Mat Lock
Nathan, welcome to the podcast. It’s great to have you here. Thank you. Great to be here. And for those who are not familiar with you, Nathan Hart, or your brand unbroken, the apparel partner of the unleashing potential, which suddenly we’re very, very proud of him, we’re gonna dive into that as well. Maybe for the listeners who are not familiar with you, if you just tell us a little bit about who you are and where you’re from.
Nathan Hart
Sure. I’m, my name is Nathan, last name Hart. I grew up in Woolgoolga, Australia, I started unbroken that actually moved to London in 2015. I have been a branding designer, designer, creative director brand specialist really, for nearly 12 years now. And my inspiration for behind the brand was basically from my past and from the way I live life, and from things that happened to me and stuff.
Mat Lock
And when did you find them broken?
Nathan Hart
It was initially founded in 2014, with a friend’s parents, and we were like, joined by another friend called Steve. It’s actually kind of a funny story, really. I had already been a designer at that stage for a number of years. And I was quite proficient in Photoshop. And I was messing around one day photoshopping Aaron’s nickname onto the back of random, random shirts that I found, and sending towards them to him telling him like I found it for sale and kind of watching him kind of lose his mind. So it’s actually that was actually the beginnings of what started the brand. Because I mean, shortly after that, after people caught on to the ruse and I mean, I think I got a little bit crazy. And I think I put his mobile number on the back of the shirt or something like that. I just started getting crazier and crazier until the point where people I think people were like, okay, what’s he doing here. But the owner of the gym that we’re attending at the time, he actually asked us, if we could put together some custom branded apparel for it. We were pretty excited about it. Like we didn’t really see it coming. But we loved the offer. I obviously being a designer and stuff, and especially a branding designer and stuff, I jumped at the opportunity. And I worked really, really hard on the range actually. And it actually ended up being amazing set of kit, and it sold really fast. And so from that, and I guess just from the quality and because people wanted to wear it and whatnot, we actually word of mouth actually spread. And before we knew it, we had quite a number of custom orders under our belt, from surrounding gyms. And so we thought, well, we better give this little project a name or turn it into a brand. And I mean, the name unbroken stood out to both Aaron and I like a bit of my past is that I’d struggled with and struggled with and suppressed really anxiety and depression. My whole life and Aaron had quite a difficult past as well. So when he proposed the name, it was like energizing just how much of a perfect fit it was. And I guess from the start, the concept was always that we would spread unbroken as a mentality first and a brand second. I mean, the these were just the heydays, the early days, we really didn’t know what we were doing. But what I didn’t realize at the time was that was the very easiest part of my story. My my story got quite difficult after that, but that’s that was its beginnings,
Mat Lock
which is appreciated. So when you say that all your life you’ve struggled with anxiety and depression, that at that point that unbroken meant that you were you had found a way to manage that and Did you yourself previously broken and now unbroken? Is that? Was that the point? Or is that too simplistic?
Nathan Hart
Well, actually, at the time, I didn’t have a good relationship with my anxiety and depression at all. I just suppressed it, in order for it wasn’t there. In fact, I was. I mean, one of the common things that people do with anxiety is they kind of make themselves louder as a means to almost prove to themselves and prove to others, I’m not suffering from this kind of thing. And I was definitely that type of person, just loud and boisterous. And realistically, my like, without divulging too much into the gritty details of what I went through, I entered into what would be the hardest chapter of my life, when I did move to London, with my wife at the time, things just immediately grew difficult between us. And we divorced Later that year, for reasons that were just entirely out of my control, with complications that I just couldn’t understand and certainly couldn’t, couldn’t change. But I guess it’s just a part of like, where I was at at the moment to protect my ex wife. And because there was so many complications around the divorce, I chose not to tell anyone in my life that it happened. Not my friends, not my family, I didn’t even tell my mom. And for a long time that continued. And I guess at the time, I didn’t like I know this now. But I didn’t realize at the time that I was putting anything and everyone before myself, I guess, that I just felt that was right, possibly a byproduct of my anxiety and depression, which is obviously unhealthy. But by not looking after my mental health, I spun myself down and anxiety and depression fueled spiral in which declined to a place that, like I really just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was rock bottom for me. I was making horrible life choices that were detrimental to both my physical and mental health. I was neglecting myself, every part of my being really was hating myself. One day, I was reminiscing on better times. I couldn’t get unbroken out of my head, like, didn’t think about it at the time. But the moment sticks out to me just because it reminded me of how happy it made me to create something that people loved and that spread such positivity. Like it felt heal, almost healing for me, to help others. And I guess, feeling that from the brand really pointed out, like, how much of a dark situation I was in and how I wasn’t helping myself out of it.
Mat Lock
But but at least you had that as a release. And I guess it makes sense, given your creative background. Yeah, but it was a release.
Nathan Hart
Yeah, well, that’s true. I mean, at the time, I wasn’t active with unbroken. So it was it was just something that was in To me, it was in my past, maybe I felt that perhaps I wasn’t good enough to keep doing it. Perhaps I thought that the moment was lost. But I guess a defining situation for me, that inspired me to change my situation was thinking to myself while I was in such a dark place that if it was a friend or family member of mine that was going through the same thing, I would probably give them the harsh became truth that they need to look after themselves, you know, and not just that, but like putting yourself forward time like putting yourself first from time to time like specifically in situations like the one I was in. At that moment, that was such a defining moment for me because at that moment, I reached out to family and friends, I got myself as support networks or therapists, told my closest friends about my darkest thoughts and, and really big regard began like my rejuvenation process. And to me the naming the brand, unbroken in the first place that it does have, it all holds a significant importance. But Following this, in my overcoming period, which is what I call it, that’s really where I’m broken means a lot to me, because I learnt things. And I gathered ethos and ethos that would then drive everything in my life from then on. And it took over four years. But like time had passed, and I was at a stage where I’m now looking after myself back in the gym. I’d spoken to numerous therapists I was understanding my anxiety and depression for the first time and I just changed my relationship with it dramatically. All in all, I was genuinely having moments where I like actually like to what was which for me was was huge. And I started to mentally reward myself which was big for my healing. So at this time, it dawned on me that I’ve come so far. And I felt like I learned so much that I could use the brand, as a platform to encourage others to put themselves forward. Like not just people who are broken, because that’s that that is my past. But it’s not everyone’s past. And so that the messaging wasn’t that, Oh, you are broke, put yourself forward, like actually put yourself first. It doesn’t matter who you are, you could be absolutely killing life. It’s about putting yourself forward still. Because you’re never at a stage where you should stop putting yourself forward, you know, you should never stop chasing yourself. So like I said, whether you’re killing life, or that’s killing you, you should be placing one foot in front of the other, and dedicating yourself to chasing your passion, you know, because there’s just such an invigoration in this self progression. That, like, feels amazing. And, really, I don’t know, I’m not I’m not saying bad things don’t happen to you, you don’t feel depressed, or you don’t feel anxious from time to time. But it’s just invigorating, you focus on it, you know, like your focus is on your forward progression. By mid 2019, I was the most stable and strongest I’ve ever been in my life. I had a great understanding of my anxiety and was progressing my personal life every single day, like I said, I like to I was and and I was making healthy decisions when it came to my mental and physical health. So it was at that time that I decided to inspire the unbroken mentality again through the bread.
Mat Lock
Yep, you’re certainly doing that. And, you know, as you and I’ve talked many times, now that I know that I’m broken the brand and you at the end of the day, I mean, you have a passion for self care use that term already. Promoting mental and physical fitness as a means to the pursuit of personal greatness, in fact, is what it says on the website. And I love that. And the reason I love it, it to some people, it could sound like hyperbole, but not if they speak to you. Or if they believe what they’re reading, it’s you staying true to the brand, which is the end of the day, an extension of the way you not only live life yourself, but promote to others that they do the same, which is perfect.
