The Not So Breakfast Show

Say Hello
Episode 278

Fresh from Barcelona, Ish and Sacha take us behind the scenes of their recent Les Mills International conference sessions, unpacking how they shaped the presentations into an experience that had people laughing, learning, getting uncomfortable and singing their hearts out.
At the centre of it all is a surprisingly simple six-grid structure: an opening, three key points, an interaction and a close. But the real magic happens in how you bring that structure to life.
They explore the art of ramping, gradually building audience participation from a simple show of hands to something much bigger. In their case, that meant taking a room of 600 people from quietly watching to enthusiastically supporting some very nervous karaoke volunteers.
Along the way, they discuss why understanding your audience matters more than showing off your expertise, how personal stories create connection, and why great presenters need to mix up their delivery styles.
They also take a refreshingly honest look at what they'd do differently, including adding more research and evidence, knowing when to ditch a great idea, and remembering the presentation isn't actually about the presenter.
The big takeaway? A memorable presentation isn't about being naturally charismatic. It's about preparation, connection, thoughtful design and being brave enough to try something different.
Key Learnings
1. Big moments are built, not stumbled upon
The best presentations aren't a collection of slides with a few activities thrown in. They're deliberately designed experiences.
2. You can't take a cold audience straight to karaoke
Want people to participate? You've got to warm them up first.
The concept of ramping is about gradually increasing people's involvement, starting with easy, low-risk interactions before asking them to do something that stretches their comfort zone. 
3. It's not about you. It's about who's in the room.
Great presenters don't just know their content. They understand their audience.
Before you walk into a meeting, presentation or pitch, ask yourself: Who's in the room? What matters to them? Why should they care about this, from me, right now? 
4. Don't get stuck being the same version of yourself
We all have a natural presenting style. Maybe you're the Campfire Storyteller who loves a good yarn, or the Spreadsheet Whisperer who has data to back up absolutely everything.
Both have their strengths, but both can become predictable. The real skill is learning to create contrast: mixing stories with evidence, laughter with reflection, and information with interaction. 
5. Knowing what to leave out is just as important as knowing what to put in
One of the hardest parts of creating a great presentation isn't coming up with ideas. It's letting good ones go.
Ish and Sacha scrapped a video, an interaction and an entire storytelling area shortly before their sessions because they weren't going to serve the experience. 
Being prepared doesn't mean being rigid. It means knowing your purpose well enough to adapt, edit and make room for what matters most.
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Say Hello
Episode 277
This episode is a behind-the-scenes primer for the Les Mills United summit in Barcelona. 
Ish and Sacha share how their own Les Mills journeys started in some fairly unlikely places, what they’ll be talking about when they get there, and why mental strength and honest self-review might be two of the most useful muscles we can build right now.
Plus a couple of ester eggs, like. Did you know Ish used to be Sacha's PT, and that they never would have been friends at school? 
Let's get it!

Say Hello
Episode 276
What do you do when someone is smashing every target… while making everyone around them quietly consider a career change?
This week, Ish and Sacha get into the awkward world of difficult high performers: the rock stars, sales guns and thoroughbreds who deliver brilliant results but don't always play nicely with others. When is "difficult" actually a valuable challenge? When is it genuinely destructive?
And at what point do you stop worrying about what if they leave? And start asking, what if they stay? 
They explore the important difference between someone who ruffles feathers because they're pushing standards and challenging mediocrity, and someone whose success comes with a trail of damage behind them. Because letting your thoroughbreds run is one thing. Letting them kick everyone else in the head on the way past is another.
There's also a brilliant confession from Sacha about being given responsibility for providing feedback at 18 or 19, despite having absolutely no idea how to give feedback,  resulting in roughly "one thing you did well and 95 things you were a bit shit at." Strangely, people weren't grateful.
Along the way, they get into courageous conversations, team standards, whether team charters actually change anything. 
Plus, the most important preparation for Ish and Sacha's upcoming overseas speaking gig: apparently, sorting out what they're wearing.
Key Learnings
1. Difficult isn't necessarily destructive
Look at the impact of the behaviour: are they raising the team's game, or raising themselves by pushing everyone else down?  Pasted text
2. Ask "What if they stay?"
Leaders can become so worried about losing a star performer that they'll tolerate behaviour they'd never accept from anyone else.
3. Results don't cancel out behaviour
If performance reviews only reward the numbers, you're effectively telling people that how they achieve those numbers doesn't matter. 
4. Sometimes people genuinely don't know they're difficult
Before deciding someone is simply an arsehole, consider whether anyone has actually told them how their behaviour lands.
5. Standards only matter when you use them
Team charters, values and behavioural agreements can be useful, but the document itself changes nothing. They become real the first time someone crosses the line, and another team member says, "We're not going to do that around here." That's when words on the wall become the way a team actually works.

Say Hello
Episode 275
Ish and Sacha dig into the slightly uncomfortable reality of AI and productivity: technology keeps promising to save us time, but humans are remarkably talented at immediately filling that time with more stuff.
From AI-generated reports nobody really needs, to 15-page emails nobody wants to read, they explore the difference between using AI to make work better and simply using it to create more work.
Sacha introduces a useful question, “to what end?” as a way of challenging the endless drive toward greater output. If an AI tool saves you an hour, does that hour automatically need to become another hour of productivity? Or could it become thinking time, recovery, learning, creativity or simply space to do the important stuff better?
There’s also a WHOOP watch that mistakes public speaking for tennis, a Dyson battery rescued by ChatGPT, suitcase-packing marital commentary, billionaire ambition, the strange guilt of not looking busy between nine and five, and a warning for anyone currently forwarding enormous AI-generated emails to their colleagues.
The big message: AI should help us work differently, not just help us cram more work into the same day.
Key Learnings
1. Don’t automatically fill the time AI gives back
2. Ask “to what end?”
Being able to produce more reports, more analysis or more output doesn’t automatically mean you should. 
3. More data isn’t the same as better decisions
AI can make information easier to produce. Human judgement is still required to decide whether that information matters.
4. Use AI where it genuinely removes friction
Sometimes the best use of AI isn’t an enormous strategic project. It’s taking a photo of the bottom of your dying Dyson battery and asking where you can buy a replacement.
5. Leaders need to teach what “good AI use” looks like
Telling people to use AI and then criticising them whenever they use it badly isn’t particularly helpful. 
And crucially: if AI makes someone more efficient, don’t automatically reward them with another mountain of work.

Say Hello
Episode 274
What do Ted Lasso, Korean skincare, a runaway car and being unexpectedly told you’re “foxy” have in common? More than you’d think, apparently.
After Ish narrowly avoids watching his car disappear backwards down his death-trap driveway, he and Sacha get into why Ted Lasso has become such a compelling picture of leadership. Not because Ted has everything sorted, but because he manages to combine optimism, vulnerability and genuine care with standards, honesty and a willingness to have the hard conversations.
Turns out kindness works considerably better when it has a backbone.
This episode is a love letter to Ted Lasso, but less about football and more about the kind of leadership the character represents.
Ish and Sacha unpack why Ted’s combination of kindness, optimism, vulnerability and belief in people feels so refreshing. He sees the person before the performance, takes time to understand what makes people tick and, rather than writing people off when they behave badly, keeps inviting them back towards the best version of themselves.
They also explore why compassionate leadership can look different depending on who is doing it, how Ted challenges some traditional ideas of masculinity, and why being vulnerable doesn’t mean turning your team into your therapists.
Along the way, there’s an All Blacks example of beautifully simple inclusive leadership, Sacha discovers perhaps the greatest unsolicited compliment ever received by text, and Ish shares what happens when someone keeps going after repeated career knockbacks rather than throwing their toys out of the pram.
Key Learnings

1. See the person before the performance
2. Call people in, not just out
3. Kindness needs a backbone
4. Optimism is something you can practise
5. You don't have to be a finished product to lead well