Hercules Nicolaou - #38

0:00Hercules. What's up? Welcome to the pod. How are we doing? I am very well man. Good how are you? Yeah how was your trip in this morning? It was typical London. It was typical London. It should be a 20 minute Uber somehow it's an hour 40 but it was all good. I could have just got the train so that's on me. For the people that may not know who you are. Yeah. Just be able to sum yourself up in a couple of words. Sure I'll give it a go. My name is yeah Hercules Nicolaou. I dabble in ultra running business entrepreneur and I guess I'd have to call myself a bit of a content creator as well yeah no and like I say you've done some incredible challenges we've known each other for quite a while yeah obviously uh we're both uh 247 athletes yes um and we've done some crazy shit over the last couple of years I'd say we have yeah but I want to first of all touch on the most recent thing that you've done which was greece yes you conquered it i did i did would you be able to tell us like just a little bit sure the reason why you you came up with the challenge yeah of course so what basically i ran for context it was 1200 kilometers from the top of greece to the bottom in uh 14 days so it's about 85 kilometers a day it's about 12 000 meters elevation um someone had had that record before so i wanted to break it but i guess the reason i wanted to do that is i mean we could go super deep with it but obviously a few years ago i ran across cyprus obviously i am greek cypriot after i did cyprus i always wanted to like run across greece and have that record being it's my heritage where my name's from and my family it just made sense if I was going to take on something anywhere it would be there and I've always just been yeah I guess like fascinated by the history and the land there and the different architect and landscape and it got to the point where I was like I think I'm ready I think I'm ready to do it the time is right and yeah we went and done it so you had months and months of training yeah this like i remember like just talking to you about it and like you say you how did you even like prepare for it yeah it was it was hard because it is like how do you prepare for something like that because it's such a one-off like if you're doing a marathon or half marathon or high rocks it's pretty structured right there's like there's coaches there's apps there's a lot of framing around that whereas for this it's like how do you train for it So it was interesting.

2:41The way I kind of approached it was I did work with coaches. I had advice, but ultimately it was like a mileage game. So I was running between 160 to like 200 kilometers, sometimes like 210 kilometers a week. um a lot of heel training a lot of easy running to be honest loads of easy running um and trying to keep on top of strength and conditioning which I actually didn't keep on top of very well and I did pay the price when I was on the run but yeah it was just mileage loads of mileage loads of like I was trying to take sleep a lot more serious as well and then just dialing in in life in general like sacrificing a few months on like nutrition going out i mean when you're like i think i was probably doing like 22 hours a week of running so like there's not much time to do anything else if you're like working as well yeah and uh you're you're working a full-time job yeah as well uh and many other things like you said um you've got so many things going on in your life like it's crazy to think that you you was able to fit in 22 hours of training per week yeah with uh with the training was there like one day a week where you did try and go out and run far because obviously like you said you you were averaging what 80 kilometers a day yeah 85 just over two marathons yeah just over two marathons a day so you've kind of got to build up that resilience uh and get your body used to that was there kind of like a long run day or was it literally just focusing on volume for the week yeah so a bit of both most days most days was like 25 to 30 kilometers i might have been able to crank that out in one sitting some days it was literally like four runs and then saturday usually would be my like all right i'm gonna go out and do 40 50k weirdly this was the first time i trained for an ultra where when i did like cyprus or any other like long run i've done or like um ultra races i've always done a bit of a sim or done like a gone out and done 80k or like a few days i didn't do any of that i literally was just focusing on vol as a whole but yeah saturdays would usually be between 40 and 50 and how many hours was that how much did that take you on a saturday it'd be like five and a half yeah so i'd start at like quarter to four four in the morning yeah yeah people started coming it was so funny because my strava runs started even though they were like the morning you know when you before you put a caption it would just say night run because it'd be like so early in the morning um people were like why is this guy running these hours all the time but that was just like the only time I could do it yeah um and would you be able to explain a little bit more into why you've kind of got to get it done early yeah sure so um full-time my role is head of brand and partnerships at cadence so you know we're in a growth phase as a business taking on us uk big retail launches australia and i mean like in a startup phase it's super demanding i've been in these roles before so like your attention has to be on it and it's not as structured as say walking into your typical nine five it it requires and it demands a lot so for me it's I would never let my training or my content or anything else that I do like interfere with that so I made sure my goals were like in my hours um I mean obviously like cadence being in sport and being in running does have his perks because it'd be like okay work this Saturday is going to lead a run so no I'm getting miles in there but for the most part like Monday to friday that's the priority and that's like some days calls are as early as seven and as late as nine in the same day so i just have to work around that like i'll never let yeah my running interfere with that yeah it's uh i think let's say hats off to you for doing that and it's incredible that like you've got that role at cadence and like what you're doing there is incredible because like the the brand is just going up and up and up yeah it's exciting man it's exciting time it's nice to like see something in its first v1 with that one can to now like gels card mixes full range like pro athletes all this like walking in target walmart holland barrett seeing it's like yeah it's pretty it's pretty crazy man let's take it right back to kind of like the start where did this fitness journey actually start for you yeah so like growing up I wasn't into sport at all I was like the kid that like forgot his PE kit and um what was you into what were your hobbies when you was a kid honestly like gaming i was into music from like 14 maybe like 15 i really got into skateboarding so there was an element of fitness there about me realizing but actually the skateboarding industry is more i might get butchered for saying this but like it's more sometimes detrimental to your health i'm honest than it is beneficial because the industry is very like the culture is very tainted around like honestly like drinking smoking drugs it's rock and roll a lot of it yeah so like I was really into that for a long time but yeah fitness wise I was never like into fitness and then I like even to the point where I was so embarrassed by like my birth name because I was so like not didn't feel like an embodiment of my name that I like changed my name throughout out of whole school it's like very shy like I used to get very picked on when I was a kid for like my name so I like went by and the name Lee which was my uncle's name at the time so you got called Lee yeah bro so like when I was in school year seven to eleven I but like legally my name was Hercules I if there was like a um like a substitute teacher or something I would