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Set The Standard
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Set The Standard
Breathing New Life Beyond the Corporate Ladder #208 Nik Diamond
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Nik's experience serves as an inspiration for leading with heart and perseverance.
This podcast episode is more than just a story; it's a guide to authenticity and the strength found in a supportive community.
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Quitting Real Estate for Breathwork Passion
Speaker 1There's the personal why , and then there's the bigger why . And if I have to start with the bigger why , let's go there . The bigger why is well ? What about those who need it , Like every single person listening to this right now ?
Speaker 2Nick Diamond , my friend , community leader and set the standard , fellow brother , smashing , a breath of work with the people .
Speaker 1Anyone who ?
Speaker 2doesn't know Nick . He's a really close friend of mine . We've done a bunch of one-on-one coaching for ages . One thing that I love about Nick is that he took life by the balls . He was working in a real estate job and I'll let him share the story in a minute but he was essentially like working in there or Ego was flared home and we get the money , get the money . And then he was like fuck this , I love helping people . I'm gonna get into breath work and some trauma and stuff that ended up finding it . It's like you know what . I'm gonna crush this as well .
Speaker 2And he's been a community leader in the standard community for a while . He's helping change men's lives . His breath work business is starting to tick off and it's not like Nick as well . Just to let everyone know , he did like a breath work from not any really new school coaches , someone who's been studying it for like 40 years . He did his breath work certificate with them and it was a 12 month process to get that certificate and I'm pretty sure they're not running them anymore . So Nick was one of the last people who got this insane breath work knowledge , which is why he gets so many like good results and I for one , I'm super excited . I was told before this I was like Nick needs to come , fly out one so we can crush them all together , and two so that you can breath . Work me , because I'm ready , baby . And yeah . So , nick , thanks so much for coming onto the show .
Speaker 1Dude , thank you . Thank you for the warm welcome and the little pump up .
Speaker 2Yeah , I appreciate it so exciting , Appreciate you man and appreciate your presence and all things you do in the community and what you're doing to serve everyone . So thank you . I would just like love to know just the story and the journey on essentially how you come to quitting your fucking job , taking a pay cut and just chasing your dreams and your passion , man , cause that shit lights my soul on fire .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah , look it was . It was a big journey . It was a very big journey . How it all kicked off was starting to work on myself more than anything , starting to become more self aware . Where do I begin ? Where do I begin If we're gonna track it all the way back ?
Speaker 1The whole real estate thing was directly related to , I guess , the way I grew up and like chasing , you know , financial accolades and external accolades and trying to , you know , become accepted in the world , you know , via the mechanisms of like making money and looking a certain way and status and fancy watches , fancy cars and having all that stuff you know what I mean and the whole process of , I guess , uncovering more of what I really was breath work , being always in the picture , cause I had been doing that for a few years for my own like healing journey anyway , and that was sort of always in there helping me along the way , being mentored by Julie , who is who certified me , and then engaging in yourself and being in the community with the guys and the kids some proteins , I need to know . The job got me to that little bit more . Just to go straight to , it was the belief of I have to do successfully . I have to be successful financially to have my dad's acceptance . You don't have that whole .
Speaker 1There was that whole spectrum that was there . Hold on a second , nick . Yeah , all of those , hold on a second .
Speaker 2God damn , hang on . Let's start from . You were in real estate for the money , accolades the watches the cars .
Speaker 1Where I was at . Yeah , you got you . So once uncovering , I guess , the relationship that I had with my dad that had caused me to think that I had to be accepted in the world by being financially successful and things like that , and leaning into the discomforts of healing those relationships and essentially just shedding the skin that was limiting me , I was able to see myself in a different light and basically what had happened was I had taken on my breath work certification while being in real estate , just because it was the last one she said she was ever going to offer . So Julie's like hey , I'm going to basically be doing my last one . I've been doing it for so long . I'm getting a little old now . I don't think I'm going to want to do it again . She's writing a book at the moment . She wants to finish writing her book . So I was like , yeah , fair enough . And I was like look , I'm just going to say yes , I don't know why I'm saying yes , I'm in real estate at the moment . My career is actually going really well and it was going really well really fast . So I had no intentions to leave real estate and I was like I love the work in breathwork . I'll just do it and see where it goes . So yeah , basically that commenced in .
