"Appreciating every step of your life journey" with Peter Meyer

Peter Meyer is in conversation with Jay Humphries, your host. 
Together they delve into Peter's past and discover how he has been able to turn his dreams into reality. How setting objectives, taking steps to achieve these, surrounding yourself well truly helps you achieve your life goals. But also keeping track of the things you have done in your life and the things you still want to do. To learn that disappointments, should strengthen you, not weaken you. This is a conversation that will remind you about the experiences in your life and how they have shaped you, and it will make you value every little step in your life journey.

About our guest:
Peter Meyer grew up on an incredible Safari Reserve running wild with Zulus and wild animals, set up by his father James (Jimmy) Meyer. At the age of 10 he moved to boarding school in the UK and there excelled at sports being a 1st Team player of all sports and a record breaking swimmer. He then entered the world of hotels, studied at Les Roches University in Switzerland, and worked for Hilton, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, JA Hotels and YTL Hotels. In 2014, at the age of 30 Peter sadly lost his father to cancer. Struggling to focus on the Hotel world he found himself presented with an opportunity in Acting and Modelling. He worked his way up in 2 years to acting in feature films including Hollywood productions alongside A-Lists Actors such as Brad Pitt & Marion Cotillard in Allied, Liam Neeson in The Commuter and The Transformers , The Last Knight all as an extra. He had his first lead-role playing Lee Reynolds in Guide to Get Lucky in 2015.  Some of his Modeling has been with brands such as Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, GANT & Tommy Hilfiger.
He wrote and produced The Boy From the Wild, a documentary about his idyllic childhood nurtured by an inspirational father who taught him to believe that everything is possible.
>> Get the book on Amazon. 
Peter is now owner and founder of The Meyer Studios,  an Award Winning stunning large open-plan Penthouse Photography Studio in Clapham, London. 
He has been featured in Surrey Magazine, in RTechRound, in Esquire, and more.

 Related Episodes:
"Wholistic leadership" with Chris Mumford

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Transcript

Jonathan Humphries [00:00:00] I am your host, Jonathan Humphries. Welcome to the HoCoSo Conversation. These podcasts are dedicated to exploring individual life journeys. They are designed to provide insights into how people manage transitions and ultimately become better versions of themselves. Each conversation is an evolving discovery and allows you to follow us as if you are here with us in the room. Thank you for choosing to listen to HoCoSo Conversation. Good afternoon. It's an absolute pleasure to have Peter Meyer on the HoCoSo Conversation today. Hello, Peter. 

Peter Meyer [00:00:36] Hey, Jonathan. It's really great to see you. How are you doing? 

Jonathan Humphries [00:00:39] Yeah, very good. Thank you. Well, I see you're in sunny London. We've got sunny Zurich here. 

Peter Meyer [00:00:44] Yeah, It's amazing this time of year. And I mean, I've been telling people you've got to pack your bags and come to England. It's not something people normally say. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:00:53] Exactly. So, yeah, let's make the most of this sunny afternoon and we're going to have a little conversation together. It's our first podcast and, you know, going through the materials that's publicly available, podcasts and articles and, you know, in Esquire and all these kind of different things. I wanted to find an angle which was around the topic of creating things and making things happen. And I saw a theme and also based on the conversations that we've had personally, you know, we got to kind of meet each other in Munich recently and spend some time with each other. But I saw a theme of somebody who has these incredible dreams and is then able to make them reality. And I want to set the scene for the audience here, because I actually have this quote up on the wall in the WC, toilet, WC, bathroom or whichever nationality you're coming from. But basically it's there every morning whenever you can see it. And the quote is and I'm kind of adapting it slightly, it's an old quote. Some people dream of things that exist and say why? I dream of things that don't exist and say, why not? Okay, now I've adapted that, actually, it's from J.F. Kennedy in his speech, 28th of June, 1963 in Dublin. But, you know, and obviously incredible figure in terms of making things happen, especially if you consider the space race and going to the moon and all those kind of things. So with that, I just wanted to I know it's a huge question, but you've been able to turn your dreams into reality, and I was wondering if you could think back to your earliest memories of having dreams and making them real and give us some examples. 

Peter Meyer [00:02:43] It's an incredible quote. I love what you just brought up, and I think the latter is so true. And I mean, I have something similar in the book that I put where I was growing up in South Africa. I'd said we were living the dream without knowing it was the dream, you know, and looking at it from a completely different angle until later, It's very interesting. I think, you know, where I grew up, being in the wild, being surrounded by tribes and wildlife and beauty and nature, I think you sometimes have different dreams of where you can go out and see other things, like other normal kids, you know, and going to the beach or going to the city or going and seeing shows and stuff like that. I remember wanting to have all of those when I was younger and then eventually those things happening. But I, I think one of the things that I used to dream the most was I used to admire and watch my father a lot from a young age and see how he handled people, how he's handling the animals. And I think wanting to to be that person, to have that. And I think those were the first ones that I remember vividly, just being in awe of what he used to do and how he used to handle situations or work with other people, how he used to look after my mum and help her through tough situations where we were living, you know, amongst wild animals that could, you know, take you out at any particular moment of the day. You know, it was, I think just looking at him in a sort of hero worship form and then wanting to be like him one day. I think that was one of my first dreams I ever had as a young kids. And then I think the older I got, it was more adapting to seeing how successful he was. You talk about creativity. My creativity really was inspired by him. He's someone that just did so much at such a young age. At one point he was in his early twenties, building over a thousand homes a year here in the UK offices, golf courses, commercial properties, residential, all these kind of things and adopting like some of the craziest wacky ideas and making it all come to life. And I think being able to have someone in your life who's done it already, maybe some weird way that DNA already filters into you and it's kind of a part of your bloodstream already that kind of gets that heart pumping. So I think, you know, both of that really fall in line with a particular person in my life. And it's really nothing sort of taking away from my mum. You know, she's just incredibly inspirational but in a very different way and also different parts of my life, which I think would be very useful. But my early part was all based around my father creating a habitats, an environment, a place for animals, people, us as a family. So very much from there. My first dreams are all there. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:05:07] That's wonderful. So he really created the environment for you to essentially live in and be part of an experience. And I'm taking a sense that he was also incredibly supportive and encouraging very much. And we talk a lot about taking risks when we talk about making dreams happen. But I have a sense. From our conversations that you have this view, it's about taking steps rather than taking these risks. You know, wonder if you can remember the first goal that you you set yourself personally, your first dream that you had. And obviously, you were at semi-pro rugby. I don't know if that's one of the ones you want to touch on. But, you know, how did that kind of manifest itself in you personally? 

