“Not as bad as I thought it was going to be.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I told my colleague Nicola, “It’s just a pilot. Let’s just do it and see how it goes.”

Nicola was understandably nervous because I was wrenching her from the comfort zone of her job as Transport Officer and asking her to be my co-host for a new series of video interviews we’re producing for this website. We’re calling it Ways to Wellbeing and each time we’ll be speaking to people about their own definition of ‘wellbeing’ and asking them to share the experiences that have shaped they way they live their lives now. We’re also ending each interview with a quiz based on the NHS guidelines on the five steps to mental wellbeing. One of those involves ‘learning a new skill’ so I thought I had the entire might of the health service behind me as I persuaded Nicola to become an on screen presenter.

Happily our first guest/guinea pig was a good friend of mine. Nicola Creen, fashion model, former beauty queen and co-author of a best-selling book spoke to us from her ‘Confidence Academy’ in deepest Lanarkshire. She shared raw and emotional stories about being bullied in her childhood and about the jealousy that was rife during her modelling career. But we ended with laughter as our Nicola quizzed the other Nicola about those five steps to wellbeing.

And as the interview ended I declared that my colleague was a natural in front of the camera. Her verdict was more measured.

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be,” she said.

Well, there have been worse reviews.