Man That Can with Lachlan Stuart
Welcome to Man That Can with Lachlan Stuart—the podcast dedicated to empowering men to break through barriers and achieve their full potential.
Hosted by Lachlan Stuart, this show dives deep into the challenges men face, offering actionable insights, real-life stories, and expert advice. Whether you're focused on fitness, business, personal growth, or fatherhood, you'll find inspiration and tools here to help you rise above any challenge and become the man that can.
New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday. Tune in, get inspired, and start living the life you’ve always wanted.
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Man That Can with Lachlan Stuart
Luke Hawkins on Overcoming Adversity and Transforming Lives #502
As I sat down with the phenomenal Luke Hawkins, a coach whose teachings have revolutionised my life, I couldn't help but be in awe of his journey. Here's a man who transformed his life from sleeping in his van to running a multi-million dollar business, proving that resilience, determination, and the right mindset can truly do wonders. Over the course of our conversation, he shares his passion for human behavior, his approach to overcoming addiction, and how he uses Neuro Transformation Therapy to help people level up their lives.
Luke's journey began with teaching special needs children, an experience that ignited his passion for coaching. Tackling relationship breakdowns, he pours light on how he emptied his bank account to equip himself with life coaching tools. As we delve deeper, he unveils the science behind addiction. How unfulfilled emotional needs from childhood can influence our subconscious decisions, and the powerful role our identity plays in breaking free from unhealthy habits.
However, it's not just about overcoming adversities. We also discuss starting a business, finding meaning in your work, and the benefits of investing in yourself. Furthermore, his work with Operation Underground Railroad, an organization dedicated to freeing children from sex trafficking, underscores the importance of passion and purpose. Finally, we explore the world of Neuro Transformation Therapy, a tool that encompasses trauma healing, communication, sales, influence, and life coaching, to facilitate personal growth and transformation. Luke's journey and insights are truly insightful and transformative, and I can't wait for you to tune in and learn from him.
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Do Something Today To Be Better For Tomorrow
You can get your need for belonging by joining a victim group and hanging around victim mates and You're all sharing your victimhood together and that's your meeting your need to belong, and that's one way to do it that's destructive and sabotage your life.
Speaker 2:Or you can meet your need to belong by people who are growing and spanning, making a difference, creating a great life, and Men choose our guest today is none other than Luke Hawkins, one of my earliest coaches and a man who's teaching in NLP and hypnosis has completely transformed my life. Right, luke's journey is nothing short of inspiring. You'll hear me talk about how I Decided I wanted to work with him, and so much more, but his story from sleeping in his van to running a multiple seven figure business inspired the absolute Hell out of me. It just made me go. I need to work with this guy. His story is a true testament to the power of resilience, determination and building the right mindset. Okay, in this conversation, we dive into his journey, the practical processes he uses to help people overcome addiction and create their own identity and create their dream life. This episode is packed with so many powerful insights and practical advice that you will not want to miss If you want to take your life to that next level. It really is a insight into what it is like working with this brilliant individual.
Speaker 2:Now, before we dive in, if you are enjoying the podcast and You're finding value in these conversations, please take a moment to share the episodes on your social media, whether it's your Instagram, your Facebook, or send it to you made in a text message, and make sure you leave a rating, a review and Subscribe to the man that can project on your favorite streaming service. Your support helps me to continue to bring these incredible guests on, week in, week out, and not only that. For me, the support means so much, right? Oh, quite often I don't get to hear how these conversations are applicable in your life and the impacts that it's having. So by building these ratings and reviews Up, it allows me from, I guess, that selfish standpoint to go hey, people are getting value from these episodes. So thank you for that and your help means a lot.
Speaker 2:So, without further ado, let's dive into the incredible journey with Luke the man that can project podcast, a podcast in powering Redriven men to live more fulfilling lives. We are here to challenge your beliefs, redefine success and talk about the important stuff in a relatable way. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. My name's Lockies to it. Let's get into it. Welcome to episode 502 of the man that can project podcast. Today's a really special one for me, a guy who's played a huge role in the direction of the man that can project and even my own personal Development. Luke Hawkins, mate, thank you for coming on the show. Great to be here. It's pretty exciting.
Speaker 2:So I first came across you through our mutual friend, krista Wilson. She's like you got to see this guy and do his course, like he's incredible. It transformed my life and I was in Bali at the time and I was needing sort of a break through a personal breakthrough, but also a professional one from a business standpoint. Started watching a bit of your content, literally crystal the next day. Have you reached out to Luke yet? I'm like mon holidays. She's like just do it, trust me. So I was on the phone to you in Bali and it was a really pivotal conversation, I think literally then. And there I signed up for NLP, yeah, and I didn't really know what it was at the time, but I was. I I'm gonna trust crystal because I got a lot of respect for it and fast forward Fuck, was that four or five years ago now? It's fully transformed my life, right right.
Speaker 1:Congrats on all your success.
Speaker 2:But mate will go go back to you. So you're one of the leading coaches in Australia and globally. You have transformed thousands of people's lives. You have a really unique way of doing things, and One thing that really impresses me is you literally do it to Hundreds, if not more, of people in a room at a time.
