What We Talked About

1. Life After Professional Sports: Ben shared the behind-the-scenes of his transition from being a professional rugby player to life after sports. He talks about the challenges he faced, such as income anxiety, ending a long-term relationship, and feeling anxious about the future. He also talks about mourning of his past identity.
2. Career Change and Self-Discovery: Ben talks about the positive side of being forced to reinvent himself. He mentions working in various roles, such as a bike business, freelance writing, and project management.
3. Writing and Self-Publishing: Ben shares his journey of becoming a writer, including his decision to self-publish. He started by writing articles and blogging, which eventually led him to write a book about his experiences. He discusses his decision to self-publish and how it allowed him to maintain control over his work.
4. Personal Learning Journey: Ben talks about learning to enjoy his own company, challenging himself in new ways, and developing new interests like surfing and long-distance running.
5. Embracing Social Media and Online Sharing: Ben shared how he started sharing on TikTok and Instagram which not only helped him connect with a wider audience but also opened up new opportunities. This helped his book to become a bestseller in the rugby category on Amazon.

Quotes

On Transitioning from Professional Sports (26:00)

I was mourning the loss of my identity as a rugby player… It was a difficult time. I was anxious about the future, I had income anxiety, I’d just come out of a long-term relationship. I was underestimating how difficult that transition was going to be.

On Career Exploration (28:01)

I worked in a bike business, I did some freelance writing, I did some project management… I was just trying to find out what I liked. I was trying to find out what I was good at. I was trying to find out what I could make a living from.

On Networking and Community (33:03)

I was networking, I was joining online communities… I was meeting interesting people. I was trying to find out what was out there. I was trying to find out what I could do. I was trying to find out what I enjoyed.

On Writing and Self-Publishing (37:00)

I wrote a book about my experiences… I decided to self-publish it… It became a bestseller in the rugby category on Amazon. I was really proud of that. I was really proud of the fact that I’d done it myself.

On Personal Growth and Learning (39:01)

I learned to enjoy my own company… I challenged myself in new ways… I developed new interests. I learned to surf, I started running long distances. I was open to learning. I was open to personal development.

41k+ Sold! (Top 1% Book) The Pathless Path is Paul's book about walking away from a "perfect" job with a promising future and starting over again. Through painstaking experiments, living in different countries, and a deep dive into the history of our work beliefs, Paul pieces together a set of ideas and principles that guide him from unfulfilled and burned out to what he calls "the pathless path" - a new story for thinking about work in our lives. Learn More & Buy The Book Here

The post From Rugby to Writer & Book Influencer: How Ben Mercer Reinvented Himself appeared first on Boundless by Paul Millerd.

Pauri started playing Tennis when he was seven and it has turned into a clear passion. He wasn’t always sure that was the path he wanted to take, but when a job as a teacher fell through because he decided to attend his sister’s wedding, he picked up some coaching work to make some money. One thing turned into another and he is now the head women’s and men’s coach at Wheaton College. As a coach, he is in the position of constantly having to think about how to motivate different types of people and how he wants to lead.  He sees his job as “build teams that win” – but at a deeper level is driven by a purpose of “developing people into well-rounded individuals who are going to be great contributors to society.”  We also discuss his role in the healthy masculinity project and his work with college students.

Pauri is currently in his third year as the Head Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach at Wheaton College. In addition to his role as Head Tennis Coach, he is a co-coordinator of Wheaton’s chapter of the Healthy Masculinity Campus Athletics Project, where they have created and enacted programming around developing and promoting healthy masculinity, and has also been involved with Wheaton’s Sexual Misconduct Assault Resource Team. Prior to coming aboard at Wheaton, Pauri was the Assistant Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach at Brandeis University, where the teams achieved rankings inside the Top 30 in the country, won 6 All-America Awards, and Pandian was awarded the 2015 National Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year and 2015 Regional Men’s and Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Pauri got his coaching start at Beaver Country Day School (Chestnut Hill, MA), where he coached the boy’s team for three years, winning three league titles, one conference title, and was 2009 League Coach of the Year.

Pandian graduated from Wesleyan University in 2008, double majoring in English and religion. A four-year starter and captain his senior year, Pandian played in every spot in the singles and doubles lineup throughout his career.

Podcast Information: #BoundlessPod

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Show Notes: Pauri Pandian

Learn More: Healthy Masculinity @ Wheaton

Join the conversation: #boundless VIP facebook group

41k+ Sold! (Top 1% Book) The Pathless Path is Paul's book about walking away from a "perfect" job with a promising future and starting over again. Through painstaking experiments, living in different countries, and a deep dive into the history of our work beliefs, Paul pieces together a set of ideas and principles that guide him from unfulfilled and burned out to what he calls "the pathless path" - a new story for thinking about work in our lives. Learn More & Buy The Book Here

The post Boundless Podcast: Pauri Pandian – Tennis as a career, coaching & healthy masculinity (Episode 11) appeared first on Boundless by Paul Millerd.

