Your body is your most valuable asset — Guest starring Scott Henderson, editor of Men’s Health Magazine

Scott
Hey guys. Thanks for having me.

Andy
Mate. So great to have you here. I know it’s gonna be an absolute killer episode. As editor of Men’s Health Magazine, you must be a walking dictionary, your fitness and tips and tricks. Let me ask you this. What’s it like running such a massive publication?

Scott
I, I like to think that I’m a dictionary of, of walking tips and tricks, but, um, I think the more you know, the more you want to know as well, so, so kind of the more you learn, the more you kind of want to delve into, to different remedies and, and kind of different things. But to answer your question, It’s great running the magazine. I’ve got a phenomenal team. We’ve all got different interests in different areas of health. Uh, you know, for example, nutrition, like my nutrition. I know you’ve come to me for great nutrition advice. I can regurgitate what I’ve heard, but I don’t always follow my own advice. Um, yes, but, but I’m a huge fitness fanatic. So kind of we, we balance each other out. You know, we’ve got a great team, great support network, and we work with great talent and experts as well, which is, which really, really helps.

Andy
So you mentioned you’re a fitness addict, you know, what drove you to this lifestyle?

Scott
Look, if I’m being completely honest, and I’ve been completely honest about this, in the mag before it started when I was a teenager, I was, Super chubby kid and I, I’m just gonna be totally honest, I wanted to lose weight to impress a girl.

Andy
As we do.

Ange
Likely story.

Scott
Got, the girl didn’t work out. But anyway, I kind of discovered something, a different love of my life, I guess, in fitness. So I started, by, I was a swimmer at school. I, um, I swam and I played rugby. So it all happened kind of over a summer break. I swam every day and then I realized, oh, I kind of like this feeling, you know, I like waking up early. I like getting my exercise done. I like how I feel. And, um, yeah, it kind of, it just snowballed from that. I kind of, I noticed a lot of rapid changes in my body, um, as I started to kind of be aware of what I was eating, and then I hit the weights room and kind of, I, I just really fell in love with the process and kind of watching how your body can adapt to different training methods and, and, and what you eat and, and you know, how you train and what stresses you put on the body and, and how you recover as well.

Ange
And how you, uh, gain lots of confidence so that you can pick up those chicks. Right?

Scott
Yeah. Well, like I said, it didn’t work out, so maybe I’m not, maybe I’m not the best at it, but, um,

Andy
I think I even had a slight six pack when I met you. I think.

Ange
Slight? Yeah, you did. It was probably an eight pack.

Andy
Geez. I was lucky I got you back then. .

Ange
So Scott, what’s the best health or fitness advice that you’ve heard or that you could give to the listeners?

Scott
Look, I know I’ve become a walking cliche and, and a walking clock quote book from working at Men’s Health, but it’s really to listen to your body. You know, I think one of the toughest things about my job is there’s no one fits all approach. You know, everybody is different and you know, everybody responds differently to training. You know, if you want to blow up and look like a rock, not everyone’s gonna look like that. I’m a human greyhound, and you know, I’ve just had to come to peace with that. I can run great, I have long limbs. I can do all those kinds of lever sports, all those sports that kind of, you know, lend themselves to long levers. But you know, I’m probably never gonna win Mr. Olympia. You know, all good, whatever. But you know, I think that’s probably the biggest advice is just kind of listen to your body and know your body, but also do it for the right reasons. You know, if you’re gonna kind of improve your health, you know, and having an aesthetic change and kind of looking good, that’s a great reason. But if that’s your reason, own it, you know? Just own it. .

Andy
I was just laughing to myself there, thinking that some of our listeners are sitting there going, yeah, my body needs beer, , you know, that to be at my best it needs beer.

Scott
I think, you know, that’s, it’s important, you know, balance is important and that’s kind of one thing I’ve tried to bring to men’s health. You know, I think people traditionally think of men’s health, they think abs on the cover. Oily abs, pecks, biceps. You know, as soon as I kind of got this job, I was like, nah, let’s mix it up, you know? We’ve had Greg Norman there. I don’t know. I can’t even remember how old he’s now, he’s well into his seventies or or sixties, seventies. You know, we’ve had mental health covers since I’ve come on board. You know, we’ve had Kelly Slater, who, who’s not the traditional men’s health cover man. You know, if he wasn’t Kelly Slater, he’d just be some bald dude walking down the street. You know, it’s this great, exactly, this great mix of guys and kind of this different approach to health and saying, Hey, you know what, if you don’t have big biceps and abs and, and pecks, you can still be healthy. You know what I mean? And you can be healthy with those things too. It comes in all different shapes and sizes and like I said, walking cliches. But it’s so true.

