SMALL ON PURPOSE

Lydia Lee and Maira Akhter
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Biweekly Series

We're doing the thing everyone says not to do: staying small on purpose. Join Lydia and Humaira for unpolished conversations about business, life, and saying no to the growth-at-all-costs mentality. Zero BS about scaling, just two entrepreneurs figuring it out as we go, because staying intentionally small is the most radical thing you can do.

  1. Episode 1

    Ep 001 — What This Even Is

    Lydia's in Bali running a 25-hour-a-week business. Humaira's in Maryland with twins, building around her life instead of sacrificing it. We both said no to scaling, launching, and doing all the things we're "supposed" to do. So we decided to start a podcast together. When we first met, we talked for two hours straight. It was one of those conversations where you realize: oh thank god, I'm not the only one who thinks this way. We're both women of color with immigrant backgrounds, both allergic to bro marketing and hustle culture, both trying to build businesses that actually feel good to run. In this episode, we share how we met (Humaira slid into Lydia's DMs), why our first call felt like the best first date, and what we want this podcast to be: the kind of conversation you'd have curled up on a couch with tea, not polished and performative. A place for anyone who's ever felt lonely, choosing small on purpose when everyone around them is chasing bigger and more. If you've ever felt lonely pursuing something unconventional, or if you've ever wanted someone to tell you you're not crazy for prioritizing enough over more, come hang with us. We're figuring this out too. Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

    Ep 001 — What This Even Is

  2. Episode 2

    Ep 002 — Two People Who Chose Small

    What happens when you build the business you thought you wanted and realize it's not the life you actually want? In this episode, Lydia and Humaira get into the real stories behind why they both chose small, not from scarcity, but on purpose. Lydia's highest revenue year came with Forbes features and zero sleep. Humaira's wake-up call came when her husband had a stroke. Neither of us arrived here gracefully. We also get into what "enough" actually looks like when you stop using revenue as the only scoreboard, and why that number looks completely different depending on where you are in life right now. Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

  3. Episode 3

    Ep 003 — Why Childhood Shit Makes Business Hard

    Lydia and Humaira get into something a little deeper this episode. The stuff that runs quietly in the background long before you ever start a business. They both grew up with immigrant parents who worked hard, sacrificed a lot, and passed down a whole set of beliefs about what it means to succeed. Not out of bad intentions. Out of love, and survival. But somewhere between "work twice as hard to be seen" and "you could've done better," those messages became the operating system for how they showed up in their businesses. And both of them are slowly, imperfectly learning to do things differently. Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

  4. Episode 4

    Ep 004 — Things We're Not Doing Anymore

    Lydia and Humaira have both tried the things they were supposed to try. The funnels, the launch cycles, the lead gen coach who had them scrubbing lists. Some of it even worked, technically. But at some point, feeling bad about how you're doing something starts to count as data too. This episode is about the things they've officially let go of — in marketing, in how they sell, in how they think about what success is even supposed to look like. And what they've quietly replaced them with instead. Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

  5. Episode 5

    Ep 005 — Marketing That Doesn't Feel Like Shit

    Humaira would rather have a root canal than do sales. Lydia knows that desperate energy ain't sexy. So naturally we have a lot to say about what marketing looks like when it actually feels good. In this episode we both share what works for us, what it took to stop performing for algorithms we didn't care about, and why none of it looks anything like what we were taught. Spoiler: it involves a lot less strategy and a lot more just being human. Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

  6. Episode 6

    Ep 006 — Permission to Have an Off Month

    We've both stopped running our businesses at one constant speed. For Lydia, it was caregiving for her 94-year-old aunt through cancer in Penang. For Humaira, it was the 50-tabs-open feeling of running a business with kids at home. We talk about what triggered the shift, what assets keep working when we're not, and why the newsletter gets the love and social media is just sprinkles. Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

