Hi there, I'm Jake Humphrey and you're listening to high performance. This is our gift to you

for free every single week. It's the podcast that reminds you that it's within your ambition,

your purpose, your story. It's within. However, sometimes your truth and your story remains within

because it's too hard to let it out. And this episode is in celebration of the fact that Dame

Kelly Holmes has finally come out as being gay. And I think that the reason why we wanted to

re-release this episode today was just to continue the conversation about the fact that to overcome

a stigma can take decades, it can come as Kelly's admitted at a huge personal cost in her words.

She said, finally, I can breathe. So we'll share the episode with you in just a couple of moments,

but myself and Professor Damian Hughes, an expert in high performing team cultures, we just wanted

to have a quick chat before we play you what Kelly shared with us. And actually, Damian, it was

right at the start of our high performance journey. It was only episode 10 when we sat down and

spoke with Dame Kelly Holmes. What did you feel and think when you saw the news? I was delighted that

she finally felt that she was in a position and that society was also meeting her in that same

position where she felt she could be truly, truly herself and be authentic. I think all our

high performers talk about this value of acting with integrity and the importance of authenticity.

So for Kelly to finally be in a position to feel that she can do that and be honest,

is really heartening and encouraging and to be quite frank, I'm delighted for her.

I think I had mixed emotions on her behalf really, because part of me is delighted at the moment

that you know, Dame Kelly feels that now is the time that she can come out and she will be accepted

for that. Obviously, we've just seen Jake Daniels come out as a gay footballer playing in English

football, Craig Napier and Lloyd Wilson who are referees in Scotland. They've also come out as

gay Josh Cavallo as well. But then I saw the quote from her saying that she's lived with fear

...