#159 - James Mitchell, Pro Photographer, Doc Film Producer

Going deep with world-renowned triathlon photographer and filmmaker James Mitchell—the creative force behind Ironman’s Fighting Chance series and countless iconic endurance sport images.

From a rocky school experience and early life rebellion to discovering purpose behind the camera, James shares his journey of self-discovery, storytelling, and relentless pursuit of craft. We dive into his unconventional start in real estate photography, the lonely hustle of building a name, and how he’s traded weddings for world championships and motorbikes for mobility on course.

James opens up about family, fatherhood, burnout, and the emotional threads behind his art. This is an honest and revealing look at what it takes to survive as a creative freelancer in sport—and what still keeps him up at night (spoiler: it’s accounting).
Jame’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/jamesmitchell5/
Jame’s Site: https://www.jamesmitchell.eu/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=linktree&utm_campaign=jamesmitchell.eu+
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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
How's it going everybody? And welcome back to another
edition of the Stupid Questions podcast.
Today on the pod, we're going tobe talking with James Mitchell.
He is a world renowned photographer and videographer
for Iron Man, known for helping put together the Fighting Chance
series by Iron Man and just a number of other things.
Chances are you've seen many of his photos and work across the
triathlon and endurance sport world.

(00:20):
Yeah, great conversation. Get to talk about the usual
stuff, getting to know who he is, what he likes to do and and
why he does it. So thank you so much for jumping
in on this episode. And thank you, James, for coming
on. And without further ado, I want
to introduce you to Mr. James Mitchell.
I'm doing good, man. How are you doing?
Thank you so much for coming on.You're more than welcome.
We're here. We're here in Roth, in Roth,

(00:43):
should I say challenge Roth challenge house sharing.
We have a home stay. A very friendly German lady is
is our host. She's we're in the top floor,
we're in the attic. Beautiful.
It's been very, very hot. It's been 36° outside

(01:04):
temperature which has really been heating the attic up during
the day. Oh my goodness.
The air con doesn't. The air con doesn't work.
I haven't got like a portable fan next to me there.
We've been out. We've been out and bought.
We have one fan for the whole apartment where we've So we've

(01:25):
been out and bought our own personal fans.
I'm on the sofa, Kyle's on a bedabout 3 meters away from me.
Mark has his own room and I've only just opened the the blind
to let the light in because it'scooler if we keep the blind
shut. So but it's been good so far so
good. I came from Iron Man Frankfurt

(01:47):
last week, the European champs. I had a photo shoot over in
Belgium. So I had to drive over to
Belgium, which is 4 and 4 1/2 hours, 5 hour drive and a photo
shoot with a, with a marathon runner called Bashir.
Abdi came second in the Olympicslast year in Paris and, and I'm

(02:11):
working with his nutrition sponsor 6D.
And then we did the shoot in theafternoon, two hours we had with
him. And then I drove over to
Maastricht in the Netherlands onthe Belgian border, Stayed with
a friend of mine who's a photographer, white excycling
photographer, really good photographer, really good friend

(02:32):
of mine now. And, and then Tuesday morning
drove over here and was like 6 hours more or less met, met with
Mark and Kyle ended up on their their podcast Protry News.
Yeah, I saw that. Congratulations.
So yeah, it was, it was fun. So yeah, busy times.
Yeah, no kidding. How many days a year do you

(02:53):
think that you travel? Someone asked me this a few a
few weeks ago. I'm going to say probably.
I'm probably away from home seven or eight months of the
year, I think. No, that's a lot.
I think. Yeah.

(03:14):
I'm currently on the road now for four weeks.
I have next week I go we road trip from from South Germany up
to to the UK to go to Wales for the 70.3.
I'm on 70.3 Swansea and I'm there from we'll get there
Tuesday and I'll be there until I leave on the Monday following

(03:35):
and I'll go home. Yeah.
But I'm home and I'm working. I have some photo shoots at
home, my home being Lanzarote inthe Canary Islands.
Beautiful. I'm, I'm doing some going back
to my rooms, which is photographing a house, a big
country house. So back in the day from I

(03:56):
started back in 2005, photography doing real estate.
Yeah, I was back in the day, I was into graphic design and web
design and I ended up working with a magazine who, well, I
was, I was actually designing all property advertising.
So I got into property photography.

(04:17):
And so for a good solid four or five years, I was basically
travelling the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, the whole
coast of Spain, shooting villas,villas for rent.
And so an old client of mine messaged me after, I think we
shot their house 10 years ago and they've recently renovated.

(04:39):
And they said, oh, can you, can you reshoot the house?
Do you still do it? And I'm like, yeah, I can do it,
there's no problem. So we've arranged dates.
I have a day doing that. And then I've two days doing a
shooting for a, a local company called Swim Lab, and they
specialized in children with disabilities and they give them

(05:08):
swim classes, swim lessons, and I mean disabilities where they
can't walk and they're like using machines to help them
adapt to life. And there's two local guys
who've set up this business a few years ago.
Like I think one of them just won, forget what award it was
him last CEO of the year or something like this.

(05:30):
But it basically changing kids lives through through swim
lessons, through swim, swim abilities, that kind of thing.
So we did a couple of years ago,we, we shot a week of videos and
interviews with parents, that kind of thing.
And they just, they've got like they've got a set up in the US

(05:51):
as well in, in Florida. I think it is where they set up
a base there to help kids there and in the Canaries.
And their business has just grown.
It's, it's insane. So we're just doing an update on
their two days with the, with the kids and with the staff
there. And then I'm, I'll be away
again, going to the Alps. I'm going to going to well, the

(06:15):
intention was to go to the Alps meeting with a friend of mine,
John McAvoy, and go and watch some of the tour coming through
the Mont von too. But I think I've got a meeting
with Santora Group next next week, which is the management
company for Christian Bloomerfeld and Gustav Eden.

(06:35):
We're talking about shooting some content there in Font
remote in South of France altitude.
Yeah, but it's a good chance to get some content as well.
But it's also good. My girlfriend's also in front
room now. She's training, she's on a camp,
She races professionally, Sarah.And so it's a chance to just
hook up with her as well. And.

(06:55):
Yeah. Maybe reconnect on the
relationship I? Reconnect on the relationship.
I've spent some days with her shooting the day she goes
training and then we can, you know, spend some time watching
movies and going for dinner during that time as well.
And then we're in the kind of, are we in the second part of the
season now? Maybe the back third part of the

(07:17):
season, which then is God. I have to.
I have to keep looking in my diary for this July. 3rd, I
mean, it's, yeah, October is coming around.
Oh. We got oh, Oh yeah.
So then, yeah, going into the Alps, the Al Dwest triathlon,
that's the end of end of July. T100, London, beginning of
August. Yeah.

(07:39):
Then we'll go to Zell MZ for the70.3 T 100 Valencia, Kona, Yeah.
Then the T100 Las Vegas was cancelled.
The rearranged that for Wollongong in Sydney the weekend

(07:59):
after Kona. So pitching the idea that I
should go there and shoot the hat, yeah.
Who are you pitching it to? So T100 so because of the
distance, typically they would they would use local
photographers. But Hawaii is very close to
Sydney. Yeah, geographically quite
close. And it's not that expensive.

(08:22):
It's not that expensive to get there.
So yeah, it's just picking the idea that I should be on.
I could be on the crew there. Blessing on the team.
And then back end of the season,70.3 Worlds in Marbella T100
Dubai, We've got Qatar as well, so.

(08:42):
You're a busy man. Yeah.
Well, the season used to be through well beginning of April
through to end of October, whichwas Kona usually and.
You're good. I'm good but now I mean my
season start on started on January the 6th this year with

(09:03):
shoots and it's just gone on. Do you think that this is
sustainable for you? Like how long can you sustain
such a crazy schedule? People ask me that and I put it
down to how do you, how do you do an Iron Man?
I mean, I, I did Iron Man's backin the day 1015 years ago.
And you build up an endurance for that.

(09:24):
Yeah. And I think it's the same.
I think it's the same with this.You, you just end up getting
used to the travel, the shit sleep, terrible sleep patterns.
The downside is you're we went out running the other day.
Mark and Kyle got me out for a bit of a run and man, I was
dying. I'm like slow pace breathing out

(09:46):
of my ass, you know, And he was.The problem is I'm always going
back to step one or square one. I'll get some base fitness in
the winter, then the work startsand I'm back to square 1 and I'm
constantly doing this back to square 1, back to square 1.
So is it sustainable? I hope so.

