The ActionCOACH Podcast

What They Don't Tell You About Leadership | Mandy Hickson RAF Top Gun Pilot Interview

Most business leaders only get taught how to lead after they've been promoted. Mandy Hickson learned it the opposite way round, and it might explain why the military still builds better leaders than most companies do.

Mandy broke through as one of the first women flying fast jets for the RAF, at a time when women weren't permitted in the cockpit at all. She flew combat missions over Iraq, dodged a live missile mid-air, and was mid-Atlantic refuelling a jet when 9/11 shut down an entire continent. She's since built a 15-year speaking career and has addressed more than 100,000 schoolchildren.

On this episode of the ActionCOACH podcast, Mandy explains why the military never makes a lateral hire, and what that forces them to get right about growing leaders from the ground up.

What You'll Learn:

- Control The Controllables: The mantra that carried Mandy through 9/11, diverted mid-Atlantic, and how focusing only on what's within your control frees up capacity to make decisions under pressure.
- Why Nobody Gets A Lateral Hire In The Military: The armed forces train leaders from day one instead of recruiting them ready-made, with real implications for retention and performance.
- The DODAR Decision Model: The five-step framework fighter pilots use to make life-or-death calls in seconds - diagnose, options, decide, assign, review - and how it applies to a business crisis.
- Real Psychological Safety: Why a junior team member needs to feel safe enough to say "I'm stopping" mid-mission, and how that culture gets built before the pressure hits.
- Resilience Is Built Through Failure: Mandy breaks down the catch-22 of wanting resilient people while punishing failure, and why military debriefing turns mistakes into growth.
- Find Your Dot Dot Dot: The exercise Mandy uses to identify exactly what's stopping you from taking the next opportunity, in business or in life.
- The Power Of Not Yet: The two-word reframe that changed how Mandy approached writing her book, and how it can shift your brain out of "I can't."

Action Steps:

If You Haven't Started: Write down your "dot dot dot" - the thing stopping you from taking your next opportunity - and identify one action that removes it this week.

If You're Already Leading A Team: Stop defaulting to lateral hires. Build a leadership path for people before they're promoted. Use DODAR in your next crisis meeting by asking what the problem actually is before deciding what to do.

For Everyone: Define your North Star, then test new opportunities against it before you say yes.

Whether you're building a business, leading a team, or finding the courage to take your next opportunity, Mandy's story proves the timing you're waiting for arrives, as long as you've done the work first. Subscribe for weekly conversations that help you grow your business.

Sponsored by AdSmart from Sky
AdSmart from Sky makes TV advertising affordable, targeted, and effective for businesses of all sizes, with six-week campaigns starting at 3,000 pounds.
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The Only Way To Beat Fear Of Rejection | Amelia Sordell Klowt Founder Interview

Most people avoid sharing their story because they're terrified of being rejected or judged. Amelia Sordell knows better. In this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by ActionCOACH UK, she reveals why courage, not confidence, is the only real way through that fear.

Amelia is the founder of Klowt, the personal branding training and consultancy company she built to 2 million pounds in annual recurring revenue by year three. She grew her own LinkedIn following from 1,500 connections to 8,000 followers in four months, and now sits at nearly 300,000 followers as one of the UK's leading voices on personal branding. She is also the author of The Personal Branding Playbook.

Her core message: a strong personal brand isn't a fabricated persona. It's a scalable extension of who you already are.

What You'll Learn:

- Courage Over Confidence: Why you have to do the thing you're unconfident in and suck at it long enough to get good, rather than waiting to feel ready.
- Authenticity As Alignment: How turning down a Necker Island invite from Richard Branson to keep a promise to her kids defines what authenticity means to her.
- The Power Of Being Known: Why the opportunities that come from being known are tenfold what you get from simply being the best at what you do.
- Building In Public: How her friend Melissa took 2,000 pounds in sales for her Pilates studio before it opened, using honest, unpolished content.
- Virality Versus Leads: What happened when Amelia chased viral content for six weeks, and why it cost her business a 72% drop in leads.
- Storytelling As A Business Skill: Why Amelia, an undiagnosed dyslexic once told not to pursue writing, now says 90% of her job is writing.
- Finding Your North Star: The simple exercise Amelia uses with clients to define their positioning beyond their job title.
- The AI Referral Shift: How ChatGPT and Claude now drive 20 to 30% of Klowt's leads.

If You Haven't Started: Write down what your ideal day looks like, not your revenue target, and let that shape your next move. Post the thing you've been putting off.

If You're Already Creating: Audit your last 30 days of content. If it leans toward chasing views over your core message, pull it back before your leads suffer.

For Everyone: Ask a recent client what they actually get from working with you, then build your positioning statement from their words, not your job title.

Whether you're building your first personal brand or just trying to tell your story with more courage, this episode gives you a clear place to start. Subscribe to the Business Growth Podcast for weekly conversations with the people actually doing it.

Sponsored by Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a powerful, yet easy to use marketing platform designed for small business, helping you build relationships and drive business with email, social media, and event marketing.
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Scaling: Why Most Founders Get It Wrong | Jonathan Neill Turnkey Business Exit Interview

Most founders think scaling means working harder. Jonathan Neill nearly wrecked his health proving that wrong before he learned a better way. In this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by ActionCOACH UK, he explains how a business built from a garden shed sold for multi-millions.

Jonathan started a school sports equipment service and repair business with one van, his pregnant wife answering the phones, and no customers. Fifteen years later it was a national company of 110 staff servicing over 20,000 schools, sold as a fully turnkey operation he no longer needed to show up for.

The secret wasn't working harder. It was building a business that didn't need him at all.

What You'll Learn:

- Escaping the hiring desperation cycle: Hiring anyone who could carry a toolbox led to two years of the wrong people leaving, until hiring for culture fixed it.
- Using quarterly themes to shift performance: One quarterly reward scheme cost 10,000 pounds and moved the bottom line by 100,000 pounds in a single month.
- Building culture into hiring and firing: The same cultural values decided who joined the business and who left it, not just what was on a poster.
- Absorbing competitors without buying them: Jonathan took on five of the roughly ten UK competitors in his niche by winning their schools until they asked to join him.
- Innovating ahead of the industry: An electronic quoting system turned a two-week paperwork delay into a quote appearing before the engineer left the school.
- Funding growth without outside investors: Hiring a strong finance director, later than he should have, got the business through years of overtrading.
- Coaching that shifts from founder to team: Jonathan worked with his ActionCOACH coach for 15 years, first on himself, then on his managers ahead of the sale.
- Rebuilding purpose after an exit: What happened in the three months after selling, and why he ended up back in the same industry two years later.

Key Quotes:

"I never had the vision in them first five years that in 15 years' time I would sell it for millions."

"It was a complete turnkey business, and it doesn't need me."

"To make a mistake is fine, you just don't want to keep making the same mistake."

"The biggest mistake was trying to do everything myself."

Jonathan Neill's Background:

Jonathan Neill built a school sports equipment service and repair business from his garden shed into a national operation of 110 staff servicing over 20,000 schools. Working with an ActionCOACH coach for 15 years, he absorbed five competitors, introduced early electronic quoting to the industry, and sold the business as a fully turnkey operation for multi-millions. After running an antique centre and tearoom now led by his daughter Amy, he returned to the sector with a new venture that has grown to 25 staff and almost 5,000 schools in two years.

If You Haven't Started: Write out where you want the business to be in 10 or 20 years, including what your own role looks like at the end.

If You're Already Scaling: Build your values into hiring and firing, not just onboarding, and set a quarterly reward theme before the quarter begins.

For Everyone: Find a coach who asks questions instead of giving answers, and get proper financial help in place before overtrading forces your hand.

Whether you're stuck being the bottleneck, weighing up your first acquisition, or thinking about your eventual exit, Jonathan's story is worth the 47 minutes. Subscribe for weekly conversations about what growth actually looks like.

Sponsored by YES Foundation UK
YES helps 12 to 22-year-olds build confidence, understand money, and develop real entrepreneurial thinking. To support or find out more, visit yesfoundation.org.uk
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Business Valuation: What They Don't Tell You At Business School | Spencer Gallagher M&A Expert Interview

Most business owners treat their company like a chore. Spencer Gallagher spent years doing exactly that until a chance meeting changed how he saw his own business, and eventually helped him sell it for millions. In this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by ActionCOACH UK, Spencer breaks down what actually makes a business valuable, and how to build one that someone wants to buy.

Spencer left school at 16 with no qualifications and started his first business in his mum's back garden shed after being made redundant three times in a year. He grew that digital agency 1,100% in five years, built Sky Media's first ever website and Liverpool FC's website, and put Andy Murray on the internet, before selling the business in his late thirties. He's since spent over a decade helping agencies scale and now runs an M&A advisory business.

His core message: understand exactly what makes your type of business valuable, then build toward that number, whether you plan to sell or not.

What You'll Learn:

- Chore vs Asset Mindset: The shift Spencer made after being made redundant three times before starting his own agency in a garden shed.
- How Businesses Are Valued: Operating profit versus EBITDA, and why tech and FMCG businesses often sell on revenue instead of profit.
- The Three 20s Rule: 20% annual growth, 20% EBITDA, no single client worth more than 20% of billings.
- The Now, Next, Future Framework: Mapping what clients need today, next, and in future to stay ahead of buyers' expectations.
- What Buyers Want to See: Why recurring revenue, leadership depth, and marketing sophistication matter more than growth alone.
- How a Sale Works: Valuation, an exit-readiness audit, an information memorandum, 50 dream acquirers, and due diligence.
- Exit Routes Compared: Trade sales, MBOs, employee ownership trusts, mergers, and private equity, and who each suits.

Key Quotes:

"You've got to look at the business and understand what is it that makes it valuable."

"When you retire, when you sell a business, you go on holiday, you get depressed, and then you die, unless you find new purpose."

"Only the best businesses get bought for any real value."

"Get a coach, get a plan, and get your coach to hold you to account to the plan."

Spencer Gallagher's Background:

Spencer Gallagher is an M&A expert who spent 11 years building one of the UK's fastest-growing digital agencies, a Deloitte Tech Fast 50 business, before selling it in 2008. He later helped agency owners scale for 15 years, then moved into M&A, where he now advises marketing and advertising agencies through the full sale process, with a network of around 600 buyers.

Action Steps:

If You Haven't Started: Get your business valued once you pass £1 million in revenue, even as a rough exercise.

If You're Already Growing: Track your three 20s - 20% growth, 20% EBITDA, no client above 20%. Build a list of 50 dream acquirers before due diligence.

For Everyone: Apply the now, next, future framework to your marketing. Invest around 5% of revenue in marketing and find an accountability partner.

Whether you're years from selling or just want a company that runs without you, Spencer's frameworks give you somewhere to start. Subscribe for weekly conversations with the entrepreneurs and experts building real businesses.
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How To Conquer The Fear Of Public Speaking | Richard McCann Speaking Coach Interview

Public speaking is one of the biggest fears on the planet. It even has an official name: glossophobia. Most people never get past it, and their careers pay the price every time they stand up in front of a room.

Richard McCann knows the fear from the inside. He started out petrified, reading from his own book at his first talk in 2005. He has since delivered 3,521 presentations and coached over 7,000 people in 16 years, and in this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by ActionCOACH UK, he breaks down exactly what separates forgettable speakers from unforgettable ones.

His core message is simple: you're not born a great speaker, you become one.

What You'll Learn:

- The 3 Biggest Mistakes Speakers Make: Lacking presence, racing through filler words, and reading slides or an obvious autocue. Richard explains why senior leaders who are brilliant at their jobs still fall flat on stage.

- How To Build Gravitas: Why you need to be a slightly exaggerated version of yourself, projecting your voice and holding the space, even when it feels unnatural at first.

- Why Filler Words Kill Credibility: A World Economic Forum speaker said "um" around 40 times in 2 minutes. Learn how slowing down and putting pauses around your phrases instantly puts you ahead of most speakers.

- Ethos, Logos, Pathos: Aristotle's 3 pillars of influence, and why pathos, the emotional connection built through storytelling, is the one most business presentations miss.

- How To Prepare Without A Script: Richard's method of mind maps and bullet points, filming and timing each section, and starting with the end in mind.

- The Power Of Owning It: If something is on your mind, say it out loud. Richard explains why naming the elephant in the room disarms cynics and calms your own nerves.

If You Haven't Started: Watch the greats and model them. Search "W Mitchell keynote" on YouTube, the speaker who inspired Richard, and study what he does. Then practise slowing down and chunking your words in everyday conversations, meetings, and phone calls.

If You're Already Presenting: Ditch the word-for-word script. Map your talk as bullet points or a mind map, film yourself delivering each section, and time them until the whole talk flows naturally. Then find a coach and get feedback on your delivery.

For Everyone: Open with a story before you show a single fact or figure. And when something is off, own it out loud rather than hoping nobody notices.

Whether you're a business owner presenting to your team, a leader pitching for investment, or someone who dreads the next meeting, this conversation shows that great speakers are made, not born. Subscribe for weekly conversations with the world's leading business minds.
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