You think you're doing things differently, but actually you're doing things very similar
to everybody else.
And I think the biggest thing that draws upon me is just staying curious, having the courage
to kind of put yourself out there and being able to evolve with the different environments
that you put yourself in, the different groups that you see yourself with.
And I think at the end of the day, you don't always get it right.
And I think that's where the courage comes to be able to put your hand up and navigate
and evolve around that.
I'm sure you're going to love this week's episode of the podcast with a legend of world
netball, Jeeva Mentor.
And she has some great advice, including her advice to parents on trying to figure out
what sport to put their kid into.
A little hint on that one, as many as possible.
She also talks really passionately about how we need to keep more young girls in sport,
how she has engaged the tool of visualization as a teenager and how that's worked really
strongly for her.
Talks about the routine she's got in place to execute her role as a captain and the similarities
and synergies she sees between the sporting field.
And the boardroom.
It's a chat that's full of wisdom, a remarkable success story, an athlete.
I'm sure you're going to enjoy this chat with Jeeva.
It's people like Jeeva Mentor that we are really privileged and proud to have in our
Alita Connect community.
Alita Connect is a facilitated, curated group of five to six leaders from diverse backgrounds
around the world who come together to learn, to share and connect.
We'd love you to check it out.
Head to alitacollective.com and book a discovery call today.
Jeeva Mentor is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of her chosen team,
sport of netball.
Her track record of success is quite incredible.
She competed for England six times at the Commonwealth Games, winning gold in 2018,
won back-to-back netball Super League titles in the 2005 and 2006 seasons, representing
And in the ANZ Championship, she won premierships in Adelaide in 2010 with the Melbourne Vixens
in 2014 and back-to-back titles as captain of the Sunshine Coast in 2017 and 2018.
She first represented her country at senior level as a 16-year-old.
Jeeva Mentor is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of her chosen team,
going on to captain England in 2019 and was appointed a commander of the Order of the
British Empire for her services to netball.
Jeeva, it's always great to see you.
You must feel proud when you look back.
It's been an amazing success story.
And yeah, lovely to be able to speak to you as well, Darce.
And I do love hearing the bios.
Everyone sums it up so perfectly.
And then I get on stage and have to send my bio and I'm just, I jump everywhere because
there has been so many amazing things that have happened.
I've got so many wonderful memories and so many events that I cherish.
As well, it's just trying to sort of compile them all into something that people want to
One of the ones that I mentioned there is as a 15-year-old, you're in your first senior
England squad at 16, your debut against New Zealand.
That must have been incredible going back to school after you're playing for your country
at international level.
What was that like?
I guess at that age, I was probably quite naive to it all.
I was a keen athlete.
I played many sports and actually got into netball quite late.
So I kind of didn't really know what was happening.
And I remember my first England trials.
You know, of an England team then, and we didn't have as much social media or social
presence, particularly with the England Roses back then.
So I kind of rocked up.
I did fitness tests and did the trials and sort of made the team and then even being
able to be selected to go away and receive my first cap when I was eventually 17 after
sort of sitting a year and a half on the bench in the setup and finally getting that opportunity.
And yeah, I came back into A-levels at the time.
And I think for me, the biggest difference was I was studying at school, but then when
it came time to exam.
I was on international duties.
I remember taking my first set of A-levels in a university in New Zealand, in Dunedin,
because we were travelling at the time and they arranged, they sent my papers over.
I was in this room all by myself with a monitor on me.
So I think I just did things differently and I just kind of took it in my stride.
And I think that's probably what helped me just kind of ease into it because I was quite
naive with it all.
Jeeva, you mentioned you were a keen athlete and did a range of other sports.
Was there one that maybe might have taken your attention other than netball?
I laugh when I say this one, because when you look at the attributes for this particular
sport, I definitely don't meet those.
And trampolining was my first love.
And you tend to find those athletes a lot more sort of shorter and compact and on the
taller, the taller range of being just over 6'3".
