Be more than great
be legendary

Bob Skinstad:

You may recognise my name. I’m a former Rugby Union International that captained the Springboks, Barbarians and Stormers.

I was South Africa’s youngest-ever Springbok Captain, but I was bothered by fear and anxiety at the thought of changing from a professional sports career to a business career. I feared that this transition wouldn’t work out and I would fail. I didn’t know whether I would be good enough, and I found it challenging to know where to put my focus.

I had to learn how to balance networking, doing business, what is a charity and what is not, how public speaking and appearances work, what rate to charge customers… It was overwhelming. All this happened while trying to do interviews, work on various projects and generally try to fit life in between.

The biggest challenge I face is consistently speaking and networking with people, creating the right content for social media posts, responding to comments and questions, and crafting emails that carry the right message. I had tried social media schedulers and virtual assistants, but it wasn’t the right fit.

Then, I found Podium One. With their guidance, I learnt about the different online environments. I learnt how to manage conversations and business leads and how I can take these to the next level of business.

Curating and collating media for platforms, analysing the traction, managing the responses and seeing how to manage my personal brand has been a much-needed service that has worked outstandingly for me. For this reason, I think other sports professionals looking at the same transition will benefit from this service.

I know how to carry the values and skills from a vibrant sporting career and convert them into leadership, innovation, growth, culture and knowledge.

I want other sports professionals to know that they can do the same. The hard work they have put into their professional careers in the sports field was a good stepping stone to their business future.

Alistair Brownlee:

I am a lifelong athlete and Professional sportsman who is passionate about helping others to live healthy and active lives.

I hold back-to-back gold medals from the 2012 and 2016 Olympics in the triathlon event. I also achieved World Champion, World Triathlon Champion, European Champion and Commonwealth Champion.  

I wanted to take this same success I had achieved on the track and carry it into the business world, but I was facing some challenges I had to overcome.

Some of these were questions like; how do I position myself correctly on LinkedIn, and how do I utilise it effectively? How do I create the right content? How do I bring my sporting experience into business?

I began my transition by networking extensively, but I needed to know how to manage this sustainably.

I was introduced to personal branding by another professional sportsman, Bob Skinstad, who had utilised Podium One. I learned how to leverage my personal brand from the sports arena to create business leads and grow. I learnt how to manage different aspects of social media and accomplish content creation and networking to provide leads in the future.

I believe innovation and entrepreneurship play a significant role in helping people reach their full potential. Through investment and creating opportunities for up-and-coming businesses, I know I can make a difference, and people can be encouraged and inspired to live healthy, active lifestyles. I also choose to invest in various businesses that fulfil these aims.

Being able to manage my personal brand and connect to people worldwide confidently has given me a boost in growing my businesses and assisting others to do the same.

“Sports performance is doing everything you can to the best of your ability. Then, have confidence in your abilities to perform when it matters”.