A daily thought on building, growing and running an Ideas-Based Business.https://myideafactory.co.uk/en-gbhttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/bad-decisions-dont-kill-you/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/bad-decisions-dont-kill-you/I used to work as a contractor for a company - they hired me because they were really struggling to get someone qualified to do the job. After a while of doing the job, they made me salaried because…Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/productivity-is-your-second-lever/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/productivity-is-your-second-lever/My brain is seemingly unable to look at a problem Without immediately looking at all of the factors that lead to that problem As well as the downstream consequences of the problem It's like it needs…Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/thats-all-well-and-good-but-i-dont-want-to-buy-it/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/thats-all-well-and-good-but-i-dont-want-to-buy-it/There's a plethora of reasons why coaches leave the industry It's a shame, but sometimes it isn't a shame - to realise something very hard isn't for you, and then continue doing it anyway - is a bit…Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-compass-points-backwards/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-compass-points-backwards/You launch. Maybe a couple of buy, maybe they don't. But it's the silence from the ones who didn't that is hard for us to leave alone. We fill it The brain doesn't like to sit in the gap, so it…Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-greatest-opportunity-is-experience/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-greatest-opportunity-is-experience/wayAlmost everyone building a coaching business is working on the same small set of things. Hooks, engagement, funnels, offers, landing pages, launch sequences. You need all of those things, 100%…Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/too-many-contradictions/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/too-many-contradictions/One of the biggest issues I see with marketing is coaches contradicting themselves They advertise and market in one way, then get frustrated when they bring in a certain type of client, or they have…Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/no-one-is-making-bets/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/no-one-is-making-bets/Everyone's optimising what they're currently doing, trying to steal a little marginal improvement here or there Better hook, tighter funnel, cleaner offer, slightly different colour on a landing page…Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/marginal-gains-is-the-enemy-of-entrepreneurship/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/marginal-gains-is-the-enemy-of-entrepreneurship/Being from a sports background, I witnessed firsthand the obsession with incremental improvement and marginal gains This is believed to have originated from British Cycling, where Dave Brailsford…Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/a-aye-or-a-nae/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/a-aye-or-a-nae/AI is clearly here to stay And there's no doubt that AI will be, and already is - a reason why people don't sign up to work with a coach. Which is why we see so many serious posts that are something…Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/suboptimise-the-parts/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/suboptimise-the-parts/There's a thing in systems theory, that says you can't optimise every part and the whole at the same time. If you tune each piece to perfection in isolation, the whole thing gets worse To make the…Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/cringe-is-the-cost/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/cringe-is-the-cost/I've been reading (and thinking) a lot about 'skill' recently - because I generally think that seeing all of our problems as a skill issue, whether that's true or not - is a useful frame. It leans on…Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/dont-let-your-brain-make-it-up/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/dont-let-your-brain-make-it-up/A few years ago, when my business wasn't going well, I had a habit of not looking at my numbers. I told myself I'd deal with it later. Really, I was scared of what they'd say. Here's what I didn't…Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/authentic-doesnt-mean-everything/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/authentic-doesnt-mean-everything/There's a version of 'authenticity' that I think is often misunderstood, and actually plain annoying to see It goes a bit like this; 'Authenticity is good, so I should just say what I really think…Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-language-audit/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-language-audit/One thing I noticed in myself a while ago, that I still see in coaches today Is how their language caps their business It's not big things, but just little things they tell themselves that make it…Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/hit-a-fking-home-run/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/hit-a-fking-home-run/In Episode 293204032 of 'Why we should look for lessons outside of the fitness industry' It's worth having a look around and noticing how other fields are operating. Rory Sutherland talks about fat…Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/do-you-need-to-relearn-how-to-walk/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/do-you-need-to-relearn-how-to-walk/If you've ever watched robots walking, you'll be aware of the fact it doesn't resemble a human walking They're definitely getting better than they were even 5-10 years ago, but they're still not…Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/should-i-explore-or-exploit/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/should-i-explore-or-exploit/I think that exploring and exploiting is one of the fundamental aspects of entrepreneurship that most coaches don't dedicate enough time to There's the sleazier side of the industry who are literally…Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/we-live-in-a-world-of-abundance/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/we-live-in-a-world-of-abundance/You might choose the bread you buy for the macros, or the fibre content and 'plant points'. If you're a carnivore zealot, you may shun supermarket bread to make your own from cows ears and pig rectum…Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/where-are-you-at-with-ai/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/where-are-you-at-with-ai/I've been pondering the different attitudes towards AI at the moment Some people love it, some people hate it, a few people are maybe indifferent If we remove the people who dislike it for reasons…Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/if-you-think-your-market-is-too-big-it-is/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/if-you-think-your-market-is-too-big-it-is/Niche is a really funny topic in the fitness industry Because you get the coaches who think they have niched down, because they're marketing to 'men who want to get back in shape' You have people…Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-are-the-slop/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-are-the-slop/There's a lot of noise online about people just creating 'AI Slop' and passing it off as content With good reason - I for one absolutely hate reading generic shite from people online (Often 'written'…Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/same-same-same-same-same-same-same/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/same-same-same-same-same-same-same/I've been getting a bit of social media fatigue recently Not in terms of creating content myself - I still enjoy that But I just think a lot of the content out there is very dull (You might think…Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/its-john-fcking-mayer/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/its-john-fcking-mayer/If you said the title of this in the voice of Emma Stone? Congratulations, you're able to quote directly from the best romcom of all time (Friends with Benefits, best one by some distance don't @ me)…Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/dont-stop-comparing-to-others/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/dont-stop-comparing-to-others/I want to take a different topic today and speak about comparison to other coaches on social media. Probably the worst advice that anyone can give you is don't compare. It's up there with don't eat…Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youll-probably-agree-with-this/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youll-probably-agree-with-this/The reason I have a feeling that you'll agree with whatever I say here... Is that disagreeing with people is hard Not in an internet way Not in a psychologically safe, easy way (I don't think…Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youre-not-going-to-become-a-footballer/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youre-not-going-to-become-a-footballer/Given that I didn't make Tuchel's preliminary squad for the World Cup this summer It's time for me to finally give up on my dream of representing England and Manchester United (If only I'd had better…Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-can-win-by-making-bad-decisions/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-can-win-by-making-bad-decisions/I'm a bit of a bastard for always looking upstream when trying to figure something out, improve a skill or do any sort of learning For some reason my brain can't just go 'here's the thing, do the…Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-subtle-art-of-im-actually-very-good/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-subtle-art-of-im-actually-very-good/I've unfollowed a very popular coach in the industry recently, because I find their messaging a bit grating now No fault of theirs - I'm seeing their stuff all the time, and I got off the fence and…Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/entrepreneurship-doesnt-make-sense/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/entrepreneurship-doesnt-make-sense/One of the books I'm re-reading at the minute is Peter Thiel's 'Zero to One' (I'd forgot just how good it actually is) There was one quote that really struck me from the book; 'The paradox of…Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/we-need-some-space/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/we-need-some-space/Investing in the wrong thing can be costly I'm not talking about financial cost - it goes without saying that if you buy a course, programme, mentorship etc - you should be doing your due diligence…Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-lever-is-on-the-ground/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-lever-is-on-the-ground/If you're interested in learning more about running a business - I recommend all of Eric Jorgenson's books A lot of coaches know about The Almanack of Naval Ravikant I'd argue that The Book of Elon…Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/we-designed-thinking-out-of-coaching/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/we-designed-thinking-out-of-coaching/I've always considered the fact that we have designed thinking out of the coaching industry, to be a huge fking problem We've pushed templates, scripts, hacks and everything else on coaches Not only…Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/believability-weighted-decision-making/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/believability-weighted-decision-making/Investor Ray Dalio says you should never make an important decision without asking at least three people who have repeatedly and successfully accomplished the thing in question. What's really…Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-clients-are-receptors/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-clients-are-receptors/I read a really interesting piece by Dr Nichola Guess earlier, on hyperinsulinaemia It essentially looked at a study from the '80s of people with diabetes and manipulated insulin to either have peaks…Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/permission-to-obsess-please/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/permission-to-obsess-please/I've thought recently about how coaches are embarrassed about their obsession with things,and maybe how as a society more generally, (certainly in Britain), it is considered slightly odd to obsess…Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-fitness-monoculture/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-fitness-monoculture/'The fitness industry is saturated' This phrase can join 'Focusing on habits' and 'attention spans are getting worse', As 'Things everyone just parrots to each other without ever considering whether…Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-need-more-problems/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-need-more-problems/As business owners, we often bemoan the problems that we have in our business We think about how nice a 9-5 would be sometimes, just to have a few days of someone else telling us what to focus on…Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/audience-capture/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/audience-capture/One of the problems that we see with coaches on social media is what engagement does to the content and the negative flywheel that it creates. Coaches do really well initially because they start with…Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/whats-your-delusion-ratio/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/whats-your-delusion-ratio/A study by Bain and Company in 2005 (You merely adopted the company, I was born in it, moulded by it etc etc) Showed that 80% of companies think they deliver a superior experience, yet only 8% of…Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/just-dont-be-bad-ok/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/just-dont-be-bad-ok/It's no secret that I'm big into behavioural psychology (You can choose to believe me - Or you can have me tell you about the dream I had last week, where Rory Sutherland and I were plotting an…Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/be-good-at-systems-not-tools/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/be-good-at-systems-not-tools/I used to think I was bad at systems. I never loved dealing with automations, particularly. I used to bounce around from app to app trying to find the solution for things. Every time I saw a system…Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/billie-some-mates/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/billie-some-mates/One interesting aspect of AI use is it's always framed as a cost-saving. How can we use it to save money on humans? But that's not the only way that AI can benefit. IKEA have an AI bot called Billie…Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-happens-when-agents-can-teach-your-methodology-better-than-you-can/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-happens-when-agents-can-teach-your-methodology-better-than-you-can/Andrej Karpathy — one of the people who built the AI systems we're all now using - recently shared something that stuck with me. He built a system where an AI agent runs experiments autonomously…Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-meta-programming-shift/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-meta-programming-shift/Recently I've had to relearn how I work. I've been using agentic AI for most of 2026. And for a while, the workflow was simple — tell agents what to do, review the output, adjust, repeat. It felt…Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-cant-just-change-your-environment-to-become-more-productive/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-cant-just-change-your-environment-to-become-more-productive/It's always funny to me when mentors give productivity advice because none of it is actual advice on how to be more productive. This is fine, most people have never actually thought about what makes…Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-difference-between-a-coach-with-ideas-and-a-coach-with-a-system-for-ideas/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-difference-between-a-coach-with-ideas-and-a-coach-with-a-system-for-ideas/Two coaches sit down to write content on Monday morning. Coach A opens a blank page. Stares at it. Tries to think of something to say. Scrolls through social media for inspiration. Eventually writes…Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/lessons-from-going-viral/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/lessons-from-going-viral/Ok I didn't go that viral But something I posted on my other account this time last week suddenly blew up over the weekend - 21k views, 463 likes, 300 new followers, 150 saves Here are some…Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-think-you-should-work-in-beauty/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-think-you-should-work-in-beauty/If you work in the health and fitness space, should you be focused on helping your clients be more beautiful? Maybe it depends on whether you help people with some form of physical transformation But…Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-to-climb-above-everyone-else/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-to-climb-above-everyone-else/Every platform has an invisible pecking order. It's not follower count - it's perceived status. It determines whose posts get shared, whose opinions get weight, whose DMs get opened, and whose offers…Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-fragile-are-you/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-fragile-are-you/Nassim Taleb talks about how we often think the opposite of fragile is