Why health is the most overlooked key to leadership performance

0:00Cameron Harris:So he's 50 years of age. He's got a beautiful wife. He's got a lovely home, lovely kids. He's on 10 to 15 different medications. He sleeps terrible. He's drinking to deal with stress. The problem that person has, you're not going to be around for very long. How would you feel if another man walked your daughter down the aisle? They're in that position where they are prioritising work over themselves. I think the message I'd like to share is that you can't do that forever. There will be a point where you burn out. We work with some very, very successful people. And I often ask them, could you imagine where you could get to if you actually looked after yourself?

0:35I'm noticing with the leaders that I'm working with is it's the least priority on their to-do list is to look after their own health. What do you think is causing that?

0:45Cameron Harris:Really interesting question. And it's one that I've tried to work out myself. Hello and welcome back to the Courageous Leaders podcast. I'm your host, Joanna Howes. And today's guest is someone transforming the way entrepreneurs show up in life and business. Cameron Harris. Cameron is the Managing Director of Truth Fitness, where he and his team have helped over 400 entrepreneurs lose weight, reclaim their health and feel like themselves again. So let's dive in. Cam, welcome to the show. It's amazing to have you on. I'm very excited about this because I know we're going to listen to a bit of your story, but I know you've got some amazing insights and advice on how we're going to help leaders to really look at their health and their well-being ultimately to have wealth.

1:26But we're going to dig into that a little bit more later I just want to know what has been that courageous moment for you well thanks for

1:33Cameron Harris:inviting me onto the podcast to start with looking back at you know that entrepreneurial journey for me personally there's been a few like from personal life but I think the one that really stands out is when we were based in the city of London and we had this beautiful prime members members club and was working from the gym and business was really good and then COVID hit so it's a very similar a story for lots of us right and we lost you know 85 90 percent of our clients overnight so that was a real kind of a low moment where really kind of panicked and not knowing what we were going to do next I think the craziest moment for me came about 18 months of being kind of down in the dumps and being very honest with you you know not looking after myself being maybe depressed probably if I us to look back on it and the courageous moment came to came when I said to myself right I'm gonna go online I'm gonna rebuild the business from scratch and just draw a line underneath it draw a line in the sand and just go again so I think that for me personally was a moment where kind of proud of that really if I look back on it so courageous would be the the right word I'd say yeah this sounds like you dug deep and you found that resources that was in you to go that we can do this we can find another way and what has that led you to today what have you created?

2:48Cameron Harris:Well we're you know we're three four years after COVID now so we're a global business so we've got you know about 100 clients we work with globally so we work specifically with entrepreneurs mainly but also senior executives leaders as you mentioned earlier and it's allowed us to build a business where we can be very very flexible with our clients so when you're based in a gym and you've got you know a CEO or member of the board come into the city the issue they've got is trains they've got kids drop-offs, they've got all these different things that can happen. We then come into that venue, like us here this morning, right?

3:22Cameron Harris:The train breaks down, we're all going to be late. When we moved online, the greatest benefit was that if that individual was late or they had to be flexible when their training was or flexible with their kind of food plan or things weren't going to plan, we can be very flexible. So I think the main benefit that our business offers now to our clients compared to before is an incredible level of flexibility. We've even got everything on an app now. So it's in the pocket. I think with executives and busy people, as I'm sure you know, because they are so busy, having that access to a coach and consultant whenever they need it, it's a lot more powerful than having to be in a space.

4:03And have you particularly targeted entrepreneurs and leaders because they're not so good at looking after themselves and need that help? Is that a sort of pattern that you're noticing?

