A quote that I want to use that he said to me the other day when we sat down, I pretty much spent about three days with you now, planning to do this podcast for three days, we [inaudible 00:05:24] seminars, but just pretty much hanging out, he said, “I want to get up and just rip the face off everything.” That’s pretty much his attitude to life and the reason that I wanted you to hear from him so much is he has three little kids, a five-year old, a two-year old, and a little three-month old, he’s just like a little pudding man, I love that kid, and he’s running this business and he’s not settling. He’s got a great wife. He’s got a great life. He’s got a great business and he’s every single day trying to be better. His whole message in life is to create better people, so make people be better.

Everyone that walks into his space and comes into his life, he sees how great they can be in their life and he brings it out in them in a way that’s not like telling them what to do, and then somehow in a way that makes them think that the idea came from them as well. It’s just amazing and I am going to sit here and talk for the next 20 minutes about him rather than talk to him. Just kind of what I’m doing, but that’s who this guy is. I’m so excited to have him here. I am loving Tamworth mainly because of him and his family, and his gym, but I think Tamworth’s a pretty amazing place. If you are driving past, come in to Fit 2 Function, but Brady, thank you so much for being in the podcast.

Brady Walker: Thanks so much for having me. It’s very humbling you actually show up to hear those things and how you perceive the business, it’s really humbling, I appreciate it.

Jane Erbacher: No, my pleasure. I want to read a little quote, if you’re not already and I want you to pause the podcast right now. I want you to jump on Instagram and follow him. It’s F2F Functional Training, and I came across you because my old gym was named something very similar. I think I just add you one day when I was like typing something in, I was like, “Who is this guy?”

Brady Walker: It’s all too weird.

Jane Erbacher: It’s all too weird, but he did this post the other day and I love his posts. He’s one of those pages that I actually look up if it doesn’t come up in my feed, because Instagram just decides to tell me what’s happening in the world. I have to look up Brady and he did this post the other day and he wrote, “An understanding that it doesn’t need to be an obligation, that it doesn’t need to be a negative in life. There’s always going to be tough times and in those moments it’s going to be easier to stop and give in to pressure. No development comes through submission. You will always be holding yourself back in weak and easy choices. Take yourself away from comfort and in those moments of pressure develop yourself, fight for you and understand that worth.”

That message is exactly the message that he sends through everything he does, through a conversation with you, when he delivers a class, when he speaks to people walking down the street, when he’s training somebody, and through his social media. That’s the message he has for you in life, that we can walk away from something when it gets too hard or we can stay there and we can fight, and we can make our life better. No one’s making you do it, you get to choose that.

I’m just going to keep talking about you because I just love you so much, but the first thing I want to ask you, so that this isn’t just a complete fanfest, which is kind of what I’ve started right now, I want to ask you what led you to now? How did this all begin? We did have a phone conversation months ago, where I think I asked you how you knew there was more to your life? How did all of that idea come about?

Brady Walker: I suppose I’ve just been restless. I’ve always been restless, and I’ve never known where I fit into things, and not in the sense that I wasn’t happy or anything like that. I was always happy. I was never one of those people that hated my life on any level. I never rolled up to my previous jobs or anything thinking this is the worst thing and dragging my heels. I still had energy for it and I still enjoyed it, but there was always just something missing, and it was for me … I had a company car and I had the 74K or whatever package and all those sorts of things that people say, “Oh, you’re doing well.” As I said it wasn’t anything that I hated, but it was just something that never quite stuck with me, there always needed to be something else.

There was evening times when I was managing staff or anything like that, it was still … I still felt restricted, in the sense that I had to ask someone to implement something that I thought might have been of value or still had to go through a certain process because of the corporate red tape type set-up or a documentation process to help people, rather than just being able to sit down and bust out what was actually going on and figure it out. I just felt stuck. I felt stuck in that format and having to fill up. I never had the freedoms. I never really felt like anyone under me cared about what we were doing anyway, enough to really turn up and want to be better at what they were doing, because they probably had never put that time into themselves to figure out where they may have been at with things. Everyone works with colleagues and whatnot. They do drag their heels to work every day and they give impact on the people that are cool or are happy or are satisfied to a point. I needed something else.

F2F really came about through a number of things and it was … I wouldn’t have said on 11th hour because it may have taken other shapes and forms, but we had our second baby on the way and it was a situation, Jess, my wife, who you’ve mentioned is a physio and we had a second baby on the way. We really weren’t sure about where we were headed. Jess, at the time … I was at uni still doing a bit and Jess was the main breadwinner predominantly. That obviously couldn’t continue with the second baby on the way, and I needed to do something. My previous background has been trade industrial, sort of waste water and whatnot. I’ve always done this on the side and PT and a few other things about facilities management, but it was either that I needed to get back into that or really pursue this and get serious about, knowing that it was back myself and have a crack.

Jane Erbacher: Why did you choose fitness, do you think?

Brady Walker: It’s just … it’s the perfect metaphor for life for me. It’s everything in the sense that … just like you read that post, I don’t sit there and think about those post for two hours, like that’s the garbage that comes out of me, 24/7.

Jane Erbacher: Your train of consciousness.

Brady Walker: I don’t think about that stuff, that’s just me on the couch doing social media from 8:00 to 8:30 every night, because that’s a job that I need to do and I love it obviously, because it displays what I’m about. I don’t know how many people actually read it. I’m sure they look at the photo, if it’s good they’ll look at it [crosstalk 00:12:09].

Jane Erbacher: No, I think people are reading it.

Brady Walker: It’s always been fitness. Just even at a base level I’ve always been sporty, I’ve always loved it. I can remember being at the backyard at, I don’t know, 16, 17 years old, whatever it is, just skipping rope because I was wanting to get fit and hadn’t done anything for a while. I’ve always had that consciousness about activity and then just knowing what that brings as well. In that sense I used to be … I had a rule that if I missed skipping the rope I’d get down and do straight burpees and then I get back up, and I’d flat out have the sheets with myself because I missed the rope. It’s like I would get more angry if I … and then obviously miss the rope.

Jane Erbacher: Totally.

Brady Walker: Just more burpee. It’s always just been one of those scenes, I think it’s generally when people get uncomfortable and a lot of things in life these days you can just … if you don’t know it you Google it, if you don’t … whatever, there’s quick fixes everywhere and there’s no quick fix for self-development. There’s no hiding from the fact that you probably can be better in your life, and fitness is the perfect thing. You’re either going to see there and go, “No way, it’s sweaty, it’s stinky, it’s hard, I’m over it,” and you walk away, but it’s pretty much got nothing to do with fitness. It’s got everything to do with how much you want to have a crack at life, and whether it’s relationships with your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, whatever it is or your kids or some crazy in-laws or whatever you’ve got down on it. You can either put in two things in general, you work whatever or you can be the guy that gets tied up around the water cooler bitching about [inaudible 00:13:55] because-

Jane Erbacher: He’s got something you don’t have.

Brady Walker: Yeah, exactly or whatever it is. It’s just one of those things I think you stand up and you get it done or you back down and you join the masses. I’ve just never felt good about being with the masses because there’s some … I said to you the other day the standard in some fitness things that I’m looking at the moment, although they don’t really mean a great deal to me, it’s a standard and it’s an internationally recognised standard, for me standard just means, and it’s not disrespectful people that don’t think about it like this way, but standard to me is mediocre.

Jane Erbacher: It’s the average.

Brady Walker: Yes, the average-

Jane Erbacher: It’s the bare minimum, because when you talk about a standard you’re setting the bare minimum and it’s like, “Why are we settling for a standard when we can be extraordinary?”

Brady Walker: Yeah, 100% and I think it’s a … that’s life. You know what I mean? You can have a good relationship and whatever or you can have a great relationship, it’s up to you like if you want to sit down and have that extra chat because you know things aren’t right. Whatever it is, it’s all applicable and it’s, as I said and get back to the original question, it’s just it’s … Fitness has always been my thing and I found a really good platform to talk to people about life in fitness and getting through some tough times. It’s amazing how many people need it, but don’t understand probably how it translates.

Jane Erbacher: Totally, and it’s really interesting because everybody listening is probably like, “Jane has [inaudible 00:15:24] so much, loves this stuff probably even more than her and his [inaudible 00:15:29] than her.” Just [inaudible 00:15:32], but I share your message of fitness being the vehicle basically for change. Anybody who walks into a fitness space and wants more for their body and their health demonstrates that they want more for the rest of their life. If they open themself up to at the transferability it can be unstoppable. Something that we have spent a lot of time talking about in the last few days is how every area of our life, for me it’s every other area, if you’re in a negative relationship or even just an okay relationship, it’s going to put you on a path of being okay in your job and you become complacent with your body, and suddenly you’re living an okay life.

Brady Walker: You’re living the standard.

Jane Erbacher: Exactly, you’re living the standard. We have these list, this metaphorical list that people seem to tick things off as they go and it’s like, “When did we get so caught up with the outcome that we forgot about what the process is?” The thing that I love about fitness is it takes a process to improve your health and your body, and that if you open yourself up to it creates a process for the rest of your life, and I absolutely love that. Something that I think is really interesting about you, a lot of people tell me they don’t have time to do things and, “I have kids and I have a job, and I have responsibilities, and I have all these different things,” you have three kids under five and you’re little daughter, two-year old Kelly is like the greatest.

Brady Walker: She should be illegal, I think, she’s so cute.

Jane Erbacher: She’s just so cute. All your kids are so cute. Arti is so cute, but I think of Kelly because she is so larger than life and involved in everything, and it’s like you are so involved in their life yet you run … I’m going to … a huge business, like it’s not two businesses, lifestyle and Fit 2 Function, they’re the same business, but they’re two quite different businesses that require different applications and action and stuff. How do you fit it all in and how do you balance all of the demands that you have in your life? You are extremely healthy. You have a great body. You’re fit and healthy. You obviously look after yourself in that respect too. You walk the talk. How do you balance all that?

Brady Walker: It’s difficult, there’s no doubt. I’ll be completely lying if I said that at times one side of the fence or the other didn’t suffer. There’s time when I felt like I’m being a really shit dad and not being there, but business is obviously, I’m becoming more comfortable with the business in the sense of what needs to happen in its little day to day. It’s allowed me to … I mean it’s been three years, we’re going to be three years this year, that’s just been … It’s been growing, like there’s been times when I haven’t seen the kids for … and still Monday, Tuesdays when I’d see the kids pretty much at all, like Jess would scoop past me on the way to school or daycare or whatever. Also, get out, which really sometimes like [inaudible 00:18:17] I’ll run out the door, give them a kiss and say, “Have a great day.”

When I leave the house at 4:30 AM and they’re asleep when I get home at like 8:30, eight o’clock at night, that’s tough, but then there’s days when they’re not at daycare at school. I’ve just got to manage time and I’ve got to really be conscious of that. My life is scheduled to the death. There’s not a minute that’s not accounted for and it’s factored in this. I’ll get home from my PT’s and stuff and I eat breakfast generally at about 11:00, it’s lunchtime for everyone else, but that’s like I’ve already done eight hours. The kids are there and I do the Lego thing if I can and whatever dance with Kelly around the lounge room or whatever it is. Then the real world is that I’ve got to get back [inaudible 00:19:11] from pretty much two o’clock [inaudible 00:19:13] I’m again busted.

Obviously fortunate that I’ve taken the … I spent a house deposit on this place, we’re in sort of limbo with what we’re doing and we’re about to sign-up to a house that I knew deep down in my heart wasn’t the right thing to do. I just brushed it over, I said to the solicitor two days before we were due to sign that it had been accepted. The whole thing offer, ba-blah-blah, Pasco will come in, building inspections, and I said to Jess, I was just like, “I’m going to do this, you know. It needs to happen.” I’m fortunate that I don’t have to ask my boss if I could to have an extended morning tea so I can go and see Arti at school or whatever, but I’d also worked my ass off for that. I’ve taken the fun, there’s a reward thing and it’s … I’ve backed it in because I just believe wholeheartedly in giving more to people.

We’ve spoken about this in the last couple of days, but nothing in what I do is a sale, nothing in what I do is pitching at people’s insecurities or anything like that, like people that identify with F2F identify with F2F and I always say, and I say it to people’s faces, it’s certainly not a negative, but if you don’t want to be a part of us I don’t want you to be here. I don’t say that to be an asshole or anything else. It’s like, “If you don’t want to be here I don’t want you here.”

It’s again, surrounding myself in the people that want to be better all the time in their life. It’s not better like you have to come in and crush 2 KPB’s every day and 400 lbs. dead’s and whatever I’m not at all in one way. I’ll do everything from the 60-year old ladies to 16-year old kids, and in between somewhere there’s something for everyone. It’s all the same message, the 16-year old kid gets what the 60-year old lady does. I think it’s that belief that it always had the … it’s such a vanity driven bullshit industry that is just cashing in on so big on people’s insecurities in life.

Jane Erbacher: 100%.

Brady Walker: It’s an industry that is supposed to be exactly the opposite to that. It’s supposed to be there to help. It’s supposed to be there to care and I think, and we’ve been talking about this in length in different sort of ways, but it’s not a real to just set up. There’s plenty of successful ones, it’s not a cop-out by any stretch, you don’t need a building or whatever, but there’s so many people that goes through [inaudible 00:21:56] and think they’re going to run around in the park and like hangout with mates high-fiveing in the fresh air and sunshine.

Jane Erbacher: As the ad says, “Get paid to keep fit.”

Brady Walker: It’s a struggle. It’s a struggle to keep clients. It’s generally, for a lot people it’s a motivation thing, so it’s not going to last, it’s fleeting, that’s when it’s in and out of people’s lives, the cash is in and out of people’s lives. A lot of people aren’t prepaid to spend their house deposit on bigger vision or a grander version of it. I think two kettle bells and a rope and a tyre is going to do it, and they copy the latest things off YouTube and set up there in the park. People need more. People are dying from not being healthy and not looking after themselves, and it’s the impact on families, relationships, everything that … Fitness is not the only solution, but it certainly goes to building people’s mojo.

Jane Erbacher: 100%.

Brady Walker: Just that self-worth.

Jane Erbacher: Totally, and I think-

Brady Walker: That stand up will get out.

Jane Erbacher: Exactly, and I think that what you built here is a really amazing community, and you can feel it when you walk into the space and everybody’s around. You can feel that they’re excited about their life. I think that a lot of people get into the fitness industry because they’re following this idea that, “Yeah, I can get paid to keep fit, and I get to hangout out at the gym all day or I’ll get to do two training sessions a day. I can programme for people what I know is best for them.” That’s something I see all the time, “I know that this is best for them, so I’m going to programme that,” and it’s like we forget that the people walking into our space have their own story. I could name five people that came to [inaudible 00:23:28] yesterday that have completely different goals walking into this space, and each of them know that working with you here is going to take them closer to it.

It’s not about the programme that you’re writing for them as a one-sized fits all, solve all problems, it’s about the way that you engage with them and expect more from them, and that they know they walk in here and they stand up a little bit straighter, because finally they’ve walked into a space where they’re A., are allowed to be want to be better in their life, and B., someone believes in them, that they can do it. It’s interesting because you’re such a masculine man yet you have no ego. You have no like, “I need to beat my chest and show you all how great I am, and show you all that I’m the best in the room.” It’s like not about that at all.

I wished I had a videoed your explanation of the class before the other day. It was just so funny, but it’s like I almost think of you sometimes as you speak in this stream of consciousness. It’s whatever your thoughts and beliefs and feelings are, it just kind of come out and it’s never censored, you’re completely … It’s funny because I hate the word authentic, because I think the word authentic has become inauthentic, but you’re so real and I just want to sit there and listen to you most of the time, which is rare, because I generally talk all the time, but you speak the truth. It comes from your heart and that’s how people connect, and that’s why people sit up straight or that’s why people pay attention, and that’s why I want to do the podcast because I want more people to be exposed to you and to your message, because even you are surprised that I’m so interested in that, but-

Brady Walker: Definitely.

Jane Erbacher: People everywhere have something to learn from you and I love that. It’s funny because I’ve been thinking in the last, probably month, what exactly is my intention for my podcast with Brady? What exactly is the intention? I think I just want people to see that there’s a way to live your life that you’re not selling out, you’re not trying to be something someone else’s. You don’t have to follow a set of rules and guidelines. You can just do what you do, the best that you can do it. Something that I find really interesting about you and something that we’ve definitely connected on is that you are very instinctual and intuitive. What gives you that faith, do you think in you?

Brady Walker: I’ve got my own little story about parents breaking up and all those sorts of things that you hear along the way, but I really don’t know to be honest with you. I’ve just … We spoke about this, we’ve spoken about everything for the last three days, but for the guys listening, it’s a very early age, like 13, 14 years old, and I used to define it as I felt like I should have been born a 100 years ago. I see so much value in people just exchanging services and exchanging life, and ability to help each other, like if I’ve got a chicken and you’ve got potatoes, let’s talk about it and like make it a chicken soup.

Jane Erbacher: Absolutely, yes, yes, potatoes are my favourite, [inaudible 00:26:29]. Chicken is not my favourite.

Brady Walker: Starchy carbs.

Jane Erbacher: Yes, it’s my favourite.

Brady Walker: [Inaudible 00:26:34]. I’ve never had that feeling of belonging to a big scene where everyone wants to chop each other’s heads off to get ahead. I could just really … I think it’s sad. I think it’s something … The reality is you don’t swap chickens for potatoes, and that’s not life, you’ve got houses to pay for or kids to send to school or whatever you want to do. I don’t put emphasis on any of that stuff, like in the sense that obviously I need it, because I’ve got three kids and we need to get around. That’s life. I can’t take them around in a shopping trolley so I need a car, but just … it could all go as well and I’d just be as happy. I just have always felt like … I’d have to say like it’s Mother’s Day, so let’s roll the shed out, but Mom was ridiculous from … I don’t know how she was at the time, but I was eight and my sister was five, and mom and dad split swags and just … she had to get on.

I remember moving back to her mom and dad’s place for a little while, and we all just jacked up for a bit and there was … I was young and mom never really let us know that things were really bad. I remember falling asleep in the next room and all I could do is hear her cry and stuff overnight. It was obviously … Now as an adult like it’s horrendous, you lost your family and all those sorts of things. I don’t know what I would do without Jess and my kids, I just don’t even know where I would start. To have that happen, but then know you just got to rally all the time, and again it’s not fitness, but you got to fight. What are you going to do? You got two kids, you got to rip in.

She’s a stand-alone woman, like she started and had, had a great background in retail and management and stuff and those sorts of things, previous to having kids. Then that obviously kids is a big thing, that’s where her life went. It was always to the work out, but just started off again as a casual employee while we were at home in [inaudible 00:28:47] just always, and then next minute she’s like the national manager of Bras N Things, and the buyer and ba-blah-blah, and just grounded out.

Jane Erbacher: It’s awesome.

Brady Walker: Just had to it. What else do you do? You either stand up or you don’t, and whether or not it’s that in front of me the whole time that she’s been like, “You just do what you do,” but I’m very assertive in that sense like it’s just, “Well, what do we need? Who do we need to call? What needs to happen? Let’s go, [inaudible 00:29:16].” Just on the phone or on just getting to where I need to be or it’s whatever. It’s just, it’s going to happen, I’ll make it happen. I suppose maybe that has been that the upbringing in the sense that it’s if you don’t, you don’t get it. You know what I mean? It’s your world could fall apart or you can really rally five sets deep and just keep repeating. The choice is yours, and again, the fitness thing is my chat to people, but it’s so much more, it’s everything, it’s life in every facet really.

For me, I suppose if I had to define it I probably would just say that it’s that intuition and stuff has really just perhaps come from that work ethic that I’ve always seen, but I’ve just always felt, and going back to the original chat about the work side of things. I’ve never felt like quite right with everything, and I still don’t. I still don’t, and it’s a massive compliment in saying that, “You know I’ve got a great life and all those things.” I’m certainly not fulfilled like I am 100% happy in the sense that people might look at it and go, “Oh, he’s the luckiest guy in the world,” and all these sort of things and ba-blah-blah. I certainly feel blessed, there’s no doubt about that, it’s taken a lot of hard work, a lot of like … It’s easy for people to say things and go, “Oh, you know, they’re killing it and so lucky,” but no one else gets up at 4:00 AM in the morning, and no one goes to sleep at 11 o’clock at night, and gets in here and is like of their faces excited to see everyone.

Again, I don’t pretend, you couldn’t pretend to do this. You just can’t. The intuitive side of things has just been me, just always knowing that there’s got to be something more and I really do, that’s my whole thing is going, “What else? What else? What else?” I’ve always been, “What else?” It’s not an ambition to take over the world, it’s really like an internal drum that’s like, “There’s something else, mate. There’s something else.” You got to keep checking it out. You got to keep finding it, that’s what we’re looking to develop and it’s just like, “I don’t know where that’s going to take me.” That’s probably like a real frustration even in the further frustration to what else, because I know there’s something else, but I don’t know what it is. I don’t know where it is. Now you know, as life gets more committed it’s like how much can you just ran off and search for it?

Jane Erbacher: Totally.

Brady Walker: But I’ll never stop.

