Mental Fitness - the Gateway to Success

This episode is especially close to my heart. I’m joined by my wife, Kathy Menzies, who shares her powerful and deeply personal journey of struggle, transformation, and growth.Kathy opens up about:

💔 Losing her brother to suicide

💸 The pain and lessons of bankruptcy

🧠 The impact of poor mental fitness — and how she rebuilt it

❤️ Her remarkable transition from school teacher to Sex, Love & Relationship Coach.

What I love most about this conversation is Kathy’s openness and courage. It’s raw, real, and filled with hope — a reminder that no matter how dark life gets, healing and growth are always possible.

Also, this episode is recorded in our new sanctuary that we are now opening up to individuals and couples to come for retreat, rejuvenation and taking their life/business/relationship to the next level. To learn more, email to [email protected]

Episode 20 – Time for Something Completely Different!

In this episode, I get personal — really personal — as we explore buttons. You know, those emotional triggers that get pushed by the people around us.

I share my own journey of discovering what pushes my buttons, how I learned to react differently, and the surprising insight that allows you to “push” other people’s buttons without actually doing a thing.

Welcome to The Art of Button Management — a fresh and powerful look at emotional awareness, mental fitness and influence.

In this episode of Mental Fitness: The Gateway to Success, Jason Lennie shares his raw and honest journey through repeated cycles of burnout — and the powerful moment he finally recognised the destructive pattern behind it.

That awareness led Jason to seek coaching support, helping him redefine how he lives and leads — creating a more productive, sustainable, and deeply fulfilling life and business.

Jason also reveals four books that have profoundly shaped his growth, along with an entrepreneur profiling system that transformed the way he understands himself and runs his creative brand strategy business.

The books are:

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Pocket of Do by Chris Do

Win Without Pitching by  Blair Enns

Time Management: A Complete Waste of Time by Mikal Nielsen

The profiling system is Wealth Dynamics by Roger Hamilton

Jason is the founder of Ledge, a creative brand strategy company.

🌐 Learn more at www.ledge.nz

💼 Connect with Jason on LinkedIn or reach out via email: [email protected]

In this episode, we continue the powerful journey from episode 16: Triangulating Success.

With you Life Purpose and Life Mission Statement in place (EP16), we take the next step in the Triangle Model: What is it that is truly important to you at this moment in your life.

It is filtering your life purpose into every aspects of your life: Living Purposefully

Download the free Action Guide that has the full process outlined. Here the link: https://mikal.nz/actionguide

Former national triathlon coach, successful businessman, acclaimed motivational speaker, and cancer survivor—John Shackleton’s story is one of resilience and reinvention.

But his most powerful transformation goes beyond any title or achievement.

In this candid interview, John reveals the mindset and heartset that have redefined his life and continue to inspire thousands.

John also shares practical tools throughout our conversation, including a book  that made a big difference to the quality of his life.

In this episode of Mental Fitness: The Gateway to Success, we move beyond the lighthouse concept introduced in Episode 12 and step into one of the simplest yet most powerful success models I’ve ever created: The Triangles.

I’ll walk you through the general use of this model and then dive into its most profound application—using it to design your Life Purpose.

Once defined, this becomes your personal lighthouse, guiding every decision and shaping how you live, lead, and run your business.

If you’ve been searching for clarity, direction, or a deeper sense of meaning, this episode will help you chart a course toward success that feels aligned and purposeful.

For further support with this, download the free Action Guide that has the Triangle concept and process in it. \

Here’s the link: https://mikal.nz/actionguide

If you want to know more about the book Time Management: A Complete Waste of Time, it’s all here: https://mikal.nz/time-management-book

In this episode of Mental Fitness: The Gateway to Success, my guest Patrick Sherratt shares his remarkable journey from a challenging childhood to becoming a business owner dedicated to helping others manage stress and overcome trauma.

Patrick opens up about the turning points that shaped his path, the tools that supported his transformation—including a powerful book and an ancient perspective on the four levels of happiness—and how he now equips youth, professionals, and organizations to build resilience.

With experience delivering workshops for Air New Zealand staff and management, running seminars for health professionals, and teaching exam study strategies to high school students, Patrick’s passion for facilitating stress management and mental fitness shines through.

His story of moving from very low to very high mental fitness is both moving and inspiring.

For more about Patrick’s work, including his books and online courses, visit innervate.co, or connect with him on LinkedIn or via email to [email protected]

The book he mentions is Mind Power by John Kehoe

In this episode of Mental Fitness: The Gateway to Success, we dive into one of the most overlooked performance tools for business owners and managers—your breath.

Breathing is something we do more than 20,000 times a day, yet most of us are doing it wrong, without even knowing it.

Discover how restricted breathing silently drains your energy, clouds your decision-making, and amplifies stress—and how restoring natural, full breathing can dramatically shift your leadership, your focus, and your wellbeing.

I share my personal story of realizing just how restricted my own breathing had become, and the transformation that followed when I learned to restore it. You’ll learn:

✅ How proper breathing keeps you calm under pressure.

✅ Why it sharpens focus and boosts energy.

✅ The role it plays in better decision-making.

✅ How leaders who breathe well model resilience and confidence for their teams.

If you’re ready to unlock a simple yet powerful game-changer in business and life, this episode will show you why the breath truly is your greatest untapped resource.

You can access my online Breathing for Life course here: https://www.innervate.co/collections

And the article on LinkedIn here.

If you want personal support with this, email me at [email protected]

The breathing practice I refer to for my morning practice is the Wim Hof Method (plenty of videos available on YouTube).

In this episode of Mental Fitness: The Gateway to Success, my guest Derek Hansen shares a deeply personal story of how the Covid pandemic shook him as a business owner and leader. At the time, he lacked the mental fitness to handle the unexpected stress and turmoil — until he reached a breaking point that led to powerful transformation.

Derek opens up about the journey of rebuilding his resilience, growing his mental fitness, and turning things around not just for himself, but also for his business. He also shares simple yet powerful tools and two books that made a profound impact on his path.

This episode is a reminder that even in the toughest seasons, growth and renewal are possible with the right mindset and support.

👉 To learn more about Derek and his company, connect with him on LinkedIn.

The two books Derek talks about are:

Three Magic Words by U.S. Andersen

Think and Grow Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

In this episode of Mental Fitness: The Gateway to Success, my guest Derek Hansen shares a deeply personal story of how the Covid pandemic shook him as a business owner and leader. At the time, he lacked the mental fitness to handle the unexpected stress and turmoil — until he reached a breaking point that led to powerful transformation.

Derek opens up about the journey of rebuilding his resilience, growing his mental fitness, and turning things around not just for himself, but also for his business. He also shares simple yet powerful tools and two books that made a profound impact on his path.

This episode is a reminder that even in the toughest seasons, growth and renewal are possible with the right mindset and support.

👉 To learn more about Derek and his company, connect with him on LinkedIn.

The two books Derek talks about are:

Three Magic Words by U.S. Andersen

Think and Grow Rich by Wallace D. Wattles