It's perfectly possible to be shy, quiet, or introverted and get on in the world. However on social media all we seem to see are the loud-mouthed extroverts who are smashing it and trying to sell us another transformational program that will help us make six-figures in sales. Unfortunately those voices have dominated the world of entrepreneurship making the less assuming ones of us feel inadequate and not knowing how to market ourselves authentically.In this fun and informative conversation with Pete Mosley, author of The Art of Shouting Quietly, we hear an alternative story of success. What if getting known and marketing yourself wasn’t about shouting loudly, but shouting quietly. In his book he asks “What if it is as simple as employing your best listening skills and learning the art of well-crafted questions?”During this conversation we talk about different models of success and being aligned to our true values. We discuss the importance of sharing our ideas with others who show ruthless compassion rather than well-meaning criticism. And we also cover the idea of getting help from others to market what we do so that we don’t feel like we’re always having to talk about ourselves.The invitation to introverted entrepreneurs is to find a way to get your message out into the world that aligns with your nature and rises above the noise. In this episode Pete shares how you can do this.

If you’ve written down 7 top priorities you’ve got no priorities which means you’re going to find it hard to be productive. According to Graham Allcott, founder of Think Productive and author of Productivity Ninja, productivity is ultimately about making space for what matters. This means creating clear intentions and focussing your attention on what you need to do.During this episode Graham shares the different things that can affect our productivity and what we can do about it. This conversation is also within the context of a global pandemic and only just starting to come out of lockdown in the UK.Whilst we may have had all the best intentions of using our lockdown time more productively Graham also reminds us that we’re only human. The challenging emotions caused by the uncertainty we’re facing means we can’t be as productive as we’d like. And that it’s ok.There are some wonderful nuggets of wisdom in this episode as well as pointers to some really useful materials to help you with your productivity such as Graham’s weekly checklist and Think Productive’s working from home pack of resources.The weekly review - https://thinkproductive.co.uk/the-weekly-checklist-the-key-to-ninja-productivity/Working from home resources - https://thinkproductive.com/wfh/

When Laurence and I closed our digital agency it seemed like the natural thing to do. At the time we had beautiful studio, a talented team and clients with ongoing projects but we’d lost the creative energy to keep it going. We weren’t clear about its future and we were being drawn to grow the Happy Startup School. While it wasn't plain sailing closing Spook Studio was a lot less traumatic experience than what many other founders have had to go through.In this episode of the podcast we’re joined for our Friday Fireside by Tom Nixon, author, coach and founder of Maptio (a tool to help develop self managing organisations). He's on a mission to support founders and research what it takes to create (and close) impactful companies.Tom shares his story of entrepreneurship, how he closed his company and why some businesses have a natural shelf-life, and that’s fine.We talk about the taboo connected with closing a company and how we’ve lost sight of the creativity and the humanity at the core of business. Businesses may be legal entities in themselves but in reality they’re just a collection of people brought together by the creative energy of the founder. When we forget this we can easily become imprisoned by the structures we’ve created.If you’re a founder thinking about closing your company or at the beginning of a startup journey we hope that this conversation will give you a new and more energising perspective on what it means to be an entrepreneur.

In this episode of the podcast Laurence and I were given a masterclass in empathy. As part of our Friday Fireside series of webinars we were joined by Christine Raine, empathic coach, entrepreneur and founder of Conversable, a transformational movement on a mission to share how empathy can transform human relationships, and therefore the world.It was a very timely conversation given how the world seems to have turned upside down over the past few weeks. Fear, division and blame are driving behaviours more and more. And so we explored how can use empathy in our lives and work to be able to address the challenges we face and the inequality that exists.According to Christine empathy starts by being fully present with people; serving as a mirror to what they’re saying and feeling; and reflecting what their feelings and needs may be to help then connect with their own inner wisdom. It’s about helping people move from a head-centred approach to communicating to a more heart-centred one.At the centre of Christine’s work is teaching Non-Violent Communication and she teaches us what it’s about and where it comes from.I found this an incredibly empowering conversation that touched on empathy and privilege and how we can use our deeper understanding of both to contribute to the changes that need to be made in society to make it more equitable for all.

This episode is a departure from our normal format and is an experiment suggested by one of our longest standing members and a big advocate of our work, Peter Krishnan. Peter has been to every Summercamp and is also the leader of our Happy Startup London group. During this episode Peter shares his story of startup along with 3 music tracks that have been important to his journey.

In this episode of the podcast we’re in conversation with John Parkin the author of F**k It: The Ultimate Spiritual Way.We hear about his journey of self healing and how saying f**k it was core to it. It’s about not holding on so tightly to ideas and concepts and being more aware of the unfair expectations we place on ourselves, situations or events.When it comes to saying f**k it to fear John talks about accepting the feelings rather than pushing them away.He says “we’re scared of sadness, pain, vulnerability and grief… in normal times we’re all too busy and we don’t experience significant pain or joy and so the nervous system is almost frozen. But when you allow people to be more vulnerable and relaxed the ice starts to melt and they get to feel that pain and joy again.”There are so many gems in this episode and so if you struggle with dealing with the high and lows of the entrepreneurial journey then listen on and learn how the f**k it way can show you the path forward.

When faced with a crisis how do you respond? When your mind is filled with anxious thoughts and worries it’s impossible to find the right answer. But if you let your mind settle and be at peace then that’s when insight arrives.In this episode of the podcast we’re joined by Elizabeth Lovius, entrepreneur, leadership coach and wisdom teacher. She shares her own insight about where inspired action comes from and how we can find it within us. We relate this to our own experience of handling a crisis when we discovered just 3 weeks before our annual signature event that we didn’t have a venue.According to Elizabeth, no matter what we might be experiencing on the outside, inside we are safe and we can claim the peace we need at any time. This is our spiritual side, the side of us that we need to be using more in business, particularly now.

"The whole world is suddenly in a state of total improvisation, and no-one has any idea what will come next"In this episode of the podcast Laurence and I talk to our good friend Laurence Shorter. He’s a coach, comedian and author of The Lazy Guru’s Guide to Life.We be explore the idea of not having any idea. For Laurence, this is the essence of true creativity and from where clarity emerges. When we settle into a space of doing nothing we give an opportunity for our inner voices to quieten and stop. We stop thinking and we start feeling into what's needed next.For many of us this is a scary place to be. We’re so used to going somewhere, achieving something and doing work. We believe that we can think and do our way out of any problem.But what if the situation becomes so complex that you truly can't think of what to do next? At that point maybe "doing" is the last thing you should do.If you’ve been looking for an excuse to do nothing then make sure you listen to this episode.

In this episode of the podcast I talk to the lovely and super positive Gayle Berry, business mentor and founder of Blossom and Berry.Gayle has been running her own business for over 18 years now. When she first started Blossom and Berry, her baby massage school, she was sending out binders and CDs to people via the post. She's now transitioned everything online and has clients across the world.We talk about what it takes to run a sustainable business and the importance of authenticity and love. She believes that by being intentional about what you want and making sure you align your actions accordingly you'll build a business that you'll love.

This is another recording of the live webinar that Laurence and I are hosting during lockdown in the UK and across the world.We're joined by Christina Kisley, our long time friend and Alptitude alumnus. She’s co-chair of Conscious Capitalism in Atlanta and is an executive coach for leaders, executives and entrepreneurs with 20 years of experience.For this episode we talk about loss. When we downplay loss and don't allow ourselves to grieve we store up that emotion so that next time we have a loss we feel exponentially worse. This is because the new loss, even if it's relatively smaller, lights up all the grief that's still in our system.We're all currently suffering from a loss of some kind whether it may be as tragic as the loss of a loved one or even the loss of a dream.Rather than push those unpleasant feelings away we need to lean into them and just feel. We can't think our way out of grief we can only feel our way through it.Many people try to "silver line" the loss and try to find something positive from the event. But there's no actual need to do so, it can just feel bad, and that's okay.With the help of the amazing Christina Kisley we share the Kubler-Ross model on the different stages of grief and relate them to what we're seeing around us and experiencing ourselves.We hope it helps you deal with any loss that you're experiencing in your businesses and personal lives and gives you a way to process what's going on.