Life Design Diaries | Entrepreneurs Traveling The World: Investing, Startup, Digital Nomad, Ecommerce, Property, Business

When Oliver Bolton ordered 250,000 cans of his new drinks brand without any external market validation what so ever, he probably found himself in a little bit of a rut. Fast forward to today, he has not only made a success of that first business but evolved to create various drinks brands that you may have come across. The particular brand I’m familiar with and enjoy is ‘What A Melon’ which is a brand of watermelon water.  In this conversation, Olly tells us how the idea for ‘What A Melon’ was born, his experience winning the Richard Brandson backed Virgin VOOM crowdfunded campaign which raising £77,000 and what life is now like as a drinks brand owner stocked in most food and drink retailers in the UK. I spoke to Olly at their London HQ surrounded by as much melon merchandise as you could imagine. The walls were melon, the drinks were melon, the carpets were melon there was even a melon bike in the room. Please enjoy my conversation with Oliver bolton REFERENCES What A Melon Waterbomb Almond.io Crowdfunder

“I’ve spent my life always wanting to have my own business” Welcome to another episode of life design diaries where Lucy and I share simplified knowledge to help you live a fulfilling life on your own terms. Now, if you’ve ever found yourself wanting a business but you just don’t have the idea yet then this interview is for you! Andy Jefferies from Dock & Bay tells us his story  of how he struggled to find his business idea, how he eventually found it, and the rapid journey that has now lead him on. This journey includes quitting his corporate career, going travelling and eventually arriving at Dragons Den, which for our American listeners is similar to shark tank. Dock and Bay’s first product was the original quick-dry beach towels and with a polished pitch and beautiful brand, they not only secured Deborah Meaden as a new business partner but the grabbed the attention of the public watching and sold over 6000 units in 48 hours. Another persons attention they captured was mine, and so thats why I’m parti

Predictably Irrational By Dan Ariely is the seventh & final book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the book The key lesson we took from the book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from Predictably Irrational. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know at  https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com This episode is the last in our mini series - The 7 Books That Changed Our Lives. If you haven’t listened to the other episodes, make sure you check them out now. REFERENCES Predictably Irrational By Dan Ariely CATCH LIFE DESIGN DIARIES ON Website Instagram Facebook Thanks, Ross + Lucy

How To Win Friends And Influence People By Dale Carnegie is the sixth book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the book The key lesson we took from the book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from How To Win Friends & Influence People. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know at  https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com This episode is part of our mini series - The 7 Books That Changed Our Lives. If you haven’t listened to the other episodes, make sure you check them out. REFERENCES How To Win Friends And Influence People By Dale Carnegie CATCH LIFE DESIGN DIARIES ON Website Instagram Facebook Thanks, Ross + Lucy

The 4-Hour Work Week By Tim Ferriss is the fifth book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the book The key lesson we took from the book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from The 4 Hour Work Week. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know at  https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com This episode is part of our mini series - The 7 Books That Changed Our Lives. If you haven’t listened to the other episodes, make sure you check them out. REFERENCES The 4-Hour Work Week By Tim Ferriss CATCH LIFE DESIGN DIARIES ON Website Instagram Facebook Thanks, Ross + Lucy

Derek Sivers’ Blog on drama is the fourth book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series.  “Having drama in your life is a choice” This is actually a blog post rather than a book however it’s such a great piece of writing and has had such an impact on our lives that we wanted to include it in this mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the blog The key lesson we took from the blog How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too   Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from Derek Sivers’ Blog. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know at https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com This episode is part of our mini series - The 7 Books That Changed Our Lives. If you haven’t listened to the other episodes, make sure you check them out. REFERENCES Derek Sivers’ Blog on drama Our blog on no drama The Obstacle Is The Way - Ryan Holiday   CATCH LIFE DESIGN DIARIES ON Website Instagram Facebo

The Book Of Joy by Dalai Lama is the third book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the book The key lesson we took from the book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too   Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from The Book Of Joy. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know at https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com This episode is part of our mini series - The 7 Books That Changed Our Lives. If you haven’t listened to the other episodes, make sure you check them out. REFERENCES The Book Of Joy by Dalai Lama CATCH LIFE DESIGN DIARIES ON Website Instagram Facebook   Thanks, Ross + Lucy  

