Mat Lock
So Max Cathcart. Welcome back to The Unleashing Potential Podcast. Enjoy chatting. I’m excited to be chatting with this time.
Max Cathcart
Thank you very excited. No, last time was really good. I’m excited to see what we cover on this one.
Mat Lock
Absolutely. Well, and for anyone who’s watching this on YouTube, of course, they’re gonna know very well, that there was about 30 seconds between the last one and this one, because your background hasn’t changed. And then Oh, good. Um, so last time, we were talking about all things that I guess nutrition, your history, your background with supplementation, and then how you simplified that and thought to be great this time, if we could have a chat about the other side of your, your working life where you work with entrepreneurs, business owners, by buying entrepreneurs who are looking to make lifestyle and life changes, but conscious that, you know, we’re all everyone’s different, right? Everyone’s busy, you know that better than most? About how there’s only so many hours in a day. And it had to be efficient, though. So actually, we should probably start with the story that you wanted to share. Because we were talking off camera where I said you should do long days, you’re a busy guy. And that the truth. In fact, I’ve got a story about that. So let’s start with that.
Max Cathcart
Oh, so this was we’ll start with this and it’s, it’s a little bit crazy. But so in my younger days, I would have been I think I was 1819 year old 19 years old. And I was in a pay I was doing paving so I was paving roads. And the hours were just if anyone’s a paver have been a paver. You know, this, like your hours are just dumb. So it could you could be working that day, 10 hours, or 15 hours, or 17, I think I’ve worked up to 20 hours in one day. It was it was terrible. But actually that time, it was obviously here, we do paving all through the summer, but it was the last two months of our paving season. And it was funny because actually, at the end of those two months, I was also getting ready for one of my first one of my shoots in LA, so I must have been at least 21. And so the schedule, obviously, the work schedule is insane. It was super long, I didn’t know when I was done, I had no idea what the day kind of looked like. So I would actually have to get up at four, I would have my meals ready. And I’d be out the door at 4:30am. And then I would go to the gym from five to about 637 because I had to do cardio cuz I was getting ready for shoots. So I had to shed quite a bit. And then I’ll go work an intensive labor job from six to God only knows what time it was. I mean, usually I was home at about 11 3012 way, and then I would have to do that all over again. But so I had to figure out okay, how am I gonna, like make this work and hit my goals. So I had, everything was always laid out, like you’d like down to gym clothes, like I had three days in advance of like bags packed, or I didn’t even have to look right, like everything was just ready to go. My meals were made by someone else and delivered to me put in like had in my fridge like there’s, there’s no reason I had to mess this up. So I just made it as simple as I could stick to whatever I was doing, and show that but I mean I did that for I think it was like three months and I’m glad I’m not gonna do that, again. Just mixing in not much working out. And just that much like intensive labor job as well. I mean, it was it was insane. So it was
Mat Lock
obviously committed to the cause no question about it when you say you’re going through what kind of shooter we’re talking about.
Max Cathcart
Yeah, so that was fitness model, I flew to LA and I just that was kind of my introduction. So I just met with a bunch of different photographers and kind of see how well you work with them and see if they work well with you. And then that’s when you would kind of figure out if you guys can work together and create some good stuff for cert x whatever company and and move on from that. So that one was kind of the biggest one because you want it to make sure everything Um, your body was obviously dialed in, and you were ready for those for those finish shoots. So but it was a good time. I mean, we, I met with my agency down there, we had a huge, like, get together and got to watch and, and they were doing actually casting for a whole bunch of TV shows. So I got to sit with them and go through some of that as well. So it was cool.
Mat Lock
Hey, good, fun, fun. Now, as we said already, part of what you do for a living is work with your clients who are business alike, about how to improve their mental clarity. It could be built to build muscle, but certainly improve their energy levels. Yeah, I’d like to talk a little bit about how you approach that whole subject for you, I guess. There’s not many people on the planet wouldn’t like to improve their energy or have more mental clarity?
Max Cathcart
Yeah, so I was even talking to someone today as well. And even the business, their business was just getting quite large. And they’re just juggling a lot of different things. And I asked him today, I was like, what’s, what’s your main, like, what’s the first thing that kind of happens, and he was, like, I dropped my nutrition every time like, I know it, and I can see, like, immediately see the difference in my performance as soon as I do it. So that’s what like, when you live a busy, fast paced lifestyle, the first thing you don’t want to do is drop your nutrition, because that’s what’s gonna keep you running, that’s what’s gonna keep you moving. And keep obviously your head straight and making proper decisions. I mean, especially at that level, yet, you got a lot of decisions to make a lot of people to deal with, and, and you want as many decisions that are quality as you can. And when you’re not in a routine, and in a system that that’s going to keep you moving like that, then yeah, I mean, you can, you can see the difference in performance in general, but, but how we go about it is, is definitely going to be breaking it down your days, what you do in the day, and then we kind of set a good schedule on where he’s out as well, I’m not sure what level the fitness is, but on and just in general, it’s gonna be Yes, starting with the scheduling too, and, and then we just move forward with there. Yeah, and again, it depends on the person. But I think the biggest things is, is the schedule, because if we don’t get that down, now, then we’re gonna have a lot of issues, right, there’s gonna be a lot of missed, let’s say, like missed meals, or miss gym sessions, or whatever it is. So coming up with a solid plan, and just laying down your days is definitely the first start
Mat Lock
for sure. does have like a tiny birth, if you work one on one with,
Max Cathcart
yes, so everyone starts, everyone has a different starting level. So that’s why we kind of do that initial call, and figure out everything that you might be having issues with or struggling with, and then we kind of make a plan from there are I have a good starting point for you to what the plan will be. But yeah, we just go really deep into what previously you have been doing what has been working, what hasn’t been working, like if you even tried anything, and then walking through how much time you’re putting into your business, and how much in the family and how much into friends and hobbies, right? So we can kind of get this down and figure out what’s gonna work best for you. And I mean, if someone can only work out three times a week, then I’m going to make that into their program. And we can make it happen. You don’t have to work out seven, eight, whatever, 20 times right, per week to get those results. So it’s, I mean, you might have to pay a little bit more attention to certain things and make sure that those workouts are quality. Instead of maybe texting on the phone. I think that’s one of the biggest things I see now is people just talking in the gym and texting on their phones and in while they’re sitting on a machine, and that’s not what they’re there for. So get in get out and and get a good job of it.
Mat Lock
It’s interesting that one of the things I’m going to touch on love the app based programs. They, if I’m not at the moment, if I was following what I used to write on the whiteboard, and then put the flight mode, because not only do I identify the meeting escape path that that hour that 90 minutes is my opportunity to focus on working it. I try and thinking about the intention of the workout, the purpose of the working. I’ve mastered that, but I try and actually program called the program, which will Hank who’s our head of programming for the better games and he certainly he and his coaches. It never ceases to amaze me how, how much they write. For each workout. It always starts, what’s the tension of the workout? And really trying to get your head in the game. So that Yeah, you’re right. executing to the best of the best possible in terms of quality. But anyway, I digress.
Max Cathcart
No, that’s not a good, no, that’s a really good one as well as just coming, coming into your workout with a plan and you already know what you’re doing. Because a lot of people, that’s a huge setback to is like, even ask them I’m like, when you go to the gym, like you just walk in, and you just you’re hitting like, whatever you kind of feel like it. Like that day, you know what I mean? They’re like, Oh, I’m just gonna walk in and hit arms, because it’s, I’m kind of exhausted and I want to do something and arms just might be the easiest thing to do. Right? So when you when you have a scheduled like layout of exactly what you are going to do for that entire week. And not only that, but the workouts you’re going to be doing with like reps and sets. You don’t have to think about anything you’re in there, you’re, what you’re doing. And then you have it, you can have it on your phone, whatever it is, and you can just get it done. And I’ve noticed like even with me, that was a huge difference. For me, it’s like I noticed my workouts went up like crazy. Just, I just felt a lot better, I could get a lot more done. And just the focus was really well. And I could bang out a lot of workouts in a row that were like really quality. That was a huge difference for me for sure.
Mat Lock
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, listening to where it was Shane, or who is the husband, and Coach 40 a clear to me ticular or depending on who you’re talking to. But nonetheless, and Matt Fraser said, the two current fitness people on the planet for CrossFit. And he was saying that one of the things he loves, he said he can’t really teach this. He said one of the things he loved with both Tia and Matt, is that when he writes the workout down on the whiteboard, they just start with the first part of it. And they give their all to that. They’re not already thinking about what’s coming up, they just do the first part. And they add everything to that. And then that’s behind them the next and the next. And that’s even a Yeah, that’s taking the mental focus to an even deeper level, isn’t it? which is fantastic.
Max Cathcart
Yeah, yes. Then you don’t have you’re not thinking about all like, maybe you might not like that next workout, right? You’re not thinking about it while you’re doing your other one. And then it’s impacting your, your workout that you’re doing right now. that’s a that’s a great one as well, too. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t look too far ahead.
Mat Lock
Yeah, sure. They’re gonna see the spreadsheet, even though you could not feel guilty because it’s somehow a distraction within the overall work. And it’s still a distraction, the mind blower something else rather than the job in
Max Cathcart
Yeah, that’s, that’s an every, that’s an everyday life thing too, for sure. I mean, you don’t want to look like you want to set plan for, let’s say, your business or fitness goals. Absolutely. But you don’t want to be thinking about stuff that kind of doesn’t matter. Or stressing about stuff that doesn’t matter in like a month or like two months time, right? Like it’s take it day by day, and just execute the daily things you need to do in order to progress you in that direction. So that was a huge one, obviously, I learned to that. Just don’t focus on like way down the road, just break it down into days, and, and just work towards whatever that goal is. But you need to find out what those daily actions are to get you there and just complete those every day. And it will come.
Mat Lock
And that’s what you help your clients with.
Max Cathcart
Yeah, so that’s, that’s a huge one for us, is we kind of set up a wide goal. And that would be our three month range of what we’re kind of trying to target. And then from there, we break it down into like weekly tasks, monthly to weekly, and then it goes down to daily tasks. Like this is what we want to do every day. This week. And we sit down again, we have a call about how progress went and what went well, what maybe didn’t go well. And and then we make adjustments from there. shows and you’re
Mat Lock
working across. You’re taking a holistic approach. Correct. So your life in general stress, sleep, nutrition, scheduling, work, yeah.
Max Cathcart
Yeah, because everything, everything affects it. You really want to have every area of your life kind of kind of down with it too. Because the smoother that all runs, then the smoother you’re going to run and the more stuff you’re going to get done as well. So
Mat Lock
yeah, especially. Well, in your experience, what are some of the common? You know, there were five frequently asked questions, frequently asked sort of barriers, what what comes up time and time again, you hear the same thing from different clients.
Max Cathcart
I don’t have time. That’s, I just don’t I’m like, well, you don’t I mean, it’s just like, Well, why are you not kind of, or What’s your major issue, they’re like, well, I don’t have time to make my meals. I just run and grab something that’s a huge one. And then obviously that choice might not be the greatest or just the stress eating A lot to win with that as well. So they go grab something, and they’re just grabbing way too much of whatever it is. So yeah, it’s not even about, like, what specific food that you’re taking in. It’s just in general eating too much of it. Whether that’s chicken and rice, or McDonald’s, if you’re eating too much, either, it’s not gonna work. So,
Mat Lock
I’m guessing Todd was a chicken and rice.
Max Cathcart
Yeah, no, just the time and just energy are the two most like common questions, I get it or just like, how do I do? Or get around this? And, and yeah, we tackle those ones. But other than their secondary goal, which would be like the lose weight or, or gain muscle, whatever it is. But in order to do that, we need to get these daily things down and, and organized and consistent within that to get to that secondary goal as well.
Mat Lock
Yeah, it’s kind of efficient. Yeah. Because people who are time poor if you start talking about meal prep, yeah, well, I don’t have time for meal prep. Well Hang on a minute. It’s a really vicious circle. It’s catch 22, isn’t it? So I guess, again, with the meal and the middle of prepping, like he said before, making the meal simple. Just standardize as much as you can and keep it simple so that it’s achievable, then I guess it’s about mini wins, isn’t it? Creating millions? So that we can feel like Yeah, cool victory there? Yeah, we can build on that.
Max Cathcart
Yeah. So I mean, even even with my clients as well, it’s like, it’s not going to change overnight, like you’re not going to have, you’re not going to drop 30 pounds tomorrow, or, or the next week, probably not the week after that, that’s quite a lot. So it’s those, it’s those little daily wins as well. It’s just like, we have to watch progress in any form. So it could be like your visually changing, like, these are bigger ones, but the visually, obviously, like the weight goals, but also just looking at your consistency, like how, how has this task been doing for you, and you’ve been consistently doing that, then that’s a win like this use, you’re doing better than you were before. So that’s a win there. And once we consistently keep following through with that, then we’re going to get those results. So in that type of win situation like those, those little things are huge. And you want to really recognize those and because that’s what keeps you moving and keep you doing those things, right? Because it will carry on.
Mat Lock
So when you’re coaching clients, do you? Do you build into their schedule and sort of time for reflection? To stop and think about these times? Yes.
Max Cathcart
It Yeah, again, it depends on the person. But that one’s a big one. I do that one myself, but we usually incorporate that stuff into nightly routines. That’s something that I push quite a bit. Because sleep is obviously one that that kind of gets set aside. I feel like a lot of people don’t recognize or realize how much of an impact that that plays on your overall recovery. And obviously, like mental clarity, like we want to be well rested, but I mean, not. We’re not too much. So that’s Yeah, I mean, the the nightly routine stuff, it’s going to be like your journaling, it’s going to be your reading. And then just like self reflection stuff, or like we do, I like to push like visualization stuff as well. I like to do a lot of that being a goaltender. My whole life visualization. I was introduced to that as I think I would have been like nine or 10 years old and you kind of just play out how you want the game to go in your head. And And sure enough, it does a pretty good job. So you want to go Labor Day. Yeah.
Mat Lock
Wow. Flexible, fast reflexes and flexible.
Max Cathcart
Yep. Yeah, I would say I was I was half decently quick yet, but was definitely the shortest, probably one of the shortest ones for sure.
Mat Lock
So yeah, totally off topic there. But the speed of the puck and the what kind of space to those
Max Cathcart
bullets. Yeah, once once you get into the higher stuff, it’s going pretty quick. And there’s there’s certain guys, those demon that just have an absolute bomb from from that blue line. And all you can feel it for a couple days for sure. Depending on where it goes. There’s a lot of little spots that aren’t covered that. That hurt pretty bad. So
Mat Lock
Oh, wow. Okay, right. Yeah, I can imagine those as well as protecting the gold. Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah. Absolutely. I’m conscious of time, Max. Yeah. If people want to reach out, they want to get in touch and find out more about what you do, or in fact, reach out and talk about maybe becoming a client of yours. How would they do that?
Max Cathcart
Yeah, so you can get me on Instagram at max Cathcart or my website at that’ll just be max. Katherine dot com. But I’ll give you a link to to start with. Because I know we talked about where to start and one of the main issues so I’ll actually give, I’ll give you a link to share with anyone who wants to know, you can look over it yourself. And, and just, it’s really, obviously that starting point. So how to manage how to break down your days and proper scheduling. And just to get you organized and moving forward, and then we can start putting in what those tasks are going to be. But that’s a good starting point for anyone who needs it, but we’ll definitely get that done.
Mat Lock
Yeah, fantastic. Bill. I’ll certainly put all of that into the show notes so that people can just whack the button from there. But yeah, Max, thank you very much as always appreciated, chatting with you. Keep doing what you’re doing because you’re kind of crushing life. Healthy in smaller batches, which is perfect. Yeah.
Max Cathcart
I love it. I love it. Also, there’s nothing there’s nothing to be sad about here. But thank you for having me on. I love talking about it. And I’m excited for the future. Yeah. Another one of these.
Mat Lock
Until next time
Max Cathcart
yeah, see you.