Peter Meyer [00:05:56] I think a lot of it is really about the environment that you're in, whatever that might be. And I think my father created a number of different environments, both physically and mentally, but I think also the school environments, the countries I was in, I think probably the first real ambitious goal I had is you could say it was in sports. I think it was probably getting to first team rugby and I was at the time, which is brilliant, roughly about the same size as I am now. Unfortunately, I didn't grow up with as I grew outwards. But you know, I was a big kid that had an advantage in rugby. So I think purely from that, having a big structure and a build gave me an advantage on the rugby pitch, which I think settled me into getting great results, great effort with the team, a good team environment where where people were supporting me to help try and win games or break a line in order to be able to pass the ball on someone else, you know, became a very tactical kind of mental game on the field. And I think those were some of the earliest goals. Same thing with cricket. You know, I used to be a super fast bowler, not always the most consistent because sometimes I try and put too much power versus accuracy. I used to use intimidation at times for that. So I think sport was very much where my first goals were to try and achieve and to do well. And I remember I got my first call to go to club outside of school and was super proud because you're so tailored to being in school with your friends, your mates, your, you know, where you're bonding and suddenly going to an area where there's a bit more pressure, there's more expectations and you're making new friends and stuff like that. So I think those were probably some of the earliest. But the other is really actually when I graduated from Le Ross and you know, we both support Leeann at the moment, but I am an ex graduate from there was back in 2004 and I remembered wanting to excel in my career. I wanted to achieve I wanted to get to the top. And I remember getting my first I had manager roles and that was great. But I remember getting my first director role. And director back then was a big title and I was 26 years old with Hylton when I got that and I remember being told I was I was one of the youngest company directors at that point and not the youngest, but one of and I was super proud and was like, I've reached something here now I've got to make sure I deliver on it. And there's a few stumbles along the way because it's important that you've got to learn. And sometimes those mistakes become the greatest successes later. But those from, I think, sport environments, having the ambition to get somewhere, to then keeping that sort of same drive and fire internally to excel afterwards in a different team environment, I think really helped sort of move me a few steps forwards quite quickly, but probably through good composure and good understanding and again, using sports and people that have influenced you in the right environments have really helped get me to those particular points in life. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:08:36] That's really great, actually. You know, I have a sense that we've obviously had the opportunity of working together a little bit recently as well, which has been really great. I have a real sense that you are a genuine people person. You're fascinated about people, fascinated about humanity and how human beings work and their intricacies and foibles and all these kind of things. You're just a wonderful person to be around and you got this incredible sense of humor, which will save for another podcast. But, you know. 

Peter Meyer [00:09:04] I don't know if this is a podcast or a date, so it's getting very romantic there. 

Speaker 3 [00:09:08] I love it. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:09:11] So the essence of it is my take on it, Peter, is you have a great sense of team and you have a great sense of community. And although you know you have achieved many things, we'll get on to some of those things as well that you've achieved. I have a sense that you're really aware that what actually makes things happen is having really, really good people around you. Yeah. So even if it's an individual goal, so maybe let's talk about that particular goal of becoming a director at Hilton because it's something that you've just addressed and given maybe some of the audience in their careers, this could relate to them. But can you give a sense of how that worked from a community perspective and a team perspective rather than a I went out to achieve promotion for myself kind of, because that's not what you're saying here at all. I don't get that sense. That's what you're saying It was. That was the goal that you personally set for yourself, but around you was, I'm sure, some really helpful, supportive people. That Cup Salute enabled you to achieve the goal that you'd set out. So I wonder if you can explore that, because I'm a great believer that we can't do goals in isolation. I was very fortunate to do an executive MBA later on in my career, and at that time I was at marriott and they were partly sponsoring this. I remember our first class and the professor is a Kellogg professor, and he said, look, this is just the main piece of advice I'm going to give you. He said, Go home after this class and make sure your family, your friends and your company and everybody that is supporting you needs to know that this is going to be your priority for the next two years. And it's not about the relationships you have. It's not about the fact that you don't care about them. You don't love them, that you don't care about your job. But you need to make everybody aware that this is a priority because then they'll understand and then they'll be rooting for you. But if you don't do this, he said, I guarantee you won't make it through these two years. I mean, it was just such a great piece of advice that lo and behold, the people that didn't do that, they didn't make it through. And it's really an eye opener for me. So I was just curious, just kind of going on that whole team aspect and collaboration aspect. Maybe we can play on that a little bit. 

