Elite Health Podcast with Azri

EP1 - Charlie Johnson Podcast - Elite Health
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Azri (2): [00:00:00] Welcome to episode one of the Elite Health Podcast. If you want to upgrade your life, lose fat, build muscle, and improve your mindset, join the community. I'm Ari and I'm joined by Charlie Johnson. So Charlie Johnson is a good friend, mentor. I'm in Dubai, and I've actually come to his mastermind to meet him specifically as well.

So, We're going to go through everything that he's done to get to where he is in his life, and he's actually gonna expand on what's worked for him, what's not, and how this has helped him improve every single area of his life and how he's helping me and others do the same. So, welcome Charlie. , thank you very much for the invite as the the very glamorous century.

So one thing that I want everyone to leave this podcast with is like literally smashing your limiting beliefs in terms of what you can achieve in your life, and also removing the fear aspect that you have in terms of taking you actions. Because whether it's with your business, your fitness, relationships, you're scared to talking to the guy you wanna talk to, fear is what's gonna hold you back from anything you want to achieve.

And as soon as you can learn to control fear, you then become unstoppable. All right, [00:01:00] Charlie. So for anyone that doesn't know you right now, , what is your background in fitness? Where did you start? Fill us in. Okay, so I'm gonna go into a very short synopsis of this. 18. I qualified as a personal trainer, current at school, not knowing what the hell I wanted to do.

I sort liked working out, liked to be in the gym. Uh, I thought Jay Cutler was cool, so I'm still trying to cop his haircut now. From then, um, I realized personal training I didn't really, like, wasn't really making much money. I wasn't trained the type of clientele I wanted. I then transitioned, went into a state agency, like a corporate, um, world.

I did that for six, seven years. Floret really quickly was a manager of a branch of real estate agents at 22. And then interesting. I remember when I was like 21, 22, I actually thought I completely fucking ruined my life and. Because I hadn't gone to university and friends of mine coming out university, getting quote unquote good jobs, and I generally can remember that now thinking like, what have I done?

Long story short, I worked there really hard, worked there for six, seven years, ended up getting six foot salary. Um, in the [00:02:00] meantime I saw two people who I was really inspired by Gary Vay and Chuck and then Grant Cardone. I saw what was happening with social media. I really lit my fitness bug in terms of when I was about 26, 27, got in the best shape of my life, did my first photo shoot, and I was like a timid cat, like scared when I was taking the first photo.

Um, and just started to document my. From that, I then transitioned, built up a side hustle of my online coaching business, which was then earning me significantly more than my, um, real estate career. And then I think four and a half years ago, I took the plunge and ditched it off and went all in on fitness and never really looked back.

It's a long story short. And then, uh, 30 months ago, also moved to Dubai again, another. Big push to try and take it to another level, um, which was a really radical change in a lot of respects of my life. So one thing I think I've started to notice as pattern is like everything in your life tends to change every three years, and that's a sign of progression and evolution.

And for you to keep pushing forwards, you should see change and you should be [00:03:00] uncomfortable at the time. Like the fir the first time I did my own podcast, like if anyone to listen back the original podcast, I had to shred the show. First episodes are terrible cause I was like timid. Again, really timid.

I'm naturally very introvert and. I found it really awkward talking on a podcast mic with myself. It just felt a bit of a weirdo. Um, so that's generally my background. I now also run, um, alongside my fitness business. Charlie Wants Fitness, which is one of the biggest fitness businesses in the world. Uh, seven Figure Scaling Systems, which is a mastermind which follows my passion of business, helping people like Ari uh, crush maximize their potential because my gift is helping people maximize their potential with, with their fitness, their business, mainly cuz the main thing, like we spoke at the.

it's their mindset's a thing that's holding them back, which is what we're gonna go through today. Exactly. So that was a very, I would say, a reserved entry into yourself because, uh, we aren't really explaining like exactly how much you've done to get to your level of fitness, get to your level of business, because as you know, there's a thousand steps to [00:04:00] get there.

