Speaker 1: I'll good a. Welcome to another installment the You Project,
Speaker 1: Craig Anthony Harper. This today is different. Today is a
Speaker 1: little bit of a different angle episode. This lady's never
Speaker 1: done a podcast. In fact, there's probably a fair assumption,
Speaker 1: Lily Sarah Ricta, that you may only do in your
Speaker 1: life one podcast, and this might be it. Do you
Speaker 1: think that's a fair assumption.
Speaker 2: It is a very fair assumption. But you never know,
Speaker 2: Craig Harper, I might just be loved after doing this podcast,
Speaker 2: so I may want to do more podcasts after this.
Speaker 2: Who knows.
Speaker 1: This could I mean, you could overtake me by the
Speaker 1: middle of the year, and then they'll be saying, Craig,
Speaker 1: who fuck him. Let's listen to Lily. You might have
Speaker 1: your own show very soon.
Speaker 2: Let's listen to that old duck Lily.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, let's do that. Let's have I mean, the
Speaker 1: world needs more, Lily. So thank you for doing this,
Speaker 1: Thank you for doing this. How do you feel? Are
Speaker 1: you okay? Are you good?
Speaker 2: I am really good. Yes. Not sure what we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about, but I am really good. Yes.
Speaker 1: Have you taken a sedative or anything, or perhaps the opposite,
Speaker 1: some kind of stimulant.
Speaker 2: No stimulant, no sedative. It's raw and real me on
Speaker 2: the other side of this microphone.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's twelve fifty three in Melbourne, it's Tuesday.
Speaker 1: I am just in case you're detecting and everyone, it's
Speaker 1: a good thing. This is virtual and where you're not
Speaker 1: sitting in front of me because I'm I'm chock a
Speaker 1: block full of snot You're welcome. So let's make it
Speaker 1: about me for a moment. Little. I woke up this
Speaker 1: morning at three My teeth hurt, my face hurt, like
Speaker 1: I don't get sinus stuff, but I think I did
Speaker 1: have sinus stuff, and so I got up at three fifteen,
Speaker 1: took a pana doole. I don't really take panadole, and
Speaker 1: then I had a hot.
Speaker 2: Shower like three fifteen morning.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, like a big baby that I am.
Speaker 1: And then I went back to bed. I couldn't sleep
Speaker 1: because my entire nose was blocked, and I'm when I sleep,
Speaker 1: nobody needs all of this, but fuck it. When I sleep,
Speaker 1: I slept. I breathe through my nose, not my mouth,
Speaker 1: and so it was just I couldn't sleep. I reckon
Speaker 1: I had sixty minutes sleep. I got up at four
Speaker 1: o'clock and I was meant to meet my mate at
Speaker 1: the gym, not at the gym, at the cafe, n Vincent.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Vincent and now I walked for about
Speaker 1: an hour and a half, got to the gym, the
Speaker 1: fucking gym, the cafe, and hung out with him for
Speaker 1: a while. Clearly my cognitive function has dropped. But after
Speaker 1: one hour of sleep and a lot of snots and
Speaker 1: a sore head, I don't know why I feel so good,
Speaker 1: but I still feel pretty good.
Speaker 2: You're pumped and excited about talking to me. That's why
Speaker 2: you're feeling so good. By the way you know, by
Speaker 2: the way you know all this lingo, is it all
Speaker 2: due to you? I never used to speak like this.
Speaker 2: I was a prim and proper lady, but I'm no
Speaker 2: longer a prim and proper lady. The conversation, the retric
Speaker 2: it's all you.
Speaker 1: That is that is funny, all right? So why don't
Speaker 1: you tell people? Now? The reason, part of the reason
Speaker 1: that I'm doing this is just I mean, this could
Speaker 1: be dogshit. I said to Lil Wow, if we have
Speaker 1: a good time, we'll put it up. If we don't,
Speaker 1: we won't, but I wanted to talk to you because
Speaker 1: I feel like you and I are a little bit
Speaker 1: the same in that you probably disagree, so I feel
Speaker 1: free to disagree, but like neither of And this is
Speaker 1: not me throwing you under the bus. And we've already
Speaker 1: I've already cleared this with you. But neither you or
Speaker 1: I were particularly particularly genetically gifted, you know, neither of us.
Speaker 1: You're kind of almost the female version of me. It's
Speaker 1: like you were never a super athlete like me. Correct
Speaker 1: were decent human beings, though, So tell people when you
Speaker 1: came into my orbit and how that happened, and maybe yeah,
Speaker 1: what year was that, What was that like? And what
Speaker 1: was happening as much or as little as you want
Speaker 1: to tell us, of course, with your body, your health,
Speaker 1: and what was what was it like coming to Harpers
Speaker 1: Harper's was my gym, my very uncreatively named Jim. Give
Speaker 1: us that story.
Speaker 2: Okay, So it was around nineteen ninety seven, a long
Speaker 2: time ago, that a girlfriend of mine suggested I go
Speaker 2: and do some personal training. So yeah, I thought, why not,
Speaker 2: let's give it a go. You know, three children down
Speaker 2: and it's time to look after myself and get healthy.
Speaker 2: So I went along with my girlfriend to Harper's in
Speaker 2: Bluff Road and the first couple of sessions were interesting
Speaker 2: to say the least, and I was very self conscious,
Speaker 2: but I knew that it was something I really wanted
Speaker 2: to do, and after the first couple of sessions, it
Speaker 2: was something that I was definitely committed to doing. So
Speaker 2: long story short, I met Craig Harper and he introduced
Speaker 2: me into the world of wellbeing. He introduced me into
Speaker 2: the world of getting fit. Yeah, strength training, exercise, and
Speaker 2: I fell for it. I felt for it big time.
Speaker 2: And after training at Harper's and training with Craig for
Speaker 2: a number of years, the guru in the industry, that's you.
Speaker 2: Craig said to me, lil why don't you go and
Speaker 2: put the theory behind the prack? And I thought, yeah,
Speaker 2: why not? So in nineteen ninety nine I went and
Speaker 2: did the Certificate three, Certificate four course in personal training
Speaker 2: in fitness and then the personal Training course, and twenty
Speaker 2: five years later, I'm still personal training and loving it,
Speaker 2: absolutely loving it. Love my work, yeah, don't see it
Speaker 2: as work, just absolutely love being in the industry.
Speaker 1: Do you remember what you thank you you did miss
Speaker 1: out a few bits and pieces that I'll just bring
Speaker 1: you back to do it. Do you remember do you
Speaker 1: remember what you weighed when you rocked up to the gym? Yeah,
Speaker 1: look at you, looking at me. You don't have to answer.
Speaker 1: But here's why I wanted. I mean, I've said many
Speaker 1: times I weighed one hundred and seventeen at my heaviest.
Speaker 1: I've weighed seventy nine as an adult, one hundred and seventeen.
Speaker 1: I'm about eighty four at the moment. We're not going
Speaker 1: to ask you your current weight. I'm not that dumb,
Speaker 1: but it's fair to say, all right, why don't you
Speaker 1: tell me this? How much weight did you need to lose?
Speaker 1: Perhaps when you started.
Speaker 2: With me thirty kilosk and I lost the thirty kilos
Speaker 2: and thoroughly enjoy the journey and thoroughly enjoyed being thirty
Speaker 2: kilos later.
Speaker 1: Yes, and what for you? Because it's like it's fair
Speaker 1: to say, right that, like a lot of people have
Speaker 1: said to me over the years. And I'm sure you,
Speaker 1: I mean, you've been a trainer for over a quarter
Speaker 1: of a century. You realize that ninety nine and nine,
Speaker 1: you've been a trainer for more than a quarter of
Speaker 1: a century, and might I say respectfully, you were the
Speaker 1: least likely trainer of all the people that came through
Speaker 1: my door because you in a loving, caring way. You
Speaker 1: weren't a princess in that you were precious, but you know,
Speaker 1: you were very very much part of your community, your
Speaker 1: Jewish community, and very much like you didn't hang out
Speaker 1: with people like me. I was like a fucking well,
Speaker 1: I don't know what, but it didn't dawn on me
Speaker 1: until sometime later what a fucking wild man I was,
Speaker 1: or what a unicorn or what a weird old I
Speaker 1: was in the context of your day to day life.
Speaker 2: Actually, Craig, I didn't know that somebody like you actually existed.
Speaker 2: So it was an eye opener, meaning somebody like you. You
Speaker 2: definitely didn't dot your eyes, you definitely didn't cross your teas,
Speaker 2: you said what you thought, and and myself and my
Speaker 2: training partners, we all absolutely loved it. So yeah, what
Speaker 2: was the part.
Speaker 1: By the way, I'm not trying to get my ties
Speaker 1: pumped up today, everyone, I'm just trying to what was
Speaker 1: the thing that, like, why did you stay? Because there,
Speaker 1: you know, like with personal trainers, and you stayed for
Speaker 1: a long time. You lost the weight, you transformed your body.
Speaker 1: You stepped into personal training, but you know, and you
Speaker 1: trained with me for a long time and got in
Speaker 1: amazing shape. What what was it about? Not me, but
Speaker 1: just about.
Speaker 2: That the journey? That journey, Yeah, like.
Speaker 1: What kept you doing it?
Speaker 2: Well? First of all, Achieving results makes you want to
Speaker 2: continue doing it. Feeling good makes you want to continue
Speaker 2: doing it. Achieving goals you never thought you'd be able
Speaker 2: to achieve kept you doing it. So I never thought
Speaker 2: that I could run five hundred meters, and you know,
Speaker 2: learning to run was hard. It was hard, yacka, but
Speaker 2: I did it. And I'll remember one of the highlights
Speaker 2: of my training experience was ending up in Sydney and
Speaker 2: doing the thirteen k All Women's Female Fun Run, something
Speaker 2: I never thought I would do. So, you know, training,
Speaker 2: exercising it was euphoric. It is euphoric no matter what
Speaker 2: stage of life you're in, no matter where you're at.
Speaker 2: When you can't do some when you perceive yourself as
Speaker 2: not being able to do something and then you can
Speaker 2: achieve it and do it makes you feel wonderful, makes
Speaker 2: you feel like wow.
Speaker 1: Now I'm only asking this to provide context for seventy
Speaker 1: five percent of my listeners are female. Seventy seventy five percent.
Speaker 1: Seventy five percent of my followers I don't know why
Speaker 1: on Instagram are female. So I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: I just talk about stuff that perhaps resonates more it
Speaker 1: seems to anyway. But for my lady listeners who are going, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm this old or I've got these genetics, so
Speaker 1: we know that you're not genetically gifted as am I not.
Speaker 1: We're both endomorphs. We both will a donut now ask
Speaker 1: it's bigger, right both of us. How old are you
Speaker 1: at your next birthday?
Speaker 2: I am going to be sixty five in May.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's a minute away. And what I so that's
Speaker 1: next month now because it's April one today. What a
Speaker 1: And I'm not just saying this because it's a nice
Speaker 1: thing to say in the show Lily Sarah Richtor. But
Speaker 1: I reckon your brain and your mind and your mental
Speaker 1: energy and also your emotional state is as good as
Speaker 1: it's ever been. Like I still do a little bit
Speaker 1: of coaching with you. Full disclosure. I see little once
Speaker 1: a week or once a fortnite, which is essentially a
Speaker 1: coffee in at chat and I'll give it a fucking family, right.
Speaker 1: I got to tell you she's getting the deal of
Speaker 1: a lifetime. We need to we need to review that
Speaker 1: because fuc andell mum's got a hip operation coming up.
Speaker 1: She doesn't really But you know what I loved was
Speaker 1: I reckon, Now you're almost in a better place than
Speaker 1: when I met you. When you were I don't know whatever,
Speaker 1: you were, like thirty something years.
Speaker 2: Old, thirty eight years old. Do you know how I
Speaker 2: know that I was thirty eight years old? Actually you
Speaker 2: met when I was thirty seven years old, but I'll
Speaker 2: tell you how I know I was thirty eight years old.
Speaker 2: So when you told me to go and suggested, not
Speaker 2: told that I go and put the theory behind the prack,
Speaker 2: I thought, great, I'm going to do this, and I
Speaker 2: went and did the course. At the end of the course,
Speaker 2: you've got to do forty hours work experience. So I thought,
Speaker 2: given that I trained with Craig five days a week,
Speaker 2: train with the best, who else can possibly teach me
Speaker 2: anything that I need to know about personal training. I
Speaker 2: went up to Craig and I said, look, I've completed
Speaker 2: my course. I need to do forty hours work experience.
Speaker 2: Can you sign me off on the work experience, and
Speaker 2: Craig looked at me aghast and he said, I don't
Speaker 2: think so go out and get yourself real work experience.
Speaker 2: And I looked at him and I said, and tell
Speaker 2: me who is going to give thirty eight hours? Who's
Speaker 2: going to give forty hours of work experience to a
Speaker 2: thirty eight year old chip with a fat ass. He
Speaker 2: said to me, well, if you don't go and get
Speaker 2: the work experience, you don't get your certificate. No certificate,
Speaker 2: You're not going to be a personal trainer. So I
Speaker 2: walked away and I thought, who am I going to call?
Speaker 2: How do I even start? Where do I call? Which
Speaker 2: one of the mainstream jims would even entertain the thought
Speaker 2: of taking somebody who doesn't have the typical personal trainer's body.
Speaker 2: Who's going to want to take somebody at the age
Speaker 2: of thirty eight. But I cold called and I got
Speaker 2: somebody to take me, and it was an incredible catalyst
Speaker 2: for change.
Speaker 1: Is it funny now, when like at nearly sixty five,
Speaker 1: you look back like you must think thirty eight year
Speaker 1: old you now is like a fucking teenager, But at
Speaker 1: the time you were thinking how old this old married
Speaker 1: woman with in your words, a fat ass and three
Speaker 1: kids and a husband who's an accountant.
Speaker 2: It doesn't I was a spring chicken, then, absolutely spring chicken.
Speaker 1: Yeah, tell people about your Tell people about the time
Speaker 1: that you lap pulled one hundred kilos. I've told this story,
Speaker 1: but I'd like them to hear it from you and
Speaker 1: how it transpired and what you won.
Speaker 2: Okay. So I was training many times a week at Harper's,
Speaker 2: predominantly with Craig. Sometimes he would pown me off to
Speaker 2: another trainer when he got a better offer. But I
Speaker 2: wanted to do exactly what all the men in the
Speaker 2: gym were doing. I didn't quite get, and I didn't
Speaker 2: want to get that the female body is not built
Speaker 2: the way a male's body is built. I didn't want
Speaker 2: to hear about it right, And I just decided, if
Speaker 2: everybody in here, all the males in here, can lap
Speaker 2: pull the stack, I want to lap pull the stack too.
Speaker 2: So I said to you, I.
Speaker 1: Don't know if you remember, tell everyone how much the
Speaker 1: stack wise two hundred and twenty pounds, Yeah, one hundred kilos.
Speaker 2: Yeah, two twenty pounds. And at the time I was
Speaker 2: not lifting to twenty pounds at the time, I was
Speaker 2: not pulling that. I know we talk in kilos, but
Speaker 2: there are certain pieces of equipment in the gym that
Speaker 2: I still only can think of in pounds. Anyway, So
Speaker 2: I was lap pulling and I decided I wanted to
Speaker 2: lap pull the stack the two hundred and twenty pounds.
