Paul McGuinness has worked with, played with and coached some of the biggest names in the world through his incredible football career.

Growing up with his father being heavily involved in football management and coaching, you could say that Paul was destined to make his own pathway into the game.

From a young age, he can remember how his father coached him and as he developed as a player, focussed on becoming a coach after his playing days were over.

Sir Alex Ferguson recognised his ability as a coach and brought him into the Manchester Utd Academy in the early 90's at a young age and he remained working there for many years.

Paul has worked as Director at the Centre of Excellence, Youth Development Coach and Coach Developer at Man Utd, The FA and Leicester City and he now works as an independent Football Consultant.

In this episode, Paul shares some fascinating insights into his coaching, tells some great stories and highlights the importance of using analogies, stories and language to engage performers.

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Dr. Kieran File is an associate professor in Applied Linguistics at Warwick University.

In this episode we explore how language shapes relationships in professional sports teams.

Kieran spent 6 weeks following and studying a professional rugby team in New Zealand to learn and write about the use of language within the context of a professional sports team environment.

His book; How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams  was a fascinating insight into the dynamics of power and solidarity within a team environment.

He also talks about his journey into sharing his passion of sport with his linguistic profession. His PHD in post match interviews and the importance of the use of language within the sports context.

If you want to get in touch with him you can find out more here:

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/people/file/

https://twitter.com/KieranFile

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John Stoszkowski describes himself as a 'reformed academic' and has spent his life studying and learning philosophy.

John has over 25 published research papers covering social learning, reflection and critical thinking. As well as this, in 2019 he was awarded a Senior Fellowship from Higher Education.

In 2021 John made the decision to leave academia and is now providing philosophy-driven coaching and courses to help self-determined professionals unlock their true potential.

John now works in businesses and elite sport to work with people to help deepen their thinking to gain a better perspective on themselves and their situations.

He has also co-written a book with previous guest of the podcast Daniel Massaro called Being Well - A journey of living well through a sporting life.

Find out more about John through his website - https://johnstoszkowski.com/

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Frank Dick has had an incredible career spanning over 40 years in the world of high performance sports coaching.

Frank has worked has worked as the British Athletics Federation's Director of Coaching, High Performance Director at the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, strategic planning consultant the England Rugby Leadership Team and personally trained gold medalist Daley Thompson.

Frank is also a motivational speaker and consultant and works with sports and business organisations around the world helping to develop high performance cultures and teams.

In this episode we talk about:

• Influences on his career
• Creating a learning environment
• Importance of preparation
• Journey of the olympic cycle
• Pre-mortems and dealing with setbacks
• The power of storytelling
• The importance of building relationships
• Feedback and feedforward
• The 'Four R's' of communication

This was a fascinating and very inspiring and motivational conversation with Frank and I really appreciate him giving me the time to gain these great insights from him.

I hope you enjoy.

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Adam Nicholls is a Professor of Psychology at Hull University who specialises in the fascinating world of Sport Psychology.

He has written 4 books and plenty of papers on the subject of psychology in sport.

The book we discuss in this episode is Psychology for Coaches: Theory and Practice.

Adam has over 20 years of experience in studying, learning and practicing sport psychology.

In this conversation we discuss:

• Psychology in grass root sports coaching
• Importance of awareness
• Managing stress and high pressure situations
• Trust and care in coaching
• The basic psychological needs
• Challenge and threat mindsets
• Psychology for coach and leadership development
• Communicating in teams

I came across Adam on LinkedIn and have enjoyed his insightful posts.

You can find out more about Adam on his LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-adam-nicholls-77453b20b/

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I caught up with former Manchester City, Crewe Alexandra, Leicester and Celtic player Neil Lennon for this interview.

Neil came to England when he was a fresh-faced 16 year old lad and forged a career in football that's taken him to the English Premier League, captaining Celtic against European giants and managing in Scotland, England and Cyprus.

In this conversation Neil talks about:

• Man City as a youth
• Early influences on his career
• Building resilience through setbacks
• Martin O'Neill's impact on him
• Glory days at Leicester City
• Man management in the game
• Winning mentalities
• Pantomime villan
• Moving to Celtic
• Captaining and management
• Dealing with disappointment
• Culture differences in Cyprus

This was a great episode to record. A big thank you to Neil for coming to meet me and thanks to the Gleneagles Townhouse for having us.

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I caught up with former International Rugby Captain turned High Performance Coach and Sports Broadcaster Rory Lawson for this great chat about communication and leadership within the sporting and corporate environments. 

Rory grew up in a sporting family with his Grandfather being the late great ‘Voice of Rugby’ Bill McLaren, his father playing international rugby for Scotland and his older brother also representing Scotland in Rugby Sevens. 

