The Leadership Myth That Breaks Us

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome back listeners to Healthy Mind, Healthy Life. I am Sana, your host. And lessers. You know, when we talk about leadership, what what do we picture? Um relentless, um always working. And and this version of leadership that runs on fumes. There is no sleep, no rest, no pause. And then we somehow convince ourselves that this is what commitment is and commitment looks like. But then what if the most powerful thing a leader can do is to take care of their own body and mind first? That's what we are going to have or going to discuss in today's conversation. So, yes, listeners. Uh, let me introduce my guest to all of you. Um, so he's an Australian Navy veteran, co-founder and also director of Neptune Holdings Group in Darwin, and a leader who has built his entire professional philosophy around people, discipline, and sustainable performance. So, today we are going to explore something which um my guest cares deeply about the real connection between physical health and great leadership. So let's welcome Matt Jax. Matt, welcome to the show, and it's really an honor having you here.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Thank thank you very much. Uh, what an intro.

From Navy Pressure To Health Crash

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Uh that's uh that's hard to hard to top when you when you get an intro like that. Uh, thank you very much for having me. And uh I'm very keen to get into the discussion. It's uh it's a topic that's I'm very passionate about, um especially after sort of reinventing myself in the last 18 months.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Absolutely, absolutely. Let's let's explore, Matt. Let's explore. I mean, let's first start with your uh journey itself. Um, I mean, you have been have been in in the uh in the Navy and then building your business. Um were there moments, you know, when where you first felt how your physical state was directly affecting the the kind of leader you were, uh I mean how you were showing up, like what did that look like?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yeah, I'll uh we'll sort of start on the journey. So uh I co-founded Neptune in 2017 whilst I was still serving in the Navy Um with my best mate Josh Bond, who's also a veteran. Um he's got a very uh people focused approach also, uh probably more so than than I do. Um he's very very much a people pleaser and a people person. Um through throughout that time I was sort of bouncing across Australia. Uh the business was was functioning here in Darwin. Uh and then 2021 I posted back with the Navy. Um and sort of entered into a promotion sort of play uh workplace in the Navy, had some really good leadership, and in uh 2024 that leadership changed out. Well, 2023 changed out, 2024, it sort of, you know, they they talk about it in uh professional sports, you know, if you've got a high-performing team, high-functioning team, and that coach decides to retire, you know, the the the coach that they bring in can usually ride the coattails for about 12 months. Liverpool's a prime example. Uh after Klopp left, they won the title, and then if you look at them this year, they're they're absolutely horrific. Uh, good thing for me because I'm a Manchester United fan. Um if you if you so we had some really good leadership uh in in sort of 21, 22, uh and then uh we had a new leader takeover in 23, and by 24 the rot had actually set in. So at that point, my mental state wasn't really great, my physical state was horrific. I'd had uh an Achilles injury in in November of 22. Um, I'd had a knee surgery also, and I was sort of just riddled with injuries. So my my physical state was was pretty bad. My mindset was was even worse. And sort of come come June, um, sorry, come March 24, I'd had uh uh my gallbladder removed because I had um uh pancreatitis. So my gallbladder was removed from stress um caused by the workplace, uh as I said, my mental health, and I'd put on about 40 kilos. So I was sitting at about 122 kilos, uh, not in a great shape. And then essentially, you know, and my mindset was you know not where it should be to lead my team. Um, so the link there between the sort of the physical and the and the mindset, I was in a really bad place. Uh, and again, this was sort of due to poor leadership above me. Um, I like to blame the poor leadership above me, but again, it was it was also me not taking control of the situation. So um I'm I made a choice in uh in June of 2024 to you know call that poor leadership out in in a management meeting, and I sort of removed myself out of that situation. Um and which you know sort of brings me on to my book, which uh is coming out on the on May 28 called Dictator, how to uneff your leadership. Um it's it's a play on words. Um yeah, so it's um you know, I I did call that person a dictator uh in a in a management meeting and and you know, the whole, you know, me talking about how to uneff your leadership, um, it's it's a system that I've that I've put in place um that can allow leaders to use the system to do the heavy lifting, and that way they don't have to rely on their personality um to lead their people. But linking all this back uh since uh February of 2025, I have lost uh 42 kilos, so just over 14 months. Um I'm in the probably the best physical shape of my adult life. Um mindset's never been clearer, never been better. Um I'm leading so much so much with so much more clarity because I have a lot more clarity. I wake up in the morning, I train, I move my body, it's the first thing that I do. Um I then I set my tar my daily tasks for for me and what I need to achieve for the day. Uh and then I roll into supporting the rest of the team. Um, you know, I I have a bit of a philosophy that, you know, I used to be very much a people pleaser. And when you put everyone else first and you neglect yourself, you get to the end of the day and you're absolutely burnt out and you've got no energy left for you. Uh I flipped that switch um in January of 25. Um, and I started putting myself first and and taking care of me, which then meant that I could show up for my team way more uh and in a better state for them um when when I sort of looked after myself first.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Wow. Well and Matt, first of all, really appreciate for uh opening it all up because uh and and I think it's such a such an um such an essential part of uh leadership. Um and more than that, uh more than that, um the the moment where you took that decision, I mean yeah, uh for me it uh would have been the hardest decision to take, honestly, Matt. But then um, you know, accountability is such such an once again, I think it's one of the most most essential

Putting Yourself First To Lead Better

SPEAKER_01 7:50

and one of the most one of the rarest parts of leadership. It's you know, I mean we expect accountability and responsibility from our team members. Uh but if as a leader we are not even admitting, acknowledging, we are not exercising that accountability. I mean, I don't know how our team members are going to do that. So I really kind of, you know, unfortunately or fortunately, but I really, really appreciate that, you know, um, because you are giving an you are, you know, kind of laying an example here. And when you lead by example, I think um that's what good leadership looks like.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yeah, 100%. Um, I think you know, you sort of people, I'm a big believer, right, that you can teach leadership and you can teach management. Some people believe that you know leadership is charismatic, uh personality driven. It's you know, you've either got it or you don't. I actually think leadership can be taught. Um, you know, I I uh every night I I set aside an hour every night and I will watch YouTube or I'll read a book or I'll listen to an audio or I'll listen to a podcast. Something around leadership or something that I'm you know passionate about at that time. You know, recently it's obviously been a lot around AI to be able to move my business forward and and trying to automate that that world as much as I possibly can. Um, but I'm such a big believer on having that sort of hour reset of an evening where you just take that time to learn about something. Um, you know, and and leadership I think is one of those things that you've got to fundamentally keep your thumb on the pulse because it's constantly shifting. The the newer generation need different leadership to what you know to what even, you know, I I did when I first came through the military to, you know, what the you know, the gens before me, you know, that that style. So um I think especially with today's social media and attention spans, you know, the the next generation need need a different style of leadership. Um and you've got to be able to adjust the way uh you talk and communicate um with the different generations. So, you know, for for me, having the the you know, I'll talk about it now, the the operator system that I've built. And you fit the foundation of that is three levels it's vision, mission, values, it's standards, expectations, and it's accountability chart. So I'm a big believer that if you run a team, so you don't have to be a you know an entrepreneur or a CEO to implement the operator system. If you're just a manager, middle managers, it's prime that the book is prime for middle managers. Implement a vision, mission, and values into your team. I'm such a big believer that every organization, every department, and every team within the broader organization needs their own vision, mission, and values. Um, I'll give an example of last year. Uh, I've fundamentally I'll put my hand on my heart and say that uh at HC, so the hospitality and catering department at HMS Kunorora, we're the highest performing team than all of Navy. And I will go to my grave saying that because I fundamentally believed in it. We we created our own vision, mission values. Our our vision was to feed the Navy spirit by crafting the finest hospitality and catering experience for all. Um, you know, the fact that I can still remember that up four months after I'd left, like that's off the top of my head. Like it was like we drilled it into ourselves that that's what we were there to do. We were there to feed the morale, right? So um, but the biggest sort of turning point for us was when I named the values, and all I did was I looked at my best operators and said, what is it that they do? What is it they bring every single day? How do I name that? Now, one of the one of the fundamental traits that all chefs in the military have had, and this goes across all three services, not just the Navy, um, we adapt and overcome. We run out of food, the oven breaks, the you know, you something goes wrong, you know, you end up with 300 people coming through the line rather than 150. So we we named our number one value is adapt and overcome, conquer the unthinkable. Right. So my team straight away knew that when when stuff went sideways, they just had to adapt and overcome, think outside the box. And and they had the freedom and the clarity to be able to make the decisions on the fly because it was one of our values. So um our our second most critical value was surpass every customer's expectations. So every time a customer comes through that line, I want them to be wowed. I want them to go, you know what, this is not like every other mess in Australia. This food is phenomenal. So having those two values linked together straight away goes if we run out of food or something breaks, I've

