On a Mission Podcast 2.0

What if the biggest thing holding you back isn’t your circumstances, but the story you’ve been telling yourself?

From a terrified young boy who was bullied relentlessly and didn’t want to be alive, to becoming a three-time martial arts world champion and successful entrepreneur, Gordon Burcham knows what it takes to completely transform your life.

In this episode of the On a Mission Podcast, Gordon joins Ellie McKay for an honest conversation about overcoming adversity, childhood trauma, self-belief and the reality of rebuilding when life falls apart.

Gordon reveals how an ayahuasca experience completely changed his relationship with success, social media and external validation, leaving him questioning the identity he’d spent decades building.

Ellie also opens up about her own experience of financial devastation, facing homelessness with three children and finding unexpected happiness in some of her darkest moments.

Together, they explore the psychology of self-sabotage, why personal development means nothing without action, the power of daily habits and how to stop chasing success at the expense of your happiness.

Sometimes losing everything forces you to question what success really looks like, what actually makes you happy and whether the life you’ve been working so hard to build is the one you really want.

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Key moments include:

✔ Gordon’s journey from childhood bullying and suicidal thoughts to three consecutive world championship titles.

✔ The ayahuasca experience that transformed his identity and relationship with external validation.

✔ Why changing the story you tell yourself can change the direction of your life.

✔ The reality of financial ruin, business setbacks and rebuilding from rock bottom.

✔ How discipline, self-integrity and daily habits help build mental resilience.

✔ Why happiness, rather than money or status, might be the greatest measure of success.

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Chapters:

00:00 Introduction 

04:21 The Dangerous Illusion of Social Media 

06:46 How Ayahuasca Changed Everything 

13:04 Stop Living by Other People's Rules 

16:22 Redefining Success and Freedom 

19:27 Why Life's Hardest Challenges Are Gifts

24:06 The Stories We Tell Ourselves 

29:08 The Daily Habits That Build Resilience 

34:50 My Childhood Was Filled With Fear 

38:55 How Martial Arts Changed My Life 

43:10 The Mindset Shift That Made Me World Champion 

51:56 Ellie's Journey Through Rock Bottom 

58:57 Happiness Is the Real Measure of Success 

73:48 Taking Back Control of Your Life

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Connect & Follow

Follow Ellie McKay:

🔗 Website: https://onamissionpodcast.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official/?hl=en-gb

🔗 On a Mission Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onamissionpodcast2.0/?hl=en-gb 

Follow Gordon Burcham:

🔗 Wesbite: https://www.gordonburcham.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_gordonburcham/ 

🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegordonburcham/

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe or follow the On a Mission Podcast and share it with someone who could benefit from this conversation. Your support helps us bring more honest, meaningful conversations to people around the world.

James O’Keefe spent years around gangsters, dealing drugs, fighting and womanising. In his own words, he was “Andrew Tate on steroids.” Today, he’s the founder of Unguarded Warrior, helping people break the patterns that nearly destroyed his life.

James grew up with an alcoholic father, was thrown out of home at 15 and lost his dad soon after. He went on to become a professional MMA fighter and build a successful property business, but the anger and need to prove himself never went away. He talks about the extortion that left him frightened enough to buy a gun, and the £700,000 business deal that ended in a loss so devastating he no longer wanted to live.

Being married to Beverley Knight, one of the UK’s most successful performers, forced James to confront what he believed it meant to be a man. For years, he measured his own worth against an idea of what he should provide. He explains how that pressure shaped his relationship with money, the mistakes he made, and what he had to unlearn to show up as an equal partner.

Few people discussing the manosphere can say they’ve lived the life it sells. James can. We talk about why that version of masculinity appeals to young men, what happens when boys grow up without anyone to guide them, and why he’s now determined to give people a way through the anger he once lived with.

