Mindset of a champion — Guest starring SAS & Gold Medal Olympian, Kerri Pottharst

Ange
Kerri is not only an amazing Olympian taking home the gold medal in the women’s beach volleyball in the 2000 Olympics, but she recently commentated the 2020 Olympic games for beach volleyball. With a duo winning silver for Australia, what an experience. You must be so proud.

Kerri
Yeah, I was absolutely pumped. I mean, Such an honor to be able to commentate those guys like full circle, playing the gold medal match in Sydney 21 years ago, and then commentating the gold medal match from Sydney. It was being played in Tokyo. So incredible technology allows us to do that. But yeah. Such a pump up. I’m just bummed that I couldn’t push them over the line and, and win the gold. But silver’s pretty, pretty damn good .

Andy
Oh, just to get there these days. And you know how hard it is yourself. But um, yeah, they didn’t come through at the end, but certainly, no doubt they’ll be back in four years time, three years time.

Ange
Can’t complain about a silver medal though, right? ?

Kerri
No, you can’t complain about that. And yeah, it’s only three years. Seems like, like to an athlete that’ll be like, oh, quick, we better hurry up and get better .

Ange
Yeah. Wow.

Andy
Crazy. Kerri, you also took on the Channel seven SAS TV show challenge where you were no doubt pushed to your absolute limit. You know, I know the show is airing later this year, so you can’t say much about SAS. So let me ask you a different question. Let’s take you back to when you won the gold medal at the Olympics. How did the feeling of winning gold at the Olympics, how did it feel?

Kerri
Oh gosh. I reckon I’ve been asked that question a hundred million times and it’s so hard to answer because there are so many emotions that go through your mind, you know, on that, the last point, so I mean, lining up, waiting at the the baseline with a ball in my hand, you know, using my routine that I’d use over and over again, which was ball foot line toss hit. They were the five words I said to myself, just to keep me focused on that last serve. And then I’d served an ace before that, so it made us level, or 11 all, and I, you know, and I just had to focus on, on the process. I could not even think about anything past that if I had of it would’ve completely taken me out of the game. So I just focused on the process. Did what I did, took, you know, served the ball just as hard as I had the point before to get the ace, but I gave myself less risk by going more through the middle, which caused confusion to the Brazilians and they overplayed it. And of course it went out the moment that that ball landed out, you know, I raced over to the line to follow it as you talk, taught as a kid, you know, gotta follow it all the way to the line, make sure it’s going out, you know, when that that ball landed out and I collapsed on the ground and Natalie collapsed on top of me, that’s when it hit me. You know, I’d been

Andy
Gold, gold, gold for Australia. I can remember when I was in tears as well.

Ange
So was I.

Kerri
Yeah. It was just such an incredible rush of, of every emotion you can imagine, from pure joy to surprise to excitement and to to fear also, like I stayed with my head stuck down into the sand for about, I don’t know, I reckon it was about two minutes I couldn’t look up cuz I was almost afraid of looking at everybody because I’m, I’m kind of a bit of an introvert. I don’t like to be the center of attention, but I pushed myself out there to do it. So when you’re standing in the middle of a sand pit in front of 10,000 people, you know, competing at the Olympic games for a gold medal, it’s pretty frightening. And so I’d kind of built this cone of silence around me, I guess. And then when the ball landed out, the silence kind of chatted around me and I looked up and I was like, oh my God, we’ve, we’ve done it.

Ange
I mean, I’m in absolute awe of the focus. You must need to even put yourself in that position, not only to execute like what you said, that you just had a set of five words that just kept you really grounded. But to actually pull that off is just absolutely mind blowing. So in order to take on these kinds of challenges, how do you actually mentally prepare for that?

Kerri
Yeah. Well, it’s not something that happens overnight. It’s something. You know, builds every year, and I think it’s kind of started building for us four years earlier because we won the bronze medal at the Elandra Olympics and then knowing that we would have that chance to, to play for gold or compete in the beginning in Sydney in 2000, that’s when it began. And, and the first thing we did was once we decided that this is the goal that we want, the first thing we did, or the first thing I did was look around and go, okay, who’s in my team? Have I got the best teammate? Yep. Tick. Who are our coaches and what is, who is the team that I wanna build around me? Who, who do I want to help coach me? Help mentor us, help steer our ship towards our goal? So building that team is the number one thing. And then you get together with your team and you work out, you know, your plan and mat the journey, and then you, you just have to take those steps. And then along the way it’s all the, the pitfalls, you know, the challenges that you, you’ve gotta learn to deal with and having different strategies for those. But the first thing is, build that team around you when you, once you’ve set your goal.

