Millions of viewers watched TV Gladiator Steel, AKA Zack George, going into battle with brave contenders in a revival of the hit gameshow which aired in early 2024. Unsurprisingly, the elite athlete trains intensively to maintain his fitness. What is less known is that away from the small screen he also keeps his finances in great shape through property. Zack enrolled on some of Samuel Leeds’ courses to learn more about investing in real estate – as he revealed when interviewed by his guru for Winners on a Wednesday.
‘Property is a great way to invest’
Born and raised in Leicester, Zack has quite a pedigree as a sportsman. He is one of the world’s top CrossFit athletes and won the title of the UK’s Fittest Man in 2020. And yet as a child and into his early teens he was overweight and deeply unhappy with his body.
It was his father’s offer to buy him a PlayStation if he lost weight that spurred him on to change his life.
Zack shed the pounds through sheer hard work and determination and went on to represent Leicestershire as a county athlete in rugby, squash and table tennis. Then he came across CrossFit, a high intensity fitness programme which incorporates elements from several sports and different types of exercise.
As the star describes it: “It’s all about weightlifting, gymnastics, swimming and running. It's basically trying to find the ultimate athlete.
“There's a process called the open in which one workout is released every week for five weeks. Say there's 300,000 people who do that workout if you come first, you get one point. If you come 300,000th you get 300,000 points.
“At the end of the five weeks whoever's got the lowest number of points wins the open. About 15,000 people in the UK entered and I was first out of that 15,000.”
After achieving first place in the UK CrossFit Open 2020, he qualified for the CrossFit Games that year, achieving a worldwide rank of 26th out of 126,461 on the global CrossFit leader board.
Looking back on his childhood, Zack, who has since retired from the sport, says he used to get picked on and bullied because of his size.
“I was extremely self-conscious. I used to hate taking my top off anywhere. I would skip swimming lessons because I was so embarrassed how I looked.
“There's always one vivid moment that I remember as a child. I was sitting there with my top off on my sofa. Obviously, my parents were around and my sister, so I felt quite comfortable.
“My parents had some friends coming around and I didn't know. They just pulled up and I remember I ran upstairs because I had to go quickly and put a top on. That was the first time when my parents realised how bad I felt about how I looked.
“My dad said what are you doing? Sit down. You look fine. Don't be ashamed of how you look, and it turned into a big argument. I was crying and then eventually I just ran upstairs. I was about 11 or 12.”
To then becoming supremely fit and now a TV Gladiator on the BBC show still amazes him as he used to draw pretend abs on his stomach to try to look like a Gladiator as a boy.
“It's amazing how life works because if you'd have told that kid, you're going to be a Gladiator 20 odd years later I'd have been like no, I eat a bag of Haribo every day, I have McDonald's and KFC four or five times a week. That's never going to happen.
“And then lo and behold, hard work, dedication, surround yourself with good people, and here I am today.”
It was his father who introduced him to property. “My dad has always been successful in business. He’s drilled into me that property is a great way to invest. I like the idea that you're investing in an asset that's appreciating over the years but then you also get a decent cash flow.
“A lot of people say: what if there is a crash? But that doesn't really apply. It's not going to change your rental income. If it depreciates you just wait for it to go back up.”
The athlete puts all his spare cash into property. “Everything I do and all the money I make is geared towards putting it into property That's what my dad's instilled in me: make your money, property, make your money, property.”
Zack says he is very much a person who once his sights are set on something, he goes for it. Consequently, he bought four houses over a period of about a year. In hindsight, he believes he could have invested his money in a way that would have generated more income.
His houses are standard buy-to-lets, whereas there are other strategies like serviced accommodation which are potentially far more profitable.
However, far from regretting his decision, he sees it as a positive. “It's all a learning curve and I wouldn't change it because I enjoyed it. I learned from that process. But going forward now I know there are a lot of ways to get better cash flow.”
Zack teams up with his dad on a BRR project
Zack chose Samuel Leeds as his property educator after discovering his YouTube channel and being impressed by him.
The Gladiator likes Samuel’s style and loves how honest he is because he shows the ups and downs of property investing. “He puts on stuff that doesn't always go well which I think is a really important side of property that people need to learn. I just got good vibes and enjoyed watching his videos.”
Zack went on to complete Samuel’s Foundations of Property Investing course and the Buy, Refurbish, Refinance Masterclass, studying one of them while on holiday in Greece.
