infinite pie thinking

Todays guest has spent 40 years in a world that was all about performance and performance improvement, working with top Global brands and companies in the athletics and outdoors industries. Gene McCarthy has been a leader and change maker holding executive positions with the likes of Nike, Under Armour, Reebok, Timberland and Merrell and most recently held the position of President and CEO of Asics America Group. 

Gene shares his stories of constantly 'Chasing Four'.  Starting with his desire to break the four minute mile as an athlete, to chasing four quarters as a business leader and then striving to perfect the four key elements that he believes are integral to the role of a CEO.

Throughout this conversation  we discuss 

• the difference between a brand and a company
• the power of vision and strategy
• why it can be important to get comfortable being uncomfortable
• ways to move from idea to implementation
• how to set those around you up for success.

Today I am talking with Jonathan Hughes. Jonathan  is an Entrepreneur, investor, advisor and strategist, as well as Co-Founder and CEO at Pollinate Horizons, a FinTech and payments company.

In this conversation you will hear what Jonathan thinks about leadership, about teams, about culture. He shares his views on the need for energy in meetings and the value of a good argument, with emphasis on the word good. Jonathan describes himself as a hill taker when it comes to goal setting. He shares the 3 to 4 core things that are instrumental in him having a great days, about respecting others enough to disagree, and about having the energy, intensity and passion to fight for what you believe in. I am sure that you will pick up on that energy and passion throughout this conversation.

I often talk about the core principles of infinite pie  as ‘do stuff that matters, with people who count, in places that inspire’ and I think that we covered all of them in this conversation. Defining what matters at the moment, what to focus on, what to prioritise, what hill to take. Surrounding yourself with great people, from your direct team, to their teams and  people within the business as a whole, to your clients, and your suppliers. Know who counts and why. Think about how they help you to get better and of course how you help them to improve too. And the talk of the energy, intensity and passion to fight for what you believe in is certainly about creating an environment, a culture, a this is the way we do things around here, and if you are in the right place, then you will be inspired by it. So, once again a big thank you to Jonathan for sharing his perspective on this.

So today I am speaking with Michael Tobin OBE, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Maverick, Adventurer, and Author.  Michael is the recipient of an incredible list of awards including the likes of  - 

• Business Turnaround of the Year
• Business Person of the Year 
• Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (numerous times)
• Outstanding Non-Executive Director (numerous times)
• The Princes Trust Outstanding Individual Award
• Chairman of the Year
• and Order of the British Empire for Services to the Digital Economy,  

In this conversation he shares the story of tough beginnings, before going on to take an electronics engineering apprenticeship.  He then continued to push himself and progress his career, to the point of leading a tech business that was eventually sold for £2.6 billion. 

Michael talks about what he looks for when recruiting people and building his teams, the leadership style and approach that has led to many calling him the Maverick Entrepreneur, and the importance of setting the vision and developing the culture that leads to high performance and success. He also explains how he attributes the successes, recognition and the ‘awards’  to the great people that he surrounds himself with. 

What I really enjoy about the conversation, is that whilst Michael shares great stories, we dig into them to understand the impact they had.  We discuss how he implemented the lessons and learnings, how he continually revisited these lessons so they came part of the language, the culture and of course the behaviours. 

Michael highlights the value of really knowing your people, setting a vision and then getting out of the way and letting the great people you have put in place to do a job, do their job. To trust them.  It would be easy to say, 'well I don’t run a business or lead lots of people' but the lessons are still there. Take the time to really get to know yourself first, become truly self aware. Define and refine your skills, knowledge, capability and capacity. Review your ‘performance’ in the key areas of life and explore what you can do to continue to improve it, to develop it, to keep getting better.  

If you want to know more about Michael Tobin OBE, then head over to MichaelTobin.online where you can read about his background and experiences, details about the books he has written, his adventures to the South Pole (which I will have to get him back on to talk about in the future) and much much more.

Today I am speaking with Simon Hartley, who is a globally respected sport psychology consultant and performance coach.  For more than 20 years, Simon has worked with elite level athletes and sports people including Gold Medallists, World Record Holders, World Champions, Olympians and Championship Winning Teams. In the last ten years, Simon has also applied many of the lessons that he has learned, principles that he has shared and the skills he has developed to business, education, healthcare and the charity sector.  

Passionate about helping individuals and organisations to maximise their performance, Simon is focused on helping them work towards becoming world class in their chosen fields. 

So I am sure that you will see that there is something here for anyone interested in developing their mindset and approach to their performance, whether personally or professionally.  

Simon shares some great information covering lots of areas such as 

• goal setting 
• succession planning 
• exploring our character and building resilience 
• the concept of pressure as a manifestation of your imagination
• the power of high performing teams 
• the chain of interdependency 
• collaboration and the willingness to collectively solve problems.  

If you want to know more about Simon, then make sure you head over to his website be-world-class.com  where you will find more details and his content and the exciting things that he is up to.

Todays guest is another person who has performed at the elite level, having appeared in 3 World Cup finals for England, both in Rugby League and Rugby Union and was part of the successful World Cup Winning side against Australia in 2003. 

Jason Robinson OBE was known for his devastating acceleration, quick feet and balance. Couple this with his decision making and trade mark side step and he was often leaving defending  players grasping at air and struggling to keep up. He was awarded the MBE  for his role in the 2003 World Cup and the OBE for his services to Rugby in 2008. 

In this conversation, you will hear how Jason did not let the challenges he faced as a youngster, or the stereotypes of being too small, or not strong enough projected onto him by others,  hold him back.  He drew on the lessons from the strongest person he knew.  His mother.  

At infinite pie we talk about ensuring we "Do stuff that matters, with people who count in places that inspire!" It is all about focus on priorities, about teamwork and relationships and of course, culture and environment, including the one inside you, and your mindset. This conversation captures all of that, and demonstrated the importance of dedication, hard work, confidence, positive self talk, trust and resilience.  But it was more than just catch phrases and buzz words. Jason gave context to what it means to be a leader among leaders, to have a voice and be prepared to listen, to go out of your comfort zone and continue to learn something new. 

Now in the next phase of his career, Jason is taking those lessons and applying them to business and he shares the role he plays and the value he brings to the teams he now plays for. 

If you want to know more about Jason you can find him in the following places -

website - JasonRobinson.co.uk
Twitter - @Jason15Robinson
Instagram - @Jason15Robinson
LinkedIn - Jason Robinson OBE

Dan Abrahams is a sports psychologist who works with individuals, teams, coaches and organisations globally. Working from grass roots levels to elite athletes and teams, Dan is known for his passion to break down complex theories and create simple to use performance techniques, helping people to easily implement them. Something that you will hear throughout this conversation, as we talk about leadership, coaching, managing and performing.

Dan has written four  best selling books on the subject and is the host of The Sports Psych Podcast, sharing his knowledge and experience as a former professional golfer, having worked with premier league football teams, and as the lead psychologist for the England Rugby team. 

Get yourself ready as we discuss (amongst many other things) - 

• executing with intention
• taking some time to think about your thinking
• the focus on trying to help, rather than insisting 
• the difference between authoritative and authoritarian approaches, 

To check out more about Dan Abrahams you can find him -

website - DanAbrahams.com
Twitter - @DanAbrahams77
Instagram - @DanAbrahamsSport
LinkedIn - Dan Abrahams

Mark Bennett MBE has spent the last 30 years developing scalable strategies to help individuals and organisations to maximise their performance potential.

This is not about just quick hit interventions.  You will hear how Mark works in a variety of environments to embed his key principles that “Performance is a behaviour not an outcome” and to create the sustainable change required within individuals, teams and organisations.

A former British Commando and senior instructor within the Army Physical Training Corps, Mark has used that experience to design and implement what he calls the Performance Development System. In this conversation you will get a taste of what this system is all about and how you can apply it to improve your leadership, coaching, mentoring, managing and influencing skills. Things like the importance of self awareness, managing your state and ensuring you are in an effective state for the specific requirement and intervention, clarification of what is acceptable, unacceptable and exceptional and the ownership and responsibility of this using the player first, player last approach.

If you want to know about Mark Bennett MBE and his Performance Development System you can check out his website 

• pdscoaching.com 
• Facebook
• Twitter 
•  YouTube

Take a listen and let me know what you think...

Todays conversation is with Executive Coach, Dean Williams. I have known Dean for many years and we have shared many experiences and I have been lucky enough to watch the impact and see the value that he has brought to many people over that time. In this conversation you will hear how Dean has developed his coaching skills, allowing him to work with leaders within various industries and how he has been recognised as one of the top 100 executive coaches globally on numerous occasions, has won executive coach of the year and has been inducted into the Forbes Coaches Council. 

Dean is also the co-founder of the Business Coaching Academy providing accredited programs to help enhance coaching skills within managers and organisations around the world. 

I love hearing his story and how it relates to the 2  foundations of coaching. Self awareness and motivation.  

I also really enjoyed talking about the value of true listening skills, the ability to not own the agenda, the importance of  quality questions and immersing yourself in the conversation, as well as the power of being obsessed with the goals of the person you are coaching.   

There are tips, advice and lessons all the way through this conversation. 

To find out more about Dean Williams -

DeanWilliamsCoaching.com
TheBCAcademy.com
Twitter - @DWECintouch
LinkedIn - Dean Williams 

Of course, if you want to reach out to me, you can find me on the various socials, normally a search using infinite pie or Al_Fawcett will find me, or you can head over to infinitepie.co.uk. I really appreciate you taking the time to get in touch and I love hearing from you.

This is an incredible conversation with Layne Beachley, the 7 time World Surfing Champion. Her dedication to success saw her as the only surfer in history to claim six of those titles consecutively. However, with her natural and brutal honesty Layne shares how that wasn’t without its consequences. You will also hear, that since retiring from professional surfing Layne certainly has not stood still. One of her recent focuses is her Awake Academy, which we discuss and explore, reviewing the lessons learned from her experiences and sharing that learning to help others through this program.

For me the lessons from this conversation revolve around taking personal responsibility and ownership for things. It is about learning from others not copying them, as we are all coming from a different place and perspective. As I have said before, it is about the quality of questions that we ask, and then truly listening to the answers - whether we are asking those questions of others or of ourselves.

If you want to know more about the Awake Academy you can check it out over at awakeacademy.com.au and if you do go through the program make sure you use the code INFINITE10 to get a discount.

To follow Layne -

Website - LayneBeachley.com
Twitter - @LayneCBeachley
Instagram - @LayneBeachley

Of course, if you want to reach out to me, you can find me on the various socials, normally a search of infinite pie or Al Fawcett will find me, or you can head over to infinitepie.co.uk. I really appreciate you taking the time to get in touch and I love hearing from you.

Thanks a lot for listening, now go do stuff that matters...

Dr Dave Alred MBE is an Elite Performance Coach who has mentored and coached world class athletes and teams in multiple sports, including Rugby World Cup winner, Jonny Wilkinson as well as George ford and Johnny Sexton. In the golf, he has supported the likes of Luke Donald, Francesco Molinari and Padraig Harrington. He has also worked with the England rugby team, The British Lions, the Springboks, the England Cricket team, and top football teams such as Manchester City and Watford.

Focused on developing a performance mindset and attitude, Dave specialises in helping achieve elite performance whilst under pressure and delivering when tension is at its most extreme.

You will hear Dave's approach to giving feedback and how he constantly explores how to do things differently, and to keep moving things forward. He has a skill of reviewing, analysing and learning from various sources, and applying this in his approach with his clients, demonstrating that while much of his work is in the sports arena, these principles can be applied anywhere.

This conversation is not about perfection. It is about commitment, about putting your soul into it, it is about enjoyment and it is about knowing that you will experience the "ugly zone". It is also about knowing that going into the ugly zone is ok, as I know it helps me to focus on the process and effort without falling into 'negativity avoidance'.

If you want to know more about the topics that we discuss then you can check out Dr Dave Alred's book - The Pressure Principle.

Let me know what you think.

twitter - @infinitepie & @al_fawcett
instagram - @infinitepiethinking
Linkedin - Al Fawcett and infinite pie ltd
email - [email protected]
website - infinitepie.co.uk