Speaker 1I think it was like March last year and it started and there was so much learning in that and even more healing for myself . And as I got closer to the end of it , which was November last year , I just had this moment where I was like , do you know what ? This is what I need to do ? Like this is my calling . Almost it was just this pool . It was uncomfortable because I was like how am I going to make money out of this whole situation ? But because I had just dealt with the belief of having to attain money , to feel something , I saw my purpose far , far greater . It was clearer . It's like no , this is what I have to do , like regardless of where I'm at financially and regardless of where my career in real estate is going , and things like that . I think , funnily enough , man , it was when I had come to Gold Coast last year in November where this all had ticked off . I reckon it's literally a year like this week or the 25th , bro , what are we ? It's the 22nd . So we recorded a podcast this time last year and I was still in real estate and I was in that process of what I was going to do .
Speaker 1And , yeah , I literally just built up the courage and I spoke to my principal at the time last year and I just said , look , I'm going to be moving on . It's like I kind of just have to chase this purpose of mine , like I have to give this back . I saw what it did for me . I saw what Breathwork did for me on so many levels for so many years where it got me , and then when I compounded that with coaching and putting myself in a community of men to help me through even more of what I was overcoming and how I was growing , just made me realize like that's what I had to do . I was like this is it , this is what needs to be done .
Speaker 1So , yeah , it was a big conversation because my principal was kind of like are you sure you want to do this ? Like you know not going to talk figures , but in the time I was there I had done pretty well , considering how fresh I was , and then my projected income and my projected , you know , like database is what we call it and how things were looking was exceptional . Like I was walking away from , honestly , a sure thing , like I could have easily sat and been like in two , three years , like I am so set , so set , you know , like financial I'd have an assistant , like I'd have everything that I would love on the outside but I'd be dying on the inside .
Speaker 2So I was going to say I was going to say well then , why Like ? How do you feel now that you now ?
Speaker 1Honestly , man , holy shit . This year has been a journey and a half , just because it's like I've just had to skull drag myself through so much shit , some days working jobs that I didn't think I'd ever have to work again , jobs that I hated , like working in warehouses and working up until midnight so I could get up in the morning . And like work on the business and take a client , and like doing all these little things and like you're still working out and trying to look after my health is like it's just not what I guess I had expected , but I just knew that . It's like all I was , like I got a choice , like I can't go back to doing what I was doing because , like I can't unsee what I've seen in my past . You know so , and this whole process then was , you know , helped me really overcome drug addiction , you know , and , like you know , really diving into the drugs and the parting and the alcohol and things . You know .
Speaker 1This journey this year just made a difference in all levels . And then also putting myself in environments , like I said , the community , having guys around you that are calling you out on your shit , firstly , and they're helping you grow your business , because they're all doing the same kind of thing . So it's surrounding myself with those types of people and becoming the person to surround myself with those types of people by making the decision I made by leaving real estate last year , it's been the biggest year of growth . This year , for sure , it's been the biggest year of growth Like , if I'm to literally sit back now and think about where I was a year ago , it's ridiculous . Yeah , it's ridiculous . I feel aligned , though . That's the thing I feel , like me , and I don't give a fuck , unapologetically .
Speaker 2That's so cool , man , because I know there's a lot of people who would think why do that ? Why go through the trials and tribulations ? Why do the working the late nights , the early mornings , the clients here Like why go through all of that when you could have had a sure thing running in the meantime ?
Speaker 1Why .
Speaker 2Yeah , people would be thinking why . They'd be like why would you do that ? Because you're taking less of a pay all the rest of it . You've got to struggle , definitely . So people ask questions like why ?
Speaker 1do it . There's two things . There's two things . There's the personal why and then there's the bigger why . If I have to start with a bigger why , let's go there . The bigger why is what about those who need it ?
Speaker 1Like , every single person listening to this right now , in my opinion , has a gift . Everyone there isn't one person that doesn't Like it's that's no . Everyone's uniquely gifted and special in their own little way . It's just how daring are you to let yourself be curious about the gift that you're feeling or that you may have to then actually give it back because people need it , like the world needs it . People , the world needs your gift .
Speaker 1So that's that's why , you know is if I hadn't done any of that work and quit real estate , like my gift would be completely and utterly suppressed and I'd just be a little cog in a machine and just making money . You know the personal . You know why is because I got so clear on who I was and I started to understand myself so deeply and clearly . You know my values , what I will stand for , what I won't stand for , that I had no choice but to lean into that . You know , it's like when you start to know yourself that little bit more . It's very hard to to go against what you now know how , how , how did you get clear .
