Episode 426: Mastering the Art of Authenticity with Eamon Holmes
Television and media have undergone significant transformations over the past few decades, with viewers increasingly preferring content that blends information with entertainment. The landscape requires presenters to embody authenticity and authority in their work.
In this episode, Adam talks to veteran broadcaster Eamon Holmes. Known for his dynamic career spanning over 40 years in the industry, Eamon shares insights into his approach to television presenting, offering invaluable lessons for both aspiring and seasoned professionals.
Eamon discusses the significance of forging a genuine connection with audiences through a relaxed, conversational style, and the critical importance of being well-prepared and authentic.
Show Highlights:
- The longevity of a career in broadcasting hinges on treating it as a business and continuously evolving.
- A presenter’s authority is built on authentic communication, having a solid understanding of the topic, and engaging with the audience.
- The importance of personalized delivery: Make any script your own rather than relying solely on pre-written words.
- Empathy and genuine interest in interview subjects elevate the quality of conversations, creating a more enriched viewer experience.
- Embrace the diversity of roles and opportunities in your field to maintain career versatility and security.
Links Mentioned:
Get your Business Growth Secrets SUCCESS PLANNER for FREE and profit like a pro: https://adamstottplanner.com/free-book47315172
Adam’s website: https://adamstott.com/?el=Pod
Watch the Episode on Adam’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/adamstottcoach?el=Pod
Connect with Adam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamstottcoach/?el=Pod
Join Adam’s network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-stott-coach/?el=Pod
Coaches, consultants, and business owners – lower your marketing costs, increase ticket prices, and get more high-ticket clients: https://3daybrandbuilderworkshop.com/start-here?el=Pod
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
[00:00:00] Adam Stott: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another super exciting episode of business growth secrets. I’m really excited because I’ve got a wonderful guest today that we’re really going to have a good chat and dig deep into what’s been a fabulous career. You undoubtedly know this gentleman from his TV appearances over the years.
[00:00:34] He’s been super successful, been in the industry for 40 plus years, been featured on the biggest daytime TV and biggest TV that you can imagine over the years. So I’m super excited to welcome to. Business growth secrets, Eamon Holmes. So welcome Eamon. How you doing, buddy? You good? All the better for seeing you.
[00:00:53] Thank you very much for having me. Brilliant. Well, I’m really, really looking forward to talking to you today about your career. I feel like there are so many lessons that small business owners and business owners can. Can really learn from the journey that you’ve had, um, being that your journey in communication being an important part of business and you’ve been communicating, uh, for for many, many, many years.
[00:01:20] I really want to talk to you about influence in terms of interviewing and, you know, speaking to people and building influence within your career. Media brand and so much more. And we’ve got so much to cover, but it would be awesome if you could maybe take us back to the beginning of, of where you’ve, you kind of come from, where you started from and, uh, how you got into this, this very long, varied and successful career that you’ve had.
[00:01:47] Eamon Holmes: It’s interesting you talking there in terms of the introduction and the preamble and you’ve used the word business three times and it just made me think I’m in loosely what’s called show business and, uh, you know, I’ve done quite a lot of show busy things in my time, but what I do realize about broadcasting and about being a personality is that it’s more business than show.
[00:02:14] And I think if you approach it with, you know, you want to be famous or you want people to recognize you, you’re heading for trouble. You’ve got to see that there is a business. And when I think of my biggest achievement and what I have done is. To survive, to survive since October, 1980, and, you know, there’s not many people you can look and you can see people on the box and they’ve been there for five years or seven years or whatever, and then they disappear and, you know, I’ll disappear soon, but, but I’ve gone 40, what’s that, 45 years, uh, so far, and believe me, mate, there’s not many people that do that.
[00:02:55] So that, there’s not many people that do that. Is an achievement. But in doing that, I, you know, I started life as a farming reporter in October 1980. And, uh, I said to, uh, my college lecturer who had told me about the job, she said, uh, I said, but Mrs Fitzpatrick, I don’t know anything about farming. And she said, rule one of journalism and find out.
[00:03:22] And so I always find it to be That whether I’m talking showbiz or I’m talking horse racing, whether I’m talking politics, whatever I’m talking, you’ve got to find out. See that camera moves. I didn’t do that like camera. I don’t know why I did that. But if I move my hand, that’s very embarrassing. That painting of me in the back.
[00:03:41] That was to mark my 60th birthday incidentally. Um, but it you have to learn. And if you don’t know your subject, you’re in You’re in trouble or you can be in trouble. So it’s making it look relaxed. And that’s the secret. I think the best presenters that I can ever look back on and got influence from were the ones that made it look easy.
[00:04:07] They made it look as if they weren’t trying. The worst presenters are the one who are stuck to autocue. You can see their eyes wide, stuck to the words on the screen, and you just there’s no, none of their personality. in this. This has got to be about them as individuals and then people will buy into you as an individual.
[00:04:28] And if you’re, you’re not and you’re reading someone else’s words and the audience at home realize you’re reading someone else’s words, why would they invest in you? You’re just a puppet for someone else.
[00:04:39] Adam Stott: Absolutely. I find it really interesting the things that you, you’ve just said there. First of all, the survival part.
[00:04:45] To go from 1980 to 2025 and have that varied, um, um, varied career that you’ve had, GMTV, you know, being on, uh, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Celebrity Version, GB News, all of these different areas and this long extensive career. Working with high profile showbiz celebrities and being in that world, and I love that you just cut it up as show and then business because the, the business part.
[00:05:12] Do you feel that you treating it like a business has been one of the reasons that you’ve been able to survive and thrive so long? Is it because you’ve looked at it with that angle as well,
[00:05:24] Eamon Holmes: Adam? I, I honestly, I think you’d be very naive not to look at it. Like that, I mean, we all want to be loved. We all want to be employed.
[00:05:33] I want, you know, the BBC to come along and throw a cloak around me and say, you’re our man. We’re going to make you a big star and we’re going to give you lots of programs. But it doesn’t work like that. You are, you don’t even have to be good to be a broadcaster. You just have to have someone in authority that thinks you’re good.
[00:05:50] And that’s why there’s so many bad people. I mean, sometimes, I mean, do you not look, is it just me? Do you not look at broadcasters and Um, you know, when you think of local radio, national television and all sorts of things and you basically look and you think, my God, how did he or she get a job on telly?
[00:06:11] Because I do. I just think there’s so many substandard people and I always find it. And I think this, this would apply to anybody setting up their own business. And when I was younger, I used to, I used to think, Oh, I’m really awful. I’m really bad. And the way I would buck myself up is to look at what else was out there and say, well, you’re a bad Aiman.
[00:06:33] They’ve got a job. They’re on the telly. They’re 10 times worse than you. And they’ve got a job and they don’t, the thing is they don’t know they’re bad. They sit there and they think they’re brilliant. They think they’re big stars. And maybe that is the best way because if you do something you love. In life, it never feeds like a day’s work, but it’s not totally down to you.
[00:06:53] It’s down to who’s employing you. So I get back to this business thing. I mean, I’m a, I’m a glass half empty person and I’m, I’m always worrying. So I’m, I’m worrying about where the next job is, what you’ve got to do. And I’ve never found it to be any. Any different, if you begin to enjoy your job and spend all your money and whatever, which, which I’ve done in my time, um, there’s no guarantee it can be replaced to be, there’s not, there’s a terrible situation going on with the tax man at the minute whereby, um, you work as a freelance for various people, but the tax man under a code called IR 35 will say, no, no, no, you’re not your staff, but you get no staff benefits or anything else.
[00:07:32] And it’s absolutely immoral, but it’s a very insecure business. And I would never say to any of my kids. Um, if they said to me, you know, they wanted to be broadcasters, I wouldn’t encourage it. I’ve been very lucky. I’ve been very, very lucky. I mean, you can say, Adam, the harder you work, the luckier you get.
[00:07:51] And I think that’s true for anybody in whatever business you do. I genuinely do think that, but there is a certain amount of, sometimes the luck goes for you. You know, if you’re a football team and you win, you win the league. You’ve got to have a few lucky results along the way. And, um, and everybody, you know, that goes your way brilliant.
[00:08:11] And I’ve been lucky at times I’ve, I’ve had my time. And there’s certainly a lot of very lucky people, uh, on television, uh, at the minute who really shouldn’t be here, but, but they are.
[00:08:23] Adam Stott: Hey everyone, hope you’re enjoying the podcast. We’ve got a free training that I’m doing right now online from the comfort of your own home called Stand Out Brand.
[00:08:32] What this does is it shows business owners how to get noticed on social media, stand out. Get more leads and get more sales. So if you want to make more money in your business, head over to adamstop. com forward slash SOB. That’s adamstop. com forward slash SOB and join us on the free three day workshop, stand out brand.
[00:08:56] I think that. Certainly the harder you work, the luckier you get. I can definitely, you know, roll with that. It’s interesting that you say, um, a glass half empty kind of guy because having got to know you, having had you to our gold circle, going to know you, I think you’re really, you know, there’s a lot of positivity there as well.
[00:09:13] I think you’re, um, you know, very real about about it all. And I love the comment there about the presenting. And I think there’s someone that’s done so much presenting and we, we help people to become better presenters, but not typically for TV presenting, but most likely for stage presenting. So how to talk on stage.
[00:09:34] But I love that comment there about being relaxed. Um, how does somebody. In your mind, because you said there’s some people on TV that are not so good, there’s some people that are good, is there someone, because we won’t talk about the ones that are not so good, because that would potentially be unfair, but is there someone that you admire when you see them on TV, and you go, do you know what, they’re a good presenter, or they get it, or they’ve got that, is there a few people like that, that you would call to as good presenters?
[00:10:02] Eamon Holmes: I think there’s some really good sports presenters, you know, people like Gabby Logan. Yeah. You know the subject inside out, Claire Balding, um, they really know what they’re talking about. In my day, you know, there were masters like Dickie Davis and Frank Boff and, um, the best of all, in my view, uh, Desmond Lynham.
[00:10:25] Um, who, who has retired now a number of years, but as a master sports presenter, he had authority, he had the look, he had the voice, he had the knowledge. I think when you get the knowledge, when you’ve got the knowledge, you can then choose what to do with it. You can play it funny, you can play it straight, you can play it seriously, but it’s up to you what way you then portray that.
[00:10:48] And it is. It’s amazing to work with, with people who really know their subject and know what they’re about and you just stand back at all and you look at the Wogan’s and you look at the Parkinson’s or whatever. I think television has changed so much and it is continuing to change. Um, for instance, this week Sky announced that in five years time, there will be a pay only channel to watch Sky News, you will have to.
[00:11:12] Pay separately for it. And that’s the way it’s harder. People, youngsters, particularly say youngsters, I mean, people under 40. Um, they’re not interested in news. They’re just didn’t, they’re not interested. It takes a lot, you know, so to present news the way I do and GB news, it’s sort of like news attainment.
[00:11:34] It’s a, it’s a. form of entertainment to the news. Um, I don’t mean that, that’s not demeaning the news, but you’ve got to present it in a, in a, an interesting, attractive, relevant, people are going to stop and say, goodness me, I didn’t know that. And, um, let me just listen to this for, for a few minutes. So we’re doing what I do.
[00:11:53] The great privilege is. People waking up on a morning, finding out things that they didn’t know the night before, that it’s new and it’s fresh to them, and that’s what we’ve got to do in terms of content. Now you can call out whatever you want, but it has to be entertaining. There are, there are subjects that it’s quite obvious that the British public are not interested in, however important these subjects are, but by and large, the British public aren’t interested in foreign news.
[00:12:25] And, um, you know, you get channels, you know, that will do the right thing and they will put those news bulletins first, those news stories, but it’s very hard to get an audience for those. And then you’re judged, we’re all judged by, by our audience. So it’s a very difficult, delicate balancing act to do that.
[00:12:41] I’m very lucky that I’m very interested in what I do. Therefore, I’m enthusiastic about what I do. And you try and convey that. But you talked about stage presenting and what you guys, what you train people for. Totally different skill. Totally different skill. I find that, um, in my day they would hire newspaper journalists to do the job that I do.
[00:13:05] But You write for a newspaper with different language and in a different way than you write for television, and I had to teach people, I found very early on, anybody who was writing scripts for me and whatever, you have to teach them, you say, no, you write the way you speak. That is, that is the way you do it.
[00:13:23] You write the way you talk. And I learned that from a guy, a sports presenter in Belfast. And it became quite obvious to me that for television, you, you, you do not write as if you’re reading it from a newspaper, therefore don’t have producers. Producing script in that way, if you understand what I mean, but you’ve, you’ve got to look, the best presenters are conversational.
[00:13:47] They’re almost casual, but the information is exactly the same. It’s it’s informative. It’s correct. It’s right, but it’s just in a much more relaxed way.
[00:13:57] Adam Stott: It’s interesting, so you mentioned about the stage presenting, but I absolutely love what you’re saying for that transition as well, because if you’ve got someone that’s conversational, you’ve got someone that’s casual, you’ve got someone that’s relaxed, and they’ve got authority, then that becomes a beautiful blend.
[00:14:17] Eamon Holmes: Every day I go to work, that’s what I try to do. That’s the way I see it. And I think you can see Adam, if you were to watch television, you would say, she doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get it. They’re not influencing the script that they do. I remember when I, when I worked with my wife on this morning, I used to say she hated working with me.
[00:14:37] And she said, you never stick to the script. You never stick to the script. You always add lib. And that’s. But that’s the last thing you do is stick to the script, convey the meaning, keep all your timings right, but if you read the script that they have given you, they can replace you with anybody, they can replace you, you can do it, you know, anybody can do it because they just read the words that are there.
[00:15:01] So the last thing you do is read the words that are there. That was my genuine belief. Genuine belief. I think she came around to my way of thinking in the end. That is my view. It just means if you look at yourself as a performer, I mean, I’m not just journalist. I’m a performer. You’ve got to performance in certain ways.
[00:15:20] And as I say, it’s very hard to describe. Making the news entertaining, like it sounds demeaning and you’ll get a lot of snobs saying he doesn’t understand the news, I understand the news as much as anybody understands, they understand human
[00:15:35] Adam Stott: psychology isn’t it? I mean someone said that, they don’t understand human psychology.
[00:15:40] Human psychology is you want to be entertained right? Yeah,
[00:15:44] Eamon Holmes: but you see those people, serious doesn’t have to mean boring, boring is the worst. You can be anything. When I, when I do a breakfast show in the morning, I’m going to be very relevant, very entertaining, very funny, very, very serious, very, very lots of things.
[00:15:59] What I don’t want to be is very boring. Boring is the switch off. It’s what loses you, your audience. And uh, that’s, that’s just my, my philosophy.
[00:16:12] Adam Stott: I think that’s, um, you know, a fantastic philosophy and I just want to pick up on a couple of other things you said about authority. You said about look and you said about voice, though, those three things, um, I think are also like you mentioned, there’s line them.
[00:16:28] In that context, which I found was really, really interesting. He definitely always came across with authority. You know, anyone that he, you know, you, you respected him when he came on the screen. You listened, he kind of had that aura, that energy to make you listen. It’s interesting you pick up the voice and the look.
[00:16:48] How important in, in order would you say these are like, is the authorities coming from confidence, right? Would you, would you suggest knowing the topic on your subjects? Um, be feeling confident around that area. But the other two, I mean, this takes hard work and study and diligence, but the other two looking the part and actually your voice.
[00:17:10] What work did you do on that yourself? Because you must have come on a journey. We did. You weren’t born like this. You, you, you literally built these up. What did you do to develop that
[00:17:20] Eamon Holmes: telling you this is this? This applies to anybody in any walk of life. Anybody, you know, who comes to your seminars and listens to what you do.
