A winning mindset for sustained success: Guest starring Layne Beachley, Seven-Time World Surfing Champion

Ange
Look, you’re absolutely right. As business owners, it can be hard to have these kinds of conversations with ourselves. We wake up every morning and try to give 200% to our business. So when everything’s not going to plan, but you are doing your best to keep your head up, it’s easier to blame luck than face the realities of why they’re outperforming you.

 Andy
It may make us feel better. Better, won’t help you build a better business. Having this kind of mindset is actually holding you back.

Ange
Yeah. You hit the nail on the head, Andy. It’s the mindset that we put ourselves in that will determine what heights we can reach as a business owner.

 Andy
Yeah, exactly. I’m not saying any of us don’t wanna be the best of the best. What I’m saying is that we need to cut the excuses and instead focus on setting ourselves tangible, achievable goals for our trade business. So that’s why it’s awesome to have Lane Beachley joining us today. Nobody knows better than her about setting your eyes on a target and giving everything you’ve got to reach it.

Ange
Yeah, absolutely. So without further ado Lane, welcome to the show.

Layne
Thank you very much. Lovely to see you guys.

Ange
Thank you.

 Andy
Oh, it’s always so good to see you and we’re so lucky we had you with Lifestyle Tradie to celebrate our 10th business birthday down in sunny Manley a few years ago. I still remember when you spoke to our members and you accredited a lot of your athletic success to mastering the power of your subconscious mind. Can you explain to our listeners out there, why our subconscious would be holding us back and what we could do to change it?

Layne
So our subconscious mind, for those of you that think I’m probably on drugs and have , just all of a sudden now we’ve got two mines. Yeah. But literally our brains are like icebergs and the conscious mind is the top of the iceberg, and the subconscious mind is what lies beneath the water.

 Andy
Yeah.

Layne
And if you’ve ever seen a photo of an iceberg, usually what’s on top of the water is about a quarter of what is below. So that’s how our brains work. So our conscious mind is where all our thinking and problem solving and um, analytical considerations and distractions and all the white noise, you know, all the chatter. We all have between 50 to 70,000 thoughts a day. I’m a Gemini. I have about a hundred thousand thoughts a day. All of that’s going on, well all day, right? That’s all the conscious stuff, but the subconscious mind harbors our beliefs. And governs our behaviors and holds onto stories and really that governs our lives. Like the, the subconscious mind is literally the captain of the ship. And, and, and it’s dominating our lives. And if we don’t shine a light on, if we don’t even stop to take stock of what is and what is not working then we never really identify with either. We just continue to identify with our thoughts, and I believe I said this on stage, that what we think determines how we feel and how we feel determines how we behave. So we are constantly told what we think we become, but ultimately, what we believe we become.

 Andy
Yeah.

Layne
So if our thoughts are not in alignment with our beliefs, then we will constantly sabotage our own happiness or our own success or our own lives. So what we can do to change aspects of our lives is first to actually take stock, what’s working and what’s not. I mean, that’s why retailers have stocktake, right? Just work out what products are moving, what products are not, and then they eliminate the ones that are and bring in more of what is. We can do the same thing with our brains. With our minds, we can start to focus on what’s serving me and what’s sabotaging me, what thoughts are supporting me, what thoughts are sabotaging me? What do I believe to be true? And because our lives are a direct reflection of what we believe, that gives us an opportunity to actually connect with our subconscious mind, because now I’m focusing on what I’m saying to myself versus what I really want. Does that make sense?

 Andy
It definitely does.

Ange
Absolutely.

Layne
Yeah. Okay. That’s good. I’m glad. I’m making sense. , what we can do is once we identify with the subconscious mind, which is literally one of the easiest ways to identify with it, is actually make a declaration. Make a declaration about what you want to achieve.

 Andy
Yeah.

Layne
Or where you’re going. or how you want to feel and then listen to a thought that comes in after that. Because the thought that comes in after that will either be in support of that declaration or in sabotage of it. And that thought that follows the declaration is the fundamental belief system. So when I said, as a kid, I wanna be a world champion, my belief system piped up and said, yeah, but you know, good in small waves.

 Andy
Yes.

Layne
Or if my belief system says, I, sorry, if I say consciously, I wanna be loved. And yet the fundamental belief system comes in and says, yeah, yeah, but you’ve been adopted. You’re not deserving of love.Therefore, these beliefs that keep coming in and sabotaging us will literally dominate our lives. So we’ll wonder why we either fall short or fail at a lot of things or destroy loving relationships or like all of these little sabotaging patterns will appear. But because we don’t tune in and listen to them, we can’t change them.

 Andy
It’s interesting because only yesterday our son was doing a beat test.He’s working on his fitness at the moment and Ange’s goes, okay, we’re gonna drop you off. You’re gonna be doing a beat test with the PT and his first response was, oh, that’s gonna be hard. And his second response was, I’ve drunk a lot of water. I don’t think I’ll go that well today. And Andrew was like, are you serious? Like, and, and how do you perform at your best when you think that way? You just don’t.

Ange
Like, he verbally said it out loud. So it wasn’t, you know, this immediate thought process actually said it out loud, which to me just makes it true. You just said it to me out loud. Yeah. It’s worse.

Layne
Yeah. Well, well, it’s good that he says it out loud because then he can change it if he ruminates on it and keeps it in his head, which we see a lot of tradies do. Well, a lot of people with mental health issues do, they ruminate. An attempt to solve problems that become bigger and louder. So at least if he has the, the, the courage and the vulnerability and also feels safe in that environment to speak it out loud, then that’s a good thing.

 Andy
Yeah. And that’s what we say the PT said he smashed it too, so it was like, why did you think like that at the start? But you are right. Get it out there.

Layne
Look, it’s called being human. We don’t wanna set ourselves up for failure, so we’d rather lower everyone else’s expectations around us. So that way we’ll feel better about our performance. So look at it, it’s called negative reinforcement.

Ange
Why don’t we get taught this stuff at school? This is so important to the development of any human, so that we don’t self-sabotage, just our life in general moving forward. It’s great.

Layne
Absolutely. Yeah, it is crazy. So that’s why we like to reduce everyone’s expectations, including our own, and that way we can exceed them and feel better about ourselves. But look, all disappointment is the result of an unmet expectation. So if you can go in with a state of acceptance and awareness, then you’re actually increasing the likelihood of success. But if you’re going in with a fear of failure or a fear of success, or fear of looking stupid, or like fear just dominates our lives and it’s so much more powerful than love because we have a much stronger relationship with it.

Ange
When you had such a belief about knowing that, or your intention was to win these titles, I imagine this is what you said to yourself. I imagine you had an incredible support system around you to ensure that you did that. Lane, I’ve heard you say, if you are not winning you’re learning, can you explain this to us?

Layne
Yes. So look in the first, not, uh, let’s see, seven years of my professional surfing career. I had this mental, this, gosh, this victimized mentality that if I was not winning, I was losing. Yeah. And in that first seven years, look, I came so close so many times to winning a world title. I actually had set a goal to win in the first five years, and I came second in the world, so I was ready to quit. Because it was all too hard, and when I had this victimized mentality, all I was focusing on was everything that was going wrong and how it was everyone else’s fault that it was going wrong. So I was stuck in this negative vortex, this negative mindset. And because I was so focused on that, where your attention goes, your energy flows. So basically the conscious mind was now being supported by the subconscious mind. So it was the judge’s fault, it was my equipment’s fault, it was my peer’s fault. It was the wave’s fault. Like this just sucks. It’s all too hard. This is all too overwhelming and, and I’m just gonna be better off just going and getting a real job.

Ange
Sound familiar? Andy?

 Andy
Well, I’m just saying. This is what I get when I talk to most trade business owners and they’re like, this is wrong and that’s wrong and that, but never do they say, I absolutely suck. They actually talk about all the other issues, it’s not them.