After being forced into retirement early, Rory has followed in his Papa’s footsteps and has worked in media and broadcasting covering rugby for Sky, BT Sport and ITV. 

But he is quick to mention, that despite many people thinking this is his ‘full-time job’, this is just one aspect of Rory’s busy life away from playing rugby. 

Rory now specialises in leaderships development and coaching with a speciality of working within the sports and corporate environments. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Influence from his family
• Importance of reflective practices 
• Creating an environment to speak up 
• Sharing data through stories 
• Warmth and Edge 
• Self-awareness 
• Speaking with candour 
• Key fundamentals to communication

In this episode Rory tells some great stories of his time as a professional rugby player and gives great insight from his lived experiences. 

If Rory isn’t working in the commentary gantry at a rugby match, he’s working on stage in the hospitality lounges and tents hosting hundreds of people and interviewing former and current players. 

He’s become a well known and established keynote speaker and also works as an Executive Consultant for Ceannas who specialise in unlocking leadership excellence. 

This was a fascinating episode to record and I’d like to say a big thank you to Rory who took his time out of a busy Six Nations schedule to share his insights with us. 

Find Rory on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-lawson-01b05717/

Ceannas - https://www.ceannas.com/

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Stuart Mitchell started comedy by attending a comedy course while he worked in banking.

It's clear from this episode, that hard work and creating a process is how he has managed to become so successful in what is an extremely cutthroat industry.

He is the longest serving panelist on the hit show 'Breaking the News' on BBC Scotland and also has a new radio series 'Stuart Mitchell Cost of Living' which will air on BBC Radio 4 on the 25th of Feb 2024.

In this episode, Stuart talks all about:

• Getting into comedy
• Investing in comedy for his own development
• Discipline when working - recording himself, listening back and making changes
• Lessons from comedy in America
• Working on a panel show
• Testing new material
• All about the 'left turn'
• Challenging environments
• Working with commercial clients
• Dealing with nerves and mental strength
• Dealing with difficulties

It was great to meet Stuart and hear his amazing insights into the world of comedy and his work that he does with CEOs and the corporate world to help create engagement with audiences by adding humour.

To find out what Stuart is up to you can check him out online - https://linktr.ee/stuartmitchell

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I got the chance to have a chat with former, and accidental, footballer, CEO and now pundit Pat Nevin for a great chat about his incredible career and some of the key lessons he's learnt on the way.

In this episode we talk all about:

• The importance of being true to himself
• Using weaknesses as strengths
• Knowing when to use, and when not to use a strong personalty
• Influences from managers
• Handling nerves (or not having them in the first place)
• PR and dealing with the press and media
• When to tell the truth, but not all of the truth
• Managing relationships in football
• Building and working on trust
• Managing personalities as a player and a CEO
• Importance of empathy, listening and self-depreciation
• Lessons from working in the media
• Inspiration from his son Simon

Pat has had an incredible career, in his first book he labels himself 'The Accidental Footballer' which covers his early career which took him from Clyde FC in Scotland down to the Chelsea and then Everton and playing for his national team Scotland.

Despite having no real intentions of becoming a footballer, Pat had plenty of other interests like the arts, academia and listening and writing about music.

Through the 70's and 80's he stuck out from the crowd as not being a 'typical footballer'. And in this episode we hear how Pat would never let that get to him and how he relied on his Glaswegian upbringing and strong personality.

When he came back up to Scotland after an enjoyable period at Chelsea, Everton and Tranmere Rovers as well as being Chairman of the English PFA, Pat joined Kilmarnock, but it was the lure of being part of running a football club that took him to Motherwell FC where he would be the first person to ever hold the title as 'Player - CEO'.

There are some amazing stories from this period of Pat's life in his second book - 'Football and how to survive it'.

There are some incredible insights and lessons on communication and leadership in this conversation and I really enjoyed listening to Pat share them with me.

How to get hold of Pat's books:

The Accidental Footballer

Football and how to survive it

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Billy Sloan has worked a music journalist for over 40 years. His career has taken him around the world and introduced him to stars such as David Bowie, Mick Jagger and many more.

It all started for Billy on the 21st of October 1971 when he went to see The Who. From that moment on, he made his mind up that he wanted to work in the music industry. From working as a local reporter for the Bishopbriggs and Springburn Times in Glasgow, he forged his path into the world of music journalism.

Billy has a book out which covers his incredible career with plenty of stories of meeting the stars. 'One Love, One Life: Stories from the Stars' is available to buy and from some of the stories that Billy shares in this episode, it will be well worth a read.

In this conversation we talk about his life and experiences when it comes to interviewing musicians and other celebrities. Billy explains how to navigate through the difficulties with limited interview time, ensuring to always be prepared and doing his homework.

One Love, One Life: Stories from the Stars - https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Love-Life-Stories-Stars/dp/178530481X

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