ClusterCast

In this episode of The ClusterCast I am joined by Nupur and Nilay Patel, founders of 33Cocoa, our very first couple on the podcast! We met through Independent Oxford after I spotted photos of their chocolates online. And yes... I was absolutely thinking with my stomach. Thankfully my brain chipped in too, because we're now collaborating on an event at The Cluster where they'll be showcasing their...

Every now and then, The ClusterCast goes a bit off-piste… This episode with David Fisher from Fisher Studios starts with a brief slip into an alternate universe where I somehow become the one being interviewed. I genuinely think I’ve lost the plot for a secon, it’s deeply unsettling in a very “this isn’t my job” kind of way. Thankfully, normal service resumes before reality gets too comfortable wi...

To kick off season two of The ClusterCast podcast, I sit down with Rob from Neya, an AI-powered local neighbourhood app designed to help people connect with others nearby, discover local groups and events, get recommendations, share resources and generally feel a bit more connected to the place they actually live in. Which, in a world where most apps seem designed to trap you indoors doom-scrollin...

In this mildly celebratory episode of The ClusterCast (mainly because we somehow stumbled past 10,000 YouTube subscribers… excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor), I sat down with Jack Hales from The Pod Collective - one half of the brilliant duo behind The PodBox OX podcast studio at The Cluster. We chat about how Jack and Hugo started The Pod Collective, what it’s actually like building...

If you’ve been following @TheClusterOx on Instagram, you might think Lorraine and I are doing a solid Scott and Charlene impression - we do spend a slightly alarming amount of time together. (No wedding planned. Calm down.) But in all seriousness, Lorraine Berkshire-Roe is one of those rare people you meet in business, someone with a completely different skillset, a similarly chaotic brain (with j...

If you ever needed proof that resilience, great food, and a bit of spice can get you through anything… this is it. In this episode of The ClusterCast, I sit down with Roshni Ray, co-founder of Tikka and Tadka, a catering company serving up seriously authentic Indian cuisine across Oxfordshire. Now, most people launching a food business just as the world shuts down might… panic, cry, or eat all the...

On this episode of The ClusterCast, I’m joined by Ellie Ruddock, who looked at her already overflowing CV and thought, "music therapist, musician, lecturer, mentor, mother, wife... maybe there's room for one more" so she's added small business owner to the mix. Ellie has created and runs Scale Up Development, delivering training and coaching for professionals in healthcare and education. Join us a...

I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Shaek Zaman from The Meet Point Coffee in this episode of The ClusterCast. We’re usually like two ships in the night (he runs a café so is always up early and I hate mornings) also we are rarely both sitting still long enough to have a proper chat, so this one was well overdue… and, thankfully, well caffeinated! I first met Shaek when The Cluster wa...

It may be Winter Olympic season as I write this, and as we all know, you get absolutely nothing for seventh place in the Olympics. No medal. No flowers. Not even a commemorative tea towel. But here in the 'ClusterCast Games' we do things a little differently… and Beth is absolutely getting a medal. She brings the skills, the know-how and the quiet mastery of that mysterious dark art otherwise know...

This episode is a little different from our usual chats and in a good way. Slightly less “polished success story” and a bit more dust, graft and genuine magic. This time, I’m sitting down with Samantha Sanders-Clarke, who’s in the early stages of setting up House of Bliss a home dressing and restored furniture business rooted in care, craft, and seeing potential where most of us would politely wal...

In Episode 5 of The ClusterCast, I sit down with the utterly lovely Rebecca Galligan from Rebecca’s Home Sort to talk career curveballs, cupboard shame, and why sorting your house can feel oddly… emotional. Rebecca made the bold leap from a very corporate job with a very large toy manufacturer to building a business helping people organise the stuff we all pretend we’ll “get round to one day”. In...

In a move that surprises absolutely everyone (including me), this episode features me… talking about cars. Don’t panic, this isn’t a sudden pivot to Top Gear. It’s a relaxed, laugh-filled chat with my ever-patient, genuinely brilliant mechanics who have somehow kept my car alive for over 10 years. A car which, at this point, is less “vehicle” and more paperclip attached to a hairdryer with masking...

Welcome to episode three of the ClusterCast where, tragically, there was no coffee in hand (a rookie error), but there was excellent conversation. This time, I sat down with Lizzie Armitage from Jericho Coffee Traders, one half of the JCT duo. Sadly James isn’t with us, he’s currently in New Zealand, probably drinking very good coffee. In this episode, Lizzie shares the wonderfully unconventional...

In episode two of ClusterCast , I sit down with Jason Warner from FyreFly Studios to uncover his rather unorthodox route into photography. Before he ever picked up a camera, Jason was studying for a Learning Disability Nursing degree, before switching gears to build a musical career in a signed band called Fixers . We talk about how swapping stages for lenses shaped the way he sees the world and t...

In this first episode in the ClusterCast podcast series, I am joined by Hannah from Mederi Wellness , who still thinks she offended me the first time we met - she didn’t, but it’s fun to pretend! We talk about how she built her business from a loft conversion, the stranger things that’ve happened at the float centre, and her genuinely useful, no-nonsense advice for anyone starting out. Hannah also...