What is good people? Welcome back to the Like Minds
podcast. Today's episode I'm joined by
Lewis Potts who is an ex DJ and now a huge advocate for the
standard of coaching. We discuss how a heart
condition, lockdown and a drifting lifestyle pushed him
down the path of personal development, from partying to
losing 70 KG and building a successful business.
He goes into what he believes real coaching should look like
and how he's making a difference to make coaching great again.
As always, this podcast will never have any adverts other
than my own, so if you haven't already, I would love for you to
grab a copy of my book Almost Great, which is a practical
guide for helping you find purpose through structure.
And if you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to the show
as it really helps me out. But it also makes sure that you
get those episodes every single week.
So without further ado, please welcome Lewis Potts.
Lewis, welcome to the show. Cheers.
For having me mate. Sounds weird saying my own name
to you, even though it's spelt in in a different way.
Yeah, yeah. Is it?
Is it Spanish? Is it?
Yeah, it is Lewis. But I just say Lewis Cos I I
don't want to be that guy. Correct.
Feels a bit wanky saying Lewis. Feels very wanky, especially in
the UK. Yeah.
Before we jump into the the
conversation which we've spoken about off camera, I'm going to
go into coaching because I feel like it's a, it's a very hot
topic for you and, and, and for myself.
I want to ask you two things. First of all, first question is
what is a like minded person to you?
You've literally I've had like I feel like I've only had like 30
seconds notice. You've just told me we're.
Going to do this I do this everyone and.
It's, it's a really good question.
I was like rattling my brain straight away.
I think to me, I think it's very subjective in it.
I think to me, if I was thinking about a like minded person, the
thing that I always try and come back to because of a lot of the
situations that I've been through is I really I, I think
one of my main things that I look for people is that people
that are able to take responsibility for their
situation in their life. And then when you asked me that
question initially, I was like, right, OK, sometimes I try and
think of the opposite. I'm like, I don't know what a
like minded person is, but I know what a like minded person
is like, like what a non like minded person, whatever the
opposite is, I know what that is.
And, and it's this idea of like victims, people that give
control away to external situations.
That's the thing that I kind of like repel.
So I've actually gone, I've actually reverse engineered it
from that. So to me, it's somebody that is
able to take personal responsibility for the
situation, whether it is or isn't their fault, whether it is
or isn't something that they have created themselves
personally. But the people that I relate to
the most and connect with the most are similar to me in that
sense. Yeah, no, I like it.
I asked that question a because it was obviously the name of the
show. But it's interesting to see that
pretty much everyone has a different answer.
And I feel like if someone's listening, you can kind of see
that they're different characteristics.
There might be one thing that you say and it just like starts
to the domino for someone to think, OK, do you know what?
Maybe I'm I'm like this person. What's the most out there answer
that you've had? Out there answer.
That's a brilliant, it's a brilliant question.
That's that's on the spot question as well, but I remember
all the got to remember the 15 people that well actually I only
started like 5 episodes ago. So if I can't recall that's
that's pretty bad for me. What is?
Oh, in fact, then let's flip it. What would your answer be?
My answer is someone that's open to learning and curious so is
interested in something and that doesn't.
I think people run with that and think it needs to be like
academic or it needs to be in the self help space or or
something like me. But I just really respect
someone that has a curiosity for something that doesn't just take
something for like the surface value and actually wants to
understand how that thing works. And that could literally be
anything. And I think that is just a great
trait in someone. You can kind of tell you're
going to vibe with them because it's a, it's an indication to me
that they've got like a bit of substance.
Yeah, when you see people get it doesn't really matter what it's
about, right? When you see people just get
passionate about something and they they like when they're
talking about it, you're like, on one hand I'm like, I have no
relationship. I cannot connect.
Like I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm buzzing
for you like. Yeah, that is it.
It's that it's that passion of it's like, I very, I don't know
about you, but very rarely we'll have a conversation with someone
that just gets into something and you can just see their
energy shifting. Like you ask them a question
about whatever it is. And as they start talking,
that's it. They just get, they speak
faster, they start sounding louder and they start having
hand movements and all that kind of stuff.
So yeah, just seeing that is, is pretty cool.
But I want to go into the coaching journey and I say the
coaching journey, all the beliefs you have about coaching,
but for the listeners, just a little bit of context.
We'll do the little bit about you section.
And another thing I want to find out is obviously the open heart
surgery. I can't, I can't jump on.
I'm here and, and not find out about that.
So yeah, tell us a little bit about what led you to this
point. So I, I, I kind of like fell
into coaching. I was one of those kids where I
was naturally gifted at school with like exams, so GCSE, a
level sort of level. At the same time I was playing
contact sport, rugby, American football, all that sort of
stuff. And then I went to university to
party. I didn't go to university to go
to university. Like I never had this like
academic big goal. I never wanted to be, you know,
you know, he's beats kids when they're a kid, when they're kids
and they're like, I want to be a lawyer or a doctor.
It's like, no, you fucking don't.
Like whatever, like you want whatever I like.
I genuinely could not have told you what I wanted to be.
If you did seriously ask me, I probably would have said like a
fucking wrestler or something. I'm just like, I just want to.
I just want to play fight for a living.
I'll sit. So I've never really knew what I
wanted to do. I went down the whole I was
DJing full time and I was working in hospitality and doing
everything that came with that. And through that I got set in
that kind of like mindset of I never want to put down roots.
I'll never own a house. I'm going to just travel and I'm
going to do this. And that started started on that
journey. And while I was in Australia, so
I went to I moved to Australia and I was living in Australia
playing high level American football over there.
And whilst I was over there I got basically I had this weird
episode 1 morning where I woke up and I tried to say a sentence
and all of the words came out in the wrong order.
And it was weird as fuck bro. Honestly it was weird as fuck.
I was there with my ex. So we went travelling together
and straight away she was like right, that's not right.
And then I went to say another sentence to her and all of the
words came out in the wrong order again.
I'm like what the fuck? Bear in mind I'm playing like an
elite level sport, like representing the state of
Victoria, getting smashed in the head and all of that sort of
stuff. So, so obviously it was kind of
like, yes, it was worrying, but it to me, it wasn't that I
wasn't like, holy shit, I'm a dying.
It was just like, all right, we should probably get this scene
too. Went through the Australian
healthcare system, which was amazing.
We get reciprocal healthcare when you're over there.
Had all these tests and they found that I've got this
condition in my heart. But it was really downplayed
when I was over there. So it wasn't that big of a deal.
I carried on playing. I played two more seasons and
then I moved back from Australia in 2018.
My grandma had passed away so I wanted to come back and see to
the family side of things. And then while I was back, I had
no again, still no idea. Went back to renting a place in
Manchester, partying DJ and doing everything that came with
it. And then basically somebody that
I used to know launched an online coaching business and
grew it massively. Like as in like I think like 8
or 9 grand in the first month, just a load of clients, like
literally 12 hour days, 13 hour days, 14 hour days.
