Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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When pressure hits — when the match tightens, the heart rate spikes, and the mind starts racing — what separates the athlete who steadies from the one who spirals?
It’s rarely just talent or training. It’s the ability to regulate what’s happening inside.
That’s where Marci Sier brings her expertise.
Marci is a squash professional at the Badminton and Racquet Club of Toronto, and she also runs a private practice in sport and performance psychology.
With a Master’s in Counselling Psychology and advanced studies in sport psych, she’s spent years guiding athletes, coaches, and business professionals to use the same psychological tools that high performers rely on under pressure — awareness, emotional control, and the calm to stay composed when the moment intensifies.
In this conversation, Marci shares how she integrates those mental skills directly into her coaching — teaching young players to celebrate mistakes as part of learning, helping athletes understand how emotions show up in the body, and using imagery, icons, and simple resets to reframe stress in real time.
We talk about how true confidence isn’t a quick technique — it’s something earned through reflection, repetition, and trust in your own process.
Marci also offers sharp insight into early specialization in sport, and how parents and coaches can become active allies in an athlete’s mental development — using the same language, reinforcing the same values, and supporting the same awareness both on and off the court.
At its core, this is a conversation about the inner architecture of performance — how composure, confidence, and connection are built from the inside out.
And how, when you start to see sport as a mirror for life, every challenge becomes a chance to grow.
Let’s dive in with Marci Sier.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marci-sier-ma-cmpc/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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He’s one of the most meticulous minds in the game —
a Harvard graduate, a top-ten player, and the man who recently beat the World No. 1.
But Victor Crouin’s story isn’t about a single result.
It’s about what happens between the results — the daily habits, honest reflections, and mental frameworks that turn potential into progress.
Over the past few seasons, Victor and I have worked together on the mental side of his game — through tournaments, voice notes, and SportMind tools.
We’ve explored how routines become rituals, how visualization and scripting sharpen focus, and how the three A’s — Awareness, Acceptance, Action — build the ability to stay composed when it matters most.
In this conversation, Victor opens up about the unseen work behind performance:
how he trains consistency and calm under pressure, how he learned to lose well before winning well, and why he now aims to raise his floor instead of just chasing ceilings.
We talk about ego, over-confidence, reflection, and the point where preparation meets freedom.
And underneath it all, there’s a message for any athlete — that mindset isn’t something you turn on when the lights are bright.
It’s a skill you train, a habit you build, and a process that defines who you become.
If you’re serious about understanding what separates talent from mastery — and what the mental game really looks like behind the scenes — this one’s worth your full attention.
This is Victor Crouin.
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victor_crouin/
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Jesse shares the story behind his transition from the court to the mental game, how SportMind has evolved into where the very best in the world go to for their mental game, and the innovative ways his SportMind app is helping athletes build resilience, focus, and confidence. We also dive into his current work with some of the world’s top squash professionals, including Victor Crouin, Sabrina Sobhy and Tinne Giles, and we discuss how the mental side of the game continues to shape the future of high-performance sport.
Whether you’re a coach, player, or simply fascinated by the psychology of performance, this conversation offers deep insights into the mindset of champions and the evolution of a brand redefining how athletes think, train, and compete.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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There’s a moment in this conversation that’s really stayed with me.
Alan said, “The best of the best never get bored with the basics.”
It was something Kobe Bryant told him back in 2007 — and it became one of the guiding principles behind his entire approach to performance and life.
And when you hear him talk about it, you realize it’s not a slogan. It’s a way of being.
It’s about how the greatest performers in the world — whether they’re in sport, business, or any craft — show up again and again for the small, often unseen things that nobody else values… but that make all the difference when the lights come on.
Alan Stein Jr. has lived that truth for decades.
He spent fifteen years courtside with basketball’s elite — names like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry — helping them train their minds, bodies, and habits to perform when it matters most.
Then he took everything he’d learned about discipline, confidence, and focus, and brought it into the corporate world — becoming one of the most sought-after keynote speakers, authors, and performance coaches on the planet.
His books Raise Your Game, Sustain Your Game, and his latest, Next Play, have become modern blueprints for building long-term excellence — on the court, in the boardroom, and in everyday life.
But what I love most about this conversation is how deeply human it is.
We go far beyond the surface-level talk of motivation or mindset.
Alan opens up about redefining success — moving from chasing external validation to living what he calls a “high-quality life.”
We unpack the difference between fun and enjoyment — how to keep joy alive even in high-pressure, high-stakes environments.
He shares the four rules he taught his own kids about sport — effort, coachability, teamwork, and fun — and how those same principles scale all the way to elite professional athletes.
We explore confidence — how it’s built through repetition, self-trust, and honest self-talk.
We dive into performance anxiety — how to reframe nerves as excitement.
And we touch on identity, flow, and mindfulness — with some incredible parallels to Stoic philosophy, Buddhism, and the principles we teach inside SportMind.
It’s rare to have a conversation that bridges the gap between Kobe’s gym and the everyday arena of life so naturally.
This one does that.
It’s packed with stories, tools, and truths you can apply immediately — whether you’re an athlete, a coach, a parent, or just someone trying to perform a little better under pressure.
This might be one of my favorite conversations we’ve ever had on the podcast — equal parts grounded and inspiring.
So wherever you are — out on a run, in the gym, or driving to training — take a deep breath, settle in, and enjoy this one.
Here’s my conversation with Alan Stein Jr.
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Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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In this episode, Shaun sits down with Jesse Engelbrecht — former World No. 55 squash player turned sport psychologist and founder of SportMind. They dive into the mental side of performance, from fear of failure and pressure to breathwork, visualization, and daily mindset habits. Jesse shares his journey from pro player to coach and author, revealing how mastering the mind can transform how we train, compete, and live.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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Alison Waters, former world no. 3 and 4 time British Open champion is my guest on the show today. You’re in for a real treat! We discuss topics such as mental toughness, coping with a career threatening injury, how to cultivate resilience as a junior, habits and daily processes, evolution of her game getting older plus a whole wide ranging conversation that you should hopefully get a lot out of. Please enjoy.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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I'm absolutely delighted to have on the show today, Daryl Selby. I feel lucky enough to call him one of my friends. We toured the world a lot together. He obviously reached a lot higher ranking than me, but we shared some cool tournaments and some cool times together. So, it's really cool to be able to have a chat with someone of Daryl’s caliber, but also just an excuse to have a chat with a friend that I've not caught up with for a while. And hopefully this comes across on the conversation. It's nice and free flowing, it takes lots of different directions and we just have a good time having a good chat about his career, looking back at a few things, looking back at some really key moments in his career and a very different way to look at the mental side of the game, not your traditional style. He goes into a very honest open chat about his structure, his routine or lack thereof, and how this actually helped contribute to his mindset of his game. He talks a bit about how to play to your style and know yourself and that's a really powerful message. He comes at it from a different angle. It's not your traditional model of mental toughness, but boy, he was known as one of the most dogged players out there. If you watch him, he appears on “shot of the month” a lot of the time and also “rally of the decade”. He’s got an amazing catalogue of entertaining skills. So naturally talented the way he hits the ball, smooth, great around the court, but the underlying fact is that he was dogged, he was determined, he never gave up. He had that real grit, that real determination and this comes across in the conversation. I hope you're able to extract a few things from the talk. Just a few little stats about Daryl. He's reached the world ranking high position of world number 9 in 2010. In 2011, in one of his biggest titles, he won the British Nationals, beating Nick Matthew, who at the time, Nick Matthew was world champion and world number 1. He goes into a lot of detail and a really great story of how he thought he won this event because of a poem from his sister, which is really sweet and really enlightening when you listen to it. Another couple of notable events; he reached the semi-finals of the Tournament of Champions in 2012. In 2019 he captained England at the World Team Championships. A very proud Englishman, he wears his heart on his sleeve when he's playing for his country, and he scored some really big wins in the England shirt. You can tell that he loves playing for England, and it's obviously a very different dynamic. I hope you enjoy this really wide ranging varied in depth friendly conversation with myself and Daryl Selby.
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Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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Ross Norman is a New Zealand squash legend best known for ending Jahangir Khan’s incredible 555-match unbeaten streak to win the 1986 World Championship. A former World No. 2, Ross is celebrated for his resilience, determination, and belief — qualities that defined one of the sport’s most iconic moments and continue to inspire athletes around the world.
