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hey Runners only with dime Harley
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red is only with dom Harvey and Mike
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ruddling Radix nutrition founder and CEO
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g'day mate g'day thank you so much for
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having me here today and your fabulous
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space
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um here we are Radix Nutrition HQ in the
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waikato a massive state-of-the-art
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factory it's uh it's a beautiful
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environment I I if I was sick I think
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I'd probably feel safer here than in
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middlemore hospital in terms of the
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hygiene and the beauty of this place oh
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it's great to have you here thank you so
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much for coming down yep first things
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first
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um what what is a Radix why Radix why
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did you see if I'm if I'm you and I'm 23
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years old which you were when you
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started the company and I'm starting a
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nutrition company I'd probably call it
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Dom Harvey nutrition
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you weren't tempted to call it you know
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rattling nutrition no well I the name's
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a pretty special thing and uh we had a
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few weeks of soul searching a lot of uh
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looking online or looking through for
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meaning on Words and thesauruses but we
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I wanted a name that would really
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represent how we viewed nutrition and
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health which is to take it right back to
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fundamentals and understand where these
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things actually come from and I found
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the Latin word Radix which is the root
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of a complex system in biology or
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mathematics
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and that is represented for us we've
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always taken a really deep first
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principle to look at where our health
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and performance comes from what is
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metabolism what's it's affected by what
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what nutrients
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and that that word's given us meaning
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ever since and yeah the the Latin term
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for a complex system which is how we
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view nutrition I appreciate that
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explanation I had no idea what people
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ask me what is what does it mean I don't
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know yeah so there's the few companies
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around the place called Radix now but at
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the start there was uh just one or two
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yeah but um who knows maybe it's trendy
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one thing that I've learned from my
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association with Radix nutrition over
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the last couple of months is just how
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focused you are on on being the leader
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and and the front runner and ahead of
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the competition you are and I suppose in
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a way that extends into things like um
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being Innovative with your marketing
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like sponsoring a podcast
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um podcast is a growing sort of media
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form
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um but you guys approached me about
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sponsorship which I was I thought that's
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that's really Innovative why why did you
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decide to sponsor the podcast by the way
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do you know how long that decision took
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us
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I don't know I'll spend a bit of time
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shadowing you today I can't imagine it
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was a quick one I feel like it was a
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fairly meticulous decision I reckon that
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was under five minutes oh really yeah we
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um did you rush into a decision no it
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was a no-brainer it was a no-brainer
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yeah we uh I didn't spot the opportunity
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some of my colleagues did and you guys
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were fantastic and have been ever since
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so we thought it was a no-brainer the
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other one we loved about it is that your
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story and what you're trying to start if
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if we could spend our any of our
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advertising budget into help bring
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awareness to what you're doing we
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thought that'd be a fantastic Mark to
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leave behind and um you know I you you
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guys will go on to be huge and we we
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hope that we could play some role in in
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helping get that going so no it was an
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easy decision it's been fantastic oh
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that's brilliant wow easy decision
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um and I I um I'm you know so pleased to
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be associated with you guys it makes me
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want to work harder to spread the Radix
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nutrition name as well you guys are
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doing great yeah well thanks I
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appreciate that actually
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um yeah something else that might be
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worth bringing up
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um the biggest podcast episode I've had
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to date was one a couple of months back
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with um sane Robertson uh one in New
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Zealand's uh most accomplished middle
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distance Runners of all time
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um but he did an exclusive interview
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with me on the runners only podcast uh
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when it was announced that he'd been you
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know banned from all forms of sport for
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seven years for using Epi which is a
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performance enhancing drug and I I was
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very excited when I scored this
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exclusive and I got on the phone to your
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CEO because I thought he'd want to share
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in the excitement yeah and to my
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surprise he said well let me run this
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past the team and I'll get back to you
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and you guys
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intentionally wanted to be excluded from
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that episode you didn't want to be
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involved I I don't know if we did the
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right thing on that we were having a
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really really busy day and I wanted to
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say yes I I probably don't have the view
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on drugs and sport that many people
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would think that I do but a lot of
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athletes it's a really tough industry
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you need to be pretty forgiving with
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young athletes and the decisions they
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make because a lot of times they're just
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kids but I thought that was a yes and
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then I thought I'd just too tired and
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too fast to make a good decision so we
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decided but I don't know if we did the
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right thing but it was I haven't
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listened to the full podcast but it was
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a really it's a tough lesson it was a
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really meaningful question and an
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experience to have gone through and we
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probably should have been there
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alongside it
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did you was part of it nerves that
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people would would see the the content
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and then see the Radix nutrition logo
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and and draw a loose length between the
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two yeah yeah right I didn't know but um
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we we've been so busy and I I just
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thought we'd play it really safe right
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and um that was why but I I will listen
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to the podcast and um
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it's a challenging time and I hope he's
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okay yeah I'm in regular contact with
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them on WhatsApp so I mean day by day
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he's getting better and better it's
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funny though isn't it so I'm from a
