YouSaid · the spoken record

Tom Aspinall

lines on the record: 173
first: 2025-06-26
most recent: 2025-06-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Listen, if anybody can do it, and just saying about the special thing. I wasn't born special. And like he said, I am from the most regular background that you can come from. And I don't mean to say, I'm not saying I'm special in the fact that like I'm better than anybody else because I believe that anybody can be special. And I think more people need to believe it. You know what I mean? I think that more people... If they work hard enough and don't quit on themselves, they can be special as well. And I think we'll leave it at that.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The reason that I don't, I think that's the only thing holding me back because everything when I'm awake, everything's geared towards me being the best that I can be. So I think maybe I like sleep a little bit too much.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Good question. It's a good question. I like to think I work as hard as I can, but I think if everybody looks theirself in the mirror I think everybody could work a bit harder. I think I probably like sleep too much.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But this is something that I've experienced a lot myself, and it's proven, at least to me and to George as well, that it can be done.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable the way that that can happen. And like you say, you'll see me. I'm stood there in the octagon and I am scared to death. My opponent is looking at me across the octagon like he wants to kill me. And I'm looking back like I'm in the queue for a sandwich. By design. By design, I do it. The same with the walk to the gun. There's a million people throwing beer on me, shouting in my face, booing me, sticking fingers up in my face, saying that I'm going to die literally while I'm walking to fight another human being. Look like I've just woke up and taken the dog for a walk by design because if your body does it sooner or later, your mind will start to follow. And like I say, this is like a bro science thing probably.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Smiling, in all honesty. I'm not in a smiley mood, but when you smile, you feel good, you relax, you enjoy yourself, you're confident. So I will walk round fake smiling, with my head held high and my shoulders back, like there's nothing bothering me in the world, not because there isn't anything bothering me, because trust me on fight day there's a lot of stuff bothering me. I have to get in there in front of millions of people and have a fight with someone. And it's highly likely that I'm going to be separated from my own consciousness in front of millions of people. The last thing I want to do is walk around with a smile on my face with my shoulders back, with my head up high, being friendly and nice to people and being in a good mood and being relaxed. That's the last thing I feel. But I purposely walk round like that all day in every situation that I can possibly be in. And sooner or later, believe it or not, my mind will actually start to follow my body's lead.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thing with GSP is he, like me, has always admitted how scared he was. And that's something that I've watched countless interviews and podcasts with him and how he talks about it and stuff. And he used a method and he actually told me about the method where I'm not sure what the method's called and I don't even know if there's any scientific evidence behind it. But it works for him and it's worked for me on multiple occasions where if you physically present yourself in a way that even if mentally you don't feel like that, like on fight day, for example, the last thing I feel like doing.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's all by design, though By design, yeah. So one of my absolute heroes in the sport of MMA is a guy called GSP, George St. Pierre. He's one of the best fighters to ever lace up the gloves. But not only that, he's one of the best humans as well. I'm lucky enough to have met him a few times and had some deep discussions with him. And he's someone I've studied a lot, both inside and outside of the octagon over the years.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And there's only one thing that's made him pick that wardrobe up, and it's fear that that kid is going to get crushed under that really heavy wardrobe. And when he actually went to pick the wardrobe up without that, there was no way he could have done it. He had to wait till somebody came and help him move the wardrobe across the room. There was no way that he could have done it without the fear. And there's so many situations like if you're running for your life, 100% guaranteed that you're running way quicker than you would if you were just running down the street. Goes without saying because that fear fuels you in ways that nothing else will. And I have accepted that and took it on board and used it to help me.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I always say that I used to have two fights. I used to be fighting my opponent. I used to be fighting myself. I used to be trying to block out the fear, trying to like, but you know what? I just took it on board and accepted that this is going to help me. There's so many examples over the years. I like to give this example because this actually happened to one of my close friends. Put in a wardrobe up, and the wardrobe is like a really heavy wardrobe fell on his kid who was like not even walking at the time. He is a skinny guy, like he's a small, slight guy. Was on his own and he pulled the wardrobe off the kid, right And then, anyway, everything was fine. The kid was fine. Everything, whatever. Five minutes later, he went to move the wardrobe to another part of the room and realized that he couldn't pick it up.