Speaker 2:Yeah that blows my fucking mind. How did you go from you? Know you? Let's go back to the backstory. Yeah, where did you come from? What was a pivotal moment in your journey to even get into wanting to help people?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I was always generally interested in in human behavior and and how to help people. And I was be the kid on the school bus that would see someone you know upset or in pain or having a relationship problem and I'd be like, let me fix it. And I was horrible at you know maths and science and all these other things typically in school. But, yeah, I had that genuine interest to help people and, you know, I went on my path. I didn't know who I was, so I got into doing a sports science degree and then got to the end and they said, oh well, there's no jobs in that, so I'm well. So I decided to be a PE teacher. Fuck, I'll just do that. And then I got into that and and then I realized this is a very different experience to what I thought it would be. And, yeah, I kids didn't want to be there and soon enough I didn't either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I remember teaching in a school in the UK, in England. It was an hour south of London in a place called Kent, and this was a school that was a mix of kids that had Autism, learning disabilities, at ADD, adhd, mix with kids that had been expelled from other schools. So it's pretty much fireworks in a school. Yeah right, I would have been a wild experience. It was huge. They could only have like six, eight people in a class max. Wow, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so this one day, this teacher came up to me and said oh, look, we need you to work with this one boy, just you and him. I said oh, is he alright? Said, yeah, you'll be fine. Just just one boy, just you and him, so no worries. So I went into that classroom and I said to him oh, you got to do your work.
Speaker 1:He goes I'm not doing it. What do you mean? No, no, I'm not doing it. And then he grabs his book and throws it to the other side of the room and I'm like, fuck, well, if you're gonna do that, I'm gonna close the door, so you're not escaping little punk. So I close, close the door. And the next thing I remember was looking up the ceiling going what, what the hell happened? The kid had thrown a chair at me and knocked me unconscious. Really, yeah, knock my conscious, had to rush me to hospital and in an ambulance and I'm like this was one of the pivotal moments for me to go. Wow, like kids need more than what's you know taught in a textbook, and and so that was a moment. And then I first thought a few years I had a went to Argentina to actually learn Spanish and ran fitness classes there, and whatnot. So cool, so random but so cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I went there and and that's when I had my second proper relationship and that ended in 2014, and that was probably most pivotal as well for me in terms of a heartbreak and feeling Emotionally like in the lowest place of you know, to the point of not wanting to be here. Even so, I was driving to school thinking I don't want to do this school teaching thing for the rest of my life. I was living with my mom and Getting one day a week through into dolls, a week at a school, and from there I decided that I'm just gonna empty my bank account and learn these coaching tools is life coaching tools? That was in 2014 and then, after that first year, I saw people for everything like addiction, trauma, weight loss, quit smoking, bipolar Schizophrenia, anxiety, like anything. I wanted to be that Therapist that could handle anything in the door that came through, and so that's what I did and and I hope, a lot of people One-on-one. And then it grew to now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, grew to. Now it's like it's it's huge what you've created and very inspiring.
Speaker 1:Well, now, like the first year I think I saw about 200 people one-on-one. The second year I see a few more, a couple hundred people, and then, yeah, I went from 60 K year one, a hundred K year two and then a million in year three in in income, and Before that I was sleeping in my van, parking it in Bondi, yeah, where I live and look out onto now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're now looking at this beautiful view, for we're not gonna show it to you guys unless you're following on YouTube later, but it is a beautiful spot. One thing I'd love to dive into. A lot of our audience are blokes, and one of the reasons why. One of the Biggest indicators why men are taking their life by suicide is relationship breakdown. You mentioned in 2014 you hit a rock bottom off the back of a relationship breakdown. Can you talk to us or show a little bit about how you felt during that period, like what caused that to be such a rock bottom moment for you and what I guess was some Pivotal things that stood out for you that helped you navigate through that and want to go to a higher place?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think for me, I always had a big fear of being alone, yep, and so when I was in a relationship with this person, I would tolerate all kinds of behaviors because of that, that fear, and Also I didn't believe that I deserve something really great. I saw myself in such a low way and that gave me these, you know, these low, limiting thoughts and beliefs about myself and I, I thought, oh well, just tolerate whatever happens because of this low self-esteem. And Then, eventually, to a breaking point where I met a guy that pretty much you know, called me out of my shit and said look, you are in this toxic cycle. If you don't leave this relationship that you know is this person is not the one for you, then you'll never see your potential, you'll never see what is possible for you because of how much you're holding yourself back. And I still at this day.
Speaker 1:It was the hardest thing where I had to contact that person and say, look, we have to end all communication here. There's no, no more to be said from me or to you. This is the end of all communication and that was the hardest text to send it, but it was the hardest text, but it was the best decision that I made for myself because I could finally let go. Yeah, and I think a lot of people struggle with the relationships if they know you know, maybe they know for sure it's the wrong person and it could never be that one, but they're still in a relationship with the person in some form, talking to them all the time and having all the emotions just been retriggered on on repeat and yeah, so I let go. And that created space for the new. And, and when I create the space for the new, the first thing that I needed to decide is that what did I want in relationships and what was going to be my new standard?
Speaker 2:It's such an important point identifying what you want in a relationship and the standard that goes that. But you touch on a really Important point is that loneliness like loneliness. Now there's a really good book I'm reading at the moment called I gen, which is about obviously, phones and all of that sort of stuff in the new generation not having great connection and they reckon the next pandemic coming through is going to be loneliness. And and obviously you had network around you. You Will, fortunate, to grow up without social media, so we knew how to talk to people, but you were very clear that you wanted to feel connected and you wanted to feel valued in a relationship. For men out there listening, what would be a practical step or tool that they could take to Identify a boundary that's important to them within a relationship and also get clear on what they value in that in a relationship or a partner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think for men, what they need to do is Decide, you know, what do they want, what must be there? I call it the shoulds and the musts. So the shoulds, like you know, should they be into health and fitness or should they enjoy their career, or is it a must for you, right, you know? I think it's having clear of like, what should be there and what must like.
Speaker 1:For me, someone repeatedly cheating on you, like that has to be a must, not, you know. But you see guys that like, and I was one that tolerated that and and I was doing it at the time in full transparency I was also being dishonest, but when I stopped, that other person couldn't stop and I tolerated that. So I think that you got to decide, you know, what must must be there, and when you say yes to no thing, say yes to the wrong thing, you can be saying no to the to the right thing and what really could be there for you. And the trigger for me is I believe men should just focus a lot on growing themselves, like, as you teach, becoming the best version of themselves in every era of their life. They're going to increase their perceived value and they're gonna have a lot more options in that area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, awesome point. So obviously, if you look back to where you were at in 2014 versus where you're at now, how has your self-esteem change of value changed, etc.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just think I value my time a lot more than what I ever did before, and I'm very clear and specific about who I will spend time with and who I, who I won't, and I think you should be spending time so much with the people that are where you want to be Yep, then the not. And yeah, I think that's important and focusing on yourself and growing yourself, and that will improve every area of your life from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's exciting. It's, it's cool. I remember a story. You were obviously saying you're living in a van in Bondi and then you got into helping people break free from smoking.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I used to smoke when I was living in France. I'm not a big fan of it now, but yeah, there's a lot of people who smoke still. What's a process look like for breaking the, the link or the Addiction to cigarette smoking, for example, because it is also like a transferable skill for addiction right, yeah, I'm smoking to potentially gambling and various other things, or is it a different process?
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I think the science of addiction is really interesting. Yeah, from what I've learned about, it is that people usually growing up they experienced these Emotional events where emotional needs were not met growing up for them, for the majority of us, we did not feel seen enough, heard enough, validated enough, like we matter and loved enough and things like this, like we belong. And these are just emotional needs that are really important. So when they're not met, a lot growing up and we don't have high self-worth, then we can just be doing things. People can be smoking just to fit in yeah, they can be drinking just to fit in all the time if they need to, you know. And they could be doing this addiction because there is some Negative emotion that is at a subconscious level that they don't have the resources to process that or let that go. So I need something to escape the feeling and it could be a cigarette, it could be food, it could be all needing alcohol. But because I don't have a process to feel the emotion and let it go and sometimes I don't even know what it is or where it comes from I need distraction or I need an addiction to escape that, that feeling. So that's what I believe leads the addiction.
Speaker 1:And then, in terms of breaking through that, the easiest way that I helped a 100 plus people in a year to quit smoking who had done it for 20, 30 plus years, is just by using the power of identity. So if I said to you oh, do you want to rob a bank? You'd like, no, I'm not. And I'm like why not? You would say, well, I'm not a bank robber. And I go, okay, well, that's an identity that you have for yourself.
Speaker 1:And so if someone was smoking for a long period of time, I would say why are you smoking? And I'm a smoker, yeah. And so whatever came after the, I am that. That was what was forming their decision-making and that is which I have seen to be the strongest force of all decision-making in the mind is this power of identity. And when I was working with people and using these processes to Release things out of them, if I change their identity from being a smoker to I am now a Non-smoker for life, right, what does a non-smoker do? Well, they don't smoke. So that was the strongest thing. If I could get that in the subconscious, then I could get rid of 20 30 plus year habits within an hour.
Speaker 2:Far out. It's powerful. You completely just reminded me of that power of identity and like what we link ourselves to it. I experienced it when I finished football. I was like I'm a football player and I was like, wow, dude, you retired 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:You're not like yeah and a lot of people do do that in so many areas of their life. I think I definitely would have shared with you For me before I left to Wilmer, even the behaviors and how I treated women and stuff like that. I actually started to believe that was the way I was, because the environment that I was in they all did the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, I knew it wasn't right but I was like maybe I am just a da da, da, da da, yeah right. And then obviously fast-forward, meeting you, meeting Amy, and sort of wanting to make changes, I started changing how I Thought about myself and what I told myself and the value that I had within myself, and I believe that's why I've not Sort of fallen back into old habits etc. Because it is how you identify, I guess, with with words or phrases etc. But that was one of the most powerful things you taught me with the NLP was like, obviously, your thoughts, your behaviors and communication. It is that stuff is game-changing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so for me, I believe at least 80% of your decision-making is controlled by your identity, right, and your identity is matter of these two main elements. The first element being what are you comfortable in in every air of your life? What is the temperature in which you're comfortable in in your health and body, in your Finances, in the success in your business career, in the quality of your relationship, what is comfortable for you to experience? And you won't tolerate any less than what you subconsciously is comfortable for you. And the second element is what do you believe that you subconsciously deserve? So people won't allow themselves to ask for more or receive more than what they subconsciously believe that they deserve. So some men in relationships They'll actually attract someone great and the woman might really want to treat you really well and give you all this love and attention, da-da-da, and really want to get close to you. But if you're in your subconscious mind thing, well, I actually don't deserve that and Then I will block that out. If I don't believe that I deserve a successful career or a successful business, then I'm not going to make decisions to create that. I will block that out. And so these two elements what you subconsciously believe that you deserve and what you're comfortable in.
Speaker 1:Where does this come from? This comes mainly from its condition, from your history. Most people are living a life that is a reincarnation of their childhood. So whatever that you were brought up in, I what you saw, what you learned, and then also what were the Meanings that your mind took when, for most of us, our emotional needs were not met. That's formed what we believe that we deserve and what we saw, what we felt comfortable in. So even some people that are like Totally broke, have no money, have the shit is job, they can't pay for their rent the following week, they're tolerating something terrible in their relationship and they're tolerating it because that is what they learned or that is what they saw and these are the meanings that they've taken up from all the events of their past. They've never done the inner work on that and that's why I've, you know, form now the neuro transformation therapy, because people need to understand what these emotional needs are that you have and when they're not met, and how you form these protective Sabotage patterns.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was gonna literally get it up here for the NTT. Yeah, how did that? You know, obviously coming from the NLP and then going into the NTT, what was that leapfrog that Caught you to go down in that route? Can you give a bit more of a in-depth Education to all of us, myself included, on what neuro transformation therapy is and who you primarily believe it's valuable for?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I don't know if I shared this with you. I think you knew, but I end up going all the way and doing all the events and courses with Tony Robbins, right? So I joined a program with him called platinum partners and it costs about 120 grand a join and so you get some opportunities to do one-on-one.
Speaker 1:So I was talking to him about this, right and so you already had this concept that I had an idea of my head that I wanted to do my own sort of events, my own Trainings, my own style of things. Yes, but I'd never Trusted myself enough to do that.
Speaker 2:Why, why, where was a lack of trust coming from?
Speaker 1:I believe, a lot like when we're early in our success journey. We can put mentors and people on a pedestal, yep, and we think that they only have light and they don't have any dark, and we think that whatever people say is gospel and no matter. No matter what they say, it should never be questioned. You should follow Whatever somebody else tells you, and I learned through my own journey that some of the biggest people that were successful mentors. I just started figuring out that everybody has pros and everybody has cons and they're only sharing what they believe is right From their model of the world. So I just started to figure out like they've created there. Everyone has got their own unique divine energetic gift and you need to find what that is for you and you need to express it in its Magnitude and its uniqueness, and that's always what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1:I didn't want to just copy only 1970 80s techniques, and many of them are very good, yeah right, but not all of them I was using in my therapy, so that's where a lot of it came from.
Speaker 1:Is that some of the stuff that really good and other stuff a little bit oh, for me, a little bit outdated, wasn't as effective in the therapy room and creating change. And then I started watching other ways to create change and that's why I came up with this what, why, how model of creating change and transformation when there's only seven parts that make up any problem in the nervous system and then people need to understand why they're doing what they're doing. That's one thing. So why am I drinking, why am I smoking, why am I Sabotaging my relationship? So people need to understand where their patterns come from, and the third bit is just the house. So using these different subconscious transformation tools so I call it neuro transformation therapy being the best Transformation tools for creating immediate transformation change, changing people's thoughts, feelings and behaviors through the subconscious, but learning what is making up the problem, why they're doing it, and then they're going through the process to transform and change and let it go.
Speaker 2:It's powerful I'm thinking what you're saying there then. And also the cigarette. When you're getting people over 30, you know habits within an hour. Hmm, I guarantee there's gonna be people listening going. You can't, can't, change that in that sort of period of time. What would your response be?
Speaker 1:All right. So the brain is always making decisions based on your need to avoid pain and gain pleasure, and so the problem is is that your brain is associating a lot of pleasure still to the smoking. It feels good and you know it's comfortable. I've done it for so long. But if I get to you to associate massive pain in the past to what that has cost you and Massive pain to the future, that if you keep doing that, then your brain can make a decision To stop that behavior for good because it's too painful. Everyone's had a moment here where they've like been a relationship. It's got so bad, fuck it. I just have to leave.
Speaker 1:I'm out, right. Or I've been, like you know, drinking non-stop every single day or weekend and I've. That's it. I need to stop for now, right, whatever it may be on. Fuck this job, I'm out. I need to quit, right. So the brain can make decisions. But people don't make decisions generally because they need to associate more pain to the past, more pain to pleasure, and then, if I use an identity on top of that that no, you are a Nonsmokern. Part of it is we slow the brain waves down into a theta brainwave state where you are more suggestible. That's how you were growing up, is you? Up? Until the age of seven, you never questioned anything that you were told. Everything you accepted to be true. So I can put you in that state through the processes and then you start to accept, and I do it on repeat, and if I repeat something enough, your brain begins to believe it.
Speaker 2:Because you, you did that with me at I can't remember whether it was a master's one or not Around guilt, oh yes, and I was. Something I'd never even thought of was guilt around being born.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well which something like I was, like I fucked, my mom sacrificed her whole life for me, which is something that I'd never, consciously, had ever thought about when you're doing this similar process with me. It was just like slap me in the face and I was like holy shit. Subconsciously I've had that. It's also, I think, an element of why I'm so driven to do well, as because I've had that pain buried there, that fuck.
Speaker 1:I'm a big burden and yeah, I found that as a trait for people that are most successful. There's like this fine balance where there's not too much trauma, that you feel that you could never amount to anything yeah but there's just enough for you to feel that, oh, I need to grow, I need to expand, I need to become more, because I'm not enough the way that I am yeah. So if you combine that with the second element of just drive and hunger yeah then, and enough self-esteem Then I've seen that to be the perfect ingredients for people to become very successful.
Speaker 2:So, for those who are wanting to improve success in any of the areas of life that you've mentioned, that same principle of Putting enough pain behind, maybe getting the wheels turning and having an idea of the pleasure that's available to you, could be yeah like a good exercise for everybody watching this.
Speaker 1:Now. Just think of something, some air in your life, or some pattern or some behavior, something that you haven't been able to change. Yep, and then think about all right, how long have I been doing this for and what does this cost me in my health and body? What does it cost me in my finances? What it cost me in my business and career? What does it cost me emotionally? Yeah, and in my relationships? And if you think in every air of your life, what does cost you? And then you're like, well, what is it gonna cost me 20 years from now? Yeah, if I don't change and for me it was if I stay living in my mom's house at 27 and I'm 40 years old, no one's gonna want to be with that. Yeah, so I need to go. I need to make a decision, and that's what helps get people to the point of a decision, of of change a powerful tool.
Speaker 2:One thing I also really respect about you is your transparency with things in. I was doing your seven figure Mastermind or is it a part of your mastermind? Oh yeah, and I can't remember the specific moment, but there was a moment where you got on the call and you looked like you were knackered and you're like guys, I got to talk to you. I'm not, you know, struggling here with fatigue and stuff like that, and I have never seen you were the first person that I've seen come on a call or something like that and be like I'm fucked at the moment, like, rather than trying.
Speaker 2:Obviously you were still showing up, you were still pushing through, but you were like I'm struggling here and for me as a coach as well and also someone that I, you know, really aspired and was inspired by or am inspired by my fuck, this guy's human Like he's not just a war's, because you, you, you, work incredibly hard, you bring incredible amounts of energies, like we did 10 days straight of that and you were on all day, I was knackered and I wasn't even teaching, and so to hear that for me was really eye opening, but also very important in my personal journey. So where, or why, do you feel it's so important to be transparent?
