 You can now follow me on all my social media platforms to find out who my latest guest will be and don't forget to click the subscribe button and the notifications button so you're notified for when my next podcast goes live. I'm not going to say I'm fearless because I'm fucking not, you know, sometimes, especially the climb I just done three weeks before I was crying in my bed because I was in fear of death but then when I got to the couple days before I accepted it, I accepted my fate, accepted death and just got on with it and man should do it. So I'm not fearless, in fact I'm the same as every other human on this planet but when you see accepted death is that meaning you're accepting to die if you fall? Oh, I'm not preparing to die but I'm ready to die. As a young offender going into a London prison a lot of the young offenders want to know what gang you're from because it's all gang related. So I have my first, second day, three people, I'm getting my blue bowl, getting ready to go and go serve return round and there's three fucking men in my cell one holding a prison shank, one wearing one of them towel rounder's head and saying, what gang are you repping? I'll just say what I've done and they say, fuck off. And they're just testing you, just seeing how, testing was. Is this guy someone we can... Really? Yeah, exactly, it's someone we can rob from, someone who we can victimise. So the first week was testing the wars. I had people testing me the whole time, the whole time going into the landing, the exercise yard. Boomer on. Today's guest, we've got George King. Thank you mate. How are you, Georgie? Very well mate, all the better to be here. Good man. Yeah, yeah. Watch a lot of your videos. Yeah. Climb the Shard. That's right. Biggest in London. Sent to prison for that. Yeah. You're also an extreme athlete. That's right. You run, you're doing auto marathons. That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah. What, 100 mile runs? Yeah, 100k, 100k. Biggest on time, but I'll keep one up in the ante. And I'll give my shout out to my boys from White's Beckinsfield. Yes. Yeah, who's sponsored? Yeah, Ollie and Toby, two great guys. I've sponsored the show many times before. I love them to bits. Flying high in life as well. Yeah, likewise. You bring good company, my brother. Thank you, thank you, I appreciate it. How's life? Oh, it's beautiful. Yeah, coming out a lot down. Did a climb in Barcelona about three weeks ago. 112m climb, tough climb. Took four months to prepare for it. But once I was there, did it, got away, no arrests. And now we're here. And that was in Barcelona. That was one of the tallest in Europe, I believe. Yeah, one of the tallest in Europe. Yeah, it was a tough climb. You know, slippery, a bit dusty. Had to wrap my hands up, put really tightly with hand wraps because of how sharp the panels were. A physical and mental endurance challenge, more than anything, you know. That's really when it comes down to what I do. It's not necessarily a technical climbing manoeuvre, Alex Honol, what have you. Really what it comes down to is mental endurance and physical endurance. So we'll touch on how you get into everything. I always go back to the start of my guess, where you grew up and how it all began. So I was born and bred in Oxford. And as a kid, always curious about fear. What is fear? How can I overcome fear? How can I utilise fear? My first experience with fear was when I was 11 or 12 years old. I was walking in a woods near to where I live. And there's this scout camp. There's seven metres up high, climbing wall, me being me, just by myself, no ropes. I thought, fuck it, I'm going up there. I got halfway, got stuck. And in that moment, I was only fucking three metres out of the ground, but I was like, I'm going to die. I'm holding on, fear had taken hold of me, shaking, hyperventilating, vision going blurry. I'm fucking gripping on. And then in that moment, I think, well, if I don't do something now, I'm going to fall off and fucking break my legs or, you know, break my ankles. At the time I thought I was going to die, but really that's the reality. So in that moment, I took a deep breath, I relaxed and that fear suddenly turned transmitted from panic to power and my vision cleared up. I felt this new bound strength. I managed to climb down the wall, got away and I was fucking shaking, James. And I remember going away from that thinking, wow, there's something more to the mind and the body than I've possibly thought before. And that started the rabbit hole, which I'm still going down now. Is that what you got your adrenaline from a very young age? 100%. And that's when I was like, there's something about this, let me explore it. And I went into urban climbing, ultra marathon running, skydiving, boxing. And I was just constantly trying to push my boundaries in different ways and test my limits. I'm not going to say I'm fearless because I'm fucking not. Especially the climb I'd just done three weeks before, I was crying in my bed because I was in fear of death. But then when I got to the couple days before, I accepted it. I accepted my fate, I accepted death and just got on with it and managed to do it. So I'm not fearless. In fact, I'm the same as every other human on this planet. But when you see accepted death is that meaning you're accepting to die if you fall? Oh, I'm not preparing to die, so I think it's a very important thing when I go and do what I've got to do to accept death because I don't want to be going into climbing the building thinking, what if I die? What's my mom going to think? Am I going to go to jail? All this sort of stuff. All I want to be thinking about is the next hold, the next hold, the next hold. As soon as I start corrupting my thoughts with what could happen, then that is ultimately taking away the focus from what I'm doing. Do you fear death? My fear death. That's mad man for a man of your caliber to know what you do to then fear death. But do you think you need to a little bit to try and keep you not toes on the ground but keep level because if you don't fear it then do you think you can become more reckless? 