October 14, 2025 • 37 mins
Roy Coughlan joins us today to share his incredible journey through entrepreneurship, loss, and resilience. With a track record of founding 20 companies across five countries, Roy has not only faced the highs of success but also the lows of losing everything. He dives deep into his experiences with corruption in the banking and legal systems, highlighting the importance of self-advocacy and knowledge in navigating tough times. We’ll explore how shifting your mindset, practicing gratitude, and even hiring a virtual assistant can propel you toward unstoppable success. So, grab a seat and get ready to be inspired by Roy’s wisdom and practical tips for overcoming adversity!
Roy Coughlan's journey is a vivid tapestry woven with threads of triumph and tribulation. From a young age, Roy showcased his entrepreneurial spirit, starting with small ventures like washing cars and delivering newspapers. Over time, he expanded his horizons, founding 20 companies across five countries. However, his success story faced a dramatic turn when the economic crash led to the collapse of many of his ventures. Roy's experiences in the face of adversity are enlightening; he shares profound insights gained from navigating through numerous court battles and witnessing corruption within the legal and banking systems. His resilience and determination shine through as he discusses the importance of self-advocacy and educating oneself to combat systemic obstacles. He emphasizes that in times of crisis, shifting focus from what is lost to what can be salvaged is crucial. This episode serves as a testament to the power of perseverance and the significance of fostering a mindset centered on gratitude and forgiveness. Roy's journey is a reminder that even in the darkest times, one can find the strength to rise again and redefine success.
Takeaways:
- Roy Coughlan's journey from washing cars at age nine to founding 20 companies showcases the power of entrepreneurial spirit.
- Facing bankruptcy, Roy learned about the importance of self-advocacy through personal experiences with corrupt banks and legal systems.
- Gratitude and forgiveness were vital for Roy's mental resilience during tough times, helping him to focus on the positives.
- Mindfulness and being present in the moment can significantly enhance productivity and overall happiness in daily life.
- Roy emphasizes the importance of educating oneself in all areas, including business and health, to navigate challenges effectively.
- Hiring a virtual assistant can free up time for tasks that truly matter, allowing one to focus on their strengths and passions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:41):
Well, hello everybody andwelcome to another amazing episode
of Unstoppable Success. I amyour host, Jaclyn Strominger, and
on this podcast we hear fromamazing humans and how they have
had unstoppable success. Thegood, the bad and the ugly. And today
I have an amazing guest, RoyCoughlan. And let me tell you a little
(01:04):
bit about Roy because you aregoing to love his wisdom. He is a
seasoned serial entrepreneurwith an impressive track record of
founding 20 companies acrossfive countries. He's a podcast coach
and host. He has successfullylaunched and driven six podcasts
(01:25):
to the top of the industries,with all consistently ranking in
the top 5% and 4 reaching thatprestigious top 0.5%. In addition
to podcasting, he is the cofounder of Brain Gym Fitness, a platform
dedicated to enhancingcognitive abilities and empowering
individuals to optimize theirmental performance. He's the co founder
(01:48):
of VA World. He connectsclients with perfect virtual assistants.
But more than anything, youare going to want to hear because
Roy has lost everything andgained it all. Back with again, unstoppable
Success. So welcome to thepodcast, Roy.
Thank you very much for havingme. I'm looking forward to the conversation.
Yeah. So Roy, okay, so firstof all, you know, used you shared
(02:11):
you, you have had, you got 20country. Oh my God companies, five
different countries. So howdid you start all of those and go
to all the different countries?
So I wasn't living in all thecountries, so, but I, I've kind of
why I class myself as a serialentrepreneur. When I was nine, I
(02:34):
started washing cars, doing abit of gardening, delivering leaflets.
At 11, I did a newspaperround, so I was doing newspapers.
I did that up to college. WhenI was 14, the money from the newspapers,
I bought a lawnmower. So Iwent around cutting grass. And then
I had people working with meand what I would do is the people
with me, I give them a third.I'd say a third for you, third for
me, and a third for the upkeepof the lawnmower. That's the way
(02:54):
I did when I was 18, I, I wasinto motorbikes. And then I kind
of thought, oh, I can spruceup a motorbike. I'd buy a motorbike,
maybe paint it, fix it up abit, sell it a few days later, make
a couple hundred bucks. And Iwas doing that for a while as well.
And then I studiedconstruction, economics and management,
worked for a mechanicalcontractor. They're the biggest mechanical
(03:15):
contractor now. They were thesecond at the time and kind of worked
my way up to contracts.Manager. I was running a lot of jobs,
you know, multi million poundjobs and done very well. And even
when I was working with them,I set up another company doing Internet,
Internet convergence I think Icalled it. It was doing web design.
So me and another guy, westarted doing that. It done a bit
(03:36):
all right and then just kindof ran its course and just kind of
closed it down and, and then Iwent to another company and became
a regional manager, amechanical electrical contractor.
And during that time then I, Istarted dating a Polish girl and
when I visited her parents Isaid, oh, properties okay here, property
cheap. So I started buying afew and then I saw a potential. So
(03:57):
I set up a company, I set upan Irish company, then I set up a
Polish company for, it wasreally for Irish investors. But in
the end I got English Americanand I got. And I built a kind of
big company because I had 14people on my books at one stage.
I had a big commercial. I wasbuilding apartments, I built 30 apartments,
I built houses and I wasmanaging over 200 properties. Done
(04:18):
loads of renovations. Becausehow it started off as people would
say, okay, yeah, we'reinterested in the property. And then
they say, yeah, but we need itrenovated. Oh, I can do that. We,
we need it fitted out infurniture. Oh, I can do that. And
then we need it managed. Oh, Ican do that. And it just kind of,
it was never kind of planned.It just said, oh, this is good. And
then it was kind of organizinginsurance and everything. So there
(04:39):
was a lot of kind knock ondifferent things that I was doing
and it was going well. I hadsyndicates for all the different
things for the commercial, forthe, the, the, the, the buildings
that I was doing. And I waslike the small boy. I had three properties
in Ireland at that stage, so Iwas worth maybe a million at that
stage. And the people that Igot involved were worth 10 million,
maybe 20 million. They had alot of assets and everything was
(05:03):
going well. Then the crashhappened and it took a while to come
across. Then they got introuble and I thought, I just assumed
it would come right or they'dget us all sorted. And I started
putting more of my money intoit, saying, look, when you get it,
because we had a mortgage onthe commercial, just pay me and I
charge a 10% interest and Iwasn't going to kick them. And they
didn't get it right. Andeventually I started getting into
(05:25):
trouble and I asked the bank,hey, can I have interest only? And
they said no. The minute Imissed the payment in Poland, they
Came in, sending the bailiffsin Ireland, I had interest only,
and they were all cashpositive. And the banks joined this
time, decided to chargeinterest and repayments. And I said,
hey, I can't do this. It'sgoing from making about 500 bucks
(05:45):
per property to minus athousand per property. And they didn't
care. So everything kind ofcame tumbling down. And usually with
a limited liability company,you'd kind of go, yeah, lessons learned.
Let's kind of get back up andgo. But I was the president of a
lot of companies, and insteadof making about 5 million, that's
(06:07):
where I was kind of going withall the different things. Because
on paper, with thedevelopments I was doing, I had a
lot of properties with sharesin it. And I. Because I was the president,
I was personally liable. Soeveryone else just kind of. They.
They were dealing with theirown problems, left me on my own.
And through that, then I hadabout 100 court cases personally.
(06:27):
L. For like, 5 million is thedebt that I had on the thing. And
I. Yeah, so I had to gothrough that. And then kind of saw
so much corruption. Bailiffsworking with valuers. Yeah, bailiffs
bribing people. Like in thehousing project, when that was for
sale, they had their owncronies. They bribed people in the
(06:49):
room so they wouldn't bid onthe project. I didn't go in. I was
advised. Not that I got goodadvice, not from solicitors or accounting,
but from an entrepreneur whocame and asked about one of the projects.
And usually when you're goingthrough kind of loss, you kind of
don't even want to talk topeople. But that's not my character.
So I said Yakman met him, cameto my premises, had a coffee, and
I was showing them all thedrawings, and he gave me tips on
(07:12):
how to protect myself. Andtrue that then, but with. With all
the court cases, I saw thecorruption in the courts as well.
Everything they were doing, itwas like this. This is wrong. The
city, how the city operated.So that kind of built up my strength,
you know, it was a hard time,obviously, to go through. I lost
my. All my houses in Ireland,including my personal belongings.
They just locked up the doorand. Yeah, and I went to a high court
(07:34):
in Ireland. I had eight casesthere, fighting for one of the things.
And I just saw so muchcorruption there as well. I was like,
what's going on? So I'll givean example. In Ireland, there was
one. One of the people I waslistening. So it's not like you just
have A plaintiff defendantwith their solicitors. And it was
like you have one judge andyou could have 100, 150 people there.
(07:55):
They were mainly barristerswho were the high end attorneys and
most people didn't even turnup. I, I was representing myself
because I'd lost everything atthat stage. But there was one case
I was listening to and theysaid, we got KPMG to investigate
the interest rates. We wereovercharged 15,000 Euro. And he just
said, when was that? Two yearsago. He said you should have took
it up with them. Then bangedrule in favor of the bank plus interest
(08:17):
plus penalties. Every singlecase was like that. And the way that
it's done is there's anaffidavit which is a sworn statement.
I didn't even know what anaffidavit was. I had to ask somebody,
what's an affidavit? So theymade this sworn statement about a
property that I had andbasically how the market went. This
Property was worth €400,000and then it dropped to €125,000.
(08:40):
I mean that shouldn't happen.You know, that's like, that's just
the way they stop lending.They were troll money. If you're
the pulse, you got a, you gota mortgage and then they just even
a few 50, right? A few 50%. I,I knew people in Poland did 50% payment,
they couldn't get a mortgage.So it just shows they, they turned
off the tap. So on thisproperty, eventually it kind of came
up as I was still trying tofight through, you know, I was getting
(09:02):
money coming in from differentthings. I was trying to. Before they,
they actually took it off me.And what, what I said is I had an
offer of 200,000 on a 220mortgage and I said full on fines,
that full and finalsettlement. And they refused and
they sold it for less. Andthen they came after me for the excess.
Yeah, they sold it for 165.
And my gosh.
(09:24):
Yeah, so true that. Then Icreated my affidavit and what I had
on it was one does abillionaire, Dennis O', Brien, he
got a 300 million write offfrom the same bank. I said, you give
him a write off and he doesn'tneed it. He's a billionaire and he
wouldn't give it to me. I hadworked the bank were fraudulent,
they were on telly. There wassomebody done a documentary where
they were doing insurancefraud. I put that into my affidavit
(09:47):
and a lot of other things andthey could never respond to my affidavit.
So each time a differentjudge, they're just getting your
file, they're just looking atit for like a minute, two minutes,
and your life is on the linebased on this, that you're personally
liable for a lot of money. Andusually I like, there was some nice
job, maybe two of the eightwere nice, but a lot of times they
(10:08):
were attacking me and thebarristers were nasty and I just,
I don't know, something wouldcome into me and I just say something
and they go, all right, solet's come back. And it's a different
judge. And the seventh guy, hesaid, what's going on here? Why haven't
you responded to hisaffidavit? Because legally they're
supposed to, because that's mysworn statement. And they're supposed
to say, hey, he's wrong, or.And they couldn't because I was 100%
(10:28):
right. And he said, I'mawarding them 1400 Euro travel expenses
and you better respond withinthree weeks or there'll be serious
consequences. So I went awayhappy hours, came back thinking,
I'm going to win, this isgoing to be grand, different judge.
And like, you started off, Idon't know, is it 9:30 or something
(10:48):
like that in the morning andsame thing, a room full of people,
if I don't turn up, they justrule against me. So I have to be
there. And the judge startsand he goes, oh, this is going to
take longer. We'll do it atthe. After lunch. So I still have
to stay there. Then afterlunch he starts about 15 minutes
because now it's taking toolong. We wait later. So it was nearly
six o' clock that he'd done mycase. The, the barrister for the
(11:13):
bank started going through thewhole thing, then it was my turn
and the judge kept stoppingme, like he wouldn't even let me
talk. And somebody stood upand said, hey, what's going on here?
He says, you related to him?They said, no. They said, you'll
get out if you do that again.And I was like, I said, this is so
wrong. And in the end he justruled in favor of the banks, but
then he went to go forinterest and penalties. And I said,
hey, I'm fighting this for twoyears or whatever it was at the time,
(11:36):
year and a half, I can'tremember. And I said, they've never
responded to my affidavit. Andhe says, fair enough. So he actually
ruled, no interest, nopenalties. It was the only win that
I had seen in the whole eighttimes I was. And I mean there could
be 100 cases when I'm therelistening. And so I was thinking,
I'm going to the EU aboutthis. I said, this is total fraud.
And what I found out when Itried to do that is you have to appeal.
(11:58):
And the way it works inIreland, some countries, if you have
a case like that, it doesn'tgo above that amount. The amount
it was like I think 68,000 orsomething like that, euro, the amount.
But it could have been like300,000 if I had lost on the, the
interest in the. Because theseguys charge 10g a day. Like so you
know, it's expensive, thesebarristers. And what happens, they
(12:21):
said I have to re. Applyappeal. But what it does is it opens
it back up. So not only. So itwould be 68 plus all of the other
one, plus the new one. And Isaid I'm fighting corruption, so
you could be like 68 versushalf a million. And I just said no.
And then true that. Then Ikind of, I started getting going
(12:41):
down the route of learningsovereignty, common law and going
how are they doing this to us?How are they actually controlling
us in such a way that they'renot looking after the individual,
that they're actually,they're. They're corrupt in every
single thing they're doing andjust true that. Then I kind of, I'd
encourage everyone to kind ofstart learning this, learning the
(13:02):
power of the signature,learning when they're writing, check
as they'll write to me, sayMr. Roy Colin or all capitals Roy
Colin. And that's not me,that's a copper identity. So when
you figure that out, theycan't prove that you're a living
soul. And it might soundstupid, but I. Because I know everyone
is going through this kind ofthing internationally. I've seen
(13:24):
it everywhere, the way thatthey do these things. Look at letters
that you're getting from themand are they writing to you like
a normal person? And it'susually Mr. Are all capitals. And
that's corporate entity. Andyou just figure out that and then
try to learn how to write tothem and different things. I cover
that in one of my podcasts. Iget a person on once a month at least.
(13:44):
And I'm just different waysof. Like even with GDPR and assure
in the States what way isthem. But in Europe GDPR is like
data protection. So even ifthey're passing your information
on to the bailiff, not alloweddata protection. And it's like when
you know these things, theyjust back off. And I've used that
because I've had so manycases. They had like, I mean I'd
had my accounts emptied andeverything. So once I started learning
(14:05):
this, at one stage went to abar stop. I started using that. They're
just gone, disappeared.Another time a court again. They
tried to get me to come in forsomething else use that I never heard
again. I thought atdetectives. I've had cases where
I had a criminal case againstme for a building that we had is.
It was a tenement building andwhen we run out of money, we couldn't
pay for the water and stufflike that. Tenants weren't paying,
(14:28):
so the water company turned itoff and they claimed that I done
it intentionally so I wouldnever do that. And they tried to
give me three years in jailfrom that. Yeah, and I won that as
well. But it's like when yougo through these things, they just
attack you from everydirection and you just have to learn,
you have to learn their rulesbecause they're playing games, you're
(14:51):
not into them and you have to.You think a solicitor will actually
have your back and understandeverything or even accountants. Every
time I've done something, itwas actually my own knowledge and
trying to understand things.Even if I had like I had to have
somebody with me for thecriminal case because that was like
scaring me. It was like what'sgoing on here? And the reason I won
was I was passing informationor just whispering to the, my solicitor
(15:15):
saying hey, say to say thatlike I catch molten lies and ended
up winning. But a lot ofpeople when they're in court or whatever,
they're just, they're justsame as an accountant, they just
pass it off or like give theirbucket of receipts to the accountant
thinking he's your bestinterest. Same in court. Just listen.
You have to look after yourown business. You have to look after
(15:35):
everybody.
You know, Roy, this isactually really interesting. So you
know you've been through alot, right? Like, I mean that's like,
like, like that, like all thatyou've gone through, you know, all
the court cases. But, butit's, it's a huge life lesson and,
and listeners, I think this issomething that I really want to make
sure that everybodyunderstands and I, and I'm going
(15:57):
to share that, that somethinghappened the other day with me and
one of the businesses that Ihave, that this really came true
and really important. You haveto really educate yourself and you
have to be your best advocateand if you're going to be unstoppable,
(16:19):
you have to you have to getthe knowledge, like you have, as
you said, shared. Like you'repassing information to the solicitor.
You know, don't just be abystander, you know, you have to
be there fighting. And it, andit's the same again also, like in
medicine, like, you know, ifyou go to the doctor, don't just
take their word for it. Youhave to fight for yourself. If somebody
(16:42):
says to you you can't get a,you know, a doctor appointment for
six months, fight it. Likethere are ways you can get in. Trust
me, I know. Or don't justtake, don't just take the answer.
You have to educate yourself.Because just because they may have
a title doesn't mean they're right.
(17:04):
Absolutely. And like a lot ofpeople, put too much trust in the
white coats. And what you needto do is find alternatives because
they block all thealternatives. And you start looking
at how I can do this. And evenif you get a diagnosis, go to a different
one, go to a naturopath orsomething like that, just get alternatives.
There's some that can checkyour eyes and see what's going on.
(17:26):
And a lot of the times it'ssomething natural instead of cutting
parts of your body out,because once you do that, it's hard
to go back.
Right. It's so true. So, soRoy, you know, you're so, you're,
you're at this point, right,and you're having all this stuff
at you, like how have you. Andwhat are this, what are the steps
(17:47):
that you had to take to come back?
Well, one of the things I, Isuppose is during it, because a lot
of people, they, they kind ofthink of the lack or the stress from
the situation. Like at thetime when I was going through this,
like banks or credit cardcompanies or stuff like that, when
(18:09):
things were bad, like they'reringing you daily, abusing you and
like when you're out of money,like, that's not good for your health
when they're doing that. Imean, I don't know, are they still
alone? Don't do that. But I'dsay they are because, I mean, they
have one floor that's thrownout the money. The next floor to
be as soon as you miss apayment there. And then they have
somebody that's just, oh, theypassed it to the death level and
(18:29):
they're just, you know,abusing you. So the, the one thing
is stop thinking of lack. Stopthinking of what you've missed and
what's gone. You, you're notgoing to help yourself with Doing
that. So like I started, I. Icame across a thing called the six
phase meditation. And it was aguided meditation. And then I kind
of created it myself. And itwas one is gratitude. And it's like,
(18:52):
what are you grateful for?Like, I was grateful. I still had
a roof over my head. I wasable to put food my. I know I was
getting a cuddle for my child.And that was important to me to that
you're looking at the positiveinstead of the negative. And the
other one was the act offorgiveness. Because with so much
of the things that I had,there was anger there. Like you're
just kind of annoyed withsociety or annoyed with the people
(19:14):
that because they didn't pay,hey, you could have got along for
another few months and maybeeverything came together and it was,
I have to forgive thesepeople. And some are easy and others
because the numbers were big,they were hard. And I kept trying.
And how I actually done it isI brought them back to the child.
I brought the person that Ihad the hatred for back to the child.
I said, we've unconditionallove for a child. And when you look
(19:36):
at a child, child grabs yourfinger, does not matter. It's a beautiful
feeling. And I, I kind of saidokay. External circumstances created
who they are now, which isthey could have alcoholic parents,
abusive parents, they mighthave had very hard working parents,
but they had to do a few jobsand left them out in the wrong crowd
and didn't kept their eye offthe ball. And through that they became
(19:57):
who they are. But by doing itthat way I was able to forgive them.
And what actually did is itreleased it from me because you know,
the memory of pain kind ofpoisonous. And it was like I felt
such a relief from doing that.And I encourage everybody, whether
it's a relationship, whateverit is, forgive. Because what you're
doing is you're actuallyforgiving it from yourself. You're
letting it go.
(20:17):
You know, I love that youbrought that up because you know,
part of the meditation as youknow. And whether you call it meditation,
whether you call itaffirmation, you can, you know, a
lot of times, but it's thepositive talk that you need to say
to yourself and be able tounderstand that, you know, if you
(20:40):
can be grateful for what youhave, you can be grateful for the
health that you have. You canbe grateful for the smallest things.
You know, you could begrateful for the fact that somebody
put and listeners. I'm sureI'm. I've got a pencil in my hand.
It's it looks like a pen, butit's actually a pencil, you know,
but, you know, you could begrateful for the lead that's in the
(21:02):
pencil. Like that. Somebodyput that in there. There's so many
things to be grateful for. Andwhen you start to have that gratitude,
it is amazing, the calmnessthat starts to come over to you and,
and what happens in betweenthe two ears, right? And, and the
only. And one of the biggestways to be. To have that unstoppable
(21:24):
success is by what you say toyourself, right? Like the stories
that we say. So you're, you,you started doing that, you know,
that the, the meditation,being grateful, forgiving. Did you
start, did you. Did you startwriting down a plan? Did you have
(21:45):
an idea as to where you wantedto go?
I remember one of the clientsthat we had the tenement building
with, because that didn't havea mortgage, we were able to kind
of save that one. And what hesaid is, he says, money solves all
problems. You startconcentrating on the income instead
of the. And it was just kindof looking at the different things.
(22:07):
And like one of the commercialproperties, there was a guy that
I had met that I mentionedthat he gave me the advice, he bought
that. So even though I put alot of money into it, I didn't get
anything from it, but I took amassive debt away. So he bought it
on the condition that thedeath was gone. And it just, just
from learning the differentthings just cleared the decks. And.
(22:28):
Yeah, you know, that, that.And like to say on the, the meditations,
the mindfulness is another onethat I do. It's like just being totally
present with what you'redoing. Whereas before you kind of.
You're chugging through lifeor you're chasing the dream, you're
going, oh, when I get this,I'm going to do this. When I get
this, when I. I'm going tohave a bigger house, I'm going to
have a better care. I'm goingto do this. And it's like when you
(22:48):
take a step back and you'relike, I love looking at the birds,
the ants, nature. When I'mwalking, I'm just watching everything.
I'm looking at the trees.Like, I saw something a few months
ago about a tree that peoplewere saying, you talk to the tree
and the tree touches you. AndI read a book, the the Hidden Life
of Trees, a few years ago, andI'm shocked. It's like it's all connected.
And I done that and it touchedmy face. I was like, this is incredible.
(23:09):
And then I was telling my mom,and she was next to me, like, as
in on the phone. And I. Isaid. And she saw it happening, and
it was like, you wouldn'tthink that's possible if somebody
says like, that this. I putyour tinfoil hat on. But just being
totally present, it just makeslife so much better and things slow
down. Like, sometimes peoplesay, how are we able to do so many
things, you know, like sixpodcasts and all the different things
(23:30):
you do? And it's like justbeing totally present as well. I'm
not all over the place. I'mnot trying to scroll through my phone
when I'm doing an edit orsomething like that. I'm just totally
present. And by just beingtotally present, I. I believe time
slows down.
I would probably, you know, Iagree with you on that. It's a time.
(23:53):
It's not that it's. I wouldthink it's it. Because you become
focused on what you're doing.You're able to actually get the things
that are done and you arepresent in it, so you're not being
distracted. The distractioncreates the dizziness, right? Like,
if we can think, you know,about, again, like, you know, present
(24:14):
in what you are doing, not bethinking about, okay, all the other
things that are going on, butreally being able to, you know, like,
listen to the brain as to whatyou are doing right that minute.
Right? So how. How. What stepsdid you have to take to learn, really,
(24:38):
again, to become totallypresent in what you do?
I think it's just beingconscious of it and just like, I
was doing breath work as well.I started just because I. I started
then going to an event. It wasMind Valley and Airfest and things
like that. My experience,breath work from different facilitators.
And I was like, oh, this is.This is nice. And then I got a course
(24:59):
on it, and it was like, I feltthat kind of brings you within. But
then I've felt, I don't needto be doing an hour of this. I don't
need to be. I just be. Take abreath, just take back a pause and
just. Just be present, youknow, Like, I'm. I enjoy cooking.
I like, because I. I think,like, I'm totally present with the
(25:20):
cooking. I'm enjoying puttingthe seasoning on and everything.
And everything I'm doing,whether I'm doing a grill or whatever,
I'm, you know, if I'm playingmy child and I'm playing my child,
I'm doing the differentthings. And it's just I suppose the
more you do it, the more youget. You realize, okay, this, this
is more enjoyable, ratherthan, right, thinking you can multitask
or just like, you know, we'veall been guilty of the phone. And
(25:43):
you scroll away and then youlook and you go, where's the last
three hours gone? And it'slike when you've got a lot of things
that would be more betterserved if you did them, and then
just be conscious of that andtrack it. And like, I removed the
apps on my phone. I justthought as. So I got rid of Instagram,
I got rid of LinkedIn and allthe different things on my phone.
It doesn't mean that I don'tdo them on the computer, but when
(26:03):
I need to, when I see themessage coming in or I go in and
check them on different times.But when you're on the phone, what
happens is you go from one tothe other and you're just. And it's
like, nah, this isn't servingme. And just being conscious of what's
serving you.
All right? And I think that'sactually a really two things that
you just said, I think thatare really key and listeners. I think
that that really helps withthat to helping to be unstoppable
(26:28):
is that you're, you're doingthe things that matter most to you
and that are specific to whereyou want to go and you're not being
distracted with the noise andthat. And that you took the things
off your phone and that, youknow, it's like the schedule time.
Okay, I'm going to go on toFacebook to do this. I'm going to
(26:50):
go on to Instagram and dothat, like my time, whatever that
business time is, you've,you've plotted it on the calendar
or, you know, or it's like,I'm gonna answer email like twice
a day. You know, put the note,like you can even put it on your.
In on your signature. I answeremails twice a day. You know, my
(27:11):
work hours are these times,right. So. And abide by that. And
so that we don't have thatnoise and we don't have that distraction.
I think it's great. I thinkit's brilliant, you know, just not,
you know, and I'll share. Oneof the things that, That I love to
do and I, I did this the otherday is that I had to go on to Facebook.
I was typing an email and Iwanted to put a link to a group to
(27:38):
share, and I, I said tomyself, why you. Why do you keep
going on There to get thegroup, just, just take the copy of
that group. If you're going tobe referencing it a lot, anything
that you're referencing a lot,put it as a text replacement, right?
Like, so find those things. Ifyou are doing that repetitive task
(28:01):
or you're sharing something,find a way that you can either have
a cheat sheet or something soyou're not going onto that social
media when you're not in yourtime slot so you don't get distracted,
right?
I have a Word document withall my X and everything. So when
it's needed, that's what I do.Just copy and paste the different
relevant ones and a mix.Because what happens is you're going
(28:23):
to do, say the group, oh, Imust copy the group of this. You
go in and before you know it,oh, there's a message and then you're
gone. You're like scrolling,you see a reel and you're like, oh.
But one of the thingsactually, because you were asking
about kind of different waysover overcome is you can't have two
emotions at once. So whenpeople are feeling depressed, anxious,
(28:44):
stressed, find what actuallymakes you smile and what cheers you
up, whether it's dancing, puton the music, the songs you like,
and dance away on your own.Don't care. You know, get a book
if you enjoy reading. Like theamount of times I'd say to somebody,
so I love reading, but I don'thave time, I just say, okay, you're
to do it now. I'd encouragethem to. And then you talk to them
a few days later and theyactually listen to you and, and you
(29:05):
can see them, their energylevels are up and everything. And
it's like we tend to just putour joy to the end of all these tasks
and everything. I make sure Iread every day. I love reading. I,
I make sure that's part of myday. So find what you love, you know,
whether it's act or somethinglike that. And like, I, I like with
one of the podcasts I do, I'mexposing fraud and corruption and
(29:25):
sometimes I'm going down darkways that I don't want it, but it's.
I need to kind of expose thisstuff. And what I do is I look at
comedies and stuff like that.That's my escapism. And it's like
I make sure that I have stuffthat I'm present when I'm researching
it and getting it so I can tapin with the emotion, but then I'm
able to tap away. Whereas Iknow some people, they can't and
(29:45):
they actually. They end upkind of stopping, whether it's podcasting
or whatever, because it getstoo dark from. And it's like, don't
do that. If you see somethingthat's doing that, just step away
from it. Don't. Don't letsomething control you. You have to
be in control. So when youhave emotion, just step away and
go, all right, I'm going for awalk in nature. Do something that
you enjoy. And by doing that,you've just switched it. It doesn't
(30:08):
say, oh, tomorrow will bebetter day. Sometimes people say,
I'm having a day. This is justone of them days. You're already
conditioning yourself toaccept that that's the way the day
is going to be instead ofgoing, all right, I'm going to change
this. Have a nice cup ofcoffee or tea, whatever you like,
and just step back and just doa few things that make you feel better.
And before, you know, your dayhas changed.
Yeah, you know, I love that.So that is such a great. That's such
(30:31):
a great thing. Get out intonature. Do the thing. It is like,
if you start to feel thatemotion coming over, that's not.
That's not fueling you walkaway. Find a way. Find the joy. We
do need to find the joy. Ilove that is solicitors. Find the
things and do the things thatgive you joy and put a smile on your
(30:53):
face, because it does. Itchanges your whole affect and it
changes your mood and itchanges your energy. It changes how
people look at you and howpeople. I always say your vibe attracts
your tribe. So what you're.What you're attracting. I absolutely
love that. And something, youknow, and I know this is part of
one of your other businesses,and I think it actually kind of plays
(31:15):
along with what we're talkingabout is, is that if there is something
that you are doing or that'spart of your daily TAs, does not
bring you joy that you canactually hand off to somebody else.
You've got a virtual assistant.
Yeah, it like, say, for thepodcasting, the shorts and the what.
(31:35):
What I kind of do is kind ofreduce the steps. So sometimes people
would say, oh, I'll send thevideo to be then creative with the
shots. I. With all my shows,the way that I do it is I actually
edited myself, but I put inthe show notes and once I upload
the YouTube video, I put itinto a file, shared file. They know
that it's there and then theytake it from there by using Click
(31:58):
Grab. So there's noneUploading, downloading. Because if
you forget the whole processops, then they have access to the
different Facebook groups andshare it. And like, the reason that
I kind of created this, I dida recruitment at one stage when the
Polish were coming to Ireland,I got a recruitment license and I
was placing them in. Inconstruction and different things.
And it was good, it wasworking well. But then when I had
(32:18):
to to Poland, it is kind of,you know, I couldn't run it from
there, but I've hired a lot ofpeople, so I kind of had that experience.
And then I started when I wasdoing the podcast, I. I'd use like,
say, Upwork or Fiverr, and yougo through a lot of them and you'll
be looking at reviews and yougo, all right, I'll try. Yeah, this
seems okay. And they start offgreat. And then it was like. And
(32:39):
then are they doing anything?And it was like, that was annoying
me. I was like, hey. Or withupwork, they'd have the screenshots.
So you go, oh, I see, he'sthere, he's there. And then it's
like, why are they on thispage? Like, say the Polish one all
the time. What's going on? AndI'm convinced they have two computers
and they're just having it setup so that it's just taking screenshots.
And it was like, that's whatwe're kind of doing is we're making
(33:00):
sure that it's not just anhourly basis. I mean, you can do
an hourly basis. And Ilistened to the previous podcast,
the girl getting doingrecruitment from the Philippines,
and she just finds people,which is grand. Some people want
that, but other stone. Somepeople want a package. Okay, this
is what you're doing. This isthe price. So we know what we have
to do, and we know that if wedon't do that, you're not going to
(33:20):
be around next month. We wantto make sure that you're not concentrating
on what we're doing. We have adecent conversation. It's that we
know exactly what it is. Youknow, there might be a bit of tweaking.
There's always a bit oftweaking, you know, expectations
and finding out exactly how weshould do things. And then it's just.
It just runs itself. Andthat's kind of the whole process
of this company. And we. Look,we can do anything, you know, or
(33:42):
even websites, and. And we'retrying to kind of cater for everyone
as well. We're now puttingtogether things like, so websites
for 300 bucks, because you gotsome people that charge you 10 grand
to do a website. I mean,there's different levels obviously,
if you want E commerce, butlike to have a nice website with
a few pages, you know, we'reable to do that for you. And then
we teach you how to edit ityourself and do it. So some companies,
(34:03):
when you're dealing with them,they'll give you a price, but then
they're going, oh, you want tochange a picture or you want to change
text, and they're, they'rejust abusing you, trying to get more
money out of you. And we don'twant to do that. We'd say, look,
this is our rate if we'regoing to do these things. But if
you want to do it, we're goingto teach you how to edit it yourself.
So then it's like if you feel,hey, this serves me, just you just
do it. Here is what I wantdone. That's grand. And if you want
(34:25):
to do it yourself, that'sokay. So we're never out to catch
people. So I'm doing it in away that I like to be treated and
make sure that our clientsare, are looked after.
I absolutely love that. So,listeners, if you haven't figured
this out, a couple things isthat if you want to come back from
the break, you've got toactually be able to spend some time
with your mind and gettingthat in the right, that right place.
(34:50):
Because until you can do that,if you can't and the way you speak
to yourself, you have to beable to speak to yourself with grace
and kindness, know yourgratitude, have mindfulness, be able
to forgive, and then find thejoy in what you do. And if you need
to, if there are things thatyou're doing in your business that
(35:10):
don't suit your personality,maybe it's time to hire a virtual
assistant to be thatunstoppable success. So I could talk
to you forever because I thinkyou're absolutely fascinating. So
how can people connect withyou and learn more about all of your
podcasts, your the VA workthat you do, the Brain Gym.
(35:31):
So I don't know if they'rewatching. They can scan the QR code
or go to roy colin.com that'sgot all my podcasts, all my business.
If they just want the virtualassistant, VA world and the Brain
Gym, Brain Gym Fitness. Andsoon, I'd say by next week, we're
going to have a free bookthat's going to be just by subscribing
to that. And it's good becausehe's just finished it. My business
(35:52):
partner, Arnold Beck is. Andit's, it's kind of, it's a fiction
book, but it's done in a waythat's actually, it's kind of like
our conversation today. Makeit think differently. Think outside
the box. Be creative. And Ithink more people need to start doing
that. Instead of complying andtrying to keep everyone happy without
making yourself happy, youhave to be happy. That's the most
important thing.
(36:13):
That's perfect. I absolutelylove it. So, listeners, do me the
favor. Go to roycollen.com getall the stuff. If you're watching
this on YouTube, obviouslyscan the QR code and get that and
it will actually have all ofthe links also in the show notes.
But I need you to do meanother, another favor Besides going
to roycollin.com you need toclick subscribe. And you also need
(36:34):
to share this podcast withyour friends, your family, your business
associates, and yourcolleagues, because this is information
that I know they need to hear.I am Jacqueline Strominger, your
host. This is unstoppablesuccess. Thank you for listening
and thank you, Roy, for beingan amazing guest.
Thank you very much.Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Well, hello everybody andwelcome to another amazing episode
of Unstoppable Success. I amyour host, Jaclyn Strominger, and
on this podcast we hear fromamazing humans and how they have
had unstoppable success. Thegood, the bad and the ugly. And today
I have an amazing guest, RoyCoughlan. And let me tell you a little
(01:04):
bit about Roy because you aregoing to love his wisdom. He is a
seasoned serial entrepreneurwith an impressive track record of
founding 20 companies acrossfive countries. He's a podcast coach
and host. He has successfullylaunched and driven six podcasts
(01:25):
to the top of the industries,with all consistently ranking in
the top 5% and 4 reaching thatprestigious top 0.5%. In addition
to podcasting, he is the cofounder of Brain Gym Fitness, a platform
dedicated to enhancingcognitive abilities and empowering
individuals to optimize theirmental performance. He's the co founder
(01:48):
of VA World. He connectsclients with perfect virtual assistants.
But more than anything, youare going to want to hear because
Roy has lost everything andgained it all. Back with again, unstoppable
Success. So welcome to thepodcast, Roy.
Thank you very much for havingme. I'm looking forward to the conversation.
Yeah. So Roy, okay, so firstof all, you know, used you shared
(02:11):
you, you have had, you got 20country. Oh my God companies, five
different countries. So howdid you start all of those and go
to all the different countries?
So I wasn't living in all thecountries, so, but I, I've kind of
why I class myself as a serialentrepreneur. When I was nine, I
(02:34):
started washing cars, doing abit of gardening, delivering leaflets.
At 11, I did a newspaperround, so I was doing newspapers.
I did that up to college. WhenI was 14, the money from the newspapers,
I bought a lawnmower. So Iwent around cutting grass. And then
I had people working with meand what I would do is the people
with me, I give them a third.I'd say a third for you, third for
me, and a third for the upkeepof the lawnmower. That's the way
(02:54):
I did when I was 18, I, I wasinto motorbikes. And then I kind
of thought, oh, I can spruceup a motorbike. I'd buy a motorbike,
maybe paint it, fix it up abit, sell it a few days later, make
a couple hundred bucks. And Iwas doing that for a while as well.
And then I studiedconstruction, economics and management,
worked for a mechanicalcontractor. They're the biggest mechanical
(03:15):
contractor now. They were thesecond at the time and kind of worked
my way up to contracts.Manager. I was running a lot of jobs,
you know, multi million poundjobs and done very well. And even
when I was working with them,I set up another company doing Internet,
Internet convergence I think Icalled it. It was doing web design.
So me and another guy, westarted doing that. It done a bit
(03:36):
all right and then just kindof ran its course and just kind of
closed it down and, and then Iwent to another company and became
a regional manager, amechanical electrical contractor.
And during that time then I, Istarted dating a Polish girl and
when I visited her parents Isaid, oh, properties okay here, property
cheap. So I started buying afew and then I saw a potential. So
(03:57):
I set up a company, I set upan Irish company, then I set up a
Polish company for, it wasreally for Irish investors. But in
the end I got English Americanand I got. And I built a kind of
big company because I had 14people on my books at one stage.
I had a big commercial. I wasbuilding apartments, I built 30 apartments,
I built houses and I wasmanaging over 200 properties. Done
(04:18):
loads of renovations. Becausehow it started off as people would
say, okay, yeah, we'reinterested in the property. And then
they say, yeah, but we need itrenovated. Oh, I can do that. We,
we need it fitted out infurniture. Oh, I can do that. And
then we need it managed. Oh, Ican do that. And it just kind of,
it was never kind of planned.It just said, oh, this is good. And
then it was kind of organizinginsurance and everything. So there
(04:39):
was a lot of kind knock ondifferent things that I was doing
and it was going well. I hadsyndicates for all the different
things for the commercial, forthe, the, the, the, the buildings
that I was doing. And I waslike the small boy. I had three properties
in Ireland at that stage, so Iwas worth maybe a million at that
stage. And the people that Igot involved were worth 10 million,
maybe 20 million. They had alot of assets and everything was
(05:03):
going well. Then the crashhappened and it took a while to come
across. Then they got introuble and I thought, I just assumed
it would come right or they'dget us all sorted. And I started
putting more of my money intoit, saying, look, when you get it,
because we had a mortgage onthe commercial, just pay me and I
charge a 10% interest and Iwasn't going to kick them. And they
didn't get it right. Andeventually I started getting into
(05:25):
trouble and I asked the bank,hey, can I have interest only? And
they said no. The minute Imissed the payment in Poland, they
Came in, sending the bailiffsin Ireland, I had interest only,
and they were all cashpositive. And the banks joined this
time, decided to chargeinterest and repayments. And I said,
hey, I can't do this. It'sgoing from making about 500 bucks
(05:45):
per property to minus athousand per property. And they didn't
care. So everything kind ofcame tumbling down. And usually with
a limited liability company,you'd kind of go, yeah, lessons learned.
Let's kind of get back up andgo. But I was the president of a
lot of companies, and insteadof making about 5 million, that's
(06:07):
where I was kind of going withall the different things. Because
on paper, with thedevelopments I was doing, I had a
lot of properties with sharesin it. And I. Because I was the president,
I was personally liable. Soeveryone else just kind of. They.
They were dealing with theirown problems, left me on my own.
And through that, then I hadabout 100 court cases personally.
(06:27):
L. For like, 5 million is thedebt that I had on the thing. And
I. Yeah, so I had to gothrough that. And then kind of saw
so much corruption. Bailiffsworking with valuers. Yeah, bailiffs
bribing people. Like in thehousing project, when that was for
sale, they had their owncronies. They bribed people in the
(06:49):
room so they wouldn't bid onthe project. I didn't go in. I was
advised. Not that I got goodadvice, not from solicitors or accounting,
but from an entrepreneur whocame and asked about one of the projects.
And usually when you're goingthrough kind of loss, you kind of
don't even want to talk topeople. But that's not my character.
So I said Yakman met him, cameto my premises, had a coffee, and
I was showing them all thedrawings, and he gave me tips on
(07:12):
how to protect myself. Andtrue that then, but with. With all
the court cases, I saw thecorruption in the courts as well.
Everything they were doing, itwas like this. This is wrong. The
city, how the city operated.So that kind of built up my strength,
you know, it was a hard time,obviously, to go through. I lost
my. All my houses in Ireland,including my personal belongings.
They just locked up the doorand. Yeah, and I went to a high court
(07:34):
in Ireland. I had eight casesthere, fighting for one of the things.
And I just saw so muchcorruption there as well. I was like,
what's going on? So I'll givean example. In Ireland, there was
one. One of the people I waslistening. So it's not like you just
have A plaintiff defendantwith their solicitors. And it was
like you have one judge andyou could have 100, 150 people there.
(07:55):
They were mainly barristerswho were the high end attorneys and
most people didn't even turnup. I, I was representing myself
because I'd lost everything atthat stage. But there was one case
I was listening to and theysaid, we got KPMG to investigate
the interest rates. We wereovercharged 15,000 Euro. And he just
said, when was that? Two yearsago. He said you should have took
it up with them. Then bangedrule in favor of the bank plus interest
(08:17):
plus penalties. Every singlecase was like that. And the way that
it's done is there's anaffidavit which is a sworn statement.
I didn't even know what anaffidavit was. I had to ask somebody,
what's an affidavit? So theymade this sworn statement about a
property that I had andbasically how the market went. This
Property was worth €400,000and then it dropped to €125,000.
