Not Today Moment

Nat 0:00

And I looked up to the sky, straight up to the sky, and I said, this is not happening to me again. Not today. And we won 15-6. Rupert McCall wrote a poem called Green and Gold Malaria, which is you get bitten by the mozzie and you want to go back and back and back. So run fast. Why do we complicate our lives by trying to build 55-page business plan documents? Everyone's game plan should be run fast. It's the first thing I get any athlete to do. Okay, go again. I go again.

Meet Natalie Cook

Magnus 0:53

Welcome to the Mastering Podcast. I'm the host, Magnus Olsen. I'm joined by co-hosts Elliot Hill and Don Sanka. How are you guys?

Don 1:02

Good, mate. Always a pleasure when we're around you.

Magnus 1:06

Thanks, mate. Look at that new t-shirt, Build to Last. That's what it's all about, mate.

Elia 1:12

No, things are good.

Magnus 1:14

Alright, should we introduce our absolutely special guest today?

Don 1:19

Yesterday was World Olympic Day, and nothing says more Olympic than this guest.

Nat 1:26

No pressure.

Magnus 1:28

Okay. We're honoured to be joined in the studio today with the one and only Natalie Cook, five-time Olympian and gold medalist at the Sydney 2000 Games. A high-performance speaker and author, and you've been awarded the Order of Australia Medal, and you sit on the 2032 Olympic Organising Committee, along with a variety of ambassador roles. Welcome.

Nat 1:51

Welcome. My shirt doesn't look as good as yours, though. Oh, and look at those muscles. What are you training for?

Magnus 1:57

Oh, just just trying to stay fit to uh building a body that lasts. Oh. Getting in. Apparently, your um your muscle mass decreases as you get older.

Nat 2:07

Yours does not look like it's going anywhere, does it?

Magnus 2:10

Might have done a training session this morning to help.

Don 2:12

I think every year I've known you, it gets bigger and bigger, so I don't know what the hell's going on there. That's why that's a new shirt. That's why that's what it is. Yeah.

Nat 2:20

Anyway, my shirt is cool, but I do not have the muscles like magnets.

Don 2:24

Gold and green in there.

Nat 2:25

Yeah, that's right. What every athlete strives for.

Magnus 2:28

Wear the green and gold.

Why Athlete Funding Falls Short

Magnus 2:30

So what is the Aussie Athlete Fund?

Nat 2:33

Well, the Aussie Athlete Fund was born out of my own frustrations of 20 years of becoming Olympian for the first time and being all excited and then realizing how much money it costs to compete on an international stage. When you go to the Olympics, it's paid for for that two weeks every four years. But to get there and to qualify and to travel overseas, and as an Aussie, we would have to go and camp in Europe for three months to collect points and live on floors and ate to a hotel room and collect food stamps and pinch food from the buffet breakfast. I'm sure you've done it too. But pinch food from the buffet breakfast so that it does lunch and dinner. So we've always struggled around the world for five Olympic cycles to try and put ourselves in the best shape possible to go to the Olympics. So the fund was born to help athletes raise money. Everything from car washers to raffle tickets all the way through to sponsorships and influences and jobs for money and also jobs for career purposes. So we help align the athlete from the beginning to the end and look after their financial well-being. But ultimately, helping corporate Australia, philanthropists, individuals around Australia that love the green and gold help the next generation through to 32 and beyond.

Magnus 3:54

How long has it been going for and how much have you raised?

The Million Dollar Challenge Explained

Nat 3:58

So we're in 2025. We've been going, this is our third year. Last year was our full year, our first full year of program based. Our signature event is called the Million Dollar Challenge. And I did that because it's easy math. 100 athletes, we try and match with 100 businesses to make $10,000 an athlete. Now that doesn't get you far. Some of our athletes, we have uh Ipswich BMX rider Holly, who's 16, and her bike costs her $15,000. To get overseas and compete for Australia, she has to buy her own green and gold jersey. And then you've got to get to the US or get to Europe or to compete. And that's just for one what I call tour of duty. Um, so the 10K is just a start because I believe if we can teach the athlete how to raise it, and we do teach them, we match their efforts. So if they're not prepared to go and do their sausage sizzle at bunnings, then we can't help them. They've got to be able to participate in their own financial well-being. Then I believe they can raise 15, they can raise 50, they can raise 100, and ultimately build their own sustainable athlete economy, individualized, localized in Ipswich for Holly, and how we get the whole of Ipswich and the council and the mayor and all the local businesses to support Holly as she heads through her sporting journey. So you ask how much we've raised so far. We are up to, now we try and support our athletes directly into their pages. So I don't, it doesn't come through the Aussie Athlete Fund. We become a facilitator of funds, a facilitator of activity. We do ask corporates to support the fund as well so that we can then pour it into their Australian Sports Foundation pages, which we'll talk about a bit later. But they all have that's their business account, the Australian Sports Foundation. It's tax deductible. So the more money we collect at the fund, the more we can go and pour into their pages. So the total in what, two and two, just over two and a half years is probably over one and a half million.

Magnus 6:09

Wow.

Nat 6:10

Um, directly or indirectly. Well done. Uh a little bit of value in kind on top of that, but I always say there's not much you can do with a water bottle and a hat and a gym membership. So we actually need real hard cash.

Don 6:22

So that's cash, not just that's not cash. Okay. It's been a while. I think first time when we spoke about this concept, it was a few years back. What's been the challenges getting this off the ground?

Sponsorship Versus Philanthropy

Nat 6:36

Probably awareness and sharing the stories that athletes are in um financial hardship. And a lot of the athletes are too busy, head down, bum up, trying to train, trying to work, trying to study, trying to ask for sponsors, trying to ask for family money. Like I teach the athletes in the beginning to ask grandma, granddad, mom, dad, auntie, uncle, instead of giving me a Christmas present, put it into my Australian Sports Foundation page. And that's how you start to understand the ask, because usually your family aren't going to say no, especially if you're sacrificing a Christmas or birthday or um Easter present. I don't know that I got an Easter present, but maybe my chocolates. Um so that's really how we get them going. The challenge is they run out of family members to ask, and they get uh embarrassed or sick and tired of asking the same people. So that's when I said, we actually need a bigger network. We need to introduce you to a business or somebody else that can ask on your behalf. So now how does Don ask his friends to support Holly on her journey so that now we've got some leverage and then we talk about business partnerships and associations, and there's an interesting difference. This is one of the big challenges between sponsorship versus donation and philanthropy. And sponsors expect a return on investment.

Don 8:10

They uh want to know that's what I was gonna ask next, yeah.

Nat 8:13

If they give you some money, how can it make me more money? Is what brands are often thinking. So when we go to brands and we go to corporate sponsorship, it's more looking at their CSR or their ESG budgets, which are social good budgets, which are giving budgets, not receiving back budgets, which often in a marketing spend or a ROI spend, they want to spend a dollar and get three or four back.

Don 8:40

Yeah.

Nat 8:41

Your three or four dollars back in a donation to an athlete is when they are running down the track or riding down the track at an international games with the green and gold on, and you can say, I helped that kid. And it's a feel-good response. Yes, and it does have components where you can uh have the athlete come and speak at your function and do sport trivia for internal um staff satisfaction.

The Mango Box Confidence Drill

Don 9:14

How do you teach these kids to do this? Because one of the biggest challenges, yeah, as you said, uh biggest focus is wearing that green and gold uh colours and competing. How do you get them to start doing these things that is a lot more mature? These kids are most of these kids are really young.

Nat 9:34

Well, it's no longer good enough to just be good at pedaling your bike or swimming or running or or um hitting a golf ball or a tennis ball or playing cricket. You actually got to hold yourself in a in a different way. You've got to become a mentor, you've got to become a role model. And there's been many discussions over the decades about whether you sign up for that. And as an athlete, wearing the green and gold, you do. You sign up to say, I'm gonna be the inspiration for the next generation, whether I like it or not. Um, so you have to learn how to carry yourself, you have to learn how to speak to the press, you have to learn how to um win well and lose well. And you have to understand that your sporting journey is a journey and not a destination. And so as we teach, you teach through experience, it doesn't matter how much I stand up there and tell these kids what they're gonna experience until they feel it and ask someone for something and be told no, and you get that visceral disappointment, which most athletes stop at that point. So if they have a visceral disappointment when they lose, they're gonna have visceral disappointment when they get someone says, no, I'm not gonna support your journey. Until you feel that, what is the response that's next is what we're interested in. And that was the same for me on a volleyball court. If I lost a point, it wasn't about that point, it was what I was gonna do next. And how could I hold my posture physically and mentally in a in a good space to hit the next ball better than I did that last one, which didn't go too well? And so we do the same off the court. It's like great. My first challenge I give to every athlete in the Aussie Athlete Fund is to go to the local fruit shop and ask for a free box of mangoes. Actually, you said a free mango first, and then we got to boxes. Why, man? Great question. There's I'm gonna ask my masters here. Why would I do that, Magnus?

Magnus 11:33

Just to give people an understanding of what it's like to ask for something for free.

Elia 11:37

Great. So you've got to ask for something. Elia, why else? How do you then leverage that to make money? How do you have a raffle? How do you ask people to donate to win the box of mangoes?

Nat 11:47

Okay, so now she's gone further. She's got the free box of mango. She's not gonna eat it, she's gonna go and make more money off it, which is great. So everyone, Don went to why mangoes. I've had athletes go, I don't even like mangoes. I said, I don't care. The challenge is to get some to have enough courage to build your own little story. What are you gonna tell the fruit man? Hi, my name's Don. I want a free box of mangoes because Nat Cook told me. Like, you have to build this. I'm running for Australia. I have this vision for 2032 that I'm gonna race in the BMX and I want to be like say a Sakabara, and and you have to like sell yourself. Get them to feel it. And get them to feel it to give you something in return. Now, then you go to, and the bus this is the best part. If they say no, there's a fruit shop a hundred metres down the road and you can ask someone else. Because don't go once resilience sellers. That's a the ability to go back, take no, readjust. So if someone says no to them, I then say, Can you have to be able to ask, can I ask you why? So that when I go and ask the next person, how do I get a yes? How do I get a yes? And it's through this tiny little game of mangoes. And so the athletes will come and then send photos of their whole fruit box with all fruits, and then some will say, I've got one a week for the year. So now they've got 52 boxes of fruit that they can either raffle or eat. And then the ones that were in it last year, I say, right, not just fruit. Now what's next? What else do you eat that costs you money? Meat. Lamb, steak, chicken is expensive. So now they get their fruit box, they walk next door and they go, the butcher, hey, my friend next door at the fruit shop just gave me this because I'm representing Australia in the beach volleyball or aiming to represent Australia in the beach volleyball. I love lamb chops. But mate, they are so expensive. Would you consider sponsoring me for my lamb chops every week? No, go down the road to the next butcher. Yes, now you've got lamb chops. They're expensive, they're $64 a kilo.

Don 14:01

Oh, it's ridiculous.

Nat 14:03

So that that's how we start. They start to learn through doing because if I tell them things, unless they do, they're not gonna feel it.

Don 14:11

So the mentorship part is as important as the money that you help them raise. It's education.

Nat 14:17

The education. I give them money because I've raised it for them to match their effort so that they pay attention. Because I guarantee you give a young person five thousand dollars cash, they will pay attention and they will show up. That's to get them in the door so that they learn how to raise five. So now we've got ten. And they pay attention. They pay attention to what I'm sharing. And not it doesn't always work, but I'm more interested in if it doesn't what you do next, because a lot of athletes will stop.

Don 14:50

You talked about um, you know, ones that represent Australia and the ones that want to represent Australia. How many athletes re get to represent Australia? That number is surprisingly lower than what most people think.

Nat 15:02

Yeah, the whole green and gold number I'm not sure of. But when you look at Olympians, in Paris we had 450. In LA, we'll probably have a similar number. In Brisbane, we'll have 600. We'll have 250 Paralympians. And so when you take it as a percentage of the country.

Don 15:23

That's less than a thousand people.

Nat 15:24

That's right. At any given out of 27 million. It's like 0.000001% of the country that get to represent the country at a game crazy.

Pie Drives And Learning To Ask

Don 15:38

I just want to go back a little bit. You talked about raising money. Um, I found out recently you started that very early when you saw a sign, and I think this is the point where you realised that you wanted to play volleyball. Um, Corinda Stead, how you went to school?

Nat 15:55

Yeah, I was um playing every sport, which is why the Aussie Athlete Fund is so important to me, because I genuinely played every sport.

Don 16:02

Yeah.

Nat 16:03

Um, from tennis to taekwondo to BMX to every track and field to every throw. Um, so much so that the P teacher, I didn't want to do every sport at the athletics carnival, but he would make sure I would to get points for the school. Even the 3,000 meter steeple chase, everything. I'm like, I've had enough. I'm exhausted. Um, no, no, back out there you go. So I've tried every single sport, even a girl's cricket called Vigaro, netball, hockey. Vigoro is a cricket that because as girls at my age, in my era, we were not allowed to play cricket.

Don 16:38

Oh. So my I've never heard of this Vigoro.

Nat 16:42

Vigoro. V-I-G. I'm testing I-R-O. Vigoro. You have to Google it. So I played Vigoro at school. We had a Vigoro at a P teacher that taught Vigoro, and and I literally um love every sport. Um, rode my skateboard, rode my BMX in Townsville. And that's why I'm so passionate about every athlete getting a leg up and every athlete in the green and gold getting an opportunity. Um, but there was a notice on the school notice board that was the size of an A4 piece of paper. And now I teach all my athletes to pay attention to the notices, whether that's on social media, whether that's physical notices, whether that's something coming from someone sends you an email. Read your emails, read all of your LinkedIns, read all of your social contents, because you'll get a sign. And the sign said volleyball trip to Canada and America. And I thought this is great. What's volleyball first? I hadn't played that sport. That was a new one. V, I hadn't got to V for volleyball yet. Okay. Um, and so it was gonna, we raised, we fundraised at the school $50,000 in the year so that our parents only had to pay $500.

Don 17:51

Oh, wow.

Nat 17:51

And so we had a great experience playing volleyball around um Canada. There was a boys soccer team, and our P teacher had taken us back to do that trip. So then I came back, I fell in love with volleyball. I said to mum and dad, I'm actually gonna go to Tasmania with the under-17 Queensland team, and it's gonna cost $1,000. And mum and dad said, We don't have it. And it was the first time ever that my parents said no uh to me in one of my trips, and I had to work out what to do. I thought my sporting life was over, I thought my career was done, I was gonna retire as a um Canadian and American trip volleyballer. And I just thought five $500 to $1,000, of course, but it didn't happen. I I called the coach and said, My parents can't afford it, I can't go. And he said, no, no, just wait. There's a very special fundraising opportunity. I said, I can't wash another car and I can't sell another chocolate or a meat tray. And he said, no, no, this is new. And so here it came, down. Like how old was I? 16, 1991. It was the Yatla pie drive, halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. A Yatla pie.

