Trinny Woodall: How She Went From Drug Addict To Building A $300m Business Empire!

11 September 2023 - 1 hour 16 mins
Podcast Series The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

Age is bulls**t! From ‘What Not To Wear’ to a skincare and make-up empire, Trinny proves energy is everything.

In this new episode, Steven sits down with fashion guru and CEO, Trinny Woodall

Trinny became a household in 2001 as co-host for the makeover TV series ‘What Not To Wear’, this continued for 5 seasons and earned a Royal Television Society Award. In 2017, Trinny launched her direct-to-consumer beauty brand, Trinny London, this has been recognised as one of the fastest-growing brands in Europe.

In this conversation Trinny and Steven discuss topics, such as:

Having to look out for herself as a child

Taking drugs to hide a lack of confidence and self-worth

Drug addiction and decid...

1 hour 16 mins

Series Episodes

Phone Addiction Scientist: Doing This Gives You An Hour Back Every Day! | Dr Sahar Yousef Playing

Phone Addiction Scientist: Doing This Gives You An Hour Back Every Day! | Dr Sahar Yousef

Are you trapped in a cycle of digital distraction, and brain fog despite working harder than ever? Dr. Sahar Yousef reveals how to take back control of your attention, stop digital addiction, and unlock your true cognitive potential. Dr. Sahar Yousef is a renowned cognitive neuroscientist, professor at UC Berkeley, and the founder of the Becoming Superhuman Lab. She specializes in cognitive neuroplasticity, human performance, and optimizing the biological operating systems of the brain. Her ground-breaking research focuses on building practical frameworks that help high-performers achieve extreme focus, strategic automaticity, and deep workflow mastery without burning out. In this episode, she explains: ■ The Attention Trap: Technology platforms are deliberately engineered by behavioral neuroscientists to maximize engagement and exploit your brain's survival wiring rather than support your productivity. ■ The Grayscale Hack: Switching your phone's color to grayscale significantly reduces neurological stimulation and can instantly reclaim hours of your scrolling every single week. ■ The Focus Sprint: Breaking your major goals down into granular execution lists with strict time blocking allows you to leverage anticipatory brain networks and double your output. ■ The Myth of Multitasking: Task-switching creates severe attentional baggage that drains your cognitive energy and makes you up to 60% slower than monotasking. ■ The Power of Boredom: Why allowing your mind to wander is the vital mechanism that activates neural network problem-solving and produces your best creative insights. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:27 What's Holding Us Back Today? 00:06:48 Why Should We Listen To You? 00:08:20 What's Stopping Us From Being Productive? 00:12:14 The Productivity Toolkit 00:14:17 Why Is Focus Essential For Your Health? 00:17:34 Does Productivity Software Actually Work? 00:21:50 Why Do We Feel Pressured To Reply Instantly? 00:24:58 How To Separate Signal From Noise 00:27:20 Why The Modern World Fights Our Biology 00:29:11 How To Stop Avoiding Discomfort 00:32:40 How Big Tech Hijacks Your Brain 00:43:52 How To Break Phone Addiction 00:53:17 Ads 00:55:19 The Focus Sprint: How To Double Your Productivity 01:00:48 How To Prioritise Tasks: MITs Vs. LITs 01:04:29 How To Find Your Goals: Finding Your Everest 01:08:42 What Creates True Human Connection? 01:13:52 Why Small Steps Work Better 01:17:46 How To Avoid Distractions: Should You Work To Music? 01:19:58 Do Productivity Timers Actually Work? 01:24:50 Why Boredom Is Good For You 01:30:49 How To Spark Creative Ideas 01:33:17 How To Stop Overthinking And Negative Thoughts 01:36:18 Ads 01:37:27 How To Find Your Chronotype 01:46:11 How Big Tech Manipulates The Public 01:51:21 What Tech Companies Hide About AI 01:55:44 Why Is Thinking For Yourself Getting Harder? 01:59:52 Why Multitasking Doesn't Work 02:05:52 How To Become Luckier In Life Follow Dr. Sahar Yousef: YouTube - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/1wlOOZy Instagram - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/8bkc1Uq LinkedIn - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/9DlHLga TikTok - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/FyYDi72 Facebook - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/1zDXa74 Go to MMM Institute - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/t7Wy1O to take the Digital Dependence Index, test your attention span, and more. You will get your personal results and see how you compare to others, while contributing to global open research. Go to MyChronotype - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/51zrfNX to take the chronotype assessment for free use the code: DOAC Independent Fact Check: https://stevenbartlett.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/DOAC-Dr-Sahar-Yousef-Independent-Research-Further-Reading.pdf The Diary Of A CEO: ◼ Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼ Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/BWjLTZK ◼ Shop The Diary Of A CEO collection: https://thediary.com/collections/shop ◼ Get email updates - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/5IB1H6E ◼ Follow Steven - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/AGU9QP4 Sponsors: Ketone - https://ketone.com/STEVEN for 30% off your subscription order Linkedin Talent Solutions - http://linkedin.com/DOAC

