On this one I was very pleased to be joined by @Jon Reay and @Tim Seddon, the Co-Founders OF @Room 42, a start-up that facilitates effective change and innovation through the use of Design Thinking based programmes, to help businesses tackle the most challenging of live business problems.

I really enjoyed this conversation with Jon and Tim where we dived into how they went on the journey to start Room 42 and specifically how they have seen Design Thinking used to improve Financial Performance.

🌟 Some of my favourite parts of our conversation were:

✅ How, if you can break up and disrupt day to day thinking, it provides the opportunity to inspire different interactions that can be the key to unlocking new thinking and ideas;

✅ How, if you get the right direction of travel, with a small team, Design Thinking can offer opportunities for small businesses to leapfrog larger competitors;

✅ Having a CFO or Finance professional within any change management program from the outset is really critical to help projects succeed more quickly;

✅ Their experience of imposing change top down, leads to a demotivated business that's struggling to adapt to change, while engaging with everyone leads to a much more highly motivated and agile business;

✅ How one of my favourite books, Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy helped inform both their company name and their approach to business.

On this one I was very pleased to be joined by Emilia De Stasio, CFA, the Founder & COO at Artscapy, the wealth management platform dedicated to art collecting.

I really enjoyed this conversation with Emilia where we explored her background in Finance, her love of Art and her journey over the past 4 years as she has co-founded Artscapy, a platform dedicated to the needs of art collectors.

🌟 A flavour of some of my favourite parts of our conversation:
✅ Emilia’s personal passion for art and its importance to her both in terms of its mental wellbeing effects and her desire and mission supporting this aspect of society;
✅ How, contemporary art provides both some of the best performing returns in the passion asset space along with real downside protection;
✅ How Emilia’s banking background has informed her approach to valuing art and the approach that they are taking at Artscapy;
✅ The marrying of the technology with the Advisory service that a higher value wealth management service demands;
✅ The benefits Emilia has found in having a strong network of mentors and peers to share ideas around the challenges in scaling the business.

Business Book Bonus Recommendation - Let My People Go Surfing by Yvonne Chouinard: https://amzn.eu/d/ivgkRRA

Click the link below for the Limited time 2 for 1 offer mentioned on the pod:

Life Ready Pathway

In this first episode of the new season, I’m thrilled to be joined by Suke Ridler, the CEO and founder of My LifeJars, a company that assists in organising documents and passwords to access during life and after death.

In this conversation, Suke and I discuss her journey from acoustic engineer through to winemaker, sheep breeder, and then on to becoming a start up founder.

🌟 Some of my favourite parts of our conversation were:
✅Suke’s inspiration taken from her near death experience that had a profound effect on her and led to her initial designs of My LifeJars to ensure that no one had to suffer through the same experience she went through;
✅The need for a roadmap so that everyone can get what they need to keep the business going on a day-to-day basis and in terms of if something happened in an emergency;
✅How running your business is a bit like driving a car and if something were to happen to you how to ensure, if someone else has to take the wheel they are not without a GPS!;
✅How Suke’s experiences led to her realising the need to go with the flow around having to intermingle personal and business life;
✅The first step mindset, and how in life we just have to be prepared to take that step and then see how the path opens up.

A sneak peek for you below with Suke explaining why data protection and organisation are so important for small businesses today.

An insight into Suke’s fascinating life story and her personal mission to launch a company that is doing important work for Solopreneurs and Small Businesses Owners.

I was delighted to be joined by @Alice Olins, Career Expert, Coach and Trainer, and the Founder of the @Step Up Club, an organisation that works with individuals and teams to help them fulfill potential, navigate and embrace change.

This was an impactful conversation with Alice where we explored change and how small businesses can best navigate it.

