Episode 214: World Class Basics with Ollie Phillips
After retiring as a professional Rugby player and being in the field for 12 years, Ollie Phillips went on to run his own business and worked as a Director of PwC. Transitioning from the sport of Rugby to corporate, Ollie struggled to navigate the new lifestyle for the first couple of years, which eventually made him go through a life-changing switch in mindset. Having the gift of high emotional intelligence and the ability to see others’ potentials and weaknesses, Ollie found his passion in challenging people’s way of thinking to ultimately improve their mindset and performance. In this episode, Ollie Phillips talks with Adam Stott about the correlation between sports and business, the importance of having an optimist mindset, and pushing self boundaries.
Ollie Phillips is a former English professional Rugby player turned motivational speaker, business owner, Guinness World Record Holder, and podcaster. Having spent a substantial amount of years playing as a professional athlete and leading teams on land and sea across multiple continents. Ollie Phillips opened himself up in the corporate world, taking with him his experiences in sports and adventure, and making it relevant to achieving business success. To impart the knowledge, Ollie conducts business talks and transformative workshops that teach individuals and teams all about Leadership, Teamwork, Resilience, and Change to help them exceed their potentials within themselves and in business.
Show Highlights:
- How Ollie Phillips started his multifaceted career
- The correlation between business and sports
- The mentality that helped Ollie transition from sports to business
- The challenges that Ollie faced in navigating the corporate lifestyle
- Why it’s important to focus on yourself and take risks
- How Ollie Phillips cultivates the elite mentality and its impact on other people
- The difference between having an Employee’s DNA and an Entrepreneur’s DNA
- The importance of self-awareness and self-reflection and how it benefited Ollie
- What Ollie considers as his super strengths
- The biggest thing that helped Ollie in his business
- Ollie’s tips on how to succeed in business
Links Mentioned:
You can find out more about Ollie Phillips by visiting his website at optimistperformance.com or follow and subscribe to his Instagram and Facebook
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
Adam Stott:
Hello everybody and welcome to this very special episode of business growth secrets. I’m your host, Adam Stott, really excited to have Ollie Phillips with me today. Ollie is an ex-professional rugby player, somebody who has won a Guinness World Record. He has his own business coaching and mentoring and speaking and doing high-level experiential events called optimist performance. So I can’t wait to hear a bit about that today.
He’s had a really successful career and lots of lessons and if you’re a business person that’s listening and listening today. I’ve always thought that there’s so much that we can take as business owners from sport, their attitude, and mentality towards coaching. Which are we see many business owners that get professional coaching just seem to go further faster, so we’re going to talk a little bit about that today. And those that have got their leadership skills on point, tend to lead and build great businesses and organizations. So Ollie is going to be an amazing guest today, and I’m super excited to welcome Ollie. Thank you for joining us, buddy. How are you doing, my friend?
Ollie Phillips:
I’m very well, thanks so much for having me. Great to be involved and really excited about this one it’s really important underlying it this sort of got I’ve got this basically.
Adam Stott:
Good stuff. So much we can talk about here Ollie, you know, from your Guinness World Record to your rugby career. And from your mentality towards improvement, which is the company optimize performance what that’s all about.
Where did all this stuff? You’ve had such a successful career and a lot of the people that are listening today going to be at different stages of their journey. Shout out to all our listeners, for listening to a business career secret and welcome back to another great episode. We’ve got some new business owners that want to create that elite mentality. Could you tell us a little bit about your story and your journey? How you’ve ended up where you are now and give us a couple of lessons along the way that we can all do that’d be awesome?
Ollie Phillips:
Yeah, I mean of course I mean hopefully it’s helpful for everyone and anyone listening. But I think for me, to be honest, that it started, and continues with attention to detail. One thing we always used to speak about when I was playing was just making sure you maintain, world-class basics. I know that sounds elementary. People talk about that all the time but often we really listen to it and we pay lip service because it’s kind of the stuff that we know how to do. It just kind of feels rudimentary but it’s the one area that lets us down at the critical point in time.
If I use rugby as an example of that. One of the things that we always used to focus on was our handling and our ability to basically catch a pass. If you can do that, incredibly well and efficiently then you’ve got a very strong chance of being a successful rugby player because it’s such a neglected skill but it’s the core it’s the absolute crux of everything that we do.
If you can catch the ball running at full pace and put it in front of somebody so that they don’t have to check. It’s vitally important and yet so many players, ignore it or don’t give it as much time as it should do. So when you extrapolate that and look at it objectively. It’s all about paying respect to the simple things the basics that are basically the cornerstone and the foundations of everything you do. If you do those really well, you’ll stand yourself in pretty good stead whatever it is that you’re doing.