Nathan Hart
Well, I mean, at the moment, I can I can tell my story at the moment. But it took a long time to get to this stage. I didn’t know how much I wanted to tell and stuff. But the reason I tell my story and why I’m so okay to tell my story. These days, even even with the dark parts included in it. The reason I’m so okay to tell that story is because everything I’ve learned from now I’ve applied to this brand. I didn’t just read some books, not that reading books, bad is bad or anything like that. But I didn’t come across this message without having such an impact on my life, you know, like it literally changed my life and potentially saved me. Well, not potentially, it definitely saved me. And so like, I mean, I fired the brand back up early to mid 2019. So we haven’t actually been going again for that long. But this time, we use the same similar underlying message. But with a few more layers and definitely more purpose at this stage than I had set on different courses in life. So I spoke with him. And we agreed that I deal with a loan from there. So it’s it’s at this stage, it’s just me, sorry, at the at the meet early to mid 2019 stage, it’s just me. And I really did take those life lessons that I learned and applied them to the ethos to the mission to the underlying values. And basically everything we do is a brand. We don’t do anything without without, like kind of consulting with that, that lesson and what message we’re putting out there. And it’s to this day that we are supported, and we support like mental health advocates. We aim to inspire people to chase their own self progression in everything we do. We encourage people to perceive their own greatness, like in their passion and persistence, rather than defining themselves by hardships they’ve been through. And to really see success in the small steps and to foster positive habits that, like promote physical well being. Because I mean, at the end of the day, regardless of your goal, it’s the pursuit that defines accomplishment. And the most important thing, I guess it’s just the most important message and it just means so much to me is just keep it going, you know, don’t stop. You might go backward today. You might not feel like you really progressed you might feel like a day was difficult. And like I said you don’t. This isn’t just talking about people unbroken. You might just feel like you’re comfortable in your job or whatever your things are going great. You’re in a great daily routine. But I mean, my point is what’s next You know, how can you? How can you keep working on yourself and never get to a stage where you stop, keep pushing, keep it go.
Mat Lock
That’s a really satisfying message. I’m interested. But for those who are listening to this or watching this, who, yeah, maybe having a challenging time themselves right now. We spoke just before we started recording about the 30 amazing things that have happened today. And the one shitty thing that’s happened today. And of course, naturally, we kind of zero in on the one shooting thing. And if we allow it to it can consume us. What? given where you are now, what? And it’s not so much giving advice, because it’s all such a personal thing. And everyone’s situation is different. But how do you on a daily basis, if you feel yourself becoming anxious or concerned about something or digging into that the one out of 30, that’s not great things about the day, what’s your coping mechanism around that, to change the paradigm or to change your own state, to not allow yourself to go down the dark path simple,
Nathan Hart
I’m so glad you asked. Because this is the single biggest thing that I’ve ever learned in my life, and I’ve mentioned it a couple of times, and that is changing your relationship with your anxiety or with your depression or with your positivity. You know, and what I mean by changing relationship is, everyone suffers from anxiety, right? It’s a it’s a human emotion, we’re gonna feel it from time to time. Often it feels so heightened to us because of a traumatic experience. Because you get it a lot more than people, you might even have, like have to take some medication. I know a lot of people with anxiety, their serotonin levels just completely deplete, that’s me to a point where they just like really can’t cope anymore. And so there’s a lot of these factors. But there’s infinite apps, not infinite apps, there’s a there’s a few really good apps like headspace out there. And they just teach you to change your relationship with your anxiety. I feel anxiety every single day of the year. But it’s over here, it’s doing its thing, I’m over here, I’m doing my thing. And my relationship has changed with it to a point where we can coexist. And I think that is the biggest factor. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a constant battle with it. But what happens once you get into that space, and I would encourage anyone that is suffering from anxiety just to look into it, because I can’t stress enough just how good it is to change this relationship. And just to be okay with the fact that it’s there. Because it goes from feeling like this horrible monster that’s going to destroy your life to this thing, that’s that you know what’s there. And it’s not important. I can have anxieties before my biggest brand presentation. I can I can have, like anxiety attacks just before I go in. But my relationships with it. My relationship with it is at a stage where it just doesn’t affect me. I still go in, I still present. It’s fine. And I mean, I’m not saying I win every battle. Sometimes I lie awake. Sometimes when excessively big things happen. It’s still difficult at
Mat Lock
some level, I think that’s true for anyone, whether they suffer with depression or anxiety or not. I think most of us I know I do. I have Gremlin regular Gremlins, that can sit on my shoulder whispering into my ear at three o’clock in the morning because there’s no distraction, right? Yes, sir. All of the daytime distractions are gone. And therefore, whatever concerns or worries we have in life at that moment, they are so easy for them to bubbled to the surface. And there’s no white noise to get rid of them. Exactly, exactly. I could I can only I can only agree. I mean, I’m a regular user of headspace. Love it. And for those who are not familiar with it, it’s a meditation app, a self guided meditation app by a guy called Andy Polycom. Who is it’s just brilliant. And they have a 10 minutes to 10 day free trial. And I encourage anyone, whether they’re suffering with anxiety or depression, or they could be the happiest person on the planet. I can only promote the benefits of meditation and I’m, I forced myself back into the routine of trying to, yeah, 10 minutes a day. 10 minutes a day, and I love it. To be honest, I really appreciate it. I don’t know why I often fall out of the habit of it.
