Former England cricket captain Adam Hollioake joins me for a fascinating conversation about pressure, mental toughness and what it really takes to access your ability when everything is on the line.

When Adam Hollioake lost his brother, people looked at the way he continued to perform and assumed he was coping.

What they didn't see was what happened when he got home.

In this conversation, the former England cricket captain shares how cricket became the only part of his day where his mind found relief from the grief and how years of mental training allowed him to remain present when everything outside the game felt unbearable.

We talk about the imaginary hook he used outside the changing room to mentally leave his problems at the door, the way he imagined his thoughts as apps that needed closing, and why he deliberately visualised the most difficult conditions rather than only picturing success.

Adam also shares what elite sport taught him about pressure, presence, subconscious training and the strange contradiction of calling the game "90% mental" while spending almost all our time training the physical.

This is a deeply human conversation about grief, performance and what it really takes to access your ability when everything is on the line.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why cricket became a place of relief during grief

• The difference between appearing to cope and actually coping

• Adam's imaginary hook outside the changing room

• The "mental apps" technique he used to stay present

• Why he visualised hostile crowds and the worst possible conditions

• How pressure can block access to the ability you already have

• Why your biggest opponent can be your own mind

• The importance of knowing when there isn't actually a problem to fix

• What it means to bet on yourself when everything is on the line

Who Are You When The World Isn't Watching?

Who are you underneath the person everybody knows?

Not your title. Not your reputation. Not the version people expect you to be.

You.

In this episode, Emma explores the gap between the person the world sees and the person underneath and what happens when we spend so long performing an identity that we lose connection with who we actually are.

Because the most interesting thing about you probably isn't the thing everybody already knows.

In This Episode

• The person everyone knows vs. the person nobody sees

• How we accidentally become trapped by our own reputation

• Why rehearsed stories create disconnection

• What happens when you've outgrown the identity people associate with you

• Why the parts we hide are often the parts people connect with most

• The questions that reveal more than any polished success story ever could

• Emma's own experience of realising she'd stopped listening to herself and what happened when she finally did

A Question Worth Sitting With

Who are you when the world is watching and who are you when it isn't?

And more importantly...

What's the gap between the two?

The Unfair Advantage

Private training for the human behind the performance, helping you strengthen self-trust, identity and your capacity to remain yourself as life asks for more.

JOIN HERE

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Follow the podcast, leave a review and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.

Because the person behind the performance might just be the most interesting part of the story.

The Moment Your Dream Starts Feeling Real

What happens when the thing you've always wanted suddenly feels possible?

In this episode, Emma shares a personal behind-the-scenes moment after a powerful conversation with someone in TV about her dream of hosting her own show.

But instead of feeling excited...

She felt the fear, doubt and resistance rise.

Because sometimes the biggest identity shifts don't happen when we're failing.

They happen when we're standing at the edge of everything we've been asking for.

In This Episode

• Why your mind gets loudest before a breakthrough

• The reason we pull back when our dreams start feeling real

• Why resistance is powerful information, not a reason to stop

• How to use fear as feedback instead of letting it control your decisions

• Why achieving bigger goals requires training the person holding them

• The importance of preparing your mind, body and identity for your next level

A Question Worth Sitting With

What if the thing coming up right now isn't blocking you...

What if it's showing you exactly what needs to be trained so you can have what you want?

Continue The Conversation

🧠 The Unfair Advantage

Private training for the human behind the success story.

Designed to help you strengthen your mind, body, nervous system and identity so you can hold the bigger moments you're working towards.

JOIN HERE

🎙️ Off The Record

Powerful conversations that reveal what needs to shift so you can remain yourself while life asks more of you.

JOIN HERE

The Conversation Every Ambitious Woman Needs To Hear

What if the biggest thing standing between you and the life you want isn't a lack of strategy... but a lack of connection to yourself?

In this solo episode, Emma explores a pattern she's seeing everywhere. Through conversations with founders, leaders, athletes and high achievers, one theme keeps coming up:

"I don't feel like myself anymore."

Not because they've failed.

Quite often...

Because they've succeeded.

