In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. Krissy Cela wasn’t always the sassy, confident woman we all know her as today. In fact, like many other successful people, there was a period of time in which Krissy struggled. This is the story of how the ‘foreign girl with a moustache at school’ discovered her self-confidence and in turn, discovered her true self. Episode 57 – https://g2ul0.app.link/tEZovAdYvhb
Author: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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Monzo CEO On Death Threats, Depression & Digital Banking Wars – Tom Blomfield
Tom Blomfield, wow what an entrepreneur. This guy has founded multiple multi-million-pound companies, that have become monumental disrupters in the industry. And let’s face it, Monzo, one of the companies Tom founded and led, is the one of the most forward-thinking, innovative, fastest-growing companies there is. Tom was born in Hong Kong and lived with his father and mother. His father was a business-minded civil engineer and his mother was an artist. When Tom was a child, he moved to London to attend grammar school in Amersham, Buckinghamshire then moving on to study Law at Oxford. Whilst studying at Oxford, at the age of 21, he co-founded Boso.com an “eBay for students”. After a few internships with law firms he decided being a lawyer wasn’t for him and followed the entrepreneurial journey instead.
In January 2011 Blomfield co-founded the UK-based company GoCardless, an automated payment method that processes Direct Debit payments on behalf of other businesses and organisations. Blomfield stayed in Silicon Valley during his three years at the company, it raised around £35 million of investment and hired 100 people. When GoCardless appointed Hiroki Takeuchi as CEO in 2013, he left (keeping a “very small share” in the £50-100m valued company).
Tom moved to New York to work for dating site Grouper social club as their Head of Growth. Blomfield left Grouper in 2014, and it closed in 2016. Following his departure from Grouper Social Club Blomfield joined Anne Boden’s Starling bank as the CTO. Startling was, at that point one of the first digital banking companies. Tom left the company in early 2015 after reports of disagreements at Starling, telling the Financial Times that “he could not comment under the terms of his departure”. Today we learn about what really happened at Starling.
In 2015, he founded challenger bank Monzo, operating with no branches and instead offering accounts online. In its first fundraising round, the company raised “£1 million in 96 seconds”. In April, Blomfield announced he would forgo his salary for one year to help his company during the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, he announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Monzo and taking on the role of president of the company. In January 2021 he announced he was leaving the company permanently.
This conversation today takes us through Tom’s wild entrepreneurial journey expressing the highs and lows of running a business. He also talks about the disagreements at Starling bank and ultimately his reason for starting Monzo in the first place. His stories are unique, and more importantly honest. Unbelievably honest. He tells you the mistakes he made, his deepest insecurities, his biggest challenges and the things he wish he knew. Wow this is a good one.
Follow Tom:
Twitter – https://twitter.com/t_blom
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomblomfield
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Moment 11 – The Secret To Finding Consistent Motivation
In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. At the time of recording this episode, I had been in a constant loop of feeling motivated to go to the gym and get in shape for the summer, then slowly seeing that motivation die off by the time the summer had passed. In this ‘Moment’ I break down the reasons why I became stuck in my ‘summer bod’ loop and how we can shift our mindset in order to build consistent motivation. Episode 55 – https://g2ul0.app.link/5YWp50YPjhb
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Mary Portas – How To Stop Living A Life That Isn’t True To You
My guest this week is Mary Portas. You may know Mary from the high street, from business, or you may know her as the red bob, hard exterior business woman from the TV.
In this conversation today I saw a very different one to the one I’ve seen in the media. Mary Portas is an English retail consultant and broadcaster, known for her retail and business-related television shows, founding her creative agency Portas and her appointment by David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, to lead a review into the future of Britain’s high streets.
She’s worked in various retail roles: John Lewis and Harrods, Topshop. Then creative director at Harvey Nichols – which was her rise to fame. In 1997 launched an agency called Yellow Door producing campaigns for clients including Clarks, Louis Vuitton, Oasis Stores, Swarovski, Dunhill, Boden, Thomas Pink, Patek Philippe and Mercedes-Benz, Sainsbury’s, Habitat, Westfield, Liberty and The Body Shop.
In 2013 she re-launched her agency as Portas Agency Ltd. Today, Portas Agency advises retail clients from every continent, and the businesses success is built on an obsessive understanding of human and cultural behaviour.
Today she’ll talk about an idea thats fairly radical to some people, especially people that are building or have built big businesses which is based on her new book ‘Rebuild: How to thrive in the new Kindness Economy’. This conversation is incredible, Mary is hilarious, she is smart and she is kind. On top of all that her brutal honesty blew me away which is a central part of what we spoke about, the idea of being true to yourself or facing the inevitable of ending up in disappear. Mary’s been a public figure, a media star, she’s faced public scrutiny but through it all she’s emerged as this levelled headed, down to earth, warm hearted individual. I laughed, I realised and I was deeply inspired and you will be too.
Follow Mary:
Twitter – https://twitter.com/maryportas
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/maryportasofficial
Mary’s book – Rebuild: How to thrive in the new Kindness Economy – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08V85WGNK
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Moment 10 – Jake Humphrey On The Building Blocks Of Success
In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. In this clip, Jake Humphrey explains that understanding the ‘building blocks’ to success is what truly made him successful. He claims the ‘trick’ is to take absolute responsibility for everything in your life. Jake then tells us that now that he has his success, it feels somewhat underwhelming and anticlimactic as he reveals that he doesn’t yet ‘feel’ successful. Episode 50 – https://g2ul0.app.link/UiRJCV4k8gb Jake: https://www.instagram.com/jakehumphrey/ https://twitter.com/mrjakehumphrey
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World Leading Mindset Expert: How To Reach Your Full Potential – Matthew Syed
My guest this week is Matthew Syed, he has written some of the most important books in the self development, self improvement, team, company building space. His ideas are original, challenging and important.