Andy
That’s amazing. And I know that like in trade business, we often don’t see how far we’ve come in business and we only see the roadblocks or the challenges that are ahead, you know, in your opinion, how can we get better at recognizing our own achievements?

Kerri
I think one of the things that I did really well was collect stuff along the way, you know, reminders of, of where, you know, what my journey had been, you know, whether they were visual reminders or things that I just tucked away for the future to look back on. Also, to have little celebrations along the way. So you talk about having a massive goal. It might be a five or 10 year goal in business or in life. And, and making sure you break that down and, and having little steps along the way. And every time you reach one of those little steps, have a little celebration and remind yourself and the people around you of what you’ve done and where you’ve come from. Yeah, I think that’s, that’s probably something that we did really well is break it down and have little celebrations along the way.

Ange
I love the fact that you actually thought that far out, but you also knew to stay in the moment to just execute the plan that you had. I think that’s fabulous. So as you know, a lot of the listeners are trade business owners, and in business it really is often a thankless task and everyday like there’s a huge amount of pressure to succeed and people count on that success. So I’m really interested to know what drives your success and how can our listeners help keep themselves motivated?

Kerri
Yeah, that’s a good one because, yeah, different people are motivated in different ways. I think, first of all, there’s an external motivation and then there’s internal motivation, and there are a lot of external motivators, and sometimes I lean on those. So when I’m feeling low and I don’t have the motivation within me, I look at one of my external motivations and something that really helps me is to just extract myself from where I am, the situation I’m in. Maybe for me it’s going down to the beach and, and walking along Manly Beach, uh, walking along from Manly to Shelly with music in my ears. You know, not listening to anything educational or anything like that. Just music, the pump pumping through my veins, making me feel good, looking out at the ocean. Just being really grateful for what we have. So that’s something that really helps me. That’s an external motivation. Obviously they’re a, you know, people who can read books, you know, listen to educational podcasts, reach out to friends and, and reach out to people in the same industry, people who have done what they want to do and get motivation and inspiration from those people. But the internal motivation is what really keeps you going, cuz all that other stuff can kind of wear off over time. You know, I go down the beach, I spend an hour down there, I come home, I’m in the same situation I was before. You know, that wears off. It gives me that little kind of break. Yes, and, and revitalization, but the internal stuff comes from your own goal setting. I believe if you don’t have a vision in mind of where you want to go, then day in, day out, it just becomes monotonous and you just never see a way out of any sort of situation. But if you have a vision in mind of where you are, what you’re trying to build, you know, where you want to be in five or 10 years, you know, mapping it all. Then all those little things that kind of knock you in the head and demotivate you, well, they just become like a challenge. Okay, so this is my vision. I’ve hit this roadblock. How am I gonna deal with it? And then you’ve dealt with it and you can go onto the next spot. So I think the internal motivation has to be that goal in mind, but also dig a little bit deeper and ask yourself, why do I actually want that. What is it gonna mean to me, my family, my future? You know, my kids. You know, why do I want that goal in my life? Why am I building this business? Why do I want it to be at that point? And when you start peeling the layers of that onion, ask yourself why again? So you know why? Why do I wanna ask? So my kids have a good life. Well, why do you, why don’t my kids have a good life? Oh, so they don’t have to struggle because we live on the northern beaches and it’s really expensive and so they got some money to buy a house, you know, whatever it is. Just keep on finding out those whys. Write them down and they become your internal motivation as well because that gets you outta bed each morning.

Andy
Yeah, that’s absolutely huge. And so many trade business owners that we talk to, we just get caught that rat on that running wheel, doing the same odd thing time and time again, and then you hit a roadblock, but nothing changes, when nothing changes. Yep. They’ve got no direction. So everything you said there carries absolutely a spot on. Hey, I’ve got an interesting question. You mentioned to me once that you struggled with your height. You were six foot one when you were younger, but now Yeah,

Kerri
All over, all the time. .

Andy
But really you struggled with your height when you were younger, but your amazing height probably has been one of your biggest assets. And how do you think trade business owners as well can turn weaknesses into strengths as you did?

