Mind Over Ice: The Mindset to Cross Greenland

What does it take to prepare for one of the harshest environments on Earth?

In this powerful episode of the Endure Edge Podcast, we sit down with Gerry van der Walt, a mindset coach, leadership speaker, and expedition leader preparing to cross the Greenland ice sheet on a brutal multi-week journey across one of the planet’s most unforgiving landscapes.

We dive into the mental side of extreme challenges: how to navigate stress, deal with anxiety, build discipline, and stay focused when things get hard. Gerry shares how the same mindset required to survive an Arctic expedition can help anyone face everyday pressures, pursue meaningful goals, and push beyond self-imposed limits.

We also explore the realities of preparing for Greenland, from physical training and nutrition to the psychological resilience needed to keep moving when exhaustion and doubt set in.

This conversation is about more than an expedition.
It’s about what humans are capable of when the mind refuses to quit.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's up everyone? Yep. We're still the number one health and wellness podcast in South Africa. And we've gone bigger and better again. Today's guest. I'm gonna let you tell him what he's doing and what he does. But he's going on an expedition to Greenland, unsupported, pulling his own sled. Am I correct in saying this? Correct. 100%. Jerry von der Vald.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Jock, how's it going, man?

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Yeah, thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

This is awesome. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Yeah, and I'm looking forward to hearing about this expedition and just the person you are, mindset coach. What else am I missing?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Uh, photographic guide, um, public speaker. I uh a little bit of a podcast. We've got a podcast for the for the photography side of things, but uh over the last while focusing more on everything else. And Greenland's a big deal for us now.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah. So tell me about Greenland. What are you doing? Take us through that, and then I want you to also tell me about yourself and the motivational stuff. But let's do let's start with Greenland. Let's tip this off because it's an amazing intervention.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

So if you look at the big three of polar exploration, right? There's the North Pole, which means you walk there, you go unsupported, you walk. Then there's the South Pole, and then there's the Greenland crossing. Those are the big three. Now, currently the North Pole is a bit of an issue because there's Russia and Ukraine and doing their thing, so nobody can go up there now. The South Pole, still, there's some expeditions going up, but Greenland is normally one of those that people start with. You kind of get into it. So I've done a couple of expeditions training leading up to this. The idea is to cross Greenland. If you draw a line down the middle, you come halfway down. So it's 540, 550 kilometers from west to east. You take about 25 days dragging everything with you. So your sled weighs in the region of about 140, 150 kilograms. Wow, so much. Food, supplies, tens, kitchen, everything. Now, some people have done this in the past where it's they use either mechanical, like snowmobiles, bicycles, they use dogs, and some people use kites. This is unsupported. So there's no food dropped on the way, there's no assistance. It's you doing your thing. So it's um look, there's a lot of talk about Greenland right now online, different discussion, but everything going well will start on the 1st of May this year.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Okay. How do how do you mentally prepare for something like this?

SPEAKER_00 2:25

A lot of time in your head, hey. A lot of time in your head. So I'm not, I'm not by default an endurance type athlete. I've always been more, I mean, I said to you before we started, I run like a brick. I'm not designed for that. I've I've done CrossFit and stuff in the past, lifting heavy, um, Olympic lifting. So when I found this, it was a very different sphere for me. A lot of time in your head. I remember the first time. So last year I did Svalbard. So that's close to the North Pole. Okay. And I did a 15-day expedition there. The year before, I did a five-day up there. Also unsupported? Unsupported. The first one two years ago was in order to do this. They teach you about frostbite, how not to die, how to make your food, safety, navigation, and stuff. And I remember the moment I got dropped off. So they took us from Long Your Bin, which is the small little town. They drive you out about 40Ks, they drop you and off you go. Now you've got five days of this polar expedition training with the guides. And we stop there, we unload our sledge, you hook up, you put your skis on. I've never skied before this. I've never done any downhill skiing. It was just, let's go. Why not? Right. So as we start, the guide takes us out and you fall into line. And in the first 30 minutes, must be every single negative thought, every single one. You're not good enough. You're from Africa. Why are you here? You didn't train hard enough. Oh my God, it's cold. Every single negative thought that you can. And you have no choice. You just got to keep moving because otherwise you're going to stay behind, right? So by the end of that day, it was still like, what's happening here? Next morning you start again. You're like, I don't know if I can do this. A whole day of this? Are you joking? And there's just these voices on and on and on. But you have no choice, you got to keep going. By the end of that first day, we got to our campsite where we put up camp on the ice in the snow. I don't think I've ever had a more calm headspace. All the bad voices, the negative stuff, the dark stuff, the regret, call it what you want, was gone. It's like the bad voices were like, you know what, he's not listening. So let's just leave this. And that to me, after that first time was like a drug. I need I'm busy up here, right? I'm busy. But that silence of having done that. So preparing for that, most of it's mental. I'm sorry, physical. But yesterday I did about a three-hour up North Cliff Hill and back, and you spend time in your head. You just got to get used to dealing with the voices. So some days with a podcast, some days with music, but a lot of the time, just you got to get used to being here.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

So just quickly take me back to what you just said. Yes. Um, you had to go do that the the that expedition to prepare for this one coming up. Yeah. Is there do you have to get permissions to do these things? How do they check your fitness? Right. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Well, what is the process for that?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

On the first one, so if you want to go down this road, you do a five-day training expedition. So it's in Svalbach, Long Yibin, uh, it's northern Norway, right at the top. And that's where they teach you everything. You've got three days in town where they look at how to light the stove. I mean, the biggest thing is fire. So you're in a tent, it's minus 30 degrees outside, you now have to light a stove inside. And how to manage that? I mean, skis, bindings, navigation. So you do all of that the first time. When you then apply or submit your inquiry for the next one, which was the following year for me, they would look, you have to get signed off by the guide from the previous year. Like, are you mentally stable for one, which can be a thing? Um, are you physically fit? And also, I mean, now with Greenland, the amount of permits that the guys have to sort out, I mean, the documents, the waivers that you sign, but if you can't just you can't now decide, I'm coming with.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