(08:40):
I mean that shouldn't happen.You know, that's like, that's just
the way they stop lending.They were troll money. If you're
the pulse, you got a, you gota mortgage and then they just even
a few 50, right? A few 50%. I,I knew people in Poland did 50% payment,
they couldn't get a mortgage.So it just shows they, they turned
off the tap. So on thisproperty, eventually it kind of came
up as I was still trying tofight through, you know, I was getting
(09:02):
money coming in from differentthings. I was trying to. Before they,
they actually took it off me.And what, what I said is I had an
offer of 200,000 on a 220mortgage and I said full on fines,
that full and finalsettlement. And they refused and
they sold it for less. Andthen they came after me for the excess.
Yeah, they sold it for 165.
And my gosh.
(09:24):
Yeah, so true that. Then Icreated my affidavit and what I had
on it was one does abillionaire, Dennis O', Brien, he
got a 300 million write offfrom the same bank. I said, you give
him a write off and he doesn'tneed it. He's a billionaire and he
wouldn't give it to me. I hadworked the bank were fraudulent,
they were on telly. There wassomebody done a documentary where
they were doing insurancefraud. I put that into my affidavit
(09:47):
and a lot of other things andthey could never respond to my affidavit.
So each time a differentjudge, they're just getting your
file, they're just looking atit for like a minute, two minutes,
and your life is on the linebased on this, that you're personally
liable for a lot of money. Andusually I like, there was some nice
job, maybe two of the eightwere nice, but a lot of times they
(10:08):
were attacking me and thebarristers were nasty and I just,
I don't know, something wouldcome into me and I just say something
and they go, all right, solet's come back. And it's a different
judge. And the seventh guy, hesaid, what's going on here? Why haven't
you responded to hisaffidavit? Because legally they're
supposed to, because that's mysworn statement. And they're supposed
to say, hey, he's wrong, or.And they couldn't because I was 100%
(10:28):
right. And he said, I'mawarding them 1400 Euro travel expenses
and you better respond withinthree weeks or there'll be serious
consequences. So I went awayhappy hours, came back thinking,
I'm going to win, this isgoing to be grand, different judge.
And like, you started off, Idon't know, is it 9:30 or something
(10:48):
like that in the morning andsame thing, a room full of people,
if I don't turn up, they justrule against me. So I have to be
there. And the judge startsand he goes, oh, this is going to
take longer. We'll do it atthe. After lunch. So I still have
to stay there. Then afterlunch he starts about 15 minutes
because now it's taking toolong. We wait later. So it was nearly
six o' clock that he'd done mycase. The, the barrister for the
(11:13):
bank started going through thewhole thing, then it was my turn
and the judge kept stoppingme, like he wouldn't even let me
talk. And somebody stood upand said, hey, what's going on here?
He says, you related to him?They said, no. They said, you'll
get out if you do that again.And I was like, I said, this is so
wrong. And in the end he justruled in favor of the banks, but
then he went to go forinterest and penalties. And I said,
hey, I'm fighting this for twoyears or whatever it was at the time,
(11:36):
year and a half, I can'tremember. And I said, they've never
responded to my affidavit. Andhe says, fair enough. So he actually
ruled, no interest, nopenalties. It was the only win that
I had seen in the whole eighttimes I was. And I mean there could
be 100 cases when I'm therelistening. And so I was thinking,
I'm going to the EU aboutthis. I said, this is total fraud.
And what I found out when Itried to do that is you have to appeal.
(11:58):
And the way it works inIreland, some countries, if you have
a case like that, it doesn'tgo above that amount. The amount
it was like I think 68,000 orsomething like that, euro, the amount.
But it could have been like300,000 if I had lost on the, the
interest in the. Because theseguys charge 10g a day. Like so you
know, it's expensive, thesebarristers. And what happens, they
(12:21):
said I have to re. Applyappeal. But what it does is it opens
it back up. So not only. So itwould be 68 plus all of the other
one, plus the new one. And Isaid I'm fighting corruption, so
you could be like 68 versushalf a million. And I just said no.
And then true that. Then Ikind of, I started getting going
(12:41):
down the route of learningsovereignty, common law and going
how are they doing this to us?How are they actually controlling
us in such a way that they'renot looking after the individual,
that they're actually,they're. They're corrupt in every
single thing they're doing andjust true that. Then I kind of, I'd
encourage everyone to kind ofstart learning this, learning the
(13:02):
power of the signature,learning when they're writing, check
as they'll write to me, sayMr. Roy Colin or all capitals Roy
Colin. And that's not me,that's a copper identity. So when
you figure that out, theycan't prove that you're a living
soul. And it might soundstupid, but I. Because I know everyone
is going through this kind ofthing internationally. I've seen
(13:24):
it everywhere, the way thatthey do these things. Look at letters
that you're getting from themand are they writing to you like
a normal person? And it'susually Mr. Are all capitals. And
that's corporate entity. Andyou just figure out that and then
try to learn how to write tothem and different things. I cover
that in one of my podcasts. Iget a person on once a month at least.
(13:44):
And I'm just different waysof. Like even with GDPR and assure
in the States what way isthem. But in Europe GDPR is like
data protection. So even ifthey're passing your information
on to the bailiff, not alloweddata protection. And it's like when
you know these things, theyjust back off. And I've used that
because I've had so manycases. They had like, I mean I'd
had my accounts emptied andeverything. So once I started learning
(14:05):
this, at one stage went to abar stop. I started using that. They're
just gone, disappeared.Another time a court again. They
tried to get me to come in forsomething else use that I never heard
again. I thought atdetectives. I've had cases where
I had a criminal case againstme for a building that we had is.
It was a tenement building andwhen we run out of money, we couldn't
pay for the water and stufflike that. Tenants weren't paying,
(14:28):
so the water company turned itoff and they claimed that I done
it intentionally so I wouldnever do that. And they tried to
give me three years in jailfrom that. Yeah, and I won that as
well. But it's like when yougo through these things, they just
attack you from everydirection and you just have to learn,
you have to learn their rulesbecause they're playing games, you're
(14:51):
not into them and you have to.You think a solicitor will actually
have your back and understandeverything or even accountants. Every
time I've done something, itwas actually my own knowledge and
trying to understand things.Even if I had like I had to have
somebody with me for thecriminal case because that was like
scaring me. It was like what'sgoing on here? And the reason I won
was I was passing informationor just whispering to the, my solicitor
(15:15):
saying hey, say to say thatlike I catch molten lies and ended
up winning. But a lot ofpeople when they're in court or whatever,
they're just, they're justsame as an accountant, they just
pass it off or like give theirbucket of receipts to the accountant
thinking he's your bestinterest. Same in court. Just listen.
You have to look after yourown business. You have to look after
(15:35):
everybody.
You know, Roy, this isactually really interesting. So you
know you've been through alot, right? Like, I mean that's like,
like, like that, like all thatyou've gone through, you know, all
the court cases. But, butit's, it's a huge life lesson and,
and listeners, I think this issomething that I really want to make
sure that everybodyunderstands and I, and I'm going
(15:57):
to share that, that somethinghappened the other day with me and
one of the businesses that Ihave, that this really came true
and really important. You haveto really educate yourself and you
have to be your best advocateand if you're going to be unstoppable,
(16:19):
you have to you have to getthe knowledge, like you have, as
you said, shared. Like you'repassing information to the solicitor.
You know, don't just be abystander, you know, you have to
be there fighting. And it, andit's the same again also, like in
medicine, like, you know, ifyou go to the doctor, don't just
take their word for it. Youhave to fight for yourself. If somebody
(16:42):
says to you you can't get a,you know, a doctor appointment for
six months, fight it. Likethere are ways you can get in. Trust
me, I know. Or don't justtake, don't just take the answer.
You have to educate yourself.Because just because they may have
a title doesn't mean they're right.
(17:04):
Absolutely. And like a lot ofpeople, put too much trust in the
white coats. And what you needto do is find alternatives because
they block all thealternatives. And you start looking
at how I can do this. And evenif you get a diagnosis, go to a different
one, go to a naturopath orsomething like that, just get alternatives.
There's some that can checkyour eyes and see what's going on.
(17:26):
And a lot of the times it'ssomething natural instead of cutting
parts of your body out,because once you do that, it's hard
to go back.
Right. It's so true. So, soRoy, you know, you're so, you're,
you're at this point, right,and you're having all this stuff
at you, like how have you. Andwhat are this, what are the steps
(17:47):
that you had to take to come back?
