The Technician Podcast

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Fourteen years ago, Mitch and his family/ friends ripped the carpet out of a little shop in Maroochydore and started building Glass Whole Foods..

Since then he's nearly had to close the doors, fought through COVID, dealt with council multiple times, spent years saving for equipment, built a team, raised a family and somehow created a place people now literally travel interstate to experience.

You can feel it when you walk in that this place is built different.. the customer service, the feel of it.. everything has been worked on down to the 1%er's.. and that's something Mitch and his partner and team are very proud of.. and it shows. 

I originally thought we'd talk for about 30 minutes...We went for over an hour.

We talked about what actually makes a business remarkable, why Mitch refuses to compromise the product just to make more money, health, failure, our old drinking days on the Sunshine Coast, parents, becoming dads, remembering why you started and what 14 years of doing the little things actually looks like.

And then the conversation went somewhere neither of us expected.

Mitch opened up about losing his brother-in-law to pancreatic cancer ..and the perspective that experience gave him on what actually constitutes a “hard day"

This isn't really an episode about running a cafe.

It's about giving enough of a fuck about something to keep building it when closing the doors would be easier.

Mitch Surman,.. Glass Whole Foods 
The Technician Podcast 🎙️

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Ai, Ozempic & the Death of the Hard Way

 with Charley O'Halloran (@holisticguthealth)

Charley and I had been talking all morning before we hit record.. the gym, coffee, the usual and one thing kept coming back up the more talked shit together... We've got more tools than we've ever had. Peptides, AI, information on tap. And people are still stuck and not doing the things they know they should..

Not because the tools don't work. They do. But because the struggle we're skipping was doing something we didn't account for...

I lost 15 kilos this year. Four months ago I was at 165, having 64 apnea episodes an hour, with bloods that scared me. What actually changed wasn't a protocol. It was becoming the bloke who does the thing. If I'd shortcut that, I'd have shortcut the part that keeps it. 

The actual hero journey.. 

Charley makes the same case from the health side. He's not anti-peptide.. he thinks they're the future of medicine, and he told me on this episode why I'd be a good candidate for one. But he's watched people get the result and lose it, because nothing underneath them changed.

We also got into:

• Why AI enhances the skills you already have and can't invent the ones you don't
• The jungle map moving forward when you can only see 100 metres ahead
• Where did you pull that timeline from? Charley on why deadlines cause most of the pain
• Data versus drama. Sales are low. How many times have you sold? Once. Sell more.
• A Crohn's client who took her inflammatory marker from extremely high back to normal on the basics alone
• Why Charley drinks tap water and eats ice cream, and why health has gotten fucking exhausting online
• The comparison trap would you also pay the price that person paid?
• Being honest about what you're using. Peptides, surgery, gear. Just say it.
• Blokes leaving their mates behind when they start getting healthy
• The Middle Men Movement for the guys who don't want a naked retreat or a therapist

Charley runs an 8-week challenge. Next one starts in about 2 weeks.. follow him on Instagram to catch it.

Find Charley: @holisticguthealth

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What started as a conversation about trust, content and AI turned into something else entirely...kind of ironic I start the whole thing reading research from Claude haha.. 

Taylor Bubeck and I were already mid-conversation when Justin Hughes  usually the man behind the cameras at Pivotal Conversations  got pulled in from the other side of the room. No plan. No little neat agenda. Just three people talking honestly about the stuff that tends to sit underneath the work, the business, the content and the version of success we think we’re supposed to want.. and the one we're constantly sold online and by society.. 

We get into identity..pressure..what it means to provide as a man.. the shame some people carry when they leave business or choose a simpler season, and why “just a job” can carry far more weight than it should these days.. its wild. 

We also talk about AI without the usual all-or-nothing bullshit. It can be useful. It can save time. It can help you organise, research and build. But it can’t replace your voice, your judgement, your lived experience or your ability to think for yourself.. let's keep as a helper not a be'er.. is that word? 