The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson is the second book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the book The key lesson we took from the book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too   Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from The Slight Edge. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know at https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com This episode is part of our mini series - The 7 Books That Changed Our Lives. If you haven’t listened to the other episodes, make sure you check them out. REFERENCES The Slight Edge - Jeff Olson CATCH LIFE DESIGN DIARIES ON Website Instagram Facebook   Thanks, Ross + Lucy

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki is the first book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the book The key lesson we took from the book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too   Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from Rich Dad Poor Dad. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know at https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com This episode is part of our mini series - The 7 Books That Changed Our Lives. If you haven’t listened to the other episodes, make sure you check them out. REFERENCES Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki CATCH LIFE DESIGN DIARIES ON Website Instagram Facebook Thanks, Ross + Lucy

This is our first mini series covering The 7 Books That Changed Our Lives. Books are a key part of our education and we get asked for book recommendations a lot from our listeners. Because of this, we wanted to put together a mini series covering our favourites to give you a great insight of each. These will not simply be book reviews however. Instead, we want to pick out the key lesson we've taken from each book and how we applied it so you can see tangible application of the lessons in each book. In this mini series, you will find out: A short overview of each book The key lesson we took from each book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too   We’d love to hear your book recommendations! Head over to https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com to get in touch and listen to the whole mini series. Ross + Lucy

On this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES, we answer another one of your questions. If you would like to ASK us a question, please visit https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com/ask Here is the question in full: “Often It feels like women need to have it all, career, family, beauty, social life, domestic control, finances in check. Statistically, even when women are in high power jobs they still end up doing more of the ‘home’ tasks... it’s just feels HARD. Even though it’s probably more equal than it ever has been. Lucy do you ever struggle with your identity as a ‘woman’ and which of these things you ‘should be’ doing? And do you think Ross has the same worries? Ross - for you as a white man, do you have any advice to woman feeling under confident because of these pressures?” We candidly discuss how women progress and stand on an equal playing field in 2018, and our thoughts on how women can grow a family and work at the same time. We also talk about how clickbait, fake news and influential voices are incorrectly inf

Approaching our sixth month travelling the world and only two weeks until we briefly touch ground on UK soil, we’ve found ourselves in quite a reflective mood on our experience to date. In this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES we look back at what we’ve learned whilst travelling the world, how we will be applying these lessons in the future and how you can too. In a short space of time, we’ve travelled to 14 countries and had countless experiences that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives. We’ve summarised the top lessons into 4 points to make it easy for us to remember and for you to apply. Listen to the episode to hear what our top 4 lessons learned whilst travelling the world are! _ 20% OFF ALL TETTA PRODUCTS This episode is bought to you by TETTA one of Lucy’s very own companies. We’re extremely proud and excited to bring you this landmark episode by TETTA as it’s also an announcement of a big milestone for the company this week. Having achieved a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, this week TE

After a few weeks of feeling frustrated, irritated and overwhelmed, Ross finally has a breakthrough on getting out of his own mind to help push his businesses and ideas forward. This common phase many people - business owners or employees - face, is all too common and tricky to alleviate. We take you through the steps Ross took, and his advice on how he arrived feeling much more in control and productive. In this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES, we take you through: Over thinking is bad for business Chunking down your vision to simple steps in 24 hour periods How to go from thinking to doing It’s ok to be naive Finding the perfect wrong answer Failing is the only path Our advice comes from inspiration from the Humans of New York interview with Tim Ferris and also taking some lessons from TETTA. We hope you enjoy this episode and it helps you if you’re feeling stuck or deflated. We’d really love to hear you tips and hacks you find helpful too. Please share with us via our Instagram @lifedesigndiaries or via o

A big happy birthday to the Dalai Lama, a big source of inspiration for today’s podcast. “The three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous.” - Dalai Lama We take you through our thoughts after Lucy was recently praised for being selfish. Something she immediately thought of as a negative trait and took offence too. However, it inspired her to ponder on the topic and try to better understand the motivation of the comment. We discuss the difference between happiness and joy, feeling guilty for doing what you love, biting the bullet, if you were in a life threatening car accident, and learning how to take the positives in everything life throws at you. Lucy’s Joy Exercise What would bring me more joy? ie. learning something new, (for me it’s aromatherapy when I’m home) What holds back joy? ie. comparing yourself to others What negative th

In this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES, we answer two listener questions: Would you go back into employment Would society be better if freelancing was the norm? We give two different perspectives based on each of our experiences and share two differing opinions for you to consider. We’ve both been employed, freelanced and owned our own businesses and are really glad one of you asked this question as it’s a topic we know so many people debate daily. We hope our perspectives help you with your own situation and supports you to take the path you want.  If you would like us to answer one of your questions in a future episode, please head over to lifedesigndiaries.com/question and submit your question now.   REFERENCES People Per Hour Ask us a Question Design Drop Email | Sign Up Here   CATCH LIFE DESIGN DIARIES ON Website Instagram Facebook Please leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoyed this episode. We'll read out your review in a later episode!  Lucy + Ross   If you're keen to start a business, make a

We discuss how significant or rather insignificant our human lives are. Yes this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES gets pretty deep! We also tackle the topic of PERMISSION because if we internalise just how short a time we have on this planet, then why is it we have things we want to do yet don’t do them? Who are we waiting for to give us permission? How can we operate in a way that we take control and pursue the things we want without getting caught up and hindered by life’s many challenges? We cover a lot in this episode including: Time How to change your perspective Overcoming stresses and holding grudges How to use a fear of dying as a positive, humbling motivator Focussing on what’s within your control How and why you really can do whatever you want to do in this world How tech is changing the way we capture and share info Permission How only you can give yourself permission to do what you want Feedback. Seeking feedback and understanding its context Tips for taking advise, including your own Thinking/know

When to have kids? Where to have kids? Can you travel with kids? In this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES we answer your question about children. If you would like us to answer one of your questions in a future episode, please head over to lifedesigndiaries.com/question and submit your question. This episode is slightly new territory for us and so we would love to know what you think. The topic of children and when/where to possibly have them is not an easy one! We’re sharing our current views on the subject and would love to hear your feedback on how you find this episode in comparison to our usual ones.    REFERENCES Ask us a Question Design Drop Email | Sign Up Here   CATCH LIFE DESIGN DIARIES ON Website Instagram Facebook   Please leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoyed this episode. We'll read out some of your feedback in our later episodes!    Lucy + Ross   If you're keen to start a business, make a change, become an entrepreneur, travel the world, become a digital nomad or any of the above, this p

This episode is all about property and investing. We answer your question that has been submitted via our website:  “Please advise on how to get on the property ladder. Also how do you identify what’s a good investment?” If you would like to ask us a question for a future episode, please head over to https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com/question It’s important to remember that property is a type of investment and as with any investment, there are pros and cons.  We share our experience and learnings of building a property portfolio which of course starts with buying our first property. How we did I it and different ways in which you can get into property investing.  We talk about the importance of saving. Plus how you can educate yourself on money to improve your all round financial education.  As well as an overview, we also discuss the specifics of what to look for in a solid property investment. Where to buy and what fundamentals to look for.  We get asked a lot about how we’ve managed to build a large proper

We discuss the tricky last month we’ve had travelling which the develops into a more detailed conversation on stress.  Recording this from Sri Lanka, we’ve recently experienced the uncomfortable periods and moments that come with travel and discuss our last few weeks in Chaing Mai Thailand.  Travelling the world has so many upsides: the experiences, new cultures and freedom you have, however there is also a sacrifice that comes with travel. This week we discuss what those sacrifices are and give an insight into the negative side of travel. Stress Our topic of the week is stress. How and when we’ve felt stressed in the past and what we do to overcome stress.  We talk about the different types of stress and what you can do to change your own perspective that can benefit you and leave you feeling more positive. Lucy has some interesting techniques and exercises for managing her mentality which we also wanted to share.  We hope you enjoy this episode! References Design Drop Email | Sign Up Here   CATCH LIFE DES

This conversation delves far deeper than just Amazon tips. When Irina Balyurko approached me to be on the show, I was particularly interested to hear how she realized that climbing the corporate ladder was taking her in the opposite direction of how she wanted to live. She took the decision to leave her prestigious role as a VP and go travelling with her husband and at the time, 18 month old son. In this episode, we dig into into Irina’s story, how she evaluates risk, what it’s like travelling with a young son, and how to be stand out and be successful on Amazon. The worlds largest online retailer Amazon is a huge opportunity for anyone wanting to explore commerce and selling products online. Irina is now an e-commerce strategist who helps product-based brands launch and thrive on Amazon. Over her career, Irina has helped hundreds of brands generate millions of dollars in sales on Amazon, and achieve such results as, doubling sales in 3 months, and growing over 500% in sales in a year. We also discuss some of