Speaker 2: And I said to you, I don't know if you remember,
Speaker 2: I want to be able to do that. And you
Speaker 2: looked at me and said, I'm going to give you
Speaker 2: a year, a year of training and a year of
Speaker 2: trying to lap pull the stack on them. And on
Speaker 2: the last day in December before we close harpers for Christmas,
Speaker 2: you're going to sit down and see if you can
Speaker 2: do it. And if you can do it, lil, I'm
Speaker 2: giving you one year's worth of personal training for free.
Speaker 1: And I thought, by the way, the best bet I've
Speaker 1: ever made. There's zero chance that you should have been
Speaker 1: able to do that.
Speaker 2: But go on, you never thought that I could do it.
Speaker 2: That's why you offered it to me. You never thought
Speaker 2: I could do it if.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give away, And.
Speaker 2: I thought to myself, Gee, this guy's costing me a
Speaker 2: fortune every week. Can you imagine if next year I
Speaker 2: get a whole week's worth of personal training every year
Speaker 2: and every week, and I don't have to pay for it. Anyway,
Speaker 2: Long story short, I trained and trained, and I don't
Speaker 2: even know how I did it. I remember it was
Speaker 2: just so funny and so weird. But some last day
Speaker 2: of December, I think it was the twenty third, and
Speaker 2: I sat down and I said to Craig, I'm going
Speaker 2: to do it, And yep, you helped me down with
Speaker 2: the first one, and I was able to pull down
Speaker 2: the next one all on my own, and I lacked
Speaker 2: Paul the stack, and you owed me a year's worth
Speaker 2: of personal training, and I cashed in on that year's
Speaker 2: worth of personal training. I felt so guilty. I felt
Speaker 2: so guilty every week not handing over the money that
Speaker 2: you deserved for training. But well, I.
Speaker 1: Wish you felt a little bit more guilty. But anyway, no,
Speaker 1: I'm joking. I do you know what you deserved it?
Speaker 1: You absolutely deserved that year of free training. I'd like
Speaker 1: to tell how much. I'd like to tell everyone how
Speaker 1: much that was worth, but I won't, and then translated
Speaker 1: into day's dollars. Fucking hell that was. But anyway, you
Speaker 1: absolutely I made the offer. I put out the bet,
Speaker 1: you took up the bet. And you know, for a
Speaker 1: however you old you were then late thirties, early forty.
Speaker 1: How old were you then when you did that? Do
Speaker 1: you know, give or take.
Speaker 2: It would have been I would have been forty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know it's like you didn't come from
Speaker 1: an athletic background at all. It's not like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: but Lily used to be a gymnast. No, Lily used
Speaker 1: to eat fucking cake for breakfast, like like, Lily is
Speaker 1: the furthest thing from an athlete. And I mean that
Speaker 1: lovingly and so for you to but and this is
Speaker 1: what I love about your story, right because I so
Speaker 1: many people go, oh, I could never do a business
Speaker 1: because I'm this or that, or my I don't have
Speaker 1: or I couldn't write a book, or I couldn't do
Speaker 1: a degree, or you know, I couldn't change my body
Speaker 1: like or I couldn't run a marathon, or you know,
Speaker 1: it's like wow, and you, I mean, you didn't even
Speaker 1: realize how much you taught me about of course, of
Speaker 1: course genetics are a factor, of course, but even now,
Speaker 1: you know, the general thinking is that you know how
Speaker 1: that how well we function and strength and performance and
Speaker 1: longevity and health span, lifespan, all of those things is
Speaker 1: about fifteen to twenty percent genetics, but eighty eighty five
Speaker 1: percent behavior choices, behavior, training, lifestyle, food, booze, sleep, all
Speaker 1: of the shit that's in our control. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I can honestly say that you got every ounce out
Speaker 1: of your body. We talk about a thing that you'll
Speaker 1: remember called perceived rate of exertion. You remember that, correct, correct,
Speaker 1: And we've spoken about it recently on the show, and
Speaker 1: it's essentially how hard you think you're working. And I've
Speaker 1: spoken many times in fact about the reality that people
Speaker 1: think they're working near you know, nine or ten out
Speaker 1: of ten, when in actuality, you know they're working in
Speaker 1: terms of what is humanly possible for them, they're really
Speaker 1: somewhere down around three to five. And that's not even
Speaker 1: being critical, that's just and I've done that myself a lot,
Speaker 1: where I think I'm working at an eight or a nine,
Speaker 1: and then i realized I'm actually working at a five,
Speaker 1: and I'm bullshitting myself. But unequivocally, you pulled out a ten.
Speaker 1: You pulled out a ten out of ten on the
Speaker 1: right day, at the right time, with the right financial incentive.
Speaker 1: Your husband must have been happy when you got home with.
Speaker 2: But actually, let me just say something. That whole year
Speaker 2: of training was really an eye opener for me. It
Speaker 2: was an opportunity for me to look at around the
Speaker 2: way other people were training on the gym floor. You know,
Speaker 2: there were a lot of people there that were doing
Speaker 2: exceptional things. There were people that were working against the odds.
Speaker 2: There were people that you know, for whatever reason, could
Speaker 2: not excise, or could not lift, or you know, didn't
Speaker 2: their bodies were just not allowing them to do the
Speaker 2: things that they wanted to do. But they found a way.
Speaker 2: They worked, they worked around it, they found a way.
Speaker 2: I also found that year really interesting because you were
Speaker 2: not going to coach me to help me lap pull
Speaker 2: that stack. So I had to talk to a lot
Speaker 2: of people. There were body builders on the floor, there
Speaker 2: was the average Joe blow on the floor. There were people,
Speaker 2: you know, not only people at Harpers, there were people
Speaker 2: out of Harpers. I was talking to everybody about their
Speaker 2: advice on how to get you know, how to achieve
Speaker 2: this goal, this thing that I wanted to achieve. And so,
Speaker 2: you know, to me, everything is learning. Education is just
Speaker 2: I'm hungry for education. That's another reason I just love
Speaker 2: being in this industry and love having the opportunity to
Speaker 2: train people of all ages is that I am constantly
Speaker 2: being challenged to learn, challenged to ask questions and to
Speaker 2: rediscover things. One of the lovely things about the I mean,
Speaker 2: I've been now working as a personal trainer for twenty
Speaker 2: five years, and I would say that I don't know
Speaker 2: a handful a don't even know what the quantity of
Speaker 2: clients are that I've had since I started training. We're
Speaker 2: growing old together, you know, we're going through the same
Speaker 2: stages of life together, the changes in life together and
Speaker 2: learning to work around those changes. Injuries. Shoulders not performing
Speaker 2: the way we want them to perform. Every second person
Speaker 2: in a year has got a nee that isn't doing
Speaker 2: what they want them to do. But it's all about
Speaker 2: showing people that they can do things even when there
Speaker 2: are limitations, showing people that you can feel good, that
Speaker 2: you can benefit from exercise even if your body's not
Speaker 2: doing what you want it to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so true. It's so true, and it's so true.
Speaker 1: How you change, you know, the way that you think
Speaker 1: and the way that you know. If you had have
Speaker 1: said to me when I was thirty, you're going to
Speaker 1: go outside and walk for an hour every day, I
Speaker 1: would have gone a see if I'm going to fucking
Speaker 1: walk when I could run, you know, It's like to
Speaker 1: me walking going for a walk was a waste of time.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have done it. I would have gone for
Speaker 1: a run. I would have done an interval session on
Speaker 1: the bike. I would have hit the bag, have run
Speaker 1: some stairs. I would have done something that was a
Speaker 1: bit more in my mind, Alpha male Warrior or whatever
Speaker 1: fucking bullshit story I tell myself. And it's funny, Like
Speaker 1: I told you, I got up early this morning and
Speaker 1: I just went for a big, long walk in the
Speaker 1: darkness of suburbia, suburban bayside, like fucking no one was
Speaker 1: out it was. It wasn't dark ish, it was pitch black.
