Swim Against The Tide

What happens when the career you’ve worked towards stops feeling meaningful? Amar Mistry, CEO of My Money Matters, joins me on the Swim Against The Tide podcast to share a journey through bold career moves, bruising startup lessons and a business where profit and purpose meet.

From missing his own paycheques to helping others build financial confidence, Amar talks candidly about money worries, learning to lead without ego and why trusting your gut can save you years of pain.

Finally, Amar explains how he has now found a role where he can practice what he preaches, helping make a real, everyday difference to millions of employees in the UK.

The SATT Team :)

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Redemption Roasters isn’t just competing in London’s crowded coffee market - it’s using coffee to help break the cycle of reoffending.

In this episode, MD Toby Bradon explains how the King’s Award-winning business trains people in prison, supports them into meaningful employment and achieved a remarkable zero reoffending rate among its participants last year, compared with a
national average of 42%.

Toby shares the lessons he learned scaling Vue Cinemas across Europe, navigating the cinema industry through Covid and now helping Redemption Roasters enter its next phase of growth.

It’s a fascinating conversation about brave leadership, building a commercially successful business with genuine purpose, and why - in Toby’s words - “profit powers purpose.”

The SATT Team :)

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This week we are delighted to meet Peter Cattee the co-founder of Peak Pharmacy. Starting from “base zero,” Peter and his wife Jane transformed a single, dated chemist into Peak Pharmacy – now one of Britain’s largest independent pharmacy groups, with around 150 branches and turnover approaching £250 million. 

Peter joins Steve Henry to share the candid story behind that extraordinary growth: the risks, the lucky breaks, the acquisitions and the principles that shaped the
business.

It’s a refreshingly honest conversation about using money as a tool, trusting your own judgement, building for the love of building - and knowing when to step back for the next generation.

The SATT Team :)

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What happens when an outsider takes on one of the world’s biggest industries? In this episode of Swim Against The Tide, Steve Henry sits down with Sid Sethi, Founder of Specscart, to hear how a broken pair of glasses as a university student sparked a mission to reinvent eyewear.

From challenging industry monopolies to building a business obsessed with innovation, customer experience and speed, Sid shares the thinking behind one of the UK’s fastest-growing challenger brands.

This is a conversation about solving real customer problems, building a culture where innovation comes from every corner of the business, and how founders must evolve as their company scales. Sid also reveals why customer obsession beats convention every time, how Specscart is preparing for US expansion, and why delegation became one of the biggest lessons of his entrepreneurial journey.

If you are interested in challenger brands, entrepreneurship, marketing, leadership or building a business that refuses to follow the rules, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.

The SATT Team :)

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In this episode, Josh Sargent, CEO of UK for CLARK, the business behind the Tom and Polly life assurance brands joins Steve Henry on Swim Against The Tide.

Josh shares his remarkable journey from a working-class upbringing in Gloucestershire and choosing work before university, to joining the business as an account manager and ultimately rising through the ranks to become CEO.

They explore how Tom and Polly have used distinctive branding, clever customer segmentation and a refreshingly human approach to make life assurance feel simpler and more relevant to younger families.

Josh also talks candidly about scaling from a small team to more than 200 employees, navigating acquisitions and private-equity ownership, and developing his own leadership style along the way.

It’s a fascinating conversation about disrupting a traditional industry, using technology to build stronger customer relationships, and the challenge of continuing to think like a challenger when you’re increasingly becoming one of the established names in the market.

The SATT Team :) 

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Nick Rawlings has spent his career helping ambitious challenger brands compete against some of the biggest names in technology and communications. From taking on BT and Sky during the early days of cable to helping scale Plusnet, Nick has learned what it takes to get noticed, build trust and win customers in fiercely competitive markets.

In this episode, Nick shares the thinking behind great challenger marketing: understanding exactly what customers are frustrated by, finding a distinctive position and having the confidence to communicate differently from the established players. He also discusses the importance of building a brand that delivers on its promises rather than relying on clever advertising alone.

When at Gigaclear, Nick has applied those lessons to another major challenge—bringing better broadband to rural communities and competing in a market dominated by household names.

It is a fascinating conversation about career-defining campaigns, customer insight and the mindset required to keep challenging the status quo.

The SATT Team :) 

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In this episode of Swim Against The Tide, Steve Henry talks to Heather Matthews, Managing Director of Little’s Chauffeur Drive – a 60-year-old Scottish family business built on trust, service and an obsessive attention to detail.

From its humble beginnings as a three-car taxi business in Glasgow to becoming a global chauffeur network, Little’s has stayed distinctive in a crowded market by doing the simple things exceptionally well.

And then there are the cars: that unmistakable deep maroon fleet, a visual signature that makes Little’s instantly recognisable and says everything about a brand that has never wanted to blend in.

The SATT Team :)

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In this episode of Swim Against The Tide, Steve talks to Mairead Quigley, Head of Product Marketing at Phlo — the digital pharmacy scaling fast in one of healthcare’s most competitive and talked-about spaces.

Mairead shares how Phlo moved from NHS prescription delivery into private digital healthcare, why GLP-1 weight-loss treatments have become such a major growth engine, and what it takes to build trust, patient care and marketing momentum in a highly regulated market.

From white-label partnerships with brands like Morrisons and Holland & Barrett to the future of preventative healthcare, this is a fascinating look at how a digital pharmacy can grow quickly without ever losing sight of the patient.

The SATT Team :) 

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Sam Venning is the co-founder of Wuffes, the dog supplement brand that turned a personal search for help with an ageing dog’s arthritis into one of America’s fast- growing pet health businesses.

In this episode, we talk about building trust in a crowded supplement market, moving from DTC growth to national retail, and what changes when a founder has to grow from ecommerce operator into science-led brand leader.

Sam’s drive and passion really come across in this episode, with his energy making a real difference for pets being an absolute focal point for future success.

The SATT Team :)

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This week we meet the driving force behind the gym revolution that is sweeping London with a new way to work out. 

In a market full of big-box gyms, boutique studios and crowded workout floors, Ben Alderton spotted a gap: what if you could rent a fully equipped, high-end gym space entirely to yourself, by the hour?

That idea became Solo60 – a fast-growing chain of private gym and treatment spaces built for PTs, gym-goers and fitness creators. 

Ben joined me to talk about launching during Covid, raising millions in investment, building custom tech, surviving critical business moments, and learning how to lead as the company scaled across London.

It is a candid story about timing, resilience, and turning a simple frustration – never getting on the squat rack when you need it – into a brand with international ambitions.

The SATT Team :) 

#podcast #business #swimagainstthetide #growth #entrepreneurship