From Nowhere To Somewhere With Luke Staton

Series 2, Episode 1. Francesc Miralles is our first guest of the series. Himself and his co-author created a magnificent book, Ikigai, a Chinese philosophy for a happy and fulfilled life. It sold in 60 countries more than 2.5 million copies and I am not surprised at all. I first came across Francesc and the book Ikigai in August 2022 on holiday. I thoroughly enjoyed the book to the point I reached out and asked Francesc to please join me to share your words of wisdom on my podcast at which he said yes. So a big thank you and welcome to Francesc Miralles for joining me and sharing his words with you all today. 

Harry has always had a passion for anything creative. Once he knew that being a presenter at BBC Radio One was his dream he began to start his journey to reaching this dream as soon as he could. Harry was always one to be showing his friends new music, so starting off being a reporter for BBC Introducing in the West Midlands was the best step for him. He started as a Broadcast assistant at BBC CWR in July and loves it. Working two days a week as the breakfast presenter for Switch radio as well means he can finally have an outlet to chat rubbish, play silly games and play great music. Harry continues to work towards his goal, and takes a step closer everyday.

I'm Flo (the 'Flo' behind 'FloFit!), a mobile Personal Trainer from Sutton Coldfield. I train over 35 wonderful clients per week from the comfort of their own homes and host a popular weekly bootcamp for the local community. FloFit began in May 2019 following my own health and fitness journey. Back in January 2018 I decided it was time to make a change to my life for the better and I set out to lose weight, get fit and enter the ever growing health and fitness world. At the time, I wanted to lose weight for my sister's wedding abroad in May 2018. My love for fitness quickly grew and I realised that I wanted to turn my passion into my career. Since starting out, I have trained many people with all different goals and abilities but one thing they have all had in common is wanting to be healthier, better versions of themselves. Lockdown last year proved to be a positive thing for my business and I spent my time hosting live workouts for my own social media channel as well as for some well-known brands such as Pretty Little Thing and Foodspring. So far this year I've led monthly fitness challenges and an online subscription service to keep the FloFit family constantly growing. My clients are at the heart of my business and I put a lot of my success down to their constant support keeping me feeling drived and always raring to go. It has been a whirlwind of a journey so far but very much a wonderful one. There is plenty more to come!

Jaydee is a growth mentoring specialist providing businesses with the right mentor to aid business growth. She launched the Northern Mentoring Programme and organisers of the Lancashire HR Employers Forum. She's supporting local businesses across Lancashire access various funding programmes to aid their business growth for programmes such as Boost Business Lancashire. "I pride myself on understanding local businesses, their needs and developing existing and new relationships." Jaydee works alongside some serious entrepreneurs, from 2013 to 2019, she supported 5000+ businesses, created 2,200 new jobs and added £70m+ to the Lancashire economy. These business people now support others to achieve their dreams. After growing up in the hospitality sector Jaydee swore she would never work in a kitchen! She witnessed hard work at it's finest and took that work ethic with her throughout. During her career Jaydee saw many businesses succeed, however she's unfortunately, also seen businesses fail, her family’s businesses and a previous employer. It is why Jaydee now does what she does. Following a successful HR and recruitment career she is now privileged to support businesses across the county and on a global scale, delivering mentoring support through their pool of skilled and experienced businessmen and women. "We are MAD, we make a difference every day and I love it."

Oliver is a long term sufferer of severe OCD, Anxiety and Depression and has been for around 13 years. His main issue being intrusive, negative thoughts that take control of his mind and make it very difficult to focus on general day to day tasks. This results in him feeling incredibly anxious, confused and at times scared. Struggling with this on a daily basis is extremely draining and often causes him to spiral into a sad state of depression. Oly turned to running as a form of therapy on the 28th July 2017 and has not looked back. The feeling he gets after a run is irreplaceable. Yes, it doesn’t last long but when you feel like he does, you live for the moment, and for that moment everything’s ‘OK’. The decision he made that day changed his life. In fact, he truly believes it saved his life. Oly is now on a mission to share his story far and wide, in the hope to inspire others struggling in silence to speak out, seek help and fight back. Also, to educate people on one of the most debilitating diseases out there, OCD. An illness so often generalised and trivialised in the media.

