Reflective Rebels Podcast: Human Stories, Brave Business

There's a version of running your own business that looks great from the outside. Freedom, flexibility, being your own boss. And then there's what it actually feels like at 2am when you can't switch your brain off, surrounded by people you can't be honest with because they're either competition or clients or colleagues you need to look capable in front of. Reflective Rebels community member Abigai...

Emma Sherlock had her own show on BBC Radio Cumbria. She'd been a journalist for the best part of two decades. She knew exactly who she was and what she was doing and she was very good at it. And then she walked into the family business and none of it counted. She went in as a very experienced journalist and a very green businesswoman. Made mistakes with people. Was quite strongly disliked. Felt p...

Greg Johnston's favourite day of the week is Friday. Fish and chips, a film with the girls, easing into the weekend. The kind of simple, ordinary joy that doesn't need explaining. It took a lot to get there. Greg and his wife Jill lost their daughter Evie in September 2015, six months after she was born. On the night she died, they made a decision - her life was going to have a positive impact. Te...

There's a kind of exhaustion that a good night's sleep doesn't touch. You know the one. Everything looks fine from the outside, but on the inside you're one smashed glass at half ten at night away from losing it completely. Listen if... You're holding it together on the outside but running on empty on the inside You've turned self-care into another standard you're failing to meet You track your sl...

Not fitting in doesn't always look like being left out. Sometimes it's just a quiet sense that wherever you are, you're slightly on the outside of it. Kim Anson spent years feeling like that, working three jobs at once, stuck and skint, with pottery always running quietly in the background. Now she runs her own studio in Carlisle where people walk in and the stress drops off their shoulders. It di...

You started this business for freedom. But somewhere along the way it became the thing trapping you. You're physically there every day because it feels like it won't run without you. You're emotionally carrying every decision, every salary, every problem. And mentally, your brain never switches off, not at five o'clock, not at ten, not at two in the morning. In this solo episode, Ben talks about t...

You love what you do. You're proud of what you've built. But somewhere along the way, the business stopped being something you run and started being something that runs you. You can't remember the last time you properly switched off. Neil McBrearty has been in the carpet and flooring trade for over 35 years. He left school at 16, fell into a trade through his dad's contacts, and built a business f...

Starting over after redundancy is terrifying, especially when you've got no savings, no plan and no idea what comes next. Lisa Jackson was made redundant three weeks before Christmas, came home to Cumbria, started doing marketing for ten quid an hour, and built Acorn Marketing from scratch. Fifteen years on, she's still running it, still juggling business with motherhood and caring for her dad, an...

Career change looks brave from the outside and feels like daily panic from the inside. Abigail Fleming spent fifteen years as a fashion designer in London before she did the maths on nursery fees, retrained from scratch, and started Ben the Hoose, her interior design business in Kendal. Four years in, she's still building, still scared, still going. Listen if... You feel a low hum of panic even wh...

You know that feeling where your career looks successful from the outside but it's quietly running you into the ground? Rebecca Bird was an MD, on anxiety pills and sleeping pills, so deep in the burnout cycle she couldn't see how bad things had got. In this episode she talks about walking away from all of it and starting again at 50 with nothing but a Canva flyer and three months' worth of belief...

Something weird happens when things are actually going well. You hit your targets, good stuff is happening, and then one piece of bad news lands and suddenly that's the only thing you can see. This episode is about why your brain does that, and what you can actually do about it. Listen if you... You've hit a goal you've been chasing for months and felt absolutely nothing when you got there. You kn...

Most of us have a thing we keep almost doing. The idea we talk ourselves out of before it gets any air. The decision we're saving for when we feel more ready. Cat Park has never really understood that instinct. Her answer to a crossroads has almost always been the same: why not? If it doesn't work, change it. This conversation is about what it actually looks like to live that way. Listen if you......

There's a thing you've been putting off. Ben nearly didn't make this episode for the same reason: fear of failure, fear of judgement, fear of looking like a plonker in front of people he respects. This solo episode is him thinking out loud about what actually stops us from doing the things we want to do, recorded walking up a hill in Cumbria because sometimes you just have to go. Listen if you......

