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Messy Business is a podcast about business and work, and all the things we’ve been taught to believe about both. It’s here to help you think better, not just know more.

Every week, I (your host, Libby Langley) take an idea about business or working life that has become lore, and look at it without any rose-tinted glasses.

From productivity, success, and ambition to marketing, leadership, money, confidence, expertise, growth, and the latest internet business fad, nothing is safe from my questioning!

Where did these ideas come from? Why did they become so appealing? What might actually be useful about them? And what are the realities that get left out?

The point isn’t to tell you what to think. It’s to give you something worth thinking about, so you can form your own opinions and make better decisions about your work, business, and life.

New episode every Thursday.

📙 Read my book, Life in Business - https://libbylangley.com/book

🔧 Work with me - https://libbylangley.com

📩 Get my emails - https://libbylangley.com/email

Find me on LinkedIn or Instagram (@libbylangley)

libbylangley.com

Messy Business - with Libby Langley

Libby Langley | Business & Marketing Consultant
Entrepreneurship
205 episodes
204: The Messy Truth About Finding Your Niche | #204
Niching is sound marketing thinking. Knowing who you want to help, what you're particularly good at, and where you create the most value makes marketing, referrals, positioning, and decision-making considerably easier. But somewhere along the way, segmentation became a commandment: pick your niche before you do anything else. In this episode of Messy Business, I question whether that's actual...
27m • Aug 20
27m
203: The Messy Truth About Productivity | #203
We are obsessed with productivity. We optimise our diaries, automate our systems, time-block our days, download the apps, chase inbox zero, and now enlist AI to help us squeeze even more output from the hours we have. But productive for what? The idea of productivity makes perfect sense when you're measuring the output of a factory. When the work is thinking, writing, deciding, creating, buil...
27m • Aug 13
27m
202: The Messy Truth About Success | #202
Success is often presented as something everyone should be able to see. A bigger house. A more expensive car. Six or seven figures. Thousands of followers. Awards, staff, launches, book deals, and an apparently fabulous life in Dubai. These things are easy to display and easy to count, but they do not tell us whether someone is happy, financially secure, enjoying their work, or living a life ...
27m • Aug 06
27m
201: The Messy Truth About Confidence | #201
What does confidence actually look like? Is it speaking on stage? Wearing the "right" clothes? Charging higher prices? Being the loudest person in the room? Or have we confused confidence with something else entirely? In this episode, I unpack the messy truth about confidence, why we've become so obsessed with it in business, and why trusting yourself might be far more important than trying ...
26m • Jul 30
26m
200: 200 Episodes Later: What I Know For Sure About Business | #200
Two hundred episodes. When I started this podcast, I thought my business was to teach people how to do business better. 200 episodes later, and I think my job is something slightly different. It's to help you think better about your business. To mark episode 200, I wanted to step back and share the principles I've stopped arguing with. These aren't trends, hacks, or productivity tips. They'r...
28m • Jul 23
28m
199: The Messy Truth About Always Wanting More | #199
The moment you achieve something in business, somebody usually asks what comes next. You reach your first major income goal, hire somebody, write a book, or launch something successful, and almost immediately the focus moves to the next milestone. We are very good at striving. We are much less comfortable with staying where we are, maintaining what we have built, and admitting that life and b...
27m • Jul 16
27m
198: The Messy Truth About Scaling Your Small Business | #198
Scaling is one of those business ideas that gets talked about as though it is the obvious next step. Scale your income. Scale your impact. Scale beyond yourself. Build something bigger. But do you actually want that? Or have you simply absorbed the idea that a successful business is supposed to keep getting bigger? In this episode, I explore the messy truth about scaling your small business....
26m • Jul 09
26m
197: The Messy Truth About Being Fully Booked as a Solo Business Owner | #197
Being fully booked is often treated as the ultimate sign that your business is successful. It's become shorthand for being in demand, making good money and finally "making it". But is a packed diary really the goal? In this episode, I explore where the idea of being fully booked came from, why it made perfect sense for traditional service businesses, and how it became a status symbol in the ...