CK Goldiing is an award winning creator and documentary filmmaker.  To get his clients instant results, CK focused on his two superpowers - sharp writing and powerful video. This potent combination enables him to quickly turn ordinary client information into irresistible news stories.  Nowadays, CK is responsible for getting little known businesses, entrepreneurs & artists featured on newspaper front covers, TV news, leading radio stations & influential websites.  Outside his client work, CK is a presenter and filmmaker, making short films & micro documentaries that explore human connection, including his acclaimed double award-winning docu-film 61 Hugs

Hasney is a highly ambitious UEFA qualified coach who has established an exceptional record of achievements within elite coaching and player development after making the seamless transition into this sector following a professional playing career. As a forward-thinking football coach, Hasney has built a portfolio of experience within this field through his roles at Manchester United FC and Oldham Athletic FC and he possesses a proven track record in player development and talent identification. Furthermore he is a visible leader with a clear playing philosophy and well-defined coaching methods. Hasney motivates players to fulfil their potential and he relishes in roles of increased responsibility while playing a key role within a multi-disciplined coaching set up.

Gary Pettit has in the past 30 years built a reputation as one of the best and best-known brokers in London yet the ED&F Man commercial director has in recent years taken on the role of ambassador for Prostate Cancer UK, drawing on his own experience after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012. Mindful of how lucky he was, Gary is working hard with Prostate Cancer UK to ensure more men like him do not need luck in the future. Speaking to Global Investor, Gary, currently the commercial director and global head of financial futures and options at ED&F Capital Markets, reflects on his relationship with prostate cancer which started in late 2011.

Conor Neill is the President of Vistage, Spain. Vistage is the worlds leading Chief Executive Officer organisation with 23,000 members around the world. Their purpose is to improve the effectiveness and enhance the lives of our members. Conor is a highly sought after keynote speaker on Leadership the psychology of Mental Strength. He speaks regularly at global conferences including European HR Summit and The HR Directors Summit. He is a Lecturer at IESE Business School, ranked number 1 MBA school in the wold by FT (2012). Conor is also a teacher, author and blogger on Persuasion.

After growing up at boarding school in Ghana, Akwasi moved to London at 18 to embark on a journey of various interesting jobs. After landing a role at Lloyd’s bank, Akwasi was recognised as one of the banks top consultants before he left to found the Sterling & Law Group in 1997. Akwasi is the managing director and founder of Sterling & Law Group plc, a financial advisory firm managing just under a billion pounds of client assets. In addition to his duties as managing director of the group, Akwasi is a fully practising financial adviser working with select clients in the private and corporate sectors. Akwasi has a passion for fitness and has taken his PTing qualification so he could become a spin instructor as a side hobby.

From cancelling Netflix to creating a multi-million-pound company. Paul was an only child from a loving home based in the North West. He trained as a PE teacher until 2003 when he met my wife to be and then decided at the last moment to join GMP as a Police Officer. After 11yrs in the police, serving as a constable and Sergeant in Salford as part of Uniform and as a detective Paul left to join a family business started by his father an immigrant who had come to the UK in the 70’s. He was always trying to set up new, innovative businesses. Between 2014 - 2018 Paul oversaw a 10x growth in this business and built an amazing life for his family (mum, dad, wife and two children) until in early to mid 2019 disaster struck and the business collapsed leaving them in a perilous personal financial position. This coincided with two major health scares, one where his heart stopped... Around this time he had met Luke who spent time with him to help to discover his purpose. From this, in Autumn 2019, R2R People was born - a people focused, values driven recruitment business which steadily grew until the pandemic in March 2020 when everything exploded. As the business goes from strength to strength they pivoted into new markets and Paul continues to surround himself with excellent people using previous experience and their knowledge to positively effect people’s lives and navigate R2R People towards an eight figure turnover in year 2. Though Paul still has more challenges ahead, his belief in the process and the vision is at the centre of a massive turnaround in fortune from 2019 to 2021.

To hear how far James has come to when he started to where he is now is truly an inspiring story. How one man had a dream for something greater and was brave enough to take the steps necessary to make it happen. James Sanders is the MD and owner of PSR Group Limited. An award-winning recruitment consultancy specialising in construction and healthcare. Having spent the early part of his career working for others in the recruitment industry, James set up PSR over 15 years ago with an idea to grow and build a business that was best in class. Today, it employs over 120 staff across seven offices and was crowned Business of the Year in 2017. His approach is people first with a continuous thirst for improvement.

Anastasia Jobson is a professional photographer and videographer based in Birmingham, England. Born and raised in Russia, Anastasia has lived and worked in four different countries. Formerly a professional dancer, now she combines her passion for dance and movement with capturing it both in images and film. A fashion lover, she turns her inspiration from Vogue magazines into creative fashion photography and magazine-style business portraits and headshots. Finding it difficult to actually get her first few clients, Anastasia has been able to build on her client base and now works with all different kinds of people around the country.

Tanya and her boyfriend (and business partner Fraser) have always been massively into fitness and having a passion for the gym, so when we all went into lockdown in March 2020, they both struggled with the thought of having to work out at home with the limited equipment they had. Putting all of their skills on the table, they wanted to create an inclusive brand, focused around empowering women to be the best they can be. They wanted women to stand out, be bold and feeling beautiful whilst working out. And thus Bootybelle was born. Balancing a full time job, a new business, whilst also studying was tricky for the both of them, but as they said "there no better time to do all this than in lockdown!"

Mark is one of the owners of the multi-award-winning agency Digital 22, the largest HubSpot Diamond agency in the UK. Digital 22 generates millions of pounds a year in revenue using inbound and video marketing. As well as being named HubSpot Partner of the Year for 2018, they also collected numerous awards including Digital Entrepreneur of the Year, National Entrepreneur of the Year and Red Rose Employer of the Year in 2019. Mark's passion is to teach how to create 'out of the box' video marketing to exponentially grow companies through more sales and revenue like nothing we've ever seen. A trusted partner to Google, Vidyard, Wistia, Bing and HubSpot, Digital 22 thrives on seeing companies reach their full potential. Utilising the inbound marketing methodology, a proven framework for digital marketing, Digital 22 has taken established companies to the next level.

Sam Coy took a school from under performing to WINNING school of the year in 2 years... and he was 28 years old!! Sam is the Associate Education Director for East Midlands, Thames Valley and London at Anthem Schools Trust alongside being the Executive Headteacher at Benjamin Adlard Primary School (Gainsborough) and Mount Street Academy (Lincoln). Sam has spoken at educational conferences about making a difference and practical leadership. Sam’s team focused on ‘Making a Difference’ in one of the most deprived wards in England trying to overcome excessive social mobility and high crime rates. His personal mantra is ‘It’s not magic, it’s about caring.

Currently based in London, Connie is a health & beauty blogger who promotes healthy living, body confidence, self love and beauty Inside Out. She has written and released a recipe book, which tells her story and how she finally found a happy relationship with her body and food and also started her own podcast talking to a host of inspirational individuals about everything in life.

Clementine Macliver is a Chartered Accountant, Personal Trainer and Online Coach from Birmingham. She has been an accountant for nearly 7 years now and a part time PT for just over a year. When she is working you will find Clem either in the gym, or out with the girls. Clem is also looking at working within the NHS as a Patient Safety Consultant, she has many different aspirations and wants to achieve every single one of them.

Adriano makes genuine connections and develops a positive relationship with the artists he works with in order to create authentic and powerful music. Working out of his studio 'Revolution nine', he aims to help songwriters with their creative steps forward, adding value to their journey. Based in the UK, Adriano studied a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Musicianship and shortly after graduating set up his project studio where he creates with artists and songwriters as a freelance music producer. Adriano's productions have received radio play from the BBC and Amazing radio, boasting his ability to hook an audience with his production style. His love for production comes from his passion for detail and expression. He's spent the better part of the last seven years honing skills in a way that will help songwriters and artists take their songs from demos to radio ready productions.

Katie is a 26 year-old international athlete that has represented England and Great Britain on several occasions. She started running aged 12 years-old for a south London based athletics club that she still runs for today. Junior success included Commonwealth Youth Games 800m gold aged 16 years-old whilst at secondary school. Katie went onto study Geography at University of Nottingham and commuted to Loughborough University for training. After graduating she continued to run full-time with the help of being funded by British Athletics World Class Programme. Her running highlight in recent years has been competing at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018 reaching the 1500m final. Injury has hampered the last couple of years but Katie is back on track now aiming to qualify for European Indoors in March and Tokyo Olympics in July (Covid permitting!).