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Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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Sarah Fitz-Gerald is one of the greatest squash players of all time — a five-time World Champion and former World No. 1 from Australia. Renowned for her fierce competitiveness, precision, and leadership, Sarah’s legacy extends beyond her playing career as a mentor, coach, and ambassador for the sport, inspiring generations with her passion and pursuit of excellence.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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Lucy Turmel is one of England’s exciting squash talents, known for her grit, athleticism, and sharp tactical mind. A former British National Champion and World Junior bronze medalist, Lucy has quickly established herself among the world’s elite — combining determination, honesty, and a growth-driven mindset both on and off the court.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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Omar Abdel Aziz is a former Egyptian squash professional turned world-class coach, widely respected for his technical insight and calm, strategic approach to the game. Having competed at the highest level himself, Omar now mentors many of Egypt’s top players, helping shape the next generation of champions through his deep understanding of both the physical and mental sides of squash.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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Geoff Hunt is a true legend of squash — a four-time World Champion and eight-time British Open Champion who dominated the sport through the 1970s. Known for his impeccable fitness, discipline, and humility, Geoff set the standard for professionalism in squash and paved the way for future generations. His influence continues today through his decades of coaching and mentoring at the highest levels of the game.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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Rowan Elaraby is one of Egypt’s rising stars in world squash — a former World Junior Champion and top-ranked professional known for her explosive movement, fearless shot-making, and competitive fire. As part of Egypt’s new generation of champions, Rowan continues to impress on the world stage with her passion, maturity, and relentless drive to keep improving.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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Todd Corbin is a mindfulness teacher, speaker, and author who helps athletes, coaches, and professionals build focus, calm, and confidence under pressure. With a background in education and mental performance, Todd blends mindfulness with practical tools for resilience and emotional regulation — teaching how to stay present and perform at your best when it matters most.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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He’s a four-time World Champion.
He’s spent more than 230 weeks as the World Number One.
And yet, behind the trophies and rankings lies something rarer — a depth of character, calm, and perspective that defines Ali Farag far more than his dominance ever could.
Squash is unlike any other racket sport — two players sharing the same space, battling inside a glass box under bright lights in iconic locations. It’s fast, physical, and fiercely personal.
And yet, within that intensity, Ali brought something rare — a mindful precision, a calm within the chaos.
An ability to play with freedom and humility, even while carrying the weight of expectation.
In this conversation, we go beyond the numbers.
We explore the mind behind the mastery.
Ali opens up about the invisible side of high performance —
how he relates to nerves rather than resists them,
how he carries the burden of expectation without being crushed by it,
and how he stays grounded through both triumph and adversity.
He takes us back to his early days in Cairo, to his formative years at Harvard with mentor Mike Way,
and into the unseen process that built one of the most complete athletes our sport has ever known.
We talk identity, composure, ego, acceptance, and the art of performing when things don’t go to plan.
And in the end, we touch on legacy — what it truly means to measure success not by trophies or rankings,
but by who you become through the pursuit itself.
This is a conversation about mastery, humility, and the quiet courage it takes to remain yourself in a world of expectation.
This is Ali Farag.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliamrfarag/
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Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
Welcome to the next instalment of the SquashMind Podcast. Today, I’m joined by Jenny Duncalf — one of England’s all-time greats. Jenny reached World No. 2 in 2009, won 10 PSA titles, earned 112 caps for England, and claimed multiple European, national, and Commonwealth medals during an incredible 17-year career. Competing in the Nicol David era, she was one of the few who consistently pushed the game’s greatest to her limits.
In this episode, we dive into Jenny’s mindset, her experiences competing at the top, and her reflections on the mental side of elite sport. We talk about being coached by her father-in-law, David Pearson — one of the most successful coaches in the game — and her current roles as PSA’s Master of Ceremonies and Junior National Coach for Australia.
It’s an honest, wide-ranging chat about pressure, purpose, and perspective — packed with lessons for players and coaches alike. (Note: the audio has a slight delay early on, but it clears up quickly — and it’s well worth sticking with!)
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Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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Well, I hope you enjoyed that first part of my conversation with Sarah-Jane Perry. I'm not sure how you felt but I felt really inspired going through those matches with her, really getting into that detail about her mindset and her mental state I was taking a lot of notes and a lot of inspiration from what she spoken about. So, I hope you enjoy part two. We get into more of the detailed analysis about her mind, some of the practical things she does to foster and cultivate this strong mental toughness. She admits she is not necessarily the most physical play on the tour, so she must make up for it in other ways. Yes, we know how good her racket work is, how great she strikes the ball, how well she can put the ball away, but a massive contributing part to her success must be the mental side of the game, and she talks about this. So, I hope you enjoy this second part of my chat with Sarah-Jane Perry
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Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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I'm welcoming Sarah-Jane Perry to the SquashMind Podcast series. In this episode we have had to split the episode into two parts where we got into such a great conversation, got into some real depth about her mindset and really analysed almost match by match her success in the Black Ball Open in Egypt, where it was a first win in a world title Gold event. She just played a phenomenal tournament. Everything came right. You’re in for a real treat in this one, I believe, and just really getting into the deep mindset about how she felt she won the title and all her training up until this point.
Sarah Jane is currently the English number one lady on the PSA tour. She hails from Birmingham in the UK and she turned pro in 2011. As a junior she ended up winning the European under 19 title as well as the British under 19 title in 2009, and she currently has two senior British National titles. If we fast forward a little bit, in 2013 she was part of the successful England Ladies team that won the European Championships, but later in 2013, she had to miss the remainder of the season due to back injury. She was also part of the successful England Ladies team, winning the world Championships in 2014 in Niagara, which was phenomenal considering the Egyptian opposition and one of the highlights of a career. She got selected for Team England and debuted at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, where she won a silver medal in the individual event, reaching the final and eventually just losing out to Joelle King in that final. As I've just mentioned, she won the Black Ball title and it's just so great to understand what she went through and the emotions all around it. She’s also reached a career high number five in the world and so far recorded eleven tour titles.
As I said, this chat gets split into two parts because we go into so much detail in the first part around the Black Ball event and then in the second part of the interview in the chat, we get a lot more into some of the practical things that she did for her mind, for her mental state, how she's cultivated this and how she looks like she's setting herself up for some real big wins in the near future. We also discuss why she went the University route before turning pro and at one point it sounded like she wasn't going to pursue a squash career and look at her now, number five in the world, so I'm sure they're going to be a lot of things for you to extract out of this conversation. A lot of key bits that might resonate with you as players, and I really hope you enjoyed it because I certainly did in this two-part conversation with Sarah-Jane Perry.
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Overcoming The Top-10 Mental Obstacles In Sport - https://go.sportmind.io/Mastery
The SportMind Portal - https://go.sportmind.io/Portal
Grab Your Copy Of The Squash Playbook - https://www.squashplaybook.com/ ⚫️💨
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I am delighted to welcome today, Marwan ElShorbagy. He's reached number three in the world, and he’s won many titles and many matches. He is such an interesting player to watch, and this chat just takes so many cool directions and divergences. We go down a few interesting rabbit holes. We do touch on his older brother, Mohamed and how it has been competing with him, how it was playing the World Open final against your brother and the processes behind that. There's a couple of mutual friends we have, and I think you're really if for a treat in this episode. We obviously get serious as well, and we go deep with certain parts of the mind and his mindset and how it's evolved over different parts of his career. How coming to England at a young age really formed him and created arguably his mental toughness because of his environment and being under the tutelage of Jonah Barrington and having his brother Mohamed there. I think Mohamed was top ten in the world at 19 years old and Marwan is a few years younger than that. Having that as a training partner really lent itself to the mental side of the game. We talk about his relationship with Danny Massaro, who I've had the pleasure to have on the SquashMind podcast series before, and we had a great chat about the mind, and Danny was kind enough to put us together. We go on to talk about his visualisation process and what this entails. And as you're aware, SquashMind is really big on visualisation and understanding how to incorporate this into players games. He gives some really cool insights in regard to how he does some ghosting, and he really brings visualisation into that process, how he was visualising when he was at a bit of a low point in his career, how he was able to put things in place for himself to be mentally tougher, be mentally stronger at those moments. We also investigate his style of play. I put across what I thought and that he plays like that smart tactician, putting the ball in the right places. But he gives us the real insight into what his game is based on how he goes about his business, what he's really trying to prioritise and his role models as he was growing up and developing his game and the players he liked to emulate and look up to. There are so many nuggets that people can take away from this and so many little gems, getting inside the mind of a current pro, someone who's competing at the highest level of the game at the moment, really trying to push on to win some titles and get himself right at the top of the world rankings, which he is. But to get him arguably to number one in the world, to win a World Championship and the way he speaks, the way he talks, the way he looks at the game, he's a very wise thinker. You can tell he thinks about things a lot, and it's going to be fascinating to see what's going to happen over the next few years or so, how he's going to develop and how he's going to hopefully reach those top parts of the world. As you can probably tell from the chat coming up, it was fun with lots of laughter and I hope you enjoy this deep dive into the mindset of Marwan ElShorbagy.
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