 I am James Swanick. Welcome to another alcohol free lifestyle podcast. Today we're talking to a 55 year old Australian man who decided to go backpacking. He decided to hit Turkey and Spain and live a life that most of us choose to live in our late teens or early 20s when we go backpacking around the world. And he's doing it now in his 50s and he plans to live till he's at least 120. His name is Dave Kelly. He's an Australian father and an incredible new friend of mine. Well, when I say new, I've actually known him a few years. He and I actually met at Tony Robbins 7R called Unleashed the Power Within, UPW, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, about three years ago. And I invited him to come to an event that I was hosting in Venice Beach a few days later and he came. And then he became a client of mine and then a friend and now we invest together in various businesses. And he's a really inspiring coach now. He's helping other people. So if you are someone who has often dreamed about going traveling or chasing your passions or doing all the things that you really want to do and you're in your, let's say mid-life, maybe you're in your 50s and maybe you've got this belief system that's holding you back. A wonderful opportunity to listen to someone who's been able to shake those belief systems and just truly live life to go and do what he wants to do when he wants to do it and with who and you're actually going to hear him. You didn't quite tear up, but I saw, I saw because I was interviewing him on a Zoom call. I saw him get emotional when he was talking about the relationship that he's had, the improved relationship he has with his daughters as a result of him being alcohol-free because Dave chose to go alcohol-free not long after he and I met. And he's been able to connect to his daughters in a way that he shares, he wasn't able to get that connection from his parents growing up or as much of that connection. So I'll let him tell a story. I don't want to just regurgitate what he's saying, but have a listen, especially about two-thirds of the way through the interview. See if you can pick up when he seemed, at least seemed to me to get quite emotional when he was talking about his daughters. Just a reminder as well, if you haven't got my alcohol-freedom formula, I will send it to you. It is a PDF guide. You can go to alcoholfreelifestyle.com forward slash guide to get that. Just a reminder as well, if you would like to join our Project 90 experience and transform your life over the course of at least 90 days, including getting alcohol out of your life or getting power over your alcohol so you can powerfully choose to do moderation if you want after those 90 days or stay quit forever, but alcohol no longer has power over you. Then you can have an exploratory, no obligation phone call with one of our coaches. You can do that at alcoholfreelifestyle.com forward slash schedule. Or if you're in the US on a mobile phone, you can text the word Project 90 to the number 44222. When you do that, I will text you back a schedule link where you can book that call. All right, let's listen to Dave Kelly, 55-year-old who decided to go backpacking the world, who's now alcohol-free, has a much better relationship with his daughters and his loving life and living the life that he always dreamed of. Here we go, Dave Kelly. How old are you, David? I'm 55. Kids? Hard to believe I know. Three children, adult children, one getting married in October this year and 22 is my youngest and 29 is my oldest. Sounds weird. You look pretty terrific for someone who's 50. You said you're 55? I'm 55. James, we've talked about a Canadian entrepreneur named Dan Sullivan who runs a thing called Strategic Coach. I did the Strategic Coach program back in 2014. I went to London four times and so I rocked into this thing with all these pommies and this Aussie comes in and he says, right, okay, first exercise called Life Extender and what that is where you decide how old you want to live to. I'm thinking, what? So we went through that process and I decided I would live to be 120. That was seven years ago. That doesn't sound as weird now when people talk about that, but I thought, okay, well, if I'm going to live to be 120, I've got to start doing stuff that mean that I live and I'm not talking limping until 120. It's like living productively, loving, powerfully until 120. I've got to do certain things now and so I think that that's why I maybe look a bit younger than my age. Yeah, you do. I mean, for the listener who can't see, Dave, I'd encourage you actually go to my YouTube channel and you can watch the video version of this interview, the YouTube channel's James Swannick, but Dave doesn't look 55. He looks probably, I'd say you probably look mid to late 40s, you know, most mid to late 40s. So you look a decade younger than you actually are and you lean and you're strong and you're mobile and you are actually a rarity, right? Because most 55 year olds don't look like you all have the kind of health that they do and also most 55 year olds don't go kind of backpacking around the world, which is kind of what you've been doing throughout the whole COVID thing, right? Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so as you know, we met in Los Angeles and I've been there for two and a half years at that point, up until March of 2020, came, got scared at the crap out of me out of LA when things, you know, went crazy. And I came back to Australia for four months. And while I was there, I thought, I want to drive across America. So I went back to America in July on Independence Day of 2020. And my family is saying he's lost it. The guy, what happened to him? He didn't tell us he hit his head, but something's happened in that little noggin of his. And so I drove across America. I drove from Los Angeles to Boston, to Chicago, Boston, New York, down to Washington. And then I said, right, I'm going to go to Spain for four months and just have fun over there for three months. And I went to Spain, and then I went to Bulgaria, and then I went to Turkey and fell in love with Turkey. And I feel like Turkey fell in love with me. And I was there for nine months. So, and, you know, back to the previous question about looking a bit younger, I think that, you know, there's an expression about you're only as young as the woman you feel. And, you know, terrible expression. But it's got some, I find that I was in Turkey, I was hanging out. And for a couple of years now, I've hung out with people 10 to 15 years younger than me. Or sorry, no, 15 to 20 years younger than me. And I found I got great acceptance. And so I'm there being energized and sharing my who I am with younger people and, you know, feeling cool in that context and having fun. And I think that also just my perspective is a younger perspective. My energy is a much more energetic sort of way of being. And that somehow translates to the mush. And, you know, how it looks, I think, you know, in my brain, certainly I'm staring at this goal of being old in numbers, but being vital. And, but, you know, I've got to say the other part of all that is, because I think I mean, I haven't now been sick for about three years, not at all. And I contribute that largely to stopping drinking alcohol. And the other thing I did around about that time was I started taking cold showers. Pretty much every shower I have will finish cold for a minute. And as weird as that sounds, and as kind of benign as that sounds, there's plenty of evidence to suggest that helps. Definitely the alcohol and not drinking alcohol helps because I'm not I'm not topping up a poison in my body regularly. And it really does help a lot to just get up and at them. I love the fact I can get up and at them on a Sunday morning. And I've got no restraints. You know, it is whatever I want. There's no sort of start up time. And there's no getting over a hangover time. All that helps as well for living with plenty of energy and vitally. Yeah, amazing. And just for the listener, maybe you could just explain how you've been able to travel abroad the way you have. I mean, you're divorced, right? It's not like you're not married and taking a family with you. You're divorced and you've got adult children. So you're a single man who's traveling around. Is that right? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So I got divorced five years ago now. And probably are now doing things that normally normal people or normally you would do in your 20s, late 20s, early 30s, perhaps. And I didn't do that because I was having kids. And so fortunately, like I'm 55, but I've got a 28 year old daughter, Linda. And so I had kids young and got on with it. And now I'm getting a chance to do that. And I've got the health and I've got the energy and I've got the money to be able to do that. And I'm very incredibly grateful for that. Incredibly grateful that I didn't miss that. I thought I kind of missed that chance. And it's just so beautiful that I said, no, I want to do this. I want to travel and experience countries and people and just cultures and everything. And I've had the horsepower to do it. What do you do for yourself financially? So over the past 12 months, it's fair to say that I've had a bit of a sabbatical, a self-imposed sabbatical. Before that time in Los Angeles, I was doing a few things. I was a property developer. And when I went to America, I was doing a project for a company. Prior to that in Australia, I ran my own businesses pretty much for 25 years and was consulting and things in the property field. I've been investing for 21 years now. And so I've continued to do that and had some wins in the last couple of years and then actively investing in the stock market and the other financial markets as well. And the other thing I was doing in Los Angeles, which I loved, was public speaking. So I was running around working with a stock market trading company. So stock market trading company. So they would teach you how to trade the stock market. And I was one of their speakers around Los Angeles. And I love that because it got me out, connecting with people, speaking from stage, which I like, and on a topic that I really enjoy and believe in. So I've got a few different hats to wear out there. Yeah. And your alcohol-free experience, how did that come about? Maybe you could just tell us a little bit about what your alcohol use was until your alcohol use was no more. And then maybe just talk about that transition and how that happened. Sure. So I am an Australian and I started drinking alcoholic 14. And I think at 15, me and my cheeky mates would sneak into the public hotel and would hide down the back. And in those days, the public and I mean, you can't put anything over those guys. They deal with everyone in the human race. There's no way you can bullshit your way into those conversations. And they look and say, oh, yeah, right. There's some 13, 14 year olds over there. But in those days, they didn't worry. It's