This edition of Working Hard was sent on 14/06/26
Hello!! Hope you’re having a good start to your week.
We’ve spent the weekend starting the baby prep, setting up the nursery, going pram shopping, and generally trying to convince ourselves we know what we’re doing. I also discovered that buying a pram is a bit like buying a car. You think you’ll walk in, point at one and leave. Three hours later you’re discussing suspension, wheel size and whether it can be folded one-handed. Who knew.
I’m also trying to make the most of these last few weekends before life looks very different. We started a little Sunday cinema tradition a few months ago, and it’s become one of my favourite things. We went to see the new live action Moana this weekend and it was so good. There’s something really nice about putting your phone away for a couple of hours and eating an unreasonable amount of pick & mix.
Speaking of things I’ve been slightly obsessing over... this week’s podcast started because one TikTok completely sent me down a research rabbit hole. I think most of us assume the people who are brilliant to talk to are just naturally funny, charismatic or always know exactly what to say. Turns out that’s not actually what makes someone memorable.
After watching a TED Talk, reading way too much psychology research and chatting to speech coach Susie Ashfield, I realised the people everyone loves talking to usually aren’t trying to be the most interesting person in the room, they’re just much better at making everyone else feel interesting. It’s one of my favourite episodes we’ve done in a while and I think you’ll really enjoy it.
These episodes usually start as a brain dump in my Notes app, and this was mine while I was researching what actually makes someone great to talk to.
If you haven’t watched the full episode yet, I’ve dropped it below.
I actually always come back to something Shade Zahrai said when she came on the podcast, which is that we’ve all been taught to wait until we feel confident. We think, once I’m confident enough, then I’ll do the thing. But she was saying confidence is actually the result, not the starting point. The thing you need first is self trust. Just trusting that whatever happens, you’ll figure it out.
And weirdly, I think that’s exactly what you’ve been building without even realising it. Because self trust isn’t waking up every morning thinking you’re amazing. It’s proving to yourself, over and over again, that you’ll show up. That you’ll feel the difficult emotion instead of running from it. That you’ll go to the gym because you said you would. That you’ll volunteer because that’s the kind of person you want to be. That even if you have a bad day, you’re not going to abandon yourself.
So if I could add one thing, it actually wouldn’t be another habit.
A while back I did a video on habit theory and it kind of took on a life of its own, loads of you messaged me about it and it’s still one of the most popular videos I’ve ever done. So when I heard that the expert I spoke to in that video was finally coming to the UK, I knew I needed to make a recording happen…
I hope you have a wonderful week & I’ll see you very soon,