Lou wakes up every morning and her brain tells her she can't do it. That she's not good enough. That she should quit. Every day. And then she does it anyway. Lou is the founder of an animation studio (built in Carlisle, run internationally) with credits on CBeebies and a viral flying pig racking up 16 million Giphy views in four months. She's been told by recruiters she'd never make it. By doctors...

When the version of your life that looked “right” stops feeling like you , what happens next? In this conversation, Jim talks honestly about the long arc of his working life: teaching in London, climbing the leadership ladder, reaching a point where the system no longer fed his soul, and the quiet realisation that something had to change. We talk about identity, ambition, leaving a career that onc...

If you have been feeling a quiet shift in yourself that you cannot quite name but you know is there, this conversation might give you some company. Ricky talks about the moments that shaped him, the things he has let go of, and the parts of himself he is finding again. We go from childhood memories of being the tech obsessed “shiny buttons” kid, to DJing in dark clubs, to building a tech agency, t...

Theresa has lived many lives... across continents, careers, and versions of herself. From a childhood in Zimbabwe and South Africa to teenage years in Portugal and now life in Carlisle, she’s spent years learning what it means to belong, to rebuild, and to finally take up space as the adult version of herself. In this conversation, she talks about movement, motherhood, grief, and growing into the...

Do you measure yourself by what you've accomplished instead of how you actually feel? Laura did. Chief executive of a charity, studying for a degree, doing two voluntary roles, raising her son as a single parent. When people asked how she was, she'd rattle off what she'd achieved. "Yeah, I'm great, I'm fine." Her friends knew it was coming. She didn't. One afternoon at 3pm, her skin started crawli...

Do you spend all week waiting for Friday evening to finally do your real work? Not the emails, not the meetings - the work that actually matters to you? Beatrix does. She waits all week for what she calls "mythological time" - when she can finally shift away from everyone else's demands and into genuine creative work. The problem: The to-do list could now fill seven days a week. Operational tasks...

Episode Summary Ever felt like you're too comfortable? Too insulated from real experiences? Ray's story follows a man who's spent his life saying "yes" to random invitations, from "do you want to come climbing?" at a carnival to adventures that nearly killed him in Peru. If you're feeling stuck in routines or wondering whether you should follow that thing that's been calling to you, Ray's story sh...

What do you do when your body says "enough" before you're ready? Patricia's story: From working in finance in Hong Kong, to prison counseling, to stroke recovery - and why slowing down might not be the worst thing that could happen. Listen if you: Feel like you're always pushing through, never slowing down Worry about what happens if you can't keep up the pace Are dealing with health issues that h...

What happens when life feels like a prison? Ewa's story: From hiding her Polish identity to COVID breakdown to manifesting her way out of financial terror - and why she had to become "delusional" about money. Listen if you: Feel trapped by your own life Struggle with money mindset and limiting beliefs Hide parts of yourself to fit in Wonder if there's more to life than what you're currently doing...

Episode Summary: What do you hold onto when everything falls apart? Craig's story: From Bell's palsy at 15 to his partner's terminal cancer diagnosis, plus the Acer tree that became his anchor through it all. Listen if you: Feel like life keeps throwing curveballs at you Wonder how some people stay grounded during chaos Need to hear that kindness and humor matter more than having it all figured ou...

Episode Summary: If you've ever felt anxious when things are actually going well, this episode is for you. Martha's story: How stability triggered anxiety, why "I'm not creative" became her biggest lie, and what wild swimming taught her about being human. Listen if you: Feel anxious even when you "should" be grateful Tell yourself stories about what you can't do Wonder why the good times sometimes...

For business owners whose days define them instead of the other way around. Who do everything for everybody else while drifting through their own existence. Real people putting down their masks and sharing what's actually happening in their lives - not the LinkedIn version, but the honest truth about struggle AND joy, mess AND meaning. The kind of conversations that make you think, 'I'm not the on...