My most recent vision and mission statement was as follows:

“To break down silos and challenge the status quo so that we can see a better way, and to have fun doing it.”

With an additional Mission Statement:

"I'm dedicated to empowering individuals to leverage their unique skills and experiences to drive meaningful change. Through impactful mastermind groups, dynamic courses, and personalised coaching, my goal is to transform passion into purpose and create lasting impact."

This is my current working vision. It’s not perfect — and that’s deliberate.

I’d love your reactions:

• What excites you?

• What feels unclear?

• What would you change — and why?”

I'm working on improving it with the AI assistant I have created, called Max (Max was an amazing PA that once worked for me on a secondment, so I was only ever going to call the agent Max). I'll attach the results in a few days.

Things experts told me.

1. I wouldn't walk again without aid (after an accident playing rugby). WRONG.

2. I wouldn't make it going from a big company to a small one. WRONG.

3. I had too vague a name for my business (original name): Correct, hence why now darreninform is the brand.

4. I was crap at maths and shouldn't get a job that involves maths. WRONG and incredibly damaging to a 13 year old mind. I wasn't crap at maths, it was the way it was being taught.

5. and of course the whole 10 year journey getting a diagnosis of my FND, despite telling every doctor, nurse and consultant- 'my brain and my body aren't communicating'. So wrong wrong wrong.

Things I decided to do myself after researching:

1. Setting up in business. It's been a struggle but not one in vain!

2. Setting up an investment portfolio to see if I could make money. I did, and used it to seed my business. But I must admit I need to start again now with a new portfolio. I mis-used my free cash which I regret... so a 50/50 split.

3. Creating AI Agents. Saved myself £2000 minimum and have created three different agents by applying principles I learned/researched. Eternally grateful to Dean Graziosi and the AI Summit people for getting me started though. But yeah, so far so good, seeing incredible benefits ( the image above for example is by Max, my darreninform Business Agent).

4. Getting on top of my FND. It's been a long road, but I've now got it in check. It's not getting better, but for the last year I've stopped it from getting worse. This is through learning about the condition and potential treatments and routines that help- in fact, I had to teach a new GP about the condition who had never heard of it before.

5. After my spinal injury, finding out what types of exercises could help support my lower back so I could walk etc without a brace that went from my neck to my thighs. I had just turned 16 and looked like Frankenstein's Monster. By the time I was 18 I was free of the thing!

There you go, as you can see, I was right more after finding things out for myself than when I listened to experts. Now, over to you for your list.

Ian Baker here...thanks for the shout-out in the podcast! I'd put off listening to it until I had a spare hour, so a walk by our local creek on Boxing Day (with the family still at home) seemed an ideal time. Really, really enjoyed the discussion between you both. It amazes me that so many of us had a similar exprience in our misspent youth - cycling for miles when the new DCs came in each month, frequently second-hand shops, averting our eyes from saucy magzines...

I grew up in Portsmouth, the UK's only island city, which comprised Southsea (the seaside resort), the naval dockyard, and many local areas with names like Fratton, Buckland, Eastney, Hilsea, etc. . Portsmouth had lots of close, narrow backstreets, and lots of corner newsagents back in the early 1970s. There were 96 newsagents within a radius of 6 miles in 1971, but I reckon only two carried US Marvels, but a large proportion of the rest carried DCs.

At the time I did not appreciate how lucky I was to live in a port, a major city with access to American comics.

All the memories you discussed chimed with me....my turning point for collecting DC's was Batman #234, "Half An Evil". Like Chris, I also had a scrapbook where I pasted favourite comic covers. Plus I had two local pals who were also avid collectors (and also had Carlton Corsa racing bikes and haversacks from the Army Surplus stores, ideal for carrying comics from newsagent to newsagent.

Anyway, a great podcast chaps.

My answer:

1. Standing in front of 300 of Europe's biggest IT companies after my boss asked me to deliver the presentation to them (that I had written for him) at the very last moment, and nailing it to the point where the organisers asked me to act as moderator on some break out sessions. There was a moment of realisation before I started to speak (I was initially hanging on to the lectern my legs were shaking so much) that actually none of them wanted to be where I was and that I therefore had nothing to lose.

2. Walking on burning hot coals in my bare feet.

3. Breaking pieces of wood with my bare hands after 30 minutes tuition.

4. Every time I host my weekly rock show on Revolution Radio Online- it's the equivalent of sitting on the floor playing records with your mates.

5. Proudly delivering my father's speech at my daughter's wedding.

For all of these differing memories I was in the moment, feeling at a peak state. True for the first example, I was shaking like a leaf when I first walked on the stage but I was distracted by a familiar face in the audience right before I was due to speak, and it broke my pattern. I chose to frame my 'fear' into 'excitement- after all the symptoms were the same! Heart racing, a bit sweaty, butterflies in stomach etc.

Now over to you, feel free to put your answers on this post!

#TakeABiteTuesday

Here is the link to my preferred journal system: https://learn.mastermind.com/order-blj

Here is the link for the new Planner system that I have moved to (following the old platform moving exclusively to a digital only system): https://www.mypaplanner.co.uk/2026-business-planners

So far I am loving it. It's more business focused than the one I used to have but if you're a solopreneur/entrepreneur like I am, it's perfect (and don't worry, it has plenty of scope for personal life stuff as well).