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An Enthusiasm for Life – a conversation with Martin Pytela
13 Plays9 days ago
Martin Pytela is the founder of Life Enthusiast, a manufacturer of natural health and well-being products.
Martin describes himself as a health engineer who promotes traditional medical and health care techniques.
In this episode of the Abeceder work life balance podcast Rest and Recreation Martin tells Michael Millward what inspired him to set-up a health-related company.
Martin describes how he manages his own health and well-being, and how making sure there is time every day, for activities away from work.
One of the activities that Martin is keen on is forest bathing. He explains what it feels like to engage with a forest of trees.
This episode of Rest and Recreation is ideal listening for anyone who is struggling to find time in their schedule for rest and recreation activities.
Visit Abeceder for more information about Martin Paytela and Michael Millward.
Audience Offers
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Being a Guest
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Transcript
00:00:05
Speaker
Made on Zencastr.
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Rest and Recreation, the work-life balance podcast from Abysida. I'm your host, Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abysida.
Exploring Work-Life Balance with Martin Patella
00:00:18
Speaker
Today, I'm going to be finding out how one business executive, Martin Patella, manages his own work-life balance and how he helps his employees to manage theirs as well.
00:00:31
Speaker
As the jingle at the start of this podcast says, rest and recreation is made on Zencastr.
Zencastr Platform Highlight
00:00:39
Speaker
Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform on which you can make your podcast in one place and then distribute it to the major platforms like Spotify, Apple, Amazon and Google YouTube Music.
00:00:52
Speaker
Zencastr really does make making content so easy. If you would like to try podcasting using Zencastr, visit zencastr.com forward slash pricing and use my offer code, Abusida.
00:01:05
Speaker
All the details are in the description. Now that I have told you how wonderful Zencastr is for making podcasts, we should make one. One that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading and subscribing to.
00:01:20
Speaker
As with every episode of Rest and Recreation, we won't be telling you what to think, but we are hoping to make you think.
Meet Martin Patella and Travel Tips
00:01:29
Speaker
Today on Rest and Recreation, guest is Martin Pataya.
00:01:34
Speaker
Martin is based in Victoria, British Columbia, a part of Canada that I have visited. and would go back again, but when I do, i will be making my travel arrangements with the Ultimate Travel Club because that is where I can access trade prices on flights, hotels, trains and all sorts of other travel-related purchases.
00:01:54
Speaker
You can also access trade prices on travel by joining the Ultimate Travel Club. There is a link with a discount code in the description. Now that I have paid some bills, it's time to make an episode of Rest and Recreation.
Martin's Journey: Business to Health Coaching
00:02:08
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Hello, Martin. Hello, Michael. Please tell me, first of all, what it is you do for a living. I call myself a health coach. I'm probably a health engineer.
00:02:20
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My original education is in business education, or let's call it computer science and business administration. And then, thanks to...
00:02:31
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an iatrogenic disaster, I ended up having to study health because I was not getting in any help from the mainstream or no effective health, let's call it that.
00:02:44
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So I studied into the health sciences. So these days I'm helping people dig out of their chronic, degenerative, metabolic, long-term diseases that are not responding well at all to the pharmaceutical methods.
00:03:00
Speaker
So you're looking at alternative, what lots of people call alternative medicines and other people call things like traditional medicines. There we go. I would call it the traditional. The ah pharmaceutical methods have not popped up until 1920s, 30s.
00:03:17
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And they're they're the exception. Except they, of course, done a phenomenally good job of taking control of the media. Yes, I would agree with you. But the methods, health management and treatment that you're dealing with based on those traditional methods which go back generations.
00:03:39
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Indeed.
Superfoods and Health Alternatives
00:03:40
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Yeah, I actually currently manage two companies. One is a manufacturing business where we build superfoods or food mixes that are are trying to make up for the gap between what should be in your nutrition and what gets there thanks to the industrial food manufacturing methods.
00:04:01
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yep The other one is is a retail organization where we promote and and deliver these solutions to people, as I mentioned. Most of the people that contact us or find us are the ones who are ready to give up on pills or on pharmaceuticals and are ready to heal their body using the traditional, you correctly called it, methods.
00:04:26
Speaker
And people can find more information about the work that you do at your website, which is life-enthusiast.com. Indeed, thank you. You have a business which does the manufacturing of your products, which are available from your website.
