I Shouldn't Say This, But...

By Katy LeesonSociety & Culture Business Entrepreneurship News Personal Journals Business News

I Shouldn't Say This, But... episodes

October 01 S6 Ep18: I Shouldn't Say This, But... The Best Bits
18 episodes into series 6, and I don't know where the time's gone! This week, to celebrate, I've pulled together my favourite moments from my guests this series. If you'd like to watch any of the episodes in full, scroll down for the links.
In this episode:
- Kelly Tucker on why your team are "subscribing" to your workplace
- Sarah Louise Keane on why we keep playing down our own numbers
- Jade Reilly on creatine: what it is and who should take it
- Pav Riyat-Ward on what freelancers need to get booked
- Ash Jones on personal branding when there are no gatekeepers
- Sacha Lord on why he spoke out after a tragedy at Warehouse Project
- Heather Elkington on nice vs kind, and why saying the hard thing matters
- Liberty Mills on the fertility conversation nobody's having with men
Once again, thank you to my sponsor, We Are The Allies 🤝
Launching a new product, working on new creative or tackling a content backlog? We Are The Allies has the biggest and best bank of UK freelancers around. Find out more: https://newbusiness.wearetheallies.com/katyleeson/
Catch up on the full episodes 🎧
Kelly Tucker → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSXlrwk4H-k
Sarah Louise Keane → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9exBcd6MZY
Jade Reilly → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9UHWIgRqyk
Pav Riyat-Ward → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMrs-bFaADk
Ash Jones → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNCzgrs8OEQ
Sacha Lord → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Mh7nSdiig
Heather Elkington → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1_qmqkZMOA
Liberty Mills → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvLRLU2KFo4
🎙️ Recorded at the beautiful, Mollies Manchester.
23 min
September 24 S6 Ep17: How To Overcome A Fear of Public Speaking (When It Scares You More Than Death)
When I went on BBC Radio 4's The Bottom Line, someone said that people fear public speaking more than they fear death.
It's stuck with me ever since. Because if that's true, most of us are walking into every pitch, presentation and team meeting carrying a fear we've never actually been taught how to handle. So this episode is all about changing that.
I'm letting you in on how I, a self-confessed introvert who refused to be in the Social Chain daily vlogs, ended up speaking every single week.
In this episode, we get into:
- My speaker journey, from winning new business at Social Chain to being signed by Champions Speaker Agency
- The coffee with an audience member that gave me my "why"
- The best advice I've been given to plan my talks: have data, because you can't argue with data
- How to plan the "landing points" in a talk
- Why I only talk on topics I have lived experience on
- My method for cutting a full script down to the points you have to nail, and how this can practically help you
- What's in my boost folder right now, and what I'm manifesting into it for 2027
🎙️ Recorded at the beautiful Mollies Manchester. Proudly sponsored by We Are The Allies, the creative network that makes this podcast possible. Find out more about what they do here: https://newbusiness.wearetheallies.com/katyleeson/
37 min
September 17S6 Ep16: Google Told Me I Couldn't Be A Managing Director (Here's How I've Proved It Wrong)
I’m back for another catch-up with my producer Stefan - the second one now, so if you liked the last unfiltered chat, this is more of that.
We're covering off everything that’s been going on in my life since the last one:
The ‘old man in a grey suit’ MD image that’s followed me since my first imposter syndrome session
Flying BA to speak at BA and making someone overcome with an emotion (which was a win, not a fail - trust me!)
The shift that’s changed how I run my business thinking not about income I need but as an actual business with a P&L
What "quiet" really means for someone who doesn't switch off,
Communication across generations, what I learned at Social Chain and how I teach organisations this now
Plus, an update on my TEDx announcement - from my vision board in January to now being less than two months away from actually doing it
If you've ever wondered what actually goes on behind the scenes of building a business and a podcast at the same time, this one's for you.
🎙️ Recorded at the beautiful Mollie's, Manchester.
Proudly sponsored by We Are The Allies.
Need creative firepower without the agency overhead? We Are The Allies connect brands with the UK's best freelance talent, fast. No endless briefs, no mismatches, just the right person for the job. Get in touch here.

*This episode was recorded at the start of August. We've re-ordered the episodes to publish our Guest episodes first.
25 min
September 10S6 Ep15: They Told Me I Was Barren at 43. Here's How I Got Pregnant Naturally at 44 | Liberty Mills
At 43, Liberty Mills was told one of your ovaries is empty and you are barren.
She could have accepted it. She didn't, having already reversed her lupus diagnosis and gave birth naturally two weeks before turning 25.
I sit down with Liberty, a Fertility and Autoimmune Coach, to unpack how she did it and the philosophy she teaches clients: test, don't guess. Before any supplement or protocol, find out what your body is actually doing.
We also get into a stat almost nobody talks about: 48% of infertility cases involve a male contributing factor. Plus how stress shows up in the body before you notice it, and Liberty's "golden hour" routine, journaling, movement, and learning something unrelated to your goals, in that order.

In this episode:
The diagnosis at 43, and the path to a natural conception at 44
Why "test, don't guess" comes before any supplement or pill
The overlooked male fertility factor behind that 48%
What stress actually does in the body, and the early signs most people miss
Liberty's golden hour, step by step
The best advice Liberty's ever received, and how she uses it
If you've ever been handed scary language about your body and told to just accept it, this one's for you.
🎙️ Recorded at Mollies, Manchester 🙏 Sponsored by We Are The Allies
45 min
September 03S6 Ep14: I Shouldn't Say This But, Here's The Real Reason I Interview People
We're a good few episodes into the new series of I Shouldn't Say This, But, and I wanted to do something different this week - a solo recap of what I've personally learned, what's changed, and where we're going next, so buckle up!
When I brought the podcast back, it wasn't just about creating more content. I wanted to create a safe space where leaders and founders could feel less alone talking about the things we really don't want to say out loud.
To do that properly, I had to think hard about the guests and the topics. And honestly? The lessons have really stuck with me.
In this episode, I take a deep dive into:
Why it was the right time to bring the podcast back after 4 long years
What I've taken from the guests' episodes and how it's actually shown up in my real life
The new question I'm asking every guest and why you'll want to stick around to the end of each episode to hear their answers
What's coming next: fertility, politics, the inner workings of the biggest brands and more
Why increasing female voices in podcasting matters so much to me
If you've ever wondered what's actually going on behind the scenes of this podcast, this one's for you.
🎙️ Recorded at the beautiful Mollies Manchester. Proudly sponsored by We Are The Allies.
8 min
August 27 S6 Ep13: Why "Being Nice" Is Actually the Coward's Way Out. From the Harrods shop floor to founder: Heather Elkington
Heather started out being trained not to say the word "toilet" on the Harrods shop floor. She ended up running culture for a Footsie 100 business, sat in rooms twenty years her senior, telling herself her opinion didn't count.
This episode is about what happened in between, and the philosophy she built off the back of it: nice vs kind.
Why being nice is the coward's option. Why the strongest relationships in her life have come from saying the hard thing instead of softening it. And why she built a spreadsheet to figure out exactly how long she could survive before she quit her safe, well-paid job to bet on herself (plus the one message from her dad that pushed her over the edge).
We finish on Custard, her new culture intelligence tool with an AI coach called Geraldine built in, and why she's refusing to grow it fast just because AI makes that possible now.
If you've ever softened a message you should have said straight, this one's for you.
1 hr 20 min
August 20S6 Ep12: I Nearly Went Back to Employment (And Here's Why I Didn't)
We're three months into the podcast (five if you count the planning), and I wanted to do something different for this one: an unfiltered chat with my producer Stefan.
In this episode, we get into:
Why I chose Mollie's over a studio, and the branding lesson I took from watching Steven Bartlett build a recognisable set from his own flat
The advice from Heather Elkington that changed how I thought about building "Katy" into a business (and gave me permission to spend a year just f***ing around first)
What impact actually means to me when I'm choosing podcast guests, and why I want more "number twos" on the show, not just founders
The realities nobody talks about when you go solo: paying your own tax, your VAT, your mortgage, and still trying to live a life while you do it
Why I nearly walked back into employment, and what stopped me
Business as choosing your own kind of hard, and why the "risk vs reward" conversation misses the point
Why every business owner needs their cheerleaders, and what Karen Blackett taught me about the loneliness of leadership
My "boost folder" method for using imposter syndrome as fuel instead of letting it flatten you
This one's less about the milestones and more about the messy middle. If you've ever built something on your own and quietly wondered if it's worth it, this episode is for you.
16 min
August 13 S6 Ep11: The Government Wiped Out 124,000 Jobs. I Watched It Happen | Sacha Lord
Sacha Lord: Warehouse Project, Losing a Customer, and Why He Took the Government to Court

He turned up to the Hacienda in his dad's suit and got turned away at the door. Thirty-five years later, Sacha Lord has built and sold the biggest club night and metropolitan festival in the UK, become Greater Manchester's night-time economy advisor, and taken the government to the High Court, and won.
In this episode, I talk to Sacha's whole journey: from flogging faulty leather jackets on a market stall as a teenager, to running Sankeys during Manchester's gang years, to the night a customer lost his life at Warehouse Project and the decision that followed, to speak out publicly rather than issue a two-line statement. We get into the COVID years, when Sacha took Matt Hancock to court over the 10pm curfew and "substantial meal" rule, and won both. And we talk about what it's really like watching a friend become Prime Minister: the pride, the pressure, and the abuse his family have taken along the way.
It's a conversation about building something from nothing, knowing when to sell, and why he thinks Manchester is having a moment it'll still be talking about in twenty years.
Big thanks to our sponsor, We Are The Allies.
1 hr 17 min
August 06 S6 Ep10: Your Leadership Team's Silence Is Costing You £17.8 Million a Year | Ash Jones
I sat down with Ash Jones, Steven Bartlett's first-ever personal brand manager (and first person to ever have the title), founder of one of the UK's first personal branding agencies and my good friend, to talk about the real cost of staying quiet when it comes to personal branding for you and the people in your team. We get into why you can't outsource your voice, the side doors that quietly open careers, why AI slop will never beat the cream that rises to the top, and the £17.8m question every leadership team should be asking itself right now.
1 hr 17 min
July 30 S6 Ep9: I Got 1 Million Listeners on BBC Radio 4 (And My Imposter Syndrome Took Over)
This week I'm catching you up on one of the biggest moments of my year so far! Recording BBC Radio 4's The Bottom Line with Evan Davis, Andy Ransom (former CEO of Rentokil) and imposter syndrome expert Dr Valerie Young.
The topic? Imposter syndrome, my specialist subject. Except the moment I found out a million people would be tuning in, my own imposter syndrome decided to show up in spectacular fashion. The irony wasn't lost on me.
In this solo episode, I'm sharing:
🎙️ How the opportunity came about (spoiler: it started with a WhatsApp message)
🧠 Why imposter syndrome is actually about a false idea of "competency" and how redefining it changes everything
👶 How our childhood experiences quietly set our imposter syndrome levels
✨ The brain hack that turns nerves into excitement (your body genuinely can't tell the difference!)
💬 The two types of anxiety, and why one of them is actually good for you
Plus, my mum's brilliant reaction when she heard the episode.
If you've ever felt like a fraud right before your biggest moment, this one's for you.
🎧 Recorded at Mollies, Manchester
🙏 Sponsored by We Are The Allies
12 min