I was recently invited onto the Blades and Bloodlines podcast. It was filmed inside a barbershop, which already gives the conversation a different kind of feel. Less polished. Less formal. More like two friends talking without all the bells and whistles. And that's pretty much what happened.
We spoke about a bunch of stuff - my life in construction, business, grief, AI, coaching, identity, responsibility, and the stories people carry about themselves. The simplest moment in the conversation was about shaving my face and mowing the lawn. One showed me what I had made success mean. The other showed me how easily we can inherit other people's ideas about leverage. And for me, both interpretations turned out to be absolute bullshit. Years ago, I was taught to leverage everything out. If something was worth $50 an hour, pay someone else to do it so you can focus on higher-value work. It makes sense, especially if you don't enjoy the task. So I did, and I paid someone to cut my grass. Then I got the barber to shave my face every week. For some reason, when I was younger, that was one of the images I had attached to success. Yes, I may have watched too many movies. At the time both these things made sense. But after a while, I realised I had removed two important moments from my life that offered me so much. Shaving was the only thing that forced me to stand still and look in the mirror. Not a walking glance here and there to check if I buttoned my shirt evenly. A focused and concentrated look. Mowing the lawn gave me 90 minutes where no one could reach me. No headphones. No podcast. No music. Just the noise of the mower, the whipper snipper, and my own thinking.
I was lost in the monotony of a job that required just enough concentration to keep my body busy, while my thoughts had room to explore and expand. It became like making stock. All the rubbish rises to the top. You scrape it off. Then more comes up. You scrape that off too. Eventually, you're left with clarity, and taking that away took away 90 minutes of deep planning. It wasn't mowing the lawn, it was a 90 minute strategy session. That small story says a lot about how I now see life and the work I do with people. Sometimes the thing we think is slowing us down is actually the thing giving us space to think properly. Sometimes what looks like going backwards is actually how we move forward with more awareness. And sometimes what works for one person doesn't work for you. I've attached a short clip from that part of the conversation. And for those who enjoy a conversation full of stories, experiences, and lessons, the full podcast goes much deeper. There are stories in there I haven't really shared in that way before, and the conversation ended up being less about "my story" and more about the way we all carry stories, identities, moods, and old interpretations that shape how we live. That's why I think it's worth watching. You can watch the short clip below:
And the full episode can be watched by clicking any of the icons below.
Filimon
P.S Shout out to Aidan Biasi from Blades and Bloodlines who invited me on and had one request - share my stories. I had my first haircut at that generational barbershop as a nine-year-old when my dad took me there. I never would have imagined that almost 40 years later, I'd be sitting in that same place recording a podcast.