E200: Annie Macmanus: The Real Reason I Became Europe's No. 1 Female DJ

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2022

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Annie Macmanus is a voice we’ve been hearing for twenty years. First as a presenter and tastemaker for the UK’s biggest dance music radio show, as a festival headlining DJ, as host of her podcast ‘Changes with Annie Macmanus’, and now as an author of her best-selling novel ‘Mother Mother’.

Reaching the pinnacle of success with a relentless schedule headlining a 2am show in Ibiza every week before flying back in the morning to present her daily radio show, it took the pandemic lockdowns for Annie to realise she wanted something completely different from her life. So she started again.

This conversation explores her decision to check in with herself and walk away from a 17 year career at the BBC to explore her passions of writing and podcasts. She presents the challenging notion that your life needs to have a revolution every 20 years for it to remain meaningful and fulfilling.

Topics:

Early context
People please
Your parents
Your insecurities
Leaving Ireland - being rejected
why didn't you keep trying?
Labels
Cost of being wrapped up in your labels
Learning to listen to instinct
Feeling burdened
Midlife crisis
doubts and fears making big decisions
Why did you make it?
Is your relationship with work healthy?
Mental health
Tokenism
A successful life for you
last guest question

Annie:

Instagram - bit.ly/3iqZtcu

Twitter - bit.ly/3UrsxOa

Annie's podcast:

bit.ly/3UhzNvT

Annie's book:

bit.ly/3VGwT57

Watch the episodes on Youtube: https://g2ul0.app.link/3kxINCANKsb

Sponsors:

Huel - https://g2ul0.app.link/G4RjcdKNKsb

BlueJeans - https://g2ul0.app.link/NCgpGjVNKsb

Craftd - https://g2ul0.app.link/gZ8in6Dsvsb

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I was fiercely wanted to prove that I could do it all, but I mean I was quite quickly that doing it all wasn't always quite up to me.
0:09.0	Annie Mack, a superstar DJ who's been forging her own cold status for nearly 20 years.
0:14.0	I made some noise!
0:16.0	I was a teenager in the 90s, heroin chic, Cape Mars.
0:20.0	It was very hard not to become consumed by what the magazines and the music videos are kind of showing you.
0:25.0	I'm obsessed with how much you weigh and what you're eating and all of that. I really wanted to get out.
0:30.0	I love to music, I love talking to people, I love connecting with people.
0:34.0	What happens when you put music and connections together? Radio.
0:37.0	Welcome to BBC Radio One!
0:40.0	I was mad at Bishops, I wanted to get baby, I wanted to try everything.
0:43.0	I felt like I wanted to prove a point.
0:46.0	There was a lot of pressure being female in what was essentially a man's world.
0:51.0	It's a horrible feeling isn't it, when you don't feel like you can do anything good enough.
0:55.0	It became this kind of feeling of the walls closing in.
0:58.0	I should be more grateful for the fact that I'm getting sent brilliant music every week and I get to pay this on the radio.
1:03.0	But I don't feel excited enough for what this is.
1:07.0	I felt like I didn't want to be needed by so many people anymore.
1:11.0	Get yourself together Annie, come on Jesus Christ is your last link on Radio One.
1:15.0	It takes time to feel at peace with yourself to just walk away.
1:19.0	People that are stood there looking into uncertainty, can you tell them about how you felt in the lead up to that decision?
1:25.0	Was there fear? Was there doubt?
1:27.0	What I've realised now is...
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from FlightStory, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of FlightStory and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.