About Simon

As I write this it’s 2024, I’m 47 years old and I’m setting up Your Liberal Longevity Coach as a business. I’ve recently finished my Certified Longevity Coach training and I have absolutely Zero clients!

In some ways, I’m young for a Longevity Coach, but the plan is to be in this for the long run. That’s why I’m not worried about having no clients, we all had to start from zero at some point. And I’m also not worried about my lack of years. That will take care of itself slowly but surely.

When I started my Shiatsu training in my early 20s I was worried I was too young and no one would trust such a young guy to give a decent massage. Fast forward a few years; my treatments were awesome and I wasn’t so young anymore!

I hope to be a longevity coach when I’m 50, 60, 70 years old and beyond. If I do this right there should be no reason to ever stop.

My increasing age coupled with my continued good health, high energy and, (hopefully) youthful looks will be my business card and best advert for what I do!

My Early Life

Travel

I got the travel bug when I was young and had a crazy year as an exchange student in the newly-post-Soviet St Petersburg in ’94 and ’95.

Returning to New Zealand after a year away was an odd experience and I didn’t fit anymore. I left for the UK in 1997 on my Big OE (Overseas Experience, a common Antipodean rite of passage) and I never really returned home.

I’ve written about that on my Medium publication: Homesick Kiwis

New Zealand will always be in my heart, but I’ve made homes in a number of different places. London several times. Brighton and Birmingham once. I’ve lived in Milan, Thailand and Greece too. I’ve spent more time living places than travelling, but I’ve made jaunts through Europe as well as spending 9 months backpacking around India and Nepal. That’s where I met my wife. We’ve had an eventful 17 years so far.

Family

Although my brother followed me out to the UK a year after I got there, he and the rest of my family are living in New Zealand now.

My British grandmother allowed me to get a 4-year Ancestry visa to the UK, which I was able to renew. I stayed in the UK long enough to get my British passport, which opened up Europe to me… Until Brexit ruined it for everyone. Stupid bloody Brexit!

But never mind, I’d married a London-born Greek (not for the passport) and we’re currently living in Crete, Greece with a bunch of rescue cats. We never had kids, but you know, the cats are our kids.

So now JD Vance hates me! Oh well…

Work

It took me a while to get into my flow with work and career. I feel like I’ve done more jobs than the average person. But in hindsight, I can see that I was looking for the work I didn’t want to do as much as the work I did want to do.

Here’s a quick overview of the many and various jobs I’ve held over the years, in a roughly chronological order, starting from my earliest recollection:

Fish tank cleaner, lawnmower boy (when I was far too young! NZ in the 80s was something else!), paper boy, supermarket checkout boy, first brush with telesales (hated it), bread packer, motorcycle courier, bartender, waiter, nursing home worker, second chef, barista (that’s coffee, not law), second brush with telesales (still hated it), care worker for adults with learning disabilities, English language teacher,  Shiatsu therapist, bookings manager, on-street surveyor (asking questions, not measuring land and buildings) Front of House manager, Onsite Massage therapist, ergonomic desk assessor, Operations manager, Social Media manager and SEO guy, massage agency owner/manager, online entrepreneur, English language teacher… and finally… Longevity coach!

Many of these jobs were temporary, freelance or part-time, often while I worked on my own projects and businesses on the side, or the job was on the side to support the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.

I learned a lot from working in this array of jobs. In hindsight, many of them are in hospitality or customer service. A good number are managerial. Useful skills for my new venture!

I both hate and am bad at selling things I don’t believe in. That’s why telesales didn’t suit me.

For a long time, Shiatsu and bodywork were my passion and what I wanted to spend my life doing. I spend 10 years learning and another 10 years building and running my business. I really went for it. I supported myself with my massage work. And I was really good at it. I hustled and I worked. And then I burned out. I didn’t, and still don’t, want to do massage work anymore. Maybe one day I’ll do it again, but I never want the pressure of having to make a living from it.

I remember a quote that went something like this “The best way to lose your passion for your hobby is to try to make money from it”

Now I have found my next passion, Longevity Coaching. I have deep insight, a solid model for the business and a plan on how I’m going to build my client base too. This time it’s sustainable and my passion will grow with my business.

Martial arts and fighting

As a kid I did Tae Kwon Do rather than football or rugby as is more common in New Zealand. I thank my mum for not letting me quit the many times I wanted to. Eventually, I got my Black belt, which has been a matter of pride for me over the years and a reminder that when I set my mind to it I can actually succeed at difficult things!

I also credit Tae Kwon Do with my never having been in a proper fight in my life. I’ve been punched in the face a couple of times but I always managed to walk away without things escalating. I like to think I got a little confidence from being able to kick above my head but never had to use it. The last time I tried I could still kick pretty high but I guess I’m just taller than I was when I was 17.