(10:09):
Yeah, I think we'll. See, we'll see in a couple of
years. I.
Should have more rest probably, but my girlfriend uses a good
line, you know, and like an old an old phrase, make hay while
the sun shines. So I have a mortgage to pay, so
I have to I have to keep working, you know, but a
mortgage that you. Only spend half the year.

(10:31):
In this is true, this is true. It's the retirement plan, I
think. But I, I love what I do.
And you know, you, you travel the, the world and meet
different people and make, make new relationships and
friendships along the way. And that's, that's probably the
one of the best parts of the job.
Yeah, the relationships. So let me ask you this question
because you you live and breathecinematography, photography,

(10:55):
film production. If you were to have the
opportunity to take one photo and it be the description of
your life and who you are, what kind of a photo would you take
if that was all you could give to someone when they say like,
well, who is James? And then you hand them this
picture and that's all that they're able to use.
Who is James? Have you seen?

(11:21):
There's a, there's a meme actually, must be it's an AI
thing of, of this cameraman justcarrying.
He's got like 50 cameras on his back and he's just carrying
these 50 cameras. Yeah, probably that at the
moment. I'm just constantly just
carrying bags and weight and cameras and gear and shift, you

(11:43):
know, going from one spot to theother.
So it's probably me just loaded up with.
Yeah, gear, there's a photo. Photo in the airport. 6 bags,
all the cameras. Yeah, and a compass.
Compass figure. Out where you're going.
So then we. Yeah, sorry.
I was just going to ask you. So from your perspective then

(12:05):
even outside of this profession,because I your identity right
now is all encompassed by the contracts and the content that
you're shooting, but from your perspective, who would you say
that James is? Can we just say, can you say ask
the question again, Sorry. Yeah, yeah.

(12:27):
So from your perspective, who isJames?
That's a hard question. Can I come back to that one?
Can I can I play or pass? What's the Yeah.
Who is James You? Can take as long as you want to
think about it too. I can ask another question.
Can iPhone a friend can I ask? Sure.

(12:50):
Kyle, Yeah. What's up?
Seth? Seth, just ask from my
perspective now, who is James? But who is James?
I do see James, someone who quoted that.
Oh yeah, it was someone a challenge.
Best photographer in Triad, that's what.
Mark Newberg told me yesterday when I told him I was going to
be interviewing. You Oh, really?
You guys that snores? You guys that snores next to me?

(13:16):
Apparently I snore, but apparently I snore but like a
Pussycat. Really.
Yeah, Peter, I did like, I thinkI'm personable, friendly, get on
with a lot of people. I'm very in part.
Well, I tried to remain impartial.
You know, I work with a lot of athletes, a lot of brands, you

(13:38):
know, you, you one of the important things about being a
photographer and it's not havingthe best cameras and the best
lenses and the best equipment per SE.
It's having good relationships and that's I get questions.
Actually, I'd want actually one on Instagram the other day and

(14:00):
actually one in I was just in the, the Expo in, in challenge
rough there. And a guy from the UK came up
and it's, it's nice when people go up and say, Oh, I love your
work. I'll follow you on Instagram.
And you know, you can chat with them for 5 or 10 minutes.
And usually they're avid photographers themselves.
And one of the questions they, they would ask typically would

(14:21):
be how do you get into it? How do you, what do you need to
get into sports photography or shooting triathlon?
And there's, there's a lot of I spent years spending my own
money, going to races, buying myflights, renting like renting a
car, renting out, booking a hotel room and investing in my

(14:43):
business, my own business. And you know, sometimes you win,
sometimes you lose. Even to this day, you can, I
mean, right now, for the last four years, I've been contracted
with Iron Man to shoot video andproduce a video series called
the Fighting Chance, along with my colleague Will from, from
Finland. And, and that's been like a nice

(15:07):
steady flow. People are starting to like know
the Fighting Chance series and and watch the videos.
But then on the other, on the other side, I'm working with
like brands and other events where I shoot stills photography
and over the years building those relationships to, to be
asked back to go and shoot the stills photography.

(15:29):
But there's lots of times where I'll go to events and they don't
know me from Adam. Like there's some events where
I'll go and maybe I'll not get paid at all by the event
organiser, but what I will get paid or try and get paid by is
the athletes or the brands, the sponsors that are related to the
athletes. And sometimes then you might

(15:51):
have a brand come in and say, oh, we've not got a budget.
OK, that's fine. Well let's see what we can do
and work to what budget you have.
Or let's talk about the future. And maybe the following year
they come back, maybe they'll never come back at all.
But you're just constantly investing your time and money
into future you go. I think you have to look at the

(16:12):
long term game for a lot of things.
It's not like it's not always that instant reward of money
like this. Actually, my girlfriend, she
messaged me earlier this afternoon and she bumped into an
athlete in font Romeo. And she said she says she bumped

(16:40):
into this athlete who was doing Exterra.
And he said, oh, James always has the best photos and I want
them, but I can't afford him. People are under this assumption
because I'm working with brands and other athletes that I'm
expensive or I can't think of. Nobody asks.
Nobody asks, oh, how much would it be?
Or is this, is this something you can do or, and there's not

(17:02):
always an immediate financial reward from it.
You know, based in Lanzarote, weget athletes coming in January
and February in training camps. You know, like with Kat
Matthews, I'll shoot shoot her stuff for a few of her brands,
like Raw Nutrition, for example.And they, they're, you know,

(17:22):
they're after a specific amount of content and a brief, they
want to work to admit the thing they're making a documentary at
the moment. And you know, and that's paid
for content. But then I've got friends who
are out there who don't have allthe sponsors or they've got very
little sponsorship and I'll and you know, I've got a free
morning or free afternoon. I'm like, oh, what are you doing

(17:43):
later? Oh, I'm going out for a run.
What can I come and shoot? I'll come and shoot some content
for you. Well, we're, you know, what's it
going to? It's not going to cost anything.
Like I want to go out and shoot this year.
I want to I enjoy it. I'm building relationship with
these athletes. I'm keeping myself sharp.
You know, you still have to go and let's just say, well, I've

(18:07):
been photographing now for 20 plus years, but I still want to
go out and shoot. I want to try different
techniques or try a new lens. Or maybe I've seen something on
Instagram that I'm like, oh, I kind of like that idea.
I wonder if I could try it, but maybe with a slightly different
take on it. So you're just going out and
trying things in my head. I've got my repertoire, so to

(18:27):
speak, but there's, I don't justgo out, stand on my feet and
shoot. I've got different ways of
getting around, getting into different places.
I bought a motorbike this year, so I'll I've got a rig that
attaches to the back of the motorbike so I can film and
shoot stills from the motor by myself.

(18:48):
I don't even have to touch. Well, it's control with the the
phone in the cockpit. I can basically track the
athlete behind me just by touching the screen on the phone
and it tracks. All I have to do is just ride
with them. Yeah.
And and then I use a gyro wheel.Have you seen the gyro wheel we

(19:09):
use to? Like stand on.
Yeah. So it's, it's, it's actually
called an EUC, an electric unicycle.
And it's, I mean, these things can reach up to some good
speeds. But the beautiful thing is, is
you're as big as a person on thecourse, you know, a motorbike,
you're not a, you know, a mountain bike, you're not that

(19:31):
kind of thing. You know, you're as big as a
person, as wide as a person. And just one second, we've got
some beers. Legend.
See when Mark Matthews is off screen as well, He's getting the

(19:51):
beers. Taking care of you.
Good old German Kelabia. There you go.
And so yes, I use the gyro wheelfor shoot, mainly shooting when
people are running, just easier to get around motorbike.

(20:12):
And then you know, you just I'vegot my own electric mounting
bike which helps me get around as well.
So there's different Ways and Means of getting out there and
just trying different shooting, different content.
So yeah, I digress. I think.
I think no. It's good you gave a good, a
good roundabout view of what youdo, who you are and when people

(20:33):
want to get into this type of a thing that it takes investment.
But let me ask you some more back story questions.
Where are you from? So I am from, I was born and
raised in what's known as the North of England place called
Chesterfield. We're not in the north, we're
Midlands, but there's this northside.
I don't know if you know the north-south divide in the UK or

(20:55):
heard or heard of it. So I'm I'm classed as a northern
boy, that's that's for sure. But from Chesterfield, same name
as a cigarette, same name as a sofa, but no relation to either.
Our only claim to fame is we have a big church in the middle
of town with a with a, a bent steeple.

