Ascent with Tom Foxley

She thought she had a marketing problem, but this showed her why that wasn't the case

These 4 steps describe exactly how you can grow in any area of life you care about

This is how to overcome overwhelm if you're facing big business decisions with big consequences.

Most business owners are obsessed with the path of attainment.

More revenue. More clients. More status. More external progress.

But there’s a second path almost nobody prioritises: the path of actualisation.

And if your business growth has stalled, it’s usually because you’ve walked one path forward… while the other foot is still stuck at the start line.

In this episode, I break down the “two paths” model I use with clients, and why building your mental fitness is the fastest way to scale your business, strengthen your relationships, and step into real leadership.

Because once you start pulling the mental fitness thread, it runs through every part of your life.

A client texted me last night and said something I didn’t expect:

Years of therapy never gave her the internal shift she’s had in just three coaching sessions.

And it made something crystal clear.

Real psychological change doesn’t come from “understanding yourself” harder.

It comes from training your mentality through sets and reps, and learning to step outside the part of you that self-sabotages.

In this episode, I explain the two ideas that create rapid internal change, including a metaphor you won’t forget:

This is how you navigate those moments in business and life that seem impossible

Today i show you the real reason your business may be held back by your internal beliefs.

This is how I helped one of my clients understand what he really wants in his business and wider life

Today I'll show you how I'm helping 4 business owners find more purpose and drive when they hit a new level of success.

I’ve coached a lot of business owners who say they want growth — more freedom, more income, more control over their time.

But when you listen closely, their attention is somewhere else.

Politics. The economy. The system. Algorithms. Clients. “The market.”

In this episode, I break down a psychological trait that predicts whether a business owner stagnates or thrives: locus of control — where you believe power over your outcomes actually lives.

I explain why founders with an external locus of control consistently struggle to build momentum, make clean decisions, and stay resilient under pressure — and why the highest performers take an almost unreasonable level of personal responsibility for their results.

I also challenge a widely accepted idea in psychology: that locus of control is fixed. From my own experience — and from coaching high-performing founders — I believe it’s a trainable asset. And when it shifts, everything else follows.

If you want your business to grow, your thinking has to move inward first.

Elite mental fitness is a sets and reps game. Put the reps in.