Brad (00:00.098)
but or mine or whatever the freedom people podcast, but we just kind of like the roguing kind of thing. You just go straight into it. There’s no like craziness night. I’m not going to do any of that fake shit like anyway, but I am going to let say fucking welcome. I’m going to say welcome. Welcome to the podcast. Leaven dish burn the man, the myth, the legend, my brother. Thank you so much, dude. Thank you for agreeing to come on man. This is a as you know, it’s a real honor and it’s exciting for me to have you here.
Laban Ditchburn (00:19.877)
friendly.
Laban Ditchburn (00:27.897)
Well, I do appreciate that so much. Absolute thrill to be with you, man. It’s been a whirlwind four or five months that we’ve known each other. So.
Brad (00:38.826)
Yeah. They don’t know what’s coming. They don’t know what’s coming. Yeah, it has. It’s been about we I was actually last night talking to Emily about it. And it was a Boise, we met in Boise. And so that was like, four or five months ago now. And yeah, getting to know you has been an honor, man, really.
Laban Ditchburn (00:39.577)
Look at world is all I can say. Look at.
Laban Ditchburn (00:46.282)
I don’t. I don’t.
Brad (01:07.102)
Truly and I love you like a brother and thank you so much For coming into my life and just blessing us with who you are with your positivity The coaching that you’ve given us everything and it’s been a real pleasure As you know, I did finish your book. I read your book and I finished it and so Yeah, yeah, that’s uh Whoever’s listening to this just get the book. I have to say you got to read this book. It’s it’s funny. It’s
There’s so many life lessons in there for all of us, for everybody. So, um, really good stuff, man. Really, really good stuff. Thank you.
Laban Ditchburn (01:43.173)
Thanks, thanks Brad, it means a lot man, especially coming from you and I don’t want this to sound like a suck up fest, but like Anna and I, my wife, eternally grateful for you and Emily and Rex and the Freedom Gang. So the journey’s really just getting started as well. So that’s the exciting part.
Brad (02:02.502)
Right. Yeah. I feel that too. I feel that too. We’re just now, um, just getting started, just getting started. So, uh, but let’s, let’s kind of get into, um, I mean, I obviously I’ve read your book, but the people listening, um, if they haven’t read your book, um, let’s, is it, could you give us a little bit of a background on, on who you are? And, uh, you are the world’s best courage coach, by the way, in case any of you didn’t want to know, but, um, could you, could you get, could you give us a little background on, on how you actually
Laban Ditchburn (02:28.517)
Yeah.
Brad (02:32.322)
got to be the world’s greatest courage coach.
Laban Ditchburn (02:38.381)
It’s interesting as I’ve sort of been on this journey for the last, let’s call it four and a half, four, four and a half years. The, the best people that I’ve met in this space are the ones that have endured the most amount of trauma growing up. And the danger about the comparison of trauma is that you can easily get caught up diminishing what you went through and not
using that opportunity to take that example and use it as your fuel source. So mine, mine really was pretty innocuous, but I was a child of divorce and mom and dad split up when I was three and a half and the impact that they had on me as a, as a child really negatively impacted me. There was some positive stuff that came out once I came to realize later on, but it developed
a taste for escapism, which when I was really young, it was like going to my dad’s house on every second weekend and watching Star Wars, you know, like, which I’ve watched probably 200 times. And as you know, computer games, and then as I got to 1516, it was alcohol, and then gambling. And then in my 20s, it became recreational drug use, and then sex and then porn and like food and
negative self talk and limiting as like you might be hearing this guy man Wow, like, but it I was very high functioning at the time as well. I had a good job as earning six figures working in the recruitment space. I had a huge circle of friends. And, you know, on the surface of it, I hadn’t had it all together. But inside Brad, I was deeply, deeply broken. And I was heading a trajectory that was going to cause the end of my life.
whether it be self-inflicted or doing something reckless. And I had a moment of epiphany when I was 35 and I was at home one night and I was gambling on my laptop, like not even with the television going, like just F5ing, refreshing the page to see whether my bets had come in. Real, for anyone that’s gambled, it’s a real degenerate pathological kind of behavior. And I had about three bottles of wine in me and I just hit this moment where I was like,
Laban Ditchburn (05:04.217)
This is not the direction that my life is supposed to go. This is not. And as I had this epiphanous thought, like I saw this phone number in the bottom left-hand corner of the laptop, and it was a number I’d never seen before, but I’ve been on this page countless times before, and I picked up my phone, I just rang this number, and it was the Gambler’s Helpline. And I spoke to this woman, Mary, whose last name I’ll never know, but I’ll call her Magdalene, and she became a guardian angel, and she listened to me for the first time.
without judgment in my life. And that was a very, very powerful moment. I was very emotional. You know, I was particularly being pretty intoxicated, but there was a lot of real emotion that came through as well. And she put me in touch with the gamblers counseling service, which was run by the Salvation Army and funded by taxes from gambling losses. And I got access to this woman for a year and a half. And that really started this healing journey, which I’ve been on ever since. And…
Brad (05:55.298)
Hmm.
Laban Ditchburn (06:04.097)
at the end of that year, in 2015, I quit gambling. August 26th, the following year, I quit alcohol. It’s been longer for drugs, cocaine and pills, that kind of thing. In a recreational sense, certainly. I’ve done a couple of plant medicine things just for full transparency, but not in any kind of addictive escapism kind of way. And I suppose when you go through a journey like that, Brad, you kind of get a tap on the shoulder from the universal God.
Brad (06:25.395)
Mm-hmm.
Laban Ditchburn (06:34.713)
whatever your power of sources, kind of saying, well, now that you’ve done this, it’s time to probably share this with people that need it. And when I sort of talk about people that have gone through major traumatic experiences, ones that haven’t become a victim as a result, when I talk about being a victim and talk about taking ownership of being a victim, saying I’m a victim, anything that you read in that book is not from a place of victimhood. It’s from a place of strength. And
You know, fast forward to 2020, we’re living in Melbourne, Australia, which ended up being one of the most locked down cities in the world. And, you know, 2019 was a total unmitigated financial disaster for me. And I use that term for effect only because it was a huge blessing, but I’d already suffered major adversity in 2019. We nearly went bankrupt four times. We had four miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy in 2019.
where Anna, my now wife, nearly died. And then COVID comes along just after I’ve, with my tail between my legs, gone to take a job back in the recruitment space. And then I made redundant and locked in our homes for what ended up being 290 days. And so I was like, man, I need to get this voice out. I knew I wanted to be a speaker at this point. I knew I wanted to share this message of hope and inspiration. And so what do you do? Like…
Brad (07:37.471)
Thank you.
Laban Ditchburn (08:00.933)
The only thing you could do was like create a podcast. And the eighth episode was a guy called Les Brown. Now for those who haven’t heard of Les Brown, it’s spelled L-E-S Brown, like the color. Get on YouTube after this and just search Les Brown quotes and you’ll never have a bad day, I promise you. And this guy had been a hero of mine for three or four years and I’d read all his stuff and he’d helped me get out of some dark, dark places in my journey. And…
Brad (08:03.783)
Uh.
Laban Ditchburn (08:30.209)
And I rang him up, Cole called him and he picked up the phone one Saturday morning rather than we were back in Melbourne, it’s Friday morning for him. He picks up the phone, he says, hi, Les speaking. And I said, Les Brown, he said, yes, it is. I said, Les Brown, it’s Leib and Ditchburn from Melbourne, Australia here. He said, well, how can I help you, boy? He’s a, for context, he’s a 78 year old African American dude, right? And I said, Les, I’m…
Brad (08:41.933)
Thanks for watching!
Laban Ditchburn (08:57.653)
a huge fan of you and your work. And I’m also the host of an incredible podcast series called Become Your Own Superhero, which at the time had 10 subscribers. Five of them were family members who have unsubscribed. But it was a fabulous, amazing podcast series. And I said, Well, I’ll be honored if you came on and shared your amazing story with our audience. When are you available? And he said, Well, when you’re thinking, boy, and I said, to be honest, less whenever works with you, probably works with
Brad (09:10.327)
Yeah.
Brad (09:25.488)
Hahaha.
Laban Ditchburn (09:25.929)
And so we scheduled it for Tuesday midnight my time. Thank God my wife reminded me because I nearly mucked it up. I nearly was a day late, but we got it. I had a 13 year old laptop. I had this rickety setup in our apartment in Melbourne. You know, it had all been strung together and he comes on, Brad. And I said to him, Les, what do you think of the name of the show, Become Your Own Superhero? And if for anyone that’s heard.
less speak, you’ll know just how impactful he is. But the way he shared that message was just so humbling to me that I just something inside me just swelled up and I just verbally diarrhea the story of transformation to him with the drink and the drugs and the gambling and the philandering and all the autoimmune disease and all the other weight loss and all the other stuff. And he just let me finish. And it was a good lesson for me because they say the power is in the listener. And very charismatic people are powerful listeners.
Brad (10:07.522)
Mm.
Laban Ditchburn (10:22.501)
And he was a powerful listener. He just sat there and listened. Let me finish. He said, congratulations, Levin. I said, thanks, Les. He goes, do you have a book? And I go, no. He goes, if you’re gonna be a speaker, like you wanna be, you need a book to help with your credibility. And I was like, right. He said, who was the most influential person in your life when you were five years of age? And I thought about it for a second, Brad. I was like, man, I’ve never been asked that question before. I never even thought about it. And…
I realized very quickly that despite her many flaws, someone that I had a lot of challenges and a lot of dysfunction with at that time was my mom. He goes, well, what attributes did you get from your mother? And I was like, man, she was unconditionally loving and she was tenacious and spiritual. And he’s writing these things down, Brad. He looks up to me and he goes, Laban, this is a God moment. He said, I’m gonna show you how to monetize your purpose.
And I sit there and completely utterly stunned. And for the next 10 minutes, Les Brown, my hero, one of the greatest transformational speakers of our generation, reads back to me the blueprint for this book that he wants me to write called Bet On You, gave me the titling. He said, Laban, you’re gonna write the book. You’re gonna turn the book into a keynote. You’re gonna turn the keynote into a three day retreat. And even if you stuff this up, you’re gonna make six figures the next 12 months.
and I’m sitting here with my jaw on the floor. And he says, and I’m gonna interview you on my channel with 4 million followers. And I’m gonna write the forward to your book. Now bear in mind, this was mid May. This is May 14th, 2020. I never finished school, I never went to college, I never written anything of any significance. And in a moment of complete insanity, I didn’t even say thank you, I said less.