Magnus 19:05

The famous Yatler Pies. Very famous.

Nat 19:07

Still, I still, every time I drive back from the Gold Coast, I'll call in and get myself this drive-thru now. It's awesome. Um, so the Yattla Pie drive, uh back then, it's all economics, right? I'm all about the financial well-being of an athlete. So there was a meat family meat pie was five bucks. And Yattler gave us half, 250. So a thousand bucks, I needed to sell 400 pies. And I learned the art of delegation real quick. I gave it to mum and dad and said, Mummy, you give you go and sell it and you go and sell it, so now it's a team. Um, they sold 16 between them in a week and a half. I said, it's not good enough. So out I went, door knocking. I said 486 pies because I knew that if I didn't, I wasn't going. So there was some real purpose, there was some real urgency, there was some real incentive. And that's where my fundraising journey started. And ever since then, I never um said nah.

Don 20:16

That's a great reflection.

Nat 20:19

And I think it has across a lot of other moments that we haven't seen because of that.

Don 20:24

Wow.

Magnus 20:25

So you mentioned that was 91. 92, I think you captained the indoor volleyball team at the school. Is that correct? How did you How'd you know that?

Nat 20:32

Were you back in the club?

Magnus 20:33

I do my research.

Nat 20:34

Yeah, good man.

Switching From Indoor To Beach

Magnus 20:36

So from captaining the indoor volleyball team, how did you get into beach volleyball?

Nat 20:41

Well, at school, beach volleyball wasn't a thing. It was kind of backyard cricket sport, right? Everyone did it at the beach for fun, have a barbecue. And so I was playing indoor at school, six aside, which is ultimately 12 aside because of the substitutions. If you ever played at school, if you made a mistake, you get off, you go round and round, um, your arms hurt because the ball was cheap. It wasn't your fault, it was because the ball was cheap. And that's how we all started. And in 1993, beach volleyball was announced as an Olympic sport off the back of Samaranch's announcement: the winner is Sydney. And within months, beach volleyball had been announced as a new sport for Atlanta 1996. And uh at that point, I was 18, and the number one player in the country at the time, Anita Palm, who is the auntie of Gabby Palm, the water polo player, um, goalkeeper, silver medalist. Um, she was the best in the country in beach volleyball, and she came to QE2 Stadium, which is now Queensland Academy of Sport, known as QSAC. It is now a brand new shiny gym, but it was a sports hall. And I was in the sports hall playing uh all day Sunday. The under 18s, the reserve grade, the A grade. And she sat in the corner and was looking for her new beach volleyball partner to go to 96. I didn't know, didn't know who she was. She must have, from the stand, said, I want her. Now I must have had the height, the attributes, the attitude, probably. And that's where it started. She came to see me and said, I want to. Will you move to Sydney? Will you come and train, try and go to the Olympics for beach volleyball? I had never played. I was only playing indoor volleyball. And she thought she could teach beach volleyball, but she couldn't teach attitude. So she picked me. And originally I said no. I said, no, Dad. I was 18. I just finished high school at Corinda High. Dad said, you cannot you cannot win water bottles and hats your whole career. You have to get a degree, and then you can go and play beach volleyball. So he was a semi-professional football player for Crystal Palace. He'd played cricket for um junior England teams. And so he knew that there wasn't much money in the sport of beach volleyball, and at that level. So originally he said, no, I'm going to finish my physiotherapy degree at the University of Queensland, and then I might go for the next Olympics, which of course was going to be Sydney. And so I said to Anita, sorry, I can't. Um Dad said, Dad said no. I'd heard that a lot. See, this is the whole training of hearing no. And um she said, okay. And two weeks later, I kicked myself as I rolled out of bed and said, This is my dream to go to the Olympics. Um, it had been my dream since I was eight as a swimmer, watching Lisa Curry win the 1982 Commonwealth Games Gold Medal. And I said, I'm not waiting till Sydney 2000, I'm gonna go now. And so I called Anita and I said, Have you found anyone else? And she said no. So within a week I'd moved to Sydney.

Don 24:04

Wow.

Nat 24:04

And the rest is kind of history.

Don 24:07

Can I ask you, did all these sports what made volleyball stick? Um you know, swimming, I heard you did swimming at some point too. So how why volleyball? What what made that how for for a young athlete trying to most athletes go do this this thing, they they try to figure out what's what's the best sport? Is it I want to just somehow figure out how to represent my country, or is it you look at your attributes and where you fit in? What made you what was that journey for you to find that fit?

Nat 24:40

Yeah, well, I find most people play their sport for two reasons. So who wants to guess? Why why do you pick a sport?

Don 24:47

Because of your friends. Because you're good at it.

Nat 24:48

Because you're good at it, and that my and your friends. My daughter picks sport because of her friends, she's nine. So you're good at it, or you want to be the best. You want to be the best. There's one more, because you love it. Love it. Yeah, love it. So I loved the challenge of every sport. Um, I didn't really have any friends because I was too busy beating everyone. I didn't know that that caused no friends, right? I'll run faster and then I've got no friends, and I'll and I and I was the ducks of the school, so I was um smart and had no friends because they don't like that either. So quite a challenge. It's good. The tall poppies was real. Um, and so the way I tackled the tall poppy syndrome was to get faster and smarter, which made it taller and harder. But that's okay. So it wasn't for my friends, and it I loved the challenge. And here's the kicker: the volleyball was the one I chose because I I wasn't good at it. I was good at every other sport except gymnastics. I couldn't do a forward roll or a backward roll to save myself. But I could swim, I could play tennis, I could play basketball, I could play golf, did every athletic sport, I played hockey. I'm like, this is easy.

Don 26:06

Do you run?

Nat 26:06

Um I did run. Oh my god, I know. I like the shorter distances, the hundred metres because it's over. That's painful. I don't know. You're 400.

Magnus 26:15

I can relate to that. Any more than 100 metres is too long.

Nat 26:18

Well, and I ended up finding a sport in a box that's eight metres, so I found it perfect. Um the sport fascinated me because nobody could play. I mean, you remember back to grade eight volleyball. Could anyone in your school play? No. Not really.

Don 26:36

Well, I grew up in an island that we played volleyball every on the beach, every morning or every afternoon.

Nat 26:42

So So you could play.

Don 26:44

I thought you played cricket. We won that. Yeah, we played cricket, we played rugby, we played volleyball because that's all we did. We we were we were on a beach being active as young kids.

Nat 26:53

Yeah.

Don 26:54

That's a different story for a different day.

Nat 26:55

Different day. And it wasn't the case here in Australia. No one so the harder you concentrate on trying to get the ball to go in that direction, as a rebound sport, it's very difficult. It's not catch and throw, the ball never stays still. And so it focused on trying to get in the right spot and it goes sideways. And everyone's doing the same thing. So what I loved about it was that I couldn't play it, and the curiosity drove me to learn more. And so I spent 25 years trying to master it.

Don 27:24

Yeah, wow.

Nat 27:25

And I got alright for a couple of days there, but it was, I think it kicked my butt a bit more. The one that mattered.

Don 27:32

2000 and then another few more things.

Nat 27:34

September 25th, 2000's only day that mattered, really.

Atlanta Bronze And The Bounce Back

Magnus 27:38

So 96, you won Australia's first ever medal in beach volleyball. What was that experience like? Just describe that for us.

Nat 27:45

Yeah, well, you're thrown into a brand new sport, first time ever. Um the Americans were very good at it. So that's why they picked it. And we had three American teams in the draw and two Brazilian teams in the draw, and then Kerry and I. So that was sort of the top six and we were the sort of the dark horses. No one expected us to do any good.

Magnus 28:10

But we knew we'd be Ozzy Underdogs.

Nat 28:13

Yeah, we love that title, the underdog. Um and so we drew all three American teams in our draw, and we beat all three of them. And I don't think they liked that at all. We did end up losing our semifinal match.

Magnus 28:29

So you're getting flashbacks to school, people not liking you again. There's a pattern developer here.

Nat 28:35

Yeah, big pattern. Yes, yes. I'm still working on it. I'm still working on it.

Magnus 28:40

I actually love it because that I think that you do when you reflect back, that's had a big influence on your career and on your life.

Nat 28:47

Yeah, nothing was ever given to me. And well, all the way up until 15 it was. Grandma, I I worked out, I was grandma and granddad actually that were funding everything, and you didn't, we didn't know. Um, and then they ran out of money, and then mum and dad didn't have any, which I didn't know, you just assume. So at the age of 15 was where it all shifted, and I realized then that it just had to have a crack, and I had to find a way to fund my own dreams, and I made a vow to myself I was never ever gonna say to myself or my child that I was potentially gonna have that we can't do that because you can't afford it, and so that's driven my whole life, and I hope that our next generation of athletes don't quit because they say I can't afford it. And that's the mission of the Aussie Athlete Fund, actually, is that every athlete, if they don't get picked because they're not good enough, or they don't win because they're not good enough as an athlete, that's another story. Yeah, that's somewhat that's that's different to having an athlete that's at the front of the pack that can that's that gets a letter that said, We've chosen you to represent Australia, and they take that letter home to mum and dad or mum or dad, and the parents go, we can't afford it. Yeah, that's where it should never happen in our country, and that's what I'm trying to be.

Don 30:05

Yeah, that's what surprises me in a in a developed country like Australia, where everyone's a sports knight and there's still athletes living under the poverty line, and there's athletes who can't represent their country half the time because there's no funding. I just don't understand this.

Magnus 30:22

I think it's 40%, but let's get back to Atlanta. So you played against the three American teams and they didn't didn't like you.

Nat 30:30

Yeah, we played the Brazilian team in the semi and they crushed us because it was the time that's where the vulnerability hit, and there was a time where at 2-1 down in a game to 15, my brain went, we're we're it's over, we can't beat this team. Um they're too good. The downward spiral happened and we got killed 15-3, and then we had to bounce back the next day, which is what I'm sort of the most proud of in there is the ability to bounce back, the resilience. Um, after watching Kieran Perkins win the 1500 metre freestyle from lane eight, I saw that on TV and that's all I needed. That little bit of we talk about inspiration, it takes one moment. That was it. I said, that's good, I can win tomorrow. Thanks to that bloke. Um, to get that Olympic medal, and I always say this is all about reframing in the brain. I received the first ever Olympic medal given out for the sport of beach volleyball because the girls went first, they gave the bronze medalist the medal first, and I got the first one because I was number one, Carrie was number two on the roster. So Kerry doesn't like that too much, but I remind her that the one I have is the first ever Olympic beach volleyball medal ever given in the history of the sport, and uh that was very, very special.

Magnus 31:51

It's another claim to fame.

Nat 31:52

And then we moved to make your own up, Magnus. That's what you got to do.

Magnus 31:55

Absolutely.

Firewalking And Mental Reps

Magnus 31:56

So moving to 2000, what happened between 96 and 2000?

Nat 32:00

That's a whole podcast on its own. But the crux of it was we believed after the bronze we could win, and we just had to fix a few technical things. Our game plan was strong. At the Brazilian team had emerged as the better team uh technically.

Magnus 32:20

So is there sorry, is there world championships within beach volleyball there? So you were doing that in between during that four-year period, playing external overseas tournaments?

Nat 32:29

Yeah, so we had the 1996 world championships. Kerry and I won the silver to Brazil, the team that won the Olympics. And then um every two years there would be a world championships, maybe every four in the beginning, because they change it all the time. So now it's every two years. There's a world championships in Adelaide this year. First time ever the world championships of beach volleyball have come to Australia in November um 2025. So Glenel. Glennell. Actually, no.

Don 32:55

Oh, is it? Sorry.

Nat 32:57

Um that's where we trained a lot.

Don 32:59

That's where that'll be the they're putting it in uh the tennis centre.

Nat 33:04

I thought so. At the drive. Yeah, the drive. The drive, yeah. So they're filling it with sand, which I always like to do. Fill it with sand. Now, of course, the tennis players don't like that.

Elia 33:13

Um we'll resurface before we get to the Adelaide International. It's fine.

Nat 33:17

There's no problem. There's zero to pick up every grain of sand is uh is a lot of work.

Don 33:22

But you lose the atmosphere like playing at Glenelle on the beach, would it wouldn't that be better?

Elia 33:28

Oh, the atmosphere inside the drive will be amazing. Okay. It will be you you will feel it. It'll be fabulous.

Nat 33:34

Yeah, there's a challenge with stadium on beaches and sustainability and climate um issues. So building a structure like that, even for 2032, it won't be on the beach at the Gold Coast, it'll be slightly off-beach on the grass so that the stadium doesn't affect the dunes and the beach. So there's a bit of that when you have a world championship. Well, right now there is no beach. I know. Well, that's another problem.

Magnus 33:59

That's yeah, yeah.

Nat 34:00

And that is a problem for our sport. We often are at the mercy of the weather. The weather. Uh we do play in the rain, but if it washes away your venue, you've got a real big problem. So it'll be um at the drive and uh the world's best players will come and it's super exciting. But we were in a world championship in between the games. Kerry and I actually split up because we had so much expectation and pressure on ourselves for 1997. We thought, right, when you come third, the only place to go is one and two. Always looking up. And we we went south. So it didn't go to plan. You're you're all of a sudden a target because people want to beat you all the time. Not that they didn't before, but next level when you've become Olympic medalists. And so we didn't perform too well. I I got injured. Um, we split up for a year and a half, and then we realized that we were the better team together. I found a success coach called Kurik Ashley and did some firewalking, some glass walking, some parachuting, some sort of how good so I did the firewalking a few years ago.

Magnus 35:09

You felt like King Kong and K Kane after you'd done that. It was amazing.

Nat 35:13

Well, I don't know what those that look like, but uh um it is something out of this. So if you that's to the point, you can help me describe this. That when you walk on fire and you feel that next level posture, power, you grow a foot. How do you then transfer that onto the court? Yeah. Because what happens on the court to the tall poppy is uh as the flower wilts as you start to doubt or the opposition get the better of you.

Don 35:42

And it's a doubting that goes away. I've done it too. It's the you you you trust yourself.

Nat 35:48

Yeah, you back you back yourself in.