Ange
I think also to what you’re saying, when you are quite lean, but you don’t actually look after yourself. You might look in the mirror and go, God, I’ve, I look, I look really good, but you might not feel so great and we, uh, we say this to our daughter who’s a diver. She is super fit and she’s conscious of her food, but she’s 15 and so she does eat too much food or whatever. And I’m sure every kid is the same. And we adults are the same too. Right? So you might look in the mirror and go, I look okay. But internally your system is not really Okay. So you, I, I like your point about saying you really need to listen to your body, because maybe you don’t feel so good.

Scott
So one of my favorite issues in men’s health, we had this guy Ross Edgeley. So he calls himself a modern philosopher of fitness. So when we had him on the cover, he’d just swung around the UK. So like when I say around the UK, like around the whole island. So I think it was 166 days of swimming. He didn’t touch land that whole time. . Yeah, he didn’t touch land that whole time. But what happened was, And, and you know, to do that, you have to be the fittest human on the planet, on the planet, at that time. Like, not everyone can just go out and swim around the UK but when we had him on the cover, we used this shot where he had just finished that swim. And when you’re swimming, when you’re at sea for 166 days, you’re not shredded, you’re not ripped. I mean, I just wanna put Ross Edley out there, if anyone knows of him, he’s supremely ripped. But this shot that we used for our cover was right after he finished that swim where he was bloated, you know, he’d been in the, in the freezing cold water for months on end. So his body had adapted and put on almost blubber. He kind of became like a human seal. And so that was the shot that we used because that body was what got him around the UK. You know, he’s the fittest, one of the fittest people on the planet and that’s what his body looks like because it adapted to a purpose. So that was kind of one of my favorite issues, you know, in just highlighting that it is really about what you feel and not necessarily about what you look like.

Andy
Yeah, that’s really good because at the moment maybe I’m training for that cuz I feel like a human seal.

Scott
It’s good to see. Good to see that issue resonated with you.

Andy
Yeah. Oh mate, definitely did.

Ange
Oh my God, that’s a classic. So Scott, on the flip side, I wanna ask you the next question, which is, what’s the worst health and business advice that you could share?

Scott
Oh, I mean, there’s a stack out there and, and you know, we try to be quite objective in our reporting. There’s always red flags for me when people that you interview don’t ever want to be quoted in your articles. And I’m gonna highlight one kind of movement that we kind of reported on, and you’ve probably heard of it. It’s the carnival or diet. Yes. There’s no, no vegetables. It’s basically all meat, you know, kind of exactly what it says. There’s not, not even, I don’t even think they eat grains. It’s just purely meat and eggs and dairy products, I think. And, and you know what, there’s a place for meat. I’m not vegan support vegans, but, but not vegan myself. But I think when you interview people that are kind of pushing these diets or, or these, this health advice, but then they aren’t willing to put their name to it in interviews and want to use pseudonyms or, that’s kind of a red flag immediately to me.

Andy
Yeah, totally. Totally. Absolutely. There’s no doubt about it. I love my meat.

Ange
Yes, but that’s not really a well-rounded diet, is it, Andy?

Scott
And we’re, and we’re really grateful that you didn’t put your name to it. And we used the pseudonym when we interviewed.

Andy
Well, they say meat and three veg. I have three meats and one veg. If I’m lucky.

Scott
At least you’ve got the veg in there. At least you’ve got the veg in there. Yeah. .

Andy
Yeah. Hey mate. The interesting thing with tradies out there, I don’t, I dunno if anyone out there listening is a bit like me, but I’m all on or I’m all off. So when I wanna put my mind to it, I can do anything and I can be super fit. But, um, just these days and age, I don’t put my mind to it as much, mate.