[00:17:29] If you look the part, you’ll be accepted as the part. And I don’t care what anybody says, you’ve got to have a certain image and you’ve got to look. Relatively well, and I remember when I joined TV, I was told straight away that you don’t wear a tie that’s distracting. You don’t wear anything that’s distracting or relevant or and you don’t wave your hands about you sit on your hands.
[00:17:49] You present the news like this sitting on your hands. And they used to watch people like lying to him. And I would think. What rubbish you do wear a tie that people are gonna look My mother. So the day she died, all she kept saying was, uh, I said, did you see the program Mom? She’d say, yes, yes. I didn’t like that tie you were wearing.
[00:18:09] That would be like the first thing she would say, you know? So the tie was important. The way you look was important. Did you look as if you should be there? Did you look like a newscaster? Did you look like a quiz show presenter? Did, you know, I think that’s very, very important. And if you, you will judge whether you, or wherever do not, you will judge someone who’s presenting an item on television.
[00:18:34] You look at them, you begin to listen to the item, and then you look and you say, Oh, I don’t like his hair. Oh, I don’t like her boots that she’s wearing. Or why is she doing that? And you will make a subliminal judgment of that person. So image is very, very important. And the better groomed you are, the easier life will be for you.
[00:18:56] It’s just my honest, my honest view. If you look the part. You’ll be treated as if you can do the part. So, so image and style is very, very important. You don’t have to be a pinup model or anything like that. But I do think it is important that you, you look decent and, um, and act decent and speak decently.
[00:19:17] And, um, that’s just, that’s just my view.
[00:19:20] Adam Stott: Absolutely. And on the voice part, did you do any work on your voice in order to get there?
[00:19:27] Eamon Holmes: I
[00:19:28] Adam Stott: didn’t, but what I was
[00:19:29] Eamon Holmes: aware of that, you know, people will say to me, Oh, which, which one of your brothers were you speaking to there? And I said, well, how do you know I was speaking to my brother?
[00:19:39] Because your voice changes. And. There’s no doubt that if I, if I’m at home and my brothers all speak differently than me, that that my, my accent would be a be a lot deeper and be talking more of a Belfast accent and you’d be a bit like that. Mm-hmm . So I do have a, I must, I must have, I wasn’t consciously aware of this, but I must have a telephone voice that you use on, on television.
[00:20:02] I think I would watch the people who influenced me most, and I’d think they speak like that, or that’s the tone they use. That’s the rhythm they use and whatever. I wasn’t aware that I sat down. With a false voice, but I think I’d have to be admit that there has to be a television voice hair that there’s maybe not in real life, but by and large, people who know me know that I roughly speak on TV the way I do in real life, roughly, roughly.
[00:20:31] So therefore I tend to be accepted that there’s nothing false with what I do. I’m not caught up with the false. People don’t like falseness of people. Recognize falseness, then you’re no, not good. Not good.
[00:20:47] Adam Stott: Subconsciously. Do you slow down when you go on TV? Do you feel or do you feel that you pronounce your words with more intonation or do you learn words subconsciously?
[00:21:02] Eamon Holmes: Yes, I would. Intonation is very important, emergent, you know, you know, there was a plane crash in Washington this week being reported and, um, I think you’ve got to be very, very aware when people have died and people have passed on. I think British news presenters are very, very bad at saying, uh, no, James Smith, thank you for talking to us tonight.
[00:21:26] You lost three children in the fire in the warehouse. What did you think caused the fire? And it’s like. total lack of compassion, lack of empathy, not, not like, I’m so sorry to hear you lost three children and I really don’t know how you picked yourself up or how you can even speak to us tonight. So thank you so much for doing that.
[00:21:48] You’ve really got to make it aware. people aware that there’s a terrible loss and that you empathize with what they’re going through.
[00:21:56] Adam Stott: I
[00:21:57] Eamon Holmes: find that difficult because I’m a nosy person and I’m, I’m, I’m a gregarious person and being from Belfast, everybody’s, everybody’s made, everybody’s very talkative and very conversational and I think we care a lot about people.
[00:22:10] We’re very human from that point of view. So, I don’t find that difficult. I think to be a good interviewer, you’ve got to be interested in the people that you’re talking to, no matter who they are. And you’ve got to have a certain amount of empathy, um, with that.
[00:22:29] Adam Stott: And the belief, when you talk to people, say you’re interviewing someone, is your belief.
[00:22:34] That when you go into do you have certain beliefs? What’s your in your mind? You’re going into an interview. You might not met the person before. You don’t know the person. What is your your underlying belief that you have about what’s gonna happen?
[00:22:46] Eamon Holmes: Listen, listen, there are so many interviews that don’t listen.
[00:22:52] They’ve got 10 questions written down and no matter what anybody says, they’ll go from question one to question two to question three, and they’re not listening to what anybody has said, you know, you could be talking to someone and said, and, and when I came here, um, I knocked down, um, you know, four children on the zebra crossing and killed them.
[00:23:10] But then I got here and then delivered out. And they would just say, and what was the weather like outside? You know, they wouldn’t, don’t refer to what, sorry, what you knocked on for children. And you know, people don’t do that. I remember, I would say to people, often you get actors who look one way, they, and as their characters on a soap opera, say like coronation street, but in real life, they’ll be wearing glasses or.
[00:23:39] Like that or their, their accents completely different. And the interviewer doesn’t point it out and said, you speak completely differently than your, than your character. I wouldn’t have thought that your voice was so posh or, or, you know, do you wear glasses full time or whatever? People tend not to do that, but I, I’m not afraid to do that and go to places and point out that there’s something completely different about this person in real life, uh, as compared to their, their character.
[00:24:07] That’s what makes an interview. Interesting. Actually, I’m as blind as a bat and I can’t walk, you know, 10 feet without glasses on and I really do need these and to be a character without these glasses is really difficult for me. Why is that? Tell us.
[00:24:23] Adam Stott: And, you know, so. And you get something that no one else is going to get, right?
[00:24:27] You’ve got something exclusive then, yeah?
[00:24:29] Eamon Holmes: Yeah, but it’s just about being interested. I am genuinely interested and nosy about. About most people. Yeah.
[00:24:39] Adam Stott: So I, this is the second time that we’ve spent time together. So the first time I was live in front of an audience and now we’re on the podcast. Have you got any suggestions for me on how I could interview better?
[00:24:52] You know, from your, your large
[00:24:53] Eamon Holmes: depth of experience, you see yourself as a natural leader. You see yourself as a natural speaker. You’re very, very comfortable with that. And I think if you see yourself as that, if you believe in who you are and what you are and what you do, the audience, yeah. Follow you they don’t want to question that they look and they say he’s the boss man and I watch people in the audience looking at you like that and if you said to everybody everybody out to the back door they would go they’d go there and then they and you say come in again they come in so I think you’ve got very little to to worry about from the point of view you said this is the event we’re doing I am hosting this event I’m going to tell you guys what to do.
[00:25:35] And everybody goes along with it. And that’s a, that’s a great thing.
[00:25:40] Adam Stott: Interesting. I’m always coachable. And when I’m talking to someone that has been doing this for 40 years, if there was anything that you said, but I’m sort of really resonating with what you’re saying about the being natural. I feel that when I first got into speaking and presenting, that I definitely, it took me.
[00:26:01] Quite some time to be myself and then when I’ve trained many many people now many speakers many of them try to be someone who is not them and the first thing I say to them is that I only want to see you and it’s actually like your comment about being on TV. Is anyone can read the script? What do you bring to the script?
[00:26:22] You know what? And that character. So I find it really actually find it fascinating. I find it really interesting when you brought something, the script
[00:26:29] Eamon Holmes: script, because you can see it in the audience’s eyes. You’ve got people who sit in front of you and they want to be inspired. They’re looking at you and they’re saying, teach me how to be better.
[00:26:40] Teach me how to do this. Why can I yeah. Take four steps forward, uh, and they just wanted to happen and they want to look at you and they want to say he’s taught me how to do this and they just want an endorsement that it’s okay to be this. It’s okay to do that. Um, you’re giving them permission almost to do certain things and I think I think it must be very encouraging a very fulfilling for you to look at the people who are in front of you.
[00:27:07] They want to succeed. And the thing is. They know that you want them to succeed, you’re on their side and that’s, that’s very, very important because when you are the leader of a business, if you are, um, you know, a television presenter, whatever you are on your own thing, you realize in life is we do a lot of things on our own.
[00:27:31] We’ve got no direction. We’ve got nobody to help me. People say to me, who taught you this? taught me this. I had one fellow I worked with called Jackie Fullerton in Belfast who, um, would, would teach me with simple things that you know, about reading scripts and about intonation and whatever it is. And I’m going to say taught me things.
[00:27:54] He would, we would sit across the desk from each other and say, don’t do it like that. Read it like that. And, but there is nobody official. There’s nobody in TV that sits and coaches you in anything. And the people that do do are people who are field presenters. And, you know, I always remember that there are certain people.
[00:28:12] That, uh, the TV companies love, and they love sports presenters, particularly. So they love the idea of taking an ex sports person and grooming them until they can present. And that is the thing they do. And I’ll show you sports presenters and I’ll tell you the grooming that they have got compared to other people that just sort of doesn’t happen.
[00:28:32] But I think if you’re a natural, Um, it comes to you understand, the thing is, it’s not about sort of often looking at everybody else to say, teach me how to do this. You’ve got to bring something to the party as well. I mean, you will respond, Adam, if someone comes to you and says, I’ve been wanting to do it like this, what do you think?
[00:28:51] You will have a thought. You will have a thought and you’ll say, good idea, bad idea, or definitely don’t touch that or whatever. So it’s a two way process.
[00:29:01] Adam Stott: What I found really interesting there is, is, is you talking the, the stuff that I’ve done on TV, which is obviously not knowing what the stuff that you’ve done, but I think that the common thread is that there’s never been any feedback.
[00:29:15] So, for example, I did the rich house episode and. I didn’t know if it was good or it was not good until it came out. Neither did they. It’s quite truthful, probably. Pardon? Neither did they. Usually
[00:29:28] Eamon Holmes: the bosses Yeah, yeah, yeah. The thing about TV bosses is they don’t tell you there and then, you were very good, that was an excellent interview or whatever.
[00:29:36] They wait for a day or two until the ratings come in. And if the ratings were good, they go to you and say, really good show two days ago, really super. But the thing is The way I, I don’t need anybody to tell me whether it was really good interview or not. I will know when I’m rubbish. I will know when it’s ordinary.
[00:29:54] I will know when it was really good. And that’s the way I operate. I, I tell myself and I don’t really need anybody to be telling me the same thing because you’ll just know yourself.
[00:30:06] Adam Stott: Yeah, that’s that’s interesting. I suppose that’s a really interesting thing. And the reason it’s interesting is because, um, for me, I did the rich house boys done that twice.
[00:30:16] I did. Um, I’ve done GB news. I’ve done the, um, talk TV, Jeremy Vine, these different types of shows. Um, you know, your LBC stuff and these types of things. And actually, I’ve gone in and sometimes I feel like that went really well. Sometimes I don’t know if that went well, but no one has ever said, yeah, That went well.
[00:30:37] Oh, well, you know, we think that was okay. Also, hey, Adam, um, to be fair, don’t do it like that, you know, just for next time sharpen this up. There doesn’t seem to be a feedback mechanism and that’s all I felt like that was something that was coming. Broadcast in general, um,
[00:30:55] Eamon Holmes: people don’t want to help you.
[00:30:56] They don’t want to help you because you know why? They’re frightened. They’re frightened because if you become good, you might end up better than them. So people don’t. I’ve never had that problem. I’ve always, when I see people, I tell them they’re good or I tell them they’re bad or tell them how to improve.
[00:31:09] Um, it just comes out of me and it’s what I want to do. And look at people like Jeremy Vine. Jeremy Vine is amazing. I’ve never seen anybody with the He’s amazing. energy that that man has. He’s got energy. He’s got energy on the television. He then goes to Radio 2 and he’s got this amazing energy again.
[00:31:26] And he will often be presenting stuff at night. Uh, we want to say stuff like award shows and various things like that. And he is, he is incredible. Um, and I don’t know, Jeremy would be a good subject for you because I don’t know if Jeremy’s been taught. What he does, or if that’s just his drive, I just assume that’s his drive and that’s what he wants to do.
[00:31:47] It realizes that he’s a lucky man in a lucky position. And I think a lot of people will say this to Jeremy, they’ll say it to me as well. They’ll say, how do you keep going or how do you do this or whatever? And the truth is Adam, as you will identify. in business, and I use that word show business again.
[00:32:06] If the work is coming your way, you just keep doing it because sure as heck it could stop tomorrow. It could all stop. So there’s only thing. There’s only one thing worse than working too much, and that is working too little. And you want a two week holiday, I think, no, I’d rather just keep
[00:32:27] Adam Stott: working. Uh, so, so for interesting, I actually really enjoyed, uh, Jeremy Vine’s energy.
[00:32:33] I thought he was a really friendly guy and, and I felt. Uh, Jeremy Ryan, I felt he was a really friendly guy and he had great energy. He was a nice guy. Um, you mentioned the sports presenters and I thought that was interesting because obviously someone that watches a lot of sport you got, um, and I obviously wouldn’t want to anyone that you feel was bad because we want to go there obviously for obvious reasons.
[00:32:58] But is there anyone that’s emerged recently? Because I look at someone like Gary Neville, um, recently. I actually enjoy it. Gary’s just
[00:33:06] Eamon Holmes: a natural. Gary was the union leader in the Man United dressing room. You know, he was, um, you know, Fergie used to do this, you know, Fergie used to say it’s Neville just giving it that, but Gary, Gary is just a natural.
[00:33:21] That’s, that’s, that’s what he does, you know, so it’s amazing to see and I agree, very, very entertaining as is J. P. Carragher.
[00:33:28] Adam Stott: Um, Jamie Carragher as well, right? Strong accent. It seems to have developed well as well, doesn’t he? And, you know, in that way. Yeah. See, the accent doesn’t matter with them. You look at
[00:33:38] Eamon Holmes: them and you, you admire them for what they do and what they say, their accents, not important.
[00:33:44] I think they, they, what they sometimes they just show up other people that are really dull and around them, not many of them, but you know, there are some people you can say, what the heck is he on for? What’s he commentating for whatever. But, um, No, no, it’s some really good sports people out there. Yeah,
[00:34:01] Adam Stott: they definitely are themselves, aren’t they?
[00:34:03] And there will be a lot of people that listen to this podcast, uh, of my clients that, that want to be presenters. And, and, and the other thing is in today’s world, you’re almost getting to the point if you’re running a business where you don’t actually have a choice. You don’t have a choice, but to start presenting your message because you have your own media channel.
[00:34:24] So social media becomes your media and you are either using those media channels or you’re not using those media channels. You’re speaking message or you’re not speaking your message. So becoming good at presenting is important. I think you wanted to eventually speaking that message, speak
[00:34:41] Eamon Holmes: it, speak it, speak it the way you would talk it.
[00:34:43] Don’t preach it and don’t be, you know, You know, too much is worse than too little to something wrong. Sometimes it’s too little. And people don’t want to be sitting there and just inundated listening to someone and they’ll say, bore off the end of the day, you’re, you’re attractive to someone to a certain level.
[00:35:03] And then you realize I’ve been at conferences where I think that’s enough realized they’re all glazing realize in front of you there, those people are falling asleep or they’re looking and saying, I’d love a cup of tea or whatever. And I think sometimes Presenters or people, it’s usually people, you know, who have some sort of franchise or something and you know what they’re trying to do.
[00:35:24] They’re trying to open. They’re trying to sell things to people. What you’re actually saying is look, they get the message. You’ve got them fired up now. Leave them alone. Leave them alone. Let them go change to something else. Keep the interest going. Don’t bore the backside of people.
[00:35:43] Adam Stott: And which brings me to, uh, to another topic, which I think is super, super important from, from your line is, you know, haters and people saying things about you and, you know, having to deal with negative media or press, you know, when you put yourself out there, invariably Going to receive some of that.
[00:36:01] How have you handled that over the I know you’re beloved on the whole, but no one could be fully beloved, right? So how have you managed with those types of things in terms of your career? And you know, how have you? Have you seen that? What’s your mentality towards it?
[00:36:17] Eamon Holmes: Very,
[00:36:17] Adam Stott: very, very, very
[00:36:18] Eamon Holmes: hard. Um, the press will either decide they love you or they hate you.
[00:36:25] And, you know, it’s amazing the people that love you lift up a publication and you’ll say, here’s Judy Smith, the TV presenter, Judy, and you’ll go. I know everybody in TV have never heard of Judy Smith, who is she? And they decide on certain people because they give them a good picture or whatever that they’re a TV presenter.
[00:36:46] They’re not a TV presenter. They’re not a TV presenter. There’s 40, 50, 60, 100 channels out there and they might be doing something, you know, that no one ever sees. So stop trying to pretend they’re up there with everybody else because they’re not. Um, so there is a genuine hatred. There is a genuine spitefulness, uh, amongst, amongst newspapers when they don’t like you and they make it quite obvious that they don’t like you.
[00:37:13] Um, they’ll tend to like women more than they like men. Um, what, what do you do? You can only keep on doing yourself. The best thing you can ever show any of them is to just keep on working because that annoys them more than anything. And they can’t understand. Why is he still on? Because we have said he’s rubbish.
[00:37:29] We’ve said he’s rubbish. So why is he still on TV? Um, I don’t know. Again, it comes down to being lucky. It comes down to being good at what, what, what you do. And, um, it’s, it’s, it’s very, very difficult. Um, you know, a lot of it I have learnt. Not to read, you have to spend a lot of money with lawyers and things too, because just most of the stuff’s libelous, just terrible, what they write about you or your, your life, but it’s, it’s difficult, there’s, there’s no sympathy for you, there’s no point complaining about it, nobody cares, uh, the public don’t care, and the publications don’t care, so, you just have to suck it up, really, and, um, and, and, and, uh, while they, you A flak jacket against it really.
[00:38:19] Adam Stott: So you’ve cultivated almost an indifference now, but was there a time where it hurt you more? It sounds like you have a nice tolerance or indifference to, you know, okay, do what you want to do, I’m going to keep doing my thing. They hurt me any more, they’ve said everything they can say about me,
[00:38:36] Eamon Holmes: they never, I mean, They talk about, um, you know, it’s awful to be mean to people, be kind to people and all this nonsense.
[00:38:45] Well, they never talk about me unless I’m heavyweight breakfast presenter, uh, Eamon Holmes, and heavyweight being a reference to your physique as opposed to, you know, your, your ability. And there’s always, they can’t mention me unless they mention my, my weight or whatever, which. I hate to tell them, but I’m not as fat as they think I am.
[00:39:05] You know, I mean, compared to the general public, I, I go to Old Trafford on a Saturday and I feed anorexic sometimes when I look around at people who, you know, they can just make these comments all the time, but what can I do? You just, you just have to go on and lead your life and do what you do. And you know, the thing is we’re getting back to business.
[00:39:28] And anyone who’s watching this, they’re in business because you don’t want, they’ve got to pay the rent at the end of the day. That’s, that’s what we do. We all like to make a bit of money. We all like to be successful, but I’m no different than anybody else. Who’s going to miraculously? I think people think that, you know, you’ve, you’ve died, gone to heaven and you’ve just surrounded in riches.
[00:39:48] You know, who’s going to pay your rent? Who’s going to pay your airfares? Who’s going to pay for your clothes and your suits and everything that goes on in your life? Who’s going to pay for your family? You know, you’ve got to, this is what I do as a living. This is my business and that is what I do. And you’ve got to then think of variation on that, because if you yeah.
[00:40:09] Put all your eggs in one basket and someone drops you, fires you, whatever, then you’re really stuck. So that’s why I would always be doing one, two, three, four, four separate things. Um, and, and try and give myself options that if one thing falls down, something else is there. And all realizing that I’m always realizing I’m very lucky.
[00:40:31] I’m very blessed. Somebody’s looking after me to give me a career that’s 45 years long. And, um, I don’t know, be from. Uh, Queen Elizabeth II, uh, for services to broadcasting. Um, I mean, goodness me, it doesn’t really get any better than that sort of recognition.
[00:40:50] Adam Stott: That’s an incredible, um, an incredible career.
[00:40:53] And is, you, you sound very, you know, grateful for that, which is, is amazing. Is it, what would you say has been the highlights for you? If you were to give a couple of highlights to, you know, some real, like, Pinnacle moments, successful moments where you really felt like, you know what, this is amazing. Have you had those moments?
[00:41:11] Um, because a lot of time people are really successful. Don’t allow them to have that, that, that moment where they actually really have a lot of gratitude and, you know, think, oh, that was amazing.
[00:41:22] Eamon Holmes: Do you know what, Adam? There have been so many moments you end up forgetting them. Honestly, you end up forgetting someone reminds you and you go, yes, that’s right.
[00:41:31] I did do that or whatever. But when I, I think, you know, I’m a council house boy from North Belfast and, um, I, I knew what, what was sort of expected of me and that wasn’t very much. And, um, when I look back at my life and I think I’ve met every member of the royal family and spoken to them personally and, um, had, had amazing things like that.
[00:41:56] I introduced Bill Clinton in 1997 to 100, 000 people in Belfast and to mark the troubles. Um, that, that was incredible. Um, I was asked by George Best’s family to, uh, the right word is conduct his funeral. They didn’t want a religious ceremony, but, um, again, 100, 000 people and, um, to officiate at George’s funeral.
[00:42:25] And George’s like, would have been childhood hero of mine and. That was absolutely amazing to be asked to do that and to represent your country, which I have been, uh, asked to do on, on, on so many occasions. So sometimes you just, you just look around and you think these things, they mean an awful lot to me.
[00:42:48] A lot of things mean an awful lot to me, but I look at my kids and my brothers and things didn’t mean anything to them. And you’ve got to then realize that. You keep thinking, oh, I’m gonna interview. so and so or see so and so or be at a certain event like, you know, the handing over of Hong Kong to China and, you know, just, just things pop into my mind that you’re there and that’s part of history.
[00:43:10] But you’ve got to realize that these things don’t mean a lot to an awful lot of people and you just got to contain it and say, well, you know what, it means a lot to me and that’s the important thing. As long as it is relevant to me, um, that’s going to be really good.
[00:43:28] Adam Stott: Good. Uh, no, I think it’s amazing, you know, congratulations on such a, you know, incredible career.
[00:43:33] Should be, I’m sure your family’s super proud and, you know, really proud of yourself. To wrap up, I usually ask one last question, um, which is a similar question each time, Eamon, which is, if you were, if there was someone listening to this that was, uh, You know, someone’s starting out on their career, looking to further themselves, which there will be many, many people looking to get better results.
[00:43:56] What one, two or three, it’s up to you how many, um, pieces of advice would you give them in order for them to be able to go and create more success in their business or their lives? What would be really important if you were to dig deep and say, Hey, these two, these two things, or these three things would, would, would help you, what would you suggest would be your advice?
[00:44:19] Eamon Holmes: Roll up your sleeves and be prepared to do the work, be prepared to do the work that other people don’t want to do, um, be briefed, always have the information in front of you, whatever your subject is, whatever you, you know, know your market, know your field. And the thing I would say more than anything else is.
[00:44:40] Don’t do something you don’t like. If you hate figures, don’t be an accountant. If you love animals, be a vet or be a zookeeper or be something else. I seriously mean that. I think so many of us settle just for doing something. I work as a clerk in an insurance office. But why are you working as a clerk in an insurance office?
[00:44:57] You could be doing this for yourself. You could be, have something Why do you see that camera move? That’s amazing. Why is that move? Um, I, I would say that, um, the main thing is Please try and do something you love. I’ve come across so many people in life who I know would make good sports reporters and they’re not, they work at a supermarket or whatever.
[00:45:21] And I often look and I think that’s a waste because they know more about sport than most people on the telly and whatever. Give yourself that credit. No one will believe in you. No one, you know, when I, when I at school said I wanted to be a broadcast journalist. They just looked at me as if I was talking Chinese and was like, well, anyway, what would you really want to do?
[00:45:41] Um, and when I, even when I was at journalism college and I said I wanted to be a broadcast journalist specifically, I didn’t want to write for a newspaper, I wanted to be a broadcast journalist. The class laughed at me. They laughed at me. I thought, well, you’re not laughing now when I’m doing, doing what I’m doing.
[00:45:57] I think you let people know, I think it’s very, very important to let people know what your dreams are, what your ambitions are, what you want to do. It doesn’t matter if it sounds stupid or not, because you would be amazed that somewhere down the line someone will say to you, Adam, you always said you liked horses, didn’t you?
[00:46:14] Funny, I’ve just bought four horses and I need somebody to look after them, whatever. You’d be amazed how doors open and how opportunities happen, but people have to know what you want, what your dreams are and what your ambitions are. So do something you love, seek out something that you have an affinity for, that you would love, and you will never work a day in your life.
[00:46:39] That’s what I would say.
[00:46:42] Adam Stott: I think that’s a beautiful, beautiful, uh, pieces of advice there. Thanks for coming on, Eamon. I think it’s been incredible to, you know, we’ve dived deep into presenting and those qualities and lots on your life as well. I’ve really enjoyed the conversation. So thank you again. Um, it’s been incredible to have you and for everybody else.
[00:47:01] From me and my portrait. Thank
[00:47:03] Eamon Holmes: you both. Thank you. We’re gonna move again. It
[00:47:08] Adam Stott: was brilliant. Yeah, and for everyone else that’s been watching, make sure that if you’ve enjoyed today, go and share this. This is the way that this podcast grows. Go and share this with somebody that could get some super value.
[00:47:21] Perhaps you know someone that needs a boost in their career. wants to get to the next level in presenting and could learn some some really great elements from today’s interview. Big thank you again Eamon. I look forward to seeing you all on the next episode.
[00:47:36] Eamon Holmes: Thank
[00:47:36] Adam Stott: you very much.