So it kind of got to a stage when I was about 13, 14, I had numerous accidents.
The difficulty of moves I had to do meant that I had to go a lot higher and get my limbs
in tightly to be able to rotate and twist.
And I remember her.
Coming off numerous times, being in hospital in a neck brace, fracturing my cheekbone.
And I think mum kind of called it and said, you know what, Jee, let's try and find a sport
that kind of suits your attributes.
And then for me, that was about it.
But I've always loved a trampoline.
And now you see them everywhere.
So you see something like bounce and I want to go along and I want to hop on.
I've got some of my skills, but I haven't got all of them anymore.
So there's not too many 6'3 Olympic trampolines, I'm assuming.
Height was a deterrent there, but you clearly had the athletic traits and within yourself
Can you work out why you've been able to be so successful?
What are the things within yourself that gave you that drive?
Yeah, I think that's what I often say.
I do a lot of coaching now, side of things.
And I try and tell parents, I know it's as hard as it is.
And you've obviously, father of four, trying to take your kids along to different sports.
And I'm like, parents, try and take them along to as many as possible.
Don't pigeonhole them into one particular sport, particularly at a young age.
Because for me, I feel like the trampolining gave me that spatial awareness, which I'm
really able to use on court, particularly in my position at goalkeeper.
Having that peripheral vision, having that vision down court.
And what's going on alongside me has really helped from my trampolining days, having that
core and that composure.
The basketball that I played at a young age, I was in the boys' teams.
We didn't have girls' teams.
I guess that gave me that aggression and that team sport element.
Athletics gave me that overall fitness.
Living on the coast, I did a lot of sailing and kayaking.
I think that just gave me the courage to be able to combat the element.
So I think as many sports that you can do, they have so many great attributes that come
And that's just talking about the physical side.
You've also got, I guess.
The mental side, the personality traits that come with that.
And I think that sport really gives you those sort of values within behaviour and how to
deal with different things in life that don't just happen in sport.
And I think that gave me a good foundation.
Often references, JV, the conversation comes up.
There was a famous book Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the 10,000 hour rule.
And they thought, you know, the Tiger Woods with his dad giving him a golf club when he
was two months old and trying to create the perfect athlete.
But there's a great study now.
Exactly what you're talking about and range and that having a diversity of interests not
only makes you healthier and happier in the longer run, but creates the biggest and best
It's something you obviously subscribe to that sampling bits of everything has been
Yeah, definitely.
And I mean, I had the support of my parents as well who encouraged me and they were very
So I kind of followed in their suit.
And I think you'll have different upbringing.
You'll have sort of parents that will push you more, some that will really want you to
have that balance between education and sport as well.
And then some that will just sort of let you be.
Everyone has come from different backgrounds.
There's no sort of one particular that works.
I think it's just really down to you as a person.
But for me, yeah, I just think that I've always gone along with the philosophy.
If you love what you do, you're going to put as much as you can into it, 110 percent into
So and that's exactly what I've done.
If I've enjoyed it, I've put my all into it and I've been happy to kind of ride out the
highs and lows that come with that.
And Jeeva, sport has been an incredible part of your life and still is to this very day.
I mean, I don't know the statistics and I don't know the actual evidence behind it
But there was always a lot of talk around.
And I've obviously been a young girl very many years ago, that time where boys do come
on the scene, where the social events of actually missing out on things.
