Why you have more power than you can possibly imagine, with Liana Fricker

As I record this, the UK Advertising Standards Agency is cracking down on how businesses use terms like biodegradable recyclable, and compostable.  So they don't mislead consumers.

We're also in the middle of Cop 28, where a bunch of countries have got together to try and solve the climate crisis. But where more oil industry executives ever are roaming the halls and lobbying.

The environment is a big part of the cultural conversation that we're having, when it comes to how we spend our money. When it comes to the laws that we make, the cars that we drive, and the future that we imagine for our children or the next generation. 

But few people talk about it as being so integral to the way that we build our businesses.

Few people are like Liana Fricker - who is my guest today. 

Liana wants people to know that we have so much more power than we realize, and that the system is designed to make us believe that we do not. And part of her work it's to remind people of their power so that they can do what they want or they need to with it. Liana helps people go beyond what they think is possible.

Liana is a founder and the head of new ventures, at inspiration space. A high performance training center for fledgling founders and career change entrepreneurs.  She came into entrepreneurship via two babies on a burnout. And she's passionate about demystifying business and shares the lessons from her mistakes so that you can replicate her wins.

I talked to Liana about the importance of collaboration. About how she went from environmental apathy to supporting other founders in building businesses that hold sustainability as their core from the beginning.  We talk about how preparing people for a new climate reality is like preparing people for the internet age.

It is going to be more life-changing than we can possibly imagine. But it doesn't have to be a sacrifice.

So. If you want a more positive outlook and perspective on how climate and sustainability can be a part of your business. If you want to be inspired as to how you can build a business, or have a career that doesn't even exist yet.  Then you need to listen to Liana gt on her soap box with me.  I hope you enjoy.

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Transcript

  I'm recording this., having recently read an article in the guardian newspaper in the UK about how the advertising standards agency is cracking down on. How businesses use terms like biodegradable recyclable, compostable. 

We're also in the middle of cop 28. , where a bunch of countries have got together to.  Well, I mean to try and do something. Extensively about the climate crisis, but,  At the same time, it's packed four of the highest number of oil industry executives. , Ever. Two. , to spend their time lobbying.  

The environment is. Big news. 

The environment is a big part of the cultural conversation that we're having. When it comes to how we spend our money. When it comes to the laws that we make, the cars that we drive, the future that we are imagining for our children or the next generation.  



But few people talk about it as being so integral to the way that we build our businesses.  

FEw people see sustainability. As the heart. Of every business as the,  cornerstone that you should build upon.  

Few people are like Leon Africa. Who has my guest today.  



Liana wants people to know that we have so much more power than we realize, and that the system is designed to make us believe that we do not. And part of her work it's to remind people of their power so that they can do what they want or they need to with it. Liana helps people go beyond what they think is possible. 

Neon is a found on the head of new ventures, inspiration space. High performance training center for fledgling founders and career change entrepreneurs.  She came into entrepreneurship by two babies on a burnout. And she's passionate about demystifying business and shares the lessons from her mistakes so that you can replicate her wins.  



Our conversation. Today is. Inspiring 

I talked to Liana about the importance of collaboration. About how she went from environmental apathy to supporting other founders in building businesses, the whole sustainability as their core from the beginning.  We talk about how preparing people for a new climate reality. Is like preparing people for the internet age. 

It is going to be more life-changing than we can possibly imagine. But it doesn't have to be a sacrifice. 



We talk about. De-growth. 

And Liana, gives us an unexpected ode to the incredible value of having a brand and marketing strategy. As you build your business.  And if after listening to her talk about the value that it brings to her brand. You think. Now I need one of those. Then you should reach out , and send me a message because while I'm not podcasting, that's what I provide for my clients. 

You can find more out about that in the show notes.  



So. If you want a. More positive. Outlook and perspective on how climate. And sustainability can be a part of your business. If you want to be inspired as to how. You can build a business. Or have a career that doesn't even exist yet.  Then you need to listen to Liana, go on her soap box with me.  I hope you enjoy. 

Liana, it is so nice to have you with me on the podcast. I'm, this has been a while coming and I've been really looking forward to it. So thank you for joining me. 

Thank you for having me. 

fOr those people who haven't come across you on online or events and things, can you tell them a little bit about who you are and what you do and like how you got there?

Yeah, so, I am Leanna and I am founder of inspiration space and I think of it as a high performance training center for founders and.  I'm really about taking creativity and putting that together with purpose and passion to help people use entrepreneurship to build the world that they want to see. 

