DISCIPLINE KEY TO SUCCESS
Former tradie and personal grooming brand Tame’s Nik McIntosh shares his disciplined approach to keeping well with
Aplumber and gas fitter by trade, Nik McIntosh founded Tame personal grooming in November last year to challenge conventional norms around body hair and self-care.
‘‘We define self-care as presenting yourself in a way that makes you feel confident,’’ McIntosh says.
He points to the increase in body positivity and a challenging of ‘‘outdated norms around body hair’’ as primary drivers for starting the business, which ‘‘provides access to tools that facilitate that flexibility’’.
Before launching Tame, McIntosh was working in the corporate world, overseeing a global team that saw him juggling 90-hour work weeks. ‘‘Burnout happens along the way.’’
He taught himself to wake up at 4am to get through the workload, a practice he has kept up since working for himself. However, now it is time he dedicates to exercise and meditation, two non-negotiables in his wellness arsenal.
What hours do you work each day?
Generally, I work 7am-5pm, and I will typically put a few hours in over the weekend as well.
Do you have set work/life boundaries or do they merge?
It is all merged. I block out time for myself every day so that I have structured time away from work, but building a business means that it is always on your mind. However, I don’t find this taxing (most of the time) as I love what I do and a lot of what I do provides the creative outlets I
was missing in life before I started the business.
What time do you wake up?
I am an early riser. and get up at 4am. This provides ‘‘me time’’ first thing before anything else happens. It gives me the ability to do what is most important to me before I interact with people or work.
What do you have for breakfast?
Oats of some form, with coconut yoghurt and maple syrup.
Do you have an exercise routine?
I am in the gym seven days a week most weeks at 5am, doing weights 3-4 times a week, and some form of cardio (typically HIIT) the remaining days. I love it, I have found that if I don’t have that activity I have bigger mental health swings over time.
Do you use supplements? If so, what?
As a general rule of thumb, the only supplements I take are from my diet.
In the gym world there are a million different supplement products, but when you research the ingredients they are not things you would consume in food, or they are chemicals your body produces naturally.
Right now, I am only supplementing protein and fish oil.
But I only recently fell off the mushroom craze, which I found was super useful in helping me sleep better, so I should probably get back on it.
Whose advice/influence do you genuinely value and listen to when it comes to wellbeing and taking care of yourself?
Outside of my immediate friends and family, I have mentors and advisers in different parts of my life (including work) to help when things become unsettled. I used to work in a really high stress environment, and during that period I spent a lot of time reading stoic philosophy and meditating, which I have found to be immensely beneficial in dealing with the stresses of life.
How do you deal with stress?
If I feel a lot of stress coming on I will meditate more in the morning to help calm my mind. Trying to anchor myself in some of those stoic principles also helps. Being able to differentiate between the stresses of things that happen to you, and the stresses of things you need to do.
Often stresses are caused by external events that you don’t have control over and therefore you shouldn’t stress about it.
And the last thing is figuring out what is really stressing you, then planning out how to make it not stress you and taking action. I have found a lot of the time it is a hypothetical situation causing stress and once you work through it, there isn’t anything to stress about, or there is a relatively easy fix to the problem.
How do you deal with the stress of failure?
I actually spend time to fully understand what failure looks like before I start something. As an example, when I boiled down taking the risk of starting my own business, I got back to the fact that failure meant my life would look like what it did at the time. Then I just had to ask myself if that meant failure would be that bad.
And once I concluded that life was pretty good as it was, taking the risk of failing became a lot easier. Sure I might lose some money in the worst case scenario, but I felt I was young enough that I could recover from that loss without it being a major detriment to retirement. The flip side of that was also asking the question of would I look back at life and view part of it as being a failure because I didn’t take the risk when I had the opportunity.
What time do you go to bed at night? Do you sleep soundly?
Generally around 9pm, but that depends on social events and workload. I sleep like a rock, and generally don’t have any issues getting to sleep.
What do you do in the final hour before bed?
If I’m being honest, I lie in bed and watch YouTube to catch up on different things. What should I be doing? Probably reading a book.
What do you spend on your wellbeing?
I’d say all up around $6k a year. It does vary a bit as I like to try different things out to see how they work for me. I recently met the founders of Slo¨ we Studio at an event, and they convinced me to give ice baths a go.
What do you do for fun?
Travel, exercise, and I enjoy food so we do eat out a lot at different restaurants. I am currently trying to figure out photography and videography, but I have a long way to go.
Favourite free stress-buster? Exercise.
What has been the biggest change you have made when it comes to looking after your health, and mental health and wellbeing?
Being disciplined with meditation, and being active every day. That is why I have dedicated waking up at 4am to get them done before the chaos of the day kicks in. I don’t drink alcohol any more either, which has made a massive difference.