#63 – Dorry Kordahi – Towel Boy to Co-Owner of the Sydney Kings: What Basketball Taught a Garage Entrepreneur About Building Global Businesses

#63 – Dorry Kordahi – Towel Boy to Co-Owner of the Sydney Kings: What Basketball Taught a Garage Entrepreneur About Building Global Businesses

Dorry Kordahi failed his HSC, has no university degree, and started his business from a table in his parents' garage with no clients and no capital. Twenty four years later he runs DKM Blue, one of Australia's most respected promotional merchandise agencies, co-owns the Sydney Kings, and built Swanky Socks from a $40,000 hobby into a global brand shifting over 3.5 million socks a year. In this episode, Dorry breaks down the mindset that got him there — including why he deliberately maps out every negative before he takes a single step forward, and how that mental rehearsal has meant he's never experienced what he'd call a catastrophic failure. He also gets into what basketball gave him that no degree could, how he spotted gaps in markets nobody else wanted to go near, why he went to China at 25 when the whole industry said don't, and what he actually said to Glenn Saville and the Sydney Kings squad when he walked into the locker room as a 33 year old co-owner. Raw, honest and full of lessons for any athlete thinking about what business can look like after sport.

#62 – Susannah Klean – Headhunting CEOs, High Performance Habits and Why Athletes Make the Best Hires: Lessons From a Decade at the Top of Executive Recruitment

Susannah Klean has spent a decade recruiting CEOs, founders and heads of investment banks and private equity funds. She works at the very top of the market and she's seen what separates the people who get there from the ones who don't. In this episode, Susannah breaks down the high performance habits she sees consistently in the highest earning, highest performing leaders she works with — and why athletic background keeps coming up as the common thread. She also gets into corporate wellness, why deals are now being cut in saunas instead of pubs, fasting, breath work and the 30 to 60 day habit challenge she believes every high performer needs to do. She also shares her take on AI in recruitment, why the human element of placing people at the top level can never be replaced, and the wellness concept she's building to connect leaders in a completely different environment. Raw, honest and genuinely fascinating from someone who sits inside the world most people only read about.

#61 – Jack Oujo – Too Smart to Be an Umpire, Too Hungry to Fail

Jack Oujo spent 8 years grinding through the minor leagues as a professional baseball umpire. 1,500 games. Rock bottom pay. One shot at the majors. At 30, he got released. A supervisor told him he was "too smart to be an umpire." So he went back to zero. Ernst & Young hired him. He studied every single night for four straight years — CPA, CFP, Master's in Taxation, securities and insurance licences — while working full time, not knowing exactly where it would lead. It led to Oujo Wealth Strategies, one of the nation's largest tax-focused wealth management firms, and a seven-figure income built on the same process-driven discipline he learned calling balls and strikes behind home plate. Jack breaks down how he navigated the identity crisis of leaving sport, why your athletic work ethic doesn't disappear when the career ends, and the mindset shift that took him from counting hats in an audit room to managing wealth for some of America's most successful people. His new book, Too Smart to Be an Umpire, is out now.

#60 – Ben Madgen – NBL Rookie of the Year to Wealth Management: How to Back Yourself After Sport

Ben Madgen won NBL Rookie of the Year in his first professional season after being dropped after just four games. He went on to captain the Sydney Kings, play in Europe against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, complete a 14 year MBA, become CEO of the Sydney Basketball Association; and then walked away from everything he knew to start again from scratch in wealth management. In this episode Ben opens up about growing up as a late bloomer in South Australia, how adversity at a young age became his superpower, and the frameworks behind having difficult conversations that shaped him as a leader and captain. We get into the 80 coffees he had before landing his role, how he pitched a job that did not exist, why your network as an athlete is bigger than you realise and the financial advice he wishes someone had given him earlier in his career. If you are an athlete figuring out what comes next, or someone mid transition wondering whether the grind is worth it; Ben's story is proof that backing yourself and getting out of your comfort zone is always the right call. Hosted by Alex Opacic, founder of Athlete2Business and former professional basketball player. 🎧 Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. 📲 Follow us on Instagram @athlete2business 🔗 Learn more at athlete2business.com

#59 - Patricia Amalm - 10m Platform to Med-Tech Leader. How an Olympian Found Her Second Sport in Sales

What happens when an Olympic diver hangs up her chamois and walks into a pharmaceutical sales role with zero experience, and then spends 15 years quietly becoming one of the best in the medical device space? That's exactly what happened with this week's guest, Patricia; former Australian Olympian in platform diving (Sydney 2000) and now Head of Regenerative Aesthetics and Medicine. In this episode, Alex and Patricia get into the full journey: growing up at the pool chasing her brother, making the national team, competing at a home Olympics, dealing with injury at the event, and then navigating the messy, non-linear path into a career she didn't plan for. They cover: * Why Trish didn't fall in love with sales until year 15 (and what finally changed) * How the discipline of elite diving translated directly into business performance * Why sales is the best unpaid university degree you'll ever get, except it pays you * The leadership principle she borrowed from her coach * What athletes get wrong about sales (hint: it's not about pitching) * This one is for every former athlete who's ever thought "what now?" and who hasn't quite found their second sport yet. 🎙️ Presented by Athlete2Business | athlete2business.com [http://athlete2business.com]