In The Business

Keelan, founder of Bwownies, shares how he grew a brownie business from his mum’s kitchen into a social-first brand. He used viral marketing stunts, TikTok Shop and a lot of persistence.

He started at 17 and has kept going for eight years. In this episode he covers:

• The fake McDonald’s McFlurry collab people still believe is real
• Proposing to Lindt for Valentine’s Day and landing a meeting with their marketing team
• How a LinkedIn video got him VIP access to meet Steven Bartlett
• Why TikTok Shop now beats Instagram for selling products
• What really happens on a four-hour TikTok Live (51 orders on his first)
• Building community through honesty, handwritten notes and saying “we”
• Handling hate over his prices and the cost of cocoa doubling
• Burnout and the pressure of running a DTC business solo
• How to make a food product step by step: packaging, chocolate suppliers, food hygiene, barcodes and shelf-life testing
• Why you don’t need the big supermarkets to build a successful brand

If you’re starting a small business, a food brand or a product business, or want to grow on social media, this is the episode for you.

Follow In The Business:

Instagram: @inthebusinessofficial

TikTok: @inthebusinesspodcast

He won Race Across the World with just 15,000 followers. Then he turned down a career in air traffic control to bet everything on Instagram.

Alfie Watts is a 23-year-old travel creator who won BBC’s Race Across the World and turned it into a business that now takes in around £250K a year. In this episode, he shows you what it really takes to make money from content.

We talk about:

• Why “influencer is a job, not a business”, and what he’s building in case Instagram disappears tomorrow
• How creators actually get paid, and which platform pays the most
• Messaging 301 managers on LinkedIn, and the 297 who said no
• What really happens behind the scenes on Race Across the World
• The tuk-tuk trip to the Arctic that raised £75K for charity but cost him £30K
• Why you’ll never feel like you’ve “made it”, and how he deals with that

This episode is sponsored by ONE LIVING DRINKS, Jonny Wilkinson's Kombucha brand. Buy them online: ww.oneliving.com

Follow Alfie: @_alfiewatts_
Follow In The Business: @inthebusinessofficial

Jens Knoop opened the first Knoops in Rye in 2013 with £20K from friends and family and no business plan. When the landlady asked for one, he handed her a hot chocolate. Thirteen years later there are nearly 30 Knoops stores across the UK, the Middle East and the US.

We talk about the luxury bag on the Shanghai metro that sparked the idea, the locals who gave it three months, how a LinkedIn message took Knoops to Salt Lake City before New York, what happened to the 3,000 store target, how Knoops handled a 177% jump in cocoa prices, and the cheapest marketing that ever worked for him. Plus his step one.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: [YouTube link]

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What if the traits that make someone brilliant at making money are the same ones that show up on a psychopath test?

Geraint Anderson was selling trinkets on a beach when his brother got him a job in the City. Ten years later he was running the second highest ranked equity team in London, earning £600K to £700K a year and spending, by his own admission, most of it on cocaine and strippers. For four years he secretly wrote the anonymous Cityboy column in thelondonpaper, handed out to half a million Londoners, exposing the insider trading, market manipulation and excess he saw every day, while still sitting on the trading floor. He wrote the columns at work. His secretary found one on the photocopier.

In early 2008, after a motorbike crash in Notting Hill left his head inches from a speeding car, he walked away at 35 with £2.5 million and a book deal. Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile became a Sunday Times bestseller. More recently a renowned forensic psychologist assessed him on the Hare psychopathy checklist and told him he sits in the "sweet spot for success". His new book, How to Con Friends and Manipulate People: The Subtle Art of Being a Total Psychopath, is out now.

In this episode, he explains:

■ The Psychopath Sweet Spot: What he scored, what his wife thinks he really scored, and which traits to dial up at work and leave at the door

■ Confidence Beats Competence: The bonus negotiation tricks, the fake headhunter calls, and why optics beat reality in every room you walk into

■ The City Before The Crash: Insider trading in plain sight, why share prices move before a takeover is announced, and the nosebleed in front of 200 people

■ The Crash That Got Him Out: The motorbike accident, the year of living dangerously that followed, and why his wife is the reason he is still here

■ 2008 Explained: Why the financial crisis still dictates your rent, your wages and your politics, and why today feels "toppy"

■ Advice For Young Founders: Take the job that pays less and teaches more, find the problem nobody is solving, partner with someone insecure, and get rich slowly

Follow Geraint: Instagram @cityboygez

Get the book: How to Con Friends and Manipulate People: The Subtle Art of Being a Total Psychopath

What if the traits that make someone brilliant at making money are the same ones that show up on a psychopath test?

Geraint Anderson was selling trinkets on a beach when his brother got him a job in the City. Ten years later he was running the second highest ranked equity team in London, earning £600K to £700K a year and spending, by his own admission, most of it on cocaine and strippers. For four years he secretly wrote the anonymous Cityboy column in thelondonpaper, handed out to half a million Londoners, exposing the insider trading, market manipulation and excess he saw every day, while still sitting on the trading floor. He wrote the columns at work. His secretary found one on the photocopier.

In early 2008, after a motorbike crash in Notting Hill left his head inches from a speeding car, he walked away at 35 with £2.5 million and a book deal. Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile became a Sunday Times bestseller. More recently a renowned forensic psychologist assessed him on the Hare psychopathy checklist and told him he sits in the "sweet spot for success". His new book, How to Con Friends and Manipulate People: The Subtle Art of Being a Total Psychopath, is out now.

