The Ideas Lab Podcast

Amanda Harrison is a graduate of one of my original 'Screw Work Le'ts Play' Programmes and she's had a dream for 15 years to recreate Amy Johnson's pioneering solo flight from the U.K to Darwin in 1930.

When Amanda was treated for Cancer 18 months ago, it gave her the detemination to make this dream actually come true.

So now she's on her way on a 9,000 mile journey to Australia, in a 1942 Tiger Moth biplane.

When I saw her she was stranded in Vienna for a day after a bird strike damaged her propeller. I jumped at the chance to interview her in the aircraft hanger next to her plane.

You can also see the video of Amanda, get a close up look at the Tiger Moth, track Amanda's journey and lend your support.

For full show notes and references please visit https://theideaslab.org/solotodarwin

Music provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

Let's talk about money.

Once you start working for yourself or launch your own business, money gets a lot more complicated.

You need to keep track of what you're earning, what you're spending from the business, what you're spending personally, and of course save money for taxes, because there are many entrepreneurs who have found themselves in a tricky place once there tax bill arrives.

Amber Dugger helps entrepreneurs manage their money, build their profit, and spend it on the things that really matter to them.

Amber has also worked closely with Micheal Michalowicz the author of the hit book, Profit First.

So if you currently find Finance to be a bit of a rather dry and boring subject, we're going to proove to you that finance is actually really exciting, and tell you how to make sense of it all in as little time as possible.

Full show notes and links at: https://theideaslab.org/podcast-amber-dugger

Music provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

Stevyn Colgan started his career as a police officer in London in the Met police problem solving unit. And now he's a comedy writer and has written for BBC programmess like Qi and The Museum of Curiosity. He's written several books including most recently a comedy Whodunnit called A Murder to Die For.

In this interview you'll hear

• How the Met Police problem solving unit solved a late night public order problem using lollipops
• How Stevyn transition from being a Bobby on the beat to being a successful comedy script writer
• What it's like working with Stephen Fry, Sandy Toksvig, and other legends of the British comedy scene.

For full show notes and references please go to the official episode page at theideaslab.org/podcast-stevyn-colgan

Music provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

The Guardian newspaper described Nick Corston as a man on a mission.

And his mission is to put art and creativity back into schools.

As we see more and more pressure on the public education system in the U.K and in other countries, we are seeing music, art and other creative subjects getting cut out of the syllabus.

Nick will explain why that is a terrible decision, and I have to say I agree with him. As we enter an era when even if your work is skilled, it could be outsourced to someone in another country, or even to an A.I. What we need to be able to do is think creatively, whatever work we are doing.

Aside from that Nick makes the compelling case for why Art and Creativity is a powerful way to connect communities.

And if you have a mission of your own to change the world for the better in some way then I think you'll get a lot of inspiration and ideas from listening to what Nick has done with his organisation Steam Co.

For all links please go to theideaslab.org/podcast-nick-corston

Music provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

This episode of the Ideas Lab Podcast is a deep dive into the most powerful platform today for getting you new leads and new sales for your business online.

That platform is Facebook Advertising and our guest is founder of Social Accelerators and expert in Facebook Ads, Caroline Thomas.

I interviewed Caroline on a sunny day sitting outside at her home in Gran Canaria and we cover a lot of ground.

Caroline will explain the 3 different types of ads and when to use each one.

The default settings in Facebook advertising campaigns that will actually trip you up and why video is so powerful to use in an advert.

She will also explain step by step how she used Facebook ads to build an entirely new email list for a client and to fill her own networking event at a bar in Gran Canaria.

Finally we have a conversation about what it takes to choose a new country to live in and set up your life from scratch as Caroline did.

• Why Facebook is the most powerful platform for getting new leads and sales

• Why Boosting posts is NOT the same as running a real Facebook ad campaign

• The power of marketing to people who have already been to your website

• The 3 different types of ads and when to use each one

• Exactly How Caroline ran a very simple ad campaign costing a toal of £30 to get people to turn up to her networking event at a craft beer bar in Gran Canaria

• How Caroline ran a campaign to rebuild a client's email list from scratch

• The power of videos in facebook ads

• Where to get free training on the Facebook ads system

• Why you shouldn't spend too much money on ads quickly

• Why you should be careful about running ads on Instagram & the default settings in Facebook ad campaigns that will trip you up

• How to use an automated messenger 'bot' to get massively higher response rates to your campaigns – as much as 97% click through!

