The Mann on a Mission Podcast

Louisa Clarke is a former military intelligence officer, tv personality on the programme 'Hunted' and now executive coach and inspirational speaker.

She helps individuals and organisations develop deeper emotional intelligence and resilience so they can gain a true understanding of the 'self' - so they can discover meaningful growth and transformation.

Louisa really has done the deep dive on how we function as humans, from our psychology to the latest research from the world of neuroscience. This deepening of the human journey, has also seen her embrace the wisdom of indigenous tribes in the Amazon and their healing work with plant medicines. 

In this conversation we explore the insights Louisa has taken away from her personal journey. Her approach to life and leading. Her approach to helping others achieve inner balance and true personal understanding... 

https://www.louisaclarke.co.uk

Louisa Clarke - LinkedIn

Justin Featherstone is a former military officer, leadership consultant and expedition leader.

His last posting in the military was as the principle leadership staff officer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was also awarded the Military Cross for his actions in Iraq.

Following his career in the military Justin has embraked on many pursuits and adventures, which have included living with indigenous tribes as well as extreme mountaineering and white water kayaking expeditions.

I describe Justin in this conversation as a 'beautiful mind', which may sound strange when describing an ex military officer. His message for leaders though is a strong one, as he advocates kindness and compassion as prerequisites for cultures that foster effective organisational performance. 

Justin's deep understanding and deep experience of leading and performing in complex and challenging environments provides great insights and raises challenging questions for us all...

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-featherstone-mc-frgs-frai-9b958b6/?originalSubdomain=uk 

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/jfeatherstonemc

This really is a great conversation that challenges the current paradigms of understanding of how the brain works.

We discuss the 'myth of the lizard brain', the bottom-up top-down outside-in approach to undersatnding how we operate, becoming architects of our own experience and much more...

https://drsarahmckay.com/

https://www.instagram.com/drsarahmckay/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/sarahmmckay

She has always been intrigued by what makes us feel good and function well. After originally studying medicine she went on to complete a PhD in Health Psychology, investigating why happiness protects against heart disease and how to improve well being at work.

This research pointed to sleep as the unsung hero of mental and physical resilience. She spent the next 5 years working on 'Sleepio'- Big Health's award winning digital sleep programme.

Sophie was awarded an NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellowship in 2016 and helped make Sleepio available on the NHS to a fifth of the UK population.

Sophie has been invited to deliver talks for Tedx and Google and regularly features as a sleep expert in national media.

She really lives the practice of health and well being in her own life and has just completed a row around Britain in 2021.

https://www.thesleepscientist.com/about

https://www.instagram.com/drsophiebostock/

https://twitter.com/DrSophieBostock

Nick Compton is a former English cricket opening batsman and first class player for Middlesex and Somerset.

He was born in South Africa, the son of Richard Compton, himself a former professional cricketer, and the grandson of legendary England batsman and Arsenal footballer, Dennis Compton.

Selected for England in 2012, he played 16 tests, including tours of India and New Zealand, where he scored his first test century.

As he discusses in this conversation though, he was hugely disappointed to be dropped from the England team ahead of the 2013 Ashes series and left out of the Lions tour to South Africa in the winter of 2014.

At both ends of the spectrum, Nick has done the deeper work of understanding how to inhabit high performance but has also suffered mentally from depression and anxiety.

He talks openly about this journey in dealing with the regret of perhaps not realising his full potential, as well as the challenges of moving on from a career in elite sport.

This transition has led him to his passion in photography, where he captures people, cultures and landscapes from across the globe.

This is a brave and hugely enlightening conversation from someone who embodies personal awareness and humility.

(check Nick's amazing photography below)

https://nickcompton.com/

Nick Compton Instagram

Getting nutrition right is a key pillar of recovery, vitality and performance. With that said, there is so much conflicting advice as to what we should actually be putting in our bodies.

Glen Burrows really is an expert in all aspects of nutrition, having first studied food science where he quickly saw how the food industry was addicting people towards diets that maximised profits for producers but left consumers bereft of nutrient rich foods and in many cases ill and overweight.

Both he and his wife were also long time vegetarians before negative affects on their health led them back to eating meat. This change not only brought them back to full health but also became the catalyst for Glen in founding his new venture 'The Ethical Butcher', where his mission is to reconnect people with nature through naturally farmed animals and produce.

