Happy MBA

You don’t need a better plan.

You don’t need more qualifications.

And you definitely don’t need to wait until you've got the perfect plan.

In this episode, we unpack the real reason so many thoughtful, capable people stay stuck at the starting line: fear. Fear of getting it wrong. Fear of being judged. Fear of committing to something that might not work.

Rather than trying to “overcome” fear or force confidence, we explore a quieter, more effective reframe: treating your idea like an experiment.

Drawing on stories from our own journey, we talk about why mistakes and flaws aren’t signs you’re failing. They’re how learning actually happens. And why perfectionism is often less about high standards, and more about self-protection.

In this conversation, you’ll explore how to:

Reframe fear and mistakes as useful data, not personal failureSpot when perfectionism is keeping you safely stuckBreak through analysis paralysis by doing tiny experimentsMove forward without needing full clarity or certainty

If you’ve been sitting on an idea for a while, waiting to feel “ready”, this episode is a gentle nudge to stop polishing and start playing.

👉 Download the Excite Strategy Starter Kit — a simple, practical guide to help you take your first aligned steps without burning everything down.

The average age of an entrepreneur in the UK is 46, and more than a third of businesses are run by people over 50. Entrepreneurship isn’t just for the young; in fact older individuals bring valuable wisdom, experience, and networks to their ventures.

Midlife entrepreneurs are often more thoughtful in their approach, focusing on meaningful work rather than just scaling for the sake of it.

This conversation will help you:

Understand that there is no age limit to starting a businessRecognise that previous career experience isn't wasted effort but can be creatively applied to new venturesFocus on what truly matters in your next chapter by keeping what serves your purpose and discarding what doesn't

In this episode, we open a new chapter of the podcast.

After years as The Happy Entrepreneur, we’re evolving the show into Happy MBA, a name that better reflects the work we now do and the people we serve. This conversation is about: what’s changing, why it matters, and who this podcast is really for.

If you’ve ever felt a bit out of place in traditional business culture… this one’s for you.

🎧 About this episode

In Episode 171 of the Happy Entrepreneur podcast, Carlos and Laurence talk candidly about:

Why Happy MBA felt like the right evolutionThe kinds of struggles we repeatedly see in founders, freelancers, and solopreneursWhy “knowing the theory” rarely solves the real business challengesThe limits of traditional MBA-style thinkingBuilding businesses from the inside outWhy energy, fun, and sustainability matter just as much as money

This isn’t a rejection of business fundamentals, it’s a rebalancing. A reminder that businesses are built by humans, with lives, values, families, fears, hopes, and changing seasons.

🧠 Key themes we explore

1. Business problems are often personal problems

Yes, pricing, customers, and sales matter. But what often blocks progress is confidence, isolation, fear, or having too many ideas and no clear place to start.

2. Not everyone fits the “successful entrepreneur” stereotype

If the loud, ruthless, growth-at-all-costs model leaves you cold, you’re not doing it wrong. You’re just building something different.

3. Why Happy MBA isn’t an MBA

Traditional MBAs focus on plans, prediction, and scale. Happy MBA focuses on:

Action over overthinkingLearning by doingDesigning a business that fits your life nowDefining success on your own terms

4. Sustainable businesses need sustainable energy

Burnout and “bore-out” are real. If the joy goes, the business usually follows. We talk about how to build something that’s financially and energetically viable.

5. Structure as a playground, not a cage

We believe in giving people enough structure to feel safe but enough freedom to play, experiment, and reconnect with why they started in the first place.

👋 Who this podcast is for

This show is for you if you’re:

A solopreneur or freelancer without a big teamSitting on ideas but unsure which one to commit toFeeling like the “mad one” for wanting something differentIn transition from employment to self-employment, or from an old business to a new chapterWanting to build work that makes money, does good, and feels more like you

🚶 What’s coming next

Future episodes of Happy MBA will:

Tackle the real questions people ask on this alternative business pathShare stories, frameworks, and experiments from real humansHelp you move from ideas → action → clarityOffer reassurance that you’re not doing it “wrong”

We’ll also be answering listener questions, so if something’s been quietly niggling at you, we’d love to hear from you (email us on questions@happy.mba).

Thanks for being here at the start of this new phase.

We’re glad you’ve found us and we’re looking forward to walking this path with you.

Until the next episode.

Ever wondered what 500 million years of mountain wisdom could teach you about where you take your business or work from here?

Laurence and Carlos explore how the French Alps create the perfect environment for profound perspective shifts.

Discover why conversations beside Alpine lakes spark innovations that stuffy conference rooms never could, and how shared adventures build deeper connections than any networking event.

More importantly, hear about the magic that happens when exceptional minds gather in an ego-free setting – where CEOs, founders, and changemakers explore and encourage, rather than swap business cards.

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Sharing on social media can feel like stepping into the spotlight with nowhere to hide. No wonder so many of us shrink from it.

How do we show up bravely without losing ourselves? How do we share our voices in ways that build genuine connections instead of just chasing likes and follows? How can we show up without cringing inside?

In this episode, Laurence and Carlos are in conversation with visibility specialist Kevan Smith, exploring how to show up online with consistency, authenticity, and courage.

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The idea of "personal branding” can be a bit exhausting. The thought of carefully curating a version of yourself that’s optimised for engagement feels like too much effort if you struggle to be anything other than yourself.

Amanda Baker has been developing a framework to help people navigate their own authenticity, and Carlos will be bringing his own reflections on what it means to market yourself in a way that feels human, joyful, and not like you’re constantly performing.

If you’ve ever wondered how to share your story without feeling like a product – or how to stay visible without losing yourself – this conversation is for you.

What if we reframed failure as a step toward clarity rather than away from success?

In this episode, Laurence and Carlos sit down with Anne-Laure le Cunff, neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and author of the book Tiny Experiments, to explore why failure isn’t failure – it’s feedback.

Anne-Laure’s work is all about curiosity-driven learning; turning doubt into discovery through small, low-risk experiments. Her approach aligns deeply with how we support entrepreneurs, coaches, and creatives inside our Vision 20/20 group coaching program:

If you’re navigating a career transition, designing a business that truly fits, or just wrestling with the fear of getting it wrong, this conversation is for you.

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Carlos, Laurence, and Lana present the fourth and final session in their Vision Tribe Summit from February 2025.

This conversation will help you

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Carlos, Laurence, and Lana present the third session in their Vision Tribe Summit from February 2025.

This conversation will help you

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Carlos, Laurence, and Lana present the second session in their Vision Tribe Summit from February 2025.

This discussion will help you

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Carlos, Laurence, and Lana present the first session in their Vision Tribe Summit from February 2025.

In this session they explore four key dimensions of success:

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Chip Conley is the founder of the Modern Elder Academy and author of Learning to Love Midlife: How to Embrace What’s Next. In this discussion with Laurence and Carlos, he delves into the opportunities and challenges of navigating purpose and professional transitions during this pivotal stage of life.

If you’re an experienced professional or seasoned entrepreneur who’s achieved financial success but lost your sense of purpose, this conversation is for you.

Perhaps you’ve experienced “purpose drift”, or feel weighed down by the armour you’ve built to protect yourself but which no longer serves you.

Chip offers profound insights from his work and personal journey, showing how midlife is not a crisis but an opportunityto curate the rest of your life with intention, joy, and freedom.

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Feel like you’re stuck in a loop of fear, overwhelm, and endless faffing about? You’re not alone. Making a big change, whether in life or work, can feel like staring at a blank page with no idea where to begin. But getting moving doesn’t have to be scary, boring, or complicated.

In this episode, Laurence, Carlos, and Lana lift the lid on a framework that’s been a game-changer for their Vision 20/20 programme. They share what they’ve learned, what’s worked, and why this approach has helped their community turn “I’m too scared to start” into “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”

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What if it’s punk to pause? To quote the Nap Bishop Tricia Hersey, that “rest is a form of resistance”?

Caro Turlings and Jobbe Holtes are multi-talented creatives and Vision alumni with a deep love for music, dancing, and dressing up. They join Laurence and Carlos to explore

If you want to make a positive impact but think the only way through is to push until you burn out, this conversation will help you find a new way to make a difference more sustainably.

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Carlos and Lana dive into the concept of creating Minimum Lovable Products: products that "thingify" your thoughts and turn your ideas into tangible, helpful solutions.

These MLPs help you connect with the people you want to serve, promote your mission, and build momentum for your idea.

Whether you're looking to iterate your big vision or start marketing your idea, this episode is about creating connections and value.

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Sarah Bayliss is the author of Do Nourish: How to Eat for Resilience. She combines expertise with lived experience, helping professionals and entrepreneurs make intentional choices about their nutrition and overall wellbeing.

Her approach goes beyond just food. In this episode, they explore how Sarah’s 7 Pillars can support resilience, energy, and clarity, the impact of small, mindful choices in nutrition and habits on your ability to live and work purposefully, and how her personal transformation from burnout to balance reignited her passion for learning and helping others to thrive.

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We know that people will benefit from what we do, and one way to help others find us is through posting on social media.

But what do you do when you don't have a content strategy, a target audience, and you're not yet clear on what you're going to post about?

If this sounds like you, you're not alone. A question submitted by the Happy Startup School community sparked this conversation: "How do you post on social media when I'm still not clear?"

Laurence, Carlos, and Lana dive into their experiences, sharing honest reflections, and discussing how they developed an ability to post what they stand for and believe in online.

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A question submitted by our community sparked this conversation: "How are your values embodied with real examples in your current business? How have your values helped – or even emerged – when things get tough or friction arises?"

In this episode, Carlos, Laurence, Lana and guest Stephanie dive into their stories, sharing honest reflections, and discussing how their manifestos shaped their actions, decisions, and resilience.

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How do you change direction without a map? By reconnecting to your inner navigation system.

But many of us fall shy of it, because it means engaging with the messy parts of ourselves that we don’t want to acknowledge, let alone embrace.

Someone who’s walked this tough but rewarding path is Vision 2020 alumnae Beth Derry.

As a successful copywriter for 25 years, Beth has written for and collaborated with clients such as Microsoft, Allianz, and Heineken to help them communicate their impact on people and the planet.

But when she reached her mid-forties, she knew she could trust her instincts – instincts that told her she wanted more from life.

Beth knows all too well how life's difficulties can shape us. As a teenager and young adult, she faced painful mental health challenges and turned to self-harm as a way to cope.

At the time, the support available wasn’t enough. She didn’t have the answers she needed.

It wasn’t until decades later, after years of therapy, coaching, and innovative techniques like havening, that Beth found her way back to herself – and began envisioning a new way of working.

In 2023 she founded Lovely Messy Humans, an initiative dedicated to educating people on the science of being human, focusing on emotional resilience, regulation, and healing from trauma.

She joins Laurence and Carlos to explore embracing the messiness of a new venture, turning struggle into strength, integration, wholeness, and the power of starting small.

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You probably know about 4,000 weeks. It’s what Oliver Burkeman suggests is the average time we all have on this earth. But do you know about 90,000 hours?

That’s how long many of us will spend working during our lives. And it's essentially a third of your life.

Life isn’t about work, but work can profoundly shape the quality of your life. So it can feel painful to be stuck in a rut in your work or career and not know what to do next. Especially after a profound loss.

Sue Deagle is a veteran c-suite executive, mother, and widow, rewriting the story of loss and vibrant living at the Luminist. She founded it after the profound personal transformation she went through following the sudden loss of her husband.

Sue’s personal journey from profound personal loss to a vibrant, purpose-driven life offers inspiration and deep insights for anyone looking to redefine success, purpose, and impact—even without having experienced a life-altering loss themselves.

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When Laurence and Carlos started the Happy Startup School, they didn’t have a business plan. Instead, they focused on what felt important: community, creativity, and meaningful work.

They followed their intuition and sensed their way forward, building connections, thinking out loud, and engaging with guides, not gurus.

Many solopreneurs and freelancers think they need a clear path or a step-by-step plan to reach a defined goal. But if you’re feeling stuck and procrastinating, it’s likely because that plan is missing something.

Wayfinding is about trusting your intuition and tapping into your creativity to explore possibilities. It’s not about having a fixed destination; it’s about discovering the right one, through experimentation, reflection, and bold action.

Join Laurence, Lana, and Carlos as they discuss what wayfinding is and how it can help you get unstuck and take action.

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You’ve exited your business or you’ve left your job. What next?

You’ve gone from being busy and feeling like you had direction to now floating around aimlessly.

This is what our guest David Spinks calls the Abyss. In his Substack post, he shared his experience of stepping down from the company that he co-founded and trying to work out what’s next.

In this conversation with David, you’ll hear about his experience of the abyss, what he felt, what he did, and where he's at now. He shares how he navigated the inner journey, which helped him understand how he got to where he got to and what he needs to do differently.

Whether you're still floating in the middle of the ocean or have caught a glimpse of the shoreline, this episode will give you some compass headings and the courage to keep on swimming.

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Michelle Grant is an alumna of our Vision 20/20 program and was part of Tribe 2 that started in September 2020.

She’s the founder of The Great Full and offers coaching and community for women leaders within the realms of food systems, sustainability, and regeneration.

Michelle combines her deep knowledge of sustainable systems with her passion for personal and professional development.

Her leadership programs like "Be the Change" and "Lead the Change" offer a supportive community and tools to empower women changemakers to take care of their personal wellbeing, as well as that of the planet.

She’s passionate about the importance of inner work to create impactful outer change, blending theory and practice, science and philosophy, and engaging the head, heart, and hands in her learning journeys.

She is also a professionally certified coach with the International Coaching Federation, trained in the Enneagram, and a seasoned yoga and meditation teacher.

In this episode, Carlos, Laurence, and Michelle explore questions like

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Can you learn to be more creative, courageous, and resourceful when it comes to pivoting your professional life?

On this episode, Carlos and Laurence are joined by Iesha Small, a career pivot coach and seasoned communications professional, to talk about how we can adopt an entrepreneur’s mindset when thinking about following a new professional path.

Iesha shares her inspiring journey from maths teacher to career-change champion, and what she needed to do to navigate that transition.

Iesha isn’t just about making bold moves; she's about making smart, strategic decisions that lead to personal freedom and fulfilment. She explains her unique approach of treating career development like an entrepreneur, focusing on experimentation and creating opportunities that offer more choice.

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Are you a solo founder curious about AI? Do you want to know how it could help you be more impactful, more effective, and free up your time? Or are you a conscious business owner who worries about what AI is doing to our humanity and our creativity?

If so, this conversation with Kerry Harrison, AI educator and professional copywriter, is for you.

Kerry makes AI accessible. She teaches practical ways to save time while adding your brilliant human creativity to the mix. Drawing on two decades of copywriting work and five years of AI experience, she can help you create compelling, human content in less time.

When it comes to productivity, AI provides a lot of potential for us to save time, whether that’s doing research, coming up with new ideas, or producing content.

However, when it comes to our creative output, if we outsource all the thinking to AI, where does that leave us?

We need to remember that humans buy from humans. As entrepreneurs who offer something unique (not off-the-shelf commodities), one of the most valuable things we have is our story.

Stories are a connection superpower. Told well, they take people from knowing you to liking you to loving you in an instant.

But will people still connect with your stories if AI is now writing them? And if so, who are they really connecting to? You, or an imitation of you? Will the stories you share match up to the experience you’re selling?

If you’re passionate about doing business at a human level, these thoughts will trouble you. By the end of this conversation, you’ll be able to better articulate what troubles you about AI so that you can use it more consciously. And you’ll also learn how to use it in a way that amplifies your impact and efficiency without losing your humanity.

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Do you take the time to design for your own wellbeing?

When we’re being the change we want to see in the world, it’s easy to focus on hard metrics: more sales, more leads, more success.

But what if your body suddenly says “no”?

As the saying has it, our health is our truest form of wealth. But how often do we check in with ourselves and explore what we might need?

On this episode, Carlos and Laurence are joined by Pelin Kazak Bagatur, a product and UX design leader who’s deeply passionate about the intersection of design and wellbeing.

