Hamish McLachlan on the Last Three Percent

If you have ever wondered: “What do the most decorated people in the world actually do differently when no one is filming?” “How do you stay present with your own kids when your job is showing up for everyone else's biggest moments?” “What does your mother know about you that no highlight reel ever will?”

- this episode is for you.

For more than 20 years, Hamish McLachlan, sports broadcaster, journalist, commentator and AIA Ambassador, has held the microphone while other people have had their biggest moments, sitting just a few feet from Olympic champions, AFL greats, prime ministers and Kobe Bryant. This week Layne and Tess flip the format. Instead of interviewing the broadcaster, they interview the student, taking Hamish through what he calls his own life MBA: the lessons picked up over two decades of watching greatness up close.

It opens with a voice note from Hamish's mother, Sylvia, introducing her own son, and from there Hamish works through the people who shaped him: his mother's total absence of hierarchy, his brother Gillon as the first call in any crisis, and the professionals who let him inside their preparation, Bruce McAvaney's ritual before air, Dennis Cometti's scone and tea debrief after every broadcast, and Kobe Bryant choosing his own interviewer from four audition tapes because he refused to leave the last three percent to chance.

It becomes a conversation about presence over performance: the sixteen months he took his family travelling instead of chasing the next broadcast, trading FOMO for what he calls JOMO, and the daily habit of choosing good units over bad ones with his own kids. It closes with Hamish reading a message back to his mother, live.

You will hear about: Why Kobe Bryant asked to choose his own interviewer from four audition tapes, and what it revealed about leaving nothing to chance The “good units, bad units” habit Hamish uses with his kids to spend each day well, and the day his ten-year-old called him out on it Why Dennis Cometti's post-broadcast scone and tea ritual is a masterclass in presence The difference between a “deal friend” and a “real friend” Why the family took sixteen months off to travel, and the line from his daughter that reframed what happiness actually looks like

Links text

Follow Hamish McLachlan @hamishmclachlan Watch: Hamish's AIA talk, “The Last Time I Cried”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ny9Y9B5xic Join the Awake Collective Community for monthly masterclasses: https://www.awakeacademy.com.au/awake-collective-sales Get Awake's transformative book: Know Yourself Grow Yourself to live a happier more purposeful life: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/awake-academy-9781761345869 Follow Layne on Instagram @Laynebeachley Follow Tess on Instagram @tesscbrouwer Follow AWAKE on Instagram @awake_academy Awake's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@awakeacademy_ Sponsor our podcast: https://www.awakeacademy.com.au/contact Book us for a workshop: https://www.awakeacademy.com.au/contact

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