When should you turn down work your business needs? David March joins Ben Payne to share the business failure lessons he learnt from pricing under pressure, overtrading and eventually closing his own company.

David has spent nearly 40 years in live entertainment, working across manufacturers, rental businesses and his own company. He now helps owner-led businesses through Buddy March.

We talk about the business mistakes that can happen when revenue becomes the immediate priority, what happens when you move into work you don’t fully understand, and why owners need someone who can challenge their decisions.

David also shares the moment he realised he had to close the doors, how that experience affected his appetite for risk, and why helping someone means more than saying “let me know if you need anything”.

In this episode:

• The pricing decisions businesses make under pressure
• How to judge whether an opportunity really fits
• Why owners need someone who can challenge their thinking
• Overtrading and the closure of Projected Image Digital
• The effect of business failure on confidence and family life
• Being honest with clients and colleagues
• David’s Buddy Check and Clarity Brief approach
• The difference between being nice and being kind

Timestamps

00:00 The moment David knew he had to close

00:35 Introducing David March

02:09 Nearly 40 years in live entertainment

05:06 American and European business cultures

06:46 Why some businesses survive a downturn

08:16 The danger of cutting prices

11:12 Building relationships before you need them

12:25 What practical support really looks like

13:49 Networking and learning to talk to customers

16:43 Developing the next generation of talent

18:44 Choosing the right business opportunities

20:24 Saying yes to the wrong work

22:33 The pressure of being the business owner

25:51 Taking a step back: the Buddy Check

28:08 Balancing price, service and relationships

30:07 CEG sponsor message

30:53 Supporting the podcast and listener review

31:34 Having honest conversations with customers

32:47 When should you walk away from a job?

34:58 Overtrading and the business David had to close

39:06 Accepting that the business couldn’t continue

40:51 Making peace with business failure

43:53 How failure changes your appetite for risk

45:17 Helping an owner face difficult decisions

47:24 Getting everything out of your head

48:06 What not to rush into when starting a business

49:39 Is more lead generation really the answer?

52:10 Why winning business is getting harder

56:10 The difference between being nice and being kind

57:08 David’s biggest Business Takeaway

58:42 Rapid-fire questions

1:01:51 Final thoughts and where to find David

Guest links:

Buddy March

David March on LinkedIn

Listen next:

Sam Tamplin — How to Scale a Business to 100 Staff (Without Losing Control): another live-events owner’s perspective on growth, financial discipline and difficult periods; Sam’s experience comes up in this conversation.

Dave Coull — How to Build a Strong Business Culture That Actually Works: continue the discussion about honesty, trust and what leaders’ behaviour means for their people.

More episodes and guest books

Follow The Business Takeaway Podcast for a new conversation every Monday.

How do you build a memorable brand when every competitor uses the same language, imagery and promises? T. Christian Helms explains why brand differentiation starts with honest research, clear positioning and a willingness to stop trying to please everybody. This is practical business advice for founders who want to stand out without relying on gimmicks or a cosmetic rebrand.

Christian is the founder of Austin-based agency Helms Workshop, whose clients have included Jack Daniel’s, Disney, Harley-Davidson and Formula 1’s Circuit of the Americas. He works with global names and smaller founder-led businesses to turn brand strategy into a genuine commercial advantage.

In this episode, Ben and Christian discuss the difference between being recognised and being remembered, why copying established competitors can make a young business disappear, and how a distinctive brand can support business growth.

They also examine why a rebrand cannot repair a product or customer experience that no longer delivers what the business promises.

Christian tells the story behind Austin Beerworks’ seven-foot 99-pack. The idea attracted international coverage and sent people following a delivery van around Austin, but it began with a practical problem: customers were confused by the beer’s original name.

They also discuss where AI genuinely helps brand teams, why it can pull businesses back towards the category average, and what Christian learned when serious illness forced him to rebuild his life and company.

In this episode:

• How to make a business distinctive without chasing attention
• Why brand promise and operational delivery must match
• How the 99-pack turned a naming problem into international attention
• Where AI supports creativity and where human judgement still matters
• Why a smaller group of committed customers can be more valuable

00:00 Introduction

01:08 Working with global brands and founder-led businesses

01:59 Using brand as an unfair advantage

06:26 Recognised versus remembered

07:28 Why copying competitors is death for a brand

08:26 Lateral thinking and the Apple example

12:07 Why a rebrand cannot fix a broken business

13:01 Building brand culture throughout a company

15:11 When customer perception contradicts the founders

19:14 Why customers love flawed products

22:50 How brands should respond when things go wrong

27:30 Audacity versus attention-seeking

28:32 The story of the 99-pack of beer

31:01 Making the pub joke real

32:50 Why a brand does not need everybody

33:35 Creativity and lateral thinking

38:38 Why people love the absurd

40:35 Ryanair and the limits of brand personality

44:38 Where AI helps — and where it fails

48:57 What digitally native creatives do differently

51:16 Why the idea must come before the tool

52:25 Diagnosing a broken brand

54:38 Christian’s forthcoming branding book

56:05 Rebuilding after serious illness

59:17 Christian’s business takeaway

01:00:27 Rapid-fire questions

• T. Christian Helms
• Helms Workshop
• Helms Workshop on Instagram

• Your Logo Is Not Your Brand — Jason Clark: the closest follow-on conversation about trust, brand delivery and AI-driven sameness. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3VKMVgJhBwyojq6Bxuyydj?si=av1eOFIOR9Ww25Nw2Ae3NQ

• The Hard Truth About Building in a Niche Market — Mats Karlsson: extends Christian’s argument that a business does not need everybody. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2eIUh2ERYyJiYJ2WwKbddA?si=RIjcrVJ6R_uP4P9BHAqzGQ

What happens when you’re getting results, but your team is afraid to challenge you? Kyle McDowell found out that the people around him feared him more than they respected him.

Kyle had spent nearly three decades in corporate leadership. Honest feedback made him question the kind of leader he had become. He went on to develop the principles behind Begin With WE, then put them to the test while leading an organisation of around 15,000 people.

In this conversation, Ben and Kyle talk about the gap between achieving results and leading people well. They get into why company values often fail to change behaviour, what happens when someone challenges a senior leader, and how you build a culture that can hold together as an organisation grows.

In this episode:

• The feedback that changed Kyle’s approach to leadership
• Why people can fear a successful leader
• What the 10 WEs mean in practice
• Why leaders say they welcome challenge, then struggle to accept it
• The difference between measuring activity and measuring outcomes
• Why culture change has to start with senior leaders

The business takeaway

Good results do not automatically mean good leadership. People need to see their leaders live by the standards they expect from everyone else, and feel able to speak up when something is wrong.

Chapters

00:00 Kyle’s corporate career

03:49 “They feared me more than they respected me”

08:14 Creating the 10 WEs

15:35 Why leaders struggle to be challenged

17:39 Outcomes versus activity

23:19 Getting an organisation to buy into change

26:46 Creating culture across 15,000 people

38:58 Why company values fail

41:59 Can you outsource culture change?

49:54 Where to start with a dysfunctional company

55:27 Kyle’s ultimate leadership rule

Kyle's current is a bestselling author, leadership expert and speaker and centres his work around the 10 WEs.

Kyle McDowell — Official Website

Kyle McDowell — LinkedIn

Kyle McDowell — Instagram

Dave tackles company culture, values and trust from the perspective of actually running an organisation; Kyle approaches the same territory through leadership behaviours and the 10 WEs.

Listen to Dave Coull on Spotify

Joshua discusses organisational identity, culture, mindset and leadership through elite sport. It gives listeners a different setting for many of the same questions.

Listen to Joshua Lifrak on Spotify

Maintaining behaviour and leadership standards as an organisation becomes too large for the founder/leader to personally touch everyone.

Listen to Sam Tamplin on Spotify