How to Practice What You Preach as Your Business Grows with Kat Nicholls

2026-01-14

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Today on the podcast, I am chatting to Kat Nicholls, the Brand and Integrity Manager at Happiful. If you haven't come across Happiful before, it is a network of mental health and wellness directories as well as a monthly magazine. I loved chatting to Kat about how the brand came about and what it stands for, but we also dive deep into how to maintain your integrity as your brand grows. We cover some of the mistakes they have made and how they navigated them, along with brilliant advice on remaining true to your values and ensuring those values are communicated effectively across a growing team. For most of us as small business owners, integrity is so important, so I am sure you are...

I loved chatting to Kat about how the brand came about and what it stands for, but we also dive deep into how to maintain your integrity as your brand grows. We cover some of the mistakes they have made and how they navigated them, along with brilliant advice on remaining true to your values and ensuring those values are communicated effectively across a growing team.

For most of us as small business owners, integrity is so important, so I am sure you are going to find this episode incredibly helpful.

Key Takeaways:

Defining Integrity: For Kat and Happiful, integrity is really about honesty and authenticity. It involves admitting when you make mistakes and learning from them, while ensuring you are "practising what you preach" regarding your values and how you treat your employee.
The "Proof Policy": To maintain high standards, Happiful uses a "proof policy" to ensure that any professional advertising on their directories reaches a certain standard of training and adheres to a code of ethics.
The Power of Saying No: Sometimes maintaining integrity means turning down press opportunities or partnerships that don't align with your values, even if they would provide significant brand exposure.
Handling Mistakes: When things go wrong, such as publishing misinformation, the key is to apologise sincerely to those affected, investigate why it happened (often human error), and implement training to prevent it from happening again.
Navigating AI with Integrity: Happiful has developed an AI policy that requires transparency; members must disclose if AI was used, and content cannot be fully AI-generated because human connection is vital in the mental health space.
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Episode Highlights:

01:00 – Kat explains her role as Brand and Integrity Manager and the mission behind Happiful.
09:03 – We discuss the definition of integrity: honesty, authenticity and admitting when we get things wrong.
11:59 – The challenges of maintaining integrity and considering your impact on the environment and employees as a business grows.
19:53 – How to handle mistakes and course-correct when content doesn't align with your values.
30:52 – Developing an AI policy that balances technological tools with human connection and transparency..

About The Guest:

Kat Nicholls is the Brand and Integrity Manager at Happiful, a company that owns a network of online directories for mental health and wellbeing support, as well as a monthly magazine. Her background is in content writing, podcasting, and coaching, and she now focuses on ensuring the brand maintains its authentic, value-led approach.

You can find out more about the magazine and directories at http://happiful.com

I would love to hear what you think of this episode, so please do let me know on Instagram where I'm @‌lizmmosley or @‌buildingyourbrandpodcast and I hope you enjoy the episode!

This episode was written and recorded by me and produced by Lucy Lucraft lucylucraft.co.uk

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