She moved her whole family to Finland 1 month after launching her new business in London.

Life just wasn't working. That's how Faith describes London in 2023 — two kids under five, a husband who was never home, a startup she was building from scratch, and a growing sense that something had to change.

So she got out a whiteboard. Mapped family values on one side, real life on the other. Looked at what they'd written and thought: none of this matches.

Fourteen months later, the whole family moved to Finland.

This is a conversation about what deliberate pivots actually look like from the inside — not the polished version, the real one.

In this episode:

• What Faith did before the move that most couples never do — and why she says it made everything else possible
• The moment she realised "not being on the property ladder" was actually the thing that bought her freedom
• Why building something meaningful rarely looks like a hockey stick — and what keeps you going on the days it feels like nothing is working
• How to build a team around you when you have no money, no co-founder, and no idea what you're doing yet
• What it actually feels like to arrive in a new country and realise you don't fully know who you are there yet
• The one question that cuts through every big life decision faster than any framework

What we discuss:

00:00 — "Life just wasn't working"
02:30 — From disaster zones to diapers: Faith's journey before Nugget
08:00 — Building a startup in the middle of COVID, two kids, and an identity shift
16:00 — Why talking about your idea is the actual work (and the story behind the name Nugget)
18:57 — "It's almost every day where you're like — what am I doing?"
27:00 — How to build a team when you can't pay anyone
33:00 — The whiteboard that changed everything
41:00 — Testing Finland in the dead of winter before committing
46:00 — The regret question that made the house decision easy
50:00 — Building a home in a language you're still learning
1:09:56 — Faith's three F's: family, Finland, founder life

"We have to be comfortable with the pace that's right for us. And I can't compare myself to others."

🎙️ Find the Nugget: https://www.thenugget.app/

Get in touch with Faith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/falyons/

Substack — deeper dives between episodes: substack.com/@wipitandrepit
Instagram: @hh_squared

Are you lying to yourself about being ready?

You say you want a different life. You might even be working hard toward it. So why isn't it happening? This episode gives you a seven-question diagnostic framework to find out exactly which type of stuck you're in — and what to actually do about it.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why hard work can keep you exactly where you are (and how to tell if that's what's happening)
• The question to ask before spending another year on a goal that might not actually be yours
• Why not knowing your direction yet is a completely different problem — and needs a completely different response
• How to identify the gap between who you are now and who you need to become
• Why a desire that disappears when you look at what it costs is not failure — it's the most useful information you have
• The reason your social circle might be the thing quietly keeping you in place

What we discuss:

00:00 — The self-slap moment that started this episode
02:00 — What growth actually feels like from the inside (it's not what you think)
05:30 — What not-ready looks like in real life — and how to spot it in yourself
09:00 — The seven-question framework: find out exactly which type of stuck you're in
19:00 — Why change is possible for everyone — and what it actually requires

"Yeah, maybe I wasn't quite ready yet. But I'm getting there."

📚 Episode 2 — The Values Exercise (do this first): https://open.spotify.com/episode/6alL0tupBTRWyi6JYsTNKn
📚 Episode 9 — You're not lazy. You're blocked: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0zZ5Bhm9KQgAIKKMLIEJgd?si=j3BL0QODQnWSq7HGGY6zIA

📚 Episode 8 — I thought I didn't like people: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Bmh3zMtRuXCQl1vXXDAec?si=a2fe18ebbc144a32

Substack: substack.com/@wipitandrepit
Instagram: @hh_squared

Recording this from the kitchen table of our unsold flat at 11pm. That pretty much sums up where we are. This is our first check-in — what's working, what isn't, and why the messy middle is not a sign you're failing.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why adding a hard deadline into semi-chaos can actually be the thing that grounds you

• What's genuinely shifted in three months (beach trips, camper vans, and an unexpected love of spreadsheets)

• Why the posting and marketing still feels uncomfortable — and why that's not a reason to stop

• How to remind yourself you are the type of person who works things out

• Why calling yourself a late bloomer might be quietly working against you

• What's coming next — and why the dream doesn't have to wait until you're ready

What we discuss:

00:00 — Recording from the kitchen table of the unsold flat

01:00 — Three months in: the honest headlines

02:01 — What I thought would be done by now (and isn't)

04:28 — The podcast as a structural anchor

07:35 — The nomadic life actually starting

08:35 — What building things has taught me about reading people

10:30 — The spreadsheet revelation

10:57 — The thing I still find hardest: posting and showing up online

14:20 — Helsinki, Barcelona, and the dream starting now

15:21 — Two quick confidence boosts if you need them today

18:44 — Getting together in person — would you come?

19:43 — Where are you at ten episodes in? Tell me.

"The comfort zone does not expand before you leave it. It expands because you did."

Substack — deeper dives between episodes: substack.com/@wipitandrepit

Instagram: @hh_squared

One Sunday afternoon, a romcom I accidentally put on cracked open something I'd been sitting on for years. This episode is about what it showed me — and the four things standing between your values and your actual life.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why knowing your values is just the beginning, not the destination
• The belief running underneath your actions that's quietly blocking you (and how to find it)
• Why your values are not all equal — and what happens when you treat them like they are
• How to chart a realistic route toward the life you want without blowing up the one you have
• Why self-sabotage is almost never self-destruction — it's self-protection
• The one question to sit with this week that your mind will start working on by itself

What we discuss:

00:01 — The romcom that clicked something into place
05:30 — After the values exercise — what actually comes next
09:00 — The belief thing: Tony Robbins, Freud, and why you keep getting in your own way
21:00 — The hierarchy thing: your values are not all equal
28:00 — The planning thing: you don't have to jump out of the airplane
33:00 — The action thing: you already have more than you think
38:00 — Why money isn't shallow — and what it was actually pointing to
44:00 — The question to sit with this week

"That gap between your values and your life is almost always smaller than it looks from where you're standing."

📚 Go back to Episode 2 first — this episode builds directly on it & The Values Exercise PDF📚 Awaken the Giant Within — Tony Robbins📖 The Chimp Paradox — Professor Steve Peters (mentioned in Episode 8)

Substack — deeper dives between episodes: substack.com/@wipitandrepit
Instagram: @hh_squared

A panic attack in a car park before a cycling training ride cracked open something I'd been carrying for years. I thought I just wasn't a people person. Turns out I was afraid of them — and those two things look identical from the outside but have completely different solutions.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why seeing the real fear (not the surface one) removes half the problem immediately
• The Chimp Paradox model and how your pre-loaded outlook shapes a room before you've spoken to a single person
• How a self-fulfilling prophecy keeps you stuck in a story that was never actually true
• The one question to ask before you react to any uncomfortable interaction
• Why "I don't fit with people" might be an environment problem, not a you problem
• How to find the rooms where you walk in and feel your energy go up instead of down

What we discuss:

00:00 — The car park02:42 — Fear vs dislike: why the distinction changes everything09:27 — The Chimp Paradox — Professor Steve Peters14:11 — The self-fulfilling prophecy16:37 — The tool applied in real life21:05 — The environment question25:35 — Three things to sit with before you go

"It wasn't just me, and it wasn't just my fear. It was also the rooms I was putting myself in."

📚 The Chimp Paradox — Professor Steve Peters: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chimp-Paradox-Management-Programme-Confidence/dp/009193558X

I'm Holly. Let's keep WIP'n and Reppin' together.

Newsletter: wip-n-reppin.kit.comInstagram: @hh_squared

WIP'n & Reppin' — Episode 7: Why I Built This (And the Beer Mat That Started It All)

Sometimes you have to be a little bit strange in public to get free of what's actually keeping you stuck.

This is the origin story. In this episode, Holly tells the story of the away days in Brighton that broke everything open — and the moment she tore up every limitation she'd ever been carrying and threw them over her shoulder in the middle of a bar. Three weeks later, this podcast existed.

If you've ever felt like the success stories everywhere are technically inspiring but somehow leave you feeling further behind instead of closer to anything — this episode is for you.

What We Cover in This Episode

[00:00] Why this episode is a few days late —

[01:27] The away days: three days in Brighton to work on business strategy that turned into something else entirely

[03:55] The beer mat exercise — what it is, why it works, and how to do it yourself right now with whatever square thing is near you

[06:23] Three weeks later: how Episode 1 of this podcast came to exist

[07:17] The fear list Holly carried into publishing — and still hasn't fully shaken

[09:15] The bigger, scarier vision: what this podcast is actually trying to grow into

[12:33] Why "middlescence" needed its own space — and why the standard success podcast format wasn't it

[16:24] The problem with nine-figure exit guys interviewing other nine-figure exit guys

[20:46] Why grabbing a plan too early might just be a faster route back to the same place in five years

[23:34] Starting before you feel ready — and why the fear doesn't resolve first

[24:33] The one question worth asking yourself this week

The Beer Mat Exercise

You can do this at home. Pick up anything square. Imagine everything you've ever been told is possible. Every ceiling. Every limitation. Every way you think things work. Every thing you believe you can and can't do. Put it all in the square thing. See it all in there.

Now tear it up into tiny pieces and throw it away.

Try This This Week

Think of something you've lost track of time doing. Something that didn't feel like work even though it clearly was. What's the smallest real version of that you could start this week — while you're still scared?

Don't wait until it feels easy. It probably won't feel easy until after you've done it.

If This Episode Resonated

Send it to the woman in your life who's stopped letting herself dream. The one so busy keeping everyone else okay that she's forgotten to ask what she actually wants. This might help her today.

Links & Resources

🎙️ Join the WIP'n & Reppin' community — free resources, updates & the Values Exercise:

wip-n-reppin.kit.com

📲 Follow Holly on Instagram:@hh_squared

About WIP'n & Reppin'

WIP as in work in progress — because that's exactly what we all are. Hosted by Holly, WIP'n & Reppin' is for women who've done everything right and still feel like something's missing. We talk career pivots, knowing yourself well enough to build a life that fits, what moving your body does for your mind, and saying what you actually think without apologising for it. No fluff. No lectures. Just honest conversations, real tools, and the occasional truth you didn't know you needed to hear.

Keywords: women's podcast, career pivot, personal development for women, midlife reinvention, finding your purpose, women's ambition, starting over at 35, starting over at 40, building confidence, middlescence, work in progress, Holly WIP'n Reppin'

What if not looking after yourself was the highest form of disrespect to yourself?

Your body isn't the reward you get once everything else is sorted. It's the infrastructure everything else is built on.

Most of us put ourselves last on a list that never ends. Once the project's done, once things calm down, then I'll sleep properly, eat properly, move properly. Except everything else is never under control. That mythical quiet season never comes.

Episode 5 is about flipping that entirely — and why treating your body like the foundation it actually is isn't selfish. It's the most practical decision you can make.

Is patience always a virtue!? Fed up of slow and steady wins the race? Good! Maybe that advice has quietly held you back for years. What if we could just throw that shizz out the window!?

What if impatience, that restless energy, that fire — is actually drive, vision, and an instinct for spotting a faster, better route that other people simply cannot see yet? 

In this episode, you'll learn: 

- How one mentor flipped impatience from a flaw into a superpower (and why that moment changed everything)- Three things impatience actually does when you point it in the right direction

- The one skill that stops impatience turning into self-criticism and a weapon against yourself

- Four tools to use when you're spiralling about not being far enough along

- Why the world needs more impatient people — especially now in the age of AI 

What we discuss: 

00:00 Everyone tells you patience is a virtue

02:45 The mentor moment that reframed everything

05:15 Thing one: finding faster routes (the teaching story)

08:45 Thing two: setting bigger goals (the London move)

11:00 Thing three: reframing what's possible (the business turnaround)

15:30 Four tools for when impatience turns to self-criticism

21:00 Aim for the stars, land on a cloud

23:00 Point your impatience in the right direction 

Don't apologize for the fire. Just learn to aim it!

--- I'm Holly. Let's keep WIP'n' and Reppin'! 

Newsletter: wipit.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Instagram: @hh_squared

You've followed the plan. Built the career. Ticked the boxes. And now you're exhausted and you genuinely can't tell if it's the job, the rain, or whether you just need three tequila shots!

Before you do anything drastic — let's work out what's actually going on first. Because the career might not be the problem. And knowing the difference saves a lot of expensive mistakes.

Episode 4 covers the real reasons career unhappiness shows up — from exhaustion to bad managers to the conditions of the job making your dream life impossible. Holly shares her own messy honest version including a cotton sportswear line, a taco towel revelation, and the subconscious rules that kept stopping her before she even knew what they were.

Plus the three types of career alignment, Charles Handy's portfolio career concept, Holly's mum's Tuesday reality check — and three questions worth sitting with this week.

SHOW NOTES:

You've followed the plan. Built the career. Ticked the boxes. And now you can't tell if it's the job, the rain, or whether you just need three tequila shots and a holiday.

00:01 — No work chat policies at the dinner table, stress-spending on kitchen appliances you'll definitely use this time, and the three tequila shots option. A warm hello to everyone who's here feeling slightly surprised by their own life’s twists & turns — and a special shout out to anyone who never expected to be here considering career pivots. We feel you! 

04:31 — The four camps: blow it up, company hop, analysis paralysis, avoid it altogether. None of them are wrong — they're just what happens without the right tools. The mission of this show: you don't have to blow everything up to start building something better.

06:56 — The first tool before anything else: self reflection. Not catastrophising or a therapy spiral — just honest quiet time to work out what patterns you're running and what stories exhaustion has been writing for you.

08:00 — Working out where the meh is actually coming from: exhaustion, one bad situation, money, lack of agency, the environment, or the trickiest one — when the conditions of the job make the life you want damn near impossible.

11:26 — Examples of when conditions clash with values

14:00 — The one question that separates a fixable problem from a career problem

15:45 — Panic mode: why it's the worst place to make big decisions from and the nuances it causes you to miss entirely.

17:45 — Holly's honest version: architecture wasn't always wrong — the conditions changed. The portfolio career concept coined by Irish philosopher Charles Handy in 1989.

21:00 — The side hustle period: the cotton sportswear line, the one metre diameter taco towels (fifty thousand pounds a month, thousands of buyers, nobody needs this), and why neither felt right.

24:30 — Subconscious rules: the rules we have about how we're willing to make money that we never consciously named.

32:21 — The money and mission separation: your passion and how you make money don't have to come from the same place.

36:00 — The three types of alignment: task alignment, mission alignment, and role alignment — the industry is right but the role is wrong.

41:30 — Holly's mum's Tuesday reality check: What are you actually doing day to day?

46:00 — Three questions to leave you with: is it the career or something else? Which type of alignment are you looking for? And what does your perfect Tuesday actually look like?

Sources: Charles Handy — The Age of Unreason (1989). Irish philosopher. Coined the portfolio career concept. Passed away 2024. Cillian Murphy — referenced as an example of mission and life values in alignment.

Connect: Newsletter: wipit.beehiiv.com/subscribe Instagram: @hh_squared

I'm Holly. Let's keep WIP'n & Reppin'.

No one is coming to save you. And honestly? That's the best news you'll hear today.

WIP'n & Reppin' is honest conversation, real tools and the occasional truth you didn't know you needed to hear. We talk about career pivots nobody prepares you for, knowing yourself well enough to build a life that actually fits, your body and what moving it does for your mind, and saying what you actually think — without apologising for any of it.

If you feel like you want more from life or more of YOU in your life then this might be the place for you!

WIP — Work In Progress. Reppin' — showing up for it anyway & getting those repetitions in.

New episodes every two weeks. First three drop Thursday. I'll see you there.

SHOW NOTES:

No knight in shining armour. No one coming to save you. Just you, the tools, and the reminder that you never needed saving in the first place - you are a badass remember!

00:00 — The bad news: no one is coming to save you. The good news: you're a total badass who doesn't need a knight in shining armour anyway.

00:20 — What this show exists to do: remind you of that, give you the tools to prove it to yourself and make sure you never forget it again.

00:35 — WIP as in Work In Progress — because that's exactly what we all are. Reppin' — showing up for it. Putting the reps in. Choosing to grow rather than drift.

00:50 — Nobody is late here. There's no perfect timeline. But there is a difference between a life that happens to you and a life you actually direct.

01:00 — What WIP'n & Reppin' covers: career pivots nobody prepares you for, knowing yourself well enough to build a life that fits, your body and what moving it does for your mind, saying what you actually think and asking for what you actually want — without apologising for both.

01:20 — New episodes every two weeks. First three drop Thursday.

Connect:Newsletter: wipit.beehiiv.com/subscribeInstagram: @hh_squared

I'm Holly. Let's keep WIP'n & Reppin'.