Speaker 1: Had my headphones on, listen, listening to a book on audible,
Speaker 1: just the best, the best, and all the shit that
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have done. I fucking love it. And I mean,
Speaker 1: apart from the fact that I'm you know, I'm just
Speaker 1: getting a fair bit of cardio each day, but the psychological, emotional,
Speaker 1: and cognitive benefits, like my brain feels so good because
Speaker 1: like I'm not sitting like I used to. I'm so
Speaker 1: you know, I think I told you the story though,
Speaker 1: where my phone basically told me I was fucking lazy
Speaker 1: about five months ago. It said you'll walking hardly any steps,
Speaker 1: and it was like four and a half thousand steps
Speaker 1: a day on average I've done for like the month before,
Speaker 1: which is fucking terrible. And I just went, all right,
Speaker 1: well that's it. I'm going to do ten thousand minimum
Speaker 1: from tomorrow and that day until as we record, I
Speaker 1: haven't missed one day, and most days I kind of
Speaker 1: average around average thirteen to fifteen thousand, and some days
Speaker 1: it's higher, some days it's lower. But that you know,
Speaker 1: you just you improvise, adapt, overcome and survive. You know,
Speaker 1: you figure out what's going to work for you. And
Speaker 1: you know you've been doing that with your body and
Speaker 1: your genetics and your strengths and your weaknesses for you know, since.
Speaker 2: We met, right, correct?
Speaker 1: Was it a big psychological and emotional or tell us
Speaker 1: a bit about and I don't necessarily mean in relation
Speaker 1: to Craig Harper or Harper's but whatever you want to,
Speaker 1: because you came out of a really particular, as did
Speaker 1: many of your friends, right, Like, we had a really
Speaker 1: big base Jewish clients for a long time, and I
Speaker 1: was like this fucking almost like this little cult leader
Speaker 1: for all of these people who are like Crake up
Speaker 1: is like just this weirdo. But I don't know what
Speaker 1: it's why it seemed to work, right, But tell me
Speaker 1: about coming out of that. Like you used to talk
Speaker 1: about the bubble, and I like ripped you out of
Speaker 1: the bubble by your hair and when batten down the hatches.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it was that psychological and emotional shift
Speaker 1: and sociological shift out of a very kind of particular
Speaker 1: environment and group and lifestyle. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2: So I was brought up, yes, in quite an insular community,
Speaker 2: and meeting the likes of you and the type of
Speaker 2: people that go into a gym, I mean I never
Speaker 2: went into a gym. Meeting people from all walks of
Speaker 2: life was interesting, eye opening and a breath of fresh air.
Speaker 2: It's just yeah, it was wonderful to meet people who
Speaker 2: weren't brought up the same way as me and to
Speaker 2: learn again, to learn from people and to experience from people.
Speaker 2: It brings me to an interesting story Craig. I remember
Speaker 2: that you would encourage me to go for a run
Speaker 2: around Colfield Park, and I was so excited when I
Speaker 2: managed to do that two point two k's around Corfield Park,
Speaker 2: and I would run into the gym and I would
Speaker 2: tell you I did the two point two k's and
Speaker 2: you'd say to me, okay, and on Friday, you're going
Speaker 2: to do four point four k's and I would think, oh, no,
Speaker 2: I can't do that. I mean, I just could not
Speaker 2: do that anyway. There was no coming back into training
Speaker 2: weights with you unless I went out and did the
Speaker 2: four point four k So I managed the four point
Speaker 2: four k's and I came back elated. Anyway, long story short,
Speaker 2: every Friday for I can't even remember how long I
Speaker 2: would be doing ten k's around Corfield Park and Sunday
Speaker 2: eleven eleven, correct eleven case. Honestly, I don't know how
Speaker 2: I managed to do it, but I knew if I
Speaker 2: didn't do it, I didn't get to do what I
Speaker 2: really wanted to do, and that was weight training. So
Speaker 2: I had to do the cardio in order to get
Speaker 2: the backsight leaner and the legs leaner. I had to
Speaker 2: do the cardio. So I remember one day doing it
Speaker 2: and I rang you at the end of the run,
Speaker 2: and I was bawling. Everybody else is walking around Corfield
Speaker 2: Park and enjoying themselves, and you're forcing me to do
Speaker 2: five laps of Corfield Park anyway. Reality check. The next morning,
Speaker 2: you took me to Duncan and mckinnanoble and no one
Speaker 2: there was walking. Everybody was running. So it just highlighted
Speaker 2: to me that what I thought was not the norm
Speaker 2: was only not the norm in my environment, in an
Speaker 2: environment that I, you know, was exposed to expose yourself
Speaker 2: to a different environment, to a different group of people,
Speaker 2: and you realize that your norm is just your norm.
Speaker 2: And I also quickly realized that my ability was much
Speaker 2: greater than what I thought it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and what I love about you, know,
Speaker 1: your story is that like you kind of got reprogrammed.
Speaker 1: You know, you became more resilient, You became more open minded,
Speaker 1: you became more aware, you became more educated, you became fitter, stronger, leaner, healthier,
Speaker 1: Like you improved in so many ways, and all of
Speaker 1: that stuff was a byproduct of you getting uncomfortable all
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 2: That's right, and being comfortable with being uncomfortable. That's another thing, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, no one wants to be uncomfortable, but learning
Speaker 2: to sit with discomfort and learning to appreciate that discomfort
Speaker 2: will eventually hopefully lead to where you want to be
Speaker 2: or where you want to go, is one of the
Speaker 2: one of the good lessons in life.
Speaker 1: Learned to be sorry? Sorry? Sorry? Do you think that?
Speaker 1: How do I ask this? Like, Okay, I'm going to premise,
Speaker 1: preface what I'm going to ask you with something that
Speaker 1: I've So I feel like some people relate to me
Speaker 1: more deeply than say, you know, some guru or some expert,
Speaker 1: because I'm so fucking at rich.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: It's not like, oh, yeah, but Craig you are in
Speaker 1: the Olympics, or Craig you're a fucking genius, or Craig
Speaker 1: you're a physiological Marvel, or Craig you know you've won
Speaker 1: an oscar, Right, No, just an ex fat kid from
Speaker 1: fucking Latro Valley having a crack and falling down and
Speaker 1: fucking up and getting up. Right. So, I feel like
Speaker 1: part of if there's any appeal to me, that's arrogant,
Speaker 1: But part of the perhaps appeal is that people go, well,
Speaker 1: if he can do it, I can do it, and
Speaker 1: I feel like with you maybe, And by the way,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about your current situation and how
Speaker 1: much work you're still doing, which is crazy, but I
Speaker 1: feel like you've got you've got a level of credibility
Speaker 1: that some people don't have because well, one, you've been
Speaker 1: doing it for a very long time, you've been qualified,
Speaker 1: and you've been at the coal face for a long time,
Speaker 1: and you've trained fucking a million people now and you've
Speaker 1: answered a million questions and learned a million things. But also,
Speaker 1: as you to say to me, not my words, everyone,
Speaker 1: you know, you're just a fat chick from your or
Speaker 1: you were just a fat chick from Corefield or whatever
Speaker 1: like you used to say to me all the time,
Speaker 1: which you're not now. But that that you know, that relatability. Oh,
Speaker 1: she's not spectacular, she's not she's not genetically gifted. She
Speaker 1: can't run a kilometer in three minutes, she's she's not
Speaker 1: doing fifteen chins and she doesn't have abs, and you
Speaker 1: know it's yeah, I think that. Plus also you're a
Speaker 1: good communicator and people love being around you and all
Speaker 1: of that. But do you think the fact that you
Speaker 1: are kind of for one, of a better term normal regular,
Speaker 1: that people trust you and connect with you more some people.
Speaker 2: I think a couple of things. I think, first of all,
Speaker 2: because I'm a work in progress all the time, I
Speaker 2: think that you know that appeals to a lot of people.
