A Little About Me
From building a business -
to building a life
For nearly 30 years, I built, scaled and eventually exited a business that became a world leader in its field.
What started in 1995 grew into an international education company operating across 23 countries, generating more than £100 million in revenue and impacting hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.
From the outside, it looked like success. Behind the scenes, it was a different story.
Like many founders, I was paying the hidden cost of building. The pressure. The exhaustion. The relentless responsibility. The slow disconnection from myself, my relationships, and any life beyond the business. I knew exactly what it felt like to win on the outside while quietly struggling on the inside.
For years I told myself freedom was coming. After the next milestone. After the next expansion. After the next achievement. Then I learned what most founders discover far too late:
If you don’t consciously build your business around your life, your business will slowly consume it.
That realisation changed everything - and it’s where I coined the phrase I still live by:
“Life is either by design or by default.”
Around 15 years ago, long before lifestyle entrepreneurship became mainstream, I began redesigning both my business and my life around freedom, presence and fulfilment. I engineered my own version of a “4-hour work week” years before Tim Ferriss popularised the idea - dramatically reducing my operational involvement while increasing both my impact and my quality of life.
But the deeper shift was never operational. It was internal. The real problem was never the business; it was the unconscious patterns driving the way I was living.
During this same chapter, I faced one of the greatest challenges of my life: a cancer diagnosis. It became the catalyst for a profound inner transformation - not only healing physically, but emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
That journey led me deep into leadership development, nervous system regulation, spirituality, men’s work, embodiment, emotional integration and energy mastery. I trained across many modalities - coaching, yoga, tantra and facilitation among them - all while continuing to build businesses, lead teams, mentor entrepreneurs and speak internationally.
Most founders don’t need more hustle. They need integration.
Because no amount of external success can compensate for internal fragmentation.
Today, my work combines nearly three decades of entrepreneurial experience with deep transformational practice to help founders realign success with freedom, health, relationships, purpose and fulfilment. Not just building a business that performs - but creating a life that actually feels good to live.
The foundation behind my work
Four ways I help founders see clearly, realign, and build success without sacrificing themselves in the process.
Founder Freedom Score™
Pinpoint exactly where your life and business have fallen out of alignment.
Entrepreneur Fitness Analysis™
Uncover the deeper operational, emotional and identity-level patterns shaping your performance, clarity and fulfilment.
Founder Realignment Sessions
Reconnect with yourself, your direction, and what truly matters.
Sovereign Founder Protocol™
My private, high-level mentorship for founders ready to create extraordinary success without sacrificing themselves in the process.
My role isn’t to “fix” you. It’s to help you see clearly what’s keeping you trapped, and to help you build a business and a life that support who you’re becoming.
Because true success was never only about what you build. It’s about who you become while building it. And it would be an honour to support you on that journey.
Take the first step
Ready to realign success with freedom?
Start with a quick, honest snapshot of where you stand - or book a call and let’s talk it through together.
What Others Say
Reflections from founders, leaders and seekers I’ve worked with.
Like many people I had been feeling more tense and stressed, so I was very much looking forward to my Quantum Flow session with Mike. I found the session a perfect way to relax and reconnect with myself. To begin with, Mike was very good at explaining what would happen and throughout the session his instruction was clear and understandable. As the session progressed, I felt the tension in my mind and body being released, through the breathing, visualisation and movement techniques. The session left me feeling relaxed yet energised, ready to face the busy day ahead with confidence and clarity. Thank you!
First of all, thank you for the Quantum Flow session yesterday, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was positively surprised by my personal discoveries. Of things in my life which I never think about, yet they are the main driving force. So, thank you for that. Coming from a professional ice-hockey background spanning over 20 years, I found Mike’s coaching techniques unique and valuable.
That was a pleasure for me Mike. Thank you for the Quantum Flow training. It made me feel light and joyful and remember what I am. I feel the gratitude. I am the light. All powerful. All joyful. Right now and for eternity.
The Quantum Flow workshop is a fantastic way to wake up and energise the whole body. I had no idea what to expect at first, and Mike was brilliant at clearly explaining what we’d be going through. He has a gentle yet enthusiastic manner that puts one at ease and is easy to follow. It was an invigorating session and by the end I felt my energy levels transformed and ready to enter my weekend with new vitality. I would definitely recommend Mike and his Quantum Flow workshops to absolutely anyone.
I work from home most days, spending most of my time sat down, feeling tense with all the computer work I have to do. Mike offered me a Quantum Flow treatment over Zoom, and I did not hesitate to say yes. He asked me about the problems I wanted help with, and we focused the session on a particular topic. After we completed the exercises, I felt like a lot of tension had been released and I felt calm, relaxed, and warm. Mike was helpful at putting together a specific routine for me and it definitely worked.
I thoroughly enjoyed the embodying movements of Quantum Flow. Mike was wonderfully open, direct and clear, leading the process with love, care and humility. I tend to get stuck in my head so the combination of releasing movements, synchronized breathing, simple visualizations and clear affirmations was a body-opening experience. Thank you.
Many thanks for the healing sent initially and more recently. I was amazed how Mike realised I was in need of healing, I was drained from doing 20 hours a week of readings. Mike talked me through healing on myself, I immediately felt the effects on the day and used the techniques throughout that week. The energies Mike has been kind enough to send me more recently have been so calming and powerful. Such a wonderful gift you have, Mike Shields. I thank you for the healing you sent to help me through a difficult time. Bless you. Tracy X
I met Mike at Awesomeness Fest Croatia, where I learned he went from being homeless to becoming a very successful businessman and energy healer! He was the only person I knew personally who had a story like that. I went to him for coaching when I felt lost about my financial situation. After our first session, I was so incredibly inspired and believed in myself more than ever. I love how he taps into his intuition to guide his coaching, he is very in tune and very grounded (so important, and some coaches are not). He gave me daily exercises that proved highly beneficial to get grounded, clear, and energized. We could both see I am much more focused now and even know my mission in life. I am on a straight path to financial freedom because I have redirected my energy there. Thank you, Mike, you are so humble, so positive, and such an inspiration. He is the number one coach I have had who inspired me to believe in myself on such a large scale.
I met Mike over lunch at a lifestyle-hacking conference in Costa Rica. I’m a moderate on the spectrum between traditional science and metaphysical stuff, so I like to let things earn my trust, and I wasn’t at all sure what this energy work was about, but Mike calmly explained everything. After receiving the energy work, Mike asked if I was interested in a few Feng Shui observations, and felt there may be some clutter blocking energy in my South East corner. That afternoon I went through clearing out the SE corners of all three floors of my warehouse/loft. Every bit of that little shift felt like it put extra gratitude into each moment in that building, which is now where I live and work. Mike also said he saw me doing a happy dance on the 14th December, but didn’t know why. Well, I was writing cheques today, and considering all the travelling and fun I’ve been saying yes to this year, it felt fantastic to pay every bill and have a comfortable remaining balance. When you move the energy and disrupt clutter, in tidying up both my castle and my chequebook, it’s felt like a fishes-and-loaves kind of year. What’s not to happy-dance about?
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