The Deal Dash: How to Be the Last One Standing with Steven Bradbury

Steven Bradbury

00:15 - 00:47

Last man standing is what I was dubbed by the world's media after that race. Exactly how did that happen? I trained for twelve years, competed for Australia in four Winter Olympic games.

The main reason that I was there in Salt Lake City was to put some demons to rest. In Canada 1994, I was impaled on the back of a rival skate, got my leg cut open, almost lost my life.

Eighteen months before winning that gold medal, I had a crash in training, went head first into the barrier and broke my neck. I'd skated the three Winter.

Steven Bradbury

00:47 - 00:49

Olympics, and.

Steven Bradbury

00:49 - 02:26

I hadn't done my best at any of them. And I just wanted to skate my best.

In Salt Lake City, I did that in the quarterfinals. I've been a four time world champion, made it through to the semis.

I was pretty realistic about it and decided I don't think I was good as these other guys. And my best chance to get through to the final was to get on the ice and the semi and stay out of the way.

I figured there's no reason I should change my tactics for the final. Bring this on.

Heading into the last turn, I see the Chinese guy pull. Set up my final turn out of the corner of my eye.

I see the other three tumble. And from that moment, I knew that I didn't have to scat anymore.

All I had to do was glide across the finish line. I wasn't sure if I should put my arms up in the air in celebration or go and hide in the corner.

Had no idea what the appropriate response was at that moment. I suppose in some people's mind, the question will always remain, did I win an Olympic gold bull accident? Half a dozen blokes have just fallen over, and they wanted me to go out there and take a gold medal for it.

I wasn't sure if I deserved to. I only had a few minutes to think about it, but during that few minutes, I decided that I'm going out there on the podium, and I'm taking that gold medal, but I'm not taking it for the ninety seconds of that race.

I'm gonna take it for the twelve years in the lead up to that ninety seconds.

Patrick Liddy

02:26 - 03:46

Okay. Great intro.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the next session of the Gil Dash webinar series. For those who don't know me, my name is Patrick Clitty.

I'm the country manager at Intralinks here in ANZ, and I'll be moderating today's session. For those who are new to the series, obviously, this has been going around the world.

Dildash brings together world class athletes, coaches, and motivational speakers to share lessons on performance, resilience, and teamwork. Lessons that resonate just as strongly in business as they do in sport.

And, particularly honored to be joined today by Stephen Bradbury, OIM. Stephen's just flown in from Amsterdam on the red eye now in Bali, so appreciate the, all the efforts to to make today's session.

For those who don't know, Stephen etched his name into history, Australian history in particular in 2002 as Australia's first Winter Olympic gold medalist, a moment, so iconic that the phrase doing a Bradbury is now officially in the Macquarie dictionary. But his story goes well beyond that unforgettable race.

In 02/2007, he was awarded the o a OAM for his services in Australian sport. And in 2024, little known little known fact, he received the bravery medal after saving the lives of four teenagers in dangerous surf, Sunny Coast.

So, Steven, fantastic to have you with us today. Welcome.

Steven Bradbury

03:46 - 05:19

Yeah. Thank you very much for having me along for DealDash Intralinks, and welcome to everybody from whichever country you're in that's listening along today.

And, yeah, it was it was a little bit ironic watching my intro video there all about the Winter Olympics, and here I am sitting in, city in Bali almost breaking out in a sweat at this time of the morning. But, yeah, absolute pleasure to be having a chat with you guys.

And, you know, the for me, I first started speed skating when I was eight years old. My dad was the national champion a couple of times back in his day and sixties, and, I saw the passion that he developed for the sport.

And when I was a kid, you know, my dad, he used to push me pretty hard. He forced me to go running and cycling with him, and I hated him for it.

But when I was when I was 15, I first made it onto the Australian national speed skating team, and I went to the world championships in The Netherlands. And I watched this Japanese skater.

His name is Kawasaki, Toshinobu Kawasaki, same as the motorbike. And he passed three guys on the outside, broke the world record by point eight of a second, and got the gold medal.

And that was the only final that Kawasaki ever made at the top level in the sport, and he won it. And I was sitting there in the grandstand, and I thought to myself, I'm gonna do that one day.

And so that was where the that was where the fire was lit, and that was where I didn't need my dad to push me any harder because I knew I was going to the Olympics. It was just gonna be a question of how many times I went and what position I finished.

Patrick Liddy

05:19 - 05:49

Right. It sounds incredible.

