Do you find it harder and harder to balance having a family with having a job? According to the 2018 Modern Families Index, when UK parents were asked how they felt about their employer in terms of work-life balance, over a third of parents surveyed said they felt resentful, with more fathers than mothers agreeing. The report was published by Working Families, the UK’s leading Work-Life Balance Organisation. In today’s show, I interview Sarah Jackson OBE, the CEO of Working Families. Sarah has c...
Jul 10, 2018•48 min•Ep. 80
Making the right career decisions - which company, what salary, how many hours, remote or office based, climb the ladder or do a job that isn't too demanding - and ensuring that it fits with everything else that matters to you in life is COMPLICATED! And it requires SKILLS! Skills you didn't learn at school. You'll learn: How do you negotiate a pay rise? How do you ask about maternity leave at a job interview? How can you express both that the work is important to you AND so is taking care of yo...
Jul 02, 2018•56 min•Ep. 79
Do you ever dream of ditching the commute, selling your house and everything in it and spending your life working from the most glamorous and fascinating cities in the world? Well, the ladies behind Eff the Office did just that. Four years ago Erin and Tannia set off for Barcelona (to see if they liked it!) and they haven't looked back. In this interview we talk about the reality of life as a digital nomad, the preconceptions of others and how to get started if this is your dream too. You can fi...
Jun 25, 2018•55 min•Ep. 78
Richard McCann is an author and keynote speaker. He’s also the son of the first victim of the notorious Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Suttcliff. In 1975 Sutcliffe attacked and killed Richard’s mum - Richard was 5 years old at the time. Eventually Sutcliffe was found guilty of 20 attacks, 13 of those women died. In this interview Richard talks about his life - the pivotal moments that changed his story... and the moments where he decided to take charge and choose his own path. You can find out more abo...
Jun 18, 2018•55 min•Ep. 77
Remember the advert where the guy turns to his wife and announces "I'm going it alone. Tarquin's with me. Hugo's with me"? (I've made up my own names since I don't recall exactly who was with him but I know it was the 80s and they were very Thatcherite names). Well, running your own business has never been as popular as now. The internet, the sheer number of people who are doing it (making it feel less risky) and our growing desire to do something that has meaning for us, is driving the entrepre...
Jun 11, 2018•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 76
Over the last few weeks I've been having conversations with the wonderful people who are going to be part of the upcoming pilot for the A Brilliant Gamble Coaching Programme. It's been inspiring to hear what they want to do with their lives and how they want to move forward from this crossroads moment. Some have total clarity about what they want. That vision might evolve, pivot or even be scrapped and re-thought. But right now they can see it, feel it, smell it. Other people are much clearer ab...
Jun 04, 2018•23 min•Ep. 75
I am often asked how I manage to run a business, homeschool and travel as a single mum. To be honest it's something I wouldn't think about much except for the fact that people ask me! That's just our life. But what's interesting is how we all use aspects of our situation - our age, our personal circumstances, our work, our education, our financial position - as reasons not to do something. Being a single mum stopped me considering homeschooling for a long time until I realised we could do it...i...
May 28, 2018•18 min•Ep. 74
I'm hearing a lot about "pivoting" at the moment. In a business context it means shifting the focus or emphasis of the company. In life it means taking a left or right turn away from the direction you'd set off in and adjusting course based on what you've learnt so far. Well, we're pivoting our adventure! In today's episode I explain what we're letting go of and what we're embracing as we learn more about what we need. This year is about really living, really enjoying the moment and reconfigurin...
May 14, 2018•21 min•Ep. 73
This last week has been tough for us. While we love our little Yorkshire AirBnB, we have no wifi or phone signal there and have had to rent an office (no windows, no natural light, smells a bit) a few hours a day so I can continue to serve my clients. However, this took a little time to arrange and last week I had to cancel a session and struggled through a couple of phone calls, being cut off every few minutes and losing portions of what people were saying to me. When I reflected on why this af...
May 08, 2018•18 min•Ep. 72
Just because you sell your house, put your worldly belongings in a storage container and travel around Europe in a campervan for a year doesn't mean you feel any different than you did when you lived in a normal house in a normal town. Last week I realised that despite disrupting our lives in a BIG WAY I still felt kinda the same. In order to feel different you have to BE different. You have to include in your life practices and habits that weren't in your life before. You have to choose a diffe...
