We Have A Meeting

Backed by Funding Circle.
Funding Circle is business finance that backs you. Business loans, a flexible line of credit and a cashback business card for UK businesses, with a decision in as little as an hour. If you are looking for funding to take the next step, check them out here: https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk

Chris James started out in telemarketing and now helps founders, coaches and service businesses turn social media content into paying clients. The Manchester-based online business mentor, content strategist, keynote speaker and bestselling author runs the Content To Clients programme, sends a weekly newsletter to 3,000+ entrepreneurs and has shared stages with Daniel Priestley, Chris Do and Davina McCall.

Chris joins hosts Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson at Ideas Fest to break down the social media lessons every founder needs.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Chris James, Expert Mindset Coach and Business Builder
• 00:00:32 The Cash Flow Reality Check: Leading Indicators and Collecting Money Upfront
• 00:01:16 The Borrowing Money Philosophy: No Credit Cards and Mortgage Freedom
• 00:02:07 Day One of Your Business: Build Your Business Backwards
• 00:02:15 The Warm Network Strategy: Why Your First Customers Are Already in Your Phone
• 00:04:19 The Best Business Advice: No One Gives a Shit, So Just Do It
• 00:05:29 Ignore the Carbon Copy: Why Following Other People's Success Will Make You Miserable
• 00:06:14 The Time Management Superpower: Focus, Block Distractions, and Schedule Worry Time
• 00:07:57 Lower Expectations, Higher Standards: The Mindset Shift That Drives Success
• 00:09:23 Winning Your First Customer: Make 200 Calls and Collect 100 No's

#BackedByFundingCircle #FundingCircle #ChrisJames #SocialMediaMarketing #PersonalBrand #ContentStrategy #IdeasFest #SmallBusinessUK #BusinessFinance #Entrepreneur #WeHaveAMeeting #Manchester

Connect with Chris James:
* Website: https://www.chris-james.co
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisjamesonline/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisjamesonline
* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@chrisjamesonline

Hear more from the hosts:
Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b
Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b

Brought to you by Funding Circle: business finance that backs you. See how they could back your business at https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk

Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Backed by Funding Circle.
Funding Circle is business finance that backs you. Business loans, a flexible line of credit and a cashback business card for UK businesses, with a decision in as little as an hour. If you are looking for funding to take the next step, check them out here: https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk

Chris Gore went from a Liverpool council estate to 13 years in the military to the boardroom. He co-founded SPOR Group with Chris Spence, each putting in £50k, and landed an £800k deal in week six. The Maidenhead workplace technology business now looks after more than 1,500 meeting room sites across the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific, works with clients including the NHS and the NFL, and has just acquired interior design consultancy Squaredot. Chris also writes the Work Isn't Working newsletter on the future of the workplace.

Chris joins hosts Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson at Ideas Fest for 12 minutes of no-fluff business advice: the thing most founders get wrong, what to fix before anything else, and what the military taught him about accountability and running a company.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Chris Gore, Co-Founder of Spore Group
• 00:01:04 The Cash Flow Reality Check: Why It's Priority Number One, Two, and Three
• 00:01:58 The Borrowing Money Masterclass: Get It Cheap and Know Your Forecast
• 00:02:54 Day One of Your Business: Test the Market Before You Take a Penny
• 00:03:44 The Growth Question: Why Scaling Isn't Always the Answer
• 00:04:57 Ignore the AI Slop: Why Boring Businesses Still Win
• 00:06:09 The Most Underrated Skill: Talking to Actual Human Beings
• 00:06:44 The Gary in a Van Problem: Why Systems Beat Hustle Every Time
• 00:08:10 Closing Thoughts: Liverpool Wins, Handshakes Matter, and People Buy from People

#BackedByFundingCircle #FundingCircle #ChrisGore #SPORGroup #IdeasFest #WorkplaceTech #SmallBusinessUK #BusinessFinance #BusinessAdvice #FounderStory #Entrepreneur #WeHaveAMeeting

Connect with Chris Gore:
* SPOR Group: https://www.wearespor.com
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgoremba/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisgore.spor
* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@chrisgorespor

Hear more from the hosts:
Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b
Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b

Brought to you by Funding Circle: business finance that backs you. See how they could back your business at https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk

Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Backed by Funding Circle.

Funding Circle is business finance that backs you. Business loans, a flexible line of credit and a cashback business card for UK businesses, with a decision in as little as an hour. If you are looking for funding to take the next step, check them out here: https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk

Andrew Hulbert grew up on a council estate in Oxford and started Pareto Facilities Management from his bedroom at 27. He grew it to around £50m turnover and 500 staff, took it through a management buy-out and a private equity exit, and walked away at 37 with a $100M-class exit. Today he is Founder and Vice Chair of Pareto FM and Chair of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM).

Andrew joins hosts Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson at Ideas Fest to explain what buyers actually look for, why you should build your business to sell from day one, and the side of a big exit nobody warns you about. If you are a founder thinking about growth, private equity, a management buy-out or selling your business in the UK, this is the honest version.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Andrew Hulbert, Dad, Farmer, and 100 Million Dollar Exit Entrepreneur
• 00:01:17 The Cash Flow Reality Check: Why Cash Beats Profit Every Single Time
• 00:02:35 The Borrowing Money Masterclass: Covenants, Interest Rates, and What You Need to Know
• 00:03:43 Day One of Your Business: Where Is the Money Coming From
• 00:05:27 The Self-Worth Warning: Why Your Business Is Not You
• 00:07:01 The Social Media Trap: Why Follower Count Is Overrated Business Advice
• 00:08:29 The Networking Masterclass: How to Win Your First Customer
• 00:10:17 Closing Thoughts: Get Out There and Network

Connect with Andrew Hulbert:
* Pareto FM: https://www.paretofm.com
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewhulbert/

Hear more from the hosts:
Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b
Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b

Brought to you by Funding Circle: business finance that backs you. See how they could back your business at https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk

Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Backed by Funding Circle.
Funding Circle is business finance that backs you. Business loans, a flexible line of credit and a cashback business card for UK businesses, with a decision in as little as an hour. If you are looking for funding to take the next step, check them out here: https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk

James Martin left school at 14 with no qualifications and dyslexia, and built an empire anyway. He started out mowing lawns, moved into landscaping and tree surgery, then brought the first tree-moving machine to England from Illinois. That became Ruskins Tree Moving, the UK leader in large-scale tree transplanting, which he sold, bought back and sold again. Since then he has built a £30M+ commercial property portfolio, owns the Baddow Park House wedding venue, co-hosts the Baddow Park Mastermind for £2M to £20M founders and hosts the Entrepreneur Conversations podcast.

James joins hosts Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson at Ideas Fest to share his rules for scaling a business fast: the rule most founders never follow, what to fix before you try to grow, and why speed without systems can kill a good company. If you are a founder, business owner or entrepreneur trying to scale in the UK, this is the playbook from someone who has built, sold and rebuilt more than once.

• 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet James Martin, Serial Entrepreneur with 48 Years of Battle Scars
• 00:01:10 The Cash Flow Reality Check: Why You Need to Know Your Numbers Daily
• 00:01:20 The Borrowing Money Masterclass: Cost, Source, and Purpose
• 00:01:30 Day One of Your Business: The Market Study You Can't Skip
• 00:01:47 What Got You Here Won't Get You There: The Best Business Advice
• 00:01:57 Ignore the Professionals: Why Accountants and Lawyers Give Overrated Advice
• 00:02:14 Trust Your Gut: The Most Underrated Business Skill
• 00:02:20 The Laser Beam Vision: What Separates Winners from Everyone Else
• 00:02:44 The Assassin Customer Strategy: How to Win Your First Sale
• 00:02:59 Closing Thoughts: Deep Scars, Mini Trips, and Giving Back

Connect with James Martin:
* Website: https://www.jamesmartinentrepreneur.com
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-martin-entrepreneur/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesmartinentrepreneur
* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@James_Martin_Entrepreneur

Hear more from the hosts:
Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b
Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b

Brought to you by Funding Circle: business finance that backs you. See how they could back your business at https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk

Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

You're using AI wrong. Most people treat ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude like a glorified Google search. Amelia Miller calls that level one of ten, and it uses maybe 5 to 10% of what the tools can actually do. In this episode she shows you the other nine levels.

Amelia is the co-founder and CEO of Ivee, the AI training company she runs with her sister Lydia. She is a published researcher and current fellow at the University of Cambridge, where she studies which skills survive tech revolutions and which ones die. She spent time in FX sales and trading at Goldman Sachs and sits on the UK government's Women in Tech taskforce. She was also recently named in the Forbes 30 Under 30. And she once had two hours' notice to get on a train and pitch on Dragons' Den, with £0 revenue and a product that didn't exist yet.

Amelia joins hosts Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson to explain why there are really only three foundation models and everything else is a wrapper. She also shows how an inbound enquiry landed at 3am and had a meeting booked in her diary before she woke up.

She runs a proper prompting masterclass. That includes the persona prompt that changes everything, negative constraints, few-shot examples, and why a bad prompt always equals AI slop. She reveals the automated email that goes out four and a half minutes after a form fill, written to look like she typed it on her phone while travelling. She then walks through the levels above chatbots: AI browsers, automations with an AI layer, and agentic AI. Give an agent your card with no guardrails and it might book you a first class flight to Rome.

Along the way: why big companies are using AI to freeze hiring while startups use it to survive, and the three-person dog brand whose founder was losing two hours a day to his inbox. You'll also hear why AI fluency is the number one skill of 2026 and why 70% of today's skills will be obsolete by 2030. Then there's the chaotic 36 hours before Dragons' Den: a fake demo, a dash to Zara and a YouTube compilation of the worst roasts. She explains why they picked Steven Bartlett and Deborah Meaden from four offers, and why 70% of Den deals never go through. She covers the Amazon CV algorithm that binned anyone with "women's" on their CV, and why every company is now an AI company or it will die. And finally, the question she leaves for Barry, 52, from Swansea.

• 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Amelia Miller, Forbes 30 Under 30 AI Expert
• 00:04:04 The AI Slop Problem: Why 97.2% of People Are Using AI Wrong
• 00:05:27 The 3am Email That Changed Everything: AI Working While You Sleep
• 00:06:50 ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini: Which AI Tool Should You Actually Use
• 00:15:20 The Prompt Engineering Masterclass: How to Stop Sounding Like a Robot
• 00:18:24 The Job Market Reality Check: Why 70% of Your Skills Will Be Obsolete by 2030
• 00:27:01 Beyond the Chatbot: AI Browsers, Automations, and Agentic Workflows
• 00:40:33 The Dragon's Den 36-Hour Scramble: Building a Fake Platform on a Train
• 00:47:11 The Amazon Hiring Algorithm Disaster: When AI Bias Gets Dangerous
• 00:51:17 The Closing Question: What Would You Do If AI Took Care of All the Manual Work

#AmeliaMiller #Ivee #DragonsDen #AITraining #PromptEngineering #AIForBusiness #ChatGPT #Claude #Gemini #AgenticAI #FutureOfWork #AISkills #UKBusiness #BusinessPodcast #StartupUK #FounderMindset #WeHaveAMeeting

Connect with Amelia Miller:

Website: https://ivee.jobs

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/amelia--miller

Instagram: @buildwithamelia

Ivee on Instagram: @ivee.jobs

Hear more from the hosts: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b

Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b

Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting

Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

We asked James Martin every weird and wonderful question we could think of. He answered all of them.

James Martin started cutting grass as a boy, moved into tree surgery, and has been building, buying and selling companies ever since. Today he owns Baddow Park House in Essex, runs a group of businesses and a property portfolio, hosts the Entrepreneur Conversations podcast, and mentors owners through the Baddow Park Mastermind. He is also severely dyslexic. He does not read. He has turned down free lessons more than once. He built a team around the gap instead of spending thirty years trying to close it.

We caught him at Ideas Fest and decided not to do the normal interview. No origin story questions. No "so what's next for you". Instead we threw the brutal, the strange and the flat out ridiculous at him and waited for something to break. Nothing broke. That is the problem with James. You go in looking for a wobble and come out with a business plan.

• 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet James Martin, Problem Solver for Entrepreneurs
• 00:00:25 Snog Marry Avoid: The Royal Family Edition
• 00:01:17 The Pigeon Poo Property Disaster: When Garden Centres Go Wrong
• 00:01:35 The 17 Grand HR Nightmare: Firing Someone for Smoking Weed
• 00:02:20 Robust and Forthright Software: The James Martin Operating System
• 00:02:37 Da Vinci and Evita's Wedding: The Ultimate Power Couple
• 00:03:01 Dry Hire Terminology: When Business Jargon Sounds Completely Wrong
• 00:03:20 Kung Fu Fighting and Row Dancing: The 90s Networking Event
• 00:04:16 All the Isms: ADHD, Dyslexia, and Throwing Labels in the Bin
• 00:05:21 The Drowning Question: Why Jack Gets Saved and Zach Doesn't
• 00:05:42 Michael Bolton at My Funeral: How Am I Supposed to Live Without You
• 00:06:32 Sexual Innuendo and Paul King: How Do They Get Away With This

What should we have asked him? Stick it in the comments. Best question gets sent to James and we will make him answer it.

#JamesMartinEntrepreneur #IdeasFest #BaddowPark #EntrepreneurConversations #BusinessPodcast #UKBusiness #SmallBusinessUK #FounderMindset #BusinessOwner #Leadership #DyslexicEntrepreneur #EssexBusiness #BusinessMentor #WeHaveAMeeting

Connect with James Martin:

Website: https://www.jamesmartinentrepreneur.com

Baddow Park Mastermind: https://www.baddowpark.com

Podcast: Entrepreneur Conversations

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/james-martin-entrepreneur

Instagram: @jamesmartinentrepreneur

Hear more from the hosts:

Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b

Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b

Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting

Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

James Martin started cutting grass as a boy, moved into tree surgery, and has built, bought and sold companies ever since. Today he owns Baddow Park House in Essex, runs a group of businesses and a property portfolio, hosts the Entrepreneur Conversations podcast, and mentors business owners through the Baddow Park Mastermind. He is also severely dyslexic. He does not read, he has turned down free lessons more than once, and he built a team around the gap instead of spending thirty years trying to close it.

James Martin joins hosts Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson at Baddow Park to give the least polished answers anyone has given on this show. He explains why he has zero tolerance for what he calls an atmosphere vampire, why he refuses to hand out warning letters, and why he would rather double someone's severance, end it the same day and invite them to sue him than let one bad hire flatten the team around them.

He breaks down the gardener he took from £650,000 turnover and an 11% margin to multi-million turnover and a 32% margin in eighteen months, and what actually changed to do it. He gets into the client with twenty five products who was quietly losing money on most of them, why cutting to six raised the margin and dropped the promotion spend, and why he is never the cheapest and says so out loud instead of discounting. He explains how a mistake that cost one of his companies half a million pounds got logged as a free lesson and closed down in one meeting, because your team copies how you frame the bad news rather than the news itself.

Along the way: why he told two best friends who run a business together that he would never go into business with a friend or a family member, the Felix Dennis book he keeps coming back to, the jobs he thinks AI is never touching because nobody is crawling under there to mend the leak, what he actually spends in a year and why it is nothing like people assume, the three holidays and the Range Rover he mistook for success, why he has no intention of ever retiring, and the fact that he cannot get through his own gates because he does not know the codes.

• 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet James Martin, Multi-Million Pound Entrepreneur
• 00:05:53 The Dyslexia Superpower: Turning a Disability Into a Business Advantage
• 00:09:48 The Van Man Origin Story: From Trees to Multi-Million Pound Empire
• 00:12:15 The Entrepreneur Apprenticeship: Why Working for Free Beats Business School
• 00:13:32 AI-Proof Industries: Where to Build Your Business in the Next Decade
• 00:18:38 Social Skills Over Degrees: The Real Talent Hiring Strategy
• 00:24:38 The Price Point Philosophy: Why Being the Most Expensive Wins
• 00:27:19 The Devil Is in the Detail: Why Small Stuff Equals Big Success
• 00:29:33 No Friends, No Family: The Partnership Warning Every Founder Needs
• 00:39:54 Commercial Property Over Houses: The Real Estate Strategy That Builds Wealth
• 00:42:46 The Madness Weirdo Journey: Are You Really Ready to Be an Entrepreneur?

#JamesMartinEntrepreneur #BaddowPark #EntrepreneurConversations #BusinessPodcast #UKBusiness #SmallBusinessUK #HiringAndFiring #HowToFireSomeone #BusinessGrowth #ProfitMargin #FounderMindset #BusinessOwner #Leadership #DyslexicEntrepreneur #EssexBusiness #BusinessMentor #WeHaveAMeeting

Connect with James Martin:

Website: https://www.jamesmartinentrepreneur.com

Baddow Park Mastermind: https://www.baddowpark.com

Podcast: Entrepreneur Conversations

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/james-martin-entrepreneur

Instagram: @jamesmartinentrepreneur

Hear more from the hosts: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b

Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b

Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting

Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Michael Aaron Flicker started his first company, ZenoSci, at 14 years old, and 28 years later he's built nine operating companies around a single idea: understanding why people actually believe and behave the way they do gives you an unfair advantage in any market. He's the author of Hacking the Human Mind and founder of the Consumer Behavior Lab, where he helps brands use behavioural science instead of guesswork.

Michael Aaron Flicker joins host Jack Frimston to break down why humans make decisions with the laziest possible amount of brainpower, and what that means for anyone trying to sell, price or name something. He explains why you instinctively order the second cheapest bottle of wine on a menu, why Red Bull deliberately shrank its can and charged more for it, and why Nespresso built its entire pricing strategy around comparing itself to a Starbucks latte instead of a cup of ground coffee. He gets into the psychology of loss aversion and why fear of missing out beats the promise of gaining something, why rhyming slogans are proven to be more believable, and the real science behind why "Chilean sea bass" outsold "Patagonian toothfish" thirty to one. He also explains the illusion of effort, the reason James Dyson opens his own autobiography by mentioning 5,127 failed prototypes, and why that same trick works for a ramen shop or a plumber with zero marketing budget.

Along the way: the study that proves even doctors prescribe whatever drug sits highest in a dropdown menu, the "regret lottery" that got office workers cycling to work, why Five Guys deliberately refuses to sell chicken or salad, and the one-word swap in a police study that changed how fast people remembered a car crash happening.

• 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Michael Aaron Flicker, Behavioral Science Expert
• 00:01:35 The Irrationality Problem: Why Humans Aren't as Rational as They Think
• 00:07:16 The Red Bull Pricing Hack: Breaking Comparison Points to Win
• 00:12:05 The Apple Watch Anchor: How Premium Options Make Everything Seem Reasonable
• 00:14:10 Pain vs Pleasure: The Psychology of Loss Aversion in Sales
• 00:18:14 The Pringles Rhyme Effect: Why Simple Phrases Build More Trust
• 00:20:47 The Illusion of Effort: How James Dyson Built Trust with 5,127 Prototypes
• 00:25:36 The Chilean Sea Bass Story: How the Right Name Changes Everything
• 00:29:53 The Five Guys Focus Strategy: Why Doing One Thing Beats Doing Everything
• 00:34:02 The Ethics Question: Are These Tactics Manipulation or Marketing
• 00:41:55 The Amazon Prime Trap: How Past Behavior Defines Future Choices
• 00:45:42 The AI and Effort Connection: How to Use AI Without Losing Credibility
• 00:47:46 The Test and Learn Philosophy: The One Question Every Business Owner Should Ask

#MichaelAaronFlicker #HackingTheHumanMind #BehavioralScience #ConsumerPsychology #MarketingPsychology #SalesPsychology #PricingStrategy #Branding #Neuromarketing #CognitiveBias #LossAversion #B2BSales #ConsumerBehaviorLab #WeHaveAMeeting

Connect with Michael Aaron: Book: https://www.hackingthehumanmind.com

Consumer Behavior Lab: https://www.consumerbehaviorlab.com

Hear more from the hosts:

Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b

Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b

Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting

Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Andy Coleman has spent the last 21 years starting things, breaking things and fixing them, on rinse and repeat. He became the youngest landlord in the Greene King estate in his early twenties, went on to build and run pubs, bars, a roofing business, a women's clothing chain, an events company and a content creation agency, and most recently launched BizzFest, a festival-style business event that went from an idea on a retreat to 1,000 people, three stages and 40 speakers in a field within seven months.

Andy Coleman joins hosts Jack Frimston to talk about what actually happens when you build a career out of jumping into things other people would call reckless. He explains why he never learned to delegate until a manager called Ben forced the issue, why the smoking ban was the moment he learned to "jump before you're pushed" in business, and why the businesses that failed for him were never killed by some outside disaster, they just got dragged on too long after he already knew. He breaks down the exact framework he uses to decide whether to pivot or shut something down, why he refuses to call it quitting, and why giving someone terrible food poisoning taught him more about customer trust than almost anything else in hospitality. Then he gets into how BizzFest actually got built: why he spent money before the brand had any trust to spend it on, why ticket sales for a first-time event barely move until the final 48 hours, and what it was like hosting a fireside chat with Andy Coulson and Jamie Laing having never done one before in his life.

Along the way: the ChatGPT prompt Andy wrote in the bath the night before interviewing Jamie Laing on stage, the "burn the boats" story that talked him into doing it anyway, why he thinks most business failure feels like getting cut from the school basketball team, and the charity worker who told him a single day at BizzFest changed his life.

• 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Andy Coleman, Serial Entrepreneur
• 00:01:37 The Youngest Landlord: Starting a Business at 21
• 00:04:51 The Resilience Factor: Why Andy Didn't Fail
• 00:06:09 Learning to Delegate: The Seven-Year Struggle
• 00:07:20 The Smoking Ban Pivot: Knowing When to Jump or Be Pushed
• 00:07:55 Building an Ecosystem: From Pubs to Bars to Clothing Shops
• 00:10:15 Customer Experience Masterclass: The Power of Fixing Mistakes
• 00:15:12 Defining Success: Happiness Over Everything
• 00:19:56 The Month Off Challenge: Working Yourself Out of the Business
• 00:26:59 The BizFest Origin Story: Born in a Bath in Portugal
• 00:31:01 The Only Real Risk: What If Nobody Shows Up?
• 00:33:16 Sales and Marketing Lessons: Throw Money at the Problem
• 00:35:11 The Ticket Sales Spike: Why Events Come Together Last Minute
• 00:41:30 First Time on Stage: The Andy Coulson and Jamie Lang Interviews
• 00:46:36 The Future of BizFest: Scaling Across the UK and Beyond
• 00:47:33 The Life-Changing Moment: When BizFest Led to an Adoption

#AndyColeman #BizzFest #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #Hospitality #EventsIndustry #PersonalBranding #FounderStory #SmallBusiness #BusinessLessons #SalesAndMarketing #CustomerExperience #StartupFailure #Resilience #WeHaveAMeeting

Connect with Andy: BizzFest: https://www.bizzfest.co.uk

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theandycoleman/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-coleman-6343aa49/

Hear more from the hosts:

Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b

Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b

Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting

Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Mark Bowden has spent his career reading the eight seconds before anyone says a word. He's the founder of Truth Plane, and he's coached leaders at the G7, elite athletes and Fortune 500 executives on how to win trust and credibility the moment they walk into a room, long before their content, their numbers or their pitch ever gets heard.

Mark Bowden and hosts Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson get into why your brain decides whether to trust someone in seconds, and why that decision has almost nothing to do with what's actually being said. Mark delivers the same five-million-pound pitch twice, live, with two completely different sets of body language, to prove that identical words land completely differently depending on how predictable your movement is. He breaks down why "you can never change a first impression" is a myth, and gives the exact script for rebuilding trust once it's broken. He explains why the brain isn't a computer but a chemical system that changes its own thresholds day to day, why a nervous read and a lying read can look almost identical, and why Donald Trump's handshake theatre with world leaders is a deliberate performance for an audience, not an instinct.

Along the way: why one person's charisma is another person's arrogance, the exact question to ask at any networking event instead of pitching yourself, how to build real rapport without turning someone else's story into your own, the cold call line that stops a "no" before it starts, and the story of how Zac's brother accidentally avoided being mugged by his trousers falling down.

• 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Mark Bowden, Body Language Expert
• 00:00:30 The Trust and Credibility Problem: Why Everyone Needs Help
• 00:01:25 The Anxiety Factor: Who Mark Helps and Why
• 00:02:57 First Impressions in the Boardroom: The Predictability Principle
• 00:07:38 The Likeability Paradox: When Being Difficult Still Works
• 00:11:13 Can You Change a First Impression: The Real Answer
• 00:13:40 The Persuasion Transparency Technique: Telling Them You're Persuading Them
• 00:20:44 The Brain Is Not a Computer: Why Complex Systems Need Simple Tools
• 00:26:20 Trump's Handshake Strategy: Performing for Your Audience
• 00:30:47 The Networking Event Masterclass: How to Win Without Selling
• 00:38:27 The Hierarchical Evaluative Question: Finding What People Really Value
• 00:47:52 The Cold Call Pattern Interrupt: When They Say No, Say Thank You
• 00:50:33 The Duty to Persuade: Why Letting People Go Is Failing Them
• 00:51:51 The Closing Question: What Will You Do Immediately and What's in Your Way

#MarkBowden #TruthPlane #BodyLanguage #BodyLanguageExpert #NonverbalCommunication #TrustAndCredibility #FirstImpressions #Charisma #Persuasion #SalesPsychology #ColdCalling #Networking #PublicSpeaking #ExecutivePresence #CommunicationSkills #SalesTraining #B2BSales #WeHaveAMeeting

Connect with Mark: Truth Plane: https://www.truthplane.com

Hear more from the hosts: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b

Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b

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