You have to have gone there. There's a background. They have something called an adventure CV, which is the stuff you've done outside, your training, and then they sign you all physically and mentally. Uh, if you're over a certain age, I want to say it's 65, then they require medical clearances and stuff. But yeah, there's a couple of, I mean, the permitting and stuff all relies on that. Why take on something this extreme? A couple of years ago, so I turned 50 a couple of weeks ago. And I always wanted to, for no reason, it's just a big number, right? I always wanted to do something for me that scares me. I'm just I'm built like that. I've always been a competitor. I want to do the difficult things. If someone says you can't, I will. It's just it's built in. So I started looking around, and then things like Everest comes up. And I mean, hiking the panther or whatever it might be. But I didn't want something you can buy off a brochure. Like where I can just log on and say, add to cart and go. And I've been spending a lot of time in the Arctic over the last 15 years. I run photographic safaris up there. And the first time I got into that space, I got off the airplane and it felt like I'm stepping into a movie. Just this this. And then you look at a map, and you're literally on the top of the world. Like the board, you're on top of the world. There's nobody more north. So I spent time in this environment. It's raw, it's beautiful, it's harsh. And then we started learning about on the trips that I host, our guides do history things about Armundsen and Nobler and all these guys who lived in that that kind of part of the world. And that started clicking. There was something very raw and real about what they were doing. So when I started looking for this 50th adventure, a Masagi, if you will, right? And I started looking at this, I found the course, and it just kind of evolved. So, with this being my 50th year, um, this is the Greenland thing that I've been building up towards. Then, I mean, I I want to do all of them, I want to do the trilogy, the North Pole, South Pole, eventually. But yeah, it started just as a thing that I wanted to do for my 50th, and it's just gotten momentum. It kind of takes over your head a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm giggling because it's funny, the older we get, we want to do the craziest thing. Silly. Um, before we started the podcast, we were talking off air. You you mentioned North Cliff Hill, and then you told me you tie it around you and you run up and down this hill early in the morning. What does a typical week look like? A training week look like leading up to this event?

SPEAKER_00 8:26

So so currently, I mean, I've got 90, I've got a count on my phone, and 97 days left until I've and until I leave. So training.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

So give us the date, sorry, Jay.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

So I'm I'm leaving South Africa on the 27th of April. We start on the 1st of May.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Jeez, how real is that? It's only 90 days to April.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah, it's like up and down. It's very strange. So I mean, the training over the last while has been base endurance and base strength.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

So up until the end of Jan, and then it goes into February, March, which is very much endurance. I did a lot of research when it came to the training. I've got a background in health and wellness. So exercise science, personal training, previous industry. So, and always been into training, but now it's very much the one thing that I mean through research is more or less for every half a degree under Celsius, zero. So for every half a degree under zero Celsius, you lose about two percent of contraction power. Right? So you so A to B production and all those. So once you're looking at minus 20, you're looking at about 40% less power than what you normally have in normal temperatures, which means you have to kind of train into that fatigue space and then get used to doing that day after day after day after day. It's not healthy. Like, I mean, if you look at body weight, how much you eat, your loss, and so on. So currently I'm doing a mixture of four times a week power and endurance. So that would be, I mean, deadlifts, kind of on an EMOM basis, like a CrossFit thing, every minute on the minute, but it's heavy lifts combined with a power move, combined with plymetrics, and then one or two just general stability exercises. Then two times a week at this stage, I'm rucking. So I've got a 20 kilogram vest, hiking like clipper feet are the areas we've spoken about. And then twice as well now is tire dragging. So I've got an expedition harness and normal ski poles, and I drag a tire behind me. People ask questions, they look at you strange. So for now, I'm doing one 5k a week and one 10k a week. Yesterday was 12Ks up north of Hill. And then when I get to Feb, now we change. So it's going to become a lot more muscle endurance only, not power, and then a lot more of this tire dragging stuff. How are you preparing for the cold temperatures? Last time at this stage, I haven't yet for now. Last year I did quite a bit of cold plunges in the morning. Okay. And I mean, get you used to that feeling, but it's it's a tough one. Hey, the the problem is when you're in that environment, is the moment you think about how cold it is, you're done.

unknown 10:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

It's very much, and I said to someone recently, it's very much like uh like an anxiety and a depression or anything like that, addiction. The moment you think about the thing, it's very hard to come back. So you have to get used to be it's it's the typical thing, comfortable being uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

But the moment you say to yourself, man, I'm cold, and now you've got seven and a half hours left in the cold dragging a sled. So that's the kind of headspace. So I probably will get back to some cold plungers mid-March and then push it through. Other than that, it's all up.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Nutrition on an expedition like this must be important. Big time. What are you eating when you're out there?

SPEAKER_00 11:30

So a normal day. So the first three days before an expedition, you meet in the town wherever you start, and that's prepping and rationing. So we're looking between maybe five and eight thousand calories a day, but you still lose weight because the burden is just happening. So general day would be in the morning, it's like a like a protein porridge type thing, hot water, mix it up. Then you have a snack bag throughout the day. You've got a lunch and then dinner. So your day is structured. You do one hour of skiing, regardless of how fast, stop, 10-minute break. Then you can stuff some chocolate, some nuts, protein bars. I brought some stuff from Drivels, Biltong, golden. It's like it's out of the deep freeze, like hard. So then you do an hour, 10-minute break, hour, 10-minute break, but that's a standing break. So you just grab something, stuff it in, and then you carry on. Lunch, and this is the most beautiful lunch you'll ever have. It's two-minute noodles with a block of cheese and torn-up salami that you just put hot water out of your thermos that you boiled the morning in there. That is, it is the most phenomenal meal. It's just beautiful, right? And then you do again hour 10, hour 10. Every 10 minutes you have a snack bag. Again, nuts, um, chocolate. There'll probably be some butter and stuff like that just to get the calories in. And in the evening, it's expedition food. It's all freeze-dried stuff. So you boil the water in the tent, you add it. I mean, it's it's not good, but it's okay. After five days, you're like ready for a pizza type thing. But it is what it is. Yeah, you suck it up.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Yep. 100%. 100%. So conditions out there can become brutal. Yeah. You spoke about being a mental game when your body is exhausted. What is Jerry telling himself?

SPEAKER_00 13:06

I think it's the same with training now, is you you you again, you start thinking about the tiredness, you start thinking about the cold, and how hard it is. The reality is if you don't carry on, there is no other choice in that environment. The team's gonna move, they're gonna go. And you can either be left behind and basically just freeze to death. Sounds dramatic, or you can carry on. And I think with any goal for me, it's twofold, right? There's a push and a pull. The push in that instance would be like if you don't carry on, you're gonna get left behind. The pull would be the final goal. Because I know what it felt like the previous time once I got there. That I know that feeling, right, of achieving, of getting to the end and the transport, or in this case a helicopter will arrive to fetch us, to take us on. So it's a combination between push and pull, and I kind of tick-tock between those two, depending on early morning, late afternoon. I mean, some days you you get to like seven hours and you walk, you feel like you're walking on a glass because you've got comfortable ski boots, but it's just the cold and the continuous nature thereof. Where are you leaning into? Push and pull. The interesting thing to me is on days where it's difficult to start, you have to almost use. I mean, I call it toxic fuel or negative fuel. It's like, you know, come on, harden up cupcake, you can do this, you need to be better than this. There's people, remember you messed up then. Let me use that just to get going. Bring out the files. So there's that, but it's not sustainable. You can't keep on running on that. And that's where the pool then takes over. So I think the mental game for me, and and at some stage, I'm gonna have to do between six and eight hours per day here to get used to those long ones. And that's uh it's a mental game. Hey, let me phone someone to come and fetch me because I'm tired now. No, you can't do that. So it's a push-pull thing.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

You spoke about the finish now, and you remember what it feels like. Finish a smaller expedition, you're going to a bigger one now. And I battle with the same thing. Um, and I think it's personalities, I don't know. Yeah, um, ADHD addiction, whatever it is, all these things that go with it. Um, but it feels like like even you finish comrades, it's amazing the first time, the second time still amazing, but it's not as amazing. And you look for something bigger, something bigger. You then do 100 milers or whatever it might be. Um, what are you gonna do after this? It's a tough one, hey. It's very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

So, so just to leave that I've got something to do now.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

I could go to Greenland. No, you see now.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

So, but but then so what happens is so now I'm looking at all these records for Greenland's, only so many South Africans have done it. And there's a couple of records that I saw was available, and this is how my brain works. So there's never been a black person from Africa who's done that solo on your own, just you, no team. Also, no female, and no South African has ever done that solo. So I'm like, hmm, you know, there's the next one without a team, just you on your page. So no South African has done it solo. Nothing. Okay. So I'm like, hello. There. But but the problem is, and then there's the North Pole, there's the South Pole, then you can start combining things and on your own, different routes, new routes. The one of my clients that I'm working with is an I is a trython, Iron Man. He does those things. And he did his first one end of last year. And a lot of the work we did was when you cross the finish line, what then? Like you've built up, you've lived this thing for six months, eight months. Your life has to come back to normal 100%. Look at Michael Phelps after his Olympic thing, right? I mean, he went almost suicidal. There was you wake up in the morning, there's 12 Olympic medals on your bedside table, but what? You're back to zero. So how do you define that? How do you take the good from what you've done and make it last without feeling you're going downhill again? And that I'm I'm very aware of that. I know, I mean, put it this way, when I finished far about last year, that was only 12, 15 days on the ice, I got to the I got back to the hotel, and suddenly it's like, okay, this is weird. Because you're in a little tent. So and and you and you're like, okay, now what? What do I do? So you pack things out. I sat down, I literally burst into tears. Like just it just came out because you've got all this focus, this continuous, and you just break down. And you can't, I can't, just go finish that and suddenly walk in at home. There's there needs to be a transition because you're living in this very strange space for so long, very deep in your head, and now you've got to just be normal again at home. Life goes on. So for me, there's always this I need to take some time to get home. But that that but the intensity afterwards is you know, this has been amazing. You've worked for this for three years now. What? So I yeah, I'm very aware of that. It's tough. It's a tough, tough thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Can imagine what scares you the most about this journey? Honestly. The headspace. The headspace.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Because so what's interesting with Greenland is for the first two or three days, you kind of go up the ice sheeters, glacier, rocks, and stuff. And then for the next couple of days, there's something called die to Dy E2. It's like an old Russian thing that's there. So as you go for three days, you can see this thing come closer. You get closer, it gets bigger, it's bigger, you camp there for one night, but then you got 10 to 15 days, depending of just flat. Nothing to draw your attention away. And that's the most challenging part. So if I look back, we had a whiteout last year. So woke up in the morning and it was just white. I couldn't see the difference between the snow, the horizon, and the sky. It's like you're in a like in the Matrix when neo-teachers go and it's just this white thing. So I could only see the person in front of me sled, and there's no context, like nothing. Yeah, how do you deal with that? So I didn't. The problem. So so then you keep going. We had to stop every 200 meters, check the GPS because you don't know how you're going. But then suddenly your brain, because there's nothing to focus on, all the anxiety, all the worry, all the stress at once. And now you you're in this line and you're just going and going. One hour you stop for a bit, nobody's talking because everybody's kind of in their head. That at one point, and I'm not this kind of way inclined, I thought if I just drop to the back of the queue of the there were six, seven of us, if I just slowly drop to the back and then just go off into the darkness or into the white, nobody would care. And by that time you've convinced yourself that everybody who loves you back home, like whatever, they're not you're in up, whatever. That to me was real. It's it was all the anxiety, all the depression, all the negative, all the worry came down at once because there was nothing around us. And for the whole day, that was the headspace. And towards the end of the day, we got close to our campsite, and it it's it's full-time sun. The sun doesn't go down, and there was just this pink little line that came over the one mountain. It was like angels singing. It was just like, wow, there it is. But that that to me for Greenland and a lot of people who have done this is you got 10 to 15 days of just flat. So it might be blue sky, white, but it's just it's just flat. There's no mountains, there's nothing. So that is quite scary. I didn't I didn't take music or podcast on the previous one, but I might for this. Are you allowed to? So you you can, but AirPods, for example, won't work, batteries won't last. So you have to be wired.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

You can charge in the evenings, little solar panels and stuff, but but then again, if I listen to something that takes you in the wrong direction, and now you've still got nine hours in your in your head. So for me, it's the headspace. The the training I can do, physical, I'm happy for, but that headspace is tough. No way to tap out. You can. I mean, so so the one gentleman who joined me in Svalbard last year, he tried Greenland a couple of years ago, and I think about five or six days in, his lower back couldn't take it because of just the stress. They can evacuate. So then it's helicopter, evacuac to the closest town, probably then to Rykovic, Iceland, and then you go from there. But it comes at a cost. So there are permits and evacuation things in place. So yeah, you you can tap out, but you know man, it's hard.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

So we talk about mindset, mindset, mindset, mindset. What does that mean to you in your everyday life?

SPEAKER_00 21:02

So from I I I personally work on, I mean, and this is kind of with clients, but for me is I've got four pillars that I use to kind of balance that resilience, agency, positivity, and gratitude. And if you and I had this conversation three years ago, oh that's cool words, it's all good. But what is it? And to me, every single one of those things came into play when I'm on the ice. Like resilience is the ability to bounce back without the stress uh being taken away. If I'm stressing you and you you're resilient, but I take the stress, no, you're not resilient. The stress is just gone. So you have no choice. How do you bounce back from anything? Something at the office, fight with your partner, it doesn't matter. Agency is how can I control my immediate environment in a positive way? Like, do I feel I'm in control? This is one of the reasons when I'm in a hotel, I make my bed. Sounds the weirdest. People, are you nuts? There's people for that, right? But but but it's I have control. Controlled my it's not a good job, make no mistake, it's not great, but I've done it. So I feel like I've affected something positively. But in that space as well, what can I do right now in my world to make it better? So on the ice, it could be take your jacket off, but it's small, smallest little thing, just to move the needle, right? Positivity is that reframe is how do I go from I literally can't feel my feet right now, I want to die, to okay, cool, but man, look at the sunset or look at the and then gratitude for where you are. It's that kind of perspective. So every one of those four, that's kind of become my it's a model that I use, right? Speaking coaching, but for me personally, that any one of those four or a combination, I can pretty much manage most of it. Resilience is the hardest one though, because the stress does not go away. Yeah, it doesn't, it stays.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

The biggest mindset mistake you see people making an everyday life?

SPEAKER_00 22:56

100%. 100%. I did a uh I did a um at Wild Eye, it's a travel company that I'm a shareholder in. They um I did a thing with a team as a beginning of the year, and December happened. Are you feeling refreshed? Nobody put their hands up. I mean, it happened so quick. We we tied from the end of the year, new year, and we spoke about specifically resilience and agency. And resilience is y'all, it's the ability for me to kind of relax and get away from the stress, but it doesn't go away. So then there's no resilience there. You have to get used to bouncing back while the pressure is still on. It's that reset, it's changing roles, it's what protocols do I have, what resources do I have to make that happen? And it's often we I think we we underestimate what we have and what we're capable of.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

So it's January, a lot of people are stressed. You spoke about stress now. Stress is part of life. Sure. But when does it become destructive?

SPEAKER_00 23:54

That's the right. When does it get destructive? That's burnout, right? So stress and burnout people often mix them up. Stress is normal, it's a good thing, right? In nature as well, burnout is when there's no break from the stress. Stress, high stress is cool as long as you recover. High stress is cool as long as you recover. Otherwise, it leads to burnout. I mean, even if you go to nature, impalas, they must be the most stressed animals in the world because everything eats them, right? But if you put them in an ecosystem where there are no predators, they're not as healthy as they should be. So stress is a normal part of life as long as you recover mentally, physically, spirit, spirit, relationship-wise. Otherwise, it burns out. And I think at the pace we're living at today, people don't give themselves time to rest and recover. And it doesn't have to be you don't have to recover for a week. So there's micro pieces, little little snacks of recovery, if you will. But it's big. What is recovery? Coming back to a space where you feel you can.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Where you feel I can do this. If I if I look at people at the work, I mean at the office, people I've done and worked with, is they say, I'm so stressed, I'm so stressed. Yeah, but you're still going. You you can still do this. There's no physiological or emotional negative that you've pushed past a red line. Right? So recovery means you can still keep going without any permanent damage. I mean, adrenal burnout, mental breakdown, whatever the case is. It's it's resilience. Coming back while the stress is still there. But it's not a, you have to be intentional. You can't just decide, okay, I'm gonna just and let's be clear going home in the evening, sitting in front of Netflix, smashing a tub of ice cream and a bottle of red wine is not recovery. That's not, that's a distraction that's taking you down a different road. So I think we have to be intentional about what that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Stress and anxiety go together. Yes. It's almost one thing. Depends on how we look at it. 100%. What's the first thing you do when you feel anxious? I move. You move.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

I need to move. I mean, I think we spoke about some different podcasts. I think it was on Modern Wisdom as well, with the one quote that stuck to me as well is mental health is downstream from physical health. Mental health is downstream from physical health. Anybody, for example, if you are, if you're very overweight, you're gonna feel a certain way about yourself. Whether you want whether you admit it or not, you might struggle. If you have a bad knee and you struggle to get on and off a game drive vehicle, or you struggle upstairs, it affects you whether you like it or not. You're not in the best shape. Mentally, the the vehicle that we're using is not, it's not there. So there's very, very, very few things mentally that will not be fixed by moving. I mean, walking, for example, it's such a silly thing, right? Go for a walk. I mean, it's great for conversation, but number one, your brain will start working. BDNF, what's it, brain-derived nootropic factor? It starts kicking in. But more than that, you're literally taking your body away from an anxious state into a new state. So any kind of movement, it's it's action. Like sitting on a couch, trying to think your way out of anxiety. It's like trying to sniff your way out of a cocaine addiction. It's not gonna work. You can keep going, but it's not working. So action, do some, do something, and also then move, move your body one way or another. How important is communicating it? Very. I mean, you you can't you can't solve anything in an echo chamber of one. It's gonna be repetitive. And again, it creates an anxiety habit loop where you just keep on coming back. Um, a lot of people in today's world, when they don't want to communicate, is because they feel I don't deserve that. I don't, uh why should anybody care? I'm not worth that. So there's a lot of stuff under the surface, but communicating that 100% is it getting off the couch when I'm anxious and saying, Hey, Jock, can I talk to you? Maybe I should go for a walk first, maybe combine it. I mean, Joe, who was on here a couple of weeks ago, he's got a beautiful recharge where the guys go for a walk. It's a beautiful space. Beautiful space. So one of the resources that you have, so anything anxious, depressed, we need to look at resources. What do you have? I can pick up the phone, I can phone someone, I can go for a walk, I can combine them, I can go and do push-ups, I can pat my dog. But resources is not just money. People often think, but I don't have the cash. No, it's not that. It's what what resources, friends, circles, connectivity. And I think once we start reaching out, you'll be surprised how many people actually would get involved.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Yeah, I saw a quote somewhere to do with related uh from a marriage counselor, actually, where they say, go walk, go for a walk with your partner and just talk. Yeah, because you end up talking about things that you wouldn't normally talk about. Um, and it's amazing something so small as a walk. I mean, when we say movement, we don't mean go run 5Ks at 25 minutes um and kill yourself. No, no, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

It's just any kind of movement. Just you need to mental health is downstream from physical health. I believe that 100%. Like, I mean, almost every let me just think about this. Every client that I have that I've been working on performance mindset, regardless if it's they were struggling in a business element, there's always something physical. Yeah, it has to be. You can't not. And it's not vanity, it's not I'm gonna look better in the mirror or my jeans are tight, or no, it's not that. It's all about headspace, mind, how you feel.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yeah, and also let's be honest. If you look good, you're gonna feel better too. Your mind's gonna feel better. You look in that mirror and you look good. How are you doing? Yeah, exactly. 100%. 100%. If someone's feeling overwhelmed right now, what's the one thing they should focus on? Movement?

SPEAKER_00 29:40

I I would say movement, but also the simplest thing is what resources do I have?

unknown 29:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

What do I have?

SPEAKER_01 29:46

So I can make a list of resources.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

But but but but resources you need to think out the box. Do I have a friend? Can I go onto a group like Recharge that Joe has? Um, there's, and this is a fine one. I mean, you can chat to your AI to start with, but that's that's a different discussion because there's a there's a good and a bad. Yeah, that's a podcast on its own. Cool. But we'll touch on that actually. I like that. Thank you for bringing that up. So so I think I mean if you're feeling overwhelmed, overwhelmed is basically you feeling you cannot cope, which means you need coping mechanisms. Number one, to feel better, and then you need action to start getting rid of the overwhelm. There's two elements there. But again, I would move first. Think you can't sit at your desk where you sit every single day in the office and just expect to be better. Something needs to change. Like if it's the old thing, if nothing changes, nothing changes. So you can't just sit there, feel sorry for yourself, and hope stuff's gonna get better. Do something, move. I had a chat with one of one of my staff members uh last week, and I said to you know what, when you get to feel like that, stressed, a bit overwhelmed, literally go to the bathroom. We're at the design quarter in four ways, but don't go direct, walk the long way around. You're buying yourself steps, with that you can get your tracker going.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

Good vitality.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

But also you got some space. So it literally starts there, but then which protocols do you have? What resources do you have? Not money, not time. I can time, I can breathe, I can walk, it's but action, action always. Gotta do something. Gotta do something.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

It's January, everyone's got these New Year's resolutions and goals. Why do so many people struggle to stick to goals?

SPEAKER_00 31:23

It doesn't mean enough to them. If something matters, you'll do it. I re I really believe that. So and it comes down to I use this for photography lectures for life, whatever. What is your why? If your why is strong enough, you will do it. What is the reason that you sat there on the first of January, maybe a little bit of hangover, if that's your thing, that's cool, and you think from today I'm going to the gym. Why? Is it because other people are saying so? Is it because you really feel the necessary need to figure out the why? It becomes easier from there.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

There are so many. They all claim to know this and know that and know this. Some of them I feel are frauds, they've never experienced it. To me, if you're gonna be one of those guys, you need to have bad experiences. Sure. Um, not just money behind you to get to these points or whatever, which some of them do. Um do you believe motivation is overrated?

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Overrated, interesting question. Like, do we need, in the space we're in, kind of mindset and talking, do we need motivation? I think motivation forms a part of it's not gonna get you to action. So for me, there's motivation, inspiration, and then discipline. So the idea would be: let's say you and I watch a Netflix documentary about Everest. Yes. Wow, I'm I'm kind of motivated. I want to do that, right? I'm inspired. So inspiration for me is when I see the thing. I want that. I want to climb the mountain. I'm not motivated yet. Motivation is getting up off the couch, standing outside, looking at the mountain. Now I'm motivated. I can see it. I'm one step closer. Motivation's not gonna get you there. Discipline is.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

What is that? That's habits, actions, doing things. Motivation, I think, gets skewed today. Everybody online says this is motivation. That's here's a quote, rah, rah, let's do this. It's not gonna get you anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Well, if you don't have the why, like you just said. Um, and the motivation's not gonna get you to have that why.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

100%. To me, it's it's a thing of I believe if you said it, and this this is maybe also for people for New Year's resolutions, right? The the whole goal thing. I believe, and I've I've deployed this for myself, every big goal for me is both selfish and selfless. There's a balance. My mom always said to me, You never allow it to be selfish, but but if I'm doing it for me and I don't affect anybody else negatively, surely is it, but if it's not selfish, like for me, Greenland, I know the headspace that I can get from it. I know how I grow, been there done that, and I want that. But the selfless part of it is I've been absolutely blown away by people wanting to follow the story. And I've had people message from the States and said, you know what, I saw you drag your tire uphill. I went for a walk with my dog for the first time in 10 years. Okay, cool. That that makes me feel warm and fuzzy, right? But selfish and selfless, if you can balance that, it's an interesting space, right? Yeah. So how can I do something? Because that's your push in the pull. A lot of the selfish, I'm gonna do this. I want this, I need to get that. So that's the selfish part. Selfless would be how does that add value to you, to people around me? It's an interesting, obviously goal dependent, but I think there's a little bit of that in both.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Yeah, and I love that. That is powerful. It's interesting. That is very interesting. It's interesting, yeah. You use the word discipline. I love that word. Um I launched a podcast on Friday, I think, with a guy called Sipumarima. Yeah, very good runner. Oh, I saw that, yes. And he speaks about discipline and that it can be taught, um, which I believe too. Mindset or discipline? Mindset or discipline? On hard days, which one matters?

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Wow. So, so tough one. I'd I'd probably I'd probably say discipline would be because we know this, discipline is doing something whether you want to or not, right? I wake up and I'm like, really? It's raining outside now. I've got to go strap a tie to my back and go. But I think the mindset will cultivate that. I've got a thing for for my discipline or for my training, right? I mean, Gary Vinachuk used to say one is better than zero, right? So if I was gonna do 10Ks, but now I really feel shitty. I'm tired, I don't want to do this, I've got a zoom call to get to cool. I can't do 10. If I do one, at least I've moved the needle. So how I approach it is I would try and do the floor and the ceiling. Floor for me is bare minimum that's acceptable to me within my mindset and my goals and my discipline. Ceiling is what I shoot for. So if I don't have that, if I miss my ceiling and I don't do 1,000 reps or a 10 kilometer, whatever the case is, then I feel like a failure. I mean, I know you guys spoke about failure on the on that previous episode, right? But I have to be realistic. I'm still human. There's relationships, there's work, there's all these things. I wish I could just train. Somebody wants to pay me just to train, what a pleasure, not gonna happen. So between the ceiling ideal goal, execution, and the floor, minimum accepted requirement, if I stay there, then I don't ever feel like I've not done something.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Does that not give you an easy way out?

SPEAKER_00 36:42

An excuse. Yeah. I think that's where the mindset comes in, right? Those are the parameters. I will always shoot for ceiling, every single time. But the problem is if we get so dogmatic and so like, this is the only acceptable thing. Burnout happens. That can happen because there's no down. Or injury or injury, or you start compromising other parts of your of your life, right? I I normally use a triangle thing. So if you look at a triangle, there's if I look at myself, there would be my health and wellness, including my Greenland goal, there's relationships, right? Partner, brother, sister, friends, and then you've got work and career. Now, whatever's on top is putting stress on the bottom two.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

So if I'm only focusing on my health and wellness and my training and my goals, my relationship will take strain and my work will take strain. Because, sorry, I can't go on a date night because I have to train tomorrow morning. If there's a big project at work, which in our most of our lives we have multi-domains that we're playing with, I might have to put work on top of the triangle. Now it is going to compromise my training. So either I'm going to say, you know what, I can't do it today because if I don't hit the ceiling, I'm not going to do it. Or, you know what, today is a floor day. I'm giving myself that little bit of grace because I am human. I need to balance everything. So it can be a cop-out, but I think that's where you need to be honest with yourself. Is the push strong enough? Is the pull strong enough? Is your why strong enough? Is your why strong enough?

SPEAKER_01 38:06

Yeah. So setting all these goals sometimes takes forever to get to the goal, and progress starts feeling slow. How do you not give up when that's happening? I mean, that slow progress can be negative. Well, it feels negative because we're not getting anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Yeah. It's I do, and this is silly, right? So I train at home, I've got a gym at home. So the garage just converted, everything folds open and it's great. I went and I printed a map of Greenland. I blocked it, it's on the wall. Like my watch strap is an Arctic blue. So I've got these little nuggets of things everywhere, right? That reminds me of the thing. It reminds me of the thing. And I feel my why is strong enough. So if I'm just reminded of it, I'm like, okay, cool, this is why. That so I do drop those little nuggets along the way. It sounds, it's again not a cop-up, but it's why? Why do you want this? And remember, people are, and it's how you how you frame it, people are more driven by avoiding negative things than getting positive things. It's it's human nature, right? If I'm gonna do public speaking, I would rather not do it because the fear of embarrassing myself is way bigger than the applause I might get. Where's the driving force? So for me, I'm I'm if I'm gonna do Greenland, I know what I might feel like afterwards. Versus if I'm just gonna go there and if I cop out, it's fine. I'd rather not risk the embarrassment of failing. Because then people can say, ah, Jerry, you know what? Good try, but you didn't make it. Yeah, well, at least I tried. Versus the the good feeling at the end of it. Avoidance of pain versus this looking for pleasure. It's a big driver for humans.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Are humans attracted to this comfort and challenging situations?

SPEAKER_00 39:53

By default, I don't think so. We like comfort and it's changed. I mean, if you look at today's world, I don't have to leave my house for a month. I can get food delivered, I can get anything done, I don't have to leave my house. And I think maybe for men specifically, but we we were designed to do hard things. That's where value comes from. I mean, we can talk purpose and meaning, but doing the hard things makes you look at yourself differently. Give a man a goal and an ability to reach it, watch what happens. It's amazing, right? But just sitting back and being a victim of circumstances, oh man, this happened to me versus I made it happen. So I do think, I think we have gotten too comfortable. I mean, the younger generation often don't have that kind of drive we had. It is what it is, right? But that drive to do difficult things, you can only grow from it.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Whether you fail or whether you get it right. You think modern life has just made us mentally weaker or are we just distracted by things? Both.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Both. I mean, if you look at the attention deficit with phones. I mean, I went to the movies a while ago and looked around, and there were nine, they must have been about 11, 12-year-old group of girls. Every single one of them. You go to a restaurant and you see couples, and they're both, what are they texting each other? Hey, what are you having for for a starter? There's no more communication. And the whole AI thing plays into that. But for me, is there's a beautiful book by Michael Easter called The Comfort Crisis. And in there he writes about being bored. And he goes into the Alaskan woodlands with these guys and they go hunting elk and how he can't be on his phone. And the the lessons from that, when was the last time you were truly bored? And bored isn't scrolling on Instagram. That's not it. You're just feeding dopamine after dopamine, it's it's bad. So that idea of being present, and I think doing those difficult things makes you reassess the dopamine system. What is it that drives me? What do I want?

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Yeah, it's tough, eh?

SPEAKER_00 41:49

It's not an easy thing, but but everything in our life has been designed to make it easy for us. I mean, I can get I can order shoes to come home, uh, pizza can come home, checkers 60-60, whatever it is. We don't have to leave. There's no more incentive to do those things.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Let's talk a little bit about this AI thing. Cool. Yes, people are using it as therapists. As far as I understand AI, and I'm no buffer on AI at all, but AI is always meant to tell you what you want to hear.

SPEAKER_00 42:21

Someone said it's like a puppy. It wants to keep you happy. So, so I use AI for writing and kind of thought experiments and stuff. But from a from a therapy point of view, I think the base level is coaching, counseling, mentoring, whatever. Is even if you say to the AI model, listen, act as a therapist, counselor, coach, whatever, and you start talking about how you feel. It has all the theory since the beginning of time. It's got all the theory, the case studies. It doesn't know what it feels like. It doesn't know what anxiety feels like, it doesn't know what depression feels like. AI has never been addicted to anything. So if you then push long enough and hard enough, it will come around. It will come around. There's been instances now in the last month or so where some people committed suicide because AI eventually agreed with them. Right? So they started sharing and doing this, and that no, you're fine, you can do this, yes, but I still feel lonely. Yes, but you can try this, you can do this, yes, but I still feel okay, cool. Well, let's go with it. So that's the problem. If you keep pushing hard enough, then it will tell you what you want to hear. And if you look at count counseling, coaching, therapy, it has to be uncomfortable. There are difficult conversations, you have to face difficult things. There's a darkness that we have to flip. And AI might not want to do that because it still wants to keep you happy by by default. And that that's a challenge.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

As a coach, would you well w w what are your thoughts on someone using AI? For coaching and looking for motivation. No, not the negative things, the positive things.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

Sure, sure. I think if if if you're early on in the journey, if you you set yourself a goal and you want to now start getting this, maybe you're scared to speak to a coach initially, maybe you don't know the finance, whatever it might be, right? I think it's a good space to start. It might give you more input because you can only make decisions based on new input. So that might give you different ways of thinking about things and so on and so forth. But I do believe at some stage that conversation needs to be taken to a human, into the real world. It's a good place to start. But again, I mean people are lonely. There's a lot of lonely people out there. They don't, they go to the work, they do their work, they come home, they're home alone. Weekends, they just stay home, whether it's on Instagram or just staying home. And the way they start seeing AI become something that it's not. It's not a confidant, it's not a real friend that can hold space. Right? Holding space for someone as a coach or a therapist means I give you space that you can talk and share without judgment, without me trying to fix anything. But there's the space that you can share with. AI will always have an answer. Every single time. Because it's it's taught to try and make you better or to give you the answer or to help. So it's not really holding space. But if that's the momentum that you need, that little kickstart, just to get used to saying things like I am anxious, for example, or I have a goal, I want to run a 10K, my friends might laugh at me. Maybe it's a place to start, but it I it has to come into the real world at some stage. Okay, can't stay there. Who needs a coach? Everybody. I'm a big basketball fan. Look at LeBron James. Goat, depending on who you ask, right? But I mean, he's he's got a coach all the way through. It's someone who can you can you can't read the label from inside the bottle. You have to come outside. And it's often that perspective that people miss is me being able to look from the outside and say, yo, Jock, you know what, this is great, but have you thought about this? We're in a bottle, we can't read the label. And I think that's a good thing. Um, it's accountability, it's like a personal trainer, right? You you might you can do it all on your own, but knowing that Joseph is waiting for you at five o'clock at Virgin Active, you're gonna probably go there. So I think there's value to it. I mean, we can go and look at all the websites, oh yeah, Jeff Bezos and Leonardo DiCaprio and LeBron, they all have it. But it depends on the why. Why do you want to do it? Is it transactional or is it transformational? If you're just struggling to, I don't know, resign from your job, how do I do this? There's a transactional element that your coach can help talk you through. Practically, remember this, do this, do this, done. Move on. Transformation is right. How am I going to take this version of me over a year two ten to that final product? So it still depends on why, but I do think there's value for anybody. And and another quote for me that's great is the magic you're looking for is in the conversations you're avoiding. I agree. Love it. And the conversations is someone who can call you on your bullshit. Listen, really. So I I I do think there's value for anybody.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Okay, so nothing's wrong with me. I'm mentally stable. Okay, no, I don't think anyone is give or take. Um average human, average salary, and I need a coach. Yes. Okay. Come to the coach. We need a relationship. How do you go about doing that? Because if you don't know who I am, how long does it how long does it take to get to that stage?

