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Performance Intelligence

Andrew May

The show that unlocks potential for everyday life.
Mental Skills and Leadership Coach, Andrew May, talks to an all-star guest list of experts to unlock every edge of performance.

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Wednesday · 12 min
Bite Size: The Skill Sport Teaches That Leaves You Lonely | Stuart Clark & Steve Rixon
Years of touring teach cricketers to be very comfortable in their own company. Coffee when you want it, lunch when you want it, a day built entirely around you. Former Test wicketkeeper Steve Rixon argues the skill cuts both ways: it protects you on the road, then quietly isolates you once the career ends and the kids leave home. Former Test fast bowler Stuart Clark has already had to work it out for himself. What each of them realised was missing, and why it had nothing to do with cricket. You can find Stuart at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-clark-32019360/ Book Steve to speak at your next event: https://www.celebrityspeakers.com.au/speakers/steve-rixon/ - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.
September 20 · 9 min
Bite Size: How to Step Down Without Screwing It Up | Michael Bungay Stanier
Most people who benefit from the status quo work hard to keep it. Michael Bungay Stanier, Rhodes Scholar and bestselling author of The Coaching Habit, says it was built for him, and decided to spend some of that advantage. First through curiosity and humour, the quieter tools for shifting who holds power in a room. Then through the harder move: stepping down as CEO of Box of Crayons, the company he founded. What that handover asked of him, and the temptation he had to resist to make it stick. Find Michael at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbungaystanier/ Or Website: https://www.mbs.works/ Buy a copy of Michael's books: https://www.booktopia.com.au/michael-bungay-stanier/author1256.html - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.
September 16 · 1 hr 8 min
The Science of Mental Fitness: Why Movement is Non-Negotiable | Dr John Ratey
A professor at Harvard and MIT wrecked his knee and stopped running the 7.5 miles he ran every night of his adult life. 5 months later he could not finish his own work. He was losing the thread in conversations, forgetting things he had never forgotten, and getting angry in a way he did not recognise. He was convinced he had developed adult ADD in middle age. He hadn't. He had just stopped running... The psychiatrist who worked that out went looking for evidence that barely existed at the time. 2 decades later it became Spark, the book that put exercise and the brain in the same sentence for most of us for the first time. You already know you should move more. That is not the problem. The problem is the distance between knowing it and doing it, and what that distance costs you if you are paid to think for a living. Attention? Mood? Whether you can still hold a hard problem in your head at four in the afternoon? Dr John Ratey is now 78 years old. He has been at Harvard since his residency, he has written 12 books, and his own protocol is far simpler than anything you would expect from a Harvard laboratory. He explains what BDNF does to a brain, why he now describes muscle as an endocrine organ rather than scaffolding, what the last 10 years of research has added to the case he made in Spark, and the one thing he could not write at the time because the evidence was not there yet. You can keep treating exercise as the thing you do for your body when there is time left over. Or you can treat it as maintenance for the organ you are actually being paid for. 00:00 The Harvard genius who lost his mind when he stopped running 06:05 The cocktail party patient who started it all 11:01 The 1970s discovery behind the runner's high 14:05 Turn ADHD into a superpower: the Ferrari brain with bicycle brakes 20:06 The real prescription for a distracted mind 24:54 The school that got smarter by moving more 29:08 Meet BDNF: the brain's own Miracle-Gro 32:45 Dr Ratey is 78, and he's nowhere near done 37:11 Inside Spark 2.0: what's changed since the first book 43:26 Why a fit brain matters more in the age of AI 53:16 John's own weekly training plan 1:04:16 The question John didn't expect: why he took up Zumba at 75 Learn more about Dr John Ratey here: https://www.johnratey.com/ - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.
September 13 · 9 min
Bite Size: The Simple Habit That Flattens Your Energy Crashes | Dr Amantha Imber
Most nutrition advice focuses on what you eat. Dr Amantha Imber, an organisational psychologist and author of The Health Habit, became more interested in what happens after you eat, and started wearing a continuous glucose monitor on herself to find out. The device tracks blood sugar in real time, and what she discovered about a specific ten-minute habit after meals surprised her enough to build it into how she coaches high performers now. What that habit is, and why flat blood sugar matters more than most people realise, is what this one gets into. You can find Dr Amantha at her Website: https://www.amantha.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanthai/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber/?originalSubdomain=au Buy The Health Habit: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-health-habit-9781761342363 High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.