And for you personally, if you can give us the biggest thing you've learned from your starting point that helped you, first of all get into the fitness. What would that be in terms of your mindset, would you say? . This is very interesting. So I've spoken to her a few times. The podcast, I remember now when I start, first started posting things on social media, like topless photos.

People would be like, who the fuck does Charlie think he is? Why is he doing this? He's got a partner. He works in real, real estate, whatever. She's stay in his lane. And if I'd listened to those people, we wouldn't be sitting here right now. Like I wouldn't have given you the help with your business that I have now.

I wouldn't helped thousands of people transform their life. We've worked with over 8,000 clients. I've been featured in four Men's Health, apple News like two weeks. Loads of other stuff, none of that would happen because someone else is like asshole limiting beliefs in terms of trying to put someone else down.

So I would say the most important thing at the beginning is if you've got a strong mission of what you want to achieve, whether it would be of your fitness or your business, is you need to be fairly tunnel visioned and not. Listen to anyone who hasn't done what [00:05:00] you want to do, because the reality is, and even like family, um, and friends of the people can hold you back because they're looking at a, a fear factor.

They're scared that you're gonna go and fail and they wanna protect you. They want you to go and get a safe nine to five job. They want you to go and become a doctor. They don't want you to come. Go and be an entrepreneur and live this like adrenaline fun lifestyle of like running businesses and stuff.

So what you have to do is start to become very aware of what people say and then how you react to manage that situation. I think that's one of the most powerful things you can have, and what I think comes with that which of what lots society lack now is critical thinking. , like don't ever take anything on face value.

Always like think, okay, why is this person saying this? Why is this person trying to sell me X? Because I mean, even in my business that that comes down to like mistakes I've made in hiring people is realizing that when someone's interviewing with you, with you, they're actually selling themselves to you.

And like o really obvious when I say it now, at the time I was like, oh, this person's amazing and they're gonna save this problem for me. They're like, my night shaving a sign shining armor, and I, let's sign up straight away. Um, is one of the big things. . [00:06:00] Yeah, it's a huge learning curve, of course, making sure that you are really aware of where you are and you are comfortable within yourself, and you know that everyone else's opinions only go so far and you should only take it to a certain, for example, we've just spent two hours in the gym film in different videos, which, let's be honest, 99% of the people in the gym mitz themselves, wouldn't film themselves.

So it's about how far can you take it? Your actual self-limiting beliefs as to what's possible and how far you can actually push yourself out yourself outside of your comfort zone to get to that next level and the next level and the next level. And then the step behind does become the new normal. It becomes that level higher, and that's what pushes you higher and higher.

So for you, , where do you feel your actual first steps into the business side of things actually were And how did that help you in different areas of your life? How did your fitness goals translate into your business goals, and where were the first steps going into there? So this is a topic I love, so. In my opinion, if you are very [00:07:00] successful in fitness or very successful in business, you should be able to do both.

Cuz the two things that determine you being successful in fitness are gonna be, um, consistently and working hard. What's gonna make you successful in business is consistency and working hard, which are actually the two things most people struggle with. So if you can do that one area of your life that you're crushing it right now in your business, you're making loads of money, you apply that same mindset to fitness, you're getting in great shape.

If you are in great shape, you love training and, and you can, um, really control, obviously you can improve, you apply the same principles in terms of your business. So what do I mean? Like that if we look at like from a fitness aspect, you have a training program, you have a structure for your week, you know what you're training, when you're training, what exercises you're doing and so on.

You know, when you're eating, you know what food you should be eating, you have a specific goal. Um, you do the same thing in business. You know, okay, when am I having, when am I doing podcasts? When am I gonna do sales goals? What type of content should I making? How much content should I be making? It's the same system.

It's the same thing, just apples and oranges. And I think that's where too many people overcomplicate the process. And I think they're too afraid of what other people are gonna [00:08:00] think. And when you get to the point where you don't give a shit what anyone thinks, that's when you truly become unstoppable.

Like I'm in that position now, I, I care. Like I don't care what anyone thinks, but I still care in the fact that I'm trying to utilize things like social media to my advantage. . Um, but ultimately I don't really give a shit. And when you get to that point, that's when you can just do whatever you want and be free.

Where so many people are almost like they're bottlenecked by fear, that they're afraid of, uh, asking out, like, oh, afraid of like asking for the sale, afraid of, um, trying to make a piece of content and put themselves out there. And the reality is, if you don't put yourself out there, you're never gonna get scholared fully, un fully understand.

And you've had a very deep and interesting past life as well. , where you're at right now with your current life isn't exactly where you are at, let's say 10, 15 years ago. Where did that start for you in terms of where you are at with family, relationships, friends, and how has that changed into where you're currently at now?

I would say that un no, I was gonna say they were, unfortunately, but I think it's [00:09:00] correct as you evolve and progress as a human being, the gap between. Who you were and who you are now becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. And if you don't see someone three, four years and sudden they see you. You're a different person, which is good because you should constantly be evolving to become the greatest version of yourself.

Now, the reality is that that gap, if the other person stayed where they are, which is what happens to most people, is then gonna cause friction because they're gonna be like, they're gonna probably feel inferior, jealous. And that's gonna start to come off with probably some, um, negative comments about maybe like, why are you eating like this?

Why are you working so much? And I'll give a really good example, A friend of mine. Uh, came out to stay with me last year, actually a week before I competed the Dubai, uh, pro show, which was probably not the best time. Um, and he was sitting on the sofa watching some football bullshit or something, and I was like eating, listening to sales training videos.

And he's like, turn over to me. He's like, Charlie. He was like, This is why you are, you are where you are. This is where I am where I am because it's like I'm sitting there watching training, like sales training stuff whilst eating, just not cause I [00:10:00] have to cause subconscious. That's what I want to do and learn.

And then he's like there just fucking pissing away, time watching bullshit on tv. And your actions and life will determine your outcome. And things you do every day are the things that are gonna compound for you or for against you. And like two books that talk about that really well. Um, one is The Slight Edge and one is the Atomic Habits, which I'd really suggest let everyone.

I feel like you have stepped into an area where you move past the circle. You are around, you know, you've become some of the five people you're surrounded by, so if you've really upgraded the people that you're around, I'm assuming that's probably one of the things that really helped you scale your fitness business as it here's a thought for everyone.

So think about this. Your thoughts aren't your own thoughts. So everything coming into your head is something you've read, listened to, or seen somewhere. You don't just magically come up with an idea of like, oh, let's do a podcast. Like something like We're doing this podcast right now will have inspired that for you to do that.

So it might be us doing a podcast a couple of days ago could be. So when you realize that your thoughts aren't your own thoughts and something around you in your environment is triggering [00:11:00] those thoughts to your mind, you then realize that your environment in terms of where you physically live and the people around you and what you look at on social media are the biggest things they can influence the way you think and feel.

So, If you have the right information, the right people around you who are in the right environment, you set yourself up for success. You only see what's possible and the positives rather than the negativity in the bullshit that's maybe on the world. So for example, like people talk, there was a second going on the world.

I live in Dubai. You don't see any of that bullshit. Like there's, the gym today is like five Rolls Royces or something retarded. It's like if you live in an abundance mindset, you'll have that open mind to push yourself and not have a scarcity mindset in terms of constricting, which is what most people do.

And trying to like, you wanna actually like, expand and like push into the void that most people, um, put out there. And if you look at even from like a trading aspect, we've spoken about this before. It's. You want to, uh, buy when people are fearful and then be fearful when people are greedy cuz it's the polar opposite of what other people are thinking because people like sheep, they move like with the masses and you want to go, uh, against the masses.

I think there's one way you can more think about life. It's [00:12:00] like, it's the wolves and the sheep. And I do think that about a lot of it. And I think 98, 90 9% of the world, of the sheep. The main thing I do feel that you've excelled in as well is making sure that you had a long-term vision as to where you are going.

Looking back and looking. For you, what was the biggest thing that you feel you've achieved in your past life and where do you see the long-term vision of you going forward five, 10 years from now? Uh, it's interesting. The most thing I take pride of is the moment I left my full-time job. So like that was the, the equivalent of me escaping the Matrix.

If you go on my Instagram and you score a really long way back, three videos, there's one four years ago where literal. , I had basically walked out my full-time job. So in each stage, agency real estate, I was only like 50% commission. You hand your notice in, you don't get paid. Your commission says, I'm not gonna work for half price.

So I was like, I wait till the day I got paid and literally just got myself like I'm leaving. And, uh, on the way home, I, I just drove and pulled over at like this viewpoint and then I literally just, I thought like, this is an important [00:13:00] moment in life. I needed document so I can like look back on this in like 30 years time.

And I just talked to the camera about what I did, why I. And how I felt. I was like, the fucking adrenaline was nuts. And then I remember going home and then my boss at the time called me, he was like the area manager or whatever, was like, you have to come back. And I was like, no, I don't. And she's like, you have to come back.

And I was like, no, I don't. Cause I don't work for you anymore. And then I was like, shit, I don't have to listen to anyone else ever again. I can do whatever I want as long as I back myself and I'm successful. And that for me was tr true freedom because what I always wanted was to do what I want, what I want, with who I want.

So we're on this podcast cause I wanna do it. I don't have to do anything now, but I'm in the opportunity where I have the world is my oyster to go and go where I want and do what I want. And for me, fulfillment, like, I'm not necessarily a happy person, but I lo I get fulfilled. So I get joy from seeing you succeed from other people, succeed.

Clients achieve fat loss with their business, whatever. And I really feel that's what I'm here to do. So that'd probably be the biggest moment I look back on with pride, um, in terms of what I plan to do for the future, like, . [00:14:00] Interestingly, I haven't, I dunno if I sent it to you by, I watched this video from Christian Guzman this morning, like literally made me basically cry on the cross trainer and he talks about like, hi a contract to himself or what he wants in 10 years time.

And that gave me a lot of perspective in terms of thinking like, what the fuck do I wanna do in 10 years time? And his goals are like, Retardedly big, and I was like, I'm thinking too small. So it's like I literally, I was thinking this afternoon, so I need to sit down and try and work out like what is it I really want?

Like I have certain like net worth goals I wanna have say the next couple of years. Like with our mastermind, the goal isn't gonna get that to 300 people within two years. I wanna continue to expand our fitness business to help and transform more lives over the. Uh, and just build a bigger audience in terms of my own social media presence in terms of having a positive influence on people all over the world.

Because like when I was 26, 27, I felt trapped. I was not in great shape. I was stuck in a nine to five job. I was like, your average Joe. And now some respectfully people look up to me and idolize me, but I'm no different than you. I just took action. And took the leap and wasn't scared about the fall.

Whereas so many people are worried about what goes wrong [00:15:00] rather than what if it works. It's like the reality is, it's like if it works, you get the life of your dreams. It doesn't work. You just go back to your job like, and people shouldn't be so afraid. So if you're in that position right now and you are scared of asking, like asking as real need to get in shape for fitness, you were scared about starting a new business or asking for someone for help.

I'm in the position I'm in because like actually it's a great. The success to life in with speed is coaching. So fitness, I first got in really good shape cause I've got someone to coach me. I still have someone coach me now. I have for the last, I don't have long seven years business. Exactly the same thing.

I probably worked with six to eight different business mentors. I worked with three at the moment. Like that's the key to get to where you wanna be. It's finding people ahead of you and getting them, like usually wanna go from point A to point B. They can help you bend that time and that's time you're never gonna get back.

Cause that'd be the best piece of advice that could give. . Exactly, and I think you've really built this. Thing called escape velocity, where you've done this a long time ago, but when you have the momentum to really move out, you know, for me that's where, you know, that ticking time bomb started ticking [00:16:00] a while ago, a few years back with medicine as well.

So finishing that up and then making sure that at the end of it, I have options. Right. That's where, you know, a while back where. Really scaling teams, going rapidly, aggressively growing, and then reinvesting into business as well into myself, personal development, everything to make sure that I was able to actually get out.

And that's where you helped me as well. So I always had the thought of cost of inaction. So if you haven't watched the Seven Figures Scaling Systems podcast that I did with Charlie, I've watched over that after the. Cost of inaction with everything was the bigger thing in my mind than what may go wrong.

And I feel that's what's really, really stuck in holding people with back. It's going back to that idea of fear. Fear is always, always gonna be the biggest thing that's holding everyone back. Fear of what other people think, fear of what could. I always thought of it as like, what is the worst that could possibly go wrong?

And even then, I never saw that as bad. Living a life where I have no control. You are being controlled, you're centered, you have [00:17:00] no real choice. And you know, I think that your visions and values align to really push you forward with everything in the past and of course going into future as well. So based on where you are at before, I know your relationship Stacy and stuff has changed in the past, is how has that changed and where did the values maybe not meet?

Cuz I know a bit. , do you mind explaining? Yeah. One, one thing I'd say before we go into that, I'll go into that second, is that like no one was ever inspired by someone who was average. So it's like, fuck being average. And like that was always my mentality when I started to get momentum was like, I don't wanna be like everyone else.

And I, so basically, I moved to Dubai January last year. Unfortunately, I ended up speaking for my partner, who I was with for. 12, 13 years. And the reality is, who you are when you're 18 to 20 is different than who you are at 32, 33. And, um, people diverge on different like paths, right? So like I wanted to go off travel on world, um, conquer the world and do whatever I wanted to do.

I was like in the fucking crusades of [00:18:00] scaling businesses and do whatever. Um, and she wanted to stay at home in terms of have a family and be in the same town she was from, which I completely respect. And that's what a lot of people. . But the reality is, if you're in a relationship right now, and that's the situation you can see that's coming, the kindest thing you can actually do is to end that relationship and then do what's needed to do and have the balls to do it.

Like she actually said, thank to me, thank you for me for doing it probably four or five months ago, because that then allowed her to then move on to do what she wanted to do. So, um, an important thing I would say for everyone to take context of is that sometimes stuff is gonna be really shit. And then like in January last year, I had a really bad three days.

day one. Wednesday I ended up getting divorced. Uh, partner was with for like 14 years. That was obviously horrendous. The second day, I had to clear out all my personal possessions at the house and basically give all my stuff away in the house that I'd like spent 10 years paying for. And then the day after that, five minutes before on the podcast, my Instagram account got disabled, whil.

I was living in a hotel. I was like, yes, I'm winning. And here's a saying for everyone. It's like, it's not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about [00:19:00] learning to dance in the rain, and the lows will only magnify the highs you have in life. not how, it's not letting things that bad happen to you like defeat you.

It's that how you respond to 'em, that's gonna make you a stronger person. And I respect all the shit things that has ever happened to me in business or whatever. I take a lot of, um, I've learned big lessons from them and they've made me a better entrepreneur and a better person because I now understand about how to plan for something coming because.

it'll happen in your business. Something really bad will happen at some point. Something again, is gonna happen really bad in my business. Like this is just the reality of how it works. You're waiting for the next like iceberg to float in front of the Titanic. So, um, but you, again, you shouldn't be afraid of these things.

It's about how you handle those. Having the mindset too, and also having the advice to handle them. So like I have great network of people to ram me, to advise me. Um, you've got me to advise. You got other people to. That's how you can handle the iceberg. You're not like the Titanic that sinks and you can navigate around that, if that makes sense.

A hundred percent. So what do you think the biggest driving factor was in helping you build that mental resilience for you to [00:20:00] not crash and burn when everything goes wrong? All at once. Uh, what other choice do you have? Like, it's like you wanna fucking hide under the duvet, not get outta bed, but the reality is,

I always think the best way to deal with any problem is to deal with the head on. So, for example, when that happened with the Instagram thing, right? I was like, my personal life is collapsing, my business collapsing. I was like, this is fun. So I worked out the numbers. I was like, okay, if we scrape everything back and we don't have that, we don't have any revenue for that Instagram account.

I was like, okay, we can still make 20, 30 grand a month. I think I was like, okay, that's fine. That's, that's pretty good. I was like, okay, it's fine. Um, and from that actually happening really helped the business cause it's like on your backs against a woman, a gun to your head. Your figure shit out says, uh, Corby, like the head coach at seven figure scanning systems said to me the other day, he was like, um, what would you do if you're starting a fitness business if you had a gun to your head tomorrow and you had to get five clients?

And I was like, and that, he's like, that's what you should put in your training. I was like, that's a really good way to think about it. And whenever your back's up against the wall that you need to find money, you need to solve a problem, you solve it cuz couldn't, no other option. Mm-hmm . And when you have no other option, then [00:21:00] that's really fine.

I think too many people sometimes just fold under pressure. That's why I actually think sometimes being an entrepreneur is over glamorized, whereas like a lot of people maybe should be the number two. If you're number two at like a big company, you earn good money and you still have a lot of control. So know yourself and know what you really want in life to get the end result, because being the main man isn't sometimes for everyone.

Sometimes I'm fucking, I, I don't have to, like, if there's something really bad happens, I've got three businesses, like 50 employee. , it comes to me and then I'm like, Charlie will fix it. Great, here we go. Like, I'm the money trying to solve a problem. And that's the bigger the business, the big of the problem.

But then also in a really weird, sick, twisted way. I like problem solving. So it's like you have to have love the game and love of the passion. The same as for fitness and business. And if you, if you're not enjoying what you're doing, you probably shouldn't be doing it because that business isn't gonna do that well.

Cause you're not that passionate. You've definitely become the A player in all areas and then you've really built the right team around you. At the same time, you are handling the responsibility of building [00:22:00] that as human handling their issues. And for you, what was the biggest thing that helped you bring up your leadership skills to actually get you there?

Because I know how that translates into all areas. becoming a good leader and be making sure that you are the best version of yourself consistently. Um, one thing I'd say before we go into that is that the most important thing of you as a leader is like equanimity. So people know how to handle you and how you're gonna be.

So, uh, from my background before in real estate stuff, I worked with some people who are good managers, some people who are terrible managers, and that's actually probably where I learned a lot of my skills. Even at the point, like I was cold calling 150 people a day. Like I didn't give a shit like. If someone's gotta be done, I'm doing, I mean like, I'm inherently very competitive.

Um, and I actually like sometimes look back and I call, I do that again cause they're quite fun. But, um, the reality is for you to be a good leader is sometimes if you have a really bad leader, you're like, I definitely don't wanna manage like that. Um, but I would say one of the things sometimes, which is actually a word I had to look up a while ago, is called empathy.

So it's like [00:23:00] understanding how people feel and being empathetic, which isn't a natural tendency of mine cause. Why does this person not get this? Um, which is difficult when you are the leader of an organization. The, but the big thing I say in terms of leadership is trying to learn how to manage each person and not them all the same.

So different things will motivate people and everyone's motivated by money. Some people want freedoms, status, whatever it might be. Um, and a lot of this, these skills I've learned from. Personal mentorship with people I work with now, like, um, I don't wanna mention, I work with Craig Valentine at the moment.

He's helped me a lot in terms of leadership skills. I've never managed 50 people before. Um, and then I would say reading, so like some great. Yeah, authors of, uh, books I'd recommend would be, uh, anything by Brian Tracy. He's got about like 30 books, uh, some Simon Sinek books. And the really good one actually helped me a lot was working backwards, a book about Amazon.

Um, and it's corny saying, everyone says it, but it's like successfully clues, like there's a reason people are successful, there's a reason that businesses are successful, successful, just look at how they did it and do [00:24:00] the same. And that's really helped you, I guess, in whereas life outside that because.

Now a competitor. Well, you have been competing and you've recently competed around three months ago. How did that go for you? What did prep look like? What does the off season now look like? Give me an overview of how that went and how it's currently going. Um, uh, I is an interesting thought process for anyone.

If you wanna be successful in life, you have to enjoy suffering. And when I read David Goggin's recent book, can't remember what it's called, um, I've read both of 'em. You Can't Hurt Me in whatever the other one's called. Um, he talked about the suffering. I was like, the suffering made me exciting. I was like, I actually really like it.

It's the same thing with working. Like, I like the grind. I like training really hard when like in the gym, I like suffering, not eating much food and feeling a bit shit and it's really weird and sadistic. But I enjoy that process of like, how hard can I. So me from a competing point of view is like I have to have something outside of business to push myself athletically.

Cause I come from an athletic background. And that for me, um, [00:25:00] gives me almost an escape where I've got another thing to focus on rather than just like, how can I scale my business and just sit in my office all day long? Um, and I also think that gives you a lot of depth as a person because you're not just like we spoke before, being a one trick pony.

Cuz for me, One of the people I'm most inspired by is Arnold Schwarzer, not because of his bodybuilding career, but he was hugely successful as a bodybuilder, right? He then had a big pot property portfolio. Then the biggest Hollywood star ever then became governor of Califor. Like if you did one of those things, you'd be like, this guy's killed everything.

He's done. All these different things. And for me, that's when someone is, um, truly a great, when they can be multi-faceted and successful in different fields. So, For me, the competing thing is very much about how hard I can push myself. Is it something that makes me more money doing it? Hell no. Like one of the most important things a businesses decision making, the bigger your business comes.

Like one of my most important things is like decision making. How do I steer the ship away from the iceberg? But when you are like running a no calories, I couldn't sleep. I'd be awake for like, I'd get up like three [00:26:00] o'clock in the morning because I couldn't sleep cause I was so hungry. You know, your body just wakes you up when you're in that position.

your decision making is a little bit like off, and you're probably a bit more emotionally erratic than you would be normally. So towards the final four to six weeks, that wasn't necessarily the most fun. And even from a content point of view, it was like I didn't want anyone to film with me. I don't wanna be like, I just wanted to be on my own because you just don't feel great.

I can't, if you haven't been there, I can't even explain. It's getting lean for the beach and having an outdoor folk. But you're going down to like 5% body fat. You literally like it hurt when I sat down cause I know fat my ass . Um, when you're at that point you're like, this is just not good. Um, so that was good.

And like the show and stuff I really enjoy, enjoyed actually being on the stage, which I didn't before. The one thing I hate cuz I'm just impatient and I don't like wasting time is the rest of the day. On show day, I like next time I'm literally like legit taking my laptop and I'm just gonna sit backstage and just work.

Cause I can't just sit around for like five hours waiting to go on the stage. Um, It was something I would highly recommend people do, but you don't need to rush into the [00:27:00] process if you haven't done that before. I had to do a photo shoot first. And one of the best things I spoke about earlier about having a gun to your head about pressure, when you're gonna stand on stage in your pants, chances are when you're looking at having that piece of cheesecake, you're like, mm, I'll probably leave that cause I don't look like an idiot.

So like even you doing a photo shoot as a first, like Walmart, it's one of the things we do with a lot of our clients. We've got photo shoot in with some in the summer, uh, and one in the uk. Like that is something that's gonna define your decision making in terms of what you do on a daily basis. And the daily decisions you make are gonna define the outcome, the result you have.

So from a fitness aspect, that would be it. In terms of the compete side of things, you just get used to being hungry all the time. That's normal. Uh, now I'm maybe 15, 16 kilos heavier, three and a half months later. And this is actually much harder than getting shredded. It's monotonous, it's boring, it's groundhog every day.

I mean like 900 grams of rice a day. It's like, this is tedious. Um, it's not as glamorous and I'm already really struggling in terms of, to be honest, keeping on the narrow with that. Cause I already wanna go back and just get straight again. But [00:28:00] that's the point of actually having a coach. So I'm now working the guy called Luke Miller.

So they can keep you on the, the straight path and not come off. So whether you are in your life based, long story short, whatever you do, get coach for it by someone who can actually help you to get the way you wanna be. Yeah. And of course you're in a much more advanced position right now where you are competing and surf and on stage as well.

And when you first started it was a lot more simplified in terms of making sure that you are really becoming aware. You know, your chloric intake, your macros, how to actually train, how to actually exercise with proper form sets, res volume, and that was all nailed down. So you can actually have a really clear path of how you can actually improve to get to that next level.

And I'll wrap up with one last question for you. If you could have one thing in your life for the next five years changed from what it is right now, what would that. Oh, that's a very good question. Um, for me, [00:29:00] that one thing that I'd like to change in my life would actually be me not getting emotionally triggered by things negatively.

So, for example, and I know a lot of people this will happen to, if we have a slow day in the business, I get really pissed, um, will be like a thing that triggers me, right. not having negative feedback loops and not like learning to look, and I teach this, but it's difficult to learn. Learn yourself sometimes look at the macro, not the micro.

Just cuz you had one slow day in your business doesn't mean the whole thing's falling apart. So, because I'm very driven and determined to get what I want, that's probably the biggest thing I need to learn is to zoom out a bit more. And, uh, I do a lot of work with a psych psychologist and one of the things he said is like, when you're scaling the mountain, learn to look back and, uh, view the enjoy the view.

And actually, I almost got upset watching Chris Guzman's video this morning. He talked. The biggest thing he needs to focus on is being present. And that's probably the biggest. I know it's the biggest challenge I have. Even like the event we did the master one on Saturday, like I should have been really happy with that and I still wasn't and I didn't, I thought about it this morning, I was like, I almost just, I [00:30:00] didn't even want think about it when it was there, but trying to learn to be more present until you're in the position where you start to like tick off most of the stuff you're have in your life and you've got a lot of like respectfully a lot of chaos and stuff going on.

Learning to be present is probably the most difficult thing. Yeah. And I feel you've grown in chaos and adapted to it very, very. And of course, I'm sure you're gonna keep progressing. So thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. This is Charlie Johnson. If you wanna check 'em out, where can they find you?

Uh, so if you'd like to hear me ramble. And we have two different podcasts at institute. So our fitness podcast is the shredder show. We've got over 300 guests, uh, of the best people in fitness. If you're in fitness, that'd be the one for you. Business wise, we've just launched the Financially Stacked and Physically Jacked podcast.

I hope you like the name's pretty cool, cuz I, I bet everyone, like if you're a guy, right? You're gonna be jacked, you wanna have money. It's basically live in Dubai. I can see the birds around. Um, so go check that podcast as we came on there as well. So that episode will be dropping soon, so make sure we check those out and subscribe.

I've also got my personal Instagram, which is, uh, Charlie Watson Fitness and our business, uh, Instagram, which is seven Scalian Systems, and again, exactly the same for YouTube channels [00:31:00] and TikTok. Love to hear. Everything will be in links below as well. Thank you so much for joining us. Awesome. I'm Andreas Chai and that's the first episode of the Elite Health Podcast.

Join the community for more and follow us. Subscribe wherever you are and keep watching. Thank you so much.