How to be more Connection Intelligent, with Jenny Ainsworth

If you’re good at what you do, you’re probably busy. And if you’re busy, you’re probably not doing the things that would make your business work better without you. That’s the trap most expert-led businesses fall into - and it’s exactly what this conversation with Gareth Everson is about. Gareth is a systems coach who’s spent 15 years helping around 450 small business owners build better sales systems. He’s the author of The Lemonade Plan - a practical framework for generating predictable profit through refreshingly simple processes. He’s also a software developer and currently building a software product based on the Lemonade methodology. For any consultant, coach, or expert who has ever wondered why a less capable competitor seems to be doing better - this episode will give you some uncomfortable answers and some very actionable ones. ✳️ The sales cycle of doom is real - and most experts are stuck in it. You’re so focused on delivering the current work that you stop filling the pipeline, which means you take whatever comes next rather than what you actually want. ✳️ Most businesses are one-hit wonders when it comes to follow-up. Gareth’s research shows 85% of people who will ever buy from you won’t do so for over 100 days - yet most businesses stop following up after a week or two, leaving the field wide open. ✳️ Your website is almost certainly working against you. If the only calls to action are “get a quote” or “contact us,” you’re only ever speaking to the 1-3% of visitors who are ready to buy right now - and ignoring the rest entirely. Gareth’s Amplifiers ✳️ Strategy - Build to extract, not to sell. With only 0.3% of UK businesses achieving a meaningful exit sale, Gareth’s advice is to generate enough consistent profit to extract and invest - including up to £60,000 per year per director into a pension (SIPP). Start with the Rebel Finance School for a practical framework around this. ✳️ Tactic - Build your greatest hits sequence. Rather than following up once or twice, create a structured nurture sequence that runs for months - or even years - after someone makes an enquiry. Download chapter 12 of The Lemonade Plan free at lemonadeplan.com/chapter. ✳️ Tool - NotebookLM Web Importer. A £39 Chrome extension that lets you feed entire YouTube playlists into Google’s NotebookLM, turning hundreds of hours of content into a private, interactive knowledge resource you can query directly. If this episode got you thinking about what your pipeline actually looks like - and what it should look like - follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Find out more about Gareth here garetheverson.com - weekly email essay and blog LinkedIn, Instagram - @GarethEverson lemonadeplan.com/chapter - Chapter 12, the greatest hits sequence Time stamps 00:00 Introduction 00:34 Bob's intro and the Personal Brand Business Roadmap 01:51 Meet Gareth Everson - systems coach, author, and software developer 04:12 Why software thinking applies directly to business 05:33 What profit should actually look like in a small business 08:33 The universal vicious cycle of competence 09:10 The sales cycle of doom - what it is and why it matters 10:15 Two business coaches, two very different outcomes 12:39 Starting with the end in mind - working back from the experience 14:00 Pricing fear, proposals, and the danger of discounting too soon 16:21 Why prospects go quiet - and what to do instead 18:49 The Quote Not Booked sequence - following up for years, not weeks 21:00 Why most websites only serve 1-3% of visitors 22:06 The logical lead generation mix for service businesses 23:31 One-hit wonders vs greatest hits - Gareth's follow-up framework 25:00 The 85% rule - most buyers won't buy for 100+ days 29:44 Proactive lead generation - the mix that works 32:48 Paid media - how little you actually need to spend 37:49 Keeping the right clients and filtering out the wrong ones 40:25 Gareth's amplifiers - strategy, tactic, and tool 41:55 Amplifier 1 - Build to extract

Many of the people I work with are very good at what they do. They just don't want to shout about it. The word 'marketing' makes them wince. 'Personal brand' feels like something other people do - louder people, people who love being on camera. If that sounds familiar, this conversation is for you. My guest is Melitta Campbell, author of Value Whispering and The Shy Girl's Guide to Networking. Melitta helps experts - many of them introverts - build marketing that feels like them. Not loud. Not pushy. Just clear, consistent and intentional. Here's what we covered: ✳️ Your value sweet spot - the overlap between why your clients matter to you and why you matter to them. Nobody else has that same overlap, and it should shape every decision you make, not just your messaging. ✳️ Think, feel, do and believe - instead of squeezing people through a funnel, map what someone needs to think, feel, do and believe at each stage before they're ready to work with you. Three to five stages is usually plenty. ✳️ Self-promotion done well doesn't look like self-promotion - when it's done well, people just say 'that's Bob being Bob'. You're not promoting yourself. You're promoting the way you help. Melitta's Amplifiers: ✳️ Read The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr - a natural next step after StoryBrand that explains the psychology of why some stories stick and others don't. ✳️ Try the Olympic Method - rank every task as gold, silver or bronze. You'll likely find around 80% are bronze tasks that just need to get done, not done perfectly. ✳️ Build self-compassion into how you work - self-respect helps you set the boundaries you need to do your best work, and Melitta sees a clear link between that and success. If this was useful, follow or subscribe so you don't miss the next one. And if you know someone who's brilliant at what they do but hates the idea of marketing it, send this their way. Find out more about Melitta, her work, podcast and her book here. Timestamps

Most of the leaders I speak to are somewhere between curious and quietly anxious about AI. They know it matters. They're not entirely sure where to start. And the public narrative - redundancies, replacement, disruption - isn't helping anyone think clearly. Martin Wheatley works with senior leaders to rethink how work gets done with AI. His background is financial services - large teams, process improvement, regulated environments at scale. He brings a grounded, practical lens to a conversation that often generates more heat than light. If you've been dabbling with ChatGPT and wondering whether there's more to this than a slightly clever search engine, this one's worth your full attention. Three things we got into: ✳️ Psychological safety is the leader's first job with AI - before your team can experiment, they need to know it's safe to try, fail, and learn in the open. Leaders who build that environment move faster than those who don't, and the organisations that are getting this right aren't cutting headcount - they're creating roles that didn't exist before. ✳️ AI is brilliant at systems and pretty poor at emotion - most leadership doctrine already leans too far into command-and-control thinking. Doubling down on AI without balancing it with human judgment isn't progress. The leader's job is to provide the emotional and strategic intelligence the tools can't replicate. ✳️ Delegation is the hidden AI skill nobody's talking about - setting clear expectations, checking work, correcting course. That's already your job. It's also exactly what working effectively with AI requires. If you can master delegation, you're already ahead of most people using these tools. Martin's amplifiers - things you can do right now: ✳️ Read Empire of AI by Karen Hao - it covers the rise of OpenAI, how the models were built and trained, and some of the less visible human and environmental costs involved. Good context for any leader who wants to understand what they're actually working with, beyond the marketing. ✳️ Revisit Carol Dweck's growth mindset - Martin's seen people go from being the loudest AI detractors in a business to becoming its biggest internal champions. The willingness to be a beginner again is what separates those who adapt from those who get left behind. ✳️ Try WhisperFlow (or VoiceInk if monthly fees aren't your thing) - press a button, talk at your screen, let the AI distil what you're actually trying to say. Martin uses it daily for prompting. It's faster and more honest than typing because your brain stops filtering what comes out. If this was useful, hit follow so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you've got a moment before you get on with your day, a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts makes a genuinely noticeable difference. Find out more about Martin : https://www.theaileaderlab.com/ & connect with him on Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinjwheatley/ Apple Podcasts Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and episode preview 00:49 - Bob's intro - the Personal Brand Business Roadmap 02:00 - Why AI is a leadership conversation, not just a technology one 02:50 - Martin Wheatley - background and what he does 05:00 - Psychological safety and the AI narrative 08:09 - The creative explosion hiding behind the efficiency story 10:30 - What IKEA and Costco are actually doing with AI 13:03 - What you get when you strip people out to chase efficiency 14:35 - Command and control leadership vs what AI needs from you 17:13 - How the average leader gets started with AI 19:07 - Why structured learning matters more now than ever 20:34 - How Martin works with individual leaders 23:00 - Managing tool risk - don't put all your eggs in one basket 25:08 - Why most people still can't run a proper Google search 26:31 - Everyone is becoming a manager of agents 28:39 - The imagination gap - why we need a roundtable 29:14 - The Multiply Method Roadmap - PRIME explained 32:45 - Amplifier 1 - Empire of AI by Karen Hao 34:48 - Ampl

If you've ever been curious about board roles - getting your first one, making it work, or eventually sitting in the chair - this episode is worth your time. Whether you're a senior leader thinking about a portfolio career, or you're already on boards and wondering what the next step looks like, the world of non-executive directorships and chairing is one that very few people explain clearly. Most people learn by doing. That means most people make avoidable mistakes. Lisa Tennant has been working in a portfolio career for 17 years. She chairs the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the NHS Pension Scheme for England and Wales, and through the Chair Circle she works with current and aspiring chairs. She's done over a hundred board interviews and received feedback on every one she didn't get. In this episode we cover what it actually takes to get on a board, what distinguishes a great board member from the chair's perspective, and why the chair role is far more demanding than most people expect. Three things we explored: ✳️ Your board brand matters more than your CV. The board recruitment market is competitive, and a generic pitch won't land. The people who get roles can clearly articulate what problem they solve for that specific board - which requires research, positioning, and a willingness to niche down. ✳️ The chair role is not a step up from board member - it's a different job. Lisa talks about moving from board member to chair and realising the full scope and weight of the role. The buck stops with the chair, and at times the pressure is comparable to a full executive role. ✳️ Trust is the thread that holds everything together. Whether it's the board-CEO relationship, the dynamic between board members, or the chair's ability to lead - nothing functions without it. Building trust deliberately is the chair's primary responsibility, in and out of the boardroom. Lisa's Amplifiers: ✳️ Read The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch. Apply it to your strategy, your annual review, and your decisions. If you can only do three things, which ones give you the most leverage? ✳️ Simplify your choices with one clear rule. Lisa cut out processed carbs and reversed pre-diabetes. The principle is the same as 80/20 - one rule that removes decision fatigue and gives you the most impact for the least effort. ✳️ Put people first - at work and at home. In the boardroom, nothing happens without trust, and trust only comes from genuinely prioritising the people around you. Outside work, the same applies. The relationships in your life matter more than the career. If this conversation sparked something, follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don't miss a week. Connect with Lisa on Linkedin. Timestamps: [00:00] Introduction [01:39] Lisa Tennant - portfolio career and the Chair Circle [03:01] Who should be thinking about board roles [07:42] Executive boards vs advisory boards [09:09] What boards are looking for in candidates [11:45] Board brand and the elevator pitch [15:38] Why rejection is part of the process [16:52] How much operational work do board roles involve [19:24] Due diligence before you accept a board role [23:06] Is it easy money - setting expectations [25:48] What makes a great board member [28:11] What does a dysfunctional chair look like [30:46] The chair-CEO relationship [34:40] Amplifier 1 - The 80/20 Principle [37:09] Amplifier 2 - One simple dietary rule [38:21] Amplifier 3 - People first

Most conversations about pivoting assume something has gone wrong. This one doesn't. Luria Petrucci has spent 20 years building audiences online - she started before YouTube existed, she's in the podcast hall of fame, and she has a thriving business. And right now she's doing something that most established people find harder than starting from nothing: choosing to move towards something new when everything is already working. That tension - between what you've built and what you know is next - is one of the most common things I see in the people I work with. The whisper of something more. The idea that's been sitting there for ten years. The version of you that's waiting for permission. Luria names all of it honestly, and that's what makes this conversation worth your time. Three key areas we covered: ✳️ Most pivots feel enormous from the inside - but from the outside, they're usually a small shift, not a leap. What makes them feel massive is releasing the identity and habits that served the old version of you. ✳️ The curse of expertise doesn't just affect your content - it affects your pivot too. Knowing too much can make you want to carry everything across. One video, one takeaway, three bullet points. The same discipline applies to how you communicate who you're becoming. ✳️ The "yapping" trend - casual, handheld, conversational video - works because it signals authenticity and builds parasocial relationships. For anyone in a pivot, it's one of the most accessible ways to build a new audience in parallel with an existing one. Luria's three amplifiers: ✳️ 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy - the 10x framework forces you to make genuinely different decisions rather than incrementally better ones. ✳️ Step outside, turn off the phone, and journal without AI. Getting your thoughts out in your own words - not prompted, not polished - reconnects you to who you actually are and what you actually think. ✳️ Release what served the old version of you. Old habits, old identities, old ways of operating become dead weight when you're levelling up. Recognising the difference between what got you here and what will take you further is one of the most underrated things you can do. If this resonated, you'll find more conversations like this every week on Building Your Leader Brand. Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, and if you're on Apple Podcasts, a five-star review goes a long way. Luria's Website : https://livestreamingpros.com/room/ Apple Podcasts Timestamps 00:00 - Welcome and introducing Luria Petrucci 02:27 - Twenty years in video - how it all started 05:34 - Introverts on camera - why it works better than you think 09:20 - The mirror problem - why we see ourselves so harshly 12:00 - The community mirror exercise - what others actually see 15:40 - Leadership, vulnerability, and the reluctance to start again 18:02 - Transmitting on an authentic frequency 19:23 - The curse of expertise - saying less to communicate more 22:31 - One video, one takeaway - the three-question framework 25:32 - Repetition in content - why saying the same thing again is a strategy 27:52 - The yapping trend - casual video and the three universal languages 31:55 - Yapping vs live streaming vs produced video 33:03 - Parasocial relationships and why they feel real 38:01 - Luria's pivot - building in public from scratch 43:40 - Pivoting from a position of strength - the confirmation bias trap 49:39 - Entrepreneurial loneliness and creating space for honest conversations 53:11 - The three amplifiers 58:01 - Amplifier 2 - nature, journaling, and stepping away from AI 01:00:19 - Amplifier 3 - releasing what served the old you 01:00:50 - Where to find Luria and how to join the pivot community