This week on the Beautiful Business podcast,  join our host Yiuwin Tsang and guest Alison Puente from Project Rome as they investigate how systems thinking offers a holistic approach to understanding and resolving complex sustainability challenges.

Listeners will gain valuable insights into how systems thinking can inform sustainable business practices, policymaking, and community engagement. Alison highlights the importance of collaboration and interdisciplinary approaches, stressing the need for stakeholders from different sectors to work together in designing and implementing effective solutions.

About Alison Puente

Alison Puente is an expert in corporate communications, with 25 years of experience working across a range of industries including FMCG, healthcare, retail, technology and utilities. She has led corporate, brand and business-to-business campaigns for organisations ranging from FTSE businesses to start-ups, working with clients including Associated British Foods, Centrica plc, Essity, Grant Thornton, Microsoft, the NHS, Quorn and Taylors of Harrogate/Yorkshire Tea.

The Beautiful Business Podcast is bought to you in partnership with:

Krystal Hosting - the UK's premium sustainable web hosting provider

In this thought-provoking episode of our podcast John Gilbert, MD of eski and Yiuwin Tsang delve into the transformative power of storytelling and how it can be harnessed to create a compelling documentary that showcases your social impact. We explore how storytelling can be a catalyst for change, igniting empathy, and inspiring action in an increasingly connected and visually-driven world.

Tune in and discover how to elevate your cause, amplify your message, and leave a lasting impact on the world.

About John Gilbert:

John Gilbert is the founder and managing director of eski, a media agency specialising in working with the NHS, charities and purposeful businesses to create social good through campaigns and filmmaking. 

He and his team have produced several national and international award-winning films and campaigns on subjects including mental health, organised crime, sexual exploitation, cancer prevention and domestic abuse. 

In this week’s podcast, Yiuwin Tsang talks to Alex Holliman about building an empowered and loyal team at Climbing Trees and how Alex has put in place real benefits for his employees to help them in both their personal and professional lives. Alex believes in having transparency in your business, particularly in difficult times, so that everyone is aligned with goals and targets. This podcast explains how you build passion and engagement in your team and how that helps grow and protect your business for the future.

About Alex Holliman:

Following a career at top media agencies, Alex founded digital marketing agency, Climbing Trees. Here, he leads a team of search and social experts who share his passion for cultivating a values-led culture. Alex's commitment to sustainability and his desire to build this into every aspect of his business make him a rare breed of agency owner.

Today we welcome the wonderful Jo Swift  from Greenhouse Communications to the Beautiful Business Podcast. Jo is a fantastic source of knowledge when it comes to talking about purpose and how you can talk about it with authenticity and genuine credibility.

In this podcast, Yiuwin and Jo discuss the noise around purpose at the moment and how cynicism is growing towards businesses that are possibly greenwashing their messaging.

This podcast explains the right reasons to talk about your purpose and how to use metrics and measures of success to understand your impact.

About Jo Swift

Jo Swift is the Managing Director of Greenhouse Communications and is responsible for the thriving, mission-led team in London and Bristol, working on campaigns with environmental and social change at their heart for government, business, NGOs and youth organisations.

This week’s podcast is the second instalment with Jen Swian, MD of Beatfreeks, a creative insight-led engagement agency specialising in scaling brand relevance for clients.

In this episode, Yiuwin Tsang and Jen Swain explore the power of data insights for businesses and why leaders need the pieces between the data to make better decisions. Jen describes how they use insights to create more meaningful campaigns for their clients and deliver better results.


About Jen Swain

Jen is currently the managing director of Beatfreeks and has previously run her own business focusing on coaching and consulting to empower female leaders.

Prior to that she has been in the software and creative agency world for more than 12 years, most recently as Operations Director for a global Tech for Good agency. 

This week we have our second Beautiful Business Podcast episode with Nikki Gatenby, hosted by Yiuwin Tsang. In her book ‘Better Business on Purpose’ Nikki explains that the day-to-day running of businesses can be all-consuming - but a business without purpose 'is just admin' and your business has the potential to be much more than that. 

In this podcast Nikki talks about the 7 Ps that underpin truly purpose-led businesses, using the PQualizer, a system to help to keep the Ps in balance. And why it’s critical to have a practical framework to help you implement change across your business.

There are loads of great tips and takeaways in this podcast - we hope you enjoy it! 

About Nikki Gatenby:

Nikki Gatenby is a non-executive director and cognitive behavioural coach; with a background in developing company culture and engagement to deliver world-class results.

Having led multiple successful agencies, with a track record for taking them global, Nikki has removed herself from the day-to-day operations and is now focused on making many other good companies, great.  She does this by being non-exec to the board to develop their strategy, coaching leadership teams to help them to achieve it together - all the while, developing culture right across the organisation.

Nikki is known for combining a no-bullshit approach to business with a passion for helping people be the best version of themselves. When she’s not making life better for her staff, clients and community, she is usually to be found at the top of a mountain or the bottom of the ocean. But not at the same time.

For more interesting insight and discussion, join the (free) Beautiful Business community for purpose-driven founders and business leaders at www.beautifulbusiness.uk

This is the second Beautiful Business podcast episode featuring the truly inspirational Natalie Haigh.

Natalie is fast becoming a podcast favourite on Beautiful Business and this week she speaks about the importance of both receiving and offering mentoring at various stages of her career. Natalie talks about the power of mentoring and offers some of the methods she uses with her mentees. She explains her belief that if we can mentor people to fully achieve their potential and succeed, it will be a better result for everybody, and then everyone is going to be healthier and happier.

About Natalie Haigh:

Natalie’s dream is of a better connected, kinder and more accepting world. 

Natalie’s recent work has been in the charity sector where she has volunteered in a number of roles including setting up a new community non-profit. She is passionate about helping others and making a difference.

Previously she was the managing director of Mercury1 who have been providing end-to-end software and support solutions using enterprise technology since 2006, and before that her experience was in IT leadership and innovation in the manufacturing sector for Procter and Gamble.

In the second of our podcasts with Matthew Stibbe, Yiuwin Tsang delves into what it means to be a truly remote working team and how this has allowed Articulate Marketing to establish a unique employee culture despite them being spread throughout the UK. 

Their remote working principles have also allowed Articulate Marketing to strive for net zero status, a process that is very rigorous, but which Matthew feels all businesses have a responsibility to at least consider and work towards.  

In the podcast, Matthew shares his top tips for going on the net zero journey as well as the pros and cons of setting up a remote working environment for his agency. 

About Matthew Stibbe:

Matthew is a CEO, entrepreneur, marketer, writer, pilot, wine enthusiast, and a geek. He's currently CEO of Articulate Marketing, which provides marketing for ambitious B2B tech companies. Previously, Matthew was founder and CEO at Intelligent Games, which he sold back in 2000. 

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Beautiful Business Podcast. This week Yiuwin Tsang spoke to Alex Holliman, founder of Climbing Trees about how he and his team are on a mission to create a positive impact for their clients and for the planet.

Alex has successfully created an ‘excellent client service is critical to success’ mantra in his agency team which underpins all of their relationships and projects. He and his team care passionately about the client experience they create.

Alex is also keen to harness the enthusiasm and energy that the next generation of employees brings to the table - he feels there is a real sense of the younger generation leaning into some of the problems that are in the world and actually trying to do something positive about it, rather than just carrying on with the same old 'business as usual'.

About Alex Holliman
Alex is the founder and managing director of Climbing Trees, a B-Corp-certified ethically minded PPC and SEO agency. Previously Alex spent 20 years working for global media giants and independent agencies. Alex is all about trying to do business in a better way and advocating for positive change. And Climbing Trees is working hard towards its goal of becoming net zero and is in the process of planting 1 million trees by 2030, with 265,000 already in the ground. 

This week’s podcast is a special feature-length episode in which Yiuwin Tsang talks to Martin Palethorpe, founder of Unbounded, about the power of conscious leadership.

Conscious leadership emphasises self-awareness, mindfulness, empathy and an ethical and purpose-driven mindset. It requires leaders to be fully present and attentive, to understand and manage their own thoughts and emotions and to connect with others on a deeper level.

Conscious leadership is important because it promotes a more positive and sustainable approach to leadership, one that is focused on the well-being of all stakeholders, including employees, customers, and the environment.

Martin is an experienced Executive Coach and an expert in unlocking the power of the human mind. He is a motivational speaker on Conscious Leadership and founder of Unbounded.

Martin is passionate about inspiring and challenging CEOs & CxOs to be better leaders, to achieve their potential building healthy high-performing teams & responsible organisations. He also inspires many leaders to play their role in the current planetary emergencies. His transformational teaching about the human mind - ‘shifting consciousness’ is at the core of his work.

He is also a former adventurer and ultra-marathon runner, an active yogi and an environmental activist.