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that I have first of all, I think I'm really physically gifted. in terms of athleticism, but it's something that I have worked on a lot as well. I didn't just wake up like this. I've definitely worked a lot over the years of it. But I think that aside, I think I've got a gift mentally. And this has been... Honed a lot by the people around me through the years. Like I said, there's been a lot of people supporting me, but I think I've got a gift Perform really, really well under massive pressure. Under massive pressure, and I don't think I say, it's been honed a lot for sure by my dad and the other people around me, definitely, but I think that I have a God-given gift or whoever universe given gift or whoever you believe in that I can perform extremely well under the highest pressure situations possible.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Your first option should be the highest of the high. And if you land any lower, then you readjust, you change the goalpost a little bit. But the first thing is shoot as high as you can.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think you're going to be a Hollywood actor because you're not. Maybe try and be a bit more realistic and do something a bit, no, if you think you're going to be a Hollywood actor, you go for it. Like you go 100% at that and don't let anything waver from where you're going. And I think that that is not told to especially the younger generation enough. I think that, like I say, I'm from a very, very blue-collar humble town. From my town, there aren't many people who've done anything of great magnitude in terms of sport and otherwise. And I think a lot of that, not all of it, of course, but I think a lot of it comes from the mentality of. Maybe don't aim for that. Aim for something a bit lower. And that shouldn't be encouraged in my opinion. Always”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just little. He was never like, you're going to be that, but it was like, look, if you keep doing this, this is where you're going to go. If you keep being dedicated to training and keep living your life right and keep focused, you can be heavyweight champ in the world. And I think that, especially because I'm from a smaller town, a blue-collar town for sure, a working class town, that belief is shut down so much. Surrounding in the community like, listen, maybe don't.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think that he had this firm belief. He believed in me way before I believed in myself, I always say. And I think that this is also his dream as well. But I don't think for any of us, and this is going to sound super arrogant, but it's the truth. I don't think any of us are surprised by it. I think that in some way, it was written for us to do it. I don't know. I can't explain it any more than that. I feel like we were both expecting to be here. And this is where we are and this is where we're going to be till I'm done.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thank you. I've also done why, but the girl on my own show now on TNT Sport as well, breaking down fights. So it's the start. I'm just getting the foot in the door. It's not something that I'm focusing on full time now because I'm obviously really busy with other stuff. But when I'm done, that's what I want to do.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Definitely made mistakes in the media space before. Definitely, but I'm learning. And I definitely think there's a place for me somewhere in the future to educate people on MMA. However that looks, whether it's punditry, whether it's podcasts, whether it's, I don't know, something somewhere, I definitely think that I will give some kind of insight to somebody where people can hopefully learn something from me in that regard.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I do. I'm looking to. Invest all the time. I actually, my team has actually been really Really good with that kind of stuff. A lot of my, not a lot, but a few of my sponsorships, I actually have shares in business as well as the sponsorship. Also, I want to do more stuff. I really love the sport of MMA, so I'm always like, even though I'm retired from fighting, I'll never be involved. I'll never be retired from MMA, if that makes sense.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sort of really struggle. I am a little bit, to be honest. I'd be lying if I said otherwise. Just because it takes up so much of my time, it takes up so much of my time. And the time that I'm not actually physically training, like I'm not in the gym training, I am doing other stuff towards it. Even stuff like breathing exercises I would class as part of my training, stretching, eating right, sleeping. I would class this all as part of my training routine. So when I've not got that What will my life look like? I don't know. I don't know, and that's something We've spoke about before, and I'm aware that I'm on the second half of my career now. When that's done, how does it look? And I don't know if anything can ever reflect that in all honesty.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, that's it. That's it. I mean, at one point, as we spoke about in detail, a big problem of mine was I couldn't pay my rent and I couldn't pay fuel to put in a car. That's gone. But there's more problems that have arose since that money won't fix. Do you know what I mean?”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, but Definitely an anticlimax a little bit to. Like being the quote unquote successful Because you still feel the same as you still have the same Issues as you had before Money, fame and titles doesn't change much in terms of what goes on inside your brain, in my opinion. Maybe it does change for some people. But for me, I still have the same struggles as I did before. It doesn't change anything in that regard. I think when you're younger, especially, I don't know, it's like young people, they think that rich people have no problems. And it just isn't true. It's just so far from the truth.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I woke up about three days later Sorry, I didn't sleep for about three days after because I was very excited. Yeah, pretty good. I mean, I won it in weird circumstances. So that fight I took on really short. And I also say actually wasn't in shape for that fight at all. I actually just come back off a stag do. So I wasn't in my best shape when I answered that call.