Episode 195 · On It and In It: How to Create a Team That Stays Brave | Mickey Wilson & Dr. Chris Endersby
Rate the team you lead on a scale of 1 to 10 for alignment and unity. Not just within the team, but between the team and the company. What is your score?
Alignment and unity are two of the loudest indicators of engagement, and engagement is the prime meridian of growing people and profits.
This week Dr. Joey welcomes Mickey Wilson and Dr Chris Endersby, co-founders of FIRESTARTER, a brand agency that fuses psychology and creativity to transform how leaders and companies show up authentically. Mickey brings 30+ years of branding and creative leadership from household names like Tesco, Samsung, and Ocado. Chris combines dual registration in coaching psychology and psychotherapy with corporate change expertise at JP Morgan, KPMG, and UBS. Together they created Firestarter's proprietary DARE Formula: Differentiation, Authenticity, Resonance, and Expression at every touchpoint.
What follows is a conversation about fire. Not the kind you put out. The kind you start.
Key Insights
- Attract the right top talent rather than all the talent.
- Name what you do well and what you are still learning. Candor is the pitch.
- Hire for two words: on it and in it.
- Ownership retains people. Incentives only rent them.
- Create the secure base first, then ask your team to be brave.
- In the strongest cultures, a celebration and an encouragement look the same.
- The wins carry the applause. The near misses carry the feedback.
- Culture stays alive. Tend it rather than laminate it.
- Originality creates job security in an AI world.
The Insights, Unpacked
Attract the right top talent rather than all the talent. Mickey reframes the whole hiring conversation. The question is not who could possibly do this job. The question is who you are as an organization, what genuinely makes you different, and who fits that. Cast the widest net and you land the wrong people.
Candor is the pitch. Here is what we do well. Here is what we are still learning, and here is how we are working on it. Mickey makes the case that this kind of honesty strengthens the pitch rather than weakening it. Younger candidates in particular see straight through polish, and they respect a leader who sets it aside.
On it and in it. Firestarter reduces the hiring criteria from a long list to two words. On it means the person is genuinely good at the work. In it means the person believes in where the company goes next. You hold that filter in your head through an entire interview, and it tells you more than a scorecard does.
Ownership retains people. Mickey makes the case that people stay when they own their chance to make a difference. Not a financial stake. A real sense that their part of the work matters and that you trust them with it. Give a person ownership and the person invests.
Create the secure base, then ask for bravery. This is Chris's contribution and it may be the most important thing said on the episode. Ask your team for courage, originality, and honest risk, and you owe them a corresponding measure of security. People find courage when they know the job survives the month. Courage is a condition you create, not a trait you hire.
A celebration and an encouragement look the same. Chris describes the mark of a culture that has arrived: from the outside you see the same thing, whether the team gathers to celebrate the biggest win of the year or gathers to lift each other after the biggest loss. Both look the same. Both matter the same. And as Chris points out, the wins carry the applause while the near misses, the pitches you lose, and the mistakes you rectify carry the feedback.
Culture stays alive. Chris on the fluidity of a growing company: as soon as the paint dries on the culture statement, the circumstances change. Culture grows organically. It asks for daily tending rather than framing.
Originality creates job security. Mickey and Chris light up describing 100originals.com, a community they create to celebrate the companies and the people who stay original. In a world of automation, playbooks, and AI, originality makes a person and a company irreplaceable.
Do One Thing (DOT)
Mickey: Be real. Say it as it is, about what you do well and what you do not, and you attract exactly the right people.
Chris: Put the support in place that your team needs to be themselves, and then ask them to be brave.
Connect with Mickey and Chris
Website: firestarter.live Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drchrisendersby/ FIRESTARTER on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/firestarter-collective-llp/
Originality community: 100originals.com
Their book, Brand Fire, releases before the end of 2026.
Your Next Step
You scored your team on alignment and unity at the top of this episode. Now find out what that score costs you.
The free Work Positive Culture Assessment gives you a clear read in about three minutes. Thirteen questions, and you know your stage, your strengths, and your next best steps.
Take it here: workpositive.today
Connect with Dr. Joey & Work Positive
Work Positive Podcast: workpositive.today/podcasts
Free Work Positive Newsletter: workpositive.today/newsletter
Enjoying the show?
Leave a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts so more people leaders discover the Work Positive Podcast. It takes a minute and helps the whole community.
Know a leader who would be a great guest? Send your recommendation to analiza@getpositive.today.
