‘I Do Struggle With Wanting to be Perfect All the Time’. 3x Olympic gold medalist Bronte Campbell on her latest pursuit, Earthletica.

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It’s been said that perfect is the enemy of progress. Yet it is in the seeking of perfection that progress is made. So how do you overcome this paradox?

It’s an important question because, when we’re talking about things like plastic in the ocean or children in poverty, perfect has to be the goal, right?

But perfect is also often unachievable. And too often that gets used as an excuse for inaction. 

‘Sure solar panels are good but I heard they don’t get recycled.’

‘Yeah you chose an eco-tourism holiday but what about the flight?’ 

What if the answer was to always seek perfection but also accept that constant improvement is the real goal? That’s the philosophy that has led Bronte Campbell to win three Olympic gold medals. And, with a track record like that, her wisdom is worth a listen:

‘An Olympic medal was a meaningful thing for me to pursue for a long time. But once I achieved it, it didn't hold all the meaning that I thought it would. And that's when I first realised, the victory is in the striving. To have something meaningful to aim towards, that's the hard thing.’ 

It’s a valuable lesson for all of us trying to ‘build a better world’ and one that Bronte is now applying as she dives into her latest pursuit, Earthletica, the ever-so cool activewear brand seeking to deliver world-class sustainability together with the function and performance that an Olympic athlete needs:

‘I want to tell to everyone that we've solved everything. But the fact is that we can't. We can just do better than what is available now. You just got to keep doing it. Like, what's the other option? You don't do anything. If you can't do everything, you don't do anything? Like, that's not it. You pick the pieces that you can do, you do them, and then you pick the next pieces that you can do. Do it to the best of your ability, then move to the next thing.’

In this episode, we get a masterclass on what it takes to become best on the world, then keep getting better, as well as:

🥇 What it feels like to win gold at the highest level

🦁 How many of the materials and answers we need are out there, it just takes courage for brands to take a chance and give them a go

✨ Why the magic mix of function, comfort, style and sustainability drives success for Earthletica

😎 Which creative genius came up with such a cool company name

Plus Bronte gives us a personal performance of the poem she wrote for the 🏊🏊‍♀️🏊‍♂️ Australian swim team to help catapult them to their outstanding performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Learn more about Earthletica at earthletica.com

Follow Bronte at instagram.com/bronte_campbell

Watch this episode on YouTube

We gave AI a listen to the episode, and here’s what it had to say…

What does it take to build activewear that feels incredible in a workout without costing the earth? We sit down with three-time Olympic gold medallist Bronte Campbell to unpack the real work behind Earthletica, from recycled performance fabrics to a plastic-free future—and why the victory is in the striving, not the finish line.

Bronte starts by reframing the problem: most tights blend nylon and elastane for compression and recovery, but those oil-based fibres shed microplastics and complicate end-of-life. Natural fibres like cotton, hemp and wool are gentler on the planet yet often fall short on support and sweat management. The answer isn’t to pick a side; it’s to design gear that athletes prefer on performance, then keep lifting sustainability. That’s why Earthletica began with 75% recycled fabrics for leggings and 100% organic cotton for outerwear, verifying suppliers and designing for longevity before tackling take-back and recycling.

We go inside the innovation pipeline—how lab breakthroughs become commercial reality only when a supply chain is willing to retool, test, and take measured risks. Bronte shares Earthletica’s world-firsts, including a bio-based waterproof membrane and a tapeless zipper jacket developed with YKK, plus ongoing R&D on plant-based elastane. Along the way, we talk honesty over hype: perfection myths, why customers actually return for fit and feel, and how transparent storytelling builds trust and community.

This conversation also challenges the idea of competition as a zero-sum game. Bronte’s athlete mindset shines: collaborate to raise the bar, prove what’s possible at small scale, and invite bigger players to help normalise better standards. For listeners who care about sustainable fashion, sportswear performance, and climate-conscious design, this is a clear, energising roadmap—choose durable pieces, ask about end-of-life, and back brands that are moving the industry forward with real, testable progress.

If this episode gave you fresh momentum, follow and subscribe, share it with a friend who sweats for a cause, and leave a review with the one change you want to see in activewear next.

Full Episode Transcript

Ben: 0:07

Let’s start with an intro question. What is your best song to train to?

Speaker 1: 0:10

Um, I used to really like White Stripes, Seven Nation Army.

Ben: 0:14

Seven Nation Army. Yeah. What a great choice. That's the song to get you moving.

Bronte Campbell: 0:20

Yeah, it is.

Ben: 0:22

Hello everyone. Get your running shoes ready because today we're talking activewear. What a great category. Clothes to get active in. Good for your physical health, good for your mental health. Hey, good for just having a coffee with friends in. But what if what's good for you could be good for the planet too? Like most stretchy stuff, activewear is made from materials like nylon and spandex, which are made from oil and gas. That's right, the same dinosaur juice that runs our cars and our ovens. It's great while we're wearing it, but it's not great for the planet, breaking down into microplastics, and we all know about those. Three times Olympic gold medalist Bronte Campbell has a good idea to help. As co-founder of Earthletica, she is on a mission to make activewear using a majority mix of recycled plastics or organic materials, some up to 100%, letting you enjoy the great outdoors and have a better impact on it at the same time. Today she's here to tell us all about it. Welcome, Bronte.

Bronte Campbell: 1:12

Hello, thank you.

Ben: 1:13

So we're gonna go into Earthletica, obviously, because that's your amazing good idea, but I can't help it. As an everyday individual who watches amazing people do amazing things on TV, I've got to ask, what is it like to win a gold medal?

Bronte Campbell: 1:29

It's nothing like what I would have expected. I first decided I wanted to be an Olympic athlete when I was seven years old. And I mean, I really actually just wanted to go to the Olympics. And then obviously the next thing is like, oh, once you've been there, then it's like, cool, everyone wants to win a gold medal, right? And you think it's gonna be this like big life-changing thing. But my first Olympic medal I won in 2016 when I was 22, and I stood on top of the podium and we sang the national anthem, and then I moved on with my life very quickly after that into all the normal things that you have to come back and do. Like I came back, I still had like university assignments due, I still had to like clean my house, I still had to like do everything that you would normally do. I think maybe when I was younger, I thought it would be like a transformative moment. It feels great to get a payoff for the hard work, but I've learned over the years that the hard work is actually the bit that I really enjoy. Like working towards something meaningful is a really cool purpose to have. Actually, achieving it doesn't really, for me personally, like it's nice. It gives me like a nice feeling. It doesn't give me like big purpose or big kudos that lasts for a long time. I do get joy from it in the moment. I don't get this like long-term satisfaction from it. I like working to things. That's that's my joy and striving for things. Is there's like that's the valuable bit for me. And then when you achieve it, it's like you get very excited. Obviously, like I'm stoked, I'm so happy. But then go straight back to the striving thing because that's the meaningful part of it. To have something meaningful to aim towards, that's the hard thing. So, like an Olympic medal for whatever reason was a meaningful thing for me to pursue for a long time. And I found a lot of meaning in it. So for whatever reason, but once I achieved it, it was it didn't hold all the meaning that I thought it would. And that's when I first realised, like, oh, it's actually the pursuit of it that's the bit that I really like.