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm not too sure. I know this bit, this bit here. Yeah. So these little stones, wherever they are. You get one of those different, so they're all, I think on the real one, the diamonds, and this is a, is it a Ruby or something?”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If it goes missing, I'm paying for it. So hopefully that won't happen. But it's in a very safe spot, so it won't go missing.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, it's a tough thing for me to talk about because I'm completely aware that there will be people watching this and thinking, who is this knucklehead talking about like autism diagnosis and what the government needs to go through? But it's also an experience that I've lived and it's also an experience that I'm still living. And then I'm fully aware, just from my local area and my circle of friends and people around me, that there is a shit ton of people who are in the same boat as I am and need help. And I feel extremely lucky and grateful that I've got the help and that we are progressing. But I know that there's a lot of people who don't and that are struggling.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Helping school, help at home, help for the parents, help for the friends, sensory rooms in school, sensory toys. There's a whole host of things that can help autistic children or autistic people. And without that diagnosis, if you're a parent and you don't have that free child, From my personal experience, it feels like you're treading water. I feel like I needed a process of this is, these are the steps that we have to take to help my child progress. And I think that it's what we need. It's not about another number on the statistics that you've read out. It's not about that. It's not about me saying, I've got an autistic child or whatever. It's about the help that your child can get. And right now, we definitely don't have enough help in this country.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You don't have a diagnosis of autism, the only way I can describe it because I've been there is you just kind of like tread in water. You're just stuck in one place flailing around and not really knowing how to do them steps and progress your family life in your child's life. That's the way that I look at it personally. I'm speaking 100% for myself. But if you've not got a diagnosis, first of all, you're not getting any funding. which like I said, I'm in a financial position where I don't need any funding, but there's a lot of people out there who do need funding. And funding looks like... Outlets for the child”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I was under the notion that if my kid is diagnosed autistic or not. Doesn't matter. That was my original thing. Doesn't matter. He's still my kid. I'm still going to love him. I'm still going to guide him through whatever he needs to in life. I completely respect anybody who's doing that. It has 100% respect from me and I'm sure everybody else. But the biggest issue is, like me personally, I'm a professional athlete. It's like I know that for this many hours a day, I need to be in the gym and training. When I'm not in the gym, I need to be recovering. When I'm not in the gym, I need to be eating the right things. And I have this process of things that make me successful. That's how I work in my life.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the help just isn't there. The help, especially in schools, like I'm so lucky that my son has an amazing one to one teacher. Every day he goes in he enjoys school and he progresses a little bit. And we know what we're in a position where we've had help as parents, that we know what kind of direction and where to navigate him in sometimes. Now, there's so many parents out there who've been on, like I say, three, four, five, six, seven year waiting list. Their kids are just getting worse and worse and worse. And as a penalty to that, the parents' life are then getting worse and worse and worse. And they have absolutely no direction of where to go and what to do. And it's a serious, serious crisis. that we've got in this country at the moment.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The kids are just regressing and regressing and regressing because they don't have any help and the parents of the kids have zero direction and they don't know what to do and we're in a really tough spot with it in this country where like I said we've got this amazing NHS I don't know if it's the NHS that's holding this or the government and I don't know what's causing autism. There's a million things out there about vaccinations, about diet, about things that they're watching on TV about the toys that they play with you know there's a load of different theories on it me personally I don't know what it is obviously I'm not a specialist with that but I know that autism is getting bigger and bigger each year there's more and more people trying to get diagnosed there's more and more people getting diagnosed”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But as a person in a good financial situation, I have the ability to do that is to go, pay the money and get that. And now there is so many people, so many people, and I mean, I get hundreds of messages about it, hundreds of people stopping me on the street about it because I spoke a little bit about autism, who they are going to the GP, going for assessments and they cannot get a diagnosis. They're on a three, four, five year waiting list and these kids are getting sent to mainstream schools.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Me and Patty are chatting a little bit after the show, whatever. And I said, look, Patty, if you don't mind me asking, I watch your show about autism. I said, I'm trying to get my kid diagnosed. I've been on the waiting list a year. Like, what shall we do? So anyway, he gives me the number to the specialist. I call the specialist. We go in for a meeting, long story short, paid for the diagnosis. Got that kid diagnosed, and now my child is in a mainstream school. He has a one to one, one to one teacher. He's getting the help he needs. Doing really well, he's progressing How the future is going to look, we don't know, we're dealing with it day to day, and now I am completely aware.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What is future going to look like? We know nothing about autism. Me and my wife at the time absolutely zero about it. We don't know. It's just so such an, we talk about anxiety. Like, you don't know what your child's future is going to look like and how to help him or her. How to progress as a human being is some of the worst anxiety that you can ever have. You've brought this kid to this earth. And you can't even point them in the right direction of where to go on how to navigate the way through life. And it's a really, really difficult thing. Anyway, I go on a question of sport, the show. Patti McGuinness is the host.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then I Google it. I know nothing about autism at the time, and obviously that is the worst thing you can ever do. And I'm going through these symptoms being like, wow, this isn't, I don't know what to do. Like, we need to try and get help. Anyway, make a doctor's appointment and the GP, and that is a complete mess. It's difficult to get an appointment. We go in, they put us on a waiting list. Anyway. A year or so goes by. The child. Isn't developing at the speed of his twin. We can see this clearly. We are worried about what's going on. We don't know what to do. Like, we are literally. We have no idea about what's going on, how to progress this child.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know why one day me and my wife we sat down and watched this program, and he, I believe, has three autistic children. All of his three children are diagnosed with aut Anyway, I'm watching this documentary, and he's talking about all the different Symptoms because it's a massive spectrum autism. There's a million different things And I'm watching he's talking about this one kid he does this is the way that autism presents himself in this particular kid. And in my mind I'm thinking my son does do that a little bit and then he's talking about a different kid who also is diagnosed with autism the way that the child does this I'm thinking Anyway, he's going through talking about his different children. And I'm thinking, wow, my child ticks a lot of these boxes.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is lockdown's fault. This kid is two years old. He's been in the house. He's been around. Me, my wife, and his two brothers. Sometimes grandparents when the government would let us, and that's it for like two years. He's not in social situations. He's not around other kids. And that kind of went on for a bit. I was kind of like heavily in denial about it. Even though now looking back, I could clearly see that things weren't moving normally, especially because he's got this twin and the twin's like, you know, he's moving at a different rate. So it was right there in front of my face. But I'm just like, in this denial, he'll catch up. It's just a lockdown's fault. The government's keeping us all locked inside, blah, blah, blah. Paddy McGuinness, funny enough, who's a guy from my area, like from a similar area, don't know Paddy at all, never met him. But he had this program and it was about autism.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Maybe two years. The kids are maybe two years old. We start to notice like one kid is a fair bit beyond the other one in terms of speech, in terms of how responsive he is, in terms of... Eye contact in terms of we could see something's different, but me personally as a dad, I was kind of like in denial as to”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I'm not trying to throw the NHS under the bus at all, because when there's an emergency it's amazing. That being said, Mr. Far as the autistic community We are being failed, and I don't know if that's from the NHS, from the government, I don't know who that's from. I was in a spot, so my twins are nearly six. They're coming up to six. I was in a spot like my twins were born and they were born just before the lockdown. Then COVID hit everything, like the world went to shit, as we know. And then my kids got in a place where we had a child before and we're aware that kids hit milestones. We got twins. So they hit in the milestones at different stages. Then we start to notice like.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I'll give as much detail as possible because, like you say, I think parents need details and there isn't a lot out about it. Now for me Recently, like I say I've been through something traumatic with another one of my kids and the NHS has been absolutely nothing short of unbelievable. Like we were in an emergency situation when we need an emergency treatment and my kid got 24 hours a day looking after while there was an emergency going on and it was unbelievable. We came away, me and my wife being like, we are so lucky to live in this country because my wife isn't from this country as well. So we both came away being like, we are so lucky to live here in a place where you can get free everything in an emergency level straight away.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Honestly, unbelievably. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't really, really bad without going into too many details, but spent a stay in hospital. Was something that we wasn't sure what it was at first, and yeah, massively, absolutely, like nothing else really matters. As long as you've got your... Health and your family's health, like you're in a pretty good spot, I think, because it's just a horrible place to be”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's very common, very, very common. I think social media doesn't help with that, especially for like, I mean, for myself, I have a thing now I've only done for the last couple of fights where social media has gone from my life when I got a fight date because there is no chance that I'm thinking about my opponent all day and I'm also scrolling and reading all comments all day. It's just not, I just won't deal with it. And for the next fight, I'm actually... Have like a training camp phone. where only people who are actually involved in my training camp or personal life. And when I say personal life, I'm talking about my wife and my dad. And probably that's it, are going to be involved. Like I don't want to have any outside noise coming in at all.