115 From Bs To Brilliance Jeff _Morgs_ Morgan_S Journey From Bank Robber To Mindset Coach

I'm Mike Boris and this is Straight Talk.

Being arrested, mate, if you don't ask me live, if I've been arrested.

Geoffrey Morgan spent almost 20 years in jail for a series of thefts and bank robberies.

He's on a mission to stop other young people making the same mistakes he did.

So, you grew up in Redfern?

Yeah.

Tell me about Mum and Dad.

Mum and Dad?

Yeah.

Mum, you know, alcoholic. Dad, gambler.

My father was abusive physically.

I thought he was someone I couldn't have safety from.

Ran away from home and I'll paint the scene like,

if you've ever been to the worst alley you've ever seen, times a hundred that, right?

Drugs, alcohol, syringes.

As a young kid, 12 years old, on the streets.

What do you do with that life?

I put that mask on when I walked out of my cell every day.

The mask was, I'm tough, I'm strong, I'm staunch.

I'm ready to battle.

I don't want to battle anybody, but every time the door, the door locked.

I still think about the tears I shed for my kids, my wife, my life.

Of, you know, to sit there with myself and go, who are you?

What do you want out of life?

And that's what formed the program.

Tell me what Jeff Morgan's business now do.

Yeah.

So it's all around the mindset.

Going down that path myself, destructive, too constructive.

That's huge for us.

What you do today, you're paying forward to other communities.

What you've learned.

Absolutely.

Jeff Morgan, welcome to the Darlinghurst studio.

I don't want to scare you too much, mate, but welcome to the Darlinghurst studio.

Welcome to Straight Talk, mate.

Thanks for having me.

Good to see you finally.

Um, what is, we're not far from the, uh, the Darlinghurst cop shop.

Uh, it's now, I think it's a university or a fine arts place or something like that.

Um, if we go back in time, you probably found yourself at the wrong end of that joint.

Absolutely.

And not a place I wanted to visit back then.

Um, all part of the trade, I suppose, at that point in time, but definitely I would

exchange it for what I've got now any day.

I mean, I'm looking at you now, you look like you're just, uh, you know, like a schoolboy,

even though you are close to 50 or maybe slightly over, but, um, it looked like butter

wouldn't melt in your mouth.

Like, uh, let's go back to when I used to.

So I guess let's say, tell me where it all started.

You, you grew up in Redfern?

Yeah.

Tell, tell, tell me about mum and dad.

Mum and dad.

Yeah.

Um, probably mum, you know, alcoholic, dad, gambler.

When I think of mum and dad, I think of mum and dad.

Mum and dad.

Mum and dad.

When I, I, you know, lately I've been having a deep dive on myself, I think, and I think

I know, and, you know, to even go to their funerals in custody at that point in time

to beg for those funerals, chest out, the mask banded, and I wore a mask at that funeral

and the mask was, I'm tough, I'm strong, I'm staunch, how, you know, this is what a man

looks like.

I was a weak boy and, you know.

I looked, a lot of those habits came from my parents in the nicest way.

They, and I always beat up on what they didn't give me.

I look back on it now, Mark, and I probably think that they gave me 2,000% of the 100%

they had, and they were trying to do everything they could.

My father was abusive physically.

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We were made for this.

Discipline, the old German mentality coming across, you know, 18-year-old kid, Baker,

doing his best, and he just didn't want to see me go down that path, and I thought he

was someone I couldn't have safety from.

I ran away from home.

You know, for me, I look back on it now, and they did, they gave me so much, and, you

know, I'll never get that back, Mark.

I'll go to my grave with that regret, if you want to call it that.

I learned lessons from it.

I always say lessons are blessings in your life.

But, yeah, it was, you know, they did their best with what they had, and they grew up

in an era where their parents, their past generations just didn't teach them what I've

got now, and, you know, that's something I want to pass on to future generations.

In my line, and of, you know, kids, and it's just, I think of them, and I think that they,

yeah, they were just dealing with their own traumas, their own best way, I suppose, Dad

coming over here, he didn't, he wasn't educated, Baker, straight into that work.

We ate, I ate a lot of croissants, whatever they were making, you know, as a baker, and

I realized later on why we were eating so much.

I thought it was a good thing.

Oh, Dad loved me.

He was gambling, so we had no money, and I remember, you know, stories of my father.

Uncle comes over Friday, he's being paid, he opened the fridge to get something out

of the fridge, and he said, where's all the food?

And he goes, I've lost all the money.

He goes, it's Friday, didn't you get paid today?

So, you know, that's the type of home I grew up in.

Then there was violence between those two, and.

Mom and Dad.

Yeah, Mom and Dad, and you just see that as a normal way of life.

So, my first response to a situation before I even got into, you know, those formative

scenes, you think that's normal behavior, and you just go out to the world with a whole

bunch of anger, but.

Yeah, monkeys see, monkeys do.

Absolutely, and I look back on it, Marky, I think to myself, and, you know, I used to

beat up on that perversion.

I used to say, whatever you call yourself, we've all been there.

Oh, I could have done better.

I made a mistake.

F'd up, whatever you want to call it, right?

And to me, all it was, was I was equipped with this much knowledge, but I was trying

to operate at this level.

It's like getting into business and saying, I know business after one month, and you have

a good gig with that, and that was me.

I was operating at that level, saying, I know life, I knew zero about life, and I got the

role modeling from who?

A gambler, a person who was trying to deal with their trauma from past generations as

a proud Aboriginal woman.

Where do you fit in the line of kids in a family?

Where are you?

I was second last in ours, and I didn't know about the last.

Second youngest.

Yeah, second youngest.

Seven brothers, three sisters, and I didn't know about my younger brother until even that.

It was just so dysfunctional.

Mum had leukemia in hospital.

They needed bone marrow.

I was like, who's David?

And all of a sudden, she goes, all the aunties look at me, like, let your mum tell you.

And I was like, what's up here?