🌟 Some of the most interesting elements were:

✅How, leadership through communication and openness is such an important part of successful change;

✅The importance of having a deep understanding of the stakeholders or the people involved in any change;

✅During times of change, be the Leader where people follow your vision, not because you're telling them to, but because they really believe in you as a person;

✅The value of appointing change agents within the company to help activate change and mitigate some of the barriers that inevitably come up through the process;

✅The importance of making sure there are points in the timeline where you stop, measure and articulate where you are at in the lifecycle of the project to maintain the impetus.

I was very pleased to be joined by @Russell Rich, one of the senior partners at @Lubbock Fine, a leading firm of chartered accountants and tax advisors, where Russell heads up the sports, media and entertainment desk.

I really enjoyed this conversation with Russell where we explored a situation familiar with many these days, noticeably some considerations when starting up a business as a second career.

🌟 Some of the most interesting elements were:

✅ How, when externally financing, Investors will want you to have some skin in the game;

✅ How as an entrepreneur, you've got to focus on working in the business and on the business at the same time;

✅ How forecasting and mapping out a business plan is key - to the point that you do best case, mid case and worst case scenarios;

✅ The need to generate sufficient income and importantly cash flow to cover all those benefits that were previously paid by your employer.;

✅ The need for good accounting at the start because otherwise it doesn't matter how great the opportunity is or the business model, those things will fail.

In this one, I'm excited to be joined by Chris Cummings, the Group CEO and Founder of Wellbeing at Work World, an organisation on a mission to make wellbeing a strategic priority for every business.

I really enjoyed this conversation with fellow Centaur Media Plc alumni Chris, discussing his journey over the past 10 years, inspired by personal circumstances, to fly the flag for the importance of wellbeing at work.

🌟 Some of the most interesting elements were:
✅The impact that true wellbeing can have on a business if leadership takes it seriously and its embedded into the culture;
✅How the integral parts of wellbeing are free - inclusive culture, authentic leadership and being a decent person don’t have to cost anything;
✅The effect that COVID had on this area, as it became a topic that was at the front of everyone's minds, and the challenge to ensure we build on the progress made;
✅Chris’ advice to have a forum where you listen to your employees and if there is a clear trend that many employees are saying to you, act on that and move forward with it;
✅And Chris’ belief, based on global trends that further UK legislation may be imminent, so the importance of embracing and being part of it so we can develop legislation that works for small business.

In this one, I'm delighted to be joined by Helen Cox, a Chartered Marketer, and Founder of Helen Cox Marketing, a marketing consultancy specialising in advising professional service firms on their marketing and business development.

In our wide ranging conversation, Helen and I cover all that you need to know about the benefits of effective marketing plans for small business owners.

🌟 Some of my favourite parts were:
✅ Understanding Helen’s marketing planning framework – specifically the six key elements of her planning wheel;
✅ How to marry a Client’s financial and business objectives and ensure that there is an alignment between the two;
✅ How we get very focused on the minute detail but don’t strategically think about why we're doing what we’re doing;
✅ Why it’s vital to ensure that marketing plans are an agile piece of work, iterations throughout the year, rather than an unchanging document;
✅ How to do client competitor analysis to understand how they position themselves, what services they're promoting, how they talk to their clients.

Business Book Bonus Section:

The Digital Marketing Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-digital-marketing-podcast/id373596600

In this one, I'm delighted to be joined by @Wenceslyne Ong, the Founder of @Elite LVL, a business operations consulting firm with a world-class customer onboarding and continuous improvement framework, helping cost conscious businesses scale.

In this broad ranging conversation, Wenceslyne and I cover all that you need to know about having a strategic and mindful approach to staff onboarding in small and growing businesses.

🌟 Some of my favourite parts were:

✅ How the experience at companies such as Google and Fed Ex inspired Elite’s onboarding mindset;

✅ Why small companies should focus on experience to compete with the larger multinationals;

✅ How onboarding is part of an holistic approach to treating employees in the right way;

✅ How the employee’s individual culture should be considered when onboarding;

✅ Why having a great onboarding program increases staff retention by 82%.