Identity Change & Personal Growth - Ollie Marchon - #371

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
What's happening, people? Welcome back to the show. My guest today is Ollie Marchon. He's a coach, Nike master trainer, and a business owner. The last year has caused everyone to ask some huge questions about life direction. Change is often good, but always scary. And learning to find your place in the new world takes a lot of work. So how has Ollie managed to balance his family, work, business, coaching and training whilst trying to find his new identity? I expect to learn what happens when you've outgrown an old version of you, but don't know who you are next. How to ruthlessly chase down goals when the pressure is on, why a support system is crucial if you're a driven individual, where Ollie's confidence comes from and much more. If you're not familiar with Ollie, he's kind of like a sort of super dad, ex England rugby sevens trainer coach business guy. And what I like about having these conversations with him is that it allows us to peer into a high performer who's been an elite athlete, who's been to the absolute top of their game with regards to mindset and see what happens when they face challenges too. COVID was an ugly time for everyone and Ollie is no different. Getting to see that insight, learning how he has dealt with things, how has he transitioned and moved and tried to keep going and performing and achieving goals whilst having the pressure and the challenges of COVID on him. It's an interesting insight. I hope that you take tons away from today. But now it's time for the wise and wonderful, Ollie Marchon.
Ollie Marchon, welcome, Michelle.

**Ollie Marchon** (1:48)
Thanks for having me, Chris. Good to be back.

**Chris Williamson** (1:51)
Very good to have you back, man. How's the last year been for you? Talk to me.

**Ollie Marchon** (1:55)
Eventful, as I'm sure it has been for many people, but good fun. I think a lot's gone on. Has it been a year since, it's probably been longer than a year since we spoke, I think.

**Chris Williamson** (2:03)
Yeah, you're in two months.

**Ollie Marchon** (2:05)
Yeah, so lots changed. My second son has arrived. So Enzo is now in this world. He's actually one years old tomorrow, which is flown by. So learning to become a parent, I think we touched on sort of parenting last time when I was on. But yeah, learning to parent two kids has been fun, challenging.

**Chris Williamson** (2:24)
How much harder is two versus one?

**Ollie Marchon** (2:26)
I'm sure many people that have got to will understand it. You can't even compare it, to be honest.

**Chris Williamson** (2:32)
It's not just twice as hard. It's more than twice as hard.

**Ollie Marchon** (2:34)
No, it's far more than twice as hard because you just can't, any sort of plan or structure that you try and implement, even with anything, it just goes out the window because these are babies we're talking about. So there's no self-regulation for them. It's just things happen and you just got to deal with it. So things like being on time, leaving the house, feeding, nappies, sleep, all that kind of stuff goes out the window. I mentioned last time I was on that I'm very fortunate that my wife is very good at this sort of thing. So she makes things a lot easier. But that's been a really good challenge. I still think it's probably one area of my life that I don't take as naturally to. But it's something that I really enjoy the challenge. Other things, gyms are back open, which is a big part of what we do at Marchon, obviously with our facility. So that's been cool. We've had some growth in areas of the business due to what went on when the gym was closed. In the online space and awareness, and the community has grown a lot more. What we offer our community has grown. That's come with some personnel change as well. So the team's grown, people have kind of been and gone, and others have kind of joined and, I guess, taken us to another level because we've got more hands on deck.
What else?

**Chris Williamson** (3:52)
Well, what's different about you now? What's different about the guy that's stood in front of me now than the guy that was stood in front of me 14 months ago?

**Ollie Marchon** (3:59)
Okay, so I guess the main difference is I'm not locked up at home. So I feel as though life is back to a million and one miles an hour. Whereas back then, it was very much, for someone like me, it was very slowed down. There was a lot of constraints placed on me. And at the time, I probably perceived that as being quite inhibiting. But upon reflection, there's probably a lot of positives that came out of that time, and that maybe if I'd have sat back and slowed down a little bit, or just been deeper with my thoughts a little bit at the time, I'd have seen a lot more positives in that. It's only now kind of looking back in hindsight that I realized that those things were actually great for someone like me. I think in day to day, a big change for me is that I've come off the coaching floor. So the identity that I had back then as Ollie Marchon, the coach and personal trainer, which of course I still kind of hold on to that. But fundamentally, day to day, I don't really do any coaching or personal training. So I guess I'm kind of faking it if I still say that I am a coach. I'm a coach of sorts, but less so on the gym floor.