  7. Episode 7

    Ep 007 — When Do You Know You’ve Outgrown Your Business

    We're talking about the version of outgrowing that's hardest to name. Not the business that stopped working. The one that's still working, technically. Clients are coming. The money's fine. And something underneath has quietly stopped fitting. Lydia talks about the year she hired a framework expert to spice up her positioning, watched it land better than ever, and still couldn't shake the boredom. Maira on the service soup years, and the identity that shape-shifted with every new offer.g. The episode lands on what made it move for both of us: experimenting small, in private, before anything had to be rebranded. Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

  8. Episode 8

    Ep 008 - Your Body of Work Isn’t Your Offer

    We're getting into the difference between what you sell and what you actually carry as your body of work. Maira lands on it with a hiking metaphor: your body of work is the terrain, your offer is the doorway. Lydia stretches it wider. Your body of work isn't just your business. It's every project, relationship, and chapter that ties back to the same red thread across a lifetime, and that means the pressure to make one offer hold all of it is unfair to both of you. We get into the cereal aisle problem of trying to sell everything you can do, the text Lydia sends her best clients to find out what she's actually good at, and why what her sales pages say is not the depth of the work she's really doing behind closed doors.  Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

  9. Episode 9

    Ep 009 — When You’ve Built a Profitable Prison

    Round two on body of work. Last episode we drew the line between what you sell and the body of work you carry. This one's the weirder part, what happens when you've outgrown some of it but not all of it, like the offer that made your name or the model that used to fit. Lydia gets into the moment an ideal client paid her and instead of excitement she felt dread, and Maira names what she calls the profitable prison, the offer that still pays but has gone dead inside. We get into the side quest of talking about the new work publicly before there's an offer or brand ready for it, why guilt shows up right behind boredom, and the difference between resistance that's fear and resistance that's you refusing to give yourself permission for something smaller. Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

  10. Episode 10

    Ep 010 - Is Meaningful Work a Luxury?

    Maira and Lydia get into the question one of Lydia's podcast hosts asked her recently: is meaningful work a luxury? They pull apart the two versions of that sentence, the one that's real math and the one that's habit dressed as math. Maira tells the corporate story about hitting the 2-year mark of paid-well-and-perked and feeling the nag she couldn't name yet. Lydia gets into the identity cost of pushing work you've outgrown, why comfort is often just familiarity, and the case for tiny experiments over blowing up the whole business.  Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

  11. Episode 11

    Ep 011 - The human work AI can't do

    The information game is changing. Courses that used to sell for hundreds of dollars can now be generated in an afternoon. So what does a service-based business actually sell in a market where the information is free and the frameworks are everywhere? Lydia and Maira get into the stuff that AI can't touch. The pattern recognition. The pauses. The way a client's body tells you something before they can. The moments where someone lands on a truth they've been dancing around for six months. That's the work that never makes it onto the sales page. What's the human part of your work AI can't touch, and why isn't it the thing you're leading with? Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

  12. Episode 12

    Ep 012 – Intimacy vs. Automation in Your Business

    Most marketing advice assumes you want hundreds of people in your course. If you work 1:1 and only need a handful of clients a year, that advice has you building for a stadium when you’re trying to fill a living room. Lydia and Maira get honest about what they’ve automated, what backfired, and what they’ll never hand off. Maira tells the story of the $10K program where nobody ever checked in on her. They get into why booking a free discovery call has started to feel like a big ask, and the Airbnb test for what can run on its own. Lydia shares the small change to her welcome emails that gets people replying with what’s going on in their world. Where in your business is someone getting an automation when they were hoping to get you? Hosts Info: Connect with Lydia Lee: https://screwthecubicle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiallee Connect with Humaira Akhter: https://humairaakhter.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/humairaakhter

See All Season 1 (12)

About

We're doing the thing everyone says not to do: staying small on purpose. Join Lydia and Humaira for unpolished conversations about business, life, and saying no to the growth-at-all-costs mentality. Zero BS about scaling, just two entrepreneurs figuring it out as we go, because staying intentionally small is the most radical thing you can do.

Information

  • Creator
    Lydia Lee and Maira Akhter
  • Episodes
    12
  • Seasons
    1
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Small on Purpose All Rights Reserved.
  • Show Website
    SMALL ON PURPOSE