This week Alberto sat down with Thom Elliot, co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims, one of the UK’s most recognisable and successful pizza brands.

Thom shares the real story behind building Pizza Pilgrims from a single van into a national business with over 800 employees, and what it actually costs to scale in hospitality. From long hours and financial pressure to the emotional toll of leadership, this conversation goes far beyond the highlight reel.

They explore the early days of the business, the realities of growth, why hospitality is often romanticised from the outside, and how pressure, responsibility, and risk change as a company scales. Thom opens up about burnout, identity, and the challenge of staying grounded while building something that demands everything.

You will learn

• What it really takes to build and scale a restaurant business

• The personal cost of entrepreneurship in hospitality

• How leadership pressure changes as a business grows

• Why success does not remove stress or uncertainty

• How to build something meaningful without losing perspective

Follow Thom & Pizza Pilgrims

https://www.instagram.com/pizzapilgrims/

https://www.youtube.com/@UC_LiCe5657Ynu5G7lIzHGjg

https://www.tiktok.com/@pizzapilgrims

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thom-elliot-9115ab2b/

#podcast #entrepreneurship #pizzapilgrims #startupstory #hospitality #founderstories #businessjourney #streetfood #smallbusiness #motivation #thrivingminds

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Alberto sat down with Martin Brooks, a world leading body language and communication expert who helps people use non-verbal communication to transform their professional and personal lives.

Martin’s work sits at the intersection of psychology, communication, and human behaviour. He explains how body language shapes first impressions, why the body often reveals what the mouth is trying to hide, and how small changes in posture, voice, gestures, and eye contact can completely change the way others respond to you.

You will learn

• How to make a stronger first impression through posture, eye contact, and a genuine smile

• How to look more confident by changing your internal state, not just your posture

• The hand gestures that make you seem more credible, persuasive, and assertive

• How to spot signs of deception, including truth slips and duping delight

• How to read interest, disengagement, and power dynamics in real time, in person and on Zoom

Follow Martin:

https://www.instagram.com/martinbrooks1968

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/martin-brooks-94566312

https://twitter.com/impacttologist

https://successthroughimpact.com

#bodylanguage #communicationskills #confidence #socialskills #psychology #selfimprovement #charisma #publicspeaking #personaldevelopment #leadership

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Alberto sat down with Dr Andy Cope, also known as The Happiness Doctor, a world leading positive psychology researcher, speaker, and best selling author, best known for his work on human flourishing, and for the idea that happiness is the goal behind all your other goals.

In this conversation, Andy breaks down what happiness actually is, why we confuse short term pleasure with long term contentment, and why chasing happiness as a destination usually makes us feel worse.

They explore destination addiction, the modern obsession with being busy, and how consumer culture trains people to believe that the next promotion, the next purchase, or the next milestone will finally make them feel fulfilled.

This episode is simple, practical, and immediately usable, it is a toolkit for feeling better on ordinary days, not just special ones.

You will learn

• What happiness really is, and why you do not need to be happy all the time

• Why happiness is often a starting point, not the reward at the end

• The four minute rule, and how the first four minutes of any interaction can change everything

• The simple habits that make you more present, gratitude, better questions, and fewer distractions

• The relationship ratios that predict thriving teams and thriving families, and how to apply them

Follow Andy& Art of Brilliance

https://www.instagram.com/thehappybloke/

https://www.facebook.com/Art-of-Brilliance-185597948129457/

https://x.com/beingbrilliant

https://www.instagram.com/artofbrilliance/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/art-of-brilliance/

Get Andy's Books:

https://amzn.to/4bkTT2U

#Happiness #PositivePsychology #DrAndyCope #Mindfulness #MentalHealth #PersonalDevelopment #ThrivingMinds #Wellbeing #SuccessMindset #SelfImprovement

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Alberto sat down with Maria Hatzistefanis, founder and CEO of the Rodial Group, bestselling author, and a Dragon on Dragons Den Greece.

Maria grew up on a small island in Greece, dreaming of a bigger world. She moved into magazines, studied business at Columbia, entered investment banking, then got fired at 25, a moment that forced her to choose what she actually wanted.

With 20,000 in savings and no beauty industry experience, she started Rodial from home, faced investor rejection, and built the brand through focus, persistence, and product storytelling. She took a suitcase to Cosmoprof, met suppliers stand by stand, found the lab she still works with today, and launched with a tight initial range, because focus beats noise in the early days.

You will learn

• How Maria built Rodial from home, with limited capital, no funding, and no industry background
• Why launching with focus beats launching too many products, and how to pick a niche that travels
• How to win attention without huge budgets, naming, storytelling, press strategy, and consistent brand positioning
• How to think about influencers realistically, what works now, what changed after Covid, and why long term partnerships matter
• How to handle failure, cash flow pressure, and decision making, including the lesson from a mistake that nearly ended everything

Follow Maria:

https://www.instagram.com/mrsrodial

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/maria-hatzistefanis-64b7985

https://www.tiktok.com/@mrsrodial

https://twitter.com/MrsRodial

Get Maria's books:

How to Make Your First Million: Build wealth with style and audacity

https://amzn.to/4crK3P1

How to Make it Happen: Turning Failure into Success

https://amzn.to/46B3DEN

How to Be an Overnight Success

https://amzn.to/4b1ACmV

How to Live Your Best Life: Transform your mindset and manifest

https://amzn.to/4blUL8F

#entrepreneurship #founderstory #startupjourney #mariahatzistefanis #mrsrodial #rodial #beautybrand #businesspodcast #startupadvice #femalefounder #thrivingminds #marketingstrategy #brandbuilding #entrepreneurlife #dragonsdengr

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Alberto sat down with Dr Erin Hope, a leading clinical psychologist, bereavement specialist, and founder of The Loss Foundation, a national charity supporting people after cancer loss.

Grief is something every human will experience, yet almost none of us are taught how to understand it, process it, or support others through it. In this conversation, Dr Erin explains why grief is not a disorder, not a weakness, and not something to get over, but a deeply human response to love and loss.

This episode also offers practical guidance, for those grieving right now, and for those trying to support someone they love. From what to say at a funeral, to how to check in months later, to how workplaces and parents can better support grief, this is a compassionate and deeply grounding conversation.

This is not about fixing grief. It is about learning how to live fully while carrying it.

You will learn

• If the the way you grieve is healthy and normal

• How grief shows up mentally physically and emotionally

• Why avoidance helps short term but harms long term

• How to support someone grieving without trying to fix them

• How to build a meaningful life while carrying loss

• How long does grief really last

#grief #bereavement #personalgrowth #mentalhealth #loss #coping #podcast #healing #griefsupport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Alberto sat down with Lee Warren, a world leading persuasion and communication expert, keynote speaker, and advisor to senior leaders and global organisations.

Lee’s work challenges one of the most common myths in business and leadership, that people are persuaded by logic, data, and facts. In reality, most decisions are made emotionally first, and only justified rationally afterwards.

You will learn

• How to influence people without being manipulative
• How to build trust in the first moments of a conversation
• What makes someone instantly more persuasive
• How to tell when someone is trying to persuade you
• The golden methods to network and communicate without feeling awkward or fake

Follow Lee:

https://www.instagram.com/leewarrenspeaker

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyzgGQAJw9tsTljLJYYr_zg

https://www.linkedin.com/in/leewarrenspeaker

https://twitter.com/leewarrenspeaks

https://www.facebook.com/leewarrenspeaker

#LeeWarren #AlbertoZandi #ThrivingMinds #Persuasion #Networking #PublicSpeaking #CommunicationSkills #Influence #Leadership #BusinessGrowth

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Alberto sat down with Colin Corby, a leading digital detox expert with over three decades of experience in technology, health, and behavioural change.

In this conversation, they explore how constant stimulation, multitasking, and screen exposure quietly erode focus, sleep, energy, and emotional resilience. Colin explains why technology itself is not the enemy, but how it replaces movement, rest, presence, and human connection.

This episode is about reclaiming control, not rejecting technology, and learning how to live and work with it without sacrificing your health.

You will learn

• Why constant phone stimulation increases stress and burnout

• How technology kills attention span and focus

• How to break phone addiction without quitting technology

• How boredom silence and presence improve clarity and creativity

Follow Colin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/colincorby/

https://www.youtube.com/@thedigitaldetoxcoach

https://www.instagram.com/the_digital_detox_coach/

https://www.tiktok.com/@thedigitaldetoxcoach

https://www.facebook.com/techologywellbeing.coach

https://x.com/ColinDCorby

https://linktr.ee/TheDigitalDetoxCoach

https://TheDigitalDetoxCoach.com

#DigitalDetox #TechAddiction #MentalHealthAwareness #ThrivingMinds #AttentionMatters #ScreenTime #ColinCorby #AlbertoZandi #Wellbeing #PodcastLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Alberto sat down with Gavin Stone, a former British intelligence officer with over two decades of experience working across government agencies and international intelligence operations.

Gavin shares what life inside the intelligence world actually looks like, how spies are recruited, trained, and deployed, and why the real work is nothing like the movies.

This episode you will learn:

• How intelligence officers detect lies and stress in real conversations

• Why body language should be read in clusters, not isolated gestures

• How persuasion and manipulation actually work

• Why people are easier to influence when emotions are activated

• How governments and organisations shape narratives

• How to think more critically and protect yourself from manipulation

This is a rare look inside the psychology of intelligence, trust, and influence, and how these skills apply to everyday life.

Follow Gavin:

https://www.instagram.com/gavin_stone1/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavin-stone-146ab1240

https://www.facebook.com/gavinstoneauthor/

Read Gavin's latest books:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B015HWIKGG

#GavinStone #AlbertoZandi #SpyPodcast #IntelligenceOfficer #BodyLanguage #Lying #MI6 #CIA #TruthOrLie #Polygraph #HumanPsychology #CovertOps

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.