Scott
I don’t think that’s, um, necessarily isolated to tradies. I think that definitely resonates with magazine editors as well, , and, and I think that’s also kind of, you know, that’s part of knowing your body and knowing yourself. Going full on and committing to things, you know, it’s making gradual changes pace, you know, if, if you’re looking to improve your health, don’t give up everything you love straight away in terms of diet and don’t dive straight into training three times a day because your body’s gonna just be in shock and it’s gonna go, look what the hell is happening. You know, I miss my, my one beer. I miss my, yeah, you know, piece of chocolate, or, Hey, I physically have gone from zero. I can’t go to the gym three times a day. So it’s just making little changes and building on those as well, you know?

Ange
Yeah. You’ll never keep it up. Right? I see it actually with Andy, and like Andy said, he’s like all or nothing, I’m gonna use you as my example.

Andy
Oh, thanks.

Ange
Okay. , he’s all or nothing. So he’ll either be doing whatever he wants and eating whatever food, and then all of a sudden he goes, , I’m gonna go on a health kick. And so he gives up everything straight away. He might keep the black coffee, but all the sugar is completely gone. Dairy’s gone. And he, instead of, for instance, saying, I’m gonna do 2K in a day, he’ll say, I’m gonna do 10K runs and I’m gonna do it five times a week. And then he wonders why it’s not consistent. It’s like you’ve just gone hard too fast. Like who can keep that up?

Andy
Yeah. Well, yeah. Agreed. And, and when I’m on, I’m on, as I mentioned, and, and when I’m not, I’m not, I think though that I’m just not on the tools and haven’t been for around 10 years. So a lot of tradies out there are on the tools and when you’re out in the tools and you work hard every day, majority of them have a level of fitness. There’s no way, yes, there’s no two ways about that. But what I wanna talk a little bit about, cuz it’s becoming more and more common, especially as we get a little bit older, the injury starts setting in. So it’s not just about looking good, it’s about being strong and it’s about being healthy. And I think a lot of us tradies just don’t take good care of ourselves, you know? What’s your thoughts on that and what tools could tradie use on a day by day basis that could help them get past that process?

Scott
I think, um, a really important thing is recovery. You know, in such a physical job, maybe it’s not best to go to the gym, you know, straight after work or straight before work. You know, you’re, you’re kind of doubling over. It’s, especially if injuries are coming on, you know, I hate to say it because I, I’m not touting yoga. I. I mean, I see the benefits of yoga and, and stretching and, and kind of those preventative measures. But again, this is one of those cases where I’m not a health messiah cause I don’t follow that advice. But when I do, you know, I know when I go to the gym, my body’s prepped, I’ve got greater range of motion, you know, I can lift heavier. And, and it’s the same thing on a work site. You know, it’s prehab rather than rehab. So it’s, it’s kind of getting that body ready so that you don’t have to rehab injuries, but it’s basically prehabbing so you don’t have them in the first place.

Andy
Not for all tradies out there, but for some of us considering cars or trucks for a very, very long time. And when you’re sitting there, and in the old days I used to have this wallet about a hundred mil thick, I’d have in my back pocket and I’ll be on this lean and my hips would all be out and I’d be out of whack and I’d get on the shovel and you know, like I was just, I just didn’t look after myself. And you know, you’d have smashed a Mars bar. How did you drink? Can a mother, you know? But you’d have the hardest of, hardest days on the hottest of hottest days. And the only thing you could think of at the end of the day is smashing back a few beers, you know? Yeah. And there’s water in that, so that’s okay, I suppose. But, uh, , it’s just about trying to look after your body. And for me, I know that when I’m at my best, Is when I look after myself. Yes. It’s just that trying to get motivated and, and trying to make sure I hit those points can be just so hard. So have you got any tips around that? Well, how to motivate and get in?

Scott
I think that setting realistic expectations for yourself is kind of a really good way to start. There seems to be this marketing machine in play that people think they have to be crawling to their car out of the gym or, or that they even have to go to the gym to, to be healthy, you know? Go for a walk after work. You know, do your stretchers to loosen up your hips cuz you’ve been, cuz you’ve been sitting. It doesn’t, you don’t have to run a marathon every day. You don’t have to beat Matt Fraser CrossFit Champion every single day. You don’t have to do his workouts. It’s like I say, being a tradie, it’s an extremely physical job. Perhaps what you are doing outside of work to look after your health and getting a massage is having a stretch, you know, is balancing that beer. I’m not saying cut out the beer, but, but balancing it with two glasses of water, you know, it’s, it’s looking at your health, you know, health is super holistic and it’s not something that should be kind of a checklist. Like, oh, this is, you know, Five o’clock to six o’clock is my health time, and that’s the only time in the day I’m gonna dedicate to my health. It should just be a lifestyle, you know, it’s making healthier choices throughout your whole day. So even when you’re at work, you know, oh, do I just need to take a minute to stretch? Do I need to take a minute to sit down? Do I need to hydrate looking after your mental health on the weekends? Do I need time out from my partner? Do I, I mean, you can’t really have time out for your kids, but you know, can I set them up with something just to distract them so I can have time out? It’s a lifestyle, and again, another walking cliche and, and I, I wish there was a better way to market this, but it is, it’s, it’s just, it’s a lifestyle and it’s making every moment of your life add up to that overall health picture.

Ange
Totally agree with what you just said. And what I see in the industry or what we see in the industry is that tradies actually have an excuse. They have an excuse for everything. Everything. And they actually say, but I just don’t have time to fit in any sort of fitness routine or look at healthy foods or some sort of balanced lifestyle. So do you have any tips about that, about how they could maybe integrate a healthier lifestyle into a daily routine?

Scott
Yeah, I mean, I look at my brother who’s a tradie as an example. You know, he, when he can, you know, he doesn’t drive the ute into work, he’ll ride his bike into work. You know, into the shop. I’m the same now in my job, you know, if I want to have meetings with my team, I hate sitting at my desk so much, but we’ll go for a walking meeting and you know, those meetings we get so much more done. You know, we walk and talk, get things done. It’s even little things. You know, I remember one of the first pieces of health advice I learned, you know, back at school, this was when I was still a chubby little kid, was where you can take the steps instead of the elevator. So I was there, a Ringa mall going up and down the stairs instead of catching the elevator. it’s, and it’s, it honestly just sounds so silly, but, but these little things add up. It’s like exercise, snacking. That’s the kind of term they’ve given to it, is, you know, you could do 20 pushups, you know, once an hour. Up, you know, 10, 10 hours a day there you’ve done 200 pushups by the end of the day, but 20 pushups takes you 30 seconds, you know what I mean? So it’s breaking that up.

Andy
Yeah, a hundred percent. And it brings back memories. I used to do boxing as a young bloke around 17 and, and um, my trainees say to us, guys, if I ever see you guys using an elevator, I’m gonna kick your ass, use the stairs and go hard. You know? But, um, he was a hardcore guy, but, hey mate, I just wanna say you live and breathe fitness and health, and we sort of talked a bit about that, but do you have any other passions outside of that, or is that it?

Scott
Look, I’ve been quite lucky. I’m a big fan of writing, so I’ve obviously been able to merge my career and my passions, and I’ve kind of landed the perfect job. I mean, they always say, you know, make sure you keep your career separate from your interests. But, um, I’ve totally ignored that advice and, and just blended it all. So work has kind of become my life, but it’s honestly worked for me. You know, health, fitness, writing and then I’ve landed this job. Happy days, you know.

Ange
Awesome. You sound like you’re in the ultimate job, to be honest. If this is a love for yourself because you live and breathe what you do outside of work, and I can imagine you bring so much to Men’s Health Magazine because of your experiences in life.

Scott
Yeah, I’m, I’m very lucky. I’m, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna lie to you. I’m not a health messiah by any means. I eat a lot of junk food. I love Deliveroo. It’s on the homepage of my phone. Um, but, but what I do love is I love research and I love learning as well. So, I love interviewing people and hearing other perspectives because I don’t have all the answers. But what I feel I’m good at is asking people and, and kind of understanding different perspectives. And you know, like I said, I’m not a vegan, but I have mates who are vegan. I’ve interviewed a lot of vegans. Can see where they’re coming from. Having tried it felt great, but you know what? Milk is just so delicious. And, steak, steak is just so good. So, you know, it, it’s, it’s kind of like I said, I’m not, I’m not the healthiest man on earth, but, but I like to learn and, and it’s good to kind of have that information and keep learning.

Andy
Yeah. I think I just wanna roll back a little bit and you said you love what you do and we can see that and there’s a real passion coming from you and, and I think as tradies, we absolutely love what we do, as long as everything’s going great, right? Going well. But I even think as a health and fitness, if we drag it back to that and we get away from the business side of things, if you are at your best, then you actually are comfortable going to work and working hard and fast and, and having that banter with your mates cuz you enjoy it. But if you’ve got a bad back and a bad shoulder and you’re overweight and things aren’t good, everything’s a bit of a slog as a, oh God, I gotta climb on the roof, you know? So it’s a really important thing to make sure you love what you do as well. And if you’re feeling a bit lethargic and a bit overweight and, and similar to where I’m at at the moment, mate, I am not drinking alcohol at the moment. It’s been absolutely incredible. It’s only been three days.

Scott
But, look at your energy. Look at your energy.

Andy
Ah, mate. Amazing. And, um, you know, I’ve just gotta try and cut that midweek stuff off, stuff out for a little bit.

Ange
Well, I, I wanna add to that, Just because I think that’s a really important point to add. We do see a lot of tradies that come home and that is their go-to cuz they’re so exhausted, they sit in front of the TV screen with a beer in hand and it’s really normal to, you know, knock back one or two or three beers sometimes more every single night. And to your point, Andy, To actually cut that out, even just during the week. Don’t cut it out completely, but just having it on a weekend is probably a better thing. Cause at least then you show up to work and you’re actually gonna have energy to give to what you’re doing in the day.

Andy
What you thought you might need, can your mother start on Monday?

Ange
No. . Do you drink? Do you drink during the week, Scott?

Scott
Look, I feel like at the moment, weekends and weeks are just blurred into one. So I’d be lying if I said no, but, but you know, I don’t drink on Sunday nights. Monday to Wednesday, I rarely drink at all. You know, Thursday, Friday I might have a little bit, but, but you know, it is, it’s just cutting back and it’s not cutting out completely. Like we said before, you know, if you are having three beers a night, seven days a week, cut back, start, just cut back to two. First of all, you’ll save a shitload of money. You know, you’ve already cut out seven beers a week, and then you’ll find it’s not that hard. Then from Monday to Friday, cut back to just one, so you’re still having a beer at night, Monday to Friday. You know, you’ve cut out an extra five beers, you’ve cut down 12 beers a week. That’s a lot of beer and that’s a lot of money and a lot of beer that you’re taking in. Then once you’re okay with that, maybe take out another three from Monday to Wednesday. It’s just small little steps. It’s not, not kind of cutting it all at once because you’ll miss it. Beer is great.

Andy
It’s a hundred percent, it’s life.

Ange
Enjoy life, right?

Andy
Yeah, exactly. You gotta and my trainer said to me only the other day actually, he said, I, Andy, I want you to run. We live in Mona Vale up here in the Northern Beaches. I want you to run to the end of Mona Vale Headland and back. And I was like, Jesus, that’s a bloody long way. I don’t really feel like that. I don’t want to do that. But yes, they decided, you know, I better go. I better do it cause I’m seeing him tonight. He’s gonna ask me. So I thought I better do it. So I went for an accountability run and I actually felt amazing. Sometimes it’s the thought of doing it that’s harder than the actual doing.

Ange
Yes, put your sand shoes on and put your clothes on and just walk to that one spot and think to yourself, I just need to move my legs now.

Scott
Do you know what I love about working out? It’s a good chance to just turn off your phone and not have anyone bother you for a little while.

Andy
Exactly. In that timeout, it was a beautiful day down the beach and, but the thing is, like many of us, including myself, are getting a bit older and no spring chicken anymore, but I can’t help myself. I haven’t been on the tools for so long, but you know, I’ve just got these burning desires. Sometimes when I go and watch my tradies on site and they’ve got their shovels out and they digg in a trench and they’re dead set scratching like chickens and I’m thinking, I’m gonna show you guys a thing or two, you know, I ended up jumping into the trench, said, guys, come on, let’s go. Human backhoe. Yeah. Yeah. And I used to even call myself human backhoe back in the day. Yeah, it’s a bit weird. So we got in there and I went and I went hardcore for about five minutes and then I really started feeling it. Tired. And then I felt my back starting to seize up and I was like, anyway, boys, that’s it from me. That’s how, and I tried to walk away without a big limp cuz my back was screwed. And then I spent the next three weeks physios laying on my back flat because a lot of tradies out there, we do have problems with our discs in our back. And when I got all my X-rays, they’re like, oh geez. You can see there’s a lot of wear and tear there. And I think as we get older, you’ve gotta make sure you strengthen yourself and maybe if you can just be prepared and keep away from that stuff. I mean, what’s in the weightlifting game or in your men’s health sort of game. As we get older, it is a little bit harder, right?

