Yesterday I interviewed Andy Cope, author of The Art of Being Brilliant and The Little Book of Emotional Intelligence, for The Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast.* I was particularly interested in how the books work alongside the movement – The Art of Brilliance is a training and coaching company working with businesses, schools and communities to help people discover the simple but profound truth about happiness (which is of course that it’s always right there if you choose it).
Andy’s been working on his PhD in Happiness Theory (yes, that’s a thing) for 11 years now. Which is in itself quite funny. And what’s extraordinary about his book is the way he takes dense, chewy psychological and neurodevelopmental theory and makes it not just accessible but obvious. The cartoons help, as does the fact that he’s also a writer of children’s stories, and we talked a bit about that.
He’s very, very funny. And as he described the way he takes listeners through the book, warming them up, slipping in the chewier concepts and making sense of them as he goes – which is why he insists you start at the beginning and read through to the end, none of this dipping in and out that’s so fashionable these days – I found myself for the first time in 29 episodes literally crying with laughter.
That’s probably not very professional, I can’t imagine it’s recommended in any handbook of podcasting or radio presenting, but it illustrates beautifully one of the reasons I love doing this show, and living this life. When was the last time you cried laughing at work?
*The episode will air on 31 October, so you have a little while to wait yet, sorry. If you hear it, though, notice my northern accent reassert itself – you can take the girl out of Manchester…