Peter Meyer [00:11:31] Yeah, it's a great statement and a great question, and at the same time, I think listeners will hear a common trend here. It really does start from a young age. Having a father that was purely a team player always from every angle. And I think this is something that I preach even in today. And I'm no doubt you're doing the same with the students. Teamwork makes the dream work, you know, And it's I think we always try and say to these people at a young age, what do you prefer to be? You want to be a manager or do you want to be a leader? And sometimes you get a lot of people saying, I want to be the manager, I want to be the boss. And then you try and explain very gently and in a constructive way the difference between the two and that a leader isn't just somebody that leads from the front, it's somebody that leads by example, you know, is accountable. But at the same point in something that my father showed me and what I've seen before and what I showed on the rugby pitch as well, is that it's never looking about the people at the front to make sure that the front of it looks good. It's also helping the person at the back of the line find a way to get to the front also and either train them as well to be good enough the new one day to do an even better job. And I think that's something where you have to learn to realize that you're never the best. And what's a good leader is never somebody that is totally perfect at that particular topic, subject, job, role, whatever it might be, but of finding the right people and bringing the right heads together with the right emotions, right mentality, right skill set, right commitments that can get the goals done. And I think a great example is like Jonah Lomu, one of my great heroes in rugby, you know, probably the guy that set the trend. People just say, Oh, he's the greatest. Like nobody could stop him. But what people may not sometimes remember is that it's the entire team that does everything first to get the ball to him, then it's over to him. They've set up the play. They've moved the scrum far enough away that everyone has to sort of migrate to where the ball is. Leave him out wide, get it all the way through that amazing teamwork, builds it to the person to get the end result and to get the win. And you know, whether that's a five star review in business, whether that's profitability, whatever that might be, or whether that's just someone's personal success, those areas, I think, have been instilled in me from my father, you know, my mum at the same point. But the people I've worked with, the people on the pitch and all the people that I've worked with, the ones that have taught me the good, the bad, the ones that have challenged me in the worst ways have actually been some of the best examples. Even the people that you've butted heads with, whether it's on the rugby pitch or or in work, all of those, I think, get you to where I'm at. You've got to have an individual sense of drive, no doubt about it. There has to be a level of what you want you have to go after and you need to get it and protect it. But you need to be humble enough that you have to respect the people along the way to get you to where you are. And I think the older we get, it's not just the fact that we've been through something. We've had experience. Experience equals wisdom, and wisdom doesn't have to be because you're old or anything. You can still be young but have had experience and have wisdom based on how to answer a particular scenario. And I think that's where my dad, he was a very, very young, successful businessman that had just waterfalls, you know, countless waterfalls of wisdom flowing every day. And everything he did was for others. You know, he never even for me, one of the things that I love the most, particularly on a personal side with him, he was a wealthy man. He did well. But it was it was never given to me. It had to be earned. And there was one thing that was really good about him that he didn't just do with me, but with a lot of other people is the expression of when your back's against the wall. He was always the guy that put himself between that wall and myself, and he would help not push you off, but tell you how to get off and when needed would give you that little extra push. And I think that's something that you then instill in yourself to help somebody else. How can you make somebody stronger on the rugby field? How can you make an employee or a student better in their life? And ultimately people then start talking about you in a very different way versus arrogance. You find that sometimes people say, Y you're really confident and that's a great. Clement versus people saying, you're really arrogant. And I think all of those little things put together achieve great success. But remembering that the tail that you have is incredibly long and it's a big thank you all the way down to the end of it with all the people that have helped you. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:15:46] That's wonderful. Thank you, Peter. For those that aren't familiar with rugby, I think we need to set the scene about Jonah Lomu. He was a prodigy, all black. I can't remember his age. I think he was. Was he? 19? 28? 

Peter Meyer [00:16:00] He was young when he hit the scene. Yeah, but he was the equivalent. If we look at sport, he was your T-Rex of Jurassic Park, You know, he was the big guy. Nobody messed with him. You know, Hardly anybody could stop him. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:16:10] He decimated all the teams, right? He came out of nowhere. And everybody just I mean, the All Blacks just stole the show until they figured out what was going on. 

Peter Meyer [00:16:17] Well, and he changed the game. He changed the entire game of rugby, which I think also put it onto a different platform around the world, which I think was incredible. And I think it showed also that rugby became a lot more strategic and it actually became more about how somebody self-discipline and all the effort that they go in. It's not just being big, it's preparing yourself to get big, being engineered in your own right to be fit, hitting the gym, being ready, being tactile, and not just saying I'm big and no one's going to stop me. He knew how to move around people. He knew how to be placed. He was a smart rugby player as much as he was big. That's something which just showed. If you really analyze the game, it's not just like nobody wanted to go near him. He hit the ball running at full speed and if it was always late, he was well trained enough to pick up speed fast enough. And I think as a player it was just brilliant to see how that changed the game and how many people suddenly tuned in because of it. World Cups have never been the same since then. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:17:14] That's very true. That's very true. I'm going to go at a slight tangent here. Let's just explore this together. So stars. Okay. And you know, talking about Prodigy talks about stars. He was a star player and rugby needed a star player. The All Blacks needed a star player at that particular point in time. Yet it required absolutely everybody to be around. And as you said, they all needed to really understand what their role was. And I was then drawn to your experience in film. Okay, So you've worked with stars in movies, and we know that, you know, movies sell because of stars, right? I mean, you need that star in the movie. You need to have that name. You know, everybody wants to go and see Tom Cruise in the latest Top Gun movie, right? I mean, is that epitome of a star. But for that star to function and that star to perform and that star to stand out, everybody has to do their job incredibly well and want that person to succeed and vice versa. You know, it wasn't originally where I was going with our conversation, but I like to explore that with you because you've had that experience. And I was wondering what your thoughts are on that particularly. And actually as human beings, we all have our role here on the planet is to shine in our own unique, special way. I truly believe that it's not necessarily to be the star of the show. It's not necessarily to be the star of the sports field, like Messi or not, but it is, I believe, to find the essence of ourselves why we are here and to allow that to shine through. So I was wondering if you can kind of explore that with me, what your thoughts are on this particular suggestion or hypothesis. 

Peter Meyer [00:19:02] It's a really interesting one that I mean, I think a lot of it will also come down to the marketing business. You've got to know how to bring this in and presentation is key is what I always tell my students. But I think in this industry, I mean, it's really understanding how to bring the best out in a project, you know, how do you know where your lead roles is? And we're teaching hospitality and we've got to look at it from how can we have a very good general manager in a hotel? What's the star of the movie? What's the general manager of that? And I think one of the great things about the lead actors is a number of people can just go, Wow, the red carpets and everything. You know, it's just it's glitz and glamor. It's really not. If anything, it's probably 5%. 95% is horrible. You know, you've got to prepare. You've got to put your body through change. You've got to work with other people to get to what's there. You've got to take yourself out of comfort zones and challenge yourself to become something different. But I think the greatest responsibility of all those actors is how do they carry everybody else? How do they integrate everyone else to make the movie flow, make it look good? And it's a teamwork of people from the director, from the producers that have been funding so our investors and hotels, etc., etc.. You know, how do you kind of get the best out? And I think that some of the lessons with great actors that really can make a difference to carrying something, to being successful and profitable because again, it is absolutely everything critics will be analyzing, not just the main person supporting on us. I remember there was a film. With Harry Styles that was making his first appearance, and it was a war film that was all about sort of Second World War thinking, like crews on the set, sort of like trying to like, manage people. The weather's horrible, this, that and the other, and then the trailer comes out and all that they focused on was one supporting artist who's an extra. And all he does is he looks up and he's somebody starts laughing and all of a sudden everything is focusing on that. Now it's quite clever because you can use the marketing angle, but it's how well you piece absolutely everything together. And some great actors take that time to make sure that they follow absolutely everything. And I remember I was on a film commuter with, I mean, a small thing. I was just kind of walking through the train. But I spent two weeks with Liam Neeson on it. And one of the things that I loved about how he was his preparation was on point. He came in absolutely knowing what he was on about. He knew his lines. He knew his mark. Something that you and I think teacher all of our students know your stuff before you go in. You're going into an interview. Prepare for it. Be ready. Impress them. He came in a star every single time. He came with distinction, but at the same point he was humble enough to go and speak to the catering staff, the cleaners, shaking hands, taking time, finding sort of people that are humble enough to sit at the back of the bus with everyone else, you know, and those kind of things. I think it's just absolutely brilliant on film sets, but it's knowing how to market correctly. It's knowing how to pull the right pieces together and really making something unique. You have to look beyond the front cover or the poster in order to realize what's going to come out of it. And I think what people don't realize is that sometimes movies can take a few years before they even begin. Then you could be looking for six months to a year just to complete the movie. So it's a huge amount of effort goes into into that world. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:22:19] I think is a great parallel to what we do in hospitality. It takes absolutely years for these things to unfold, these creative projects as well. And, you know, I think that's why it's so important to have the right people. It's so important to have those. Pretty much everybody on the team needs to be a star in their own way, and it's just about bringing those together. I want to change a little bit into you've done many things. You're much younger than me, Peter. 

Peter Meyer [00:22:49] Hardly my greys are going through. I there's so many coming through lately. I'm wondering if it's like a brand new Christmas for me where I'm actually going to be playing Father Christmas is another wides. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:23:00] Well, in your short A Life, to me, you've achieved an incredible amount. I mean, you know, semi-pro rugby player, you've been an author, you've been the documentary filmmaker, you've been an actor, you've now got your own photography studio, You're an educator, you've been a general manager of hotels. I'm missing probably many other things as well that you referred to in one of your previous podcasts. And what we're going to do is we're going to put all the sources of the things that you've been doing, you know, below. But I wanted to expand on one of the things it was you have this approach, which is having these two pieces of paper and one of them is done and one of them is to do. And I really like that. And I don't know if this is a real thing or it's kind of a mental thing. So maybe just explain to us how this works in practice. 

