Self Centred with Roann Roann Ghosh

Chief exec/co-founder of Leon, author of Winning not Fighting
My guest in this final episode is like no-one in business I’ve ever come across before.
As co-founder of the sustainable and naturally fast-food chain Leon, John Vincent MBE has been at the forefront of a movement to change the way we think about our food and where it comes from. In addition, he’s been part of a campaign to get schoolchildren eating better food, and more recently helped to feed a million front line NHS workers during the pandemic.
But it's his book Winning not fighting: why you need to rethink success and how you achieve it with the ancient art of Wing Tsun that really prompted me to speak to him. In it, he draws on the ancient Chinese martial art of Wing Tsun to challenge some of the accepted norms that are preventing us from being truly happy, either at home or at work.
“We tend to define success as something which we've achieved in the past, or something that we are striving for desiring for the future. So, ironically, the idea we have of success takes us way out of the only place that we can ever really live in, which is the present moment.”
John’s own story is one that involves freeing himself from stress, chronic pain and the sustained fight or flight mode that our modern lives have created, by using the principles of Wing Tsun - a practice that speaks to the idea of living in an instinctive way, focusing on the unity that we share with each other and nature.
I believe that what he has put together in Winning not Fighting is a practical handbook for uniting human wisdom, business and physical movement in a way that could truly bring about change.
"I think that what we've done is we've, we've got caught ourselves up in a bit of a vicious cycle around feeding the side of us which is around ego and fear, as opposed to feeding the parts of us, which is about connection, love, and wholeness."
It's a wide-ranging conversation: we talk about these practical steps, but also gut health, personality tests, and The Littlest Hobo - and I do hope you enjoy it.

Magazine editor, author, TV presenter

Speaking to Michelle Ogundehin this week was a real joy. Currently on our screens every week as a judge on the addictive Interior Design Masters series, Ogundehin’s calm, informed and direct style has always been a real pleasure to watch.

But for me, it is in her recent book - Happy Inside - where she shares her most insightful wisdom. In Happy Inside, Michelle lays out a manifesto of how we can all live better by doing the small things well. She shows us how the everyday things we miss out on on a regular basis can have a disproportionate impact on our health and happiness, and how we should start sweating the small stuff.

And she says that we should give ourselves permission to take the time to express a more authentic version of ourselves, in the place that matters most, at home.

“We need a room of our own. We need space to retreat, and to rest and to be silent. And it doesn't have to be huge, but it’s understanding that we need this, the human species needs this - we need to retreat to the cave a little.”

As an award-winning editor-in-chief of Elle Decoration, regularly included in the power list of influential black Britons, Michelle has an impressive CV, but, she says, it’s the point in her life where she truly accepted herself for who she was, that brought her the most happiness, and, yes, the most success.

“Success actually is right there, it's right there in everyone's hand already, and it is just the power to go, you know what, I'm allowed to be me. And that's, that's enough. It's enough in all the messiness.”

I found our conversation, very stimulating, very practical and very helpful. And I really hope you do too.

In this short episode, I follow on with another of the daily habits that have made a real difference to my life. 

In the past year of the pandemic, one feature of all our lives have been virtual meetings. 

We often find our working day filled up with a series of back-to-back Zoom meetings, sitting at home, fighting wi-fi speeds, family interruptions and face freezes. It can be hard to find time to pause, let alone feel present at each meeting. 

I used to feel the same about meetings, but since recording the second series of the podcast – which we also do via Zoom – I’ve adopted a simple practice that has made a world of difference.

I’ll share that with you today and hope that it also gives you the chance to pause, reset and start the next portion of your day with your full attention. It’s something I’ve found to be really positive. 

Thank you again for listening today.

Founder, Ecotricity

Dale Vince’s story is amazing. The British green energy industrialist and passionate vegan is the owner of Ecotricity and a former New Age traveller, and has been the man behind the renewable energy revolution that we’ve seen over the last 30 years

In his quest to stop climate change and remove fossil fuels entirely, he has taken on the established energy companies and The National Grid - and convinced them that there was another way to do things.

And he did this all from absolutely nothing. He left school at 15 and lived in a truck for the decade or so it took to get his message out there. Dale is the true epitome of a mission-driven entrepreneur, who works from his innate set of values to change the rules and protect our future.

“Surely, fundamentally, as a country, what we should be doing all of this for is for the quality of life of the people that live here, and the people that will come after us,” he says.

Dale followed his passion to save the planet and, because he was following a real calling, his success has been nothing short of extraordinary. As a passionate vegan he has also done enormous work in bringing the plant-based message to a wider audience, not least in being chairman of the world's greenest football club and first-ever vegan club, Forest Green Rovers. 

In our chat, we talked about our power as consumers and decision-makers, his journey to a plant-based diet and his commitment to sharing this message with the wider world. We also talked about the systems that need to change if we are to fix our broken world and how important it was to do the right thing.

As Dale says: “There’s nothing better than having a mission, having principles and living by them. Nothing better.”

Humans thrive with variety - you feel this when you go to a new place, rearrange your furniture, change your route to work. These changes light you up, refresh your routine, offer a new perspective. 

And, now, with us largely confined to our homes, this concept is more relevant than ever. Introducing change into each day can be a real tonic, and it’s something that’s helped me in my life recently, both before and during lockdown. 

The concept of Portfolio Days is simple. Rather than seeing your day as a block - a neverending tide of Zoom calls, emails, social media responses - see it instead as a portfolio of hours that you slice up prioritising variety and values over churn or busyness.

In this short episode, I’ll provide a simple set of tasks to help you work through the things in your life that are most important, and suggest ways you can incorporate each of these into your working day. We’ll look at how you can start to more closely link your daily activities with your own values, creating lasting change for the better. 

It’s not about radical overhauls, but small bold changes that make a big difference. And it’s one that has made me feel more grounded and resilient. 

I hope this helps you too. 

Campaigner and co-founder at Compassion in Politics

Matt Hawkins is a social and environmental justice campaigner and the co-director of Compassion in Politics - a cross-party organisation working to put compassion, inclusion, and cooperation at the heart of politics.

Set up in 2018, the organisation has the support of 50 Uk parliamentarians from six parties and academics and activists including Noam Chomsky Charisse Matthews Helen Pankhurst and Ruby Wax. The Guardian described them as ‘the movement to be hopeful about’.

In a political climate as charged as the one we’re seeing now - from Trump’s second impeachment and Biden’s imminent inauguration, coupled with a worldwide pandemic, Brexit and the recent food banks scandal in the UK, compassionate politics sounds like an oxymoron. But Matt and his colleagues are trying to truly put compassion, cooperation and empathy at the heart of politics.

In our chat, we consider how human change is igniting political change, and talk about individual responsibility, what each of us can do to make a difference. We consider how change starts with us - both as individuals, but also in how we continue to push the idea that purpose, passion, love and compassion, rather than career, wealth and status are at the heart of what actually makes us thrive.

I love the fact that organisations like his exist, as it shines a light on the great parts of our human nature. Matt’s is someone really making good on this individual contribution - he is a bright, incredibly passionate and well-informed young man who made me feel hopeful about the future.

I hope this conversation inspires you - and reminds you too of the personal power you have.

How you can help:

I appreciate just how challenging campaigns like Compassion in Politics are to run. And I know for a fact that Matt has to work other jobs just to keep things going. So I would encourage you to support him, and the work at Compassion in Politics, in any way that you can.

You can donate to the campaign here https://www.compassioninpolitics.com/donate - and also support Matt’s anti-online abuse campaign which is seeking donations - https://www.stopthehate.uk/donate.