She shares how her perspective on health has evolved through personal experiences with yoga, mindfulness, and a deeper exploration into spirituality and wellbeing.

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You’ve decided to change. You’re driven to find a new professional path, but you’re struggling to take the next step.

As an experienced professional or entrepreneur, you’ve accumulated the skills, but now you’re doing something new.

And so fear kicks in. What got you here isn’t going to get you there. It’s time to go from the inside out to overcome self-doubt.

Doing business differently is about more than plans and profit; it's a deep inner journey of overcoming limiting beliefs and discovering your true worth.

As you follow your new venture, you’ll find that the biggest obstacles aren’t to do with your skill set but with your mindset.

For this episode, Laurence and Carlos are joined by hypnotherapist and author Dipti Tait, who shares her perspective on self-doubt and limiting beliefs and how we can overcome them.

Dipti is a respected clinical psychotherapist, solution-focused hypnotherapist, and mental health lecturer. She is a frequent guest on TV and radio, including on ITV’s This Morning, Good Morning Britain, the BBC Asian Network, and Thrive Global.

Her book, Planet Grief: Redefining Grief for the Real World, draws on both her own professional and personal experiences and her clients’ stories.

Her understanding of the neuroscience behind our emotions redefines grief for the world we’re living in today and helps us believe in ourselves again.

Listen to uncover what's holding you back from making the change you want to see in the world.

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Tribe 8 of Vision 20/20 ended their journey together. On this episode, a few of the cohort share their stories and projects that have emerged and evolved over their last few months together:

These ideas aren't necessarily what people thought they'd be bringing to life. Many are as a result of serendipitous conversations or connections on the program.

They might not be the big vision, but they get us started.

Movement forward is key, and and action brings clarity.

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Taking the entrepreneurial path requires taking risks. And the rewards we'll encounter are never certain.

The choices we make create real consequences for our livelihood. And it can be hard to get over the feeling that we're imposters as we face the uncertainty over whether we've made the right ones.

This episode features an enlightening story – the personal and entrepreneurial journey of Sam Conniff, author and founder of Uncertainty Experts.

As someone who previously struggled with imposter syndrome, today he stands as a passionate advocate for embracing and mastering uncertainty.

This episode follows Sam's journey of building a startup, learn how he studied a global need – the universal discomfort with uncertainty – and created a lucrative business out of it.

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Ever felt like there was more that you could do but didn’t know what to commit to?

You're not alone.

When it comes to thinking about meaning, Laurence and Carlos found the book The Map of Meaning by Lani Morris and Marjolein Lips-Wiersma really helpful.

They talk about working with meaning as working with the tension between being and doing, and self and others.

The work is to be aware when we’re off balance and to know what to do to redress it.

Understanding how to do good whilst staying happy is all part of leading a meaningful life.

When it comes to doing good you might ponder

And when it comes to being happy:

On this episode, Laurence and Carlos explore their own perspectives on these questions, and through their own reflections and answers to questions from the live virtual audience, you’ll hopefully find your own insights.

What if we all made a positive impact in the way that matched our energies and motivations?What would that mean for the world? Hopefully a lot of good and happiness.

While we can’t avoid the inevitable, we can still find agency. When we’re navigating a professional or personal transition, it may seem like we’re living in chaos, and there’s nothing we can do that can make things better.

In his book At Work in the Ruins, Dougald Hine asks a question about the climate crisis: how did we find ourselves in this trouble? Is it simply a piece of bad luck with atmospheric chemistry, or might it be a consequence of the way we have been approaching the world?

This conversation aims to create a little campfire alongside the big path of life to sit with the questions and the uncertainty together. You don’t have to go through it on your own, and not knowing how to act is ok.

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When people join the Happy Startup School’s Vision 20/20 program and talk about what they want to do, one phrase pops up again and again:

“I just want to be paid for being me.”

But it’s not always easy to get to this point. Sometimes it takes a circuitous route, as we get more and more used to showing up as our full selves and discovering what it is we truly want to do.

One such alumnus of our program who’s taken the long way around is creativity coach Mark Steadman. As someone who’s able to do it all, from coding to design to writing, he’s become a legend in our community for his ability to “ship” - to transform ideas into reality and get them out into the world.

But he’s tired of constantly cranking out new projects and hustling all of the time. He wants to take a break from constantly “doing” and allow himself to “be” more instead.

He now wants to use his knowledge, experience, and skills to help other creative people unlock their own creativity. He’s realised that that's the thing that brings him the most joy.

But to do that, he needs to put other projects to rest. And that’s tough. To make this change, he needs to give himself permission.

Carlos and Laurence talk to Mark about what it’s like to be a “relentless creative” who has constantly made and shelved projects while he’s discovered what he really wants to do now.

They discuss what it’s like to constantly put out new projects while you try and find “your thing”, and what that's meant in terms of finding his purpose. And they explore whether it’s possible to be paid for just being ourselves.

They also ask him how he feels about putting all of his different creative endeavours in one place, under his own name for the first time, so that he’s finally embracing his role as a creativity coach.

If you want to empower others to act and not just fill their heads with facts, Crowdcast is a platform that can help you do that. It was founded by Sai Hossain who got the idea in 2013 while at a retreat in Costa Rica.

Laurence and Carlos started using Crowdcast in March 2020 which was the time the platform exploded from 500,000 users per month to 2.5 million.

On this episode, you’ll hear more about how Crowdcast came about, Sai’s personal journey as a founder, and his thoughts about what it takes to build a community as well as a business.

If you want to make a living sharing your knowledge and experience, or you’re curious about growing your business using live video, you’ll definitely get something from this conversation.

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John Pritchard was the founder of Pala, a brand driven by purpose. The mission was to produce high quality, long-lasting eyewear whilst making a commitment to minimise the impact on the planet and maximise positive social impact on people.

Longevity of product was important to minimise resource usage, but that makes for a very different approach to business.

The Pala strapline was “see the world better”, which enabled him to go into numerous directions around how to help others “see the world better”.

However, after 9 years, the mission took its toll and earlier this year John had to make the decision to close down the business.

He now needs to take a pause, but feels conflicted about that.

His sense of purpose was strong but he also needed to pause to look after himself.

He feels the tension between doing stuff and not doing stuff with conflicting stories about being of service to others but also needing to look after himself.

Now that the business is winding down he’s a lot less busy and t’s something that’s going to take some getting used to. Some internal rewiring is needing to happen.

John is now entering a time of transition where he’s pondering how to change the world while also changing his world.

In this episode, Carlos and Laurence learn about what it took to start, grow and run Pala and the lessons he’s learned about purposeful business and about himself.

You’ll learn about the questions he’s now having to ask himself about how to fit purpose into his future work alongside making a commitment to his own wellbeing.

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Professional women are under overwhelming pressure to achieve it all – career, kids and caring partner.And to do it with an effortless smile.But it isn’t that easy.

It doesn’t mean that you can’t have it all, but according to Emma Draper, award-winning retail entrepreneur, property developer and mother, “we need to release ourselves of the guilt and just do the best we can”.

On the outside Emma is an amazing role model for female entrepreneurs. Over 23 years she’s built a multi-million pound business, had three kids and truly loves her work. But it didn’t come easy. She had to work damned hard to make it allwork.Patience, purpose and persistence have been key.

In this episode, Emma joins Carlos and Laurence to share what she’s learned about business, and more importantly, about herself over the past 23 years.

They cover leadership, culture and positioning as well as more personal topics like motherhood, personal growth and finding your why.

If you’re a female entrepreneur at the start of your journey or you’ve been in business for a few years but now feel stuck… and overwhelmed… this episode is for you.

It’s OK to want it all. Just give yourself some slack if it doesn’t come as easily as Instagram says it should.

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It’s hard to put into words what happens at Summercamp. And that was never truer than in 2023.

There’s an enormous amount of love, growth and connection that happens; and the openness and vulnerability that takes place in a field near Hastings every year is astounding.

In this special episode, you’ll hear from Laurence and Carlos about what the event brings them, and a little of what it requires. Plus you’ll hear from some of the attendees who experienced life-changing moments last September.

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In an age where meaningful leadership and authentic connection are more crucial than ever, Jerry Colonna, coach, entrepreneur, and author of the transformative books Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up and Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong.

Jerry has worked with CEOs and change-makers from across the world. His company offers a complete foundation for what it means to emerge as a leader through coaching, 360-degree performance reviews, bootcamps, peer groups, internal training and organisational change management, along with plenty of rich resources for entrepreneurs, including their podcast.

This two-part conversation looks at the internal barriers and personal histories we need to face to unlock our true leadership potential. And it continues into the subject matter of "Reunion", extending this journey outwards, exploring how leaders can foster a sense of belonging in a fractured society through authenticity and shared stories.

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Whether it's problem-solving an issue, coming up with a new product, or making a mark on the world, our personal vision of success often needs new ideas. But what if you’re stuck in a rut?

What if the usual ways of “shaking the snow globe” just won’t cut it any more?

What if the way forward isn't the state of our business plan but the state of our consciousness?

On this episode, Carlos and Laurence welcome Dr David Luke, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Greenwich, for an enlightening conversation.

He’s published over 100 academic papers, including ten books, and is also a co-founder and director of Breaking Convention: International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness. His research includes altered states of consciousness, especially via psychedelics.

Why? Because there’s an ever-increasing body of renewed research into the use of these substances to help nudge our brains out of our habitual thinking patterns.

But you don't need to take drugs to access the states of mind they trigger.You can feel more creative, less inhibited, and more connected to yourself, others, and the natural world.You just need to know how your mind truly works.

Discover how altered states can:

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Forget thinking about business in terms of B2B or B2C – It’s time to think H2H; human to human.

As much as lawyers and accountants will tell you that businesses are independent legal entities, in the end, they’re a bunch of humans working together for some reason or other.

Too many solopreneurs and founders hide behind the idea of being a “big business” when in fact they are human beings wanting to serve others.

They forget that people want to connect with other people, and that connection can help them sustain their businesses financially and energetically.

Human beings are hardwired to connect but we have too many barriers between us including screens, cultural biases, and our own limiting beliefs.

In order to work well, we need to learn how to connect more.

At the Happy Startup School, we believe in building a community around your business. But to build community you also need to build connections. And you can’t really connect with others when you can’t connect to yourself. It’s a journey from the inside out.

In his book, The Connection Playbook: A Practical Guide to Building Deep, Meaningful, Harmonious Relationships, Andy Chaleff invites us to investigate how we think about connection and to work on ourselves as well as our relationships. He asks us to foster more empathy, compassion and non-attachment in order to deepen our connection with others.

The more we’re able to stand on our own and not depend on others, the more we’re able to connect and be in deep relationships with them.

It seems paradoxical, but by not holding tightly onto outcomes and content, and focusing more on being present and the process of connection, we’re more likely to bond with those before us, be they friends, family, romantic partners, or customers.

Listen to this episode if you’re curious about feeling more connection in your life and building a business that gives you a deeper sense of meaning through a deeper connection with those you serve.

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In a world that wants to keep hustling and believing that “bigger is better”, we’ve always had a different measure of success.

For Laurence and Carlos, it’s about forging deep friendships and relationships, getting out in nature, making things that give people delight, and making sure that those you love get more of you.

To do this can mean simplifying our lives. It can mean focusing on what matters and recognising that there’s another way to be in the world - and in the business world.

The Happy Startup way of thinking has been influenced by Small is Beautiful by the economist and environmentalist EF Schumacher. But they’re not the first to be influenced by this classic text.

In 1991 Satish Kumar, a former Jain monk and activist, launched the ground-breaking Schumacher College near Totnes with a short course on Gaia Theory led by James Lovelock. In this episode, Laurence and Carlos talk with him about getting off the treadmill of endless competition and consumption, as discussed in his book Elegant Simplicity.

They explore what it means to prioritise happiness, social equity, and a desire to tread lightly on the earth. Hear why we “need to go wild” and reconnect with our souls, the soil, and our society in a less complicated, less wasteful, way. Find out what it means to “live like a poet” and find purpose through relationships, contribution, and connection to the environment around us.

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On our previous episode, Laurence and Carlos spoke with John Parkin about big ideas: what they are; where they come from and how to spot them. He shared how big ideas can create real impact with minimum effort.

The idea itself does the heavy lifting. However, what happens when you’re still searching for your big idea. How do you commit to action when it’s not clear?

Say hello to our new friend – the minimum loveable big idea. "Big enough to create impact, small enough to try, authentic enough to be loved." It's an idea that aligns with your hopes, dreams and intentions. It sparks curiosity and excitement, and ideally one that you're willing to commit even though it isn’t 100% clear. The feeling is strong even if the plan is patchy.

Maybe you have a minimum lovable big idea waiting to be birthed? One that has the potential to make a difference, but personal enough to be close to your heart.

Each guest for this episode has a story to tell about their own minimum loveable big ideas:

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John Parkin knows a good idea when he sees one. As a formed Creative Director of one of the most innovative and exciting advertising agencies of the 1990s, he knows a thing or two about coming up with ideas. He's helped create big ideas for big brands, and he's also had one big idea of his own that has transformed his world.

His big idea? F**k It. It led to John leaving his job, Him and his wife Gaia running countless F**k It retreats, and more than 1 million books sold.

The happy startup is Carlos and Laurence’s big idea. 10 years ago many people didn't get it or thought they were weird. But people remember it, and all around the world it seems to make sense.

They’ve had people run various happy startup meetups in North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, the middle east and all over Europe.

If you haven't yet hit on your big idea, this episode with John explores the power of a big idea, How you can spot one, and how to have one of your own.

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When Laurence started out in business, he was a company of one. For 5 years he found his own clients, did sales and marketing, managed his finances. It didn’t even occur to him to ask for help.

Then one day he realised it wasn’t much fun anymore, and he could only go so far with his own skillset.

Thankfully a project came in that meant he had to ask for help if he was to take it on. He could either stay solo and play it small, or start thinking bigger. As luck would have it, Carlos was looking for new opportunities having landed in the same industry not long before.

The rest is history.

The challenge is not everyone has the fortune to find a business partner where things click so easily. Most of the people in the Happy Startup School community are companies of one, sole founders, solopreneurs, AKA lone wolves.

When you don't have a cofounder or no longer have colleagues, a community is your lifeline to connection, which is why in this episode, Carlos and Laurence explore how to find deep, lasting connections when you no longer work for a company (or have one of your own).

Long-time friends and facilitators Line Morkbak and Andrea Strohmayr share how to build nourishing, long lasting relationships in business. Line and Andrea have known each other for years. They are not business partners, yet help each other with their businesses. They are not colleagues, yet sometimes collaborate on projects. They met through business circles but yet help each other out with personal challenges.

The trouble is we don't yet have a vocabulary for these kind of relationships. Accountability buddies? Business friends? Colleagues?

What is clear is this is a conversation that needs to happen more openly. We see these relationships happen in the cohorts brought together on Vision 20/20 and more widely in the online community and from our events. However Line and Andrea are curious about how these relationships can blossom when no-one else is facilitating that connection as part of a committed course or event.

They share more about how their relationship came to evolve, give examples of the importance of these colleagueships, and dive into how we get to this level of comfort, vulnerability and trust with one another, where the commitment isn’t transactional, but rather grows out of curiosity, chemistry, and a genuine interest in one another.

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What if you were unapologetically you? What impact would that have on your work, life and relationships?

Unfortunately, too many of us aren’t prepared to bring our whole selves to work… or even life. We either create a mask or hold back on what’s really wanting to be seen.

When we’re not prepared to show our full selves, it means we may not allow others to show their full selves too.

This disconnection doesn’t help in work or life. It limits what’s possible in what we do and how we act.

Vanessa Belleau is an inclusion and belonging consultant, as well as executive coach. She works with individuals and organisations to create more inclusion and belonging at work. She’s both unapologetic and humble as well as serious and joyful in her approach.

How can we create belonging in a world that feels more and more polarised? What does it mean to find belonging for ourselves while celebrating our differences?

When Carlos first started out in business, he wasn’t sure if he belonged in the business world. He didn’t feel able to conform to the norms, so questioned whether this was the space for him. He had similar feelings growing up when I’d get teased for how he looked.

