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.