Speaking Business Podcast

My guest this week is the former MD of Google’s $5Bn UK business.   He spent the dot.com crash in Silicon Valley, the financial crisis leading Google UK, and the past 6 years building some of Europe's top fintech start-ups.  He has learnt a lot about how to drive success and even more about how to fail. While he was MD at Google, he came across pretotyping a novel approach to validating ideas for new products or services quickly, objectively and accurately, often by failing efficiently. And now he brings this thinking to all the start-ups he works with. And today he is going to share it with us. Please give a warm Speaking Business welcome to digital innovator Dan Cobley. Bio Dan Cobley is an entrepreneur and investor in innovative tech startup businesses, focusing on financial services.  He leads the FinTech portfolio for Blenheim Chalcot, a long-established London venture builder. Through this role he has co-founded a number of fast-growth fintech companies including; Salary Finance, Koodoo Mortgages, OpenW

My guest this week is an award-winning author and regarded as one an exciting new business thinker challenging leaders to own the future rather than be disrupted by it. His thinking has featured in The Economist, Forbes, Reuters, The Huffington Post, CNN, and Wired Magazine.  He has been described as ‘an influential and outspoken expert on the future of leadership’ by Thinkers50, the global ranking company of the world’s top 50 management thinkers.  His new book The 3D Leader is out in the summer of 2020.  Let’s give a big Speaking Business Podcast welcome to my guest this week - Terence Mauri. Bio Terence Mauri is a future trends and disruption expert who challenges leaders to innovate, adapt and thrive in the age of disruption. He is an Inc. Magazine Writer, Entrepreneur Mentor in Residence (London Business School), Inc. Top 30 Future Trends expert and author of the global bestseller, the Leader’s Mindset: How to Win in the Age of Disruption described as a ‘game changer’ by MIT. Terence has been ranked by T

My guest this week is currently CEO of The Marketing Society, a global network of progressive leaders and former CEO of The Caffeine Partnership, a unique business consultancy which helps leaders to work with purpose and pace. She is an experienced business leader, entrepreneur and brand specialist. She is constantly curious about how to speed up success, she hates wasting time and believes impatience is usually a virtue. She a passionate advocate of flexible working as the future of effective companies and regularly discusses innovative approaches to balance business and family life. She is the author of the number one best seller in Change Management books Superfast: Lead at Speed. Please welcome this week’s guest self-confessed acceleration addict Sophie Devonshire. Bio Sophie Devonshire is an experienced business leader, entrepreneur, brand specialist and author who has worked in and with multinational companies, successful start-ups and agencies. Her highly creative and commercial approach comes from a c

My guest this week is a Future-Ready Innovator. She has led transformation for Adobe, Autodesk, LiveNation as well as founding two Silicon Valley companies. Today she is building the Executive Growth Alliance, a global community of open curious and brave leaders collaborating to drive change in environment, transportation, health and consumer services.  She is here to share her journey to future-readiness and what it takes for leaders to succeed in today’s fast paced world of change.  Please give a warm speaking business welcome to Jennifer Vessels. Bio As a Silicon Valley entrepreneur; leader of transformation for Adobe, Cisco, LiveNation; and Chief Innovator for Next Step, Jennifer Vessels is an acknowledged expert in understanding what really works to drive change, leverage digitalisation, avoid disruption and gain tangible returns on innovation.  Her real – world examples and practical leadership, business growth and transformation techniques are proven to deliver increased productivity, speed up change,

A rare opportunity to hear from the man behind the speaker bureau that the International New York Times called the only global Speaker Bureau. Tom Kenyon-Slaney co-founded London Speaker Bureau 25 years ago and has grown it from one office in London to 25 offices around the world.  Now with a turnover of almost US$40 million it is by far the largest speaker bureau outside of North America and by far the most globally networked. Today he joins me to talk about what he is hearing from his offices around the world as we work though the pandemic and what he thinks about the future for speakers and speaker bureaus and how they can support businesses and leaders. Please welcome London Speaker Bureau founder and chairman Tom Kenyon Slaney Bio Tom Kenyon-Slaney founded London Speaker Bureau in 1994, an international agency providing keynote speakers and boardroom advisors for corporations and governments around the world. He was chairman of Save the Rhino from 2009 to 2013. Tom is closely involved with several educat

My speaker this week has been helping people for the last 16 years to believe in themselves and their potential. She has been through multiple transformations herself and knows what it takes to make deep rooted changes that stick, and to get through tough times and emerge stronger and wiser. She helps people to leave behind self-doubt, disempowering patterns and overwhelm in favour of new ways of thinking, feeling and acting that create confidence, wellbeing and success. Exactly what many of us will be needing right now. Please welcome my guest this week Harriet Waley-Cohen Please be aware that there are some swear words used in this recording. Bio Harriet Waley-Cohen has empowered thousands of people over the last 15 years to believe in themselves and their potential. She has been through multiple transformations herself and knows what it takes to make deep rooted changes that stick, and to get through tough times and come out the other side stronger and wiser than ever. Harriet is 16 years in recovery from

My guest this week is the Co-Founder of the public speaking training company - Speaker Express.  He knows what it takes to build great stage presence and how to use speaking as a transformative business growth tool.  He has used speaking to help build 3 successful businesses himself.  He is passionate about stretching speakers to their full potential, enabling aspiring speakers and business owners to quickly get the results they are looking for in an authentic and empowering way. He is the author of 3 books including the best-selling Power to Succeed. Please welcome, speaker coach, entrepreneur and best-selling author Elliot Kay. NB: Since recording the title of Elliot's latest book has changed to 'Speaking Influence Sell' and will be released on 20th August 2020. Bio As Co-Founder of Speaker Express, Elliot not only knows what it takes to build great stage presence but is also a master at teaching business owners how to transform their messages into a powerful growth tool. Using his love of speaking to help

My guest this week is a cognitive neuroscientist, specialising in the unconscious processing of emotion and behavioural change.  She is also an experienced entrepreneur having owned 3 businesses.    She works with senior leaders and their teams helping them to better understand the science of change and development and harness this power through heightened awareness of how their brain works.  She is founder of the Neuroscience Professional Development Programme designed to help professional people use applied neuroscience in their work.    Like her, her work is always informative, fun and extremely practical.  Please welcome my guest this week Dr. Lynda Shaw   Bio Dr Lynda Shaw is a cognitive neuroscientist who holds a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience, specialising in unconscious processing of emotion and behavioural change. She is a registered chartered psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, a Fellow of the Professional Speakers A

My guest this week works with Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs to help them to recognise the unique value they bring to the workplace and to lead with confidence and purpose.  Tapping into her experience as a Theatre Sister in Open Heart Surgery where team engagement and collaboration were paramount to life changing outcomes, she is quick to spot dysfunctions in leaders and teams and to address the issues that are blocking their collaboration, engagement and productivity.  She brings her 30+ years of experience working with hundreds of business leaders, entrepreneurs and teams, transforming, motivating and inspiring everyone she works with to greater productivity, engagement and ongoing success.  Today she is going to talk about why becoming more significant as a leader and indeed as a business is more important than ever.   Please welcome author, consultant and Executive coach Sylvia Baldock. Bio Sylvia Baldock enables Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs to recognise the unique value they bring to the workp

In an increasingly chaotic and disruptive world of technology our guest today is one of 2019’s 100 Global Leaders and a Top 10 Global Internet of Things innovator.  She doesn’t just predict the future she engineers it. She has positively impacted the lives of over 1/3 of the world’s population. 34 million citizens globally collaborate in her cutting-edge research. She is also appointed to the G20 as an expert advisor and has created a new plan for the Global Digital Economy please welcome web scientist and “cyberpreneur” Dr Jacqui Taylor. Bio Dr Jacqui Taylor one of 100 Global Leaders for 2019, as a top 10 Global Internet of Things innovator she doesn’t just predict the future she engineers it using cutting edge web science research. She will clarify and demystify the future for you and spotlight the mega trends inspiring you to align your organisation to profit from the Internet of Things. As one of the original 250 Founders of the UK’s Tech City it became clear to her In December 2016 that the combination o

