Crisis What Crisis with Andy Coulson

Millions know Mike Soutar as the forensic interviewer on The Apprentice, the Scottish voice across the boardroom table for the last 15 years. But long before the television, he built one of the most remarkable careers in British media – on a deceptively simple formula of hard work, optimism and self-belief.
In this business episode, we go back to the beginning. Mike started out at 17 writing horoscopes and romantic fiction at DC Thomson in Dundee, working on hot metal presses with a pencil he wasn't allowed to replace until it was a stub. By his early 20s he was editing Smash Hits. He went on to turn FHM into the biggest-selling monthly magazine in Britain, launched some of the country's best-known titles, and sat on the board of IPC when it was sold to Time Warner for more than £1 billion.
But the biggest turning point of his career came not in a boardroom, but in a hospital bed. In 2006, at the height of his corporate success, a chicken Caesar wrap left him seriously ill, his organs beginning to fail, unsure whether he'd survive. Lying there, he asked himself whether he had ever really tested himself — and the honest answer was no. So he walked away from the security of corporate life, raised £4 million in five weeks, remortgaged his home and launched ShortList.
His new book, Next Gen CEO, is about how the next generation of leaders can navigate an age of AI and uncertainty by becoming, of all things, more human.
POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY
I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on.
This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.
FOUR LESSONS FROM MIKE
Optimism without a plan is just naivety. When ShortList failed on day one, hope didn't save it, a plan did.
Investors back people first, ideas second. Ideas change the moment they meet the real world. What backers are really buying is you.
When you're fighting a difficult boss, keep it principled, not personal. Argue for the customer, not for yourself, and keep bringing the data. It's very hard for anyone to argue against a case built on what's genuinely right for the people you serve.
Chasing purpose. Mike had sold his company, had the money and the status, and still felt hollow. He thought what was missing was a job, instead it was a purpose..

CHAPTERS
06:38 – Why AI makes human leadership more valuable, not less
10:13 – Whether a self-made career is still possible in a flat economy
14:59 – How instability early on can forge the drive to control your own destiny
21:42 – Fake it till you make it: backing yourself into a job you're not ready for
24:27 – The FHM playbook: build in service of your customer, not your advertiser
28:43 – Why he left a hit at its peak – and what fear of failure does to founders
32:12 – How to stand your ground with a boss who holds all the cards
39:41 – The near-death moment that asked him: have you ever really tested yourself?
44:23 – Losing control, and what to do when you're forced out
46:27 – How he raised £4 million in five weeks – and why investors really said yes
50:16 – The launch-day disaster, and the case for protecting your team from the panic
53:22 – The £1 million opportunity he turned down – and the lesson in why
55:03 – Why success and status left him feeling hollow – and what actually fixed it
59:15 – Knowing when a job isn't worth your reputation, and walking away
01:03:27 – What 15 years on The Apprentice taught him about how to treat people
BUY MIKE'S BOOK
Next Gen CEO: Leadership Lessons for an Uncertain World – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Next-Gen-CEO-Lessons-Uncertain/dp/1035095726
FOLLOW MIKE SOUTAR
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mike_soutar/?hl=en
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-soutar/
FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?
Instagram – www.instagram.com/crisiswhatcrisispodcast
TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@crisispod
This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Perspective is one of the most useful tools we have in crisis – a way of taking pressure out of a difficult moment, stepping back and working out what really matters.
In this special compilation episode of Crisis What Crisis, I share the story of the five most terrifying days of my own life and revisit four extraordinary guests whose lives have been shaped, and sometimes almost undone, by the pursuit of perspective.
POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:
I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.
This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.
CHAPTERS:
00:41 The worst experience of my life
05:06 Timbaland – the bullet that's still inside him, and why he refuses to take it out
06:05 Dame Stephanie Shirley – the Kindertransport and the neighbours who kept asking, "aren't you lucky to be saved?"
12:48 James Landale – seeing death across a crowded room, and the tank of coloured poison he can still return to
14:30 Rory Stewart – the frozen body in the snow, sitting down happy to die, and the dog that saved him
19:29 The Belmarsh swear jar – how the words you use shape the size of the crisis
21:50 Four things I take from all of this
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODES:
Timbaland – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000634317774
Dame Stephanie Shirley – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000680629888
James Landale – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000642157416
Rory Stewart – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000608962048
FOLLOW THE GUESTS:
Timbaland – https://www.instagram.com/timbaland/?hl=en
Rory Stewart – https://www.instagram.com/rorystewartuk/?hl=en
FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?
Instagram – www.instagram.com/crisiswhatcrisispodcast
TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@crisispod
This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Johnny Seifert (audio)

In this country, one in six of us will experience significant anxiety at some point in our lives. It's an epidemic that doesn't care about class, wealth, gender, age or race – and yet, as this episode argues, anxiety isn't the enemy. It's information. A signal to be read, not a fault to be removed.
In this special compilation episode, Andy Coulson draws on his own experience of anxiety attacks and revisits six past guests – a broadcaster, a journalist, a content creator, an adventurer, a designer and a cellist – who each faced anxiety in a very different form and found their own way to live alongside it.
POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY
I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley.
Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.
FULL EPISODES:
Steve Peters: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000547878428
Christian O'Connell: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000659675816
Bryony Gordon: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000650752366
Alex Goldie: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000729186695
Mark Beaumont: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000618838895
Anya Hindmarch: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000768689727
Julian Lloyd Webber: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000779874143
FOLLOW THE GUESTS:
Christian O'Connell: https://www.instagram.com/mrchristianoconnell/?hl=en
Bryony Gordon: https://www.instagram.com/bryonygordon/?hl=en
Alex Goldie: https://www.instagram.com/goldiealexx/?hl=en
Mark Beaumont: https://www.instagram.com/mrmarkbeaumont/?hl=en
Anya Hindmarch: https://www.instagram.com/anyahindmarch/?hl=en
Julian Lloyd Webber: https://www.instagram.com/julian.lloydwebber/?hl=en
FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?
Instagram – www.instagram.com/crisiswhatcrisispodcast
TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@crisispod
This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Johnny Seifert (audio)

Most guests give me their Crisis Compass looking back on a crisis they've survived. Erin Baker is different. Her partner died just 12 weeks before this recording, and she is, by her own account, exhausted by the demand to keep being strong.
These four points aren't hard-won wisdom viewed from calmer shores — they're the things holding her up as we speak. That, I think, makes them rarer and more valuable than almost any compass I've been given.
In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, I sit down with Erin to discuss her Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation that she turns to in order to help survive a crisis – a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice.
If you haven't heard the full conversation yet, go back and find it in the feed. It's well worth your time.
POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:
I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.
This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.
CHAPTERS:
00:52 A Person – Her Frant village church community, and the stability they've offered when everything else is in flux
01:23 A Piece of Advice – A day at a time. The most hypocritical advice she could pass on — and the only one that works now
01:57 A Comfort – Writing. It's her career because it was her comfort first
02:09 A Habit – Paint by numbers. Half an hour of something absolutely mindless
FOLLOW ERIN'S WRITING
Postcards from Grief – https://erinbaker1001.substack.com/
FOLLOW ERIN BAKER
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/erinbakerauto/?hl=en
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-baker-58901a48/
FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?
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TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@crisispod
This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

This is a very unusual episode. It is rare that we would choose to have someone join us on the podcast so close to their crisis – usually our guests come to these conversations with the clarity that a few years' distance can bring. Erin Baker is just weeks on from the death of her partner, James, and still very much living in it. What she offers instead of distance is something rarer: the raw, unfiltered honesty of someone grieving out loud, in real time.
A warning – this conversation is powerful and at times very difficult, and some of the themes may be upsetting.
Erin Baker is one of the most respected motoring journalists in the country – the youngest and only female motoring editor on Fleet Street in her day. But in the autumn of last year, her life came apart. Her partner of thirteen years, James, was diagnosed with an aggressive, terminal brain tumour, and the blows kept coming: her father died, one of her sons was rushed to hospital, the family dog was put down, and a car was written off in a collision with a deer. Wave after wave, all at once. Then, this year, James died. He was 53.
Rather than retreat, Erin made the conscious decision to grieve in public, writing for The Times and keeping a diary on Substack called Postcards from Grief, documenting James's dying, the days since, and the unexpected things his death has taught her. She joins Andy for a conversation about resilience and its limits, about loss and control, about black humour and love, and about what actually carries us through the very worst of it. She is, without a shadow of a doubt, someone we can all learn from.
POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY
Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on.
Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.
FOUR LESSONS FROM ERIN
Being "strong" can be a trap. If people decide you're resilient, they assume you're coping – and leave you to it. Sometimes the bravest thing is to admit you're not fine, and to ask for the help you need.
Honesty is what makes people feel less alone. It's not the tidy, theory-shaped version of grief that helps others but the messy, unguarded truth. Say the thing that feels too close to the bone; it's often the thing someone else desperately needs to hear.
You can't control the future, because it doesn't exist yet. Make your plans, but hold them loosely, they're only ideas of what you'd like to happen. Learning to live a day at a time is the only way through.
Find your release. For Erin it was writing, walking in nature, even paint-by-numbers – something meditative to pour the fear and grief into. When you can't carry it all in your head, give it somewhere to go.

CHAPTERS
03:37 – “I'm sick and tired of being resilient”: the exhaustion of always being the strong
07:52 – Grieving out loud: the decision to write through it
11:55 – The formidable mother, and a childhood that built the muscle
13:55 – Keep buggering on
15:20 – Fighting her way to Cambridge, and up a male-dominated newsroom
20:23 – Meeting James
23:05 – The life that looked perfect from the outside – and wasn't
25:08 – The Amazon night shift: the proudest she ever was of him
30:30 – The diagnosis
39:49 – When the blows kept coming
47:02 – Her son's seizure: the worst thing she's ever seen
51:02 – Learning to hold your plans loosely
53:22 – The last night, and a hug she'll never forget
57:04 – The chaos of loss
1:06:05 – The stranger by the roadside who knew exactly what to say
FOLLOW ERIN'S WRITING
Postcards from Grief – https://erinbaker1001.substack.com/
FOLLOW ERIN BAKER
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/erinbakerauto/?hl=en
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-baker-58901a48/
FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?
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TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@crisispod
This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)