Nathan Hart
Yeah, I guess life gets in the way. But I guess we should say that like no one’s telling us to say this. The reason we’re both talking about headspace right now is because it works. Oh, please do that. Please do that trial because it’s I mean, it just, it was a massive tool for me.
Mat Lock
And if you’re not sure Listen to this and you’re not sure anything, it might be a bit of tree, Huggy Voodoo. Go to YouTube type in headspace and Polycom, Ted Talk. Yeah, spend 16 or 17 minutes of your life watching a very entertaining presentation by a cool guy, who will explain why it works, how it works and why it works.
Nathan Hart
And I promise your works. It’s just, it’s, it’s amazing. It really turned everything around for me. And I have, I’ve recommended it to so many people. And look, it’s not even you don’t have to be rock bottom. to want to use headspace, you know, you can just be struggling with extra stress, because you’ve either let’s just hypothetically, say you’ve advanced to a stage in your career where stress comes with that, because that’s what happens when you advance in your career. It’s a great way to slow down and to really be able to manage your stress and manage what’s going on inside your head.
Mat Lock
But it’s pretty evolved these days. I mean, if you want to improve your performance, yeah, you can do that through God. Yeah, I’ve got a meditation. So they have, they’ve got a range of categories in there, which might just be if you don’t sleep particularly well. They have one minute sprints. Where if you’re having a bad moment during the day or night as matter, you’re literally 60 seconds. Off you go. So I love the variety. It’s in that I appreciate it. Yeah. But now look, I’m pleased that you are managing, managing it for you. Yeah, clearly, that’s demonstrated, from my perspective, I see the passion that you pour into the brand unbroken. I’ve been somehow associated with five or six different organizations that you’ve done designs for now. And they all they’re all different. They’re not cookie cutter, and they’re awesome. You’re gonna put me out of personal business or t shirts. That’s a good place to be. Well, that’s exactly right. But But now, I mean, it’s evident to me by talking to you when we first connected, all of the dealings we’ve had so far, in what is still a relatively young relationship. But nonetheless, yeah, I feel incredibly confident that this is a long standing relationship that’s going to flourish, because because of the values around unbroken, and the way you conduct yourself, then at the end of the day, as well, the quality of the garments that you’re providing the quality of the designs that you are putting out there, it’s all just top notch. Yeah. And that’s something that we find aspirational this and then I know, we just, I’m not going to date this podcast by a few days ago, we released the the unstoppable Bay games 2020 merchandise, and appreciate that you were as fluid as we are in making that the changes around the room because we’ve had to go online because of COVID. Thank you for that. But we’ve had such great response, so many people piping, you’re going to love the design. Yeah, I’m here, orders are coming in and the end of the day. We appreciate what you’re doing. For our audience. I appreciate that very much.