Drawing upon 20 years’ experience consulting on innovation pathways for billion-dollar blue chips, my guest this week provides road-tested insights on the technological and human innovations that will change the shape of business over the next five years.   As founder and CEO, she is the chief storyteller at GDR Creative Intelligence, a business futurist and strategy consultancy working with an impressive roster of brands - including Microsoft, P&G, The BBC, Tesco, Waitrose and Danone.   She fuses big picture context with carefully curated case studies from the world's leading technologists, designers, marketeers, architects and thought leaders to illustrate how new technologies and consumer behaviours will impact physical and digital commerce.   She says that “Innovation almost always starts with cross fertilisation.” “Looking outside of your sector and geography at non-competitors is far more likely to lead to greater disruptive breakthroughs than can be achieved by chasing your competitors.”  Please we

At this time, it strikes me that we have an opportunity to look at our lives and our businesses in a new way and maybe get creative about what the future can bring.  So, I thought it would be good to talk about creativity and get some techniques and advice from my guest this week, BAFTA award-winning comedy writer and creativity expert, Tim Reid. Bio Tim Reid is a multiple award-winning comedy writer, best known for co-creating and co-writing the BAFTA winning sitcom, CAR SHARE. As well as winning the BAFTA for Best Scripted Comedy, CAR SHARE also won Best Original Programme at the Broadcast Awards, 2016; Most Popular Comedy Series at the National Television Awards, 2016; and Best TV Entertainment Programme at the Television and Radio Industries Club Awards. In addition to being a successful comedy writer, Tim is a world class innovation expert, and he’s passionate about combining these two skills to help businesses become as creative as comedians.  Tim has worked for some of the worlds most creative organisa

At the time of recording we have just heard in the UK that British Airways will be making 12,000 people redundant. Oasis, Warehouse and Carluccio’s amongst other household names have gone into liquidation.  Our country is in its second month of lockdown and many businesses find themselves unable to trade and are doing their best to just keep themselves afloat. My guest this week is an expert in leading businesses through crisis so that they not only survive but grow.  During his career he has founded start-ups, driven turnarounds and led major brands.  He has built over 3 billion pounds of shareholder value. He’s led transformational growth at 14 companies and now acts as Chairman to a number of growing businesses.  Let’s get some timely advice from this week’s business expert, Kevin Gaskell. Bio Kevin Gaskell is an extraordinary leader who led iconic brands Porsche, BMW and Lamborghini to unprecedented levels of success before creating global businesses from scratch. A corporate trailblazer, serial entrepren

My guest this week is coming back for a second visit, he is going to help us while we deal with the Coronavirus. He was Professor of Psychology at University College London for 26 years and is now Principal Psychologist at Stamford Associates, an asset management company  Like Noel Coward, he believes that work is more fun than fun and considers himself to be a well-adjusted workaholic. So today we are going to be talking about working from home, motivation, isolation, money worries and loneliness. Bio Adrian Furnham was Professor of Psychology at University College London from 1992 – 2018. He has lectured widely abroad and held scholarships and visiting professorships at, amongst others, the University of New South Wales, the University of the West Indies, the University of Hong Kong and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.  He has also been a Visiting Professor of Management at Henley Management College, Adjunct Professor of Management at the Norwegian School of Management (2009) and Honorary Professor at the U

My guest this week has been with us before but I’ve brought him back as at the time of recording this episode, we are going through a lockdown situation.  We are trapped at home with our families and our loved ones and this man has experienced this for himself for a long period of time. He is an entrepreneur and adventurer, he believes in challenging conventional thinking on how leaders and teams become truly effective and create extraordinary results. His toughest challenge by far was building his family team to sail around the world: with his wife and three children aged 9, 7 and 2.  Today he is going to share with us what he learned in those 2 years that can help us in our time of lock down. My guest is Caspar Craven. Bio From entrepreneur, to corporate team management, to yachtsman, Caspar Craven has over 30 years’ experience in building teams to make things happen. After University, he spent 8 years in the corporate world – first as a Chartered Accountant and then as an Investment Banker at KPMG. In 2000

My guest this week has appeared with us before sharing her expertise to compete against the odds.  Today she is back to talk about Mental Toughness.  She is going to share with us how and why developing confidence, resilience, commitment and focus is critical in today’s challenging business and personal environment. Motorsport and TV fans know her as the first and only woman to drive a World Rally Car. Let’s welcome back this week’s guest and good friend Penny Mallory. Bio Motorsport and TV fans know her as the first and only woman to drive a World Rally Car. Penny knows how to compete and beat the odds, but she also knows top performance requires even more than sacrifice and maximum commitment. It also takes heart, insight and the courage to keep going and the refusal to quit. She gets it, because she’s lived it. As a leading authority in Mental Toughness, Penny has perfected the art of Psychologically-Powered Performance. Her interactive, challenging and transformational insight into how and why developing

My guest this week is a performance coach who specialises in supporting leaders to build personal resilience.  For the last fifteen years he has worked at the interface of leadership and wellbeing with some of the biggest brands in the world. His passion is to support leaders to play the ‘inner game’ of life better, so it enables them to lead themselves, their teams and their families.  At this time of crisis, I think we might all learn a few things so let’s give a warm Speaking Business welcome to Charlie Cannon. Bio Charlie Cannon – Helping leaders, teams and organisations build resilience so that they can embrace change and sustain performance in a disruptive and uncertain world. Charlie is a much sought after performance enhancement coach who has helped leaders, teams and global organisations build resilience thus enabling them not only to embrace change in an uncertain disruptive world, but able to sustain high levels of performance and thrive no matter what the world throws at them. For the last fift

This week I’ve delved into the archives again.  This particular speaker is a bit of a clever chap.  He has actually done 3 main stage TED talks and has got a brain the size of a planet.  When he speaks, he says “I want the audience to go away knowing less after I’ve spoken than they did before I spoke”.  At first, I thought this was crazy, but he’s a very clever man and what he is saying is that people need to be asking better questions, so when they come away from hearing him, they will be asking better questions because better questions lead to better answers and in this time of this uncertainty, that is so important. My guest is neuroscientist, Beau Lotto. Beau Lotto’s aim is to use the principles of perception to enable individuals and organisations to adapt to an increasingly uncertain world.   Dr. Beau Lotto is a Professor of Neuroscience, author and entrepreneur. He is a three-time main stage TED speaker (with over 7,000,000 views). He is author of two books: Why We See What We Do’, and ‘Deviate: The S

My guest this week has done so much that it would take the entire podcast episode just to read his CV, so I’ve picked a few highlights He is Emeritus Professor of World Competitiveness, at IMD business school and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.  He is the Founder, of the World Competitiveness Center, and publisher of the Annual World Competitiveness Yearbooks ranking the competitiveness of nations.  Author of two bestselling books published in several languages: Top Class Competitors - How Nations, Firms, and Individuals Succeed in the New World of Competitiveness Are you a Tiger, a Cat or a Dinosaur? He is the Former Managing Director of the World Economic Forum and the Davos Annual meetings. My guest is Professor Stéphane Garelli. BIO Stéphane Garelli – a world authority on competitiveness – has pioneered research and the theory in this field. Professor Emeritus at IMD (Institute of Management Development) Lausanne, where he has founded the World Competitiveness Center, he is also Professor Emeri

My guest this week is Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist, award-winning comedian and author. She survived the hedonistic sixties with the inevitable round of clubbing, fashion and drugs; then she made the most of the seventies, travelling to over sixty countries whilst running a travel business. But it was the eighties that tested her to her limits. Battling depression, bankruptcy, addiction and suicide attempts, She found the strength to confront her need to change gender and achieve harmony with herself. Today she is on a mission to create transformational change for leaders by developing a Fearless Mindset.  My guest is Shelley Bridgman. Bio There are speakers who have led a conventional life then there are those with a hinterland and Shelley Bridgman is certainly is among the latter. Shelley is a Transformational Change & Thought Diversity expert, Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist, Trainer, & Author. She has become a media commentator specialising in psychotherapy & psychology, with appearances on