Hyper Curious

For all of us who are hyper curious, who are motivated to learn new things in our lives, today’s guest, Tom Vanderbilt, is an inspiration. 

“One of the greatest ways to kickstart a desire to stay curious, to stay intellectually humble, to admit that you don't know everything that's out there, is to take up a new skill in which you have no background.”

Tom is a journalist and author of New York Times bestseller Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and Beginners: The Joy And Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning. Tom writes on many subjects for many publications, including Wired, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone and the New York Time Magazine. 

In this episode, we talk about the beginner's mind and why adults stop learning, how absorbing completely new skills triggers your curiosity to look at the world around you with a fresh perspective, and why we should be inspired by kids when they playfully try and fail and learn, as opposed to having a big goal to get to.

“Skill learning could help combat stress and build resilience because you no longer feel as if your life is dependent on a few things.”

From the importance of openness to experience, to mastering what you’ve learned by repeating and practicing it, to why the disruptive pandemic has forced us to change and given us a good excuse to learn new things. 

“A lot of life is very habitual. We're not even aware of how much is habitual and one of the greatest ways to induce behaviour change is to have a disruption in one's life.”

If you’re a founder, starting a company or changing career, this is a truly curious episode that will hopefully inspire you to be a lifelong learner.

On today’s podcast:

• Why he wrote Beginners
• The main traits of hyper curious people
• The risk of being a generalist
• How the pandemic induced collective behaviour change
• Don’t rely on goals

Links:

• Twitter: @tomvanderbilt
• LinkedIn: Tom Vanderbilt
• Tom Vanderbilt

If you’re a parent, you’ll know what a minefield childcare is, not to mention how inaccessible and unaffordable it can be. Which is why we’re super excited to talk to Rachel Carrell, an incredible and highly accomplished entrepreneur, who is on a mission to build the world's best childcare service. 

Rachel is the founder and CEO of Koru Kids, a fast growing tech company that raised over $15 million from the most respectable venture capital investors in the world. 

“I am a Kiwi, a mother, and an entrepreneur. And I'm interested in almost everything.”

Rachel has received numerous awards including Inspirational Mother and Best Business Woman In Tech. Before she founded Koru Kids, she was the CEO of a multinational healthcare company where, when she had her first baby, she experienced firsthand how difficult and expensive it was to arrange childcare, and decided to found Koru Kids. 

In this episode, you learn the worst thing about being CEO, the importance of setting up a powerful vision for your business and communicating it widely, why she named the company Koru Kids, and why her fantastic protip to female founders who are fundraising is: do not have it in your head that you are a female founder, when you walk into the room.

And finally she shares how she manages her day to day life as a high achiever through having her own nanny and sharing domestic responsibilities 50:50, with her husband, as well as how transcendental meditation works for her, and why she lies on a bed of nails before going to sleep. 

“When you first do it, it is excruciatingly painful for about one minute. And then what happens is all the blood rushes to that area of your body. And it starts feeling very warm, and all your muscles relax. You get this incredible rush. And it makes you feel really sleepy.”

For all founders, female especially, this is a truly insightful episode, don’t miss out!

On today’s podcast:

• The best and worst things about being CEO
• The magic of setting a powerful vision
• Advice to female founders who are fundraising
• The help she has at home
• Relaxing through transcendental meditation and a bed of nails

Links:

• Koru Kids
• LinkedIn - Rachel Carrell
• Twitter: RachCarrell
• Insta: rach.of.koru.kids
• Clubhouse @rachcarrell

Dan Murray-Serter is a spiritually curious serial entrepreneur who loves animals. 

“I'm not afraid to try something and shut it down. I've had eight companies, I've had to shut down five of them. So I failed a bunch of times.”

Dan’s also the host of the UK’s number one business podcast, Secret Leaders, co-founder of Founders, a private network of incredible founders, and writer at Forbes. His current venture - Heights, is a company he co-founded to tackle his own mental health and combat his chronic anxiety and six-month-long insomnia.

