Stories of Success Podcast

I welcome Damien D‘Souza on this episode who is a business and technology transformation leader. His CV states COO, CIO and CCO experience, yet he markets himself as an interim and fractional ‚CTO‘. With his vast years of experience across multiple industries, he has worked in his portfolio career since 2019. Things we discussed: Whilst he started his portfolio career in 2019, he started working for himself in 2012 He left the corporate world after 30 years after taking redundancy and...

Peter and I first met when he dealt with various digital marketing start-ups at Deutsche Post many years ago. Most recently, we discussed joint business development but also had a chat about my podcast, as Peter had quite some experience in interim and fractional C-level roles. I am in particular interested to share his experience with start-ups, large corporate and consulting roles. At time of recording Peter assumes an interim Management role within the Vodafone group which he has now...

Today I welcome Lena Andican who is one of the partners at Kurve - Kurve being the performance marketing agency my guest Oren Greenberg founded. Additionally, similar to Oren, she works as an interim and fractional CMO, advising companies on all things marketing. Things we discussed: Working with scale-ups B2B marketing and sales Positioning, marketing strategy and execution Transition from in-house to interim The need and want for flexibility and variety Confidence needed to be...

Michel Quazza and I met a few months ago discussing investment and collaboration on projects. He is a seasoned international CEO and has worked as much in Silicon Valley as he has worked across Europe. Michel is scaling his interim work through advisory service, packaging up C-Levels under the ‘Corporate Development as a Service’. Things we talked about: Difference in portfolio, consulting and ‘Corporate Development as a Service’ companies Scaling interim and fractional...

This episode is with Stephen Morris. Steve is a fractional CTO with a passion for software development and cyber security. He directs IT strategies, advises on product and technology and helps other CTOs to go to market too. Things we discussed: Companies not needing or being able to afford a full time CTO Helping aspiring CTOs Interim and fractional being a career progression from a full time engagement How he got bored when doing only one job, and the challenges were the same year...

I welcome Paul Edwards today who is an interim Chief Revenue Officer. With many years experience in the IT and Telecoms sector, he empowers organisations and teams to win complex high value sales within competitive markets. He is also a mentor to businesses for exit. Paul and I discussed the following: Moving from a corporate career to a portfolio/interim/fractional career Experience in the IT/Cloud/Telecoms sectors Co-founding a business How to build a healthy pipeline and sales...

Oren is the founder of Kurve, a London based, growth marketing consultancy working with corporates and scale-ups for the past 20 years. As an interim and fractional leader, Oren’s digital strategy and commercial expertise are instrumental in the growth of SaaS & Fintech brands. Brands he worked with include Lenovo, Canon, Investec Bank, Wonga, Peakon & Nutmeg. Things we discussed: Part time and interim scalability and positioning Pricing and how you best price your work (very...

I welcome Ben Rickard to my podcast. Ben is an experienced interim and fractional CDO, a NED and advisor with an expert domain knowledge in marketing, digital, data and tech. Ben and I have been discussing the interim and fractional space for a while, and I am glad he found the time to record his ideas around this exciting and growing space. Things we discussed: CDO: data or digital officer Ben being a NED to parliament (not the government) Teams with different super powers His urge...

My new season, season 5, is all about Stories of Success in interim and fractional CxO roles. I am excited to bring you top CxOs in the field discussing their style, pricing, approach and how they started off in their current role. A learning curve for me, but also a learning for anyone aspiring to become a freelance consultant, start a portfolio career or build a business as an interim or fractional leader. Episode one and season starter is with Victoria Rusnac! She is an interim...

Hi all, After 3.5 years of podcast recording, I am taking a break until at least the end of 2021. Feel free to reach out to me or connect with me on Linkedin. I am happy to help anyone, support you in your journey as a coach or consultant, and I am open for new ideas for 2022 - for the podcast or otherwise. Thanks for all your support, Volker

On this final episode of season 4, all my theories come together by speaking to Dr. Matt , Mateusz Grzesiak. Dr. Matt is a lecturer, therapist, and consultant. He holds several masters degrees, including in psychology and law, as well as degrees in management. On the one hand he advises businesses and on the other hand he trains and runs therapeutic sessions. For him it is about helping others to achieve the intended personal and professional results and solving emotional and behavioural...

This episode was recorded back in January with Paul Rowlett. A British entrepreneur who thought he would lose his multi-million pound business, when we all went into the first lockdown in 2020. Paul is the CEO and founder of corporate gifts company Everything Branded which was relying heavily on the hospitality sector - obviously this was hit hard under Covid. Things we discussed: How he started in his bedroom Loosing 97% of orders in lockdown 1.0 Pivoting the business to...

I got introduced to Andy Lee through Cheryl from Xerox who has been on my podcast previously. When we spoke for the first time, we hit it off on the topic of mindfulness and stress reduction. Andy is a mindfulness consultant and teacher with a background in talent management and organisational psychology. He is committed to helping companies and their employees thrive by embedding mindfulness in their culture and people processes. Topics we discussed: Mindfulness and Stress...

Case Lane is a global writer, entrepreneur, podcaster, blogger, and the founder of Ready Entrepreneur, a business that prepares aspiring entrepreneurs to start an online business. She has been a former diplomat, consultant and corporate executive. Case has been educated in communications, political science, business, law and economics, and has lived, studied or worked in eleven different countries, and has visited over 100 others. The Ready Entrepreneur approach to lifestyle freedom is...

Chala Dincoy, founder of Repositioning Expert and author of Gentle Marketing and How To Win Friends The Way Apple Wins Customers had been an award-winning marketer with a number of Fortune 500 companies including Pepsi, Frito-Lay, and Playtex, before moving on to found Repositioning Expert. Currently, she helps professional service providers to get past their competitors and reach corporate decision-makers more quickly and reliably, generating consistent leads that drive growth and propel...

Michael Brennan co-founded tootoot in 2013 with a core mission of supporting the psychological safety and wellbeing of individuals by making it easier for individuals to talk about anything that was making them feel unhappy or unsafe. His idea for the app came after spending years being bullied but struggling to find a safe and trusted way to speak up. He wanted to create a simple app that would reduce the barriers children and young people face when trying to speak about their...

This week's podcast is with Francis Cholle. A global leader in creating social innovation for a sustainable future. For him it is all about unleashing untapped potential, key to achieving a competitive advantage by using intuitive intelligence. Best-selling author Francis Cholle uses deep human learning and cognitive science to help leaders and organisations solve complex problems and thrive in disruption. So all he does is science based! As an international speaker, he has presented at...

In this week’s episode I welcome Cheryl Smith to my podcast. Cheryl leads talent management for Xerox, a public company with over 25,000 employees globally. She is a seasoned talent professional with over 25 years of success in talent assessment, succession planning, leadership development, employee engagement, organisational surveys and change programs for world-class, global organisations including Gartner, Legrand, Diageo, MetLife and AIG. Cheryl has a Ph.D. in Industrial /...

For 20 years, Tim Spiker, founder of The Aperio and author of The Only Leaders Worth Following has been helping individuals and organisations lead better, and find better leaders. He delivers keynote speeches and creates customised learning experiences to change the way people look at leadership, and he guides long-term developmental journeys as well. There is a lot more to his profile, and I encourage you to check out his website. What we discussed was: Leadership and how the Aperio...

In this first episode of 2021, it took me a while to understand what Csaba Toth was talking about. However, once I understood his ‘Uncommon Sense’ approach, I was sold! It makes so much sense! Csaba has a similar journey to myself, and we live very close to each other too; so we have met again, deepened my understanding and see what we can do to educate the world on uncommon sense. Since recording the episode, I already did the test, read part of the book and got some valuable insights....