The James Smith Show

Christian Ozbek joins James Smith to talk about the harsh realities of training Brazilian jiu-jitsu and why most grapplers struggle to earn money. They cover fighting heavyweights, judo versus jiu-jitsu rules, why judo conditioning is so brutal, the Olympic qualification paradox and the training injuries that often go unaddressed.

A grounded look at competitive grappling for anyone who wants to understand the sport, the commitment it takes and what the industry really looks like today. Why you must compete more, and the gap between gym training and competition.

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Follow Christian on instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thewizardofozbek/?hl=en

Get Chris's instructional - https://bjjfanatics.com/products/feet-finder-foot-sweeps-by-christian-ozbek

Chapters:

00:00 From Street Confrontation to the Mat

1:08 The Balding to Takedown Ratio

1:57 Humbled by a Seven-Year-Old

3:16 Judo vs Jiu-Jitsu Rules

4:41 Why Judo Conditioning is Brutal

6:11 The Olympic Qualification Paradox

8:11 The Dangers of High-Level Judo

9:52 The Anatomy of a Training Injury

13:38 The Spectator Effect in Training

17:45 The Disconnect Between Gym and Comp

22:01 Why You Must Compete More

25:49 The Low-Calorie Grappler Strategy

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Ollie Marchon joins James Smith for a business masterclass on what it really takes to build a fitness brand in the UK right now. A former professional rugby player turned coach, Ollie started out cold calling leisure centre members and training clients in a converted cattle shed. Ten years later he runs Marchon across four verticals: in-person gyms, an online training app, a sports nutrition range and a growing community of hybrid athletes.

🎬 Edits Course: https://jamessmith.business/ig-edits

👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith

🤼‍♂️ Wear Adapt BJJ: https://adaptjj.com/

📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business

Check out Marchon - https://marchon-global.com/

Follow Ollie on instagram - https://www.instagram.com/olliemarchon/?hl=en

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:28 How Ollie Built Marchon

02:29 How Covid Accelerated the Online Business

03:57 Spotting the Gap in Sports Nutrition

05:28 Building a Brand Nobody Has a Bad Word About

06:32 Bricks and Mortar or Online First?

08:32 Why Every Coach Should Coach in Person First

09:59 From Failed Rugby Career to Freelance PT

11:48 Starting a Gym in a Cattle Shed

12:40 The Small Group Training Model

13:59 Why You’re Always Being Watched on the Gym Floor

14:26 Scaling From One Gym to Two

16:18 The Hires Nobody Tells You About

17:27 Where the Opportunity Is in Fitness Now

19:53 Why Hyrox Affiliates Won’t Last

20:23 James Gets Humbled at CrossFit

22:55 Will GLP-1s Bring a New Wave of Gym Members?

25:06 The Barry’s-Style Strength Gym Model

26:38 Personal Training Is a Luxury Most Can’t Afford

27:55 Why One-to-One Sessions Go Stale

29:51 Jiu-Jitsu Clubs Are the New Health Clubs

32:44 The Real Cost of Running a Gym

34:20 The £200K Business Rates Bill

36:29 Why We Should Want Businesses to Make Money

38:28 Break Even Jumped From 180 to 250 Members

39:48 Why Investors Won’t Fund Bricks and Mortar

40:34 What Happens When Gyms Close

42:39 The Economics of a Jiu-Jitsu Gym

45:38 Building the Marchon Training App

48:56 Price Testing and the Profit Squeeze

51:08 Training as a Customer Acquisition Tool

52:48 Why Online Coaching Is a Lifestyle Business

54:38 Neutonic Pouches and Paid Ads

55:34 James’s Lockdown Slump

56:48 Launching the Marchon Nutrition Range

59:20 Hiring Celtic’s Head of Nutrition

1:01:30 Bootstrapping vs Raising Money

1:03:47 Marchon’s Best Seller: Workout Fuel

1:05:44 Why You Shouldn’t Fear Carbs Before Training

1:07:58 Rituals, Cues and Building Habits

1:09:16 The Protein Price Crisis

1:10:52 Protein Shakes and GLP-1s

1:13:38 GLP-1s as a Business Performance Aid

1:16:46 Why Food Is More Enjoyable on GLP-1s

1:17:49 The Hungry Months Behind Every Abs Photo

1:19:43 James’s Prescription Travel Stack

1:20:41 How Easy Is It to Get GLP-1s?

