The Imperfect Brand

An exciting episode this, with a twist. I'm chuffed to be joined by Dr. Michelle Gordon, entrepreneur, author, former surgeon and founder of The Menopause Movement.

Dr Gordon (Dr. G to friends) has one mission - to help women create a life they love, by demystifying the menopause and tackling this transformation with a positive mindset.

Now Dr. G has taken the choice to move beyond just helping women with the menopause to start supporting overworked and exhausted high-achieving entrepreneurial professionals of any gender with a brand new cohort-based coaching course.

Find Dr. G on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmichellegordon/

The Menopause Movement: https://www.menopausemovement.com/

Dr. G's new course: https://drgordon.me/

Find her books: https://www.menopausemovement.com/dr-g-recommends-mm-resources-and-index

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Benjamin & Brand Clear:

I'm Benjamin Catley-Richardson, Strategic Director for Brand Clear. 

It's another episode, and I'm joined by Duncan Bennett, MD of Notts Sport.

Over the last 35 years, Notts Sport has established itself as an expert in the design, planning and supply of synthetic pitches for sport and leisure venues, and they remain the only official facilities partner to England and Great Britain Hockey.

Listen as Duncan talks me through a mistake from his career, and we cover business planning, questioning and getting into travel writing.

Find Duncan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncanbennettns/

Notts Sport website: http://www.nottssport.co.uk/

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Benjamin & Brand Clear:

I'm Benjamin Catley-Richardson, Strategic Director for Brand Clear. I love doing the boring marketing stuff that you’re probably avoiding.

For the first episode of 2022, I'm joined by Debbie Knight, founder of the home fragrance brand, Senti.

Senti is the product of 6 years, 100 prototypes and Debbie’s single-minded ambition to create her own diffuser design called The Orchid. Launched in July 2019, The Orchid is now supplied to luxury offices, hotels and retailers like Harrods and Fortnum & Mason.

Find Debbie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-knight-6a230912/

Senti: https://senti.co.uk/

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Benjamin & Brand Clear:

I'm Benjamin Catley-Richardson, Strategic Director for Brand Clear.

For this episode I'm going international for the first time, and speaking with Jean-Samuel Najnudel, Président of RingOver Group.

RingOver’s goal is to simplify the business phone system, so that your business can communicate from anywhere at anytime. 

With more than 10,000 customers, RingOver was founded in France but is now available throughout UK, Europe and the US.

Find Jean-Samuel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jean-samuel-najnudel-991402a5/

RingOver Group: https://www.ringover.fr/ 

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Benjamin & Brand Clear:

I'm Benjamin Catley-Richardson, Strategic Director for Brand Clear. I want to help people share their experiences and the lessons they've learned with the rest of us.

For this episode of The Imperfect Brand, I'm talking to Katrina Turton, owner and co-founder of RDG Accounting Ltd.

Together with business partner Russell Geary, Katrina started RDG Accounting in 2009 with ambition of building close, long lasting relationships with clients. In recent years RDG has expanded on its accounting services to provide mentoring and guidance to entrepreneurs who need a boost for their business.

I’m Benjamin Catley-Richardson and as our podcast returns for another season I’m talking with Andy Smith, Managing Director of Corpdata Ltd.

Corpdata provides accurate, up-to-date business information for organisations looking to drive their B2B marketing with data.

Today, I’m talking with Lucy Bailey, CEO and Founder of the charity Bounce Forward.

Bounce Forward trains teachers and parents to build and model positive resilience in everyday life, giving children and young people the inspiration and support they need to develop core skills like problem solving, creative thinking and compassion.

Since 2009, Bounce Forward has worked with more than 1800 schools and over 10 thousand teachers.

This year Lucy has also launched an e-learning programme in mental fitness called Beyond Today, applying everything that she’s learned over her work in the last 15 years to help women between the ages of 18 and 50 to confidently be the best version of themselves.

Today I'm speaking with Aaron Rudman-Hawkins, Founder and Managing Director of The Evergreen Agency.

As Aaron puts it, just 3 years ago he had a successfully established 'business in a bedroom' specialising in SEO and PPC. But in 2021, Evergreen is now the winner of two national business awards, including fastest growing company. 

Despite 18 months of a pandemic, Aaron has doubled down on recruitment to build a busy team of 13 (it might be even more by now!) with a reputation for providing game-changing SEO, PPC and Digital PR support.

For this episode, I’m speaking with Steve Pearson, founder of Valve & Process Solutions in Chesterfield.

Valve and Process Solutions specialise in providing key equipment to the processing industry, who keep us fed, watered and supplied. 

Since founding the business in 2005, Steve has made every effort to stand out from his competition, leading from the front and being a committed regular on LinkedIn.

It’s time for The Imperfect Brand, and I’m speaking with James Taylor, Chief Executive for Macildowie Recruitment and Retention.

Macildowie is a Midlands-based recruitment firm with a progressive attitude, highlighted by its recent branding shift to emphasise the importance of both effective recruitment and retention.

For the first episode of our second season, I'm speaking with Karen Lee-Thompson, Managing Director and Founder of Wǒ Skincare.

Wǒ is a skincare lifestyle brand that helps people to identify the individual needs of their own skin, with a flexible diagnostic system that provides the right care for them.

This time I’m joined by Claire Bicknell, founder of the Catena business ‘dating agency’. 

Since 2021, Catena has been helping people avoid 60 second pitches, referral targets and the obligation to work the room by offering a way to build business relationships without suffering from networking fatigue.

For episode five of The Imperfect Brand, I'm speaking to Marketing Coach and Founder of Rather Inventive, Ben Kinnaird.

Drawing on Ben's extensive background in IT, web development and marketing, Rather Inventive is a digital marketing agency that has been helping people to use the web more effectively in business since 2009.

It's episode four of The Imperfect Brand, and joining me is Ashley Jones, Director of Framework Media.

In 2017, Ashley launched marketingSHOWCASE, a monthly B2B business event for marketing professionals across the UK.

For episode three of The Imperfect Brand, I'm joined by Patrick Smith, who has spent 20 years in the world of marketing and business.

Patrick is a serial entrepreneur (though he wouldn't call himself that) outsourced marketing director, and also Chief Executive of the Donr Foundation, which gives charitable causes a leg up in digital fundraising.

Patrick also has a life-changing bombshell decision to kick the episode off with. Though, actually, not one that prevents our conversation from being directly linked to his business experience.

For the second episode of The Imperfect Brand, Benjamin Catley-Richardson is joined by Andy Middleton, a sales specialist who helps businesses of all kinds work out where their next sale is coming from.

Andy also has a passion for networking, and sits as Regional Director for the Catena Business Network in Nottinghamshire.

It's the first ever episode of The Imperfect Brand (and our first ever podcast, too).

Brand Clear's Ben Catley-Richardson is joined by Glen Thurgood, former athlete, professional performance coach and Co-Founder of Training Shed.

Training Shed are a fitness and gym business with an emphasis on individual health and wellness goals, and how to help people achieve them through understanding their own needs.