Behind the Mic: Stephanie Hirst on Resilience, Radio, and Reinventing Success

21:22Jeannette:as a DJ, as a broadcaster? What are the big things? So when I first got into radio,

21:29Stephanie Hirst:they were just coming towards the end of using vinyl. So, you know, the singles would arrive at seven inch as we'd buy them when we were children from the record store. Yes.

21:38Jeannette:What was your first? It was Video Killed Radio Store by the Buggles. The Buggles. From Woolworths. Really? Yes.

21:45Stephanie Hirst:I'm such a nerd. I know it's like the Island record label. Yes. It's like Trevor Horn. Growl. Anyway, mine was Shakin' Stevens. Very good choice as well. No, no, it wasn't. Madness. Madness Baggy Trousers is my first. But the one that I went to the record shop to buy was Shakin' this off hat. Double Denim? Double Denim. I saw a Shave Attribute the other week. It was brilliant. Anyway, that's an aside. So we started with vinyl, of course, and all of the commercials and jingles were on these kind of cartridges with an endless loop of takes. and they had them in different lengths. So some were 10, 20, 40, 60 seconds.

22:24Stephanie Hirst:I ended up the commercials and jingles and everything. And during the 1990s, of course, CDs arrived. And it was a big deal when everything went to CD on the radio, this digital sound. It was so much better. And then computers arrived in the studio. So all the music went from the cartridges disappeared. The adverts were played from computer. The music starts being played from computer. and then as a broadcaster, as a DJ, you've got less to do. You know, I quite like the dexterity of being in a radio studio. You're pressing lots of buttons, whereas actually everything is in just one computer and it's all there.

23:04Stephanie Hirst:So talk about eggs in one basket. When it falls over and it goes, it goes. And trust me, I've had it go on me and it's how you deal with it. You know, I quite like it when things go wrong.

23:15Jeannette:Well, they call it utilisation, don't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Utilisation, how do you? I mean, I had an absolute disaster once on the stage. I was doing a big speech about imposter syndrome and I had this flick chart, about a thousand people in the audience, and I said, we've got to reframe the word imposter, haven't we? So the I stands for identify, the N stands for myself. I'm going to nothing. And the O was okay to fail. That was my era. And as soon as I said this, I flailed my arms around. I knocked the entire flick chart off the stage, bouncing down into the front row. and I was like, see, it's okay to fail.

23:49Jeannette:Would you mind helping me? I was like, isn't it? But it was, you know,

23:52Stephanie Hirst:and it's how you deal with those situations. It is, isn't it?

23:55Jeannette:What's the worst situation you've had to deal with, Steph, that has kind of come up like something like that? I want to watch.

24:02Stephanie Hirst:Do you know what? There's been so many and I kind of, I enjoy the moments of when it goes wrong. Do you? I did go to the app. So I used to work for a brand called Galaxy and we eventually became capital. But Galaxy was a dance and R &B radio station, but was huge. This thing was, and my breakfast show was on the biggest commercial radio station outside London and did the morning show for 11, 12 years. This thing was, because I'd always underplayed everything. I've never been one to show off. My mum always said to me, don't show off. You know, one likes to show off considering what I do for a living.

24:42Stephanie Hirst:So we always used to say we've just got nine listeners. although we had 1.4, 1.3, 1.4 million listeners. So this thing's huge. And there was lots of other galaxy radio stations, but we, our building was the hub. We were the network center. So every show came into us. So at 10 o 'clock, our show would finish and then the network would join in and there'd be a DJ on afterwards and every other station would have them on, which means that I had to go to the ad break bang on 9 57 and i went early by accident and how i went what time i went it must have been 56 to the hour so um i was like oh and you had to requeue the ads but i couldn't requeue them we had to get the engineering team to manually requeue them so i got 60 seconds to fill and it literally it all went wrong and i knew what i needed to do but do you know when too many people get involved and blah blah blah and this really it's it's not the greatest piece of radio and then the person who was on afterwards she came in and it all just became a massive noise on the air and it was one of those things that just it's one of those clips that gets end up gets played you know these massive mistakes and that's all good and i think it's buried on the internet and it comes up every so often and then I'm on radio two and I'm doing what makes this human with Jeremy Vine and my chosen subject was acceptance because I think we choose to accept or reject things and I think that is a real thing that makes us human and they played a clip of me and the only clip they could find, well the producers seemed to be able to find, was that A clip.

26:29Stephanie Hirst:And I can't escape. Of course it was. It was that clip of it going wrong. Oh, my God. I've done so much, but I mean, it's quite spectacular. That is one that springs to mind. It is out there if anyone wants to find it. But there's been lots of things. I've had studios fail. I took the station off the air by playing with a yo-yo because I smashed the studio screen in the 90s. And that completely fried the entire studio. I've done all sorts of stuff. But you just, you roll with it. And I quite like it. I quite like the excitement of when it goes wrong, to be honest. I'm like, come on, this is fun.

27:02Stephanie Hirst:And that's when you can kind of flex your muscles and show what you're made of a little bit.

27:05Jeannette:Yeah, yeah, I love that. I mean, there's a saying, isn't there? Don't get ready, be ready. Be ready. What you're talking about there is just having this sort of built up through years and years of experience is out of there, isn't it? Locked away, ready to just call on when you need. Yes, and also don't panic.

27:20Stephanie Hirst:Don't panic because I've sat in radio studios and now everything is computerized. So when, and I've had this on Hits Radio Network, which is one of the biggest networks in the UK and in the studio in front of me there's big massive screens above me with every region of the country and all of the advertisement ad breaks and all of these things, these level things that show if you're in the red or anything like that and when it goes wrong and they all go red which means you've gone off air I'm like, oh now everyone else would just panic I'm kind of like, why has that done that? And I sit and think.

27:58Stephanie Hirst:And because I can think for a couple of seconds, I usually find the solution. And then I find the words. But if you're panicking, you're like, oh my God, what's happened? I'm just like, why has that done that? I just sit looking at it for a few seconds. And I think panic can cause more problems, can't it? Absolutely, isn't it? So I'm never one to panic. And I think if I'm ever, I do lots of public speaking or I'm doing lots of live events. And I roll up and I'm so laid back, I'm horizontal because I've seen it, I've been through it. I saw it with my dad when my dad was in vans. And I thought, you know, you've just got to be ready.

28:33Stephanie Hirst:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

28:35Jeannette:Keep calm, carry on, hurry on. I had great advice from a fabulous guest on the podcast, a chap called Duncan O 'Rourke. He's the CEO of the Premium Midscale Economy Hotels at the core for Middle East, Asia and Pacific. Massive role. And I had Duncan on the podcast and I've been working with him for the last three years and his board. and I think I asked him, well, as I will ask you, what's the best piece of advice that he's been given?

28:59Stephanie Hirst:And he said, just breathe. Duncan, great advice, just breathe.

29:04Jeannette:And that's exactly what you're talking about now is just take a moment. Take a moment. Yeah.

29:08Stephanie Hirst:Collect your thoughts. Go, right, what's going on here? And if you do that instead of panicking, I think you'll find a solution much easier and you'll be able to sort things quicker.

29:19Jeannette:And to coming back to where we started,

29:21Stephanie Hirst:where you said you've lacked curiosity. why yeah it wasn't quite honest and also i think when you've been through lots of situations like this if tech thing tech goes wrong all the time it's how we find the solution to the problem isn't it so for me if i'm in a radio studio and it all goes off and like i said it's changed from the days of vinyl and physical media to everything being on one screen almost and if that goes wrong and we know that our computers go wrong on a daily basis it's being able to fix that problem quickly or if you're gonna turn the microphone on we call it odom in the microphone if you open the mic and at least you can try to it and i try to explain to the listener if if i've got literally no means of playing any music whatsoever i'm like you know when you get a spinny wheel of death on your computer or the egg timer or that blue screen of death i've got that and i've tried to explain it to them in layman's terms yes because they don't know what they just think i'm in a what looks like

30:21Jeannette:mission control like nasa yeah yeah and it's not really it was a bit like well not really it's just

30:26Stephanie Hirst:lots of flashing screens but it's being able to solve that problem quick yeah i think that goes

30:30Jeannette:in all walks of life yeah yeah no great stay calm stay calm carry on breathe you will die you will

30:39Stephanie Hirst:die yeah yeah things won't go wrong absolutely but let's talk about fear a little bit right

30:44Jeannette:because I think fear is one of the most debilitating things that people have. And it could be fear of judgment, fear of failure, fear of not getting it right, whatever, fear of falling off to stay, you know, fear, fear, fear. And nine times out of ten, what we're fearful about never really happens. It's the unknown. So we're putting a lot of emotion and energy into something that may or may not happen, right? So it's easier said than done, but it's something that I think people really struggle with. But when, you know, fear of failure, fear of judgment, how do you deal with fear because we all have fear don't we about different things how do you deal

31:19Stephanie Hirst:with it how do you approach it i i can sometimes catastrophize sometimes and it's keeping that in check isn't it sometimes you're like oh well that could happen this could happen no i need to stay calm and stay in control of this moment or what i'm about to go through because i think fear is an emotion is a good thing to have isn't it it keeps you in check yeah um and i think it's also good to fear things sometimes it keeps you on on the straight and narrow and and also helps you make the right decision if you don't fear anything you could just go to things blind and make a dog's dinner of everything and everything could go wrong but i think i i don't get scared often there's not many things i get scared of i very rarely get nervous if i'm doing an event or i'm doing something, if I'm doing some live telly or something, if I'm not in control, I'm a control freak.

32:17Stephanie Hirst:So if I'm not in control, that's when I might get a little sweaty palm or I might have to go to the toilet before I go on stage or something because I'm not in control of it. And I'm relying on other people and I've got to remember lots of cue points. So I've got to remember lots of things. And also I fear not letting people down. I don't want to let people down. I don't want to get things wrong. So fear is not something that I experience often. I fear the future. I fear, you know, how long do I have left in this industry? How long? And I think this goes back to my first point, reinvention. So by fearing the future, Elizabeth, thinking, gosh, things are moving so i'm i'm fearful of things that are out of my control like robots you know they are coming whether we like it or not yeah you know i saw something the other day about plumbers you know robots can replace plumbers oh my gosh what's gonna happen when we got i was thinking to my hairdresser who is um oh gosh four or five times we're winner of british hairdresser of the it and was saying how will ai have an effect on on the hairdressing well it were it will really work good in the world of design when it comes to designing haircuts and what we can make us think in different ways but he said i doubt people are going to want to let them you know with a pair of scissors but if a robot is trained i mean who knows who knows who knows so i fear if how i deal with fear is if it's not in my control, I can't do anything about it.

33:52Stephanie Hirst:I just have to live for the moment. And I think I have to stay in control of that. I have great willpower. If I have to give something up, I can usually give it up straight away. Like me and alcohol, I'm allergic to it. And my nose is running so excited because I had a drink. I was at a friend's funeral on Monday. And I know because I had a couple of drinks at that funeral, the next few days, my allergies will kick in and i know that but why do i do it but i only got well i'll just have a couple

34:21Jeannette:but now i'll probably won't drink again for about two three months yeah because i've got great

34:26Stephanie Hirst:willpower when it comes to that but i want to have a drink to send a friend but when it comes to fear i think if i'm not in control of it i can't do anything about it um and i think that i hope that answers the question it's not something that i have an emotion that i that i worry about it's not something that keeps me awake at night maybe it's just the future

34:47Jeannette:yeah well it's an interesting area I think because you're right you can't control everything but you can control how you feel you can control your emotions to a certain degree you can control what you decide to do with that information and that situation so I think we have to remind ourselves don't we that internally we can even when things are happening outside of our control and our sphere of influence We can still choose how we...

35:13Stephanie Hirst:Yeah, and I think, yeah, the tech side of things, we're not in control of that, but we're feeding it. You know, it's learning from what we put into this thing every single day. And that is something that I fear. But by trying to create your own little world and little universe, I think that is how we can kind of stay in control. And I think that's where I feel more comfortable. Yeah. And at a reinvention of, right, I'm going to do this. Like YouTube is. I think YouTube is the number one viewed platform in all households in America now. It used to be the television, but it's now YouTube. Yeah, yeah.

35:55Stephanie Hirst:Which is crazy. So we're all creating our own content. I don't think radio is ever going to go away, but it will evolve in the world of audio that we have these days. Whether you're watching this on YouTube right now or you're listening to it in your ears, it's called a podcast because of the iPod. That's the only reason it's called a podcast. And most people won't know that. They won't know that. The next generation, Generation Alpha or whatever, or Gen Z will not know that. They won't even remember the iPod. But that's why a podcast is called a podcast. but it's just audio. And if I can work in the world of audio for the next, I don't want to retire.

36:36Stephanie Hirst:I can't see, for many people, I've had a pension since I was 18. You know, I tried to be very, I saw a lot of my radio heroes, you know, come to the end of their careers, not with too much left. Whereas I tried to, I got into property. I tried to think forward. I tried to think, right, if this career doesn't end, at least I need something at the end of it that's going to, you know, still allow, or keep my cat in dreamies because he likes dreamies.

37:04Jeannette:Well, it's a smart thing to do, you know, I mean, and I see it a lot in the corporate world as well, where you might, you know, you might have dedicated your entire career to one organisation in some cases, and, you know, you've got to a very senior level and your identity is so wrapped up in that organisation, and then maybe there's a change, right, and all of a sudden, for whatever reason, not necessarily down to perform and she you know find yourself in a you know out of that organization and all of a sudden it's like whoa hang on a minute who am i now what do i do and and you're right if you've had a warm source of income um that's a bit risky it's putting all your stuff basket yeah exactly

37:39Stephanie Hirst:that's something i've tried to say lots of young people coming through in the industry now we have portfolio careers these days yes i think i i did this breakfast show for many years i was the air from the age of 16 probably to my late 30s and all I did was was dedicate every single waking moment to radio yes it was the thing that you know it there was lots of mental health issues and bits and pieces and and I got all that sorted um but I needed to take time out of radio to do that. And I paused. I went, stop. I've given everything to radio. And I now need to give something to me. And I think sometimes we do need to stop.

38:21Stephanie Hirst:But when I came out the other side of that and picked back up, the industry had changed a little bit. And this is where my reinvention came in. Because I thought, right, if I start to reinvent what I do as a broadcaster. So I'd always wanted to work for the BBC. I was, I'd been a morning show host for, I'd done 15 years in total on breakfast, waking people up, working with a team. And that's one thing I've learned about myself is I work better with a team. I do it because we all work at home these days on our own and I'm not sure if that's good for us. Some people say, oh, I get more done. But actually it's having that office banter, isn't it?

39:04Stephanie Hirst:I hate the word banter, but that offers my engagement having you know that that moment with your colleague near the water cooler because you've had a bit of a bad day but you've had that person that like we were saying at the start being in a room with someone yes you know having that human in the moment contact with someone and they make you feel bad to give you a hug you don't get that at home no um so i think for me reinvention was right what do i want to do so i wanted to become not just a DJ but a broadcaster I wanted to be able to have a range of things so when I joined the BBC and I dropped back into local from being national I dropped back into the local market

39:43Jeannette:so I was interviewing people about local bin collections but that is really important to

39:49Stephanie Hirst:people I was I was grilling local especially it was during COVID actually when COVID first happened um when I was you know grilling local council leaders about COVID restrictions and all sorts stuff like that i learned so much from my colleagues you know i learned so much as well as wonderful producers and other people around me that helped nurture me so i spent all these years on the air but i needed to reinvent as a broadcaster but when i came out of the back of that and spent six years at bbc um i wanted to create mini brands so i've always loved music so and I've always loved live events and I started when Facebook this is back to tech again when Facebook first appeared well not first appeared actually probably about a decade in actually um live video started to appear and they wanted us to use it obviously to get as addicted to using live video and so I started DJing in my kitchen this is before a few years before COVID and I was getting 50 000 people on facebook watching me dj at my kitchen and i called it kitchen belters which is just a i've always called a big 90s oh that's a belter isn't it it's probably because i'm northern and i said belter of a churro i don't know so i just used to six o 'clock every week saturday night 50 000 people well probably 25 30 live and then i'd leave it up so the ridge on it across the week excuse me it would be about 50 000 how do you monetize that how do i turn that into something so turn it into a live event so we now tour it as a live event it's a tv show so universal music group have which are the biggest one of the biggest record labels in the world they have some tv channels so they're now music channels and they've also got one called clubland so so and i've got a tv show on there we've just signed to do eight more shows on there so it's a tv show it's a live music show and it's also a radio show so there's a there's a three-pronged attack on that not the right word but you know being able to take monetize that stream and then i've also loved vinyl so i love music and i love information about and just detail about music so i created a vinyl show where i've got all of these records how can you turn that so i'm going to turn that into a live music show so it's trying to reinvent not just be a dj that just plays songs try and give a little bit more because i think people connect with that a little bit more than than just if you're if you're a dj talking about what my list iris had for a tea yes which people do want to hear yeah yeah next generation do but i was like how do i reinvent these brands and how do i how do I make myself centre of these?

42:36Stephanie Hirst:And then the public speaking thing as well, which came out the back of radio, essentially. So I've tried to do lots of different things, but also what can I do next?

42:46Jeannette:Yeah. Well, and also what you're talking about there is one, diversification of earnings and actually serving your audience in a relevant, appropriate way for today, right? And commercially, of course, you know, that's the business part of your brain going, going, well, hey, you know, this needs to be commercial for it to really thrive. When I was 15, I did work experience at the radio session. I was already working up, managing to convince the people at school,

43:13Stephanie Hirst:can I do work experience at radio every two weeks? And they said yes. And the radio session said yes. And so excited. I was going to spend two weeks in the studios, you know, with all the DJs. I think it's that one day in the actual studio complex. the rest of it which was with each department so spent a few days in promotions in the traffic department that's how they schedule all the adverts and I spent a long time in the sales department now up until this point I had no idea that a radio session was really a business it was just it was this magic box you know the radio is brilliant but then I they explained to me how the set of the whiteboard with all the sales figures on and targets.

43:59Stephanie Hirst:And that sank in and it went in. And then I started to understand that radio, yes, it's fun. Yes, it's brilliant, but it's a business and we need to make money and we need to sell commercial airtime. And the DJs would go, we've got 11 minutes of ads this hour. We need to get it back down to nine. Well, actually, at least we're doing pretty good. There's more money coming in, which means there's probably more money that will go into the smartest sugar promotions department we might get more cast because we might get more teachers you know we might get paid more yeah so yeah the ad revenue went up but i've always thought of it as a commercial business and a lot of djs i don't think did no being a broadcaster and this is where the fear comes into it whether you know where the future lies for us as broadcasters you know the skill set that being in a radio studio and broadcasting or working in that industry gives you, but you don't realise it yet.

44:57Stephanie Hirst:You just want to be in that studio because that is all you've known. I've got several friends who have retrained in the world of training or gone into the world of tech or tried to help other people in different fields of work or started presenting in different ways, but using the skillset or working in the charity sector or whatever you know with with promotions or whatever but it helps you so much this industry and you don't realize it the skill set that it gives you yeah highly transferable i

45:27Jeannette:actually interviewed sean lloyd who was one of the most famous long-standing uh bbc news in particular and the very proud welsh woman uh so i interviewed sean a couple of weeks ago actually so her interview i think is out uh next week actually but she was she again similar you know she is now taking all of that great skills and she's working with companies with individuals on how to present pr public speaking etc as charl said there are so many transferable skills um

45:56Stephanie Hirst:working in this industry but you don't realize it because you're i just want to be in that and and yeah the best place to be is in a radio studio if you love radio and i and i and i get that and you know it might not last for me forever who knows how long i've got i don't know but i if it ends tomorrow i will take the transferable skills and i'll and i'll use them in other fields

46:18Jeannette:of work yeah yeah she's got to be a survivor as well i think in in life in general haven't you

46:22Stephanie Hirst:yeah you've got to have resilience you've got to have great you've got you know life is tough some days you don't want to get out of bed and the whole believe achieve thing for me these two words i saw them in a book at school when i was around 15 and i got bullied severely at school I didn't leave the school gates with everyone else because they'd just get your head kicked in. It was just, it was, but I think I wouldn't change it for the world because I think that made me resilient and that gave me the fight and determination. As I always say, raised on gravel and diesel along with Finder's Crispy Pond Cards.

46:57Stephanie Hirst:And, but that resilience that it gave me, it gave me the fights that I've needed throughout my life. But I used to stay in the library and Miss Rose, who was our Ligra teacher. And she was post-retirement when I was there. I think she passed away at like 104 or something. She stayed on. She loved a job. She was fearsome. And she saw vulnerability within me. And I would sit at the library and I'd try and read. I've always loved reading. Try and get me answered in any book. And I read these words in this book, in this paragraph, and it just said, and she believed and she achieved or something. so this goes back to i didn't know how i was going to do it i just knew i was and i think that whatever it has been in my life whether it is whether i want a particular car and it's out of my reach i've manifested now at 15 i didn't know what the word manifestation meant i probably didn't even spell it at 15 but by believing i could i knew i would achieve so i I used to tap myself on the forehead on believe and point on achieve going, believe, achieve, believe, achieve.

48:05Stephanie Hirst:So much so my mum would tell me, it's packing in with that believe, achieve. But I was saying it all the time. And I think it all stems back to that. But once the career had happened, I stopped saying it. I didn't say it for years. But once I went through, you know, I was going through some serious mental health stuff, which I needed to sort, that believe, achieve helped me get through that. And I started, and I knew I had to get my career back. So the resilience of getting my career back comes from those two words. It's belief. It's the belief thing, isn't it? Yeah, 100%. It's your superpower.

48:41Stephanie Hirst:And I don't think people believe that. Pardon the pun.

48:44Jeannette:Yeah.

48:45Stephanie Hirst:But I say to people when I'm doing Believe in She's Keynote live, and it's an hour long and it's the full journey of my life, how do you get from a council estate to interviewing Beyonce? How do you do that? By believing you can. by the belief thing. And, you know, I don't read too much into it. I just know that if I can, I will every single time. You're a belief achiever.

49:14Jeannette:Yeah, I agree. And that's, I mean, the name of the podcast, Braid Bowl Brilliant. Yeah, that's how you unlock these things, isn't it? Absolutely. By believing you can. Yeah. And I don't know how it works. It just does. Well, you're training your subconscious brain, aren't you, by doing this? And I'm a bit woo-woo as well. I do all my manifestation and my visualization and my affirmations. I don't care whether people think I'm crazy or not. That's fine. For me, it makes me feel good. And I feel I'm able to go out in the world stronger, better, cheaper. I do exactly the same.

49:52Stephanie Hirst:I try not to kind of pull it apart too much. I just know that it works for me. Just by believing, it makes me get out of bed in the morning. It makes me want to, it gives me the drive. And I just know that I will, if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. And no one's going to stop me. And it might not be instant. It may take me five years and I'll do it. No one tells me I can't. Someone said to me, oh, a few years ago, they said, oh, that's a bit ambitious. that's absolutely ambitious you don't say that to me absolutely you don't say that to me instead of crippling me it fired me up it fired and it's not too long ago you know it's not it's in the last five years someone said that to me and i was like oh just you wait and i wrote it on my fridge yeah you've got one of those notepad things on your fridge get milk get dreamies for cat and at the bottom, that's a bit ambitious.

50:56Stephanie Hirst:So that's a bit ambitious got transferred onto different sheets of paper because that person didn't want me to succeed.

51:04Jeannette:And I don't know why. Well, it's about whatever's going on in there. It's nothing to do with you, actually. No, it's not.

51:10Stephanie Hirst:Nothing to do with you at that point. And I'm like, well, thanks for that because I'm going to take that on board and I flipped it around as I walked away from that meeting. I was like, just you watch.

51:19Jeannette:Absolutely. So you mentioned about mental health. I know you're massively passionate about mental health and also, you know, diversity, equity and inclusion are really important topics. And I think mental health in particular, you know, in the last almost like the last five to 10 years, probably the last five years in particular, I think it's it's a topic which is talked about, which is much more sort of openly accepted, I would say. so in that space how do you make a difference Steph and what are some of the things that you've personally kind of learnt through your own mental health journey because I know it is something that's really kind of at the heart it is

51:57Stephanie Hirst:it is and I've talked at length so if anybody wants to find the story it is out there it's very much it's very I've very much talked about it but I think getting to the other side of it and it comes back to the belief thing getting to the other side of it It's something that is a process. And I knew that I couldn't get to the other side of this without getting professional help. And that's the one thing that's difficult to get to these days, isn't it?

52:25Jeannette:Yes.

52:25Stephanie Hirst:The key thing that I think helped me more than anything, more than any professional help really, was your tribe, your inner circle of friends. And that is the one thing by having those people around me for me to talk to. because once I'd verbalized, you know, what was going on and I talked about it at length with friends, it then gave them time to process it. And then they held my hand as I went through this process. And I think having that tribe of friends around you, you know, those people you can call in the middle of the night. And trust me, I tried a couple of times not to be here. And when you've got people who are there for you, on your bus knocking on banging your door down the following morning she didn't turn in that wasn't an attempt actually that was I'd just slept in but they knew I wasn't well so when you've got those kind of incredible people around you you know you're not alone and I think it's having your try and those other people and I also think as well for anyone that's watching you're listening to this.

53:37If you've got people in your life that are negative, people, they may be

53:42Stephanie Hirst:in your life on a daily basis, maybe just on the edges, but like the, you know, that's a bit ambitious line. They don't want you to succeed. You know, it's mainly time to filter those out. Have an audit. Like you go through Facebook sometimes, don't you? You're going, no, no, now now oh remove god i'm mute well actually do that in your life and find the key people that are there for you someone let you down sometimes because people have got stuff going on in their life haven't they yes but i always i always say it's the people that were around me that saved me and yes i got professional help it wasn't easy to come by um and it was a private i had to wait to them wait but I've got that help and I got on the pathway and it really you know it got me to where I am today but it's it's keep it's runs and it might be a colleague at work it might be your best friend that you've had for it and it may be if it's something if you're dealing with something that you've never spoken about before or some past trauma that still to this very day is troubling you and and even though you've kept it buried for many many many years and now it's starting to affect your daily as you operate as a human being on it talk about it the key is the key is talking about it once you talk about it it's like it's like a pressure cooker and i was like that i was a pressure cooker for years and also the pressure of of delivering a daily show as well all of that and that was it was the distraction but it was also the pressure of that and also you know I would I don't know anyone else who's maybe yourself or anyone who's listened to this because you've got stuff going on you will light little fires in your life and their distractions and I certainly lit a number of fires planted some landmines to be honest and they went off and that's not good and you need to kind of sort all that out one by one and it's not easy to kind of unpick all of this i'm sorry if i'm being vague about all this no no no it's great i mean but it's how i did it yeah and and also i apologize for a lot of the stuff i did there's this i don't feel guilty about anything as i did with past relationships there's bits of guilt there because I've got stuff wrong and I hurt other people in the process and I feel I feel I feel bad about that and I think I'll take that to the grave I'm at peace with it fine but I just wish I'd not done it yeah I wish I'd not behaved in such a way or not being disloyal but it's because my my head was in it felt like my head was in a vice and once I'd started to talk about how I felt and once I made the decision to go through what I went through is I felt like a whole world was in colour felt like I could and you can breathe so when you speak to that colleague it goes back to that water cooler moment when you see that colleague you go I forgot about that off my chest you feel like you can breathe can't you so a lot of it was was was just trying to kind of unpick it but it's the it's the tribe it's your friends it's your people around you and if

57:03Jeannette:you've not got that circle find it yeah and i think so much brilliant advice there because anyone that's watching this listening to this they may be going through their own stuff i mean we're all we're all perfectly imperfect is what i'd say you know and we all made mistakes we're all humans i think every single person in the world has probably got regrets about something we've done something we've said whatever um but i think you know you a word you use there was peace and at peace with it. And I think that sense of calm that you've processed it, you've kind of got yourself in a great position, you've put good out in the world, and here you are today with your light shining brighter than ever, which is incredible.

57:45Jeannette:I was talking to someone yesterday

57:46Stephanie Hirst:with a really, really, really close friends who I've known for 30-odd years, and it came up in conversation, what I'd been through and everything. and she says, we've just got the best bits of you now. And she always said that to me yesterday. I'd nipped in to get a baked potato at the deli of the road. And she was on the phone and she said, we've got the best bits of you because she'd seen an old friend in the supermarket and we'd not seen each other for years, but we've recently reconnected and they happened to be talking about me and she just, and it was only, it was like a 30-second phone call.

58:22Stephanie Hirst:I've just seen them and we've been chatting about you and how you are these days and we've got the best bits of you. And that made my day. Isn't that beautiful? We've got the best bits of you.

58:30Jeannette:And I'm like, yeah, that's good. Yeah.

58:33Stephanie Hirst:And it's fine. It's giving your friends the best bits of you. We've all got, we've all got bad stuff about us, haven't we?

58:40Jeannette:Absolutely.

58:41Stephanie Hirst:Because we're human. Yeah. No one is perfect. But actually, giving your friends the best bits of you. It's actually, you know, treating those friends with respect and being there for them as well. Two-way strings. And colleagues in the workplace. Whether you're, you know, high-flying in the corporate world or you're just starting out in your career, it's been there for your friends. And also my parents always told me not to lie,

59:09Jeannette:you know, keep secrets, you know, integrity and don't have dirty fingernails.

59:15Stephanie Hirst:My mum used to say, don't be a twat. What was your mum's name? Joyce. Joyce. Joyce and Derek. Joyce and Derek. Yeah, it was Don't Be a Twat. I love it. Which I think I'm going to actually have on there. I have in my kitchen, there's a piece of art that says, there's no such words, can't. There isn't. And the next one is. I think it, I just don't be a twat. Absolutely. We'll bring it on. And she was right. You know, don't be a twat. Which is actually a pregnant person, essentially, isn't it? I love it.

59:46Jeannette:Four powerful words. Exactly. But I live by that. I do live by that. I love that. So we want to see a picture of you with both sides in the kitchen, Steph. That's what we need. Yeah, we do, actually. I do need to get that. I do need to get the dog. Sorry, toss it. Enjoy. So I'm going to come to a few final questions. Yeah, I've been chatting to you, well, all afternoon, actually, with a big pot of tea. A head between us. I see the thing is, my tea's gone cold, man.

1:00:14Stephanie Hirst:How? But don't worry, because I've been on the radio for the last 30 years. Right. And the amount of cold tea I've drank, I'm used to it.

1:00:21Jeannette:Giving you comfort by them. What good joy. Enjoy your cold tea. But, you know, when you look back over, you know, this illustrious career, this fabulous life journey that you've been on, what are you most proud of, do you think, Steph? Oh, gosh, what am I most proud of?

1:00:36Stephanie Hirst:If I was to look back, the thing I'm most proud of is being authentic. Think, for myself, is being true to myself and being authentic and bringing my authentic self to work every day, whatever that may be, whether I'm on a stage, in front of a thousand delegates, or I'm in a radio studio, whatever, just being authentic. Also being a good human to friends. And also that I'm proud of some of the radio stuff that I've done over the years. I'm proud. I got to do the National Chart Show, interviewing some of the world's biggest stars. It's where the Beyonce thing happened years ago. so getting to do all that kind of stuff and um i'm proud of that i'm proud of myself for doing it for getting and that's not an ego thing because i've always tried to keep my ego in check yeah um so so yeah i'm always trying to kind of do that um it's just um is keep the ego because i've worked with so many people because i would see people see some djs with massive egos and they'd, you know, I'd be like, oh my gosh, nightmare.

1:01:50Stephanie Hirst:Don't want to be like them, though I want their jobs.

1:01:55Jeannette:Absolutely. So, Steph, best piece of advice that you've received, all this incredible life journey that you've been on with your religious career, what would be the standout advice that sticks with you? I think don't be a twat. I think I might have done my gravestone, actually. I love it. I love it. I've never had that as an answer. you see you're unique well that is a word yes unique is a is a word now i'm going to ask you a very difficult question but you do know it's coming because when we spoke before i did say remember we are building our brave or brilliant playlist oh gosh you asked me for a song didn't you i did ask you for a song and i am going to press you for a song now which is probably the most difficult question that you're going to actually give an answer to for this podcast so Steph favorite track song before you die oh god dance around the kitchen what I see the one that the one I know you've got thousands so oh it's difficult I know as a broadcaster I know um or DJ um it's difficult to pick one song so the song that changed my life was super tramp

1:03:11Stephanie Hirst:and take the long way home there's a lyric in that that says when you look through the years to see what you could have been what you might be what you should have been only if you'd had more time that changed my life um i love louis armstrong what a wonderful world i love this little bit morbid i love the beatles in my life because i'm a massive beatles star and how john then wrote that at just 24 years old is astounding um but i also love big dance tunes as well so um probably darude and sandstorm look it up it's a tune um but i love all sorts of stuff i love beatice anthems i love yeah it's it's difficult it is difficult you've given us four there very greedy so when we do like shows darude and sandstorm is you'll have heard it it's a noise but it's great and they lose their minds to it on the dance floor you've got these 40 year olds that just clubbed in the 1990s, being 18 all over again.

1:04:12Stephanie Hirst:And I love watching them. I love seeing other people have a good time.

1:04:16Jeannette:So, yeah, Darude and Sandstorm,

1:04:17Stephanie Hirst:that's always a great tune. But I love Living Joy and Dreamer and Strike You Should Do with the big, you know, 90s dance songs.

1:04:24Jeannette:Steph, Steph, we could be here for now. We'll be here for now. Beside me. I'm a DJ, you see. I know. This is the thing. You will be here forever. Because I can't. Well, we can have you every day in our lives when we tune into your radio station. So that is that we can listen. Well, it's not my radio station. I wish I owned it. Well, maybe Wanda. No, it's a bit scary. People have spoken to me about owning radio stations and getting into ownership and stuff like that. I bet they have. That'll have to be the next podcast. Yeah, it will be. It will be. The business journey of Steph Hurst. Yeah, absolutely.

1:04:55Jeannette:So final question. Go on. Brave, bold, brilliant. What does that mean to you, Steph?

1:05:00Stephanie Hirst:uh being brave is is something we need to do every single day when we get out of bed in the morning we have to be brave to face the day there's a head sometimes we need to be bold excuse me and make tough decisions um and i sometimes have to do that in my world and just be brilliant be your best self try and be brilliant to everything that you that you do you know don't do i never do anything by halves if i'm gonna do something i'll always do it at the best of my ability and spending maybe a bit too long on something but i want it to be good i want it to be great i want it to sound good i want it to look good i'm all about of detail i've always been a detail person so if i do anything my mom always said along with don't be a twat which was um which was don't have dirty fingernails always look your best you know some days you know some days if you're having a a lazy day at home you know you don't want to get a shower but have a shower some days a little short one and I'll say water but it just makes you feel alive doesn't it?

1:06:06Stephanie Hirst:Try and make yourself feel alive at every opportunity and be brilliant Love it Thank you Steph

1:06:11Jeannette:Amazing So I'd like to say a big thank you to Steph for sharing her journey from a northern council estate to national radio and for giving us insight into what it takes to pursue your dreams while staying true to yourself You know, Steph's experiences, they remind us that believing in ourselves, embracing change and absolutely telling your story authentically, it can inspire countless others. So for everyone listening and watching, remember success comes from pursuing what drives you, being brave enough to take risks and telling your story with honesty and with absolute heart. So stay tuned for more episodes and continue exploring the journeys of people who are shaping our world.

1:06:59Jeannette:And remember, it's by being brave and bold that you will unlock your brilliance.

1:07:21Thank you.

1:07:51Thank you.

1:08:21Thank you.

1:08:51Thank you.

1:09:21Thank you.

1:09:51Thank you.

1:10:21Thank you.

1:10:51Thank you.

1:11:21Thank you.

1:11:51Thank you.

1:12:21Thank you.

1:12:51Thank you.