Will and Joel are friends from university who went into business together. They put all their enthusiasm and energy into it and it grew. They worked hard and they got their rewards.However, at some point it stopped working so well.It went from simple to complex.It went from being exciting and rewarding to just feeling like a job.The spark had gone and they weren’t sure why. They’d focused their attention on trying to make the business work well again but had forgotten to also focus on their friendship.In this episode of the podcast we hear about how improving the communication between founders is more important than trying to improve the business. Particularly if before they were founders they were friends.Will and Joel honestly share the story of their business and their relationship as cofounders. They valued their friendship more than anything else but in creating a false harmony they were doing more harm than good.They’ve both been on a journey of learning not only about business but also about themselves and each other. By discovering what each of them really wanted they were more able to decide where the business needed to go and how it needed to grow.This isn’t just a story of business growth but also founder growth.Will and Joel, because of their friendship, found the courage to be truly vulnerable with each other and through that become stronger together.They reignited their passion for the business by discovering what they needed personally and then exploring how the business could meet those needs.

This episode of the podcast is another recording from our weekly Friday Fireside show. It was recorded on October 2nd and features our good friend Kees Klomp, whom we lovingly think of as the buddhist businessman.Kees is now Professor of Applied Science at Rotterdam University and founding partner of Thrive Institute a think tank looking to reinvent business and society.According to him the business of business is to serve life. That’s its purpose because without life there is no business.During this conversation he shares some challenging ideas about where the current economic system is taking us and what he believes needs to change in order for business to be truly purposeful.We talk about how pain and purpose are intrinsically linked and we also discuss the difference between meaning and purpose.We live in an age where the majority of people feel disengaged from their work and where the businesses they work for are having an adverse affect on our climate and environment. Kees says these are symptoms of a broken system; that system being capitalism.However, he says that it’s impossible to change this system unless we tackle the stories and beliefs that hold it up.And so its up to all of us to reeducate ourselves into a new way of living that’s based on interconnectedness rather than individualism - my wellbeing is your wellbeing and is the planet’s wellbeing.I recommend you get yourself and nice hot drink and find a comfortable place to sit in order to listen to this episode because if you’re like me your mind will be blown.

In this episode of the podcast we shine a light on one of our members, share their work and find out what it’s been like to be part of the Happy Startup School.If you’re launching a business for the first time and are looking for support and guidance during those initial uncertain months then check out our community at http://happystartups.co. We provide mentorship, masterclasses, training and networking to help you build your confidence and your business.Remeny Armitage’s superpower is making friends. She’s turned that superpower into a business and now helps other businesses grow by turning their existing clients into happy and loyal advocates. She knows that if you serve your clients better your profits increase.She started her journey of entrepreneurship over three years ago and during this conversation she shares how she’s grown in confidence and got more clarity about the value she offers.Through the community she’s become more focused and has been “building a fortress around her of really good people”. That’s enabled her to be more bold about her business.She does her work because it makes her happy and others happy. We’re thankful and proud to have her part of our tribe!Are you scared to talk to your clients? Get Remeny to do it. It may be the best thing you ever do.

If you ever find yourself pitching to a VC or for any kind of funding it’s important to know how to tell a compelling story.When it comes to pitching VC’s Haje Kamps, pitch coach, author of Pitch Perfect and CEO of Konf (a virtual conferencing platform), says the three elements you need to remember are: define the problem; say why you’ve got the perfect team; and demonstrate how you’ve got some traction in the market.In this recording of our Friday Fireside Haje shares some of his views on storytelling, startup life (particularly when it comes with dealing with venture capital) and why he believe it’s important in business to not only tell compelling stories but also authentic ones.Other things we touch on are: the importance of building strong brands; being intrinsically motivated and the general irrational behaviour of people.

This episode of the podcast is another recording from our live Friday Fireside webinar. On this week’s show we were joined by Eleanor Tweddell.Eleanor is the founder of Another Door, a community that supports people through redundancy, and author of the book “Why losing your job could be the best thing that ever happened to you”.During our conversation we hear about Eleanor’s journey from corporate employee to entrepreneur and the hurdles she’s had to overcome along the way.She shares her thoughts on the importance of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, playing with ideas and surrounding yourself with inspiring down-to-earth people.

Will LythWorking for yourself for the first time can seem like a scary step. You go from the safety of a regular pay check to the uncertainty of not knowing where the next job might come from.But some us aren’t built for the 9 to 5 and we crave the autonomy and freedom of being our own boss and so we accept the uncertainty and take control of how we work.In this conversation with freelance copywriter William Lyth I hear about his journey from employee to self-employed. He shares that while switching profession and learning a whole new skillset was a risk it was a bigger risk to stay where he was.Originally a developer Will changed direction and found work that gave him flow. He followed the path of becoming a copywriter and along the journey has learned as much about himself as he has about how his new profession.Some of the things he’s learned he put into blog post called “10 pitfalls to avoid as a first time freelancer”. That’s when I reached out to him and asked if he’d join me on the podcast so that we could share his 10 bits of wisdom with you.You can find out more about William's work here - https://williamlythcopywriter.com/

When setting out on the journey of building a totally new business it’s important to focus on making progress rather than seeking perfection. You’re a pioneer doing something that hasn’t been done before and so there’s no set template for success. You’re on a voyage of discovery that can take you down many dead ends.Luckily we have tools to help us explore what works such as design thinking, customer development and the Lean Startup. These tools help us discover the problems worth solving and iterate towards the best solutions.However, while it’s important to find problem/solution fit and then product/market fit we also need to keep an eye on product/founder fit. As our business ideas evolve we, as founders, also evolve along the way. As we discover what the market wants we also discover what we want (and don’t want) which is also foundational to the success and sustainability of the businesses we create.If we don’t be build a business that aligns with our own personal needs we can end up following a path based on other people’s definitions of success. We then run risk of building a successful business that makes us feel tired, trapped and tense. The opposite of being a Happy Entrepreneur.In this episode of the podcast I talk to Veronica Fossa, founder of WeFactory. She shares the story of her 6 year journey of building her business and why closing it this year made perfect sense for her.If you’re a business owner struggling with meeting the expectations of what a successful business should be then I hope this story will give you the courage and inspiration to rethink the direction you’re going in.

Recently I caught up with Beccie d’Cunha, founder of Courage Lab, a consultancy that helps founders and organisations build more resilient and higher performing teams. She shared with me a tool that she uses a lot in her work called Lumina Spark. It’s a psychometric profiling tool that measures the level to which we exhibit different personality traits.I’m always curious about new tools that help us unpick the spaghetti of thoughts and emotions that make up who we are. Knowing more about ourselves can help us design the right businesses for us. It’s hard to define what success means for you if you don’t know who you are.Building a Happy Startup isn’t just about making money while creating a positive impact in the world. It’s also about going on a journey of self-discovery. Discovering our limiting beliefs and being aware of our unconscious biases can help us become more intentional and powerful in business. It allows us to act despite our fears and make big decisions even though we don’t have all the information.During this episode Beccie tells me more about Lumina Spark and how it works. We also discuss our own individual Lumina Portraits (these are the psychometric reports created by the tool) and what we learned from them.If you’d like to learn a little bit more about Lumina and how it could help you then listen on.To find out more about Beccie's work and how she could help you develop your own Lumina Portrait check out here website - https://www.couragelab.co/

This episode of the podcast is another window into the worlds of the people who join our Happy Startup tribe. This time I'm in conversation with Lyndsay Lucero, founder of Baxley Goods. She tells the story of how she started her business and why. Unlike other startup stories Baxley didn't begin because Lyndsay wanted to make money but because she wanted to make something for herself and her children.Baxley Goods currently creates beautifully designed and hard wearing bags that have little environmental impact and provide workers a living wage. Through the business Lyndsay is satisfying her need for creativity while also trying to preserve the planet for her children. At the moment she's designing bags but has ambitions to make other products too.During our conversation we touch on the power vulnerability, authentic storytelling for business and why it's so important to be able to admit that you don't know and ask for help.Lyndsay ends with some questions for anyone who's looking to work on something more meaningful:What's your vision?What lights you up?What are you NOT good at?What assets are available to you?How does all this align?What's the bigger picture?

In our community of purpose-driven entrepreneurs we have many founders who want to create a positive impact with their valuable products and services but are hampered by how they price. This affects both their financial and energetic sustainability.Do you feel unconfident and apologetic in the way you price your products and services? Are you struggling to grow your business because you’re always scrabbling for new customers?If so, this episode is for you.Laurence and I are joined by Ben Johnson - founder, investor, mentor and pricing coach. He shares with us five principles to help you price well. We discuss what they mean and share stories from our agency days to illustrate each point.This is an incredibly valuable conversation no matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey. You'll find some useful tips and stories that will unlock your pricing challenges and help you become more confident and therefore more profitable.The principles we cover are:1. Get out of your own way 2. Price the person and not the job3. Give different price options4. Provide a pricing anchor point5. Always deliver value