The Built For Pressure Podcast

Will Foden

This podcast is for leaders, business owners and executives to find their next 1%.

This podcast will educate those who want to regain their edge, consistently perform during times that matter and turn potential into performance.

- Human Optimisation
- Peak Performance
- Elite Mindset Strategy
- Personal Development
- Communication
- Leadership Performance
- Business Growth

These are all parts of the bigger puzzle for the modern leader.

This podcast is designed to connect and remodel what modern day leadership needs to become.

We are placing the human at the forefront of the performance.

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20 episodes
Updated Yesterday

Episodes20

Newest first

Yesterday · 12 min
Why 10 Out Of 10 Mental Toughness Burns Founders Out: Here's How I Scored
Mental toughness is measurable. Most founders have never been shown how. In this episode I break down the four factors that make up mental toughness using the MTQPlus framework from AQR International, and I run through my own scores in real time so you can see what the data actually looks like on a person. Most of the founders and executives I work with arrive at the same point. Burnt out. Overwhelmed. Unable to attack the way they used to. They assume it is a mental performance problem. It rarely is on its own. Mental performance without the physical capacity to hold it is a short road to breaking. There is a distinction that matters here. Resilience is acute. Mental toughness is chronic. Resilience is what happens in the moment and then stops. Mental toughness is a long term practice, and unlike most of what gets sold in this space, it is measurable and trainable. The framework splits into four areas with eight subscales underneath them. Commitment: achievement orientation and goal orientation Challenge: risk orientation and learning orientation Confidence: confidence in abilities and interpersonal confidence Control: emotional control and life control I go through each one and show you my numbers. Where I score high. Where I am exposed. Why 10 out of 10 is not the goal, and why the people sitting at the top of that scale are often the most susceptible to burnout, because they cannot pause, step back, or see anything outside the one thing in front of them. Burnout narrows focus. Everything becomes urgent. Everything becomes attack. Performance stops being three dimensional and collapses into a single point. This is not a three step framework from a book. This is elite level assessment applied to leaders under sustained pressure. In this video ill cover: - Why founders think this is a mindset problem - Resilience is acute, mental toughness is chronic - The four factors and eight subscales - What I scored on the mental toughness scale - Why 10 out of 10 is a burnout risk If you want to know where your own capacity sits before you look at mental toughness, take the Capacity Index. Seven pillars, scored out of 70, ten minutes. https://capacity.scoreapp.com Built For Pressure is performance infrastructure for leaders operating under sustained pressure. 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #trainsmart #masteryourenergy
July 31 · 5 min
Balance Is Bullshit For High Performers: Heres What You Need Instead.
- Why your business and your life are not separate systems - How capacity works and why growing it changes everything downstream - The seven capacity drivers we measure inside the Capacity Index - Why elite operators build systems instead of relying on emotional fortitude The seven capacity drivers covered: Sleep Stability, Energy and Nutrition, Stress Regulation, Recovery Capacity, Physical Capacity, Environment and Behaviour, Cognitive Performance. None of them sit in isolation. They feed each other. That is the point most people miss. If you take one thing from this, take this. Stop trying to find balance. Ask what you are actually trying to balance, and then ask how you integrate it. That is not accidental. It is deliberate practice. Link to the index: https://bfp-capacity-index.netlify.app/ 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #trainsmart #masteryourenergy
July 22 · 11 min
Why Business Travel Is Destroying Your Performance And How to Fix It
Most business leaders have a game plan until they start to travel. That is when performance quietly falls apart. In this ten-minute workshop, I break down the exact protocol we use inside Built For Pressure to help executives perform on the move, across multiple time zones, without leaving it to chance. You cannot run away from your physiology. But you can learn to work with it. What is covered in this video: How jet lag actually works and why it is not just tiredness, it is physiological compromise that directly affects your decision quality and emotional regulation. How to manage your sleep architecture before, during, and on arrival so you land ready to perform rather than two steps behind. How to keep training on the road and retain the adaptation you have built, so travel does not undo your progress. The exact checklist I use with the executives I work with, plus the one app I recommend to every client who travels internationally. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction and why travel breaks most leaders 1:20 What jet lag actually is and why it matters 3:00 Sleep architecture and how travel disrupts it 5:30 Strategies before you travel 7:00 What to do on the flight 8:30 On arrival protocol 9:30 The app and checklist to steal Link to the checklist here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1htEH7G26RUNn6xW7kTrRdRPmBGfypnY2/view If you want to understand where travel is costing you performance, take the Capacity Index assessment at https://bfp-capacity-index.netlify.app/. It will tell you exactly where your performance is leaking and what to address first. Built For Pressure is performance infrastructure for leaders operating under sustained pressure. Not coaching. Not wellness. The system behind the leader determines the performance of the leader.
July 14 · 7 min
The Way Most Executives Build Their Diary Is Backwards
Most executives build their diary in the wrong order. Work goes in first, and their physical capacity gets whatever is left over. Usually nothing. In this episode I walk you through my actual diary for the week. Not a polished version built for the show, the real one, with calls, shoots, admin and check ins in it. I break down how I build boundaries into my week, how I anchor the pieces that do not move, and how I put my physical capacity in first so everything else has something stable to sit on. Here is what we get into. How I anchor the pieces that never move, training and recovery, breakfast and lunch at the same time every day, so the week has a spine. Why the gaps between meetings matter as much as the meetings, and how your energy leaves residue every time you switch subject. The three drivers I use to build a week: the intensity of your days, traffic lighting your diary, and the difference between focus days and buffer days. Why most leaders run their performance like a roulette machine instead of a vending machine, and what that says about how much they are still micromanaging. The standard underneath all of it is simple. My physical capacity is what makes me an asset to the people around me. If it is not in my diary, it does not happen. Listen through, then go and look at your own week. Find the one physical block you can protect tomorrow and put it in before anything else. If you want to go deeper, I have a full workshop on this called the Energy Audit, roughly ten minutes on how to structure your diary and protect your capacity. Energy Audit workshop: https://youtu.be/y-NTk-nnAyg
July 7 · 11 min
Why You Cannot Maintain Your Performance No Matter How Hard You Work
Ten months before I ran out as captain, a surgeon told me I might not walk properly again. That moment in the tunnel taught me more about performance under pressure than 18 years of elite sport and business consulting combined. And in this video, I break down exactly what it exposed. Most high-performing executives are not failing because of strategy. They are failing because they have stripped three critical drivers out of their process without realising it. Recovery strategy. Deliberate practice. Identity. I cover what each one actually means at elite level, why the more, more, more approach is not building you but eroding you, and how the Built For Pressure Executive Performance Pathway addresses all three across four phases: Stabilise, Expand, Optimise, Govern. If you are an executive, CEO, or business owner who knows there is more in the locker but cannot work out why you are not accessing it, this is where to start. If you want a diagnostic to see where your biggest lever is, take this: https://bfp-capacity-index.netlify.app/ WORK WITH ME Executive Performance Partnership and Executive Core programmes are open to a limited number of clients. DM me the word BFP on any platform or visit builtforpressure.net to find out if you are the right fit. Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net
July 1 · 54 min
Mastering The Inner Game With Jay Hedley
Every leader I have worked with hits the same ceiling. Not a strategy ceiling. Not a physical one. The one between your ears. The game outside of you will only ever go as far as the game inside of you allows. In this episode I sit down with Jay Hedley, founder of The Coaching Room and Head Coach, and the man who has shaped my own performance more than almost anyone over the last decade. Jay works with CEOs and C suite leaders globally, alongside elite Rugby, football and boxing programmes, using NLP and developmental psychology to build what he calls the inner game. We cover: - The inner game and why most leaders never train it, even though it decides everything else - NLP explained properly, why perception shapes reality, and why the nervous system is the missing link in most performance conversations - Meaning and intent as the engine behind sustained high performance, and why so many high achievers hit a wall once the early hunger fades - The identity compass, and the difference between confidence (which should move with skill) and self worth (which should not) - The outcome versus process trap, and why focusing on what you do not want guarantees more of it - Why mental recovery is the most neglected pillar in performance, and what happens when leaders give it zero hours a week - Slowing down to speed up, and why the leaders who resist looking inward are the ones who stay stuck Jay has just opened Level 1 of his High Performance Mental Skills course, six weeks, built around the same framework we break down in this conversation. I have done the work with him directly and it has shaped how I run Built For Pressure. Course link: https://functionaltraininginstitute.com/high-performance-mental-skills-for-sports-fitness-coaches-level-1/ Connect with Jay Headley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayhedley/ Head Coach: https://www.headcoach.coach/ If you are operating below your ceiling and you know it, the question is not what is wrong with you. The question is, what are you doing with what is in front of you right now? 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #trainsmart #masteryourenergy
June 23 · 1 hr 7 min
How To Leave Professional Sport and Build a Company On Your Terms With Alex Shaw
Leaving professional sport is one of the hardest transitions an athlete can make. On this week's episode, I sit down with former teammate and friend Alex Shaw, owner of Kickback Coffee. Alex played professional rugby for over a decade. Leicester Tigers Academy. Sale Sharks. Doncaster Knights. England age groups. He had the career, the identity, the structure. And then it ended. What he built next says more about him than any of that did. Kickback Coffee started in a kitchen with a second-hand popcorn machine and beans from eBay. It now spans five sites and 51 people. A brand identity strong enough to attract world-class talent and a clear mission: To become the adventure coffee company in the UK. But this episode is not really about coffee. It is about what happens when the thing you have built your entire identity around disappears. How you find the next thing. Why most people wait until crisis to make a decision. What the internal experience of walking away actually feels like. And why the athletes who leave something on the table are often the ones who go hardest in business. We cover the moment in Sydney Harbour where everything shifted. The Covid pivot that turned five wholesale orders a month into 25 per day. The difference between a safety net and an anchor. The leadership lessons you only learn when you stop being able to be in the room. And why curiosity, not strategy, tends to be the real engine of great founders. This one is for the athlete who knows the clock is ticking and they need to make a move. For the founder still figuring out what the next chapter looks like. And for anyone who has ever had to rebuild their identity from scratch and channel that energy into something that actually means something. I was lucky enough to play alongside Alex at Doncaster. After this conversation, I can promise you that this is one of the most honest accounts of an athlete's transition and founder identity you will find. If this landed for you, leave a comment or send a message I'd love to hear from you. But if you are navigating this transition right now and are struggling, drop me a message I'll show you what you should do next. You can find Alex and Kickback Coffee here: Instagram: @kickbackcoffee Website: kickbackcoffee.co.uk LinkedIn: Alex Shaw Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net
June 18 · 18 min
Burnout isn't A Discipline Problem. It's An Infrastructure Problem.
- Burnout isn't a discipline problem. It's an infrastructure problem. Most CEOs, founders and executives think they're failing because they're not working hard enough. The truth is the opposite. They're treating every task as an elite-level goal acquisition framework, living in absolutes, chasing peak performance on a continual basis, and wondering why their sleep, energy, digestion and drive have fallen by the wayside. You can't summit Everest and stay at the top. You climb, you summit, you return to base camp. Performance works the same way. Optimal isn't the peak. Optimal is the baseline you build the capacity to operate from, around 80% of the time, so you've always got 20% left to push when it counts. In this video I break down two things. First, the mechanism of burnout itself. The performance curve from boredom, through the comfort zone, into the stretch zone where optimal performance lives, and then into strain and crisis where most people break. - I explain allostatic load, why your nervous system is wired to protect you, and why a client of mine operating at a super high level felt incredible right up until the point she was nearly hospitalised two weeks later. - I introduce the Built For Pressure Capacity Index. The diagnostic I built after years of recognising one thing. You cannot think your way to a healthy system. If your physiology isn't in the right place, everything becomes a firefight. The Capacity Index scores you across seven foundations: Sleep Stability Energy and Nutrition Stress Regulation Recovery Capacity Physical Capacity Environment and Behaviour Cognitive Performance Each one gives you a score and a radar graph that shows you exactly which lever to pull that week to bring your performance back up. Because from a physiological standpoint, every one of these levers is tied to the others. This is for the CEO, executive, director or founder who is pushing their limits, building the company, and knows they also have to look, feel and perform at their best in real time. Watch the breakdown, then take the diagnostic and put it into your own process. Review your week, find your lever, and shorten the gap between knowing and doing. Links to the Capacity Index and further tools are below. Link - https://bfp-capacity-index.netlify.app/ If this has resonated and you want to learn more about the program, DM the word BFP on any of the channels below. 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net
June 11 · 7 min
Dark Energy: The Weapon That Built You Can Be The One That Breaks You
Dark energy has been a fuel source for me for years, and if you are a high achiever pushing yourself across mind, body and business, you have used it too. You might just not have named it. In this episode, I break down what dark energy actually is. Not motivation. Not discipline. The part of your ego that refuses to quit and is willing to burn everything to prove a point about who you are. I take you through where mine came from. Being told I was too small, too slow, not fit enough, and answering every one of those. Having my knee shattered by a horse and using that same energy on a physio table to claw back the range of motion I needed to run again. Losing the relationship, the money, the house, part of my identity, and putting everything on black to get back. But this is not a celebration of dark energy. It is a warning about how to leverage it. There is a point in your career when you need it. It is the thing that gets the rocket off the floor, the push that starts the car rolling down the hill. The problem is what happens when you never put it down. When you rely on it to operate day to day, inside your business, your training, your family, the stress physiology required to hold that charge breaks your body, narrows your decision making to point and shoot, and quietly becomes the bottleneck you cannot see. Ego is not the enemy. Ego got me here, and most likely it got you here too. The next step is learning how to wield it, when to call on it, and when to deliberately leave it in the holster. If you know you have been wielding that weapon for too long and you are unsure how to leverage it properly, DM me the word ENERGY. I will send you a personal voice note on how I use it, the tools I run inside my own process, and what I do physically to make sure I do not disappear down the rabbit hole of breaking myself to achieve.
June 5 · 19 min
A Horse Snapped My Leg In Half. It Built My Entire Career.
Most people who talk about executive performance talk from the sky down. Self-help books. Spreadsheets. Mindset. I was built from the ground up. In this episode I tell the full origin story. County-level cricket, tennis and javelin as a kid. Leaving home at sixteen to chase professional rugby. Captaining at National One. Signing my first professional contract at Doncaster Knights. And then, eight weeks in, the moment that broke everything: a horse trampling my partner, a lunge line wrapping my leg, and my knee snapping in half. ACL, PCL and MCL, gone in one step. The first thing I felt was not pain. It was fear that my rugby career was over. What followed was three operations, joint infections, ten months of rehab, and a surgeon telling me I would be lucky to walk properly again. I started at number seven against Cross Keys ten months later. But the deeper rebuild was not the leg. It was the identity. I had spent years spinning plates for everyone else and calling it loyalty. The crisis forced me to stop. This is the story of how physical collapse rebuilt me, why I believe physiology precedes psychology precedes leadership, and how working with heads of banks, founders and fund managers in Singapore taught me the real lesson: Why leadership infrastructure relies on physical performance. I am running a few minutes late; my previous meeting is running over How to deal with real pressure in a corporate enviroment?. How to not lose the human inside of the process. Pressure is not the problem. Infrastructure is the gap. This is where Built For Pressure was born. If you lead under pressure and want to understand what actually builds capacity, start here. If you want to connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #trainsmart #masteryourenergy
May 27 · 8 min
One Bad Night: The Exact Protocol I Follow When Sleep Is Not an Option
Last night my son decided sleep was optional. By 1:45 in the morning, I had given up on the idea of rest entirely. This morning my Garmin told me I had 4 hours and 5 minutes and a sleep score of 40. On paper, I was cooked. On paper, I also had a full business day waiting for me. In this episode I am not talking theory. I am walking you through exactly what I did, in real time, to manage a compromised day without losing ground. From the moment I stepped outside half conscious into the morning light, through to how I triaged my cognitive load, adjusted my nutrition, managed my caffeine window and used NSDR to bring my nervous system back from the edge. This is the conversation nobody has about high performance. Not the highlight reel. Not the optimised morning routine. The raw reality of running a business, raising a family, and still refusing to let one bad night become a bad day. If you are a founder, a CEO, or a leader who knows what it feels like to be on the floor before the day has even started, this episode is for you. Because being compromised is not the problem. Not having a system to manage it is.
May 21 · 14 min
Why Elite Performers Struggle to Grow (And What To Do About It)
The better you get, the harder growth becomes. Not because you are less capable. But because the game changes, and the version of you that was built to win the last game is not automatically equipped to win the next one. In this episode, Will Foden gets personal about the specific kind of friction that every elite performer hits at least once in their career, and why most of them do not have a framework for it when it arrives. Drawing on his own experience navigating the transition from professional rugby player to performance practitioner to founder of Built For Pressure, Will breaks down the science of why high performers stall during growth phases, and what to do about it. At the centre of this episode is the work of performance scientist Steve Magness and the concept of broad versus narrow identity: why the focused, singular identity that drives elite performance in the early stages becomes the very thing that creates friction when the game evolves. You will come away from this episode with a clear understanding of why this friction is not a weakness signal but a growth marker, how to audit where your identity is currently anchored, and the three-step framework Will uses in real time to keep moving while the identity catches up to the new game. This one is for the leader, the founder, the athlete, anyone who is performing at a high level and feeling a weight they cannot quite name. The discomfort is not the problem. It is the price of admission. If you're going through this same specific situation right now, I'd like to hear from you. If I can help, I'll give you some links to what it means to be able to keep pushing your limits. DM me the word MAY, and I'll send you a few tools you can put straight into your process.