like, yeah, whatever. And we had one drink of beer and then you've fallen over at the start. But so like an Aussie, there's so much alcohol in our society that we get. We start without ever questioning. It's almost like not a decision. It's just something you do. And then after a while, you never think of having any social settings or where you're not going to drink alcohol. And it's so weird now, because I can now go out. Once I got used to not drinking, and that was fine. But what do I do with my hands? Because, you know, in a social setting, most people, they've got a drink and they, or if they're on the dance floor, they're there sloshing their drink everywhere. And now I go to places and watch bands play. And the guy and the girl are out there and they're sort of dancing around spilling their beer or their wine or whatever everywhere. And I think, how stupid is that? But partly that's because you don't know what to do with your hands. So when I worked out what to do with my hands, which is, you know, a bit more expansive in my expression or waving around or just, you know, whatever, slapping someone, you know, across the face or being slapped across the face or whatever. I thought, I can stand there with nothing in my head or I can grab a drink of, you know, ice cold water and enjoy it. And, you know, I found now that those social settings do not upset me at all. People often get curious and they kind of think, man, you're not drinking. And so that's more of a drama for them to get over. And I can ham that up now and sort of turn it into something funny so they don't feel like they might be able to sort of try and make me look like I'm a nong or something, you know, a bit behind the times. And I can just turn it into, yeah, you want to joke? Yeah, let's joke at how free I am and how isn't it cool that I don't need to be spending all this money on stuff that I'm going to feel sorry that I spent the money on tomorrow morning. And I'm 55 and I look 45. Yeah. That sort of thing. Yeah. And, you know, I find that I'll give you one funny illustration. There's a, I met some wonderful people in Turkey and one of them is a young guy and he was turning 30. And he was, he's turned about 33. Really great guy. I like him a lot. Tom, you know, yourself, Tom. And Tom, and the habit was there when people would have a party, we'd go on a boat cruise and we were living in Kash, southern Turkey, and we'd go on this like drop dead gorgeous day-long boat cruise, swimming, getting up off the boat, hiking up the hills and everything. And like the most beautiful water, you know, you can imagine. And Tom said, Dave, so Tom's turning 33. I'm 55. We've built a close friendship. And he said, Dave, I really want you to come on my, come to the birthday. He said, but I've got to tell you, we are going to get, can you swear on this podcast? Yeah, go on. Okay. We are going to get shit-faced. Just so you know. And I don't know whether you want to come. I said, Tom, I'd love to come. So we all head off and I've got my soda, you know, everyone buys their drinks before and then people are going to buy all those exotic drinks and lots of them. And I've got my soda water and a rock on the boat. And anyway, so then it got a bit awkward at the, the boat got moving and everyone's there and the music's gone and we're all dancing and carrying on. And then to kick the day off, it seems that the custom is that you, they have a shot, you know, a shot of a liqueur or alcohol or something. And I could see them all getting, looking a bit kind of awkward and a bit. And Tom said, he said to me, Dave, we're going to have a shot just to get things moving. I hope that's okay. And I'm saying, dude, this is your, this is your birthday, not mine. You do whatever you want. And they said, oh, that's good. I said, would you want to have a shot? And I looked around and everyone's like, you must look at me as though, it's like, Dave, they're watching what's his response going to be. And I looked around and I thought, what a great moment I could choose to or I could not choose to. And I said, Tom, I'm going to have a shot with you. And the relief that poured over their faces was, wow. And it was almost like I chose to just accept them as they were. And there was no judgment, no judgment at all, from my point of view, but just acknowledging that and getting on with it. Anyway, we all had a shot. It made no difference to me. And I didn't drink any more alcohol at all. I did it purely just because I wanted to show them that, hey, I love you guys and I'm with you. And let's just have a ripping day. As it turned out, I probably danced harder and more with a greater amount of energy. And at the end of the day, I got off and I could actually walk down the gang plank, you know, just without almost falling into the water. Whereas the rest of them, they were plastered, completely plastered. And afterwards they say, and then we went to an after party. And I'll tell you what, there until we got, until the cops came around at 2.15 in the morning, I was dancing as hard as anyone. And they say, God, we just can't, we just can't believe your energy and how cool you are and all this stuff. And I'm saying, well, man, I was just loving life. And I'm not sure what your original question was, but there was a couple. It's all right. We're getting, I think we're getting a feel for the way that you have positioned alcohol in your life and the way that you positioned fun and being light and not overthinking things and just being