4:14Cameron Harris:Yeah, I suppose if I took it back to why did we choose that type of person, I think that I'm my clients. I'm the kind of person that we work with. So kids, you know, mortgage to pay, really busy lifestyle, struggling to fit workouts in, maybe not always on point with my food, mental health up and down a little bit, just your classic kind of entrepreneur and the kind of the rigors of business and the stresses that it brings. So we started to work with that person. that individual that executive and owner probably back in the day because that was who I was was trying to build a program around what would help me back in the day but if we look at now I think yes and we'll get onto this later but I think there's a real cultural shift happening in the business world and from our perspective you know and what we've seen probably over 400 times now is that when you work with that busy entrepreneur that busy executive and you get them to transform their health the impact is massive because it's not just them it's their senior team it's then the team leaders it's the rest of the team so what we've seen is there's a real kind of benefit not just to that individual there's a bit of trickle down effect into the business and maybe we'll talk about this later but clearly we're going through an obesity crisis and our approach to this is that how can we have the biggest impact on not only that individual but their teams their families and what we've found is if you can get the top of that tree the leaders people like that to get into that headspace of health and not necessarily performance I think that's the next part of things but just health just general health it does have a real big impact on everybody around and we've seen it so many times really powerful yes I couldn't agree more when I was in Melbourne an agency my CEO Nick Garrett I think it was around sort of 6 p.m every day his personal trainer would come in and you'd see him running around doing all his circuit and he did it in the office because he knew he'd probably need to log on again afterwards.

6:06But that was a non-negotiable. We could not get in his diary at that time, even if there was a pitch or it was that and you saw it. So it really did help you to visibly see that your CEO was demonstrating how important that fitness was in terms of how he showed up. So completely agree with what you're saying. I'm noticing with the leaders that I'm working with is it's the least priority on their to-do list is to look after their own health. What do you think is causing that?

6:35Cameron Harris:It's a really interesting question. I think it's a big one and it's one that I've tried to work out myself. I think if I look at my own kind of journey and what happened to me in that position where I wasn't looking after myself, I wasn't prioritising myself. I think for me at that stage it was around kind of survival. So what do I need to do to pay the mortgage? What do I need to do to feed the kids what I need to do to make sure that that part of my life is is kind of looked after so that made me push myself into more work and more hours and prioritizing the email and the phone call the issue with that was that there comes a point where you just can't do it anymore so I mean there'll be lots of people listening to this they're in that position where they are prioritizing work over themselves I think the message I'd like to to share is that you can't do that forever there will be a point where you burn out, whether you get depressed.

7:28Cameron Harris:We've had clients before in the past that have got really ill. So I'll give you an example, one of our clients, you know, really senior solicitor in the city of London, flying to Japan, Asia, America, all from London, all over the place, and was prioritizing work, crazy hours, crazy schedule over himself. Now, he had a couple of warning signs, a couple of times we had heart palpitations, went to the doctor, had an ECG, said look we're not quite sure what's wrong with you we think you're tired we think that you're exhausted and you're really fatigued essentially so okay no worries sort it out nothing was done six months later took a flight to japan landed in japan went to hospital and he had full-blown pneumonia so he couldn't leave the hospital bed for two months in japan and uh the whole reason for that was because he wasn't prioritizing himself so i think what i'd like to get across today is that if people can be more proactive in their health rather than reactive like that client was and it's you know to be honest with you it's costing a lot of money to fix that problem because i had to get personal trainers nutritionists people to look after his sleep people told him accountable he's worked with us for six years now you know if he'd have been proactive he probably wouldn't have needed us so i think it's um it's a really interesting question i don't know the answer to it but i do know that people should be proactive rather than wait for it to be at a point where these be fixed.

8:49Just a quick reminder, if you haven't already, to please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel. It's a small action that makes a big difference. You'll be the first to know when new episodes drop and your support helps us create meaningful content for leaders like you. I'd also love to hear from you. So if you have any thoughts, questions or ideas, pop them into the comments. And if you're curious about how my leadership coaching or training could support you or your team, just drop me a DM and we'll set up a call.