This one is messy in the best way..trust me. It moves through ambition, burnout, masculinity, parenting, boundaries, old versions of ourselves, nostalgia ( give me that old school shit) the pressure to always be reachable, and what it looks like to come back to being a human rather than a performance.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why trust is becoming more valuable than polished content
• The difference between being authentic and simply being visible
• What happens when your whole identity has been built around performance
• Why success can feel uncomfortable when life finally becomes calm
• The pressure men can feel to provide.. and why more of them need to say it out loud
• Leaving business, changing direction, and the shame around choosing stability.. seeing as socials now shows everything
• Boundaries, availability and the right to do absolutely nothing sometimes.. preach
• Building a relevant audience instead of chasing empty reach
• Using AI as scaffolding, not a replacement for your own thinking..
• Resilience, shortcuts and why lived experience still matters

Taylor is the host of Your Invisible Advantage, where she explores self-leadership, identity, branding and the things that sit underneath how we show up in the world.. I've been on her poddy a couple of times now and she's one of the most genuine humans I've met. Couldn't speak highly enough of her to be honest. 

Justin was the man behind Pivotal Conversations a beautiful Gold Coast studio built for real conversations, podcasts and content that actually feels like the person making it.. ( I believe he has since moved on since then). And he is another fantastic human that I think you should ALL follow.. 

Find Taylor: @taylorbubeck
Find Justin: @its_justinhughes
Find Trav: @thetechnician

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Guest: Jordan Stanton!! founder of a heavyweight running movement in London, 104kg, viral for "pound-for-pound" running content, sleep coach, aspiring heavyweight running champion of the world.

What this episode actually is: Not a scripted interview ..the record button got missed for the first 30 seconds because this turned into two blokes calling each other out in real time. By the end, both had made public commitments they can't quietly walk back.

Threads worth pulling out as clip-worthy moments:

• The origin story of "I'm thick and I'm quick"  a joke in a car park that became an identity
• The "man child" memory and shaving his arms at 12 the exact moment Jordan learned to hide his size
• The hard-exterior-soft-interior pattern in big guys, and the "I can't show my full strength or I'll hurt someone" belief formed from one childhood incident
• The "clown mask" ..performing confidence in public, collapsing at home, for years
• Kilometer 76 of the Backyard Ultra — the moment he nearly quit and the actual reasoning that got him through it
• "Everything I'm doing now isn't for the results I want tomorrow" — his line on staying in the unrewarded middle
• The Charlie story ..recognizing and publicly crediting his 19-year-old videographer, and why almost nobody does that
• Why AI makes human connection more valuable, not less (the "nod in the park" story)
• The live moment where you both made public commitments — Jordan to America/Kenya, you to Florida — neither of which existed as a real plan five minutes earlier

Real takeaway for the listener, stated plainly: if you've been sitting on a version of yourself you're scared to become public, this episode is what it sounds like when two people force each other to book the flight instead of talking about booking the flight.

Go Follow Jordan at JORDAN STANTON on IG 

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Most people think they're high performers because they get a lot done. 

They're not. They're high-functioning task machines and it's quietly killing the thing that made them good in the first place.

This is part one of a conversation with Alex (@portalbyalex), and we went deep fast. We get into what a pattern actually is, why your people get you within five minutes while everyone else stays an acquaintance, and the big one.. running your business like an artist instead of a machine. Why Michael Jackson never played a single instrument and was still the greatest who ever did it, and what that means for anyone trying to wear every hat at once.

Then we got real about money. I did a full financial audit on myself recently and found out I'd made nearly $700k in two years and had to sit there and ask where the hell it all went. So we talk about that. The patterns underneath money, the lifestyle creep, the stuff nobody warns you about when the income finally shows up.

Alex reads patterns through emotion. I read them through behaviour. Most of this episode lives in the middle of that.

If you've done the personal development work but you're still running invisible patterns that are wrecking your results .. this one's for you.

Part two's coming. The personal stuff.. the diagnosis, the masks, and the week I thought I was dying.

Find Alex on Instagram @portalbyalex.

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Episode: Her Biggest Month Ever Broke Her  — with Rani Curry

What happens when someone who's already done years of personal development work finally meets the layer underneath all of it?

That's this episode.

