Glenn Marsden is the founder of Imperfectly Perfect Campaign, an initiative focused on changing the face of mental health by dismantling the stigmas around it.

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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

Sure, after finishing my studies in Sports Science, I had an incredible career spanning 25 years within the health and fitness industry throughout the UK, Europe, Thailand, New Zealand and Australia through personal training, sales, operations to club management.

Within the scope of the past 18 months I transitioned into the coaching and consulting realm due to building an initiative that went international within 12 months from me adapting to learn digital marketing, networking, branding, social media strategy, public relations.

I was simultaneously taking a break from the health and fitness sector and jumping into construction (something I had not done since my college years). The reason for this was that I saw a way to lead with less stress (do a job, get paid, don’t take work home with me), double my earnings (due to working predominantly a lot of night shifts) and study whilst also building my initiative and implementing all I was learning.

On top of this I also qualified within the first year in life coaching and qualified in further modalities of business.

2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

4am wake up – to hit the gym (it’s my time for mental clarity as much as I love to stay fit and healthy physically, for me mental fitness is just as important.

6am – Breakfast time with the family. Important time to be alert and present with the family and enjoy those moments. Experience and memories are what make us.

8am – Go through my schedule to see what is on for the day.

8:30am – With consulting, I work one on one or present to organisations across Australia, the UK and the US so time zones are something where my time management has to be on the ball.

Between 9-5:30 is predominantly all locked in with consistency, if not a client for my own consulting, it is furthering my team with the imperfectly perfect campaign , my organisation which develops international workshops, programmes and retreats towards corporate wellness.

The IPC is the initiative I took internationally within 12 months, now has a reach of over 4.5 million, over 300 international influential public figures, highly acclaimed podcast and digital show and attracted international media and network coverage with our global efforts. 

3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?

My work revolves around working remotely. I cater to so many different time zones that my work revolves around my laptop and phone on the go.

I will never be one to say anything in life is easy, especially trying to juggle work, life, family, and more. But life to me is about the process and growth and about how you develop and learn to manage all areas.

There are 24 hours in a day and if each of these areas are important, you learn to schedule and prioritize with time management. There will always be ‘white gaps’ in your schedule, my advice – use that time wisely. 

4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

To me, it means a total focus on balancing both areas and it will always be a work in progress. Especially because of this thing we call life. Things come up, things change and you just have to roll with it and surrender to it at times.

I would never sit and preach to anybody that I have got it 100% right because I lead with owning my imperfections (my organisation is named ‘Imperfectly Perfect’) for this reason.

We just get more mindful of where that focus is and if it falters off course to one area more than the other, you pull yourself up on it or have amazing people around you to do that!

5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?

Started – I would say the habit of getting to know my schedule like the back of my hand with consistency. I mentioned earlier about the ‘white gaps’ to utilise them wisely. 

The whole thing with getting to know your schedule well and be on top of it consistently (I won’t lie it is hard, but worth it) you learn to prioritise, cap time spent on things that are not furthering your progression, organisation, personal life whatever it may be. You do that day in and day out and it becomes a habit that is unstoppable. 

6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?

Favourite books – I have read so many. I could mention any leadership or successful leaders autobiography to you.

For recommendations attesting to what i mentioned there about working on yourself, a couple of great ones:

• Letting Go by David R Hawkins
• The Buddha and the Baddass by Vishen Lakhiani
• Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty

The reason I recommend these are because wherever you are in life, the hardest thing to achieve anything you want lies within ourselves. 

The hardest thing to actually work on is yourself. We are conditioned from an early age of so many things that at times we lack the inability to overcome fear, or judgement which leads to procrastination and not doing or going for things due to all of these suppressed emotions or fears we harbour.

So these books literally speak on how we rewire all of those thoughts and teachings these authors have learnt in their own journey.

7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?

To be honest, many apps – my organisation filters so much of our content across multiple platforms and apps.  

8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?  

Somebody whom I have admired and taken so much from is Gary Vaynorchuck. To read an interview on how he has managed to combine a balance would be a fantastic read.  

The first time I came across Gary V, he was somebody that made a huge impact on me.

He addressed a conference and blatantly said there will be 1% of people in this room who listen to everything I say and implement it. The 99% rest of you will be back in this audience next year listening to me say the same thing because you didn’t. 

To me, it hit me and to this day everything that I have managed to achieve whether in consulting or taking the IPC international within 12 months is thanks to that man for speaking words that impacted me.

The day that I meet him, and it will happen. I have no doubt in my mind it will be the day I merely walk up, shake his hand and say thank you and walk away.

9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

I will leave it with saying really sit back in the silence to get clarity on what you really want out of life. Whether that means professionally, personally to you.

There is too much noise in this world and interference with people giving ‘their’ opinions to you. But only you know what you truly want if you are 100% honest with yourself. Learn to appreciate the small things in the process of trying or aiming to where you want to go instead of placing your happiness on the outcome and with work life balance – to those who have families, be honest with your situation.

Don’t try and kid yourself that you are giving all your time to your work so that once you attain the ‘goal’ whatever it may be then you can spend more time with loved ones. It doesn’t work like that.

Enjoy those that support you in the now. your family especially those children only see that their mum or dad is too busy to play with them and you may reach those goals but will your family still want to be around by then. They may have long gone by then. 

Learn to balance your time in the now because I always say to people with what I have learnt, you reach those goals and success and opportunity does come but what comes with it at times is possibly more things to manage to deal with or time that will take you further away from family. So make the balance 100% in the now.

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