Sparta Chicks Radio: Mindset | Confidence | Sport | Women

At 20, Jana Pittman became the Commonwealth Games Champion in the gruelling 400m Hurdles event and, at 21, the World Champion.

By the end of her athletics career, she’d competed at 2 Olympic Games, won 2 x World Championships and 4 x Commonwealth Games Gold medals.

Then in a transition that surprised many people, she switched sports!

She took up the bobsled and represented Australia at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, becoming the 1st able-bodied Australian woman to compete at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

Now, she’s finally pursuing her childhood ambition to become a doctor - not in sport’s medicine however but as a gynecologist (or “vagina doctor” to use her words).

In between all of that, she’s experienced and survived toxic relationships, a 13 year battle with bulimia and disordered eating, miscarriages, IVF, breast implants, struggles with breastfeeding and retirement as well as a cervical cancer scare - all of which is documented in her real, raw and vulnerable autobiography.

In this conversation, we discuss everything from how she started running as a way to spend time with her Dad, why she describes the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics as one of the highlights of her career as well as busting stigmas around women’s health and the symptoms you should talk to your doctor about.

An active, sporty child, it wasn’t until Kate was in her late 20s that she discovered mountain biking and quickly fell in love with both the physical demands of the sport, but also the strong technical and strategic elements of it.

In 2010, Kate lined up at the start of her first race on her entry level bike, complete with bell and reflectors; it also happened to be a mixed pairs team in a 24 hour mountain bike.

Her team won their category and a love affair with 24 hour racing was born.

She’s now the 2x Australian Champion and has competed at 5 World Championships, finishing inside the top 5 in every year since 2014.

In this conversation, we discuss:

- the mind games and self-doubt that troubled her early career,

- her frustration at being ‘so close but so far’ after finishing in the Top 5 at the World Championships every year for the last 4 years,

- the constant struggle between worrying about things you can control vs things you can’t (and how when you wholeheartedly let go of concern over the things you can’t control, you can not only produce your best race but be deeply proud of it),

- why she relishes the challenge of proving people wrong,

- the power of choice and the importance of being aware of how you are directing your energy,

- her experience with the Imposter Complex, especially when wearing the green and gold Australian Champion jersey for the first time, and

- whether she has any sense of ‘unfinished business’ after her performance at the World Championship in Scotland in 2018.

Perhaps the most powerful question you can ask yourself is - what do I need?

There is no-one better equipped to help us answer that question than Kemi Nekvapil.

Kemi is, quite simply, a force of nature.

A pioneer in the raw food movement in Australia, Kemi is now an accredited executive and personal coach.

She’s committed to helping women like you and I change how we feel about ourselves and how we express ourselves, so we can set boundaries and pursue what we want from life, without guilt or apology.

She’s also a powerful speaker as those who attended Sparta Chicks Unleashed 2018 will attest.

Plus she’s a trail and ultra marathon runner. Kemi has completed 11 x marathon distances races, plus a 100km race, the Surf Coast Century, in 2016. So she ‘gets’ us!

Kemi was my ‘secret weapon’ during 2018.  She was my coach for 6 months throughout the year and I can hand-on-heart say Sparta Chicks Unleashed would not have happened if not for her support.

In this conversation we discuss:

- what an underwear shopping trip at 13 with her fifth set of foster parents taught her a powerful lesson about choice,

- how she was able to reach a point of having ‘presence’ and unshakeable confidence,

- the powerful realisation that led her into executive and personal coaching,

- how she discovered running and what trail running gives her,

- whether our difficulties with asking for help is the reason so many women (myself included) arrive in our 30s and 40s and realise we’ve lost a bit of ourselves and we don’t know who we are or what we like anymore,

- how setting boundaries and asking for what you need in a clean and clear way empowers other people to do the same,

- what Kemi would like you to do in 2019 in order to thrive (and also why you’re also allowed to pivot once you’ve decided).

Caroline Buchanan's cycling bio is quite extraordinary.

Not just because she's an 8x World Champion, but also because she has achieved those titles across 2 multiple disciplines within the sport of cycling (3x in BMX and 5x in mountain biking).

She is a 2x Olympian (London in 2012 and Rio in 2016) and has now competed at the World Championships in 4 different cycling events.

Off the bike, Caroline is committed to the next generation of cyclists and to encouraging more girls to get into the sport, including through her latest venture; a children's book series called 'Girls Can B'.

Needless to say, she's a woman of many talents - both on and off the bike!

We could have spent the hour just talking about her cycling career, but I wanted to go deeper than that -- to discover the mindset and mental strategies she uses to manage her fear (in a risky and potentially dangerous sport) so she can perform on the world stage at her best.

Lucy was my guest on the podcast back in January, 2018 (episode 45).

In that episode, Lucy shared her background; how she first started running as a way to spend time with her Dad, her first 100km race at 16 through to her victory in 2017 at the 100km Ultra Trail Australia race (also her 21st birthday).

At the time of that episode, Lucy was still getting her head around the news she had secured an entry to the Western States Endurance Run (WSER); not only one of the world’s most prestigious 100mi/160km races, but it would also be Lucy’s first attempt at that distance.

So Lucy returns to Sparta Chicks Radio in this episode recorded late in 2018 to share how the race, and 2018, unfolded for her — including why she labelled her blog post about the race ‘Show Up, Blow Up, Grow Up’.

Here’s a #spoileralert - Lucy finished 3rd at WSER that year; an extraordinary performance for someone so young, and racing that distance for the first time, against the best in the world.

Mel was born into an extremely violent home. Her father was physically abusive towards not only her mother but also to Mel and her sister as well.

Despite her mum eventually leaving her father when she was around 12, Mel was firmly trapped in a cycle of violence.

At High School, Mel found herself the victim of bullying, but also at times an instigator of it.

This continued into her romantic relationships too, where she found herself in several abusive relationships.

That was until, at the age of 18, when she met (as she describes him) ‘one of the good guys’ who introduced her to martial arts, which changed the course of her life.

Mel is now the founder and CEO of the KYUP! Project, a revolutionary self-worth and self-protection program created to break the cycle of violence against women and children.

By the time we had recorded this episode in 2018, she had already worked with more than 10,000 students and young women around the country and is on a mission to change the devastating statistic that 40% of women over the age of 15 have been affected by domestic or family violence.

In 2011, a doctor told Tania - then aged 42 - that she wouldn’t live to see grandchildren if she didn’t stop smoking and drinking.

That distressing doctor’s visit started a chain reaction of events that has led Tania to become the first woman to run the length of the Hume and Hovell Track - a 453km track from Yass to Albury in regional NSW.

Her time of 8 days, 12 hours and 39 minutes is now recognised as the ‘fastest known time’ (FKT) for a woman over the Hume and Hovell.

So how does a mother and grandmother who only started running a few years ago become an FKT record holder in just 7 years?

That’s what we explore in this conversation.

Tanya Geisler is a Leadership Coach from Canada who specialises in working with women regarding their experience with the Imposter Complex.

Tanya was one of my first guests on the podcast; episode #7 back in April 2017.

That conversation was not only one of the most popular episodes from 2017, but it is also the most profoundly impactful episodes.

If you haven't listened to that episode, I'd encourage you to press 'pause' and go back and listen to that episode first.

Since that episode was published, I have lost count of the times someone has said to me (after listening to that conversation) words to the effect of: “I didn’t know everyone felt that way too".

Over the last 18 months, Tanya has explored what is on the other side of the Imposter Complex.

Her answer: ‘unshakeable confidence'.

So what does it mean to be ‘unshakeably confident’? That’s what I ask Tanya in this episode.

Jo joined me on the podcast back in episode #38 in November 2017.

In that conversation, we discussed Jo’s background and history, why she started running at 35 and the way in which she’s struggled with comparison, feeling like an imposter as well as how it took years for Jo to call herself an ‘athlete’ and mean it.

If you haven’t listened to that episode, I’d encourage you to listen to that episode first.

Almost one year to the day later, Jo and I pick up where we left off and cover the events, and lessons, of the last 12 months.

Since we last spoke, Jo has finished her 1st 100mi (160km) race.

Then, in January 2018, Jo discovered she’d won a lottery spot to enter one of the world’s most famous ultramarathons; Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (or UTMB), an incredible 100mi / 160km race that passes through France, Italy and Switzerland as you run around the Mont Blanc massif (yes, you literally run around the mountain!)

Sadly, Jo’s race at UTMB didn’t turn out the way she wanted after she missed a cut-off around the 100km mark.

So what happens when your biggest fear comes true?

That’s what I explore with Jo in this conversation.

Kate is a psychologist, mountaineer and ‘free spirit at heart’.

A rock climber and mountaineer (who also served in the Army for 10 years), Kate has a unique perspective on how to manage fear, the thoughts we believe and the stories we tell ourselves.

We dive deep into the topic of fear on this episode and discuss:

- why spending time in nature is such a powerful source of confidence for women (hint: it’s about the facades we carry in our everyday life),

- why fear is actually a good thing, and being fearless is bad,

- the physiological response that occurs in your body when you feel fear - whether that fear is real/immediate or perceived,

- why you can’t think straight when you feel anxious, and tactics you can use to calm your anxiety and get your brain functioning again (I’ll vouch for the 4 second breathing exercise she mentions; I’ve been using it a lot in the last week or two),

- why mantras and affirmations work and why you should ‘let the body climb’ (or swim or run or ride or whatever it is you love to do), and

- how you get to choose which thoughts you believe (and it is a choice).