How To Chase Your Dreams Without Fear Holding You Back with Fran Millar | E67

Fran Millar opens by recounting how her brother David Millar, a prodigiously talented British cyclist, was drawn into the EPO-era doping culture, was arrested, and was publicly shamed, an experience that shaped her whole life and career. She discusses the concept of being a 'difficult woman' in male-dominated industries, the value of radical honesty over malignant empathy, and the lessons of mentors David Brailsford and psychiatrist Steve Peters. She explains her decision to leave a 20-year cycling career to become CEO of struggling fashion brand Belstaff during the pandemic, and her view that a job is never your identity. She candidly addresses why she chose not to have a partner or children, finding fulfilment in her work and her tight tribe of friends. She closes by reflecting on a brain-scan health scare that crystallised her belief that she would change nothing about how she lives.

• David Millar turned pro in 1998, the year of the Festina scandal, at the dawn of the undetectable EPO era when doping was endemic.
  00:05:41
• Coffidis owner Francois Migraine looked their mother in the eyes and promised to look after David, then later effectively called him out to investigators.
  00:07:46
• Fran ran her own cycling agency representing her brother and had to stop after his arrest and imprisonment damaged her professional standing.
  00:12:53
• Jim Ratcliffe phoned to ask her to become Belstaff CEO; she was enrolled within two weeks, on 1 October, in the middle of Covid.
  00:29:22
• Fran says she deliberately chose not to have kids or a partner, finding total fulfilment in her work.
  00:50:28
• She was engaged to be married for seven years but realised on moving into their house that she did not want a conventional life.
  01:00:12
• A brain surgeon found unexplained patches on her brain scan after a cycling crash; the cause is still unknown and the scare reshaped her outlook.
  01:13:35

• Fran argues a 24-year-old athlete's choices are heavily shaped by the team and people around him, citing the Milgram-style shock-button obedience study.
  00:08:48
• Team Sky started racing in 2010 'embarrassingly rubbish' despite the big bus and money, then reset everything under Brailsford.
  00:38:39
• The team pledged to win the Tour de France with a clean British rider within five years; Bradley Wiggins won in 2012, Chris Froome in 2013.
  00:39:43
• Fran's role was 'Head of Winning Behaviours', codifying culture across five areas: self, team, communication, continuous improvement and one she forgot.
  00:42:18
• She names silently disagreeing after a decision then undermining it as one of the worst 'losing behaviours', spreading like a virus.
  00:44:19
• Fran started her first business at 18 and quit it at 21, dropping out of university after a single lecture.
  00:36:35
• She cites Brene Brown's idea of 'foreboding joy' and the example of worrying through the whole journey to her first Oprah appearance.
  01:08:24
• Belstaff is 96 years old, heritage Fran wants to leverage for an experiential retail strategy.
  01:12:01

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