We discuss so much in this conversation, including what an 'optimal' diet actually looks like and where false information and fixed mentalities serve to keep people stuck in cycles of over eating and poor health.

Amazingly on top of all this, Glen combines his nutrition expertise with his work as a photographer and moving image director, specialising in sports and health and fitness portraits.

This work saw him as the 'go to' man for Men's Health magazine and many world leading brands (check out his Instagram below, it is well worth a look!)

https://ethicalbutcher.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/ethicalbutcher/

https://www.instagram.com/glenburrows/?hl=en

This is round #2 with former fast jet pilot Mandy Hickson.

Again an amazing story and a deeper dive into the mindset needed to operate under the extreme pressures of 'Top Gun' flying.

In this conversation we talk about Mandy's experience of imposter syndrome while public speaking and how to work with and  overcome fear in moments of pressure.

We also discuss the mental framework of elite performers to be able to recover from mistakes and get back on task and much more...

Mandy's website

LinkedIn

Mandy Hickson is a pioneering former fast jet pilot and now a motivational public speaker.

Her remarkable career saw her become only to second female to fly a Tornado GR4 on the front line, including 45 missions over Iraq during three operational tours. 

Despite her incredible career and success Mandy's story wasn't all plain sailing. After initial awards for flying in the Air Training Corps, she twice failed the RAF flying aptitude test and was told she didn't have what it takes to be a fast jet pilot.

Undeterred, Mandy showed unwavering belief to overcome the odds and achieve her lifelong dream.

This story of inspiration, drive and determination was detailed in Mandy's recently published book An Officer, Not a Gentleman where she describes the fast paced life and challenges of being a female in a male dominated world, a mum and a pilot.

This is part one of our conversation, which lays the groundwork for understanding the mental framework that allowed Mandy to push past perceived limitations, beat the odds and perform under extreme pressure.

Mandy's website

LinkedIn

Victor Estima is a Brazilian Ju Jitsu black belt and one of the most exciting middle weight BJJ competitors in history.

During his competitive career he collected many titles including - European Champion, Pan American Champion, World No Gi Champion, 6 times Worlds bronze medallist and 4 times World Pro Silver medallist.

He is now the founder of Gracie Barra Nottingham and Grace Barra Europe leader, training and empowering the next generation of BJJ competitors.

Victor brings to this conversation a very rich understanding of what it means to truly be your best. Words such as confidence, trust, courage, resilience and focus are so often mentioned by people but with very little substance or experience of truly implementing them under pressure.

Victor embodies them. Not only through his success on the world stage and his fighting philosophy but also through his mental approach to personal growth in all areas of life.

https://www.gbnottingham.com/

@victorestimagb

Dr Judson Brewer is a world leading thinker in the 'science of self mastery'. He brings a unique approach to his work by blending expertise in both modern science and the ancient wisdoms of mindfulness practice.

He is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Centre and an associate professor in psychiatry at the School of Medicine at Brown University, executive medical director at Sharecare, as well as a research affiliate at MIT.

He has published two New York Times best selling books 'The Craving Mind' and his latest release 'Unwinding Anxiety'. He has also been featured on 60 minutes, TED (his talk A simple way to break a bad habit has been viewed over 16 million times), Time Magazine (top 100 health discoveries of 2013), Forbes, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera (documentary about his research) The Washington post and many others including world leading podcasts.

As part of his work Dr Jud has developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including app-based treatments for smoking, emotional eating and anxiety (eat right now, unwinding anxiety and craving to quit)

In this conversation Dr Jud explains how our minds work, how we get caught in habit loops and how we can use the powerful mechanisms of 'Reward based Learning' to create real and sustained change. 

https://drjud.com/

Dr Jud's Habit Mapper

“My mission is to empower people to take control of their own health, well-being and fitness using simple breathing exercises proven to improve body oxygenation”. Patrick McKeown

Patrick Mckeown is a world renowned author and breathing expert. 

Having suffered for many years with asthma, at the age of 26 he made the decision to travel to Russia to study with the world renowned breathing expert Professor Konstantin Buteyko. 

This move not only helped him cure his asthma but led to what would become his future career, teaching, lecturing, writing and advising people in the use of functional breathing techniques for health, wellbeing and performance. 

