Shot By Brock

When things get desperate, it can either lead you to the depths of despair, or it can lead you to take stock and fall back on something – anything – to keep you going. For some that might mean taking on a second job to pay the rent – for me that was working as a carer and a van driver. For Lorenzo Escobal it meant cleaning cars. He was broke, and when his job applications were met with rejection after rejection, there was nowhere else to go. Refusing to let pride get the better of him, he turned to the thing he’d done for his parents and neighbours growing up. Cleaning cars. But he didn’t just clean cars. He set in motion a chain of events that would lead to him scoring contracts with Google and Tesla. He would go on to be nominated Young Entrepreneur of the Year and his company would win numerous awards. He has since travelled the world building an international network and speaking to students and young business people around the globe. I got a chance to sit down with Lorenzo for this episode of my podca

It’s always cool to get to chat with someone who calls themselves an encouragement leader. Not only because we all need more encouragement these days instead of criticism, but because it’s great to speak about the human potential, and how we can all do so much more if only we’d get out of our own way. So when Monique Hohnberg said she would be on the podcast, I was over the moon. She’s the person who started Rise Regardless, a movement to encourage people to achieve more, do better, and build a better life, regardless of all the things standing in their way. And she’s been inspiring people all around the world. We chatted for an hour about building a positive relationship with ourselves, how it’s this fundamental self-worthiness that can help us get everything out of life that we are capable of and that we deserve. In this episode of the podcast we go off on a lot of tangents, all of them interesting and inspiring so have a listen, and let me know what you think. A few links: Monique’s website: www.risere

My big ambition in life is to make a career doing things that I enjoy and find interesting. For me that includes writing about mindfulness and the art of living, helping others, taking photographs, and talking to interesting people about interesting things. That's why I enjoy my recording my podcast. This latest episode is a perfect example of this, and it was a real honour to chat with Tony Wrighton who, like me, seems to be doing lots of things that interest him. If sport is your thing, you probably know him as a presented on Sky Sports, one of the biggest sport broadcasters in the world. But he's got a lot more going on than that, too. Tony is also an author, and one of the country's leading experts on Neuro Linguistic Programming, which is an amazingly powerful tool that uses language to create new behaviours, habits and ways of thinking. It has been put to use tackling addiction, improving self esteem, and is a fantastic communication tool for boosting engagement. And there are countless other applicat

Kerrin Black is driven. An entrepreneur in the true sense of the word, she's here to help. She travels the world as a publicist, trying to get the best coverage possible for her clients. And she runs two charities which aim to help those who can't the high costs of pharmaceuticals get the medicine they need. As if that wasn't enough, she is also the founder of Talent Finders – a resource for artists looking for clients and vice versa. But her biggest skill is network building. She is ferocious at reaching out to people, connecting people, and giving back with no expectation of getting anything in return. And it is this letting go of the desire for success where true success lies. I was lucky enough to spend some time talking with Kerrin about how we should give shamelessly, be unafraid of making fools of ourselves, and how anyone who throws their hat in the arena should be celebrated, even if they fail. This episode of the podcast goes in a lot of different directions, but it's well worth a listen. Kerri

Life is so unfair. That’s what I thought, anyway. I’d kept my head down, worked so hard, and did exactly what I was supposed to do. And while everyone around me seemed to be enjoying there rewards, I was still waiting for mine. It felt like an all-time low. I was getting up before dawn to deliver groceries to people, and feeling pretty sorry for myself. I never saw my wife, I could barely make ends meet. I was bitter and angry. But every day, as I drove my van from town to town, I got a glimpse behind closed doors into the lives of others. With every delivery I made I learned something. And I realised that while I was waiting for life, life was waiting for me. I learned a lot driving that van. Now my life is very different, overflowing with happiness and joy. And I wrote it all in my book. I talk about it more on my blog - https://www.chrisbrock.uk/blog/2018/7/10/do-the-thing-have-the-power - and on this latest episode of my podcast, which is just me rambling on for fifteen minutes about the journey I've