Scott
Yeah. It, it a hundred percent is and, and I think that’s why there’s been a, um, huge focus on, you’ve probably heard the term functional fitness. Yes, F45 is kind of made that, made that there, there domain. But, there’s a real value behind that theory. It’s your training for functional fitness. So basically what that translates to is you’re training so that you can do everyday, everyday tasks without getting injured. You can work without getting injured. And it’s, it’s training with purpose, you know. So it’s, for me, you know, I don’t have to train a lot, I don’t have to be physically fit for my job, but you know, I have nieces, so I want to keep up with them and play with them and not get exhausted. You know, I want to go to these walking meetings, and be able to do that. I want to be able to hit the trails and do a trail run. I wanna be able to, so it’s, it’s, I’m not necessarily training to go to the Olympics, but I’m training to be functional so that my body can do the things that I want to do. And, you know, for tradies and, and for yourself, it, it might be, you know, it sounds like if you’ve got lower back problems, maybe it’s strengthening that core and that midsection, you know, and it’s, it’s doing movements and exercises to strengthen that area. And like I said before, prehab rather than rehab. So, so kind of getting in and, and making your body suitable for what your body needs to do.

Andy
Nah, a hundred percent. Mate, that is amazing. That is great advice.

Scott
And my body, and your body will do different things, you know what I mean? Yes. Like I’m, I’m not on a work site lifting, so I don’t need that same functionality, but you know, like a cop who’s chasing a guy down the street has to be fast. You know, I don’t need that. You don’t need that. We need, well, you need strength. You know, I need strong fingers apparently. But ,

Ange
You did cover a couple of things that I’d love to touch on, the first one is movement in general, I think is really important for tradies, uh, and their partners because they too just sit behind a desk at home all the time. Like everyone just needs to keep movement actually happening in your lives. But something else you touched on, Scott, that I wanted to highlight was, take a moment and make space in your world to actually turn your phone off. This whole mental health issue is really big in the trade community. Very huge and, and even more so now, I think, there’s so much pressure. There’s actually so much work right now with tradies. They’re struggling to find staff, which means they’re actually doing overtime. They don’t wanna let customers down and they’re really under the pump and they’ve got no one to talk to. And they do this stuff in isolation and therefore, Their families suffer, the children suffer and their bodies majorly suffer. Uh, so I did wanna really highlight your point about turning your phone off, even if it’s for half an hour, you’ve just gotta get away.

Andy
It sounds easier said than done though. Yeah. Like, you know, as a tradie when your phone is ringing, but you’ve just gotta make some time to have YOU time. I’m not talking time like you time walking along a beach, doing a trail, going for a jog, but you just gotta have that time out. You really do. Yeah.

Ange
Book it in like a customer.

Andy
Exactly.

Scott
There’s this real culture in Australia. It’s like a hustle culture where you’ve always gotta be busy and always gotta be on. And it’s funny, it’s, it’s almost like sacrilege to say no to something, but, but it’s totally fine to say no, you know, like, it’s exactly. People move on and then, and you know what? People most of the time are just thinking about themselves. They’re not thinking about you anyway. So they’re not gonna judge you for saying no. If you say no. , they might be upset, you’ll move on. It’s, it’s a no is a no. And at the end of the day, you, you, the only person that’s really gonna look out for yourself is you. So, you know, make sure you do set those boundaries. And, and you know what, when the business day is finished, you don’t have to answer people . I, I, and like I said, I, I’ve learned that the hard way too. You know, it took a pandemic for me to realize that as well. But I think you, especially for tradies that are running businesses out of their homes as well. There’s now not that commute and that separation from, from work and home. So there’s that temptation to just work as soon as you wake up and work into the night. But you really kind of have to, you do have to set those boundaries with clients, with your staff and And with yourself as well.

Ange
And as a tradie, because they’re the ones that are at the coalface on the tools and are the ones with billable time. If they don’t look after themselves, there is no business. Understand if they’re the ones that fall over, then what happens now? How do they actually earn money? So, yeah, I totally hear you about that.

Scott
I heard this great quote yesterday and I wish I could remember who it was so I could attribute it. We don’t have bodies. We are bodies. So, you know, and I think that especially applies to what you just said about tradies being the business. You know, we are the tools, like, like you said, if, if, yeah, it all goes south with our bodies. Well, there’s no business, there’s no no backup plan. You know, tradies aren’t using computers, they’re not using, using these things that we can kind of outsource the work to. It’s your body. So the biggest investment you can make in your business is yourself.

Andy
Yeah, a hundred percent, mate. You know, everything you’re saying today definitely resonates with me and I know it resonates with all the listeners out there. So mate, we’ve got this game we play, it’s called Rapid Fire questions. We’re gonna hit you with three questions. They shouldn’t take you too long to answer. Are you ready to go?

Scott
I’m ready. Let’s go.

Andy
Okay, so lots of tradies spend eight hours a day on the tools and they’re absolutely bugging. He’s hitting the gym for an hour after a hard day’s work, really necessary?

Scott
Uh, not always listen to your body. If you’re tired and you go to the gym, you’re most likely going to lift with improper technique and get injured. So maybe take it easy, go for a walk, but listen to your body.

Andy
Beautiful.

Scott
Was that rapid enough?

Andy
Yeah, that’s right mate. You’re just in there. It’s just high energy. Talking about high energy, uh, trade is known for being caffeine addicts and they love an energy drink as well. Do you think this habit is something that we need to quit?

Scott
Uh, yes. I think if you need an energy drink, go for the sugar-free option. It’s the sugar and the energy drinks that’s the problem, not the caffeine.

Andy
Yes, a hundred percent. No. Everyone loves a bit of a caffeine hit, but I do struggle sometimes when you’re going on holidays and it’s 5:30 in the morning. You’re going up the coast and all these tradies are coming in, getting a can of mother and a Mars bar for breakfast. I’m like, seriously, guys? Come on. Come on. Mate, The last question, as editor of Men’s Health Magazine, who’s the biggest celebrity you’ve met?

Scott
Oh, answering this always just makes me seem like a wanker. I’ve been very lucky. It’s a great job. I’ve met a lot of great people and I’m super, super grateful for the people that I have met.

Andy
That is cool. So you’re not gonna name one?

Scott
Uh, um, Kenworth is awesome. He’s just a legend. He’s a great guy.

Andy
So, Every, and you guys are good friends, right?

Scott
Oh, sure. No, we’re not. We’re not at all. He would not know who I am. .

Andy
Ah, come on. Come on.

Ange
He’d be honored to have been interviewed by you, I’m sure. And feature in your magazine.

Scott
Well, this is, I was just gonna, I was just thinking, having that thought. It’s weird being on the flip side. I mean, ask the questions. I’m gonna be a little bit more sympathetic to the people that I interviewed now.

Andy
Buddy. That’s great. Thank you for answering those questions. You know, I feel so motivated now. I’m going to get out there, hit the paving. I’m gonna smash a green smoothie, start living a better lifestyle. But I’m probably going to head to the pub first.

Ange
What? I guess you can’t teach an old dog too. New tricks, can you? Scott, thank you so much for coming on the show today. We’ve absolutely loved having you.

Scott
Nah, thank you guys. Really, really loved it. Loved the podcast. Big fan and um, can’t wait to keep listening to future episodes.

Andy
Mate, you’re an absolute superstar. I know everyone would love it. And seriously, on a serious note, I am gonna get my fitness going again. I know that I’m at my best when I’m doing that, so look out for everyone.

Scott
Cover Man 2022.

Andy
Yeah, that’s it. Geez, I got some work to do. Maybe I should swim around England first .

Scott
Thanks guys.

Ange
So tradies tuning next week. We are joined by Alex, one of our business coaches, to chat about how he sold his trade business and got to live out his start up, scale up and sell up journey. Catch you then.

Andy
Catch you!