Being different felt bad. However, fundamentally we are unified by our basic human needs and experiences. If we tap into these, we can let go of the idea of being separate and feel more permission to take space, which then frees us up to be more us and do the work we’re supposed to do.

We’re all called to contribute in our own unique way. Let’s embrace this uniqueness so that we can impactfully collaborate and contribute by being ourselves.

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Our previous episode covered the theory along with Laurence, Carlos and Lana’s own stories of change, both small and large. On this episode, we invite some of our now 120-strong Vision 20/20 alumni – aka the Vision Tribe – to share their stories.

These 3 amazing humans have been living their excite strategy by working out loud. Others have connected with their story, and helped them to reach their own goals.

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The master storyteller. One of the most valuable things we’ve learned from him is about stories of change and how stories can motivate our own action and mobilise others.

Story of Self, Story of Us, Story of Now.

This approach to stories is a way to activate change in the world that is aligned to who we (entrepreneurial changemakers) are and what we need.

In the world of business we can spend too much time and energy talking about what we do and how we do it, and don’t give enough thought to who we really want to serve and why it’s important to us.

Crafting great stories helps us refocus on what matters. And it's always best done in community.

By telling our stories and hearing the stories of others we gently discover our place in this world and create connections with people who can support us.

Powerful stories, well told, define purpose, inspire possibility and nurture deep relationships. They invite people to imagine and to contribute, and they offer a sense of belonging to a bigger narrative of change.

What story are you telling yourself, and what story will you be telling the world? And how will these stories benefit your work... and your life?

On this episode, Laurence and Carlos are joined by Lana Jelenjev, to share their Story of Change Canvas. It's a tool they’ve developed for their Vision 20/20 programme to help participants get more clarity and confidence about the directions they're embarking on.

Hopefully it will inspire you to bring more storytelling into your life so that you can connect more with yourself, with others and with the purpose you've been in search of.

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“Everything has a time to burn because it invites new life.”

During his talk at Summercamp 2022, Ben Johnson shared his thoughts on the importance of creative destruction. Whether you’re talking about corporate innovation, the eventual demise of capitalism, or the maintenance of an ecological system, old things need to die in order for new things to live.

In 2015, Laurence and Carlos experienced their own phase of creative destruction. They’d been simultaneously running both the Happy Startup School and their digital agency for 3 years and in order for one of them to thrive, the other had to die.

They had to stop doing things the way they’d always been doing them.

And so, in June that year, after coming back from their Alptitude mountain retreat, they started to wind down the agency. T’hey had 5 staff at the time and many active clients. This made the ending challenging, but it had to be done.

Since then, Laurence and Carlos have hosted six more Summercamps, over 10 international retreats and run dozens of courses, programmes, and micro events. They’ve started podcasts, coached people one-to-one, spoken at events on four different continents and grown a global online community of purpose-driven entrepreneurs and professionals.

Ending the agency gave them more time, energy and headspace to focus on and grow the Happy Startup School. It hasn’t been easy, and they’ve had their fair share of ups and downs. But they’ve learned so much about themselves and collected new friends and collaborators.

On this episode, Carlos and Laurence are joined by Ben Johnson to talk about how we can invite change and creativity into our lives by being more prepared to end things.

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At Summercamp 2020, coach David Papa gave a personal, entertaining and vulnerable talk about how to be scared.

He believes that the only thing that can stop you living the life you love is not the fear, it’s believing the fear.

Fear is just a thought and a sensation in the body. But when you add belief to it, then it’s energy that controls your life.

In this week's episode, David shares how this has manifested throughout his own life and how our relationship to fear needs to evolve in order for us to make the impact we crave.

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In a complex fast paced world it’s all too easy to think that we’re unable make any impact. But this isn’t true.

At Happy Startup Summercamp 2022, Liana Fricker, founder of Inspiration Space, gave an empowering talk about turning apathy into action.

Liana believes that if we harness our inspiration we can inspire others and these small ripples can turn into tidal waves of change. To start we just need to ask ourselves two simple questions:

Liana talks about the inspiration flywheel and how we can go from being activated, to elevated, to motivated and back again.

We can then start with a small actions that inspire us to make bigger and bigger moves.

Think big. Start small. Stay committed.

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When Ayse Birsel gave her talk at our Happy Startup Summercamp she was shocked that she only had 20 minutes to speak. Not only that, we told her that she should be sharing stories and not lessons.

Ironically her talk is about lessons; lessons she’s learned from doing extensive research about older people and their attitude to life.

She compiled these lessons along her research in her new book Design the Long Life You Love: A Step-by-Step Guide to Love, Purpose, Well-Being, and Friendship.

As you can imagine this is right up Happy street and we’re fully aligned with her message.

Laurence and Carlos love her work so much that they wanted to explore her lessons more deeply and give her more time to share her stories.

Listen to learn more about Ayse’s work and how you can design that long life full of love.

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Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst are the cofounders of Hoxby, a community and social enterprise that provides companies with the best talent and helps people work in a way that best aligns with their chosen lifestyle.

They're both advocates of what they call Workstyle, and have just published a book called Workstyle: A revolution for wellbeing, productivity and society.

They also consult with companies to help them be more resilient and inclusive by learning how to take advantage of the rich diversity of talent across the whole of society.

During this episode, you’ll learn more about their ideas, how and why they built Hoxby and what it takes to create organisations designed to cater for individualised ways of working.

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“We are all part of this massive wood wide web. We are all connected, we are all entwined.”

Life is full of changes, some are unexpected and traumatic and others can be intentional and nourishing. Coach and Vision 20/20 mentor Lana Jelenjev would like you to help you navigate change by thinking of your life as a tree – whether ripped from the soil or mindfully re-rooted.

Re-rooting means digging carefully around your existing roots, gently shaking away old unwanted soil and looking for fertile ground for future growth. Through sharing her own story, Lana invites you to consider how you can consciously make nourishing changes yourself.

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"When you’re writing something about your business. Anything. If it could be used – intact and just as coherently – by any of your competitors. It’s not good enough. Say something that only you can say, instead."

Mychael Owen is an enigma. He started his first business at university, won a few awards and by 25 was advising other people how to start and grow businesses By 30 he'd started his first agency, employed 30 people with a turnover of £1.5m.

On the surface everything looked great. But soon he started meddling. He was bored, restless and distracted.

At 45 he realised that he craved being truly creative again, doing something he felt he was born to do. in short he was rudderless.

So he did something drastic – over the next 6 months he closed all of his businesses. The change included

Mychael now has something that makes him money and makes him happy because he stops businesses becoming boring, and through his various other projects he meets his needs for writing, designing and hosting.

Despite years of entrepreneurial experience, by his own admission he's still winging it and regularly has doubts and fears like we all do.

But one thing he knows for sure is this: that the stories we tell matter. And that we should all tell more stories that other people can't tell.

Join Carlos and Laurence to hear what Mychael has to say about telling authentic stories that connect with others.

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When Carlos was a teenager, he never thought he could be an entrepreneur. He had very specific beliefs around what it mean to be an entrepreneur or businessman – the entrepreneur type was loud, flamboyant and risk taking. The businessman type was sober, stern and hard-nosed.

He didn’t identify with either of those types.

These days, though, we’ve been given much more opportunity to start businesses; from anywhere, doing nearly anything, for just about anyone. The options feel unlimited. Anyone can start a business. But thanks to Silicon Valley startup culture we have a limited perception of the type of person that can build successful businesses.

At the Happy Startup School, Carlos and Laurence talk about doing the business from the inside out. They want to help people build businesses and create impact that is aligned to who they really are. The question then becomes “who am I… really?”

One way to explore this question is through understanding the Enneagram. This model can be described as a system of personality typing that defines patterns in how people interpret the world and manage their emotions. It's based on nine personality types and maps each of these types on a nine-pointed diagram, which helps illustrate how the types relate to one another.

On this episode, Carlos is joined by fellow Happy Startup members and Enneagram enthusiasts Beccie D’Cunha and Kieran Morris. This is the perfect introduction to the Enneagram and will show you how personal development can lead to professional development.

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One of the core models shared with participants of the Vision 20/20 programme is the Story of Change. Based on the Satir Change Model developed by Virginia Satir (family therapist and author), the Happy Startup School uses it to describe the transformation they wish for others.

Rather than build products and services that they hope people will buy, members advocate a more design thinking approach that's based on understanding the change that people want to see in their lives. This helps them focus on making things that matter and creating actual value in people's lives.

On this episode, Carlos and Laurence are joined by Serena Savini, HR expert and founder and host of the I'm Back! podcast. She was a member of Vision 20/20 Tribe 4, and she shares her mission to help people come back to work from life changing injuries and experiences. And how this story is helping others.

If you're navigating a pivotal moment in you professional life or embarking on a project that is totally out of your comfort zone, then this is for you.

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Mood is a mobile app that lets users track their mood with one tap a day. It was invented by Gareth Dauncey, a Welsh architect specialising in low-impact design and adaptive reuse of historic buildings.

Gareth created Mood after years of spreading himself too thin. Things hadn’t felt right for a while so he started recording how he felt each day with a calendar and coloured pens. Over weeks and months he started to gain a new perspective that helped him take charge of his mental well-being.

Following a couple of serendipitous encounters with his now good friend Marco and Ruby Wax he was set on a path that felt like his calling. He turned his manual tracking process into an app, and was able to help others through helping himself.

In this episode, Carlos and Laurence talk with Gareth about his journey of creating Mood and becoming more aware of his mental wellbeing.

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If you’re like Laurence and Carlos, following a squiggly life isn’t just a matter of circumstance, it’s in your nature.

Sarah Ellis, cofounder of AmazingIf, says in her TED talk with her cofounder Helen Tupper “The legacy of the ladder is all around us.” That’s the career ladder; the linear view of life where work is all about straight line progression.

Many of us were led to believe that progressing in life was as simple as ABC: school to university to graduate training scheme to skilled professional to moving up the hierarchy to getting paid more, to success.

However, Carlos and Laurence didn’t follow that path. Instinctively they knew that it didn’t suit them. It didn’t excite them.

They followed a more meandering road. Carlos been an academic, a web designer, a freelancer, an entrepreneur, an event manager, a retreat host, an online course creator, a community builder and a coach… This wasn’t a path that he’d predicted but for him it’s now all starting to make sense.

When you follow a squiggly path it’s hard to understand how all your skills, knowledge and experience thread together, and therefore how to use them in the next stage of your journey.

“A squiggly career is both full of uncertainty and full of possibility. Change is happening all the time. Some of it is in our control, and some of it's not.” says Helen in her and Sarah’s talk.

Accepting this change is the secret to your resilience and understanding the meaning of your squiggly path is key to taking advantage of your future opportunities. However, you can only understand what it all means when you spend time pausing, reflecting, and asking yourself the right questions.

On this episode, Laurence and Carlos are joined by one of the cofounders of AmazingIf and co-author of the books Squiggly Careers and You Coach You, Sarah Ellis.

They talk about Sarah’s own squiggly career, her transition to entrepreneurship and what success means to her. This conversation is designed to inspire you to make important changes in your career and also make you feel more comfortable with living a squiggly life.

One of the most powerful ways we've found to connect with our followers is through our newsletter. But how do you do it so that it's energising and not exhausting, particularly when you're just starting out?

For this episode, Carlos is joined by Lyndsay Lucero, founder of Baxley Goods. She's passionate about making exceptional goods that also help our planet. She shares her journey of creating a newsletter for her company to inspire you to do it for yourself, why having your own newsletter is important, and what makes for good and bad newsletters.

If you want to create an authentic connection with your audience in a way that feels energising and not exhausting, this episode was made for you.

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Anniki Summerville is a broadcaster, author, journalist, and speaker specialising in telling positive and authentic narratives about women in their forties and beyond.

This is about the "shoulds" and how when we reach midlife a lot of us start questioning them. The invitation is to do that a lot sooner, and lose the comparisonitis that can follow us around.

Could the solution be to could encourage smaller sparks earlier in life, rather that one big midlife explosion when we hit our forties? Join Carlos and Laurence for this fun discussion.

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How do we have to be to create a new world that sidesteps the mistakes of the old?What do we need to learn about relating differently and more compassionately with ourselves, and others, in order to create a different social and cultural reality?And what does a new world business designed to help people practise this look and feel like, and how do we learn to lead such a thing?

Gaylene creates space for the new, the imaginative and the transformative. Through The Space to Come she and her team create experiences that sensitively centre art, conversation, feeling and care.

From interactive events and live installations to leadership programmes, our spaces help you better connect to yourselves and each other and prepare for an emerging, more compassionate world.

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Kindness, compassion, and playfulness can create positive ripples in the world. This episode’s guest, Bernadette Russell, has a daily intentional practice of kindness that not only brings her a sense of hope and joy, but has also opened doors to new opportunities and experiences.

By embracing our childlike wonder and bringing it into our adult lives, we can redefine what it means to be a grown-up, take responsibility for our actions, and make a difference in the world.

Through intentional acts of kindness, we can rediscover hope.

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There’s never enough time, and the work is never done. On this episode, author and journalist Oliver Burkeman shares his insights on how we can better manage our time, but not get bogged down in productivity.

If you’re felt overwhelmed, stressed or unfulfilled, Oliver’s book, Four Thousand Weeks, offers a valuable reframe: pushing against the endless need for productivity, and towards a Zen-like surrender to the fact that we can’t – we won’t – get it all done.

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To cultivate creativity and authenticity, we have to be be willing to take risks and face the fear of rejection.

James Victore is a designer and author whose podcast and course help people cultivate creativity and courage. He believes in authenticity, self-awareness, and the importance of understanding one's creative voice in order to put meaningful work out into the world.

He encourages people to find their own voice and to not let self-doubt or negative opinions hold them back. He joins Laurence and Carlos on the Friday Fireside to discuss how being true to oneself and following through on creative ideas leads to success and fulfilment.

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One of the things Laurence and Carlos are really passionate about at the Happy Startup School is helping entrepreneurs build businesses that are aligned to who they really are.

Most people they work with are experienced professionals or seasoned business owners who are looking for a different work path: a path that feels less effortful and alive.

Up until now the path they’ve followed seemed like the right one as they felt like they were achieving and succeeding. However, they were eventually left feeling drained and even burnt out.

According to Gaiai Pollini, one of the causes for this is that they weren’t being true to themselves. They had made decisions and taken actions that weren’t actually theirs. They were based on behaviours that were learned at a young age in order to meet their needs and which have stayed with them into adulthood.

If you start a business to make a fundamental change in your life but base your decisions on your adaptive behaviours, there’s a good chance you won’t make the change you wanted.

To make this change you need to identify the source you. Your source is true and fresh in the moment while your layers of adaptive behaviours can constrict and constrain.

In this episode, Gaia shares the five different styles of adaptation she uses in her work:

This conversation will help you explore yourself with curiosity and self-kindness and invite you to do some self-reflection so that when you come to creating something new in your life, it will be relevant to your truth, and who you really are.

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For those of us born in the West today, living to 100 will be the norm, not the exception. Living longer is clearly a gift, but the simple truth is these extra 25-30 years of life did not exist before.

This new horizon is as important and exciting as the invention of motion pictures, cars or even space travel.When a change this big happens, innovation follows.

Ayse Birsel is the author of Design the Life You Love, a step-by-step guide to building a meaningful future. As well as being on the Thinkers 50 shortlist for talent, she is the co-founder and Creative Director of Birsel + Seck, a studio where Ayse designs award-winning products for companies including Herman Miller, GE, IKEA, Philips, Staples and Toyota.

On this Fireside, Ayse shares more about her research for her new book Design the Long Life You Love. Conducted with people 65 and over, she explains how the lessons from these pioneers of life can serve us all — designers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders — in our work, our lives, and the lives of others, regardless of age.

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We believe that money is a law of nature and is as real as the metal or paper it’s made of. We give it power and even say it makes the world go round. And this is where we can get unstuck.

We give money more power than we need to. But money is really neutral screen on which we project our fantasies, desires, and insecurities.

In this episode, Carlos speaks with Nadjeschda Taranczewski, CEO of Conscious-U, and coach to CEOs and founders who want to reinvent their organisations. They talk about the three different types of projections we can have on money and how they affect our behaviour. And they explore how we can shift our relationship to it by dealing with these projections more playfully.

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For the last 7 years Joshua Coombes has been a man on a mission. In 2015, while working at a London hair salon and feeling a little disillusioned, he took to the streets with his scissors to build relationships and offer haircuts to men and women experiencing homelessness in the capital.

He began posting transformative images on social media to amplify the voices of those he met. The stories that accompanied these photos resonated, and others began to get involved in their own way.

Do Something for Nothing was born – a movement that encourages people to connect their skills and time to those who need them.

Joshua didn't want to set up a big charity, or focus on making a “huge impact” or “changing the world”. Instead he wanted to focus on helping the person right in front of him; the person many of us walk past every day.

Joshua felt his energy was better spent getting to know a few people better, telling their stories and letting that ripple out. Nick Cave called it “a simple, big-hearted and world-shaking idea”.

What can each of us give that we have in abundance that can change people's lives, even in a small way. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most profound.

Listen to hear Joshua's story and better understand what impact means for you.

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Laurence has been a big fan of Tim Frenneaux's work since he first discovered Gather Outdoors, a blog and online store he launched back in 2015. He's still got a couple of their sweatshirts.

Tim launched Gather shortly after he turned 40. Around this time he lost his dad and realised he wasn't living the adventurous life he dreamt of as a kid. More recently Gather has evolved to become Adventurous Ink, a book club for people who love the great outdoors. His blog is a wonderful source of ideas, resources and inspiration for anyone that wants to bring more nature connection to their lives.

Like Laurence and Carlos, Tim believes that seeking the sublime and awe in nature can be the antidote to many of the problems we face as a society. From disconnection to ourselves, but also to each other and the planet.

Tim talks about how nature can allow us to open up, and how Adventurous Ink grew from the Do Lectures.

Are you starting something new? Are you on the hunt for customers? If so, stop thinking of your customers as just buyers, and start thinking of them as potential partners and co-creators.

From the Happy Startup School’s experience, what you think people want isn't always what they actually want. And the more you talk to them the more likely you'll find out what really floats their boat and discover how your energy to create can best meet their hunger for a solution.

In this episode, Carlos speaks with Adam Forbes, founder of Familiarize. Adam left his corporate job after 20 years to start his new business, and he has principles for co-creating with your customers to share:

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In the summer of 2009, brothers Dave and Mike Radparvar decided to quit their jobs in the heat of the recession to go all-in on their passion project — Holstee, a functional and sustainable t-shirt company they had started with their friend Fabian Pfortmüller.

Since then they’ve pivoted many times. Though what they’ve done and how they’ve done it has changed, why they’re doing what they do has always remained the same.

And it all stemmed from the manifesto they first created when they launched their company.

It’s a manifesto that’s caught the imagination of people and companies around the world and has been viewed millions of times and translated into over 14 different languages.

Holstee is about helping people live lives full of purpose and meaning. They sell a range of physical products as well as the Holstee Membership, Reflection Cards, and a recently-launched Reflection.app.

In this episode, Carlos and Laurence talk to Dave about how the company was started, how its evolved and what it means to live a meaningful life.

If you’ve ever come across the Holstee manifesto, bought any of their products or have a wish to build a business that scales its impact through its values and not just by selling lots of products, then listen to learn from Dave’s story.

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In Ben Hunt-Davis' book Will it Make the Boat Go Faster, the gold medal winning rower talks about four layers of goals: the crazy, the concrete, the control and the everyday.

The crazy layer is about describing a goal that is bold and exciting. Something that feels beyond your reach but you're motivated to achieve.

When you have a goal that lights up your imagination and promises to meet your core needs you're more likely to take the steps to make it happen.

This week, Carlos and Laurence are joined by friend Miguel Roque. They met at their Alptitude USA retreat in 2018 when he was leading the team at Merch by Amazon, a service he helped to grow and scale.

He's currently Head of Operations and Tech at Bezos Academy where they're building a network of tuition-free, Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities.

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What does it mean to build a purpose driven business? For many it means doing something that has social or environmental impact. It's about serving society, the planet or a local community. But to Laurence and Carlos it also means creating a business intentionally – building a business whose size, scale, impact and benefit takes into account your needs and not just your customers'.

If you don't like managing people, don't build a business that requires employees. If you like to take 6 month holidays don't build a business that means you have to be there all year round. If you hate working in an office don't build a business that means you have to commute to a building everyday.

Building a business on purpose means being clear about what you actually want, need... and hate. Don't make the mistake of just following someone else's business plan – take time to consider what your life plan is and design a business plan that supports it.

On this episode, Laurence and Carlos reveal the Purpose Playbook. It's one of the key deliverables on our Vision 20/20 program. They share how it works and why they believe it's so important when designing your Excite Strategy and how it helps you build a business that aligns with who you really are.

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How much do you know yourself?

Sometimes the choices we make in life are dictated by unknown forces that seem outside of us. But what if they're actually inside us and we just have to look.

The careers we fall into, the businesses we start and the partners we choose are all guided by our perceptions, beliefs and personality types. Doing the inner work of getting to know yourself can help you make sense of how you got to where you are now and where you go next.

On this episode, Carlos and Laurence are joined by Beccie D'Cunha and Anna Kolak. Both are coaches and have worked with the Enneagram, a system of personality typing that describes human personality as a number of interconnected personality types.

It's one of many frameworks and models out there, but this episode focuses on how the Enneagram can inform us about what really drives our decisions. The four discuss the pros and cons of using these types of tools, what it means for a coach, and how they build their business and serve their clients.

If you've ever been curious about yourself and wanted to take more control of your direction in life then this is the episode for you.

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Every Friday Luke Swann spends time doing nothing. He creates space for rest, wellbeing and focussing on what he feels is important. He calls it his Friday Flourish.

In this episode, Carlos and Laurence learn from Luke what he does to create this space and why it's so important to him.

In this fast paced world we're all too eager to be busy and stay on top of our to do lists. But what if those to do lists aren't filled with things that are actually benefitting us? Luke's eager to focus on the things that are really important to him. Which means regularly taking stock of what he really wants and needs.

He has a fascinating story of a challenging upbringing, difficulties with mental health and encounters with the law. He's been on his own journey of transformation and through a disciplined approach of connecting with himself he's found more purpose in his life.

"If you don't know yourself well, others will tell you who you are."

Luke is an educator, author and entrepreneur and founder of New Purpose: a wellbeing programme enabling students to develop character and pursue purpose in life. As a result of his childhood experiences and having been able to tune in to his own intrinsic needs he's now on a mission to improve education and wellbeing together.

Listen to learn more about his story and be inspired by his journey of transformation. Learn what it took for him to go from not caring much about anything and having low self-esteem to being motivated and driven to make real social change… while still looking after his happiness.

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What does it mean to be a good dad?

Carlos has two kids; Gabriel is 13 and Esmé is 9. And for nearly a decade and a half he’s been trying to work out the best way to be their dad.

He has no manual nor any training... only lots of questions.

Should he be disciplined or relaxed? Should he focus on their financial security or their emotional wellbeing? Where do his dreams and ambitions fit in? How can he balance it all?

When answering these questions, Carlos has relied on his gut instinct… and his own role model.

His dad.

But following his way of fathering has also been a challenge. There are many things that Carlos is grateful to him for, and also things that he would have like to do differently.

And doing things differently is where some of the struggle has been.

Carlos wants to understand his father’s past struggles, present fears, and his lifelong passions to shake up his old assumptions and discover what really makes him dad tick.

In this episode, Carlos and his dad Luigi talk about going from a shepherd to a guide; his childhood, education, money, working with people, solitude, art, dreams, and responsibility.

There's something about being in nature that helps us reset our nervous systems.

Maybe it's the wonder and awe it can create in ourselves. Carlos likes to think, particularly when around mountains, the awe of being near such massive and ancient structures drowns out the noise of our everyday lives.

And without that noise we can start to think differently and more clearly.

Every year, before the pandemic, Laurence and Carlos would take groups of entrepreneurs and professionals to the French Alps to take some time away from their busy lives and have an opportunity to think about things differently.

It wasn't about following a program or improving ourselves. It was about giving space for the ideas and intentions that we never have time for during our hustle and bustle.

These things get forgotten. And sometimes they're the most important messages we need to hear in order to live more intentionally.

On this episode of the podcast, we are introduced to two friend that Laurence and Carlos met in the mountains and share their stories and our stories of why taking a natural pause is so important.

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What is stopping you from doing what you’d love to do?

When Chris Packe quit his well paid job he was told that he was in a privileged position and that it was all down to luck of circumstance.

But he believes it’s also down to choices and priorities.

He’s noticed that people often deny that they have the power to change things, saying their lives are out of their control.

However, unless you are one of the very unfortunate ones in society, the situation you are in (or not in) is most probably a product of choices you have made (or not made), whether deliberately or passively.

When talking to someone he once worked with, they said what they most wanted to do was leave their job, but couldn’t.

They needed to keep working to pay for the massive house, the kids’ school fees and their love of fine wine and fine art.

To Chris, money can facilitate or limit a person. Their sense of freedom and autonomy depends as much on lifestyle as income.

When Chris decided to leave his job as an investment banker, money was a practical consideration but the real driver was simply to allow himself to have an adventure.

For most people, making a big change in their lives comes down to priorities, not circumstance.

Or whether they are willing to make the choice at all.

In this episode of the Friday Fireside we’ll hear more about Chris’ journey from working in finance to working in nature - running youth programmes and events for teenage boys and girls, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, adults and business folk.

If you're like me (or the me 10 years ago) you believe in mind over matter.

As a hyper rational human I used think that thinking was all there was.

My body was just a vehicle through which my mind would navigate life.

I always lived in my head and ignored the signals that came from my body (other than pleasure, pain and hunger).

Because of that I was very much cut off and unaware of my feelings.

I thought that feelings only started in the mind.

But I've now come to understand how much the sensations in our bodies affect the quality of our thinking.

And how our thinking can ramp up the feelings in our bodies.

It's a highly interconnected system that can go horribly wrong if you ignore the connection.

Burnout, poor decision making and inability to face real challenges are all symptoms of being out of touch with our bodies.

We can't only think our ways to success; we also have to feel our way there too.

On the Friday Fireside we'll be exploring how we can get ourselves being more aware of our bodies and we'll present a different way of thinking and learning that isn't just head driven.

We'll be joined by Ruth Polden. She's a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, Yoga teacher, YogaBirth Senior Tutor and former dancer /choreographer.

The Feldenkrais Method is a powerful, innovative approach to learning. Blending biology, physics, neuroscience, and motor development, it is designed to engage with our brain’s “neuroplasticity,” (our brain’s awesome ability to change, rewire itself, adapt and repair), to benefit our body and how we move and function in life.

Being a physicist I'm looking forward to seeing how physics and feelings combine!

As a leader of a business it’s up to you to tell everyone where you’re going.

It’s your responsibility to create a clear vision for everyone to buy into and have clarity as to the direction and relevance of their work.

However, in an ever-changing world what happens when you don’t have all the answers.

How do you balance the vulnerability of not knowing with the need for a clear vision of the future?

And how do you cope, after spending a big chunk of your life knowing exactly where you’re going and what you’re aiming for, when you need to change but don’t know what that change should be.

You can do all the rational analysis you want but you can still feel unclear.

This is where being more in tune with your body can help.

And cultivating (and trusting) your instincts.

On this episode of the Friday Fireside we’re joined by Pauline Tenner, author of Laid Bare: What The Business Leader Learnt From The Stripper.

It’s a self-help book for business leaders and entrepreneurs that care about employee well-being and business profitability.

But the bit that interested me was how it talks to showing up unapologetically in your role as a business leader.

I’m also fascinated by Paulina’s current journey of transitioning out of her business and finding a new path.

As well as an author, Paulina is an entrepreneur, an angel investor, TEDx speaker and a founder of GrantTree. She started her business with a purpose to help tech startups navigate the complex world of government funding and since 2010 has grown her team organically from 2 to 50 and raised over £200M for more than 600 technology startups.

A couple of fascinating aspects of GrantTree are that it has an open culture company which pioneered a self set salary scheme and that it also employs holacracy in its management approach.

Her new book, which encapsulated her learnings is now a Hot New Release on Amazon which you can pre-order here [http://www.paulinatenner.com/book.](http://www.paulinatenner.com/book.)

Mentioned in this episode:

Happy Startup Summer Camp 2022
Join us s for a weekend of possibility, and a lifetime of impact.
16th-18th September.

Shamash Alidina is a mindfulness and ACT trainer. And is also the author of mindfulness for dummies.

ACT stands for acceptance and commitment therapy and in this episode of the podcast Shamash shares some of the principles of ACT and how they can help us cultivate more resilience and self-compassion in our lives.

In summary the key principles of ACT are:

By following these principles we’re more able to make conscious choices and overcome any challenges we face because of them.

Most of the time there are no wrong or right choices.

There are just choices and repercussions.

If we believe that we’re able to deal with any repercussions then it becomes much easier to make choices.

It’s when we find ourselves unable to make choices that we get stuck.

We also talk to Shamash about how pain and purpose are two sides of the same coin.

And how doing something meaningful usually mean that it’s also going to be challenging.

We talk about how achieving goals and living our values affect our sense of happiness and meaning.

As well as the pressure we put ourselves under to always be happy, particularly in our community.

Being happy all the time isn’t really the point. Particularly if we criticise ourselves for not being so.

If you're an entrepreneur or you're starting a new project or venture and you’re wondering if you’ll be able to overcome all the difficulties and challenges that will inevitably come your way then I recommend you listen to this episode.

Because there are a few nuggets of wisdom that Shamash will share with you that will help you cultivate the resilience and resourcefulness you need.

Mentioned in this episode:

Happy Startup Summer Camp 2022
Join us s for a weekend of possibility, and a lifetime of impact.
16th-18th September.

"Think Different" is the famous slogan used by Apple to differentiate themselves from the grey PC boxes that IBM were churning out in the 80s and 90s.

However, what if you think differently at a fundamental level? You see the world differently. You process the world differently. And you engage with the world differently.

On this episode, Carlos and Laurence talk with Matthew Bellringer - coach, consultant, speaker and divergent pathfinder.

They learn from him and guests about neurodivergence and why the conventional ways of working and being in business aren't suited to everyone.

Matthew himself has recently been diagnosed with ADHD and he's been on a journey of understanding how to align the way he works with the way he thinks.

If you feel like a misfit at work or an unconventional entrepreneur that needs to do things differently, you're in the right place.

Mentioned in this episode:

Happy Startup Summer Camp 2022
Join us s for a weekend of possibility, and a lifetime of impact.
16th-18th September.

Marianne is training as a Purpose Guide™ and on this Friday Fireside we're going to explore with her what it means to discover our true purpose.

It's easy to beat yourself up because you haven't started living your life's purpose yet.

But purpose may not be a process of searching outside of you.

Maybe it's about looking inside and sensing.

If you'd like to feel your way to purpose rather than forcing yourself to find it then join us.

"The place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet"

Mentioned in this episode:

Happy Startup Summer Camp 2022
Join us s for a weekend of possibility, and a lifetime of impact.
16th-18th September.

What's your 10 year plan? What's you 5 year plan? What are your goals for next year? WTF are you actually going to do tomorrow?

In business people are obsessed with plans and strategy. But what happens if you don't really know what you want? And what happens if you change your mind?

What happens if the world changes along the way?

Carlos loves plans, and hates uncertainty. But he's learned about the power of serendipity and the power of being present.

In a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, how do we navigate our way to success in our lives and in our businesses.

It's one step at a time. Simple to say, Harder to do.

In this conversation, Laurence and Carlos explore this topic together and reflect on how it's been core to how they've got this far with the Happy Startup School.

Mentioned in this episode:

Happy Startup Summer Camp 2022
Join us s for a weekend of possibility, and a lifetime of impact.
16th-18th September.