Billy Keels  0:00  

Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels advisory services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to make it optional.com. Once again, that's make it optional.com.

Speaker 1  0:14  

Helping you build freedom without losing your edge. This is the going long podcast with Billy Keels.

Billy Keels  0:27  

Every single day that I get to sit here and share and exchange stories with some amazing leaders like it just makes me want to come back more and more and more, and today is absolutely no exception to that, because, you know, when I think about it, you start to realize that corporate soil can actually be exactly what you need to grow the strong roots of your vision and be able to take that vision and put it into action. Today's guest invested 20 plus years. Like, if you're watching the video version, you won't even believe that that's true. Like 20 plus years, and not only the hospitality, but also the enterprise, hardware and software industries, where he was leveraging all the things that he learned about business and, more importantly, about himself. And I really want you to focus in on this, because today, he's an endurance athlete who's preparing get this a world record attempt riding 1000 miles non stop. I did say riding 1000 miles non stop. He's not even smiling about it like this is real serious. This is amazing. And today he's going to share more about his journey and how he collaborates with partners and creates impact driven storytelling and meaningful brand engagement. It's amazing. Gives me great pleasure to welcome to today's conversation, the strategic advisor, as well as founder of both the challenges for greener future as well as the 1000 miles challenge, none other than himself, Mr. Olivier. Olivier, welcome to the show, man.

Speaker 2  1:56  

Thank you. What an introduction. Amazing. Thank you.

Billy Keels  2:00  

Oh man, this is so amazing. I Well, this is, these are just a few of the things that you have done and been able to share publicly, which I think is, which is absolutely fantastic and and I'm really looking forward to so many people around the globe being able to learn more about your story, the roots that it has, and also where you have taken the purpose led, driven mission that you're on. So I kind of shared just a little bit of stuff. But what I would love for you to do, Olivier, is just share with us your story. Also talk to us about how, like, how did you do, like, the corporate thing, and now you're actually out in your you're getting ready. You're going after a world record attempt, 1000 hours with non stop. Talk to us. 1000 miles. Excuse me, 1000 miles non stop. So talk to us. Talk to us. Man, help us understand a little bit

Speaker 3  2:52  

more

Speaker 2  2:52  

about you. I think we're gonna do something I didn't tell you. Gonna go

Billy Keels  2:56  

back to the past. Well, we like that. We like that. We'll see where the conversation goes. Okay,

Speaker 2  3:00  

I kept you some surprises, even though we know each other for a while, but some surprises, and I think people are going to listen to this podcast needs to if they want to connect, we need to share the truth. That's what I always say. This important also, we are human beings. We need to understand each other first and know my story is pretty important too. Just to go to the past, bring back to the roots. What's the core foundation of all that, all that energy that I get, where it comes from when I will make it short, when I was a child, when you born, you know, after one year, start to work this first steps. After 12 months. 12 months, my parents start to see that couldn't work properly. I was quite kind of suffering a lot, struggling and suffering a lot, yeah, start to go see the doctors and try to understand what was happening. Basically, after a year, we found out that was a huge virus that was eating part of my bones, my legs. Where did they come from? How did they stop? We still don't know. But it stopped for a reason and allowed me to still, still be able to work. But we love troubles, so from that moment, we start to see on and on, doctors after doctors, surgeries after surgeries. And I can tell you that for like the next 10 years, I've been into living to hospitals every summer when kids are just playing in the garden, enjoying the summer holidays. I was in a bed with a heavy surgery of 1015, hours, and then recovering for like, one two months, learning to walk again. I remember long nights where I had to still wait to try to go to a toilet. It would take me one hour because I didn't want to wake up. My parents nobody to not depend on, nobody. So this is my childhood. And then we fast forward till when I'm 11 years old. And I was 11, I think, or 12 maximum. And I remember going back to the doctor try to find another solution. So doctor was saying, like, this time we're gonna do this, and this gonna take like, excellent amounts of our surgery. And I said, No, you know what? We need to stop this. I want to be a child like everyone. I want to enjoy, and this is where we stopped everything. The doctor told me, I remember. Good luck. Good luck. Good you're in a wheelchair. We need. To like hip replacement and this and that, let's call you bets. Bet on my life.

Billy Keels  5:05  

And you made this decision at 12. You shared

Speaker 2  5:08  

this 1112, 1112, and I knew what I wanted. I started to move play around, do some sport. Was pretty hard to be very honest. I've been rejected by many Sport Club telling me that was not fitting mentally. You have to be strong to go through that. But I remember around 1617, discovered, I discovered boxing and martial arts. Like to it kick something inside me trigger and say, like, Okay, this is what I want to do. This is where I start to move and do a different sport. And I remember entering in any gym, telling my coaches, treat me like anyone. Don't make a difference. Don't worry about me. And this is how I get into sport. And then things start moving. Basically,

Billy Keels  5:47  

wonderful. So this is that. So, 1617, so how did you choose the mixed martial arts thing? I mean, because you could have, you could have chosen anything you were in other sports and, I mean, what was it that drew you there? I think it's,

