We explore the intersection of work, identity, meaning-making, and values-based business so that we can craft a remarkable life. Join veteran business owner Brook McCarthy, as she lifts the lid on her own, and other people's businesses, to ask all the impertinent questions that you're too polite to ask. We look at working for love AND money, explore the paradoxes of ambition and mindfulness, look at the work behind the work, and redefine building a business in the 21st century in a way that truly works.
What if your worst business moments could be alchemised into your greatest competitive advantage?
My biggest and most successful clients have one thing in common: they've normalised failure and learned how to use setbacks as rocket fuel to power their next audacious move.
In this episode, I share my catalogue of business failures, a cancelled California retreat, a mid-air hijacking on the way to a teaching gig in Kuala Lumpur, $30,000 in face-to-face bookings wiped out in a single week in March 2020, and a life-altering misadventure overseas at age 21.
You'll hear:
Why I love when prospective clients share stories of struggle on sales calls and why this hints at their being a coachable client
The crucial difference between business owners who use failure as fuel and those who let everyday setbacks spiral into identity crises
The danger of circumstances that are too comfortable (and how comfort kills motivation)
Why reliving your wins somatically is more important than intellectually acknowledging them
Dolly Parton's immortal words on keeping yourself in the game.
15 Sept 2026
The Final Push
The last quarter of the calendar year is the biggest for many professional services businesses. A good final quarter pulls the business into the next year.
So how do we map our final push for the year with launches?
Launching makes possible what one-to-one selling doesn't by reaching strangers, selling through your content, creating urgency and making offers without relying on one-to-one sales calls.
Launching isn't just for people with group programs, masterminds, or big leveraged offers. It can be used to sell almost anything, including one-to-one done-for-you services.
The end-of-year frenzy is coming. Black Friday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, holidays so how could you use the final quarter to create your biggest revenue quarter yet?
If you're keen on a big final push for the year, this episode is for you.
You'll learn:
Why most business owners have been creating new offerings upside down and back to front.
Brook's litany of spectacular flop launches, including the one launch she ghosted in favour of a worthy fascinating side quest involving a spreadsheet, a very full car, and an absolutely enormous amount of furniture.
That horrible, barren wasteland in the middle of a launch when nobody seems to be buying? It might feel like failure. But what if it isn't?
There's one thing you need to believe before you launch because secretly expecting your launch to fail is a bit like driving with the handbrake on.
The uncomfortable lesson about success that capitalism and patriarchy has taught us that is massively hindering our launches - and what to do instead
What it actually means to reach through screens to pluck the heartstrings of strangers, selling directly through your content
How to make your offer relevant to what's happening *right now* and the question Brook always asks about her ideal clients when creating launch marketing
The difference between an audience and a community - and why it matters
Why your launch strategy isn't a content calendar.
Want to turn your launch into a genuine strategy rather than just a vibe and good intentions? This episode is invaluable.
Join Brook on September 24 for her free workshop, The Final Push: Map your Launch.
We're getting stuck in together, to get all the important pieces down on paper, including your timelines, financial goals, audience-building, live experiments and everything that needs to happen before launch day.
Nab your spot now: https://www.hustleandheart.com.au/launch-season/ (https://www.hustleandheart.com.au/launch-season/)
2 Sept 2026
When loving your work becomes workaholism
'Love what you do and you'll never work a day in your life' the saying goes. Sounds good, yes? But for far too many small business owners, investing time, effort, energy and money into building your business often tips into workaholism. You're telling yourself that these hours are well invested, as you're building your own asset. Until it tips into routinely working weekends, ruining family holidays, hiding from friends and family when you should be out there, socialising, and living, breathing and sleeping work.
In this episode, I get brutally honest about the holidays I've ruined through my work. This episode is a confession, a diagnosis, and an intervention all at once, unpacking the addiction hiding inside "hard work" and "passion" that so many self-employed people will never admit to out loud.
You'll learn:
Why the holiday that "should have been spectacular" still gives me a tinge of sadness — and what I'd do differently if I had my time over
The paradox of the profit and loss statement: why working flat out often means your business goes nowhere at all
A specific cognitive performance statistic that explains why you can't think your way out of burnout using the same brain that got you there
Six warning signs about your productivity — including one about sitcoms which might hit uncomfortably close to home
Why "rest as a reward" is one of the most damaging beliefs a business owner can carry, and what to replace it with instead.
If you suspect you might have a problem working too hard, this episode is the key to unlock less stress, more focus, and far more fun.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Spotify
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 39 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
51
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
68
Host of Meaningful Work, Remarkable Life?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
