The Matt J Hanham Show

I've written a story I haven't released yet. It's called The Donkey and the North Star. In it, the donkey doesn't walk perfectly north. He heads in the direction of the star and keeps taking the next step towards it. The thing about the North Star is nobody ever gets there. For years I treated deciding like I had to know the destination first. You don't. You need a direction clear enough to say no...

You used to ask Google a question and get ten links. Now you ask AI one question, and behind the curtain it asks itself twenty. It looks each one up, grades what it finds, and decides who to recommend. You never see any of that. You just find out whether you made the answer or you didn't. This episode is about how AI search is changing the way customers find small businesses, and what still works...

I've written three versions of the same novel. The first draft went out in 2021. The second took four years. The third took less than twelve months. Same book, same bloke, and I was working on it the whole time. So the difference wasn't effort. The difference was that in the last twelve months I kept putting myself on the hook. This episode is about manufactured deadlines, external accountability,...

Three weeks ago on this show I said I was sitting at 95% on something, and that the last 5% had taken three times the work of the first 95. Today it went to my editor. It's a book I've been carrying for five years. This episode is about the gap between finished and sent, and what actually happens in it. It isn't procrastination and it isn't dread. It's bargaining. One more pass. I'll send it Frida...

Leads are down. So you're looking at the ads, or the website, or whether it's time to find a new agency. Before you spend a cent on any of that, check three things, because nine times out of ten what people call a marketing problem isn't one. This episode is about lead generation, marketing strategy and follow-up for small business owners and founders. Two of the three fixes are free and don't nee...

There's a thing on your desk that's 95% done. Has been for weeks. The website that needs one more page. The proposal that needs a number in it. The offer you've nearly finished writing. And you've been telling yourself you're nearly there. You're not. This episode is about finishing, follow through and shipping for founders and business owners, and why the last 5% of any project is a completely di...

In April 2019 I recorded an episode called How To Start A Podcast. In the description I wrote: "90% of podcasts only have 7 episodes. Why is this?" I diagnosed the exact problem, publicly, confidently, on the record. Then I did it five times. This episode is about consistency, discipline and accountability for founders, and why restarting is the most reliable way to never finish. My publishing run...

You've been getting clarity on this for months. The thinking is done, the notebook is full, you've had the conversations. And the thing hasn't moved an inch. This episode is about clarity, decision making and focus for business owners, and why the thing you've been waiting for doesn't hand you a bigger plan. It hands you a shorter list. But you must decide. It's in the word. Decide comes from the...

A bad meeting, a couple of setbacks, and suddenly you've decided the whole thing is failing. Before you spiral, check which scoreboard you're reading. This one is about business numbers, KPIs, financial reporting and marketing metrics, and why a number on its own tells you nothing without the story wrapped around it. 100 leads this month. Good or bad? You can't answer that. A million dollars profi...

Here's an uncomfortable admission. The best marketing I could ever do is dead simple. Just live my own advice, out loud, consistently. And I've done it, on and off. A year straight, then it slides. Start again, slide again. Never all in. And I reckon if I ever had, I'd be running a completely different business by now. This is a quick, honest one about eating your own dog food, and why doing it in...

AI means anyone can build anything now. An app, a business, a brand, in an afternoon. The cost of building has fallen off a cliff. So here's the question that should worry you: if everyone can build, what's left to separate you? I learned the answer the hard way, stuck like a record skipping, rebuilding the same thing over and over. In this episode I break down the AI Build Trap: why building was...

I was the favourite to win my school cross country. I'd beaten the kid beside me dozens of times, always by running my own race. Then the gun went, he shot out too hard, I got scared, and I chased him. Burned out early. Came second by ten metres. I didn't lose because he was faster. I lost because I ran his race instead of mine. In this episode I unpack the most expensive mistake I watch founders...

You get judged on what you do next.   Not the mistake. Not the slip-up. Not the imperfect launch.   In this episode, I share a story from my first customer in business — a job that went wrong, a difficult conversation, and a lesson that's shaped how I've lead ever since.   Mistakes are inevitable when you're building and growing. What separates professionals from amateurs is ownership.   Silence d...

