Business Without BS

EP 391 - This week we are joined by Toby Burns, immersive events pioneer and the man behind Silent Disco. He has some quite spicy things to say about how the UK treats entrepreneurship and flags an innovation that he would love to see the UK copy from China. Yep, we should copy China. You’ll have to listen in to find out how and why. But you will also get some real nuggets of business wisdom (in h...

EP 390 - Something a little different this week. We took BWB on the road to meet James Duckenfield, CEO of Glass Pharm and tour their state of the art facility for growing pharmaceutical grade cannabis. We learnt a lot of fascinating stuff - including that the only way that you are likely to die from cannabis, certainly medical cannabis, is if someone accidentally drops a ton of it on your head. F...

EP 389 - This week we meet Elizabeth Varley. As founder and former CEO of Tech Hub she has played a pivotal role in shaping London’s Tech scene. In her role with the UK Government’s Global Entrepreneur Program she continues to influence our start and scale up business culture today. As you’d expect she has a lot of hot tips for founders, some of which we weren’t expecting. Such as “undergoing ther...

EP 388 - May's quiz round up sees Daniel Priestley and Fernando Sordo Madaleno play the game to see if they think Brexit, Crowdfunding, Lobbying, Client Lunches, Paying for Top Talent and Diversity Quotas and are business or just complete tosh! *For Apple Podcast chapters, access them from the menu in the bottom right corner of your player* Spotify Video Chapters: 00:00 Welcome to Business or Bull...

EP 387 - We’re going back to the future this week with the excellent Akshat Rathi and his optimistic take on climate change. Akshat is a Bloomberg Senior Climate journalist, and the author of Climate Capitalism: Winning The Global Race To Zero Emissions. We spoke to him about his book, and: Why climate solutions investment needs to be made in the developing world and emerging markets to help them...

EP 386 - This week we revisit our chat with Thomas Robson Kanu, who pivoted from a top level premier league and international football career into entrepreneurship, setting up family business the Turmeric Co. Based on a formula that he and his father developed to aid his recovery and pain relief (he was pain free in six weeks of consistent consumption) Thomas is now taking the same drive that fuel...

EP 385 - Our guest this week is Fernando Sordo Madaleno, a third generation architect working in the family firm Sordo Madaleno.  Originally from Mexico City, Fernando is now based in London, spearheading the firm’s expansion as an international architecture studio. As well as discussing life in the family business we had a fascinating chat around architecture, the built environment. Fernando...

EP 384 - This week Daniel Priestley discusses how we build a new role for Britain post Brexit (yes, we dropped the B-Word in 2025). Basically Britain faces a choice between being that, a lapdog for the US or the sixth best Scandinavian country. The way he says it, it makes sense. Particularly when he is talking about how hard it is now to grow a business with “escape velocity” in the UK these days...

EP 383 - Jonathan MacDonald is back on the show and keener than ever to get you interested in Ethical Tech. We discuss why now, more than ever, people need to be given the tools, and moral frameworks to inform their interactions with increasingly opaque technology. How things like social media are seemingly set up to keep us amused, distracted and rob us of our critical thinking faculties and what...

EP 382 - April's quiz round up sees Alex Edmans, Anand Menon and Psyfer play the game to see if they think Brexit, Labour Government, GDPR, Crowdfunding, Lobbying Client Lunches and are business or just complete tosh! *For Apple Podcast chapters, access them from the menu in the bottom right corner of your player* Spotify Video Chapters: 00:00 Is it Business or Bullsh*t? 00:45 Brexit 01:37 Labour...

EP 381 - This week we talk to Alex Edmans about how you make decisions in a world full of misinformation. Alex is a Professor of Finance who has written and spoken extensively about subjects such as ESG (why those three letters don’t belong together) and why cognitive, rather than demographic diversity is a better indicator of business success. He’s managed to do all that without getting cancelled...

EP 380 - This week we're trying a cultural experiment - to start an occasional series called Business Without Baggage that helps people understand the nuances of doing business across different cultures.  To kick us off, we invited accomplished French corporate Lawyer and expert on cultural intelligence Olivier Lopez onto the show.  We asked him to explain the nuances of doing business w...

EP 379 - Our guest this week is artist and bitcoin evangelist Psyfer. He wants to get you all high on the Hope-ium that Bitcoin (not any other crypto-currencies, they are all Sh*tcoin apparently) are the way to end inequality and injustice. We weigh up the pros - it’s decentralised and accessible to everyone. The cons - it’s a scary mystery to most people that feels like a scam. And the revolution...

EP 378 - Political scientist Anand Menon joins us this week to talk about the good, the bad and the downright ugly of the choices facing the UK in a rapidly changing world. We discuss how we all need to redraw a mental map of the “Western Alliance” as a result of the Trump administration, how the UK government is walking a diplomatic tightrope between the US and the EU and why their positive drive...

EP 377 - March's quiz round up sees Ben Askins, Alex Depledge MBE and Brad Burton play the game to see if they think GDPR, Angel Syndicates, Crowdfunding, Client lunches and ChatGPT are business or just complete tosh! Chapters: 00:00 Welcome to Business or Bullshit Quiz 00:57 GDPR 02:26 Angel Syndicates 04:13 Crowdfunding 06:07 Client Lunches 07:01 Chat GPT 08:42 Digital Nomads businesswithoutbull...

EP 376 - Our guest this week freely admits to have totally made up the idea of the UK having a #1 motivational speaker (to be fair, it’s not a chart rundown show we would watch anyway). Brad has some interesting things to say about how getting your belief and your attitude right is the key to success. He also has practical tips on how to create that optimism, find peace, and live more in the now....

EP 375 - The conversation ranged far and wide with Alex Depledge, CEO of Resi and newly coined “Tech- Sis”.  It took in her frustrations that no-one wants to have a long term conversation, how the short term news cycle is killing politics and why increasing polarisation is killing informed debate and damaging society. She came out to bat for the Labour government in general - we should give t...

EP 374 - This episode is probably not for everybody, in fact it’s probably not for 99.55% of people.  But if you are a non-dom, know a non-dom or just want to understand what a non dom actually is then this is the episode for you. I guess if you’ve ever wondered what happens when a bunch of tax law experts hijack a podcast studio - and one of you might have done - you’ll probably also want to...

EP 373 - This week we sit down with Jon White, a professional kayaker, engineer, business leadership coach and occasional rock climber, who would probably be doing none of those things if he hadn’t lost his right arm and both legs stepping on an I.E.D. in Afghanistan in 2010. Jon is fascinating on how calm acceptance (and the royal marine value of humour in the face of adversity) helped him avoid...

EP 372 - Our guest, Ben Askins, is pretty convincing when he says that being green is one of, if not THE biggest commercial opportunity of the century.  Ben is a serial entrepreneur, now scaling Green-Tech start-up Gaia, so he knows his onions.  Our chat gets stuck into culture wars, and culture warriors, and why we need to get our heads out of short term political point scoring and into...

EP 371 - Quiz time! Here's our monthly round up of favourite Business or Bullshit Q&A moments with our stellar guests in February: Tim Kirby - CEO of Releaf Jonathan Lundy - CEO of Fluencers Group Janet Coyle CBE - Managing Director of Grow London Adam Pope - CEO of Spencer Churchill Chapters: 00:00 Business or Bullshit Quiz 00:39 Meet the Guests 01:06 Diversity Quotas Debate 03...

EP 370 - Parties beat networking events. The best people for your business probably won’t have been to university. Controlled aggression is a good thing.  You want opinions, our guest this week Adam Pope has got 'em. Unlike most people peddling BS business advice on LinkedIn, he has the business and life experience to back them up.  From being homeless (and trying to finish school whilst...

EP 369 - You should hire people who are different from, and smarter than, you to help shape and build your culture. That’s how you grow successfully and meaningfully. That’s the great advice from Janet Coyle (Janet Coyle CBE no less) the MD of Grow London.   Janet has spent a career as a diplomat AND working in and around Silicon Valley firms and culture, so she knows a thing or seventeen abo...

EP 368 - This week we meet Jonathan Lundy, CEO of the Fluencers group, a man of seriously impressive willpower as well as business acumen. To lose weight and take control of his own health, he once ate only 1500 calories and went to the gym with a personal trainer for every day, for 365 days straight. He talks us through how this process gave him a disdain for all the bullshit that floats around t...

EP 367 - This week serial entrepreneur Tim Kirby explains why a focus on results is entirely the wrong thing to do - it sets up a feedback validation mentality apparently. Instead you should focus on behaviours to unlock the key to success and create something he calls a feed forward, intention sharing loop. Tim also explains why a “feel, felt, found” approach is the way to connect with customers....