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For one lucky new member, we are giving away three one-on-one personal training sessions with me, Jane, your host, as well as another month of group training for a friend of yours to join in your very own revolution. Come and experience training in the amazing community and specialized targeted classes that have inspired the Your Revolution podcast. I look forward to meeting you soon. I’m just so excited to bring you episode 61 of the Euroevolution podcast. This week’s episode features Hayden Quinn. And what drew me to Hayden was his energy and his zest for life.

He’s passionate, excited, and he’s one of those people that we can all learn something from. I actually came across Hayden a few years ago when I was setting up my gym and I found his gym on YouTube. His gym’s called the cube and it’s in Manly, well Brookvale in Sydney. And I absolutely loved the training style. I loved the energy that came from their gym. I loved their community. And I really loved how the entire operation was set up. And what I learned when I started to follow the cube was that a whole bunch of guys had actually created it and started it.

And Hayden was one of them. And when I looked into who Hayden actually was, I realized that he’d been on MasterChef a few years earlier. And since then, since being on MasterChef, he’d gone on to write books. He’d created TV shows. He had actually even won the Cleobatula of the Year. And he’s definitely one of to to life is balanced and while he’s really into health and fitness he realizes that life is really here to be enjoyed as well. The other thing that really drew me to Hayden was that MasterChef was just the first step and while it was the initial vehicle he needed what he’s gone on to achieve since then has far and away surpassed the opportunity that MasterChef presented.

It really got me thinking about our attitude to fame and success. We think that once we’re there, once we get the chance, then everything will be as we want and life will be perfect. But often that’s just the first bit. And once you get success, you’ve got a whole new challenge to sustain it. Hayden isn’t a success today because of MasterChef. Hayden is a success because he chooses to be every day. He works and sometimes he even struggles, but none of it has been handed to him and it’s his attitude and work ethic that keeps him climbing.

What I want for this podcast today is for you to realise that his story isn’t a fairytale of luck, but it’s a story showing us that we can do anything we want. We don’t need to wait for perfect conditions to start, we just have to start. And once we start, that’s when the magic really begins. The process of our life is our life, and the longer you put everything on hold because the conditions aren’t perfect the further away your life gets. So with that being said I hope you enjoy today’s episode with Hayden as much podcast.

My name’s Jane O’Backe and I’m your host. I’m so excited. I’m so, so, actually, so, so, so, so excited because I’m sitting here with Hayden Quinn. Hi Hayden. Hey guys, hello Jane. Hi. I’m really excited. I’m up in Manly. I think I’ve said I’m excited now four times. I’ve been following you Hayden for many, many years and I think you’re amazing and I’m really excited because not only am I actually meeting you now but I get to find out all your secrets. – Yeah. – Pretty much how you become who you are. And I’m really excited for that because there is so much to you and it’s not just MasterChef and something that really has drawn me to you is that you kind of MasterChef was kind of your intro to everybody but what you’ve done since then is pretty incredible.

Definitely. MasterChef was the explosion and I think it was just the launchpad for me to be able to do all the things that I’ve always wanted to do. Yeah, it was. And it just provided like MasterChef was an incredible opportunity. And you know, for me food is probably like my number one thing. And then that just was a chance for me to explore a world that I really loved and learn. It was a learning adventure. And that’s what to me it wasn’t an adventure I went on there because I wanted to have fun I wanted to meet some new people and just get amongst it a lot of people going those reality shows for completely different reasons you know they want to be on a TV they want to have the five seconds of fame or they’re escaping a job they hate or they’re trying to lose weight or whatever it was I I just went on there just to have an incredible time and make the most of it.

And that’s what sort of happened. And then that opened all the doors. Opening doors, it doesn’t just open. You’ve got to work hard to open doors. So that opened a lot of doors and allowed me to enable me to do a lot of incredible things, which is cool. – I think you’ve actually just used that term, opening doors as well, because that’s why I want to to talk to you because I think that we are under this impression that you just need to open doors and then the work is done but I think what you’ve done through opening doors is you maintain them being open but you’ve created more opportunities and I think that while MasterChef was your initial vehicle to do that, you’ve been a driver, isn’t it?

You’ve done that, you’ve taken it from strength to strength and something that I really focus on with this podcast, so that your evolution podcast, the whole idea is to it’s by changing people and so every week it’s either somebody who is creating an extraordinary life for themselves or it’s me just talking to myself about those kinds of things and I think that you fit perfectly into this because you’re only in 29? 30 now. 30? Yeah. I feel like I’m still 21. But yeah, I’m 30 now. Yeah. And you’ve done so much stuff.

And I think that there’s so much to learn from somebody like you. And so I’m really, really excited to be talking to you. And I really want to know if you’re a person who’s a person who’s a person and has he changed that much? I’ve definitely changed a lot. Me as a person like the Hayden Quinn who you see on the television is the same bike you saw when I was life guarding on the beach for nine years and the same guy that was at university studying marine biology. So yeah, for me, I was I think the Hayden Queen now is a lot more stressed, a lot more anxious, a lot more like under the pump as compared to the Hayden Queen eight years ago that was working for a limited council, beach services leader, had a great job, spent like two days in the office, three days on the beach, had a car, all that good stuff, you know, and it was sitting pretty and everything was amazing.

Little bit of stress there, but you know, the Haynquim now has a lot more, I think, when you start achieving goals, you start putting more pressure on yourself to go bigger and better and try and get through that glass ceiling. And yeah, now I’ve had to learn very quickly over, I say very quickly, but it’s probably taking me, and I’m still learning, like the seven years to really understand the stress and the pressure that you get put on by yourself. And it’s not, it’s going to be done to anyone else, but like expectations of, I should be doing this, you know know my TV show should have a second series, you know, I should have a second cookbook I should be doing you know, we should open another gym Let it in the one they will should be in China in the US and should be selling this and it like there’s all these things in itself talk But the hate cream before that was like relax and chill and like sitting back I’m still definitely that person and I’m that person when I’m in the moment and I’m doing something a lot of whether it be cooking, training, running, riding, outside with friends, with family and that’s for me the driver is that getting back to who I am and that that’s what people love and that’s what people feel in love with and that’s who I love about myself and it it’s getting away from this, wearing my little office studio space at the moment.

It’s getting away from this and emails and getting back into that stuff that I love. But yeah. – That’s awesome. And so do you think that you were this driven then? – Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I was definitely always a very driven person. So I’ve been a Finnish high schooler till the year off. I’ve life-guarded over in the US over the US made some amazing friends have been back to the US since every year since 2005 to visit and then after that sort of gap year the classic Aussie gap year yeah for you gap year for you good first time I was a sister she’s had of Science in marine biology.

And I remember there was a point in that degree where I was studying chemistry or mathematics or something or statistics or something that is not me. That’s not my world. But, and I was like, I came home, I I lost it like I still living with mum and dad I’m like, no, I can’t do this. I’m doing it like full breakdown Dad I need to do a print is a carpenter. I’m gonna do an apprenticeship with you I’m sucking off this university stuff now and I’m a dad like you know, I talk me through it I talk myself through it. I was like I’m gonna do it and he get through it.

Please get degrees. I passed my chemistry exam and I got through and I ended up graduating with the distinction average. So yeah, it was one of those things I’ve always been very driven. I’ve always wanted to succeed and not succeed because like back then I was doing this science degree in marine biology and I was like, I’t know what the fuck I’m gonna do with this I just love the ocean yeah yeah exactly that’s okay that’s what I didn’t know anything about marine biology to George told me yeah yeah so I I was like I don’t know what sort of job I’m gonna get I just ocean.

I’m interested by it. I can get into the course and who knows what’s gonna happen. And I did that. And there was a number of opportunities come off the back of that with masters and PhDs and all sorts of stuff. And I was like, no, travel, lifeguard. And sort of then just did that for about five years and up finishing up as the beach service to section leader with Ringy Council which was amazing. Beautiful part of the world where we live right here. We’re in, it’s weird, it’s all changed hands now but you’re in Northern Beaches Council but Ringa Council is from Freshwater Beach to North Narabang.

So we had a very nice stretch of beaches there and did that and then the MasterChef opportunity came up and you know, even life-guarding, life-guarding is one of those jobs where you can, it’s great because you work seven months and you travel five months. But it’s sort of, there’s a lot of people that go, “When are you gonna get a real job? When are you gonna get a real job? It’s like, and I get paid to look after people, make sure people are safe, sit in the sun, be outside all day and I travel five months a year.

It’s pretty real. – What’s after? – It’s the definition of this real job. Is it, is a real job, does it have to be something you hate? Is it what a real job is? – Yeah, I think that’s what people think. So I’ve always been searching this real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job.

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I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had a real job.

I’ve never had a real job, I just came from a shoot now and I was with Andy Allen, who’s Master Chef as well. And he’s like, ’cause he’s run the partners in Three Blue Ducks now. And they’re in at Rosebury. ” So it’s still not a real job. – Yeah. – Yeah, it’s interesting. So I did that, and even that and even through the life-guarding process, there is a bit of a level where you can hit and there’s not much options after that. So I sort of got to the point where I was one of the supervisors and that was sort of where we were at.

And then MasterChef then came on and I took six weeks leave thinking I will have a crack and it’ll be all over. But being a competitive little bastard and someone that likes to learn and is interested and wants to get in there and give it 100% goes on for another three months after you finish filming. So you sort of don’t see the start of it and then you see the end of it and then all the different things start happening. But basically I just worked my ass off and did as much as I could in the world of food and lifestyle and whatnot and tried to be myself myself at the same time I was still life-guarding because I didn’t have any money because I Didn’t work for six months.

I was in the master chef house for six months So I was still life-guarding still trying to do as much as I could to pay the bills and keep rolling just the old bubble you didn’t know when it was gonna burst or if there’s gonna be an opportunity and yeah heaps of different opportunities came a lot more than what people see or hear of or know of like there’s so many things I think one thing I always tell people is that for what I’ve done it’s more about it’s not about the things you say yes to it’s about the things you say no to that define who you are as a person I could have KFC come to me and say I hate and here use a million bucks we want you to create a new burger, a zinger burger.

And you could be like yes sweet thanks for the million I’m gonna go put a house deposit on but that’s it and you just you know you lose your heart. But yeah so that’s not my that’s not my role but the thing for me is just the passion and sharing food and traveling lifestyle and just a little bit of me I guess that’s always what I’ve done is yeah. It’s really funny because that’s exactly what everything that you’ve said is exactly what drew me to you and that you’re so yourself and that’s what people like. They want to see somebody who is that and even just sitting here and talking about it’s so casual and it’s so good and what I like what you’ve said there is that you’re not going to say yes to something that goes against your core values simply and you’re aligned with that and it would be would it be so much easier for you to actually do that?

Yeah, like because you’re exactly right you’re in this stress kind of bubble of what if I don’t say yes to this? Yeah, everything’s going to go away and I think that we everybody is so willing to settle for something that goes against what the core is, just to survive, basically they think. And if they say no, then everybody’s going to leave them alone and forget about them. And you’re a really great example of that not being the case. So I want to know something I like to ask people a lot. What do you feel? I will get onto your gym in a second, second by the way.

– Yeah, that’s all right. That’s a whole nother beast. – And that’s a good team. – That’s a whole nother beast. – But I wanna know what the non-negotiables are with your life. What are your core values that you want, you know, sacrifice? – Gosh, that’s a tricky, well it’s not tricky, but it is tricky. For me, well number one is, and these are things that I have sacrificed to learn that I need to not sacrifice them. I think that’s the only way you figure it out. For me, the main one would be family and friends. And when you travel a lot like I do and you spend a lot of time away and a lot of time with other people and a lot of times talking all day is valuing the time then when you get home to actually engage with the people that really love you instead of sitting down and talking crap to God knows whom for how long but yeah family and friends is like probably top of the list selfishly and super important for me is health and wellbeing.

If I don’t do exercise or don’t get outside every day, I’m pretty angry, not angry, but I’m like a pretty, not cool. – Very nice though. – Yeah, it’s like, I know that angry sort of thing, so that’s very much a big thing. Nature’s a big thing for me, like getting outside in nature. That’s why we have the plants in here. – I love it. more plants? It’s good. It’s very very bright. Yeah. Even better when the karaoke man started. I wasn’t a 14 year old boy was it with a burning box? No, it’s um, but so are you actually used to have I don’t know where it’s gone.

It was classes up must have cleaned there was a next to my desk next to my laptop I have a sheet of paper and it just had values and it just every time an email comes in or a quest comes in or a job comes in Like if it doesn’t tick off those things or if I can’t put those things first, then it’s just like non-negotiable, really easy. But yeah, for me, family, nature, nature, friends, health and wellbeing is like, that’s what I value most in life, I think. And obviously, health and wellbeing comes under the whole food thing.

Like it was so funny though, yes I say that and then literally before I got heat I told you I was rushing around. My girlfriend says to me that’s the most Aussie snack I’ve ever seen anyone eat. I’m at home like shoving into my mouth, veg my toast with a milk and milo. – It’s so good, it’s so funny. I wish you a few of you. – My two favorite things. So I was like, I’m gonna eat, I’m starving. – Yes, that’s the best. – I think the value one’s always hard, but it’s sometimes hard to just explain it. I know exactly what it is, but I don’t know exactly how to say it.

– And that the other thing especially for me from brand point of view Aaron and I Aaron who works for me We have a two different documents one which is like a brand identity document Which is nearly 30 pages long which is who is Hayden Quinn and what is the Hayden Quinn brand and it’s like We can give that to a client or we can when we have a new client come in We can there’s like a checklist that we can look through and make sure that it fits with who we are. And I think for brands and for branding and people in business, that sort of stuff is so important because, yeah, you need to have that outline of just who you are.

– Yeah. – ‘Cause, and they, I update it all the time. Every time I send it out to someone, it gets updated and changed, just things change but Yeah, you learn more about yourself and you are like what you said about how your values are always created out of Sacrificing them like is it realizing that you didn’t want to discuss them? Yeah, well, you know, I’ve you know relationships that have broken up like missing friends and family missing birthdays missing births missing, you know these things because some of the things, the reasons for missing certain things are not negotiable, like you have to be where you’ve got to be, but like the breaking down of communication with loved ones and friends and family, like that’s not on, like you need to be able to do that.

And that’s always been the hardest one with me because a lot of what I do is like talking to people all day, especially if you’re filming something or doing some television or whatever, it’s like high energy like. And then you go home, all you want to do is just like sit down and shut up. Don’t talk to me. Don’t talk to me. But the other person has just been at work all day or done something and what you’re doing. and they’re like, “How’s your day? ” – Yeah. – But, um, yeah. – And it’s really interesting because I was talking to my sister last night about, and I can say this because my brother doesn’t listen to the podcast, John.

I wish you this just never. But we have been talking about how much we want him to start exercising. – Yeah. – And his reason for not exercising is because he’s too busy. So he’s a lawyer. He’s too busy. And I was like cracking. I never get the too busy thing. No offense. No, don’t worry. I like pasta because I was like, no, it’s about priority. And talking to somebody like you who is actually, if you wanted to articulate with that life too busy, for many things, it comes back to what your priorities are and the intentions you have with your life.

And it also comes back to the understanding that you’re not as good at being paid with when you don’t have those non-aggressions taken care of. – Yeah, exactly. – And I think a lot of people don’t realize that they’re not being the best, sorry to be so open, but the best version of themself by ignoring these really important parts of their life. – 100%. – So let’s talk about your training. You own a gym, you have some, some others. Yeah so me, Sam and Lewis, Sammy Wits and Lewis Mcrein we have awesome space in Brookvale in Sydney.

I have been fan of the Cube. Have you been there yet since you’ve been here? Oh no you came up. Yeah yeah yeah. I’ve just never been there when you’re there. I’ve been to just like bump then I realized, okay, I’m going to have to actually send the awkward Instagram message to my friend. Yeah, no, it’s all good. But I actually came across the cube when I was opening my gym, which was 2014. And you guys did a video. Because how long have you been open? So our stories are pretty weird because we started in a backyard.

Yes. So we started in a backyard probably in 2000 and I’d say 2011 2012 and it was Lewis who’s a general manager and big dog down the gym and runs everything. His, him, mullet, gold, link, daily and Shano had a shit. Just to be Australian. They had like a share house in Colorado with a really big backyard and boys had always kept fit. You know, we all played footy together. We all went to school together. We’ve known each other since we were seven years old for some of us longer. And we just set up this thing in the backyard with like Roman rings and chin up bars and parallets and two different lifting platforms and a garage with weights and and from there we you know we had a good crew you know every afternoon, Lewis had right a session on board and we’d go through it we do strength and we do our conditioning stuff and Just slowly more and more people turn you up and then be like 12 to 15 guys in the backyard.

And from there it gets started this time of year. So we’re doing this now. It’s sort of what are we, end of April, come into May, we get into June, July, it starts getting cold, it starts getting muddy, people drop off and go to their other gyms and do their stuff. we thought one year we were like screw this there’s 10 blokes here you know sometimes 15 if we can get each of them to pay 40 bucks a week towards a $400 rent then we’ve got the equipment we can just get in there we’ll have to invest some money of our own but we’ll be able to cover the rent just with the boys like the boys will just be able to cover the rent and we’ll go for it.

So that’s basically what we did. We just sat down, Sam, Lewis and myself and put a bit of a plan together with one of the other boys who’s like business minded. – Yeah. – And said, “How much money do we need? ” What does it look like? And we just went for it. And it could have shattered itself. – Yeah. – But the reason it didn’t was because of the mentality and the love behind it. Yeah, it was community. It was a group of people doing something they love and people talked about it and people did it and just brought more and more people in.

And we grew very quickly from like, you know, our solid 10 members to 40 members to 80 members and we were out surpassing our goals and targets. And we got too big for our space and then we moved sort of a year and a year and a half into our first location. We moved into a new location and just February just gone was three years. We’ve been open as the actual business. – That’s awesome. – Which is really cool, yeah.. So cool. Yeah. Because I remember this video you guys put on, it must have been on YouTube of you like creating this space and doing your painting.

Yeah. Yeah. Construction work. And I watched it and I was like, I want to look like that. We are modeling our gym on your gym. Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s what opened me up to you. And I was like, I followed you guys so religiously because I liked that I could feel the energy from you just by not even being there. Yeah. And I think that that’s something I was really thinking about last night. I went into the class at Crew Grow Studio in the city. And I thought about, because I try to train everywhere because I love fitness.

I love fitness people and I love the energy and I love all that kind of stuff. And it was so interesting because it reminded me of what I’m drawn to fitness. Is it the most amazing program? Is it the most amazing space? Or is it the people in the coaching? And I think that there’s so much focus these days in the fitness industry on superficiality and things looking good but not having any substance and everybody just kind of copying each other rather than just going exactly what you just said. There’s 10 guys we all believe in it.

We’re passionate about it. And that’s why it’s been a success. And from that you then have created the most beautiful space and the best programs but the foundation actually was you guys and what you thought about it. Yeah exactly. And that’s why it’s accessible. Yeah. So it’s awesome. And I think yeah that is we can attribute our success to basically the gym as it is today with 160, 70, whatever members massage physio, ex-physiology, all these little add-ons that make an incredible thing. It’s still the same as walking down the backyard.

Everyone’s still high fives each other. If someone new turns up, it’s like, “Oh, hi, how you going? I’m Hayden. ” And these guys have freaking, I can’t believe it. I don’t know what their girlfriends or their boyfriends think. They come, they’ll sit there for like an hour before the session, just hanging out to like, just get out of the way, even though it’s just somewhere else. And then hang out for half an hour after the session. And not because they’ve got nothing to do, just because they love it. – That’s what they want to meet.

– Yeah, and they come and they meet and they talk and you know, the gym has produced girlfriends, boyfriends, babies. Yeah, business connections, you know. Yeah, lifelong friends, new ideas, new initiatives. It’s like a little melting pot. It’s a community center. It’s not just like, it’s not a business. You know, there’s a lot of gyms you walk in there and it’s like, this is what we’re doing. You do this now and off you go and… And you’re done and you’re done. Like, and then… Some people like that, some people want to go in, they want to get thrashed, they don’t want to talk down and that’s perfectly fine.

But, you know, we’re very open and like, if you come and do your first session, everyone, you know, you get around the floor. It’s like, well done. Yeah. It’s James’ first session, awesome work. Ooh like come back. It’s not too like yeah Yeah I don’t want to feel invisible in this space. And that’s something that you guys do really well and I like that. And the whole thing of not having time, I think that you can only make time for something like that. Yeah, we sort of miss that thing. I totally get started because there’s a lot of busy people and I understand if you can’t, there’s times where I’m just like, I can’t physically do it.

One because I’m either too naffy or two. Like I can’t get up any earlier. But for me it’s like get up earlier, stay up later, you know? Or instead of just sitting at your computer when you have your lunch break watching YouTube, that doesn’t take long. Fucking get changed really quickly. Go for a run, do something, 20 minutes, come back, get changed really quickly, eat that shit at your desk, whatever you’re eating, and then you you’re done like it’s so true and I agree with that. It’s that simple. Yeah it’s gonna make you a better lawyer, a better personal trainer, a better businessman, a better mom, a better dad, whatever.

Yeah agree 100% agree. I want to know what you struggle with, what do you find hard or how do you had any setbacks in this? Oh yeah, definitely. The biggest thing for me is failure. And like the thought of failure and of not being successful or not taking the boxes or not jumping over the bar that I’ve set for myself or the bar that I think everyone else has set for me and not getting over it. And pressure I put on myself and the big one for me has been anxiety and all those things that come with it and worry and stress.

I used to think stress was a made up word. I learned really quickly when you start having a few businesses and you want to make money and stress becomes a very real thing. the hardest thing for me has been managing my stress levels. When most people would see me as the most easy going relaxed doing in the world, but behind closed doors when we’re planning or when we’re organizing or when we’re meeting or we’ve got to move locations or we’ve just got to put down, you know, $20,000 worth of flooring and gym and it’s like where do we get the money from?

That means, you know, whatever or, you know, with the food stuff, it I’m That’s probably the hardest thing. Did you say that that fear of failure has stopped you? I just went for a surf and then you come back and you’re sort of like okay. I’m ready. And then the biggest thing for me is reflecting on past and past experiences where I’ve been in that zone where it’s like it’s not happening and this isn’t working. ” And it didn’t really matter. And I think it was similar to what Hamish was saying in his podcast. ” – Yeah, no, that’s okay.

I sent it to explicit now. – Okay. ” – Yeah, that’s fair a lot. – Yeah, I haven’t even noticed. – But it’s like, you look back and you’re like, I especially in the Hayden Quinn brand, it’s very much a wave-like setting where it’s opportunities come in, opportunities fall off, opportunities never even eventually, or they get to a point where it’s like, you’re 90% there and then they fall through. ” And that’s been the biggest thing. ” And it shouldn’t be. It’s just like, “Oh, that didn’t work. ” Next. What’s next? Next?

Next? Next? Next? But I think when you’re in this kind of world, because I’m not in the same world at all as you, but I understand the whole putting yourself out there, you know, next next next. but being hard on yourself and think it is failure. But what I think I admire about you is that it might have stopped you briefly, might have made you take a day off and go surfing, but it hasn’t stopped you like you’ve kept fighting and that’s the kind of thing that I don’t know if that can be learned. I don’t know if there’s somebody who can listen to this and learn that because that’s what I want.

That’s what I hope for people because I look at somebody like you and go, well I’ve always seen success. So I think that these failures that have come along are lessons. – Yeah, 100%. And like I, it’s an interesting, well there was something that popped up into my head but now it’s gone again. – I think we’re quite similar in terms of like jumping all over the place. – I think that’s a rather, I think you’re allowed to do that. But I’m like you, the one thing that I haven’t done it recently is I write a lot, I don’t have a pen and paper, I’ve got stacks of journals.

If you open a cupboard there, there’s literally stacks, stacks, stacks, of everything. Thoughts, jobs, work, everything all thrown into one. And I could go back and look at the date and tell you what I was doing and all that sort of stuff and I think that really helps not only with like For me like getting things done, but also the personal ones. It’s like today I was feeling terrible and we did this or today I went to Costa Rica and and it was amazing and I saw a monkey and whatever and that that was really a big thing for me in times where I like just need get things out, was just writing it down, just writing and just letting a creative process happen, whether some people might be painting or it might be this or that or running or whatever that is.

That was a big thing for me with just letting things flow. I agree, I mean, exactly the same. If I can do that then I’m like zen, why am I going to go with that? And it’s funny because I have one book basically that has everything in it. And it’s really interesting because I’m I I had everything like always in the front of them. I’m gonna to people like that’s a lot of power of creativity. Well, so I just pulled them all out. Yeah, this one 13 of the 10 2011 Aloha I’ve got no idea what any of this stuff is strawberry seafood sauce That’s something I want to ask you about with cooking.

Yeah, you always made a big book. Yeah, you know I grew up in a No, I wouldn’t call it a foodie family, but I grew up with a mom that if foodies were cool like they were today, she would have been a rock star. You know what I mean? Because there was no such thing as a foodie when my mom was doing food things, especially taught cooking, she taught a tave, she did cake decorating, she did all this cool stuff. So I learned from her and I’m a crazy curious sort of person and I’ve always been that way. And I remember just annoying annoying annoying mum, asking questions, sitting on the bench touching and doing this, doing that.

And basically just annoying the shit out of her. And she either let me do it or she told me the answer I was looking for. And Mum always tells a story about like this comes back to the curiosity. One day we were driving and I don’t know how old I was I was probably three or four or whatever whatever age you know when you’re just constantly asking questions. ” And he’s like, “Oh, it’s a road base. ” And I just kept going. He kept giving me the answers and just wanted to know what was under everything, like how it worked.

– Yes, totally. – And that’s sort of what I’ve been trying to figure out in my life. It’s just how things work and make things cool and interesting. – I love it. You’re like, “Exeter, I’m going before what happened before what happened before what happened before what happened today in power the words you’re fully gonna sit here and pray for one or two years ago this one’s a really good one 25th of the 4th 2012 to 31st of 7th 2012 I love it Delly oh my god you’ve been on so many of you getting to be just your God, you’ve been on so many videos.

– You’ve been home, India. – I’m just, I think it’s your biggest adventure you’ve been on. – Like what was the greatest adventure then? – Well, I think my first trip to the US was probably like the biggest step for me. And was one that cemented in my mind that travel and meeting new people was an incredible thing. So I was 18 years old, traveled to Long Beach Island, New Jersey with one of my best mates and two other Aussie guys that worked with us on the beach in Meringa. Met up with like five guys from Crunala who are still lifelong friends and we lived in this four bedroom house with eight of us and one American girl and just had the most incredible time.

Just Aussie lifeguards in a small sort of coastal islands in New Jersey and I’m one of my best buddies. All my best friends from the US are guys I met that year like one of them just had a baby I went to two weddings last year My other mate Chris and Harry I stayed with them every time I go to New York like That sort of set me up for travel and wanting to do cool things. I do like a lead in, “I’m going to Hong Kong in two weeks,” but I felt like it was like here, there, like it was just like immediately, you popped up.

– That was crazy. We did, like in the last year, we did 12 flights in two months, 12 international flights in two months. – Oh my god. – Yeah, it was just like, every day, just basically. – Yeah, so many. – Felt like every day was just go, go, go. It was through Asia, so it wasn’t long flights, but it was still like every day just basically felt like every day was just go go go it was through Asia so I wasn’t long flights but it was still like up to China down to Singapore Malaysia Singapore China Australia up back to you know so it’s pretty pretty busy but I really enjoy it for me that that’s what that’s who I was before I traveled a lot I learned I went you I went backpacks, written, like, wrote about it and, you know, that’s what gets me excited and us, what recharges me going away.

Like, next Monday or the first of May, I’m off to New Zealand to do like a 350 kilometer bike journey with my best buddy from, yeah, from Mount Cook to the coast. And that sort of thing is like my, like that’s what I love yeah yeah it’s gonna be freaking cold yeah it’s gonna be cold And you also can’t help but think, you know I’ve got to take a real opportunity stay in line with my attention so that’s the way you got exhausted last week. I want to know on like a daily basis or like a regular parents how do you cope with stress then?

Eating well not having Vegemite and Milo. Vegemite and Tocin and Milo’s probably not a good one. But yeah, definitely diet is a big one for me. Making sure that I’m putting good food in my body. Because I know when I start putting shit food in my body, my mood changes and it affects the people around me. And then exercise is a big one. And then just for me, I’m a very, I could go and sit on the beach for 10 hours and not move and not talk to anyone and be completely happy. So for me, having time on my own by myself in nature is very important.

I’ve never really done the meditation thing, but I guess doing that sort of is meditation anyway, because they say meditation is whatever you sort of make it, as long as you detach from the world or whatever. So yeah, that for me is food, exercise, and then just time alone, like solitude and reflection definitely helps. And then it used to be writing. I feel really bad because I haven’t written Phages, but I think it’s one of those things that you just do it when you’re When it’s right. Yeah, and that’s the interesting thing about something like that is you don’t see immediate value in it Now that you’ve realized how much you used to do you’re like I have to do that again.

Oh 100% this Yeah, there’s some books that I didn’t pull out on the bottom there that are from like 2010 I think that’s it’s like a long time ago. It’s probably a 2009 one in there as well. Yeah, it sort of tracks like travels and girlfriends and like, you know, all these little moments and a lot of quotes and stuff. But yeah, I think day to day, for me it’s drinking lots of water. That’s another one for me and then just making sure that the food intakes good The exercises there in some way shape or form and then just getting a little bit of time away and even if it’s for me like You know I walk because I live just up the road.

I just walk to work Walk to here to here when I come here and walk along the beach you’ll sit down there for a minute or whatever it is So just go for a swim in the morning that that’s like good enough Even if it’s just like a quick one. Yeah, but um, yeah sunshine And what advice would you give to you and you can answer this in whatever way you want you can answer it in this thing like advice you give to me. Sorry. I’m trying to think where I was. What 2010 or seven years ago was 23 or even along the road like at a time when you thought, oh, I could have done that better or something.

Well, I think it’s really interesting to think about what advice would you give to yourself right now if you were somebody else looking on. Yeah. I think all the big one and the obvious one for me is it’s all going to be okay. That’s the main one. That’s like the big thing for me is like no, it’s all going to be okay. And I could say that to myself through so many stages in my life that it’s so important. And that’s my girlfriend’s mom that’s her like Mantra and she says that to me every now all will be okay all will be okay all be okay and that’s where I’m very fortunate in that I have an incredible family I have incredible friend group and even I remind myself all the time even if everything fell apart like even if the gym we had to close the gym or you know, there was no more Hayden Quinn the food travel whatever personality there was no more Management coming there was no more wine company.

It was just all fell apart. It would still be okay Like because there’s still something to fall back on and I think that with your attitude and this is something that you brought Hamish up before, but that we talked about in his podcast, like it wasn’t, it’s not any of these opportunities that have come to you. That’s not why I hated where the brand exists. That’s not why the queue is so successful. It’s you. And so even if those, those things were taken away from you now, you’d start again and you’d do it again. And so the basis for everything, and I think that’s why it’s interesting to examine you is because a lot of people would think with MasterChef Arts all set up for you then and it’s not.

It’s like you had to go from there and work and it’s from your attitude that everything has been created. I think that people are always waiting until they’re waiting to get a boyfriend when their body is perfect or they’re waiting to go for a job when all these ducks are in a row and you’re a perfect example of somebody who’s not waiting until you’re just doing it now. Yeah, you just gotta do it. And there’s never a right time for anything. Anything. Now is the moment. Okay, so my last second last question is this is something ask everybody that’s on the podcast, but what do you feel is your purpose in life?

Like why do you think that you’re here? – That’s a very tricky question. I think there’s, I guess there’s two types of purposes. The purpose for me, like internally, like what do I get out of it? And then I guess when you look at my purpose as a business, I guess as well, which is weird way to say it, but that’s like the what I put out into the world. I think my Hayden Quinn purpose is to, I guess provide education, insight and excitement around being the best person you can be, whether it be through travel, food, health, wellness, fitness, whatever it is, and broadcasting that in the different mediums which I work through, whether it’s television, cookbook, a recipe, a magazine article, whatever it may be, is just putting those good vibes out there and making sure that people see a balanced approach to who I am.

I’m not someone that’s, you see a lot of these people that are a bit like, “Oh, you know, only kale and vidic” and “budduc” and “bud and have the most amazing time and but still train, yeah, still train hard and still feel amazing and you know have a good time and yeah. But for me like that’s that purpose. I think the purpose for me internally is to just continue doing what I love and not sort of be, I guess, sabotaged by other people or other thoughts or other voices in going in a direction you don’t want to go. And just for me, just happiness is the purpose.

And sometimes as my answer, I’m like, I’m not happy so I need to just call that. – Yeah. – Stop that part of my life, get rid of it and go another direction. – Yeah, absolutely love it. That’s like the most answer I remember. – Yeah. – I love how this is going to be. – Yeah. – Okay, the last thing I want to ask you is, what are you working on right now and where are you going? Like what was your name? – That’s always, that’s what I was talking about. That’s what, you know I said something came and I forgot what it is.

– Yes. – Oh, that’s you. – It came back when you said that because the hardest question I get asked all the time is, oh what are you up to? What are you doing? – Yes, it’s totally not where I start. – And sometimes like, I don’t know what I’m doing. – Yes. – Seriously, sometimes it’s, I’ll come in here and I’m like, okay, what am I doing? Where am I at? And it’s sort of, sometimes it’s hard to answer, but then there’s, sometimes it’s hard to answer because there’s so much going on. And I’m definitely not someone that likes to sell myself too much.

Like I don’t sort of like big note myself, but I could sit here and rattle off a million things that I’m doing. ” – Well, same old. – Yeah, same old. – And then people come up to me and they’re like, “Oh, what are you doing? ” But you can elaborate on it. It’s not just doing the same thing. So it’s really hard but I forget what the question was now. What are you working on the moment? What’s next? You can answer it up. Yeah, no, right now we’re working on some big projects. I do a lot of work with Qantas. So this is just literally today.

This is what I was working on today. So we’ve got some cool projects and Qantas coming up, some stuff over in Western Australia with them, some stuff with their loyalty program, some stuff with their new cash rewards card in Europe. There’s all sorts of stuff that we’re doing with them as a, cause I’m like a Qantas ambassador partner person. Yeah, it’s cool. Yeah. Q, Q collective that call yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, is. I get in trouble all the time and I still carry on and do, you know, it’s not like some people you might see them as a character in their world and then you see them in real life and you’re like, oh, that’s different.

They’re different. They’re not the same person. I just need to be the same person otherwise I’ll get crazy. on a level anything that needs superficial if someone’s putting on some kind of a facade. And I think that is, if I could say anything is one of the main reasons why you’re so successful because people can connect with you. Because as I said, you’re that person that everybody wants to be friends with and your message is great as well. But people are tuning into it because it’s coming from you. And it’s really– – Yeah, it’s gotta be real.

– Yeah. – But back to what I’m doing,. So doing that and then got an exciting potential project kicking up in the US, which is really cool. We’ve got another show that we’re working on for prime time Australian television. Yeah. Doing a lot of stuff. Obviously, our surfing the menu series is on SBS Food Network at the moment, which is really cool. Pushing for a second season of that, working on some stuff for SBS Food Network on other little food and lifestyle, interstitials, then working with SBS Sport on some programming around that Tour de France, which is really cool.

Just coming out with some ideas there. – Would you like to go? – Hopefully. – Yeah, awesome. – Yeah, it’s real early stages with that. So we’re just sort of spitballing and creating ideas basically. And then I also have a partnership in a wine label. So Cougs 1s which we sell in Dan Murphy’s and on Jetstar. That’s always ticking away in the background. We’ve got lots of cool projects with that. So basically that’s all about purpose driven business. So it’s about giving back to the community through sales of our wine.

So yeah, it’s really cool stuff people can check that out. It’s a whole nother. That’s like a whole nother story we can talk about another time. Yeah, this would be like a 20 minute podcast, but I’ve got up to the hour. That’s pretty good. I know, I do it very well and I live a hard work stay. I’ve got to be honest. And then obviously the gym, which, you know, to be honest, I don’t spend a heap of time there. I’m involved, like, in the behind the scenes more than the day to day coaching and training. I do have my personal training certificate.

So I do fill in when it’s like, oh, someone’s sick or the baby’s, you know, done. So I can come in that way. But yeah, Lewis runs that and now I’m amazing team of trainers and guys and girls look after all the day to day, which is incredible. I basically just enjoy cleaning. It’s my thing. It’s my thing. Yeah. Yeah. I like clean. Yeah, so the gym is amazing and it just keeps sort of the more people engage with it the better it sort of becomes and that’s great. It’s just like I love the fact that our gym is such a mix of people as well.

Like my mom trains there, my sister trains there, you know, my other sister, my girlfriend, my mates’ mums. From elite sports people that are on the world circuit, you know, Emma Jeff coat professional triathlete, you know, Matty Abel, Ultra Marathon runner, PT down the cube. The list of people, football teams, to just like everyday punters that just want to keep moving is what I love to like you know guys and girls that have come in that are like you know good on like it’s first time they’ve stepped into the gym it’s like good on you like welcome come on like don’t be afraid like those you can do whatever you want here yeah exactly that’s what I think that’s a beautiful thing about you know our programming and the programming that Lewis has created is it’s very open.

Like it’s not like some crossfit places you go to and you just, I feel intimidated. My training modality at the moment is very much focused towards triathlons. So I can’t lift anything. Like I’m not strong at the moment. And I, yeah, I, and that’s the cool thing about the cube is if you’re like focused around, you know, doing this sort of training or you want to focus on that, you can sort of cater it through the different program when we have. – Totally. Yeah. – Yeah, I’m done with Gombe way through Jim Jones. Something I love about that philosophy is objective based training.

So it’s like, you can have 10 different people and I think that your programming is somewhat similar to that. Like they have completely different goals. Yeah, they can work for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. And everybody’s excluded. And I hate when you go into a space and you really feel like, Oh my God, I’m not good enough to be. Yeah. And that’s not the feeling at all. No. Yeah. So if you know, guys are doing birthdays, box jumps, guys are doing, you know, box jumps, guys are doing step ups, people are just laying on the floor and standing up.

It’s like, because what you’re doing, because what you’re doing, just, you know, it’s not usually doing something. I don’t care if you’re, you know, doing a backflip off the box when you get up there. Like, you know, it’s incredible. – It’s something I would definitely be showing people if I could doing that. And we do DEXA scans down at the queue. And when I just changed my training modally, I lost like straight up basically three kilos, two kilos muscle and kilo body fat just from changing the way I trained. – So interesting, what are you training for what’s coming up?

– The triathlon season sort of like on the downward spiral ’cause it’s coming into winter, but basically I was training for like sprint triathlons, which I really, really love and really enjoy. Now it’s sort of where in the lead up like a base lead into coast to coast in New Zealand. So it’s the two days So you rest that night and then you wake up and you not sure what’s for I don’t know if you run into the paddle or you ride into the paddle But then you do it like a 70k down River and I spent a lot of time on the water paddling Ocean kayaks and the guy I’m doing with it is on the World Series for ocean paddling.

So it is 70 Ks downriver, then we’d ride again and then you run and you’re done. So we’re going to give that a good crack. Oh my god, that is such a cool event. Yeah, so that’s a lot. That’s like you need a good year of training to sort of get ready for that sort of thing. And mental resilience for that. We haven’t even gotten into resilience. We haven’t talked about it at all. And I feel like this is coming today. Next time. It can talk to me about it after we finish the coast of coast. See how it goes. We go there.

You are amazing. Thank you so much for that. I’m very proud. I’m humbling how exciting and energizing it is to be around you. And I feel like I’m going to go for like that a little something. I’m going to go back and do a darker subject. I feel like now is not the time to stop. Now is the time for a red wine and some food. I know I love that you said to me. I’m going to be going out on Friday night or something. I’m very much a homebody. But we’ve got a couple of friends around for dinner dinner tonight so it’ll be a nice quiet red wine and some chicken tajin and that’s my sign off for Friday afternoon.

This is perfect. Do you want to miss? Thank you so much for today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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