Today’s guest is dialing in from London and she doesn’t build small.

Entrepreneur and ambitious operator, Gail is the founder and CEO of H&G Recruitment, a business she scaled from zero to £43M in annual revenue. She also launched NTS, Network Transport Solutions just a year ago, and it’s already turning over £2M annually.

She leads a team of 50+, has built authority and credibility in historically male-heavy industries, crediting her success to sharp strategy, disciplined execution, and zero appetite for excuses.

“Authentic leadership” gets thrown around a lot.

But when it’s inconvenient? When it risks power or when it costs you comfort? Do you still choose it?

In this episode Amy and Erin sit down with Jacob Little, a leader who has shaped careers, built psychological safety at scale, and led with conviction even when it wasn’t the easy path.

This isn’t a conversation about being likable.

It’s about congruence between who you are and how you decide, the difference between vulnerability and leading vulnerably, the real risk of showing up fully. Especially in senior roles. Why authenticity requires discipline, not just openness, and how AI is increasing the premium on distinctly human leadership.

We unpack the hard edges: when authenticity feels risky, the tension between transparency and oversharing, the pressure to “play the role,” what high performers must unlearn when they step into leadership, and why values don’t earn you credit, they hold you accountable.

Honest. Reflective. Practical. No leadership theater. Just the real work.

Most companies treat values like marketing copy. Polished, framed, and quietly ignored when decisions get inconvenient. We didn’t build STRATIVIS that way.

Values were the infrastructure first. Everything else came after.

People First, Always isn’t a tagline we added to sound good. It’s the standard we operate against, moment to moment, decision to decision. It shows up in the teams we’ve built, the leaders we’ve challenged and the calls we’ve made when it would have been easier not to.

In this episode, we break down what values are actually supposed to do: hold weight under pressure, guide decisions when there isn’t a clear playbook, and shape the kind of company you become, whether you planned for it or not.

Because values aren’t what you publish. They’re what you prove.

In this episode, we tackle whether competency frameworks are genuinely useful or just corporate overkill. The short answer? It depends.

Depends on how they’re built, how they’re used, and whether they actually support the business. Listen to find out.

On this episode, Erin and Amy chat with Mike Reading, Founder of RegenDesign Labs and creator of {RDT} DevAI. Mike is building a developmental thinking partner designed to strengthen executive-level thinking and entrepreneurial energy inside real work, not outside of it. We dig into how leaders actually think, make decisions, and sustain momentum when the work is complex, ambiguous, and very real.

Annual reviews, awkward conversations, delayed feedback. We’re calling it out. This episode tackles what’s wrong with performance reviews and how leaders can replace them with honest, timely conversations that actually move people forward.

Just a couple of HR execs who’ve done the hard yards, tested the tools, and figured out what actually helps the hiring process when you add AI . No spin ,just what works, what doesn’t, and how to make your life easier.

Throwback to one month into Strativis. when Erin and I were still figuring it out and somehow already running a full-blown mutual appreciation society. In this episode, you’ll hear our meet-cute, our early chaos, and why we knew we’d build something big together. Hit play and get to know us.