My first Bio, it’s all about me, how hard can it be? 

*Sits and stares at blank screen*.

I always seem to have a small ball of blue tac in my hand. Rolled between my forefinger and thumb, I squeeze, ponder, roll it, I wouldn’t even know exactly where and when I picked it up. It’s a product though, I can’t just throw it away, and it feels too good to put it down, therapeutic. If only I had invented the fidget spinners! Does that make me crazy? Well, I believe we all need a little crazy to keep ourselves sane! It’s all part of life, OCD, stress, anxiety…positive highs and fantastic times, our coping mechanisms, our choices. The mind is a complex and influential tool, and it intrigues me deeply.

What I do find crazy is that people are so programmed by marketing that I never see a person open a crisp packet upside down. Not as in so that all the crisps will fall out, that would be crazy, but with the bottom up. Wasted programming and I’ll open them whichever way I choose and won’t give it a second thought and that’s just a taste of the thrill-seeking kinda guy that you’re soon to get to know!

On top of my crisp opening shenanigans, I have filled my time with memory-making experiences; travelling the world and partying, motorbikes, fast cars, bungee jumps, flown planes and jumped out of them (not at the same time). An advanced deep sea diver that gets bored easily, only to find myself back in my comfort zone.

I despise the feeling of having nothing to get up for. So I challenge myself. I recently decided to have a boxing fight to shake things up; while a comfort zone may be comfortable, nothing grows there! Committing to a fight brought with it stress, anxiety…and exhaustion. Once managed however, I received a huge reward in the further understanding of my own character and, dare I quote Rocky? I’m guna!… “It’s not about how hard you hit it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward”. Life can be tough and bring us to our knees, we have to get up! I won by technical knockout in under 90 seconds.

Egotistical? Maybe a little, but we are all so much more than any one thing! I believe I am a passionate man sometimes hidden behind a harder front just to tone down my niceness. Envisage me feeding a dyeing bee sugar water on a spoon to save its life, but if I got stung by one it probably wouldn’t even hurt me, I’m tough like that/yet soft . (I have also tried the same for a dying fly, you know when they’re back spinning on the windowsill, just ended up with a dead sugar coated fly but that’s another story).

As many tough men won’t tell you – this often leaves us with an equally sensitive side. I over think and I care. I have huge amounts of empathy for anyone that ever needs it and, like many. I have felt my share of pain. In the words of Bill Withers; “Lean on me”. The respect I have when someone goes out of their way to help in a selfless manner has reinforced my own characteristics as a natural empath. This combined with having the kindest, most caring granddad that anyone could wish for, empathy must be in my genetics. For this in me that I saw in him I am now comfortable and proud to accept this.

I have a creative side, wouldn’t dispute that I’m fair-to-middling on the autistic spectrum, complemented with an entrepreneurial flare.

It seems that any business I create is initially to help areas of my life that need improving and in turn complimenting others. From hypnotherapy, personal training to app development, a life coach all the way to a ‘butler in the buff’ “do these flip flops make my bum look big?!” Work should be fun, at least enjoyable and when you work hard it must be rewarding.

As a personal trainer for many years my success could be largely accredited to the combination of my main characteristics, tough enough to push my clients with a genuine empathy to care, a sense of humour to call myself good company and a personality to adapt and get on with every individual. The beauty of being your own boss and creator of your own destiny is that of course you will only create businesses that your strengths strive in. My strengths are applied in all areas and I hope that my passion shines through.

With years of hard work, all of my experiences, pains, successes and failures, with every aspect of my personality – this app is being built with the greatest amount of passion I have ever delivered. It’s a fantastic thing that every listener now becomes a part of my life and if I had one dream, just the one thing that I can be very proud of, it’s that Rise & Shine will compliment yours.