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Toby mama what has been the biggest
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obstacle in your career whether that's
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physical or mental or anything that you
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face in time to adversity that you have
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to overcome and how did you manage to
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overcome a big question start
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um I think one of the one of the biggest
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obstacles in my career was back in 2014
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and I was just sort of getting into my
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professional career I'm still working
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full-time I was a truck mechanic I still
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I had a door company so around security
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and a lot of stove content as well it
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was a very busy guy he was working 80
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and it's completely strong man
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spending all my all my money on on a
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hobby so to say doing Strongman
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Competition at the weekend normal food
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and supplements and training you know
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it's very very tough period in my life
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and I went to a conversation it was the
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world deadlift Champs that leads
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I pulled the world record deadlift it's
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462 kilos for a world record
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on that day you had to lower the the
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weight to the floor after you've done
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the left so you you left to wait for me
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to be you get the lockout for the
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referee you've got to lower it down
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and I let go of the bar so I dropped the
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bar I was disallowed the left
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and the prize money for getting the
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world record that day was I mean it
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doesn't seem like a lot of money now but
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it was ten thousand pounds and at the
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time like to me that was a lot of money
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you know working full-time and
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everything it would have been a big
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and I didn't get any money for the lift
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so I did the world record because I
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dropped it I was disallowed to lift
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and I got back home and I just I said to
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the wife I'm quitting strongman I'm done
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I'm sick of spending all my money all my
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time on my effort killing myself day in
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to earn pennies and even lose money on a
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sport that there's no money in so I
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decided that day I was going to quit
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strongman and it was actually my wife
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that convinced me you know sat me down
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and said like whether you got the lift
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you pull the world record deadlift from
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the floor and you prove the will that
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you're one of the best in the world and
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what you do I.E strongman if you can
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pull a world record on the floor and you
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can go out and win the World's Strongest
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Man and it was that weekend so that
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massive loss that massive failure a lot
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of people would have walked away and
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thought stop it you know that's it I'm
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I decided to make that as an opportunity
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to tell myself to go full time and that
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we can equip a job I started the process
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to sell my security business
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and that was the weekend I became a
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full-time professional strongman
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the sort of middle of 2014 and uh that's
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that's when it all began and pretty much
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was it three years later I won the
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World's Strongest Man so you know
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turning that massive negative you know
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that adversity into a massive positive
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a very hard time in my life and
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obviously even even at making the
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decision to quit the job and self-door
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it was a very worrying time because you
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know I didn't have much money in the
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bank I've got mortgage and bills to pay
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so I had to go for all that process of
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becoming a professor strongman on a very
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very low low amount of money and thank
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I think that barely made me you know and
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I and I realized that over the years
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that you've got to have these little
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failures in life you've got to have
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these little negatives
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another setbacks to make you get off and
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come back bigger and stronger and I've
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worked with a lot of psychiatrists
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over the years and one one of them said
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to me something that stuck with me for
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the rest of my career
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and it was about losing competitions and
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I couldn't take losing I couldn't take
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losing anything in life
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but this psychiatrist sat me down and
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was like right what what if I told you
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you were only 12 competitions we were
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only 12 losses away from achieving your
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dream and becoming the World's Strongest
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Man and that's when it hit me but you've
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got to have the losses you've got to
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have the failures to go you've got to go
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for that process to be the best
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no Champions no Champion is born you
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know prepare for Champion you want to
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work hard for it and put your hearts on
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something that's that's what that
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Iceberg theory is that people don't see
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all the stuff underneath they only see
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the peak of your career one of the
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things that you mentioned there was
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things that you've that you've been
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through and we've asked this people this
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question to a couple of people today
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it's about criticism and obviously in
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the public eye on social media you're
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seeing get a lot of it
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how do you deal with that from a mindset
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amount of point of view
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I mean Prince says there is something
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that anybody gets you know you can be
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anyone in life and you get princess or
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um I just see it as fuel to the fire you
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know if you're being criticized and
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you're doing something right in my
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opinion you know you end of the day
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you gotta you gotta pick a path you've
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got to pick a goal and you're going to
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stick to it people are going to
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criticize a long way but we're going to
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say you're doing things wrong people are
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going to say you're acting wrong people
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are going to say you can't be done
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people are going to say it's impossible
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you've got to ignore those people you're
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gonna you're gonna take all that all
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that negativity put it on that fuel fuel
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and you use it as energy to push forward
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and achieve your goals and become
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somebody if you if I talk to a little
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rip you know obviously I'll see it yeah
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but I just tend to ignore it you know I
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you know end of the day
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it says more about them than it does
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about you if they're going to take time
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out of their day to come on and call you
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names and try and drag you down it says
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more about their life than it does your
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own and that's how I see it so let them
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carry on you mentioned that about your
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goals obviously since finishing strong
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man you've got on to do some different
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challenges more and more reasonably
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did you find like once you finished
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strongman there was like a hole there
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that you needed to to build like a neck
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Challenge and something to Aspire to do
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and is there any other challenges that
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you feel you would like to take on over
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your career the next couple years
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I mean challenges for me is my life it's
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something I've done a bit of annual game
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set challenges very few people know that
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or probably a lot of people that do know
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now because I've never show up about it
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but I was a national champion swimmer
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when I was young teenagers on the GB
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Olympic Squad so it's basically on the
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GPS Junior Olympic team to go to the
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and even then you know I was I was just
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obsessed with being the best of a sport
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moved into bodybuilding that didn't
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quite you know suit my friend move into
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strongman set some enormous goals in a
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strong man achieve that
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and then yeah after that it's like the
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big question mark what do you do after
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you choose such a pinnacle in your life
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and it's well documented actually that
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you know you get this Olympic gold
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medalists these world champions now
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there's massive High in line and then
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the next day you'd spot down to reality
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you're back home you're doing the dishes
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you're taking your kids to school
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you know better than everybody else and
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I guess for me that's what I'm always
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seeking I'm always seeking that Euphoria
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I'm always seeking that thrill of being
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the best in the world or something and
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you know after worlds it was a tough
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thing to do to sort of Step Back From
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take a different path and go down the
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you know doing TV shows doing
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endorsements doing doing meet and greets
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lectures in a way around the country and
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that became my path now I had a great
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time and then obviously the boxing match
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came up and I thought I saw that was a
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nice Challenge and it was a nice bit of
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payback for somebody but
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and now it's just resetting the goals
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again getting back into the TV staff and
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just reset the goal to get back into
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training now so yeah we'll set myself a
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lot of goals for me now it's just about
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you know I've got goals to sort of dox
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about TV and shows get the profile up
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there and just just ride the wave on the
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back of the world's strongest one title
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really that's that was my plan all along
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how did you find that transition because
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obviously it's not the most natural path
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then be on the other side of the camera
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it's not something that comes natural to
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people to be able to jump in from this
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stuff I mean if people watch your
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content you're you're pretty natural
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they're comfortable doing content and
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speaking in front of camera what would
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your advice be to other people who
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potentially want to document more there
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Jenny and what they're doing and get
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more comfortable beyond the other side
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of the camera transitioning into the
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sort of PR world so to say and doing TV
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and something that came natural to me
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and I've always had this boisterous
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nature of just being yourself you know I
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go to all the brothers you always put
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you in kicking me up you know I was
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punching kicked off I wasn't brought up
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and I think you know I worked in a in a
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garage I went to as a mechanic for 12
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years I think it was I was I was a
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dormant security guard on nightclubs and
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so I've been out there and I've
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experienced the real life you know and
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I've I took the smacks on the door and
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I've given them as well
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um and I think that teaches you a lot in
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life and I think that's why I'm quite
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relatable you know you I'm not I'm not
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someone that's been handing a gold
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Trophy and sort of handed the success
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I've had to work my way up and you know
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I've done my nine to five job and I've
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worked 80 hours a week and I've never
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even killed myself and I've struggled to
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pay my mortgage you know I've been
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um but I think that's why I'm just I
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just I think I'm a bit more relatable to
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the people that you know come a bit more
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attachable everything's the right word
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is because I'm just like everybody else
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in this room you know and today I have
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to sit down and take like everybody else
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I'm no different than anybody so that
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and that's that's what I enjoy
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I enjoy being myself and
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portray myself on camera and you know
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people seem to enjoy the real lighting