Success Matters

Many people believe that true progress requires fixing every personal weakness.

We are taught early on in school to focus on our lowest marks and correct our flaws. This carries forward into our adult life and it shows up with you spending 80% of your energy trying to master skills that drain you, simply because you feel you should.

In my current episode of Success Matters with leadership expert Gill How, we explore what happens when you flip that ratio to focus on your strengths:

• Competency is not energy: Just because you can do a task does not mean it belongs in your daily routine.

• Strengths are felt: Real strengths leave you energised rather than depleted.

• Focus allocation: High performance comes from placing 80% of your focus on natural drivers while building strategic workarounds for the rest.

External definitions of success often do not align with your values. Sustainable leadership comes from understanding where your energy naturally flows and structuring your professional life around it.

Where are you spending unnecessary energy trying to fix a minor weakness instead of expanding a core strength?

If you are evaluating your next strategic career pivot and want to align your professional performance with long-term well-being, send me a message or reach out directly at [email protected]

We often treat success as a destination built on strategy, effort, and external milestones. But what happens when the life you build lacks internal coherence?

In my latest conversation on the Success Matters podcast, coach Aline Hanle shares a conversation that made her reflect on her decisions.

Aged 24, Aline was feeling completely overwhelmed, stressed, and at rock bottom, she had a 90-minute session with her mentor Henri.

She poured out all her frustrations and felt the "world was on my shoulder," but Henri pointed out that she was the common denominator in every single problem she shared, bluntly asking her, "So what the heck is wrong with you?"

Though initially angry and defensive, Aline realised that his challenging statement was true, providing her with the realisation that since she was at the core of her issues, she also had the power to change them.

Aline now defines success with clarity: it is the alignment where what we think, feel, say, and do allows us to experience who we truly are.

Explore Aline’s work: experienceextraordinary.com

In this episode of Success Matters, I am joined by storytelling coach and narrative therapy practitioner Pollie Rafferty where we discuss how the stories we tell ourselves govern our professional and personal achievements.Following a history of severe anxiety that left her housebound, and receiving autism and ADHD diagnoses at age 50, Pollie didn't give up. Instead, she changed the story she was telling herself and has now dedicated her work to helping neurodivergent women in business reclaim their voices. We explore the value of the "middle stories" and explain why incremental gains are far more critical to long-term fulfilment than the high-status metrics often amplified on social media.

Key themes covered:

• Navigating the "messy middle" of a professional career.

• Identifying and rewriting the subconscious scripts that tell us we are "not good enough".

• The role of vulnerability and genuine honesty in building meaningful professional connections.

Learn more about Pollie’s framework and access her tools at http://www.changethescript.org.

Is our modern lifestyle costing us our long-term vitality?

At age 50, diamond and jewelry businessman Axay Shah noticed his energy levels depleting. Refusing to accept that physical decline was an inevitable part of aging, he made a radical shift: a 100% plant-based raw food lifestyle.

Axay joins me on Success Matters to share the lessons from his journey and his book, In Nature We Trust. In this insightful discussion, we explore the science of biological fuel, the reality of inflammation, and how stepping away from societal norms can unlock unprecedented energy and clarity.

Whether you are looking to optimise your daily performance or reassess your personal health metrics, this episode challenges us to reconsider what we put into our bodies and how we define a truly successful life.

Connect with Axay Shah via Amazon or at rawfoodist.com.

What happens when someone once responsible for digging oil and gas out of the ground becomes an environmentalist?

In this episode of Success Matters, I talk with Andy Samuel, CBE.

From leading remote geological expeditions in Indonesia to managing thousands of people in the oil and gas sector and advising British Prime Ministers, Andy’s career has been defined by learning and adaptation.

Now, from his 85-acre rewilding farm in North Devon, he reflects on the softer elements of leadership that drive material results, the internal friction of shifting away from a fast-paced executive life, and the intrinsic joy found in slowing down.

Tune in for a thoughtful, grounded discussion on why treating people how they want to be treated is the ultimate leadership strategy, and how small, deliberate choices accumulate into meaningful global change.

Find out more about Andy’s work: greenclifflife.com

What happens when the path you built suddenly changes?

In this episode of Success Matters, I sit down with Scott Lackey, author of Wake Up to Die Again, to explore how unexpected setbacks can lead to deeper personal alignment and clarity.

Scott reflects on losing a company he built, the distinction between power and control, and how moving from an 'ownership' mindset to one of 'stewardship' altered his perspective on life, family, and success.

We also examine the burden of broken promises we make to ourselves and how many people wake up to die again.

Connect with Scott Lackey:

• Website: https://scottlackey.com
  

• Book: Wake Up to Die Again: Breaking Who You Became, So You Can Be Who You're Meant to Be
  

01:24 – Introduction to Scott Lackey & Wake Up to Die Again

02:16 – Understanding Life's Unplanned Turning Points

05:27 – Early Influences & Joining the Military

07:49 – Building a Business & Navigating Corporate Loss

10:49 – Processing Failure: Rage, Choice, and Internal Reflection

13:17 – The Mindset Shift: Ownership vs. Stewardship

16:47 – Looking Inward for Completeness Beyond Material Assets

19:33 – The Principle of Exchange & Prioritising Purpose

22:08 – Recognising Numbness & Addressing Broken Promises

27:30 – Finding Growth in Difficulty & Extending Self-Grace

28:57 – Redefining Success: Family, Health, and Intangibles

32:10 – The Symbolism of the Sword: Warrior, Shepherd, and Poet

33:47 – Scott's Question for the Next Guest & Closing Remarks

#Personal Growth

#Redefining Success

#Overcoming Failure

#Mindset and Identity

#Holistic Success

What happens when your definition of success shifts from personal comfort to collective impact?

In this episode of Success Matters, I'm joined by Brett "Fish" Anderson, a Cape Town-based coach, writer, and justice advocate.

Brett reflects on his upbringing in apartheid South Africa, his time working within intentional communities in Philadelphia and California, and how his faith drives his commitment to equity today. He introduces the powerful concept of asking not just "how do we help?" but "why do the barriers exist in the first place?"

From exploring relational giving to tackling fatherlessness through the Fathers Matter programme, this episode is an invitation to slow down and consider what it means to leave the world a little better than we found it.

Featured Resources:

• Fathers Matter WhatsApp Coach: In South Africa Add 060 058 2107 on WhatsApp and send "Hi" to start getting tips and encouragement.

• Brett’s Books: Not water, JUST ICE! (Available on Amazon).

• Activate Leaders Coaching: activateleaders.co

In this episode of Success Matters, I’m joined by Thomas Eberts for a compelling exploration of personal transformation.

Thomas shares his extraordinary trajectory beginning with the impact of his mother’s cancer diagnosis at age six, moving through an intense period of childhood illness and severe school bullying, culminating in an emotional shutdown that drew him into a dangerous lifestyle of drugs and criminality.

Thomas reflects on the exact turning point that allowed him to dismantle his protective mask, exit a high-stakes real estate career that compromised his values, and travel across 26 countries as a digital nomad. This conversation moves away from superficial metrics of financial wealth to look at the real meaning of success: somatic healing, emotional awareness, and leading an aligned life.

Connect with Thomas:

• Substack: thomasebots.substack.com.

• Newsletter: the-integrated-father.com

We are constantly being told to find our niche, choose a lane, and fit into a neatly defined corporate box. But what happens if your skills don't fit into a single silo? 

In this episode of Success Matters, I sit down with generalist, coach, consultant, and author Siobhan O'Riordan. 

Siobhan shares her fascinating journey from a cross-cultural childhood as an "Irish-Irish" American, to teaching history in Nepal, and navigating a self-described "spiky" career of absolute flourishing and crashing failures before discovering her true identity as a proud generalist.

If you've ever felt frustrated by traditional job descriptions or felt like a round peg trying to fit into a square hole, Siobhan’s story offers a powerful reframe.

Here are three key insights Siobhan invites us to consider:

1. Own Your Lateral Curiosity and Creative Connections While specialists excel by going deep into a single area of expertise, generalists thrive by looking across. They are the dot-connectors, systems-level thinkers, and pattern-detectors who fill in organisational gaps. Siobhan highlights that a generalist’s true expertise isn't a single topic, but the ongoing practice of learning, problem-solving, and adapting
2. The Future of Work (and AI) Needs Adaptive Talent As AI rapidly changes the professional landscape, the demand for adaptive talent is skyrocketing. Because generalists possess a natural comfort with experimentation and risk mitigation, they are perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between human discernment and technological shifts. It’s never an "either/or" choice between generalists and specialists; true organisational success lies in their collaboration.
3. Align Your Identity with Your Environment to Stop the "Spike and Crash" Cycle If you are a generalist in an environment designed strictly for specialists, frustration is inevitable. Siobhan emphasises the importance of understanding the specific operating contexts where you thrive. True success happens when there is no break between who you are and the work you do in service of others.

Siobhan's new book, Reframe: How Generalists Thrive in a Changing World, is out now. Tune in to the full episode to learn how to better articulate your unique value, embrace your strengths, and thrive on your own terms.

https://www.bigseastrategies.com/

We often talk about "success" as a destination defined by titles, status, and financial milestones. But what happens if you pause to evaluate the path you are actually on?

In the latest episode of the Success Matters podcast, I sat down with Mackenzie Pemberton-Whiteley to explore what it means to go "rogue" against conventional expectations.

At 21, Mackenzie walked away from university because he felt it wasn't helping him optimise for the life he wanted to build. Instead, he chose to iterate through real-world experiences learning just as much from the jobs he didn't want to do as the ones he did.

Today, he views success not as a specific number, but as optionality, the freedom to control his time, look after his family, and support environmental causes like the Oars project.

Here’s some key reflections from our conversation:

1. Opportunity Cost: If we make a decision, we must stand by it without complaint, remaining fully aware of what we are choosing not to do.

2. True Wealth: The value of earning money so that you have the capacity to give it away to those who need it most.

3. The 1% Rule: The compounding importance of working on yourself daily, entirely separate from your professional duties.

If you are currently questioning the trajectory of your career, or simply looking for a more grounded perspective on personal growth, this episode is for you.