Latest / Sukany4: The Walk and Talk Podcast / Alison Magee-Barker - Hospitality Legend, Leadership, Helping a Million and on Living Your Best Life

Transcript

Alison Magee-Barker - Hospitality Legend, Leadership, Helping a Million and on Living Your Best Life · Sukany4: The Walk and Talk Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome back to Sakania the podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Sakania, and this is the show where we walk, we talk, and we let the landscape do something quietly extraordinary as it draws out the stories that people carry.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've been really excited about sharing this episode with you from the moment we stepped off that ferry.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm walking with Alison McGee Barker, a hospitality consultant, a coach, a trainer, an entrepreneur, and one of those rare people who can really generate momentum just by being in the room.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or in this case, on the western shore of Windermere.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: We walked towards Ray Castle along the shoreline of Windermere from the ferry on a crisp September morning.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: The autumn leaves were just beginning to turn, and a red kite overhead freely joined us with their opinions on our conversation.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: In the next hour or so, Alison is going to take you through 40 years of a life lived fully, from a catering teacher who told her she'd never make it, to running a hotel before she was 21, to crying in a car park, and then rebuilding everything from scratch.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: She's going to tell you about skydiving with the American Olympic team, running a half marathon, having never run a day in her life, VR training born from a game of Roblox and a mission of burning refuses to be a small mission to help a million people live their best lives.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: She also has thoughts on five-second windows, perfect exit strategies, and why your grandmother's kitchen might be the most important MBA you ever didn't sign up for.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to our walks and talks, welcome! And if you've been here before, welcome back.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's grab our boots or get cozy.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is season three, episode 14.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is Alison McGee Barker, and this is our walk.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Hi Alison! Hello, Sakania, how are you?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: Jinx! Do you remember what we said at school?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I nearly never spoke then for a while because my children do that now.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, do they?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I I've got to hear my full name before I actually speak.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: So do you go by Alison or Ali?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Alison.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Alison.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so there's a big thing about this.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: A few people call me Ally, but I do prefer Alison.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: There is a reason.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: My dad always said you were christened Alison and your name is Alison.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it means the world to me.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: Oh that's so nice.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I do prefer that, although some people do call me Ali or Al.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think I've always called you Alison actually.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think I think it's because I don't like my name shortened.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so I I assume everyone else prefers their name unless they tell me otherwise.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: Or I know otherwise.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it is.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I've I've no taken on that, I guess, button of honour from the dad, too.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't like my children's names shortened either.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it is.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: I like it.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: It's a strong name, Alison.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_03: I feel strong with it.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: Good.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: Good.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: So we are walking along to Ray Castle.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks to the ferry for having a little holiday while we're waiting.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's a half an hour break.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm really happy it's working today.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, um, yeah, we'd have had to rethink for the fourth time.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: That would have been a little bit dramatic, wouldn't it?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, and then we we got a dry day.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: We did.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: We were very blessed because it is autumnal.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_03: It is, yeah, it's actually really nice.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I do try and avoid recording this time of year just because of the change in weather, but it's okay today, isn't it?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's gorgeous.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we are wearing jackets, but it's okay.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: I knew didn't, and then I thought at six degrees and then put one on.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean I was promised sunshine, so I'm gonna keep the sunglasses.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely gotta have them because you never know.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: You never know we're manifesting.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it might be us a nice blast of heat, and then we'll be taking our jackets off.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's it's do you know if that happens, I'll be the happiest person.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'm happy anyway, I'm just happy to be here with you.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, me too!
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's been a long time coming.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: It really has, okay.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: Finally, our diaries have aligned.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: We've been talking about this for a few months now.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: At least the fact that we're here in person together is a blessing.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: Thank goodness.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: Thank goodness.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: So have you always lived in Windermere?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm I'm originally from Hindley near Wigan.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh I did not know that.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: From Lancashire.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a Lancashire girl, born and bred.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I have lived in Scotland, York, Harrogate.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Who else have I lived?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: Blackpool.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: I went to college in Blackpool and Lee near Wigan.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've lived in the lakes nearly 30 years now.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: What do you live about?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: 31 years.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: What do you love about it?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I I'm a real water baby, so I'm a Piscean at heart.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I always settle near water and I joke around and say, you know, I've I've always been one who likes to move around.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: However, when I met my husband, real local, as I call him, he groaned at me and I ended up staying here forever, really.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it what a place to be.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm I'm very blessed.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: I bring my children up in uh the most beautiful area.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: And even even coming on the ferry today, even walking down, you know, you stop and take a photograph going, are we lucky, aren't we blessed?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: And and like you said earlier, well, we made a choice and we did.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we have this in abundance all around us.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: And we watch nature play its course, which is just so beautiful and so authentic.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I love to be grounded, yeah, with that too.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: And it's hard not to be when you're in immersed in nature, yeah.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_03: And you can hear the birds out today.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's so nice to be on this side of the lake.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's not often, you know, I went to a phase where I did it every weekend, yeah, and it was my favourite thing to do, and I was completely obsessed.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then this year, this is the first time I've done it.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: I I've had that.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: I would come over this side of the lake, have picnics with the children when they were younger.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: Have a little swim.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, always have a swim, and then and then I've not done it this year either, which isn't that funny, really bizarre.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: But it's such a nice thing to do, and it's such an easy, accessible walk as well, isn't it?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: It is, and it's lovely to speak to people who are coming on the ferry who've no idea where they're going or what they're doing.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you help and support them to enjoy their day as well.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: I love people watching, but I also love helping and sporting people to live their best lives, you know, and have fun.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: Regardless of if you're w you know switched on for work or not, you're always kind of switched on to that.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, always.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, always that's a passion of mine.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: So how did you get into what you do?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well I do now.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: What you did before now.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: So how did I get into it?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: So my grandmother, my mother's mother, yeah, used to be a school cook, but she in these days she would be known as a pastry chef.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: She was an incredible cook, she was an incredible lady who sadly lost her husband uh in his 50s.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's young, yeah.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: And she brought up three children on her own.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I always I was taught by my grand to cook, and I always said I love hospitality in that sense because for me it was about making people happy.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: And she taught me originally I wanted to be a chef, I didn't want to be, I didn't know of any other wow.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: Was that because of her?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think so, because I I learned from what I call the best person who taught me how to make everything out of nothing.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Was that your grandmother?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Can we just pause a sec?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, look at this view.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: Oh MG, the way it just opens up.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we well, you know, you get two selfie queens together.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna have a few pauses.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: Gorgeous.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: Gorgeous.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: Look at the colours as well, how the tinge of copper and it's just turning.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: Just start starting to turn.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's coming to that time of year.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: I love this time of year.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: I do.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: I do.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: There's something so magical about watching the leaves turn.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: So, yes, so we were talking about your grandma.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: So is this your maternal grandmother?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: My maternal grandmother, yeah.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: So she taught me how to cook and my parents had their own business.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: So we I I learned a lot from my grand.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because mum and dad were really busy running their own business at the time.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: It was it was interesting.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: I had a interesting experience at school uh where the catering teacher who was a standing, she came to take over from the catering teacher who retired sadly.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it was brilliant.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: And she said my O-level, because we had O-Lovels in those days.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: It was ratatouille, and she'd found the Courgettes in my bag, my basket.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because we had a basket then.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: And she she said you'll never make it in Catering and she failed me.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: What?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um on that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: What?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, which was quite interesting.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it was very ratatouille with the Courgette.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: But I'd just not put all the Courjet in, I'd only just put one in instead of the two that I was needed.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I see, right.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because I couldn't find it, I think.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm guessing.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh I see.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: I can't find it with you at this time.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: I was only about 15, 16.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: And sadly, you know, people who tell you that you can't do anything.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: I have to do it.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's horrible.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I have the opposite effect.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, right, okay.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: So you know what she what she didn't realise is when someone tells me I can't do something, I go, hell Bantu, making sure I can.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: So she said you'll never make it in catering.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I went to college.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: Did there's one that's usually two, let's have a look.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: It was.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: I have a soft spot for aviation because of uh I'm an um so I'm an RAF baby.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh you yeah, my my dad was in the National Service Royal Air Force Association, so I wasn't being shipped around the the world as an RAF baby, should I say, but yeah, I always call myself that because it's very very important in our lives.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: My dad was in the National Service Royal Air Force Association and then he became uh chairman of the National Service Royal Air Force Association.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the national chairman, and still is to the day at the age of 88.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, yeah.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: And my mum's the secretary.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's so nice.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: Are they based up here as well?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: No, they're they're based in Wigan in our family home.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's amazing.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's very blessed.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: So it is an so I I left school.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I left school, went to college and did my BTEC first award, then ordinary national diploma.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then decided after finding out that I actually quite enjoyed on the first award, quite enjoyed people and I wanted to get away from being just in the kitchen.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to see what people said.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I did the O and D on hotel management.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: What's the O and D?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Ordinary National Diploma B Tech.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then I went to Blackpool College and did my higher national diploma, H and D.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: B Tech again.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I was hand-picked to actually go and work in Scotland on a second at the Cromlick's house to train as a manager for the Eden family.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: I was very blessed that at the time the Lake King Hussein came to visit and asked me to go to Jordan, but mum and dad said better finish your H and D and combat.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: So and Cromlick's House, by the way, is now owned by Sir Andy Murray.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: So that's when you moved to Scotland then.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I moved to Scotland.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I loved it.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: I absolutely.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: And was that your first sort of grounding into hospitality?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: No, I I started working hospitality at the age of 13.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: So whilst I was at school at the time we could jump in the back of a van with our pennies on and white gloves and go to sportsman's dinners and so on.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, to serve them.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: I know you can't do that anymore.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: You'd have to, you know, get in a proper minibus and a wiki.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I loved it.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I was working at the age of 13 and here we go.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Here we go.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_05: Look at that.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if my camera skills are very good.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's underneath it.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: I could see the pilot.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, could absolutely beautiful.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: She must have seen me recording because I'm in bright pink.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, and they turned and flipped their wings to wave to you.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they did, didn't they?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think they did.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: We'll go with that.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: From the age of 13.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I served in sportsmen's dinners for my similar catering back in Hindley and uh here we can worked there for a couple of years actually, and then when I finished school, so it's probably about three years, and then I finished school and went to a contract catering position making sandwiches and serving people at work in contract catering.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: So okay, yeah, I was I was literally trying out all sorts of different aspects of hospitality at the time without realising.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: It kind of feels like it was always your destiny to follow this path.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think so.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: You just kind of were attracted to it from the start.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I love people.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: I love people watching, I love helping people.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we all love people watching.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: It is, and and then I worked to the Georgia scene near Bolton.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh worked in all departments.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: I had to do you at this time.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think I was about 17.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: I originally went to the work placement and then got hired to work part-time uh whilst I was at college, but my part-time then became 40 hours a week.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I've gotta say I had a real clear goal what I wanted to achieve.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to buy my own car.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, did you?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: Which is very I mean, is it unusual?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: Is it unusual for people of your age to of that age to have such a because that's quite a strong goal.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, I don't I'd always wanted my own cards.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very clear on goals, I think.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I'm very passionate about that now for everybody.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know, having clarity on what you want and what you want to achieve, what you want to get.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I help people do that now.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: In my life, realistically, which is but it's something you've always done quite naturally.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's interesting, I've always done that quite naturally.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: I think from when I was 15 I had a five-year plan.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, me too.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so it's okay if it changes within the five years, but at least you're you're striving for something and you're you have a you have a focus.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, isn't that possible?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, maybe that's why we've attracted each other before.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, yeah, because I I always had uh you know, my mum and dad always said, you know, she's very clear where she wanted to go.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: And and actually when I finished college at Blackpool, I really wanted to go to Australia for a year.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: Because that was in my five-year plan.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: However, my parents asked me to apply to the Caterin Hotel Keeper because in those days all the jobs were in the catering hotel keeper.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: It was quite a thick magazine for hospitality.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I applied for three jobs, and at the time there was about five or six hundred going people going for each job.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought I'm definitely going to Australia.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'd applied for my visa.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: I was so excited I'd almost pat my suitcase.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: And then I got all three jobs.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd promised my parents that if I got all three jobs, and no, if I would have got one job, I would definitely go for interview.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: And take the job.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: However, not thinking I would have got one job and I got all three.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: All three.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I had to make the decision whether I was going to your uh to the assistant manager position, which was straight out of college, was a big responsibility, to be fair.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: Or whether I took the duty manager position at Michael's Nook in Grassmere.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: Because that was similar to Comlick's house and they knew each other.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: So good connect or a coaching in where I was going to be, I think in like a general assistant straw duty manager.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: After going to all the interviews, I knew I would learn the most about management in York.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: And within three months I became hotel general manager.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh, so before the age of 21.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, just on the age of 21, I was the general manager.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: Hotel is a lot of responsibility at that age.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I knew nothing what I know today.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: And and I want fascinating looking back.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: When I when I did you have the confidence of someone that knew hospital I knew I knew hospitality.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: I've been doing it since I was 17.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: I knew people, I knew how to effectively look after people, yeah, how to make them happy so that they're not complaining all the time or you know, understand what upset looks like and how to turn people around.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of preempt it.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: I always anticipated guest needs, it was needs and wants and and know how to how to manage that effectively.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: Are there any kind of standout complaints through your career?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: There must be some some really good ones because yeah, there's been a couple of times where it was when we had floods in the Lake District and there was a couple who arrived with a little sports car.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, and sadly that little sports car had got flooded.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh gosh.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: And the gentleman had at the time had booked the hotel, and they'd come from a boutique hotel, not mention the name where they come from.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: The wife loved the boutique hotel.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: However, the gentleman really wanted to come to a country house hotel.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I see.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: And they flooded the car, they got to the hotel, and she was not impressed.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: She's just not happy at all.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: We were fully booked.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, and we had a full restaurant.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: But we we tried to accommodate, but whatever we did, the moment she arrived.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Wasn't right.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Wasn't right.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: And she I've I've got this big thing that you know you've got five seconds to turn somebody around to meet them.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not a lot of time, is it?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's not, but that's it's like social media engagement that we were talking about before.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: You've got what, three milliseconds to engage people.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: But five seconds to turn nice seconds, so you know in that first five seconds if it's gonna work or not.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: And sadly, you know, they she was not happy.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: So he wasn't happy because he'd made a real mess up.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: They'd come from a boutique, they were travelling and they went back down south to the home.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: As the general manager found out that this person was very irate.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I went and had a conversation with them and got to the root of the problem that actually that it was because of all this.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: This is how I know the background story.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: The the gentleman had got it wrong to book a country's hotel and not boottique hotel.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I see.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Also, they'd flooded the car.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: So it was okay to think that were not in your control anyway.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's not in my control, but if you then listen and empathise and and say, Well, how can I help you to enjoy this experience?
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it's not what you want you what you ideally wanted to book or what you wanted to happen.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I understand your expectations were this, yeah, but how can I help you to actually just make the most of what we've got?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because it is flooding out here and there's nobody else got accommodation.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: She she seemed to calm down because I feel she just wanted to be listened to.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, she wanted to be heard.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: She's had a tough day, to be fair.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was just going.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh they wrote on the guest questionnaire was quite angry, which I was quite surprised at having had the conversation.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: And you'll find a lot of people in hospitality, they'll have already mitigated the risk and they'll have already had the conversation with the customer, and then they go and they would potentially go and put it all over social media.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so I was quite upset.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: I was quite upset that they'd they'd not spoken to me about it because I checked with them before they left.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I rang them.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: Did you?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: On the journey home.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: Oh did you?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: I said, obviously we've we've got off to a really bad start.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry that it's rained and flooded.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: Which is out of your control.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: It is, but it wasn't about me, it was about them.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes people are not in the right mind when they're not in a good place.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I just said, look, I'm really sorry it happened.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and this is not usual, even though we get a lot of rain in the Lake District.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's not usual that we uh get flooded.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: Saying that the lake is pretty full today.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: It is, it's starting today.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um just looking so so well behaved and gorgeous.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: I offered them a free one night stay.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you did?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because I just thought there's gotta be there's gotta be a chance to actually turn this around.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: And they became one of the best guests we had, as in well best not best guests, best ambassadors that we had.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: They constantly told everybody how wonderful we were.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Came in a different car.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: Probably oh, so they they were repeat customers.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: They became repeat customers because you put that extra effort in, didn't you?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I don't like people being unhappy and I guess you could have responded angrily as well.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: And that's we did a locking customer.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we we had a tough weekend.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: We were trying to deal with flooding, we were trying to deal with we were trying to deal with so much at the time.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: And and it it is difficult.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's difficult when people uh are want uh their expectations are have not been met.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and their expectations are above your control.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: In my younger days I'd have probably been a different person, but at the time I just thought, yeah, it's tough.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's really tough.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: And and I think I've got so used to dealing with problems that my solutions come automatically, which have led me to lead a winter campaign, a sales and marketing winter campaign, right, to help Cumbria and after Storm Desmond, yeah, help me in foot and mouth, help me uh after the American uh disaster and petrol crisis, you name it.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I I've always found the solution because what else is there?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, my dad always says you are the most determined person, yeah.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like he knows, and yeah, and and now I look at what I'm going through with immersive XP, which is a virtual reality training experience, and it's been so that's immersive coffee with a big V at the end, and very cool, yeah.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: So it's I double M E R S I with a capital V.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: A Shout T V, yeah, and then XP is capitals as well, which is separate.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: XP, yeah.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, as an experience, experience, yeah.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's been one heck of a journey, and it still is the journey is not how was that conceived?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: So let's just pause that a sec.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got to your hospitality journey.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: We were talking about my history of my grandmother and dealing with challenging customers.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, all this time you're employed by a company, and at some point you decided to pivot and follow your entrepreneurial spirit spirit.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's interesting because all throughout my career I've always believed that every business that I've managed was mine.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, isn't that interesting?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: And that's a very different take on things to sort of enter a someone else's business as an employee, but act as though it's yours.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because the the experience, I can see why the experience would be different for you and for your customers.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I'm very passionate about everything that I do.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, you know, I always I don't know whether it was imagination or whether it was something that I was really excited about, but I've always looked at every hotel I've managed as my own place.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing, yeah.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's really interesting.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's and and I was like the face of, as yeah, a lot of the owners would say.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: The face of the property.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: Wasn't about just doing the hours or anything like that, it was my life.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: I would put everything else on hold, which is not a great thing, no I'll look back.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: And actually it's a really difficult lifestyle choice, isn't it?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_03: Because shift work is not easy, no, and you do have to sacrifice your weekends and evenings so that people like me can go out and have a weekend away.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: And and I and I loved that.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I used to work every single Christmas and did you?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I loved it.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: I would you know any children, well, yeah, any children who's listening now, yeah, stop and pause and do not listen to the next bit.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: But I believe, I really do believe in Father Christmas and what he brings and and so on.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I used to do sleigh marks all over the garden.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: I was the gardener's worst nightmare for the hotels that I ran.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I had deer droppings, yeah, carrots everywhere, and lots of muddy boot prints and glitter, uh glitter everywhere.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it looked like Father Christmas had really been.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I used to love that bit.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, I'd stay till two or three o'clock in the morning, Christmas Eve, just to make sure it was done when everybody was asleep, yeah.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'd be back in the following morning.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like bring the magic up, yeah.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: It was really important to make magical memories and everything I did in hospitality.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh crazy for a lot of people to understand.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but for me, it was important to be to be the imagining owner of the business.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: I I genuinely used to feel it was mine until I wanted a refurbishment or any money to spend on something or a renovation or an extension or I'd have a business plan ready, budget clear, yeah, uh wish list, as I was going to the bank and I was going to the owners.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I loved it.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: I loved I loved that element, but when when I licked it, I knew no different.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: I always worked in hospitality from 13.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I always worked at the different chests and didn't know any better.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's my life, it was everything.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I socialised with my colleagues in hospitality.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I loved it.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: I loved every every bit of it.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, really.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: It was, it was my life, it was my love.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh, but yeah, you would feel a bit upset sometimes when you couldn't make your friends' celebrations.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I always tried to be there, uh-huh.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: But there's sometimes where you couldn't make certain celebrations or family birthdays.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, sorry.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, yeah, yeah.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: And for me it was important because I love being around family and friends as well.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm passionate about that.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a difficult those are two it's hard, two values that are kind of conflicting there.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because I love what I do.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I also love the people in your life.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: Then when I got married, uh-huh, you know, it carried on.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: And oh okay.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Graham, my husband, he would be working 40 hours a week and when am I going to see you?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I go soon.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: The night we met was the day before September the 11th.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: And the day after my MD at the time had a tough time because his brother was in America.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: In the area.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: So he sadly left very quickly and I left the company.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I just took over running it.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but because he was living nearby, yeah.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: I then had to move in from my cottage.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: And move into the hotel.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Until we found somebody to do sleepovers.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's been it's been a love relationship, but it's been tough to sometimes where you're having to make difficult decisions personally.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: I got pregnant, I knew I had to make sure everybody in the team could do my job with it.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I was performing my perfect exit strategy.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: Without anybody realising what I was doing.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: Incl including me at the beginning, to be fair.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: But I knew.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know now that that's what you mean.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: I knew that's what I was.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: Second time I was pregnant, I definitely made sure everybody knew because I didn't want to be working the hours.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to see my children.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: When I went back to work after my daughter was born, I found that really hard.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: Really hard.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: I cried the first day.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh Alison.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it was horrific.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'd spent eight months with her.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_03: And then I think this is something we don't talk about enough, is it's so hard, isn't it?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's so hard to it's such a big change to your life anyway.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: But then having to go back to your old life.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: But actually, your life has changed so much and beyond recognition and your priorities are so different in the space of a very short period of time.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: But you're still having to fulfill your old shoes.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you feel guilty.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: And you feel really guilty.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't tell you how guilty that is it's like the biggest weight on your shoulders because you're wanting to prove to the outside world that you can do it all.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it was tough because I was taking Sarah to nursery, dropping her off.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: She loved it, so that was brilliant for her.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: Very blessed because the nursery was just phenomenal and treated, you know, her like I would have treated it if I was still with her.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: Then I went to work, and sometimes because you're busy, yeah, you know, hate to say it, but it's true.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: Nursery would drop her off at the hotel because I'd not got back in time.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: You have to do what you have to do.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: And you're guilty all the time, then I'd take her home.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: The chef would be brilliant, Mark was absolutely superb.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: I know that lovely.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: And sat right in front of us.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, Mark would give her a short bread.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: She still remembers Mark Duburn.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: Who fed her and Samuel shortbreads.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's so nice.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: When the necessary would drop her off, or I'd pick them up and get back because I'd not finished.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then Graham would pick them up and yeah.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_03: So you're doing a different kind of shift work.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'd, you know, I'd put them to bed and then go back to work.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: So that was in the early days.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I I knew I needed, I needed to perform the best exit strategy, and which was so important for me to actually say, that's it.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I want to work hours that actually suit my family.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: But I will still work the I'll I'll still work the efficiency and effectiveness in the business.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, I was more efficient and effective in that role than what I was before I had children.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: I worked harder.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think was the change?
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: I had to be more efficient and effective.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: My time management was unbelievable.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: To be there for your family.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: To do it all.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: But without compromising your career aspirations.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because I always so that's the other thing that we touched on earlier, but I I didn't say is I always wanted more.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: So when you mentioned about entrepreneurial spirit, I didn't realise it at the time.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: But I used to say to the team, look at this hotel for sale.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: She'll go buy it.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: You just think you'll you've got a different lens on.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: And and they go, I said, if you want that sort of money, yeah, there's no way you would go and do that.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, I did look at yeah, I did look at it at the time.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I went looking around a few hotels to buy.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: One was when I was in Ambleside working as a GM.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I took my mum and dad to have a look at what are B in Kessick.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I went, I could do this on my own.
• 34:09
  unknown: Yeah.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I I didn't buy it, but I was close to it.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: I had the business plan door.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, did you?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: I was going to the bank.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know why I didn't do that, but funny, isn't it?
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: How you know different you go into different paths, but I always wanted more.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_02: I knew I wanted more.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I was obsessed about making sure the team knew more than I did on a number of things because I knew I was getting to the end of life of being able to work all around the clock.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I didn't want to work Christmas anymore because I wanted to see my family.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: So that became a bit of an issue sometimes.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'd I'd covered other people in the business so that they could see the families.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I felt it was my turn.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: I do, I do love what I do, and I'm very passionate and I'm very understanding what every person in the industry goes through because I've worked in all departments.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: I've literally worked in every department.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I've been the chef when the You've had to stand in for different roles.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: When well when the whole team walk out because they've had a photo like gosh, oh my goodness.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I've had to run a function with a comedy.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: Luckily, because of my training in all areas.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I always say, you know, learn to do everything in what you're doing so that you don't end up being in a very bad weak spot.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: And my daughter's doing that currently at 14.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: In the pizza plate, she's asked to learn different areas of the business.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: That'll really help with like GCSE business studies and things like that.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: She's very yeah, she's very living experience.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_03: Very changing.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: She's amazing.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: Getting over her own fears.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: So when you decided you were gonna go solo, set up your own business, how many years did you have under your belt?
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, in hospitality.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, gosh, now you're asking.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: So it was 2017.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so you just saw you've 10 years.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_02: 2017.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: But 2017, I'm gonna have to work this out actually, because I started when I was 13.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I started in 1983.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, 34 years.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: 34 years, wow.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: That was when I I literally hung up the keys.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh I see, yes, yes.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: Right now is 40 years.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's incredible.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so what was it that drove you to decide you were gonna go on your entrepreneurial journey?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: So originally I was thinking, what can I do that allows me to be in the industry because I love it.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very passionate about it.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: I love everything about it.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: And help more because that's what I did actually get from the sales and marketing winter campaign when I led it.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: I got a lot of ideas of I'd oh I'd I'd wrote and directed a short film called Celebrating Beatrice Mother at the time.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: I was interviewed on D BBC Breakfast because of it.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh were you?
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: All these little hidden talents, Alison.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you still forget little things like that.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: And it and it went quite viral at the time on a certain platform.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: That I don't think is still there now.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, at the time it did.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: And our website nearly broke at the hotel.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: Oh really?
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh because BBC Breakfast actually showcased it in snippets, right?
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: They showcase the film.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: I knew I wanted more.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know what I wanted.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I got my perfect opportunity in January 2017 when I was put on garden leave to be fair because I was made redundant.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: Because I performed my perfect exit strategy.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I see, okay, yeah.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody knew what they were doing.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: There was no need for me anymore.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I knew that.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I joked around at the time before that happened.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: So that's really interesting because you've mentioned the perfect exit strategy a few times now.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: Is that something you could people on?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and why is this important?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: You've got to you've got to know your end goal, yeah, what you want to achieve.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: Start from the end point.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then work backwards and start building results focused strategy, and that's what I do to make it easier on everybody.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just on you.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: For me, it's really important to good outcome for everybody.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: All around.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: No matter what that is.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you might not see it at the time, but in years to come you will look back and go, that was the best thing that happened for me.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm glad, I'm personally glad that it happened.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: I was glad at the time.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_02: Not because I didn't want to be there anymore.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: I loved the people.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: I loved my team.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I really did miss my team.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot happened at the time when I left the hotel.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, because I couldn't speak to anybody about leaving.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I found that really hard, and and I think the team found it hard, even though they all knew what they were doing.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: We've got a good relationship, a really great relationship.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: Hello.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: Good morning.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it really hurt, you know, that I couldn't say goodbye properly.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: That that hurt.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: I couldn't tell my children that I'd left.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I was pretending I was getting dressed for work every day.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: Oh gosh.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: But that it is what it is.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: And now I look at it and think, wow, how lucky am I?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because I got to have people around me at the time who really enjoyed helping and supporting me to decide what I wanted to do.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: I had great support, great people, great uh people who'd worked with me on a consultancy basis.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: They contacted me, said, You need to go it alone.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, that's I think I'd be an area manager.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because then at least, you know, I could be home and then realistically I wouldn't be because I'd be all over the country.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: But I was trying to think of something that fulfills you do.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, fulfill my need to help and support people.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's one of your core values, isn't it?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: And your purpose.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a passion and purpose of mine.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: And and I never want anybody to go through some of the heartache and hardships that I'd been throughout my life, you know, of just trying not knowing how to do something and having to having to literally do it myself and work it all out.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: And being in independent hotels, you've not got head office who are giving you, you know, the uh template of everything.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, template of everything.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you haven't you have to design it yourself.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I'd done all that, yeah.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_02: I've got all that anyway.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I'll never forget Pamela Carvel was the one who she's the president of the hotel marketing association.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_02: And she's she was the one who said, Do you know it would be really great for you and for the industry if you went to be a consultant or went to help many businesses, not just one.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you've got quite an ambitious goal, haven't you?
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: What's the number?
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I want to help a million busy business owners, managers, and teams to live their best lives by being emotionally, physically, mentally, and financially free from their life in their lives.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, wow.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_02: Because I've craved that for over 34 years.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah, so it's coming from a real personal story.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: Very personal, very personal.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I I want people to live their best lives and enjoy a fulfilled life, not just work, work, work.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: And and I loved my work, don't get me wrong, I would, you know, do it again in a heartbeat.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't go back running hotels, by the way.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: Because what I get now is I get to help people because I can see from the helicopter view.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you've got the experience and the objectivity now.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I see the gap very quickly because I've got so many years under my belt and I've done it, I've worn the t-shirt and I've been there and I know what it feels like.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm never there to rob somebody of the jobs, which is what is the first thing that they uh say when I'll go in.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, you're gonna take over.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: Not gonna cull any jobs.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're to help and support them to live the best lives.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's really important what you just said is that it's not just about you can spot the gaps and you know how to fix it, you can also feel the fields and you understand the emotions people are going through to help them on that that side of things as well.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my so I I work on mindset a lot as well.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, in helping and supporting people to see bigger picture because there's three ways of seeing everything.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: The way you see it, the way everybody else sees it, and the way it really is.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: 95% of people never see it the way it really is because something could happen here, right now, so can you?
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and we'll see it different because of where we are in our mindset and where we believe, yeah, yeah, and what we believe, and and that's what I want to help and support people to actually fulfil their own human needs, yeah, you know, and and ultimately when you've got that, your whole guest experience is phenomenal, it catapults because the the atmosphere, the culture, everything in the organisation, you know, is just mind-blowing.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_02: And and my clients, when you know, I I had one say to me literally three weeks ago, and he said, 'Do you realise what you've done to my company?' and you have that sick feeling going, Oh god, what's I gotta say?
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what have they done?
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: And and then, you know, out comes the usual communication of Alison, our business is like night and day from the from the moment.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: You walked in, yeah.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it's still oozing our culture now, where it's a year on.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that's amazing.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it feels absolutely outstanding.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what lights me up.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: And also just not that you need it, but a bit of confirmation that you made the right choice.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_02: And and to be fair, yeah, I do need it.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that sounds crazy, and that's not an ego talking, but what I've not told you is when I hung up my keys for good, yeah, having a good full team around me, and then suddenly you've nobody, yeah, and you're on your own and you start your business, and even though you've been running businesses for 30 years or whatever it was, or 20, I think 28 years I've run businesses for.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: All the am I allowed to swear?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_02: All the shit showed up.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_02: Am I good enough?
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: What am I doing?
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_02: I went to a networking event soon after I'd started my business with my business cards.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'd developed my own website to turn up at a conference.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_02: And and I was like, who am I to do this?
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: Who am I doing?
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_02: What right do I have to be here?
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: All that came up.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_02: And what I had done throughout my whole career is I'd been like top end of professional development.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'd literally be consistently learning, learning, learning, learning.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I have done it all my all my life.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I still do today.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm always looking for new things.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: And yet I didn't feel good enough.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll never forget, I went to up north, it was Penrith, to a networking event.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_02: It was a a meeting with all my old industry peers and I felt completely lost.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: Did you?
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I got in the car that night and I cried all the way up.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, Alison.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, I never want to feel, yeah, but I never want anybody else to feel like that again.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_02: And it really was a turning point for me.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because I didn't realise how lost I was.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I went on a personal development journey.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: That was phenomenal.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: Is this where Tony Robinson was in?
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know who he was.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: I had no clue who he was.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's phenomenal.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_03: To go from not knowing him to doing one-to-ones.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's outrageous.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_03: I had no idea.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_02: I just went, everybody keeps talking about this Tony Robbins in the personal development stage.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and I kept thinking, who is this guy?
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: And then I I went on an event, I think.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_02: When it originally I was trying to remember how it, you know, somebody had said about the no KBB, the knowledge blueprint something.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought, I don't get this stuff because I know business, so I knew what I needed in the business.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I knew what other people needed, so I didn't really get it.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know what they were trying to do.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then all of a sudden, I was invited to be on the inner Tony Robbins Inner Circle.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I and I was like, yeah, alright, then I found a member on the inner circle, whatever means.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: And you get to hear from Tony, and it was bizarre really when I look at it, how on earth it all happened, I have no idea.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: But then he interviewed me in front of hundreds of thousands of people for what I did and what I was creating.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it it was just phenomenal.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I and I spoke to him like he was one of my colleagues or one of my friends.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was just so natural.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_02: And everybody said, you know, he he gifted me Life Mastery, which I did earlier this year.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_02: So Life Mastery is one of his programmes to help you with your health and well-being.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd forgotten he gifted it, mate.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, okay.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_02: But the team contacted me and said, Normally it's expired by this day.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_02: However, Tony has clearly said you need to take it.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_02: Oh right.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I actually did.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_02: Didn't realise.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_02: I needed to take it because at the time I was probably on the way to Burnout.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh really?
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_02: And it's something that passionate about saying everybody take hashtag TFM.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_02: Time for me meetings.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: Oh TFM.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: I love TFM.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've done that throughout my whole career, and it's only when I started talking about it in my business that the team then realised what the TFM was in my diary.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: They all thought it was some very important meeting.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it was me going having my hair done or me going doing something for me.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: But they had no idea.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to dash off and put some TFMs in my calendar.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: I had it in my diary to make sure I would turn up for me.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: And and have me time.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_02: So personal development was a massive thing for me, and I've continued on that journey, as well as my professional development.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_02: But that's transformed who I am as a person, who my business is, also everything else that goes with it.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: But the ultimately it's all my clients who I work with, they're now getting phenomenal results.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_02: They're already getting amazing results, but it's now phenomenal because it's lasting change.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's gone.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like the scales is good, amazing, phenomenal.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so in talking about well-being, you've done some pretty cool stuff, haven't you?
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've always been cool.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've always been an adventure girl with a heart.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_02: Always pushing myself.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's just not in your career, it's just part of who you are.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: It is me as a person.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's always a bit extra, extra.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I always have to do a bit more like mega this, mega that.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: I do.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_02: I used to skydive for a hobby.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_02: Did you?
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: In between my schists at the hotel.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_02: Stop it.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_02: I did.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_02: Well, solo skydive.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel a bit sick actually thinking about it.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: I loved it.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_02: I really did.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_02: And it started as a charity, parachute jumps, six of us from the hotel.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_02: We had BBC there at the time filming at the hotel, Richard Whiteley.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_02: He was doing the I know he was amazing.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_02: He was doing like a wish you were here at the hotel.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I served him breakfast and and I joked with them at the time saying, you know, you better not cut that out because this could be my last.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh God.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_02: My last.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_02: Honestly.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_02: I said this could be my last appearance on TV.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, my first and last ever.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_02: Not to be dramatic people, but I'm going I'm going jumping out to a plane.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_02: Can we have a captain?
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: And there were six of us.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_02: There was uh two waitresses, yeah, me as hotel manager, and there was a head chef and two other chefs, yeah.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_02: Two chefs departies.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_02: And the owner at the time said, we better take some insurance out on these lot because like it's a lot of the team who could potentially go, being two of the leaders of the business.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_02: And we went and did that down at CARC, and I fell in love with that.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_02: So we can do it, yeah, I want to do it again.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_02: So I did, and then I flew to America and did an accelerated free-fall course.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_02: What?
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_02: And jumped with the I was very lucky there, yeah, jumped with the American Olympic team who guided.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like nothing's just like standard, is it?
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like the gold package.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's only when I thought, yeah.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_02: But I think the universe puts you in certain places at certain times.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah and you know, and I was struggling to relax, jumping into the back of a flipping sky van.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_02: And Solly Williams, his name was.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_02: He went, chill man, chill man in American.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_02: And he kept doing this, he kept which right now I'm shaking my hand.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_02: He kept shaking his hand.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_02: And when I jumped out with him, yeah, every time I shook my hand, I relax.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_02: He was really clever.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting, yeah.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: Cool.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: So skydiving, then there was I've done some run running.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_03: Which you didn't fall in love with.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_03: No, I did not.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_02: That was.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_03: I do understand what you mean though.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_03: You kind of see all these runners and you think, oh, it looks amazing and they look great.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna love it and I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna buy all the stuff, and then you did about all shoting.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then you didn't fall in love.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_02: Not all tried it.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, so it started off at a network event, yeah, of which I was hosting.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the charities went, well, look and it was online, yeah.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: It was you know, uh during the yeah, finishing off COVID.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so it was during COVID, and one of the charis charities, care support saiths, who I really have a soft spot for, I have a soft spot for a number of things, but yeah, helped them in the past with what I do.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it really touched my heart when a young girl who I don't want to really name her because that's good.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_02: It was she lost her mother, sadly.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_02: But at the time her mother was alive, right, and she was all over children in need, okay.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_02: And her mother had emphysemia and she was dying, and her daughter was only eleven, and I did it for them because I could see on that film footage that they showed me, yeah, which which made me want to help and support them.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that that girl needed to spend quality time with her mum.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_02: Not cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_02: Basically being a carer.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_02: And they help unpaid cleaners, uh cleaners, so they are unpaid carers, where that came from.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_02: Unpaid carers.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_02: And and it really hurt and and it was Marion who is the well was the fundraising manager, and she just basically said, I need somebody to do the Great North Run.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_02: And that is half a marathon.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's half a marathon.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody stepped up.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I went, Marion, when is it?
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_02: And she said it's September.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_02: I said, okay.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_02: Now we're talking.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_02: When what month were we in?
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_02: We were in June.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_02: Stretch goals, extra, extra.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I went, I went, right, and is there any runners on here?
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody who can run?
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_02: And has anybody run?
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: And nobody put their hand up.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I went, oh go on, I'll do it.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_02: Laughing.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_02: Not realising that she took me seriously.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_02: She registered me.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then Jeanette also, Jeanette McLaughlin, yes, sir.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_02: She went, I'll do it too.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_02: Now she's a runner.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_02: So it's Megan chuffed to bits and though.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_02: Oh Megan chuffed to bits because I thought, oh, amazing.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_02: However, I did know we would not be in the same time scale because she's a runner.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_02: She's a runner, yeah.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I've never run a day in my life properly.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I was in a bit of a stupid way.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_02: Stay shock.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_02: I've got 16 weeks before the Grand Weeks run.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I've got to work out how to run 14.1 miles.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I thought that was a full stop, how to run.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, how to run as well.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where Tony Roberts came in because I documented it all.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_02: I documented like my struggles.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_02: And it is a mental game, isn't it?
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's it was.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I genuinely, yeah.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_02: At first I did uh was it about 50 metres or something like that.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was uh as I was trying to do it uh on a flat in Cleveland's and I couldn't breathe.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I was purple.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh god I thought I'm gonna die on this again.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was gonna be.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna die from the plane, yeah.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna die on a flat die on the ground, yeah, yeah.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_02: On a on a run, yeah.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_02: Which I don't enjoy.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because it looks amazing.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_03: I just love that line.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_03: I just th I thought I was gonna fall in love with it and I didn't.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_02: So so I did the I did the charity event and I was mega impressed with myself because I did train hard.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so you did really well.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_02: I did injure myself badly as well.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I had shins out because I um I uh I hired somebody to help me, yeah, but they were used to dealing with very fit uh Olympic people, right?
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: No someone who haven't got a clue or stuff running this yeah and had to get new trainers to do it as well, so I had all the kit but no idea.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, how long did it take you to recover?
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I just want to say I actually did it.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_02: I I thought I'd do it in three hours, and I did it in two hours 53 minutes.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_02: Alison, that's amazing.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_02: I five to that, I know that's phenomenal, and then I did it again the year after thinking I still don't love it, I didn't die.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I could walk at the end of it.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's my children.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_02: So you did it twice.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, did it twice, I did it again the year after, but got cocky.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_02: Don't get cocky, yeah.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because I got cocky and thought, oh well, if I've done it with a bit of training, having never run a day in my life, yeah, I can just rock up and I'll be okay.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, you can't do that.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_02: No, you have to train.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_02: That was very cocky, it was very silly.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I did a bit of training, but not as much as I wanted to, because I didn't enjoy running.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I did it in three hours, I think one minute the second time.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, but I I cried from uh mile eight until the end.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh because you know um on the Great North Room they have like little alarms going off so they're tracking you.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I jumped on my late because I was I was really uh high.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: I was really faster than I'd ever been.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_02: Oh okay.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I went, look at me!
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd got the super power behind me, I'm like, God, I'm gonna, I'm gonna beat two hours 53.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_01: I might beat two hours at this.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I jumped on mile eight, yeah, and I had pain shoot all the way up uh my leg, all the way up my side.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_02: I was in a bad put bad way.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_02: I saw um sent John's ambulance, I was going to pull over.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_02: I went, nope, because I had the young girl in my head.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh okay.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_02: I asked for freeze spray, they're not allowed to give you that.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh okay.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh first aid the same.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I went, do you know what?
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_02: Hi.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_02: Hi.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_02: I thought, I've got to do this, I've got to do this because this is nothing compared to the carers who were caring for the loved ones every day without that respite.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I kept going, hobbling, cried all the way.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_02: Oh it was it was really damaged yourself.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_02: I damaged myself.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_02: My husband had to come and pick me up.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I I was in a bad way.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, so what's your takeaway from that?
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_02: Then what would you prepare, prepare, train, train?
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think you can just do something out of nothing without any of that.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_02: But it it actually mirrored stuff that I do in business.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_02: That okay, you wouldn't just rock up and scale your business, you would get a strategy in place and decide what the goal is and and work backwards and do the strategy and plan.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what I needed to do.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I did it the first time round.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's exactly what I did.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I went gone caught, and I don't know how on earth, if I look at it, I actually only trained for 12 weeks properly because I'd got injured and had to rest in between on the first time round.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I've done all sorts.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've you've done the swimming as well.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: Swimming.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we've got all the elements here.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, wild water, yeah.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_02: Swimming with Tony Robbins in January, told me to go and get in the lake.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I went, Yeah, I can do that.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_02: I've still got the video somewhere.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I walked in, dipped, walked out, and he went, get back in.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's me thinking I'd like done a month because there was a bit of ice on the outside of Windermere.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_02: And yet I was on a group, I was on like the inner circle with other people who were in Alaska, and they were proper going in ice.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_02: And uh that's incredible.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I went, Oh god, I better go back in because they're swimming now.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_02: They're doing incredible things, so yeah.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I went in, I went in again and again, and and rightly so.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_02: You've just got to learn to stretch yourself and get comfortable in uncomfortable action.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the thing for me.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_02: I that was part of the growing.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and any challenges that come, it's all about the learning, the opportunity, and the gift that it's given you.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_02: So then I I got used to being in cold and and actually cold's my favourite time.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: I have an ice bucket of well, it's an i it's the proper ice uh with a fridge and everything.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, at home.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: And is that something that you just discovered with this Tony Robbins experience, or did you know that because you said you've always been drawn to water.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_02: I love water, yeah.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_02: So water is my thing.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_02: I've always felt at home near water, yeah.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_02: Near the sea, near a lake, near a river.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_02: And it it's funny because every place I've worked and stayed a long time, yeah, there's always been running water nearby.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, isn't that interesting?
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_02: And have you done the Tony Robbins um firewalk?
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_02: No, but because when I did UPW, it was called uh Unleash the Power Within.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's when you do the firewalk.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: We did the break a block of wood.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I see.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I did that break a block of wood at four o'clock one morning.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_02: Did you?
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I was screaming around the house going, I've done it! Oh, there's a car coming.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_02: I've done it.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_02: I've done amazing.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I I've not done the firewalk, but I've done a lot of things in my life that have challenged me.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I keep flowing through and yeah.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_03: So you've done you have you've done um, I was gonna say earth, wind, and fire, but fire is pending.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_03: And you've covered off water.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, covered water.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's amazing.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_03: So if you were to summarize the last 40 years of your journey in three words, what would you go with?
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_03: I know that's I'll put you on the spot.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_02: Challenging, yeah, powerful.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: I want to say outstanding, but I'm also blessed, so I'm I'm pushing it.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_02: Extra, extra.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's interesting, isn't it?
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because it has been challenging, it's not been an easy ride.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_02: I have gone through a lot throughout my career and throughout my life, really.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_02: The thing that I've not mentioned were I lost and nobody knew at work.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_02: I lost children.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_02: So Alison, I'm sorry.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody knew at work.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_02: So that was on my TFM where I had to go to Manchester.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_02: I had a phone call to get back because I had to be there that night.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_02: And yet no one knows to the day in that place that I actually had gone here.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's a lot to carry and still perform in a challenging environment.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_02: I had a finger on the kitchen above the door.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_02: Smile, you know, on stage.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I said to everybody, nobody.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I there's another one.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_03: I can hear them fly over my house sometimes, and I feel like it's gonna land on my head.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_02: They're so loud.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_02: They are.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_02: I do quite like them.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I find so there has been challenging times.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_02: It has been powerful because I've achieved so much when I look at it.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_02: When you when you're asking my questions, I'm thinking, well, I've not really achieved much, and then I'm going, actually.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, you've done a lot, haven't you?
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_02: I've been in a lot of good places at the right time.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a lot of great experiences.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, outstanding in the fact that you know, I'm still here, yeah.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm enjoying my life, I've got a great place to live.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've got lovely children.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you're doing amazing things.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_03: So you've got your coaching and mentoring, yeah, you've got your consultancy with the businesses, yeah, you've got your immersive XP app um for training in hospitality, which sounds amazing.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's a virtual reality training experience, and and it's linked to KPIs in the business because I'm being a results-focused consultant coach and trainer, yeah.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_02: I want to help a million people, so I want to I can't personally on a one-to-one basis do that.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I do know if I create the right foundation.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_02: And also you help the homeless endeavours.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_02: So my next foundation is homeless into hospitality.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_02: So immersive, I have to put my own oxygen mask on right now.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, not right now, but yeah.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_02: In the business to make it go really, really well because one thing that happened during COVID, which taught me a very, very big lesson.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_02: I gave my services free of charge for the whole of COVID.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_02: Thinking it were two weeks.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh obviously it wasn't two weeks.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I financially crippled myself and I learned at that point that I gave and I didn't put my own oxygen mask on, they didn't look after me or the business.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's a really powerful lesson for everyone, isn't it?
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_02: Flipping hurt.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah I nearly went under, but everybody else I worked with, I saved.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm sure.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_02: But it gave me the idea of you know bringing the training academy to life, which is when I built the training academy in twenty twenty four.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_02: Twenty twenty.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_02: Twenty fourth of September.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_02: Incorporated incorporated.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's today.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_02: Twenty-fourth of September.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_03: We get to sell your copy.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_03: We're supporting you.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh the idea came to help and support many.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_02: But the idea from immersive came from adults playing Roblox.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because she was playing Roblox and nine years old at the time.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_02: She thought she could run pizza restaurants.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I went, give it to you.
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_02: And she went, You're no gamer.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_02: I am no gamer.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_02: I agree with her.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_02: Picked it up.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_02: Had a good.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_02: Loved it.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_02: Beat it.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_02: And she said, How have you beaten me?
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I all I saw in that game was yield management revenue per square meter.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_02: And how to do tables.
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I went, This is how some vision.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_02: My vision is to make hospitality a leading career choice in the UK.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_02: And my second vision is AJS Foundation, homeless into hospitality, eradicating homelessness.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_02: I can only do that when immersive is out there, yeah, running and actually helping the supporting a million busy business owners, managers, and teams for the best side.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's where you're welcome from.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, thanks, Alison.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_03: I really enjoyed that.
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_03: And thank you for taking me on this walk along along the do we call what do we call the site?
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_03: The Ray Castle Walk.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but it's it is, it's down by the side of the lake.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's a beautiful site.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's an untouched area.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_05: It is, I really like it.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I like that there's a coffee shop at either end.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_03: So we can fill our boots and get back on the boat.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I really enjoyed that.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate your time.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_02: And celebrating now.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_03: Let's go and get our coffee and have a little celebrate.
• 1:08:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that was Alison McGee Barker.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_00: Challenging, powerful, outstanding, her words, all three of them completely earned.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've been sitting with something Alison said near the end of our walk.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_00: About how 95% of us never see a situation the way it really is.
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because our mindset, our beliefs, our fears are always getting in the way.
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about that a lot, about the stories I tell myself, about the gap between how things are and how I've decided they are.
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to know what you're sitting with.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_00: And speaking of sitting with things, as you know, I'm really into staying curious, and I have three questions I want to leave you with.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a version of Alison's perfect exit strategy that applies somewhere in your life right now?
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_00: Something you know you're building yourself out of, whether you've admitted it yet or not?
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_00: When did someone tell you that you couldn't do something?
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_00: And what did you do with that?
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, what would it feel like to treat your own life the way Alison treated those hotels?
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_00: As if it were absolutely 100% fully yours.
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Consider taking those on a walk with you or have a quiet sit-down with a copper and a notepad and see what comes up.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_00: A huge thank you to Alison for her time, her openness, and her willingness to walk along one of the most beautiful stretches of Lakeside in England and to just tell the truth.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can find all of Alison's links in the show notes, her website, her socials, the details of her consultancy, training academy, and the immersive XP program.
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a business owner or manager in hospitality who recognises yourself somewhere in this episode, I'd really encourage you to reach out to her.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And now a quick word about the wonderful people who helped make this podcast sound like the thing it's supposed to be.
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_00: A massive thank you and shout out to a band called Persimmon, our incredible music partner.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Every note you've heard in this episode is theirs, so please do find them, follow them, and love them.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_00: If today's episode meant something to you, please share it with a friend, a colleague, or someone you think needs to hear Alison's story.
• 1:11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have a moment to leave a review, it makes an enormous difference to how many people find the show.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're a walking-talking indie music loving podcast that reaches listeners across the globe, and we only get there because of you.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here and thank you for walking with us.
• 1:11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep walking, keep moving, keep going, even when it's six degrees and you've promised yourself sunshine.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sakania, and this is Sakania the Podcast.