Beyond the Cage | How Jason Kearns Went from Hurting People to Helping People
If someone had told Jason Kearns – an engineering teacher turned personal trainer – that he’d end up getting paid to fight in a cage on the rooftops of fancy Dubai hotels, he’d have laughed in their face.
As a kid growing up in southern Ireland, Mixed Martial Arts wasn’t even on his radar. The only things that existed to him were football, Gaelic football and, of course, Ireland’s national sport of hurling (“None of us really know what that is, but it sounds good!”).
It was never his ambition to be in the Ultimate Fighting Championships or to become the best Mixed Martial Arts fighter in the world. Ironic, then, that he ended up teaching MMA, representing his country in the amateur world championships and ultimately rising to pro fighter level.
“It was kind of surreal, because it was never my intention to do any of this,” says Jason. “I just enjoyed it. It was something that had a positive effect on my life. Most importantly, it gave me a purpose when I thought I had nothing worth living for.”
When Jason made the choice to stop teaching MMA and start coaching people, he immediately knew he’d done the right thing. The next few fights fell through, opponents dropped out of matches, and Jason didn’t have the energy to fight anyway. Meanwhile, his coaching business – the Lean & Limitless Academy – was soaring.
“More than likely, I won’t fight again at my age. My biggest fear would be pushing it too far and ruining it for myself. I still train martial arts, just for the sheer love of it. I still compete in jiu-jitsu; I love training jiu-jitsu. But my business is where my focus is.”
Despite his fierce energy and fighting spirit, Jason’s always been a big softie at heart. The satisfaction he finds in helping men and women who are struggling not only with their weight, but with major mental health issues – even suicidal thoughts – outweighs anything he experienced in the cage.
“It was no way to live”
“It’s a tremendous responsibility, when someone comes to you feeling suicidal,” says Jason. “At first, I was like, Jesus, you know? But then I realised I’ve got more right to help these people than anyone, because I’ve been there. I know exactly where they’re coming from.”
His experience with depression – which he was very open and honest about in our last podcast – resulted in years of reliance on anti-depressants. While he admits that they stopped him from wanting to kill himself, they also numbed his ability to feel anything.
“The ability to laugh at things. To have self-worth. To have a sex drive – that’s a big one. To feel any joy when nice things happened. I had none of those things. Sometimes I’d get angry about other people laughing because I couldn’t experience emotion. It was no way to live.”
Over the next few years, Jason read up on the chemical processes behind antidepressants and experimented with different doses to try and find some sense of normality, but he always knew they weren’t the answer. They just papered over the cracks.
“On paper, I had everything”
“I was insane to think a pill was gonna fix me without changing something in my life,” says Jason. “I didn’t even know what was wrong in my life to change in the first place. On paper, I had everything. I shouldn’t have been depressed. You’ve got to look at the real reason you feel this way, and to fix the foundations.”
Jason’s frustration with healthcare is palpable. He was first prescribed antidepressants at the start of the pandemic, and he’s never received a follow-up call since. If he hadn’t made the choice to get to grips with his mental health and make positive lifestyle changes, he reckons he’d be dead.
“That’s why I think the medical system is wrong; there’s a massive lack of care from doctors who are supposed to be your first stop when you’re really struggling. If you had cancer, they’d constantly follow up with you. But if you’re that depressed that you’re suicidal, you’re as close to death as someone with cancer. And I don’t say that lightly.”
Determined to find a way off antidepressants, Jason embarked on a long, unorthodox and sometimes tortuous journey; one that involved martial arts, mushrooms, ayahuasca, alcohol abstinence, journaling, breathwork, meditation and ice baths. These rituals changed his life, but he was yet to find the root cause. Little by little, it dawned on him; lack of purpose.
“Without purpose, you have no self-worth”
“That was f***ing huge for me, that realisation. And I see the same lack of purpose in, like, eight out of every 10 people I meet with depression. The problem is that without a purpose, you have no self-worth. And without self-worth, there aren’t many reasons to exist.”
Until he started MMA training, Jason had never set goals or built a mission. Martial arts gave him that purpose and for a while, it gave him a mission. But that alone didn’t fix him; it was in combination with many other lifestyle and mindset changes, which he teaches to his clients today.
One of the most effective things Jason’s clients do is journaling. He’s developed a journal template to help them focus on what they want to achieve, how they want to feel, to express gratitude and – most importantly – to reflect on their wins; however big or small.
“People don’t allow themselves to be happy”
“Sometimes people struggle to find wins, and I think that comes from the fact that people don’t allow themselves to be happy,” says Jason. “We’re told by society what ‘happy’ looks like and if we don’t have that, we can’t be happy.
“But wins don’t have to be massive; it can just be hugging your mum, getting ice cream with your kids, your dog greeting you when you get home. These are little things to be proud of, and if you focus on those things every day, instead of all the stuff that went wrong, you’ll feel better.”
Jason’s business has rocketed in recent months, largely thanks to his controversial yet hugely refreshing social media presence. His followers easily connect with him because he’s straight-talking, relatable and raw – so raw that Instagram keeps shadow-banning him.
“When I first started out on YouTube and Instagram, I thought I had to be all prim and proper like other coaches,” says Jason. “Then I realised I just needed to be myself. Mushrooms and ayahuasca helped me see that people liked me for being me.
“So now, I don’t hold back. I say what I want to say. Some people don’t agree, but those people were never gonna be my clients anyway. It used to bother me that I don’t get the views my posts deserve, but now I don’t care; I’ll just keep being myself.”
“Who gives a f**k what I eat in a day?”
The coaching space on Instagram is interesting; some have 300,000 followers but don’t have a great business. On the flipside, Jason has 12,000 followers and a super strong business because his followers engage and quickly convert into clients. He’s living proof that you don’t need 100,000 followers to have a successful business.
To increase his organic reach, Jason’s now started boosting some of his posts, knowing that when it’s right in front of people, they’ll engage with it. But he’s determined not to comply with the norms; last week he boosted a post in which he said c**t. Usually that wouldn’t fly, but it has. And the reel that’s brought him the most followers? A piss-take about what he eats in a day.
“All these coaches showing what they eat in a day – who gives a f**k? What use is that to anyone who doesn’t have six hours to make meals and three hours to spend in the gym? Like, shut up. I think coaches sometimes don’t realise that 99% of the population f*****g hate them. They aren’t relatable enough. People want someone who speaks on their level.”
Relating to people on their level is exactly why Jason’s been able to make phenomenal breakthroughs with his clients. He encourages them to journal, meditate, do breathwork, take ice baths – but he’s put it to them in a relatable way. He teaches these things because they saved his life, and he knows they can save others, too.
“The best mistake I ever made was trying to kill myself, because it started what I have now. I rebuilt myself through my actions and lifestyle, and that allows me to help people who’ve come to me in really low places. Because of my own experiences, I can genuinely connect with and support them.”
Don’t miss the next episode of Stay Hungry – we’ll dive into straight-talking insights on business marketing, growth mindset, and the realities of running a business. And if you want to take the hassle out of your marketing, we’ve got you covered with our done-for-you service.
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