Ben: 3:24

Maybe it's that love of the pursuit that means you've got what it takes to go back and do it three times and get three gold medals, and that's just the Olympic medals, there's a whole bunch of other ones as well, right?

Bronte Campbell: 3:34

Yeah, so you have to love it, obviously. I've been doing it a long time. I've started training when I was seven, and my first Olympics was when I was 18, and my the last Olympics I went to was when I was 30. So yeah, it is a long time just choking away.

Ben: 3:48

It's a great irony in that, isn't it? That it's almost like the thing you strive towards is not actually the bit that you're striving towards. You know what I mean? It's not actually the great moment in a way. What you're saying is like the hard work is the moment, and that's just the like, well, I've got to, it's like run to the next tree, run to the next tree, run to the next tree, you get to the tree and you go, Well, there's another tree. It's actually because really what you're trying to do is make yourself keep going because you enjoy it.

Bronte Campbell: 4:12

Yeah, and it's good to have the balance in that. I think I probably didn't hit that early in my career, looking for the next hit straight away. Um, every single thing that I achieved, I was like, great, I I barely celebrated it, and then we just move straight on. Do you think it's good to celebrate though? Yes, that's what I mean. My the balance was like probably off at the start of my career. It is good to celebrate. I think when I was younger, I thought that if I stopped and celebrated and took stock that then I would be so satisfied that I would just like sit back and rest in my laurels and be done. And so it takes you a while to trust, or for me, it took me a while to trust myself to be like, you can do both. Like you can take a minute, you can take a beat, you can celebrate it, you can, you can even slow down. You can slow down for a few months, you can slow down for a year, and you'll still want to come back to it. Like I think I was afraid I would just whatever it was that was driving me would just disappear. But it doesn't disappear. I've like learned to trust that it's it's gonna be there. If the thing that I'm aiming towards is something that I'm passionate about, it'll be there.

Ben: 5:12

Yeah. Trust is a good word in this world, isn't it?

Bronte Campbell: 5:15

Yeah.

Ben: 5:16

I suffer from that too. I remember running an agency and we'd have a big win and I would just never I'll be like, yeah, that's great, but now we've got to get that win. Yeah. And people would have to go, just stop for a minute. Just, you know, look at the view just a second, you know. But I always wonder if it's almost like an affliction that you know that makes you achieve things, the fact that you're never quite there.

Bronte Campbell: 5:37

Well, it it it is. I just think that like whatever personality traits you have, there's a dark side and a good side to it. And sometimes like there's really good things in that personality trait that you're always pushing for something more. There's really good things. And then sometimes it can be a strength overdone and it tips into like not being super helpful, not being super helpful for the people that are around me, or not being super helpful for me like long term. Like if I want like the sustained success over a long period of time, like always being in like the high intensity wasn't working for me anymore after, say, like the Tokyo Olympics, which is when I took 18 months away from the sport and then came back intensely for 18 months. So yeah, it's like knowing when you've tipped into like the unhealthy version of whatever the trade is. And like I've also got like competitors that I that I race with who are like unbelievably relaxed. Like they work hard, but then they're just like super, super, super chill, which is really cool because it keeps them really just like not doing very much other than their sport. But that can also be a like a two-edged sword as well. So I just think there's like so many different personalities that make up success. It's just knowing like what parts of your personality make you successful and when do they start to like start taking away from your from like your purpose or from your joy or from your life? But it's hard to find that tipping point. I don't think you can find it intuitively until you've gone over it a few times.

Ben: 7:03

Do you think is that why you have good people around you? I mean, is that what coaches and friends and family help you with?

Bronte Campbell: 7:08

Yeah, of course. That's why you've got a team. Like, I don't think you can know it straight away. And then also giving yourself the grace that like you're not gonna know it straight away. So you're gonna make a mistake. You're gonna go too far in one direction. And normally every correction is an overcorrection. So, like learning that you're gonna be on a pendulum and like trying to stay in the middle of it is probably how I would think about it.

Ben: 7:29

That's pretty good life advice. You're never gonna quite get it right. You always be just offright, but keep adjusting as you go, huh?

Bronte Campbell: 7:35

One time you'll hit it.

Ben: 7:36

Is that when you get the gold medal?

Bronte Campbell: 7:38

Yeah, and hopefully it's in a final of an Olympics, but like it might not be. Like it's we race a lot and you're not gonna hit it. It's just like getting it so your you go, like your standard deviation is like close to the thing. Like golfers talk about like they don't play their A game most of the time. Like they compete a lot. They just make their their B and C games so close to their A game that they're able to succeed without always being on. And if you can do that, like then you've got like a sustained period that you can succeed in. Because like you will have the moments where you're like completely on. Whatever that looks like for you, you'll have that. But it can't be all the time. So, like, how do you make sure that it's as close as possible? That's probably like how I think about it. That is good life advice.

Ben: 8:20

It is, it's like someone once said to me, I used to play um futsal, you know, indoor soccer. And I played with these Dutch guys who were really good. They'd like been just under the, you know, pro comp. And they said, when you start winning your bad games, it's when you know you're a good team.

Bronte Campbell: 8:34

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

Ben: 8:35

Kind of exactly what you're saying. It's like, yes, you want to be striving for that perfection, but that is very hard to achieve. And you will, or I know I will burn myself out trying to get there if you can be relaxed and bring your lesser games up close. That's I've never heard that. That's fantastic. Great, it's been great interviewing here.

Bronte Campbell: 8:50

No, great, we're done.

Ben: 8:52

So I guess I want to move on from Olympics a little bit. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I could ask you this all day, but we should get on to other things. Your last Olympics was like 2024, and that's not very long ago. As you said, I would have thought, you know, after your fourth Olympics and gold at three and a million other medals of all shapes and sizes, you would take a break. But you decided no, I won't take a break, because clearly you like the hard work, like you said. And so you could have done anything. You know, there's so many people who've achieved everything you've achieved go on to be commentators or or um maybe coaches and you know, stay in the sport and maybe you do those things too. But you've taken a quite an interesting turn and gone, well, I'll start an activewear brand. And not only that, you've added a little double twist and a pike just to throw diving in. Um, and said, I'll make it even harder for myself. I'll actually do it out of like a better planet sort of materials. Why? Why, why this?

Bronte Campbell: 9:45

Why this? I mean, if I think about goal setting for myself, like the same goal that I'm pursuing with Earthletica is the same goal as I was pursuing when I was competing at the Olympics. And that goal is I'm the kind of person who passionately and relentlessly pursues the things that they're passionate about.

Ben: 10:04

That's it. And you're passionate about actually wearing.

Bronte Campbell: 10:06

Well, I'm passionate about doing things better for the environment and better for the people that are wearing it. And that pursuit, like the things that I'm passionate about, there's a number of things that I'm passionate about. So, like when I was training, it was like, yeah, I'm obviously super passionate about this sport and I'm relentlessly pursuing that. I'm passionate about doing things better. And as I was saying before, like the fun, for the fun, the purpose is in the hard work. If someone wants to start an activewear brand tomorrow, they can go an Alibaba, they can white label something from China, it can be shipped to them, and they could have it up and running within like three months. And it will look the same as everyone else's, and it will be made with 100% virgin plastic. Virgin sounds really nice and clean, not it's just fresh new plastic that's created to make the activewear. You could do that, but that's that's not the future of what activewear needs to be. In order for us to survive as a planet, we have to do things way better. And what's difficult is building a supply chain that's better than what exists. So recycled fabric was where we started. We make all that stuff with it's 75% recycled. Our outerwear, which is like shirts and stuff, that's 100% organic cotton. Cause that's a lot, a lot easier. It doesn't need like the stretch and compression. That's where we've started. And like I was saying, like you're aiming for, like you're striving for that perfection. You're striving for that A game all the time. And that's where we're going. But knowing that you can't get there just like overnight. So spending all the time building the supply chain, then being like, okay, cool. What's also better? Okay, we'll recycle at the end of life as well. So it like stays out of landfill. You know, get a recycling partner in, get a verified partner into verify our fabrics. Okay, great, that's cool. But like, what's the next level? What's the next level? What's the next level? And the real gold standard that we're chasing is completely plastic-free solution that is fit for a purpose. So the really hard thing that I found when I came to the space and why I came to it was you could choose between sustainability or performance of your activewear. So you've got these great natural fibers like hemp and bamboo and wool, which are better from a sustainability point of view and cotton. But to have support, compression, sweat wicking, the ability for my clothes to like stay on my body properly to last for a long time. They just don't have it. Like bamboo doesn't have it at all. It falls apart really quickly. Longevity of an item is really important. So it was really like trying to operate in that niche of like, you shouldn't have to choose sustainability or performance. Like, you have to be able to do both. You cannot just make a sustainable product. You have to make a better product and do it more sustainably. Like, that's the stakes. It's a lot higher than for anybody else in the space. And we can do it and we are doing it. The first review we ever got, someone bought our first pair of tights. I thought that they were gonna come back and be like, oh, I'm so glad that I finally found something that aligns with my values, that I can I can buy more sustainably. Like this means so much to me. I was thinking really along the lines of, oh, you can wear your values. Like that's what we're that's the thing we're offering to people. And she wrote us an email and it was just like a it was a long paragraph about she couldn't believe like how great the fit was on her. She was like, I can tell that this is designed by athletes because this fits my body, it moves with my body, it feels like a second skin. The sweat working is amazing. It doesn't fall. She's like, What have you done here? Like, this is this is the best pair of tights I've ever worn. And so, knowing that sustainability is the bedrock of our company, it's a foundation, but it's not going to be the number one thing for everyone. If you can't make a better product, it doesn't really help because it has to be better and fit for a purpose, otherwise, people aren't going to use it. So it has to be better than what is available anyway and sustainable. And that's a really high bartic clear. And so at the moment, we're using recycled fabrics, but we have to keep that standard of performance in our gear as we keep bringing sustainability higher and higher. And we have this amazing product lab that we work with in the US. We developed a plastic-free prototype, a plant-based elastane. Like, we're doing it. It's just um, like I would personally love to just be like, we're at the end, like we're here. But gold medal. We're not. Yeah, we're the gold medal moment. Like, I first thought about winning a gold medal when I was seven, and I achieved it when I was 22. I am very much hoping and modelling that it will not be that level um of time. But that's that's what it takes. And being committed to that process, like honestly and authentically, rather than being a brand that might do like one out of 50,000 items sustainably, and then they like shout from the rooftops about it. It's great to do one. It's not enough. And for them to change their entire supply chains and like move that big corporate ship around to being sustainable is very slow. And because we're building it from the start, we're building into the design of our product, we're building into the supply chain, and we're building it into the end of life design. Because of that, I believe we can scale faster than they can pivot, even if they want to. Some of them want to. I don't see a lot of them that are lots of them say they want to, but we want them to come on the journey too. Like it's actually not when I think about competitiveness. I've never in my sport thought about like a me versus them or a me versus someone else. Like I have this with so my older sister is also an Olympic athlete. She does the same events as me. We compete with each other every single day in training, and then every single meet that we'd go to, didn't matter whether it was like the local like meet down the road or the Olympic final, like we were both there. And like you bring people along with you by raising the bar, like by being really good at something and proving that something can be done. Then everyone is like, oh, I can do that. And they change as well. Like the legacy piece is like everybody in the future is just making like clothing that's better for the planet. And it's not a differentiator anymore because everyone's come along for the journey. Like every single brand's doing it. We got there first and we showed them the way and we showed them it could be done, and like that's brilliant. But the whole landscape has changed. And that's where you see like the big, big impact. So I actually never think that it's like us versus them. I think it's like, we'll show you the way and you can follow us, but like we're gonna go first. That's fine. We'll do it.

Ben: 16:27

Well, you've just unpacked about two hours of questions for me. There, that was fantastic.

Bronte Campbell: 16:32

I do do that.

Ben: 16:32

Oh no, there's so much in there, you know. And it's is exactly why I do this podcast. You know, I find it so hard to get big companies to change. And it's really easy to think, oh, those evil big companies, they don't want to change. And then you talk to people in them, they go, no, no, we want everyone in here believes in it. But when you do like one million this is a year, you can't afford to, you know, it's very big risk for them to do it. Whereas you're building, as you said, from the foundation, so you can build it in from zero. But I love what you say about then we don't, it's I kind of say we we don't compete to change the world, you know, you've got to collaborate. And I've seen some of the most powerful things I've seen are whereas an organisation has worked out a new supply chain, because it very much is supply chain, this stuff. And they've then um shared that with others. But um Tony's Chocolonely is a great example where they've gone and tried not always perfectly, but to find a um slave-free supply chain in West Africa. And then they've gone, look, we'll tell you where to get it from. Yeah. Because there's no point, like even when you are wildly or you're already wildly successful, when you become more so, you will still only be a piece of the market. If you want the world you want to live in, you've got to get the rest of the market to come, right?

Bronte Campbell: 17:38

Yeah, and show that it it can be done. You don't have to caught you don't have to compromise the quality of your product. That's probably like, I mean, if you're a Lululemon, you do $9.6 billion in sales. That's insane.

Ben: 17:48

Which is like most of them in Bondi I've seen.

