In this episode we discuss: Board Relationships. We are joined by Helen Hopper and Joy Harcup, authors of book, The Art and Psychology of Board Relationships.

We chat about the following:

• Unravelling Boardroom Dynamics: What's Really at Stake?
• The Power of Psychological Safety: A Boardroom Imperative?
• Self-Awareness: The Boardroom Game Changer?
• Mastering Conflict Resolution in the Boardroom: Strategies Unveiled
• Trust, Collaboration, Success: The Boardroom Trifecta?

References:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-hopper-h3/
• https://www.hcubed.co.uk/who-we-are
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-harcup-9392352/

Biography:

HELEN HOPPER trained in management consultancy with Accenture, and in occupational psychology with SHL, before co-founding the leadership consulting firm hCubed in 2010, where she is a Partner. h3’s mission is to stimulate growth through learning and Helen pursues this with individuals, teams and organisations as a coach and facilitator. She is an active supporter of mental health charities, most recently as COO of The Listening Place, and Trustee at The Mix.

JOY HARCUP is an executive coach with international coaching firm Praesta LLP, working with individuals, top executive teams and boards. She has 20 years’ leadership coaching experience with clients including the FTSE 100, professional services, public and not-for-profit sectors. Joy was President of the UK Board of the International Coaching Federation. A former lawyer specialising in dispute resolution, she’s also sat on boards in the education and charitable sectors.

To learn more about Beth and Brandon or to find out about sponsorship opportunities click here.

Summary:

• Bullying in board meetings and its impact on individuals. 0:06
• Bethany Ayers experienced issues with her phone number porting and international roaming, leading to a frustrating conversation with Oh Two customer support.
• Despite being told her case was closed, Bethany was able to get her number back after waiting for a couple of days.
• Bethany acknowledges being a potential bully in the past, recognizing behaviors that could be harmful to others.
• Brandon M. questions the use of the term "bullying," suggesting that it can be subjective and context-dependent.
• Effective board meetings, leadership, and conflict resolution. 5:18
• Brandon M. and Bethany discuss ways to address unhelpful behavior in meetings, including intervening, redirecting, and parking the issue for later discussion.
• Effective chairperson engagement is critical for maintaining a functional board, according to Brandon M. and Bethany.
• Bethany emphasizes the importance of having a pre-agreed contract, such as a team canvas, to establish expectations and prevent conflicts within teams.
• Bethany criticizes traditional board dynamics, citing a lack of modernization and unrealistic expectations of chairs, and argues for more inclusive and empathetic approaches to leadership.
• Effective board meetings, including setting a strong chair, providing clear agendas, and making an ask of the board.

In this episode we discuss: The depths of strategy. We are joined by Steve Spall, Board Advisor.

We chat about the following:

• What are the hallmarks of a good strategy?
• Do complex strategies hinder rather than help?
• How can leaders ensure that every employee understands and aligns with the strategy?
• Can leaders without a natural strategic mindset still drive a company's success through strong execution and team alignment?

References:

• www.linkedin.com/in/stevespall

Biography:

Over the past 15 years, Steven Spall has driven scale-ups through successful exits to FMCG giants, most recently serving as COO at tails.com after his tenure as Group Operations and Strategy Director at innocent drinks. Prior to this, Steven spent a decade in various senior operations, change, and strategy roles at British Gas, Tesco, and Kingfisher. His early career included positions as a supply chain project manager and distribution centre manager at Whitbread Beer Company and as an operations consultant at Ernst & Young.

Steven is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Cardiff Business School in the Logistics and Operations Management Section. He is now focusing on Non-Executive roles within operations-heavy smaller businesses.

Steven has been happily married to his delightful wife Kate for over 30 years. They have a grown-up daughter who creates the special effects for the London Dungeons and a son who is a co-founder of a deep physics tech start-up. In their leisure time, Steven and Kate enjoy travelling across Europe in their VW camper.

To learn more about Beth and Brandon or to find out about sponsorship opportunities click here.

Summary:

• Work-life balance and happiness in the corporate world. 0:05
• Hosts discuss seasonal affective disorder and London weather.
• Brandon and Bethany discuss the idea that success and happiness are not always directly linked, despite achieving career milestones.
• Strategy development, communication, and adaptability in business. 3:10
• Bethany: Good strategy has a clear purpose, vision, and market problem to solve.
• Brandon M: Strategy should be framed up on paper, adhere to OKRs, and be communicated effectively.
• Strategy should be enduring, but OKRs move faster to adapt to changing market dynamics.
• Brandon and Bethany discuss their company's strategy and OKRs, ensuring alignment and communication across teams.
• They prioritize listening to employees and adjusting the strategy based on market changes and feedback.
• Vision, purpose, mission, and strategy in business. 10:42
• Bethany defines vision as "what the company needs to look like in 5 years" and purpose as "why am I getting up on Monday morning" (12 words)
• Brandon defines strategy as "how the company will solve a problem in the industry to achieve its vision" (14 words)
• Strategy defined as understanding scope, figuring out unique solution, and aligning with values.
• Strategy development, execution, and alignment. 14:33
• Steve: Well-defined success and understanding situation are crucial for effective strategy.
• Identifying a unique solution to overcome...

In this episode, we discuss performance management and getting the most from your teams. We are joined by Jessica Zwaan, Author of the best-selling book, Built for People, and COO of Talentful.

We chat about:

• Can traditional performance reviews truly capture an employee's value?
• Are OKRs just a trendy buzzword or a real strategy for driving company success?
• How can organizational network analysis uncover the real influencers in your team?
• What does it take to measure true employee performance in today's remote work era?

References:

Jessica’s LinkedIn

Website

Biography:

Your company is building three products: A financial instrument, a customer product, and an employee experience. I advocate treating employees as customers purchasing an experience of work, and I encourage us to work like Product Managers in order to iterate and improve on that product. This paradigm shift positions work itself as the focal point of our strive for success, not just optimising the individuals as "human capital". Like the idea? I wrote a book all about it, called "Built for People" which you can buy basically anywhere books are sold.

To learn more about Beth and Brandon or to find out about sponsorship opportunities click here.

Summary:

• Choosing a life partner and nannies as a "wife hire." 0:05
• Bethany discussed tips for choosing a partner for career success, including finding someone whose mother worked outside the home.
• Bethany values hiring a nanny for the mental load relief and organization.
• Performance management effectiveness and its various components. 4:40
• Brandon and Bethany discuss the ineffectiveness of performance management, with 64% of workers viewing it as a waste of time and 47% considering it a failure in their company.
• Jessica Swann distinguishes between performance assessment and management, highlighting the importance of individualized growth and development in the latter.
• Bethany expresses concerns about goal-measuring and its practicality in the workplace.
• Bethany and Brandon discuss the importance of organizational network analysis and its impact on problem-solving.
• Performance management and leadership development. 10:06
• Bethany suggests rolling out OKRs gently, learning along the way, and avoiding command and control.
• Brandon agrees, emphasizing the importance of measuring marketing and sales performance collectively and connecting it to business outcomes.
• Brandon and Bethany discuss the importance of effective performance management and leadership skills for line managers.
• Bethany questions the feasibility of performance management, citing potential biases and limitations in the process.
• Performance management and assessment in organizations. 15:27
• Jessica emphasizes the importance of understanding employee performance, citing it as the most critical question in HR.
• Bethany agrees, highlighting the need for effective performance management...

In this episode, we discuss usage-based pricing, seat pricing, maximising margin and customer expansion. We are joined by Mark Stiving, Founder of Impact Pricing.

We chat about:

• What exactly is usage-based pricing?
• How do we correlate pricing metrics with how customers are using the product?
• What are the criteria and considerations when choosing the value metric?
• How do you choose between true usage-based pricing and tiered usage-based pricing?
• How do we work around the pricing mechanisms that our clients or vendors are giving us?
• Is there more of a move towards straight usage or is tiered pricing here to stay?
• How do we expand our customers?
• Who should be responsible for pricing and packaging within the company?

References:

Mark on LinkedIN

Mark’s podcast, Impact Pricing

Biography:

Mark Stiving, Pricing Educator, Coach, Podcast Host & 2x Author. He has driven business initiatives worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He is sought after for his superpower of finding invincible profits in every company he works with.

He is an award-winning international speaker known for helping audiences find hidden value and more profit, immediately.

Mark started and successfully sold three powerful companies in the tech sector.

His forthcoming book is "Invincible Profits: How to Lead a Value Revolution and Dominate Your Market"

To learn more about Beth and Brandon or to find out about sponsorship opportunities click here.

Summary:

• Usage-based pricing with a focus on personalization and avoiding seat-based pricing. 0:05
• Bethany shares her recent haircut experience with Brandon, including the surprise of finding a large amount of hair after cutting it.
• Brandon discusses usage-based pricing, highlighting its potential cleverness and limitations.
• Pricing strategies for SaaS companies, including usage-based pricing and subscription packages. 4:02
• Brandon: Value metric should be clear, easy to understand, and tie to usage (e.g., transcription files, contacts in HubSpot)
• Brandon: Finding a single value metric to scale can be challenging, as customers may not understand usage outside of vendor-supplied calculators
• Brandon discusses challenges in customer success with usage-based pricing, including unhappy customers who want to downgrade and the potential for unused value.
• Bethany and Brandon discuss the importance of commissioning based on usage and actual money being seen, with a...

In this episode, we discuss: Is it possible to pivot to profitability? We are joined by Libby Penn, she is the COO of Improbable.