(21:19):
It's called the Crooked Spire. That's the nickname for it.
The Crooked spider. No, on purpose.
No, it was. The structure of the Spire is
made out of wood and then the outside of it is lead.
I think it's lead. Lead slates and the weight, the
weight of the lead is basically twisted.
The Spire, so it's called, the nickname for it is the Crooked

(21:42):
Spire. Well, it's, it's been there I
think since the 1700s, somethinglike that.
It's older than it. It's older than America itself.
Yeah, that's wild. So growing up in Chesterfield,
was it just you? Did you have siblings?
I have a sister younger than me,two years younger than me, just
me and her grew up in Chesterfield and then moved to

(22:12):
Lanzarote with my with my girlfriend at the time when I
was 28. I'm now 51.
Yeah, so he's been a long time in Chesterfield then?
Yeah, so I studied marketing. Actually, my, I left school.
I did terrible at school. I hated school, never wanted to
be there. Every opportunity I was, you
know, I'd go to registration andI'd run out of school.

(22:35):
I'd go and see my girlfriend who'd moved to another town
about 40 miles away, got in terrible trouble.
I think I still have actually, my school reports, my bad school
reports. I was so terrible.
I, I, I was so bad at school, not just academically, but I

(22:58):
was, I just hated it. I I apologise to my parents when
I was in my 20s. How?
Did they take that? I can't.
Remember actually. Did you?
Yeah, Sorry, Cool. I was going to say, did you
apologize because you, like you noticed in them there was a

(23:19):
level of disappointment or was more of the disappointment
coming from yourself where you got like, I didn't live up to an
expectation? Definitely from myself when I
was, when I was. So when, where where we lived,
when we got to I think it was 12or 13.
So we went to higher school and I had two years at this mixed

(23:42):
comprehensive school. And you had the opportunity to
stay in this mixed school or youcould it was sold to me as a bit
of an upgrade. Go to AI went to an all boys
school or you could the girls could go to an all girls school,
grammar school and then from there you could then if you did

(24:03):
well, you could then go into what was classed as sixth form,
do your A levels and then ultimately go on to university.
It was it was in Chesterfield. It's classed as a like a higher
education score, your strict uniforms, that kind of thing.
But I think that was probably the biggest mistake in my life.
No, I mean I made Oh, sorry, girlfriend's just trying to call

(24:25):
me. She sorry, got distracted there.
So it was a it was a it was a mistake in term educationally.
It was a mistake. I mean, I made some friend
friendships for life from that, but oh God, I just hated being

(24:46):
there. And it wasn't until I left
school realized what a bummer was, and I think I was just a
late developer. You know, not everyone wants to
learn from the ages of this to this.
I think some people develop a bit later.
I mean, some some kids in schoolare like super early developers,
super clever. Well, I was a little bit more
later down the line and it wasn't until my late teens,

(25:08):
early 20s, I wanted to go and study and I studied marketing
and I went back to college and Istudied marketing and I loved
it. And actually that's a lie.
The first year I didn't love. We were, we were educated by a
professor who an older guy he was, he was out of the textbook.
It was like boring as batshit. And I was, I don't, I didn't

(25:33):
think I'd go back for the secondyear and I did the second year
we were taught by a guy called David James.
We ended up being friends for quite a few years after, after I
finished college. And he was, he was actually
working for, he was a marketing director for a group of event

(25:55):
arenas, big arenas that had concerts, ice hockey,
basketball, like he was he, he was delivering his courses from
experience and that was it. I were like, I perked up.
And this guy, he was super interesting, super informative
and I just wanted to to succeed and make him make him happy, so

(26:20):
to speak, yeah, make him proud. And yeah, we came friends after
that. And actually I've not spoke to
for quite a few years now, but for several years after that,
we, we, we, we were friends. And if and I, I ended up in a
marketing job, but I applied fora job with another friend was a
general manager and is a car, a national car leasing company.

(26:40):
And I was six months into this job when my girlfriend said I
want to move to Lanzarote. So back story to that is her mum
had moved to Lanzarote four or five years prior to that.
And we used to go and visit 4/3 or 4 * a year, took a week off
work, we'd go to Lanzarote and eventually she just said I just

(27:05):
want to go. And I said, Oh yeah, I've just
got this new job. And she said, well, you don't
have to come. And I was like, FOMO.
Serious FOMO. Yeah.
So I was like. OK, OK.
I'll go and try it and if I don't like it, I'll come back.
But then I think we were together ultimately about 8

(27:25):
together about 8 years and then the last three of those were in
Lanzarote. Our lives changed direction.
Her and her sister moved to Lanzarote.
They had a business in England. They sold the business.
They they bought a villa to rentwith the with the proceeds of
that and kind of had a business.I took on my hobbies, which was
going back to the original story.

(27:45):
It was graphic design, web design and trying to create a
business. And so I spent I didn't
understand the time, you know, before I was in a nine to five
job. Now I was in a freelance job.
Well, I was trying to create a freelance job, but I didn't
really know. Do I turn my computer off at 5?

(28:06):
No, you don't. You're a freelancer.
You work till like. Till the work's done, till.
The work's done or the clients got what they wanted, that kind
of thing. And it's a new thing for all of
us. And it caused a rift in our
relationship. And eventually, yeah, we
separated and I moved on. And I distinctly remember

(28:27):
calling my mum at the time saying, oh, me and my girlfriend
have separated. And she's like, oh, so you're
coming back to England? No.
How would I do that? Yeah.
So I've not moved back to England.
So that was, well, I've been there 23 years, 23 years,
beginning of all this August, I think, Yeah.

(28:48):
That's a lot of stuff. That is, do you know many
Americans know where Lanzarote is?
Do you know geographically whereit is?
Somewhere over to the east. I I don't really.
I mean, I've looked at it up on a map a few times just because I
think isn't Club La Santa in Lanzarote.
It is, yeah. So.

(29:09):
And I've seen that obviously just through different PR from
different professional athletes.But if you were to ask me to
point it out, I would point overin Europe somewhere.
But it's like it seems like whenit looks like pictures and
videos, I'm like, oh, that's offthe coast of North Africa or
somewhere. And that's what it looks like to
me, but I couldn't truly point to it.
You're. 100% correct. We are more African than we are

(29:30):
Spanish with Spanish territory, but we are.
We are more, we're closer to Africa.
We're actually I think about 70 K 70 kilometres off the Western
Sahara. What well, it takes me to fly to
Madrid is 2 1/2 hours like 2000 KS away off something like this.

(29:54):
We're quite far away. So we're close to we're close to
the African continent. Morocco, yeah, but Spanish
territory, yeah. Beautiful area I'd.
Love to go there sometime. It's great.
The Canaries, there's eight of them, eight islands and they
vary drastically in weather and climate.

(30:16):
And and then we've got Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
Tenerife is the highest peak in Spain.
Mount Teddy has snow on it, evenin the Canaries.
Lots of professional cycling. Cycling teams don't know if they

(30:39):
go there anymore, but they used to go there.
It's good for altitude training there.
And Grand Canaria Green, lots of, lots of climbs, incredible
climbing. If you love, if you love
cycling, the Canaries are amazing.
Yeah. Can I ask you some personal
questions? Yeah.
Go. Sure.
So you mentioned earlier when you, you know, you're going into

(31:01):
your second year, you decided tofocus in and go and continue on
the marketing path and you met this guy, I forget his name.
What was his name? It's called.
David. David James.
Actually, David? James yeah, I almost said James.
So David, James. And you said like you wanted to
make him proud. So when I dig into that a little
bit, I'm wondering what was the,what there was obviously like

(31:22):
something inside of you that wanted to make someone else
proud. So let me ask you this question.
Did you feel like you found fulfillment in what you were
doing prior to that? In a way that you felt like your
father was proud of what you were doing?
I guess so. I think with my father.

(31:46):
My father worked away a lot whenwe were kids that I don't think
I ever made him proud, that's for sure.
So I remember playing junior football and I think my dad was
like a managed. I think he was a manager or he
was very involved in the junior football.
So as a kid I was like always wanted to be the best and, you

(32:09):
know, get accolades for my dad. But growing up, I think I yeah,
I think I removed myself from from family reality when I was
like, I'm going back to being a terrible teen.
I was a terrible teen. I I think it was like a case of
didn't even like authority, be that from a teacher or a parent.

