Anything's possible with hard work

The hardest part of anything always seems to be just getting started. But once you do, I think we all know how the flywheel just seems to start spinning, and we wonder why we didn’t just start immediately.

For the second part of my catch-up with some of our Aussie Olympic Athletes, I’m chatting to sprint kayaker Jo Brigden-Jones. She’s one of the athletes that took part in GoDaddy’s Dream it. Build it quarantine program for our athletes, and she’s like a lot of entrepreneurs talking about their businesses who say, “I can’t believe I didn’t start this sooner.”

When you’ve got a great idea, get it out of your head and out into the world. You could write it down on a piece of paper, or make your idea have impact from day dot by building a website around it. Bring your ideas to life quickly and easily with GoDaddy like our Aussie athletes did so that you’re not left there at the end of the day saying “I can’t believe I didn’t start this sooner.”

Let’s get into the chat and see why.

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How’d you get into Kayaking?

I remember going down to a Kayaking club when I was 13 for a selection event, and I ended up doing pretty well. To be honest, I had no idea what kayaking was at the time, but I was pretty sporty and thought it’d be a bit of fun.

I wasn’t the most naturally talented, and my coach really taught me what was possible when you had two things: A big dream, and hard, disciplined work towards it. I was definitely a bit competitive and that certainly helped me stay committed to pushing my limits.

What does your daily routine look like?

Let’s just say I’m constantly busy. My full-time job is actually as a Paramedic, but when competing I was only working part-time. Between that, training, and my other businesses, I basically never had a day off. But my goals were so strong that I was just completely driven to deliver on all the things I’d committed myself to.

Tell us a bit about your business and being a paramedic?

Yeah so I actually have two businesses on the side. One is a coaching business called Elite Mindset Co. , and the other indulges my passion for baking cakes, Elite Cake Co.

I love working as a Paramedic to be honest. Especially when I was competing, it was really nice to have the “switch-off” from kayaking and live a “normal” life.

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Olympian. Paramedic. Baker. Speaker. It’s fair to say that Jo certainly isn’t an underachiever.

Like she says, anything’s possible when you dream big and work hard.

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What’s been the hardest moment for you in either training or competing?

One of the biggest things I’ve learnt through my career is that not everything goes to plan. Injuries. Missed Selections. That kind of stuff can really test your resilience. But you have to make sure you never lose sight of your main goal.

The hardest moment for me was missing out on the 2016 Olympics. I was in great form, I’d won 3 selection trials and I was paddling PB’s basically all year. But things didn’t work out in my favour. That’s definitely the ugly side of sport.

I felt pretty broken and thought I was done with the sport. But I still felt I had something to give, and I asked myself, what could I achieve if I combined my athletic career with being a paramedic. So I came back, and the last 5 years have easily been the best of my career. I’ve just learnt so much. But I’m at the point now where I need to start paying that forward. It’s important to give back.

Doesn’t hurt that it feels great when people come up to you after a talk and say thank you and tell you how much they got out of it. That’s my favourite thing about it.

What’s next for your business?

Well I’m starting to realise just how much more time I have now I’m no longer training in the kayak! It’s certainly time to reflect and rearrange my life towards my post-athlete career. My big question is how to fit my side hustles in around being a full-time Paramedic.

Is there any advice you’d like to share to aspiring or new entrepreneurs?

Just go out and do it. I sat and procrastinated on my cake business for the longest time. Now that I have started it, I’ve surprised myself with how well it’s gone.?

You’ll never know what’s possible unless you get going.