82 episodes

Welcome to the Ideas Lab Podcast, where you can learn from the world’s greatest creative and entrepreneurial minds to help you turn your ideas into original businesses, books and brands – because in a crowded world, it pays to stand out.

Your host is John Williams, bestselling author of 'Screw Work Let’s Play' and 'Screw Work Break Free' and founder of The Ideas Lab London.

Our focus is on the rebels, creatives and innovators with a new take on their topic that has allowed them to carve out a space that is all their own - from Saskia Nelson, the world's first dating profile photographer, to the New York Times bestselling author, Dan Pink exploding myths about productivity, to therapist Jerry Hyde taking his clients on a unique experience with plant medicines in Nepal.

Subscribe now to get inspired, learn something new, and get ideas for your next creative project.

The Ideas Lab Podcast John Williams

    • Business
    • 4.7 • 17 Ratings

Welcome to the Ideas Lab Podcast, where you can learn from the world’s greatest creative and entrepreneurial minds to help you turn your ideas into original businesses, books and brands – because in a crowded world, it pays to stand out.

Your host is John Williams, bestselling author of 'Screw Work Let’s Play' and 'Screw Work Break Free' and founder of The Ideas Lab London.

Our focus is on the rebels, creatives and innovators with a new take on their topic that has allowed them to carve out a space that is all their own - from Saskia Nelson, the world's first dating profile photographer, to the New York Times bestselling author, Dan Pink exploding myths about productivity, to therapist Jerry Hyde taking his clients on a unique experience with plant medicines in Nepal.

Subscribe now to get inspired, learn something new, and get ideas for your next creative project.

    Laurence Shorter on creativity, burnout, and the art of having no idea

    Laurence Shorter on creativity, burnout, and the art of having no idea

    What is the impact on us as human beings when we never have a single spare moment, when we fill every minute with doing something productive, or even looking at our phones in order to kill time?
    That's a question that gripped Laurence Shorter after he'd written a really successful book and toured it around the world and found himself to be completely burnt out.
    And that's when Laurence started thinking about the art of having no idea.
    Laurence is a leadership consultant, an author, comedian and an artist. I've known him for somewhere around a decade when he spoke at my event, Scanners Night, for people with too many ideas and too many interests and lots of creativity. He is a scanner himself, and he has fascinating things to say about being a multifaceted human being and managing his own creative process.
    Best Wishes,
    John
     
    For full links and notes please visit: 
    https://theideaslab.org/laurenceshorter-artofhavingnoidea
    ______________________________________________________________
    Music provided by Argofox:
    TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
    https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

    • 35 min
    How Charlie and Harry Thuillier turned their idea for the world’s first healthy ice cream into an international food business

    How Charlie and Harry Thuillier turned their idea for the world’s first healthy ice cream into an international food business

    This episode of the podcast is a real adventure. It's one of my favourites. Charlie Thuillier was on a world record breaking kite buggy adventure with his brother Harry in Brazil, when he had a great idea, which was partly inspired by reading my first book, Screw Work Let's Play on a beach in Brazil.
    That idea was to create the world's first healthy ice cream. Today, Oppo ice cream is a reality. It's a product you can buy in thousands of stores all around Europe, and it's won multiple taste awards.
    Listen to the interview to find out how Charlie and his brother Harry went from sleeping on the floor of a borrowed office to creating their own successful international food brand. And you can also read more about their story and how Harry and Charlie worked together as a team within the company. In my new book, F**k Work Let's Play
     
    Best Wishes,
    John
     
    For full links and notes please visit: 
    https://theideaslab.org/charliethuillier-oppoicecream
    ______________________________________________________________
    Music provided by Argofox:
    TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
    https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

    • 27 min
    How to attend the world’s first F**k Work Day

    How to attend the world’s first F**k Work Day

    A special episode on John’s new bestselling book ‘F**k Work Let’s Play: Do what you love and get paid for it’ and how to get a free ticket to the world’s first F**k Work Day.

    See fworkletsplay.com for more details on the special offer 

    • 8 min
    Jody Day on creating a global movement for women and turning her passion into a successful social enterprise

    Jody Day on creating a global movement for women and turning her passion into a successful social enterprise

    If you want to start a movement that changes the way people all around the world think about a particular topic, then this will be a really interesting conversation for you to listen to.
    Jody Day is the founder of Gateway Women, which has helped millions of women around the world to come to terms with involuntary childlessness.
    The social enterprise that now has touched millions of women's lives was started in 30 days, in a course I used to run 10 years ago, called The 30 day challenge.
    Jody is also featured in my new book, F**k Work Let's Play: How to do what you love and get paid for it, as an example of somebody who's created a social enterprise and business around something she is very passionate about.
    And so I wanted to dive into more detail here about:
    How she started that business in 30 days with a couple of things that seemed like very small steps, and then how she managed to get through all the setbacks inherent in starting a business. Her own approach to running a social enterprise. How she's managed to scale up far beyond what she could have ever done as an individual psychotherapist. Some of the challenges she ran into when she moved from doing everything completely for free to charging a very modest amount. This is a fascinating conversation that spans the issues of involuntary childlessness right the way to marketing and entrepreneurship.


    Best Wishes,
    John
     
    For full links and notes please visit: 
    https://theideaslab.org/jodyday-gatewaywomen
    ______________________________________________________________
    Music provided by Argofox:
    TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
    https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

    • 48 min
    How Sam Bompas & Harry Parr turned their crazy experiments with food into a pioneering international business

    How Sam Bompas & Harry Parr turned their crazy experiments with food into a pioneering international business

    When I first met Sam Bombas and Harry Parr over a decade ago, they were just a couple of young guys doing some wacky things with food, including creating breathable cocktails and designer jellies.
    I thought what they were doing was so interesting and so playful, that I featured them in my first book Screw Worl Let's Play, which was published in 2010.
    When I checked in with Sam and Harry at the beginning of the year to find out how they were doing, as I set about writing a new version of that book now called F**k Work, Let's Play and published by Pearson imminently, I discovered that they built what were fun experiments with food into an international flavour studio that has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world.
    If you've ever had a crazy idea that you thought was just too out there, perhaps to make it real. Listen to this interview and get inspired and make your crazy ideas into a real business.


    Best Wishes,
    John
     
    For full links and notes please visit: 
    https://theideaslab.org/bompasandparr-flavourstudio
    ______________________________________________________________
    Music provided by Argofox:
    TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
    https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

    • 34 min
    How to change the world – with Tristram Stuart

    How to change the world – with Tristram Stuart

    This is a really powerful episode of the ideas lab podcast. Many of us have ideas about how to change the world for the better. How to take a campaign or a message or cause and make a real impact possibly around the entire world.
    Few of us achieve that. But Tristram Stuart has done. A few years back, Christian decided that he wanted to gather 5000 people in London's Trafalgar Square and feed them with hearty, healthy food made from ingredients that otherwise would have been thrown in the rubbish.
    To find out what happened and the impact it had that reverberated around the world, and how it led on to him creating a new beer brand called Toast Ale made from discarded bread slices - listen to this remarkable episode.
     
    Best Wishes,
    John
     
    For full links and notes please visit: 
    https://theideaslab.org/tristramstuart-feedingthe5000
    ______________________________________________________________
    Music provided by Argofox:
    TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish
    https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

    • 36 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
17 Ratings

17 Ratings

Lesleyhoss ,

Outstanding guests

I love every episode of John’s podcasts. The guests are all really interesting and the topics ones I am unlikely to come across elsewhere. John is a really animated interviewer and I always feel like I’m in the conversation.

Rachel-2222 ,

Mark Walsh is abusive, and that’s not what this podcast is portraying him as

Having been around Mark Walsch and his offerings it’s obvious that his abusiveness is an issue - being offensive in the name of a good cause can occasionally be liberating , but Marks modus operandi, is to “express his emotions authentically” in other words be abusive to others , and then to shut down , rage at , try to control others “authentic” responses to his quite frankly , horrific behaviour

I.e, he claims he wants a “civilised “ conversation. When he is being “attacked” (usually in response to something he has done ) but refuses pointblank to offer the same courtesy to others, unless of course , he wants something for them

I can only advise people to stay far, far away

wfhangela ,

Smart working smart advice

Really helpful and very timely - I’ll certainly be putting the traffic light system into practice in my house and will share with my team too - great idea thanks! 🤩

Top Podcasts In Business

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
DOAC
The Martin Lewis Podcast
BBC Radio 5 Live
Money Stuff: The Podcast
Bloomberg
A Book with Legs
Smead Capital Management
Big Fish with Spencer Matthews
Global
Working Hard, Hardly Working
Grace Beverley