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Inspire Club Ep #36 - Janet Hitchin
26 Plays25 days ago
In this episode of the Inspire Club Podcast, host Matt Manners speaks with Janet Hitchen — strategic internal communications leader, trusted advisor and former communications expert at Apple and Nespresso. Janet shares what it feels like to be part of a truly psychologically safe team, why trust and kindness create the best work and the simple power of “keeping your side of the street clean.” A candid, insightful conversation about integrity, respect and listening — the true foundations of leadership.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Background
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Inspire Club podcast. I'm your host, Matt Manners, founder of Inspiring Workplaces and upfront apologies if I'm a bit croaky.
00:00:18
Speaker
I keep getting whatever is going around, so um i think it's like my sixth thing of 2025, but we go. um Let's get straight into it and introduce this week's podcast guest, Janet Hitchin. um Apple and Nespresso, to name just two mightily impressive organisations.
00:00:38
Speaker
She's helped steer, plus two huge favourites in the Manor's household. i think we're everything Apple and Nespresso. I never thought I'd be like that, but I am. um Janet is strategic is a strategic internal communication leader, placing people at the heart of what she does, trusted advisor to senior leadership teams, creating best in class, commercially grounded comms strategies based on strong relationships and a solid understanding of business needs.
Interests and Awards
00:01:05
Speaker
balancing a love of data and educated intuition to get results. If that wasn't enough, Janet has also been adding sustainability to her specialties. A keen dog lover like myself, we've just been sharing stories about our dogs, ah Mills and Seamus.
00:01:21
Speaker
And also Janet has been a judge for the past two years for the UK and Ireland Inspiring Workplace Awards, which we are eternally grateful for. um Welcome to the podcast, Janet. How are you?
Pre-Podcast Insights
00:01:33
Speaker
I'm good. I'm good. It feels weird because we're like starting again and we've already had like a good 15 minutes on dogs and and you know stuff and dog walks and all yeah so it's um hi hi yeah i know it's um bill ma does a really great thing where he does like um what's his program called oh no my brain is eluding me now but he does a post show youtube um channel which he just continues talking to his guests afterwards and a lot of the gold is always in there so whatever you plan for
00:02:04
Speaker
I'm sure this podcast can be fantastic, everybody is listening, but you know it's always the stuff that you don't you don't film and record is usually fantastic too. so um The out of hours, X-rated, not not for podcasts. Exactly.
00:02:17
Speaker
Yeah, the bleep machine. um So let's get straight into it. I mean, I've been really looking forward to having this conversation for a long time, um and we even threatened to do it a couple of weeks ago, but some of the socio-political stuff that got in the way.
00:02:32
Speaker
yeah um We won't
Career Reflections
00:02:34
Speaker
go into that though. no um So who has inspired you at work along the way? The number one rule of the Inspire Club podcast.
00:02:44
Speaker
So it's not just one person. I mean, there's been loads of people that have inspired me kind of all the way through. um but actually, if I think back and I i think about sort of 20 years in communication and I had like a life before that as well. So but if I think to the kind of the time and communication, um it's not just one person. It's a team that I was in and that I was part of.
00:03:07
Speaker
And it was a team that our psychological safety, i don't for I don't know why, but our psychological safety was off the charts. And if I look back, there's no kind of specific thing that happened or reason why, but we felt we all were so comfortable with each other.
Psychological Safety and Team Dynamics
00:03:25
Speaker
We were all given the opportunity to say exactly what we thought. And there was no sense of um only one person can have a good idea. Anyone on that team could have a great idea. And we would all challenge the ideas We would pull them apart. We would really stress test them.
00:03:40
Speaker
So that what, because we all believed in what was the brilliance of the work and we wanted to get the work right because we all believed that the most important thing was the employee experience.
00:03:53
Speaker
And so we wanted to make sure that the employee was at the heart of what we were doing. And we were, we would go into discussions for hours on getting it right. And actually being with that team,
00:04:07
Speaker
Working together meant that we were able to do some absolutely incredible stuff. Everybody supported everybody else. No one person stood above anybody else.
00:04:17
Speaker
And every time somebody got an opportunity, and at one point I got an opportunity to go and work in the US for a while. And I realized that actually the thing that made me great was that team. Right.