Peter Meyer [00:23:49] It is more of a mental thing. Thank you for the promo. They're not so successful on all of them. I've certainly enjoyed the journey and the adventure. I mean, yes, I have got a book, but I mean, as much as I have that, you know, I think life for me has always very simply been built on two pages. The things I have done, the things I haven't done. And I certainly try and preach this to other people. I think it is far more useful having so many things that you have done, whether it was amazing, whether it was awful, whether it's something that you fail, that you will at least live to something which is so important, where I say you'll have no regrets because at least you've done it versus the things that you say, Oh, I wish I've done this, or Oh, I should have done that thing that I've learned a lot about since since losing my father about ten years ago now is that time is just so precious. And I think those two pages are so important in your life. And it's a very easy way for me to simplify things and really just try and go through life with that sort of process. Because you can just say, Look, screw it, let's do it. You know, you've got to risk it to get the biscuit. You know, you've got to go out there and and really try it. It might be a mcvitie's mate like or a ginger and a, but you still going to get the biscuit. Either way. You want to climb up as a young kid to get to the cookie jar. You've got to risk it to get up there. You know what I mean? It's the point of life can stop tomorrow. I'm off to see my mum later on today. You never know what's going to happen on the road. The point is, you've got to live the day as if it's essentially not here tomorrow. You've got to go after the things that you have. I think it is such a gift to be in this world regardless of what we think about it. We've got time, we've got opportunity. We've got to go and live life to the. The full. And I think people can maximize every opportunity that they have in their life and go after what they truly want. And those two pages, to simplify the things you have done, the things that you haven't done, put as much as you can, whether you win or not, whether you lose or not, whether you failed in business, I guarantee you that failure will lead to success. My dad said, You know, if you made a mistake, it's not a mistake. It's a learning lesson. If you do it twice, it's a mistake. And then you realize you've got a problem that you're not paying attention to it. And it's so true. It's so true. So, yeah, two pages live by that and go by that and make sure you fill it up. It was the other thing I'd heard from someone which I loved. You never want to be placed into your graves. You want to be sliding into it with bumps and bruises and going, Wow, what a ride. You know, it was worth it. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:26:17] Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. It's ultimately creating our own movie of our own life, Right. You know, and absolutely. Actually, I'm going to get all these quotes wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was Hemingway that said, the reason I write a diary is so that I've got something fascinating to read on a long journey. 

Peter Meyer [00:26:36] Oh, nice. Right. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:26:37] And I it's been my. At least the quote to myself. It may not be him, but, you know, when I write my diary, I pick it up occasionally. I'm like, Oh, wow, that stuff did really happen. You know, it's quite incredible. What I really like about this list and I'm just going to go on this because that's what I like to do in these podcasts is kind of get very tangible. And what I like about this list is you mentioned about adding the stuff on there that didn't go well. And I'll add to that as well and why it didn't go well. All right. So I've got a you know, I've mentioned it before. I do cold water swimming and I've done a few series. 

Peter Meyer [00:27:14] I've witnessed it. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:27:17] Exactly in the swimming pool in the morning. Right. 

Peter Meyer [00:27:20] And I was like, you nutso. 

Speaker 3 [00:27:22] It's crazy. He's crazier than me. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:27:25] And, you know, actually, I have it here. It's in this book, right? And at the back of the book, it's got basically all of my it's got all the times, places, dates, locations and comments, temperatures. But what it also has in here is when I didn't go, why I didn't go. And actually that came out one of the podcasts I did with Mark Hardy, which he listened to and he was saying, holding yourself accountable is as important and recording those accountabilities of the stuff you don't do. Why you don't do it because at the end of the day, you're the one that has to hold your own self accountable is as important as making a list of your achievements. Right. It took me a year and a half or probably a year and three quarters to get to 365 swims. Right. There's about a third of this, which is basically excuses. 

Speaker 3 [00:28:13] Right? Yeah. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:28:14] Now, some of those are good excuses. Some of them are not right. Some of them are. The weather wasn't great today. It was pretty shitty. Right. But what I love about this list is it's really good when we set out to do a goal and we don't achieve it and we can say why. And actually there's a comfort level in that. You know, when I look back and go through that list and I go, actually, you know, there were some good reasons, this nice reasons why I go out that particular day or whatever it might be. But I wondered if you, you know, can talk about things that you've set out to do that didn't happen, but you're comfortable with the outcome because you did everything that you could, but you're happy with the result and you've ticked it off your list anyway as a try while you're thinking about it. I'll give an example. I always wanted to fly since I was a young kid. I applied to the Air Force, applied to the Navy. I always got offered navigator, never pilots. Right. So I was like, right. So and then at some point, as I go into consulting, I'm going to fly in planes, going to travel the world because I realized that's what I want to do. But I said, I'm going to at some point I'm going to get my private's pilot's license, okay? And I did all of the flying and I was literally I had done my second long solo flight, which is about an hour by myself with a little map and a pencil flying over the Alps. Absolutely brilliant. Amazing. It was like the high point of my entire flying career. And I started when I was at like 15 years old doing loops in Chipmunks right at the with the cadets. So it was just fantastic. The next day I was out skiing and broke my shoulder. Okay, it's set me back like almost nine months till I had full mobility and I had to basically start again from scratch. And yeah, I ticked it off. I was like, You know what? I did what I wanted to do, which was fly solo over the Alps, was just like the pinnacle. And that was it for me. And I'm really comfortable with that. I don't have this urge to get back into a plane again, and I don't have this. I just maybe at some point I will, but I really don't have it. Love to fly a Spitfire, by the way, or somebody take me up in a spitfire. But yeah, so that's something. I'm just going to write that down actually. So I saw the air show on. In Devon two weeks ago. So it just reminded me about that one. But anyway, I just buying some time so you could think about that. So I just want if you could share something, you know, that you've set out to achieve, and it hasn't gone the way that you want to be comfortable with the outcome. 