Speaker 3  6:00  

I think

Speaker 2  6:00  

I was kind of a lonely boy being a child. So martial art being quite even if, though you work in teams, you You, you, it is you and yourself. You don't fight an opponent. You fight yourself. You fight yourself, your ego. So it came naturally. I would say just, I mean, life brought me to this. And I started with boxing. Then I went to Jiu Jitsu, which is kind of complete at the end user, whole body, so it could allow me to develop the whole body. And I don't know, I felt, I felt it quite natural,

Billy Keels  6:26  

okay, so from the very beginning, so you're, I would say you are working against the odds. You are going after what you want. You're listening to other people who have, quote, unquote, more expertise, more studies in the in the area of understanding the human body, the physical part of the body. What they may not understand is the mental fortitude or strength resilience of each individual, which is something I have a feeling we're going to come back to in this conversation. And so you're going through this, and you're in your now, 1617, and you found a part of now, something that you're continuing to tap in, and at the same time, I know that there was a stop, because we talked about two industries, specifically in both of these industries, by the way, I invested a lot of my life in both hospitality and enterprise, hardware and software. 26 years of my life was there. And so maybe you could talk to us a little bit about that experience that you had in in corporate life. And then I have a question for you that you may not be prepared for,

Speaker 2  7:26  

okay, yeah, move to hotel management by dedicated time, if you worked in that. You know how it works, not yet. This is your life that I called it the fever. The hotel fever was so driven by that you just dedicate your time. And it was very quick. I started as a reception agent, and I moved quickly, like to hotel manager in Brussels. Then I took a break of it. I remember that time Barcelona and Dublin was opening quite a lot of job offers, and I just decided to take a break, go to the sun, enjoy a little bit. And this is how I switched to it. And I started in sales, and it went very fast. Remember getting to all the biggest the biggest companies of Barcelona were limited SAP. This is where I met you, and this is where real sales happened. This is I before that went to a small company called EMS. I'm still grateful, and met my boss there Ben. Tell us who's quite famous. He teach me the art of selling. And I remember I just, like swallowed everything, and I thought myself, thought to myself, I'm going to be the best sales. And this is where I came to SAP after that. And man, I love that. I loved it because it was about understanding. I understood immediately. Wasn't about selling something. Was about understanding, connecting to the person in front, understanding the needs of the person you and actually, if you can replicate it to your life, you just understand human beings and relationships.

Billy Keels  8:46  

So, so you went from, from this idea of the management the fever, as you say, that the hospitality fever, because there's so much, there's such a wonderful like it attracts so many different people, and you get a chance to see the world and etc, etc. And then you get into the into the into the enterprise space, and there are a lot of lessons learned, but you also there it sounds like there was a lead of wanting to enrich your life, and you found these industries and found these particular opportunities, and then different geographies also felt like there's a pattern, because where, where were you born, and the fact that you were talking about you looking at Dublin, looking at at Spain, or specifically Ireland and Spain, like you have to have a certain kind of mindset to be able to leave your hometown. I'm a guy from Columbus, Ohio, and most of my friends think I thought I was kind of crazy going so far away.

Speaker 2  9:42  

So I was born in Togo, but I'm not even from Togo. I could have been born in Thailand, doesn't matter. So I was born in Togo. I'm from Congo in Belgium. I quite traveled quite a lot when I was a child, and I came to Belgium when I was like five or six, so, but from that time until I was. 25 I stayed in Belgium. But I would tell you very honestly, I can't explain something in my DNA, I knew, always knew, that I was going to leave Belgium very soon, as soon as I could, and start traveling the world. And yeah, I was 2025 26 when I moved to Barcelona. So I didn't wait too long. Actually, finished my studio, start to work. And I thought like, I need I need something else. I need sun and a new culture. I need to feel uncomfortable.

Speaker 3  10:25  

It's

Billy Keels  10:26  

interesting. Um, I never could understand it, either, but there was something that was calling me to, to move outside of of the US and specifically to Europe. Never been able to put my finger on it, but when I look back for what was supposed to be a one year sabbatical to go to France to learn French, to learn more about wine and to learn and to learn more how to Salsa dance, it's now been 25 years. It has been four different cities, three different countries, four languages, and so there's sometimes there's, there's something inside of you that is getting louder and louder, and you just have to listen to it. If not, it can, it can maybe drive you a little bit crazy. But so, so here's the thing, so you have this corporate experience, right? And in you could still be in a corporate life like you're still you've got, you've got the skill set. You've been through the things that work and the things that don't. And at the same time. One of the things I've learned in life is that every relationship ends right, and it ends either because you want it to end, because the other side of the equation wants it to end, or we just leave life and we're no longer alive. And so it sounds to me like your corporate relationship came to an end, and you've decided to take a lot of what you learned and focus it on something else. Can you give us some insight into what that was like for you, and why have you chosen the path that you're on right now?

Speaker 2  11:52  

I will, I will tell you how it went, and I'm not sure I chose anything. I think life chose me for that reason, and I just took what came but, yeah, this is

Billy Keels  12:01  

I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I really want make sure everybody heard what you just said, because we can find out many times that well, you have this preconceived notion, but please repeat what you just said about choosing or not choosing.

Speaker 2  12:16  

I And I'm being honest, I'm not sure I chose my past. I'm I'm quite sure one thing that life choose to show me something, and I decide to listen to it. It's more about that. So I've been very successful as a sales I would say that I earned good money, good revenue. Everything was stable. Every year was increasing in terms of recognition, overcoming challenges, getting promoted every time I was working in a company. I worked in SAP Oracle, everything was going very well, until life showed me that things can change just in a matter of a second, like this. So I was living with my girlfriend at the time. I had my three kids, which is Canada, one, and for reason, still, until now, I can't really put a name into it, but we decided to finish end up the relationship. I would say that at that time, it woke up something inside me that I had let sleep for a while, that I thought it was okay, so I just said, Hey, later on, later on that day, that little monster said, like, I'm gonna wake up now and make a mess out of your life, emotional life, until you listen to me, and this is what happened. I think we can call it a burnout. We can call it a severe depression. I don't know, but I know that something cracked inside me at that moment, and I will be very honest with you, it's very emotional to share that now, because that's the first time I talk about this openly, like this. When it happens, I remember telling to myself, I need to become a better man. I need to get out of this. I need to change and take this as a chance. So I immediately call a psychologist and said, I want, I want to meet you. I need to be a better man. I need to change this and this and that. I remember she told me, be honest with you. It wasn't my idea. She told me, okay, I get some appointments in three weeks, and I told her on the phone, you don't get it. I'm coming tomorrow. We start tomorrow. We start the therapy the next day. It went on for a few weeks, and I remember realizing something was going to change in my life at that time. And this is the moment I thought, like it's time to talk to my kids also, because I was not really myself. You know, not in my everything was changing around. So I sit with them. We had a little meetings on the ground. This what we used to do normally. We talk every week before they go back to see their mommy. We talk and how are you how are you feeling? What can I do better as a dad? What can you do better as a child? But that day, I said, like, this, gonna be very different. Today, I want to talk about myself and explained them the process I was going through, why I was quite absent, because I was going every week, I was rededicating my time, and I challenged them. I told them, we need to make an example to the world, because I know what I'm going through, and I feel all these people that go through the same and keep this in silence. Basically, this is where they challenged me to that you need to make a world record. You. First I had different offers from my kids, and I remember my daughter looking at me straight in the eyes, so the source, she said, Dad, you need to make a world record. The world needs to hear your story. And you know, kids can do things sometimes you don't understand. And remember, it touched me. And my story started that day, the same day I call them, took them, took the Book of Records, start to search. I saw cycling. I still can't tell you why, because I didn't like cyclists. I was the one nothing about cyclists when I saw them on the side of the road. Little story apart. I remember, when I start training, I saw my ex girlfriend the kids, and say, Hey, I stopped on the side of the road. She looked at me. She said, Oh, look at you. She saw me with the clothes, with the gears. Look at you. You see how life can change. Yeah, so

Billy Keels  15:50  

there's a couple things. So first, I just want to acknowledge you. I want to acknowledge you for deciding to share, allowing us in to this part of your life. And, you know, and I've shared here on the show as well, I very similar type of story of things good, constantly going in the right direction, all, you know, things moving up and going through also divorce and going through business partner situation all at the same time. And so it, what it does is it can it's one of those moments in life where you either decide that you will collapse to those things around you, or it gives you the opportunity to rise up, to be resilient, to reinvent or find the next path. And so it sounds like when you were going through these moments, that that was also the time for you that your your your corporate life, let's say that was the time for it to say, Hey, listen, I need to find this other path. You have your children that are motivating you saying, Hey, listen, Dad, go out to set the go out and set a world record. Up until then, am I? Am I following you correctly?

Speaker 2  16:56  

Yeah, yeah. Actually, what happened is that it went naturally. I would say the process went naturally because I was into a corporate life, I was already working from home quite a lot, so I had a lot of flexibility. The beautiful thing is that my manager at the time was really understanding what I was going through. She gave me some space, some time, and I would say that I did the first so basically, I went through the first world record while I was working. Was not easy, but I could manage both of them, but at a certain point, something changed inside me, and she called me she said, let's have a let's have a face to face talk. You're changing. You're kind of flying away. Why don't you take the truth? Why don't you take some time to prepare yourself and look, we're going to find solutions. Because you've been good to the company we love in the team, we can help you, in a way, another one and fund an agreement at the end, but it's clear that a certain point, it's only like, Hey, I think we make you a favor. You need to go. So which is the best thing that happens?

Billy Keels  17:49  

Yeah, and this is, this is one of those things in I believe that one of those things, you know, up to a certain point, you're able to coexist. And can you talk to us a little bit about what that was like for you, because we have a lot of of people who, as they're watching, as they're listening, they're thinking, okay, Olivier, you've already done what I want to do. But you know, I feel like, in the way that I could explain it is, and I went through something very similar, is you feel like you're cheating on your employer, but at the same time, it's like there's this balance of this, something that gives you lots of energy and something that is also a part of your identity, which is probably part of your corporate life, and people feel uncomfortable about that, but I think the more that we can talk about it is, the more that we can normalize it. So can you maybe talk to us what that was like, trying to balance those things for you? Yeah, and the challenges and maybe some of the upside.

Speaker 2  18:41  

It's all about being honest. It's like a relationship, you know, whatever you're going through at the end, we spend more time with our colleagues and our wives and kids because we spend like, eight to 10 hours together. It's all about being honest. First of all, that's the first thing I would recommend to anyone, is like, talk your situation, explain what you're going through, because at the end, we know each other, we live together for a long time. And I would say that, yeah, that's that's if you do things right, that's a natural transition in the sense that you have to prepare yourself for the worst case scenario. That's what I did. And I live with the What If. I love to live with the what if, what if it works, not what if it doesn't work. Always positively. What if it works? So one thing I knew at the time, for example, I said, like, I'm going to leave from that anyways, what if it works? What if I was given the chance to know already my myself from the future came back say, hey, I can tell you one thing this is going to work for you. So take it easy. That's what I did. Basically. I thought, like, Okay, I give myself eight months to get ready, and then we'll see. But in eight months, I prefer the heavy plan, like Plan A, B, C, how I'm going to earn, how much I'm going to earn, how long am I going to survive? How many challenges do I need to do? What can I bring to this world? What is my benefits? What is my why? So I worked on all that during all this time I was working at the same time corporate spend some time aside and slow. Least step by step. Guess what? When the time came, I was not even surprised when they call me and say, Hey, we got a letter for you check your bank account. I think you can go. I was not emotionally. I was stable. I was balanced because I knew it. I was waiting for it. I prepared myself. I got good advice also. So it's all about Yeah, prepare. Prepare for what's going simply,

Billy Keels  20:21  

yeah, and so I love the framing of what if I like to say when, when it works, what will happen? How will I feel? And I love that, because we're usually spending so much of our mental energy on what happens when it doesn't work versus what happens when it does. And there's actually a lot more challenges that you run into, because when things start to work and you're like, Whoa, hang on. Hang on. A second. I wasn't, I wasn't prepared for this. One of the things that's that I'd love for you to talk about. And then I really, really, really, like, I want to hear more about the 1000 miles challenge, because I just think this is amazing, you know, as you're going for world records and but does it happen perfectly the first time Olivia has it? Like, is, this is your very first time you're doing this, and this is already working perfectly. Is that how you've gotten to this point?

Speaker 2  21:06  

Welcome to the Keels.

Billy Keels  21:10  

What do you mean? Talk to talk to us about because it's not like you were high achiever during your corporate life. You've overcome all the odds. I would just assume that as soon as you try something, once it works perfectly.

Speaker 2  21:20  

No, no, no, no, no. If it was that easy, everybody would do that. Nobody wants to be on a bicycle for days riding, first of all, because it's not easy. You sometimes want to give up. You have to dedicate life time create a team. So that's I'm managing. Basically, you have to understand that I'm managing corporate life, business life in training, life also, which is, live like an athlete. At the moment, I'm training two to three times a day, and trust me, this is heavy trainings. At the same time, I'm doing my marketing communication, making sure everything is on track. Because I build also more than a record I'm I'm going to try to draw you the big

Billy Keels  22:02  

you're going to draw the big picture.

Speaker 2  22:04  

For sure, this is a this is not just about sport. Innovating was about sports. So I just decided to make this first challenge, but understood quickly that I could impact the world. Because my main question was, okay, if I throw myself in this water, I want to be part of the world. I want to leave a legacy for my kids. But what is my why? That's what I suggest to people when they listen to me, to my talk, is, ask yourself, do you want to live corporate life? Yes, okay, that's a good thing, but what do you bring to this world? What is the things that enlighten you? And this is your why. Once you understand this, you can sell shoes. If you know you want to make people work better, sell shoes if you want to make money of shoes. That's not good. You're not in the good way. There's the same as me. Do I want to be a cyclist? Yeah, maybe, but it's not my why? My why is I want to show people how limitless we are, but also I want to be a greener advocate for the future. Because I thought to myself, I love training. I sleep outdoor. I live in the mountains most of my time. I take my kids to the nature I see all this. So I thought, like I have an impact. I have a platform. Let's build a platform. Let's impact this world. Change behaviors about clean mobility. So this is where I build my my message, my platform. And I created these challenges. So basically, these challenges are an excuse to impact and spread a bigger message, bigger messages. We have to change our behaviors. We can't just give up on cars and everything and say, like, we got to change, make a better world tomorrow, but we can change step by step, or use the way I go. For example, I go to the schools. I talk to kids also. I love to do that. What I tell them is, if you can change a little bit once a month, every Saturday, go to buy the bread with your bicycle. With your dad, you make a step forward. You don't need to give up on the car to go to school every day, but if you can, once a week, once a month, go by bicycle, man, you make a step forward. And we will all, as a community, change the world. And this is what I'm intending to impact on my way doing extreme things. But at the end, I know that the message gets bigger.

Billy Keels  24:01  

Yeah, and just speaking to the message, and I know I will ask you later on, but like, because it's such a powerful thing, and when I hear you say that you want to help us to understand how limitless we are, and we're limitless by taking very tiny actions, but doing it consistent, consistently. It's it's fantastic. Now I'm going to ask you later on. But can you tell me, like, Where can we find out more about how we can be limitless, or through your website, or through, like, what's the best way to know

Speaker 2  24:29  

finishing the website? Actually, we're just rebuilding the website. It's going to be live, I think, in 24 hours. But otherwise, people can follow me on social media, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and I will be honest with you right now, all my social medias are off. I just disappeared because I need to focus. I'm on a very important moment. Now. Social media is taking a lot of mental loads, but basically when the challenge will be announced. So we come by the end of May, maximum, at the latest, will be announced. We have a date. So to do this before this. Summer, there will be live tracking. People will be able to see it live, because I have a whole team basically with me. This is a whole big deal. We are seven to eight people traveling that day. So basically, 1000 miles. Can I bring you to this directly?

Billy Keels  25:14  

Yes, yeah,

Speaker 3  25:15  

I've done a live chat. Wait,

Billy Keels  25:19  

sorry, sorry, sorry, yeah, I said, Yes, you can go straight to 1000 miles. And I want to understand the challenge. But what I actually want to what, one of the things that I want to highlight, because many times in your corporate hyper high achiever, you want to, as we say, dot all of your eyes cross, all of your T's. The reality is, is, as you build and as you are moving from the silos and the specialization of corporate and you are building new skills outside of that, I want everyone to understand and just feel the the the naturalness that Olivier just shared with us, and that, hey, listen, there's still some things that are being built, but this is the way that you can find me, because as You're building or you're re engineering, it's part of the process. You don't have to have every single thing done. And before you go to the 1000 miles, is there anything that you want to talk about that Olivier, just like it's not always perfectly done?

Speaker 2  26:12  

Yeah, we can stay on this. That's pretty important too, because I'll give this message for anybody listening. If you go for your passion. This is not going to be easy, but if you have some hurt, so you know the way you do it, you have to know already you have and I think you live the same.

Speaker 3  26:29  

You

Speaker 2  26:29  

have to go through fire sometime, but it is okay. This is building you and be ready to go on and on. Have some setbacks the moment you can sit and watch, what can I do better? And what if it works again? Because 1000 miles have been postponed two times already. It's been two years. I'm preparing it. This is my secret. I tell you, I swear I never said it to nobody, so you're the first one to hear it. It's been two years. You know what I did for these two years? Every time it happens, I said, and I said, Okay, what if I was guaranteed that this project happens? What can I do better? You know what? I make a movie out of it? The first time was that was just a challenge. And I said, You know what? We make a movie out of it? Search for Team contract. We get a movie now coming. So we'll record a movie, I will present it to the theater, and we possibly get a big contract coming out of that, because I guarantee you my story is going to sell. Second time it was postponed. I had a choice to sit down and cry my tears, because I lost a lot of money, of time investment with the team, prepared everything. We had to cancel because we couldn't get the fundraising. We didn't say, You know what? We make a photo exhibition living for the exhibition is going to go through five capitals. We talk about the nature, the impact and and on and on and on. At the end, I find myself with a huge platform that works. It's about to happen now, the biggest project of my life. I'm so proud of what my team and myself achieved. So it's about never give up. But it's not just a sentence, you know, it sounds a bit too like repetitive, but it's about understanding that nothing is easy. My first world record attempt, we went. I remember the 12th of September. You know what? We had to give up at half of the way, 500 kilometers. We had to stop. My team was not ready. Things can happen, is I want it. I came home. I was broken, destroyed, mentally and physically, because 500 kilometers, you don't come back from this that easy? I had a choice. Either way I was going back to my career, working career. Either way I was going to prepare and go again three weeks after I went for it, and I just get it. So it's about like, make sure you know why you do that you become unstoppable. But it's about to find your why,

Billy Keels  28:35  

so So connecting with your why, and that whole thing, and I love talking about it, it's like, you have to be clear. Like, before you can do anything else, you have to be really clear about what it is that you want to do and why you want to do it, just as you just shared so and I know you've given us a little bit of a sneak preview, but, and since we both were here in Spain, you know, there's this saying, la tercera, la bentida. So it's like the third time is the charm. And so here is, is what I would love for you as to give us some more insight into as this attempt, as this 1000 miles challenge, is happening. Talk to us about the genesis. Talk to us about whatever you want to talk to us so that we're more informed about the 1000 miles challenge, where, it get, where it comes from, where it's going. Who's involved? Who can be involved, to support?

Speaker 2  29:26  

Yeah, that's so that's so far the biggest project of my life, physically, mentally, business wise, also, because I decided to bring something bigger than life, I don't think you have seen any athlete coming with this kind of project, like saying to companies like, Hey, I'm not looking for sponsorship. I'm looking for partnership. We're going to work together on this. So I don't, I don't need brand visibility. I'm bringing you something. We're going to create activation. Explain you this. But basically, physically, I contacted the team of the Guinness and I said to them, Hey, I want a page. I want a page in your book. This time, not just a small paragraph. I want a page. And say, okay, 1000 miles. She can do that under 90 hours. It's yours. I said, Yes. Immediately, I signed my team. Look at me. I say, are you mad? You know the pro cyclist. Are you mad? Yeah, I'm going to prepare for that. So that's one thing. So in terms of history, I thought I need to connect my both homes, my roots. So I will cycle from Brussels to Barcelona, because this was my first trip that changed my life. So Brussels to Barcelona. Under 90 hours, I will cross hope out of Belgium, France and reach Barcelona. That's about the story. I will cycle this under 90 hours. I would say more 80 hours. So basically, where am I good? I'm good at mental resilience. I'm not the best cyclist to go. I'm not fast, like like, a super cycle, it should be, but I'm good at the resilience. So basically, I will cut on sleep. I will do something people used to do and prove them that if I do this, guys, you can do it. You can do that. And on another level, everyone has a struggle at the end. It is about your kids, your wife, your work, friendships. If this guy showed that he can open door, I'm a door opener. Basically, I will open doors for mental resilience. I'm about to do that in three days, with like, 15 to 45 minutes of sleep per night, maximum, maximum. And

Billy Keels  31:10  

how many per night?

Speaker 2  31:11  

15 to 45 minutes of sleep per night, maximum, really, but I'm planning to do a bit less. We'll see where brain can go. But I guarantee you that, yeah, we do it. This is going to this is already done. This is already planned.

Billy Keels  31:24  

It's already done. It's already in the plan. And so when you do that 15, as you're you're doing 15 to 45 minutes of sleep, then you're continuing. Is that part of the training?

Speaker 2  31:33  

Yeah, I'm training now at night sometimes. So what I do is that I have a normal, decent day work, train, go buy food, whatever, and at 10pm take my bicycle and go riding the whole night until 3am 3am I come home and I try to reproduce the schedule. Sleep for 2040, minutes. You feel, get kind of dizzy when you wake up, eat something and go ride again until 1112, in the morning, just to see how the body responds. So now my body is kind of used to it. So there is a Beautiful Struggle, a beautiful pain, that I call into this. And then I would recommend to anybody to find, in a way, another one. When you get into this deep ocean, when the weather becomes dark, trust me, it is really about like, who am I? Because the first time it happened, I remember when I did the first 1000 kilometers record, I heard this voice inside me, like screaming to me, screaming like, you can do that you made for this. And I thought to myself, is it me when I came home, I remember after 1000 kilometers, I was destroyed. The first thing I said, I want to go back there. I want to meet this part of me. Because I didn't know I was that strong, capable to do it. So it's about also to explore basically, what the mental is capable to do. Because going through this, you can't prepare for that for 1000 miles. You just need to leave it.

Billy Keels  32:49  

And so when you when you have something that you can't prepare for in the moment. So I'd like to think about this, and I'd love to have your your thoughts on this is, you know, when you're going through moments that are really painful can be emotionally painful, can be physically painful. You realize that that things are happening to you because it feels like things are happening to you. It's only with reflection and time that you realize that they happen for you for a reason you just don't really understand it. And so having gone through that pattern in life. How does that? How does that help you face those moments that you know will be feeling like they are happening to you, and though you have to get through that and realize that they were happening for you,

Speaker 2  33:36  

once you know it, once you know that life only wants good for you, it's become so easy embrace them. I embrace them honestly. Every failure, what we call failure, everything that doesn't go the way I want, and that's what I told you, life choose for me, I don't choose. We don't I don't believe we choose so much. I think this is a scenario we need to accept. If you the more you resist, the more painful, painful it becomes so the same. I choose to do 1000 miles. What do you think is going to be magic? I won't feel anything. Yes, I'm going to suffer, but yes, it's going to stop the same way that climbs on the road, the same way it goes down. So take it easy. It hurts. Yes, in five hours, you will be completely crazy and happy again on the bike. I know it's for a fact. So take it easy. It is windy on the road. It's the same. Take it easy. Slow down and wait till the wind turns. And when you turn speed up. It's the same about life. Not all the project goes as you want, not all the relationship goes as you want, but know that there is a reason why. There is a why. You know all goes in your favor.

Billy Keels  34:34  

The things are working in your favor. Yeah, I really it's a great it's a great way to recognize that, you know, life is here, the universe, your higher power, is working in your favor, and everything is already worked out. It's just a matter of accepting that and lowering the resistance and walking into it, you know. So there's a number of different things that we've talked about for from things. You starting in life. But is there anything that that, that we maybe have not talked about Olivier, that that you feel is really important for the going long family, to to hear, to understand before I kind of get into I do have a another question for you, but

Speaker 2  35:17  

tell it right now. The main message has been, I spread the main message. And I think it is very clear, is it is not only for me, because people ask me sometimes when I give motivation speeching in corporate corporate life, like, oh, what? What should I do if I want to leave my because I want to leave my work, but don't live blind. Just learn from that, because at the end, it's going to help you. You will only replicate what you've learned. Because I'm grateful I've been through the corporate life because I'm just replicating it now. My way to work, my way to achieve things, is because of what I've learned before. So I would say the main message is corporate life is very important, as long as you learn from that and you just once you feel ready, make sure that you can does it work with my future life? Basically, then I didn't waste my time.

