For years I thought successful people had access to an exclusive club that people like me would never be able to get into.
Here’s how things changed. A thread🧵
My mum was a teacher, my Dad a charity worker and I lived in a small village in rural Norfolk in the UK countryside.
After messing up at school I started working for a local TV channel, my first salary was £6000 a year.
I was seen by someone at the BBC who called up the TV station where I worked.
They said ‘you are shining star in a sea of shit’. I was 22 and suddenly found myself in
London working for the most famous broadcaster on the planet.
I hustled my way into Formula One. Hosting the BBC coverage for 4 years. We won BAFTA awards, broke audience records…yet something else happened.
Suddenly this kid from a country village was missing it with
billionaires, F1 Megastars, business leaders and media moguls.
It gave me access to mindsets, cultures, decision making, behaviours and beliefs that changed everything for me.
My mindset was being changed by the company I was keeping.
I was inspired to take risks.
I set up a production company that is now one of Europe’s fastest growing businesses employing hundreds of people across multiple countries.
I left F1 to work in football. Giving me access to more incredible minds and amazing high-achievers
I then wanted to share the lessons I was learning from these people so I created a podcast called High Performance.
We have now been going for 5 years, recorded over 300 episodes and had over 250,000,000 views and downloads.
The reaction has been insane.
Our biggest episodes include Gordon Ramsey, Fernando Alonso, Gareth Southgate, KSI, and Matthew McConaughey.
We reveal the truth about High Performance. That many high performs are far from happy, that it isn’t for everyone, and we now know most people have
got High Performance totally wrong.
It isn’t about achievement at all costs. It isn’t about constant pushing to find the limits.
It’s actually about 3 things.
- Doing the best you can.
- Where you are.
- With what you have.
All the dodgy grifters, marketers and
Self-Promoters out there won’t tell you that.
Yet there is still a problem.
People share the most incredible moments of vulnerability on High Performance. Our human connection, honesty and trust beats almost every podcast out there.
But there is still a problem.
I still want to take people - all people - into the rooms I felt I didn’t have access to as an 18 year old.
So I’ve created a new business show - The Room Where It Happened.
Business shows with the biggest names and greatest brands taking us into specific rooms
And focussing on specific moments where they made life-changing, business altering decisions.
How it really went down, who was actually there, what they honestly learned.
Follow our new show right here and listen to the first two episodes RIGHT NOW!
As Fernando Alonso retires from F1. Let me share this brief story about his supreme talent behind the wheel.
It was the summer of 2011 and I travelled to Maranello(the home of Ferrari) for a day of filming with Fernando where he would drive me around the Fiorano test track...
We arrived mid-morning, and the film crew set about fixing the go-pro cameras to the inside of a 458 Italia(I think) that he would drive me in. I was directed into the former house of the great Enzo Ferrari’s that sits right beside the track...
His office is still there, unchanged from the time Enzo ran the famous old team. I went upstairs to a kind of boardroom, where the walls were adorned with pictures of team bosses, high-powered meetings, different Ferrari’s...an amazing collection of photos. Suddenly...
Short Gareth Southgate story ahead of the biggest game of his management career tonight...
Back in 2007 I was working on Sportsround on CBBC. I spent my time interviewing all kinds of sports people, plenty of whom were footballers.
I quickly got used to being kept waiting 2-3 hours past the time the interview should happen, interviews being cancelled at the last moment, or doing interviews in nondescript rooms to keep us away from seeing training or interrupting players.
Some of the stories you wouldn’t believe!! I didn’t mind it, no worries, it was part of the job, and a kids TV show is hardly the top of everyone’s list!! However, our trip to @Boro about a decade ago couldn’t have been more different.