And all of a sudden, I find out I've got a brother, and his introduction to me was, I

rang him up.

Mum's not.

You know, on her last legs, I suggest you fly up if you want to meet her.

He flies up, comes to my house.

I'm out for the night, give him the key to the house, ring him up, you're ready to be

picked up.

And he says, I don't think you should come past, Mum.

The police are here looking for Jeff.

So that was my introduction.

And that was my normal way of life based around what my parents and that proximity gave me.

And it was just, you know, what do you do with that life?

Yeah.

What is it?

As a young kid, 12 years old, on the streets, ran away from my mother and father, 10 years

old, or probably around that, sitting on Redfern Street, Redfern, looking up, and they're saying,

who do you want to live with?

Who asked your child that question?

Something I'd never do to my kids.

And, you know, even though I've parted ways with my wife, ex-wife, I should say, I'm happy

to be mature about that situation, have those conversations.

And they just didn't do that.

And that's the role modelling I got and had to rewire that.

I was going to talk about rewiring, because I think that's really important, you know,

because a lot of times we're told that we don't possess free will, and it's our genes

that, you know, it's our DNA that decides what we're going to decide.

I mean, there's a lot of discussion about that in the scientific worlds at the moment.

Absolutely.

But you can rewire your mind.

You can actually change the way the neurons connect in your brain.

And you having done a science degree, because you have a degree in nutrition, so we'll talk

about that in a moment.

But you understand the science of these things now, which you wouldn't have understood when

you were a kid.

You're a 12-year-old kid, and no way.

But that whole rewiring thing is really important.

You know, we can say, you know, scientists have told me that when you're in your mother's

womb, her mother's DNA is actually forming part of your DNA.

So it's not just what you saw as a kid from your mum and dad and your community, but it's

also what your mother saw and what her mother saw.

And you can go back quite a few generations.

So it's a really tough thing to deal with.

Absolutely.

You're like, and people say, oh, fuck him, you know, he should be better at it, or she

should be, you know, you're an adult, you know, like, make change.

It's not that bloody easy.

And so I want to ask you this, Geoff, do you remember the first time you ever got pinched?

Sort of, kind of.

I was in Newcastle.

Age?

12.

What are you doing in Newcastle?

Breaking into shops.

Were you living up there?

No.

Catch a train up?

Yeah, so the entrepreneurial mindset, I started doing things here, there, and everywhere,

and I started to travel, and I went, I'm going to make a life of this.

And it's sort of still instilled in me to this day, and that, you know, as a global

business now, for us, that's, I don't know, I started at 12 years of age.

Realistically, let's go to Newcastle three hours away, and let's break into some shops

there, so.

Why that?

Do you remember why you chose Newcastle?

You thought it was underdone with the cops, or easier?

Yeah, probably, yeah, it might not be as many places.

It's the city, yeah.

Less competitive.

I've got no idea.

Honestly, I look back on a lot of the market, and I think to myself, it was just a blur.

I couldn't tell you years between probably 12 to 37, you know, like when say, people

say, when did you do this sentence, that sentence, and the other?

Just couldn't, it doesn't, I'd have to, if I was being true and honest, and it was for

a million, I'd probably lose, to be honest with you.

That's how much of a blur it's been, and I don't want to.

The only time I look back on it is those lessons that became lessons.

What did it teach me?

How can I grow from it and prosper into a better human being?

And the rest comes organically, financially, and everything else that comes with it, but

just, yeah, it was just a massive blur.

Well, I know I'm not going to get into the detail, because I don't want to talk about

this stuff, but there was just one thing I want to say to you, and ask you, just one

thing about this.

Someone interested, a mate of ours, said to me, he's the best, I think, on my record, I think,

he's the best.

He's the best.

He's the best.

He's the best.

He's the best.

He's the best.

He's the best.

He's the best.

He's the best.

I think, on my recollection, he's the best armored car robber, or something along those

lines, or the best bank robber, or something.

By the way, this comes from this particular individual.

He must have been pretty bloody good, if he said that, because he wasn't too bad himself.

Did you realize that you were getting that reputation as being, obviously in jail, amongst

people in jail, but do you ever realize you were getting that reputation?

That was your brand?

Absolutely.

So, I built that business.

I thought about this Saturday, too.

It's crazy.

I've been having these reflections, and I sit and truly think.

I think about it, and I think, I built that brand from 12 to 37 when I retired, and I

said, enough's enough at that point in time.

So, 25 years of building a brand that I had to let go of.

As a bank robber.

As a bank robber.

Just as a robber.

Yeah, everything I did at my ... I tried to do it at the highest level.

Even when we got cars, I was at Porsches, or something of that nature.

That was the nature of myself, and I had this ... My father was a, make it happen, don't

be a gunner, shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Be a doer, and as much as I ran away at 12, that stuck with me forever.

So, I went out, and I said, I'm not gonna just do the average thing.

I'm gonna go out and do it really well, and for me, that reputation, I lived up to.

I put that mask on when I walked out of my cell every day.

Every time the door locked, I still think about the tears I shed for my kids, my wife, my life.

What coulda been?

Yeah, what coulda been, South.

Like, all these conversations.

My parents, in my thoughts, they didn't love me, and going back on it, they loved me deeply.

The best way they could.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I look back on that, and as much as I wore that mask, it's something that, same again,

I'll take to my grave, because I lost 15 years with my kids, and I was a weak boy.

I wasn't a man.

I wasn't a warrior to the people I brought into the world, nor brought into my world

commitment to my wife.

It wasn't there, Mark.

So, the deep dive on.

That individual, as much as the reputation was great, I couldn't get out of my own ego.

And people say, no, mate, he's the most humble guy you'll ever meet.

But for me, underlying, it must have been there, because I kept going, and I didn't

pause for a moment to say, what could you do different?

And you've got a good skill set.

You've got perseverance, commitment, your attitude, whatever it was that I had, your

mindset.

