For founders, business owners, community builders and people carrying significant responsibility. People who have built something that matters, are carrying quite a lot, and could probably do with some proper space to think about what they are building, who they are becoming and how all of that fits with the rest of their life.
Applications reopen 14 September 2026. There is nothing to pay at this stage, and joining the waitlist does not guarantee a place.
Many people coming into this do not need somebody telling them to work harder. They are probably already doing enough of that.
The difficulty is that when you are busy carrying responsibility, making decisions, looking after other people and keeping things moving, it is very easy to lose the space to ask some fairly basic questions.
Is this still what I want?
Does the way I am living actually reflect what I say matters to me?
Am I choosing this, or have I just got very good at continuing?
What would useful progress actually look like from here?
That is really what these six weeks are about. Not chasing some perfect version of balance, and definitely not giving you another system to follow, but creating enough space to look properly at what is going on and decide what, if anything, you want to do differently.
This is not another business programme. Your work will probably come into the conversation. Of course it will. For many of us it takes up a huge part of life, but we start with the person carrying it.
If you have already read enough to know you want the next step, you do not need to keep scrolling.
Join the waitlistThere will be things to think about and different perspectives in the room. Sometimes somebody else will say something that makes you look at your own situation differently. You might talk something through, spend more time listening, or go away thinking about something you had not expected to think about at all.
There is enough structure to stop us wandering around aimlessly, but not so much that everybody has to squeeze their life into the same exercise. And you choose what you share. Nobody needs to perform vulnerability to prove they are taking part properly.
Some of the questions we might spend time with are fairly simple:
What matters enough that you want your life to show more of it?
What are you building — and why does it still matter?
Where has responsibility, habit or momentum quietly taken over from choice?
What have you outgrown but not quite let go of?
Where are you spending energy that perhaps no longer deserves quite so much of it?
What do you want the next part of your work and life to stand for?
Sometimes there is a big answer. Often there is not. Sometimes you just notice something you have not properly noticed before, and that can be enough to start with.
There is a structure to the six weeks, otherwise we could end up talking about absolutely anything. But it is not six weeks of filling in boxes.
We start with what matters to you. Not an impressive sentence that defines your purpose for the rest of your life. More simply: what matters, what seems to have got lost a bit, and what keeps being important without getting enough of your time or attention?
Then we look at where you are actually going. There is often a difference between the direction we think we have chosen and the direction our diary, habits and decisions are taking us in. Some things will still fit. Others may not.
This is where it has to become real. What does any of this look like in your actual life, with the people, work, money, energy, responsibilities and limitations already there? Six weeks will not solve your life, but it should give you a better look at it.
Think there might be something in this for you? You can stop here and join the waitlist.
Join the waitlistThe main part is the six live sessions. We are keeping the group fairly small — roughly 8–12 people — because this only works if there is room for an actual conversation.
There will be material between sessions too: prompts, guides and things that help you carry the conversation on when you are back in normal life. I do not want to create another course where you end up feeling behind because you have not completed all the worksheets, so the material is there to be useful rather than to keep you busy.
There will also be a private cohort space. Again, not something I expect you to live in. It is somewhere the conversation can continue when there is something worth continuing.
After each session there will be a short Take This With You — the useful bits, things worth remembering or coming back to rather than a transcript of everything everybody said.
Towards the end we will look at what has actually held once the conversations stop, and there may also be a What Held? reunion afterwards if the group wants one.
The sessions themselves are not supplied as participant recordings. Being there matters.
All six sessions are on Thursday evenings, 7:00–8:30pm UK time.
Foundations started with founders and business owners in mind, and I imagine they will still make up a fair part of the group. As it has developed, though, it has become pretty obvious to me that the job title is not really the important bit.
Community builders can fit here. So can people leading teams or organisations, or those who have simply reached a point where a lot rests on them and they do not get many opportunities to stop and think about their own direction.
Things do not have to be falling apart. In fact, you might be doing quite well. You may have built something you are proud of, have good people around you and plenty happening... while still having a sense that something deserves a bit more thought.
You do need to be prepared to look at your own part in things rather than spend six weeks talking about what everybody else should change. And because this is a group, you also need to be comfortable hearing experiences and views that may be quite different from yours.
FIRE-UP came from something I had noticed for a long time, in my own life as much as in conversations with other people.
Most of us can tell you what matters to us. Family might be high on the list. Health. Freedom. Doing work we believe in. Being a decent person. Having time for things outside work. Whatever our particular answers happen to be.
Then there is the life we actually live. Work gets busy, somebody needs something, an opportunity comes along, money becomes a concern, something at home changes, and before you know it the thing you keep saying matters has been pushed into next week again.
I became interested in that gap. Not because I think having a gap means you are doing life wrong. I have plenty of my own examples where what I said mattered and what my diary suggested mattered were not exactly the same thing. But there is usually something useful in noticing it.
A lot of that thinking eventually became FIRE-UP. Foundations is a way of exploring it properly over six weeks, with other people in the room rather than just inside your own head.
FIRE-UP was created by Sean Hegarty and sits within Hegarty House Ltd.
For now, not much. It means we can let you know when applications reopen on 14 September. You can then read the application information and decide whether you want to take it any further. There is nothing to pay to join the waitlist and it does not commit you to applying.
No. When applications open, there will be a short application. This is a small group and who is in the room does make a difference, so we need enough information to understand what has brought you here and whether the cohort is likely to be a sensible fit both ways.
No. They are an important part of who Foundations was originally developed for, but the experience can also make sense for community builders, people leading teams or organisations and others carrying significant responsibility.
We are aiming for roughly 8–12 people. Small enough for there to be an actual conversation, while still bringing different experiences and perspectives into the room.
No. There will be prompts, guides and things to use between sessions where they are helpful. They are there to support the conversations rather than keep you busy or make you feel behind.
Participant-facing recordings are not supplied. This has been designed as a live cohort experience and being there for the conversation is part of it.
The programme has been built around the six live conversations, so it is worth looking carefully at the dates before applying. There are no catch-up recordings supplied afterwards.
FIRE-UP was created by Sean Hegarty. As the approach develops, cohorts may be led by Sean or by facilitators who have been properly trained to work with the FIRE-UP approach.
No. This is a personal development programme, not therapy, crisis support or clinical care. There are times when those are exactly what somebody needs, but this is not intended to replace them.
No. £199 is one payment for the full six-week programme. There is no ongoing Foundations membership or subscription attached to it.
If you have read enough and think this might be worth exploring, join the waitlist and we will let you know when applications reopen.
Join the waitlist