George Heaton - #001

0:00Jake Dearden: Mr George Heaton, welcome. Thanks for having me. First I want to touch on your fitness journey and where it all kind of started before we met. We met back in 2021. Do you actually believe that? It was that long ago.

0:14George Heaton: That run picture you sent me yesterday, when was that from?

0:16Jake Dearden: that was from december by the way it was a really snowy day we'd run up rivi and i think you just turned up and i was putting on like a run club at the time yeah and you just rocked up you didn't know anyone at all and you was just like here i am i want to run yeah that was before 247 as well yeah just wanted to start running and uh you've been doing a bit before that with uh george

0:46George Heaton: Armstrong yeah I mean if you want to take it back to the start when I was 21 I was on sorry actually even earlier than that when I was 19 I was getting on a coach to Runshaw College and I saw this monster at the bus stop and he was in a school uniform and I was like what the you know there's a guy here that's going to school that's absolutely jacked out of his mind looked like a Greek god at the bus stop and I was like I want to be like him and uh I just started doing a bit of research on bodybuilding during that time and then one day I walked to that bus stop uh to meet him and like say you know how are you training what are you doing we ended up becoming really close friends did a lot of training together he was a bodybuilder at the time so bodybuilding shows showed me how to do the the dieting and the discipline and what it takes we then both got into like functional fitness CrossFit before it kind of well CrossFit was already a thing but before it came to the UK and really blew up into this functional fitness thing everyone calls it now we were doing that for a few years doing it in the back of his girlfriend's dad's house and then as I bought a few pieces of equipment my dad's house and then we ended up going to a little CrossFit gym in Bolton where we started learning technique properly and that was like my favorite part of any type of training that discipline of crossfit was my favorite i love short intense workouts really hard efforts um and competing with other people so that that was the start of my journey five years or so of bodybuilding then two years of like crossfit functional fitness

2:24Jake Dearden: and why did you start with bodybuilding like was there like something that like funneled that

2:30George Heaton: change like spiked that change yeah i was um pretty overweight growing up like all through my teens and into my early 20s and I didn't like the way I looked and I needed to do something about it and I think it with with people that are overweight or people that don't like how they look at themselves in the mirror um there's always a catalyst isn't there and there was this one point where I think someone just called me a fat cunt am I allowed to swear on here and I was just like you know what I need to fucking I need to change this shit I've just started my brand like if I want to be the guy that's doing this brand no one's going to want to see a big fat guy doing it And, you know, fat shaming is a bad thing, but also it's something that pushes people.

3:11George Heaton: People use it as fuel, right? And I fully believe that, like, aggression against that and using that as a source of energy to say, fuck you back, is something that I've always loved and something that George, who I was training with at the time, always loved as well. And he would do that to me in training and we would go vice versa with it and it would bring competition into it. And I love that. And I know not everyone is like that. And I'm sure you as a coach understand that some people need it differently and some people need it that way. But I like the harsh truth. And that was the catalyst for me.

3:48Jake Dearden: It's actually funny because I had heard of George Armstrong before I'd heard of you.

3:53George Heaton: Yeah.

3:54Jake Dearden: Because again, he was this guy that had this insane physique. No one looked like him.

4:00George Heaton: No.

4:00Jake Dearden: He was going to competitions, like bodybuilding competitions. Winning them, natural. and it was this guy that everyone had kind of heard about yeah and i remember the first time he stepped into the gym that we were training at me and emily were coaching at uh which was the hybrid performance center and the first time i actually kind of like met him and i was literally

4:22George Heaton: like taken back i was in awe really shout out jolly i'm strong man yeah no it's funny and then uh

4:29Jake Dearden: and then a couple of months later you came along with harry stocks no way was that the first time and you came in and you you did a for one of the first classes i remember it was deadlift class and you jumped on and everyone was whispering that's george eaton that's george eaton and i didn't know who you was at this time no way and you came in and people were like mesmerized by you being in the gym that's judge eaton owner of represent and this was before the 247 line even existed and that's why i didn't hear about you because i live under a rock my fashion isn't i'm not very good with fashion at all and i definitely wasn't back in the day you look good yesterday that was you look sick thank you thank you and then i saw you on this class and i remember you and harry just absolutely sending it on this class and it was cool to see and then i think you just got you found somewhere to train nearby and and the gym that i was coaching at was that

5:31George Heaton: place yeah and also do you know what shout out to that gym because they were the first to bring that kind of functional fitness aesthetic thing to the northwest right yeah that was the gym to go to and before that we were in like a little crossfit dungeon for a few years so we'd got a good like base of strength and conditioning so when we came to hybrid and it was a little bit different programming it was done by you guys that were like not really into the uh gymnastics side of crossfit but was still like slinging barbells and doing all that stuff so we had a good base and it was good to compete and i feel like the hybrid performance center had such a good community at that time you know some of my best friends were made there including you

6:14Jake Dearden: no it's uh it looking back it kind of was kind of like a golden time of fitness uh and we always looked back at it like we did work hard everyone worked hard that was there i remember you like after a couple of sessions you were there at 4am every single day that that's what inspired me to

6:33George Heaton: work hard in my fitness the fact that there was normal lads who were bricklayers fucking roofers whatever painter and decorators coaches whatever like going in and just giving it 100 % at 4am that made me realize that I've got more work to do because I wasn't matching that effort

6:50Jake Dearden: and did that kind of what came first was it the discipline within business or the discipline within fitness that converted over to business or vice versa hard question because I've always worked

7:07George Heaton: on the brand so 14 15 years into the brand now i've worked hard on it all my life so there was definitely discipline brought from that into fitness but the fitness ramped that up a little bit more because i was able to transfer that over and then utilize them both against each other um which sometimes it creates burnout that's the problem you can burn out on both because you're giving it you're redlining in fitness and then you're going redlining in the business for 16 hours a day so it does it does a lot to you mentally and physically um but also how did you

7:41Jake Dearden: cope with that like did it was there some days where you you feel like training really hard super early in the morning not getting enough sleep or you know making sacrifices because you're training so hard did that impact your work at all was you coming in tired was you underperforming in work or was it always kind of like you train really hard and then you go to work and work as

8:04George Heaton: hard as you can no it would impact the work I remember I used to take naps in the office I would be in a meeting at 11 30 in the morning and then I'd be asleep I wake up at ice everyone's having the lunch and I'd think fuck what's just happened but that kind of that I think that's always like a period I think like when you go into a training block there's a different training regime to what you used to it takes about six months for your body to adapt to it after six months of it like I could live my life whilst training hard and working really hard as well. So you just kind of fall into it. I think the more you do, the more you can do to an extent.

8:43George Heaton: I'm not an elite athlete and I'm not putting in work like you where it's three, four hours a day and then trying to work. I don't think I'd ever be able to do that. So I'm able to figure out this point of my fitness where I can push it to a limit where I'm still able to do my work in the day. and I don't push it past that limit.

9:03Jake Dearden: I think you've only realized that quite recently though. I think there was a time where you was in the mindset of I can train three hours a day and still do all this work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I feel like that, I don't know about you, but I definitely see this year in particular, you've kind of realized business for you is more important, unfortunately. Yeah, you go. Unfortunately, whichever way you want to spin it.

9:31George Heaton: You go through different periods in your life, right? You go through different seasons. And in that season of when I was starting 247 and everyone was looking at me, we didn't have athletes involved. We didn't have anyone who could push the brand. It was all looking at me. And I was competing turf games, whatever it was, high rocks, doing half marathons and whatever. I had this level of where my fitness needed to be or else people would think I'm a fraud. and I didn't want the fitness side of represent, the brand of 247 to be run by someone that's not putting in the work and not being fit. And, you know, like people would come and train with us and say, damn, you're probably the fittest guy in fashion.

10:11George Heaton: So I had this thing to live up to where I didn't want people to beat me. So like I would put more energy into that than the business side of things until the brand grew to a certain extent where I could bring on these athletes. They could go and compete. They could go and win races. People like yourself and everyone around the brand where I could take a step back from that.

10:29Jake Dearden: Did that put a lot of, in them early years when you was the only person, like you say, you couldn't afford athletes or whatever, did that put a lot of pressure on you? Did it kind of take away energy?

10:42George Heaton: Yeah, 100%, a lot of pressure, but also I like that stuff. I like being the man in the arena. I like being that thing. Now I'm a little bit older and a little bit wiser and I realise I can take days off and if my training's going to change a little bit, then it doesn't matter to that extent. But back then I was just like a fucking horse charging, you know what I mean?

11:03Jake Dearden: Yeah, yeah. I want to take it back to when our friendship actually first came to life. And the first things that I remember is obviously you was coming to the classes, you was training. And then I decided to do a charity event and I decided to do 10 marathons in five days um just off kind of like a whim I think I didn't train for it I literally decided two weeks before I was going to do it and I feel like I definitely bit off more than I could chew yeah I think you do that all the time maybe maybe but uh we started anyway and I remember you had a busy week but I started on a Saturday and the sunday morning so i was doing two marathons a day for five days and i'd done two marathons and then the third marathon you said i want to run one with you i've never really ran an official marathon and i want to do it with you so you ran that third one and we got up early

12:07George Heaton: i think we started set off at like 6 a.m yeah running around horwich literally two laps two

12:12Jake Dearden: half marathons it was and we got i think five kilometers in and i needed to have a breather and have a walk and you were surprised you were like there is no chance you literally said to me i don't think you're going to finish this at the time you was like you're looking pretty bad you're on your third marathon you've got 10 marathons to do you're on your third one and you need to stop

12:35George Heaton: after 5k and i'd ask you what you had to eat before and you said a bowl of cocoa pops as well and i was like what is this guy doing anyway we grinded through that marathon and then at the end

12:46Jake Dearden: you really enjoyed it it was your first marathon you you absolutely pushed through um like a beast and then we got through it and at the end she was like i'm busy all this week you had to fly to portugal yeah i'll tell you the story when you finish but and you said to me look i i don't know if you're going to do these marathons but if you do whatever you raise for charity yeah i'm going a double and i was that was the one of the biggest motivators that i i could have been given at the time um and you held your word i i got through them and you held your word you matched it yeah man you broke me with that i had no money left no it made sense bro i wanted like you know and

13:33George Heaton: we just started the brand at the time so it's somewhere that i could put someone else at the forefront of my brand as well selfishly even though it's a charity thing like it was like all about you put it all on you this is nothing to do with me I just wanted to join join in for it but yeah coming from my side of that it was stupid of me to even join you on that one because I'd been in the Maldives family holiday that week before and I had no running shoes so when I when you announced it I was like oh I want to come and do this with you and he was like yeah great I had flip-flops on on the treadmill in the Maldives where you can't run them up 500 meters because you're on just a beach and there's no roads.

14:10George Heaton: So I was doing 5Ks every like five hours in the Maldives, twice or three times a day on a running machine with no shoes. My legs were absolutely cooked. I flew back, landed on the Friday night, joined you on the Sunday, right? And I fell apart about 30K. I think if you remember coming down Choleneau Road, I was just like - The second time, by the way. Yeah, the second time I hit a wall and I felt disgusting. and I wanted to go in my house for a brew because we ran past my house, didn't we? And I didn't. Anyway, I flew to Portugal. I went home, had a shower, flew to Portugal, woke up the next morning, couldn't walk, spent a week in Portugal, literally couldn't get upstairs.

14:52George Heaton: And I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to think I was in pain whilst you're in the fucking worst pain ever. And I went seeing like three different physios in Portugal from Marco. Marco advised me on all these guys and had the worst time in my life. but it was worth it. What a time, I forgot about that.

15:09Jake Dearden: Yeah, and then after that, we then started to train together for the National Fitness Games, which is now ATHX, I think. I think ATHX took it over. And this was, now you'd been showing on Instagram, especially that you've been training 5am, 4am, every single day. You've been grinding with, whether it was with us guys or whether it had been with George Armstrong. You've been doing this for the last couple of years. And this was your first kind of test, national fitness games in front of people.

15:47George Heaton: Yeah.

15:48Jake Dearden: And how was your feeling before that?

15:53George Heaton: Well, I thought, right, this team that had been put together, it was you, it was Mark Dean, it was Dan Baldwin. And was it Andy?

16:02Jake Dearden: Yes.

16:02George Heaton: so you know savage savage savage savage all holding ridiculous amounts of muscle all very fit way way above my standard on everything apart from bench press apart from bench press

16:15Jake Dearden: um which wasn't in the competition unfortunately um so i thought you know what i'll join in

16:21George Heaton: yeah i'll be the weakest link but it'll push me to train harder and do more and i've also got to show up for these guys which i've never really had to do before it's always been me at the top in business, in fitness, in whatever. So I fucking, dude, I was so scared. I remember driving down there in Dan's car, just like shaking for hours and hours. And then we did the first competition, which was, it was a sandbag, really heavy sandbag with four of us or five of us. And we had to do like sandbag lunges, squats, run with it, whatever.

16:55Jake Dearden: It was the worm. Yeah, so it was the worm. Yeah, so if you're not used to CrossFit, The worm is, it looks like it's a huge sandbag that looks like a worm. And as a team, you've got to do exercises with it.

17:11George Heaton: And you know what? We fucking killed it. And we did. We absolutely smoked everyone.

17:16Jake Dearden: But if you think with that, like everyone's got to, if you don't pull your weight, then that weight is literally on someone else. Yeah. So you can't not be part of that. But we actually did pretty well at that workout. It's pretty cool. And then after that, there was a workout of sandbag over shoulder. I think there was thrusters in there and then ski erg. And I remember we all came off that blind.

17:42George Heaton: It was a two-minute block, weren't it? One minute rest and then two-minute block.

17:46Jake Dearden: And it was just insane CrossFit workout or CrossFit style kind of Metcom workouts. And then me and you partnered for the final workout. Yeah. and this was the endurance part and do you remember it was a 5k row for time yeah and it was the most disgusting thing i think both of us had ever come into i came off the

18:10George Heaton: row earlier as well not knowing you told me when you got back on it and i was like what

18:16Jake Dearden: we was in the the finance so we split it up uh 500 meter efforts and we'd done four each yeah And then you get on for the fifth time, the fifth and final time. And you come off after 400 meters.