If you were to look at anything under an electron microscope – your lunch, yourself, your t-shirt, space dust, moon rocks, the bricks in your house, a slice of cheese – anything at all – you would see it’s made up of atoms. And those atoms are vibrating. It’s one of the first things we learn in physics at school – everything is vibrating. All the time. And everything vibrates at a particular frequency. If you heat something up or give it energy in some other way (think microwave ovens) it vibrates faster. If you cool something down it vibrates less. Everything vibrates at a frequency and everything has its own frequency. When you agitate something at the correct frequency, you can break it. Have you even seen the footage of the Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge that began to twist and turn in high winds before breaking apart? Or an opera singer breaking wine glasses by matching the frequency of her voice to the natural frequency of the glass? Did you see the "wobbly bridge" in London give visitors an unexpect

I had an amazing opportunity the other day, when I bumped into senior Buddhist monastic Chan Phap Vu. And when I say “bumped into” what I really mean is “followed around until he agreed to speak to me for twenty minutes.” Brother Phap Vu studied under Master Thich Nhat Hanh, and is an American monk of the Cinammon Tree Family in San Diego. He was ordained in 2003 at Plum Village monastery in France.  During our conversation I learned something that seems obvious in retrospect – that many of the problems facing the world, in particular those caused by mankind – are the manifestation of a fear mindset. Fear drives right-wing politics. Fear fuels greed. Fear drives the destruction of the natural world. Fear drives racism, sexism, poverty, and inequality, and these things are all harmful. To us, those around us, and the world we inhabit. So how do we change things, I asked?  The answer is through a state of mindfulness. By promoting compassion, empathy, kindness, and understanding. By promoting love, and lett

People like Yewande Akinola inspire me. She’s well aware of the voices in her head that try to stop her doing things, but she refuses to let them hold her back. Instead of allowing them to undermine her dreams of becoming an engineer, she overcame them and left Nigeria to study at Warwick University in the UK. Instead of letting the voices that asked, “but what will people think?” hold her back when she was invited by Channel 4 and National Geographic to present the television show Titanic: The Mission, instead she brushed them to one side and grasped the opportunity with both hands. Like all of us, she has those voices in her head telling her the task is too big, that she’s not good enough, that she’ll fail if she tries. But her excitement for what could go right is much more powerful than her fear of what might go wrong. As a child she would lie on her back and stare at the stars overwhelmed by the potential of what she could achieve. And she’s achieved so much. A specialist in water management, while h

I must have photographed Everton Bell-Chambers six or seven times – from the very beginning of my photographic career to where I am today, he’s always been lurking somewhere in the background, ready to get in front of my lens and help me out whenever I’ve had a creative itch to scratch and needed someone interesting to photograph. And Everton is certainly interesting. Born in Canada, bred in London, he’s dancing his way round the world. He’s got a batman tattoo and runs events for people of all ages who need somewhere safe and friendly to go and dance. And if you look closely you’ve probably seen him on TV, stealing the scenes in BBC television shows like Eastenders and the sitcom, Enterprice. He loves to perform – to dance, to DJ, to act – even modelling for photographers like Nick Knight, he’s a creative fireball and he’s setting the planet on fire. Lately he’s started working behind the lens, so I’d better watch my back. Having grown up with a diet of Batman cartoons and Michael Jackson videos, he tau

Laura Bingham is braver than me. She's eaten out of bins, swam in shark infested waters, been alone in the desert and worse. Much worse. But there's been better, too. Much better. When she travelled across South America by bike, without any money, she was forced to beg for stale bread and scavenge for scraps to keep her going. But there were times where she was overwhelmed by human kindness when she was offered more food than she could possibly eat. ​She's an adventurer and explorer, and she's driven to find out her limits, and then push beyond them. And there's a lesson for us all here. When you live a comfortable life you'll never know where your limits are. But if you can find them, and then push them just a little bit, you can grow. You can get stronger, cleverer, better, and you world gets bigger. It doesn't take huge leaps of faith to become extraordinary like Laura. It just takes little extra steps to go beyond the ordinary. That's all it takes to be extra-ordinary. And we can all do that. If we ju

I photographed the founders of Gun Brewery in Sussex, and spoke to one of the founders, Toby Smallpiece, about how he went from Internet Search Marketing to Craft Ale Brewing, and how everything came together as if by magic!

I photographed Mark Freeth of the Freestyle Yoga Project (https://www.freestyleyogaproject.com), and we chatted about what Yoga means to him.

I photographed John Doig, who founded Moons Green Charcuterie, and found out how he went from making television commercials in New York to making amazing cured meats in Kent, UK. And we chatted about the meat industry and following your dreams afterwards.

A conversation with master craftsman Charlie Palmer, about doing your own thing, following your dream, and reaching your goals.