Bronte Campbell: 17:50

Yeah. A lot in Bondi. So you do a lot. And so, like, to change things is really, really risky. And you're risking people's livelihoods, you're risking people's jobs, you're risking the other people's jobs in your supply chain. Like, it's it's not as complicated as like athletic is perfect and good and everybody else is evil. Like, that's not it at all. And lots of people, there's lots of brands that are trying to do this and do this in different ways. Like, shout out to say Nagnata, that does a really good job of making wool activewear. And it's great. It uses only a tiny bit of elastane, there's like barely any plastic in it, but it's also not fit for like a boxing workout for me. Like, I can't go for a run and I can't do boxing, I can't do hit, I can't. So there's like, there's more than one way to solve the problem, and we're only going to solve it if everybody is committed to their piece of it. And so I never think like even other brands that are operating in sustainability in our space, I never think like, oh, they're we're against them. It's like, no, we're all part of moving towards a purpose together. And that's always how I've thought about my competitors in sport as well. Is that like we might all be moving towards the Olympics and a gold medal together, but like there's multiple Olympics in like in your lifetime and like learning from each other and like pushing each other, that's super valuable. And you kind of get to the self-actualization within that. That's sometimes not where I thought I would end up.

Ben: 19:07

Do you become friends with the people you compete with at the Olympics? Because of course you've seen them at the world championships, and no doubt you've you trained with some of them. Do you and and Olympic village together? Do you become friends with these people that are then suddenly who you're competing at?

Bronte Campbell: 19:19

Yeah, I do. Um, not everybody does. I do. I like to. It's um part of humanizing them to me. It's also part of the joy of competing. Like you are never gonna win all the time. How good that if it's not you, it's someone you like. Like that's really nice. Don't get me wrong, when I like walk out behind the blocks, like I will destroy their dreams and crush them. Like you'd switch into that, but it's not super pleasant for me sitting in a marshing room hating everybody who's in there. Like, that's I don't like to exist in that space. So no, I don't do that. And I mean, I just not to say I get along with everyone. There's a few people over the years who we just like have not gelled at all, and I'm not friends with them. But I came up in a cohort of um female sprinters who we were all like vying and like all like winning one over each other, and then we all just like get along so well to the point where I was in Europe last year, and you can go visit them at home and like they've finished their sporting careers, and we don't have something bringing us together anymore, but we still seek each other out. That's wonderful, like that's amplified. Whereas there are athletes that walk in and they're like, don't talk to anyone and they're just like down the line and like they don't want to be friends, they want you to be their your enemy, their enemy.

Ben: 20:36

The Michael Jordan approach, if you've seen The Last Dance.

Bronte Campbell: 20:39

Yeah, yeah. And they like, but for me, that doesn't work. For them, it's it maybe it does work for them. But that doesn't mean they're not my enemy when I walk out onto the deck. It's just being able to switch it on and off and knowing that that it's too much energy for me to be like grumpy with someone. Um, it's not my natural state. So, like, that's too much energy out. I just like be myself, and then as soon as I walk out, try and destroy them. It's great.

Ben: 21:03

It's it's a very positive approach. You've actually made me change my saying. I always used to say we don't compete to you know, change the world. It's actually no, we both compete and collaborate. Yeah. Because in a way, what you're saying is by competing, we all want to be better. And yeah, if I've got you to compete with, I've got a reason to make myself better. But by collaborating, we lift each other and therefore we force each other to be better. And the parallels are insane of what you're saying in terms of the Olympic experience versus the business experience. Because you're going, well, fundamentally, if you're gonna do well, you're gonna take some market share off of Lululemon or something like that, because you have to, unless suddenly, like, hey, just more people buy more activewear. But but at the same time, you want them to lift their game, right? Because you want the world you want. Yeah, it's a very interesting kind of dichotomy, isn't it, between those two things. It's a beautiful thing. I never thought it this way.

Bronte Campbell: 21:52

Yeah, it's hard to um people don't always get it when I say it because they're like, no, of course you want to crush them. And I'm like, Yeah, but I don't want every other. Business to disappear because like we can't service everybody. Like it's a giant market. In USD, it's $400 billion global market.

Ben: 22:09

Most of it's in my daughter's drawers. Yeah. I promise you.

Bronte Campbell: 22:12

There's a lot of Australia, it's a really big part of that market. Australia and US are big parts of it. And then, like, weirdly, Asia's growing in it. But anyway, you can't service that many people. It's not possible that you are going to be 100% of the market. So, like, yes, be successful. Be successful enough that people pay attention to you and then you work together.

Ben: 22:31

That's the approach. So I want to unpack a couple more things because you're your opening salvo just so just had so much in it. Another one is perfection. I find one of the great challenges with sustainability, especially when you're starting a brand like this, is people just want to hear instant perfection. We're doing 100% this with 100% that and 100% that. And like you said, that's kind of not possible, right? Yeah, you could instantly do 100% recycled or you know organic material and 100% recyclable, but suddenly you'd be in a situation where it wouldn't be performance. And this ability to keep managing and keep the performance, as you say, because no one's going to buy it unless it's high performance.

Bronte Campbell: 23:09

Or they're not going to wear it over and over again. And then it just gets thrown away.

Ben: 23:13

Yeah, therefore, how sustainable is that? As I say, the the most sustainable ones are the one you already own, right? So the ability to keep lifting the sustainability of a product while you maintain performance is quite a hard story to tell to people because you're not offering them perfection. You're offering them better with constant improvement. Is that a hard story to get to people? Are people like, just give me black and white?

Bronte Campbell: 23:35

Yes, of course they are, because like everyone's only got like so much brain space. They're just living their life. They're running around. They're trying to get the kids to school, they're trying to get here, they're trying to get there. They don't, they need it to be as simple as possible. And honestly, it's a hard story for me too. I'm like, I don't want to release anything in the world until it's like 100%. And that's not how it works. Like, you don't just walk out behind, you don't just walk out into the Olympic final. You walk out at the local state meet, and then you walk out at the national meet, and then you walk out your first international meet. Like you, the stakes keep raising and you keep raising the bar. As soon as you clear it, you go to the next one. As soon as you're able to do this, you go to the next one. As soon as you're able to do 75% recycled, you look at what's next. Like as soon as you're able to do that, you go to what's next. And so we were the first, we had two world firsts already that we've released in Sustainable Garmin Tech. We released uh a plant-based waterproof membrane. The first The Bronte jacket, perhaps? Yes, the Bronte jacket got named after me, which is very sweet.

Ben: 24:29

You named it.

Bronte Campbell: 24:30

Or I mean, I did not name it. That was that was actually Libby, my other co-founder. She's head of product, and she was like, we have to call it the Bronte jacket. And I was like, okay, fine.

Ben: 24:39

Okay, these are the Libby pants.

Bronte Campbell: 24:40

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that that jacket also had a tape innovation, the first tapeless zipper in a jacket in the world. North Face are about to release a jacket with that tech, but we beat them by over 18 months. So you can still make these jumps and leaps forward. You just got to keep doing it. And I do find it a really hard story to tell because I want to tell to everyone that we've solved everything. But the fact is that we can't. We can just do better than what is marketly available now. And then we just continually do better. Like, what's the other option? You don't do anything. If you can't do everything, you don't do anything. Like, that's not it. You pick the pieces that you can do, you do them, and then you pick the next pieces that you can do. When I was injured, this is what I thought about a lot. Like, everyone says, like, oh, how do you eat an elephant? Like one bite at a time. And it's like, you just Do you eat a lot of elephants? Yeah, that's that's um that's I've actually never done that. No, but when I was trying to like overcome really big struggles with my injury, I was like, what is the thing that I can do and control now? Control that. Do it, do it to the best of your ability. Okay, once that's down Pat, then you can move to the next thing. When it was getting from like, okay, I'm down to 40% of my training load and I need to compete at the Olympics, that's a really long thing to climb. It's like, I just need to get to like a place where I'm not in pain for 20% of my session. Okay, cool. That's something we can achieve. And eventually, like, I've been injured for over 10 years, I've got to a place where the prep that I did for Paris Olympics, I did not stop a single session because of injury pain. And that took a lot of finessing, but we got there by just doing the next best thing that I could until we eventually got to that. It was a long time.

Ben: 26:26

Step by step. Step by step. Step by step.

Bronte Campbell: 26:28

I so oh my goodness, I would love so much. Just like come to market and be like, here it is. This is the best gear you've ever worn. By the way, it's completely plastic free. I can't say that yet. I can say we make this with recycled, we never add PFAS, we never add chemicals. We're doing better, but we're not there yet. Like, please come on the journey. Please tell us how we can do better at all times.

Ben: 26:50

And do people respond? Because that strikes me as great social media juice. You know, like do you know what I mean? Like social media, I guess it, I mean, would people follow a brand, they don't want ads of look at our latest thing. Occasionally they might, if it's not special, but you know, it they want to follow a story, you know, and you're giving them a story. And the beauty of stories, of course, is they have goals and they have challenges and they have overcoming of challenges. And fundamentally, if they're a Hollywood movie, they have a resolution and everybody wins, right? Do you find people will engage in that story and it actually attacks them to the brand to be able to, you know, I want to be part of this story. What are they gonna do next? And be able to show like the fails, maybe sometimes as a few years.

Bronte Campbell: 27:27

And that's like it's actually been a it's been a shift for us, is that like we've been telling all the things that we've been doing well, but I always want to tell people the things that need to be improved on as well, just to like show that we're not perfect, we're progress over perfection and progress towards perfection, but like is perfection ever achievable? Like sustainability is a really amorphous word. Like, okay, cool. We get plastic completely out of clothing, we make sure our supply chain is all like slavery-free, equalty-free, all of that. Great. Okay, what about the ship that it comes over on? What's the petrol on that ship? Like, I can't actually solve that problem. Yes, you could do carboncy. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I can't solve that piece of the puzzle. So, like, there's always going to be pieces that are not going to fit under sustainability. Like if you just think of that word meaning everything to everyone. So picking the things that we know we can do well, focusing on the next things that we want to improve. And then you're right, telling that story. And I've been very used to in sport, like the results just speaking for themselves. But telling people the story and showing, showing, like if I was in sport, I wouldn't be like, oh, I'm injured. Like, let me tell everybody that. I would just like keep doing it. But it's like, no, you have to draw back the curtain. Like, we've got nothing to hide here. That's that's what's the weird thing about telling people everything that goes right and wrong. Like, I don't want to hide the things that go wrong. Like, it's just part of what happens in a business.

Ben: 28:52

Well, tell me a challenge story. Yeah. Take me down into the weeds, as they say. You've managed to pull out this kind of world's first jacket. Where do you start? And like, I'm sure you didn't just go, oh, we'll start there, and that worked out. And that, well, look, check it out, World's First. Like, World's First come quite hard, you know?

Bronte Campbell: 29:06

Yeah, they do come quite hard. And like, okay, that jacket, we put it together really quickly, but it was off the back of building a relationship with a really interesting um fabric consultant who worked at Patagonia for over 20 years, and so is really on the cutting edge of sustainable tech. And then through that person and that relationship, building that to people that wanted to do this innovation. I mean, that's what's been so interesting, is I thought that it would be really hard to find cutting edge tech. It's not very difficult. It's being made in labs everywhere. What's difficult is finding a business that's willing to use it and a supply chain that's willing to operate, operationalize it.

Ben: 29:46

As in put it through their machines. Yes.

Bronte Campbell: 29:48

So, like, yes, exactly. So a supply chain that's willing to incorporate it into how they operate. And that's really difficult. But there is a network of people that want to do that. And there's a network of people that want to do it in small runs, and we're a small business. So, like a giant business is like, oh, we need a million of these. And they're like, the supply chain is like, I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. Yes. We actually fill a gap in there for the labs and the innovation, and also for the suppliers, as they figure out how to bring this innovation to market, as they figure out, like, okay, cool, we haven't quite got all the machines ready for it. Like the jackets that we made at the time, there was only six sewing machines in the world that could make that jacket. But they needed to test that six of them could do it. Like, obviously, there's a quality piece attached to it. So you only work with people that you really trust and you get in it with the right people that are just gonna make junk. And like with the jacket, we're working with YKK, which is the biggest zipper company in the world. Every zipper ever is YKK, right? So, like you know that they're quality and they're they're investing in innovation and they need people to trust them. And that's like that's where that collaboration piece comes in again.

Ben: 30:55

Wow, that is fascinating, isn't it? Because I it's so interesting. Obviously, I've set on this journey to speak to startups, upstart startups are that's called. Yeah, because trying to change the system. And and you know, one of the things you I had to ask myself is why do I think they're so important? And and this is what I keep coming back to is because you are able to try things that others cannot. Yeah, you're able to innovate at a level others cannot and show the world away, kind of thing. Yeah. Um, but the other thing I love about what you said there is you you picked three stages. I'm gonna add one to the end, but you go to bring a new supply chain through, you need someone who developed a product. And that's so interesting because what you're saying is actually they're all out there, which is really heartening for me because I always think, oh, someone's got to develop this whole new thing, 10 years, la la. No, no, no, people are doing it. Then, as you say, you need the person who's prepared to take the risk of putting it through their machines because it's a product, so they've got to have a go. But in my experience, talking to like good citizen sunglasses and war hand plans who make you know body surface hand plans, it was just a case of keep nagging till somebody said, I'll give it a go. So find a like-minded person who goes, I'll take the risk, yeah. Kind of thing. Then you need, as you say, which is disappointingly seems to be one of the harder bits, the brand to go will actually see some value in this. Yeah. But that to me is attached inherently to the consumer going, I'll give it a go. Yeah. Because if every consumer ever, I like to say that if we all decided tomorrow that we would only buy products that had some sort of a sustainability angle, the world changes like that.

Bronte Campbell: 32:18

Yeah.

Ben: 32:19

You know, so because then brands of gold take a risk on that, you know. So those four stages are just a fascinating approach any company could take, really, aren't they? And I love just the way you're saying that just finding those people and bringing them together. Again, collaboration.

Bronte Campbell: 32:33

Yeah, collaboration and the stages are really important, and it's important to come from all angles. Like, I don't subscribe to the rhetoric of like you as a consumer have to be the one to force change because it's complicated. Like you could do the little steps better, but you're also not going to change every aspect of every industry. Like, it's not possible because like the complexities of how they operate. So it has to be both. It has to be from a company that's willing to do it and from a consumer that's willing to consume it. Do you know what I mean? Like it's not totally, it's like we're both part of the solution. And yes, if every consumer tomorrow was like, oh, I want to do things more sustainably, great. What does that mean for your dishwashing liquid, your socks that you put on your feet, your shoes that you put on, the way you get to school, the way you get to work? Like, there's so many aspects to a normal person's busy, busy, busy life. As a business, we have a responsibility to offer them something that's easily understandable and a great product for them to use. And then they can make that choice really easily. But it's difficult because it's just like the more you dig into any industry, it just gets way, way, way, way, way too complicated. And then everyone gets the paralysis, right? Like, how often have you spoken to someone? They're like, I don't even know what to do anymore. Like, I just like I can't. Like, I need to use electricity in my house. Like, what am I gonna do about that? And you get like this overwhelm and paralysis. And so I don't love that for consumers when they're like, I can't do everything, so I have to do nothing.

Ben: 34:04

Little bit at a time, yeah. Yeah, little pieces at a time. I hear it all the time, you know, companies are like, well, if consumers will buy it, we'll make it. And consumers are like, well, we would just wish brands would do it. And it's like a dance floor at the age of 14. Everyone's waiting for the other one to come across.

Bronte Campbell: 34:17

Like, no, you go first. No, you go first. It's like, come on, someone's got to take the leap and back it and believe in it and make something that's really, really cool. And that's why, like, sustainability is not cannot be the only selling piece for us. It has to be like better, it has to be a cool brand, it has to be a community people want to be part of, has to be all those other things too. Because yeah, sustainability by itself is not necessarily enough to let consumers start to switch. Because switching from what you know to something different. It's a risk, right? It's a risk for everyone, for businesses, for like everyday people. It's just a risk. You know this quantity. Why would I change to something else? We have to like show them why it's a good thing to change.

Ben: 35:00

It's interesting because there's risk all the way through. So there's risk, there's a huge reward. I mean, the reward is you get a planet to live on, right? It's a pretty good reward. That's a good reward, yeah. The risk is like a lab has to go, I'll develop this and hope someone buys it. Someone has to, you know, put it through the machines, like you say, a brand has to have a go, and a consumer has to take risk. We all kind of have to take a little chance. Yeah, we want to. Everyone take a little chance. And just just enough.

Bronte Campbell: 35:20

Just enough chance. Just enough. Just enough chance to make a change.

Ben: 35:23

That's it. Do you find different people into the brand for different reasons? Or, you know, like getting people just to try something, obviously, is crucial in this world if you want to get somewhere. Do you find some people go, oh, it's more sustainable, or it's it's trying to be better? Choose a word, therefore I'll give it a go. Whereas other ones go, oh, I heard this stuff fits really well, I'll give it a go. And other people go, Bronte Campbell, she knows athletics, I'll give it a go. Do you find it's a bit of everything?

Bronte Campbell: 35:47

Yeah, so there's probably like four different priorities for people that come to us. And there's like the function, so the ability for it to do like a high performance workout. So like how it performs when you're sweating hard and working hard. There's function, there's comfort, there's style, and there's sustainability. For some people, sustainability is the bottom of those four priorities. And for some people, it's the number one priorities. And the order of those priorities will shift around based on your different profiles of people, but they will all have some engagement with those. And so all of those things need to be present. If they're not present, then it's not good enough for people. So it has to, it has to like take care of all of those courses.

Ben: 36:26

And it's yeah, some it's gonna be if you were to get one that was probably the one that your biggest majority of audience go for, would there be one or is it just totally random?

Bronte Campbell: 36:36

If I think about like I was describing it more from the product point of view, if there's one thing that people actually come to, it's like the feeling that they get when they wear it. And it's this like that's the actual thing, which is kind of all of those things precisely. It's everything, isn't it? Which is like I feel elevated, I feel excited to work out, I feel confident, I feel empowered, I feel I'm in line with my values. Like that's that's the feeling that brings people back. So like I I just talked about it from more of a specs perspective. But if I think about like our wonderful customers who have been there since the start, they come back for the feeling. The feeling of confidence, the feeling of elevation, the feeling of being aligned. And that's really the the overarching thing amongst everyone.

Ben: 37:26

I feel good, literally. I feel like I can do more, and I feel like a good person.

Bronte Campbell: 37:31

Yeah, yeah.

Ben: 37:32

It's um it's a winning combo, hey?

Bronte Campbell: 37:34

Yeah, it's it's all about how you make people feel. Even in my sporting career, like I I know that people I was on a team with, they're not gonna remember how I performed at any meet. They will remember how I made them feel. That's the legacy. Like a silver medalist. Yeah, like they're not gonna remember that. They're really not, like they just don't. I don't remember how any of my teammates performed. I can't remember. Like the years all blur into one. I remember the ones that you have a connection with, and those are the people that you take for your whole life, which is so much cooler than just your 10 years of competing in sport.

Ben: 38:06

Yeah, I bet. It's very wise. It's very wise. I mean, look, I I worked in advertising before I worked in sustainability. It's a long time ago, and that's exactly what you always come down to. It's is emotion fundamentally sells. I mean, it's the head and the heart, right? People will still make, you know, it's gotta be a right price. It's a pretty functional head-based thing, but it's really interesting. I find people will cars are a classic. You ask, why did someone buy it? They are well, it's got good litres per kilometer, and it comes with a 10-year warranty, la la la. And then, but really, if you were to dig deep, they think it looks cool.

Bronte Campbell: 38:38

Yeah.

Ben: 38:39

Or they look cool in it, more to the point.

Bronte Campbell: 38:41

I mean, it was like that amazing ad that Porsche ran ages ago, and it was like, I've been working for 40 years, I've done this, I've given up this, I've given up this. And I thought now is the time to reward myself. So I bought a Mitsubishi. That's not it. That's not it. Like, it's like, why would you buy a Porsche for anything else? Like, yeah, it goes fast, blah, blah, blah. Have you seen the traffic? When are you driving your Porsche at 200 kilometers an hour? You're not. It's because of how it makes you feel being in it. Like, and it's lovely to hear you say that because like I do not actually come from a marketing background. Like, marketing, when you talk about social media, like social media is not my native place, but I know I need to be in it for my business. I need to understand this stuff. I need to dig deep into it. I need to invest in the storytelling. I need to do all of this stuff. Like, if it was, if it was just me consulting my internal program of what I would love to do, it honestly doesn't come naturally to me. But that doesn't mean that I can't do it. It just means that I have to like deeply try and understand it and work at it and keep getting better. Like the first, like, the first, like my first attempts at storytelling this are just like so bad. Like the first like pitch text that I wrote are so bad. But you just gotta do it. You just like gotta do it and then look at it in a few months and be like, that's funny that you thought that that was good a few months ago. But what a privilege to know that you thought that it was good and you've you've grown. But you have to just, you just have to keep doing it, which like it really, I do struggle with wanting to be perfect all the time. And it's been it's been something I have had to let go of and be like, you just have to have quality that you never go below, obviously have that. But then once it's over that, like you can't spend forever just like trying to get every word of something perfect, like you, you have to let it go.

Ben: 40:28

I think social media actually rewards imperfection in a lot of ways. People want the realness, you know. I think we spent however long since the dawn of media getting shiny polished things put in front of us, and actually having things not that polished is one of the the great joys of it. It's obviously cuts both ways, right? There's also your Instagram models and the whole world of perfection that comes from that. But a lot of what seems to fly to me now is really rough around the edges, and that's what people like.

Bronte Campbell: 40:56

TikTok's been amazing for that because it's not necessarily supposed to be polished. And I'm not a very polished person. I'm not gonna be able to do what a typical influencer does, and they make this like gorgeous, produced, really aesthetic, really great poses. Like, no, that's not me. That's not how I operate. That's not who we are as a brand.

Ben: 41:19

You can win gold medals and they can't. Yeah. So I think that comes with a certain authenticity when we're talking about.

Bronte Campbell: 41:24

Yeah, so lean into your strengths. Like, how much time do you want to spend on your weaknesses and how much do you want to spend on your strengths? Like, lean into the things that are actually authentic and good to you because people can tell when it's not. I'm honestly not having a go at the perfection of influences that have that aesthetic. Like they've they've done a really good job of cultivating that. It's a skill. I don't really have that skill. So, like, do my skill and do my skill well.

Ben: 41:48

Good plan. Um, I've got a couple of personal questions. Well, no, before I go to that, I read on Wikipedia because Wikipedia is a wonderful place that teaches you all things. I read a few things my, you know, about you like fudge and nuts as your snacks. There's quite a lot of information out there about you. But also interesting, I read that you're a poet and that you write poems before meets um for the team to motivate them in a competition. And I thought, isn't that a beautiful thing? And and like we've explored at great length the parallels here between business, obviously, and achievement in sport. Have you got any poems you could give us a few lines from just so I get the idea? We get the idea, just because I have a feeling that what might motivate people to do well in an Olympic meet might also encourage people wanting to have a go in this space, maybe to have a go and be their best.

Bronte Campbell: 42:34

I think there's like this kind of some universal experiences that get expressed in different ways. And like you can express it in sport, you can express in your life, you can express it in business. Like there are some kind of universal things. So this one was written for Paris Olympics. Um I do write something for the team and then read it the last meeting before we go into competition. Um, so there'll be some references here that will very clearly be Paris. There's probably particularly like the last two verses are sort of what I take into my life outside of sport as well. So it's called Back to the River. The backwards clock has run its time, and forward we advance and leave it all on the line and leave nothing to chance. We had a dream, a burning flame, and we held it in our hand, and it pushed us, fail, try again through pain and fear unplanned. And now we stand on the edge back to the river Seine. In history, our names are etched, your time, your race, your lane. The circus whirls all around, we stay steady in the storm. Here the victor wears the crown, here the brave step to the fore. The water laid at your feet, the stage we dreamt of from the start. Irrespective what's ours to keep, the work that gave the dream its heart. The whistle shrill, crowd stills, anxious lungs inhale. This time is ours, do what we will, to strive is to prevail. Every hard fought, sweaty minute, every second you gave your all, every sacrifice beyond all limits, every break and every fall, but rise and rise again, and in the very act of rising, feed the hungry dreamers flame. The victory is in the striving. Oh, I got emotional really mad. That's so weird. I haven't read that for so long. I haven't read that since Paris. I was like just feeling all the emotions I felt there.

Ben: 44:36

I can see a small tear in your eye. I was missing it. We've talked about feeling. There it is in a nutshell.

Bronte Campbell: 44:44

It's good to feel, it's fun.

Ben: 44:46

As someone who's never competed on a high level, I can feel what it must be like. Just a little tiny bit out of that. Good. It must be an insane moment. The bit that really got the end bit got me, but also the bit about being on the podium as your lungs start to feel it. It's like, that must be nuts the first seconds before the um gun goes off.

Bronte Campbell: 45:05

It's wild. You walk out, there's like a lot of sound, and obviously, like you're in a very heightened state. And then in swimming, the whistle goes and like the crowd's supposed to go quiet, and everyone goes like completely still.

Ben: 45:20

Oh wow.

Bronte Campbell: 45:20

And no one's moving except for like the eight people that are climbing up on the blocks. And then you just hear like take your marks, and then the gun goes, and then you're in it.

Ben: 45:29

And the crowd goes nuts. Or you can't hear them. We're in the water at this point.

Bronte Campbell: 45:33

I've actually never heard the crowd underwater, but um the crowd does go nuts, but you're just you're in it. Even if you could hear them, you couldn't focus on it. Like it's my race lasts a minute. Like there is only time to pay attention to the most critical information. And you really, like at that point, you really have to let go, and you cannot be thinking. There's like there's not a lot of thought. It's just like you have to be, you have to find a way to be in flow. Yeah. But I mean, the part that the victory is in the striving, that is everything. Like the victory is in the striving to be better in any part of your life.

Ben: 46:08

I feel like I'm getting a masterclass in winning here. There's actually a beautiful um video goes around Instagram occasionally. It's a um a coach, it's probably from like the 80s, is a track coach.

Bronte Campbell: 46:19

Yeah.

Ben: 46:19

And he talks about um training this young girl and how you know she races and comes last, and you know, but I failed. And he said, No, you didn't. You just did a second better than yesterday. Yeah. When you go home, celebrate and just brings her through just that every little step. It's it, I do it no justice whatsoever. But it's oh, I've seen that video. Yeah, I know it. Yeah. It's a gorgeous, it's just a gorgeous approach to everything, isn't it?

Bronte Campbell: 46:42

It's really hard to do though. Like I'm saying it like I've got that totally down pattern mastered. Like, of course, you have your days, you know? You have your days. I don't like I'm not Zen master, I don't live up here all the time. But those are the things that I strive for, and over years, I know them to be true. Like I know, I know that the victory's in the striving. I know it because I've seen it and I've felt it. And that's different from someone telling you, unfortunately. You kind of have to go through it to know it in your body. Yeah, you gotta feel it to know it for sure. But I only know it for sure because other people told me it, and I eventually started listening to it.

Ben: 47:18

That's maturity, right? Um, all right, I'll give you a couple of um quickfire questions. Okay. If you um we've talked about the planet, you know, doing better. If you had a single-use magic wand, which of course we would never create a single-use magic wand, but if you had one, what was the one thing you'd change right now to make it better?

Bronte Campbell: 47:35

Oh, it's so hard, this question. Yeah. What would you do? I mean, honestly, whatever problem people are trying to solve in sustainability and all its different aspects, if I could wave a magic wand, there would be a perfect solution, and everybody would 100% know that that was the perfect solution, and then the willingness to work towards it. I believe that that is there. Like, I don't think that everyone's just completely unwilling. It's just like the risk that you were talking about. And everyone knew that that was gonna be successful. And I just like wave your wand and be like the confidence. Everyone had the confidence. Everyone had the confidence and the confidence to take the risk, but also that like there's multiple solutions on the market at the moment for a lot of different problems. It's like, okay, cool. Like this is actually gonna be the thing that moves the needle. If we could have like clarity on that, like go into the future, find out what it is, bring it back and be like, oh, we actually know that this is the one that works, and let's all just do this.

Ben: 48:25

Get on the boat.

Bronte Campbell: 48:26

That would be so good. But obviously, the world is complicated. But that would be cool if it could be that simple. If I could wave a magic one and just make it so crystal clear, simple, we would get there. We would get there so quickly.

Ben: 48:38

We would.

Bronte Campbell: 48:39

But anyway, that that's what I would do.

Ben: 48:41

Nice. And would you like to extend your single-use magic one to the triple use genie lamp and have two more?

Bronte Campbell: 48:47

What else? I would want everybody to. If I had then wishes, it would be like I would wish that everybody has a safe standard of living. And that's tied up in climate, obviously. The worst affected areas are going to be the areas that are developing nations, which are what we're already seeing. But everybody has a standard of living that they can be supported without having to, without having to work for 16 hours a day and like live in conditions that are not okay. Like I grew up in Malawi in Africa. It's a very underdeveloped nation. If I had another wish, it would be like everybody has enough food, everybody has enough water every day, and everybody has adequate shelter. And they don't have to break their back hauling charcoal up and down a mountain and shorten their lifespan in order to have those three things. That would be the next wish. Maybe the third wish is like, okay, your billionaires club. Okay, you get to a billion dollars in personal wealth, a billion dollars, right? You get a like really cool plaque, and it says, Congratulations, you won it capitalism. Everything you earn over this billion gets redistributed. No person needs more than a billion dollars. I would argue you don't even need that much, but whatever. You win capitalism, and this is the end of capitalism for you. You can find purpose in other places. Every dollar you earn over this goes somewhere else. I sound like a communist. I do, I think.

Ben: 50:10

You sound like a nice person in my book, but anyway. Um, I'm gonna have to let you go because you know, you I mean, you're welcome to stay all day but um look, you know, you you've just got winner written all over you in a in a very nice way. Where there's just so there's a lot of wisdom in everything you say. There really is, and a lot of simplicity. You've you've managed to boil it down to very simple things that are very actionable for people, and that's hard to do, you know, it's hard to do. So I'm gonna take a pun, there's a lot of people who listen to this, but also meet you that are gonna go, I want to be like Bronte. Like, what advice do you have to people who want to start following your footsteps, whether it be from an athletic point of view, or whether it be from a sustainability or just a business point of view, or just a, you know, this whole idea of just, hey, it's not the destination, it's just a little better every day. You know, what what little bits of advice would you give someone who goes, I want to be like her?

Bronte Campbell: 51:04

Yeah, I would first say, like, definitely don't be like me, be like you. Um, and just like start the steps along the journey. Like, do not be afraid of the start. That's when I came to say my Olympic journey, I was seven. And there's a simplicity in being seven, in that whatever big dream you say, everyone's like, that's wonderful, go for it. Like, you're seven. They're like not gonna crush your dream. It's fine. And so you just like start walking down the road, you feel encouraged. Like, pretend you're talking to your seven-year-old self. If your seven-year-old self came to you and said, I want to work towards like happiness and fulfillment in my life. If a seven-year-old came to you and said that, you'd be like, that's fantastic. Do that. Start doing that. And then like you're gonna be bad at it at the start. Like, you're seven. So yeah, I think that's it. Like, pretend you're seven.

Ben: 51:51

Yeah, that's really good. That's really interesting, which means every life is a blank canvas at seven. You haven't let yourself be concerned about, but I if I do that, I can't this. You don't think of any of that, do you?

Bronte Campbell: 52:01

You just kind of afraid to like make a mistake because you're seven and you're supposed to make mistakes.

Ben: 52:07

You don't be perfect. I think you're meant to make mistakes the whole way through. I knew what is it? What's a great saying? Good judgment comes from experience.

Bronte Campbell: 52:13

Yeah.

Ben: 52:14

Experience comes from bad judgment. Yeah. That's great. I love that. Yeah. Um, well, thank you for spending so much time today. It's fascinating. But um, if we want to know more about Athletica, where do we go?

Bronte Campbell: 52:27

Well, Earthletica, you can find us online at earthletica.com. You can also follow us on Instagram, obviously, or TikTok.

Ben: 52:34

@earthletica?

Speaker 1: 52:35

@earthletica, yes. It's just our just our name. Or or jump on board with my own Bronte_ Campbell. I obviously share a lot about my life and sport, but also about the business and the business journey and yeah, really embracing storytelling and all of those mediums. So yeah, definitely follow us along. There's um, there's a little private group within Instagram on our Earthletica page, and that we talk a lot in, and that's a cool little chat to be in. You can jump in and join that if you really want to do that.

Ben: 53:04

VIP club.

Speaker 1: 53:05

VIP club, VIP club for anybody that wants to be part of it.

Ben: 53:09

And they're chatting to you. It's not like you've got some social media team.

Bronte Campbell: 53:13

Yeah, no, it's it's me. It's like it's it's there is no mystical thing happening. It's me.

Ben: 53:17

I've got a bonus question that I just remembered since we're talking the name. I'm gonna spell it out just to make sure everyone's clear. It's Earth, like planet Earth, Earthletica. Yes, yes, um, not athletica, Earthletica. Yes. Who came up with the name? It's a cracker.

Bronte Campbell: 53:30

It's a good name. That was um, that was Libby, my other co-founder. She's head of product, she came up with the name. So Earthletica, like Earth and Movement together. And firstly, then you go to my other co-founder who is an IP lawyer, and he goes and does his little lawyer thing, and it's like, can we do this? Where can we do this? Where's this trademark? Look globally, blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh, and then you do the really cool thing of going on Instagram and like, does this exist? And it didn't. So it's amazing. Yeah. You like come up with a good idea, and like there were many good names, and then you you go have a proper look at it, and you're like, no, it's too close to this, it's too close to that. So yeah, that was how we came to it. It's very, it's very good.

Ben: 54:07

It sounds like one that would have it's so good, it sounds like someone would have had it.

Bronte Campbell: 54:10

So yeah, that's what we thought. Yeah, yeah. When it was on the list, everybody was like, Oh, we won't even bother checking that because someone's definitely got it.

Ben: 54:17

Oh, no. Good to hear. Well deserved. Well, so earthletica.com.au or dot com?

Bronte Campbell: 54:23

dot com

Ben: 54:24

Earththletica.com and @ Earthletica and all your favourite social media channels. Yes, love it. Thank you.

Bronte Campbell: 54:30

Thanks. Thanks very much.

Singers: 54:32

I'm gonna change this world today. Make those bad things go away.