188: Brad Stanton - From World Champion to Reinvention, Burnout & Building Again

In this episode, Brad Stanton shares his raw, unfiltered journey from world champion fighter to entrepreneur, coach, and founder of a new wellbeing venture in Abu Dhabi. 

Brad opens up about growing up in a disciplined, athletic household, overcoming bullying through martial arts, and rising to the top of his sport. But behind the success came personal challenges that forced him to step away from fighting, including his father’s illness and the emotional toll that followed.

From working in a warehouse after being at the top… to rebuilding his life in the UAE… to burning out from a successful gym… this conversation dives deep into what it really takes to start again.

Key Topics Covered

•  How early discipline and family shaped Brad’s mindset 
•  Overcoming bullying and finding confidence through Muay Thai 
•  The reality of becoming a world champion at a young age 
•  Walking away from sport at the peak of success 
•  The emotional impact of his father’s illness and passing 
•  Losing identity after sport and starting over from scratch 
•  Why success in business led to burnout 
•  The hidden danger of building a brand around yourself 
•  Lessons from closing a successful gym 
•  Rebuilding with purpose through wellness and community 
•  Why athletes must think beyond sport early 
•  The importance of financial structure when starting a business

Golden Nugget:
 “You are your own worst enemy. The moment you let doubt in, you’ve already failed at day one.” 

Want to go deeper?
If you are looking for career clarity for your next step, visit www.2ndwind.io
to learn more or book a consult.

Transcript

Athletic Roots And Household Discipline

SPEAKER_03 0:00

So how it started was my dad uh was uh in the navy and he's a exbo he was an ex boxer in the navy and all this stuff. Always an athlete, literally. He ended up leaving boxing, going into cycling, and this was like back in the 60s, ended up being like the fastest quarter mile in cycling, British record, and all that stuff. So it kind of got the athleticism about family was literally a pillar of our family. You were not allowed to be lazy, you were not allowed to be sat down for more than two hours. And my dad wasn't strict, you know. My dad didn't even let my I think my dad later like slapped me once because I was kicking the back of his driving or a chair while he was driving. Like, you know, and he was never a harsh, cut harsh guy, but the level of discipline what he instilled in us was phenomenal, and we had to take care of ourselves and we had to be able to stand up for ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Hi, I'm Ryan Gonsalves, and welcome to a Second Wind Academy Podcast. A show all about career transition through the lens of elite academics. Each week, I invite a guest to the show who shares their unique sporting story. Please join me to delve into the thoughts and actions of athletes through a series of conversations. Don't worry, there's plenty to learn from those of you that aren't particularly sporty. Elite athletes are still people after sport. Let's be inspired by the stories of others. Brad, welcome to the show. Great to have you on here today. Here's Ryan, thank you for having us. Thank you for inviting me on. Oh, all good, all good. I always like chatting with those with a bit of an entrepreneurial edge and flair to what they find in that life after or in and around sports, certainly in your case. So looking forward to breaking down a little bit your journey, figuring out some of the lessons that you've learned along the way too.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

My name is Brad Stanton. Uh I'm a former world champion, retired now, and I'm living in Abu Dhabi. I've been living in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, for the last seven years, and I came over here as a personal trainer that's then obviously COVID hit. Funnily enough, my wife got made redundant in her job, so we decided to open a tie boxing gym in the middle of COVID, which you'd think the worst idea to do, which actually became a really successful idea. Um because obviously, because of the limitations and stuff as well, we we actually really got to focus with the athletes. So we ended up becoming like what maybe what in the top three of the UAE for youth athletes, which I think about eight of them now represent the UAE for Muay Thai, one being my stepson. So yeah, he now gets jetted around as an MRI, representing the UAE for Muay Thai, kickboxing, stuff. So it kind of worked in favour of being in COVID because we got to uh you know experience life at a more closed-in, more personal level, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

A bit more sedate in some respects, and like you say, a bit more personal. Because I mean, I know I'm jumping in, but it's very counterintuitive, counter-cyclical, whatever you'd want to call it, to set up a a gym.

Burnout And Closing A Successful Gym

SPEAKER_03 3:18

It was a huge move, and you know, uh, we were actually during that time of construction, we actually went, me and my wife, we actually went to Egypt to get married, so we had to come back, do the whole 10 days quarantine and everything. At the same time, we're monitoring everything of the construction remotely, doing all the permissions and stuff, and it actually went really smoothly. We had a great opening, we did well for the for like two years, and then it got a little bit political. I got burnt out, which is one of my big lessons today, which I'm definitely going to be speaking about. Because the brand kind of just relied on me. It should never have been that from day one, it should never have been the case, but it happened, you know, lessons learned. So when you say relied, what do you mean was relied on you? It became to the point where that classes only conducted by me were the only ones being detected. And then parents would be like, Where's Coach Brad? Why is he not teaching the kids no more? Because I kind of took on like a national role of like helping, like we kind of got like subcontracted to take care of the national team fighters, like a group of them. So I took care of them for several months at a time, and then obviously went back to the public, and then I had to go back to taking care of them. When you're representing the national team, you know, being an athlete yourself, you take a lot of pride in it, so your your energy gets consumed by that. And then obviously it happened, and then my s my my coaches that were helping me, which are assisting me, again, it's it wasn't the sense of that it wasn't it's not coach bad. And I'm not saying I'm the be all and all, I'm the most perfect coach, I'm not, but your personality rubs off when you're coaching, your energy, uh the way you talk, you know. I'm from Darlington, a very small town in the UK, so where I moved to Leeds in West Yorkshire. So I was literally grown. My hard work was literally get out in the pouring rain, in the lightning and thunderstorms and everything, and run and don't complain. So that kind of that energy brushed off into my coaching style, and it kind of became a disciplinary situation where the parents would say, Look, I need my I need you to fix my kid. So I was balancing between the national team, uh helping the national team, and then helping kids with discipline and reaching levels of obesity and stuff out there. But I ended up getting burnt out. And it it couldn't there was only one of me, and you know, when that happened, the business started to go down and I I just couldn't bring it back. I couldn't bring it back, so I just said to my wife, like, look, let's just close the doors and revisit when the time comes, right, you know. It was the best thing to do, to be honest, because literally I had no life, Ryan. I had no life. I wasn't able to sit and have meals with my family, you know, and I've got three step kids, I've got my own little boy now with all the teddies in the background and whatnot. And like I was just losing time, so I was just like, Look, I'm not even a 1% of what I was when I first came to the country, so I I think it's just time we need to walk away from this and just accept for what think what it is, you know.

Bullying Respect And Starting Muay Thai

SPEAKER_00 6:05

What a brave decision. I guess it's one uh come back in and just sort of understand some of the mechanics around it. But I guess before that, I want to get a bit more context on you and and your life. Like like you were saying just there, world champion. Before we go into that, I want to come back into as you were just saying, where you were born, where you brought up, and obviously the you know, fully biased, the wonderful leads. But I'm interested in sport for you as a kid. How did you get into I'll just say martial arts and combat sports in general? But where did it begin?

SPEAKER_03 6:36

So how it started was my dad uh was uh in the navy and he's ex he was an ex-boxer in the navy and all this stuff, always an athlete, literally. He ended up leaving boxing, going into cycling, and this was like back in the 60s, ended up being like the fastest quarter mile in cycling, British record, and that stuff. So it kind of got the athleticism of our family was literally a pillar of our family. You were not allowed to be lazy, you were not allowed to be sat down for more than uh two hours. And my dad wasn't strict, you know. My dad didn't even let my I think my dad later like slapped me once because I was kicking the back of his driving chair while he was driving, like you know, and he was never a harsh, cut harsh guy, but the level of discipline what he instilled in us was phenomenal, and and he and we had to take care of ourselves and we had to be able to stand up for ourselves. And I me being the the third son, I kind of became a little bit of the soft one during my younger years. So I got bullied, you know, if you know the north of England, but there's a lot of gypsies, um, a lot of uh Romanian gypsies and travellers and stuff, you know. Uh they come in like a gang, man. Once they once they're in, they're in, man. You can't root them out of the you can't deroute them. But they were great, they were a great bunch of people. Um, but the teenagers, obviously, what happens is life, innit? Do you know what I mean? I got bullied. But I was alright about it because my brother, my brother Zach, he was boxing at the time, so he ended up becoming like amateur boxing association champion, looking at getting scouted by Amir Khan and all this stuff, you know. Again, it runs in the family. So he was going to the boxing gym and basically kicking the crap out of the gypsies who were bullying me. So I was like, look, if I can withstand the pain of getting a few punches and slaps in the changing room at PE, I know they're gonna get ten times worse because my brother's gonna go protect me and stand up for our family, you know. But one day I came back from school and I got a black eye. One of the gypsies like basically like football kicked me in the head. When I got a black eye, my dad was like, who did that? So Zach said, like, look, you might as well tell him you've got to be honest about it. So I told him, I was like, right, okay, I'm gonna be getting bullied, blah blah blah. Dad was training with the basically the gypsy king of the group. So the the other leader, right? He was training with the bit with the big boss of the group, and he went to him and he was like, right, your boys are bullying, my boy, how do we fix this? And he was like, Well, let's fix it like men, you know, get your boy ready, we'll have a fight, blah, blah, blah. My cousins at the time were doing tie boxing. I didn't want to go into boxing because obviously I'd have to spar against the ones who were already kicking my ass, anyways. So I was like, okay, I'll go do tie boxing. And for about six weeks, man, I hated it. But then I realized once I got into a sparring match, got put into sparring by a coach and it against one of the fighters, and I managed I'm South Post, so I'm left-handed. So I stand my right foot forward, so it's a lot, it's a very unorthodox way of fighting when you come across. If you're right-handed and you can fight against everything's switched, you will think my left hand's coming first, but it's more it's my right hand, and my left kick is not as powerful as it should be, but my left kick's my baby. And if I could ensure this just this one limb, I would insure my left leg and like that, you know. I ended up landing a kick and I was like, whoa, I was put back by myself, you know. I was like, holy shit, I actually landed a kick. Obviously, from there, my confidence grew. I ended up jumping, I I ended up taking care of the whole bullying situation, and then I had four fights under the coach in Darlington. Then I went to Thailand, met the coach who I spent the next 12 years of my life with. Right. Wow. And my mum and dad had separated at that point, so I was like, look, I don't I don't really want to go to university. I'm so much in love with high boxing. Sorry, we'll backtrack a little bit. My dad, who for about six weeks, drove back and forth from Leeds every day to take me to training, which is like an hour and 20 minutes drive. He'd sit there and watch me train for two hours and then drive back, and then I'd obviously go to college the next day, blah blah blah, get on with it and do the same thing. Coach offered me a fight for like, he's like, Do you want to come live with me for two weeks? And you just fight in the football stadium, which at that time was the Reebok Arena. Yeah. So I fought an absolute at a war. I was 16, I fought like a 19-year-old. Um, it was like badass, fighting like Berner Cup, fighting competition, fighting championship and everything. Good friends, actually, probably one of my only friends now. Um and then that was it. I didn't look back. I was hitting like 13 fights a year, going to spend time in Thailand, fighting in Thailand, what I think I fought for. I got the British champion when I was 17 year old, I got the Commonwealth champion when I was 19 year old, I fought in several tournaments, and then I got the world title around 24. But things kind of got crazy then because then my dad, obviously, if you can hear, if if you've you got the gist of the story.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Before stepping into that, because you're describing the craziness comes next, I think you've just for me described several crazy stories in that. But what I'm getting is you emerged from bullying, basically, protecting yourself, and the bit that I'm still going with is the two parents, the two dads thought, yeah, kids getting bullied, let's train them up for six weeks and then let them get in a ring and then have a fight after that.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

In a ring, it was it was outside in the garden.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Wow, so then you had your tie style against what I'm guessing it was a more, I'll say, traditional boxing style. Did the bullying stop after that or was there some continu I mean that was it? Everyone agreed, boom, done.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

Completely stopped, and these guys, I can go back to Darlington right now and I've chat like family.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

When I was in Leeds and my sister was like obviously grew of age and she was she was going to town and stuff. If my sister was getting like a little bit like flirted with and all that, and like, you know, getting courted on and all that stuff, the lads would step in and say, Look, you don't do that. She's one of us, you don't do that type of thing. Honestly, they're a band of brothers. I swear to God, they're amazing people. Every cliche that comes to mind. I still talk to some of them to this day, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah. And listen, fair call, because again, what I'm hearing here is there's there is this earned respect, and it sounds like, like you say, even from that first fight at the rebook, there's a respect amongst those who you're fighting with. And so whilst what you're in is this combat sport, it's not reckless, is what I'm hearing. Well, it's something where you then went committed and became you know, became world class, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:51

It's not, it's it's really not reckless. It's not even a brutal sport, it's a very disciplined sport, it's a very technical sport, and I think it doesn't get the recognition what it needs. But in terms of like doing it as a hobby or uh to help your lifestyle and stuff, like it's phenomenal, mate. It's really well that I've made my career around it, I've made my business around it, and my my children now do it, you know. Yeah. I'm in my toddler's room and his he's got his little blow boxing bag over there, and he knows when he sees it, and I'm telling him to get on with it, boxing bag, you know. No force, but it just naturally there, you know. Yeah.

School Pressure Sponsorships Going Pro

SPEAKER_00 13:23

That in itself is I think it's quite interesting, you know, the the fact that it's become a part of you. Hated it at the start you mentioned, but it really became a part of you. I am interested, ask everyone this question. So whilst you were doing, you know, going up through the ages, like you say, 16, 18, 19, what about school? You said you went to college, what were you studying? What was going on in your life academically outside of fighting? Because I was getting bullied, I hated school.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

I ended up being on like what 42% attendance, and it wasn't until my coach turned around and said, Look, get your get your act together in a polite way, get your act together or you don't fight. And obviously, because I'd love fighting so much, I was just like, okay, I'll do it. Um I managed to pull like B's and stuff in my GTSEs, and then he was like, right, okay, go to college. You don't fight unless you go to college. So I went to college for um fitness instructing and sports education in teaching youth and children.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

And it was more so I should have carried on with it to be honest, right? And I really should have carried on with it, but I just I loved fighting so much, and I managed to make managed to get around seven sponsorships, and I was living a life where I was just like, gosh, this is what it's like to be an athlete. I was sponsored by a catering company that what catered to Michelin Star restaurants, sponsored by a barber shop called King Cub, Chop Shop in Leeds, that went to like Manchester, Newcastle. Them guys, them two guys alone were amazing. Then I was sponsored by a strength of conditioning and a gym in Sheffield. Now works for a company called Boxing Science. Uh his name's Lee Rickards. He is phenomenal. If anybody is watching this and they want to deal with a diet and they want a diet to be easy, and the diet wanted they want the diet to be hell, like in a sense of that you're not bored of it, go find Lee Rickards. What a guy. I can't. There's thousands of dietitians and nutritionists, but this guy knows how he what he's doing. He got me down to 4.8 body percent for body fat, and I was knocking people out left. I'm not exactly in big set local, I'm like I'm not I'm not a big set person, but I'm telling you, that guy he dealt with my strength of conditioning and my nutrition, and he just changed my game.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

You essentially were able to turn pro with the sponsorships. You got great people in your corner, it sounds like, who then really helped you physically, you know, to be fight ready. And that then made, I guess, that difference for you, that overall difference for you in terms of well, it sounds like leaving college behind and going full-time professional. Yeah. And look, by what you're telling me, at that time it was the best thing to do. Yeah. Tell me about that. Why, as you look back, and I know it's a bit distorted, but why did you feel that was the best thing to do then? Thai boxing wasn't massive then, but it was growing.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

And, you know, I had the sense of again, I had the sponsorships, you know, I could focus on what I wanted to do. Man, I was like 20 year old. All I was doing was training, going back home, playing on call of duty, waking up the next day and getting on my training again. You know, and I was living, I was eating like a king. Like I said, these guys were the company, the catering company is called Wellox, and man, boy, the food was amazing. Oh, I wish I could eat. It was fully organic, there was no chemicals, nothing, no GMO, anything, you name it. It was pristine. The stuff when he was sending me, if I had in my diet, for example, if I had steak, for example, twice in my diet in a week, he would send me the steak, the best steak he could get his hands on. And then as an alternative, he would send me venison. It was like this is better in protein and it's low fat content, and looking at your diet and all that stuff, it you would be better suitable with this. And it wasn't just like this little bit, just because my diet had said, okay, I have 120 grams of venison. Man, you're talking like I was getting like two kilos of venison just because, you know. Possibly possible. I had the best possible times, you know, and obviously I was just doing good. I was in muscle and fitness magazine, I was going on on TV, I was in newspapers, you know, my social media was absolutely fire. One of my sponsors was like, I won't delve into what he did because it's not the well, not the best way to talk about it, but like he knew how to market something what had nothing to it. At that time, Thai boxing was still growing, you know. If you look at like one championship now in Rajadamner and World Series, these get millions and millions of views. At that time, millions of views, it's not possible, but I was getting like up to 600,000 followers on my Instagram. It was insane. Starting taking paid advertisements and stuff. I was like, this is a business. Why would I go to college? So here's the thing, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Did you see it as a business for you at that point?

SPEAKER_03 18:03

You know, my mum still wanted me to go to university and stuff, and I was like, ha ha, I'm good, making money, I'm I'm learning. I've already become somewhat of an entrepreneur and I'm investing in myself, you know. I'm that type of guy where if I say I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. I know it's easy to say that, but I've seen so much failure. I've been bullied, and I'm not asking for a sub story, I'm not saying give me sympathy or anything like that there, but I'm gonna make it to the point where that you think, holy shit, I know that guy, but I actually bullied that guy. So now I don't want anyone envious of me, don't want anyone jealous of me, but I said I would maybe I would be remembered, you know.

Dad’s Illness Forces Retirement

SPEAKER_00 18:36

So that's what it was, you know. And look, for you, it came through, you know, you followed that journey, became world champion 24. At which point you're saying it goes at which point you're saying it goes crazy.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Well, my dad got diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's. In the back of my head, I kind of subliminally I kind of knew he had something wrong with him, but I was just living so much in the moment. I was happy seeing my dad. My dad used to make me run 28 kilos every morning, and he would be on the bike next to me. So he knew that was his routine. So I kind of just didn't accept that he was sick, he didn't have this illness, and if I did accept it, I could have helped it. Maybe he could be alive today. Who knows? You know, I don't know. It's not my it's not my decision to make, it's not my opinion, you know, what's happened has happened. But it got to the point where that this guy was like sleeping on the street, and I was just like, how, how, I need to help him. And so I I was with a specific person, and that person didn't like how I was stopping my fighting and said some really bad things about me to the point where I got well when I came back from the UAE, I got arrested for such accusations and stuff. Obviously I've been proven not guilty now, but um the big problem was my dad. My dad was it was bad. You know, this man was 70-odd year old and he was just muffled. He was so disciplined and he was so it was quite spiritual and and he was always like motivating and he was always there for me. Not saying my mother wasn't, by the way. Just obviously the key point is my dad. It kind of it kind of took half of me out of the boxing ring because I'd associated winning, I'd associated fighting, I'd associated training camps with my dad. I think that my psychological state was like, shit, my dad's my dad's sick. Can I still be who I am as he's like this? I couldn't accept it, and I said, look, I'm gonna retire, I'm gonna take a break. And I just walked away from Thai boxing. I had one last fight in uh Leeds. A local guy called Joe Craven, I won the fight, and um just was like yeah, feel like rapidly my dad got worse. Rapidly and then what you're talking two years. I'd cared for him for about six months and it just got to the point where that I couldn't I couldn't care for him, he needed professional help. Again, being an athlete himself, former Navy, he he was too disciplined to accept help, you know. So he kind of went into living a life with this girlfriend he had, just going to going to the pubs at Weatherspoons and whatnot, drinking himself to sleep type of thing. And I I couldn't help him. My dad was one of these people, like if I'm ever sick and you can't help me, walk away. You know? He was like, if it like he literally, it was it's quite weird how he didn't want to accept weakness or sickness or anything like that there. He said, If I get if I ever get cancer, put a bullet in me like this, you know. It was like it was this old school type mindset, just like I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

What did that mean for you then? Because you stopped fighting because you got this sense that you had another calling. You were there, y it was time for you to go support your dad. Did you get a chance to miss fighting? Did you you know competing? Did you get a chance to miss it? Or were you too busy caring for your dad?

SPEAKER_03 21:53

Not really. I think my heart, my bird, even my soul, what however you would say it, would be like I think that skipped it because it knew like I had to take care of my dad or I had to do something. So I think I've just skipped that part of missing fighting. Do I miss fighting no? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. Because all I know is fighting, you know, and I don't know if if I can ever be the man what I a what I should be without fighting. Quite uh I'd want to admit, but it is what it is, isn't it? You know, they had the these are the cards what life has played.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

So what you're saying is you fighting is a part of what you do, that competing is part of what you do.

SPEAKER_03 22:34

I did realise at one point though, Ryan. Sorry, sorry to interrupt yeah, I took a contract fighting in Thailand. I'd had about three years out, and it wasn't in my heart no more. It just wasn't. I didn't have that. I wasn't to the point where that I'll take a knee. I mean, there's literally really the final fight I had was against like the stadium champion, and I was like shouting at him, like banging on my chest, I was like, Is this all you've got? You're not gonna knock me out. I'm not gonna take a knee type of thing. That part of me still is there, but that fight the part of me to go and try and hurt someone to win it just isn't there no more. It's I think I've exhausted it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

You think you exhausted it as if there was well for you what do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_03 23:17

Like what you've got to think, like I've had like started professionally fighting when I was 16 year old, you know. Like me and my coaches were lying about it. I was meant to be 18, but we're like, well, yeah, okay. As I was having like 10 to 13 fights a year. I mean, in one night I had four fights. Was it four fights or three? You know, it was in a tournament and I had three fights in one night, and I was just like walking through them like it was nothing, you know. Again, like burnout, but I think I just have done. I don't know if I can do anymore. I want to, but I need to be honest with you. You need to be honest with yourself in the at one point in your life, go, because I learned being that 24-year-old world champion at 32 year old, getting back in the angle, going, I've got to smash someone up.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

What made you go back in Thailand then? What made you jump back in? There are too many stories of bankruptcies, mental health issues, and unfortunately two is time. And so I think it's time for to act. Every year we see thousands of athletes that reach a point where they need to consider their life activities for it. It might be a retirement, injury, or they need to juggle your careers between sport and a job. As a former English professional footballer, I have somehow managed to transition from sport into banking, strategy, innovation, and now life coach, career practitioner, and founder of the Second Wind Academy. So I want to help those around me find their career secondwith. Find me on Insta or through my new Facebook group, Second Wind Academy, where I'd love to know your thoughts and suggestions.