(32:31):
I. Wonder why?
I don't know. I look back at that now to the
point actually where my I did actually go and see a a child
psychologist. I was, it was that bad that my
parents booked me in. I remember vaguely remember my
mum being in tears and I think me stating I hated my parents or

(32:57):
something like that. I think I, I don't, I actually
in this file I've got with the bad school reports.
I think there is something with this in it now, back in the day,
sorry, modern day, to this day, I think it's called ADHDI was
constantly on the move and that kind of thing back in back, back

(33:20):
in the day, it was, there was nosuch thing as ADHD.
It was just you naughty little bastard.
So that was the difference. Now it's now it's recognized and
people can treat that in whatever way they they can.
So yeah. What do you think you needed
when you were that age to that may may have, I guess, giving

(33:44):
you what you needed to, to maybecalm down a bit because.
So I asked this a little tongue in cheek because I, you're
describing a lot of how I grew up in terms of Oh yeah, I just
hated school. Could never sit down.
Was I, I just didn't see the point in learning all these
things that I felt like I would never was never going to use.
From a young age, I was somewhatentrepreneurial, so I was always

(34:05):
trying to make something and sell something.
But yeah, it was it was totally similar.
So I'm asking to try to understand because I know now
retroactively or retrospectivelykind of what I think I needed.
But what do you think that you needed to like, make you feel, I
guess, at peace or calm? I don't know.

(34:27):
I've thought I have actually thought about this and I'm not,
I'm not sure. Look at kids these days, like
we're growing, like, for instance, growing, growing up in
in Lanzarote. Sorry, friends, friends of mine
who are a similar age, you've got kids who've grown up in

(34:48):
Lanza. I've known some of them since
they were a little kids. And now they're in their early
20s and what they what they had,what they have in in Lanzarote
as opposed to being in the Uki think there's, there's more
things to do in terms of, OK, I did go to football as a kid, but

(35:10):
you know, generally, you know, it gets dark early and there's
yeah, you just want to hang out with your mates on the street.
And I don't know, it just seemedin Chesterfield.
Anyway, I, I thought I found it a little bit boring.
Maybe. I think we were just bored and
we found the only way to get outof our boredom was to go and

(35:30):
throw stones at windows and smoke on park benches, that kind
of thing. Whereas the kids in Lanzarote,
man, they like surfing, they're doing triathlon like that.
You're such a young age, they'regetting into sport.
They don't know. There's nothing, there's nothing
really else to distract them. It's kind of weird.
So I guess I'd love to I'd love to rewind the the the time back

(35:56):
and and grow up in a in another place.
Just to say. Just to say if that would have
been different, I think you would have the environment is
completely different. It's not toxic at all.
Well, it doesn't come across as toxic.
You know, there's very on the islands, there's very little
crime. You know, you see, you can't

(36:18):
constantly bombard with things like that in, in the UK news, I
think, you know, kids running a mock kids stealing phones like,
you know, and then obviously over here on on the other side
of the pond, you know, these kids with guns and so on and so
forth. It's it's just a different
lifestyle. You grow up on an island, you've

(36:38):
got a surfboard and a beach and you do that.
And after school, most kids go to the beach or the swimming
pool or the, you know, completely different lifestyle.
So it would be interesting to see if that'd have made a
difference. How's your relationship with
your dad today? Would you say that he's proud of
you for what you're doing? I think he is every, every.

(37:01):
I did, I used to compete in triathlon.
I did did a few Iron Man's back in the day and he came over to
Lanzarote. I did Iron Man Lanzarote a few
times and he came over one year and he went out on the run
course and got a few little video clips of me running.
And so every year that comes upon his Facebook as a memory

(37:21):
and he always sends it me sayingthat was so good, I loved it.
Yeah, actually, because when he came over, this was 2000 and
this would have been 2000 and maybe 14131415 maybe.
And at the time I had a dog, bigdog, big Labradoodle, and

(37:43):
actually my dad. I stayed at my girlfriends and
my dad stayed in my apartment with my dog and his wife.
And he'd go out walking the dog.I think he stayed for a couple
of weeks, but he'd go out everyday walking the dog.
He lost weight, he got more energy, he felt good about
himself. He came down to watch me compete
in triathlon. He posted every every year.

(38:03):
However, however, he voted for Brexit.
I never, I will never forgive him for that.
So he voted Brexit. He I don't think we during that
time, I don't think we spoke fora few years.
Wow. Is that yeah.

(38:25):
Because yeah, I mean, I'm not going to the political side of
things, but. You can if you want.
No, I'm, I'm good. Otherwise, no, it's all right.
But we, we're all right now. But it's still, I mean, Brexit
is still a bad thing as it is so.
But we, we didn't speak for a few years and now we're yeah,
we're OK. We're good.

(38:45):
I'll go and see him. He he keeps himself to himself
with his wife and my parents. They divorced when I was like in
my early 20s. And then the girl got married
again to other people. And he's good, likes to go and
watch his football, the beloved Chesterfield football, football
club, the football club. But yeah, no, all, all is good

(39:09):
with my parents. He's just, we're not.
I wouldn't say we're a particularly close family.
I'll probably talk to my sister more when I go to the UK.
I'll go and stay with my sister.I found my sister's going to
come over to Lanzarote and stay with with us at Christmas.
But yeah. Family's complicated.
Oh, tell me like my girlfriend, like she can talk to her parents

(39:32):
on a daily basis for like an hour, 2 hours.
I'm like what? What are they talking about?
Yeah, but the good, the nice thing is, is like her parents
come over to to us at Christmas.They had like escape the
Canadian, she's Canadian. So they escape the Canadian
winters come over for three months and her mum goes off

(39:53):
walking. I think she last time she came
over she clocked to like nearly 500 K just in walking every day.
Her dad goes out gravel riding on mountain biking.
They they just love it. We have the barbecue on every
night. They, her dad's a geologist, so
he works down in South in, in Africa.

(40:14):
So they've always got a Bri going.
So I think that when they first came over, the first thing he
did was go and buy, go and buy aBri so we can cook, cook some
steaks, you know. So I am very close to their
family and they're great to hangout with and spend time with.
And yeah, that's nice. Yeah, yeah.

(40:37):
It's interesting. When I married my wife, we've
been married eight years in Juneand her family has become,
especially in the beginning first few years of our dating
and marriage, her family became like my family because I came
from a pretty broken family. Dad passed away when I was
young, a strange kind of mother and younger sisters just from

(40:57):
how we all grew up and whatnot. But it took me spending some
time with her and her family to kind of get some of the dynamic
changes and understanding what asemi functional family looks
like to kind of be able to come back around.
And my wife said something to me, you know, when I because I
didn't want to spend any time with my family at all.
And she said, you know, if, if you do spend time with your

(41:17):
family, you have to do it with the mindset that you probably
won't get fulfilled in the beginning.
We have to kind of invest in it.And man, it took me years to get
to a place to where because a lot of the stuff that my family
would do and say would just be so incredibly just friction,
like just it would rub me raw orthe way that they operated or

(41:38):
what not. And it's interesting when we go
back with our families, like forme, a lot of my old habits that
I like really worked on change and like suddenly rise up from
the murk. And then there I am kind of
jumping in on the squabbles and stuff.
It's just interesting, the family dynamic, but it takes
time to it's. Funny, it's funny.
Should say that my dad probably don't realize he does it, but he
winds me up be on a phone, on a call, and it'll just pronounce

(42:02):
things wrong. I'm like, you know, you've like,
like place names in Lanzarote that is seen and heard before.
And I'm sure he's trying to trigger me and I just have to
make an excuse. And the call, it's funny.

(42:23):
Yeah, it does. Why?
Of course, I love them all to bits.
But yeah, it does. Why?
Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting.
So take me through the steps of you finding this passion for
photography and and videography,because obviously you moved from
into marketing and then you saidyou started to really invest a
lot of time and energy on going to the places, buying the

(42:45):
equipment yourself, rental car, hotel.
Obviously you have to put yourself out there before you
have a name and then you build those relationships.
What in the beginning days when it you weren't really having a
positive return, what was it that was keeping you going?
Like what were you searching forand looking for?

(43:06):
I think what I like to go, well actually with the magazine, we
used to go to a lot of events and that not just sports events,
but the evening of an art gallery and all, all types of
social events. But we're in Spain.
I didn't speak Spanish back in the day.
And So what the camera gave me was an icebreaker.

(43:27):
It gave me a little bit of a barrier as well between someone
Spanish who I couldn't actually physically talk with but could
mumble a few words like, oh, Quezon, a photo.
Yeah, and we'll do like. But I couldn't have a
conversation. I didn't know.
I didn't have enough Spanish, Spanish language.
So the camera was a great kind of in say hello, have a little

(43:50):
bit of a laugh because I didn't understand anything and then
move on. And and, you know, people would
then see you at these events andthen eventually pick up a bit of
Spanish and then you could starthaving conversations.
But you'd never go in blind. You never.
It's, I mean, it's so difficult and awkward to like go to a
party. You don't speak Spanish and try

(44:11):
and make you, you just don't make conversation anyone because
you can't make conversation. That's the difficult thing.
So the camera was this this barrier.
So yeah, this yeah, Trans mediumis a good way of putting it.
It was something that got me in front of people's faces and got
to know me. And then I just go to different
sports events. And then a friend of mine got me

(44:33):
into weddings. I refused to do weddings.
He's like my mate. He was trying.
He was going from video. He was quitting photography to
go into videography. By 2008, this was God.
He begged and begged. Now I need a photographer.
I'm like, dude, I don't know what I'm doing.
Like I don't want to fuck the wedding out.
And he's like, I'll mentor you. My, it's so embarrassing.

(44:57):
And I did it. And literally the next wedding I
had, I was working for an agencyand then he just said just like,
and I was like, look, I just started researching wedding
photography and so on and so on.And I ended up it being quite
lucrative and I ended up quite enjoying it.
But then he got you get good weddings and you get bad
weddings. The Irish were always it could

(45:21):
be a real good laugh or an absolute like shit show.
Like the the the Irish would typically drink the bar dry on
the in the in the hotel and thenthey'd be down to the the bottle
shop to go and get like crates of Budweiser and have them under
the table. Oh my goodness.
They get messy. But then as I got more into like

(45:44):
more into triathlon, so my my first triathlon a photograph was
Iron Man Lanzarote. And that was through the
magazine. And they said, oh, we need some
photos of Iron Man Lanzarote. I hadn't, I didn't even know
what it was. And I remember getting my
T-shirt with media on. It was like, I'm coming back
next year if you get these. I had no idea.

(46:05):
I was still by the finishing line for six hours waiting for
waiting for them to come back off bike.
I had no idea that we'd gone so long.
And and then so it was 2005. By 2010, I was the official
photographer. Of course, I'd known a lot more
than than I did in 2010 than I did in 2005, but that.

(46:25):
Network, yeah. And I've been the official
photographer of Iron Man Lanzarote until now.
Well, I, I competed the 1314 and15 and then I went back to the,
the photography and the only oneI've ever missed was this year
because it clashed with another event, clashed with an Iron Man

(46:48):
Pro Series event. So that was the first one in for
20 years. Yeah, I.
Forgot where I was going with this one, but well.
I was asking you like, as you started to get into it, what was
the the thing that pushed you toinvest a lot of your own time
and energy? I think, I think the passion was

(47:11):
marketing. I always like the and the
analogy I use is like fishing. You know, you, you kind of, you
throw like whatever out there, be your publicity, be your,
your, your, your sales party, your network or whatever.
And seeing what he could pull in.
And I think he was just going back and back and trying to see
what like business I could, I could shoot for and grab and

(47:33):
then I'd see more. And then, Oh yeah, I know.
I was going with this was weddings.
People would typically book a wedding a year or two in
advance. Actually, I was going to say to
Mark Meg Meg Matthews wanted I was interested in wedding

(47:57):
photography. Meg McDonald's Meg, Meg
McDonald. I would say Meg Matthews.
I do Meg McDonald. Meg McDonald's, who's a friend
of Cat and she, she got engaged at just after T100 Vancouver,
she was inquiring for some inquiring about wedding

(48:17):
photography said I actually don't do wedding photography
only for professional athletes. So you're in luck because
professional athletes, or athletes I suppose in general,
would typically, typically get married out of season in the
winter. Because.
What what happened before was I was booking weddings like in

(48:37):
June and July and then a year later figuring out that it's not
going to clash. It clash.
It clashed with an event I wanted to go to.
I was like right enough for the wedding stuff so.
Yeah, interesting. So as you've gone through and
you've made a name for yourself,do you believe that you're a

(48:58):
good photographer and videographer now?
Do you have that confidence? Everyone says so.
Even Kyle was just saying I'm the best photographer in
triathlon. All right, Kyle, have I got your
endorsement? Yeah.
And you know who my best friend is?
Oh, yeah. And he's.
And Kyle's best friend is Talbert.

(49:19):
You know, he shoots on auto all the time.
Confident. Yeah.
There's confidence in, I think who's I was talking to today,
it's about getting the getting agood job done quickly and

(49:40):
efficiently. I mean, some I'll do some shoots
and and the people, some people or clients will say, oh, is that
it? What more do you want?
I mean, I've spent 20 years perfecting knowing what to do,
knowing what to do quickly and efficient, especially with
athletes, you know, some athletes, some photographers, I
think, or even maybe video people or video guys.

(50:02):
We'll drag on the shoot. I don't know whether that's too
make. Them think that they're putting
in more effort. Yeah.
But the downside to that is thishas happened before is OK, so
that shoot only took you, we booked you for a day, but the
shoot only took half a day. So we only have to pay half a
day, right. Well, it's took me 20 years to

(50:25):
work out how to shoot it in halfa day.
I mean, so I'm getting penalizedfor being good.
There's a real good podcast podcast called this guy called
Chris Doe Dio. Do you know him?
He has a it's called the future FFUTUR without the at the end.
And he actually just podcasts on.

(50:47):
He's a graphic designer. I haven't.
Seen this Everything is around graphic design, but actually it
works towards like the freelanceartist, let's say.
So if you're like, I used it with photography in mind and he
uses that analogy, you know, so if I shoot, if I, my shoot only

(51:09):
takes 2 hours, you want to pay me less.
So I'm getting penalised for being better than the other guy.
That doesn't work out. So there there's there's really
good ways he he looks at the freelance business and and how
to charge your clients going forward in that sense.
Interesting. So as you are moving through

(51:31):
this year, like you were saying that you were moving around
physically a lot, you have a lotof different events coming up
like you're going from here to there.
With that in mind, what is taking up the most mental
bandwidth for you that you're thinking about?
Oh. God accounts.
Accounts. Hate them, hate them.

(51:53):
I get like, I forget like how long I'm on the road and it
just, it seems every 5 minutes my accountants messaging for the
next set of the month's invoicesand that kind of thing.
Accounts like accounting, yeah, yeah, yeah, accounting that.
Is the mental the mental thing? Oh yeah.
Like I every month I say to myself, right, I'll do.

(52:17):
I'll put my expenses into my program.
I'll send the invoices out on time.
Do I never. And then it just piles up and
then I get stressed about it andthen I push it to one side and
then keep. That's the the meant the that's
more the mental bandwidth for me, yeah.
Do you have somebody that you partner with who kind of helps
you manage all those things? No, my girlfriend's occasionally

(52:41):
says that she can help out, but she's busy doing her own things.
At no point so would you. Benefit from having help.
Probably even on socials. Can't be bothered to.
I just I just now I just give photos to athletes and get them
to tag me in so I can just shareit or collab.

(53:02):
I think that my time when I'm not shooting is best spent
chilling. Yeah, I was going to say, well,
with your travel schedule and the lack of sleep, what is the
one thing? I would wager that the one thing
you could probably do to increase your creativity,
increase your longevity, would probably be to figure out how to
get more sleep. But I imagine jumping across
time zones so constantly is sucha a struggle.

(53:24):
Melatonin is probably a good one.
Yeah, I like my my natural. If I was at home, my natural
sleep would be 7 hours. 6 or 7 hours.
Yeah. And then when I think I went to
sleep last night, although I'm on a sofa bed, it's boiling hot

(53:51):
in here. I think I'm doing probably 6-5
or six. I'm.
Glad you can get that much when it's hot.
I can't sleep at all. I have to have the temperature
at least 67, whatever that is and.
It's not too actually, so it's going to be cool the last couple
of nights. But yeah, we've got, like I
said, we've got fans whirring around, but I'll put ear plugs
in just to cut out the that noise.