My mindset was, to me, I thought I was at a new level.

And sitting up against those that were in custody, I was thinking, I sit really well

here, and Chess was proud.

As I said, handcuffs on me.

I walked up to my mother and father's burial, and just crazy.

Can I ask you a question?

There's a book called, I love this book, it's called Neurocomic, and it's written by a neuroscientist

along with a comic illustrator.

And they talk about how the brain develops the structure.

It's a story about ourselves, and it starts at a very young age.

It obviously includes DNA, but we build a story about ourselves, which you do as a kid,

and who knows where it starts?

It doesn't really matter where it starts.

And then you affirm that story about yourself by doing those things like you did.

You become a bank robber, or an armored car robber, whatever.

So you do the affirmation, then you go to jail, and everybody, here he is, he's morgues,

he does these jobs.

He's really good.

And so they affirm to you, and then you get out of the cell every morning,

you put your mask back on, you just keep reaffirming to yourself.

And that's not really anybody's fault.

That's how the brain works.

It gets to a point where it's, and I'm not trying to dismiss what you did.

I'm not trying to build an excuse for what you did.

But this is a truth.

This is a scientific truth.

Jeff Morgan.

Was simply building a story about himself every time he did it,

and reaffirming that's who the dude I am.

Absolutely.

But something influenced you, wanted to go into a degree while you were locked up,

but also to make a change.

Now, that's quite a tough, that's sort of going against the momentum,

actually in your brain, neurologically.

Because you have built this story about yourself over 30 odd years, 37 years.

That's a big thing to reverse.

How the fuck did you do that?

Like, what was it?

Was there an event, or was it just a realization?

What was it?

Was it you missing your kids?

Have you got something, or a number of things?

Everything.

To hear your door lock at night, that cell door, it is clunk, clunk,

and that's on repeat.

And that's your life.

And then you sit there, and you can be the toughest person with your mask on

when you walk out in the morning, ready to battle anybody.

And you had to in there.

But your ID, I call it now the ID, it's part of our program,

Intentions or Distractions.

I sat there one day and just said,

Is this an intention or distraction?

And I said, How did you learn about that?

Where'd that come from?

Just deep dive on myself.

Like, everything I did, Marky, I read a whole heap of books, too.

I can't say I didn't read.

Like, I read.

I loved reading.

You read whatever you could get in there sometimes,

especially when you're in a slot, there's nothing to read.

But in general, even books,

that weren't relative towards neuroscience habits,

would teach me a habit or say, Oh, wow, people think like that

or something of that nature, and I'd take that away.

And I think, you know, the traumas, being arrested, mate, if you think you're wrong.

Don't ask me live if I've been arrested.

When I say being arrested, there's two types of arrests,

where they knock on your door and invite you out of the house,

and you walk down the street and jump in the car with them.

Or get thrown on the ground and hit with the butt of the gun,

and then someone stomps on the back of your back.

And you can be the hardest criminal.

You know that's part of the job description for yourself.

It is traumatic.

And to have that repeated on you so many times, and you don't see it coming.

There's times where, bang, something will come in,

and your door's kicked in, and you're on the floor in a heartbeat,

and you're in a shop, and you're down on the floor, cars pull up.

And, you know, those traumas.

Traumas.

Traumas.

Traumas.

I was there for John Killick's escape.

That, to me, was traumatic.

They shot at that helicopter, and I was in the path of what I felt was the path

or the line of that fire, and they didn't have any.

And I heard a tink, tink, tink.

And as you see the movie, so you're thinking the blades are going to break off

and come through and slice you in half.

So you can be the toughest man on this earth, but when you break it down

and you get in that cell at night, you go back through your mindset,

and you think, what about your kids?

What about your wife?

What are you showing up to?

Is this tough?

You're really impressing people.

It was crazy.

Be staunch and loyal.

Don't dob anyone in.

Don't worry about cheating on your wife.

You've made a commitment, but there's no loyalty in that.

So I was real twisted in my morality, and I think just sitting there with myself,

and I realize now the mindfulness has come out, and all this breath work,

it's an opportunity.

In this stimulated world, when do we get a chance to just pause for a moment

and think about things?

So Joel gave you that opportunity.

125.

20 years of, you know, to sit there with myself and go, who are you?

What do you want out of life?

And that's what formed the program.

Yeah, but why would you?

Okay, what's the difference, though, between you and, say, you know,

Nettie Smith-Lake, who's, you know, is in there for life,

but Nettie never rehabilitated, never.

Like, do you think the difference is you could read and write,

or do you think the difference is that you're curious?

Oh, I look at anyone, even yourself, mate, and I'd say, well,

if they can get a Ferrari, or they live that life, or they travel that way,

or just the average mum or dad could buy,

that car, what?

And I don't mean average.

I mean just the normal way of.

People, how do they do that?

Why do I need to go and steal something to do the same thing they could do?

Yeah.

Is that a big part of your life?

Absolutely.

I think the world's about exploring, and whether it's in business life,

you know, just what is life to people?

I always ask people in the program, what's the meaning of life to you?

So we can define what that is, and we create the A to B of their life

and start to make sure everything's ticked off.

And for me, I didn't have that.

As a kid, I just went out and rolled out with life.

And, yeah, there were some good times, but there was a lot of hardship

and struggle in it.

Is it curiosity about what you do or not doing,

or is it curiosity about what other people are doing, and how can I do that?

All about me.

And when I say that, what did I want out of life?

And then if I can't or don't have that information like my parents don't have,

then what could Mark teach me?

What could this person teach me?

That's important to me.

I want to know, did you get guidance?

Now, was it actual?

Did you seek out self-guidance while you're locked up?

And, you know, today you're running successful businesses,

which we'll talk about in a moment, but did you seek guidance in jail

or did you seek guidance from what you read?

Or was there someone who was your guide, someone talking to you?

Even in jail, I was talking to people that had maybe misappropriated funds,

so they'd never really gotten into trouble.