100% complacency in what I do as an extreme athlete is the number one killer. When you look at all the extreme athletes who have died if it's base jumping or free solo climbing or whatever it is, they all cry doing the easy stuff. The cut and edge climb in El Capo where I view they got that in the bag because they're focused, they're prepared, their mind is in the game. They die climbing the easy thing or jumping the easy cliff. They don't ever die doing their cut and edge number one thing. So really what I do to keep my survival thing is acknowledging risk. Whenever I go and do something no matter how easy if it's just climbing up a crane I look at it and like this although it's an easy climb this is so dangerous I could die and that in itself allows me to not be complacent and keep alive doing what I want to do and I want to do this for the rest of my life so I want to be I want to have grandchildren. And of your a lot of boxers as well and a lot of them tend to when they're underdog they fight harder they train harder, they're more focused but when they're fighting somebody who they're favourite to beat the kind of level of intensity goes down and they don't perform as well. So it's all kind of linked to the same as it's just pure focus. Your focus goes, your energy flows so how focused do you want to be? How focused do you want to be the best? How do you want to survive this? And we spoke earlier about auto marathons and runs I've got a 50k this in two days and it's nothing to do with the engine it's the mindset I'll hit a couple of wobbles and I think fuck this I want these guys to run on so I can jump in the bushes and then just get an Uber home Once you start pushing through that then you start getting used to those wobbles don't hit a certain miles and they go further and further and further. The body can go through so much but it it can go through so much it's the brain it then tells you to quit beforehand because we're both for comfort humans we're comfort we love to sit in couches and one heating in one bath so as soon as we want to go out in the cold or whatever just go back home and I don't want to love that anymore I've done that for 30 odd years but now it's to push myself to the extremes I see the the ice cold therapy that sort of stuff is I mean everyone should do it whatever you are because that sort of stuff so just getting out your comfort zone like you said we are comfort breed animals you know we seek comfort as soon as you step out of your comfort zone you see your life grow emotionally mentally, physically, spiritually because you're out there and you learn something about yourself It's nature but what are animals that render the way we are should be in the wild 100% the cold water therapy strength and immune system lowers anxiety, lowers depression good for the skin, good for the mind it's like a switch flips and then you feel alive maybe only for a couple of hours but it would be good to just feel alive for a couple of hours than it would to never feel alive and that's where a lot of people struggle because they don't have that feeling of feeling switched on I just caught up in a rat race getting up for work in the morning, having a coffee yeah, come back 5 o'clock, have that dinner, watch Coronation Street listen if you're happy then so be it I just believe there's more to life I want to leave a legacy I'm fucking around bro love to hear that how was your family upbringing really good I have an amazing mum and dad and I think really they expected to bring up a kid who took the conventional path going through school, university all that sort of stuff I wasn't like an unruly kid but I never obeyed by the rules I did my own thing, unconventional and at the beginning of what I did they tried to stop me as any parent would but when I expressed why I do it the passion and the bigger vision the legacy they started to respect it and now I'm at a point where they accept it it's the only way because I'm going to do it no matter what so either you're going to fight another never ending battle or you're just going to have to accept it life is very short not just for me it can be scary though especially for a mum her job is to protect her baby that is difficult but even when you're running people ask the question are you running towards something or running away from something same as I'd imagine you're climbing are you climbing towards something or away from something I believe it's both you are running away from the mental scars because I don't like running but the enjoyment I feel running feeling free, feeling alive and pushing myself and then the endorphins, the serotonin the dopamine levels the feel good factor just for that day the longer you run the better you feel for two or three days like if you go out and do a five mile or a ten mile run you feel great for a few hours and then you go back and you think shit man what can I do next and it's scary but I'd imagine the pressure for your mum do you realise how extreme you're where doing what you do, what age I would say around sort of ten years old that young? I don't know what it is mate we all built differently different biologies genes I don't know what it is but my thing is I'm counterphobic I don't run away from fear I seek fear when the judge sentenced me for six months I really kind of wanted to thank him because I was appreciative that he was going to throw me into an extreme challenge so I tend to try and seek fear as opposed to run away from it and as a ten year old that's what I was doing I was going off exploring climate trees jumping off into water doing all these things which other kids just weren't doing and that's just the way I am that doesn't mean you're a bad person but did you ever get tested or anything for that like no fear kind of mentality that isn't it sad though because people are different and want to do different things that then people start questioning their ability because you're not wanting to just be the average kid well I was tested for ADHD when I was around 13 years old and that's the only diagnosis I've got but I've suffered with insomnia my whole life and my point of view is my mind never sleeps, it's constantly racing the thoughts are going 24-7 dreams, ambitions, plans it's always going 24-7 how tired I am it's always going so when I get to trying to go to sleep and I'm left with my own thoughts there's no sensory deprivation I've got nothing to distract me I'm lying in bed and my foot's tapping and I can't rest I'm never really in my entirety of my life two weeks after the big climb but really I've never really felt content when are you at most peace of your life when do you feel at your harvest when I'm in a state of either running, vigorous exercise cobalt of therapy meditation basically when my life is in my fingertips that's the only time I really feel relaxed I just can't really watch the TV and just feel relaxed it doesn't work for me I don't like labels either because there's people with no labels out there and they're doing fuck all with their life so people would then say you're still pushing yourself to the extremes no matter what label you get you can still do what you can I'm friends with big Tom Stoltman Stoltman brothers Big Tom was labeled then the man's