9:19Cameron Harris:Thanks so much. Now let's get back to the episode. I think one answer you gave there, which I hadn't thought about before, was the survival. How we go into survival mode. And what I see is people just go on to autopilot. So I talk a lot about the difference between autopilot and conscious thinking. And in this autopilot mode, we go into go, go, go, deliver, deliver, to-do list, tick, tick, tick, tick. But when we consciously think, it's like, well, no, actually, what's my morning routine? what's my 15 minute workout I've done today what am I consciously putting into my body or consciously breathing to calm myself down before I go to my next meeting and I also talk the difference between being an achiever and a high performer and again that achiever mode is go go go burn out and underneath all of that I've noticed is when we start getting into the territory of self-doubt imposter syndrome low self-belief because you keep putting everybody else before you because maybe you don't like yourself enough you don't love yourself prioritize you and recognize actually the only way you can help people is if you help yourself first I think it's brilliant I use it all the time you know the airplane you've got to put your oxygen mask on before you put somebody else's on and every time I work with the people pleaser they're like oh I get it now I do actually because you're trying to please everybody but actually you can't be there for anybody if you don't put your own oxygen mask on so I think anyone listening now because I get a bit like you said you were this person I was this person um I'd give everything to work and I did burn out and it was horrendous and as you said it takes a long time to come back versus being proactive to prevent it it's funny isn't it we do more as human beings to move away from pain than we do to move towards pleasure which I think causes a lot of this reactive behavior absolutely I think it's um I mean I've been on both sides of the fence I'm sure you have and it just quickly it does it blows my mind that we work with some very very successful people and i often ask them could you imagine where you could get to if you actually looked after yourself so you've got to you know you're the ceo of this company or you're managing director at century done so well but you're in terrible shape like your energy's through the floor just imagine if you had an extra 20 so i think it's a really interesting concept but i think personal experience and listen to people's stories that's what helps me is listen to people that are entrepreneur and talk about the highs and the lows and things they've learned like podcasts like this it really helps it's helped me to be more proactive in other areas of my life but I think it's a you know it's a real interesting thing that people behave that way but humans are humans right and until you can get to that position where you are being more proactive of your health you won't ever feel the benefits and in one show i say to my clients sometimes when they just sign up wish i had a crystal ball to show you how you're going to feel in six weeks time because you're just going to feel like a different human you'll be 10 20 30 percent better than you feel now yeah it's how can we yeah allow that outcome and see that what's going to happen so now you're summing this up really nicely in the work you're doing now health and wealth can you just then as i know you've shared a little bit just then bring that to life the listeners a bit more yes it's a concept that I don't think is particularly new but us as a business you really want to own that space and you know it's a place where if you look at let's call it 50 year old guy right he's got his entrepreneur he's built this business for 20 30 years got it to position where he's earning a lot of money the business is worth you know millions of pounds and he sells that business so financially he's set up for life probably his kids are so right let's assume that his relationships are pretty good he's got a beautiful wife he's got a lovely home lovely kids but the health part is missing so he's 50 years of age you know he's on 10 to 15 different medications he's got gout he sleeps terrible still traveling all the time he just is in a really bad position he's drinking to deal with stress right the problem that person has and this is me being totally honest you're not going to be around for very long you know when you're 50 and you're you're obese you're stressed you're not sleeping you're eating really poorly you're not going to be around for long that's the reality of the human body and I think again I don't want to shock people but we only get one of these you only get one chance at it and I think people treat them like a dustbin no they do get away with it yeah there's a lovely um saying someone said to me because I used to have a terrible habit of always finishing my plate because I had this belief I didn't like waste but then someone said to me well you're literally treating yourself like a bin so you'd rather put it in your body than in a bin and have your body then have loads and loads of pain because you don't like waste so you are the waste bin and I was like oh and that did wait it gave me a whole new way to think about it but something you were saying about um I unfortunately I lost my dad at 50 and a lot of that he actually wasn't overweight didn't drink and stuff but it was the work stress he was a chef so crazy hours shift hours pretty much being cooked his whole life working the you know the pressure of that so I think there's some people also going well maybe I'm slim looking after myself but stress can also be and it's a horrible saying but people say when you get into your 50s it's a sniper zone especially for men it's awful isn't it someone said that to me and I'm like it's true awful but it's true and I say I've got clients in that era at the moment and also a lot of them going I don't know what to do now I've sold my business got the money what is this next phase of my life and I'm going to take a punt here that actually getting physically fit you're going to get mentally fit alongside that to actually start thinking about what does the next stage of my life look like have you come across that yeah I mean it is there's two camps on that there's and I've talked to lots and lots of business owners senior executives generally they've cracked the financial part right that that pie is done um there's two camps one is well I'm 50 I'm just going to go and enjoy myself I'm going to eat out twice a week I'm going to go on nice weekends with my wife and you know go with the boys on golf holidays that's all great but you're going to be lucky if you get five years of that right then the other side of it people go oh shit I'm in a really bad position here like I need to fix myself and that's where we sit as a company funny enough is we're the people that come in and go right this is a year-long project it's not going to be six weeks this is a year-long project and these are the things that we need to change when you are dealing with somebody like that you know the old dogs new tricks type thing is you're trying to change somebody who is probably drinking some people drink every day like they're drinking scotches bottles of wine going out twice two three times a week for dinners there's a lot of stuff to change so I would say if you are in your 50s and you are that person I've just described don't think about you know six weeks is going to be a year-long project then what we need to do is chop that down because I understand that's an overwhelming amount of time now what I would say because I'm sure we're going to get onto it anyway but overcoming that initial inertia the point where you're sitting down and going what do I do here that is the hardest part just getting started and if you do spend 10 minutes on Instagram or TikTok or wherever you spend your time it's going to be the most confusing place on the planet nutrition training everyone thinks they're an expert but only a very small amount of people are and even the people are experts argue about stuff so I understand it from that person's point of you know how do I get started where do I get my information from because if you just google stuff I mean the Daily Mail is putting stuff out most days about tomatoes give you cancer and god knows what else right so I think you need to go to a trusted resource that has done this many times before specifically with people like you because you know definitely in that position when you are in your 50s it's not the time to go for the cheap option it's the time to go right well I've got the financial ability let's work with experts like yourself like true fitness right yeah do it properly I think so yeah I mean you've got the money we deserve it yeah you spend so long like pushing yourself into the floor what are you going to do with the money you just it does blow my mind some people still it drives me crazy but you know you're 50 you've got all this money all this time in the world and you still don't want to do it you know you you don't want to invest 10 20 30 grand into your health and fitness but you've got a 35 grand watch on your wrist it drives me crazy but I think again it's about there's a lot of things going on mentally I think a lot of it is loss you're having to lose potentially drinking three times a week and eating out all the time and you can still do those things but you just need to kind of you know rein it in a little bit the way I describe it to people is to say you've had all of your fun coupons you're 50 and you've been on the piss essentially since you were 30 probably 20 so you've got at some point you're gonna have to rein it in right so and if anyone's sitting here listening going but that sounds really dull because there's there's someone particularly in my family i'm thinking about i was brought up with the family big you know a lot of drinking that's how they saw having a good time was drinking and eating that's how you socialize and it was fun and people go well hang on a minute i've worked my life all this hard and now what getting to 50 and ideally we're not saying people here only should start working out with their 50 ideally you start when you're much much younger but i think this is just the pattern we're seeing a lot of is it's not now about reducing fun or you've now got to be boring and all that because I think some people as you said just don't want to do it because they can't imagine the benefit they can't see what their life could be like without that because it's so I think so much this comes down to the habits that we've got so ingrained yeah what did you do I think from a personal point of view to break some of the habits that you had habits are really interesting because i think just to maybe articulate it for people that listen to this that don't have time because obviously we're talking about that 50 year old man or woman that's just sold their business right so we're talking about very very small percentage of people i know a lot of your listeners are senior executives people in leadership roles so their time is still very squeezed it's very difficult i think habits are the first thing that people can look at because it doesn't take you any more time to optimize your habits you know if you're looking at your daily habits what i'd recommend people do is make a list of all the things you do every day so whether it's you know i'll get up at 7 a.m and then i have a croissant then i run to the train station then i get a camera just list everything out and then what i'd say is to get the top three to five of those daily habits that having the biggest negative impact on your health now obviously smoking and drinking will be up there of course but things like getting up a little bit too late you know having um having lunch meetings rather than breakfast meetings all these different bits and bobs right if you can list out the top two two three maybe even five and flip those into the positive and what happens is it doesn't take you any more time to fix those problems you haven't got to go to the gym haven't got to change what you're eating just changing your habits to give you an example imagine you You get up at 7am, you're running around, you're really late, so you either put a bit of toast in your mouth or grab a croissant.

