
The Happy Entrepreneur
This podcast is a collection of stories and experiences to help entrepreneurs trying to navigate a new way of entrepreneurship.
It isn’t just about the tactics and the strategies but also about the inner experience of being in business.
I’m not here to give you any answers but to provoke you to look harder for the answers yourself.
By sharing new insights and ideas with you we hope you’ll be inspired to look inside yourself to find out what’s really getting in the way.
While you have the knowledge to take your work to another level maybe what’s stopping you is a lack of self inquiry.
Latest episodes

May 19, 2025 • 52min
Eat well, lead well
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.LinksJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

May 5, 2025 • 29min
Social media when unclear
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.LinksJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

Apr 21, 2025 • 31min
When values meet reality
This discussion dives into the relationship between personal values and real-world business experiences. The speakers share their own stories about how their values have guided them through tough times. A focus on the importance of clear communication helps establish a positive work culture. The critical role of leadership in modeling values is explored, with insights on building trust within teams. Finally, methods to articulate values for effective collaborations and community support for entrepreneurs are highlighted.

Apr 7, 2025 • 50min
Lovely messy startups
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.LinksJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

Mar 24, 2025 • 34min
Embracing everything: From loss to aliveness
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.LinksJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

Mar 10, 2025 • 46min
Wayfinding your path to success
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.LinksJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

Feb 24, 2025 • 58min
Finding your second wind
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.LinksJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

Feb 10, 2025 • 56min
Leadership based on feeling, not just thinking
Michelle Grant, founder of The Great Full, is a powerhouse in coaching women leaders around food systems and sustainability. In this conversation, she emphasizes the need for intuitive leadership and the integration of emotional awareness in decision-making. Michelle discusses the evolution of leadership styles, advocating for more feminine energy and community support. She shares her insights on how personal well-being is crucial for impactful change, blending love and joy into the leadership equation. It's a refreshing take on creating a more sustainable future.

Jan 27, 2025 • 54min
Build your career like an entrepreneur
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.LinksJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

Jan 13, 2025 • 57min
The automated entrepreneur: embrace AI and stay creative
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.LinksJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort