Rick Koekoek

Full transcript: Rick Koekoek on London Real

1:23 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Rick Koekoek, a recent graduate of our Business Accelerator. Welcome. Thank you. Tell us about you. Where are you from? What do you do? Well, I’m originally from Holland. I’m 31 years old at the moment. And I grew up in a small town up north, and I had an interesting childhood. Basically starting really young riding bikes, and particularly trials bikes. And that’s still the thing that I’m doing to this day.

1:55 And what’s a trials bike, for people that don’t know? What’s a trials bike? A trials bike is a bike without a seat, so you stand always. So it’s like basically what the free running guys do. You go from point A to point B over obstacles, and you’re not allowed to use your hands or feet. So yeah, you have to jump and do all crazy kind of loops all over obstacles. That’s basically what I do.

2:17 Okay. What’s an example of a difficult trial, or a difficult point A to point B? Well, we can do many different techniques, but one thing that really jumps out is that we can do a standing jump from actually standing here straight into, like, one and a half metres high, without having a ramp or kicker or anything. So we call it a bunny hop. So that’s also one of my personal world records.

2:46 Gotcha. You’ve got a few world records. You’ve got a few more. How many? Over the last 10 years I’ve broken ten in total. And just recently, last week actually, in Green Park, London, I set a new world record. Can you tell us about that one? Yeah, it’s platform to platform, they call it. It’s like an eight-metre run-up that you have. Imagine it’s like one metre 80 off the floor, and then four metres 40 centimetres, there’s another box. So same level.

3:14 So what you’re going to do, you’re going to commit to it and just go, like, full gas into the space of nothing. You have to fly and land on the other box. To be honest, in the run-up itself already, if you go into it, you only can do two pedal strokes and then it’s, like, full and committed. If you say, like, I’m going to hold back, you’re going to hurt yourself really, really bad. You’re going to break stuff. So you really have to go roll into it, jump across, land. And if you do it well, you don’t have no issues.

3:48 And there’s no ramp? No ramp. So it’s just flat to flat. You’ve got to go fast, have the timing and then hop enough to get you across. Yeah. Sounds really intense. Well, I could teach you how I want to talk about this.

4:03 How do you train yourself to do something like that? Because like you said, if you get that wrong, I mean, it’s a bad crash, right? You’re getting injured. Yeah. That’s when you’re going to break. Because what you do, in such a small distance, you generate so much speed, and at one point you can’t stop anymore. You just have to launch off that ramp. So how do you practise? How do you train yourself actually to do these things?

4:28 Many of those people, they forget that I always start from really low, just like a small kid. I started when I was six on a bike. I rode up a kerb, then a bench, then a little wall. And to be honest now, it’s like if this would have been like 20 storeys up, okay, maybe not four metres, but I’ve been riding, for example, in Hong Kong on skyscrapers, and then I do that, like from building to building. And it’s like a gap, like three metres in between. So it’s all about 20 storeys. 20 storeys. Yeah.

5:01 So don’t mess up. So that’s the whole joke. But yeah, how you practise is just repetition. It’s just constantly repeating, repeating, repeating, and learning how the monkey mind actually works, and what you can do to actually trick that monkey and put it back in the cage, or at least tell him what to do. And yeah, that’s basically what I’ve been doing all my life. So yeah, that’s really what I enjoy.

5:29 That’s cool. How does the monkey mind work? If you don’t pay attention, it’ll take you in directions and ways where you don’t want to go. And we all know that. If we’re conscious about it, yes or no, that’s a different story. But my monkey mind always wants the easy way out, and I don’t want that. I just want to prove myself every single day again. So I have to pull myself back, and every single time again I want to just give it that task. That one thing a day that I don’t like to do. And yeah, as long as I do that, I feel progression.

6:06 I feel more confident, and you see, like, everything within the riding itself becomes way better, and my personal life becomes way better. The moments that I lack, of course, I’m a human being as well, so I lack at certain kinds of moments as well. And yeah, then I can feel that my mind becomes blurry and I’m just not on top of my game anymore. But yeah, so I know what to do about it, and just pull that monkey back out and just, like, okay, that’s your action.