Jane Erbacher: No, I love that and seeing that’s what the advices of it all is. I remember a few months ago and I had Hamish Blake on the podcast, we talked about his work ethic. A lot of people look at his life like, “Oh my God, this guy is so lucky. He’s just kind of rolled through and he’s just kind of like, ‘Oh wow, suddenly I have a radio show.'” When I kept probing him, which was part of what I was trying to do, it showed that he had an attitude and a work ethic underlying everything. The vehicle that is was going to … The opportunity was going to come about wasn’t clear ever, really. It was just that he kept pushing every single day and he kept saying, “If you buy more tickets in the lottery you have more opportunities.” This is exactly what you do as well. It’s like we don’t know exactly what it looks like for you for the next 12 months, but it’s like with the attitude and the work ethic and the confidence, and the no ego and the engagement, and the genuine care you have for people’s life, it’s exciting.

I think that the reason that you’re like, “What is it?” It’s because you see it very carefully. I like to think of there being like two camps to people. There’s the Why People, they are kind of like the dreamers, the one that settle their goals, their big picture, they’re kind of like, “Oh, I have all these folks in my life.” Then you’ve got the How People that are kind of like more process-based, they take action, [inaudible 00:33:03], they make the phone call, they do it almost without thinking. It’s like this very big minority of people that sit in both camps, they are Why plus How, and that’s what draws me to you. I am a Why Person, I’m like a dreamer, I’m like, “Oh my God, I’m going to do all these amazing things.” Then I’m like next minute I’m at the park with puppy, and then wondering why things aren’t happening.

The cool thing about my life is I’ve had to force myself to be a How Person, but it started very much in the Why. I’m here to do something that impacts the lives of people, I know that. I knew that I was here to do that, I didn’t know how I was going to do it, it took me many, many years to find the vehicle on how to do it. You’re so action-oriented, but you have so much meaning to your life, and I think that, that’s … When you meet somebody like you it’s like, “Tell me everything you know, so I can go and do it.” It’s funny because it’s like you think a little bit about the whole Why and How thing. What do you think about that?

Brady Walker: Definitely, I know that I’m assertive, and it’s been a hard thing in itself to that I think the last, probably five or so years have become a lot more self-aware and how that impacts on other people. I know that and intimidating, a lot of people have said, “He’s pretty intimidating,” whereas like I would hide that just in the sense that it’s a negative for people. Do you know what I mean? I would never … I would certainly would hope never to feel like that, like I’ll portray that because-

Jane Erbacher: I’m not intimidated. I’m just excited by you.

Brady Walker: I just got like a 24/7 open door policy, so it’s in no way would I ever think that I would be interpreted as intimidating, but perhaps that come from other areas, from other people, like in the sense that they see what I’m doing or I am like, “All right, let’s make a call. Bang, bang, bang, let’s go, come on, it’s 5:30 [crosstalk 00:34:53]-

Jane Erbacher: People used to say something like that to take the responsibility away from them to do what you’re doing with your life, like as in if you’re intimidating to them, they can then put it on you rather than take action to be better themselves. Because what you’re doing is, you’re living your life the way you want to live your life, and if people want to be influenced by that in whatever way they can be. They can get on board or not, nothing … the whole intimidation thing is just a way to say, “I can’t do what he’s doing,” for whatever reason, it’s an excuse. Because what I get from you is, I get from you that you are not intimidating at all. I get from you, you’re self-assured, but to me that’s such a … it’s something to sit up and take notice of. So sorry, I just talked over you.

Brady Walker: No.

Jane Erbacher: I just drank this coffee a minute ago, but like I said his open door policy-

Brady Walker: [Inaudible 00:35:39]. Those sorts of things I’m really self-aware, I’m the first one to look in the mirror before going out, “[Inaudible 00:35:52], that’s ridiculous, are you kidding me? Get off,” you know, whatever. I would definitely put myself in the same care because maybe until I could materialise this and make F2F happen that feeling of intuition of, “What next? What next?,” maybe put me in that trainers category as well. Because I didn’t know what it was and I’ve said it forever, I’ve talked to mom, Jess, whatever. It’s like growing up I was always, and even as early as a couple of years, even it’s like as early as last night at dinner. I was like, “I don’t know what it is. I know there’s something out there, ba-blah-blah,” and I’ve always had a comfort about it as well in some strange sense. Just in the sense that I know it’s going to come, but I don’t know how or where or what it’s going to look like yet.

All I suppose I can do is keep listening to that little sort of internal voice, and it’s not always a rule by any stretch, sometimes it’s a bit of a whisper and I’ll certainly, like you’re a [inaudible 00:36:53]. I could never imagine how productive this could be personally, but then collectively like anything could happen really, and it’s really exciting. It’s really helped me to define probably more of what I need to be doing of figure it out, because it’s not a case that I never would have figured out, but I might have just really pulled it forward in me, putting the investigations in the right area. Definitely enjoying that, but definitely ready to just snap next to get it done as well.

I think you’ve got to have that ambition, but then you’ve also got to be aware that that’s confronting sometimes people. You’ve got to get on the brakes, but then know when to get on the gas. It’s a real combo of things, and there’s definitely hats, like there’s the business hat, where you just, you’re, “Yes, sir, no, sir,” type thing. Then there’s the other person outside, where you develop those relationships and you go make how you really need to pull your finger out and let’s rip in, because it’s not going to happen otherwise. Definitely I’m probably of both camps, and up until that the How and the Why, that chat with you I didn’t even … I probably wasn’t aware of the How and the Why People, I’m just always like … I suppose the dreamer thing’s probably got negative connotations to it in a lot of respect anyway, because 90% of people will just leave them at that. It’s not followed-up so they’re just the dreamers, it’s the goner. You know the goner?

Jane Erbacher: Yeah.

Brady Walker: The goner-goer.

Jane Erbacher: It’s really funny because being the goner-goer, I feel like there’s a place like that, that are called something like that [crosstalk 00:38:31]. There you go. It’s really interesting because you do a couple of criticism and it’s funny because I look at it because I sit over there on top of my perch, and I look at the view and I look at it like a lot of people don’t have the guts to dream. They don’t have the guts to want more for their life.

Brady Walker: They’re squashed.

Jane Erbacher: Yes.

Brady Walker: They’re completely squashed.

Jane Erbacher: It is and because we’re told, “You go to school, you go to uni, you get a job, you stay in that job whether you like it or not, and you get married,” and you do these things and it’s like, “Don’t want more for your life, because as soon as you want more for your life then you realise you can’t settle for what you have.”

Brady Walker: It’s too real for people, I think. It is, that’s a generic … and such a double-edged sword in life, and again this is what’s contributed me to never knowing and having that intuitive thing and all that sort of stuff, is because it’s got to be more than just like lucking up three kids because that’s what your mom did.

Jane Erbacher: Totally, totally.

Brady Walker: Having a house that everyone goes, “Oh, they really got it together.”

Jane Erbacher: Totally.

Brady Walker: Like what have you got to [inaudible 00:39:34], they might be scratching each other’s faces off at night.

Jane Erbacher: Exactly.

Brady Walker: [Inaudible 00:39:37].

Jane Erbacher: We’re not engaging with each other and that’s the biggest thing I see, is like you’ve ticked this box of having a partner and then you go home and ignore them and don’t engage. That’s sadness to me, and I do have some people who write to me and say to me, “But I am happy with my life.” I’m not sitting here saying this [crosstalk 00:39:55] and defending themselves.

Brady Walker: Justifying it to them through you.

Jane Erbacher: Totally, I’m kind of like, “[Inaudible 00:40:00], you know what if you are and you were, you wouldn’t be writing to me to prove it to me.”

Brady Walker: Exactly.

Jane Erbacher: I think it’s so, not just okay, but to me it’s an expectation that you want more from your life, and it doesn’t have to be that you create massive change and you get a new job, and you travel the world, you do all these things, but it’s that you show up every day and you do your best. One day it’s just a Monday, you’re best is that, Tuesday, you’re best is better than Monday. Every single day your best is better, because if it was your best then you’d be done and we’re never done and that’s what I like. Fitness is a metaphor because you can always do better, and this leads me to a conversation with we had last night about basically you having no excuses for anything. You did a workout the other day and you had a standard to hit and you hit it and then you didn’t hit it in the two-

Brady Walker: The second time around.

Jane Erbacher: The second time around.

Brady Walker: The second time around.

Jane Erbacher: Your attitude was, it was really interesting because you know you could have done more and you’re really disappointed in yourself. To me, I look at that like that’s success then, because what you then can reflect on is for the last month you’ve had a back injury. You haven’t been able to train the way you have … you usually have, and yet you still got within about 0.4% of what you needed to.

Brady Walker: That was pretty close. It was close.

Jane Erbacher: But it just shows that’s your kind of attitude, whereas a lot of other people would come in and be like, “Oh well, you know, good enough is it,” but that’s not you and I don’t know even what I’m trying to ask you. Maybe I’m just trying to make an announcement or a generalisation, but you have this no excuses attitude for your life. Does that ever tyre you out? How do you sustain that? Is that your drive?

Brady Walker: I think it’s my drive. I mean, you get physically tired, there’s no doubt. It’s not like I get up at 4:30 in the morning and run at a 150%, because that’s how I can see that what we do here is like … Nice people come in at the end of the day or before their day, whatever they like, let’s face it, they’re not off their jobs, they’re not getting up at 5:30 AM to come in and do a class sometimes. It’s tough for them and it’s understandable, it’s not their life, but they’re trying to incorporate a balance. Like I’ve got to be running at 120, 130 all the time, so if they come in at 90 they can have my 10% or 20% and leave at 110. That’s a conscious effort and that’s a thing where I’ve got to be aware of that every day, and in every session with every interaction with people.

Again, you couldn’t fake it, it is what it is, but I suppose for me personally, it’s just like that incident you were talking about, like I missed about a few metres and I haven’t been training much. I had a session in Sydney the other week, that was the first one in a month, and that was pretty much my second one. I pulled some staff to train alongside me, and at first it was, well, I tried to hit a number, I’m probably not there at the moment. It’s just was what it was, but I worked hard in that first one and in that second one I was hurting a lot. I was mentally a little bit out of whack and physically I was already blown up. Then I had 40 seconds to go on the effort, and that’s the thing it was an effort, it wasn’t like just get to where I needed to be. The whole point was that it was a two-minute effort.

I’m used to go like four metres or something, that I yelled out to Jess, my wife, who was in the gym, I said, “What was that last effort like while I was into it?” She gave me the wrong figure just because the board was full of numbers and whatever. I thought I’d hit it and then I’d got off, and I checked the board for myself and then I sort of like huffed at her saying, “You didn’t even tell me the right number, ba-blah-blah.”

Jane Erbacher: [Inaudible 00:43:53].

Brady Walker: Then instantly I just looked at myself, which I feel like is one of my better characteristics of just going, “Well, hang on, mate,” like, it had nothing to do with Jess. She read the wrong figures off the board, but the figures were irrelevant, the point is it’s a two-minute effort and you go like-

Jane Erbacher: As hard as you can.

Brady Walker: As hard as you can, it’s an effort. I’m like-

Jane Erbacher: You’re not just aiming to be okay, to just hit what you hit last time.

Brady Walker: Exactly.

Jane Erbacher: It’s like you’re aiming to do your best.

Brady Walker: That’s, I mean, you know-

Jane Erbacher: Your attitude for life.

Brady Walker: Whether your fitness goal or whatever, like if you’re going to turn up to work and … like if we use the metaphor last night about like mowing the lawn. You know what I mean? If you’re going to mow half of the lawn and leave jagged edges, because you couldn’t be asked to get the whipper snipper out, it’s a shit job. You’ve done a shit job. If you’re going to go and have a barbecue with your mates the next day and someone goes, “You miss those edges, Johnny.” Johnny looks like a dickhead because he didn’t do a good job. That’s all you can do, is do your best in that moment and be asked to pull the whipper snipper out and do the fucking edges.

Jane Erbacher: It’s exactly it.

Brady Walker: If you’re happy with not doing the edges and someone pissing on you about it, then that’s when you-

Jane Erbacher: Totally.

Brady Walker: But I’m not the edges guy.

Jane Erbacher: No, doing everything to the best of your ability. What I like about that story is you’ve never ever, to me or in anything you do really celebrated yourself. You’re all about celebrating the people who come here and the community, and everything and you’re really humble. What I like about you telling me that story is you weren’t sitting there telling me, “Yeah, I did this workout and I hit the standard three times. I’m a standards guy. I’m a tough being and celebrate that.” You’re not really posting any workouts, but you’re telling me all your success in terms of your training. I think that this is a really interesting direction that the fitness industry is taking, where we celebrate our success publicly now.

I did it this week on my Instagram, for anybody who looked at it, and I find that really interesting about you, that the story you told me wasn’t about, “I can hit these numbers. I can do that.” It’s, “Oh, I failed in this workout the other day and the interesting thing I learned from it was that my first thing to do was yell at somebody for giving me the wrong information.” When immediately straight off that it was self-reflection, “No, I could have done better.”

What comes from that experience is so much more growth and learning than people patting you on the back and you getting validation for you hitting the workout that you’ve succeeded in. That’s your priority and I think where I’m leading to with this is, months ago when I had Paul Robertson on the podcast he talked about his priorities as being like balls in the air juggling. I think that for so many fitness professionals it goes in the order of their training, then it goes everything else in their life.

I think that you’re a really great juggler because I think you might have about 10 balls in the air right now, but it’s like you are juggling the priorities of family and Jess, and you’re juggling the priorities of business. You’re juggling the priorities of your health and fitness, and none ever outweigh the others so much that you sacrifice anything. You’ve just figured you have to get up at 4:30 to fit all those, because I feel all those balls in, but that’s the interesting thing.

I think that the way that you approach your training is not from a, “Everybody look at me, I’m a great athlete.” It’s an expectation of yourself that you’ll uphold the standard, standard is the wrong word, you’ll hold your expectation you have of other people. That’s why the self-reflection post-workout is so much more valuable than you just hitting those numbers, because it’s like you can go, “Okay, well,” like you can either make an excuse and you can say, “Oh, well, the last month I wasn’t able to do it, because of A, B, C, D or you can just go, “Next time try a little bit harder.”

Brady Walker: I did like I had, I [inaudible 00:47:35] and went back in and got it by a metre.

Jane Erbacher: Crushed it.

Brady Walker: Like you know-

Jane Erbacher: I love that you never told me that the story [crosstalk 00:47:40].

Brady Walker: I’m just showing off in front of the podcast.

Jane Erbacher: You totally [inaudible 00:47:44] hit it.

Brady Walker: I wouldn’t have … I’m not literally not being able to sleep that night, but it’s [inaudible 00:47:50] talking about it now. I’ve had the [inaudible 00:47:52] I probably have to go and do it now.

Jane Erbacher: I was about to say that we might probably bring Kelly with us and they’ll be cheering for you.

Brady Walker: You need to be able to … This is like to get, I suppose back on track with what you just gone about there. It’s like there’s too many [inaudible 00:48:10] about me. Do you know what I mean? It’s really not like … The whole premise of the business was to give people the opportunity to get involved in fitness more often, and understand what it can do in the sense of personal development and understanding that it’s not about fitness, but come and be healthy and fit and feel the mojo from it, and feel the mojo from me hopefully.

It’s really got nothing to do with me, like I would just think that if I was going to post photos of me deadlifting with my shirt off, that it’s going to be intimidation for people. The whole thing is that’s already too prevalent in what the fitness industry is. There’s already too many meatheads or whatever, but it doesn’t matter, even the triathlon guy that wants to train triathletes and only brags, is about is how quick he’s done the 100K bike ride that morning. When the fat guy in life who wants to go unseen, but he’s like shitting himself because how does he stand up to the 100K guy. It’s like, well, you don’t have to and you shouldn’t have to, and you shouldn’t have to feel that pressure to stand up to anything, because it’s not about the guy that runs the gym. It’s not about anything else. It’s about you, the you and just being better.

I always say to my classes and staff it’s like,  and if it’s a 30-second set you’ll often hear me yell out like, “Three, two one, let’s go.” You’re literally better in 30 seconds than you are right now. It’s your choice. In that 30 seconds [inaudible 00:49:41] whatever, 45 or 15, two-minute set, whatever, before you keep that off it’s a fact that you’re going to be better in two minutes or 30 seconds for doing that. That’s up to you whether you make that a 50% better or your whole ass and you go 100% better or whatever, but at the end of that 30-second, two-minute, whatever effort, that’s 100% on you as to whether you had a crack or not, and that’s life in general. Because as we spoke, at the end of the day and I’m working on some stuff with people at the moment, like just finding more time in their life.

Jane Erbacher: Yes.

Brady Walker: I think it’s vital. You got to own up your shit because I think there’s so much time and so much opportunity to do things, to sit at home after work and go, “Oh, I’ll just here for an hour,” like it’s just wasted breath. I’m so passionate about it, it’s like wasted life home and wasted time. Again, you need something, you need any outlet or whatever and that’s cool. You don’t have to be like just of your pace-driven 24/7. I am, but that’s not for everyone, that’s fine. There’s a home and away for everybody somewhere, but you can’t waste, like I ordered someone the other day and we found, “I’ll give you every Sunday off, like Sunday do what you want to do, you know, like that’s fine.” But I legitimately found 24 hours in someone’s week, that’s [crosstalk 00:51:04] a day. I was like, “That’s one day.”

I spoke to you that the other night, it’s like, “If you’re in your deathbed and you got your family around the foot of your bed, and your little daughter or wife or whatever says, “Let’s just have a look at the score sheet.” You’ve literally wasted like 1,500 days of your life, and you’re going to take your last breath in 10 minutes, like what the fuck did you do with 1,500 days? It’s scary and it’s like you either put in at the start of that 30 seconds and you can look at it the micro and go, “It’s a Tabata, wow, cool,” and you put in for four minutes, eight rounds in the 20 second. Well, you look at it in life and go, “I’ve got 80 years here to absolutely crush the piece out of it, like let’s fucking repeat and have a crack.”

You can go through it and just be pissing and moaning about the report that’s due Monday around the water cooler or you realise that’s not your fault and you get out and you go, “What else?” Because there’s something else, there really is and there’s other ways of listening to that, and I think some people don’t because like … Now I’m just talking shit.

Jane Erbacher: This is … I’m having like the best time of my life.

Brady Walker: If you’re not doing that, and I use the analogy that some mad unit in the North of Queensland that I’d said this Cane toad thing, did I tell you about the Cane toad guy. There’s a guy in Cairns somewhere that he’s super passionate about not killing the Cane toads, of eradicating … helping to … which is like it’s an endless mission, like he started like telling all the Cane toads. Then just for whatever reason he’s decided that he’s going to make ridiculous stubby holders and [inaudible 00:52:48], and purses and like crazy stuff. That if he told anyone you’d go, “This guy is a nut job,” which he may well be, but it’s an ethic story. He’s made this a full-time gig now, and he sells it to tourists and whatever. It’s not about money, it’s started out of wanting to do something, and knowing that there’s bigger purpose, and it was in his thing, the Cane toad thing, I’m like cool.

But if you’re sitting at work and you’re the Cane toad guy that can … You know what I mean like, “How can you sit there and worry about like you’re peeing out of someone’s thing up the lawn that you really don’t care about, when all you can think about is like-

Jane Erbacher: Cane toads.

Brady Walker: Painting Cane toads stubby holders. You’ve got to do it.

Jane Erbacher: You got to do it.

Brady Walker: You have to do it.

Jane Erbacher: Not wonder.

Brady Walker: There’s someone else, there’s someone else that loves Cane toads stubby holders, I guarantee it.

Jane Erbacher: Definitely.

Brady Walker: You just got to find them.

Jane Erbacher: If you’re interested in it.

Brady Walker: You just got to find them and you got to figure it out. You could sit around the water cooler and just do your thing and poke along, and like maybe paint one or two.

Jane Erbacher: Compliant.

Brady Walker: Compliant, God, it’s like a cancer.

Jane Erbacher: I’m so tired. I’m so busy.

Brady Walker: It’s horrendous and I just don’t … been a Cane toad guy.

Jane Erbacher: That’s the message, but it’s interesting because I talk to people a lot about purpose, and so many people say to me, “I don’t know what my purpose is in life.” It’s funny because if we look at the Cane toad guy before I ask you, if we look at the Cane toad guy, he is-

Brady Walker: This guy is going to be famous.

Jane Erbacher: I know. I wish we knew his name, I may have to do one podcast. He obviously sat there and he saw all of the detrimental effects that Cane toads were having on the environment and stuff.

Brady Walker: Yes, it’s a bigger purpose.

Jane Erbacher: It’s a big purpose and he was interested in it, and somehow his interest and his passion is his purpose, and that’s what I’m always saying to people when I’m talking to them about their purpose. It’s like, “What do you love dong the most? Like what gets you off? Like what gets you excited?” We’re both the same in that we get so ridiculously excited when we see somebody achieving something. We just like it. To me, I am so much more excited when I would make deadlifts 20 kilos, when they previously have had a back injury and couldn’t pick up a [inaudible 00:54:53], whatever it was. I don’t care, but it’s like that compared to anything else that I could possibly achieve and that just gets me off, but it’s like we don’t pay attention to what excites us about our life. Instead we are always just living kind of retrospectively, “I could have done that. I should have done that. I would have done that if I had this opportunities.”

It’s like