He is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and former table tennis player. He competed as an English table tennis international, and was the English number one for many years. He was three times the men’s singles champion at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships (in 1997, 2000 and 2001), and also competed for Great Britain in two Olympic Games, at Barcelona in 1992 and at Sydney in 2000.
After leaving the world of table tennis he embarked on a journalism career working for The Times. Throughout his career he has published four books that are highly regarded taking all of the learnings across his life as an elite level sports man and journalist. To say this conversation is diverse would be an understatement, we covered everything from creating innovation, build confidence and how to reach your full potential. This man is fascinating, engaging and thought provoking, trust me when I say you need to hear this.
Follow Matthew:
Twitter – https://twitter.com/matthewsyed
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/matthewsyedauthor
Website – https://www.matthewsyed.co.uk
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Moment 9 – Eddie Hearn on The Sacrifices Behind Being Relentless
In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. In this clip, Eddie Hearn reveals how his childhood in the shadow of his highly-successful father, Barry Hearn, turned him into the ‘relentless’ sports promoter and businessman he is today. We also talk about some of the sacrifices Eddie has had to make in order to make it to the top and discuss how even something as important as family can often become neglected in his pursuit of success. Taken from episode 58 – https://g2ul0.app.link/TFJj7P1BWgb Eddie: https://www.instagram.com/eddiehearn/ https://twitter.com/EddieHearn?s=20 VOTE FOR US FOR BEST BRITISH PODCAST: https://www.britishpodcastawards.com/vote?utm_source=emailoctopus&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Nominated
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Liam Payne Opens Up About His Darkest Moments, Failed Relationships & Entrepreneurship
Liam Payne has been subjected to the intensity of the spotlight from the age of just 14, when he found global fame following his entry in to the X Factor’s seventh series, and the dizzying rise once he exited as one fifth of the group One Direction. The band was cemented as a phenomenon overnight-their success and the surrounding hype was likened to that of a modern-day Beatles at time of their debut single release. They became the first UK group ever to have their debut album reach number one in the United States.
There probably are not many who are better placed than Liam to discuss instantaneous fame and the churning of its ‘machine’. Liam has gone from a teen star to a fully-fledged solo artist who has taken ownership of his career in terms of its creative direction and elevated further with a strong signature pop/rnb style and a string of hits both here and abroad. He’s had his music streamed over a total of 2bn times.
However, there is much more to him than the image of simply being a teen heartthrob or sugary popstar. The X Factor may be notorious for churning out ‘instant’ popstars but Liam clearly has a deep appreciation for music and the process behind its production. He studied as a musician prior to the start of his mainstream career and has grown as a gifted songwriter, with 40+ writing and co-writing credits to his name. He has previously said that he is accustomed to writing and recording entire albums in six weeks or less, and his evolution on personal and creative levels has no doubt been accelerated by his exposure.
This conversation today isn’t your normal “reunion chat” we speak about so much in a lot of depth, everything from his relationships, his darkest times and everything in-between. Its open, its honest and its inspiring. During our conversation Liam mentioned it was one of the best chats he’d had in a while and I felt that, I hope you do too.
Follow Liam:
Twitter – https://twitter.com/LiamPayne
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/liampayne
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Moment 8 – Julian Hearn on How He Avoided Burnout Whilst Building Huel
In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. In this clip Julian Hearn, Founder and CMO of Huel, explains how he avoided burnout whilst building the company. We also cover some of the common symptoms of over-working and what we can do in order to find the fine balance between grind and burnout. Episode 35 – https://g2ul0.app.link/lAXApeNoLgb Julian: https://twitter.com/julianhearn?lang=en https://www.instagram.com/julianhearn/?hl=en
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Johann Hari – Everything You Think You Know About Meaning & Happiness Is Wrong
This podcast is a real treat and a podcast that you cannot miss! Johann has come back and what honour it was to record. He has to be my all-time favourite guest ever! His book ‘Lost Connections’ had such a positive, transformative impact on my life and truly changed my perspective on how I viewed depression & addiction. I am sure that the information shared today will be valuable and important topics that our society needs to hear.
Johann is a very successful and inspirational British-Swiss writer and journalist with 2 books hitting The New York Times best sellers list. Born in Glasgow Scotland then relocated to London when he was young, Johann experienced some childhood trauma having suffered from being physically abused as child and his mother suffering from an illness.
Starting his career as a journalist he won many awards such as Journalist of the year and was named by the Daily Telegraph as one of the most influential people. Johann then went to onto being an author writing the worldwide known “Lost Connections” and “Chasing the Scream”. He also released a TED talk back in 2015 “Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong” which has now over 17 million views.
This honest conversation lasted around 2 hours and we even went on into the evening off air. I genuinely think that this might be the most important podcast you choose to ignore. I’m not giving much away, but you will thank me after.
Follow Johann:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/johann.hari
Twitter – https://twitter.com/johannhari101
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