Kickoff Sessions

#299 Luke Barnatt - Why Smart Entrepreneurs Are Going All in on Content

• Darren Lee • Episode 299

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Guest:  @LukeBarnattOfficial  


(00:00) Preview and Intro 
(02:34) Why Luke Went All In on Content 
(05:56) Building an In-House Content Team  
(12:58) Luke’s Fitness & Lifestyle App  
(15:39) Helping Men Build Confidence  
(19:45) What “Winning” Means for Luke
(21:47) UK’s Collapse and Masculinity Crisis  
(26:52) Why Pain Is Essential for Growth  
(30:30)  Leaving Your Comfort Zone  
(33:21) Why Luke Quit Drinking Alcohol
(36:07) Becoming the Master of Your Own Destiny  
(40:05) How to Build the Right Team
(45:06) Why Most People Need Coaching 
(46:44) What 20 Years in MMA Taught Luke About Coaching  
(54:21) Why Energy, Not Skill, Wins Fights (and Life)  
(55:53) Why Delusion Can Be a Superpower
(59:50) How to Build a Bullet Proof Mindset

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Luke Barnatt:

I'm now in the operating system of everything I do is sh** and I need to make it better. So having a team is a life hack for me to make content and it is effortless and if I want, I have endless content. Now all I need to do.

Darren Lee:

We're not f***ing creators trying to like go viral. We're business owners using content to make money.

Luke Barnatt:

You have all these guys that might have potential, they might be interesting, they might be talented, whatever. But if they're not willing to stand on their own two feet and to live life on their own terms, how are they going to ever achieve anything? Since 17 years, I've not had someone tell me I have to wake up and do da-da-da-da-da. I just have to do it, because if I don't do it, I get no outcome.

Darren Lee:

For someone who's in the UFC and who's in the UFC you would have never thought you like really obsessed with content and using it for everything. I would not have put two and two together, they don't fit. But what was like the idea that, oh, like I'm gonna go all in on producing a shit ton of content and creating a studio? Like I don't read there?

Luke Barnatt:

I just come to be honest. It came out of nowhere because I went to dubai and I did a podcast with a friend of mine and it was like an, I think you got like an hour slot there and you pay for an hour slot and you go in and you talk. I come out of the podcast and the guy was like, oh, you can talk. I was like, yeah, yeah, that was great, we should do another one. I was like, okay, I'm here till Friday, book it and I'll come. He's a friend of mine. Tried studio was booked solid for three months. I was like, no, it's impossible, impossible. I was like how much you pay for this, this thing? I think it was like 250 or something like that. It's like 250 an hour. I was like I rang my friend. I said I need a podcast studio in marbella. I googled marbella podcast studio didn't exist. So I was like I need a podcast studio.

Luke Barnatt:

Next week I had the lease to this place, like wrapped up, done, and it became my office. So I just built it out as a studio and my office so I just had a cool place to work and I could start making content. I did it completely as a, not just for fun. Yeah, I did it for no real reason. I just wanted to have an office that I thought then is in the center of port banus. I can maybe, you know, rent it out every now and then and pay for my office and have a central spot. I did it 100% for networking purposes, to meet interesting people. I thought I want to meet influencers, I want to meet people that make great content, I want to da-da-da-da-da. So if I could do that, the best way to do it is to provide services. If I can provide services for these people, I'll meet cool people. So that was the whole idea. I was so busy with a load of other bullshit that I rented the space.

Luke Barnatt:

I kind of built half of a studio and I had an office here, but it never lived up to its full potential. I got one member of staff and he was great, he was amazing. But I wasn't pushing him, I wasn't doing anything and I just used it for my own content. But even at that stage I wasn't really even that interested or bothered about content. I was still learning and I still would say I'm learning the social media game in general personally, and it'd only be since I got my partner Bradley, about a year ago year and a half ago that I started taking this place seriously.

Luke Barnatt:

Um, I had it a couple years. Obviously we had the fire and everything else that you know about, but I've had it a couple of years and I would say the last four months I would say it's probably we're doing it properly. Um, now we're a full team here, got videographers, got editors, got got the whole shebang, and now I'm taking my content way more seriously because I've attached a dollar sign to my content, because I just used to want to look cool on instagram, post cool things, look like a g and I just b-roll content bullshit exactly.

Luke Barnatt:

I did it for no real purpose. Uh, I just did it because everyone else was doing it and okay, cool, might as well do it. So I didn't really have a vision for it so much when I started. I just thought there's a business there. I sort of see it happening in dubai. My bay is a mini dubai and then, and the more it's growing, with these sort of people coming here, it's going to be a business. So I just kind of jumped the gun a little bit and got into it, but not really properly but, dude, it's blown up your, your instagram, right?

Darren Lee:

you've pretty much doubled your Instagram the past year, easy.

Luke Barnatt:

And that will come from creating reels Like that was my whole Instagram. I didn't even again. I had no service to sell. I had no reason to have an Instagram. I just thought, ah, I want an Instagram. And then I came up with the whole obviously being close to Andrew and everything else and him talking about how influence is important and how people da, da, da, da da. Okay, I should get some followers, because if I got followers I could sell them anything. You know, my followers were just from fighting days back in the day and Instagram wasn't really around when I was in UFC. It was more Twitter, but they kind of transferred over a little bit into reels and shit.

Luke Barnatt:

I know. But then so then I. I I think I had around 35,000 followers when I when making content and doing reels and I just thought, fuck it, I'll make some reels. So I had loads of B-roll from doing loads of cool crap and I had a guy on my team and I hired another editor and I made a load of reels and I think I'm now at like 119,000. And I still haven't done. I have not taken content seriously until like the last couple of months and I would say I've made great content Like I make good-ish content but I still don't feel like I'm doing it properly. The last couple of months I'm doing it, but I'm still not really doing it. I think you'll see the difference when I'm really really really doing it.

Darren Lee:

Before we move any further, I have one short question to ask you. Have you been enjoying these episodes so far? Because, if you have, I would truly appreciate it if you subscribe to the channel to help more business owners grow their online business today it is.

Darren Lee:

It is working really well though, because, like all the different posts you have, they're all driving a lot of awareness on top and, like taking like andrew's example, like you surely have fucking learned a ton from him, surely?

Luke Barnatt:

loads, but like indirectly okay, what.

Darren Lee:

What do you think what? Okay, what have you learned from his content strategy versus what you're doing? Because you're doing everything in-house, right?

Luke Barnatt:

now I'm doing everything in-house and I'd say that's that was the most biggest thing that I've learned indirectly is having a team that, like the reason now with Android's content so amazing and it always has been amazing is because he would just talk to his cousin on his phone, right. So that's where his journey started. It was. It was internal when it was he'd be talking to somebody else, but they always a camera. There's always a camera around. They pick it up and they can talk to it. It's so important, man.

Darren Lee:

It's fucking everything and just put a fucking mic on. We're talking about it all the time.

Luke Barnatt:

Yeah.

Darren Lee:

And just clip a mic on and, as we're talking outside, just spitting shit, like all of that is good.

Luke Barnatt:

Because that's when the gold comes, because that's when you're natural and that's when it's like you have a what happens now in because it obviously went around the boys or whatever. But Andrew, when something smart is said, said, or something cool is said or something funny is said, he goes, get a camera and instantly they just repeat it because then it's like natural and it's done. So. If it's not caught, like because they have a full team and they live with them in the house, if it's not caught in the moment because they weren't recording or whatever, he'll just say Bailey, get a camera, bailey goes and gets it and he just repeats it because he's like he's at the point now where he understands what will sell and what won't or whatever. So it's natural content, but it's done whenever he wants it.

Luke Barnatt:

So I learned that having a. Now I have a team. You know we've got to the stage. We're still building out the team, still have more people to add, but I have an in-house team that if I think of an idea, I can make content about it. It's very. I was never the guy and I realized this about myself very early. I like being in front of the camera, I like talking. I think I have interesting points of view, but I am never the guy who's going to pick up a camera and talk to it myself, so I can't do that I feel uncomfortable and I feel like I don't know, I don't want to be that guy.

Luke Barnatt:

I tried making a vlog once because I was told I need to make one, so I did it in my car and I went to the gym and I just felt dirty I don't know how else to explain it but I did not feel good. Having a team is a life hack for me to make content and it is effortless and my team are learning and growing and becoming better. But now I have endless content If. But now I have endless content. If I want, I have endless content. Now all I need to do is really shape it a little bit better, think about the themes a little bit more, which is stuff again. I've just been making shit for shit's sake for so long now and, like you said, I'm very authentic and my content has been garnering. You know, people who care about it, but I've not been trying to sell anything. I've just been being myself and doing whatever. Now I'm coming into the world of actually trying to sell something.

Darren Lee:

Yeah, that's like how does this fit together?

Luke Barnatt:

right and it's getting a little bit more complicated and I don't know how much I like it at the moment, why I don't know much I like it at the moment, why I don't know. I feel like again when I was just doing it for fun and I was doing it because I do it for the sake of doing it, there was no pressure on it. Now I'm tracking metrics and looking at this and thinking, oh, this is better than this and it's becoming a bit more like a job. And it is a job, don't get me wrong even with a full team and with everything else, and I'm feeling like I want to, I need to improve the quality of my con, like I need to improve the things I say, I need to improve the outlook, I need to improve a few things.

Darren Lee:

Um, it's not good though, right, because it's like going to the gym, it's like boxing, right, like obviously you're a fucking professional fighter, right. But when I was doing it passively, I was just consistently shit, because I was training twice a week maybe, maybe not in the gym, and I'm like I'm just consistently shit at something and that's how you kind of quit, right. But that was literally what was happening to me and I was, I wasn't getting, I wasn't enjoying it. Now I think there's a lot of merit to tracking this shit, right.

Luke Barnatt:

But it gets it gets to the next level of the, the layer right and I think that's why I'm saying now I'm like displeased with it is because I've started tracking it and I'm now going to be in a consistent uh cycle of hating my content because all I'm going to do is see things that are wrong with it and try and improve it, and it's kind of how I operate. So I'm now in the operating system of everything I do is shit and I need to make it better. So before I was like I don't care, just doing fun doesn't matter. Now it matters. So as soon as it matters and people are gonna which I never expected or thought or overlooked at the people are gonna look at me like a content creator or like an influencer I hate that word, but they're gonna at me like that and I'm putting myself out like that. There's no way that I'm not and I have to accept that, which I still don't fully accept. That means my content's got to be good because I'm doing it.

Darren Lee:

There's a nice reframe with this, though, right. The reframe I've had is like we're not fucking creators trying to like go viral, we're money. And with that frame you're like, okay, when I'm recording, and I'm recording here, it's marketing and this is just marketing, it's acquisition of your business. But I feel like it's easier when you have that product suite in the back and you're like, okay, I know I need to get up and do something and it's not going to be dumb. Right, it's not going to be dumb, but it does feed into the product, right, and like I think what's interesting here is like what is it you're, what have you had in the back of your content and what is it you're trying to build in the back of your content? Right, because that's going to dictate everything and that's why it's very unique, right, and that's position you're in.

Luke Barnatt:

Yeah, so that's the thing to start with nothing in the back, nothing, zero. Then I went on to doing uh, mentoring, like one-on-one mentoring, and I was selling one one-on-one mentorships at a very high price point and I did that for a couple of years. Did you enjoy it? No, that's why I stopped. I didn't like my life and my calendar being controlled by other people. Okay, I got a phone call 6pm on Friday. I hated it, to be honest. I hated it. Financially. It was great. Seeing the improvement in people was great. I like, I like that. But being beholden to other people couldn't stand it and and I I got switched off to it very, very quickly and I stopped doing it. Um, because, to be honest, I had a different line of work running events and doing other things that was filling the gap financially and I enjoyed a lot more. So I I faded away from it and that's kind of when the content. What I realized when I started making content more recently was like what is the point of my page? What is?

Darren Lee:

the purpose. What is the?

Luke Barnatt:

message I'm trying to send and there was zero. There was zero. I had what is my avatar? Who is the person that should come to my page? Look at my page. And I had none of that. I had no direction.

Luke Barnatt:

Everything I was saying. I was saying a lot of things, but none of them really had any purpose, and I still feel like it doesn't, which is why I'm saying I hate my content. I feel like I need to zoom in and zero in on what I do. So that was like the first phase with doing the, the mentorship, but I didn't really at that point have a content game. So I was doing the mentorship and it was kind of working off the, the back end, just from from a bit of notoriety. And then I stopped that and I went into events and I kind of didn't have anything in the back end again.

Luke Barnatt:

And now I'm coming back into having something in the back end, but it's a much different approach. I'm trying to. I'm about to launch like a fitness app, if you want to call it a fitness app, but it's more like a fitness and a lifestyle app. Um, that will be more. What's the word? You're going to know better the words than I am, but like more, more of a broader view, uh, and for a broader price point. It's not going to be one-on-one coaching. It's going to be coaching, but it's going to be built out in programs low ticket and it's going to be built out in programs Low ticket and it's going to be more low ticket. So it's a low ticket offer that will hopefully have more of a it's fucking hard to crack dude Audience.

Darren Lee:

yeah, it's very. It's based on a lot of volume.

Darren Lee:

If you have the volume and you can fucking deal with the churn. It's great. But I mean like that's, it's actually the hardest thing to crack. Freedom, yeah, like I'm sure I might give you the most in terms of like you're not, you're not doing shit, but I mean just in terms of like it's like running a software company because it's 49 a month, you gotta get the guys to come back every single fucking month. Uh, something goes wrong. They're a bunch of like, they're like 17 year old kids. Right, it is very tough like economically to crack. You can fucking do it, obviously, but I mean that's like business mode on fucking hard mode yeah, that's literally equivalent.

Luke Barnatt:

I feel like I'll probably run it more like the 200 250 price point, but it's still low ticket. But I think for me, dealing with the churn and dealing with that, I've got no problem, as long as it's built there and it's set there and it's got less expectations for myself on time. I can then focus on other businesses and other things, but it's always there so it gives my content a purpose. So that way, everything I'm doing in this place and the team and everything else that I've got and getting my following from now it's 100,000 to getting to a million makes more sense. Because otherwise why are you doing it? Trying to feel popular? I don't give a fuck right.

Luke Barnatt:

So it gives me more of a purpose and more of a mission, if you want to call it that, when it comes to social media, and more of a reason to create content, and I like creating content and I'm liking it more and more and more uh, because I'm giving it that reason in the back end. So I think, having that back end, I feel like I have a good message. I feel like what I'm trying to, the coaching I want to offer, is extremely important, but I couldn't do it for so many people like when I'm doing it one-on-one.

Luke Barnatt:

I could do it for like three, four people could do group, you could group could do group.

Luke Barnatt:

But you know, if I could reach a couple hundred people with this product, I'd be happy, you know, and I and I think I would have more of an impact on their lives at a lower price point. Not everyone can afford 20 grand a month, 20 grand for a six month mentorship, so it's like to try and give it a lower price point. I feel like I reach more people, I feel like it's more scalable. I feel like it. I think there's a lot of pluses to it. Hard to crack, for sure, but anything worth having is hard to do of course right.

Darren Lee:

You said mission, what? What is your mission?

Luke Barnatt:

for me. I believe my life has been shaped by the fight gym, by fighting, by the people I have met, by the experiences that I've had and the way I see the world now and what I see. I want to basically become like the big brother to everyone out there who's struggling as a man. So there's a lot of them that are really, really struggling with with purpose and having their own mission, and I feel like I have the tools and the knowledge and the experience to inspire those people to to live better lives. Uh, and I think that comes from the cage fighters mixed martial arts gym and I think not being so soft and not being a princess a princess, fucking princess man, I call it princess syndrome.

Darren Lee:

Man I have business owners are like this I have many business owner clients. I'm like you're a fucking princess well that's.

Luke Barnatt:

That would be the mma equivalent. But I think that's why the the the missing layer for me on doing this for the first, the beginning, was having a way to deliver it, because it's very hard to. You can have all the theory and you can talk about how to improve your mentality and all this bullshit, but it's hard to measure, very, very difficult to measure. You can feel it internally, but how do you measure it? And that that we talk about churn, you talk about drop off and talk about those sort of things.

Luke Barnatt:

So for me, putting the fitness layer on top of it and giving young men a way that they can look in the mirror and they can see improvement in themselves like every single week, that's what kind of unlocked it for me. So that's where it will be based on physical fitness. But there's a lot more in-depth version of that. So it's like, once you start, the first base level of component of it will be getting in physical shape and getting in condition and then building your character from there and it will be. You know, I'm looking at like a 12 month lifespan for the product for people to join. It'll be a monthly, but I'm looking over a 12 month period to try and improve people's lives and then we'll see where we go from there. But that's where I'm at right now with the product, and step one is to to get, get in shape and to see the difference.

Darren Lee:

You know I mean dude. Uh, one of my mentors said to me um, what does, what does success and winning look like for your customers? Because for some people it could be getting in super amazing shape, getting the ufc ring and like winning their first fight. For another person, it could be just signing up because they've been, you know, in this position, which is bad for some, so long. Winning to them is just signing up, joining a fucking call, going through the app. So I think it's like amazing to have, like, yeah, we want to get as many people amazing results, obviously. But it's interesting on the other end, right, someone in 10 years time like, yeah, the fucking first step I took was luke's program, which do, like many people say that about the real world. They're like a lot of my editors and designers came through that three years ago and it was like, yeah, foot in the door. I'll tell you a fucking story.

Darren Lee:

Actually, I met this woman in the gym. I'm in Bali, young woman. She's like maybe 21, 2021. Making good money, probably like 15, 20k a month, and she's doing a copywriting and she left school, just went straight into it and so on, and I was like like where the fuck did you, did you learn it? She was like the real world. She was like I came across like Andrew's stuff when I was like 15, 16 and I just initially I hated it and initially I listened to it and then I learned, started, went through the program and then I got a shit ton of clients.

Luke Barnatt:

So it's like what is our first step to start their journey and then for the rest of their fucking life, then they're on the wave yeah, I think I'm just like the amount of stories that people do not hear about the real world and about people, how it's changed people's lives and people's perspectives and, like you said, taking that first step and it's going from zero to one like that. That's what you gotta teach people going from zero to one.

Darren Lee:

As a copywriter, you know zero to one is harder than one to a hundred a hundred percent.

Luke Barnatt:

So that's taking that first step and getting through there, and that's why andrew's so inspiring and that's how he manages to get some people through the door. Talk about churn right. I'm sure this is extremely high, but they get enough people going through it. Then they change so many lives because they learn a skill and they they feel empowered, which is what it's all right. So you said like about what the goal is For me.

Luke Barnatt:

The goal for people that will join my program and do my app is we talk about confidence, and that's the main goal is to be able to walk down the street, see three guys walking towards them and not have to cross over. That's the whole idea of the product. The product isn't about getting in the best shape of your life yeah, you'll do that as well. It's about changing your mind and your mentality to feel secure enough to to be confident in yourself. That's what I believe I have and have learned through again the fight gym, through fighting and and myself as a young 18, 19 year old kid when I first went to a fight gym. Compared to now, it's all just confidence, and confidence is built over layers and layers and layers and layers and layers, but it's achieving something like you said, that goal.

Luke Barnatt:

That young girl that you met who's now making 15 20 grand a month because she just signed up to something that costs 50 quid a month and did like the real world and learn online and did like she would have felt achievement through going through those courses and ticking boxes and achieving and learning things. She's now felt that and gone and create a whole business. That's what I want to do for other people is make them. Okay, maybe you're struggling to go to the gym because you're too scared to go to a gym. Okay, come to me and I'll talk to you and then you'll go to a gym. It's that simple, you know. So I think everyone's on a different stage in their life.

Darren Lee:

And now the princesses there's a lot more of them and to try and inspire them to do something, you, you gotta push people you know, I mean, I was in london last week and you know people say a lot of shit about the uk and I was in like a nice area so I was kind of like kept away from it. But then I started going around london, I started seeing it and obviously, like everyone's saying shit about the uk, same as ireland, right. What's your observation of, like the situation there, especially from like a leadership perspective? Right, because everyone will fucking blame someone. I had speaking to Elliot Wise it's on my podcast and Elliot had a very, some very good points on this as well. But where do you stand on that? Right, because you can't just fucking point fingers, especially as a dude, right, but then how much responsibility can you take for other people's actions equally? So I'd love to get your thoughts on that. Right, because it's led by the men, right?

Luke Barnatt:

well, everything's led by the men. But I think when it comes to the uk, I've not lived there for 12, maybe 13 years now. I lived in california and I've been here for 10, so I wouldn't say it's on my scope. I don't visit because I have family there and everything else. Every now and then I'll go, but for me it's it's an energy problem. Like whenever I go there I feel so low with energy and there's so many amazing places. I was at dinner last Friday and someone was talking to me about London. Oh, london's so amazing. It's so da, da, da, da. And I was like I'm sure it is to visit. Yes, and it's like fairy tale from seeing it in movies and da-da-da-da-da. If you're not from the UK, you want to go to the UK and you want to visit and London's great and if you go to Harrods, and da-da-da-da-da. But when I visit anywhere in the UK, compared to Marbella, I feel pressure on my shoulders from the energy when I get there.

Luke Barnatt:

It's so beaten down, so like I think, politically if you want to talk about politics, I mean, everything is wrong in the UK, absolutely everything. There's nothing that they're doing right In my opinion. I think it's the worst government we've had since I've been born and I think there's a lot of problems. What it needs to improve is, like you just said, it needs the men to take responsibility and it needs the men to stand up and it needs the men to do something about it. If you're living in the uk and you want to live your life there and everything else and I know elliot wise is very, very, uh, pro britain and I got a lot of friends that are pro britain as well um, and there's loads of ways that you can you, you know, disguise it or talk about it, but the problem in the UK is always going to be immigration. But the reason that there's so much immigration is because white people don't want to work. That's the main issue. So the main issue, I believe, is the young generation. They talk about it in every empire that's ever fallen. I talk about the UK, but you could talk about America, you could talk about anywhere. Talk about anywhere.

Luke Barnatt:

When a country becomes so rich that the people are not willing to do the jobs that got them there, because they so comfortable and so rich, they're not going to go picking fruit, they're not going to go cleaning roads and do that, so they need they bring in another workforce to do that that workforce that they bring in. When the workforce that they bring in repopulates, I think it's nine times the speed that the whites people do. What are you going to get? So that's kind of where the UK is at. It has opened its door to immigration to allow people to come in from impoverished nations to do the jobs that the white man is not willing to do. So they have lost their country. Now, if you want to take your country back, you just need a white man willing to do the job that the brown man's doing. That's the reality. No one wants to talk about it, but that's like the brass tacks reality and I've seen it, you know, over the last 15, 20 years.

Darren Lee:

Are you an agency owner, coach or consultant looking to scale your online business? At Vox, we help business owners scale their online business with content. We help them specifically build a high ticket offer, create content that turns into clients and also help them with the sales process to make sure every single call that's booked in your calendar turns into a client. If you want to see more about exactly how we do this, hit the first link down below and watch a full free training on how smart entrepreneurs are building a business in 2025 and you also got that's something I talk about a lot of my podcasts right, uh, so my wife is american.

Darren Lee:

Uh, her dad grew up homeless and, uh, in his 20s got a scholarship into university like studies, balls off super rough upbringing, made his millions in his 20s and 30s in like um medical sales and was retired and retired, had an accident, lost all his money for an accident and got back and now he's like coasting again. The reason I say this is because in america you can fucking fall bro and like no one's saving you and you hit that ground and you'll hit. You hit skid row right. In ireland and the uk there's a forward. You go into your fucking government plan. You can scam the system.

Darren Lee:

I know many people that have scammed the system, man close to home as well. I didn't have a fucking much of a pretty family either. Don't worry about it because they can ride the system. So there's like this floorboard, you can't fall too much which is like complain and bitch and moan, and then on the upside then like taxes like 60 fucking percent or whatever. So as a result of that too, the upside is like why would you bother?

Darren Lee:

Like the mentality not my attitude, but the mentality, whereas in america huge upside and a huge fall, which means the men are fucking hungry and they're competitive and I feel, if you're in the right space, I've never had an issue with another guy in america that's in like our space, because I think we're just kind of like values aligned. Um, I don't think you're kind of taught to that kind of perspective. This is like my, to be honest, but I feel there's a lot of merit to it, man, because I meet a lot of guys who are like, yeah, I'm still living at home and yeah, yeah, I'm thinking about doing this. It's like, bro, just fucking do it.

Luke Barnatt:

Yeah, I mean, it's that whole socialist experiment right.

Darren Lee:

They feel like people that grounding, like you say in the uk, benefits and everything else ups, or what it's called universal basic income yeah, that's the new, the new thing they're talking about ubi sorry, I don't know how that helps anybody.

Luke Barnatt:

It's like they take it back down to a smaller version. It's like when your friend or a good friend of yours is starting failing and they're begging, basically you give them a bit of money. Does giving them money help them or does it hinder them? Are you just becoming that guy that helps them out and then they just rely on you and then they don't live? Or should they feel that pain and anguish of loss?

Luke Barnatt:

Like it's such a complicated thing to talk about, but in my opinion, the reason America is I don't know how many more times richer, but if england was a state in america, I think we're the poorest state apart from by a long, a long way. And if you take london out of the uk, I believe with something like we're poorer than zimbabwe or something crazy. So the uk is such a poor place. People don't talk about the uk like finances are in absolute, they're abysmal, like it's dropped off a cliff, uh, compared to being the great empire that we once were, and I think, yeah, would be the poorest state in america by a long way. Um, and I think that's because of the mentality and because of I mean now, the amount of people leaving the UK because of the taxes. I think now I read it today or yesterday, in Kensington and Chelsea, the house prices are the lowest they've been since 2013. So in 12 years, the house prices haven't been this bad.

Luke Barnatt:

The whole economy is collapsing and everyone who's got money is leaving. Everyone who's got money. You know, there was a big discussion about this. There's a guy called Rob Moore. I is collapsing and everyone who's got money is leaving. Everyone who's got money. You know. Um, there was a big discussion about this. There's a guy called rob moore.

Luke Barnatt:

I've heard of my podcast. Yeah, incredible, you're on his podcast. I've been on his podcast as well. Great, great, very, very smart individual. He is the guy to talk about money and talk about the government and talk about things in the uk. Um, he's much more educated than I am and everything I listen to when he's talking about it.

Luke Barnatt:

It completely makes sense. Make sense, and Nigel Farage is obviously the front runner for someone to save the UK or to do something about it. I'm just not sure if he has got the minerals. I don't know if he'll actually follow through with anything, but I hope that he comes into power at some time so we can at least test that. But again, for me it's just England is no longer England. For me, I've lost complete. And that's where me and Elliot Wise and a few of my other friends I've got very, very good friends that like I should move back to England and I should fight for England. That's what a lot of people believe I'm like. Okay, but it's for me, in my life, where I'm at right now and what I've seen the country go through, I don't believe the impact that they would have on my life is worth it personally at this point and also you got to think about this way is that back in the day, people had no other choice to be patriotic and nationalist.

Darren Lee:

You had to like be behind fucking ireland because there's nothing else, whereas now it's the girl in the red dress. Right, uk is competing with other countries. Our ireland is competing. Other people would like dubai and and even America, or even just fucking being on a fucking beach in Thailand. Right, you have opportunity.

Darren Lee:

So that's why I think, as a young guy, you have to have your head out of the sand. Right, if you're going through like the traditional approach, it's like dude, there is so much more to life available to you on top of the dollars and cents that you can make. Right, because if you did it if I can fucking do it and I'm a dumb ass who's super dyslexic and barely fucking read or write it's possible. So I think this is what's so interesting, right, I've been in this place for a good couple years and just by virtue of just chewing glass for an extremely long period of time, it just kind of clicks right, and then you become lucky. What kind of observations have you made of that? Because you've worked with a lot of young guys, right, and I think you've seen great guys, but then you've seen guys with a lot of potential and then some guys then who kind of just did fuck all. So how have you kind of observed that, especially some lessons?

Luke Barnatt:

I think the biggest lesson for me and I talk about this a lot is people that are willing to move away from their comfort zone or where they live or where they grew up. They're always more successful in every part of life. Because even if you move to marbella or to bali or to america or to any trying to get a better life, there's so many things you need to figure out just to do that. You know so you might not instantly improve and your life might.

Luke Barnatt:

Life, life might instantly get better, but you learn a lot about yourself and you learn a lot about your circumstances and you learn a lot of perspective on where you were, and I think I don't know it'd be interesting to know about ireland, but I don't know many people that leave the uk and then decide to go back. I don't know many people I know a few, but I don't know many people that taste another nation, that tastes another way of life, that tastes another energy, that decide oh, decide, oh. You know I was wrong, I should have gone back to the UK. A lot of people are drawn back because they fail Exactly to the words of a merchant.

Luke Barnatt:

So it's like they might fail elsewhere and then go back because it's safe. But I don't know anyone who wants to go back. There's a big difference and I think being that guy willing to step outside your comfort zone, even if it's you want to stay in the UK but you want to leave your hometown and you want to go somewhere else. Another part you want to move to London, you want to move to the North, you want to do whatever to try a new environment. That takes a lot of skills and I think building those skills, I think that's what made my life so simple. I left London when I was 10. I moved in Chelmsford. I decided to leave when I was 16. I moved out on my own and when I worked up in Peterborough. Peterborough is a very rough, horrible place Sounds like a shithole, bro.

Darren Lee:

It's a shithole question.

Luke Barnatt:

That's actually where Rob Moore is from.

Darren Lee:

And I always make jokes about it, bro. He asked me to go up there for a last week and we put into google from london and I was like fuck man, it was two hours. I was like I love rob, but I was like two hours I went to london. I don't think so, man.

Luke Barnatt:

No, no, no peter is tough mate, peter is a shit. So I used to work at work in a harvester there which we won't even know what that is, but um and then I moved from peterborough to cambridge and then I moved from cambridge to california, and then I'm used from california to malaga, and then I moved from California to Malaga and then I moved from Malaga to here.