His writings have included amazon top 10 best sellers 'Close Your Mouth' and 'Asthma Free Naturally' as well as his highly acclaimed book 'The Oxygen Advantage' and his latest book 'The Breathing Cure'

He has been widely interviewed by national and international media, leading podcast hosts, popular health websites as well being invited to speak at his first TEDx event in his hometown of Galway.

Oxygen Advantage programmes and training principles have been sought by many elite performance athletes, including from the worlds of NFL, Rugby, Athletics, Football and GAA (Gaelic Football).

His message is simple - how you breath at rest and during exercise will affect your overall performance. Learn to breathe correctly and see immediate results in your training.

This conversation just could be a game changer!

https://oxygenadvantage.com/patrick-mckeown-m-a-tcd/

https://www.facebook.com/PatrickGMcKeown/

The Breathing Cure

Rich Diviney is an ex Navy SEAL officer with over 20 years of service. This included more than 13 overseas deployments - 11 of which were to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Through his career he achieved multiple leadership positions, including Commanding Officer of Navy SEAL command. 

Since leaving the military, Rich has pursued his passion of helping people, teams and organisations discover and accelerate the full range of their potential.

This has culminated in him authoring a book called 'The Attributes', where he outlines the 25 hidden drivers of optimal performance.

In this conversation we discuss both his book and career as a SEAL. Look forward to great insights from someone who has truly been there and pushed the frontiers of human potential.

The Attributes website

The Attributes book - amazon  

Rich Diviney - Instagram

Kevin Durant - 2017-2018 NBA Finals MVP

My guest on this episode of the Mann on a Mission podcast is Alan Stein Jr.

Alan is a world-renowned coach, speaker and author. He spent 15+ years working the highest performing basketball players on the planet and now teaches audiences how to utilise the same strategies in business that elite athletes use to perform at a world-class level.

Alan specialises in improving individual and organisational leadership, performance and accountability.  His mission in the work he does is to inspire and empower people to take immediate action and improve mindset, habits and productivity.

In this conversation we get under the hood of what drives Alan and what drives the people he works with to achieve their best performance. We talk meditation, the power of practicing the basics, being where you 'feet are' to be more present and much much more...

https://alansteinjr.com

Alan's Book on Amazon - Raise Your Game

Alan on Instagram

Alan on Youtube

My guest on this episode of the Mann on a Mission podcast is John Steele.

John has had a truly amazing career. Ex army officer, professional rugby player, head coach of Northampton Saints rugby, CEO of the Rugby Football Union, CEO of UK Sport where he led the transformation of team GB medals success in both Beijing and the London Olympics and now Executive Director of Sport at Loughborough University.

John really knows how to get the best out of people. How to create the impact that will 'make the boat go faster' for elite performance under pressure.

I've had the pleasure of working closely with John and the team at Loughborough, where they continue to build a 'sporting excellence 'eco system' that is truly world leading.

We discuss John's thoughts on leadership, the challenges he has faced both personally and professionally and much more.  

John Steele - Executive Director of Sport, Loughborough University 

In this episode of the Mann on a Mission podcast I am talking to Hannah Cockcroft MBE, multiple world record holder and para-olympic gold medalist.

In her life both on and off the track Hannah has epitomised tenacity and grit in the face of adversity. After suffering two heart attacks at birth and subsequent areas of brain damage, Hannah was left with mobility and motor skill disabilities.

True inspiration and insight on how to perform under pressure, against the odds, this conversation acts as a timely reminder of pushing the limits of our potential.

https://www.paralympic.org/hannah-cockroft

Prof Tim Marsh is considered a world authority on the subject of behavioural safety, safety leadership and organisational culture.

He has worked with more than 400 major organisations around the world, including Apple, the European Space Agency, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations. 

Tim is one of only a few Chartered Psychologists who are also Chartered Fellows of IOSH and he combines these to really get to the core of what drives people's behaviours, particularly in safety critical environments.

His book Affective Safety Management is now one of Europe’s best ever selling safety books – as is the second of Tim’s books Talking Safety. A recent third, book Total Safety Culture has also been well received. 

This conversation is a timely reminder that wisdom from the ages in terms of mental health and psychology is as applicable now as it has always been. 

https://ankerandmarsh.co.uk/#open-overlay

Oprah Winfrey, Cameron Diaz, Paul McCartney, Ray Dalio, Katy Perry, Hugh Jackman...the list goes on for the people my guest Bob Roth has trained in Transcendental Meditation (TM).

For over 50 years he has been devoting his life to helping people train in, practice and realise the benefits of TM to bring to their lives greater levels of ease, equanimity, happiness, peace and strength.

I personally trained with Bob over 10 years ago when working with Katy Perry and we discuss the back story to this. We also cover his role as CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, a non profit organisation that brings TM to inner city schools in the US, military veterans suffering from post traumatic stress and victims of domestic abuse.  

He walks us through the different types of meditation, some of the misperceptions people have about it, the science behind it, how to approach it and the benefits of it.

Golden information from one of the worlds leaders in the field. TM is life changing...

"I started Transcendental Meditation in 1973 and have not missed a single day since. Twice a day every day. It has given me effortless access to unlimited reserves of energy, creativity and happiness deep within. This level of life is sometimes called 'pure consciousness' - it is a treasury.  And this level of life is deep within us all" - David Lynch

www.davidlynchfoundation.org

Watch Bob interviewing Katy Perry and gain more info:

https://uk.tm.org/

Dr Don Greene is one of the world's leading experts and practitioners of performance psychology. Over his career he has coached more than 1,000 performers, including Olympic gold medalists, world tour golfers, Wall Street traders and top-tier symphony musicians.

He himself is a former Green Beret and graduate of the US Military Academy - Westpoint.

Don has become a friend and mentor to myself and Mann on a Mission and really breaks down in the conversation the art of science of performance under pressure. How we get in our way and how we excel. 

We discuss key aspects of his work including enabling the people he works with to develop greater levels of - focus, concentration, mental quiet, courage and resilience.

Don has large body of work and has written to date 13 books including Fight Your Fear and Win and Performance Success.

His website is: www.winningonstage.com

He is also a Ted Educator and co-wrote 'How to practice effectively...for just about anything', which has had over 7.5 million views 

https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-practice-effectively-for-just-about-anything-annie-bosler-and-don-greene

"Success in life is measured, most easily, by the number of days that a person is truly happy" - Eric Edmeades

Eric Edmeades is an internationally recognised inspirational speaker (including a supporting role with master coach Tony Robbins).

He has logged over 10,000 hours on stage speaking in over 20 countries and is widely regarded as one of the most effective business and personal mentors in the world, inspiring and empowering people people to live compelling, enjoyable and rewarding lives. 

A serial entrepreneur he has ran businesses across many sectors including data capture, medical simulation and Hollywood special effects (films included - Avatar, Iron Man, Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean). 

In 1991 Eric experienced a dramatic health recovery and then undertook years of research into the fields of human health, evolutionary biology and human history.

Today, Eric helps people achieve vibrant health and inspires people to take responsibility for their own self care through his company - Wildfit (https://getwildfit.com)

In this conversation, Eric talks about how we can feed beliefs, how important it is to be clear on what we believe to be true, committing to goals, the hindsight window and much, much more...

Check out Eric's huge body of work for further inspiration...!

https://ericedmeades.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/eric-edmeades/about/

Instagram: @ericedmeades

Professor Alex Hill is the Co-Founder and Director of The Centre for High Performance (a collaboration between senior faculty from the Universities of Kingston, Duke CE, London Business School and Oxford), which is dedicated to helping high-performing organisations develop a stronger and more robust UK economy, society and environment.

The Thinkers50 placed him on their list of 30 management thinkers most likely to shape how future organisations are managed and led. His research has been widely discussed in the the global media, has led to changes in the UK law, and he has worked with a wide range of organisations all over the world.

His research has been widely discussed by the media in publications such as Amazon Audible, the BBC, Daily Mail, Economist, Forbes, Guardian, Huffington Post, Independent, Schools Week, Spectator, Times and Telegraph.

As part of his work Alex and his team completed  a 5 year study of seven celebrated Centennials who had out performed their peers over the last 100 years and were admired by everyone. This list included; 

The NZ All Blacks, NASA, Eton College, the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal college of Art, The Royal Shakespeare company and British Cycling.

These insights and Alex's body of work are at the cutting edge of High Performance and in this conversation we discuss just how these organisations not only achieve excellence but also sustain it over time...

https://www.radicallytraditional.org/contributors/alex-hill

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-hill-1706175/?trk=public-profile-join-page