Former Fox Sports presenter Nick McArdle has launched a new podcast series The Playmakers’ Playbook.
The series focuses on lessons in leadership from icons of sport and the business of sport.
McArdle speaks with these icons on the events that shaped their leadership style, the mistakes they made and the lessons learned.
The first three episodes have seen him interview Australian cricket coach Justin Langer, former captain of the Australian rugby union team John Eales and Australian women’s cricket captain Meg Lanning.
McArdle told AdNews the idea for the podcast was influenced by the number of interesting leaders and sporting icons he has met throughout his 30-year career.
“Over that space in time, I have met a lot of these people when they were very early on in their careers,” he says.
“But in time they have reached really lofty heights in either business or sport and become leaders.
“I thought it would be a nice niche to explore and pick their brains about leadership and hopefully direct it into the language that people can use in business, at home with the family or just in everyday life.”
McArdle began his career in radio at the Austereo Network working in Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney before moving into television.
He has become one of Australia’s top sports presenters, working with Seven for a number of years before joining Fox Sports where he was let go in the network’s highly publicised job cuts at the start of the year.
His departure from Fox though helped pave the way to launch The Playmakers’ Playbook which had been something he had been planning for the last year.
The series launched on podcasting platform Whooshka, which McArdle chose initially over other platforms for its Australia roots.
“I like the fact they were started by an Aussie and it’s quite easy to use but I have had a couple of approaches from other platforms who are interested in having the podcast on their platform and talking about monetising it,” he says.
“[It’s] been a learning curve for me as well to try and understand the best ways to reach people to market the podcast.
“Initially when I thought about doing it, it was really just about producing it and getting it out there. I hadn’t actually had an appreciation of what it takes post-publishing.”
While his plans to meet his interviewees face-to-face have not been possible with COVID-19, the weekly episodes recorded over Skype have been well received.
Since launching it, he has received positive feedback and support from peers both locally and abroad in places like the US, UK and Japan.
“To know people are interested and finding it worthy has been really, really satisfying,” he says.
The Playmakers’ Playbook is available to listen to here and on iTunes.
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