Billy Keels  36:02  

I love that. So this is one of the things I was talking to a buddy of mine, actually, he he was on the podcast. His name is Maurice, and he and I were talking, we talked a lot about a lot about life. We talked a lot about, you know, just the same things you're talking about right now, lowering resistance and things like that. And one of the, one of the in a recent conversation we were talking about, you know, how do you how are you just accepting that things are working out in your favor? But then we got into the topic of corporate, and he and I actually viewed corporate very differently. He, from the very beginning, recognized that you can use your talents. However corporate is. It is a place for you to actually develop and hone your skills. It's not a place for you to lose your identity. That was, that's his point of view. And so my point of view was, I went in thinking that my identity was corporate. It was only later that I realized like, you can really enjoy corporate without giving all of your like yourself, and you can give more than corporate expects you to give. But it took me a long time, and a lot of that has to do with the way that I grew up and in some of the mindset that I had. But there is no one size fits all for everything. And I just, I don't, I'm just curious for you, Olivier, if you're more like, how, how my buddy Maurice saw corporate, and there's no right or wrong answer,

Speaker 3  37:31  

yeah,

Billy Keels  37:32  

but I was what we say. I was drinking the Kool Aid from day one, and it was only until later that I realized, like, okay, maybe I didn't have to do all those things, and I would still would have done just as well. But I don't know if you have a if you have a thought, I

Speaker 2  37:46  

agree more with you. I The way I see it is, and there's nothing bad in what I say towards corporate life. Corporate work is more about building the foundation. It's like going to school. You go to school is not to it is not to memorize, to learn at the end, it gives you a structure, a way to classify, to wake up from time to time, to go from that hour to that hour. You see that where I'm going, it is building a foundation. The moment we open the cage, we set you free. You just need to find the light. Once you find the light, the light will connect with what you've learned before, and you become a master of your life, as simple as that. But I believe that my identity at the end, I could only, like, deploy it once I left corporate life. This is the moment I saw like, wow, this is me. Okay. I'm sorry. It doesn't match anymore. This is like, an relationship with my ex is like, I'm sorry. Where am I right now? Thank you for what you've learned to me, because without you, I wouldn't be in this life now. So thanks for bringing breaking up with me, yeah, but I wouldn't be able to come back with you for what I became now. It doesn't match. It doesn't remove the fact that you teach me so much that I will always be connected to you. And I'm always saying that I'm so thankful for the past experience I had, my past jobs, my managers, because they've brought me to who I am now, and that there is no wall record either. So one works with the other one. But you're, you're through you, who you are. Can only, for me, can only deploy once you leave that, that that place, like someone call it, okay, it's not very positive. But once you leave the place, once you start by yourself, yeah,

Billy Keels  39:19  

that environment changes. It's it's different. So I appreciate you sharing that, and we're going to get ready and wrap things up. But I do have one question, because it's something that I just as you're talking right now, when, when I was going through life, so much of life, as we mentioned earlier, everything worked perfectly. Everything was going on as it should have gone, and sometimes even better. But it was for me, 2023 that helped me to realize that not everything goes according to plan we talked about earlier. And you know, just in this form of sharing, whether it was personal life or whether it was professional life, things didn't go according to the plan that I had in my mind. And during that time as. A kind of a classic high achiever. Everyone always came to me to help me. I came I helped other people fix their issues, right? I won't necessarily call them problems, but their issues. But this was a moment where I chose not to talk to a lot of people I really was holding within myself, but the few people that I did allow in, I started realizing it was just a matter of letting people care for me, understand what was really happening, and being able to pour into me. And even with that support, I realized that there was one person that really needed to be supportive of me, and that was me. And it took a moment where there was a like, there is a visualized, it just like yesterday, where I literally looked myself in the mirror, and I said to myself the things that I won't necessarily say here, but it was I had to hear myself say certain things to change the situation that I was going through. And so I always think about it. And you know, as life is happening for you, when things are going really, really well, we don't tend to think about it, because things are going well. When you're in the bottom, it kind of, you can get stuck in this feeling of, oh my gosh, it's I'm not going to go back up, right? But you and I both know that it's the things that you say to yourself when things aren't going according to plan that can help to build that mental resiliency muscle. And so I want you to think about like, Bolivia, you're looking three years down the road. You're already down in whatever. I don't want to timestamp this, but three years in the future, you know that you're going to have a lot of high moments, and you know you're going to have some moments that are going to be tough, right? What is the one thing that you would like to share with us, because there's a bunch of people all around the globe listening, but it's that one thing, that one sentence that you know you need to say to yourself that's going to help you move from that bottom to start moving back up. What's the one thing you would say to yourself that you would let us listen to?

Speaker 2  41:48  

Have some gratitude. Appreciate life. Appreciate every bit of life, because everything is designed for you. Have gratitude. Gratitude for the moment with you, gratitude for the smile of the person that looked at you in the street. Gratitude for what you eat. The moment you wake up and you will see life changes completely. That's magical sentence that I heard once, and I understood this changed my life completely. And I would say to anybody that clicks with what I say is, get yourself a book. Start to write about your gratitude every day. It becomes automatically after, but it switch your frequency to something more positive. And it's like I heard this video from, oh well. I heard this video of this guy saying, like, you enter in the room, and if I tell you, Billy, can you tell me what's read in the room? You won't be able to say, you think, say, Okay, close your eyes, open. Watch carefully and tell me what's red you will see you only see red. Is the same with gratitude. Once you focus, you will attract so many good things and realize how beautiful life is, and it's just a process. And, yeah, that's my best advice. Have perfect attitude,

Billy Keels  42:54  

have some gratitude and and be able to focus on that gratitude. Well, I will tell you like it's one of these things, like the conversations, they literally and I repeat this every single time, and I feel like this is another time to share in that from the very beginning of the conversation, like you, I asked you to talk about moving forward, and you said, let me take a step and go back to the past and being able to allow us in and really get an understanding of not just your first year of life, but your first 10 or 11 years of life, when you went in and out of doctors and and you heard that, you know, things were not going to work in the right way, and you're going to be in this particular situation for your whole life. And at 11 years old, you you were able to have the audacity to say, Stop, we're going to do this a different way. We're going to do this my way. And you went through all of the different trials, and you didn't want to be treated differently than anybody else. And you let the doctors know, and you let the coaches know, and you let everyone that was around you know that you wanted to be treated just like everybody else. It didn't mean that what you were going through wasn't painful. It didn't mean that what you were going through wasn't going to help detect you to the next level, but it also helped you to get to that point where you're 1617, you're like, you know what? I really like this stuff. This stuff. This is mixed martial arts. This is something that's going to be completely different, something that's going to change. And then you let us go from there to into your life and recognizing, like, Hey, listen, you got into the hospitality fever. And you recognize that that was there. And then you went through another opportunity where you're talking about events and how you start to share vision. And then you went and said, Hey, listen, is it going to be Ireland? Is it going to be Spain? And then something took you to to Spain. And you get to another moment where you're thinking to yourself, hey, IT industry, hardware, software. And you allowed yourself to go through a number of different changes. And then, as things were continuing to go well, you had a reminder that life doesn't always work once again in the way that you want it to work, and whether that was a relationship that was changing and transforming in a way that you didn't anticipate, what it did provide for you was the opportunity to sit down and share with your children what was going on, what was happening, and your children were able to shine a light that said, Hey, listen, that. You know, you know what, all of these things that are happening. Thank you, but you need to go out and set a world record. And so then what did you do? Is another reason for you to connect with your why? And you continue to do that. It doesn't happen on the first time maybe, and it doesn't happen on the second time, maybe, but that's because it's giving you the opportunity to now take those previous experiences, share with others, share your message, share your voice and have others be able to join you and be a part of what you're now on and that you're sharing with us now is the 1000 miles challenge beyond other things, the many challenges that you do. But everybody here is just going, Yeah, Billy, but just ask him the question and stop talking. So let me ask you the question, Olivier, and you've told us before, but what is the best way for the go along family to find out more about you connect with you also find out how they can be a part of what it is that you're doing in the 1000 miles challenge and other challenges.

Speaker 2  45:51  

You've said it the 1000 miles challenge. I do not want to be alone on this. This is big time what we're going to achieve. I mean, I'll make history. Let's be honest and humble. But I make history, and I cannot do that alone. So I'm looking for partners at the moment, people that really want to stand by something strong. It is about resilience. It is about also strong message about impacts. Impacting the world, clean mobility, and there's a lot of topics about ESG, sustainability. So people, if people think, like, Okay, I want to follow this project. I want to go on with him. I'm still looking for people or companies to come on board of this project and become my partner. But I'm building really, like, lasting, lasting partnership. So, like, I want to really create something long term, because I created a lot of legacy projects. Basically, the plan is this, I see the future. Okay? I do 1000 miles record. I just break the record. Go to the Guinness Book. We launched the movie. I win the festival selection. We launched the book right after that. And then we do, we go for the photo exhibition. It travels through Europe. And this is how the project will live for year and a half. Basically what's going to happen? That's my matrix plan. This is my vision. It's clear it's happening. So basically, I'm looking for people, companies to want common, board with me and follow me, basically for this year and a half coming. How they can find me? LinkedIn. I'm very active on LinkedIn for the moment, Instagram and Facebook is going to be more for the time of the record, to connect with me, follow it live, see me going through every period, stroke and encourage, yeah, and I'll be collaborating with different NGO also about that. One of them is good planet. I'm an ambassador for them. So I go from school to school with them also. But basically everything, the best way to find me is on LinkedIn, directly.

Billy Keels  47:38  

All right, fantastic. So check him out, Olivier. DOOL j, A, D, o, u, l, we're gonna make it really super simple for everybody. All you have to do is take click a link, and we'll take you directly to his to his LinkedIn page. And as I always say, Everybody, please, please, please, when you reach out to Olivier, not if, but when you reach out to him, just let him know that you've already heard more about him, his story. You've invested time here today on the Billy Keels on the going long podcast with Billy Keels, it just makes the conversation that the two of you have just move so much further and so much faster. So listen. Olivia, I want to say thank you very, very much, and I will say this from the bottom of my heart, man, for you deciding to invest your time with us, be so transparent and so gracious with your time. Really, really do appreciate it, and know that we are rooting for you. It's going to be phenomenal, already, envisioning that with you and as you go out and set this world record, the Guinness world record in the 1000 miles challenge, man, thank you so

Speaker 3  48:36  

much.

Speaker 2  48:36  

Thanks to you. Thanks for the time. Thanks for the moment. I appreciate it too, and let's talk soon. Anyway, like I told you, I see you at the arrival. You're in Barcelona. I will meet you there. Definitely

Billy Keels  48:46  

fantastic. Sounds like a plan? I think we can, I know we can do that. So that's that's it. So,

Speaker 2  48:51  

so

Billy Keels  48:52  

listen, thanks, Olivier, and listen to the go along family. Thank you so much for deciding to invest your time with Olivia and I go out and make it A great day. And thank you very, very much.

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