Vicky Gosling: Military Mindset In Modern Leadership

15:19Jeannette Linfoot:And having a you know, you having a supportive partner. I mean, that's transformational.

15:25Vicky Gosling:It's so important, isn't it? Oh, my goodness. If I did not have a husband that was completely chilled, horizontal, super organized, super effective, a brilliant dad, and totally humble, so he's got no ego in the game, he's never threatened, then I wouldn't be where I am today. Because he is insanely good as a partner because he's selfless. And I think that makes all the difference. Still feels like we only got married yesterday because we didn't see each other enough. But it's fun, you know, because when we speak, it's engaging and it's always interesting and we enjoy each other's company.

16:05Jeannette Linfoot:Yeah. And the thing, because I'm the same with Chris, my husband, you know, there's no way I could do what I've done with my career if it wasn't for him. And he's had a big career himself, mind, you know, but we're in a stage of life now where, oh, my God, you know, if it was down to me, I'd be living off bowls of cereal, you know. me too honestly toast and philadelphia that's it that's my game too a bagel in philadelphia 24 7 like all the nutrition in that exactly but also that mental support you know someone that's by your side saying you you know you've got this you can do this come on you know believe in yourself and all of that kind of amazing support and i think sometimes the the danger is and what i find is that sometimes i can get a bit big for my boots as well you know if i'm if i'm kind of you know getting a promotion or I'm doing a big deal or this and then I'll come home and then Chris will say hang on a minute you're not in boardroom now we're at home right and I need that because I can be a right bossy bossy britches I really can and sometimes I forget I don't do it intentionally but I can sometimes you know be a bit and then it's like no hang on a minute it's having somebody

17:08Vicky Gosling:that can level you back yes to basics yeah it's level you back to basics it's so important yeah I think we do that being Northern as well. We're quite good at doing that ourselves.

17:17Jeannette Linfoot:Yeah, exactly. So what were some of the pivotal times during your military service? And we're going to talk about all the stuff you've done afterwards because there's a lot for us to cover. But what were some of the kind of the key highlights when you look back at your military career that stand out as big, big events, big moments?

17:32Vicky Gosling:You know, there were many, really. I was blessed with, as you say, having a colourful career. I think one of them was the invasion into Iraq, the invasion into Iraq in 2003. I was I was part of the planning team in the States for the invasion into Iraq, very much looking at the people deployment side of it and then subsequently deployed and then spent, you know, six months on operations. And that was a huge moment for me because, you know, you didn't, well, I didn't at the time, and things have changed significantly since I joined the Air Force, but I didn't think or really understand the realities of war when I joined the military.

18:17Vicky Gosling:And that period of time really woke me up to the realities of war, in particular 2009, 2011, when we took the biggest, you know, the most casualties from conflict from Iraq and Afghanistan. and so that was huge for me and I really understood I started to you know truly understand you know the importance of team because in the military as an individual you're fairly insignificant and it takes a strong team to get results and um and it's the people that you're surrounded by that that matter and trust you know trust in the military I mean you're in life-threatening environments and you have to know that somebody has your back and so knowing that somebody has your back enables you to thrive and focus on what's right if you don't have trust distractions come in and the distractions are normally because you don't feel that people have your back and that's that's huge and the military is exceptional for creating a trusting environment

19:15Jeannette Linfoot:because of the environments you find yourself in yeah and actually there's a lot a lot to transfer there isn't it you know we talk about high performing teams whether it's in sport we're talking about sport in a minute or in business and and you're right you know that learning that that somewhat, you know, have you genuinely got each other's backs because a winning team wins together or not at all, and whether it's in sport or, and actually cock it up and people die. I mean, that's the reality in your, you know, the situations you find yourself in, right?

19:42Vicky Gosling:Yeah, and it's also just ensuring, you're absolutely right, integrity is paramount. You can't afford for people to not be, you know, to be fabricating the truth or not being direct and not being focused. You have to be focused in an environment like that. And so, again, it was a case of, and it's very transferable to high performance sport, particularly the sports that I'm involved in, which are very individual, because there's a lot of risk involved in snow sports, you know, a lot of risk involved in surfing. And people put themselves right on the edge. so I know I feel that it's my role to ensure that everybody within the team is accountable and responsible and creating you know that sense of trust so that people can perform to the best of their capability without being distracted by white noise or corridor chat or things that shouldn't be put in their way when they're performing and when you're dealing in a life

20:36Jeannette Linfoot:and death situation and you will have seen a lot of horrific situations I'm sure during your military time how do you keep yourself mentally in check when you're seeing some of the things that you're seeing and you're experiencing you know whether it's on both sides of a conflict situation I mean that that's a that's a big one I don't know do you know it's really interesting I

21:01Vicky Gosling:I always you know I think it's how you manage crisis that that um is how you'll see people follow you or not follow you because um when the pressure is on it's the reaction that you give um that that then permeates through the team we always used to say you know officers don't run

21:22Jeannette Linfoot:because they scare the troops right if somebody's running away from something that means that

21:28Vicky Gosling:everybody panics and and i i think it's the training to be honest with you the training that you get throughout that period and that you're always training you never stop training maybe it's the same now in business, but actually you're always on that journey where you're being trained within an inch of your life. So you are trained incredibly well to be put into stretched environments consistently. Your officer training, I mean, during the time that I did it was super intense, you know, sleep deprivation and consistently putting you into pressure to lead in environments that were very uncomfortable.

22:02Vicky Gosling:You know, you're wet, you're tired, you've got to be focused on what actually matters. And so in those moments where the chips are down and, you know, we've had some shocking, shocking things happen, even in snowsport, you know, we've had suicide, we've had, we've had serious injuries. And, and it you have to you take yourself back to ground zero and focus on what's important, what is important right here and right now. And what information do I have to make a decision? That's, that's the piece. And sometimes you don't have all the information but one thing you're trained really well in with the military is

22:38Jeannette Linfoot:is to be decisive in a matter of urgency because you there's nothing worse than when you're in

22:45Vicky Gosling:unknown territory and the leader is completely indecisive yeah well yeah and and people feel it

22:52Jeannette Linfoot:don't they and in those high high stress situations so the the practice is is sort of mental resilience physical resilience and practice practice practice so that then when the event happens the instinct can kick in and you almost automatically know what to do to a certain

23:10Vicky Gosling:degree it's so true people talk about resilience and people say you know you know just sort of happens it doesn't happen it you're preparing yourself I mean we were put through our paces so much and that you're preparing yourself for the worst moment that could happen chaos multiple casualties I don't know how many times you train in that environment of multiple casualties and where does you know where what is the most important thing right at that moment in time and how do you ensure you know that you you effectively preserve life to the best of your

23:41Jeannette Linfoot:capability yeah i interviewed mark hornrod i don't know if you know no mark really well so mark is a great guy triple amputee but i mean you know very you know harrowing harrowing um experience that he had but literally has gone on to rebuild his body his life and everything and what he does today to help other people so inspiring he's a great guy isn't he he's a god so you seem a good company on brave bob brilliant but yeah i know common um a common kind of areas but but yeah you know i i guess in any of those scenarios that can play out those decisions in those split moments can save lives can't they or or not so i mean it's very hard i think for someone that's not that's not been in the military to understand it even though you explained it beautifully i think unless you're in that situation it's it's it's really really difficult and you know i guess you know from a mental health point of view post-military you know a lot of ex-servicemen and women unfortunately would do suffer don't they you know ptsd and sort of high rate of suicide but you've managed to keep yourself kind of you know sane in a good place doing interesting work but having seen some pretty gritty stuff as well I think for me I've always

25:01Vicky Gosling:um because I once you take yourself out of that environment or you're forced to to leave that environment through injury or whatever it is yeah um it's really lonely place because you find yourself with really like-minded individual in a very trusted environment with battle buddies as I call them yeah and I've then put myself through you know through luck and choice um and some hard work as well into an environment where I'm in sport sports and military high performance sport in the military are quite similar environments and that you need you you have one mission you know yeah to deliver results it's not it's not sort of profit orientated it's mission orientated and when you have something that's mission orientated and you want everybody to win then the reality is you need that team dynamic.

25:50Vicky Gosling:And so I found that that gives you back, you know, that familiar environment that you lose when you step away from the military. And also my work with the Invictus Games has helped give me, you know, that focus and still having the connectivity with my military family. So that's been incredibly beneficial. But unfortunately for those individuals who leave the military, then find themselves on their own, which is why we're using a vehicle like the Inventus Games, actually. But they find themselves alone, and then they have too much time to reflect on what happened, and they don't have the right sort of surroundings or battle buddies that understand what they've been through.

26:26Vicky Gosling:It's really hard. If you haven't lived, breathed, and slept that whole military way of life, it's very difficult for somebody to just understand what exactly it feels like when you're in it.

26:37Jeannette Linfoot:Yeah, no, that's great advice, isn't it, to find your tribe. Find a tribe. tribe but find a tribe that's at least you've got shared understanding or a common purpose around a new venture whatever it might be but yeah I think it's I think sometimes when we when we see people and it happens in a different world as well where maybe someone has been really successful in business and they might have risen to the top and they've become the big boss and CEO and all their identity is around the role the title the power the the responsibility and then for whatever reason something might change either out of choice or not out of choice and then it's like well who am I now yeah who am I now and I think purpose and understanding that is important for everyone isn't it it's really important it's really important it's understanding who you are

27:29Vicky Gosling:and what makes you tick yeah to be honest yeah what makes you tick what makes you happy sometimes people don't really know you but it's but it's finding that space and being surrounded by people who can help you get that it's the radiators and drains isn't it so you know ultimately you want to be surrounded by people who give you energy yeah and if you're with people that give you energy you've got your mojo you know it helps you tip but if you put i mean honestly i can be in a room and there could be one person in the boardroom who drains the living heebie-jeebies out of me and you can see the impact that has on the entire team yeah and you need them out the way yes yeah definitely it's like okay exit stage right someone someone

28:10Jeannette Linfoot:the day called them mood hoovers well it is true I like that it's true

28:15Vicky Gosling:you're a mood hoover it's true

28:17Jeannette Linfoot:it's true you are right you are right and but that comes back to team again doesn't it and having the right you know everyone aligned all facing in the right direction all gunning for the same thing and you're in it together yeah 100 % you're in it together diverse team different skills different talents different perspectives you know and obviously diversity equity inclusion is something that you're really passionate about as am i but i do think yeah you've got to make sure that you've got the right vibe because one apple spoils the whole lot yeah it does and yeah you know when you've got well it's like within the

28:47Vicky Gosling:military people talk about the banter and the sense of humor yeah it can be dark sometimes but it's similar with sport you have to have a sense of humor because it's never well as i know as you know some of the stories i've been i can tell you um it never always goes you know perfectly right So you can put as much as you possibly want in play. But sometimes things just don't go to plan. No, exactly. I love a plan.

29:11Jeannette Linfoot:I love a spreadsheet. But it never goes according to plan. But it allows you to kind of then go back and go, okay, well, I've got a bit of a benchmark. At least we can kind of look where things have shifted or whatever. But you're right. So come to the Invictus Games because, you know, 2014. It was. Well, it was 2013, actually.

29:30Vicky Gosling:I sat at my desk. Tell me. So I sat on my desk as a group captain, at which point I had two of them. Where were you? Royal F. Spenson in Oxfordshire, helicopter base, Afghanistan, Iraq. Everything had been going down quite a lot. It was a busy job. And then I was supposed to be deploying as the detention centre advisor to the Secretary of State. Hilliest job to Afghanistan. And that was the role that I was supposed to be going to in September. September this was actually in the June time 2020 of 2013 and I'd helped set up something called combined services adaptive sports so I had effectively because we'd lost so many men and women and we were men largely and and had a lot of injured servicemen we you know I felt that I They could use the platform I had and some of the sport that I was involved in to actually provide facilities for these individuals to get back into sport.

30:31Jeannette Linfoot:Yeah.

30:31Vicky Gosling:So I'd help set up something called the Combined Services Adaptive Sport by using the, I was a Commodore of a water sports centre as a side gig. The RAF, as you do.

30:41Jeannette Linfoot:As she throws in, I was the Commodore.

30:44Vicky Gosling:I was, I was. But the Royal Air Force Water Sports Centre, which is in between, it's Medinam, in between Henley and Marley, a beautiful place. And so in that rematch, I thought, you know, wouldn't it be great if we took these guys and girls to the water sports centre and got them back into water sports? I did something similar, the RAF Tennis Centre at Holton, whereby I did a wheelchair tennis day. And so I got known as this guru of adaptive sport. So when Prince Harry went out to America and saw the Wounded Warrior Games, which he loved so much, he said, let's make this bigger, better in international.

31:20Vicky Gosling:and it was with that, and we'll take it back to the UK and we'll take it back next year, it was with that that I got the phone call saying you're not going to actually Afghanistan, you're going to Kensington to be the military executive lead of what then subsequently became the Invictus Games. So you can help figure out what this looks like. We partnered with the Royal Foundation, which was William, Catherine and Harry at the time. And the CEO was a guy called Nick Booth. And then I was the military executive lead for the Ministry of Defence. And we created this partnership. And then we brought back the Olympic board with Sir Keith Mills as the chair.

31:55Vicky Gosling:And, of course, we have the Olympic Park because we'd had the Olympics and the Paralympics in 2012. So we gave good old Boris a knock on the door and said, can we borrow your park? And thankfully, he said yes. And we set about building what became the Invictus Games. So we created the I Am brand through the, you know, Ernest J. Williams poem, Invictus. You know, I am the master of my fate. I'm the captain of my soul, which is really apt. We had a brilliant creative agency, actually. And then we bought in nine different sports, working with the national governing bodies that could be adaptive sports.

32:30Vicky Gosling:So, you know, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair, basketball, archery, swimming, et cetera. And we then invited what was at the time was 13 nations. So 13 nations came to play. And we picked the nations based on, you know, a mantra of we train together, we fight together and we recover together. So using those that had been alongside us in the conflicts of Afghanistan and Iraq, seeing the perfect nations to invite. So that's how we picked the nations. And we ended up with 450 competitors over a seven day period with all their families, with the 13 nations, nine different sports. And it was an incredible, insane week in London.

33:16Vicky Gosling:Yeah, it was a bit busy. And then I went on. I was really lucky to then be asked to go and be the chief executive for what was the Invictus Games in America. So took it over to Orlando, did it in ESPNY World of Sports, you know, with the Disney family, which couldn't have been a better place for some of our men and women and their families. Added in Jordan. We invited Jordan. So we went up to 14 nations, increased the competitors to 500. And yeah, but it's slightly different games for me because I had George Bush Jr. as my honorary chair. I had, you know, Michelle Obama from the White House. Left behind his Olympic board back in London, which made me feel slightly naked.

33:59Vicky Gosling:And then, you know, I still say we've got the best games ever. But then subsequently, obviously, they're coming to, they've been around the globe and they're coming back to Birmingham in 27. And I'm delighted to be the chair.

34:10Jeannette Linfoot:Yeah. So bringing it home. bringing it home bringing it home and birmingham why why is birmingham such a perfect fit do you

34:17Vicky Gosling:think for for the games i think birmingham is brilliant i mean i think you know it's a brilliant city it's multicultural it's done the commonwealth games the people are brilliant you know they're so accommodating everybody's super excited we've got the nec yeah so again we can do it on one footprint um you know so people can come and very much be immersed in the experience for the week and and i think you know because the brand the invictus brand has now had the opportunity to grow um to the degree that it has you know it's been to we did london orlando we did canada we've done australia we've done the netherlands we've done germany we bought it back to whistler for a winter games in march this year and then taking it to birmingham in 27 you know i do feel that the back the brand is such that people know what it stands for yeah sally oak hospital was the place that we flew all of our wounded into um fisher house which is actually it was the it was the uh one of the founders of fish at the fisher house family um was my chairman for the invictus games in orlando ken fisher and so fisher house is that is the house that's right next to celliac that accommodates all all the wounded um men and women's families while they were in the hospital so it's there's a there's a big sense of actually um you know birmingham has done a lot for our military and our military families in particular are wounded and and i think it's great to be celebrating these games back in that environment in this multicultural city and and uh just showing what birmingham stands for sort of serendipity isn't it there's

35:50Jeannette Linfoot:so many different aspects there that you've just touched on that just it feels right it just feels right yeah yeah well it's gonna i'm gonna be a goose pimply actually as you were talking and i

35:58Vicky Gosling:was thinking oh my gosh yeah it's actually coming yeah we'll get late everyone has to come everyone

36:03Jeannette Linfoot:he's a bit of Invictus. Definitely, definitely. Well, it's so inspiring, isn't it? Because it shows, I mean, it shows whether you're able-bodied, not able-bodied, it just shows that anything is possible, you know, it's a real inspiring, you know.

36:15Vicky Gosling:There was a guy called Spider, right, his real name wasn't Spider, but his surname was Webb. And he was a triple amputee. And he ended up, you know, he swam in the aquatic centre, you know, he's in the 200 metres, swim in the aquatic centre in London. And he was a triple amputee. Now, you watch somebody, it's a bit like watching Mark Ormod in action, to be quite frank. You watch somebody who's lost three limbs, you know, go and do that. That is insane. You know, Dave Hansen, he learned to run for the Invictus Games in 2014, double amputee, blown up in 2011. He ran in the Invictus Games in the 200 metre sprint in 2014 and subsequently went on to the Rio Paralympics and won a bronze medal in the 200-meter sprint.

37:02Vicky Gosling:So that shows you the power of the unconquerable spirit,

37:05Jeannette Linfoot:quite literally. Well, yeah, and, you know, the strength of the mind, willpower and purpose and all of that, you know. And talk about role models.

37:15Vicky Gosling:You know, well, exactly. And it is that, I mean, you know, I have to have some realism sometimes because I think I can, it's fair to say I could probably expect too much from some people sometimes because I have seen the power of the mind and I've seen what people are capable of and so that probably puts quite a lot of pressure on me puts quite a lot of pressure on my my family um because that's the extreme um but I bring that into everything that I do and I remind myself I think when I when I first came in I said gosh sometimes when I'm actually feeling I'm up against it myself I have to reflect and I have to look I have to open up my screen and and look at the imagery of people like Paul Weiss you know who won the military cross and people like him are my role models yeah finally actually of just how much they've been through to to keep this sort of country safe and to and to protect us and and and it's really important yes everything in perspective yeah definitely so invictus games a

38:13Jeannette Linfoot:lot going on there yes but that's not all you're doing at the moment is it clearly no no

38:17Vicky Gosling:It was a day job. It's like my day job. It's like my day job. Talk about the day job now. Eight weeks to go to the Olympics, my word. We've gone past 100 days now and now I'm getting slightly sweaty. I didn't like you saying it.

38:36Vicky Gosling:So, yeah, no, look, you know, snow sports. I mean, I came into snow sports in 2018 when we had sort of four Olympic disciplines. and um and it was called british ski snowboarding and we didn't really have the best track record of medals or being world cup winners um and so we sat and myself and there was a performance director at the time a guy called dan hunt set a kind of punchy ambitious vision to become a top five nation by 2030 uh which everybody thought was barking mads because we don't really have the mountain ranges and we don't have the snow it's like saying to saying to the british cycling right you're gonna go and smash it out of the park at the olympics but you're not having a velodrome so you know it's like that right or the swimmers you're not having a swimming pool but we expect everything yeah and so um so we did but we uh we merged it with paris snow sports not long after i came in rebranded it as gb snow sports expanded the disciplines so we bought in uh border cross, ski cross, moguls.

39:38Vicky Gosling:And effectively, we've taken the organisation on a big journey. The first hurdle, we were on a great trajectory up until COVID hit. So when we set that vision, we didn't see COVID coming. And we didn't see Brexit coming, which, of course, restricts us to 90 days and 180. So against our European counterpots, that's quite challenging. And so we didn't see those two things. um but hindsight is a wonderful thing however that said um so we were on this upward trajectory we started doing well with the results we took a couple of athletes from a few of the nations you know some of you may have heard we took charlotte banks from france who was fourth in the world at the time she then became a world champion after nine months with us we said it was all about the culture and that winning environment um and then we subsequently started you know having world championship medals.

40:27Vicky Gosling:James Woods was the first, Charlotte Banks was the second. And since then, in the last, I'm really delighted, I mentioned this to you earlier, we did the maths. And in the hundred years before I came in, I think we had one world champion. And in the last sort of seven, we've had 10. And in the previous hundred years, I don't think we got any crystal globes. And in the last seven we've had 18 crystal globes and crystal globes are effectively something that you win per discipline and it's a recognition that you've won the most world cups in that discipline so we have now 18 of those to our name in GB snow sports and of course um we've got the Olympics coming um we had Beijing when we had an absolute shocker no medals um at the Olympics we did well at the Paralympics.

41:17Vicky Gosling:And I guess we're just building back. I mean, after Beijing, we lost$3 million of funding. On top of the fact we lost$2 million of benefaction that we lost when COVID hit, which we were getting per year. So that was quite significant. So it doesn't take a lot to do the maths and figure out what we had left to play with. But that said, we managed that first season after Beijing to deliver the best results in British history and podiumed in every one of the 12 disciplines. and it's just been up with since then. So no pressure for the Olympics.

41:50Jeannette Linfoot:Made the difference though, because you've got a 5 million shortfall in funding

41:53Vicky Gosling:combined of those two elements.

41:55Jeannette Linfoot:Plus, you know, you've got Brexit, travel restriction, all these things that have kind of thrown it. As you say, it wasn't in the plan. Not in the plan. Not in the plan. So we've got a revised forecast. Yeah, I love that. I love that. That was a revised forecast and you've got no resources. so how did you do it but but you know in that environment that backdrop and and with the I'm not going to call it reputational damage because that's the wrong thing but let's just say there was probably a bit of cynicism post Beijing right that you were also trying to reposition and and kind of you know get rid of the naysayers and all of that kind of stuff but what were the what were the sort of two or three big things that allowed you to still achieve those

42:38Vicky Gosling:results do you think well look i think you know it's been utterly brutal because um you know it's quite i was actually saying this the other day um you know we had this this sort of horrible sense because we hadn't delivered beijic um and we'd lost this funding you're absolutely right people kept looking at us and looking at this funding gap and going you know you know just irresponsible football funding gap no no medals and we were living with that hanging over us and people missed the fact that we sort of bounced back you know five million short and came back and delivered the best results and I think that it was because actually um it stands that inconquerable spirit knowing that we still have that talent right we knew we still had the talent we had the strength in the core team yes we sadly we had to let quite a few people go but we had the strength in the core team and whilst we were bent out of shape we were not broken yeah and that was really important and the mission had not changed that mission to deliver medals on the world-class stage had not changed and so all we had to do was refocus see what we could live without while still producing results I probably ended up with one hour sleep a night yeah my husband even last but Yeah.

43:56Vicky Gosling:And the kids all started doing snow spot. It was that they did all the planning. My daughter's brilliance at math. So she was great with financial accounting. And actually, you know, we got back on track, but it's diversity of the team. Belief in the mission, really important. And, you know, that and concourse spirit. I think it was those three things.

44:15Jeannette Linfoot:Yeah. And it's interesting, isn't it? Because all of those aspects, you know, you've lived and breathed throughout all your military career as well. and you're sort of bringing it all to sort of where you are now and what you've had to kind of cope with really as well. You know, training, training, training, but coming back to that core purpose. Yeah. So, yeah. So what's the big focus now then? Because you've got a roadmap ahead of three big consecutive years, haven't you, coming up?

44:43Vicky Gosling:Yeah.

44:44Jeannette Linfoot:So how are you approaching that? How are you managing to sort of, you know, are you just picking the first one and focusing on that or I mean I don't think it's a simple

44:54Vicky Gosling:it's like a parallel journey isn't it it's all happening in parallel so I think you know first and foremost the big focus is on ensuring that our athletes have everything that they need to perform in in Milan you know it's the first games home from home games on the same time zone pretty much um and for our athletes that's so important we've gone through from that austere nature of Beijing into an environment without COVID, into an environment where they can showcase their talent and hopefully be backed across, you know, across Britain and across the globe, really. I managed to talk Warner Brothers into doing a documentary that shows in January.

45:32Vicky Gosling:And of the five women, of the five women, so I'm so excited about that, you know, of our sort of Zoe Atkin is the world champion in Halfpipe. We've got Charlotte Banks, she's been the world champion in border cross we've got kirstie muir she's been in the top three in the world and ski in in freestyle ski um we've got michaela gherkin schofield who's um top eight in the world in moguls and then you got mia brooks who was the youngest ever snowboarder world champion at 16 um so that's really exciting that's going to be released in january i can't wait for that get get the games you know up and running we've then got the paralympics we've got incredible talent with benefits patrick in para you know in our para alpine team and Katie her guide we've got the Simpson brothers and then para snowboard as well and para Nordic you know Scott Mina so we've got some real good talent to follow and then I guess my focus will be on that and then it's uh what next is the Invictus Games in Birmingham that's still bubbling we still got to keep that moving um and then beyond that I've then got um you know LA with my chair hat of GB surfing which is just being built is then you know making sure that we've got some competitors that can, some surfers that can actually surfers in LA.

46:41Vicky Gosling:And in between all of that, I'm hoping to release my book next year. So I'm super excited. I'm super excited about that. I'm brief. I'm brief. I mean, and my children, you know, they are absolutely, you know, I've got a 14 year old that plays scratch golf at the middle one. And so seeing her get on her journey and the little ones begin to his acting and singing. And my big one is his big mission has been to rave for brooks so he's fortunately just heard he's going to get into the boat so he's super excited so keeping them all sane and of course my husband yeah and of course and what's your husband called chris chris oh another chris you see my husband's a chris shout out to the chrises i know i know sane people fantastic so i mean your energy is infectious

47:23Jeannette Linfoot:right you clearly love what you do and you know you're just you have this aura about you no you really do and and and that's magical because that's what's needed when you're delivering on so many different fronts um and just giving so much of yourself to everything that you're doing is there anything left for you yeah do you know i there is i i do fight sometimes of course i'm

47:48Vicky Gosling:like i'm not super woman um you know lots of things but you know the balls can drop and and and i can feel there's occasions when i feel overwhelmed like my word but but what happens is I go for a run and I genuinely, you have to be quite disciplined today. I focus on all the times I feel good. What makes me feel good? And it makes me feel good being surrounded by an incredible team. And it makes me, that gives me pleasure. Giving back to people gives me pleasure. Invictus gives me pleasure. So all these things, it sounds challenging. There's lots going on, but I can't think of better moments than watching my kids doing sport.

48:27Vicky Gosling:I can't think of better moments and actually watching traitors with their celebrity traitors with them you know that's our time um you know and actually spending time with my husband going for coffee on a sunday morning i love that we got two massive dogs we did have guinea pigs and fish as well but the guinea pigs

48:42Jeannette Linfoot:died thank god no i didn't mean that for anyone guinea pigs anyway i didn't mind that they were

48:46Vicky Gosling:a pain um and then um you know it it's um you know and going for a run and get finding that time It can be challenging, but I get my pleasure from being around people too.

48:58Jeannette Linfoot:Yeah, yeah. But it's also knowing yourself, isn't it? It's self-awareness. And I guess you've had that training coming back to, you know, the military, things to watch out for. If you feel yourself kind of going off track, presumably then you can kind of go, all right, hang on a minute. Yeah.

49:14Vicky Gosling:I was thinking what gives me, somebody was asking, they were desperate to find, you know, how do they get through that overwhelming sense? And what do I do? And actually, it's really interesting. I know what I do now is I get to the point where I live on gas almost and it's mental, but then I will have a complete shutdown moment where I'm so disciplined. I'm quite proud of myself. I said no to an event tonight because I want to be at home in bed at nine o 'clock with a book reading to Elliot, because I know that I'll be asleep by half nine. More often than not, I'll sleep the entire way through completely recharged, like the dual cell sort of battery, and I can go again.

49:49Vicky Gosling:So I have to know when I'm starting to feel like the tank is out so and then i am really then i will say no because if i can't preserve myself

49:57Jeannette Linfoot:i'm no good to anyone else yeah 100 putting the old you know oxygen mask on first isn't it and and also having the the the strength to say no because sometimes you know it's i think people struggle with that i know i over my you know if you're a bit of a people please and you don't upset anyone but then you over commit and then you end up you know not being able to do what you want to do to the quality of what you want to do anyways so I think it is a bit of a maybe it comes with a little bit of maturity as well I think it's been I've always had FOMO which is

50:28Vicky Gosling:probably why I do so much you know I always think oh oh no I shouldn't do that because I haven't got the time I think oh but I'd love to do that and so but ultimately I only enjoy it when I've got some some something left in the tank to enjoy it with and so you do but maturity definitely helps with that and understand you don't have to say yes to everything yeah I think you initially you initially say well you know you change from the military to um into a civilian lifestyle you end up saying yes to everything because you want to create your network you know and then you build this network and then you get to the point where you think actually do I need to go and do that event am I actually going to get anything from it are they going to get anything from it or am I

51:04Jeannette Linfoot:just going to make small talk and nothing's great it's going to come out of it apart from the fact

51:08Vicky Gosling:I'll be shattered and grumpy for my own family by the time I get home and so yeah it's you've got to have some self-discipline, even if it's quite difficult.

51:18Jeannette Linfoot:Well, thank you for saying yes to this. Pleasure. It's because I liked you. And I actually think what you do is brilliant. Honestly, it's been such a great conversation. I've got a last few questions, if you're so right. Yeah, of course. So can you think of the best piece of advice that you've been given then, Vicky, over all these incredible years that you've been doing all this cool stuff?

51:39Vicky Gosling:um you know i think yeah actually accept what you can and can't control it's as simple as that because you can exhaust yourself chasing down or battling things actually aren't within your gift and you're never going to win and i think so much time gets wasted doing that so trying to find and have an understanding of what you can and can't control because certain things aren't within

51:59Jeannette Linfoot:your gift as much as you'd like them to be yeah yeah focus on the control rules great piece of advice who gave you that piece of advice can you remember probably my husband yeah good old chris

52:09Vicky Gosling:again well done chris he's gonna take that he's gonna take credit for that so he's gonna be credit

52:15Jeannette Linfoot:for that he'd be really big-headed is chris at the end but it is really good advice really good advice isn't it yeah for sure and you know you've got a huge amount going on if you were to describe this year in one word what would it be and why i thought about this when you mentioned it earlier

52:31Vicky Gosling:actually and momentum i think it's about momentum because if you think about everything it's like it's like liftoff isn't it i know i'm not allowed two words but um but it's actually it's more apt for my background is liftoff yeah it's liftoff because you know we've got great foundations in place so the foundations are there for um snow sports we've been building it since beijing well pre-beijing but even more so since beijing and we're about to lift off and head into the olympics in eight weeks time so that's that the book has been bubbling along i've been asked about it continually for eight years you know sort of are you gonna make one and then the last three even more so and you know we have liftoff we're ready to launch it's with the editor now it's taken a lot of slog and heartache to get that there but thanks to chris as well it's with the editor now i was going to have a ghostwriter and then didn't because i didn't think they could do the right tone for me so um liftoff with that that should launch next year and of course um invictus games is now on its trajectory 18 months down the road and um and the surfing you know the journey for surfing is starting to take off too so lift off there you go that's my work hyphenate it yeah

53:36Jeannette Linfoot:so the book before i just come to the last few questions the book is is going to be quite quite a raw and open kind of perspective of the different experiences that you've had is that right i think

53:47Vicky Gosling:it's very much about you know um some of the experiences that i've had but how do you translate that into into business how do i share those examples because when i go and do you know talks or I go in and speak to companies, that everybody always comes up afterwards and says, oh, can I borrow you for five minutes? How would you do this or how would you do that? So I've tried to articulate it in a way that almost gives you some handrails that you might find helpful on the journey.

54:14Jeannette Linfoot:Yeah, yeah.

54:15Vicky Gosling:Using tangible lived experience.

54:17Jeannette Linfoot:Yeah, and that is a way to reach and help more people as well, right, ultimately. Absolutely, absolutely. And it would be available in all good books to us.

54:26Vicky Gosling:Yeah, I hope so. I hope so.

54:30Jeannette Linfoot:exciting exciting so that is really cool now we have a playlist brave ball brilliant playlist Vicky what track are we going to add to our playlist from you you're going to laugh at this

54:40Vicky Gosling:one you're going to laugh at this one but every time I think when things are getting tough I play it actually and it's this is my fight song by Katy Perry it's like a small bird in the ocean

54:52Jeannette Linfoot:creating big waves the last time I checked.

54:56Vicky Gosling:We've not had that. I didn't think you would. Excellent. A bit of Katy Perry. A bit of Katy Perry. Play it. Honestly, play it. People have to play it because you can't walk away with that without feeling pumped. Exactly. So, you know, if you're listening to play it,

55:10Jeannette Linfoot:it's in the gym or whatever you're doing. There she goes. Perfect. I love it. So, final question. What does Brave Bold Brilliant mean to you?

55:21Vicky Gosling:I think brave um is doing things that you don't necessarily want to do right you just have to cut through it and do it okay and there are many it's a difficult conversation isn't it um I think bold is being disruptive I mean disruptive and in in the way that you take things on um and again it might not be the norm but it's being bold enough to take the decision make it happen and then brilliance is I think it's your look I think it's your character shining through I think it's being authentic in everything that you do and just you know and and that every you will learn see the brilliance you just have to be who you are and then actually trust in yourself wow what a way

56:03Jeannette Linfoot:to finish thank you so much pleasure and thank you for having me it's a wrap oh thank you what an inspiring conversation with vicky gosling obe a leader who really shows us that purpose, resilience and inclusive performance can change the world for the better. And if today's episode resonates with you, then please take a moment to rate, review and share Brave Bold Brilliant. It really does help us reach more change makers like you. You know, and remember, leadership isn't about standing in the light. It's about guiding others to shine. So until next time, stay brave, stay bold and always stay brilliant.