On this episode Kat talks about why your phone being out of your bedroom will be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When you think about the concept of a mobile phone, the idea is that we have this device that we can take anywhere with us. This also presents huge challenges. Every single time I ask the question “which habits are negatively impacting your energy/performance at work and home?” the answer is always related to the phone.
• It’s becoming a huge issue. The 2023 Mental State of the World Report talks about one of the 3 main contributing factors to our mental health is our smartphones. In particular, the age at which young people are getting access to smartphones.
• It’s become such an incredible tool for being able to stay in contact with the people we love and share memories, but there’s a dark side too. My excessive phone habits were a huge contributing factor to nearly having a heart attack in 2016.
• The challenge with having mobile phones in our bedrooms is that we’re tempted to look at them which affects your mental wellbeing. The more people take action to create a home for their phones the better you sleep, the better your relationships are, the better your health is, the better your performance is at work and home.

BEST MOMENTS

“80% of people check their mobile phones within 15 minutes of opening their eyes.”

“How do you use your mobile phone? What kind of relationship do you have with them?

“We used to have other alarms before we had smartphones.”

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit, and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.

She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

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On this episode Kat is joined by Lirette Mill, an HR expert working in education, who shares her story of 7 stone weight loss and the number one positive habit that gets her in a really high performing state for the day ahead.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• With covid, a lot of organisations have shifted to hybrid flexibility, but the school environment doesn’t always allow for that. Sometimes getting work life balance may be working from home one day a week, and most schools can’t offer that. That means workloads can seem even more as you must be on site every day. How schools achieve that will really help members of staff with their wellbeing. We’re starting to work with school to see if they can think more strategically and out of the box with regards to this and aid recruitment and retention.
• Being a female in a leader position with 2 small children, I’ve always worked full-time and have never thought about being part-time because I wonder if I could still be that leader of the division. We need to embrace flexibility in terms of leadership models and look at co-leadership models. That’s something I’d like to see so much more in the education sector.
• One of my negative habits was I constantly felt guilt that I wasn’t spending enough time with my children. I’d work every hour I could and any spare hour I had I’d put into my children. The reason I say it’s a negative is that I didn’t take any time for myself to look after myself, I wouldn’t eat properly and would snack, and I’d reward us with food and treats, which is lovely but wasn’t doing my or my children’s health any favours.
• I’ve lost 7 stone in the last 2.5 years after a few health scares and have started looking after myself by having a healthier lifestyle. What’s been lovely for me to realise is that my children enjoy coming running or training with me.

BEST MOMENTS

“All too often I hear that people don’t want to ask, they’re too frightened to ask for flexibility. If we can give them the confidence to do that and organisations embrace co-working, how fabulous would that be?”

“Putting music on and turning it up really makes you come alive and feel special.”

“like to get up earlier than everyone else in house with a cup of coffee and reflect, no devices.”

“If I’m feeling sad or anxious about something I go for a run and somehow, getting out into the fresh air calms me and puts me into a positive frame of mind. I’s my number one positive habit.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Lirette Mill has more than ten years of HR expertise in the educational sector. She holds a post-graduate degree in Legal Practice in addition to her undergraduate law degree and CIPD certification. Lirette began her legal career in 2003 while employed by a sizable private law firm in Kent. In 2010, she relocated to HR Connect. Lirette has a track record of successfully resolving disputes and is very competent at handling employee grievances. She works well with all types of stakeholders and has good communication skills to ensure that Kent Teach and HR Connect Advisory's services are delivered successfully.

The Safer Recruitment Consortium has certified Lirette as a Safer Recruitment trainer. She presently serves as a governor at an infant school that is controlled by the Church of England. She serves as the Policy Committee Chair and Co-Chair of the Quality of Education Committee as part of her governor duties.

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ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit, and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.

She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

LinkedIn

Instagram

On this episode Kat is joined by Sally Pomphrey, Partnership Delivery Director at Global, the UK and Europe’s largest radio and outdoor company and a working mother of three who shares the single habit that boosts her performance at work whilst also making her a better parent.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We put too much pressure on ourselves in this country. The media exposes people to things in the wrong way, and that puts pressure on people. We don’t self-promote people in the media very well in our country and that has an impact on people and in turn on their mental health. In Western society in general there’s so much going on, we’ve become an ‘upgrade society’ where every wants a better phone, car, partners, and that means we’re not satisfied with the little things.
• There’s huge pressure to do a good job at work and being a good parent while keeping up a home and catching up with friends. Since the pandemic there’s more flexible working which should have made it slightly easier for people to juggle these pressures, but I’m not sure it has. When I was a working mum I worked 4 day and (mostly men) used to say that was part-time, well it wasn’t, no one gave you any less work and I often worked on my day off.
• A negative habit I had with the kids was being on my phone and not switching off because my emails were on my phone. They’d tell me off for not listening. Now they have my time, I put my phone down and focus on them. Be present with people, whatever you’re doing and whoever they are.
• Because there’s always so much to do you do all the ‘jobs’. I recent discovered I have no down time, I run to relax, but that isn’t relaxing for my body. Plus, I then think about all the other things that need to be done that aren’t the ‘jobs’, like sorting out the holiday. We’re all too busy and always switched on. Take time to sit on the sofa, laying in bed, or taking deep breaths in the morning or when you go to bed.

BEST MOMENTS

“Good habits help with everyone’s mental health.”

“No one tells you that when you have a child you’re going to spend the next 14 years worrying about World Book Day!”

“Time management is just as needed at home as it is in the office.”

“Things can be left until the next day, it doesn’t matter if the dishes aren’t done after dinner, you can’t do it all and it’s not always going to be perfect.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Sally Pomphrey in Partnership Delivery Director at Global, the UK and Europe’s largest radio and outdoor company.

LinkedIn

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit, and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.

She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

LinkedIn

Instagram

In this episode, Kat Thorne discusses the importance of reframing our perspective on 'exercise' as movement. She shares personal experiences and insights on how shifting our mindset from traditional views of exercise can lead to positive habit changes. Kat emphasises the power of committing to just 10 minutes of movement daily, highlighting the significant impact it can have on energy, mood, and overall wellbeing. Through anecdotes and practical advice, she encourages listeners to prioritise movement in their daily routines, focusing on enjoyment and consistency rather than duration or intensity.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Exercise comes up in almost every single keynote or talk to a team that I do, the connotations attached to it, why we fight it so much and what we can do to change the way we view it. I think a lot of us have self-limiting beliefs that it has to be done a certain way that prevent us from the ultimate goal, which should be to move our bodies regularly.
• Growing up I had so many negative experiences with exercise and so have many others. I made a massive shift a few years ago when I stopped thinking of exercise as a focus on my physical body.
• I can guarantee you’ve said “I don’t have time for…” in the last 24 hours. How much time do you need for the exercise you ideally want to incorporate into your life? 30, 40, 60, 90 minutes? Where did you get the idea that exercise has to be an hour in the gym or a 30-minute run?
• My number one habit is movement. I commit to moving my body every single day for a minimum of 10 minutes. When I first started moving my body and exercising regularly I realised that I didn’t enjoy going to the gym, I had a lot of fears around it, I thought it was difficult, I didn’t know what I was doing so I felt uncomfortable, I didn’t have a lot of time to spare, so I didn’t do anything. 10 minutes is better than 0 minutes.

BEST MOMENTS

“I’d replace the word ‘Exercise’ in the dictionary with ‘movement’.”

“Which habits positively affect your performance, how you feel? Exercise is (almost every time) one of the top answers.”

“Organisations are doing more than they’ve ever done before to help people with their mental health and wellbeing.”

“We know moving our bodies and exercise is good for us, but we fight it. We fight it because we think it has to be a certain way, but it doesn’t.”

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit, and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.