May 14 · 10 min
Once An Athlete, Always An Athlete
My wife Rach was seventh in the world at 100 fly. On Saturday, she crossed the finish line of her first 70.3 Ironman. This episode is not a race report. It is an honest look at what happens to high performers when they leave elite sport and never redirect what it built in them. The athlete wiring does not switch off. It goes dormant. And without a target worthy of it, that same drive that built your edge starts working against you. I talk about what Rach demonstrated on that finish line, why founders and senior leaders who came from sport need a challenge outside the business, and why the pull you feel toward something hard and physical is not indulgence. It is a performance signal worth listening to. If you have shelved that part of yourself because your responsibilities changed, this episode is a direct conversation with you.
May 6 · 9 min
The Executives Guide To Performing On The Road
Most executives fall apart the moment they leave their routine. Here is why that is a systems problem, not a willpower problem. In this episode, I am recording on the go as we head to Mallorca for my wife Rachael's 70.3 Half Ironman. Rachael competed for Great Britain in 100m freestyle swimming from the age of 14 and missed out on the Olympics by a tenth of a second. Now she is a mother and she is still holding the standard. That matters. But this episode is not just about Rachael. It is about how high performers travel without losing the plot. How do you protect your physical output, your nutrition, your focus, and your presence when everything around you is outside your control? I cover: - The minimum effective dose principle for training on the road and why most people overcomplicate it completely. - Travel nutrition without obsession, why tracking your food has nothing to do with fat loss and everything to do with data - Hydration on flights and why this is the most overlooked lever in executive performance. - The dimmer switch model of performance and why elite performers are never fully on or fully off. - How to remain present with your family without guilt destroying your focus or your identity - Why your performance infrastructure has to travel with you, not wait for you at home The BFP Capacity Index is now live. If you want to know which of your seven performance pillars is costing you the most right now, drop me a message. 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #trainsmart #masteryourenergy
April 28 · 46 min
The Performance Gap That No CEO Talks About With Max Learmonth
Most CEOs think pressure is the problem. It is not. The problem is the lack of infrastructure to handle it. In this episode, I sit down with Max Learmonth, founder and CEO of Forge Talent which is currently the fastest growing finance and accountancy recruiter in the UK, as well as a current client of mine. Max is a former elite athlete, a CEO on a mission to change an industry and on a charge to take him and his team to another level. The reality of pushing your limits means that you're always going to be living on the knife edge of pushing yourself to expand your capacity. But when we first connected, that was not the full picture. Max was up at 3:45 in the morning. Running ten kilometres before the sun came up. Burning off the previous night's client dinners. Getting home and being physically present but mentally absent. Running on adrenaline, black coffee, and the same mindset that had served him on the rugby pitch but was quietly slowing down his capacity to lead. He did not have a business problem. He had a self management problem. And he had no idea that he was constantly living on the edge of burnout. This conversation is one of the most honest I have recorded. We go into what it actually looks like when a high performer is running on empty, why the same traits that build elite businesses can quietly erode the person running them, and what changes when you start treating yourself like the most important asset in the company. We cover: - Why being fully committed and being well managed are not the same thing, and why confusing them is costing you more than you realise. - How reactive leadership is a product of a depleted system, not a character flaw, and what Max did to shift from reacting to responding. - The role of data, routine, and recovery in giving a full-send personality the capacity to actually sustain the pace. - What presence at home actually has to do with performance at work, and why most leaders get this completely backwards. - Why asking for guidance is not a weakness when you are operating at this level. It is the highest leverage decision you can make. This is not a conversation about balance. Neither of us believes in it. This is a conversation about building the physical and psychological infrastructure that allows you to stay on the knife edge, sustainably, and lead with clarity when it matters most. If you are growing something, if you are fully attacking and starting to feel it, and if part of you knows that the way you are operating right now is not going to hold, this one is for you. Listen. Take one thing. Act on it. Built For Pressure works with founders, CEOs and senior leaders who are serious about performing at the highest level, for the long term. If that is you, DM me the word PRESSURE and let us have a conversation. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Introduction and who is Max Learmonth 03:20 From elite sport to building the fastest growing recruiter in the UK 08:45 What it actually felt like to be fully attacking with no off switch 14:10 Max routine, including how he used to manage his growth and performance. 19:30 The moment Max knew something had to change 24:00 From reactive to responsive: how real leadership behaviour shifts 31:15 What tracking data actually taught a man who hated the idea of wearing a whoop 38:40 Nutrition, sleep and the basics that nobody talks about seriously enough 44:20 Why presence at home is a performance variable, not a soft one 50:05 What Max would tell himself at the start of the journey 55:30 The one thing that would accelerate any CEO watching this 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #masteryourenergy