robust. Which isn't strictly true - The opposite of fragile (something breaking under stress) can't be robust - as robust is…Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-factored-my-entire-day-into-ai/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-factored-my-entire-day-into-ai/I woke up this morning and ran my daily review with the first few touches on my keyboard.It pulled my tasks from Things, checked my calendar, triaged my inbox, scanned the Idea Factory for anything…Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-ideas-are-hypotheses/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-ideas-are-hypotheses/Slide 1 (Hook): Your ideas are not plans. They are hypotheses. Slide 2: Most coaches treat their business strategy like a commitment. They pick a niche, build a programme, design a funnel — and then…Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/wrong-question-about-ai/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/wrong-question-about-ai/Someone asked me last week which AI tool they should use for their coaching business. I gave them the most unhelpful answer possible. "I don't know. What system are you trying to build?" They looked…Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/transfer-of-learning/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/transfer-of-learning/Slide 1 (Hook): Nine decades of research on transfer of learning. The conclusion? We are terrible at it. Slide 2: Transfer of learning means taking knowledge from one context and applying it in…Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/stop-asking-which-ai-tool/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/stop-asking-which-ai-tool/Slide 1 (Hook): Stop asking "which AI tool should I use?" It is the wrong question. Slide 2: Every few months, another coach announces that AI will replace ten paid roles. They post a thread, tag…Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-just-want-to-coach/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-just-want-to-coach/Slide 1 (Hook): "I just want to coach." That sentence is costing you more than you think. Slide 2: It sounds noble. It sounds pure. But what it actually means is: "I want to separate the thing I love…Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-i-manage-600-ideas/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-i-manage-600-ideas/The notebook graveyard Most coaches have the same story. They have ideas — plenty of them — but the ideas never go anywhere. They live in scattered notebooks, random Notes app entries, voice memos…Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/behind-the-scenes-idea-factory/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/behind-the-scenes-idea-factory/I manage around 600 ideas at any given time. Not in my head. In a system. Every time something makes my brain stop — a line from a book, a conversation, something I notice on a walk — it gets…Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/9-decades-of-transfer-research/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/9-decades-of-transfer-research/There is a finding in educational research that should make every coach uncomfortable. Nine decades of studying transfer of learning — the ability to take knowledge from one context and apply it in…Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/this-is-worse-than-missing-out/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/this-is-worse-than-missing-out/Everyone talks about the issues with FOMO, and business owners doing things because other people are and they don't want to miss out. But there's a fear that's worse FOBO. Fear of becoming obsolete…Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/trained-on-the-wrong-thing/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/trained-on-the-wrong-thing/One thing that I'm obsessed with listening to at the moment is founder podcasts. There's a specific channel (20VC with Harry Stebbings) that is run by a venture capitalist who interviews some of the…Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-kill-line/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-kill-line/In gaming there's a concept called the kill line.It's the threshold where your character's health is so low that a single hit finishes you. You're technically alive - still moving, still fighting …Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/good-selfish/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/good-selfish/I've spoken before about how everyone tells you to pick one thing and stick to it. I've had several people who I respect tell me to just stick to one thing and to pick a lane and to double down on…Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/are-you-defence-or-offence/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/are-you-defence-or-offence/Every week I see another coach post some version of 'ChatGPT can't write programmes like I can.' And they're probably right, it can't just yet - not with a non-expert running the inputs, anyway. Not…Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/blue-tick/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/blue-tick/When Twitter gave blue ticks to journalists and public figures, they meant something. Not because a blue tick is inherently valuable. It's a tiny icon. It meant something because not everyone could…Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/learning-with-ai-is-hard/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/learning-with-ai-is-hard/I've often thought that learning with AI is one of the best use cases for AI. However, I think that it's very common, or it will be very common, for people to run into two different problems with it…Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/whats-in-the-bank/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/whats-in-the-bank/Most coaches create content like they live paycheque to paycheque. They sit down to write, try to think of something to say, force it out, publish it, and then next week they do the whole thing…Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/retention-substitution-and-scaffolding/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/retention-substitution-and-scaffolding/The fitness industry has developed an obsession with retention. Monthly recurring revenue. Average client lifespan. Churn rate. More business coaches telling you that the goal is to keep your clients…Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youve-got-2000-1-odds/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youve-got-2000-1-odds/In the book Ideaflow, Jeremy Utley talks about how many initial ideas it takes to have success when making commercial products He said you start with 2000 ideas These 2000 ideas become 100 working…Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/use-this-just-dont-let-the-robots-kill-anyone/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/use-this-just-dont-let-the-robots-kill-anyone/Last week, the US military told Anthropic — the company behind the AI model Claude — to remove all restrictions on how their technology gets used. Surveillance on civilians. Autonomous weapons. No…Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-will-you-manage-your-staff/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-will-you-manage-your-staff/How we think about productivity is going to reach a crossroads in the next 12-18 months On the one hand, agentic AI is going to continue to evolve and be able to help us do a volume of tasks that…Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/mentors-dont-just-teach-you-business/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/mentors-dont-just-teach-you-business/You know how clients will often have 5 or 6 stories of things people have said to them that changed how they think about their body, food, training etc? A nasty comment from someone at school, a…Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/glassholes/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/glassholes/Google Glass was amazing technology Augmented reality, voice commands and a heads-up display All of this stuff was way ahead of it's time, and looked like it had been plucked right out of a Sci-Fi…Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-should-i-do-about-failure/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-should-i-do-about-failure/Yesterday I was on a panel at a student conference And one of the students asked 'All of the speakers mentioned failure as important in the process, how do we think about failing?' Annoyingly, I was…Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/we-quit-too-early-because-we-forget-that-creativity-is-supposed-to-be-hard/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/we-quit-too-early-because-we-forget-that-creativity-is-supposed-to-be-hard/When our brains feel fried after an initial round of effort, we disengage, convinced we have nothing left to offer. In reality, the struggle past the obvious is exactly what produces the most…Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-red-queens-of-coaching/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-red-queens-of-coaching/In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice, 'It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place' In evolutionary biology, it describes how species must…Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/boundaries-give-you-freedom/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/boundaries-give-you-freedom/Put a fence around a playground and children use the entire space. Remove the fence and they huddle in the middle. Keep putting fences around children that don't belong to you? You'll have a knock on…Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-deep-is-your-expertise/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-deep-is-your-expertise/There's research from the software world showing that senior developers get significantly more value from AI than juniors. Partly because they prompt better - but more because they know what good…Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-if-you-just-looked-up/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-if-you-just-looked-up/Yesterday I was getting cash out to pay for my haircut as they're cash only. Up flashed a message that said '70% of customers check their balance before withdrawing' That's a great example where…Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-lionel-messi-of-content/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-lionel-messi-of-content/If you're a fan of English football, you'll be aware of a few things VAR being the only thing that anyone cares about anymore Jamie Redknapp absolutely stealing a living. And the pundit obsession…Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/yesterday-was-a-first-for-me/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/yesterday-was-a-first-for-me/I thought of, edited, created and downloaded an Instagram carousel I made Using just my voice Was it perfect? Definitely not. It was also repurposed from a long-form piece that I'd already written …Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/have-i-spread-myself-too-thin/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/have-i-spread-myself-too-thin/Occasionally, this is a question that I ask myself. (More often, it's a question that other people ask me...) I normally just shrug, and say 'probably' And I'm not going to pretend that it isn't a…Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-arent-fixing-the-old-problems/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-arent-fixing-the-old-problems/I was nerding out on a podcast about AI yesterday with two genius-level engineers / angel investors I probably understood maybe 10% of what they were talking about (Lessons 1 and 2 - It's good to…Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-is-creativity/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-is-creativity/I talk about creativity a lot, and how there's a lack of it in the fitness industry I think it's maybe the biggest problem in the fitness industry, because it encapsulates all of the other issues…Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-robots-wont-save-your-work/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-robots-wont-save-your-work/I've posted a few times over the past year or so About how important your ideas are for getting an audience, for showing you're the authority in your niche But also for stopping people from copying…Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-coaching-community-is-a-superorganism/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-coaching-community-is-a-superorganism/In 'The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr identifies a question that runs unconsciously in every human brain when they enter a new social space: "Who do I have to be in this superorganism to gain…Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-to-let-everyone-know-that-everythings-alright/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-to-let-everyone-know-that-everythings-alright/There's a concept in evolutionary biology called handicap theory. It's physical traits that species have that don't benefit them, but signal that they are very healthy and would be an attractive…Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/windows-vs-mirrors/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/windows-vs-mirrors/Most coaches' Instagram pages are mirrors. They reflect whatever's already in the room. They reflect the trending audio that everyone's using, the format that everyone else is using, the same tips…Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/monday-morning-treadmill-time/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/monday-morning-treadmill-time/It is 9.51 on Monday morning. I am on my walking pad and I have three monitors in front of me. I've barely touched a single key on my keyboard. I have six different tools running simultaneously. I'm…Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-2026-global-content-crisis/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-2026-global-content-crisis/In 2008, the global financial system nearly collapsed. What's interesting is that it wasn't even wild risks that led to the collapse It was people taking the same risk. Every major bank held the same…Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/is-ai-bad-or-are-people-stupid/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/is-ai-bad-or-are-people-stupid/'AI is rubbish, it's content is crap. It can't even think for me' I keep hearing this. Bits of it are true. It can't write anything anywhere near as good as you can when you write, and it certainly…Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/come-in-come-in-youre-already-late/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/come-in-come-in-youre-already-late/Welcome to the hyper-personalisation era of coaching - you're already late. Apps are already in the market that are evolving to specialise in the individual. The AI personal trainer market is already…Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youre-not-doing-it-with-kids-are-you/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youre-not-doing-it-with-kids-are-you/I'm a football fan, and a United fan (the two currently sound incongruent, don't they) This week I was annoyed to hear we'd sacked our manager - not because he's great, but because it's another…Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/is-posting-trending-content-addictive/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/is-posting-trending-content-addictive/Posting on social media is a system where you press a button and sometimes you get a reward, and sometimes you don't. And it is the unpredictability that is the thing that hooks you. This is a…Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/coaching-is-overrated-these-days/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/coaching-is-overrated-these-days/Most of the nutrition advice on the internet now is from 'experts' who've never actually worked with people 1-1. Which is wild to me. Because there's a gap between what makes sense on paper, or what…Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/discomfort-tolerance/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/discomfort-tolerance/The best coaches I’ve worked with have a back story where at some point business was really hard - and they prevailed. But we mistake their story for being the reason they succeeded, and we don’t…Sat, 03 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/why-are-these-your-goals/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/why-are-these-your-goals/I hope you have your goals locked in for 2026. I know that I do. However, I want you to think about this: When you have set goals that are maybe very ambitious, what is that saying about your current…Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-floor-has-been-raised-the-ceiling-will-be-untouched/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-floor-has-been-raised-the-ceiling-will-be-untouched/What is happening now with AI is that the floor has been raised. So with writing, before you had to be really bad, you had to feel how bad you were. The struggle was how you built your own taste…Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/ooh-if-you-saw-how-i-squat-youd-flinch/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/ooh-if-you-saw-how-i-squat-youd-flinch/If you're a coach who programmes for people And a client said 'Oooh I am awful at squatting, I actually just put 200kg on my back and then fold like a deckchair, and end up with no knees and a spine…Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-had-a-few-projects-fail/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-had-a-few-projects-fail/I had a few projects 'fail' last year. A few things I didn't really get off the ground. One collaboration I was excited about - but our audience wasn't! A couple of offers that didn't really land…Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/evidence-based-coaches-who-hate-the-progression-of-science/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/evidence-based-coaches-who-hate-the-progression-of-science/If you are an evidence-based coach who says that AI isn't that impressive, that's because you think AI is used for writing captions about protein when actually five years ago, AI solved the protein…Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/ai-is-coming-for-predictable-knowledge-work/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/ai-is-coming-for-predictable-knowledge-work/AI is coming for knowledge work that is predictable, linear, process driven. People aren’t, therefore coaches are fine. Oh, except for the people who’ve been trying to make spreadsheet tweaking into…Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-fitness-industry-is-obsessed-with-being-liked/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-fitness-industry-is-obsessed-with-being-liked/There's a moment in Dragons' Den that happens almost every episode. Someone walks in with a business that does what hundreds of other businesses already do, or what some of the bigger businesses…Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-are-your-overheads/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-are-your-overheads/I was ordering breakfast - sausage sandwich, flat white, hash brown. When I realised I couldn't pay for it. I was away on a course - a qualification that would guarantee me work for the next year…Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/return-on-intelligence-roi/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/return-on-intelligence-roi/One of the things I always did at the start of my business, whether it was going well or not, was try and spend more on software than maybe I was comfortable with Which probably goes against what…Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/if-you-want-to-be-creative-understand-this/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/if-you-want-to-be-creative-understand-this/Lots of people want to be creative. Carl Ally said the true creative wants to know about everything because they're not sure when those ideas might come together at some point in the future, but…Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-spent-months/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-spent-months/I spent months last year trapped in a decision I couldn't make. Leave a role that ate 18 hours a week but provided financial security, or stay and keep the safety net? I ran every calculation…Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/a-shoutout-from-richard-osman/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/a-shoutout-from-richard-osman/He talked about how one thing happening completely changed the trajectory of his career. That one thing for him? Being shouted out on The Rest Is Entertainment with Richard Osman, as part of a segue…Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youre-not-an-emergency-service/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youre-not-an-emergency-service/You're a coach, and this pretence that you need to check messages every hour of the day is you procrastinating by feeling like you're doing something productive when you're not. I work with a lot of…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/why-will-long-form-win-if-attention-spans-are-worse/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/why-will-long-form-win-if-attention-spans-are-worse/"People can't focus anymore because TikTok broke their brains." Rubbish. YouTube reports 1 billion hours watched daily. People are binge-watching 8-hour podcasts. Huberman, rightly or wrongly (it's…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-commodity-coach/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-commodity-coach/Imagine you are selling a men's razor with three blades. This is going really well until your competitor sells one with four blades. You have to add a fourth blade to the one that you started with…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/oh-you-didnt-know-this-was-ai-generated/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/oh-you-didnt-know-this-was-ai-generated/Imagine you're listening to a song. Smooth vocals, soulful - something about it lands with you. You add it to your playlist. Then you find out the voice wasn't real. Haven's 'I Run' used AI to clone…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/medium-is-the-message/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/medium-is-the-message/Apple have wasted real estate with not much on the tables Currys and PC World have cables, things everywhere - it's packed We think more is better but not always Apple designs stores to focus…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/its-your-job-to-be-interesting/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/its-your-job-to-be-interesting/There will be more content created in 2026 than any one human could consume in a thousand lifetimes. Depending on what research you listen to, roughly 40-60% of that will be AI-generated slop. One…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-do-i-know-what-i-think/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-do-i-know-what-i-think/One of the biggest mistakes I made early on in my coaching business was about thinking and content I used to think that insight was a prerequisite to make content Writing was kind of like…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/everyone-doing-the-same-always-ends-the-same/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/everyone-doing-the-same-always-ends-the-same/If everyone invests in the same thing, they lose money - if everyone says the same thing, they don't stand out - if everyone does the same thing, their business stopsMon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/do-you-daydream/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/do-you-daydream/Everyone daydreams but not everyone writes them down. Take it seriously you're not just sharing thoughts, you're building a permanent record of intellectual inquiry that compounds over time. Most…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/congrats-on-the-new-job/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/congrats-on-the-new-job/Harvey Mackay wrote: "Everyone is a salesperson, all of your life. Whether you are a mechanic, a teacher or a manager, you are selling ideas." Online coach is a synonym for entrepreneur. Entrepreneur…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/breast-cancer-discovery/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/breast-cancer-discovery/I saw someone share a picture of a letter from The Guardian, and I've thought about it a lot recently. Michael Baum, a clinical scientist, went to see Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia in 1993. In the…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/ai-should-reduce-your-volume/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/ai-should-reduce-your-volume/A lot of coaches do junk volume - AI should reduce that In the periodisation of cognitive athlete work, a lot of coaches are doing junk volume where they're not really working, not really paying…Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/stop-boring-on-about-hating-social-media/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/stop-boring-on-about-hating-social-media/I see loads of coaches moaning about social media. And I'll be honest - I moan about it too (so this is as much to me as to anyone else) I think there are a lot of things wrong with social media …Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/if-you-use-ai-to-write-youll-never-be-able-to-get-ai-to-write-for-you/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/if-you-use-ai-to-write-youll-never-be-able-to-get-ai-to-write-for-you/What's funny about AI and writing? Most people think AI is making bad writers better. It's not. They also think it's making good writers bad Sometimes it is But sometimes? People who've spent years…Sat, 27 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/dont-copy-this/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/dont-copy-this/I have long been advocating for people sharing more of their ideas and I will continue to do so. And yes, I think Instagram stories are a great place to do that - Hence why I've been doing this every…Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/im-just-trying-to-not-be-sht/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/im-just-trying-to-not-be-sht/So much of the marketing in the fitness industry is about showing why you're the 'best' Therefore, why working with you is the 'best choice' But your audience aren't actually trying to make the most…Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-long-do-trends-take/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-long-do-trends-take/Fashion cycles used to take months or years. They moved through five distinct stages: introduction, rise, peak, decline, obsolescence. But in 2025, fuelled by algorithms, micro-trends rise and…Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/theyre-out-of-guinness/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/theyre-out-of-guinness/In early 2024, Diageo (the beverage company that owns Guinness) imposed allocation limits on Guinness to pubs in Britain because demand had spiked, causing some venues to temporarily run out. Pubs…Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/long-form-content/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/long-form-content/I know of at least two coaches who, since buying The Idea Factory, have told me that they are investing heavily in long-form content next year. The thing that stops people doing long-form content is…Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/persuade-and-promote/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/persuade-and-promote/A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast with Advertising and Creativity legend, John Hegarty (I recommend his books if you haven't read them) He talked about how brands need to persuade…Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/learn-from-your-phone-addiction/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/learn-from-your-phone-addiction/Big Tech invests billions to remove friction I can just about remember a time where the apps didn't have 'infinite scroll', and you had to manually choose what to pay attention to. Not anymore! In…Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-might-regret-this/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-might-regret-this/Daniel Pink identified that there are 4 Core Regrets that nearly all humans share Foundation regrets 'If only I had done the work' Boldness regrets 'If only I had taken that chance' Moral regrets 'If…Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/sponges-vs-bricks/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/sponges-vs-bricks/One of the biggest issues in the fitness industry is that coaches have the absorbency of a house brick Whereas the best coaches are sponges. The bricks read fitness content, watch fitness videos…Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/jet-engine-or-litter-picker/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/jet-engine-or-litter-picker/This is essentially how I see AI Because a lot of coaches weren't running before AI They weren't even walking They were horizontal. Sitting on their sofas, dreaming up their 'future 6-figure empire'…Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-business-is-as-predictable-as-an-arcade-game/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-business-is-as-predictable-as-an-arcade-game/One of the biggest myths often pushed by fitness business mentors is this idea that you will have a completely predictable business Particularly when you start out. Business just doesn't work that…Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/under-pressure/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/under-pressure/I don't know if it's weird to admit this or if anyone else feels like this But I feel pressure when I write content. I feel a sort of unease and a tension when it comes to writing content that I'm…Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/taste-is-a-survival-skill/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/taste-is-a-survival-skill/Pierre Bourdieu spent decades studying why some people can walk into a room and just know what's good. These people aren't smarter - They've developed what he called 'cultural capital' The ability to…Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-dont-think-thats-yours-mate/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-dont-think-thats-yours-mate/Last week, someone copied from a coach I work with Not word for word, but the type of content, same information, same way of sharing it This is the reality of you sharing your ideas. Someone will try…Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/getting-emotional-about-emotional-eating/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/getting-emotional-about-emotional-eating/Last night I got into an argument about emotional eating with someone who'd commented on a post of mine from 6 days ago In hindsight - I should have ignored him. He was talking absolute nonsense…Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/where-can-i-find-you/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/where-can-i-find-you/I'm interested in why people act. My two main interests are why people eat and why people buy. I've dug deep recently on my other profile about how modern life is driving food behaviour way more than…Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-attention-war/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/the-attention-war/A lot of people will say they are not in a battle with other coaches, and as long as people get the right help, then that's all fine And I would agree. But in terms of content and attention, it's not…Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/swap-your-paintballs-for-napalm/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/swap-your-paintballs-for-napalm/When I was younger, I think it was drilled into you that paintballing is a lot more painful than it actually is. Although there were stories about people taking the mask off and losing their eyes…Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/sell-me-this-pen/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/sell-me-this-pen/This is a classic sales practice that was even shown in The Wolf of Wall Street. The key is not about trying to tell everyone how great the pen is It's about thinking about different angles that…Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/recode-how-your-audience-sees-the-world/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/recode-how-your-audience-sees-the-world/Neuroscientist David Eagleman said that ideas alter the brain's wiring by changing which neural pathways fire, which ones strengthen and which ones wither. When you encounter a new idea that truly…Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/explain-your-way-out-of-this-mess/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/explain-your-way-out-of-this-mess/In films, when someone's caught doing something stupid, the line is never, 'Tell me what happened' Because the other character can already see what's happened. The line is, 'Explain your way out of…Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/attention-span-is-not-lowering/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/attention-span-is-not-lowering/Loads of people say our attention span is getting worse Actually? Print book sales are up Streaming platforms doing better Cinema attendance - down Audiobooks up YouTube grows fragmented consumption…Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-get-the-clients-you-ask-for/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-get-the-clients-you-ask-for/I've always tried to post content that's a little bit more cerebral. Content that makes you think rather than just consume it. Now the trade-off of that is obvious. I get fewer enquiries because I…Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-does-mcdonalds-sell/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/what-does-mcdonalds-sell/Considering McDonald's is a burger restaurant, it doesn't actually make a great deal of money on burgers. A Big Mac might generate about 55% margin at best, which sounds fine, but it's nothing…Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/short-term-performance-long-term-brand/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/short-term-performance-long-term-brand/Mark Ritson made an amazing point on the Uncensored CMO podcast about brand versus performance. If you do really good brand building work, it has a short term performance effect. But the opposite…Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-cant-pretend-im-happy/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-cant-pretend-im-happy/In an era of gratitude and being told that we should be grateful all of the time, it almost feels unpopular and off-trend to ever suggest you're dissatisfied. But I don't think there are that many…Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/fingers-crossed-it-rains/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/fingers-crossed-it-rains/Manchester's legendary music scene, Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, Oasis, Happy Mondays - is a result of rainy weather (or so many like to tell us). The theory is that when you're stuck indoors…Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/drive-like-an-idiot/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/drive-like-an-idiot/The fitness industry is absolutely obsessed with telling people to stay in their lane. Now, that is great advice for people who need to understand what their scope of practice is. But we also see it…Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/yellow-car/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/yellow-car/One of the joys of having siblings when you're younger is playing the game Yellow Car. Every time you see a yellow car, you shout it out and if you're first you get to hit your sibling. The best…Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/gamify-but-dont-lose-sight-of-the-game/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/gamify-but-dont-lose-sight-of-the-game/We've turned doing the thing into tracking the thing. And somewhere along the line, we've made tracking the thing the task itself, rather than tracking the way of making sure that we actually do the…Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/fmcg/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/fmcg/FMCG stands for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, think toothpaste, cereal, deodorant, coke, products that sell quickly, cheaply and constantly. These businesses survive on tight control of the logistics…Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/ai-enhanced-thinking/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/ai-enhanced-thinking/I've listened to hundreds of self-help books, podcasts, talks, consumed probably days of self-help content. It feels really good in the moment in the same way that your audience probably feel really…Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/im-in-this-for-the-money/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/im-in-this-for-the-money/There's a lot of 'I'm not in it for the money in the fitness industry' And I get it - it's an honourable gesture, the statement that we love helping our clients so much that we would do it even if we…Sun, 09 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/lick-the-yoghurt-lid/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/lick-the-yoghurt-lid/On a recent Modern Wisdom podcast, Chris Williamson talks about how his friend was doing a podcast with one of his favourite authors ever. This guy was huge, one of the biggest names in literature…Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/active-imposter-syndrome/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/active-imposter-syndrome/I've worked with a lot of people on Imposter Syndrome People who feel so riddled by Imposter Syndrome at work and in their lives, that it's actually driving negative food habits Tech workers who…Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/21-again/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/21-again/Today I turn 21, again (Well, one of those numbers is right) It's always nice when we reach landmarks to reflect on where we're at I'm in the sweet spot right now Doing good but still not where I…Wed, 05 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-to-keep-your-job/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-to-keep-your-job/Someone asked me the other day about whether AI driven nutrition information is going to be a good thing or not for coaches (This isn't a 'I wanted someone to ask me, so I put a question box on my…Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/bioelectric-patterns/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/bioelectric-patterns/Michael Levin is a biologist who since the early 2000s, has pursued a weird idea - that bioelectric patterns are a higher-level control system. Make sense? No? Basically he believed that organisms…Mon, 03 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/35-miles-in-4-hours/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/35-miles-in-4-hours/Nothing says 'Successful business owner' like sleeping on the floor at my mums. Which was my Friday evening reality. Not because everything has gone down the drain and I'm broke and homeless Nor…Mon, 03 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/adolescence/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/adolescence/Don't worry, I'm not going to walk you through some awkward story about my journey through adolescence Or how I stood in the textiles cupboard while my teacher mended the huge rip in my trousers that…Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/opportunity/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/opportunity/This morning I listened to a podcast on the profitability of women's football One of the best podcasts I've listened to this year. It's easy to assume that men's football is where it's at in terms of…Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-can-talk-about-anything/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-can-talk-about-anything/For the past 10 years or so, I've been jealous of two men. Mike Ross from Suits And Eddie Morra from Limitless. Mike Ross has a photographic memory And Eddie had access to a nootropic that gives him…Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/network-effects/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/network-effects/On the way back from the event on Saturday I read George Mack's 'How to engineer luck' article One quote really struck me 'Networks are unique because they don't divide when you share them - they…Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/nowhere-to-hide/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/nowhere-to-hide/I was at an amazing fitness event at the weekend There were a variety of hosts and panel members (I was invited to jump on a Q&A panel about nutrition information - I'll share another thought on this…Mon, 27 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/my-weekend-income-booster/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/my-weekend-income-booster/This weekend I'm setting myself up to make some serious cash It's not (another) new business, it's not a new offer that's going out And given how slow my 'Taxidermy with squirrels' course is…Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/visible-reasoning/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/visible-reasoning/One of my favourite AI apps is the AI Agent Manus Two of my favourite things are that it shows you what it's thinking about, what it's planning to do And it lets you interrupt at any point to change…Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/if-you-cant-be-good-when-youre-busy/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/if-you-cant-be-good-when-youre-busy/There's nothing worse than being at a football game Hearing the whistle for half-time, heading to the bar to grab a beer (Tamworth are 2-0 up, obviously..) ... And waiting 25 minutes to get a pint…Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-two-dangerous-weapons/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/your-two-dangerous-weapons/You have two dangerous weapons at your disposal The first is your opinion The second is your phone A lot of coaches have had both stripped from them Mentors dull opinions, Big Tech confiscated your…Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-may-be-wrong/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/i-may-be-wrong/This might be wrong - and that's ok. So might the other thoughts that I've shared Posts that I've done could be wide of the mark or ill-informed I've likely thrown things into the public ether that I…Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/is-this-really-you/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/is-this-really-you/I'm not a big believer in 'being the same person no matter who you're with' I don't think that's what authenticity is - that's just uniformity. That's keeping everything exactly the same, no matter…Fri, 17 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/just-focus-on-one-thing/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/just-focus-on-one-thing/Alex McCann recently pointed out that Leonardo da Vinci couldn't decide between being a painter, engineer, anatomist, architect, botanist, mathematician or theatre designer - so he did all of them…Thu, 16 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-to-save-a-life/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-to-save-a-life/A friend of mine was a life saver. He taught first-aid courses and had both saved a life, and collected stories of others who’d saved lives after taking his course. People chose his course over every…Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youre-fired/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/youre-fired/Two things have me thinking about firing at the moment. The first is just how much my 3 month old son looks like Lord Sugar at the moment The second is an interesting insight from a podcast that…Tue, 14 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/market-leader-i-told-you-i-am/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/market-leader-i-told-you-i-am/Fake it until you make it, right? I wonder how many successful people have to tell you that this is what they did, before you start believing them? But there's also brands doing this Red Bull used to…Tue, 14 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/exploring-the-nuance-within-your-black-and-white/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/exploring-the-nuance-within-your-black-and-white/A lot of us like to think that we don't think black or white when it comes to nutrition (or our business or anything, really) We think we look at the evidence and the sound theory and then make…Tue, 14 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/narrate-yourself-successful/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/narrate-yourself-successful/The AI revolution has seen some companies grow and prosper, whilst others have plateaud or declined dramatically A key difference is their public stance on AI Nvidia has positioned itself as…Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/attention-attention/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/attention-attention/There is no evidence that our attention spans are getting shorter (Oooh, squirre... no Charlie, focus). 