The Start Up To Grown Up Podcast

Do you wonder why your team can't just step up and take initiative? Does every problem, every decision and every stuck point still land back on your desk? And when you do trust them to get on with it, do you end up disappointed, or worse, in a conversation you never wanted to have? I share the disciplinary meeting where a former team member told me I had never made it clear what I expected of them...

Do you know that moment when your chest tightens, your breathing gets shorter and the list of things you are supposed to be doing feels like it is about to swallow you? Are you carrying so much right now, the business, the family commitments, the promises you made to yourself, that you are in danger of doing nothing well? If overwhelm has become your default setting rather than the occasional bad...

Are you about to write another cheque for a trade show stand because it's what your firm does every year? Have you come back from an exhibition with a lanyard full of business cards and almost no new clients? Do you suspect the money would work harder somewhere else, but you don't want to be the only firm in your sector missing from the floor? Last year we spent £20k exhibiting at a trade show tha...

Does sitting down for a formal performance review with someone you talk to every single day feel like pointless box ticking? Did you swear that when you left corporate life you would never do meaningless HR admin again? And are you now carrying emotional baggage from team members who underperformed, walked out or turned on you, wondering how on earth it got to that point? In this podcast episode I...

Do you wake at 2am with your mind churning over whether your business is actually OK? Are you either tracking a long list of numbers that nobody ever acts on, or nothing at all beyond keeping your P&L up to date? And if one of those numbers moved next week, would anything in your firm actually change? In this episode I go back to basics on how to choose the KPIs for your firm. I share why the fina...

Has your revenue suddenly dropped off a cliff with no warning? Are you watching your cash reserves prop up a business that badly needs new clients? Do you know what to do first when the work dries up, or are you about to start rushing around with a face that says 'desperate for work'? In the space of four to six weeks we lost 25% of the monthly revenue in one of our businesses. In this episode I t...

Have you outsourced or hired marketing help and watched it deliver very little? Could you explain, in granular detail, how your firm actually wins work?  If you are thinking about handing your marketing over to someone else, this episode is for you. I built a marketing function that did not properly understand how we won work, and that was part of the reason our marketing stopped working. Add in t...

Are you staring at a blank page with a deadline coming and no idea what to write? Do you find that the weeks you most need to publish something are the weeks your head is completely empty? Are you churning out content at the last minute and knowing, as you press publish, that it isn’t your best work? I created the narrative for this podcast epsiode while sitting on a train with no idea what my pod...

Are you pouring everything into growing your business, telling yourself the long hours and the missed holidays are just what it takes right now? Do you scroll past other owners boasting about their numbers and wonder why you feel so wrung out? If you are so busy building a future lifestyle that you have forgotten to actually live your life, this episode is for you. I share what I have learned abou...

Is stress just your constant companion as a business owner, the thing you’ve stopped noticing because it never really goes away? Do you tell yourself you’re fine, even though your body is sending you signals you’re choosing to ignore? If the pressure of running your firm keeps building and you don’t have a proper way to deal with it, this episode is for you. I share what happened to me when years...

Has AI broken the traffic to your website? Have you watched your reach on LinkedIn collapse despite having thousands of followers? If your marketing has stopped working and you have no idea how to fix it, this episode is for you. It all was getting pretty bleak when it came to our business development. We just couldn’t grow and we had started to make a loss. AI ate up most of informational search...

Are you facing a decision in your business where there's no obvious right answer, and putting it off feels safer than getting it wrong? Does your brain spiral straight to the worst case scenario, leaving you stuck and firefighting rather than thinking clearly? When the pressure is on, do you wish you had a calm, repeatable way to work your way through the tough calls? I share the exact routine I f...

Have you ever stopped to work out what your business would actually be worth if you tried to sell it tomorrow? If the answer is "not much, because it all runs through me", you are not alone. And if reducing your hours feels impossible while the business still depends on you for everything, this episode is for you. I share what I've learned over the last twelve months of deliberately reducing my ow...

Do you dread getting a message from a team member asking for a quick chat? Does a staff member handing in their notice feel like a personal failure, even though you can't quite explain why? If past experiences with your team are affecting the decisions you make today, this episode is for you. I share what I've learned from my own journey with the emotional baggage that builds up when you manage pe...

Do you have a nagging feeling that one of your team members isn't quite performing but you're not sure you have solid enough ground to act on it? Have you ever looked back and realised that a people problem which cost you dearly was visible months before it became a crisis? If managing performance feels like one of the hardest parts of running a growing firm, this episode is for you. I share what...

Have you ever been on the receiving end of a sales tactic that left you feeling cold? Do you wonder whether some of the more aggressive approaches you see competitors using actually work, or whether they’re destroying the very relationships they’re supposed to build? If you’ve ever been tempted to cut corners on your business development because you’re desperate for leads, this episode is for you....

When you started your business, did you assume that doing great work would be enough to bring in clients? Have you been relying on word of mouth and your existing network, only to find that well has run dry? If you know you need to win more work but have no idea where to start, this episode is for you. I share my story of how I went from completely clueless about winning work to becoming an acknow...

Nobody grows up wanting to be in sales. You became an accountant, a lawyer, a consultant. And now, somewhere between delivering great work and growing your firm, someone told you that you need to sell. And the last thing you want to be seen as is the pushy sales person. In this episode, I unpack why that resistance to sales isn’t a character flaw. It’s an identity clash. And more importantly, how...

Has your business development quietly ground to a halt? Do you know you should be out there nurturing your network, but somehow weeks have passed and you haven’t done a thing? And if you’re honest, is it embarrassment or procrastination - rather than a lack of time - that’s keeping you stuck? I share what I’ve learned from my own recent experience of letting an entire month slip by without recordi...

Are you watching everyone on LinkedIn and Substack talk about AI and wondering if you're already falling behind? Have you already bought a tool subscription or two, only to find it hasn't really changed how your firm operates? If the noise around AI is making you feel anxious rather than excited, this episode is for you. I share the advice I gave to several of my clients this week, all of them pro...

Do you cringe inside when someone calls you "the boss"? Have you been running your team more like a group of mates on a shared project than a group of people who need structure and leadership from you? And do you quietly wonder how many of your people problems are actually your problems to own? I share what I've learned that being a good technician is not the same as being a good boss, and that my...

Does it ever feel like you're shouting into the void? You're putting content out, you're showing up, and yet the reputation and the recognition just aren't coming. And if you dare look at social media, there always seems to be someone crushing it with their content. So what are they doing that you're not? I share what I've learned from working with firm owners who have transformed their marketing...

Is there a conversation sitting on your to-do list that's been there for weeks? Do you keep telling yourself it's not the right moment, hoping the problem will somehow resolve itself? If avoiding a difficult conversation is costing you time, team morale and headspace, this episode is for you. I share what I've learned about approaching the conversations you've been putting off - with staff, client...

Have you ever wondered what your firm actually feels like to a potential client reaching out for the first time? Do you assume your enquiry process is working smoothly, when in reality you might be losing people before you've ever had the chance to speak to them? If you've never tested your own sales funnel end to end, from the first Google search to the follow-up email, this episode is for you. I...

Are you still showing up to work every day as the technical expert, even though you now have a team depending on you? Do you find yourself redoing your team's work, holding onto every client relationship, and wondering why the people problems never seem to go away? If you feel like you're failing at the "people bit" of running a growing firm, this episode is for you. I share what I've learned from...