sharppodcast

We're re-uploading some classics from the past 6 years. These episodes are hand-picked from subjects we think can help you get even better at what you do.

This time it's a second outing for our Pomodoro story. We hope you enjoy it!...

Episode 33 - We go on a journey from modern-day Manchester to 1980s Rome and learn how you can solve YOUR procrastination problems.

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:



• Who on earth is Bradley Griffin
• Why is he in Starbucks? (The clue is that the episode is about procrastination)
• What that's got to do with 1980s Italy
• How a student there had some problems, and why it matters to you how he solved them
• The Pomodoro Technique
• The basic steps:
• Step 1 - Get the tools: a timer, a piece of paper, and a pencil
• Step 2 - Turn off distractions, and be clear on what piece of work you're going to do
• Step 3- Set the timer for 25 minutes
• Step 4 - Start working, really focus, and just work. During the 25 minutes, if something comes up that could distract you, make a note of it on the piece of paper and carry on working
• Step 5 - When the timer goes off, step away from your work
• Find out more from Cirillo Company on the technique
• What Lisa and I think about it
• The more advanced elements
• The original book - the link to purchase the original is here
• A cool YouTube video by Francesco D'Alessio on apps you can use
• If I'm not somewhere that I can use a 'tomato timer', my go-to Pomodoro App is Tide

Episode 80 – The final episode in our trilogy talking to Nick Drake-Knight about the origins of his work.

If you have customers, have a team who helps customers, or in any way engage with customers in your organisation – you need to know what Every Customer Wants®. 

It will give you remarkable solutions to all those problematic challenges you face every day.

Hospitality, healthcare, call centres, after-care, retail, web support (the list goes on). Customers have high expectations and, rightly so, demand great service.

And it’s actually very simple to deliver. 

Look at all this stuff we covered in this full episode:

• Getting the service edge
• The research on customer experience
• NPS scores
• CSAT results
• Mystery shop evaluations
• Recorded calls
• Customer focus groups
• Three components
• Understand me
• Add value for me
• Make it easy for me
• Why listening is important
• Get inside their world
• Making a difference
• The human experience
• The impact on customer loyalty of the effort they have to make
• Patterns which connect
• Nuggets of gold
• Customer experience management

All the resources we discussed:

• Nick’s website – Every Customer Wants
• The Motivation Agency – Every Customer Wants ONLINE
• My website – sondevelopment.com
• The sondevelopment YouTube account
• The voiceover Twitter account
• Sondevelopment on Instagram

As always, we’re grateful for your help supporting this podcast. To do this, you can:

• Buy me a coffee (I’d be ever so grateful)
• Rate or subscribe on apple podcasts by going here – apple podcasts
• Contact us on Twitter – we are @sharppodcast here

Thanks EVER SO MUCH for listening. If we help you BE BETTER at what you do, it’s all been worth it!

Episode 79 – Our second in the trilogy where we look at the work of Nick Drake-Knight, and how it can help you and your team. 

Last time we checked out – Continue & Begin Fast Coaching.

This time, it’s the turn of Meerkat Selling®. 

If you (or your team) are helping customers to buy things, this one is for you.

Look at all this stuff we covered in this full episode:

• What Meerkat Selling is all about 
• The emotional factors that impact customers
• The common thread of feelings
• Moving towards – or away from
• 1000’s of hours of Mystery Shopping – what Nick learned
• Patterns of Success
• Patterns that had LESS success
• Communication
• Keeping it simple – 5 steps
• Getting rid of complicated sales processes
• How being like a ‘Meerkat’ helps

All the resources we discussed:

• The Meerkat Selling book
• Nick’s website – Meerkat Selling
• The Motivation Agency – Meerkat Selling ONLINE
• My website – sondevelopment.com
• The sondevelopment YouTube account
• The voiceover Twitter account
• Sondevelopment on Instagram

As always, we’re grateful for your help supporting this podcast. To do this, you can:

• Buy me a coffee (I’d be ever so grateful)
• Rate or subscribe on apple podcasts by going here – apple podcasts
• Contact us on Twitter – we are @sharppodcast here

Thanks EVER SO MUCH for listening. If we help you BE BETTER at what you do, it’s all been worth it!

Episode 78 – Yes, we’re back!

(Unless you’re listening to this in the back catalogue – in which case, we never went away!)

This is the first in a trilogy where we share a conversation I had with Nick Drake-Knight about the origins of his fabulous work. Nick helps people with a wide range of skills, from selling to service and all sorts in between.

In this short episode, we learn about the origins of Nick’s fabulous coaching model – Continue & Begin Fast Coaching®. 

If you (or your team) have regular conversations with people to help them improve in some area of their life or their performance, this one is for you.

Look at all this stuff we covered in this full episode:

• What approach we’re taking to episodes now – more relaxed!
• Joining sharppodcast and sondevelopment
• What Continue & Begin Fast Coaching® is
• The brilliant organisations using it
• Feeling good
• Room C46a (?)
• Confidence and anxiety
• Celebrating success
• Working under pressure
• Ego strengthening
• Recognising your own talent
• Confidence and resourcefulness
• How it works for people who are employed or not
• The sectors it can help in
• Business
• Retail
• The Public Sector
• Family Support
• Education
• Fun!

All the resources we discussed:

• The Fast Coaching Book
• The Audiobook (produced by yours truly!)
• Nick’s website – Fast Coaching
• The Motivation Agency – Fast Coaching ONLINE
• My website – sondevelopment.com
• The sondevelopment YouTube account
• The voiceover Twitter account
• Sondevelopment on Instagram

As always, we’re really grateful for your help in supporting this podcast. To do this you can:

• Buy me a coffee (I’d be ever so grateful)
• Rate or subscribe on apple podcasts by going here – apple podcasts
• Contact us on Twitter – we are @sharppodcast here

Thanks EVER SO MUCH for listening. If we help you BE BETTER at what you do, it’s all been worth it!

Episode 77 – I was invited to join Karl Craig-West on his podcast. It’s all about being self-employed, and we’ve decided to share the episode here, so you can listen to it too. 

Look at all this stuff we covered in this full episode:

• Why I’m at the kitchen table
• What I’ve been up to since the last episode
• Who Karl Craig-West is
• Moving to self-employment
• Helping businesses improve performance
• Marketing
• Making videos
• Social media
• Perfectionism – (It was actually episode 47!)
• Not working long hours
• Juggling chainsaws
• Why it’s crucial to have a system that supports you
• Can anyone be self-employed?
• The importance of goals
• Why we don’t want a Ferrari
• Having a plan
• The Big 3
• What a newly self-employed person should do quickly
• The daily task
• Planning your life – not just your job
• Why sharppodcast has been quiet

All the resources we discussed:

• How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
• Karl’s website
• The Smashing Self Employment Podcast
• His LinkedIn Profile
• Karl’s YouTube channel
• My LinkedIn Profile
• sondevelopment.com
• The sondevelopment YouTube account
• The voiceover Twitter account

As always, we’re really grateful for your help in supporting this podcast. To do this, you can:

• Buy me a coffee (I’d be ever so grateful)
• Rate or subscribe on apple podcasts by going here – apple podcasts
• Contact us on Twitter – we are @sharppodcast here

Thanks EVER SO MUCH for listening. If we help you to BE BETTER at what you do, then it’s all been worth it!

Episode 76 – I promised you an episode to listen to at Christmas – and here it is! We’ve taken a look back at what happened in 2021, the episodes, the stuff. Then, we look forward to 2022 and I give you an alternative to New Year’s Resolutions.

Look at all this stuff we covered in this full episode:

• Moving house and rebuilding the studio
• New jobs 
• Building the business (have a look if you’re interested):
• sondevelopment
• Doing face to face training again
• Creating my own digital content (have a look if you’re interested)
• sondevelopment – YouTube channel
• Review of our episodes this year – click each one to listen in full:
• Looking Ahead – STP069
• Work-Life Balance – STP070
• Meditation Benefits – STP071
• Casanova Brooks – STP072
• Quick Update
• Joy & Deadlines with Suzy The Casual Birder STP073
• Resilience & Smart Culture with Mark Billage STP074
• Physical and Mental Fitness with Aaron Morton – STP075
• Approaching 2022 – the alternative to New Year Resolutions
• The Forbes article on why New Year’s Resolutions Fail
• Focus on progress – not the goals
• Having a decent toolkit:
• Accountability to someone
• Daily external reminders as to why you’re doing this
• Apps to show your progress
• Read about the thing you’re trying to change
• Tell lots of people
• Make a video of yourself to remind you why you’re doing it when it’s tricky
• Take a picture of your face every day (optional!)
• Record milestones
• Journal and document what’s better about your new lifestyle
• Finally, we scanned through all the subjects we’ve covered in 4 years – WOW!
• Have a listen to the episodes you’ve missed during the Xmas to New Year break

As always, we’re really grateful for your help in supporting this podcast. To do this you can:

• Buy me a coffee (I’d be ever so grateful)
• Rate or subscribe on apple podcasts by going here – apple podcasts
• Contact us on Twitter – we are @sharppodcast here

Episode 75 – This is a great conversation. We spoke with Aaron Morton not only about his approach to fitness, nutrition and psychology but also so much more! We learn why, for Aaron, being a personal trainer is not only limited to physical fitness, how to look at your wider lifestyle, and why you may need a crisp strategy. 

Look at all this stuff we covered in this full episode:

• How Aaron helps people with habits:
• Eating
• Breathing
• Sleeping
• Movement
• General Physical Preparedness – GPP
• Specific Physical Preparedness – SPP
• Work-Life Balance
• Happiness and confidence
• Coaching people to fitness
• His approach to managing time 
• Lists
• Breaking tasks down
• Components
• Steven King’s routine
• Seinfeld chain method
• Core stability
• Relationships 
• Creating a framework to support it
• Weekly planning
• General Relationship Preparedness (GRP we invented this! Copyright Steve and Aaron®)
• Emotional eating – The Health Protocol
• Willpower versus habit
• Alcohol

Here are the links to the resource we talked about:

• Aaron’s website – AMT
• Instagram – @aaronmortonco
• YouTube channel – Aaron Morton Training
• Facebook – Fit By Health
• Breath – James Nestor 
• Wim Hof Method
• Parasympathetic nervous system
• Why We Sleep – Matthew Walker
• GPP
• Jocko Willink podcast
• Keith Johnstone – Improvisation
• Steven King’s 13 Writing Tips
• Seinfeld method – the chain
• The Stanford Marshmallow Test
• Anthony Keidis – Scar Tissue
• sondevelopment.com

As always, we’re really grateful for your help in supporting this podcast. To do this, you can:

• Buy me a coffee (I’d be ever so grateful)
• Rate or subscribe on apple podcasts by going here – apple podcasts

Thanks EVER SO MUCH for listening. If we help you to BE BETTER at what you do, then it’s all been worth it!

Episode 74 – This is a JAM-PACKED conversation. We chatted with Mark Billage from Smartculture.UK about resilience, communication, leadership and loads more. Listen to the end, where we talk about his brand-new book. This one is WELL WORTH an hour of your time!

Look at all this stuff we covered in this full episode:

• Blue socks!
• Smart Culture
• Leadership and culture
• Joy
• Communication
• The 5 Voices
• Being self-aware
• Understanding people better
• The impact of your voice
• Cross-cultural training
• Culture shock
• “I See You” Mark’s book about leadership principles
• Resilience
• Ability to bounce back
• Flexibility
• It’s not fixed – you can develop it
• It’s about being able to deal with change
• Nelson Mandela
• Why learning is an important part
• Being realistic about where you are at, not optimistic
• Getting perspective
• Coaching
• Personal Development
• Being curious for life
• Mark’s productivity
• Get clear on what you’re doing
• Use a diary
• Create spaces
• Prioritise
• Use to-do lists well
• Choose a time of day based on your energy levels

Here are the links to the resource we talked about:

• Smart Culture
• Mark’s course on resilience
• Mark on Linked In
• The Book – I See You
• Sawubona – The Zulu greeting
• Nelson Mandela’s biography
• Good to Great – Jim Collins
• Viktor Frankl – Why Meaning Matters an interview from 1963
• Mary Johnson who forgave her son’s killer
• The Dream Job Coach – Louise Jenner
• Clifton strengths
• Insights – Colours and self-awareness

As always, we’re really grateful for your help in supporting this podcast. To do this, you can:

• Buy me a coffee (I’d be ever so grateful)
• Rate or subscribe on apple podcasts by going here – apple podcasts
• Contact us on Twitter – we are @sharppodcast here

Thanks EVER SO MUCH for listening. If we help you to BE BETTER at what you do, then it’s all been worth it!

Episode 73 – In this episode, we chat with Suzy from the Casual Birder podcast. We cover so much stuff and get into a really rich conversation about how Suzy has found herself ‘stuck’ with her productivity and look at some solutions. It’s a great chat!

Look at all this stuff we covered in this full episode:

• Peach socks!
• Learning is about a journey not a destination
• Focusing on today
• Being confined unlocking joy
• Loads of helpful systems
• Trello
• Notion
• To-do ist
• Kanban
• Checklists
• Templates
• Prioritisation challenges
• Deadlines creating flexibility and space
• Weekly planners for family time
• Visualising great outcomes

Here is the resource we talked about:

• The Casual Birder website
• Casual Birder on Instagram
• The Twitter account
• The Trello app
• Notion
• To-doist
• The Kanban system
• Checklists – The Checklist Manifesto
• Templates

As always, we’re really grateful for your help in supporting this podcast. To do this you can:

• Buy me a coffee (I’d be ever so grateful)
• Rate or subscribe on apple podcasts by going here – apple podcasts
• Contact us on Twitter – we are @sharppodcast here

Thanks EVER SO MUCH for listening. If we help you to BE BETTER at what you do, then it’s all been worth it!