Speaker 1:Well, I think that people need to understand that we're all human beings and we all have, as I said before, light and dark. We'll have really good parts to the self and positive parts, and then we have other parts that we might not be so proud of or have shame around or judge about ourselves, and we're all having a human experience where things happen in life that we can't control, and I think you have to be really honest with people to help them. I don't think that you should tell them things that are not true, because then they're going to be led by something that is not true, it's not real, they're going to follow your footsteps, and so I think for self leadership is you've you've got to be vulnerable, you've got to share who you are and what's really going on, and that helps people feel safe as well and feel, I guess, trusting themselves and knowing themselves that they're okay as they are and can be great with all these things going on in their life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's definitely how I experienced that as well. But can we do you mind if we talk about the chronic fatigue? And stuff a bit, Because I've had another mate who's experienced it and some people probably feel like they experience it. But what was that life you and what I guess tests did you have, because I know you had your bloods done and how was that recovery period?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was back in early. It was late 2019, the beginning of 2020, where I started to feel a lot less energy. I remember, after running that 10 day transformation course, that I had a personal training session at like 6.30 AM the following day and we were running events from. You know, the event was from 9 AM or 10 AM till 10 at 9 each day, and then that doesn't include the prep time till 1, 2 AM and then waking up at 6 to prepare again and that was a. I had this 10 day course and after this and I remember trying to lift the weight and I couldn't lift it I'm like why am I not lifting? It's not even heavy. And it wasn't like feeling just weak in the muscles, it was nerve weakness and that triggered me. I need to get this checked out. This is terrible.
Speaker 1:And then I went and saw the you know nutritionists and whatnot and they did all these testing and they found my cortisol, my adrenaline levels were so low. What it should have been at the beginning of the day when I woke up was what it should have been at night, like at 10 o'clock when you're about to go to sleep. But that was me at 8 AM, when it should be at peak at cortisol and adrenaline levels. There was nothing there. It was so low and I'm like this explained it where I had no energy and I was just push, push, push and so I was running a fight, flight or freeze response for so long I didn't even know that I was doing it and that led to me doing the testing and then waking up and having no energy to have to run a business and I had 50, 60k of expenses every month to pay and I was really worried and I started to seek answers. And so one of the things I started to learn is that we have, you know, lymph and then we have blood and the lymph if it gets clogged too much, then it can't filter out all the toxins out of the body.
Speaker 1:And so I went on an eight week, as I was saying, an eight week grape juice, you know, cleanse right, which was basically the most painful thing. So if you imagine walking past a restaurant and seeing people eating pizzas, eating meat, eating nice burgers, it was the most hardest thing to eat only grape juice for breakfast, lunch and dinner for eight weeks straight. I was mentally tested. I lost, as I was saying, 15 kilos over this time period. I shivered into nothing, I had no energy whatsoever. And by this point the person said to me like now we need to do a water fast and I'm like I'm going to die, like if I do that. And my, I was not in a good place emotionally by this time either, and there, and so I did all that. I got a lot of toxins out of the body, but then I started to eat normally again and use other techniques to get out of that. But yeah, it's, it's interesting when you're running a fight or flight. Response 24 seven what it does to your dreamals.
Speaker 2:Could you give some key or for, once again, a lot of people listen to this, so high, high performers as well and they always in that hustle mode fight or flight. What are some key ways that they can recognize if they're spending potentially too much time in that space?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think a really good indicator is if you're always go, go, go, go go. If you notice it was, one of the biggest indicators is your breathing. So people when they're in fight or flight, they're breathing really quickly, really shallow, and that's just in that place. You're triggering a lot of adrenaline, a lot of cortisol that's coming out nonstop and there's only so much you can do before your adrenals just have nothing left, and so I think that's a big indicator. If you're under a lot of stress all the time and you notice that you're always in a pattern of focus or what do I need to do next? What haven't I done? You're probably living a lot in that place, and so I had to incorporate rituals of slowing my breathing down, breathing doing, breathing in slowly, breathing out slowly, and that really helped me in doing things like saunas and people can try meditation, things like that. But you can't just be running your business as if it's a sprint all the time. You need to have space, time of slower activities, I believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that recharge time is vitally important. So, yeah, you've obviously had some hurdles along the way. But even from a business standpoint, you went from teaching, where you hadn't had much experience in business. You'd done some awesome travel and then you'd gone from was it $60,000 to $100,000 to a million dollars. How did you adapt to running a business as well that was turning over that much revenue?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so by year five, yeah, it got to $3 million. That's not sales, that's income in cash. And to go from sleeping in my van five years before that at Bondi to having that, it was really surreal and I didn't know what to do with it and so I wasn't good at managing it. So I spent a lot of money and costs on things of not knowing how to pay people, how to hire people the right way, how to structure my business tax wise in the right way, paying for the most expensive buildings to run offices out of, for just all kinds of things that I was not understanding and not even watching my cash flow close enough to know what I was spending and not spending. So I think that was a big thing for me, where I lost a lot of money in just not understanding business for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what was like? If you could go back to 2016, luke, or year one business Luke, what advice would you give yourself? It's a great question.
Speaker 1:I think for me, you definitely need to find someone who has been in business a while and they're willing to have some transparency around what their actual margins and profit margins are, because many people will proclaim online oh I made this much this month and I did this much in a year, and then you would look at their profit and loss and they'd probably be better off, some of them working in McDonald's.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:And you wouldn't know about it, and there's a lot in the coaching space that I like. This I know.
Speaker 2:I know yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I coach them, I see what they write in on their posts and then I see what's behind them and it's usually very different and you have to have transparency, like of knowing. Show me your margin, show me what it is really, and if they don't know, there's your first red flag. And if they're not willing to share, then maybe you should dig a little deeper. I think people will willingly hand out money to people just because of what they've seen in a post, but I think people should really do their research beyond what is normally shared.
Speaker 2:Yeah, due diligence is a key one. I remember I did a course I think it was like 2015 or 16 and this was the moment that made me go fuck, I need to do due diligence on people before I give them my cash, and it was four grand or whatever, which was a lot significant investment for me, and I put it on credit and this guy literally all he did for the whole three days was every time something triggered you or whatever. He's like, go lay on the mattress Right. What People were suing him and I was like I'm just going to take that as an expensive lesson do some digging on people and where they're at their results.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think for people first year of business, they should find something that, yes, that they love, like you really want to do it, and that there is a need or demand for it as well. There's so many vehicles. You could choose e-commerce, you could choose online trading, you could choose drop shipping, you could choose affiliate marketing. You choose what we are the coaching, consulting space. There's other different categories as well. But, yeah, I don't think people should choose them just because they think they're going to get rich out of it. I've seen some people which is, oh, we're going to do affiliate marketing, I'm going to do drop shipping or e-com, just because they think, oh well, it's easy to make money, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1:But if you don't love it enough, then, you won't put enough energy that's required to make it great. Like I could do anything right now, but I chose coaching because I'm most passionate about it. There's a lot of other things I could do, but I will put in the most amount of energy to make this great. You've got to pick one lane and just decide to become the best at that.
Speaker 2:It's a very good point, like I, even for me, yeah, I've never delved into like the business coaching space because what I love doing is like the mental health that's, that's what I love and as much as like there's more money in business stuff because you can get in corporates and Whatever it's like. I just don't enjoy it. I love growing my business. That's fine. I love seeing my numbers, I love seeing my mates success, etc. And, as I mentioned, we've got People who are doing really well. I love learning from them.
Speaker 2:Hmm but I'm not gonna be the guy that's like, let me show you how to run a fucking business. That's just not who I am.
Speaker 1:I think it's really great to see what your Genius is and what you love the most and, yeah, what people need. And, yeah, I think that's good recognition of self-awareness.
Speaker 2:Yeah knowing that I've just seen to and I think probably comes from your transparency Seeing a lot of people do what they don't enjoy doing just for money, and I'm like it's Money's great. Yeah but it's a it's a resource to do Other things that make you happy. But if you're not happy in the process, why are you doing it in the first place?
Speaker 1:Yeah, like we're all at a deeper level just searching for meaning. Yeah, right, and and I teach this in the neuro transformation there because these five human needs and the last human need, the fifth one, is the need for soul, expansion and contribution. And the reason why we want to expand is because we're seeking more of meaning, and it's hard to get meaning and something that that you don't love, you don't enjoy, and it's not expression of truly what your Gifts are talking about meaning.
Speaker 2:You have given, of made significant donations to operation underground railroad. Yeah, how did that come about for you? And, yeah, why is that so important to you? Obviously, you know, touched on the meaning piece and but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I sat in a seminar and Was watching a video and it's gonna come out soon, actually on the 4th of July. It's called the sound of freedom. It's a documentary by operation underground railroad, which is an organization that helps free young kids from sex trafficking, where they are being taken from their homes, put into environments where they're taken advantage of, their sexually abused, and it's the fastest growing Industry in the world. It's it's surpassing the drug trade, it's surpassing All kinds of different industries. It's it's worth billions and billions. I think it's now it's a 36 billion a year industry is human sex trafficking and it's the surpassing every other illegal trade, the legal arms trade, the drug trade 36 billion a year. And that's.
Speaker 1:And what happens is they have all you know they have when, when there's wars in countries or when there's real tough situations, where there's hurricanes and things like that they call it apparently harvest time where there's all these kids that are just, you know, they're homeless, they're vulnerable, and these predators go in there and and these organize you know these underground organizations go in there and take these kids and and and and.
Speaker 1:So I saw Videos of this and I saw the pain in the kids and I thought that is the most Unfortunate, like terrible situation to be in, where you essentially have no ability to get yourself out of this situation because you're so young and so if you're sexually abused and you have no power to defend yourself, like I just thought that was horrible. So I remember sitting in seminar and seeing this and so, yeah, from there, I I've, you know, donated, you know tens and tens of thousands of dollars, you know, to this charity, and that gives me meaning of of why I'm doing this. As well as that, I'm making a difference, or something that's greater than me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we think that our life is is so, like you know, we think that we've got it bad, we think that there's something terrible in our life, but it's nothing compared to so many other people's Journeys, and so I think that you should grow and expand and make money to be able to give to those things that you believe in.
Speaker 2:That's where you mentioned there, like being a part of something bigger than yourself, that's, you know, going back to what we spoke about at the beginning, the loneliness pieces. People do want to belong to something bigger and Now, especially after COVID gave us that reset where we were all isolated and it's separated from Communities, etc. It made us realize that we do want to have that sense of belonging and fit in somewhere. And you know that can be giving to Charities and being a part of it. That way it can be. Being a part of a sporting organization, it can be, you know, even being a part of like your, your crew, like it's all. It's all. Just, we want to belong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so that's interesting for men is that they can. It's a human need to this need to belong right, and you can get your need for belonging by joining a victim group and and hang around victim mates and You're all sharing your victimhood together and that's your meaning, your need to belong, and that's one way to do it that's destructive and sabotage your life. Or you can meet your need to belong by people who are growing and spanning, making a difference, creating a great life. And men choose. It's a very good point. Men choose.
Speaker 1:If you hang out with your mates on the weekend, a lot of people that are watching this you get every weekend. We're getting here, we're getting drunk together, we're talking about our shitty job, we're talking about our shitty relationship and we're all just making each other feel better because, oh well, you've got it worse than me, so it must be okay and I feel like I belong. But that that is, you know, ends up being very empty. But if you go and find people that are living a greater life than you, the one that you want, and they're living on purpose, it might be triggering.
Speaker 1:At the beginning. It's like, oh, I'm clearly not enough, like look what I'm doing compared to them. Yeah, but and that's why a lot of men avoid it as well, because they feel, oh well, I'm I don't feel like I belong, I'm not in the place of this guy or other men that are like this, so I shouldn't be here. And that's bullshit. Everybody came from the same source. You just have to believe that if everyone came from this place, then we all deserve to be there as much as each other very.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I remember 2016 I think it was when I made it no 2014 when I was like I'm gonna be a millionaire one day and I had no mates that were millionaires and I was right, I'm gonna start hanging out with them. And then I had this epiphany where I was like, why the hell would they want to hang out with me? I come a where I was at that point in my life I wouldn't have hung out with me. I didn't have much value to offer. I did, but I didn't know how to Offer that value. So, rather than gone, I'm just gonna stay where I am, where it's comfortable and I can go. Well is me. I thought okay. Well, how can I start adding value to millionaires? And that's where I started reading more, attending seminars, shifting my environment, getting more into my fitness, because I wanted to become a guy that people wanted to surround themselves with. So, as Luke was saying, you can have, you can view everything in two through two lenses.
Speaker 2:Yeah one that's gonna hold you back or one that's gonna propel you forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think. What do I have verse, what don't I have? I spoke to a kid yesterday. He was 26 years of age. He's been doing door-dash, you know, to drop off things. He was doing busking on the side of the street and he's, you know it's like well, what do I do with my life? I'm lost, I don't know what I love, I don't know what to do. And I said to him you've got to learn high-income skills, yeah, because you won't, you won't. It's not enough to just do government education. It's not enough to just do school and Think that. You know, I'm gonna make it in this life, you're gonna get eaten alive in this life.
Speaker 1:In the next five to ten years, I believe, at least 40, 50% of jobs are gonna be replaced by artificial intelligence. With what's coming, it's crazy, right. And now, like I said, this boy, you've got to learn these high-income skills. You've got to learn Problem-solving. You've got to learn communication. You've got to learn how to coach yourself. You've got to learn how to even coach and lead others. Leadership. You've got to learn sales and influence. These are high-income skills and if you could learn that then you can add a lot of value to organizations or even in your, in your own thing. But you have to spend the money. The first money should go into you to add value to you and Learning these high-income skills, and then things will, will grow.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very important thing investing back into yourself, obviously learning those skills, but you as well, so looking at, obviously, when you were doing your cleansing but I know you do saunas, ice baths, you exercise, all of those things are an investment in yourself.
Speaker 2:And a Lot of people don't have the educational understanding on how to eat well, on how to move well, but they refused to part with the money, and I understand. You know, I remember my first ever event ticket was $25 and at that point in my life I was like, fuck, that's the case of beer for the weekend and I, I I dwelled on that all week and then I'm very fortunate that I did just pay the 25 bucks, bucks, because that then made me go wow, this is awesome, I need to invest $50. See what I can get from three grand, 10 grand, blah, blah, blah blah. But in the beginning it was a lot. But for those of you who know that you need to improve whether it is your health, to get more energy and enthusiasm in what you're doing, or strength for your confidence, etc at some point there will come a time where you've got to invest, either time or money, and the fastest way, I believe, to get there is through investing time going to the people who have the results that you want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's, that's a yeah great decision for anybody to do. I went through universities, you know, to begin with, but soon enough I realized that, you know, I don't have the confidence, I don't have the self-esteem, I don't have the self-worth. And you know, every air of your life is a reflection, as we said before, of what you believe you deserve and what you're comfortable in. And you've got to upgrade that. And the easiest way to upgrade that is to start working hard, telling yourself new I am statements, I am, I am a millionaire, or I am successful, or I I am a, you know, a fucking powerhouse athlete, whatever it may be. You've got to have a strong identity that you keep repeating to yourself to get that into the subconscious.
Speaker 1:And then you've got to start visualizing that new life that you want, whatever it may be, and then start working hard would be the third thing. And then the fourth thing is you've got to find people that are where you want to be in life, because you're people rise to the, to the expectations of your peer group. Right, your life generally never exceeds the expectations of your peer group. You think, fuck my mate, I'm going to see him on the weekend, he I'm. When I talked to him he's going to be how much did you make? Or what did you do this week? Or or you know how have you been going? And you, because of your need to belong, you're using in a powering way. I don't want to let this guy down. I don't want to lose acceptance or love from the group or from the tribe, or from my mate, so I need to perform, and you would have done that through investing.
Speaker 2:you know 120 grand to be in Tony Robbins.
Speaker 1:That's why I, that's why I purely did that. People like you're an idiot. You should have bought like two house deposits for that. And I said, well, I don't want to stay here, so I need to hang around people that are where. I want to be much bigger than that.
Speaker 1:And I remember being on the bus and sitting next to this guy it was. We were going to Tony Robbins' house, right, and I'm, I'm in Idaho, in in in the States, and I remember him talking to me and saying, oh Luke, how are you going? How's your business? So I said, oh yeah, I feel pretty good. Like I did three million last year. It was amazing.
Speaker 1:Five years ago I was seeing my van doing courses. I felt pretty good about myself and I was like, oh, chuffed. And then I asked him. I said, oh, what do you do? He goes. Oh, I've got an investment banking company. I said, oh, wow, do you hope you know my mask? How's that one going? He goes oh, yeah, we did 300 million last year.
Speaker 1:And then I'm like what Like? And I just felt like so, but like, shut up, luke. Like don't, don't say anything. Like just shut up and listen. And and that helped me realize like this person had very different beliefs, that very different ways of making decisions and that very different values.
Speaker 1:And one thing about people that are successful is they don't sit there for ages and ages thinking about the thing that they want to do. Well, you're thinking about the thing that you want asking that girl out, or going for that career, or going for that business. Someone else has already made the decision and people are so like stuck in their own fear. But you can't take this fear to the grave. You can't take this fear to the grave Like no one's getting out alive. No one's getting out alive Like so you may as well.
Speaker 1:Just for me, I'm like fucking burn the boats, go all in, see what you can do with your life. I emptied my bank account to learn these self development courses and I knew I put myself here. You have to accept number one. I put myself here. No one else's fault. Like you're the reason. It's the most spiritual quote. Like you are the reason. It's your fault as to why you are where you are. His most confronting thing to hear. Because no one's like saying, oh you, poor you, you went through this thing. No, you should fucking use it to grow, not as the reason why to stay where you are.
Speaker 2:Another thing to add to that I'm fired up here, and this is one of the reasons why I told I was saying to you before.
Speaker 2:Eight months ago I was like I'm going to like really lean into the podcast because of the growth and the people that I get to chat with, and now I'm like I don't want to do online anymore because just even sitting on the couch with you it's just making me want to play at a bigger game, and I think that's going back to that power environment. But another key thing that stood out from what you said you made $3 million that year. Your investment was the same as old buddy, who made $300 million, but your investment was significantly more based off what you weren't. He earned $100 times as much as you, but he's still paying $120 grand for him. 120 grand, maybe a drop in the ocean for you. It's a significant amount. You stand based on where that investment comes from to gain more.
Speaker 1:That's so true. Like for the first three years of my business, even though I went from zero to a million in a year, every cent went back into me and so, because I had invested so much, I had more to extract. I could extract more because there was more that I invested in comparison, based on what I had in my current resources. So remember everything that I heard in these seminars I was writing down. I listened to everything. I've always been a good student. I think men get stuck because their ego gets in the way and they think that they know enough. I have a mate that runs the pretty much the biggest property company in the country. He did my course. He went from 10 people in his property development course to now he's got 250 people running working in this thing.
Speaker 1:It happened within three years. It's a property development company and it's huge. Like you know, I won't share the number because he, you know, I haven't asked permission to do that but it's massive. But one thing for him me is I'm always a student. I'm always asking questions. If I share with what I know, I stay where I am. If I ask for what I don't know, then I grow, and so I remember studying out.
Speaker 1:I had this guy that I met and he had a successful relationship. He was earning a couple hundred grand a year when I was still earning 300 bucks a week and I my goal was just to add value to his life, and the only value that I had was actually just to make this guy feel good about himself. And so I just asked him questions and said, oh, what are you doing here? What are you doing here? And I'm like, oh, I just told so, you're amazing, you're doing so great. Fuck, you inspire me. Like he felt good about himself, even though I had nothing financially to add value. I had no business skills, no knowledge around this, but I just made him feel good.
Speaker 1:People love to be heard and people love to just share and have someone listen to them. So, even if you feel you've got nothing to offer, you just listen to people and make them feel heard. They're going to want to help you. But, like that's just a law of reciprocity, right, if you just if I just give to you, make you feel heard, then you're going to want to give that back.
Speaker 2:So I just think that that's a powerful thing to find people, that that, that that you can do that for Look, I want to respect your time because I know you've got a busy day ahead. All good.
Speaker 2:Just before we dive into more about when your next program is and how people can find out more about that. I've taken away so it's reiterated so many things this conversation for me, obviously about balance, going all in on things, dealing with past traumas or beliefs and really creating that identity for me that really stood out because I've rereading thinking, grow rich, and there's so many things from that that I've been like fuck, I've stopped doing that, I've stopped doing my IM statements, I've stopped telling myself where I'm going and I feel like I have been in a flat spot for 12 months, even though we've, you know, been ticking along, but I'm like I'm not. I haven't had that feeling that I've now just got from this conversation again, which is awesome. So I hope everyone who's listened to this has taken it, taken it away as well.
Speaker 2:And if you want to go deeper with this stuff which I would recommend, because I personally did it and it changed my life Like it genuinely did change my life in a short, you know, I did two, three of your courses in one year. I did your hypnosis, the NLP and the masters all in one year, which was gnarly, but that was significant growth for me, and not only did I get to work on myself and my understand how my thoughts and beliefs and actions were shifting my life and communication. I got to hang around higher, I guess, vibing people, people who were doing the things that I wanted to do or people who were challenging the things that I didn't or wasn't aware that I needed to challenge within myself. So that in itself was huge for me. So I feel, if you are in a stuck spot and I'm not the right dude for you, but you're getting a lot of value from this Luke's you guy like a hundred percent. So let's go into how people can can work with you and what you've got coming up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we run these three events a year called neuro transformation therapy, and that takes people on a three day journey. We run them live in Sydney or you can attend online. I tell people I can fly there. I've got a lady coming from Florida to the next one.
Speaker 2:I saw you face to that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know she's coming flying over, so we have people fly from around the world to come, but it's three days and if you can come there in person, that is where the greatest transformation occurs. So you're in the room, we're bringing up all your stuff over the three days all the past trauma, all of the unresolved stuff, and then we're taking your process over the three days to let it go, release it and create a new version of the self. So they're on three times a year. The neuro transformation therapy is for those that want to learn how to transform themselves and those maybe they want to become a certified life coach as well. That's something extra that people can get out of it. But they're learning all the trauma, healing or the transformation of the past, and then learning communication, sales, influence and how to, you know, coach themselves and coach other people as well, no matter whatever that they're doing.
Speaker 2:Awesome. It's been extremely valuable. You guys can find Luke at Luke Hawkinscom. It's got all the links to your social platforms and everything else that you do there as well.
Speaker 1:So, mate, it's been an absolute pleasure, thank you, thank you Great, great job.
