Happy MBA

In a world that wants to keep hustling and believing that “bigger is better”, we’ve always had a different measure of success.

For Laurence and Carlos, it’s about forging deep friendships and relationships, getting out in nature, making things that give people delight, and making sure that those you love get more of you.

To do this can mean simplifying our lives. It can mean focusing on what matters and recognising that there’s another way to be in the world - and in the business world.

The Happy Startup way of thinking has been influenced by Small is Beautiful by the economist and environmentalist EF Schumacher. But they’re not the first to be influenced by this classic text.

In 1991 Satish Kumar, a former Jain monk and activist, launched the ground-breaking Schumacher College near Totnes with a short course on Gaia Theory led by James Lovelock. In this episode, Laurence and Carlos talk with him about getting off the treadmill of endless competition and consumption, as discussed in his book Elegant Simplicity.

They explore what it means to prioritise happiness, social equity, and a desire to tread lightly on the earth. Hear why we “need to go wild” and reconnect with our souls, the soil, and our society in a less complicated, less wasteful, way. Find out what it means to “live like a poet” and find purpose through relationships, contribution, and connection to the environment around us.

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• Become a member of the Happy Startup School
• Join the next Vision 20/20 cohort

On our previous episode, Laurence and Carlos spoke with John Parkin about big ideas: what they are; where they come from and how to spot them. He shared how big ideas can create real impact with minimum effort.

The idea itself does the heavy lifting. However, what happens when you’re still searching for your big idea. How do you commit to action when it’s not clear?

Say hello to our new friend – the minimum loveable big idea. "Big enough to create impact, small enough to try, authentic enough to be loved." It's an idea that aligns with your hopes, dreams and intentions. It sparks curiosity and excitement, and ideally one that you're willing to commit even though it isn’t 100% clear. The feeling is strong even if the plan is patchy.

Maybe you have a minimum lovable big idea waiting to be birthed? One that has the potential to make a difference, but personal enough to be close to your heart.

Each guest for this episode has a story to tell about their own minimum loveable big ideas:

• Erin McCormack from Boston, USA – The school for inspiring leaders
• Matthieu Dardaillon from France – Effortless entrepreneurship
• Katherine Horsham from the UK – Adventures in nature for women
• Beth Derry from the UK – Teenage self-harm

• Join the next Vision 20/20 cohort
• Join the conversation live
• Become a member of the Happy Startup School

John Parkin knows a good idea when he sees one. As a formed Creative Director of one of the most innovative and exciting advertising agencies of the 1990s, he knows a thing or two about coming up with ideas. He's helped create big ideas for big brands, and he's also had one big idea of his own that has transformed his world.

His big idea? F**k It. It led to John leaving his job, Him and his wife Gaia running countless F**k It retreats, and more than 1 million books sold.

The happy startup is Carlos and Laurence’s big idea. 10 years ago many people didn't get it or thought they were weird. But people remember it, and all around the world it seems to make sense.

They’ve had people run various happy startup meetups in North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, the middle east and all over Europe.

If you haven't yet hit on your big idea, this episode with John explores the power of a big idea, How you can spot one, and how to have one of your own.

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• Join the next Vision 20/20 cohort

When Laurence started out in business, he was a company of one. For 5 years he found his own clients, did sales and marketing, managed his finances. It didn’t even occur to him to ask for help.

Then one day he realised it wasn’t much fun anymore, and he could only go so far with his own skillset.

Thankfully a project came in that meant he had to ask for help if he was to take it on. He could either stay solo and play it small, or start thinking bigger. As luck would have it, Carlos was looking for new opportunities having landed in the same industry not long before.

The rest is history.

The challenge is not everyone has the fortune to find a business partner where things click so easily. Most of the people in the Happy Startup School community are companies of one, sole founders, solopreneurs, AKA lone wolves.

When you don't have a cofounder or no longer have colleagues, a community is your lifeline to connection, which is why in this episode, Carlos and Laurence explore how to find deep, lasting connections when you no longer work for a company (or have one of your own).

Long-time friends and facilitators Line Morkbak and Andrea Strohmayr share how to build nourishing, long lasting relationships in business. Line and Andrea have known each other for years. They are not business partners, yet help each other with their businesses. They are not colleagues, yet sometimes collaborate on projects. They met through business circles but yet help each other out with personal challenges.

The trouble is we don't yet have a vocabulary for these kind of relationships. Accountability buddies? Business friends? Colleagues?

What is clear is this is a conversation that needs to happen more openly. We see these relationships happen in the cohorts brought together on Vision 20/20 and more widely in the online community and from our events. However Line and Andrea are curious about how these relationships can blossom when no-one else is facilitating that connection as part of a committed course or event.

They share more about how their relationship came to evolve, give examples of the importance of these colleagueships, and dive into how we get to this level of comfort, vulnerability and trust with one another, where the commitment isn’t transactional, but rather grows out of curiosity, chemistry, and a genuine interest in one another.

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• Join the next Vision 20/20 cohort

What if you were unapologetically you? What impact would that have on your work, life and relationships?

Unfortunately, too many of us aren’t prepared to bring our whole selves to work… or even life. We either create a mask or hold back on what’s really wanting to be seen.

When we’re not prepared to show our full selves, it means we may not allow others to show their full selves too.

This disconnection doesn’t help in work or life. It limits what’s possible in what we do and how we act.

Vanessa Belleau is an inclusion and belonging consultant, as well as executive coach. She works with individuals and organisations to create more inclusion and belonging at work. She’s both unapologetic and humble as well as serious and joyful in her approach.

How can we create belonging in a world that feels more and more polarised? What does it mean to find belonging for ourselves while celebrating our differences?

When Carlos first started out in business, he wasn’t sure if he belonged in the business world. He didn’t feel able to conform to the norms, so questioned whether this was the space for him. He had similar feelings growing up when I’d get teased for how he looked.

Being different felt bad. However, fundamentally we are unified by our basic human needs and experiences. If we tap into these, we can let go of the idea of being separate and feel more permission to take space, which then frees us up to be more us and do the work we’re supposed to do.

We’re all called to contribute in our own unique way. Let’s embrace this uniqueness so that we can impactfully collaborate and contribute by being ourselves.

• Connect with Vanessa via LinkedIn
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• Join the next Vision 20/20 cohort

Our previous episode covered the theory along with Laurence, Carlos and Lana’s own stories of change, both small and large. On this episode, we invite some of our now 120-strong Vision 20/20 alumni – aka the Vision Tribe – to share their stories.

These 3 amazing humans have been living their excite strategy by working out loud. Others have connected with their story, and helped them to reach their own goals.

• Ray Martin is an author, coach and explorer who just just published a book – Life Without a Tie – about this 13 year (yes thirteen) adventure around the world
• Beccie D'Cunha is the founder of Courage Lab, a mediator and coach who launched her Courageous Leaders group coaching program after graduating from the program
• Serena Savini is a beautiful soul who has turned adversity (a life changing illness) into her superpower, creating I'm Back: a podcast and community of people that have also experienced challenges going back to work after such an experience

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• Join the next Vision 20/20 cohort

The master storyteller. One of the most valuable things we’ve learned from him is about stories of change and how stories can motivate our own action and mobilise others.

Story of Self, Story of Us, Story of Now.

This approach to stories is a way to activate change in the world that is aligned to who we (entrepreneurial changemakers) are and what we need.

In the world of business we can spend too much time and energy talking about what we do and how we do it, and don’t give enough thought to who we really want to serve and why it’s important to us.

Crafting great stories helps us refocus on what matters. And it's always best done in community.

By telling our stories and hearing the stories of others we gently discover our place in this world and create connections with people who can support us.

Powerful stories, well told, define purpose, inspire possibility and nurture deep relationships. They invite people to imagine and to contribute, and they offer a sense of belonging to a bigger narrative of change.

What story are you telling yourself, and what story will you be telling the world? And how will these stories benefit your work... and your life?

On this episode, Laurence and Carlos are joined by Lana Jelenjev, to share their Story of Change Canvas. It's a tool they’ve developed for their Vision 20/20 programme to help participants get more clarity and confidence about the directions they're embarking on.

Hopefully it will inspire you to bring more storytelling into your life so that you can connect more with yourself, with others and with the purpose you've been in search of.

• Download the Story of Change Canvas
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• Join the next Vision 20/20 cohort

“Everything has a time to burn because it invites new life.”

During his talk at Summercamp 2022, Ben Johnson shared his thoughts on the importance of creative destruction. Whether you’re talking about corporate innovation, the eventual demise of capitalism, or the maintenance of an ecological system, old things need to die in order for new things to live.

In 2015, Laurence and Carlos experienced their own phase of creative destruction. They’d been simultaneously running both the Happy Startup School and their digital agency for 3 years and in order for one of them to thrive, the other had to die.

They had to stop doing things the way they’d always been doing them.

And so, in June that year, after coming back from their Alptitude mountain retreat, they started to wind down the agency. T’hey had 5 staff at the time and many active clients. This made the ending challenging, but it had to be done.

Since then, Laurence and Carlos have hosted six more Summercamps, over 10 international retreats and run dozens of courses, programmes, and micro events. They’ve started podcasts, coached people one-to-one, spoken at events on four different continents and grown a global online community of purpose-driven entrepreneurs and professionals.

Ending the agency gave them more time, energy and headspace to focus on and grow the Happy Startup School. It hasn’t been easy, and they’ve had their fair share of ups and downs. But they’ve learned so much about themselves and collected new friends and collaborators.

On this episode, Carlos and Laurence are joined by Ben Johnson to talk about how we can invite change and creativity into our lives by being more prepared to end things.

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At Summercamp 2020, coach David Papa gave a personal, entertaining and vulnerable talk about how to be scared.

He believes that the only thing that can stop you living the life you love is not the fear, it’s believing the fear.

Fear is just a thought and a sensation in the body. But when you add belief to it, then it’s energy that controls your life.

In this week's episode, David shares how this has manifested throughout his own life and how our relationship to fear needs to evolve in order for us to make the impact we crave.

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• Become a member of the Happy Startup School
• Join the next Vision 20/20 cohort
• Watch David’s Summercamp talk

In a complex fast paced world it’s all too easy to think that we’re unable make any impact. But this isn’t true.

At Happy Startup Summercamp 2022, Liana Fricker, founder of Inspiration Space, gave an empowering talk about turning apathy into action.

Liana believes that if we harness our inspiration we can inspire others and these small ripples can turn into tidal waves of change. To start we just need to ask ourselves two simple questions:

• What do I really care about?
• What can I do about it from where I am?

Liana talks about the inspiration flywheel and how we can go from being activated, to elevated, to motivated and back again.

We can then start with a small actions that inspire us to make bigger and bigger moves.

Think big. Start small. Stay committed.

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• Join the next Vision 20/20 cohort