The Inner Chief Greg Layton

“Amateurs do it until they get it right; professionals do it until they can't get it wrong.”
 
In this episode of The Inner Chief podcast, I speak to Natalie Cook OAM OLY on how to out-think the competition, and why it takes an ecosystem to win a gold medal.
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Nat is a five-time Olympian, Gold and Bronze Medallist in beach volleyball, representing Australia in the Summer Olympics between 1996 and 2012.
A passionate athlete advocate, Nat has always been a champion of the transformational power of sport and the life lessons learnt pursuing your dreams.
Her trademark authenticity, energy and ease, combined with her success as both an elite athlete and influential business leader, make Nat a powerful motivational speaker and strategic sports and wellbeing advisor.
Serving as a Director of Brisbane 2032, Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee, and holding a position on the World Olympians Association Board, Nat is a firm believer in the Games' potential to create enduring legacies for individuals, businesses, and society as a whole.
 
In this episode we talk about:
✅  The ecosystem of things required to go right for the eventual winning of a gold medal
✅  How, in competition, she used the metaphor of attacking the opposition from the top of the hill
✅  The mindsets and mind techniques she learnt being an elite full-time athlete, including how to make the crowd work for you
✅  Working with a former Chief Maker guest, Dr Jeff Spencer, on adjusting to life after an Olympics, and
✅  The incredible work she is doing behind the scenes to support not only Brisbane 2032 but also prospective Australian athletes striving to make the Games.
 
Deal hope,
Greg
 
Connecting with Natalie Cook OAM OLY You can connect with Nat via LinkedIn, her website and Aussie Athlete Fund.
Books and resources $1 Million Challenge - Aussie Athlete Fund launch video
The Art of War - by Sun Tzu
Way of the Peaceful Warrior - by Dan Millman
Similar Episodes on high performance sport Dr Jeff Spencer, The man behind 40+ Olympic gold medals and Tiger Woods on Building your champion mindset and your pathway to your potential with the Olympic champion maker
Leah Amico, Triple US Olympic Team Gold Medallist on How to build a GOLD standard, boosting confidence and empathetic teamwork
Ben Darwin, Co-Founder and Director of GAIN LINE on Cohesion analytics, understanding versus skill, and sacking staff too soon
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“Decision friction is when you deliberately interrupt your thoughts before forming a judgement. You adopt a series of prompts or questions that are like a speed bump for your mind if you’re in a hot state.”
 
This is a special episode only available to our podcast subscribers, which we call The Mini Chief. These are short, sharp highlights from our fabulous CEO guests, where you get a 5 to 10 minute snapshot from their full episode.
This Mini Chief episode features Nuala Walsh, Founder & CEO of MindEquity and author of Tune In: How to make smarter decisions in a noisy world.
Her full episode is titled The art of decision-making like a ninja, and learning to control your emotions and recognise your biases.
You can find the full audio and show notes here:
🎧👉  chiefmaker.com/323  👂
 
GET THE FREE CHIEF MAKER TOP 30 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: chiefmaker.com/interview
 
With over 30 years’ experience in FTSE-50 and Fortune 500 financial services firms, Nuala is Founder & CEO of MindEquity Consulting, as well as a Founding Director of the world’s first Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists. Prior to that, she was an award-winning Chief Marketing Officer at Standard Life Aberdeen, and has had previous executive roles with Merrill Lynch, BlackRock, and PA Consulting.
Today, she sits on multiple Advisory Boards including The British & Irish Lions Rugby Union, Basketball Ireland, and The Innocence Project, is President of The Harvard Club of Ireland, is Deputy Chair of The Football Association’s Inclusion Board, and is a Gender Taskforce Advisor at World Athletics.
Listed among the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Finance, she holds degrees in multiple disciplines including a Masters in Behavioural Science from the London School of Economics, a Masters in Business Studies; and a BA in Philosophy.
Nuala is a seasoned lecturer and keynote speaker, with her work on behavioural science research published and aired on the Harvard Business Review, TEDx, the Economist, the Telegraph, Forbes, BBC, and Fox Business.
 
In this episode we talk about:
✅  How choices shape your decision mindset and outcomes
✅  The 2 Systems of thinking and how to optimise them for decision-making scenarios
✅  What you can do to control your emotions such as regret and rage so as to de-risk bad decisions
✅  Recognising your biases, of which there are over 200, and
✅  Why not making a decision, is still a decision!
Deal hope,
Greg
 
Connecting with Nuala Walsh You can connect with Nuala via LinkedIn.
Books and resources Tune In: How to make smarter decisions in a noisy world - by Nuala Walsh How to Overcome Indecision: TEDx talk - by Nuala Walsh Thinking Fast and Slow - by Daniel Kahneman The Power of Regret - by Daniel Pink The Top 5 Regrets of The Dying - by Bronnie Ware Similar Episodes on decision-making Izzy Silva, MD of Wolters Kluwer APAC on Using EQ to good effect, making the vision visible, and data-led decision-making 
Nancy Slessenger, Founder and CEO of Vinehouse Hiring on Scientific recruitment, the do’s and don’ts of interviewing, and staff retention
Mark Pomeroy, CEO of Pomeroy Pacific on Managing risk, asking great questions, and succeeding in a family business
Follow Chief Maker 📝 Subscribe to the Finish Strong monthly newsletter and podcast drops
👍 Follow Chief Maker on LinkedIn
📈 Join the waitlist for the Chief Maker MiniMBA
🎓 Take one of the Chief Maker Academy courses
🍏 Give The Inner Chief podcast a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts
🎵 Give The Inner Chief podcast a 5-star rating on Spotify
🎬 Subscribe to the Chief Maker YouTube channel
🤝 Connect with the Chief Maker

“We see Tiger Woods get angry and throw clubs, but when he does something he’s done a million times, like hole a 6-foot putt, he gets super excited and dances across the green pumping his fist. Why? He's emotionally anchoring that success.”
 
In this Best of Series episode of The Inner Chief podcast, we feature Golf master Coach, Steve Bann, on working with the world’s best golfers, turning practice into confidence, and the improvement lifecycle.
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I interviewed Steve for this podcast in 2018.
Steve is a partner in BannLynchMcDade, a coaching team that has coached their students to 29 USPGA Tour wins and multiple international amateur and professional titles.
After turning professional in 1979, Steve played on the Australian PGA Tour from 1981 to 1996.
However, since 1996, Steve has travelled the world, coaching at over 40 Majors and five Presidents' Cups. His students have included Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Ian Baker-Finch, Greg Norman, Vijay Singh, and Adam Scott.
Steve has been described by his clients as the most knowledgeable coach in the world. He is also the author of Simply Golf: Back to Basics.
 
In this episode we talk about: 
✅  Why a lot of coaches focus on fixing technique, which leads to a reactive cycle, and often has the opposite effect
✅  How the improvement life cycle of technical, physical, mental and strategic changes, is a far greater process to undertake
✅  The 6,500 skills the professionals have to learn to master golf and how this translates to the business world, and
✅  The 4-step routine to gaining confidence.
 
Deal hope,
Greg
 
Connecting with Steve Bann You can reach Steve on his Coaching website or YouTube.
Books and resources Simply Golf: Back to Basics - by Steve Bann
Practical Golf - by John Jacobs
Similar Episodes on coaching Peter Knight, Golf coach on Putting in place the steps to become a true master of your craft
Roger Love, The World’s #1 Celebrity Voice Coach on The man who taught Bradley Cooper, Reese Witherspoon, The Beach Boys and more to use their voice to change the world
Dr Jeff Spencer, The man behind 40+ Olympic gold medals and Tiger Woods on Building your champion mindset and your pathway to your potential with the Olympic champion maker Follow Chief Maker 📝 Subscribe to the Finish Strong monthly newsletter and podcast drops
👍 Follow Chief Maker on LinkedIn
📈 Join the waitlist for the Chief Maker MiniMBA
🎓 Take one of the Chief Maker Academy courses
🍏 Give The Inner Chief podcast a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts
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🤝 Connect with the Chief Maker

“Yeah, it was brutal, a very, very difficult period of my life. I’d hired a lot of people who didn't have technology experience. What I actually did was I set them and the business up for failure.”
 
This is a special episode only available to our podcast subscribers, which we call The Mini Chief. These are short, sharp highlights from our fabulous CEO guests, where you get a 5 to 10 minute snapshot from their full episode.
This Mini Chief episode features Jeremy Hastings, Founder & Managing Director of both Hutly and Bondable.
His full episode is titled Being fired from his own company and successfully returning to transform the real estate industry after working on his inner chief.
You can find the full audio and show notes here:
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DOWNLOAD THE CHIEF MAKER OPERATING RHYTHM HOW TO GUIDE AND PUT YOUR VISION AND MISSION INTO ACTION FAST: chiefmaker.com/operatingrhythm
 
After a career in mining at Rio Tinto, Jeremy experienced his first business success through a gelato shop, which sold 16 tonnes in its second year.
Following an unsavoury experience with a crooked real estate agent, Jeremy made it his life’s mission to leverage technology to power a more positive, transparent, and human-centred real estate industry, creating Hutly as the world’s only Living Contracts platform and a place where all parties can transact real estate with trust.
He is also the founder of Bondable, Australia’s first subscription-based residential bond service, which launched in 2024.
Jeremy went to the University of Canberra, where he studied a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Management. He also has three postgraduate qualifications – a Graduate Certificate in Community Relations (Resources Sector) from the University of Queensland, a Masters of Mining Engineering from UNSW and a Masters of Commercial Law from the University of Melbourne.
 
In the full episode we talk about: 
✅  How an accidental guinea pig brood was seven-year-old Jeremy’s first foray into entrepreneurship
✅  Successfully negotiating the rights to IP he created at Rio Tinto, that he wanted to commercialise after leaving the mining giant
✅  Being fired as CEO from his own company, and returning after working deeply on his inner chief where he is now transforming the real estate industry, and
✅  Recognising that there are different types of CEO that are suited to the various stages of a business.
 
Deal hope,
Greg
 
Connecting with Jeremy Hastings You can connect with Jeremy via LinkedIn.
Books and resources Good to Great - by Jim Collins
Team Topologies - by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais
Similar Episodes with Startup Founders Mark John, Founder & CEO of frntlne, on partnering with the world’s top performers and business people, what a leader’s natural state is, and feeling lucky every day 
Julie Mathers, Founder of Flora & Fauna and CEO of Snuggle Hunny, on being adventurous, bootstrapping a business, and first-mover advantage
Mark Calabro, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HungryHungry and OrderMate, on digitising human-to-human connections, succeeding in two tech startups, using fear of failure to your advantage.
Follow Chief Maker 📝 Subscribe to the Finish Strong monthly newsletter and podcast drops
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📈 Join the waitlist for the Chief Maker MiniMBA
🎓 Take one of the Chief Maker Academy courses
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🎬 Subscribe to the Chief Maker YouTube channel
🤝 Connect with the Chief Maker

“Are you or someone else owning the developmental pathway for your career?”
 
Chief, in today’s minisode I’m going to cover how to choose the right course that will significantly boost your career.
In today’s busy world, there are just so many options, so it’s incredibly hard to know how to sift out the bad options from the good ones. And then, to compound the challenge, you end up having to commit to something where there is no guarantee!
 
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So today, Chief, we’re going to talk about:
✅  Defining out the step-change performance improvement you need to gain from doing the course
✅  Time management and value for money, and
✅  The 70-20-10 rule of learning.
 
Stay epic,
Greg
 
Follow Chief Maker 📝 Subscribe to the Finish Strong monthly newsletter and podcast drops
👍 Follow Chief Maker on LinkedIn
📈 Join the waitlist for the Chief Maker MiniMBA
🎓 Take one of the Chief Maker Academy courses
🍏 Give The Inner Chief podcast a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts
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🤝 Connect with the Chief Maker

“We live in this highly overstimulated world, people are rushing to judgement more than ever, people are feeling unheard, and the reality is, they are unheard, because we can't hear them, because we're too busy, too distracted.”
 
In this episode of The Inner Chief podcast, I speak to Nuala Walsh, Founder & CEO of MindEquity and author of “Tune In”, on the art of decision-making like a ninja, and learning to control your emotions and recognise your biases.
🎧👉  chiefmaker.com/323  👂
 
DOWNLOAD THE CHIEF MAKER GUIDE FOR SENIOR LEADERS ON HOW TO HAVE DIFFICULT PERFORMANCE CONVERSATIONS: chiefmaker.com/difficult
 
With over 30 years’ experience in FTSE-50 and Fortune 500 financial services firms, Nuala is Founder & CEO of MindEquity Consulting, as well as a Founding Director of the world’s first Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists. Prior to that, she was an award-winning Chief Marketing Officer at Standard Life Aberdeen, and has had previous executive roles with Merrill Lynch, BlackRock, and PA Consulting.
Today, she sits on multiple Advisory Boards including The British & Irish Lions Rugby Union, Basketball Ireland, and The Innocence Project, is President of The Harvard Club of Ireland, is Deputy Chair of The Football Association’s Inclusion Board, and is a Gender Taskforce Advisor at World Athletics.
Listed among the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Finance, she holds degrees in multiple disciplines including a Masters in Behavioural Science from the London School of Economics, a Masters in Business Studies; and a BA in Philosophy.
Nuala is a seasoned lecturer and keynote speaker, with her work on behavioural science research published and aired on the Harvard Business Review, TEDx, the Economist, the Telegraph, Forbes, BBC, and Fox Business.
 
In this episode we talk about:
✅  How choices shape your decision mindset and outcomes
✅  The 2 Systems of thinking and how to optimise them for decision-making scenarios
✅  What you can do to control your emotions such as regret and rage so as to de-risk bad decisions
✅  Recognising your biases, of which there are over 200, and
✅  Why not making a decision, is still a decision!
 
Deal hope,
Greg
 
Connecting with Nuala Walsh You can connect with Nuala via LinkedIn.
Books and resources How to Overcome Indecision: TEDx talk - by Nuala Walsh
Tune In: How to make smarter decisions in a noisy world - by Nuala Walsh
Thinking Fast and Slow - by Daniel Kahneman
The Power of Regret - by Daniel Pink
The Top 5 Regrets of The Dying - by Bronnie Ware
Similar Episodes on decision-making Izzy Silva, MD of Wolters Kluwer APAC on Using EQ to good effect, making the vision visible, and data-led decision-making 
Nancy Slessenger, Founder and CEO of Vinehouse Hiring on Scientific recruitment, the do’s and don’ts of interviewing, and staff retention
Mark Pomeroy, CEO of Pomeroy Pacific on Managing risk, asking great questions, and succeeding in a family business
Follow Chief Maker 📝 Subscribe to the Finish Strong monthly newsletter and podcast drops
👍 Follow Chief Maker on LinkedIn
📈 Join the waitlist for the Chief Maker MiniMBA
🎓 Take one of the Chief Maker Academy courses
🍏 Give The Inner Chief podcast a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts
🎵 Give The Inner Chief podcast a 5-star rating on Spotify
🎬 Subscribe to the Chief Maker YouTube channel
🤝 Connect with the Chief Maker