James Smith: How To Create The Life You’ve Always Wanted | E120

We've spoken about quite a few things today that I've never really-

Hmm.

... spoken about.

James Smith, the world's fastest growing online personal trainer. But he's much more than that.

Like a driving instructor, I should not exist in your life in six months. Why is it so acceptable for people to invest money into fitness professionals and them still be there three years later? 'Cause if you do your job well enough, your client leaves. If people were truly happy, I would've been, "Shut the hell up then," and I wouldn't have experienced so much growth from pointing out the inadequacies. I don't like people that presents a solution without education. It breaks me to think of the tens of thousands of people who gave up on their ambitions because they went the wrong way for advice. And when they fail the plan or don't finish it, they blame themselves. Where the hell have you come to the conclusion that you would not succeed following your passion? I just wish that maybe earlier on someone had said to me, "Okay, you're not doing well here, but this doesn't mean you're not intelligent. There is something else that you could very well at."

Quick one. Can you do me a favor if you're listening to this and hit the subscribe button, the follow button, wherever you're listening to this podcast? Thank you so much. James Smith, the world's fastest growing online personal trainer. But he's much more than that. He's an author of three books. His third one's about to come out. He's unapologetic. He is outspoken, and he says it how it is. And that's meant that he now reaches millions of people online every single week. Now I had an expectation on James. I've seen him on social media, I've seen the types of things he says when he's on telly. But the guy I met today, deeply self-aware, unbelievably humble, and so incredibly wise. And because he's so honest and straight talking, I walk away with some lessons that I genuinely believe will stay with me for a lifetime. You are gonna love this one. Trust me when I say that. Without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is the Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. (instrumental music) James, you've listened to this podcast before. Um, so y- you probably know that I tend to start in a similar place. I tend to ask my guests about their early years. But when I was reading about comments you'd made about your early years, one of the things you said is it's not- not much very interesting happened.

Yeah. I mean, it's one of those things where it's like ther- there's so many things to talk about. Let's not go there. As a young child in school, didn't have a huge amount of friends, and I think that primary and secondary school, if you had to pick five people that are never gonna accomplish anything in life, I would've been in that- that group of people. Uh, I was diagnosed with learning difficulties, which kind of been disputed. I remember Jimmy Carr talking about getting that laptop, and it's true, he had to see an educational psychologist, and at the end they were like, "James' reading and writing speed is very quick. We think he's just lazy." And throughout school, I was in the cloakroom, and they give you extra time on exams, which I didn't need because I was so bored. I'd be done with the exam 20 minutes before everyone else and just sat there, not through being intelligent but like, "I can't be bothered with this." And a lot of behavioral issues at school. Uh, if I look back at that, I almost feel like my brain was only functioning at 20% throughout the whole education system, probably up until college and dropping out of university in my first year.