SPEAKER_00 47:45

Sometimes it might not get to that stage. Maybe you and I just don't fit.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

The thing with, I mean, therapists, counselors, coaches, mentors, it's rapport, rapport, rapport. And the other top three things is rapport, rapport, rapport. Is how can we connect? Right? I've had what I would normally do is we meet for a 45-minute free session. Right, let's talk about this. What do you want? Can I bring it to you? Okay, cool. Where's the where's the sticking points? What can we do? And based on that, I've said to people, listen, sorry, I don't think I'm the right person for you. You might need someone harder, you might need someone with a softer or a different experience. Maybe you need to go and see a therapist. So that that rapport is the first thing. I do I do also think that as people, I mean, whether you're an athlete, whether you're going to cross Greenland, you're running marathons, whatever the case is, there is always two parts to coaching. And this this to me is a big deal. Is if you can imagine minus five to zero to five on a continuum, right? If something is wrong, let's say you're stressed because of work or you're a bit anxious, or you feel, I might have a bit of a drinking thing here, I need to deal with that. That's on the negative side of it. So that might be minus two. Now, what people often get wrong is if you have a minus two anxiety, depression, addiction, if we fix that, it doesn't take you to plus two, it takes you to neutral. Often people think I'm anxious, let me go and see someone. Okay, I'm fixed. Why am I not happy? Well, you're not at you, there's still work to be done. So there's often two parts there's fixing something on the negative side, and there's working positive. Same way, I pull a hamstring. I can still do biceps while I rehab. And I think if people start doing that and they're seeing I'm fixing something which most of us can be better in one way or another, but also what are the good things I can do? You balance those two things, it becomes real because you don't feel like you're just fixing, I'm so broken, fixing, fixing, fixing. I'm also improving on that side. So that dual approach of what can we fix versus what can we make better? It's golden.

SPEAKER_01 49:39

What belief did you have years ago that you no longer believe today?

SPEAKER_00 49:46

What belief did I have years ago that I do not have today? That I need permission from many other people to do what I really want. That I need some other people will will decide whether it's okay for me. Almost validation. Validation, yes. You know what you're doing, it's fine, you you do that, it's cool. And I I don't know if it's an age thing, maybe it just maybe it took longer, but it's that. It's when I was younger, I would I I want to do this, I know it's this, but I would wait until is jock okay with this, then I would do it. My mom said to me years ago that you know what one day, and I was at high school, one day you're not gonna care what people think. Bite your tongue, of course I will. It's the most beautiful thing in the world. But I think from a belief point of view, that would probably be it, is having to get other people's validation for chasing my goals.

SPEAKER_01 50:40

You've spoken about your mom twice on this podcast now. Tell us a little bit about your mom. What does she mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 50:45

So, I mean, mom and dad, I we didn't grow up very rich or very we're just middle of the road, I mean down the road here. And they've always supported me whichever way I want to go. Like anything. The the there's two two moments. The first one, mom is always just there. She's just looking at Mom's still alive? Yes, both. Mom and dad's still alive.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 51:08

So the one moment when I wanted to stop piano when I was in like standard eight in the old days, grade 10, because I found sport and I did all the sports. And she was like, You're gonna be sorry if you no, I won't. She was right, right? But they've been supportive no matter what. When I was in, I was I was finishing my honors in sports psychology, I was about to start masters, and I then won national gymnastics. I had the opportunity to compete internationally the next year. Went to my dad, I'm like, okay, listen, I need help here. What am I gonna do? Because on the one road, I can compete and represent South Africa, this, that. On the other side, I'm chasing the goal I've had for the longest time of clinical psychology and this. And he said to me at the time, I hated it, but it makes sense. He says to me, Whatever road you choose, we will support you. It's like, no, man, tell me tell me what to do. I don't know. So I chose the sporting route and it's been all the way around. But they have been there. Whatever I do, they will be there. It's just it's I'm very blessed like that.

SPEAKER_01 52:06

Really blessed. Advice to parents, would you say support your kids in whatever they want to do?

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Support them and give them if you can build self-confidence and self-esteem in your kid. Because then whichever way they go, they'll know who they are. Even if it's the wrong way. 100%, but then learn the lesson. And self-esteem to me is that's a big deal. Also, I think a lot of it as well is talking about your previous um episode with failure. You're not just gonna win in life, you are gonna get your teeth kicked in, it's normal. It's part of the deal. And knowing that they won't be judged for it, it's okay. We will be there regardless. I mean, I I don't have kids, but to me, if I look at my sisters and friends and family, it's um it's that is knowing it's okay that if I make a mistake, it's fine, it's gonna be okay. Let's learn from it, but have the self-esteem and the self-confidence to build from there.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

I want to touch again just something small on Greenland before we end the episode already almost at an hour. Wow. Um but one last question. If someone is stuck in doubt and in fear right now, yeah, yeah, yeah. What advice do you give them? Doubt and fear about life? About anything, career, life, relationships, they're confused, stress, anxiety, life feels like it's gonna knock you down. Like anything.

SPEAKER_00 53:30

Male, female, it doesn't matter. Um gratitude and perspective. Regardless of how difficult you think things are right now, there is someone in this world on this planet that has had it worse and they were okay. It's difficult to think that way because if you again you're in the bottle, you can't think that way. But perspective, gratitude, and that for me again coming back, move. Start talking to someone, start consuming different kind of content. But perspective and gratitude, perspective, how bad is it really? Are you just stressed and you hate your job? So now you're saying I'm stuck and I'm so scared because my boss is gonna shout at me, or is it maybe your mindset that interprets it that way? Are you filling the gaps between the conversations you didn't have and therefore you end up with this? But I think perspective, gratitude, and then we can roll down and to to start cultivating resilience and positivity and agency, but it has to start from a place of gratitude. There is something, something you're grateful for. And it doesn't have to be the big things. The problem is when we're in that state, fear, um, everything's bad, life sucks. Even the littlest thing, like if I'm driving on the highway, guy cuts me off, it ruins my entire day. Like that idiot, it's his fault. My day is everything sucks, and the day's bad, right? It's this much, it's two seconds, but you allow negative to take over because of the frame you're in. Versus you buy a coffee and the barista gives you two little chocolates at Vita, not one. That doesn't register. We seem to have this disproportionate way of thinking about small negative things and small positive things. Reframing. You have to get perspective on that. Gratitude at the smallest level will get the ball rolling.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

I'm smiling at your at your barista thing with the two chocolates. Um, I came across, yeah, I'm gonna get grilled for this, but a Logan Paul podcast with a guy called Charlie Rocket. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you've heard of him. Yes, and he started this thing called winning streak. Yeah, and it started off with Starbucks, right? And he says, I go to Starbucks and I order my cappuccino or my coffee that costs four dollars or whatever it is. And he goes, I buy all this happiness for just four dollars, I'm on a winning streak. There it is, and that's how he starts his morning. And Starbucks, apparently in America, have now taken this whole winning streak thing. That's awesome. Yeah, I I'm gonna send you the podcast. Forget who hosted. I'm sorry who hosted. Actually, it's not a bad, it's actually not too bad. You'll find a new love for if there was any love for him. This is true, this is true.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

It's I I think there's so many good things to be, and it's and there's a little thing I did with my my team last week as well. Is sit down and make a note. It was a Monday morning, 8:30. People just came out of traffic. Take a paper, I gave them all a little sheet. Give me five things that make you happy. And people are like, oh yo, when my salary No, no, no, no, basic. The smell of coffee, done. Yeah, my dog jumping on me, done. We we have this barrier to entry for happiness that's way up here. And if you're gonna live like that, you're gonna be disappointed. The world doesn't work that way, but there are little things. I mean, the sunset when I was driving, I drive from Bayes straight on the highway in the mornings, sun comes up in the winter, it's beautiful, it's misty. There's a moment, check, done. That's okay, that's a start. Yet some I and that doesn't last a day, but heaven forbid the guy in his BMW cuts me off, that ruins my day. Yeah, balance that. There's always good. There's always good. And we miss those small things. Totally. Totally. I miss those small things. Because I mean, it goes back, I mean, you know, I mean, the way we were programmed from caveman days. We had to pay attention to the negative more than the positive. If there's a sound in the bush, if I don't pay attention, the tiger's gonna come and eat me. Now, our bodies react the same if my boss sends me a nasty email. The tiger's gonna kill you. It's just an email. But we we we tend to still be that way inclined. We're not gonna die if the guy cuts us off. Just move on. Wusa, what's it? Bad boys, who's uh, right? Move on, just find something positive in there.

SPEAKER_01 57:40

Yeah, back to Greenland before we cut this. Yes. Okay, and I wanted to leave it to the last piece of this podcast. Right. Cost a lot of money, I'm sure. Correct. Okay, tell us about fundraising, what's happening, take us through that, what's needed, what needs to be done. How can people get hold of you? What can be done?

SPEAKER_00 57:59

Yeah, look, I mean, it's uh expeditions like this. We just found out in December that it's confirmed because the Greenland government lets the permits come out. Your permits involve evacuation cover permits, the whole thing. So I'm in the process now of fundraising. I'm almost halfway.

SPEAKER_01 58:17

Okay, awesome.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

Almost halfway. I mean, it's been amazing. Thank you for reminding me. It's um so yeah, it's still ongoing. I mean, I've got a couple of presentations and stuff coming up, but it's yesterday when I was dragging tires, it was going well. And then suddenly your brain looks for something new. Oh, I'm not gonna be able to do this because of this, that, the other. So, what I've done is I've got a little page on my website, just help me reach Greenland. Um, I've got a PDF that sends out just messages support means the world. I mean, some of the messages you get is almost like, wow, I'm gonna cry from this, right? Um, but if someone can help or they can, for example, sponsor a flight or whatever the case is, that's amazing. So, yeah, I've got on the website, um, help me, it's jerryfanaval.com, um, right at the top, help me reach Greenland at 50. And the idea as well is I've done this in the past, is the selfless part of it is the content that I use then to try and teach, to try and teach resilience in presentations to executive guys, and this is why communication matters, this is why resilience matters. Keynotes 100%. You don't have to go into the cult to learn this. Here it is. Yeah, so there is value coming at the back of it, but selfish, selfless, right? But yeah, it's um it's it's tight, it's going in the right direction, but yeah, always are you still looking for brand sponsors? 100% okay.

SPEAKER_01 59:38

So we're not close to any of that. Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 59:40

No, so so I mean, currently I'm working with Hilly Hansen, South Africa, phenomenal. I mean, waterproof, windproof, it's amazing. Um, Olympus has been working with me for the longest time, but other than that, I mean, whether it's branding, put stuff on the ski content, whatever. So very open to pretty much anything. Okay, it's it's it's one of the this this whole thing has kind of been like it's not there it is. It's kind of you fix the plane while it's flying, yeah. Which keeps it exciting for me as well. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

And you're halfway there. Okay, yeah, cool. So, guys, please. Um, we'll post it on our socials when this podcast comes out, but you know how to get hold of him on his website, on Instagram, DM. You read your messages on Instagram. All of it, yes. People can DM you. Um, you can reach out to us, we'll put you in contact with Jerry. Are you single? Married notes. Married woman. We're not looking for those type of sponsorships for donations. And then the reason I brought that up, I had another guest. Yeah. Ginger with a GoPro. Um, and he's Jewish and he said something, but all these women just kept flogging us like the wolf. No, jokes aside, please guys. Jamie just spotted this awesome adventure, and he's gonna come back with so much insight. I can't wait. Can we have you back after this? Love to, love to. And all I'm gonna talk about is Greenland, and then I'll have real stories and photos. Last question, I never asked it in the beginning again. I want to know. Can you die in Greenland?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:17

Theoretically, yes, but I'm gonna say no. Okay. Because I'm planning to do that, yes. Okay, yeah. There's no animals that can attack you or on the coast, you can get polar bears. Okay. The problem is they don't go on the ice cap because there's no seals for them to hunt. Okay. But on the coasts, we do polar bear watch, you put a little fence up and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

So now are they dangerous? Like, do polar bears.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:36

100%. Polar bears is one of the only two animals that'll hunt you to eat you.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:39

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:40

Yeah, them and crocodiles, funny enough. So polar on in Svarbot, we did polar bear watch, and you gotta check it. It's least legislation now. If you camp in certain areas, no, polar bears are real. Okay. So not my favorite animal to photograph, but they're very real. I'd love to see a polar bear. So good. We can arrange that.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:57

I need to raise some money too. Here we go.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:59

Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:00

Love it. Thank you for being on this podcast. Thank you for the time. No, I appreciate it. Oh, it's always so short for people like you. Yeah. I love it, man. Thank you. We'll get to the John Rogan four hour episode. I'm working on it. Doc, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.