On this episode Kat is joined by Max Fortis, Sales Director at Clarendon Speciality Fasteners, who shares the differences in family dynamics, especially in Italy where your living room is the local café, and why social connections are so important for our wellbeing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I see less connection here in the UK. In Italy, everyone’s door is open, they don’t have to make appointments to see their family members they just pop in. In the UK, people live more insular lives and it’s easy to get trapped in your own world. I even find myself being much less sociable in the UK than I am in Italy.
• In Milan all my colleagues would take lunch together as well as taking 2-3 coffee breaks during the day. It was a cultural shock when working in the UK and I was offered a coffee and someone just went to the coffee machine and brought it back to my desk and left it there. Or everyone had lunch at their desks rather than going out and making an effort to invite me for a beer after work. Work is completely separate from their private lives, which sometimes is good, but you can easily feel more alone.
• During covid, I started doing a lot more work myself as I had got some bad habits with regards to separating work and private live, I was always available and working almost 24/7. I was also locked into social media because I couldn’t go back to Italy as often as I wanted. After a while I realised that I needed to set barriers and develop better habits to support myself and my family.
• I turned things around by spending more time with my family, doing more active listening, having more positive habits with my phone like putting it in a box when I get home from work and not looking at it until later in the morning. Me and my wife make time in the morning to have coffee or tea together before the kids wake up and in the evening we don’t just put the TV on, we put music on and have conversations. I read a lot more than I have in the past and all this fills up my energy tank and I’m actually doing more now than I was before.

BEST MOMENTS

“People need to be more spontaneous, let people in, pick up the phone and call people rather than just looking at what they’re doing on social media.”

“Personal space is a really strong barrier in the UK than in other countries. I’ve worked all over the world; in Chile you become part of your colleagues’ families very quickly, the parents of my friends insisted I call then uncle and aunty.”

“A habit is something you do without realising that you’re doing it, making time for my friends, family, my daughter’s friends is something that I do without thinking about.”

“Making yourself indispensable at work often isn’t the right thing for you and for your family, the last 2.5 years has been a rollercoaster journey, but I’m definitely happier now.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Max Fortis is sales director at Clarendon Speciality Fasteners where he helps clients to identify the best solutions for their fastening needs and to ensure that engineers chose cost-effective solutions.

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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.

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On this episode Kat talks about the power of a morning routine, what her old one was like compared to the one now that has unlocked so much potential.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• There were 3 things I used to do every morning: 1. Snooze my alarm 4-6 times. 2. Pick up my smart phone and scroll through my emails and look at deadlines, thinking I was getting ready for the day ahead but was actually making me hyper-stressed. 3. Have some kind of caffeine (coffee/energy drink) to start the day.
• My morning routine wasn’t getting me mentally and physically prepared for the day ahead. When I shifted, after my breakdown, into changing up how I went about my mornings, everything changed. I swapped this really unhealthy morning routine that was damaging my performance/mental health/wellbeing/long-term relationship/career prospects/everything, for small habits (starting with reading) that really powered me up.
• Reading a few pages or consuming something positive for my brain (podcast/motivational video), because the brain is wired to think negatively in the morning, because when you start feeding your brain positivity you start feeling better, having more energy, thinking positive thoughts.
• When you write your thoughts down (journalling) they start to lose power and you start to regain power over them.

BEST MOMENTS

“Snoozing your alarm is one of the most toxic habits you can ever have.”

“Checking my phone first thing in the morning was quietly, over a long period of time, sending me on a path to destruction.”

“Habits don’t just change your day, they change your week, your month, your year, they change your entire life.”

“Feed your brain positive food.”

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 Francesca McClory, who is killing it in her business in Future Cloud Accounting and who has been on the most incredible life journey, who talks about when you put your mind to something and believe you can do it, you really can.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• So many people stay stuck and don’t dare change something because of the unknown of what will be next. I’ve embraced that, I don’t want to stand still and be unhappy. My first marriage ended because I sensed something wasn’t right just weeks before the wedding. He admitted he was unsure he wanted to go through with it, if someone’s unsure about something weeks before you shouldn’t go through with it just to save face. It’s uncomfortable starting again, I was humiliated but I’m so much happier now.
• I do little challenges with myself which is how I got into fitness training while running a business, because so many people told me I wouldn’t have time to do it. Training has helped me run a better business, even if it comes across as selfish, I’d rather make time to do the things that make me happy, otherwise what’s the point?
• The stronger you get and the more you achieve through doing an activity, the more you look after your body, it makes you more confident about yourself and your abilities in your friendships and relationships. Unless I’m injured, I’m always doing something.
• You have to have a balance on LinkedIn. To me it’s simple: You either share your solutions to people’s problems, share some motivation, but the more you help others the better, you won’t necessarily get something back – you shouldn’t do it for that – but just watch what happens.

BEST MOMENTS

“In order to do certain things in life you’ve got to get uncomfortable.”

“Fitness is absolutely key in life.”

“Comparison is good, to a point, for inspiration. But, if you’re spending too long looking into other people’s lives and feeling unhappy in your own, that’s where you’ve got to think ‘what am I doing?’”

“I became an accountant because I realised that everybody needs an accountant and I love businesses.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Francesca McClory is the managing director of Future Cloud Accounting and co-founder of Quirq – a personal branding agency. Whilst working as an accountant with various businesses including retail, construction, cafes, bars, restaurants and farms, Francesca discovered a passion for helping businesses find solutions to help them grow. She also loves how using cloud technology to its full potential then enables businesses to make better decisions.

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Website

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 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.

LinkedIn

Instagram

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.

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

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