SPEAKER_03 24:49

Me and my wife ended up closing the gym. Uh like I was burnt out. To be honest, you could say I got depressed. I got depressed. So that's one. Not clinically, but my wife noticed it and she was like, You need to go to Thailand and go fix yourself. And then literally the next day after the next day, I got offered a contract to go for three months, go fight in this tournament because I had a decent record, like what I think it was like 86% win streaks. So I was like, And they were like, Yeah, we'll take him on, even though he's not had a fight for three years or whatever, how long it was?

SPEAKER_00 25:18

World champion, I think the name was known. But let me get the timing. Let me get the timing right. So when you stopped competing first time, right? World champion, walked away, big decision. Yeah. Took care of your you know, unfortunately, your dad has you know passed, right? What were you doing life then? Is that when the gym came or you know, how did you know what I ended up working in a warehouse for super dry.

SPEAKER_03 25:43

Yeah, mate. I ended up working in a warehouse. So basically, I was with this person. I don't want to really want to go anyway, because my life's passed. Now I've I I've grown from it and I've understood it. I get it. I was with this per this family when I was in my fighting career, was always so supportive. And they weren't mega successful. They had their own recruitment company, they had they dealt with warehouses and all this year stuff, and I went to her and I was like, Look, I need your help. Uh can you get me a job? I ended up working in a job in a warehouse for super dry, and I was smashing it. Again, obviously, I just dived into it. Within four weeks, they were all like, oh, do you want to go into a management course so you can become a manager and all this year stuff? And I was like, no, I don't really want to. And I kept on getting offers to go to the UAE. To do what? To teach Thai boxing as a personal trainer. And I was just I kept on saying no. I don't know why I kept on saying no, but I did. And then I realised like obviously during this time I've been just jumping from job to job, waking up at 4am in the morning to go do this warehouse, 12 hour shift. It was just like, what am I doing with myself? How am I how am I a guy who used to have thousands of people roaring cheering my name to even over a Tanoyan speaker assistant, Brad, come to the office, please, you know? It was just like, sorry for my lack of language, but what the fuck is this? Being offered this role in the Middle East of okay, at first it started at£30 an hour, and I was like, well, I could do PTZ for£30 per hour. Then it goes to£45, then it went to£60, then it went to£72, and I was like, Well, I don't think we're gonna get£72 an hour here in the UK, so I don't want to fight no more. We might as well take it, you know, take a new lease of life. I've had a bit of turmoil. Sorry, let's go. Pack my bags, went that's about£27,£28.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

That was around£25,£25, 26. Yeah, okay. Alright. So he was pr fairly soon after, then kicked in, took this leap again, went over to UAE. During this period, then what was the hardest part for you? I mean, you know, you're working, normal job, like you're saying, no one's calling your name out except to go to the office. What what was that like?

Building A Coaching Brand With Kids

SPEAKER_03 27:55

To be honest, mate, it was probably the most soul-destroying part of my life because it just it took away the shimmer of my light, it took away that shine, it took away what I was since 2008. You know, it took away I was walking around in a freaking high-vis jacket on and a safety helmet going, oh, do this, do that. And yeah, do you know what it was? It was progression. I'd went from just packing boxes and dealing with orders to managing a team and all this stuff, but it wasn't there was no adrenaline to it. There was no get up and go, oh look at me, I'm excited to go to work. I think I was my own worst enemy. I'm not, I don't think I know I was my own worst enemy. I think that was the worst hardest part. And like I said, that was my hardest part, but I think a lot of people are their own worst enemy. But you ridicule yourself so much. You've got such a you know, your your brain is naturally meant to be, okay, I can't do this, I can't do that, you know. For the easiest way out. The easiest way out is not doing it, and that's the easiest way out, isn't it? You know, but you've got to rewire your brain, you know. And I think I did that. I did that by moving to the UE and we've been setting up everything, you know, because within 18 months, there was a very hard 18 months, you know. I slept on the floor, slept on an airbed, and then I bought my own bed with like so such I was like, holy shit, I bought my own bed, you know. Uh lived on like porridge and water and eggs for like six months because it was hard, it was hard.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Yeah, you got go on because you've been invited over to UAE to be a personal trainer. Why was it hard? What weren't you been looked after or sort of set up?

SPEAKER_03 29:21

The ideology was that I was gonna go, I was gonna have like how many of this clients ready, blah blah blah. I got there, there was no clients ready. So I had to make my own base, I had to make my own foundation of clients, uh just push, push, push, push.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

And I ended up doing good, you know. I ended up doing alright. How do you know what to do then? Because you know, this this is you setting up your business. Did you look back as to what your team was doing for you when you were a fighter in terms of marketing and promo and getting clients? I mean, you're basically building your your own business again.

SPEAKER_03 29:52

Yeah, I had to build my own brand again, you know, and that's a good thing. Such a job, what I play as as a personal trainer, coach, whenever you want to call about you, you end up becoming part of the community, so it ends up becoming a lot of word of mouth. And the same as goes as when you're in the ring, you know, oh go watch Brad, go watch Ryan, he's brilliant at his game, you know, go watch him. You'll actually enjoy sitting there watching him, end up coming like to the point where that, oh this guy's this coach is really good. You know, he helps my kid, he's helped even with his school now. I mean, I'm not academically strong, but they did I put the discipline in place, and it's kids have gone from these 60% at like 40% average, going up to 60%, getting C's and B's and stuff, you know, and it's just they uh parents want that these days.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

What do you think you did or brought that had that kind of success? Because I get a sense that wasn't what you're intending to come as an outcome, but you seem to find out, hey, I happen to be good at this.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

I think I kind of understood about just fizzling out the shit. Again, sorry to say sorry to say it that way, but the same as the warehouse, it was kind of like you had to fizzle out the crap so you could understand who's good, who's bad, who's not, who's better at this than they are at this. And I kind of understood that in the UAE, like having adult clients, 60-70% of them are really dedicated to the cause of like that, yes, I want to do something, but majority of them is just like, oh, I've got a personal trainer. One day you'll cancel, the next day they'll do the session, the next day they'll do the session only for 30 minutes and then they'll sit on the phone. Whereas kids, yes, it's exhausting, but it's a rewarding exhausting, you know, because you actually you won't go in as with a bounce in your step because these kids are just coach, can you teach me how to do this spinning back? Coach, can you do can you teach me how to do this uh jump knee? What you did? Oh coach, I watched your fight. Can you do this? Can you can you show me how to do this combination? What you did on this guy? They start imitating you, they start following you, and then you know, I used to have a rule like obviously you've got to make your bed, you have to see your pleas and thank yous, and you've got to do good at school. And these it kind of grew around the f the community that I was the fixer. I was a kid fixer, so it just branded, man.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

Yeah, but interestingly, that's similar to what you had as a young fighter, where to train you needed to stay in school, to train you needed to be going to college right up until you turn pro. Yeah. And you know, and so giving that back in in that way without even realizing it, you were passing on what you'd learnt, indeed, what had helped make you successful. So you're building this business, it's off your brand, it's off you, you're getting success. When you started the business, or when you started to realise, hey, this is good, did you have a vision as to w where it would get to?

Partner Conflict And Hard Business Lessons

SPEAKER_03 32:29

Not at all. The first time I boxing June, we called it Kingdom X, because my dad was like, mate, you've got to be when you're in that ring, you've got to be the king of the ring. So I was like, I'm gonna one day I'm gonna have my own kingdom. And again, obviously, when you going back to that fight career, you have a following, people that they come to you beckoning call. It's not that I took advantage of it, it's just that I loved it. So I was like, mate, well, I'm gonna make my own kingdom in the UA and I'm gonna have it in my gym. And I had about 27 fighters. I had about 27 fighters, and just it was so good, man. So so good. And I loved it. And then again that burnout came, the stress of not understanding the gym and the dynamics and the business dynamics and stuff. How did you realise things were falling apart? Things fall apart just when I didn't really realise when customers were saying it. When I go to come back, why not teaching no more? But it was more so like I started seeing my family fall apart. I was fighting with my kids, my wife. We would have conversations where it would just be about business, and it was just like, what am I doing? Why am I s I'm in this gym because I wanted freedom, but I've become a slave to the gym, and I've not even been able to exercise myself, so why am I what am I doing? I had business partners that were a bit a bit too aggressive, and I was just like, one of them threatened to fire me, and I was like, Are you for real? You're threatening to fire me. I'm the face of this gym. I was like, I'm the energy of this gym. You threatened me, you've got no business. Obviously, that's when the fighter in me kicked in. I was like, you know what, Sodja, see you later. Picked up my equipment and went out. But at the same time, my wife was still 50% part owner, you know, so just like I have to go back and ride the river for a little bit, but we'll fizzle it out. And we gradually just fizzled the gym out to the point where that we ended up closing it, and then that was it. What's the lesson? Don't trust anybody with your own baby. Because the moment you send it off to someone else, they'll take advantage of it and they'll manipulate it to what they can do beneficial with it, but it's still your brand, it's still your game, it's still your trade. You're the one who made it. It should have stayed on that path, and it it didn't it got rooted up and it got sent to some different way, and people started spouting and being too confident about something where it was all reliable on one vision, which they had no sense of, you know?

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Yeah, I mean it's interesting. I mean it it it had to go because I mean part of that is you getting stretched, like you say, too thinly from the success that you had meant you are being pulled into different opportunities at different times, and all of those, I suppose, depending on you being the individual there, bringing, like you say, your energy, bringing your style in order for it to be successful.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

Yeah. One of the things what I tried doing was like I understood one thing was that you can't mech the same person. You'll never like if you come under my wing now and you start cutting under me, I can't make you 100% Brad Stanton, but I can make you 65-75% of Brad Stanton, and then the remaining your personality, the remaining is how you act, the remaining is how you speak, and I have to let your personality speak for my vision in your own way. And if I don't do that and I become too much of a uh an aggressive mentor, you're gonna fold. If you don't have the grit to stick it through, you're gonna fold. So therefore, my vision's folded, you've folded. So what's happening? Our business just goes down, and I think I I didn't understand that back then.

Synergy Wellbeing And UAE Wellness Boom

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Now I do. Back then, what was the intention then? The intention was to have everybody replicate or be pretty much, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

Back then was it was so much on becoming number one. And I said that I I said to myself, I wanted to be the father of Muay in the U in the Middle East. I wanted to be the guy that changed it. And I was getting there. I went stagnant, I burnt out, and I couldn't get myself back up again because my team weren't me and my team were just not there anymore.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

We weren't connected.

SPEAKER_02 36:44

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

So where have you been since then? Right? I know now we're just, you know, we're at the point of this new venture. What's happened? How did you found an energy then?

SPEAKER_03 36:53

I joined a gym in I'd be since then, uh since I closed Kingdom EX with my wife, I joined I've had three jobs. I was a manager of a power of a of a gym, a boxing gym, a boxing-only gym in the in Dubai. But just they didn't kick off. I'd been s I literally would sit on the floor for eight hours of the day, not doing anything. The gym wasn't being able to open because of the mul the municipality was not given the approval to do so. So I was like, what do I do? I've just sat here and to be honest, I didn't want to me personally, I didn't want to take money off someone for not if I wasn't working for it. So I was just like, look, mate, I'm gonna leave. You know, I'd rather go work, take less of a salary, and work on work on the personal training commission and absolute graft to the bone and be honoured when I received my salary, you know? So I left. I went to a gym in a mall, and uh within like the three months I got I was absolutely smashing it. And then loads of people were like, Why are you not doing your own gym? Why are you please open get your own gym again and all this year stuff? And I I always wanted to open my own gym again, and uh but it it had to change. Tie boxing had gone down, the martial arts scene itself had gone down a little bit, and I just was like, if I'm gonna do my gym, how can I incorporate something what I love so much, i.e. tie boxing, into this facility, into this business where I can still do something what I love on a day-to-day basis, but still protect my family, serve my family, and prepare for the worst future I can ever assume, you know, by being successful. And then just came to me, it was like, why I need to look at the well-being. And currently now, the well-being, the GDP of the UAE are leading with well-being and wellness by like 13%, and would it's just smashing it.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

I was gonna say, yeah, it is booming from a well-being perspective. We've certainly seen a lot of that. I'm seeing a lot of those uh coming out of the UAE Middle East.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

You've got business brunches, what used to happen in New York and London, they're not going for that no more. They're going to the spin classes and they're going to ice bath therapy sessions and stuff like this, you know. And it's man, if if a bunch of suits can jump in an ice bath and talk about business and all that stuff, eventually the community is gonna follow, you know. And again, like I said, you know, the UE you're leading by what last month it was 13.6% in the well-being aspect. Here, basically, what what happens is when big government entities hire thousands of people, they go on like uh lifestyle membership schemes. We have several. There's Fazar, there's Royal, there's Privily, and what happens is the company will buy a membership package, say 50 memberships from Privily or from Royal, and they'll give it to their employees. But what Royal or Privily or ADM or ADV, sorry, do is they'll go to different companies, different businesses, and say, right, give us a discount or give us a free membership, and we'll feed you, we'll pay you for X amount of memberships, but you've got to let anybody in. So, for example, like you've come to me and went, right, okay, Brad, Riverside wanna buy 50 memberships, but you've got to let anybody from Riverside in. Okay. So for one year you've paid 50 memberships. There's an excess, so if 52 come in that month, you have to pay a little bit extra for the second the two extra people. But the year after, I can then go, right, well, on average, 57 people came in. So you now have to pay me for 70 memberships, or I can negotiate, you know. Yeah. And these companies that I think government entities do that. So I've I've kind of got wind of it. Jumped on it.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

Like I'm trying I'm just smashing it, like, right, okay, come give me this, give me that, give me that. But the gym itself is facing some hard some hardships itself, that like permissions and and permits and stuff, it's quite annoying. But we are like 90%, I'd probably say we're 95% ready to be opened, but just waiting for one permit.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

You know, as you as you step into this new world.

SPEAKER_03 41:03

So yeah, so like I said, like obviously, like I wanted to do something where I still lived, uh I still lived for what I still loved, uh which is Thai boxing, but then at the same time make it a well-being facility lifestyle membership, you know. So I've got this unit, it's 600 square metres, it's called Synergy Wellbeing in Mazda City, and the this Mazda City is like a sustainable, renewable energy area of the UE. And I've got my ice baths, I've got my infrared saunas, I've got my Muay Thai classes, which are gonna be taught by me, obviously. I've got boxing classes, and then I've got my functional fitness, like not high rocks, not CrossFit, but you know, well, we're calling it synergized because we're putting it all in one and we're just gonna bang one big class. And if you follow the pro if you follow the programme, you are gonna see results. Again, I I said I wanted to be back in the day of my old gym, I wanted to be the father of Muay Thai. It wasn't that I wanted to be walking around like look at me, I'm the boss of Muay Thai. It was a it was I wanted to be I wanted the community to see that Muay Thai is beneficial. And the same goes here.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Same goes with synergy wellbeing. You're being the voice of Muay Thai as much as anything, it it's like you say, it's not just about you being not just about you, it's actually about bringing the sport to others and seeing how that can help them impact, indeed improve their life. It's extortionate to do such things.

SPEAKER_03 42:31

If you want to go join your full family up to the gym, you're paying a lot of money. And community can be a massive thing here because Abu Dhabi's huge. Like, for example, if my wife wanted to go to the office to work, she has to drive one hour 60 kilos to drive to work. So the community is so, so far out, don't compliment it. So I want to be the the business that brings the community together, has sees improvements in lifestyle, lowers the risk of diabetes in Emirati people, in the local people, deals with anxiety and stress, and at the same time, I'm not charging you an arm and a leg to do it, you know. It was funny because uh the other day I was saying to uh obviously, I'm trying to learn how to trade as well, and the guy who was coaching me is like he lives in Dubai, he's mega successful, and he's um he's given out all free training. He doesn't charge anybody, he's opened up like training facilities in the UK free of charge. If you want to do a personal training session with you, it costs you 50 quid. But he doesn't put it on you, it doesn't force it on you, he just says, if you want to do it, you can do it. But if you're not, come use the computers, learn how to trade, get on with it. There's gonna be someone there to help you if you need. And it was like I turned around to him and I was like, mate, you're the modern day Robin Hood. And I was just like, I want to do that for martial arts and for the community for for well being. You know?

SPEAKER_02 43:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

And it just it fits so much, you know. I don't see obviously fighting I loved and it was such a an output for me but I didn't realise at the time that I was making so many people happy. I was making so many kids inspired and motivated to go try feet try my tie and stuff. And I kind of realised like it was better for me to give back and to help others. Yes. Yeah. Than just to take, you know. I felt better as a human being, as a man, as a father, as a husband. If I can give, I'm a better human being. I I feel better in myself, you know. I could go to bed at peace and wake up with a smile on my face, you know. I don't care if I ever drive a Ferrari Met, I generally don't care.

Transition Advice And Financial Risk Management

SPEAKER_00 44:40

You know. But that definition of success for you, you know, isn't to be that single world champion, isn't to be, you know, top of the mountain in or at least what you've defined is what is the kingdom that you want to be a king of, and it isn't to you for you to be up at the top of the tree beating your chest, but it's actually for everyone else to be, you know, participating, to be a central cog in that community. And I think that, you know, just hearing that is excellent. Now, listen, I was I was more just sort of bringing it round really, just to understand, you know, from you, because I've I've taken up a a great amount of your time and I've I've really enjoyed the conversation. And yeah, I suppose I'm interested in that last point or the the sort of last points when you think about what I guess Moi Thai and and sport in itself has given to you when you look at people who are going through their career, certainly you know, following in your footsteps in in many respects. What do you think, you know, from your experience will best help them as they transition into that life beyond sport? And you've made some big decisions when you walked away from the sport, moving to UAE, closing down the you know that initial business, you've made some of those bold decisions. What advice would you give to others?

SPEAKER_03 45:53

I think the first thing you need to do if you're gonna go and set out your own business is get a financial risk manager. That is one of my business partners is a financial risk manager, and he has helped me so much. He's not very much, he's not very attentive right now, because he's he doesn't need to be. But in the path of leading to synergy well-being, understanding where and what and how and why these finances need to be allocated, is a massive learning curve. You know, and I didn't have that in my previous gym with my wife. We didn't have that. And even though we were successful, we could have been a lot more successful, like a hell of a lot more successful. But for the first thing is definitely, definitely get a first a financial risk manager involved. If you can't get him as a per uh if you can't get him as a partner or you give him a profit share, hire him. Hire him. It's the best investment you can do. Your second one would be live every day of your work, career, and your personal life with the passion you've got for your dream. You know what I'm saying? So you just because you've got this dream and it's f it could be five years down the line, you've got to live with that every day. You've got to envision it every day. You've got to tell yourself that you are going to achieve that every day because the moment you have one negative thought of like, I've had it, I've had it. I'll hold my hands up very clearly, I didn't think this gym was gonna be open, and we're still not open. But we've got one inspection and that's it, we're open. So I'm like, we're gonna get it. Yes, I've lost my head a couple of times, as everyone does, we live with emotion, but live with the passion, what you have for that dream, whether it be five years, one year, ten years down the line, live with it every day and envision that you are going to succeed with it every day. Without that, you cannot succeed. You are your worst enemy.

Where To Follow Brad And Final CTA

SPEAKER_00 47:49

And if you think negative, then you've failed at day one. Brad, I've got to say thanks. I think those are two good points, and it you know, it it's interesting in the way that they contrast. One, understand the numbers or get someone in who can help you understand the numbers, and I guess have a dream and believe in it, and you know, keep working towards it. Have that resilience that even if you have a negative thought or a setback, you can get back up and you can make it happen. You can always make it so you can always get back up to you again, you're your worst enemy. They're gonna want to see what you're up to, check out when the gym is open. What's the best place? Where's the best place to find you and follow you?

SPEAKER_03 48:26

Best place is uh the Instagram, Synergy Wellbeing UAE, all one word. And you know, it's not just gonna be soon as you well being for the UAE. We're looking at we've got talks with investment in Brazil, we've got talks with investment in Thailand as well, so it will be something, and you never know, maybe you could be on one of the retreats one day, because we are looking at worldwide retreats, you know. So we can do any Middle East, mate. Please hop over. We'll smash out a session and I'll show you a tie boxing as well.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

Yeah, yeah, but you have to go gentle on me. But yeah, I'll I'll be up for that. I'll be up for that definitely. Listen, Brad.

SPEAKER_03 49:02

Then you're more than welcome anytime, mate. And if uh thank you for having me on the show. It was great.

SPEAKER_00 49:07

No, too easy. Thanks for bringing your perspective. Really enjoyed our chat. Learning a bit more about yourself and um certainly the journey that you are currently on, and I love the skills of perspective that you brought. So massive thanks, Brad. Yeah, mate. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Second Win podcast. We hope you enjoyed hearing insights from today's athlete on transitioning out of competitive careers. If you're looking for career clarity for your next step, make sure you check out secondwin.io for more information or to book a consultation with me. I'd like to thank Claire from Betty Book Design, Nancy from Savvy Podcast Solutions, and Cerise from Copying Content by Lola for their help in putting this podcast together. That's all from me. Take it easy until next time.