This conversation with Paul Avins is a remarkable look at what reinvention truly means when life hands you challenge after challenge.

Paul is one of the UK’s most sought after scale up strategists and business coaches, known for helping founders grow multi million pound companies with practical, battle tested insight. Across more than 20 years, he has supported over 1000 clients to break the one million mark, with many scaling far beyond, and has built and sold several companies himself.

Alongside this impressive track record sits a deeply personal story of adoption, dyslexia, identity shifts and a near death experience that changed him completely.

Paul speaks with honesty, humour and emotional depth about the moments that shaped him and the shift from ego led ambition to service and contribution. His reflections on patience, seasons of growth and the courage to rebuild are powerful for anyone navigating change.

This episode will stay with you long after you finish listening.

Highlights:

(01:46) How adoption shaped his earliest sense of identity

(04:58) Growing up dyslexic and the search for self worth

(09:32) The university moment that sparked a major life pivot

(14:20) Reinvention as a slow burn, not just a dramatic event

(24:35) The heart attack that became a defining rebirth

(28:40) Paul 1.0 to Paul 2.0, shifting from ego to contribution

Connect with Paul:

www.paulavins.com

www.scaleupcoaching.com

Connect with Lucy:

Website - https://bookmagic.ai

TikTok - @lucymccarra

Instagram/Threads - @lucymccarraher

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymccarraher/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@lucymccarraherauthor

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LucyMcCarraher/

In this conversation, Lisette and I travel through the many reinventions that shaped her life, from a spiritually attuned child who learned early to hide parts of herself, to a woman who rebuilt, rewrote and reclaimed her identity again and again.

Lisette Schuitemaker is the author of seven books, a pioneering impact investor, and a respected board director and chair. She has worked across communications, entrepreneurship and personal development, co hosted The Year of Being 70 and is now writing The Inner Life of Money.

Her honesty about depression, intuition and the power of choosing a different path offers a refreshingly human take on change.

From entrepreneurship to healing work to impact investing, Lisette's story shows that transformation is rarely tidy, but it can be deeply liberating, and sometimes it brings you back to the truest version of yourself.

Highlights:

(01:30) How Lisette and I first met and the seeds of her earliest reinvention

(04:10) Becoming a teenager who consciously reshaped her identity

(08:45) The dream that ended her engagement and prompted a new path

(13:32) Leaving a successful company when her conscience shifted

(20:55) Naming lifelong depression for the first time and finding support

(26:40) Training as a healer and discovering the work that reshaped her life

You can learn more about Lisette at:

https://lisetteschuitemaker.com/

Take her Childhood Conclusions Test at https://lisetteschuitemaker.com/test-your-childhood-conclusions/

And connect with Lisette at https://linkedin/in/lisetteschuitemaker

Connect with Lucy:

Website - https://bookmagic.ai

TikTok - @lucymccarra

Instagram/Threads - @lucymccarraher

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymccarraher/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@lucymccarraherauthor

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LucyMcCarraher/

Talking to Tony Robinson OBE felt like sitting down with someone who has lived nine different lives, each one shaped by courage, curiosity and a refusal to settle for anything that does not feel true.

Tony is a multi business owner, speaker and author of nine books across entrepreneurship, fiction, satire and poetry. He chairs Yorkshire in Business, runs its Yorkshire Coast Workshops subsidiary and leads organisations he founded, including the Micro Business Alliance.

His work across enterprise, education and advocacy has earned him an OBE, multiple lifetime achievement awards and a reputation as one of the UK’s most influential champions of small business.

What I loved most is how Tony approaches every reinvention the same way he approaches writing, by following what he loves, staying open to surprises and trusting the clues life places in front of him.

He has built and run businesses for decades with his long time business partner Clare Francis, campaigned for fairer treatment of micro business owners and helped shape national enterprise standards.

Tony shows that reinvention is never about dramatic declarations. It is about movement, experimentation and letting the next version of yourself emerge through doing. His generosity, grit and belief in community run through everything he touches, and his journey is a reminder that it is never too late to reshape your life with creativity and purpose.

Highlights:

(02:41) The early reinvention sparked by illness and homeschooling

(06:58) How sport, theatre and stubbornness shaped Tony’s identity

(11:05) From English and Philosophy to trade unions and industrial relations

(16:28) Walking away from corporate life to start from nothing

(24:21) Funding cuts, collapse and rebuilding from the ground up

(31:09) The sabbatical that led to Enterprise Rockers and a global movement

Connect with Tony:

Website https://TonyRobinsonOBE.com

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

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyRobinsonOBE

X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/TonyRobinsonOBE

Connect with Lucy:

Website - https://bookmagic.ai

TikTok - @lucymccarra

Instagram/Threads - @lucymccarraher

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymccarraher/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@lucymccarraherauthor

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LucyMcCarraher/

I loved this conversation with Penny Hopkinson. She has one of those careers that looks like a straight line only in hindsight.

From being the lone woman in technical journalism in the late 60s to becoming the Queen of Operations Manuals, her story is full of grit, curiosity, and a brilliant refusal to be boxed in.

Penny shows that reinvention is not a single moment but a lifetime of choosing the next right step, even when the path feels wildly unconventional.

Penny is now a leading specialist in systems and operations manuals, drawing on her years as a trade and tech journalist, Middle East correspondent, and quality writer. She is also the CEO of Manual Magic AI, her innovative app that helps organisations create clear, engaging SOPs with real ease.

It all builds on her bestselling book Manual Magic, and her mission to make knowledge sharing work for every age, learning style, and ability.

Highlights:

(01:47) How Penny began her career in a male dominated world

(04:35) The unexpected influence of her father and a 600 degree hot wire cutter

(09:10) What she learned from interviewing business leaders

(13:57) The moment Middle East journalism ended and a new path opened

(21:17) Why video is becoming the single source of truth for training

(27:23) How Penny built her Manual Magic AI app and what it can now do

Connect with Penny:

www.manualmagic.ai

https://waitlist.manualmagic.ai/

www.linktr.ee/pennyhopkinson

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

Connect with Lucy:

Website - https://bookmagic.ai

TikTok - @lucymccarra

Instagram/Threads - @lucymccarraher

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymccarraher/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@lucymccarraherauthor

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LucyMcCarraher/

In this episode, I talk with Michael Serwa, one of the UK’s most in-demand coaches.

Michael coaches the elite using his signature no-bullshit approach. Since 2011, he has built the most successful personal coaching practice in the UK. He is the author of From Good to Amazing and has been featured in numerous media outlets, including GQ, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, BBC, and Sky.

Michael shares his extraordinary story of arriving in London from Poland with almost nothing, working his way up from retail to becoming a high-value coach for clients at the top of their game.

We discuss what it really takes to reinvent yourself, why mindset trumps circumstance every time, and how desperation and inspiration can be equally powerful motivators for change. Michael’s journey proves that reinvention isn’t just possible—it’s inevitable when you back yourself fully.

Highlights:

(02:27) – Growing up in Poland and the mindset that shaped him

(07:53) – From Zara shop floor to management: the first big reinvention

(11:16) – Discovering personal development and a new calling

(13:58) – How redundancy forced him to launch his coaching business

(21:15) – From broke coach to six figures and beyond

(33:17) – Michael’s advice on radical reinvention and self-investment

Connect with Michael:

Website: michaelserwa.com

Connect with Lucy:

Website - https://bookmagic.ai

TikTok - @lucymccarra

Instagram/Threads - @lucymccarraher

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymccarraher/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@lucymccarraherauthor

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LucyMcCarraher/

This week, I sit down with the brilliant Sapna Pieroux - brand consultant, author, speaker, and self-proclaimed karaoke queen.

Sapna shares her extraordinary story of reinvention, from postnatal depression to a cancer diagnosis and through the loss of her father, to rediscovering herself through joy, creativity, and community.

We talk about what it means to rebuild your life after the unthinkable, how gratitude can ground you in your darkest moments, and why finding joy (even in the form of karaoke networking) can completely transform your outlook.

This one’s about hope, humour and second chances.

Highlights:

(03:40) – Life after postnatal depression and the first reinvention

(06:20) – From corporate life to entrepreneurship and authorship

(10:40) – Facing breast cancer and choosing to pause the business

(12:20) – Healing, grief and rediscovering purpose

(17:10) – Singing, joy and the birth of The Notworkers

(20:10) – Building BrandVisions.AI and creating a legacy project

(23:50) – How joy and visibility became her new brand

(26:20) – Gratitude, purpose and finding meaning in hardship

(28:40) – Embracing visibility and freedom in midlife

Connect with Sapna

LINKEDIN

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

WEBSITE

http://www.innervisions-id.com

APP WAITLIST

https://waitlist.brandvision.app/

Connect with Lucy:

Website - https://bookmagic.ai

TikTok - @lucymccarra

Instagram/Threads - @lucymccarraher

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymccarraher/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@lucymccarraherauthor

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LucyMcCarraher/

Before sharing other people’s stories of second chances and fresh starts, I wanted to begin with my own. At 40, everything I thought I was fell apart - my marriage, my career, my sense of identity.

What followed wasn’t just survival, it was a masterclass in starting again. In this first episode, I open up about how I rebuilt my life piece by piece and discovered that reinvention isn’t a one-time event, it’s a lifelong rhythm.

From career collapse to new family, from business creation to tech startup founder at 70, this is the story of rising from every ending with a little more courage and a lot more clarity.

Highlights:

(04:10) - Reinvention as a lifelong rhythm, not a single moment

(08:59) - Building new family, work, and self in my 40s

(14:50) - The power of small decisions that spark new chapters

(18:06) - Creation, visibility and fire in my 60s

(24:30) - Becoming a 70-year-old tech founder and podcast host

(27:00) - What reinvention really means: becoming more yourself every time you start again

Key Insights:

• When everything falls apart, you have to start over.
• Reinvention begins in the silence that follows collapse.
• You turn your life around by reframing pain as purpose.
• Reinvention keeps us young and vibrant.
• A single small decision can open a door to new opportunities.
• Creation is a form of reinvention that leads to personal growth.
• Women's voices need to be amplified in the publishing world.
• Embracing technology can lead to exciting new ventures.
• Lightness of body can lead to lightness of mind and spirit.
• Reinvention is about redesigning our lives, not just recovering from setbacks.

Connect with Lucy:

Website - https://bookmagic.ai

TikTok - @lucymccarra

Instagram/Threads - @lucymccarraher

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymccarraher/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@lucymccarraherauthor

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LucyMcCarraher/

Life doesn’t always go to plan, but reinvention is where the real magic happens.

I’m Lucy McCarraher- author, entrepreneur, and serial reinventor, and in The Phoenix Conversations, I talk to people who’ve turned collapse into courage and setbacks into spectacular comebacks.

From rebuilding careers and relationships to rediscovering purpose and passion, these are stories of second chances and powerful new beginnings.

Whether you’re craving a fresh start or standing on the edge of change, this podcast reminds you it’s never too late to rise again - because your next chapter could be your best one yet.

Connect with Lucy:

Website - https://bookmagic.ai

TikTok - @lucymccarra

Instagram/Threads - @lucymccarraher

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymccarraher/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@lucymccarraherauthor

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LucyMcCarraher/