And I'd say, I learned tax.

To us, yeah, for us, our tax file number wasn't important.

Your MIN number growing up in Redfern was important.

MIN number, that's your jail ID, right?

So to even discuss a tax file, for me, just like anybody else starting any type of journey

in business, in life, in health, I had fear, anxiety, I'm not good enough,

you can't do this, you're a young boy from Redfern, you've got a criminal record.

And for me, I just sought out those even in custody and I sat with them

rather than others because I wanted to start to, to be honest,

I was trying to hide what I had.

And I was saying, how could I make my taxes work for me, et cetera, et cetera.

And I was sitting with these blokes that are maybe people that you might have even known.

And in exchange, I'd make sure.

Corporate guys.

Yeah, and I'd make sure that they were okay.

None of the boys, he's my mate.

So even just sitting with me, they said, that's a trade.

Yeah, exactly, trade off.

They were safe.

I got the information.

So in exchange, beautiful exchange.

So it was not just curiosity, though, therefore.

It was a transaction.

Absolutely.

And it was a sinister one, I suppose, if you want to put it that way.

Not a sinister one.

I shouldn't say sinister, but like one that I had intentions, wrong intentions of.

How could I hide things?

How could I do this?

And then as I did that, I started to go, why couldn't you do that?

And you know what?

You're not just going to accept that, Rich.

You've never been like that.

What would happen if you actually did that?

And yeah, there was so much doubt.

And to this day.

And I'm in this space right now.

I feel like I'm in between.

I've left all the past behind.

I've got no friends from the past.

I realized they were toxic.

And I love them.

And I wish them all the very best in their choices of life.

And as you elevate through these levels of business, I feel like I'm in this space all by myself.

And I'm not with yourselves.

I'm not with them.

I'm just, you try and deal with people in business as well.

And they're like, oh, he's got a criminal record.

And some people.

And some people don't want that.

Maybe he's going to try and convince me and take some money.

For me, I'm all about building a brand that's reliable, honest, totally different version from Chapter 5 to Chapter 55.

And I'm ready to do that.

But yeah, it's how do you extricate yourself from the past?

And what I mean by that is, you know, you have, by definition, you have to make friends in jail.

You have to.

Otherwise, you're not going to survive.

A million people.

But when they come out or they've got friends who are outside there communicating with each other, they say, well, yeah, fucking Jeff's rushed me.

I mean, how do you actually extricate yourself without offending people or not offending, but like sort of doing it in a smooth way?

I just, I have, same thing.

You've got to have those conversations.

It's like almost, and I learned this from the pitch, you know, you jump in the lift, Richard Branson jumps in the lift.

What are you going to pitch to that person in that short time?

How do I pitch to this person?

To make sure that I know that, or they know that I respect them and I respect the choices they make.

But in my world, in their world, it's two totally different things.

And by interacting with one another, it might damage my business.

So they respect that and they have that conversation.

I've seen someone yesterday that was boxing.

Say hello.

We sure are the very best.

Didn't exchange numbers.

They'd just come home, finished 14 years.

And, you know, for me, we trained together.

We hung together when we were, you know, back in the day.

And I just went, I just don't want, I don't even want to exchange a number.

If he goes well and he goes into business and we can have that conversation, by all means, I'm happy to step in that space with him.

But if you're dabbling any way, shape or form, I'm going the opposite direction.

Yeah, so you have to be pretty firm about it.

Absolutely.

And you've got to be decisive in business, right?

So same thing.

If this person's not being honest to me, they've operated on a level I don't want to be in that space of, I'll step out of it.

And I'll have that with the same thing.

I've said to people recently.

Listen, the way you're operating, but in a nice way as well.

And just be able to have that conversation.

It's not my space.

And I wish you all the very best in business.

It's about being well-mannered and polite, but you confront it.

Absolutely.

So I'm actually quite fascinated about you having a degree in nutrition.

Like, how do you do a degree in jail?

I mean, like, how's it work?

You get an hour with a tutor a week, Mark.

You download your material.

And let me tell you, if you miss a page, which happened.

More often than not, for whatever reason, the printer, pause, jammed.

I don't know how it happens because we don't really get to do that.

And you go through.

Is everything good?

Yeah, everything's here.

You just think.

And then all of a sudden, you get to this one page.

And you're talking about ions.

And you're going, something doesn't make sense.

Oh, the page is missing.

So you do it by correspondence.

Oh, yeah, all by correspondence.

How many years?

Four years and some.

No, four years inside and then a couple of years technically.

Yeah, so I had to finish it off because you can't do particular things.

Yeah.

And then I went, when I was in bail, on bail down in Melbourne at the time,

I'd go to Deakin University in East Geelong, out that way.

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Yeah, so you did a degree in nutrition.

Yes.

Why did you decide nutrition?

That was a bagel, giving you croissants every morning.

To this day, it's stuck with me.

It's brilliant.

Sal will tell you, my partner.

It's something I love.

I've got a bit of a sweet tooth here and there.

But I think, yeah, for me growing up in Redfern,

that was something I was really passionate about at a young age.

Drugs, alcohol, syringes.

I'll paint the scene like, if you've ever been to the worst alley you've ever seen,

times 10, times 100 that, right?

And it's just rats.

It was just disgusting.

And then imagine the habits of the food that we ate.

I'll tell you my order.

Cheeseburger meal, extra cheeseburger, 10 nuggets, sweet and sour sauce,

hot apple pie, chocolate sundae with extra fudge, breakfast, lunch,

and dinner as a kid once I started to make money.

That was without fail.

And I always worry about that at this point in time in my life,

even though I've sort of flipped that.

Yeah, just to see all the health issues in our community.

I looked at my uncle and auntie's grave the other day, 40 and 50 mark.

Yeah.

My cousin dying at 40.

Just up the road in St. Vincent's, full organ shutdown from Life Choices.

And I'd see that in front of me even as, I don't know, 12, 13, 14-year-old kid.

Kids overdosing at 13, that scared me from hard drugs.

I was like, whoa.

And we had it probably 6 to 10 at that point in time.

So I'd just jump back from that.

And I just went, you know, is this what we really want?

Is this really what we want to do to deal with who we are?

Yeah.

Who we really are.

And as much as I saw the, yeah, this is good times,

dance until 3 in the morning while I'm trying to sleep on a mattress with 13 other kids

and the music's pumping, my uncle walking by slapping me.

And then I'd start quivering and he said, don't you cry, don't you cry.

Is this what we wanted in life?

So I just started to learn about how could I be better.

Training was a huge part of that.

So as a young kid, I started doing push-ups, stuff of that nature.

And then I realized nutrition was a tie.

And auntie made that.

The big encyclopedia, I read that and I started to just read books.

And I just realized the value of quality of life came from the actions that we chose within our life.

And as I went on, then I went, wait a sec, your thoughts, behaviors, your beliefs, your habits, your rituals,

discipline, accountability, and I formed all this version of what you see today.

And, you know, that for me was the start.

It all starts from the inside out.

And loving yourself, including what you put into yourself, helps you feel functional,

the way that you want to.

And, you know, it's saved my life.

So I'm forever grateful for that.

And I think one thing I've learned, taken a long time to learn, is don't be too hard on yourself.

For sure.

Just, like, chill.

Like, it's going to be okay.

Absolutely.

And don't beat yourself up.

That's the worst thing you can fucking do to yourself, is just beat yourself up all the time.

It just fucks you up like crazy.

You've made the realization in jail over a long period of time.

You do the degree, you finish off when you come out.

Now where are you at?

I disconnected.

I disconnected with my kids during that time, and it broke my heart.

To this day, I have a strained relationship with my son.

And, yeah, you...

That'd be tough.

You just can't get it back, man.

Like, I already lost 15 years in there, and I've lost more out here,

because the more you don't connect with your son, and you're out here in the opportunity...

I'm a prisoner of my own mindset around that.

It's one thing in my life that still sits there.

And, you know, tough man.

And well-known, and all that.

I'd exchange it just to get a text from my son.

I can't even get a text.

And, man, I try every day.

Well, let's hope that maybe you listen to this, and he might reconnect with you at some stage.

He did commerce at Sydney Uni.

Did he?

He did really well.

Like, you know, that DNA actually came from me, and I'm proud of him.

But I don't even get to tell him that.

How old is he now?

26.

Okay.

Well, what do you want to tell him?

That I love him.

I'm proud of him.

And learn the lessons from me to be all that you can be.

And don't let anybody ever define who you are.

Only you can do that.

And deep dive on that, and be the new version for the next generation that we didn't have.

Is there one thing you would want to do with him if he reconnected?

Like, if you said, hey, Dad, let go.

Or even if he just called you Jeff, for that matter.

Hey, Jeff, what do you want to do?

Just hug him.

Just hug my son.

You don't want to take him to the bakery and buy him some croissants or something like that?

He was, you know, five, it's been 21 years, man.

What's his name?

Brandon.

Brandon?

Brandon Morgan.

Yeah, he still goes by Morgan?

Yeah.

He lives in Sydney?

Lives in Sydney.

They bought a house, him and the ex-wife together, and moved out of the old house.

And they wanted a fresh start from, you know, where the money came from, from the old house and so forth.

And they've done, they've done well.

And, you know, I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I just wish his, his mum was a good person, hardworking, good family.

And they taught me so many values, and I'm forever grateful for that as well.

And, you know, a shout out to as much as I've got time for my partner.

My partner's great in the sense of supporting the old version of me and the realizations of things.

And towards, you know, the ex-wife, she was, she was beautiful.

She did everything well.

And taught me a lot about a lot of things.

And I'm grateful that she's been a great mother to Brandon.

So does this sort of bring us to that point where Jeff's realized that he's learned a lot of lessons and that he wanted to,

and I'm just thinking this through now, I don't know, but tell me where I'm going wrong if I am,

that what you do today is about paying forward to other people.

Paying forward to other communities, and it doesn't have to be indigenous, it can be anybody, paying forward to other communities, what you've learned.

Absolutely.

Is that, is that your deal?

Absolutely.

It's a, it's an insight.

We had a great comment, we had a whole bunch of comments recently, and it's an insight.

Someone said it's an insight into the issues I didn't realize I had.

And I wouldn't say it's issues, it's just the gaps that we have within our life.

So like business, right?

Human, imagine business without sales, marketing, admin, et cetera, et cetera.

And you do it all, Mark.

How long would you?

How long would you be there for, and how much would you get done?

But what I realized when I was in there, relationships, business, life, travel, where do you want to travel to?

Like defining that and actually knowing how much that costs, and then looking at your current pay packet,

and saying, with your current pay packet, when would that happen?

They go, never.

And I said, so how are you going to change that?

How are you going to get to that location?

And they go, oh, I don't know how.

That's what I had as a block.

So I built that into myself, and that permeates out into every single person I come across.

Now, whether they're in the corporate world, soldiers, athletes, mothers, fathers, kids,

make sure we define our A to B of life, and that becomes your I.D., intention, distraction,

distraction, put it away, define it, accountability, discipline, behind that.

And now that individual doesn't become the old version of me, and take that to the graveyard.

I walk along that Bondi to Coogee, and I think, I'm pretty sure it's Clovelly Graveyard there.

Yeah.

I just, I'm so inspired when I go.

It sounds crazy, but I think to myself, how many people didn't live up to their truer self?

And people think my 20 years is crazy.

Live your whole life of regret, and take that to your grave.

That's crazy, because now you're a prisoner of your mindset.

And that, for me, being able to help that person break free and step into their greatest version of themselves,

their goals, dreams, aspirations, and the life that they truly want, that's magical.

And I know the pain.

You might have felt that.

I've felt that today with my son, my life, the habits that I've carried through those periods.

And I can never get them back.

And I'll take that to the grave.

I don't sit and reflect and, as you said, beat up on them.

I just sit there and go, what can I do to be better at that next situation or opportunity?

And I'm going to make sure that I'm prepped and ready where preparation meets that opportunity.

And bam, you know, the same thing, whether that's with my son, whether that's with business, whether that's with life, I'm ready.

And I'm making sure that I'm ready for it.

I'm ready for every single situation that comes up.

So what's your program called?

So I got here, you signed a five-year contract with PKKP.

Yeah.

I can't even pronounce a lot of that.

But it's an Aboriginal corporation.

Can you tell me what that is?

So they do a lot around the Pilbara or around the mining regions.

And communities there are pretty remote and spread out.

And obviously the health and well-being, the quality of life of the individuals within those spaces,

we want to make sure that we tap in and help those people.

I shouldn't say those, but Aboriginal people see a better way of life because I only see what you only be what you can see, right?

And proximity to that community, if no one's in that space, elevating and then sitting down and having those conversations, role modeling, culture, respect.

These conversations, well, what's going to happen?

That's going to roll off into your life.

And for us, we were able to sign a whole heap of five-year deals and to step into that different realm, to be able to do that differently.

But for us, it was something that a young kid from Redfern never ever thought was possible.

My first contract, I was thinking about this today, was at Redfern.

I'll never forget.

I took a photo.

NCIA, the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, signed that major contract at that point in time.

And I was looking up at my old classroom and I had a tear in my eye because I thought, you know, 360 in between that kid up there and here was 20 years of jail, was destructive, dysfunction.

And all of the words that you wouldn't put into a space if you got to choose them and how now sitting in this space, I've become constructive, happy, found inner peace.

And, you know, that's what we are able to instill in these organizations so they perform at a higher level.

And you get individuals, as you know, people come in and want to just pay their bills and then people that align to the passion of that business.

And that's what we bring into our business, make sure that the individual's coming into that space.

But also individuals.

Individuals going into other spaces for businesses are performing at their best because they are actually passionate about what you do or who you are.

And they become a part of the framework just as much as you are.

And that for us has been life changing.

You've got the Cut the Bullshit program.

Yeah.

Maybe.

What is that?

I don't know what you're saying.

Yeah, it's more about, you know, we tell ourselves and we feed ourselves the words that we need to.

I'm okay.

Yeah, we'll keep affirming our story about ourselves.

Absolutely.

And enough.

Life's good.

And next thing, you know, brother and sister commit suicide.

For me, another huge journey through.

In your family?

In my family.

So to have those brother and sister commit suicide to me is just, and I didn't see it coming.

We say that we're okay, but are we really okay?

And if I sit down with any individual, we could do it with yourself and you'd sit there and go, oh, wow.

All of a sudden, a light bulb switched on around particular things that you haven't thought about.

Because what we do as a business is think about how humans are.

And what you want to get out of life.

And cut the bullshit means get through what you tell yourself.

Be real about it.

And like social media these days project the shiniest version of ourselves.

Vulnerability is strength.

How many people are going to jump on a podcast and say, let me tell you about the ugly version of myself, Mark.

They're going to come on and say I'm worth a million dollars and here's what I do X, Y, and Z.

And it's all shiny.

But underlying, are you in the bathrooms on the weekends?

And as soon as business finishes, making drug your way of dealing with your emotions, missing time with your family or your wife, cheating on your wife is an example.

And as you know, it's a huge part of this world.

And people tell themselves, my life's good.

Relationship's good.

Commitment's good.

I was that person.

And to have gone through that and pull myself up on that, I had to cut the bullshit and get through to the greatest version of myself through that bullshit that I told myself every single day.

It's a program.

So it'd be like when you used to go to Newcastle and you thought this through and I'm going to become really good at this sort of stuff.

What's it look like?

Nothing worse.

As you know, we go in and they said, can you come and do a day's worth of conversation?

Who's they?

Who's they?

Any organization.

Yeah, okay.

So let's say it's a George Bank or whatever.

Yeah.

And I love it.

Yeah.

All right.

Great.

It's business for us.

But at the same time, Mark, coming to the gym and train one day and now you're going to pop with muscles, your six pack is out, you know about nutrition and all of the above.

Impossible.

So I always say try and do something long term.

But in general, we'll try and power pack that day.

And the idea is what is the meaning of life to you?

What does inner peace look like to you?

So what you're doing is creating a framework or roadmap.

So you have a group and you ask them all.

Do you write them down?

Get it right down?

Yeah.

So they'll write it down for themselves because in general, I made a million dollars.

So this is how you're going to make a million dollars through this scenario, step by step process, right?

That is bullshit.

Yeah.

And exactly right.

So how do you build that individual?

And when we go through these questions, people go, oh, ask them, what's the inner peace look like?

And they go, dunk.

Remember the old computer sound?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's what I'm looking and I'm seeing their faces going.

And I'm like, are you okay?

And they're like, I don't know what it looks like.

And that's what happens.

We become unconscious to the conscious version of life.

And that means that you're just saying we go through the program of life, like you said before, with the human brain and neuroscience.

We're programmed into go through school.

We go through school, get a job, and go to uni, buy the car, buy this.

And I'm not saying it's the wrong way of life, but is that the intentions?

Would you like to travel more?

Would you like to have your own business?

Yeah, but it's a bit scary.

And by the time you're at 22, Mark, in that old world, think about it.

Your parents don't do that.

Now your school teachers don't do that.

Now you go into a relationship, oh, that's a bit hard.

Now you go into your first workplace, don't do it like that.

If you got the wrong boss and they put it on you.

Then you go into, you know, and that will roll on into life.

And by the time you're 22, you're like, oh, maybe I'll just go with the flow.

Let's get a loan.

It's easier.

Let's pay this off.

Let's retire at 75.

And I was just of aversion, luckily enough, to run away.

And at 12 years old, I said, how am I going to make sense?

No, actually, how am I going to survive first?

And money became a secondary sort of beneficiary of that action.

And for me, that rolled into business.

How can I change and save lives?

And as you know,

I'm not a secondary, I'm financial and I'm in a place where I want to be.

And I never ever said I'm going to make X amount of dollars.

I just want to change and save lives.

And to do that, what value do you bring to the space?

And when we ask those questions to people, what is the meaning of life to you?

And I go, I've never thought about it.

Once you define it, now you've got a roadmap and like a business plan,

a vision statement, whatever mission statement.

Now you've got that for yourself as an individual.

So it's almost building your own business and the greatest business on this

planet is yourself.

And that's sort of how that whole neurocomic book works,

because you then start to affirm in your mind by asking other people what it is

that gives them the most peace in their life.

You start to reaffirm in your mind what

is the most important thing to you to give you peace of mind.

And it's sort of interesting.

I did a podcast, a straight talk podcast with a guy

who doesn't like to be called an expert.

Let's call him a coach.

And he said, you've got to be a coach to do it, making a pitch.

And he said the most important thing when you're pitching to an audience, big or

small, it doesn't matter whether you're pitching to investors or just talking to

an audience of a thousand people, he said, you've got to understand their

purpose right from the very beginning.

And then you've got to add value, which is exactly what you just said.

You know, you know, if you're in business, any business,

understand what the purpose of your audience is.

What do they want from this?

And then secondly, how to add value.

So that, you know, that's really important to them.

What do I get from that?

And you've got to make sure you know what

their purpose is and give them something extra, not just talk shit to them.

And they just don't want to necessarily hear about your past.

That's maybe some context, but

you've got to deliver something valuable to them.

Absolutely.

So your program, Cut the Bullshit, is that, I want you to take me through.

What are your businesses? What are you doing?

I know we just mentioned the program a moment ago about the Pilbara, but

tell me what Jeff Morgan's business now does or businesses now do.

Yeah, so it's a lot around the mindset,

obviously going down that path myself, destructive to constructive.

That's huge for us.

So can you give me an example, you're doing something with NRL?

Yeah, around leadership and mental health,

well-being, that resilience, building high performance habits.

So that's sort of the context of what we do and sitting down with those individuals.

Like I can go to an NRL club, I think you might even go for that club yesterday as

an example, and I ask them who's leaders within this space.

And what I find when I do this with that

club, they're all looking at the captain and go, yeah, I'm the leader here and have

that conversation. But as you know, in business, if you just,

if everyone's relying on you for that outcome, they have to wait.

Imagine being at war and saying, wait,

Mark, we've got to get the command from Mark and it happens at war.

Sometimes you've got to be decisive for yourself.

And then I have that conversation.

So I said, do you turn back to the fullback and say, should I make this tackle?

If they left, you couldn't turn your head backwards.

You'd lose focus.

Well, where it becomes a problem, mate,

I'll tell you straight up is when he got injured, when Burgess hit him that time

two years ago in that prelim, he went off with concussion and we were rudderless.

Absolutely.

It doesn't matter whether Joe Marner could go back and play fullback or not.

It's irrelevant. Absolutely.

We lost the dude that everybody is relying upon, which means someone's got to step up.

Absolutely.

And I remember Jared, he didn't step up, he just got angry.

Mm hmm. With Burgess.

And then the referee got offside with Jared and they penalized the shit out of us.

And I don't know if you remember the game because I know you're a South supporter,

but that game, I think it was actually Broncos.

There was like 13, 13 stoppages and something like seven sin bins.

Wow. In one game.

Wow. Because the referee just lost control.

Yeah, because I remember that the leader was gone.

And to your point, no one was stepping up.

And so what do they say to you when you ask that question?

And how were they?

Did they feel confronted?

Absolutely. You can see it.

I'm like, wow, I'm surprised.

This is what I'm talking about.

Unconscious bias towards who we actually are.

You know, people look up to these people that are playing in the NRL and no disrespect.

They've done great, but we have some element of their life.

So their health, their sporting ability and so forth is at the highest level.

They're at that elite level.

But then if you go into the relationships, hence why some of them make a bad

relationship, decision or choice, and then they end up in custody themselves.

As an example.

Or their finances, they don't know how to manage it.

I give you, you know, one of my old

people from the area, a million dollars.

What happens with a million dollars market?

We go and party every night.

And that's the reality because they just don't know how to use that space.

So when I ask them that question, silence.

And I'm just sitting there going, listen to the crickets.

And then once I said, once I explain that to them.

So you say to somebody, push across, come this way, shift that way.

Next hit up, take it right.

Next hit up, take it left.

Work the left edge or whatever it may be.

Are you the person right next to that person in the grand final?

When everyone's screaming, they're screaming out, take it left.

I said, that's. And they said, yeah.

I said, so I'm going to ask you again, who's leaders within this group?

And even when they do that, because you haven't felt that before,

this is what I'll get, a half pitched yes.

And I said, put your hand all the way up because in business, as you know,

anything, life, health.

If you go half in, you'll get a half a result.

And maybe sometimes that half a result

is what we then say that's acceptable and what you accept your regret.

So you think life is magical here, but let's dig a little deeper and let's

find out what's there for yourself and what you want and then create accountability,

responsibility to the words that come out of your mouth, cut the bullshit.

And now we're going to create some discipline.

And if you give me an excuse, I'm going to tell you why, based around my story that

I've had, based around a bloke I've seen training yesterday with one arm and one

leg who shows up to my gym relentlessly and does chin ups with a little band that

he's got attached and still does his chin up.

Don't give me why you can't, show me why you can.

And show me what value and benefit I call the VB effects of people.

Big shout out to him.

The contract you've got with the NRL.

You've got the stuff that up in the Pilbara.

You've got your basic contracting business

where you, let's call it the bullshit program where corporates can

employ you. How many people in your team, what have you got?

10 in the team or consultancy on that sense.

And maybe something I could speak to you or other people about.

That's the advice I got early on.

In the space and financially where we were

this year, definitely looking at doing a lot of things differently.

We've got 49 major contracts and we're looking to build a whole heap.

PR team talking to other major organizations or management

in the gym and we're going to try and step into those spaces.

Where are you contracting like in Australia and or outside Australia?

Yeah, in Australia, outside Australia and

anyone that wants to do business around creating leaders.

And my final question to you is this,

because when I saw you down the gym the other day, I thought, fuck, he looks fit.

I mean, and a lot of guys, I mean, you've been out of jail for a long time.

A lot of guys come out of jail, they're fit.

I mean, yeah, because there's not much else to do.

But you've maintained that position.

How important is fitness to you?

Physical fitness.

Huge.

How does your brain, your internal function without the river flowing

smoothly? And that starts with your food, your thoughts.

And yeah, we always have this conversation,

one dimensional mindset or multidimensional.

And you can say, I'm going to be healthy.

Someone says that to me, I say, all right, define it.

And they're like, what do you mean?

And that's what for us, that's the business itself.

That's your indicator that you're not conscious of.

Well, what do you want to do that in a gym?

In a park? Down by the water?

Swimming? Boxing?

What is it? How many times a week?

Who with? What's going to help you with confidence?

And looking at the factors, what are you lacking?

Well, guess what?

If you step across the line and you step into that.

So the importance of fitness to me, not only then, and it was something I did

from that young age, I carried from those habits, seeing Aboriginal people.

And then I realised, you know, I used to think it was about Aboriginal

people back then and being inspiring to them.

But I realised that human beings,

when I sat down with big corporates and I sat there with those CEOs and I realised

the disconnect I'm doing and most people do this.

I'm giving my family my everything.

I'll go and work from five in the morning to 12 at night.

Your kids want a hug.

Your wife wants some attention and quality time, those sorts of things.

And people start to realise, wait a sec.

And let's get your planner, rip out your diary and show me your diary and I'll show

you your life. And once you, that was the importance of health.

And that's what helped me because health wasn't just about keeping this fit body.

If I had this fit body, the byproduct of that was the confidence,

the proactiveness, the whatever it may be within my life.

And that allows me to have, you know,

a peace mark for the first time in a long time.

Other than my son being in that space, everything else.

Honestly, I'm at a point where I'm doing

everything I can to be better at that space.

And I'm moving forward contentfully, I suppose, if that's even a word.

I'm content with the space I'm in.

Other than the relationship with my son.

And, you know, that's where I'm at at this

point in time and the realisation that health plays a huge role in quality of

life, suicide prevention, domestic violence.

Like for us, being in that community in and around Redfern Waterloo,

I saw the knock on effects of not being healthy, dying early.

Who wants to die early?

And quality of life, you can tell me you're living, but most people are existing.

I'm talking people outside because the prison of their own mindset, breaking

the barrier that how much is worth, how much is peace of mind when you go

and lay your head down on that pillow at night, a restless night is a restless mind.

And for me to be able to instil that into people, it's the greatest thing I could ever do.

So I am the brand.

I am the version at 50.

I want to look at that person.

You tell me that's what you do.

I improve human beings, build better human beings.

Well, let's have a look at you.

Oh, well, you know, you look the goods, you speak that way.

Let's have a look at your program.

Oh, you operate that way as well.

Now it all ties in because, as you know,

let's quit smoking and I'm at the back door having a smoke.

Yeah, the authenticity and it goes out the window and you lose everybody's

trust. And as you know, in business, trust is everything.

So I trust in me because this is the first thing that people get to see when we rock

up to a meeting and say they might already formed an opinion based around

a reference or something from somebody else.

Now you've showed up to the meeting, you look at a million dollars

and they're like, well, this is the person that could step into our space.

A lot of people do that to start out with a talk in general.

A whole day is a whole day workshop.

And by the end of that, they say, hey, let's sit down and talk about a long term

contract together at that point in time, that's where we stepped across the line.

And, you know, Sal and I built that together.

I had that transition to 16 to 18.

And it all came from the habits, the discipline of this body that you see before you.

And it wasn't about

when I was a kid, it was about being like Arnie.

In this day and age, it's about just living

a longer, stronger life of independence, no medication.

And I'm proud of that, you know.

So that's a good place for me to close off on it, because I think what

when I get out of this whole conversation and apart from, you know, you reconnecting

with the sun at some stage, but there's no lack of intention there,

is that Jeff Morgan has built a better human being, himself that is.

Absolutely.

That's how you pay forward.

You want to build better human beings, to your words, they're your words.

You want to build Jeff Morgan and his

business and his programs are about building better human beings.

Absolutely.

Take an unconscious to conscious.

Thanks, champion.

Not all that long ago, money was simple.

You earned it, saved some, spent some and maybe invested in a house if you were

lucky. No apps, no online banking, no thinking beyond what was in your wallet.

But times have changed.

In today's money market, growth can come in many ways.

And the way we think about cash is continuously evolving.

Enter Australia's highest rated crypto exchange, SwiftX.

Whether you are just starting to explore

the crypto market or are already deep in the game, SwiftX makes it easy to acquire,

sell and trade digital assets all in one place.

So if you're someone who's thought about

dipping your toes in the crypto market, but isn't sure where to start,

this might be for you.

Visit swiftx.app

forward slash

markboros to check it out.

If you've been listening along for a while,

you'll know I'm all about staying sharp physically and mentally.

As I get older, staying on top of my game

means being smarter with how I support my body and mind day in, day out.

One product I've already added to my

routine from the bulk nutrients range is their NMN Extend.

It's a science backed blend of 10 powerful

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Now, this is designed to support everything

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or just investing in my long term health, NMN Extend help me stay ready for

whatever's next. And believe me, it tastes pretty good too.

Head to bulknutrients.com.au and see why NMN Extend might be the edge

you've just been looking for.