Michael Campion
65 episodes listed below
Success, fear, and the work beneath performance.
Playing The Inner Game is a conversation series about the mental patterns behind success and self-development. Recent episodes move from stage nerves and negotiation to sport, family, entrepreneurship, identity, and the courage to act while afraid.
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Playing The Inner Game is an interview show about the mental architecture behind achievement. Its subject is success, but its better question is what success asks of a person before anyone else sees the result. Recent episodes focus on fear, confidence, communication, self-worth, discipline, family, and the ability to stay present under pressure. The tone is reflective and practical. Conversations often start with a sharp idea, then slow down long enough to test what that idea means in real life. Nick Day’s episode turns fear into a working signal, looking at how people stay small, how they label uncertainty, and how courage can live in a brief moment before action. The Rasheed Shroff episode puts public speaking and authentic communication in the foreground, emphasizing preparation, structure, negotiation, and the repeated practice behind apparent ease. Andrew Li’s conversation brings self-belief into a more personal register, moving from nerves and panic before interviews to ego, coaching, identity, and old university memories. Robert Earnshaw’s episode gives the show one of its clearest themes: talent is practice in disguise. His discussion links sport, chess, flow state, humility, and the process of improving after an old identity no longer defines the person. Bastien Le Coz and Gabriella Zavatti widen the frame into co-preneurship, asking how two people can build a global luxury brand while remaining present at work and at home. The show’s best moments come when ambition is stripped of glamour. Guests talk about the reps, the noes, the hard conversations, the anchor clients, the fear response, and the quiet choices that build a life. It is polished, but not glossy. It prefers useful clarity to performance mythology. For listeners who like business interviews with emotional intelligence and concrete takeaways, Playing The Inner Game offers a steady study of how people become capable of carrying what they want.
Made for: For entrepreneurs, executives, creatives, athletes, and ambitious listeners who like self-development grounded in lived experience. It suits people working on communication, confidence, discipline, and a healthier relationship with achievement.
What sets it apart: The show connects business lessons with sport, family life, identity, and fear rather than treating performance as a purely tactical problem. Its conversations return to the inner cost of ambition and the habits that make growth sustainable.
My guests are Entrepreneurs, Executives, Olympians, Artists, and Creatives. Some famous names and some hidden gems. We discuss what success means to each one of them and decode the best parts of their mindset. It is a search for the common threads, principles, and patterns that we can apply to our own lives to become healthier, wealthier, happier, and wiser.
Fear gets a tax bill here, while your talent gets traced back to practice.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical fear-and-courage conversation, anchored by the car accident and the calm-observe-label-do sequence.
Playing The Inner Game centers Nick Day's account of a car accident he says left him not recognizing himself, then turns that moment into a larger argument about fear: it can protect people just long enough to hide who they are and limit what they might become.
A former footballer's reflections on portable discipline turn familiar self-improvement themes into something lived-in and credible.
Robert Earnshaw's life after professional football gives the episode its most useful thread: discipline that does not stay trapped in one career.
A steady portrait of shared leadership, family balance, and the trust that helped the work move forward.
This account presents Bastien Le Coz and Gabriella Zavatti as co-managers who treat co-preneurship as a working method: no boss, shared judgment, and a habit of making certainty by moving first.
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
SaaS operators on scaling, pricing and AI, metrics included.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
Playing The Inner Game #62 features Michael Campion explaining why some CEOs sound years ahead of their peers.
Playing The Inner Game interviews Jean Sung, who describes 20 years of philanthropy work across 13 Asian countries and argues that charitable capital should produce measurable community outcomes.
Playing The Inner Game features Nick Day interviewing his communication coach Michael Campion about public speaking, leadership, and influence for HR professionals.
Philipp Knuepfer, COO of Sunset Hospitality Group after 21 years at Mandarin Oriental, says MET Hotels has 12 hotels signed and operating and aims for 30 to 40 within three to five years.
Nick Day frames fear as a mix of anxiety, uncertainty, and imagination, and says imagination is the variable that turns caution into paralysis.
Michael Campion, a former Hong Kong professional footballer turned communication coach, argues that "talent equals practice in disguise" and cites 25 years of practice behind his current speaking ability.
The host interviews a CEO about their journey from university partying to leading an entertainment group, discussing mindset, comfort zones, and success.
Playing The Inner Game features former Wales footballer Robert Earnshaw discussing the transition from a 20-year professional career into coaching, broadcasting, public speaking, and chess.
["Playing The Inner Game follows Bastien Le Coz and Gabriella Zavatti as they describe how a luxury hospitality business can scale without losing family routines.", "They call their model 'co-preneurship,' say there is 'no boss,' and describe how direct feedback helps them spot blind spots and divide work by strengths.", "Their routine includes leaving the phone away until leaving home, using a notepad for urgent thoughts, and protecting bedtime, bath time, and home time from work.", "The episode also covers their 300-person company, a disconnect box for hotel guests, and the bamboo toothbrush push that took them into factory visits and market pushback."]