Nathan Hart
Well, I really appreciate the kind words and from my point of view, I love surrounding myself with people who are just as in just as inspiring and just as passionate as I am. And I mean, that’s I should really make a mention here just because I’m not doing unbroken alone at the moment around about may 2019. Actually, I should tell this story is quite funny of how we met. I was doing my second photo shoot for what I was calling, it sets the apartments up on my range up on my website now dating the podcast again. But I’ve been calling it the temporary, temporary legacy range. And it’s a limited release of gear that was just placeholder while we worked on like custom lines, our own custom lines. I knew I wanted to take them through quite a few rounds of prototyping because especially things like leggings and stuff. It’s not a one and done thing. And so to any of you female listeners out there, we are absolutely coming with female gear. We do apologize that it’s not up on our website at the moment, but we’ve worked hard on it like it’s been 12 rounds of leggings just
Mat Lock
wait, that’s what he’s like.
Nathan Hart
So happy with them now. So it has been worth the weight. But the range of apparel was also just an easy way for us to know who our what we’re calling, it’s our day one as well. Basically anyone who’s been with us from the start, and we plan to reward them later on down the track that unknowingly before this second shoot. One of my models bails and in a desperate attempt to feel like the spot I reached out to I had this friend to create videos and he created one for a wb FF athlete. And he just this athlete just had this energy about him like I just found it really inspiring. And so within within less than 24 hours notice daini a guy I’d never met before turns up to my photo shoot and he Just nails every shot like. And, yeah, shortly after, we kept in touch and shortly after, he approached me and he just had this visible passion for building unbroken and wanting to join and wanting to help and stuff. And honestly, it was that energy that just reminded me of my own reminded me of people I love doing business with and it’s just that energy, you bounce back and forth off that energy, and it just, it’s really invigorating. So he also has an unbroken story of his own, but I’ll leave that for him to tell. Yeah, that’s, like together what we have created is and I’m really proud to say that it’s, it’s it’s a real brand with a difference. There’s rhyme and reason behind everything that we do. And gear is just we’re so proud of it. That’s Yeah, no, you should be here, you’ll
Mat Lock
get amazing. I say that quite legitimately. And I’m wearing some right now. But I know that we had a lot of feedback that the Customize garments proof worn by previous audience of ours. And they just love it. They it’s the it’s the comfiest test kit they’ve ever worn. And they were very excited that you guys are bringing it to the market. And thankfully, you know how to design as well, because it’s amazing.
Nathan Hart
We’ve taken the design to the next level and where our photoshoots are actually going to be full of concept as well, those they’re looking cool. We’re actually in a very exciting space at the moment. We’re all ready and raring to shoot our first custom shoot this Sunday night.
Mat Lock
Oh, excellent. Yeah. So I hope I qualify for some insider scoop.
Nathan Hart
actually send to the mood boards afterwards. I yeah, I really can’t wait for these ones to be released. Yeah,
Mat Lock
fantastic. That’s very exciting. Nathan, I’m conscious of time. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, conscious of time if people want to reach out, which they will and they should. So to reach out both to you personally. And to connect with the unbroken brand, how would they do that, which are the different platforms,
Nathan Hart
our website is unbroken.com.au. We use Instagram and Facebook, we’re just at unbroken. Nothing else, just at the word unbroken. worked really hard to get those handles. If anyone wants to reach out to me personally, the brand is available at Nathan unbroken.com that you and existentially. Yeah, show. And the reason I put that out there is because we’re always looking to work with people who want to do something in the mental health space. We’re always looking for opportunities to push a message forward, push someone story for over the might inspire someone. And so I’m happy to get that in my personal email. If it’s for those reasons. So
Mat Lock
absolutely. As as Ryan Reynolds does, with difficult. Even more super cool. He just sold about 600. Really? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. But Nathan, I appreciate your time. I appreciate you. And appreciate you sharing your back. So I know it’s not easy. It’s not something you have done very often. So I appreciate you doing so here. And yeah. appreciate everything you guys are doing. Really? Just thank you, Matt, we appreciate you as well. And all of the all of the links that you mentioned will be in the show notes. Sure. When this podcast goes live, and yeah, I can’t wait. I have something that goes well and look forward to seeing what the kit looks like.
Nathan Hart
Sure. Well, yeah, we can’t wait to get it into people’s hands. It’s Yeah, we’re really excited about this change. I think it’s gonna be a difference maker.
Mat Lock
Very good. Thank you very much, right. No worries. Thanks, Matt.
