Mind Monkeys Welcome (Bananas Optional)

Mark Franklin

We all have 'Mind Monkeys' – those inner voices that whisper doubts, stoke fears, and talk us out of the things we most want to do. Hosted by transformational mindset coach, speaker and author Mark Franklin (The Four Fears® Guy), this show features honest, vulnerable conversations with brave and brilliant guests; challenging limiting beliefs, building resilient mindsets, embracing fear and helping you sidestep those metaphorical banana skins. The bananas are optional. Bravery is essential.

  1. 12h ago

    Nicky Souch: finding yourself, your business and your way through the noise

    What happens when the noise of everyone else's opinions drowns out the one voice that actually matters? Nicky Souch is a business strategist and mindset coach who helps business owners who feel stuck, overwhelmed or disheartened work out what needs to happen next. With 20 years of corporate finance experience behind her, she works with both the business and the person behind it. Her philosophy: it's your business, your way. In this episode we explore: Why so many talented, passionate business owners are being silenced right now, by comparison, self-censorship and the pressure to simply be louderGoing back to basics: the surprisingly powerful act of asking why you started in the first placeThe question that stopped Mark mid-conversation before they even started recording: is this scaring me because it's new, or because it's wrong for me?Nicky's own origin story, the teachers who told her she wouldn't amount to anything, the corporate Myers-Briggs chart that said she was the opposite of the ideal person, and what she built from thatWhy confidence is not something you are born with. It is something you build, through action, one tiny step at a timeEmpowered Live: Nicky's hands-on day event for business owners who want to work on their business, not just in itFind Nicky: Website: https://www.nickysouch.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicky-souch-business-strategist Bananas optional. Bravery essential.

  2. Sep 4

    Angela Cox: self-value, self-trust and finding the real you

    A conversation that moves from a Bolton girl chasing someone else's version of success, to turning the traditional coaching world upside down and exposing the myths behind 'self-mastery'. What happens when the version of success you've been chasing belongs to someone else's story? Angela Cox is a Master Coach, author and founder of Paseda360, the coaching academy behind Mark's own Advanced Practitioner qualification. Creator of the Pretender Masks Model™ and Stop Being Stuck®, she has spent more than 8,000 hours helping people understand not just what they do, but why they do it. This episode that starts by challenging the well-trodden stories of what we're told success looks like and explores the tension (and, ultimately burnout) that living 'someone else's story' creates. In this episode we explore: The corporate career Angela was brilliant at but couldn't sustain, and the two decisions she made in the car on the day she resignedWhy the self-mastery industry is selling a dream it can't deliver, and what a more honest and effective alternative actually looks likeThe difference between dismissing your mind monkeys and learning to acknowledge and embrace those micro moments of hesitationLandmines: the trigger points from the past that can explode in the presentWhy 'going within' and becoming congruent with your own truth, is the first step towards finding contentment. ⚠️ APOLOGIES FOR SOME OF THE AUDIO QUALITY ⚠️We had some issues with echo in a couple of places – the closed captions on this episode will be your friend Find Angela:Website: https://paseda360.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelacoxpaseda360 Bananas optional. Bravery essential.

  3. Aug 10

    Hannah Knowles: positivity, presence, passion over nerves and the Batman effect

    What if the thing that makes you most nervous is also the thing you were most born to do? Hannah Knowles is a keynote speaker, author and positive psychologist working with the Art of Brilliance. Described as the 'Queen of Positivity', she helps schools, businesses, councils, the NHS and sports teams navigate change, uncertainty and adversity through simple, practical tools that bridge the gap between knowing and doing. She is also a self-described reluctant keynote speaker. Which, as it turns out, is exactly what makes her extraordinary at it. In this episode: The 16-year-old Hannah who nearly didn't go back into the English classroom, and what that moment set in motionWhy passion is the only reliable cure for performance nerves, and what happens when you speak about something that genuinely matters'Be the most interested person in the room': the story of two Prime Ministers and how they made a special someone feelThe Batman effect: what Beyoncé, Kobe Bryant and Margaret Atwood all understood about self-distancing and why it worksWhy the wobble in a speaker's voice is often the most powerful thing in the roomSharing books such as "Love Notes" and "The Art of Focus", and why one simple takeaway from a page (or a speech), properly applied, is worth a thousand that aren't Find Hannah:Website: https://substack.com/@hknowles LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-knowles2988/Bookshop: https://www.artofbrilliance.co.uk/products/books/ Bananas optional. Bravery essential.

  4. Jul 27

    John Blackburn: freedom, security and making the shift 'from practitioner to producer'

    What happens when the thing you've trained your whole life to do stops being enough? And the next step forward requires a completely different set of skills that nobody ever taught you? John Blackburn is a coach working with people who make live entertainment happen. A professional drummer and musical director for more than twenty years, he helps entertainment professionals think more clearly about their work and become deliberate about the opportunities they build. He is also the host of Entertainment Matters, a podcast exploring how people across the entertainment industry think about their work and put that thinking into practice. In this episode: The gap between technical brilliance and knowing how to lead, and why entertainment professionals fall into it more than mostThe 'practitioner to producer' shift: what it really means to move from 'being picked' to 'doing the picking'Why the familiar discomfort of staying put so often feels safer than the unknown discomfort of changeIdentity and craft: when your work is who you are, what happens when the work doesn't go to plan?The five resources of a producer, and how your proximity to each one predicts your successWhy the employee-to-business-owner shift and the practitioner-to-producer shift are essentially the same thing Find John:
 Website: www.john-blackburn.com
 Instagram: www.instagram.com/coachjohnblackburn Bananas optional. Bravery essential.

  5. Jul 17

    Alex Beeching: Finding your true voice in a 'world of beige'

    What if the problem isn't that you can't speak? What if you've just been speaking with someone else's voice? Alex Beeching is a public speaking coach, copywriter, author and professional "idea-volcano". A former top ad-land creative with 17 years' experience, he helps founders, experts and leaders strip away the corporate noise, find the fire underneath, and start speaking with story, energy, humour and commercial clarity. He's a TEDx speaker, shortlisted for Speaker of the Year, and a man who will never, under any circumstances, use the word synergy unironically. If that changes, send help (the code word is monkey badger). In this episode: Why most people aren't speaking with their own voice, and what it actually takes to find itHow Alex is driven to help others find the light (based on his own journey through darkness)How creativity, properly understood and applied, is THE tool for escaping the prisons of the mindThe hyphen as a metaphor: Alex is Anglo-Iranian. His upbringing was a prime example of 'connecting the unconnected': a route through which he now explores both storytelling and the art of attractionWeaponise your weird: why being different isn't just expressive, it's a business strategyAI as complement not substitute, and why outsourcing your creative thinking to tech is where madness liesWhy being generous is not a weakness, even if your bank manager disagrees Find Alex:Website: www.clubspeak.co.uk LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alex-beeching/ Bananas optional. Bravery essential.

  6. Jun 12

    Sara Southey: a physical, mental and emotional guide to sorting your sh*t out

    What if the thing stopping you from changing your life isn't knowing what to do. It's not knowing where to start? Sara Southey is a "sort your shit out" coach, author of the bestselling SOS Your Life, and co-founder of The Southey Way — a health and life skills company she runs with her daughter Jenny. This conversation goes to some real places. This is one of those conversations that starts somewhere and ends up somewhere completely different. In the best possible way. After choosing to pause her career in HR, Sara spent five years in the US to come back home with two kids and (by her own admission) a feeling that she was failing at life. Depressed. Struggling. And convinced (by the stories she had grew up with) she just had to get on with it. What followed was eight years of hard, lonely work. And then a single conversation that led to The Southey Way being set up within 24 hours. She's been helping people sort their lives out ever since. Physically, mentally and emotionally. All three at once. Because none of them exist without the other two. In this episode: Why fear of the unknown stops people seeking change before they've even startedThe A to Z of life. You don't choose A (birth) and you don't choose Z (death). But you do get to choose everything in betweenGuilt is a reaction to a story someone else is trying to create for you... what is your real story?Zero judgement, tiny sustainable steps and creating a journey in your own words – the secret to actually sorting your sh*t outFind Sara: thesoutheyway.comBook: SOS Your Life — available from all reputable booksellers Bananas optional. Bravery essential.

About

We all have 'Mind Monkeys' – those inner voices that whisper doubts, stoke fears, and talk us out of the things we most want to do. Hosted by transformational mindset coach, speaker and author Mark Franklin (The Four Fears® Guy), this show features honest, vulnerable conversations with brave and brilliant guests; challenging limiting beliefs, building resilient mindsets, embracing fear and helping you sidestep those metaphorical banana skins. The bananas are optional. Bravery is essential.

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