Winning The Away Game

What does starting over look like when you have already built a business across five continents?

John McLoughlin founded J2 in South Africa in 2006, working from a shared desk in a Honeydew warehouse. The company now serves more than 800 customers. But when John moved to London in December 2022, breaking into the UK market felt like building a start-up all over again. He says it was “a hundred times harder” than he expected.

In this episode of Winning the Away Game, John joins Justinus Adriaanse and Flip van der Merwe to share the personal story behind that business journey. He speaks openly about losing his infant son, undergoing cancer treatment while working to establish J2, and the support his wife Natalie gave him through those years.

We also discuss adapting South African directness for a different market, the emotional toll of moving abroad, and why John has built giving back into the way J2 does business.

For founders and South Africans abroad, this conversation offers an honest account of what it takes to keep building through difficult circumstances.

Subscribe for more conversations with South Africans building businesses and lives around the world. Which part of John’s story stayed with you? Tell us in the comments.

Winning the Away Game is produced in collaboration with The Lekker Network, connecting South Africans around the world to support one another, do business and create lasting impact.
https://thelekkernetwork.com/

Listen on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/26fB2unP9Ih6IA3QkjnGQF

Listen on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/winning-the-away-game/id1853818584

Website
https://wtagpodcast.com/

Chapters

00:00 You’re not dead yet so fix it

00:27 Meet John McLoughlin

01:46 John’s favourite Springbok memories

04:12 Growing up and learning to adapt

09:42 From a spinning studio to software

13:39 Losing his son and facing cancer

17:00 Starting J2 and the return of cancer

20:28 Natalie’s support through treatment

24:15 Living with the loss of a child

29:16 Resilience and finding a fresh start

32:34 Accepting the past and taking the business leap

35:03 The financial crisis and personal debt

37:15 Why London made sense

38:17 Starting over in the UK market

40:02 The difficulty and emotional cost of moving abroad

42:15 A turning point in a Johannesburg hotel room

45:12 Recognising progress and giving back

47:12 Creating opportunities in South Africa

49:23 How J2’s impact fund works

52:42 The lessons John takes forward

Justinus Adriaanse: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinusadriaanse/
Flip van der Merwe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipvandermerwe/
Produced by Jonathan Warncke at Ping Productions: https://www.pingproductions.net/

After a tough first year at boarding school, Sean Temple wrote a ten-page letter to Arnold Schwarzenegger — and the signed bodybuilding encyclopaedia that came back set the direction of his life.

Decades later, after a career in banking and a humbling encounter with a kettlebell, he opened his own gym in Durban, trained some of the country's leading rugby players and found himself on morning TV, until the business fell apart.

In this conversation with Justinus Adriaanse and Flip van der Merwe, Sean takes full accountability for what went wrong: chasing the fame instead of running the business, taking the wrong advice, and discovering too late that he was the brand.

This one is for founders who have become the face of their company, and for South Africans abroad who have ever treated a new country as a fresh start.

Sean is candid about ego, therapy and honest friends, about why no move will outrun your problems, and about rebuilding into a role leading AI in banking in Copenhagen.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

01:40 Springbok Memories From 1981 to Today

04:20 Growing Up Across Southern Africa

08:12 The Letter to Arnold Schwarzenegger

12:19 Road Cycling and Learning to Enjoy the Suffering

16:39 London and the South African Work Ethic

19:14 Humbled by a Kettlebell

24:13 Building a Gym and Training Rugby Stars

26:56 Where It Went Wrong

31:17 The 5am Drive That Changed Everything

33:25 Ego, Resilience and Starting From Zero

38:59 You Can't Outrun Your Problems

42:11 Copenhagen, AI and Life Among the Danes

48:31 Building a South Africa That Works for Everyone

53:30 Looking Ahead to Australia 2027

Winning The Away Game is brought to you by The Lekker Network. The Lekker Network brings together South Africa’s top entrepreneurs, executives, innovators, and everyday people from all over the world to connect, engage, support, do business with each other, and create lasting impact. Find out more at https://thelekkernetwork.com/

Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/26fB2unP9Ih6IA3QkjnGQF?si=4b4380f24a144716

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/winning-the-away-game/id1853818584

Connect with Justinus:https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinusadriaanse/

Connect with Flip:https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipvandermerwe/

Check out our other channels: Website: https://wtagpodcast.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winning-the-away-game-podcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wtag_podcast/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wtag_podcast

Winning The Away Game is produced by Jonathan Warncke Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99-jonathan-warncke-45b2095/

Ping Productions: https://www.pingproductions.net/

Kemp Swanepoel is the CFO of Ford Motor Company in Canada, and his career turns on a day he didn't have to show up: a finance guy who volunteered to smash car windows at a product demo for Volvo, and met the executives who would later call him out of the blue. In this episode he takes Justinus Adriaanse and Flip van der Merwe from seven schools before the age of ten, to walking away from the audit route, to turning down Sweden and Japan and betting everything on Canada. This is for South Africans abroad, and anyone weighing the move, who want an honest account of what relocation really costs a family: the slow build of self-doubt, the friendships that fade, and a culture that makes spending far too easy. Kemp shares the simple decision ritual he and his wife return to whenever they question the move, how he leads a large team by taking the pressure off them, and why he believes South Africans abroad should refuse to assimilate.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

01:37 The Anthem in the Lounge

03:56 Faith, Family and Fitness

05:57 Seven Schools and an Ironman

09:29 Love, Audit and a First CFO Job 1

4:13 Smashing Windows for Volvo

17:11 How Constant Change Shaped Him

20:37 Betting Everything on Canada

25:00 The List That Ends the Blame Game

28:30 Reasons, Seasons and Lifetimes

30:43 Staying True in a Spending Culture

33:23 Friendships, Trust and Letting Go

38:05 Efficiency and Rising the Tide

43:07 From Volvo to Ford

46:37 Building a South Africa That Works

Winning The Away Game is brought to you by The Lekker Network. The Lekker Network brings together South Africa’s top entrepreneurs, executives, innovators, and everyday people from all over the world to connect, engage, support, do business with each other, and create lasting impact. Find out more at https://thelekkernetwork.com/

Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/26fB2unP9Ih6IA3QkjnGQF?si=4b4380f24a144716

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/winning-the-away-game/id1853818584

Connect with Justinus:https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinusadriaanse/

Connect with Flip:https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipvandermerwe/

Check out our other channels: Website: https://wtagpodcast.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winning-the-away-game-podcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wtag_podcast/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wtag_podcast

Winning The Away Game is produced by Jonathan Warncke Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99-jonathan-warncke-45b2095/

Ping Productions: https://www.pingproductions.net/

Lazola Tutani grew up in the Eastern Cape raised by his mother, worked weekend night shifts at a petrol station to pay for the half of his engineering degree his bursary didn't cover, and now runs a 245-person business unit for Continental in Sumter, South Carolina — where he is the only African and the only foreigner in the building.

In this episode he tells Justinus Adriaanse and Flip van der Merwe what it actually takes to earn authority over people whose culture isn't yours, why he deliberately studied American college football and joined a local church before he tried to drive change, and what two years in Hanover taught him about the difference between people who seem cold and people who are only warm on the surface.

This is for operators leading teams abroad, South Africans weighing up a move, and anyone who has had to rebuild credibility from zero in a new country. He is also unusually direct about growing up without a father, and about what he is deliberately doing differently with his own son and daughter.

And when asked how you fix a country, his answer is smaller and harder than you expect.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

04:17 The Coach Who Straightened Him Up

08:17 Breaking the Academic Barrier

11:41 Growing Up Without a Father

14:08 Night Shifts to Fund the Degree

16:08 Brotherhood and the Eastern Cape

17:38 From the Factory Floor to Hanover

19:03 Adapting to Germany

21:41 Germany vs America

24:18 Leading 245 Americans

26:50 Sport and Church as the Way In

32:16 Bafana Bafana in Los Angeles

35:24 Ironman as Practice for Work

41:04 Building a Country That Works for Everyone

47:58 The Weight of 2027

Winning The Away Game is brought to you by The Lekker Network. The Lekker Network brings together South Africa's top entrepreneurs, executives, innovators, and everyday people from all over the world to connect, engage, support, do business with each other, and create lasting impact. Find out more at https://thelekkernetwork.com/

Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/26fB2unP9Ih6IA3QkjnGQF?si=4b4380f24a144716

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/winning-the-away-game/id1853818584

Connect with Justinus:https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinusadriaanse/

Connect with Flip:https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipvandermerwe/

Check out our other channels: Website: https://wtagpodcast.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winning-the-away-game-podcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wtag_podcast/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wtag_podcast

Winning The Away Game is produced by Jonathan Warncke Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99-jonathan-warncke-45b2095/

Ping Productions: https://www.pingproductions.net/

Jason English was 21, wearing a vest, and standing between a light and a silhouette when the bullet hit him — and that was still not the closest he came to dying in uniform.

Thirty years later he runs an ecosystem of more than 5,500 people across the Middle East and the United States, built through acquisition, a forensic investigation that made his hair fall out, and a run of yeses he had no idea how to deliver on.

In this episode he tells Justinus and Flip what policing, paramedic work and a helicopter licence taught him about running companies, and why he believes no procedure in his business should ever run longer than a single page.

This is for operators and founders who are trying to scale people rather than headcount, and for South Africans abroad who are still working out what they owe home.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

03:04 A Policeman Who Ended Up in Dubai

04:19 The Day He Got Shot 07:31 What Policing Taught Him About Business

12:22 Richards Bay to the Global Corporate Ladder

14:19 The 3AM Call That Changed His Trajectory

16:03 Cashing In Everything to Buy a Company

22:25 The Fraud Claim and the Forensic Audit

25:36 The Mentor Nobody Would Choose

28:34 The Helicopter Lesson

32:53 Scaling Across Countries and Cultures

36:59 The Oros Effect and the 51 Percent Rule

39:10 What Dubai Taught Him He Didn't Know

44:17 Building a Studio for Tom Cruise

47:06 The Most Nerve-Wracking Moment of His Life

51:36 Building a South Africa That Works for Everyone

Winning The Away Game is brought to you by The Lekker Network. The Lekker Network brings together South Africa's top entrepreneurs, executives, innovators, and everyday people from all over the world to connect, engage, support, do business with each other, and create lasting impact. Find out more at https://thelekkernetwork.com/

Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/26fB2unP9Ih6IA3QkjnGQF?si=4b4380f24a144716

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/winning-the-away-game/id1853818584

Connect with Justinus:https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinusadriaanse/

Connect with Flip:https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipvandermerwe/

Check out our other channels: Website: https://wtagpodcast.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winning-the-away-game-podcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wtag_podcast/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wtag_podcast

Winning The Away Game is produced by Jonathan Warncke Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99-jonathan-warncke-45b2095/

Ping Productions: https://www.pingproductions.net/

When colleagues in London asked Brett Belinsky whether he was going home for Christmas, his answer was immediate: 'I am home.' That response became a personal philosophy - there are no away games, only home games.

Brett's career has crossed Johannesburg, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, London and Los Angeles, taking him from telecommunications entrepreneurship to senior roles across global media and entertainment. Today, he advises venture capital, private equity, family offices and media and telecoms businesses. He has also built Tongg, a fresh-to-order biltong company shipping across 48 US states.

In this episode, Brett speaks candidly about the tragedy that accelerated his decision to leave South Africa, the loneliness of living abroad, the discipline of staying connected and the mental shift required to start again. He also shares his views on leadership, AI disruption, the future of personalised media and why South Africans are unusually equipped to adapt.