If you’re going to write the forward to my book, I’ll have it to you by June 30, 2020. And he said, I’m going to hold you to that boy. And then we kicked off the podcast and did the podcast, not realizing what I just committed to, but I’m not going to let this man down. He’s just given me the greatest gift of a lifetime. And in six weeks, Brad, I pumped out 33,000 words of the first draft of bet on you and delivered it to his inbox as promised on June 30.
Brad (12:25.902)
I’m going to go to bed.
Laban Ditchburn (12:47.209)
at about 8.30pm 2020 and completely changed my life in the process.
Brad (12:53.666)
Wow. Man, that is one of the best stories. That is so inspirational. Wow, okay. Well, how about we go, what was your childhood like? What kind of brought you, I mean, you touched on your mom a little bit, but what was your childhood like coming up?
Laban Ditchburn (13:14.725)
So I’m from New Zealand, I’m half Australian. My father moved to New Zealand as a radio announcer. Met my mom about six months later, back in the 1970s. And I came around in 1980. And then they split up when I was three and a half. And my father, who is a brilliant radio announcer, grew up as a child of a loveless marriage. His mom and dad, you know, his father.
should have married this Canadian woman that he met when he was stationed in Canada during World War II.
Brad (13:48.426)
I think you’re covering your mic a little bit. Sorry to interrupt you. Oh, there you go, boom.
Laban Ditchburn (13:51.334)
Sorry, dude.
And there was a lot of dysfunction in that family. My mother, so this is back in Australia, my mother on the other hand grew up in New Zealand and her father was a horribly verbally abusive drunk and who didn’t start drinking until he was in his 30s till after he came back from World War II. And not making excuses for anyone, you can imagine why people were drinking after being involved with atrocities of any kind of war environment. But together they,
because of where they were resonating on their own vibrational frequency, which was pretty low, I suppose, they met, they connected. And then, once the honeymoon period wore off, they were at each other’s throats. And they talk about the significance of relationships staying together. I think they were definitely a couple that benefited from being apart. But absolutely my mother was dealing with undiagnosed mental health stuff at the time.
My father had no role models about how to be a strong masculine energy and how to lead in a relationship. And I picked up a lot of that as you do when you’re a kid, you’re a sponge, right? And so mom was on welfare pretty much all of my childhood. If not, I think actually passed it. So, you know, it was abject poverty, the power running out.
because the power company wouldn’t send you a bill once you were a brokeie, you had to get a prepaid top-up card. And you know, there was a top-up, it was like one top-up about six miles from our house. So like when I’m seven years of age, I’m on my bike to go and ride it at night to go and put $5 worth of power on this bloody power card. And I remember that it used to go, da, when it was running, when it got below $5 or something, like talk about.
Laban Ditchburn (15:51.985)
traumatic noises if I ever hear that I’d be like, and to my parents’ credit, and this is part of my healing journey as well, my mother, despite not having the financial resources was always a big proponent of organic, and which is very rare, and it was very expensive to get organic stuff as well. And so that was one of the great
Brad (15:55.628)
Bob loves dog.
Brad (16:14.414)
Especially back then, yeah. I mean…
Laban Ditchburn (16:22.021)
things that I picked up from mom, but growing up in poverty is character building. It’s the poverty mindset that does all the damage. And having the time and the knowledge and the ability to undo a lot of that was has been the hardest work out of everything that I’ve done. Because I didn’t need to go through 12 step, I figured it all out myself, I decided reverse engineering, why I was wanting to escape and, and then resolved it, you know, systematically.
And like, there was moments in my childhood that were wonderful, and plenty that weren’t over disciplined. A lot of forced religion ran down my throat. My mom used born again Christianity as a coping mechanism and was a wonderful hypocrite. And I want to be clear for the audience as well, like mom and I like this now. You know, there’s a lot of forgiveness and healing because she grew up in a really shitty environment.
and was doing the best she could, same with my dad, you know, so there’s no, there’s no resentment for what I went through. I could have ended up way worse, you know, I could be in the middle of a, some kind of segregated religious crazy place where I’m not allowed to go anywhere, you know, like there’s, there’s plenty of worse places, but it still affects you nonetheless. And when you understand the significance and the importance of taking back,
the power that was taken away or that you gave away, that’s when the magic really happens. And it’s not my fault, but it is my responsibility is a great way to look at it.
Brad (17:59.478)
Hmm, I love that. Yeah. And I’ve heard you say that before. That’s so powerful. You know, it might not be your fault, but it is your responsibility on how you shape your life, right. And it’s up to us even though, you know, there might be that That, you know, the, the trend that goes on. It’s, it’s kind of our responsibility to stop that cycle right stop those kind of cycles. Again, just more inspiring stuff, man, and how you’ve turned out and
and how you were able to overcome. I mean, it’s beautiful. And there’s different ways we could go right now. I’d like to talk a little bit about your personal physical transformation diet. I know that that’s really important to you and I’ve had lengthy conversations around it. I also like to be the best I can physically and things like that. So if we could, let’s talk a little bit about your transformation. I know that…
Not that long ago, you were, you were probably not in the best health.
Laban Ditchburn (19:02.377)
No. That’s an understatement. Well, I think when you abuse your body with not only alcohol, drugs, and improper diets, but there’s also the stress associated with that as well. And, you know, who knows what impact that has on you physically, but I was very blessed, and this might sound a little strange, by being afflicted with
older adult conditions earlier in my life. And I developed this horrible heartburn condition when I was 19. And I remember it came from one night we were with a bunch of friends out and like one of their cabins or whatever. And I drank black coffee to try and stay up. I was trying to stay awake for 24 hours. This was long before I was doing drugs and stuff. And, and I got heartburn and it never went away. And I went and I was going through about
two to three packs of quickies or like tums that kind of equivalent. And I’m 19, I’ve got this esophageal reflux, good, you know? And I go to the doctor and he gives me this medication and it’s gone. I’m like, this is fantastic. And what I didn’t know is it was just masking the symptom that I carried for this for 17 years. And that the medication that I was on inhibits B12, iron and calcium.
And when you look back at the trajectory of the shenanigans that I was up to, and the mental health challenges that I experienced, that I was never really suicidal. I mean, there was a couple of times where I thought about it, you know, but nothing compared to what some people have actually gone through. Like, I was like, I wanted a solution to this. I was like, surely I don’t need to be on medication for the rest of it. Yeah, yeah, it’s been around for 30 years. Typical.
allopathic medicine monitor, right, but I didn’t know about the stuff that I know now. And so I investigated surgery and, and I remember asking these idiots, like, is there any dietary shifts that I can make? And they’re like, Nope, it’s all genetic, you know, nothing you can do. And I remember watching Joe Rogan podcast, he interviewed a guy, Dr. Chris Cressa, who’s a functional medicine guy. And he was talking about the link between gluten intolerance and heart
Brad (21:00.819)
Mmm.
Brad (21:11.758)
I’m going to go to bed.
Laban Ditchburn (21:27.953)
can’t be that simple. And lo and behold, I did it. Four days later, 17 years of autoimmune disorder just went into full remission. And I was like, those bastards, what else are they wrong about? Because I had 20 different surgeons and doctors tell me that what I had was incurable and you gotta take the meds and there’s no side effects. Well, there’s a bunch of side effects. Like it stopped my…
Brad (21:37.634)
Sure. Ha ha ha.
Laban Ditchburn (21:53.077)
my stomach producing acid and it was forced to rely on the enzymes that are in there to break down the food. Like no wonder my farts smelled like death at times. You know what I mean? Like…
Brad (22:07.502)
Cause your stomach was dying, right? You were dying inside. Yeah.
Laban Ditchburn (22:10.025)
Yeah, it’s like your farts smell like you’re dying probably because you’re dying, you know, with the benefit of retrospect. And and it sort of sent me on this pathway of like, if they are wrong about this when they were so definitive, because what they could have done, Brad, as I could have said, do you know what, Lavin, we don’t actually know, but this works to mask it, go and figure out the rest yourself. I would have been okay with that.
Brad (22:16.022)
Hahaha!
Laban Ditchburn (22:39.557)
But they’re like, this is it, this will fix it. It’s no side effects. And people are listening to this going, who have I heard this before? And.
Brad (22:39.585)
Yeah.
Brad (22:48.846)
Just take the pill, just take the pill, just take the shot, just take whatever we tell you.
Laban Ditchburn (22:54.457)
And I’ve always been fascinated on biohacking and documenting my health. And so I’ve got all this great data for the last 15 years. And I got a DEXA scan done before I quit gluten. And DEXA scan stands for like, it’s like capital D-E-X-A, double X-ray scan. It’s a non-invasive scan. And it measures your bone fat and muscle tissue.
Well, I got one of those before I cut out the gluten and then one three months later, and I lost like three and a half kilos. So like nine, was it eight and a half pound of visceral body fat just around my organs. And I was like, whoa. And then I started learning about, cause they had to find foods that weren’t grain based, which is predominantly what my diet was. And I discovered keto.
And then I went low carb and then I went 2018, I went basically fully animal based for three and a half years. So no fruits or vegetables for three and a half years apart from black coffee. And I lost in two years, I lost 60 pounds of body fat, which I’m five foot eight, but I lot, I put on 30 pound of muscle. So my whole physique completely shifted. I went from a 38 waist to I could wear 30 jeans and
Like the physical benefits of shifting your body like that are just undeniable. But the mental health component, because I wasn’t agitating my gut all the time and my small intestines and my colon and my bowel and all these things that were, I probably had a number of undiagnosed other stuff that I’ve been dealing with. It all just, the inflammation just completely subsided and I got all this energy. And one morning I woke up in May, 2020,
May 2018, after never having been a runner, I went from running five kilometers, which is three miles, to running 42.2 kilometers, which is 26.2 miles, which is a marathon in two weeks. And I ran it in just under four hours. And then eight weeks after that, I ran a 30 mile ultra run in about five hours and seven minutes.
Brad (25:12.555)
Wow.
Laban Ditchburn (25:19.789)
And then eight weeks after that, I completed the first of what has become three 60 mile ultra trail runs, you know, with like 20 miles of sand and stuff, like hardcore, hardcore stuff. And yeah. And, and it’s people ask me the like, yeah, but you, you got the energy from the running, no, it came the other way around. I woke up literally one morning. I was like, I have to run. And the running was a very cathartic.
Brad (25:33.122)
super tough dude.
Laban Ditchburn (25:49.893)
healing process for me. So there’s a lot of unexplainable things as I’m going further and further on this journey and understanding more about human biology and evolution of what humans are supposed to eat, what we’re not supposed to eat. Placing my body in a less toxic environment, the better I get, the better my creativity comes from. When I wrote the book, I was in a deep, deep ketogenic status and it just flowed through me like.
like water, it was incredible.
