The Happy Entrepreneur

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:The outsiderThe helperThe super personThe people pleaserThe perfectionistThis 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.LinksThe F**k it LifeSay F**k it and Feel the Fear – the Happy Entrepreneur podcast, with John ParkinJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

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.LinksConnect with Ayse via LinkedInDesign the Long Life You Love: A Step-by-Step Guide to Love, Purpose, Well-Being, and Friendship – Ayse’s new bookJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

The podcast discusses the projections people have towards money and how it affects their behavior, including struggles to generate wealth or a fluctuation between greed and disgust. It also explores the importance of self-connection, community support, and understanding one's relationship with money in pursuing a new endeavor. Additionally, it highlights the value of self-compassion, sharing experiences, collaborating with other entrepreneurs, and embracing the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey.

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.LinksConnect with Joshua via LinkedInDo Something for Nothing: Seeing Beneath the Surface of Homelessness, Through the Simple Act of a Haircut – Joshua’s bookThe Wisdom of TraumaJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohortBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the conversation live

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:Start with pain What are people finding difficult and challenging?Understand your customer What are they really trying to do and what outcomes are they looking for?Build hypotheses How do you frame what you think is happening as assumptions you can test?Get out of your head How do you engage and talk to people so you can learn from real world situationsThink collaborators not customers How do you nurture relationships even when you haven't built anything yet?LinksJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

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.LinksThe Holstee ManifestoJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

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.LinksConnect with Miguel on LinkedInJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Alptitude retreat

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.LinksJoin the conversation liveBecome a member of the Happy Startup SchoolJoin the next Vision 20/20 cohort

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.LinksConnect with Beccie on LinkedInConnect with Anna on LinkedInVision 20/20 – a roadmap for success on your own termsIEQ9 Enneagram Questionnaire