20:17Cameron Harris:You then get to the train station, you have a large latte with all syrupy stuff in whatever people have, get on the train and then the other end of the train, you're late, so you jump in a cab. That morning routine, I know it's not specifically a routine because a lot of people online are talking about ice baths and all this nonsense, which anyone that's actually in the real world running a business hasn't got the time for that stuff. So if you just look at that as a daily routine, right, what can we change? Well, let's go, okay, let's get up 10 minutes early. I can't get up to 10 minutes early.

20:46Cameron Harris:I'm too tired. Way too tired. Because I drink a bottle of red wine every night. Bingo. Now we're starting to make some physical changes. So why don't you try and have half a bottle of red wine, okay? Stop at 8.30 p.m., have a pint of water before you get up, and force yourself to get up at 10 to 7. And let's just start making small incremental changes. And that hasn't taken you much, much more time. but I think the big big issue here is people aren't some people aren't willing to accept that they need to make that change to see changes I think social media sells people the lie of you can get all these great things over here you can feel amazing oh we haven't got to change anything that's not reality you know you you're here today doing this it's hard work and you're doing it because there's a benefit to it so i think you people need to be more honest with themselves and say i want this this stuff over there i'm gonna have to change some stuff yeah and i think it's so it's holding that mirror up um you might have someone who's talking to me the other week i won't name names because they won't like them but it's like you know saying what i'm trying to lose weight i'm trying to lose but i can't lose weight and then like three hours later they were just telling me oh you know it's really bad like i have a bag of crisps with my glass of wine before dinner and I have a rich tea biscuit with my tea before I go to bed and before I know it I'm like you haven't changed any of your habits you're still doing all these little things every day that are piling the calories on but they're saying oh nothing's changing I'm having salad for dinner but they're not being honest with all the little things they're having in between I think sometimes we choose not to see it we don't want to because then we do have to accept we need to change but I couldn't agree with more on these little changes I did I decided to join the 5am club I know some people are for it some people against best thing I ever did but I did it gradually so I used to get up at six it wasn't too bad but it was so it was 5 45 then it was 5 30 and eventually I got to 5am now I wake up without an alarm it's just now part of my my norm and it's the best thing I've ever ever done so like before I came here um I did an hour's workout at home and then someone came to gym and it says I think something you talk about is you've got to take responsibility for your energy and I think I couldn't turn up here it's like what your standards are I'm not going to show up here with you today when you've given me your time being sluggish not feeling good not feeling alert not being able to do the interview because that's one of my standards I want to have for you and I think in the reams of leadership if you've chosen to be a leader or an entrepreneur that's then got people working into them there's such a responsibility in how you choose to show up because you want impacting those people's lives have you seen anyone be able to do this because actually they needed to make their why about others more than themselves and that's actually helped them to take the action first because they've seen a bigger picture kids kids kids a massive one i mean there's there's some kind of tools that i use in consultations um one of them i use is how would you feel if another man walked your daughter down the aisle and he cuts right through all the bullshit and it's like you You know, we're not talking about going goosebumps, aren't we?

23:49Cameron Harris:Yeah. We're not talking about just messing around here. This is real life stuff. And unfortunately, I've seen lots of people that have gone the other way and haven't taken ownership. At the end of the day, if you can't knock a couple of bottles of wine on the head per week and get yourself out for some walks and drink a bit more water and maybe take a couple of magnesiums before bed, if you can't do that for yourself, then look your children in the eye and ask them, you know, how would you feel if I was to go down this path of ill health? And the reality is, is that none of us can hide from it.

24:24Cameron Harris:We're all going to die. And I know there's lots of people out there say, yeah, well, my nan smoked till she was 99. And, you know, she did marathons. That's an exception to the rule. Most people, they're going to have problems if they don't look after their lifestyle, look after themselves. And the way I describe it is that if you can be proactive in your health, you're giving yourself the biggest chance of winning the lottery. and the lottery for me is getting to eight years of age, having a really healthy, long life, being able to play with your grandkids, take them a holiday, still play golf if you play golf, do sailing if you want to do sailing, just be able to do all the stuff that you want to do right up until the end, rather than being that person at 60 that's got gout and can't walk and it's agony all the time.