00:04:42
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And then you also have a business which is more involved in the selling of those products. Sure, yes.
Managing a Global Remote Workforce
00:04:49
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So you're based in British Columbia in Victoria, which is the island of Vancouver.
00:04:54
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Do you have all of this offices and factories on the island of Victoria? Oh, no, no, not at all. I live here because I can live anywhere. right the The production shop is near Seattle in a place called Tacoma, Washington.
00:05:08
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right The company itself is incorporated in Nevada. I have a crew, the manufacturing crew in Seattle, they're six or seven people there, that's those are physically tied to where they need to be.
00:05:25
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yeah But everyone else is virtual. Working from home. Yeah, mostly home, yes. And they are, oh, I have people in Canada, in Pakistan, in Philippines, and India, yeah all around the planet, truly.
00:05:41
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Managing time zones is quite difficult. a requirement here for me now. Yeah, that is one of the advantages that I have being based in the United Kingdom. Time is measured against Greenwich Mean Time.
00:05:52
Speaker
So we're actually in the center of the world. But at the moment, British summertime, one hour in front of Greenwich Mean Time. But when you set the business up, was rest and recreation work-life balance an important factor for you?
00:06:07
Speaker
No, heck no. It was just desperation. True entrepreneur will answer that. I was working in the information technology field and earning quite well. And that was the 90s, 80s and 90s.
00:06:22
Speaker
And by 1999, we had this thing called Y2K. We were wondering, is this thing going to work or is it going to crash? There are many things.
00:06:34
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chicken little prognosticators who were saying that we don't know, this this whole thing may just fall apart. yeah And I thought, well, I'm not sure of that either.
00:06:44
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So I'm going to move my family out of an urban area into something much less congested, small town. The Y2K for many people will be history.
00:06:56
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They'll have no experience of it whatsoever. And as we approached the year 2000, lots of people working in were worried about whether computers would be able to cope with a date that had two zeros for the year rather than two numbers one to nine.
00:07:17
Speaker
And um there was lots and lots of, well, the whole industry built up around trying to make sure that everything would kind carry on working as the clocks ticked over into the year 2000 and we started the moon new millennium.
00:07:31
Speaker
That was the basis of the ah of the crisis or what turned out to be a bit of a damp squid, but we don't we will never know. whether it was going to be a problem, a crisis, or whether the work that people in IT did actually averted that crisis. It's like trying to prove a negative.
00:07:51
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But I know a lot of people made changes to their lives as a result of that. But changes they would probably have made anyway. It was just a bit of a catalyst that encouraged people to do it a little bit sooner, perhaps.
00:08:03
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And I think it was useful for them because my children, i have two daughters, were just entering their teenage years. And I thought they will do a lot better in a small town than they will do growing up in a big place.
00:08:20
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yeah So my wife and I agreed. We looked for a place to move to and moved. And what i did not think through was how I'm going to make a living. And the opportunities in a small town are much, much reduced.
00:08:34
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yes So I had to figure out how to make a living. So was I decided to become my own client rather than trying to chase others. And i built an online website that focused on what I knew best, which was how to help people dig out on chronic health problems.
00:08:52
Speaker
You're in a small town. You've got limited um employment opportunities. So you create your own my opportunity and set up a business that helps people deal with something that you're also having to deal with. So it's almost like your problem became your passion. Oh, definitely that.
00:09:11
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Yes. Which had an awesome benefit because could decide my own hours. My commute time was reduced to something like 20 seconds.
00:09:23
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And, um, yeah, it it had its own advantages. It still does. 25 years later.
Entrepreneurship: Accountability and Balance
00:09:30
Speaker
Yeah. I used to commute to to the IT job. I, I had a good life right living in Vancouver, British Columbia. It's, it's pretty good.
00:09:39
Speaker
The only thing they don't have solved is highways and commuting. So I would drive probably 35 minutes to work every day. And, uh,
00:09:51
Speaker
So I was in a university on wheels. I would plug in a tape cassette, believe it or not, into my car's cassette player, and I would listen to stuff.
00:10:02
Speaker
I was into podcasting. It's just that the technology was not what we have it now today. Back then, somebody would go into a studio, record something on a tape,
00:10:14
Speaker
and ship it. Yes. And I would listen to that. That's one of those things like the teenagers of today don't even need to use CDs anymore. Everything is streamed. Right.
00:10:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I was listening on a Walkman. Yeah. Completely different worlds. Completely different worlds. And of course, when you set the business up, you're doing everything yourself. and But like gradually, you've grown that business.
00:10:38
Speaker
And that must have freed up time for you. Well, yeah you know, work feels all the time you give it. Yes. So ah you need to be sure that you are managing and planning for what you're going to do.
00:10:52
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Otherwise, it will suck in everything that you're willing to give. It is ah an interesting point that you raise there, that work will absorb as much time as you are prepared to give it.
00:11:05
Speaker
And I suspect that there are lots of people who, if they thought about that, would realize that that is what they are doing, is giving work all the time that it wants or believes that it wants, rather than actually learning how to manage their priorities and how they use their time.
00:11:22
Speaker
It's very interesting. One really interesting thing I've learned was that If you want something to get done, you give it to a busy person. yeah That was the interesting thing that there are some people who learn how to manage pressure and how to manage priority and how to manage result.
00:11:43
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And there are many others who don't. So I would i will just intentionally compress stuff into, okay, these are the hours that I'm willing to give it and...
00:11:54
Speaker
It has to get done. So get on with it, boy. Sounds like you were your own best coach. Yes. And I did have a coach. I hired a coach, which was super important and super helpful.
00:12:08
Speaker
And I became coach to others. Like we were trading favors, really. Body system, if you will, where we have each other, accountabilities. Check in with me.
00:12:20
Speaker
Have I done what I promised to do? So instead of you just doing it for yourself, you're doing it for yourself, but you're accountable to someone. So you're self-employed, you're working and actually having to report back to someone else that you have done what you've said you were going to do, or indeed you haven't done what you said you were going to do. It's a replication of that.
00:12:45
Speaker
I'm doing my job. My manager is going to check up on me type of scenario. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Essentially. For any entrepreneur, you need to figure out how you're going to be accountable and to whom you're going to be accountable and fit figure out how to do it.
00:13:01
Speaker
Because if if you, well, not everybody has the personality for this. There are people who will undoubtedly fail because they will become distracted or just cannot imagine how to not focus on the required tasks.
00:13:20
Speaker
I talked to my wife about it just the other day. She said, I got up, I went, opened my Facebook, and one and a half hours later, i have nothing to show for it, but I sure was entertained.
00:13:35
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I think there's probably an awful lot of people who can say, he's talking about me. He's talking about me. Once you are logged into one of those things, they are designed to keep you there and show you more and more content, which leads to more and more advertising.
00:13:52
Speaker
ah But switch it off um or use it from ah for your own marketing. Learn how to to control it so that it's but something to your advantage.
00:14:03
Speaker
I actually feel guilty because we do advertise on Facebook and Instagram and whatever. And All I know is that we're sucking in people's time. This is a competition for the eyeballs, competition for the attention.
00:14:18
Speaker
and Can I keep your attention long enough to convince you that you should know me better than you know me now? Isn't that marketing? Yes, of course it is. yeah but it's Yeah, it is.
00:14:30
Speaker
Of course, once I believe in my heart of hearts that what I have to offer is actually valuable, And I have no problem trying to shout from the top of the hill that please notice that this is what I know and you should know it.
00:14:46
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You're using it now as a tool rather than allowing yourself to be sucked in to become part of the audience. You're a producer, a creator rather than a consumer.
00:14:58
Speaker
Yes, definitely that. I ah have not long ago noticed that I had clicked on something which led to, well, what's that all about? And what is that all about? And then I realized, they're just sucking me in. And turned it off and I'm not coming back.
00:15:16
Speaker
Was there a moment when that sort of realization happened or is it just something that evolved over a period of time?
Digital Distractions and Productivity
00:15:23
Speaker
Well, no, this is, of course, day to day. yeah we We all make choices on the spot.
00:15:28
Speaker
Will I follow this thread or will I be self-directed and return back to my original purpose that I set out? This was the accountability business, the accountability loop, where I am deciding to set aside the entertainment and go back to doing what I'm supposed to.