Brad (26:22.606)
Amazing, amazing, amazing. You’ve given me some interesting information on gluten and actually kind of what it does to the stomach, right? And how it kind of creates these microscopic holes in your stomach and then it’s just, it was mind blowing to me to learn the information that you have, you’ve quite certainly learned a lot about diet and nutrition.
just by yourself, right? Because you also, I mean, you learned that maybe allopathic medicine and everything that they’re telling us out there isn’t the most accurate information.
Laban Ditchburn (27:02.981)
Well, probably the nail in the coffin before COVID was the advice from the professor of the Royal Women’s Melbourne hospital. It’s one of the most prestigious medical places on the planet. And they just like, keep, keep trying, keep trying with these miscarriages. And something was fundamentally wrong. And that just keep,
Brad (27:25.846)
Wait, what? They were telling you just to keep, don’t change anything, just keep trying to have a baby?
Laban Ditchburn (27:31.225)
Keep going. Keep going. Yeah. And I remember, I remember one of the moments when I was in the in the professor’s personal office with Anna and I, and I said to him, Have you ever read anything about the link between excessive carbohydrate consumption and PCOS polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is not what Anna has, by the way, but I was just curious to know, and he’d never heard a thing. And you don’t need to be a citizen
to know about this. This is common knowledge. Same with prostate, prostatitis in men. It’s, and snoring is usually linked to excessive carbohydrate consumption. And I know because I got my throat lasered out in 2009 and my nasal passages both sides, not because they were blocked, but because I was fat and smoking and drinking. And I paid all this money through my health insurance to get my throat lasered out. When I, when he just…
Brad (28:23.342)
Mm.
Laban Ditchburn (28:29.969)
could have said, hey fatty, knock the fags on the head and lose the weight and cut out the excessive amount of grains and carbohydrate. That would have fixed it. And I wouldn’t have the remnants of not having a punching bag in my throat anymore. You know, it’s tantamount to butchery, you know? I got away pretty scot-free compared to some poor people.
Brad (28:54.502)
Uh, yeah, that’s, it’s sad. It’s sad. That’s the best word that I can come up with. You know, it’s, and it’s, it’s funny because the health things are really the things they won’t let you talk about, you know? And when I say that the censorship, like on, on YouTube, things like that, I mean, the freedom people we’ve been, those are the only, actually the only things that really get censored are when we start to talk about health. And, and why is that?
You know, what’s going on, right? I mean, people need to dig a little bit deeper, I think, in that, in that, in that area. Um, and then like you said, that was all before 2020.
Laban Ditchburn (29:34.937)
Dude, I use social media and I probably spend more time on Twitter than I like. I don’t post a huge amount, but I find it’s a relatively more productive way of getting some more information on things. I’m naturally a very curious guy. In the last week, I’ve probably seen…
Laban Ditchburn (29:57.317)
Five people killed on videos. Countless other footage of people that are dead. Like stuff that used to be called snuff movies. And I’m not blaming Twitter for this, but my video on YouTube with Dr. Stephanie Seneff who has four degrees from MIT, including a PhD, who’s been an expert on glyphosate and autism.
for 30 years was deleted.
Why? Like, what? What? What’s more dangerous?
Brad (30:32.27)
That’s what I’m saying. What’s going?
Laban Ditchburn (30:41.102)
How many people are gonna wanna watch that video? So the rule is that if they wanna censor you, there’s some truth in it. Almost without exception. I don’t know, would you agree on that?
Brad (30:53.106)
Yep. Oh, man, that’s one of my sayings is they don’t censor nonsense. You know what I mean? If it if why would they even go through the effort if it doesn’t mean anything, right, then why are they censoring it? And that’s I full on believe that I know that to be true. Because I’ve had Tom McDonald, I’ve had different people on the podcast that talked about anything health related and they censor it before it even gets out to the public.
You know, YouTube has, and this is, this is YouTube, right? And so I don’t know what the sensors, censorship’s like on Twitter. We don’t do a lot on Twitter. We actually don’t do a lot on any of the social media because of, because of that. You know, we can talk about law a little bit, you know, there’s things, but, but the health stuff, they just absolutely won’t, won’t let that happen. And it’s a worldwide thing, obviously. So why, what is it about? What is it about the health? Why don’t they want people again?
It’s not like it’s misinformation or even if it is. So what, let people hear another opinion, right? It’s just different opinions. And, and, um, doctor, what was her name? I I’ve never even heard of her, but with four degrees from MIT, and we can’t listen to her, you know what I mean? Dr. Peter McCullough, look at it. He’s been on the podcast. We can’t post anything. I know that you’ve, I mean, you know, you’re close friends with them. And it’s just crazy how we’re not allowed to hear any opinions from doctors, like real legit doctors. Unless of course,
Laban Ditchburn (32:02.158)
Definitely, Sena.
Yeah.
Brad (32:21.746)
It’s their doctors saying their opinions.
Laban Ditchburn (32:25.509)
Well, YouTube, this has been recorded in October, 2023. Dr. Eric Berg, who’s an interesting guy on YouTube, he’s actually a Scientologist, which I found fascinating, but he’s got a really great YouTube channel around, focused probably around keto is probably the main thing. And now YouTube have just brought in rules where unless you are following the, I’m not making this up by the way, the World Health Organization’s medical guidelines.
they will de-boost your content so that it cannot be found. So unless you specifically search for the video name, and it’s crazy. Eric Berg has, I think he’s got eight or nine million followers on there and tens of thousands of success stories of people that have improved their health. Like, it’s beyond any shadow of any doubt. And once you become awake to this stuff, as you very well are,
You just can’t stand by and do nothing with some of this stuff. It’s very, very challenging, you know, very challenging.
Brad (33:32.366)
Yeah, it is. It is, you know, and, and the freedom people, we’re all about solutions. I know you’re all about solutions. That’s why we get along so well. What do you think in this situation? I mean, what are our solutions? We just keep talking, right? I mean, we just keep it going. We’ve got to find alternative platforms, alternative ways of getting out the information. That’s, that’s the best I can think. What do you think? Solutions?
Laban Ditchburn (33:58.017)
Yeah, I think that’s certainly a big, big part of it. And I’ll tell you something that happened yesterday, which might offend some viewers here, but sorry, not sorry. I made a decision in my coaching groups, the mastermind groups of which you’re a part of the podcasting heroes one, to not include anyone who’s vaccinated or vegan.
And I got interviewed on a show by online marketing, super entrepreneur Dan Henry. This was very intriguing to him. And he’s in agreeance with these, he doesn’t like that thing either. But I can only imagine the flack that I will get from discriminating. And you might say, well, Laban, what’s your reasoning behind this?
I’m getting to the point now, Brad, where I’m becoming a lot more clearer in what’s important to me. And it’s not that I won’t interact or deal with people that are those things, but with people that are in the mastermind or the coaching that I do, that’s a decision for a private mastermind, premium paid mastermind group, where I can make that decision. And I’m not breaking any rules.
If you don’t like it, tough bikis. So I think, and it’s an act of defiance because, and I’m not about an eye for an eye, but I’m pushing back on the same stuff that was put on me. The reason that Anna and I left Australia was because of the vaccine mandates. Now, if anyone that knows anything at all about the COVID jabs, there’s absolutely issues with reproductive…
Laban Ditchburn (35:53.949)
major issues with women and men with their reproductive systems rather, and you know, amongst other things. And I was like, I’ll be damned if that’s going anywhere near us. So we had to leave our own country of citizen under duress and with the shirts on our back, because our own government was forcing these things for the first time in history. And so excuse the French, but fuck you. Like, like, I know,
like I don’t care about being a people pleaser anymore. I used to be. And I had this big circle of friends and I hey, Levin is really cool and really and then like when I quit drinking and partying like they all evaporated overnight. And then the small core group that I had left as soon as the COVID thing kicked in, wiped out the rest. And and I was left with an even smaller, you know, single digit numbers almost. But the beautiful thing about that, Brad was that it created all the space to
to bring all these other high quality humans. And that’s the message that I wanted to impart upon people like being afraid of losing people that don’t serve you well is an irrational fear. It’s a real, real irrational fear, but you must understand that it’s this wonderful gift and you will come to realize that. And hopefully this helps you in that journey. And the people that have been able to magnetize and to anonymize life as a process of having that freedom and not dealing with all the other malarkey has just been mind boggling.
Brad (36:53.454)
Mm.
Laban Ditchburn (37:23.385)
you know, and you guys have a part of that journey as well. So there is light at the end of the tunnel, but I figure, you know, everyone’s taken sides, everyone’s jumping on an ideology. Like, I don’t care about that stuff. You won’t see flags in my bio. You won’t see this stuff. But I’m like, you want to be in the mastermind if you are vaccinated, or if you’re an ideological vegan, I’m sorry, you don’t get to play. And that’s the decision. They can make that.
same thing, they don’t want to have a carnivore in there. And it’s not that I’m trying to promote a big meat-based diet, but as part of the leveling up in my own health journey, in terms of the components of being able to heal from years and years of addiction without having to go through any 12-step program, I 100% underpin the success of that to the massive dietary shifts that I made. So I’m doing them a favor because until they come around and figure out that they’re being
fed a whole bunch of bullpucky, I can’t help him. So that’s the explanation. I hope that kind of helps. And I’m not deliberately trying to be a provocateur or antagonize people, but I just don’t care anymore. I don’t care. And it seems to work.
Brad (38:38.646)
You’re taking a stance for what you believe in brother. And I think that that’s, that’s the most important thing people can do. Even if maybe you don’t agree or whatever it may be. I respect somebody who will take that stance. Because you know what, it is scary. It’s scary to take that first step and kind of, you know, when you do when you are popular, you know, when people are popular, usually that’s because what they’re doing is, is their people pleasers like you were saying, you know what I mean? And they’re just playing both sides of the fence.
But at some point you got to stand up for what you believe in, regardless of what it is, right. But it’s, it’s gotta be yours. Don’t take the system, right. And that’s what it is, is that the mainstream, I don’t even want to call them, but the legacy media and this legacy, this old burnt out played records, keep going and going and going. And people start to really believe and they’re regurgitating it, but they’re believing that it’s their, their own thoughts and opinions, but it’s not, it’s not right. And so.
That’s another thing man that I truly commend you on and why I love you so much is because you are that type of man. You know what I mean? You’re you’re an actual man. You know what I mean? There’s you’re going to stand up for what you believe in. And I think that is, you know, back to the solutions. That is one of the biggest solutions we can do is stand up for what you believe in period. Just stand up.
Laban Ditchburn (39:55.121)
Just stand up, yeah, whatever it is for you. But just, you have to take a stand because if you are ambiguous, you won’t be able to find your people because it’s only when you take a stand that you may create a clear delineation between you and them. It’s not that you’re trying to pick sides, but you need people in your corner to be successful. I’ve called upon countless favors from people over the last.
three and a half, four years, countless. But I’ve also sowed a lot. I sow and I show up from a place of service and my whole mentality, which you’re very aware of, but this has changed my life forever. I go into every single interaction with what value can I add this person’s life. Like, doesn’t have to be famous, could be someone at the gas station or supermarket, like anywhere. And that generates so much reciprocity.
in my life that just daily miracles happen as a result.
Brad (40:55.338)
Absolutely. They do man. And that’s again, another one of your massive accomplishments, I believe is, is the way that you are like that. You were that way with me. I’ve seen you be that way with every interaction that you are is in service. You’re in service, right? How may I serve? And it seems like you’re always on top of that. So it’s a beautiful thing, man. It’s a beautiful thing.
Laban Ditchburn (41:17.485)
Yeah, thanks, too. Well, I mean, it was part of that journey that created this introduction to you guys. And just so people are aware, the freedom people were the ones that allowed through what they offer for Anna and I to become sole trustees of a private trust and allowed us to remain in the United States longer to apply for our work visas, which
created wonderful opportunities for us to capitalize on in-person meetings and big shows that I was on and that kind of thing that we wouldn’t have been able to do had we had to leave with just being on the tourist visa. Unfortunately, our visa was just denied. They don’t give you a specific reason, but my wife is from Russia.
Originally, she’s an Australian citizen, but she’s also a Russian citizen. So I don’t want to say it’s that, but it’s I’m on a New Zealand and Australian passport. And what? Yeah. And, um, you know, if, if countries had people full of. Anna, as opposed to the alternative, the countries would be infinitely better places and much more attractive. And, um, but, but the, what it’s, what it’s now doing is.
Brad (42:20.146)
right russian spies it’s the russians the russians did it
Brad (42:39.013)
Amen.
Laban Ditchburn (42:42.965)
We’ve got this opportunity, we’re gonna head back to Mexico, which is where we were living before I mentioned. And then we’ll go through the process of being able to get a longer term visa, which we’ll need to go back to Australia to do that, I think at some point. But it is an interesting, you know, how the world’s going right now, that all of a sudden we were gonna be based here in Florida and Tampa, and then the universe just kindly says, uh, no, not yet, or later.
And dude, we’re pumped. We’re really excited to go back to Mexico and we’ve got a bunch of connections really awake people over there as well. And there’s some challenges with being there versus being here and vice versa, but it’s paradise. So like, there’s no complaining, there’s no whinging. And when you learn about how to take what is seen by the universe as adversity and use it as the fuel source.
You don’t really ever have a bad day again, not in the same way. And that’s what I would encourage people to look at. Like, this is not happening to me, it’s happening for me, is a great quote.
Brad (43:53.806)
There you go. Yeah, yeah. And so if you were to impart one lasting thing to our listeners today, bit of information, inspiration, whatever it may be, I mean, for me, that’s kind of what you’ve been saying the whole time, but do you have anything specific that you’d like to kind of imprint on everybody? Like I said, what you just said there is one of the best things that you can ever learn for yourself.
is that everything is happening for you, not against you.
Laban Ditchburn (44:26.273)
Yeah, one of my favorite quotes is actually from Les Brown. And he says, what people think of me is none of my spiritual business. And that’s easier said than done, I realize. But if you adopt that mentality, to the best of your ability and keep working on it, it will make your life infinitely less busy and stressful. Because I spent
all of my life up until a couple of years ago, worried about what people thought of me. And it was responsible for all kinds of shame attacks and lies and deceit, because you don’t want to be found out. But now, what people think of me is none of my spiritual business. Like, who cares? Because really, people, when you share something negative with someone, you tell 10 people, like eight out of 10 people don’t care, and the other two people are glad it’s happening to you.
like, whoo, thank God it’s labored, not me, you know. So like, think about think about the last friend of yours or acquaintance that shared with you some victim mindset thing where they’re whinging about the state of the world, like, do you spend any time thinking about that at all? Probably not. So like, just deal with it and find a way to turn it into something useful, you know.
Brad (45:28.077)
Yeah
Brad (45:42.571)
No.
Brad (45:48.886)
Yeah, yeah, that’s great advice, man. That’s great advice. Learning to, again, you know, it’s just learning to be your own power, your own source of power, because you are it, right, as we know. Like you are it, you are the universe, your consciousness, right? And so once you start to learn that, nobody else cares. That’s the thing, is that everybody’s always thinking
about how everybody’s thinking about them. Nobody’s thinking about you. Nobody cares. I mean, unless of course you have the, and again, that’s where what you were saying before is your circle of influence or circle of people shrinks massively, but it becomes so much more powerful. I mean, if you were in any sort of trouble, I spend time thinking about it. I spend time thinking about it all the time. How can we help?
And just like you do, because I’m here to serve you because you’re here to serve me. Right. And that’s the most powerful thing right there is just one, you got just a couple good friends, couple good lads, so to speak, right in your in your life. That’s all you need. That’s all you need. That’s it this and learning because and it’s again, people like you who keep reminding you that, that it’s the powers within yourself. And and all this negative self talk and things like that they do zero justice.
Nobody cares if you were going to, if I was going to come to you and just start talking about that stuff, you wouldn’t even, you’d shrug it off and tell me, Hey, you’d put my head back on straight. You know, and that’s, that’s the most important thing to me in life right now. And again, I thank you for being, being here, man.