(54:14):
But I think 5-6 hours is quite good for me.
I think 7's a bonus. Yeah.
Are you where you want to be professionally?
No. Where do you want to be?
I still think there's more I wanted to like.

(54:34):
I love doing the events, I love doing the live stuff.
I'd like to get more into more, probably more portrait stuff,
more studio stuff with big names.
What does that look like practically when you say
portrait stuff just like yeah it.
Could be it was I'll name drop here.

(54:56):
I was in teens in in France altitude with Remco and Vena
Paul, who's one of the biggest in cycling and just just being
around, not just him, but like the whole.
That ecosystem. The whole vibe around that.
But having said that, that's in cycling.

(55:17):
And a friend of mine came out ofcycling photography because it's
a, it's so political between that, yeah, basically,
especially with all the other photographers.
But I still think there's placesto go.
I think there's other ideas maybe in publishing as well.
Magazines making beautiful magazines with photography and I

(55:40):
even looked at sports managementat one point.
Know quite a lot of athletes, know a lot of brands, but I
think that's probably more of a retirement thing.
I think, yeah, maybe when I'm tired, when I'm tired of
travelling. So I was going to say, Are you
ready for that yet, like retirement?
I. Don't think you've ever retired?

(56:00):
I'll be working till I'm 7080. Yeah, for sure.
I enjoy, I enjoy the travel. I enjoy like going back to what
I said earlier was I just, you know, go into places and meeting
different people and open up relationships.
You never know, like it's probably like with the guys here
with Mark and Kyle, you know, you could travel the world and

(56:21):
you probably you'll know someonein each.
You could probably call upon somebody and they'll have a
sofa, sofa for you to lie on forthe night.
You know, you know, you could travel anywhere and it's just
nice knowing people and you cometo the, the events and you see
people who are in the sport and you might not have seen them for
six months, but you just drop into a conversation and, and

(56:44):
it's just nice. I love, I love, I love the
trouble. The thing what we, what we say
in Lanzarote is, you know, when you're living on a essentially A
volcanic island in the middle ofthe Atlantic, you, you, you get
island fever. You need to get off and even if
it's just to visit another island, but you need, you just
need to get off and, and, and goplaces.

(57:06):
So I think this is quite good for moving around a bit, is
relatively good mentally, probably also good from a
relationship because then we're like, we're away.
Then we come back together. We we just use that as a heart
grow fonder. Exactly.
And some people can't deal with that.
They need to be with their partner all the time.
Like Sarah, she goes off, she goes off training.

(57:27):
Actually, she says she hates it when I'm away and when we're
when we're together, she says, oh, I wish you were away.
Well, but you wanted me to be here.
It's just but OK, I like it whenyou're downstairs in your office
when I know you're around, but you're not here type of thing.
So it's just knowing that the presence is there.
You know, you come, you know, you sleep in the same bed at
night and but you're around eachother during the day.

(57:50):
Not necessarily. You're not shoulder to shoulder.
You don't need that. Some people do.
Some people can't deal with longterm.
This. Is like a long distance
relationship, you know, we'll speak together like on WhatsApp
in the morning, in the evening, maybe a couple of times of the

(58:11):
day, see how things are going. Do you think that you'd ever
want to get married? We speak about it.
She says, well, I don't know if she says she's ready or not, but
I mean, do you need to? I mean, you're happy, you're
happy in a relationship. Is the a point to that spend a
lot of money for your friends toget pissed up?

(58:32):
Maybe you just don't have alcohol at your wedding.
That's good point. Or food.
Or food on a beach Cousin. Yeah.
Sounds like I'm tight. I'm.
I'm. I don't.
Who is James? He's a tight bugger.
Could you hear that? I.
Didn't hear exactly what he saidwell.
He says, who is James? He's a tight bugger.
Mark always says. Mark always says I never get the

(58:55):
beers in but. That's.
Interesting. Complete lie.
Yeah, so you're you're not whereyou want to be yet.
You want to be, you know, you want to be more creative.
It sounds like you want to maybehave more under your control.
Like you're talking about sportsmanagement agency, potentially
magazine. The creative outlets seem to be
what the sports. Agency thing was more down.

(59:18):
I've got all these contacts throughout the years.
It's like utilizing them a bit more, yeah.
Your network is your network. That's for sure, pulling people
in together to work together andthat kind of thing.
But the one thing I did speak toone manager once and they and
they said, well, you know, we should start doing contract
deals with people who you think you're friends with.

(59:38):
It becomes less friendly. Yeah, it's just.
Become numbers, Yeah. And, you know, I know a few
managers and there's a couple inparticular that not name my
names here, but they're not the easiest to work with.
And then you just start thinkingmaybe management's not, not the

(01:00:00):
right, not the thing for me, youknow?
But we'll see. We'll see what happens.
You never know what's around thenext corner.
Yeah, you never know. Opportunity is always, always
available. You know, like you said, when
you keep casting and see what you can pull in, there's lots of
opportunity. That's what I found.
The more that I've done this podcast alone, you know, 160

(01:00:20):
episodes in, you meet a lot of people and you can see, or at
least from my perspective, I cansee there's so many, so much
opportunity. But knowing which one of those
things to just let keep simmering on the back burner for
even years at a time. Just because there is
opportunity doesn't mean you should go after it at that
moment. No, totally.
Actually I was just thinking then I was telling this to a

(01:00:41):
friend the other day. I said every, so every December
I'll take time off. First couple of weeks of
December, usually time off this year, not because there's a
couple of races still, but by the end of December.
I'm I'm on LinkedIn, I'm lookingat jobs on LinkedIn, but I

(01:01:03):
always say I'm unemployable because doing a nine to five I'm
not sure I could do. But I'm on I'm on LinkedIn.
What is that? What could I do?
Oh, the Red Bull's recruiting of100 plus people have already
applied for that one, You know, could I do these jobs?
Could I be doing these like set times?

(01:01:23):
My times are all over the place at the moment and I don't mind
it. And I don't even know what the
when the weekends are. I mean, you know, keep looking
watch today thinking it's Friday.
It's not it's Thursday, you know, and you, you never know
what's everything merges in everything merges into one.
No, I'm not living for the weekend.

(01:01:45):
You know, it's just living the dream.
I guess just like travelling, doing a bit of work one day,
chilling. But yeah, I always looking,
looking on LinkedIn for jobs andthen beginning January starts
and then Touchwood people start calling and me mailing and you,
you know, beginning of the year,lots of athletes have got new

(01:02:09):
sponsors and so on and so forth,new kits, they need new fresh
kit. So it just starts again and, and
and then the panic's over again.Yeah.
That's how it goes, that's my mindset.
Yeah. So this next statements, last
question, there's there's a goodbit of assumption built into it,
but it's because what you're explaining to me specifically

(01:02:29):
about the LinkedIn thing is something that I have done quite
a bit in the past. I find it very intriguing to
look for jobs. Again, I'm not a very employable
person. The past five, 6-7 going on 7
years of work I've done has beencontract basis where I can
basically say, well, at any timeI can quit this or I can go and
find something else from some other line of, you know,

(01:02:49):
bringing in cash. But for me, when I go into
LinkedIn, like I have been looking for, like I feel like
I'm trying to find this one thing or one person to give this
one opportunity that for whatever reason, I feel like
would just fit me perfectly to where I could feel like, oh, you
tell me what to do and I'll do it to the best of my ability.
And I've since, and I've since tried to change that because

(01:03:10):
what, and I'm not saying this isthe same for you, but it's more
of just a statement that I'd love to hear your feedback on.
I've since changed that because I realized for me, what I was
really looking to do, particularly because I lost my
dad when I was 16. I was looking for like,
specifically a male figure that I really look up to, that I want
to impress, that they tell me exactly what to do and I'll go

(01:03:32):
do it because I like to. I like the feeling of when
someone looks at me and they're like, Oh yeah, good job.
Like you did exactly what I wanted type of a thing.
I am 100% with you on that. I am exactly the same.
Yeah, how? Old are you, if you don't mind
me asking? I'm 32.
How are you Pop? Yeah, I'm so young.
It's interesting you said said that.