like panic run to the class to get there first and be like don't call me that name on the register because I was like so embarrassed I was always like chubby and quite big in school and then probably probably like early to mid-20s was when I realized that like I was just making so many bad decisions in my life I had such a why me attitude like why is my life how it is I didn't take any responsibility for like stuff that happened to me when I was younger so at that point I was I'd actually lived on my friend's sofa bed in his mum's conservatory for nearly a year and a half I like had no money I was in so much debt I was like 25 probably about 25 kilos heavier than I am now and I was like surely now the pain of like making a change in my life has to be less painful than just like living like this like if I don't crack it now I'm not gonna crack it um so then I was like okay what do people do to lose weight they like go gym and run for me like running was like a I'm gonna lose weight and I was dealing with like a lot of mental health issues then to be honest because I was out every weekend like partying drinking doing a lot of like silly things and then I remember going for a run and it being so difficult but I remember in my head thinking oh I didn't think about any of the other drama in my life I wasn't like worrying about this and that and like being anxious in my head I was just thinking about the run and then I kind of like got quite attached to it in that way and then quickly got quite obsessed with running and for like a good few years this was like didn't even know what Strava was no watches no nothing like just go out and go out and run no idea what pace I was running at it wouldn't have been quick at all and like i i just really loved it but i had quite an obsessive addictive personality so i very quickly was like what's the furthest people have run and like what's an ultra marathon and i remember before i'd even ran a marathon i just went to a track and was like i'm just gonna do 50k on it today and like just ran 50k on track that was like my first long distance thing on a 400 meter track yeah yeah like wasn't a social media thing like just did it absolutely like ripped my whole body off and it just snowballed from there i just got really obsessed with like distance and just seeing how far i could push myself um and then obviously when you start taking it more seriously stop drinking stop smoking started eating cleaner start strength training with intention not just going into the gym and like doing a bro pump ego lift and I think when you like really find that you love something all them things that used to feel like a chore don't feel like a chore anymore they're just part of the journey and like you enjoy the process like I don't think I have to go gym now or I have to eat certain macros I'm like oh incredible I know the exact blueprint to reach my goal like yep perfect let's do it so here we are now that's class uh how crazy is it that you felt embarrassed about your name when you was growing up i know do you know what isn't it weird how when you're a kid or when you're younger the very thing that makes you unique you don't want to have because you want to be the same as everyone else and then when you get older you don't want to be the same as everyone else yeah and like everyone now but i wish i was called hercules like every person like yeah who either it comes across yourself and i'm like in conversation and we talk about you or whatever like they're like oh like he is hercules like he's good looking he's jacked uh he like they they kind of love it no no no but seriously like yeah everyone you know what i still struggle now though yeah i still have it now and again like i remember i was in starbucks in new york last week and they asked me my name and i don't know why i just went uh lee and i didn't say like because sometimes people are like what is that your name and I'm like then I have to go yeah I'm named after my granddad we say so in Greek we say Ieglis or Heraklis but British and I am half British but like usually struggle to like do foreign names so I'm like what it means Heraklis in English and then I'm just like just call me Herak it's easier so even like shortening it sometimes subconsciously I've been like oh it's easier for people to understand but it is weird like kids are horrible in school like it's yeah do you think it's like a uk thing i don't know what do you think it's everywhere it's just kids are roofless i think it's just kids they don't really think about it and they don't really like i used to get so picked on for my name and then i think i was i was either seven or eight i like weirdly had a hemorrhage when i was a kid and then i like went out of school for a while because i was ill super bizarre and then i like moved school when i like got healthy again i said to my mom like i don't want to go back to that school and i'm not called hercules anymore like i made that conscious decision when i was like nine because kids had like made you make me feel so much that like i don't even want to like identify as myself that's that's so sad yeah i know you've got to do that like yeah and then it got to the point where i was like all right i'm over 100 kilos i'm out of shape i'm this i'm that i don't even have my own home how the hell can i walk around being like oh i'm hercules nice to meet you yeah it took me a long time to like changing my life made me like kind of reclaim i guess like who i am in a weird way i do think it's the coolest name on the planet though thanks mate yeah that's pretty sick and even herk right yeah yeah i like the nickname yeah yeah it's sick it's sick so um where did for you like you say you you was out of shape but then you found running and you kind of got obsessed with general going further faster everything that comes along with running training in the gym where did the kind of business side an entrepreneurial side of you flourish so my mom was always a bit of a hustler like she was always doing like five six jobs honestly like i remember when we were growing up we'd have like kids in the house that she was looking after as like a childminder she had a little calf as well she'd like cut people's hair she was very like doing what she needed to do to like make ends me and that hustle i think was just a bit installed in me so at school i was the kid that sold tweets like i was like you know the rainbow you know the pencils that have like the white um yeah yeah like ballast sticks yeah so I'd be like 20 ph or six for a pound that was like me in school and um also I was just like not very good at being told what to do like bluntly like I just didn't I liked the creative freedom of thinking for things for myself so I finished school with like academically very well and then I started a levels and after three months I left started college left enrolled to uni left like just quit everything because I was like just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do so I went into work like very early 17 18 worked so many different jobs like mostly in hospitality retail so I learned a lot of people skills and then eventually I went into a marketing role for like a finance company and I remember just thinking I know how to market stuff now I've got good at talking to people I want to do something for myself I don't like personally being told when I'm having lunch or what I'm doing or like it was just how I was like I'm not saying that's the right answer for everyone but for me I knew like I want to do something for myself so I'd come up with I'd always thought why doesn't anyone just go to any shop or any restaurant and just pick up what you want and bring to your house and just like charge a delivery fee because this was before uber eats deliveroo never even heard of them i'd like started a similar concept the same year as them out in essex well at east london essex herfordshire and i remember the first day i like went on facebook and was like i'm doing this thing if you want anything delivered let me know and i'll £25 and I was like, mate, I'm well in.

17:49An extra£25 a night, great. And then very quickly, I was just like flooded with people like, this is an unbelievable idea. This is a proper business concept. Like you need to take it seriously. I had no prior experience at all of like what to do, how to do it, how to register a company. I mean, I was like 22. So no, I was a bit older actually. I think I was like 23 and I was like you know what I'm gonna give this a proper go and found a developer gave him equity in the business he's now the CEO actually because the company's still running and we just like launched at a very right time and I was thinking about this the other day actually I started that business with zero knowledge of how to execute anything no idea about trademarks logos that cash flow forecast business plans ebitda like knew none of it but i learned everything i needed to just by like being in the arena and just being willing to like fail and make mistakes and learn and make quick decisions so many people used to say because i had i uh another creator owen barrett he was my co-founder so we owned the business together he come in like within the first week we used to go out before we had the app we had a mobile phone and people used to text that phone with their order so they'd be like i want this from nando's we'd call up pay for it over the phone go and pick it up go to the house and then they would pay for it at the door so we would go out i'd start at six in the morning go till 8 p.m let's say one day and then i'd go to his house drop the phone off and then he did the night shift and we would just continuously do that we did it for about two years straight just on every day no way yeah bro seven days a week seven days a week 24 hours we were open so i'd have my phone set to if an alarm went off it would continuously ring until i got up so i would like go sleep at three o 'clock maybe get a text at 3 30 uh we want like these drinks delivered and whatnot from the garage wake up go and get it deliver it and then eventually we got the app and then we were like oh you know we're getting busy we might need to like hire a driver now and stuff like that and by the time I'd left I think we had like over 600 drivers like it was like insane but yeah I picked up everything during that business unfortunately it like didn't really go I mean it was my first ever business and it ended up scaling very well like the time I'd left it turned over like 26 million it was like successful but I don't know what fairy tale end and I had in mind but it just wasn't I think eventually when you realize you can do something for yourself you start pondering on like all right I want to do something I care about now because in that time in my business the more I got into running the fitter I got and the more I cared about myself that just over spilt into like my career me as a leader me as a manager me just like as an entrepreneur so then I got to the point where I was like I need to do something that I care about now because I'm not passionate about delivering people food essentially and we tried to like exit the business to one of the big competitors delivery briefs got really close and it ended up falling through so I ended up exiting personally to we had like a mini acquisition with Addison Lee the taxi company and then I like sold my shares out for you know I had this dream I'm gonna sell a company for 100 mil didn't quite happen like it done very well for me but that was kind of where i picked up everything from an entrepreneur point of view and now the way i probably treat my content instagram running everything has like stemmed from that nine years in business and the way i like developed as a as a person what were the things that you learned most about that whole kind of like journey oh man that like the best skill you can have is just being the one that don't quit like you literally don't need to be you know I hired a lot of people while I was at that company and I tell you now like I didn't really care about what was on their CV and what uni they went to or anything someone sat in front of me and impressed me and could talk and was persistent and showed that they cared and was like willing to learn that was like you know that's what we were always after and I think that's what we were very good at I mean we had so many times where we should have just quit that business like we got hit with a massive that bill that we couldn't afford I like borrowed my sister's I borrowed my sister's house deposit from her and her fiance I don't even think he knew at the time she lent me it and I was like I promise you that I'll get it back no idea how I was going to get it back put myself in so many situations where I was like we need to figure it out luckily like two weeks later we closed like a angel investment round and then we had another case where we were delivering Nando's a lot that was our biggest um like customer for a long time and then we got a season to season from them like take us off your app take us off everything we don't want to like be associated so then we were like we're going to lose 80 % of our business ended up like going to their head office with a book of receipts of how much money we'd made them convinced them to let us stay on delivering Uber Eats like try to take all our customers many times was like bidding online against all our ads like so so many times we should have just stopped and I think the reason that we'd done well and we succeeded is because we literally just decided every day to wake up anyway and go into the office and figure it out and i know that sounds like a really simple lesson but it is just like if you just keep hammering it it will happen i love that i love how who was the the person out of the business like there's you there's owen yeah like who was the person that was more like optimistic and was like we'll figure it out me i was the dreamer owen was like i would pull him up and he would pull me down and that's why worked well so he was like the realist yeah he was kind of like this dreamer i was like nah let's spend 20 grand on this and he'd be like absolutely not it's so funny but like we balanced each other out very well i was always like it's gonna be all right and he was a bit more like oh we need to like worry about this which was good because there's times where like key partners might have come off and he handled it and there was times where i probably pushed us to like jump off the ledge a little bit and take a leap so we work very well from that aspect I think you kind of need that balance in a business like yeah I mean doing it alone would have been a different story I don't think it would have got anywhere near where it got to I would have either quit sold it for a very low amount of money or just like burnt out without having someone else for sure yeah no that's cool i always think uh i was having a conversation with someone recently about this starting a business on your own is kind of like one of the worst things that you can do yeah and this someone was explaining this to me it was like if you started on your own you deal with all the stress yeah and when you do win you have no one to celebrate it with yeah whereas if you start it with say a co-founder or if there's a couple of you starting it like two three of you then you can share that stress load but then you can also celebrate the wins and you can actually have someone to be buzzing with and happy with bro there was times where like our first office because we were in quite a small town people knew who me and owen was from that town and there was times where like our office got broken into like four four times in a month everything just stolen owen i'm sure he won't mind me mentioning but like he got rubbed at gunpoint on a delivery once with a shotgun when I was in the car waiting for him we were like so and then that was another thing our name had to change and the guy was like holding us ransom for like the domain name for like tens of thousands of pounds and I remember there was times when me and him were just sitting under the desk in the office just like mate I reckon call it a day but then there was also times where you know we like finally got our investment round and things like that and you have someone to share it with it's nice like so you are right like taking it all on as well is it's a lot it's good to share them emotions the good and the bad ones because it's like half the load so after that like you say you've been in that for nine years it's kind of you've had these highs you've had these lows yeah you you exit the business yeah not with like the fairy tale ending that you wanted really yeah what makes you then want to join something else yes rather than like build something yourself again yeah i still do like one day and i i still will maybe i don't know i think like so i obviously like knew ross briefly and george um because i'd met them at like a london fashion week run for 247 and we chatted and we like you know follow each other on instagram and all that stuff and then i was in australia at the same time as ross and I like bumped into him and we were chatting because Ross had a very successful business before Cadence as well similar situation.

