatting with you.
I love sharing.
As you could see, I could go on about a numberof things.

(01:12:00):
I would love to chat again.
But you know what?
I actually created an opportunity where if anyof your listeners want to reach out and even
just have a complimentary strategy session toeven explore their own next level, you know
what I mean?
They're go one up.
I'll be glad to do that.
So I'm gonna share that with you today if youwanna put that in the show notes and and they

(01:12:24):
could book a time with me.
I'll be glad to have a conversation.
Yeah.
You know what?
You'll make me a a a Calendly link orsomething.
Yep.
When I post everything, I will.
K.
And then and I'll put it up there.
And, you know, I would encourage everybody ifyou made it this far and you're listening, then
obviously you've got an interest in what we'retalking about.

(01:12:44):
And, know, reach out to Niall.
It can't be bad.
It can't be bad.
And if not Niall, reach out to anybody, butdon't sit by yourself and drown in your own
thoughts.
That's the one thing I would suggest toeverybody.
And if you don't wanna phone anyone else, youcould phone me.
I'm happy to talk.
My number's everywhere and anyone could callanytime.

(01:13:07):
If I answer the phone, I'm good talk.
If I don't answer it, because I don't wannatalk, or I'm busy.
Anyways, Niall, thank you so much for your timeon this episode.
Everybody else, I'm just gonna say this wasawesome.
I'm getting out of here.
We'll see you on the next one.
Appreciate you all, and thank you.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
See you.