With Jake Humphrey and Professor Damian Hughes set to bring the podcast to Cardiff on June 25th 2023. 

The tour will allow listeners to get closer than ever before to their own version of high performance, as Humphrey, Hughes and guests reflect on the podcast’s incredible lessons over the past few years.

The podcast aims to demystify high performance, whereby Humphrey and Hughes look behind the curtains of their guests to find out about their lived experiences and translate their learnings into ideas that listeners can digest and take into their own lives.

The idea came about through a chance meeting between Jake Humphrey and Professor Damian Hughes in Norwich a few years back. The pair quickly hit it off, clicking on their ideas of high performance.

That explains then the perhaps unlikely pairing of the two; Humphrey is an experienced TV and radio broadcaster, while Damian Hughes is an expert on high performance sporting cultures and a visiting professor at Manchester Met.

“Jake tells a story that he grew up in a small town in Norwich, found himself on children’s TV, and then eventually covering Formula 1, where he began asking these billionaire teen bosses and racing drivers and entrepreneurs ‘how did they do it?’,” said Hughes.

“And the answer that kept coming back was always the same. There was no secret to success. It was about having a dream, committing and going after it.

“My background was a bit different. I grew up spending my time at a boxing gym in Manchester where my dad was a boxing coach.

“I’d seen guys going off to Olympic Games where they were fighting for world titles, and I would say the same thing.

“There was no secret, it was about hard work, passion, and commitment. So, we both came to the same conclusion, just from different angles.

“We wanted to pull the curtain back on what high performance really means. So, we made a list of people we knew that we’d been looking to work with where we felt we had a relationship built on trust, where they’d be prepared to talk to us candidly about life behind the curtain.

“I think people really resonated with the honesty, the candidness, and the insights that were coming from the podcast.

The now almost 200-episode podcast provides an intimate glimpse into the lives of world class, high achieving individuals from a range of backgrounds and professions.

And it’s clearly had a huge impact on listeners, with stories from the likes of South Africa’s rugby captain, Sia Kholisi and Lindsey Burrow, the wife of Rob Burrow, who is currently battling Motor Neuron Disease (MND).

The dynamic between Jake Humphrey’s empathy and Professor Damian Hughes’ insight often leads to the unravelling of inspirational stories like Billy Monger, Kelly Holmes and Vicky Patterson.

“We take the real lived experiences of people that have done incredible feats and actions and lived incredible lives and translate it into ideas that the listener can take and apply to their life,” added Hughes.

“We’re trying to demystify high performance. We often say that high-performance is within, it’s not something that is a matter of where you were born, or talents that you actually were given as part of your genetic makeup.

“It’s about the behaviours, the mindsets, the thoughts, the language that any of us can take and apply, whether it’s to our own life, or the lives of our families, our friends or our social groups.”

“Jake is one of the kindest, most generous and most encouraging people that I’ve ever had the great fortune of meeting, so we hit it off quite quickly.

“It’s funny that I met his father Rex before I met Jake himself. His family will tell you that he takes after his dad, a social worker. And I mention that because I think that says he’s a man with a social conscience about helping the most vulnerable and giving something back to society.”

If the podcast is anything to go by, Hughes’ assessment is correct.

“Those values really chime with my own. I grew up in an area in Manchester that was quite an impoverished part of the city. The sense of community, the idea of having eac other’s backs and looking out for each other was powerful.

“We’ve been doing the podcast over the last two and a half years, and the thing I’ll take from it if the podcast finishes tomorrow will be his friendship. I’ll treasure that more than anything.”

The Tour

“It’s different to the podcast layout. What we’re doing is almost curating the 200 episodes and sharing the wisdom in a really fun, interactive way.

“Jake’s got a section where we talk so powerfully about the podcast and the impact it’s had on his life. It’s really fast paced, there’s a real variety. But what we aim for is that people leave that theatre feeling inspired, energised, and having totally enjoyed themselves.

The main thing I hope people can take away is that everyone has high performance within them. We all have the tools and resources. It’s just about doing it and going for it.

The High Performance Podcast is available on Apple, Acast, Spotify and all podcast providers. www.thehighperformancepodcast.com