Speaker 2Like how did you get clear on who you are ? Like that's the big thing , right To really understand who you are . And just just looping back to everyone listening , like what's so important here is just understanding how important knowing who you are is and that it drives your decisions for your career , it drives your decisions for your relationships , it drives the decisions that are mistakes , it drives decisions that make you healthy , it drives all the decisions that make you a better person . And we can spend all the time in the world doing a business course or getting a uni degree or getting something else , but I think it all means shit if you don't know who you are , because that way you might be taken a path that's on a trajectory like this . When you're born to be on a path that takes a trajectory like this , you know choosing this and all the struggles , wishing you were going like this , and instead you just you just cruise in like that . So how did you ? It's so important how did you get clear on who you are ?
Self Discovery Through Intuition and Growth
Speaker 1Okay , three things . Firstly , I started to question everything question myself , question my beliefs , question my thoughts , question my needs and my wants To be able to understand if the life that I was living was actually what was true for me , because there was a lot of pain in all of that , with the way I was living . Something didn't feel right . You know , it's like there's that part of us sometimes that knows that we're just not doing what we need to be doing , or we're not doing what we should be doing , or we just feel out of place .
Speaker 2And in those moments , yeah , it's intuition .
Speaker 1That's where it starts . I don't think anything can happen without our intuition , because then that's what leads on to the other two things I'll touch on . But the intuition is the big one , 100% . It's like well , this isn't right for me . Then I need to ask a question , or ask questions that I don't normally ask myself , and then by doing that , you're going to have a different dialogue , a different conversation , and that had been happening to me for many years before diving into where I am now . But it started a long time ago .
Speaker 1Second thing was finding breath work three years ago Now . For anyone listening , it's rebirthing , it's the technical term for it . It's not just like breath work , it's rebirthing , breath work . But yeah , coming across jewelry and working through a lot of my traumas , my insecurities , my lack of trust of myself and in myself and in the world , and going through processes like that helped me understand myself more and helped me understand my fears and my pains and how I can use them for the greater good and how that there were . You know , there were stories that I had played out in my head that weren't necessarily true for me and that was creating a life based on the stories I was telling myself .
Speaker 1And then the third thing is wanting to seek out further guidance and wanting to grow more and wanting so deeply to be better that I put myself in an environment of other like minded people trying to do the same thing , ie , the standard community , our community , reaching out to you , getting coaching from yourself , doing the work , doing the program in our community . You know , doing that type of work , reading books , to really start to understand more of myself again . You know , and that was the process , because it has to be active , at the end of the day , you know , we can't , I guess , just want to know ourselves and then do nothing about it . To get to know ourselves a little bit more , we're going to well , I'm just speaking for myself . I put myself in environments that was going to require another level or another , a different person , to understand what was happening .
Speaker 1And that's where everything sort of came clear .
Speaker 2Oh cool , what about ? Because that's like so , so tangible . So what were the things that you personally experienced inside those three categories , where you had moments where you're like , holy shit , I've grown , I've learned this about myself . What were the things that you learned about yourself ? So it's like what were the catalysts , just on a flow of a question , how those things ended up like like what you actually learned from those things . Then how did you apply them to make a shift ?
Speaker 1That's a very big question , man .
Speaker 2Yeah , okay , it was more just like some stories and how they impacted you now , like the specific catalyst moments . Yeah , because I'm just thinking for the listeners . I'm like if I was listening to this , I would really want to be like well , like , what did you do ? How ?
Speaker 1did you do it ? How did ?
Speaker 2you mean like hell , yeah , we can go do things like what can I go and do ?
Speaker 1like now , from what you mentioned , For sure In the three categories that I spoke on before the breathwork and , obviously , the course , the course content and the coaching .
Healing Trauma for a Better Life
Speaker 1That's where everything happened . Now , stories within that yeah , so the thing that Breathwork will do for you and what it's perfect for , is it will uncover situations and information for you to be able to understand them better . Now I want to just send some clarity on all of that . So , for me personally , a lot of the things that I did in my journey were the sessions were bringing up traumas that were bringing up parts of me that I had repressed and suppressed for so long Like full memories . Yeah , so there was this memories , of course , so definitely repressed memories that that were so painful when they were experienced . They stay there . So you know the brain will do anything it can to protect you from feeling pain again , because , like , we're trying to survive and pain is not survive , so the brain will do that in any traumatic experience . So that's the tangible thing that I , that I was doing for a lot of the time , was having sessions . Now , each of my sessions were very different and each session session is different , but being able to uncover traumatic memories and almost relive those memories allows you to re experience that memory and that situation in a way for you to be able to attach a new meaning to it . It brings it to life instead of , you know , sitting in the subconscious , unconscious parts of us where it's still dictating what we do , just without us understanding why . And that was a big part of yeah , you know , like that was a big part of my growth , because what was happening was , each time I was having a session and uncovering something about myself in my past , I was starting to connect my connect to myself in a way that was extremely like , whole and loving . I started to accept myself for who I was . I was starting to feel good about who I was , who I was and I was , and I deeply started to forgive myself for all of the things that I thought I had done wrong and by default .
Speaker 1When anybody can go through that process and start to heal those parts of themselves , they will start to make better decisions and start to create a better life for themselves , because they know they deserve it , instead of think they deserve it or that they think they should be doing it .
Speaker 1It's coming from a place of knowing and a place of like , actual wholeness , where they're like no , this is what I need to do now for me , because this is going to be good for the greater good . This is going to make me a better person for my family , my friends , my relationship and those types of things , and the trajectory changes . Another tangible thing is reading books . Man , that was a massive thing . Reading books has been a big thing , and in understanding how to being a guy I'm speaking now in the masculinity sense , but harnessing healthy masculine traits and that was a big part of the process , too , where I was like , okay , I've got to start harnessing some more discipline , I need to start getting clearer on my values , and whatever those turned out to be is what I lent into to create more of what that was .
Speaker 2Have you got any specific examples of stories of when you got stretched Stretched man ?
Speaker 1I got stretched . Yeah , I think the biggest thing is relationships . In my opinion , the people around you , the people around me , was the biggest thing , and having to confront certain situations with my closest family and having hard conversations with them about things in the past and about the way I was feeling about them , and the relationship was definitely me getting stretched . But I knew that for me to be able to continue on the journey that I was on and to continue growing , I had to have these big conversations . I didn't want to be harboring any resentment or any negative emotions towards anyone in my life , because I was the one who was holding the emotion , not them . Having some big conversations was another thing . Then , overall discipline in almost every area of my life .
Speaker 1Sometimes it's very simple , but these are the small actions that create big results . It's simple things like having good sleep routines , making sure you're eating right , making sure you're training , making sure you're consistent and setting myself expectations that I'm going to meet , so then I can start to build some respect for myself . Integrity , you know , and I think not . I think that that there has been one of the biggest things for me , because the more integral I became , the more confident I became . The more confident I became , the more Opportunities I created , the better people I met . I'd be able to hold space for others better , because I was able to hold space for myself . And you know we start to then give and receive in this really Beautiful , flowing way with with everyone around us .
Speaker 2Yeah , so what was it looked like for you when you were like Unintegral , you weren't doing the right things and you're feeling insecure ? Yeah , what were what were all of those insecurities , all of that shame that you had , like ? What were those examples and how did you get out of it ?
Speaker 1Yeah , binge eating was one thing . You know what ?
Speaker 2I'm eating .
Speaker 1Oh , bro , just just having no like , like , acting on impulses , you know , being possessed , being possessed in a moment where there was absolutely no consciousness in relation to Me eating food , and then it'd be like oh like you , just you just eat . There's no , there is no thinking , you just .
Speaker 2I swear to God , men Don't even know that binge eat . Oh , we just like I'll just eat until I'm full , we'll just fucking eat anything for hunger and say when we've my flubbers , like we're fucking binge eating , man , we're poison ourselves with the amount of food that we're eating . Yeah , I've been . I was like binge eating for years before I even realized that I was even binge eating . I thought I was hungry . I'm like I'm gonna get fucking public Ben and Jerry's three packets two minute noodles . I'm gonna smash bag of chips . I'm gonna put like sauce on bread because I'm just fucking like whatever it is , it's getting my mouth didn't even realize that the next like three days while I was fucking tired , was because I I bingeed and I just , I just thought I was eating . I was just thought I was hungry and consuming so crazy .
Speaker 1But yeah , I totally agree because I had the same . I was the same , like I didn't think it was a problem . I don't think I was like you're possessed by it . It's like you're just wasn't in a label . No , no , no , you're just like this is normal . You know , I'm just like eating , I'm just gonna train , I'll be alright . Like yeah , yeah , it just doesn't make sense . So there was , you know , that whole process and then Going out a lot , drinking a lot of alcohol , doing drugs was a big thing as well , bingeing on drugs and going through that whole process , like watching a lot of porn , all of the impulsive Emotions and the impulsive actions that you know a lot of people experience .
Speaker 1I was consumed by them . You know like I was . I had no control over them and I couldn't understand why . And every time I'd give in I'd feel guilt and shame and I'd be like see , you're a piece of shit , like you're no good at that . You can't stop yourself , like you're not gonna be and you know Any good at anything , and like yeah the only thing that makes you feel better is to just do more of the shit .