now pushing to be the strongest man on the planet I love that shit don't ever label something you think that you're not good enough or you think that's life over prove people wrong my point of view especially with ADHD the world and doctors and teachers have this notion that these kind of disorders must be drugged must be suppressed but my point of view is these disorders should be utilised as strengths I see ADHD as a gift I've used it to push myself to do something and utilise the energy for projects I was put on Ritalin when I was around 13-14 it solved the symptom but it worsened the root cause anyone who believes that you should be drugged to fit a purpose sitting still in class that's an indication that school is not the path for you and should pursue entrepreneurialism or some different unconventional path but doctors, teachers they love to push Of course they're reading from their textbooks they're only getting what doctors you get into depression and it's value it's the end of the brain and it tells you on the box that you can actually go to a side I ain't a doctor but for me my life and feeling alive is when I'm in nature same as I go back to Big Tom Stoltman never stopped him couldn't sit in the bus going to school he speaks all around the world and pushes himself to the boundaries including yourself so people watch this and get inspiration don't let a label define you as a person life is a beautiful thing but it's also a struggle which I always touch on no matter what I'm achieving I still battle that cause I'm constantly putting pressure on myself to raise the bar, to become the biggest to become the greatest no matter what you're doing life everything's about sacrifice how bad do you want it how fucking hard do you want it to work when did you do your first big climb so my first big big one was not that many people want to do but it was the first person to free solo the world's tallest climbing wall without permission and that was a big one because it was sort of untouched territory in that respect you don't have a chance of climbing with ropes you don't know if some of the holds are securely on and I was around 18 when I did that and I didn't sleep the night before just ecstatic with adrenaline fear you know there was so much going on in my own head I just didn't sleep going on sleep deprivation did the climb, got down I didn't sleep for a week afterwards cause I was buzzing so much of it that was a really special moment for me and I took a lot of time like you said with the sacrifices to train and prepare and get ready for that and once I experienced that I thought okay this is my new norm you know this is what I do now I set big goals, I set big challenges the shard, buildings some which I haven't been done before some which have been done before but are hard and this is what I do I set the challenge it's tough I don't really know how I'm going to achieve it but I'll put it down into a plan I'll put it down into strategy and take it step by step and eventually I'll get to that goal so that's my norm and that's what I just do How much preparation goes into a tough climb, is it weeks, months or the other kamikaze any so with the shard as a case the sea was first planted when I was around 13 when I first saw it and I was a crazy dream I remember just putting loads of dreams down on the list putting it on my wall, climbed the shard and that was when I was 13 I climbed the shard when I was 19 so the years of dreaming in terms of planning was a year and that was my life I mean the extent, borderline psychotic obsession with climbing the shard it was going in different disguises to avoid pattern recognition sometimes in a suit with one of them bags going into the concierge looking around sometimes it was in a sports kit holding a protein shake, stretching on a pillar noticing that the pillar goes from a wrist to the elbow that's my measurement, that's the recce done go back home, measure that out from my elbow to the wrist next day, different measurement just getting little bits of information trying not to get seen by security trying to keep a low profile that took months and months and months until I eventually got to a point around May where I was like, I'm committed to do this and then there was a few loopholes a few little problems and then I ended up doing it 8th of July so you know some climbs are just, you do it and you know, it's all good you know, two, three months of preparation whereas some others can take a whole year but my whole thing is I can't leave any stone unturned, I want to survive this and that's what drives me to just prepare every single step of the way there's a weather coming to play? oh for sure, yeah, yeah I mean, I've fucking I've watched the weather like a madman what happens if you're half way up and a storm comes that you never thought would happen, what happens there? well, there's two options you can do there's two options you can do you can either carry on or you can stay there or you can do emergency services to get pick you up yeah, I don't know mate how would that feel for you? would you feel like a failure then? I would feel like a failure but what I'd do the next day I was like, okay well, I'm going to do it again at some point I can't let this box be open I've got a ticket but touching on the emergency services you know, I try if I could sign some kind of waiver it's the one thing about what I do where it's like a little thing a lot of the big media people touch and I was like, oh, you're wasting their time but really when I meet them at the top they always calm, they all bless they all got good smiles, they're happy it's sort of a little spark to their week take it, take it, leave it the planning for the show says it took months how do you feel the day when you're just going to do it the minutes before that is that when you feel alive and there's no more over thinking is that when you feel at peace? oh, beautiful it's the calm before the storm you're walking down the street the police don't know what they're going to wake up tomorrow the shard security are going to wake up to the biggest security breach of their careers the media don't know what's going on but it's going to be headlines I don't know if I'm going to live or die it's going to be the calm before the storm you can feel the electricity in the air and that's, yeah that is peace because now I've done all the preparation it's now trusting the process I don't have to do any work I've committed now so now I'm just I'm more of a passenger to the process as opposed to having free will and working it out I just let it happen let intuition take the way the morning of is a beautiful thing as well because it's just like