Hi there, welcome along to the latest episode of the High Performance podcast. We had a lovely celebration in the Humphrey House of Yesterday when our book High Performance lessons from the best on becoming your best charted at number two on the best sellers charts.

On behalf of myself, Damian, everyone involved in the podcast. Thank you so much for your support.

Mind you what I say, we had a celebration. I want to know your health kick so it was a green juice and when I really pushed the boat out some lemon water, lucky me. But we're really delighted. So thank you so much for supporting the book.

Anyway, it's time for this week's episode of High Performance, which is a gift to you for free every single week. If you haven't joined us before, this is the podcast that turns the lived experiences of the planet's highest performers into your life lessons.

So please today allow the greatest leaders, thinkers, sport stars, entertainers and entrepreneurs on the planet to be your teacher. Today, this might just surprise you.

There's been loads of things I've wanted to do and I have had to fight for because nobody thought a girl from Jordy Shaw was capable of that.

You can't be the best mother, the best CEO, the best brother, the best sportsperson. If you're not looking after yourself first, you can't pour from an empty cup.

So let go of the idea that looking after number one is in some way toxic or selfish and start doing it.

Shows like Jordy Shaw, shows like Love Island, all of these huge juggernauts, which we're all a little bit obsessed with, don't get me wrong. They have a specific type of person that they want in them and more often than not, they are young and they are naive.

And they are probably a little bit desperate to be famous and all of those things can make you incredibly malleable. And that's what I was. I was malleable and there were moments looking back where I think to myself, that producer wasn't really your friend.

And that was like the lowest I've ever felt in terms of self-worth, career being lost, being powerless, feeling like I actually hated myself actively because of what I've done. And also the most confused, because how could I go on working for a company and I put me in that position? And then when I was there, just hung us out the dry.

So the title of today's podcast is Listen Without Prejudice. And I think that's really what we want you to do. We talk all the time about a growth mindset, about challenging your perceptions, about the best type of thinking is rethinking.

And there was no doubt about it that almost everyone listening to this will have preconceived ideas about Vicky Patterson. But what we want you to do today is put those preconceptions to one side and simply listen to what she has to say.

And it may well be at the end of it, you don't agree with her. You don't appreciate the things that she has to say. However, I think you will. I think that you will realize that the Vicky Patterson, that not just the Vicky Patterson that you've got to know, but the Vicky Patterson that you've almost been forced to know through the way that the press have reported on her and the stories that have emerged about her.

I think you realize that there is someone else there and that's not to say she hasn't made mistakes in this podcast episode. You will hear a talk in honest detail about the mistakes that she's made.

But surely the most important thing is that all of us realize we're not fixed. All of us realize that we can be something different. We can do something more. We can change.

And what is it that Stoics used to say? When is the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. When is the second best time today?

So if you want to change, maybe this can be the catalyst for you to go for it and to do it and to realize that you're not fixed and you can grow.

So anyway, let's get on with today's episode of the High Performance Podcast. I think you're going to enjoy it. It'll certainly challenge you.

Can I just talk to you very quickly about Slack, they're partnering with us on today's High Performance Podcast, but actually they partner with us at High Performance every single day of the week.

So the way this podcast works is we've now got seven or eight people in the team and we are based all over the UK. So how can we be based everywhere and still collaborate in a way that we always used to?

Well, the High Performance team use Slack and we love it. It means that we can collaborate with each other. We can collaborate with the companies that we're working with.

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