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Beyond Baseline: What Happens When Men Actually Show Up?

One spark, two legends, and a leadership lesson we all needed

Author

Ross Anderson
April 25, 2025

Welcome to the Beyond Baseline Newsletter

Your weekly dose of high-performance insights, powerful mindset shifts, and real-world strategies to optimise your health, leadership, and resilience. This week, we’re welcoming powerful new voices to the BetterMan Retreat, spotlighting mentorship in action, and sharing fresh perspectives on movement, meaning, and digital detachment.

Let’s dive in.

NOW & NEXT 🗓️

Two New Powerhouses Join the BetterMan Retreat

Jordan Grant
Jordan founded Glasgow Garden Maintenance initially to support his parents - his mother who suffers from severe mental health issues and his Nanny. Starting with just a £250 van and £5 grass cuts, he has built Glasgow's premier all-in-one outdoor gardening business, specialising in Tree Surgery, Landscaping, and Estate Management.

His company's ethos is centred on giving young people and those who have fallen on hard times a chance to start a career in a natural outdoor environment, progressing with one of Scotland's fastest-growing startups. Today, Glasgow Garden Maintenance boasts 9 vans on the road, has been recognised by Scottish Parliament for their work with young people, and was awarded Scotland's Best Landscaping and Tree Surgery Company 2024.

Jordan's ambitions remain sky-high. Over the next 10 years, he aims to scale the business across the UK to become a household brand for everything outdoor-related.

Chris Davies
Chris will be joining us as an expert guide at the BetterMan Retreat, delivering various breathwork sessions throughout our three days - and we cannot wait!

Chris is a former Royal Marine Commando, breathwork facilitator, and founder of Aware Breathwork - a world-leading breathwork training platform designed to awaken clarity, power, and presence in modern men.

With over a decade operating in some of the world's most high-stakes environments, Chris served as a Vallon man (the frontline soldier responsible for detecting IEDs in Afghanistan), walking ahead of his patrol and helping clear the most heavily IED'd stretch of road in Helmand province. But it wasn't the battlefield that broke him. It was life after.

In the silence that followed, Chris found himself unravelling under the weight of stress, identity loss, and emotional suppression. A single breathwork session in a yoga class transformed him completely, leading him to dive headfirst into the study of breath, psychology, trauma, and transformation.

His Aware Breathwork system bridges the gap between performance and presence: helping men build true internal strength, access deep self-awareness, and lead from a place of alignment and clarity.

At our retreat, Chris will take participants beyond performance metrics and mental strategies and into the raw, transformative intelligence of their breath. His mission is profound: to help men remember who they are beneath the armor. Because the man who breathes with awareness leads with power: in his business, his relationships, and his life.

IMPACT & INSIGHTS 💡

Real Message. Real Impact.

Recently, I received a touching message from a young man (we'll call him Jay) whom I met at an entrepreneurial event at the University of Strathclyde over a year ago. He wrote:

"Meeting you in person gave me a lot of self-belief. Since then, I've been following your journey on LinkedIn, and your work has often reignited motivation in me. Lately I've been going through a tough phase mentally, but following you and your mission always seems to give me hope. I look forward to attending one of your Beyond Baseline and BetterMan events in the future, Ross. Thank you dearly."

We must reclaim presence, demonstrate stillness, and break the habits that are being passed down silently, daily.

How To Be A Perpetual Movement Machine

Modern life has us sitting still for 94% of our day, and our bodies are paying the price.

In one of my recent leadership trainings, I broke down a new way of thinking about movement: not just exercise, but an all-day approach made up of three key types:

  • Macro – Traditional workouts that elevate the heart rate and engage major muscle groups

  • Micro – Your daily steps, walks, and low-intensity movement

  • Mini – The subtle stuff: stretching, mobility, pottering around, even fidgeting

We’re built to move. Over 600 muscles. A whole brain region wired for it. Even a sixth sense (proprioception) dedicated to knowing where our body is in space.

Want to live longer, feel better, and perform at your best? Don’t just ‘exercise.’ Move, constantly and consciously. Become a perpetual movement machine.

FLOURISH & FUNDAMENTALS

Weekly Wisdom: Less Likes, More Life

This week, I noticed a significant dip in social media interactions and engagement across the board - fewer likes, comments, opens, and email responses. As a business owner, you might think I'd find this concerning since engagement typically drives business growth.

But actually, it filled me with joy. Why? Because this dip coincided with the Easter break, suggesting people were genuinely "downing tools" - putting down their phones and having a true "TBT" (Turn Back Time). People were detaching from technology and spending quality time with their children, going on weekend breaks, camping trips, enjoying barbecues, and savouring these precious moments.

Some of my peers mentioned this engagement drop with disappointed expressions, but it actually brought a lot of joy to my heart. It's reassuring to know people are out there having fun, enjoying life, and being present with their families. Sometimes the best metric isn't digital engagement, but human connection.

SPOTLIGHT: THE BETTER MAN RETREAT

On the Ground in Marbella This Week ☀️

This Friday, our team is heading to Marbella for a reconnaissance trip just 6 weeks before our BetterMan Retreat (June 10th -13th). We'll be meeting with our local partners, including Marbella Adventures and the restaurants that support us, fine-tuning the villa experience, and finalising key details to make sure the experience is as flawless and valuable as possible. 

The retreat is almost at full capacity! 

In the next week or so, we'll be closing the doors to any new sign-ups and focusing entirely on delivering the experience of a lifetime for our participants.

COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES 🤝

Final Reminder: BetterMan Presents "Origin Stories" – This Sunday

Only 5 tickets remain for our event with Paralympic athlete Martin Perry this Sunday at Glasgow Warriors Stadium (10:00am-12:30pm)!

I strongly suggest you come to this event. It's rare to get the opportunity to experience a transformative motivational keynote and connect with athletes, ex-athletes, fathers, businessmen, and business professionals, all aligned with being a better man.

We've laid on an incredible experience where you can have fun shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded men. In today's world, men need support and the right conditions to flourish. It's very important that we consciously put ourselves in these environments.

It's time to invest in yourself, to put yourself in favourable conditions, and surround yourself with other like-minded men. At just £22.50 per ticket, it's buttons. Invest in yourself!

CONNECT WITH US

TAKE ACTION

📘 Learn More About the Better Man Retreat
 🤝 Join the Better Man Community
 🔥 Follow Beyond Baseline on Instagram

This is just the beginning. Stay tuned for more updates, insights, and ways to push beyond your baseline every week.

Until next time,
Ross Anderson
Beyond Baseline Founder