This conversation is about as real and raw as it gets. James is a man on a mission because he knows what can happen when anger and shame are left to run your life. We confront what it takes to face the person you’ve been, take responsibility for your choices and believe you can still become someone different.

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Key moments include:

✔ James describes the violent, womanising version of himself as “Andrew Tate on steroids.”

✔ He explains how his childhood and his father’s alcoholism shaped the anger he carried into adulthood.

✔ James shares what happened when he was targeted for extortion and why he eventually gave the gun back.

✔ He opens up about losing £700,000, the shame that followed and the support Beverley gave him.

✔ We examine the manosphere, the appeal of toxic masculinity and what young men need from real role models.

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Chapters:

00:00 Introducing James O’Keefe

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Connect & Follow

Follow Ellie McKay:

🔗 Website: https://onamissionpodcast.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official/?hl=en-gb

🔗 On a Mission Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onamissionpodcast2.0/?hl=en-gb 

Follow James O'Keefe

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesokeefenrg/?hl=en

Andrew Hulbert went from starting a company in his bedroom in his pants to building and exiting a business for $100 million before the age of 40.

An incredible achievement, but this conversation is about far more than business.

Andrew’s life could very easily have gone in a completely different direction. He was wild, fiercely ambitious and willing to take risks most people wouldn’t entertain. At 15, he was brutally attacked and came within inches of potentially losing his life. Years later, those same extremes, channelled differently, would help him build something extraordinary.

This episode is really about the pivotal moments that shape our lives and what happens when you’re prepared to back yourself when there are absolutely no guarantees.

We talk about mindset, ambition, risk and sacrifice, and the uncomfortable truth about what it can take to achieve extraordinary things. Andrew is incredibly candid about the years when the business came before almost everything else, the impact that had on his marriage and family, and why he still wrestles with the contradiction that the very obsession he would approach differently today was also fundamental to his success.

We also get into something that isn’t talked about nearly enough. What happens when you actually get everything you’ve spent years chasing? Why do so many founders struggle after selling their businesses? What happens to your identity when the goal disappears, and how do you find purpose when money is no longer the motivation?

Despite Andrew’s monumental success, some of the biggest lessons in this conversation have very little to do with money. We talk about what success actually means, the risks worth taking, the price we’re prepared to pay for what we want and why achieving more doesn’t necessarily give us more of what really matters.

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Key moments include:

✔ From starting a business in his pants to a $100 million exit

✔ The attack at 15 that could have changed everything

✔ Why the traits that can derail your life can also become your greatest strengths

✔ The mindset and appetite for risk behind extraordinary success

✔ Risking his marriage, mortgage and money to back himself

✔ The uncomfortable reality of what extreme ambition can cost

✔ Why founders can struggle with depression after selling their businesses

✔ What happens to your identity when the chase is finally over

✔ Preparing psychologically for life after a major exit

✔ Why making millions doesn’t necessarily make you feel successful

✔ The contradiction Andrew still wrestles with around ambition and balance

✔ Why his definition of success has completely changed

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Chapters:

00:00 Andrew Hulbert on life after selling his business

01:45 From working-class beginnings to buying a farm

07:45 Getting into trouble as a teenager

11:46 The attack that nearly changed his life

15:12 A decision that could have cost him everything

18:56 Drugs, peer pressure and raising children

25:19 Finding a direction for his entrepreneurial drive

26:22 The friends who changed his ambitions

34:07 Growing up without money

38:10 Dealing with criticism and other people’s opinions

43:03 Learning to feel proud of his success

46:10 Building a business around people and culture

52:13 What the company sale meant for his employees

53:45 The reality of his extreme weight loss

58:10 Preparing for life after selling the business

01:05:16 Giving back to the parents who supported him

01:09:15 Was building the business worth the sacrifice?

