Evolve to Succeed

Darren Colley is the managing director at Iracroft, a premier supplier of a comprehensive range of metal pipe and tube fabricated products for diverse industry sectors. As well as his role at Iracroft, Darren is also a member of and an Ambassador for The Institute of Directors and sits on the Regional Advisory Board of MakeUK. Darren is self-professed result-driven senior executive, with extensive experience within the business transformation, general management, engineering management, production engineering, project and contract environments. He’s regarded as a highly collaborative corporate leader and trusted boardroom member who communicates effectively, institutes initiatives and creates positive change, efficiencies and increased profitability. He has a great aptitude for organisational transformation, which includes identifying new business streams, reducing time to market, and minimising costs whilst boosting quality and client satisfaction.

Will Rolph (left), together with brother Harry, produce Two Fields olive oil from a small farm in Greece. Olive oil farming was something they both unexpectedly fell into, and it’s a great story of love, learning, reconnecting to nature and the value of taking things slowly. Both Will and Harry have found profound meaning in the simple olive, and the act of producing their small batch olive oil has transformed both their lives in significant ways.

Steve Coburn is managing director at Project Five, a multi-award winning outsourced IT Support company that works with local businesses of all sizes in Surrey, Berkshire and Hampshire. Amongst other things, Steve is also president and director at the Surrey Chamber of Commerce, chairman of Collectively Camberley—a business improvement district—and owns the Login Lounge, a 20,000 square foot, live music venue, coffee house, wine bar, and co-working space in the centre of Camberley.

Jo Barry is managing director at Platinum Care Solutions Group, which has been providing care solutions in Hampshire for over 20 years. Alongside its sister companies—Acre Care and Safe Harbour—Platinum Care is the largest, independent, care group on the south coast, as well as being award-winning.

Nida Leard is the founder of Nida Leard Consulting, where she advises world-class experts to become what she terms ‘legendary market outliers’. She is also the author ‘One to Millions Entrepreneur’, host of the Nida Leard Podcast, and a former Fortune 500 executive with more than two decades experience in business, psychology and personal development.

Gerard McSharry is the owner and director of Higherground, a flooring company that’s been in business since 1990. Remarkably, Gerard has wanted to be a business owner since the age of eight and is therefore an entrepreneur through and through. Being at the helm of your own business certainly comes with its ups and downs, and over time Gerard has seen quite a few. Recessions, wars, a banking crisis and the pandemic—Gerard has successfully navigated through them all and has some amazing wisdom to share, as well as thoughts on the meaning of resilience.

Helen Stacey is the managing director and owner of Aspire—a boutique recruitment agency based in Dorset. She has over thirty years of experience in the sector and set up Aspire to stand out from the crowd and align with her values. Her career includes building what was, at the time, the largest independently owned recruitment agency in the South, growing it from nothing in 1999 to a turnover of £13-million, with five offices and 70 staff at its peak.

Adam Walker has been the owner of Adam Walker Property Company since 2001, Director of the real estate consultancy Re:curate and most recently the co-founder of Foundry – co-working spaces aimed at empowering local businesses. Adam is a natural entrepreneur, having co-founded a highly-successful coin operated and gaming machine supply company with his uncle aged just 19. Following that, Adam turned his eye to property development and has remained in the game ever since.

Carly Jermyn is the CEO and Property Litigation Solicitor at Woodstock Legal Services. One of her specialities is dispute resolution, and this episode includes her opinions and advice on the topic, not just as it applies to property disputes but in a broader context as well. Amongst other things, there are also discussions around female empowerment, progressive leadership and the role that AI and the metaverse will play in the future of the legal sector.

Sammi Adhami is co-founder and COO at Fiit, the UK’s number one fitness app. From the inception, Sammi and Fitt’s mission was to make exercise a habit for everybody. Backed by the insight of fitness experts, data scientists, engineers and DJs, the app gives its members a highly-motivating, efficient and addictive workout experience, and access to a community that helps you level up and keep those good habits going.

Oscar Brooks is the co-founder of V88 Apps, a premium no-code agency which currently has over 60 clients in nine countries. This is a particularly impressive stat, considering that V88 is barely three years old and was started at the height of the pandemic. Topics on the agenda include finding out how Oscar went from biochemistry graduate to entrepreneur, what no-code is and how it’s going to evolve over the next few years, and what the rapid advancement of AI means for all of us in both business and life.

Matt Hammond is the founder and CEO of Talk Think Do, a software development company that strives to solve complex business problems with cloud applications. As well as his informed insights into the future of tech, including AI and the metaverse, Matt reveals how he fell into the world of computing almost by accident, looks back on a career that includes time spent in Formula 1, discusses how he’s addressed the challenge of maintaining company culture amid rapid growth, and explains why his experience of running a business has been overwhelmingly positive.

James Appleby is Group Sales Director at the logistics companies DG International and Pro Carrier. His understanding of human motivation, behavioural styles and peak performance states has seen him work at the highest levels in a number of sectors, including professional services, politics and football. He discusses topics from leadership, emotional intelligence and aligning your vision and values with those of your team, to changing organisational culture, dealing with rapid growth, quiet quitting and a concept James calls “squashing butterflies.”

Damien Roux, CEO of Drimify, and Christopher Bradley, Drimify's content creator, discuss the present and future of gamification, and how a business can use it to enhance both its marketing and human resources.

Tom Crosshill is an investment trainer and entrepreneur who spent many years on Wall Street. As well as demystifying a lot of investment jargon, Tom talks about passive investing and how to select the right stocks, explains the difference between ETFs and Index Funds, lists a few things to avoid, including trying to predict the markets, and discusses how to prepare yourself emotionally for investing. Sign up for Tom's free 'ETFs Made Easy' webinar here.

For any business owner, the idea of selling your business can seem like a daunting one. How do you know it’s the right decision? What is the process like? And what happens after the acquisition? Warren Munson joins host Emma Sheppard and fellow guests, Jeremy Fearnley—Azets Group Head of Mergers and Acquisitions, and Jo Barry—Managing Director of Platinum Care Solutions Group—to discuss all things mergers and acquisitions.

In 2009, Toby Gutteridge was paralysed from the neck down after being shot while on duty with the Special Boat Service in Afghanistan. He recently released a book—‘Never Will I Die’—that recounts a difficult childhood in South Africa, his trajectory into the Special Forces and Special Boat Service and, of course, his miraculous survival and the subsequent fallout of such a profoundly life-changing incident. His remarkable story is a reminder of the determination of the human spirit, and your own true potential.

Christie Garcia is a California-based leadership coach, speaker, facilitator and founder of the Mindful Choice Leadership Academy. Christie has worked with a number of prominent organisations, including AirBnb and Twitter, and one of her specialities is helping leaders manage their ego. She talks about the role ego plays in our approach to leadership, and what measures we can take to contain it and make sure we’re utilising it in a way that makes us better and more empathetic leaders.

A panel discussion with Mark Cribb (founder of Urban Guild), Alex Skan (co-founder of Void Acoustics) and Martin Smith (co-founder of Talent Drive) on the challenges and opportunities facing their sectors, and business in general, in 2023.

Ismael Dainehine is the founder of GiveMatch, a match-funding platform, driven by energy of social media, on which people can double their donations, thereby making the same impact at half the cost. In 2022 it raised over £10-million of charitable donations and Ismael has great plans for its expansion into other countries. He also reveals how some signficant early experiences defined his path towards entrepreneurialism, and talks with great depth about finding his true values, his introversion and the effect it has on his perspectives, and what it means to do well by doing good.