Rani Curry is an in-person and online PT on the Gold Coast who also works in mindset, nervous system regulation, and breathwork. She's been in and out of therapy since she was 14. She's done NLP, retreats, breathwork training, hypnotherapy, and group programs. She ran a sold-out event, had her highest cash month ever — and then completely fell apart on the other side of it.

That's when she found her way to me.

This conversation is different. Rani's a past client, and this is the first time I've had one on the pod. We go deep into her story, into what the work actually looked like, and at one point, without planning it, we drop into a live somatic process that neither of us saw coming.

A five-year-old girl on a makeshift stage in a school playground. People laughing. A decision made in that moment that quietly ran her life for the next two decades.

We found it in about four minutes.

In this episode:

• Why doing "all the work" doesn't mean you've hit the root — and what lives underneath
• The moment Rani's nervous system completely shut down after her biggest ever win
• What it actually feels like to do live pattern work (we do it mid-episode)
• The feminine wound that was hiding in plain sight for 20 years
• Why she invested $15k and what the real ROI looked like six months later
• The difference between being aware of your patterns and your nervous system actually changing
• Why Rani nearly didn't come back after the first session — and what made her stay
• The retreat moment that cracked everything open
• Building a business from a dysregulated nervous system — and what shifts when you finally aren't

The moment that'll stop you mid-listen:

Around the 20 minute mark, something unplanned happens. Rani starts talking about expression, and her body goes somewhere before her brain does. We follow it. What we find is a memory from prep or grade one — a little girl on a wooden platform in a playground, performing a song, watching people laugh.

She decided something in that moment. And it played out quietly in her business, her content, her relationships, and her body for the next two decades.

We changed the ending.

On the investment:

Rani invested $15k over six months. She talks openly about how she made that decision, what ROI actually means when you're investing in your nervous system, and what it costs to not change. No filter, no sugarcoating.

Where Rani's at now:

Busiest she's ever been. Moved into a new apartment. Building toward her own coaching company. Training differently, eating differently, showing up differently. Same person ..completely different operating system.

Connect with Rani:

Instagram: @the.ranicurry

A note on this episode:

This episode contains a live somatic process. While this is not therapy, some content may bring up emotions or memories for listeners. If anything surfaces, please reach out to a qualified mental health professional.

Work with me:

If something in this episode hit different — if you recognised yourself in Rani's story, or in the patterns we unpacked — that's not a coincidence.

I work with high performers, business owners, and athletes who've already done the work but are still running invisible patterns that are quietly wrecking their results. One session is usually enough to find it.

→ Tech Talk (single session)→ Rapid Rewire — 6 weeks: → REWIRE — 4 month flagship

DM me on Instagram @the.technician_ 

I'm The Technician. This is what the work actually looks like.

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Today's episode is one of the most unexpectedly real conversations to come out of this podcast yet.

Temika Hill is a psychic medium and grief guide based on the Gold Coast who has spent her life walking people through death, loss, and the unseen and she's only 31. She was psychic at nine, buried it for years, lost her dad young, went fully corporate, and then 2020 cracked her open and she never looked back.

What started as an interview turned into something else entirely. We got into grief as identity theft, what the body does with unexpressed loss, why closure is the thing people are actually chasing, and what the deceased actually want for the people they left behind.

And then something happened that neither of us planned.

I opened up about his grandfather and Temika just... went there. Live. Unscripted. What came through in that few minutes is the best argument for this work that any skeptic could witness.

Some of what we covered:

When someone dies, who else dies with them the identity you only had in relationship to that person, gone too

Why grief isn't just about death it's about jobs, relationships, friendships, and versions of yourself you had to leave behind

The body keeps score where grief actually lives physically and what chronic illness has to do with unprocessed loss

The dead don't stay the same age what actually happens to energy and identity on the other side

Why "they're at peace" might be shutting your grief down without you realising

What the deceased actually communicate in readings and why it's rarely what people expect

How to send love to someone who's gone without being a medium or being psychic

And the line that will stay with you: grief is just love. if you didn't love them, you wouldn't grieve them.

