The Happy Entrepreneur

Carrie is an author, entrepreneur, community builder and consultant and has been building online communities for the past 15 years. Her new book Building Brand Communities is about how companies can create a greater sense of belonging and therefore create more positive impact in the world.Her experience in tech startups did not create a great positive impact for her. She started her professional life in the publishing world and then moved into a tech startup where she found the step change in the pace of work overwhelming. During our conversation we touch on the idea of a calm company, as evangelised by the founders of Basecamp. Rather than trying to achieve growth at all costs we should be creating a new definition of success.However, can you have a calm company if you're not a calm founder?Lately I've been having a number of conversations about leadership and inner work. I was struck by the quote "the organisations we create bare the scars of their founders". What this means to me is that the companies we create will reflect who we are, what we believe and what we need. If we're not aware of some of the unconscious needs and behaviours that we bring to the company, they'll play out in the way our company grows and evolves.In this episode Carrie says "ultimately everyone looks to the founder, how do they work, what do they care about, are they paying attention to what I'm doing, and if not what do I need to do make them pay attention to me".In a previous podcast with Christina Kisely I discovered the idea of the "law of the lid" and that an organisation can only travel as far as the founder.So, when you're thinking about your business and how well it's working and where it's going I believe it's also important to look inwards and ask the question "where am I going" and "how am I being".

Sarah Metcalfe is the founder of Happy Coffee Consulting and a long time member of the Happy Startup School. She’s passionate about creating happy workplaces and this September she launched her very first online summit about Happiness at Work. The idea came to her in March and within 6 months it was up and running. Now that’s idea to action!In this episode we talk about her work and how she helps companies create happy work places and she shares her view about how companies focus on the wrong things when trying to bring happiness to work. We also hear how she and her team managed to pull together a 5 day summit with 40 talks and workshops. She shares her approach, some of the challenges they faced and what she’d do differently next time.According to Sarah launching your own event like an online summit is a great way to bootstrap your way to spreading the word about your work, developing your own program of learning, growing your email list, but most of all, getting to learn from amazing people that you respect and admire.If you’re thinking about growing your impact and spreading awareness about the work you do then this episode is for you.Find out more about Sarah and her work here:- https://www.happycoffeeconsulting.co.uk/- https://happiness-at-work.teachable.com/- https://www.facebook.com/happinessatworksummit/

One of my highlights from this year’s Happy Startup Summercamp was watching Laurence Shorter’s Spiritual Experience. Think of it as stand up comedy meets group therapy meets chat show meets transformational workshop. I like to call it cheerful introspection.I’ve come to believe that many of the challenges that we find in business and leadership come from a lack of clarity. This is a lack of clarity about where you want to go, but also a lack of clarity of what you stand for and what you want. Getting clear on these things can lead to very deep and very uncomfortable conversations very quickly.Laurence loves to have these conversations, including ones on God and death and he approaches them in an entertaining, engaging and educational way. I believe humour is a great leveller and helps us discuss tough topics in more accessible and less painful ways. I’d love to bring more of this to the world of work and personal growth as I know it definitely helps me to think about the big questions without spinning out.In this episode of the podcast I talk to Laurence about where the idea of his chat show came from, what he struggles with and what it means to be happy and ambitious.Next week on November 13th we're broadcasting a live viewing of the Spiritual Experience. If you'd like to join us then register here - http://ahappy.link/shorter

Alexander Kjerulf is the founder of Woohoo Inc and is the original Chief Happiness Officer. Laurence and I first met Alex over 6 years ago when we went to a conference in Denmark for innovators trying to change the world of business. He’s an amazing guy with an infectious positive energy. When we were over there he invited us to dinner and it was my first experience of Cards Against Humanity. I can’t remember ever laughing so much.Alex’s mission is to bring more happiness and positivity to the world of work. He does this by giving talks and running workshops for companies all across the world. He’s written a number of books and built up a network of positivity professionals who use his materials and resources to impact more businesses. However, after doing this work for 16 years Alex has decided to take a break. He’s found himself having less energy and motivation and is less happy at work, which isn’t a great place to be for a Chief Happiness Officer.Listen to this episode to find out how Alex started the business, what it was like in the early days, how it’s grown and why in 2020 he’ll be shutting it down for at least 6 months and maybe, forever.

The entrepreneurial path is an uncertain one. When you decide to claim control over the direction of your work (and life) you also to take on the responsibility for the big decisions and regularly you don’t always have all the information you need to make them. You can try to think your way to an answer and systematically way up all the pros and cons but that may not be enough.It doesn’t take long to Google around and find different systems and methods for making big decisions. But using these logical approaches can sometimes take more time than you have and also not even lead you to an answer. Sometimes you have to go with your gut. But how do you do that? If you’re a thinky person like me, going with your gut doesn’t always come naturally.In this episode I talk to Jonny Miller who recently shared a Medium post about a big decision. We hear more about the two paths he had to choose between and his approach to making the decision. He shares his own values spreadsheet tool, a fear setting exercise and the idea of regret minimisation. But what I liked most about this episode was hearing about how in the end he combined these rationale strategies with a purely intuitive approach.If you’re a thinky person but also a believer in intuition you’ll find this episode really useful.Some things that we discuss:The Crossroads of Should and MustChoosing curiosity over fearFind out more about Jonny here:On LinkedInOn TwitterHis websiteHis podcast

We hear it said by influencers and Instagrammers, “find your passion and make it happen”. However when you identify so closely with the business you want to create you want to make it perfect and you fear even more that it will be rejected. And that slows you down. That’s because if you’re work is rejected doesn’t that mean you are rejected?On this episode I talk to Kim Slade founder of Unlost and Touch Video Academy. One business is a passion project born from his need for adventure and having awe-inspiring experiences that builds confidence in others. The other business is his pursuit of a market opportunity because of the skills he’s acquired and his innate creativity. One is driven by the artist in him and the other by the entrepreneur.It’s interesting to hear Kim speak about how he has been able to move fast and develop Touch Video Academy because he was less wedded to that idea. He talks about how developing the academy taught him so much more about launching a business and how he wants to use this learning with Unlost.Listen to his rollercoaster journey of having, losing and regaining his confidence and how his need to inspire confidence in others and reminding them of who they are at their core underpins all the work he does.Find out more about Kim and the work he does:https://www.unlostco.com/https://www.touchvideoacademy.com/

I love the following excerpt from this week's podcast. It fully captures our work with early stage entrepreneurs who are stumbling along trying to get their idea out into the world. Maybe they're slowed down by the feeling of imposter syndrome or perhaps it's their need to make sure their idea is perfect and a fear of failure? In the end though you just need to get clay on the wheel..."You can’t make anything if you don’t put anything out. You need something to work with. So if you’re holding everything in and holding everything back and you're stopping yourself before you've even written a line on the page then nothing is ever going to happen. If you do want to make something, if you do want to make a shape and get a bit messy then you do have to get some clay on the wheel. And it’s just clay. It doesn’t have to be fully formed yet."In this episode I talk to Sophie Develyn. She's worked for us for over 3 years and is now off on a new adventure. We talk about the time when she first joined us and about her journey with the Happy Startup School. This is a story of not knowing, confidence, alignment, feeling left out, feeling her way forward and trusting her gut. While she hadn't been sure why she should be working with us it also "felt like home".It's been amazing to have Sophie support us for the past 3 years and her contribution particularly on our Alptitude retreats and our Summercamp has been awesome.We wish her luck on her next adventure to Nepal and I have a feeling that we'll be staying connected.

In this episode I share the audio of a live webinar Laurence and I hosted where we discussed whether to change our name.We've been running The Happy Startup School for over seven years and during that time we've evolved from delivering workshops on how to build a startup to hosting transformational retreats on the beaches of Goa. We run an online community where we support entrepreneurs at different stages of their journey and host an annual festival that attracts people from all walks of life.It's been a fun filled journey and along the way we’ve made so many friends and learned so much. We have now gathered around us people who aren’t just startups but also seasoned business owners and experienced professionals. They come from diverse backgrounds but with a common need to find more meaning and purpose in the work they do. Our work has therefore evolved beyond supporting startups to also supporting individuals who want to grow personally.And so we’re wondering whether our name is limiting us because there are people out there who’d benefit from coming to our events or being part of our community but don’t identify with the word startup.So this is our effort to share our thoughts and get feedback from our members and followers. We’d love to know what you think and so if you identify with our situation or have thoughts about our name ping as an email on hello@happystartups.co.We're not done with startups yet though and if you're London based why not come to our FREE event Lightbulb to Launch: From Idea to Action. In partnership with General Assembly we're hosting a one day workshop to help budding entrepreneurs launch their ideas - https://ahappy.link/lightbulbtolaunch

The Map of Meaning is a very simple map that can create powerful insights.In this episode of the podcast I talk to Lani Morris, one of the co-creators of the map and we discuss what it takes to create more meaning in our lives. Along with her fellow co-creators they’ve discovered that there are four common elements to meaning: integrity with self; unity with others; actualising self potential and service to others. By consciously addressing each of these areas we’re able to fully express what it means to be human and find more meaning in our day to day lives.Along our journey of building the Happy Startup School we’ve met many purpose driven entrepreneurs who are creating good in the world but are also burning out. They believe that they’ve defined their purpose but for some reason something is still missing.What does it mean to do meaningful work? It’s easy to conflate the ideas of meaning and purpose but just because you work in a purposeful organisation does not immediately mean that your work feels meaningful. For Lani purpose is about inspiration and service to others and if we neglect the other areas of meaning then that’s when problems arise.Being able to identify the missing pieces is the purpose of the Map of Meaning.Each of these areas can be depicted as four quadrants on the axes of being and doing. When we look at our daily lives using the Map of Meaning we’re able to identify where we’re spending too much time and how we can reclaim some balance by addressing the areas we’ve neglected.To find out more about the Map and Lani then follow these links:https://www.themapofmeaning.org/TEDx talk on meaningful workThe Map of Meaning - A Guide to Sustaining our Humanity in the World of WorkIntroductory workshop to the Map of MeaningOnline course - The Heart Beat of Business: Creating and Running Meaningful Start-ups and Small Businesses

Marianne is an entrepreneur, coach and author of Be a Free Range Human. I first met Marianne at our Summercamp in 2015 where she ran a workshop about escaping the 9 to 5 and creating a lifestyle that aligns with your business. In this episode we talk about her journey since then and discuss how leaving employment to create our own businesses can mean unintentionally swapping one cage for another. While building a successful business can bring you more autonomy we can also get trapped by that feeling of success and the fear of losing it. When we over identify with our businesses we lose sight of where our success ends and where we begin. We forget that we’re enough, no matter what. Marianne remembers being triggered by the question “If your business didn’t exist anymore, who would you be?” Losing touch with who we really are can trap us in a cycle of overwork as we strive to maintain our past levels of success. Marianne talks about rooting down as well as growing the business. Because without roots our feelings of success can be easily blown away. Rooting down is an inner journey of self discovery and defining your inner compass. You can see how her message resonates with what we’re about at the Happy Startup School. I hope you enjoy this episode.