April 22 · 1 hr 1 min
Man Alive Podcast | Will Foden: What Actually Builds Mental Toughness
Most people talk about resilience like it's something you read about. Mine was built on a rugby pitch, in a hospital in Hereford, on a sofa in Doncaster at 2 in the morning, and in four weeks watching my dad go from cycling 12 kilometres a day to unfortunately passing away with us by his side. This conversation with Colm on the Man Alive Podcast covers a lot of ground. Professional and semi-professional rugby. Signing my first contract at Doncaster Knights and having a horse kick both legs through my knee eight weeks later. Being told I would never play again. Coming back ten months later. Playing seven more years across England, Singapore, and Australia. Leaving a relationship I had outgrown years before I was brave enough to admit it. Moving to Singapore with 700 quid. Losing my dad in four weeks to lung cancer when he was in the best shape of his life. None of that is the story. Those are just the conditions. The story is about what happens to a man when everything he built his identity around gets taken away, and what it takes to not let it bury you. - We talk about why men lose themselves when they leave elite sport. - Why being all in professionally is often the thing that destroys everything else. - Why self-awareness and self-management separate good from elite, not pedigree. - Why your gut has been telling you what to do for years and you are still not listening to it. - And why the men who are most stuck are not lacking motivation, they are lacking a system. Built For Pressure was not built in a boardroom. It was built in every moment I had a choice between sinking or getting back on the pitch. This one covers all of it. Very lucky to be on the podcast with Colm. The Yana mission is something men across the world need to take note of, be part of, and talk about more, because this game is extremely lonely if you let it be. I hope this message can help someone who's in a dark place pull themselves out of the ashes and start moving forward without losing themselves. Start talking 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #trainsmart #masteryourenergy
April 16 · 9 min
Capacity Is The Only Currency For Leadership Performance
Most leaders in 2026 are performing at 60 to 70 per cent of their actual capacity. The question is why? And more importantly, what to do about it? In this episode I am talking about the one variable that separates leaders who sustain elite performance from those who gradually erode. Not a strategy. Not talent. Capacity. I cover why the leadership environment has fundamentally shifted, what is actually driving the performance gap most executives are sitting in right now, and why the vast majority of support available to leaders fails to address the real problem. I also introduce the Built For Pressure Capacity Index. A diagnostic framework built around seven systems that together determine a leader's ability to perform under sustained pressure. I am not going into the full detail here. That happens next Thursday at the Corporate Athlete Workshop with Deep Sky. But I want you to understand what it measures and why it matters before we get in the room. If you are a founder, CEO, or senior leader and want to come and join the workshop heres the link to register: https://readytorise.global/main-event WHAT WE COVER - The question every leader struggles to answer honestly why they can't push to their next limit? - Why capacity is the only leadership currency that matters in 2026. - What is actually breaking down inside high performing leaders right now. - Why existing platforms are not solving the problem. - Introducing the Capacity Index and the seven pillars of leadership performance See you next Thursday. 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #trainsmart #masteryourenergy
April 8 · 9 min
The Three Drivers of Leadership Performance Most Founders Completely Ignore
Most leaders are white knuckling their way through performance. More meetings, more output, more pressure. And wondering why nothing changes. In this episode, I break down the three drivers that actually determine how well you lead yourself under sustained pressure. I Recorded this in the Peak District before I went for a wild swim. I needed to talk about how to lead yourself as we're headingin to a time where most are going to struggle to keep up with the pace needed to perform in this time. The key part to this is understanding what separates leaders who stay sharp from those who quietly fall apart behind closed doors. What you will learn: - Why physiology is the foundation of every leadership decision you make - How measuring your ego by output is quietly destroying your capacity - Why creating space is not a luxury, it is a performance requirement - How to train for pressure before it arrives, so you stop being reactive when it does If you are a CEO, founder or senior executive who has hit a plateau, feels the frustration of not performing at the level you know you are capable of, or is running on willpower alone, this episode will reframe how you think about your own performance infrastructure entirely. The aim is to help you see a clear path of what three levers to pull that drive leadership performance, and the honest audit of which one is currently costing you the most. If you're running a company and know that you feel you're plateauing in your performance, follow the links below and I'll show you how: 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #trainsmart #masteryourenergy
April 1 · 18 min
Most Leaders End a Quarter and Learn Nothing. Here's How to Fix That.