1:21:53 The Highest Leverage Play in Weight Loss

1:24:08 The Full Marchon Product Range

1:26:58 Marchon’s Top Five Sellers

1:27:56 Do You Actually Need Electrolytes?

1:30:11 Lessons in Impatience From Necker Island

1:33:17 Expensive Mistakes and Finding Your Hero Products

1:35:38 Every Business Is Personal Training Full Circle

1:37:11 Why Ollie Brought In a COO

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Olly Staniland joins James Smith to break down what actually makes a YouTube video work. Olly works on James's YouTube channel and, like James, studied under Ed Lawrence. They go through real thumbnails and analytics from James's channel, why one video with 80,000 views made nothing while another with 60,000 made thousands, how Matt Armstrong and Carwow built huge channels by repeating one format, and the status games that drive what people click and buy.

👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith

🧪 Check your Test: https://www.manual.co/smith

📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business

🏋🏼‍♂️ Online Coaching: https://www.jamessmithacademy.com

Olly Staniland's YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/@ollystaniland

Olly Staniland On Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/olly_staniland/

He explains:

◼️ Why you should package the title and thumbnail before you film

◼️ How to steal winning title formats from other niches

◼️ Why more views doesn't always mean more revenue

◼️ The split-testing rules that stop your metrics misleading you

◼️ Why long-form viewers trust you more than short-form followers

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:32 What Makes a Good YouTube Video?

02:46 Package First, Then Film

06:01 The Big Mistake Creators Make on YouTube

07:34 Stealing Titles From Other Niches

11:53 What Is YouTube Actually For?

15:38 Why You Can't Pivot a Big Channel

16:05 Views vs Revenue on the Business Channel

21:11 Split Testing and Misleading Metrics

24:11 Long Form vs Short Form Trust

26:07 Ed Lawrence and the $1,000 Phone Call

31:32 Who Actually Watches YouTube

33:48 Why End Screens Matter

35:39 How YouTube Made James a Better Business Owner

37:35 Scripting vs Riffing

40:31 AI Slop and Copied Scripts

42:00 Dial-Up, The Pirate Bay and LimeWire

44:56 Why Nobody Writes Their Own Emails

46:23 Should You Pay Someone to Run Your Channel?

47:15 Building an Offer for the Boys

54:16 Launch It Before You Build It

55:18 Why Transformation Videos Work

58:13 Matt Armstrong's Car-Build Empire

01:02:35 Raffling the Cars

01:06:48 The AdSense Maths

01:08:37 Carwow's Same-Video-Forever Format

01:11:08 The Status Games We All Play

01:15:47 What Status Has to Do With What We Buy

01:19:51 From Top Lad at Uni to the Real World

01:23:30 Status and Health

01:24:36 Tough Love for Starting a Channel

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Ross Edgley joins James Smith for a reunion years in the making. Ross is the ultramarathon sea swimmer who swam around Great Britain and then the whole coast of Iceland.

Ahead of his new book How To Hero, he opens up about losing his dad, waking up in hospital after failed swims, and being told doctors had never seen blood work like his on a living person. He also explains the brain science of why some people keep going when everything hurts and others tap out.

🎬 Edits Course: https://jamessmith.business/ig-edits

👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith

🧪 Check your Test: https://www.manual.co/smith

📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business

Ross Edgley's YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/@RossEdgley

Ross Edgley On Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/rossedgley/

He explains:

◼️ The part of your brain that decides whether you grit it out or quit

◼️ Why purpose has to outweigh pain if you want to finish hard things

◼️ How your reward system crashes when results don't show up

◼️ Why running on anger and self-talk burns out over long efforts

◼️ What Viking berserkers and Icelandic sagas teach us about heroism

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:41 Reunion and Ross's Biggest Night Out

02:24 How Becoming a Dad Changes Everything

06:50 Why People Aren't Having Kids Anymore

09:29 Does Family Switch Off Your Stress Response?