Well, one of the things I, Isuppose is during it, because a lot
of people, they, they kind ofthink of the lack or the stress from
the situation. Like at thetime when I was going through this,
like banks or credit cardcompanies or stuff like that, when
(18:09):
things were bad, like they'reringing you daily, abusing you and
like when you're out of money,like, that's not good for your health
when they're doing that. Imean, I don't know, are they still
alone? Don't do that. But I'dsay they are because, I mean, they
have one floor that's thrownout the money. The next floor to
be as soon as you miss apayment there. And then they have
somebody that's just, oh, theypassed it to the death level and
(18:29):
they're just, you know,abusing you. So the, the one thing
is stop thinking of lack. Stopthinking of what you've missed and
what's gone. You, you're notgoing to help yourself with Doing
that. So like I started, I. Icame across a thing called the six
phase meditation. And it was aguided meditation. And then I kind
of created it myself. And itwas one is gratitude. And it's like,
(18:52):
what are you grateful for?Like, I was grateful. I still had
a roof over my head. I wasable to put food my. I know I was
getting a cuddle for my child.And that was important to me to that
you're looking at the positiveinstead of the negative. And the
other one was the act offorgiveness. Because with so much
of the things that I had,there was anger there. Like you're
just kind of annoyed withsociety or annoyed with the people
(19:14):
that because they didn't pay,hey, you could have got along for
another few months and maybeeverything came together and it was,
I have to forgive thesepeople. And some are easy and others
because the numbers were big,they were hard. And I kept trying.
And how I actually done it isI brought them back to the child.
I brought the person that Ihad the hatred for back to the child.
I said, we've unconditionallove for a child. And when you look
(19:36):
at a child, child grabs yourfinger, does not matter. It's a beautiful
feeling. And I, I kind of saidokay. External circumstances created
who they are now, which isthey could have alcoholic parents,
abusive parents, they mighthave had very hard working parents,
but they had to do a few jobsand left them out in the wrong crowd
and didn't kept their eye offthe ball. And through that they became
(19:57):
who they are. But by doing itthat way I was able to forgive them.
And what actually did is itreleased it from me because you know,
the memory of pain kind ofpoisonous. And it was like I felt
such a relief from doing that.And I encourage everybody, whether
it's a relationship, whateverit is, forgive. Because what you're
doing is you're actuallyforgiving it from yourself. You're
letting it go.
(20:17):
You know, I love that youbrought that up because you know,
part of the meditation as youknow. And whether you call it meditation,
whether you call itaffirmation, you can, you know, a
lot of times, but it's thepositive talk that you need to say
to yourself and be able tounderstand that, you know, if you
(20:40):
can be grateful for what youhave, you can be grateful for the
health that you have. You canbe grateful for the smallest things.
You know, you could begrateful for the fact that somebody
put and listeners. I'm sureI'm. I've got a pencil in my hand.
It's it looks like a pen, butit's actually a pencil, you know,
but, you know, you could begrateful for the lead that's in the
(21:02):
pencil. Like that. Somebodyput that in there. There's so many
things to be grateful for. Andwhen you start to have that gratitude,
it is amazing, the calmnessthat starts to come over to you and,
and what happens in betweenthe two ears, right? And, and the
only. And one of the biggestways to be. To have that unstoppable
(21:24):
success is by what you say toyourself, right? Like the stories
that we say. So you're, you,you started doing that, you know,
that the, the meditation,being grateful, forgiving. Did you
start, did you. Did you startwriting down a plan? Did you have
(21:45):
an idea as to where you wantedto go?
I remember one of the clientsthat we had the tenement building
with, because that didn't havea mortgage, we were able to kind
of save that one. And what hesaid is, he says, money solves all
problems. You startconcentrating on the income instead
of the. And it was just kindof looking at the different things.
(22:07):
And like one of the commercialproperties, there was a guy that
I had met that I mentionedthat he gave me the advice, he bought
that. So even though I put alot of money into it, I didn't get
anything from it, but I took amassive debt away. So he bought it
on the condition that thedeath was gone. And it just, just
from learning the differentthings just cleared the decks. And.
(22:28):
Yeah, you know, that, that.And like to say on the, the meditations,
the mindfulness is another onethat I do. It's like just being totally
present with what you'redoing. Whereas before you kind of.
You're chugging through lifeor you're chasing the dream, you're
going, oh, when I get this,I'm going to do this. When I get
this, when I. I'm going tohave a bigger house, I'm going to
have a better care. I'm goingto do this. And it's like when you
(22:48):
take a step back and you'relike, I love looking at the birds,
the ants, nature. When I'mwalking, I'm just watching everything.
I'm looking at the trees.Like, I saw something a few months
ago about a tree that peoplewere saying, you talk to the tree
and the tree touches you. AndI read a book, the the Hidden Life
of Trees, a few years ago, andI'm shocked. It's like it's all connected.
And I done that and it touchedmy face. I was like, this is incredible.
(23:09):
And then I was telling my mom,and she was next to me, like, as
in on the phone. And I. Isaid. And she saw it happening, and
it was like, you wouldn'tthink that's possible if somebody
says like, that this. I putyour tinfoil hat on. But just being
totally present, it just makeslife so much better and things slow
down. Like, sometimes peoplesay, how are we able to do so many
things, you know, like sixpodcasts and all the different things
(23:30):
you do? And it's like justbeing totally present as well. I'm
not all over the place. I'mnot trying to scroll through my phone
when I'm doing an edit orsomething like that. I'm just totally
present. And by just beingtotally present, I. I believe time
slows down.
I would probably, you know, Iagree with you on that. It's a time.
(23:53):
It's not that it's. I wouldthink it's it. Because you become
focused on what you're doing.You're able to actually get the things
that are done and you arepresent in it, so you're not being
distracted. The distractioncreates the dizziness, right? Like,
if we can think, you know,about, again, like, you know, present
(24:14):
in what you are doing, not bethinking about, okay, all the other
things that are going on, butreally being able to, you know, like,
listen to the brain as to whatyou are doing right that minute.
Right? So how. How. What stepsdid you have to take to learn, really,
(24:38):
again, to become totallypresent in what you do?
I think it's just beingconscious of it and just like, I
was doing breath work as well.I started just because I. I started
then going to an event. It wasMind Valley and Airfest and things
like that. My experience,breath work from different facilitators.
And I was like, oh, this is.This is nice. And then I got a course
(24:59):
on it, and it was like, I feltthat kind of brings you within. But
then I've felt, I don't needto be doing an hour of this. I don't
need to be. I just be. Take abreath, just take back a pause and
just. Just be present, youknow, Like, I'm. I enjoy cooking.
I like, because I. I think,like, I'm totally present with the
(25:20):
cooking. I'm enjoying puttingthe seasoning on and everything.
And everything I'm doing,whether I'm doing a grill or whatever,
I'm, you know, if I'm playingmy child and I'm playing my child,
I'm doing the differentthings. And it's just I suppose the
more you do it, the more youget. You realize, okay, this, this
is more enjoyable, ratherthan, right, thinking you can multitask
or just like, you know, we'veall been guilty of the phone. And
(25:43):
you scroll away and then youlook and you go, where's the last
three hours gone? And it'slike when you've got a lot of things
that would be more betterserved if you did them, and then
just be conscious of that andtrack it. And like, I removed the
apps on my phone. I justthought as. So I got rid of Instagram,
I got rid of LinkedIn and allthe different things on my phone.
It doesn't mean that I don'tdo them on the computer, but when
(26:03):
I need to, when I see themessage coming in or I go in and
check them on different times.But when you're on the phone, what
happens is you go from one tothe other and you're just. And it's
like, nah, this isn't servingme. And just being conscious of what's
serving you.
All right? And I think that'sactually a really two things that
you just said, I think thatare really key and listeners. I think
that that really helps withthat to helping to be unstoppable
(26:28):
is that you're, you're doingthe things that matter most to you
and that are specific to whereyou want to go and you're not being
distracted with the noise andthat. And that you took the things
off your phone and that, youknow, it's like the schedule time.
Okay, I'm going to go on toFacebook to do this. I'm going to
(26:50):
go on to Instagram and dothat, like my time, whatever that
business time is, you've,you've plotted it on the calendar
or, you know, or it's like,I'm gonna answer email like twice
a day. You know, put the note,like you can even put it on your.
In on your signature. I answeremails twice a day. You know, my
(27:11):
work hours are these times,right. So. And abide by that. And
so that we don't have thatnoise and we don't have that distraction.
I think it's great. I thinkit's brilliant, you know, just not,
you know, and I'll share. Oneof the things that, That I love to
do and I, I did this the otherday is that I had to go on to Facebook.
I was typing an email and Iwanted to put a link to a group to
(27:38):
share, and I, I said tomyself, why you. Why do you keep
going on There to get thegroup, just, just take the copy of
that group. If you're going tobe referencing it a lot, anything
that you're referencing a lot,put it as a text replacement, right?
Like, so find those things. Ifyou are doing that repetitive task
(28:01):
or you're sharing something,find a way that you can either have
a cheat sheet or something soyou're not going onto that social
media when you're not in yourtime slot so you don't get distracted,
right?
I have a Word document withall my X and everything. So when
it's needed, that's what I do.Just copy and paste the different
relevant ones and a mix.Because what happens is you're going
(28:23):
to do, say the group, oh, Imust copy the group of this. You
go in and before you know it,oh, there's a message and then you're
gone. You're like scrolling,you see a reel and you're like, oh.
But one of the thingsactually, because you were asking
about kind of different waysover overcome is you can't have two
emotions at once. So whenpeople are feeling depressed, anxious,
(28:44):
stressed, find what actuallymakes you smile and what cheers you
up, whether it's dancing, puton the music, the songs you like,
and dance away on your own.Don't care. You know, get a book
if you enjoy reading. Like theamount of times I'd say to somebody,
so I love reading, but I don'thave time, I just say, okay, you're
to do it now. I'd encouragethem to. And then you talk to them
a few days later and theyactually listen to you and, and you
(29:05):
can see them, their energylevels are up and everything. And
it's like we tend to just putour joy to the end of all these tasks
and everything. I make sure Iread every day. I love reading. I,
I make sure that's part of myday. So find what you love, you know,
whether it's act or somethinglike that. And like, I, I like with
one of the podcasts I do, I'mexposing fraud and corruption and
(29:25):
sometimes I'm going down darkways that I don't want it, but it's.
I need to kind of expose thisstuff. And what I do is I look at
comedies and stuff like that.That's my escapism. And it's like
I make sure that I have stuffthat I'm present when I'm researching
it and getting it so I can tapin with the emotion, but then I'm
able to tap away. Whereas Iknow some people, they can't and
(29:45):
they actually. They end upkind of stopping, whether it's podcasting
or whatever, because it getstoo dark from. And it's like, don't
do that. If you see somethingthat's doing that, just step away
from it. Don't. Don't letsomething control you. You have to
be in control. So when youhave emotion, just step away and
go, all right, I'm going for awalk in nature. Do something that
you enjoy. And by doing that,you've just switched it. It doesn't
(30:08):
say, oh, tomorrow will bebetter day. Sometimes people say,
I'm having a day. This is justone of them days. You're already
conditioning yourself toaccept that that's the way the day
is going to be instead ofgoing, all right, I'm going to change
this. Have a nice cup ofcoffee or tea, whatever you like,
and just step back and just doa few things that make you feel better.
And before, you know, your dayhas changed.
Yeah, you know, I love that.So that is such a great. That's such
(30:31):
a great thing. Get out intonature. Do the thing. It is like,
if you start to feel thatemotion coming over, that's not.
That's not fueling you walkaway. Find a way. Find the joy. We
do need to find the joy. Ilove that is solicitors. Find the
things and do the things thatgive you joy and put a smile on your
(30:53):
face, because it does. Itchanges your whole affect and it
changes your mood and itchanges your energy. It changes how
people look at you and howpeople. I always say your vibe attracts
your tribe. So what you're.What you're attracting. I absolutely
love that. And something, youknow, and I know this is part of
one of your other businesses,and I think it actually kind of plays
(31:15):
along with what we're talkingabout is, is that if there is something
that you are doing or that'spart of your daily TAs, does not
bring you joy that you canactually hand off to somebody else.
You've got a virtual assistant.
Yeah, it like, say, for thepodcasting, the shorts and the what.
(31:35):
What I kind of do is kind ofreduce the steps. So sometimes people
would say, oh, I'll send thevideo to be then creative with the
shots. I. With all my shows,the way that I do it is I actually
edited myself, but I put inthe show notes and once I upload
the YouTube video, I put itinto a file, shared file. They know
that it's there and then theytake it from there by using Click
(31:58):
Grab. So there's noneUploading, downloading. Because if
you forget the whole processops, then they have access to the
different Facebook groups andshare it. And like, the reason that
I kind of created this, I dida recruitment at one stage when the
Polish were coming to Ireland,I got a recruitment license and I
was placing them in. Inconstruction and different things.
And it was good, it wasworking well. But then when I had
(32:18):
to to Poland, it is kind of,you know, I couldn't run it from
there, but I've hired a lot ofpeople, so I kind of had that experience.
And then I started when I wasdoing the podcast, I. I'd use like,
say, Upwork or Fiverr, and yougo through a lot of them and you'll
be looking at reviews and yougo, all right, I'll try. Yeah, this
seems okay. And they start offgreat. And then it was like. And
(32:39):
then are they doing anything?And it was like, that was annoying
me. I was like, hey. Or withupwork, they'd have the screenshots.
So you go, oh, I see, he'sthere, he's there. And then it's
like, why are they on thispage? Like, say the Polish one all
the time. What's going on? AndI'm convinced they have two computers
and they're just having it setup so that it's just taking screenshots.
And it was like, that's whatwe're kind of doing is we're making
(33:00):
sure that it's not just anhourly basis. I mean, you can do
an hourly basis. And Ilistened to the previous podcast,
the girl getting doingrecruitment from the Philippines,
and she just finds people,which is grand. Some people want
that, but other stone. Somepeople want a package. Okay, this
is what you're doing. This isthe price. So we know what we have
to do, and we know that if wedon't do that, you're not going to
(33:20):
be around next month. We wantto make sure that you're not concentrating
on what we're doing. We have adecent conversation. It's that we
know exactly what it is. Youknow, there might be a bit of tweaking.
There's always a bit oftweaking, you know, expectations
and finding out exactly how weshould do things. And then it's just.
It just runs itself. Andthat's kind of the whole process
of this company. And we. Look,we can do anything, you know, or
(33:42):
even websites, and. And we'retrying to kind of cater for everyone
as well. We're now puttingtogether things like, so websites
for 300 bucks, because you gotsome people that charge you 10 grand
to do a website. I mean,there's different levels obviously,
if you want E commerce, butlike to have a nice website with
a few pages, you know, we'reable to do that for you. And then
we teach you how to edit ityourself and do it. So some companies,
(34:03):
when you're dealing with them,they'll give you a price, but then
they're going, oh, you want tochange a picture or you want to change
text, and they're, they'rejust abusing you, trying to get more
money out of you. And we don'twant to do that. We'd say, look,
this is our rate if we'regoing to do these things. But if
you want to do it, we're goingto teach you how to edit it yourself.
So then it's like if you feel,hey, this serves me, just you just
do it. Here is what I wantdone. That's grand. And if you want
(34:25):
to do it yourself, that'sokay. So we're never out to catch
people. So I'm doing it in away that I like to be treated and
make sure that our clientsare, are looked after.
I absolutely love that. So,listeners, if you haven't figured
this out, a couple things isthat if you want to come back from
the break, you've got toactually be able to spend some time
with your mind and gettingthat in the right, that right place.
(34:50):
Because until you can do that,if you can't and the way you speak
to yourself, you have to beable to speak to yourself with grace
and kindness, know yourgratitude, have mindfulness, be able
to forgive, and then find thejoy in what you do. And if you need
to, if there are things thatyou're doing in your business that
(35:10):
don't suit your personality,maybe it's time to hire a virtual
assistant to be thatunstoppable success. So I could talk
to you forever because I thinkyou're absolutely fascinating. So
how can people connect withyou and learn more about all of your
podcasts, your the VA workthat you do, the Brain Gym.
(35:31):
So I don't know if they'rewatching. They can scan the QR code
or go to roy colin.com that'sgot all my podcasts, all my business.
If they just want the virtualassistant, VA world and the Brain
Gym, Brain Gym Fitness. Andsoon, I'd say by next week, we're
going to have a free bookthat's going to be just by subscribing
to that. And it's good becausehe's just finished it. My business
(35:52):
partner, Arnold Beck is. Andit's, it's kind of, it's a fiction
book, but it's done in a waythat's actually, it's kind of like
our conversation today. Makeit think differently. Think outside
the box. Be creative. And Ithink more people need to start doing
that. Instead of complying andtrying to keep everyone happy without
making yourself happy, youhave to be happy. That's the most
important thing.
(36:13):
That's perfect. I absolutelylove it. So, listeners, do me the
favor. Go to roycollen.com getall the stuff. If you're watching
this on YouTube, obviouslyscan the QR code and get that and
it will actually have all ofthe links also in the show notes.
But I need you to do meanother, another favor Besides going
to roycollin.com you need toclick subscribe. And you also need
(36:34):
to share this podcast withyour friends, your family, your business
associates, and yourcolleagues, because this is information
that I know they need to hear.I am Jacqueline Strominger, your
host. This is unstoppablesuccess. Thank you for listening
and thank you, Roy, for beingan amazing guest.
Thank you very much.Thoroughly enjoyed it.
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