Layne
Yeah, so the way I was able to overcome that is first shining a light on the fact that that’s the way I was operating and it was serving me in a way, it was actually serving me in two ways. Number one, it was keeping me stuck. Which by staying stuck, allowed me to validate myself. Yes. So I was allowed to validate, yes, it is hard. Look, see how many proof points I’ve got to show you how fucking hard it is.

 Andy
So true. So true.

Layne
As humans, we’d rather be right than happy. So I was very right all the time.

Ange
I love that sentence. That’s the best. How can we then change our negative mindset into something that’s far more productive?

Layne
Yeah, exactly. So what happened was after I, uh, lost to Lisa Anderson the second time, so I came runner up twice, uh, yeah, two times I got really frustrated and fed up with that and I decided I needed to do something different. So I went through it quite a, look it’s a really grounding but confronting process called a rebirthing. And I’m not suggesting all you tradies go out there and do a rebirthing. Yeah. But it’s a really valuable breathing process where it’s a cyclical breath and instead of just talking about it and going to psychologists and counselors and speaking about it. A cyclical breath done through, it’s almost like a really gentle hyperventilation. It’s just (breathing), do that for 45 minutes and you’ll transmute an enormous amount of energy.

 Andy
Wow.

Layne
And what I did when I did that is I woke up to myself and I realized, holy shit, I have this massive fear of rejection governing my life. And that all went back to the fact that I was adopted at birth. And I wasn’t aware of the fact that I was driven through fear. So that’s why when I’m driven through fear, I have predominantly a fear of something .

 Andy
Yeah.

Layne
And ultimately it was my fear of rejection. It wasn’t a fear of failure, it was a fear of rejection. And the reason, then that translated to a fear of success is because I had judged successful people as being assholes or arrogant or dickheads or obnoxious or disrespectful. And the last thing I wanted to be judged as is someone like that.

 Andy
Yes.

Layne
So therefore, I feared being successful because I feared being judged because we become what we judge. And so when I became aware of that, I realized that I was allowing subconscious thought patterns and beliefs to govern my behaviors. So the only way I was able to do something different is actually taking ownership of it. I owned the fact that I was being a victim. Yeah. And it was the lay blame, the criticism, the judgment, all of that was me externalizing my fears and projecting them onto others just to substantiate or validate myself. Then to detach from that, I fell in love with the process, so I fell in love with becoming a better human being, a human being, versus a human doing. And Ben Crowe talks a lot about this in his Mojo webcast and podcast, but I became so focused on being a better athlete, a better human. I focused more on my technique, my nutrition, my boards, my approach to competitive surfing, my mindset, my health, my fitness. So I became a self accountability partner, like I, I became my own honesty barometer. I started taking ownership of how I was behaving, how I was speaking, the impact that that was having on people. And so, yes, I’m a seven title champion. Yes, I’ve won six in a row, six consecutive world titles, but five of them were one in a state of fear and two of them were won in a state of love. Those world titles, number one and number seven were my book Ends of Love. And the next five were fearful, yeah. Next five were fearful. So beware success because it can knock you back into a fixed mindset. We then achieve success and we believe that’s the only way it can be achieved. So when I won my first world title, I didn’t even know I’d won it cuz it was effortless. It was fun. I learned to trust in something different other than fear-based conjecture. I fell in love with the process. I won the world title, and now all of a sudden I’m placing this inordinate unreasonable amount of expectation on my shoulders to not only do it again, but to do it better.

 Andy
Wow.

Layne
To be even bigger and better and bolder than what I was the year prior, and that was unhealthy. So then I became addicted to fear again. So then I fell back into that fear cycle and look, it served me. Yeah, but at what cost?

Ange
Such a revelation.

 Andy
It is, but I, I mean, I’m sitting here now, like if you’re a trade business owner out there now and things just aren’t running as well as they should. Are you doing the blame game or everyone else? Or, or right now in traffic? Keep one hand on the wheel. One hand in the air. Go. Yep, that’s definitely me and I’m gonna go and fix it now. I can see it. Thousands of tradies around Australia and New Zealand right now with their hands in the air.

Ange
Just one hand. If they’re in a car, one hand.

Layne
You know what? You know what? Just acknowledging it is the first step.

 Andy
It is.

Layne
Becoming aware of the fact that you are in the driver’s seat of your life. And every aspect of your life. I mean, you are a self-fulfilling prophecy and every aspect of your life is a direct reflection of what you believe to be true. So the story you subscribe to, the beliefs that you have, the things that are working and not working, they’re all a reflection of you. And if you can start taking responsibility for that. Then you can start to change it, but you can’t change what you can’t see. And look, there’s as many excuses and reasons and stories as there are people. So have the courage to do something a little bit different and then see what happens. And if it doesn’t work, then do something else. But you know, Einstein said it perfectly , we can’t solve today’s problems with the same thinking that produced them.

 Andy
Hundred percent.

Layne
So we have to,

 Andy
Hundred percent.

Layne
We have to change that.

Ange
Change is critically important for all of us, uh, not just in our trade business, but as humans. To your point, we need to actually start working on ourselves first. Otherwise, this, you know, your life is gonna be no different. So I’ve got a question for you about that. So knowing that that was your direction, did you have a support system around you that helped you keep yourself focused?

Layne
Yes, I did. I had, um, great mentors, coaches, uh, high performance coaches, mindset man, people like I had. I just basically, I leaned on the expertise around me. None of us are here doing it on our own. We all have stood on the shoulders of others to be where we are today. And I think the biggest mistake, especially tradies make, is that they step into a role with their belief to have all the solutions to everyone’s problems. And,

 Andy
Yeah, true.

Layne
That’s unrealistic. No one, no one has all the solutions. And the greatest lesson that I learned is that when I surround myself with experts, I save myself a lot of time. If I’m the smartest person in the room, I’m in the wrong room.

 Andy
Exactly.

Layne
Like, I, I’m, I need to, I need to find people that challenge me, that bring the best out in me, that, um, give me a healthy dose of perspective. Challenge my way of thinking like that. They’re the people that I love to be surrounded by. So actually most of my friends that I have are not surfers, you know, cuz it’s nice to maintain perspective of life as well. And when I was competing, my greatest mentors were other world champion athletes. As well as my dad was an inspiration. My surf coach, my personal trainer, you know, I had a whole lot of mentors as well as the Tom Carrolls, Pam Buress, Lisa Anderson’s Falling Mentors, you know, Wendy Boers.

Ange
Tough circle of friends of that one line.

 Andy
Yeah, that’s huge. And um, you know, we find that with our Lifestyle Tradie Community and, and obviously you got a chance to meet them all and hang out with them, and they’re just such a beautiful bunch. And, we can talk business, but I like the aspect, I have a lot of friends outside that aren’t necessarily business owners and I don’t hang out with them and talk business and I sort of step away from that at certain times just to give me that space. But, um, I think that you’re a hundred percent right. Having that support system is really important. Whoever it is in your circles that helps you, can make business decisions, but for me it was life decisions. You know, in our support network there’s some people that aren’t successful business owners, but in their life I see them as a huge success and they bring a whole another perspective to what we look at and what we need moving forward.

Layne
Yeah, and to that point, Andy, you know, you talked about having space tradies rarely give themselves permission to have that space. Yeah, and for all of us to maintain a healthy perspective in life, we need a break away from our jobs. And no matter how much you love it, we all need a break. I needed a break from surfing and people were like, what the hell? Hell Earth could you need a break from surfing?

 Andy
It’s so true. Like most business owners, they work 60 to 80 hours a week, and then they’ve got family and friends, and it seems like they never, ever stop. And then as they get older, they’re like, oh, I need that time.

Ange
Well, they actually take a holiday and they take their phone with them and they’re attached to it the whole time.

 Andy
It’s a tough gig.

Ange
They say to themselves, no, but I had a break. It’s like, no, you didn’t because your wife will tell me that you disconnected it completely.

 Andy
But I know that, um, Lane was saying earlier, she’s got systems and structures and things in place that helps her get through that. And most business owners, we talk about that all the time.

Layne
One more thing on that, we tend to overcomplicate it too. Yeah. So we think that if we take a break that it has to be a couple of weeks or a month. If we actually learn to take breaks throughout the day, you will not experience burnout. Our brains are more like our phones than any other thing. So when our phones start dying in the battery, the first thing we do is go plug it in. But when our brains start to wear out or our bodies start to wear out. We put our foot down to see how much more we can get out of ourselves, and then wonder why we finally take a break, go on a holiday, and then we fall sick.

 Andy
Yeah.

Layne
So true.

 Andy
It is so true. I, I’d like to, um, say to a lot of tradies out there, like, you know, as we get a bit older and even when we’re younger, but as we get a bit older, we’re like a computer and we’ve got like a thousand pages open and the, the computer’s like hot at the back. You can hardly touch it, and you’ve gotta actually turn the freaking thing off and reboot it, to get the thing working properly again. And that’s what we all should be doing in life. And I try to teach our guys that every three months you’ve gotta have some type of time out away from the business where you can think clearly. I’m hearing a lot about these breathing exercises. I’ve done a little bit on the beach up there in Nuer as well, and it was a great experience.

Ange
Well, to your point, Lane, what is really critical is to ensure that you prioritize time for yourself every single day so that you recharge your batteries?

Layne
Yeah, you don’t wait till you get a nurse to sit on the bench and do breathing exercises. You can actually do them every day, any day.

Ange
Can do them first thing in the morning. It sets you up perfectly for the day.

 Andy
It is exactly right.

Layne
It still does.

 Andy
So I know that, um, you’ve had a few obstacles over the years and you seem to turn these obstacles into opportunities. Can you sort of walk me through a bit of a process and how you do that?

Layne
Well, in the first seven years I turned every obstacle into a threat. Yeah, I had a victimized mentality.

 Andy
Wow.

Layne
From then on, I realized that when I’ve reflected on these obstacles, they have become incredible learning opportunities. So therefore, I maintained a, or I adopted a mentality that every challenge, every setback, every obstacle, and every mistake is a learning opportunity. And that’s the luxury of hindsight, the 2020 hindsight that we all have. So, it’s literally just a mindset. And in the first few years of my career, you know, I talk about this victimized mentality. The reason that I didn’t see obstacles as opportunities is because my whole sense of self-worth, my identity, everything about me was wrapped up in what I did. And so when I, when that happens, you go from being guilty to shameful. And the difference is that if you’re guilty, you just beat yourself up. I can’t believe I did that. But when you go into shame, which is a whole lot deeper and more painful, I can’t believe I am that. And if you can detach from the shame and at least stay in guilt for a little longer. Uh, Then you won’t be defined by what you do, huge steps. But if you are wholeheartedly defined by how you perform and what you do and the mistakes that you made, then you’d be riding this emotional rollercoaster, which is what I rode for those five years of my five world titles. So when I was winning, I was a winner, but when I was losing, I was a loser.

 Andy
Wow.

Layne
Instead of when I’m not winning, I’m learning.

 Andy
Do you see a lot of high level athletes though? They’ve got a very similar win at all cost sort of attitude, and when they don’t they have that mentality?

Layne
Yes.

 Andy
Or do you see there’s a new breed of people coming through that actually just believe in themselves the whole time and don’t have, because obviously time’s changed from a while ago. Right?

Layne
Yeah, we become products of our environment. So it all depends on the kind of the, the childhood that you had and the adolescence and the support that you had, and then the, the beliefs that you have. I mean, I’m seeing a lot of CEOs with that at cost mentality still to this day. And, and that scares me because I know the cost. I’m still managing the cost of myself. The pain management and the collateral damage that I’ve caused throughout my career.

 Andy
Yep.

Layne
You know, you see all the shiny things, but you don’t see the shit I went through to make it happen. And, uh, unfortunately we then have to, to mop up the mess and, and there’s a whole lot of repairing to be done and a whole lot of relationships that are irreparable. So you have to ask yourself. What is the cost?

 Andy
Yeah.

Layne
Of success? And look, you can convince yourself it’s totally worth it. And I’m often asked, do you think you would’ve won if you didn’t have that mentality? And I’ve proven to myself that yes, I definitely could have won without that mentality, number one and seven and my proof points, but I just chose to believe in something else.

Ange
Awesome reflection. So Lane.

Layne
Yeah.

Ange
How have you taken charge in your life and built boundaries? Not barriers.

Layne
By understanding what I want and how I want to feel. A lot of us put everyone else ahead of ourselves. We put everyone’s happiness and we think that our responsibility in life is to make other people happy and make other people feel a certain way. Where actually we have no control over how people think and feel and behave. It all comes down to us, and we demonstrate those behaviors. You know, our kids learn a lot more from what they see, from what they’re told.

Ange
True.

Layne
So if you are telling a kid that they’re amazing and then they see you standing in front of the mirror pulling yourself apart, they’ll believe that before they tell, they believe the fact that they’re amazing. So your ability as a role model to demonstrate behaviors, speaks volumes about you and the, and the beliefs that you have about yourself. So when it comes to establishing boundaries, I first have to ask myself, well, what do I want? What kind of life do I wanna live? What kind of person do I wanna show up as on a day-to-day basis? Because as an athlete, I wanted to show up as the best in the world. Uh, and I’ve found ways to sabotage that by showing up drunk or hungover or poorly prepared or with the equipment.

 Andy
Uh, wow.

Layne
Is that a reflection of who I am or who I believe I am?

Ange
I’m sure it doesn’t help when you’ve got thousands of people actually watching you and have an expectation that you are going to win.

Layne
Yeah. Well, Ash Bardi always says that, you know, she puts that in perspective, beautifully.

 Andy
She does.

Layne
Whose expectations are they mine or theirs? Because I can’t fulfill anyone’s expectations. I don’t even know what they are. I’m literally just grabbing them, putting a story around them, determining what they think about me, and then making it my own. That’s unhealthy and unrealistic .

 Andy
Totally, totally.

Layne
So, no, I don’t subscribe to other people’s expectations cuz all that does is make me really nervous and make me really anxious.

Ange
Absolutely.

 Andy
Exactly.

Layne
And, it prevents me from performing at my best. So look, the last time I competed, it was 2018, I was competing in the WSL finals, uh, was the master’s world title. And I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. I thought everyone’s gonna expect me to compete and win cuz I’m the most successful surfer here. And so every time I got to the beach and I was really well prepared, I’d done a lot of training. I was really comfortable on my equipment. I was set in my process. But the minute I put that jersey on, it became my kryptonite. I started literally shaking with nerves and anxiety because I was worried about what people would think. I’m like, this is not serving me. This is sabotaging me. And then someone sent me a message and it said, it takes as much energy to be nervous as it does to be excited, you choose.

 Andy
Yeah. Wow.

Ange
Yes. Your butterflies for good, not for bad.

Layne
Yeah. Yeah. So I went, you know what? Being nervous is okay. Because it shows that I care.

Ange
Absolutely.

Layne
However, it doesn’t actually help me perform. So I’m gonna be excited today. Yeah. So the minute I put on that jersey, I actually visualized it as a cape. Yeah, and I went around and putting on my Wonder Woman Cape, I was about to say do Infinity

 Andy
So, um, Lane you know, if people ask, you know, speaking to themselves in their mind and, and not being as positive as they should do, how do they change the way they speak to themselves.

Layne
They can identify with what they’re saying and then ask themselves how it makes them feel? Because the relationship that we have really sets the tone for every other relationship with every human being in our life. And if we don’t have a loving, compassionate relationship with ourselves, then good luck finding that in someone else. Yeah. If you tune into the language, say for example, and I believe I shared this with your cohort, when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you say in your mind is, God, I’m tired. Oh, that was a shit night’s sleep. That then sets the tone for a very negative day.

 Andy
Definitely.

Layne
It’s okay to have had a bad sleep, so then you can ask yourself, okay, how do I feel? Why do I feel this way? And how do I want to feel and then what can I do to establish that feeling?

Ange
Not having those three beers the night before? That’s probably why they had a bad sleep.

Layne
Yeah. Yeah. Cuz alcohol actually negatively impacts your sleep and it keeps you awake. It puts you to sleep very quickly, but it stops you from going into REM sleep and then wakes you up and Yeah. So that’s an indication if you’re relying on sedatives to get to sleep and stimulants to wake you up, then you are in an unhealthy pattern. And that’s an opportunity to shift it. Yeah. So the one thing you can do to shift that is drink more water during the day.

 Andy
Yep.

Layne
And if you wanna know how much water you need to drink, times your body weight by 35 and divide that number by a thousand. So my body weight’s 56 kilos times that by 35. It’s 1,960. I divide that by a thousand. It’s 1.9 liters a day. Yes, minimum. To be properly hydrated. But if you are, if you’re listening to this and you’re relying on energy, drinks, and coffee to keep you stimulated and alert throughout the day, and then you’re relying on sleeping pills or alcohol to get you back to sleep, then , you are in a really negative, unhealthy pattern. And if you’re not including protein at breakfast and at least some form of vegetable or fruit throughout the day. An apple will wake you up more than coffee.

 Andy
Wow. That’s interesting, right? I didn’t know that. I No, I didn’t know that. And the amount of tradies I see early morning with one of those massive cans of Mars, about a 44 gallon drum that chugging down and a Mars, I’m like, you guys are absolutely killing yourself.

Layne
We don’t wanna overcomplicate that for them. No, we just. Just, just apply the water principle for a start and see how that makes you feel. But if you’re waking up feeling like that every day, then it’s an opportunity for you to change something. But don’t be, don’t think you have to do everything at once. Don’t go paleo, join the gym, and start meditating for 20 minutes a day, because that won’t last. No, exactly. Just start with enough water. No.

Ange
But as trade business owners, they have literally put their hand up to take on huge responsibility, not just for themselves and their livelihood. But it’s often their team who now have mortgages and children. Yeah. Uh, so everything, their leadership starts from them and their leadership therefore starts with them being a better them. Uh, so something as basic as water is an awesome tip.

Layne
Yeah. So be your own accountability partner.

 Andy
Yeah. Accountability partner. Exactly. Exactly. So we play a little game here, Lane. We’d love you to be involved in it, it’s called a rapid fire question. We’re gonna ask you three. You can take between 10 and 30 seconds to answer them. Are you ready?

Layne
Ready!

 Andy
How do you personally deal with failure?

Layne
Today or 30 years? Today?

 Andy
Today. Today was different, eh.

Layne
30 years ago, I used to punch myself in the head and pull my eyes out.

 Andy
Yeah. And today?

Layne
Today I accept it as a, uh, critical stepping stone towards success. I see it as a valuable learning opportunity. Sometimes I get swept up in it and sometimes I feel really sad and sorry for myself, but I don’t hang out in that self pity party for very long.

 Andy
Perfect. Perfect. And how can we all be better at seeking help and support from others?

Layne
Uh, recognize that you don’t have all the answers. And then choose in your network who you are willing to ask help from. Yes, because there’s only a few people in our lives that have earned the right to listen to our struggles. So you gotta make sure that who you’re reaching out to, you have the, the sense of safety and sanctity in that relationship that they’re not gonna judge or criticize or ridicule you. They’re actually just gonna listen to you.

 Andy
Yeah. It’s so true. So true. And probably the most challenging question of the day. I’m a very average surfer. Do you think you can train me to be a world champion?

Layne
I’m, I cannot train you to be a world champion. The best I could do is possibly teach you how to surf.

 Andy
Yeah. . Exactly. Exactly, exactly.

Ange
Step in the right direction.

 Andy
Those things, surfing, I’ve done a lot of it. We’ve traveled around Australia, but the one thing with it is, um, every time I’m out there in the surf, I always go, oh my God, I just love it out here. And then I just get back into work and family and don’t do enough of it. So I’ve gotta have to fix that.

Layne
Well, if it’s really important to you, you will.

 Andy
Exactly.

Ange
Exactly. Priorities, right?

Layne
Yeah, exactly. Yes. See, I, I timebox my day and I make sure what that means is I schedule periods throughout my day for certain activities. Yeah. And surfing is a non-negotiable timeboxed activity in my day.

 Andy
Beautiful.

Layne
But that’s why I will literally be late to meetings or change meetings last minute if I see that there’s gonna be less.

 Andy
You’ve gotta, as a surfer, you’ve gotta make the most of it. When it’s on, it is on.

Ange
Yes. You can’t miss that.

Layne
Absolutely.

Ange
Lane.

Layne
Yeah.

Ange
Thanks so much for joining us today. I feel so motivated and super prepared to take on any challenge. It’s great.

 Andy
Yeah. The same, I mean, who needs a coffee when you’ve got Lane Beachley on the other end of the microphone? Yeah, baby.

Layne
Yeah.

Ange
Eat another apple, Andy.

 Andy
Yeah, I don’t, I’m gonna get outta this podcast room, grab a couple of apples and I’m, I’m into it. But we just wanna say a really big thank you. Thanks for talking to us, tradies out there and, and we love you and you’ve been such a superstar for us. So yeah, a real big thank you from all of us.

Layne
Thanks so much for having me. And, um, yeah, keep managing your life to the best of your ability, cuz we need you guys to keep us going.

 Andy
Definitely.

Layne
And our house repaired, like our lives repaired, so, um, yeah, please monitor and maintain good health and wellbeing.

 Andy
Thank you.

Ange
Thanks, Lane. Loved it.

Layne
Thank you guys.

 Andy
I think the core message here is to focus on what you can control, accept what you can’t, and just take things one step at a time. If you rush ahead and try to do too much too quickly, you will fall down.

Ange
Yeah, right. And having a support system in place. We know the isolation trade business owners face. We’ve had this experience firsthand. We recently asked some of our members what they love the most about Lifestyle Tradie and our community was definitely at the top of the list.

Member’s testimony
Don’t wait. These guys are very honest and open. They share so much information, personal as well as, um, Uh, it’s a holistic approach to life, not just, uh, how to run your plumbing business.

Yeah, definitely join lifestyle trading. The amount of support and knowledge which is within the program is valuable. Um, the other thing is, uh, the community. That Lifestyle Tradie developed is amazing. There’s been so many times where I’ve learned on the community’s advice, where we’ve had certain issues that we’ve been able to bring up in our, you know, Facebook group. You get plenty of answers that you can actually take. You don’t know what you don’t know.

Lifestyle Tradie has a huge sense of community, just a great group of people just hanging out, helping everyone out, and they help you out. Just hanging out after the events is always fun as well. Some great speakers come along and definitely always, always learning stuff from every event we go to.

Do it. Like don’t hesitate every year that you put it off, there’s just an extra year that you’re losing. You don’t get this time back. That’s one thing that we can never buy is time, so you need help getting it.

Ange
I know it can be hard to understand without experiencing the community for yourself, but imagine that the moment you were faced with a challenge, instead of having to literally toss a coin, you could ask a question to a group and within moments be rewarded with multiple different ways to handle the situation. Often ideas you’d never have thought of yourself simply because you are just too close to the issue.

 Andy
And what’s even better is being able to share advice or recommendations yourself from your own experiences. It really gives you such a confidence boost when somebody has a genuine interest in your business and wants to learn from you. How good, right?

Ange
Yeah. Well, that’s us done for today. If you wanna be a part of our member community, head to lifestyletradie.com.au and book a free strategy session with Andy. Let’s see if you’re the right fit for Lifestyle Tradie.

 Andy
I’m always keen for a chat. Catch you next week.