In this epic episode, I talk with Anna Dolce. Anna is a life and business strategist, restaurant expert, hospitality zealot, writer and speaker. Her consulting and coaching work has attracted global clients in the restaurant, hospitality, retail, healthcare, real estate, professional sports, music and other industries.

We connected on Instagram after I took notice of her posts and video snippets. I then reached out to see if she’d be interested in recording a conversation and I was delighted that she agreed. As you’ll hear, it was a fascinating conversation. I’m probably biased but whatever!

We talked for nearly two hours and the time flew as Anna tells her story from growing up in Georgia while it was under the Soviet Union, becoming Miss Georgia twice a after being selected to be in a beauty pageant, moving to the US, firstly to New York and then to Florida where she talks about so much of the challenges, opportunities and lessons she learned over the last 15+ years. These all lead her to the path she’s now on of being able to help entrepreneurs create a life and business on their terms.

It’s a broad ranging story that touches on so much. Just a snippet of this includes:

Winning Miss Georgia twice and tasting national fame
Moving to New York with zero English and just $40
Becoming a Restaurant owner and learning the difference between ‘working on it v working in it’
Constantly facing adversity and adapting rapidly to new challenges
The value of Coaching and having a Coach
Core Values and how to identify these (sorry I can’t help talking about Core Values)
Focusing on your purpose and outcomes.
Being comfortable not knowing everything about everything
EQ & IQ in Coaching
Preparing for and presenting a Ted Talk
What a typical day for Anna now
Being your own boss v having a boss and how you develop your discipline
The concept of time and how to management
Meditation and how she approaches it
Sleep patterns
Self-talk and the voice in your head
Advice to start working on your mind and personal development
Taking massive action and then take more again
Some Books Anna recommends are:

So Good they can’t ignore you – Cal Newport
Grant Cardone – 10X Rule
Benee Brown – Daring Greatly & Rising Strong

Connect with Anna on Instagram (most active here) and Facebook and Twitter and also www.annadolce.com (site is currently being upgraded).

I hope you enjoy this episode. If you do, SHARE it on FB, retweet on Twitter or whatever you have to do get it out there :)

Best,
Rob

In this second part of the John Wall Interview, we go deep into his career of becoming an entrepreneur. I also go into the usual set of rapid fire questions towards the end of the show where to touch on many topics and habits John has. I have to say this part is more loaded with lessons learned and 1% Better tips than the first part. So definitely worth a listen in.

In the 75mins or so, we discuss and chat on topics including:

Planning on going out on his own
What makes a successful entrepreneur
Process the learning from your mistakes
Dealing with being Fired (twice in 9 months)
Modern living, Impacts the internet is having on our intelligence and thinking process
Risk Management & Strategy
Starting up pre-Celtic tiger, building the team and facing big challenges
Picking what you want to be famous for
Mix your passion and understanding of ‘something’ to be relevant to the market
Reflections from the career so far
Rapid Fire Q&A on trusting the gut, fears of losing it all, best advice, favourite books and lots more
Be Decent - have the courage to change your mind and keep trying
Importance of integrity which is what you do when nobody is watching!
Be honest and decent

John gives a great summary at the end and advice on how to be the best at what you want to do. Decide what you want to be famous for and go for it. Integrity is key!!

Book Recommendations:

Talent is Overrated - Geoff Colvin
The Startup Owner's Manual – Steve Blank

Get in touch with John Wall at Adalgo. Email: [email protected]

Thanks all & enjoy!

Rob

In this two parter, I talk with John Wall. John describes himself as a moderately successful entrepreneur but he’s being quite modest. He's had very interesting career and we go into this during the course of our conversation.

This was one of the first shows I recorded and still one of the most captivating conversations I’ve done. I’ve know John for a few years and asked him to speak at a PMI event about his career last year. That night, I had to cut him short (to the audience and my own misfortune). I didn’t think about a year later I’d be recording his story for a podcast but he was one of the first people on my list when I started out on this journey and he didn’t disappoint, as you’ll hear.

While my other podcasts so far have been about shorter, this one was so broad ranging and we went down some many interesting rabbit holes, I couldn’t resist keeping the recorder running. Rather than edit out so much great learning and stories, I’ve decided to break it into two episodes for your enjoyment. It’s one not to be missed for those that like a long form podcast.

We touch on so many great stories during John’s life to-date and some brilliant takeaways from each phase that you can use. After listening to it back (a couple of times), I keep finding new nuggets. If you’re in business, starting your own company, or finding times tough in either, I think you should invest time in to listening to this podcast.