18:30George Heaton: So I had 600 to do at the end,

18:33Jake Dearden: going all out. Everyone's screaming around. Everyone that was watching and supporting was screaming. And yeah, I think we both came off that.

18:42George Heaton: Couldn't get up after it, did we?

18:43Jake Dearden: Yeah, it was insane. So if you're interested in a workout to try with a friend, go down to the gym and just do a 5K roll for time and see how fast you can do it. But what did that do to you? Because from that, I feel like something changed in you that day. And you actually sent me a massive message after saying how it had kind of impacted you.

19:09George Heaton: Yeah. I feel like when you do something really fucking hard that's way outside of your comfort zone, you reflect on it and you realize like it's actually leveled you up as a person. um not only like your fitness ability but your ability to be with other people and stand up with them other people you know because if you're doing that on your own you can stop at 200 meters and get off and go for a bro you can't do that when everyone's watching you so it puts you in this arena where it's kind of like do or die and that was the first time i'd felt like that and i loved it and i wanted to do it more and i feel like that's the addiction people get when they start competing yeah it's such a good time like i'm like i feel so excited about it now and that was so long ago i think that was 2020 to september 2022 that was nearly four years ago which is insane

20:00Jake Dearden: i want to move forward to the opening of this place and the relocation of you moving from your old offices represent moving from the old offices to the hq now obviously it's around it was around the corner but uh you moved into a bigger building yeah and you decided to open a gym why did you want

20:21George Heaton: to open a gym well this this is the exact reason right i made my best friends in that gym i've i met you i met billy i met dan i met like all these fucking great guys that were getting after it and i loved like they were the people that i was talking to outside of my business that was all i all i'd talk about and think about and work with and i thought you know from a business point of view how do i bring that into this environment and i don't see other other brands doing it and we had 247 starting and it felt right for me to actually go you know what everyone in this place let's take that energy and attitude that i've got from hybrid performance center let's bring it into the workplace felt like your best bonds are made with people when you're sweating together and when you're working hard together you know and it gives people a reason to talk to each other in the workplace and it gives them a conversation to talk about all day and then they can compete against each other and what it did for me in terms of how much it made my life feel better then I wanted to do that for everyone in the business so I started off just by saying to everyone look whilst this place is getting built everyone can have their gym memberships on me that was that was great until everyone wanted 500 quid a month gym memberships all over manchester and these insane places and we had we went from 20 staff to 50 staff to 80 staff i was like oh shit anyway opened the gym brought in you and emily which was something that i was really worried about and i told you that we're going to open this gym in the office just for the office it wasn't going to be a public gym and i remember you coming to me and saying like oh you know can i coach the staff and i was like dude what if what if they don't want to get coached what if like

22:03Jake Dearden: the way we are is not the way other people are well let's rewind a little bit so i actually came to you probably a month before this conversation right and i came to you and i said i was kind of unhappy with my situation i feel like i'd um i'd moved on uh from coaching like full-time in person and I still wanted to coach in person, but I also wanted to do a bit of online and I wanted to see where this athlete kind of career would potentially take me. Yeah. And genuinely, you were the only person that I think believed that I could potentially become an athlete.

22:51George Heaton: Right. But why was that?

22:53Jake Dearden: But then acted on it. And I don't know. I genuinely don't know but

22:57George Heaton: I'll tell you why when I first started coming to the hybrid I was actually pretty much better than you at everything we were doing except running

23:04Jake Dearden: oh by the way for the viewers and listeners George is an absolute freak when it comes to fitness like you are a freak like you say oh I'm not as good as these athletes or whatever you are a freak alright listen so I am going to I promise you I am going to stop licking his

23:22George Heaton: ass in a minute we started doing these we're going to the marathon We started doing these sessions and Jake would join in. When he was allowed to join in, I would always pair up with him because I fucking loved him. And I was up there with you, like head to head. Some things I was better than you at, some things you were better than me at. And then I saw his progress over probably the six months that we were trained together. And you just shot up. Like, I've never seen anything like it. And to me, that got me so excited because I was like, whoa, this guy has entered like his first high rocks pretty much beat everyone in the field with no training for it like you're coaching 10 hours a day training one hour a day if you get that time so I felt like what could you do if you weren't doing all that coaching and you're doing these marathons and like every morning we were out running at fucking 4am and Sundays at whatever and you were putting these run clubs on and you wanted more than what you had and it's rare to see people that want way more than what they've already got so I knew there was something in there

24:21Jake Dearden: yeah yeah no but uh i came to you not really happy and then you give me this advice and you was like this is what you need to do i went and did that and then which to be fair i don't know

24:31George Heaton: why i thought i could give you advice because i'm not in that space but one thing that was very apparent as soon as i gave you that advice that you went and did it not many people do that either you went and did it and came back to me and asked for more advice and you went and did that

24:45Jake Dearden: and then what happened and then you was like we had this conversation he was like i'm opening a gym look it's going to be one hour in the morning i want you to coach the lads for one hour and i want emily to coach the girls for one hour and we were like this is the best thing ever we then a couple of weeks later after we told people and spoke to people we were then

25:13George Heaton: jobless we got given our p45s the gym that we were working at didn't want us anymore because

25:18Jake Dearden: we they didn't want us working at two gyms yeah so they didn't want us anymore and we were like george we're here we turned up on your doorstep i was shitting myself and you was like you do know it's only one hour a day like i can't pay you full time like i i can pay you for one hour a day and that's it yeah and you was really really concerned of like how we're gonna make it work and we're like oh don't worry don't worry we really want to do this um it's like too good of an opportunity to to miss so like them first like especially a couple of weeks like we were in here non-stop we were coaching in the morning but then we were training all day and we've literally had nothing to do really yeah because we we were jobless uh and then that made the vibe that made like what

26:02George Heaton: the gym turned into because if you weren't there it'd just be an empty gym so people could come in and talk to you and like if they wanted to train at lunch you were in their training as well and it was good because there was a constant energy in the gym which in in hindsight we didn't see that we just thought you know class in the morning you leave yeah but no no it was it was cool uh

26:24Jake Dearden: i remember emily putting on like nutrition talks for the girls and stuff like that you know talking about um do you know how periods affect your training and stuff like that and it was like really cool thing really cool things uh that was happening in the gym and like like you sorry me i think we saw in everyone working here everyone suddenly wanted to train yeah like no one was like nah i don't want to train i don't want to try your type of training or anything like people were really intrigued and they wanted to learn more and that's why we started putting on lunchtime classes and we started doing a little bit more and like fast forward now three years and everyone's doing ultra marathons everyone's signed up to marathon insane how many people have signed up to this manchester marathon from the office uh i don't know the the proudest part of me building

27:11George Heaton: this brand is that is that i'll sometimes i'll open my phone when i wake up in la way behind the uk and i'll see all these results of people that have fucking done an ultra marathon from the gym because of you and i'm like whoa we're actually changing people's lives and it's just part of the

27:31Jake Dearden: brand it's it's crazy and now you're they're keeping us accountable with training like you coming in here you're George comes back from LA and a couple of lads uh saying oh come on let's let's bench press and they mention the same as you whoa whoa whoa same same okay no no it does

27:49George Heaton: it pushes me now though because like you know I was always the fittest guy in the brand and now there's people doing the same kind of shit and it pushes me because I want to still keep kind of keep that but also like you know there's people running three hour marathons and there's people doing these incredible things these ultras and lifting heavy and like looking sick as well like some of the physiques that have been built in here compared to what they were at at the start is insane

28:15Jake Dearden: no it was it's been good it's been good right okay enough like I said licking your ass we're going to move on to the balls

28:28Jake Dearden: we're going to move on to you and this sub three hour marathon. Oh no. So you've been training for this now for how long?

28:40George Heaton: Well, right. We did LA marathon in 2023. I was at four. Was that your first? That was my first real race. Official race. What year was that? Four. That was 24. 24. Right. So we did that then and we didn't really have a training block. You just gave me a few runs to do. and by the way la is the hardest marathon you can do yes really one of we got we finished in three hours and 17 minutes i think or 18 minutes whatever um three hours 16.

29:11Jake Dearden: me and ollie march on finished in three hours 19.

29:14George Heaton: yeah because i was pacing him yeah ollie if you watch this still not got it either so anyway we've not got it um that thought i thought that i thought like you know if i can shave 16 17 minutes off my time and get a sub three you know everyone talks about this sub three and i think that is a good threshold to say i'm a good runner or i'm a decent runner at least right i'm a fucking terrible runner i always have been i'm top heavy i have short legs i struggle with anything endurance over like an hour and a half i'm really good at 100 meter sprints i'm really good at 200 meter sprints anything longer than that i'm not great at is there anyone you've lost

29:54Jake Dearden: against in the 100 meters?

29:56George Heaton: No, never.

29:57Jake Dearden: You've never lost a 100 meter race? No. If there's anyone out there. Yeah.

30:02George Heaton: Noah Lyles. I've not raced an actual 100 meter athlete, but I've raced you, I've raced Ollie, I've raced everyone who is a sprinter. Anyway.

30:12Jake Dearden: Even Alfie.

30:13George Heaton: Yeah, I beat Alfie as well.

30:15Jake Dearden: Yeah, you beat Alfie. So yeah, this is calling out Noah Lyles.

30:19George Heaton: Yeah. So 100 meters or bench press, great. Anything over that, not great. But so back to the marathon. I decided to go again in 2025 just because I loved it. I loved that LA course. I enjoyed being with my friends out there. It came down to like January. I started running again properly. We had Berlin before this all. We did have Berlin. Was that before?

30:42Jake Dearden: Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. So we did the LA one and then he was like, right, I'm going to get this sub three. I'm going to pick the fastest course in the world, Berlin marathon.

30:52George Heaton: Yep.

30:53Jake Dearden: and we all ran it together. Yeah. And that was a nightmare. Do you know what the stupid and you are stupid for doing this. I'm going to call you out here right now. You flew you was in the UK two weeks before the marathon. You then decided to go back to LA for five days and then fly back to Berlin I think for the Thursday before the race on Sunday.

31:18George Heaton: Yeah.

31:19Jake Dearden: And you just did too much travel before it. Yeah. You did this big block and then messed it up at the last minute. Why did you go back? To see the dog? Maybe the girlfriend?

31:30George Heaton: Maybe the dog and the girlfriend, but something incredible happened in the business and we just took on investment. And it was like this insane thing that had happened and I wanted to be back in my home and just think about it and enjoy a few days there.

31:44Jake Dearden: Some things are a little bit more important than running, maybe.

31:46George Heaton: Yeah.

31:47Jake Dearden: Maybe.

31:48George Heaton: A little bit. But I thought maybe I can get a sub three at Berlin I'd fucking worked from LA Marathon to Berlin thinking that I could shave 17 minutes off my time. That was also stupid of me because, you know, these things take years. I'd just gone into longer distance running and I had no chance. I got to 25K. I had Will Gouge pacing me. I got to 25K and I just fucking fell apart and I started crying. I was in the toilets. Will was getting salt from the pubs. We ended up at three hours and 12 minutes. So I failed. um but still a pb still yeah still a good pb but i remember after you was fuming you was livid i was upset because i just watched him do two hours 30 just under two hours 32 28 and looked like he was just having fun with it and you know when you come from a background of three four years ago when we just started out i felt like i was on pace with you with everything and you've just gone like this and i've gone like this so i was like i'm comparing myself against a real athlete, which I shouldn't do, but also that kind of pushes me.

32:54Anyway, failed it for let's go back to LA next year

32:58George Heaton: and let's try it again. Loved the LA course, what can I do? And then during that time, I realized how much of a horrible course LA was. So I thought I'll buck London as well. So we'll get a fast one in London. And then just before I did LA.

33:16Jake Dearden: You did LA with, so first of all, all the athletes from Medical Mart as well? no one including me i let you down i think i had something on yeah we'll probably let you down i think all they couldn't do it yeah uh you ended up running it on your own yeah and i've been in

33:32George Heaton: the maldives the week before with the family um on holiday one of the reasons why obviously you

33:38Jake Dearden: you stay true to your word and you wanted to do it you signed up to it you said you were going to do it so you did it but you also had a little bit of pressure from the company because you'd

33:48George Heaton: done a launch yeah we've done all these collections for the marathon collection and no one doing it it's like it made no sense and it didn't feel true so i thought i'll do it and i'll go out on my own and i'll use it as a training run for london the next month went out there felt great all the way through it didn't hit a wall it was really tough but got through it 307 felt amazing my watch died at 10k my phone was for some reason on in my pocket and it killed everything so i had no music no watch, didn't know where I was. Found these runners with the 310 flag and just stayed with them for a while and then took over them at the end.

34:26George Heaton: So I had a really good time and it gave me a lot of confidence going into London. But then there was a problem.

34:34Jake Dearden: Yeah, so wasn't it this?

34:36George Heaton: And it was again caused by you. Yeah, it causes all my injuries.

34:44Jake Dearden: So I think you're referring to the Speed Project. Is that correct?

34:49George Heaton: Yeah, Jake came to LA a week after the LA marathon and made me do 20 by 400 meters on the track with you. Bearing in mind, I was still recovering from LA and it was disgusting. Tommy, you were there as well, weren't you? I thought I was going to die.

35:07Jake Dearden: Yeah, it was a pretty tough session and I just made you do it and you shouldn't have done it. Yeah, and then we went. that's that's your that's a you problem but this was this was like and then a week after or a couple of days after so we'd done this session and then a couple of days after we started the speed project yeah on the thursday at 3 a.m in the morning or 4 a.m in the morning so the speed project is a race we actually documented it but and it's on youtube but it's a race where there's no rules just one person needs to be running it's a relay race one person needs to be running at all times there's six people in the team and you run from santa monica pier in la to the vegas sign obviously in vegas which is 350 miles if you go the right way yeah if you're led by me you go longer because you get lost and i'm shit at directions uh so we also set off a little bit fast we set off first by quite a while again that was you against professional runners we thought we did have egos at the time yeah a bunch of bodybuilders

36:31George Heaton: doing three minute case up the fucking beverly hills but at this point we was running against

36:37Jake Dearden: professional runners like these guys i think some of them were like 210 215 marathon runners these guys they're those guys were doing 10 kilometer efforts like 10 kilometer stints and then changing over to keep up with them we were doing 400 meter efforts and there were six of us and we were just changing every 400 meters and just sprinting as fast as we could could to keep up with these guys and why did we do that yeah looking back it was a huge mistake it was so fun though what a time yeah it was it was great i think we we got about 14 hours in it was our first kind of like evening and it was great everything was going great and then we went to the route that we went off road and it this route was called the power lines route and it was meant to save you some time so he thought oh we can go off road turns out our trucks weren't four befores which they looked like four by fours you wouldn't have a clue yeah you wouldn't have a clue um shout out to emily messing up with uh renting the car nice one um wasn't your fault there was a point where

37:48George Heaton: i was in the four by four and we'd crashed it into the two by four you call it what do you call it

37:56Jake Dearden: what do you call a two-wheel drive?

37:57George Heaton: We crashed it into the back of it to push it out of the sand. And he just wouldn't move.

38:03Jake Dearden: So we had two cars. One of them literally got stuck in the desert, like completely stuck. We had to ring a gas station, because we're American, we'll call it a gas station, a petrol station. And a guy called Pancho answered.

38:18George Heaton: Legend.

38:19Jake Dearden: And he was like, yeah, I can come pick your car up and I can come drag it out for an extortionate fee. I dread to think what that fee was. But it was 3 a.m. in the morning. We was in the desert, no one around. So this car was stuck. So Pancho pulled this car out and it had been rammed by all the cars. It had been absolutely smashed up. And then we continued in the other 4x4 or 2x2, whatever you want to call it. And we got a puncture. You're too bad it's a motorbike. We got a puncture and we were just like, fuck it. Let's just keep going. And we went that far on this puncture that there was, we actually got out of the car and there was no tire on the car.

39:08Jake Dearden: It was just the rim. There was no tire. There was no nothing. There was no remnants of any rubber ever being on this tire. And somehow, credit to Jack and John, they went and got this car fixed and it looked literally brand new we then finished the speed project and we actually did quite well, I think we came 8th overall which was quite good considering our circumstances and what had happened but then after that Emily's driving the car around the car park she then crashes the car oh I didn't know this and so there's a massive scrape down the, and kind of like dint in the car. And she really, really kind of disgusts it.

39:53Jake Dearden: Yes, it's got no number plate because the number plate's come off because you was ramming the other car. That much, the number plate just fell off. And then, we go and return these to Enterprise and they go, yeah, absolutely fine. Nice one. You don't owe anything.

40:10George Heaton: No way. So we didn't pay? We didn't pay anything. We didn't pay a bean.

40:13Jake Dearden: Literally, the rental, I think it was like $400 for two weeks. on these trucks. Whoa. And then we returned them and there was absolutely nothing to pay. So yeah, Enterprise in the US is different.

40:28George Heaton: That whole thing though of us breaking down and whatever, like it made the whole thing. It made the event. It was so fun.

40:35Jake Dearden: There are things that you'll, and chatting shit in the back of the car, in the back of the truck, when you weren't running, when someone else was out running and talking about aliens, conspiracy theories. That was the best part. Yeah, it was sick. just looking up at the stars in the desert. It was cool. But that sounds like we'll remember forever. And it was kind of like, I feel like it bonded the athletes together. 100%. Not many other, well, no other brands really do that.

41:00George Heaton: No. Which is pretty sick. And it's worth the injuries. It's worth the pain. It's worth the suffering because you get them moments and then times that you'll never, ever forget. Where else do you get them?

41:11Jake Dearden: I think that's, I think Mike asked me the question. he was like there's some things that you do for gratification of other people and you do them to keep up with the hype on social media or stay relevant and he was like do you think doing a speed project is one of these things for you and i was like genuinely no this is if i could do anything i'd do this yeah this is the shit that i love doing and on that conversation i thought it

41:42George Heaton: was something like that but it's not it's something to enjoy with other people yeah you don't do that

41:47Jake Dearden: a lot these days there's no problems you're not thinking about the business like the struggles that the business are going through when you're running through the desert no like your head's clear and you're literally just running for your life it's funny it's funny so anyway we digress back onto the marathon so that ruined you yeah so you did that the speed project you picked up an

42:06George Heaton: injury yeah because the the last day of it was pretty much me you and hirk and for me to be doing that type of mileage i'm not an ultra runner i don't do these crazy things that you and hirk do i think we ended up doing around about 100 miles each right so 160 kilometers each my it band just went and i carried on running on it because i didn't want to let anyone down and i shouldn't have you was actually like a machine that second day yeah you had your fair share of naps that

42:34Jake Dearden: first day but the second day you you was a warrior to be fair so credit to you i love a nap so you

42:42George Heaton: you had to pull out of london yeah pulled out of london came back to race it we went to the track me you and alfie and i was flying and as soon as i would touch that knee on the floor after like 1k it'd just spark up felt like i'd been stabbed so couldn't run london felt like i was there i I don't know if I was or not. And then for the rest of that year, I just got more injuries. My hip went after that. Everything has been this right leg. There's some sort of imbalance, some sort of weakness in my right leg. Obviously, I've spoke to your coach, spoke to Alfie, seen loads of physios. I think it's just like a dominant leg thing with my left leg.

43:24George Heaton: So I've kind of got it back to a place now where it feels somewhat doable.

43:29Jake Dearden: I think also this was probably a time where the business needed you more than you fucking around doing marathons. Not fucking around, but you know what I mean? You said that to me. You were like, this needs to go on hold for a little bit because the business needs me. And you've been doing so much this year. You've absolutely smashed it, especially out in LA. Well, coming back here, how many flights have you done?

43:58George Heaton: dude that's something i want to one of my resolutions for this year is to fly less um just because it that that's the number one factor that hinders my fitness yeah it's a jet have you got any any tips for got loads of tips yeah for traveling i know you've got loads of

44:16Jake Dearden: tips but have you got any specifically for for kind of like training working yeah whilst traveling

44:21George Heaton: For training, if you're going to travel far and change time zones, do as minimal time as you can in that location. Get in, get out, get back. I think you can avoid jet lag and avoid being on the time zone. Say I'm coming from LA to the UK. If I can squeeze a week's worth of work into two days, I'll do that. I won't sleep properly and I'll get back to LA, have a good sleep, and I'm just normal. There's no jet lag. outside of that it's like if you if you don't have the ability to just do a day or two and you've got to spend a lot of time in different places all the time for me number one thing is just making sure you're getting getting sleep I think that's in the main key right getting sleep keeping the workouts at like a zone two zone three pace for the at least four days of getting somewhere i don't think you want to be redlining um and just treat treating yourself good like i used to get off the flight and come in here and at fucking 4am in the morning and you know do some stupid workouts with barbells and whatever and then hurt myself just kind of patience if you've

45:27Jake Dearden: if you're not slept well then you do a little bit easier you'd do an easy run instead yeah i guess

45:32George Heaton: it's listen to your body isn't it it's the most important thing that we all neglect especially as high testosterone performing males that want to get after it all the time we don't listen to

45:42Jake Dearden: ourselves a lot yeah no that's cool um what do you do say when you are jet lagged and you wake up at 2 a.m or 3 a.m do you get yourself up or do you try and force yourself to sleep and i like to put

45:58George Heaton: a time on it so i think 4 a.m is the the place where if i'm up before that i will just stay in bed try and stay in bed try and go back to sleep if it's past 4am i'll just get up and get on with my day and go to bed earlier that night if you're going to wake up early go to bed early don't wake up early and go to bed late and vice versa so moving on i want to know where you got your

46:25Jake Dearden: discipline from because you are the first to a meeting you're the first to the gym you're always ready for it as well there's not one point you've you've you know rocked up here whether it's for a gym session or whether it's for work and turn around and say oh i can't be asked today you're always ready for it and you're always prepared where do you learn that was there kind of like a point in time where that changed or have you always been like that I think discipline is a

46:59George Heaton: muscle and like any muscle you've got to keep training it to grow it I think my original point of discipline comes from my dad as a kid growing up I would watch that guy wake up at 5am go to work at 6am come home at 6pm like every single day of the week and you know people now work four days a week. People don't even come to work on Fridays in most places or want to work from home for two days a week. And you know, it's too much and the hours are too long. I watched that guy work 14 hour days, seven days a week as a kid. And leading by example is a massive fucking thing for me. I fully believe leading by example beats everything, whether it's in the gym, whether it's in this office, you can't tell people what to do.

47:44George Heaton: You can only show them what to do, right? You know, if you've got a boss that's telling you to do all this stuff and he's on a golf course on a Thursday playing golf with his mates, are you going to do the stuff? No. You're going to do the stuff if he's doing the stuff with you. If that's steaming clothes before a shoot at 4am or it's going in the gym at 9pm because you've not got time in the day because you're working, that's something that I've always thought I want at the forefront of my life and that is discipline, right? It's doing the hard things when it could be, you could do the easy things.

48:14George Heaton: There's always two choices as hard and easy you just choose the choice and for me i'll always choose hard um and i think that's why the business is where it's got to today i think that's a big portion of it that's a big portion of why this gym is here that's a big portion of why you guys are all here um learned it from my dad and then later on in life i did a thing called 75 hard which is andy futzella's mental toughness program um which you've got to stick to a certain routine every single day for 75 days that pushed me over the edge with an extra level of discipline um that I don't feel like people have and it gives you that motivation that you know you're doing more than everyone um and you're able to sustain that after the course is done that's all I've done that's literally it it's just about choices hard choices and you mentioned about taking on investment and that's you've had a payout from that which has kind of set you up quite well

49:15Jake Dearden: financially yeah and the maddest thing that i've seen and i've witnessed is you and mike have not changed one bit since taking on that investment yeah you know if if i don't people always think oh once i've earned so much money i'm gonna relax i'm gonna you know take my foot off the gas i'm gonna and you have done almost the opposite like yeah it's just give you more and more yeah i think

49:47George Heaton: that with that i did so much research leading up to it about what happens to businesses after you know like what's the second phase of that and things and most of the time businesses fail because people take the foot off the gas they've got what they always wanted now they can relax for me i I know that there is always more out there. That, number one. Number two, that's my passion and that's all I know. Why would I want to do anything else? You can enjoy money and you can enjoy holidays and you can enjoy all that stuff, but you know full well, after you've bought a car, a month later, it's a car.

50:19George Heaton: After you've bought a house, six months later, it's a house. After you've been on holiday, four days later, you want to get back or you want to go somewhere else. I already know that. I've done that before. I've bought the expensive cars. I've lived in the great houses. I've been on the great holidays. I've understood what it does to people. And for me, like I love working. I love training. And I have my own self brand, which, and you know, maybe this is just an internal thing, but people are watching me. People are watching what I do every day. If I stopped training at 5am and started spending money on stupid shit, I'm not going to relate to the people that fucking liked what I was doing.

51:00George Heaton: and I want to build that customer base or fan base of people that like what I'm doing until I die. So I'm going to do the same thing what I do, just make it better. I think it comes down to you genuinely have that passion

51:14Jake Dearden: for what you want to do and you absolutely love what you want to do and you wouldn't do anything else no matter what.

51:20George Heaton: No, and as well, when you're a high performer or whatever we call it, an achiever or someone that loves to get after it and doesn't like to get beaten, it's still small in the grand scheme of things it's still not going to change the world yeah you can buy your mom and dad a house you can retire your parents you can do all that shit but it's not gonna get you in the highest rooms in the world where you can do amazing shit that actually changes the world there's still so far to go to get to that yeah what do you reckon you do

51:49Jake Dearden: if you didn't do represent i know you probably get this i ask this question all the time

51:54George Heaton: didn't have represent or 247 yeah well me and mike grew up drawing i wanted to be mike mike was a good artist um so you'd be mike yeah i'd be mike no but when we started the business we didn't know what else we would do we would print things on t-shirts and that's that felt like the best outlet to be able to make money off our artwork you know like we knew that painters and so you'd be an artist you think yeah some sort of artist we're both artists we're not businessmen dude i I am not a businessman. I know how to sell clothes to people because I make great clothes, great fits. I do better than everyone else's clothes that are out there.

52:30George Heaton: And I truly believe that and I love being in that process. Now, whether that would be doing canvases or whether it would be technology or something to do with that that's artistically, I think I could succeed in it. However, if it wasn't art, I wouldn't be interested. I'm not interested in other things.

52:48Jake Dearden: Apart from fitness.

52:50George Heaton: Yeah. Fitness is an art, right? You sculpt your body.

52:54Jake Dearden: You create a better image of yourself,

52:57George Heaton: especially at the start. Everyone goes into fitness wanting to look better, right?

53:00Jake Dearden: Yeah.

53:01George Heaton: And aesthetics is something I love. The way a T-shirt fits over a shoulder when it's a pretty lean shoulder looks so much better than when it's just a fucking saggy shoulder. And I love that. So that was always part of it.

53:15Jake Dearden: Yeah, that's cool. That's cool.

53:17George Heaton: Okay. So actually, if it wasn't representing 247, it would still be something within art. Yeah. Whatever that may be, I don't know.

53:28Jake Dearden: Yeah. And so would it be clothing or would it be something like completely different?

53:35George Heaton: Maybe something different. Yeah, maybe something different.

53:37Jake Dearden: And just to see that as like a future...

53:39George Heaton: I see Mike molding that now. You know, with his canvases and the things that he's doing outside of clothes. I love that he's getting this painted. bro he's always been such a good artist and now he's able to put it into things that aren't just fashion i think he's going to create this whole lifestyle of himself where he can do homeware and he can do canvases and you know it's like that's the natural progression of any artist yeah yeah

54:01Jake Dearden: it's sick it's good to see that he's like he's got a passion other than designing clothes and mine

54:07George Heaton: like opposite to that i'm not someone who goes and sits and paints all day what what do you do

54:12Jake Dearden: in your spare time when you're not? Because obviously you could just say that you work all the time. I understand you do work all the time, but when you're trying to actively do something that isn't work or isn't fitness, what is your downtime looking like? Or do you not have any?

54:30George Heaton: It's hard because when you're not physically doing it, you're thinking about it, aren't you? And I like to spend a lot of time thinking.

54:37Jake Dearden: Yeah.

54:37George Heaton: And one thing that I want to do more this year is think more because I used to think a lot when I was in here in the HQ and not in LA, before I moved over there, I would have all weekends to just think because I had nothing else to do. Whereas in LA, there's a lot more going on. There's a lot more people around me. We can be working all day, every day. So it's less time to think. However, I do like other things. I like exploring, dude. I like seeing things. I like views and stuff like that. Just all the basic stuff. I'd love to get another hobby. Now, I don't know what that's going to be, but I want to do something.

55:11George Heaton: And it's probably going to be fitness involved, right?

55:14Jake Dearden: You reckon?

55:14George Heaton: Yeah. Like I want to surf.

55:17Jake Dearden: Surf?

55:17George Heaton: Yeah, I think surfing would be great. I enjoy being in the sea. I'm a good swimmer. I'd love to start surfing.

55:22Jake Dearden: Where's the best place to surf near you?

55:24George Heaton: Malibu. Malibu. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. A lot of people surf right there.

55:29Jake Dearden: There we go. Just don't get eaten by a shark. That's the thing, isn't it? It'd be my luck. One leg gone. I love that. I've got some quick fire questions that I want to go over.

55:41George Heaton: All right.

55:42Jake Dearden: Yeah? So if you could choose one for the rest of your life, and you could only do one, would it be running or lifting?

55:52George Heaton: Whoa, that's not quick fireball. Lifting. Yeah.

56:00Jake Dearden: Yeah.

56:00George Heaton: For sure. Got to keep the pump. It's not even that. It's just like being strong and being like aesthetically pleasing is so much more. and I know the runners will hate me for this, but it's so much more enhancing on your life just because you can move stuff around quicker. And I know it sounds fucking cliche, but if you get into a fight and you're a strong, heavy man, you're going to protect yourself and who's around you way better than if you're a dainty guy with no muscle.

56:30Jake Dearden: Yeah, for sure. Shame. I think I'd pick running. Yeah. But I'm a lover, not a fighter.

56:36George Heaton: Yeah, but you never know. But also, you could probably run for the rest of your life and not lift and still look as good as you do.

56:43Jake Dearden: So would you. Have you tried losing muscle and you couldn't do it?

56:49George Heaton: I'm contradicting my answer. No, I'd still be lifting. I actually don't enjoy running. I enjoy the gains that I see from it when I'm in a block. I enjoy that. But I don't enjoy being in the run. I enjoy lifting.

57:04Jake Dearden: I think you just have a problem where you're addicted to doing hard things.

57:09George Heaton: Yeah.

57:11Jake Dearden: And I've seen you improve. You was shit at running when you first started, and now you've become a decent runner. And that's took a long time, probably longer than anyone else. You're not a natural runner at all, and you've been doing it now, what, three, four years? And you've been nailing it. And this year, you're going to get that sub-three. You are going to get that. Right, moving on. Are there any conspiracy theories you believe to be true?

57:43George Heaton: Yeah. If we want to get deep on aliens, there's a lot of stuff, but I think you'll do that if you interview my brother because he's more into that kind of stuff. But I do believe there is other life forms in and around us on this planet that are very... On this planet? Oh, yeah, 100%. They're just, look, if they're way more advanced than us, they can hide way better than us. And we already know how to hide. What, like hide and seek? Pretty much, yeah. But like the videos of the TikTok and going into the sea without causing anything to do with like gravity, like what else can they do? They can probably go invisible.

58:21Jake Dearden: Okay, so I've got a question on this. So do you feel like America is like a special place for aliens because that's where all the sightings are or is it just Americans are really over the top?

58:35George Heaton: Over the top, outward facing when things do happen. A lot of conspiracy theorists out there. The Nevada desert is full of fucking strange people that claim to see things all the time. But also, all these sightings seem to occur when there is either warfare or nuclear bases or something cooking up within war, which is always usually in the US. And I think there's some sort of thing going on where these aliens come to either protect us or turn nuclear off or whatever they're doing. They're watching these bases where it could blow the world up, something like that.

59:14Jake Dearden: Interesting.

59:15George Heaton: Yeah, I won't go too far into it.

59:18Jake Dearden: Okay, next one. You can only wear one for the rest of time. 247 on mainline rep. whoa another fucking banger i thought this would be easy it'd be

59:34George Heaton: it'd have to be 247 because i'd still want to train i'm not training in jeans no way i've seen you train in mainline top yeah mainline t-shirts definitely but what about the shoes i can never run again yeah you know you gotta think of it like fully if i go out into the city or I go to a restaurant or whatever, I can still get away with wearing 247. Yeah, true.

59:58Jake Dearden: I was just thinking like in the gym, like benching, like you could.

1:00:01George Heaton: Yeah, of course.

1:00:03Jake Dearden: Wear an Oasis tee or like a collab tee, one of the band tees.

1:00:07George Heaton: If we never ran again like the first question, then it'd be mainline. Yeah, fair enough.

1:00:14Jake Dearden: Okay, next one. Keeping it fitness related. Most inspiring athlete who's ever lived?

1:00:20George Heaton: Michael Jordan.

1:00:22Jake Dearden: yeah no brainer the last dance is unbelievable yeah one piece of nutrition advice you give someone trying to get in shape I feel like

1:00:35George Heaton: there was a long period of my life where all I did was eat protein and no carbs and suffered from it and didn't hit my performance goals because of that

1:00:44Jake Dearden: wait when did this change you you have a secret

1:00:50George Heaton: youtube channel called protein hunters yeah probably in the past uh year more so than ever i've just learned to lean on carbs more especially more endurance especially running yeah it's needed

1:01:02Jake Dearden: anything high intensity you need carbohydrates in my opinion yeah um yeah that's a good one that's a good one so would you would that just be around training is that when you have carbohydrates or like is it before training or after training or is it like late at night or

1:01:17George Heaton: Before and after. And that also means late at night, if you're training super early in the morning, I'd rather get a big carb meal in late at night and then get into the gym early.

1:01:26Jake Dearden: Rather than eating shitloads before then training. Saves time, doesn't it? You don't have to let it digest.

1:01:32George Heaton: Yeah, and you can enjoy it because you're kind of relaxed, ready to go to bed, whatever. Bowl of cereal. That's like a treat for me. What's your favourite cereal? Mike's got this protein granola stuff from M &S.

1:01:42Jake Dearden: M &S cereal. Insane. I need to try this. I've not tried it.

1:01:46George Heaton: It's probably got no protein in it, but it just says it. That's what most brands do.

1:01:49Jake Dearden: Oh, so it's protein cereal.

1:01:51George Heaton: It says it is, but like what? They've put a few nuts in it. Yeah. That's it.

1:01:57Jake Dearden: You can claim protein now with anything. Yeah, true. True. So that was nutrition. One piece of training advice you give to someone trying to get fit.

1:02:10George Heaton: What kind of fit are they trying to do? What is the...

1:02:13Jake Dearden: Just trying to improve fitness. So general fitness, trying to get stronger, trying to improve their endurance.

1:02:21George Heaton: I actually think making sure you're running multiple times a week, just because you're going to build that base of running whilst you're doing other things. It doesn't have to be running far where it's taking away from your strength and your lower body workouts, but as long as you're running during the years of your fitness journey, you're going to start building that base, and it's never not going to come in handy, right? Better VO2 max, you're going to be healthier, you're going to be fitter. I find that

1:02:45Jake Dearden: that's a good point and I find that really interesting as well because I don't know about you but it speeds up when you're fitter it speeds up your recovery time when you're strength training in between sets so say if you're doing 5x5 bench press if you're getting out of breath doing them like benching which I hope you wouldn't but if you was getting out of breath then getting fitter is going to improve that recovery time right

1:03:12George Heaton: and longevity as well longevity in your life and then you're actually going to get better at running there's no downside to that

1:03:20Jake Dearden: yeah true true next one if you could see anyone in 2026 wearing represent who would it be? anyone on the planet?

1:03:31George Heaton: Hunter McIntyre back on 247

1:03:34Jake Dearden: there we go so we're going to an athlete

1:03:36George Heaton: yeah that's our what do you call it? like a I don't know it's just something the aura that that guy brings is just fucking beautiful and i love him and he's my favorite athlete to watch and i also feel like hyrox wouldn't be hyrox without hunter yeah there is i've spent so much time with him

1:03:54Jake Dearden: there is nobody like him yeah i've ever come across i call him my spirit animal or my dad

1:03:59George Heaton: your dad yeah like when i see you and him together i'll be like what would wayne say about that he'd be fine with it it's hunter now on another serious note i would love joe rogan to wear a represent hoodie on his show i'm sure we can make that happen yeah that'd be sick yeah would you ever go on joe rogan

1:04:20Jake Dearden: absolutely yeah yeah yeah what would you talk about i'd either have to spend the next 10 years

1:04:26George Heaton: becoming an alien conspiracy figure out a guy in a guy i think you could do that i think that could be like your little side project you know when you need to take up a hobby taking up a hobby you and Mike. No, my problem is when I want to do a hobby it's got to benefit me and usually that's fitness.

1:04:43Jake Dearden: Do you feel like you have a bit of a problem with having to constantly progress in something?

1:04:51George Heaton: Yeah.

1:04:52Jake Dearden: When you're, like you can't just live life without progressing if that makes sense.

1:04:55George Heaton: Yeah, but that's how men are wired. That's what you're meant to do. That's why society gets better and people get smarter and we can build more better things and technology progresses, all that stuff, is because men constantly want to, and women obviously want to get better and better. Yeah, interesting. You're saying that's interesting. Look at you. Look at your progress in the past four years.

1:05:22Jake Dearden: I think it can negatively affect you, though. I think reading too much self-development stuff and listening to too much self-development podcasts and everything else can make you feel guilty for just having a good time and spending time with loved ones.

1:05:38George Heaton: And I've definitely been in that period of my life for quite a few years.

1:05:42Jake Dearden: Do you suffer with that now or have you decided to, not decided, but learnt to enjoy life? Yeah.

1:05:48George Heaton: And that was one of the reasons why I actually moved out to LA because I was stuck in this cycle of reading, listening, learning, coming in these four walls every single day of my life for 10 years to the point where I was like okay that's done now I can move on from that period and go and do something else and maybe it'll negatively affect something within that but as my life is going to get much better and I'm going to be able to do more things and meet more people and enjoy life more and still be able to work just as hard on the right things but not be enclosed in where if a car hit me tomorrow what have I done with my life other than build a brand No one knows anything else about me.

1:06:28George Heaton: I don't know anything else about me. So I wanted to do that to get outside of that. And I see a lot of people falling in that trap now.

1:06:35Jake Dearden: It is hard being in the UK. Again, it's great because there's no distractions, but then that can negatively impact you as well. It serves its purpose for the time that it needs to,

1:06:48George Heaton: and then you've got to break out of it. That's how I see it.

1:06:51Jake Dearden: And finishing up, have you got any other goals for 2026? Is there anything else on your bucket list? It might not be a goal. It might be just a place you want to see, thing you want to do.

1:07:05George Heaton: Everything that's not business related is just more about exploring and doing more things and enjoying my time more. I feel like I always live in the future. And even with the goals, like you're thinking about things in the future all the time. Sometimes I just need to be fucking present and enjoy what I'm doing.

1:07:22Jake Dearden: If there was a definition of the future, you'd be it. You do know that. Me and Mike were having this discussion the other day. We're like, you can't just fucking enjoy living in the moment. You've always got to be somewhere else.

1:07:35George Heaton: Right, yeah. But look, the reason why I've done this with you today is so I can enjoy a chat with you for fucking two hours on a Sunday.

1:07:42Jake Dearden: Yeah. Oh, thank you. I do appreciate it.

1:07:43George Heaton: It's not about the future. It's about enjoying that time and learning stuff from other people. And thinking, yeah, look at that. We've thought about things that had completely gone out of my mind. yeah

1:07:52Jake Dearden: that's sick sick so okay place you want to travel in 2026 that you've not seen before

1:07:59George Heaton: that I've not seen before I've been to a lot of places you know I'd like to do South America somewhere in South America I'd still like us to do another offbeat speed project type of thing that's what I was going to say somewhere in South America

1:08:12Jake Dearden: even though it broke you last time yeah

1:08:14George Heaton: but we did say Brazil I think yeah we did I'm not a professional athlete so it doesn't matter if it breaks me that's the mindset I'm in

1:08:21Jake Dearden: okay I like your your shift but we need that sub three first so sub three first and then we can start to enjoy start to enjoy ourselves yeah yeah so what marathon you running are you going to do the LA one again

1:08:34George Heaton: going to do LA and then if we don't get it it'll be Manchester

1:08:39Jake Dearden: Manchester yeah you've never actually ran Manchester have you it's a good course yeah

1:08:44George Heaton: and everyone from work is running it so I should really just focus on

1:08:47Jake Dearden: well I think a couple of people want to race you to be fair want to race me yeah I want to race you I told you about the they said if they win they want their salary tripled for one year and if you win you're going to sack them

1:09:03George Heaton: what if I don't want to sack them and who is it

1:09:09Jake Dearden: say the names Jack Rundle definitely don't want to sack 247 athlete manager yeah

1:09:17George Heaton: let's just do some testing before it just to make sure everyone's all on the same playing field. You're worried, aren't you? He looks fucking great. He looks sick.

1:09:28Jake Dearden: Yeah. He looks unbelievable. He's been training hard. But it's cool. Like I said, you've created that, which is cool. And yeah, let's wrap it up.

1:09:37George Heaton: Thank you, George. Yeah, I appreciate you having me on. It's been a good chat. And it's a little bit different, isn't it? It's not just business and figures and where we're going related.

1:09:45Jake Dearden: And hopefully we can do more and just chat.

1:09:47George Heaton: Shit.

1:09:48Jake Dearden: Get Mike on. Get Spinny on.

1:09:50George Heaton: Yeah. Petition to get Mike on. That's going to go. We're going to put a little GoFundMe in the thing to get Mike on. Down below. No, thank you. Appreciate it, bro. Nice one.