25:07Cameron Harris:And you're going to miss so much stuff. And I think, personally, I'm only 39 in August, right? But I think about death quite a lot. I want to make sure that as much as I can, everything I'm doing is positive. It's always doing something. I'm human, right? I do stuff that's bad sometimes. But as much as I can, do stuff that my kids would be proud of and do stuff that's going to move me closer to a better version. I think we should all be trying to do that really. But the difficult part is bridging that gap between that person that doesn't know what to do and getting them to get into that mindset.

25:41Cameron Harris:But it's tough. I suppose what you're doing there with, imagine someone else walking your daughter down the aisle, is you're trying to get them to envision their future self, which might not be here, or what is that future self in terms of who you want to become. And I think there's a study in high performance, is the highest performers in the world know who they want to become. And they do set a habit every single day that moves them to become that person. So I know we said in a way that links then to your personal performance of how you're going to show up. Just a quick reminder, if you haven't already, to please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel.

26:16It's a small action that makes a big difference. You'll be the first to know when new episodes drop and your support helps us create meaningful content for leaders like you. I'd also love to hear from you. So if you have any thoughts, questions or ideas, pop them into the comments. And if you're curious about how my leadership coaching or training could support you or your team, just drop me a DM and we'll set up a call. Thanks so much.

26:40Cameron Harris:Now let's get back to the episode. I was just curious, when you said about you think about death a lot, where has that come from for you? How has that become a motivator or a driver or a conscious thing for you? That's a pretty good question. My dad was older when he had me, about 55, something like that. So I think, yeah, as a kid, people used to stop us in the street or say hello and say, oh, he's your granddad all the time. so I think having an older dad and he battled Alzheimer's for 15 years he died two years ago now he's 86 something like that so really I didn't feel like I've got a lot of quality years with him so I think ill health and death has been around me and my sister personally for quite a long time so I think that proactivity around you know health and being the best version of myself probably comes from that and a lot of the stuff we do at True Fitness probably is from that you know my dad for example used to work very early just around the corner in Hackney used to have really early mornings a lot of sleep always stressing out about money you know really not looking after himself he's a really sugary diet didn't used to work out all the kind of mate wasn't a big drinker but all the kind of common triggers that your body's looking for to move you into ill health and that Alzheimer's that he got he was on a plethora of drugs statins and warfarin all type of stuff had a atrial fibrillation all your classic kind of markers for ill health so i think a lot of what i do and what we've built at true fitness is around people not seeing that because you know i'm saying do you want to see another man walk your dog down the aisle i'm saying it because i walk my wife down the aisle without a dad so i kind of it's coming from a place of this is the reality of your situation it's quite difficult because i think you made a really great point earlier is that people are in denial so you're living in a river in africa at the moment you are in denial right you're completely in denial about the fact that you're not looking after yourself and at some point in time you're going to get a punch in the face that's going to wake you up and that's back to that reactive thing we spoke about earlier so yeah there's it's quite a deep reason for me big driver for you yeah yeah and i think as i yeah i I lost my dad young as well.

28:52And I think having those things, I think, yes, for people maybe who haven't had that punch in the face yet, it's easy to stay in those habits. And I'm sort of at an age now where, very sadly, a few friends now have got terminal illnesses and things. And just thinking about, and I listened to a podcast yesterday with Simon Sinek, this lady who had recovered from breast cancer, but she has this advice of live as if you've only got two years left to live. Anything less than that, you're probably going to be crazy and spend all your money and quit your job and go traveling. and any more than that just doesn't give you that motivation and drive apparently two years is this sweet spot to think about if i only had two years left how do i want to feel how do i want to be what i want to do and some people might say if i've only got two years i'm not going to spend it in the gym or getting fit or anything but then you never know being in mind this is a potential for take what's it kind of fictional fictitious do you struggle with some words fictitious deadline just think then actually you might and i know one of my friends has looked after herself so well she has going to bought herself more time and I think for you something it's just reminded we spoke about is where you get angry with the social media world and they're so focused on image and aesthetics versus I know you're very passionate about energy resilience your presence how are you using your message or on social and stuff like that to get people to hear a different story and actually to realize it's not just about image yeah it's difficult