So cool. And I first met you at the Doing It For The Kids live event. In London. And you read you read a children's book about a monkey who was growing trees and it was amazing. And I've come, I went home and I bought it and I read it to my daughter and it's one of like her new favorite books now.

But I loved the way that you made the environment and tackling all those issues. So, So personal and so emotive and not like this is a big technical thing that we can't do anything about. That was yeah, no, that was a big thing for me, I think, because it can be really easy  to look at these big problems that are going on in the world and think I can't do anything about them because I'm just like one person.  But in my interactions with you, it's been about, well, yeah, but what can you do? 

That's the approach that I take with everything,  when you think about what an entrepreneur is,  an entrepreneur is a person who takes resources that aren't their own  and make something new.  And.  For me,  I guess I have, like, these 2 modes where, on the 1 hand,  I am, a pragmatic,  stoic, and, I can't help but see the dark side of  everything.

Right?  And there's this other side of me that is this eternal optimist  and they don't battle. They live in harmony.  And this is where the whole idea, like, what can you do from where you are? What do you have right now? I was listening to the radio a few weeks ago and it's like question time or something and  I just noticed for the 1st time I'd really picked up how  the whole conversation around.

Net 0 sustainability, whatever, buzzword we want to put to it is always associated, but it's going to be hard. It's going to be a sacrifice.  I don't agree  because. When you think about, folks who don't have the privilege of living with abundance.  They are sustainable, they have to be  and. 

So, to cut back, or to swap, or to give up doesn't have to be a difficult thing because.  You could be doing that to open yourself up to more. It's just more of something different. When you think about this consumer society that we live in,  you're not always trying to acquire more goods.  Could you work less?  If  you're trying to reduce food waste,  could you have more money?  I, I don't believe that it has to be hard. I think that. If you're in a situation where you do have abundance, you have the privilege of being able to cut back where a lot of people don't even have that.  aNd so it can become this creative challenge, a way of  thinking about what you value in your life, what's important for you  and, taking back control of your time, your day, your headspace,  whatever it is, as opposed to phrasing it around.

I'm giving up. I'm making this huge sacrifice because I can't buy 1 more t shirt.

Yeah, no, that's so true. It is always framed around that negative, like we're losing things.  And I've got ahead of myself. What is it, when people come on the podcast and we talk about things that they care about, we get them to jump on their soapboxes. I know a little bit about what your soapbox is, but do you want to tell the audience what your soapbox is?

Oh, God, I got so many soap boxes.

You can pick, we can do one, we can do

I got a soap show.  And, it, everything comes back to 1 thing, which is  we have so much more power than we realize  and the system is designed.  To make us believe that we do not,  and that would be my soapbox, it could be around  how we look after the environment and it also goes into how we work.  This  10 days marks 1 year since, the start of the most horrific burnout I have ever had. Right? Ever had and I've had forward technically,  and that came  from giving away.  My power to choose what work could look like my power to choose how I wanted to show up.  tHere's so much of this. 

Rise and grind stuff out there  and then what happens, or at least what happened for me was I just got further and further away from my gut instinct. The reason why I was even doing any of it in the 1st place and it all started to become this endless, these endless layers of should I should do this?

Because someone said I should do this because this is what a CEO does. I should call myself a CEO because that's  what they say. I hate that title. I hate that title. I don't call myself a CEO. It's like, what? No, Not at all, right?  Because  we've just been taught to look outside of ourselves for everything.

And then it's this constant wheel of validation. It's the whole, I'll be happy when I'll be happy when I do this. I'll be happy when I have 10 K a month recurring revenue. I'll be happy when I have this many followers. I'll be happy when I'll be happy when I'll be happy when the thing is, we're never happy when we're never happy when we don't even know what happiness is. 

And it's because we've given away our power to choose what happiness even is,  what feels good.  We don't, and  it's such a shame because there's so many of us, myself included with,  passion and creativity and all of this bubbling away inside of ourselves, and we don't even know we can access it. 

We just walk around with it off,  just taking what the system tells us we should take.  It fills us with jealousy and FOMO and.  Comparing ourselves to people  and it's like, for what, life is so short and I can tell you, like,  when someone's on their deathbed, they don't say, I wish I made 1 more Instagram real.  I wish I bought 1 more t shirt.   But we've given away  the power to choose what feels good for us. And I am on a mission through inspiration space and just through how I show up  to remind people of their power.  They can do whatever they want for good and for bad. 

And what kind of things have people in inspiration space done  when you've given them that freedom or you've shown them that they have that freedom? 

