The Built For Pressure Podcast

Why do some leaders get sharper under pressure while others freeze?Ten minutes to go. I was playing Bristol away in the  B & I cup. I got the call to come off the bench. "Just make it happen."So I tried to make it happen. And I froze. I played safe. I played not to lose. I walked off knowing I had not done what I said I would do.I see the same thing in boardrooms every week. Most CEOs and founders are fully capable. When they break, crumble or freeze under pressure, it is rarely a capability problem. It starts with physiology.In this video I break down:The stress performance curve, and where elite performance actually liveWhy being overstimulated makes capable people play not to loseAllostatic load, the compound interest stress builds on your body over timeWhat is quietly loading your system: poor sleep, constant digital noise, cognitive overload, professional visibility, time pressure, nutrition and environmentThe baseline markers that tell you your load is too high.The four mechanisms to fix it: lower your set point, raise your ceiling, manage the moment of contact, and recover properly.What I should have done in that game, and how you apply it before your next big moment.You cannot expand a system that has not been stabilised first.Chapters00:00 Why some people freeze under pressure00:25 Bristol away: the game I froze01:39 The stress performance curve03:03 Playing not to lose03:45 Allostatic load explained04:22 What is loading your system08:43 The markers your load is too high09:20 Fix one: lower your set point09:57 Fix two: raise your ceiling11:23 Fix three: manage the moment of contact13:05 Fix four: recovery14:30 Physiology first, and what to watch nextWatch next: How to manage your state in chaos, change and crisis  • Control Your State Control The Game  If you are a founder, CEO or high performer and this hit close to home, send me a message on LinkedIn, Instagram or through builtforpressure.netBuilt For Pressure works with senior executives and founders to perform when it matters, through physiology, recovery and leadership performance.#ExecutivePerformance #Leadership #HighPerformance

It is too late to learn how to fight once you are in the fight.Former Apache pilot and Deepsky cofounder Chris Whipp returns to the Built For Pressure Podcast to break down what happens to a leader’s decision making when the pressure is on, and what has to be in place long before it does.We go over a real world example that Chris encountered in the field when he was serving. On a pinnacle landing at 6,000 feet, one of Chris’s engines dropped off automatic control. The helicopter fell from about 30 feet and caught the edge of the helipad on one wheel. We go over how he regulated his inner dialogue to be effective and deal with the challenge in front of him.The same rule applies in a boardroom. By the time the pressure arrives, your preparation has already decided how you will respond.Being calm under pressure is a trained skill. Learning from those who have operated in high-pressure environments is the only way for an executive to understand the mechanisms for being an asset in times of crisis.Your decisions are only as good as the capacity behind them. Take the Capacity Index and find out where yours stands:https://capacity.scoreapp.comChris’s first episode:  • The Leadership Secret: Why Leaders See Pre...  Connect with WillLinkedIn: @willfodenInstagram: @willfodenWebsite: www.builtforpressure.netConnect with ChrisLinkedIn: @chriswhippWebsite: www.deepskyleaders.comBook: The Leadership Secret, available on Amazon

When was the last time you sat alone with your own thoughts, on purpose?Most founders, CEOs and executives live in two spaces. Family and work. They never build a third space, somewhere to step outside the noise and think clearly about how they want to operate.I recorded this episode alone on a hill in the Peak District for exactly that reason.For years, everything for me was aggression. Point and shoot. Nothing I achieved was ever enough. Every time I hit a goal, I stretched it and kept chasing. That changed when my son was born.In this episode I cover:- Why high achievers need a third space, and how to build one.- Why hitting the goal rarely brings the fulfilment you expect.- Why I deliberately set my goal at ten times the original.- Why you are meant to live in the messy middle if you lead anything.- The client who told me feeling this locked in was “scary”, and what that word really means.- Why so many leaders keep asking the wrong questions.- Why performance coaching should be driven by principle and science, not frameworks lifted from the internetIf you keep fighting your own head, you are not broken. You are inside the jar. And from inside the jar, you cannot read the label.One action from this episode: put time for yourself in your diary this week. If it is not in the diary, it will not happen.Built For Pressure works 1:1 with founders, CEOs, executives and managers to build the mind, body and business needed to perform when it matters.To find out more, send me a message with “BFP” on LinkedIn or Instagram.

Most organisations aren't short on talent. They lack people ready to step up when it matters.In this episode of the Built For Pressure Podcast, I sit down with Cordelia Fyler, Partner at Deepsky, to explore what is really happening inside senior leadership teams operating amid constant disruption.Cordelia has spent over 15 years in behavioural science and now works with CHROs and executive teams on talent, leadership and sustainable high performance. I wanted to explore what she's seeing in the industry from a team perspective and what are going to be the biggest levers for growth and sustainable performance at the organisational level moving into 2027. We cover three areas.- Succession planning. Why so many CHROs lack confidence in the level below the executive team. - Why the brief should be written around impact on the team, not just the role. And why the work needs to start years before the seat becomes empty.- Speed versus velocity. AI has made everything faster. Workloads have grown, roles have blurred, and leaders are reacting more than they are directing. Speed is not the problem. Speed without direction is.- Leading through disruption. Why stress travels through a team from the top down. Why wellbeing perks rarely reach the people who need them.- The leadership problems surfacing in boardrooms and HR conversations right now, what they cost the business.- Why change is no longer episodic, It is continuous. We discuss the skills leaders need, which haven't changed, but the context has. If you lead a team, sit on an executive board or are being prepared for a bigger seat, this one is for you.Connect with CordeliaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cordelia-fyler-04563113/Deepsky: https://deepskyleaders.com/About Built For PressureBuilt For Pressure works with CEOs, executives and business owners to build the physical capacity, mental toughness and clarity to perform when it matters most.🔗 Connect with me:Linkedin: @willfodenInstagram: @willfodenWebsite www.builtforpressure.net#LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself#mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards#SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess  #leadershipdevelopment  #worklifebalance  #trainsmart #masteryourenergy

Most leaders do not have a commitment problem.They have an infrastructure problem. Energy, stress and recovery all running on a system that never caught up with the demand.Andrew Stoneham Knott is back on the Built For Pressure Podcast, one year on from our first conversation. If you missed that one, the link is below.CEO of Miramar Global and part of the team behind Deepsky and the RISE platform, Andy has just had the best year in the company’s history with the core business growing at record pace.This episode is not about the numbers. It is about what sits underneath them.Last time, we talked about the reset. Energy back, routines rebuilt. On paper, Andy was doing everything right. So we went deeper.We cover what it takes to lead a growing global business while staying physically capable, present at home and clear in your decisions. Andy shares what his blood work revealed, why his default setting of push was costing him energy, and the small, precise adjustments that changed it.In this episode:- Why one good year is not success, and what long term sustained performance actually requires.- Performance leakage, and how businesses and humans lose output when people cannot play to their strengths.- Scaling from 5 to 10 to 25 people, and the hangovers you carry from the business you used to be.- Family as a team sport, and why Andy refuses to separate business from home- What his GC Biosciences blood work flagged that nobody would ever see from the outside- Your demand signature, and why data finds what effort never couldLow energy availability, stress physiology and why training harder was degrading the engine- Recovery as a performance tool, not a reward.- Why performance is moving from a corporate perk to leadership infrastructure.- Why leadership capability and succession are back at the top of the corporate agenda heading into 2027- RISE Signature, and why leaders at this level need a guide, not more information- The one thing a CEO should do this weekInformation is everywhere. Application is the currency.You do not need a bigger engine. You need a better one.And that usually starts with simplicity.Find out where your capacity is leaking. Take the Capacity Index, a short diagnostic built for leaders operating under pressure:https://bfp-capacity-index.netlify.app/Links from this episode:The first episode with Andy: https://youtu.be/2nkqjVR650w?si=k330bioCVMkXokNtConnect with Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewstonehamknott/Explore RISE and the Signature programme: https://deepskyleaders.com/riseConnect with me:LinkedIn: @willfodenInstagram: @willfodenWebsite: https://www.builtforpressure.netThis episode is for information only and is not medical advice.#LeadershipPerformance #ExecutivePerformance #BuiltForPressure

There's a reason your performance keeps failing you. It isn't effort, it's how you're applying it.Most founders, executives and athletes treat performance like a set of separate projects. Get fitter. Get sharper. Make better decisions. Each one works on its own; none of them connects.In this episode I walk through the Mirror Model, five stages of development where every physical skill has a mental counterpart. Strength and mental toughness. Conditioning and cognitive endurance. Technical skill and cognitive precision. Tactical application and decision-making under pressure. Strategic planning and vision.I share why resilience and chronic stress are two different things, the metrics you should be tracking instead of guessing, why I train decisiveness in moments that don't matter, and what professional rugby taught me about chasing a goal I never properly defined.If you're performing on paper but feel like something is missing, this episode shows you where to look.Take the Capacity Index: capacity.scoreapp.com builtforpressure.net

If you're eating clean, training hard, but still feeling exhausted, there's a bigger game at play here. If that is you, your effort is rarely the problem. The system your effort sits inside is.In this video I break down why so many executives, founders and high performers do everything right on paper and still stall. Most performance advice speaks in silos. Your body is a fitness problem. Your head is a mental health problem. Your business is a leadership problem. In reality it is usually one intertwined problem showing up in different places.What I cover:- Why an executive needs to understand the demand signature. As there's more at play- whether it's physical, emotional, professional, or psychological- board meetings, travel, poor sleep, and dehydration all matter when it comes down to recalibrating and gaining back energy. - How to identify a constraint signature and recognise that's the thing holding you back when it comes down to elevations in your performance- Why chronic stress, a calorie deficit and high intensity training together can leave you gaining body fat while eating less.- How cortisol keeps blood sugar elevated, and why cutting carbohydrates can make the problem worse.- Why fat cells shrink but never disappear, and what repeated crash dieting does to your metabolism.- Why chronic stress is causing downstream effects on your sleep, performance, digestion, energy, mood, and emotions - Seasons of performance. Why you should not sit in a deficit for longer than eight weeks, and why dieting year round breaks you down.- The sleep cascade. Better sleep drives better nutrition decisions, lower inflammation, steadier energy and better performance across the board.A thriving body is fuelled to perform. It is not starved to get there.If you are not measuring it, you are not managing it. Stop looking for the next supplement and look hard at the 20% of behaviours you repeat every day, week and month.FREE RESOURCESThe Capacity IndexSeven pillars covering the key behaviours behind your performance. Score yourself and find your constraint.https://bfp-capacity-index.netlify.app/Executive Calorie CalculatorComment CALC below and I will send it over. It gives you your starting numbers on a balanced macro plan, the same approach I use to stabilise executives before anything else.If you have been training hard, eating clean and still are not recovering or performing, stop treating one piece of the puzzle. Find the constraint behind it and start there.🔗 Connect with me:Linkedin: @willfodenInstagram: @willfodenWebsite www.builtforpressure.net#LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself#mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards#SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess  #leadershipdevelopment  #worklifebalance  #trainsmart #masteryourenergy

Most founders measure every metric in their business except the one running it.Them.In this episode, recorded on the move with the dog, I break down the checkpoints I use with every client to assess the asset that drives everything else. When energy drops, decisions slow and the business starts to feel flat, the problem is rarely strategy. It is the operating system underneath the skin.In this episode:Minimum standards. Why the basic behaviours are the first to go when pressure rises, and why they are the only KPIs that protect your output.I share my own non-negotiables, from six training days a week to protein at every meal and morning light through a Manchester winter.Physiology before psychology. Emotions are signals, not reality. When your physiology is right, your thinking becomes clean and you operate from power rather than force.The stories you tell yourself. How we delete, distort and generalise information, and what my time in the back row taught me about chasing every ruck instead of picking my shots.Stepping off the dance floor. How elite leaders move between first, second, third and fourth person perspective to see the bigger game.What winning actually means. The minimum numbers you need to hit over the next 12 weeks to finish the year calm, focused and fulfilled.If you are struggling to see the wood for the trees heading into Q4, take the Capacity Index at https://capacity.scoreapp.com and find out where your capacity is leaking.

Setting a goal and attaining it are two very different things.Most ambitious leaders have the first part sorted. Very few understand the mechanism underneath the second.This is the exact goal framework I use inside Built For Pressure with CEOs, business owners and athletes who operate under sustained pressure. It starts with a principle I learnt 10 years ago. The definition of done.If your goals are written in grey, emotional language, nothing upstream will ever produce the outcome you are asking for. The targets have to be objective. The route to get there can be as messy as it needs to be.What we cover:- The definition of done, and why vague goals never get finished.- High hard goals. Ambitious targets that stretch you just beyond your current capacity, built on the goal structure Steven Kotler lays out in The Art of Impossible.- Clear goals. The daily, weekly and monthly behaviours that turn a big ambition into something you can actually attain.- The gap. The most uncomfortable exercise a leader can do, measuring what you say you want against what you are actually doing.- Why your physical, personal and professional goals should be built in that order.- Boundaries and standards. Why your diary tells the truth about your priorities, and why training that is not in it will not happen.- Realign and recommit. How to stack wins and build the momentum that compounds.Download the free worksheets here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EFSiXCePob1p6rFJbQx8uaMKLVdxzO3A/viewSet aside 15 minutes, work through them honestly, and look hard at the gap between your clear goals and your current week. That is where you start.About Built For PressureBuilt For Pressure provides performance infrastructure for leaders operating in high-pressure environments. We work across physiology, recovery, mental performance and leadership so you can perform when it matters.🔗 Connect with me:Linkedin: @willfodenInstagram: @willfodenWebsite www.builtforpressure.net#LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself#mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards#SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess  #leadershipdevelopment  #worklifebalance  #trainsmart #masteryourenergy

Everyone wants to know what elite performers do differently under pressure. The answer is almost always disappointing, because the work that decides the outcome was done months earlier, in conditions nobody was watching.Coach Kobes, aka Shaun Kober, has tested that idea in places most people will never see or even comprehend. I have been lucky enough to call this man a friend for nearly a decade, and I have watched him grow and evolve as a coach and an elite practitioner.Six years in the Australian Army as a sniper taught him more about pressure and performing when it matters than any book ever will. Three deployments across Iraq, Timor and Afghanistan, then a career coaching elite fighters to world titles.In this episode I wanted to understand his process, and the difference between good performers and great ones. What actually separates the elite when the pressure arrives.A few of the concepts we cover:The gap between your expectations and the level of your training is the real differentiator under pressure. Shaun takes this from a military setting all the way through to helping Petr Yan win a world championship.Everyone has a fight, flight or freeze response, and none of us know which one we own until we are in it. If you have not trained to work inside that response in real time, you will not be effective when it counts.The third is the one I think most leaders get wrong. Shaun explains that coaching professional athletes is almost never about lighting a fire. It is about applying the brakes. General population need the opposite. They need pushing. Elite performers need to learn how to steer in real time with more precision.Then there is the personal piece, and I think most people will take strength from it. When you are handed compromising circumstances, how do you find acceptance and keep moving? After a serious spinal infection at the start of this year, Shaun has not only come back to perform, he is chasing a professional MMA debut before he turns forty two.Other lessons and experiences in this episode:- Growing up as the eldest of six with no electricity or running water, and leaving home before he turned fifteen- The crossroads between professional rugby and the army, and why he chose the harder path- How Shaun built a performance coaching career with world championship fighters- His coaching philosophy, and what it actually means to meet people where they are- What Live Train Perform is as a company, and what is coming nextIf you run a business, none of this is about fighting. It is about whether the system underneath you can absorb something you did not plan for, on a day you did not choose.Shaun been educated alongside each other in many different circumstances, and I have been a guest on his podcast, Live Train Perform, more than once. I can promise you will take something from this, from his experiences and from his story.Links to Shaun below.Instagram: @coach_kobes YouTube: @livetrainperform Website: https://www.coachedbykobes.com/Built For Pressure is a performance partnership for founders and executives operating under sustained pressure. The Capacity Index scores you across seven pillars in under ten minutes and shows you where your own baseline sits right now.Link: https://bfp-capacity-index.netlify.app/ 🔗 Connect with me:Linkedin: @willfodenInstagram: @willfodenWebsite www.builtforpressure.net