Focus on the Fun Stuff

Send us Fan Mail What if the next breakthrough in your business isn't another customer… but better financial leadership? In this episode, I sit down with Matthew Mills, former professional footballer and Chief Revenue Officer at The CFO Centre. Like many business owners, I didn't think I needed a CFO. But after working with one myself, I realised how much clarity, confidence and profitab...

Send us Fan Mail The hard conversations you keep avoiding are costing you more than money. In this solo episode of Focus on the Fun Stuff, I unpack why business owners avoid difficult conversations - with team members, clients, and ourselves - and the four-step approach I now use to have them quickly. Inspired by Patrick Lencioni's The Motive , I talk through the shift from "reward-centr...

Send us Fan Mail Sacha Lord is the founder of Parklife Festival and The Warehouse Project — two of the UK's most successful live event brands, built over 30 years from a market stall in Liverpool. He served as Greater Manchester's Night-Time Economy Adviser, became a Sunday Times bestselling author, and helped shape Manchester's cultural landscape into what it is today. He is one of...

Send us Fan Mail Feeling like your weeks are slipping by without real progress?   That’s where I was for 10 years. Another Friday, another week of fighting fires at MiPA, no closer to my big picture goals, no longer enjoying the business I was running.   Then four years ago, I found a way to change all that.   In the latest episode of MiTV, I share that “Win the Week” philosophy that’s seen me com...

Send us Fan Mail Neil Walton is the founder and Managing Director behind The HMO Guys, Manchester's fastest-growing independent co-living specialist. From a back bedroom to a Salford HQ employing nine people, Neil has built a team that now manages around 850 rooms across 150 properties throughout Greater Manchester and Cheshire. His approach is refreshingly simple: property management should...

Send us Fan Mail Most business owners know they need help. But the real challenge isn’t finding a virtual assistant it’s learning how to let go. In this episode, Emma Mills explores why delegation feels so uncomfortable, the psychological reasons we hold onto tasks for too long, and the first things you should actually hand over if you want more time, focus, and freedom. From inbox overwhelm to th...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to walk away from a six-figure salary, sell your house, and buy a one-way ticket to Dubai? For Freddie Pullen, the answer was a head-on car crash. On May 12, 2022, Freddie and his wife Antonia flipped their car and landed upside down in a ditch. They walked away physically intact but everything else shifted. Within two months, both had quit their corporate jobs....

Send us Fan Mail What would it mean to protect your mornings completely? In this episode, Emma Mills shares the real story of a business owner who was checking his emails at 10pm every night. His doctor had told him to stop. And yet he couldn't  because he genuinely believed there was no one else who could do it. Emma unpacks the myth that doing everything yourself is quicker, faster, or bett...

Send us Fan Mail What would you do if you found out you were £24,000 in debt — and on track to spend the next 7 years digging yourself out? That's the reality Sammy Elard King faced at 25, sitting on a beach in Vietnam. One conversation with a friend forced him to do the maths and the numbers were devastating. He had minus £24,000 to his name and no real plan to change it. 18 months later, th...

Send us Fan Mail Someone sent Emma Mills a DM that stopped her in her tracks: "I hate email with a passion. How do I get rid of it so I never see another email again?" This solo episode is the full, honest answer. Emma — founder of Mi-PA and someone who spent an entire week in Milan training for a marathon without once opening her inbox — shares the exact mindset shifts and practical sys...

Send us Fan Mail From a one-woman operation to a 7 Figure business 18 years of building, breaking, and rebuilding Mi-PA. What does it actually take to scale a business past £1 million and stay sane on the other side? In this episode, Emma sits down with her business coach Mike Jones for one of the most candid conversations she's ever had on camera. No filters. No polished narrative. Just the...

Send us Fan Mail What if the moment you most want to quit is the moment you're actually closest to a breakthrough? In this solo episode, Emma Mills delivers one of her most personal messages, a direct, honest conversation for any business owner who's wondering if they should keep going. Drawing on her own near-quit moment in 2019 (revenue stuck at £390,000, burnout setting in), and stori...

Send us Fan Mail What does it really take to build a business that doesn’t rely on you? In Episode 67 , Emma Mills sits down with Steven Pettigrew , a business growth and exit specialist who went from the warehouse floor of a £35 million family business to acquiring stakes in over 20 companies worldwide. Steven cuts through the noise around AI (spoiler: if it’s not generating cash, leads, or sales...

Send us Fan Mail Everyone is talking about AI. But no one is talking about the time it's quietly stealing . Right now, business owners are in what Emma calls " magpie mod e" distracted by shiny new AI tools while still doing everything themselves. And here's the problem: AI isn't going to fix that. Because if you don't have an assistant, you are one. In this episode,...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when everything you've built disappears overnight, not because you failed, but because of a political decision you had no control over? In this episode, I sit down with Christopher Kenna, entrepreneur, military veteran, and founder of Media Stream. After growing his diversity agency Brand Advance to £5.5 million in revenue, a US executive order banning diversity...

Send us Fan Mail Most business owners think their biggest problem is time. But what if the real problem isn’t time at all? In this solo episode of Focus on the Fun Stuff,  Emma talks about the headspace problem, the invisible mental load every founder carries.  The endless list of tasks, decisions, and responsibilities that sit in your brain long after the working day is over. From the “invisible...

Send us Fan Mail What does it really take to build and sell a business - twice? Emma sits down with Andrew Hulbert, founder of Pareto, who went from growing up on a council estate to building an £80 million recruitment business and exiting it not once, but twice in just 12 years!!! In this episode you'll hear: * The mindset behind two successful business exits * The moment Andrew knew it was...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve ever finished a week exhausted , busy , and frustrated because you’ve done so many things but don’t actually feel any further forwards - this episode is for you. In this solo episode of Focus on the Fun Stuff , Emma shares the six-step reset she uses every time she feels overwhelmed, stuck, or trapped in the weeds of her business. From the science behind why your brain c...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when one client call makes you question your entire business? In this episode, Emma sits down with Mike Morrison, founder of Membership Geeks, to unpack the reality of trading time for money and why it so often leads to burnout and resentment. From a nightmare client experience to building a membership business with recurring revenue, Mike shares how boundaries, clari...

Send us Fan Mail Most founders think they need more staff. More hands. More capacity. More output. But what if the real problem isn’t workload at all? In this episode of Focus on the Fun Stuff, Emma breaks down the hiring mistake that keeps founders busy, overwhelmed, and stuck in the day to day. And why adding more doers often creates more noise instead of real progress. This episode explores the...

Send us Fan Mail What if financial planning wasn’t about chasing more money - but about creating confidence, clarity, and a life that actually feels good? In this episode of Focus on the Fun Stuff, Emma sits down with Dominic Baldwin, founder of Xentum, for one of the most powerful conversations we’ve ever had about money, wellbeing, and decision-making as a business owner. Dominic shares his deep...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Focus on the Fun Stuff , I sit down with Neil Sweeney - entrepreneur, investor, EOS implementer and founder who went from living in a garage with his young family… to scaling two businesses and exited for multi-million pound sums. Neil shares the unfiltered story of building his first company, Securo , from scratch with nothing but a credit card, pure grit and w...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Focus on the Fun Stuff , I sit down with Aaron Knightley - entrepreneur, investor, educator and one of the fastest-growing voices on TikTok , YouTube , and financial freedom content in the UK. Aaron went from a vulnerable, underpaid logistics job to building multiple income streams, raising investment, creating online programs, and becoming financially independe...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Focus on the Fun Stuff , I’m joined by Roger Line , founder of Structural Repairs - a UK-based engineering business now generating over £2 million a month . Roger’s journey is anything but typical: he lost everything after a serious illness, rebuilt from scratch, and turned his company into one of the fastest-growing engineering firms in the UK. We talk about: H...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when your idea seems too complex, too ambitious - or too early? In this episode, Emma sits down with Ben Paglia , founder of Akea Life , the UK’s largest on-call private GP service, and co-founder of Alphagenix , a hormone therapy business transforming men’s health. Ben shares how he turned his personal frustration with the healthcare system into a pioneering business...