Laban Ditchburn (47:32.889)
Oh, dude, you’re so welcome. And likewise, man, we just better our lives are better for having you guys in it. And the work that you guys are doing is just you know, I didn’t know it existed. Before I learned about what you guys are doing. And if you’re watching this, or listening to this, and you haven’t gone through the process of learning about what the freedom people do, you need to go and check this out. Because there’s some liberating stuff in there, man, that’s life altering and, and
freedom creating in a world that doesn’t seem so free anymore. You know, I, I tried to trade some crypto the other day from my exchange out of Australia. And it didn’t go through. And they, they sent me an email, the support team sent me an email saying we tried to call you and they, they had my old Australian number, which doesn’t work anymore. And we couldn’t authorize the trade was like for 1500 US dollars. And I just replied back, I was like, it’s got two factor authentication. You’ve got a
click the email to verify the, there’s processes in place. And they wanted me to send a photograph of me holding ID with my new phone number to change it. And I had one attempt at it and they said, no, not good enough. And I was like, stick your exchange up your date. Like, I understand these rules in place, but like this is indicative of what Australia has become. It has become a,
nanny state and there’s so many rules and regulations like.
And I’m grateful for the time I had in Australia. We might end up there at some point, not anytime soon that I can imagine, but they have speed cameras on the River Murray for jet skiers, to give you an idea. Right? Like, yes, I think you should drive at a reasonable pace so you don’t injure other people. Absolutely, you should, right? But like hidden speed cameras, because the jet skis have license plates on them and you can get a ticket.
Brad (49:18.487)
What?
Laban Ditchburn (49:33.869)
that gets posted to your home and you get demurri points, you can lose your driver’s license as a result. Like that’s one of the things that exists out of many that I, when I came to particularly Florida, you’re like, Oh, oh, this is just ridiculous. So, and Mexico is even more laid back at times. So that’s cool.
Brad (49:54.09)
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, any last words, man? I can’t believe it’s already been an hour. Any last words? Yeah, I could talk to you for days, man. We have. Literally, we’ve talked for days on end. So any last words? Any last words? Like I said, I know that your quote from Les Brown there, none of my spiritual business. But anything else?
Laban Ditchburn (50:01.401)
Really? Oh my god.
Laban Ditchburn (50:07.641)
Ha ha ha!
Laban Ditchburn (50:23.001)
I would just say for people that are wondering more about the book, it’s a it’s a an autobiographical self help book. And it’s really written for anyone that struggles with addiction in any form. And whether you’re dealing with it, or you are on the receiving end of a family member or a loved one that’s dealing with it, I implore you to read it. You can listen to it or read the print, you know, the paperback or Kindle, whatever it’s on Amazon. And
If it’s not the best book that you’ve read in the last 12 months, send me a message and I’ll send you your money back.
Brad (51:05.438)
Yes, I agree. I agree. I love that, man. Yeah. Well, speaking of that, yeah, we’re going to, if you’re signed up for our newsletter, we’re going to be putting out a newsletter next week with a great offer with Leibman’s book. And it’s going to come out next Wednesday, which would be, what is today? So the 13th? Friday the 13th. Oh, look at that, man. I didn’t even realize till right now.
Laban Ditchburn (51:06.842)
That’s their compliment.
Laban Ditchburn (51:27.297)
Friday the 13th of all days.
Brad (51:33.314)
Um, so yeah, so it’ll be coming out this Wednesday and, but before we go, I want to make sure that everybody knows how to get ahold of you. One, I’m, you’re, you’re coaching your mastermind, um, your book. What is the best way for people to find you and get ahold of you on the social media is email, whatever you want to share.
Laban Ditchburn (51:51.917)
Yeah, well, if you just search Laban Ditchburn on any search engine, I’m the only one on the planet Earth that’s actually got a social media presence, so I think that must be only me. So otherwise, you can go to labanditchburn.com and I’m on Instagram, fairly active on there. Wherever your favorite social media thing is, but Instagram’s got the links to all the…
podcast that I host called Become Your Own Superhero and there’s a few things bubbling away so I don’t want to overwhelm people with too much stuff but you can’t not find me unless you don’t want to.
Brad (52:32.898)
Yeah, you know, that’s a little bit there. Laban, Laban Ditchburn, right? So Laban’s a very unique name. Can we get some parting words on your name? What does Laban mean?
Laban Ditchburn (52:44.617)
It means it’s a Bible name out of the third book of the Old Testament. And in the Bible, it means glorious white, which is for those who are listening describes me pretty well. Um, it also means yogurt and Arabic, which, which explains why I’m so cultured. And, and, uh, and it also means to show fight in the main language in the Philippines. So.
Brad (53:03.851)
Uh, boom. That’s what I was looking for.
Brad (53:12.695)
Really?
Laban Ditchburn (53:13.061)
For years when I was working in IT recruitment, dealing with Filipino consultants, I was wondering why they were very standoffish. It was because like Laban means to show fights. Ha ha ha.
Brad (53:24.979)
Well, you definitely got fight in you brother. That’s one thing right? I mean, and that’s thank God you do man. Thank God you do. And, and again, thank you so much for being part of our life and for coming on this podcast again. It’s a real honor. I’m so glad that you came. Thank you.
Laban Ditchburn (53:40.537)
Nah, thank you, Brad. I appreciate what you guys are doing, man. Thanks for having me.
Brad (53:44.138)
Yeah, absolutely. We’ll talk soon. Thank you.
Ciao.