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. So, I mean, I'm in an anxiety fuelled sport. So I think naturally there's a lot going on because of that. But it's just something I think everybody deals with it. I don't think I'm uncommon to anybody else. I think, especially these days, it's a lot more accepted to be like talking about it and stuff.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it gets worse. Again, like I said, I've been through something quite traumatic recently where my son was in hospital and that's a whole nother story of its own. But at one point we were really concerned about my son's health, really. And that was a big traumatic thing for me. And I noticed a lot that my OCD starts to come back and I want to do certain stuff again because my anxiety is creeping up and just got to really try and keep it at bay.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At one point, it was like I couldn't sit in a room unless the room was the way I wanted it to look. Like unless the curtains were closed the right way, the drawers were shut perfectly. Everything was facing forward. The TV was on a certain angle like I couldn't rest. Because of, I would think, something bad is going to happen unless all that's right. But after a while, I kind of grew out of that a little bit and got a hold on it, but it still creeps back, mate. Sometimes I try and keep it at bay.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's something that I've always kind of dealt with, but I think it's not uncommon to deal with it. And I think that a lot of people think it is uncommon. Like I am a little bit OCD and I think that OCD and anxiety goes hand in hand. Like, I think that. And it used to be a lot worse, to be honest. I struggled with it when I was a child and still struggled with it now, but it used to be a lot worse when I was younger.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was like, I'm struggling to listen for that long because it goes on like 45 minutes. I'm struggling to follow the path that you're leading me down for that long. And he's like, listen, don't worry. You can be thinking about whatever you want. You don't have to follow what I'm telling you. He said, because your subconscious is listening all the time. It's the same when a couple of times I was like fighting to stay awake because I was tired. Most of the time I did it after training as well. So I'm tired, like fighting to stay awake. And I said, look, I'm fighting to stay awake. I'm like getting really tired. And he's like, look, if you fall asleep, it doesn't matter your subconscious is still listening, so it doesn't matter what's going on. And a lot of the time I'm just there. I'm just like chilling out. I'm listening to what he's saying, but I'm also drifting off of my own thoughts. And I don't know how, again, I'm not a psychologist, hypnotherapist or anything like that, but I only know from my own personal perspective that when it comes to like anxiety and positive thinking and just generally being in a better place mentally, I just believe in it a lot. I think it really helps me.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Any people are going to start thinking it's like say some woo-woo thing where you start like going unconscious and doing all it's nothing like that. It's like... Essentially, you're just in a room the way that I do at least. I'm in a room with a guy talking to me. I'm completely relaxed, lay down or sat up. Doesn't matter. Usually with my eyes closed. And usually he'll take you through a story of like you go into a place, you're walking down a street, or he'll set the scene kind of thing. And I used to think I need to listen and focus in on every word he's saying. Like I need to put myself exactly where, you know, follow the story, quote unquote story exactly as he's telling me to follow it. I actually spoke to him about it”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That those qualities into what can be a very anxiety filled spot, I think that's just a massive advantage. Not to mention the other stuff that we talked about, like life and just general stressiness as well.”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I'm going quite hard on the hypnotherapy now. I actually spoke to my hypnotherapist yesterday and I'm going to start doing twice a week now. Why? A few different reasons really both personal and professional. I had a situation recently with my kid where my kid was in hospital and it really kicked off my anxiety massively. And since then I'm struggling to relax a little bit more than I would usually as struggling to switch off. So I think that for me personally, again, I don't want to sit here and preach about hypnotherapy because it's not my expertise at all. But for me personally, it brings my anxiety down a lot. So it helps with that. It also helps with sleep. It also helps with just being just in a more tranquil place in general. And When”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I do like to sleep a lot. I'm just a big napper. Like, if I train in the morning, I'm going to sleep straight after. And that takes a lot of discipline, you know. Like, it takes a lot of discipline for me to be coming home from training. I'm going to shower, eat and sleep. And nothing's coming in the way of that. Like it takes, especially like with kids. Like, if I'm coming home and if I've done a two hour session in the morning, I'm coming home, the kids are excited to see me. This guy wants to play on the Xbox, another one wants to play outside. This one wants a snack. And that one wants to play outside. And then it's just madness. And one of them spilled a drink. You've got to clean this up. And then one wants this on the TV. It's just a constant thing for me to then walk in and be like,”
2025-06-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Tom Aspinall: The UFC Doesn't Want You To Know This! Jon Jones Wasn't Living Like An Athlete! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT