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In Your Corner is a raw and honest podcast about rebuilding, resilience, and real growth. Hosted by Keith Dixon, a health and fitness coach with 25 years of experience, this podcast is for anyone who's fighting to rebuild themselves - whether you're navigating a breakup, losing your identity, struggling with purpose, or just trying to keep moving forward when life gets hard.
Keith shares his own journey from running a thriving gym for ten years to losing everything - his business, his relationship, and finding himself homeless in a men's shelter. But this isn't just a story about rock bottom. It's about the mindset, structure, and resilience that pulled him back up, brick by brick.
Each episode brings open, real conversations about identity, confidence, self-respect, boundaries, fatherhood, and taking action on new habits and direction. Whether you're looking for straight talk or anyone rebuilding their life, you'll find genuine support here - mentally, physically, and emotionally.
This podcast isn't about perfection, status, or validation. It's about presence, peace, and showing up for yourself and the people who matter. Because no matter where you are right now or what you're carrying, Keith is in your corner.
New episodes every second Wednesday at 8am.
Subscribe and let's get to work.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:15:20
00:00:15:20 - 00:00:43:03
Unknown
Welcome to the first episode of In Your Corner. My name is Keith Dixon, and I want to start by simply saying this. I am genuinely happy that you are here. This podcast has been in my heart, in my head, my thoughts for such a long time. Not as a project, not as content, but just something real. Something raw, some honest.
00:00:43:05 - 00:00:49:15
Unknown
Something that I know I could have used in the past couple of years.
00:00:49:17 - 00:01:17:16
Unknown
Just so now, today is just the beginning of something special. Not just for me, but hopefully for you too. In fact, I know it's going to be special. It's not going to be perfect like me. Flaws, imperfections. And before I get into the story, I want to just talk about the logo and the name for the podcast. Just simply came for a moment with my son Joshua.
00:01:17:18 - 00:01:43:16
Unknown
Last year, I was getting ready for a ten week free camp, but while I was doing this for a camp, I was actually homeless, living in a men's hostel, a men's shelter, so it was a ten week for a camp. At the end of it, you had your foot. So doing all the training it was between Sandymount and the city center, but it wasn't a full hour to train and that broke me and I fell in love.
00:01:43:20 - 00:02:19:02
Unknown
It was a few weeks in. We were getting ready for the ticket sales, and I found out that the two boys weren't allowed attend free. There was age restrictions in the venue because of the alcohol license. It was in Leopardstown Racecourse so we didn't mind not going, but Joshua de Joshua was a bit upset. He wanted to come to the fight and he simply said that I wish I was in your corner and as I said to him then Joshua, you're always in my corner and so on.
00:02:19:04 - 00:02:48:06
Unknown
I am always in yours. And to be honest, it's actually even emotional thinking about it now. But I actually nearly pulled out an eye for it then, didn't even go train and the next day didn't go to the session. Just sat there thinking, what's the point? Why am I bothering? But now this fight was for the boys. It was to show the boys that no matter how hard things get, tough things get, you show up, you keep going and you can keep moving forward.
00:02:48:08 - 00:03:11:22
Unknown
That's when I got back into the train and went back to the sessions. Finished the last couple of weeks of camp at the feet and even went. So that was a good thing. But obviously the boys weren't there to see it. But those words from Joshua, they kept me going. We didn't quit because of simply that in your corner, that moment.
00:03:11:24 - 00:03:32:24
Unknown
That's why this podcast isn't just a simple name. It's a promise I've carried forward with the boys and a promise I still carry today. And that image you're seeing there, that sound wave, that frequency there, they're Joshua's words. That's Joshua's voice in your corner.
00:03:33:01 - 00:04:06:02
Unknown
And you see sitting here right now, even recording this first episode, it's a full circle moment for me because exactly at this time last year, I was still homeless. I was sitting in a man's shelter, blowing in a bunk bed. That cold gray steel spring sticking in the back tree with our mattress, flimsy sheets and pillows, flaky paint on the walls, the dampness in the air, no locks on doors.
00:04:06:02 - 00:04:35:01
Unknown
Whether it was a toilet, a shower. You wouldn't wash yourself in here. It was chaos in there. Low. No point for me. It was alcohol abuse, drug abuse, violence. I'm not sure how the staff themselves even managed to do the job that they do. It was a thankless job, horrible scene, very low point, low place, really tough to be physically and mentally.
00:04:35:03 - 00:04:44:19
Unknown
But one year later, here we are sitting here and now, as I said, recording this for some feeling nervous but excited for what's to come.
00:04:44:21 - 00:05:10:15
Unknown
Building back up my gym community with small community. Opened the gym in Paris and training. Building up an online community, an online program. Full circle moment, full reset, full rebuild. Just simply brick by brick, step by step. And if you're listening in here to this and things are tough for you at the moment or you're going through a hard time, change, seem impossible.
00:05:10:17 - 00:05:37:24
Unknown
Nothing is impossible. And that's all. I want this to be. Just raw, honest conversations that matter. Help people still help myself. I am not perfect, but I know it's my mindset, my structure, my routine and resilience that kept me going and kept me moving. And I just want to say something very important here. I know my story matters.
00:05:38:01 - 00:05:59:09
Unknown
I know something like that. That mess can help people, but it is just that your mess becomes your message. And I don't see that chapter as my full story. It simply is that one chapter of my story. All you have to pan. I ain't going to rewrite it. I ain't going to carry on real. You can refuse to live in it.
00:05:59:09 - 00:06:07:23
Unknown
We can all be a victim somewhere out of something. But it's up to us whether we stay as a victim or not.
00:06:07:23 - 00:06:19:24
00:06:19:24 - 00:06:21:08
00:06:21:08 - 00:06:23:23
Unknown
Not to relive the pain, but a full health
00:06:23:23 - 00:06:44:07
Unknown
and mindset book to help people just to show what's possible. I'm nearly 50 now, and I genuinely believe that the next few years are going to be some of the best years of my life, not just for me, but for my boys. So your pastors and the squalor for you is simply prepares you.
00:06:44:09 - 00:07:04:20
Unknown
I fully believe life is about lessons for every negative. Does a positive for every failure a success. I know you've had it all. Hoyas success right down to man survival. And here's a quick thing about me now, a little of my background and why I think we can help work together.
00:07:04:23 - 00:07:34:01
Unknown
I actually found my very first health and fitness certificate in a press they're doing today, and I was 25 years ago. So 25 years in the health and fitness industry. I worked as a gym instructor, personal trainer, went and did sports injury, sports therapy, physical therapy, set up and coaching sports teams and clubs right up to Dublin County level.
00:07:34:03 - 00:07:57:13
Unknown
I've always rented space in gyms as a personal trainer or for group training, then went into a partnership for a gym for a couple of years and then opened up my own gym ten years ago. Ten years living in that gym day and night, trying to build it up from scratch, from nothing. That was my identity. That was my passion, my community.
00:07:57:15 - 00:08:20:04
Unknown
I still get messages to this day from people saying how much they missed that place, how much they missed that gym. It was such a good place. But the reason they miss it is because it closed down. I lost it one morning, my usual normal routine for 5:20 a.m., coming in to open up, and there was an eviction notice on the door.
00:08:20:06 - 00:08:47:05
Unknown
Receivers had taken control of the building. They were getting ready to auction it off. I obviously wanted to fight it back. Got in touch. My solicitor, but it was going to be a losing battle no matter what. Kept things quiet for a while. It was all letters and phone calls, stress, absolute stress, such a boring hell. And then to be not speaking about or getting help, it was something that I could control.
00:08:47:05 - 00:09:00:02
Unknown
Later I could look after. But it was always going to be that losing battle. But looking back now, it was a sign. Fully believe. As one door closes, one opens.
00:09:00:04 - 00:09:22:23
Unknown
I know he was already doing some breathwork meditation work. I actually went back and did a certificate starting in psychology, and then I went to Mr. Own Life Coaching course, an emotional intelligence course, because I wanted to bring that into the gym, into the program, and into what I was coaching. But as things went down with the gym, had pressure.
00:09:22:23 - 00:09:49:22
Unknown
I got more at a home in the relationship financially as well, and I was just fighting myself, losing my purpose, and I was giving in. All through those dark days, those dark moments, I knew that I didn't want to open up just another gym. I was out there looking at units in a panic, trying to find somewhere else.
00:09:49:24 - 00:10:11:11
Unknown
It wasn't to be a put all the gym equipment into a container. Then that was like a plaster, isn't it? It's that sticky plaster moment of just putting a plaster over Niagara Falls and had to bite the bullet. So all the equipment and container tank and I could just live off that. And that was going to be what was keep me going.
00:10:11:13 - 00:10:26:08
Unknown
That finance didn't last long. Lucky enough, I'm grateful enough. I started training people in the gym again. Well, while this relationship broke down, ended up homeless in the shelter. As I said.
00:10:26:10 - 00:10:54:22
Unknown
And it's those routines that structure the mind of breathwork, the emotional intelligence that I studied, bringing back to my own routine, my own habits pulled me back together. I joined a different gym, so I'll be sharing facilities in it because I wouldn't wash in the hostel. I was just pure guilt. No matter what, no matter how good the day was, you are going back into that cold bunk bed.
00:10:54:24 - 00:11:20:16
Unknown
The shame, the embarrassment, just letting people down and letting my boys down. That was the killer. That was a really hard part. Sometimes you just have to keep going and getting home. And that's just what I always wanted to show the boys was doing. It then was my mindset. It wasn't that I was stronger than anyone else. It's just I got back into routine, back into structure.
00:11:20:18 - 00:11:42:17
Unknown
That's where I created some of my programs and the way I coach now, that's what I want the podcast here to be just open conversation. Like I say in the gym now we train, we talk, we try it. So whether you're rebuilding yourself, you just need that support mentally, physically, emotionally. This podcast is going to be for you.
00:11:42:19 - 00:12:12:15
Unknown
I will speak directly to man a lot. That's what I'm familiar with. As a father of two with this podcast is not just for men. Women will take you value anyone rebuilding anyone trying to improve themselves. You'd be welcome here to listen. In here we will talk about identity, about confidence, self-respect, boundaries, fatherhood, break ups, everything to do with taking new habits, new direction and action.
00:12:12:17 - 00:12:34:19
Unknown
Just real life, real tools, real growth. And as we move forward, the things I want to be clear, I'm moving on now. Without a mask, without an ego, I used to always operate to impress everybody like The Greatest Showman, the ringmaster. But now that's gone. And that's from the hard work I've done on myself in the past couple of years.
00:12:34:21 - 00:13:00:12
Unknown
That's what we do now when we coaching. It's not about material things, about status or validation. It's just genuinely right here and now. Sit in recording this, so grateful to look back on the past 12 months. Grateful for the simplicity of thanks. Grateful for my own routine. Grateful for the quiet solitude in life. Most of all, grateful for my two boys, Joshua and Zachary.
00:13:00:14 - 00:13:25:16
Unknown
Success looks very different to me now. It's about presence. It's about peace, and it's about being there with my boys. Waking up food on the table, keeping that time together. That's the real wealth and real wins to me. So if you're going through a tough time, as I said earlier, wherever you are right now, wherever you're carrying, I am in your corner.
00:13:25:18 - 00:13:38:06
Unknown
I want to thank you so much for listening. Please subscribe our share it around. Do everything we can to build up this podcast, build up this community together, and let's get to work.
00:13:38:06 - 00:13:54:01