Kerri
I think you just have to like, first of all, identify what you feel that your weaknesses and strengths are and maybe not try to improve all of your weaknesses all at once. You know, sometimes when I’m coaching people, you know, , they wanna get fit, they wanna lose some weight, they want to learn something new, you know, and you start to set all these goals and you start to go, I wanna be better at this, this, this, and this. And then you try and do it all at once, which is never gonna work because you know you’re gonna get exhausted trying to improve every area you know of your life all at once. So pick one and just, you know, little by little improve on that and then pick the next one and improve a little on that. Maybe go back to the one before and improve a little bit, but little baby steps. That doesn’t really relate to my height, but . Yeah. Yeah. But, um, it is interesting that, you know, The reason I started sports. And for all those people listening, you know, from a personal point of view, if you’ve got kids that are tall or you know, built in a certain way, if you can find a sport that really embraces that particular build, it’s really, it’s gonna improve their confidence tenfold. Because I was really tall, self-conscious, introverted, shy, well I wouldn’t have said shy, but a bit introverted, but you know, very self-conscious about my height. And when I found volleyball where I was patted on the back. For that particular asset then you know that my confidence grew immensely. So, so,

Andy
So you’re sort of saying that, you know, I’m short and I’m fat and I’m more like a wombat , I’m not gonna be any good, I’m not gonna make any gold on beach volleyball, is that what you’re saying?

Kerri
Well, no, look, at the end of the day, you don’t have to be tall to play our sport either. And sometimes you see athletes in sports that you wouldn’t pick for their sport for a million years. But at the end of the day, it’s their determination and their passion for the sport that gets them to that point because they, once you’ve got the passion, and here’s another massive key to success is passion. You know, if you really hate what you’re doing, I can guarantee you’re not gonna get to your goals. I understand you’re not gonna be as successful as what you wanna be.

Ange
Even if you’re really good at it, if you don’t love it, how do you continue?

Kerri
Absolutely. And I’m, and I’m not saying that everything about what, what people are doing, they, they’ve gotta love, like there were things that I hated around, you know, playing sports and in particular, I hated sand . Um, and I know you , I know you know that cause I’ve told my story at your events, but I did, I really, when I went from indoor volleyball to beach volleyball at the first time, and I still, every time I’m at the beach, I have to get every grain of sand off me. It’s just not my favorite thing.

Andy
I’ve just got the vision of Kerri tip toeing hate sand. Oh wow. Wow.

Kerri
Yeah. Seriously. It’s sometimes like that, And so well, what my coach did for me, you know, to really help me with that and to, to get that out of my mind throughout our training sessions, he had, he devised a, a drill that we had to do as part of the warmup where we’re throwing ourselves all over the court without a ball. So we’re getting covered in sand. And then for the rest of the training, you know, it doesn’t bother me.

Ange
I’m surprised it didn’t do the crumb. A thing like the crumb cutlet. Exactly. Get in the water Kerri and come back out and just roll yourself around in it so that it’s all over. Now you can stay focused on what you are supposed to be doing.

Kerri
Yeah, exactly. It’s the best sunscreen in the world actually. Once you’re all sweaty and you roll in the sand.

Ange
And then someone comes up to you and does some design on your back and that’s how you get, and then you design on the 10 . So Kerri, we always say that preparation is key, and if you set your business foundations right from the start, would you say the same for being an athlete? And what do you need to do?

Kerri
Oh, a hundred percent. You know, and I said before the keys to success and one of those keys and, and people have asked me over the years, you know, what do you think the three keys or your keys to success are? And I picked three. And the first one was passion, as I just mentioned. And the second one in fact is preparation. So that’s all the hard work and you, you know, it doesn’t matter who you are, how good you are at what you’re doing. All of us, if we want to achieve great success, if we wanna achieve our goals, whether they’re big or, or small, or medium, whatever, you gotta do the hard work. Mm-hmm. Gotta do the prep. You know, there’s no way that an Olympic athlete can land in Tokyo, as we’ve seen, and just, you know, without all the preparation and win a medal. You know, they’ve, they’ve done the early starts. They’ve, they’ve had the wall kicking moments. They’ve thrown up, they’ve sworn at themselves, they’ve sworn at their coaches, probably under their breath, you know? Mm-hmm. , there’s so many moments during that preparation and the hard work that isn’t enjoyable, I can tell you that, but it’s, I guess it’s the beauty of actually performing at your best and, and achieving the achievement. Like I, I think I’m just addicted to achieving stuff, whether it’s for me or whether it’s for the people I coach. Just seeing that, you know, somebody set a goal and, and worked towards it and achieved it. And the joy that people get out of achieving a goal, big or small. You don’t have to be an Olympian to achieve a goal.

