In this powerful and deeply human conversation, I sit down with Charlotte Ricca, performance psychologist, former journalist, sea swimmer, horse rider, and passionate advocate for emotional literacy, to explore what success really means when life feels overwhelming.

This episode goes far beyond high performance.

Charlotte shares candidly about:

• navigating burnout, anxiety, and periods of depression
• changing her relationship with alcohol
• learning to sit with discomfort rather than mask it
• balancing ambition, motherhood, identity, and self-worth
• and why choosing connection over being right can transform relationships

This is an honest conversation about:

✨ mental health

✨ parenting

✨ redefining success

✨ suicide prevention

✨ emotional resilience

✨ values, purpose, and presence

If you’ve ever felt pressure to “hold it together”, to perform, or to keep going when things feel heavy — this episode will land.

00:00 – Introduction

02:30 – “Are you alright… really?” and showing up authentically

07:00 – Finding glimmers: joy, nature, sea swimming & presence

11:00 – Alcohol, identity & changing coping mechanisms

18:30 – Masking discomfort vs sitting with emotions

22:30 – Why confidence follows action (not the other way around)

27:00 – Anxiety, fear & reframing pressure as privilege

32:00 – Emotional literacy, parenting & allowing children to feel

39:00 – Guilt, self-care & choosing yourself without shame

45:00 – Identity beyond roles: parent, athlete, professional

52:00 – Success, money & redefining what “enough” really means

59:00 – Career pivots, purpose & living without regret

1:05:00 – Overwhelm, burnout & taking one small step at a time

1:12:00 – Depression, hope & why feelings always pass

1:18:00 – Suicide prevention: asking the hard questions

1:26:00 – Teaching kids emotional regulation & resilience

1:34:00 – Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation

1:41:00 – Living in alignment with your values

1:56:00 – Advice to younger self

2:04:00 – Final question: choosing connection over being right

You don’t need to fix everything.

You don’t need to feel “on” all the time.

Sometimes, staying alive, staying present, and taking one small step is success.

🎧 LISTEN TO MORE DIFFERENT HATS EPISODES:

👉 https://www.different-hats.co.uk/podcast

🔗 Connect with Charlotte Ricca

Website: https://kindabrilliant.co.uk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlottericca/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-ricca/

💡 If this episode resonated with you, please like, share, and comment below. Your support helps us spread this important message and change the narrative around success and mental health.

Rivervale – https://www.rivervale.co.uk

Brown Bear Studios – https://www.brownbearstudio.co.uk

Carpenter Box – https://www.carpenterbox.com

🎬 PRODUCED BY:

H2 Productions – https://h2productions.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I thought my 100th podcast episode was the start of my journey.

I didn’t realise it would change everything.

Recorded the day after my 47th birthday, this 18-minute solo episode reflects on the most transformative year of my life, not the easiest, not the most “successful,” but the most honest.

A year of silence.

Sobriety.

Relationships changing shape.

Asking for help.

And finally facing the question I’d spent years avoiding:

Why am I not enough?

In this episode, I share the lessons I learnt, the breakdowns, and the moments that rebuilt me.

We explore:

• Redefining success beyond money and status
• The Five Pillars of Success as lived experience
• Male mental health, vulnerability, and asking for help
• Sobriety, self-worth, and sitting with discomfort
• Why connection, not achievement, saved me

This episode marks a shift.

From building businesses to building a movement.

From push motivation to pull motivation.

From wearing many hats… to finally choosing the right one.

If you’re navigating change, feeling lost, or quietly struggling, this episode isn’t here to give you answers.

It’s here to give you permission.

Because sometimes the bravest thing you can say is:

"Help"

00:00 – Introduction

01:45 – Stripping Life Back: Silence & Sobriety

03:20 – The Five Pillars of Success

05:40 – When Relationships Change Shape

07:50 – “Why Am I Not Enough?”

10:20 – When It Got Dark

12:40 – Asking for Help

14:30 – Clarity, Purpose & Letting Go

15:50 – From Business to Movement

17:00 – I Am Enough

🎧 MORE EPISODES:

👉 https://www.different-hats.co.uk/podcast

💡 If this resonated, please like, share, and comment, it helps spread this message and challenge how we define success.

SPONSORED BY:

Carpenter Box | Brown Bear Studios | Rivervale | Plus X

SPECIAL EPISODE PRODUCED BY:

Matt Cheney - Brown Bear Studios

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this deep, thoughtful conversation, I am joined by entrepreneur, technologist and systems-thinker Neil Witten to explore what success really means, and why so many of us feel disconnected from the lives we’re building.

Neil has spent years questioning the systems we’re told to follow in education, work, entrepreneurship and culture, and asking a more human question instead:

“What am I uniquely designed to do?”

Together, Neil and I explore:

• Why success has become overly defined by money, status and productivity
• The hidden cost of ignoring curiosity, play and soft skills
• Why many people wait for crisis before changing their lives
• The role parents, schools and culture play in shaping identity
• Why self-awareness may be the most important skill of the future

This is not a conversation about hacks or shortcuts.

It’s about listening to your gut, working on yourself, and choosing alignment over approval.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re climbing the wrong ladder…

If you’ve questioned the systems you’ve inherited…

Or if you’re quietly asking “Is this really it?” .. this episode is for you.

00:00 – Introduction

03:30 – Why we struggle to talk honestly (especially men)

10:45 – How culture hijacked our definition of success

18:40 – Purpose, play & being wired for something

30:15 – Education, neurodiversity & one-size-fits-all systems

42:10 – Soft skills, hiring & the future of work

55:30 – Childhood, curiosity & learning outside the system

1:10:45 – Entrepreneurship, risk & waiting for permission

1:28:20 – Parenting, autonomy & enabling potential

1:45:10 – Creating your own catalysts for change

2:02:30 – Letting go, evolution & redefining your role

2:18:40 – Final reflections: living true to yourself

🎧 LISTEN TO MORE DIFFERENT HATS EPISODES:

👉 https://www.different-hats.co.uk/podcast

🔗 Connect with Neil Witten

Website: https://www.pigsinflight.co.uk/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilwitten/

💡 If this episode resonated with you, please like, share, and comment below.

Your support helps us change the narrative around success and mental health.

Rivervale – https://www.rivervale.co.uk

Brown Bear Studios – https://www.brownbearstudio.co.uk

Carpenter Box – https://www.carpenterbox.com

🎙️ PRODUCED BY:

H2 Productions – https://h2productions.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when you’ve done everything “right”… but still feel worthless, lost, and exhausted by your own mind?

In this deeply honest and moving episode of the Different Hats Podcast, I sit down with Matt Cheney, creative producer, storyteller, and someone who has quietly fought one of the hardest battles of all: the one inside his own head.

Matt opens up about late ADHD diagnosis, imposter syndrome, self-worth, burnout, grief, suicide attempts, and the masks many men wear just to survive. He shares how losing his father, his relationship, his career structure, his identity, and his sense of belonging brought him to rock bottom, and how a single moment, a run, and one unexpected email helped him choose to keep going.

This is not a story about “fixing yourself.”

It’s about learning how to live with yourself.

If you’ve ever:

• Felt like you weren’t enough

• Lived with a relentless inner critic

• Been successful on the outside but empty inside

• Struggled to accept love, compliments, or rest

• Wondered if it’s possible to keep going

This conversation will stay with you.

00:00 – Introduction

01:21 – “You Alright Mate?” check-in

02:54 – Shiny objects vs investing in yourself

07:35 – Redefining success beyond money

12:30 – Loving your work… but hating yourself

16:13 – Creativity, kids & permission to try

22:14 – Childhood, belonging & emotional safety

28:51 – Rugby, leadership & fear of failure

32:58 – ADHD, masking & self-worth

40:20 – Parents, caregiving & inherited patterns

49:05 – Imposter syndrome & burnout

56:00 – Relationships, vulnerability & being seen

1:06:51 – Injury, grief & losing everything

1:18:42 – Suicide attempts & the pain beneath them

1:19:34 – The email that changed everything

1:28:56 – “You are the sky, everything else is weather”

1:35:50 – Learning to live with the inner critic

1:46:29 – Giving without needing anything back

1:53:29 – Silence, endurance & the meaning of “keep going”

2:08:20 – Advice for anyone feeling lost

2:12:27 – A life well lived

• ADHD & late diagnosis

• Imposter syndrome

• Masculinity & emotional literacy

• Suicide, grief & recovery

• Self-worth vs external success

• Receiving love & compliments

• Identity beyond achievement

• Why “keeping going” matters

🎧 LISTEN TO MORE DIFFERENT HATS EPISODES:

👉 https://www.different-hats.co.uk/podcast

🔗 Connect with Matt Cheney

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcheney1/

💡 If this episode resonated with you, please like, share, and comment. Your support helps us change the narrative around success and mental health.

Rivervale – https://www.rivervale.co.uk

Brown Bear Studios – https://www.brownbearstudio.co.uk

Carpenter Box – https://www.carpenterbox.com

🎙️ PRODUCED BY:

H2 Productions – https://h2productions.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this powerful episode, entrepreneur and endurance athlete Bruce Bignell joins me to share an honest, inspiring and deeply reflective journey, from childhood trauma and blended family life, to building a tech business, redefining leadership, and becoming the kind of man his younger self needed.

Bruce opens up about growing up between private school and state school, navigating complex family dynamics, searching for male role models, and the challenges young boys face today in a world of algorithms, screens and identity confusion. He explores how social media shapes validation, why kids are outsourcing self-worth to strangers online, and what parents must do to help them reconnect to real life, real people, and real values.

He also shares how a 3-month period of radical change, running ultramarathons, rowing the Channel, and transforming his nutrition, completely shifted his mindset and taught him how to back himself when everything felt impossible.

We dive into:

• Success: health, wealth, wisdom
• Masculinity: raising boys, male role models & blended families
• Mental health: resilience, identity & future self thinking
• Leadership: calm in crisis, inspiring change, seeing opportunity
• Risk: starting Evolve during Covid, hitting £70 in the bank, rebuilding
• Childhood: class, trauma, intuition, grounding and learning
• Technology: AI, humanity & why people will always matter
• Personal growth: redefining how you want your story to go

Bruce’s story is emotional, practical, honest and incredibly useful for anyone navigating business, fatherhood, mental health or big life transitions.

00:00 – Introduction

03:17 – “You alright mate?” Bruce checks in

04:46 – Lessons from a tough year

06:54 – Success = health, wealth & wisdom

09:44 – Lifelong learning & curiosity

10:44 – Teenage Bruce: success, football & business

17:00 – Class, identity & bridging different worlds

20:42 – Male role models & blended families

24:32 – Masculinity & the Lost Boys

25:41 – Teens, rebellion & identity

31:31 – Social media & outsourcing validation

36:30 – Intrinsic vs extrinsic self-worth

41:04 – Early business exposure

46:04 – Sales, rejection & resilience

54:51 – Crisis, clarity & leadership

57:54 – What makes a true leader?

1:02:15 – Work Up & endurance challenges

1:07:51 – Nutrition & trusting his body

1:19:36 – Risk, money & resilience

1:23:03 – “There’s always another way”

1:31:03 – Building Evolve

1:35:49 – How we respond to life

1:47:00 – Future self vs current behaviour

2:00:40 – Advice to 16-year-old Bruce

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucebignell

👉 https://www.different-hats.co.uk/podcast

Brown Bear Audio 👉 https://brownbearstudios.co.uk/

Carpenter Box 👉 https://www.carpenterbox.com/

Rivervale 👉 rivervale.co.uk

Produced by: H2 Productions www.h2productions.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.