The Kawartha Small Business Podcast · The Kawartha Small Business Podcast

177: Les Smith

·44 min·1 clip

Brian and Matt welcome Les Smith into the Thrive Podcast Studio at Thrive Coworking Community in downtown Lindsay. He opens by calling himself a serial entrepreneur. Nine businesses in, he says the one he is working on now is the one he feels most excited about. That business is a hypnosis company he started with his spouse. The conversation quickly settles into the bigger idea underneath that choice: freedom. Les talks about wanting to work for himself and about the feeling that building something of your own can open up a different kind of life. Brian and Matt press on that idea a bit, because plenty of business owners do not actually feel free. That tension gives the conversation shape and keeps it from drifting into easy slogans. From there, the episode moves into networking. Les is skeptical of the fake version of it, the kind where people are told to mingle and exchange cards as if that were the whole point. He keeps returning to the idea that real connection is more human than that. It is about being open enough to think the next person could matter. It is also about seeing yourself as someone worth knowing. The hosts lean into that idea with their own pushback and jokes. The exchange stays light, but the point is serious. A lot of people are afraid of rejection. Les does not treat that fear as something mysterious. He treats it as something people can notice, name, and work around. The episode also spends time on how classroom exercises often fail to match the world people actually enter. Les compares those exercises with the messier reality of boardrooms and real relationships. That contrast lands because it comes from experience, not theory. He has been in enough rooms to know the difference. As the conversation goes on, the tone stays reflective rather than polished. Les keeps circling back to how people think about themselves and how that shapes the way they show up in business and in life. He uses examples that feel plain and familiar. That is part of the appeal. The ideas do not arrive dressed up as a framework. One of the strongest parts of the discussion is the reframe around rejection. Instead of treating it as a stop sign, the conversation nudges it toward something more useful. Sometimes being turned down means you were willing to ask. Sometimes it means you were clear enough to give someone a real choice. That is a small shift, but it changes the emotional temperature of the whole topic. The episode also opens into a more personal and purposeful stretch near the end. Les says he wants to help men be good because they are good, and that he wants to see that in their lives and emotions. That gives the conversation a different weight. It is not just about sales or networking anymore. It is about confidence, dignity, and the kind of life a business owner is trying to build. Brian and Matt keep the pace easy and conversational throughout. They let the talk wander. They let Les finish his thoughts. They bring the discussion back when it needs it. That loose structure suits the guest and the show. The episode does not pretend every business lesson arrives cleanly. It leaves room for hesitation, repetition, and the kind of side road that eventually reveals the main road. That makes it feel lived in. It also makes the advice easier to trust. By the time the episode wraps, the listener has heard more than one business lesson, but they all point in the same direction. Build honestly. Connect like a person. Do not be afraid of being told no. And keep making the thing that feels most alive to you. The final invitation is simple. Listeners can reach out, book a free journey meeting, and connect with Les through his hypnosis work. The episode leaves that door open without overselling it. It sounds like a conversation with a real person, which is exactly why it works.

As heard by us

A loose, practical look at freedom, networking, and not taking rejection too personally.

Les Smith reads as a serial entrepreneur drawn to freedom, and the episode stays close to his latest business with his spouse, a hypnosis company.

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Why you'd press play

For when networking feels fake and rejection gets under your skin.

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