At just 24, Australian cricketer Peter Hatzoglou already has a cricketing CV to envy. The legspinner is one of the most exciting young players in the game, is a Big Bash winner, and has also had stints in the UK playing for Oval Invincibles and Glamorgan… However, his journey to the top is more unusual than most and not that long ago a career in cricket was not a reality for him. 

In fact, Peter took a break from the game in 2016 to focus on his exams and he had been trying to carve out a career in finance. Post-exams he returned to cricket, but just to play for his local village team Sunshine Heights and as recent as 2019 he was playing in the Cheshire 4th division. He was even working for KPMG as late as April last year and a professional cricketing career wasn’t really on his radar.

That all changed rapidly though and just a year after playing in the Cheshire 4th division, Peter was making his BBL debut for Melbourne Renegades and receiving praise from cricketing royalty such as the late, great Shane Warne. A year after that and he won the competition with the Perth Scorchers and he's now a well-renowned figure in Australian cricket. It’s a remarkable rise from village cricket to BBL champion in the space of five years. 

It was great to speak to Peter and hear about his incredible story and all the lessons he’s learned along the way - such as the importance of persistence, resilience and adaptability to change. He also speaks about the wisdom he received from Shane Warne who convinced Peter to come over to the UK and play some club cricket - which ultimately was the catalyst for him getting a Hundred contract with Oval Invincibles. 

There's so much to learn from Peter's story and we loved chatting to him. We hope you get as much out of the episode as we did.

Paul McGinley was an elite golfer in his own right - reaching the lofty heights of top 20 in the world at one stage. However, Paul is perhaps best known for his success in team competitions, notably the Ryder Cup in which he played integral roles in 2002 when he sunk the winning putt and in 2014 when he captained Europe to victory. During this episode, Paul explains why he performed so well in team competitions, as well as his philosophy as captain of Europe’s victorious 2014 Ryder Cup side and how he got the best out of his players. 

In this episode we discuss:

TOM BOSWORTH | Taking The First Step | Out Now

Amy Williams was propelled to stardom in 2010 after winning Britain’s first individual gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in 30 years. Having only started Skeleton Racing at 19 years old, eight years prior to the Games, Amy’s story is one of dreaming big and following an ambition with focus and disciplined day-to-day habits. The topics we cover in this episode are: 

- How a lack of resources can often be your biggest unfair advantage 

- The importance of consistently getting your thoughts down on paper

- How true enjoyment of your craft leads you to unlocking your potential

- Controlling the controllables 

- How discipline is more important than motivation 

- The moment Amy knew she’d won Gold

Amy has written about all of her experiences and learnings in a book called Talent to Triumph, and we highly recommend it. Check out more of Amy's work at https://www.amywilliams.com/. 

Ever since the Lionesses completed that historic Euros victory in the summer, we’ve wanted to get someone involved in the England set up on the podcast - and having played many times for the U23 national side, Anna Patten is in a perfect position to explain the current state of play in the women’s game and how the Euros success has given a real opportunity for even further growth. 

Everyone was swept up by Lioness fever in the summer and the whole nation was captivated by the on-pitch successes of the team and their incredible off-pitch personalities, so it was great to get an even better insight into that team from Anna.

Anna is one of the rising stars in the women’s game and is currently on-loan at Aston Villa from Arsenal. She has worked closely with the likes of England and Arsenal stars such as Leah Williamson and Jill Scott and so has seen first-hand how the profiles of women’s footballers have grown rapidly in recent years with strong media interest, growing attendances and major sponsorship and broadcast deals now coming into the game. It’s an exciting time for the women’s game, and at just 23 years old, Anna is going to be at the forefront of it all… 

Listen to this episode to hear Anna discuss the legacy of the Lionesses as well as her own career, motivations and ambitions.

Tony Stanger is a Scottish rugby legend - playing 52 times for Scotland and, up until very recently, holding the nation's record for total tries scored. Post-rugby, Tony became an author, a coach and a business owner with his high performance consultancy named ‘Stanger Pro’. In this episode we cover: 

- Scoring Scotland’s most famous try

- Leadership lessons from Sir Ian McGeechan

- The importance of not tying one’s identity to their levels of success

- Why parents are the most important element of youth development 

- How asking honest questions can lead to high performance

Anna Hemmings is a six-time world champion, two-time Olympian and now a world-class keynote speaker and performance consultant.

Anna’s sporting career can be summed up as not only one of elite high-performance but also one of consistent success against the odds. Initially, this was proving the British Head Coach wrong – who had told her when younger that she was not big or strong enough to ever compete at the highest level of her sport. Later on in her journey, she would overcome an even bigger hurdle. At the peak of her career, Anna was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and told by doctors that she would never race again.

In 2005, after two years of being kept out of kayaking, Anna made a miraculous return to fitness and won at the World Championships in Perth, taking her back to the top of her sport. Not surprisingly, her incredible efforts were recognised at the Sunday Times Sports Woman of the Year awards later that year, where she won the Champions award.

Through all these experiences, Anna has become an expert in the field of high performance and resilience. As the founding director of Beyond the Barriers - a high performance consultancy that helps individuals and teams – Anna travels the world delivering lessons in leadership to a range of teams in the corporate world. 

Anna has also appeared on Steven Bartlett's Diary of a CEO, and, as two huge fans of that podcast, when we saw Anna on there we knew we had to get in touch. We loved having a similar conversation on the importance of connection, on how powerful a tool visualisation is and how understanding your true motivators can lead you to success.

Christian is a former rugby player for England, British Lions & London Wasps. At 27 though, despite being one of the highest Premiership try scorers of all time, Christian took up a new challenge by becoming part of the NFL International Player Programme, securing a place on the Buffalo Bills squad & ultimately scoring a touchdown with his first competitive touch of a football.

During the podcast, Christian talks about various mindsets, approaches and mental techniques he used during his career. The most notable of which was a mental shift he went through halfway through his career. When starting out on his rugby journey, Christian had moulded his training and his lifestyle all in pursuit of his ultimate goal - to play for England. However, when the call-ups did not come – much to the bemusement of many rugby fans - Christian said a negative mindset crept in, which then led to a period of change.

From this point, Christian searched to evaluate what success meant to him, and why he was doing what he was doing. With the burden of the constant search of an England place removed from his shoulders, he was able to entertain, flourish and show people the extreme natural talent he had. As a result, opportunities opened up for him, like a two-year stint in the NFL and the opportunity to blaze a trail for English athletes wanting to make it Stateside.

Fans among you will know that Christian is currently on the lookout for his next opportunity and challenge, and in our podcast he reveals what attracts him to the different leagues. For the first time in a broadcast interview, he reveals there have been offers, from an interesting mix of clubs around the world.

It was an incredible experience speaking to someone who is constantly looking to push the boundaries of what he can achieve, someone who has done things differently to many of those around him and someone who was not afraid to sacrifice a position of comfort in pursuit of the unknown.

This episode also marks the start of the new season for the podcast – we’ve got lots of interesting guests coming up and we can't wait to release some of the conversations

Tanni Grey-Thompson was born with spina bifida and subsequently became paralysed at the age of 7. Six years later, inspired by Paralympic legend Chris Hallam, Tanni began wheelchair racing and instantly fell in love with the sport. Tanni had won her first race within three years of starting, and just two years after that, Tanni won the London Wheelchair Marathon. This was the first in a long list of competitive wheelchair successes, and a testament to the mental strength required to overcome hardship and to compete at the very highest level of sport. 

At the age of just 19, Tanni competed at the Seoul Paralympic Games and took bronze for the 200m. From that point onwards, having had a taste for the Games and the intense training process it demands, Tanni set her sights on achieving more success; which she certainly did. 

In 1992 at the Barcelona Games, Tanni elevated herself to the world sporting elite with four gold medals, a feat she would subsequently repeat in true elite fashion at the Atlanta Paralympics in 1996. The Barcelona olympics were especially important though for Tanni as it marked a change in coverage by the media. Helen Rollason, one of the main broadcasters in the UK at the time, gave greater coverage to the Paralympics than there had been previously. 

This made things more emotional when in 2000, Tanni won the Helen Rollason award at Sports Personality of the Year award. Somewhat disappointingly though, the BBC had failed to provide a ramp up to the awards stage, denying Tanni the deserved opportunity to celebrate her award at what is one of the biggest nights in the British sporting calendar. In typical fashion, Tanni reframed the mistake as an opportunity to suggest a number of changes in the BBC, and indeed across the country, with regards to their attitudes towards disability rights.  

Tanni retired from sport in 2007, ending her career with 30 World Records, 11 gold medals and 6 London Marathon wins. Since retiring, Tanni has gone on to become Chancellor of Northumbria University, and in 2010, became an Independent Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. As a working peer, Tanni uses her experience and knowledge during debates in the House and has spoken on a range of issues including welfare reform, disability rights and sport. 

To share over an hour with Tanni was an incredible honour and a real privilege. Tanni spoke to us about her belief that hardship is crucial in allowing us to achieve our full potential, that the hardest part of our journey is often getting started and the opportunity we all have in our own lives to make real, long-lasting change for others.

Thomas Hal Robson-Kanu's most famous moment on the football pitch came in 2016 when, against all odds, Wales reached the Semi-Final of the Euros. In the quarter-final, Hal Robson-Kanu scored one of the most memorable goals in modern football history, beating three defenders with one Cruyff turn and putting it past Thibaut Courtois, one of the best keepers in the world at the time. The individual brilliance of the goal warranted it being awarded a Puskas award and to all football fans, it perfectly encapsulated the exciting journey the Welsh side had been on that tournament.

Since that tournament, Hal has continued to play at the highest level of football, playing internationally for Wales and in the Premier League with West Brom. As if this wasn’t enough, he’s also managed to launch a global e-commerce brand at the same time.  As Hal says in the pod, some footballers play golf in their free time, some play call of duty, instead he’s decided to use his free time and mental energy to enter the world of entrepreneurship.  Since beginning in January 2018, the Turmeric Co has grown to become a leading e-commerce brand in the world, now distributing 300’000 shots each month to over 50’000 consumers. Whilst these figures are impressive and help to paint a picture of how successful the brand has been in a short space of time, Hal says real success for the company will depend on the amount of lives he manages to change. 

This opportunity to build a community of wellness, and to help habit-form healthy behaviours in people’s lives, is what stands as his main motivation now. Although the motivation to play in the Premier League was the focus for Hal throughout his teens and twenties, it is now the opportunity to change people’s lives that “goes beyond scoring goals in the premier league and the adulation that comes with it” which we found really interesting. Hal’s experiences in getting to the top of his sport, as well as leading a start-up, have led him to gain an incredibly detailed understanding of the psychology of performance, whether that’s techniques that allowed him to perform in the semi-final of a euros watched by billions of fans, or maintaining positive mental wellbeing when starting a dynamic and ever-evolving business.

In our podcast, Hal’s understanding of the awareness of mental health is clear – in a revealing way, which many sportspeople would shy away from doing, Hal helps paint a picture of the hugely under-reported mental health crisis currently taking place in professional football and the structural reasons behind this. In his words, if it came out “you would not believe it”. For Hal, one of the main reasons for this is fear; players and managers fear under-performing, they fear social media abuse, they fear losing their livelihoods and what this creates is a hush culture, which needs to change. 

This podcast was aimed to help display athletes as more than their on-field personalities and we feel this episode is a perfect example of this. It also marks a cool milestone in the podcast journey we’ve been on in the last year. We thank Hal so much again for his time and the ability to meet him in person – we encourage you all to check out the Turmeric co and appreciate the amazing work he’s doing in that space.