11:17 Loch Ness, Lake Trasimeno and Waking Up in Hospital

14:15 Swimming Through 12 Hours of Darkness

14:45 Why Iceland Produces So Many Physical Freaks

17:32 CrossFit Champions, Vikings and Eddie Hall

19:46 Water Polo: One of the Hardest Sports on Earth

23:57 Getting Crushed by Roger Gracie

27:41 The Brain Region Behind Grit or Quit

29:53 Everyone Is Scared Before They Compete

32:52 Arousal, Warm-Ups and Competing Your Own Way

33:43 Berserkers and the Viking Battle Frenzy

36:37 Nasal Breathing and Building CO2 Tolerance

39:21 When Training Past Your Body's Alarms Goes Wrong

42:23 James Freezing His Sperm Before Tour

43:03 Losing His Dad and the Myth of Sisyphus

48:03 Khabib, Grief and Finding a Reason to Get Up

50:37 How Jiu-Jitsu Gave James's Training Purpose

52:40 Swimming on the Spot for Four Hours in Iceland

55:43 Why Feedback Keeps People Going

58:39 Everyone Needs a Cheerleader

01:00:20 Why Ross Would Never Step Into a Cage

01:02:39 Goggins, Gratitude and Ross's Shadow Self

01:05:55 James Trains to Ruin Other People's Days

01:07:39 Are All High Achievers Psychopaths?

01:08:43 Thor, Odin and Why Heroes Aren't Pretty

01:10:43 Building Your Ego, Then Destroying It

01:12:05 A Million Followers and Feeling Nothing

01:13:42 The $50,000 Vegas Trip

01:15:48 Ross's Ayahuasca Experience in the Amazon

01:23:07 James's First Time on Ketamine

01:29:06 Hating Therapy and Low Testosterone

01:29:45 How Amazon Tribes Worked Out Ayahuasca

01:31:02 Icelandic Folklore and Living With Nature

01:32:19 James's Mushroom Trip and Duty to the Flame

01:39:29 How Psychedelics Led James to Fatherhood

01:42:58 When Psychedelics Go Wrong

01:45:43 Modafinil, Clenbuterol and Two Weeks in Barcelona

01:47:39 Fuelling the World's Longest Non-Stop River Swim

01:49:38 GLP-1s, Digestion and Losing Muscle at Sea

01:52:59 Getting Destroyed by a Competitive Eater

01:55:25 James's Boring Meal Prep Strategy

01:57:47 Hernias, Snapped MCLs and Getting Older

02:01:40 Stem Cells and Extending Your Career

02:05:18 Do Peptides Actually Work?

02:08:03 Should England Rugby Use Hype Videos?

02:12:49 Mike Tyson's Stare

02:14:03 Training With Volkanovsky and Tom Aspinall

02:17:05 How To Hero Release Date

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Alan Barratt on entrepreneurship, business ownership, and the reality of building a brand from the ground up.

Everyone wants the freedom of being an entrepreneur, but few are ready for the weight of total responsibility. Alan Barrett, the founder of Grenade, joins me to discuss what it actually takes to succeed in the protein bar market. He shares the unfiltered truth about being unemployable, taking full ownership of your outcomes, and navigating the friction that comes when you start disrupting major industry players.

🎬 Edits Course: https://jamessmith.business/ig-edits

👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith

🤼‍♂️ Wear Adapt BJJ: https://adaptjj.com/

📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business

Try Grenade: https://www.grenade.com/

Grenade on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@teamgrenade

Allan Barratt on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/al_barratt/

Chapters:

0:00 Trailer

1:20 How Alan and James actually met

3:23 Richard Branson: "I don't know where there is"