30:15Cameron Harris:because there's a lot of noise out there. I mean, I struggle to think of many industries that are noisier than the health and fitness industry. And unfortunately, it's kind of being led by influencers who generally, I mean, I don't spend much time on Instagram. I don't have it. In fact, I've deleted all that stuff apart from, yeah, I can't stand it, apart from LinkedIn, which I use for business, which I quite like as a platform. It's difficult to get your message out there because one of the things that I talk about all the time is that people in my space say, yeah all you've got to do is eat less and move more it's the biggest oversimplification I've ever heard in my life it's just you're kind of bringing that complex the guy we spoke about the 55 year old right you're bringing that complex person that person needs a holistic approach to their health and well-being right and you're distilling it down to eat less and move more it's just ridiculous so I think for us as a business we like to work with people that are more interested in health and longevity and the next part of that puzzle is potentially performance which we haven't spoken about but um if you can't sort those building blocks out your sleep your exercise hydration steps all those kind of key factors if you can't fix those you can't get into performance but i think you know the chances of most people we work with getting a shredded six pack it's just a it's probably never going to happen because of their lifestyle and b do you really care so there's lots of companies out there that will get you you know put funny lights up and make you oil you up with all dark stuff to make you look shredded but who gives a shit like why does that matter i'd rather be with my kids and be strong and healthy and about to throw them up in the air than show everyone how clever i am to have a six-pack good point how often you're walking around with your top off anyway i just i find i find it i find a lot of abhorrent like how i've I've seen, I've literally been in gyms where perhaps trainers are more interested in their image in the mirror than who they work with.

32:13Cameron Harris:And I think my industry is flooded with that kind of stuff. So yeah, I don't like it. Fair play. And you've mentioned performance a couple of times. What is it you talk about when it comes to performance? Yeah. So again, I think it comes back down to the fundamentals. I think a lot of people we work with, they need to get their health sorted first, those basics. So we have sleep, there's habits, there's food, there's training, movement as well. once those are all in place then your health starts to be in a much better position and performance naturally starts to happen so I'll give you a quick example um if we're working someone on their their health and making sure they're kind of in a better position their energy bar so if it's out of 100 this is 100 which is amazing this is one which is really bad they're sitting down at 20 30 percent right once you get them into those good habits and they're training working out that'll be up to maybe 50 or 60 percent now performance for us is that last 30 % digging into that now that comes into really actually getting strong because I think a lot of people especially business owners that are very ego driven say things to me like oh I'm strong or I'm quite fit so but compared to what you know a 90 year old person what are you talking about oh yeah work I walk all the time that's my exercise that's great but walking is a basic human thing that you do it's not really working out so I think people need to kind of you know get the basics right once you've got the basics right then you can start to build into more advanced nutrition like you mentioned intermittent fasting you know getting into more supplementation getting into kind of more tips and tricks around sleep getting yourself strong making yourself conditioned and then from a performance perspective you're going to be on point your energy's going to be through the roof you're going to feel more vibrant you're going to come across more articulate rather than some of these people I look at them come to meetings and see them in the mornings they look like they've been dragged through a hedge book backwards so I think performance is the second part of the journey but most of our guys need to sort the first bit first and I think that's probably a good point I think a lot of leaders and business owners don't have much patience so they want to jump straight into this performance zone and when they see how much work they've got to do to get to the performance zone it's like as you said oh it feels a bit overwhelming because the weird thing is we'll commit all the hours we'll commit to our working day but we won't do that commitment for ourselves or go through that patience it's funny isn't it how what we are willing to do we're not willing to do and but can you actually measure it then so if people are doing this year but they can actually see they can measure their progress you've got this energy bar they can see how their energy is increasing yeah of course i mean just just back to your first point about you know successful people wanting to get to point z and skip all this stuff right so we see all the time people are really successful entrepreneurs or executives right they're very very driven people that nothing gets in the way right when it comes to being successful but then they try and apply that to health and fitness and they've the where they are successfully from their business perspective it's taken 20 years to get there but they want to get to that point in fitness within six weeks they buy a whoop band they're buying different supplements they've got red light stuff it's like mate you're not even sleeping yet you're drinking three times a week so I think that's a common trait I see they try to we call it headbutting the horizon they're trying to get to the point it's like well you can't you can't do that you can't you can't build all that there's not enough runway right so I think that's the first point I make it's also really curious how this then has impacted you and you learning all your patience if you look back to your younger self what advice would you now because I think you've learned and grown from what I hear so much is your journey what advice would you give to your younger self I think just to say it's all going to be okay.

35:54Cameron Harris:I think as a kid, even now, I still think that they, you know, lots have had trauma as a kid, but I think a lot of that, not having a father figure as well, I think it didn't give me that rock, that kind of solid base to kind of bounce off the old man, right? So I think just telling myself that you've got loads of time and it's all going to be right. I think when I kind of went from, you know, being a boy to being a man, I wanted to get everything just like we spoke about really, really quickly. And then the pressures and the timelines I put on myself, I was that guy that said, right, when I'm 28, I'm going to be married.

36:31Cameron Harris:And when I'm 29, I'm going to have kids. I'm going to have a house. It's like this, I don't know where it came from, this artificial timelines that I placed on myself. and actually caused me a lot of mental health issues because you know unbeknownst to me there was lots of stuff that I hadn't fixed you know back to the basics we spoke of earlier you know there's lots of trauma and stuff I hadn't worked through but yeah I'm trying to do this thing over here and it's it wasn't any good so I think the advice I give myself is yeah it's all going to be okay just take it a bit slow enjoy enjoy the ride a little bit and you know as difficult as that is right but yeah I think that's the advice I give myself.

37:05I think it's brilliant advice it resonated with me I think it resonated with a lot of people is why do we need to rush all this stuff and why do we set these life deadlines and whoever said that that's what we had to do at certain ages but we've all decided to follow it and it's like do we yeah where did it come from can we just make our own path please and yeah I'm on a big mission this some myself to discover actually what is the path I want to be on yeah and stop hitchhiking onto other people's paths just be on your own and know where you want to go and you've still got plenty of time to drive down that path and where you get where you want to get to.

37:35Before we close, is there anything you'd like to reinforce or anything we've missed?

37:39Cameron Harris:I think just that message of, you know, proactivity rather than reactivity. I think people listen to this and, you know, just spend, obviously you can use AI now, right? Just ask AI about the human body and ask about what are the common issues that come about if I don't sleep properly, if I do drink alcohol four times a week. Just start to learn a bit more about the human body and about yourself and your situation. and I think most people will get a bit of a reality check and go right maybe I should be proactive rather than waiting for you know and I've seen this lots of times the meeting with the doctor where people walk out and they want to cry yeah and then you also you don't ever want to say I wish if only and not and not do those those language and I think what was wonderful the advice that's really stuck with me is that thing of just look at what you do in the morning and just what's one or two percent of those habits you can change change that coffee for a healthy smoothie you know what those little things that can actually set your day up well i say it doesn't have to be complete reinvention turned on its head there are small things that you can take control of every day um and if people do want to find out more about you and if they do want then that accountability and that support over the next year to do it what's the best way for them to get hold of you yes if they've got linked to the progress we're most active just search cameron harris truth fitness um or you can google truth fitness and we're truthfitness.co.uk Thank you so much.

38:56And thank you for trying to break the noise of what people are doing in health and fitness and also find something that is actually going to suit the lifestyle that leaders and entrepreneurs have. Because I think there's just too much out there that they could do, but isn't going to marry the lifestyle that they're trying to lead. So with all the people I work with, I can see they need the support that you're offering. So thank you so much for everything you're doing. And thank you for coming on the show.

39:19Cameron Harris:Thanks for inviting me. It's been brilliant. And thank you for everyone listening and watching. And we'll see you next week. if you've been enjoying the courageous leaders podcast we'd love it if you'd subscribe to our youtube channel your support helps us keep creating quality content and reaching more leaders like you who are ready to grow and make a real impact we fund this podcast ourselves so every subscription truly makes a difference and allows us to support courageous leaders like you thank you for being part of the journey