Most people end a quarter and immediately move on to the next one. No review. No interrogation. No honest look at what actually happened. That is exactly why they keep getting the same results. In this episode I walk you through the seven-area quarterly performance audit I run with every client. This is not a feel-good check-in. It is a structured, honest interrogation of the operating system behind your leadership, covering everything from how your biology affects your decisions to where your identity caps your performance. The seven areas we cover: 01 The 90-Day Picture — what actually happened, not the version you would tell someone else 02 Biological Stability and Physical Capacity — why the most expensive decisions get made in compromised biological states 03 Cognitive Performance and Decision Quality — decision quality is not a mindset problem, it is a capacity problem 04 Leadership Performance and Professional Impact — what moved the needle, where the standard slipped, and what you are still tolerating that is costing you 05 Behaviour Architecture and Time Governance — willpower is finite, structure is not 06 Identity, Self-Leadership and Ownership — every performance ceiling is an identity ceiling first 07 The Quarter Ahead — one outcome, three constraints, and what you need to stop doing If you are serious about the next 90 days, do not skip this one. 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #trainsmart #masteryourenergy
March 24 · 1 hr 2 min
Doing More Is Killing Your Performance With Chris Jillard
Most professionals are training harder, working longer, and wondering why they feel worse. This episode is the honest answer. I sat down with Chris Jillard, coach of nearly a decade and someone who has built his practice through the same bottlenecks I see every day working with executives, founders, and high-performing professionals. We covered the real problems. Not the ones people talk about on social media but the actual bottlenecks that high performers are facing right now. We get into why the attack mentality that works in business is quietly destroying your physical performance. Why your training programme is not the problem but everything outside of it is. Why hybrid training has become the most misused term in the industry. And why most professionals are running on no fuel, too much caffeine, and calling it discipline. In this episode: Why your body is asking a different question every day and never getting a consistent answer. The minimum effective dose principle and why doing less is often the performance lever you have been ignoring. How to book-end your training sessions with nutrition to actually earn an adaptation. The Amazon Prime effect in performance and why people are finally waking up to the long game. What self-awareness actually looks like in practice when your ego says send it and your body is running on empty. How to use data to make better decisions about your training before a coach has to make them for you. Why the consistency of your daily anchors matters more than the intensity of any single session. The hard truth this episode keeps coming back to is this. You are not a machine running on willpower. You are a biological system that responds to what you give it and the environment you put it in. Most people optimise everything around them and leave themselves last. That is not high performance. That is a slow puncture. If you are pushing hard in your professional life and your physical performance is going backwards, this conversation will show you exactly where the gap is. Connect with Chris Jillard: Instagram: @chrisjillard Durable Podcast: Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts https://open.spotify.com/show/14ZpHCbTWlpaVG0UtbL7Zp?si=d12b0e42c82149da Training facility: Kulture Training Ground, Bristol If you're a founder or CEO who wants to learn what it takes to not only build your capacity but lead from the front send me a direct message on any social media channel below 🔗 Connect with me: Linkedin: @willfoden Instagram: @willfoden Website www.builtforpressure.net #LeadershipPerformance #Highperformance #ExecutiveMindset #PeakPerformance #BusinessLeadership #EnergyManagement #ResilientLeadership #OptimizeYourself #mentalclarity #peakperformance #PersonalStandards #SuccessUnderPressure #EntrepreneurLife #ElitePerformance #ProductivityHacks #CEOHealth #sustainablesuccess #leadershipdevelopment #worklifebalance #trainsmart #masteryourenergy