152 The Truth About Calm & Flow: The Man Behind Some of the World's Greatest Champions | Nam Baldwin

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Aug 27, 2025

Nam Baldwin, a coach renowned for guiding elite athletes like Mick Fanning and Olympian Jess Fox, shares his journey from South Africa to the pinnacle of performance coaching. He discusses the power of breathwork in achieving calmness and resilience, essential for peak performance. Nam reveals techniques to reset the mind instantly and how embracing trauma can transform challenges into growth. He emphasizes that playful engagement is key to entering a flow state and that success should be an outcome of the journey, not the goal.

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ANECDOTE

Breathwork Origin Story

Nam learned breath control from a gardener as a child and used it to stop dropping the ball in sport.
That early lesson launched a lifelong study of breath, freediving, and performance coaching.

ADVICE

Reset On Demand With Breath

Use simple breath routines to reset your nervous system on demand, e.g., five seconds in and five seconds out for five cycles.
Practice those resets daily so the skill works under real stress.

INSIGHT

Calm As The Foundation

Calmness is a prerequisite for high performance because it preserves fine motor control and clear thinking.
Regularly seeking and recovering from stress (short challenges) expands your capability.

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What do champion surfers, Olympians, and Hollywood actors have in common? They turn to Nam Baldwin when the pressure is on.

From coaching pro-surfer Mick Fanning to Olympian Jess Fox on her path to gold, Nam shares the tools anyone can use to reset their body and mind, enter flow state on demand, and turn trauma into growth.

This is a rare look behind the curtain of the coach trusted by champions. Whether you’re chasing gold medals, boardroom breakthroughs, or simply more calm in everyday life — this conversation is full of practical wisdom you can apply right now.

In this episode, Andrew and Nam talk about:

00:10 Nam’s origin story - from growing up in South Africa, learning breathwork from a gardener, to teaching elite athletes how to breathe.
06:15 How to face and unpack trauma, and turn life’s hardest moments into meaning.
12:15 Nam’s ability to reset his mind and body instantly — and how you can do it too.
17:55 Why calmness is the foundation of high performance, from freediving to everyday life.
23:15 The secret to entering a flow state — and why playfulness unlocks it.
29:20 Helping Mick Fanning mentally recover from a shark attack… and win the next year.
34:50 Training actors who couldn’t swim to film underwater scenes.
38:20 Working with Olympian Jess Fox: “try easier,” stay calm, and win gold.
44:40 Why success should be a by-product of your work — not the end goal.
50:40 Using ChatGPT to design a 90-day journaling challenge during injury recovery.
52:35 Teaching breathwork and resilience to corporate leaders.
55:00 Nam's question for Andrew.

Read Nam's LinkedIn post: https://shorturl.at/1OX81
Read the article with Jess Fox: https://shorturl.at/hJKtG
Visit Nam's website: https://www.nambaldwin.com/
Visit Hupo's website: https://hupo.com.au/

Use Code "PQPODCAST10" to get 10% off your Lumo Coffee order:https://lumocoffee.com/

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