Episode Summary

Jonny Quirk has spent over a decade building communities - from grassroots club nights to global brands like Yelp, Deliveroo and WeWork, to decentralised Web3 networks.

But beneath the platforms and strategies sits a deeper concern: loneliness.

In this conversation, we explore what belonging looks like in a world shaped by AI, remote work and digital overload - and how leadership feels when you’re still becoming yourself.

This episode is for anyone who has felt surrounded… but not always seen.

Community is everywhere as a word. Belonging feels rarer.

In this episode, Jonny Quirk reflects on loneliness, automation, fatherhood, sobriety and the tension between scale and depth. It’s a conversation about what remains human when technology accelerates — and why gathering still matters.

1. Why humans aren’t wired for isolation
2. Audience vs belonging
3. The pressure to scale versus the need for depth
4. The “first 50” principle
5. AI, automation and purpose
6. Third spaces and disappearing gathering spots
7. Fatherhood and recalibrating ambition
8. Sobriety and clarity

1. Loneliness isn’t weakness — it’s wiring.
2. Scale doesn’t create belonging. Proximity does.
3. Starting with fifty people isn’t small — it’s human.
4. Technology can accelerate connection, but it can’t replace presence.
5. Leadership in the messy middle looks like care, not certainty.
6. Nothing has gone wrong for craving real community.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. communityrocket.co
2. somethingelse.network
3. notthereyetproject.co.uk

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. City Socializing
2. Yelp
3. SubKit
4. WeWork
5. Deliveroo
6. Shares

Episode description

Roxy Heapy lives between two worlds.

By day, she’s spent nearly two decades building stability in a corporate career at Fanatics. Alongside that, she’s grown a makeup business rooted in trust, care, and long-term relationships.

This conversation explores what it means to navigate two professional identities at once - the tension between security and creativity, the pressure of appearing “settled,” and the reality of still questioning your pace and choices along the way. We talk about growing up fast, using work as safety, redefining success without burning everything down, and learning to trust a life that doesn’t fit neatly into one box.

This episode is for anyone balancing more than one version of themselves - and learning to live in the middle without needing to resolve it all.

In this episode of Notes from the Not There Yet, Bethany sits down with Roxy Heapy to talk about life lived between roles. From holding a long-term corporate career alongside a creative business, to navigating expectations around stability, success, and timing, Roxy shares what it’s like to build a life that doesn’t follow a single-track narrative.

This is a conversation about identity, balance, and allowing different parts of yourself to coexist - without forcing clarity before it’s ready.

1. Living between two careers without choosing just one
2. Stability as safety — and the questions that come with it
3. Identity beyond job titles and linear paths
4. The pressure of looking “sorted” while still feeling uncertain
5. Balance as something you manage, not master
6. Trusting a life that doesn’t fit into one label

1. You don’t have to collapse your life into one path for it to be valid.
2. Stability and questioning can exist at the same time.
3. A career can be both grounding and limiting - neither cancels the other out.
4. Balance isn’t a destination; it’s an ongoing negotiation.
5. Living in the middle doesn’t mean you’re undecided - it means you’re intentional.

Find Roxy

1. Roxy Makeup
2. Fanatics

Episode Description

In this episode, I sit down with Dr Katie Ford - a veterinary surgeon, speaker, and founder whose work around imposter syndrome has quietly helped thousands feel less alone.

We talk about what it’s like to build a life that looks successful on paper, while privately carrying self-doubt, perfectionism, and the fear of being found out. About the masks we wear to cope, the cost of holding it all together, and the slow, often uncomfortable work of learning how to see your own worth.

This episode is for anyone who’s ever wondered whether they truly belong in the room — or felt like confidence was something other people were given, not something they’re allowed to grow into.

Show notes

A calm, honest conversation about imposter syndrome, burnout, identity, and the quiet shift from proving yourself to trusting yourself.

Themes explored

1. Feeling like an imposter - even when you’re capable
2. The pressure of being “the clever one”
3. Perfectionism as protection
4. Burnout and emotional armour
5. Being seen by the right person
6. Learning to belong to yourself

Key Takeaways

1. Feeling like you don’t belong doesn’t mean you don’t - it often means you care deeply.
2. You don’t become worthy by achieving more - worth was already there.
3. Coping mechanisms can harden us without making us broken.
4. Self-kindness can feel unfamiliar before it feels safe.
5. Belonging doesn’t come from certainty — it comes from staying with yourself.
6. Sometimes the work isn’t becoming someone new, but remembering who you already are.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Katie Ford Vet
2. Vet Empowered
3. Katie Ford Vet Instagram
4. Books by Kristin Neff