We chat about the following:

• What's the COO's role in the pivot to profitability
• What are the right bets to make in a business?
• How should we balance profitability and growth?
• What is the importance of well-documented data?
• What is realistic in terms of profitability?
• Who is responsible for capturing data?

References:

LinkedIn

Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke

Biography:

Libby Penn has experience in various business development and operations roles across a number of high-growth technology businesses on SaaS and enterprise models, B2B and B2C, in both the UK and the US. This has given her an in-depth insight into the complexities that come with the role as COO.

Summary:

• Gender roles and microaggressions in the workplace. 0:05
• Bethany Ayres discusses the challenges of being a woman in leadership positions, including societal expectations and performative ally ship.
• Bethany launches a series of free webinars to support first-time female executives and aspiring executives, focusing on topics such as taking a seat at the table and choosing the right life partner.
• Brandon and Bethany discuss the challenges of navigating gender roles and microaggressions in their personal and professional lives.
• Bethany shares an example of a leadership team meeting where a male colleague's swearing and apologies towards her created an uncomfortable work environment.
• Pivoting to profitability for a B2B SaaS company. 4:55
• Bethany: Analyzes company's strategy, identifies unprofitable areas for cuts.
• Bethany: Looks at lease and office expirations, considers cost-cutting measures.
• Bethany and Brandon discuss strategies for improving profitability, including renegotiating cloud contracts, focusing on profitable channels, and optimizing GTM motions.
• They also discuss the importance of tracking data properly to make informed decisions about spend and identify areas for improvement.
• Brandon and Bethany discuss partner strategy, testing, and doubling down on successful partnerships.
• They emphasize the importance of hiring quality people who are well-respected within the partner company.
• Pivoting to profitability, focusing on market strategy, operations efficiency, and automation. 12:42
• Brandon and Bethany discuss the importance of qualitative analysis to validate data-driven insights for profitability.
• Brandon and Bethany discuss the importance of operational efficiency and automation in a company's shift to profitability.
• Balancing growth and profitability for startups. 15:55
• Libby highlights the importance of balancing risk and innovation in investments.
• Libby emphasizes product development as key to profitability, while Bethany focuses on balancing growth and profitability.
• Data analysis, product development, and customer focus in tech companies.

In this episode, we discuss: The life-ruining power of routines. We are joined by Markham Heid, he is a Journalist with TIME and New York Times.

We chat about the following:

• How do we optimise our lives without falling into the trap of routine?
• Do we need routine and structure to be productive?
• Are you busy because it’s necessary?
• What’s the right balance between routine and creative space?
• How can companies get involved in breaking routine and encouraging creativity?

References:

LinkedIn

Article - The life-ruining power of routines

Website

Biography:

Markham has worked as a staff writer at both a major metropolitan newspaper and a national magazine, but for the past 12 years he’s worked as an independent (freelance) journalist.

Markham has written about England's Jurassic Coast for Travel & Leisure, covered workplace culture for an HR quarterly mag, and explored Germany's transition away from nuclear energy for Vox. But most of his writing has been in the health and science space.

Between 2014 and 2018, he wrote a weekly health column for TIME.com, which was called You Asked. Since 2018, Markham has done something similar for Medium, where he’s followed by ~350k subscribers. He’s still a frequent contributor at TIME, and he also writes regularly for the New York Times. His work has received awards from both the Society of Professional Journalists and the Maryland, Delaware, and D.C. Press Association.

He’s originally from Detroit, but right now he lives in southeast Germany with his wife and two kids.

Summary:

• The negative impact of routines and habits on personal optimization. 0:05
• Bethany aims to increase income by securing one more board seat.
• Markham Hyde argues in Financial Times article that routines lead to suffering, not personal optimization.
• Routines, productivity, and spontaneity in adulthood. 3:15
• Brandon: Routine-oriented, wants to package boring tasks for productivity.
• Bethany: Automate, eliminate tasks to free mental load, not create routine.
• Bethany and Brandon have different approaches to exercise and structure in their lives.
• Brandon has lived in different countries and jobs, categorizing his life by chunks of time, while now as an adult with a family, he questions whether that's possible anymore.
• Routine, spontaneity, and finding balance in life and work. 8:21
• Bethany suggests finding balance between structure and unstructured time to pursue interests and passions.
• Moderation is key to happiness, rather than being too rigid or spontaneous.
• Bethany suggests creating a routine to overcome fear and find inspiration (0:11:02)
• Bethany and Brandon discuss the balance between routine and spontaneity in business contexts (0:12:41)
• Innovation weeks in companies, with a focus on structure and culture. 14:04
• Innovation week at a...

In this episode, we discuss: Why does community matter for organisations? We are joined by Jaclyn Pascocello, she is the founder of Fabrik.

We chat about the following:

• What are the trends in people and the connections they are building and want to build?
• Where should the L&D budget be spent?
• Is it part of the company's responsibility to help foster connections that are not within the company?
• Are we at the top of a community-building hype cycle?
• What are the optimal conditions for the hybrid worker?

References:

Jaclyn LinkedIn

Fabrik

Biography:

Mom + Founder of Fabrik. A driven leader with a passion for hospitality and customer experience and a proven track record of building and scaling startups. Building an IRL solution to uplift our communities and create more serendipity. Expert in creating unique and memorable consumer experiences in DTC, brick-and-mortar, hospitality, and F&B.

Summary:

• Homophobia and the story of a forgotten fashion photographer. 0:06
• Brandon and Bethany discuss life stages, London, and the BFI's LGBTQ+ film festival.
• Bethany and Brandon discuss the documentary "Stonewall" and the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals in the past.
• Loneliness in remote work and its impact on employees' well-being. 3:40
• Brandon: Loneliness crisis affects individuals, organizations, and communities.
• Bethany: Hybrid work is here to stay, but it may lead to more loneliness.
• Brandon and Bethany discuss the impact of remote work on employee loneliness and the responsibility of organizations to address it.
• Software developer quit previous job due to lack of pre-existing relationships, highlighting the importance of social connections in the workplace.
• Combating loneliness in the workplace through professional connections. 9:20
• Bethany shares her personal experience of feeling unseen and lonely in her marriage, despite being physically present with her husband.
• Bethany finds it freeing to make deeper connections outside of work due to reduced risk and potential for misinterpretation.
• Brandon suggests providing financial support for individuals to join professional organizations, such as the CEO roundtable, to combat loneliness and provide emotional support.
• Building communities for professionals, both internally and externally. 13:25
• Bethany and others discuss the importance of community and connection in the workplace.
• Speaker 3: Internal community building should be supported by L&D budget, but external communities can also be fostered.
• Bethany: External communities can be monetized to help employees feel less lonely, but internal connection is also important.
• Workplace community building, employee resource groups, and customer advocacy communities. 17:40
• Organizations should focus on supporting community within the employee base...

In this episode we discuss: What are the priorities for COO’s in 2024? We are joined by Cameron Herold, he is the founder of the COO Alliance and author of the Second in Command.

We chat about the following:

• What are the priorities for COO’s in 2024?
• How should we think about budgets this year?
• How is the COO role changing?
• What are the commonalities across COO’s?
• How do you work with a controlling CEO?
• How should a COO think about their relationship with the CEO?
• Do you have tips on how-to give good praise?
• Is the CEO role the next step for a COO?

References:

Cameron Herold

COO Alliance

YouTube Channel

Biography:

Founder of the COO Alliance & Invest In Your Leaders Course

Author of Vivid Vision & The Second In Command

Meet Cameron Herold, the mastermind behind the exponential growth of hundreds of companies. As the founder of the COO Alliance and the Invest In Your Leaders course, Cameron is a dynamic consultant who has coached some of the biggest names in business, including Sprint Telecom and a monarchy in the Middle East. Known as the "CEO Whisperer", Cameron has a reputation for guiding his clients to double their profits and revenue in just three years or less.

Cameron's entrepreneurial journey began at a young age, and by 35, he had helped build his first two $100 million dollar companies. But his greatest achievement came as the COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, where he engineered the company's spectacular growth from $2 million to $106 million in revenue and from 14 to 3,100 employees - all in just six years.

Cameron is not just a successful business leader, but also a captivating speaker. The current publisher of Forbes magazine, Rich Karlgaard, stated "Cameron Herold is the best speaker I've ever heard...he hits grand slams”.

When he's not on stage, Cameron continues to teach through his Second In Command podcast and his bestselling books, including Vivid Vision, Meetings Suck, Free PR, Double Double, and The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs.

Cameron is a top-rated international speaker and has been paid to speak in 26 countries and on all 7 continents, including Antarctica in early 2022. He is also the top-rated lecturer at EO/MIT's Entrepreneurial Masters Program and a powerful and effective speaker at CEO and COO leadership events worldwide.

Summary:

• Budgeting, forecasting, and scenario planning for businesses. 0:05
• Bethany Ayers is considering running for MP to advocate for cannabis legalization.
• Cameron Herold, CEO of several companies, joins the podcast to discuss priorities for a CEO in 2024.
• Brandon and Bethany discuss the importance of linking budget, revenue, and GTM assumptions in a financial model to make informed investment decisions and communicate effectively with leadership.
• Bethany agrees that this model is essential for aligning leadership with the company's situation and setting budgets based on financial forecasts.
• Bethany emphasizes the importance of a scorecard in tracking key elements of low cash flow and ensuring data integrity.
• Brandon discusses his experiment with a client, using a financial p&l tool for scenario planning and live data flow, and evaluating its effectiveness in serving three...