But my kind of lifestyle was I went to work at like 10:00 PM
and I finished at like 3:00 AM and then I would sleep until
like 9, get up, go gym, chill, fuck about, go and do a bar
shift. And in that window, basically,
he said to me, do you want to basically come and spend your
days here? Like basically keep me alive, do
my admin, make sure that everything keeps running so I
can keep pushing the business, coaching clients, etcetera.
And I'll just pay you some. It was like literally £500.
And I was like, yeah, sick, sound next to a mate and like,
do admin fine. Very quickly.
We used to sit in the spare room at his mom and dad's house.
So I was sat next to him all day.
And very quickly I hear these like conversations that it's
having with people and the, the sort of stuff that they were
working on. And I was like, I could kind of
see myself doing that. And I just started badgering
him. I'd, I'd no intention of
coaching ever. I'd never had a coach.
I'd never been in shape. But I was like, the impact that
he's having on people is something that I want a piece
of. So I was on my own weight loss
journey, like from start to finish, I lost 70 kilos.
So I was already on my own weight loss journey.
I had no right like wanting to be a coach.
I was still like 135 kilos at this point, like, but I was
like, yeah, I really want, I want to be able to help people
because at the minute I play music to people that are on
drugs or I get people drunk. Like that's my, that's my like
what I'm giving to the world at the minute.
So I started badgering him and this was in like August.
I started badgering him. I was like, if you sell this
group programme, I'll do everything in it.
Don't worry about it. Like you just sell it.
I had again, no Instagram presents.
I wasn't posting coaching material.
You do that, I'll do this. And after a few months, I think
the first one was maybe February the following year.
So I've been fucking pestering like and he did it and I ran
this group programme again, no formal coaching education,
nothing like that. But really interested in people,
really interested in helping and this idea of like service, which
I believe coaching is. And out of the 30 people that
we've got, like in the 8 weeks, 25 of them got like an insane
result. And from that point I was just
fucking hooked. So I kind of fell into it by
accident. I had never, I'd never, I'd
always trained in the gym for my sport, but I'd always been over
it like overweight. I'd never been in shape.
I didn't give a fuck about being in like it wasn't my thing.
So you know, a lot of coaches, you're like they've had ABS
since we were 14. They kind of leave school at 16
or college at 18 and they don't really know what to do.
So they follow the passion, which is training and that's
their entry into coaching. Mate, I was 29 years old and I
was like, fuck it, let's give it a go.
Let's look about and find out. But like you were saying there
about what a like minded person is to you, I am an absolute slot
for like I will just put myself in any, any rabbit hole
possible. As soon as I started to learn
about coaching, that was it. I was all in reading, doing
courses, studying actual research.
The one thing that university did give me was was the ability
to, so when people say I've done my research and what they mean
is they've watched TikTok, the actual ability to find studies
and try and condense them and stuff like this.
So I was just like, I just, it just started from there really.
And then the perfect timing, which is a weird, weird phrase,
was lockdown. So perfect timing.
This was obviously I'd started pestering him in August of 2019,
in May, I think it was February of 2020, we'd decided, right,
OK, let's give it a go. I'm going to dip my toe into the
coaching and we'll see what that looks like.
And then April, all the fucking gyms closed and his business
just fucking blew up. Like obviously he was an online
coach, not an in person coach. And then he had that there where
I think April 2020 is where I first started getting 101 to one
clients. There was still this weird
period where I'd been working on the coaching side of things
without people really knowing. I'd been essentially inside the
coaching app, logged into his profile, sending messages to to
clients and giving feedback and stuff like that.
So that really allowed me to develop my own skills and my own
communication without this having to feel like I needed
like the authority that I think a coach needs.
So I, I kind of had a bit of a weird entry that way.
And then, yeah, I started taking on one to one clients and it
just snowballed. It just snowballed.
I worked for him from from then until October 2021, just
handling 1 to one clients. Again, getting involved in the
group coaching side of things. But along this period, obviously
I've got this hard going, hard situation going on in April
2021. Basically, it had really started
to impact me mentally that side of things.
So I, I didn't really know where to go.
Like by this time I'd lost all the weight.
I was in shape. I was like, I was on the surface
like, OK, but mentally I was like, I'm fucked.
Like, I don't really know what to do about this.
And then I saw this fucking advert for this free audio book
by a guy called Paul Moore. And I downloaded.
I'd actually heard him on a podcast probably, probably at
that time, probably 1 of James Smith's podcasts back in the
day. And I was like, yeah, it kind of
sounds cool, but I don't know if I believe it and all of that
sort of shit. And I remember specifically just
launched his free, his first, his first book.
So the one that was an audible Paul Moore, I can't remember.
Will save your life. There you go.
Yeah, so, so I remember downloading that and it was on a
Friday and I didn't have much work to do.
It was, it was that period a lot down where the weather was
amazing. So I remember going for a walk,
right. No word of a lie.
I remember going for a walk at like 10:00 AM and just putting
this book on and thinking, fuck it, I'll listen to this book. 40
minutes in, I'm like hooked. And I walked legit no word of a
lie for the entire six hours. I just stayed out and I just
consumed this book in like 1 hit and, and, and at that point I
was like, right shit. Because obviously in that book
he's telling stories about people, people that I could kind
of relate to that weren't in my exact situation, but basically
we're in this situation in their life where they knew they needed
to do something about it and, and whatever.
And at the time he was selling this four week course called
Unstoppable 28. His business looked a little bit
different. Paul's business looked a little
bit different. It was like 4 weeks of
basically, I don't know if they were pre recorded, they looked
live but there was no like it wasn't on Zoom.
It was like cast into a Facebook group and stuff like that.
And you had these tasks to do and whatever.
And it was all about like the goal setting and the journaling
and the the like real basic stuff.
But it was like £150 and I was like fuck it.
I was like well I got the book for free, pay the £150.
I was like, right, OK, absolutely took to that.
And then straight after that went into the 90 day thing,
which I think at the time was called like mansamation, which
was the first time that you actually got to interact with
him. So like by this point I'd been
what I thought at the time was coaching people in a body
transformation sense, talking about calories and training and
all of that sort of stuff. What people think coaching
believe coaching is these days? I'd also worked with a coach at
this point. I've been working with a guy
called Mike Harrison who now runs business and banter his
clients. I've stayed with him for like 2
years. He helped me get so I got down
from like 1:50 to 1:10 on my own, couldn't breakthrough.
Then he got me from like 1:10 to 1:00 to 2:00 to 8:00 and really
helped me on that side of things, which was again massive
for me because I I wasn't able to train because of this heart
situation. So the 70 kilos had to come off
just by diet. So having having him there to to
bounce ideas off and give me feedback and stuff was really,
really useful again. So at the time I believed I was
receiving coaching and delivering coaching and then I
met Paul and my ideas of what coaching is.
It just, it blew it wide open in the sense that I think a lot of
people still think that coaching is to give people instructions
when actually by definition, and again, I've gone down, I've got,
I'm, I'm now accredited by the IAPCNM, which is the
international authority for professional coaching and
mentoring that like I've, I've done the work, got the T-shirt
now. And like, if you look at either
ICF, which is the International Coaching Federation, IAPCNMCIPD,
which is Chartered Institute for Personal Development, all of the
big boys in actual coaching. Nowhere anywhere does it say
anything to do with giving instructions and telling people
what to do. Anywhere, every single
definition by all of the the governing bodies in actual
coaching, the entire conversation is around a
collaborative process between two people where basically
essentially really dumbed down. You ask good questions, that's
it, that that that's it. Like, and there are, there are
elements where you will need to tell people what to do, but
that's not coaching, that's instructing.
There are elements where you will need to tell people what
worked for you, but that's not coaching, that's mentoring.
And there's these things that a lot of coaches in my industry,
in the fitness industry just don't understand.
They just don't understand. And they get really, really
defensive when you try and say to them, look, I get it.
I know that you, I know that you've got online coach in your
bio, but trust me, I've worked with literally over 200 online
coaches. Now There's not that many that
are actually doing any coaching. And it's, there's nothing wrong
with that, by the way, because when I was working with Mike, I
needed Mike to tell me what to do.
I needed Mike to give me instructions.
I needed Mike to hold me accountable.
But then when I started working with Paul and I'm getting on
these calls and I must, I'm coming to him with a problem and
expecting him to tell me what to do.
And all he's doing is sitting there and asking me questions
And I'm like, what the fuck is this?
I'm like, at first I was like, just give me the answer, just
tell me what to do. But then you start to learn the
research behind coaching and you start to realise that people are
three times more likely to stick to something that they came up
with themselves than something that they're told to do.
All right, we have this, we have this self efficacy thing where
we have this autonomy thing where we like to be in control.
We know something that I've studied recently is neuro
coaching, which is basically where you look at fMRI and how
the brain actually into plays with certain elements of
coaching. And how can we, how can we
nurture, how can we nurture safety in somebody so that they
are able to actually make decisions that align with the,
it's fascinating. But we know from neuroscience
that the number one cause of stress in all living creatures
is the removal of choice is the removal of freedoms, right?
You put somebody in a cage, they fucking hate it.
You put a mouse in a cage, they fucking hate it.
You put any creature in a cage, you remove all their choices,
they hate it. It causes stress, like actual
stress. So all along, I thought that
telling people what to do and removing their choice was the
best way to get people to do things.
And that was positively reinforced by every now and then
you'll get a robot. You'll get a robot that you'll
say, go and eat this food, do this training, speak to me in a
week, and they'll do it. And you're like, yeah, sick.
Nailed it. And actually, they're just
really intrinsically motivated. It's nothing to do with it.
You've not really had to do any coaching.
So the idea of actually asking people questions, that's why
people are more likely to do things that they came up with
for themselves. You have you every, I ask
everybody this question, have you ever had like a mate or a
partner or a pair or something like that where you've had this
fantastic idea and you've gone like, we should do this.
I really think we should do this.
It'd be a great idea. And they kind of like shut it
down. They're like, Nah, Nah, Nah.
And then like 2 weeks later they go like, I've had this sick
idea. Let's do this thing.
And it's the exact same thing that you told them to do.
The difference is they now believe that it's their idea.
So they've taken ownership of it.
So this idea of personal responsibility, they've taken
responsibility for that idea. So now it's a great idea because
they thought of it and it's what I've done from that point of
getting qualified in in in the qualifications that I've got.
I then completely changed the direction of my own business,
which was still at the time body and brain.
It was still very much space. Again, I was still working with
people that needed to lose weight, that had body image
issues, that had relationship with food issues, but I just
flipped it on its head and rather than me being the
dictator, I got people involved in the in the process.
I cut my client list down from like 50 something to like 35.
Start charging more money, but work with everybody on a way
more focused basis, having way more calls rather than it just
being a check in and a check. You'll get feedback each week on
Loom and then I'll check up with you halfway through the week.
It was just, it was a lot more like.
I'm getting called out here, yeah.
No, no, no, no. Like, but there's literally like
the old me was that that was it. Like you do your check in
midweek message. Yeah, absolutely.
But the thing, The thing is a for some people it works.
So if you're working with people that just need to get in shape
for a fucking AB for holiday with a lads or whatever, the the
fastest way to get them to the to to the result, the fastest
process is tell them what to do and crack the whip until they do
it. But everybody in the industry
talks about sustainable and wanting to set people up.
So I'll be the last coach that you ever need.
And then everybody says that but doesn't realise that by default,
if you tell people what to do the entire time, they're always
going to need a coach. They're always so.
So either you're saying that for your marketing to try and get
people to think, oh, after I've worked with after I've worked
with whoever, I'll never have to pay for a coach again.
Or you genuinely believe that neither of those things are your
fault. Like, again, my message now to
coaches is there's a lot of skill, there's a massive skill
set missing in the majority of online coaches.
And I can say that with confidence because I've worked
in previous roles where I had access to 250 coaches and I was
seeing what they were delivering.
And I've got the amplifier now and I see what people are
delivering on the way in. And it's, it's not, it's not
online coaches fault that they don't know this stuff.
It's because nobody fucking teaches them in.
It's like if you look at the traditional level 2, Level 3,
it's all about do this, set this, this is how you write a
programme. There's nothing anywhere about
behaviour change. And then people come out of that
and the first thing that they look to do is a business
mentorship that teaches them how to make money.
Again, no behaviour change involved.
And it's like, well hold on, your business will live or die
on the results that you are able to create with people.
And those results live or die on your clients adherence.
Telling people to eat a certain amount of calories in them not
doing it and then the next week telling them to eat the same
amount of calories like. It's yeah, there's no fact.
There's a, there's a well, there's a missing piece and
people just aren't aware of it. There's a lot I've got to take
in there that was. That was a monologue.
That was that was a lot. I'm going to try my best to to,
no, it's OK because when I get into it, I'm just like, you know
what? Go just keep keep flowing into
it, you know? What?
It's not when you're like, when you see people get excited.
I was like, bro, you've got no idea.
So a little pattern is right because I have to ask this
question. What was your DJ name?
Completely irrelevant, I just have to know.
I had AI had a few I used to play in like bass music scenes.
So started out by playing like, I don't know, how old are you?
27. Maybe just at the end.
So I used to play in the bass music scene.
I used to play like tear out dubsteps, so people like Flux
Pavilion, Doctor P Borg or Chase and Status back in the day.
I used to support people like that.
So my DJ name, which actually somebody at university came up
with because my surname is Potts, right?
My DJ name was Potty Mouth because I can't stop myself from
mate. I had a fucking logo and
everything, which was basically like a graphic of my face with a
toilet roll coming out like, but but again, there's there's
interestingly, I was going through my I was trying to clear
my camera roll the other day because I've got like fucking
30,000 photos or whatever ranging.
Like, you know, you get like iCloud and it just so back to
like 2015 and there's so many Flyers like chasing status next
name underneath potty Matt, like all these big names where I've
played at like played at like fucking part life festival and
all this stuff. So it's it was another life.
But yeah, potty. Matt, I had to know.
I had to know. That was the first thing.
And then when you said about like you saw your mate getting
into the whole coach him and it piqued your interest.
What do you think honestly, like interested you?
Was it just the fact that you wanted to like not be tied down
and this was your opportunity to kind of like work from a laptop
and like do what he was doing? Or was it like the influx of
money? Or was it just like, was it
something else? That kind of thought, Oh, this
is the thing that I want to do. Legit, And this is where, again,
this is a thing that I think a lot of coaches get caught in
this trap. Hand on heart, it was the impact
that it was having on people. I was already earning good
money. I was, I was DJ and I was
getting, I was getting paid nearly £250 an hour in cash to
DJ and I was playing three or four nights a week.
So it wasn't the money. Again, at the time, like I said,
at that stage in my life, the thought of being tied down, I
fucking hated it. I was, I was convinced that I
was going to get this. I didn't realise at that time
how big this heart condition thing was.
I was like, I'll get this scene to and then I'm going again.
I'm off. I'm not staying in UK.
Fuck that. So it wasn't the laptop
lifestyle, it wasn't the like being sat at my laptop.
It was genuinely holy shit is actually helping people.
And I think that's something that I've always, I've always
been really interested in people.
One of my favourite bits about again.
So when I wasn't DJ and I was managing bars, hospitality, it
was always the people that I've got to talk to.
I've always been real. I bought every single sports
team I've ever played for. I've always captained that I've
always been in these positions of almost like leadership, but
in an actual professional sense. I've never had that.
I'd like I said, I was playing music to people that were on
drugs or getting people drunk, like they were my two kind of
like things. So I'm seeing some of the
conversations because again, I don't want to, I don't want it
to sound like I'm belittling body transformation and calories
and training and stuff like that.
Because some of the, some of the calls and some of the feedbacks
that that he was getting at the time were genuinely people being
like, Oh my God, nobody's ever explained it like this.
This has changed my life. So, so it was.
So there's still a time and a place for that for sure.
And even with just the body transformation.
So if you can have a massive impact on people, I'm not saying
that everybody needs to go down this rabbit hole of like
behaviour, changing mindset and personal development and
identity and everything. Because it is, it is a fucking
rabbit hole. Like if you're going to commit
to that, it is a. It's a steep learning curve.
What was your driving force for that?
For going down that rabbit hole, what was happening with me.
So, so my situation basically like I said, I'd always been
when I was going through that period of like maybe 2013 to
2019 to to the time where everything got shut down by
lockdown, I was a completely different person.
I was like, I was I'm 6 foot three.
I'm not a small guy. I was like 100 and for 150 kilos
at my heaviest, playing, again, an aggressive sport.
I used to be able to walk into most nightclubs in Manchester
and like spud the bouncers on the way in because I was DJ and
I basically used to be a bit of a Billy Big Bollocks, do you
know what I mean? And I was a completely different
person and I had this if it. Again, I'm not proud of this if
it would ever kick off in a nightclub.
I was always like first man in. I just wasn't bothered by that
stuff. And then when I found out just
how serious this heart situation was, I had to stop playing
sport, which was the thing that had always kept me sane.
Like the, the, the, the violence, the aggression inside
a controlled sport had always like helped keep me on the
fucking straight and narrow. Every I was, I could stop, I had
to stop going out. Obviously everybody had to stop
going out. So I had this period in lockdown
where I was in this literal 2 bedroom flat in Didsbury in
Manchester. Like going to stir fucking
crazy. This is at the point where
everybody thought that if you went outside more than once a
day you were going to die. Like, like, it was a wild time.
It was weird so. I was kind of like, I was left
with all this time to really face who I am at the time.
And it wasn't that I didn't like the answer of who I was, but
then it did start me on this journey of like I remember and
and so many people will do this. I remember that first that first
summer of lockdown 2020. So I downloaded Audible because
again, it was like spending a fortune on fucking books.
So I downloaded Audible and I did that thing, you know, I
don't know if you know, basically you get like a token a
month to spend on a book on Audible.
If you pay for the year upfront, you get like double the tokens.
So you get like 24 tokens instead of 12, same price.
And I remember in that summer, like blitzing through 24, like
my first one classic was Atomic Habits.
Our second one was Chimp Paradox.
And I don't know after that, but literally I could, I could open
my phone now. And I thought that across that
2020 and 2021, heading into the surgery which I had in December,
I went through 75 personal development books.
Jesus Christ, I thought I was a fan.
But The thing is, I wasn't implementing anything.
So, so I was like, it was just mental masturbation, mate.
It was just literally, I used to be that fucking loser that would
put the next one on his story and, and, and do the I set
myself the target a 12 year and I blitzed that in like 3 months.
So I, I was literally doing the two out of 12/3 out of 12.
Do you know what I mean? Like working through these
books, but doing fuck all with them because I was listening to
them. A lot of them have these
questions and these tasks and these worksheets and all of
these exercises to do. I wasn't doing any of them.
I was like listening to him in the house and then I was getting
out of my one walk a day and listening to him on my walk and,
and again, just kind of like absorbed myself in this world.
So I was developing all the knowledge and then in that kind
of period towards the end of 2020, that's where I finally
started to realise how serious this hard thing was.
So I got back from Australia 1st of December 2018 and then I had
to re go through the NHS and redo all the tests, the MRIS,
the CTS, echocardiogram, etcetera to see what state I was
in. And then it was like a three
month turn around between like scans and stuff like that.
And then obviously when COVID happened, that slowed everything
right down because all the priorities, which is absolutely
fine. So there was this period where I
started to very quickly deteriorate like because I was a
very social person. Now all of a sudden I've been my
ex partners, the same one I went travelling with.
She she was a mental health nurse so she had to go to work.
So she actually moved out of our apartment and one of our friends
moved in. So again, I'm I'm locked in this
two-bedroom apartment with one person.
My ex partner would have to come round and she'd like sit outside
the car and I'd sit at the balcony.
Again, it's when when everybody thought they were going to
fucking die. And obviously I've got this
heart condition, so there's no way that I was risking things.
Like people are talking social distancing and I'm like, oh
shit, I've got this heart condition.
This could actually be really dangerous.
I actually need to stick to this shit.
So you see all these wankers going out to fucking flat
parties and stuff. I'm like legit like abiding by
the rules, spraying down the fucking shopping trolleys and
all that wankies, which in hindsight I'm like.
Yeah. You never know though, do you?
Never. No, No.
Absolutely not. And, and I would have done the
same thing if it was now like, again, like I've got this
condition and it's like legit the day like was in legit like
risk because of basically it developed into an aneurysm in my
heart. And all I need is a, or all I
needed was a spike in blood pressure for the aneurysm to
rupture. And then that's fucking game
over. So in this period, I, that's
where I probably started really struggling in November 2020,
maybe. And then there was that five
month period where until I started working with Paul.
So again, I'm still coaching at this time.
I've still got clients, I'm still doing all this stuff we're
still working on. But all I'm doing now at this
point is I'm doing what a lot of coaches done is I'm reading or
listening to Atomic Habits. And then I'm just regurgitating
that to my clients, telling people that I'm a mindset coach.
