From a young age I had a real sense of the world of work. This is what vocational education gives you.
Drinks-wise, I stick to water, sometimes a Diet Coke.
I think people tend to underestimate you when you have a Northern accent, for instance if you have to talk to the CEO of an international company. But then when I'm talking to someone in a factory, it's just like being with my mum's mates.
You don't have to be the most amazing writer, you don't have to get top marks in your English GCSE, you just have to be someone who can tell a good story, and tell it right, and tell it well.
It's inevitable that not everyone will like me, and that some will find me annoying. That's fine. All presenters deal with that. What's scary is the ignorance about what having a regional accent means, or indeed doesn't mean. It certainly doesn't equal ignorance.
I meet a lot of people with my BBC Breakfast job who have great businesses.
Growing up in Middlesbrough I was taught to be resilient and competitive. My teachers made us believe that just because kids were at private school up the road, it didn't mean they were better than us.
Despite being a business journalist at the BBC for ten years, working behind the scenes on our high-profile news programmes, I was viewed by some in the organisation to be 'too common for telly.'
You'll never see me on anything like 'MasterChef.' I'm just not interested.
My first attempt at a business was a jumble sale which I ran at the end of my next door neighbour's drive. I used to rummage through her garage, looking for anything that I thought people might buy. I'd then set up a table and try to sell what I could to the people walking by.
I remember early in my career people telling me I needed to change my accent, that I needed to sound more professional, more BBC perhaps, but I think if I wasn't from Middlesbrough I wouldn't have done as well as I have.
The most rewarding, insightful and challenging year of my life was my 'Year in Industry' working as a trainee engineer at Black & Decker, which involved studying part time at college.
I've had tweets questioning whether I really did go to university because surely I would have lost my accent if I did; a letter suggesting, very politely, that I get correction therapy; and an email saying I should get back to my council estate and leave the serious work to the clever folk.
If someone chooses a vocational route, why do they not get the same respect in society as someone who just does a pure academic route?
If it's a healthy day, I'll head to the gym, then have a steak salad at the cafe next door.
I get up at 3:30 A. M. We're on air from 6 A. M., so if I'm in the studio, I'll have eggs at around 7 A. M. from the canteen - scrambled or poached, occasionally with a slice of brown toast.
I am not with child - I am with pot belly.
I just like to think of everyone as a happy family but in football that just doesn't exist.
I am not frugal - I'm quite a big spender - but not on credit.
I look at my bank account every day. I constantly think about what is going in and out, and I will always try to save money on something if I can.
