Scale To Win with Dominic Monkhouse

Are you looking for ways to fire up your marketing efforts in 2020? Then listen to David Meerman Scott, author, public speaker and advisor to emerging companies, talk about how to build a fan base. David has written 11 books, selling over 1 million copies in 29 languages, but it’s his latest book, Fanocracy, which he co-authored with his daughter, that he talks about in this interview. David’s 2007 book, "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" (now in its 6th edition having sold over 400,000 copies), was written based on his early experiences with the web, because he says that marketing on the web was (and still remains to this day) all about creating great, publishable content. “I was the first person to clearly articulate that if you want to reach people on the web, it's about creating great content, whether that's blog posts or YouTube videos or a great website or whatever it might be.” But the problem, says David, is that over the last few years, the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of superficial online, polarised communications, at a time when people are hungry for a true human connection. And it’s how companies can create this human connection with their customers, that David talks about with Dom in this episode. On today’s podcast: Why content is still king How to write a book with your daughter How entrepreneurs can reach customers The human connection of going to live concerts with loved ones How to use mirror neurons to help build your business The process organisations can go through to create fans Using fans to build an emotional connection with your product What he wishes he knew then that he knows now Links: Fanocracy The New Rules of Marketing and PR

This episode was originally broadcast by Startup Grind Bournemouth (UK) as an interactive and intimate fireside chat with experienced technology business leader Dominic Monkhouse of Foundry Media. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because this is a chat with our very own illustrious leader, Dom. In this interview Andrew Walker, a founder at Click Tools now turned angel investor and mentor in the startup community in Bournemouth, talks to Dom about how he gained his business experience and the work he did with two UK technology businesses (Rackspace and Peer 1) in order to scale them to over £25 million within 5 years. Dom talks the audience through his ten point plan for scaling any business, giving away lots of nuggets and actionable takeaways, sharing his career journey along the way. On today’s podcast: Dom’s framework of 10 things that will help scale up a startup Links: https://www.startupgrind.com/bournemouth

Today we are turning the spotlight on… Dom himself. A couple of months ago Dom interviewed Carla and Imogen from FizzPopBANG - The Culture Consultancy on The Melting Pot and in turn, they kindly invited Dom to be a guest on their PopCAST. This episode is that episode. Now the interviewer has become the interviewee and it’s about time - Dom rarely talks about his background on the podcasts, focusing instead on the achievements and the expertise of the guests who feature on The Melting Pot podcast. So it’s a refreshing change to get a behind the scenes look at how Dom came to be fronting The Melting Pot podcast, and what his career journey to date has been like. In essence, Dom is a certified Scaling Up Coach with effective tools and techniques to help propel companies forward. He took Rackspace to £30 million in five years, and then at Peer 1, he took the business from nothing to £30 million in five years, and globally £19 million to £200 million. He works with tech businesses helping them scale up. These are businesses that typically have somewhere between £10 and £100 million. They have an ambitious CEO who wants to scale, but has sailed into choppy waters. “I guess nobody rings me if everything's going completely smoothly, so for one reason or another, the wheels are starting to wobble or something's not quite right. And they get in touch and if there's some chemistry then I get to help.” Dom’s secret to scaling up? It’s always about the people and always about the culture. We hope you find this podcast insightful, and that you enjoy listening to it as much as Dom did making it. On today’s podcast: The reason Dom became a business coach The biggest influence on his career Dom’s coaching programme Culture and leadership How to work without managers Rhythms not processes The importance of accountability for employees Who shapes culture? Links: Verne Harnish – Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Patrick Lencioni – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Jim Collins – Good to Great Verne Harnish - Scaling up

Do you need to notch your marketing up another level? Do you run a tech start up but your story is failing to get any traction with the press? Then you need to hire in Transatlantic, the marketing agency run by CEO Gideon Joseph. “We are a communications consultancy working with fast growth, entrepreneurial businesses that want to change the world.” Gideon is the guy who can get your marketing really singing. He cut his teeth working for Jeremy Paxman on BBC Newsnight, followed by a stint at ITV and Channel 4 working on Big Brother, before realising that Skype had an amazing opportunity to revolutionise broadcasting. “Satellite was expensive, using VoIP was cheap, in fact, free. While the quality of the satellite link or the VoIP connection was dodgy, it was worth the trade off… the whole idea was that this was innovative marketing by an aggressive fast growth business.” Gideon has since developed a unique approach to marketing using, in Gideon’s own words, ‘story, fame and rolodex’. “Our core offer revolves around 3 things - forging a brand narrative and messaging for young brands; making our clients "famous" with the right audiences, at the right time; and finally, providing access to our phenomenal rolodex.” This is a great discussion that we enjoyed immensely and we’re sure you will too. On today’s podcast: How Gideon used the news media to make Skype famous The work Gideon’s done for former clients and does for current ones What you as a business leader need to do in terms of marketing The importance of narrative, fame and a rolodex Measuring the value of PR How to use LinkedIn effectively

Todd Palmer is the president and CEO of Extraordinary Advisors, a business that works with entrepreneurs to help them work on themselves as leaders, in order to make changes within their own business. “It's like a friend of mine tells me, I help leaders get their act together so they can get stuff done in their business.” Todd carved out his career placing highly skilled individuals in Detroit during a recession. But it wasn’t always plain sailing to get included in the Inc 5000 five times out of six. Todd suffered badly with imposter syndrome, “I thought I should have all the answers for all the people and all their issues all the time, and I shit all over myself thinking I should have all these things, when in reality nobody has all the answers to everything that comes up.” He began working with a business coach and quickly realised he’d hired a toxic group of employees and had to fire them, restarting his company from scratch. Since then he’s gone from strength to strength and now coaches other entrepreneurs, helping them overcome their own insecurities and feelings of imposter syndrome, in order to fix themselves and ultimately their business. “You know, there's a philosophy within the EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) community. An entrepreneur alone as an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur at risk, and I chose to isolate rather than reach out for help until I really hit a bottom in my business.” And because Todd’s in the recruitment game he and Dom talk about how to hire and retain great talent, as well as the common mistakes entrepreneurs make when hiring talent. This is a great conversation, we hope you enjoy listening to Todd as much as we did. On today’s podcast: Overcoming imposter syndrome Hitting rock bottom and turning his ship around Why Extraordinary Advisors is his legacy What help he gives CEOs Why sourcing talent is the biggest challenge for any business The number one reason people quit their job People and processes make the profits How to fire with compassion Links: Book - The Job Search Process Entrepreneurs’ Organization

What’s the difference between skippering a yacht around the world and leading a multinational organisation? Well, according to Brendan Hall, inspirational speaker, leadership author and at only 27, the winning skipper of the world’s most demanding sailing event – The Clipper Round the World Race, not a huge amount. You see Brendan has taken his experiences skippering the winning yacht and applied them to the world of business. Because when you’re in the middle of the ocean and your crew has a mutiny early on, there’s not a whole lot you can do. You can either give up and lose the race, or take their feedback on board, abruptly change your leadership style and make damn sure everyone has the time of their lives in the process - and win. And that’s just what Brendan did. “Good leadership in any industry kind of looks the same. So, the experience I had, and the lessons that I can give my clients I find very applicable and certainly relevant to their own experience leading a startup or more established business or some strata of management in a in a global organisation.” On today’s podcast: How Brendan got to the start line of the clipper yacht race Overcoming imposter syndrome Creating a culture of teamwork and inspiring an ethos to win Why his team had a mutiny and how he dealt with it Why a leader needs to empower their team, not own it The importance of creating processes early on to ensure smooth operations Links: (Book) Team Spirit - Brendan Hall https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/

If you want (or need) to be a great public speaker, if you want to enthral your audience and be remembered, then don’t miss this episode of The Melting Pot. Because Graham Davies, the self-titled reformed barrister turned accidental orator, is not just a captivating public speaker. Graham is also a renowned public speaking coach whose list of blue-chip corporate and individual high-profile clients reads like an international Who’s Who and includes 8 FTSE 100 CEOs and 20 Cabinet Ministers across successive governments. Graham started life as a barrister, practising law for 12 years, but found a new calling in the late 80s and early 90s when he discovered that there was a budding marketplace for professional after dinner speakers and there was good money to be made doing it. Leveraging his identity as a barrister by day and public entertainer by night, he eventually found himself giving 100 after-dinner speeches a year, whilst maintaining his day job working as a barrister 9 days out of 10, and something had to give. It wasn’t a hard choice to make - he not only enjoyed public speaking more than law, but it paid better too. Ever the consummate professional, Graham began turning up to his speaking engagements earlier and earlier, listening to the speakers who preceded him, and he realised that public speaking was not, as is commonly thought, an innate skill that we all have. And so began his second and current career as The Presentation Coach. Listen to this fantastic high energy, high octane discussion with Graham. We’re sure you'll enjoy it. On today’s podcast: How he became The Presentation Coach What he looks for in clients who need his help His process for teaching the art of public speaking Why you want to make people feel, rather than listen The power of persuasive speech How TED talks have turned public speaking into rock and roll The benefit of ruthless preparation Developing your micro message Links: Graham’s book - The Presentation Coach

What’s your biggest claim to fame? Is it that you coined one of the most prolific phrases in modern web lexicon? Because that’s what it is for this week’s guests on The Melting Pot. Dr Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson, co-founders of Conversion Rate Experts are credited with coining the phrase ‘Conversion Rate Optimisation’ (CRO) back in 2007, to encapsulate the methodology their agency used with websites. Today, they’re still in the business of making websites convert, but they’ve also written a book ‘Making Websites Win’ and they run one of the leading agencies for CRO, counting among their clients behemoths such as Apple, Google and Facebook. “I think markets mature to a point where successful web businesses understand that in order to be a successful web business, you have to put your customers and your visitors at the heart of what you're doing. That's where conversion rate optimization comes in.” The clients that Karl and Ben typically work with are businesses generating more than £1m in revenue online annually, but that doesn’t mean that their methodology or their advice can’t help small businesses. Far from it. Because all websites can benefit from improvements in CRO. Which is why Dom talks to them about tips and tricks they’ve learned along the way, the importance of UX, understanding customers’ needs as well as why they not only wrote their book but then turned it into a free 10 episode podcast. These guys really are two fantastic guests and their interview is incredibly insightful. Hopefully, you’ll find it useful and just as enjoyable as we did. P.s. the guys have kindly offered a free digital copy of their book, Making Websites Win, available to all The Melting Pot listeners. To claim your copy, simply click on the URL in the links section. On today’s podcast: Why you need to be scientific about your website to optimise it What AB testing is The CRE approach with all their clients’ websites The most common problems that websites have Why you should compare your best salesperson to your homepage The importance of understanding your customers’ needs Their love of content marketing You need to do CRO to survive, not just thrive Links: https://conversion-rate-experts.com/audiobook/

If you’re wondering why your sales team isn’t converting, maybe it isn’t time to double the size of the team; maybe it’s time to rethink your whole sales process. In fact, while you’re at it, why don’t you scale back the sales’ team responsibilities, divide up their tasks, division of labour, so to speak, and have your sales executives responsible for just, sales… Controversial? Maybe, but this approach to sales is what today’s guest, Justin Roff-Marsh advocates not just in his book, The Machine, but with his management consultancy company, Ballistix. “Typically we will either build a sales function entirely from scratch, or we will work with [a company] on the rebuild of their sales function. I say sales function loosely because actually most of the work that we do is building the functions or rebuilding the functions that are adjacent to sales, so as to make sales more productive.” Having dedicated the last 15 years of his 30 year career to developing a scientific approach to the design and management of sales processes, Justin is incredibly well placed to discuss why companies need to rethink their sales function if they hope to scale. Because Justin is on a mission to shatter the myths around what makes sales people great. On today’s podcast: Why sales should learn from effective operations and production environments What Ballistix does Why companies’ approach to sales is wrong Why the sales environment needs to feature division of labour The misplaced focus on marketing Why we shouldn’t pay salespeople commission Why sales isn’t all about personal relationships Links: The Machine - Justin Roff-Marsh

If you’re looking for a complete set of simple concepts and practical tools that will help the leadership team of your entrepreneurial company make better decisions, create a clearer, simpler vision, get everybody on the same page and execute day in and day out with real discipline and accountability, then you want to listen to Mike Paton, award-winning speaker, best-selling author, Certified EOS Implementer™, and the Visionary for EOS Worldwide, on this week’s episode of The Melting Pot. Paton (as everyone knows him as) discovered the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS) a dozen years ago while trying to take a $7 million company to the next level. Feeling stuck and more than a little frustrated, his search for answers led him to Gino Wickman and EOS. Paton instantly recognised the power of this simple, holistic “way of operating” a small business. Since then, Paton has conducted more than 1,200 full-day sessions with the leadership teams of more than 110 companies and helped thousands more entrepreneurs by sharing EOS in dynamic talks and workshops the world over. During this journey, Paton wrote Get A Grip: An Entrepreneurial Fable with Gino Wickman and then succeeded Gino in the role of Visionary for EOS Worldwide. Today Paton and Dom chat about why you might want a system at all, why you might want a coach and they talk about some of the tools in EOS. They also talk about rocks and the level 10 meeting. So to hear this and so much more, tune into this week’s episode, it’s a great conversation that we are sure you’re going to hugely enjoy. On today’s podcast: What visionary means in the EOS world How Mike found himself working with entrepreneurs everyday Why writing the book was the hardest thing Mike has ever done What putting EOS into place looks like for some businesses The Level 10 Meeting Why the level of maturity and experience of the leadership team needs to grow with the complexity of the business

Have you ever wanted to just put a pin in your life, upsticks and travel the world with your family before it’s too late? Well, that’s just what Nigel Bennett did. Nigel is an entrepreneur. Just not like any other entrepreneur we’ve had on the show. Where most people work hard, scaling up their business in order to sell it, Nigel, after taking mind altering drugs deep in the Amazon rainforest had an epiphany, and decided not to sell. That’s pretty much how this episode goes. It is just story after story of Nigel’s fascinating life. It doesn’t seem like he’s had any dull moments, and he hasn’t stopped for a second. Nigel is the founder and owner and International business development for Aqua-Guard's environmental response services and equipment business. Aqua-Guard specialises in marine oil spill response. He’s the author of "Take that Leap - Risking it all for what really matters"; the founder of TruBeach, an app and a mobile platform community for reporting coastline and ocean cleanliness, and he’s the co-founder of GiftAdd.com, an organisation that works to bring awareness to the actual gift of ADHD and dyslexia. This is a truly enlightening conversation, one we are sure you’re going to enjoy. On today’s podcast: Why Nigel decided not to sell his business The incident with his father in an Egyptian prison The life goals he set with his business coach, Kevin Lawrence Why he wrote his book - ‘Take that Leap - Risking it all for what really matters’ His gap year with his family Links: Entrepreneurs’ organisation YPO organisation Take That Leap - Risking it all for what really matters Lynne Twist - the soul of money TruBeach gifadd.com

Dominic’s aim for The Melting Pot is to enable other businesses to optimise their business performance, to help them scale up. And so this week’s guest, Bryony Thomas, marketing guru, author and developer of marketing methodology - Watertight Marketing, is the authority on how to grow your business through marketing. Having worked in marketing since 1997, Bryony has not only garnered a wealth of experience in the industry, but she’s written the book on it. “Nobody needs more marketing ideas, they need fewer on which to truly focus. And one of the things that Watertight really does is get people to prioritise and focus in on the one thing to be doing right now.” Having watched so many businesses waste money on marketing and finding that she was repeating herself constantly, Bryony decided to put her extensive marketing knowledge down on paper. And so it’s this book and the fundamentals of marketing that Dominic discusses with Bryony in this episode. So if you’re keen to stop wasting time and money on ineffectual marketing, stop what you’re doing and tune in. It will be the best decision you made today. On today’s podcast: What the Watertight Marketing methodology is Don’t think of marketing as something that can be finished The importance of language and ensuring everyone understands the meaning of what is being said Why a marketing funnel is the wrong analogy for successful marketing Marketing isn’t a checklist to be completed, it’s a mindset to be adopted Don’t measure micromovements The importance of measuring ratio over volume Forgotten customers How Bryony’s marketing transformation programme works How she turned the book into an apprenticeship programme Links: Book - Watertight Marketing Hollie Brooks - Audenza

If you’re wondering if your business could have a channel as a route to market, then you’ve come to the right place. Are you wondering if you could have 1, 10, even 100 sales people selling your product or service? Then you need to listen to Sandler trainer David Davies in this week’s episode of The Melting Pot. Perhaps you want your salespeople to be more effective, but you know that no one likes pushy salespeople, so where is the balance to be struck? “Having ‘salesperson’ on your business card does not make you a professional salesperson. And yet with all those millions and millions of pounds invested in sales, training, sales techniques and sales tactics, the results are the same today as they were when I started out.” David has been in sales for over 35 years. He’s now a Sandler trainer based in Reading, Berkshire and the vast majority of the time he’s been involved in tech. But that doesn’t mean that what he’s got to say isn’t relevant to your industry, because David’s approach to sales is applicable whatever your business. “The Sandler sales methodology is a B2C business as much as a B2B business. It’s as much for the individual as it is for the organisation.” On today’s podcast: The most successful organisation he’s been involved in Why David became a Sandler trainer How the Sandler approach is different Why David’s clients are predominantly tech businesses Selling is a mutual problem solving exercise The industry sin isn't commission Why PowerPoint is still relevant in sales How to work more effectively with partners Links: Making Channel Sales Work

Entrepreneurs are told time and again to embrace failure, to be proud of failure, to not be ashamed of failure. But failure is still something that is brushed under the carpet, something you shouldn’t be proud of. And so today’s guest, Ben Fletcher of Lead Bullets, is a breath of fresh air. Ben is a serial entrepreneur and the proud maker of multiple mistakes, many of which Dom talks to him about in this episode. Because at the heart of it, Ben’s mistakes are what drives him. In fact, when asked what he would go back and change in the past, knowing what he knows now, he replies: “I've learned so much from those mistakes, it'd be really hard to do anything that fundamentally changed the way my life worked out.” And it’s those mistakes that have carved out his current role - the one that sees him help entrepreneurs and CEOs of fast growth companies not make some of the mistakes that he himself made. It doesn't matter what the industry is, or the sector the business is involved in, a scaling business is a complex thing that trips people up time and again, and always in the same places. Dom and Ben talk about how to set objectives and why that's important; about hiring good people; about not being on the edge and losing innovation and most importantly, not spending time with your problem children. This is a really fantastic conversation, one that we enjoyed hugely, so happy listening. On today’s podcast: How Lead Bullets helps founders of businesses How Ben ended up with an events business, by trying to get out of events What they do differently to every other events company Define your mission if you want to achieve success Ben’s favourite mistakes The importance of hiring the right people Why raising money isn’t always the answer Links: fast growth icons velocity squared

Are you looking to innovate your business? To make it more agile? More effective? Then who better to receive advice from than the former Amazon executive who launched and scaled the Amazon Marketplace business, the guy who ran the enterprise services business at Amazon for 3 years? That’s right, today’s guest on The Melting Pot is none other than John Rossman, the highly sought after analyst who worked for Amazon.com in its early days and who has since been featured by The New York Times and CNBC amongst others. “I was an early person at Amazon, I was there from early 2002 through late 2005. I got to launch the Marketplace business. So that’s 58% of all units shipped and sold [on Amazon] are now on that Marketplace business.” Today, John works with companies and leaders showing them how to innovate and operate better within their space, by teaching them new tools, techniques, strategies and leadership principles to do just that. He’s also recently released a book called ‘Think Like Amazon - 50 ½ Ideas to Become a Digital Leader’. He talks at length with Dom about ideas in the book, as well as how operational excellence feeds into innovation, citing numerous examples of where Amazon have been successful. Seriously, this is the episode, as a business leader, you won’t want to miss out on. On today’s podcast: Why the best innovators are the clients in crisis Why digital transformation is about personal leadership How operational excellence feeds into innovation How Amazon launched Marketplace What didn’t go to plan with Amazon Marketplace Why John left Amazon The importance of writing simple clear communications Why his books aren’t about Amazon, they’re about the reader Links: Think Like Amazon - 50 ½ ideas to become a digital leader The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles of the World’s Most Disruptive Company The Amazon Way on IoT: 10 Principles for Every Leader from the World's Leading Internet of Things Strategies

If you’ve ever wondered if this is all there is, then you need to listen to this week’s podcast with Sue Hollis, the 60 year old who, having built the multi million dollar company TravelEdge, stepped down as CEO when she had a ‘midlife awakening’, and rode a motorbike around North America for 4 months. Sue is not just an inspirational leader and adventurepreneur, she’s an example to us all that when you think you’ve achieved all there is to achieve, you can still strike out in a new direction. Let her be your motivator and guide and empower you on your own journey. When Dom spoke to Sue it was 4am in Washington state and she was about to go and race superbikes around the Ridge in Seattle. That might be where she is now, but she started out in a very different place - as a corporate heavy hitter with British Airways and Qantas, before braving the wild world of entrepreneurship and starting her own business, TravelEdge. And it’s TravelEdge that Sue talks about today and how it led her to explore a different kind of life - the one she’s living currently. On today’s podcast: What drove Sue to step away from her highly successful career in the corporate world The highs and lows of her entrepreneurship journey Why she places such high impetus on values How to build a company culture through your hiring process Invest in your people and get the most out of them whilst they work for you Leadership can be knowing when to step aside as CEO Don’t work with organisations that don't fit your values Links: Riding Raw - the journey from empty to full www.zappos.com

This week’s guest on The Melting Pot is considered to be the world’s foremost expert on hiring, Dr. Brad Smart. Brad is the founder and CEO of Topgrading Inc, a company that, amongst many things, interviews candidates for hire or promotion to senior positions - the A players, the topgrade. Brad’s methodology is so successful, he is credited with tripling the successful hiring and promotion of high performers at companies such as General Electric, Honeywell, Barclays, and the American Heart Association. Since the 1970s, Brad has conducted close to 7,000 in-depth interviews with executives and has authored 7 books. Topgrading Inc doesn’t just interview candidates, it is also a software company whose platform is designed to integrate with any company’s applicant tracking software. On today’s podcast: Why Brad got started recruiting high performers The truth serum The secrets of topgrading Why HR can’t deliver A-players 40-50% of all resumes contain significant lies Why he replaced the job description with a scorecard Why he isn’t a fan of psychometric testing Links: Society of Human Resources Management https://www.topgrading.com/resources/topgrading-ebook/ Topgrading version 3 - Bradford D. Smart https://prescreensnapshot.com/

Today’s guest is Les McKeown, founder and CEO of Predictable Success. Les has over 25 years of global business experience, including starting 42 companies in his own right. After a long career advising individuals and organisations on growth and development, Les started his own training and development business. In 1999, Les relocated to the US, from where he writes, teaches and consults in high-performance organisational development. Les is also an internationally-renowned keynote speaker, with experience speaking to groups at Google, DO Lectures and numerous Fortune 500 companies. Les McKeown consults with C-level teams on how to lead their organisations to the state of peak performance he calls "Predictable Success”. And it’s predictable success that we talk with him about today. On today’s podcast:. What Predictable Success is Why Predictable Success is not limited to just for profit organisations, but every organisation The seven stages of a business life cycle The different styles of working including individuals, the visionaries, operators, processors and synergists Links: Predictable Success Do Lead Do Scale The Synergist

Today’s guest on The Melting Pot is Giles Palmer, founder and CEO of Brandwatch, a company devised to help organisations find and engage with online conversations that matter; a digital consumer intelligence company. Brandwatch exists to help brands primarily, but also agencies understand their modern consumers—who they are, how they behave, their preferences, what they're sharing and what they're saying—so that the company can make better decisions about what they make and how they bring that product to market. On today’s podcast: Why Brandwatch measures the impact of influencing, without being an influencer itself The different interpretations of fake news How big data allows companies to make better decisions Coffee trends come out of San Francisco Dealing with a gender pay gap The issues with merging two rival companies

Spencer Gallagher and Pete Hoole work with the next generation of independent Agencies to help them scale as co-founders of Cactus. In the past eight years they’ve worked with more than 1,000 Agencies globally, all the while collecting notes about what was and was not working. They recently converted those notes into a book, Agencynomics, an Amazon five-star rated best selling book and Audiobook, aimed to help all types of Agencies scale from Start-up to the first £3-5M in revenue by setting the record straight on what KPIs should really look like. In our conversation we talk about some of the myths around what makes an Agency successful, where you should really focus your energy, and the four cornerstones that anchor business success. While the focus is on Agency growth, many of the areas they’ve identified are ubiquitous to the business world. In this episode we talk about: Why work-life balance and a corporate culture of trust is essential to success How personal relationships and networks to grow your business What your eNPS score should look like, and how to grow it Where you should be channeling your energy and qualifying your leads What it means to take a client-centric approach in the way you structure your staff Links: http://www.cact.us/ Agencynomics

This week’s guest on The Melting Pot is Dean and founder of School of Communication Arts 2.0 (SCA), Marc Lewis. The SCA is currently the world's most eminent portfolio school as well as being a social enterprise, it is also about to become a charity. The school takes 36 students each year through a 12-month journey in Marc’s studio, with about six months of placements. One in three of these students receive a scholarship, some receive bursaries, others self-fund. The school has a network of about 1000 teacher/mentors who help write the curriculum and deliver the learning experience. In Marc’s own words, “the SCA 2.0 is kind of an apprenticeship model meets a university model meets a bit of a circus, a bit of a fun fair.” From earning $200,000 per month from sex lines, to creating Whore magazine, to founding South Africa’s first comedy club, to claiming the first video banner ads, which he sold to WPP for just under £20m, today’s guest Marc Lewis has not had a conventional career history. On today’s podcast: Why it’s called SCA 2.0 and what happened to 1.0 How he managed to buy his first Ferrari at age 21 off the back of sex Why Marc attributes his success to sheer dumb luck, not genius What he learned from his time running his dot.com businesses His firm belief in the practice of gratitude Why learning should be action in rehearsal The problem with traditional pedagogical teaching Why drugs dampen creativity Links: D&AD Gratitude garden

Today’s guest on The Melting Pot is Dutch-born Sander Arts. His list of titles is as long as your arm—Consultant, Strategic Advisor, Board Member, Author, Fractional CMO, Business Development, Strategic Alliances, Lecturer. Sander is a global award-winning CMO, strategic advisor, entrepreneur, and lecturer who has extensive experience increasing revenue and meaningfully reaching technical audiences that have been historically considered not to care about marketing—mainly hardware and software engineers. As the founder of his own strategic marketing consultancy, Orange Tulip, LLC, in Silicon Valley, Sander is renowned for his Dutch directness and his “no-bullsht” approach, as well as his ability to build global high-performing teams and generate results that matter. This dynamic, creative senior executive is clearly the ideal person to write a book called Cut the Bullsht Marketing. On today’s podcast: Why he wrote Cut the Bullsh*t Marketing Key nuggets from the book, including “Everything needs to be people-to-people” Why he focuses on ROI in marketing, rather than branding and awareness The main challenge for businesses doing work in China Interesting developments in the IoT space out of Silicon Valley Lessons from the Microchip acquisition Links: Cut the Bullsh*t Marketing - Sander Arts Scaling Up - Verne Harnish

This week’s guest on The Melting Pot is Gareth Chick, a former CFO, CEO and chairman of both public and private companies. An executive coach for FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 CEOs, and now founder and managing partner of Collaborative Equity. After 40 years in the corporate world, Gareth has poured his extensive knowledge into two books and carved out his dream career at Collaborative Equity, as he is an acknowledged expert on corporate cultures and corporate psychology. Today Gareth shares with us how he got into business at the tender age of 12, because it was his dream to be out the front of a grocer’s shop serving customers. At 16, psychometric testing told him he should go into accounting, so he did, and never looked back. A CFO at 24 and CFO for a PLC subsidiary at 28, Gareth is the first to admit he was incredibly successful, very driven, but also controlling and arrogant. It took a leadership course he didn’t want to attend to make him change his ways. It didn’t just change his attitude towards work—it changed his life entirely. On today’s podcast: How a leadership course 34 years ago changed his life Our unconscious controlling habits (OUCH) Why most managers need a deeper level of emotional intelligence The three prime unconscious controlling habits of managers Why managerial behaviours typically come about by learned experience What we should learn from three-year-olds Links: And the Leader is…: Transforming Cultures with CEQ Corporate, Emotional Intelligence: Being Human in a Corporate World DRIVE by Daniel Pink - animation

Today’s guest is Daniel Marcos, co-founder and CEO of Gazelles Growth Institute, based in Austin, Texas. Daniel is a lifelong entrepreneur and has run his company for the past 20 years. For the last 10 of those years he’s focused his energies coaching other CEOs, showing them how to change their mindset in order to take their companies to the next level. According to Daniel, the majority of scaling a company is all in the mind—you need to have the right mindset in order to grow your business. As well as running Gazelles Growth Institute, the leading online executive education company for C-level executives at fast-growing firms, Daniel also co-founded Inflection (Gazelles Mexico), a management coaching company that helps business executives and entrepreneurs grow their companies faster and with less “drama”. Today, however, Daniel is keen to discuss his latest project “How to be a better CEO”. Daniel has witnessed, time and again, CEOs keen to scale their companies, but without first setting a system in place of how to do it and how they are going to get the support they need from their team. On today’s podcast: Why Daniel became an entrepreneur His struggles at being a CEO at age 26 Why running a company changes every time the company grows Why the founder isn’t always the best person to lead the company The four stages of growing a company The Growth Institute Links: https://www.danielmarcos.co/ How to Navigate the 4 Stages of Growth All Successful Businesses Go Through PDF

On today’s episode of The Melting Pot we talk to Nicole Yershon, founder and CEO of the NY Collective, a leverage-model business that was created to disrupt the traditional practices of consulting and marketing agencies, and to get to the heart of a business’ problem, whether operational or strategic, as quickly as possible. Nicole is the original rough diamond: she wasn’t a yes-girl, she asked the awkward questions, she queried the processes and she side-stepped authority and the chain of command to get things done. Her measure of success wasn’t financial, it was in her ability to move people from an analogue world to a digital world. On today’s podcast: Why being disruptive isn’t a bad thing Why you can’t affect change without the right people How she was so successful at Gold Greenlees and Trott The Fearless Breakfast (and the problem with fear) How she wrote her book What’s in her Fearless Manifesto Links: Dave Trott Rough Diamond Day One

Today’s guest is the founder and Managing Director of creative brand agency, MadeBrave® and Executive Chairman of content production agency, Campfire®, Andrew Dobbie. A designer and photographer originally, Andrew is on a mission to inspire creativity in everyone, believing that branding and marketing don’t need to be confusing and has set up two agencies to help businesses bring their best ideas to life. MadeBrave® was founded seven years ago and now sees an annual turnover of £4m. Starting with just him, it quickly grew and saw him handing over design responsibility to a better designer very early on. The agency then grew faster and within a year he had six employers. As MadeBrave® entered their second year they were bringing in one new employee a month, and within two years he had 16 employees. So how did Andrew go from freelance design to being the CEO of two agencies? On today’s podcast: Andrew’s motivation to branch out on his own How he got so busy, quickly Why he took a step back from designing to focus on the business How he grew and cultivated his brand How Andrew’s companies use their brand values to attract top employees His advice on thinking positively How to grow and scale a creative business Links: MadeBrave® - www.madebrave.com Campfire® - www.campfire.agency

Today’s guest is CEO and co-founder of Bare Conductive, Matt Johnson. Bare Conductive is a company inventing radical new ways to interact with and place electronics in our environment. With key customers such as Ikea and Dupont, this relatively new London-based technology startup is developing a platform of sensing technologies based around its electrically conductive paint and capacitive hardware. Since launching its first product in 2011, Bare Conductive has sold over 220,000 units in more than 120 countries, as well as winning a number of competitions including Innovate UK’s Digital Disruptive Solutions £100k award, been nominated for Design of the Year Award by the Design Museum, and received an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica, this self-funded company is going from strength to strength. On today’s podcast: Why the company is about more than just ink Why they’re still figuring out how to get the most from their product How they’ve whittled their applications down to 3, from 53 Why they struggle with identifying who the customer is Why sticking with the original plan is so tough How they’ve managed to run a lean start up Links: Jeffrey Moore - Crossing the Chasm Ikea Dupont

On today’s podcast we talk with Jenny Kitchen, MD of Yoyo Design, a company specialising in designing digital solutions so that every brand can tell its own story and create a genuine user engagement. Jenny was crowned Young Business Person of the Year for 2016 at the RTW Business Awards, as one of the top 30 under 30 women in Digital by The Drum, young business leader of the year and recognized by BIMA as one of the Hot 100 in digital for the past 3 years—all for her incredible achievement growing Yoyo. But since winning, she hasn’t sat back on her laurels, instead she has channeled her energy into growing the business further, making sure all Yoyo clients are happy, but more importantly, making sure that the team she has created and molded are motivated, inspired, driven and delivering work that is considered and beautifully presented. On today’s podcast: How Yoyo Design has grown so quickly to become one of the UK’s leading digital agencies. Why she became MD out of all three business partners. How to measure being a great place to work. How to find and attract new employees. How to come back from maternity or paternity leave. How to be a better business owner by embracing flexible working. Why the myth of having it all, is just that, a myth. Links: https://yoyodesign.com/ The Drum 30 under 30 #30: Jenny Kitchen Officevibe

Today’s guest is executive change mentor Sally Henderson. With 20 years of experience in leadership development, Sally works with high performing senior leaders keen to reach ambition faster by enabling powerful change from the inside out. Sally cut her teeth in recruitment, setting up her own coaching-based recruitment company, The Career Company, before embarking on a successful career in Executive Search. It took having her first child to realise that whilst she was helping so many people get to where they want to go in their careers, she was not happy in hers. Ironically The Career Company motto was “You have a right to be happy and effective at work,” and as the founder of such a successful company, she simply wasn’t. Knowing that her real interests and motivators lay far outside recruitment, she took the brave decision to walk away from her company and now works with C-Suite execs, Founders and senior leaders and MDs to influence and bring about transformational change through her innovative coaching and mentoring methods. On today’s podcast: How do you know if you’re not living a rich life? Why imposter syndrome in senior leaders is such a common trait How she creates change that other people say isn’t possible Why we choose to stay where we are rather than change to what we really want The 3Cs to Create Successful Change Links: https://www.sallyhenderson.co.uk/

Today’s guest is Nic Marks, CEO and Founder of Friday, the company Nic set up to track employee happiness, in order to help businesses build a more positive, productive work culture. A statistician by trade but with a background as a therapist, Nic has a slightly weird speciality—happiness—having used it spending the last three decades creating a measure of people’s quality of life. Nic firmly believes that measuring happiness kick-starts a process which ultimately builds happiness. In just over 6 years, Nic and the team at Friday have worked with more than 9,000 teams across 1,000 organisations, measuring and improving happiness at work. Happiness is a great proxy for quickly judging how things are in a team at a moment in time—if you’re happy at work things are likely to be going well, if you’re not happy, they’re not. On today’s podcast: Why Nic measures happiness How happiness is an indicator of how content people are The benefits of increasing happiness among the population of the UK The link between happiness and political affiliation Why Friday is the best day of the week to conduct a happiness survey 5 ways to increase happiness at work Links: Friday Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Today’s guest is Kevin Lawrence, author, speaker, strategic advisor and coach to entrepreneurial CEOs and business leaders around the world. With his deep knowledge of the Rockefeller Habits and Scaling Up, combined with his own methodology developed over the last 25 years, Kevin has helped countless leaders to build high-performance leadership teams, expand into new markets, attract profitable customers, and increase productivity and profits. More recently Kevin has written a book, Your Oxygen Mask First, which features 17 practical steps for leaders and CEOs to follow, to achieve success whilst maintaining balance in the rest of their lives. It’s this book as well as Kevin’s other observations of CEOs that we discuss, so join us on today’s podcast: Learn how Kevin ended up becoming a coach Why founder CEOs all suffer with similar problems Why things in business are counterintuitive Mental health issues are non-discriminatory What to look out for in someone who is about to have a breakdown How Kevin masters his own mental health issues and the resilience rituals and tools he uses to overcome them The lessons he’s learned along the way to be a successful leader Why you should learn like your life depends on it Links: Your Oxygen Mask First Brad Smart - Topgrading Scaling up Your Oxygen Mask First Self-Assessment

Today’s guests are Carla Cringle and Imogen Pudduck, co-founders of FizzPopBANG Ltd. Their tagline, “making people whistle on their way to work,” says all you need to know about these two upbeat people. They met 15 years ago when they worked together at Red Bull as Head of Brand and Head of HR. Carla and Imogen realised that to have a truly amazing brand that consumers fall in love with, you need infectiously passionate and loyal people that drive that ethos forward. Today, a strong business “plan” is no longer good enough to drive success. They left Red Bull to share their collective knowledge and inject a little sparkle into the working lives of others. Together they created FizzPopBANG, a small but beautifully formed consultancy specialising in brand employee engagement. On today’s podcast: The power of brand ambassadors How to empower people to make brand decisions when you’re not there Why you should show, not tell, what you are as a business Culture is the common denominator of your business. The importance of brand values Culture is built from within, and it’s based on a million different things Links: One thing done well David Hieatt JFDI - podcast

Today’s guest is Professor Moran Cerf, a neuroscientist and business professor at the Kellogg School of Management and the neuroscience program at Northwestern University. He holds a Ph.D in neuroscience from Caltech, an MA in Philosophy and a B.Sc in Physics from Tel-Aviv University. Moran has had a varied work history, prior to his academic career, he spent nearly a decade in industry, holding positions in computer security (as a hacker), pharmaceutical, telecom, fashion, software development, and innovations research. Now he’s interested in how we can use the brain to leverage better business opportunities. He is currently teaching MBA students how to change behaviour, how marketing works and how people think and make decisions. He is a firm believer that social engagements are more powerful than the addictive lure of drugs or our devices, and his goal is to make the world a more optimistic place. Listen to hear him talk on today’s podcast about: How his work addresses questions such as: "How are conscious percepts formed in our brain?" Why social interactions are so important to our brains Why his goal is to make the world a more optimistic place Your brain is a storytelling machine Why we only have control over 15% of our brains, and that doesn’t include the decision-making part How to beat an addiction to social media Links: The Stroop Test Steven Pinker - Enlightenment Now

Today’s guest is Aga Bajer, better known as the Culture Strategist. She helps companies cultivate a better culture in order to bring their vision to life. Aga does this through working with organisations and teams that want to keep evolving to remain at the top of their game. She helps senior leadership teams and individual leaders to cultivate a culture that fuels great work, drives achievement of mission-critical goals and enables positive change. Her overall mission is to help organisations harness the power of culture, to create a world where people love showing up to work. On today’s podcast: Learn about her book, Building and Sustaining a Coaching Culture Learn about her podcast, CultureLab with Aga Bajer How her childhood growing up behind the Iron Curtain in Poland set her on this current path Why she can’t pinpoint which country she loves living in the most What motivated her to leave the corporate world and set out on her own Links: Book: Building and Sustaining a Coaching Culture Podcast: CultureLab with Aga Bajer

Today’s guest on The Melting Pot is John Housego, a proud Cornishman now living in Scotland. John’s background is in engineering and he spent 22 years with W L Gore & Associates. During his time with the company he discovered a passion for developing employee ownership more widely as a business model for the health and welfare of the staff, but also because of the benefits it can bring to company resilience and performance. For John, personal growth at work for all members of the team is incredibly important, as is the culture within that organisation. Throughout his time as a leader with W L Gore & Associates, he learned to become more self-aware, understood how his actions affect others and also found ways to build stronger teams through effective learning and appreciation for EQ. On today’s podcast: The impact leaders have on employee performance The sensitivity to team dynamics when things begin to shift in the workplace Why employers should work to develop employee ownership more widely The importance of company culture, values and goals to employees Why having an associate ownership programme works so well at W L Gore & Associates Links: https://www.gore.com/

Today’s guest is Neal Gandhi, CEO of Panoply, a world-class creative technology group. Configured as a lean, fluid and ego-aside family of complementary tech-focused companies, Panoply collaborates with brave organisations, both at home and abroad, to ensure their participation in tomorrow—and beyond. For Neal, collaboration is key to success. It is one of the tenets of Panoply—their team is collaborative to the core. Panoply assembles the right experts from across the group of companies to solve complex business problems. It help clients challenge assumptions, adapt to change, and activate technology-led innovation that ultimately drives positive and practical outcomes. Panoply champions autonomy and individuality in its companies, whilst remaining tightly bound by their shared approach at the end of the day. Join us today as Neal talks about: Why Panoply floated just 2 years after incorporating Why the Panoply M&A journey is atypical What the Panoply vision for the future looks like How Panoply grew so quickly Why Olly Rigby was Neal’s perfect business partner Why Panoply is like a murmuration of starlings Why RPA is the future The benefits of nearshoring Links: https://www.thepanoply.com

Today’s guest is Tristan White, CEO of The Physio Co. For 10 consecutive years, The Physio Co has ranked as one of Australia's 50 Best Places to Work. Today we find out how he has achieved that. The Physio Co exists to help Australian seniors stay mobile, safe & happy, and since its inception in 2004, The Physio Co has grown from just one person with a vision to change seniors health care forever, to today where The Physio Co has more than 150 team members and delivers over 300,000 physiotherapy consultations per year. Tristan regularly shares his journey through his blog Culture is Everything and latterly through his book of the same name, as well as his podcast, Think Big, Act Small. On today’s podcast: How he grew his team to 150 Why he set his 10-year goal to have treated 2 million seniors What new goal they’ve just set for the next 10 years His journey to date as well as some of his pitfalls The challenges he faced early on hiring people The importance of finding the sweet spot between being a friend and a boss Why he chose to write his book The different types of culture businesses can have What he wishes he knew earlier on in his career Links: Blog - Culture is Everything Book - Culture is Everything Podcast - Think Big, Act Small

Today we talk to Andy Fletcher, a chartered accountant with a MBA from London Business School, who is also responsible for making spectacular family theatre events happen in unique spaces. With an eclectic business path behind him, Andy shares his career to date and how he came to be responsible for In the Night Garden Live (amongst others). In the Night Garden Live was his first production with partner Andy Collier, and it has toured the UK in its own inflatable theatre since 2009. Now in its 10th year, In the Night Garden Live is considered one of the UK’s favourite family events and with audience figures standing at well over 1 million, as well as a whopping 4.8 out of 5 stars based on 12,844 parents’ reviews, no other show holds a torch to this one. Join us on today’s podcast to hear Andy talking about: Why he chose to get involved with such a complicated production as In The Night Garden. His reason behind opting to use the airline ticketing model to sell theatre tickets. Why he believes their ticketing model is the ticketing model of the future. The difference between their two productions: In The Night Garden and Bing Bunny (as well as dropping a bombshell that they have another production in the pipeline). Why it’s so important as a small business owner to be a jack of all trades. The importance of investing in great staff. Links: In the Night Garden Live Bing Live Show

Today’s guest is Danielle Chiel, an Australian entrepreneur who founded KOCO (Knit One Change One). Danielle, through KOCO, is seeking to change lives one hand-knitted garment at a time. She currently employs 200 Indian ladies from various villages in India, to hand-knit garments for her; but her dream is to expand the business and employ 10,000 women. KOCO hand-knits garments for global fashion brands - they produce fashions and homewares that customers love, by working with women in the rural villages in the south of Tamil Nadu. At the same time as giving these ladies employment, KOCO provides them with an education and all the training they need, in order to become world-class handknitters. On today’s podcast learn: Where Danielle’s love for knitting came from. How she is building a women’s only business which is hand-knitting the world together. How she started after she swore never to go back to India after a disastrous holiday there. Where you can find out more information about the lady that hand-knitted the jumper you are wearing. Why consumers have to drive the necessary change in order to strip back the strict confidentiality agreements that brands insist on, to reveal where their clothing is made. The trials and tribulations of getting a new business off the ground in a country that doesn’t speak your language. Links: KOCO

Husband and wife team Caspar and Nichola Craven are an intrepid pair of entrepreneurs. Caspar is a long-time entrepreneur and former managing director at a technology business, and Nichola was a criminal barrister for 12 years before joining forces with Caspar. Caspar decided that what was holding him back in business was that he wasn’t focusing enough time at home. So, he took what he was learning in his business--having a purpose, having core values, having goals--back into his home life, which lead to the couple’s decision to take the family sailing around the world for two years. Listen as they both share their story and how they’ve created a new business working together to coach entrepreneurs in the importance of focusing on family first to enjoy the journey, working together as a team toward a common goal. On today’s podcast: A family first mentality “Nothing ever happens without a deadline” Values-based approach in business and at home The benefits of spending quality time with family Don’t defer happiness Links: The Brave You Where the Magic Happens: How a Young Family Changed Their Lives and Sailed Around the World CasparCraven.com

David Hieatt, CEO of Hiut Denim, is best known for giving purpose (and their jobs) back to the jeans makers in Cardigan, Wales. 400 Grandmasters (as David calls them) lost their jobs in 2002 when the jeans factory they were working in closed down. David felt a huge responsibility to give these skilled workers an opportunity to put their skills to use again as he had first hand experience, from growing up in the Welsh Valleys, of the devastating impact that huge job loss has on a community. The town hadn’t just lost their identity, they were losing £1m per week from their economy. Fast forward to 2018 and having spent nothing on a marketing drive, David got extremely lucky when Meghan Markle wore a pair of Hiut denim jeans and overnight Hiut were flooded with orders, resulting in a three month waiting list. David’s business philosophy of ‘create influence and a purpose driven business’ had paid off. Hiut Denim was firmly established on the fashion map for crafting long lasting, well made jeans. As well as creating a high end jeans label, David is also the co-founder of the Do Lectures - the idea behind these being a simple one: people who Do things, can inspire the rest of us to go and Do amazing things too. Tune in to hear: The enormous potential of the compound effect The value of persistence and the impact of improving yourself by 1% each day Purpose-driven brand growth How to make a return on luck Why naivety is a good quality in entrepreneurs Links: Do Open Do Purpose Do Lectures Hiut Denim

Chris Baréz-Brown is the Founder of Upping Your Elvis, trainer, speaker, and author of such books as “Wake Up” and “Shine”. In his work, Chris helps people find and channel their energy by helping them understand what it is and how to increase it, and how to deploy it in a useful way. Chris works with diverse types of businesses to break down dysfunctions, and inefficiencies, to help bring more humanity into the workplace. Chris emphasises the importance of creating friendships at work, which builds trust and makes work more enjoyable. He also recently launched the social enterprise Talk it Out, which encourages people to achieve better well being. Tune in to get a better understanding of how to harness your own energy to create a more positive work and life experience. On today’s podcast: Understand the creative genius inside yourself How to manage your energy How to stop sleepwalking through our working lives How to manage the feedback in your head and use it to stimulate positivity Talk It Out - a social enterprise having an impact on mental health Links: Chris Barez-Brown Upping Your Elvis Energy Experiments TEDxUtrecht Talk It Out

Guy Rigby has been working with entrepreneurs for decades. He’s an accountant who takes a unique approach to the service by working directly with the founder at owner-managed business as the Chair of Entrepreneurial Services at Smith and Williamson. Guy is also the author of Vision to Exit, a book that tackles the very similar challenges most entrepreneurs face. Over the course of the conversation we talk about the common pitfalls many entrepreneurs face, what it means when you become risk averse in your business, and how to dream bigger. Tune in to hear Guy’s top tips for entrepreneurs who want to scale up, such as: Recruiting for character and training for skills Helping entrepreneurs succeed and achieve their goals over time Developing the confidence to pursue your vision Your first hire and who you need to have on board for growth Knowing when it is time to change something in order to move forward Links: Smith and Williamson Vision to Exit Dream Bigger Report

Spencer Gallagher and Pete Hoole work with the next generation of independent Agencies to help them scale as co-founders of Cactus. In the past eight years they’ve worked with more than 1,000 Agencies globally, all the while collecting notes about what was and was not working. They recently converted those notes into a book, Agencynomics, an Amazon five-star rated best selling book and Audiobook, aimed to help all types of Agencies scale from Start-up to the first £3-5M in revenue by setting the record straight on what KPIs should really look like. In our conversation we talk about some of the myths around what makes an Agency successful, where you should really focus your energy, and the four cornerstones that anchor business success. While the focus is on Agency growth, many of the areas they’ve identified are ubiquitous to the business world. In this episode we talk about: Why work-life balance and a corporate culture of trust is essential to success How personal relationships and networks to grow your business What your eNPS score should look like, and how to grow it Where you should be channeling your energy and qualifying your leads What it means to take a client-centric approach in the way you structure your staff Links: http://www.cact.us/ Agencynomics

Henry Stewart believes people should find joy at work. And it’s not just a nice idea, it’s good business. And as the Chief Happiness Officer at Happy Ltd and author of Happy Manifesto, Henry has made happiness his business. Happy workplaces are more profitable, and have increased share growth. Employees are naturally more engaged with their work, and staff retention improves. During our conversation we explore a few of the core principles of the Happy Manifesto and talk about what it really what it looks like when you trust your people. We also discuss how pre-approving, playing to strengths, and celebrating mistakes are continuing to revolutionise how Happy Ltd operates. On today’s podcast: Trusting your people and empowering them to make decisions Coaching rather than managing your staff, and selecting the right people for these roles Shifting from blame culture to embrace opportunities for improvement Training for skill, and getting great at your strengths Giving choices, not delegating tasks Links: Happy Ltd. The Happy Manifesto

Today I am talking to Barnaby Lashbrooke, founder and CEO of Time etc, an award winning virtual assistant service that helps entrepreneurs and leaders achieve more, without working harder. Through Time etc., Barnaby simultaneously provides a resources to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses, while providing an opportunity for stay at home moms to find meaningful work on their own terms. While Time etc. is primarily a workforce of virtual employees (around 700 employees across the UK and USA, with a home office of around 30 employees) Barnaby emphasises the human experience as an essential element of company culture. We talk about how this plays out both in the experience of his employees and in the engagement that his clients receive. On today’s podcast: Cultural shifts around the virtual workforce Evolving role of the executive assistant Challenges and solutions with new clients and new employees Building high performance teams Eliminating corporate hierarchies and creating a flat office Links: https://web.timeetc.com Barnaby’s TEDx video Barnaby’s Forbes Channel

Alexandra (Alex) Eavis is the co-founder of three distinct businesses that are tied by a common theme: harnessing technology to make life better, in a meaningful way. In 2017 Alex co-founded two companies. In January she took on the role of Director as Co-Founder of How Do I?, a social enterprise for a special needs school that uses NFC technology in vocational learning. By the end of the year she helped launch a blockchain platform to drive better information sharing in healthcare as Co-Founder and CEO of Dovetail Lab. She previously Co-Founded Alcove, another tech-based company that uses machine learning to assist older and disabled adults in their lives, and careers. For entrepreneurial success Alex credits hiring people who are smart and passionate, and talks about the importance of doing what you love. On the podcast we talked about: Investing in technologies to revolutionize for the future What it takes to make a social impact, and a profit The democratization of content creation Creating aspirational products Creating a space for a digital detox in our lives Links: Dovetail lab How do I?

Adam Fairhead is an English entrepreneur and philanthropist. He founded the Fairhead Group which serves cause-driven companies with the mission of helping difference makers make a difference. Today I’m talking to Adam about why it’s so important for companies to have a purpose. He works for and has the biggest impact on businesses that are seeking to change the world. We talk about how he does that, what his process is, the coaches that he has on staff and what they do with clients to help them get their message right. He’s also written a book called “Marketing Isn’t About You”. You can register for a free copy (when it comes out in March) here. On today’s podcast: Making communication clearer and more efficient Differences between the US and the UK Adam’s book, “Marketing Isn’t About You” The magic of having a service-oriented one-page scrollable website Adam’s book recommendations Links: Adam’s Website Adam’s Podcast Web page for free copy of Adam’s book, “Marketing Isn’t About You”

Today’s guest is Simon Biltcliffe, CEO of Webmart, a print management business in Bicester. Simon’s on a mission to make print more affordable for everybody. He’s built an amazing business with some impressive specs! They’ve capped the number of people, they share profit share with employees, Simon’s capped his salary and the business is owned by a trust so he couldn’t sell it even if he wanted to. Simon declares himself a “marxist-capitalist”, because without capitalism there’s no wealth, and without wealth there’s no redistribution. Join us for a fascinating conversation with plenty of takeaways for everybody! On today’s podcast: The marxist-capitalist business model Transforming his employees into entrepreneurs How they hire new people Why they do biannual team peer-reviews Simon’s book recommendations Links: Simon’s TED Talk Webmart

For the last 10 years, Elise Keith has been on a mission to fix the thing that most people spend the most time doing at work: meetings. Who hasn’t been in a terrible meeting? Elise witnessed people who should have been in conflict come together and have a great meeting. She has worked out what types of meetings there are, how to approach these meetings and how to get the best out of everybody. Today’s episode is all about getting things done by using well-structured, well-designed meetings. Don’t miss out! On today’s podcast: Meetings don’t have to be gruesome What makes a good meeting? Everybody needs to speak during a meeting Companies need to respect people’s time How to make an important decision Book recommendations Links: Where the Action Is Lucid Meetings