Peter Meyer [00:30:43] Well, I appreciate you giving me a bit of extra time. There is probably a couple of things. I mean, I think the earliest in my life is probably sports. I really wanted to get out and and go pro in one area or whether it was cricket or whether it was in rugby. You know, I enjoyed both. And I always use that more as my strength in my school days. I never really focused on class as much as I should have. And the reality was I was never you know, some kids just say, I'm not an academic. That's not true. I think everyone is to a certain degree is the effort that you want to put into it. And I just I was a lazy kid when it came to that. I just wasn't interested. I was interested in sport and I was successful at sport. And I focused my time, my effort on it. And I just kind of, I think, assumed that, you know, I would get there and I was always first team and winning trophies and all that kind of stuff. And then I had an injury which took me out for a long time, well over a year, not able to get back into. And then suddenly you don't have the best of grades enough just to pass. And it really wasn't good. And you know, you suddenly hear your parents like talking in the background where you just kind of know that everything that they'd said from before. Make sure you focus on your studies. Do this afterwards, like nine and a half hours and then, you know, like, oh, they were right. And I think, you know, that was probably my first lesson that I got when I realized, you know, I didn't. But then I was also very comfortable with the fact to say, look, I'm not going to make a pro, but I had a great time and I've met some amazing people and it's given me some lifelong qualities that I can take with me and use and hopefully inspire to others as well and make sure I give back. You know, I think it was it was super important. I've currently got the studio at the moment and we've done really well in some areas and then in some other areas we haven't done as well. We would love to have made a lot more, even though we've got some fantastic reviews. We've just received a second award for Innovative Studio of the Year and those things are absolutely fantastic. But you know, we haven't quite achieved yet where we want to go, but I'm very comfortable with the fact to say that's a heck of an achievement to get. And some people will never have that if they don't put in the efforts. And we really did genuinely work hard and not for the award. It just it came very naturally. And I think that was even more satisfaction to say it's come from a genuine place of pure heart, pure energy, pure hard work and effort that went into it, you know, And I think, you know, those kind of things, you have to also sort of accept and say, look, there's some positives here. You know, where have we done really well? How can we use those awards now to actually enhance our marketing portfolio and really enhance our image, our brand image? And maybe now we can try and use that to, you know, to jump start where we need to try and get to or look at a different route to market with that on there to make it work. Sometimes I think you'll have those acting as potentially another one, you know, where you really I've gone in thinking I've done a few auditions and I nailed it. You know, I got the accent right. I had the performance rights and then you don't get a call for weeks and then suddenly your agent calls you and it's like, Oh, we got another audition. Yeah, but what about the other one? Has it hasn't worked out and you just got it. I think you can go through all of those things and you learn the disappointments again, should strengthen you, not weaken you. It's so important to not let those things get. You know, I think as much as I've done well and I've had some success in my life, I think the greatest thing that I've had out of all of them is the adventures and the experiences, because not a single one of them is a loss in that regards. That is something where you can see you've never lost. So I think it's turning some of those into into the positive mindset and just saying, All right, but it's led me here, It's taken me here. The other was, believe it or not, I actually nearly didn't go to La Roche. I was I don't think I've ever admits of this apart from my parents. I wanted to go to fashion school. Okay. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:34:33] So you heard it here first. 

Peter Meyer [00:34:35] Everybody heard it here first. My mum and my dad's obviously know. My dad was like, Absolutely not. I'm not having my boy. He's grown up in the wild with snake bites and rhinos and, you know, being on elephants and all that to going and designing dresses. He's like, You're going to hotels. Go, I was like, You bastard. Anyway, it ended up being the best thing ever because he knew the qualities in me better than I knew myself at that particular point. And going to La Roche enhanced me so well. It gave me such great strengths and things that I could use in life and it took all of my skill sets, so a whole different level. It took my personality into the right place. The person that I truly am really came to life in that school, and I think that's where my journey properly came to life and started, you know, as much as I'd had all the upbringing, La Roche really honed in on who I was and gave me the soft skills as well to go out into the real world. And it didn't matter if it was in hotels. I wasn't actually a general manager. I appreciate that. That's actually something I I'd strive to work towards. I bypass that into corporate. But yeah, I was meant to go to fashion school, ended up going to hospitality and you know, the rest is history. It's worked out quite well. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:35:44] Is that on your to do list now, Peter? No, I. 

Peter Meyer [00:35:47] Kept a really quiet. 

Speaker 3 [00:35:50] Okay. No. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:35:51] All right. There's still time. There's still no. 

Peter Meyer [00:35:53] You know, it's not it's not necessarily the to do list. I think I have a couple of things on it to do, but it's it's the things that I have done and the things that I haven't done. And it's on neither of those. I haven't written it on it. 

Speaker 3 [00:36:04] But I just. 

Peter Meyer [00:36:07] Remember my dad's face was prices. Absolutely not. My boy. You're going to hotel school instead. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:36:15] You. We never know what the future is going to hold them. What I really appreciate about you, Peter, is, you know, you've mentioned it a few times as well, is about life. And I know it's a cliche before I say it, but I'm going to talk about it anyway because it's really important and I want to go into this cliche properly. You talk about life's a journey, not the destination, and you alluded to it right there. What I have a sense from when I'm with you is that you are really comfortable, really comfortable in the moment, in the journey and just appreciating everything that's going on, even if it's we've had some, you know, unusual situations, even if it's even if it's an unusual situation. 

Peter Meyer [00:37:00] I always get one of the one of those moments. We should put it on mute. Oh, there was a connection issue. Sorry. Sorry, just I didn't hear you. The connecting back. 

Speaker 3 [00:37:08] And. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:37:10] We have some unusual situations, but I always have this sense, even in those situations, that you're always there, you always really press. And I'm making reference to this because I do know people, and I'm sure you do as well. They have these goals, and because they're not achieving them, they're not happy. Right. And I think this is where we personally, as humans, we need to be very careful about goal setting. Right. I the way I see it is that goal is a nice way of having a compass and allowing us to go, Oh, that's north or that's northeast. That's where we want to be going right now in the opposite direction. So that's how I see goals. But I'm really also most of the time I'm very comfortable with the journey that I'm on. I'll give you a perfect example right now, right this second, the video is not clear. All right. On my side now, a while ago, I could have stopped this conversation. Peter, you know it's not perfect, man. Let's stop the recording. Let's just rerecord this another time. But the moment is so important. I don't know when we'll have this opportunity again. I'd much rather have our conversation now. We'll figure the rest out in the future. And that for me is, you know, so we're on this journey, right this moment. This moment is important. And I just wonder if you could share with us your sense of that and if I'm right or wrong about this, I mean, right or wrong. But if I my sense is correct and I just have a sense that your in the moment on the journey, appreciating the journey literally every step of the way. And I wonder how you do that as well. Do you do it consciously? Is it subconscious you maybe share with us? 

Peter Meyer [00:38:56] I mean, first, actually, Jonathan, I really appreciate the kind compliments there. You know me very well. You read people well and I appreciate that. I think that's an incredible skill to have. You know, it's a really interesting one. It's a hard one to answer. I don't know how I have it within me. Maybe it's just life. Maybe it's just experience. Maybe it's because I appreciate where I've come from. I know that when I sit at a dinner table and we just talk normal, I'm like everybody else. The moment people ask me, you know, where are you from? And you start to tell your life story, you realize you've become very different and hopefully not in an arrogant way. Just a kid that was really, really lucky. And I think the environment that I was in there totally changed my mindset to how life is maybe meant to be compared to what most people are thinking of. And I, I truly do believe that at the same points as well. I think because being young, I mean, most of those experiences that we're talking about from hotels, I'd done that by the time I turned 30. Yeah, I'm 39 now and I've done a lot. I think I'm always so grateful for having love in my life with parents that gave wisdom, opportunity, experiences, you know, And I appreciate there is a lot of other kids that have not been able to have that. And I think that's also why I don't really try and talk too much about it publicly. I appreciate there's a book in the film and I, I don't mean like that. I actually brought that out as a tribute to my dad telling his story. Not really. For me, it was trying to show the levels of the two. I try and stay where possible, as humble as I can, and it falls in line with. It's a really interesting thing. You ever notice when people have birthdays and they often. Say, Oh my gosh, I don't want to say my age. Like, oh, I'm turning this age one because I know I'm lucky to get there. I'm always grateful to every single birthday I get to When I was born, I was dead when I pretty much came out. You know, I had my mom had to it was emergency to get me out and, you know, keep me going. Couple of months later, my mom is out in the kitchen. She comes back in, I'm in my clubs on the safari, and there's a cobra curled up in my cords. I survived that without anything, you know, like I had some luck on my side. You know, we went through moments where I really shouldn't have been there. I've done some silly things in life where you play around with your friends and you like, I didn't fall over this or I made it here. I'm always so grateful to get to any point, and I'm so grateful for the experiences that I had. I think, you know, if I died tomorrow, I'd be so lucky. I'd look back at life and I'd say, thank you. You know, I think my only regret in the moment, not that I have it at the moment, but in that moment would be I haven't had kids or a family of my own or having lost my dad, having the ability to try and raise a boy or, you know, give him those lessons or those those great moments that my father had with me. I hope I have that one day. But I'm so grateful for the life, looking back that I think it just it always sits with me that how fortunate we are, how how lucky we are. And then we look at other things around the world and I think just truly appreciate the fact that we can be here, you know, talking on a laptop, having some time. Some people don't even have a laptop, some people don't even have a home, a house, Wi-Fi connection or a phone, you know, food in the fridge, running water. We're incredibly blessed. You know, as much as life can get hard and we've all been through it, there's a lot of people that are going through much harder things. We look at people in Ukraine, Russia at the moment, you know, with horrible situations that are happening, lives turned completely upside down, people that have lost families through coverage. And we're still here having survived that. We have to just appreciate some of the basic things of life as well and just be humble enough to say, you know what, like we're still here and I've still got an opportunity to speak. I can still move, I can still take a step forward and do something with my life. You know, it's just a reality to me. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:42:40] You know, I think it's the essence of who you are. I think your perception and interpretation of the world place tribute to the person that you are. And, you know, you've mentioned many times that your parents and especially your father, you know, had a significant influence. And I think that is is shining through and it's resonating in your being. 

Peter Meyer [00:43:02] For my father, it's I'm pretty sure that my father was really the you know, the first 30 years of my life. My mum has actually inspired me massively in the last sort of five years. She out of nowhere had a liver transplant. And, you know, we're by her bedside pretty much for six months. And, you know, she's someone that's been through a lot of heartache in her life from a young age. She lost her father tragically, didn't get a chance to say goodbye. I lost my dad in my arms, but at least had a few weeks to say goodbye to him and thank you to my mum didn't have that. And she still overcome those pain. She's overcome a liver transplant. She's overcome having to stay in the hospital for six months to try and get that liver working at somebody else's life who unfortunately had to pass for her to stay alive. And she's still so grateful for that and so appreciative, you know, that she has you know, she has inspired me through her strength afterwards. You know, I talk a lot about my dad, but my mum recently. Wow. When you talk about strength of a woman, you know, that's a strength of a human being. It's incredible. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:44:01] Yeah, it's remarkable. I think we all need those role models. I think sometimes we look too far afield for them. And, you know, it's interesting you mention your mom. My grandmother was my role model and she was someone that was, you know, we call it stoic with a small says. But she was so positive, always positive. She unfortunately lost two husbands. She had breast cancer. She had both breast from both knees replaced. She had both hips replaced. Right. I remember, you know, her friends, you know, when she was in her eighties, they were all kind of dying around her. And but she always still had a smile on her face. And she was always, like, interested in how people were doing and what was going on. So she was my inspiration. And then when she passed away, it was really hard because I was looking for that kind of essence. Really. I guess I'm one of her best friends. Ruby She was still alive and I went to see Ruby and she opened the door. She didn't live too far from my grandmother. She was a tiny person. I mean, I don't know, in centimeters, but she was less than five feet to kind of give you an idea. And she was very, very thin and very kind of petite but immaculately dressed. So she she must have been, you know, mid eighties. She opened the door and she had an eye patch on her eye. Right. And she said, hello. Hello, my dear, would you like a cup of tea? And I said, you know, is everything okay? What happened to your eye? So. I just have something. But I. I can see through the other one. And I said, Oh, but where's Doris? Doris is a sister. Right. And Doris, unfortunately was in bed and she had Alzheimer's and she was blind. Right. And so there's Ruby, right? As chirpy as anything. Offering to make me tea. And I said, But, Ruby. So how's Doris? She said, Well, she's blind, that she can't see anything. And I said, But you've only got one eye between the. 

Speaker 3 [00:45:51] Two of you. And she said, Yes, it's okay. We figure it out. So it was. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:45:57] Amazing that for me, it was just such a wonderful insight. She was still happy, still going literally on to the moment she passed. And you know what? I get a sense from the stories that you have is just this sense of appreciation about what's going on in the world and how we can live. So, Peter, I just want to open it up. Is there anything you'd like to share before we close the podcast? 

Peter Meyer [00:46:19] The one thing I've really enjoyed about it with you, Jonathan, is finding the kindred spirit with you because I think we're talking a very similar language together and I think we have similar hearts with certainly different experiences, but the same qualities that came, the same lessons that came. And I think that's just really nice because it's something I picked up on you when we were in Munich. I remember on a final day, you know, we'd had a couple of challenges and things along the way, like we all do, but we're having to deal with quite a tricky situation. And you had a really lovely speech at the end. You know, you took it upon yourself where you didn't have to do it. You could have easily stayed quiet, but, you know, you gave a way of turning a negative into a positive. You found lessons that could come out of it and then maybe a couple that wouldn't want to hear it, but the majority certainly would have looked at it from the right perspectives. But everybody will understand that later. That's something that, you know, often comes. And I think that's really nice having these kind of conversations, because it's a rarity to find people sometimes that want to give back based on the things that we happened with. And, you know, you say I'm much younger, you're still incredibly young yourself and so much ahead. I think it's really great to to find somebody like you who's who's still giving those lessons to people, you know. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:47:28] Thank you very much, Peter. You're an incredibly genuine and generous person. And I just want to say thank you for this podcast. And I just want to finish by saying that when I see you and when I'm with you and when we're in each other's company and I observe you, you have this kind of presence where you're shining. And what I then take from that I think is a wonderful thing because actually we need more people like you. We need more people like you being around, living a life, being amongst us. Because what you do is by shining the way that you do and shining from your soul or whatever else you want to call it. If it's your spiritual, religious, it doesn't really matter. But from our essence is that you give permission to others to shine as well. And that's just a wonderful gift that you have and you're exhibiting. And I just wanted to say thank you very much for that. 

Peter Meyer [00:48:25] I mean, I really appreciate that. It's just such a lovely compliment. Thank you. But it's our world. It's not my world and nor anyone else's. You know, we're lucky to be here for the time that we have. And it's always good to have great people that see the same thing. So I appreciate that so much when. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:48:39] I come on. Thank you. Let's help each other on this journey called life, huh? 

Peter Meyer [00:48:43] Yes, sir, indeed. Look forward to seeing videos of your. You must do the ice bucket challenge now with your 365 swims and everything. 

Speaker 3 [00:48:52] All right. 

Peter Meyer [00:48:52] I was like, Hell, no. 

Speaker 3 [00:48:55] I can't do that. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:48:58] It's not on my to do list. It's tentative at the moment is in between. 

Peter Meyer [00:49:03] See, I. I tell you what, I could face some rhinos. I've had snakes in my life. I've had my mum chasing me with a wooden spoon when I was super naughty. But I'm not sure if I could jump in an ice bath like you do every day. I don't have that courage. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:49:17] All right. We got we got different tradesmen. Thank you very much. 

Peter Meyer [00:49:20] A pleasure. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:49:21] Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right. Is thank you for listening to the Hocoso CONVERSATION. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please do share us with your friends and community. Take a look at our previous episodes and look out for our next ones. We look forward to you joining us on this unique exploratory journey.