26m • Jul 02
26m
196: The Messy Truth About Being Your Own Boss | #196
Most people who start a business say some version of the same thing: "I just want to be my own boss" It's one of the most accepted ideas in business. We hear it so often that we rarely stop to question what it actually means. In this episode, I unpack the messy truth behind being your own boss. We explore where the idea came from, why it became synonymous with freedom, and why so many busines...
25m • Jun 25
25m
195: The Messy Truth About Business Advice | #195
There is no shortage of business advice. Scale your business. Build passive income. Automate everything. Charge your worth. Invest before you're ready. Post more content. Build a personal brand. The problem isn't that any of these ideas are automatically wrong, the problem is that they're often presented as universal truths when they're anything but. In this episode, I explore some of the mo...
28m • Jun 18
28m
194: The Messy Truth About Being a Capable Business Owner | #194
Smart people have a unique talent. We can see opportunities everywhere, absorb huge amounts of information, understand multiple sides of an argument, and build a very convincing case for almost anything. Useful? Absolutely. But it can also create some unexpected problems. In this episode, I explore why capable business owners often end up making decisions that look a little strange from the...
27m • Jun 11
27m
193: The Top 10 Mistakes Small Businesses Make | #193
After working with more than 7,500 business owners over the years, I've noticed that most business problems aren't nearly as unique as we think they are. People often come to me convinced they need more clients, better marketing, a new website, or a completely different strategy. Sometimes that's true. More often, the real issue is hiding somewhere else. In this episode, I'm sharing 10 of the...
27m • Jun 04
27m
192: Work That Looks Good v Work That Gets Results | #192
I've spent an embarrassing amount of time moving things one pixel to the left in Canva. I've rewritten websites. Reorganised systems. Created new things. Tweaked old things. Rearranged business furniture that didn't actually need rearranging. The problem is that a lot of business activities feel productive. You can spend an entire day doing them and finish feeling busy, diligent and hardwork...
26m • Jun 01
26m
191: When Business Noise Is Making You Doubt Yourself | #191
Do you ever get that nagging feeling that everyone else in business is somehow further ahead than you? Like they’ve figured something out that you’ve missed? Maybe they’re launching shiny new things, talking about big numbers, showing up everywhere online, and meanwhile you’re wondering whether your own business is a bit… behind. I want to talk about that this week, because I think this feel...
27m • May 28
27m
190: Why More Clients Isn't the Answer | #190
Do you more clients, or do you actually need a better business structure? This episode is for the business owner who thinks the answer is more people through the door, when the real issue might be pricing, delivery, boundaries, or the clients already in the business. More clients sounds like the obvious answer. More clients means more money. More money means everything gets easier. Lovely ide...
27m • May 21
27m
189: Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should! | #189
Just because you can do something in your business, does not mean it belongs there. This episode is for capable business owners who can turn their hand to loads of things, then wonder why their business has become harder to explain, sell, and run. Being capable is useful, obviously. But it can also be a massive nuisance. You learn quickly. You can build the tech. You can create the workshop. ...
27m • May 14
27m
188: Are You Stuck, or Are You Avoiding Something? | #188
Are you really stuck in your business, or are you avoiding the thing you already know you need to do? This episode is for the business owner who keeps saying they feel stuck, when the real issue might be a decision, a conversation, or a change they’d rather not face yet. In this episode, I’m talking about stuckness. That horrible feeling of not knowing what to do next, not knowing how to move...
26m • May 07
26m
187: AI Isn't the Problem. Sounding Like Everyone Else Is | #187
Starting to notice that everyone sounds the same online? Same tone, same structure, same slightly polished way of saying things that all blur into one? This episode is for anyone using AI in their business who doesn’t want to disappear into that. The issue isn’t AI itself, it’s how it’s being used. There’s a lot of content out there now that reads the same. Emails, posts, even podcasts that f...
27m • Apr 30
27m
186: When Your Business Is Doing Your Head In | #186
Is your business starting to do your head in, even though it looks like it’s all going fine? This episode is for the business owner who’s getting more and more irritated by how their business runs. In this episode, I’m talking about that point where things just start to grate. Nothing is obviously wrong. You’ve got clients. Money is coming in. From the outside, it all makes sense. But day to ...
27m • Apr 23
27m
185: Before You Start Something New, Listen to This! | #185
Always starting new things in your business? New offer, new lead magnet, new niche, new plan, new idea that feels absolutely genius at 10pm? This episode is for the business owner whose brain is full of ideas, but whose business is starting to feel cluttered, scattered, and harder to run because of them. In this episode, I’m talking about the habit of starting something new every time somethin...
27m • Apr 16
27m
184: Your Business is Working. So Why Do You Hate It? | #184
Ever found yourself thinking, my business is technically working, so why do I resent half of it? This episode is for the solo business owner who looks fine on paper but feels fed up, boxed in, or just irritated by the way their business actually runs. In this episode, I’m talking about something that can feel quite hard to admit out loud: sometimes a business can be successful enough, busy eno...
27m • Apr 09
27m
183: Debunking the Internet's Favourite "Business Success" Myths | #183
Do you ever feel like you’re doing business wrong because you’re not up at 5am, posting non-stop, buying every course, or building some ridiculous funnel with 47 moving parts? This episode is for anyone who’s tired of being told there’s one right way to run a successful business. In this episode, I’m pulling apart some of the internet’s favourite business success myths and saying what probably...
27m • Apr 02
27m
182: Why I Walked Away from "Success" | #182
In business, we’re taught that success should look like constant growth. Bigger offers, bigger programmes, more clients, more moving parts, more visible proof that things are working. And sometimes that does work. Until it doesn’t. In this episode, I’m talking about a version of success I built, lived, and eventually walked away from. Because from the outside it looked impressive. The money w...
27m • Mar 26
27m
181: Do Less but Better | #181
There’s a lot of noise in business telling you to do more. More content, more platforms, more effort, more everything. And at some point, it just becomes exhausting. In this episode, I’m bringing it back to something much simpler. Doing less, but doing it better. Not as a shortcut, and not as an excuse, but as a deliberate way of running a business that actually works for you. We’re talking a...
27m • Mar 19
27m
180: When Your Income Drops, is it a Money Problem or a Decision Problem? | #180
When income dips in business it is very easy to assume the problem is money. But often the real issue sits somewhere else entirely, often in the decisions behind the income. In this episode I look at the chain of decisions that impact revenue in a small business. Offers, pricing, marketing, and consistency. When those decisions become tangled or uncertain, income tends to wobble as well. I a...
27m • Mar 12
27m
179: #179 Overthinking is Costing You More than You Realise
Overthinking can look like diligence. It can feel responsible. Like you’re being careful, thoughtful, strategic. But in reality, it often becomes one of the most expensive habits in business. Not just in money, but in time, energy, momentum, and confidence. In this episode I talk about the hidden cost of overthinking and why it can slow down capable business owners who already know far more ...
27m • Mar 05
27m
178: #178 Why JOMO Beats FOMO in Business
FOMO - the fear of missing out - has become so normal in business that most of us barely question it. It shows up as that low-level pressure to post more, launch more, join more things, and generally keep up with everyone else. But all it really does is scatter your attention and disconnect you from yourself. In this episode, I’m talking about JOMO - the joy of missing out - and why deliberat...
28m • Feb 26
28m
177: #177 10 Ways to Simplify Your Business that Actually Make a Difference
Complexity has somehow become a badge of honour in business. More tools, more plans, more content, more ideas - and then more guilt when you can’t keep up with the very thing you created. In this episode of Messy Business, I’m talking about why most capable business owners don’t need more strategy, they need less friction. This isn’t about stripping everything back to some unrealistic minimal...
27m • Feb 19
27m
176: #176 You Don't Have to Pretend Everything's Perfect
If you’re the "I’m fine" one (even when you’re falling apart inside), this episode is for you. I’m talking about the exhausting pressure to perform competence in business - always sounding sorted, always polished, always upbeat - and why that performance layer is one of the fastest routes to burnout (even when nothing is technically wrong). This episode is about presence over polish, honesty ...
27m • Feb 12
27m
175: #175 Running a Business When the World Feels Too Much
In this extra episode, I talk openly about what it really looks like to run a business when the world feels overwhelming, frightening, and chaotic. This isn’t about “being resilient” or pushing through; it’s about steadiness, sanity, and staying connected to yourself when everything around you feels shaky. I reflect on how global events seep into our nervous systems, why this affects our capac...
27m • Feb 10
27m
174: #174 The Problem with Motivation
Motivation gets an unhealthy amount of hype. In this episode, I’m discussing why motivation is an unreliable (and often unhelpful) thing to chase, and what to pay attention to instead if you want to actually move forward in your business without forcing yourself into a performance. This isn’t about “try harder” or “push through”. It’s about realistic positivity, a bit of readiness, and buildin...
27m • Feb 05
27m
173: #173 When Your Capacity (and Energy) are Low
In this episode of Messy Business, I’m talking about capacity - what it actually is, how it feels when it’s low, and why pushing through isn’t always the answer. 🟠 Motivation and capacity are not the same thing. You can want to do the work and still not have the mental, physical, or nervous-system capacity to hold it - and that doesn’t mean you’re uncommitted or doing anything wrong. 🧡 I shar...
27m • Jan 29
27m
172: #172 Finding Your Sweet Spot in Business
People talk a lot about “finding your sweet spot” in business, as if it’s a destination you eventually arrive at once you’ve tweaked enough, learned enough, or built the perfect offer. In this episode, I talk honestly about why that idea kept me stuck for years, and how I’ve come to understand my own sweet spot not as something I had to create, but something that was revealed once I stopped fo...
28m • Jan 22
28m
171: #171 The Mental Weight of Digital Clutter
Digital clutter isn’t just a bit annoying. It’s cognitively demanding - the invisible weight you carry around in the background that slowly drains your focus, decision-making, and energy. In this episode of Messy Business, I’m talking about the mental load of digital clutter: the tabs you never close, the old offers you don’t run anymore, the Canva designs you’ll never use, the dusty folders c...
27m • Jan 15
27m
170: #170 Starting Again When You Don't Know What's Next
It’s January 2026 and the internet is screaming fresh start! and big year energy! - but this episode is the quieter truth underneath that. Because sometimes the most honest place you can be in business is this: you know what can’t continue… but you don’t yet know what’s replacing it. In this episode of Messy Business, I share what it’s actually felt like to close my main programme at the end ...
27m • Jan 08
27m
169: #169 The Return to Creativity: Letting Joy Lead Your Work
This isn’t a strategy episode. It’s a wondering-out-loud episode. An episode about curiosity, colour returning to things that felt grey for far too long, and what might happen if we let joy, not pressure, lead the way. In this episode of Messy Business, I talk honestly about how fun kind of left the business room. How work became performance, value became output, service became self-sacrifice,...
27m • Jan 01
27m
168: #168 Making Space for What Matters
This episode is being released on Christmas Day - and if you’re listening today, I’m really glad you’re here. Whether you’re hiding from chaos, peeling potatoes, avoiding small talk, or simply enjoying some quiet, this one is for you. This isn’t an episode about planning, goal-setting, or using the time between Christmas and New Year wisely. There’s no strategy here. Instead, this is a breathi...
26m • Dec 25, 2025
26m
167: #167 A Really Honest Review of 2025
This isn’t a shiny year-in-review. It’s the truth. I’m sharing the most honest reflection I’ve ever recorded - a look back at a year that stretched me, broke me open, and forced me to finally accept myself in ways I’ve been talking about for years but hadn’t truly lived. I talk candidly about the emotional, physical, and practical weight of 2025 - from a country that feels heavier and more di...
27m • Dec 18, 2025
27m
166: #166 What Happens When You Stop Forcing It?
After 14 years in business, something finally forced me to stop - burnout, shingles, and life all colliding at once. The surprising thing is when you stop pushing, things don’t fall apart. They soften, they slow, and you begin to hear yourself again. In this episode of Messy Business, I’m sharing what truly happens when you stop forcing your business forward and give yourself space to just be....
27m • Dec 11, 2025
27m
165: #165 14 Things I've Learned from 14 Years in Business
Fourteen years in business - and about fourteen thousand lessons along the way. In this milestone episode of Messy Business, I’m sharing the 14 biggest things I’ve learned since starting out in 2011, from burnout and boundaries to creativity, capacity, and what success really means. I talk candidly about my own burnout this year, how easy it is to drift out of alignment even when things look f...
29m • Dec 04, 2025
29m
164: #164 When Progress Feels Boring
Things are going fine. You’ve got clients, your systems are working, and you’re not firefighting every five minutes - so why does it all feel a bit… flat? In this episode of Messy Business, I’m talking about the part no one ever mentions: the quiet middle of business. The bit that isn’t thrilling, but is actually a sign that everything’s working exactly as it should. We’ll look at why your bra...
24m • Nov 27, 2025
24m
163: #163 Why Doing Less Feels So Damn Hard
You know you’d feel better if you slowed down - so why do you keep piling more on your plate? In this episode of Messy Business, I’m exploring the resistance we feel when we try to do less, and why simplicity can feel so uncomfortable (even when we know it’s what we need). I talk about where that resistance comes from - the stories we’ve absorbed about worth being tied to productivity, the fea...
23m • Nov 20, 2025
23m
162: #162 When You've Outgrown the Way You Work
That feeling when your business still looks successful on paper, but something about it just doesn’t fit anymore? This episode of Messy Business is for you. You’ve changed. Your energy, priorities, and boundaries have all evolved - but your business might not have caught up yet. I’m talking about what it means to outgrow your way of working, how to spot the signs (like dreading calls or feelin...
24m • Nov 13, 2025
24m
161: #161 The Messy Business Manifesto
Perfection isn’t the goal - peace is. In this final episode of the Messy Business rebrand series, I’m sharing the heart of what this podcast stands for: the Messy Business Manifesto. It’s a collection of ten truths about what it really means to build a business that fits you - and a reminder that success has nothing to do with having it all together. I walk you through each of the ten Messy Bu...
25m • Nov 07, 2025
25m
160: #160 Rethinking the Way You Work
You left your 9–5 for freedom - but does your business now feel just as restrictive as your old job? In this episode of Messy Business, I’m exploring how we unconsciously recreate the very structures we were trying to escape, and what it really takes to design a business that gives you the life you wanted in the first place. I share the story of how I accidentally built myself another job - c...
26m • Nov 06, 2025
26m
159: #159 The Four Foundations of a Solid Business
If your business feels unsteady, confusing, or like it’s taking more than it gives - this episode is for you. I’m walking you through the four foundations of a solid business base: Belief, Alignment, Structure, and Ease. These are the cornerstones of my Rebootcamp (https://libbylangley.com/rebootcamp) framework - and the key to rebuilding your business so it finally fits you. We’ll talk about ...
25m • Nov 05, 2025
25m
158: #158 When Your Business Feels Out of Sync
If your business feels heavy, misaligned, or like it’s draining you - it’s not you, it’s your business. In this episode of Messy Business, I’m talking about what really happens when you and your business fall out of sync (and how to get back on the same page again). You’re not flaky, inconsistent, or lazy - even if it sometimes feels that way. What’s more likely is that your business simply do...
26m • Nov 04, 2025
26m
157: #157 Welcome to MESSY BUSINESS!
Welcome to Messy Business! It feels so good to say that. After 156 episodes of Life in Business and Unstuck, this new chapter is all about embracing the beautiful chaos of running a business - and finally letting go of the idea that you need to have everything perfectly together to succeed. In this episode, I share why the podcast has evolved, what Messy Business stands for, and how it connect...
24m • Nov 03, 2025
24m
156: #156 You're Not Too Niche - You're Not Niche Enough!
Ever worry that if you niche down too far, you’ll scare people off or have no one left to sell to? In this episode of Unstuck, I’m breaking down why that’s a total myth — and why you’re probably not niche enough. We’ll talk about the real reason so many business owners resist specificity (spoiler: it’s usually fear, FOMO, or people-pleasing) and how broad, vague offers are the reason your mark...
25m • Oct 30, 2025
25m
155: #155 The Flaw in the ‘Know, Like, Trust’ Theory
You’ve probably heard the phrase “know, like, and trust” a thousand times — it’s the golden rule of marketing, right? But there’s a crucial fourth step that everyone forgets… buy. Because no matter how loved, trusted, or respected you are, if no one actually buys from you, you don’t have a business. In this episode, I dig into what’s missing from the classic know, like, trust model and how to ...
27m • Oct 23, 2025
27m

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