Hello and welcome to the Squiggly Careers podcast. I'm Sarah Ellis and this week we're

continuing with our Being Your Brilliant Best Self series and you're going to hear two interviews

with amazing guests. First you'll hear me talk to author and researcher Jim Collins

and then the founder and CEO of Starling Bank,

Anne Bowden. Before I introduced today's episode, I just wanted to let you know that our TED Talk

is going ahead on the 6th of February, which is great news and we really do appreciate everybody

who's already supported us by buying a ticket to join the virtual event.

If you do come along, you get the opportunity to hear from 14 different speakers

and the TED team have done an incredible job of creating this brilliant virtual experience

that I'm really excited about being part of.

There are theoretical physicists that you can hear from, human right barristers, climate

activists, psychologists, poets, drag queens, and us. I feel like we are the least interesting

in that list there, but it's going to be incredible. We had our rehearsal yesterday and I can

really promise that it will be insightful and really inspiring. So I really hope we can

see some of you there. The team have worked incredibly hard to still make this happen virtually.

So the more people we can get there, I think just the better I feel for everyone who's worked

so hard to kind of make this happen. So on to today's episode, first up, you're going to hear me

talk to author and researcher Jim Collins.

I've been learning from and influenced by Jim's ideas and insights for what feels like my whole career.

One of his books is called Good to Great, and I really remember reading that and reflecting on how I led my kind of leadership style, what it meant to be a brilliant leader.

And then things like his book, Beyond Entrepreneurship, which I think is a Bible for anyone

starting out in their own business. He has a concept called the flywheel, which you'll hear us

...