00:15:46
Speaker
hosted or what I have committed to doing. Yes, yeah. You've been running this business now for a quarter of a century. Yeah. Was there a day when you sort of thought, right, I now don't have to work in the way that I have been working. I can now take more time during the day, do things other than simply work?
00:16:08
Speaker
Well, I i plan, is i need the... they I need to disconnect. The Japanese named it forest bathing.
00:16:19
Speaker
I think it's a wonderful concept. I need to not be looking at a screen or not be plugged into a headset and just go do something other than.
00:16:32
Speaker
It's absolutely required. So I plan for it. It's on my calendar. Is it a plan of the time or is it a plan of a specific activity? Oh, we decide pretty much on the spot.
00:16:44
Speaker
I mean, sometimes you plan it, right? If you're going to do an Easter egg hunt with your grandchildren, well, you plan that. If you're going to go for a walk, you can just decide five minutes before where you're going to go. You just know that you're going to be away from this, whatever this is.
00:17:03
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And you talk about the forest bathing, yeah that the being with in the forest with the trees. What do you find so appealing or satisfying about that?
00:17:15
Speaker
It's the analog, not digital world out there. It's so variable, not planned. It's, I don't know, nature has such a different vibe to it than the digital technology.
00:17:33
Speaker
The pace is very different. The visual inputs, the auditory inputs, the olfactory inputs, all of that is so different.
00:17:44
Speaker
Instead of pavement, you're walking on uneven ground. Instead of exhaust, you're breathing oxygen-enriched air. Do I need to go on?
00:17:57
Speaker
No, you're reminding me of my visit to British Columbia and being in the forest, being in the mountains and realizing that yeah I was at the bottom of a mountain, that the road was obviously flat at the bottom and then there was a mountain, but the mountain was a sheer rock face. And I realized that at the bottom of the mountain, even though it was a ah misty day, I couldn't see the top of the mountain.
00:18:23
Speaker
And it was one of those strange feelings where i thought, like I've got a corner office. I'm really big and important. you know I've got people to answer my phones, all this sort of stuff. But there I was at the edge of a forest near a mountain that I couldn't see the top of.
00:18:40
Speaker
And somehow I just realized how small and insignificant I really am in comparison to nature.
00:18:52
Speaker
The height of the trees, the so the spread of the tree, the number of lives that a tree sustains, not just its own, but the people the animals that make life in that tree. When the tree drops its leaves, it resuscitates or rejuvenates the earth you know you become very aware out in nature of like you know you may think that you're really important but you realize that nature is so much bigger than you are and that i think is just one of those um leveling type experiences that put everything into perspective
00:19:29
Speaker
And it's it's very relaxing. It is like yeah you are able to relax because you almost like accept your position, place in the greater scheme of things.
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, very good. Well put. Thank you very much. Yeah, the natives have that sort of thing where tread lightly on the terrain because you're stepping on the faces of the unborn generations that are coming through.
00:19:52
Speaker
That is true. yeah all that How does this sort of rest and recreation type activities fit in with the work of life enthusiasts? Because with life enthusiasts, you're looking at issues related to diet and all that sort of stuff and how changes in diet and um eating the right things can improve someone's health and health.
00:20:16
Speaker
assist them in managing a chronic condition. So how does nature also fit it
Integrating Natural Solutions with Technology
00:20:23
Speaker
into that? I believe that many people have been seduced into thinking that there are technological solutions to the problems created by industrial age, but not, you know, the pollution that we have put into the nature is causing distortions and how in our health.
00:20:43
Speaker
It also causing distortions in our thinking. And I think people have been seduced into thinking that technology can solve it. Personally, think not.
00:20:54
Speaker
I think that we need to allow nature and connect with nature and return to natural ways of doing things to optimize our lives.
00:21:06
Speaker
I heard a really wise man say that aging is the relentless pursuit of comfort. So thoughtful. Yes. as in As in the lazier you get, the unhealthier you'll be.
00:21:23
Speaker
Yes. just Just as an example, the the mineralization of the bone is dependent on the stress put on it by the muscle that's attached to it that's being exercised.
00:21:35
Speaker
So if you sit, you will cause yourself muscle atrophy and bone atrophy or osteoporosis. And of course, most of us now seem to, when we're at work, be spending our days sitting in front of a screen, sitting in front of a machine.
