Leading BOLDLY

We talk to Neil Smith from Mettle about what it takes to build from the ground up in the tech industry, with no knowledge of tech. Coming from a TV Producing background, Neil was used to the hustle. Being in charge of programs such as The Apprentice and Grand Designs, Neil felt it was time to take on a real mission - to improve the mental health of millions of men. With the help of his friends Bear Grylls and Paul McKenna and many others backing his idea, he launched the first male focussed mental health app. If you want to download the Mettle app to find out what it's all about, there's no better time than now.

Mettle Men's Mental Health App

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Robert Raymond Riopel has trained over half a million people on how to manage their emotions around money to become financially free. He is the author of "Success Left a Clue" and now, with his business partner Aaron Huey, is helping coaches make the difference in their business that makes the difference.

Episode Summary

What does it really take to build wealth without losing yourself — or the people who matter most?

In this Leading BOLDLY Brief, Jenny Jarvis and Matt Clutterham sit down with Robert Raymond Riopel to explore the money lessons, personal choices and partnership principles behind his success. Robert shares how he moved from being underestimated as the youngest of four to buying his own home, becoming a millionaire, and training huge numbers of people in money and success principles.

But this conversation is not just about financial freedom. It is also about marriage, trust and teamwork. Robert talks about meeting his wife at 13, building a life together over 30 years, and learning how to operate as a team through business, family pressure and big decisions.

The episode also touches on Robert’s time owning two Domino’s Pizza franchises, what he learnt about sales, and why being willing to walk away can sometimes be your strongest position.

What You’ll Learn

Why family expectations can quietly limit your ambition

How Robert backed himself despite being underestimated

What money education taught him about freedom and choice

Why strong relationships are built through teamwork, not luck

How Robert and his wife have navigated life and business together

What owning Domino’s franchises taught him about sales and negotiation

Why walking away from the wrong deal can protect your value

How to spot when a buyer is wasting your time

Why financial success needs emotional maturity behind it

How bold leadership starts with knowing what you will not compromise

Connect Links

Robert Raymond Riopel

Instagram

Instagram AHR3 Events

Leading BOLDLY full episode

Q Branch Website

Jenny Linkedin

Matt Linkedin

About Leading BOLDLY

Leading BOLDLY is the podcast for SME leaders, founders and ambitious teams who want to grow with more courage, clarity and integrity. Hosted by Jenny Jarvis and Matt Clutterham, each episode explores the real conversations behind bold leadership — from business growth and people strategy to resilience, relationships and the decisions that shape who we become.

Ready to lead with more clarity, courage and commercial confidence? Connect with Q Branch to explore how bold, practical leadership can help you and your team grow stronger.

Join us for a snapshot of inspiration from Chief Inspector of Thames Valley Police talking about mental health in the Police Force. Why he is now their mental health advocate and a story of how tragedy showed him that you must never stop trying, even when it feels too hard.

Steve Whittle is the Founder of charity Tough to Talk, reducing male suicide by breaking the silence and showing male centric spaces how to actually deal with the suicide crisis. In this 10 minutes, we talk to Steve about why he focusses specifically on men and what the difference is between suicide behaviour in men and women.

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Guest intro

Rich Hayes is an entrepreneur and the creator of the Dream Machine, a mobile pitching platform built to help everyday people share their ideas, get practical support and find momentum. He has also played a key role in bringing HelpBnk’s mission to life alongside Simon Squibb, helping founders move from “I’ve got an idea” to “I’m doing the thing”.

Episode summary

Rich Hayes joins Jenny and Matt for a grounded, energising conversation about what it really takes to keep showing up for a dream. From a steady childhood in Milton Keynes and early ambitions to join the military, to working on luxury yachts in the south of France, Rich shares the twists, setbacks and moments of reinvention that shaped his entrepreneurial journey.

He talks openly about the power of tenacity, why asking for advice often opens more doors than asking for work, and how the Dream Machine grew from one bold idea into a practical platform for aspiring founders. The conversation explores pitching, rejection, education, creativity, technology, brand-building and the difference between waiting for permission and simply beginning.

This is an episode about movement: doing the hard things, staying in the game long enough, and creating opportunities for yourself and others before everything feels ready.

What You’ll Learn

• Why persistence matters more than polish in the early stages

• How Rich turned rejection and uncertainty into a new direction

• What entrepreneurs can learn from “dock walking” for opportunities

• Why asking for advice can be more powerful than asking for a job

• How the Doorbell of Dreams helps people sharpen their pitch

• What makes some founders instantly memorable when they present

• Why creativity and non-traditional paths matter in business

• How technology is changing the way founders can build and grow

• What brands really need to understand before seeking sponsorship

• Why it is never too late to begin working on your dream

Memorable lines

• “The more doors you knock on, the luckier you get.”

• “The most dangerous thing you can have this year is an idea.”

• “Five years is still going to pass.”

• “Please don’t wait. Just do it.”

• “If you stay small enough, long enough, you’ll be big enough soon enough.”

Guest picks

Book: Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

Music: The Wanderer by Dion

Quote: “If you stay small enough, long enough, you’ll be big enough soon enough.”

Tool / Framework: Bring two solutions to every problem, then recommend the best one

Connect links

Rich Hayes / Dream Machine

Instagram

HelpBnk Website

HelpBnk Insta

About Leading BOLDLY

Leading BOLDLY is the podcast for founders, leaders and change-makers who want practical wisdom, honest conversations and bold ideas they can put to work in the real world.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe, share it with someone sitting on an idea, and ask yourself the question Rich keeps bringing to life: what’s your dream?

If you want, I can now turn this into the full Leading BOLDLY format with an SEO pack and social posts as well.

Steve Hampson is a successful business owner, investor and charity founder who has built an impressive career in business before turning his energy towards creating lasting social impact. As the founder of Star Trust, Steve is passionate about helping smaller charities access the support, visibility and funding they need to make a bigger difference. He brings a rare mix of commercial discipline, grounded perspective and genuine compassion to both business and giving.

Episode Summary

What does it really take to set up a charity that makes a meaningful difference?

In this episode, Steve Hampson shares his journey from successful business owner to charity founder, revealing the lessons he learned along the way about leadership, resilience, responsibility and impact. Steve talks openly about his upbringing, the values that shaped him, and why building a charity requires more than good intentions — it needs clarity, structure, strong people and a real understanding of where help is needed most.

Jenny and Matt explore how Star Trust was created, why supporting smaller charities matters, and what business owners can learn from stepping into the charity world. Steve also shares practical lessons from business that apply just as strongly to purpose-led work: know your numbers, understand people, build the right team and keep going when things get tough.

A thoughtful, honest conversation about success, service and building something that lasts.

What You’ll Learn

What inspired Steve Hampson to move from business success into charity founding

What setting up a charity really involves beyond passion and purpose

Why smaller charities often need more practical support than larger household names

How business skills can strengthen charitable impact

Why knowing your numbers matters in both business and the third sector

How resilience shapes better leaders and founders

What Steve learned from his own upbringing and early life experiences

Why strong relationships and networks matter when building anything meaningful

How to think more clearly about legacy, contribution and impact

Why great leadership starts with people

Guest Picks

Book: Prey by Michael Crichton

Quote / Saying: “Live life for today”

Tool / Framework: Strong financial understanding — especially P&L, balance sheets and trends

Connect Links

Star Trust website:

Donate / get involved: [email protected]

LinkedIn: Steve Hampson

About Leading BOLDLY

Leading BOLDLY is the podcast for founders, SME leaders and ambitious people who want to build meaningful businesses and lives. Hosted by Jenny Jarvis and Matt Clutterham, the show brings together honest conversations, practical insight and bold ideas you can put into action.

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with someone building a business, launching a cause, or thinking about how to create more meaningful impact — and explore the links in the show notes to learn more about Steve and Star Trust.

The phrase “how to set up a charity” is strong for SEO, but the episode itself sounds more like a leadership and founder story than a step-by-step guide. So I’d just make sure the podcast artwork, description and social posts frame it as Steve’s journey and lessons, rather than a legal how-to.

Barbara McAfee is a voice coach, keynote speaker, best-selling author of Full Voice, and a singer-songwriter who helps leaders unlock vocal presence that makes people lean in. She blends practical tools with everyday wisdom, music, and sassy humour — and she’s also the founder of the Morningstar Singers, a volunteer hospice choir where singing becomes an act of service and care.

Ever walked out of a meeting thinking, I said the words… but it didn’t land? This episode is for you. Voice coach Barbara McAfee joins Jenny and Matt to explore why voice isn’t just “how you sound” — it’s how you connect, lead, and create trust. Barbara shares how our relationship with our voice is shaped by stories, culture, and lived experience, and why most of us are using only a small corner of what our voice can do. You’ll learn her Five Elements Framework (Earth, Fire, Water, Metal, Air) and how each element supports different leadership moments — from setting boundaries, to expressing care, to speaking up in noisy rooms, to telling stories that shift a room. Expect laughter, a few truth bombs about “being appropriate”, and a powerful reminder: you have a choice about your voice.

What You’ll Learn

1. Why voice and identity are more connected than you think
2. The first question to ask if you don’t like your voice: “What’s your story about your voice?”
3. How tone can undermine your words (and how to realign them)
4. The Five Elements Framework and what each element is best for
5. How to use Earth to set boundaries without over-explaining
6. How Fire helps you take up space and communicate passion
7. Why Water builds intimacy — and why it can send audiences to sleep
8. How Metal helps you project without strain (especially when you’re hoarse)
9. Why Air unlocks story, imagination, and future-focused leadership
10. How speed, accent, and social conditioning shape who “gets to speak”

Guest Picks

1. Book: Community: The Structure of Belonging — Peter Block
2. Music: Brandi Carlile
3. Tool/Framework: Barbara’s Five Elements Framework
4. Favourite saying: “The voice is the muscle of the soul.”

Connect

Barbara McAfee is a voice coach, author, speaker, and performer with over 30 years of experience helping people unlock their full voice, blending practical vocal techniques with powerful tools for authentic, flexible, and unforgettable self-expression.

Website

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

TEDx talks:

Bringing Your Full Voice to Life

How Oral Tradition Singing Helps Us Work & Live Better Together

Audiobooks:

Full Voice for Leaders: Cultivating Vitality, Presence, and Impact in a Changing World

(soon to be renamed Vocal Intelligence) 2025

Full Voice: The Art and Practice of Vocal Presence, 2011

Paperbacks:

Full Voice: The Art and Practice of Vocal Presence

Vocal Intelligence: Leading with Vitality, Presence, and Impact

Coming in spring of 2026

Bandcamp: A catalogue of Barbara’s original music

About Leading BOLDLY

Hosted by Jenny Jarvis and Matt Clutterham, Leading BOLDLY is where modern leadership meets real life — practical, human, and built for people who want to lead with clarity and courage.

Jenny Linkedin.

Matt Linkedin.

What does it really take to go from nothing to building a $45M business?

David Asarnow shares the mindset system, confidence conditioning, and practical growth habits that helped him scale businesses to eight figures — plus why most people are using AI at a fraction of what it can do.

In this episode, we break down how confidence is built (not born), the nightly mental routine David uses to programme focus, and how to use AI as leverage without losing the human edge that makes businesses grow.

Topics covered:

• From $0 to $45M: building a growth engine

• Confidence conditioning and identity rewiring

• Sales certainty: how to remove doubt

• Speaking and presence: how to command a room

• AI leverage: how leaders actually use it

• Why trust and relationships still win

Resources & Links:

📚 Books mentioned

• Built to Last — Jim Collins & Jerry Porras

• 10x Is Easier Than 2x — Dan Sullivan & Dr Benjamin Hardy

🤖 AI tools/models mentioned

• ChatGPT

• Google Gemini

• Grok

• Manus AI

🎵 Music mentioned

• Bon Jovi

• NuCalm

🧠 Tool mentioned

Before bed say “God/Universe, connect me with the people that I need to meet that I can serve and that need to be served by me and those that can serve me as well.

Connect us, make it so, and let me know, show me a sign that I actually need to meet them and they need to meet me.”

David Asarnow Website

Connect with Jenny and Matt

Jenny Linkedin

Matt Linkedin

#mindset #businessgrowth #ai #entrepreneurship #sales #confidence

Depression doesn’t need another miracle claim. It needs better options people can actually access — with evidence, care, and honesty.

Erin Lee, CEO of Flow Neuroscience, shares how her team is building an at-home depression treatment platform using a wearable headset and app, and why it’s not a “magic wand” — it’s a structured approach grounded in science, regulation, and trust. Erin draws on her experience at Google, Uber, and Babylon Health to explain what high-growth tech gets right (user experience, speed, focus) and what it often gets wrong when you bring it into healthcare.

This conversation goes beyond the product. Erin talks about grit, the reality of building in a heavily regulated space, and how leaders stay steady when the mission matters and the pressure is real. If you care about the future of mental health — as a leader, founder, investor, or human — this is a powerful listen.

You’ll come away with:

• A plain-English explanation of what Flow’s headset is (and what it isn’t)

• Why trust matters more than traction in healthcare

• The leadership habits Erin leans on when the stakes are high

• What “disruption” looks like when people’s wellbeing is on the line

• Practical ways to reduce friction and increase confidence in your own offer

A few lines you’ll want to steal:

• “Healthcare is really sick care.”

• “My goal is to be the dumbest person in any room — by far.”

• “Don’t worry so much about money. It’s just units.”

Erin’s picks:

Grit (Angela Duckworth),

John Adams (David McCullough),

Fleetwood Mac The Dance (plus Enya for focus),

Find out more about Flow Neuroscience

Connect with Erin.- Linkedin

Connect with Jenny - Linkedin

Connect with Matt - Linkedin

Q Branch Consulting Website

Jordan Cracknell is a New York–born finance leader who worked on trading floors before moving to the UK for her MBA at Cambridge. Now a UK CEO in financial management, she’s passionate about helping more women see finance as a real, reachable option — and starting that confidence early through her children’s book You Can Count on Penny. She’s also a debut recording artist (yes, really), a step mum to three, and has had a front-row seat to UK politics through her husband, Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell.

Episode summary

Imagine calling 100 people to ask for an opportunity — and hearing “no” 99 times. Jordan Cracknell did exactly that to break further into finance, and what she learned goes way beyond job hunting: confidence is built by doing the uncomfortable thing, repeatedly. In this conversation, Jordan unpacks what it’s like to lead as a woman in a male-dominated industry, why “I’m just not a maths person” can quietly limit our choices for decades, and how families and schools can change the story for the next generation.

You’ll hear how Jordan’s early exposure to finance (including “take your daughters to work day” at the World Trade Center) shaped her, why she believes budgeting should be a basic life skill, and how her book You Can Count on Penny makes maths feel friendly and possible for kids. Plus: her unexpected leap into music, what she learned from UK election canvassing, and the phrases that keep her grounded when life gets tough.

What You’ll Learn

• How to build career momentum when you’re getting constant “no’s”

• Why money confidence is often a confidence issue, not an ability issue

• The hidden cost of believing “I’m terrible at maths”

• How early exposure makes intimidating careers feel within reach

• What women can do to explore finance careers without needing an “in”

• Why budgeting is a life skill — and how to start teaching it young

• What finance is actually like (and what Hollywood gets wrong)

• How to stay civil (even with a strong New York streak) while leading in the UK

• A simple, free first step to take control of your finances this week

Guest Picks

• Book: Liar’s Poker

• Music: Classical music (influenced by ballet training and counting rhythms)

• Tool/Framework: Excel (the backbone of finance — and a skill worth building)

• Quotes/Phrases: “This too shall pass.” / “In for a penny, in for a pound.”

Connect links

• Jordan’s book: You Can Count on Penny

• Jordan’s debut single + music video: “Gordon Gekko”

• Next release: “Park Avenue Princess” (releasing 20 February)

• Website: Jordan Cracknell

• Organisation mentioned: Women in Banking and Finance

About Leading BOLDLY

Connect with Matt: Linkedin

Connect with Jenny: Linkedin

Leading BOLDLY is the podcast for leaders, founders, and ambitious humans building real lives and real businesses — with honest conversations about confidence, capability, and doing what matters (even when it’s uncomfortable).

If this episode sparked something, share it with one woman (or teen) who needs a money-confidence boost — and grab You Can Count on Penny to start the conversation at home.