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i cannot believe what I'm reading about Liam Payne absolutely heartbreaking

If we're dating, I want to be your second priority. I want your first priority to be you, your ambitions, your life and your future, because my priority right now, is me and mine. Finding happiness and security alone, is crucial to finding it together.

32 years ago today I was born in Gaborone, in Botswana, Africa! Spending the day with my god kids and friends feeling full of love and gratitude! Thank you to everyone that supports our work for the most wonderful year 🙏🏾❤️

I'm just going to go ahead and say it... University is a scam. If you're spending $ on a degree to increase your employability, for the vast majority, you're being ripped off. Experience generally matters more. A 1 year internship will make you drastically more employable.

Maybe the things you've been told you're "Meant to do" won't make you happy. Maybe you don't have to go to university at 18, get a job at 21, buy a house at 25, get married at 30, have kids at 35 & retire at 65. Everyone is different, maybe your path to happiness should be too.

Your mental health is more important than your career, money, other people’s opinions, that event you said you would attend, your partners mood and your families wishes, combined. If taking care of yourself means letting someone down, then let someone down.

Instagram has ruined a whole generations expectations of relationships, work, and everything in between. It has made ‘perfect’ look normal. So now ‘good’ has become disposable.

Today we’re the daily cover of Forbes… which is honestly pretty surreal. 😵‍💫😮 But with that came a big headline: Why did we turn down a major podcasting deal and choose to stay independent? So I thought I’d share the honest answer. Last year, we were offered an undisclosed podcasting deal – the kind many of my peers whom I respect in this space have taken. And for good reason. These deals can be life-changing. But for us, in our specific situation, it just didn’t feel like the right path. There’s no “right or wrong” here. Everyone’s circumstances are different. This is just what aligned with our values, our audience, and our long-term vision. 🧠 Why we turned it down: 🚩 It would’ve meant *at least* 300% more ads on The Diary Of A CEO. And honestly, our listeners have been clear – they want fewer, better ads. We hear that, and we agree. Personally, I also believe there are smarter ways to monetise than just piling on more ads. Equity partnerships, long-term integrations and creating your own products, membership options… are more innovative options that keep the listener experience intact. 🚩 We would’ve had less control over where the show appears. With these deals, you’re often contractually incentivised to focus on certain platforms – and sometimes, that means removing your show from others altogether. For a show that’s always been built on independence and accessibility everywhere, that felt like a step back. I really think one of the beautiful things about podcasting is that it can appear on all platforms at once - and the viewer gets to decide where and when they watch it. 🚩 The numbers you see in the headlines don't tell the full story. You don’t sign a $100 million deal and get the cash up front. These are usually multi-year deals, spread out over time, tied to performance targets, and come with significant obligations. To put it in perspective: - A “$125m deal” might be $25m/year for 5 years, and that money will only be paid if you meet certain performance targets. That difference matters. Especially when you’re thinking about opportunity cost and long-term creative freedom. For full transparency: we were offered two deals. The most significant was over a 3-year term. The fee remains undisclosed. ✅ When our Chief Revenue Officer, Christiana Brenton, modelled the numbers, she and her team believed we could actually do better on our own – without flooding the show with ads. By thinking differently about monetisation, we could retain creative freedom and beat the offer over the next 3 years. ✅ We’ve now got nearly 100 full-time people building our media company, Flight Story (which is home to The Diary Of A CEO) led by Georgie Holt. In my view, they’re the best in the business. We’ve built every capability in-house – strategy, data, production, creative, partnerships, ecom, social, marketing, newsletters and more – and we believe in betting on ourselves! Time will tell if we were right 🤷🏽‍♂️ But betting on myself and my team is a decision I can live with – and truthfully, one I wish I’d made more often when I was starting out in my career. Hopefully this gives some clarity on why we chose to stay independent. We’re still learning, still building, and still listening. Thanks for being on the journey with us. ❤️🚀👊🏾

We’re taking The Diary Of A CEO to America for 2 months! 🇺🇸😳 Who should I have on the show while we’re there? 👀

Absolutely mad. The Diary Of A CEO is Apple’s most followed show, Most downloaded show and Most shared episode of 2022!!! Thank you to everyone that tunes in - it’s hard to understand, but we’re truly grateful. Who should we have on the show in 2023?! 👀 Suggestions below👇🏾

2,000,000 strong on YouTube! 🫠 Thank you to our incredible community, team, guests and partners! We’re having the time of our life recording this show ❤️ Who should we have on The Diary Of A CEO next? If they appear in the next 20 episodes, I’ll fly you in to watch live!

🍾 Today I'm feeling really really grateful to hit 3,000,000 subscribers on YouTube! To be able to have these conversations with so many of my idols has been a dream that I absolutely never had. I wanted to share some unreleased data about the show👇🏾 ✅ This month the show will be downloaded more than 35 million times. ✅ It took us 6 months± to get 10,000 subscribers on YouTube! ✅ In the last 90 days we've added 1 million subscribers! ✅ For the first time ever more people in the USA watch DOAC than the UK! ✅ Our gender split on audio is 51% female / 49% male! ✅ Our gender split on YouTube is 52% male / 48% female! ✅ DOAC is the first podcast to stream on 9 major airlines, in UK prisons to young offenders & on BBC iPlayer! ✅ The DOAC team is 30± people strong & growing quickly! ✅ We have identical DOAC studios in London, New York & LA! (Viewers shouldn't know where I am!) Thank you so so much to anyone that’s given the show a chance, watched it and shared it! & to our incredible team who don’t get the credit they truly deserve. QUESTION IF YOU GOT THIS FAR: Who would you like to see me interview next? If we get that person I’ll invite you to come and watch!