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commercial radio background where any
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sort of publicity you can get you froth
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at the opportunity so I and then I saw
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it from your perspective and I thought
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okay this is why I'm not running a
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successful company but we might have
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done it wrong but I uh how did he get in
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touch with you I I don't know the story
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oh we've been bouncing messages
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backwards and forwards on Instagram for
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a while now so that's how that link came
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up
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um yeah but you you guys are um you take
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that stuff very seriously don't you like
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um yeah clean cleanness and Sport and
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that reflects in your products and we
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yeah I mean we
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we make our products uh we go to
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extraordinary lens to make sure
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um we're not going to get positive
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result for someone so we drug test our
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products and we know our facility Well
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on our suppliers but um it's a difficult
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part of sport
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and um you keep hoping it will go away
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but
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it's there's a messy side to Sport and a
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lot of pressure and and young people as
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they figure out who they are in life and
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what you're meant to do and not meant to
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do and
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I feel sorry for guys that
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go through that and make those decisions
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and invariably they end up
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you know seeing
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seeing the error of their ways and you
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just hope that they get past it okay but
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well that's the thing with saying I
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think it's um probably a valuable lesson
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for any young people in sport saying you
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can see him and say don't do what this
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guy did like he's he's messed his life
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up like uh yeah it has yeah everything
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that that means something to him he's
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now gonna I mean he'll be fine he's 33
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he just has to reshape his life but at
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the moment it feels like the life that
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he's spent
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I don't know the last 16 or 17 years
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building is effectively over
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yeah bill is an exciting life around the
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corner from I'm sure 100 I agree I agree
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yeah all right so let's go let's go all
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the way back so what's are you a New
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Zealander you're an Englishman you're
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from a place called The Isle of Wight
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which is a smallish island off the
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mainland of England yeah see
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um you're born in New Zealand no no um I
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was born on the Isle of Wight I'm from
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the UK uh
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my father actually was born in London
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but when he was
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um eight or nine moved to Auckland and
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he was there until his mid-20s yeah
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that's why I thought perhaps you were
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born here because um yeah your dad uh
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was a uh basically came here at the age
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11. um became the youngest cop ever in
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New Zealand became a cop at the age of
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16. yeah can you imagine being pulled
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over arrested by a 16 year old yeah well
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if she's met Paul maybe you could but uh
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no he's very proud of that but um he was
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uh we we spent you know all of my
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lifetime obviously in the UK and he he
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wanted to move back to New Zealand for a
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long time
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and I was cycling in uh San Diego at the
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time and my cycling career came to an
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end and I moved back home and home at
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that time was uh
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Russell in in the in Northland could
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think of worse places to come it's been
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amazing yeah yeah no I I spent when I
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was a kid my grandparents lived in
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Howick in Auckland and really fond
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memories coming over and visiting them
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maybe once once every year or so but New
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Zealand's a special country yeah so
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let's um talk about your day for a
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little bit so a cop in the New Zealand
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Police Force at the age of 16 yeah uh
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then by the time he's 21 he Taps out of
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that and becomes a competitive sailor
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yeah
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uh he yeah he's always loved sailing so
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um what sort of what sort of boats are
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we talking okay
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uh a boat called a Finn which was the
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men's Olympic single-handed dinghy and
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um
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yeah he finished his time in the place
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and uh he had a sale-making business
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um to help support uh he and a few of
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his friends uh you know beginning
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careers in sailing and um I think that
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business kind of took off a bit and he
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got split between the business and his
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sailing career and I think he made it to
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Olympic Reserve that he had other
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commitments with a young family and
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um his business over there but yeah he
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he loved uh he's always loved sailing
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he was kind of one of the founders of or
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pioneers I guess you could say of using
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Composite Materials in the sailing
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industry so
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um carbon fiber Kevlar you know when he
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got into it Boats were made out of wood
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yeah right and um
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he saw the
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boats uh pretty old-fashioned and could
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learn a lot from the aircraft industry
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so
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um which no one listened to at the time
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those are made in traditional ways and
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most of the Americas cup technology the
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materials the engineering the science
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behind it would have started with his
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first major company SB systems in the
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90s and early 2000s in the UK and they
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made everything from
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I think they made the first carbon fiber
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monocoque chassis for Formula One with
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McLaren well they've sailing so he had a
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20 odd year career in composite
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materials
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and yeah big inspiration it's done some
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cool stuff yeah and isn't it so I don't
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know if this is something you seem like
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a guy that's always constantly looking
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forward rather than spending much time
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sitting down reflecting on what's
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Happening not good at that but it's it's
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funny to see like the if you compare the
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trajectory of your Dad's life and yours
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it's very similar like a competitive
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sport then tapping out to focus on
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business at a relatively young age
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yeah
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yeah I get I'm kind of funny that you
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see those things as you go I'd like to
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learn from a few things here and there
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but it does look like we're going down a
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similar path I had him in learn here and
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there like like just what what
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you're dead now like raise your son
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definitely how you were raised is that
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what you mean or I I've grown up around
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quite a lot of
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pressure and I guess I keep being in
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those situations and it would
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um it probably a skill I don't have to
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avoid that but right pressure like a
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like a a is it a high performance family
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if you take on a lot yeah um
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there's a Hunter Thompson quite always
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like which is not related to all men in
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this but if you buy the ticket and take
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the ride you know if you try something
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difficult it's uh yeah it can be can be
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pretty hard at times well but but I like
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the impression I get from my dealings
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with you is you're a perfectionist but
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do you do you think that's something
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that's in your in your DNA or something
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that's been like like drummed into you
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from your parents uh no I'm good at
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building stuff
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so if if something's important it needs
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to be done well
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um you know I feel like but anything you
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do I feel like you're gonna do I'm crap
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at a lot of things I think but I'm good
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at some things but um I I get called a
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perfectionist but if something's
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important do it well yeah do it well
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it'll come back and bite you and then
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there's a lot of things I don't do so um
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I I don't reflect a great deal right
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what are you crap at what have you done
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that you're like nah this isn't for me
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what Springs to mind
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I can't think of anything I I you
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mentioned it before we start like I tend
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to focus on the things a couple of I
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want to do yeah and um consistently my
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favorite thing has always been learning
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when you do something for 10 years uh
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you become very good at it and the joy
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of being a novice in it goes away and
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it's uh it's fantastic to
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start uh from from fresh and to learn
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things so yeah but from my perspective I
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disagree it's like I hate being in the
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The Learning phase and I like like
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getting through that phase to the point
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where you can do something okay
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yeah I I think if you keep pushing
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you're always learning which I I don't
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I've always enjoyed pushing further I
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guess because you learn more
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so you um so you're in the Isle of Wight
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skiing
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I'm crap at skiing but I bet if you
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decided to do it well you could end up
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doing it well but no I'm never my wife
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is an amazing skier and um she's if we
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tried three or four times now and I'll
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let that one go yeah right so
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um so you go to boarding school at the
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age intermediate age I think we call it
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here in New Zealand like 11 12. yeah
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yeah was that um was that always the
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plan to go to boarding school the reason
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I ask you here in New Zealand it's um me
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and my brother when we were growing up
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it was like sort of hung over our head
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like if we're being naughty or get into
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detention at school it's like you keep
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that up you'll go to boarding school so
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it was like a punishment yeah it
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probably was yeah no I uh or was it
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always on the plan I was when I was a
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kid so growing up on the Isle of Wight
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um is pretty small community and I was
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uh I was a swimmer and there's a school
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in the UK which is probably uh it's a
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sports academy called milfield
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and it gave me a chance to uh
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you know be looked after with education
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and as I said to you earlier on pretty
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dyslexic and then they had an amazing
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swimming team
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so that was a chance to just
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focus on the things that at that time
00:14:40
were important it was a it was a
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privilege but yeah a bit of it would be
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um
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yeah I kicked out of the house and you
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really got like what what did you do I
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can't imagine you gotta you've got to be
00:14:52
a time when just sending your kids off
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to boarding school is pretty appealing
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and I'm sure that's part of the
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calculation but um right could you think
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of any like incidents or reasons that
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your parents would have been like right
00:15:02
there as uh we got to ship him off
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there's probably a few they'll come back
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I'll probably repress them fair enough
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no I think I tried my best I think it
00:15:11
was okay but um yeah boarding school was
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an experience
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yeah was that how was that because it's
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um some people completely thrive in that
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environment yeah and just love it and
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then they vow to send their own Sons if
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they have them to boarding school and
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then there's others that just are
00:15:26
miserable the entire time and have have
00:15:28
nothing but you know done well you've
00:15:30
got all your mates sir you've got
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fantastic facilities and you just get to
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focus on what you love and um
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you know I remember it really fondly for
00:15:39
that and obviously homesickness and
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other things are difficult but
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you know I was at a school with about
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twelve hundred other people and um
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fantastic friends and and opportunities
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but uh yes they're super homesick at
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times but yeah
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that's good I'm sure the time will come
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when I wanna
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ask a question if you kick your son off
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to boarding school but um difficult not
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not on the cards at the moment yeah and
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what was the um the culture like at the
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time was it a like a a bullying culture
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or a prank culture yeah it was
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interesting when I was
00:16:13
there
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um some of the older kids
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that culture was there
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um and I'd say it'd been like you get
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hazing and other terms it's a crap
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culture
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and it I'd say it stopped while I was
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there but when we started off there was
00:16:30
all of all of that when you you're the
00:16:32
first year going and it's just BS but
00:16:35
the seniors on the Juniors or yeah and
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it's some sort of stupid tradition you
00:16:39
know and um I was never a part of that
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and I think that probably stopped
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completely while I was there but right
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right yeah silly how did you manage to
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avoid it oh no I went through it while I
00:16:51
went there I just never do it to someone
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else oh that's good was it still you
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never did it to anyone else but it was
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still going on in your ear and you just
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had them when we got to seniors none of
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us were doing it to to younger kids you
00:17:02
know it'd stop but you went through a
00:17:03
bit I think it was pretty good but um
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uh I was on the swimming team and the
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boarding house I was in was mostly
00:17:11
swimmers and luckily we sort of stuck
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together right I think they they stood
00:17:15
up for us a bit but what was it can you
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remember what what your hazing entailed
00:17:20
no
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it's just no no good no good stories on
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that I don't think but um it's not a
00:17:26
cool thing yeah yeah pretty tame stuff
00:17:29
though compared to other things but um
00:17:31
yeah right like short sheeting the
00:17:32
Beards or things like that
00:17:34
we we did a lot of good pranks me and a
00:17:37
few other guys flips a guy's room in
00:17:41
about half an hour turn all the
00:17:42
furniture upside down and glue it to the
00:17:45
floor
00:17:47
um another guy before one of the
00:17:48
holidays we uh we watered the carpet and
00:17:52
planted crests
00:17:53
and uh
00:17:55
the cleaner or someone opened it up
00:17:57
three or four weeks later and there was
00:17:58
a lawn inside that's a slow burning
00:18:01
prank yeah that's a good one there's
00:18:03
lots of fun like that but no it was it
00:18:05
was uh
00:18:06
it's all good yeah that's cool and why
00:18:09
swimming swimming I've never been a
00:18:11
swimming myself I've always been a
00:18:12
runner but swimming seems
00:18:14
my favorite
00:18:16
insert name here Michael Phelps uh Ian
00:18:19
Thorpe there's thousands of kids every
00:18:21
morning that are going to the pool with
00:18:22
their parents at 5am and going back to
00:18:24
the pool in the afternoon feels like
00:18:25
it's a lot of work a lot of training a
00:18:27
lot of discipline for yeah the very very
00:18:30
slim chance of making it big a few
00:18:32
things on that so when as I said earlier
00:18:34
on when I was a kid I was really
00:18:36
dyslexic
00:18:38
um and my I think at the point when uh
00:18:42
my parents were not quite sure what to
00:18:45
do and the stories I've I've heard about
00:18:47
it pretty bad
00:18:49
and uh my parents got told by someone
00:18:54
who was helping me that one thing that
00:18:56
had been shown to be helpful is to get
00:18:58
kids into a sport where they can have
00:19:01
their own space and have a chance to
00:19:02
practice I think something physical that
00:19:04
doesn't involve learning and so I I got
00:19:06
put into swimming
00:19:09
um at a young age I I started swimming
00:19:11
when I was
00:19:12
probably three I was Squad swimming
00:19:16
probably about four and a half or five
00:19:18
what does that mean exactly
00:19:21
um
00:19:21
Squad swimming is not swimming lessons
00:19:24
you turn up and you do an hour and a
00:19:25
half two hours and it would be four and
00:19:27
a half to six K in the pool you're
00:19:29
joking a preschool age well I might not
00:19:31
be doing that but that's proper sort of
00:19:33
yeah right level and um
00:19:35
I remember
00:19:37
doing swimming lessons and my dad
00:19:40
asking the instructor to let me up a
00:19:42
level because otherwise you're learning
00:19:44
to swim for years and
00:19:46
um he uh
00:19:48
a friend of ours who was actually my
00:19:50
Midwife
00:19:51
um
00:19:53
we I was learning to swim in a class
00:19:55
with just really young kids
00:19:58
and
00:19:59
dad had taken me swimming a few times
00:20:01
with him and he knew that I could swim I
00:20:04
don't know a thousand meters 1500 meters
00:20:06
as a kid and you got a swimming lesson
00:20:07
you'd swim six lengths
00:20:10
and um
00:20:11
so he told an instructor look this kid
00:20:13
actually can swim we need to stop with
00:20:16
these he needs to go up to a squad and
00:20:19
so he took me down to the pool one day
00:20:20
and like a Saturday and I swam some big
00:20:23
1500 meters and then afterwards he took
00:20:26
me around to our friend's house and said
00:20:28
oh Mike and I've just been down to the
00:20:30
pool and I made him swim 1500 meters and
00:20:33
Rosie I remember Paul saying that she
00:20:35
looked at him and thought it was some
00:20:36
sort of child abuse and everything
00:20:39
everyone thought it was ridiculous and
00:20:41
then I ended up going to a squad and you
00:20:44
just straight off the bat you do three
00:20:45
or four K and no one thinks a big deal
00:20:47
of it but um swimming meant a lot for me
00:20:50
because it gave me a chance to focus on
00:20:52
something
00:20:53
which I think later in life I've
00:20:55
discovered that sort of myopic focus on
00:20:58
things and I
00:20:59
got to sort of meditate for two four
00:21:01
hours a day on swimming and
00:21:05
um you know like many small Sports the
00:21:07
skill goes as deep as you want you can
00:21:09
never perfect it and um I did that for
00:21:13
um 12 years maybe this may be just your
00:21:16
answer for this rather than speaking
00:21:18
collectively for every swim every person
00:21:20
that's ever swam in a pool but as
00:21:21
someone that's noticed from a as a
00:21:23
distance Runner I can go out and my mind
00:21:25
can wander and I can think about it a
00:21:27
different a million different problems
00:21:28
when you're swimming can does your mind
00:21:30
Wonder or do you have 100 yeah I was
00:21:32
talking to someone about this last week
00:21:34
so you can get completely lost in it
00:21:36
when I learned how to swim
00:21:38
I was lucky my father and then a couple
00:21:41
of the early coaches I had
00:21:43
were technicians they really focused on
00:21:45
how to swim properly and I used to
00:21:48
practice that every stroke
00:21:50
and I didn't realize that other kids
00:21:52
didn't do that you know people jump in
00:21:53
and thrash up and down and then a few
00:21:56
times a session or a few times a week
00:21:57
they'll work on on technique and every
00:22:00
time my hand went in the water in front
00:22:02
of my face you'd watch The Catch you'd
00:22:04
watch the shape of it you'd have a feel
00:22:06
for it I stood at every single stroke
00:22:09
and you would just completely fixate on
00:22:11
it and you can wake up half an hour
00:22:13
later and realize that you've just been
00:22:15
thinking about that
00:22:17
and you swam 1500 meters and I've I've
00:22:21
done some really boring swim sets that
00:22:23
would be
00:22:24
swimming can be really boring what I
00:22:28
just can't like we did stuff like five
00:22:30
by 800 or five by one thousand which is
00:22:33
horrendous you realize the coach has
00:22:35
just given up in the office beforehand
00:22:39
but you you can do something for 15
00:22:41
minutes and you remember the first 30
00:22:42
seconds then you remember touching the
00:22:44
wall at the end of it just like uh
00:22:46
running I used to doing cycling as well
00:22:48
which is probably a bit scarier
00:22:50
I used to get that in time traveling I
00:22:53
you get because time traveling sucks
00:22:55
like swimming's hard but an hour time
00:22:58
trial
00:22:59
is just as yeah you're in you're in pain
00:23:02
from the outside it's as painful as you
00:23:03
can make it and it's a sad thing about
00:23:06
it and the better you get the better you
00:23:07
are at being right on the limit and that
00:23:09
every second sucks yeah and you used to
00:23:11
get to the point you couldn't remember
00:23:12
anything that happened in the race you
00:23:13
just remember that you got here but I
00:23:15
think you can always do that maybe
00:23:16
that's trying to sort of black out I
00:23:18
think so so you're at say secondary
00:23:20
school age as we call it here in New
00:23:22
Zealand what sort of swimming are you
00:23:23
doing at that stage is it like two
00:23:24
sessions a day when I went to that
00:23:27
school seven to nine sessions a week
00:23:30
so some days would be double so like
00:23:33
double Monday double Tuesday Wednesday
00:23:34
afternoon double Thursday and a Friday
00:23:37
and a Saturday
00:23:39
yeah they weren't very smart with their
00:23:41
training and I think swimmers do too
00:23:43
much
00:23:44
it's a lot of work they do a lot of
00:23:46
volume and I think when you see young
00:23:48
swimmers they're always um
00:23:50
they look a bit stressed and too skinny
00:23:52
but um it's just the culture of it so do
00:23:55
you have any natural Talent or were you
00:23:57
just a bloody hard worker no I was
00:23:58
really good at swimming well yeah yeah
00:24:00
but again I only focused on
00:24:03
um
00:24:04
uh freestyle in the end
00:24:07
and I managed to always get it with my
00:24:09
coaches that I just do freestyle and um
00:24:12
I was really good at that
00:24:14
and you um you gave it up because you
00:24:17
end up with a shoulder injury like is
00:24:18
that an overuse thing or what yeah one
00:24:20
day we had a uh a big session that was
00:24:24
for butterfly
00:24:26
which I didn't normally swim and it
00:24:28
would have been like three or four K of
00:24:30
fly and fly drills and that was the end
00:24:32
of my shoulders
00:24:34
and um
00:24:36
yeah wasn't very smart but it was an
00:24:39
impingement so it's just right over the
00:24:40
top and um that never came back I I'm
00:24:43
sure I could have fixed it but that
00:24:45
immediately destroyed my swimming career
00:24:47
right and um both shoulders and I tried
00:24:50
for like a year
00:24:52
and I got to the point where I could
00:24:54
maybe get 10 minutes without pain and
00:24:55
then it just came back and when it came
00:24:57
back it was like that for a month and um
00:24:59
I I was fortunate I had a really good
00:25:02
couple of really good teachers at school
00:25:04
uh who were into rowing indoor rowing
00:25:07
which is a huge sport but everyone
00:25:09
thinks it's a weird sport but indoor
00:25:11
rowing on a rowing machine all right
00:25:13
right yeah it's a huge sport yes it's a
00:25:16
weird sports but there's um it's like
00:25:19
having a running race on a treatment
00:25:20
like yeah it is and it but it's it's
00:25:23
hugely competitive so I uh
00:25:25
I buddied up with a couple of my uh
00:25:28
teachers at school
00:25:29
and we used to go and do that and I
00:25:31
ended up we did I did UK Nationals and I
00:25:34
I'm guessing I was like eighth in the UK
00:25:37
indoor and then I went to Europeans and
00:25:39
that was cool but the school wasn't near
00:25:41
any lakes and at the same time I
00:25:43
discovered cycling
00:25:45
and realized how cool that was that you
00:25:47
can just get on a bike and go somewhere
00:25:50
yeah how did you yeah you have to after
00:25:52
years and years of spending hours just
00:25:54
looking at that black line in the pool
00:25:56
yeah for hours on end day after day week
00:25:59
after week month after month yeah the
00:26:01
freedom of um being out in the open on a
00:26:03
bike it must have been like nothing else
00:26:04
it was incredible and I um I I started
00:26:07
one summer holiday when I was a kid
00:26:10
and um so I was at school I came home
00:26:13
and uh my father didn't school holidays
00:26:16
are a waste of time
00:26:17
and uh what do you mean in his well you
00:26:21
should be doing something oh you did and
00:26:23
I I you know and I I kind of agree but
00:26:26
he was lucky we had a chap on the Isle
00:26:28
of Wight called Roger prowse
00:26:30
who would have been in his 60s and he
00:26:32
was like 10 times in a row National and
00:26:36
World Champion for rowing indoors and so
00:26:39
I used to come right with Roger in the
00:26:40
evenings and then in the morning I think
00:26:43
it was like 6 30 I'd be on the bike and
00:26:45
I get an hour and a half in cycling on
00:26:47
the road
00:26:48
and um and that was a schedule
00:26:51
and I kind of loved being on the bike
00:26:53
you know you at that time
00:26:56
I was new to it and your son's coming up
00:26:58
on some country road and you the birds
00:27:01
are starting to sing and you're by
00:27:02
yourself and it's just fantastic and um
00:27:05
I loved it and I I got a chance to
00:27:08
discover cycling uh that way
00:27:10
and then I went back to boarding school
00:27:12
and I was the only cyclist also they
00:27:15
didn't have a cycle team no they was you
00:27:17
were the best cyclist in the school
00:27:18
immediately but immediately and there
00:27:20
was one teacher called Mick day and I
00:27:23
used to go and hang out with him and we
00:27:25
became really good mates and
00:27:28
he would take me out bike riding
00:27:30
once or twice a week on Saturday or
00:27:33
Sunday morning I go for a bike ride with
00:27:34
him and he was just one of the best
00:27:37
teachers I ever had it's so cool and um
00:27:40
he thought I was pretty good at it and
00:27:42
he he's he never raced he just loves
00:27:45
cycling and he was really passionate the
00:27:48
sort of people that really build a sport
00:27:50
you know loved it and he heard that
00:27:52
British cycling had a talent program
00:27:53
where they would
00:27:55
come around to schools and
00:27:58
do a series of bike tests on kids and if
00:28:01
you achieve certain numbers they take
00:28:03
you onto a development Squad
00:28:06
and he signed the school up for that
00:28:10
and it was me and one other girl
00:28:13
from the school and then about six other
00:28:14
people from the local area were hosted
00:28:16
at the school and we went through these
00:28:18
tests and I was fortunate to pass that
00:28:20
and then went on to National selection
00:28:21
for that and then
00:28:23
I was on that they called that the
00:28:25
talent team and I was on that for
00:28:27
probably a year a year and a half and
00:28:30
then um
00:28:32
they focused on the track which I wasn't
00:28:35
very good at and it was like a velodrome
00:28:37
yeah yeah and you you've got to be
00:28:38
really good at bike skills for that and
00:28:40
I'd only just started riding
00:28:42
and when you go up against kids that
00:28:43
have been riding on the track since
00:28:45
they're five years old it's a bit much
00:28:46
to take in
00:28:48
um but it looks by the way yeah my only
00:28:51
experience with velodrome is watching it
00:28:53
on the Commonwealth Games in the
00:28:54
Olympics yeah and when you see a Wipeout
00:28:56
it looks harrowing yeah and you you end
00:28:58
up when you end up in a bunch at a 45
00:29:00
degree angle with 60 people no breaks
00:29:03
and everyone's not only trying to just
00:29:06
ride the bike and be tactical but Sprint
00:29:08
as fast as they can
00:29:10
you can't there's if you've got any
00:29:12
doubt in that you've lost and then it's
00:29:14
terrifying yeah and so I got into road
00:29:17
racing I left school a year early for
00:29:19
that but at the time I went to school I
00:29:21
was the only cyclist and uh
00:29:24
I went to my swim coach and said look I
00:29:26
I'm done with swimming I want to do
00:29:28
cycling and I he was happy with that but
00:29:31
I had to get signed off from the swim
00:29:33
team
00:29:34
to go cycling and I I went to our head
00:29:37
of sport and he said we don't have a
00:29:38
cycling team
00:29:40
so why would I why would we it was an
00:29:42
old boy and he was
00:29:44
grumpy
00:29:45
and I said well that's kind of the
00:29:48
school's problem not mine but I want to
00:29:49
go cycling I've got a bike why can't I
00:29:53
and he said or show me you're not
00:29:54
[ __ ] it
00:29:55
how do I know you're not
00:29:59
you know you're only good I went back to
00:30:01
my dorm and I came out with a letter
00:30:02
from British cycling saying you know I'm
00:30:04
on the on this team and he said all
00:30:06
right you're a cyclist and he never
00:30:08
asked me any questions and after school
00:30:10
I used to get on my bike and I'd ride
00:30:13
you know
00:30:15
um 50 to 80 or 100K and I'd never tell
00:30:18
anyone where no one ever asked where I
00:30:20
was going
00:30:21
and in hindsight I'm sure it doesn't
00:30:23
work like that anymore Oh you mean like
00:30:25
the school they yeah so you'd be going
00:30:27
for say four hours no one would know
00:30:29
where I was right no one cared and in a
00:30:32
world of I'm sure safety as it is now
00:30:34
that's not okay but I remember we're in
00:30:36
school in Somerset and the nearest city
00:30:38
was uh Bristol which was a proper drive
00:30:41
away
00:30:42
and when I was 15 or so I got back from
00:30:45
a bike ride and the wife Around The
00:30:47
Boarding House said oh where have you
00:30:48
been
00:30:49
and I said I've been to Bristol
00:30:52
and she
00:30:54
couldn't believe that
00:30:56
and I could see her do the math that
00:30:58
that's probably not okay that we've just
00:31:00
said 15 or I'd ride a bike to Bristol
00:31:02
but I'm pretty sure she just didn't she
00:31:05
just passed on it but it's one of those
00:31:07
things I I don't want to write an
00:31:09
incident report I'm going to pretend I
00:31:10
didn't hear that yeah that would have
00:31:12
been like a hundred and probably 160
00:31:14
180k but um yeah it's good though good
00:31:17
and why did you get into time traveling
00:31:19
time traveling seems
00:31:21
awful like it's um time traveling for
00:31:24
anyone that doesn't know it's a varying
00:31:25
distance what's the average distance of
00:31:26
a time trial we do two in the UK which
00:31:28
was uh 10 Mile and 25 miles so 16k and
00:31:32
40K right and it's basically just go as
00:31:34
go as hard as what you if and can for
00:31:36
yeah for that time so I'm guessing the
00:31:38
40K like under just under an hour yeah
00:31:41
so I the best I got is very cost
00:31:43
dependent and again in time trotting
00:31:45
there are fast courses and slow courses
00:31:47
but I I got to about I think I was
00:31:49
fourth in the UK
00:31:51
once or twice for my age but um
00:31:54
I think the best I ever did for that was
00:31:56
about 50 minutes or 51 minutes on a on a
00:31:58
normal fast course I think people can
00:32:00
relate 51 to 52 minutes yeah yeah yes
00:32:04
that's basically the same speed as what
00:32:05
a car goes around the city that's a fun
00:32:07
decays now yeah a a crap motorbike a
00:32:10
scooter yeah and you've got to do an on
00:32:12
your own you're not sitting on someone's
00:32:13
wheel or it's pretty it's pretty fun
00:32:15
when you're down in that tuck position
00:32:17
and you've got all the kit on and you're
00:32:18
doing
00:32:20
you do 52 50 52 54k on the flat and then
00:32:24
down the hill you'd be doing 80 90 100K
00:32:27
and it's it's pretty cool but it goes
00:32:29
off power output it's it's a normalized
00:32:31
way of looking at it and I am
00:32:34
I think the best I ever was able to do I
00:32:37
was never good at racing I was good at
00:32:39
training but um I think I'd the best I
00:32:42
ever did on the on a TT bike was like
00:32:44
409 Watts at 74 kilos I think
00:32:49
for an hour to do she's not very good
00:32:51
but it's not well a national level but I
00:32:54
couldn't quite get above that to do it
00:32:55
to do a sport like that
00:32:57
um not cycling but like time trialing
00:32:59
specifically
00:33:00
is there like an element of
00:33:02
self-loathing there or something like a
00:33:04
self-hatred like it's you you need this
00:33:07
ability this to to put yourself in in
00:33:10
pain and stay there and basically
00:33:12
torture yourself for the duration of a
00:33:14
ride that's it isn't it it's an awesome
00:33:15
feeling though is it you just you just
00:33:18
get like the feeling of it yeah when you
00:33:21
finish
00:33:22
I kind of love the whole you know when
00:33:24
you're on it and you know it's going
00:33:27
well it's awesome and I uh I used to
00:33:29
love work so I could out train anyone it
00:33:32
was the racing that was more of an issue
00:33:34
but um
00:33:35
time trialing's just fun but really hard
00:33:38
and the second it's not hard you need to
00:33:40
try harder right but um it's a good
00:33:42
feeling though I think it's any athlete
00:33:44
loves being in the zone and it's kind of
00:33:46
it's kind of that yeah you mentioned
00:33:48
before you the trend training was good
00:33:50
racing not so good did you just get was
00:33:52
it nerves what was it well it's not I
00:33:55
know I never actually looking back at it
00:33:57
I just never actually figured out how to
00:33:59
race
00:34:00
and that you need to be really
00:34:03
aggressive opportunistic and you're
00:34:05
there to win and take every chance and
00:34:07
and no one cares if you don't win
00:34:10
you know no one remembers who's come
00:34:11
forward for a third and the difference
00:34:13
between being fifth or not finishing at
00:34:15
the end of the day not a lot and I just
00:34:16
I never gave it
00:34:18
gave it a go and I always
00:34:20
um I kind of always felt it was a bigger
00:34:23
deal than it really was like when I've
00:34:25
been an adult and older and I go back to
00:34:27
bike races and I look in it
00:34:30
an equivalent level in New Zealand I've
00:34:33
turned up to a couple of those races
00:34:34
when you're looking at 16 17 year old
00:34:36
and you look at you think no one cares
00:34:37
just give it a go and at the time you
00:34:39
just kind of feel like the way the
00:34:41
world's on your shoulders and you can't
00:34:42
get it wrong but in hindsight I just
00:34:44
never really gave it a go yeah yeah what
00:34:46
was your worst accident
00:34:48
I I had um sir Ashley Bloomfield on the
00:34:51
podcast recently and he's um taking up
00:34:52
mountain biking yet and he had some
00:34:55
quote like there's two sorts of um
00:34:56
cyclists
00:34:58
um those that have had a bad accident
00:34:59
and those that haven't had a bad
00:35:01
accident yet yeah I the the biggest
00:35:04
injury I ever had I break a collarbone
00:35:06
um we were racing at the uh it's
00:35:08
actually on the track that Top Gear do
00:35:10
their testing on
00:35:11
it was a three-day stage race and I
00:35:14
we're going around a corner at about 70k
00:35:16
an hour and I just dozed off for a
00:35:18
second and overlapped the wheel in front
00:35:20
and went and drove myself straight into
00:35:22
the deck but I I broke a collarbone but
00:35:26
I was pretty lucky I've almost had I've
00:35:28
probably almost killed myself three or
00:35:29
four times and you learned from those
00:35:32
pretty I've done some they do say what
00:35:35
doesn't kill you makes you stronger I've
00:35:37
I've had some
00:35:39
yeah I remember in Spain
00:35:43
because it's fun going fast on a bike
00:35:44
yeah and then you figure out how to go
00:35:46
quite fast and I remember doing um
00:35:50
I remember in south of Spain I was down
00:35:52
there training on a on kind of a
00:35:54
Motorway that you can ride on the
00:35:56
shoulder of a big road and we're going
00:35:58
really really fast probably like 90 or
00:36:00
90 odd which is speed's always relative
00:36:02
to the road right if it's of course if
00:36:04
it's a Runway it's not a big deal but I
00:36:06
remember going into a corner really fast
00:36:07
and then the corner was twice as long as
00:36:09
I realized
00:36:10
and I was exiting the corner about
00:36:12
Midway through it and I realized that's
00:36:14
not good and just as I'm figuring that
00:36:16
out a a huge bus comes the other way
00:36:20
and I remember I looked at a driver the
00:36:22
driver looked at me
00:36:23
and I'm looking at the a pillar of a bus
00:36:25
thinking like that's definitely where
00:36:27
I'm going to be in a quarter of a second
00:36:28
and
00:36:30
um he went wide and I just I don't know
00:36:32
how you can always find a bit more grip
00:36:33
and I've had that one a few times but um
00:36:36
you learn pretty quick and it's funny
00:36:37
when you get older the more experienced
00:36:40
you kind of give up on descending like
00:36:42
you can go really fast on a race
00:36:44
but if you go really fast on every
00:36:46
downhill
00:36:47
um like we'll catch up yeah
00:36:49
I've done some I've done yeah fun though
00:36:53
and one thing um sport for me is
00:36:57
um a sporting movement it's one of the
00:36:59
pillars of my uh sort of like mental
00:37:01
health like I yeah I I need it if I
00:37:03
don't exercise for a couple of days I
00:37:04
feel antsy I feel ready I'm not good to
00:37:06
be around
00:37:08
um does that change when it's when
00:37:10
you're doing high performance Sport and
00:37:12
well I suppose one person that Springs
00:37:13
to mind is um actually from from unique
00:37:16
that was in Cambridge cyclists as well
00:37:17
Olivia podmore who through the ups and
00:37:20
downs of high performance Sport and
00:37:21
Olympic selection for her which she
00:37:24
missed out on
00:37:25
um she ended up taking her own life yeah
00:37:27
so do I mean Did you sort of fight
00:37:28
obviously you're like a lower level down
00:37:30
from that with your swimming and you're
00:37:31
cycling but does it reach the point
00:37:33
where you're getting all these mental
00:37:35
health benefits from all this movement
00:37:36
that you're doing it's drugs so that's
00:37:39
us endorphins yeah I think there's a lot
00:37:42
in to unpacking that but I think
00:37:45
having a fantastic training session for
00:37:47
hours and the endorphins that come with
00:37:49
that is a is a pretty powerful
00:37:51
experience to no longer have but I I
00:37:54
think when I am if I'm answering a
00:37:56
question when I
00:37:58
I stop cycling because I um
00:38:02
I uh I was in San Diego and I ended up I
00:38:06
was trying to cut weight before the
00:38:07
season
00:38:08
and the best one of the best ways of
00:38:10
figuring out your body fat are you when
00:38:12
to stop losing weight is to get a dexa
00:38:14
scan
00:38:15
and so I went
00:38:16
privately booked into a dexa scan I told
00:38:19
them I'm an athlete I want to figure out
00:38:20
what my body fat is and composition so
00:38:23
sure jump on the table did a reading and
00:38:26
he came out and said have you ever had a
00:38:27
dexa scan before and I said no he's like
00:38:30
okay
00:38:31
and he's not a doctor he's just running
00:38:33
the machine
00:38:34
he said your bone density is not good
00:38:36
and I I thought okay well
00:38:39
I'll remember that and he said no it's
00:38:41
actually not very good at all he's like
00:38:43
how bad give me a scale and he's like
00:38:45
we've actually got a scale on the decks
00:38:47
again that's what it is and he's like
00:38:49
you're about a 60 to 70 year old female
00:38:51
in terms of bone density and I thought
00:38:53
that's probably not not great
00:38:55
not for a dude in his early 20s no and I
00:38:58
but then uh I'd happen to hear the low
00:39:01
bone density can be an issue in cycling
00:39:03
and it's because when you do chronic
00:39:05
endurance training loads and you have no
00:39:07
impact in like running you're constantly
00:39:09
giving your skeletal system a jarring
00:39:12
which puts on muscle uh sorry um
00:39:14
stimulates bone growth you don't have
00:39:17
land cycling yeah and then you
00:39:18
constantly got quite an acid body from
00:39:21
from so much aerobic exercise and it
00:39:23
pulls the calcium out of your bones if I
00:39:25
remember correctly
00:39:27
so it's quite common but I learned that
00:39:29
too late
00:39:30
and I was like 23 I wasn't really making
00:39:33
it where I wanted to be as a cyclist
00:39:34
because you kind of need to be a rock
00:39:36
star by the time you're 22 23. I said
00:39:38
it's not going to happen by then I I
00:39:40
didn't want to be the 30 year old
00:39:42
cyclist that's still giving it a go it
00:39:45
would be more fun to have made it or my
00:39:48
decision not and I just decided the
00:39:50
problem was if you keep training with
00:39:52
that you'll never let your body recover
00:39:53
and it gets worse and so I just decided
00:39:55
that I'd move on but I am
00:39:58
that was pretty wrenching
00:40:01
well I suppose it's like what identifies
00:40:04
you and was a big part of your life and
00:40:06
I think that's the issue so that you are
00:40:07
if you are someone if you ask an athlete
00:40:11
what they do they'll tell you that they
00:40:13
are a cyclist
00:40:16
but it's not who they are it's just what
00:40:19
they do but the problem is I think most
00:40:20
people are fully wrapped up in that
00:40:22
identity and then you just kind of come
00:40:24
off the end of that when they stop and I
00:40:25
I struggled with that a lot but um
00:40:29
I think the issue with with that sport
00:40:32
is that if you're not if you're not in
00:40:34
it anymore you're out and I think you
00:40:36
lose a lot and I think I don't know how
00:40:38
that could be better but it's definitely
00:40:40
tough I remember going to bed
00:40:42
one night crying pretty upset that are
00:40:44
probably you know 10 years eight years
00:40:45
of cycling as that was it so how old
00:40:48
were you like early 20s I would have
00:40:49
been like 22 Yeah but like really upset
00:40:52
and I thought you kind of on I I knew
00:40:55
that that was it but you're never quite
00:40:58
sure and you're about to be in a
00:41:00
shitload like when when you start
00:41:02
training like that there's no real
00:41:04
transferable skill for that just goes in
00:41:06
the in the bin
00:41:07
and I went for a bike ride the next day
00:41:10
and none of the motivation was there and
00:41:12
I kept trying to enjoy the bike ride and
00:41:16
it it was it was gut wrenching and crap
00:41:19
and um kind of sad and like I didn't get
00:41:22
to enjoy that last bite right because
00:41:24
you realize like that's
00:41:26
there's no point in it anymore and I
00:41:28
think I
00:41:29
had no interest in riding a bike for
00:41:31
maybe six years five years and I tried a
00:41:34
few times
00:41:35
and I remember you get on the bike look
00:41:36
at your handlebars as you go down the
00:41:38
road and think I've I've done this so
00:41:40
many times
00:41:42
there's no fun in it and I uh maybe like
00:41:46
two years ago or a year and a half or
00:41:47
two years ago
00:41:49
I got back on a bike and um it was just
00:41:52
fantastic
00:41:53
and I'm crap on a bike now compared to
00:41:56
where I was
00:41:57
and I I called up my old coach uh last
00:42:00
year
00:42:02
and he asked me how I was doing I hadn't
00:42:04
spoken to him for years and I it's just
00:42:06
fantastic to be on the bike again
00:42:09
and I had to like really let go for a
00:42:11
long time to get that back and
00:42:14
people could do much better than me but
00:42:17
for me I just
00:42:19
the love of it completely there's no
00:42:21
purpose in it right
00:42:22
it took me well now I just love going
00:42:24
out on the bike right I suck at it and
00:42:26
it's fantastic like when I was a kid
00:42:28
summer morning
00:42:29
and it's all good again but um what do
00:42:32
you mean you second it you you
00:42:34
um you ride your bike to and from how
00:42:35
many K's would you do on an average
00:42:37
weight yeah I used to I
00:42:41
when I have a bit more time I ride from
00:42:43
Cambridge to Hamilton and back every or
00:42:45
some days and that's um 30ks each way
00:42:48
40-ish it's a big right two and a half
00:42:51
or so so when you say you suck at it
00:42:53
like that seems to be um a very
00:42:55
functional bike ride it's good exercise
00:42:56
you get the endorphins and
00:42:58
transportation you look at the speedo
00:43:00
and I I just it's nice to sit on a bike
00:43:02
and just enjoy the process yeah and my
00:43:05
part I don't check power I don't all of
00:43:08
my metrics would be crap and I just
00:43:09
don't care I just like being on a bike
00:43:11
and um but you even said to yourself
00:43:13
yourself just before that you suck at it
00:43:15
now but most most people listening to
00:43:17
this would be like [ __ ] this guy's
00:43:18
writing you know 40K still working 40
00:43:20
yeah nothing that's not cycling
00:43:23
but it it's just good to it's an
00:43:27
exhausting being you sometimes isn't it
00:43:29
that's one that you remember I meant
00:43:31
mentioned earlier on it's just it's nice
00:43:33
to just no pressure and just enjoy
00:43:36
something yeah yeah
00:43:37
it took me years to just not care at all
00:43:39
and enjoy it but I think I'm all right I
00:43:42
feel like deep down there's a little bit
00:43:43
of you that cares no no I'm not good in
00:43:45
the middle it's either it's it's full-on
00:43:47
or it's it's not yeah right I'd love to
00:43:50
be good but yeah yeah um so and all your
00:43:53
sporting stuff before you sort of close
00:43:55
that chapter of your life and you say
00:43:57
early to mid 20s
00:43:58
um would that have been like the lowest
00:44:00
point obviously there's a lot lots of
00:44:01
highs was that the last point they're
00:44:03
being told about your bone density
00:44:04
cycling was pretty
00:44:07
like growing Up's hard and being in a
00:44:09
competitive sport is hard and I that I
00:44:13
think taught me to be pretty tough
00:44:15
um
00:44:16
that there was a bit of soul searching
00:44:18
because I no one told me what to do I
00:44:20
had no idea what to do with that and you
00:44:22
after that you you look at kids that go
00:44:24
to school
00:44:25
and you just progress up through school
00:44:28
and then you progress to University and
00:44:30
then you go and get a job and there's a
00:44:32
bit of a pathway there but when you stop
00:44:33
sport
00:44:35
you've got to make a conscious decision
00:44:37
on what you're going to do and I was
00:44:39
lost for maybe a few months yeah there
00:44:41
was some that was a bit tough in there
00:44:43
but um got myself out of that and um I
00:44:46
just have to have something that I focus
00:44:48
I get to sink my teeth into so um it
00:44:51
wasn't long after that that we had the
00:44:53
idea for Radix all right
00:44:56
yeah well I suppose you had like time
00:44:57
and energy to focus your um your
00:45:00
attention it was difficult for a while
00:45:02
yeah like what athletes go through
00:45:05
um
00:45:06
I've never really been in that situation
00:45:08
I guess outside of that but you've just
00:45:10
gotta what an issue I see is that you
00:45:12
people you just got to be busy at
00:45:14
something and it's got to have meaning
00:45:16
obviously but I I think
00:45:18
quitting something being in a bad place
00:45:20
and then staying at home and not knowing
00:45:23
what to do with yourself is a vicious
00:45:24
cycle that you people have got to get
00:45:26
out of and they're wallowing yeah it
00:45:28
might feel like the right thing to do
00:45:29
but it's uh well if people and people
00:45:31
get trapped in it and need a hand as
00:45:32
well right it's um it's not easy but I
00:45:35
was I was kind of fortunate there so do
00:45:37
you think that'll be in terms of um your
00:45:39
mental health uh the the the worst
00:45:42
experience you've had in your life just
00:45:44
the post cycling
00:45:46
I've been over the years is it mostly
00:45:48
good
00:45:49
I think so I've
00:45:52
I've only ever done stuff for me that's
00:45:54
quite uh quite hard I guess there's a
00:45:57
lot of pressure yeah self-imposed or
00:45:59
like put on you by your dad or family
00:46:04
you can only really
00:46:06
you know at one level that can only
00:46:07
really be self-imposed right I think
00:46:10
you're kind of often the gatekeeper to
00:46:12
how you want to feel about that but no I
00:46:14
would have been internal and external
00:46:15
but not giving up is only really
00:46:17
important when something when it really
00:46:18
sucks right when if you give up when
00:46:20
it's easy it doesn't really count so
00:46:22
I've often just tried to uh you just
00:46:24
carry them
00:46:29
you don't have a choice though right
00:46:31
yeah like if you find yourself in a
00:46:34
really difficult situation you don't
00:46:36
want to stay there you just keep moving
00:46:38
forwards but I wouldn't say I'm
00:46:39
particularly great at it but starting
00:46:41
Radix and other things is
00:46:45
um is like really hard and and so you
00:46:48
just I think you get tough at it but I
00:46:51
wouldn't say I'm particularly good at it
00:46:52
but as I said earlier on it kind of Life
00:46:54
beats it into you yeah what's what's
00:46:57
your in a voice like him you're mostly
00:46:59
quite nice to yourself you're quite kind
00:47:01
to yourself
00:47:03
I reckon you're tough on yourself I
00:47:05
don't know you're flogging yourself
00:47:08
one thing I used to like about cycling
00:47:12
is that there's nothing easier than
00:47:15
doing a shitload of work
00:47:17
and what nothing easier than doing a
00:47:19
shitload of work you could just go and
00:47:21
do a six hour ride
00:47:24
something incredibly hard and you just
00:47:26
feel like you've done it at the end of
00:47:27
the day and I used to love that feeling
00:47:30
and I I come I'm at a loss when stuff's
00:47:33
easy and I've got nothing to do my mind
00:47:34
wonders and I feel like I don't have
00:47:36
purpose and you could just go and do an
00:47:38
enormous workout
00:47:39
and you've you've had meaning today and
00:47:42
you've done a great job and I I don't do
00:47:45
well if I've not got something that's
00:47:47
full-on that you sunk your teeth into so
00:47:49
like on Sundays I always get a bit lost
00:47:52
can I can I theorize that you need to
00:47:55
exhaust yourself to help you sleep at
00:47:58
night because otherwise your mind's just
00:47:59
clinging around with ideas no it's a fun
00:48:02
one I I but no one you ask about mental
00:48:05
health and I it's kind of a new one to
00:48:07
me but when I was growing up no one ever
00:48:10
discussed that so I think it's a recent
00:48:13
thing but it's a good conversation to
00:48:14
have it's very very much a recent thing
00:48:16
I'm quite a bit older than you I'm 50
00:48:17
and it was never even discussed and it
00:48:19
was like um I know it like it's got a
00:48:21
label now but I think that's it's a good
00:48:23
thing and it's a good thing to be aware
00:48:24
of it and
00:48:25
um yeah work out I think everyone needs
00:48:27
like a like a resilience plan or a
00:48:29
mental health plan you need to work out
00:48:30
what's what's right for you and what's
00:48:32
not right for you the resilience terms
00:48:34
are good one thing I you can acknowledge
00:48:36
something's difficult
00:48:39
but you need to have the tools to get
00:48:41
yourself through it and I that's
00:48:43
something I've always focused on a lot
00:48:45
like I have a lot of
00:48:47
methods that I'd get through something
00:48:49
like that so we're talking earlier on
00:48:51
if everything gets really really
00:48:53
difficult I'll get a pen and paper and
00:48:55
I'll write until I'm clear on what I'm
00:48:57
doing like you might formally you could
00:49:01
call it journaling I guess yeah I get
00:49:03
but I will I will get clear on my
00:49:05
thoughts and and and sketch until I've
00:49:08
got some answers and I I've done that
00:49:10
since I was probably 14 and I discovered
00:49:13
that because
00:49:14
I just bummed into it no one right told
00:49:16
me that but I'd have heaps of things
00:49:18
like that I'm constantly
00:49:21
constantly refocusing constantly tidying
00:49:24
up constantly simplifying what I'm like
00:49:27
just that process stops me from getting
00:49:30
overwhelmed for example right like how
00:49:32
much how much are we talking like if you
00:49:33
had to put a word count on it I'll write
00:49:35
it yeah all right
00:49:37
like pages and Pages
00:49:40
or a couple of sentences yeah sentences
00:49:43
but okay points right yeah as much as it
00:49:45
takes but you just got to find a thread
00:49:47
to get back onto the right to the path
00:49:49
you know right maybe there's a tool but
00:49:52
I think it's good to acknowledge when
00:49:53
people
00:49:54
struggle but I think it's important also
00:49:56
to help people find the tools to get
00:49:58
past it yeah so transitioning out of uh
00:50:02
competitive sport
00:50:03
um cycling was your last thing and into
00:50:04
business
00:50:06
um did you find with business
00:50:08
um that satisfies that Competitive Edge
00:50:10
for you or is it I feel like like
00:50:12
business you know you have you have wins
00:50:13
and you have good days you have bad days
00:50:15
one so with Radix we have a problem that
00:50:19
we're trying to solve
00:50:20
I I think for the world or for us I'm
00:50:23
very kind of goal or Mission oriented
00:50:25
you have to make money because it
00:50:27
enables you to to build a team build a
00:50:29
better product and if you're solving a
00:50:31
real problem
00:50:32
um in the world then to do it at a
00:50:34
larger scale
00:50:36
but I don't really care about that it's
00:50:38
always been about nutrition in the world
00:50:40
is is not in a good spot in the food
00:50:43
industry as we mentioned earlier on on
00:50:45
the whole I think is uh quite evil
00:50:48
um and of course a lot of health issues
00:50:50
that we're starting to become aware of
00:50:53
and it's good that people are trying to
00:50:56
fix that now but there's a lot of
00:50:59
solutions out there aren't very genuine
00:51:01
or very deep and I think someone needs
00:51:04
to fix that so we're having a crack at
00:51:06
that yeah I've always chased that goal
00:51:09
and now do you get the um the same sort
00:51:12
of Thriller like when something good
00:51:13
happens like when you here at Radix when
00:51:15
you form a partnership with fonterra say
00:51:17
I do get the same sort of thrill out of
00:51:19
that like doing a really good time trial
00:51:21
or a really good swim you know it's cool
00:51:23
when everyone we've discovered things or
00:51:26
had breakthroughs or done something
00:51:27
where people just work all night on it
00:51:29
and it's just awesome no one looks at
00:51:31
the clock no one wants to be anywhere
00:51:33
else and that seven days a week we have
00:51:36
a cool breakthrough or an idea and
00:51:37
that's always really exciting and it's
00:51:39
it's also fantastic when you see other
00:51:41
people excited at it but
00:51:43
um
00:51:44
protein for example and that using that
00:51:47
Dias framework or metric
00:51:51
that project was just a massive deep
00:51:54
dive by a small team of people for a
00:51:56
couple of weeks and it was huge and
00:51:58
exciting yeah but it's um it's a
00:52:00
rewarding Journey
00:52:02
well now's probably a good time to like
00:52:04
transition to some of the business stuff
00:52:05
so um at the time of recording this it's
00:52:08
like the uh the 10-year anniversary of
00:52:10
Radix of the idea yeah yeah so so yeah
00:52:14
10 years ago you started this business
00:52:15
tell us about those humble beginnings so
00:52:17
just you and a mate and a just a little
00:52:19
dehumidifier yeah are we uh
00:52:24
we started out just with an idea a very
00:52:26
uh basic view on what we could do three
00:52:30
of us my father myself and uh former
00:52:33
schoolmate
00:52:35
no idea on the industry
00:52:38
um
00:52:39
which kind of helps and hinders but if a
00:52:41
lot of what the industry is doing isn't
00:52:43
the right solution then you get to begin
00:52:45
just as fairly as anyone else does but
00:52:47
we began at scratch and we were in
00:52:49
Russell
00:52:51
in a garage
00:52:53
testing an idea no clue at all reading
00:52:55
studying phoning people up meeting
00:52:58
people
00:52:59
and we were in in Russell in a garage
00:53:01
progressed to a barn
00:53:03
and then we stole an empty house for a
00:53:05
while we had a big kitchen
00:53:08
um
00:53:08
well I'm not I'm sort of imagining like
00:53:12
an abandoned rental or something exactly
00:53:14
yeah and when when you so our our
00:53:17
product uh when you freeze-dried it's
00:53:19
very dry and then it's very very
00:53:21
sensitive to uh moisture in the air
00:53:24
I had to tape up every window seam every
00:53:27
crack in the whole house with masking
00:53:29
tape and dehumidifier and um yeah it was
00:53:31
fun mad stupid and then but you get you
00:53:36
get a start and then we went from
00:53:38
Russell where we were for probably a
00:53:40
year
00:53:41
to
00:53:42
um an empty industrial unit in waiuku
00:53:46
where we were probably for three years
00:53:49
and um
00:53:51
you know it sounds like a really long
00:53:52
time but you learn
00:53:54
so much it's unbelievable it's when you
00:53:57
start when you started in Russell from
00:53:59
the humble beginnings with your mate and
00:54:01
your dad and then you're in a rental
00:54:02
house like what were your what were your
00:54:04
plan did you have like a 10-year plan
00:54:05
then like could you see yourself being
00:54:07
sitting where we are now yeah
00:54:09
yeah really yeah so I um was tidying up
00:54:14
some when doing some planning recently
00:54:16
or sharpening some planning up and
00:54:19
uh deleted some old files the the bones
00:54:22
of it the main bits of what I was
00:54:24
writing 10 years ago the same as what
00:54:26
we're still doing now
00:54:27
it's a long road it's amazing yeah we're
00:54:31
sitting in Radix nutrition headquarters
00:54:33
now in the waikato and an impressive
00:54:35
Factory
00:54:37
um it's just it's I mean it's just
00:54:39
beautiful from top to bottom but why
00:54:42
Bloody Hamilton well we thought when
00:54:45
we're in waiuku we thought that we
00:54:47
should be in Auckland because that's
00:54:48
where everyone was and uh
00:54:51
well you know that's where everyone
00:54:52
passes through Auckland
00:54:54
um
00:54:55
we couldn't find any uh there's no room
00:54:58
to build a factory the land prices are
00:55:00
ridiculously high the traffic's
00:55:02
difficult and then rental is difficult
00:55:05
and no one we'd we wasted I looked at 18
00:55:09
buildings in
00:55:11
uh Auckland
00:55:14
as we sincerely tried to do what was
00:55:17
probably impossible which is to find an
00:55:19
industrial building a warehouse in
00:55:21
Auckland that we could move into and
00:55:22
build a factory
00:55:23
and I'm at a real estate agent called
00:55:26
Jamshed I can't remember his last name
00:55:28
and he was awesome and uh he helped me
00:55:31
look at I think it was 18 buildings in
00:55:33
the end
00:55:34
and we were always a bargaining chip
00:55:36
that a landlord would or or an agency
00:55:39
not him but the others would use to get
00:55:41
two Warehouse tenants to pay more and
00:55:44
the reality that we realized no one
00:55:46
wants you to install the factory and rip
00:55:48
out floors and cut up car parks for a
00:55:51
startup that could fail
00:55:52
and we just we we were late tried really
00:55:56
hard
00:55:57
um
00:55:59
pretty cool process but it wasn't ever
00:56:01
going to work and someone told us if we
00:56:03
went to a waikato or Hamilton you can
00:56:05
just buy a clean field a green
00:56:07
Greenfield site
00:56:09
and start from scratch and just get it
00:56:11
right and we were slow to figure that
00:56:13
out but
00:56:14
it's been awesome but yeah and we did so
00:56:17
10 years 10 years on now would you how
00:56:19
would you describe yourself now are you
00:56:20
still a startup yeah yeah
00:56:22
you've got um there's a few definitions
00:56:25
of startup and I've forgotten all of the
00:56:27
good ones at the moment but um
00:56:30
we we grow a lot each year and we've got
00:56:34
a long way yet to go until we get to our
00:56:36
goal so we've no interest in
00:56:41
staying still and we want to be
00:56:45
you know I would love it if this would
00:56:47
be one of the uh best examples of what
00:56:51
New Zealand can do on the world stage
00:56:53
and the global food industry [ __ ] in a
00:56:56
lot of areas and someone's got to fix it
00:56:59
and it I'm not from New Zealand but the
00:57:02
the spirit and the character that new
00:57:04
zealanders have is outstanding
00:57:06
and uh
00:57:08
I kind of like the fact that we're doing
00:57:10
it here yeah but it should be it should
00:57:13
be a very big what we're trying to solve
00:57:16
will eventually be solved at a very
00:57:18
large scale to give to make a
00:57:20
significant impact on the quality of
00:57:22
nutrition that everyone faces at the
00:57:24
moment yeah so um so your Radix
00:57:26
nutrition uh you know in the listen to
00:57:28
my podcast I've been banging on about
00:57:29
your protein powders within your
00:57:31
smoothie powders which are amazing um
00:57:33
you also do um like dehydrated you know
00:57:35
meals Right freeze right yeah yeah you
00:57:37
also do freeze dried what's the what's
00:57:39
the difference
00:57:40
uh uh freeze drawing gives a much higher
00:57:43
quality product right and dehydrating is
00:57:46
uh quite damaging to product right so
00:57:49
you you're just taking moisture out of
00:57:51
food at the end of the day but um freeze
00:57:53
drawing is about 10 times more expensive
00:57:55
and a lot harder but um
00:57:59
if you if you bought a raisin that's all
00:58:01
shriveled up that's freeze uh that's
00:58:03
dehydrated and pretty strong it's a
00:58:06
different process it'll leave stuff
00:58:07
looking intact so so would you say
00:58:11
um what I call it dehydrated yeah we're
00:58:13
not a freeze drying company we just use
00:58:15
a freeze dry right yeah people get that
00:58:18
mixed up it's the heaviest bit of Kit in
00:58:20
the factory but it's just one of a few
00:58:22
yeah yeah I mean yeah the gear here is
00:58:24
just it's mind-blowingly good okay so so
00:58:27
that's where things are at now with
00:58:29
Radix nutrition yeah where do you where
00:58:30
do you see it in five to ten years
00:58:33
so the problem that we're trying to fix
00:58:35
I don't know how to answer that without
00:58:37
oh without giving away no no without
00:58:39
just looking stupid but that you how do
00:58:42
you mean why would you look stupid
00:58:43
because your plans are that lofty you
00:58:45
should if we get this right it should it
00:58:49
needs to be a really big company to have
00:58:51
the difference at
00:58:52
someone should be doing a big companies
00:58:55
and because anyone that's um watching
00:58:57
this on YouTube or online right now
00:58:59
we'll see the factory behind me and
00:59:00
they'll say well this is this is Tiny
00:59:03
okay yeah no we this
00:59:07
you know done well there should be a 500
00:59:10
plus million Revenue company in 10 years
00:59:13
and it'll be sad if it's not bigger to
00:59:15
be honest because I when um
00:59:19
I don't mean I I'm not really interested
00:59:21
in the revenue but if you do the maths
00:59:23
on on how many people
00:59:26
I gave you that statistic earlier on
00:59:28
that one in four globally a pre-diabetic
00:59:32
um one in three uh the the stats get a
00:59:35
little bit woodier around that but one
00:59:37
in three have pretty sub-optimal
00:59:39
metabolic Health right yeah you you're
00:59:42
ex This was um of the year you were
00:59:44
explaining this to me uh before and
00:59:46
showed me a a graph which shows the
00:59:48
exponential growth and it's basically
00:59:49
due to processed food over the last sort
00:59:52
of 30-ish years yeah right so and
00:59:56
pre-diabetic that means what it means
00:59:58
pre-diabetes is one of the markers that
01:00:00
we we use to uh try and understand the
01:00:04
quality of people's metabolism right so
01:00:08
pre-diabetes would mean elevated blood
01:00:11
sugar levels over a longer period of
01:00:13
time which can have all sorts of
01:00:15
knock-on effects but it basically means
01:00:17
that one of one of the significant
01:00:19
factors of that is nutrition it
01:00:21
basically means that what people are
01:00:22
eating is breaking them
01:00:24
and it's pretty sad it's not
01:00:27
it's a first world problem so it affects
01:00:30
everyone yeah and it ends up affecting
01:00:32
kids and and parents and oh it's it's
01:00:36
not a good problem to have and the thing
01:00:39
I find uh pretty frustrating it was the
01:00:41
reason that we started Radix is that no
01:00:45
one's really fixing it
01:00:47
so most of industry is pretty happy if
01:00:49
people keep digging themselves deeper
01:00:51
into that hole
01:00:52
and the knowledge exists scientifically
01:00:57
the technology exists to make a product
01:00:59
and yet no one's really been doing it in
01:01:01
a meaningful way to enable someone to
01:01:03
fix their diet simply and and overcome
01:01:05
those problems so that's when I say it's
01:01:07
it's not that our interest in growing
01:01:09
right next to that scale although it'd
01:01:11
be really fun
01:01:12
but it needs to be fixed at that scale
01:01:14
so right
01:01:16
you know this would be a tiny Factory
01:01:18
and indeed you look in New Zealand at
01:01:19
some food factories and they're enormous
01:01:21
because a lot of people eat but this
01:01:23
should be well everyone I think it's a
01:01:26
big problem yeah so but you're um
01:01:29
don't you think though even if people
01:01:31
people know when they're eating [ __ ]
01:01:34
food right but they do it no they don't
01:01:36
like if I go to KFC all right but that
01:01:39
does that's off the end of the spectrum
01:01:42
well if you the bit you want to worry
01:01:45
about is when people think they're doing
01:01:48
the right thing or or are trying to do
01:01:50
the right thing and struggling oh gotcha
01:01:53
so if someone's knowingly gonna
01:01:56
a really unhealthy fast food brand
01:02:00
that you don't get points for that right
01:02:02
and and you might be forced to do that
01:02:04
out of convenience but you're not really
01:02:06
in the frame at that point but when you
01:02:08
get someone who's gone to a doctor and
01:02:11
been told that they're not well and that
01:02:13
they need to fix their diet otherwise
01:02:15
something nasty Could Happen yeah or
01:02:16
you've got someone that's depressed or
01:02:18
sad because of how they look or when
01:02:21
when someone
01:02:22
needs help in changing or has decided
01:02:25
that they want to change and they don't
01:02:27
get help I find that quite sad it is at
01:02:30
those times that the difference between
01:02:31
what someone will start to eat or knows
01:02:33
to eat or can eat through practicality
01:02:36
is actually a long way away from what we
01:02:38
know would be ideal right and and
01:02:41
nutrition science
01:02:43
and Physiology and everything else
01:02:45
that's known and how is really
01:02:46
complicated
01:02:48
like no one's going to figure that out
01:02:49
anytime soon it's not a solvable problem
01:02:52
it's immensely complex
01:02:54
and yeah you just end up at a
01:02:56
supermarket you're not sure what to eat
01:02:58
or cook
01:02:59
and that's kind of bollocks in 2023 that
01:03:03
you can have an iPhone or some in in
01:03:05
staggering level of technological
01:03:07
sophistication
01:03:08
and yet the thing that kills a lot of
01:03:11
people no one's actually meaningfully
01:03:13
put forwards an unbiased genuine
01:03:15
solution to that
01:03:16
or there aren't many
01:03:18
and that's what we set out to to create
01:03:21
so how would you like Radix to look in
01:03:24
like 10 years from now like a big
01:03:26
International brand
01:03:27
if everyone needing the dehydrated meals
01:03:30
are you planning on moving into
01:03:31
different sort of things uh no we've got
01:03:33
a lot of other products yeah
01:03:34
so 10 10 years from now we would hope to
01:03:37
be pioneering or right at the Forefront
01:03:40
of personalized nutrition
01:03:42
we'd want to be a household name we'd
01:03:45
need to be it'd be fun if we're still in
01:03:47
New Zealand or Australia and a great
01:03:49
company I've always quite liked Tesla if
01:03:52
you look at emission oriented
01:03:54
I've heard of that
01:03:56
solving a real problem I know they've
01:03:59
got people love them or maybe people
01:04:01
don't but you you couldn't argue that
01:04:03
people they didn't care I think Elon
01:04:05
Musk is incredibly polarizing but I I
01:04:07
think he's a genius myself and if I see
01:04:09
that he's appearing on a podcast I'll
01:04:11
always listen to it and the the fact
01:04:13
that he's thinking on just a different
01:04:15
plane to everyone else and and has
01:04:17
thousands of other people solving those
01:04:19
same problems it's pretty cool but we
01:04:21
should be a really big company by then
01:04:23
done well right that's brilliant well I
01:04:25
I wouldn't put it past you like 10 years
01:04:27
ago in a garage and now you now we're
01:04:30
sitting here in This Magnificent
01:04:31
warehouse and also just seeing how
01:04:34
um how you live and how you drive
01:04:36
yourself and how you apply yourself and
01:04:38
your tunnel vision
01:04:40
um I think wherever you see yourself
01:04:42
being in 10 years that's exactly where
01:04:43
you will be yeah well it's a good
01:04:45
journey one thing I need to bring up
01:04:48
with you you've become a Dad recently
01:04:49
Congratulations by the way you've got a
01:04:51
son 12 months old yeah
01:04:53
um Happy Meals are going to be part of
01:04:55
your
01:05:02
he's going to watch some ads on TV or
01:05:05
pre-roll on YouTube or whatever you're
01:05:07
um you're gonna have to break and go to
01:05:09
McDonald's aren't you McDonald's going
01:05:11
to become part of your we'll see about
01:05:13
it
01:05:14
I was talking to your wife earlier she
01:05:16
said um she's um she may introduce him
01:05:18
to Chocolate this weekend oh that's okay
01:05:20
is that okay yeah
01:05:22
no we um
01:05:23
we'll do our best for him how are you
01:05:26
gonna how are you gonna get around the
01:05:27
McDonald's like I'm sure it will happen
01:05:30
oh yeah we'll we'll see what we can do
01:05:32
for give him some purpose and I hope
01:05:35
he's an athlete when he grows up yeah
01:05:37
yeah he went to gymnastics for the first
01:05:39
time this week which was pretty cool at
01:05:40
one I didn't know they did that but he
01:05:42
loved it
01:05:43
I think quite basic stuff but he had a
01:05:46
fantastic time yeah but um yeah how um
01:05:49
how are you gonna because you like to
01:05:51
think every generation gets slightly
01:05:52
better or tweaks or makes improvements
01:05:54
how are you going to raise them
01:05:55
differently from how your dad raised you
01:05:57
or how I was raised and yeah yeah I um
01:06:02
looks pretty hard raising a kid
01:06:05
I'd I'd be doing pretty well I think if
01:06:08
I if I matched that in hindsight but um
01:06:11
I think sport was great yeah
01:06:14
um one thing I always got from sport
01:06:16
that I was I was sorry to see a lot of
01:06:18
other people didn't have is the chance
01:06:20
to really try hard at something and be a
01:06:22
part of a team
01:06:24
and to learn how to practice for me was
01:06:26
a big deal and I think it's sort of
01:06:28
Master yourself Mastery or the ability
01:06:30
to to chase something you can never
01:06:33
catch is is a big deal and I think I
01:06:36
hope he discovers that in something
01:06:38
maybe sport maybe art I don't know yeah
01:06:41
but sports are
01:06:43
pretty cool way of learning these things
01:06:46
and has has it been um a fun thing for
01:06:48
you because
01:06:50
seeing your your dad as a grandfather
01:06:53
how is he different as a grandfather
01:06:54
Harry was as a father
01:06:56
I think being grandfather's he's still
01:06:58
getting used to that but um is this his
01:07:00
first grandkid no no or getting used to
01:07:03
it with me I guess but uh no but he uh
01:07:06
no Mum and Dad loved it it's good
01:07:09
they're um we live in Cambridge and they
01:07:10
live in Russell so there's a bit of a
01:07:11
distance yeah it's been an amazing
01:07:13
process it's pretty cool
01:07:16
getting it having a small human yeah
01:07:19
yeah is it how's it changed you yeah
01:07:20
well do you think it's changed you at
01:07:21
all uh even less sleep
01:07:25
um it takes a while to realize that
01:07:26
you've got zero free time
01:07:30
um and that you feel pretty guilty if
01:07:32
you feel like you're wasting time but um
01:07:35
as you have been an amazing process it's
01:07:38
kind of cool
01:07:40
um I guess everyone says that but you
01:07:42
learn a lot about I've learned a lot
01:07:43
about myself when you realize
01:07:46
a little bit of introspection yeah but
01:07:49
it's uh you're one of the biggest
01:07:50
learnings you think about yourself
01:07:53
I was really I've focused on having him
01:07:56
as happy as possible because I I
01:08:00
um for various reasons but
01:08:02
it's impossible with babies though isn't
01:08:04
it they cry all the time yeah but I I
01:08:06
know I just I I'd love him to have a
01:08:10
good happy start to life yeah to
01:08:12
experience things and um we've met some
01:08:14
wonderful people like daycare which I've
01:08:17
haven't been around since I was there
01:08:18
myself
01:08:19
those guys are amazing
01:08:22
and you discover a part of a community
01:08:24
and not my own but in living in
01:08:27
Cambridge now and it's just fantastic of
01:08:28
people that devote so much care and
01:08:31
attention to other people's kids it's
01:08:33
amazing to see
01:08:34
and um as I said earlier I guess I focus
01:08:38
a little bit myopic and what I focus on
01:08:40
it's lifted my horizons a little bit and
01:08:43
you see what's around you and appreciate
01:08:44
why it's important and
01:08:46
that's been pretty cool has there been a
01:08:49
something that you've just wanted to do
01:08:52
or something that you've had to do in
01:08:53
terms of um your family no in terms of
01:08:56
like um you're being being present and
01:08:58
engaged when you're with when you're
01:08:59
with them your son rather than focusing
01:09:01
on Radix stuff I'm having to learn that
01:09:03
but again it's a fun process yeah I'm
01:09:06
I'm not good at that and I'm learning
01:09:08
yeah but uh that's good I think it'll
01:09:11
make you better better at running your
01:09:13
business in some ways to give you a
01:09:14
perspective it's a great teacher yeah
01:09:17
yeah
01:09:18
that's awesome and you and your wife
01:09:21
when you've been together since almost
01:09:23
as long as Radix she's been yeah she was
01:09:25
she's German she's German she was uh
01:09:28
traveling in New Zealand you know work
01:09:31
and travel
01:09:32
and I met her in Russell and um
01:09:37
uh she was in New Zealand for a few
01:09:41
months and then we had
01:09:42
um
01:09:43
a five-year long-distance relationship
01:09:45
so
01:09:47
we'd see each other maybe twice a year
01:09:49
and then that was a FaceTime course
01:09:51
morning and evening for like five years
01:09:53
that sounds arduous but I'm guessing for
01:09:55
you you were like yes I can focus on
01:09:57
building this business and have a
01:09:59
relationship and he used to be on
01:10:02
FaceTime
01:10:03
uh phone in the factory somewhere
01:10:05
headphones at 11 o'clock at night I'd be
01:10:08
doing something and she'd be studying at
01:10:10
home in Germany and would just be
01:10:11
hanging out
01:10:12
but yeah I think it probably had to be
01:10:14
that way looking back at it because I
01:10:16
didn't have a lot of time but she's
01:10:17
incredibly understanding
01:10:20
um although I pushed that right to the
01:10:21
age almost continuously but um I I was
01:10:24
um chatting with her earlier she seemed
01:10:26
she works here she seems as passionate
01:10:28
about the business is what you are yeah
01:10:29
I think I'll balance that kind of okay
01:10:32
yeah probably right on the edge was it
01:10:35
um would you say was it like love at
01:10:37
first sight or was it a slow burn with
01:10:39
each other she's kind of fantastic yeah
01:10:42
yeah so straight away yeah really
01:10:45
comfortable around her happy
01:10:47
yeah she's she's been great really
01:10:49
supportive
01:10:51
um
01:10:52
yeah that's been good and what about the
01:10:55
proposal you guys got married uh like
01:10:57
only recently A couple of years ago like
01:10:58
during covert I was pretty slow at that
01:11:00
oh yeah yeah so uh
01:11:02
I had all of the hints everyone pushing
01:11:07
but um
01:11:08
I was busy
01:11:12
but I I I was just not good at any of
01:11:15
that right right and you know what like
01:11:17
but like like picking up on the social
01:11:19
cues or being romantic or mum brought
01:11:22
down uh her mother's old engagement ring
01:11:25
right I said I put it in your bedside
01:11:27
drawer you should probably hurry up
01:11:29
and then was it just not a priority with
01:11:31
you you're like we'll get there
01:11:33
eventually I've been busy and I thought
01:11:35
hey you know we're just we'll get there
01:11:37
yeah um yeah no I I picked up what
01:11:40
everyone was putting down and uh
01:11:42
eventually figured that out and then um
01:11:45
I'm just not that I'm not massively
01:11:48
inclined into a not a romantic no
01:11:51
whatever probably not well how was The
01:11:54
Proposal what'd you do you get down on
01:11:55
one knee I did yeah well if if you're
01:11:58
not good at it what else do you do right
01:12:00
now
01:12:01
um no I did that it did the whole lot
01:12:03
but um I couldn't have anyone there
01:12:06
taking pictures and stuff like that that
01:12:07
would have been way too much pressure
01:12:08
but um what do you mean in what way
01:12:10
we're surrounded by uh cameras
01:12:14
no we uh it was we just quite just quite
01:12:18
sort of private when it comes to that
01:12:19
stuff I am yeah but it's the best way I
01:12:22
think but no it was good it meant a lot
01:12:24
happy memory yeah well that's really
01:12:27
cool and what was the what was the
01:12:28
wedding like um what was everyone eating
01:12:30
were they eating um we were between two
01:12:32
lockdowns so uh we didn't know the
01:12:35
wedding would go well and we we were up
01:12:37
at in Russell
01:12:38
and um we had a fantastic wedding in New
01:12:41
Zealand which was awesome and his family
01:12:43
didn't get to come over which was pretty
01:12:45
tough for her because of travel
01:12:46
restrictions and then um
01:12:49
or was it 11 o'clock at night it got
01:12:51
announced that the next morning country
01:12:53
was going into lockdown
01:12:55
and um yeah it's a difficult time we've
01:12:58
got another wedding in Germany later in
01:12:59
the year for her family so it's it's
01:13:01
been good but it's uh
01:13:04
it's kind of cool growing up going
01:13:06
through those experiences but I wouldn't
01:13:07
say I'm good at it but it's um
01:13:10
Annie's everyone's pretty strong at
01:13:12
getting through that and uh
01:13:14
it happens yeah that's cool
01:13:16
um were you imprisoned at the birth
01:13:19
yeah it was yeah how was that it's a
01:13:21
life-changing experience were you
01:13:23
emotional you cry I don't no I I it was
01:13:26
emotional but it didn't grow it's pretty
01:13:27
cool
01:13:28
yeah I
01:13:30
it's an amazing process just completely
01:13:32
eye-opening and I maybe as clueless as a
01:13:35
kid around things like that but it's um
01:13:37
it's just an incredible process as you
01:13:39
go through that and uh
01:13:42
yeah life's pretty cool when you when
01:13:45
you see how it works and yeah that's
01:13:47
been an amazing experience but um
01:13:50
no just hopefully hopefully it goes well
01:13:52
we'll raise a super baby nutrition
01:13:54
shouldn't be an issue is he going to be
01:13:57
swimming 1500 meters by the time he's
01:13:59
four it might happen
01:14:01
I hope he enjoys it
01:14:03
amazing hey um thank you so much for
01:14:05
your time today
01:14:06
Mike rudling CEO and founder of Radix
01:14:10
nutrition
01:14:11
um I I even though you still describe
01:14:14
yourself as a startup I'd still describe
01:14:15
you as a New Zealand success story I
01:14:17
think well we're really proud to be in
01:14:19
New Zealand and it's um it's meant a lot
01:14:21
being here and it's a fantastic country
01:14:24
and I I think
01:14:26
that's um let's show everyone what we
01:14:29
can do yeah I mean it's exciting to be
01:14:31
on this journey with you and it's
01:14:32
exciting to think where you will be in
01:14:33
five or ten years from now I can't wait
01:14:35
to see it thank you thank you so much
01:14:37
thanks thank you so much he said [ __ ] a
01:14:40
couple of times he swore does that count
01:14:42
as a spirit
01:14:45
[Music]