27:20Barying foods? Yeah where he like wanted to exit move on to other things and I kind of just told him here's where I'm at I don't know what to do you know I've got like 10 ,000 followers online I think I can like grow that and kind of push it and whatnot and like just having someone else who'd kind of been through it that I could like talk to and take a bit of guidance and inspiration from i went back from that trip in australia and then i just made decisions i like stopped being anxious about what to do oh i know it's uncomfortable i really like the phrase like good is the enemy or great my role at go getters was good like i was a ceo basically not in an arrogant way like didn't really need to work i could just keep getting my pay wasn't like life-changing but you know i could have just stayed there and been comfortable but great would have been quitting starting into my passions you know and all that stuff so I went home I just made the decisions they were uncomfortable for everyone in the business come to a shock and I just like went all in on posting content documenting stuff really like taking it more seriously and it just worked and I was like okay this is like you know the next step for me now and that was around the time that I did it was just before it's about six months before I did that run across Cyprus where that like really changed a lot of things for me in terms of like recognition exposure online and cadence and 247 were like very early in supporting that and i was kind of saying to ross like and george like you guys should like uh talk to these people in london or like you should be in this store because i was very connected in running at that point just from like run club and stuff have you spoke to them blah blah blah but obviously them guys are out in the us they're building it there there's like no one really here kind of doing that and eventually ross was like why don't you help out with like uk community stuff so i was kind of like hell i was in a bit of a limbo phase at that point where like i didn't have anything on i was pretty comfortable from like exiting and i was like had a few ideas of stuff that i might start and then i just quickly realized like this product or like this company this ethos these people that i'm like operating with now i'm like this is the next level.

29:48Like this is serious stuff. And I just knew from day one, like this is going to blow. Like this is going to pump. And I remember being like excited again about my work for the first time in a long time. So it just kind of developed to me and Ross just being like, let's like really go all in on this. And, you know, he gave me the opportunity. I'd like to say I've, I've delivered so far. And from there, it's like, you know, gone from being someone that like just put the sachets in my content running across cyprus to like you know creating like these global brand moments with like nike 247 adidas on like you know we're working with all the big people now and i'm looking after that side and it's like for me it's like the dream i'm operating in a space that i genuinely love and yet i could have just started my own thing but now I see like collaborating with people who a have got like incredible track records b you can learn from like I think you only know what you don't know and for me I only knew what I knew in my experience but now like working with other people that have scaled businesses to like different levels and the way they work and the way they operate I'm like I want to be in that I want to be a small fish I want to learn for more people so you know there's so going to be so much more in my career in the future as well i think an opportunity to like learn and evolve and grow as someone in entrepreneurship is like something that you shouldn't like pass upon so honestly it was like a no-brainer to get involved to the extent i am yeah and it's so good to see my question is what taught you to work hard because you don't fucking stop like you could just work like a 30 hour week at the moment yeah you could just be kind of like treat working at cadence like a nine-to-five job i know obviously you've got some not other incentives and stuff like that but what teaches you to kind of like work hard i think a lot of it you know what like to be brutally honest i think some of it stems from fear from like a lot of people say are you always motivated i'm like and this isn't a good thing by the way i'm trying to like actively change it but like i'm not i say to people i'm not always like motivated to be my best a lot of time i'm like terrified to be my worst again because like i've been there i've been at the point where it's like i have four pound in my account for two weeks and no money coming in or like i can't even afford to rent my own place and you know i've been there and just like seeing mistakes happen around me from you know family or however you want to package it up of like the wrong and right way to do stuff um so for me I don't have this big like fairy tale fallback of all right so I'm gonna be all good anyway because I'm like born into whatever like that's not really my situation and I guess I kind of self-proclaimed took it on myself to be like I am gonna want this I'm gonna be the one that like changes my family like generationally like as soon as I like made that decision in my head like no one's doing this for me stop having a chip on your shoulder of like why me because I always was like I feel like I have a lot to offer and I feel like I'm intelligent why am I not the one that's got a x million pound business because I'm too busy like just moaning or groping around in my life of like oh you know so i think at one point it just switched like if you're gonna do this you have to be all in to anything same with like you training for like do you know i mean elite 15 you don't do that 70 you do it 100 and now when i made that switch you know i have you know i have i have a wife and i have people that rely on me and i like that i want to it's like bigger than me it's not an ego thing it's not like i want to earn loads of money it's like i want to provide and help the people around me in my life and that makes it like i don't have to think about it i just do it oh that's what's required to take this business to where it needs to go cool no problem like i guess it's just work ethic by being shown the wrong way to do stuff early in my life yeah it's it's so nice to kind of see that in you as well i i've experienced that and you actually give me a bit of advice on this i remember when um we was having the the conversation about um with your missus about um do you know you want to provide for for her you want to um not have pressure not put any pressure on her for like money or anything like that yeah like you almost want to be the breadwinner yeah um and you said that your relationship is like incredible because you feel like you're a team yeah rather than like constantly competing against each other yeah yeah man and i mean like that's not for everyone and like she is like she's so competent like she can go and walk into any role she's like been working in brand for like seriously big companies and she'll do something again anyway but um you know she's helped me so much and been with me through a lot of that journey of like self-discovery which was very up and down she's been with me at like the low points as well so for me i feel indebted to people that supported me during them times and not just like when things are good yeah just just shows how good of a person you are and uh i want to bring it to when we did that the speed project because ptsd mate i feel like this was like the one of the first times i really got to know who you was yeah and i think you you begin to know what people are actually like under pressure and under fatigue and when things don't go right and everything like that and uh the speed project was one of them times yeah when we did it i think um yeah it didn't really go to plan uh we had quite a few fuck-ups mainly my fuck-ups as well i'll admit because i was tasked with planning and i'm not a planner it's a lot in it yeah and you don't really realize like going back like you'd spend months trying to plan plan this race and like make sure everything's right i was like ah even the week before didn't have a fucking clue what we're doing yeah just signed up to this race we'd not got an rv we'd not got anything planned um but uh it was it was great because i got to see kind of like the real you and when times don't go right like who's going to stand up and who's going to be be there and there were people who didn't do that and that they i don't know when times are tough you either shy away yeah or you kind of like walk straight into the problem and solve it and you was definitely the second and i don't know i think you probably ran one of the most uh out of everyone you were you was there when people didn't want to run you was up and you was ready and you was kind of like well we're in the situation anyway we're just going to fucking crack on yeah and you've got to do it like yeah whether you like it or not i think that's a skill set though the reason i feel like i'm like that is because that's a skill set that anyone can adapt and have and it's so valuable like some people are more naturally gifted physically mentally or they're like born into certain um like benefits and privileges but like anyone can just be the simplest thing you can do is just like taking action and just doing it and I feel like that's what I've always been good at recently and that's why I've like I guess earned my stripes to work with brands like we work with like 247 and stuff like that because I feel like my superpower is pushing through like regardless and that's like all up here it doesn't really require so much of a like physical like you can always just be ready to get up and go and push yourself to just get a little bit more out of you so but mate you were the same I actually remember thinking that more in Iceland of when you like mate you would just be like I'm gonna run 10k now everyone go and brush their teeth and have a shower and whatnot I think that highlighted your I think them things highlight people's personality a lot of like you were very selfless in all of them events which I really rated and made me be like you know what jake's more than like this sick because it's so easy for people and i never thought that i'm just saying in general people see like a really physically in shape guy atop of his game and for some reason people just want to be like oh he's probably he's probably arrogant he's probably whatnot but you were like putting everyone's well-being before yours which yeah a lot of respect for thank you mate but and i think you're you're you're definitely the same in that mindset and i think the reason behind it all is because for us them things aren't really a chore yeah so like we we choose to put ourselves in positions whether it's a speed project whether it's running across ice and whether it's running across greece you've kind of you've got to yes it's a tremendous task and you're going to be in the bin at some points but at the end of the day it's a choice for us to do that yeah and you've got to be kind of grateful for all the people around you and supporting you and i guarantee you on the on the greece trip your support crew i bet you were so nice to them and they were thinking the same about you mate they were unreal all right that was the first time i i genuinely was like i'm gonna quit on like day eight i was like yeah i'm done i was like writing up the caption for like saying i've quit and like i think if i didn't have that crew i would have definitely stopped like them things are not really an individual sport like you need proper support and crew around you even when we did tsp like em and holly and mike and jack and everyone like they really bring the morale but i who was it in greece that so i had mo yep i'd mo uh dimitriou So Dimitro is like incredible because he's done things like that.

40:23So they know what you're going through. And then I have my brother who's like my best mate, Lucas. And then obviously like Cave and some guys on content. Oh, my friend Sully as well. So like all people that I'd done stuff like that before when we'd done like TSP in France and all these other things. So like they know me so well that they know where I'm heading mentally and how to get me out of it. but it's weird because I've never really gone there before but unfortunately day three in retrospect I ran the whole first week too quick I was doing 95k days because I was like banking mileage early I was running up hills I was like just should have just been more conservative and then on like day three day four I was like ah I can feel a little thing going on in my Achilles here and then by like day five I was like I'm in pain like I'm seriously in pain because of that pain I also didn't think about how hot it was really going to be and how compact the elevation was into certain days and then we had like random storms or you'd go like 20k there was one day we went like 20k up an actual mountain and it was just the wrong way it's so demotivating when you've gotta come back down and find a new route um so that was the first time where i've done anything like that and it and i was not invincible i've always just been able to crank it out but i was actually injured and i was like i don't know what to do here i wasn't sleeping because of it so it was funny people were like mess dming me like how are you waking up recovered and ready the girl I'm like dude my whoop is on like seven percent it was red the whole time absolutely fried because I've done multiple I've done 85k a day for five days in a row before and been like green every day been really good so it was a shock to me to be in that anyway my Achilles was absolutely fried we had like tied up and I was like I'm not I am not gonna be able to finish this I'm in pain I'm like at one point I remember just being like oh my god I just want to be home and I had 800 kilometers left I was like a third of the way in third of the way in and that was a point where I was like I don't know if I can do this or not and then my brother like messaged loads of people and like that night they sat me down he like showed me a video it was like six minutes of like loads of family and friends all like sending me messages and people were reaching out to me Ross actually booted me out of every work chat so my phone wasn't blowing up like everyone just gave me the space I needed and then it became like all right it's not going to be can I finish or not it's just like how are we going to get this done and I think it's weird like when your mind decides the destination the body just follows it just happens so like eventually the pain kind of recited my whole body was inflamed from like the stress the cortisol the inflammation like literally my face was like double the size everywhere in my body because I was drinking because of the heat as well I was drinking 19 liters of water a day and I was eating 10 ,000 calories a day and then I was going through the pain of my achilles and then it ended up happening in my other achilles because that was taking the load so like by the last few days i was literally like shut you know when you're like shuffling at like seven minute kilometers seven thirty minute kilometers just like any way to get to the end but yeah without the crew like i don't think that would have happened that's insane what did it how did it make you feel when you got that message and let's say six minutes long of people uh mate knowing that you're kind of like in the bin but like they're all there to support you maybe they're not there with you like on the start line but they're all around the world and they're all like looking in and and wanting you to to achieve this it made me realize a few things like people were saying stuff to me like you're a guy that never gives up you're known to be someone that says does what they say they're gonna do and when i heard that i was like yeah like who said that do you remember ross said that actually ross said that and then like you know george had texted me in the middle george like made a big donation to my fundraiser with movember like i'm pretty sure he just doubled the whole fundraise page and i was like you know what all these people were in it with me and like people in my family and stuff were saying like you know we're watching it's incredible what you're doing and it makes you realize like it's bigger than you like a lot of people on instagram are just dming me as well like people i don't know and they were like i'm so inspired by what you're doing and i kind of take that as like a i could have dnf and it would have been fine like no one would have actually really cared that much but i would have now i look back and go wow i'd be full of so much regret if i quit whereas now i'm full of like pride of like i pushed through but watching them videos made me realize that like it wasn't just a moment about me like it was evoking emotions in other people and people feeling inspired so I was like I remember and then I like called my um I called D and I remember just like getting teary and I was like right lock in like just get it done can you mush i would i would say to myself like can you do another kilometer just do another kilometer and then we ended up the days were broken down by checkpoints so it was uh basically between eight and ten miles and then i would sit down for literally five minutes inhale like 1500 calories then go again so it was just like just do checkpoint by checkpoint 12k get it done 16k get it done I stopped thinking about total distance and started breaking it up and it made it a lot easier mentally but so many people were coming and finding me on the run and then bringing me like food that like their family had cooked and stuff like that like every little interaction like whole run clubs will come and join and that made me be like yeah I have like almost the duty to get to the end now that's so sick to hear yeah it was cool it's crazy isn't it what a little bit of motivation can do um power of words man like the power of the way you speak to yourself is insane like because i'd convinced myself it was fine to quit so then i'd already made peace of it and then as soon as i just switched in my head like no you're getting to the end it was like there is no negotiation anymore it's just happening did any of that pain reside when you when you said to yourself right we're getting through this no matter what did any pain kind of like leave your body just stop thinking about it just stop thinking about it and then like we changed my gait we put some like risers in my heels my i went up two shoe sizes because my feet were so swollen so like we were adjusting my equipment a lot using the sticks a little bit more and that stuff helped funnily enough the last 10k was the quickest i ran for the whole thing because i was like it's done i didn't listen to music the whole time so then i put music on for the last 10k and i was like on the side of this mountain on the coast mid like not human in sight just like singing my favorite songs out loud holding the sticks holding two water bottles just running like funny because it was probably like i think it was like five minute 40 kilometers felt like i was doing marathon pace but yeah like your brain just your brain just forgets about the pain eventually which is not good advice like if you're in a if you're not in something like that and i was just out training i would obviously be like yeah don't push through that but it's different in them moments how crazy is it that and we've referred to this a little bit before but you don't think about the small problems in life anymore when you're doing something like that when you're out there and you're in the pain cave and you're running like that's all that matters is getting to that next checkpoint you don't think about anything that you you don't have any anxiety about the future you don't have you're not stressed about anything yeah it's kind of yeah I don't know sometimes you crave it I think oh it made me that run in in particular actually changed my whole perspective on life a lot of like that was the first time I'd been so vulnerable that I just like wanted to sit and chat to my family or my wife or like the little things i take for granted like a hug or a laugh or a chat like all the other problems i stress about in life started to seem so insignificant when you're in that much suffering but like i don't like to frame it as suffering that much because it's something that i chose to do but i was still in an element of pain but like for suffering like yeah it's not like yourself like self yeah people can't feel sorry for you and you can't feel sorry for yourself because i'm choosing to do it but just being in that like physical mental state it made me come back with like a different framing on just how i approach life in general some are grateful especially for the people around you i find whenever going through something difficult like the first thing i think about is um they're people i love yeah and you're kind of just grateful that and i almost have this thing that i i never want them to leave my life yeah i'm yeah so grateful yeah kind of like you get kind of like a bit emotional no bro weird the day after i nearly queer my brother ran the whole day with me bear in mind he's not a runner he wow that's insane so he ran two marathons and he's not a runner bro like he literally is not a runner he ran the he was worse than me his feet were wrecked but he ran the whole day he carried all my stuff I was like hobbled over he was like playing songs like FaceTiming people like he just handled he just handled me and I'm like yeah I'm indebted that was when I was like I still had six days after that but I was like there's no way I'm not doing them six days when people have just give their maximum effort for me for my goal like how selfish that's what I realized on that run these things are so selfish these goals that we have in fitness they're not just about us they require a sacrifice of how we show up in our careers and our relationships and it made me realize how much people do for me to make that happen or how much they don't do for me like accepting that we might not be going to this social event or like we're gonna eat really I'm gonna eat really boring for the next however long or like you know you're gonna hold my water bowls or drive beside me like people do a lot for you to like make something like that happen obviously they're there and people are working and it's not like you know but it made me super appreciative that i have people that care enough to like make help me make it happen yes and how do you repay them people or just feel like indebted to them like say your brother for example are you a girlfriend?

51:57Yeah, it's tough. It is hard. Wife now. Wife also. Yeah, wife now. It's tough. You have to, I think, just be very open and receptive to like when people ask for your help now. It's because Dee isn't going to say, oh, I'm running to Scotland. Can you crew me? But she might just be like, can you do something different around the house? Or like, can you help me with this? Or can you pick me up from here? It's like, yeah, no problem. like just trying every day to show up really and repay it just by being a good person a good partner a good friend brother whatever it is no i think that's good like being a little bit more selfish like because i think as well like the training can make you so much of the opposite of that yeah and so selfish like you say the run itself is like pretty selfish like everyone is there for you yeah but then all the training beforehand as well like when you've got to especially when you're working so long as well like you know you're working long hours and then any spare time you have you're running yeah like it's kind of like all focused on you yeah and the obsessive nature of that training i did a video on it recently where i was like if i woke up and didn't if i wake up and i haven't found the time or something's gone wrong and i haven't gone to the gym or ran 10 miles that morning before i start my day i'm like oh i'm already in a bad mood or it's gonna like not be a good day or whatever it is like everything has to be around my schedule but that's just not the way life works and I think if you rely on every day being perfect training perfect sleep like you're gonna be pretty miserable because it just doesn't work like that and I think I got too attached to like all right every day has to be perfect I'm gonna wake up at this time I'm gonna run 20k I'm gonna come back I'm gonna eat this is going to be bang on life just doesn't operate like that and your happiness i don't think and the mood and the way you carry yourself throughout the day if it's attached to that like it's going to be a problem at some point who in your life keeps you humble my life keeps me humble because you've done some incredible things like say i think uh doing so much training as well you can develop this like main character syndrome a little bit because you're always in your own head yeah uh who who keeps you grounded who keeps you i guess there's like two answers to that one definitely would be d because she is very honest and transparent about how i might be behaving or how i'm not behaving at certain times and she's my biggest cheerleader she's so good at telling me like you should be celebrating this or you're amazing or you've done incredible because i'm i'm not very good at that actually like when i finished her on across cyprus i was like well like i need to go bigger now or like when i ran civil marathon this year i was like bummed out about it and she like picks me up with that but then also she will rein me in when i'm a bit like i don't need to do that i don't need to do this oh I need to go and see this person or that and she'll she'll just give me the honest like answer straight which you need you might not like it to begin with but you need it and honestly I know this sounds like a bit cliche but like the people I'm surrounded by in terms of like the brands I'm on the teams that I'm on I look at people like you and other people like Alfie and you know when I go to like an event with whoop and i'm around some of the athletes down like there's levels like maybe not in my space because like the way we train is is different but i'm always inspired and humbled by like the way other people perform in their own arena and their own category and the way they train and the way they execute i have a lot of admiration for being in this space and the people you're around and it reminds you that like you're not the main character there's a lot of people like there's a lot of people that could have gone and done that run across greece they just didn't have the appetite or it's not an emotional connection for them it's i'm not uh i'm not i'm not a superman i'm just the one that done it do you know what i mean i think um what did you what did you post uh when you when you finished what what did you what was your caption yeah i wrote that straight off the cuff i didn't even plan it i remember i think i wrote i think it's something along the lines of like i wrote the distance and then i was like i was never the fastest quickest toughest most talented but i did it anyway like that is it that's my whole ethos just do it anyway i think that's something to kind of like live by like i said there's kind of no excuses yeah for someone who is looking to getting into ultra running what would you advise is there any kind of like tips yeah take it easy like i get a lot of dms like how do i run how much you run or how do i do this or like i'm having this injury and it ultra running is like on the line of like extreme sport i think and at times it's not healthy like in greece was not a embodiment of health shoveling 10 000 calories down your day any food like having no sleep like the last two days i literally did 100 because i wanted it done so bad i did 120k slept on the rv floor for 90 minutes woke up and did 80k like that's not healthy but that was what i needed to do in the moment so people that want to get into ultra running like i think it's worth remembering the people you view online like you can consume within opening your phone within 60 seconds a video of someone doing a run like me right and you're like okay right but I have been running for years like I've been building up mileage for a very very long time it's not like it doesn't just come I didn't just go and do that run I have built a base up over a very long time with running so I think people just need to be cautious and like cognizant of how they increase their mileage and just be patient like running is not something you can rush you can run more and you will get more out of running more like volume is key but not to the point where like you're not sleeping you're not recovering you're not doing any of the other things in life that you need to do or you're not fueling so I would just say yeah ease into it and like just have fun with it like that's the main thing like have fun with it you really got to enjoy the process everyone wants to finish an ultra no one wants to like really train for an ultra there's like this glorification of like doing a moab or you know a utmb but the race is the race is the race it's 200 miles but you got to put in hundreds if not thousands of miles to to get there you can't just have that without the other one and you have to absolutely love the process because a lot of the time the race is over it's done you cross the finish line great so you have to enjoy the whole part of it i think people we live in a bit of a maximalism like everyone wants to do the most era because it's cool it looks good and it's like a oh look how much i've ran but like you have to you have to enjoy it you can't force yourself into it and another tip would be like fuel properly just because you're burning more calories i've learned that a lot recently like just because you're burning more calories doesn't you can eat whatever you want because the type of food this sound really boring now sorry but like the type of food you eat will determine how you feel you might still lose weight or like stay in shape but like the quality of your food will determine your recovery and how you feel so i'm like trying to make a bit of a cognizant switch with that as well in terms of like just quality of food and not being like oh i've earned 6 000 calories today so i'm gonna eat like a type ben joe's and this and that because like eventually it catches up on you have you got any kind of rules that you go by with the food is it like sticking to whole foods is it are you protein in yeah protein is super key at the minute i'm like really into like after how my legs went in greece and just overall seeing my frame over the years i'm like i want to get some strength some strength back so I'm pretty strict with the amount of cardio I do and the amount of calories that I burn I have a rule like I'm trying to hit at the minute I'm trying to rebuild so I'm going like 2.2 times per kilo body weight on my protein um I'm not like a whole foods only but I go through phases so like now I'm like I'm not gonna have a like before I'd have a dessert I'd have like a halo top ice cream which is like oh my it's only 300 calories so i can have the whole tub but it's you know now i'm more like all right let me have some greek yogurt and fruit and some micronutrients because i'm probably lacking them the amount i'm burning my body is using so much that it's really important to like get some healthier stuff back in i was vegetarian for 10 years as well i stopped that three years ago for my own personal reasons i was getting my bloodstunned a lot and I was tracking like just my hormones and stuff so I'm like balancing between not trying to eat too much meat trying to be a bit more healthier and just get other variations of food in but I don't I'm not like too strict generally I'll try and eat as much single ingredient food as I can and put it all together rather than just buying stuff like pre-made interesting yeah no it's uh it definitely makes sense like you say having that like simple rules like that rather than like being super super strict because i know you've been super super strict as well yeah like i feel like it especially when you're busy like it just stresses you out like yeah no way and everything and if you're traveling it's not possible sometimes yeah so like sometimes you've got to accept you're going to eat food in the airport and just try and make a better decision but also sometimes you know i think it's like numbers of how often you do it like going out and getting a pizza once a month it's not really a problem twice a week it might be a problem so like it's just probably how often you do something but i'm not like a strict nothing's off the table guy really what's next for hercules and i know like you say we don't want to obsess about the future like we've got to kind of relish our success and like you've got to celebrate your wins and what you've achieved um but have you have you thought about what's next yeah so like first and foremost is recovery i underestimate how long this would take for like context for like the data nerds here a little bit my resting heart rate still is up 25 beats per minute during the night how many days weeks are we after it's been three weeks been three weeks so 21 days if i go out and run my zones are completely like shot so this morning i was running like five minute cages to test it my heart rate was like 160 bear in mind that's usually my heart rate at like 350 so like i'm just taking it a bit easier there really focusing on trying to like get as much quality sleep that's why I'm pretty I am kind of being strict with what I'm eating right now because I know this is such a one-off thing that you do to your body so you really you really need to do as much as you can to get back as quick as you can so recovery strength I'm like really enjoying lifting again and being back in the gym and I'm incorporating that a lot more if I'm not in a block training for something that far I don't need to run 200k a week I just got used to it i'd rather drop 25 off that and put that into the gym and then my next thing that i've got coming is moab so um that's in october so moab 240 240 240 mile race um big elevation it's at altitude it's super demanding it's like i think it is one of the hardest 200 miler races um on paper so training for that gonna be doing a lot of hills trying to get some altitude working but obviously i'm working and traveling a lot during that block so i'm being i'm being mindful of like what is possible for me and i i've got cim later in the year and i would like to get a marathon pb again so that's california international marathon yep what time are you in for uh i think i can get under 240 yeah it's up to five i like did seville this year with like probably like seven to eight weeks of like let me just do a bit of speed once a week and took like 10 minutes off my marathon i went like 247 and i was like it's a different style of running i actually enjoyed it because you can't that's the type of running you can't mentally dog out and push yourself through you have to have the fitness to achieve certain paces and i like that because it's quite it will it will expose you and humble you so I'd like to get back in the fire with that a little bit and uh see what I can do in the marathon but the big multi-days never say never but I think end of an era for me without I think Greece was like the last one that had meaning to me and I'm not gonna force myself and go through that without a real burning like desire to do it or for the sake of being like well I need to like make videos and stuff so we'll see but yeah i'd like to really like knuckle in on like the 200 milers now and and get quite good there that's incredible and uh you're changing your whole life i am i am first time ever moving out of london right yeah pretty much like well i traveled a lot when i was younger but that was like semi semi permanent went all over asia and like for a year or so but yeah i am actually fully i'm going to be relocating to the states to la um simply put like my work now demands me to be over there and it's an exciting change like you know i i love taking opportunity and seeing what can happen with it by putting in the effort so worst places to live like right by the beach and obviously it's sunny and all that good stuff so yeah have you got a spot where you're moving to yeah i'm literally um about a mile out from venice beach oh nice yeah i know beautiful yes it's really nice actually so these excited yeah so we're moving there next week big big change i know man i know and you'll have the the mountain still running yeah which is like so helpful i can actually get out on the trials yeah that'll be incredible and like you say you've got uh ross is out there yeah george is out there like you you've got kind of like good people out there yeah got a good network there so not going in super do you know i mean yeah like alone and blind yeah home away from home yeah hopefully yeah yeah but um yeah best of luck with that and thank you bro obviously like you say uh the worst thing that could happen we're talking about before the absolute worst thing that can happen you just move back yeah exactly like gotta take the leap sometimes and just see what happens yeah no i love that um who are your role models i know that's like a a pretty mad question off the cuff but uh like is there anyone specifically you look up to um or have done throughout like your career that's a really good question um i'm taking the time to think about this and answer it properly from an overall um from an overall just like outlook on life i really like my mum remarried at some point to my stepdad called paul and like he is just a guy that will just wake up and he he's a mechanic he loves what he does he don't moan he don't complain he's not materialistic even though he's very successful like he's a successful guy drive the same car for 20 years just happy and like always will deal with problems in a pragmatic non-emotional way and I it's took me to get older to realize that that's a really good way of living and a really good like role model for just the way he kind of operates and walks through life so like I would like yeah like he he's always been a bit of a role model recently and then outside of that you know what like I don't really I like don't massively idolize it's weird right so I like my friends are my role models and I know that sounds cringy I don't like idolize celebrities or like pro athletes that much because like bluntly I don't massively pay attention enough as maybe I should but like my friends are my role models like the people I hang around with like even people like you like the whole team and like people I work with at Cadence and Ross like I feel like I'm very fortunate enough to be surrounded by people that are just really good at what they do good inspirations like even people like Mo who's like one of my best mates like the way he treats people and the way he talks to people when he's patients I feel like I can take leaf out of the book of everyone around me which is a very like unique position to be in and I'm super grateful for that but I know that's a bit of a like wishy-washy answer that's great honestly that's how I feel like there's not like two people that I'd be like oh my god they're my role model it's like I feel like I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by incredible people and you've put yourself in that position like yeah you know they say that you become the people that you surround yourself by yeah and you are a great person and it might be a result of that like you say that the people that you can learn from and if they're your role models and you look up to them then yeah you know that you you're in the right friendship group if you've got a friend where you're like oh i wouldn't like to be like him yeah or her then it might not be the yeah man it might not be beneficial for you in the long run for sure like bro even you know when we started becoming more friends and i realized like wow jake is so you're you're one of the most incredibly all-in people i've ever seen on a goal that like just don't moan like i think the way you approach when you're like really going for it and you're in season like you're the way i've been with you i spent time with you like you don't deviate from what you're eating like you will prioritize your sleep like all these things even though everything else is going on like we're on the other side of the world and all this stuff that stuck with me a lot i was like wow jake proper takes his craft seriously i wonder if i just took mine a little bit more seriously like where i could go oh mate i think it's the other way around that like i genuinely i'd like to say i look up to you for the the discipline the hard work the like you say the when shit hits the fan like you're you're still in a good mood you're like we're fucking getting this done no matter what like we're here let's fucking roll yeah and it's kind of like you even lean into it a little bit and it's kind of have to but yeah it's cool to see and um yeah like i say i think you only learn that when when times are tough you only um realize that about people like when shit does hit the fan yeah um but but it's incredible my last question for you go on in kind of like 10 to 20 years time do you ever look that far ahead and what do you see yourself yeah doing i let's let's do the whole fairy tale i guess right like i'd like to think in I'd like to think in 10 20 years time that I'd still be doing these runs and like you know getting out there doing 100 miler 200 miler for the pure love of it honestly I'd like to not be online at that point I'd like to have been very successful in my career you know who knows after cadence like whatever happens there like that that business you know and what we're doing there and everyone on the team the way they work it's so exciting but like I always still have in me a few ideas that I'd like to bring to life personally more from a creative art point of view um so yeah I'd like to take all my skills from my first business and what I'm doing now and probably launch my own thing again and I've always got this I have a group chat with my brother my wife and his partner it's called like future farmers and like we've always said like we'd love to just get a nice big bit of land have some animals super simple life like out in the countryside like that is all together yeah yeah yeah me and my brother me and my brother like best best mates we've always said like can you imagine just big ranch your house that end my house that end farm animals like i've always been really into my animals and rescue animals like i have a few myself so So I'd like to, yeah, I'd like to make that happen eventually.

1:13:31That's incredible. Do you see yourself doing that in the UK? Or is it someone else? I don't know. Dee's Lithuanian. So she's like, and Lithuania's countryside is incredible. Yeah. Like, honestly, the woodlands there are amazing. And what you can get for your money is like house with a private lake, acres of land. So maybe we'd go there. Maybe it'd be somewhere in the US. I don't know. That's incredible. Thank you, Herc. Thanks for having me on, mate. Really enjoyed that.