In this first part, we discuss:

John’s early years, interests growing up, influences and fixing hoovers
Geeking out at university Life
Strawberry Fields and learnings from the first job
Studying in London in the 1980s and trips to White Hart Lane
2 Years in Kuwait - Cultural and personal learnings and Scoring Penalties
Return to European Life, the world of automation, process and safety learnings
3 Key learnings from time at Dupont in Luxembourg
Attention to Safety as a core principle and why
Learning not to react or not, hiring lessons and aiming for the 95%
A real 1% better tip to apply in your day — 4 things you should know for an interview / meeting / anything you want to do

I hope you enjoy and come back for part 2.
Thanks,
Rob

In this episode, I was delighted to continue the theme of nationally known guests that have a link to Longford, Sinéad Hussey is a multimedia journalist with RTÉ. She is specifically assigned to the 9 O’Clock news at RTE. She has been working in the media industry since leaving education, and has accumulated lots of journalistic experience.

She has a BA in arts with Spanish and Economics from Maynooth University, as well as a postgraduate diploma in Communications, Radio and Television from Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth.

She started her career in the media in 2004 with Shannonside FM, where she worked as a broadcast journalist until 2006. She worked in North-West Radio in Donegal for a stint and then worked in LMFM in Drogheda. After this, she moved on to work with Newstalk FM as a broadcast journalist. Sinéad worked with Newstalk for almost five years, leaving in 2011. This was an amazing learning experience for Sinéad and during this she got to cover such an amazing array of event. She was frequently covering crime stories and this was great experience which set her up for a love of the cut and thrust of crime reporting.

When RTE News came calling, she had to take the opportunity as it was always her ambition to work with RTE. She started on the Foreign Desk. She then moved to the Home Desk and continued to progress over the following years covering topics ranging from politics to protests and court cases to sport which offers a great variety every day.

Sinéad’s talks about winning ‘DJ for a Day’ for Shannonside and from there, it started her down this path. Getting a lucky break reporting on a football match and things kicking off from there.

We talk about a typical day (if there is such a thing) reporting the news, the structure that is in place to put the 9 O’clock News in place, big breaks, never switching off, ambitions for the future, interests in specific news such as Crime, balancing work and life, growing up in Longford, and landing her dream job. Pushing yourself outside of your comfort-zone was something Sinéad touches on here. Sticking with challenging roles, determination and knowing it will be worth it in the end, working to deadlines and dealing with Pressure. Sinéad talks about not being afraid to take a chance, and pushing yourself outside of your comfort-zone. Keep at it. Hard-work is key. Be determined and work hard everyday.

It was a real enjoyable conversation with Sinéad. Thank you for sharing your story!

Enjoy the show and Keep on Keeping on!

Rob

Ben Pridmore is a three time World Memory Champion winning the title 2004, 2008 and 2009 . He achieved this by winning a 10-discipline competition in the World Memory Championship, which has taken place every year since 1991. He has also earned the prestigious title of Master of Memory. During our hour talk, I get a real sense of what makes Ben tick, his very humble, honest and humorous demeanour and I learn a lot about the world of memory!

He held the official world record for memorizing the order of a randomly shuffled 52-card deck, and has memorised a pack in a time of 24.68 seconds on television. We talk about how he does this and he gives out a technique that anyone can use. I’m currently practicing for fun as part of my monthly challenges. Besides memory sports he is famous for his mental calculation skills and took part in the Mental Calculation World Cup in 2004, 2006 and 2010. Ben says he has an IQ of 159 putting him in the genius range but doesn’t think too much about it and only joined Mensa to talk about it with Friends.

Like most memory experts, he creates a mental story, comprises a sequence of images in a variation of the Mnemonic Major System. Ben invented a technique, now known as ‘the Ben’ where two cards are represented as a three letter word by the first consonant derived from the suits, the vowel from the first card's number, and the final consonant from the second card's number. He explains this and how it’s helped in bringing down the time to memorize a deck of cards.

Ben is now very involved in bringing more memory competitions to other countries and using the internet for this. We talked about the possibility of getting some memory competitions to Cork or Ireland which Ben is open to. While Ben generally just uses his memory skills in competition, many of his friends that are applying these to their day to day lives with great advantage.

We talk about IQ v EQ, what’s it like to be a star in a music video, the good habits memory training can bring, advice on trying anything as we’re all great at something and lots more. We talk about the lack of performance enhancing drugs during Memory championships, and so many more really fun topics around memory. Ben also recites the first 50 digits of PIE on the show and talks about memorizing about a 1000 digits places per day in his training for a world record attempt to memorise digits of PIE (3.14...). He had memorised it to 50000 places or thereabouts before another memory athlete took the world record. We talked about the energy that is involved memorizing and how much of a state it can leave it you in after a many day competition.

Ben gives out some simple tips that you can use to help improving your memory toward the end of the show. I bring up an image of Claudia Schiffer in a bath of Milk. You’ll have to listen to understand! At the very end, we finish up talking about Ben being featured in the music video for DJ Shadow's single "Scale It Back" that shows his memory journey that he uses for his 52 times in the card deck.

Books and Documentaries recommended:

Use your memory by Tony Buzan
Moonwalking with Einstein – Josh Foer
Documentaries about the world memory championships in 2007 called ‘the mentalist’
Link to Ben on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Pridmore

Link to Ben in video with DJ Shadow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL9ypNz9-mM

Check out the World Memory Forum and search for Ben online.

Veda Lady is a stunt queen, a drag queen, a club promoter, and a performer for the last 20 years. Working in Drag for most of this time. Veda has been performing a show called ‘Witchy Wednesday’ in the George in Dublin for the last 18 years and still loves doing it. We talk about being a wife/husband/domestic goodness and discuss how Veda has found a very good work life balance.

During the show, we talk about growing up, finding a passion for dressing up and pretending to be Sheena Easton at the age 5 or 6. Veda talks about being in musicals as a kid playing Danny in Greece but always very keen to get dressed up and perform. Veda describes how growing up Gay at this time in Ireland was very difficult and as Veda says you feel every single bruise growing up. But this only made Veda stronger and pushed through. It wasn’t an easy journey but there was no compromise.

Veda visited a friend in San Francisco and this was a seminal moment when things changed. Here Veda saw a performer called Steve Lady and her swagger and performance struck a chord. Veda brought this style back to Ireland and started to develop the act. The first big break came when Veda came second in the Alternative Miss Ireland Contest. Veda threw a fun/joke dramatic strop that worked in her favour and Veda’s persona started to get attention in the Dublin scene. The following year, Veda won the contest and this lead to getting the club night in the George. 18 years later, that’s still going strong.

Veda talks about work-life balance, well-being, happiness, a passion for sowing, writing songs, being creative and developing a ‘fishy’ style of Drag. We talk about how the persona has changed over the years and also how the scene has developed. We touch on how massively different this is to today’s ‘yes’ Ireland. Veda talks about stories that show how things have changed over the years from being judged to being embraced,in the most part, by the general public. We also talk about how the recession was have been a catalyst for this change in Veda's eyes.

We talk about Veda’s Grandmother in detail who was an amazing lady and a great inspiration who did fashion design and turned her sowing business into a clothes factory. We also talk about Veda’s father and a persona he created in his last days that was so empowering and as a farewell to Veda. We also chat about lack of emotional intelligence in young men that Veda sees as a challenge.

Some great lessons touched on are:

1) Do not let anyone take what you are away from you. Do exactly what you like to do, work at it, and it will work out. You can’t let go of who you are!

2) If you feel strong and brave enough to put something on fun and jazzy, just do it as you bring joy to others.

3) It’s essential to try to be different, not just ok but essential.

4) Learning to love. We talk about Ziggy, Veda’s dog, and how this responsibility really had a great impact and grounded her.

This was one of the most open, honest, emotional and fun interviews that I’ve done. It’s amazing to be able to talk with someone like Veda and share the story with whoever wants to tune in. That’s making all this worthwhile for me.

You can get in touch with Veda on the below social media links.

Facebook: Veda Lady
Twitter: Lady Veda
Instagram : VedaLady

** Full show notes on the episode page for this show here - www.robofthegreen.ie/episodes/ep22-declanfahy

So another week, another episode. This one is with Declan Fahy who is a Journalist that has worked for the Irish Times, the Daily Mirror & the Longford Leader. He is now a professor in DCU in Communications & Journalism, and a published Author with the book 'The New Celebrity Scientists: Out of the Lab and Into the Limelight'. He’s also a friend that I grew up with in Longford, which made it all the more enjoyable to record.

During the conversation, we talked about Declan being from Longford, but being born in Zambia as his parents were travelling and living there at the time. Declan talks about his love of books and reading from a very early age and this has stayed with him all the way through his life. How this lead him to a Journalism degree in DCU starting in 1995. We discuss Declan’s experience moving from Longford to the big smoke and how this took time to get settled in.

Declan talks about his first job in Journalisim at the Longford Leader after a very straightforward interview with Eugene McGee.

Declan took a class on the history and philosophy of science in 2nd year and really found a passion for this which set him on the path for specialisation where a lot of things seemed to click. In summer of 3rd year, Declan got a placement with the Irish Times and this was another key stage in his journey. Another great opportunity.

Next, Declan did a masters to study how science was communicated. Once this was done, Declan decided to do some work on the front lines and went back to the Irish Times for a period. Another  big break came for Declan in the early 2000’s when the foot and mouth disease broke out and Declan was heavily involved in this over a 6/8 week period where many of his articles were front page news.

Declan then got to the point where he felt timing was right and moved back to DCU to do his PhD. During this stage, he learned a lot about himself researching and writing. Declan talked about the journey to get to the Final output of the dissertation and a 2 hour exam.

Declan then decided to move to Washington to teach Science and health journalism. This was a dream move. We talked about the process for applying and successfully getting the position.

There were so many great tips from this conversation. Productivity, getting more done, making time to get things done. Focusing on the top 3 things you’re working on. Hard work, perfection is the enemy of good enough, learning fundamentals, getting into the rhythm of work, writing on work and returning to it a few days later, developing a system and set of rules to write by, moving things along, getting feedback, the process of writing and Declan’s approach.
In the last ten minutes, we talk about work life balance, planning and logistics with a young family. Being a flow state, importance of exercise (cycling, Pilates, gym), nutrition, diets, book recommendations (of which there are so many great ones below), decision making, focusing on the important, Stoicism, and we wrap up with Advice on finding out what you like most. Find out what you don’t like early and try different things!

Declan can be reached on via the DCU website  & via Twitter - @Fahydeclan

Book references:
•The New Celebrity Scientists: Out of the Lab and Into the Limelight.
Declan Fahy (2015) The New Celebrity Scientists: Out of the Lab and Into the Limelight.
•Tom Wolfe – The new Journalism, The right stuff
•Michael Crichton – Jurassic Park, the anadromous strain
•Todd Henry – The Accidental creative
•Cal Newport – Deep Work
•Dave Allen – Getting things done
•Neil Steveson – essay on writing and managing time
•Tim Caufield – The Cure for Everything
•Seneca – Letters from a Stoic

It’s not every day I get to interview a guest that would be considered a legend in Football circles. And if you have an interest in football, you’ll love this episode. Even if you don't, you'll still love hearing Bobby talk about his life story.

Bobby’s career included scoring goals. In the FA cup final and for England at Wembley. He narrowly missed out on the England team for the 1966 world cup and also played against George Best during his career. Bobby scored 202 goals for Chelsea and was their record goal scorer until just a few years ago when Frank Lampard broke it.

We talk about Bobby’s early days playing football in school. Literally playing with jumpers for goal posts in the local park. His talent was there from a young age and was playing at an under 15 level at the age of 10. He played as a left winger and as a centre forward in the early days. While playing for Hampshire, he got noticed by scouts and started to play for England schoolboy under 15s. This was a big break. Soon after, Chelsea came calling.

Bobby talks about signing for Chelsea at 15. Moving to London and dealing with home sickness at that early age. He talks about making progress in the team and settling in with the ‘cockney’ team members that made life fun. He describes the feelings he went through playing and scoring on his debut v West Ham United in front of 45000 people.

Bobby was made club captain in 1962 by manager Tommy Docherty after Chelsea's relegation to the Second Division. It was never a role Bobby loved but with Docherty adding new players Terry Venables and Peter Bonetti Chelsea made an immediate return to the top flight with Tambling as their top scorer as he was in their first season back in the top division.

Some of the fascinating topics covered are football scouting, George Best as the best player Bobby played against, team mates at Chelsea, challenges he faced, life after football, dealing with a new life in Ireland, advice, and stories from his career.

We talk about his England playing days. Bobby just missed out on the final 22 squad for the 1966 world cup getting to the final 28 before being cut at the final hurdle. He reflects on this, talking about sharing a room with Geoff Hurst and Bobby Moore in the build up to this. It’s a game of fine margins. He respected Alf Ramsey’s decision which you couldn’t really argue with as he guided the England team to the world cup.