Adam Stott:
Yeah, I love the correlation between business and sport because in sport and professional sport. I mean, which obviously played at the highest level, they seem to get it. You got to go and you got to train is what you do on the training ground. This is what you practice in private is what you get rewarded for in public. I think business owners don’t always get that that they’re you know, turning up every day during the basics. Making sure that you perform well and you work hard, is going to bring you those great end results. That’s absolutely the case and especially with the coaching the mentoring and an attitude towards endless improvement.
I think that that is the sole source of success that I’ve had in businesses that actually towards endless improvement always keep getting better. I think that’s very prevalent in sport, isn’t it? Would you say that’s been big for you in terms of building success?
Ollie Phillips:
Yeah. I mean, like with everything right. It takes time and it’s that repetition and patience towards it, that is critical, whether that is. I started playing rugby as a four-year-old, I think I’m wrong I thought I didn’t really have intentions then. Delusions of grandeur that you need to be a professional rugby player but if you like the process start that. And it was only when I hit 18.
So 14 years later that it started to bear fruition or become a reality or a possibility that I could play rugby. As a professional I could get paid for it could be my job and then go and represent my country, all that jazz. It’s just the same with anything on the physical side. As much as I wish it was the case. You can’t walk into a gym one day and just say that I want to like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then walk out an hour later, it just doesn’t work like that right
so, like all these things, it’s the constant maintenance and consistency of detail focusing on the small little things. Taking the small wins as and when you can. Then making sure that when the opportunity presents itself. You’ve given yourself the best opportunity of answering the call kind of thing. Sometimes you won’t be ready, sometimes you will. It’s if you like it’s that acceptance and realization. When you can move and when you can’t move kind of thing. I think that’s some of the biggest learning, I got from the sport. Particularly when you retire from the sport, right, because I did 12 years in professional sport. Institutionalized by a specialist in that area.
Ollie Phillips:
When you stop when it all comes to an end and you go on to your next thing. For me that was running my business, doing all these challenges and working as a director of PwC, all of those things are foreign territory. Some of them you’ve got some of the challenges. For example I had a greater aptitude and an ability to sort of pick up because there was a huge component of them that relied on physical prowess. Physical competence in thanks to rugby and whatever I had. Whereas contrast that to PwC, I didn’t have a bloody clue was doing. When I walked in as a director here all these people were like massive areas of specialism in tax accounting consulting.
I was asked to be a direct thought leader in those areas, I just didn’t have any. I just hadn’t done in time, I hadn’t done any and didn’t gain experience. So that’s kind of my own sort of snigger reality right and I underestimated right. I walked into PwC think oh, why not build like the gym analogy. I walk in, you know, in two weeks later I look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Well, I thought I’d walk in two weeks later I’ll have cracked it. I’ll be a partner and it just doesn’t work like that. Everything takes time is, as I’m sure. Yeah, I’m sure you’ve been through yourself, Adam. There is no such, there’s no get rich quick right I’ve seen that on your site. It’s all about that constant pursuit, and maintenance of great values, good principles and world-class basics.
Adam Stott:
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, a bit of a learning curve going into PWC. And you know what? There are a lot of people that finish professional sport and do struggle. Don’t they afterwards, you know, because it’s a different world. Sometimes for them you know it’s a different world or different environment. It’s important to be able to adapt and change of course. He tends to have done that really well on that had a great career after your sports career.
So what’s 07:30 where do you think the secret to that is either your attitude or mentality towards it?
Ollie Phillips:
Yeah, I think all these things are right. It’s always it’s caveated, right, because what I do and what I deem or what somebody else deems as like a great outcome or great success. It’s all perception, right? And whatever you’re right, it just depends on whether it’s delivered against your own personal aspirations. That I think that’s the most important thing from a, you know, learning curve and a personal perspective. There’s been plenty of bumps along the way and certainly my transition away from sport into this in the early part of it.
The first two years, was not without challenge definitely I really struggled to realise the new value of my sense of worth in my new environment. I found that pretty tough, just coming from a rugby field where I was an expert. And I was in the top echelons of my sport. I knew what good and bad looked like all of that sort of stuff. Stepping into PWC where I just had no background, no real understanding of the world in which they operate, but still trying to be an expert and deliver on that in terms of the same personal value.
It was tough. That was really hard, and, took a bit of time. But I also filled my life with opportunities to just keep progressing forward. What are the small little wins that I can just take that signify to me that we’re moving in the right direction?
I’m not the finished article or definitely. I’m not where I kind of want to be but as we’re moving forward, that kind of thing has really helped. From my own progression which has just been that, I guess, ignorance of what anyone else is thinking. Or what any other, where someone else might be progressing quicker than me or slower than me, it’s all kind of irrelevant. It’s the pace with which I am comfortable with and I can keep going and that’s definitely.
Adam Stott:
Yeah that’s a massive thing that you just said like, we trained 1000s of business owners. One thing that really holds them back is one; looking at what other people are doing. Two, caring about what other people think about. The less that you can care about what other people think the more that you can focus on you and the less you focus on your competition. The more you can focus on you.
I think that’s one of the secrets, isn’t it really is being out of focus on yourself, and you call it ignorance but that can sometimes be a bad connotation at work. I think you need to be ignorant in order to about what it is you want to achieve in order to go and get results. Always remember many years ago, I went to a seminar, and obviously, I’ve run seminars now is what I do. But I’ve been going since I was 18, two different seminars and there was a guy called Chet Holmes who sadly passed away.
And he said for him, the secret of success was having a pigheaded ignorance and literally to literally just focus and continue moving forward as much as you possibly can. That’s gonna help you to create results. What was really interesting and not worry you know being absolutely confident in your convictions that you’re going to get to where you want to go to.
Ollie Phillips:
To caveat that it definitely wasn’t that way for me right for most of my career because if you think about the career of a sports person. Putting in teams for every weekend I was conditioned to coach for something or saying you’re picked or you’re not picked. That was fundamentally your starting this weekend you’re not involved, so you’re always sort of seeking approval or validation or recognition from somebody. Then I realised, when I’m finished that, I was quite institutionalised in that environment.
But I came out of it. I was in my running my own business, and within the bosom of PWC was that recipe of disaster for me. It was really bad habits and really bad behaviours. Because I was constantly just seeking this approval. Therefore I was just chasing shiny Penny stuff all the time.
And it was only when I started to realise I can’t be motivated by what other people think of me. I need to do a bit of like self-reflection, self-awareness. Just understand actually what’s important to me why it’s important to me. Then getting comfortable with the fact that my progression might be fast. It might be slow. It will go in peaks and troughs or just need to make sure that I’m confident and uncertain about the end state, and enjoying the experience of sort of evolving and growing as I’m doing it.
I could look at 10 other people around me, five of them will be going a lot faster than me. Five of them began a lot slower than me. Someone who has more money someone has prettier wife better kids nicer cars. It doesn’t matter right like it doesn’t like all these things that are outside of my control. I’m just gonna really enjoy what I’ve got the experience I’m having. Just recognise that it’s still building towards the goals that I’ve set myself.
Adam Stott:
Absolutely. So you’ve done some amazing things in me some really cool stuff. The experiences we talked about your company, optimise performance and some of the experiences you’re doing. But I’ve seen obviously you did the Mount Kilimanjaro. You lead a team to do go and do that, didn’t you mention about.
What is it you feel when you take people on these experiences? Because this company you do coaching and mentoring for executives you do it for leadership teams and individuals. What happens to an individual when you take them on? The cycle in that you do tell us a bit more about this, I’d love to, is all about that mentality. How do you cultivate that elite mentality within your people? How does it work for you? What happen like what do you find? What’s the difference that happens to people?
Ollie Phillips:
I always found that I could read a lot of this stuff. I could listen to all the theory but, I mean I was either sort of too much of a Neanderthal or whatever. But I wasn’t necessarily that great at applying it right I just always struggle with that connection between all.
And so for me I’m an experienced type of person I need to touch, feel, to something in order to realize, where it’s going well where it’s going wrong kind of thing. Yeah, and all these adventures out when a lot of them at the beginning were fueled by meat wanting to do some stuff for charity, and at the same time, probably a little bit on the transition out of sport like still seeking that recognition and adulation, at the very beginning and then as I sort of went through more and more of them realizing, actually it’s not about that.
This is about the experience and the sharing of a building of a community with people that you know. You can look back and go “oh, that’s, you remember I could see you in five days’ time five years’ time.” Like I just remember the time that we did that, you know, how do we pull that one off.
I think it’s only when you take people out of their existing environment, and just in context, they start to realize some of the habits or some of the traditional behaviours. They would exhibit that they probably weren’t aware of just because it was part of their daily routine. It was the status quo with them on a personal level. So when we’ve taken people to the North Pole. Or we set to what records on Everest, we cycled across America we driven rituals across India.
All of these are kind of like the extreme end of the spectrum than just that but when we’ve taken the bit that underpins it all. Is when we’ve taken people out of their environment, put them into a new one and challenged their way of thinking. Sort of said okay let you know you’ve told me you’re a collaborative leader. We’ve posed you a challenge here. We had a bike ride for example, everyone said they’re collaborative leaders and they’re really good at communicating. On the bike ride, we said okay you’re in groups of 10. But actually today you’re only you’ve only got seven bikes. You still got to get from point A to point B, right, so what you got to do.
Ollie Phillips:
And then we just sit back and document it. Just play it back from around. Like Adam and Ollie, were you aware that you know you said your character is accumulative? But actually, during this whole process for people who sat in the corner and they didn’t even know what was meant to be happening. And you didn’t involve them. Your body like their body language is poor. Or conversely Adam, you’re incredible because you know, you saw that immediately recognize the problem.
You brought everyone and you felt them, you got people involved, you ask them their opinions etc.
And you formulated a plan to move forward like whatever the outcomes are. Play it back so that they start to realize what happens ultimately when pressure comes on. Pressures either in normally the time pressure that most of us have because that’s the one thing that’s finite all the time.
So time pressure financial pressure, emotional pressure, all of those site physical pressure you can put all that into a context into a boiling pot, and just see how people respond and then playback to them and get their own self-reflection right good like. Is that how you want it to be? Is that how you want it to interact? If it is great if it isn’t, let’s work on it. Let’s work on it. What happens when you get into that environment? Okay, cool.
Adam Stott:
It’s interesting. Quite a few times and you know it seems like you’ve done a lot of that, haven’t you? What do you see coming out of rugby? It’s one of the things articles we give to entrepreneurs and business owners we say exactly that. We say that you have been conditioned to have an employee’s DNA, right? They seek validation from other people that he’s told where to go. What to do, when to do it. What your job is what you’re not your job is. Whether you’re playing within the rules. Whether you’re not playing the rules. Wherever you’re on sign whether you’re on like you’re completely in a controlled environment.
Now an entrepreneur’s DNA, which is completely different. Right, he’s somebody that doesn’t conform as much there’s somebody that has to take more risks. Has to make more decisions there has to work more collaboratively. There has to be added delegate that has to be able to acknowledge and accept when the job’s done. They’ve done the job well they’re not going to get the pat on the back. If you’re going to succeed in business you have to work towards that Entrepreneurial Being more. That’s one of the things that we trains is really interesting to hear you use that analogy from a rugby perspective.
But what’s it what I find interesting is that you found that you found that through self-reflection. A lot of people don’t find that right.
What does that enable you to do now you’ve found that, and you’ve mentioned self-reflection many times. Now you’ve got that self-reflection. How does that assist you in getting things done and getting more success? Or what was that done for you to be able to be aware of now? Because even your awareness, came in when he was talking about that. I’m more of a learner that needs to touch and feel. Another thing we train is about understanding your personality type. It’s very good to be able to understand yourself and how you operate in order to maximise the potential you mentioned.
Ollie Phillips:
Yeah, I mean as I love what you’re talking about is so I think it’s so fascinating. Some of the things you just said really resonated and landed with me. I think it’s about that self-reflection, self-awareness journey allows you to understand and recognize your strengths and your weaknesses right.
I was always told when I was, I was fortunate enough that when I was playing I got told from an early stage in my professional career. Maximize your strengths, manage your weaknesses, and I’ve heard that banded a little bit around in day to day.
Adam Stott:
So there are different versions of that 18:14.
Ollie Phillips:
The premise of it was just going into a little bit more, then trying and round it off by answering the whole question. But the strengths and weaknesses, if you’ve got into the shot when you go into the arena of professional sport into your club or wherever. It was because of the x-factor that you possessed I there was something about you that stood you apart from somebody else that they went, are picking you over them. So you’re in the short window. For that reason, so your x-factors they’re your strengths, their weaknesses are there.
Now, we want to manage these weaknesses right? S it doesn’t become like a massive hindrance to your day to day and getting picked and staying there. But you want to keep spending or investing as much time, energy and effort and money into the things that your x-factor is about right? Because that’s why you’ve been signed in the first place.
And the greatest way I can describe it was that loads of young kids used to turn up in our squad with our x-factor to the strengths of their, their weaknesses or there, they get told, because of bad coaching, all the things they’re rubbish at.
Right, so all they do is invest all their time in the things they’re really poor at their weaknesses, and they forget they neglect their time and their strengths so they end up meeting in the middle of, if you see my hands right, which then basically means you’re sort of average or mediocre.
And then at the end of the season, they get bent, they get shot. Then in a particular sport, because they’re talking about rugby as well.
Ollie Phillips:
A lot of it would revolve around weight. A lot of the time, because they see a young lad or hook or some of that. They’d be like, you’re so dynamic around the field just so super-fast and it’s brilliant. But you’re too lightweight. You’re too lightweight and you know you need to put some weight on. So they’d focus all their time and energy on getting heavier, so they put on 20.
And then suddenly at the end of the season, they get bent. They go why I’ve been sacked for like, I mean, you’re not dynamic you’re not far. Not at from the field that you just hoping to get heavier and whatever.
So, it’s bad coaching, bad messaging and not really recognizing what somebody is really good at what their super strength is. So, in answer your question, what does the self-reflection allow me to do anyway. It allow me to realize what was important in my life and equally, what my super strength rather contribute towards that. Then all the things I was rubbish at I didn’t really take an interest in or my weaknesses. I could surround myself with people that love that their super strength was my weakness.
So, then the collective of us put together became a formidable team right and that was some of the biggest self-reflections I had. Coupled with the fact that I just started to understand myself a bit better in terms of understanding my tells. Which would then trigger certain behavioural traits in me. As a result that would dictate the direction of travel that I would check-in and once I got more aware of that.
Once you understand you can manage a bit better, or you can control it a bit better and that was the critical bit for me. Just really going through that self-awareness journey in order to put myself in a better place where I knew my strengths. Equally understood the tells for me that would make sidetrack me from them.
Adam Stott:
It is really interesting, I’m a big football fan, and you look at some like Marino, and he doesn’t play the players that don’t work on their weaknesses that don’t level up, John Cemani. Yeah. When you lose a lot of creativity in the same because he’s obsessed with pressing these people back and getting them to do things used to doing.
So I just want you to know are great. I think that if you can get somebody that really pushes on those I’m really interested what were your strengths, what would you say your x-factor was?
Ollie Phillips:
On your Marino point, don’t get me wrong, I think that’s highly effective to a certain degree. He had massive success on it right. Maybe it’s one of the most successful managers of all time because it depends on the lens you look at it through. If I allow the coaches all the time folks say like defence wins matches. That statement in itself is utter nonsense.
If you finish at the end of the game you don’t win, defense will keep you in the game. Or manage your weakness if that makes sense, you need to manage that piece. But when your game is attacking you’ve got score goals. You’ve got to take risks, take chances. Some of the new generation if you want to call them managers that you see in football the Clops. The quality is wherever I feel they understand that there is a level of call it weakness if you want. That is tolerable. We can’t go below that threshold because if we don’t you know we’re not competitive. But I need to liberate these players, I need them to play to their full potential.
I need them to demonstrate what I want their God-given talent to be on this planet. That’s why I think you’re now you’re starting to see. If you like the demise of the Renia, which is tragic because I love them as a personality. The rise was not in the rise they’re at the top now but of the Clops and the Marino’s in the world. The tissues because they liberate their players to fulfill their true potential.
Ollie Phillips:
And I want to put what my super strengths. Mine were all around. I love, you know, the art of people and that being around. Like, I feel like I’m very someone that’s very sort of intuitive and in contact with understanding sort of the rollercoaster of emotional intelligence. If that makes sense so I can quickly establish common ground with people. I can quickly ascertain what the issues are and what the solutions are that they need. Then deliver against them and be confident.
I’ve got enough people around me that can fundamentally solve those, and answer those questions and those problems in business relationships is what business is all about. Being able to weather critical versus being able to listen right being able to listen to like Adam spoken to me for 20 minutes.
This is what I’ve heard, right? I’ve let him sort of pour his heart and soul out and his frustrations his problems. I’m gonna play it back so that just make sure that that’s the problem set. Then I’ll go forward and try and help but I find if you try and help people if you try and advance them towards their goals and their focus points, resolve problems and provide solutions, you build trust. You get trust forever because they’re so grateful and thankful to you for actually listening to them and help them solve their issues.
Adam Stott:
Absolutely. Did you not want to sort of go into the coaching side of rugby was that not something that came up for you or?
Ollie Phillips:
No, it did I am so at the moment I’m head coach for Wales women at sevens. So sort of went into that arena in terms of, I fell into it rather than pushed for it. But I didn’t think originally at the beginning I would like it and I absolutely love it. I really enjoyed this sort of just that focus on personal development people development skills. I just really love it.
So, I do, I guess, on the flip side of it, and I try and move it from the fickleness of professional sport is an issue. I also think that there are lots of people within professional sport that still are not on that, I guess wavelength of just understanding the time that it takes to nurture and develop and grow talent. If your point you know that the Marina example you gave. He is brought in, normally, into a team, they give him a load of money, and they want solutions now. Like it’s not right. We’ll build for 2/3/5 years’ time periods, so that’s one of the reasons why I’m not going down that road.
Maybe it will in the long run but I’ve really enjoyed also the stuff I do outside of sport. Like working with companies and people, going on adventures and whatever else. So that’s why I’ve kept a foot in that door too.
Adam Stott:
Absolutely. So PWC and building that business so after you went in, then we kind of had that introduction would be from completely different. Well, what’s it been like since then? How have you managed to thrive in that environment? Would you say well the sort of things that your skills that you’ve used and what do you think have helped you a lot in that area?
Ollie Phillips:
The biggest thing that’s helped me and this, I hope will resonate with other people. There isn’t a day that goes by, within this business where I don’t get pangs of imposter syndrome. Where I’m like, I’m way out my depth, not quite sure what I’m doing here.
Now, I think the difference is in my sort of mindset and approach to it the first two years of me being here. I was used to. If you like my rugby mentality of like, well no, hold on. I need to know everything, and I’ve got to be the best driver specialist I’ve got to be the best. So it was that sort of obsession. Bizarrely, it was actually something it was a saying that we had when we used to play rugby. We started a training session every Tuesday with England. It was all about making getting ourselves comfortable at feeling uncomfortable.
This was the stock slogan on it or in rugby terms that was we used to have to absolutely kill ourselves in a fitness test. We get our heart rates up to 180 beats, plus a minute for two minutes and we had to stay there for that two minutes.
Ollie Phillips:
And if everyone managed to stay there for that sustained period of time. They would then go right, here’s a ball. Now go and play, and the principle of that was that. If you could execute the game plan the strategy, your skills, under such levels of like extreme fatigue. When it came to gain when it came to matches, you’d be fine. Because you’re never gonna get to that level of stress. I’m not saying in PWC, I used to get my heart rate up to 180 minutes. I’d smash people, not people over on the photocopy machine and run up downstairs and wherever.
But if you’d like from the emotional sort of mental, psychological perspective, uncomfortable, every day, and what I do,
Because everything’s new everything’s foreign territory, you’re always learning and growing. But instead of, I guess getting anxious and worried or fearful if you have that feeling. It’s actually a feeling now that I kind of embrace. I really look forward to it because it’s the one indicator for me now that I’m learning and I’m growing. Yeah, I’m learning I’m growing if I feel that way, it means I’m out of my depth. And if I’m out my depth, I’m learning how to swim because I’m fighting to sort of learn new skills.
Adam Stott:
Benefit so much of the audience or people are listening because you know there’s a lot of people who struggle within imposter syndrome in all different types of industries are one. But fun so the level of confidence that you’re going to establish. For the future is that you can go and walk into anything and you can perform and learn. But you learn to build a lot of trust in yourself, when you do that because you know what, even if the detail when I’m going into this and I don’t know, 100% the game plan.
I’m smart enough to read between the lines of workout and get involved. And when you get that and get into new situations with great confidence. I think that that’s a really great thing to build in business because, in business, things are ever-changing. You never have guaranteed outcomes, you don’t have a scoreboard. Right. You very rarely have a scoreboard you can’t wait up to now for any newbies that know you know your scoreboard. That’s going to tell you whether you make money or not their money isn’t always the only indicator in business as well you know.
So, really interesting and people’s fears massive. From trained 1000s of business owners fear is just a huge thing, you know, and if you can overcome that.
Ollie Phillips:
Yeah, I think really interesting point you mentioned as well. I listened to a video or something after that from Simon Sinek. And one of the things he spoke around was the lens or whatever that we view the game. The work in terms of like their successor is our p&l or is the way he talks around is that we view the game as a finite game.
Yeah, as if it ends, but actually the rules of the game are, it’s never-ending. It’s never-ending.
No one tells you if you grow your business. It doesn’t ever stop growing right if you neglect it, it falls away. If you invest time, it builds up, if you sell it fine but it carries on its lifecycle it’s an infinite game.
And yeah, everybody sort of approaches to it all, it’s as if it’s a sprint, right? It’s as if it sort of has got this finite end to all. Which it hasn’t right but I think that really influences and it’s a much obviously of course for a much deeper and broader conversation for you and me. But I just think that’s a really fascinating perspective for people to think around in terms of if you approach something that you believed had no end.
Would it change your behavior, would you approach it from a different perspective? Would you try not to race at a million miles an hour? But actually, be more strategic and play the long game and really invest into some of the areas that would help it grow and keep growing indefinitely. Rather than viewing it as a spread, and as a result, stretching yourself out, making mistakes. Yeah, rushing things. I don’t know, it’s just an interesting conversation, but we can 30:43
Adam Stott:
I think where a lot of people is in business. A lot of the time they’re in a sprint, because there’s a cash flow sprint. And the problem is in the early stages of business when it’s a cash flow sprint, i.e. the business has got loads of cash, so you need to go and make cash in order for that business to grow as a small business that is the sprint they’re in, to stay alive, sprint is like you’re being chased by a crocodile.
You gotta go ahead and you gotta make the money right. And I think that is what that does. But there comes a point where that kind of race ends. Because you’ve now got a sales method that generates you an income and a profit. That allows you to then become more strategic and play the game in a different way. And I think that that is the beauty of getting to that point. When you’re at that point, then how we get that strategy is gonna come in in big ways and in order for you to be really successful. Which is that sometimes with a small business, it can be time it can be, you’ve got that you mentioned.
Ollie Phillips:
31:40 But your point is so valid right but if you’d like the cash flow game from the day one. It’s the lifeblood of the whole process right it doesn’t ever stop. You just get to a point where actually you making enough cash flow you can afford to sort of look somewhere else in the five minutes. Yeah bring up exactly right. It was just great insight and I agree with you around that need to be focused is obviously paramount right you need to focus your energy time and attention into the things that matter. And just do the things that matter, and constantly keep evolving and growing and pushing the boundaries of yourself and your business or your team or whatever else.
Adam Stott:
What kind of three tips would you give to somebody listening to help them to build more success and you might have given them a couple of ways already, if we just, you know, see if we can zone in on those for the audience, what would you say, from your experience in your career so far, someone becoming more successful, what are the three things that they should pay attention to in order to succeed in business.
Ollie Phillips:
Yeah I mean I think you’re obviously, one, we thought spoken around one that you know originally but it’s around nurturing yourself. So, all these concepts of like you are what you eat. You’ve heard your network is your net worth. So who are the people that you surround yourself with on a day to day basis, who are the influences on your performance, ultimately we wish people which businesses which companies are really going to impact the trajectory in which your life takes your business, you know your business takes or your personal life takes or whatever else.
Then as a result of that value those things that are important, be present in them all the time, and then try and provide an environment that creates mental, physical, emotional, psychological balance for you, so you know, do you understand where you do your best thinking.
For some people that might be during exercise some people might be listening to music, others might be, I don’t know, going to bed, whatever it is but like where do you do your best thinking.
So you’ve got time to give yourself some headspace, so that you can challenge some of your habits and belief sets regularly so that you keep evolving and growing.
So I think that’s the first one is like nurture yourself right surround yourself with people, the law of attraction that really keep pushing you into developing you and growing your own talent, number one, I’ll come up with that.
Adam Stott:
Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Ollie Phillips:
Second one is like now is a good time, I would say so many people do the classic of like we used to get told it when your old wives tale or whatever, wipe it off tomorrow what you can do today kind of thing, but constantly keep don’t dwell on the past because yesterday’s history, right, tomorrow’s a mystery, but the focus on the presence while they call it a gift, right.
So recognize sometimes when things are at their worst opportunity success is closer than you think. To begin planning for your next encounter, focus on the fix, and let’s sort of, I had a saying, I was so pertinent but my fitness coach a guy called Steve Black told me that’s when I was 19 and Newcastle falcons, and it’s a bit of a mouthful, but he said the opportunity of a lifetime, only exists within the lifetime of the opportunity.
So, you know, don’t worry about what happened yesterday. Don’t worry about tomorrow, because who knows what’s gonna happen tomorrow spear carp ADM right but that of the lifetime of this opportunity that you’ve got right now is who knows how long, it could be 15 years, it could be 15 minutes, but the opportunity of a lifetime is now.
Ollie Phillips:
So, like now is a good time to go into action right to do stuff to deliver stuff and I remember when I was a young lad like my early stages 20, 21 22 like, anxiety, fear really gripped me in my playing days, because I was always worried about, because it was so important to get picked right it was so important to start. And if you didn’t start as a young kid you wait like six, 8, 10 weeks for your next opportunity.
So, I realized that actually became quite crippling for me because when I finally got the opportunity. I was so worried about cocking up, I didn’t focus on actually just playing well just delivering and playing the game that I love.
And you know I’ve worried about getting injured or worried about dropping a ball I focus on all the things that I could do wrong or that could go wrong, that could deter me from getting in my next opportunity rather than just relishing and enjoying and excelling in the current one. Yeah, and just forgetting about tomorrow. So, in closing, like now’s a good time, would be my second tip.
Adam Stott:
Oh no, yeah I totally agree with you and in everything you’re saying you never know what’s going to come. I love the analogy of not being paid, and worried you’re going to make a mistake and you’re gonna enjoy what you’re doing when you own most of the 36:29 totally agree with that.
Ollie Phillips:
And then I guess as a sort of segue through to the last would be, let magic happen.
So, a mindset. It’s a critical part of that so if you put in the hard work, you do all the basics, you’ve invested time into your own personal growth, your own development, your team’s development, good things will come right so just trust in the process and ultimately your ability to deliver when called upon. Right, it’s all the sort of, you hear all the time but like control the controllable.
That for me is really important around just worry, just focus your time and energy on the things that you can do better, right, don’t worry about whether someone else is gonna make this decision or if you might get this contract, or you might not get that contract I know it’s important, right, but you can’t control.
I can’t control whether Adam is going to eat a ham and cheese sandwich or a chicken sandwich later on today, it’s his decision right.
All I can focus in is what I want to eat. And what’s gonna make me feel better and so it’s about just doing those things and believing in the fact that I say believe that you are destined for greatness right greatness, doesn’t have to mean that you’re going to become a billionaire, or it doesn’t mean you’re going to run 100 meters and break the world record.
Greatness is whatever greatness is for you. Right, so it’s in your own world record which could just be like being the best dad or being the best mom in the world, write all the best version of yourself that you possibly can be so that you feel fulfilled. And I think all of that is comes down to, then a mindset of being open and willing to change. Relishing a difference, and a kind of new status quo, and trusting and believing that the route that you’re taking the process that you’re implementing the journey and experience, you’re going on is the right one. And back in it.
Adam Stott:
Yeah, some fantastic advice. I mean every point. Absolutely, and I think it’s gonna resonate so much with a lot of the people that are listening today without a doubt because there’s some great advice so that people can really buy into I love the fact that you’re, you know a lot of what he does is it all starts with you, you know, and you also say a lot of his thoughts, your mindset, you know we have a program, a three day training that we take people on called the Business machine, and it’s three days, and the first one is on mindset, because you’re going to build a machine for your business, but if you don’t believe you can do it. We’re gonna do it.
If you don’t look after yourself, you know, we have to get that right, first I’m totally in sync with all your ideas and I love the fact that how you’ve gone and progressed that outside so some brilliant stuff there, I really enjoyed it today. How do people get in touch with you earlier they wanted to hear more about, I mean we mentioned optimize performance we didn’t go too much into it, you’ve got an amazing, you do some amazing learning experiences you want to mention a couple of bits about that phrase.
Ollie Phillips:
Yeah. Brilliant.
Adam Stott:
Well I mean we’ve started because he got some really cool things that you do, I mean I was thinking, right, you know, how do we get our people on this it sounds awesome.
Ollie Phillips:
Yeah it’s a lovely I mean it’d be great, just let’s meet up and have some fun and be great but we’ve twinned up with Durham University, cram for business school as well just to bring sort of some academic rigor and whatever that your theory into all but if people want to get in touch reach out, you know, LinkedIn, Ollie Phillips, or Twitter’s and all the rest of it, Ollie Phillips 11.
Our business or optimize performance is all around personal growth and personal collective growth for teams and individuals, and check out our website, send us a drop us a note on there, we’d love to speak to as many people as possible, because at the end of the day as well. I don’t know. I’m just the end product so far, of all the experiences and exposure to stuff that I’ve had right so far.
And these are just my reflections on them. It doesn’t mean they’re right. But if they’re helpful for other people, if they help provide some form of structure guidance, direction, brilliant, right, because we’re all here for a good time, not for a long time, right.
So, let’s make sure we maximize it. And the way we do that is by sharing right shared experience shared knowledge sets. So I want to work with as many brilliant people as I possibly can share as many ideas and experiences as possibly can so that when I finally saw laid my head down for that final breath, I can go. I’ll tell you what, while of a ride. Well great, what a great experience and, and hopefully you’ve impacted and been involved in loads of people’s lives for the positive right, and that’s what it’s all about.
Adam Stott:
I love it. All right, well you’ve been an amazing guest stuff I thank you so much, make sure you go and follow your follow Ollie, connect with your on LinkedIn or Twitter, as you mentioned, which are great and check his website out and keep an eye on this space because some of the experiences I can see us taking some clients on for Ollie, sounds awesome. Oh man and we’ll have a chat about that.
Thank you for coming on to business grow secrets today have an amazing time. You’ve been listening; remember to leave us a five star review. Tell us how much you enjoyed this episode, and of course if you want to get any free resources, go over to www.adamsttott.com. Check out some free resources on there right now that you can access, and thank you ever so much Ollie. You’ve been amazing. Thanks everybody.