Apr 23, 2018•19 min•Ep. 71
I've been revisting one of the set texts from my degree (I read it nearly 30 years ago!) - Max Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism - recently. I do this for you, by the way! I'm becoming increasingly aware of the deeply hardwired beliefs we have about work - work is what makes us valuable human beings, work is Godly, hard, mundane work has the greatest virtue. If skill comes too easily or if you enjoy your work too much it must not have as much value as work which is painful an...
Apr 16, 2018•19 min•Ep. 70
Stress! A gift that never stops giving...even when you've disrupted your life with the specific intent of leaving it behind. Today's show is about the 4 triggers or potential triggers for stress and how I'm handling each one. I really want to return from this year long adventure having got a grip on my stress, something which gives me sleepless nights and distracts me from enjoying the moment. Frankly, it's a waste of energy and time...but I seem to be an addict. I hope you find today's episode ...
Apr 10, 2018•26 min•Ep. 69
In today's podcast I reflect on the lessons I learnt from letting my hair go grey! I didn't realise it at the time but this attempt to become more authentic opened the door to other, bolder decisions and maybe even our big trip! When you're at a crossroads in your life taking really big decisions about what to do next might be a step too far. But a small decision in the right direction emboldens you for a bigger adventure and opens up new opportunities you weren't aware of. I hope you enjoy toda...
Apr 02, 2018•21 min•Ep. 68
We are now a week and a half in to our trip and it's already been, um, eventful! Snow, a broken awning and a breakdown in Snowdonia National Park have taught me one lesson already - things are not going to go exactly as planned. This week's show is about this first lesson and the muscle I'm going to be developing as a result this year. We build so many safety nets around ourselves that we often forget how good we are at getting out of scrapes. And because we forget how good we are at getting out...
Mar 26, 2018•17 min•Ep. 67
Four nights in a campervan in the snow has taught me a lesson already. When you embark on an adventure don't be too attached to how you expected things to be...be ready to roll with what the universe has in store for you! On this week's show I'm talking to award winning Women's Advocate and Empowerment Coach, Ali Soleil, about embarking on adventures in your 40s and 50s. Ali is the host of the F Years Podcast and helps women in mid-life to go from fed up to fabulous. In this conversation we talk...
Mar 19, 2018•58 min•Ep. 66
Welcome to A Brilliant Gamble! This is the 65th episode of this show but the first with our new name. A Brilliant Gamble is all about betting on the the world of work changing and taking the risk of saying No to the 9-5. Work isn't working as it is, that's for sure. And more and more people, myself included, are asking whether it has to be this way? Can we configure a life where work integrates seamlessly rather than requiring us to make sacrifices to succeed? It was with this in mind that I wan...
Mar 12, 2018•1 hr•Ep. 65
Well, yes and no! In two week's time this podcast will be back with a new name to reflect its new focus. And in today's show I explain more about what that's going to be and why it's going to be fabulous! Today I'm also talking about down-days and what to do when you're not feeling so aligned...like when you're packing boxes before leaving all your worldly goods in a storage container and going off for a year and it all hits home. I hope you'll find the new focus of the show inspiring, relevant,...
Feb 26, 2018•18 min•Ep. 64
It's all very exciting at the moment with our trip just 4 weeks away. But my fascination with leadership and leadership development hasn't gone away! This week I'm off to Switzerland to work with a team there on their leadership and I will continue to do this kind of work even when we're on the road. There's a need for leadership in our world greater than maybe at any time in the past, and a significant leadership vacuum. But how do we help people become better leaders? Is what we are doing toda...
Feb 19, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 63
I think of myself as a yes person! This is what we're all encouraged to be, isn't it? But I've noticed that some easy "yeses" then lead to some hard "nos" later on. If you're bringing about change in your life in order to have more alignment and a more integrated feeling within you'll sometimes have to choose between priority 1 in your life and priority 2. Sounds obvious, but how often have we said something is important to us (kids, self-care, taking a day off) but then neglected that priority ...
Feb 12, 2018•20 min•Ep. 62
Ah, if only change was a lovely straight line where you made a decision that felt right to you and then just took the actions as specified in the Gantt chart. But no, it's a rollercoaster ride of emotions and actions and sometimes the to do list says "today" when they heart says "Can I put this off until tomorrow?". This week's podcast is all about that - when there's a mismatch between your readiness for action and the actions happening. It's a stage I'd pretty much forgotten about, which is wh...
Feb 05, 2018•20 min•Ep. 61
I've noticed that when someone asks how you are, the answer is often "Busy" or some related variant. When did being busy become the right answer to that question? We live at a time when work dominates life - it defines who we are, our worth, what we think about, what we think matters. And we are all so busy that, even if we enjoy what we do or think it is important, we often make massive sacrifices in order to do that work. In this week's show I look at what you can do to cut back on the busy, i...
Jan 28, 2018•18 min•Ep. 60
Everyone’s got an opinion about what you’re doing. Of course, their opinion often doesn’t matter and more often shouldn’t matter but that doesn’t mean you’re always able to shrug it off when people pass comment on your plans. In today’s show I share some of the more common comments I’ve heard whenever I’ve shaken up my life a little (or a lot) and how to respond. Of course there are people who have valuable insights and feedback that you can listen to...you just don’t need to take on board all t...
Jan 21, 2018•20 min•Ep. 59
This is a tough one for me. I've always struggled with the concept of "Financial Abundance". I believe it's true that what you put out there in to the world in your beliefs comes back to you in your reality. But I've always had a hard time believing that will be true for me when it comes to money. I've believed it isn't all about working harder. But, at the same time, I've always worked very hard...just in case! Recently I had a breakthrough and found a way to take money off the table so that I ...
Jan 15, 2018•28 min•Ep. 58
I’m so excited about today’s podcast. The ideas I talk about today have been brewing for weeks! I would go so far as to say that I’ve never met anyone working in business or the public sector who feels fully integrated in their work. By which I mean, there’s always quite a lot that they are tolerating about the way they work and the sacrifices they’re making. Often they have come to terms with those sacrifices in some way seeing it as a price they have to pay as part of having a job, especially ...
Jan 07, 2018•33 min•Ep. 57
Happy New Year! Is this the year when you decide enough is enough? You still want to make a difference - you haven't given up on your ambitions. But maybe you can't do it in your current role or in your current organisation. Maybe there's another way that doesn't entail so much sacrifice but does get stuff done! This week I've revived my interview with Sally McCutchion, one of the first I did for this show and one of my favourites. What does it feel like to walk away from the security of a manag...
Dec 30, 2017•56 min•Ep. 56
I must admit that I was pretty desperate for the Christmas Holidays. 2017 has been a year of big life changing decisions and no small amount of overwhelm! So it was with that in mind that I thought I would re-share my interview with actress and playwright, Leandra Ashton. This was the first interview I did for the show in 2016 and I still think it was one of the ones that made the biggest difference to me personally. I hope at this time of year, when maybe you have a little time to think and ref...
Dec 26, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 55
There's a theory - a very established one - that people are either "away from" motivated or "towards" motivated. You're either someone who typically moves away from pain or towards a goal or vision. This has always been problematic to me, especially as so many people appear to be "away from" which makes them feel inadequate compared with the aspirational "towards" people. Not only that but you may feel you need A LOT of pain in order to move forward so you create discomfort as a motivation - fea...
Dec 17, 2017•25 min•Ep. 54
This week's podcast is a topic very close to my heart - education. With a child who is currently home educated I've become more and more interested in how children actually learn and what they learn from different forms of education. Kerry McDonald is my guest and is well positioned to explore education, and how education may need to change to address the future needs of business (and our world!). Kerry is a mom of four unschooled children, a writer for Natural Mother Magazine and a self-directe...
Dec 10, 2017•45 min•Ep. 53
A few weeks ago I gave a presentation at Tramshed Tech in Cardiff, one of the new breed of co-working spaces popping up all over the world. These facilities are more than just places to park yourself when you need a desk. They cater for the broader needs of entrepreneurs - the need to connect, to co-create, to partner, to be inspired and have a place they can call home. Iain has had a long and varied career and taken many zig-zags in his professional life, sometimes sacrificing the safety and se...
Dec 03, 2017•52 min•Ep. 52
This week I found myself head in hands bawling my eyes out in a hotel lobby with my two business besties. It happens. Change is emotional, not logical, as I'm always saying, But despite the fact I know so much about the process of change, I was takenn by surprise by the huge feelings of overwhelm and confusion I was experiencing about the changes I'm making in my life and work. So I used the opportunity, once we'd mopped up the puddle, to think about that Belly of the Whale stage in change and h...
Nov 26, 2017•23 min•Ep. 51
