In Season Six of Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors we’re turning the spotlight onto host of the podcast Jeff Dewing. Jeff is Founder and CEO of Cloudfm Group, keynote speaker, bestselling author, and a leader who rebuilt his life and company by doing the one thing most people fear: the opposite.

In this episode, Jeff reflects on failure and how it has shaped both him and his subsequent successes. Jeff recalls the knock on the door at 7:30 a.m, two cars leaving the drive, neighbours watching through the curtains. Jeff opens up about losing his business, his home and the image of success he’d built, and how that free fall uncovered a better way to lead and to live. What starts as a story of collapse turns into a blueprint: take radical ownership, protect time to think, and build environments where people can win.

In taking over a football club, Jeff discovered the power of company culture and empowering people to thrive. At the club the same players in a different environment were suddenly winning everything. But Jeff admits the football club diverted his focus away from the business, which led ultimately to its collapse. 

From the job centre queue to a £65m rebuild, Jeff lays out the steps that work in any crisis: accept that it’s your responsibility, not to blame yourself but to regain control; choose humility over image; and carve out quiet space to reflect until patterns become clear and a plan emerges. 

In 2026 Cloudfm Group celebrates its 15th anniversary. 

Find out more about Cloudfm here.

Jeff’s book ‘Doing the opposite: A life, its lessons & building success’ is available to buy on Amazon.

Hosted by Sam Walker 

Watch the podcast on YouTube

Discover Cloudfm Group:

Website  |  LinkedIn

Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE

In Season Six of Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors we’re turning the spotlight onto host of the podcast Jeff Dewing. Jeff is Founder and CEO of Cloudfm Group, keynote speaker, bestselling author, and a leader who rebuilt his life and company by doing the one thing most people fear: the opposite.

This isn't a podcast about business. It's a podcast about courage. About reinvention. About leading with heart. And daring to do things differently. This podcast isn't about business strategy. It's about the openness to rethink what leadership really is. It's about choosing purpose over ego, innovation over habit, culture over control.

Sam Walker is a broadcaster and journalist, and she’ll be sitting down with the entrepreneur and CEO of Cloudfm Group Jeff Dewing, a man who rebuilt his life after losing everything by challenging the norms we all assume are unshakable. He discovered that doing the opposite isn't rebellion, it's a route back to meaning. Together Sam and Jeff explore resilience, authenticity, purpose, technology, impact, and uncover what's possible when you stop following the crowd and start doing the opposite.

Conversations with Jeff Dewing launches 14th January. Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. 

In 2026 Cloudfm Group celebrates its 15th anniversary. 

Find out more about Cloudfm here.

Hosted by Sam Walker 

Watch the podcast on YouTube

Discover Cloudfm Group:

Website  |  LinkedIn

Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE

Doing the Opposite x PropTech Connect is a mini-series celebrating Europe’s largest real estate tech event. In this episode Jeff Dewing speaks to PropTech Connect’s Founder and CEO, Matthew Maltzoff. 

Matthew shares his incredible journey from running a meal delivery startup during COVID to founding Europe's largest PropTech event. Defying conventional wisdom about industry expertise, his refreshing perspective reveals how knowing nothing about real estate or events became his greatest advantage.

When getting started with the event, Matthew’s approach was to ask "How big could it be on the first go?" – setting targets that industry veterans might have dismissed as impossible. Matthew admits that what some may have seen as naivety became his greatest asset: “Because we didn't even know that this was a ridiculous thing, we just figured, well, how will we do this? Failure wasn't really an option” Matthew says. 

What makes Matthew's approach particularly inspirational is his commitment to vulnerability and genuine curiosity. Rather than pretending to have all the answers, he asks fundamental questions about what really matters to the built environment: "How does this make the building more valuable? How does this improve the tenant experience?" This focus on essentials cuts through the noise of "nice-to-have" technologies that don't address core industry needs. 

Matthew highlights a significant shift he’s witnessing in real estate – the move from authoritarian landlord-tenant relationships to collaborative partnerships where property owners ask, "What do you need? What can we do better?". This vulnerability-based leadership creates environments where people feel safe to admit what they don't know and work together on solutions.

A huge thank you to everyone who was part of this year’s Proptech Connect Europe

Hosted by Jeff Dewing

Watch the podcast on YouTube

Discover Cloudfm Group:

Website  |  LinkedIn

Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE

Doing the Opposite x Proptech Connect is a mini-series ahead of Europe’s largest real estate tech event. In this episode Jeff Dewing speaks to JP Johnson, a Senior Energy Consultant at Symphony Energy, a company that provides innovative technology to decarbonize commercial buildings and optimize energy performance in the built environment. JP is committed to making offices, hotels, hospitals and universities into smarter, more sustainable and cost-effective spaces and driving positive change for the planet.

Jeff and JP discuss one of the industry's most uncomfortable truths: the significant gap between theoretical building performance (as measured by EPCs) and actual operational efficiency.  This performance gap represents not just an environmental challenge, but a significant financial opportunity, with buildings frequently consuming up to three times more energy than their design specifications predict. Symphony Energy has been working for 20 years on closing this performance gap. Whilst new metrics for building efficiency are arguably more effectual than EPCs, the wider tenant market still recognises EPCs so they are unlikely to be abandoned anytime soon. 

JP reveals how Symphony Energy's guarantee-based business model aligns perfectly with client interests - they charge based on actual savings achieved rather than promised results, typically ensuring a five-year payback period. This approach has been particularly effective with owner-occupiers seeking both sustainability credentials and reduced operational costs. JP also shares how their innovative approach has achieved astonishing results for their clients - including a 47% energy reduction in a university building that was already meeting its 2030 sustainability targets. “Reduced carbon emissions reduces costs. It's a pretty attractive UPC”, JP says. 

JP and Jeff also explore practical implementation challenges, from cybersecurity concerns to the risk-averse nature of the real estate industry. JP remains optimistic about the future, highlighting both the transformative potential of AI and the influx of newly qualified sustainability professionals as key catalysts for accelerating progress toward net zero buildings.

Proptech Connect Europe begins today. We will see you there!!

InterContinental London – The O2

3rd – 4th September 2025

Hosted by Jeff Dewing

Watch the podcast on YouTube

Discover Cloudfm Group:

Website  |  LinkedIn

Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE

Doing the Opposite x Proptech Connect is a mini-series ahead of Europe’s largest real estate tech event. In this episode Jeff Dewing speaks to Dr Aleksandra Przydrozna, Global Retrofit Integration Lead at MACE. Aleksandra leads multidisciplinary teams to help clients’ buildings become more sustainable in a notoriously change-resistant industry!

One of the biggest hurdles in the sustainable building conversation is often cost, but Aleksandra's pragmatic approach cuts through this barrier. Rather than overwhelming clients with ambitious targets, she begins with optimisation that can deliver 20-30% utility bill reductions with minimal investment. This creates the "light bulb moment" that opens doors to deeper conversations about building performance, climate risk, and future-readiness. Her method emphasises education, long-term thinking, and realistic ROI calculations that transform sustainability from perceived cost to strategic investment.
 
 Aleksandra 's strategy for retrofitting extends beyond carbon reduction numbers to creating truly "future-ready" buildings that won't need revisiting before 2050. Furthermore, she's proudly nurturing the next generation of sustainable building leaders, setting up internal research projects and mentoring opportunities that develop both technical expertise and innovative thinking. “It’s a team sport. It’s not about being individual with your ideas” she says. 

Aleksandra will be speaking at Proptech Connect Europe. We will see you there!!

InterContinental London – The O2

3rd – 4th September 2025

Hosted by Jeff Dewing

Watch the podcast on YouTube

Discover Cloudfm Group:

Website  |  LinkedIn

Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE

In this episode of Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors, Jeff Dewing speaks to Simon Alexander Ong. Simon is an international Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author of Energize and Award Winning Life Coach. Through his coaching Simon helps leaders, entrepreneurs, organisations and celebrities to transcend perceived limitations and experience extraordinary transformations through the power of insight, perspective and energy management.

Simon shares his career journey, candidly explaining that he began by running someone else’s race. He started a career in finance as that felt like what society expected him to do. Alongside his job he discovered he had a natural passion for helping people in their day-to-day lives; a passion which ultimately led him to becoming a professional coach. His success led to TV work and the publication of his book. Simon reflects that ‘when you pursue the path that lights you up, that brings you joy you begin to open opportunities that weren't there before.’

Simon argues that energy management, not time management, is the key to productivity, and that there are four dimensions of energy: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Mental energy is about your mindset, emotional energy is about how you relate to yourself and others, and spiritual energy is about meaning and purpose. Simon explains that if you are energy rich, even if you are time poor, you are going to get far more done in those hours and days than others might in months or years. Energy gives you the momentum to be truly productive.

Simon discusses the impact of surrounding yourself with positive energy and inspiration: ‘the fastest way to make meaningful progress in any area of your life is literally to design an environment around you that makes it impossible not to succeed’. He goes on to describe how you can achieve this and enhance your workflow.

Simon shared the story of the Energise cocktail, created at the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair to compliment his book. You can see the cocktail being mixed here. 

Hosted by Jeff Dewing

 Watch the podcast on YouTube

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Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE

In this episode of Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors, Jeff Dewing speaks to Human Values Expert David Allison. David is focused on changing how we understand ourselves, the people around us, and those we hope to engage with in our work. As the founder of the Valuegraphics Project – the first global inventory of core human values – he has transformed human values into measurable data and created an entirely new type of human-centric insights.

To what extent does your business or organisation rely on profiling your customer based on demographics?  Are demographics an effective way of grouping people, or are factors such as age, race, gender etc broadly irrelevant when it comes to spending choices?   David Allison discusses the limitations of demographic targeting and the importance of understanding and leveraging values in business and personal life.

David shares his journey from working in an ad agency to founding the Valuegraphics Project, which profiles target audiences based on core human values. David emphasises that values are the driving force behind decision-making and that demographics are an ineffective way to understand people.

Data can be incredibly powerful when it comes to deciding upon values. Values drive our every day decision making – if your business is struggling with staff retention, for example, the data could help you understand why. It’s very likely that your organisation’s values are not closely aligned with those of the staff who are choosing to leave.

David also makes the case that an organisation can’t have values. “The conversation needs to be shifted away from pretending that this inanimate legal entity called a corporation can somehow have values. It can't”, David says. “It can have a set of behaviours that we all adhere to”.

David’s book ‘The Death of Demographics’ is available now.

Hosted by Jeff Dewing

 Watch the podcast on YouTube

Discover Cloudfm Group

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  LinkedIn

Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE

In this episode of Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors, Jeff Dewing speaks to Matt Alder. Matt is a podcaster, author, speaker and consultant focusing on innovation and technology in HR and Talent Acquisition. He is the host of Recruiting Future, one of the world's most popular talent acquisition podcasts, and over the last 20 years has built a reputation as a global thought leader, working with employers to optimise their talent technology strategies.

Matt explains how he discovered his passion for recruitment, and how he strives to utilise new technologies to make the recruitment process better for everyone – both businesses and candidates.

Matt shares his wisdom and expertise on the subject of recruitment, talent acquisition and retention. How can businesses find and keep the best people in order to grow? Matt and Jeff discuss the bad practice in the recruitment industry, from scattergun approaches to repeatedly replacing a single candidate. Matt explains how have these practices have become prevalent and how is the industry changing.

Matt offers a new approach when it comes to approaching recruitment. Matt suggests you shouldn’t hire a candidate purely on the basis of their skills or past experience, but also their ability to learn. “The shelf life of some technical skills is very short. So, if you're employing someone for the long term, it's their ability to fit in the context of that business, but also their ability to learn new skills and then grow within that business.” Furthermore, Matt highlights the importance of hiring people whose values align with that of the company.

