This week we spent all our time pressing the flesh (until finding out we’d misunderstood what that means and getting very firmly asked to leave Subway) all in order to win the approval of this week’s guest, the master networker Oli Barrett MBE.

Blessed with the ability to bring together the right people with the right ideas at the right time, Oli has built a reputation for being the nation’s ultimate connector. But, being a fine fellow as well as a canny-business operator, he has used his powers for good – forming remarkable social change initiatives like ‘Tenner’, the UK’s largest schools entrepreneurship competition and ‘Turn On The Subtitles’, a global children’s literacy campaign.

Deftly uniting the worlds of entrepreneurship, innovation, education and social impact, Oli has been rightly lauded and awarded for his considerable efforts – bagging, among other accolades, the title of ‘Most Connected Man in Britain’ from Wired and a place in GQs ‘Top 100 connected figures’. Plus there’s the small matter of being awarded an actual MBE from the actual Queen who, we assume, Oli was able to successfully introduce to an off-the-grid artisan driving-goggle manufacturer based in the Peak District.

In a chat where Oli reveals the magic behind all his connective conjury, we ponder everything from the value of active learning to the magnetic powers of a well-built network.

Follow Oli on LinkedIn

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Timestamps

02:27 – Quick Fire Questions
05:18 – The Zigzag Journey: Dropping Out and Moving On
11:04 – Disney World vs. Lecture Halls: The Awakening
12:01 – Networking: Chance Encounters vs Intentional Connections
14:40 – The First Business: Amazing You
18:05 – The £10 Challenge That Took Off
24:22 – The Power of Defaults: Small Changes, Big Impact
26:04 – Permission to Create: The Entrepreneurial Mindset
30:08 – Connecting the Dots: How to Build Real Networks
35:45 – The Art of Introduction: What Actually Makes It Work

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Oli’s book recommendations are:

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Reflections on Success by Martyn Lewis
The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger

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This week we tried (unsuccessfully, messily, hauntingly) to mate a canary with a cockerel – all in a bid to impress our guest, former Norwich and Tottenham footballer, turned performance psychologist, Paul McVeigh.

Having played more than 270 professional games, as well as earning 20 caps for Northern Ireland, Paul kicked ball with and against some legendary players, earning a few trophies, a few promotions and, perhaps the ultimate honour, his own song.

But rather than go off and do the sort of generic post-playing jobs many ex-pros go for (like moaning about stuff on the tv. Or moaning about stuff on the radio. Or moaning about stuff on a podcast etc.) Paul has bottled up all his remarkable experiences in sport and used them to help all kinds of leaders to perform when it matters most.

As a highly respected performance psychologist, Paul has built a super-successful second career out of helping to dismantle the old narratives about shouty, macho, ego-driven leadership, through his coaching and his two excellent books: ‘The Stupid Footballer is Dead’ and ‘It’s Not About You: The Psychology of Leadership.

In a chat where Giles tries really, really hard not to dribble ‘Spurs’ all over the conversation, we ponder the most common mistakes, and misunderstanding, when it comes to ‘being the boss’, and some of the most influential sporting figures who inspired Paul’s philosophies on leadership.

This episode is proudly dedicated to Paul’s Aunt Jean – proof that it’s never too late to reinvent yourself and that anything is possible.

Follow Paul on LinkedIn

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Timestamps

1:32 – Quick Fire Questions
5:37 – Leaving Belfast for Tottenham Hotspur
10:05 – Inside a High-Performance Environment
16:03 – Leadership Styles in Football
19:12 – It’s Not About You and Modern Leadership
24:21 – Leadership Beyond Football
27:25 – Humility and Misconceptions About Leadership
33:18 – Ahead-of-the-Curve Professional Habits
39:58 – Transformational Habits That Stick
42:52 – Advice to His Younger Self

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Paul’s book recommendations are:

Awaken The Giant Within by Anthony Robbins
Money Master the Game by Anthony Robbins

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