Yeah, I'm like, I don't give them the freedom. I'm just like,  have gone on to do  what they want.  Like one of my favorite stories is an EMDR therapist that  we work with. And she's one of the most skeptical people I love, I work with. And I love that. I love skeptical people. Cause when skeptical people nod their heads when I'm talking, I'm like, all right, like I'm convincing the skeptics.

Good good.  And we started working together 15,  months ago. What hasn't really been long.  And, I was like, I can see a world where  this  becomes like a this.  Is enhanced through technology,  it's not. A technologist by any means, and she's not really into that.

And she was like, what are you talking about? I was like, just trust me. I can see a world where  this becomes.  An immersive technology  and, in about 4 days,  she's going in on, like, a huge grant application  to do just that  and.  I knew then that it was possible. She was like, Leon has lost her mind  and

and over the last year, we've just been working together. Not even on that because I knew that was just going to happen.  And it has. And there are so many stories like that,  because I think  what I've learned again, like. Working with the subset of founders that I work with is that you have the grow at all costs.

You want to be a Mark Zuckerberg, go get venture funding. And then you have what I would call a more traditional or pedestrian type of support, which is based in sometimes the old world, right? Where some of the rules don't even make sense in a tech enabled world, let alone like an AI powered world, and  we're all about bridging the gap by creating endless possibilities. 

It doesn't matter where you started, execution can be taught or bought, but what's  the thing you're trying to bring out into the world and we will fill that space and we will support you in that. But we will  encourage you  to stretch your imagination about what you think is possible because  the world of business can be really quite complex and coded. 

And once you lift that veil and use normal language, that's when people realize, oh, yeah, IP.  The choice doesn't have to be a 1 to 1 or a group dynamic for a service. I don't have to teach people how to do what I do to make more money.  I can apply it in a lot of different ways. This is innovation.

This is what innovation is. And  that's what.  I would say at inspiration space, what we do so exceptionally well.  Is innovation  and helping people to just go beyond what they think is possible.  By starting with what they have. And  taking things  slowly,  where you speed, where you slow down to speed up  instead of going a million miles an hour, where it's about getting 1 plate spinning and then another plate spinning and another plate spinning.

And it's not coming at it from a perspective. I hear a lot, I've got to focus and I can't do all of these things. You can do all of these things.  just have to learn how to hold them in your head in different ways and how to explain them in different ways, because in actual fact, they will build on one another,  and I love that because, people are often told in business.

No, you can only do 1 thing.  Am I like maybe not. Yes, you've got to focus,  but that doesn't mean that this greater vision can't be the thing that motivates you. So why would you put that out of your head? Why would you ignore that?  You can, it's like patting your head and rubbing your tongue at the same time. 

Although I can't do that. Do you think that,  that being in that kind of environment with those kind of people, do you think that's something that helps?  stay optimistic because you can see that innovation and see those possibilities. 

Oh, 100%. This year is the year I started getting high on my own supply is what I say. I  started actually using inspiration space for inspiration space. It's been a beautiful thing because this is the whole thing. Right? It's not like.  I'm some guru, or the rest of our mentors are gurus. We're just people with a certain set of skills, helping people with a certain set of skills  and those skills, are all valid relevant.

Like, we all need them. And this is the thing, in particular, like.  When you hear on the radio,  financial Armageddon is coming and then it'll be in our founder form. It's like, oh, my God, I just like, want so much new business. I don't know what I'm going to do with it  or I've earned more in a year working with inspiration space.

And I haven't 10 years ever,  1,  there's 1 person I'm coaching now. And it's just amazing. Like, in 4 weeks, yeah. We've exceeded where we wanted to get to for January to the point that my pullback. Well, because this was not supposed, like, we can't stay here. This isn't supposed to be the full time thing.

Like, pullback

Brilliant. 

and that and it does feel good because it's not like everyone's walking around like. On top of the world, we all at the same time, like, sometimes petrified. It's that  when you're in community with people who are all working together with this understanding, like, a rising tide lifts all ships.

There is no such thing as shame here. This is,  I would say, like, look after your sister, like. It's not even that we're all women, but it just works, it's like,  look after your brother,  it gives you a, it's a different kind of energy because you don't feel like a lone wolf. 

You're not looking over your shoulder. You're not waiting for the other shoe to drop. When you feel anxious, you can say, I feel anxious and you've got someone to talk you down from a ledge. When you're excited about something, you can share it and not feel embarrassed that you're going to make somebody else feel bad.

Like, and that's really important because when you're working on your own,  it's so isolating. Sometimes you not sometimes more than not, you're your own worst enemy.  Because you only look at the things you haven't done perfectly because of this image of what you wanted to create. You only think about the proposals that you've been ghosted on, you don't think about the stuff that you have done.

You only think about the debts, but not how much of the debts you've paid off.  Right? And so it's so easy to just be like.  Stuck in this doom loop where an actual fact when you have that perspective and people who want you to win as much as they want themselves to win.  Everything is just different.

Everything is different. And I'll tell you, this is what  venture backed accelerators do.  This is what they do. Stripe became Stripe because everybody in Y Combinator after Stripe used Stripe.

There's the lesson.

It's not like people, like, I think we have this myth that everyone's out there, like, pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, doing everything alone. I'm like, nah, people succeed quickly because of collaboration. Because they know someone who knows someone who will put them in touch with somebody else.

Who's like, oh, yeah, I'm like, I can get you a 30 grand contract here, no sweat.  Everyone we pretend like this stuff doesn't happen and I'm like, guys, this stuff does happen and we can all benefit from this because we are all just as capable, just as talented, just as networked.  We don't have to  martyr ourselves  for business. 

There's no at the end of that game 

Yeah. That community is so important. And all that. In all levels generally, but especially when you are growing your business, because it does feel like. You are just all up in your head sometimes, and you're the only one that can do anything about it, and you're the only one that can push this through. 

But leaning on these kind of communities and that kind of collaboration is so important.

and the more successful you get, you will often find CEOs. There's 1. I can't remember the name of it.  And I think to be a member, you've got to have a turnover of, like, 10, 000, 000  and.  It's really because, like, you, if you just look at the stats, right, there's fewer and fewer people that have the experience because fewer and fewer people make it to that part of the summit.  And the problems there become a lot bigger. When you think about. Some of, like, these scam artists and stuff, sometimes I'm like, well, I didn't burn a 1Billion, but I don't even know what that would feel like, 

yeah.

And so to be able to take those kinds of risks as you're growing and you're stretching yourself and all of a sudden you're like, whoa,  there, I don't know anybody else  who has 100 employees as an example.

I don't know even know how to start managing that because people are people like we're human beings. It's not like all of a sudden you get 100 employees and all of a sudden, you know what to do with them, or you don't have challenges, in particular, we start thinking about like, how a lot of this impacts your relationships at home and with yourself.  Where you're so isolated, you don't have anywhere to turn to and then you're also trying to save face. And so then, you ignore your kids or, you're yelling at your partner, or, you don't take 2 minutes to just breathe because you don't feel like there's you have 2 minutes to spare because everything is just crumbling around you.

Like, the stakes can get so high. So this is 1 of those things where I think.  Being in community and having support is not a 0 to 3 years thing. This is a forever thing.  Humans are social beings  and we need to be in community. We need that feedback from 1 another. we Need that energy exchange.  I think even more now in this AI powered world where, yeah, you can go and ask cheap chat to create your marketing strategy.

But if you don't yourself really understand marketing.  You won't see how maybe generic it is, or  why tactically that would be very difficult for you personally to, context is everything  does not give you context. You've got to give the context to the AI to get the output. And so,  you can't brainstorm on your own.

I don't I'm sure I believe there's a place for AI, powered support, but not at the expense of people with lived experience. 

true.  That, yeah, that context is really important. I would, please don't go and ask ChatGPT to write you marketing plans, all of my dear listeners. Because Liana is right.  It might be terrible and you wouldn't know. Okay, so  talking about collaboration and talking about inspiration and kind of staying optimistic.

A lot of the work that you do is around the environment and sustainability  and climate change. And we have COP28 going on at the moment with all the weird wonderfulness that's happening there.   Does that all link into the work that Inspiration Space does? 

Good question.  It's interesting because I was, I'm late to the sustainability game, full on. It's not that I wasn't aware, just couldn't be bothered and I couldn't be bothered because  it just didn't seem this Pressing issue and it's not that I didn't understand some of the science. I just, very easy to later,  not right now. 

And then the war in Ukraine happened and it just so happened to be around the same time. We started our 1st pilot for carbon literacy training and using sustainability as like a catalyst for innovation.  And I was having an attitude because I wasn't even supposed to be in there. I was like, I am not supposed to be working right now.

I've been working my bum off for years right now. And I was there  and after 30 minutes, I was like,  because I was so apathetic. I was like. I hadn't realized how burnt out I was from cove it because we literally brought everything online and then helped like 150 people in real time, pivot their businesses and save their businesses and start businesses and grow businesses.

And I, me and my business partners, we were just on zoom all day, every day for over a year,  and then we got to 2022 and I felt like I could finally breathe a little. And  then  the war in Ukraine happened, and I was like, what is the point of any of this?  Like now nothing phases me, but at the time I was like, we just came through a pandemic kind of a war.

What? No.  And I was just like, so jaded and just  overwhelmed and did the carbon literacy of the first 3, 30 minutes. I was just like, tell me  it was just like a light bulb went off.  A, I realized it wasn't hard.  Wasn't hard. I was like,  so you're telling me if I reduce the amount of food that I waste and I waste a lot because I've got little picky kids  and that comes with its own sort of like bug bears.

Right? So I'm like, sounds like 2 birds, 1 stone.  Literally.  And I could get an air fryer because I always wanted 1 and why warm up a big old hob, electric hob oven, to cook  for the kids  and  no fast fashion. And I don't buy fast fashion anyways. And I hadn't for years and I just gone through a period of like, clearing out my wardrobe.

Because the thing I realized in cobit was I actually like, we're in a uniform. I like.  Picking from sweats  don't care the color. Just I wear sweats. I wear leggings under my sweats and then tops.  I don't think about it at all.  So I was like, right, I'm ahead of the game  and. And it was like understanding once I understood the language and I understood the science and I understood how the system fit together.

It's like, I could do those things and not worry about my flights because I don't fly that much. And that had been what I'd realized was the reason why I was keeping my head in the sand. I didn't want to make sacrifices.  I want to learn  and then be like right now, you hypocrite, you never going to get on a plane again or whatever.

Right.  And I realized I didn't have to do that. I didn't have to do that. And that felt really.  Empowering,  and I just started to just everything I saw was different. Everything was different. And I just realized in this moment, it's like, we work with startups and small businesses. If anyone. Is going to help spread this message. 

It like, we have to step up. We have to step up because at what point are we going to tell people to turn left? At what point are we going to say? Actually, you can't build your business like this.  It's not sustainable for the environment, to the point, we've had people come to us and say, I want to create a product with, like, organic cotton and it's the realization.

It's like. You realize for you to be as successful as say, Mattel, there's not enough water  to produce that amount of organic cotton.  So it's noble. And you have to be able to say this in the same way that, a business advisor might, say something else is not necessarily feasible. We've got to consider the environment nature has to be a stakeholder. It has to be  because it puts your business at risk if you don't consider that, because at some point,  we will run out of raw material at some point that and as we're doing it, that material is going to become so expensive.

You won't be able to afford it anyway.  And so  we have a duty of care. I feel as people who  provide  professional services  to be very aware.  Of climate risk,  and what that means for our clients and their businesses and what that means for our business. If you're a financial advisor, and you're not aware of climate risk, you have a problem because the way people are going to be saving for  retirement.

Hey, we're not going to live as long. Sorry,  we're not,  but these are the kinds of conversations, property investment. There may have been places where investing in, a holiday letter, whatever would have made a lot of sense. It doesn't when it's going to be in the ocean in 10 years.  And so it's like, preparing people for the Internet age, and it became 1 of those, the folks who got there 1st,  we're able to take advantage of that. And then everyone else just fell in line and this is my, my, the biggest thing that drives me is that  capitalism is going to be capitalism  and.  The same people who caused the mess are profiting off of the cleanup of the mess. 

And so, if we actually want to use this as an opportunity for a, just an equitable transition to, like, a brave new world.  Everyone needs to get involved. Everyone needs to understand it. Otherwise.  You will then be told later  how you get to show up  in this space and this is, we need all the solutions we can get right now. 

It's similar to conversations I have around  companies talking about activism and advocacy, like their values in their messaging.  ,  the way that generations are moving, like the younger people are, the more they want you to talk about those values. The more they want the way they spend their money to be aligned with kind of their own principles.

So at some point, you are going to have to go back and retrofit  your values. Otherwise, you won't be able to, like, your business will not be sustainable, you'll be able, you won't be able to grow because, like, more and more people will log on to your website and go, well, they don't really believe in anything, so I'm not bothered.  But it's much easier, and like, it's possible to retrofit,  but it's harder, like, if you start there.  If they're there from the beginning, then yeah, then it is sustainable and then you do grow in a similar way to, yeah, to your business being environmentally sustainable,  make the right decisions at the beginning,  spend a little bit longer, putting it all in place,  ask harder questions.

But then that means you are set up to to fly and to succeed. 

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And when you're starting from scratch, you don't have a frame of reference.  yOu can start smart from the beginning,  you don't actually have to go backwards in particular when I think about the ideation stages and thinking about the kinds of, businesses, we might want to create or whatever. 

There's so much opportunity in what, people call the green economy.  That is just ripe for exploration.  tHe jobs that we need don't even exist yet. We have to create them.  And  the more people that become, carbon literate and understand how the system fits together.  The better, people often talk about, China's emissions  and I push back and I say, well, I wonder what China's emissions would look like if they weren't manufacturing for the world,  it's all well and good because effectively we're offshoring.

The emissions, but what would it look like?  If, we all owned our manufacturing or the emissions from manufacturing overseas were attributed to each country.  And also when people say, well, I'm waiting for the big companies to do it. Like  who buys stuff from the big companies.  If we don't buy it, they're going to stop selling it.

They're capitalists.  This is what I mean. We have so much power.  We're waiting for the government to save us. I don't need the government to save me from this. That's the last people I'm waiting to save me to be honest.  I want to save myself. I want to help save you. I want to help save my community  and we can do that through individual action.

We don't have to consume like this  because this is the other thing we're not going to consume our way to sustainability buying it and organic cotton is not changing anything.  The vegan leather trainer sure they're better, but we need to be asking ourselves how many pairs of trainers to 2 feet need. 

Particular because I work at home and don't wear shoes. 

I started face to face networking meetings like in the summer and I was like, I have no idea what to wear on my feet because like I spent most of my time just like in socks.  Like, I'm like looking in my wardrobe going,  yeah, no, I can't. Yeah.  What am I going to do about my feet?

unironically wearing Crocs around  and there is that right? Because there's a school of thoughts like, oh, but those are made of plastic. You should go buy these like, vegan, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I'm like, yeah, but the most sustainable item that you have is the item you already have.  Right.  And so we, we have to change how we think  about  consumption because our identities are wrapped into our ability to consume. And it goes back to what I was saying about power. We have all of this power. We've been told you're not worth it. If you don't have a new car, you're not worth it.

If you don't go to the mall leaves on holiday, you're failing at life because you don't have a designer handbag.  Like, well, who made those rules?  Who made those rules up? Because I'm like, I don't know, a winning life to me seems like a low stress,  low maintenance kind of a life. And the more  consumption, you got to do something for it. 

Yeah. 

And so I get a little concerned around, as sustainability becomes fashionable, and we talk about values,  because I feel like we're only having one side of the conversation, but not the side of the conversation, which is actually anti capitalist.

And goes more along the lines of the growth.  And I don't think I, I personally don't believe that's a problem. This is why we need more people innovating in the circular economy. Like, please, can we have as many versions of secondhand  kids  shoes companies as possible?  Like,

Because there are too many of them. They're all in my wardrobe. 

Right? Like, outdoor wear for kids. They grow out of it so fast and it's brand new. Like, please, I would rather have.  It's for every drop shipping business. It pops up. I'd love to have five of those, 





Yeah, and I think there's so much call for it on like, like on a local level, like I'll have conversations with people and they'll go, Oh, I've got this, I've got this coat that I've worn for ages, but like, But I've got to throw away because I don't know how to fix it. Or I've got this toaster that's worked for a while and now it doesn't but I don't know how to fix toasters and like we've locally in our town we've got like a repair cafe that pops up once a month.

It's so cool like as part of a generation that kind of  has lost a lot of those skills and a lot of that ability to like see a room full of people who can fix all this stuff.  It's just so cool.  And also as the huge added bonus that it makes everything massively more sustainable.  I don't know, I've seen a bit of a lift in companies like that popping up on my Instagram feed and stuff.

And it would be lovely if there was  like a big explosion. That would be great. Because I've got a leather jacket in my cupboard that really needs fixing. 

totally. I got a whole pile of stuff. I got to take to the dry cleaner and be like, I need to zipper fixed on this and this. And I wish I knew how to do it, but I do not. 

no, me

And right. And this is where, again, like, with entrepreneurship,  speaking to someone today and she runs. Sewing class like so many people would love to learn how to sew and it's something that would be very difficult to do via just like a YouTube tutorial, at least for me, people learn in different ways.

I don't have a shot, but, I remember I took a sewing class when I was like a teenager and, I was learning how to do it  and.  Like, like a repair cafe and this is what brings people back to our high streets  and you can't, you, I think we undervalue a smile.  I remember when my kids were little, like, like, little and some days the only person that I would speak to would be the checkout person at Sainsbury's.  And that  it's harder now with the self serves, 

Yeah.

like, literally, like, there would be days where it would be like, maybe 4 or 5 o'clock and I'd leave the house. And I'm like, damn, this is the 1st person I've spoken to  all day. Sometimes it might be 2 days in a row,  and we can't underestimate  the power of that.

And if we don't have a reason  to go into our communities, why will we.  this is that whole thing with online shopping. I think that the convenience.  Has been at the detriment.  To real meaningful connection,  and I would love to see a world where. We do have multiple repair shops and, places where you can go to, like, maker spaces, where you can learn how to so you can learn,  how to do anything you can learn how to fix something. 

Because I think it's good for communities and it's good for the human spirit, because I often think to myself  in a world where AI does everything.  What do we do?  And we have an opportunity again to create this brave new world where we're out there touching grass and we're slowing down.  If you ever look at the rubbish on the side of the road, I sometimes take my kids litter picking.

It's a sign of. The times people going here, there and everywhere, sometimes between multiple jobs, eating in their cars,  people with nothing else to do and nowhere to go drinking in the woods.  It's  we've been conditioned to go fast  to nowhere 

And spaces like those  are ideal kind of sources for people to get together and realise. how much power they actually do have. For them to have those conversations,  make them question the way things have always been done, and make them question the system. And sure, you can you can do that in a way online, but the spaces that have been created online for that have been  crowded in by  trolls and bots and  racists and a whole bunch of other lovely people and things. 

Physical spaces where you can look someone in the eye and have conversations. about how you might like things to be different and how you could make them different  are invaluable, I think. 

when you speak to people, you realize. People aren't that different  people aren't that different  and sit on different sides of a political spectrum, the environment, whatever people are not. That different we all want the same things,  and to your point around online spaces, there is a place for it.  The challenge I find is that.  To get to it, it's like  you got to go through a whole lot and those algorithms and the dopamine and all of this, like,  I wouldn't like, it's not surprising that if you can even find your people by the time you find them, you are tapped out. You too are an extremist or a fundamentalist in 1 way or the other.

You, you too are looking for the bogeyman out there and have lost any ability to be rational and empathetic  because that's what these algorithms, like, they literally send them to. It's like, hey, more rage bait

Yeah.

pump it.

Yeah. And you can't do that in a repair cafe on high street

No,

because you've got to look at the person.

Right and if someone did everyone be laughing after like, wow, they lost it a little bit, I

Yeah. Yeah. No, I much prefer. Yeah. That idea. Okay. So  when you talk about this stuff online or in real life, whichever one of the spaces that you're in, obviously you're trying to reach founders who would be a great fit for inspiration space.

You're trying to increase people's awareness about carbon literacy, all that kind of thing. How do you? How easy do you find it to weave those kind of values into your messaging and into your marketing? 

find it easier than I did. aNd I think it probably goes back to  what really inspired me around sustainability in the 1st space is I'm not very good.  At showing enthusiasm for things that I'm not enthusiastic about  like, I constantly need to be inspired. Otherwise, I'm like, that's the point.  And so I do find it easy  to talk about what I'm inspired by  and so I try to stick to that at times where I've really lost, like. 

Just my the fire in me  has been because I've been uninspired and I've not really  can't see something that it's like I can't it's all feels very samey. And all we have is language and everyone is calling it this and now I got to over explain to, like, why it's different. What  I would say is, 1 of the best investments. 

I've made in the business.  Was having a proper brand strategy done



That. Oh, man, that thing is, like, cost per where, like, if I had printed it out, it would be worn and ragged with notes and coffee stains on it and all of this. Because I go back to that often  the 2nd, best investment was in a marketing strategy.

That was much, it's  slightly tactical, but much more on the strategic end. And it's it was like, and it is like the perfect follow from the brand strategy. And again, I go back to that and I veered away from it.  And as I coming back from my burnout, I went back to it and I was like, yeah, like,  this is why this is this way.

Like, this is what. The expert created, and it works and it was, it's all around just like, playing to my strengths and creating this fly. Well, what's interesting is at the time I capabilities didn't exist as they do now. It's got everything's gone so far. So now we've actually been able to execute a lot of what we couldn't before. 

sO, again, it's just like that familiar friend, get that strategy out just as a reminder.  Of, like, what it is  that we're trying to achieve and how we want  to achieve it.  And then, understanding that  a healthy business is 1 that keeps on evolving. So I don't,  it's not about switching from here to there, but it's also understanding that I will continue to grow and to change and to mature and to.

To have wisdom, especially, as a someone with, like, effectively a startup for startups and as a founder coach  and.  I'm heading into that next season now, and now that I'm blending the idea of mental fitness and environmental stewardship  together as, the perspective and the way that we want to encourage people to build businesses.

Everything feels.  In alignment, like it never has before  and I have, 2, 3 soap boxes that I can bang on and they all make sense. It's like, if you have a bunch of saboteurs in your way telling you that, you're not good enough and that if you don't do it like this, you're not going to be successful and that you can't take a break. 

You're going to tap out, you're going to make, you're not going to consider the environment, you're not going to look after your physical health. Because what happens is your mind becomes so resilient. You don't realize that the body keeps the score. And so long as you have these stories in your head, telling you that progress and pain  are friends. 

You're never going to be able to step back and be like, no, this shouldn't hurt. It shouldn't hurt. It shouldn't  like with stretching. No one says that stretching should hurt. They're like, you ease your way into the split. You don't just pull every muscle when you're going to get there. It's a, if you want to be able to do it, it's like this slow, progressive progress because it shouldn't hurt.

Pain is not a good sign. I know for me, I was hard. I'm hardwired  to see pleasure and pain is the same thing.  And so it's no wonder why 1 can't allow themselves to get uncomfortable to consider  the impact their business will have on the environment, because it becomes uncomfortable  and it feels counterintuitive and like, well, that's going to slow me down and I'm supposed to be hustling.

I didn't go  all this nonsense. Right? So,  it was a very long way of answering the question. I think it's.  It's it's this natural thing that starts from what I'm inspired by 



No, it's interesting because like, this is what I talk to my clients about quite a lot. Like, they were like, do we really need like a brand messaging guide and a brand strategy?  I don't know what we're talking about. Like, well, sure, but  you've got to talk about it consistently over a long period of time.

Like you've got to keep up that momentum and then you've got to bring in all the other people around you to, to bang on the same like drum and to say the same things consistently over a long period of time. Are you sure that, like, do you know enough about what you want to talk about that you could do that?

For like the next year  and having those, yeah, having those messages, having those like points that you can always come back to having that knowledge that these are the values and these are the like benefits of what you do is so important.  Yeah, so it's nice to have that validated.

right? And you can't brief anyone else. You'll never get out of the center of the wheel of the business. If you don't have this stuff documented anywhere,

You'll never be able to bring on anyone else.

If you don't have a single source of truth, and I really find it reassuring you just like inspired a thought  because sometimes it gets really boring and I get tired of the sound of my voice and I get bored of the messaging.

I'm like, can't we go talk about blah, blah, blah? No, we cannot.  No, we cannot. Four more banks, and having that documentation and that strategy in particular, like, because it's created by someone you've invested in it, so it's not some cheap, like, piece of kit, like, it's very valuable and I want to get as much mileage out of it as possible.

So it also allows me  to get comfortable with the repetitiveness of it.  So, yeah, but that's why that document exists. Keep banging this drum. Do not veer. Yes, there's like slight iterations, but  this is the single source of truth. And just, you can say it without effort and without even thinking about it, because you've said it so many times.

And this is just a reminder that you can't veer and create new key messages, every month or every week, just because you're bored of it, because people are people, how much information do any of us actually retain at any 1 point in time. And that's why I think it's easy to get frustrated and to lose heart  because you maybe don't see these immediate results.

But that's because you have to just keep banging, you have to keep banging. So when you invest in, a really good strategy,  it makes it easier to bang more than a million zillion justifications. Oh, I just keep banging the same. 

yeah, definitely. And if anybody listening doesn't have. An idea of what drums they're meant to be banging. Then they need to they need to send me a message because  I can make you some drums. I wish I could actually make drums. That would be cool. Maybe I should find some drums. Maybe my next like Instagram live thing.

  Thank you so much. This was so interesting. And if people want to find out, like, about you and about Inspiration Space, if they've got an incredible idea and they're like, I need that. community to like pull me along and collaborate with.

Where should they go? 

So you can go to.  www. theinspirationspace. co. You'll find me on LinkedIn, Leanna Fricker. Drop me a message, a follow. We work with people in a few ways. We provide founder coaching mental fitness training. And then new beginnings, which is our 12 week accelerator. It's always good to have an initial conversation to see how we might be able to support you.

And everything that we do is really tailored to the individual, because we don't believe in a 1 size fits all approach. 

That sounds cool. Excellent. Everybody should go check you out. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your inspiration. And yeah, thank you for being here with us. 

 Thanks for having me.