(01:03:53):
I get, I get, I get a good feeling of helping people more
and getting good feedback from it no matter what.
Yeah, it's, it's interesting yousaid that.
Then let me say this to you because I, and again, I'm going
to go out on a limb here, so this limb might break, but what
I have learned through some really awesome people who have

(01:04:15):
invested themselves into me was through that process of like
searching for that one thing. I have learned that my value,
like whatever the values that I hold, whatever it is, I'm
starting a business or doing some contract work, whenever I
separate myself from those things, the values that I still
hold, they're still very core towho I am.

(01:04:35):
And I realized that if I keep going out to like try to impress
that one person or whatever I just had left me feeling empty
for so long. And I'm starting to finally get
to a place where I find contentment and just knowing
that as long as I keep doing things for people and like
selflessly trying to do those things to offer value, then like

(01:04:56):
my own internal clock can be turned away from just this
constant pursuit of like I want the next mountaintop.
And I'm not saying you're necessarily doing that, but we
seem somewhat similar. You seem, you're obviously have
a lot more life experience than me, but I just want to affirm
with what you're doing is awesome.
I, I, I don't know you super well, but I've gotten to know

(01:05:19):
you enough over the past hour tosee that we have enough
similarities that hopefully I can go out in this limb and say
like what you're doing is reallygood and you should be really
proud of that. Yeah.
Thank you. I appreciate you saying that.
I think yeah, with how you how you said that last time and was
yeah, exactly how I feel. It's it's it's kind of weird.

(01:05:39):
Like she is good more recently. So I'll just go talk about the
I, I'd like the the the video content.
I'm shooting for Iron Man. I got brought on by, I suppose
my boss there, Steve Godwin, whoI'd only met a couple of times
in Kona. And in 2021 he called me out of

(01:06:00):
the blue. I mean, I didn't really know him
from Adam, to be fair. And he called me and he's like,
oh, you know, sign this new video series.
Would you like to produce in thein Europe?
And so I don't shoot video, but you know, you can.
I said, you know, you'll learn that, but like we just want you
to produce. It was more my Rolodex of
athletes. I think that I had contact with

(01:06:21):
that would help build the series.
He said you need another guy to come and help you.
And I'd actually worked with this one guy called Will on one
job. He lived in Finland, asked him
if he wanted to come and help meand he did.
And it's been great. Been he's been editing and
filming with me and and then four years great.

(01:06:43):
And then the end of back end of last year will actually got
offered a contract from Iron Man.
So he's actually now fully fullycontracted.
At the time I was like, oh, why did I get asked?
However, he's more of an editor and they need more editing and
more of an editors wrong. So now when we go to tube, the

(01:07:03):
video series, it's kind of our roles have reversed.
He's become more of a boss of meand he's doing all the
production, a lot of the production and organizing or in
terms of what we're shooting. And it's almost like I need, I
kind of happy to kind of impresshim now when it would have been

(01:07:23):
the other way around and get feedback.
And, and because he's doing the editing and he's like seeing my
work more. He, he gives me more feedback.
Yeah. I want to make sure he's like
happy with my work and that kindof thing.
So he's he's like pleasing that person kind of into what he
said, I guess, and, and making him proud of why I'm shooting.

(01:07:45):
So he's got a better job for editing that kind of thing.
So. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, It's interesting. So one of my closest mentors,
he's probably, how old is he? He's probably 11-12 years older
than me to a lot of degrees. I give this guy's name is Jared
the the credit for like pushing me in the right direction when I

(01:08:08):
was a very in in College in a very pivotal moment in time
where I could either go down thecomplete wrong road and make a
loser of myself or like, you know, dig in and try to start
something. One of my very first businesses.
And he over the years has helpedmold and shaped a lot of my
thoughts in terms of just letting me bounce ideas off of
him. And not too long ago, he like

(01:08:30):
called me, and this is probably about a year ago.
And he said, you know, there's something fascinating I'm
noticing with the most successful men in our world, at
least in, you know, in the worldat scale in terms of business,
it tends to be these guys who have some kind of estranged
relationship or not, not a relationship with their dad.
And I was like, oh, that's superfascinating because Steve Jobs
is very similar. Jeff Bezos has some stories.

(01:08:53):
Elon Musk, like any of these really big guys, there's like
this inner desire for us to likeget up there and try to prove
our name and our worth. So I think that's where that
comes from and that it's a double edged sword because half
of it it's really good because you can go and do things that
you would never have believed otherwise or other people don't
believe. But it can lead if not checked

(01:09:15):
with the right level of attitude, you can end up like
blowing people out of, you know,the wake that you're creating.
And so there's just like fine line of balance of trying to
figure out how to live a best life that is inspiring to
others, but not like just. This.
Destructive to some of the people that we surround
ourselves with, but you seem like you're doing the right

(01:09:35):
thing. Like I'm, I'm stoked for you.
I'm, I'm a little bit jealous with the stuff that you're
doing, if I'm being completely honest.
But it's really neat to see how you've been able to expand that
network and continue to grow in the not only the sport, but just
like the world of what it is to be a media producer.
Thank you so much. It's not come overnight, put it
that way. I think people do think that.

(01:09:57):
Some people say, oh, you're so lucky to do this.
I'm like, well, the old, the oldchestnut, you make your own luck
is true. You know, you go out and build
the networks and like I say, spending my own time, effort and
money just going out and and building that network.
And this is like I say, I started think, 20 or 20 years

(01:10:19):
ago, not in the capacity I was, you know, I suppose sports more.
This was like maybe 10 years ago.
But yeah, if I'd have not gone to Kona.
People kept saying to me, I actually got to go to Kona.
Everyone's in Kona, every brand couldn't afford to go.
And I blagged my way. I'll say blagged my way.

(01:10:41):
I got cheap ticket, economy ticket, managed to get some free
accommodation with a guy called Hannis, who was at the time Sebi
Kinley's manager. And but he actually did, he has
a business called Hannah's Hawaiian Tours and he hosts like
400 athletes. So it's all the accommodation

(01:11:01):
now. And I pinged him a message.
Have you got any fast cancellations, spare
accommodation? He said, yeah, if you give me
some photos, I said I'll sort your bed out.
I ended up on a sofa with no bathroom.
Like the bathrooms were taken inthe in the in the bedrooms, you
know. And but I went over there and I
made contacts and one of those contacts was Steve Godwin.

(01:11:22):
And three years later he he remembered me and messaged me to
do a series for Iron Man. And yeah, it kind of went up on
there. You know, I could have had a nug
on there. I would have never met Steve.
So yeah, thanks mate. Yeah.
So just a couple more questions for you then.
For somebody who wants to, and it doesn't even have to be an
endurance sport world, but for somebody who wants to like break

(01:11:45):
into some kind of an industry todo something maybe of a similar
caliber. Would you say that it's more
important to go into the investment of time and energy in
following your head more or yourheart?
It's a good question. I'm not sure where this well,

(01:12:07):
probably I mean you're hard hardfor the passion to keep me
going, I think, but I use the head wisely invest in like you.
Somebody asked me this. What did they ask me?
Now? I don't think it was true
triathlon base, but Oh no, I'll tell you what.

(01:12:29):
It was one of the one of the guys who shoots live feed for a
man and he was looking at getting more work in in in
sports. And he is a freestyle like he
does tricks and stuff skiing. He like can can bend on his skis

(01:12:51):
and flip over that kind of thing.
He's super good skiing. And I said dude, like firstly,
not many people can ski and filmat the same time like Rick.
That's a that's a skill. So get into the snow sports,
just get out there and just basically get into the sports
and you start taking photos. What I did was start taking

(01:13:12):
photos of athletes I don't even know.
And then you just do that, DM them a few images.
Sometimes they ignore you and sometimes you go, oh, thanks.
But then they know you, they start to know who you are.
And that was, I mean, that's that's whether you call it a
trick. I used a lot.
To just. Back in the day, yeah.
Just go in, take photos of what athletes or whatever in your

(01:13:40):
dedicated sport. Just ping them.
Just ping them a few images today.
I look at some images there. Feel free to like for your
personal use, be a really happy if you tag me and some people, I
mean, everyone's looking for content these days, especially
sports, sports, you know, athletes and anything around

(01:14:02):
sport. They you know what, what I'll
say is what what people tend to forget is the reason we have
professional sport is to sell marketing, to sell brands.
If there if there wasn't, you'd be an amateur, there would be no

(01:14:22):
sport, professional sport. It's it's purely a vehicle to
sell, to sell advertising. That's why they pay messy so
much to wear. Probably I did US or Nike boots
or whatever he's wearing or or David Beckham to where I did US
boots. And why are they paying?
Why is Kenyan paying some Laidlaw or Q Lucid?

(01:14:45):
Because it's a vehicle to sell. You know, through her channel.
It's it's the old influencer andall this.
So I digress again, apologies. No, no, you're good.
So people are looking for content, they want something if
even if it's just say something about their brand or just go

(01:15:05):
out, shoot the shit I say. And, and, and people, some
people, this is where some people get confused with giving
away free photos. Are you just giving photos away
for free? You're like you're ruining the
the industry or whatever. No, no, no.
I'm essentially paying myself togo and shoot.
It's my marketing budget. Yeah, I.

(01:15:27):
Was going to say marketing expense.
I'm not putting adversity in magazines, I'm not putting
adversity in websites. I'm using my time, energy and
money and that money is rental car.
You know, I just rented the car for to drive to Belgium to do a
shoot after Frankfurt to come six hours this way.

(01:15:47):
It cost me like 808 hundred euro, but it's worth it because
I'm going over to shoot for a a brand in Belgium and then
shooting a brand down in in in Roth here AG one.
It's totally worth it. Otherwise somebody else is

(01:16:08):
shooting it and they're taking the money and and making the
relationship and it's it's it's it's maintaining relationships
as well. Like I say, it's not always
about getting the quick hit and then taking the money and going
deliver a quality product, maintain the relationship and

(01:16:28):
and let. It grow.
Let it grow, yeah? So my last question for you,
yeah, what do you want your legacy to be?
I. Suppose my legacy to be would
be. Why is this such a difficult

(01:16:51):
question? Because.
You probably don't know yet. I guess I don't.
Like I said, like I said at the beginning, I think, I still
think there's more. There's more to come.
There's ideas up there. Do you know what always baffled
me? When people say the board on
board, there's nothing to do? What you mean there's always

(01:17:12):
something to do? Like I've got like there's ideas
up here. Like if I had time to be on bits
of paper, you know, there'd be in the in the planning.
So who knows? The legacy is yet to come.
You have to revisit this chapterin another five years, I think.
See if it's changed well. That's good.
I'm I'm glad that that's the real estate answer I think I've

(01:17:33):
ever gotten, probably because most people want to come up with
something. But if you don't know and you
can be honest about it, I think that that's that's a good thing.
I don't know what mine's going to be yet.
I don't know if I'll truly ever write it down or care too much,
but yeah, just being kind to people.
I think that's the thing that you've shared the most of, you
know, investing without necessarily looking for

(01:17:54):
something to come back. Investing, no matter what, is
probably the biggest thing. Be kind, be nice.
It's not always, it's not alwayseasy and someone like especially
if a brand or a business or whatever is someone's triggering
you or not being easy to work with, as my girlfriend says,

(01:18:16):
always says kill them with kindness.
And yeah, that's it really. I guess.
All right. Can I, can I ask you what, what,
what do you do outside of doing the podcast?
What's your you, it or something?
Yeah, so I do a little coaching to pay for the triathlon thing.

(01:18:40):
I have the podcast. And then to actually make some
money, I have a small consultingbusiness where I have helped
helped friends over the years just grow or help restructure
their businesses. So for the past three years,
I've been helping my buddy grow his real estate business from a
team of like when I helped him started helping, it was like 2

(01:19:00):
and now he's got 7 people and I just kind of check in daily and
help everybody maintain and growand put a process into place.
And then before that, it was with my friend who got asked to
be the president of this food company.
They had like 50 employees and we're doing anywhere from 10 to
15,000,000 a year in wholesalingfood and helped come in just

(01:19:21):
restructure the whole business and on the logistics side, the
purchasing side and then helpingrehire the executive team.
And my friend ended up actually another friend ended up actually
buying that business. So it's changed.
In college, I started a small business called Sway and we made
fully insulated like camping hammocks, camping gear.

(01:19:42):
And that took me to China. And prior to COVID, I was there
two or three times a year setting up manufacturing and
just burning, burning investmentmoney really.
And we ended up not ever making it.
But I learned a ton, got to meetthe Chinese, traveled the world
and it was a great experience and a launching point.
And I'm super fortunate because the people who invested were my
wife's family. They essentially let me burn

(01:20:04):
like 60 grand of cash. And at the end feeling super bad
at that, done it. They said, hey, you know what?
Like. That was your education and
we're happy to help pay for education.
So that's, that was an extremelyhumbling, but most vital
experience I've ever had. So yeah, that's that's kind of
what I do. It changes.
Kind parents, kind parents in law.
Yeah, it's. Very good though.

(01:20:26):
I think one of our one of our favorite things at home is is a
hammock. Yeah, we had quite a few sales
at in the UK backpacking, like hammock camping was a huge thing
in the UKI had no idea until I started selling them.
I was like, wow, we have so manyof these going over to UK.
Yeah. Yeah, but you're triathletes as
well, though. Yeah, yeah, that's how I got

(01:20:47):
into this. I don't really aim this podcast
to be only about triathlon, but right now that's where the
majority of my curiosity lies, just in the people and whatnot.
But yeah, I started doing triathlon back in 2020 trying to
bunch. Didn't get the race because of
COVID and yeah, now I'm doing Iron Man California and then

(01:21:09):
Santa Cruz 70.3 and some other local races and stuff.
So yeah, I do it to stay relevant, stay and stay in
sport, and it's fun. The question is to you then is
when you're coming over to Europe to raise some proper
athletes. Yeah, that's a good question.
I need to. I would love to come over there.
I was actually talking to you know who Phil Guymon is.

(01:21:29):
Name rings about what can't place where he's.
An ex professional world tour cyclist but he has a huge
YouTube called worst retirement ever.
Anyway he was just over in the in France doing some of the Koms
for that the Tour de France is going to go through and we were
talking last night about just how different the level is over
in Europe, but also how cheap the food is, how healthy the
food is and how no one hates cyclists over in France.

(01:21:51):
So maybe move over there. Funny, we're just having this
conversation with Kyle, one of your compatriots there, about
terrible food. Yeah, it's really bad.
It's. Just some of it's OK.
It's really expensive when you find something good well.
Quality costs a ton over here, but like even in New Zealand,
when I went there for Worlds, man, it was like everywhere we

(01:22:13):
went, even the small, by the way, gas station bakeries, the
the food quality is so good and like 80% of it's farm to table.
It's just like we need that. So if you're going to do if, I
mean if you're going to go big in Europe, I mean you have to
come down and do Iron Man Lanzarote.
Yeah, if I can do it three times, you can do it.

(01:22:35):
OK, you have a kit, You have a floor I can sleep on.
I would stay in our apartment. Yeah, we have.
We have room for you. OK, good.
I'll have to hit you up then. Definitely.
Maybe we'll see. Just moved to Northern
California not too long ago. My wife started some a new
adventure out here being a nursepractitioner, so I'm sure we'll
we'll save up some cash and hopefully get to go do some

(01:22:57):
stuff like that again soon. Absolutely.
Absolutely, yeah. Well, James, thank you so much
man for taking the opportunity to let me ask some questions
about your life, get personal and down in the dirt.
I I gain a lot of value and insight from these
conversations, so thank you. No, thank you.
I really appreciate you. You're asking me to come on and
spend a bit of time with you. Nice to get to know you as well.

(01:23:19):
Right on. Hey, thank you so much James for
coming on the podcast and letting me dive into the dirt
with him and getting to know just what his life looks like
and where he came from, what he does, and why he does it.
If you made it to this point in the podcast, just want to say
thanks for being here. Really appreciate it.
Check out the show notes in the description for any and all of
the things from the stupid question socks to the newsletter

(01:23:45):
to any and all the social accounts and stuff that James
does this, that and the other. Check it all out.
If you are listening on YouTube,if you could like comment,
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Turn on the notification bell soyou can be alerted when we drop
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(01:24:06):
platforms, if you don't mind given those follow leaving a
comment, leaving a review that helps to continue to grow it
here as well. Thank you guys so much.
Thanks again to Pro Try News forsetting up this spot for James
to be able to record with me. And without further ado, I will
see you guys the next one. Thank you so much for being
here. Peace.