September 9 · 1 hr 7 min
Conflict Expert: What Swallowed Words Costs a High Performing Team | Tim Duggan
You have rehearsed it in the shower. You have written the message and deleted it. And every time the moment arrives, you find a reason it can wait until next quarter. That conversation is still making decisions for you. It decides who gets the promotion, which project quietly dies, and which good person leaves without ever telling you the real reason. Tim Duggan spent 3 years inside one question: how do you get better at conflict? He built a media company out of a website he started in his twenties, hired hundreds of people, sold it, and was still terrible at the hard conversation. He thought he was good at it. He was not, and it took him years to work that out. So he went to the people who are: Adam Grant. Oxford negotiators. Accredited mediators. An executive producer of The Real Housewives, which turned out to be the most useful conversation of the lot. What he came back with is a map. 4 terrains, and every conflict you are carrying right now sits on one of them. The move that works on one will detonate on another. Andrew puts it under load. The leaders who can run a profit centre and have never been taught to disagree. Performance Intelligence's own work on psychological safety and constructive challenge. And a live test Tim has not seen coming, where he places a conflict still playing out in public onto his own model, no notes, no preparation. Listen to this one before your next difficult conversation, not after it. 00:02 — Why are we so bad at conflict? 03:38 — How our families teach us to avoid difficult conversations 07:02 — The moment Tim realised avoiding conflict was costing him 09:01 — What “swallowed words” do to us — and why silence isn’t really silent 11:32 — The counterintuitive question: what happens if you don’t have the conversation? 18:50 — The four terrains of conflict: summit, arena, minefield and swamp 27:27 — What happens when emotion takes over and the “amygdala hijack” kicks in 34:27 — The RISA test: should you actually have the fight? 37:36 — Why psychological safety doesn’t mean avoiding uncomfortable conversations 44:05 — The hidden conflict behind the return-to-office debate 47:26 — The Conflict Simulator: Tim analyses Justin Langer, The Beatles and Kyle & Jackie O 58:52 — How do you actually end a conflict? Resolve, repeat or release Contact Tim: https://timduggan.com.au/ Order Tim's book: https://timduggan.com.au/book/clear-in-tension/ View the conflict model: https://performanceintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Model.jpg - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website Book Andrew Follow us on Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook Watch this episode on Youtube If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.
September 6 · 7 min
Bite Size: The Two Steps That Stop a Player Throwing a Punch | Gilbert Enoka
A young player once told Gilbert Enoka that his advice was rubbish. On the field, when a referee makes a call he disagrees with, he wants to throw a punch, and no amount of mindset work was going to change that in the moment. Enoka, the All Blacks' mental skills coach for 23 years, did not argue the point. He gave the player a simple physical structure instead, and the player's own frustration rating dropped within seconds of trying it. It is the example Enoka now uses to explain why he believes structure, not mindset, is the most underrated lever in high performance. High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website Book Andrew Follow us on Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook Watch this episode on Youtube If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.
September 2 · 1 hr 9 min
Performance Nutrition: Lessons From Special Ops + Elite Athletes for Everyday People | Jessica Spendlove
Elite athletes and Special Forces do not eat like you do....and the reason you fade in the afternoon is usually something you did that morning. Jessica Spendlove will tell you exactly what. She will also tell you what to eat when you have 4 minutes and no time to think, whether the supplements you bought are doing anything at all, and why she rarely recommends that a woman fast. Jessica is a performance dietitian with more than 15 years behind her, a decade of it in elite sport across 7 professional teams, Olympic medallists, world champions and premiership-winning sides, plus 7 years with Special Forces Command. Jessica has heard every version of "I'm already doing everything right" and she has never met anybody whose nutrition she could not improve. And she is happy to be challenged on that! The reason it lands is that she got it wrong herself. Jessica spent years feeding elite athletes while running on adrenaline, cortisol and caffeine, and it took her own data to stop her arguing with herself. If you have been telling yourself you will sort your nutrition out when things calm down, start here. 00:00 The day we took nutrition off the table 03:44 Seven professional teams at once, running on adrenaline, cortisol and caffeine 06:12 The reply-all email that got her roasted at the Christmas party 11:46 The keynote she nearly pulled out of, and the data that made the call 17:19 The three hour morning window where it all comes apart 20:14 The domino habit has to survive your worst day 31:41 You can't ice bath your way out of chronic sleep debt 39:25 Why she almost never recommends fasting for women 55:25 Same meal, different order, different result 01:04:00 Walking into a room of commandos and getting it wrong 01:14:42 How to work with Jessica Spendlove Contact Jessica through her website, Linkedin, or Instagram. Buy Jessica's new book "For The Long Run" here. - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website Book Andrew Follow us on Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook Watch this episode on Youtube If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.