Do you know what I mean? Like I, I again, like, I know, I
know these things sound funny and almost like I'm taking the
piss, but I, I talk to a lot of coaches and I'm like, there'll
be somebody with like mindset. They'll have mindset coaching in
the bio and genuine out of curiosity.
I'm like, oh, that's fucking sick.
Again, I love this shit. What does that actually mean?
And then we'll get into it and they'll be like, oh, well, yeah,
I have a question in my checking form and it says like, how's
your mindset mean this week? And I'm like, right, yeah, OK,
yeah. Which is what one of the one of
the catalysts for what I do now, Like what?
What I help people with now. So that for me was reading these
things, re girding it to my clients, feeling like I've done
a great job. And then like I said, I, I
needed coaching math. I needed something I didn't, I
didn't know that I needed coaching.
So I signed into Paul. I signed up to Paul's thing.
And then like I said, from there it was almost like feel like if
Paul was at Step 5, if if Paul was at step five, I was at Step
3. Like everything that he was
doing, like I never did that. I don't know how long you've
been with him. I never did like the dispenser
stuff. Like he's been on some mad
fucking journeys like, but but Paul, but Paul's like me is
like, we'll find something, we'll throw himself down the
rabbit hole. And then what Paul's really good
at and what I'm really good at as well is like as I'm learning
something I'm really good at, like synthesising the
information and going, this bit's really applicable.
You don't need all of it. But this, this 5% out of this
six month course that I've done is really useful.
So I'll teach that. So that's what that that that's
like rather than what it used to be with Atomic Habits.
I'd like every single analogy. It'd be in a check in form, it'd
be in a check in feedback, every single question that'd be in
this. I'd talk about habit stacking
again, like thinking you're doing this fucking great shit
when it would have been just easier for me to just send them
all the book. Yeah, read it yourself.
Yeah, in it, yeah. So, so that was the, I think the
question was like, what was the catalyst?
But yeah, it was very much like it's what I needed.
And then when I started to see how much impact it had on me, I
was like, right, this is what I want to do.
Yeah, what? I don't have the, I don't
actually have the answer for this, but I'd be interested to
hear your thoughts. What is it that you think?
Because I, from the conversations that I've had in
this podcast, it's like there's a terrible thing that happens
and then everyone suddenly gets into mindset.
What do you think stops people? Do you think people would just
like have maybe it's completely out of our field of expertise,
have something inside them that's just like makes them that
way inclined to then start getting into the personal
development. Because I know people that go
through shit and they fuck up their lives and they still fuck
up, like still go back through the same cycle.
They just don't ever have the curiosity to go and read about
it. Do you think there's any reason
for that? I think it's a lot more deep
rooted. I think the people that I think
the people that have something happen and then get into it, I
think the reason they get into it is because they need it.
At that point, it's like necessity, right?
Like if you were, if you were 10% body fat walking around in
absolute statute, probably never sign up with a coach like a like
a fitness coach unless you maybe wanted to compete or do a photo
shoot. But then again, there's a
necessity. Like people find these things
normally when there's a necessity for them, normally
when they need them. The people that have stuff
happen and then don't seek this stuff out.
This is where I struggle because I have, I've kind of alluded to
it earlier. The worst thing that you could
ever call me is a victim. Like with the heart situation,
with a lot of other stuff that's happened in my life.
Like not once have I ever been like, oh, poor me.
Like I'm all right, OK, what the And I don't know if that's
passed down from my dad. He's quite like a stoic, like
just kind of get on with it sort of thing, whether it's a
sporting thing, I don't know what it is.
But I do think that, and this is where this well, I don't think
if they're listening to your podcast, this probably won't
apply to anybody, but I do think that this will be the thing that
triggers people. There are so many fucking
victims that walk among us. And it's because, and, and on
one hand, I understand why people take that route because
it's the easiest. It it relieves them them of all
responsibility. It's far, far easier to blame
external situations than it is to take responsibility and go,
fuck, I fucked up like I did this.
It's far, far easier. So I do kind of understand, but
it could never be me. And and I think they're the
people that even when they have situations that happen to them,
it's far easier to believe that they they've got they didn't
have a part to play in it. Like the heart situation is
whenever I'm public speaking, it's one of the topics that I
talk about a lot because contrary to what a lot of people
believe, again, I was 150. I wasn't the healthiest fucking
guy, man. Like, do you know what I mean?
But actually it was something that was Bournemouth, so nothing
to do with the weight. It was basically a bicuspid
valve that I'd been born with and overtime it had calcified
which had developed to an aneurysm.
So realistically, if I'd have not weighed 150 kilos, the same
thing would have happened just later in life.
So, so all I did like my my parts playing is it I
accelerated it. There was nobody else when I was
in the in the ward recovering from from the surgery.
I was what, 30 years old at the time, 30/31/31 at the time.
The next youngest person was probably 65.
So. So yes, I accelerated it, but it
wasn't my fucking fault that I've got this thing.
I've been born with it mate. It's like 1 in 100 men have got
it. Like you people don't realise
how common it is. I just was one of the
unfortunate ones. So one in 100 men have got it.
Most men will never know they've got it, but if you play sport
it's accentuated. So basically it's the thing that
a lot of the Premiership footballers do, you know, when
they just drop that on the field, it's the same thing.
So basically what happens is you're the the main valve that
opens and closes when your heart pumps blood out, your body
doesn't close fast enough so it regurgitates blood back into the
heart. So that Chamber of your heart
ends up with more blood than it than than it should.
So when your blood pressure goes up, you're trying to force,
force even more blood into it. So an aneurysm is basically the
way that I describe it to people is like when you've got a
balloon and you blow it up and like right before it pops, it
starts to go like a little bit see through that.
That's what that's basically an aneurysm.
So, so if you play sport, if you live an intense lifestyle, if
you do all of these things and you're regularly raising your
heart rate, raising your blood pressure, it makes it worse.
So that's why Premiership footballers, there's a couple of
sprinters in the past five years that during the 100 metres it's
just gone, like it's ruptured. So, so it's not like it's
nobody's fault that you've got this thing, but it's still my
responsibility to deal with it. Yeah.
You know, like the the best analogy, and I think I don't
know whose analogy it is, but I think I heard James Smith say
this fucking ages ago, that basically the way that he
describes it is if somebody. Puts a baby in a basket on your
doorstep and knocks on the door and runs off.
Not your baby, just a random person in a, in a tough
situation, doesn't know what to do with this kid.
Puts a baby in a basket, covers it in a blanket, knocks on your
doorstep and fucks off. Well, that's not your fault.
It's not your baby, but it's now very much your responsibility.
But it's very much your responsibility to deal with that
thing. What you're going to do shut the
door like you're going to do what needs to be done to make
sure that that person's all right.
It's just when people have to flip that on themselves, they
start to struggle with it. So the heart situation is not my
fault. So, but if I'd have gone into
victim mode and not taken control of it and responsibility
for it and done anything about it, I would legit probably be
dead right now. And it's, it's only when you
have something like that, it's this awful situation where you
don't want, you don't, I don't want anybody to ever have to go
through what I went through. But I see some people and I'm
like, well, maybe if you did, that'd be the fucking wake up
call that you need. I do think some people need like
a slap in the face, sadly, and even if you try and like warn
them and and you, you say all the right things, they just
think it gets to a point sometimes when you try to help
this person and you try to constantly go at them and it's
just like, right, OK, you kind of just need fate to to deal
with deal with their cards to you and and see how you handle
it. Yeah, you have.
You have to let people make their own mistakes and hopefully
and hope that the mistakes aren't too catastrophic and hope
that they learn from them. Yeah, definitely.
So when you started coaching, this is the fault I had, had you
been qualified or anything, maybe you just no one.
So my question now is, what is your stance on that?
Because I feel like nowadays anyone could pick up a phone
like you say, stick online coaching their bio and now all
of a sudden they're training people.
What's your stance in the way that you're doing things?
So I think I'm kind of torn on this.
I, I see the reason for a level 2 and a Level 3 because if
you're going to go into a gym and work with people in person,
the reason that you need a level 2 and Level 3 isn't because it's
going to teach you all the knowledge that you need the
stuff in there. For the most part, there are
some better providers that level 2 and Level 3 providers get to
decide what's in the curriculum. That's what a lot of people
don't understand. So there are a lot of people out
there that do the bare minimum and, and tick the boxes and it,
you will use 5% of it maybe ever.
The actual need for level 2 and a Level 3 is to say that you've
been through some sort of quality control process so you
can get insured. And it's actually the gyms, they
don't need the level 2 and three, they need the insurance.
That makes sense. So, so there are some providers
out there that will go above and beyond to deliver longer
courses, bigger, better curriculums, stuff that you will
actually take and use. And, and in that case, I'm like
fucking sick. That actually will give you a
leg up. Where it's got really hazy is
with online. There's no gym saying you need
insurance and to be insured, you need this thing, you need this
piece of paper, right? So the reason that I'm torn is
that should people that are working in online coaching need
some sort of maybe PLI, like I don't know what the actual
insurance will be. I think so probably, I think
people need to take it more seriously.
You still need to do like par queues and the stuff to give
people like, so people can sign up and basically say what they
know what they're getting in for and that that they they they
deemed to be medically fair and, and all of that sort of stuff.
But because there's no gym saying you need this specific
type of insurance and for that you need this qualification, it
does enable people to do it. Where I then lean on the other
side is I think about people like Paul and I think about like
mindset coaches. I know plenty of amazing mindset
coaches, actual coaches, and I know plenty of diabolical
attempting wannabe mindset coaches, right?
But by the Bible, whether you are good or bad, like there's
no, there's no level two or three or governing body that
Saint Paul needs insurance. So that's where it's a little
bit different, right? It's like, what?
So if we're dealing with personal development and mindset
and identity, you don't need insurance, but if you're dealing
with physical stuff, you do need insurance like.
There's. This weird, weird grey area, if
I think back to what I was doing with my body and brain clients
before I start, I now obviously only work with coaches.
But if I think back to the clients that I was doing, I
wasn't saying them anything strenuous like exercise or
training was a very small part of what we did.
So if I was taking people into the gym and racking up the bar
and getting them to deadlift and putting them in positions where
there was a potential injury and stuff like that.
But for the most part, I was getting people to box, go onto
benches with body weight. Again, like my average client,
like I'm a bit of a, I'm a massive, I'm a massive advocate
for like tracking the data of your clients.
So like I, I can tell you body and brain, the clients that I
work with. The average starting weight was
132 kilogrammes. Wow, I'm not putting any of them
on a fucking inclined leg press and increasing the blood
pressure. I'm just trying to get a moving.
I don't care if the resistance training, if somebody wants to
go swimming sick, go swimming. If some somebody wants to
revolve their training, quote unquote around walking the dog
sick, that's what we're going to do.
But then this is the next like fine line is so to me was I
would I have needed that? Maybe, maybe not, but to
somebody who's maybe dealing with, I don't know, power
lifters where there's a higher risk of injury, a higher risk of
than the insurance is needed. So maybe the qualification is
needed, but it's, it's, it's a massive topic.
It's a, it's a conversation that I have with people a lot because
I find a lot of coaches always have this stance that there's
coaches out there that haven't got a level two or three.
They should have this qualification.
And then I've literally done this at a talk one of my events
last April in London, I asked this question.
So put your hands up if it pisses you off that coaches are
out there without a level two or three and like loads of people
put their hand up and I was like, keep your hand up.
If you did a level two or three, you know, kept the hand up.
I was like, keep your hand up. If you think there was anything
useful taught in that level two or three and everybody put their
hand down. So I'm like, so you're saying
the qualification is shit, but then you're getting pissed off
that people don't have it. I was like, what?
What's the where are we with this?
I do think there, I do think there is a much bigger need in
my space. So I only deal with online
really. I don't really have any
crossover into in person. I never did any in person.
So I went straight into online because of necessity.
And again Jim's was short and helping somebody out.
I do think there's a bigger need for accreditation in courses.
So what I mean by that is anybody these days can, that's
why you'll never see me call the adherence amplifier.
Of course, you'll never hear me say it's a certification.
You'll never see me give somebody a certificate at the
end of it, the need for accreditation, there's companies
like CPD, there's, there's so there are so many different
companies. And what that process looks like
is you have to go to that company with all of your
materials. They will put somebody through
that course. They will Fact Check it all,
quality control it all, make sure it's all right, make sure
that it's been delivered in a in, in, in the right way, it's
inclusive, it's accessible. It's it's a fucking ball lake,
like a proper ball lake. And it's expensive.
But if they at the end of that, they either go, yeah, seal of
approval that's been through quality control.
Everything in there is factual. Go go and deliver that to as
many people as you can or they'll go not good enough
either. False information delivery
methods aren't very good, whatever.
But that doesn't stop people saying I've got this
certification. So the popping up all over at
the minute. Become a GL P1 certified coach,
become an ADHD certified coach, become the, the, the the the
certified coach. And it's a four week course that
30 minute videos and at the end of it they get a nice little
fucking Canva graphic and they'll put it on the story and
go, I am an ADHD coach. It's like, no, you're fucking
not. Like you're absolutely not.
So I, I looked into this because obviously it's a big thing at
the minute to, there are, there are people out there that do
accredited ADHD or neurodivergent courses to be
able to, to enable you to work with these people in the right
way. They cost like 5 grand.
So what people are doing is they're going, well, it'll look
good for me if I can put something on my Instagram to say
that I can work with ADHD people because everybody's got it these
days. So I'm going to go and do this
£150 four week course, get my certificate, but it's not been
through quality control. So it, it could, it could have
anything in it. So I do think, I don't know
where I fall on the do you need a qualification to be able to
work with people? But I do certainly believe that
if you are going to post a fucking certificate with your
name on it, that course better have been through the process of
accreditation. So, so somebody better have
somebody who knows about these things better have gone yes, you
can give people a certificate for that rather than just send
people like like, again, I don't know if you can see in the thing
like the coaching Academy 1 is there accredited by the IIAPCNM?
I've got the neuroscience one there accredited by CPD.
Like it's, it's put me off before.
There's been courses out there that I've wanted to do and I've
literally messaged the person delivering it and said, is this
accredited? And they've gone no.
And I'd be like, I'll come back when it is, see.
You later. Yeah, not a chance because you
could quite literally and the passing it off as a
qualification, I think that's the issue.
So again, in the amplifier, what I do, there is a 26 week long
course talking about coaching and tools and methodologies and
frameworks and all the stuff that I've learned condensed into
this course for people to understand.
But I'm not calling it a qualification.
Nobody at the end of it is going, I've got a level 5 in
like because I would have just literally put that out of my
asshole. You don't see anybody putting a
certificate and going, I've been qualified in the amp fights
because it's not a fucking qualification.
It's like it's just an amalgamation of all the
knowledge I've got that I think will be useful to you.
Don't tell people you're qualified in it because it's not
a qualification. Yeah, it's funny because I
started, I started looking into NLP.
Yeah, yeah. So neurologistic programming.
And I was looking at courses and like the, the big dogs, let's
call them, were like 3 grand, 4 grand.
I was like, OK, they're the serious ones.
And then there was Have you heard of Udemy?
No, I, I I've. I'm smiling because I've.
I've had a similar thing with NLP myself.
OK. Yeah.
So there's it's Udemy, I think that it is just a website full
of courses and it's like, yeah, you can be a certified this and
master NLP coach and it was £25 and I'm like.
It's mad in. It like I'm going to do it, but
like I'm not going to. And then there was like a, a PDF
at the end and you get a certificate and all that kind of
stuff. And then I was talking to my Mrs
I'm getting into this whole in the bone, like getting into the
whole mindset coaching. I don't know how I stand on that
because like you say, there isn't like who, who has called
you that? How how can you call yourself a
mindset goes if you haven't been for a process?
But she was like, we were talking about maybe I should go
into like into businesses and do talks about the thing that I'm
trying to do. And I was like, yeah, but I
probably need a course like some sort of accreditation to say to
them, to take them seriously. She was like, were you doing
this one that you just bought? And I was like, it's the 25 LB
fucking course. I was like, I can't turn up and
say, yeah, I do this thing and then here's my qualifications.
They're going to look at and think, what the fuck is this?
Yeah, so NLP again, I had this similar thing and I remember
just like I seen something and it was like 6 months long self
study, whatever, become a master practitioner.
And I was like, oh, that sounds pretty sick that don't it?
So I go onto the website and I'm having a look and I'm like, no
governing body, no accreditation, nothing like
whatever. And then I went to I.
So if ever I'm trying to check anything like this, I'll always
go to ICF. So International Coaching
Federation are like the big dogs.
So if you want to know about actual coaching, they teach,
they teach all sorts of coaching.
They teach business coaching. Like it's like the theories of
coaching, not specific to health and fitness or whatever.
Like like there'll be life coaching and stuff there.
There'll be personal development, there'll be
leadership stuff in there. So I always look at them and
it's like, I wonder what theirs is.
And theirs was like, like I said, 7 grand for a level 1.
There's 3 levels. So it's like, right, OK, so on
one hand it's like it is a bit shit that they've got the
monopoly and are obviously charging X amount.
But then I've talked to people that I've actually got an NLP
qualification that is accredited.
And it's like, yeah, because you need to accrue hours.
Like you can't just do this thing and then call yourself a
master practitioner. Like it takes sometimes years
because you have to actually coach people log those hours.
Like it's a, it's a. But again, it's the same as when
a governing body will accredit a course that whoever is
delivering that course, it needs to put their name on you and say
we we are willing to say confidently, this person is now
able to go and deliver this type of coaching.
So like the coaching Academy stuff, Level 4IN
transformational coaching, Paul had to go and get accredited to
a higher level because he's he has to put his name against the
people that get qualified. And obviously if you do that,
like there's a certain criteria that they need to hit to get the
qualification. Like there's people that have
gone to that course and failed. Like it's not just you turn up,
you'll get your certificate. There's an assessment like, like
it's an actual thing. Because say for example, let's
use the NLNLP example, this company that are selling this
£25 course, you've got your certificate.
Start taking on clients. The thing that a lot of people
don't understand is with a lot of the mindset stuff, you have
got the potential to put people in a bit of a fucking pickle.
Like especially if you're then telling people what to do, which
is a big fucking no, no. Like like so they have then
said, yeah, Lewis, you are now an NLP master practitioner.
You've gone, guess what everybody, I'm an NLP master
practitioner. Clients come flooding to you.
You're like, and I'm only going to do it for £50 because the
course only costs me 25 or whatever.
And somebody ends up going and doing something and putting a
life into a bit of a serious situation.
You can't then at that stage go this company have accredited me
because they haven't. So that's what a lot of people
don't understand like this, the GOP, this is a perfect
conversation for the GOP stuff. There's a lot of people out
there at the minute that are now putting up certificate
certifications for coaches to be able to work with people that
are taking GLPS, but they're not accredited, right?
So let's say it was accredited. You, when you took the
information, you were the middle man.
You helped a client and for whatever reason it negatively
impacts their health. If that client kicks off and
goes, I'm not really happy about this.
I'm taking this to hire whatever you can go.
This company accredited me. This is where the knowledge came
from. Yeah, you've got a little bit of
fall back. If this is just a fucking cowboy
company and you fucked somebody up and that client goes, I'm not
happy with this, I'm taking this to a higher level and it ends up
in some sort of investigation. You then have to sit there and
go. I'm sorry.
Yeah, I did my research. Like, yeah, in it, Yeah, I did
this 25 quick course. Nobody's checked that that was
all right. So if.
Sticky Mom. It is, it is if anyone wants to,
because you've alluded to their like, you know, good coaches and
you know, bad coaches. And there's obviously a grey
area where maybe the thing they're trying to do is not
accredited or fitness people like you can't just get by on
your on your level 2 and Level 3.
What are the sort of things that they should be focusing on for
real coaching in your opinion? Yeah, absolutely.
So the two different things that I think I always advise people
to do is find somewhere to learn about actual coaching and find
somewhere to learn about behaviour change.
So you might be separate. So there are plenty of fairly
basic level threes, level fours in behaviour change that are
accredited out there. Literally Google it there.
There, there'll be quite a few that come up.
There's, there's one. Do you know the company NANASM?
They're like an education provider.
They do a course in behaviour change.
I haven't done it. I don't know what it's like, but
I did see recently that they've now also released a course on
how to be an influencer. So I would I'd question the
credibility of of them I am. Not saying I think I'd never be
legal to them to be honest with you.
Fucking mad in it. I, I remember when I went to
MMU, mate, I went to Manchester University and you could do a
degree in like it, everybody used to call it like the David
Beckham degree, but there was some sort of like football
studies degree or something like that.
And I'm like, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's mad.
But you can go and do and they're not expensive, 250,
three, £100, maybe two or three months worth of study, not like
two or three months solid study. And that's if you're like
breaking up and doing a module a week or whatever just to learn
what actually helps people change their behaviour.
Because I can tell you for a fact, it's not what you're
telling them to do. That's not the thing that will
play a very small part in it. So whether that is in person
coaching, personal training, whether that is online coaching,
I do think if I was to go back now after I'd done, I did my,
what did I do? I did the nutrition course by
muscle nerds, which was fantastic just because I like
Luke Lehmann is a bit of a geek like me.
All these references that are about like fucking Lord of the
Rings and stuff. And I did a programming one.
And then if I'd have known what I know now, that would be the
next thing that I'd done. It would have been behaviour
change just to start to understand.
Oh, actually, if I want to elicit long term behaviour
change, which is what we all know gets results in people,
this is what I need to know. If you want to learn about
actual coaching, I would. Again, the unfortunate thing
about learning and getting qualified in actual coaching by
an accredited company is it's not accessible.
It's not, it's not cheap. For example, the level 4 that we
run alongside Paul is like 1860 lbs and it's a in person 2 day
course where like I said, there's the assessment process
and all that sort of stuff. So the first thing that I would
do is start to learn about actual coaching.
There's a fantastic book called the coaching Habit, which is
like almost like the basics of here's how to ask a question and
shut the fuck up. The, the, the, the essence of
coaching. Basically, this is
oversimplified, but what the way that I explain it to people is
if you are answering questions, you are not coaching.
If you are asking questions, you are coaching.
And that's what people need to understand.
Like I said earlier, there are certain situations where it's
just easier to answer the question.
If somebody comes to you and goes, Lewis, I'm really
struggling to hit 120 grammes of protein a day, you don't then
start asking all these deep and meaningful fucking questions.
You go, OK, well, why don't we split into four servings of 30
grammes and da, da, da, da, da. And you can do this and have
this and then it's just easier, right?
But the, the cue that I always tell people where you need to
take off your instructor hat and put on your coaching heart is if
somebody says anything that sounds like I know what to do,
I'm just not doing it. That's the, that's almost like
the way that I explain it to the amplifier coaches is that's the
fucking green light. That's like, right, you now need
to coach because you giving them more information when they've
literally just told you black and white, they know what to do
already is not going to solve it.
You need to figure out why they aren't doing the thing that they
said they were going to do, why they're not doing the thing that
they've already acknowledged they know they need to do.
That's where we go into coaching.
So Coaching Habit is a fantastic book.
Obviously self plug. Come and talk to me.
I'll teach you all this shit. It's not a qualification, I'm
not, it's not accredited, but it is, like I said, it's just all
about coaching knowledge. The other thing that I would say
is I firmly believe in this. Go and get a coach, but not a
coach that is going to not like a fitness, bodybuilding, prep,
not that sort of coach as in an actual coach.
Somebody that works. I hate this term makes it puts
people off, but somebody that works and operates in the life
coaching area of coaching, make sure they're credited.
Like like don't just go to because they're fucking
everywhere, mate. They're everywhere at the
minute. But but actually go and get a
coach. If you think you've got
something in your life, an area in your life, whether it is a
personal thing, whether it is business.
See, the thing about coaching, and this is what I do believe is
if you know how to coach, you can coach anyone on anything.
And I and I stand by that, right.
And you'll see my style of coaching is very similar to
polls. Obviously I've done the same
qualification like it's done that approach of quite brutal to
the point ask the questions, let the client commit to an action,
hold them accountable to the action.
Going down that route will enable you to get to a solution
just by asking questions. So if I think about some of the,
some of the issues, some of the obstacles that my clients bring
to me, I have no personal experience in them.
I've got, for example, I've got an amazing client guy called
Phil. He's a, he's first child was
born on the 24th of December, right?
So newborn, first time parent running this monster business,
supporting his wife. Like got coaches working
underneath him. I don't have coaches working
under me. I don't have a newborn child and
I'm not delivering. It works with firefighters and
I'm not working with firefighters.
But Phil will jump on a call and present an issue to me that I've
got no experience in. And by asking the right
questions in the right time, in at the right time, in the right
order in the right way, every single time, I'm able to guide
him to a solution. So if you can coach, actually
coach, you can coach anyone on anything.
So it doesn't matter whether you think your issue is personal
development, business, whether it is a mindset thing, whether
it is a, whether it is a fitness thing, but you already know what
to eat and stuff like that. A good coach will be able to
help you with any of that. You also know how to ask the
right questions to guide you to your own solution, which is if
you think about like, again, I know we talk about, I feel like
you need to try and get Paul on this podcast.
I know, I know it's I've mentioned Paul a lot, but again,
he's, he's my coach. He's your coach.
He's he's, he's very good at what he does.
If you think about the range of people that Paul coaches and
he's able to get results from, do you think he's got personal
experience? And like, of course he hasn't.
Like he's, he's good at what he does in his own business, but
he's got like all sorts of like mad people presenting mad
problems to him. Again, Paul's never been
divorced, but he's able to be coach people that have been
divorced. Paul's never there's some heavy
stuff that happens on these calls.
Never been diagnosed with cancer, but it's helped able to
coach people to a solution to help them take control of and
responsibility for the situation.
It's like it that that's the essence of good coaching.
So study and actually get a good coach is is where I would say
because that that's the thing that like I said, Mike, the guy
that I was working with for my fat loss, genuinely changed my
life. Got 70 kilos like just by good
instructing and being there for me and supporting and stuff like
that. But like I said, I thought I'd
been coached definition of coaching.
Then when I got a coach who actually coached me, it just
opened my fucking like it almost like broadened my horizons.
I was like, oh shit, right, This is, this is what's possible.
Yeah, I love that. Amazing.
Where can people go if they want to see more of your stuff?
Good question. I am on Instagram at Lewis Potts
official. I always feel like I have to say
I don't feel like I'm big time, right.
The reason that the official is there is there's another Lewis
Potts out there and he's a videographer and he's sick.
Like he's got this massive. I think he came up on YouTube
actually when I was looking. Yeah, mate, he's.
Fantastic. Stuff he's really cool and I was
at. So when I did that neuroscience
qualification last November, I was talking to the guy that was
there, the videographer, and he was like, oh, like we like
traded Instagrams and stuff like that.
And I told him my name and he like looked at me and he was
like, there's a videographer with your name.
I was like, I fucking know. I was like, he's got the handle
that on. So it's Louis Fox official on
Instagram and on YouTube. That's kind of it.
Like the podcast. I've got plans on bringing it
back, but I'm not going to be like, go and listen to the
podcast because there's like 7 episodes on it or you know what
it's like. Yeah, that's about it, mate.
That's about. It amazing.
I appreciate you ever coming on. Mate, thank you for I mean we've
been on what like an hour and 4 minutes and I feel like I've
maybe talked for 50 minutes. I'm.
Sorry, that's all good. I've been, I've been in awe
listening. There's a lot.
There's nothing there. I enjoy it, thank you very much.
You're doing good shit. I appreciate it man.