00:21:54
Speaker
We have become very sedentary in a seated position. And the reality is we just weren't designed to do that. Right. So I'm personally fighting that all the time.
00:22:07
Speaker
And so i encourage everyone who works with me and for me to do the same thing. You need to plan for health and pursue it. Yes, we take it for granted, don't we?
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah, of course. You know, 25-year-old, you're bulletproof and immortal. By the time you hit 35, you will have some hints of fail. 45, you will start noticing that things aren't working so great. At 55, you'll notice things that you'll never get back. At 75, you're starting to regret Yes.
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah. And so on, right? Yes, I totally agree with you. We don't, well, youth is wasted on the young, as they say. Yes, and so true. So true. Don't realize what they've got.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. you Well, so that's you're you're talking about the balance, right? How do we teach people to focus on the priorities and understand what the priorities are?
00:23:07
Speaker
It's so hard to be selling umbrellas on a sunny day. That's true. And in the same story, you asked me, how do i help people managing their health?
00:23:19
Speaker
Mostly, they come to me when they are noticing that they are losing or have already lost a lot. And we're trying to get it back rather than, oh, don't I wish if I could speak to the 22-year-old or 27-year-old and explain to them just what they should do or should know Nobody told me.
00:23:45
Speaker
No. think part of that is because wherever you are in the world, our health services seem to be illness services. They treat us when we're ill. And when you think about it in many ways, like in the United Kingdom, our cars have to, once our car is three years old, it has to have an annual inspection to make sure that it's roadworthy.
00:24:07
Speaker
And yet the majority of us don't do the same sort of thing with our own health. Indeed. You're right. And also with the car, you have you get a manual and you get made you get a maintenance schedule. And after so many miles traveled, you are going to have to do this, that, change oil, change filter, type nuts, who knows what else, right?
00:24:30
Speaker
Replace tires. All of that ah should be handed to humans. And so when I do the metabolic typing consultations with people, I tell them, I'm hereby handing you the user's manual to your body.
00:24:44
Speaker
It will show you and teach you what will happen in response to the inputs you give it. And the inputs are environmental and nutritional and mental and emotional and spiritual.
00:24:58
Speaker
Those all are inputs that you're going to be choosing.
Advice on Achieving Work-Life Balance
00:25:03
Speaker
ye that there's your There's your work-life balance. There's your... rest balance, all ah all of that on a plate.
00:25:12
Speaker
So what you're saying is that in order to achieve proper work-life balance and a healthy lifestyle, there are those factors that we need to understand from our own perspective and work out what those will mean in a healthy way.
00:25:31
Speaker
I think one of the best examples would be just, well, the day-to-day sleep, and then not sleep. People would say sleep is just wasted time. No, it's not.
00:25:43
Speaker
That's the recreation. That's the repair. That's the put it back together. That's the, the I don't know, and they the time during which you recover and restore cap capacity.
00:25:55
Speaker
So in all things, right? Production over production capacity. If you deplete your production capacity, you will ultimately destroy your production. this The sleep is the building of the print production capacity.
00:26:10
Speaker
The build and restore. The recreation. Yeah, right. The recreation, the holiday, the vacation, the whatever. The time after work or the time not working is your opportunity to build production capacity.
00:26:29
Speaker
and So, yeah, I understand what you mean. It's almost like we're podcasting on each one in their own right. It's probably yeah the right sort of thing to do.
00:26:41
Speaker
But for today, Martin, I've really enjoyed our conversation and finding out more about Life Enthusiast and the work that you do and so much interesting approach to maintaining health and well-being, and work-life balance.
00:27:00
Speaker
Thank you very much for your time today. My pleasure. Thank you for having I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abusida.
Podcast Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:27:08
Speaker
In this episode of Rest and Recreation, I have been having a conversation with Martin Patela from life-enthusiast.com.
00:27:19
Speaker
You can find out more information about both of us at abusida.co.uk. I'm sure that you will have enjoyed listening to this episode of Rest and Recreation as much as Martin and I have and have enjoyed making it.
00:27:34
Speaker
So please give it a like and download it so you can listen anytime, anywhere. To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. Remember the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abbasida is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to have made you think.
00:27:51
Speaker
Until the next episode of Rest and Recreation, thank you for listening and goodbye.