Andy
No, exactly. You know, I just remember when I was chatting with you once and when you guys made the decision that you wanted to win gold and you wanted to win gold in Sydney, you visualized that goal in order to make you feel just so real. And I remember you saying, I think it was you were buying gold tooth brushes or aerosol cans, like everything you bought was gold. You just go to the shops and look for gold stuff. . Can you just give us a bit of a rundown on that?

Kerri
Yeah. Well it was our success coach who first kind of put that idea in our head. He said, if you want something in your lifestyle, surround yourself with it. So, you know, if you want a really flashy car, you’ve gotta have a decent garage to put it in. You don’t wanna leave it out on the street. Right. So you gotta start to think of if I do achieve this goal or when, forget the if part when I do achieve this goal.

Ange
Good language too.

Kerri
And I’m prepared for it.

Andy
Yes. Yeah.

Kerri
And then start to surround yourself with that preparation as well. So it was kind of in that conversation that we started saying, okay, well we want a gold medal. Let’s start collecting gold stuff. . You know, Natalie slept in gold boxes and gold sheets and she had a monopoly board on her wall. She wanted to, here’s an interesting thing not to do with the sport, but she wanted to do some property development, so she put a monopoly board on the wall and she started to kind of put the names of streets of where she wanted to buy some units and things like that.

Ange
Cool. Wow.

Kerri
You just have to make it really, really visual, so, the quest. Yeah, so we collected gold stuff. So I had a gold Easter egg in our room during the Olympics. We had, what else do we have? We had gold volleyball. We had fosters gold cans.

Andy
Ah, nice.

Kerri
They made three. We chucked the silver and the bronze away and we just kept the gold ones and anything anybody gave us at that point in our journey, , they, they kind of came on board with it and they gave us in the color gold. So it really became a theme that’s kind of stayed with me a little bit. It’s kind of worn off maybe over the last five years, but for at least 10 years after winning that gold, everything I had the opportunity to buy. If it had gold, I’d buy in gold. .

Ange
I don’t, I don’t know if you had a chance to talk to the rest of the Olympians that went to this recent games, but I noticed that Arian Titmus had gold nail polish when she won and put her hands up and I thought, oh, she’s got sparkly gold nail polish on. Did you talk to them? They must have got tips from you.

Kerri
Yeah. Look, I don’t know if, if our particular journey inspired them at all, but we’ve been telling these stories for a long time. Perhaps it set seep through to, to their psyche. But I know our girls had their nails. They had a couple of golds on their, um, Taliqua Clancy, who’s our first indigenous beach volleyball player. She had an Aboriginal flag and gold as well. Maria Faye had gold on her fingernails. I think it’s just a fun thing to do. And I think the point here is, as you know, all your tradies aren’t gonna go and paint their fingernails gold.

Ange
Well, they might.

Kerri
But they should. Yeah. Yeah. Fun. But I think the point here is fun, you know, as hard as life is sometimes and, and as hard as, as hard as it is to try and succeed in your own industry, you’ve gotta keep things fun. And we were good at that particularly Natalie was good at that cuz I was quite serious. I was the serious one, always looking down, always focused. And she was always like cheering the crowd on and throwing her arms in the air and, but she made sure every time we had an opportunity, some downtime that we did something or that she did something if I didn’t want to go. But you know, we went sightseeing or we did something fun that involved friends and family. So that’s putting those little bits of celebration in.

Andy
And I think too, looking, I’m dragging it back to trade business owners. The best trade business owners out there right now have an incredible team that’s surrounded themselves with the right people and they’re having fun every day. Yeah. They’ve got goals, they’ve got passion, and they’re driving their business. So it just goes to show that if you wanna win a gold medal or you’re, you know, being a successful business owner. Probably our gold medal. We all need to be doing the same things.

Ange
But I also agree too, about your comment that you’re so driven to the goal of the future of what it is. You know, you talk about this five year goal and you’ve broken it down and you’re just executing every single day to ensure that that happens. And this does absolutely happen in trade business too. They set a goal. We’re so forward thinking that we forget to honor the achievements that we’ve done in the past. Mm-hmm. and we’re, we constantly say to our Lifestyle Tradie members, it’s really important every three months to reflect back and have that opportunity to pat each other on the back cuz it’s often husband and wife teams and just celebrate. And to your point, it could be something really little. Go to dinner, maybe get a massage. Just do something just to go, you know what? You’re doing a fabulous job because no one else does that for you. And nor do we expect it to be honest. You’ve really gotta do it yourself.

Andy
And no one rocks up with a trophy and goes, here you go. You’re doing well. Or a gold medal. Maybe we should start buying our own trophies.

Ange
Yes. Maybe we should.

Kerri
Yeah, you gotta put the, I think the key there is, if you’ve gotta plan that. So put it in your plan. Yes. Put the fun in your plan, put it in your diary.

Ange
I like the fun component because in life and business there are always really high highs, there are really low lows. And I’m curious to know, was there once a lowest point in your sporting career and what did you do to pull yourself out of it?

Kerri
Yeah, look, the biggest low was basically before I started playing beach volleyball. So I’d played indoor volleyball for 10 years with the national team and I’d played overseas professionally and I came back from a stint in Italy and I was playing in the national championship and it was a long week. I was really tired and I was being set a lot of balls, so I was hitting and hitting. I was the big, big spiker in the team and I had one uncomfortable landing. I landed and twisted and my foot stayed facing one way and my whole body ripped the other way. And I, I literally ended my volleyball career cuz I ruptured my cruciate ligament, my medial ligament and all my meniscus and cartilage was just shredded. A year later, that’s when I took up beach volleyball and ended up going to three Olympics and winning two medals. So, first point, anything, you know, when you’re at your lowest slow, don’t think that that’s it for you. You know, there so much can come out of that. So many things can, you know, you, you, you’re at a crossroad in your life. So for me, the key factor in my recovery at the time was actually a volleyball that somebody gave me. My partner at the time, he gave me a brand new white volleyball, and he, he actually gave me a, a marker, a texter with it, and he said, on every panel of that ball, I want you to write a goal and I want you to break down this steps that it’s gonna take you to get back to playing volleyball for Australia again. And at that time, I didn’t know that I was gonna go onto the beach, but I just kind of figured I’d get back to playing indoor volleyball for Australia again. And so on each panel I started off with things like walking in water and running in water and then riding a bike, and then all the different aspects of the volleyball game. And then, To the point where one of the last panels says, said, playing for Australia again indoor. And then I still had another panel left and I thought, what do I put on that? And it just wasn’t, and it had been only recently that they’d announced that Sydney was gonna get the Olympics. Yes. And so I wrote about their beach volleyball kind of as a joke cuz I’d never really played beach seriously. And it was only just starting to get serious in Australia. And I wrote on there and then I wrote, because I’d have to probably play in the 96 Olympics before 2000 just to see what it would be like. Mm. But I wrote about the 1996 Olympics. And then I kind of looked at it and I went, are you kidding me? I can’t even get off the couch. Like, I can’t even put weight through my leg at the moment. How can I be thinking about going to the Olympics? And then I kind of turned the ball over upside down and, you know, and, and didn’t look at it again. I just looked at each kind of panel and, bit by bit, tried to get back to getting on the court again, which of course, I wasn’t able to, that’s why I switched to the beach. So that, that, at the time, that ball and having that visual in front of me every day when I was at my lowest low, that gave me that motivation. That was the external thing that was looking at that ball and realizing that volleyball was my life. Like, keep going, do what you have to do. What can I do this month and of course the steps that I took that I’d written out, I had no idea whether they were gonna be the right steps. And this is the point, this is a big point too, because sometimes you plan out your journey and all of a sudden you go, well, that’s not gonna happen before that. Or That’s not right, or That’s not gonna work that way, and you have to change it. So just be flexible because those steps don’t have to be. You know, written in cement, they can be rubbed out, write them in pencil.

Ange
We’ve eyeballed that volleyball and yeah, , it’s slowly, the words from your hands touching it are slowly starting to fade, but I, it’s incredible how much power that writing down those things had for you to get you out of that moment. So I think everyone listening really needs to take that on board to, you know, when you haven’t gone write it down.

Andy
All us trade business owners listening now, it doesn’t matter how successful you are. We’ve all been beaten and punished and we’ve been on the ground getting punched. You know, oh my God, am I ever gonna get up? But as Kerri said, you know, not every athlete, but I think you could go to most people that go to the Olympics and they’ve all got their story of when they thought they were cooked and they’d never make it. Yeah. Same as business people can, everyone in business has their story of where they almost went broke. They almost lost everything. It was a disaster, and it’s just about picking yourself up off the floor and just keep going and going and going.

Ange
That resilience isn’t it, is what really makes the difference is um,

Kerri
Yeah guys, and I think right now with what’s going on in the world, I think I heard a really great phrase. It was planned in pencil. I love that it’s important to plan, but if you do it in pencil, you can just rub it out and start again. You know, every week.

Ange
Yeah, no, nothing’s right now. Nothing’s wrong. Is it? Right. Just have one foot in front of the other. Try and execute the best way you possibly can, but be okay to pivot if that’s what we actually have to do. Cuz that’s kind of what we are faced with right now.

Andy
Yeah, exactly. So Kerri, we got this game that we play. I hope you’re ready for it. We do three rapid fire questions. So you’ve got a roundabout 30 seconds to answer each one, give or take. But are you ready to play this game?

Kerri
Yes. Okay, let’s do it.

Andy
Let’s go number one. What’s the hardest part about being a gold medal winner?

Kerri
The hardest part is actually being a gold medal winner to, to actually get there because, well, it’s a, the, the funniest thing, since being a gold medal winner, that is who you become. Yes. And sometimes I’m like, but I’m Kerri too, because my friends introduce me as, oh, Kerri Pottharst, my friend who’s a gold medalist from the Sydney games. I’m like, yeah, but I’m Kerri too. . So sometimes that is the hardest part.

Andy
That is a great answer. I think people forget that, don’t we? Because we all do know you as the gold medal, and Yes, over the years that we’ve even met you, it’s the gold medal, and Angela and I are obviously close friends, and we see you on Facebook, but we see you’re so much more than that. And the journey that you’re on now is absolutely incredible as well. So we are gonna go to question two. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Kerri
Um, the best advice I’ve ever received has nothing to do with sport. Um, but it was when I was having a relationship, um, or had a relationship breakdown. Yep. And I was really miserable. And a guy friend said to me, he said, it’s a long time in a pine box.

Andy
Yeah. So make the most outta life and what you’ve got.

Kerri
Get over it. Yeah. And move along. Like we just sit in our stink for way too long sometimes. So that’s the best thing and I’ve taken that through every part of my life. I do not sit in the wallow for very long. I do a little bit, have a little cry, whatever. But I’d pick myself up and I move on as quickly as I can.

Ange
And life is short. Right?

Andy
Yeah. And that’s amazing advice because we all have our moments when things go wrong or whatever, and you know, I’m all, I’m a believer too, you know, if you’ve gotta have a cry or you gotta get out there and punch the crap out of a punching bag or whatever it is, , that you gotta scream your lungs out, whatever it is. Do it, get it done, and then move on. And that’s the only way. There’s no use dwelling on the past. You can’t change it and just keep looking towards the future. So now we’ve got question three. What is the next big goal on the horizon for you?

Kerri
Ha ha, ha ha. My next big goal is to become a really good, I guess, executive type coach. I really want to help people. With the art of human performance, like being great humans in whatever you do, whatever area of life you, you have, and, and be a one-on-one coach. I’ve spoken on stages for many, many years, and I’ve been asked over the years all the time, you know, do you do coaching? And I’ve kind of steered away from it, but now I, I actually am really starting to become passionate about it. So the art of human performance. Mm, high performance.

Andy
That’s amazing. And you’ll be an absolute killer at that. I wanna ask a question about that. So there’s an element out there that good people finish last. And in the Olympics you see some, they’re like, oh my God, they’ve got a heart of gold, they’re amazing, whatever. And obviously to be an Olympian, you’ve gotta have a killer instinct. But where is the difference between being an amazing human being and an Olympian and actually being someone that’s got that fire in their belly? Belly, and potentially people don’t like it.

Kerri
Ah, where’s the difference?

Andy
Because what I’m trying to say is, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of, like, if you look at even some of the elite athletes when they’re on the field, they’re dogs or they, they just, oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Like,

Kerri
I think that’s just personality. I think that happens in every industry. You know, you see people at the top who are really humble and, and loved and liked, and they’re great leaders, and then you see other people that are just cutthroat. And I think it just goes down to whatever that person’s personality is. Yeah, look, I don’t know why that is. I think it’s just an inbred thing and, and how some people can get to the top with a kind of a cutthroat type personality. But I guess I would never wanna be that sort of person. No way. And you know, just a quick story. I remember me being Monica Sellis in the 1996 Olympic Village in the food hall. Yeah. And I’m not an autograph hunter and I never have been, but I did have a flag with me, an Australian flag that I was getting all the Aussies to sign, just so I had my little memento from the Australian athletes and I saw her and I’m like, wow. Like she had been stabbed in the back, like literally. Yeah. With a knife at an event and had made this incredible comeback and it was really mentally, emotionally challenging for her and I really admired her for that. So I really, I thought, oh, I’m just gonna put my, my own ego aside, I’m gonna go over. Gonna ask for her autograph. Yep. And I went up to her and she’s trying to eat her lunch, the poor thing. And I, I should kind of feel bad for her, but she’s trying to eat her lunch, and there were a few people trying to get an autograph from her. And I got to the front of the line, and she kind of just scribbled the autograph, didn’t look at me, pushed the flag away, and, and kind of, you know, next, next, you know, just getting it done. And it really struck me. It really hit me hard. I was so upset that she hadn’t acknowledged me, and I made, I guess, a pact in my own mind and my own heart at that point. That from that day on, you know, no matter what happened at that Olympics, which we ended up winning the bronze medal at, I would never do that to anybody because it hit me so hard that she hadn’t acknowledged me. That I, I wanted to make sure that anybody that says something to me about, oh, I remember seeing you play, and it still happens every day. I remember, I remember that moment at the Olympics. I was here, I was there when you won gold. And I always try to make everybody who makes that effort talk to me or to, you know, to ask for an autograph or whatever. I make that moment special. And so that’s the person that I wanted to be.

Andy
Yeah, a hundred percent. You can be really successful and have integrity and a bit of honesty about you and have a passion and be a beautiful person and yeah, I’m all for that as well. There’s no doubt. You’ve gotta have an inner self-belief to be good at anything, if it’s business or sport, you’re gonna have that inner self-belief. But let’s be good about that as we do it.

Ange
There is no doubt that you have a wealth of knowledge and this goal that you have to be able to assist people, not just in the skills that you have of being able to prepare for Olympic games as an example, but just goal setting. But to your point, to be a better human and, and look at the quality of life and, and how you can have fun. And I think holistically, you have so much that you can bring to someone from a coaching perspective, and I love that you’ve, you know, embraced that, I think, and, and have decided that this is your path forward and, and that people can reach out to you so that they can actually learn from you. You’ve got incredible wealth of wisdom and in saying that, I wanna thank you so much for coming and sharing that with us here on this podcast. I know everyone would say thank you so much for being here. We’re so honored to have you with us again and love the chance to hang out together. Digging into that brain of yours and hearing these little drips of gold.

Andy
Yeah. Kerri and I, and I just can’t wait to see you and see how you tackle the SAS challenge. , I’m, I’m looking at your Instagram, Facebook, I’m like, did she go well? Did she go? How did she go? I think she went well. I think she did. But you are truly such an inspiration and the perfect person for us to have with an incredible story to end our season two. And we just wanna say thank you so much for being with us today. We absolutely adore you. You know that. And it’s been a real pleasure having you here today.

Kerri
Thanks guys. You’re the gold medalists of the trades.

Andy
Ah, thank you.

Kerri
Love you.

Ange
Thank you. I love you too. See you later.

Andy
And a big Lifestyle Tradie thanks to all of our listeners. This has been another incredible season and we can’t wait to bring you season three.

Ange
Yeah. So stay tuned. We’ll be back in the studio to bring you season three real soon. If you want to be a part of our Facebook group, then join now. We’ll be sharing some of our amazing trade business content. The link to the group is in the show notes or on our website, lifestyletradie.com.au. Until then, catch you later.

Andy
Hell yeah.