The Eternal Optimists

We work with a variety of leaders, adventurers, and industry experts to ensure that we create the best experience for you and your team.

Ollie Phillips

Ex-England Rugby Captain and once voted the Best 7’s Player in the World, Ollie is a Director at PwC and Founder of Optimist Performance. Since retiring from professional rugby, Ollie has been involved in a number of life-changing challenges and has notched up 4 Guinness World Records to date. Ollie brings over 20 years of experience in sports and business to help leaders overcome change and transform their teams to achieve new levels of success.

Charlotte Wathan

Charlotte has a twenty-year career history as an academic and strategist, leading cultural change most recently as Head of the Women’s game at the Welsh Rugby Union, where she instigated the inaugural professional contracts for senior women’s rugby. Charlotte has a wealth of experience working across public, private and third-sector organisations. Charlotte is a self-confessed insight geek who supports companies in measuring the impact of strategic and cultural change.

Ryan Jones, MBE

Ryan is a three-time Grand Slam-winning former Wales Rugby Captain & British and Irish Lion. Ryan is the Ex-Director of Performance at the Welsh Rugby Union and a previous Board Member of Disability Sport Wales. Ryan was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours in 2021 for his services to rugby and charity, raising thousands of pounds for the NHS during the first lockdown period in 2020, with events such as a solo garden marathon and a 100-mile kitchen treadmill endeavour.

LARA MILWARD

Lara is a NeuroLeadership coach who works with individuals and teams to strengthen their mental muscle. Just like physical muscle, your brain needs challenge and fuel to be stronger. Lara creates her sessions as performance fuel for you and your team; giving you the tools to become stronger, better, and more confident in your ability.

Russell Earnshaw

Having graduated from Cambridge with a Maths and Economics degree, Rusty played rugby for several teams, including Bath (winning the European Cup in 1998) and England 7’s, before moving into coaching and working with England U18’s, U20’s and 7’s, coaching and mentoring some of the brightest young players and coaches in the country. He now works across business and sport, helping the likes of Google, Abbott, NZ Rugby and GB Hockey responding to their needs, including creativity, coaching skills, leadership and high-performing teams.

David Berkeley

David is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Emotional Intelligence coach with over 10 years of experience coaching high-performing leaders in business, sport and entertainment. He has vast experience in assisting leadership teams in growing companies from 5 to 150 employees and coaching leaders through the growing challenges in that journey. His focus now is working with founders and senior leaders in fast-growing scale-up companies across Europe. He lives in the Cotswolds with his wife and two very active spaniels!

Jim Steele

Jim Steele is a professional speaker and coach specializing in the design and delivery of programs and strategies to drive high performance. He has worked with hundreds of organizations throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia and consistently demonstrates his ability to inspire the mindset and behaviours needed by those leading and managing the business as well as interventions to engage teams and drive new ways of working.

Clare Sadler

Clare is an expert in Performance Neuroscience, NLP, Clinical Hypnosis, Brain-Based Coaching and Mental Performance and Flow. She has 26 years of experience helping leaders, elite athletes, creatives, entrepreneurs, and special operators reach their peak potential by harnessing the power of the Flow state. Clare works with individuals, teams, and organisations who operate in high pressure /high-risk environments, and specialises in rapidly recoding the reflexive thoughts, emotions, and behaviours typically thought of as beyond conscious control. Mind Power for Individuals™. Mind Power for Teams™. Mind Power for Life™

ROLY REID

Following a career as a professional rugby player, with international honours, Roly has worked as a team and individual transformational coach to executives, Olympic champions and world class rugby players for almost 13 years. He draws from his first-hand knowledge and experience of elite performance and in-depth understanding of behaviours, combined with business acumen and performance psychology to support the leaders and teams he works with to consistently be their best.

Alex Gear mBANT/CNHC

Stress and Sleep Expert Alex Gear is a trained Chef, ex Cookery teacher, Registered Nutritional Therapist and Naturopath with a wealth of experience. Alex has been in the food industry for over 20 years, and her passion for helping people feel their best through food and lifestyle is contagious. Alex inspires and motivates individuals and organisations with her accessible, balanced and realistic approach to health and wellbeing. Alex runs clinics, workshops, writes articles and is an effective public speaker.

Neil Laughton

Neil is an award-winning entrepreneur, world record-breaking adventurer and a former Royal Marine Commando, helicopter pilot and Special Forces Officer. Neil has a passion for adventure, travel and sport. He has organised and led over 50 expeditions on 7 continents by land, sea and air. He summited Mt Everest with Bear Grylls, circumnavigated the UK & Ireland on a jet ski and piloted the world’s first road-legal flying car on a 10,000 km journey from London to Timbuktu.

Vanessa Cuddeford

Vanessa Cuddeford brings 20 years of experience as a news anchor and reporter for BBC News, ITV News and international news channels.

For the past 8 years, she’s been coaching professionals to speak confidently and persuasively so they can reach the outcomes they want – whether through presentations, meetings, interviews or panels; to internal or external audiences.

Elena Folkes

With 20 years of experience in Banking and Professional Services, Elena has held roles in global strategy, product, and go-to-market functions. Having worked with organisations such as Barclays, PwC, and Thomson Reuters, her career spans law firms, alternative legal service providers, tech startups, and Big4 Legal and Tax teams.

Elena is deeply passionate about the legal tech ecosystem. Often described as a force of nature, she brings boundless energy and enthusiasm to connecting people and projects, driving innovation, and creating impactful collaborations.

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Optimistic Insights

Culture, Strategy and Change: The Key to Thriving in Disruptive Times – By Optimist Performance

Feb 6, 2025

Culture, Strategy and Change: In today's rapidly changing business world, organisations must be able to adapt quickly to remain competitive. Whether driven by technological innovation, market shifts, or global events, change is inevitable. But how companies respond to...

Make Time To Do Your Best Work – By Optimist Performance

Jan 9, 2025

In today’s fast-paced business world, where distractions and overwork are constant challenges, one thing is clear: making time to do your best work is not just a luxury — it’s a necessity. Whether you’re a leader, an entrepreneur, or a team member, the ability to...

Why Does Learning Something New Feel So Hard – By Optimist Performance

Dec 16, 2024

Why Does Learning Something New Feel So Hard, Frustrating, and Even Painful? At Optimist Performance, we believe that growth comes from pushing past discomfort and embracing challenges. However, learning something new—whether it’s a skill, concept, or mindset—often...

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