In this episode, Gavin speaks to Toby Acton.

For over 25 years, Toby has been running his own businesses, with interests in a variety of diverse sectors.  

He has developed and built a complete understanding of what it takes to start, build and achieve success in business.

Alongside this, for the past 20 years he has also mentored and trained many hundreds of people on how to build their networking marketing businesses and to develop their personal brand and reach their potential.

Toby now uses his business experience to deliver real world personal business growth to other business owners.  

He is passionate about mentoring entrepreneurs to build their perfect lifestyle business and to help them grow and flourish.  It’s all about getting them from where they are to where they want to be in the fastest possible time and really truncating that journey.

In this episode, Gavin chats with Dario Nikzad.

Dario has always had a deep interest in the creative aspects of business and an enduring love of the music industry. That's taken him from growing up in his family business, selling holly wreaths in a local market at the age of 8, to tour managing a platinum selling artist across 4 continents at 31.

He's had a varied and entertaining  career, that has allowed him to work with and learn from some incredible people in some unusual and testing environments around the world.

He's now responsible for defining the strategy and goals of a business in it’s 51st  year of trading as well as constantly refining and evolving the business model that goes with that. Simultaneously he manages, tour manages, consults with and advise artists and musicians at all levels as he seeks to work in the grey area where art and commerce overlap and try to help those artists find the sweet spot where both are mutually beneficial to each other.

He still plays guitar with just about anyone who’ll have him, and one time he had pizza backstage with The Foo Fighters and Anthrax!

In this episode, Gavin speaks with Claire Readings of Keller Williams Plus.

Claire is the Market Centre Director for Keller Williams Plus, and as a People developer, Claire is the recruiter and trainer helping agents define their goals and supports them every step of the way in their property journey.

In this episode, Gavin chats with singer, songwriter & guitarist Dave McPherson.

Dave founded his band InMe in 1996 at the tender age of 14, and they released their debut album Overgrown Eden in 2003 after signing with MFN. A further 6 albums later, and Dave is still writing and performing with the band.

Here, Dave chats with Gavin about his life, music & influences, as well as how he dealt with depression & related issues throughout his life, and ways he moved forward in a positive way.

In this episode, Gavin talks to Rupert Miles, who heads up Sandler Training in Essex. He has worked for the BBC, ITV, The Guardian, Saga and the AA in senior management roles. He has also led smaller organisations, including start-ups and private equity backed ventures. Now running Sandler Training, he brings his direct experience of leadership, sales and sales management to enable individuals and teams in small to medium sized companies achieve structured growth.

Season 2 of the Growing a Creative Mindset podcast starts now!

We start this season with a bang, as Gavin's guest is musician & vocalist Danny Vaughn, from the melodic rockers Tyketto!

Danny found fame with Tyketto, and then built on that success with his solo career and various other musical projects such as From The Inside, Flesh and Blood, and the 2019 solo album 'Myths, Legends & Lies'. 

Danny has also collaborated with previous podcast guest Dan Reed as the acoustic act Snake Oil & Harmony, who released their debut album 'Hurricane Riders' last year.

Make sure you tune in to hear Danny talk about his life, the challenges he has faced, and how he has continued his success over the years.

In this episode, Gavin talks to David Liddle.

Gavin's business partner, David has been in financial services alongside Gavin for over 25 years. David is a seasoned, award winning Mortgage Broker and property professional at Liddle Perrett Ltd. As a NLP Master Practitioner and qualified coach his approach to business is very much supportive, personal & holistic.

Family life is spent between London & France, following his main interest "The Great Outdoors", covering a variety of adventure sports on land and in the water.

Very much a family man, David is married with 2 kids, living in London. In addition to Ultra's and adventure sports, he is heavily involved with Scouting on a local and County basis, and extremely active in the local community.

In this episode, Gavin speaks to Sonya Kainth.

Sonya is an integrative nutrition health coach whose mission is to get people off sugar and on to real foods! Her 8 week programme helps clients to do this, learn along the way and change their habits for good. Her motto is 'if you can't draw it, don't eat it' after seeing so many of her clients being fooled by processed food companies about what 'healthy' foods are.

She aims to debunk health myths and give the power back to individuals!

In this episode, Gavin chats to Sean Hewitt.

Sean Hewitt is the Founder of The Trusted Business Community Association. Facilitating business growth through, endorsements and recommendations of your business, all backed up by their Trademark Badge of Trust, awarded to qualifying organisations to gain consumer and client confidence in those that make up membership, across the globe!

In this episode, Gavin talks to Matthew Adshead.

Matthew Adshead is the co-proprietor with his wife Jenny and former Headmaster of The Old Vicarage School in Derbyshire, a co-ed, independent preparatory school for children aged 3 to 11. He also runs an education consultancy, as well as an events business. 

Matthew was state educated and describes himself as being blessed to have come from a loving and supportive home, with very supportive parents and older brother. He recognises that he has always been a people person, but school and the school system didn't really work for him. He struggled at school, especially emotionally, in his teenage years, to the point where he became unable to attend at times, when he was 15. He suffered with some mental health issues at that time, which were compounded by being bullied by one of his teachers. However, he views those experiences as being pivotal in helping him develop his values in relation to the pastoral care of children in education. 

He sees it as a touch ironic, but also right, that he eventually chose education and teaching as his main career path, despite a brief distraction, when he worked in media and television for just over a year. He trained to be a teacher as a postgraduate at Cambridge University, where he developed the desire to become an independent school proprietor – effectively owning and running his own independent school.

He was diagnosed with and successfully treated for cancer, in 2005. At the close of that same year, he also experienced the sudden death of his Headmaster, a significant mentor, who was killed whilst in service, in a car accident. These two experiences made Matthew realise that life is too short to dwell and you should pursue your dreams. In 2007, with his wife Jenny (taking on the role of Bursar), they took ownership of the Old Vicarage School, in Darley Abbey, in Derbyshire. 

Since then, Matthew has also served as a director and national representative on The Independent Schools Association Executive Board; he has been a director on the Independent Schools Council Board, and continues to serve as a board director of a leading independent boarding school in York, Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate. For three years, he served as an Honorary Officer for the Independent Schools Association and for the academic year 2018 – 2019, he was their National Chairman.