Career Clarity with Athletes: A 2ndwind Podcast with Ryan Gonsalves
Ryan Gonsalves
172 episodes
4 days ago
Send us a text Laura Sidall didn’t grow up dreaming of world championship podiums. In fact, by the time she started triathlon, she was already deep into a corporate career as an engineer. But something inside her kept whispering, what if you gave sport your all? How good could you be? So at 34, she left the comfort of her steady salary, moved countries, and bet on herself. This episode is a raw and powerful conversation about risk, reinvention, and resilience. Laura opens up about what it rea...
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Send us a text Laura Sidall didn’t grow up dreaming of world championship podiums. In fact, by the time she started triathlon, she was already deep into a corporate career as an engineer. But something inside her kept whispering, what if you gave sport your all? How good could you be? So at 34, she left the comfort of her steady salary, moved countries, and bet on herself. This episode is a raw and powerful conversation about risk, reinvention, and resilience. Laura opens up about what it rea...
Send us a text Laura Sidall didn’t grow up dreaming of world championship podiums. In fact, by the time she started triathlon, she was already deep into a corporate career as an engineer. But something inside her kept whispering, what if you gave sport your all? How good could you be? So at 34, she left the comfort of her steady salary, moved countries, and bet on herself. This episode is a raw and powerful conversation about risk, reinvention, and resilience. Laura opens up about what it rea...
Send us a text Jamie Soward opens up about chasing the footy dream without a clear pathway, losing it all twice, and what it really took to reinvent himself. From writing résumés at 16 to training while on the dole, to playing in front of 60,000 fans and then selling toilets, Jamie's journey is as humbling as it is honest. He’s played State of Origin, won a grand final, coached at the top level — and then had it all fall apart. But what came next? A traineeship. In water regulation. At 40. If...
Send us a text Rach Taylor knows what it means to sacrifice everything for one goal. She was Rach the Rower, a girl from rural Australia who made it all the way to the Olympic podium. But after winning silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she found herself couch surfing, broke and questioning her worth outside of sport. In this episode, Rach opens up about what it was really like to go from the high of Olympic glory to the uncertainty of starting over. She talks about clawing her way up Maslow...
Send us a text Dr. Lamia Zafrani saw firsthand what the system lacked and built a new way forward. A powerlifter, an OB-GYN, and a passionate advocate for female athletes, Lamia sits at the intersection of performance and pregnancy, challenging outdated norms that have sidelined women for far too long. In this episode, we go deep into her journey. From being the one who gets called when nobody else knows what to do, to creating a model of care that truly supports elite female athletes through...
Send us a text When the final whistle blew on her decade-long professional basketball career, Abiola Wabara wasn’t just facing retirement. She was starting over, from scratch. In this raw and candid episode, Abi sits down with host Ryan to share the untold side of life after sport. From playing across Europe and representing Italy’s national team, to working in a call centre, driving Uber, and experiencing panic attacks, Abi reveals what it really took to rebuild her identity and why she crea...
Send us a text Theo Brown opens up about the messy, uncertain path from elite academy footballer to non-league player, to juggling ten different jobs in five years, before finally stepping into his purpose as a social entrepreneur. He was once chasing football dreams at Leicester City. But after injury setbacks and getting released, life after sport hit hard. No plan. No clear identity. Just odd jobs, quiet doubts, and the feeling that everyone else had it figured out. But somewhere in the ch...
Send us a text Gerrit-Jan van Velze spent nearly two decades in professional rugby, captaining clubs like Northampton Saints and Worcester Warriors. But in this conversation, it's not just the matches or medals that stand out — it's what came after, and everything he had to figure out along the way. In this episode, GJ opens up about moving from South Africa to England with no backup plan, how leadership has shaped his career, and why his wife’s passion for medicine inspired him to explore li...
Send us a text Emmanuel spent years chasing a dream that so many young athletes grow up holding: making it in the NFL. But behind the highlight reels and ambition was a quieter story. One of internal pressure, identity struggle, and eventually, the courage to say, this isn't who I am anymore. In this episode, Ryan talks with Emmanuel about what it really takes to walk away from the game, and what happens when you do. From his early years creating "The Brotherhood" in high school to reaching t...
Send us a text Kayla spent years chasing the dream of playing basketball overseas. She trained, sacrificed, and pushed through setbacks with the goal of turning pro. But after college, that dream didn’t happen. What followed was a quiet but difficult shift. One where she had to face the question that many athletes avoid until it’s too late: What now? In this episode, Ryan speaks with Kayla about the realities of life after sport—when you’ve put your whole identity into your game, and suddenly...
Send us a text Chris Platts spent over a decade tracking the careers of 303 young footballers. The result? A raw, honest look at what actually happens in the world of professional sport. Some players made it to the Premier League. Others left with nothing. Many fell somewhere in between. Chris is a career coach and academic whose work focuses on helping athletes and their families plan for the long game. He works directly with clubs, players, and parents to map out possible futures, reduce pr...
Send us a text Stewart McCully has spent his life around high performers, from elite athletes to engineers, from corporate execs to sheep shearers. In this episode, he joins Ryan to talk about what it means to guide people through high-pressure environments and major transitions. A former SANFL footballer and teacher, Stewart now helps athletes and professionals develop the mental skills they often don’t get taught: managing overthinking, building self-awareness, recovering from mistakes, and...
Send us a text Tara was known for one thing: martial arts. It shaped how she moved through the world. It gave her discipline, confidence, community, and a sense of direction. But somewhere along the way, the structure that once supported her started to feel like a box she no longer fit inside. Leaving wasn’t easy. It wasn’t a dramatic moment. It was slow. Quiet. And terrifying. Because when your entire identity has been built on being one thing, stepping away feels like losing your sense of s...
Send us a text What do you do when the one thing you thought you were meant to do doesn’t work out? In this episode, we meet Sophia, a former academy footballer who faced the heartbreak of being released before ever turning pro. But instead of letting it define her, she turned the page and built something even more powerful. From navigating identity loss to finding her voice in the corporate world, Sophia shares the raw truth about rejection, self-worth, and what happens when your plans fall ...
Send us a text In this episode, we sit down with Sandile, a former football academy player whose journey took an unexpected turn when the pandemic paused everything. What started as a pursuit of pro football has now evolved into a career in tech, mentorship, and agri-business. His story is about staying ready, reinventing with intention, and finding new ways to win even when the plan changes. We talk about what it takes to navigate sudden transitions, how sports skills transfer into the real ...
Send us a text What happens when a former athlete takes his love for sports and turns it into a movement? In this episode, Ryan sits down with Ed Jones II, founder of Beyond the Field, to unpack how a childhood filled with competition, community, and coaching evolved into a career centered around impact. Ed shares his journey from fast-footed kid in Houston to collegiate player, coach, and now thought leader in player development. In this episode, we talk about: - How a childhood moment...
Send us a text What if your career isn’t over, it just needs a reset? In this episode, we’re joined by John Tarnoff, career coach and author of Boomer Reinvention, who shares how he completely pivoted after being laid off at 50. From Hollywood executive to helping thousands navigate second and third careers, John’s story is real, relatable, and packed with insight for anyone figuring out what’s next. We talk about how to stay relevant in a changing world of work, why your next chapter doesn’t...
Send us a text When Jeff Horn stepped into the ring against Manny Pacquiao in 2017, few believed the former schoolteacher could defeat a boxing legend. His stunning victory to become world champion capped an unlikely journey that began when he was a bullied teenager searching for confidence. Unlike most elite boxers, Horn discovered the sport at 18 after his football dreams faded. "I went to a martial arts gym just to learn some self-defense," he reveals, never imagining where it might lead....
Send us a text What do you do when your biggest career milestone happens at 23 and you're not even sure how you got there? For Freddie Woodword, representing Team GB in diving at the Olympics was both the dream and the beginning of a much deeper journey. In this episode, we dive into Freddie’s fascinating transition from elite athlete to cruise ship performer to entrepreneur in the generative AI space. His story is one of raw honesty, reinvention, and building a meaningful life after sport wi...
Send us a text Kate takes us back to her early swimming days, competing in the Sydney and Athens Paralympics, and what it felt like to walk away from the pool after years of intense training. She opens up about facing subtle (and not-so-subtle) discrimination as a para-athlete, the identity crisis that followed retirement, and how she unexpectedly found a second wind through teaching and travel. Now back in Sydney, Kate is slowly finding her way again—this time by helping young para-athletes ...
Send us a text What happens when your pro sports career ends with a tweet? Tom Morton found out the hard way. While playing rugby in New Zealand, he saw on social media that his contract with Sale Sharks wasn’t being renewed. No phone call. No meeting. Just a public post that blindsided him completely. From training with England’s under-20s to waking up across the world with no contract and no plan, Tom shares how he rebuilt not just his career, but also his mindset. We talk about what it’s r...
Career Clarity with Athletes: A 2ndwind Podcast with Ryan Gonsalves
Send us a text Laura Sidall didn’t grow up dreaming of world championship podiums. In fact, by the time she started triathlon, she was already deep into a corporate career as an engineer. But something inside her kept whispering, what if you gave sport your all? How good could you be? So at 34, she left the comfort of her steady salary, moved countries, and bet on herself. This episode is a raw and powerful conversation about risk, reinvention, and resilience. Laura opens up about what it rea...