Matt gives examples of businesses who have taken revolutionary approaches to hiring. Timpsons, for example, hired people straight out of prison to give them an opportunity, whilst also filling positions in frontline retail which are notoriously hard to recruit for. It was a win-win, and studies have shown that people employed through an open-hiring program were at least as good as the people who went through a process filtering by skills or experience. 

Matt and Jeff also discuss retention – how business can better retain talent. One key area here is giving staff autonomy and flexibility when it comes to completing their tasks. Matt explains that many concepts surrounding our perception of work – such as the five day week – are old concepts that no longer apply. “We need a new operating system for work because we're working off something that may not be relevant for the world we now live in.” 

Hosted by Jeff Dewing

Watch the podcast on YouTube

Discover Cloudfm Group

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Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE

In this episode of Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors, Jeff Dewing speaks to Richard Medcalf, Founder and CEO of Xquadrant, which works to help elite leaders scale and create exponentially greater impact, enabling them to make a positive dent in the world without anxiety and frustration. Richard has advised business owners and C-level execs for over 25 years.

Richard is all about strategy in business; helping leaders to achieve personally, professionally and for a greater good, ultimately leaving a lasting positive legacy. “If we have the opportunities, the resources, the skills, the ambition, the energy, - let's go and make a difference. You only live life once” Richard says. Richard is a firm believer that we should make the most of any opportunities we are given – not everyone will receive equal opportunity so you should make the most of whatever may arise. He tells the story of how he cared for his disabled sister, and how she became an inspiration and the motivation for him to achieve professionally.

Richard discusses the three games of leadership: playing not to lose, playing to win, and playing to play. He highlights the need for leaders to be strategic and magnetic, inspiring their teams and creating a culture of collaboration. Medcalf also emphasises the importance of seeking feedback and continuously improving as a leader. He encourages leaders to do the opposite and challenge the status quo to drive positive change.

Jeff and Richard discuss inspiration; how you can inspire your team and how you can become inspired yourself. You need to understand what moves YOU in order to be able to move others. Without being truly inspired yourself, you won’t be able to inspire your team.

Richard’s book ‘Making TIME for Strategy’ is out now. You can also listen to Richard’s podcast ‘The Impact Multiplier CEO’.

Hosted by Jeff Dewing

Watch the podcast on YouTube

Discover Cloudfm Group

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  LinkedIn

Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE

In this episode of Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors, Jeff Dewing speaks to Executive Coach Brendan McGurgan. Brendan spent 16 years as Group MD of CDE where he steered the business through the financial crisis of 2008 and scaled the business at the same time. In 2020, co-founded Simple Scaling with the sole purpose of inspiring and enabling millions of ambitious leaders to scale with purpose.

Brendan reflects on the successes he enjoyed at CDE and how they inspired the next chapter in his career – helping SMEs to scale. Brendan admits ‘I had no CEO experience. You don't go to CEO scaling school. Scaling actually wasn't even a thing back then. It wasn't in our business lexicon. But we were just innately wired to grow.’

Brendan talks through the importance of understanding cashflow. ‘Sales is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is reality’. Brendan makes the case that without understanding cash, it’s impossible for a business to effectively scale. He also shares an example of a business he was consulting, that were sceptical of him when he tried to extend the overdraft. He quickly dug the company out of its overdraft and the financial progress meant they then took Brendan seriously when he attempted to address other areas, such as purpose and vision. 

Jeff and Brendan discuss the misconceptions around service cost and remuneration; for example when a business may charge £40/hour for a worker who is paid £15/hour. That worker can become disillusioned but taking them through the cost journey and explaining the overheads can enhance their understanding and reduce anxiety or frustration that may come from that. 

 You can buy Brendan’s book ‘Simple Scaling’ now, and listen to the ScaleX Insider Podcast. 

Hosted by Jeff Dewing

 Watch the podcast on YouTube

Discover Cloudfm Group

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  LinkedIn

Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE