The GMC Podcast: Gay Man's Coaching & Personal Development
Authentic gay conversations on personal development, life coaching, and mental health. Join Keegan Hirst, founder of Gay Man's Coaching and former professional rugby player, for weekly real talk about gay lifestyle, coming out, relationships, business, and authentic living. Deep, honest conversations that help gay men build confidence, find community, and create vibrant, unapologetic lives.
Episodes
You're Allowed to Want More
You're Allowed to Want MoreMost of us learned early that asking for more is greedy. Ungrateful. Selfish. So we soften every statement about what we actually want. We apologise for our own lives. We compare ourselves down to people who have it worse, and we use that as a reason to stay small.The result: we spend years in situations we hate, we don't ask for what we need, and we feel discon
The Only Three Choices You Have (and the One Most People Pick)
My pick is the first. It follows the same "concept: why it matters" shape as the Achievement vs Success episode, and it tells the listener exactly what they'll walk away with. The second is the stronger line for a clip.DescriptionNobody Keegan speaks to has room on their plate. Work, relationships, family, the news, a phone that never stops. On top of that, most of us are carrying situati
Achievement vs Success: Why You Keep Winning and Still Feel Empty
Keegan breaks down the difference between achievement and success, and why so many men who look like they've made it still feel stuck.He explains the jackpot problem: hitting every marker you were told would make you happy (the job, the house, the body, the partner) and still waiting to feel it. Achievement is external and tickable. Success is internal, and it's the thing nobody can hand
What It Means to Be an Unapologetic Man
Keegan Hirst opens the podcast by defining the thing it's named after. Being unapologetic isn't about never saying sorry, and it isn't about being rude. It's about the man you are behind closed doors being the same man you present to the world.In this first episode Keegan walks through the five arenas where men apologise for themselves: the body, the voice, the want, the no, and the mask.
Anthony Dunford: The Best I'd Been Isn't the Best I Could Be
Anthony Dunford has been with Keegan for six years, since before GMC was called GMC and back when the weekly call sometimes had two people on it. He's one of three clients still standing from that first cohort.In 2019 Anthony was 47, a teacher who had been in the same school for over twenty years, still closeted, with a career that had stalled and a mum who had just started with dementia.
The Optimisation Trap: When Systems Start Running Your Life
This week Keegan draws a line most people never think to draw: the difference between building a life and running from yourself.He's honest that this isn't an anti-optimisation episode. He tracks his macros, he trains, he loves a system, and he'll defend all of that. But there's a tipping point most high performers miss, the moment optimising your life quietly turns into optimising your w
Believe Before It's Real: The Three Lessons That Built GMC
This week's episode is personal. Keegan paid tribute to John, a rugby league coach who shaped not just his career but who he became as a person. John passed away recently, and rather than let those lessons die with him, Keegan's sharing three principles that have fundamentally changed how he coaches, how he built GMC, and how you can approach your own transformation.The three lessons are
When Life Gets Messy - Success Coach Peadar Hughes on Staying Consistent
Peadar Hughes is one of our success coaches, and he's exceptional at something most people struggle with: staying consistent when life gets messy.Here's the thing: most people know what to do. Train, eat well, get steps in. The problem isn't knowledge. It's staying consistent when work gets mad, when perfectionism creeps in, when one bad day becomes a reason to give up entirely.Peadar spe
Stop Waiting to Be Healed
A lot of gay coaching is built around healing shame. Keegan isn't here to say that's wrong.Shame is real. The stuff that gets wired into us growing up as gay men in a straight world, learning to hide, learning we're different, that's not invented. It matters. It needs acknowledging and working through.But there's a version of gay personal development that becomes a waiting room. You sit i
Why Success Felt Empty - Greg's Journey from Hidden to Unapologetic
Greg is a senior tech leader who spent 30 years climbing the ladder. Good salary, senior position, stability - all the external markers of success. At 50, approaching what he thought would be his peak, he had one major problem: he didn't actually like his life.He joined GMC thinking he needed to sort his body out - get fit before it was too late. What he discovered was that the physical s
Matt Print: Two Breakups, a Zumba Class, and Why Gay Men Need Gay Friends
Matt Print has been coaching for 15 years. He came into fitness sideways, through a breakup and a Zumba class at the back of a studio, then a second breakup that got him lifting properly. He lost four stone and kept it off without obsessive tracking or rigid rules, which shaped everything about how he coaches now. In this episode Matt and Keegan get into what actually draws gay men to coa
From the Beige Buffet to Marathon Finisher: Dan McFarland's 6-Year Rebuild
When Dan first contacted Keegan in 2020, he was a senior leader at a school eating Greggs 27 days out of 31, drinking way too much, and wondering if he wanted to be here at all. Six years later he's 10 stone lighter, runs marathons, has rebuilt his career around his life rather than the other way round, and has just completed prep for a photo shoot weeks before he turns 40!In this episode
Why I Refuse to Believe You're Stuck
Keegan's recording this one from the car, driving back from LA, fresh off a GMC weekend that included photoshoots, high rope climbs at UCLA, and conversations he's thinking about on the way home.The big one: why so many people feel like nothing they do actually matters. Not just in life generally, but in their own life. Their own body. Their own future. And how that feeling doesn't come f
From Stuck to Record Months ft. Lee Brooks
This week Keegan sits down with GMC client Lee Brooks, a 44-year-old finance director from the Southeast of England, who joined GMC at the lowest entry point and completely turned his life around.In under a year, Lee has lost 15kg, gone self-employed, is hitting his best billing months on record, and has done the internal work to match the external changes. He came in dealing with a divor
Being in the Trenches With Chris Annakin - Why Real Coaching Requires Human Connection
In this episode, Keegan sits down with Chris, GMC's Head of Performance and one of his oldest friends. Chris shares his powerful journey from professional rugby to recovery, and why his dad's story became the catalyst for his work at GMC.They explore the real coaching principles that create lasting transformation: meeting clients where they're at, empathy over perfection, and the power of
What My Daughter Taught Me About Rushing Through Life
Are you constantly rushing through life waiting for the next big thing? The promotion, the relationship, the milestone? Keegan gets real about our obsession with speed and efficiency, and why the mundane Tuesday mornings matter more than you think.In this episode, Keegan breaks down why we're all in such a hurry to get nowhere, the difference between ambition and anxiety, and why joy isn'
Owain's Journey from Anger to Action
Owain joined GMC a few years ago at his lowest point. After a medical misdiagnosis led to major surgery, he spiraled into depression, anger, and blame. He was stuck in a victim mentality, radiating rage at the world around him.In this episode, Owain shares how he rebuilt his identity from the ground up. We talk about the uncomfortable truths he had to face, the toolkit he built to manage
What If The Problem Isn’t What You’re Missing?
This week, Keegan shares something personal.Over the past year, he’s been quietly struggling. Days feeling heavy. Isolating. Questioning himself. Eventually, that struggle was given a name.But this episode isn’t about labels.It’s about a perspective shift that changed everything: What if you’re not lacking the things you want… what if you’re blocking them?So many gay men chase more. More
Why High-Functioning Gay Men Still Feel Empty ft. GMC Psychotherapist Jon Bell
This week Keegan sits down with GMC's resident psychotherapist Jon Bell for an honest conversation about the stuff that actually keeps men stuck, and it's rarely what you think.They get into why "feeling stuck" is usually a polite way of saying something much bigger, how shame quietly runs the show for high-achieving men, the real difference between vulnerability and oversharing, and what
Playing Small Takes More Energy Than You Think
Playing small isn't safe. It's exhausting.In this episode, Keegan breaks down why staying small takes more energy than stepping up. From downplaying your wins to constantly managing other people's comfort, playing small is active work that drains you every single day.You'll learn:What playing small actually looks like (and why you're probably doing it)Why that low-grade exhaustion you fee
I Can Do Hard Things: Wyatt's Journey from Isolated to Unstoppable
This week I'm chatting with Wyatt, a 26-year-old from South Dakota who went from feeling stuck and isolated to landing his dream job and completely transforming his relationship with himselfWyatt grew up in a rural, traditional household where showing emotion wasn't an option and being gay meant staying hidden. He was working out seven days a week but seeing no results, lonely, putting on
You're Not Powerless: How To Show Up When The World Won't Shut Up
The world feels overwhelming right now. Between constant news cycles, social media outrage, and real-world crises, it's easy to feel powerless and burnt out.In this episode, Keegan breaks down why everything feels so heavy and more importantly, what you can actually do about it. He introduces the three circles of life: what you can't control, what you can influence, and what you can contr
From Hiding to Helping - Ross's 140lb Journey
This week I'm chatting with Ross, one of our Gay Man's Coaching coaches who went from being overweight to coaching others through their own transformations.This isn't just another weight loss story. Ross opens up about the real stuff: avoiding the scale for over a decade, lying to himself about being "too busy", and thinking he needed to get in shape before joining a gym (yeah, we've all
Are you a 'perfectionist'? This is for you
This week I'm talking about perfection. Not the kind that makes you better, the kind that makes you scared.If you've ever caught yourself thinking "I'll start when I'm ready" or "I can't share this until it's perfect" or "I'll try that when I know I can do it right", this episode is for you.I break down why perfection feels like safety but is actually costing you progress, connection, and
Stop Chasing Goals, Start Choosing Direction
Forget new year, new me. That narrative is exhausting and it's costing you.In this episode, we're talking about why goals create pressure, anxiety, and that feeling of always being behind before you've even started. Instead of chasing perfection or reinventing yourself every January, I'm sharing why direction beats goals every single time.You'll learn:Why goals make you feel like you're f
You Don't Need a New You, You Need Clarity
Forget "new year, new me" bullshit. You've tried that before and it didn't work. So why would it work this time?In this episode, I'm cutting through the noise and explaining exactly what you need in 2026 to actually make it a success. Spoiler: you don't need reinventing, you need refining.We're talking about:Why clarity is the only thing that mattersHow being 100% committed is easier than
Will It Still Matter in February?
Ever feel like you need to sprint finish the year perfectly? Clear every inbox, tick every box, wrap everything up with a bow before January 1st?Stop. You're killing yourself for things that won't matter in February.In this week's Kiki, I'm talking about why that perfect finish is a myth, how to actually prioritize what matters, and why starting 2026 exhausted is the worst thing you can d
Why Clarity Beats Motivation Every Time
Fresh from Manchester ahead of GMC's biggest Massive Action Day yet, Keegan gets real about why investing in your wellbeing isn't optional. Is 10% of your income too much to spend on your health? Keegan argues it's an absolute steal when you consider the foundation your wellbeing provides for everything else in your life: your career, relationships, confidence, and how you show up in the
Resilience isn’t built alone. How to be a villager.
You can't feel part of a village if you're standing at the edge waiting for someone to invite you in.Everyone says they want community. They want connection. They want to feel less lonely. But too many people act like outsiders looking in. They consume, compare, and judge, but they don't contribute.In this episode, I'm breaking down why so many people feel isolated and what you need to do
How To Stop Talking About Change and Actually Do It
Most people don't actually want to change their life. They want to talk about it, plan it, and complain about not doing it. But they won't take action because change is uncomfortable.In this week's episode, I'm getting real about why so many people stay stuck. We're covering:Why consuming endless content keeps you trapped in the same placeThe mental gymnastics we do to avoid discomfortHow
Five Bits of Tough Love That'll Help You Actually Change
I did a photo shoot this week for the new podcast with Joel. Fen's back at the vet with an infection. Kitchen renovation starts next week. And I've noticed I've got way too many open loops right now, which is why I'm feeling more anxious than usual. Open loops are unfinished business, things you're waiting on, uncertainties piling up. The more you have, the more overwhelmed you'll feel.Bu
Kill the Monsters When They're Small
I just spent more money than I've ever spent in my life on renovating my kitchen. And honestly? I've been absolutely riddled with doubts about it. Can I afford this? Is it worth it? Am I making a massive mistake?But here's what I've realized: doubt isn't a red flag telling you to stop. It's actually proof that you're doing something you've never done before. You're growing. You're changin
Stop Waiting for a Reset: How Growth Actually Works
Life's been chaos lately. Kitchen renovations, reupholstering sofas, kids' football, piano lessons restarting... everything happening at once. And here's what I've learned: this IS what change looks like in real time. It's messy, it's uncomfortable, and it's not the straight line we're sold.In this episode, I'm sharing a conversation I had with one of my mentors, Phil, that completely shi
Why You're Stuck: The Difference Between Action and Busy Work
Welcome to the very first Kiki with Keegs! This is something I've been doing for my Gay Man's Coaching clients for years, and now I'm bringing these authentic conversations on personal development to everyone.In this episode, I'm talking about why good people stay stuck. You know the type: they say they want to change, they're always "working on themselves," but nothing actually shifts. S
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