This week I’m joined by Michael Henderson, Founder of RiskBox Ltd, a man on a mission to help creative businesses understand what insurance they really need.

Michael brings a refreshingly honest take on one of the more confusing of running a businesses. He shares real stories, practical guidance, and insights that could save your business time, money and headaches when things go wrong.

🌟 Some of my favourite parts of our conversation include:

✅ Legal must-haves vs. nice-to-haves: What’s actually required when starting out.
✅ Overinsured or underinsured? Why many founders get this balance wrong.
✅ Contracts and cover: How to handle insurance clauses in big client agreements.
✅ Cyber and ransomware: What protection looks like in a digital-first world.
✅ “Mitigation of loss”: The little-known insurance clause that could save you thousands.

On this week’s episode, I had a brilliant conversation with Harv Nagra, Head of Brand Communications at Scoro and host of The Handbook: The Operations Podcast. 

Harv brings a unique mix of insight from marketing, operations, and systems design, particularly for growing agencies and professional service firms.

If you’ve ever felt like your business is spinning too many plates, this one’s for you.

🌟 Some of the highlights we dig into:

✅ Collaborating with finance: How operations + CFOs can lead smarter system rollouts.
✅ The Business Maturity Model: 5 stages of growth from “chaotic era” to “innovation era.”
✅ Burnout warning signs: Why broken internal systems silently sabotage leadership teams.
✅ The reality of accidental founders: Growing beyond creative chaos without losing identity.
✅ Infrastructure for scale: Getting the right tech, people and processes in place to grow cleanly.

This week, I’m joined by Oliver Tuffney, Founder & Head Coach at Sales Velocity, a framework designed to bring discipline, structure, and predictability to SME sales teams.

Some of my favourite takeaways from our conversation:

✅ How to avoid sales teams getting stuck in boom and bust cycles;
✅ How EOS can guide sales, but why Ollie feels it still needs a deeper “sales layer”;
✅ What great compensation plans actually look like, and how to build them without risking your cashflow;
✅ Why sales and finance leaders must collaborate on modelling if growth is going to be sustainable;
✅ And, the Charlie Munger quote that Ollie swears by when building out sales compensation structures. 

This week, I sat down with @Kat Wellum-Kent, Founder & CEO of @The Fractionals Group who left Practice to launch her business with just one client and a plan.

Some of my favourite takeaways from our conversation were:

✅ Recruiting “on the curve” vs hiring ahead of the work
✅ Building something that’s more than just you as a solo operator
✅ Making use of EOS and managing her own utilisation as a founder
✅ Why not every startup needs a full-time CFO, and how to spot when they do
✅ And growing a team without losing sight of what made the work fun in the first place

Kat’s honest about the challenges as well as the opportunities that she faced and is still facing, and I think anyone building a business, or just trying to shift towards having a more entrepreneurial mindset in business, will get something from this.

This week, I caught up with Paul Bevington, Partner & General Counsel at EMW Law LLP | B Corp. He's been helping clients buy and sell companies since joining the firm back in the 90s and has seen just about everything when it comes to business sales.

Some of my favourite moments from the chat:

✅ Why sellers underestimate just how long (and emotional) the legal process really is;
✅ What “buyer verification” actually means and why it can feel like Groundhog Day;
✅ Why shareholder alignment is essential before you go to market;
✅ The legal housekeeping you’ll wish you’d done earlier;
✅ And how a 40-year old cricket book can teach you a thing or two about leadership!

This week, I sat down with Stephen Knight, Founder and CEO of Pimento, to unpack how business can turn marketing from a cost into a profit driver.

Some of my favourite takeaways from our conversation:

✅ The #1 mistake SMEs make when hiring marketing help, and how to avoid it.
✅ Why cutting brand spend in a downturn is often a strategic mistake.
✅ How to find the right marketing partner in a sea of thousands of agencies.
✅ How PE-backed businesses can still build brand equity without losing performance focus.
✅ And, what happened when a FTSE30 firm spent just 17p per customer per year on marketing.

This week, I sat down with the brilliant @Sarah Lamontagne, Founder of @Montagne Motion Consulting, to dive into what really matters when founders make those all-important first hires.

Sarah’s seen it all, from prisons to AI scaleups, and brings some refreshing honesty, and tonnes of experience to bear hiring, culture, and building the foundations for a people-first business.

Some personal highlights from our conversation:
 ✅ Why founders waste time (and budget) trying to DIY their early hires.
 ✅ The real cost of a 5-stage interview process (and why it needs to die).
 ✅ How finance and HR should actually collaborate (hint: start with muffins).
✅ What culture really is, and why Slack emojis don’t count.
✅ Why every founder needs to think about succession planning before they think they’re ready.

This week, I sat down with Peter Charalambides, CEO of The Upper Room and former Property CEO, for a powerful conversation on how to run a charity with a business mindest.

Some of my favourite moments from our chat include:

✅ What Peter learned from starting-up a business and how that shapes his charity leadership today.
 ✅ Why charities must diversify income streams and the impact of local community.
✅ Financial lessons from the business world on cash flow, benchmarking salaries, and tech that Peter took to the third sector.
✅ How Peter uses mindfulness (and a beard net) to help out with The Upper Room’s meal service.
✅ And his call to action for younger donors, and those who can help reach them.

If you're leading a purpose-driven business or want to hear what financial leadership looks like in the charity sector, this one’s for you.

Big thanks to Peter for being generous with his story, and for the Doctor Who name drop too 👀 

In this week’s episode, I sat down with Dan DeGolier, CEO of Ascent CFO Solutions, to dig into the world of metrics, and how small businesses can start to think about this subject.

Some of the highlights from our conversation included:

✅ Why “cash is king” still matters – regardless of your growth stage.
✅ The biggest mistake small businesses make with dashboards – think noise vs. insight!
✅ How to make KPIs work best across teams – tip: link them to bonus schemes.
✅ The difference between tracking leads... and tracking the right ones.
✅ Power BI vs Excel – when to upgrade and when to keep it simple.

If you’ve ever looked at a spreadsheet and didn’t know where to start, then this one’s for you.

Business Book Bonus:

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business: 

https://amzn.eu/d/8Mlexvz

Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant:

https://amzn.eu/d/hOKTFT7

This week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mark Jenkins, CEO of The Gap, a platform to help accountants, CFOs, and advisors turn their expertise into scalable value-driven services.

Some of my personal highlights from the conversation include:

✅ Why clients struggle to see your worth.

✅ The sweet spot between “art and science” when selling services.

✅ The importance of systemising delivery with repeatable frameworks.

✅ Tools to turn advisory chats into valuable and commercial outcomes.

✅ And why “efficiency ≠ profit”—unless you reinvest that time intentionally.

This one's packed with insights for anyone selling services, especially if you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “I know I added value... but did I explain it well enough?”

Business Book Bonus Section:

The Grapes of Wrath: https://amzn.eu/d/4SCeJHp

What Got You Here Won't Get You There: https://amzn.eu/d/3n48q3K

This week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with @Gerri Phillips, Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer of @Cue Gravity - a company that’s built its niche helping retailers tell their story successfully by blending the physical and the digital.

While Cue Gravity is already working with top-tier brands across the U.S. Gerri is now leading the U.K. charge, focusing on bringing that U.S.. experience and success to the UK.

🌟 Some of the most interesting parts of our conversation were:

✅ Why UK businesses are more sceptical of tech innovation than the U.S. 

✅ How content, technology, and storytelling combine to drive retail performance.

✅ What Gerri’s learned about building a support network when you’re starting out.

✅ What it’s like launching in a new country with no team, no pipeline, and no profile. 

✅ Why “tech for tech’s sake” is a problem, and how to avoid it with a strategy-first approach 

This week, I had a fascinating conversation with @Rajeev Nandan, founder and CEO of @Pierian, about the evolution of Marketing technology and the impact of AI on digital marketing strategies.

We covered:

✅ The move from traditional marketing to AI-driven, data-led strategies.
✅ The transition from a consulting business model to a scalable SaaS offering.
✅ The financial metrics that drive e-commerce success and sustainable growth.
✅ How businesses, big and small, can use AI to improve customer acquisition and retention.
✅ The importance of balancing creativity and data in a world increasingly shaped by automation.

This week, I sat down with @Alistair Roman, Founder and Managing Partner of @Cost Optimisation Consultancy, to explore cost optimisation for small businesses and discuss how you can reduce costs in your business sustainably.

We discuss the model that Alistair has developed - the cost transformation maturity map - why most businesses fail to retain cost savings, and explore how SMEs can build cost efficiency into their company culture.

🌟 Some of my favourite parts from our conversation:

✅ How Alistair helped John Lewis drive major cost efficiencies - and what smaller businesses can learn from it.

✅ Understanding the difference between cost optimisation and cost savings and why one is more sustainable.
 ✅Why Finance Teams must be front and centre leading cost optimisation efforts, regardless of their size. 
 ✅ How cost optimisation fuels growth rather than just being a defensive strategy.
 ✅ How SMEs can leverage technology to streamline finance and operations.
 
 ACCA Scale Up Success Article: https://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/ACCA_Global/professional-insights/Scale-up/pi-scale-up-success-SMEs.pdf

Alistair Roman Contact Details:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistairroman/
• Website:  https://www.costoptimisationconsultancy.com

This week, I had a fascinating conversation with St John Dalgleish, CEO of Perlon AI, about the reality of building AI-driven solutions that actually deliver results.

We explored how Perlon AI went from consulting to product, the challenges of scaling AI in diverse industries, and what the future holds for businesses using AI.

🌟 Some of my favourite parts of our discussion:

✅ Custom AI at scale: The challenges of tailoring AI models across 15 different industries while staying efficient.
✅ From consulting to SaaS: How Perlon AI transitioned from strategy consulting to a scalable AI product.
✅ AI adoption & scepticism: How businesses are embracing AI—and the fears they still have.
✅ The AI future: Where AI is heading in 2025 and how businesses should prepare.

Business Book Bonus:

https://www.hubspot.com/startups/podcast

https://mistral.vc/the-product-market-fit-show/

https://www.saastr.com/podcasts/

The Road to Conscious Machines by Michael Woolridge: https://amzn.eu/d/07iIzKN

James by Percival Everett: https://amzn.eu/d/gCDVYb2

On this one I had the pleasure of speaking with Paul Sherratt, founder and CEO of gloveglu – an innovative brand that’s reshaped the goalkeeping product category with products sold in 55 countries and over 1.1m followers on social media.

This conversation was a real lesson to me in entrepreneurial courage, strategic pivots, and turning challenges like Brexit and COVID into opportunities for growth. 

Paul’s journey from a corporate career to creating a globally recognised brand is inspiring, and definitely a great conversation to start the new year with.

🌟 Some of my highlights from our discussion were:

✅ Leap of faith: How Paul managed the risk of starting again at 50, remortgaging his house to go all in on gloveglu.
✅ Turning obstacles into opportunities: How Brexit and COVID shaped his business strategy.
✅ Category creation: Building a market where none existed and the benefits of becoming the “category king” in a niche category.
✅ Scaling smartly: Leveraging existing B2B relationships before pivoting to a successful B2C model.
✅ R&D insights: The role that product development played, and how Paul used quiet periods to innovate and stay ahead of the competition.

Paul’s story is packed with lessons for anyone looking to scale a business, navigate uncertain times, or simply turn a great idea into reality.

On this one I was delighted to be joined by Erika Robinson, the UK General Manager of Constant Contact, a leading platform for small business marketing solutions.

This was a cracking conversation with Erika where we had a wide ranging chat discussing AI tools, career pivots, lean team leadership and some tips on how small businesses can give themselves the best chance of achieving those big ambitions.

🌟 Some of the most interesting parts of our conversation were:

✅Risk vs. reward: How to assess the financial and personal risks of a career pivot.
✅Emerging tools: The newest AI-powered tools and technologies transforming small business marketing.
✅Cultural alignment: Balancing a US company ethos with the expectations of UK customers and stakeholders.
✅Future-proofing your career: Staying adaptable and continually learning to navigate evolving career landscapes.
✅Lean team leadership: Scaling operations with a small team and external support while maintaining effectiveness.
✅Market differences: Understanding and adapting to the specific needs of UK small businesses compared to the US market.
✅Transitioning mid-career: Key differences between the corporate, entrepreneurial, and startup environments that shaped Erika’s leadership style.

A sneak peek for you here below with Erika giving some words of advice on how small businesses should start thinking about and experimenting with AI.

On this one I was delighted to be joined by Lizzie Allen Phillips, the founder of IWant2Network, who is on a mission to become London's number one premium business networking organization with her networking group, IWant2Network.

This was a fascinating conversation with Lizzie where we discussed the power of networking for financial success.

🌟 Some of the most interesting parts of our conversation were:

✅Common networking mistakes and how to avoid them;
✅Addressing imposter syndrome and other common networking fears;
✅Cost-effective networking strategies for start-ups and small businesses; 
✅Managing follow-ups and maintaining meaningful connections over time;
✅Turning networking connections into long term collaborations or partnerships; 
✅How to identify and approach the right networking opportunities for small businesses.

Business Book Bonus:

Zero to 100: The Gold Standard of Global Networking - https://amzn.eu/d/cYgOrjj
We Can All Make It - https://amzn.eu/d/3efQ8sj

On this one I was delighted to be joined by Francesca Hodgson, MBA, the successful entrepreneur and Founder of We are Ambition, a business consultancy offering fractional leadership, growth services, mentoring and coaching.

This was a fascinating conversation with Francesca where we explored the need for clarity of mind, as it relates to the entrepreneurial journey.

🌟 Some of the most interesting parts of our conversation were:
✅The power of authenticity, how it helps build confidence, and acts like a rocket ship for motivation;
✅The work that Francesca has been doing around the promoting of mental resilience as a positive tool to achieve your goals.
✅How everything is fighting for our attention and clarity of mind allows you to engage and articulate what it is that you're doing;
✅That it all starts with values and taking time to understand what matters to you and in what order, can really help inform why we do what we do;
✅Why coaching and mentoring combined can be such a powerful way to help people understand what is important to them and what to prioritise to execute their vision;

Business Book Bonus:

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE:  https://amzn.eu/d/4l3ZZOM
Trillion Dollar Coach: https://amzn.eu/d/5WEHeVS

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