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EPISODE DISCLAIMER

This episode touches on grief, loss, endometriosis, fertility, and mental health. If any of these topics are close to home for you right now we hope this conversation makes you feel less alone, not more overwhelmed.

Everyone's Performing Fine. Nobody's Performing Fine. Christina Pengilly

We're all exhausted by the highlight reel.

In this episode I sit down with Christina Pengilly host of Talk Therapy.. for one of the most honest conversations I've had on this podcast.

We didn't follow a plan. We just talked. And what came out of it was exactly what this space needs more of.

Christina is someone who has lived multiple lives  elite basketball player, psychology graduate, small business owner, coach, creator and she's built something real out of every single one of them. But behind the polished online presence is a woman navigating the same fears, doubts, and dysregulation that most of us are too scared to admit out loud.

This one goes deep.

In this episode we cover:

The queen of the pivot ..why Christina has never been willing to stay in something just to prove a point and what that's actually cost her

The basketball identity ... two ACL reconstructions, losing everything she thought she was at 15, and the years it took to find herself again

The psychology degree she stood on stage with and immediately knew she'd never use the traditional way

Why she built Talk Therapy right in the middle of her hardest season .. not after she figured it out

The online space and why the independent narrative is quietly wrecking relationships

Cruise what it actually looks like behind closed doors, how she shows up for him as a man, and why she refuses to speak about him any differently in rooms he's not in

Endometriosis, fertility fears, and trusting your body when everyone around you is moving into a chapter you're not sure you're ready for

The protector pattern and the moment I turned down a Brisbane Broncos contract because of one

Why 10k followers hit different even when you know your worth has nothing to do with a number

What you actually owe the people who created you

And the one takeaway she's taking into the rest of her life from today

Connect with Christina:

Instagram: @christinapengilly

Podcast: Talk Therapy , available on all platforms

Connect with Travis:

Instagram: @the.technician__

If this episode hit you somewhere real share it with someone who needs to hear it. Save it. Send it. That's how we change the culture.

Let's go.

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You're Not Fucked Up. You're Protected.

Most people spend years thinking they're broken. They're not. They're just running outdated protection software from a younger version of themselves that still thinks they're in danger.

In this episode I break down the five most common protectors I see running the lives of high performers..and how they're quietly capping your money, your relationships, and your identity without you even knowing it.

We cover:

• The Peacekeeper — loved by everyone, known by no one
• The Achiever — high functioning panic attack dressed as ambition
• The Lone Wolf — strong as hell, lonely as fuck
• The Performer — charismatic mask, zero belonging
• The Controller — safe, stuck, and missing every opportunity

This isn't therapy speak. This is pattern work. And once you see these running.. you can't unsee them unfortunately my friend.. 

If any of this lands, share it with someone who needs to hear it.

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Grieving My Kids While They're Still Alive — Luke O'Neill

Some episodes change you. This is one of them.

Luke O'Neill is one of my closest mates ..someone I've known for over 20 years. And for the first time, he sat down and told his story publicly.

Four years ago Luke came home from work and his kids were gone. What followed was 3.5 years of family court, $180,000 in legal fees, ambiguous loss, identity collapse, and a fight to stay alive.. not for himself, but so his kids would one day know they were worth fighting for.

This episode isn't about the system that failed him. It's about the man who had everything stripped away and refused to break.

We go deep on:

• What ambiguous loss actually is ..and why it might be harder than grief
• How Luke future-paced his way through the darkest days
• What real support looks like when someone is suffering
• Why isolation can be healthy..and when it isn't
• The identity death that comes with losing your role as a father
• How love ..not anger ..became the thing that kept him going

This is the conversation men need to be having. No performance. No anger. Just the truth of what it costs to stay standing when everything is taken from you.

Part 2 is coming. There's a lot more story to tell.

If this episode hit you ..if you've been through something like this or you're in it right now ..reach out. To Luke directly at @luke_o.neill_ on Instagram. Or to me at @thetechnician — I'm always open to hearing what landed for you and what questions you want answered in Part 2.

You are not alone in this.

Trigger warning: This episode contains discussions of grief, family separation, mental health, and the emotional impact of family court on children and parents.