Business Without BS

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....

EP 366 - Introducing our monthly roundup of the Business or Bullshit quiz. Andy goes head-to-head with guests Chris Hirst and Simon Alexander Ong, breaking down business buzzwords to decide—are they the real deal or just nonsense? They tackle everything from government policies and influencer culture to social media hype, unicorn companies, mandatory lunch breaks, and even self-actualisation. It’s...

EP 365 - We get quite Zen this week, talking to Energy Management specialist Simon Alexander Ong, not about heat pumps, solar panels or the national grid, but about how optimising your own energy levels are the key to personal and professional success. Simon talks to us about how energy management not time management is the key to personal productivity. Why laying out and sticking to a system for...

EP 363 - Turns out that leadership is always the problem, luckily it’s also the solution. We sit down with business turnaround specialist, author and reluctant influencer Chris Hirst to find out why and how to fix it (turns out that leadership is always the solution as well). Leadership transforms business for good and bad, Chris talks us through why the smallest unit of any business is a team, an...

EP 362 - Richard Oury has a wide career from running and building the family business Oury Clark, to acting as a chairman of a FTSE quoted company, to being an entrepreneur in Wine, Music, Cosmetics, Food Manufacturing, Hedge Funds, and more.  To all of these activities he has applied a deeply independent mindset, this entrepreneurial independence is what has grown Oury Clark from a tiny firm...

EP 361 - This is an absolute cracker from the archive for you this Christmas, one that will help you see the world around you through other people’s eyes. We meet adaptive and universal fashion pioneer Victoria Jenkins (don’t worry, she explains the difference between the two).  We talk about how successive governments have created a truly hostile environment for disabled people. Why 2023’s “...

EP 360 - Don’t knock teachers unless you’ve tried to do it yourself! Why politicians should find the money to fund education for all and stop using teachers as a political punchbag, especially if they have never set foot in a state school classroom. Our archive special this week is Mehreen Baig, author, documentarian and former secondary school teacher who makes a compelling case that failure to i...

EP 359 - We love opinions and James has plenty. After spending a couple of episodes looking at the global picture we get down to UK business brass tacks with Partyman CEO James Sinclair. James is full of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, business owners and anyone at the sharp end of leading a company in the UK.  We talk about the importance of dreaming big, the value of vertical integration...

EP 358 - We revisit our first chat with Steve Keen - author, friend of the podcast and the first economist to warn of the 2008 financial crash. Appropriately, given the COP29 was all about the money, we chat about how economists have totally trivialised the dangers of the climate crisis, and what that might mean for humanity. We also discuss why trade unions are a good thing for the economy and wh...

EP 357 - As COP 29 draws to a close in sunny, oil rich Azerbaijan we revisit our spirited conversation with political economist Grace Blakeley. We talk about Green New Deals and why we need to restore faith in democracy above all else. Grace makes a compelling point that dealing with Climate Change shouldn’t be put on the shoulders of individuals but those of institutions and businesses, as only t...

EP 356 - We are doing some hefty metaphorical redecorating at BWB at the moment (remodelling for our American friends). That means that we will be using the next few weeks to look back into our catalogue and republish some choice episodes. Conversations that we think are as relevant today as they were when they were first released.  First up Martin Wolf CBE - Associate Editor and Chief Econom...

EP 355 - Sky and NBC ring announcer known as Big Mo is in the quiz seat for the B.O.B quiz showdown - personal trainers, corporate gifting, universal basic income and the significance of Super Bowl ads all make the draw for Kody's views - are they Business or Bullshit? Chapters: 00:00 Business or Bullshit with Kody Mommaerts 00:43 Personal Trainers: Business or BS? 02:20 Corporate G...

EP 354 - This week we catch up with broadcaster, entertainer and tech entrepreneur Kody ‘Big Mo’ Mommaerts.  Kody combines being “Big Mo” the ring announcer for Boxxer on Sky and NBC with being the COO of SaaS scale up Sports Thread . We chat about why the most important skills for any role are really hard to put in the job description, why being distinctive, putting time and effort into stan...