For me, I chose to play sport and travel and compete, so I wasn't able to go to my school
got proms or parties and I missed out on so many events and I can see that sort of as there's so
much peer pressure nowadays that young girls unless they decide what they want to do they're
kind of steered towards you know I'll tamper with a bit of makeup or I want to hang out with my
friends and whether that's still the case I'm not sure whether I know they're still finding and
struggling with their identity I think the biggest thing for us is just making it as open as possible
and that's where we can flip peer pressure on its head in terms of well you know what bring your
friend along bring your group you know I've got a big enough car let's let's stick as many of you
in as possible and let's go along and have a fun and and see who else we can interact with and I
had a father that came up to me at a leadership conference I spoke at recently and he said I've
got a 14 year old daughter I really wanted to continue in sport but I can see that I don't
know if she wants to hang out with dad anymore I don't know if she wants to go and I literally
just said the same I said you know what put these events in there and say bring your friend it
doesn't just have to be father-daughter time and just get her along and then that
well then and we always say about that buddy system going on to the gym if you get someone
else who's keen they're going to drag you in those days that you're not so much they'll
they'll motivate you too so there's definitely um stuff out there that limits um young women
and girls staying within sport and um I just hope there's enough of us that can keep um motivating
them and encouraging them and just showing them there's different avenues and it can be social
or competitive no matter what stream they want to um keep involved in it's great point isn't it
you've got one other friend your your chance of sticking
is probably a factor of five or more and so it's a great piece of uh advice that that you have given
you mentioned you're talking at a leadership conference which I'm not surprised you
kept in your country you kept in premierships and seems like you're a leader from a very young age
did you always see that in yourself no not at all and even now today I still think I've got a
a lot of improvement I'm not the best speaker although I feel like I've I've listened to so
many wonderful people who really articulate themselves beautifully and I think wow if
only I could be like that and I love I love reading quotes but I can never remember them
um and it's just it's one of those that um I need to have I need to have the words out in front of
me to articulate but I think for me the biggest thing and I've said that as I've kind of matured
through my sport um and through the ages is um just try to stay true to myself um and the things
that I've noticed about and also being part of a leader and the program that um that you set out is
you're doing things very similar to everybody else and I think the biggest thing that draws
upon me is just staying curious having the courage to kind of put yourself out there
um and being able to evolve um with the different environments that you put yourself in the different
groups that you see yourself with and um I think at the end of the day that you don't always get
it right and I think that's where the courage comes to be able to put your hand up and and
navigate and evolve around that and we've been really privileged to be able to connect with you
in in the leader program that you just mentioned and with some other um
unbelievable athletes uh from around the globe Patrick Cripps is a Brownlow medal winner in the
AFL test match and captain of the Australian basketball team Mitch Marsh has had probably
the greatest period of all time Mitch he's uh won the Alan Borda medal for Australia's best
cricket player Daley Cherry Evans is a superstar of rugby league can you tell us a bit about
getting together sitting down with group a group like that on a on a monthly basis what what's it
been like for you it's been phenomenal actually and it's funny you just talk about Mitch there
we feel like we've all kind of
ridden the journey along with him right from the start and knowing before things became public with
him making the team and then making captaincy and how he sort of navigated his leadership role
within that and um as I spoke about a little bit before in this is that we're doing things
that actually are very similar to each other in a way that we kind of gather our team we deal with
situations that happen within groups um and I think it's really reassuring as a as a leader
that you are on kind of the right track and um yes we play different sports and yes we're kind
different generations but um being able to still navigate and lead and gather the troops um but
yeah I mean Paddy's phenomenal he's one that remembers quotes and I often find we come off
his sessions and we're all writing down and um when we kind of review or um just go through what
sort of stood out for us it's often some amazing book that he's read and a quote that he's pulled
from it Mitch is just beautiful he seems quite sort of shy and reserved but then um he's he's
got quite a personality about him and it's just been great to see him evolve into this
um confident leader um Tess is always learning um and um she's praying for Olympic campaign and
um just surrounded by some phenomenal things and had some interesting situations that happen within
female basketball as well in Australia and um and then Daly is just um obviously a champion
again been around for so long got so many caps under his belt and just the way he's navigated
those different sports but I think for me the biggest thing I've taken from it is I've got
genuine friends now I've got these people who are really kind and kind of who I've got really
that I can not only call upon if I need some advice or support along the way and we throw in
our I don't know questions or prompting things to kind of handle and navigate and work through so
you've got that support line there but you've also got some people that you end up following like
when the news comes on when the social media scrolling goes through and you find that genuine
interest because you feel so close and connected to them and you feel like their biggest sort of
advocate and supporter as well. Beautifully said Jeeva and we talk about those inspiring
connections inspiring people and that leadership can be lonely at times there are not all that many
places to turn have you felt like having people that are probably at a similar stage of you in
lots of ways that that's found some common ground? Yeah definitely and our moderator is Stacey and
she's done very well with sort of connecting us all and keeping us all together but I think for me
I went through some really challenging times as a leader last year with Collingwood Magpies and
having our team kind of debunked
partway through our season and just trying to find motivation for the group in terms of what
they're now playing for and I really leant hard on the group to kind of what I could do and if
they'd had any sort of experiences that I could learn from and be able to kind of share and
connect and support my group around that so yeah I mean there's been some personal cases that
happened I like to think I've also been able to sort of share some advice as well and I think the
beautiful thing with it it goes both ways and we are always learning and evolving and
I think from our first session right till now we've really come on as a group and yeah it's
really nice to see it then the funny thing about it is we haven't actually met up in person in one
room I mean some of us have been able to sort of catch each other on different sporting grounds
and situations but to have that connection and it's all online has been wonderful. That would
be a good dinner and I suspect Mitch Marsh will be holding court if you get together holding up
the bar at some he likes to celebrate Mitch in a fine way and thanks for the shout out to Stacey
Morlang who's a bit of a champion.
In our world she's a great facilitator captain the Australian women's lacrosse team and I know
she's really passionate about you Jeeva and your group and what you do I want to ask you sort of
a qualified school teacher and you studied you know amazing that you were doing exams in other
countries in year 12 while playing for England what about the skills that sport has taught you
has that helped you finding as you transition into the next chapter of your life? Yeah I definitely
put my hand up I probably wasn't the most academic at school I'd rather be out on the field and
running around and doing something else but I did apply myself and it took me seven and a half
eight years to get my Bachelor of Education primary but finally got it alongside playing
sport and Commonwealth Games and World Cups and actually be back out in Australia this year to
graduate and I'm going to make that flight because I want to be there it's taken it's taken that long
to sort of dedicate myself to it and achieve it and for me it's definitely a personal achievement
but I can't reiterate how important sport has been for me and sculpturing me to who I am today and I
so many attributes that you can take from sport that can work in other aspects of life whether
it's lifestyle whether it's business whether it's just navigating situations that arise I feel like
the discipline that you get within sport and being able to sort of apply yourself being able to ride
out the highs and lows that come from that the situations that that crop up but also you really
have to dig deep within yourself and know who you are to be able to handle those things also to be
able to help make you feel comfortable and to get to where you are and to be able to be able to
understand that everyone operates differently and so you might be able to see yourself through a
journey and out the other end but people alongside you who are part of that makeup and you achieving
your goal whether that's in sort of another industry business or lifestyle or whatever
happens throughout life I think you may be fine with that but then it's also about being able to
sort of bring those people along with you and finding their way and knowing that they may not
go into the same groove as you but helping them realise their potential and I definitely think
feel that that's what sport has done for me it's opened my eyes and as I said before there's so
many attributes I can and values I can be able to take from what I've learned into the next chapter
and for me sport will come to an end eventually and I like to think that those qualities that
I've sort of picked up along the way I'll be able to utilize. It's a brilliant message and I think
all former athletes need to hear what you said because I think a lot of athletes forget that
they have maybe focused on that part of their life but they're great team players they're open
to feedback resilient all the words that you used make them incredibly capable often in the second
part of their life. We have this saying too that success leaves clues and I love asking these
questions around what we think great leadership looks like starting with the idea of self-leadership
that we think it's hard to lead someone else without an understanding of yourself what does
self-leadership mean to you? Yeah I think for me as I spoke up before it's definitely making sure
you don't lose sight of who you are so staying true to yourself I think you've got to be able
to be vulnerable.
And by being vulnerable you've got to be self-analytical you've got to be able to look
first within to see where you can improve and be better and help and then from that I think comes
courage to be able to sort of take those actions put yourself out there lead by example and then
I think what what makes a great leader a great leader is you have these sort of common themes
but then you've also got something that's a little bit quirky about yourself you may be a bit of a
comedian in the group you may be a bit of a comedian in the group you may be a bit of a comedian in the
group you may be the one that is a fantastic speaker and really articulates things well or
you may be the one that can kind of lead by example so I think that's the important thing
that it's all these different ingredients but not every template is the same there's the foundation
there but I think then it's important that because people can see through the bullshit
to be honest so it's about it's about knowing that you are who you are but then you can you
can draw upon those of those foundations. Yeah I love the way you said that and it's come up a couple
times in your language being authentically yourself and if you're trying to be someone
else you're going to get found out pretty pretty quickly so what what was your quirk then that
do you think helped you in uh in those roles? Oh gosh um I've been known to have a bit of a filthy
mind um as we move through the evolution because it's not very easy um I have to pick
my audiences now um but I do have a few good innuendos that
this podcast gone a different direction David I'm uh I've got a whole heap of questions
that I uh I'm not sure right I'm gonna go with but I love it I love it give me one give me one
like I'm with the Leeds Rhinos netball team at the moment up in north of England and um we have
team talks before we're about to go out on court and play and the coach comes in and speaks to us
all and um ramps us up with a pre-game thing and then she made the mistake of going around and
asking each individual um sort of what they're feeling and then she's like I'm going to go out
and how they're going and um what's what their what their main thing they want to get out of the
game is and I've just sort of gone on this new nutrition plan and I was so thirsty of me I just
said I just want to keep my lips moist uh well the whole changing room erupted and it was just
great because it broke the nerves we went out and had the first quarter I love it I love it uh
brilliant next dimension I wanted to talk to you about having a positive impact on others and it
seems like you do that in every room that you're in I can see that that's something that just
happens when you're around
thought about that that impact you have on those in the groups that you're in it's probably not
till until I guess recently um and as I've been able to kind of take a step back um obviously
been playing that in Australia for the last 15 years in a professional environment and then
moving back to England where netball super league is looking to go in that direction but it's not
yet um so the pressures and the stresses have been off I've been able to kind of sort of take a step
back and reflect and yeah I've been able to kind of um just assess where things are at um and see
the impact that I can have on others and I've been able to kind of take a step back and reflect and
see the impact that I can have on others and I've got a really sort of young team that I'm a part of
now and how important it is to nurture them how important it is what I say and the interesting
thing is in a few meetings and stuff that we have afterwards I hear them reiterating what I've said
to them a few weeks before and I'm like oh my gosh they're listening I need to make sure everything
I'm saying is is is really valuable um and so I've kind of taken on board myself and I guess mentor
by name mentor by nature um into that role of just being able to kind of um lead and know that
the impact that I have on others and I've got a really sort of young team that I'm a part of now
others is is so important and and also trying to reflect back on what I found was useful when I was
maybe their age and or what I could have maybe needed to help open doors earlier to get to where
I wanted to be so um yeah I've definitely probably taken it on board a little bit more now with the
impact that I can have on others and I think at the end of the day I've always come back to
being um having that genuine care um and for me probably empathy is when we speak about those
leadership qualities um not all leaders I think have empathy but I think they
can associate with it but I think I've definitely had that genuine care along the way and so I will
look at the person first and make sure they're in a better place to be able to then combat whatever
issue normally within sport that's going on for them and do we see people who've had success like
you have almost everywhere you've gone success has followed have got a really clear vision
and understand how they create that and how they share it with others in their team have you got
some thoughts on creating and sharing a vision oh um there's something I listened to recently
and they said visualizing the future of the sport and I think that's a really good point
is so key to achieving things in success especially within sport and I didn't really
think about it too much but it is something that I do a lot of and it actually stemmed right from
my trampolining days before we went on the trampoline used to visualize the routine the
10 moves that you would perform before you got out closing your eyes got out then onto the
trampoline and did that and I feel like the same with within sport yes netball is a long 60 minute
game there's lots of passages of play but you can still get out there and imagine the statue you're
going to take what you're going to do how you're going to sort of present yourself and
that is definitely um something or a tool that I've sort of picked up and not realized that it's
been quite useful um along the way as I spoke about before it's been able to it may not work
for everybody but it's been able to kind of share and help people sort of um unlock what their
potential and what their capacity is and what they need to be able to I guess be their best version
I dealt with that a little bit more I'm interested so now is that something you're consciously doing
you get up in the morning and visualize the way you're going to play or visualize the success
that you want to have you you do that
consciously is it part of a routine or is it just something that naturally happens
it's actually a fine balance between it for me because I get incredibly nervous still
um playing and performing so if I think about things too much I'll stress myself out so I'm
a very chilled person come game day some people say I'm so laid back I'm horizontal like I love
my neck um I like to switch off so there's an element of that I think for me I'm a big one on
making your bed so making sure that that's um nicely done and you've obviously achieved something
um when you start the day like that and I think there'll be moments in the day where you're like
hey that I will find myself going back to thinking about what I need to do and how I need to execute
my game and perform the best for my team as as a player and as a captain and then I'll switch
myself off that and I think that's the important part of that being able to switch off because if
you stay switched on the whole time you're going to burn energy that you're going to need later on
and that's probably been something that I've learned over the years and as I've been able to
handle my nerves whereas before I probably stressed about things so much I got so nervous I
over visualized everything that when it came to
the performance I sort of crashed or crashed and burned pretty pretty spectacularly a lot of the
time you mentioned the word curiosity before it's a common word that that we see in this environment
and through curiosity we see people like you always learning and developing themselves
does curiosity ring true with you oh absolutely um I think as a leader and yes a grand old age
and whatever I've been through um is that you've got to still keep learning um you've got to keep
growing I remember is it last year or so when I'm calling my magpies
coaches said to me gee you're a great person to coach you'd think someone with your experience
would just come and be like no this is how I've got to do it but she would give me advice and I'd
take it on board and we work on different things and I think that's literally it is if you can if
you improve to yourself that you can keep evolving and keep growing and keep aiming to get better and
yes as an athlete you go over a period of time where you may reach your peak pinnacle physical
but that's when your mental can definitely step in and find and fill up those gaps and maybe even
improve yourself as an overall coach.
athlete and for me that's that's definitely it I'm staying curious because I want to learn I want
to be better and I find myself moving into different aspects where I'm reading a little
bit more I'm just um wanting to learn off more and more people um and that's where leaders being
great and but I also think now I'm looking and turning to more the management and the board
level and actually these people have similar qualities that I can see within sport but yet
they use it in a management and a business model and yeah so I'm just I find myself just
intrigued with life and people and um how I can take little bits from what they're doing and bring
it into where I want to see myself going and what I'm doing now.
So we see uh leaders are really conscious of how they communicate with clarity you mentioned
earlier that that was a maybe a work in progress for you when you first started out but you're
incredibly clear thinking you get your words out uh in a very articulate way is that something
you've worked on?
Oh thank you um no I'm still working on
very clear and very sort of probably stubborn knowing what I want to do and where I want to go
um but I think it's as I said before I'd love I I get stuck sometimes with those one-liners
and fall back on that where actually I just want to stay true and present my words but sometimes
they don't make sense to people so I go back to the the one-liners or the generic phrases but um
yeah I think for me as I said it's an area that I'd love to improve on because I have got so much
up there and as I spoke about before like with the bio there's so much I want to put into that
actually what's interest what can people take from that and that's probably the element I'm at in my
life where it's actually just um pulling it all together and putting it in a package or in a way
that people can can take and learn from it as well and and I feel confidently about giving that.
How important has collaboration been for you?
Oh it's been huge and um they often say whether you're a sort of an individual player or a team
player and I'm definitely a team player through and through and I've really thrive off working
with others um and I've got a competitive edge and I've got a competitive edge and I've got a competitive
side but sometimes I just want to see others do well too um I mean don't get me wrong when I'm on
the court with my team I want to win um having said that I yeah I just I love the banter the
camaraderie that you get within a team sport and um and those memories are often they're the ones
that you kind of yes you remember that standing on the podiums and receiving the medals around
your neck or holding up the trophies yeah it's the lead up to that and they often and that's
this is another cliche one that it's sort of enjoy the journey not just sort of the
ending that's definitely something that's run true to me no matter what the goal or the
the ending is that as long as you've appreciated and loved and enjoyed and cherished the journey
to it um then whatever the goal or the outcome will be um it will be successful um and I've
definitely got a lot of memories with some wonderful people um over the years which is um
I all hold very true and long into my retirement and post um netballing career um will definitely
um I guess just just
uh provide me with those sort of warm fuzzy moments when you go through tough times
you've got plenty of those to uh to draw back on uh java who's been the greatest leader in your life
oh I struggle with this one because I think I've obviously had some fantastic captains within my
sport and I've seen some amazing leaders um being part of multi-organizations and seeing people in
um those roles but I've actually been surrounded by some really sort of strong empowering women
in my life um I can't go past my mum my auntie and actually my brother's
godmother and I was trying to sort of think about the qualities that they have and
um they're very strong empowering women they're very organized but they're also very
empathetic they're very caring um and almost will go above and beyond um and I think it's
those attributes that they have that I see as great leaders because not only can they organize
and get things done they can also empower those around them to um find a way through whether
they're going through a tough time or not or um support those without
so taking lead and I think it's that aspect that I like and um there's been some things over the
years where it's actually as a good leader you actually listen first before you speak and I
think that comes into case with with some of those um attributes in a great leader uh for me in terms
of being able to um not just go in head first I know the answer follow me everybody but actually
just sit back and see what that individual or group needs before you then take action
what a brilliant stroke of luck to have those influences in your life java it sounds like
and and you said the godmother of your brother and and auntie to have those power and the words
you use to me that's what you are I think all those words the empathy and the care and empowering
others it sounds like uh they've had not only uh a uh an influence but they're going to impact you
long lasting by the person that you are it's um it's brilliant to hear if you could collaborate
like asking this question final question if you could collaborate with anyone on anything and I
know sports been huge part of your life have you thought god love to connect with that person could
be on another passion that we'd like to hear from you and I think that's a great question
don't know about is there a name that comes to mind you know what there's probably no name it's
probably more industry um and it's someone that's completely away from sport as it is so whether
it's a sort of a high rolling ceo or managing director of a big business but someone who's
had to kind of gather the team but then inspire be innovative in what they're doing and as I said
I'm in that phase of my life where I'm really just intrigued by people and particularly people
away from sport because I feel I see so many similarities and synergies between that
um so no I don't have any I don't have any particular names um but I definitely have
like titles and roles like people within that that next realm
is there a specific industry that you're curious about or a bit of everything
yeah probably a bit of everything but definitely um definitely business I think also um around like
it's quite funny but stock market can be very um individualized but I think it's like a very
high risk pressured situation so people in those those situations I know we're
I've spoken to a few people from sort of armed forces and um who have had sort of life or death
situations I think they're very inspiring people so it's probably an element a little bit back from
that but still people who are having to make some really tough decisions um but then gather
the team around them. JV you're incredibly inspiring in everything you do we feel really
privileged to have been able to connect with you in in our leader program I know you've had a
impact in your sport and you've got a great legacy
person and as an athlete and um really appreciate you taking the time to uh
catch up today. Lovely to speak to you Darce I'm glad we're able to make the time zones work as
well. It's a full life you're living uh JV it's been hard to uh to get hold of you but thanks
again. Thanks for listening to another episode of the Empowering Leaders podcast huge thanks as
always to our great friends at Temper and we encourage you to check out our Leader Connect
program new episodes are out every Wednesday morning at 6am.