Darren Lee:

It's the ability to figure shit out.

Luke Barnatt:

It's the ability to figure shit out, it's the ability to stand on your own two feet. So I'm saying you have all these guys that you said. They might have potential, they might be interesting, they might be talented, whatever, but if they're not willing to stand on their own two feet and to live life on their own terms, how are they going to ever achieve anything? You know, it's like. That's why I think staying in your own bubble is a is a big hindrance to to your true value. So I think, when you're willing to stand outside your own bubble, go somewhere, even if it's an experiment, like so many people. Like you say, go to Bali, go go to. They talk about traveling. I'm not talking about traveling or else try it differently. Talk about something.

Luke Barnatt:

We were actually sitting by the outside and Andrew said this to me about not drinking. So I decided to give up booze and I'm six months yesterday. I've not been drinking and I didn't drink when I was fighting. So I kind of had a bit of an advantage, but I was playing with the idea of giving up alcohol and I spoke to Andrew because, again, he's one of the most successful guys I know and he doesn't drink right, so he doesn't drink. Yeah, he's been sober three years. Yeah, so he's fuck no way. He's muslim as well, so he doesn't. Since he's turned muslim, he hasn't had a drink, and that's been three years.

Luke Barnatt:

I did not know that, maybe longer than that now. Um, and he said to me you've lived 36 years of your life one way. Why don't you try living the other way? And to me that was such a profound bit of advice, not just for giving up alcohol, but for so many different things that you could look at. Because we all build up these perspectives on life and these ways to live and I know this foundation. I should do this and da, da, da, da, da. And you build kind of like a glass or cage around yourself where you live a certain way and you speak a certain way and you believe a certain thing.

Luke Barnatt:

But why don't you just try living a different way for another time? So if you're a 20-year-old kid that's only ever lived in the UK or Ireland or America or wherever it is, why don't you move somewhere else, have a whole new perspective on life and see if that's right for you or not? Because what I don't like is when people tell you that life is short. Life is short, yolo Bullshit. Life is long bro. Like if you live life with intensity, life is long. You can do so much. I feel like I've lived a hundred lifetimes and most people just live one.

Luke Barnatt:

They just live in that fucking nine to five bubble, go into work every single day and it's like, listen, you've got a secure nine to five job. Good for you, great career, good for you, go for it. Why don't you try living a different way for six months and see if you prefer it? And okay, you can always go back to that nine to five life and the nine to five bubble. Do something different and see if you prefer that life and that what I think is like a freedom. That is very hard to explain Because once you taste for me, I haven't had a boss since Dana White.

Luke Barnatt:

If you consider Dana White a boss of mine and that's to be honest, one of the reasons I think I did very badly later on in my fighting career is because I realized Dana was my boss, because I got into fighting, because I believed it was only me and I was doing it because I loved it and it was my individuality and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, I was in control of my own destiny. I'm going to fight S all of my own destiny, I'm going to fight. I slept on the floor, learned how to fight because it was my destiny and I picked it. That's what I loved about it. Got to the UFC, realized I had a boss, realized he picked when I fought, when I did, and it kind of like fucking froze me down. And since then I've had people that I work with, I've had people that I rely on. I've had people that can tell me what to do in certain situations. But I am the master of my own destiny and my life depends on me and I think that mentality is missing now and I think you get that.

Luke Barnatt:

That as a man, I'm talking you as a man, when you step outside your comfort zone and you realize that another thing I always this doesn't always happen, but I'm quoting andrew a lot now as well but andrew speaks, speaks to me, and it's something I still have not yet faced but when his dad died he realized that everything relied on him, because before that you have your dad and you can ring your dad if you have a good relationship with him. My dad is like my hero. I ring my dad if I have a problem. I can ring him and be like, oh dad, this da, da, da, da. He's always going to have your back. He's your dad, you know if you've got a good relationship with him.

Luke Barnatt:

So you realize that you're standing on your own two feet, but if you're, if I went bankrupt and I had no money I could always live with my dad right. Once my dad's gone, then I'm really truly standing on my own two feet. That was kind of my point. But my dad's 74 now and I when he. When I ring him for advice, I realize I probably should give him advice sometimes, but it's like that changing of God. But I think when you decide to to live by your own terms and to fully rely on yourself, and then you have to rely on yourself in a situation and you get through it, that's how you build up confidence. It's a stupid example and responsibility right, yeah, responsibility you have that responsibility.

Luke Barnatt:

Once you accept that, you have that responsibility.

Darren Lee:

That that's the biggest part and same with a similar marriage. I know you're married same with kids because I I didn't have like a great relationship uh, my family. So when I was kind of building and leaving the fucking regular, fucking normie world, I've always felt that kind of like underlying like. Like it's like do or die. I've always felt that and I was like driven by insecurity. Like it's like do or die. I've always felt that and I was like driven by insecurity A lot of times, like I'm fucking five foot six on a good day, so it's like I have something to prove, yeah, which is fucking good. It's fucking good to have that. And they kind of fear like bro, I was telling one of the guys yesterday I used to wake up like and I would just run to my laptop and start doing cold outreach and I did that for a fucking long time, man, until I could sleep because I knew I had this skill, okay, and I had that and I've done really like done quite well as a result of that behavior until I overcame it and then I got married and when I got married it was the same thing. It was like because I was always responsible for a lease, but I was more like now I'm actually responsible. Like I met her father and I was like, right, so whether I fucking seven cents in the bank or fucking seven million, it's going to be like this and I think that is good. Like that hell has helped me a lot. And I got married quite young and I kind of did it intentionally because I was like, well, I'm fucking serious about things and if I'm, if I, if I'm in alignment what I say, I'm just a bro on a podcast, I should be serious about that and I I think that's where the gap comes in like at least was 22, we got married right and it's like that's on. That's not common now but before. It was common in the 80s and 90s and those guys are arguably a lot harder because they didn't have the comforts that we have.

Darren Lee:

One of my clients he's also mentored by this other guy. He's like a really big guy in the fitness space. He was saying that since the pandemic and people coming out of the pandemic, a lot of buyers are a lot more emotional than what they used to be, because pre-COVID everyone was just in their own fucking bubble and then COVID came, they were given money supplementary and now they've come out of that and people are just overly emotional and skeptical and just they have had this time whereby they were dependent on someone else. You develop a codependency, which is, by the way, the worst thing you can fucking do, especially as a guy.

Darren Lee:

I see this a lot with client work. People develop codependencies and, as a result of that, then when the ass falls out or the result doesn't come in, or there's like one hiccup, like fucking one hiccup, turn your hands up and dude like you've come from a fighting background. So you must be observing this, being like these guys are pussies, right, because I I I say this to people, man, if people pay me, I will say that to them. Feel like you are fucking being emotional right now.

Luke Barnatt:

We need, we need to dial it back a small bit I don't think I interact with enough people like that as in. I am so in my own bubble and my own life that I'm so fortunate that I only get to. I only spend time with people similar to my ilk. In that mentality aspect, I don't. It's like I don't understand leftism in any way because I never, ever, speak to anyone who's like that. I have molded my reality that I spend my day like I said. I take complete responsibility for who I am, what I do, how I do it, and one of the responsibilities is don't let any of those people near me Like I do not want to spend time with people like that, Keep them away from me.

Luke Barnatt:

But recently I started adding to my team and I was doing interviews with young kids like 19, 20, 21, 22. And I did a lot of calls and interviews and, by God, god, it was unbelievable. Like I, I still do not understand how these people are alive like I. Like when I was speaking to them, I was just like you want a job, like they. They are. So I don't know how, what it is, I couldn't explain it the energy coming off these people and the discussion I was having and the responsibility that they take. I was just like I don't want to speak to this person, I don't want to near me. So hang up. Next one same. Next one same. I was just like babies, children like I. I was not like this.

Darren Lee:

Like I said, I left home at 16 and I got two jobs, you know, like sport bro it never is before sport, but but even like, it's a mentality that of, that's the mentality you had. That's why I got you into sport, because I used to do, I used to individual, I used to be a hundred meter sprinter, it was the same thing and I was brought up under the vein. I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I was brought up in another vein which is you're always a loser until you're a winner, and that is a little bit of truth to it. I've kind of come around a small bit. I'm still kind of in between it, but that was the logic was sprinting, which is like there's only one winner, fuck the second and third.

Darren Lee:

And I grew up in a very competitive space like and that's. I grew up in that space until I couldn't compete anymore, because when you go into like the broader market for that stuff, like you have like the british guys, american guys and so on. So that has rung through my brain since I was, I started at four.

Darren Lee:

I started at four man, you know. So that's why I don't get this. But just to double down the employee part, um, I think I did a lot. I think about this a lot because I've a lot of team members and I've hired for over the years even when I worked in corporate, like I was doing a lot of the hiring for my team. It says a lot of these guys are focused on output and they know they're going to get like 30k a year where fuck it is for output, so rain, hail, snow, whatever they're going to get that money, whereas when it's outcome orientated, they're not willing to take on that responsibility. So I had an.

Darren Lee:

I had an interesting chat with one of my top sales reps when he was on, when he was ramping up obviously you're not making that many sales in ramp up and he said he came to me and he was like ah, I wouldn't mind if we could add in a base. And I was like, if you take a base, you'll never become an entrepreneur because you'll be focused on output, doing dials, doing emails, versus outcome. I will get you there, if you don't be a fucking princess, and I will teach you how to think about outcome, how to literally eat what you kill. And then he came around and he's been our top performing rep since.

Luke Barnatt:

I think, like you, got to kick people off the edge every once in a while yeah, I mean I I'm sure, I'm sure it's a characteristic trait, though it's characteristic, that's characteristic, yeah, for me I'm still. I think growing out teams and doing that is a part of the entrepreneurial journey that I'm moving into now. I think that's the most important. I think that's how you build out to to make real money is having other people beneath you and teams and da-da-da-da-da, and I think that's a whole different management and everything else is a whole different skill set, because most people now they work alone, they make money alone, you know, like to an extent because of the internet and everything else. But I just I've always I've been so outside of reality, if you want to call it that, for my whole life, like I fought in the UFC and then, after fighting in the UFC, I just competed and fought and was training for eight, nine years. Then I started my own business and I've always knew I was going to work. My dad was an entrepreneur. He worked for himself. I knew I was going to work for myself, never had a real. I had jobs when I was a kid but I haven't had a boss, for I said Dana was my boss, but even before Dana I was 20, you know, since 17 years I've not had someone tell me I have to wake up and do I just have to do it? Because if I don't do it I get no outcome, like you said. So for me to then speak to people and employ people, I'm like fuck, how do these people function? It blew my mind. But that's the only real, like contact I've had with these sort of people, you know so. So it's I need to.

Luke Barnatt:

Everyone I associate with, I believe, has some sort of mentality similar to me, because I, I choose to and because I live in marbella. I don't know what bali's like. I'm sure it's quite similar, but it's like an entrepreneur's heaven here, you know, I mean so everyone. I, I mean see people on holiday and stuff like that here, drinking or whatever. But I, you know, I mean so everyone. I I mean see people on holiday and stuff like that here, drinking or whatever, but I don't do that.

Luke Barnatt:

So if I'm having a coffee, you can even like sense if they're an entrepreneur or not, really, and then I might talk to somebody every now and then, but really I just stay in my own lane. Um, so I'm not exposed to those sort of individuals and I think, I think I, when I go moving to this coaching like we talking about, I'm going to be exposed to a lot more of them and I'll see it, and maybe a little bit more, but I think that's why my input is so necessary and that's why they need it. That's why they need the coaching, because I live in such a frame and in such a lifestyle that I want them to try and adapt my character traits.

Darren Lee:

I always say that you know you got to do it for yourself before you do for anybody else. You don't want to be the broke financial advisor, the fat personal trainer, the single marriage counselor, right like. You have to do it for yourself before you can even put your fucking head up. You did all those fights, you got your head kicked in for so many years before you went back into the ring to already back in to coach people, even for for boxing right, and I think that level of like needing to get that expertise or do the reps is lost, like that actually is lost. People have just not put in those reps, which is why I said they're very emotional.

Luke Barnatt:

Yeah, emotional and, I think, results-based. Like, I think, a lot of people. There's too much vision in the world now that people can see what they like. If you're a broker living at home, you can see how a millionaire's lifestyle, because it's all pushed over the internet so you can watch that and you can kind of live in that and you're like I want that, you want that, but you don't understand all the bullshit that you had to do to get there Right. But you, you get psyched into believing that you can have it. You can. That's the reality, but most people aren't willing to do shit. So it's a big, big issue that we have.

Luke Barnatt:

And, like you said, I can speak from a place of authority because of what I have done. So I spent 18 years of my life cage fighting and I lived on the floor for two and a half years to get to the stage where I was okay at it. You know what I mean. And so, after two and a half years of sleeping on the floor and training fucking eight hours a day, I was okay at fighting. I wasn't good, you know, and then I had to become good and then I had to travel and then. So after all that time I then was a coach for 10 years, studied coaching, had to go do um courses and whatever else in sweden trained, learn how to try. Then I had a gym and I coached people, coach classes, one-on-one forever.

Luke Barnatt:

Now I'm going into the online coaching space, but I've got 20 years of experience in dealing with people and I think that's. Yeah, you might know how to do a bicep curl and what muscles it engages and blah, blah, blah blah. But it's dealing with different character traits, dealing with different people, dealing with different individuals, dealing with different situations. Da, da, da, da da. That you learn through coaching. That is the real value. You know what I mean. And so that 20 years of me. I started coaching MMA two years into my MMA journey because I understood the power of coaching. So I was two years in. I was living in the gym. I used to get paid money by the gym to teach the beginners classes. I used to teach beginners classes how to do a triangle, how to do an armbar, how to take mount. You know an eight-week course on doing mma and it made me a better fighter because they would ask questions and I'd be like um, you think about it, fighting, attack.

Luke Barnatt:

I'll tell you tomorrow yeah, because I do not know yeah, that that was how I got better and better, and better best way to learn is teach. Yeah, 100% and you get so much out of it.

Darren Lee:

Yeah, we hear the concept of scars versus wounds, so most young guys are selling their wounds. If you put your hand in the fire, you're like, oh, that's hot, and then they'll start teaching people to not put your hand in the fire. But your scar is you've spent 10 fucking that. You know how to navigate the fire, you know like there's like an art and a mastery to it and that's a big difference. I see, I see a lot of young guys selling their basic as wounds just a cut and even guys that I've interacted with, the way that we like in a run content and run businesses and stuff, we call it the ecosystem.

Darren Lee:

It's like. It's like a term that we like made like. I literally fucking made it, dude and we made like a few years ago too, and I met a guy recently at an event and I was helping him and so on before and he kind of had a few things going and so on and I was like, oh, it kind of fits into this next thing I see on his instagram bio like learn how to build an ecosystem, and my, my team member sent it to me and we were like, yeah, man, he's selling his wounds, right. It's just like he didn't spend the fucking years chewing the glass and it's interesting, right? I think people realize that when they go to buy, maybe sometimes, sometimes I think like that's, that's where people get burned and so on, when it illustrates a bad name. But uh, I like to look at a true dot lens, like who has the scars?

Luke Barnatt:

you know who you learn from right well, I see that in a whole different spectrum but, but I see that in fighting so much, when I see personal trainers and I see people holding pads, and I see it's like that depth of knowledge is not there, you know, and I think for me it's so easy to see.

Luke Barnatt:

I can see, I can just sense it when I meet somebody. I don't know how to explain it, but teaching someone how to fight is so much more than teaching the actions of how to fight. The how to throw a punch is not what you need to learn. You need to learn how to control your mind, control your body, control your energy, control your spirit, and that is glazed over a mist, because they've never had to do that, because they're selling their wounds. I really, really like that. I never thought of it like that way, but I've seen it so much now. Um, and they just become little robots that can do the same motions over and over again, but they don't have any depth to them and I think that's where we're living in now.

Luke Barnatt:

There's no depth to people and I think that's going to be the difference, especially with ai, and how it's taking over and how there's going to be people teaching people how to do things that they're not even real. They're AI teaching you how to do something or selling you something because they've been trained.

Luke Barnatt:

That's going to be the differentiating factor is people that are real and have that depth to them, compared to those that are just literally completely generated. Right now we're living in like AI generated world, but through people that are speaking their wounds, if you want to call it that. So they have everything on the surface and they'll tell you the right thing, and people are buying that thing. Soon, we're going to have them telling you the right thing, buying from a completely AI generated person, and it's going to be the same. Well, the difference is accountability.

Darren Lee:

That's it, right, it's accountability. It's a feedback loop. It's actually being able to to spot something and say, yes, I'll give a really good example. Uh, trading trading is a very good example. So there's principles and there's practices, but the most experienced traders will break their pattern every once in a while because they'll spot something, an opportunity, like, oh yeah, and I did it that way. And then the younger is like, oh, my god, you broke your pattern. It's like, no, no, there's an opportunity here, there's a unique, there's an edge here.

Darren Lee:

You probably see this in fighting right, some guy's fucking nose breaks. That's like an advantage, whatever, and I think that's that's the thing. It's like putting your finger in there. So you know, rick rubin, rick rubin, rick rubin like I think he created, uh, he created r&b and rap and he created the industry. But he's like a 30, 40 years in music, one of the most well-known uh songwriter, producer in our world. His whole thing is like coming in and looking at the whole fucked up whole scenario and knowing where to put his little touch. You know, and that's the 40, 50 years that he there's actually another story I'll tell you. Uh, you ever heard a story with um the x in the warehouse. You'll love this. So it's such a fable, but it's a fucking great story. So it's like the 90s, early 2000s.

Darren Lee:

Uh, there's a factory and it's bleeding money and it's losing fifty thousand dollars or a hundred thousand dollars a month. And they're losing money, right. And they hired this consultant and this guy. They ring up and he goes yeah, I'll be. And he's walking around a factory floor and they think, oh, it could be this issue with that pipe and this issue. And he's like, no, it's not that. And then he looks at some like massive container and he goes over and he puts an X there and he goes change that and you'll fix all your issues. So they say, okay, thank you. And he said I'll send you.

Darren Lee:

The invoice arrives in the manager's desk and it says fifty thousand dollars. And the guy shits his pants and he rings him. He says what the fuck is up with this fifty thousand dollars? He said it was one dollar for the x. Forty nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine for knowing where to put it. And that's the game, right? It's knowing where to put the fucking x. And there's not enough guys doing that. And you you said it perfectly earlier, which was you said indirectly andrew has a coach. Andrew's been kickboxing his entire fucking life but he still has someone teaching him how to do it, and the worst trait you can be an entire world is be uncoachable yeah, I think not asking questions and not not trying to improve and thinking you know everything, you know and that's.

Luke Barnatt:

We see that more and more and more and it comes from those people. The reason that they feel like they know everything is because they don't know how much there is to learn. You know, like they, they only see certain parts of it because they're like again I'm gonna go back to that wounds thing they're just teaching their wounds because they haven't got the depth, because they've never been there. So it's like that. I talk about energy and fighting and I talk about how you know a fight is is basically a fight over energy, and most people, like what you've been talking about, like if I do this, this and this, I'm gonna. It's like you don't understand when you get to the higher levels. Everyone knows everything, everyone's good at everything, everyone's in shape, everyone's got great cardio, everyone knows how to throw every punch, every kick, every submission, every take. That they know everything.

Luke Barnatt:

It comes down to energy. Like john jones is the best in the world because of his energy, not because of his technique, not because of his athleticism, not because of any of that crap, and that energy becomes from self-belief and becomes from your foundations. It comes down from you believing you're the most dangerous man alive. That's it. That's all it comes down to, and people can talk about it or whatever.

Luke Barnatt:

But when you watch a and you look at it from an energy perspective, an output perspective and trying to break the other person's soul which is what you're trying to do when you fight you see it differently, and that's why some people can beat other people that are less technical, that can beat other people that are not as good. Whatever it comes down to how much they want it, right, people understand it. When you split it that way, how much you want it compared to how much you don't. I against people way, way, way worse than me because all they did was want it and I was above it because my career was coming to an end. You see that when people like yeah, they talk about how the.

Luke Barnatt:

The young lion eats the old lion.

Darren Lee:

It's because they don't want it anymore or like when their jaw goes yeah, but that's belief, though, right, because they believe that, yeah, yeah listen, bro.

Luke Barnatt:

My jaw went because I believed I was the most deadly man alive for the most the beginning of my career. Even if it was bullshit, even if it doesn't, it's not real, I still believed it. And then, as soon as I didn't believe it, I got knocked out straight away. You know, I've seen people be hit, kicked in there like like the most ridiculous spinning heel kick to the jaw and he's like nice took it. I have hit people with everything in my like whole aura and they just take it because they believe they're indestructible there's so much to it you need to be completely artistically delusional yeah, delusion is perfect at all

Luke Barnatt:

times with everything, with everything you're trying to achieve. So fighting is a is a delusional sport, like, if you want to be the best, you have to be delusional. You cannot be like, yeah, I knew this and I knew. No, you are delusionally, believe you're unstoppable, which is not true. Um, and it's the same with business, the same with life, same with anything. If you want to achieve this, it has to be. That's why you say everyone says, make your goals bigger. Yeah, because it needs to be, um, delusional, completely delusional, but you have to believe it.

Darren Lee:

That's the thing that's different you know the the bell curve. You know the bell curve meme where it's on the left hand side, the right hand side, the sage and the dumbass and then the guy in the middle. It's all complicated like you need to be on, like. I think that's why when you start and you're completely just a dumbass and you guys like if you looked at you lying on the couch or lying on the floor, sleeping on the floor, anyone with a brain would say that's illogical. But that illogical behavior created this asymmetrical return. Right, and so funny.

Darren Lee:

Last week we just we doubled our sales team. We now have six Six is quite a big for sales team. And today we just had a lot of guys joined and it was one of the first meetings and the guy was like you know, in like a month, like how, how many? How many calls should we be taking a month? There's two of them Approximately. And I, how many, how many calls should we be taking a month? There's two of them, uh, approximately.

Darren Lee:

And I was like well, we want to get to here, this is where we want to get to, and we'll need to take around three to five hundred. When we're here and the guy like loses his fucking mind and I'm like I need to have that belief and I truly fucking believe I can get there, by the way, and I need to have that belief. And then he's like shocked because he's like he thought I was gonna say I'll be five one week and then five next week and I was like, well, if there's 50 over here, 500 over here, we'll actually need eight more of you. So, yeah, we're on this trajectory. That's 2026, but that's where we want to get to, and I think let's like.

Darren Lee:

And then his, their feedback was like like the energy is fucking strong and I think it's just delusion and it's not like arbitrary, because like, there's obviously a fucking strategy in place. Right, I'm not like actually, I'm not actually insane. There's a difference there. Right, there actually is a strategy behind that. But I think just having this really wild effect is it's also infectious. Right, I went into a gym, funny enough, a good guy for you to meet.

Luke Barnatt:

He's not here anymore one of my friends is a hypnotist, and hypnosis is huge for firefighters, right?

Darren Lee:

yeah, it was for a while. Yeah, it still is.

Luke Barnatt:

But at the end of the day.

Darren Lee:

It's belief, yeah right, and like whether you see that the term has negative connotations, but the fucking belief. And uh, guy's a small guy, he's a pretty, pretty skinny guy and we're in the gym together doing like four plates, five plates, and he's working with like a lot of entrepreneurs and uh and athletes, and I think the whole logic is it's just belief. Whether you believe it or not, you just gotta believe you can do it. And he hypnosis is interesting because it's like a thing that's in that that they can point that you know you can point to them. Be like that's the thing that got you there, whether whether you believe it or not. But I'm pretty sure, like Ali did a lot of hypnosis and Tyson Probably.

Darren Lee:

But you know Tyson's upbringing, right? No, no, no. So Tyson's coach was. At least can you look up Mike Tyson's coach. Oh, um the white guy.

Luke Barnatt:

Yeah, I can't remember his name.

Darren Lee:

Yeah, whatever his name is, I remember his name straight away, but he took him in at 12, 13 years old and Tyson's upbringing was super, super bad, but they hypnotized him oh, okay and they gave him the belief that he was an animal and every single time they would sit down with him and he would go through like his background, his coach at least what's his name, if you pull it up.

Darren Lee:

Freddie Grimm no.

Darren Lee:

Freddie yeah, but his background was in hypnosis.

Darren Lee:

Ah, okay yeah, it wasn't a box.

Darren Lee:

You mean, yeah, it wasn't in boxing, yeah and uh they believed that he was an animal and he went through that process over and over again on costumado, costumado uh, until he died. Yeah, and then when he died, he started losing. Um, they didn't have a way to tame him. Yeah, so he was in the trance and then he never got out of it. Yeah, so I.

Luke Barnatt:

I didn't know the hypnosis thing. Obviously I know about custom art, but it's uh, I mean, a trance is just a, a state, right? So it's like if you, if you're hypnotizing yourself, you're just putting yourself in a different state. You want to call it a flow state, you want to call it whatever an amnestic state, whatever it is. So this is something that every fighter does pretty much. You all have a state that you go into into a fight. So it's a very, very common thing.

Luke Barnatt:

People just don't talk about it a lot, but that's why I believe so heavily in affirmations and in belief. So it's like if you say something over and over again and you truly start believing in it, you're more likely for it to happen. It's like basic right, but most people won't believe in affirmations and won't believe in saying words out loud and not understanding that. You know they call it. Everyone talks about words and how they call it spelling, because you're casting spells.

Luke Barnatt:

Everything that you say and you put into the universe is something that you are putting yourself into a certain trance. So when you use affirmations and you say them, like I used to do it before training, for every training session I would say certain things and that would put me into a certain trance or a certain flow state or whatever. To then go into that training session and I. The problem is people don't. People think about it in combat. They think about it in the fight. So they'll do it, but you fight every three months. So how do you get good at putting yourself into a stance, it's like into a place like tyson I didn't know about tyson.

Darren Lee:

He did every day.

Luke Barnatt:

I'm sure he did every day before every training session, before every night, for every morning. So that's how you can train your brain, or train your mind to become delusional, which is what it is it's delusion. But if it's delusion that's self-serving. Who cares exactly? So I have such a belief in it was actually an american guy that gave me the belief in affirmations I went to uh, what's the place where all the mormons are? Uh, utah, salt lake city she's like fucking uh.

Darren Lee:

She's like uh, rogan, joe rogan's going to back utah.

Luke Barnatt:

I was in salt lake city with a salesman. He was at worked in property and he used to make his staff every morning do affirmations. And I was like a young guy I was fine, but I was young and I was like what is this? This is like voodoo, like I'd go to his uh office and get everyone standing in a circle and say these affirmations.

Luke Barnatt:

I used to used to think it was ridiculous, and I mean ridiculous, very Americanized, very ridiculous. And I was like why do you get them to do that? He goes, I put them in the right state before work. They go out and they do sales and da, da, da, da. I was like okay, okay. And then I saw a sports psychologist for a little while and we spoke about it and I went through this whole system and then I started doing affirmations myself and I would just see it's like when you put yourself in a certain state and you say certain things I don't know, you'll maybe know, because I don't remember these things but you then they say like what's the whole red car thing?

Luke Barnatt:

If you talk about red cars, then you start noticing red cars everywhere. It's like if you start saying certain phrases every single day to put yourself into a certain state of mind, every single day you start noticing opportunity rather than noticing problems.

Darren Lee:

That's how I got this watch, okay. So all I wanted was like a yellow gold Rolex, and it's super hard to get and I live in Asia. There's no supply, there's no fucking supply. And all I wanted was that.

Darren Lee:

And I was on like four different wait lists in jakarta, singapore and bangkok and all I fucking wanted and I waited a long time, dude, and I wasn't just in the moment my first 10k. And then I came to london and I was like I fucking need. I did. I said it's the only thing I want, and I've had options to get other ones that are way better and everything. And then I walked into a place in soho and then I literally saw it right there and then I was like I don't give a fuck how much it is, that's the one. And then it turned out to have like a lot of history with it and all this kind of shit, and I was like I don't give a fuck, it was this, it was that, it's that thing and it just becomes true, it becomes your world. You know what I mean and you need to, you need to do that right. Whether it's materialistic, not materialistic, it doesn't fucking matter, it's just that belief it's.

Luke Barnatt:

it's understanding what you want, identifying what it is and then and then making things happen so that it happens for you, right? So I I think that's training the mind, and getting good at training the mind is a skill set that people completely underestimate, and they call it woo woo. You used the phrase woo outside, which made me laugh because I use that phrase as well but they talk about it being woo woo, and it's the complete opposite. You are told that to put you away from it, to get you away from it, to get you away from it. Everything about vibration, about energy, about thought patterns, frequency, it's everything.

Darren Lee:

It's everything in the world and everything in life, and I think when people accept that it, starts them on this journey of understanding and then you can know where your energy is best placed and whose energy is best placed for what role Editing, design, sales marketing you can placed and whose energy is best placed for what role editing, design, sales marketing. You can see where you're best positioned, right and like I'm best positioned, like, in these settings, in person, in events, running events, I'm not best positioned fucking editing my reels like I'm just not right. And obviously there's a level of awareness that comes up from here. Um, and I'll finish up at this point, but you mentioned with the salt lake city people. We do the same with our sales team, which is what's our intentions. So we do intentions on a Monday and then on Friday we review the intentions based off of what it is and we see the gaps. So there's a bit of logic right.

Darren Lee:

So it's like how much you want to sell, how much contacts you need to hit a day a week, and it's. The culture increases, and then the quality of the culture is improved. Everyone feels like they're learning. Yes, they're making money, but they're learning and they're learning from you. So I want to say a massive thank you. You're a fucking legend. I feel like we could rip from a couple of hours, but I really appreciate this, especially. I'm leaving tomorrow and you're a gentleman thank you very much.

Luke Barnatt:

That's awesome, bro cheers.