August 30 · 9 min
Bite Size: You Are Almost Certainly Underestimating Yourself | Craig Harper
There is a gap between what you are capable of and what you are actually doing. Craig Harper has spent 40 years studying it. His view: the gap is not primarily a talent problem or a knowledge problem. It is a psychological one. Fear, the need to be right, poor self-awareness, and an unwillingness to tolerate discomfort are quietly capping the performance of people who are objectively skilled, experienced, and intelligent. And the higher you rise, the easier it becomes to avoid confronting that. You can find Craig at his website:https://craigharper.net/ Follw him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiganthonyharper/ Listen to The You Project:https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-you-project/id1342430567 High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website Book Andrew Follow us on Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook Watch this episode on Youtube If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.
August 26 · 56 min
193 Mental Agility: Why it's so Important & How to Train it | Andrew May, Angela Poon, Jacqui Louder
Some people get sharper when the pressure lands. The meeting turns hostile, the plan collapses, the number comes in wrong, and they are still thinking clearly while everyone around them has gone quiet or gone hard. That is Mental Agility. The capacity to move between demands, tasks, roles and relationships while staying grounded and effective when conditions change. It is trainable, and it is the capability every organisation is now asking for without ever having taught it. PQ founder, Andrew May, PQ COO, Angela Poon, and Sports Psychologist, Jacqui Louder, spent 6 months building mental agility into six layers. What your brain does to you under pressure. Why your body sets the ceiling on your thinking. How your identity decides what an event means before conscious thought gets a say. The six seconds that stop you saying the thing you regret. How to actually retain what you learn. The hardiness that has you growing through pressure instead of surviving it. Now, they are walking you through all six layers here, with one strategy from each you can use this week. Andrew brings you into his real life test of mental agility with a gripping story of being upside down, underwater, strapped inside a helicopter fuselage in the dark, with an instructor offering him a way out. But what he does next is where mental agility shows up... 00:00 The word everyone uses and nobody can define 04:12 Your brain under pressure is not a character flaw 07:21 What AI can't give you 11:10 Elite sport, clinical psych, actual clowns 14:24 Why an insurer is training this 17:51 Leaving KPMG for a startup 23:43 The three zones 28:18 The brain runs on the body 35:03 Why the same words land differently on different people 39:14 Hanging up the bad day jacket 46:55 Upside down, underwater, offered a way out 52:25 How to work with us Learn more about a Mental Agility program for your team here or email us at support@performanceintelligence.com Contact Jacqui Louder here
August 23 · 7 min
Bite Size: A Debrief Won't Fix a Numb Team | Ex-SAS Soldier Harry Moffitt
A suicide bomber walked into a crowded local event in rural Afghanistan, and Harry Moffitt's small medical team spent the day treating the dead and dying. By the afternoon his unit sat in near silence, exhausted and numb. Moffitt, who spent close to three decades in Australia's Special Air Service, reached for the one thing he carried on every deployment for exactly this reason. What happened next, in the middle of one of the worst days of his career, became one of the most effective group resets his unit ever experienced, and he says he has never seen anything else do the same job. You can find Harry at his website: https://harrymoffitt.com.au/ Order a copy of Harry's book: https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761563133/ Connect with Harry at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrymoffitt/ Follow Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harrymoffitt353/?hl=en
August 19 · 1 hr 4 min
192 We Have Misdiagnosed a Generation of Exhausted Leaders | Andrew May on DLTOMI