it's happening I'm there, I'm going to do it and just go with the wave I'm not thinking about it I'm not thinking about the next move I'm just doing it it just happens that's the beauty of it how long did it take you to claim? the shard, 45 minutes would the crowd start garing interesting with the shard I did it at 5 o'clock in the morning so there wasn't a big crowd or anything I wanted to get in before the security properly awaken the cities awake I didn't have a GoPro I didn't have a drone it was just me, topless taking on the shard, taking on my dream just no ulterior motive of getting some video out for social media it was just me and my dream and there was beauty in that now after doing the climb I tend to wear a GoPro, I have drones and all that stuff because I'm in a process of capitalising and trying to make ends meet so it's a different kind of thing but yeah I think people who look up probably do think it's a suicide attempt but I think people still kind of get the picture at some point what did you get charged with you never got charged on the day did the police shoot your hand and then it was weird mate so I got to the top and I expected to go into the saloon for 24-40 hours and I got to the top put my hands out to get knits and they put their hands out to shake my hands I shook their hands and then I started chatting with them for 30 minutes and they just thought right there's not much we can do so we're going to let you go and I walked into Monday rush hour no one knew and there I was top of still looking up the shard and then I went to police interview and these were the criminal charges aggravated trespass, public nuisance trespass on railway, reckless engagement got no charges didn't even have to go to court so the criminal thing was a tick however that was the straw which broke the camel's back because the shard lawyers were now fucking let's put them inside 100% over the three months they spent over 200,000 pounds building up this massive case to put me inside and at this point I was like I'm done the police haven't sent anything I'm good so I walk into court quite cocky just see how I walk out I kind of smelled it before I went in I saw the lawyers I saw the book and I saw actually you know what, I'm going down I knew it before they said it I was like this is something going on here really I think the string was tied before I even got in I think the judge had made his decision if they were speaking to them does that make an example of you because even though you know what you're doing is making you feel alive and all the charges in the trespassing and all the shit but six months man people out there doing worse and get a slap on the wrist does that make you feel right okay I'm going to do it again or does it make you step back here's the thing putting me inside was probably the opposite to deterring me and turn me into a fucking savage it sort of empowered me like in 100% I was in my prison cell writing down all the crimes I'm going to do writing plans every single thing just obsessed working out in the cell doing all these things I was just fuelled it fuelled my madness how did that then for you being caged up like an animal did you ever think it's not fucking as if you got a license but did you ever look at things and say I could probably escape from here oh well I did it to keep my mind active I planned an escape just because of there's not a fuck all to do so I was just like I started writing out escape plans and like could I go through G-Wing could I go through what about exercise yard looking around just to keep myself busy do you think you could go if you wanted to well people have a couple of lads escaped from HMP Pattenville three years ago so it's definitely doable and the way I saw it was it was doable however if I were to jump from the wall I would have 100% broken both angles so really I could escape but I don't think I will get very far do you have a photographic mind no no I'm an obsessive planner that's my thing my whole life is a plan everything's a calculation but I don't have that gift unfortunately what I do is I write things down constantly so on my phone I'm constantly making notes I'll make notes after this I'll make notes tomorrow I'll make evaluation notes tonight in the morning I'll make notes notes notes I'm always writing things down so that when I have to look back on something I don't really need a photographic mind I've got my notes you know that's my thing how were you accepted and prison initially you know as a young offender going into a London prison a lot of the young offenders want to know what gang you're from because it's all gang related so I have my first, second day three people get my blue bowl, get ready to go and go serve return round there's three fucking men in my cell one holding a prison shank wearing one of them towel rounder's head and saying what gang you're repping I'll just say what I've done and they say fuck off and they're just testing you just seeing how they're testing the wars is this guy someone we can really? yeah exactly someone we can rob from, someone who we can victimize so the first week was testing the wars I had people testing me the whole time, the whole time going into the land in the exercise yard but after a week I started building up my connections I started making my friends and it was all good from there yeah yeah because you're a big lad what do you say 6-3? yeah 6-4 you're not a main fuck yeah you can handle yourself, you're strong as well but it's funny how people test you but I'd like to put these ones holding a blade in the cell in top of a mountain one thing I fear is heights yeah well it's natural is that natural that people talk about like you could have fell in a previous life or whatever and that's how you sometimes oh the DNA's I don't like heights but I'd love to I always try and push myself when I go on like the fiend parts and stuff I struggle to go on a rollercoaster I don't enjoy it, people get their hands up and scream I'm holding on to a fucking day of life but how do you work on that how do you know how to work on it if you've never really felt the fear of heights well I have felt the fear of heights so I think my view of heights is a survival instinct so I believe that everyone is scared of heights at one point because that's what keeps you alive and if you weren't scared of heights you probably wouldn't survive the natural selection so you know I think we're programmed to be scared of heights because you know heights can kill us so when I first started doing this I was terrified of heights but the whole thing about overcoming a fear is not just frying yourself onto the shard it's taking it step by step so I climb up 10 meters okay I can do 10 meters what about 12 it's the whole thing we were saying about the running if I can do 12 I can do 14 if I can do 14 I can do 35 and this and that and I keep on going and I'm now at a point I could be hanging off a building 200 meters up looking down and have zero fear and it's not because I'm programmed in a certain way it's because I've just taken it step by step what place would you love to climb what's your main target I can't really say but at the same time there's some of the tallest buildings in the world but if you do anything there you don't want to go to prison there do you know what I mean but would that still be a turn knowing that you've got the birds caliph the thing about urban in comparison to mountains and nature and this is what really attracts me is that there's and Everest has been built every day so there's always something being built and there's an everlasting journey where I'm constantly watching what's going on I've got a list of buildings and it's just part of what I do, I just keep vigilant on it do you ever start looking into where it gets leaning in sentences where it's not getting big sentences where it's kind of slapping at a risk do you start looking at that then when you start getting convictions you're not learning your lesson six months turns into six years you're breaching rates like if you're climbing up a building and say let's maybe get money in it or gold or whatever it's not like house breaking but it could potentially be a robbery before you know what you're getting the response before you know what somebody's shot your ass just things like that has anybody ever been shot to get them down so that's part of the job really is the legal side I spend a lot of time researching the legal speaking to lawyers in different countries trying to just get to grips with everything so that I can go into it knowing what's what I actually predicted six months prison sentence I actually ended up doing three months but I didn't actually do the full sentence I managed to get out halfway but I did predict six months before I climbed the shard because I looked into it a video of me and my friend discussing and we said yeah well you could get six months I was like yeah I possibly could prepare yourself for that yeah yeah yeah no I'm mentally equipped for that you know I know that's a potential thing which could happen so the biggest sentence is six months yeah well for the UK that's the case who holds the biggest sentences America and that America's a fucking minefield because there's different laws where the UK is actually a civil offence to trespass not actually criminal so in order to execute someone they have to put injunctions on buildings so that when you if you do climb it you're breaching a court order which is there for criminal whereas in America trespass is straight up criminal you climb the building there you're gonna get fucked and yeah I mean America's a difficult territory would you ever do the Himalayas or would you ever do like Nevis mountains they do interest me ever sorry maybe yeah I would it doesn't turn me on it doesn't turn me on as much because the thing about nature is that a lot of people climb mountains a lot of people do that very very very few people in the world get to experience this very eccentric feeling of free-soling a building and that's all ego I just like to be someone who's different and I want to experience something unique and special again that's my own ego working but fuck it is what it is I want to try and do those have you ever came close to death or anything or is it step by step gradually or do you ever get to the top or nearly the top and you think okay I'm gonna push it a wee bit further just to get it over and done with have you ever came close to any serious danger it's dangerous non-stop not actually in climbing I had one incident when I was skydiving where so I've got I've had surgery now on both shoulders but I had I kept on dislocating my right shoulder I mean the labrum was just I didn't have a labrum when I had my MRI scan it was just fucking just the socket the humorous the bone was just sitting in this loose socket so anyway I was jumping doing an AFF level 6 or 7 solo skydiving course in the air hit a bit of turbulence I'll pop my shoulder and then I think fuck so I'm trying to pull the parachute but the sort of autonomy can't allow me to reach it so I start spinning and I think fuck you know I'm looking at yow to me I'm going like 3000 you know 15-20 seconds we're hitting the ground and then the instructor comes and pulls the parachute for me and whilst I'm under canopy then I smack my shoulder in place get it in then I'll fly down and land but that's probably when it comes to extreme challenges that's probably the closest I've been to death but at the same time if I do have a hairy moment on a building I would have known about it before you know my whole thing is preparing and if I had a weird moment it's like well that should be very unexpected because I would have planned for that myself have you ever done base jumping? it's something which I plan to get into but the same time at the moment because of how dangerous it is I don't want too many things on my plate otherwise it gets my focus and energy and effort gets diluted and then it becomes dangerous like I said before complacency is so important to me that if I'm base jumping, boxing, running and just doing too much then you know I'm diluting the focus and you know that could be when you say you don't sleep is it no sleep or is it you get a couple of hours here and there so I'm getting better I'm working it out when I was much younger it was like sometimes I just wouldn't sleep the whole night and I'd be like why did that happen I didn't really understand it now I've researched a lot I mean I get same amount of sleep as anyone else 6 to 8 but the process I have to do in order to reach that is very long winded but I'm used to it I maintain it for example I have to know blue light as in screens or anything 2 to 3 hours before going to sleep I have to meditate beforehand I've got my own little supplements such as melatonin which I take and I wait my whole thing is waking up at 5 o'clock so that by the time I get to nightfall then I'm pretty tired by the time I get there so it's a struggle but it's a struggle which I'm winning and it's the same with the ADHD I don't take my medication I don't see it as valuable to me I just work with it and yeah I mean I just have to what were you like when you were on your medication I fucking know what did you do nothing anxiety, depression worse than the insomnia couldn't even speak, articulate I was tongue twisted and I'm thinking now looking back on it fucking hell so doctors are putting little kids on this it's basically like cocaine for kids it works by increasing adrenaline and dopamine and it's slow release so it goes throughout the day putting kids on this there's different ways you can deal with ADHD and ritalin I'm not a doctor but nature and man even people getting out a walk fresh it automatically changes your mood not me when it's raining it's always going to be raining and cold but even just getting out in the rain the skin's waterproof there's a different smell I love running in the rain I don't like it when I stop because I'm freezing but when I'm doing it at the time I feel okay I'm living here it's a great feeling I've inspired by Wim Hof when it was really cold back in the winter I wake up at 5 when the sun's rising being just my shorts and go for a run topless and that energy feels so primal it's like this is where we're meant to be and I get back into my home and it's like something's happened in my brain something's gone on and more people should go take themselves into nature I actually just done my first sunrise I reclaimed the mountain at 2 in the morning beautiful and that's why they call it the 5am club as well because when you're up earlier than everybody else the air, everything's not as polluted so everything feels calm and you think differently doing that sunrise was like this is it getting up for it because I say I'll just stay up for it but I end up falling asleep and then the alarm went off I'm going to do that I end up trekking up the mountain it was beautiful because something to do with an excursion I don't know if it's an excursion or whatever it is but with the heat in the morning it pushes the clouds down so the clouds are in the middle so you're almost above the clouds something to do with it I mean I was just getting that word wrong but the person who I was doing it with says that so if the heat pushes the clouds down obviously when the sun rises the clouds start rising again but being above the clouds I didn't get a ghost in it was just that great feeling just bliss and then coming down the mountain it just felt amazing it's combining the endorphins from coming up the mountain the struggle, the suffering of getting up there, the lungs are burning and the reward is that sunrise that beautiful serenity I love doing a sunrise meditation just breathing in, being mindful watching the sunrise coming up just keeping my focus on the sun I'm fucking so clear I can take on anything, I've got that clarity more people should jump into that nature If you get any role models of that people you look up to Wim Hof Jealous that you get that connection because he's something I mean he's going to go down in history as an absolute legend he's changed the books with science he's inspired millions and millions of people he's got something so simple and so effective and scientifically backed which can change the world I mean fuck COVID, do your breathing you can resist an endotoxin this guy is more than just a hero icon he is an absolute living legend It's funny that they laugh at him and scrutinize him at the start and end That's why people come up with new ideas and change science that people laugh at them so much they step back and don't follow their dreams or their passion wait a minute this is right he just kept pushing forward and then the scientist says that ok he's right injected him with a virus he beat the virus with his breathing techniques injected 20 of his students with the same virus because they thought ok he's a freak of nature and he changed the game cold water has been about for hundreds of thousands of years he's done his own thing without the breathing techniques it's something different when you do the 30-40 breaths and you do certain amount of rounds something in your brain clicks as well you feel that trauma popping up and it's to push through that then mixing that with the cold water anybody can get in the cold water it's if you just breathe, adapt to the pain learn how to live with it it's like anything in life when you get into the cold water the first thing you want to do is turn the way and run just like life as soon as we get an obstacle we want to turn the way and run but see if you just breathe people survive so many of their worst days and they're still here so many people are a lot stronger than they think and the fact that they don't credit themselves with that is where the destruction comes in this is when they'll self harm this is when they'll overindulge in alcohol, drugs, food believe in yourself that no matter what stage you are in your life you can reach new heights you can keep changing the game I love the people in their 50s and 60s and 70s do you know what I mean? just pushing yourself through boundaries so your mans warm off then for not another kind of extreme kind of third devil character was that competition for you? it is a little bit it is a little bit I'm inspired by people for sure but at the same time I'm on my own little weird sort of path this very unique kind of unexplored path and I take bits from people I take bits from Goggins I take bits from stuntmen I take bits from him, this and that but I'm trying to all go on my own little path and I think there is a bit of competition I do see people I think who have done their career and I think I want to do better and again that's just ego but at the same time we are egotistical beings that's the way life is and I do want to be the best I do want to do pioneer things and I won't stop until I do and that's just my path it's just been inbuilt in me it actually envisions your goals the people who you're taking things from they've also took things from other people taking what's right for you and then mixing your own portion people start looking up to you a battle through life but if he's making him happy I want to do that but it's not just a case of getting a set of ladders and climbing up a boulder preparation comes into it it becomes a full-time job so how do you survive then sponsors, Wides-Berkinfield guys and company check them out but how do you survive then capitalising on something what I do it's a whole sort of business I've been blessed to get into contact with Wides-Berkinfield boys and yeah they're my current sponsor and we did an amazing project last three weeks ago climbing the building in Spain and that's the sort of one part of the capitalising process of what I've got I've got this Channel 4 TV series coming up where I'm interviewing a bare knuckle boxer a jumper a cliff diver so I'm doing a bit of this, a bit of presenting and all that sort of stuff and then there's potential for just progressing on the whole sort of TV presenter line as well as social media thing comes in I could do a bit there so I'm trying to pull in as much as I can there's no set salary I wake up, boom, boom, boom here's my bar, so all that sort of stuff it's more like I try and I'm constantly looking for opportunities and opportunities to capitalise and it is like what you do with the podcast it's a never-ending suffering and struggle seven days a week 24-7, 5am to 9pm but it is worth every single bit of suffering and a lot of sacrifice financially sacrifice so many things just to get the job done and when the job is done then it's beautiful it will pay off as well if you're still growing your brand people love that shit energy drinks and all sort of stuff you become the biggest and keep creating the name even though going to prison that still creates your name bigger because you're on Piers Morgan what was he like, what was Piers Morgan like? there's a lot of stigma to him but what I like about Piers is that he is very honest I really rate that of him he's not one of those people who are like the Ben Shepards very media trains just everything sort of by the book, he's not by the book he does it his own way and I respect him for that and fortunately fortunately he saw light in what I do and he saw the passion he observed the energy of it he saw value in it and we sort of hit it off on the good morning Britain and I respect him for that how was it when you're growing good morning Britain and stuff how do the people then start appreciating what you do are the people do you ever get like trolls and say you shouldn't be doing that shit I think you're always going to get haters any hater I can plug it in like a JuraSoul battery and I just use it as fuel like some picture in their names picture it and I'm like fuck how am I going to do it I thrive on the hate I want people to hate me I search for the hate I don't know that's a weird shit about me I get so much love now I'm loved people love what I do people get inspiration out of the guest that comes on no matter who it is but the hate, fuck me man that's what fuels me I'm moving people wrong every single day but I'm always raising the bar you just sign the leases for offices in New York London I'm taking this shit global and it's again I'm not doing it for the people who show love I'm doing it for the people who hate me this is what I'm doing it's childish man it's so childish do you know what I'm feeling being maybe I will change one day and I'll learn to be don't give your energy away but it's got me this far why change it just now absolutely man I couldn't say that we're going forward for the future Georgia boy, what's your plans? like I said before base jump is very much in my line of thinking but I don't want to rush into it I've got to take it slow I've got lots of buildings in plans all of them I can't speak about because just the iliacities would the corpus be waiting there well I actually made that mistake one time when I was 16 went to climb the stealth at thought park and I was naive at the time I put on my snapchat story I had this inflatable raft because the thought park, this theme park in UK is surrounded by water and I took a photo of the dean and I was crossing over to thought park, got to thought park ready to climb the stealth middle of night climbed half way up and I already had all the police at the bottom got caught and that sort of was my lesson I'm not going to fucking make that mistake again so yeah, when it comes to buildings and all those legal things I keep that very much to myself people who are very much involved in the project like the beckonsfield boys but no I always just want to my thing is I want to do extreme challenges I want to push I want to go into bare knuckle boxing I used to fight as an amateur back when I was 13, 14, 15 I see you got a lot of BKB fighters on your show yeah, yeah that's something I do want to get involved in at some point in my life I just want to get into the challenges I just want to push in your boundaries it's crazy even the bare knuckle fighters, the gypsy fighters it's like a sense of self harming as well really to get pushed and getting hit in the head to accept pain it's like when I was taking drugs that was self harming for me I didn't like my life, it was unhappy, miserable people glorify it, they think it's cool to be sitting at parties taking lines of coke and they think it's great it ain't great because you're self harming that tells me that you ain't happy in life it's not that I'm trying to put people down just because I've loved it given the cage fighters and had Dan Tull on and he loves getting punched in the head fucking loves that it tells people to punch them but it's a sense of being psyched nobody can hurt me kind of as well the mind's nuts I think every single one of us has got some kind of mental health issue at the end of the day our biologies have not changed since we were hunter gatherers but our world has we've got immediate gratification we've got social media, we've got bad foods drugs constantly 24-7 everyone's got mental health issues everyone's trying to feel a void and some have got it worse than others and some can control it and some others people say I'm crazy and I think that's a fair assumption I'm definitely not reckless everything I do is calculated and prepared but I've got my few issues ADHD and some of those sort of things but I've found a way to maintain it and like you said nature is one of them the main thing is that you're still doing something with your life everybody's crazy I don't give a fuck who you are I don't care how much money you've got I don't care if you're a homeless man or a billionaire the thing is we've all got the same 24 hours in a day do we let it consumers, do we let it breakers life is life is precious to me now it's took me 37 years to realise this it's trying to be happy am I as happy as I want to be, no could I be happier of course what do I do to be there and get there is do things to work inwardly meditation, yoga breathing techniques, cold water therapy I've ended up becoming vegan do you know what mate I'm fucking flying it's 7 weeks if I'm doing 50k runs if I'm mixed now I don't know the science behind it but what I do know is when I interview people and they believe in it and it's changing their lives then wait a minute I'll put yoga together with being vegan, with doing cold water therapy, with meditation, with exercise if I put that in my routine every day and it makes me feel alive then fuck me am I going to keep doing it it is hard to maintain that we can slip back meditation getting up at 5am I've been getting up at 6am and then sometimes I'm not doing so the 10 minute meditation I look at my phone and I feel my day is a lot more on edge but if I'm meditating, if I'm growing my affirmations and my goals to remind myself that I am good enough that I am the best if I remind myself that nobody else is going to tell me that I need to keep telling myself that so if I can put all these wee things tools and techniques into place and how to change then it's changing my life I'm not here to preach to other people but fuck me do I feel good it's not as if I'm just talking shit you can make changes you're living proof you can kick on and that's the beautiful thing about life people change science consistently we ain't fucking doctors but we're just living by example that you know what I've got ADHD but I'm still climbing mountains I'm still fucking jumping off planes I'm feeling great I want to do cage fighting I want to run marathons and alter marathons people go you know what if you can do it, I can do it and that's the beautiful thing about life what about relationships in that George do you struggle with them? yeah well I mean I try and keep them kind of short but respectful because at the end of the day my whole thing as I've said is focus and preparation and if I had a long lasting relationship well that energy is going to be going into that and therefore I'm neglecting the energy going into what it is so it's always going to have to be short and sweet it's difficult doing that because I'm at that stage I want a relationship and I think I give my lot of my energy away so then the focus doesn't come on the obsession to be the best but it's just not going to last it's difficult and it's sad that it's just careers over anything else you're going to start your journey as you're 22 21 and fucking start a young boy man your whole life mate is a head of you but what happens as you start moving through the gears you grow your platform grow your name before you know you're getting books before you know you're getting films that's what I would be doing anyway just keep progressing keep raising the bar keep pushing yourself with new heights and keep proving people wrong for anybody that's struggling just now George what advice would you give them it's maybe can't get out of bed battling well my first advice like when I overcome a fear to take it step by step you can't get out of bed because you're just completely you're worn out you're depressed your friends committed suicide again in your bed all day you're depressed you've got to take it step by step your first goal needs to be to have a shower once you've done that okay cool next thing go downstairs have a cup make a cup of tea alright next step alright make a meal you know you can't just expect right I'm going to go and do it I'm going to go out there I'm going to go to school go and do my work I'm going to do all that so that's too much you've got to take it step by step break it down break it down take it step by step after one month two months get to where you were before I think where it comes to anything people want a short fix they want to they want to viral be famous quick this love island all these sort of things quick stuff but really it's all step by step and if you neglect the steps you will pay for it in the future so yeah when it comes to mental health issues I think yeah take it step by step get out your comfort zone how does your mum treat you now how does she accept that she better with that she's definitely better with it then she you know then she was when I was first doing it she sees it for what it is she respects the passion and the courage of it and she appreciates the fact that I'm not just doing it to I'm not just doing it for myself I'm kind of I'm trying to make something of it I'm trying to sort of I don't want to say career because it doesn't feel like a career I'm trying to you know capitalise and make it work for myself and she respects that and we've got really good relationship despite what I do can you speak to her a lot after that yeah well I don't tell my mum before I do a climb because it's just unnecessary I'm going to do it anyway there's no point stressing her up until that point but once the things done I can then speak to her because therefore I'm safe I'm alive I'm good does she know when you're going to do a climb she'll probably feel your energy changing okay he's planning something you probably went quiet because I've seen videos in your room and it's just paper work after paper work photos writing stuff down and how much paper do you go through yeah loads of it yeah loads of it yeah yeah all on the wall when it's all in the mind it's all in a laptop or something the best thing to do is to take it from a concentrated platform and just put it up on the wall so that I can put something up on the wall and I can get my friends or people who've got sharp minds I can be like right let's discuss let's look at it okay not that okay move this there not that one this one there and all that right now so once it's all on the wall all on the ground then I can see the plan much more clearly so yeah I'll go through a lot of paper in that process can anybody watching this because I know listen you need funding to and you need backing to get to where you want to go and do what you want to do who would you ask for for anybody that's what may become forward and help you out or sponsor you utilize a platform to I mean I'm I wouldn't really ask I mean if someone were to see what I do and they see value in it and I can assure you you speak to me and we can work someone out you know I don't really have anyone in mind but if someone thinks I have value I would appreciate that for sure yeah you see these people with base jumpers and they get sponsors do you know what I mean the people who are sponsored by the world and do their thing you're a good guy man I like you George you're a genuine guy man I can sense that and this is only the beginning of your journey do you know what I mean it's a beautiful thing yeah would you like to finish up on anything my brother no not at all mate if you want to follow what I do my Instagram is at shardclimber but apart from that you stay tuned and yeah what about Twitter, Facebook we'll leave all the links in the description it's George King on Facebook and YouTube George King but my main platform at the moment is Instagram which is at shardclimber we'll leave all the links in the description thank you much George listen it's been a pleasure mate it's been an absolute pleasure and I look forward to seeing you what you do for the future thank you so much mate check out more of my podcasts on the right and be sure to like share and comment your thoughts on this week's podcast thank you