And during my research to this story story, so many setbacks as well on the way. So I thought we might possibly start there in in how you overcame those setbacks and and how it built that motivation in particular.

Most of the individuals on this call are gonna be coming from a a business mindset and a business lens, but, yeah, just talking to that, from life threatening injuries to being written off before Salt Lake City, how did you maintain that positive mindset, through those particularly, you know, down moments, I guess?

Steven Bradbury

05:49 - 07:39

Yeah. Positive mindset, Patrick.

I I love those two words. I think anybody who wants to be above average in anything, whether it's business, sport, life, It starts with believing that you can be one of the best act.

And I don't know if anyone's heard. There's a spot in the back of your brain.

It's called the reticular activating system. Now I hadn't heard about this thing either, but I stole this bit from another speaker.

Anyway, if if you feed that part of your brain positive all the time, it wants more. If you feed that part of your brain negative all the time, guess what it wants, Pat? Negative, mate.

Once more of that. Now we all know negative people in our lives.

I mean, there are people that are generally trying to bring other people around them down and telling everyone else how lucky they are. Well, you know, we all we all need to kick up the butt sometimes, but positive mindset leads to a late level anything.

And if you're able to keep positive on whatever happens, you know, you can be positive with a hangover if you need to be. That's not easy to do, but it's not impossible.

And, you know, for me as a speed skater, you mentioned that I had a couple of setbacks in my skating career and yeah. Jeez.

I haven't spoken about these for a while, but, setbacks are probably a little bit of an understatement. I was 21.

I got impaled on the back of another guy's speed skating blade in Canada. His blade went went went into my leg through there, came out the other side, and ripped straight back out.

Now a person of my size, I got about five and a half liters of blood. These days, maybe six.

A little bit more just there.

Patrick Liddy

07:39 - 07:42

Yeah. I can talk myself down, mate.

Steven Bradbury

07:42 - 08:48

But, yeah, sixty seconds after that crash, I had four of those five and a half liters of blood spilled by the ice. And I could feel my whole body going into shock.

I could feel my eyes closing. I remember it every second.

I said to myself, if you lose consciousness here, you're gonna die. And I wasn't ready.

And I had a lot of unfinished business in the sport. And I've gotta tell everyone on this call that when you honestly get put in a life and death situation like that, it's incredible the amount of power that a human, any human, can find when they put in that situation.

And that is how I was able to use it as a positive when I came back to the sport. If I was having a difficult day in training, I had the legs falling up, lactic acid, and it just fell a bit too hard.

And I tried to think back to when I was lying on the ice in Canada with three quarters of my own blood spill around me. Bad day and trying to run away pretty quick.

Patrick Liddy

08:48 - 09:08

Yeah, mate. Totally.

And then do just to that point as well, I mean, you look at elite athletes, they always talk about mindset is, you know, more important than the physical preparation or as important than the physical preparation. But when did you realize that mindset was such a pivotal pivotal component taking to the elite level, and then how did you drive that?

Steven Bradbury

09:08 - 12:32

Yeah. Going to the elite level and yeah, I mean, the Olympic Games is the biggest stage in the world when it comes to sport.

Fortunately for me, I got to compete at the at the Winter Olympics four times. And when you and that's I got I got three young kids.

Right? Now I gotta get them I gotta get them out of bed, eat their breakfast, brush their teeth, put the uniforms on, pack their lunches, get them in the car, drop them off at school, and nobody gives me a bloody trophy for it. You know? Sometimes, I think I deserve one, honestly, because bringing on three kids is is harder than training for the Olympics.

There's just no downtime. It's always a little bit on, a little bit off.

But when you're in your sport and you're one of the best in the world at it, you have to go and measure yourself against the best people in the world. And that was the motivation for continuing to drive in the sport even after I had well, I just spoke to you guys before about when I nearly bled out, hundred and thirty one stitches in my leg.

But probably the biggest learning experience I had in in my skating career was the other major injury that I had, and this one was it it should never have happened. I was racing, training in Brisbane, really slow speed, just doing pre season grinding laps.

Wasn't watching where I was going. I went head first into the barrier in a training crash, and I broke my neck.

Fractured the c four, c five, and c six. I had to have a a halo brace screwed into my skull for two and a half months, pretty much resembled a a human building site.

I got some pretty friendly looks wearing that thing when I was driving my car. At least I thought I did.

I knew the guy in the line next to me was looking at me, but I couldn't quite see him. But I had two and a half months where I couldn't really do much with the halo brace screwed into my head, and I had a lot of time to think about what I've done in my skating career already and what I potentially still had ahead of me.

And what I've done at this point was compete at the Winter Olympics three times. But if I was completely honest with myself, I hadn't scared of my best in any of them, and that was driving me crazy.

And the doctor who screwed the halo brace into my head, he he said this to my face. He said to me, Steve, you won't skate again.

I just went to another doctor. In my head, I had no choice.

I've invested so much of my life into this bloody sport already. And I got a bronze medal at the Olympics.

I got a gold or silver and a bronze of world championships in my sport by this point. But I haven't skated my best in the Olympic games.

I haven't. And that's the biggest stage in the world.

And when they unscrew this thing from my head, I've only got sixteen months to go until the next Olympics. Sixteen months out of fourteen years.

That's only a little bit on the end. So in my mind, it said to me, if you don't do that last sixteen months well, firstly, I'm a bloke.

Most of us blokes are not that good at multitasking. Right, Pat?

Patrick Liddy

12:32 - 12:33

It's true.

Steven Bradbury

12:33 - 13:57

Yeah. We're we're very good at, at one thing at a time, but, yeah, trying many things at the same time, not quite so effective.

So for me, I thought, well, if I don't do the sixteen months, I gotta start something else from scratch that I'm gonna suck at for at least the first couple of years before I start to to build some skill level. And if I weigh up sixteen months out of the course of my whole life, that's not much.

I have to do it. I've gotta go to the Olympics that fourth and final time, skate against the best people in the world.

But when I go there, up until when I broke my neck, it was always about winning Olympic gold. That was the main goal.

But realistically, that had passed me by. I was gonna be the oldest skater in the entire Olympic field if I got to Salt Lake City.

So the goal changed, and that was where the mindset changed for me from outcome, gold medal focused, to process. I just said to myself, I'm just gonna do the best I can with what I've got.

And to be honest, being a speed skater from Brisbane, that wasn't that much. You should have seen the sponsors lining up.

Hang on a minute. Yeah.

The only sponsorship deal I had back in the day was with the local supermarket. The deal was whatever I could eat while I was in store was free, but they didn't know about it.

Patrick Liddy

13:57 - 14:00

It's a very Australian sponsorship, mate. I love to hear it.

Steven Bradbury

14:00 - 14:22

I called it I called it a personal sponsor. And yeah.

So, you know, you guys all saw the the intro video. Everybody knows that I trained my guts out for that last sixteen months, and I put myself on the ice in Salt Lake City, and, I skated my best.

There's more to that story. I'm not sure if we'll we'll get to that in in today's session or not.

Patrick Liddy

14:22 - 14:45

Yeah. Hope hopefully, we've got time, mate, but it's a great segue nonetheless.

So you you talk a lot when I was doing, again, some of the research for for this conversation around the one percenters, and it it kind of focuses on, you know, what you just mentioned to motivation. Can you explain what the one percenters are and, how focusing on these helped you obviously succeed particularly towards Salt Lake City?

Steven Bradbury

14:45 - 17:27

Yeah. The one percenters, the 1% is to me are are the good ideas that every single person has from time to time in their life.

And we're pretty sure it's something that's gonna help us. And it might might might not be to do with work.

It might be to do with improving your golf handicap or, you know, taking the wife out for dinner for a special dinner for the wedding anniversary. Just these little things that are really easy to put off until tomorrow.

But the problem that I see with a lot of people when it comes to 1% is is people got a pretty you know, most people forget things after about two weeks. So if you haven't got a to do list, you have to write down the little ideas that you have from time to time two weeks later, they're at the window.

And what I love most about the about having a to do list, because I don't think a to do list is option. You have to write down the things on it that you want to achieve in your life.

And if goal setting, that's another step further down the road. But if you know, some people are probably listening to me right now, going that goal setting is not for me, Brad.

I'm not doing that. But if that's you, well, having a to do list is a good first step to getting towards setting some bigger written goals down the track.

The 1% is a lot of them because when you write them on a list and you do one and you cross it off, you get a little hit of personal satisfaction in your guts. And that makes you write more things on that list.

And if you've got a bit of a passion for what you do or for what you're doing in your job currently with Intralinks or whatever it is that brings you on this call today. If you truly wanna be above average at a minimum or even a late at what you do, executing the 1% is what gets you there.

The competition's pretty good. Competition's got a similar skill set to you, but it's those little one percenters.

And if you can truly get to be one of the best by executing those little things for an extended period of time, like I did at speed skating and truly become one of the best in the world at what you do, if you get to there, doesn't feel like work anymore. It's easy because you're bloody good.

Question is, have you got enough passion, enough resilience in what you do to do those 1% as to long enough until you get adrenaline back in your guts when you're at work because it's bloody worth it when you get there.

Patrick Liddy

17:27 - 17:49

And appreciate that. I mean, most of the people on this call will either have come from an m and a background or or in financial transactions.

Different world, obviously, to to elite athletes going to the Olympics, particularly for four times in your case. What advice can you can you give to to help people sticking to those one percenters in high pressure environments?

Steven Bradbury

17:49 - 19:26

I think you in the end, you you get what you give. And, you know, if I mean, I'm I'm the luckiest individual Olympic gold medalist in the history of sport.

I briefly led up to it before, but to get to that Olympic final, I skated incredible in the heights. In the quarter finals, I beat a guy from Canada by the name of Marc Guignon.

Now he was four time world champion. I hadn't beaten that prick for eight years.

He's not a prick. He's actually a really good guy.

But I got him. He's out, and I'm into the semis in Salt Lake City at the Olympics.

Bloody stacked. Now from there, to the semifinals and the final, the rest of the world fell over in front of me, and I became known as being the last one standing.

And I think you can apply that analogy to whatever you want when it comes to your kids at school or in your business life. If you want something badly enough, you've got to be prepared to do the hard work to put yourself in position to get lucky.

And I've heard it heaps of times that, people have come up to me and they said, oh, yeah. We call at our company, we call that bloke the Bradbury because he got the promotion because nobody else applied for the job.

And there's a lesson in there too, isn't there? Because that person was the one who who stuck it out the longest.

Patrick Liddy

19:26 - 20:02

And you've gotta try. That's for sure, mate.

And to that point, what I've got resonating in my mind is, the world heavyweight champion Alexander Usyk was talking recently about habits over discipline, and it's the person who's disciplined, which, which usually prevails and succeeds, mate. So definitely resonates with what you were saying there.

Pivoting a tiny bit, speed skating looks like such a solo sport, but I presume you've got an amazing team behind you. Can you can you talk me through, you know, behind your Olympic team, coaches, family, training partners, etcetera, who are the people that that kept you disciplined and kept you on point?

Steven Bradbury

20:02 - 21:09

Yeah. Well, I don't think in in anything in life, anything is an individual sport or an individual pursuit.

The world is incredibly competitive in the twenty first century. If you wanna be the best in anything, you have to have the right support network around you.

And, you know, for me as a speed skater, I had I had a small band of committed committed people in Brisbane training for the Winter Olympics. But, yeah, I had my coach, my parents, my physio, my equipment manager, and my teammates take away any of those people, and I do not get the gold medal.

And I think everybody has a network around them of people with skill sets that they don't always draw upon. I think it's kind of in some ways, you I don't know if you'd agree with me, Pat.

Aussies are not very good at sharing with each other what we're good at. Which you're very natural.

Patrick Liddy

21:09 - 21:13

Yeah. So that's an ego component.

So Australians don't like to big note themselves too much.

Steven Bradbury

21:13 - 21:18

Exactly. Not like like American people, they love to yell at each other what they're good at.

I like.

Patrick Liddy

21:18 - 21:23

Lot of Americans on this call, mate. So I'll I'll, abstain from answering that.

Steven Bradbury

21:23 - 22:56

But where I'm headed with that is that it's actually a continent towards the American people because they learn from it and better because they ask each other more questions and they share with each other what they're really good at. Whereas most Australians, myself included, I've I've sometimes got a little bit of tall poppy in me.

And I don't know if everyone in The US even knows what tall poppy syndrome is. It's you know, in Australia, it's where we try and drag people that are really good.

Try and pull them down a bit because, well, you're not quite supposed to be that good. And, you know, I think for me, a little bit a a little bit of tall poppy feeds into feeds into teamwork because well, firstly, we've got a we've got a group a group of people around us.

And I think the first lesson is if you know somebody within your network who's better than you at something and you wanna be better at it, ask them how they do it, especially if they've had a couple of drinks first. And and secondly, if you are the person in your group who's the best and you know it, don't be afraid to help everybody else around you.

Because if you help somebody and they end up beating you as employee of the year next year because purely because you helped them, that's not showing off. That's karma.

And eventually, I think you get that back.

Patrick Liddy

22:56 - 23:18

And I couldn't agree with you more. And if yeah.

Particularly in business, I think people covet their own knowledge and tend not to share, but it's certainly more powerful as a group. And as a group, you are stronger, so I appreciate that.

Can you share your story where your teamwork, or your team, should I sorry, was the deciding factor in in, you know, succeeding or not, or is there a certain circumstance you can talk to there?

Steven Bradbury

23:18 - 25:14

Oh, wow. There is.

But, jeez, I don't know if I've ever spoken about this one outside of, speed skating circles before. See if I can explain it.

So to qualify for the Olympics, you in the relay, so you got individual events where I got the gold in the men's 1,000 meter. But there's also a team event in the relay where they only take the top eight teams in the world to the Olympics.

So, realistically, if you haven't got teammates to share the load with you in training every day and the light up to the games, you gotta do it all by yourself. And that ain't gonna happen.

You're not gonna be able to compete at the Olympics, so you need the team with you for the individual events as well. And Australia, we we had a strong team, but it was very, very tight to get selected into the the top eight teams in the world for Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

And between us, we came up with this technique. It's called the double push.

Now we're not gonna I'm not gonna explain it completely on this call, but, you know, when you someone skates in in front of you, you give them the biggest shove you can, and you've still got a lot of a lot of speed after you've given the push. You cut across the rink and you give somebody else a jump completely opposite you in the order.

And so that was what a little teamwork skill that snuck us into the eight for the Olympic games. We ended up finishing sixth at the Olympics, which was the Acacia Ridge club team from Brisbane.

That's where we're all from. So that's a a pretty good feed in itself.

I don't know if you've had anyone's ever been to Brisbane, but Acacia Ridge is not Brisbane's classiest suburb. It's, myself, Andrew McNee, his brother Mark McNee, and Alex McEwan, four guys from Brisbane.

We got that team in the Olympics, finished sixth at the Olympic games, and those guys, as well as my coach, little Chinese lady, her name's Anne Zhang, without without those people in the lead up a few months in the lead up to the Olympics, I would not have got the gold medal.

Patrick Liddy

25:14 - 25:59

That's awesome, mate. And, for those that are joining us from overseas, Brisbane is the capital of the sunniest state in Australia, so you don't get too much snow or, or ice for that matter either to to practice, speed skating on.

Can I just unpack that a little bit? If if you haven't YouTube, yet team speed skating in particular, it's an awesome event to check it out. But just to just to to touch on the biggest moment in your career, particularly from a media perspective, the Bradbury moment, the world knows they're doing a Bradbury phrase by now.

How do you personally define that moment, mate, beyond just a lucky perception? Because it clearly wasn't luck to get you there, four four trips to the Olympics, but let's talk to me about that.

Steven Bradbury

25:59 - 27:43

Yeah. You're right, Pat.

It definitely wasn't luck to get me there, but there was a lot of luck in the in the final moments. And doing a Bradbury, I mean, you mentioned it in the in the intro that it it was put into the Macquarie dictionary in in 2014, and I'm confident now that after I'm no longer with us on this earth, the saying will still be being used.

So I'm I'm incredibly proud of it. You know, if you look at the the meaning of it, the description they write, it means lucky victory.

But I think everybody knows that you don't get to the the final of the Olympics or the pointy end of anything without having put in a hell of a lot of hard work to put yourself in that position. And, you know, for me, I train five hours a day, six days a week for fourteen years to put myself in that position.

And and a lot of the training was in the preseason, I used to ride about 320 kilometers on the bicycle. That's endurance.

I had I had heaps of time in the gym, pushing weights. I used to be able to squat 240 kilo strength, heaps of time at the rink, endurance, and spread technical work.

I don't know if anyone here has got any room around them, but this isn't something that actually, I usually do this at this at a live gig, and I don't really do it at an online gig, but we'll have a crack at it anyway. If anybody's got, if anybody's got a little bit of space behind him, pull your chair out, step back a little bit, and I'll have a crack at it.

I'll have a little crack at the speed skating exercise. You got any room behind you there, Pat?

Patrick Liddy

27:43 - 27:48

Mate, I don't know if you wanna see me squawping. I'll give it a try.

Why not? Let's do it. Make me feel bad now.

Steven Bradbury

27:48 - 28:06

If you don't wanna do it at high while you listen, don't worry about it. It's, let's have the always on your knees, hands behind your back, and keep your head up.

Now the order is to keep your leg angle in here at 90 degrees. Anyone feel a lack of gas there in their legs?

Patrick Liddy

28:06 - 28:08

I'm already burning, mate.

Steven Bradbury

28:08 - 28:30

I just started to burn already? Hopefully, some of you guys are doing this at home because this is what it feels like when you switch. Got start to get a little bit of lactic acid building up in the muscles, and that's what you're trying to do so then.

As you skate faster and further, you don't fill up with lactic acid and you don't slow down. Now how long have we got to go on this call, Pat?

Patrick Liddy

28:30 - 28:33

I don't wanna know, mate. Thirty minutes, I think.

Steven Bradbury

28:33 - 28:42

So why don't we just do this for the rest of the, the rest of the call? We'll we'll see who's the last one's seeing and we would need to release the afternoon, what do you reckon?

Patrick Liddy

28:42 - 28:49

Mate, this is the first time I've had lactic acid build up during a webinar. So, yeah, first experiences for both of us.

Steven Bradbury

28:49 - 28:54

Good on a webinar. It's more for live gigs, so we'll we'll probably finish it up here and and go back to the norm.

Patrick Liddy

28:54 - 28:59

I appreciate it. Thanks for not not making me look bad as well.

Steven Bradbury

28:59 - 29:06

Mate, you look like you're right. You do a few lunges or squats in the gym.

You handle it very well. Yeah.

Appreciate that, mate.

Patrick Liddy

29:06 - 29:45

But that's awesome, mate. And and then just out of the the doing the Bradbury phrase, what lessons can you, share with us, you know, on the gold medal race and then maybe some other components? What you've just described, to me at least, is, you know, a lifetime of dedication and perseverance and and creating and being determined for that matter.

But but how have you been able to transition some of that just in your day to day life? And I'm sure some people never have that that gold medal moment as such, but it's just creating, you know, a better habit and and more success in your day to day, I guess, which is a big takeaway. But can you talk to me about that in any any detail?

Steven Bradbury

29:45 - 32:12

I can. Yeah.

I like I like the word that they use that you use their inhabit. I used to have I used to have a sign stuck on the ceiling in my bedroom when I was a kid.

The sign read, this is the Olympics. Good enough.

That's the first thing I could see every morning at 04:30 when my alarm was going off, and I could see it because in Brisbane, we don't have daylight savings. The sun's already up at about four in the morning.

And I knew the competition. The Italians, the Koreans, the Canadians, I knew they were getting up.

And if I didn't get up and I lose, then I have to live with that regret. And no way could I live with that.

So I had to go to every single training session. And nowadays and, you know, it's not it's not Olympic sized anymore.

Like I mentioned before about having to get the kids out of bed, pee their bricks, brush their teeth, all that stuff. And I still have a sign next to the bed, and it's next to the bed.

Now the wife won't let me stick it on the ceiling. She says it'll take off the paint.

But, yeah, the the sign next to the bed reads family first because I know there's gonna be time for me to do what I need to get done throughout the day. But I've gotta sometimes take my mind out of selfish Olympian guy mode even though it was twenty years ago.

You know, when you've spent a lot of your life with a team of people around you to help you and everything's focused on you, it's a little bit harder to to break that mold. And so having that little visual cue next to my bed is what enables me to to stick my mind straight on the positive first thing every morning for some of that mundane stuff that you gotta get through.

And if anyone doesn't use one, I think having that visual cue or that visual trigger in what you wanna aim for is pretty important in getting you to refer back to your to do list and your goals so that you can execute the things that you know you need to get done. And, you know, having that mind on positive first thing every morning is a good start to do that.

Patrick Liddy

32:12 - 32:41

Yeah. I mean, there's there's something to take away from that in, in everyone's life, isn't it? Write down your motivations, look at it daily, Just to help you drive when the the morning's getting out of bed or a bit more difficult.

Steven, thank you for that. Hey.

You you've gone from Olympic glory to being awarded the bravery medal made in 2024 for, for, yeah, actions in the surf made very Australian of you. When you reflect on your journey, what what's the core message you want people to, to take away from your story?

Steven Bradbury

32:41 - 36:14

Bill, I love that you mentioned the, the bravery medal. I mean, I don't even know how that made it into the media.

I think my mom might have called them up a couple of months afterwards or something. But, yeah, that was for me, that was an incredible day.

There was four girls in a swimming in a position where they should have been two and a half meter waves, and I spotted them out there in the lineup, and I had my son teaching him to surf on the in the reef form. And I grabbed his board and went out and saved him.

And for me, it wasn't life threatening. But, for those girls, if I hadn't have been there that day, three of them probably wouldn't be with us anymore.

They're all 12 and 13 year old girls. So, yeah, I'm incredibly proud of of what happened on the on the beach in in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast that day.

But, yeah, the one of the biggest learning experiences that I had in my life was during the two and a half months where they had that halo brace screwed into my scalp because I had all that time to think about what I've done in my life already and what I still had ahead of me. And if you get yourself to that high level at whatever your undertaking is, then you're doing yourself an injustice if you don't see that through because I don't know.

I think for anyone who's an employer, and these days, I've got a I've got a beer company and a and a brewery in Brisbane where we've got I think we've got six chefs and 20 bar staff or something like that. It's called it's called last made standing Australian lager.

We're right across the road from Suncorp Stadium if you wanna come down for a beer if anyone has ever in Brisbane. But I often see a lot of young people, and I see their resume and it and it reads fantastic glowing references from all these different jobs that they've been at for, let's say, two years each over the last twelve years.

And I think to myself, if I employ that person, they're gonna be here for two years. They're just gonna start to get good, and then they're gonna piss off somewhere else for an extra 5 or $10 when someone realizes they're going alright.

But for me, the lesson in that is that if you really truly wanna be a lead at something, jumping ship every couple of years doesn't get you there. You know, we're going back to the ten thousand hour rule.

And if if you wanna put in ten thousand hours in something and you really become an expert at it, people will find you and they'll pay you way more than the extra 5 or $10 you're getting offered to jump ship for another job in a short window. And, yeah, to be honest, I I really miss the the elite level part of speed skating because when you're breaking something down to the nth degree and you're comparing yourself to how you go against the best people in the world, the measuring stick is right there in front of you.

Yep. I finished sixth in the world or whatever it is.

So the lesson there for me is in whatever you're doing, find that measuring stick for yourself. Make yourself accountable by somebody else around you being able to measure you or somehow measure your own performance.

You know, sometimes that means a Christmas bonus or or whatever it might be at your level, and it may not be Olympic gold medal size. But if you achieve that elite level in whatever it is you're doing, the, the payoff at the end, that's Olympic gold medal size.

Patrick Liddy

36:14 - 36:48

100%. And I appreciate the, the ten ten thousand hours mentioned.

Super interesting rate if, if anyone wants to to check it out afterwards on Google. We might take some questions from the floor.

If, if anyone has any questions, they can pop it into the q and a box in the top right hand side. We actually had a few questions come through before the session, so I might just give a couple of minutes just to see if any questions pop up.

I need to order you a coffee, Steven, mate, if you just got off the reno.

Steven Bradbury

36:48 - 36:51

We're all good, mate. I got a few days surfing here in Bali now.

So.

Patrick Liddy

36:51 - 37:13

I'm looking forward to those goal setting, mate. While people are typing, I might just start with, with one of the questions that came in.

What what do you see as the biggest parallel between elite sport and business today? Obviously, you've transitioned to to you mentioned you you're brewing and you're brewing brewing company. What's the, the parallel transition you can talk to?

Steven Bradbury

37:13 - 37:56

I think the biggest lesson that you can take from sport into business and life is time management. Just knowing what you're gonna do and when you're gonna do it.

When you're an athlete, you get told what to do by the coach or the team manager or whatever, and everything is everything is locked in and you can't miss anything. And if you do, you lose.

And in a way, it's the same in life. You you put everything down, you know, you you make that plan to execute every day, and you leave the average people for dead.

I mean, some people are being average in what they do, which is fine. But, if you would be better than average, make a plan.

Yeah. I.

Patrick Liddy

37:56 - 38:20

think that the people on this call in particular, mate, I'd expect to, to wanna be high performers and succeed in what, what they're doing. So makes perfect sense.

Just your setbacks, mate, and I talked to setbacks, and they might have defined you and made you stronger. But you you've had moments of extreme setbacks and, incredible success, which taught you more?

Steven Bradbury

38:20 - 38:21

Which what? Me more? Sorry?

Patrick Liddy

38:21 - 38:26

What what taught you more? Was it the setbacks or the success that, the you you took more away from?

Steven Bradbury

38:26 - 39:10

And everyone everyone knows the answer to that. The leading question.

Yeah. The the setbacks teach you teach you way more.