00:04:29
Speaker
And the thing that was allowing me to do really good work was that team. And the thing that gave me confidence in what I was doing was that team. And so when I was suddenly working in the US and it I didn't have that team around me dayto day to day, suddenly felt a little bit like, oh, I feel a bit shaky. like where's Where's my team? Where are the people that I normally go to?
00:04:48
Speaker
Where are the people that I have really robust discussions with about stuff? But actually, i feel really comfortable comfortable having those robust discussions because I know that it's not personal. and I know it's all about the work and I know it's all about the fact that we want to do great work.
00:05:03
Speaker
And yeah, it's that team. And every time I go, every time I kind of think back, I think, no, it's that team. And I still speak to most of them now. amazing We're still all friends and we still, you know, we might not meet up for six months, 12 months.
00:05:17
Speaker
And then out of the blue, you'll get a call or I'll call someone and say, hey, be great to have a chat. And it's like we were talking yesterday. And I don't want to use the family word because it's not that. Yeah. Because family at work, don't go there. that's that's ah That's a whole heap of therapy that you don't need. Yeah. um It was it was such such a brilliantly performing team. And we were all so completely different.
00:05:40
Speaker
But we all respected each other. And we all wanted to do great work. So for me, it's that team. That's it. That's who still inspires me because I know it can happen. want yeah yeah Do um, you want to give any shout outs to the team or you want to keep it private?
00:05:55
Speaker
I'll keep it private because there were iterations of that team. Yeah. And I don't want the somebody to go, Oh, but I wasn't included in the shout out. Awkward. Sorry if I forget somebody. here Yeah. And then you forget your mom or your husband or something. It's like awkward. Um, but it's,
00:06:12
Speaker
when I look back, it's that team and how that team worked. And it lasted for a set amount of time and then things did happen that broke it.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah. And that was a, and yeah it's really, when you've experienced that, when you've experienced true psychological safety, when you've experienced the opportunity to be able to do amazing stuff, when that happens, it's incredible.
00:06:38
Speaker
And I think I've had it probably two I've probably had it two or three times. I've been lucky to have it two or three times ah to have those highs. But I've also had some real lows and, you know, been bullied and, you know, those sorts of things which are really not nice. yeah um But when you do have that, amazing things can happen.
00:07:00
Speaker
And you can't amazing things can happen. I mean, if you could bottle this, then it is in like liquid gold, isn't it? I mean, um, i you can't necessarily put your finger on anything. You know, yeah these these people came together at a time and a place, ah but there wasn't specific logic behind how you all came together. It's just, it was just alchemy in that moment in time.
00:07:22
Speaker
And it wasn't, nobody was, nobody was trying to hire for a cultural fit, you know, to, to figure out, do we all fit together? What we were looking for were people who were really who were really great at what they did, who really cared about the work, who were, if I look back, they were kind, they were respectful.
00:07:41
Speaker
um There was something about collaborating and prioritizing the collaboration and prioritizing the collaboration in order to get to great work. But there was a kindness for certain people. There was a respect. You knew that even if somebody disagreed with you, you knew it wasn't personal and you knew it was respectful.
Leadership and Trust
00:08:00
Speaker
And everything was done in a respectful way. And it was done not because they didn't like you, not because they had a personal agenda, not because they were trying to put you down in front of somebody else or trying to make themselves look bigger and better.
00:08:11
Speaker
It was done because it was about making the work better. Yeah. ah Fantastic. And that was astonishing. um There must have been... And there might not have been.
00:08:23
Speaker
so I might say no. Yeah, exactly. fully disagree with my ah premise here. I'm not sure who the leader was in that team. You said everybody had a voice and nobody was above one another. But there must have been permission given by somebody there to allow people to communicate in that way. and to you know So but was that yourself or was that somebody else in that unit that that did that?
00:08:45
Speaker
um and Do you think it's important for that permission to be given in these situations? Yeah. I think there was some of it was permission. Some of it was us. Some of it was that person led with a sense of and actually there were two people because though that that team and then they were that team was taken over and that still carried on. That yeah safety he still stayed because the rest of the team remained the same and remained solid.
00:09:06
Speaker
So bringing in somebody didn't actually didn't actually break it, um which can happen, unfortunately, um depending on what that person's like. But some of it was about permission, but some of it was about just that they led with a sense of ask for forgiveness.
00:09:19
Speaker
Like go do that thing. yeah We are not here. um There was very much a sense of, I was working in an organization that was very much a sense of you've got something to do, go get go get it done. yeah Go figure out how to do it.
00:09:30
Speaker
Don't come to me with a ah a deck that's 20 slides. that Here's my, just go do the thing. it. go do it Go out and ask. And if you need to ask for forgiveness later, then we'll figure that out.
00:09:42
Speaker
But you have been brought on because you are smart people, because you are intelligent, because you have ideas, because you are innovative. Go be that thing. yep Go do that. Go be brilliant and come back.
00:09:54
Speaker
yeah um So it wasn't a sense of somebody came in and sort of formally said, I give you all permission to do this. That's how they led anyway. And that's what they instilled in the rest of their team. I love that.
00:10:06
Speaker
Yeah. It seems to be like an underlying basis of automatic trust. We've hired you because you're great. And then they trust, they trust you that you've got their back when they go try something and it might not work out. And they had my back. Yeah. You know, and yeah, it was, it was, it was incredible to kind of have that. And when that's taken away and when somebody doesn't have your back,
00:10:28
Speaker
yeah opposite. that really Yeah, the opposite happens and it just, it breaks trust immediately. it's immediate. Like it's ah literally, and it's it's it's so it's so quick. I mean, an example that you talked about Nespresso, I was working, when I worked with Nespresso, I was supposed to be with them for six months and I stayed with them for 18 months.
00:10:45
Speaker
And it was because we had, and this isn't the same team, this is different, but it's because Nespresso, There was a sense of respect. There was a sense of being listened to. There was a sense of I wasn't being told what to do all the time. I was being i was able to sort of say, here's here's what I'm trying to achieve.
00:11:00
Speaker
Here's what you're trying to achieve. Let's figure out how I can help you achieve that. Yeah. And there was a sense of trust. There was a sense of, I went with the ask for forgiveness, not permission.
00:11:11
Speaker
yeahp And once the trust was there and they sort of went, oh, wow, yeah this this is actually working. we had some rap we like We could have some really good fun because could do some really cool stuff.
00:11:24
Speaker
um But I didn't ask for permission. What I did was I had sort of very... um a very structured way of working that allowed them to see, oh, okay, we can trust what she's doing.
Discussions and Disagreements
00:11:34
Speaker
And therefore I was given that trust to kind of just crack on.
00:11:37
Speaker
i love I love some of the themes running through just this first question. I mean, the trust, kindness, kindness respect. I saw ah somebody i I respect a great deal on LinkedIn um talk around, started a conversation around Jamie Dimon, return to office that's been swirling around.
00:11:53
Speaker
And there was a phrase that she used, um And it's been, you've you've kind of alluded to i think maybe mentioned it too. Room for discussion. I think in today's world, social media, things are quite binary. You either agree with me you don't, or you're either right or you're wrong, or, you know, and we we we consume our media in different ways. And so workplace is always trying to deal with society's problems, which I always have ah great sympathy for the people doing that, and and and ah ah a lot of respect for those to have to manage those issues. But
00:12:25
Speaker
Building room for discussion inside and outside of work is probably, I think, more important now than ever before because then that allows you to create that trust, that kindness, respect, going, this is at an environment where all ideas are welcome.
00:12:40
Speaker
and And I feel like that's a under threat right now, um the room for discussion, because you're either right or wrong with a return to office. isn't There seems to be very little middle ground. you know It's like the one true opinion kind of thing seems to be happening a lot now.
00:12:55
Speaker
It's about that. car And I kind of always come back to, um and those that know me really well know that I absolutely love the Rest is Politics podcast. And the whole premise of the Rest is Politics podcast is to and disagree agreeably.
00:13:07
Speaker
So you can disagree. That's okay. yeah you Sorry, I've got a little dog who's come to say hello. um You can disagree agreeably. It's okay to disagree. Absolutely. It's not a problem. That's how growth happens, I think. Exactly. And that's what we had. And this, I mean, this was way before sort of polarization became, you know,
00:13:26
Speaker
blew up in our faces. yeah But we could disagree agreeably. And actually disagreeing agreeably always would get us to a better so to a better spot. Absolutely. um so yeah, having room to discuss, having room to disagree, having room to always with the premise that it's about the work.
00:13:47
Speaker
It's not about the person. Exactly. Exactly. It's about getting a better outcome. It's about driving behavior that we've identified. It's about achieving a goal that we've identified.
00:14:00
Speaker
It's about achieving your goal and us helping you do that. Yeah. um And that allow, you've got to allow people to be able to say, well, have you thought about this? Or have you, there's a really lovely, um I know if you know the Lominger competencies and Lominger is a, you know, it's something that certain lots of organizations use.
00:14:19
Speaker
And there's a Lominger competency, which is called standing alone. And I was always sort of hilariously told, oh yes, you, you excel at this, Janet. um You absolutely. And I was like, you know, not to blow my own trumpet, but it's one of those things where I don't have a problem disagreeing agreeably.
00:14:34
Speaker
i Literally, if somebody if everyone in the room goes, yes, yes, yes, yes I'm going, can we, sure, can we have a chat about that? Because it doesn't feel right. yeah And that is the competency standing alone.
00:14:47
Speaker
And that's been from, and it's not about, oh, well, you know, you've reached a level in your career that you feel confident doing that. The first time I realized that, I was sat at a COO's meeting.
00:14:58
Speaker
are in a financial institution. I was probably the youngest in the room. I used to wear glasses because it felt like it made me look more intelligent.
00:15:11
Speaker
because i had no I had literally no confidence. So I would sort of put on this armor and glasses were part of that armor to make me look a little bit more nerdy and a little bit less, you know, like, oh, look, the blonde in the corner.
00:15:22
Speaker
um And I remember the COO brought up, and we were discussing something and they were talking about productivity and the internet and, you know, that's how long ago this was. um And um the COO said, right, well, that's it. We're just going to turn the internet off because somebody had been found to have Facebook open all day And they'd, I mean, obviously they'd minimized it. They went sat on Facebook the whole day because they were working, but they had minimized it.
00:15:47
Speaker
The COO didn't understand this and was like, this is ridiculous. We must, we're turning off the internet. And everyone said, okay. Because they all reported to this person. I didn't report to this person. I reported to the head of HR.
00:15:59
Speaker
And I sort of went, I just, can I, can I just, let's, there's a couple of different things. And so- Did I feel psychologically safe? Probably not. But also I had this competency of, I don't care about being the only person in the room with a slightly different point of view.
00:16:19
Speaker
And I'm very happy to disagree. And I did it very agreeably. i didn't stand up and stomp about. I gave a really clear argument as to, well, the intranet that work using and that all of our compliance teams need to use with all of the compliance policies, they rely on the internet.
00:16:36
Speaker
So if you turn off the internet, you turn off all of those policies, you turn off access to all of those things. The other thing, if you look at how everybody books travel right now, everybody is booking travel on the internet.
00:16:47
Speaker
And if now we are asking all of our PAs and EAs to go down to a travel agency to book things manually, that is going to take much more of their time than it would actually if we were to do this. So here's just a couple of examples of why productivity is better if we actually keep the internet.
00:17:04
Speaker
And it's a lot of it's about, I just thought that just doesn't make sense. Logically, that doesn't make sense. But it's not about me having loads of confidence. It's about me going, I don't really understand that.
00:17:14
Speaker
Can i just say something? And that might be innocence. That's possibly ah very innocent thing that I used to do back in the day. And now it's just it's just part of of of, I think that's why I'm there.
00:17:29
Speaker
I'm not there just to agree with somebody. yeah I'm there to get the best result. And if the but best result means that I need to disagree agreeably, then I'm okay doing that yeah because that's my job. And I feel like I would have failed on my job if I hadn't done that.
00:17:45
Speaker
love it. I love it. And I could go down that path, you know, WD-40 and all these different, you know, and, and, and of employee ideas. And I could, we could, I could definitely go down that incredibly exciting rabbit hole, but I'm going to move on to our, our second staple question. And, um,
00:18:03
Speaker
ah The flip side of, guess, and inspiration, like what what was a negative experience that you had to endure that has inspired you in a good way in your career? So I'm never going to let that happen again or I see that as bad practice, you know. and So this goes to back in the day and um I was given my first BlackBerry.
00:18:27
Speaker
Right. And I kind of wasn't really that bothered about it, to be perfectly honest with you. um And my boyfriend at the time, very excited. Oh my God, can I see it? Because he didn't have one.
Work-Life Balance and Lessons Learned
00:18:36
Speaker
So he's like, oh, this is amazing. I'm going to, great. um But what that then became was I was working with a manager who I had, after an acquisition, I'd moved into that team.
00:18:49
Speaker
So I didn't know this person. And she was very keen on just getting rid of everybody that came from the from the other the other company. Right. um And she did that quite successfully with quite a lot of people. um But one of the things that she would do is um out of hours, so out of hours, whatever that might look like, but, you know, sort of seven o'clock, eight o'clock, nine o'clock at night,
00:19:08
Speaker
There would usually be either a call or a text saying, I can't find this thing. I can't find this. I can't find that. You need to give it to me. And said boyfriend at the time was really not happy that our evenings or our dinners would be interrupted with this content. And it was, it was every night, every single night. And thought, this is not acceptable.
00:19:28
Speaker
Now what we used to do, he put, I said, I'm, you know, I want us to spend time together. So I'm switching your phone off. And one of the things that I would say is, you know, oh, I was, you know, I was at the theater. or Oh, I went swimming. I didn't have my phone with me. Oh, I was, you know, at the cinema. Oh, I was, there was always somewhere I could be where there was no connection, which was fine.
00:19:46
Speaker
And I've, I thought I never want to be that person who is expecting yeah you to respond out of hours. Now there's, there's two ways to that. One is, um, I would always say to when when I was leading a team, I would always say to them, if you're on holiday, be on holiday.
00:20:04
Speaker
Yeah. Your holiday is part of your compensation. So if you are going to work on your holiday, that means you are being, you're not being doubly compensated.
00:20:19
Speaker
So why are you burning? Yeah. some of that compensation. So that was a huge thing. The other was always, um but there was always a caveat to that. It was, if you are going on holiday, leave so that you don't leave us in the lurch. Exactly.
00:20:35
Speaker
no If you leave us in the lurch, we will not have any problem contacting you to say, you've left us in the lurch. We don't have any information on this. It's urgent. Help. Yeah. So get everything together, be organized, respect. And that's all about respect. Respect to the rest of the team that you're leaving behind and put everybody in a great upper space so that you can go on holiday brilliantly. We will leave you alone. Yeah.
00:21:00
Speaker
And we will protect that as long as you, so there's almost a i sort of ah ah a deal, a contract, which is you put us in a good position so that we're good to deal with all the stuff that might come up.
00:21:13
Speaker
And we will leave you alone when we leave alone. Respect and again. And we will respect and trust. And so that was one thing I learned from that person who, you know, here's your blackberry. I will contact you at any time of day or night. will contact you on your holidays. will contact you.
00:21:30
Speaker
And I was like, we, you, that's not okay. holiday is important to rest holiday is important to to to get to get your product to the when you come back you you can be productive and you can be the best person you can be absolutely it's on a base level holiday is compensation yeah I remember explaining describing that to one um employee and I was like if I gave you 50 pound notes would you burn them ah And she's like, what?
00:21:55
Speaker
No. like, so why are you burning your holiday? And suddenly she went, oh, I see what you're talking about. was like, go on holiday, be on holiday, the end. yeah we As long as you've set us up in a situation where we something isn't going to blow up that you've not told anybody about, and therefore, unfortunately, we do have to get in contact with you, allow us to be able to know and be able to manage everything for you so that you can go away and you can have a great time.
00:22:24
Speaker
i I've mentioned this before, um but you you remind me of it. um Very, very similar situation at an old company where so a new MD came in and they just wanted to get rid of the whole agency, basically. They wanted their own people.
00:22:39
Speaker
And they basically got it. They basically made it happen, yeah which I thought was outstanding. I still think that's quite amazing to come in with that kind of attitude. Yeah. While still there, I got the hint, but I was still there.
00:22:54
Speaker
They gave me a BlackBerry and I was going on holiday to Australia because I ah used to live down there. And um they said, look, you you have to be contactable. I went, well, it's my holiday. we You have to be contactable on your BlackBerry.
00:23:06
Speaker
So the night before I got on my plane to Sydney, I dropped. my i dropped I'm now doing BlackBerry show. In speech, comments to those listening, I dropped my BlackBerry in the bath um the day before I went away.
00:23:18
Speaker
So, which, you know, they could never prove, but they were incredibly angry about. But, um yeah, so, ah but I thought this is my holiday. you know, i've I've given you the handover that you you were talking about just then, Janet.
00:23:30
Speaker
Yeah. There's no need for you to make me on demand. So, you know, made it impossible for them to contact me. so And that that was the thing. I was like, you know, I i have, i that you know, it's,
00:23:42
Speaker
that whole concept of work-life balance it's like you're saying no it's like you have one life and work is part of that life and it all fits together yeah so you know I'm allowed and I'm allowed to go to the theatre. I'm allowed to go to the cinema. I'm allowed to go to you know, the gym or dance class or whatever it is that I do or meditation or and whatever it is that I might be doing. yeah um And that means that I'm not going to have my phone on because that's not okay. yeah um And that was, yeah, that was right at the beginning of kind of everybody getting very excited over Blackberries and I was kind of, whatever.
00:24:14
Speaker
Yeah, that was that was the start of the intrusion. Always on, brick breaker. um Anyway, um definitely, yeah, there's a good movie on Blackberry actually as well, the story of of Blackberry that just came out on Apple.
00:24:28
Speaker
um So looking at the time, I reckon we go into some of the questions. um My favourite one um for the podcast is what's the best advice you were ever given and who was it from?
00:24:47
Speaker
So the best advice would be the thing that instantly sort of springs to mind. And I said to you, I wasn't going to kind of over prepare this. I was going to go and go off the cuff. And the one that I always come back to is keep your side of the street clean.
Personal Integrity and Control
00:25:00
Speaker
Now, the friend who talked to me about that, and it was a friend, um somebody I used to work with. And that came from um Buddhism.
00:25:11
Speaker
A lot of people who are probably listening to this podcast know it because Taylor Swift used it and a late in um in a song. And she talked about keeping your side of the street clean. And I sort of heard the song and I was like, oh, yes, I'm glad that you're using this.
00:25:25
Speaker
Because it's the own sometimes there are certain situations and it's the only thing that you can do is to keep your side of the street clean. And that's about but integrity. It's about making sure you're doing the right thing.
00:25:36
Speaker
It's about you can't control other people and what they do and how they behave and how they react to what you're doing. yeah And so if you're in a situation where somebody is bullying you, somebody is um harassing you, somebody is doing something which is incredibly difficult that you can't control, yeah keeping your side of the street clean and making sure that you can live with yourself and you can look yourself in the mirror it's about that integrity and that's the thing that I always come back to. It's just, it's the best piece of advice I've, I, yeah, always.
00:26:10
Speaker
i love i love that. um Absolutely love that. And, and I've, I've followed something similar to that. um Haven't heard it in those words before. I am a Taylor Swift fan. So you'll listen out for it now, listen to the albums and you'll be like, Oh yeah, she does say it. I can't, I have no idea which song it's in because,
00:26:30
Speaker
whilst I listen to her music, I'm not like the biggest fan and I don't know all the, you know, all the, what all the song titles are, but it's in, it's, it's very clearly in one of her songs. That was really interesting that she was, she'd picked up on this wisdom and was sharing it. Yeah, I think it's fantastic. I came across it through somebody else, through the circles of control, they called it, and then I did another iteration, but controlling what you can control and letting the other stuff go, it,
00:26:55
Speaker
gives you there's a huge amount of freedom in that, isn't there, I think, um once once it clicks. and It doesn't work always, but if you take it take a moment and take a breath and then refocus on keeping your side of the street clean, it works wonders. So great advice.
00:27:13
Speaker
um What's the most important quality in a leader, in your opinion?
Leadership Qualities
00:27:20
Speaker
That they listen.
00:27:23
Speaker
Love it. I'm just going to leave it there. No, fantastic. Listen to your people. You've hired great people. Listen to them. Oh, that's, yeah, perfect. um Early Bird or Night Owl? Early Bird.
00:27:39
Speaker
um Now, this is always a tough one, but what's your favourite album?
Personal Interests and Favorites
00:27:46
Speaker
And so like one you could just listen to. And if ah is there a song that if you need to get yourself motivated...
00:27:52
Speaker
energized that you you put on it does the trick so albums it's either something by elbow anything by elbow like literally any of their albums ah so michael kianuka okay um michael and discovered michael kiwanuka um a couple of years ago um when he won the mercury music prize and his music is it's just so It's just brilliant. It is. live
00:28:23
Speaker
and just he blew me like he just he sounds exactly the same there's no there's no preencese there's no put on there's no loads of obviously stuff going on in the background. There's no, um, you know, over editing and over all that kind of stuff. He just, there's just a real pureness to what he sings. yeah Um, but I'm not, that wouldn't necessarily be what I would use to kind of energize myself. It was about energy.
00:28:47
Speaker
I don't know. um a lot of the time I don't really use muse. Oh, I know. Oh, I know. it is i lied. um Beyonce's freedom.
00:28:59
Speaker
Okay. Fantastic. We haven't had that one before, so that's going to go on the playlist. Fantastic. It's a good one. Okay, brilliant. I've heard Michael live last year in Madrid as well, actually, yeah and echo everything you said.
00:29:12
Speaker
there's nothing I think there's nothing better when you go see somebody live and they sound how you how you hear them. and that's That's the same thing with Guy Garvey. You hear Guy Garvey sing and you're just like, oh, yes, wonderful. And it's Yeah, it's those two. I just think they're absolutely beautiful. Shows their talent when they just, okay. Some people don't want it to sound like when listening to it on your phone, but I think if they're that good, that shows the quality.
00:29:36
Speaker
Stereophonics for me, they they've always just sounded perfect when I go and listen to them live. Brilliant. Oh, favourite film? One you could just keep throwing in, as aging me, the DVD player, which obviously it doesn't exist anymore. I say, the DVD what? I don't really watch a lot of films over and over again. There's almost none that i do. um i'm more if you look If you do cinema or theatre, I'm far more theatre.
00:30:06
Speaker
And there's loads of stuff that I would go repeatedly to see. there? but one of the one A play or um a musical that you might go... Oh, not musicals. Not musicals. Sorry. Sorry to everyone everybody that loves musicals, but it's just really my jam. So the last thing, I'm going to say the last thing I saw, which was Much Ado About Nothing, Tom Hiddleston and Hayley as well at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
00:30:26
Speaker
And I saw it on Tuesday and it was joyful. It was absolute joy. It was hilarity. was pink was... it was pink confetti it was And from the moment that you walked into Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which is a very kind of sort of stage and very kind of traditional theatre, and they were playing, it was like walking into a 90s club. So I felt like I'd gone back to the I felt like I was in a club.
00:30:51
Speaker
I felt like I could sort of sit, you know, sit in the corner and drink like one of those dodgy drinks that we all drank in the Yeah. um It was brilliant and everybody, the whole place was kind of dark. these You could sort of see, yeah everybody was kind of, there was some movement. There was, the shoulders were going. Some people were like literally in the aisle dancing, waiting for the thing to start.
00:31:12
Speaker
And the energy of the piece, it was such a brilliant way of bringing Shakespeare into the modern audience. It was a way of bringing Shakespeare um to The audience was diverse. It was a really diverse audience, a really young audience. There were lots of people who were there very much because of Marvel. So they were there to see Hiddleston. They were there to see Hayley Atwell.
00:31:34
Speaker
Big hitters from the Marvel universe. And you know there was a little bit of um ah sort of taking the Michael, shall we say, of those characters.
00:31:44
Speaker
And Marvel characters appeared at one point and you're like, what's going on here? it was... there was so I get so much energy from being in a live performance. yeah um And that was one thing that um when we kind of when it finished, my theatre buddy and I looked at each other and we're like oh my God, I could go and see that again like tomorrow. i could go i could If they would redo that now and we would start at 10.30, I'm in. like wow Let's go. It's got so much energy and so much vibrance.
00:32:14
Speaker
um And what I love about the theatre is I think it's very much like communication. You're constantly looking at your audience. You're constantly listening to what your audience want. You're trying to figure out what you can do differently and how you can tell the same story in multiple different ways.
00:32:27
Speaker
You're looking at different actors that you can use, that you can, how can we tell this story in a different way? And I get, I love the attention to detail of the theatre. So I'm going to go off piste and go no to cinema.
00:32:39
Speaker
I do love film. You know, yes, I've watched, lu you know, I watched loads of stuff, but theatre is for me absolutely where it's at. And I love the retelling of some of those classic stories. um And not that much ado, mean, the tickets are, I think, sold out, but I know that they're doing things like, you know, £10 releases and, you know, Friday releases and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, if you can, you know,
00:33:04
Speaker
beg Boros to get to to it. um And I would hope that they would do a national theatre live so that that would appear on cinemas because that will just be a joy. It will be joyous.
00:33:14
Speaker
Well, no I'm going to go look that up. um And our first play that's made that question. So I love it. I love Vive la De France. um last Last question. And then we sadly must wrap it up. um Best place in the world you visited. And if you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
Reflections on Japan and Nature
00:33:35
Speaker
Oh gosh, this is really hard. um There's a couple of different places that are the best place i'veve've've I've been. So um I lived in um ah Japan for a couple of years and I would love to go back because it's a very long time ago that I was there and I had such a great time there.
00:33:53
Speaker
i I loved it. I loved the people that I met. I loved the food. i loved learning about the culture. i loved... all of the things I visited, all of the places that we went to. um I just absolutely loved, loved it. And it's one of the things that's on my bucket list, kind of like before I retire, before I, you know, pass, go, go get off, you know, die or whatever, you know, let's just be blunt.
00:34:15
Speaker
Um, I would love to go back because it's such a wonderful place and I know that it will have changed a huge amount in the time that and that I was there. Um, so I would love to be back there and if I could be anywhere right now, um Oh gosh, probably the side of a mountain somewhere.
00:34:31
Speaker
Nice. Like it. Probably, um, yeah, with the dog on a walk. Um, and just that real, just the really simple things. Yeah. me It's not about, it's not, it's not about being complicated. It's about really what, what is simple and nature grounds me and allows me to just then go back and do really, you know, great work and dig into great work. yeah.
00:34:56
Speaker
I'm having my nature fix, having my um fresh air fix um because I live in London and, you know, the air's not always that fresh. So having that sort of real burst of of fresh air and green and colour and big skies and nature.
00:35:11
Speaker
that was With the dog bouncing around in a very happy happy manner next to you. Exactly. Yeah. No, it's that's hard to be. i i'm I mean, I'm going to be getting my fix of that just ah wandering around in... in Kerry in Ireland soon. Oh, beautiful. You know, four seasons in one day kind of thing, but I love it.
00:35:30
Speaker
Absolutely love it. No, thank you so much for being really open, honest um in your and your answers today. I mean, lots of food lo food for thought um and a lot of unique answers to those questions as well, actually. So all for that too. So thank you so very much. there anything else you'd like to add before we say goodbye?
00:35:52
Speaker
No, just i I really admire what you're doing with the yeah with these awards. That's why i you you know when you asked me to be a judge, I sort of bit your hand off. how i Last year when I was kind of going through and sort of looking at different people, I was stunned at some of the amazing work that some organizations are doing to be the best place where people can bring themselves and all that they are to work in order to be able to do the best work that they can to achieve their goals for people customers and you know whoever it might be um so thank you i really appreciate it i love what you're doing well that's very kind and thank you very much um we'd love to have you back um no thanks very much and i'm looking forward to seeing you again in real life uh very very soon and um take care and thank you for everybody listening to the podcast we'll be back again with another episode next week take care ah bye