How brokers & traders are revolutionising wellness and elite performance

Broking and trading are following big sport's footsteps. When you look at premiership football, for example, you have talented individuals capable of elite performance and significant revenue generation. The players have coaches, trainers, nutritionists, physios, sports scientists, psychologists…the list goes on. 

Sport knows - to get the best out of their athletes they require elite-level support to produce the marginal gains that lead to victory. 

And now, with the help of a broker and former premiership footballer, brokers, traders and elite business professionals are finally matching the support offered by elite sport and getting massive results.

What’s the difference between a premiership footballer and a trader?

When you compare elite athletes and elite business professionals you realise both are capable of performances that generate significant revenues.

The massive difference between the two is that elite athletes have a whole support crew to help them perform at their absolute best.

Whereas brokers, traders and most other elite business professionals have nothing. Zip. Zero.

This can’t be right.

You might be thinking, yes, but a professional footballer or athlete’s dreams are more important. 

I want to challenge this thinking - Why is winning a trophy or a medal any more important than a broker trying to be no1, or a trader trying to make p&l, or a CEO aiming to grow the business? 

When you think about it, there is no difference. 

If you peel back the layers and ask an athlete why they want to win gold, as I have done on many occasions, you always end up in the same place - to be fulfilled and happy.

When you ask the elite business professional the same question, they also end up in the exact same place - to be fulfilled and happy.

So there is no difference between the broker, trader, elite performer and the professional athlete or footballer.

Having been lucky enough to become a professional athlete, then create a successful financial brokerage and co-found an entrepreneurial platform called oneyearnobeer.com I could see the potential massive wins an ‘office-athlete’ approach to business.

This revelation led me to ask:

Why are we not giving elite business professionals the same support we give athletes? 

In my opinion, it’s simply been overlooked by the business community, until now. As soon as I sit down with the c-suite or CEO’s and vocalise the comparison almost everyone agrees - we should treat our top talent like athletes.

Elite business performers have much longer careers than athletes and are capable of more revenue generation. So it makes perfect sense to help brokers, traders and other elite performers stay healthier, last longer in their careers and keep them with the firm as long as possible, while giving them the skills to stay healthy, vibrant, motivated, happy and performing at a top-level.

Markets are ever more competitive, so my argument is, can you afford not to support your team like office-athletes and just imagine the advantage you would gain if you were one of the first businesses to train, coach and support your teams?

It would be like being the first premiership football club to coach its players - the gains would be massive. 

Frustrated that an elite level of support did not exist for business professionals, I teamed up with Former Westham Captain Christian Dailly and elite-runner Emma Prideaux to create Seneca Performance to fill this need. 

Seneca treats all business professionals like office-athletes and is taking wellness on a mission to improve overall health while boosting long term performance and increasing retention, longevity and revenues.

We do this through a unique blend of physiological and psychological coaching.

Why broking and trading is leading the way

Joe Kelly CEO of OTC Global Holdings, which is the largest independent commodities brokerage in the world, is one of the new-wave of forward-thinking CEO’s to have spotted the potential massive gains from supporting and training their talent.

Currently, Seneca is training a group of elite performers within OTC Europe. Below you can see the pop-up gym. On the left is the broking floor, on the right is the Seneca pop-up gym. 

To be clear this is not wellness for wellness sake. This is wellness on a mission to create the pre-conditions of elite performance. It creates the ultimate win-win for the individual and the business. The elite performer or office-athlete as we call them, learn the skills to optimise their wellness, with the aim of boosting performance which is a massive win for both the individual and the business. 

How it works 

The Seneca performance program is delivered over 8-weeks and includes a physiological and mindset component.

The psychological element is delivered via our bespoke app and supplemented by individual 121 mindset session once a week.

Most will agree that just like sport, elite business is a mental game.

I fully believe that broking, trading and elite business is a physical and mental game - just like sport.

So I decided to go back to university part-time, while running the brokerage, to finish an MSc in positive psychology & coaching psychology, to better understand how my brain worked. (I start my PhD later 2020).

Leveraging this education and experience as an athlete, broker and entrepreneur the Seneca team have created a unique mindset program that will help elite business professionals optimise performance.

Our mission is to help the office-athletes learn how to manage their own minds to reduce anxiety, stress, anger, and frustration. From this foundation, we help them to feel good, enjoy the job more while having the energy to maximise life, and ultimately optimise performance.

You need to train the mind and body the right way

After a fantastic football career, Dailly retrained as a sports scientist and has a wealth of experience coaching elite athletes. I am biased but in my opinion, Dailly's ideas are 10 years ahead of current thinking and his methods are producing stunning results. 

To be clear the physiological component is bespoke to the individual and everyone can do it.

This is not about no-pain no-gain

Right now, at Seneca, we are training 70-year-old CEO’s, brokers, traders, entrepreneurs and Olympic hopefuls.

And we train them all the exact same way, both physically and mentally.

How can you train the Olympian and a 70-year old the same? 

Because, as Christain Dailly (Bsc) who runs Seneca physiological coaching, likes to say:

"We train the human and not the label. And all humans respond the same way to the right set of physical and mental pre-conditions of wellness." 

Therefore the Olympic athlete might use heavier weights and run faster at a given heart rate, but the pre-conditions of physical and mental wellness and performance are the exact same.

The mission is to reduce inflammation and stress in the body to create the pre-conditions of a healthy body and mind. We use both a unique set of strength training and a unique formulated set of heart rate zones that protect the individual from harm, while also creating the data and feedback that moves the elite professional to optimal wellness.

This system works perfectly for those that like exercise already and those who have never seen a gym. As mentioned we train men and women of all ages, backgrounds and physical ability and issues. Many of those have never trained before and they often get the most staggering results. This is not no-pain no-gain, it’s the very opposite. In fact, you could train in your work clothes and walk straight onto the desk. 

Benefits to the office-athlete and the business

Both the mental and physical training combine to increase wellness, and performance. With the additional benefits of potentially increasing retention, longevity and revenue.

So if you can see the potential for you or your business to increase wellness and optimise elite performance please drop me a message on LinkedIn and you are welcome to come and see what we’re doing. 

Andy Ramage