S20 Ep4: Bonus - Jamie's on a break, a bad echo & a banana sambo

0:00It's the bonus episode. Welcome along to the GoGlow. Brought to you with thanks to Centrum Multibiotics Complete if you have listened to this podcast for a while. You'll know that I'm always trying to make wellness less complicated. I think there was a time when I believed I had to do all of the things all of the time. But these days I'm much more interested in the habits that I can actually stick to and that actually work for me. The big thing for me is when I can understand why I'm doing something I'm far more likely to keep doing it. So let me tell you why I take Centrum Multibiotics Complete. It's a daily food supplement. It combines 18 essential vitamins and minerals and 18 scientifically proven strains for my gut in one capsule. It even includes vitamin D for normal immune function and vitamin B12 to support energy release. One capsule once a day, that's it. I don't over complicate my days, but looking after myself is a big priority.

1:01For me, it's all the little things that I do consistently that make the biggest difference. You can find Centrum Multibiotics Complete in Tesco, Dunstores and Boots in-store and online. Welcome along to the podcast. Sorry we're coming to you. A little bit late this week, there's a lot going on. We've got the September reset, the GoGlow is back. I'm back doing corporate talks. The office is busy. We've got a row set. We've got Rome. We've got Lake Garda. We've got a few secret trips of bar sleeves. And Jamie, you're running the Kerry Ultra on Saturday, 60 kilometers in the mountains with a group from the GoGlow. And this week, I would say it will be pretty accurate to say you're here in Budgie, but not in mind. Yeah, well, I'm trying to get my head in the game for the big challenge that lies ahead at the weekend, but also the organization that goes into this stuff is pretty deep. You've got to have your nutrition on point before your run.

2:04You've got to get all your nutrition in order for when you're actually doing the run. So on this run, we're doing 60K. We'll have a stop at 21 or 22K. So after half marathon distance, there'll be a crew stop at that crew stop. You've got to reload with all your stock. And why I say stock, I mean, like our nutrition, so new gels, new new car, buy a car, buy a drape bars drinks, all that sort of stuff. Load that up into your running vest. Or if you go again to the next crew stop where you got to have all your stuff ready to go again to give people perspective. I've got little freezer bags on the freezer bags. I've got a crew stop one mark. I've got crew stop two marked. I've got a change of clothes for crew stop one because you could be this organized for like our family holidays. Like you literally just show up at the airport where we stay and how we get in there. One of the kids bringing. So not true. Like you have to be super organized for these things.

3:04You'll be less organized for a family holiday. A swimming dog's tail and all the rest is grand. Like it's fine. This stuff is serious. It's life or death. Yeah, well, it could be a copy. You know, you don't want to be running out of energy at the top of a mountain and have to go another 20 kilometers with no help. So yeah, it's a big, big challenge. But I'm really excited for it. We're doing it with five lads who have matched just through our running trips. There are members of team go club, but they become great friends over the years. And I've never done this distance with them before. We've done, I think up to about 30 or 45, 40k with them in the hills. Last year, but this is a, this is a much, much bigger challenge. So it's pretty exciting. And I have a few friends from outside the go club. They're doing it as well. One guy is doing a 200 kilometer run. So my mate Rob is doing that. And we're hoping we will pick him up some time on the route because he has to probably probably and mentally. But he has to cross where we start.

4:05So we start in a ten call. Sneam he has to cross there by nine o'clock in the morning. After running all the way through the night. So hopefully we will pick him up along the way and give him a boost and bring him along with us too. Well, it's amazing. So for any good glow fans, Olivia Hunt, he was on my podcast two seasons ago. Her husband is doing it and Tilo and column who's not that we weren't at their wedding in May, but they are brothers in law. So we were at their family wedding. It was so much fun. One thing that I wanted to say to you there. Yes, a Joe, my stepdad is crewing for you. So he's going to be at the various stops. You know, with all of the stuff that you need to restock with for a pep talk. He has a little cooker making you guys noodles and stuff. How important is it to have somebody who is outside of what you're doing? Like is that a grounding moment where you're kind of brought back to life or brought out of the pain when you see him?

5:05Yeah, well, you know that you're obviously you're making your way to him at a certain point. So there is that in the Joe always brings a good laugh and sense of humor and encouragement to support and stuff for these things. So it's nice to get that along the way when you're putting yourself through the misery of the rain or whatever is going on and to have someone there for you and Joe no better man than Joe for that. But also, you know, he knows what he's doing. He's going to have, yeah, we, well, for me, it's the noodles. So I love a warm sort of cruise stop where you can get some warm food into you. But then last week, one of the lads put in an order for a big bowl of pasta. So don't know how Joe's going to manage the noodles and the pasta at the same time. But no doubt he will sort that out and like warm coffee, change your clothes. He's pretty organized his joke. So we know better man to do that for us. Well, I'm looking forward to all the behind the scenes stuff. And we can track you. So I'm sure over on your Instagram, you will share a link so we can track your progress.

6:06Right. Okay, brilliant. So Dr. Paddy Barrett was my guest on the go glow this week and I felt so honored to have Dr. Barrett on the podcast. So if you haven't listened to the main episode, it is gold. Jamie, what first of all, what did you think of of the episode itself? This is my kind of podcast. I love podcasts like this. It's one of those podcasts that we call like in our business, we call it evergreen because the content isn't date specific or the story isn't relevant just at this time. It's like evergreen. You could listen to this podcast four times over the next four years. And I was still all be relevant. So, you know, I just I loved it. I think the way Dr. Barrett talks his use of metaphors and his understanding of like not just his own field, which is cardiology, but his understanding of life and how to live

7:06meaningful and purposeful life is amazing and the role that health plays then within that. I think is incredible. It's lovely to see a doctor, a medical doctor speak in the way he speaks. And there is just so many aha moments, kind of like listening to Oprah or Mel Robbins or one of those people that's going to help you apply what he says to your life and make your life better. So, we're going to talk through a couple of things. Dr. Paddy is a cardiologist, one of the country's leading cardiologists. And did you know of him before you became one of his patients? Yeah, so I became patient to his because I was having a heart issue. I thought I was having a heart issue. I was getting pains when I was running. Then I realized that they were actually a shoulder pain that was kind of coming down across my chest. But I went to see him anyway because my dad had a heart issue. And when he walked out and started talking to me, I was like, I recognize this guy's voice.

8:11I didn't recognize him, but I recognize his voice. And then I was like, how do I know him? It's just we went through the appointment together. He talked to me about everything. He arranged scans, all this sort of stuff from each to go off and do. And then when I got back in the car afterwards, I put an Instagram story up. And obviously I was talking about Dr. Paddy Barrett and the Instagram story and the algorithm then started to feed me his content. I was like, this is where I've seen him before. His Instagram account is brilliant. He gives you such amazing nuggets of knowledge and information on his Instagram. And that's where I had come across him before. Yeah, so I started following him then. He's got over 70,000 followers on Instagram. He's got 37,000 readers of his newsletter every single week. And it was something he said in December that literally stopped me and my tracks and changed, I suppose, my life. He said, we all pay the psychological distress for not doing the things we know we should do,

9:17but don't do. In terms of we are creating our own misery when we're putting off things that we know we should be doing. And for me, that was a health check that I'd been putting off for so many years. I thought about this health check all the time, but I could just never make the appointment. And when I saw that Instagram story, I just said, enough of this suffering, I'm just going to do us. So I went, I made the appointment and I got called within a week, which was terrifying, but I was so glad I was in the system. I went for a colonoscopy and I just had this irrational fear over. I suppose in the news, there's so much about colon cancer and bell cancer. James Vanderbiker died. It was just a lot in my algorithm about us. And I thought, God, every day I think about this and every day I'm putting it off. And so it was Dr. Paddy Barrett's Instagram story that made me do us.

10:19And I went for the test. Everything was fine. And I really feel like through that process, I had set myself free. And did you notice a difference in me when I came out of that procedure? Yeah, well, I went to pick you all from the hospital and you were obviously sitting in the little seat post procedure. And there was automatically a lightness to your face and a smile. And I hadn't asked you then whether you'd got results. I think the doctor had come in the meantime between when I was talking to you to go to pick you up. So I could see immediately just from looking at you that it was good news and there was no issues. Which is amazing. Yeah. And I think, okay. So for anybody who's really scared to get a colonoscopy, I was really scared because I felt quite self-conscious about it. And I don't know. I just when I went into get us, I was so surprised by how much the two nurses in the room and the doctor were just in their flow

11:28and not really paying attention to me. And what I mean by that is they're not even really looking at you. They're just doing their job and you're just another person that's coming through the doors. I mean, how many people do they see every day? And in that moment, I was just like, God, why was I so worried about this? I felt so comfortable. It was over in, you know, I was sedated. It was over really quickly. And I just felt so reassured afterwards. And I just felt like I'd done something great for myself because I think when you can get ahead of a health check, you know, don't waste for symptoms to get checked. You can really set yourself free. Yeah, and I think that leads into one of the points about you also said in the podcast, which was the spotlight effect, which I never really heard that term for this before. But is that like, you know, you feel like everyone is looking at you, but really they're not. So like in that case, you probably felt like, oh my God, everyone is like, no, so I'm here to do this thing.

12:33But like in reality, they're there to do their job. They're not looking at you in the way you are looking at you. And he says that that, you know, spotlight effect always holds a spark. It's like what you were saying about you years ago when you talk about running. You never wanted to go running because you felt like people, you were scarlet. You felt like everyone was looking at you. Like no one is looking at you running down the road. Everyone's just busy doing their own thing. Yeah. And actually, just when you're saying that, like, say, for example, we brought 210 people to New York to do the half-myrith in a couple of years ago, even then, even though it was our trip. And we were bringing all these people, still nobody was looking at me running. Do you know what I mean by that? Like nobody cares. I remember I was so scared to get a smear test, you know, back in my 20s. And I'll never forget what my mom said to me. And this is why we always need Irish mamies around. She said, to our jam, sure, they're delighted to see you with your lovely vagina coming through the door.

13:33And that always gave me a bit of encouragement to go get a dawn because we're all here to just help, as Jerry would say, walk each other home. But also to be around for as long as possible. It's when you go into a hospital or when you go into a doctor's surgery, I think you can kind of remember at that point, I'm being held in this moment and they are here to help me. So maybe this is your sign. Maybe you need to make that appointment that you keep putting off today. Maybe you need to pause this podcast right now. Google the right phone number, make the call, come back, press play, and know that you've done something amazing for yourself. Oh, yes, that brings me to another thing the party baritite said on the podcast, which is about sort of pulling the levers, like he talks about pulling the levers now in order to lead a longer life. And when I went to see him, he used the same terminology to me because I have high cholesterol.

14:35No, it's not impacting me right now, but he suggested that maybe I go on statins and that's the lever I need to pull right now. I have literally no plaque in my heart. My cholesterol is high, but it's not impacting me now, but he said it will impact you over time. So why not start now and pull those levers in order for it to not be a problem down the line? Yeah, so wise. And that's what I mean about this podcast. There's just a million little sound bites and absolute gold and nuggets in it. One thing I loved about it was you can't hit a target that you can't see. And I think, you know, even down to the September reset. And that's why I get so specific in the September recess about one thing you need to focus on for the last four months of the year. Because I think sometimes we blindly move through weeks and months and years.

15:35It's almost like we have our eyes closed and we're just kind of feeling our way through us. Like we don't have that target. What exactly is this that you want right now? You know, it's very easy to say I want to be healthy. I want to get fish. I want to be more forgiving. I want to be kinder to myself. But what are the specific targets that you can assess around those feelings that you're trying to work towards? And you're big into setting yourself targets for your next fitness challenge, for example. Yeah. Like I think I think you can you can go out there and you can go, oh, I want to get fit. So I will start running. But like what how do you say in the podcast? You need to be very specific. So like I want to get fit. So so I'm going to start running. Great. Like the chances are you'll go running for a month and then it'll just fall off.

16:36Get specific. Sign up for something so that you that is then the target. So sign up for a 5k sign up for a hell and back sign up for some adventure race sign up for something. That then becomes your target. That is very specific. And then you have that specific goal. And then the other thing that I'd say on that is to help people about it. Post it on your Instagram to help people get the support, get people go, yeah, good for you. Go for it. You know, a cheer on from the sidelines. But also that creates like this accountability that you have to go and do with that. Because I think loads of people have this big idea of like going on a get this I'm going to do this when. But like without the specific target, it just doesn't happen. Yeah. I was just like what I was talking about on the podcast last week, even about the late guard a half marathon. So that's next April. So much time to train for us. But people will still say to me, I could never do this. I mean, it's September now. You could do a couch to 5k between now and November when our training plan start and then get yourself up.

17:43It's absolutely doable. I mean, I came to myself. I just so many things because I felt like I didn't belong. I watched you from the sidelines for so many years. And now I just change the story, tell myself I can't do it, set myself a target. And I show up on the start lines for things. And you know, I don't ever have 100% belief in myself. But I'm there. I saw this brilliant video today like 98% of people that stand on full marathon start lines actually finish because you're in a group. And it's a collective effort. It's so much easier in a group. And it's like it like I also just say there on the point I was making is that I am not. If I don't sign up for something as well, I will fall off. Like I need that target. And I know I need that. That's why I just keep signing up for stuff. And if I have us, then I'll do it. But like I'm not I'm guilty of being that person as well.

18:50That will fall off the bandwagon if I don't have something big signed up for. Yeah. And just even in terms of something else, like I was back doing corporate corporate talk yesterday. And it was so good to go in and just be in a room full of amazing people. But when I do my corporate talks, I'm not in there to convince people to quit their jobs, to go off, find themselves for a year. It's about just reflecting on how you're living your life, like getting off the dance floor onto the balcony, having this kind of birds eye view. And I speak in the corporate talks about how my first ever healthy habit was water. I had been diagnosed with cancer. My surgery was in 10 days. And I felt awesherly helpless during that time. And I thought the one thing I can do for myself within this 10 day period is get hydrated. And so that's what I did. That's all I did. Two liters of water a day. And I had a target. I did the work every single day.

19:55And then I was hydrated. And when water became a healthy habit that I did what I'd even thinking about it, I moved on to nutrition. When that was nailed, I moved on to fitness. You don't have to do all of the things all of the time. And actually I think picking things off worn by one is the real way to do us. If you do all of the things all of the time, you will fail. You won't do any of them right. So that's not the right approach. But again, talking about the levers. You are holding the lever. The only lever you could see at that time was like water. And you pulled it as hard as you could. And then once that was done, then you moved on to the next one. You pulled that one as hard as you could. And you got through the chemo pretty smoothly. Yeah. Well, thank God for that. And another thing that I loved was he said, facts don't change people's mind stories do. That's so powerful. A book recommendation talk like Ted. If you're looking to improve like your public speaking or anything like that, it's such a good book.

20:58An in talk like Ted, which is based around Ted talks, they say you should always open a talk with a personal story. And it really hooks people in. And I've always done that in my corporate talks. And even yesterday, there was another speaker there and she did the same. Yeah, well, like facts are great and interesting for about five seconds, but they're boring. Let's be honest. So there's no, you're not going to change people's minds or influence people by just spitting out information, not that people resonate with personal stories. And I guess that's where the goglow even started from, right? Yeah. And that's why it was always really important for me to just have stories from women, you know, started off just interviewing women. And there are the stories or there that there are the times that I get stopped in the street is a story that just hits somebody and changed them as well.

21:59One story from my book, that's I also talk about during my corporate talks is the burnt potato and that took me by complete surprise when I released my book. How many people resonated with us? So that's a great story and it's something that's so relatable. And that's when you when you when you talk about the burnt potato story, like yesterday I was sitting in the room, I could see the kind of reaction of people, sort of like kind of prick into attention and looking around. And maybe you could see them really engaging with you when you're telling that story. Yeah. So the burnt potato just for anyone who hasn't heard it was just about it's it's a metaphor for how I lived my life before I got sick. And it started with really thinking about how I was eating burnt food and Jamie had been diagnosed with MS. I really wanted him to stay well. And I always thought in a verdict, I'd be grand. And so if there was a tiny corner of the dish burnt like potatoes or lasagna or a bit of burnt toast, I would always put that on my plate in order to keep Jamie as well as possible.

23:13And then when I was diagnosed with cancer, I realized that it wasn't just burnt food. It was not going to the gym. It was not going outside for fresh air, not taking a lunch break, you know, eating at my desk day after day, not drinking enough water. And when I was sitting, reflecting on how I lived my life, I was like, how did I expect to stay well eating the burnt potato all the time. And I vowed to myself in my recovery that there was no more burnt potato physically physical burnt potatoes and also, you know, I was going to put myself higher on my own to do list. But then interestingly, when I got sick, I could notice Jamie putting burnt food on his place. And I think you have to come together with the people you love or the person you're running your haisled with and say, right, neither of us are going to eat the burnt potato. And we're both going to support each other to live along hopefully healthy happy life.

24:19Yeah, and just for every listing, we don't cook our food at 300 degrees every night and burn everything. You know, it is just a matter for but it was the case, you know, the pendulum swung one way with when I got sick and then swung back the other way when when you unfortunately got sick. And I think we're probably at a point now where it's pretty balanced and where we don't do that anymore. We acknowledge it and we're like very aware of it. And I think that's a really important thing is to become aware of that stuff. And you know, gone back to original point here, it's a story like that that hits home with people. And I love that story and I love it's so simple. But it's something that really resonates with people because people who care about other people put the other people first. And they take the burnt food for themselves or whatever it is. And it's important to not do that because you will then apply that logic to every other step in your life. Yeah. And I think, you know, when I go out and do the corporate talks, it's so nice to connect with people because everyone is so busy.

25:27And everyone is trying to juggle it all. But it's just simply about just pausing for two seconds, you know, slowing down to speed up. What am I doing here? Where am I going? What do my daily habits look like? And what are the tiny, tiny ships that I can make that's going to essentially improve my inner world, which speeds up everything in your outer world. Yeah. And one thing that I thought was so funny, just a bit of behind the scenes stuff from the recording of the podcast. Dr. Paddy came here, Luke O'Faylon was here. He does all of our video stuff. And afterwards, no, Luke won't mind us saying this, but he had this. It was like he realized how short life was. And after listening to Dr. Paddy speak, especially towards the end when Dr. Paddy was talking about like your cell span and doing meaningful things and using your time wisely, like Luke afterwards was like,

26:37oh my god, oh my god, I don't know if I'm okay. And I was like, Luke, are you like, are you okay? To the point that you had to say, let's go out for a coffee. Yeah. So we had another podcast scheduled in. So I was like, okay, I'm going to bring Luke to the cheese bar, which is damn fine. There is nothing a cheese bar won't fix. I know, which is down the bottom of our street. So we go out and he's like, whoa, that was so powerful. Like he's amazing. But Jesus is really making me think about my life. And then bang around the corner. There's this ambulance. Basically rocking back and forth in the car. We get to the cheese bar. Everything was just so overwhelming for about half an hour. That was the day of the yellow traitors, right? Yeah, I was wearing yellow traitors. These gorgeous new yellow traitors that I bought. We went into the coffee shop about five people were like, oh my god, your threads are amazing. I was like, Luke went to the Twilight Zone for an hour, but he came back. We sat him day and he had his panini and he was fine.

27:39But it's great to see an impact. You know, the impact that podcasts can have on people and you just never know what part of a conversation is going to hit home with somebody. Yeah, at that moment reminded me of the time. I don't know what it is. It was like a videographer's. But do you remember the time we went to Portugal to film? Rise and thrive our course with Jerry and Miriam. Oh my god, yeah. So we flew into Portugal. It was kind of at the end of the cove, but there's something, wasn't it? Yeah. So we flew into Portugal. We had our videographer there, Elijah. We had George's brother, Mick. We were amazing, Jerry and Miriam. We'd rented this villa to shoot the course in. We went full on the production of that course. Like, you know, crazy. Anyway, we go into the villa. Jerry comes in. I'll let you tell the story about when he came in, but to finish off the thing with the videographers. Jerry sits down. He does his piece to camera. It's just like 35, 40 minutes long.

28:43In one take. And just screamed it off like boom. And then finished and he sat down in a new interview room. So it was like a podcast interview about what he was speaking about. And then at the end Elijah hits, you know, course or, you know, clacks the clacker we're done. And he goes, I just need a minute. And then he goes outside. And we were kind of like, is he all right? And we I walk outside and Elijah's kind of like pacing up and down almost like, you know, you wouldn't say he's rocking in his chair, but he was like shook by the content that Jerry had just spat out. There's all the top of his head. I was just such a, it's such a moment. And we had we had actually got such a laugh that we can't did me. Like even, you know, so we get to the villa and it was like the echo. How do you say echo he is most echo. It was the most echo place on earth.

29:46Like there are there couldn't have been a bigger echo. And this was before. I mean, you can fix echoes now with AI, which is gold. But we walked in and we were like, oh my God, what are we going to do? And we had 12 hours until Jerry was coming the next morning. And I just remember Elijah just locking up at the tiles, like the amount of tiles, hardly any doors in the villa. Mass of ceilings. So the sound just hops around all over the place. Like it was so echoey. And then we were like, okay, we need to bring all the mattresses down from upstairs. So Mick was working on the course. What else? That's my brother. He's an incredible facilitator. He used to work with sore at the charity and go and speak to teenagers in schools about their mental health. And the work that he was doing was just incredible. So we were like, okay, all the mattresses down. So we get all the mattresses down.

30:50We're testing the sound. And when Jerry was actually doing his 30 minute piece in one take, myself and Mick were also having the same reaction that Elijah was having because we were standing behind one mattress each holding it up. And I just remember looking at Mick and being like, oh my God. Because if you could see Jerry, right to the two of you were hiding behind mattresses. It was the place like she ends up looking like a flat house party at the end. It was like all the mattresses. Like we'd taken the mattress and thrown them off the balcony upstairs into the downstairs. If you walked into that scene, just randomly off the street and it was like, what is going on? And Jerry when he came in because because it was COVID, the first podcast that we had recorded together was remorse. And that was the first time that I'd ever met Jerry in real life. And he walked in the front door and we're there with all the mattresses.

31:50And I remember though thinking Jerry so fits in with us when he was like, can I make a banana sandwich? Do you remember? And then do you remember? Do you remember we were trying to, I think, was it during Miriam's bit or some, it might have been during Jerry's bit, there was a fly. A fly, there was a fly in the room so that we have the world's most echoey room. We've mattresses everywhere and then only can hear this fly. And the echo we sound of a fly in the room and the mics were picking it up. So we were there. Then there was like four of us chasing this fly around this absolutely massive villa in Portugal. We actually have, we definitely have video footage of some of that stuff. For buying a scene. So we need to post that to Instagram tomorrow in order to show you a little bit of behind the scenes and what happens. Yeah. And then it was like, you know, there's like films where you put like six random people together. It was like that because we went out for dinner that night as I'm sure Jerry needs us like a hole in the head.

32:52But we all went out for dinner that night. Myself and Miriam work quite friendly. So we were dying to go for dinner together. But we ended up sitting around the table and you know one of those dinners where you're like barely laughing. It was like it was so funny. I don't know if it's because we were all so exhausted from the day. But we roared laughing for hours that night and we still talk about that nice, which area Miriam when we see them. Yeah, and we're talking about recreating it as well. We still we haven't done that. But it was so it was a it was one of those nights that you just never will forget. We were telling ghost stories. There was it was just so random and so funny. Yeah, maybe it should just be left there though. Yeah. And by the end of it like Elijah and Mick were going to work for Jerry. Remember. But listen, it was. It was such an honor. It's an honor to get to listen to these incredible people speaking on the Google. I actually love that we're doing bonus episodes because it helps me stop and really take in what they've said before I'm zooming on to the next thing in life.

34:02Yeah. And like this season has been really good. I think it's I've enjoyed these chats and I've enjoyed listening to all the podcasts. I know we've a good few more in the bag and some really good ones coming down the line. So I can't wait for people to hear them and get a bit of feedback. So that's it. And I hope you enjoy Kerry. We will be tracking you. You should share your link. And I have tally going around the house going girls weekend. Yeah, I better get a little banner made for me though. Yeah. Okay. We will. We will. But thank you so much for tuning in today. As I said, September reset. You can use the code podcast for 10% off. If you want to set a target, if you want to focus for the last four months of the year. And if you want to just get some stuff crap off your plate so that you can move forward with purpose and sign up for the September reset. We're starting on Monday, the 7th of September. And also if you have a corpus inquiry for breast cancer awareness,

35:08want to smash it because it's getting really booked up in October. You can email info at thegoglow.ie. Thanks so much for tuning in and we'll see you next week. See you then.