chilled out. So what I took from it is like, you've been mostly alcohol free for how long now? For two years, last March. Okay. Two years last March. Yeah. What's that? Two years and six months, I guess. Two years and six months, yeah. And you had a shot on, you had a shot on that occasion. Other times, other times you've had drinks. I've had a couple of drinks. So I'd like to say that alcohol, for me, my relationship with alcohol up until then, I think this was your original question. I was living in Los Angeles. I would love to go out and I'd go out to, you know, Friday, Saturday nights, I'd go out and listen to a band and press the flesh, go out, always, you know, if there's dancing on there, go, salsa dancing, bachata dancing and listen to rock and roll bands and all sorts of stuff. And just loving that. And I would have a drink. And sometimes I would have a drink too many. But it wasn't, but then the next day, forget about it. I'm not interested at all. See you next week. Then I had a girlfriend at the time who I moved out back to America where she's American and we split up and I was as sad as hell when that happened. I really was. I was, I was so, it just was very difficult. And I then thought to myself, I thought, if I'm going to stay in Los Angeles, I've got to change where I'm living and I've got to change my job to do something that I enjoy. And I did both of those things. And the first thing I did was I went to the Mindvalley conference. The second thing I did was went to Tony Robbins. And when I met Tony Robbins, I hit this Australian accent, you know, spun around and I hear, see this bloke here talking and it's got this like, there's about three women queued up to talk to him. I thought, wow, he must be famous or something, famous Australian. And anyway, he introduced, we chatted and we swapped numbers. And then so my plan was to change, you know, to move up near Venice or Manhattan Beach up that way. And so I said, James, can I come and have a coffee with you? I sent a message, James, can I have a coffee with you and this week, because I'm wanting to move to Venice and you know, Venice and maybe you can guide me a little bit where to live, etc. And he said, no, no, David, I'm too busy, too busy. He said, come to my event. I'm thinking, Oh, God, who is this bloke? Like, I've met him for five minutes. He's got this queue of women wanting to talk to him. He's, you know, cool, good looking bloke. He's got these funny shaded glasses on. And he says, come to my event, I'll send you a link. And I say, right, so he sends me the link. And I kid you not. This is how this is where I was at my relationship with Elka. I opened the email and upplopped alcohol-free lifestyle. And I thought I looked at it and I thought, Holy cow, I've never even thought of that. I've never even thought of not drinking. That's how, how much drinking was a part of my psyche was that it was almost like there was never even a consideration of not drinking. And so I was a regular drinker. Often, often drinking probably maybe once a week drinking more than I wanted I needed to. And then I pretty much dish it for the next week and come back and I tried to only drink on the weekends, et cetera. And then I went to went to the alcohol-free weekend. And at the end of that, James said, hey, why don't you try, he challenged everyone, challenged them to, so I'm in the midst of right, I've split up with the girlfriend and on New Year's Eve, I go and it sounds dramatic, New Year's Eve split up. Well, it wasn't, it was okay. It wasn't traumatic. And then I moved jobs. I moved, I'm about to move house. I've been to this positive, all these events. And then James says, try not drinking alcohol. He said to the group, I challenge you to not drink alcohol for 30 days and just see how it goes. And so I thought, I wonder if I can go out to these night, you know, to the clubs, out salsa dancing, potato dancing, go and listen to bands without alcohol or whether I need that to have the confidence of chatting with people or dancing or whatever. And I thought, I'm going to use this as an experiment. Yeah, I'm going to decide, yeah, I'll have to give it a shot for 30 days. So I head off after the first week, I went out a couple of times and I thought, that pretty much made no difference. Not, not drinking alcohol pretty much didn't bother me at all. And I thought, that's good. That's, this is good. And so I thought I'll keep it rolling for the month. So the next week, good. The next week had a terrible week and things happened at work. And I was, I remember driving along the, and if anyone's, you know, been to Los Angeles, I was driving along from El Segundo on the beach road where the power station is and the sewage works and things enjoying the view and just loving all that. And all this doom and terrible. And I felt very sad about the split up I'd had. And I thought, you know what I want to do right now is I want to go to this bar that I was aware of. I want to get two scotches and I want to sit down in the corner and just kind of let my mind just forget about it. Forget about all these emotions that came up. Just want to get over it. And then maybe I'll have another one. And just to really forget it and ease out of it. Now, and then, you know, as I was driving, I was thinking, it was like a light came on because for the very first time I realized I'd been using alcohol all my life to avoid emotions. And, you know, I'd had many, you know, several things happened in my earlier years where I should have, should have cried for various losses of, you know, people in my life and stuff. But I never did. I held it all in like a good Aussie man, you know, because we're tough and we don't show emotion and all that sort of stuff. And I realized I was using alcohol to avoid the emotions. And I thought to myself, I thought, you know, I'm going to, I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm not going to, I need to just deal authentically and truthfully with whatever's happening. And I didn't drink alcohol and I went on and did not drink a drop of alcohol for about 15 months. And then, you know, I might have had a, but so alcohol was no threat to me. It was a choice I'd made to not drinking. And there was so many cool things came out of it. So my relationship now is one where I can actually see a freedom to choose or not choose. Whereas I look at a lot of my mates, they never have been in a position of not drink, not choosing. You know, they will always drink in every situation. And that was me beforehand. Yeah. Yeah. What has your family, what have your daughters said to you about this, let's call it an upgraded version of Dave? Do you feel like this is an upgraded version of you? Like how have your daughters responded to this version? I'm definitely an upgraded version. That's for sure. I had the software and a bit of the hardware upgraded so far. Software is continually getting upgraded. My daughters, I think the point, since moving to America and, you know, in really enjoying my life, I've made a point of telling them all the time. So they don't think, oh, what's Dad doing? You know, he's off. He didn't know communication. I'll send them silly photos of me doing random stuff. And sometimes they say, listen, stop, stop. We don't need to know about that. Okay. Just stop that bit and tell us the rest. And so we would often have a weekly call, the three daughters and myself, which are fantastic. And I think that my guess is that my daughters would say, well, he wears the same shirts sometimes. And they've been influential in my fashion police to upgrade my wardrobe. But I think they'd say he's living his life. Like they know I'm living my life and I'm having fun because I tell them all the time and I illustrate to them in all the different things. And then subsequently I did a few different transformational programs. Again, that was if I'd not met you, and I'm not here to just say that James is the key to the salvation, like he's the Australian version of Jesus Christ or anything. I don't know about that. No, I'm not. He's not that. But what I did do, because since I met you, I got an upgrade then in terms of what's possible. And one of the things that I think I learned through you in terms of certainly the upgrade of moving to choose how your life wants to be. And if you want to drop alcohol, you've got all the power within you to do that. That was awesome. And major, probably one of the most significant decisions I've made in my life without a doubt. It is one of the, probably two key decisions in my life. You were there at that time and I really thank you for that. And then from that one decision, many other good decisions came. And so then at the appropriate time we were talking about personal development programs. How do I really get into this stuff? And again, James suggested, you suggested to me about the programs in Los Angeles, Elevate Leadership Community. And those ones were where I really did some deep work on myself. And I cried a river of tears in getting through some of the difficulties and stuff that things I had to, you know, endured in my life and things that had happened, things hadn't worked too well. But I know that I'm a much more present person as a father. And I don't have any regrets of what's happened in my life. But I know this, that I was not the present father when my kids were growing up, that I would be now if I was starting on that journey. And I can't remake that. But what I can do is be fully present in every situation I'm in. And I find that I'm able to be present, you know, sometimes really powerfully present. And I think that my daughters would say, he's really living, like he's really living my expression to my daughters, the fact that I tell them in great powerful bunches of words and with love, just how much I appreciate them being in my life and how proud I am of them. That was a definite change because that's not what the way I am. And my siblings grew up, not with that really powerful parental incision in our lives of just knowing how much, how proud your parents were of you, how much they loved you. That wasn't part of my upbringing. But I tell you what, my daughters know that absolutely. So they would say that, and we share it, I just say it feels like my relationship with my daughters is getting better and better and better. Beautiful, powerful. Yeah, it's powerful. Yeah. And what an amazing gift that they get to receive from having such a powerful father. Well, I think, you know, I'm so grateful for that, because I'm so grateful for being the man that I've had the opportunity to make choices and decisions about changing to be and to hold values that I never would have. And I know I know I wouldn't have made these transformations if, unless I'd taken the responsibility or the made the choice to move away from just consuming alcohol willy nilly, because the direction of my life changed at that point. It was the first decision that led to many other great decisions is what I say. And when people ask me about this stuff, that's what I tell them. And I find, James, that it's not just my daughters. I find that I can be, I mean, it's almost like my, I feel that my cup is pretty full, like almost full most of the time, you know, my cup of love, my cup of power, energy, and what I want to contribute to others. And I don't feel like I'm wandering around feeling like a beaten dog or that I'm, I'm a deficit that I feel like I'm good enough to do whatever it is I choose in my life. I never felt that stuff before. I really didn't. I went around thinking I was some second class person because of the belief structures that I adopted as a kid. Now I think, no, I'm a buddy, you know, I won't swear too much, but I'm ready to go. And I'm whatever it is that's, whatever it is I choose to do, I believe I've got the, if I haven't got the skill set now, it's not far away or it's through someone I know, and I'm in relationship with, I'm going to work it out. And, you know, I'm the type of guy who will deliver and I'll be there. And thankfully, as I've said, yes to so many of these things, incredible things have happened. Like people say, why did you, why did you go, what was it like traveling in the pandemic? I said, that's fantastic. There's no competition. Everyone else is scared out of their jocks. They were bloody, no worried and they're, you know, worried about catching this virus. I said, no way, nothing, this virus is not going to dictate my life. My life has got a destiny, you know, a purposefulness and vaccine, no vaccine, virus, no virus, whatever's going on. My life is powerfully moving forwards and that's because that is it. This persona is very different and this is how I am. This is how I wake up in the morning. So I feel that my cup is full and it's full and maybe I've got to top it up a little bit and I do various things like that, like meditation, for example, getting centered, getting present, getting in nature, expressing my gratitude for all the cool things that we get to do, no matter where we are and whatever situation. There's always numerous, numerous things we can look and give thanks for and I find that that tops up my, if I'm sitting at 97% when I wake up, I can top it up easily to 100% and then I can give that out to whoever and wherever I am and I love to connect with people. I'm doing it all the time and, but it's always, I always trying to just, I'm wanting to give and contribute. That's what my life's about, freedom and contribution and I find that so many opportunities, I create them or I see them or whatever, but it's about contributing, it's about giving and receiving and I feel my life's working at a pretty high standard and I look at some other characters around the place and I look and think, whoa, isn't this cool? How much further is to go? Look at the way that person's operating, they're operating it with more facility available to them, with more, they're generating, they're manifesting these amazing circumstances and situations because of the way they look at life. So this is further to go and it's just a, it's a wonderful, wonderful journey and feeling like there's no pressure, there's no time pressure, there's no wrong, wrong decisions. I'm just, you know, I'm in a flow most of the time, which is great and I just know, I know without a doubt that these things would not, I would not be in this position saying these things I'm saying without having dropped alcohol because it was such an insidious, disempowering thing that I never decided to do. It's just that I did and it was part of my way of turning up and now I realize it's a choice. For me, it's a choice. I could choose to or not choose to. What am I going to do? Most of the time, by far and away, I choose not to because it doesn't really add anything to my life. I've got all the energy and the love and the confidence and the power I need. I don't need to get that through alcohol. So why do I drink this shit? Because it's going to just end up, I'll feel crooked or I'll feel poisoned or I'll feel whatever, whatever. And I pay, spend a lot of money on this stuff and you think what's, what's the value really? I'm turning up authentically and truly. I don't, what can alcohol add to me? Nothing. I used to think, you know, this is my daughter's wedding is coming up in October and people would say, are you going to drink, are you going to not drink it forever? And I say, I don't know. It's a big question, isn't it? It's not a big question at all. And I used to think to myself, I thought, oh, maybe I would, maybe I'd have a glass of wine where at my daughter's wedding and or maybe when I'm going out with a beautiful woman, I'm having dinner. And then it occurred to me one day, I thought, that is crazy thinking, because it's as though I'm thinking somehow alcohol is going to make my daughter's wedding more special or alcohol is going to make a date with a beautiful woman more special. And I thought, that's a complete lie. That's what the alcohol companies want me to think is that it's going to make it special. It doesn't make it special. Me turning up as the most powerful authentic man I can be on any given day, that's what makes it special. It's not the other stuff. It's just about me being and this whole journey since for the last two and a half years has been about me upgrading who I am as a man who I'm being. And I don't need alcohol to, alcohol is definitely not going to upgrade me. It just doesn't happen that way. Yeah, I should just give you the microphone. You can be the podcast host from now on, David. That was amazing. That was incredible. And something that our listeners don't know is that you're actually now inspiring other people to step up as well through your own business. Because one of the things that you have created out of this new way of being is you helping men to step into their power and to get clear from the insidious poison that is alcohol and also the insidious self-doubt and restrictions that we all put on ourselves through false beliefs or beliefs that just don't serve us. So tell us the name of your new business and what you actually do for those men. Yeah, so the business I've kicked off is called man shit. Because we've all got shit we've got to deal with. But it's man, s, c, h, i, t. Man shit, one word. M, a, n, s, c, h, i, t. So I've been running a podcast. It's a fledgling business. I've been trying to work out how I get my message and this energy and this power and this love that I have in me. How do I get to a market of men who want to hear that message? Because there's lots of messages out there. There's oodles and oodles. And how do I've got a certain spin and I've got a certain Dave Kelly that I want to impress upon the world. My life's about freedom. It's about contribution. So the contribution is what I want to do through my man shit project. And so I run a podcast with that and I've started a coaching group. But this is how that started was that when I turned 50, I had a party just for my mates and I was still drinking alcohol then. I was living in Australia. But my trajectory was definitely pointed upwards and I was heading in where I wanted it to go. And a friend of mine bounded over to me, you know, he came to a 50th party. No one brings presents anymore. It's terrible. Anyway, one mate lobs up to me with this book wrapped up and I opened up the book and it's yellow cover and the book, the title was 50. Have we learned to swear on this podcast, Jones? You've already done it about 17 times. So you can might as well just keep going. Okay. So the book is called 50, Fat and Fat. Thank you very much, Chris. That's a lovely gift for my 50th birthday. And I thought that's completely irrelevant to me. The only thing that was right was that I was 50, right? I was 50. I was not fat. And I definitely not fucked because my life was starting to be as I wanted it to be and take off. And I thought I proceeded to leave the book at the bar where we were having the party because I thought it's irrelevant. I'm not even going to read it. But then I looked around at my mates who were there and I thought, hang on, I think you should read this book. There was a bunch of my mates there. And I wondered whether they were living as powerfully as they could. And I wondered whether they had vital relationships, including their marriage relationship. And I wondered whether their body was at where it was at. And then a very big drinking culture. And I just, it was a question for me when, whereas me, I talk off and I thought, what I want to do is be able to be a resource and be a connector of others and build a community of men that realise if they are having problems in their relationships with their, in other relationships in their life, like children, business partners, exes, whatever other dramas, if their drugs and alcohol are beating them down, if their body is starting as they get older to tank a bit and they're not feeling as great. Or if they're having problems with their money, those five areas, that I could bring something of my own perception of lifting men up and helping them realise that, hey, if I'm having trouble in any of those five areas, the game's not over. We can correct that. And then we can get on and live powerfully. And that's what the whole project's about, empowering men through a community and using the podcast and other resources I'm going to develop. Where can men reach you, David? Well, probably through the, I guess the best way would be through the Instagram, man shit, M-A-N-S-E-H-O-D-T, manshit.project or this manshit.com. Yeah, reach out. I'm a man. I love connecting with men with a purpose. And I'm wanting to put the next 70 years of my life into the next 70 years of my life, into contribution and getting rewarded for that, because it's an exchange of what I haven't, I've sweated and I've cried rivers of tears to have an understanding that I think is transferable and useful for others. And that's what I want to do, be part of others' lives in that way. If you're listening as well and if you're not on Instagram, you don't choose to be on Instagram and you'd still like to get ahold of David, send me an email at James at alcoholfreelifestyle.com and just put David Kelly in the subject line and just say, hey, I'm trying to reach David and I'll be happy to connect you. Some pretty cool things that have come out of our relationship, David. First and foremost, I consider us to be really good friends. We've built a great friendship over the years. You've been a client of mine as well. You were in my own men's group legacy for a good two years. And we've done some investment. We're investing together now, aren't we? We invest our money into some businesses and you've joined an investment club that I was in, which is really, really cool. And we have mutual friends. We discover that we have mutual friends as well. And yeah, it's kind of amazing to me. I'm honored to see people transform. And I don't say this with any, what's the word I'm looking for, not being pompous or patronizing, that's the word without being patronizing. But it's wonderful for me to see people transform in front of my eyes. And if I play a small part in that, that I'm super happy. And even if I play a no part in that, it's really inspiring to me to see somebody transform. And you are definitely someone who I've seen transform. Plus, you've been so supportive of all the other people that I've introduced you to, or you've come into contact with inside of our group. You even hosted one of our podcast episodes here on the alcohol-free lifestyle, which is incredible. So it's been a real honor to see you grow and to see you transform. And this has been incredibly inspiring for me to listen to your share, your story, as I hope it has been for our listeners as well. So thank you. And I can't wait to see what the next 70 years entails for you. Thanks, James. It's a pleasure. And I've seen the power of your program when I did some coaching in the program and saw people over 12 weeks be scared about what all this means about changing from not drinking. And at the end of the 12 weeks saw incredible, incredible life. The thing that I've said to you, James, the thing that's so significant about when someone moves their life into realizing they've got choices other than just to drink, then they are impacted. Their spouse is impacted. They might have children. They'll have other family members. Then they have all their friends and they have all their work colleagues. And what you've done through this program is in a definite, definite way, you've given people a chance to see another reality that exists. And it is so powerful because I'm evidence of it. I would speak that if you can make that brilliant choice of realizing that you're actually a free man, you don't need to just do what you're told to do or the marketers tell you to do or you've been doing, drinking, hiding in the pub in the corner of the pub since you were 14. You can just live as a free man. When you do that, many people get impacted and it's just wonderful what you're doing in the alcohol-free work. It is life-changing. It is. Thanks, Dave. Appreciate you, mate. And yeah, thank you so much for listening as well to the listener. Like I said, if you'd like to get a hold of Dave or you'd just like to send me an email and let me know what you thought of this episode or others, then you can email me at jamesatalcohol freelifestyle.com and I will talk to you on the next one. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I want to load you up with some free stuff. If you look in the show description, there's a link there to get my guide, which is the Alcohol Freedom Formula Guide. And in that guide, I will walk you through the process and system for successfully reducing or quitting alcohol. It's the same system and process that I give to my clients inside of Project 90. And if you would like to get your hands on that guide, you can click the link in the description part of this episode, or you can go to alcoholfreelifestyle.com forward slash guide. Likewise, if you would like to be considered for Project 90 to join our community and get some accountability, some coaching and have fun, achieve some goals over at least 90 days with our help and support, then you're invited to schedule a complimentary coaching call with one of my coaches. You can do that by clicking the link in the show description or going to alcoholfreelifestyle.com forward slash schedule. Now Project 90 is for over 30s only. And it's really for people who are ready to get long-term power over alcohol. You don't have to quit forever, but you will have to quit for at least 90 days with our support. Just a reminder, 95% of my content is free and plastered all over the internet. If you just Google James Swanik and the word alcohol, you'll find that. For those of you who want additional support, if you want coaching, fun, accountability, if you realize that you can't do this on your own or you just plain don't want to, then I invite you to schedule that call and we can talk about if Project 90 is for you. If you would like to take some of my supplements, swanvitality.com is the website. I'll put a link in the show notes as well. I have a liver support product called Loving Liver, which I designed and specially formulated to help remove toxins from your liver after years of alcohol consumption. Again, there's a link in the show description. We've also got a green powder there, which turns into a green juice filled with amazing ingredients to support you and give you energy throughout the day. And there's also a magnesium product, which I take every night to help me prepare for sleep and to sleep through the night. So there's a few options there. Lastly, if this episode or the show in general has helped you or supported you in any way, I would so appreciate it if you would write a review. It really does help the show climb the rankings and expose the show to people who don't yet know about us. So if this show has benefited you in any way and you feel compelled to pay it forward, just writing a short little review, hopefully a nice one will be so appreciated. And I will thank you immensely. Lastly, if you'd like to talk to me about anything at all, feel free to send me an email at James at alcoholfreelastyle.com. I do read and respond to every email. And you can also follow me on Instagram at at James Swannick. Send me a message there. And I look forward to connecting with you soon. Catch you on the next one.