Yeah. I've always been a a pretty big heavy metal fan.

One of my favorite bands when I was a kid, I still like them now, is is Anthrax. And there's a song on their album, stomp four four two.

It's called, Perpetual Motion. And the the chorus goes, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

And after I got my leg cut up, it almost bled out. I I had that song pumping all the time on the mountain bike in the preseason doing hundreds of kilometers.

Remember the old Sony Walkmans? You are you old enough to remember those packs?

Patrick Liddy

39:10 - 39:14

Yeah. I do, mate.

I do, mate. Add it to add it on the belt buckle.

Steven Bradbury

39:14 - 40:06

Backpack and the, and the, the funny little earphones that aren't anywhere near as good as the ones you got in your head now. But, yeah, it's, in the end, it comes back to to how much you want it.

And, you know, if you're passionate about one particular thing and I don't know. I hear I hear a bit these days about, in sport, people encouraging athletes when they're younger to participate in lots of different sports and build different skill sets in different sports, and then when they're 15 or 16, choose which one they're gonna go for and bring it all in together.

I don't know. I don't know if that stacks up for me.

I think you look at a lot of incredible athletes in sport, and if you wanna be the best at it, there's no time that's too young to start specializing. And, yeah, you can apply that to business too.

Patrick Liddy

40:06 - 40:22

Yep. And just commit.

And we've had a a question coming on the q and a chat, so thank you, Eugenio Mortise. Steven, great story.

What person had the biggest influence in your life over over these?

Steven Bradbury

40:22 - 41:22

Yeah. That would be the that would be my dad.

Yeah. The old boy was he was pretty strict as a kid.

I won the under thirteen Australian National Speed Skating Championships when I was 10. The kid who got the bronze medal also finished last.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Get it? Yeah.

93 do that. For championships in Australia.

And and I said, not exactly a popular sport in Australia. And when I turned 13, my dad, he he saw that I potentially had a bit of talent in the sport, and he started pushing me forward.

And I hated him for it. He started forcing me to go running and cycling with him before I went to school, and I I just I just didn't get it.

I couldn't see the the reason behind it, but he saw that I potentially had a had a future in speed skating. And he put me into that position where I saw the Japanese guy that I spoke about at the beginning of this webinar, Kenosaki.

Patrick Liddy

41:22 - 41:23

Yep.

Steven Bradbury

41:23 - 42:08

Three guys on the outside have break the world record. And, you know, so what my dad did for me was he entrenched a work ethic inside of me.

He taught me as a kid that if you wanna be good at something, you have to push yourself first to see that opportunity. And, I mean, does anybody on the call like it when their kids come home from school with a participation certificate? I get it right.

It depends on the age of the kid. They're six, seven, eight years of age.

First, you gotta start something, develop a passion for it. But what do what do most kids wanna know, Pat, by the time they've hit double figures, by the time they're 10 years old?

Patrick Liddy

42:08 - 42:11

Don't know, mate. Educate me.

Steven Bradbury

42:11 - 42:35

They wanna know who won. Yeah.

The competitive ones do anyway. And I think that competitive mindset needs to be harnessed as early as possible, not pushed into the background by saying, yeah, let's give everybody a a participation award for having a go because nowhere else in last year get rewarded just for showing up.

Patrick Liddy

42:35 - 43:31

Not the, not the first sportsman or the sports star in particular I've heard say that, mate. So it's definitely a a generational component to, yeah, to take into consideration.

Steven, we'll we'll we'll probably close off here, mate. I just wanna thank you so much for sharing your story with us today.

Super interesting doing my research on your background, obviously, with with your neck injury and, obviously, the the impaling on a skate. For those that, that haven't seen much speed skating, definitely check it out.

YouTube, it's a hell of a sport to, to follow. And just from your mindset, sorry.

I'll just, just also say, from your mindset and discipline to the importance of teamwork, and, of course, the the lessons in your iconic gold, I think we can all take something away from this session. So thank you once more.

Thanks everyone for joining us on this, this session of the DealDash webinar series. Appreciate you all logging on.

I hope to see you soon again in, yeah, another time. Steven, enjoy your holiday in Bahrain, mate.

Thank you.

Steven Bradbury

43:31 - 43:39

Thanks very much, guys. And, Winter Olympics starts on the February 6 in Milan, so tune in for the short track speed scouting.

It's gonna be carnage.

Patrick Liddy

43:39 - 43:41

Alright. Shout out.

Thanks, mate. Appreciate it.