• GDPR and Facebook marketing

• How to use lookalike audiences to find people similar to your current followers

• How Caroline chose a new country to live in and set up her new life from scratch running her business remotely

For all references, show notes and contact details please click here

Music provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

If you'd like to turn your passion for arts, crafts, jewellery or handmade goods into a real business then this episode of the Ideas Lab Podcast is for you.

Harriet Kelsall made her first piece of jewellery when she was just 4 years old with her fathers help.

Now in it's 20th year of creating bespoke jewellery, Harriet Kelsall Jewellery has over 40 staff, 3 locations and won over 20 awards.

Harriet's passion for ethical jewellery has also lead to becoming chairperson of the National Association of Jewellers as well as being the first UK business to receive certification by the Responsible Jewellery Council.

Harriet is also author of the book - The Creative's Guide to Starting a Business: How to turn your talent into a career, which recently won an award in the Business Book Awards 2019.

Harriet has some really fascinating things to say about what makes a difference between a creative business that takes off and one that flounders. She also explains how it's not simply about your talent or the amount of effort you put into marketing.

There are lots of important lessons here about how to run any business successfully and how to manage that tricky balance between art and commerce.

Jamie Catto was a founding member of British Electronica band Faithless, and he was creator, producer and director of the multi-award winning One Giant Leap films and albums.

He now leads transformative workshops on creativity and relationships all over the worldwide and his film about spiritual teacher Ram Dass is due out in September 2019.

This episode was actually recorded about a year ago while I was still busy creating The Love Challenge, an online course about dating and relationships and we jumped into the conversation there talking about the keys to healthy relationships.

Jamie Catto is kind, wise, open, boundlessly energetic, optimistic and passionate. I adore him. — Stephen Fry

Note that there is some more swearing than usual in this episode!

[On success] "A few people just manage to hit the mark every time, but most people they get there by being prolific."

"when you go into a relationship with someone really you are agreeing to become if not the parent of their inner child, you're certainly agreeing to become the stepparent of their inner child."

"If you haven't got that [perspective of] being kind and loving and finding your constant failure adorable, and not having any agenda for you to evolve one inch and just totally loving you as you are, if that's not switched on you're not going to have a very nice life. It's going to be agonizing."

"One of the very, very, very few ways we have any choice to be powerful on this planet is we can choose which filter we look through life, which channel we look through life on."

"I've done some projects unexpectedly that in a half day made me half a million pounds. I've had other projects I've spent four years on that still owe me money. It's not like you can predict."

"[On creative blocks] - One it's not up to you if it's great or not. Two, you have to put out some great and some medium stuff. Even if you're fucking Bjork, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, they put out a lot of shit songs. First of all, let what's come through, come through. Don't pre-edit. That it's so fucking important. That everyone thinks you're great, is not (important). They're looking at their phone. They don't give a shit."

"On dating - Don't come as the groomed, normal, Chino jeans wearing, sort of Gap homogenized version of a being. It's actually, when you fall in love with anybody it's because of their uniqueness."

"The actual you is uniquely, valuably, amazingly hilarious, with all your dark humor and all your silly ways and self deprecating ways, you talk about your vulnerability and everything else like that. It's a breath of fresh air. The actual you is a breath of fresh air, is the truth. You just being honestly you, about how you feel, what your needing, how crazy you were yesterday. Then everyone can be, "Ahhh. I can be real too. What a fucking relief.""

