I am delighted to introduce Dan Lowes, a former RAF Fighter pilot and Executive Officer of the world-famous Red Arrows. Dan has made it his life's goal to consistently operate at a world class level and is immersed in the power of effective communication and the art of debriefing.

In today's episode, Dan talks about:

• The importance of self-reflection when creating a high-performance culture
• Mentally preparing for flying at 1300 mph
• Why planning is important
• Fear of failure
• Tasting failure, accepting it and preparing for it and moving on from it
• How self-reflection can make you highly motivated
• How you can learn from people in your field that you admire
• Three principles to live by when you're a Top Gun graduate
• How his attitude and mindset earned him his place in Top Gun school
• How he stays grounded and humble
• What you can learn from a Red Arrows debrief and how you can apply it to your business
• The importance of communication

Listen Out For:

• I would not be who I am now or achieved what I have achieved if I hadn't failed. I accepted failure, I learned from failure, and I moved on.
• I pinned my life ambition on joining the Royal Air Force and being a fighter pilot at 18 but didn't get into the Air Force on my first interview. I had to go away and reassess what was important for me in life and what I really wanted and grow into that which meant that one year later when I reapplied, I was successful.
• Failure is just a data point on a journey towards your overall goal. It depends on what you do with it which ultimately determines whether you achieve the goal or not.
• I love reading about the people who have been there and done it already.
• I have clearly defined goals and aims. I work out how I can get there. I then choose someone that I really respect in the area and then I model myself on them.
• To be the best in the room, you don't have to shout about it, you don't have to hang banners, you don't have to have badges, you don't have to have the big office and you don't have to have the big car parking space. You just have to be the one that everyone knows when the chips are down, you are going to come running through.
• Do not make assumptions. You have no idea at any point in time what is going on in somebody's life - how they left the house that morning or what information they had or did not have. It is all about asking the right questions before you jump to conclusions.
• Do something that you love and when you stop loving it, work out why and find something else even if that means you have to do something completely different. You need to constantly love what you do because that means you will relentlessly pursue it to the highest levels.
• When you expect something from someone, expect it to be the same all the time. Be consistent across the board which will mean that expectations can be managed and people understand how to operate to the best of their capacity.

About the Host
Director and Founder of Simple Scaling, Brendan brings 25 years' experience of scaling businesses. Previously, Brendan spent 16 years as a global business leader with CDE, 12 of those as Group MD, steering the company through the global financial crisis to considerable strategic growth success with offices now in 6 continents employing almost 700 people across the world (from 15) and 25X revenue growth.

https://simplescaling.com/meet-the-team

In today's episode I'm delighted to introduce Amy Rowlinson, a Life Purpose Coach, Podcast Mentor and a leader in purpose and fulfilment. Amy helps people to focus on their WHY with clarity, uniting their passion and purpose with a plan to create the life they truly desire. Her mission is to reach unfulfilled people who are looking for their WHY to guide them to live a life with purpose and fulfilment.

Amy is Qualified as a Life Purpose Coach, Journal Therapy Coach, Master Practitioner of Time Line Therapy™️ & Hypnosis and an NLP Practitioner and works with clients to help them to design the life they desire through 'living' and not 'existing'.

In today's episode, Amy talks about:  

• Where to start when defining your vision and purpose
• How to live with purpose as opposed to existing
• How big and small moments have impact
• The importance of aligning with our values
• How purpose determines who we are
• How its never too late to be who you might have been

Listen Out For:  

• You need to understand the difference between living and existing. Are you doing things just because they need to be done as opposed to really focusing on why you are doing them?
• You may get to the very top of the ladder and then find it has not been leaning against the right wall. A. Raine.
• People need to ask themselves what their superpowers are and link that with what the world needs right now. Then you can focus on where you can help and what you can get paid for. This should be a combination of your passion, profession, and vocational mission.
• Ikigai – the Japanese concept of finding your purpose and creating a long and happy life.
• Your purpose determines who you are. We are all driven by purpose. It's your foundation and heartbeat.
• Quite often people can lose their way. It can be referred to as feeling stuck, or unhappy or not quite right.
• When we do things that are purposeful, they are aligned with our values. Establishing your values is an essential part of finding your purpose.
• When businesses apply their values and purpose right from the start, it becomes their core driver. It becomes their key focus and is at the heart of their decisions.
• Quite often business values are echoed from the business leader's personal values.
• When employees' values align with those of the company, that's when the magic happens.
• It's the purpose, the mission and the values of a company that retains people and that's when the productivity will rise.
• The vision talks about the company's future, its aspirations, its hopes, and dreams, and it gives it their direction.
• To enhance performance, it is important to praise people, to encourage them in their roles, to provide them with great feedback and processes and give them opportunities to thrive and grow.
• Journaling is important. By understanding and listening to yourself and your fears, it helps you to reduce stress, boost your working memory and it helps you to become more empowered by regulating your emotions. It provides a gateway to unlock your emotional intelligence and creativity.
• Flow essentially is focus. When you are in flow, you're being more productive. When you are in flow, time just disappears, and you are in the zone and in a state of creative.

About the Host  
Director and Founder of Simple Scaling, Brendan brings 25 years' experience of scaling businesses. Previously, Brendan spent 16 years as a global business leader with CDE, 12 of those as Group MD, steering the company through the global financial crisis to considerable strategic growth success with offices now in 6 continents employing almost 700 people across the world (from 15) and 25X revenue growth.  

https://simplescaling.com/meet-the-team  

In today's episode I'm delighted to introduce Maura Nevel Thomas. Maura is an award-winning international speaker, trainer, and author on individual and corporate productivity and work-life balance and is the most widely cited authority on attention management. 

She helps driven, motivated knowledge workers control their attention and regain control over the details of their life and work. Maura has trained thousands of individuals at hundreds of organisations on her proprietary Empowered Productivity™ System, a process for achieving meaningful results and living a life of choice. 

 In today's episode, Maura talks about:  

• Why time management is outdated
• How attention management is the new path to productivity
• How to be present in the moment
• How we become conditioned to distractions
• The biggest challenge of a team's productivity is the culture of the organisation and the behaviour of the leaders.
• Winning the war against information overload
• Managing people's expectations
• Why we must control technology, or we end up at the mercy of it
• How we are training our brains to expect interruptions
• The importance of single tasking
• How to avoid distraction
• Managing work-life balance
• How business leaders can improve their productivity

Listen Out For:  

• The biggest challenge that we have is distraction and you can't solve a distraction problem with a time solution. It doesn't matter how much time you have. If you are distracted and frequently task switching, you will not be able to muster brainpower momentum.
• It's not the moments in your life that matter, it's the life in your moments that matter.
• Productivity is about the legacy that you leave behind all the way down to the most important thing you need to do today, and anything in between. 
• The more distracted we are, the more distracted we will be, and. We have become conditioned into a habit of distraction.
• When we apply ourselves fully, when we unleash that brainpower momentum, that's when we do our best work. That's when we feel satisfied and accomplished and competent at the end of our day and happy .
• This habit of distraction that we all have is insidious, because it lies to us about what makes us happy
• Productivity has six components and we need all six to really achieve our most significant results on a consistent basis. 
• Burnout is such a huge problem. Every time you choose to work, you're not doing something else right. You're not exercising or you're not sleeping, or you're not spending time with your family. 
• Leaders have a lot more influence on the lives, the happiness, the health, the wellness and the well-being of their employees. 
• When people are happy at work, they tend to be happier at home which affects their kids, their spouse and their communities. When they're miserable at work, then they have nothing left to give to their families or their communities. Exhausted workers mean exhausted families and exhausted communities and exhausted worlds. Exhaustion is optional. 
• Just because people expect it doesn't mean that you must conform to those expectations. 
• The more you think about ways to single task only one thing at a time mentally, the more you will find that your ability to stay focused increases. Your habit of distraction starts to fall away, and you are reconditioning your brain. 
• Sometimes the best thing that you can do for your work is not work. Work Life Balance in simple terms is 'don't work too much' and if you wonder what too much means, studies show that productivity starts to go down after about 50 hours a week. 

About the Host  
Director and Founder of Simple Scaling, Brendan brings 25 years' experience of scaling businesses. Previously, Brendan spent 16 years as a global business leader with CDE, 12 of those as Group MD, steering the company through the global financial crisis to considerable strategic growth success with offices now in 6 continents employing almost 700 people across the world (from 15) and 25X revenue growth.  

 https://simplescaling.com/meet-the-team