Speaker 2: And when I say a work in progress, I mean
Speaker 2: that life deals you medical issues, health issues, time issues,
Speaker 2: all sorts of issues that you have to navigate. And
Speaker 2: I'm very transparent with my clients. So because you know
Speaker 2: my clients, not that your clients are your friends, but
Speaker 2: you spend so much time with your clients that you
Speaker 2: tend to have this relationship, this real, honest relationship with them,
Speaker 2: sometimes more honest than with your real friends, because they
Speaker 2: see you on a daily basis or a twice a
Speaker 2: week basis or three times a week basis, so they
Speaker 2: share in your lifestyle, they share in what's going on
Speaker 2: with you, and they know that you're constantly, like them,
Speaker 2: working against whatever's being thrown in your path. And even
Speaker 2: if it's not being thrown in your path, something like
Speaker 2: just you know, time constraints, you know, an aging mother
Speaker 2: or you know, wanting to help out with your grandchildren.
Speaker 2: All sorts of things limit the time you have for yourself.
Speaker 2: My clients can relate to the fact that I'm constantly
Speaker 2: working around those not constraints, They're definitely not constraints, but
Speaker 2: those life issues to continue doing the things that I'm doing,
Speaker 2: so whether it be working or whether it be training.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you know, my clients know that I get
Speaker 2: up every day at five o'clock in the morning, five
Speaker 2: days a week, have done since nineteen ninety nine, and
Speaker 2: I rock up to work not because I necessarily have to,
Speaker 2: but because I genuinely want to and I love every
Speaker 2: opportunity that I have to work with my clients to
Speaker 2: help them create the change that they want to create.
Speaker 2: And not everybody wants to create the same change. So
Speaker 2: whatever it is that they're hoping to achieve for themselves,
Speaker 2: whatever it is that they wish however they want to
Speaker 2: better their daily lives, I'm happy to be part of
Speaker 2: that journey for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Did that answer your question?
Speaker 1: By the way, Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, that's good. What's
Speaker 1: interesting about or there's a bunch of interesting things, But
Speaker 1: one of the interesting things is, you know, like you said,
Speaker 1: in a minute, you're sixty five, your husband ready has
Speaker 1: a good business. He's successful. Shout out to Renny who'll
Speaker 1: listen to this, get a champ and all the boys
Speaker 1: of course. But like you don't have to work, but
Speaker 1: not only, not only do you choose to work, you
Speaker 1: really want to work. And I know because we sit
Speaker 1: together once a week. You really want to work because
Speaker 1: you love it. I mean, I've never met anyone who
Speaker 1: I've never met a trainer anyway who loves their job
Speaker 1: more than you. I might have met someone or two
Speaker 1: who love it as much. But after a quarter of
Speaker 1: a century of training, you know, you've got three boys,
Speaker 1: You've got a few challenges here and there with things,
Speaker 1: just normal human things. You've got a mum who's old,
Speaker 1: bless her. Hello, Marla, you old fucking love you know,
Speaker 1: you've got grand.
Speaker 2: Shit Igdores you Craig by the way, she will be
Speaker 2: drilled at your Heartburt.
Speaker 1: I love you, Marla, and I'm available, so I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, just hit me up. And you know, but
Speaker 1: in the middle of all of that mayhem and looking
Speaker 1: after grandkids and you know, doing a million things, you
Speaker 1: still work full time as a trainer and also so
Speaker 1: just to enlighten people. So for quite a few years
Speaker 1: you and your business partner had a pet studio called
Speaker 1: Revive Right.
Speaker 2: I have that for two thousand and two to twenty
Speaker 2: and twenty and the only reason we closed in twenty
Speaker 2: and twenty is because COVID hit and we realized that
Speaker 2: for a long time we're not going to be able
Speaker 2: to do things the way we were comfortable doing things,
Speaker 2: so we close the facility.
Speaker 1: Yes, and now you have what is probably Australia's best
Speaker 1: equipped double garage. I mean essentially you've got a small
Speaker 1: commercial gym in your I think it might be in
Speaker 1: a two and a half garage. Your garage is big.
Speaker 1: You've also got an area out the back. But it's
Speaker 1: hilarious because people have a bit of gym equipment in
Speaker 1: their garage. Do not picture that like this. This is like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, there's got to be the best part
Speaker 1: of one hundred grand worth of equipment. But it's bloody
Speaker 1: amazing And and you don't have what to do. You
Speaker 1: don't have you don't market, you don't for advertise, and
Speaker 1: you're booked out, you're booked out, and you do you know,
Speaker 1: like I spoke to you, and it's obviously we're not
Speaker 1: going to talk about money or anything, but you train
Speaker 1: a lot of people, and it's fair to say that
Speaker 1: you do okay working out of the old garage.
Speaker 2: I do okay working out of the old garage. I
Speaker 2: just want to say, first of all, when I decided
Speaker 2: to relocate to home, it was very much because of
Speaker 2: what happened because COVID broke out, But I also felt
Speaker 2: that it could possibly end up being the place I
Speaker 2: stay now because it's actually really comfortable for me and
Speaker 2: it's very comfortable for my clients as well. I didn't
Speaker 2: want to short change my clients by not having the
Speaker 2: equipment that they were used to using when I had
Speaker 2: a much bigger space, So I tried to make sure
Speaker 2: that I mean, I had to consolidate. You can't put
Speaker 2: everything I had in that bigger space into this space.
Speaker 2: But I really didn't want to short change my clients.
Speaker 2: I wanted to have the same, you know, the good
Speaker 2: equipment that I've got, and also because of COVID, I
Speaker 2: needed to create it. I needed to create an outdoor
Speaker 2: area because there were times that we really wanted fresh air,
Speaker 2: outdoor spaces training because we weren't allowed to work in doors.
Speaker 2: And today I just love it, absolutely love it.
Speaker 1: And what I love also is, you know, and I
Speaker 1: don't take any credit for anything you've done, obviously, because
Speaker 1: I didn't do any of it. But I'm going to
Speaker 1: take a tiny bit of credit because I reckon one
Speaker 1: thing that you learned at Harper's was how to create
Speaker 1: an environment that people want to be in, or at
Speaker 1: the very least, the importance of building a space, a culture,
Speaker 1: a family, and energy. And I've been at your place
Speaker 1: when people are training, and you've done it, like You've
Speaker 1: got this little space and everyone knows everyone, and everyone talks,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's a really nice like people look
Speaker 1: forward to going to that place other than the workout
Speaker 1: and the physiological benefits, but you've just built a little
Speaker 1: almost a club that people want to be in.
Speaker 2: I think that's true. You know, I was training a
Speaker 2: couple of ladies this morning. One lady is in her
Speaker 2: seventies and one has just turned forty, and there was
Speaker 2: a lot of chatting going on, and I said to
Speaker 2: the two ladies in here, I said, tell me something,
Speaker 2: Are we achieving what we want to achieve by being
Speaker 2: in here this morning? Or is there too much chatter
Speaker 2: going on? And one of them turned around and said
Speaker 2: to me, you know that the physical and the mental
Speaker 2: go together. And I said, that's true, they do. I said,
Speaker 2: but I want a little more physical and a little
Speaker 2: less mental and we'll all be happy. So continue your chatting,
Speaker 2: but no pregnant pauses with your exercise. Chat away, but
Speaker 2: keep working. And so we got them working. They continued working.
Speaker 2: They walked out the door, and instead of hopping straight
Speaker 2: into their car to go home, they stood outside here.
Speaker 2: I really should have a coffee machine outside. You don't
Speaker 2: know how many people don't want to leave after their session.
Speaker 2: I'm sure they just want to continue talking.