Bobby talks about moving to Ireland, on advice of his former Chelsea teammate Paddy Mulligan, he first signed for Cork Celtic. Bobby played for a few sides in Ireland the later part of his career. He played for Waterford and a short spell with Shamrock Rovers. In more recent times Tambling continues to live in Crosshaven where he also manages the local Munster Senior League side. He very happily explains that he’s had as much fun coaching and managing the underage teams in Crosshaven as he’s had in any management role.

In 2004, Tambling had a suite named after him at Stamford Bridge, in honour of his status at Chelsea. He was recently named in the club's greatest ever XI, selected to mark the club's centenary.

Bob ends up with the best piece of Advice he’s been given. Something that sticks out from a young age. He also says the key to his success as a player was never giving up. Great tip to live by. We recorded this in April, when Chelsea were closing in an the league and just before the FA Cup semi final which they won.

I have to say Bobby was a total gentleman during the 90+ minutes we were talking. It’s so clear to hear he’s a very genuine and warm character. He was happy to give up his time to talk about his great career and story.

Enjoy!

Rob

In this episode, I talk with Cathy Walsh, a freelance artist or better described as choreographer and performer. She is originally from Cork but now is based in Berlin where she performs, and works on her art.

During our conversation, we talk about how Cathy got into theatre and dance growing up. She attended a degree in Theatre in UCC and during University really found her passion was for dance. We dig into how this arose, and the components involved in creating a piece of work.

Cathy talks about learnings that she’s taken from many of her experiences during her career so far including Dancing at the Wexford Opera festival, working at the Daghdha Dance School in Limerick for over a year, and we go into details about the Ponderosa movement and discovery organization which Cathy is currently very closely linked to in Berlin.

As always in the podcast, I look to find out what success means to my guest, what values, goals and inspirations drive Cathy, what advice she can share from her journey so far and talk about key moments where things changed or turning points that stand out over the last number of years. We discuss the benefits of feedback on her performance, how she constructs a piece of work, challenges with deadlines, facing fear, the role Virtual Reality could play in the future and lots lots more! We also talk about a piece that Cathy is currently working on and performing that focuses on the concept of Time.

This is a world that I’m not well versed in and was coming to this with a beginners mind so my questioning was basic but hopefully helped bring out some interesting points that you can relate to while listening.

Cathy is going to be back in Cork as she’s involved in the Midsummer Festival taking place in Cork in June. She is taking part in the Body Activities conference. She is conducting a workshop on the 19th June at 9:30am. Full Details here - http://www.corkmidsummer.com/programme/event/perforum-postgraduate-conference-body-activites

So if you’re curious about embodied practices, they can register and attend the workshops, talks, performance and/or film as part of the conference. 19th & 20th June.

Link to Cathy's site here on the aboutme/cathywalsh site. She will also Choreographing 'Dancing at Lughnasa' in the Everyman in Cork in August. Details here!

Thanks for your time Cathy!

Enjoy,

Rob

In this episode, I interview John Carey, of UFirstCoaching (www.ufirstcoaching.com), which is a Performance coaching and success company. He set up it up in 2002 and has been focusing on humans and teams working better. This has become John’s life work since then!

This is one where we get deep into performance coaching. Team Coaching. How to make marginal improvement that have a big impact. John bring a wealth of experience to this area and from the very start of this one, we get into human potential, how to improve, how we have survived and ways in which we can become better in any field that we’re involved in.

I met John at a PMI event in March where he talked about personal branding and improving yourself. He shared tips that night that we discuss here and also get into much more detail on strategies you can use to improve. Using Logic, which John calls as the religion of the 21st century, you can make big improvements quickly.

John talks about his work with the Cork hurling team in 2005 and 2006 where they lost just one game over the two years which was the all-Ireland final in 06. He talks about this experience and how he worked on a 1-1 basis with many of the players from a psychological perspective to get the best from them.

Some of the topics we go deep on are identifying and importance of core values, asking the right questions, how to listen better, getting out of your comfort zone, setting and achieving goals, gaining ‘freedom through commitment’, the negative voice in your head that we all have and how to deal with it, identity, the performance paradox. We talk about life is about having better quality problems. Some great topics.

John also recommends a few books that are worth a read. These are:
1.To Sell is Human – Daniel Pink
2.Legacy – James Kerr
3.Tools of Titans – Tim Ferriss
4.Smarter, Faster, Better – Charles Duhigg

If you want to get in touch with John you can reach out to him www.UFirstCoaching.com.
Again, this a great conversation. One of the best. I really hope you enjoy it. Please leave a comment on the site, or in iTunes. Share with your own friends, and teams.

Thanks to John for his time on this one.