Together, we'll explore what happens when achievement becomes the focus, metrics become our measure of worth, and we slowly lose sight of the person we're doing it all for.

In This Episode

• Why Emma believes we're facing an epidemic of disconnection

• How success can quietly pull us away from ourselves

• The hidden cost of tying our worth to metrics

• Why numbers can never answer questions of identity

• Emma's own experience of chasing results while losing connection to herself

• One simple question that could change the way you see your life

A Question Worth Sitting With

What have you stopped doing that used to make you feel like you?

Not productive.

Not successful.

Not impressive.

You.

Continue The Conversation

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love you to join me for Off The Record on 16th July.

We're taking this conversation even deeper as we explore self-abandonment, disconnection and how to reconnect with yourself without giving up your ambition.

Because maybe the next level isn't asking you to become someone else.

Maybe it's asking you to come home to yourself.

🎟️ Off The Record

We're Ghosting Ourselves And Calling It Success

What if success isn't the problem?

What if disconnection is?

In this episode, Emma explores a pattern she's seeing everywhere right now.

Successful people achieving the things they once dreamed of...

Yet feeling further away from themselves than ever before.

From businesses and careers to personal goals and everyday life, this conversation looks at what happens when achievement becomes the focus and connection to yourself quietly slips away.

In This Episode

• Why success can sometimes leave us feeling disconnected

• The hidden cost of constantly measuring ourselves

• How performance can replace presence

• The danger of outsourcing your self-worth to a scoreboard

• Why ambition isn't the problem

• The question that could change everything

A Question Worth Sitting With

What have you stopped doing that used to make you feel like you?

Not productive.

Not successful.

Not impressive.

You.

Continue The Conversation

🎙️ Off The Record

Real conversations about the things shaping who we become.

GET YOUR TICKET

🧠 The Unfair Advantage

Private nervous system training designed to help you stay connected to yourself while life asks for more.

JOIN HERE

Enjoyed The Episode?

Follow the podcast, leave a review and share this episode with someone who needs the reminder.

Remain yourself while life asks for more.

Embracing Perimenopause: Insights, Challenges & Positivity

What if you're not losing yourself?

What if you're simply navigating one of the biggest transitions of your life?

In this episode, Emma sits down with perimenopause and menopause expert Chrissie to explore the physical, emotional and identity shifts that so many women experience but few openly discuss.

Together they unpack hormones, anxiety, HRT, self-trust, identity and how to move through this chapter feeling informed, empowered and supported.

In This Episode

• The early signs of perimenopause

• Hormones, anxiety and emotional wellbeing

• Understanding HRT and common misconceptions

• Identity shifts and self-trust

• Practical tools for navigating menopause

• Why this chapter can become an opportunity, not a setback

Connect With Chrissie

Instagram

Continue The Conversation

🎙️ Off The Record

Real conversations that challenge how you see yourself, your life and what's possible.

OFF THE RECORD

🧠 The Unfair Advantage

Private nervous system training designed to help you build self-trust, emotional resilience and the capacity to hold bigger moments.

The Unfair Advantage

NOBODY IS COMING TO PICK YOU

⚡ BEFORE YOU PRESS PLAY...

At some point in our lives, most of us are taught to wait.

Wait to be chosen.

Wait to be invited.

Wait to be discovered.

Wait until we're ready.

Wait until someone gives us permission.

The problem?

Some people spend their entire lives waiting.

Waiting for confidence.

Waiting for certainty.

Waiting for someone else to tell them they're enough.

This episode is a reminder that some of the most powerful things you'll ever create happen the moment you stop waiting and decide to choose yourself.

🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE

Emma sits down with Elif for a conversation about courage, belonging, rejection, authenticity and what happened when she stopped waiting for permission and created her own stage.

Inside this conversation:

✔ Why waiting to be chosen keeps people stuck

✔ The moment Elif realised nobody was coming to rescue her

✔ How creating your own opportunities changes your identity

✔ Why belonging starts with self-acceptance

✔ The hidden gap between external success and internal fulfilment

✔ How rejection can become redirection

✔ Why courage is built through action, not confidence

✔ The danger of outsourcing your worth to external validation

✔ What happens when you stop performing and start telling the truth

✔ Why the most powerful thing you can do is choose yourself

⚡ REBEL QUESTION

Where in your life are you still waiting for permission?