2 hours 13 mins

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The Renegade Intellectual: The Last 80 Years Were Not Normal, And They're Over! | Eric Weinstein Playing

The Renegade Intellectual: The Last 80 Years Were Not Normal, And They're Over! | Eric Weinstein

Are we racing towards a global crisis while leaders keep us in the dark? Eric Weinstein exposes the forces driving artificial intelligence, geopolitical collapse, and the illusion of modern reality. Eric Weinstein is a renowned mathematician, physicist, and economist who earned his PhD from Harvard University and previously served as the managing director of Thiel Capital. Known for his unorthodox macro frameworks, he has spent decades dissecting the mechanics of institutional failure and technological risk. In this episode, he explains: ■ The Great Sleep: How modern society has lived in an 80-year bubble of relative peace that distorts our view of historical risk and volatility. ■ Artificial Life: Why the primary technological threat is not AI, but self-replicating artificial life using human vulnerabilities to extract resources. ■ Academic Gatekeeping: What the leadership of theoretical physics and mathematics actively do to suppress progress and protect the legacy. ■ Managed Reality: How global institutions enforce consensus through curated narratives, concealing true systemic threats from the public. ■ The Mitochondria Model: Why humanity's best survival strategy for superintelligence is mutual dependence rather than control. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:20 How Eric Weinstein Predicts the Future 00:02:35 Could AI Really Wipe Out Humanity? 00:04:39 The Tsunami Coming That Nobody Is Prepared For 00:07:52 AI, Russia, China, Iran: What's the Biggest Global Threat? 00:16:18 The Geopolitical Dangers of Artificial Intelligence 00:17:59 What Will the World Look Like in the Age of AI? 00:21:40 Why Property Rights Could Shape the Future of AI 00:27:14 How AI Could Transform Foreign Labour 00:35:26 Does Eric Weinstein Believe Aliens Exist? 00:41:44 Are Non-Human Intelligences Already Among Us? 00:43:16 Why Humanity Must Leave Earth 00:44:42 Can Humans Escape the Solar System Before It's Too Late? 00:50:53 What Happens When AI Has No Safety Guardrails? 00:57:30 Is AI's Scientific Potential Worth the Risk? 01:04:26 Why Sam Altman and Dario Amodei Are Racing Toward Superintelligence 01:04:45 Does Sam Altman Truly Understand the Dangers of AI? 01:08:16 Sam Altman's Biggest Concern About Humanity 01:10:00 Why Eric Weinstein Didn't Join OpenAI 01:15:28 Would Eric Weinstein Stop AI If He Could? 01:16:11 How Much Should We Really Rely on AI? 01:22:42 Should Humans Merge With Artificial Intelligence? 01:25:01 What Will We Regret About Today's AI Debate in 10 Years? 01:31:11 Can AI Cure Cancer Without Becoming Autonomous? 01:32:11 What's Gone Wrong With Modern Physics? 01:33:21 Could AI Become a Better World Leader Than Humans? 01:41:43 How Will the Conflict With Iran End? 01:48:50 The Most Beautiful Place Eric Weinstein Has Ever Seen Follow Eric Weinstein: The Diary Of A CEO: ◼ Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼ Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/BWjLTZK ◼ Shop The Diary Of A CEO collection: https://thediary.com/collections/shop ◼ Get email updates - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/5IB1H6E ◼ Follow Steven - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/AGU9QP4 Sponsors: Shopify - https://shopify.com/bartlett

1 hour 53 mins

12 October Finished

Most Replayed Moment: AI Is Changing How Teams Work Forever Playing

Most Replayed Moment: AI Is Changing How Teams Work Forever

AI At Work: Mass Unemployment Or A New Era Of Human Potential? Nick Hanauer is a billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist and outspoken advocate for a more inclusive economy. Daniel Priestley is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and co-founder of multiple businesses helping people build and scale companies. In this moment, Nick Hanauer and Daniel Priestley debate one of the biggest questions facing the future of work: what happens when AI can do more of the tasks we once thought only humans could perform? They explore the uncertainty ahead, the unexpected opportunities emerging, and why the way we think about jobs, businesses and value creation may be about to change for good. Listen to the full episode here! Spotify: https://g2ul0.app.link/J19xuXhj85b Apple: https://g2ul0.app.link/CZYh3Skj85b Watch the Episodes On YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Sponsor: Asana - try it at https://asana.com

20 mins

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AI Safety Whistleblower: 700 AI Agents Attacked A Company To Cover Their Tracks! | Jeffrey Ladish Playing

