Sean O’Brien is one of Ireland’s most decorated rugby players. A four-time European Cup winner with Leinster, a Six Nations winner with Ireland and a British & Irish Lion, he is someone who pushed himself physically to succeed no matter what.

But such success did not just come through physical endurance and skills. It was, as he tells Enda McNulty on the final episode in the Rise Higher podcast series, as much to do with his mental game as anything.

Now coming to the twilight of his career with London-Irish, Sean O’Brien talks about the obstacles he had to overcome throughout the years and the choices we all make when we’re down.

“You can lie down on your back after getting a belt,” he says. “Or you can get back up. It’s definitely a choice. That’s what it comes down to. You can move forwards with your life to get better or you’ve a choice where you sit down and stay still. So make the choice to keep forging ahead and get yourself in a really good place.”

Listen and subscribe to the Rise Higher series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more information on performance, resilience and leadership, visit https://www.McNultyPerformance.com.

Rise Higher was produced by https://www.LastCastMedia.com

Lisa Fallon grew up in Dublin and loved soccer. She always wanted to be a coach one day but never saw other women in the role and thought she could never achieve her dreams, she tells Enda McNulty on the latest Rise Higher podcast episode.

After a successful playing career in England, to stay close to the game she then went into sports journalism but finally took the leap of faith in herself and began coaching, getting the breaks her talent deserved.

She was part of the backroom team at Cork City when they won the Premier Division and FAI Cup double in 2017, whilst she also was part of Chelsea FC women’s technical staff when the club won the WSL and Continental League Cup double in 2020.

She worked for Northern Ireland’s men’s national team across two World Cup qualifying campaigns and the Euro 2016 campaign. Fallon was also part of Jim Gavin’s all-conquering Dublin senior football team that won the All-Ireland Football Championship, Leinster Senior Football Championship and Allianz National Football League in 2018.

“Back yourself and never compromise on your dreams,” the now Galway United manager tells Enda. “A great poem that inspired me when I was young was Robert Frost’s, The Road Not Taken. ‘Two roads diverged in a yellow road, and I, I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference’.”

Listen and subscribe to the Rise Higher series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more information on performance, resilience and leadership, visit https://www.McNultyPerformance.com.

Rise Higher was produced by https://www.LastCastMedia.com

Enda first met Alan Kelly in 1999 when the Armagh football team were going well in the Ulster Championship.

He had heard of Alan as a man who worked wonders with some of the country’s leading athletes on their physio and injuries. DJ Carey, Nicky English, Maurice Fitzgerald….these were just some of the leading names he was working with before also going on to work with Brian O’Driscoll, Peter Canavan, Padraig Harrington, the Dublin football team – a who’s who of elite Irish sports stars.

But then ‘the Great AK’ as he was known had to face his own battles away from the pitch, battling years and years of multiple cancers that just wouldn’t go away. From being told he had months, weeks, even hours to live, he fought and never gave up. He wasn’t afraid of dying, but he wanted to live, to be given a fighter’s chance to see another day.

Alan’s story is one of resilience, hope, inspiration and belief. Belief that you will come through stronger, and belief in living, making the most of what’s in front of you, one small step at a time.

Listen and subscribe to the Rise Higher series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more information on performance, resilience and leadership, visit https://www.McNultyPerformance.com.

Rise Higher was produced by https://www.LastCastMedia.com

Image courtesy of Independent.ie

Martin Bailie is a global retail leader whose life’s journey has taken him from county Down to Mumbai via Ireland, the UK and Germany.

He is someone with over twenty years’ experience in retail from Tesco to Lidl, Primark and now as CEO of Star Bazaar in India. On this episode of Rise Higher, he talks to Enda about his leadership style and key learnings from a business career that has spanned the globe.

He was only a few months in Mumbai when the pandemic began and his time there has been one focused on leading through a crisis whilst still adapting to new cultures, languages and practices.

But the same lessons he learned, honed and developed throughout his career have stood him in good stead and he describes the importance of self-care to allow you to lead, why empathy and compassion are so vital during these pandemic times, and how having an open mindset to allow for learning and re-learning leads to continued growth.

Listen and subscribe to the Rise Higher series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more information on performance, resilience and leadership, visit https://www.McNultyPerformance.com.

Rise Higher was produced by https://www.LastCastMedia.com

As a comedian and actor, Kako Bourjolly is one of Haiti’s best known entertainers but it was for his work with his foundation, Kako’s Kids, that Enda was first introduced to him in Port-au-Prince in 2014.

Since then they have met and worked together and built up a relationship as they helped to inspire and motivate some of the workers on the impoverished island that suffered so badly in the wake of a 2010 earthquake killing an estimated 230,000 of its people.

Giving back is one of Kako’s missions and he helps do it through his Kako’s Kids foundation helping to educate Haiti’s kids and organise clean water for some of the island’s poorest families.

His interview with Enda is one of hope and inspiration, showing how comedy and laughter can help people to rise up even in the face of natural disasters and ongoing poverty.

If you can help just one person, he believes, then the ripple effect will affect so many more lives and it is his call to action for people listening to this podcast to look around you, to your family and friends and to see what you can do to inspire and help someone today.

Listen and subscribe to the Rise Higher series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more information on performance, resilience and leadership, visit https://www.McNultyPerformance.com.

Rise Higher was produced by https://www.LastCastMedia.com

Katrina Steady is someone Enda first came across and got to know over eight years ago. As a performance and resilience coach she teaches people how to achieve high performance in every walk of life.

During her career, Katrina has coached US soldiers, CEOs, business leaders and executives and in this interview, she explains to Enda what resilience really is and how it can be learned.

“We face adversity, we take a risk, and we come back from it,” Katrina tells Enda. “It comes with failures, it’s putting yourself out there, it’s failing, it’s making a mistake, it’s learning from it, because with failure comes growth.”

Katrina also discusses her work with the military and how many of the same principles of resilience, leadership and trust can be applied to work and family life and how listening and connecting are so important, now more than ever before.

Listen and subscribe to the Rise Higher series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more information on performance, resilience and leadership, visit https://www.McNultyPerformance.com.

Rise Higher was produced by https://www.LastCastMedia.com

Dr Mary Collins joins Enda McNulty for the second episode of the Rise Higher series as they discuss some of the key insights and practices she has learnt from over 15 years’ experience in organisational development, talent management, coaching and leadership.

She’s currently a senior executive and development specialist with the Institute of Leadership at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and with a specialty and focus on the healthcare sector, the last twelve months have been as difficult as any for the people she works with.

Mary discusses with Enda why emotional fitness and empathic leadership are more important than ever before and she also explains how her CALM model (Control-Appreciation-Love-Movement) can help develop your resilience and self-care.

Listen and subscribe to the Rise Higher series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more information on performance, resilience and leadership, visit https://www.McNultyPerformance.com.

Rise Higher was produced by https://www.LastCastMedia.com

Rise Higher is the new eight-part podcast series from Enda McNulty, Ireland’s leading performance and leadership coach.

Hear from leaders and experts about pushing what’s possible in terms of building well-being and resilience so that you not only survive but thrive and rise higher.

You’re going to get inspired, educated and motivated and on this the first episode in the series, Enda is joined by Nick Winkelman, the IRFU’s Head of Athletic Performance and Science.

Nick talks to Enda about the importance of one’s ability to adapt, especially now more than ever before; how to overcome the negative energy that pervades during a pandemic; and how the language of coaching can have such a vital impact on teams in sport and the workplace.

Nick asks the listeners to consider what opportunities Covid has presented that you want to bring with you after the pandemic ends and he gives some great practical tips on how to regain your presence and emerge stronger from this current crisis.

“If people can do one thing after listening to this,” Nick says. “It is to find a mirror and look at themselves and allow themselves for a moment to accept and believe in who they are and allow the world to see who they are.”

You can read more of Nick’s teachings in his book, ‘The Language of Coaching’, available now on Amazon.

Listen and subscribe to the Rise Higher series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more information on performance, resilience and leadership, visit https://www.McNultyPerformance.com.

Rise Higher was produced by https://www.LastCastMedia.com

For the last 25 years, Enda McNulty has spent his life and almost every single dollar he's ever made, travelling around the world to get inspired or educated by the best in the world in terms of resilience, well-being and leadership.

From one of Ireland's most celebrated performance and well-being coaches, this is the Rise Higher podcast series where you’re going to get inspired, educated and motivated.

You’ll hear from leaders and experts about pushing what’s possible in terms of building well-being and resilience so that you not only survive, but thrive and rise higher in these extraordinary times.

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

Launching March 17th.

For more information on performance, resilience and leadership, visit https://www.McNultyPerformance.com.

Rise Higher was produced by https://www.LastCastMedia.com