Today I sit down with the former Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson for his first long form podcast. He was the 55th Prime Minister, the country’s leader through 3 of the biggest crises of the last century; Brexit, Covid and the war in Ukraine. He is one of the most polarising figures of British Political History. As a podcaster, these conversations aren’t easy - they’re not the ones I enjoy having the most. But they are important as they shed light on the inner workings of the people and systems that govern us. Today on The Diary Of A CEO, we cover: • How his turbulent childhood created a gap in his self esteem. • How is mother being sent to a psychiatric facility when he was 10 changed him. • He reveals details of his personal life and family. • Why he adopted a unique political persona. • He explains that government is and has always been corrupt. • How David Cameron told him that he would ‘f*ck him up, forever’ and tried to bribe him. • Why he thinks that COVID was a lab accident. • His updated view on the ‘Party Gate’ scandal. • He admits to not having a plan for Brexit. • Why he thinks his lockdown measures were ‘bonkers’.

Apple just announced that The Diary Of A CEO is the Top Show on Apple for a 3rd year in a row 😳 Honestly mind boggling 😵‍💫 all the credit goes to our tremendous team that work relentlessly to put the show together! Who would you like to see on the show next? Please share names!

Tomorrow on The Diary Of A CEO. Can you guess who?

32 years ago today I was born in Gaborone, in Botswana, Africa! Spending the day with my god kids and friends feeling full of love and gratitude! Thank you to everyone that supports our work for the most wonderful year 🙏🏾❤️

My Nigerian mother and my English father modelled hard work in a way that I never understood growing up. My dad worked a full time job late into the evening and when his work was done, he would go and join my mum at her job in a small, hot, fast-paced restaurant kitchen until the early hours of the morning. They came home when I was asleep and went to work when I was asleep. When my mum left the restaurant, she opened a corner shop called KJS and would work all day and all night. She would end up sleeping in the back room of the corner shop on a bag of rice because local kids would break in, steal things and vandalise the shop because she was pretty much the only black women in the area. My dad again, would finish his full time job, and go straight to my mum’s shop and help her until late into the night. The most remarkable part of this, isn’t just the fact that they worked 7-days a week to provide for their family. It was their attitude towards their work. They never ever described or viewed what they did as hard work. I never ever heard them complain even once about "working hard". They seemed to view work as the ultimate privilege, honour and opportunity. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realised that they were my biggest professional inspirations and influence - not because they gave me profound advice like some parents do, but because they set a profound example without needing to say a word - one that has enabled me to pursue my own dreams with a level of focused gratitude that I wouldn't have had otherwise. "My parents were tasked with the job of survival and I with self-actualisation. What a luxury it is to search for purpose, meaning, and fulfilment." - Bo Ren Happy Birthday Mum!

I'm just going to go ahead and say it... University is a scam. If you're spending $ on a degree to increase your employability, for the vast majority, you're being ripped off. Experience generally matters more. A 1 year internship will make you drastically more employable.

Today we’re the daily cover of Forbes… which is honestly pretty surreal. 😵‍💫😮 But with that came a big headline: Why did we turn down a major podcasting deal and choose to stay independent? So I thought I’d share the honest answer. Last year, we were offered an undisclosed podcasting deal – the kind many of my peers whom I respect in this space have taken. And for good reason. These deals can be life-changing. But for us, in our specific situation, it just didn’t feel like the right path. There’s no “right or wrong” here. Everyone’s circumstances are different. This is just what aligned with our values, our audience, and our long-term vision. 🧠 Why we turned it down: 🚩 It would’ve meant *at least* 300% more ads on The Diary Of A CEO. And honestly, our listeners have been clear – they want fewer, better ads. We hear that, and we agree. Personally, I also believe there are smarter ways to monetise than just piling on more ads. Equity partnerships, long-term integrations and creating your own products, membership options… are more innovative options that keep the listener experience intact. 🚩 We would’ve had less control over where the show appears. With these deals, you’re often contractually incentivised to focus on certain platforms – and sometimes, that means removing your show from others altogether. For a show that’s always been built on independence and accessibility everywhere, that felt like a step back. I really think one of the beautiful things about podcasting is that it can appear on all platforms at once - and the viewer gets to decide where and when they watch it. 🚩 The numbers you see in the headlines don't tell the full story. You don’t sign a $100 million deal and get the cash up front. These are usually multi-year deals, spread out over time, tied to performance targets, and come with significant obligations. To put it in perspective: - A “$125m deal” might be $25m/year for 5 years, and that money will only be paid if you meet certain performance targets. That difference matters. Especially when you’re thinking about opportunity cost and long-term creative freedom. For full transparency: we were offered two deals. The most significant was over a 3-year term. The fee remains undisclosed. ✅ When our Chief Revenue Officer, Christiana Brenton, modelled the numbers, she and her team believed we could actually do better on our own – without flooding the show with ads. By thinking differently about monetisation, we could retain creative freedom and beat the offer over the next 3 years. ✅ We’ve now got nearly 100 full-time people building our media company, Flight Story (which is home to The Diary Of A CEO) led by Georgie Holt. In my view, they’re the best in the business. We’ve built every capability in-house – strategy, data, production, creative, partnerships, ecom, social, marketing, newsletters and more – and we believe in betting on ourselves! Time will tell if we were right 🤷🏽‍♂️ But betting on myself and my team is a decision I can live with – and truthfully, one I wish I’d made more often when I was starting out in my career. Hopefully this gives some clarity on why we chose to stay independent. We’re still learning, still building, and still listening. Thanks for being on the journey with us. ❤️🚀👊🏾