The Beautiful Business Podcast

How do you lead well when the world feels increasingly unpredictable? In this bonus episode, journalist and author Sally Percy joins Paul Bulpitt to explore how leaders can stay grounded through uncertainty, and why nuance, empathy, and authenticity matter now more than ever.
From fairytale pricing to AI anxiety, corporate resilience to career reality checks, this is a wide-ranging conversation with one of the UK’s leading commentators on leadership and modern business.

About the Guest:
Sally Percy is a business journalist, Forbes contributor, and author of The Disruptors and 21st Century Business Icons. She specialises in leadership, strategy, and the big forces shaping the future of business. Her work explores what today’s leaders need to thrive, not just in growth cycles, but through crisis, complexity and change.

This Episode Covers:
💼 How to lead through turbulent times: uncertainty, AI disruption, resilience and preparing for worst-case scenarios
🧭 Nuance in leadership: why leaders need to stay curious, open-minded, and emotionally intelligent - especially when the world is polarised
📈 Purpose & performance: why successful businesses exist to solve real problems - and how staying close to your values builds loyalty
💬 How to retain your soul while growing a company: challenges of scaling culture and staying people-first as businesses grow
🌍 The ripple effects of global instability: leadership in the context of war, underinvestment, and political fragmentation
👩‍💼 C-suite reality check: the pressure, scrutiny, and stamina required to lead at scale - and why some executives are more vulnerable than they seem
📚 From Elon Musk to Goldilocks pricing: leadership lessons from icons, disruptors, and fairy tales

Links:
🔗 Sally on LinkedIn
📝 Sally's Blog on Forbes
📘 The Disruptors – Buy the book
📗 21st Century Business Icons – Buy the book

💬We’d Love Your Feedback
Share your thoughts and help shape what’s next for the podcast:
👉 wowco.uk/beautiful-business-podcast-listener-survey

In this special wrap-up episode, hosts Chloe Bannister and Paul Bulpitt share six golden rules for building a beautiful business in 2026.

Alongside their own reflections, Chloe and Paul revisit standout moments from past guests, including Olympic athletes, agency founders and leadership coaches, bringing each golden rule to life through stories, habits and bold decisions.

Whether you’re closing the year full of momentum or just making it to the finish line, these rules offer a framework to reset, refocus, and reimagine the way you work. As Amelia Wrighton put it, “If you can be there in the boring, you can be there in the beautiful.”

This Episode Covers
✨ Focus on What You Can Control
Chloe and Paul revisit Ben Hunt-Davis’s Olympic mindset and the game-changing question: Will it make the boat go faster?

🚀 Get Excited About the Year Ahead
Drawing on advice from Kate Waterfall-Hill, the hosts explore how reflection tools like the “evidence wall” can energise you for the year ahead, even during the in-between days.

🤝 Bring Your Team on the Journey
They reflect on Peter Docker’s story of team alignment in high-stakes environments, and Lord Mark Price’s reminder that happiness drives performance.

💥 Make a Bold Move
Jo Hunter’s decision to step away from her role as CEO inspires a discussion on creative courage and what it means to make space for what’s next.

🔁 Check Your Habits
From brain-state management to realistic micro-changes, Chloe and Paul reflect on Dr. Jon Finn’s advice on building the kind of habits that future-proof your leadership.

💸 Know Your Numbers
A conversation about lighthouses, dashboards and why financial visibility helps your whole team steer in the same direction.

Links
🌟 WoW's Golden Rules - https://www.thewowcompany.com/the-golden-rules-for-2026
🎧 Ben Hunt-Davis - https://youtu.be/fvGiN3RVFAQ
🎧 Kate Waterfall-Hill – https://youtu.be/3N4Y3DUXr7s
🎧 Peter Docker – https://youtu.be/KIqsybSbe4Q
🎧 Jo Hunter – https://youtu.be/kziD5Gi4Cvk
🎧 Dr Jon Finn – https://youtu.be/Kctj3Y-iVQE
🎧 Lord Mark Price – https://youtu.be/QoYLY2el9Xg

💬We’d Love Your Feedback
Share your thoughts and help shape what’s next for the podcast:
👉 wowco.uk/beautiful-business-podcast-listener-survey

What if a single question could transform how your team works? Olympic gold medallist Ben Hunt-Davis shares how the philosophy behind “Will it Make the Boat Go Faster?” can help leaders and teams align, focus, and perform at their best, in sport, business, and beyond.

About the Guest
Ben Hunt-Davis MBE is an Olympic gold medal-winning rower from Sydney 2000 and co-author of the bestselling book Will it Make the Boat Go Faster?. Following his sporting career, Ben co-founded a leadership performance consultancy that helps organisations build clarity, alignment, and high-performing cultures. In this conversation, he shares lessons from his rowing turnaround story, how to foster a people-first performance mindset, and why being kind and high-challenge are not mutually exclusive.

