Tom Oliver on living with Sam, University Life in the UK & moving to Australia | EP. 1

Welcome to EP.1 of Chats With Sam!

In this episode, Sam chats with Tom Oliver about his experiences at Uni, how they met and why he wants to move to Australia.

Gym Accounts:
@ChrisBumstead
@anthonymantello2707
@JeffNippard
@athleanx
@gregdoucette
@alliprince
@LauralieChapadosIFBBPro

Tom’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/_thomas_oliver_/

Sam’s Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/7721F9wyWXbKmYH6BUZnW5?si=XABAN83FT0yl8fR5XzSHKQ

Chapters:

0:00 – Welcome to Chats With Sam
2:26 – Who Is Thomas Oliver?
3:45 – Meeting through Facebook
5:26 – Tom’s First Impressions
8:30 – Living Together
10:20 – Tom’s Passions on his Gap Year
11:45 – Leeds and University Living
14:33 – Getting the Most Out Of Uni
16:30 – Growth Mindset Changes Everything
20:10 – Biggest Pet Peeves of Uni Life
22:30 – Life Lessons from Mum
26:20 – How to Love People Well
29:06 – Tom’s Plans After Uni
34:05 – Moving to Australia?
36:00 – How Tom Got Into the Gym
38:10 – Why Working Out Changed My Life
39:25 – Ronaldo As A Role Model
41:20 – Becoming a Referee
43:11 – Discipline is a Super Power
45:00 – How to Get Into the Gym?
47:15 – Who Do You Want to Be?
51:00 – Future of the Podcast
52:53 – Wrapping Up

#podcast #photography #fitness #discipline

Mr Oliver hello is that what I can call you yeah I like it Mr Oliver yeah do you ever watch Mr Ben Mr Ben Mr Bean know what Mr Ben is no okay so I don’t know how I should probably start by saying welcome to chats for Sam welcome to

Chats for Sam you this is the first inaugural episode a boy’s only episode if I don’t say so myself don’t know if that’s the right phrase as well and Ruby Ruby is the cat but anyway we’re getting off course already um some of you may know I do a Thoughts with Sam podcast

Which is just me and my thoughts I also do a worship with sound podcast to get around spotify’s copyrighting that’s more of a YouTube thing but I wanted to create a a podcast where I can sit down and chat to people so people get insight into life and just have witness some

Good chats hopefully because I have some amazing friends and amazing family and people in my life and I have some brilliant chats with them and quite honestly I wish they were just recorded for people to witness and enjoy and really it started um from an idea I had with talking to my grandparents

Um and I feel like there are many families who don’t have we were talking about this earlier families who don’t always have you know brilliant relationships and they don’t really talk to each other and they don’t have deep meaningful conversations mine aren’t like that at all mine are unbel ably

Amazing and I’m very blessed to have the family that I have and um I have a lot of really good conversations with my grandparents and I I think it be a real shame for that to get lost in our generation because I don’t think that’s really being passed down anymore and

Really it became a point where I wanted my grandkids to be able to witness the conversations I have with my grandparents so that they would see the people firsthand who shaped me into the man that I am now and the man that I’m going to be so that was sort of the

Heart behind doing these chats but Tom you have been a big part of my life over the last year thanks we’ll probably get into how we met and and why I even have you in my house right now um why don’t you tell the viewers and tell

Me five things about yourself could be where you’re from could be what you study just a you know if you’re in a job interview who is Thomas Oliver all right that’s quite a lot of things all right then that be five off the top of your

Head okay so my first thing my passion is what I study at University which is filming and photography and that’s what I want to do once I graduate so post uni that’s kind of what I want to put all my focus into so I’m not very good at being

On camera so I’m pretty kind of nervous talking um because I’m always much happier behind the camera and that sort of creative side of things another big passion of mine is anything to do with the water so I love I do swimming surfing water polo Triathlon sailing anything through the

Water I’m in it and I love it so those my two main passions and I like to combine those going forward with doing like surf films swimming photography anything in the water and traveling as well sick so that pretty much encompasses everything that and where

Are you from I do I’m from Brighton so by the Sea makes I spent like literally every single day in the ocean when I’m back home so yeah it’s a treat I’m very blessed to live there and we’ll get into I guess some of your thoughts and what you want

To do later on in life probably at the end of this towards the end of this podcast but I think what might be quite good for everybody um to hear is sort of how we met so Facebook yeah yeah so I’ll I’ll do a bit of a backstory for these

Guys and then I want to get your perspective of what it was like I want to get insight into your mind so some of you guys might know like a year ago I tried to pretty much make it in the fitness industry I was trying to switch to becoming like an influencer Fitness

Influencer and I was working out and I was taking some of my own sort of photos and and videos and stuff but I wanted to go a bit more hardcore and make some content proper proper content that I could start like putting on a YouTube

Channel and all of that and one day I was at the gym and I just felt oh let me just put something on Facebook and see what happens especially in leads there’s loads of I thought there might be photograph students there might be videographers people who need some con

People to film um and sort of it would be hopefully be free and you be able to help each other out and I got like a couple of Naf responses from people like oh I do thumbnails and I do and it was like thanks but no thanks sort of Vibes

Um it wasn’t really what I was looking for apart from Tom who messaged me and for some reason I was like you know what I’m going to give this guy a try like I saw his profile picture it was pretty decent I was like okay this could be

Interesting so we met up didn’t we went to the pub and we were there for hours we were and I think that’s partly you know it’s weird how life sort of happens and obviously we all know in my faith like I believe nothing really happens just for a random reason like we

Do I do believe like everything happens for a reason and I believe that’s God placing people in my life and and vice versa so went to the pub what were your what were your initial thoughts of me when I well I don’t really do like I don’t normally do like first impr

Questions I don’t tend to judge people straight away but um I was quite nervous beforehand cuz I don’t normally just meet up with strangers I meet on Facebook yeah so then but was there I was quite relieved though after like the first 10 minutes like okay this

Is we’re very similar and we have a lot of the same goals which make it easy to get to know someone and know that we’re on the same page when it comes to like doing the photography bits that you wanted from me and then which kind of

Just clicks like that and I remember we sat outside and it was freezing cold and then so cold I don’t know maybe like two or 3 hours just talking and then when I got up to go leave I literally couldn’t walk cuz my knees were like so stiff

From being sat there in the cold for hours yeah that’s cool and um I mean it was weird for me because I felt like I’d known you my whole life and we had a lot in Sim we had a lot in common we were quite similar we both had

Sort of similar backgrounds in that you know getting deep already like we’ both had periods of in our lives where we’d sort of been used a little bit for I guess what and our heart and our desires to to create our desires to you know love people and help other people and

Some people have used that and abused that and it’s backfired and I guess in some sense that’s pushed us back into our shell a little bit but at the same time we have a passion and we have a desire to still make content to create

To to be who we feel we are um and I guess that something I felt from you and obviously I was was going through a pretty tough time like in my personal life as well and you obviously helping me through that and I felt like I had

You know a friend to actually share that with and I was sort of that was a beginning of the journey I probably met you when was it like was it this time last year kind of was it like early I reckon like March time was it before Fe

Fe it like February I remember it being very cold okay yeah it might have been January February mad so about a year ago about a year ago about a week ago isn’t it that song um okay so fast forward a couple of couple of months we were making content

We were doing Tik Tok we were doing photography and you know I was starting to grow a little bit wasn’t I on on Instagram and you know I think the the videos and photog photography stuff was really helping it was like a consistent brand

And I was doing my own stuff at the same time now fast forward to April May time um similar Vibes I’m not going to go into loads of detail cuz it’s not really the right time to do it but I had a pretty severe um life change and I needed somewhere to live

And I literally didn’t know who else to reach out to mainly because I needed I wanted to be in a position and in a place where I could film make content still go to the gym do all that stuff and I know I reached out to you CU you

Were with me through a lot of the hardship during that time and I mess you didn’t I and asked you if I could stay yeah and then I ended up living with you for like 3 months didn’t I yeah I remember um cuz I was in Portugal at the

Time on a surf trip yeah and I was on like a little night out when he messaged me and it was a night out where the guys had to dress up as girls and I saved um I saved the uh can we put a photo up I

I’ll probably find it yeah cuz I saved the Snapchat which I replied to you saying yeah sure state of mine it’s a picture of me like with mascara all around my eyes I save that um but yeah I didn’t care I was happy to have you it’s

Nice to mix it up and have someone different in the house yeah so that’s a bit of a back story of how we met so you know I think generally in this podcast i’ I’d love to just go on a bit of a dip Deep dive about I mean a lot of things

Really I think we have a lot in common like we said before we view the world pretty similarly we both have similar goals and aspirations we we love creating um you know I’d love to go into a bit of of a deep dive on even uni life experiences life goals see where the

Conversation goes um you know having me in the house you know I was living on your floor here comes the cat by the way here we go uh she just wants love so she’s going to be sight with us I think she’ll do what she wants but we’re

Trying to ignore her as much as we can um no you’re not speaking on the M you’re not speaking on the mic rubs stop it I’m trying to talk here all right we just ignore her so I see put on your floor we would obviously like I was

Still at was I uni no I was working so you were still at Uni yeah so what was it like having somebody who was at work like was it a bit weird I know how old are you by the way 23 23 so I’m 23 as

Well but you you went to UNI late yeah I took a few Gap years few Gap yeah so what did you do on those Gap years um first one I traveled for like four months and then Co hit so I was just working and trying to survive for like a

Year and a half M and then thought cuz I couldn’t do it any of my plans that I had initially planned like travel wise and then started looking at courses and then kind of discovered that I was really passionate about photography and filming and then thought yeah that’s

What I want to do so I’m going to start looking at stuff orientated around that yeah and then found leads what made you go to leads the course yeah it was the course and it was a good like reputable uni um um I was torn between staying

Like near the sea and going to not quite as good a university or going to leads and then hey man you have scarra I know that’s only an hour and a half away which is nice I’ve been I didn’t go surfing there but I filmed a music video

There you go surfing there yeah it’s just cold really very cold for we’ve got quite a few American viewers right so when you say cold we’re not going to be able to put it in Fahrenheit but wet suit Vibes like deep like thick wet suit

Wet suit is like 5 mm got a little wet suit Hood gloves boots thermal rash vest yeah everything well I think this is a good segue into like leads because I think I don’t know how many people who’ be watching this may may be in leads

Maybe some my old lead friends might be watching this um leads is obviously a really cool City especially for students like 70,000 students in lead there a lot there’s a lot of Unis on there um when you went to UNI what your like like what were your key

Drivers for going to UNI was it was it the course was it the lifestyle like what obviously you did two Gap years did you always want to do University or well it’s funny CU I after college was I’m never going to University I’m so done with education I just want to start

Living my life um but then I feel like there’s lots of things that you get out of uni which are more than just like a grade on a piece of paper because I don’t necessarily need this degree to do what I want to do it’s more of who you

Become at the end of it so the people you meet the connections you make living by yourself and like that Independence that you get and so for me I wanted to network lots of different people which I’ve done and then also like get good at my skill get good at taking pictures get

Good at filming things which I probably wouldn’t have been able to do as easily otherwise because I didn’t have a lot of equipment I can use all the university stuff so you get so much more out of it than just like your actual degree is kind of you become afterwards and

Growing up and leaving leaving home and everything do you think that’s also so we both study creative degrees you’re distracted by the cat yeah okay well I’ll try and keep this together whilst you over there um so I studied music you study photography two very creative

Degrees I think we can probably a agree that degree agree that I think we both got more out of uni because of our courses but not for the reasons many people go to UNI so or I guess it depends on the way you view uni but I think the the traditional

Way of people viewing uni was you go to UNI to get a degree and you need a degree in order to get a good job and you get a good job in order to make enough money to be able to buy a house and then once you buy a nice house you

Can then continue to buy nice houses and you invest and then you get a wife and then you get kids and then you retire and then that’s your life and that was sort of the way things happened back in the day now I think that’s very different to how people View University

Now you get you do get the people who go to UNI because it’s the standard thing and their parents May force them to but I think generally most people go to UNI because of the lifestyle you can get all this money from the government you can

Have a load of fun that’s sort of low strings attached you can find yourself you can enjoy a load of nights out and sleep around and do drugs and sort of hide away from the real world but then three years go by and you realize crap

What have I done like have I got out the end of this and many people then try and find a quick job or most people fall into like recruitment or they’ll move home with their parents or something like that now we obviously do we did creative

Degrees do you think that that even that degree Choice changes your whole uni experience I don’t I don’t think so but I feel like with uni it’s kind of you get out of it what you put in so there’s some people in my course who never never

Go to any lectures never go to any of like the seminars they don’t put don’t put in a lot of work and I don’t feel like they have the same experience that I have because I attend everything drawn a load of extra like clubs and societies so I feel like your experience

Is as much as you put in regardless of what course you do or what you study but do you think for example do you put loads and loads of time into your course or do you put loads and loads of time into your craft

H i I think both okay but then my craft is kind of like my course do you think your course takes away from your craft no I think that kind of adds to it um so like for example we have a load of modules to do each semester and I might have a

Photography one a short film one and these are all things which I’m passionate about and you kind of have the freedom to take it whichever way you want to go so for example in my photography module I did it on Ocean photography which is

What I want to do anyway way so then I was able to explore that and practice those sorts of skills required through that part of my course but do you think that part of your course taught you how to take surf photography or or ocean photography well I kind of taught myself

So so the course didn’t wasn’t the thing that really no so this is a similar FR pushed me in the direction but didn’t actually help me achieve what I want to achieve okay so this is L yeah this is hitting on what I wanted to get to so I

Think we both have growth mindsets we both are people who want to do more because we want to grow and develop and try new things and change and learn my uni course pretty much taught me nothing other than my oneto ones with Craig Le who is an unbelievable music coach and

Taught me a lot about technique and taught me about um posture and warming up and loads of really practical things there were loads of things that weren’t practical and actually were DET deterring from my development in music now I was very blessed it sounds weird thing to say I was very blessed because

Of Co because Co for a music degree you can imagine is pretty diabolical when the whole point of the course is to go out gig practice be around other musicians sing with other people we weren’t able to do any of that so we were in our bedrooms making music and

Some people didn’t know how to produce didn’t know how to record didn’t know how to do any of that stuff I was very blessed because I’d started to think about producing before I went to UNI I wasn’t great at it but I started to dabble with it just before Co and that

Meant that I was well on my way to learning how to produce on my own I didn’t need to rely on anybody else I think that’s photography is pretty similar like you can take your camera out you can take your you know if you have one person who you like and get on

With you can go anywhere and explore and try and practice um but the uni experience really just gives you the framework to be able to go and try and fail and test and make mistakes and learn without consequences without consequences and because we’re in Creative degrees everything we’re doing outside of uni

Because it’s a passion is affecting our whole like we can we can get away with making content and for you you can then use that as your uni degree yeah true same thing for me I would be making music I’d be making worship music I’d be making um you know writing songs during

Covid and I would be able to submit those as my uni degree and effectively like I got first you’ll probably get first and I know you will um and we come out of with like all of these skills which we’ve now built up because we would have done that anyway regardless of whether

We went to UNI but we didn’t then have to stress about oh I need a job or I’m doing a geography degree and I hate it but I need to keep doing my coursework and then you’re stressed and you’re in the library till 5 a.m. and you know

There were moments where you are up until 4:00 a.m. like I was up till 4:00 a.m. recording and like singing and my houseat probably hated me but you know there was something about our degrees and the creative degrees which really helped because it gave you the framework

To be able to be creative without having to have a job now all that to say I feel like for people who maybe you know maybe listen this podcast thinking about oh I’m ready to go to UNI or I want to go to UNI um this isn’t to say

Either go to UNI or not go to UNI I literally have no say on that whatsoever but I would just say be mindful of why you’re going to UNI is it for the lifestyle is it for giving yourself an opportunity to get a job after is it to