'Average attention span' is a meaningless and useless metric, as it's completely task…Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/social-media-is-your-petri-dish/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/social-media-is-your-petri-dish/Story about book on cancer treatments from conference Writing is your clinical trial - Talking at a conference someone shared a story of someone who had a new alternative cancer treatment with a…Sun, 12 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/prompt-yourself/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/prompt-yourself/There were many ways I was a terrible student at uni My willingness to sack off lab sessions to get an earlier train home My ability to convince myself 'I won't be good at this module because I don't…Sun, 12 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-have-to-have-an-interesting-product-or-brand/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/you-have-to-have-an-interesting-product-or-brand/Brand is dead - Scott Galloway Innocent, Liquid Death etc Brand isn't dead - but you need to have one of an interesting product or brand Used to sell sex, now we have weapons of mass dilligence So…Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/managing-short-term-costing-long-term/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/managing-short-term-costing-long-term/If you haven't heard of the Doorman Fallacy, here's the short of it A consultancy firm walks into a 5-star hotel and tells the owner they can save thousands by replacing the doorman with a revolving…Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/hard-work-isnt-hard-knowing-youre-working-hard-is/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/hard-work-isnt-hard-knowing-youre-working-hard-is/Working hard is easy That might sound silly, but think how many people you know who do work hard - for any period of time. We talk about hard work like it's painful, but most of us actually like it…Thu, 09 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/we-need-to-get-results-so-what-have-we-got/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/we-need-to-get-results-so-what-have-we-got/There's plenty of discourse around whether your body is your business card, how people will only pay for 'results', what does results mean etc (is it just abs?) Here's a question along that same line…Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/dont-exercise-take-a-pill/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/dont-exercise-take-a-pill/I always remember reading a few papers years ago by John Hawley on the fascinating area of 'exercise mimetics' He suggested that creating a pill to mimic the benefits of exercise is a huge task, for…Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/show-your-working/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/show-your-working/Coaches spend years finding different angles to teach their clients the same things Which is one of the reasons why they search for viral hooks, trending audios, the best templates and other 'hacks'…Mon, 06 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/risky-business/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/risky-business/The Pareto Principle states that 80% of results come from 20% of inputs When you've run your business for a number of years, you'll notice that just a handful of decisions contribute the majority of…Mon, 06 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/its-not-that-deep/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/its-not-that-deep/Jeff Bezos is known for pushing innovation and testing at Amazon Although we might marvel at his brain and feel that deep down we could never think like that (Or you might want to look in his brain…Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/creating-a-signal/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/creating-a-signal/Spotify wrapped is probably the most universally shared signal by people on social media - it's a thing I don't know this, but I would be willing to put money on the fact that people will change…Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/silent-irritant/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/silent-irritant/Oisin Rogers has built his reputation on understanding that your job is to annihilate silent irritants. At the Devonshire pub, their philosophy translates into meticulous attention to seemingly minor…Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/presenting-your-ideas/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/presenting-your-ideas/Thomas Edison is known for inventing the lightbulb, motion picture camera, the electric utility system and many more things But he wasn't the most brilliant innovator or best technician of his time …Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/ai-will-become-a-coach/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/ai-will-become-a-coach/The idea that AI will take over from coaches is probably untrue and it's nothing to do with coaching, soft skills, empathy, compassion. It's to do with the idea that all of these assumptions are…Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/continuous-improvement/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/continuous-improvement/When I worked solely as a performance nutritionist, the 'marginal gains' theory established by Dave Brailsford and British Cycling was all the rage James Dyson famously created 5,127 prototypes of…Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/social-proof/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/social-proof/Social proof is incredible from a behavioural science perspective Conformity bias (people want to fit the tribe) Uncertainty reduction (reduced decision fatigue) Social learning theory (learning by…Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/social-infection/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/social-infection/We saw during the pandemic that when everyone was stuck in the same place, infection spread fast. Online content works the same way. The air is recycled, the same stuff hangs around - a couple of…Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/testing-testing/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/testing-testing/Everyone is using AI for content creation Some people using it for creative writing, angles, research etc Others using it to write a post about why protein is so important, so they can say they've…Tue, 23 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-to-stop-leakage/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/how-to-stop-leakage/Leakage is a term they use in Big Brother When a contestant starts, they often will try and pretend to be someone that they're not But this is hard to sustain over time, and so the 'real them' starts…Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/behaviour-engineer/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/behaviour-engineer/There are a few stories from history of people who who invented things early because they were just obsessed with how stuff worked George Nissen created trampolines aged 16 Chester Greenwood invented…Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/innocent-drinks/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/innocent-drinks/Innocent has 75% of the UK smoothie market and 730,000+ Twitter followers who actively engage rather than passively consume Innocent drinks proves that authenticity isn't just a nice-to-have - it's a…Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/success-requires-permission-to-fail/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/success-requires-permission-to-fail/One of the greatest irony's of success is that it's a consequence of giving ourselves unconditional permission to be rubbishWed, 17 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/creativity-is-life/https://myideafactory.co.uk/thoughts/creativity-is-life/Human's are inherently creative creatures - we are built for creativity and play When we see creativity as the ability to take information and create something new out of it, it's impossible to not…Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT