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.

This week, I sat down with Peter Charalambides, CEO of The Upper Room and former Property CEO, for a powerful conversation on how to run a charity with a business mindest.

Some of my favourite moments from our chat include:

✅ What Peter learned from starting-up a business and how that shapes his charity leadership today.
✅ Why charities must diversify income streams and the impact of local community.
✅ Financial lessons from the business world on cash flow, benchmarking salaries, and tech that Peter took to the third sector.
✅ How Peter uses mindfulness (and a beard net) to help out with The Upper Room’s meal service.
✅ And his call to action for younger donors, and those who can help reach them.

If you're leading a purpose-driven business or want to hear what financial leadership looks like in the charity sector, this one’s for you.

Big thanks to Peter for being generous with his story, and for the Doctor Who name drop too 👀

In this week’s episode, I sat down with Dan DeGolier, CEO of Ascent CFO Solutions, to dig into the world of metrics, and how small businesses can start to think about this subject.

Some of the highlights from our conversation included:

✅ Why “cash is king” still matters – regardless of your growth stage.
✅ The biggest mistake small businesses make with dashboards – think noise vs. insight!
✅ How to make KPIs work best across teams – tip: link them to bonus schemes.
✅ The difference between tracking leads... and tracking the right ones.
✅ Power BI vs Excel – when to upgrade and when to keep it simple.

If you’ve ever looked at a spreadsheet and didn’t know where to start, then this one’s for you.

Business Book Bonus:

https://amzn.eu/d/8Mlexvz

https://amzn.eu/d/hOKTFT7

This week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mark Jenkins, CEO of The Gap, a platform to help accountants, CFOs, and advisors turn their expertise into scalable value-driven services.

Some of my personal highlights from the conversation include:

✅ Why clients struggle to see your worth.

✅ The sweet spot between “art and science” when selling services.

✅ The importance of systemising delivery with repeatable frameworks.

✅ Tools to turn advisory chats into valuable and commercial outcomes.

✅ And why “efficiency ≠ profit”—unless you reinvest that time intentionally.

This one's packed with insights for anyone selling services, especially if you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “I know I added value... but did I explain it well enough?”

Business Book Bonus Section:

The Grapes of Wrath: https://amzn.eu/d/4SCeJHp

What Got You Here Won't Get You There: https://amzn.eu/d/3n48q3K

This week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with @Gerri Phillips, Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer of @Cue Gravity - a company that’s built its niche helping retailers tell their story successfully by blending the physical and the digital.

While Cue Gravity is already working with top-tier brands across the U.S. Gerri is now leading the U.K. charge, focusing on bringing that U.S.. experience and success to the UK.

🌟 Some of the most interesting parts of our conversation were:

✅ Why UK businesses are more sceptical of tech innovation than the U.S.

✅ How content, technology, and storytelling combine to drive retail performance.

✅ What Gerri’s learned about building a support network when you’re starting out.

✅ What it’s like launching in a new country with no team, no pipeline, and no profile.

✅ Why “tech for tech’s sake” is a problem, and how to avoid it with a strategy-first approach

This week, I had a fascinating conversation with @Rajeev Nandan, founder and CEO of @Pierian, about the evolution of Marketing technology and the impact of AI on digital marketing strategies.

We covered:

✅ The move from traditional marketing to AI-driven, data-led strategies.
✅ The transition from a consulting business model to a scalable SaaS offering.
✅ The financial metrics that drive e-commerce success and sustainable growth.
✅ How businesses, big and small, can use AI to improve customer acquisition and retention.
✅ The importance of balancing creativity and data in a world increasingly shaped by automation.