Over the years I’ve dabbled in several other martial arts including GKR Karate, Lau Gar Kung Fu, Aikido and a little bit of Jujitsu. 

I do a lot more yoga than martial arts these days. Though learning martial arts was an important part of my early development and has been an important lesson in life. I believe that we need to develop and maintain our strength, flexibility and mobility as we age. We won’t always be able to do the same volume of exercise as we could in our prime, but if we keep our fundamental abilities we greatly increase our chances of living a long and healthy life.

I’ll add that our training needs to be sustainable too. There is no point looking good naked if we are in pain, riddled with injuries and can’t comfortably navigate the physical challenges of life. 

This approach is a component of my Foundation to Longevity course. And we’ll go much deeper in the Longevity community.

Music

I’ve always loved music. I wanted to play guitar as a kid but my mum said there wasn’t money for a guitar, so when I was 18 I bought my own guitar. I’ve owned several over the years, but I still don’t play as well as I’d like to. I like quirky guitars and have learned how to repair and set up guitars over the years.

The two guitars in the photo are my current electric guitars. I built the Telecaster from a scratched-up body found in a rubbish bin, and the Les Paul-style guitar is a generic guitar from the 70s or 80s, probably made in Korea, that I found in a local antique shop. Both guitars needed a lot of work to become useable guitars again, but with care, determination and quite a lot of internet research I managed.

I’m a pretty average guitar player. But I like songs, I like music that moves you, that makes you feel. I am left extremely cold by the million-notes-per-second widdley-widdley shit out there that sounds like a bucket of marbles being poured down the back of a piano. Don’t come at me with that shit. Give me some solid Blues, Alternative, Psychedelic or Classic Rock, Surf Guitar or Sahara Desert Blues and I’m a happy guy! I just can’t play it all that well…

I was a DJ in my 20s, playing a range of dance music, mostly from the 90’s and 2000s. I played everything from Big Beat, and breakbeats to Japanese techno, downtempo chill-out music to Nu-Jazz, with a little mindful Hip-Hop sprinkled in for good measure. I mostly played house parties but I played a few clubs and festivals too. I never broke into the paid DJ circuit (does beer count?) but I enjoyed the music and the scene at the time. I kept my old records and have listening parties when I’m feeling nostalgic or need to hear some classic tunes.

For the last few years I’ve been living in a Greek village with a strong acoustic music scene. There are regular free concerts where amazing musicians play various traditional songs from Crete and Greece, the Balkans and Asia Minor, as well as original compositions. It’s way above my head because most of the stringed instruments don’t have frets and everyone seems to be able to read sheet music around here. But I love it and I’m inspired by it all!

I’m also a future producer. As you know, I like technology and that includes Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) such as REAPER and Ableton Live. These are basically super-powerful recording studios that run on a standard laptop or desktop computer. I endeavour to make my own music (again) when I have the time to focus on it more.

I guess you could say that music is my Ikigai. It’s my passion and my interest, it’s something I want to understand deeply, to create and share with others. I think I’m going to need a long time to master it, and that is one of the reasons I want to live as long and healthy a life as I possibly can!

Self-Mastery and Ikigai are topics in the Advanced Longevity course, where we start to look into why we want to live longer and what we’ll do with all that extra time. Attempting to master something you are passionate about makes sense to me!

Permaculture and ecology

I’ve been interested in and concerned for the environment for as long as I can remember. In my early 20s, I took an Introduction to Permaculture Design course with the intention of taking the full Permaculture course later… Time has passed and that course still hasn’t been taken, but I continue to have a deep concern for the planet that we live on and how we are treating it. In some ways, I see the body in the same way as the planet. We need to look after what we have first, then we can work out how to get to Mars (either literally or metaphorically). 

I have a bone to pick with Long-termism too. You’d think it would be about doing what is good for the planet in the long term… Instead, it’s being used by some billionaires to excuse their current practices (treating people and the planet like shit) because of the potential of the future people of the planet and the universe. Well, if there is no habitable planet to live on there won’t be any future generations! And we call these people geniuses? Pay your taxes already and stop blocking the unionisation of your employees!

That last part may not seem to relate to my vision and mission as a Longevity coach but in some ways the exact reason why!

I did an exercise called 7 Levels Deep, where you ask the question ‘Why?’ 7 times to get to your really deep motivation.

I went from simply wanting to help people live longer and healthier lives to the following:

“Because if our generations (Gen X/Millennials) do the right thing and make the right choices we will be remembered as the great generations that did the right thing at a critical moment in history and the world was better as a result.”

I think that’s a pretty good reason to want to help people live longer, healthier lives!

As you’ll understand by reading this page, I only want to help the good people do that. I’m not interested in helping people who are creating the problems in the world.

Ok, Fine. they can come to me for Longevity help after they’ve worked out their sociopathy somewhere else first!

Drugs and addiction

Full disclosure, I am not now, nor have I ever been a drug addict. Unless we’re counting coffee?

But, yes, I’ve taken drugs. I’ve smoked weed and taken psychedelics recreationally as well as Shamanically. I don’t feel like drugs have damaged my life in any way, rather they have enriched it. I believe in the therapeutic value of certain substances too. In fact, substances such as psilocybin in magic mushrooms have a neuro-regenerative effect on the brain. And MDMA is a promising treatment for therapy-resistant PTSD.

With that being said I know that many people suffer from addiction, not just to drugs but to all sorts of things. Some of these addictions are minor. Many of us are addicted to our smartphones, but if it’s not causing us, our friends or family suffering, then why worry? On the other hand, if addictions are ruling our lives then they need to be addressed, in a sensitive and supportive way, in order to have a long and happy life.

Addiction and neuro-regenerative substances are areas I’m learning about, and both are topics that I explore in my Advanced Longevity course. I see these areas as the pointy end of the wedge of longevity. They’re more the icing than the cake. We work on the foundations first, because that’s where real health and longevity comes from, but after that, optimisation could make a big difference in the quality of extra years lived.

And let’s not forget, I’m a big lefty-hippie and I think that all drugs should be legalised and addiction treated as a social/medical problem rather than a criminal one!

Just watch how, given the opportunity and appropriate support, rather than turning into career criminals due to the penal system, people recover from addiction and get their lives together, to go on to become productive members of society.

To me, that is a better recipe for a happy, healthy society than insisting on locking people up for their transgressions.

Both of my Foundation and Advanced Longevity courses include a dopamine detox, where we will work with something that we don’t quite have control over in our lives and take the power back! This might be taking regular breaks from social media, our smartphones or dealing with other problematic behaviour. Not in a judgemental way, but rather in a supportive way exploring what it’s like to be in control rather than be controlled…

Speaking of problematic behaviour…

Isreal, genocide and antisemitism

This might be the most contentious section of this page, but in for a penny, in for a pound!

I find it deeply saddening and troubling that a people who were so badly treated some 80 years ago are now treating their neighbours so badly!

Yes, the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7th October 2023 were shocking and terrifying, but the repeated, sustained attack on Palestine by Israel is sickening. 

It’s also concerning how genocide is being painted as antisemitism.

South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people. 

Israel said they were being antisemitic. 

Fuck you, Netanyahu!

There is a very clear difference between hating a group of people for their religious beliefs and questioning a nation bombing and killing mostly women and children on an unprecedented scale.

If this loses me any clients so be it.

I just don’t support genocide. Do you?

Also, this: “Both off the coast and beneath the occupied lands of Palestine, over 3 billion barrels of oil are estimated to exist…“

‘This Genocide Is About Oil’

Politics

In case you are still in any doubt, politically, I lean pretty heavily left. I’ve been called ‘leftist to a fault’ by an old (now x) friend, but then he was into some pretty questionable libertarian-incel shit, and he played a million-notes-per-second guitar (not very musical!). I much prefer where I sit on the political (and musical) spectrum. In the US I’d probably be called a Communist, but that’s what they call Bernie and he’s only just left of centre by the rest of the world’s standards (and the Political Compass). I think the US needs more of a choice than right or far right.

Having said that, if I had the chance, I’d vote Harris/Walz all the way!

Speaking of the USA. I believe that governments should be supporting people, not corporations.
I think it should be criminal for a government to let its people go bankrupt or homeless due to medical costs. And don’t get me started on the assholes who make money from locking people up! Prisons should not be for profit! Neither should schools!

Let me reiterate: I think Billionaires should pay their fair share of taxes and that unions should be encouraged.

I think that the USA would benefit from a large dose of Socialism. Isn’t the government supposed to be FOR THE PEOPLE?

Also… If you still support trump in 2024 and beyond then I probably don’t want to work with you.

If you can’t see that he is a worthless, racist piece of shit by now, then either:
1/ Perhaps you’re a sucker and you’ve been duped.
Or far worse,
2/ Perhaps you’re a worthless, racist piece of shit too.

Maybe you’re a bit weird?

Hopefully, by now I’ve shaken out anyone who wouldn’t agree with who I am and what I’m about.

I’m not actually this confrontational in real life, but this is my website and I figure that if you’re reading it I might as well make sure we’re a good fit to save us both time!

If you’re still here, maybe check out my offerings below: