The Ideas Lab Podcast
John Williams
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Welcome to the Ideas Lab Podcast, where you can learn from the world’s greatest creative and entrepreneurial minds to help you turn your ideas into original businesses, books and brands – because in a crowded world, it pays to stand out.
Your host is John Williams, bestselling author of 'Screw Work Let’s Play' and 'Screw Work Break Free' and founder of The Ideas Lab London.
Our focus is on the rebels, creatives and innovators with a new take on their topic that has allowed them to carve out a space that is all their own - from Saskia Nelson, the world's first dating profile photographer, to the New York Times bestselling author, Dan Pink exploding myths about productivity, to therapist Jerry Hyde taking his clients on a unique experience with plant medicines in Nepal.
Subscribe now to get inspired, learn something new, and get ideas for your next creative project.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Sep 23, 2020
Laurence Shorter on creativity, burnout, and the art of having no idea #80
What is the impact on us as human beings when we never have a single spare moment, when we fill every minute with doing something productive, or even looking at our phones in order to kill time?
That's a question that gripped Laurence Shorter after he'd written a really successful book and toured it around the world and found himself to be completely burnt out.
And that's when Laurence started thinking about the art of having no idea.
Laurence is a leadership consultant, an author, comedian and an artist. I've known him for somewhere around a decade when he spoke at my event, Scanners Night, for people with too many ideas and too many interests and lots of creativity. He is a scanner himself, and he has fascinating things to say about being a multifaceted human being and managing his own creative process.
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/laurenceshorter-artofhavingnoidea
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Sep 17, 2020
How Charlie and Harry Thuillier turned their idea for the world’s first healthy ice cream into an international food business #79
This episode of the podcast is a real adventure. It's one of my favourites. Charlie Thuillier was on a world record breaking kite buggy adventure with his brother Harry in Brazil, when he had a great idea, which was partly inspired by reading my first book, Screw Work Let's Play on a beach in Brazil.
That idea was to create the world's first healthy ice cream. Today, Oppo ice cream is a reality. It's a product you can buy in thousands of stores all around Europe, and it's won multiple taste awards.
Listen to the interview to find out how Charlie and his brother Harry went from sleeping on the floor of a borrowed office to creating their own successful international food brand. And you can also read more about their story and how Harry and Charlie worked together as a team within the company. In my new book, F**k Work Let's Play
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/charliethuillier-oppoicecream
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Sep 10, 2020
How to attend the world’s first F**k Work Day
A special episode on John’s new bestselling book ‘F**k Work Let’s Play: Do what you love and get paid for it’ and how to get a free ticket to the world’s first F**k Work Day.
See fworkletsplay.com for more details on the special offer
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Sep 9, 2020
Jody Day on creating a global movement for women and turning her passion into a successful social enterprise #78
If you want to start a movement that changes the way people all around the world think about a particular topic, then this will be a really interesting conversation for you to listen to.
Jody Day is the founder of Gateway Women, which has helped millions of women around the world to come to terms with involuntary childlessness.
The social enterprise that now has touched millions of women's lives was started in 30 days, in a course I used to run 10 years ago, called The 30 day challenge.
Jody is also featured in my new book, F**k Work Let's Play: How to do what you love and get paid for it, as an example of somebody who's created a social enterprise and business around something she is very passionate about.
And so I wanted to dive into more detail here about:
* How she started that business in 30 days with a couple of things that seemed like very small steps, and then how she managed to get through all the setbacks inherent in starting a business.
* Her own approach to running a social enterprise.
* How she's managed to scale up far beyond what she could have ever done as an individual psychotherapist.
* Some of the challenges she ran into when she moved from doing everything completely for free to charging a very modest amount.
This is a fascinating conversation that spans the issues of involuntary childlessness right the way to marketing and entrepreneurship.
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/jodyday-gatewaywomen
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Sep 2, 2020
How Sam Bompas & Harry Parr turned their crazy experiments with food into a pioneering international business #77
When I first met Sam Bombas and Harry Parr over a decade ago, they were just a couple of young guys doing some wacky things with food, including creating breathable cocktails and designer jellies.
I thought what they were doing was so interesting and so playful, that I featured them in my first book Screw Worl Let's Play, which was published in 2010.
When I checked in with Sam and Harry at the beginning of the year to find out how they were doing, as I set about writing a new version of that book now called F**k Work, Let's Play and published by Pearson imminently, I discovered that they built what were fun experiments with food into an international flavour studio that has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world.
If you've ever had a crazy idea that you thought was just too out there, perhaps to make it real. Listen to this interview and get inspired and make your crazy ideas into a real business.
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/bompasandparr-flavourstudio
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Aug 25, 2020
How to change the world – with Tristram Stuart #76
This is a really powerful episode of the ideas lab podcast. Many of us have ideas about how to change the world for the better. How to take a campaign or a message or cause and make a real impact possibly around the entire world.
Few of us achieve that. But Tristram Stuart has done. A few years back, Christian decided that he wanted to gather 5000 people in London's Trafalgar Square and feed them with hearty, healthy food made from ingredients that otherwise would have been thrown in the rubbish.
To find out what happened and the impact it had that reverberated around the world, and how it led on to him creating a new beer brand called Toast Ale made from discarded bread slices - listen to this remarkable episode.
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/tristramstuart-feedingthe5000
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Aug 18, 2020
Laura Gale on editing and ghostwriting your business book #75
If you've ever thought of writing your own book, whether it's a business book, a novel, or a memoir, then this podcast is going to be interesting to you.
Laura Gale is an author and editor and a ghostwriter. And in this interview, we explore what those roles actually do.
First of all, why do you need an editor if you're writing your own book? And also, why would you use a ghostwriter? How do they work with you to write a book for you, and he's using a ghostwriter cheating. We explore all of that with Laura.
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/lauragale-ghostwriter
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Aug 13, 2020
How Dan Barker transitioned from mechanical engineer to full-time photographer #74
Quitting your job to go and do something more creative that you really love doing sounds very tempting. But the reality of it is more complex. How do you transition from a full time job that you're no longer enjoying, to doing something you love full time and getting paid for that?
That is not usually a simple process. So I'm really glad that Dan Barker could make it on the podcast and tell his story of how he went from a job in mechanical engineering and transition step by step into becoming a successful photographer with his own studio.
Along the way, he describes how he discovered what he wanted to do, how he started experimenting with it and got the confidence to explore his new hobby, and then how he made his first playcheck.
And after that, scaling up to make more and more until he could safely walk out of his job and go full time as a photographer.
Dan was actually inspired in his journey early on by my first book Screw Work Let's Play, so it's great that when it came to reinventing and recreating that book under the new title, F**k Work Let's Play, but it's being published on Kindle by Pearson on the 30th of August, that he could be included as one of the many case studies of people who are now getting paid to play after following the kind of principles I first wrote about.
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/danbarker-photographer
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Aug 4, 2020
Sarah Weiler on teaching ukulele to google, knowing when to quit, and juggling multiple projects #73
If you've ever had a crazy creative idea for a business or project, and then you've talked yourself out of it because you couldn't see where it will go and what the point was, and how you could ever make some money out of it. Well, this is gonna be a great podcast for you.
Sarah Weiler, runs a business called Power of Uke, teaching ukulele to giant corporations such as Google. Sarah also runs a London comedy club that has been running for six years ever since she launched it during a programme I used to run, called the 30 Day Challenge. On top of this, she has collaborated with Airbnb, and she's given a TEDx talk.
Sarah has so many creative projects she wants to pursue, but she developed some really interesting ideas about how to manage them all and how to decide which ones to continue and which ones to quit.
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/sarahweiler-powerofuke
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jul 27, 2020
How to change your habits with simple, tiny steps – Dr. Heather McKee #72
A lot of us find it really hard to change our deeply ingrained habits, whether it's giving up a habit that's bad for our health or our concentration, or trying to adopt a new habit. So I was glad to have this conversation with Dr. Heather McKee, who is a behaviour change specialist, consulting to organisations. This is a really honest conversation between Heather and me, where we talk through some of our own bad habits, and Heather gave some cracking advice on how to change them.
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/habitchange-heathermckee
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jul 22, 2020
Announcing my controversial new book – the behind-the-scenes story #71
This is a very special episode of the ideas lab podcast. Because this one is announcing my brand new book. I should warn you that this episode has a few swear words in it. You'll find out why soon enough!
I wrote the first version of this book as a guide to success for somewhat unconvential people (like mysefl) who are obsessed with their own creative pursuits.
10 years on and after being translated into 10 languages I am here to present a completely revised and updated version.
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/mynewbook-behindthescenes
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jul 14, 2020
How Mani Vaya turned his passion for reading non fiction books into an online business he can run from anywhere in the world #70
If you love reading non-fiction books, and you've ever dreamed of getting paid just to do that, then you're going to love this podcast.
Mani Vaya runs 2000books.com and he has successfully turned his passion for non-fiction books into a successful business that he can run from anywhere in the world.
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/manivaya-2000books
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jul 9, 2020
How to create a #1 app with 4 million downloads with Dave Crane, founder of Smoke Free #69
This is the first in a series of interviews with people who are featured in my brand new book published this July by Pearson. And this is David Crane. Dave is a friend of mine for some years, but he's also the person who is the creator of the number one stop smoking app in the world, called Smoke Free, he's now had 4 million downloads. And I wanted to ask him, what makes a good app idea? How do you get apps noticed right at the start, and what is the key to an app that takes off and actually becomes a major source of income, as well as doing some good in the world?
Best Wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit:
https://theideaslab.org/davecrane-smokefree-app
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
playlist_add
Jul 1, 2020
Mark Walsh on the embodiment movement, raising £90,000 of funding for his conference, and daring to be authentic in today’s cancel culture #68
Have we lost touch with our bodies? Are we treating our bodies like some kind of brain taxi that's just carrying around the contents of our head? And what is the impact of that? That's a question that has obsessed Mark Walsh for going on 20 years. Mark is the creator of the Embodied Facilitator course, which helps coaches, therapists, body workers, and other practitioners to bring the body into their work and into their own lives as well. Mark is the creator of the embodiment conference happening later this year, and already has 130,000 people registered and £90,000 crowdfunded, to support the event. Just as interesting for me though, is the way mark presents himself online. He's very authentic, not afraid to be controversial. And this has actually allowed him to create a very large following, although at the same time he has to deal with quite a lot of backlash from what he describes as the politically correct or woke community. So we get into that towards the end of the podcast. It'…
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Jun 25, 2020
How to write a bestselling business book – with Alison Jones #67
If you've ever wanted to write a book about some aspect of business, then this is a great podcast for you.
Alison Jones is founder of Practical Inspiration Publishing a pioneering publishing partner for businesses. And she runs the podcast, the Extraordinary Business Book Club, and she's had some fantastic guests on that.
She is a veteran in the publishing industry with 25 years of experience with companies like Chambers, Oxford University Press, and Macmillan. And she is head judge on the annual Business Book Awards, which I am a category judge on.
She's also author of This Book Means Business and several other books. And now I wanted to find out what makes a successful business book - how do you even start writing such a thing? And what is the key to making your business book successful?
This is a really fascinating podcast for anyone who's ever dreamed of writing that killer business book.
Best Wishes, John
For full links and notes please visit: https://theideaslab.org/alisonj…
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Jun 16, 2020
New York Times Bestselling author Mike Michalowicz on how to make your business pay #66
Mike Michalowicz is a New York Times bestselling author who has sold over half a million books. He's also built four multi-million dollar companies and sold two of them.
But, he admits it's not all been positive. He lost his house at one point lost his entire fortune. twice, launch 10 failed businesses and experience years of depression.
After working out where he was going wrong in his own businesses and finding a way to solve it. He became a business author with one clear mission; to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty.
So I'm delighted Mike agreed to be on the podcast, I loved his book, The Pumpkin Plan, and also Profit First, and now his new book is out, Fix This Next.
In order to get a successful business off the ground and keep it growing, you find that there is a never ending list of things to be done and broken stuff to fix. And what Mike has done in Fix This Next is show a systematic way to simplify that process and make your business take off.
Best Wishes, John
For full l…
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Jun 1, 2020
Serial entrepreneur Sam Ashdown on the truth about entrepreneurship #65
This episode of the podcast is a really fun one. Sam Ashdown is a leading property industry marketing coach and with her son in law Phil Jones, she co-owns Fire Wave a marketing agency for estate agents, and also Ashdown Jones the Lake District estate agency. She's been featured in the Times, the Telegraph, on BBC Radio 4 and in House Beautiful. But Sam is also a friend of mine and we often meet up in a peer mastermind group and chat to each other about our businesses. We thought it'd be fun to do a conversation on the podcast, that is a little bit more like the kind of conversations we have privately comparing notes on running our businesses and about what we're trying to achieve and how we do it, rather than doing a formal interview process. That means we have a bit more of a candid conversation, where we cover everything from what our dreams are for our business, how I might be able to buy my dream 4 million pound home in London. How Sam started her very first business as a teenager…
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May 27, 2020
The power of blogging for your business and how to get it right – with online marketing legend, Yaro Starak #64
Is blogging still relevant? Does it matter in the age of social media? And if you do blog hacking effectively, does it actually gets you results? Well, I’m very pleased that Yaro Starak has agreed to answer those questions for us on the Ideas Lab Podcast. I’ve been following Yaro from somewhere around 2008, maybe even a little bit earlier. And he’s something of a legend of the online marketing world.
He started his first online business in 1999, when he was still 19 years old. He’s never had a full time job. And he’s always had some kind of online business for the last 20 years, from selling services like essay editing and email management, to buying and selling websites to blogging and digital products.
So I’m really glad that we could dive into what really works in blogging these days, and why we should all still be writing a blog.
Best Wishes, John
For full links and notes please visit: https://theideaslab.org/yarostarak-blogging
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May 19, 2020
How Ingrid Lill turned her passion for visual thinking into a unique business #63
If you're wondering how to take your creative or artistic skills, and make a really good living out of them, or if you're interested in how you can create something in the market that is completely unique, a marketing successfully, this podcast is for you.
Ingrid Lill is an illustrator based in Denmark. She joined my pioneer program a few months ago, because she wanted to pull yourself out of that market of illustrators, where often you don't get paid that well for your work, even if you're really skilled, and instead create something that was distinctive, a visual thinking process called brand storyboarding, which helps businesses to identify who their target market is what they provide, that is a real value to them, what makes them different, and captures all of that in a beautiful illustration that Ingrid creates.
Best wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit: https://theideaslab.org/ingrid-brandstoryboarding
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May 13, 2020
How Srabani Sen OBE entered a crowded market and created a successful consultancy in diversity and inclusion #62
Srabani Sen has had an impressive leadership career in the not for profit sector. She has been the CEO of three organisations: Alcohol Concern, Contact a Family and the British Association for Adoption and Fostering. She has more than 25 years board experiences and is currently Chair of two not for profits, including the campaigning organisation 38 degrees.
Srabani joined my pioneer program in 2019 to launch Full Colour, which helps leaders learn how to lead inclusively, drive inclusion in their organisations, and create the conditions for diversity to thrive. Now, this topic can become waylaid with corporate-speak and is a very sensitive topic. So I wanted to make sure that we cut through all of that and have a very frank and straightforward conversation.
So what you’re going to hear is why diversity matters in business terms, what gets in the way, do we need it even, and how you go about solving the diversity and inclusion problems in a way that actually makes a difference and ch…
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May 7, 2020
How To Start A Business in 5 Days - Free Challenge with John Williams [#61]
Most people spend far too long with their business ideas on hold before they launch something. This special episode of The Ideas Lab podcast will tell you how you can launch a business idea in 5 days.
And if you want to make it happen for yourself, you can join our free 5-Day Business Startup Challenge. The next one starts Monday 11 May. Register your free place at:
sign up at: https://theideaslab.org/5dc
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May 5, 2020
How to find the right business idea and prove it works with John Williams interviewed by Simon Williams #61
Well, this week’s interview guest is me. And I’m being interviewed by Simon Williams, who is a serial entrepreneur, author, speaker, lecturer, and successful business owner and he’s now the founder of Expert Velocity.
Simon asked me to be on his podcast, to talk about finding the right idea at the beginning of getting your business started, how to test it out, and then how to get it going.
Along the way, I also tell a few stories about my own work life in order to illustrate my points. So there might be some interesting things there from my history in technology and consultancy, and novel work about how I got to where I am now with The Ideas Lab.
Thanks very much to Simon for a great interview, and for allowing us to share this recording as part of the ideas lab podcast.
Best wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit: https://theideaslab.org/simonwilliams-interview
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiab…
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Apr 28, 2020
How the Rock n Roll bride turned her rebellious tastes into a #1 blog, magazine and book with Kat Williams #60
When Kat Williams started planning her own wedding she found the standard offers of the wedding industry uninspiring so she started exploring alternatives to the standard wedding in order to find something that she really loved.
In 2007 Kat started sharing these ideas and inspirations on a blog and on social media, and this turned into RockNRollBride, one of the biggest wedding blogs in the world!
When Kat launched her bi-monthly RockNRollBride magazine in 2015 it was reported as being the fastest debut selling issue of a magazine…ever. It sold out within 72 hours and sold over 1,000 copies within the first day alone.
In 2019 Kat published her book, Rock N Roll Bride: The Ultimate Guide For Rock N Roll Brides, which instantly went to #1 in Amazon’s wedding category.
With now over 100k followers on Instagram, Kat is turning some of her attentions to focus on more broader areas of life.
We cover all of this and more in this fascinating interview. I do hope you enjoy it and get i…
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Apr 21, 2020
Cut yourself free from your email inbox with Claire Giovino #59
Just imagine that you never had to look at your email inbox, read or reply to any emails ever again. How much free time would you have? What could you use that time for in your business or in your personal life? That is a question I explored with Claire Giovino in today’s episode of the ideas lab podcast, because she has set up a business to do exactly this for her clients.
She launched Inboxdone in 2017, and has grown the business to multiple six figures in just 11 months with zero startup capital. She currently manages a growing team of remote inbox managers and upwards of 3000 plus emails a day, all while travelling the world or at least until recently.
So I wanted to ask her what are we all getting wrong about email and if we want to move away from our own inbox and stop it dominating our working day, how do you really outsource something that is so fundamental to what we do day in and day out?
And I also wanted to find out how Claire has made such a success of I Inboxdone and…
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Apr 14, 2020
How to improve your sleep and manage your stress with hypnotherapist Dr Liz Bonet #58
Lots of us are feeling a considerable amount of stress right now, thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, the lockdown and the economic uncertainty. And I know for some people that's impacting their sleep as well. So I was pleased to be able to have award-winning hypnotherapist, Dr. Liz Bonet on the podcast to give us some really practical tips about how to manage our stress right now or at any time and some counterintuitive actions we can take straight away that will start to improve the quality of our sleep.
Best wishes,
John
For full links and notes please visit: https://theideaslab.org/lizbonet
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Apr 7, 2020
The curse of perfectionism and how to solve it – with Chris Ward #57
Are you a perfectionist? Do you find that everything you take on, you want to do absolutely perfectly, to be better than everybody else, and to make sure that you don’t get a single thing wrong in the process?
Now this might sound like a positive quality and it does have some advantages, but it also has some great costs to our health, and to our relationships.
Chris Ward is the author of the new book ‘Less Perfect, More Happy. And here we have an in depth conversation about what perfectionism is, why it develops, what you can do about it, and the enormous cost it can have if you don’t get a handle on it.
Chris’s own perfectionism has driven him to be very successful. He was creative director of comic relief, he’s raised over 500 million pounds for charities all over the world has been involved along with Richard Curtis, the famous film director, with the launch of the United Nations global goals. For that campaign, he managed to arrange the sending of over 3 billion text m…
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Apr 1, 2020
Chatbots – How to get started with Facebook Messenger Bots with Kelly Noble Mirabella [#56]
If you send emails out to a list of people, in order to market yourself or your work or your business, you will have seen that often the open rates on those emails is very low, perhaps as few as 20% are actually opening your emails and reading them.
So when a new form of digital marketing arrives that offers something like 90% open rates, it’s something all of us who are involved in marketing ourselves should take very seriously.
What we’re talking about here is messenger bot marketing and in particular, sending automated messages and running automated chat bots inside Facebook Messenger.
Kelly Noble Mirabella is an expert in this subject. And I was really glad to be able to have her on the ideas Live podcast and explain to us what is a messenger bot? Why are they so valuable, and how we can start to implement a messenger bot in our marketing using a tool that is actually completely free to get started with.
Best wishes
John
For full links and notes please visit: https://thei…
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Mar 25, 2020
How to make a success of working from home with smart working specialist Nicole Carter #55
Right now the coronavirus has brought about a massive shift in the way we work for millions and millions of people all around the world. That’s because many companies have sent their employees home to continue doing their jobs. We’re seeing a rather remarkable social experiment taking place.
My client, Nicole Carter, is the U.K expert on Smart Working i.e everything that’s involved in remote working, flexible working, and the technological processes and procedures that allow people to work productively from home while staying connected to the company that they work for.
Whether you are a manager who’s now found themselves with a team who’s working remotely, or whether you yourself are working from home and dealing with some of those challenges, I think you’re going to find this really interesting.
For full show links please go to: https://theideaslab.org/nicolecarter
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Mar 20, 2020
The coronavirus and the mindset you need to adopt now #54
Click here to join my 5-Day Startup Challenge
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Mar 18, 2020
How to get control of your own thoughts with Daniel Fryer, author The Four Thoughts That F*ck You Up #53
If, like me, your starting to discover that your own worst enemy is actually inside your head, then this episode is for you.
Daniel Fryer is author of the book The 4 thoughts that F*ck you up and how to fix them: Rewire how you think in 6 weeks with REBT.
Daniel is a psychotherapist who’s been helping people change the way they think for over 15 years.
I was keen to ask Daniel about how we get a grip on our internal dialogue and the things we think about ourselves, other people, and the situations we’re in.
It seems like no better time to tackle this topic than right now, as we are starting to get very concerned about the coronavirus pandemic.
For full show notes and links please go to: https://theideaslab.org/danielfryer
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Mar 4, 2020
How a husband and wife team grew an award winning British vineyard with Hannah Witchell of Flint Vineyard #52
Hannah Witchell co-founded Flint Vineyard with her husband Ben. Based in Norfolk, England, they turned a mutual passion and love for wine into an award winning business.
In this episode we discover:
* The successful marketing strategies being used to get their wines noticed
* How, as husband and wife, they have developed a working business relationship that complements their personal life.
* The rising popularity of the British wine industry
I hope you enjoy this episode. if you’d like to help our Podcast reach more people please consider leaving a review on your favourite app – we’ll even read it out on the show!
Best Wishes,
John
Find out more about Flint Vineyard at: https://theideaslab.org/flintvineyard
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Feb 25, 2020
3 things to know before you walk out of your job – A video postcard from Bangkok #51
I’ve been here in Bangkok for a month and I thought it would be interesting to say something about the fact that this week is the anniversary of 17 years since I walked out of my job at Deloitte.
If you want to know the 3 key things to know before you walk out of your job then I’ll share them with you quickly here…
Watch the video version and get links at: theideaslab.org/beforeyouwalkoutofyourjob
Loving the podcast? Leave an iTunes review and we'll give you a shout on the show! bit.ly/subscribeandreview
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Feb 11, 2020
Adam Wilder on his festival of Togetherness, silent dating events, and breaking the world record for number of people spooning #50
Adam Wilder is founder of Togetherness and helps people form meaning connections with themselves and others.
Adam has run some remarkable projects, and in this episode he explains:
* How he had the idea for the first Togetherness festival
* How he created the silent dating events Shhhdating
* How he organised a group of people to break the world record for most number of people spooning! Adam on Adam:
“I’ve been working in the field of wellness and intimacy for 15 years. I’m passionate about making intimacy and human connection more accessible and central to culture.
After Brexit I was inspired to create an organisation which helps us to explore ourselves and each other more, so we can be happier, more empowered and make actions more aligned with our beliefs.
In the past I started a line of businesses including Shhh Dating (speed dating without talking), Soak (wooden hot tubs in London) and Burns Baby Burns (London’s biggest Burns night).
Aside from working in Toge…
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Feb 4, 2020
Helena Hills on creating a pioneering coffee brand that doesn’t cost the earth #49
Helena and Simon Hills are accidental entrepreneurs.
Their original business idea revolved around luxury cat furniture before they decided to start TrueStart Coffee.
TrueStart has become a pioneering coffee brand and I wanted to talk to Helena about how they created a coffee with a reliable caffeine high that is now avaialable on Ocado, Wholefoods and many other retailers.
This is the real, unglamorised story of Entrepreneurship.
Enjoy. About Helena, Simon and TrueStart
In 2015 Helena and Simon were triathlon training alongside busy office jobs, and searching for a coffee that gave them a boost without sending their hearts racing.
After discovering that the caffeine in coffee is both varied and unpredictable, they developed the first coffee in the world to provide a boost with no crash thanks to a stable caffeine content.
Over the next two years, TrueStart quickly established itself as an exciting, respected brand within the fitness industry, winning a host of impressive awards,…
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Jan 28, 2020
Genetics, Psychedelics and the future of personalised health with David Krantz| The Ideas Lab Podcast #48
Genetics, Psychedelics and the future of personalised health with David Krantz
Did you know that genes are not destiny? You may have a gene for a potential health problem but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to develop that health problem.
In fact, your genes determine an awful lot, they may influence how you respond to particular diets and whether the latest fad diet actually works for you or not. And in exchange, your lifestyle and what you eat and how you exercise may effect how your genes express themselves in your health.
I find it a fascinating subject and for this episode we get stuck right into it with Epigenetics Performance Coach, David Krantz.
And if you have no idea what that means – you will shortly!
We’re going to dive in and find out if there actually genes for creativity, how following your passion has actually been shown to have positive health benefits at the epigenetic and immune system levels as well as how are genes impact how we respond…
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Jan 21, 2020
The Kim Kardashian Principle: Why Shameless Sells (And How to Do It Right) with Jeetendr Sehdev #47
Jeetendr Sehdev is author of the New York Times Bestseller; The Kim Kardashian Principle.
I loved this book even though I am no Kim Kardashian fan. Jeetendr makes a really good case that marketing has changed completely and big brands are struggling to keep up.
Now, vulnerability is the new sexy, authenticity matters and flaunting your flaws is probably the best thing you can possibly do for your personal or business brand.
If you know you need to make yourself more visible in the world or you are trying to break through in a crowded space and you are nervous about showing yourself and not knowing what’s going to work, then this will be an inspiring and very entertaining episode of the podcast.
Full show links at: https://theideaslab.org/jeetendrsehdev
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jan 15, 2020
Angela Saini on the history of science in racism #46
Angela Saini is a British science journalist and presents Radio & TV programmes for the BBC. She is also the author of Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong and the recent Superior: The Return of Race Science.
I saw Angela give a talk last year at a festival and I found her ideas absolutely fascinating. In just 40 minutes she pretty much just exploded the idea of Race in my mind; saying that basically it doesn’t exist in Biology.
So I was delighted that Angela agreed to be on the Ideas Lab Podcast where I could explore the ideas with her and also understand about how she has coped with the backlashes she’s received over some of her ideas, particularly on social media.
Full show references and links at: https://theideaslab.org/angelasaini
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jan 9, 2020
David Pearl on StreetWisdom, improvised opera, and singing in the boardroom #45
David Pearl is a polymath. He is an innovator who works in Business, the Arts and Social Change and he’s run incredible projects: including the creation of a skeleton theatre on a clifftop in Portugal where he got 1500 members of a corporation to come together to plan and deliver an operatic performance.
He’s also recently launched the non-profit StreetWisdom where anyone can download the instructions for running a street ‘walkshop’ to discover the answers to their most burning questions from their immediate environment.
David is also the author of several books including Will there be donuts? -a book about meetings, and his new book, Wanderful, released January 2020.
If you are a creative with multiple interests, or you want to consult to corporations in new and interesting ways, or you want to engineer experiences that impact people’s lives in meaningful ways then you are going to love this interview.
Full show links and references at: https://theideaslab.org/davidpearl…
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Dec 24, 2019
Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life with Nir Eyal #44
This episode of the Ideas Lab Podcast is a real treat. Our guest this week is Nir Eyal, Bestselling Author of Hooked: How To Build Habit Forming Products and now, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention & Choose Your Life.
Both of these books have caused something of a sensation upon their release and Indistractable is the buzz book everybody’s been talking about for the last few months.
So, if you are distracted by your phone, by your co-workers or by your family when you’re trying to get things done and you realise you are not being nearly as productive as you could be then this is for you.
It’s a fun conversation that is also packed with actionable advice to make your year ahead the most satisfying yet.
Bonus: At the end there’s a treat for you if you’ve ever wanted to write a non-fiction book because I asked Nir: “What is the secret to writing a bestseller?”
Full show details and free resources at: https://theideaslab.org/nireyal
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Dec 17, 2019
How to run a successful crowdfunding campaign with Will Dooley #43
Crowdfunding is a wonderful thing, when it works. It has the potential to launch your new product with a flood of pre-orders that gives you the vital cash that you need to deliver on what you are making.
However, 70% of crowdfunding campaigns fail to reach their target. This week I’m glad to be able to talk to Will Dooley, co-founder of CrowdReach, who has helped run over 200 successful campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, with over $25m raised.
First we find out how Will and his co-founder were on a very unconventional degree programme in Bristol when the idea for CrowdReach was first conceived.
We then go into detail on the Do’s and Don’ts of successful crowdfunding.
Full details and links at: https://theideaslab.org/willdooley
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Dec 11, 2019
The power of story – from Seinfeld to writing your website copy - with Michael Burns #42
Michael Burns is a storyteller, copywriter, speaker and comedy performer.
I met him here in Bali and he’s got an interesting career history. In this episode Michael will take on a journey from his work on Seinfeld, to an online record label, to reality show producer, to copywriter.
Michael explains how you can tell the story of your business in a way that is actually interesting and engaging to your customers.
Full details, links and more at https://theideaslab.org/michaelburns
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Dec 4, 2019
Lavinia Iosub on the future of work, running a company in Bali, and the Estonian e-Residency #41
If you're interested in living and working abroad, and in the future of work itself, or perhaps you've heard of the Estonian e-Residency then this is the podcast for you.
In this episode I catch up with Lavinia Iosub, managing partner at Livit International in Bali. After growing up in Romania, Lavinia lived, worked and studied in 8 countries and 4 continents.
With a passion for adapting our lifestyles to the future of working practices, Lavinia has now signed up for the pioneering Estonian e-Residency that allows her to create a mobile business from anywhere in the world through the Estonian government.
full show notes and references at: https://theideaslab.org/laviniaiosub
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Nov 26, 2019
Comedy, therapy, and the healing potential of business with Richard Atherton of First Human #40
Richard Atherton was a consultant at Deloitte when I ran into him in the basement of a SOHO comedy club.
He ended up quitting Deloitte to try his hand at Standup comedy. He also created a Burlesque comedy night called 'Bonobo Presents'.
It was then that he embarked on a deep psycho-therapeutic journey before he founded First Human with some colleagues.
First Human takes parts from what Richard learnt in the consulting world and the therapeutic world and brings the humanity back into corporations.
For links and show notes please head to: https://theideaslab.org/richardatherton
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Nov 20, 2019
How Taylor & Camille quit their jobs and created an online business that allows them to live anywhere in the world #39
Taylor Croonquist co-founded Nuts & Bolts Speed Training Powerpoint Tutorials with his wife Camille in 2014. They run advanced training courses online for Powerpoint users and they've turned this into a thriving business.
One notable achievement is that they now have 200,000 visitors to the website each month!
This episode explores the deep detail of how they set the company up, how they are bringing so many people to their website, and how they've managed to convert those visitors into paying customers and create a business that's allowed them to live a good life, wherever he wants to live in the world.
For full links and show notes please go to: https://theideaslab.org/taylor
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Nov 12, 2019
The Future of Live Events with NATO summit director Will Glendinning #38
Life is about experiences. Find them or create them, as Will Glendinning likes to say. Will has been producing creating and directing major events for a very long time now. He's also the author of The Facts of Live: How live events are conceived, procured and produced to create the greatest value and impact (link below).
Will also has some interesting insights about the future, where clever marketing will be manipulating the reality around us until we no longer know what's real and what's an advert.
This is a fascinating conversation!
Full links and references at https://theideaslab.org/willglendinning
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Nov 5, 2019
Goodbye glossophobia or how to banish your fear of public speaking with - Esther Stanhope #37
full show notes at: https://theideaslab.org/estherstanhope
If you suffer from Glossophobia or the fear of public speaking then listen to the advice of Esther Stanhope, former BBC senior producer and author of the new book - Goodbye Glossophobia: Banish your fear of public speaking.
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Oct 29, 2019
Creating a newsletter people actually want to read & social media secrets from the Oscars with Josh Spector #36
Josh Spector has created something very rare - that's an email newsletter that you actually want to read every single week.
His newsletter 'For the interested' now has a following of 25,000 people and he specialises in helping other people create successful newseletters.
But that's not where he started. Josh has been in social media for quite some time and he has some remarkable stories to tell about working in social media for the Oscars and for The Academy Of Motion Pictures.
In fact, he was directly involved with the famous Ellen selfie, with a mass of celebrities in one photograph, that ended up breaking the world record by getting 3.2 million retweets.
So if you're looking for a whole bunch of tips on how to make your newsletter really compelling, and some key insights into how social media really works then this is the episode for you.
full show notes and links at: theideaslab.org/joshspector
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMj…
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Oct 22, 2019
The 3 Keys to succeeding as an Artist with Alice Sheridan #35
Alice Sheridan is a successful abstract artist and she also helps other artists to connect, stay motivated, keep producing and make money out of their art.
Alice runs a free Facebook group for artists (link below) with thousands of members. She has a successful paid membership programme and a popular podcast.
Whether you are interested in making money from art or how to run an online business in a way that's authentic and true to your personality, you will get a lot out of this podcast.
About Alice
Alice worked as a graphic designer, but after having two premature babies decided there was more to life than marketing brochures.
She decided to go all-in on her passion for painting “just to see where it could go” and her abstract landscapes are now owned worldwide, licensed for John Lewis and used for high-end interiors promotions.
With a new London studio she will soon be offering more in-person and online workshops. She co-hosts the Art Juice podcast and hangs out too much o…
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Oct 16, 2019
From a grandmother's home remedy to commercial product with a successful crowdfunding campaign - Laura Sagen #34
Some years ago, Laura learnt a great home remedy from her grandmother for making hair grow faster.
Laura then experimented with the formula to make it even better and then just recently decided that it could make a great commercial product. Laura created The Hair Fuel, a subscription product that she has successfully launched on a crowdfunding site.
So if you'd like to turn your own ideas into real-world products, or you are interested in how you can run your own successful crowdfunding campaign, then this is the episode for you.
For full show notes and links please head to: theideaslab.org/laurasagen
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Oct 9, 2019
How to sell the ethical way with Alison Edgar #33
How to sell the ethical way with Alison Edgar
If you want to make money, you need to know how to sell.
But for a lot of us, our image of a salesperson is not a good one. I was pleased to be able to have Alison Edgar on the podcast so that we could talk over what ethical sales really looks like and how to sell to different personalities in a way that suits them all.
We also explore the ethics of those large self development and business training workshops with charismatic speakers on stage, encouraging participants to run to the back of the room and buy as soon as they can.
So if you are an entrepreneur or thinking of setting up your own business and will need to sell your idea/product at some point, then this episode is for you.
About Alison
Nicknamed ‘The Entrepreneur’s Godmother’, Alison Edgar has been instrumental in the growth of some of the worlds’ best-known companies including Dragons Den and Apprentice Winners. She knows what it takes to transform a company from…
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Oct 2, 2019
The Charm Offensive with Jon Buchan - Using radical candour & humour to win business #32
If you've ever written a cold email to someone you don't know in the hope of winning a new project or new client, then this episode of The Ideas Lab Podcast is for you.
Jon Buchan sent a killer cold email, almost by accident, some years ago. Since then he has realised that he struck gold with a certain way of copywriting that gets much more powerful results in cold emailing people, in email marketing in general, even in Facebook Ads and in sales copy.
He now runs Charm Offensive, a business that teaches people how to get better results in their copy and their marketing using his unique mix of humour and radical honesty.
Full show notes and links at: theideaslab.org/jonbuchan
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Sep 26, 2019
How to persuade anyone to do (almost) anything - Lee Warren #31
How to persuade anyone to do (almost) anything - Lee Warren
Lee Warren is a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator and he is author of the award-winning book: A Busy Person's Guide to Great Presenting.
Lee has had a pretty unconventional career path as he started out as a professional magician, performing at one point for the royal family.
One of Lee's popular keynote topics is 'How to Persuade Anyone to do Anything!' And that's the topic that we dive into here.
About Lee
Lee was a professional magician for 20 years, is a member of the world-famous Magic Circle and was described by Prince William as ‘absolutely amazing’.
A lover of live theatre, Lee has written theatre works for The Almeida Theatre, and been a commissioned writer at The Royal Opera House. Fluent in Spanish, Lee is very good at playing the piano badly!
In a previous life, Lee was a sales director at News International and he now combines this background in magic, theatre and sales to give presentations, k…
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Sep 24, 2019
3 Simple Things to Turn Your Mood Around Right Now - John Williams #30
This episode of the podcast is a little bit different. Every week I write something called the Ideas Lab Bulletin which goes out to thousands of subscribers and this week's bulletin was entitled '3 Simple Things to Turn Your Mood Around Right Now'.
This issue of the bulletin had a big response. A lot of people replied and told me how beneficial it was for them and so I decided to make a short episode about them.
Sign up for the ideas lab bulletin at: theideaslab.org/turnyourmoodaround/
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Sep 11, 2019
Rachael Taplin - The 3 biggest mistakes when doing your own PR and how to do it right #29
Rachael Taplin founded and ran her own magazine for 4 years, and in the process learnt a lot about the media and about PR. Now she runs Media Match Maker, which helps entrepreneurs to get their stories into the press and media.
If you can crack the code of doing your own PR successfully then you can get an enormous amount of publicity absolutely free of charge. Most of us, when we start out doing our own PR make a hash of it, and we don't think about what we really need to do to get a successful press release out there.
I asked Rachael to come in and explain the 3 biggest mistakes we make when we first try to do our own PR and what makes a really great press release.
For full show notes and links head to:
theideaslab.org/rachaeltaplin
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Sep 5, 2019
How to make £2,000, £10,000 or £20,000 quickly in your business with John Williams #28
How to make £2,000, £10,000 or £20,000 quickly in your business with John Williams
This episode is about how to make some cash quickly. Right now on some of my programmes I've invited people in to something called the 2k Challenge.
I'm challenging those who haven't made any money from their new business yet, because they are still in the process of setting it up, to make their first £2000/$2000/$2000aud or whatever it might be.
Some really interesting things have come out of this that I think are worth sharing with you. We imagine that making those first couple of thousand pounds is going to be terribly complicated and that we need to have a lot of things in place.
In actual fact, if you just want to generate some cash quickly it's better to flip things on their head......
I hope you enjoy the episode - let me know your takeaways in the comments below.
John
Full notes and references at: theideaslab.org/generatecashquickly
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My…
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Aug 29, 2019
3 steps to turn LinkedIn connections into cash (without being pushy) with Deenita Pattni #27
3 steps to turn LinkedIn connections into cash (without being pushy) with Deenita Pattni
If you work for yourself in any form, whether you are a freelancer, consultant or run your own business, LinkedIn is a treasure trove of prospective clients or customers for you.
But, if you are anything like me, the chances are that you have a profile on LinkedIn and you occasionally get bothered by sales people or recruiters but other than that you are not really getting the maximum potential out of it.
That's why I wanted to speak to Deenita Patni. She runs the Viamii business academy and is a specialist in marketing yourself on LinkedIn - in a non-spammy way!
This fantastic episode covers the 3 things you must do if you want to turn your connections on LinkedIn into cash, without sounding like somebody who's a spammer or cheesy salesperson.
At the end we also talk about LinkedIn's Social Selling Index and how you can use that to monitor your own progress and start to have more impact on L…
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Aug 22, 2019
How Susan Gregory quit her job and launched Slurps, the first hydration product for dogs #26
Susan Gregory is founder of Slurps - the company that creates organic dog drinks to keep dogs happy, healthy and hydrated.
Susan had a good job as head of food at Nestle, until she quit in 2015. She realised she didn't want another job, she wanted to do something on her own.
I wanted to ask her how she got the idea for a drink for dogs, how she first got it off the ground, and some of the entrepreneurial lessons she has learned that perhaps we can all benefit from hearing.
For show links and a special discount code for Slurps products please visit:
theideaslab.org/susangregory
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Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Aug 15, 2019
3 keys to be able to live & work anywhere in the world #25
This episode has been recorded in a hammock at Coconat, a co-living and co-working space, just outside Berlin in Germany.
For a large part of my business I can live and work anywhere I want to and I know that is something that a lot of other people would like to do so I have brought together some of my top observations on how to make this happen.
In this episode I share my 3 keys on how to find the perfect digital nomad life for you.
Full show notes and links at: https://theideaslab.org/digitalnomad
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Aug 7, 2019
Jessica Rose of the London Jewellery School on simple instagram strategies that really work #24
Jessica Rose is a jewellery lover and an award winning businesswoman. Jessica founded the London Jewellery School back in 2009. She ran her first jewellery making classes in a community hall and found her very first customers for the classes by putting a postcard in a shop window.
Now, Jessica has won 6 business awards, has a 3 studio space in Hatton Garden, (London's jewellery quarter) and runs 100 or more different types of classes with thousands of students every year.
The London Jewellery School has attracted lots of press and TV attention from BBC news to ITV to many newspapers and magazines.
A couple of years ago Jessica also launched a sister company - The Jewellers Academy, which offers online jewellery training to students all over the world, with a particular focus on how to market and make money out of their jewellery.
Jessica's marketing has now moved on from postcards in shop windows to using Instagram as a primary way to engage new perspecti…
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Jul 31, 2019
Emma Johnson - How To Turn Your Personal Blog Into A Six-figure Business #23
Emma Johnson - How to turn your personal blog into a six-figure business
Seven Years Ago Emma Johnson started the blog singlewealthymommy.com and it's now the number 1 blog for single mothers around the world and the largest single mum community in the world.
Emma's blog is now a six-figure business with 200,000 monthly page views and an entire team supporting it.
But I want to know is how she got here, and what her advice would be to somebody who is starting a blog today, and wants to have the same kind of success.
All information and links available at: https://theideaslab.org/emmajohnson
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jul 24, 2019
John Williams - How To Create A Business You Won't Get Bored Of #22
John Williams - How To Create A Business You Won't Get Bored Of
This is a special episode of The Ideas Lab Podcast. I want to talk about what it's like to be somebody with lots of ideas and lots of interests.
A particular personality type that is sometimes referred to as a Scanner, a Renaissance Man or Woman and also a Polymath.
Lots of Entrepreneurs are of this type but it does bring its issues. How to know if you are a Scanner:
* Do you have varied interests that don't often group together very neatly?
* Do you have more ideas than you can possibly execute in one lifetime?
* Do you find that you love learning the gist of something. You get just into a topic and then as soon as you've got a feel for it you move on to something completely different?
* Do you find the idea of a one-track conventional career absolutely horrifying? (Because it will bore you to death!)
* Do you find that you are better at starting things and not so great at finishing things?
If you answered…
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Jul 17, 2019
Shahroo Izadi - The Kindness Method: the easier way to change your bad habits & improve your life #21
Shahroo Izadi - The Kindness Method: the easier way to change your bad habits & improve your life
If you have ever tried to change a habit in order to improve your life and it hasn't worked or it's felt like really hard work, then perhaps understanding Shahroo Izadi's 'The Kindness Method' may well be the approach for you.
Shahroo Izadi is a behavioural change specialist, speaker, coach and author of The Kindness Method.
The Kindness Method shows how by being kind to yourself you can really make a big difference to addictions and bad habits.
So whether it's something around food, exercise, smoking, drinking or something else, if you follow the process of The Kindness Method, you can make a big difference without feeling like you are having to have incredibly strong will power, and without being cruel to yourself.
Unsurprisingly it's a very appealing concept and the book has been very successful reaching top spot in a number of categories.
What I like specifically about Shahroo is…
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Jul 10, 2019
Marc Warne - The beginner's guide to bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) #20
Marc Warne - The beginner's guide to bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies)
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are set to change the way we live, work and do business radically.
I wanted to speak to somebody to get a kind of beginners guide to Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies and find out how it works, why we should care and how we go about buying some Bitcoin if we want to take a chance on in investing in some.
So I am delighted to have Marc Warne on this episode of the podcast. Marc runs the trading platform Bittylicious.com, which he designed from the beginning to be as easy to use as possible for beginners.
And he's great at explaining the principles of cryptocurrencies to the complete novice.
I hope you enjoy this episode - please feel free to share it with those who you also think may be interested.
For show notes and links please head to: theideaslab.org/marcwarne
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jul 3, 2019
Paul Xavier - How to build a 6, 7 or even 8-figure business making creative videos for clients #19
If you love the creative process of making videos and you are wondering how you can turn that into a 6 or even 7-figure business then this podcast is for you. I met Paul Xavier 2 years ago in Bali and since then he has created a business that now turns over more than $3,000,000.
And he has helped video creators and video production agencies to earn more than $27,000,000 last year alone.
So I wanted to ask him about the shifts in mindset he had to make to get a successful business going really quickly and the same kind of principles he applies with his clients and how video creators can escape ‘starving artist syndrome’ and build a real, lucrative business around what they love doing.
All links and resources available at: theideaslab.org/paulxavier
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jun 26, 2019
John Williams - The Fast Way to Start a Successful Business #18
John Williams - the fast way to start your own successful business
This is a special episode of The Ideas Lab Podcast. I wanted to talk about the fast way to start your own successful business - a question that gets consistently asked in my day to day work with entrepreneurs.
This short but powerful episode bases itself on everything I've learnt in the past 15 years, and through helping thousands of entrepreneurs establish their own businesses both here in the UK and across the world.
So if you haven't started your own business yet but you'd love to work for yourself then this episode is for you.
All show notes are available here: https://theideaslab.org/faststartbusiness
Get John's Mini Video Series 'Creative Niching for Entrepreneurs' here: theideaslab.org/creativeniching
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jun 19, 2019
Steven Hess - The 3 personality traits you must build for startup success #17
Steven Hess - The 3 personality traits you must build for startup success
If you dream of creating a successful startup then this episode of The Ideas Lab Podcast is for you.
Steven Hess is a Trustee of Startup Learning Program (SLP) and Program Lead in London.
SLP is one of the world's first startup incubator programmes and now has one of the largest not for profit entrepreneurial communities in the world.
Steven is a great person to tell us the difference between startups that succeed and the 70% of startups that go on to fail.
Full show notes available at theideaslab.org/stevenhess
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jun 12, 2019
Stony Grunow - From living in his mom's basement to running a successful tech startup #16
Stony Grunow - From living in his mom's basement to running a successful tech startup
Stony Grunow runs a successful tech startup in New York. He has about 20 staff around the world supporting him and he's got the number 1 app in several categories in a particular B2B space that he will describe in a moment.
What I find really interesting about Stony's story is how he started at the beginning with no business idea, playing around, just doing something he knew he could do, and let it grow organically into first a consultancy and then into software.
So if you ever want to create an app or want to run a tech start up I think Stony's story is incredibly inspiring and makes it very approachable. I hope you enjoy it.
For full show notes and links please head to: theideaslab.org/stonygrunow
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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Jun 6, 2019
Joshua Spodek - Leadership Step by Step #15
I'm here in Greenwich village in New York City today and I'm here to meet Josh Spodek.
Josh is a fascinating character. He was a former astrophysicist and then became an entrepreneur, and now he is a lecturer in Entrepreneurship and leadership at New York University.
Josh has acheived a lot of other things. He is a bestselling author, he has a second book coming out this month called Initiative, he's a TedX speaker, daily blogger, and he has an award winning podcast called Leadership and the Environment.
Now aside from all these things I am fascinated by these daily rituals he has. In fact he lists them in his email signature, where he does things like he blogs every single day whatever happens. He gets up within one minute of waking up, every single day, and makes his bed. And he does dozens of burpees, a particularly brutal form of push up, every single day, no matter what state he is in.
It's these kind of habits that have built him to the point where he can acheive remarkable t…
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May 29, 2019
Louise Graham - Create a brand that attracts a tribe and makes an impact #14
Louise Graham - Create a brand that attracts a tribe and makes an impact
Lots of people have the mistaken belief that branding is simply about the name of your company and your logo.
But it's much bigger, and much more important than that.
Get branding right and you can attract a tribe, grow your business, and even change the world.
That's why I'm so pleased I got to speak to Louise Graham. Louise is a Breakthrough coach - helping stuck purpose-driven entrepreneurs breakthrough on mission, message & momentum.
She has spent her entire career in branding and marketing and in this episode Louise brings branding to life with some great stories and some practical tips.
Full show notes and links at: theideaslab.org/louisegraham
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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May 21, 2019
Amanda Harrison - Surviving cancer to fly solo across the world in a WW2 biplane #13
Amanda Harrison - Surviving cancer to fly solo across the world in a WW2 biplane
Amanda Harrison is a graduate of one of my original 'Screw Work Le'ts Play' Programmes and she's had a dream for 15 years to recreate Amy Johnson's pioneering solo flight from the U.K to Darwin in 1930.
When Amanda was treated for Cancer 18 months ago, it gave her the detemination to make this dream actually come true.
So now she's on her way on a 9,000 mile journey to Australia, in a 1942 Tiger Moth biplane.
When I saw her she was stranded in Vienna for a day after a bird strike damaged her propeller. I jumped at the chance to interview her in the aircraft hanger next to her plane.
You can also see the video of Amanda, get a close up look at the Tiger Moth, track Amanda's journey and lend your support.
For full show notes and references please visit https://theideaslab.org/solotodarwin
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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May 14, 2019
Amber Dugger - Putting profit first in your business finances #12
Amber Dugger - Putting profit first in your business finances
Let's talk about money.
Once you start working for yourself or launch your own business, money gets a lot more complicated.
You need to keep track of what you're earning, what you're spending from the business, what you're spending personally, and of course save money for taxes, because there are many entrepreneurs who have found themselves in a tricky place once there tax bill arrives.
Amber Dugger helps entrepreneurs manage their money, build their profit, and spend it on the things that really matter to them.
Amber has also worked closely with Micheal Michalowicz the author of the hit book, Profit First.
So if you currently find Finance to be a bit of a rather dry and boring subject, we're going to proove to you that finance is actually really exciting, and tell you how to make sense of it all in as little time as possible.
Full show notes and links at: https://theideaslab.org/podcast-amber-dugger
Music provided b…
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May 7, 2019
Stevyn Colgan - Qi script writer, Met Police officer and award winning Author #11
Stevyn Colgan started his career as a police officer in London in the Met police problem solving unit. And now he's a comedy writer and has written for BBC programmess like Qi and The Museum of Curiosity. He's written several books including most recently a comedy Whodunnit called A Murder to Die For.
In this interview you'll hear
* How the Met Police problem solving unit solved a late night public order problem using lollipops
* How Stevyn transition from being a Bobby on the beat to being a successful comedy script writer
* What it's like working with Stephen Fry, Sandy Toksvig, and other legends of the British comedy scene.
For full show notes and references please go to the official episode page at theideaslab.org/podcast-stevyn-colgan
Music provided by Argofox:
TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish
https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4
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May 1, 2019
Nick Corston - The Real Powers of Art and Creativity in the modern world and in effecting social change. #10
The Guardian newspaper described Nick Corston as a man on a mission.
And his mission is to put art and creativity back into schools.
As we see more and more pressure on the public education system in the U.K and in other countries, we are seeing music, art and other creative subjects getting cut out of the syllabus.
Nick will explain why that is a terrible decision, and I have to say I agree with him. As we enter an era when even if your work is skilled, it could be outsourced to someone in another country, or even to an A.I. What we need to be able to do is think creatively, whatever work we are doing.
Aside from that Nick makes the compelling case for why Art and Creativity is a powerful way to connect communities.
And if you have a mission of your own to change the world for the better in some way then I think you'll get a lot of inspiration and ideas from listening to what Nick has done with his organisation Steam Co.
For all links please go to theideaslab.org/podcast-nick-co…
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Apr 23, 2019
Caroline Thomas - Harnessing the power of Facebook Ads & How to set up a new life in paradise. #9
Caroline Thomas – Harnessing the power of Facebook Ads & How to set up a new life in paradise.
This episode of the Ideas Lab Podcast is a deep dive into the most powerful platform today for getting you new leads and new sales for your business online.
That platform is Facebook Advertising and our guest is founder of Social Accelerators and expert in Facebook Ads, Caroline Thomas.
I interviewed Caroline on a sunny day sitting outside at her home in Gran Canaria and we cover a lot of ground.
Caroline will explain the 3 different types of ads and when to use each one.
The default settings in Facebook advertising campaigns that will actually trip you up and why video is so powerful to use in an advert.
She will also explain step by step how she used Facebook ads to build an entirely new email list for a client and to fill her own networking event at a bar in Gran Canaria.
Finally we have a conversation about what it takes to choose a new country to live in and set up your life fro…
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Apr 16, 2019
Harriet Kelsall - Turning your creative talent into a succesfull business #8
Harriet Kelsall - Turning Your Creative Talent into a Successful Business
If you’d like to turn your passion for arts, crafts, jewellery or handmade goods into a real business then this episode of the Ideas Lab Podcast is for you.
Harriet Kelsall made her first piece of jewellery when she was just 4 years old with her fathers help.
Now in it's 20th year of creating bespoke jewellery, Harriet Kelsall Jewellery has over 40 staff, 3 locations and won over 20 awards.
Harriet's passion for ethical jewellery has also lead to becoming chairperson of the National Association of Jewellers as well as being the first UK business to receive certification by the Responsible Jewellery Council.
Harriet is also author of the book - The Creative’s Guide to Starting a Business: How to turn your talent into a career, which recently won an award in the Business Book Awards 2019.
Harriet has some really fascinating things to say about what makes a difference between a creative business that takes…
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Apr 9, 2019
Jamie Catto on Creativity and Relationships #7
Jamie Catto on Creativity and Relatonships
Jamie Catto was a founding member of British Electronica band Faithless, and he was creator, producer and director of the multi-award winning One Giant Leap films and albums.
He now leads transformative workshops on creativity and relationships all over the worldwide and his film about spiritual teacher Ram Dass is due out in September 2019.
This episode was actually recorded about a year ago while I was still busy creating The Love Challenge, an online course about dating and relationships and we jumped into the conversation there talking about the keys to healthy relationships.
Jamie Catto is kind, wise, open, boundlessly energetic, optimistic and passionate. I adore him.
— Stephen Fry
Note that there is some more swearing than usual in this episode! Episode Highlights:
[On success] "A few people just manage to hit the mark every time, but most people they get there by being prolific."
"when you go into a relationship with someone…
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Apr 2, 2019
Rik Spruyt - From $0 to $7-figures in 5 years #6
Rik Spruyt - From $0 to $7-figures in 5 years.
A few short years ago Rik Spruyt had a good job in a big company but he wanted more - more freedom, more autonomy, more ownership.
He wanted his own business.
Rik came to me for mentoring and I showed him how to get started with a simple Wordpress website and make his first 10s of 1000s of dollars. Within months his new business CrossTrades was making 6 figures.
_ Today it's a 7-figure business_
Rik's venture is #1 in his field and he also realised a dream to move his whole family to Thailand - since he can run the business from anywhere. Episode Highlights:
"At that moment (in 2014) I had 20 years of corporate life with that same company and you start to feel that maybe you have evolved as a person and also the company has changed and you’re not that compatible anymore."
"At the same time I was getting convinced that the glory days of those big powerful companies were coming to an end, and that there was definitely value for…
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Mar 26, 2019
Therapist Jerry Hyde on Ayahuasca, Psilocybin, creativity and daring to be different in your brand & business #5
Therapist Jerry Hyde on Ayahuasca, Psilocybin, creativity and daring to be different in your brand & business
Jerry Hyde is a rather unconventional therapist - transitioning from an earlier life in music and heavy drug-use. He now works with people individually and in men's groups and takes people on vision quests in Nepal and other locations.
Jerry Hyde is also my therapist and leader of my men's group so this is a particularly interesting conversation for me. I also love Jerry's approach to marketing his work which is to make a strong statement that repels many people but powerfully attracts others, ensuring that he always has plenty of new clients and opportunities coming to him.
Episode Highlights:
'When I quit drugs, that was easy. That was really, I just woke up one day. I thought, "This isn't fun anymore". I couldn't remember when I'd laughed. It was just, it had become maintenance. That was easy. I just woke up and stopped. But what was the hardest thing to kick and took me…
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Mar 20, 2019
Saskia Nelson - How I created a new genre of photography. #4
Entrepreneur Saskia Nelson - How I created a new genre of photography in 30 days
Saskia Nelson had just lost her job when she took a course with The Ideas Lab 5 years ago. She had only a vague idea of the business she wanted to start but decided over the next 30 days to offer photography for people's dating profiles.
Saskia ended up creating an entirely new genre of business: Dating Photography. Today her business has over a dozen photographers working under her in 5 cities around the UK and now New York and LA as well. And her business has been profiled on the front page of BBC News and in numerous newspapers and magazines.
Here's the story from her first ever client to the international business she runs now. Listen in to learn how you too can start from scratch and create something incredible. Highlights from this episode:
“[John] You created an entire new category. You did that by zooming in….
[Saskia] I’m just doing something different, but the one thing I’m doing, I…
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Mar 5, 2019
Damian Barr - Writer, salon leader, & literary ambassador for the Savoy, Damian Barr talks about the power of stories, how he chooses his creative projects and how to write a memoir #3
Writer, salon leader, & literary ambassador for the Savoy, Damian Barr talks about the power of stories, how he chooses his creative projects and how to write a memoir
Recorded in a suite at the Savoy Hotel itself on The Strand in London.
Join us on a fascinating, fun and emotional journey into the world of writing & books with Damian Barr; author, salon leader and Literary Ambassador to the Savoy Hotel in London.
From finding meaning in childhood memoirs to curating inspirational literary salons across the world, Damian shares his thoughts and insights on how he continues to follow his passions and write acclaimed books.
Episode Highlights:
"You want to feel like you're in conversation with that book, with an idea. Otherwise, you're just being shouted at."
"...A hotel is supposed to be a home from home, and you can't live at home without books."
"...Do you really think Charles Dickens would have written all those books if he had Netflix and Twitter?"
"...You have to leave spa…
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Mar 5, 2019
Dan Pink - The scientific secrets of perfect timing, the new world of work and a bestselling author’s advice to writers #2
Dan Pink – The scientific secrets of perfect timing, the new world of work and a bestselling author’s advice to writers
Dan Pink is author of 6 New York Times bestsellers and has been named one of the top 15 business thinkers in the world. It’s a particular treat for me to speak with Dan because his early books like Free Agent Nation and A whole new mind inspired my first book Screw Work Let’s Play. And his most recent book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing is absolutely fascinating too.
We cover a lot of ground in this interview from what time you should get up in the morning in order to be productive to the new skills you need to stay valuable in the 21st century to how to write a New York Times bestseller. I hope you enjoy it.
Before venturing out on his own 20 years ago, Dan worked in several positions in politics and government, including serving as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore.
Daniel H. Pink is the author of six provocative books — incl…
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Mar 5, 2019
The Ideas Lab Podcast #1
Welcome to the Ideas Lab Podcast, where you can learn from the world’s greatest creative and entrepreneurial minds to help you turn your ideas into original businesses, books and brands – because in a crowded world, it pays to stand out.
Your host is John Williams, bestselling author of 'Screw Work Let’s Play' and 'Screw Work Break Free' and founder of The Ideas Lab London.
This the first episode is to give you a quick introduction to John and what's coming up on the podcast.
Our focus is on the rebels, creatives and innovators with a new take on their topic that has allowed them to carve out a space that is all their own - from Saskia Nelson, the world's first dating profile photographer, to the New York Times bestselling author, Dan Pink exploding myths about productivity, to therapist Jerry Hyde taking his clients on a unique experience with plant medicines in Nepal.
Subscribe now to get inspired, learn something new, and get ideas for your next creative project.
Go here…
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