 I put that there so hello everybody can you hear me okay? I'd like to say first of all congratulations to everyone who's graduated from St Mary's University today as I as he said that I graduated in 2008 with a degree in sports science and when I got the letter through the post it arrived at my office with the letter you know St Mary's University I thought oh no I'm more money they're coming after me but I did pay off my student loan took me eight years but I got there and I'm really nervous public speaking so this is like a really scary thing for me to do but I thought there's so many of you out there in the audience that will know exactly what you're doing you would have smashed your degree you've got your sat nav on you know where you're going you know how to get there but there'll also be a lot of you in the audience that are feeling confused and a bit worried and sort of unsure about what you're going to do where you're going to go and the question that Francis is asking everyone was what you're going to do next year what you're going to do now you've graduated and a lot of people are not in the headgun I don't know I haven't got a clue I don't know what I'm going to do and that was how I felt for so many years I called it the court of life crisis between the ages of like 22 and 25 I didn't know what I was doing didn't know where I was going and I went traveling and kept running away and kind of earning a bit of money I was laboring and worked in a bar but ultimately I know it's a cliche but when you find out what you love to do and you're passionate about something then success can come really quick because my career is actually only three years but it's been a lot of work behind the scenes so I wanted to go back to the beginning and explain yeah what my ambition was in the early days because I come from a working class family my mum's a social work and my dad's a roofer and me and my brother Nicky were the first two people to go to university and I always thought I was going to be a PE teacher that was why I did the degree in sports science I came out of university with the degree and I was like well I've got a degree in sports science but I don't want to be a sports scientist I can't teach because I didn't have a person you know the one year um PGCE I couldn't get on the GTP like because every time I went for the interview they could tell that I didn't want to do it they could see through that I wasn't ready for it it wasn't really what I wanted to do so I bummed around a little bit again went traveling grew my hair never I haven't cut it since and um I thought I work as a teaching assistant I go into a school I signed up a teaching agency and I was I remember just not being very happy and I thought I've got to do something I've got to crack at something so um I worked as a teaching assistant in a really rough school near the Cambridge estate in Kingston called um King Atherston and they were going through like special measures with Ofsted really naughty kids and um I remember thinking this is hard work they were pulling my hair they were kicking me in the shins nicking my lunch they used to nick my food and I'd go to my lunchbox to eat and I'd have nothing to eat um so it's pretty rough but I realised after about nine months of that I thought I'm not quite cut out to be a school teacher and I think many of you might have done a degree and you might have signed up to that when you're 18 thinking this is what I want to do and maybe like a year into you're like this sucks I don't enjoy this but you've persevered you've got it done so don't feel like it's a waste of time because it's really not and I think you should be excited by the change of direction you might you know my brother did law he never became a lawyer he works with me and helps with the body coach and I think you should be excited there's so many opportunities out there so don't feel like you've done a degree and you might you might feel pressure to kind of go into that career in that in that job and that with that degree but really the world's so different now there's so many opportunities so don't feel like you've got to um you know necessarily do that um yeah and so when I had done my um after I'd become a teaching assistant I was doing that for about nine months and I thought this ain't this ain't right for me so I borrowed two grand off my dad and I went and did a personal training qualification um a six week course called premier training where I've learned to become a personal trainer came out of there really ambitious because I remember thinking this is what I want to do I love exercise and I really love taking somebody who hates exercise on a journey to really enjoying it and getting fitter and I get a massive sense of achievement from doing that and that's what I do every day on social media so sorry so I did my personal training course and I sat down I thought I don't want to work for fitness first or David I don't want to I don't want to work for someone else and you know get paid five pound an hour and work really hard and that'll be my job I want to work for myself and so I sat down with a piece of paper and I wrote down all these words that meant fitness and health and motivation and I come up with this word the body coach and I was like yes that's it the body coach so I set up a website I set up a twitter account and um started a bootcamp in Richmond called rumbling the park and at the time I didn't have I didn't have a single penny like I literally borrowed a bit of money from my mum when I got some kettlebells got a few boxing pads a few flyers and whatnot started sort of marketing as best I could and I couldn't afford a van so I had a little trailer this little like trailer that clipped onto the back of my bike and I used to get up every morning at 5 30 and cycle from Serbeton all the way through Kingston it was nice and flat all the way through Kingston you get to like Peterson nurseries and you got that nasty hill and I remember it must have been about 70 kilograms just pulling this really heavy trailer but I remember it's a really warm morning I just said to myself this is what I'm going to do this is what I love doing I felt like I'd finally found out what I was going to do and it was amazing because as soon as I got that dedication and that focus my career just accelerated and I've just done so much in such a short time so don't don't be concerned if you haven't found out what you want to do yet because you will get there it took me a long time like I said I was 26 before I even had a single clue about doing that and I'm now 31 so I've done a lot in such a short time so be patient and explore travel the world don't panic about knowing exactly what it is you want to do right now today because it's fine you're going to get there right so I'd get to Richmond yeah 6 a.m start my bootcamp I'd set all the stuff up I'd have a TRX hanging on the tree I'd run down there and put the battle rope around the other tree I'd have kettle bells and 15 stations I'd be like because I in my head 15 people gonna turn up yeah every time and sometimes you know nobody would turn up sorry I always get really emotional and tell the story about how many times so yeah like some I'd get there and nobody would turn up right and I used to think I'd just be like right this ain't this ain't this ain't gonna happen I'm not gonna give up I'm keep going and I would go to I'd pack up all the stuff in the trailer and I you know rain or shine I'd go to Richmond station I had a little flyer that I hand down I used to get on people's nerves every day they'd hate me they'd just be in such a rush didn't want to see my face and I'd be like come to my boot camp rum in the park you know check it out and maybe only 10 people would take a flyer and I stand up two hours but if one of them came it was like another client it was another chance to grow the business and I kept doing that I just kept going back and you wouldn't believe how many times I'd get there and there'd be nobody there like in the night because I did it twice a day so I'd cycle home and then I'd be knackered then I'd cycle back to Richmond in the evening do it twice anyway I kept going and I built it up and I eventually it became a little business and then I set one up in Serbetton and I was sort of you know doing alright and I thought right I've got my boot camp and then I started doing some personal training and I kind of got really busy and I was having a great time and I was loving it I really was loving it but you do sacrifice a lot of time being a personal trainer it's like you're up early you don't get much time at the weekend because all your clients want to train at the weekend so anyway I really cracked on for a couple of years and then I started to share some stuff on social media I started posting recipes and stuff on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and then I had this idea one day right in 2014 it was December I was in my flat in Serbetton and I wrote I'm going to share a recipe and I'm going to do in 15 minutes and I'm going to call it Lean in 15 right so that was just an idea hashtag Lean in 15 showing a 15 second video and you know I had so many people like friends of mine really close friends were like what are you doing why are you wasting your time get back to the boot camp you're doing my nutting every night on Instagram Twitter and Facebook like chill out it's boring right and so I didn't listen to them because I just was having fun and I just carried on kept doing what I was doing like with the boot camps every day breakfast lunch and dinner I'd record it and share it on Instagram I had no idea I was ever going to have a book deal or monetize my social media or create an online business I really didn't and that's one thing I think everyone should learn that lesson that it's not about making money you shouldn't try and always think I've got to make money it's all about the salary if you make a difference to someone and you make a change in someone's life and make them feel good about themselves you can do amazing things and it will eventually come back obviously in success in certain different areas when I got the books and stuff but so I'm tweeting away doing my Instagram building that community suddenly I get an email from Harper Collins about wanting to write a book with me so I said I'm not really an author I've never written a book and I don't think to be honest that I'm a very good cook and they were like now come and have a meeting with me so I went and had the meeting sat there with them and they were like look we love you you're doing many great things on social media I had 50,000 followers on Instagram at the time and I called up my friend Bev and said look Bev do you think I should get an agent or should I just sign up with these guys she said well it's important to get a literary agent so I um I got an agent and it became like a they call it a blind auction where publishers there was eight publishers were bidding for the rights to Lean in 15 and overnight it went from a one book deal to a two book deal and then I released it on Amazon pre-order and it went to number one like six months before it was out has anyone got a Lean in 15 book in here yeah thank you um so my publisher just went crazy was like we've got a sign you so I then got an eight book deal so it became this huge thing and I remember my mate at the time a really good friend of mine says what oh like I was really excited about the book deal and stuff and he was like well you should have just done an app no one buys books like what's the point just do an e-book and it really upset me on the day you said that and I thought no I'm going to go and do it anyway and you know Lean in 15 is now the second best-selling cookbook of all time after my man Jamie Oliver my hero Jamie um thank you I'm still so my heart is I feel I'm doing a hit session my heart is pounding so fast this is more this is scarier than Guinness World Record we did in High Park so yeah Lean in 15 has become this phenomenal success and aside from you know the financial gains of that that was never what it was about for me I do book tours and I meet these women and these guys that have had you know bulimia and anorexia or they've been overweight or they've got diabetes and they do these plans and they follow my ideas and they're it's changing their lives and that's what it's all about for me like even even today I wake up and I do a snapchat or an instagram it's it's always the same thing all I ever try to do every day is to get one person exercising and feeling good and to get one person cooking a healthy recipe so you know I've solved a problem and that's what you should always think with your ideas is you know how can I solve a problem and and give people something that's going to make them feel better and that's what you should always be when you're being entrepreneurial and in the process of the whole book thing going on which is pretty crazy I released this online plan called the 90 day shift shape and sustain plan which is an online business selling tailored fitness plans okay so I did that in a way just to kind of kind of like you know if I can get a few people to sign up I can do less PT and have a little bit more time to myself and with my girlfriend and whatnot and it's become this huge global company like we've I've got 40 staff it's a multi million pound business and it's just growing on social media and my office now I've got a 5,000 square foot office like 20 meters from where I used to stand and give out the flies in Richmond so it makes me proud every day I go and I just walk past and I'm like I can't believe I used to stand there annoying commuters and now I walk up to this building and it's and I've got all these staff it's mad and obviously I'm really proud to tell that story so what I want to say is basically I'm going to get to my final point now is that so many people will say your ideas are no good and it won't work and it's been done before and there's already a body coach so why go and do Instagram why go and share recipes you know you're copying someone it always be yourself it's never too late okay and secondly you will get rejection you're going to have door slam in your face all the time you've got to be willing to like turn away go and regroup come back knock again keep going because you can't just give up when you get you get one knock back and that's just that's the thing of all entrepreneurs I think they just keep going and they keep working and working and yeah another thing is you know if you are a bit scared and confused about going out into the real world and you want to go and live in Thailand and live on a beach for six months like go and do it have fun because that's all it's about you'll get there you'll find out what you want to do in the end but you should be really proud of yourself for doing a degree I bet all your friends and family are buzzing I was here in 2008 and I remember thinking like how epic this place was and what a wonderful day and I bet you're just desperate to get out of here now because I'm sweating and you're probably really tired but yeah so I'll leave you with three things okay and this is three simple mantras that I live my life by right and if you do these three things you can't really go wrong okay and I hope you've enjoyed my chat I hope you found it inspirational and I hope you go out there and achieve your goals but the three things I live by okay it's three simple things it's work hard have fun be nice if you do those three things whether it's online and social media and the real world in business with your relationships you'll do well you'll succeed and you'll have a great life so good luck everybody and go and smash it