Don 35:50

You say, yeah, let's let's do this.

Nat 35:52

Yeah, because I've walked on that, and that could burn me and that could kill me, and now this is just a gap.

Don 35:59

And you've got to trust others to be able to put yourself in that position. Yeah. And then you get it done, you could you do it successfully, and it's like, oh, it's doable.

Magnus 36:08

The other lesson I learned is as we were starting up to be able to do the walk, is you just had to, there was a person standing at the other end, and you maintained eye contact with that person the entire time, and then you just started chanting yes. Just yes, yes, yes. I still do that when I jump in a coal plunge. Yeah. Right before I jump in, I'm just chanting. I don't do it out loud because I'd be look a little bit silly. But yeah, that's all happening on the inside right before I jump in, or wherever I'm doing something that I don't want to get into, then yeah, doing the chant.

Nat 36:36

Did you do that with Keurig, Ashley?

Magnus 36:38

No, no, I did it with um Unleash the Power of Tony Robbins.

Nat 36:42

Tony Robbins, yeah. He was a cool moss guy though, not a yes guy. Has he changed his to yes?

Magnus 36:47

This was yes for me.

Nat 36:48

It's okay. So Keurik is a yes guy. Uh Tony's Kul Moss was how it all started. A long time ago. We're going back in history now. But um Keurik became a world record firewalker at nearly a hundred metres, a whole football field. And the the yes chant got very strong because you have to to to be able to maintain a hundred metres walking on fire is pretty cool. But it it gives you a visceral, which again, we go back to the fruit box, it gives you a visceral feeling of power that when you're under pressure in the Olympic final and your brain goes, oh no, which is the body drops when you make a mistake in front of your home crowd of 10,000 Aussies, that you can feel them all go when you hit the ball out, to be able to hold a firewalker posture and a firewalker mind, which is yes, I can win that, um, was where all the training happened in between. So the volleyball training, I did all those reps after rep, dig after dig, spike after spike. Everyone does those, right? But who's doing the six inches between your ears reps? That was what we spent most of our time on. And you didn't know in that I didn't know in the moment the power that like I can win at golf, I can win at tennis, I can win at anything just because I think I can. And if the scoreboard doesn't reflect that, then that's the scoreboard's problem. Winning to me is an attitude, it's not a school. And so I try and teach winning as a mindset. Um, because that's what matters, really. Because you live with yourself, you go to bed at night by yourself with yourself, you close your eyes. How do you close your eyes at night? I tell my nine-year-old, what did I ask her, what did you win at today? And her little eyes brain looks at me like, Mum, I said, No, what did you win at? Because our brain is very good at sorting for what we lose at and what we do wrong. And it's trained for that, for our survival. But if she can find one thing every day, go, Oh, I wanted that, I won that game of tag. Usually it's tag at the playground or something she did well at school, then you sleep on that winning feeling and you wake up a winner, and then it builds on every single day. So that I think has been the biggest success that the med the medal is great, but the biggest is a life golden mindset that's really changed.

Don 39:23

Talking about the medal, Bondi, Sydney Olympics, you know, the stage was set, right? There was a beautiful moment, but from your perspective, what did that feel like? We've heard the journey getting there, but when you're in that moment with all those people with all the pressure being a home Olympics, the expectation was there for you guys to win.

Magnus 39:47

Were the teams that you that beat you in Atlanta, were they representing at Sydney as well?

Nat 39:54

They they were, but they'd split up. So the Brazilian, one of the Brazilian girls that won the gold medal in Atlanta retired. She was one of the godmothers of the sport. She got to Atlanta as her first games and then she retired. So therefore it causes a split. So the two, so the other girl, Sandra, that won the gold medal, played with one of the silver medalists in the in um Atlanta.

Don 40:21

Yeah.

Nat 40:22

And they split again. So there's a whole so the short answer is yes. We played them in the semifinal and in the final. So it was a brand new team we played in the final, but it was half of the team we lost to in the semi. And so that was actually the most stressful game for us in Sydney was the semi because you're out there again. If you lose the semi, you're back in the bronze medal match with a chance to come fourth, which is an athlete's worst nightmare. That you go all that way, you get so close, and you watch three people get medals and you don't. It's really unfair and it's really brutal. That happened to me in Athens, so that's quite visceral. Um, so the semi-final, it's a beautiful Bondi day, the 23rd

The 3-0 Comeback In Sydney

Nat 41:09

of September. We're playing Brazil. One of the girls had beaten us, and one of the girls had won the gold medal. And Kerry and I are out there, we're all fired up. We've been fire walkers, we've we've pumped, we're under the stadium, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, the Bondi day, everything's going, this is perfect. We haven't lost a match, everything's on track. We're out in the middle. First serve, Brazil's got the ball. Straight down the middle, ace. Shit. One-zero. Okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. You're like, it's not over. Because remember, the last year, four years ago, at two one, I'm like, it's over. So I'm trying to just build this thing. She gets a ball back to she's the best server in the world at the time. Kerry did take that mantle later. So she serves the ball down my line, ace. 2-0. Far out. I'm saying worse things than far out at this point. 2-0, two. It's okay. It's okay. Breathe. Trying to slow the game down. Same girl back to serve. Ace down Kerry's line, 3-0. It's not the start you want in your Olympic semifinals. So time out. Timeout. Over we go. We're trying not to get too upset. We're trying not to reset this.

Magnus 42:20

What did you what did your coach say at that point?

Nat 42:22

He can't. We don't when coaches aren't allowed. As you're on your own. So it's not tennis, is it?

Don 42:27

You can't even they can't even talk to you, right?

Nat 42:29

You have coaches now. Now they do. Yeah, yeah.

Don 42:32

Okay.

Nat 42:32

Still can't have coaches. He can't even.

Don 42:35

They can't even give you a phone or nothing. It's like you and Carrie.

Nat 42:38

Karen and I on our own. We'd been through this four years before. We'd split up. We'd firewalked, we'd glasswalked, we'd punched each other, we'd kissed each other, we'd cuddled each other, we'd done everything to this point, and we're looking at each other going 3-0, what the I can't use the words on the podcast. Anyway, we breathe, we hold our posture, we go back to firewalking, we close our eyes, we go, right, let's start again. Very hard to start again emotionally, but we did. And I looked up to the sky, straight up to the sky, and I said, This is not happening to me again. Not today. And we won 15-6.

Magnus 43:17

Just got goosebumps. Yeah. It's um wow.

Nat 43:19

So it just you just sort of drew a line in the sand and you're like literally, literally good.

Magnus 43:24

Yeah.

Nat 43:24

We had nothing. She had three great serves, and we just took the ball back, and uh that got us into the final, and then that's a whole nother story.

Magnus 43:33

But um So, what was it like standing on the dies, collecting a gold medal in front of all the home fans, in front of friends, in front of family? Pretty special.

Nat 43:42

Yeah, that you know, that's super special. When you go to the Olympics, they they allocate you two tickets, and you've got to buy them. So don't think you're getting anything for free at this point. Two tickets. Now, I had a list of 40 wanting to come. I had eight family members. I'd flown my grandparents in from air who were too old to travel. But after we beat Brazil on the 23rd of September, I said, you got 48 hours to get here. So they had to get transported from air. It's a big effort from air for the elderly. For the elderly. But I didn't have tickets. I didn't have two. So I spent a day and a half finding 38 more tickets. It's like the pie drive.

Don 44:28

Hold on, do you find 38?

Nat 44:29

I found 38. I had my doctor from from Brisbane called from Brisbane saying, can I come? I said, mate, right now I haven't got a ticket, but get on a plane. I'll see what I can do. Add him to the list.

Elia 44:40

Wow.

Nat 44:40

So I spent my time. For me, it's a game, right? If you haven't got that already, it's a fundraising game. It's a how many can you get? How many tickets can you get to an Olympic final game?

Magnus 44:51

So this is in between. So you're not thinking about getting psyched up. So while too late by then.

Nat 44:55

That's my like if you're thinking about it then, it's too late.

Don 44:58

So this could have been a good distraction. It was a good distraction.

Nat 45:02

So I Kerry had I was getting Kerry's tickets too because she needs to be focused. That's her. She needs to be focused. I'm like, don't get me focused as I'll start thinking about everything that could go wrong. I'm going to go and play the game. So I put tickets in envelopes at the Bondi Hotel and I say, right, Doc, tickets there, go and get it. And I just line them all up for them and I got them all in 30. So I have to go and get them from the German competitors that are out. So they get two. So I get them. I get from a French friend. You've got to be friends with everyone while you're beating them up. Okay. Right. So that's how you get some tickets. You go to the Olympic Committee and you ask for more, and it just became a game. I got all that done, and then we had to focus on how to win the volleyball game.

Ticket Hustle And Final Prep

Magnus 45:45

So who'd you play the final against?

Nat 45:47

A Brazilian team called Adriana and Shelder, and they all go by their first names, like the uh Brazilian football team, you know, that's their first names. We're cooking pothast, and they're Adriana and Shelder. And they had a pretty good Brazilian crowd. They'd sort of got them in the corner and they make lots of noise with their little drums and um, which in theory are not allowed to have drums at the Olympics, but they find a way to get them in.

Don 46:10

Brazil. It's Brazil.

Nat 46:12

There's no rules for the Brazilians. Uh so yeah, it was pretty special. Um, we'd played them 17 times and only beaten them once before.

Don 46:22

At this point, that was the statistical wow.

Magnus 46:24

Do you guys talk strategy? Is there much strategy involved, like depending on who your opponent is? Did that come into play before?

Nat 46:30

Carrie and I? Well, yeah, the coach leads, I mean, the coach pretty much leads the strategy, and then we have a meeting about the strategy and then we argue about it. Um the only time we ever fought with the coach was our Atlanta bronze medal game, and he gave us a strategy, and we said, no. Both of us said, that's completely wrong. I don't know what drugs you're on, but that's not what's the only time we ever had a disc discrepancy. Anyway, he said, fine. After two hours of prosecuting the game plan, he said, fine, go with your playing, go with what you want. About halfway through, we switch back to his. Um, so yeah, he's pretty proud of that. But it's always good to have that level of um, you know, just scrutiny over a game plan. So Steve is an amazing coach. He was like the Albert Einstein of beach volleyball. He still is. He's now coaching the Japanese national team. He coached the Canadian national team after he left us. I had him for 16 years. Um, and he's really brilliant. So the sometimes your game plans are technical. Serve ball here, move here, play this here. The Sydney game plans were very different. He made them about storytelling, and he wrote us a letter. And I wish I had kept them. Uh probably got washed away in the 2011 floods. But he'd write a letter about when we played Mexico game one. It was a story about Mexico and the Mexican culture and the Australian culture and how the and then Italy is game two, so it was about Italian culture, and and so we'd read this story. It actually didn't matter where you hit the ball, really.

Don 48:14

Wow.

Nat 48:14

We knew we'd played them enough. We knew where to serve, we knew what to try and do, but it became uh um a very personable emotional and emotional.

Storytelling Strategy And Kathy Freeman

Don 48:24

Yeah, wow. So there's a little known fact, I think I heard this from you. One of the greatest moments of the 2000 Olympics was probably one of the one of my favorite athletes, Kathy Freeman. Um she you know, that was probably the moment and I heard that you guys took it, took one for the team.

Nat 48:47

For her, we took one for her.

Don 48:49

Yeah, and won the 99th medal, so she could win the hundred.

Nat 48:53

That's right. So we didn't know this at the time, and of course, our 25-year anniversary is this year of September 25th, 2000, and the 25th of September 2025. The numbers mean a lot, actually, but it's the same day as Kathy Freeman. So Karen and I winning our gold medal four hours before she did, um as the 99th meant that the amazing Aussie athlete that lit the cauldron, that the whole world was watching, that the weight of Australia was on her, could accept the 100th gold medal was all because of Carrie and I, and we take full credit. Um, and we, you know, we let her know too. We let her know that we are important in her story. And uh, if you have the stamps, there's a book, Australia Post made all of our stamps, and the relay team, men's relay team was first, and there was a sailing team at the end, and you go the water polo girls, and then there's Kerry and I, and then there's Kathy. All the stamps are the same except Kathy's says 100 gold medal. And again, it's because of us. Take one for the team. Take one for the team.

Don 50:10

You've got to say she's probably one of my favorite athletes.

Nat 50:13

Probably the butt she runs the same race as you too. She's inspired by your performance.

Don 50:18

Oh for God, yeah. I've got to say Aussie Trekken feels on fire at the moment, and every single every single discipline's uh records are gonna fall in the next couple of years. That's one race I would say that's still gonna stand. That's that time, no one's even come close. I hope in the next few years someone does. Why was she so good? I don't know. I think she had this determination, and if you look at her, if you've ever listened to her story, she's phenomenal and she was world-class, and that's the thing. We I don't think we give Kathy Freeman enough credit for what she achieved as a track and field athlete at that time in that era.

Nat 51:01

So in 96, absolutely, so I I'm as you heard earlier, I love every sport. Um in 96 I watched her race Mary. Does she have a middle name? Perek?

Don 51:15

Mary Mary Perec.

Nat 51:17

She had a middle, Mary Jo, Mary Jose, Mary Jose.

Don 51:19

Mary Jose Perek, that's it.

Nat 51:21

See, I know but I watched them. I watched the race, I watched her come second to her, and then I watched the whole lead-in for her um into 2000, and of course, uh Mary Jose didn't run.

Don 51:35

Last minute to last minute.

Nat 51:37

And so watching all of that pressure and all of that press and all of that going on for Kathy. Um, at the same time, we're feeling the same stuff going on at Bond Eye. Nobody wanted us at Bond Eye.

Don 51:49

Yeah. People got yeah, that's true.

Nat 51:52

People applied for an opening ceremony ticket or a swimming ticket in the ballot and got beach volleyball and then gave it back. And then by the end, they're all begging for tickets because it became, we believe, the greatest Olympic event because no one expected it to be that good.

Don 52:08

That that win lifted, like it that and Kathy Freeman was the highlight.

Nat 52:15

And most people say, Oh, I remember watching you because I was on my way to Kathy Freeman. I'm like, great, whatever it took as a warm-up, we're a warm-up to Kathy Freeman. Um but interestingly, we feel very privileged because because we won that same day, we were at the next morning press conference with her. And so the long table with um John Coates, Kathy Freeman, Tatiana Gourageva, who won the silver in the pole vault, and Kerry and I, and 55,000 press because of Kathy. Like, I don't know how many would have been there.

Don 52:48

That would have been a good thing.

Nat 52:49

It might have been three if we were there, right? If it was just us. So to have all of them there and and and John Coates turned to us. We had our little cameras that were real cameras with real film back then, and we took photos of all the people taking photos of Kathy. It was awesome. So John Coates turned to us and sit and asked us, oh, so what did it feel like? We got one question. And then he threw over there to Tatiana and she talked about her pole vault silver medal, and then we had to sit there for the next hour and a half listening to all of the questions for Kathy. And um, all I remember that sat with me for 25 years, John, and you talked about strategy and you talked about plans. John Coates said to us, so or one of the press said, so what was the race plan? Because we all have plans. We have plans for our life, we have plans for our kids, we have plans for our health, we have plans for um generational wealth, we have plans everywhere. So, Kathy, what was your race plan? Does anyone want to have a guess?

Magnus 53:52

Run fast.

Nat 53:54

Run fast.

Magnus 53:56

That's the thing.

Nat 53:56

Why do we complicate our lives by trying to build 55-page business plan documents? Everyone's game plan should be run fast. And the simplicity in it for me at Beach, the way I turn that back to beach volleyball is get the ball in the sand. That's it. Why are you going, oh, you're elbow high and you jump out here and your footwork in? No. And our coach was very good at that. He's like, put the ball over there. And I said, How? He said, I don't know, put the ball over there. And so we had to work it out for ourselves. I tell the kids to go and get a free box of mangoes. I don't say how, right?

Don 54:39

Work it out.

Nat 54:39

Work it out for yourself. I got very good. We would put a 50 cent piece, a real one, not a digital one. We got a 50 cent piece on the court, and the coach would say, hit that. And so I could, that was my skill, the precision. Kerry couldn't, but she'd knock you out if you were in the if you were in the way. So she was the power and the assassin. I was the assassin with precision. So between the two of us, the combination worked perfectly. And uh how you do it doesn't matter. Just run fast. Run fast, achieve all your dreams, get ever whatever you want. Sometimes you can sit down and have a rest. Hopefully not on the big day and in the big race, but sometimes you do. We've seen we've seen that too.

Building Longevity Across Five Olympics

Magnus 55:23

Is that the best advice that you'd give to any aspiring young athletes out there? So if you could give them any advice, yep, either run fast or go and uh get a box of mangoes, what would you say to them?

Nat 55:34

Well, I'd say you've got to be excellent, all round, holistic person. You can't just be excellent at your sport. You have to, you now have to build your plan. Keep it simple for your athletic performance and your financial well-being. Unless you have money, if you do, great, share it with us, right? Um, if you don't, then you're gonna have to build an athlete fundraising roadmap of where you're gonna get your funds. And if you choose to work at $30 an hour, good luck when you're trying to fundraise to go cost you $50,000 for your sport or a hundred bobsled Brie going to the Winter Olympics, number two in the world for Bobsled, $100,000 campaign.

Don 56:18

Wow.

Nat 56:18

She's not gonna be able to do that, being a barista at a coffee shop or even working in in a high-paid job because she's got to go overseas for the winter. She's got to chase the winter. So we're backing in Bobsled Brie because I think we're gonna see some unique results from her. But get a game plan, get a simple game plan, your athlete performance and your off-field finances, and if you can get those together, you've got a good shot.

Don 56:46

You had one more thing, longevity. What made you like Sydney Olympics was the pinnacle, and then you kept still then you you were one of the you're one of one of two, I think, that's gone to five Olympics?

Nat 56:59

Is that yeah, I think it's still well Lauren Jackson's just um come off the back of Paris as her fifth game.

Don 57:05

That's she's done five and the Winter Olympics Jackie Cooper. Jackie Cooper's done five, yeah.

Nat 57:12

Yeah. So, you know, you I never ever set out to go to five games. I set out to go to one, and then the Olympic spirit is kind of infectious. It's like Rupert McCall wrote a poem called Green and Gold Malaria, which is you get bitten by the mozzie and you want to go back and back and back. So I love the sport, I love the strategy in the sport, the the challenge of the sport, I love the fundraising, I love getting tickets for my mates to come watch me.

Don 57:44

But it's 20 years. Like, look, you know, because it's only one. A day at a time. A day at a time years worth of being at the top.

Nat 57:51

A day at a time, a training session at a time.

Don 57:53

Is it 0.000 something that to make one Olympics?

Elia 57:57

But you also loved it. If you don't have that fire every day, you wouldn't do it. Yeah. That is the ultimate. That takes a lot.

Don 58:04

That's a ultimate.

Nat 58:06

Yes. And it is a it's a it's a deep respected love, sometimes love hate, because it don't be under any illusion that you like it all the time. So there are times where I didn't want to get out of bed, the alarm would go off and I didn't want to go. There are times, which is why in a sport that has two of you, like individual sports are different again. I had to get up for Kerry. She could not play the game if I didn't show up. So we had each other. We then had a um a volleyball coach, Steve, a strength and conditioning coach, Phil, and a success coach, Kurik, but they we could do it without them.

Don 58:43

Yeah.

Nat 58:44

If I didn't get up for Kerry, she couldn't play. So that helped a little bit. Um, but also there were no reserves. So if if we got hurt, it wasn't like, oh, you just sit down and have a rest, we'll get someone else. So you were that intimately connected.

Don 59:00

Um you have to.

Nat 59:02

Yeah. And I still love, I can't wait for LA, I can't wait for the French Alps in 2030, and obviously Brisbane 32.

Don 59:08

Uh what was your transition like after you finished that 20 years?

Life After Sport And Athlete Jobs

Don 59:13

Um, how do you find your next? What are you doing now?

Magnus 59:17

What are you not doing?

Nat 59:20

So I have a portfolio. Uh I mean, I've always I've never had a job. Um, I did do a few years with the Queensland Academy of Sport. They were great when I came back from Europe after 18 months in Switzerland on a sabbatical, really, to just have a break. Um, I'm a mum. I work for Deloitte a day a week with their Olympic and Paralympic partnership, which is amazing. They have a global rights to the Olympic and Paralympic movements and they sponsor the games and they're doing some amazing things in the transformational space of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. But I lead um a program in there called Ignite, which is athlete employment. And ultimately, in the fundraising, if you've got a good job that can lead to career purposeful, so there's jobs for work and money to fund your sport, or there's jobs for career and future and transition. And that's a there's a distinction and a difference that's important. So I believe the Deloitte Ignite program is that distinction. It really is the cherry on top for athletes. And Gabby Palm is one of our athletes, Naomi Fox, uh Isaac Carraher's a beach volleyballer. I I didn't um I had to stand aside when they picked him. Uh, we've got baseball players and um in the 10. We've got Chris Bond, a Paralympian, um, starting with Deloitte as well. But that's about not only flexible employment, but extra athlete leave. Because I don't want athletes going away and using their personal leave, coming back and can't have a day off or go on a holiday. So we've got athlete leave, and then we've got a green and gold jersey supplement, extra money for representing their country. And when they come back to Deloitte and they come in for morning tea or in the boardroom lunch or presenting with their medals and their jerseys and that paddle or that ball, they're actually revered and given more financial support for that. Not as their Deloitte staff member. So it's pretty exciting.

