FREE HUMANITY PODCAST

Former single mum Hayley Steere began Free My Meal during Lockdown in 2020, after having a brainwave while seeing how much extra food she had cooked that she wouldn’t eat. She knew lots of people would LOVE to receive a good meal in these tough times, so she set out to create a platform that would allow people to give their spare food to those who need it. That same evening, Free My Meal was born.

Free My Meal is a simple and easy exchange, based on trust and goodwill. Using social media, people sign up to private Free My Meal groups as a ‘recipient’ or a ‘cook’, or in some cases, both. Free My Meal does not provide meals, it simply forms connections enabling people to find one.

Free My Meal currently has 70+ UK and international groups, and they have 27,000+ group members which continue to grow in numbers every day. To support her family while growing her organisation, Hayley juggles numerous jobs and side-hustles at the same time as focusing on Free My Meal. In this episode, Simon and Hayley discuss how you can pursue a life that you love despite the challenges you may face.

“The world’s not going to give you a living, you’ve got to go and make that yourself. Nobody is going to pluck you out of obscurity and give you your lovely life.”

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Wizz is the founder of WIZZ&CO, a brand and retail strategy agency that helps brands scale and stand out in a crowded market. They work with established brands, global retailers and indie brands. Previously Wizz headed up beauty buying at Selfridges and was a buyer for accessories and lifestyle, she has an instinct for trends, how to build a disruptive brand and customer behaviour.

20 years in the retail industry means Wizz is in the unique position to have worked with thousands of brands and retail-focused businesses. Put simply, she knows what works. She loves helping business leaders combine innovation, creativity and commerciality to get results.

In this episode, Simon and Wizz discuss what it truly takes to make your business stand out, as well as what makes a successful brand.

Topics:

* Bad Luck Is Good Luck

* How To Build Your Own Personal Brand

* Pivoting And Evolving

* Key Marketing Tips/Trends For Your Business

* The 6-Step Sales Journey

* How To Stand Out

Wizz&Co:

https://www.wizzandco.com

In this episode, Simon talks to Adam Kamani. Adam is an award-winning property entrepreneur, start-up investor, mentor and CEO of Kamani Property Group, KM Capital and YourNxtDoor. He is also the founder of the next-gen property app called Move Streets.

Max McCann is a young entrepreneur, Founder of Meals with Max, Measy, VanishVeg and previously Calm Recovery which he sold. Max has built a community of over 2 Million followers across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. He uses this platform to promote healthy living and shows healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring.

Roughly 18 months ago Max was made redundant from his job. In an optimistic and entrepreneurial fashion, he then set himself the goal of building his social media platform to a point that he could be self-employed doing what he loves by the end of his 1-month redundancy pay. This turned out to be just the push Max needed to kick-start Meals WIth Max.

Max has a passion for business and strives to make the world a better place. All of his business's missions align in the fact they are all built to better lives. Whether that be improving physical health, mental health or general everyday life. In this episode, Simon and Max take a deep dive into how Max was able to build such a large brand and business in such a short amount of time, so you have the tools you need to do the same.

“Being made redundant was the push that I needed to make the change. I’d always done side businesses while working full time, but I never properly pushed myself and went for it. One big thing is not being scared to make mistakes or start over again.”

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Max McCann:

https://mealswithmax.com/

Chris Hannaway founded Infinite Session with his brother Tom in 2018. They set out with a goal of creating an alcohol-free beer that actually tastes like beer, just like you'd find in your local craft brewery. Infinite beers sell worldwide, predominantly in UK and US supermarkets and have won several World Beer Awards, including when judged against alcoholic beers!

Unlike alcohol-free beers of the past, Infinite Session is unrestrained. Infinite Session stands for more when alcohol-free beer has always been defined by restriction. They believe that beer is bigger than booze: no more covering labels or whispering orders at the bar. Drinking should be on your terms because the flavour is more important than ABV.

In this episode, Simon and Chris discuss how to go about starting a business you love, working with family and much more.

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Ryan and his Co-founder Josie have a combined 20 years of experience working for consumer goods brands, from Ecover and Method and Ella’s Kitchen to PepsiCo and Starbucks. Having both worked for larger cleaning brands for several years, we were aware of the fact that cleaning products are often 90% water and packaged in single-use plastic. Globally, homecare generates around 29.5 billion bottles each year, and in the UK less than one-third of plastic is recycled, according to Euromonitor.

Ryan believes that the planet and people deserve a better option and felt that with their experience they could build something that would have a real impact on the industry. So they set out on a mission to reimagine clean. To create cleaning products that would be a real sustainable step change with no single-use plastic and no more unnecessary water.

In this episode, Simon and Ryan discuss why putting yourself in the shoes of your consumer is so important, sustainability in business and much more. If you enjoy this podcast send it to a friend so you can level up together!

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Hannah Russell is the founder and CEO of a podcast company called Mags Creative. We make shows that reach millions of people every month. Mags Creative work with top-tier brands like Facebook, Google and Puffin to make branded content that people actually listen to and they produce shows exclusively for the likes of Spotify and Amazon. They also create Mags Creative Originals which are Mags’ own shows, developed and built by themselves.

Hannah started the business with her sister and business partner Faith in 2018 and they have grown to be one of the largest independent podcast companies in the UK. They don’t come from radio backgrounds – but instead marketing, talent and press – so they always focus on finding and developing an audience for their shows.

Mags have never raised investment and have built the business over the last 4 years through revenue. In this podcast, Simon and Hannah discuss how to start a successful podcast, how Hannah built her success, and if there is even space for new podcasts to become successful in 2022.

“There is a lot of competition in the podcast space, but I wouldn’t be put off by that. Podcasting is still a huge industry and a great opportunity for people to find their audience.”

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Richard Chambers got the idea for his company ‘Get A Drip’ after he found himself in intensive care in 2010 suffering complications from his Type 1 Diabetes. Following this admission, Richard was continually in and out of hospital for 7 years due to issues related to a reduced immune system, where often as part of the treatment he would be hooked up to an IV Drip.

Feeling the rejuvenating benefits, Richard decided that drips should be accessible to the general public, not just in hospitals or to the super-wealthy. After 7 years of researching the benefits of Drips and studying the work of Dr. John Myers (the vitamin drip pioneer), Get A Drip finally came to fruition in October 2017.

Get A Drip is now the UK’s leading Vitamin Drip provider and Richard's aim is to allow everyone to take control of their health, no matter their background as he single-handedly is making optimum nutrition accessible to the masses. In this episode, Richard shows us how he made his unique business idea a reality, as well as what characteristics are essential to becoming successful.

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Get a drip:

https://getadrip.com/

Manchester-born, Anna Priadka is a make-up artist and founder of Fiils, a luxe hair and body line offering custom refillable, designed to overhaul bathrooms of single use plastic and waste. Anna has been in the beauty industry for over 15 years, working as a makeup artist for some of the largest direct-to-consumer brands such as MAC/Bobbi Brown, and assisting some of the industry’s biggest talents.

After being on the front line Anna progressed into a global role with NARS, where she assisted with new product development, artistry, and events direction. It was here that she discovered she had a passion for not just the creative, but the business side – she’d always said that she would like to own her own business and took the chance in 2018, leaving her corporate role to start her first brand in the lip category.

The lessons Anna learned from this venture as an entrepreneur were invaluable and although the business was successful in the very short term, she realised it wasn’t sustainable.Anna’s current company, fiils, was born out of her mission to contribute positively to the industry by reducing consumption, as well as a personal need to reduce waste in her own routine.

“If you enjoy creating things, creating a brand is actually quite easy. The hardest part is what do you do afterwards? There’s so much more that goes into launching a product and running a business. That was a real struggle for me, but I wouldn’t change anything about my journey.”

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Fiils Website:

www.fiils.co

Aarti Parmar is the owner of AP Brand Communications, which helps businesses develop meaningful, authentic brands through consultancy, coaching and design. She helps business owners work on their brand from the inside out, empowering them to discover the true purpose, vision and values behind their brand.

Aarti started her business by taking the leap to leave her full-time job after feeling restricted by the boundaries that her job placed on her. She knew she could help more people by running a business of her own, so she proceeded to take her passion and expertise to the market.

In this podcast, Simon and Aarti discuss the importance of branding and purpose when building your business. If you enjoy this episode, please feel free to leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! It really helps our mission to help 10 million people start and grow their businesses.

“A Brand is an identity. A brand is a created perception, and it is those perceptions that form beliefs in peoples’ minds about your brand. So you need to create that emotional connection with your audience so that they think about you in the way you’d like them to think about you.”

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Aarti Parmar

https://www.aartiparmar.com/