This is a conversation about belonging without denial, reinvention without self-deception and learning to win wherever life puts you.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

01:56 The Springbok Moment That Made Him Cry

05:27 Building a Biltong Brand in America

10:41 Never Bullshit Yourself

11:41 There Are No Away Games, Only Home Games

14:06 The Army Lesson: There Is No Plan B

17:23 The Tragedy That Forced the Move 21:35 UK vs US: What Actually Changes

27:29 The Loneliest Part of Leaving

31:17 Keeping Networks Alive From Abroad

36:36 Taking Emotion Out of the Deal

38:03 AI Is Already Rewriting Media

44:38 Building a Country That Works for Everyone

47:42 The Weight of 2027

53:51 Brighton, Japan and a 1,200 Pound Bet

Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/26fB2unP9Ih6IA3QkjnGQF?si=4b4380f24a144716

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/winning-the-away-game/id1853818584

Connect with Justinus:https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinusadriaanse/

Connect with Flip:https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipvandermerwe/

Check out our other channels: Website: https://wtagpodcast.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winning-the-away-game-podcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wtag_podcast/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wtag_podcast

Winning The Away Game is produced by Jonathan Warncke Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99-jonathan-warncke-45b2095/

Ping Productions: https://www.pingproductions.net/

Jason Zehmke left Uitenhage for Charlotte, North Carolina on a six-month rugby stint and never came back — twenty-six years, a law degree turned banking career, and one of America's largest youth rugby clubs later. This episode is for anyone building something from scratch in a place that has no reason to want it: the operators, the emigrants, the coaches and the parents. Jason breaks down how the Charlotte Cardinals recruit kids who have never watched a rugby match, why he refuses to call his teams A, B and C, and what South Africa's historic schools are quietly losing to money. It is also an honest look at what it costs to build a life abroad, and what pulls you back to the people who put you on the field in the first place.

00:00 Down 8-0 in the Final
00:18 Welcome to Winning the Away Game
01:55 Favourite Springbok Memory
03:00 Growing Up in Uitenhage
07:11 The Talent Drain from South Africa's Oldest Schools
09:20 Three Tiers of Schoolboy Rugby
12:22 Building the Charlotte Cardinals
15:46 Why Kids Are Leaving Football
18:26 Colour Teams, Not A, B and C
19:26 Six Months in Charlotte, Twenty-Six Years Later
24:55 Homesickness and the South African Network
32:31 Why He Wears the Grey Armband
40:51 AI Risk at Wells Fargo
47:35 A Country That Works for Everyone
53:18 Looking Ahead to the World Cup

Winning The Away Game is brought to you by The Lekker Network. The Lekker Network brings together South Africa's top entrepreneurs, executives, innovators, and everyday people from all over the world to connect, engage, support, do business with each other, and create lasting impact. Find out more at https://thelekkernetwork.com/

Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/26fB2unP9Ih6IA3QkjnGQF?si=4b4380f24a144716

Listen on Apple:
https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/winning-the-away-game/id1853818584

Connect with Justinus:https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinusadriaanse/

Connect with Flip:https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipvandermerwe/

Check out our other channels:
Website: https://wtagpodcast.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winning-the-away-game-podcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wtag_podcast/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wtag_podcast

Winning The Away Game is produced by Jonathan Warncke
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99-jonathan-warncke-45b2095/

Ping Productions: https://www.pingproductions.net/

In 2011 a stranger messaged Greg Martin on LinkedIn asking if he would cover an IOC session. He had to Google what the IOC was, quoted for the job anyway, and has covered every Winter, Summer and Youth Olympic Games since London.

This episode is for anyone building a career out of chances they are not yet qualified for — and for every South African abroad who is trying to work out how much of home to carry with them.