In this episode, he explains:

■ The Psychopath Sweet Spot: What he scored, what his wife thinks he really scored, and which traits to dial up at work and leave at the door

■ Confidence Beats Competence: The bonus negotiation tricks, the fake headhunter calls, and why optics beat reality in every room you walk into

■ The City Before The Crash: Insider trading in plain sight, why share prices move before a takeover is announced, and the nosebleed in front of 200 people

■ The Crash That Got Him Out: The motorbike accident, the year of living dangerously that followed, and why his wife is the reason he is still here

■ 2008 Explained: Why the financial crisis still dictates your rent, your wages and your politics, and why today feels "toppy"

■ Advice For Young Founders: Take the job that pays less and teaches more, find the problem nobody is solving, partner with someone insecure, and get rich slowly

Follow Geraint: Instagram @cityboygez

Get the book: How to Con Friends and Manipulate People: The Subtle Art of Being a Total Psychopath (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1835984568?ref=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_0D50VC4141G7FEH0HXG0&ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_0D50VC4141G7FEH0HXG0&social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_0D50VC4141G7FEH0HXG0&bestFormat=true)

In The Business exists to inspire one million people into entrepreneurship. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one.

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Could you go three years without paying yourself?James Noble was a full time golf caddy at Wentworth when he registered the company that became MyFirst, the UK's specialist car insurance broker for learner and young drivers. He had no insurance experience, no money and no track record. What he had was five hours a round with some of the most successful people in the country, and the nerve to ask them to back him. They did, and every one of them went on to make 100x their money.MyFirst started trading in 2017. James and his cofounder George took no salary until the business passed £1 million in revenue, and their first pay cheque was £10,000 each. Today the company does £60 million a year (up from £35 million last year), employs just under 100 people on a renovated farm in Surrey, sits at number 64 in The Sunday Times 100 fastest growing companies, and counts Gymshark cofounder Lewis Morgan and Jellyfish founder Rob Pierre among its shareholders. He has turned down offers to sell. The target now is a £1 billion valuation within five years.In this episode, he explains:■ The Caddy Playbook: Why five hours on a golf course beats fifty lunches, and how he turned Wentworth members into his first investors■ Last To Eat: Why he hired before he paid himself, and why the money only changes at £1 million, not £20K■ Beating The Giants: How two kids with no experience took on multi billion pound insurers by owning one tiny niche■ Founder vs CEO: The feedback that told him he was a micromanager, and why scaling only works if you let people make mistakes■ The Vector Rule: The lesson from Jellyfish founder Rob Pierre that MyFirst now runs every decision through■ Why He Won't Sell: Ignoring buyers after the Sunday Times 100 to chase a unicorn■ The Real Price: Ten years of missed birthdays, no holidays and six day weeks, and why he would do every bit of it againFollow James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-noble-05444a92/MyFirst: https://myfirst.comIn The Business exists to inspire one million people into entrepreneurship. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inthebusinessofficial/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrisonturnerofficial/

Varun Bhanot is the founder of Magic AI. After encountering some personal health challenges, he asked the obvious question: why is my gym so analogue when everything else I touch is AI?Five years on, MAGIC sells an AI fitness mirror that uses computer vision to correct your form, count your reps and scan your body composition.The company has won the King's Award for Innovation, launched in the US, and is forecasting £20m in revenue for 2026.But 148 of the first 150 investors he pitched said no, and there was a point where the business had one month of cash left in the bank.In this episode he breaks down validating demand before the product existed, why he approached manufacturers before designers, what the first sample really cost, and what he actually gave up to get here.

"You don't have a right to feel comfortable."

Susie Ashfield coaches founders and public figures out of the thing people fear more than death. In this episode she explains why we freeze, why filler words don't ruin your credibility, and why confidence can be applied like fake tan.

Harrison has given exactly one speech in his life. He froze, and Tom had to open the event instead. So we handed Susie the problem and asked her to fix it live.

Inside: why procrastination is fear rather than laziness, why you should only memorise your opening line, the five question method for preparing any talk, the curse of knowledge that makes clever founders waffle, why the podium is a barrier between you and your audience, and what AI still can't write for you.

Rachel Murphy sold her company for £13.3 million in under 1,000 days. Then she found out what nobody tells you about life after the deal.

In this episode Rachel breaks down the reality of exiting a business: why you never walk away with a bag of cash, why 80% of businesses listed for sale never find a buyer, and why most founders are quietly building themselves a very expensive job.

She also explains why she has never raised a penny of investment across three companies, how her team raised £44 million for a client without going near a VC, and why the £500k product raise is now dead thanks to AI.

Then she turns the tables and gives us a live teardown of In The Business, including exactly what we need to document, the advisory board play, and how to start building a data room before you ever think about selling.

Rachel is the founder of The Grafter, where she and her team of exiteers have taken 60+ companies through their exit methodology. She is currently writing a book on exiting a business.

Find Rachel:

rachelmurphy.com | thegrafter.com | Rachel Murphy on LinkedIn

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Paul Hamilton started Halo in his bedroom. Today it's a £2 billion software company, the world's first fully bootstrapped unicorn, built with no investors, no debt, no sales team and no intention of ever selling. You might also recognise Halo as the front of shirt sponsor of Ipswich Town FC.

In this episode Paul breaks down The Halo Way: why he'll never sell or IPO, how his first customer came from 300 posted letters and one cheque, how he ranked number 1 in the world on Google for "helpdesk software" with £0, why Halo has never externally hired a single person, why he judges GCSEs over CVs, the plan to hire 1,000 graduates in Ipswich by 2030, and why a B2B software company decided to throw its own music festival.

Whether you're starting your first business or scaling one, this is a masterclass in ignoring the rulebook.

CONNECT WITH PAUL AND HALO:

Halo: https://usehalo.com

Paul on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/paul-hamilton-halo

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/in-the-business/id1842577485

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