Speaker 1: Oh, when I go and train with a crab, even
Speaker 1: if we're there for an hour and a half, I
Speaker 1: do twenty minutes of training and we're talking for an
Speaker 1: hour and ten minutes because I just want to catch
Speaker 1: up with a friend twenty minutes, though, is scintillating that
Speaker 1: I do? Do I just go?
Speaker 2: Can I just add something? I have one session a
Speaker 2: week runs for an hour where anybody who trains during
Speaker 2: the week who hasn't been able to make their normal
Speaker 2: time slot can make up their time slot in this
Speaker 2: one hour. So sometimes I can have you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't train elite athletes, but in my my atmosphere
Speaker 2: of my world, those that are lifting really heavy and
Speaker 2: wanting to be, you know, elite athletes, and then just
Speaker 2: the lady who wants to move a little better and
Speaker 2: function a little better. I have these people all at
Speaker 2: the same time, and everybody enjoys that one hour the banter,
Speaker 2: watching the other person doing what they're good at doing,
Speaker 2: watching the other person struggle to achieve what I've asked
Speaker 2: them to achieve. It's just a I don't know. It's
Speaker 2: a really nice hour. And not only did the clients
Speaker 2: benefit from it, I benefit from it. I benefit from
Speaker 2: watching people interacting with one another who come from totally
Speaker 2: different walks of life and working out together.
Speaker 1: Do you ever think about if you hadn't been encouraged
Speaker 1: to go to doesn't matter that it was Harper's, but
Speaker 1: you hadn't had that experience of going into an environment
Speaker 1: that you felt safe and embraced and inspired, and then
Speaker 1: yourself made a decision and you went and studied, and
Speaker 1: then this bastard made you go and do field work
Speaker 1: somewhere else because he wouldn't give you the hours, and
Speaker 1: then you went through all of that shit. And imagine
Speaker 1: if you had to turn left instead of right when
Speaker 1: you were thirty eight and none of this had to happen.
Speaker 1: Do you ever think about that slow doors reality of
Speaker 1: I wonder what my life would look like as an
Speaker 1: almost sixty five year old if I hadn't have gone
Speaker 1: down this path.
Speaker 2: I do look at that, and I am so grateful
Speaker 2: that I walked through the door that I walked through.
Speaker 2: But I'm also really grateful that I understand that things
Speaker 2: are not often easy, but you've just got to push
Speaker 2: through it and keep practicing it something. You know. I'm
Speaker 2: also not the sort of person that will dive into
Speaker 2: something I like to I like a soft launch into things.
Speaker 2: So I remember, even when I started personal training, I
Speaker 2: didn't give up teaching. I was a school teacher before
Speaker 2: I became a personal trainer full time. So to me,
Speaker 2: you know, the whole concept of soft launch was also
Speaker 2: a really good thing. But I'm glad that I did,
Speaker 2: I did pursue it, and I'm lad that I am
Speaker 2: where I am today, and I feel blessed. I feel grateful.
Speaker 2: I feel grateful that it's through resistance training and it's
Speaker 2: through cardiovascular training that I have an opportunity to be
Speaker 2: with the people that I'm with and to help them
Speaker 2: be a better version of themselves. Whatever that means.
Speaker 1: Do you reckon you're going to be training people when
Speaker 1: you're seventy.
Speaker 2: I do not see myself retiring. I see myself growing
Speaker 2: older with my clients. That doesn't mean I don't get
Speaker 2: new young clients, because I do. By the way we
Speaker 2: mentioned before, I don't advertise, and everything's word of mouth.
Speaker 2: I do have what I would consider to be a
Speaker 2: full book. But I don't say no to clients because
Speaker 2: you know, I'm not saying people come and go because
Speaker 2: the client. I've had clients for over twenty years that
Speaker 2: are still here. But people work gives people, makes people
Speaker 2: leave their time slot for a certain period of time.
Speaker 2: People travel for a bit. So even though I don't
Speaker 2: actively go out there getting new clients, I never say
Speaker 2: not or client because I just enjoy it. I enjoy it.
Speaker 2: I enjoy being with people.
Speaker 1: You know what's interesting about you or many things, Lily
Speaker 1: Sarah Erector.
Speaker 2: But so.
Speaker 1: Here's this grandmother of two who trains people in her garage,
Speaker 1: who doesn't advertise, who doesn't promote, who wouldn't know what
Speaker 1: fucking Instagram was if it bitter on the ass, Who's
Speaker 1: you know, never been an athlete, blah blah, all of
Speaker 1: that stuff, and you are busier than ninety nine percent
Speaker 1: of trainers in Australia, like, hands down, because I know
Speaker 1: because I talk to trainers all the time and wherever
Speaker 1: I go, wherever I travel, even in the gym that
Speaker 1: I work at, I know how many sessions you do
Speaker 1: a week, and I know ballpark how many sessions you know?
Speaker 1: And the trainers where I train, they're great, they're great.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's a credit to you that you are
Speaker 1: so great at what you do, and not that it
Speaker 1: should matter. Of course, it shouldn't matter how old you are.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't matter at all, but sometimes it does matter
Speaker 1: because people want to be with a trainer who looks
Speaker 1: a certain way or has done a certain thing, or
Speaker 1: has got a certain brand or got a certain profile.
Speaker 1: But do you ever think how like you're not just
Speaker 1: doing well for you And not that it's a comparison,
Speaker 1: but compared to most people in the industry, you're in
Speaker 1: the one percent. Have you ever thought about that?
Speaker 2: No, I've never thought about that. But Craig, do you
Speaker 2: remember we recently had a conversation about retiring and you
Speaker 2: use the words retiring from what like, I don't see
Speaker 2: myself retiring. I love what I do. I enjoy getting
Speaker 2: up every morning. I don't ever remember a morning getting
Speaker 2: up and saying, oh shit, I've got to go to
Speaker 2: work this morning. Oh you know, so and so is
Speaker 2: going to walk in the door. How am I going
Speaker 2: to manage that? Never every morning is I want to
Speaker 2: go to work. I want to interact with the people
Speaker 2: that I'm interacting with. I want to challenge them, I
Speaker 2: want to show them new exercises, new things that I've
Speaker 2: learned to discussed new things with them. Every day is
Speaker 2: you know, it's an enjoyable workday for me.
Speaker 1: And I think also back to your I love it.
Speaker 1: You know the idea of retirement, which generally is held
Speaker 1: in high regard in Australia, where retirement's a good thing,
Speaker 1: which the idea and the reality and not the same
Speaker 1: for many people. I will say that because there's anyway
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. But retirement doesn't work. I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about financially, but psychologically, emotionally, socially and physiologically. For quite
Speaker 1: a decent percentage of the population, retirement is the beginning
Speaker 1: of the end. It's where the rapid decline starts. But
Speaker 1: you know that that whole idea of retiring is well,
Speaker 1: you're moving away from something not good and moving towards
Speaker 1: something better. It's like yep, but in you like but
Speaker 1: what I'm but oh yeah, you People say to me
Speaker 1: a lot, you work too much. I'm like, based on what?
Speaker 1: But like, what are you basing that on? Because I'm
Speaker 1: not anxious, I'm not sad, I'm not depressed. I'm not unhealthy.
Speaker 1: I fucking love my life. I love the people I
Speaker 1: work with. I love talking to crowds and groups. I
Speaker 1: love podcasting, Like right now I'm chatting to you who
Speaker 1: we've been friends for decades. This show is going to
Speaker 1: be sponsored. I'm partnered with Nova on the nov Entertainment Network.
Speaker 1: Right now, technically I'm working. Well, that's a fucking scam
Speaker 1: because this is nothing like work. You know, like you
Speaker 1: and I sit together on usually on a Sunday morning,
Speaker 1: at an undisclosed location, surrounded by security guards, drinking coffee.
Speaker 1: And what I love about you is at at You know,
Speaker 1: twenty five years, twenty six years into your PT career,
Speaker 1: you still come with questions every week, and they could
Speaker 1: be business questions. They could be you know, training stuff,
Speaker 1: food stuff, that could be about how to have a
Speaker 1: particular conversation You've got to have and every time, and
Speaker 1: this is what I love. One of the things I
Speaker 1: love about you is you bring and usually you bring
Speaker 1: an a four spiral bound book. You bring your pen,
Speaker 1: and we talk and you write notes, You write notes,
Speaker 1: write notes, write notes, and you come with really specific questions.
Speaker 1: And I won't say what about. But like the other day,
Speaker 1: before I met you, or before I met Lily, everyone
Speaker 1: she sent me a video, doesn't matter what it's about.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I watched this video and she's like, watch
Speaker 1: the last seven minutes because you wanted to have a
Speaker 1: conversation with somebody, but you wanted to hear what I
Speaker 1: thought about this particular topic. But I watched it, and
Speaker 1: then you went, what did you think? And I went,
Speaker 1: And I love the fact that rather than you just
Speaker 1: going in guns blazing, having this conversation being you know,
Speaker 1: you wanted to get another opinion that's not yours. You
Speaker 1: wanted to hear from somebody else, and you didn't set
Speaker 1: me up, You didn't preface it with anything. You just said,
Speaker 1: could you watch this please? And then I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you about it, and I watched it when
Speaker 1: we spoke about it, and I love that you know
Speaker 1: you're still In fact, I think you're more curious now.
Speaker 1: I think you're learning more now than when you were younger.
Speaker 1: Maybe because it's easier to learn now, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: because we've got access to so much shit. But two,
Speaker 1: maybe you're less fearful. You know you're less You're less
Speaker 1: worried about asking a question that you think you should
Speaker 1: know the answer to, whereas you know, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if I know it or don't know it. And also,
Speaker 1: by the way, Craig might might not know the answer,
Speaker 1: and that's okay too.
Speaker 2: Also, you know, we only know what we know, and
Speaker 2: there is so much out there to learn. The more
Speaker 2: questions you ask, the more knowledgeable you're going to get.
Speaker 2: I had a client in here last night that asked
Speaker 2: me a question that I really don't know the answer to,
Speaker 2: but I know that somebody in my industry will know
Speaker 2: the answer to it. And it's not only the answer
Speaker 2: to that question is how do I take that answer
Speaker 2: and relate that answer to my particular client? Because everyone
Speaker 2: is different, and so I love being asked questions and
Speaker 2: I don't you know At the age of thirty eight,
Speaker 2: I would have hated to have to say I don't
Speaker 2: know the answer to something. I would have thought, you
Speaker 2: need to know the answer. Why don't you know the answer?
Speaker 2: But today I know that I don't know the answer
Speaker 2: to all things, And ask me a question. If I
Speaker 2: don't know the answer, I will source the answer and
Speaker 2: I will make it relevant to you, or try and
Speaker 2: make it relevant to you.
Speaker 1: What do you think? What do you think it is
Speaker 1: about you? And I know this is a hard question
Speaker 1: to answer because your self effacing and self deprecating, and
Speaker 1: you don't have a big opinion of you. But you've
Speaker 1: got a lot more confidence, I think than you used to.
Speaker 1: But what do you think it is about you that
Speaker 1: people come back for twenty years? I mean it's not
Speaker 1: like they need you in inverted comments, but they want you.
Speaker 1: They want to train with you. Like when people are
Speaker 1: paying a fair bit of money every week for twenty years,
Speaker 1: I mean that's almost fucking unheard of. Like, what do
Speaker 1: you think it is about you? And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: this because I want to praise you. I want to
Speaker 1: give other people an insight into because if I was
Speaker 1: listening this, I would think, what the fuck does this
Speaker 1: woman do?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: How does she do it? I want a little bit
Speaker 1: of an insight, because you can have twelve degrees and
Speaker 1: you know all the stuff, and your clients drop off
Speaker 1: after two weeks because it's not only about knowledge. So
Speaker 1: what is it that seems to work so well that
Speaker 1: you do well?
Speaker 2: I think that I've created a great rapport with my clients.
Speaker 2: I listen. I'm a really good listener, so when somebody's
Speaker 2: got something to say, I know how to listen. I
Speaker 2: know now that I don't have to have all the answers.
Speaker 2: Sometimes just listening is enough. I also know how to
Speaker 2: read my clients. I know that for some people, just
Speaker 2: rocking up is congratulations. I don't say that to them,
Speaker 2: but I know that for some people walking through that
Speaker 2: door when they've had a really shitty night for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: or a really bad day at work, thank you rocking up.
Speaker 2: I don't thank you for me, I thank you for you,
Speaker 2: and they know that I thank them for them. I'm
Speaker 2: thrilled for them. And you know, Craig, I still write
Speaker 2: programs with a pen and paper. My clients laugh at
Speaker 2: me for using whiteout. They think Honestly, that whiteout is
Speaker 2: as old as I am. And I can write a
Speaker 2: program for a client they walk in the door, I
Speaker 2: can sense immediately that that program is not going to
Speaker 2: work for them for whatever reason, and I will change it.
Speaker 2: I'll change it to accommodate their frame of mind. Now,
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean they're not going to work. They are
Speaker 2: going to work. They're here to work. I'm mindful of
Speaker 2: the fact they're paying me to get a workout. They're
Speaker 2: not paying me for coffee and cake or a psychological
Speaker 2: appraisal or whatever. They're paying to do a workout. But
Speaker 2: I read them, and I know what's going on, and
Speaker 2: I know what they're capable of doing today, and I
Speaker 2: think that that's what endears people to me. I had
Speaker 2: a client that sms'd me in July of last year.
Speaker 2: Haven't seen her for about four years, and she said,
Speaker 2: just saw you walking down Church Street, Brighton in your
Speaker 2: Lulu lemonngear, wondering whether you're still training people. And I
Speaker 2: wrote back, yes, still training people. And she said, would
Speaker 2: you take an old client back? And I said, of course,
Speaker 2: I'd take an old client back anyway. She sent me
Speaker 2: an SMS and said, please don't get the fright of
Speaker 2: your life. When I walk through the door, I'm certainly not.
Speaker 2: I don't look like the girl you trained pre COVID. Anyway,
Speaker 2: she walked in the door, and I embraced her and
Speaker 2: made her feel comfortable straight away, and we discussed what
Speaker 2: she needed to do, and we discussed the timeframe she
Speaker 2: thought she could do it in the timeframe I thought
Speaker 2: she could do it in. And I just created an
Speaker 2: environment where she she felt safe and comfortable, and she's
Speaker 2: achieved her goals.
Speaker 1: If I can say, what did she what's the outcome?
Speaker 1: We want to know what'd she lose?
Speaker 2: So she came in weighing one hundred kilos in July,
Speaker 2: the eleventh of July last year, and she's sixty six
Speaker 2: kilos today. She trains twice a week every week, and
Speaker 2: she's embraced a little bit of cardio while she's out
Speaker 2: of here. So you know, she was never a walker
Speaker 2: or even a jogger. And yeah, she's embraced exercise out
Speaker 2: of here.
Speaker 1: And do you how much input do you have into Well,
Speaker 1: let's talk about her her diet, like does she track
Speaker 1: her food? Do you look at it? Do you do
Speaker 1: you have her in the background or do you talk specifics?
Speaker 1: How does that work?
Speaker 2: So again, when she came in, we discussed what would
Speaker 2: be good for her. So she felt that she needed
Speaker 2: to be weighed every week, so we agreed to weighing
Speaker 2: every week. She felt that talking to me about food
Speaker 2: and what she was eating would benefit her, so so
Speaker 2: we did. We agreed to that. You know, we worked
Speaker 2: together to help her get where she wanted to go.
Speaker 2: And yeah, she kept a food diary for a while.
Speaker 2: There was a time that she was semssing me what
Speaker 2: she ate at the end, you know, at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, what she ate, and together we made
Speaker 2: it happen.
Speaker 1: So unlike the dictatorship that you grew up in at Harpers,
Speaker 1: you've created a collaborative experience.
Speaker 2: A collaborative experience exactly right, chatting, negotiating, working out what
Speaker 2: might work for them, and yeah, together together making it happen.
Speaker 2: You know, you don't want to take the power away
Speaker 2: from people. You want to encourage them to have the
Speaker 2: power and just to use you when they feel that
Speaker 2: they have that power or they don't have that knowledge,
Speaker 2: to use you as the crutch to help them get
Speaker 2: where they want to go. But yeah, getting back to
Speaker 2: why people come back. I also feel I also know
Speaker 2: people well enough to have put people together for training.
Speaker 2: So you know, a lot of people used to train
Speaker 2: one on one, and I was able to create time
Speaker 2: for me, more time slots for me to take on
Speaker 2: clients by speaking to people about training together at certain times, slots,
Speaker 2: knowing who would want to be with who. And sometimes
Speaker 2: I've got clients in here that I have to shout
Speaker 2: over them so that they can hear what I want
Speaker 2: them to do. And again, like I said before, allowing
Speaker 2: them to talk, allowing them to engage because interaction is
Speaker 2: so powerful, but also making sure that they do what
Speaker 2: they came here to do.
Speaker 1: We're about to wind up. You're doing great, by the way,
Speaker 1: beautiful debut. What do you think some of the most
Speaker 1: valuable lessons that you have learned in your journey since
Speaker 1: you know, just you know, from when you were thirty
Speaker 1: eight till now, Like, what are the things that you think,
Speaker 1: I'm glad I know that, or I'm glad I did that,
Speaker 1: or you know something that for you has been really
Speaker 1: powerful to know or to create.
Speaker 2: Greg, I think that I've got a lot of strengths
Speaker 2: and I know what they are, but I've also got
Speaker 2: a lot of weaknesses, and learning to liaise with the
Speaker 2: right people for me to help me overcome my weaknesses
Speaker 2: was a very good thing for me. There was a
Speaker 2: time where I thought asking questions or going to mentoring
Speaker 2: or even having you know, my own coach physical and
Speaker 2: mental coach, was a sign of weakness. But it is
Speaker 2: definitely not a sign of weakness. It's a find of growth.
Speaker 2: I think that we know what we're capable of doing,
Speaker 2: but we don't know how capable we are. We don't
Speaker 2: actually know what we can achieve. And sometimes eating a
Speaker 2: bit of humble pie, sometimes just you know, being courageous,
Speaker 2: putting on your big putting on your big boys pants
Speaker 2: like somebody used to tell me, and getting out there
Speaker 2: and just learning, experiencing and not being afraid, not being
Speaker 2: afraid to try.
Speaker 1: Do you remember you and me going for runs in
Speaker 1: the dark around where you and I would go and
Speaker 1: run through the streets. We'd run through suburbia in the dark.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that?
Speaker 2: That was My favorite favorite part of my training was
Speaker 2: the dark was great because you couldn't see you, and
Speaker 2: you didn't worry about other people seeing you. You just
Speaker 2: you just ran or you walked, or you the dark
Speaker 2: was good when you're not full of confidence, the dark
Speaker 2: was good, you know when I was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow wow. How do you feel about your body now?
Speaker 2: Well? I still think that I'm constantly striving to achieve something.
Speaker 2: There's times I've been fitter and times I've been leaner
Speaker 2: and healthier. But I know that I know a couple
Speaker 2: of things, Craig. I know that movement is king. I
Speaker 2: know that we need to lift for muscle mass. We
Speaker 2: don't want to atrophy as we get older. I'm getting
Speaker 2: older and as many of my clients, I want to
Speaker 2: move better, I want to perform better. I want to
Speaker 2: be a better version of me every single day. And
Speaker 2: some days are easier to be that better version and
Speaker 2: work towards that better version. Some days are harder, but
Speaker 2: I keep trying, and my clients can see. My clients
Speaker 2: can see that I try just like they try.
Speaker 1: Last question, I think, so people who are listening, who
Speaker 1: go I want to get into some strength training, which
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, flexibility and cardio and balance and
Speaker 1: coordination and bit of aerobic and muscular endurance all important,
Speaker 1: But maybe if we had to, I think probably the
Speaker 1: biggest the most neglected component for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: say fifty to fifty five onwards, is the fact that
Speaker 1: they don't do anything to consciously get strong, build muscle,
Speaker 1: build function, improve bone density, or if they do, they
Speaker 1: do it periodically spasmodically, they stop and start. How often
Speaker 1: do you think for any guys and girls, but maybe
Speaker 1: primarily ladies who are listening to this, who want to
Speaker 1: get into some strength training, what would you recommend? How often?
Speaker 1: How long? Fucking how hard? What's the lily recommendation?
Speaker 2: So, Craig, I'll tell you many clients come to me
Speaker 2: and say to me, how long or what do I
Speaker 2: have to do in order to do this? And I
Speaker 2: say to people, doing something every day is fantastic. So
Speaker 2: if you can go for a walk every second day,
Speaker 2: if you can lift weights every second day, you're doing
Speaker 2: the right thing for yourself, for your body, for you.
Speaker 2: But I also tell people that if you can only
Speaker 2: give yourself one hour a week, one hour a week
Speaker 2: is better than no hours a week. And people who
Speaker 2: tend to give themselves one hour a week eventually want
Speaker 2: to give themselves more because they feel better. They feel
Speaker 2: better for walking, they feel better for lifting some weights,
Speaker 2: they feel better. You know some people say to me,
Speaker 2: well I can't come to you more than once a week.
Speaker 2: Say well, you don't need to come to me more
Speaker 2: than once a week. Doesn't cost anything to go for
Speaker 2: a walk, It doesn't host anything to ask me during
Speaker 2: one of your sessions, what sort of body weight stuff, Lily,
Speaker 2: do you think I can do once a week at home?
Speaker 2: So you don't need to be with a personal trainer
Speaker 2: five six, seven days a week. You need to find
Speaker 2: what's good for you financially, time wise. You need to
Speaker 2: find what's good for you and work with that or
Speaker 2: build on that. So there is no formula. There is
Speaker 2: no exact answer for you really depends on who's asking
Speaker 2: the question.
Speaker 1: Oh I love it well, Lily. That was your debut,
Speaker 1: your bloody amazing, and you've inspired me a little bit,
Speaker 1: even though you did rip me off a year of
Speaker 1: training and financially set me back years. But that's okay.
Speaker 2: I think I made up for it, Craig. That year
Speaker 2: finished and I continued training with.
Speaker 1: You, so it's true.
Speaker 2: That's and also remember the gifts I used to want
Speaker 2: to give you, the Selene on disc that you looked
Speaker 2: at me when I gave it to you once and thought, jeez,
Speaker 2: she really knows me by buying me a Selenity on disc.
Speaker 1: I could say so many things, but I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm going to alienate people if I comment on that
Speaker 1: Seleniti on disc. So I won't say, but thank you
Speaker 1: for that disc, Lily, I use it all the time.
Speaker 1: I won't tell it capacity congratulations on your debut on
Speaker 1: the U project. We may even get you back. If
Speaker 1: you've got any questions for Lily, just go to the
Speaker 1: group and leave them there. We might get it back
Speaker 1: and do a Q and A. How do you think
Speaker 1: you went? Did you enjoy it? We're still rolling.
Speaker 2: I absolutely loved it. I loved talking to you. I've
Speaker 2: always loved talking to you, Craig. I could continue talking
Speaker 2: to you for hours.
Speaker 1: All Right, everyone, I'll say go buy you off here
Speaker 1: in a moment a little but for now, thank you
Speaker 1: and to the rest of you, see you next time.
Speaker 2: M