Don 1:01:24

Yeah, there's so much we can talk about, but we I think we're gonna run out of time. One of the biggest things I want to talk about, we're gonna run out of time on this, but um the 2032 Olympics. I'd love to invite you back, but with one of your athletes to come on um on the podcast to do a session on the 2032 Olympics and also the journey the athletes have been taking with Ossie Athletes Funds if you're open to it.

Nat 1:01:45

Oh, amazing.

Don 1:01:46

Great idea.

Nat 1:01:47

So great idea because I have a hundred athletes right now that I'm um facilitating in mango boxes and and uh and and their evolution. It's a whole process. They get nine, six months or nine months in the program, depending on we take from a hundred we go to twenty. Yeah, and we really help the 20 um solidify their uh financial stability. And uh I'll bring, yeah, I'd love to bring them and because I've I've got now a hundred Olympic and Paralympic dreams.

Tax Deductible Giving With ASF

Don 1:02:15

On that, you said all of your fundraising is funneled through other channels, and um I see uh Australia Sports Foundation is is where it it goes. How can you tell us how that works? What's why the Australia Sports Foundation, first of all?

Nat 1:02:30

Yeah, the Australian Sports Foundation is the only place you can give a tax-deductible donation for sport and sporting causes. And so it's really important. Um, but also as the financial governance. So I know that if an athlete, if you donate to an athlete, the receipt comes out from the Australian Sports Foundation. So the athlete doesn't have to worry about receipting or paperwork. Um, it's all transparent, it's all law.

Don 1:02:56

Or the administration work is done, which is the hardest by the Australian Sports Foundation.

Nat 1:03:01

Uh they do take 5%, but that's the best 5% you'll ever spend because it's guaranteed that transparency and the and the receipting is done. So you never when I was going through, I could never do that. I could never ask anyone for a tax-deductible donation. This is a major change in the athlete's pursuit of their sporting dream.

Don 1:03:21

So anyone who wants to donate to their athletes, this is 100% tax deductible.

Nat 1:03:25

100% tax deductible. So in theory, if you're in the highest tax bracket at 47% and you give a $100 donation, it's only costing you $53.

Don 1:03:35

Yeah, wow.

Nat 1:03:36

Because you're going to get the 47 back. That's game changer.

Don 1:03:39

Why wouldn't you? Makes sense.

Nat 1:03:40

Makes sense. So if you've got some, especially end of financial year time is a great time for the um uh Australian students.

Don 1:03:47

Because you get your money back quicker, right?

Nat 1:03:49

You do. But a lot, I found a lot of philanthropists actually do their uh giving in December. So they all have different because they want to get ahead of it, they understand, um, they know what they're gonna make. Um so it's a really important part.

Don 1:04:04

And it's not just for elite athletes, it's for everybody. Aspiring. Anyone can for me as a masters athlete, I can I found out recently that Absolutely, you can do it too. It cost us money too to travel.

Nat 1:04:16

Yeah. Um it's expensive, right?

Don 1:04:18

Well, very expensive. Fortunately, um I've got a sponsorship, but not many do. How do we teach people? And this is a really good way of doing it.

Nat 1:04:26

Absolutely. So if you've made a school team and you're going to Italy to play for the school soccer team, or you've got an opportunity to go and try out for a UK academy, but it's cost you get a letter saying, Congratulations, we've chosen you, but it's going to cost you 10 grand to go with 15 grand or eight and a half grand. You can set up an Australian Sports Foundation page, put pictures of yourself, put the dream itself. So even if you have rich parents, they can donate through the Ah no, there are some rules, and you can't be uh directly related. So uncle, auntie can, but not directly related. There are some rules. Um sometimes I find though that even if you've got wealthy parents, they want the kid or the athlete to learn and do it themselves. So we can never make assumptions. There are lessons everywhere, and the athlete, I have had an athlete come to me and say, My mum and dad are rich, but they've told me I've got to do this myself. Will you help me?

Don 1:05:26

Good on them.

Nat 1:05:27

That's the Australian Sports Foundation is actually their shop front. It's their first thing I get any athlete to do. And then I teach them to build a business card, and on the back of that business card have their this is the QR code to the Australian Sports Foundation page for the Aussie Athlete Fund. So every athlete should have their own. Because if I say to you, if you tell me your master's dream and I say, Don, how can I help? you can then say, well, actually, I've got this Australian Sports Foundation page where you can get a tax-deductible donation. Any support would be helpful. I'm going to Fiji for the master's games. It's going to cost me $8,500. I'd love your support.

Don 1:06:09

And even for Magnus, right? If he goes and says, I want to put 10% more muscle mass and uh this is my journey. Can you do that?

Magnus 1:06:17

You could do that. There you go. Mate. I think on that. Oh, it's a chair. So it's a quick quick fire

Quick-Fire Habits To Mastery

Magnus 1:06:26

question time.

Nat 1:06:26

Oh, quick fire. Oh, I don't know. If I am up for a firewalker's up for a quick fire question time.

Magnus 1:06:31

I know you're up for it. One word your mum would use to describe you.

Nat 1:06:34

Ballsy.

Magnus 1:06:36

Your favorite tournament venue. Switzerland. Tea or coffee.

Nat 1:06:41

Now coffee used to be green tea. We see we transition.

Magnus 1:06:45

What are your top three success habits?

Nat 1:06:50

Never taking no for an answer. Being in the right place at the right time, but that's your experience. And learning to play golf, because that's where corporate business gets done.

Magnus 1:07:01

Who's the toughest opponent you ever had?

Nat 1:07:04

Myself.

Magnus 1:07:05

The best teammate you played with.

Nat 1:07:07

Carrie Potter asked.

Magnus 1:07:09

The greatest sports person you've ever met.

Nat 1:07:11

Michael Jordan.

Magnus 1:07:12

A skill you wish you had.

Nat 1:07:16

How to use AI effectively, and I know Don has it, so uh he's taught me a few things.

Magnus 1:07:21

What are you secretly very good at?

Nat 1:07:28

I don't keep many secrets. Everything.

Magnus 1:07:31

A movie you've watched more than three times.

Nat 1:07:33

Star Wars, all of them.

Magnus 1:07:36

The most used app on your phone.

Nat 1:07:38

My photos. My daughter says no more photos, mum.

Magnus 1:07:42

What's the worst piece of advice you've ever received? Do as you're told. Your favourite song.

Nat 1:07:50

Simply the best by Tina Turner.

Magnus 1:07:52

And if you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would that be?

Nat 1:07:56

Michael Jordan. I call my daughter Jordan, so that's why.

Magnus 1:08:00

Right, last question. What's the one trait that you need to be a master? Coachability. Awesome. What a great way to finish. Thanks so much for your time, that I know how busy you are and appreciate all your insights. You are a superstar. Thank you.

Don 1:08:17

I've got so many questions for the next one ready to go already. So can't wait.

Nat 1:08:21

Let's master the Olympics 2032 and the Paralympics.

Don 1:08:24

And also Michael Jordan has to be put into the next one.

Nat 1:08:26

Great. Any sport, love at all. Let's go. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi, oi, oi. What are you two doing? Okay, okay, yeah, yeah. That's gonna be a big blooper. Silence. Ready? Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, oi, oi, oi!

Magnus 1:08:43

There you are. Thank you.

Final Thoughts And Sign-Off

Magnus 1:08:47

Hope you enjoyed this exciting episode of the Mastering Podcast. If you've got value from today's conversation, hit that subscribe button now and share this episode with a friend. Until next time.