Vision Mission Values That Run Teams

SPEAKER_00 12:45

still got to be able to ensure that the customer has a world-class experience.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

And um I think what what I can see, Matt, very very, very clearly is um so much of the leadership uh you you take from your time in in the Navy and uh you know and and so much of values foundation foundationally they are built or through those experiences. And but then at the same time also, um one thing which that's what kind of you know going to stay with me, especially Matt, is how um we, you know, especially from the I shouldn't say older generations, I mean you know, from the previous generations as well. Uh we have to adapt our leadership style as per the new generation because um that's what commonly I see that you know it it kind of is convenient uh to shift the entire blame on the new generations, you know, they're lazy or they are um they are uh always um distracted, they have very short attention span, all the bad things. But how can we look at the good things in there as well? I mean, uh so I have had multiple conversations regarding this, but um uh the that way you share, I think this is gonna definitely stay with me. We have to adapt our leadership style. It's not always, you know, that um, and I think that's a good leadership, you know, you have to adapt yourself. Something that you once again shared, you know, um in your time at the Neely. So I really loved um how you articulated it.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Yeah. I think also like a lot of leaders forget that, you know, self-actualization too, like being able to just reflect on some of the decisions you've made throughout the day, even if you internally know that you may have got that decision wrong, just acknowledging that, you know what, maybe I didn't quite get that decision right today. But how can I reflect on that and how can I learn from that? And you know, you should be almost able to do a debrief every single day of what you did throughout the day and then decide, you know, yep, I got that right, or you know what, no, I probably didn't quite get this one 100%, but we're gonna we're gonna learn from it and we're gonna grow. Otherwise, if you go throughout the day and then you don't reflect on the day, and you you're never gonna sort of learn, you're never gonna progress. And I think, you know, 2024, the sort of the leader that I was on under had no way, I don't think they ever self-reflected. Um, I just don't think it was part of their the way that they they um thought about their day or went about their day. And I'm a big, big believer in in being able to do that. But you know, you sort of touched on there about uh accountability as a leader, and it's probably one thing that I really want to leave your listeners with, uh, if they take one thing away from this from this podcast, and that is that once you understand that everything is your fault as the leader, it everything becomes so much easier because it is the greatest opportunity to then fix it. So for for me, if your team don't achieve the outcome, it's because we haven't set them up for success, right? Somewhere along the line, something has broken, you know, whether that be, you know, we haven't briefed the most junior person or you know, the onboarding wasn't correct, or the SOP isn't correct, right? It's it ultimately it all stems back to us as the leader, and once we accept and own that, we can then give ourselves the biggest opportunity to fix and correct it.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Okay, that's a hundred percent right. And um another uh kind of you know question that comes to my mind. Um, I mean we we do I mean everything. We let's say, you know, as as a routine non-negotiables, we're doing everything right. Um and you know, there's this I shouldn't say completely new identity, but you know, uh there's a difference in the way we now look at ourselves. It's like uh there are timelines and Matt, now when you know, let's say um you know life is unpredictable, or maybe um uh there are unpre uh challenges which you cannot even fathom about. And and maybe you know, you are still doing mistakes. How how do you look at all of these differently right now, before, you know, before you decided that you have to make the change? How do you look at them right now? How do you approach them right now?

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Uh so your question, I'm assuming, is is around uh life getting in the way of then trying to produce the results. Is that where we're is that where we're going? Yeah. Um, look, for me, people talk about motivation. I think motivation is a fickle word. I think it's just something that comes and goes. For me, dis discipline is is trumps everything. Um, you know, this morning I got up and I went to the gym. I had minus 1000% motivation, I had 1,000% discipline. Um the only reason I was there was because my alarm clock went off. I dragged myself out of bed, I put myself in the shower, I put my gym shoes on, and I drove to the gym. Like that there was zero motivation

Daily Debriefs And Total Accountability

SPEAKER_00 18:35

for me to do that. I could have just hit snooze and went to bed and slept in, right? But ultimately I know that if I do that, the rest of my day is not going to be there. It's the it's the first win. Um, and you know, if you if you ever get a chance, and I don't know if you've ever watched it, General McCah uh McCraven's um speech about making your bed, he's a uh ex uh Navy SEAL. It's probably the best speech I think of all time, where he literally just talks about making your bed and having that first win. Um for me, going to the gym is having that first win of the day. So, and that's where 100% discipline comes in because I know that it's going to set me up for success for the rest of that day. So I know that if I don't go to the gym and if I don't move my body first in, I you know, I'm not showing up the best version myself for my team.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Wow. I I I really love that, man. I mean, and and more than that, you give an example which I think everyone, everyone can relate to. It's this, you know, that you you get up in the morning, but you have to somehow drag yourself. And I think that's where, and this is uh something which another one of my guests had told um in in on on a different podcast, uh, that discipline, it overpowers motivation. Discipline overpowers motivation.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Yeah. Yeah, it's you know, even in in business and even in the military, you know, there is certain things I don't want to do in business, but I also know that if I don't do them, then I don't deliver what I said to that I was going to do to the client, right? So I I I fundamentally you have to put those things into your calendar, otherwise, you know, for me, they just don't get done. So um, you know, it's writing those reports, it's you know, ensuring that the rosters are done, it's ensuring that you know the the weekly meetings and the cadence is is set. So, you know, um, and and and having everything for me, you know, I'm very disciplined, very structured person. Everything that I've got to achieve for the week is in my calendar. Um if it's not in there, I just I it gets missed. So um I talk about in the book, uh I talk about battle rhythm or operational cadence for those guys that you know, battle rhythm is obviously a very military term, but it's it's it's setting things in your calendar that that are just repeating. So if you've got if you know, for those listeners out there that are entrepreneurs and do have businesses, so you know, giving an example, Mondays

Discipline Over Motivation Every Time

SPEAKER_00 21:10

for for us at Neptune Holding Group is just purely meeting day. So all my meetings are back to back to back to back to back. On a Monday, we go through all our business groups, we go through our finance, we go, we you know, we we have a team huddle at 0805, and then just on the back of that, it's just meeting after meeting. But then what that does is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, that allows me to go deep on the business. I can I can work work on in deep work blocks. I'm not distracted by meetings, my energy is protected, my mindset is going into those days, knowing that I can I can just go hard on the jobs that I'm trying to achieve. And then Friday, I have Friday as a day where I get out and I go and see my staff. I try and go and see uh some managers that are on the ground. Um so that way you sort of set your week. You're not you're not dragging your I guess your energy. Builds across different things throughout the week. If you can sort of just set those cadence, and it gives you an opportunity then to really focus where you where you need to put your energy. And as I said, starting your day by by moving your body is always always good. And you know, I I uh I'm in the midst of training for a half marathon, so you know, afternoons I'm I'm running. Um but then I have that that hour window of an evening as as I wind down of a of a night time to do some learning and some do some training for me.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Wow. And and I have kind of it's not my pushback, uh not at all. Uh but but you know, Matt, uh especially discipline. Now, some people would say um that too much discipline kind of creates uh creates that rigidity. Uh to the point that it can sometimes become a bit of an obsession. Um it can maybe you know take you to the point of burnout as well. Uh what's what's your thought on on that?

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Discipline creates freedom. So for me, as I said to you before, everything is in my calendar, right? So having that disciplined structure, I know exactly when my free time is. You know, people go, oh, but what about you know, what about your free time? You know, if I'm if I'm so structured, I'm so disciplined, I then don't have free time here, dude. It's actually in your calendar. And and for me, you know, a great line from Dan Martel um is is it's not what you say yes to, it's what you say no to. So what when you know exactly what your goals are, you know exactly what your vision is, and you know exactly what you're working on, you know exactly what you can say no to. So, you know, for me at the moment, I'm in a calorie deficit, I'm trying to eat really well, I'm trying to lead up. My coaches, you know, into me. And another tip for young players, I think I I believe that you should have a coach in every aspect of your life, whether you're in business, management, leadership, gym, whatever it is, get yourself a coach. Um, and then you know, so for me, going out every night of the week isn't an option at the moment. So I know that I have to say no to that because my goal is to try and be in the best shape of my life. So um I think that's where once you understand what your vision is for that period, and again, we're gonna remember that it's only a small period, it might be you know 12 weeks that I'm trying to lose weight for or you know, cut down. So just 12 weeks where I've just got to say no to be able to go out with my mates. So for me, I'm a big believer that discipline actually creates freedom, especially when you can put it into your calendar and lock down exactly what you're doing from you know minute one of the day to when you go to bed and build in those blocks. Um, you know,

Discipline Creates Freedom Through Boundaries

SPEAKER_00 24:55

to take it any to step take it a step further. I actually have a yearly calendar where we sort of put in our planned holidays, we put in our planned trips, we put in our financial retreats, our um strategic planning meetings for the business. So like uh we also put in our uh leadership retreats and all that sort of stuff. So we we are very structured and disciplined, I guess, across the entirety of the organization.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

That's such a powerful answer. I love that. Love that. It's my job. Great, Red. So, Matt, before we wrap up, uh have to ask if our listeners of Helldy Wine, Helly Life, uh, they would like to, I'm very sure they'll definitely would want to connect with you, um, explore about your work, and maybe they would uh have their own thoughts or opinions to share. How are they gonna reach out to you?

SPEAKER_00 25:42

So I'm most active on Instagram at uh Jake C88. That's J-A-C-Q-U-E-S-Y-88. And I also have a website uh called frontlinehorizon.com.au, where you'll be able to pre-order my book, Dictator, How to Une F Your Leadership, uh, which is uh available um through there, or it is available through Amazon right now. So um thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Thank you so much, man. Thank you so much, Matt, for your golden nuggets. And of course, um uh being so candid and yes, listeners, as I always do, I'll have all the links mentioned in the show notes. So here's what I I mean for me, that's something that I would take away is uh more on the physical part, and of course, you know, match so many golden evits, but still um that we cannot pour from an empty vessel, we cannot pour from a body we have been ignoring. Physical health, it isn't a reward that you earn after leading

Where To Connect And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_01 26:50

well, it is one of the foundations you build before. So, with that, we conclude this episode of Healthy Man, Healthy Life. And Matt, once again, thank you so much. This was exactly the kind of grounded, um, I must say hard-hitting, but honest conversation the show is built for. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Thank you, Mike. Much appreciated.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

And yes, to all my listeners of today's episode starts something in new, let it. Sometimes the most important leadership decision you make is choosing to rest, to move, to breathe, and going to come back to yourself. And that is not weakness, that is wisdom. I am Sana, this is Hasan Healthy Mind Healthy Life, part of the Healthy Mind by Week Network. Do follow the show and stay tuned for more such brilliant episodes. And do share this with someone who needs it today. I'll catch you in the next one. Thank you so much.