Keegan and Company

Lydia O'Donnell is a professional distance runner from New Zealand and the co-founder and CEO of Femmi, a running app built around the female body. She was Nike's Head Run Coach, has been running marathons for over ten years and coaching athletes for more than five. Femmi came out of something she and her co-founder Esther Keown both went through: they lost their periods training the way they had been taught to. I'm grateful she came in and talked about it this openly.
In this episode Lydia and I discuss why less than 6% of sports science research is conducted exclusively on females, and what that means for every coach you have ever had. She takes me through running 160 kilometres a week at 25, cutting carbs out entirely because a fad told her to, and ending up in hospital with her body shutting down. We get into RED-S, why losing your period was treated as a badge of honour, and the graph she saw for the first time at 27 that changed how she trains. She thinks cycle syncing is faddy, and she explains what she does instead. Femmi was built while less than 1% of venture capital was going to women, and she tells me what pitching close to 200 investors did to her running. Her dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2021. She talks about the six weeks in hospice, and the signs she believes he has been sending her since.

For more just like this:
#176 Jacqui Bell: Youngest Person to Run an Ultra on Every Continent: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#160 Andy Buchanan: Finding Purpose In Running: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#170 Grace Grove: Doctor, Runner & Content Creator | Being Yourself & Ditching Toxic Productivity: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt Hauser is an Olympic triathlete from the Gold Coast. He came home from his first Olympics not satisfied and decided he needed to go all in if he was going to compete at the top of the sport. A few months after we recorded this, he became World Champion.
In this episode Matt and I talk about the choice he gave himself, grow up or step away, why he stopped calling any of it sacrifice, and the question his partner sent in that he struggled to answer. Describe yourself as a person without using triathlon.
We sat down with Matt in early 2025. We are re-releasing this section now as a Moments episode because it is the part people keep coming back to.
This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show. https://www.denzagoldcoast.com.au/

Listen to the Full episode here:
#96 Matt Hauser: Triathlons, Tackling Challenges & Finding Community: Spotify · Apple · YouTube The full conversation this came from.
For more just like this:
#155 Jeremy Howe: More Than AFL: Spotify · Apple · YouTube
#83 Jordan Kahu: Balancing Family & Business, Life after NRL, and Mental Health: Spotify · Apple · YouTube Life on the other side of the sport, which is where Matt's question is pointing.
Listen and subscribe Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gretel Bueta grew up on the Gold Coast playing everything she could get her hands on. She signed her first professional basketball contract at 17, played three junior world championships and was named WNBL Rookie of the Year. Then she got glandular fever, stopped enjoying it and walked away from the sport entirely. Three months later she started playing netball socially with school friends, and did not make the district team. She went on to play more than 100 games for the Queensland Firebirds and over 50 for the Diamonds, won Commonwealth Games gold and the Liz Ellis Diamond as the best player in Australian netball, and came back after her first child playing some of the best netball of her life. She is now a mother of three. Grateful she came in and talked about all of it.
In this episode Gretel and I discuss what happened when she came back to netball after having Bobby and found she was hungrier than she had ever been, why she decided she would either come back and be the best or not come back at all, burning out at 17 and her parents telling her to go work at the local bank and be happy, the netball trial she did not get picked for, how trying to play the perfect game cost her a Commonwealth Games, the quote she used to force selection, the 15 minutes a day nobody ever saw, her mum running the house as the family CEO, and whether motherhood is harder than professional sport.

This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show. https://www.denzagoldcoast.com.au/
For more just like this:
#191 Charlotte Caslick: 3x Olympian Rugby 7s Player on Training Through Pregnancy & Why Trying Hard Is Cool | Apple | YouTube
#33 Allie Smith: Swifts Cult, Perfectionism and Building Confidence | Apple | YouTube Another netballer on perfectionism, and the New South Wales Swifts, the club Gretel played for in 2014.
#27 Kelsey Browne: Journey with Body Image, Clinical Depression, and a Glass Half Full Perspective | Apple | YouTube A former professional netballer on what the sport took out of her.
Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode I get into bids for connection, the Gottman Institute's term for the small moments when your partner reaches out to you, and why how often you turn towards them is one of the biggest predictors of whether a couple stays together or gets divorced. I go through the newlywed research that followed couples for six years and sorted them into masters and disasters, and the part that actually matters, which is not catching every bid but going back to repair the ones you miss. I talk about the emotional bank account, Alexis Fernandez's tennis ball, the bird theory trend and Robert Irwin's answer to it, and why the phone is the biggest killer of all of it. I go into the year I spent making big grand gestures while missing the small ones, and what changed in the two weeks before I recorded this.
This one was made with Denza. We packed the B5, drove up into the hinterland and set camp for the night, and that is where the episode was recorded. The cooler in the centre console kept the sandwiches cold on the way up, the boot is spacious and fits everything we need and this car is just such a pleasure to drive. Thanks DENZA Gold Coast.
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#186 Alexis Fernandez The Neuroscience of Connection, Creativity & Heartbreak:
Spotify · Apple · YouTube
The conversation this whole episode came out of, and where the tennis ball comes from.

#190 The Psychology of Monotasking: Why Being Bored Makes You More Creative:
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The companion to the phone half of this one.

How to Help People Feel Comfortable | Episode 179:
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The instinct I did not have a name for until this one.

#146 Harry Garside: Masculinity, Vulnerability & Boxing:
Spotify · Apple · YouTube
Listen and subscribe Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4L7zyEBXeNYBDK4rRjBK0K Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/keegan-and-company/id1695873736 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Keeganandcompany
Follow for more Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keeganandcompanypodcast/ Keegan's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keeganhipgrave/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@keeganandcompany
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jesse Campbell grew up in New Zealand, and works full time as an accountant on the Gold Coast while juggling Marathon training himself, coaching and Content Creation. He ran his first marathon in Queenstown in November 2024 in 3:28 18 months later he ran 2:44 in Osaka. That is 45 minutes off a marathon in under two years, done around a nine to five.

In this episode Jesse and I discuss why he started running, which had nothing to do with racing and everything to do with being lost after he stopped playing basketball. He explains what a day actually looks like at 4:30am, seven runs a week fitted around a full working day, and why that stopped feeling like discipline a long time ago. We get into the race he blew up in after Osaka and his honest read on why it went wrong. Most of it lands wider than running though. What putting a goal out in public actually does to you. How he handles comparison when everyone is posting their times. And what he would say to someone who looks at the people ahead of them and decides there is no point starting, which is that if you stick at anything you can progress at it, and that has carried into the rest of his life further than the running has.
This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show. https://www.denzagoldcoast.com.au/
Follow Jesse:
YouTube
Instagram
For more just like this
#162 Jake Barraclough (RanToJapan): 280km Weeks, Running in Japan & Finding Your Limit: Spotify · Apple · YouTube
#160 Andy Buchanan: Finding Purpose In Running: Spotify · Apple · YouTube
Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.