This Episode Covers
The turning point: how a painful 7th-place finish led to radical change and team transformation
Performance vs. results: why you should focus on what’s within your control
Alignment over assumption: building shared goals and buy-in across teams
Culture that counts: a high-performance environment means high challenge and high support
Kindness ≠ softness: how tough conversations and feedback build trust and progress
From sport to business: translating elite habits into sustainable leadership practices
Lessons in accountability: learning to own outcomes and support others in change
The danger of boiling it down: why “Will it Make the Boat Go Faster?” isn’t about working faster — it’s about working smarter
Planning for the next season: why now is the time to reset goals and rally your team

Links
Website: https://willitmaketheboatgofaster.com/
Programmes: https://willitmaketheboatgofaster.com/programmes/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/will-it-make-the-boat-go-faster-ltd/
Ben’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benhuntdavis/

When leadership feels hard, it’s often because we’ve inherited broken models. In this episode, coach and author Kate Waterfall Hill shares how we can lead with more clarity, courage and joy, and how to build feedback and reflection habits that truly help people grow. From calling out “Linda the Bad Manager” to helping real-life leaders step up with empathy, this conversation is a toolkit for anyone managing humans.

About the Guest
Kate Waterfall Hill is a leadership coach, consultant and creator of How to Lead – a practical book and podcast that helps people become the leader their team deserves. With a background as an agency MD and, now, as a leadership coach, Kate brings sharp commercial insight and deep human understanding to her work. She’s known by many for her viral TikTok alter ego Linda the Bad Manager, a satirical take on toxic leadership that’s earned her a global following. In this episode, she shares why feedback fails, how to have better conversations, and why brave, compassionate leadership is more urgent than ever.

This Episode Covers
Accidental managers: why most people aren’t trained to lead, and what they really need
Making feedback normal: why the annual appraisal is broken and what to do instead
The SOEROC model: a simple framework for clear, kind conversations
How to “take a beat”: the power of pause in emotionally charged moments
Trust, consistency, safety: building cultures that don’t rely on hero leaders
From satire to systems: how Linda the Bad Manager sparked deeper coaching work
Scaling a business with values at the core, and why alignment beats strategy
The rituals and questions that help leaders reflect, recalibrate and recharge

Links
Kate’s Website: https://www.waterfallhill.co.uk/
Kate’s Feedback Masterclass: https://www.waterfallhill.co.uk/masterclass
Reflect & Plan 2026 Workbook: https://www.waterfallhill.co.uk/2026-plan
Kate on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-waterfall-hill/

Small shifts. Big wins. This week we pull five practical, no-fluff tips from standout guests across the season - the habits that stick, the models that scale, the posture that sells, and the creative courage that sets brands apart.

About the Episode
A highlights reel of our most actionable moments featuring perspectives from:
Dr Jon Finn - habits, brain-state management, AI readiness.
John Readman - SaaS mindset and recurring value.
Sabrina Chevannes - agency leadership and sustainable growth.
Blair Enns - expert-led selling.
Nils Leonard - creativity, culture, and brand bravery.

This Episode Covers
Start smaller than you think - Micro habits beat grand plans. Build simple, daily behaviours that create focus, recharge, and long-term momentum. (Clip: Dr Jon Finn)
Think like SaaS, not just services - Solve real problems, validate the value, and productise what works - unlocking recurring revenue and predictable growth. (Clip: John Readman)
Slow down to scale well - Growth without process creates chaos. Rebuild the basics: roles, workflow, communication, and the pace of your scaling. (Clip: Sabrina Chevannes)
Sell like an expert, not a salesperson - Lead with diagnosis and clarity. Drop the pitch persona and show up as the trusted advisor you already are. (Clip: Blair Enns)
Stand for something real - Tools are abundant, originality is scarce. Root your brand in cultural truth and choose courage over convention. (Clip: Nils Leonard)

YouTube Links
Dr Jon Finn - https://youtu.be/Kctj3Y-iVQE?si=RTEUTAIF9KmYGV0T
John Readman - https://youtu.be/5Yh7Zmv_EE4?si=1pf50UnkR7U-Ldpk
Sabrina Chevannes - https://youtu.be/nnaLBIOh8-0?si=R_jgBBzRu_sD02Nc
Blair Enns - https://youtu.be/KXLOJmmUvdo?si=QIY5rnlAl7KtCNWn
Nils Leonard - https://youtu.be/3vLFLcx9Now?si=C_wQdwIBEID715iu

If you've enjoyed Season 3 so far, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share your favourite moments with us - we’d love to hear from you.