01:16:16 What changed when he stopped working

01:20:01 His biggest lesson about success and family

01:26:42 Finding balance while raising children

01:31:24 Why money doesn’t guarantee happiness

01:34:11 Planting a forest and leaving a legacy

01:35:04 Why he became a platelet donor

01:40:19 Skydiving, travel and what comes next

01:43:53 The letters he writes to his children

01:46:00 Andrew’s mission

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Connect & Follow

Follow Ellie McKay:

🔗 Website: https://onamissionpodcast.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official/?hl=en-gb

🔗 On a Mission Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onamissionpodcast2.0/?hl=en-gb 

Follow Andrew Hulbert: 

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_andrewhulbert/?hl=en

What happens when you stop trying to avoid adversity and start seeing it as part of the deal?

Former Royal Marine Commando, MMA world champion and elite performance coach Martin “Stapes” Stapleton returns to On a Mission, and as always, no subject is off limits.

Stapes has spent most of his adult life operating outside his comfort zone. From war zones and professional fighting to business, coaching and starting again, his life has taught him a lot about what we’re capable of when things don’t go to plan.

You don’t really discover what you’re made of when everything is going well. More often than not, you find out when it isn’t.

We live in a world where we’re constantly trying to make life easier. We avoid discomfort, fear failure and increasingly try to protect ourselves and our children from the very experiences that often teach us the most.

Stapes sees things differently.

We talk about the difference between surviving and thriving, why your identity can’t be built around what you own or achieve, what happens when you become addicted to chasing the next goal and why being willing to start again is something we should never be afraid of.

We also get into masculinity, mental health, politics, censorship, the media and Stapes’ belief that there comes a point where empathy can stop helping people move forward and start reinforcing the idea that they can’t.

There’s a lot in this one, but so much of it comes back to one thing.

Life is going to test every single one of us at some point.

We can’t always control what happens.

We can control what we do next.

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Key moments include:

✔ Why focusing on not losing can stop you from truly living

✔ Stop chasing status and start building capability

✔ What happens when high performers become addicted to chaos

✔ Why starting again is a skill

✔ The difference between a great coach and someone you become dependent on

✔ Has our obsession with comfort made us less resilient?

✔ Stapes’ controversial take on toxic sympathy and empathy

✔Why struggle isn’t always something we should protect people from

✔ Masculinity, responsibility and what it really means to be strong

✔ Raising children to navigate adversity rather than fear it

✔ Politics, censorship and the growing distrust of mainstream media

✔ Knowing when it’s time to close one chapter and start another

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Chapters:

00:00 Martin Stapleton Returns

00:49 Why Martin Needed One Final Fight

03:22 Resilience, Defeat & Walking the Walk

08:16 Did Martin Actually Enjoy His Fighting Career?

10:08 From Royal Marine to MMA Fighter

13:50 Why Starting From the Bottom Matters

16:08 Stop Chasing Status, Start Building Capability

18:15 The Problem With Chasing the Next Achievement

20:01 Coming Home From Iraq

24:32 Do We Realise How Good We Have It?

29:18 Learning to Connect With People Again

31:36 The Importance of Keeping the Right People Around You

34:01 How the Royal Marines Prepared Martin for Business

35:04 What Makes a Great Coach & Leader?

36:14 Leaving the Marines to Build a Business

38:06 The Fight That Paid for Christmas

42:34 The Reality of Building a Profitable Business

44:00 The Dunning-Kruger Effect in Business

45:40 How COVID Changed Everything

51:21 Mainstream Media, Censorship & Trust

57:04 Political Division & Party Politics

01:01:17 Why Martin Thinks Politics Needs to Change

01:04:02 The Rise of Alternative Media & Long-Form Podcasts

01:07:22 Martin’s Experience of Military Leadership

01:10:28 Why People Are Craving Real Conversations

01:12:26 When Martin Realised His Purpose Was Coaching

01:15:20 Finding a New Challenge After Fighting

01:18:12 The Resilience Programme

01:18:49 Men, Pressure & Mental Health

01:22:31 Why Facing Adversity Builds Resilience

01:24:51 What Masculinity Means to Martin

01:30:19 British History, Identity & Modern Culture

01:36:16 Martin’s Next Chapter

01:38:02 Stepping Away From MMA Coaching

01:39:03 The Mission Behind Resilience

01:42:05 Why Some Kids Need a Different Education

01:45:01 What Is Martin Stapleton’s Mission?

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Connect & Follow

Follow Ellie McKay:

🔗 Website: https://onamissionpodcast.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official/?hl=en-gb

🔗 On a Mission Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onamissionpodcast2.0/?hl=en-gb 

Follow Martin Stapleton: 

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stapes_50cal/

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/resilience_headquarters?stkn=aXBmcDR6M3R2a2Z1 

A two year old girl leaves nursery with a man who wasn’t authorised to collect her. By the time her mother is told, her daughter has already been returned.

What happened in between remains unknown.

In this episode of On a Mission, Jody Riley tells the full story of the day her daughter Rosie was taken from nursery by a man Jody did not know, the account she says she was initially given about what happened, and the serious questions that were raised when she finally obtained the CCTV footage for herself.

What followed has been an extraordinary fight for answers. Jody describes conflicting accounts, safeguarding failures, an inadequate response from the organisations she turned to for help and what she believes has been a cover up, including attempts to shut her down as she continued to ask questions.

For the first time, Jody takes us through the entire sequence of events without restrictions as we also discuss the extraordinary personal cost of trying to find those answers. Jody speaks candidly about the deterioration of her mental health, the impact on her businesses and family, and the abuse she has received online as she fights to uncover the truth about her own child.

Jody wants answers, accountability and change, and she has no intention of being silenced.

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Chapters:

00:00 Jody Riley joins Ellie McKay on On a Mission

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Connect & Follow

Follow Ellie McKay:

🔗 Website: https://onamissionpodcast.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official/?hl=en-gb

🔗 On a Mission Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onamissionpodcast2.0/?hl=en-gb 

Follow Jody Riley:

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jodyriley_/?hl=en-gb

Daniel O’Reilly became one of Britain’s first huge social media stars as Dapper Laughs, building an audience of millions with a character that was loud, laddish and deliberately pushed boundaries, until it all came crashing down.

Branded misogynistic, accused of promoting rape culture and effectively cancelled, Dan went from having his own ITV show and sold out tour to becoming one of the most hated men in Britain. More than a decade later, a lot has changed.

Dan is sober, selling out theatres again and is the first to admit he got plenty wrong. He tells us what he regrets, what he still stands by and what it takes to rebuild when the mainstream media and an entire industry have all but exiled you.

We talk about the manosphere, the men dominating that space today and what happens when provocative content attracts millions of eyeballs, controversy brings even more attention and the character you’ve created starts influencing the young men watching you.

Away from the headlines, Dan is brutally open about cocaine, alcohol, losing his dad, almost losing his family and reaching the point where he didn’t want to be here anymore. He talks candidly about how bad things became, getting sober and the difficult reality of rebuilding his life from the ground up.

In this episode, I’m also joined by my co host Eth Power, who has his own experience of addiction and recovery and brings another perspective to a conversation that covers addiction, masculinity, shame, hitting rock bottom and what it really takes to turn your life around.

Dan’s story is ultimately proof that no matter how publicly you fall, how badly things have gone wrong or how many people have written you off, you can take responsibility, change direction and build a life you’re proud of.

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Key moments include:

✔ The rise and spectacular fall of Dapper Laughs

✔ Being branded misogynistic and accused of promoting rape culture

✔ What Dan regrets and what he still stands by

✔ The manosphere and the men dominating it today

✔ Why outrage and attention can become addictive

✔ Rebuilding when the mainstream media and an entire industry have all but exiled you

✔ Cocaine, alcohol and functioning addiction

✔ Losing his dad and reaching the point where he didn’t want to live

✔ Why telling men to “just talk” isn’t enough

✔ Getting sober and facing the man in the mirror

✔ Fatherhood, masculinity and what success looks like now

✔ Why taking accountability can change your life

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Connect & Follow

Follow Ellie McKay:

🔗 Website: https://onamissionpodcast.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official/?hl=en-gb

🔗 On a Mission Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onamissionpodcast2.0/?hl=en-gb 

Follow Dan O’Reilly:

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dappersinstagram?igsi=MmNhN3FoOTZhbnM3

🔗Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ceuuatYqt/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Follow Eth Power:

🔗 Forever Young Retreat: https://www.weareforeveryoung.co.uk

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_ethpower_?igsh=bDlqMDFsbDF5bmh4

Tim Storey has spent decades working with some of the most recognisable and successful people on the planet.

Oprah Winfrey, Kanye West, Robert Downey Jr., Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder are just some of the names connected to a man who has become known around the world as The Comeback Coach.

He’s a world renowned speaker, bestselling author, life strategist and spiritual leader who has spoken in more than 90 countries, impacting millions of people with his message.

In this episode of On a Mission, we go beyond the celebrity names to understand the man they turn to when life doesn’t go according to plan.

Tim shares his philosophy on turning setbacks into comebacks, why even the most successful people in the world struggle with confidence and identity, and what it really means to keep showing up when you’re not at your best.

We talk about happiness, authenticity and learning to live in the present, as well as the relationship between financial success and spiritual health and why Tim believes the ability to develop a “Miracle Mentality” can be trained.

From studying crisis counselling and becoming a spiritual leader at a young age to advising people at the very top of entertainment and business, Tim has spent his life understanding human behaviour and what allows some people to rise again when life knocks them down.

This is a conversation about resilience, identity, success and the mindset required to navigate the inevitable setbacks that come with being human.

Tim Storey is the man some of the world’s most successful people turn to when life goes wrong. In this episode, we find out why.

Chapters:

00:54 How Tim became a world renowned communicator

03:10 From aspiring to be Mother Teresa to becoming a spiritual leader

07:20 The Comeback Coach: turning your biggest setbacks into comebacks

11:06 Why success won’t necessarily make you happy

14:24 How to discover who you really are

19:58 Playing injured: how to keep showing up when life gets hard

25:22 Why even the most successful people struggle with confidence

27:09 Can you be financially wealthy and spiritually fulfilled?

28:47 The Miracle Mentality and the mindset of the top 1%

30:29 Why your success can only grow as much as you do

33:13 Tim Storey’s mission to impact the world

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Connect & Follow

Follow Ellie McKay:

🔗 Website: https://onamissionpodcast.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official/?hl=en-gb

🔗 On a Mission Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onamissionpodcast2.0/?hl=en-gb 

Follow Tim Storey:

🔗 Website: https://www.timstorey.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realtimstorey?igsh=MWFzN21ia2c5ZmVmdA==

Most people don’t need more information. They need the right answer, from the right person, at the exact moment they need it.

In this special episode, TalentDec co founders Dean Kelly and Ellie McKay reveal the thinking behind a new expert marketplace designed to make valuable knowledge and real world experience far more accessible.

Dean sold his first company at 30 for an eight figure sum before becoming the youngest CEO on the stock market. He has since built and sold multiple businesses, chaired companies in the UK and overseas, invested in founders and developed an international network spanning the UK and Dubai.

Ellie is the host of the On a Mission podcast, which has ranked in the top 0.5 percent of podcasts globally and regularly appeared in the UK Top 10. After more than 300 interviews with leading entrepreneurs, thought leaders and experts, she has seen how one relationship, conversation or piece of advice can completely alter someone’s direction.

TalentDec stands for Talent Decentralised. It gives people direct access to vetted experts across business, finance, health, legal, HR, sport, performance and many other areas. Instead of committing thousands of pounds to a mentor or programme, users can ask a specific question, compare different perspectives and pay for the knowledge they need.

The idea is simple. You don’t always need months of coaching or another generic course. Sometimes you need ten minutes with somebody who has already faced the problem sitting in front of you.

Dean shares how access to experienced business leaders helped him navigate recessions, complex financial decisions and challenges that could have cost his companies millions. He also explains why the most famous person isn’t necessarily the person with the best answer for you.

Ellie opens up about losing everything, declaring bankruptcy and rebuilding her life as a single mother of three. The relationships she had built through the podcast became an essential part of finding her feet again, creating new opportunities and moving forward when her circumstances changed beyond recognition.

Together, they explore the true value of experience, why successful people still need guidance and how TalentDec allows experts to earn from knowledge that has often taken decades to acquire. They also discuss the pressure to pretend we have all the answers, the importance of asking for help and why several informed perspectives can lead to far better decisions.

Whether you’re building a company, facing a difficult decision, trying to improve your health or looking for clarity in another area of your life, TalentDec helps you reach people whose experience could save you time, money and years of avoidable mistakes.

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Key moments include:

✔ The eight figure entrepreneur building a completely new way to access expertise

✔ Why the right person can be almost impossible to reach

✔ What is 30 years of experience actually worth?

✔ The one answer that could change the trajectory of your life

✔ The board level advice most small businesses can’t afford

✔ The uncomfortable truth about self proclaimed experts on LinkedIn

✔ Why the biggest name in the room might give you the worst advice

✔ The conversation with a billionaire that changed Dean’s entire perspective

✔ Dean sat in Canary Wharf pretending he understood what the bankers were saying

✔ How admitting he didn’t know potentially saved Dean £2 million

✔ The relationships that carried Ellie through losing everything

✔ Why the questions Dean gets asked most have nothing to do with business

✔ The part of success most entrepreneurs completely overlook

✔ How the right people can help you build the life you actually want

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Connect & Follow

Follow Ellie McKay:

🔗 Website: https://onamissionpodcast.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official/?hl=en-gb

🔗 On a Mission Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onamissionpodcast2.0/?hl=en-gb 

Follow Dean Kelly:

🔗 Website: https://kellstar.co.uk

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deankelly_kellstar_mentor?igsh=MTIydWpqM2locHYxaA==

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/d3anukelly?igsh=MWw5ZzBwY2g0YXp6aw==

🔗TalentDec: www.talentdec.com

Millions of people know Adam (ADMT) for his incredible voice, but what I love most about him isn’t his music. It’s the person behind it.

It was an absolute pleasure to sit down with one of my good friends and an all round brilliant human being, Adam Taylor.

Behind the sold out shows, record deals and millions of views is someone who, for years, struggled to believe he was good enough. Adam speaks with incredible honesty about growing up feeling like he never quite fitted in, the impact bullying had on his confidence and working in a glass factory before music took off.

We also talk about the reality of depression and the darkest moments of Adam’s life. He shares how therapy helped him understand himself in a way he never thought possible and ultimately became one of the most important turning points in his life.

Adam is still the same grounded lad from Doncaster who cares deeply about people, values genuine connection over fame and has used some of the darkest moments in his life to create music that has helped millions of others feel less alone. We talk about everything from the dark side of social media and mental health to purpose, biohacking and what success really means when you strip away the numbers.

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In this episode:

✔ Why Adam changed his name to AT and the story behind it.

✔ Growing up feeling like an outsider and the lasting impact of bullying.

✔ The teacher who saw something in him when nobody else did.

✔ Working in a glass factory while chasing his dream of becoming a musician.

✔ Thinking he’d made it in America before everything suddenly fell apart.

✔ Why songwriting became his therapy and how his most personal songs have connected with millions.

✔ His experience with depression, suicidal thoughts and the role therapy played in changing his life.

✔ His perspective on social media, authenticity and staying true to yourself in a world that’s constantly asking you to be someone else.

If you’ve ever struggled to believe in yourself, questioned your own worth or wondered whether you really belong, I think you’ll get a lot from this conversation.

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Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

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Connect & Follow

Follow Ellie McKay:

🔗 Website: https://onamissionpodcast.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official/?hl=en-gb

🔗 On a Mission Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onamissionpodcast2.0/?hl=en-gb 

Follow ADMT:

🔗 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/33M0vL5kF0AMJqXYxeX7kF

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamadmt/?hl=en

🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IAMADMT/?locale=en_GB

We’ve never had more access to information, yet it’s never been harder to know who or what to trust.

Social media has created a generation of experts who look successful. AI can give two completely different answers to the same question. Millionaires are selling courses on building wealth, despite making more money from the courses than the thing they’re supposedly teaching.

So how do you separate genuine expertise from clever marketing? How do you build real wealth instead of just looking wealthy? And in a world that’s changing faster than ever, what skills are actually going to matter over the next decade?

In this episode, I’m joined by entrepreneur, investor and chairman Dean Kelly. Dean became a multimillionaire before the age of 30, has built, scaled and exited multiple businesses, advises CEOs around the world and has spent decades sitting in rooms where the biggest financial decisions are made.

This isn’t another conversation full of motivational clichés or recycled business advice.

It’s an honest, often controversial discussion about money, success, AI, critical thinking, health, entrepreneurship and why so many people are following advice from people who’ve never actually done the thing they’re teaching.

We explore why making money is only half the battle and why keeping it requires a completely different mindset. Dean explains why successful entrepreneurs lose fortunes, why wealth managers won’t care about your money as much as you do, why social media has blurred the line between perception and reality, and why genuine experience is becoming more valuable than ever.

We also dive deep into artificial intelligence. Is AI the greatest opportunity we’ve ever had, or are we outsourcing the very skill that makes us human? As more people rely on ChatGPT and other AI tools to think for them, Dean explains why critical thinking could become one of the greatest competitive advantages anyone can develop.

The conversation also moves beyond business. We discuss high performance, health, longevity, discipline, family, fulfilment and why success without your health, relationships or peace of mind is a price neither of us is willing to pay.

Finally, we tackle one of society’s biggest questions. Why has wealth become something we’re encouraged to resent instead of understand? Is Britain developing a culture that punishes ambition? And what really separates the people who continue building from those who spend their lives blaming everyone else?

Whether you’re building a business, rebuilding your life, navigating uncertainty or simply trying to think more clearly in an increasingly noisy world, this conversation will challenge your assumptions and leave you questioning far more than you expected.

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In this episode:

✔ Why fake experts are thriving and how to spot genuine credibility.

✔ The uncomfortable truth about business gurus and online courses.

✔ Why making money and keeping money require completely different skills.

✔ The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make after achieving success.

✔ AI, critical thinking and the future of human expertise.

✔ How successful founders make decisions under pressure.

✔ Why health, fitness and longevity are competitive advantages.

✔ The habits Dean has followed for more than 30 years to stay at the top of his game.

✔ Britain’s attitude towards wealth, success and ambition.

✔ Why fulfilment matters far more than simply chasing money.

If this episode challenged your thinking, share it with someone who needs to hear it and subscribe to On a Mission wherever you get your podcasts. The biggest breakthroughs often start by asking better questions.

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Connect & Follow

Follow Ellie McKay:

🔗 Website: https://onamissionpodcast.com

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official/?hl=en-gb

🔗 On a Mission Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onamissionpodcast2.0/?hl=en-gb 

Follow Dean Kelly:

🔗 Website: https://kellstar.co.uk

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deankelly_kellstar_mentor?igsh=MTIydWpqM2locHYxaA==

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/d3anukelly?igsh=MWw5ZzBwY2g0YXp6aw==

🔗TalentDec: www.talentdec.com