Steve Weston has held multiple senior management positions in retail banks and financial services spanning European and Australian businesses. In this episode, Steve takes us behind the scenes on founding and introducing Volt Bank as a challenger bank in Australia. A highly personal rendition, with lots of takeaways. Thanks a lot to Steve and please enjoy.

In this episode Kerry, Stuart and I break down the key global factors (primarily UK and US) across 2024 and how we have interpreted these.

We managed to avoid any subjective debates and remained as objective as possible to decipher the UK election and post budget narrative as well as the key talking points in America.

All views expressed in this episode are each persons own and do not belong to any organisation.

I hope you enjoy this episode. This will be the last under the 'small business and startups' ribbon before a rebrand in January 2025.

This is the inaugural episode of the virtual board bringing together the varied and vast experiences of Sorcha Lorimer, Kerry Anderson and Stuart George.

This episode focuses on wellbeing, how we think of this as leaders and how we think of it personally. This is a deep and complex topic and I thank all three participants for their honesty and input.

This episode is dedicated to my friend Grant Williamson. I hope you enjoy and learn from this.

Have you ever wondered what being a social enterprise actually means? How the aims and values may differ to traditionally run business? What in their fabric and tracking of KPI's is unique?

Josh Turner founded stand4socks in 2015 with the mission that socks can save the world, and eight years later the business is provided incredible support to the homeless and has given away more pair of socks than it has sold. They have recently attained BCorp Certification to validate their impact. Josh's passion and insights are shared in this session. Josh is also dyslexic and embraces this as a power to think and act creatively and be a positive diverse strength within the business.

stand4socks.co.uk

https://www.stand4socks.com/en-us

Josh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?fetchDeterministicClustersOnly=true&heroEntityKey=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAABt5KYBhrFv9xJYTpGGY-7YsU6OOIYC0vk&keywords=josh%20turner&origin=RICH_QUERY_SUGGESTION&position=0&searchId=f4238682-d097-40c5-b46e-cba877661a0c&sid=3ar

In this episode Jonathan and I discuss using values developed through experiences to harvest an effective company culture, as well as the components required to deliver against company mission and ambition.

Jonathan is CEO and Founder of Atom Resources which he incepted in January 2016. Jonathan has extensive experience in the recruitment industry and is an avid learner, reader and football enthusiast.

Hailing from rural Northumberland, Jonathan moved to Australia over a decade ago where he now runs Atom from.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanhopes/

Atom resources: https://www.atomresources.com.au

In this episode Thomas and I draw on his experiences to discuss the critical aspects of culture and investment as an SME grows.

Thomas is CEO at BR-DGE, a leading Scottish Fintech scale up. Prior to BR-DGE, Thomas held leadership positions in B2B SaaS technology businesses; working across corporate strategy, go to market planning, finance, and international expansion. He also founded SIS Ventures, Scotland’s first impact-focussed VC fund.

He is passionate about purpose-driven entrepreneurship and connecting enterprises with mission-aligned investors and support, in the pursuit of greater positive social and environmental impact.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-gillan-99814547/

In this episode Sorcha Lorimer and I have a discussion about what risk means to us, and why her attitude to risk is what it is. Sorcha is currently founder and CEO of Trace Data, and has vast and varied experience. The opportunity to tap into that experience and understand risk drivers and attitudes from a personal and professional perspective led to this conversation. I hope you enjoy this episode.

https://tracedata.co.uk/

PS you may hear my daughter making a background appearance in this one!

Dee Ludlow talks through his experience of adopting macroeconomics into the threats and opportunities for his businesses. Dee has been active in business across multiple industries for many years and has an extremely deep understanding of many topics required to be successful.

@dee_ludlow

Darren is the CEO and Founder of SpecifiedBy, and sold the business to a larger competitor late last year. He talks us through their use of cold calling, sometimes perceived as a non glamorous method. As Darren describes, getting it right can actually bring a competitive edge and differentiate from your peers. His evolution from non targeted email campaigns to running a successful cold calling team to generate new business is insightful and valuable.

LinkedIn: Darren Lester

Ken has done over $100m in acquisitions over a 16+ year career, and now spends his time mainly in Dubai continuing to buy businesses and coach students in M&A. He recounts his journey, dispels some business buying myths and why he believes owning businesses is a key part of your personal strategy and such an opportunity in the current market.

Instagram - @kenmack

YouTube - kenmackshow

Facebook - @kenmack