Give you a load of free time three years effectively and you know that you want to achieve loads of things within that three years and going to University gives you that threeyear buffer before you have to hit the real world I think the main takeway is just be intentional like with the

Time and the money that you’re spending and investing um for me I just didn’t want to waste three years I wanted to make sure I wanted to commit to what I was doing because so many people just go to UNI for the sake of it they’d pick a

Degree they don’t care about or not passionate about just because it’s something that everyone does and I don’t feel like they take anything away from that it’s just delaying adulthood basically yeah so they can party for three years yeah well let’s h on a few

More things on this uni thing um on this uni segment because I think it could be useful practical things and then we’ll move somewhere else what were your what are your biggest pet peeves about living with uni students I know we talked about a little bit earlier but what um what

What do you find really frustrating first year was a shock I think um because you’re put into Halles with people that you don’t know and in my flat there was nine of us nine nine other strangers and um and these people aren’t probably going to be your friends um

Because they’re just a random group of people yeah I got along with one of them which was Kieran um great guy yes but I was quite shocked How young everyone was and how they hadn’t been taught how to live and I felt in first year I found it quite lonely because I was a couple years older cuz I took those extra years out and so everyone was about 18 I was like 20

21 and yeah I found it very lonely cuz all everyone cared about was just going out and partying and for me that’s not really that’s not my not my cup of tea has it ever been your cup of tea no I I don’t mind it it’s fine it’s fun but

It’s not like they would go out every single night every day of the week the whole block of flats so that felt quite like isolating for me cuz I wanted to get up at half 4 in the morning go to the gym go swim and meanwhile people are

Still getting back from the nights out at that time was quite quite lonely and also everyone’s just disgusting as well no one knows how to look after themselves cook or clean which is quite surprising yeah I’m guessing you had the same experience I mean yeah we talked

About it earlier I and we’re again pretty similar we we like to well I I genuinely think it became it’s it’s come from a place of insecurity I know this sounds weird and vulnerable but I think because I didn’t have loads of friends growing up and I was quite independent

That’s what caused me to go into like passionate things and hobbies and because I didn’t have loads of people to hang out with so that meant I was in the house a lot I have great family and my mom’s my my best friend and she taught

Me a lot growing up about how to cook and she wanted me to be as independent as possible and I I’m really blessed to have had that um you know for me age of 11 we would be doing our our own we we’d be washing our own clothes or at least

To to an extent we would be cooking we would be doing our own uh you know’ be we’d be making our own bedrooms designing what our bedrooms were going to look like we’ be tidying and cleaning the bathrooms really cool thing which I definitely want to do when I’m a parent

Is she used to we wouldn’t get pocket money unless we did chores and they say chores like I don’t really like that word I think did jobs around the house to help out cuz I think it’s important if you’re living in a home like yes you

Are 11 12 you don’t have means to make money and and work yet but you can still have those things instilled in you but what she would do which is amazing is she would ask me to clean the bathroom and then she would judge what I’d done

On a scale of 1 to 10 and if it wasn’t at like a 9 or a 10 she would make me go back into the bathroom and she would make me analyze why it wasn’t a 10 what had I done or not done mhm that wasn’t up to standard

So I then had to analyze what was the standard and what wasn’t find out maybe what I done wrong or what I hadn’t done right and then fix it and I think just that simple literally just uh intentionality of a job and um when you start something

Whether you like and something my dad and my grandpa was always say to me if you’re going to do a job do it well if you’re not going to do a job well don’t bother doing it in the first place there’s no point let somebody else who’s

Going to do it well do it and that isn’t that isn’t to say like don’t try things and don’t you know you’re not going to be able to do everything perfectly first time but I think just that intentionality behind trying your best dyb is a family Mantra

Probably come up a lot in this podcast throughout the episodes um the idea of just doing your best in all you can um is that similar to you did you have that sort of what was what was your what how do you think you got to the point where

You were different maybe from the other uni uni kids well so growing up kind of similar to you but in different context because my mom is cabin crew for British Airways so she wasn’t at home much which then meant I had to become quite independent quite

Quickly so then when moving to UNI it wasn’t there was not really like a big oh I’m living by myself I’m used to looking after myself anyway so for me I was just living but I guess for everyone else is kind of learning how to cook how

To clean um and no one knew how to do that sort of stuff do you think it’s just the knowing or do you think it’s also the mindset and I guess the like the heart behind it because I know there’s some people who genuinely like they have a heart to do

Better mhm is that what you experience or is it different they just don’t care they’re just lazy everyone is lazy which I was very surprised about uni it’s like they didn’t actually want to be there just wanted to do the bare minimum everyone is so lazy especially realized that on my course

Um because in my first year was kind of on the back end of covid we had Zoom calls for our things so we have to take pictures send them into our lecturis and talk about them on the zoom call and every week I was the only one that

Actually came with a picture no one else I think only like a couple people would show up to the zoom call no one else even bothered like sending in the thing or even showing similar and it’s just like why are you here so well yeah it’s all about what

You put in and no one everyone’s just lazy but even like that’s more about unque need like coursework and stuff but you know around the house I think that’s something unique about University isn’t it like you’re in a five bed four bed home with a load of random people who

Depending on your social skills you either find people you live with or you just get put together because you got nowhere else to live it’s so it’s just such a unique thing in your life where you have to be good at networking you have to build relationships you have to

