Surprised By What They Can Do with Mike Porteous

Surprised By What They Can Do with Mike Porteous

From Life Beyond The Numbers by Susan Ni Chriodain

March 14, 2026 · 50 min · Episode 221

About this episode

Mike Porteous discusses the transformative power of coaching that focuses on the mind-body connection and self-discovery.

"And if I can coach in a way where someone is really attuned to what's happening in their mind and body as one, not as two separate things, then I think, well, I've found it. It's just magical... They would kind of find themselves at their best. They go on to do things where they're, the phrase I like to use is, they're surprised by what they can do." Mike Porteous Mike Porteous is an endurance sports coach and author of Beyond Belief: The art of confidence-centred coaching. But this episode isn't only about sport. It's about what happens when we stop trying to fix people and start paying attention to what's actually going on for them in their bodies, in the space between coach and athlete, in the moments before an event. Mike describes confidence not as a thing someone has or doesn't have, but as something much more. He speaks about thrill and anticipation, control and uncertainty, fluency and the kind of in-the-moment experience where we can lose and find ourselves at once. We talk about what it means to coach from presence and why the question "how did it feel?" matters far more than "how did it look?" There is also unexpected theme we touch on through this episode: beauty. We…

People in this episode

Host: Susan Ni Chriodain

Guest: Mike Porteous

Topics covered

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Beyond Belief: The art of confidence-centred coaching

More episodes of Life Beyond The Numbers

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Life Beyond The Numbers podcast page.