How do you keep steady when the professional and the personal collide?

In this episode of The 99% Club – The Small Business Podcast, Enterprise Nation’s Aaron Asadi sits down with Valerie Lothian, founder of Focusivity, a business dedicated to helping people and organisations bring clarity, calm and focus back into their working lives.

Valerie shares her deeply human approach to navigating business and life:

•Why coming together matters in a world that often pulls us apart

•How to find stable ground in uncertain times

•The “merging of the two” – when personal emotions meet professional pressures, and how to balance them

•Her journey to founding Focusivity and the lessons she brings from coaching and lived experience

This is a conversation about self-awareness, resilience, and the truth that business isn’t just numbers and plans – it’s people, with all the emotions and challenges that come with them.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify • Apple • YouTube

🌐 focusivity.co.uk

👥 enterprisenation.com

It started with someone dropping litter. It became a mission to replace single-use plastics worldwide.

In this episode of The 99% Club, Enterprise Nation’s Aaron Asadi speaks to Charlie, founder of The Pure Option, a business dedicated to creating compostable, plant-based food packaging to replace petroleum plastics.

What began in a Welsh garage as a personal quest to solve the problem of a discarded foam burger box has grown into an award-winning operation with international reach – despite government policies that sometimes make it harder to be sustainable.

•How a moment in a town centre sparked a 15-year journey of research and invention

•Why the UK went from world leader in compostable packaging to falling behind other nations

•The impact of losing 75% of staff and how AI helped run the business leaner than ever

•Why The Pure Option pays tax for not using plastic – and how they’ve innovated around it

•The resilience it takes to survive COVID, policy changes, and market shifts

This is a story about problem-solving, perseverance, and the belief that sustainability should be simple.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify • Apple • YouTube

🌱 thepureoption.com

👥 enterprisenation.com

“This isn’t a cottage industry. This is imagination, industry and impact.”

At 61, Lotty and her husband Andy didn’t retire quietly – they built a universe from scrap.

Literally.

In this episode of The 99% Club, Enterprise Nation’s Aaron Asadi meets Lotty of Weebert’s World, a growing brand of hand-built robot sculptures and children’s stories, all created from discarded objects and a wildly creative spirit.

Born from a difficult moment, the business is now a cross-generational, heart-led venture inspiring kids (and grown-ups) to imagine, create and care.

This conversation explores:

– Building a business from a garage with no prior experience

– Why digital detox starts with storytelling

– The dream of turning Weebert into a children’s TV star

– The frustrations of being excluded from funding as a rural business

– The power of family, legacy, and late-in-life creativity

– And why small businesses should be seen as more than “cottage industries”

From resin sheep to House of Lords appearances, this is a one-of-a-kind journey – and a love letter to making something from nothing.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube

📚 Explore Weebert’s World: weebertsworld.com/kids-zone

👥 Join the Enterprise Nation community: enterprisenation.com

In this raw and colourful conversation, Enterprise Nation’s CEO, Aaron Asadi, meets artist and founder Kathy Kyle.

It started with burnout, grief, and a stained T-shirt. This is the story of Kathy, who left behind a 25-year career in PR and comms to launch her own wearable-art brand: Kathy Kyle Ltd.

It became a creative business built on joy, community, and painting at 4am.

In this episode:

– The emotional truth of starting over mid-career

– The importance of stories – and why some now live on scarves

– Why perfectionism is exhausting

– How Kathy weaves sustainability, identity and heritage into everything she creates

– The frustrating gap between female-led business potential and funding reality

This is a conversation about colour, courage, cassette tapes, and carving out a life that fits. If you’ve ever wondered if it’s too late to make a change – or whether your art could become your business – this one’s for you.

📚 Explore Kathy’s work: kathykyle.com

👥 Join the Enterprise Nation community: enterprisenation.com

What do a goose, AI-written books, and Windrush memoirs have in common?

They all feature in this inspiring and brutally honest chat with publisher and The Bookshelf Ltd founder, Ameesha Green.

In Episode 1 of The 99% Club – The Small Business Podcast, Enterprise Nation CEO Aaron Asadi sits down with Ameesha to explore the untold realities of running a small business. Together, they cover:

– Why AI is no substitute for human storytelling

– How publishing can empower people to share their legacy

– The mental health cost of entrepreneurship

– Why neurodivergent founders are underserved but essential

– The power of community (and cuddly mascots)

Ameesha also shares the story of Vanessa, a Windrush survivor whose memoir, Sheep, Sheep Come Home, became a university textbook – and an emotional legacy for generations to come.

This is not another business podcast full of hacks and jargon. It’s the stuff that actually matters.

🧠 Authentic stories

📚 Big ideas

💥 Small businesses doing brave things