Know how to hold yourself well you need to be independent but also be able to bed in with other people who are different to you and there’s a lots of learning Curves in it um which is why I do think it’s a brilliant time I was very blessed I live with Christians we

Said earlier and obviously being a Christian we we just want to love people well and and I know during my time obviously thinking about I was dating and and uh I would constantly be thinking about you know I’m going to be a husband like I need to practice

Serving well you know so if there were dishes in the kitchen and they were in the sink and they weren’t washed properly this isn’t oh look at Sam I’m holier than that this is more just me walking through my experience you know there was something joyful about just

Clearing it up because I’d be telling myself well I’m practicing something here um and I don’t think if I had that mindset and it was more of just like a oh why are they leaving it again like it wouldn’t help me it would have just made me either resent my housemates or you

Know see the worst in them which I don’t think ever brings Joy it just sort of brings you know we said comparison is like sort of the thief of Joy isn’t it so comparing like oh these guys aren’t good or these guys are annoying me all

This stuff yes you might be quite right like that might be true that they don’t care they’re lazy um and I’m not trying to preach you here but I think generally just for everybody even for myself having like the positive mindset trying to see the best in people and trying to

Help out where you can and helping out might actually look like leaving it loving them might look like leaving it because then they have to deal with it and they have to see it and they have to realize oh crap like if I don’t clean this stuff it’s just going to pile up

And pile up and pile up and obviously it’s it’s very unique each situation you’ve you know you’ve had experiences I mean tell them like where you’ve um you know you’ve you’ve tided up and then next day it’s just dirty again and then you’ll get a message in the group chat

And yeah if I then share that story CU that’s interesting leave one bowl out on the side then suddenly it’s someone sends message into group chat like oh someone needs to put their bowl away it’s disgusting when the day previous I had cleaned the whole kitchen swapped

All the floors hoed whopped all the WIP down all the surfaces um so yeah it’s very easy just to winge um but I think kindness can be contagious as well yeah so I like to think that if someone sees me doing a big deep clean in the kitchen one day

Then they’ll think okay I’ll do it next time which isn’t always the case but in in my second year house that was very much the case like one day I’d do all the dishes for someone and the next day they thought okay I’ll make Thomas dinner which is nice it made living so

Much nicer which which it can be I think once you find your people well segueing out of out of uni I mean I’ve graduated now you’re close to you’re thinking about after yeah what do you plan on doing after uni I think my number one goal is to leave England I

Can’t stand it here mainly because of the climate like the weather I’m not built for this cold weather yeah yeah I’m think I’m heading straight to Australia one way flight you ever thought about going in R Us so many places uh the list is very long

Um I don’t know where to start literally southeast Asia central America oh everywhere so why Australia um mainly the lifestyle um I went on my gapy um and can you just I need to stop you there so many people will not know what that reference is can you just explain

What that means well to translate it means Gap year so to translate it’s when you take a year out between finishing college and then going to University and who coins the term gapar I think it’s people in exitar exitar um yeah so quite wealthy people will go on

A gap yard where Mommy Daddy fund their traveling to Thailand they do like two weeks in Thailand for their Gap year I didn’t have one of those by the way and they get a shell necklace but you went on a gap year so I you didn’t go to Gap

Y no I I found myself say shell necklace yeah I I didn’t I did get a shell necklace on my Gap here as well okay um so anyway you yes Australia yeah um I love the lifestyle in Australia when I was in Sydney so you’ve been to

Australia yes um twice oh rub it in um at like half five in the morning the beach is rammed everyone’s running swimming cycling going for coffee surfing and I just I love it it’s so so me is so cool and I feel like everyone’s happier there because the quality of

Life is better and good for photography yeah lots of opportunities for what I want to do especially with like surf photography and less cold as well so obviously if you’re going to leave uni you leave all that happy framework of getting money from the government I know

So I’m actually going to have to work um I’ll probably work over summer again and uh so I do a bit of beach lifeguarding which I’ve done for six Summers now so this will be my seventh so you you got that qualification when how will be you

When you did that I was 16 when I first started were there many other people doing it at the time um it was quite competitive um I gu where you live as well isn’t it yeah um but I kind of grown up doing it I been doing like lifeguard training

From when I was like 14 and swimming a lot before then anyway so kind of just naturally fell into it um and living by by the Sea helps a lot as well um and then when I’m not lifeguarding I recently started doing like swim holiday guiding so last summer I worked in

Greece and Slovenia bit of Italy as well um taking people out and swim holidays which is really cool um great way to meet people and see beautiful countries I remember you FaceTiming me when I was I was just going into the gym and you would like oh I’ve just been it’s my day

Off and it’s just been sunny all day and I’m just staring at the sunset over the oh it was lovely it was really cool so that was your summer job and you’ll be doing that this summer again hopefully yeah and in the similar place or you

Know how does that how do like I think it’s a really cool job like genuinely blows my mind and it’s really good because you know you said it was very competitive even getting it and you can now take you can take photos on it as

Well so you can be learning you can be practicing you can doing all that stuff yeah so um I told you this earlier but I sent them an email basically saying hey I’m graduating in photography this summer would you like me to help out with the marketing and make some like

Promotional material using my film and photography skills um so hopefully I can kind of combine my two passions which is swimming traveling and photography three passions um and do all three things that I love um like they had a photography competition last year which I won which

Is pretty cool um that was a picture I took in Slovenia um but again because I was working I didn’t really have time to commit to like getting the perfect shot so like to be able to spend more time doing that and hopefully earning money

Doing it as well which is the goal mhm and then in Australia you want to be doing I guess just similar skills you’ve got family out there yeah I do um I might try a bit of Life guarding out there I quite like to work on like a

Surf surf Yoga Retreat sort of thing it’s so you health and well-being waking up at 5:00 a.m. getting a coffee you don’t need coffee no um yeah yeah and that sounds it does sound too good to be true in some senses but that’s the thing about this country you we don’t hate I

Actually love the UK I think he brilliant you know we spent the day going around the CWS and driving around on the roads and it’s beautiful here but I do think you know if you’re wired a certain way creatives we’re both into our health and Gym and Fitness and

Discipline and all of that stuff I do think when you’re young and you’re in that mindset going to a place like Australia where everybody does want to be active they do want to be up and about they are happy they are optimistic you know I obviously I don’t know I’ve never been

Unfortunately um but from what I see online a guy called James Smith uh you actually was close to me over Gloucester um moved out there and he has a you might know him makes a drink called new tonic with Chris Williamson from Modern wisdom and he racks his lyrical about

Australia and how it changed his life so I do think that’s you know for practical application for people who maybe finding their lives stuck in a bit of a rut or they they don’t really know why but they might be just struggling a bit in their location or where their life’s going I

Think changing your situation changing your location your environment could be so that that’s what changed my life six months ago like I left lead came home living my parents my whole life is completely changed just because I’m in a different environment yeah I think people can be scared of change sometimes

Though um and they get too comfortable that kind of small town mindset which I think also kind of scares me um I don’t want to die where I was born I want to Branch out as far as possible do you think that links to your mom being I

Think it does because she’s always traveling she’s traveled like her whole life that’s massively influenced me I think cuz like we went to Australia when I was nine and when we first went I was like this is it I’m have my mind set I’m I’m living here one day and I still have

That goal yeah that’s definitely influence me yeah so going on to the health and fitness stuff what made did you get into that have you always been sporty you always been active no so tell me about that cuz I wasn’t either well I’ve always enjoyed it um I was never like particularly good

At anything um oh come on bro but I when I was younger I was I just loved doing everything I did every single like after school club did lots of music we’re so similar did sport I just I know I just loved trying new things the only sport I

Didn’t do was football I I hated football okay that’s very different um Saker yeah Saker and then swimming was like my main sport I think is the one that I was best at but ended up falling out of love with it because I was only

Like 10 or 11 and being made like train every day and I just hated it um so then I quit and then that’s where I got into surf life saving which like the lifeguard training when I was a bit older like 13 14 and then when I started

Lifeguarding I got really back into my swimming again and because she was surrounded by people with like a similar sort of mindset and then I got reintroduced to like competitive swimming like yeah I want to get good again cuz I got a lot slower and so I want to get improve that

Improve my overall Fitness and then one of my friends that I lifeguarded with then introduced me to the gym and I just had no clue about that I think because I wasn’t close to my brother and single mom you don’t have that sort of masculine mindset so I didn’t really

Know how to get muscles or why I wanted muscles or whatever um and then start going to the gym hated it for like two years um but then just forced myself to keep on going until I eventually kind of fell in love with the process and now at Uni because there’s

So many different clubs and societies and sports clubs you can join I just threw myself everything like I’m going to do everything um and I love it yeah I can’t for me I find it easier to go to gym at 6:00 in the morning instead of

Not you know I feel like you’re the same as well yeah maybe not at 6:00 a.m. but I struggled when I’m not at the gym yeah I think that’s something that’s changed over a couple of years really as I’ve sort of I’ve realized how going to the

Gym can be an obsession and can become an idol um you know I think there’s so many Brilliant Health benefits to going to the gym and it changed my life going to the gym um I think the social aspects the discipline seeing growth development change how it affects your life because

You have to fuel your body properly you have to sleep I wanted to get the most out of it I wasn’t going to go to the gym if I wasn’t going to get anything out of it what’s the point and uh I think it’s something that you can take

Anywhere you can be you know it’s that dopamine as well from from lifting weights and you also know you’re investing in your body long term because you’re going to be strong and and hopefully you’re going to be able to be you know you’re going to have longevity

In your life because your bones are going to be stronger and your muscles obviously going to last longer um obviously you end up drinking more water you end up you know eating Health healthier um I think there are so many benefits but I think especially at Uni

Um it is really easy to just at least for me I found it becoming sort of the reason I even went to UNI because I just have loads of time to go to the gym and I don’t think that’s a bad thing but I mean on your point like I do think going

To the gym and having that as like a daily routine and a daily Rhythm can be really useful for people and I know when I started similar to yourself not swimming but football so I played football only started when I was about 10 or 11 other kids started when they

Were five you know their dads wanted them to become the next football star ever the next Ronaldo the next Rooney whatever and um I didn’t have that my dad liked rugby but when I was at school I just saw people playing football and started watching football on TV and saw

Ronaldo and man united and I was like what who’s that and that made me fall in love with with man united and Ronaldo um and so he’s a massive you know would say Idol but you know role model in my life watching him and and his mindset and he

Would go to the gym and he’d get to the training pitch before anybody else he’d be the first to leave F first to go and first to leave um and that mindset and and just seeing him independent but also care for other people and he would just

Be so angry If he if he wasn’t living up to what he knew he could do and he wanted to constantly improve and develop and in some sense he would also hold his teammates accountable cuz he he wanted to succeed he wanted to succeed so if other people weren’t going to have the

Same mindset and I think you have a similar mindset you know you’re putting loads in and this is why group work can be so frustrating I’m sure loads of people can relate to this you know you’re putting all the work in you’re trying really hard because you want to

Be the best you can be and you want to have something at the end that you’re proud of and you got other people who aren’t really on the same wavelength that’s really hard but that’s why I liked football and then after that I started to wanting to play a bit better

And and getting better and I started going up the ranks and I ended up joining a football team called forest green Rovers which is local Club here and I knew that I wasn’t really invested in it I went to church on Sundays I didn’t really give two monkeys to make it

Professionally I also hit puberty quite late so I was in that weird phase from like 12 to 16 where I wasn’t like hadn’t developed yet and I hadn’t even started developing properly yet so I sort of fell a lot behind other people and I just didn’t I didn’t feel like I was

Getting as much out as I was putting in so stopped and I moved into refereeing which similar to lifeguarding ni yeah so I was doing a lot of I’d say more of like the mature end of football where I’m literally interacting with parents I’m interacting with adults who are

Potentially three times my age and I’m the person who they’re looking to lead the match who has to be the discipline maker the judge and the jury on the pitch when their kids just slide tackled someone and their dad’s like send him off send him off and now I’ve

Got this kid who’s crying cuz he feels guilty about hurting another kid and then you’ve got the parents on the other team saying send him off and I’m like well sending him off is that going to make him never want to play football again and you’ve got all these things

Lot of pressure mate it was a lot but so good you know I’d be waking up at 8: a.m. and i’ get a text message from the manager in the week saying Hi Sam I see you’re my you’re the ref for the for the game still on I’d be like yep all good

So I’d go my dad would take me and um you know I’d get there and I’d do the pitch inspection i’ got the qualification I made got my got my money beforehand so they couldn’t run off with it at the end um he like 30 quid every

Every match and I get expenses as well yeah it was good and you know I think that was the discipline I you know many days where I’d wake up on a Saturday morning and it’d be freezing cold 9:00 a.m. and I’d be like man I really have

To get in my car and drive all the way to chelham and referee a match and then before I know it’s already 2 p.m. and my day is gone and I would often say to Mom I don’t she’d be so encouraging come Sam you there’s a reason why you’re doing

This it’s so good for you so good for you I didn’t do it when I went to UNI but but similar to your lifeguarding I guess and then I didn’t end up going to uh I didn’t end up playing football at Uni like you went back into swimming but

For me the gym was then that yeah it was that chance to have an outlet and to develop something and grow and I think those skills like especially with the discipline ins side of it regardless of how much weight you lift in the gym or what sport you do it’s that discipline

Mindset whereas if I can go to the gym in the morning and do something that I don’t want to do I can then do anything you know so true so if I go to the gym bench press 100kg sink down at my desk to write an essay is easy that’s a treat

You know and it just completely reframes how you think about perceived effort and doing something you don’t want to do get uncomfortable I guess same with your um cold dips in the morning doing something that makes you uncomfortable makes everything else seem so much easier you

Know that gym we went to last night grow room has something on the wall I’m probably butcher exactly what it is but it’s basically like discipline is doing something you don’t want to do and acting like you love it yes and that is like so powerful I think

Because it’s those days when you wake up and the last thing you want to do is get out of bed at 5:00 a.m. and you have to tell yourself I love getting out of bed at 5:00 a.m. mhm and you just have to go do it yeah and that I think is different

To people who go to the gym who just want to get jacked because they want to look good in a shirt and they want to look good in front of their mates and I think you can sense it you know I think you can sense it when you go to a gym

You find the people who are driven and they care and they love it and they want to see other people develop and grow and change and change their life and then you see the people who are maybe there because their mates have dragged them there and they’re just wanting to sort

Of showbo and push a load of weight and I’m not here judging them and everybody’s on their own journey and I probably went through phases like that when I was a bit arrogant and like the way that I looked and I was only going cuz it was the dopamine you know that

I’d get from it but I do think you know it’s the beginning of the year people who don’t go to the gym who have never stepped foot in a gym find someone who has and I guess some the best advice I can give go on YouTube and find a

Channel of someone that you like so I’m going to I’ll list a few now if you’re if you’re a guy I’ll list a few if you’re a girl I’ll list a few so guys Chris bum’s dead everyone knows Chris bum’s Dead He’s trans figured just body building he’s now lifestyle just one of

The biggest guys in the internet amazing watch his YouTube videos just watch and copy what he does um there’s a great guy called Anthony mantell as well bodybuilder but young guy 22 really really great videos Jeff nippard controversial but really good informative videos and again controversial but athleen X Jeff

Cavalier he has some really really good fundamentals could watch him when I was I watched him I used to watch every single video of his also coach Greg Greg de set okay people love him people hate him I love him he’s got heart similar to

Mine where he will wear his heart on a sleeve he be authentic he might say the wrong thing he might come across in the wrong way but he genuinely cares to see people develop themselves so there are some really good guys watch them get comfortable watching them because I

Think when when you have a relationship with like a YouTuber or an influencer or an Instagram person and they’re going to the gym and you you start watching them you feel like you’re already in the gym with them so then when you step foot in you already feel like you’ve got you

Don’t feel as insecure because you’re not just starting at zero you’ve already got a bit of a a Baseline and then for the girls um Anthony’s girlfriend Anthony mantel’s girlfriend Ali Prince really good just does some really good videos on fundamentals um there’s also a woman called Laura Le

Chapados um I might put some of these in the show notes if you care about going into the gym but she’s really really great she’s a bodybuilder but she has some really really good um videos from like back in the day of just breaking down um you know I guess gym and

Lifestyle and fitness and how to get into it and I guess just having a good balance um so yeah that that’s a really good way of getting into the gym but what what do you see like in the next two three years who do you want to be in

Three years time oh like what bits of yourself do you want to keep maybe what bits you want to work on WE we’ll sort of wrap it up on this I guess something which I like is my discipline um and I feel like I’ve kind of always had it

Good work ethic because I’m not someone that’s been like naturally gifted at anything that I always even throughout all the school I haven’t be haven’t had like that one thing that I’m really good at you know some kids are good at math or English I have to work hard and I

Still got good grades but I had to work really hard to get those grades I wasn’t naturally just like gifted with them um so I definitely want to carry that forward and I think just be the best version of myself that I can be that’s

Always my goal that’s why I want to go to the gym every day I’m not getting hung up on like progress have I put on enough weight or do I look a certain way it’s I’m more about how I feel and I’m know that I’m bettering

Myself each day and that’s what I want to carry forward with me forever especially the next few years but then also because I’m graduating this year is quite scary to take that leap I always talk about moving to Australia but actually putting that into practice is

Quite scary going to a new place where I don’t know anyone don’t know anything um but yeah what about you I think for me what do I want to keep well who do I want to be in three years I think I want to believe in myself

More um I think that takes time and I think it’s a balance because I think believing in yourself is different to being self-confident because I think being self-confident can sometimes be or I guess it’s different to arrogance I think sometimes I can it’s a really easy

Line to cross over where you come across as arrogant because you know you’re good at this or you look this certain way or you do that but I think inner confidence comes from and obviously for me as a Christian it comes from my identity in Jesus um

And I think that’s something I’m I’m really growing in at the moment and and really that’s something that no matter what happens in my life no matter what circumstan I’m in no matter what someone says about me I know that there’s no there’s now no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus

So yes I can still look back and see maybe where I’ve made a mistake or where I failed or where I’ve made maybe made the wrong choice but knowing that my future is so still so secure in that and that’s something that I want to continue

Growing in um but I think the things I want to carry forward is as well yeah similar to you the discipline of just being okay being different being okay stepping out and I think as you get older and you mature you start realizing who you are and really what’s ingrained

In you and when you maybe falter from that Identity or trying things that maybe you’ve never done before and then you realize that isn’t me like it gives you the opportunity to really bed in on those things which you know are ingrained in you mhm so for example the

Podcast the music the photography the videography similar to you like I know that’s all part of me that I love and it just brings me so much joy these sort of conversations being able to open up and be real and authentic and I want to be somebody

Who in some senses like is the glue between a load of different people there’s something that brings me so much joy in introducing people who like who are likeminded and who like similar things who have similar heart postures and connecting them up because we live in a world that’s so disconnected and we

Live in a world which is so divided and no one really knows how to talk each other no one really knows how to relate to each other there’s a lot of misunderstanding and I think that’s why talking and communicating is so important and that’s why you know

Conversations like this are so nice and obviously you’re already my mate so it’s different but um you know I’d love to be able to have people on something like this go across the world and toward somebody for the first time and just find that common ground find that

Humanness that we all have um and debate and and find find where we maybe differ and try and give each other a a different view or something to think about and I think that’s something for all of us uh and my heart behind this podcast is that you guys leave after

Listening to these with maybe just something to ponder maybe something to look at something to review in your own life and your own mind um and to be somebody who’s open and accessible so that people feel like they can reach me and ask me questions or in some senses

Just be maybe see me as a role model and even that outside accountability bro so like having a platform and having people maybe look up to you it’s always something that’s been in me from being head boy my school same you her boy as well shut up okay that’s weird but yeah

I that’s we we care we want to we want to be somebody who people can rely on and um you that’s probably why we both want to be dads we want to be parents we want to want to lead we want to care for we want to provide we want to be that

Buck you know when The Bu buck stops with us like we want to be that guy on The Chopping board who is there when things go wrong and will take the hit so that other people can continue to thrive and I think I see that in you you were

There for me and it’s nice because I can sometimes well I hope to repay you one day um in some way I don’t know how well this well this isn’t really repaying you but hey we’ll wrap it up there what is your Instagram let’s plug you as

Much as we can I don’t have Instagram but you do so I do go plug it bro uh my Instagram is uncore Thomas Oliver uncore and what’s your photography account it’s linked in my bio you can find it okay yeah so in the next three years we’re going to see you as some

Famous uh photographer yeah and then by the time I’m 30 so in seven years I will be the next David aten bro nice yeah and you’re not going to transition to only fans depends how desperate I get for new camera equipment yeah but we’ll see not

Yet well I’ll be there when when it happens on that not F on that note we’re going to rough up there but guys thanks for listening thanks for watching and we’ll see you in another episode of chat to Sam I have no idea when but I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode I’ve enjoyed

It if you enjoyed it I have it’s been a lot easier than I thought it would be okay yeah that’s good to know hopefully it was enjoyable and it wasn’t boring and hopefully the cameras are still working hey oh imagine well we’ll see anyway bye