You're probably treating recovery as the reward for hard work, when elite sport treats it as part of the work. Andrew May has spent more than two decades coaching in sport and business, and Andrew thinks we have misdiagnosed a generation of exhausted leaders. Call it burnout and you go looking for rest. Andrew says the shortfall is usually capacity, and the first move is measuring it rather than resting on it. Pod O'Sullivan had Andrew on Don't Let The Old Man In podcast and asked him the things he does not get asked on his own show. It was too good to leave over there, so we are bringing it to you here. 00:00 The plan you don't have 01:11 Burnout is not what you think it is 04:25 Vitamin FLPJ: fun, laughter, play, joy 06:52 The CEO who has never burnt out 09:45 Train hard, push hard, recover hard 12:25 What executive blood profiles show 16:17 Your father, your son, and you 18:45 The waterfront house and the crash 23:47 The five metrics worth tracking 30:17 You'd spend a year planning a renovation 38:55 Wearables: who they help, who they wreck 44:38 Why sauna beats cold 50:21 The toast that explains burnout 54:05 Three things to start this week 01:00:25 What your 75 year old self would ask 01:01:24 I've burnt out almost twice Listen to the original episode: https://pod.fo/e/5543c9 Watch the original episode: https://www.youtube.com/@DontLetTheOldManInPodcast/videos Follow Pod on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/padraigbosullivan/ Follow DLTOMN: https://www.instagram.com/dltomipodcast/
August 16 · 15 min
Bite Size: Forget Your Why. Start With How... | Keith Abraham
Most goal-setting advice starts with your why, the deep, soul-searching question everyone knows they're meant to answer but rarely do. Keith Abraham, one of the world's leading authorities on goal achievement, thinks that's exactly backwards, and too hard for anyone with a job and a diary. He starts somewhere else entirely, with a short list of feelings almost nobody names out loud before setting a goal. Once that shifts, the goal itself, the reasons behind it, and the people who can help all fall into a completely different order. What that starting question actually is, and why it beats a purpose statement, is the part worth hearing. You can find Keith at his website: https://keithabraham.com/ Or at his LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/keithabraham Order a copy of Keith's new book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Unstoppable-Velocity-Goals-Reality-Faster/dp/1394389302
August 12 · 1 hr 24 min
191 Mental Skills that Saved the Only Person to have the #1 Radio Show in 2 Countries | Christian O'Connell
What do you do when the version of yourself that's winning is also the version that's breaking? You know the feeling, hitting every number, saying yes to everything, and still walking away from the day feeling like you performed it rather than lived it. Now imagine finding the exact moment that stopped working, and the one small shift that got you back. Most high performers don't burn out overnight. It happens one performance at a time, right up until the body forces the stop, mid show, mid meeting, mid life. Christian O'Connell has hosted the #1 breakfast radio show in 2 different countries, the only person to do it. He built that success on a persona so complete he stopped recognising himself underneath it, until panic attacks started hitting him minutes before airtime. Christian walks you through the exact mental skill that pulled him out of it, the same one he now teaches others to use before they hit their own breaking point. You can keep performing until something forces you to stop. Or you can borrow the skill that saved someone who'd already won twice. 0:00 — The reflection he didn't recognise 5:40 — The epiphany behind a show built on being unscripted 9:12 — "F**k off home": Australia's brutal welcome 19:49 — The morning his mother-in-law nearly died on air 21:03 — The radio tuner dial: shifting from fear to joy 32:12 — The woodshed: never running out of things to say 35:32 — What Jerry Seinfeld taught him about mastery 46:19 — Bruce Springsteen: "thank you for being my purpose" 1:02:18 — Running on clean fuel instead of dirty fuel 1:04:41 — Ricky Gervais, and the courage to admit you're not okay 1:09:56 — Why storytelling is the most underused skill in business 1:22:48 — How to work with Christian O'Connell You can find Christian at his website: https://christianoconnell.com/ Buy a copy of Christian's book: https://christianoconnell.com/unscript/#pre-order Listen to the Christian O'Connell Show: https://www.thechristianoconnellshow.com.au/ Connect with Christian on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/christian-o-connell-8615a6314?trk=people-guest_people_search-card
August 9 · 7 min
Bite Size: A Bad Day is a Jacket, Not an Identity | Rose Herceg (WPP President, AU/NZ)
Rose Herceg, President of WPP Australia and New Zealand, has a specific image she uses to stop a hard day turning into something bigger, something she thinks most people have lost the ability to do. Running a business of 2,500 people through a genuinely volatile industry, she has no shortage of bad days. What she refuses to do is let one bad day become a bad week, a bad month, or a story about who she is. The image itself is deceptively simple. What's harder, and more useful, is the discipline she has built around actually using it. You can find Rose at her LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rose-herceg-025982bb/
August 5 · 1 hr 4 min
190 The Science of Fasting & How to Use It for Sharper Thinking | Dr Tom Buckley
When did you last actually let yourself feel hungry? Not the "due for a snack" kind. Properly, deliberately hungry, on purpose. If you can't remember, you're not alone. Now imagine using that discomfort as a lever instead of avoiding it. Every reflexive snack, every meeting that runs straight into the next, every bite you take before your body even asks for it keeps you running on one setting. You never give your body the signal to switch fuel sources, sharpen your focus, or clean house at a cellular level. The fog, the afternoon slump, the stubborn weight that won't shift: that's the bill for never stopping. Dr Tom Buckley has spent more than 22 years reading the bloodwork of Performance Intelligence's executive clients, translating what's happening inside hundreds of high performers into how they eat, train, and lead. He's back on the podcast to explain what fasting actually does inside your body, why the meal you were told never to skip has a cereal company to thank for that reputation, and how two nights a week without dinner might be the highest-leverage habit in your week. You could keep running on constant fuel and wonder why your energy never settles. Or you could learn to use hunger as a lever instead of an enemy. 03:35 The fat that's easiest to shift, and where it sits 05:41 Ghrelin, leptin and the people who never feel full 09:03 Three fuels, one easy habit: why carbohydrate wins by default 10:27 Metabolic flexibility: the skill Western living has trained out of us 16:08 The story that's driven Dr Tom for 35 years 21:47 What fasting switches off first 22:47 Ketones: the fuel that skips the insulin queue 25:13 Fasting and the new GLP-1 drugs are chasing the same biology 27:33 The shortcut risk: trading discipline for a jab 28:17 What decades of fasting research actually agree on 31:16 The benefits nobody puts on the label 33:21 Andrew's own Tuesday and Thursday fast, and why it finally clicked 36:01 The worst thing we do as humans, and the second worst thing 41:20 Autophagy: the cellular housekeeping everyone's talking about 44:22 Marvellous mitochondria, and why the name always gets a rerecord 45:00 The 18:6 protocol Dr Tom and Andrew actually live by 46:37 Why 6pm to midday captures most of the benefit 48:49 The client who fasted every day and undid his own progress 50:06 Why Dr Tom says don't pull this lever before your late 30s 51:39 David Sinclair's one-meal-a-day experiment 53:06 The 24-hour fast Dr Tom takes on international flights 54:50 Why women need a different rulebook entirely 58:29 Dirty fasting and dirty keto: the shortcut that costs you later 60:47 Dr Tom's cliff notes for the time-poor listener Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/iiDAwpx78yo The resource Dr Tom referenced for women's fasting protocols: Fast Like a Girl by Dr Mindy Pelz: https://fastlikeagirl.com/ You can find Dr Tom at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-buckley-06a76b98/ Listen to Dr Tom and Andrew talk GLP-1s: https://performanceintelligence.com/the-science-of-ozempic-and-what-happens-after-you-stop-dr-tom-buckley/
August 2 · 6 min
Bite Size: What a Great Coach Does When Your Confidence Is Gone | Jason McCartney
Most leaders try to restore a struggling performer's confidence with a pep talk. It almost never works. When Jason McCartney had written himself off, a coach did something far more deliberate, and it pulled him back from the edge of walking away. The approach is simple, repeatable, and the opposite of what most people reach for. You can find Jason at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-mccartney-oam-b10a39217/
July 29 · 1 hr 14 min
189 The "Why Not?" Mindset: How to Break Self-Imposed Limits | Matt Formston
What goes through your mind when you're trapped underwater by a 50-foot wave? For Matt Formston, it's not fear. It's making an omelette. After losing 97% of his vision at just 5 years old, Matt has become a Paralympian, world champion, world record holder, and the first blind athlete to conquer the legendary waves of Nazaré. But today isn't about the achievements...it's about the process behind them. Matt shares the 8 hard standards that have shaped every part of his life, from elite sport and leadership to parenting and business. Matt believes standards matter more than goals, explains why your "glass ceilings" are often self-imposed, and the mindset you can learn that turns perceived risk into opportunity. Whether you're leading a team, chasing a personal goal, or simply trying to perform better when life gets hard, Matt offers a tried, tested, and successful framework for building trust and lasting high performance. 00:00 37 seconds under a 50ft wave 02:41 One word for every achievement 06:32 Blind at five, and the story everyone gets wrong 10:05 Nearly dead or in jail 11:23 Perfect process, not perfect vision 13:41 The eight hard standards 14:37 Values in a mahogany case 15:24 Standards without consequences are just wishes 18:56 Five minutes early or you're late 21:00 Andrew's team rate him live 27:35 The standards meeting nobody runs 29:15 Why high standards make people feel safer 32:51 He refused to learn what the best in the world could do 35:16 Making an omelette while being held under 39:26 The flap of skin costing him 100 feet 44:24 The only standard that matters: coming home 48:09 The bullshit audit 01:07:49 The list of 12, and the six he wasn't 01:10:38 Why most people never set a goal Buy a copy of Matt's new book: https://www.mattformston.com/books-hub Visit Matt's website: https://www.mattformston.com/ You can find Matt at his LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/matt-formston-am-gaicd Or at his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattformston/?hl=en Listen to our first episode with Matt: https://shorturl.at/ICL5l
July 26 · 7 min
Bite Size: The Embarrassing Habit Even Smart People Have | Andrew May on Healthed
"I know this." Andrew May hears it from some of the smartest people in the country, right before they admit they are doing none of it. The gap between what we know and what we do is not a willpower problem or a time problem, and treating it like one is exactly why nothing changes. He breaks down the difference between self-awareness and self-regulation, and the small, almost embarrassing first step that actually closes it. This episode was originally published on the Healthed podcast with Dr David Lim. You can find the original interview here. Visit the Healthed website: https://www.healthed.com.au/
July 22 · 28 min
188 Producer of X Factor, Big Brother: How to Build Brands People Buy & Can't Ignore | Maz Farrelly
What do people say about you when you're not in the room? How are they introducing you, summing up your work, your professionalism, your brand? Now imagine you had control over that. Because here's the reality: you already have a brand. You're building it whether you like it or not, and right now it's either working for you or quietly costing you. Maz Farrelly has spent 30 years creating and articulating some of the biggest names and biggest shows on television. The producer behind Big Brother, The X Factor, Celebrity Apprentice, Q&A: Maz is back on the podcast to hand you the exact strategies she's used to make the most famous brands and people unforgettable. You could leave your brand to chance and risk being misunderstood. Or, you could take control and build a brand people buy. 00:00 The sentence people say when you're not in the room 02:50 Maz's brand framework: know who you are, know what they want 03:34 Stop selling, start being bought 06:08 The man who wore white every day 07:31 Say it until other people say it for you 09:53 What's your "white coat"? 10:28 Your one line is harder than your wedding vows 13:02 The room full of CEOs who wrote her off 14:52 The reframe: your brand is about them, not you 18:14 Speak backwards: how to find your oddity 22:44 Inside the room with the most famous people on earth 24:09 Why Trump didn't waste energy on her, and why it's smart 26:32 How to work with Maz Watch the full interview with Maz: https://youtu.be/SB4TALfDVpw?si=qKrCZ2qOh1_5oR4w Find Maz at: https://www.mazspeaksglobal.com/ Connect with Maz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maz-speaks/ Download Maz's Speaker Kit: https://www.mazspeaksglobal.com/#speakerkit View the branding model: https://performanceintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Personal-Branding-Model.png Why You Should Book Maz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maz-speaks/details/recommendations/?detailScreenTabIndex=0
July 19 · 7 min
Bite Size: The Exercise Formula Was Never Designed for Women | Dr Paul Batman
Women achieve the same cardiovascular health benefits as men at roughly half the exercise volume. Yet the standard exercise guidelines prescribe identical amounts for both. Dr Paul Batman argues this is one example of a deeper problem: a fitness model built on incomplete data, applied to populations it was never designed to reach. Only 16 percent of people follow the conventional guidelines. The question is not how to motivate the other 84 percent to do more. It is whether we are asking them to do the right thing at all. You can find Dr Paul at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-paul-batman-9092a052/

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