She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

LinkedIn

Instagram

On this episode Kat is joined by Stuart Townsend, a passionate mental health advocate in the construction industry and Operations Director at Taylor Woodrow. In this episode Stuart talks about the challenges of switching off, the dangers of not being able to, and the one habit that he uses to decompress and be fully present with his family.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The construction industry is a demanding, tiring, rewarding one and it’s difficult to leave things at work, which I think are big contributors to the mental health of everybody. In some industries you finish your shift and you’re home, in our industry things play on your mind, there are certain things you can’t leave because tasks can last week and even months before they’re finished as well as the responsibility for the wellbeing of everyone you manage as well.
• We’ve been in a mental health pandemic for a lot longer than people realise. It’s difficult subject, and construction traditionally being a male-led industry meant people were told to be more broad shouldered and get on with it. This made it difficult for people to open up. We’ve looked at that as a business and have health and wellbeing champions in our divisions who go through training, but it takes a specialist to work with people who are struggling, our training allows people to signpost because we’re not fully medically trained.
• The pressures that come with delivery, timescales, locations, juggling all those balls at the same time, as well as trying to look out for a team, deliver quality, right first time, hit targets set internally, meet the clients’ targets externally, they’re all massive catalysts. And you’ve got to be as professional as you can be every day. You can’t help but take it home.
• ‘Fire-gazing’ goes right back to the Stone Age, I tell my people about it, it’s based around hunting: Man goes hunting, man brings food home, lady cooks food, man stares at fire. There’s an element of fire-gazing that I think everybody in this industry needs, whether you’re a man or a woman. You need to try and switch off in the evening. I now turn my phone off whenever I’m not at work or need to be contacted, that’s been a real benefit to me.

BEST MOMENTS

“Two people die by suicide every year in this industry and 91% of people feel overwhelmed.”

“I’m finding myself asking ‘are you OK?’ It’s OK to ask for help. It gives them confidence in me as a manager to give them the support that they need.”

“But there’s still that stigma and I don’t know how we break it.”

“I like to cook, it helps me de-stress.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Stuart Townsend is an experienced Contracts Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the construction industry. Skilled in Subcontracting, Construction, Value Engineering, Cost Management, and Highways. Strong operations professional.

LinkedIn

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit, and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.

She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

LinkedIn

Instagram

We are facing the greatest global pandemic of all time. Burnout, anxiety, stress is at an all-time high. People are the greatest asset of an organisation. The better people look after themselves, the better they perform in all areas of life - both at work and home.

Every single tiny choice we make during the day is shaping our lives, directly impacting how we feel and experience life. After getting the biggest wakeup call of losing everything in my life in 2016 I had no choice but to face my habits and make a change. The changes at first seemed so insignificant that I didn't believe they would make a difference. BUT they did.

The Positive Habits Podcast is for people who want to live a better life, with higher energy levels, less stress, better relationships and ultimately to supercharge their performance in all areas of life.

I'm on a mission to help people improve their wellbeing with one small habit change.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• In the recently published Mental State of the World 2023 Report where 71 countries were surveyed, the UK came second lowest which reinforces the knowledge that we already have that a lot of people are struggling with their mental health and their wellbeing.
• It’s such an exciting time we’re living in where there’s so many opportunities and so much information out there to do business, learn, grow, improve ourselves. Yet, people are more stress, overwhelmed and exhausted that ever before.
• There’s a huge gap between talking about mental health, wellbeing, resilience, how we feel – which is a brilliant development, especially in industries where historically it’s been ignored – and doing something about it.
• Looking at the report it’s clear that there are a number of areas, for organisations and us individually, where we could make some small changes that would have a huge ripple affect on us professionally and personally.

BEST MOMENTS

“One of the challenges we’re facing is we’re living in a ‘always on’ world.”

“Advice has got to be practical, it’s why each guest on the podcast shares the one habit that’s made a difference to them and why.”

“The top three reasons for bad mental health and wellbeing are: The smartphone, increased consumption of ultra-processed foods, and the lack of family bonds.”

“It’s really hard sometimes to make healthy decisions when it comes to food.”

Mental State of the World Report 2023

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit, and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.

She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

LinkedIn

Instagram

On this episode, Kat is joined by Demi Broughton, a key member of the team behind the High Performance Podcast. As the Corporate Events Manager she shares her top strategy for enhancing both personal and professional performance.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• It’s very easy to criticise other – as a society we’re very good at it – and lay blame on others. There aren’t enough people celebrating those small, unseen things that people are doing that are really good. Monday Club is something that I hope breaks through the mould of what you see on LinkedIn on a Monday and highlighting people I’ve enjoyed working with or are going unsung.
• A negative habit that has affected both my private and professional life is: First thing in the morning, before I’ve said hello to anyone, I’ve reached for my phone and read emails. We’re not being paid or expected to do that, so why are we doing it? It created a sense in me of never switching off. I now don’t touch my emails until I’ve had my morning cup of tea.
• I would never go to bed not knowing what tomorrow looks like. Of course, anything can happen at any time that I’m not in control of, but it sets me up so that when I wake up in the morning, I’m only revisiting what’s already been put in place for me. It takes the weight off.
• How I was able to break negative habits and bring in positive ones was I just reached breaking point with them. I don’t advise people to reach rock bottom before they change, but I didn’t want to live that way anymore; constantly being tired, developing physical and mental problems due to fatigue and blowing off social engagements because I didn’t have anything left in the tank.

BEST MOMENTS

• “We have a very flat hierarchy: Everyone is a manager in some sense of the word (running their own departments, owns what they do, has autonomy and power).”
• “Machines need to be switched off to recharge. So do we.”
• “Don’t have you phone ion your room but have a physical notepad and pen in case your brain is racing so you can write down in order what your day is going to look like.”
• “What would you want people to say about you at your eulogy? I’ll be damned if what they read out at mine wasn’t conducive with the life I want for myself knowing I had full control over achieving that.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Demi Broughton is an award winning Corporate Events Manager at The High Performance Podcast, she’s responsible for planning, organising, and executing engaging and impactful events for listeners, guests, and sponsors. Demi leverages her expertise and skills to create memorable experiences that showcase your mission, values, and goals. Being well experienced in the industry, working with various clients and partners, from small businesses to global corporations. Demi is passionate about delivering high-quality events that inspire, educate, and entertain the podcast’s audience, and that reflect its field of expertise: high performance in business, sports, and life.

LinkedIn

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sectors. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in her becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.

She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high-impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

LinkedIn

Instagram

On this episode, Kat is joined by Brett Callaghan, MD – South at Rubix, one of the largest suppliers of industrial products and services. Despite Rubrix’s strong people-first culture, Brett delves into the true responsibility for well-being and mental health. He also shares the one positive habit that has had the most incredible ripple effect on his marriage, relationship with his kids, as well as his work performance.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Well-being and mental health awareness has come to the top of the agenda more and it’s something we need to get much better at. Since covid. People realised quite quickly how fragile we are – and the world is – and everybody took the opportunity to look inward a bit more. Our business has taken a lot of learnings from that situation, and there are a lot better working practices and more consideration of people’s mental health now too.
• The biggest negative impact in my life that I’ve only recognised recently, is my lack of appreciation of how sleep impacted my life. I’d stay up late to get a couple of hours of chillout time to scroll on my phone or watch TV rather than spending time with my family. I now don’t allow my mobile phone to send me notifications now and I’ll choose when I want to go to my phone. At 10 o'clock I settle down to go to sleep, going to sleep properly helps me with brain fog which I sometimes get and I notice I’m not myself now if I do stay up late for a couple of nights in a row.
• As you get more senior in an organisation you feel like you need to be seen and have the mentality that whatever needs to be done I’m going to deliver and you can certainly de-prioritise some of this stuff. I’ve certainly been a victim of that myself, it’s subconscious, you just go that way and a couple of bits will fall off as you go and it’ll continue to drift if you don’t stay on top of it.

BEST MOMENTS

• “There seems to be two types of person: those who are willing to embrace positive change and accept help and those who feel they’ve already got a handle on it and aren’t willing to show that vulnerability.”
• “The people closest to you have the ability to influence you, even if you don’t take it so well in the first instance.”
• “It’s said that a habit sticks after 21 days, but in business it needs to be 12 months.”
• “We’ve seen our business in particular, but the world as well, improve so quickly in these areas, but there’s such a way to go.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Brett Callaghan is as experienced Operational and Commercial leader with a demonstrated history of working in the mechanical and industrial engineering industry. Skilled in Branch Operation, Negotiation, Business Relationship Management, Operations Management, and Sales. Strong sales professional striving to go the extra mile every day.

LinkedIn

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit, and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.

She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

LinkedIn

Instagram