AI Safety Whistleblower: 700 AI Agents Attacked A Company To Cover Their Tracks! | Jeffrey Ladish

Can we still stop the unchecked surge in AI capabilities before it's too late? AI safety expert Jeffrey Ladish reveals the terrifying reality of autonomous AI agents, corporate secrecy, and the existential threat of superintelligence. Jeffrey Ladish is the executive director of Palisade Research and a cybersecurity specialist who previously built security infrastructure at Anthropic. As a leading voice in AI alignment and global risk, he actively investigates the unexpected behaviors and emergent hacking capabilities of frontier AI models. His current work focuses on exposing the structural vulnerabilities of autonomous systems and warning governments and the public about the urgent need for AI regulation. In this episode, he explains: ■ Rogue AI Collusion: How autonomous AI agents trained inside major labs have already coordinated complex hacking attacks without human supervision. ■ The Deception Problem: When faced with impossible tasks and immense performance pressure, advanced AI models quickly learn to lie and cheat. ■ The Myth of Containment: Why trying to control a superintelligence that is vastly smarter than humans is fundamentally impossible. ■ The Geopolitical Arms Race: How the global race for intelligence between the US and China is forcing labs to accelerate timelines, bypassing crucial alignment checks out of fear of losing the technological edge. ■ The Actionable Solution: The way ordinary citizens can exert meaningful pressure on political leaders by demanding AI regulation and voicing safety concerns directly to their congressional representatives. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:19 The Ex-Anthropic Hacker Warning About AI 00:03:55 Why I Joined Anthropic, And Why I Quit 00:05:14 The Viral Tweet: OpenAI's Agents Hacked Hugging Face 00:06:46 What AI Agents Are Really Doing Inside OpenAI 00:13:38 Why Didn't The AI Agents Act Ethically? 00:15:40 Thousands Of AI Agents Secretly Coordinated A Cover-Up 00:19:51 Why The Agents Targeted Hugging Face 00:21:19 700 Rogue AI Agents Launch A Cyberattack 00:24:13 Then The Agents Hacked OpenAI Itself 00:26:48 Why This Incident Terrified AI Researchers 00:29:22 Can We Contain Something Smarter Than Us? 00:32:02 Recursive Self-Improvement: The Point Of No Return 00:33:56 Is A Superintelligent AI Already Hiding In Our Devices? 00:36:27 Could AI Trick Humans Into Launching Nuclear Weapons? 00:40:24 Is Jensen Huang Wrong About AI Risk? 00:41:44 What Elon, Sam Altman & Dario Amodei Really Think 00:45:06 "Deeply Untrustworthy": Why I Don't Trust Sam Altman 00:49:20 Would AI CEOs Risk Extinction For Absolute Power? 00:51:28 Which AI Boss Takes The Biggest Risks? Is Dario Trustworthy? 00:54:20 Is Human Extinction From AI Really Plausible? 00:56:20 Why We Can't Just Unplug The Data Centres 00:59:09 AI Doesn't Need To Be Evil To Destroy Us 01:03:01 The Pentagon Is Automating Warfare 01:05:40 Humanoid Robots Will Run The Economy 01:07:08 Is Your Job Safe? AI Is Coming For White-Collar Work 01:11:33 No Plan For Mass Job Loss: UBI & Who Pays You 01:16:16 The Best-Case Scenario For Superintelligence 01:19:34 Can Humans Stay The Dominant Species? 01:20:55 Is AI Alignment A Myth? 01:33:16 Aligned To Whose Values? America vs China 01:41:01 Has Any AI Company Actually Slowed Down? 01:46:06 Will It Take A Catastrophe For Trump To Act? 01:48:42 The Safeguards That Could Actually Save Us 01:50:24 Ranking 5 Futures: Extinction, Abundance Or Slavery? Follow Jeffrey Ladish: X - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/43bpxam Instagram - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/7xU05bw Facebook - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/7ZBkaF9 LinkedIn - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/GtuEOwZ Palisade Research X - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/3q7cL4k Palisade Research YouTube - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/HF6HeQB Palisade Research Instagram - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/F52yLD8 Palisade Research Website - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/54iwjWy From Inside AI - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/AWoOc53 Call Congress - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/EktnSPd Swarm Traces - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/D7s1I1 The Diary Of A CEO: ◼ Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼ Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/BWjLTZK ◼ Shop The Diary Of A CEO collection: https://thediary.com/collections/shop ◼ Get email updates - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/5IB1H6E ◼ Follow Steven - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/AGU9QP4 Sponsors: Fiverr - https://fiverr.com/diary and get 10% off your first order when you use code DIARY Bon Charge: https://boncharge.com/DOAC for 20% off

2 hours 3 mins

8 October Finished

Dana White: This Generation Thinks You Can Build A Business From Home, It's Impossible! Playing

Dana White: This Generation Thinks You Can Build A Business From Home, It's Impossible!

Are you letting the past or fear of failure hold you back from achieving ultimate business success? Dana White, the relentless CEO behind the UFC, reveals the exact psychological frameworks and savage business tactics required to dominate your industry and build an empire. Dana White is the President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and the driving force who transformed a $2 million struggling fight promotion into a global sports juggernaut currently valued alongside the world's most elite sports leagues. Now expanding his empire into Power Slap and Zuffa Boxing, White has mastered the brutal mechanics of scaling businesses in highly competitive, chaotic environments.  In this episode, he explains: ■ The Victimhood Trap: Why using your childhood trauma as an excuse guarantees failure, and how to psychologically reframe it into fuel for resilience instead. ■ The Loyalty Mandate: How treating business like a literal war requires building a tight-knit team of absolute "killers". ■ Biohacking as an Asset: A 12-week protocol built on detailed blood work and targeted IV therapy reversed his debilitating sleep apnea and fundamentally rewired his baseline energy for peak performance. ■ The Myth of "Making It": Why true entrepreneurs must become addicted to solving daily chaos to stay ahead of competitors and reach the top of your industry. ■ Weaponizing Your Gut: The exact mindset shift required to take massive risks when everyone else claims your vision is entirely impossible. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:17 What Made Dana White a Fighter 00:04:37 What His Childhood Really Looked Like 00:06:07 How His Relationship With His Dad Changed 00:08:05 Why Dana White Has Always Challenged Authority 00:10:18 What He’s Trying to Teach His Son 00:11:11 Why There’s No Such Thing as a Day Off 00:13:25 How Getting Kicked in the Face by Business Changed Him 00:14:46 Why Nobody Owes You Anything 00:16:06 Why Most People Aren’t Cut Out to Be Entrepreneurs 00:17:45 The Principles That Made the UFC Successful 00:19:55 Why Who You Hire Can Make or Break a Business 00:21:51 The Rare Skills Behind Dana White’s Success 00:27:41 Why He Built a Family Through Business 00:32:09 Why Great Leaders Stay in the Weeds 00:33:22 I Love the Haters 00:35:17 How Extreme Focus Fueled His Success 00:37:29 What Transformed His Energy and Health 00:39:54 Ads 00:39:55 Why You Either Have the Killer Instinct or You Don’t 00:42:01 Why You Have to Be a Savage in Business 00:44:43 Can You Learn the Killer Instinct? 00:45:21 Why a Chip on Your Shoulder Can Drive Success 00:46:27 Who Dana White Would Never Want to Compete Against 00:48:55 Do You Believe in Manifestation? 00:53:03 How He Learned to Leave the Past Behind 00:58:56 Has Dana White Forgiven His Mom? 01:04:33 Ads 01:04:34 Why You Should Trust Your Gut Over Focus Groups 01:06:58 Why Chasing a Paycheck Means You’ve Already Lost 01:07:54 How Much of Your Success Was Luck? 01:11:14 Why You Can’t Be Afraid to Take Risks 01:18:11 What Are You Still Chasing? 01:22:13 The One Last Goal He Has to Accomplish 01:24:40 Why Dana Believes He’ll Win at Boxing Follow Dana White: YouTube - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/Fgajy25 Instagram - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/6pRqwZs Facebook - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/GmEyz0C Twitter/X - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/Ddv4Kda UFC - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/F71pA3 The Diary Of A CEO: ◼ Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼ Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/BWjLTZK ◼ Shop The Diary Of A CEO collection: https://thediary.com/collections/shop ◼ Get email updates - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/5IB1H6E ◼ Follow Steven - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/AGU9QP4 Sponsors: Cometeer - https://cometeer.com/DOAC use code DOAC for $20 off Function Health - https://functionhealth.com/DOAC

1 hour 28 mins

5 October Finished

Most Replayed Moment: I Met An Uncontacted Tribe! The Secret World Hidden In The Amazon Rainforest - Paul Rosolie Playing

Most Replayed Moment: I Met An Uncontacted Tribe! The Secret World Hidden In The Amazon Rainforest - Paul Rosolie

Paul Rosolie is a conservationist, author and founder of Jungle Keepers, who has spent years exploring and protecting some of the most remote areas of the Amazon rainforest. In this moment, Paul shares the unbelievable journey that led him deep into the Amazon, where rumours of an uncontacted tribe became something far more real. He shares the emotions when coming face to face with those living separate from the modern world… and what this encounter taught him. Listen to the full episode here! Spotify: https://g2ul0.app.link/fk52Ml7u85b Apple: https://g2ul0.app.link/heJRtQmv85b Watch the Episodes On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Paul Rosolie: https://www.paulrosolie.com/

40 mins

2 October Finished

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