Winning The Away Game is brought to you by The Lekker Network. The Lekker

Network brings together South Africa’s top entrepreneurs, executives,

innovators, and everyday people from all over the world to connect, engage,

support, do business with each other, and create lasting impact. Find out

more at https://thelekkernetwork.com/

Listen on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/26fB2unP9Ih6IA3QkjnGQF?si=4b4380f24a144716

Listen on Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/winning-the-away-game/id1853818584

Connect with Justinus:https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinusadriaanse/

Connect with Flip:https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipvandermerwe/

Check out our other channels:

Website: https://wtagpodcast.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winning-the-away-game-podcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wtag_podcast/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wtag_podcast

Winning The Away Game is produced by Jonathan Warncke

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99-jonathan-warncke-45b2095/

Ping Productions: https://www.pingproductions.net/

Wayne Hendricks was the most junior member of Nelson Mandela’s protection team when he walked into the President’s office wearing a novelty lapel pin he had not read properly. Thirty years later he runs global security for MetLife, has worked across Goldman Sachs and Macquarie, and has landed in more countries than most people can name — and the lesson from that first exchange still sets how he hires, leads and argues.

This episode is for operators who have moved countries, changed industries, or rebuilt an identity from scratch, and for anyone who suspects that technical skill is a shrinking advantage.

The core tension is a hard one: Wayne argues South Africans have to stop reasoning from what was done to them and start reasoning from what happens next — while agreeing, without hedging, that apartheid still shapes how millions grow up. He holds both at once, and explains why most people can’t.

Along the way: the geography lottery, a girl called Rebecca who wanted to be a pilot, and the day decisiveness locked the President of South Africa inside a stadium.

Winning The Away Game is brought to you by The Lekker Network. The Lekker

Network brings together South Africa’s top entrepreneurs, executives,

innovators, and everyday people from all over the world to connect, engage,

support, do business with each other, and create lasting impact. Find out

more at https://thelekkernetwork.com/

Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/26fB2unP9Ih6IA3QkjnGQF?si=4b4380f24a144716

Listen on Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/winning-the-away-game/id1853818584

Connect with Justinus:https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinusadriaanse/

Connect with Flip:https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipvandermerwe/

Check out our other channels:

Website: https://wtagpodcast.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winning-the-away-game-podcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wtag_podcast/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wtag_podcast

Winning The Away Game is produced by Jonathan Warncke

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99-jonathan-warncke-45b2095/

Ping Productions: https://www.pingproductions.net/

Gary Boddington represented South Africa at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, then built a business intelligence company out of a Durban garage that was eventually acquired by Sage — a journey that landed him in a ski resort in British Columbia.

Wayne Fyvie played three tests for South Africa, captained the Sharks, and walked out of a change room in Cardiff knowing his body was finished and his income was about to disappear.

This episode is for anyone facing the end of one identity and the blank page of the next: athletes in transition, founders in the grind, and operators trying to work out what they are actually building for.

Chapters
00:00 Cold Open
00:41 Welcome: Gary Boddington and Wayne Fyvie
02:56 Favourite Springbok Memories
05:30 The Ticky Box That Changed Wayne’s Life
08:07 First Cap, Injuries and the Press
11:56 Gary’s Road From Ice Hockey to Atlanta
15:37 Walking Into the Stadium at Atlanta 1996
19:10 Retirement and the Salary That Stops
22:32 The Haircut That Cost 200 Rand
27:28 Job First or Play First: Which Is Better?
33:52 Mentors, Relationships and Working the Room
37:54 Eating Glass for 30 Years
41:31 The Two-Year Plan and the Sage Acquisition
47:41 Sales, Cartridges and Solving Problems
50:35 Finding Purpose at 38
54:49 Building a South Africa That Works

Winning The Away Game is brought to you by The Lekker Network. The Lekker Network brings together South Africa's top entrepreneurs, executives, innovators, and everyday people from all over the world to connect, engage, support, do business with each other, and create lasting impact. Find out more at https://thelekkernetwork.com/

Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/26fB2unP9Ih6IA3QkjnGQF?si=4b4380f24a144716

Listen on Apple:
https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/winning-the-away-game/id1853818584

Connect with Justinus:https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinusadriaanse/

Connect with Flip:https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipvandermerwe/

Check out our other channels:
Website: https://wtagpodcast.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winning-the-away-game-podcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wtag_podcast/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wtag_podcast

Winning The Away Game is produced by Jonathan Warncke
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99-jonathan-warncke-45b2095/

Ping Productions: https://www.pingproductions.net/