5:24 Starting Grenade on a 500 pound loan

9:27 Selling supplements gym to gym

11:29 The first protein flapjack

15:36 When the supplement industry was the Wild West

17:38 Positioning against the chocolate bar

21:40 Making a bar people could actually afford

25:46 Why most people should not be entrepreneurs

27:48 Selling the first business

31:50 Doing right by people pays you back

35:52 Fitness plus military: where the name came from

37:42 The fat burner that started it all

41:46 The fight for the Grenade trademark in America

45:02 The bottle, the shape and a copycat industry

49:10 Borrowing a 17-tonne gun to steal the show

53:11 Demand outstripping supply

57:18 Beating Twix into the UK top 20

59:20 Mars complains to Nielsen

1:01:13 No disruption in chocolate for 40 years

1:01:40 The phone call from Giovanni Ferrero

1:03:23 Ferrero or Cadbury: a two-horse race

1:07:26 Choosing Mondelez, and going full circle to Birmingham

1:11:34 The lawyer who got it badly wrong

1:15:36 Cashing half, rolling half back in

1:19:37 What Grenade is worth now

1:23:41 What America teaches you about packaging

1:25:43 When one can bursts across 50 pallets

1:29:51 Fifty countries that supposedly share a language

1:33:55 Where Grenade goes next

1:35:59 The Cadbury Creme Egg protein bar

1:40:05 Those companies are gone. Grenade is still here

1:44:10 Hitching the caravan to the Ferrari

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Rebecca Oliver-Mooney joins James Smith for a conversation that starts with a left-handed can and ends up somewhere far more uncomfortable. Founder of the Raising The Glass network and a drinks industry buyer who has sat on the other side of the table from hundreds of challenger brands, Rebecca explains why most founders put half their message where the shelf will hide it, why GLP-1s are about to reshape what food and drink gets made, and why menopause is the category nobody has been willing to build for yet.

👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith

🧪 Check your Test: https://www.manual.co/smith

📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business

🏋️‍♂️ Online Coaching: https://www.jamessmithacademy.com

Rebecca Oliver-Mooney On LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-oliver-mooney-65730614/

She explains:

◼️ Why retailers cover the bottom half of your packaging, and what belongs up top

◼️ What GLP-1s actually do to appetite, and why the shame is the bigger problem

◼️ Why menopause is the next outcome-led category in food and drink

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:26 The Left-Handed Can

03:07 Why Retailers Hide Half Your Packaging

03:42 Ingredients vs Benefits On Pack

04:43 The Conversation About Hiding The Eye

06:19 What Raising The Glass Actually Is

07:55 Was I Being Hypersensitive?

08:44 The Free Mentoring Platform

10:16 Do Men Really Interrupt More?

11:53 Two Women Founders Getting On Shelf

14:18 Toy Trucks And Gendered Play

17:29 Changing Your Political Stance

18:16 Algorithms And Echo Chambers

19:50 Women Coming Into Neutonic

21:26 Electrolytes And The Salt Brands

23:50 GLP-1s: The Real Conversation

24:38 Do You Still Eat On GLP-1s?

28:07 The Shame Around The Medication

30:36 Never Being Hungry Again

32:13 Two Extreme Views On Telling People

36:08 GLP-1s Compared To Insulin

39:20 When Only One Of You Can Afford It

40:53 Wealth, Connections And Starting Again

46:25 Are Men More Driven To Seek Status?

47:59 The Iceberg Model

48:48 Imposter Syndrome

51:11 Raising Investment

53:33 This Candidate Is Probably Going To Be A Man

55:58 Equality vs Equity

58:25 The Employee Who Was Caring For His Mum

59:08 HRT And Dr Louise Newson

01:01:30 Menopause Behind Closed Doors

01:03:32 Anabolic Steroids And Crashed Estrogen

01:04:43 Nothing Is Explained At School

01:06:21 Menopause As The Next Category

01:10:20 Calm, Energy And What Sells

01:15:08 How Buyers Actually Pick Products

01:18:18 The Category Diamond

01:19:06 Smoke And Mirrors For Challenger Brands

01:21:29 Find Your Tribe

01:23:01 You Deserve To Be In The Room

01:25:13 Fake It Till You Make It: The Power Pose

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Jason 'Foxy' Fox joins James Smith, on his wife's birthday no less, for an unfiltered and very funny conversation that swaps the usual topics for a proper sit-down with the boys. A former UK Special Forces operator and the longest-serving member of the SAS: Who Dares Wins directing staff, Foxy opens up about becoming a dad again at 50 after seven years of IVF, missing his son's birth over a WhatsApp video call, and why newborn sleep deprivation hits harder than anything the military threw at him.

👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith

🧪 Check your Test: https://www.manual.co/smith

📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business

🏋🏼‍♂️ Online Coaching: https://www.jamessmithacademy.com

Jason Fox On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jason_carl_fox/

Jason Fox On X - https://x.com/jason_carl_fox

Ultra 4 Charity - https://ultra4charity.com

He explains:

◼️ Why newborn sleep deprivation is worse than military exercises

◼️ What it's really like to be away working when your child is born

◼️ How Ultra 4 Charity makes ultra marathons accessible for everyone

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:30 Baldness, Hair Transplants and Finasteride

07:05 How Fatherhood Feels Different Second Time Around

08:08 James's Son Blocked From Entering the UK

09:22 Missing His Son's Birth Over WhatsApp

12:22 Older Parents and Seven Years of IVF

14:59 James's Adoption and the Stolen Cheque

17:22 Ibiza Chaos and Writing a Will

19:31 The Pregnancy Complication That Forced an Early Birth

21:37 James's Emergency C-Section Story

24:20 Special Forces vs Newborn Sleep Deprivation

25:10 The Sleep Coach That Actually Worked

28:11 Being Away Filming SAS: Who Dares Wins

30:10 Sam Burgess: Headlocks and Falling Off the Wagon

35:44 Is London Still Worth It?

39:08 Ultra 4 Charity: Running for Veterans

41:42 How Jiu-Jitsu Gives Veterans Purpose

42:27 Foxy's Muay Thai and BJJ Journey

45:08 Snapping His Leg on a 300ft Tower

48:25 Getting Caught by a 'White Belt'

50:14 Rolling With a GB Judo Black Belt

53:57 Why Strikers Scare James

55:43 The Shoplifter Who Sang for the Queen

58:00 Teaching Young Leaders About Mental Health

59:10 James Nearly Joined the Army

01:00:29 Has Britain's Attitude to the Military Changed?

01:02:15 Veteran Support and Military Respect

01:03:07 The ThruDark Story

01:07:37 The Blocked Urethra That Led to Sepsis

01:13:36 In Praise of NHS Emergency Care

01:14:54 A Bali Moped Crash and NHS Hallways

01:18:11 Foxy's Only Real Goal in Life

01:20:41 Adult Circumcision and Other Injuries Down There

01:22:11 The Schoolyard Punch and Gaps in Body Armour

01:23:57 MrBallen's Grenade Story

01:26:41 From an IED Blast to a UK High Street in 16 Hours

01:28:45 Calm in Chaos, Chaos in the Calm

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Frank Greeff joins James Smith fresh off a $180 million exit for a raw conversation about tax, talent and why the game never really ends. Frank breaks down the $6.2M tax bill from selling his last business, the proposed Australian capital gains changes that would have doubled it, and why, hand on heart, he isn't sure he'd have started his last company if those rules had existed first.

Check out Kinso on YouTube : @KinsoAI

Follow Frank Greeff on intagram : https://www.instagram.com/frankgreeff_/

Try Kinso: https://www.kinso.ai/

👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith

🧪 Check your Test: https://www.manual.co/smith

📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business

🏋🏼‍♂️ Online Coaching: https://www.jamessmithacademy.com

Chapters:

00:00 The $6.2M Tax Bill

03:05 Australia's Proposed Capital Gains Changes

04:19 How Indexation Doubles the Tax to $12M

05:31 "Show Me the Incentive, I'll Show You the Outcome"

06:53 Capital Gains Isn't Income Tax

07:39 The Trickle-Down Effect of Building Businesses

08:55 Gaming the System & the "Nurses and Teachers" Trap

11:13 Killing the Entrepreneurial Spirit

12:44 Why the Rich Leave: Dubai & $1.5M a Year

14:46 The UK £100k Tax Trap

15:50 Becoming a Reddit Hit Piece

16:43 Three of His Network Have Already Left

18:51 New Zealand: No Capital Gains Tax

20:05 Why Australia Is an Entrepreneur's Dream

20:56 Hostels, Sleepwalking Lies & the Woolworths Confession

22:44 How Hard It Is for Brits to Stay in Australia

24:31 Locked Out in the Pandemic

25:50 The "Plane That Couldn't Land"

28:38 Dinner With Tony Abbott & Chris Williamson

31:06 Payroll Tax: The "Temporary" 1950s Tax

31:57 Daniel Priestley & the Lifestyle Business

32:44 The Dinner Bill Analogy: When the Rich Leave

34:31 What Kinso Actually Does

36:29 Filtering Spam & Rebuilding Context

38:39 Fundraising Stories: The Dubai Deck

40:05 Why WhatsApp Is King

41:05 Inside Kinso's Beta & Manual Onboarding

42:53 The Netflix Content Strategy (11.9M Views)

44:48 Thinking Like a Media Company

45:53 The Character Arbitrage

47:56 15 Reels a Day & Trial Reels

49:41 Instagram Edits & the Sauna Guy

50:36 The Nicotine Pouch Trick Shot Ad

51:59 Trying Neutonic on Camera

53:56 TikTok Shop: 45,000 UK Sales

55:56 The Fake "Caught Cheating" Reels Model

57:24 Retail Blows His Mind

58:12 Rate of Sale & the Language of Retail

01:00:43 Business as a Coping Mechanism

01:02:16 Money as a Byproduct of the Game

01:03:35 Relief, Not Happiness, When You Hit Goals

01:04:44 The Pregnancy Analogy & a Live Negotiation

01:07:30 Do You Ever Get Bored?

01:08:20 The Post-Sale Support Group Dinner

01:10:49 Buying the RS6 & Feeling Nothing

01:11:49 What Necker Island Was Really Like

01:13:22 Losing the Ability to Enjoy Things

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Andrew Jenkins, the Traitors star, joins James Smith for a raw conversation about resilience, identity, and rebuilding a life after everything is taken away. At 21, Andrew was pronounced dead at the scene of a catastrophic car accident, lost half his skull and over half his blood, and was told he'd never walk, talk, or recognise anyone again. He walked out of that hospital and then spent 15 years suffering in silence behind a good body, a nice house, and a successful banking career.

👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith

🧪 Check your Test: https://www.manual.co/smith

📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business

🏋🏼‍♂️ Online Coaching: https://www.jamessmithacademy.com

Andrew Jenkins On Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/andrewjenkinsofficial/

Andrew Jenkins On YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@andrewjenkinsofficial

Andrew Jenkins's Website – https://www.andrew-jenkins.co.uk/

He explains:

◼️ Why failure is how you learn and why cotton-wool parenting is failing kids

◼️ How he attached his identity and his father's love to a rugby ball

◼️ Why the people with the biggest smiles are often struggling the most

◼️ How to get to the root cause instead of papering over the cracks

◼️ Why talking doesn't make you weak it makes you stronger

Chapters:

00:00 The Hidden Cost of Success

01:13 First Impressions from The Traitors

01:50 The Real Problem With Resilience

02:37 Why Business Owners Are Terrified to Fail

03:22 No More First, Second or Third at School

04:29 The Coach Who Told Him the Brutal Truth

06:43 The Dream of Playing Rugby for Wales

06:54 Attaching His Dad's Love to Rugby

08:08 James's Rugby Days and Welsh "Supplements"

09:14 The Catastrophic Car Accident

11:02 Told He'd Never Walk Again

11:56 "I Guarantee I'll Walk Out of Here"

12:40 Brain Injury, CTE and Rugby

13:37 The Other Four People in the Car

14:38 Living With the Trauma

15:52 Great on the Outside, Hating Himself Inside

16:25 Losing His Identity and His Dad

18:39 How One Concussion Can Change a Person

19:30 His Son's Concussions and a Parent's Fear

20:45 Finding Another Outlet for Competition

23:12 Sport, Business and Meritocracy

24:11 Climbing the Wrong Ladder

25:36 Does More Money Make It Worse?

28:01 Why One Bad Day Can Wreck the Privileged

29:26 Growing Up in the Graveyard of Ambition

30:43 James Being Locked Out of Australia

32:35 Happiness Is an Internal Job

35:57 Happiness vs Pleasure and the Hedonic Treadmill

37:31 Why Every Goal Feels Empty

38:59 Talking Yourself Through Your Emotions

40:08 Root Cause Analysis for Mental Health

42:02 The Chimp Paradox and Self-Awareness

42:58 Environment vs Brain Chemistry

43:54 Menopause, Women and Suicide

44:26 TRT, Testosterone and Low T

47:24 Crashing Your Estrogen — The Male Menopause

48:38 James's Own Low Testosterone Story

49:58 Talking to His Son About Drugs

52:36 The Four Ways He Measured Masculinity

53:35 Telling His Parents the Truth

55:08 Being the Responsible One

55:55 Why We Should Educate Kids Honestly About Drugs

57:39 The Truth About Ketamine

58:26 Alcohol vs Everything Else

1:01:54 Psychedelics as Mental Health Treatment

1:03:23 Amsterdam After His Mother Passed

1:04:52 LSD in the Park and a Friend's Breakthrough

1:05:42 Acid at a Wedding

1:07:35 Closing Advice: Believe in Yourself

1:09:03 Creating a Second Path

1:10:14 Surround Yourself With the Right People

1:11:00 Breaking Stigmas — Talking Makes You Stronger

1:12:36 Meeting the Man Who Saved His Life

1:13:07 Where to Find Andrew

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Tom Hawley joins James Smith to expose the deliberate machinery behind a cost-of-living crisis most people don't even know is happening to them. The co-founder of Azura Financial, one of Australia's top 10 brokerages and a three-time Residential Broker of the Year, Hawley argues that inflation isn't a natural force but a policy choice, a quiet tax on your purchasing power that hits lower and middle-income earners hardest precisely because they can't see it.

👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith

🧪 Check your Test: https://www.manual.co/smith

📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business

🏋🏼‍♂️ Online Coaching: https://www.jamessmithacademy.com

Tom Hawley on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/tom_hawley_/

Azura Financial – https://www.azurafinancial.com.au

Chapters:

00:00 The Hidden Tax Nobody Voted For

01:13 What Is Inflation Really?

04:11 Why Governments Want Your Money to Lose Value

06:44 Capital Gains: How the Goalposts Just Moved

08:01 Why High-Growth Investment Gets Punished Most

09:08 James's Plan to Dodge the Tax Man

10:30 Is the Stock Market Even Worth the Risk Now?

13:35 Are Australia's Politicians Thick or Deceptive?

15:35 Did Labor Politicians Just Commit Insider Trading?

16:50 Pulling the Ladder Up on Negative Gearing

19:42 Australia Is in Economic Trouble

22:43 The Immigration Trap: Six Years Locked Out

27:59 The 457 Visa That Vanished Overnight

31:18 What GDP Growth Actually Hides

32:37 The Festival Trick That Explains the Economy

35:24 Printing Money Is Just Diluting You

38:03 Government Waste and the $70,000 Plaque

41:14 Three Tiers: Government, Employment, Self-Employed

45:09 The Curse of Never Switching Off

47:59 Chasing a Billion-Dollar Exit for Neutonic

50:02 Why the Journey Beats the Payday

53:03 A Petrolhead's Defence of Buying the Car

57:31 Why Ripping It for Ten Kids Is Worth It

01:00:00 Smiles Per Mile vs Saving It All

01:02:25 The Revolver Logic of Retirement

01:04:20 Should You Buy a House or a GT3?

01:08:02 Why Buy When the Market Feels Worst

01:11:48 The Leverage Play Explained

01:13:18 Will Gen Z Just Inherit It All Anyway?

01:15:00 Are We Heading For a Death Tax?

01:17:08 The Welfare Trap: Better Off Not Working

01:21:33 You Get Less of What You Tax

01:23:49 Will Australia Lose Its Entrepreneurs?

01:24:54 Tall Poppy Syndrome vs the American Way

01:27:38 Closing Advice for the Everyday Punter

01:28:51 What the Government Must Do to Save the Australian Dream

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