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Growing up all Cody thought about was sports. He saw his path as becoming a professional Aussie Rules Football player. However, after competing at the highest level of the sport, he quickly saw felt his “talent just fell away” at the age of 18. He struggled to live in the moment and stewed on the fact that everyone around him seemed much more talented. While this period would help him realize that he was better suited as a coach than player, it took him a few years to make that realization.

Contest Details

I am giving away two of Cody’s books for free. Just retweet this episode with the hashtag #boundlesspod or send a screenshot of you subscribed to the podcast to paul@think-boundless.com

High-performance team environment on the weekends to the “baffling” corporate world on Mondays

The first time Cody worked in a large organization, he described it as “baffling.” At the time, he was coaching the Canadian national program on the weekends and then coming into a supposed team environment on Monday through Friday. While people claimed to be part of a “team” he experienced it as anything but. He knew he had to leave, but ended up staying a bit as he tried to make sense of what he was experiencing.

Writing as a path to discovery

Cody started writing about five years ago and over time it helped him make sense of what he believed in. He got some feedback that he was on to something when a childhood friend’s Aunt suggested that his writing was the “outlet that he needed” in the world.

The “altMBA” transformed his idea into action

I am fascinated with Seth Godin’s altMBA. For only $3,500, you become part of a global online learning community of driven and passionate people and focus on “shiping” 12 projects over 30 days. Cody said that the feedback and support that he got from others in the program was instrumental to helping him take action on his book and turn it from a half-baked idea into reality. At the end of the program, Cody felt that the biggest value was not a credential, but a real world transformation in his ability to create and take action.

Coaching

In his book, Cody says that coaching, when done right, takes “patience and practice.” As we discussed, he noted that the word coach comes from the word stagecoach, which means you are carrying a load of people from A to B — and that it reflects what coaching should be at its best — supporting others.

He believes coaching as a mindset falls short in the corporate world and too many people see coaching as an event (e.g. “I am going to coach you once a week on Tuesdays”).

In his book, he called out He uses the example of Iceland, who invested a ton of money in coaching almost 15 years ago and is now seeing the rewards of their patience and practice.

His Career Advice

He tells people to “try a lot of things” to help you understand what you like, don’t like and to figure out how many different things fit together. Throughout his career he has “tried a bunch of things and worn a bunch of hats” and has found that a career is not as linear as people think

Book Recs:

• Legacy: What the all blacks can teach us about the business of life
• Originals by Adam Grant

Links:

• Cody’s Book: Where Other’s Wont: Taking People Innovation from the Locker Room into the Boardroom
• altMBA
• Simon Sinek — Start With Why
• Netflix’s Culture Deck
• How Netflix’s Former Chief People Officer Patty McCord Got Herself Fired at Netflix
• Boundless Episode 3: David Vaucher
• A dozen lessons I learned from Originals (by me)

41k+ Sold! (Top 1% Book) The Pathless Path is Paul's book about walking away from a "perfect" job with a promising future and starting over again. Through painstaking experiments, living in different countries, and a deep dive into the history of our work beliefs, Paul pieces together a set of ideas and principles that guide him from unfulfilled and burned out to what he calls "the pathless path" - a new story for thinking about work in our lives. Learn More & Buy The Book Here

The post Cody Royle On The High-Performance Secrets The Business World Should Steal From Sports appeared first on Boundless by Paul Millerd.

Tom Brady has played in 34 playoff games with Bill Belichick. Thats over 33 hours of high-pressure experience. Matt Ryan has only played in 8 games and this was his first super bowl.

When the Patriots were down 25 points there was no reason to panic. They had come back from a large deficit to win the super bowl only two years ago. Brady & Belichick have probably been in every situation imaginable at this point. The key to their success was being part of the right team from the beginning.

From Kraft to Belichick to the Coordinators and Tom Brady — everyone in that organization is aligned on a clear mission: to win championships. Everyone knows their role and knows that is the only goal. You see time and time again that they make decisions 100% aligned with that mission.

One of the most important things in your career is to get reps in high-performance environments. Once you are exposed to these type of environments, you start to realize whats possible — in terms of an organization, teams and your own work.

Brady and Belichick have experienced that feeling of high-performance so many times — that when they needed 20 minutes of near perfect football — it was not only possible, but the only way they knew how to react.

Matt Ryan needs a few more reps.

41k+ Sold! (Top 1% Book) The Pathless Path is Paul's book about walking away from a "perfect" job with a promising future and starting over again. Through painstaking experiments, living in different countries, and a deep dive into the history of our work beliefs, Paul pieces together a set of ideas and principles that guide him from unfulfilled and burned out to what he calls "the pathless path" - a new story for thinking about work in our lives. Learn More & Buy The Book Here

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The post Getting Reps: High-Performance and The Patriots appeared first on Boundless by Paul Millerd.