Episode #227

Maria Franzoni

00:00:15 – 00:01:02

Hello and welcome back to The Speakers Show with me your host, Maria Franzoni. Today’s show is all about you. The Speaker Show is brought to you by Speakers Associates, the global speaker bureau for the world’s most successful organisations providing keynote speakers for events, conferences and summits. For today’s guests, it took a major car accident and then one year later, nearly losing his leg to turn his life around. Prior to this, he had been living a self-destructive lifestyle of excessive drinking, gambling and womanising. Now, he has a sports psychology, BSC and MSC. He has read over 400 self-help in business books and in the space of four years, as well as leaving behind his destructive lifestyle, he’s lost a stone of body fat,

Maria Franzoni

00:01:02 – 00:01:42

put on 10 pounds of muscle, ran half a marathon, the London Marathon, started a business, written a book and become an award-winning speaker. He also met the woman of his dreams and as a father of two. He is now the leading provider of empowerment training in the care sector in the UK and is the founder of the Child Happiness Programme, which is a personal development programme, for 5 14-year-olds. He has condensed his experience and wisdom into his book The Rut Buster, The Secrets of Taking Control of your Body, Money, Career and Life. Please welcome my guest today, Jermaine Harris. Jermaine, lovely to see you. Thank you for joining me. How are you today?

Jermaine Harris

00:01:42 – 00:01:47

Yes, I’m absolutely wonderful, Maria. Even better by seeing that beautiful shade of blue you’ve got on there.

Maria Franzoni

00:01:47 – 00:02:29

Fantastic. Thank you. Those of you listening on the podcast. I am wearing, I’m looking fabulous. Okay, those of you on video, just ignore that bit. Jermaine, that’s very kind of you. You know, I love the fact that you’ve got this wonderful energy about you and I’m going to talk to you about that shortly. But I think at the time of recording, it’s the start of 2022 and people have set resolutions and they’re going to change, and they’re going to all these wonderful things. And I suspect that by the time this podcast goes out, a lot of people who’ve got themselves stuck in a rut and actually haven’t made those changes. And this is your area of expertise, so could you give us a bit of advice? A tip, maybe? How can we get out of our ruts?

Jermaine Harris

00:02:29 – 00:03:01

Yeah, OK, great question, Maria. And for me, I’ll start with being in my own rut. And the irony was, that started when I was studying a master’s degree in psychology, but I was also stuck in a rut. And then it was through some self-study that I discovered a real simple way to turn the tide. And this perhaps might be useful to the listeners and viewers when it comes to turning that tide very quickly. After getting into that rhythm of the year late January, February, find themselves in that right. And it all starts with our physiology, our body, how we move our body. And I use the word move because

Jermaine Harris

00:03:01 – 00:03:43

in 2022 and in recent years were moving less and less. And the less that we move, the less that we release those feel-good chemicals into the body. So the starting point is a three-pronged attack. I call it the ‘Empowerment Triangle’, a feel-good triangle. And the first part is that physiology. So for me, I’ve got one of those, Alexas in the kitchen. I’ll say, Alexa, play some reggae music and I’ll dance around loose in the body. For someone else, you could be walking in nature. Walking the dog. Could be swimming. Could be yoga. So something really to get into the body. A real quick tip that one of the listeners may pick up on is you can go for a walk and do what I call counting chimneys. Now that may sound strange,

Jermaine Harris

00:03:43 – 00:04:30

but if you imagine the opposite of walking along, looking at your phone, head down, disengaged with your body and mind when you count in chimneys, you quite literally have to open up the shoulders. Look up, and the research shows that that posture really enhances the feel good chemicals. Now, second to that, then, is our self talk. The second point of the triangle is the self talk. So usually the self talk when we’re stuck in a rut is negative, especially when we’re in that sedentary state. Why can’t I succeed? Why can’t I stick to my new habits? Why isn’t 2022 any different to 2021? These negative questions create negative answers. So once we’ve changed the physiology. We can change these self talks. We might say something like, how can I have an amazing February?

Jermaine Harris

00:04:30 – 00:05:03

How can I make sure I have fun sticking to my new habits to create what I actually want? Because when you ask a different question, you create a different answer. The mind is like Google. It has to answer the question that you ask it. And then that leads on to the final point of the feel good empowerment triangle, which is the mind images. The images we create in our mind. So if I’m in that sedentary state asking negative questions, then I may see myself not sticking to my habits. I might see images of myself overeating, not exercising, things going wrong, things from the past, things from the future.

Jermaine Harris

00:05:03 – 00:05:20

But then, when I change that physiology, asks a better question than I can direct my imagery to quite literally, visualise what I actually want to achieve and how I want to feel. And again, the research has shown that the mind doesn’t know the difference between a real experience and an imagined experience. A little bit like if you’ve ever woken up from a nightmare,

Jermaine Harris

00:05:20 – 00:05:41

then the heart is racing, you’re sweating, but of course, the experience wasn’t happening. We can use that technology in our mind and body to ensure that we feel good. But then when we put those three things together, we’re into our body. We could be dancing, moving, exercising. We’re asking ourselves powerful questions. How can I have an amazing February? How can I create the life that I want? Then I create the pictures. What do I want to achieve? And I see it.

Jermaine Harris

00:05:41 – 00:06:03

Then all of a sudden you’ll notice very, very quickly, but that turns the tide. So then, every time you want to go for that goal, go through that process on a daily, perhaps every morning and every evening takes 30 seconds to a minute. You’re changing the composition of your body and mind to put yourself in what I call the state of mind and body to actually go out and create it rather than just sort of some aimless, positive thinking. If that makes sense.

Maria Franzoni

00:06:03 – 00:06:42

I love that. And you know what? The statement you made right up front resonated so strongly the fact that we have stopped moving, I think we stopped moving a long time ago when technology became so accessible. You know, you mentioned the iPhone you mentioned, you know, things like iPads, television, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I think we move a lot less now, but in the pandemic, I know that I move a lot less and I love that. So it’s all quite quite simple, really, isn’t it? So that the physiology that self talk about it sounds incredibly simple. Is that what we should also be using? Would you say when it comes to setting goals, should we be using this triangle?

Jermaine Harris

00:06:42 – 00:07:18

Yes, certainly set the goals after you’ve gone through that triangle process. And that’s one of those things, when we say it’s simple, it’s simple, but it’s not easy. It’s one of those situations where I mean, is there a shortage of diet books? Of course not. Is there a shortage of workouts? Of course not. Shortage of gyms? Of course not. But it’s really putting yourself in the state of mind and body to use these amazing tools to get us to move more to think better. So once we’re in this state of mind and body, we’ve taken care of the physiology so definitely go for a walk, dance around whatever is for you some yoga, then come back engaged with the positive self-talk and the imagery. Then you go into what I call four-wheel drive, goal setting,

Jermaine Harris

00:07:18 – 00:08:02

Four-wheel drive goal setting. And I did this. I come across this idea when I wrote my book. Because I was researching goals. And only 20% of people set goals and only 6% of people actually achieve their goals. And I found that really interesting and when I dug a little bit deeper through sort of qualitative research and interviewing clients and businesses. And that type of thing, I found out, is because people were setting goals as if life is easy when, of course, Maria, we know that life isn’t easy at times we face challenges and that type of thing. So I come up with four-wheel drive goal-setting based on the idea. You imagine that your most precious loved one was stuck in the other side of a forest and you had the keys to two vehicles to get through that forest.

Jermaine Harris

00:08:02 – 00:08:46

One was a 1970s Mini Cooper, and one was a brand new Land Rover Discovery. Of course, you take the keys to the Land Rover Discovery because the Discovery is built for the terrain. So I thought to myself, why don’t we set goals in such a way? So they are built for the terrain of life if you will. So the four-wheel-drive goal setting is four Ws. What do we really want specifically? Specifically. So that’s, so a client might say to me. Or you may not want to lose some weight so they can lose half an ounce. That goal, as it’s worded, has been achieved, but that’s not really what they wanted. A salesperson might say. Jermaine, I want to make more commission in a month and they make an extra pound

Jermaine Harris

00:08:46 – 00:09:23

and that goal has been achieved. But it’s not really what they wanted. So the first W is what do you want specifically. So it could be, I specifically want to get to 12% body fat and weigh 11 stone three or whatever the case may be. So specifically. The mind is like a servo mechanism, like a GPS. I’m going to speak at a school in Essex on Friday, and I’m here in Wales if I jump in my car and into the satnav, I type the word England. Then the GPS won’t get me to the hotel. I’m staying in Essex. Of course, I have to type in the specific postcode and address of the hotel. Now when we set specific goals just like the GPS.

Jermaine Harris

00:09:23 – 00:10:07

If there’s a road closure on the M 25 my GPS doesn’t all of a sudden go, aw unlucky, back to Wales. Of course, it readjusts to get to the destination. When we set specific goals, then we know that we can readjust. We can readjust our workout regime, my nutrition plan, our sales technique, whatever the case may be. So that’s the first W. What do we want, what we really want specifically. And then, secondly, why do I really want it? I call this the most important wheel. Why do I really want it? Because it’s that that gives us all the juices, the fire, the motivation if you like. Sometimes I get introduced as a motivational speaker. That’s not particularly accurate. We’ll talk perhaps more on that in a minute. But motivation is really interesting. Motivation comes from the reason why.

Jermaine Harris

00:10:07 – 00:10:17

So if I was sat down watching Netflix and all of a sudden my house was on fire, I wouldn’t need to watch a motivational video to get my family out safely, right? The reason would be

Maria Franzoni

00:10:17 – 00:10:18

I hope not.

Jermaine Harris

00:10:18 – 00:10:38

The reason would be strong enough. So why I’m a big fan of Den is reason stacking. So the research shows when it comes to women, specifically, their most successful exercise and nutrition goals are hit before a specific event, and that is indeed the wedding day. The wedding day.

Maria Franzoni

00:10:38 – 00:10:41

Did you even follow me? Because you know I’m getting married this September.

Jermaine Harris

00:10:41 – 00:10:43

I did not. Congratulations. Fantastic.

Maria Franzoni

00:10:43 – 00:10:48

I lose some weight. So this is really, this to me is like, perfect. It’s tailored to me. I’m taking notes.

Jermaine Harris

00:10:48 – 00:10:55

Congratulations. That’s fantastic. I’m getting married in December, so there’ll be a couple of months behind you. Beautiful.

Maria Franzoni

00:10:55 – 00:10:56

Fantastic.

Jermaine Harris

00:10:56 – 00:11:22

So yeah, and that’s because the reason is so big. And there’s a beautiful positive picture in the mind and want to look fantastic in that dress or whatever the case may be. Now for the other goals, it’s very important to have big reasons, but also multiple reasons for this second Y, that W sorry on the four-wheel-drive goal setting because that creates the juice. I’ll give you a real example. So when I first started to change my way of being my way of thinking, I read a book called The Secret

Jermaine Harris

00:11:22 – 00:12:03

and I thought, Oh, wow. Okay, this seems like a cool concept and you know, you can attract more money and that type of thing was one of the basic concepts. So I was around 22, 23 I was thinking, you know, Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari, And in reality, it wasn’t creating the energy within me. And I’ll explain why in a moment. Now, when I think about growing my financial security and growth and investments, my son lives with something called cystic fibrosis, which is a life-shortening condition. They’re working on a cure. They think it will be unaffordable for the NHS in 10-20 years’ time. So when that cure comes around it’ll cost between three-quarters of a million and a million pounds.

Jermaine Harris

00:12:03 – 00:12:30

So now when I think of making sure I go out there and serve and add value to businesses and clients and that type of thing and grow my business that reason why of getting a call they found the cure and I can just say, Look, where can I send the check? So you probably even noticed my energy and my voice changes. I described that reason compared with the Ferrari. So find those reasons why when you’re into the second why four-wheel drive goal setting to create that feeling that I just described. Now.

Maria Franzoni

00:12:30 – 00:12:32

Brilliant. I love that. Thank you. That’s great.

Jermaine Harris

00:12:32 – 00:12:32

You’re welcome.

Maria Franzoni

00:12:32 – 00:12:35

Okay, so we’ve got the what. We’ve got the why.

Jermaine Harris

00:12:35 – 00:12:36

Yes, that’s right.

Maria Franzoni

00:12:36 – 00:12:37

The third one is?

Jermaine Harris

00:12:37 – 00:13:14

The third W is when. When do I really want it by? So this is always the case. You know, someone might say to me if I said to someone, ‘You know, you’re going to run a marathon tomorrow.’ They might say, ‘Well, no, it’s not possible.’ But I said, ‘OK, you’re going to run a marathon in three years’ time.’ You might say, ‘OK, that’s possible.’ So we need to create a duration that makes sense. Okay. Now, from there, we’re using that servo mechanism in the brain again. So I’m due to be going to speak in Chicago next year. Now, when that, this year, sorry, this year, it’s January now isn’t it? This year,

Jermaine Harris

00:13:14 – 00:13:47

The only way I know when the flight is going to leave is I need to know the date and I need to know the time and then I adjust and plan everything accordingly. Goal setting can be the same. So let’s say that I want to be from 15% body fat, down to 10% body fat by October 31st, 2022. And I’m sticking to my nutrition plan. Stick to my nutrition plan and all of a sudden it’s my fiancee’s birthday and we go and we have pizza and a few drinks and that type of thing, and that’s not quite on my nutrition plan. But, of course, that when I know when the date is that I’m gonna be reduced body fat,

Jermaine Harris

00:13:47 – 00:14:29

I just suggest I go okay the next two or three weeks, perhaps a bit more intensity in the workouts, a little bit more stricter on the nutrition plan when we know when we can adjust accordingly to hit that date. And the final one is what can I do first? What can I do first? And this fourth wheel, my invitation is to implement this immediately before you even leave the site of setting the goal. Now, that could be something as simple as when I first came up with this process and did it for myself, the physical body and changing losing body fat. It was something I wanted to do. So I literally Googled exercise and nutrition plan for mixed-race Afro Caribbean and Caucasian male 23 years of age.

Jermaine Harris

00:14:29 – 00:14:54

And then just see what came up because then you start the research process. You send the message to your consciousness subconscious mind you’re serious and you’re taking action on it. And when you keep refreshing these four wheels, even if I did that, those of you viewing this you see me do this with my hands and I’m moving my hands in a circular motion. That’s my body signalling momentum because when it comes to achieving these goals, creating what you want, you’re gonna need a level of momentum. So that’s four-wheel-drive goal setting.

Maria Franzoni

00:14:54 – 00:15:14

Wow. So much to unpack there. So much content you’ve just shared. It’s a bit like a speech. Actually, I am shocked when you tell me that only 20% of people set goals I’m absolutely shocked by that. And therefore only 6% achieved them, I suppose, is that 6% of the 20% or 6%

Jermaine Harris

00:15:14 – 00:15:16

6% of the 20, yeah.

Maria Franzoni

00:15:16 – 00:15:40

That’s terrible, isn’t it? That’s really. That, okay, that’s incredible. Absolutely credible. And I think these what, why, when and what can I do first is incredibly simple. The what can I do immediately to get momentum is very clever. That works for me. I like that. So why did you say you’re not a motivational speaker? Because that was very motivating.

Jermaine Harris

00:15:40 – 00:16:31

Well, I think there’ll be a subtle difference because it’s more about what is your motive for action, not what can Jermaine say. So really, I resonate more with the term inspirational speaker because I might say something that creates something from within you rather than me having some secret answer. Or Jermaine knows this. Jermaine knows that. You do what I say, and that doesn’t really resonate. But if I can use my voice, my medium to share ideas that create inspiration from within other people, then motivation will come and go just like other feelings. But inspiration occurs. You’ll go and do things. You’ll do the workout. You’ll save the 10% of your salary wherever the case may be, even when you don’t want to. And when you’re not motivated because you’re inspired and you do it anyway,

Maria Franzoni

00:16:31 – 00:17:14

What I’d like to add to that apart from the inspiration piece, you actually give practical advice that I mean, I can go and do any of these things now myself. And I appreciate that some of this is going to be difficult, you know, the self-talk and the mind images. Certainly I would find difficult. But you’ve given me a map, literally, what I need to do for my goal setting. And I’m gonna go back and review my goals and check that I’ve got all of those four elements in there. So thank you for that. So you’ve talked about speaking to schools. You’ve talked about a lot about body percentage fat, it’s a level I will never achieve that you’re, these obviously for men. We ladies carry a bit more fat. How can this apply to businesses and organisations? How does do these methods apply?

Jermaine Harris

00:17:14 – 00:17:55

Yeah, I think what I’ve found over the last, my goodness me, I’ve been doing this for 10 years, this year. It will be a decade this year. They can, we can get the greatest results within businesses. Now, what I mean by that is because usually not always. Usually what I find is there is a disconnect between the goals and the values of the individuals within the business and the goals and the values of the business itself. So what we can do is if we can combine. If we can understand what our sales team, what our ops team, what our marketing team, what our HR team, what their goals and values are. If we can get their eight hours, nine hours, 10 hours of work, synced up

Jermaine Harris

00:17:55 – 00:18:35

with the company values and goals and the values and goals and help them achieve their values and goals. My goodness me, then we create a real state of momentum not only in the well being of the individual and the team members because that’s what I’m really enthusiastic about. But there’s a real commercial element to that because people that feel like they’re achieving their goals, feel like they have a purpose, feel like they’re living their values, their well being goes up, which means they’re sick days, absolutely plumbed, which, of course, has got a commercial element with it turning, reducing the turnover. The team, which is one of my expertise, if you like. I’m really enthusiastic about that. And all of a sudden, it comes together from a commercial point of view and indeed a team wellbeing point of view as well.

Maria Franzoni

00:18:35 – 00:18:55

Yeah, certainly reducing turnover really important. But also having that energy, I think as well. And you know, alignment is very valuable to any organisation. So, I touched on it earlier, I said that you’re very energetic and you’re very confident. Where does that come from for you?

Jermaine Harris

00:18:55 – 00:19:38

The honest answer is practice. The honest answer is practice. Perhaps I’ll unpack that a little bit for you. So 10, 11 years ago, perhaps those who have read my bio prior to this podcast or viewing the video. My life wasn’t in a great place shall we say. The wheel of life, if we know about the wheel of life health, relationships, finances, career, that type of thing. We’re all between one and four out of 10. Okay. And that was driven. I used to live with quite a lot of social anxiety and a lack of confidence. So I used to do a lot of drinking of alcohol to mask that. Put this face, this fake confidence out there, you know, in nightclubs and bars and that type of thing create this persona, which ultimately reduces real life confidence. So then,

Jermaine Harris

00:19:38 – 00:20:07

coming out of that, of course, there was the physiological side of reducing the alcohol intake and that type of thing, changing the physical. But the confidence came from changing the psychological, the mental, the emotional, and it actually started with that triangle we’ve talked about. First of all, if anyone listening is living with low confidence, then if we were to act out if we pretend we were all actors and we were to act out low confidence, what would we do with our physiology? We would close our shoulders. We would hunch our chest. We would put our head down.

Jermaine Harris

00:20:07 – 00:20:40

Then what would you be saying to ourselves? We’d be saying, You’re worthless, You can’t do anything. Even my voice changes as I act this out. What will we picture ourselves doing? We picture ourselves failing at that public talk or that speech or that meeting or that conversation with someone we’re attracted to, and all of a sudden we’re in that low confidence state. So it all starts with that triangle again, changing the physiology, changing the self talk, changing the images. And then a real key thing we can do is when we’re suffering from low confidence, we’re often minimising ourselves and putting people up on pedestals. They’re up there. I’m down here.

Jermaine Harris

00:20:40 – 00:21:17

So when I first wanted to become a speaker, I had a voice in my head. We don’t know where these negative beliefs come from. I had a voice in my head that said, No one wants to listen to a young black speaker with a Welsh accent. I don’t know where that comes from, but that was coming from, that was coming from that low confidence state. So when I changed my state, then I realised that I was putting these top multiple motivational speakers, inspirational speakers, business speakers upon a pedestal. Now what that does is that creates a belief that they have something that we don’t. When in reality, every human attribute we all have somewhere in different measures. When we show them in different at different times.

Jermaine Harris

00:21:17 – 00:21:58

So all we have to do is treat to realise. Let’s say we take when we look up to. Let’s say I look at the amazing Maria and Maria is so charismatic. She is so fantastic. She’s so confident. She is an amazing communicator. I don’t have those things. I get my pen on my paper and I can say, where am I? Charismatic? Maybe I’m charismatic when it’s just myself and my fiancee. When it’s just myself and my son, when it’s just myself and my dad, where am I confident? Where am I an excellent communicator? And it sounds like a lot of work, but again, it’s very simple, but it’s not easy. So going through that process, answering those questions be like are okay because then we realise there’ll be situations where Maria and everyone else isn’t confident, isn’t charismatic.

Jermaine Harris

00:21:58 – 00:22:33

So then all of a sudden we put ourselves on a level playing field and we realise we’re all human and you do that with the correct state of mind and body, and you can have that because it’s where is that confidence aims. That’s why I always ask people. You can take that confidence onto the stage and take that confidence onto the screen. You can take that confidence into the football match, onto the acting, whatever the case may be. You can aim that confidence wherever you want it. And the more that you do it, the more that you rehearse it in your mind and get into that reality, then people all of a sudden, just like they were with me. Jermaine is so confident when in reality here’s the key point. You’re just being you because you can’t fail at being yourself. You see.

Maria Franzoni

00:22:33 – 00:23:14

Yeah, everybody else has taken right. I don’t know who said that, but it absolutely works. I like the fact that you’re sort of encouraging people to spend time on themselves, you know, spend time on being the best they can be. I like that very much indeed. And again, you give advice that’s easy and practical to follow. So I think everybody wants a young black Welsh man. Come on to speak because there’s not many around. I can’t get very many. I did recently see a fantastic black Welsh man sing You probably know exactly who I mean, right Mr Tom Jones, but he’s different. He’s a lot older right? So there’s definitely a space for you, a very big space for you.

Maria Franzoni

00:23:14 – 00:23:42

So a kind of practical note, then when it comes to business and one of the big problems that we’re facing is obviously the fact that we’ve been working from home for a long time and teams have been dispersed. And yet teams probably are having to come back together in a way, and they’re probably dealing with some great challenges to get their businesses back and running. How can you bring a team together to overcome some of the challenges they may now be facing because of what’s happened with the pandemic?

Jermaine Harris

00:23:42 – 00:24:25

Yeah. And it’s been really interesting to see these challenges. And what’s been quite nice is I have experienced these challenges along with my now delegates, which is really, really interesting. I mean, the speaking and training business wasn’t the best business to be during the pandemic, and I had to. I used it as an experiment so I can help other people once we started to come out of it. So for me, what we do is we look at the team as individual humans first, so we ensure that we impart that advice, that knowledge, those ideas that can really allow them to spend time on themselves and create a level of self-fulfilment and self-worth first, so that would be separate. They would be doing that in their own time.

Jermaine Harris

00:24:25 – 00:24:59

But then, of course, when we bring the teams back together, we really focus on what can be done and why we wanted to do it and why we can do it now. What that does is that creates a level of energy, anything that creates energy in the room or on the zoom that rhymes. That was not intentional, anything that creates energy within the room or within the team, that is when you know you’re onto something. Now there are going to be some things. Of course, depending on the business, I do a lot of work in the care sector, lots of talks and training in the care sector. There are, of course, always gonna be things where we need to tick the box, of course,

Jermaine Harris

00:24:59 – 00:25:34

but I think now more than ever, people will enjoy thinking outside the box coming together outside the box, whether that’s through team building activities. I mean, I’m a firewalk instructor, which is quite an out-there team building activity, but that, people are really craving almost what is the opposite of sat in the home doing nothing. So if we can be part of a business team, my goodness me, moving towards a worthy goal and we do that in a fun way, that’s enjoyable. It hits individual values and goals. Then all of a sudden the team is brought closer together than it would have been there. I say how the pandemic had not happened.

Maria Franzoni

00:25:34 – 00:25:38

Yeah, now, I like that. And by the way, I have done a firewalk. I have also

Jermaine Harris

00:25:38 – 00:25:38

Fantastic.

Maria Franzoni

00:25:38 – 00:26:13

I’ve done the board breaking and I’ve broken the arrow with my throat. So I’ve been through all the things that I know you put people through an experience and they are incredibly uplifting and amazing. You do feel really powerful and that you can perform incredibly which leads me to my next question. Oh my gosh. These links are just so good, right? I want to talk to you because you have another model which will help us which I believe you call the five pillars of peak performance. Which is not easy to say unless you’ve got your teeth in. Could you share those five pillars for us, please?

Jermaine Harris

00:26:13 – 00:26:58

Yes, absolutely. And again, this is gonna sound incredibly simple, but it’s incredibly powerful when we align these five things in our lives. And it sort of came to me one day because I did a lot of peak performance coaching. My specialism in the early days was in within sports psychology. So lots of those athletes were looking towards peak performance. And that actually really enabled me to transfer into elite business because lots of people wanting to maximise themselves in business and business teams are actually looking for peak performance as well. So it was almost by accident when I was just thinking deeply one day, and it’s really the, it sounds quite morbid, but bear with me, it’s really the five things that we would die the most quickly without. So number one is oxygen. Number two is water.

Jermaine Harris

00:26:58 – 00:27:45

Number three is sleep. Number four is nutrition. Number five is movement. So what I’m looking for is to is for people to engage with a practise that touched, touches on each of those five every single day. So if we start with oxygen, the breathing, you know most people can hold their breath for a minute, perhaps not much longer than that. Now, if we were to look at people’s breathing, if we were to walk down the high street on the tube, we see that they’re breathing quite shallowly, not really maximising, maximising the lung capacity, maximising the oxygenation within the blood and that type of thing and in the brain, which, of course, affects thinking and performance. So perhaps there’s lots of different breathing practises. I’m not an expert on this, but daily breathing practice to oxygenate the body

Jermaine Harris

00:27:45 – 00:28:29

increases performance increases clarity of thought, and as we all want, we can feel better on a daily basis. Then, of course, the second thing is water hydration. I think the world record is something like seven days without water. Something like that. Most people, lots of people that I speak to, they really struggle, and usually, when I speak to them, they do grab their water as I, as I make this point, they hitting maybe you know, maybe a couple of glasses a day, a litre a day. And even though we’ve got that eight glasses per day recommendation, it is dependent on many different factors age and gender and physical activity and that type of thing. So you can do a bit of research on yourself but really maximise the hydration. Myself personally,

Jermaine Harris

00:28:29 – 00:29:11

I’m usually given a couple of talks a day. You know, I’m taking my son to golf practise. I’m doing some exercise, so I’m around 3, 3.5 litres per day because again, the body, the brain, the water is 70% water. So again, this water lubricates the performance and the clarity of thought. My expert is, you know, above the chin, if you like my expertise. But the hydration really does tap into that as well. Third is, of course, sleep. Now, if we’re living with that negative voice, that anxious voice chattering away or I’m gonna do this tomorrow I can’t even do that today or this, this. Sleep can become very difficult. So a very practical tip lots of people invest in this type of thing at this time of year is literally just a small journal. Keep next to the bed

Jermaine Harris

00:29:11 – 00:29:35

literally. Get the thoughts out of the head onto paper. Commit to your subconscious mind to solve the challenges while you’re asleep, knowing that you will address them tomorrow. And then, of course, there’s some physiological things around sleep. If you breathe better and stay hydrated, you will indeed sleep better as well. So each of these start to impact each other. Next step is nutrition. I won’t profess to be an expert on nutrition, and it does seem that is very individualised.

Jermaine Harris

00:29:35 – 00:30:02

So look into what is the maximum nutrition for you. I did actually have an allergy test. This might be a sneaky tip in there that I’ve given in the past. There may be some things that comes up in an allergy test that you weren’t expecting, and that’s affecting your energy and indeed the inflammation in your body and mind, which can affect your mood and some of those psychological levels as well. And the last point is movement, movement. We know that the life force can leave the body. We touched on it earlier in this conversation.

Jermaine Harris

00:30:02 – 00:30:30

If we sat around not doing much, it doesn’t tap into our human primal force. So that daily movement is not for me to tell you what it is. Could be dancing. Could be the gym. Could be cycling. Could be walking in nature. Whatever it is for you. We put those five simple pillars together again. It sounds so simple. But if you actually implement it, then some challenges wash away. You have clarity of thought to go into actually implementing and creating and attracting those goals that you’ve set for yourself.

Maria Franzoni

00:30:30 – 00:30:36

Okay, so oxygen and I can’t read my writing. What was the second one?

Jermaine Harris

00:30:36 – 00:30:37

Water hydration.

Maria Franzoni

00:30:37 – 00:31:13

Water, of course, because I took a glass of water and I said, oxygen, water, sleep nutrition, movement is because I was drinking the water when I wrote water down that I can’t read my writing. That’s really useful. And as you say, actually, all of these tips so practical, so easy but not simple, simple, but not easy to do always. And is that I imagine that continuation that lack consistency as well that you need to keep practising these things. You’ve given us so much value I cannot thank you enough. Incredible value. Is there anything else you would like to leave us with, to think about or anything you’d like to share that you’ve got planned coming up?

Jermaine Harris

00:31:13 – 00:31:36

Well, yes, I’ll do a couple of those I’ve got. I’m really, personally excited. And I’m sure many of you are to be going all being well, back out there into the real world. I’m doing a tour of some schools for a fabulous charity called the Hemraj Goyal Foundation. I’m doing lots of work for various different care industries and indeed moving into the recruitment sector as well. Because my content I’m so excited to share across the board and we can adapt

Jermaine Harris

00:31:36 – 00:31:58

it. Everything I do is bespoke. So I adapt it for different age groups, different industries. So I’m really excited to be doing that. The final point I would make because I know there are some voracious note-takers out there like myself. If you’ve got that journal, you’ve got that pad at the top of the pad. You’re setting your goals when you create these things for yourself, right at the top. Nothing is more important than my well being.

Maria Franzoni

00:31:58 – 00:32:32

Wow, That’s really powerful. That is really powerful. Nothing is more important than my well being like that very much. In fact, love it. Jermaine, thank you so much. I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself. I’ve really enjoyed hosting you and everybody listening. If you have enjoyed listening to The Speaker Show, please make sure that you give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. Keep up with future episodes on the Speakers Associates website, which is speakers associates dot com and your favourite podcast app. Grab a copy of the Rut Buster, The Secrets to Taking Control of your Body, Money, Career and Life. It’s

Maria Franzoni

00:32:32 – 00:32:49

packed full of great advice. And if you would like to invite Jermaine to speak at your next event or your conference, please make sure you contact speakers Associates in plenty of time to book him. So you won’t be disappointed. Thank you very much. I will see you all next week. Bye-bye.