Permission to speak.

Permission to start.

Permission to be seen.

Permission to change your mind.

Permission to become who you already know you are.

What would happen if you stopped waiting?

🧠 THE HUMAN BEHIND THE PERFORMANCE

One of the most powerful moments in this conversation is the realisation that success doesn't automatically create belonging.

Many people spend years chasing the next opportunity, the next achievement, the next milestone, believing it will finally make them feel enough.

But belonging isn't created by being accepted by everyone else.

It begins the moment you stop abandoning yourself.

🔥 WAYS TO GO DEEPER

THE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

Private training for the human behind the performance.

Designed to help you build pressure capacity, emotional resilience, nervous system regulation and the ability to hold bigger moments without collapsing under them.

HERE

OFF THE RECORD

Live conversations exploring the stories, truths and experiences most people never share publicly.

The conversations behind the performance.

HERE

THE WINNING EDGE

Private coaching for people preparing for bigger rooms, bigger opportunities and bigger versions of themselves.

DM ME ROOM

STAY CONNECTED

If we aren't connected already, come and say hello on Instagram @emmagibbsng and @unapologeticrebelpod

⭐ ENJOYED THIS EPISODE?

Follow the show, leave a review and share this episode with someone who's tired of waiting for permission.

Because sometimes the biggest shift in your life begins when you stop waiting to be chosen and choose yourself.

🎙️ Confessions of an Unapologetic Rebel

Conversations about remaining yourself while life asks for more.

S5 E1: Bigger Moments Ask More Of You ⚡ BEFORE YOU PRESS PLAY...

Most people prepare for the moment.

The event. The opportunity. The stage. The interview. The launch. The competition.

Very few prepare themselves for what the moment will ask of them.

Because bigger moments don't just require more strategy.

They require more capacity.

More self-trust. More emotional resilience. More nervous system regulation. More willingness to be seen.

Welcome to Season Five.

This season is an exploration of the human behind the performance and what it really takes to hold bigger moments without losing yourself in the process.

🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE

In this opening episode, Emma shares the biggest shift in her work and why she's more convinced than ever that success isn't built by strategy alone.

Inside this conversation:

✔ Why she has entered a completely new era personally and professionally

✔ What taking her podcast live revealed about the future of her work

✔ Why she's become obsessed with the human behind the success story

✔ The truth about bigger rooms, bigger opportunities and bigger visibility

✔ Why we don't perform at our best, we perform at our safest

✔ How pressure enters your system and shapes behaviour

✔ Why old identities silently sabotage new opportunities

✔ The importance of preparing yourself for the moment, not just the moment itself

✔ Why training your nervous system may be the greatest advantage you ever build

⚡ REBEL QUESTION

What version of yourself are you still carrying that has already finished their leg of the race?

Are you carrying wisdom...

Or are you carrying baggage?

Because they're not the same thing.

🧠 THE HUMAN BEHIND THE PERFORMANCE

Every episode this season explores one question:

How do you remain yourself while life asks for more?

More visibility.

More responsibility.

More pressure.

More opportunity.

More scrutiny.

More success.

Because the real challenge isn't becoming successful.

It's remaining yourself while you do.

🔥 WAYS TO GO DEEPER THE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

Private training for the human behind the performance.

Designed to help you build pressure capacity, emotional resilience, nervous system regulation and the ability to hold bigger moments without collapsing under them.

HERE

OFF THE RECORD

Live conversations exploring the stories, truths and experiences most people never share publicly.

The conversations behind the performance.

HERE

THE WINNING EDGE

Private coaching for people preparing for bigger rooms, bigger opportunities and bigger versions of themselves.

DM ME EDGE

STAY CONNECTED - If we arent connected follow me on IG

⭐ ENJOYED THIS EPISODE?

Follow the show, leave a review and share this episode with someone preparing for a bigger moment.

Because the world doesn't need more information.

It needs more people who know how to hold what they're capable of.

🎙️ Confessions of an Unapologetic Rebel

Conversations about remaining yourself while life asks for more.

On Confessions of an Unapologetic Rebel, Emma is joined by Ola Goldsmith, International Sales Expert and entrepreneur known for building a business on her own terms not the industry's.

In this conversation, Emma and Ola go beyond the highlight reel.

They talk about what actually happens when things don't go to plan… when doors don't open… and when most people would quietly start adjusting themselves to fit.

This isn't about growth for the sake of it.

It's about the moments where you either stay with yourself or abandon what you know to be true in order to keep things moving.

From navigating the pressure of visibility (including Ola's experience on Dragon's Den) to making decisions rooted in freedom rather than expectation, this episode explores what it really takes to build something that actually works for you.

🔥 Off The Record Questions Emma Asks Ola

• What parts of you had to be let go of to hold the level you've stepped into?
• When things didn't go to plan, what stopped you from changing who you were to make it work?
• Where do you see people abandoning themselves the most in business?
• What does freedom actually look like for you beyond the idea of it?
• How do you make decisions when there's pressure to follow what everyone else is doing?

🎧 This Episode Is a Must Listen If You Are…

• building something that looks good on the outside but doesn't fully feel like you
• feeling the pull to do things your way… but questioning it under pressure
• navigating growth, visibility, or new opportunities and noticing yourself hesitating
• tired of following industry rules that don't actually match how you want to live and work
• at a point where you know it's not about strategy anymore it's about how you're showing up

🧠 If You're Experiencing…

• second-guessing yourself when things start working
• softening your voice or decisions to keep things comfortable
• adapting your business to fit what you think will land, instead of what you actually want
• feeling the tension between "this works" and "this doesn't feel like me"

This episode will help you see exactly where that shift is happening and what it's costing you.

🎙️ Hosted by Emma Gibbs-Ng

Emma Gibbs-Ng is a Pressure & Performance Specialist known for the conversations most people don't have about what's really happening underneath success.

She has conducted over 400 interviews with leaders, Olympians, gold medallists, seven-figure business owners, and global brands, giving her direct insight into how people actually operate under pressure, not just how it looks from the outside.

Her work focuses on training the human system behind performance, so her clients can hold more, lead at a higher level, and stay connected to themselves as everything expands.

Because pressure doesn't test your talent.

It tests what you can hold.

🔗 Connect

Follow Emma: Instagram Follow Ola: Instagram

If this episode landed, you already know this isn't about more information.

It's about how you show up in the moments that matter.

Inside The Unfair Advantage, we train exactly that.

How to:

• hold pressure without tightening
• stay with yourself under demand
• and access what you're capable of when it counts

👉 Message UNFAIR on Instagram to explore it

🎧 Listen

unapologeticrebelpodcast.com

You knew what to do…

so why didn't you fully go for it?

Not the obvious miss.

The subtle one.

Where something in you hesitated just enough to change the outcome.

The conversation you softened The decision you delayed The moment you walked away thinking…

that wasn't fully me

That's the part most people don't catch.

You don't lose skill under pressure

You lose access to it

And it's not dramatic.

It's micro.

Your instinct delays Your timing shifts You start monitoring instead of responding

And at this level…

that's everything

Because it's the difference between:

the moment landing or not

being trusted or questioned

holding your position or quietly losing it

This is what's actually happening when you "hold back"

Your system tightens

Not because you're not capable But because it doesn't trust the moment yet

So you don't go all in

You go… almost

And that gap?

That's where opportunities are lost

This episode will show you exactly where that shift happens

So you stop repeating it

Because once you see it…

you can't unsee it

This is exactly what we train inside The Unfair Advantage

Not more information

👉 access under pressure

Being able to: stay open trust your instinct and not pull back when it matters

Because the people who win aren't always the most skilled

They're the ones who can use their skill when it counts

If you're done being almost there…

You'll feel it.

👉 Message me UNFAIR

I'll tell you if it's right for you