“Someone recommended I see a dietitian, and the dietician diagnosed me in seconds, she prescribed me supplements, and I was like, Oh, no, supplements don't work. But the supplements worked really quickly, within a week, and I was sleeping like a baby and my anxiety had gone away.”

In this latest episode of Hyper Curious, you'll learn about why you need to do more of the things that feed your soul and give you energy. You’ll get a better understanding of the concept of brain care and how much nutrition impacts our mental health. And finally, Dan explains the importance of being an outsider asking the most basic questions and following your curiosity to make great products.

“In our genuine stupidity, our total lack of category understanding meant that we were like, well, let's just ask all the questions from the ground up and go from there. And what ended up is a totally different product to anyone else in the market.”

This is a fantastic episode jam-packed full of brain care advice and startup advice. Don’t miss out, download and listen today. 

On today’s podcast:

• Link between nutrition and mental health
• Ask the dumb questions
• Time boxing to keep focused
• Embrace failure
• How to combat brain shrinkage
• Mental health care at work

Links:

• Twitter - @danmurrayserter
• LinkedIn - Dan Murray-Serter
• www.yourheights.com
• Secret Leaders

We are super thrilled to have the incredible multi-hyphenate, Viv Groskop, on Hyper Curious. 

“I always think there's something in our culture that tells us we should be focused on one thing, and not to have a butterfly mind.”

Viv Groskop is a writer, critic, broadcaster and standup comedian. She's the author of How To Own The Room, which is also a top 10 iTunes podcast with incredible guests like Hillary Clinton, Nigella Lawson and Julie Andrews. Her latest book is Lift As You Climb. 

In this episode, we learn why everything in life is a series of wrong turns and how it’s our failures that lead us to our eventual path - success isn’t linear. If you’ve ever wanted to take an idea and run with it, to see where it takes you, let Viv be your guide. We never know what will work, says Viv, the only common theme is that there is no common theme, experimentation is everything. 

“[Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg] tried loads and loads of things that didn't work, they took loads of wrong turns. And when you get to the top of something, when you become very successful, those things become written out of your story.”

Viv also explains why we need to tell our own story, why we should stop putting other people on a pedestal, why we need to to leave the good girl behaviour behind, and why doing less is the best way to become your most authentic self. 

“You don't have to do more, you have to actually do less, be less. I don't mean be lesser than your greatness. Do less, you don't have to be all things to all people. Just dig really, really deep into who you are as a person, and let that shine.”

On today’s podcast:

• Do what’s fun for you
• Life is a series of wrong turns
• Nothing matters on paper
• Take one small step, then another
• Tell a story from within

Links:

• Twitter - @VivGroskop
• http://vivgroskop.com/
• LinkedIn - Viv Groskop

Do you find yourself endlessly distracted? Do you struggle to get traction with things you need to prioritize? Welcome back to Season two of Hyper Curious. Kicking things off is Nir Eyal, the author of two best selling and the most impactful books every founder must read - Hooked and Indistractable. 

“Understanding the essence of why we do things that we know we shouldn't has always been fascinating to me, why we get tempted, why we go off track, why we get distracted.”

In this inaugural episode, Nir shares what the root cause of our endless problems with distractions are (spoiler alert, it’s not technology), the concept of traction, and how to do things that matter most to us. 

“The problem is not that we don't know what to do, we all know what to do. The problem is we don't know how to stop getting in our own way.”

Listen through to the very end, because Nir shares the marvellous concept of timeboxing, something that will revolutionize the way you allocate time. 

“Time boxing is basically planning out what you're going to do and when you're going to do it. That's all it is. Planning out how you want to spend every minute of your day. Everything is a distraction unless you decide, no, this is what I want to do with my time, including the fun stuff.”

From how to build an indistractable workplace, to how to raise indistractable kids, to how to have an indistractable relationship, download and listen to Nir, the Prophet of Habit Forming Technology, and stop getting distracted. 

On today’s podcast:

• Why we get distracted
• Hooked v Indistractable
• The concept of traction 
• The four pillars of the model of Indistractable
• Distraction is a company culture issue
• Making timeboxing work for you

Links:

• Twitter - @nireyal
• LinkedIn - Nir Eyal
• www.nirandfar.com
• Free Schedule Maker Tool
• Why schedules are better than to-do lists
• Distraction guide
• Habits vs routines
• Book - Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products 
• Book - Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
• Indistractable summary

This is the final episode of Season One of Hyper Curious - we can’t believe it’s come to a close so soon - the last 7 weeks have flown by. In that time we’ve had our curiosity piqued in myriad ways by truly inspiring guests as they’ve opened up and allowed themselves to be vulnerable and share their curiosities.

“As Brendon Burchard says: ‘high necessity is the emotional drive that makes great performance a must’. Then you go through pain and deep reflection and what you get is progress.”

And it’s that progress we’ve been following each week as every one of our guests has imparted their pearls of wisdom to our fictional protagonist, Olivia. 

This final episode is an incredibly special one because it combines together all of the advice Olivia has been given and you’ll hopefully see that while Olivia may be fictional, her story is reflective of moments in all of our lives. Perhaps in seeing her story as a whole, you may find answers to your own curious questions. 

“Olivia’s adventure, her full story will be told in this episode as a celebration of the zest for life we all have inside of us. It can sometimes be dormant, but our curiosity has the power to awaken it.”

Remember, always allow yourself to be led by curiosity, never from fear. Enjoy this episode and we hope it gives you some inspiration to follow your own curiosity. Until next time, ciao ciao. 

On today’s podcast:

• Beta’s a-ha moments in life and business
• The power of letting go
• Olivia ‘game’ reflections 
• Success is never linear

What had you achieved by the age of 24? Today’s guest, Timo Armoo, founder and CEO of Fanbytes, is already onto his third company. There is literally no stopping this Gen Z-er.

Fanbytes helps companies like Warner Music, Deliveroo, Apple Music, McDonald’s, boohoo and even the UK government to reach Gen Z through TiKToK, Snapchat and Instagram influencers. 

Because Gen Z are like no generation that has gone before. They’ve grown up with social media at their fingertips - they can amplify the things they like and also the things they hate. 

“Often people can go, ‘Gen Z are interested in social activism’, but it's not like older people aren't, it's just that it's much easier for us to be involved in it because the world is much smaller, because pretty much our world is through the phone, rather than through newspapers.”

Today we talk about the difference between generations when it comes to caring about data, how to explore the range of identities we all have inside us. And Timo shares his pro tips about building your personal brand - something he’s incredibly good at. 

“The difference in generations is the way that we see life and the way that we see the transactions being. I don't care because I'm doing something for free and I'm having fun and yeah, I don't have to pay so I pay with my data.”

Enjoy hearing all about Gen Z from the inside.

On today’s podcast:

• Gen Z see the world through their phone
• When creators don’t understand the content on their platform
• Do people care that social media platforms are getting their data?
• Why we are obsessed with defining ourselves
• History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes
• Top tips for building your personal brand

Links:

• Psycho Cybernetics - Maxwell Maltz
• Expert Secrets - Russell Brunson
• https://fanbytes.co.uk/

If you’re wondering if it’s too late in life to change vocation, today’s guest will show you it isn't. 

“I'm somebody who came to the games industry a little bit late. Even though I've been in it now for 20 years, I've always felt a little bit like an outsider looking in.”

Maria Sayans has been helping games companies succeed in the digital space, build great brands, launch games and engage players for nearly two decades. Oh, and she’s the CEO of ustwo games - that’s not a bad achievement for an outsider!

“Our vision is to bring what's meaningful about games to everyone - making beautiful games that touch the soul of millions of players.”

In this latest episode of Hyper Curious, Maria shares her journey from consultancy to CEO, the soul searching she had to do to get her onto her current path and her advice for listeners just beginning to foray into marketing and the games industry. 

“I have so much hope for the industry and for what games can do for the world. Keep that positive spirit; I know everything is kind of falling apart around us but it really isn't. Humans have a lot more strength and positivity and hope in them than we often give them credit for.”

On today’s podcast:

• How to find your path
• The mindset you need to work in the games industry
• Good questions lead you to good decisions
• The importance of education in order to build strategic thinking
• Why she’s curious about embodied cognition
• Why her superpower would be to make parenting easier

Links:

• The Brain Science podcast
• Voices of VR podcast

From L’Oreal to DesignMyNight.com to Horseplay Ventures, Nick Telson has had quite the career to date, and he’s just getting started. 

Nick embodies what Hyper Curious is all about. Realising that a career trajectory at L’Oreal wasn’t for him, he was curious about following a different path and after a night out in New York City with his DMN co-founder Andrew Webster, he found his new direction. 

With just £500K angel funding they built DMN into a team of 60 and after a £25+ million exit in 2017, Nick now dedicates his time between investing in startups, giving back, writing a book and hosting Pitch Deck, an incredible podcast for founders and startups. 

For anyone starting out on their own entrepreneurial path or considering going down this route, Nick is someone worth listening to. He’s been there, done it and got the t-shirt. He poured blood, sweat and tears into DMN and for their grit and determination, he and Andrew were rewarded for their efforts. 

But he’s quick to point out that there is no silver bullet for success - you have to be prepared to pivot and go where you’re needed, not where you think you should be, and don’t believe that raising money is success - building a successful company is success.

“Netflix shows and Amazon Prime shows about founders and startups romanticise everything, but at the end of the day if you're gonna be successful, a founder is really not romantic, it's just hard, hard work.”

And when it all gets too much, take yourself out of the moment, says Nick. 

“Just remember that there's other stuff going on in the world. You know, a drink or catch up with close friends instantly washes away all the seeds of doubt in your head I find.”

On today’s podcast:

• The startups that Nick invests in
• Taking the leap from the corporate world to entrepreneur
• The best founders are the ones really in their industry
• How to handle the entrepreneurial roller coaster
• Trust your gut, trust your instinct
• Nick’s advice to anyone thinking about becoming an entrepreneur

Links:

• Horseplay ventures - a playground for startups
• Podcast - Pitch Deck
• Nick Telson

What throws two fingers up at the establishment more than an LGBTQ, black, woman investor? Meet Arlan Hamilton, Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital. Arlan’s a catalyst and a powerful soul seeking to make not just waves, but actual change in a very male dominated industry. 

Just 5 years ago, Arlan started a venture capital fund in the US while homeless. Today, her $10m boutique venture fund has invested in over 130 startups led by high potential, underrepresented, underestimated founders who are people of colour, women and/or LGBTQ.

“For 35 years I had a lot of housing insecurity and a lot of financial issues. And then one day I decided I'm going to do something a little different. And that's where we are today.”

In this incredibly honest and transparent episode, Arlan talks about her newly released book - It’s About Damn Time, how to build a strong sense of self and the difference between a dream and a calling, as well as why she advocates for being weird. But most importantly, she reveals why an audience of one needs to be enough for all of us. 

“Being weird is absolutely the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I would not have any of the things that I have today, except for family, which is wonderful, had I not been weird.”

On today’s podcast:

• Why Arlan’s secret to bravery is a tolerance for risk
• How to filter available knowledge and advice
• Learn to understand and follow your instinct
• Why struggling is normal
• How to turn being weird into your power
• How to define the impact you want to make

Links:

• https://www.itsaboutdamntime.com/
• www.backstagecrowd.com