The real risk in business isn't failure. It's drift. In this bite-sized Inside Out episode, I explore why most founders don't stall because they try and fail — they stall because they stay safe.   Planning feels responsible. Tweaking feels productive. Research feels strategic. But often, it's hesitation disguised as preparation. Growth requires exposure. Open water. Movement. The danger isn't bein...

A cold call on my personal mobile this week turned into a useful reminder. The call wasn't malicious. The pitch wasn't terrible. But within a minute it became clear we were in the same line of work. In this short Inside Out episode, I unpack how cold calls and outreach can go wrong not because the execution is bad, but because the context is missing. Marketing and sales are investments of time, mo...

In this Inside Out episode, I read a short parable often referred to as The Mexican Fisherman and the Banker and share a few reflections it brings up for me. It's a simple story about ambition, success, and the idea of "someday." How easily we can postpone the very freedom we say we're chasing. This episode isn't against ambition or rejecting growth. It's about pausing to ask a better question: Ar...

How many times have you said you're trying to get fit, start a business, create content, or make a change? The truth is, "trying" isn't effort. It's a delay tactic. In this Inside Out solo episode, I unpack why the word trying keeps us stuck in limbo, how it lets us avoid real responsibility, and why a simple decision can change everything. Inspired by the famous Yoda quote "There is no try" this...

AI isn't coming for your job. Someone who's willing to learn faster than you is.   In this Inside Out episode, I explore a simple but confronting idea: in times of massive change, it's not the experts who win — it's the learners. Inspired by Eric Hoffer's quote about learners inheriting the earth, this episode looks at how AI is accelerating the gap between people who stay curious and people who c...

Most leaders get stuck competing on  better. Better service. Better price. Better results. But "better" puts you in the same box as everyone else. In this episode, I break down why different always beats better — and how the two-word brand concept helped me simplify and clarify my entire identity. Inside this episode: Why "better" is the trap that keeps you stuck How "different" creates instant se...

If you keep putting off a decision, you're already making one, and it's probably the wrong one. In this Inside Out episode, I unpack the Paradox of Choice. Why indecision keeps us stuck, how perfectionism disguises itself as "thinking it through," and a simple way to force clarity, fast. Ironically, I recorded this episode months ago… and then delayed publishing it. I told myself I needed to "re-l...

Is AI coming for your job? And what should you do about it? If you think  it's not going to happen to my job, I'm not at risk , you might just be the most vulnerable. One message I'm seeing a bit is an ad from Jack Delosa from the Entourage, who said "If you're a business owner, AI is not going to take your business, but a competitor with AI will." In this Inside Out episode, I unpack that message...

Writing a book. In my experience, so many people say they could if they wanted to , or should write one when you talk to them at a BBQ. But should you do it?  My thinking is, if you're talking about it, you should find a way to start doing it. Or stop lying to yourself that you will one day. The truth is for most of us, like many things out there, you have no idea what you are doing which is one o...

I start this inside out episode with a clip from the On Purpose Podcast with Jay Shetty interviewing Adam Grant which spoke to me when I saw it on Instagram this week. Adam said "So many people limit themselves by saying I dont want to self-promote." I think that creating content or art even isn't for everyone, but if you're going to do it, be you. I unpack this quote, what it means to me, and how...

In this Inside Out episode I unpack an excerpt from a conversation Price Pritchett had with Lewis Howes on the School of Greatness Podcast. It struck a chord with me, especially around planning for our big dreams, our excuses for not taking action and what to do to avoid the over-populated graveyard "The Planning Place" as Price branded it.

"Our enemy is not lack of preparation; it's not the difficulty of the project, or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account. The Enemy is resistance."  In this Inside Out episode I talk through the topic of resistance, elegantly outlined in Steven Pressfield's powerful, motivational and brief book titled "Do the Work".