• The keys to healthy Relationships

• Dealing with our internal critic - "The DJs of headf*ck FM"

• How to choose which creative project to tackle next

• Why Jamie sometimes edits his films with the sound muted

• The remarkable wisdom of spiritual teacher Ram Dass - and his one biggest message

• One Giant Leap and the power of curating a showcase

• Bursting the bubble of social media

• The gift and evils of Facebook

• Why it's truer than ever that "Nobody knows anything"

• How fellow member of Faithless, Dido become an international music megastar

• Why should you make all your biggest creative decisions from the perspective of your deathbed

• How to sidestep perfectionism and release your creative genius

• The 3 minute trick to beat procrastination

• Why 'real is the new sexy'

jamiecatto.com

Jamie on Facebook

One Giant Leap

Get full references, links, videos clips and more in the shownotes here

Credits:

Music provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

1 Giant Leap - I Love The Way You Dream (Feat, Michael Stipe)

https://youtu.be/lmGoJuUTx1U

A few short years ago Rik Spruyt had a good job in a big company but he wanted more - more freedom, more autonomy, more ownership.

He wanted his own business.

Rik came to me for mentoring and I showed him how to get started with a simple Wordpress website and make his first 10s of 1000s of dollars. Within months his new business CrossTrades was making 6 figures.

Today it's a 7-figure business

Rik's venture is #1 in his field and he also realised a dream to move his whole family to Thailand - since he can run the business from anywhere.

"At that moment (in 2014) I had 20 years of corporate life with that same company and you start to feel that maybe you have evolved as a person and also the company has changed and you're not that compatible anymore."

"At the same time I was getting convinced that the glory days of those big powerful companies were coming to an end, and that there was definitely value for small businesses, and that small business can make a difference in so many ways. Actually this was because of reading Screw Work Let's Play."

"Let's start to play! Not necessarily leaving your job at that moment but getting your brain into action and getting to think about what you can do in the future."

"I don't only see my members as customers, I think of them as a community, as a support group and people who are like minded and thinking in the same direction for the future. And I think it's so important that we all want to survive in the new digitalised future. And to all want to fight for that. I think this is the real difference and the real value of a network with local heroes."

"For some people logistics is not the sexiest topic in the world, but for me, your story actually has the elements of every kind of successful business you would want. Starting from zero, starting from an idea, and growing it to wherever you want to be and it's allowed you to create the life you want." [John]

"John, I need to tell you, that period now, the past 5 years wouldn't have been possible if we wouldn't have met. This is something I think about a lot and I wasn't sure if I was going to say this; you can cut it out if you want, but you need somebody at a certain point in life that says:

"OK, I understand what you want to do - but let me give you a few points about what you should do first and what you should do next, and how you're going to do it."

And if you don't have this person helping you, call it a mentor, call it whatever you want, then it is extremely difficult. I really want to sincerely thank you, because for me this was you, who ignited all this and when we first started I had no idea where it would end, even today I don't know, but it's moving in the right direction."

• How John's book Screw Work Let's Play changed the course of Rik's life
• The power of getting the right mentor
• How to start a membership with 0 members
• How to capitalise on established industry operations and events
• The key to getting your customers to believe in your offer - even when you're just starting out
• Is it wise to start a small business in a dying industry?
• How to stand out from competitors
• How to keep your members engaged
• How to incorporate a digital platform into a traditional industry
• Capitalising on the inefficiencies of existing industry
• The vibrancy of the asian business network, the international community and the thriving tech scene

Get full references, links, videos clips and more in the shownotes here

Music provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

Jerry Hyde is a rather unconventional therapist - transitioning from an earlier life in music and heavy drug-use. He now works with people individually and in men's groups and takes people on vision quests in Nepal and other locations.

Jerry Hyde is also my therapist and leader of my men's group so this is a particularly interesting conversation for me. I also love Jerry's approach to marketing his work which is to make a strong statement that repels many people but powerfully attracts others, ensuring that he always has plenty of new clients and opportunities coming to him.

Episode Highlights:

'When I quit drugs, that was easy. That was really, I just woke up one day. I thought, "This isn't fun anymore". I couldn't remember when I'd laughed. It was just, it had become maintenance. That was easy. I just woke up and stopped. But what was the hardest thing to kick and took me a long time was leaving that culture, drug culture, was really tough. Because I had to walk away from everything. I had to walk away from my social scene. I didn't even know what clothes to put on anymore, because it was such an identity. I don't think people recognize that enough.'

'my creativity is like the flip side of my addiction.'

'Who we really are is something that's evolving and changing constantly. It's never something you're going to pin down. But we like certainty. We all get attached to these ideas and our stories, and it's one of the kind of dangers of therapy is, we can get overly identified with some story that we've become attached to.'

'it's safe being pessimistic. Because then you can say, "I told you she'd leave me".'

'when I first started to get glimmers of happiness, it frightened me. I thought, "Well, I've got something to lose now"'

'I think we've got this real malaise in Britain where we play down success, and we hide it. There's a certain shame to being too big for your boots.'

'If you want to throw the rule book out, learn it by heart, then reject it and replace it with something that's more conscious.'

'I'm on mushrooms right now... I became so prolific it was kind of unstoppable. I'm more energetic, I think I'm a nicer person. I seem to be more compassionate and less reactionary.'

• Productivity comes before Self-Criticism
• Vision Quests, Ayahuasca & Fasting Retreats in Nepal
• Truth serums and Aliens
• Combining the Masculine and Feminine in a Rite of Passage
• Ritalin
• Quitting drugs is easy, it's the Culture that was hard to break away from.
• Compulsive Creativity. Or Destruction?
• Attachment to who we think we are
• The safety of pessimism and the fear of losing happiness
• Admitting to your brilliance.
• The shame/stigma of success and how it stunts creativity
• The value of the American Dream
• Incorporating your identity into your brand
• How to live by your own rules
• Micro-Dosing of magic mushrooms

Get full references, links, videos clips and more in the shownotes here

Music provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

Saskia Nelson had just lost her job when she took a course with The Ideas Lab 5 years ago. She had only a vague idea of the business she wanted to start but decided over the next 30 days to offer photography for people's dating profiles.

Saskia ended up creating an entirely new genre of business: Dating Photography. Today her business has over a dozen photographers working under her in 5 cities around the UK and now New York and LA as well. And her business has been profiled on the front page of BBC News and in numerous newspapers and magazines.

Here's the story from her first ever client to the international business she runs now. Listen in to learn how you too can start from scratch and create something incredible.

"[John] You created an entire new category. You did that by zooming in….

[Saskia] I'm just doing something different, but the one thing I'm doing, I'm doing it quite well."

"People don't realize, you can start something without having a website…without having a social media presence."

"You created an entire new category. You did that by zooming in. That's often how you do it, because pretty much every kind of business is being done. But if you narrow your focus, then the dating profile photographer, which is a new thing, whereas being a portrait photographer is not." [John Williams]

"I felt like I changed his life, just through this act of taking his photos. He's had such an adventure with them since. Getting messages like that, it's like, "Oh, this is why I do it.""

"It was pretty terrifying, I mean I can laugh now five years later but yeah, I was like, oh my god someones paying me to do this now."

"A lot of people have these ideas for a business, particularly something that's quite cool like this, that sounds fun, and then they just sit on it or they research. So they spend their whole time Googling."

"I said I was going to be a portrait photographer, I just hadn't figured out what I was going to do. And what I had noticed was, all the photographers that I was looking at their websites, their businesses, they were all the same. So they all offered the same thing, they all offered events, weddings, portraits, family and everyone's website I see is the same and I was like, I don't want to do what everyone else is doing. And I kind of figured that I wanted to do one thing and just do that one thing really really well because I was reading marketing books as well and they say that when you read marketing books. Especially back then, rewind five years, it was all about doing one thing and doing it really well. So I thought, right, I'm going to do that."

Saskia Nelson is the talent behind the award-winning and internationally acclaimed Hey Saturday, the UK's coolest dating photography business, specialising in creating dating photos that win dates for 100's of single people. She is also the co-founder of Irresistible Dating.

She's been credited for creating the genre of dating photography and is recognised as the leading industry expert in the UK & US on all things dating photo related. She also puts her extensive online dating experiences to good use by sharing her experiences and wisdom on her blog.

• How Saskia launched the world's first dating profile photography business on The Ideas Lab 30 day challenge.
• The power of 'category creation'
• The danger of endless googling & researching when you're starting a business
• Creating an experience of confidence.
• Being a magnet for the press.
• The desperation of non-specialisation
• Capturing someone's essence in a photograph
• Honesty in dating
• Why it's all worth it & the joy of client success.

Get full references, links, videos clips and more in the shownotes here

Music provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4