Speaker 1Yes , dude , yeah , do more of it , a hundred percent , or look for the next thing and like , look for the next thing . So , yeah , taking control over all of the impulses and just Getting clear on on I guess where , who I
Overcoming Difficult Conversations
Speaker 1wanted to be , the life that I wanted to create for myself and the people that I wanted to impact . And I think you know that was that part of my purpose in regards to , you know , doing the breath work and doing the certification and helping people through that process and being a community leader . It's just like Knowing that to hold space for other people and to help them get over , overcome their own things , I have to consistently overcome my own stuff . I have to make that my purpose , to consistently overcome myself and , and I would say , over 12 months you know , that's probably been the biggest thing , that's that's changed a lot because of the amount of now respect that I have for myself and all of those little things .
Speaker 1What happened ? Was it led into ? It led into me communicating better with other people . I was secure in myself . I started to feel better about myself . So because I started feeling better , I was able to communicate my emotions a lot better . I was able to regulate my emotions a lot better , and then , by default , I was able to create better relationships with people and they would feel safe around me , which means that they would be able to have a good interaction , or they would be able to get vulnerable if they needed , and have a conversation that they normally wouldn't have .
Speaker 1So , you know , one thing led to another , led to another , led to another , and it just sort of all compounded when then , you know , my business started to sort of not sort of my business started to do better , you know , staying consistent with content , staying consistent with my diet , staying consistent with my clients , and I'm like it's this thing ? Yeah , it's a consistent cycle , and don't get me wrong , I fall off here and there . There are days where I make the mistake and I'm like , oh , I've done that , you know . But the key is to just understand that it's a moment in time and that tomorrow is another day and you just go again , you know , and it's moving the needle forward slowly .
Speaker 2So powerful man . So , yeah , one wants to find you . Anyone wants to find ya ? Because I'm gonna give them a challenge in a second from you . If they're looking at like doing some breath working , some breath work or anything like that , like , where can they find you miss your nick .
Speaker 1Sure sure . So on Instagram , you can either find me on my connected and conscious page , which is nick underscore connected and conscious . So that's my , my , my breath therapy page , or you can find I mean , my other page , which is directly connected to connected and conscious , just nick , go underscore diamond . It was a personal page , but it's not necessarily anymore . It's more so just like a me page through connected and conscious . So Either or there's the contents all connected to each other , so you can definitely find me there and get in touch , follow my content .
Speaker 2It's great , awesome , and I'd love you to leave a Challenge for people who are listening to this .
Speaker 1Yeah , okay , I know why this just came to me so , so quickly . The challenge is going to be With wherever you're at at the moment in your life , with the relationships . I Challenge anyone to have an extremely difficult conversation with someone very close to them that they know they need to have and are avoiding to have .
Speaker 2Why is it so important to have difficult conversations ?
Speaker 1Okay , Two things . Your own healing is in that conversation . Firstly , right , and secondly , what comes from that conversation . Only God knows and you have to trust that . And what comes from that conversation is exactly what you need . It may not be what you think you need , but it's exactly what you need and you're not going to know until you do it .
Speaker 2The level of surrender , though .
Speaker 1That's why it's so scary I have this conversation .
Speaker 2What the fuck's going to happen ?
Speaker 1It's all just unknown , so I don't want to know it . So we're challenging you . That's the reason .
Speaker 2Do that shit . So you literally do it , lean into that Just completely . I just want to highlight as well , just like you know , your transformation , your fulfillment , your connected to your path and your purpose . You know some of
Transformation, Fulfillment, and Leading the Way
Speaker 2it has been done in our community and I'm extremely proud of that and just thank you for being a part of it . Thank you for leading and thanks for being here and learning what we've learned , and leading by example man .
Speaker 1I appreciate that . Thank you so much . Thanks for leading the way for me too .
Speaker 2It makes me feel really good , man , like seeing you and the change that you're on , even though it's like you know , if you change real estate , you're chasing this path and there's more challenges and it's harder and it's great . It's like that's that fucking tough shit that you get to talk about . You know , five , 10 years from now , like I was in there before I made it , before I crushed it in this area because I was so consistent with what I want to do . There's no back and out . Yes , I know I can see you . Just , you're just going down that path , regardless of what happens .
Speaker 2This is the way I'm going and nothing can stop me Like it's the best .
Speaker 1Honestly , yes , the key is just to surrender , bit and faith . I just have complete faith . That's kind of it , like recently . The biggest thing is I've just handed it over . I'm like it is what it is . I'm just going to keep doing my bit , whatever happens . Happens . I can love that , bro . Thanks coming on to you . My pleasure , brother . Thank you .