Now he is about to finish his first BRR project after his dad bought a two-bed flat and a warehouse which have been converted into eight flats.
“My dad started it and then I came in when I was getting into property. Lots of errors were made but it came good and now we're just going for a refinance to pull some money out and then go again,” explains Zack.
The process has taken much longer than Zack and his dad expected. They also had to pay for licences as the properties are in a selective licensing area.
“Going forward, making sure we're not in those selective license areas is probably something that we’ll be pretty mindful of, but that was a bit of a sting,” admits Zack.
Nevertheless, the flats are fully rented out and he remains upbeat about the experience. The rental market in Leicester is ‘huge’ and they picked up valuable lessons.
“I really enjoy the setbacks because that's how you learn and make sure you don't make those mistakes again.”
Their portfolio consists of 14 rental units which are all managed, giving Zack, who has a one-year-old daughter, time to concentrate on his career, family and keeping fit.
“I don’t spend that much time on property. I always try to make it passive, so you just see that cash flow coming in which is nice.”
As well as being involved in filming for Gladiators, he still trains twice a day. “When I retired, I thought I can chill. I'm going to train once a day, six days a week. That lasted for about a week, and thought I can't do it. I just need to keep that discipline in me.
“It's just so ingrained in in me as a person, so I still train twice a day, three to four hours, six days a week.”
These days his training is slightly different because he adds a Gladiator flavour to it with rock climbing and agility work. TV and corporate appearances, podcasts and school talks also occupy his time.
“Juggling that with a one-year-old and property keeps me very busy, but I really enjoy it. I think if you enjoy something enough, you'll make time.”
He sees his property journey so far as having taken ‘big baby steps’ on the way to building a solid financial base for himself which protects him in future.
“I want to get to the point where property is bringing in enough so that I don't have to rely on sponsors or things like that. That's the transition I want to make over the next couple of years.”
He is aware that he cannot just go to the gym and focus on his training. “I've got to be doing other stuff alongside being an athlete in case I get injured, and sponsors drop me.”
Teacher and pupil inspire each other
Teacher and pupil have inspired each other. Zack sent Samuel pictures of himself before he lost weight which motivated him when he embarked on his own fitness quest.
Since then, the two men have trained together. The 33-year-old was also amongst the spectators at Samuel’s charity boxing match when he beat his property rival Rob Moore.
The strongman is full of praise for his mentor, saying he dominated the fight, and the atmosphere was amazing. “I think he’s done amazingly well and he’s an absolute inspiration.”
They share the same views on the importance of good nutrition and exercise. Zack hopes his story will inspire the next generation watching the Gladiators show to live well.
“it's very easy to look at me now and think, oh he's genetically gifted. He's always looked like that, whereas my story shows that I was once the opposite of how I am now.
“I want to show all the kids out there that if you work towards something you can achieve anything in life. I want to get the nation healthier. We have a big issue with obesity in the world. I want to try to tackle that as much as possible.”
Children ask him about his training, what he eats and how he recovers. He believes they wouldn’t be posing those questions if he and the other Gladiators weren’t around.
“I know what it feels like to be unhappy in yourself. It's so important for me to try to make sure no kid feels like that in the UK. Obviously, that's a real big task but there's no better position to be in than to be a Gladiator because we are like superheroes to the kids. They listen to everything we say.
“We just need to get kids eating healthy food and teach them some basic nutrition lessons.”
Zack also agrees with his property trainer that teaching financial literacy in schools should be encouraged. He counts himself lucky that his father is in business and gave him advice. But others who have not had that help could find themselves struggling.
The celebrity says he has so much more to learn about property and the best ways to invest in it and will continue to follow Samuel on YouTube.
“I've watched so many of the Winners on a Wednesday videos and there are some inspirational stories. It's great to see some people who never thought they'd be in that situation ever leave their jobs and make a huge success of it. I'm definitely going to continue watching them and get as much advice as possible.”
Zack’s tips
- Learn fom your setbacks and don’t make the same mistakes again.
- Get inspiration from watching Winners on a Wednesday videos.
Samuel Leeds verdict
“I’m glad Zack did some property training with us. It seems to be paying off. It’s great to take care of yourself physically and be invested in property. I just thought I have to get him on a Winners on a Wednesday episode to share his story.”
