Traveling, Steroids & How To Build An Audience - Mike Thurston - #249

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, my friends. Welcome back. My guest today is none other than Mike Thurston. Long time buddy of mine. We're at University in Newcastle over 10 years ago now, and we've been meaning to record this for quite a while. Bumped into each other in Ibiza this summer and made a promise that we were going to find time to get this episode recorded, given the fact that we're both in Dubai at the same moment the stars finally aligned and we got to do it. Mike is one of the most popular YouTubers in the UK. His physique is ridiculous and always has been, even when we were at uni together and he was a couple of years younger than me. His insight into training, traveling, life, relationships, steroids, the way to build an online audience, how to grow a YouTube channel, all of this stuff was questions that I know a lot of his fans and me have an interest in. So today we go through it all. It's an extended version. And if you want to go and check out on YouTube, you will be able to see I'm recording in the beautiful Dubai Marina on the 25th floor of my good buddy Nick's apartment. So go and check out the YouTube version if you want to see us in all of our full glory. I didn't even have video guide with me. Did it on my own. Here's one I prepared earlier. I filmed it myself, kind of. But yeah, I really enjoyed this episode. Any feedback, thoughts that you've got, go ahead to the YouTube, leave some comments there. It will be a lively discussion, I'm sure, as Mike's audience will be heading there as well. In other news, this episode of the podcast is brought to you by Reebok. The single best training shoe on the planet is the Reebok Nano X. And I will fight any man, woman or child that says otherwise. If you haven't worn a proper training shoe to go and lift in, to do plyometrics in, to do a circuit in, even if it's just squats or typical bodybuilding, the difference is absolutely astronomical. And if you haven't done it, it's really hard for me to describe just how much of a change it can make to your training. But I promise you, once I put on a pair of Nano's, this is two and a half years ago, I never went back to a different training shoe. I've never worn Metcons again. I've never worn anything else. It's been Nano's all day, breakfast, lunch and dinner ever since 2018 for me. So yeah, you have the opportunity, thankfully, because Reebok are wonderful humans to go and get yourself a pair for under £90, £89 with the code MW20 for 20% off everything site-wide at reebok.co.uk. Also, if you're in Europe, you can use this code as well. The site should auto redirect to wherever you are in Europe. So you can get 20% off everything, including their Mayonet shorts, their t-shirts and of course the fantastic Reebok Nano X. If you add a pair to your cart and it says, if this code isn't valid, it's because you've chosen a colorway which doesn't work with the code. Change the colorway, get a pair in. I will continue to talk about them until you go and buy yourself a pair or a second pair or a third pair because I don't think you can have too many. reebok.co.uk and the code MW20.
But for now, it's time for the massive and wonderful Mike Thurston. Oh yeah, PS. I accidentally on purpose missed my flight back from Dubai last week, so I am staying here for another week. I need to warn you, some of the episodes that we have coming up have some slightly weird stuff in the background, like the sound of a mosque doing prayers in the middle of the afternoon, which you might be able to pick out in this one, and a little bit more echo than you might be used to, but I promise this episode and some of the others coming up over the next couple of weeks are literally the best that I've ever put out. They're so motivational, so insightful, so unique, fantastic humans, brilliant stories. So I appreciate you putting up with this while I'm away. I couldn't have got these guys if I was still in the UK. So the price that we all need to pay is a little bit of mosque singing in the background and a tiny bit of echo.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. I'm joined by the one and only.

**Mike Thurston** (4:22)
Mike T's in the building.

**Chris Williamson** (4:23)