#133 This Moment Changed Everything: Success, Struggle & Becoming Your Future Self

In this powerful episode, entrepreneur and endurance athlete Bruce Bignell joins me to share an honest, inspiring and deeply reflective journey, from childhood trauma and blended family life, to building a tech business, redefining leadership, and becoming the kind of man his younger self needed.

Bruce opens up about growing up between private school and state school, navigating complex family dynamics, searching for male role models, and the challenges young boys face today in a world of algorithms, screens and identity confusion. He explores how social media shapes validation, why kids are outsourcing self-worth to strangers online, and what parents must do to help them reconnect to real life, real people, and real values.

He also shares how a 3-month period of radical change, running ultramarathons, rowing the Channel, and transforming his nutrition, completely shifted his mindset and taught him how to back himself when everything felt impossible.

We dive into:

• Success: health, wealth, wisdom
• Masculinity: raising boys, male role models & blended families
• Mental health: resilience, identity & future self thinking
• Leadership: calm in crisis, inspiring change, seeing opportunity
• Risk: starting Evolve during Covid, hitting £70 in the bank, rebuilding
• Childhood: class, trauma, intuition, grounding and learning
• Technology: AI, humanity & why people will always matter
• Personal growth: redefining how you want your story to go

Bruce’s story is emotional, practical, honest and incredibly useful for anyone navigating business, fatherhood, mental health or big life transitions.

⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 – Introduction

03:17 – “You alright mate?” Bruce checks in

04:46 – Lessons from a tough year

06:54 – Success = health, wealth & wisdom

09:44 – Lifelong learning & curiosity

10:44 – Teenage Bruce: success, football & business

17:00 – Class, identity & bridging different worlds

20:42 – Male role models & blended families

24:32 – Masculinity & the Lost Boys

25:41 – Teens, rebellion & identity

31:31 – Social media & outsourcing validation

36:30 – Intrinsic vs extrinsic self-worth

41:04 – Early business exposure

46:04 – Sales, rejection & resilience

54:51 – Crisis, clarity & leadership

57:54 – What makes a true leader?

1:02:15 – Work Up & endurance challenges

1:07:51 – Nutrition & trusting his body

1:19:36 – Risk, money & resilience

1:23:03 – “There’s always another way”

1:31:03 – Building Evolve

1:35:49 – How we respond to life

1:47:00 – Future self vs current behaviour

2:00:40 – Advice to 16-year-old Bruce

🔗 CONNECT WITH BRUCE

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucebignell

🎧 LISTEN TO MORE EPISODES:

👉 https://www.different-hats.co.uk/podcast

SPONSORED BY:

Brown Bear Audio 👉 https://brownbearstudios.co.uk/

Carpenter Box 👉 https://www.carpenterbox.com/

Rivervale 👉 rivervale.co.uk

Produced by: H2 Productions www.h2productions.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.