We talk a good game about making things easy to use. But most organisations are still designing for an average customer who doesn’t really exist.

Sharon Flaherty, CEO of Folk, shares the moment that caused her to view the world differently, where she sees customer journeys breaking down in the real world and where can start to change the conversation.

We discuss:

why “easy to use” is harder than it sounds in practice

how assumptions about customers quietly distort experience design

why organisations underestimate the complexity of real decision-making, and how testing comes too late to matter

why lived experience surfaces what data alone misses

and why culture, not process, decides whether inclusion actually happens

Subscribe for the Extended Cut – where we go further on what it actually takes to shift organisational thinking, why most 'customer understanding' work never changes decisions, how leaders unintentionally deprioritise experience friction, and what it really takes to move from insight to action inside complex organisations.

Is your marketing approach a roadmap or a straightjacket?

We’ve all been there. You spend weeks (and way too much mental energy) on a shiny strategy deck, following the textbooks approaches to the letter, only to find the business has moved on or the budget simply doesn't exist.

In this episode, I’m joined by Lottie Unwin. She’s a self-confessed marketing geek who did the P&G rounds and took all the notes. But then she had to sell popcorn at a startup and the formulas fell apart.

We talk about:

The formula failure: Why 'Reach and Frequency' is a luxury many of us can't afford, and what to do instead.

Climbing the mountain: Why focusing on 'Pitch One' is more important than the summit when you’re just trying to stay alive.

Following the money: Why being 'best mates with the CFO' and knowing your runway is the only way to earn a seat at the table.

The levers to understand: My own reflection on why two 'identical' businesses on paper require completely different playbooks.

Subscribe to get the Extended Cut - where we go deeper on managing leadership friction, how to interrogate a P&L, how you can network effectively from Day 1, and why your next campaign might actually need to be a hiring drive.

You can have the best plan in the world, but if the environment is a mess, you’re just decorating a sinking ship.

When things don’t go to plan, it’s not always because the work was bad. From unclear decisions to conflicting priorities, the stuff that sits above the work often determines whether your strategy ever actually lands or just ends up as a footnote in a slide deck.

Heather Hurd has seen this from every angle - starting as a copywriter, moving into brand strategy, and now as a consultant helping organisations assess their "marketing readiness." She spends her time asking the deeper questions that most teams skip, diagnosing the structural roadblocks that keep marketing functions from ever reaching their full potential.

Drawing on what she’s learned inside fast-moving startups and corporate giants, we discuss:

The 6 factors of marketing readiness: A diagnostic toolkit for looking under the hood of any organisation.

The template trap: Why "bespoke" strategy so often defaults to recycled busy-work when pressure hits.

The sidelined marketer: What happens to the mission when marketing loses its seat at the top table.

The silent kkill: How to use active listening to build high-level influence, regardless of your job title.

The aspiration gap: Why a "moonshot" mission might be the very thing eroding your team's trust.

Subscribe to get the Extended Cut, where we go deeper on managing leadership friction, the real psychology of executive buy-in, and the career signals that tell you whether an organisational culture is truly ready, or simply not worth your time.