Better Under Pressure

#37 - Daniel Priestley - Make it a Game

In this episode, I’m talking to Daniel Priestley, entrepreneur, author and speaker. 

Since the age of 21, he has started, bought and sold multiple businesses in training, publishing, IT services and tech. 

He’s written best-selling books like Key Person of Influence, Oversubscribed and Entrepreneur Revolution - and is known for his work on entrepreneurship and business development, offering practical advice to entrepreneurs on scaling their business, personal branding and becoming influential within their industries. 

In our conversation, Daniel discusses...

• The pressure of going through a buy-out
• What it’s like when your business goes from zero to a million in 12 months
• And why it should all be ‘fun and games’.

#36 - Charlotte Cox - Integrating Work and Life, NOT Balancing Them

In this episode, I’m talking to Charlotte Cox, President Emea at Pentland Brands. With over 20 years of commercial experience - during which time she has had leadership roles for sporting brands like Canterbury of New Zealand, Mitre and Speedo – Charlotte has won regional awards such as Business Woman of the Year in 2019 and was a Future is Female European winner in 2020.

Charlotte’s ambition is to get more people to support their mental and physical well-being by increasing participation in sports and outdoor activities. She’s also been instrumental in the development and delivery of the Pentland Brands global diversity and inclusion strategy. 

In our conversation, Charlotte shares…

• What stopped her from picking up the telephone as a child
• How team sports show up in business
• And how she managed to reel in one of her colleagues with fishing

#35 - Amanda Brennan - Tune Your Body, Train Your Mind

In this episode, I’m talking to Amanda Brennan, a coach and trainer of actors in Film, Television and Theatre. She runs an MA course in Screen Acting at Central School of Speech & Drama and is the author of two books, The Energetic Performer, published in 2016, and The Craft of Screen Acting, due out in 2024.  Amanda has also produced films that have been screened at the Raindance, Sundance and London Film Festivals.  She has most recently coached actors in TV shows like The Crown and Sex Education as well as forthcoming films like The Yellow Tie starring John Malkovich and Miranda Richardson.

In our conversation, Amanda discusses…

• What she learnt from standing in the rain for half an hour
• What she can tell from looking at someone’s feet…
• And why the training for actors can be applied to all of us /everyone to perform better under pressure.

#34 - Andy Salmon - Pressure is a Relationship Between You and You

In this episode, I’m talking to Andy Salmon CMG and CBE who was a Royal Marine for 36 years. 

A former Commandant General Head of service, his front-line work included the Falklands War, Sierra Leone, the Kurdish humanitarian crisis in Northern Iraq, the Civil War in Angola and lastly as Commanding General of Coalition Forces handing over Basra in 2009. Between 2011 & 2013 he built the crisis-management centre for NATO and was responsible for finding forces for their global operations including Afghanistan.

Since retiring, he has founded Journey Through Conflict, a multi-media theatre company that creates performances to help alleviate suffering in people from myriad conflicts. He also takes elements of the performance into businesses to coach them in co-creating journeys to success.

In our conversation, Andy reveals: 

• Why he used to carry around a crash helmet without having a motorbike,
• Why he believes in ‘Enforced Rest’
• And what memorable tactic he used to make sure his troop was awake before a big attack.

#33 - Laura Try - Less Things, More Experiences

In this episode, I’m talking to Laura Try, a business founder who left it all behind to become an extreme adventurer. Having owned a beauty salon for nine years, Laura made the decision, aged 29, that her values no longer served her, and she wanted something different. Very different. The hunger for experiences and challenge meant firstly entering multi-day adventure races, then rowing 1,800 miles around Great Britain and, most recently, an attempt to be the fastest women’s boat rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

In our conversation, Laura discusses 

- What she means by Type-2 fun,

- How you get around different personalities in a boat race,

- And what she learned from trying to ignite a Bow Drill fire.

#32 - Tamsin Addison - Horses are Great Levellers

In this episode, I’m talking to Tamsin Addison, a member of the Irish Equestrian team for over 10 years now, who has enjoyed international wins on multiple horses, was placed in the top ten in the last European championships and became a Paralympian at the Tokyo Olympics

Starting her career as a psychologist and undertaking a PhD on Pain in Sport, Tamsin was at the same time diagnosed with parosteal sarcoma in her right upper arm.  Determined not to let bone cancer hinder her passion for horse riding, Tamsin became the first person in the world to regrow an arm bone.

After working in the corporate world for 20 years,  she was tempted to ride for her country and didn’t look back. She now runs her own business rehabilitating horses after injury or surgery and combines that with competing at national and international equestrian events.

In our conversation, Tamsin reveals:

• Why she changed her phone passcode to a specific number in the future
• The mental and physical toll it took to re-grow her right arm
• And what happened when someone told her that her horse was watching Netflix