6:34 So what’s a world record breaking trials bike jumping dude coming to the Business Accelerator? What was going on in your life that made you pull the trigger on this course? What was happening? Well, that’s basically what we just talked about. I had one of those moments. It was really dark for myself. I just had a divorce, and I told myself, okay, I need to get out of here. So I chose to go live in an abandoned school with three junkies.

7:04 No, seriously, it’s not the most inspirational place, with all the respect. But yeah, I was in week two and I was like, I just have to find a way out. And I was using, of course, my methods and the techniques that I use for doing my sports. So I have, like, breathing techniques, like the Wim Hof breathing technique, for example, heat and cold exposure, of course nutrition, all those kinds of things, exercise and yoga. And I was using all these methods, and I was basically, okay, I’m going forward, but not as fast as I want to.

7:40 And then at one split second I was just on Instagram and I saw the London Real page. And to be honest, I didn’t know about you guys. So for me it was just like, okay, check this video, Business Accelerator. I was like, tonight there’s going to be a webinar. Cool. Check. Put my email address in. That’s it. Let’s go. And I knew, okay, if I want to absorb the most amount of information, I’m in such a blurry space at the moment, if I’m just going to sit down and try to absorb it, everything will fly past.

8:09 So what I did was, I’m going to do a workout while watching you. And for me it was the first time I watched you. So it’s like, okay, put my laptop on. Okay, London Real, bam, Brian Rose in front of me. Like, who’s this guy? So it’s like, okay, webinar, bang, spot on. And I was doing my weightlifting. I actually have my Olympic weightlifting platform there. That’s the only thing I took. It’s so important for me, I need to stay fit. And I was doing my reps, and just in between, looking at the screen and listening to everything.

8:43 And the moment that you explained about E to E… I always knew for myself, like, I have so many elements, but I never knew how to bring it together. So I needed a blueprint. And basically what I saw there, what you explained to me, or us, it was actually the blueprint for me. So I was like, that’s what I need. That’s seriously what I’ve been searching for the last five years. Like, I know I have everything, I know it can be successful, but I don’t know how to put it together.

9:13 And actually, at that given moment, it was just like, spot on, poof, that’s it. And I was like, okay, I put in the last little bit of money that I have. And I was like, now, from this moment on, I can’t go more dark. I only can go up. So it’s like, okay, let’s do this. Let’s get those people around who also are really hungry, who actually want to grow and become better and build business and become a better person, and actually add value to someone else. And I was like, that’s who I am, and I need a group of people like that around me right now. And that’s what I did. Just pull the trigger right there.

9:48 Hell yeah. So yeah. That’s all good, man. Yeah. Don’t make it too complex.

9:52 That’s a crazy story, man. So you pull the trigger, and I throw you in this crazy thing called the Business Accelerator. Beautiful. You jump in, it is beautiful. And you’ve got 150 people around the world, different ideas, different businesses. They do have one thing in common, though: they want to add value to other people’s lives, and they’re going to get things done no matter what. No excuses. But you’ve got me, two live calls per week, you’ve got the accountability doc, you’ve got modules. What are those first two weeks like?

10:19 Of course, it’s chaos, because there’s so much information coming towards yourself. But for me I could only see that as positive, because I knew, okay, there’s a structure actually coming towards myself. And actually, I was just lagging out in that given moment. I didn’t have, how do I say that? Yeah, I had no structure in life, because I just chose to not live in a certain place anymore, like, to get the divorce.

10:53 And everything was gone. So basically you start from zero. And I was like, okay, let’s rebuild this place. And it was just a really good blueprint for me, like the accountability document and everything like that. It gave me steps to go back into regular life again, and actually build it up so much stronger. Because how I looked at it was like, I have at this moment a house. I have the bricks, but I don’t have the cement. So the blueprint was the cement.

11:20 And for me, it’s like, I can build something really nice, but if something’s going to blow or something’s going to push, it’s going to fall over. So that’s basically what the accountability document did for me. And of course the calls that we have, really priceless, seriously good, because that’s the information that we need. I’m not the only one who needs this. I know that.

11:45 What did you struggle with? What was the hardest part for you? Actually, to go to my community and ask people. And that was the strange thing. I thought I had to ask people, like, okay, would you like to join my cause? That was the most strange thing that actually happened in my mind. But yeah, once again, I came from a really dark place, so it’s like, I didn’t really care at one point. But that’s the one struggle point that I had. It took me like half a day or something. It’s nothing.

12:22 I don’t even have the right to complain about it at that point, because I was just like, okay, I’m just going to do it. Just burst out there, go to every person that I know and just, like, okay, I know you need this cause, I know you need my program. Because it’s basically for the junior elite, the junior men within trials who want to become high-level riders. So what I did was basically pick out all the 20s, how we called it, like the top riders.

12:52 And yeah, I just told them, okay, this is what I can do for you guys. This is all the information that I’ve actually gathered for the last 10 years, and I will give it to you, literally give it to you. I don’t even ask a high price or anything like that. I just want to give you the opportunity to learn the things, or at least read and listen about it, so you get an opportunity to implement it into your own life, if you want to. What did they say? Strangely enough, 75% said yes. So it was really good.

13:23 You were surprised, and it felt great to know that everybody wanted your IP. Because you have amazing IP, and it’s in that monkey brain of yours. And, like, you know so much, not just about trials, but about life, and how to manage risk and how to manage that brain. If you can get that and digitise it and productise it, I mean, man, you can help so many people, not only in your field, but this goes probably past that, right?

13:48 Yeah, definitely, definitely. And for me, I knew that IP, that was a 15-minute call that we had the first time, and that was my aha moment. You were basically saying, hey man, your IP. And I was like, IP, intellectual property. And it’s like, oh s***, that’s a really good one. I know I have all these tools and things, but at that moment I was like, okay, it’s going to happen. It’s just going to happen.

14:12 And after this course as well, okay, we went so fast through the course, and I’m very thankful that we did it like this, but it’s just going to take time to actually find its way around it. So I know this is only the start of it. And basically, I already started re-aiming, refocusing this blueprint into a different direction, because I started a second company together with a friend of mine. And we were just like, okay, we just want to make a company that’s going to use all these elements.

14:45 Let’s say 80% of what I usually do within trials, anyone can do. Like, anyone can do that. The other 20% is really trials related, so it’s really specific bicycle things. Take that thing away and put your Life Accelerator, for example, on top of it, or Business Accelerator, for example, on top of it, and you can create something with that. So what we did, and actually this process started a long time ago, we have a place now in Finland, and that’s in the middle of nowhere.

15:18 It’s the most quiet. It’s within four of the biggest national parks in Finland, and our house is in the centre of it, the biggest lake of Europe. It’s crazy. So we were just like, okay, this information goes in that direction, and we want to help people and we want to add value. So yeah, that’s basically what that monkey mind is going to do.

15:39 I love it, man. What was the biggest win on the course for you, where you felt like, wow, I’m proud of myself for doing this? Well, actually, after the first sale, that was seriously it. Because before there was no sale, it’s just like, okay, it’s really good information, it doesn’t really work. It’s actually happening. And I was like, after the first one, I don’t care anymore. If there’s going to be 200, I don’t care. It actually works. And that’s what I never had at school and uni. Never. It’s always in books, in grades. It’s like, no, this is actually what they ask in everyday life, and it works.

16:19 Yeah, I can feel it. When you make that first sale, I always say it’s like voting: people are voting with their credit card. I mean, people can like your stuff and comment on your stuff, but when they pull out their wallet, you know you have something of value. And once you sell one product, like you said, you can sell 10. I show you how to make $1,000, we can show you how to make $100,000. Now you know the blueprint. And again, you take all this knowledge and turn it into practicality. Then it’s exciting, right? It’s empowering. I can see that in you.

16:49 What was the community like? All these people that you went through it with and kind of bled with and sweated with. What’s it like being with them, and have you stayed in touch with those people? Within the riders, you mean? No, within the Business Accelerator. The business. It’s beautiful. It’s priceless. Because, okay, that was my main reason. I was like, okay, I need people around me who have a higher energy than myself at this given moment, and who actually want to do more, give more.

17:18 And yeah, in moments that someone didn’t see what direction or what to do, it’s not really complicated. Everyone’s just picking them up and, like, okay, that direction, keep breathing. It doesn’t matter. Just go. And actually, till this day, you just created a bond with them, and that’s not going to go away. That’s the most important and most valuable thing out there. So it’s nice actually to have done this Business Accelerator course. But for me, the value of getting to know different people, getting to know their stories and seeing how they move around and what they do and what drives them, that’s for me even more important than the course itself. I have to be honest.

18:10 Yeah, no, I always tell people, like, the blueprint’s amazing, I’m amazing, our team leaders are amazing, but what’s even more amazing is that group of people, because they’re going to be with you the rest of your life. And some of these people, including you, are going to build these million dollar, five million, ten million dollar businesses. And people might think, oh, that’s not going to happen. It will happen. And these people are going to be on the TED stage. They’re going to write books. You’re going to see them on TV.

18:33 Like, this is going to happen, because the people on this course are incredible, man, because they’re London Realers that have actually pulled the trigger, which means they’ve invested their money and their time, which means they’re going to take action. And then we make sure everybody finishes. So it’s a special group, man, and you’re part of it too.

18:50 How are you different, Rick? If we went down on the street and bumped into the guy that didn’t take this course, the guy that’s still hanging out with the junkies. How have you changed personally? How are you different than that guy who didn’t take this course? Seriously, I have one big plus. That guy was walking on the street, he already had a whole career of sports in his pocket at that moment. So he knew he had to do something. Only he hadn’t pulled the freaking trigger yet. That’s what you told me as well, like, pull the trigger.

19:22 And at one point I actually pulled that trigger to do it. The difference is now that I actually see where I want to go. At that given moment when I was walking on the sidewalk, no. I couldn’t, because I didn’t know how to use all my elements, how to use all my tools, all my methods, and how to create a valuable product for someone else, and not just only for themselves. And now I can see that way more clearly than back then on the sidewalk.

19:56 Nice. So yeah. What are you doing in five years? What does your business look like? What does your life look like? That’s a good one. I’m still travelling the world like I’m doing now. Still breaking records? Still breaking records, for sure. If it’s in this sport or different sports, I don’t care. It’s going to happen. Yeah. My business in Finland is going to go crazy, that I’m sure. Because actually, if we see the potential that we have, it’s just so powerful. It’s just so strong. Actually, the house is called Greenhouse, in the freaking forest. It’s magical.

20:32 For me, it’s really complicated, because I usually never look further than one or two days. I’ve made plans, of course, otherwise I could not do the things that I do. But yeah, I’m going to progress as hell. From this point on, it’s like going to the elevator and putting a parachute on.

20:50 I love it, man. You’re such a bad motherf***er, Rick. I love it. To someone who’s watching us who’s unsure about taking this course, what do you tell them? What are you unsure about? Why would you be unsure? Seriously, man, if you want to progress in life, that’s the most important part for me. Just freaking do it. Don’t think too much. Put the monkey in the cage and do the things that you want to do.

21:14 Rick, man, it’s been so awesome having you on this course. Welcome to the family. I still remember our 15-minute call. I knew right away, you’re a humble dude, but I can tell you’re world-class. Once we got you on the same page of getting the IP and the brain out, I mean, man, you’re sitting on so much value that will become money, but more importantly, it’ll change people’s lives. I love it. I can’t wait to watch how you go, and I’ll be watching you for the next 12 months and 12 years.

21:44 Thank you. I’ll be watching you. Cool, man. I appreciate it, man. Look, it’s about the journey, man. I wish you well on yours. Let’s do some big things, all right, Rick? Thank you, brother. Thank you, man.