Business Without Bullsh-t

We have an EPIC episode run kicking off this week with the brilliant Jordan Jarrett-Bryan, a Channel 4 Sports Reporter, Journalist and Founder of Blakademik.

Jordan started in journalism as Editor of the youth publication Live Magazine and has gone on to write for various magazines and newspapers including Dazed & Confused, DJ Mag, Sunday Times, Time Out, The Independent and The Guardian. He can also be heard co-hosting on Talk Sport's "TS Extra Time" and is an occasional guest on the Guardian Football Weekly podcast.

Jordan is also the founder of Blakademik - an online platform set up in 2018 focusing on discussing Black Culture and current affairs with the perspective of black voices at the forefront.

Our conversation takes a deep dive into Jordan's life experiences which have ultimately shaped him to become the self-aware, confident and driven individual he is today both personally and professionally. From presenting on Channel 4 to running his own media network and production company and still finding time to mentor young people, Jordan has created a truly authentic profession and purpose for himself.

There's so much great insight and perspective in this episode with an even bigger part 2 coming up next week! we're truly excited for you to hear it.

Pull up a chair, open your ears and press play.

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Joining us this week is Ryan Welmans, CEO at Sopro - a B2B service which helps identify, engage and generate potential customer leads for businesses.

Ryan co-founded Sopro in 2015 after several senior business setup and growth roles, and to-date, Sopro has grown to international acclaim with a multi-million pound turnover and winning various high profile awards along the way.

Our conversation with Ryan unpacks the mechanics of how successful B2B email marketing actually works: from the conversational nuance in subject lines to using tech to fully personalise a person's click-thru experience to your website, Ryan tells us everything about how to make a meaningful impact in a person's inbox and even vastly improve a business's cold-calling strategy. We also hear how Ryan grew Sopro to become a 250+ person team taking care of hundreds of clients as well as become an incubator for new business.

Another packed episode full of straight talking advice minus the BS.

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Imagine being able to put on AR glasses and experience the battle of Hastings, interactively. That's exactly the kind of experience being developed by New Reality, Ingvi Logason's VR and AR company.

This week we continue our conversation with the tech start-up entrepreneur and investor who unpacks what the future of augmented reality in society could look like with the kind of work he's doing at New Reality whose focus is to develop technology for museums, historical sites and even educational institutions allowing them to deliver their experiences with the added value of of VR and AR. Pretty wild stuff!

Welcome to Our Augmented Future.

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Joining us this week one of Iceland's leading figures in business and innovation - Ingvi Jökull Logason.

Ingvi is a Tech start-up entrepreneur, investor and serial advertising agency founder. He owns and operates businesses from Iceland all the way to Indonesia with his current focus being in the Virtual and Augmented Reality space with his company, New Reality.

We take a deep dive into how Ingvi's early life experiences have shaped him to be the person is today: strong, positive parental influences coupled with a natural appetite to explore, take risks and satisfy curiosity have been the perfect concoction for Invgi's entrepreneurial mindset and wisdom. We also get to hear about Ingvi's vision on how VR and AR will transform society as we know it, plus lots more.

A socialist at heart both personally and professionally, it's easy to see how Ingvi's outlook keeps his empire growing and thriving. Pull up a chair, press play and take notes.

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Ever wondered what 'engagement' in social media actually means? and what gets more video more views: a mouth-open or mouth-closed thumbnail? and who actually runs Gordon Ramsey's YouTube account? (hint, it's not Gordon Ramsey). All plus more is revealed in this week's episode of BWB Extra where we continue our conversation with the brilliant James Loveridge, Director of Entertainment at Little Dot Studios.

We take a deeper dive into how the mechanics of running profitable social media actually works at Little Dot who take care of a plethora of successful client channels as well as running their very own media network.

James also tells us about how the industry has grown, changed and clamped down over the years and how Little Dot manages to stay ahead of the curve, as well as blowing the lid off his bug bear about the binary view towards creativity he sees all too often these days in the younger generation.

Welcome, to Making Content Engage.

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Joining us this week is the delightful James Loveridge, Director of Entertainment at Little Dot Studios, a leading digital agency and media network.

James has worked in the Entertainment industry for over a decade for companies like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. As Director of Entertainment at Little Dot Studios, James oversees client operations for some of the largest international broadcasters, producers and studios like NBCUniversal, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sony Pictures TV, Discovery.

And as if that wasn’t enough, James also side-hustles as a stand-up comedian. He’s toured worldwide and has written and performed in 3 solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which got him nominated for Best Show in 2016 for his show "James Loveridge: Castles in the Sand".

Alongside covering our staple BWB questions, we get a very humorous look in to what it's like being Director of Entertainment at Little Dot Studios. James speaks about the reality of his job's expectations, how he manages it all and what he's learnt along the way which includes tips on how to entertain your team with trips to Thorpe Park!

If you want to hear the perfect mix of great business advice and lashings of unfiltered hilarity, pull up a chair and press play.

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This week's BWB Extra continues our conversation with former gamer and founder of Catalyst E-Sports Solutions, Drew Holt-Kentwell who is also a qualified mental health counsellor in Singapore and runs a youth charity which focuses on gaming and device addiction and general wellness issues that youths face in Singapore.

Drew unpacks the reality of addiction and mental health issues in gaming where he talks about the difference between E-Sports and gaming, what it's like to be a professional E-Sports player in the industry, the range of effects too much gaming can have on a person's health as well as talk about the counselling work he does to help tackle addiction.

Do professional gamers suffer from mental health problems? who should police gaming? is it all bad or are there any benefits? it's all up for discussion.

Welcome, to Gaming & Addiction.

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Happy New Year! we kick off 2022 with our 60th episode joined by our Singapore based guest, Drew Holt-Kentwell.

Drew is the founder of Catalyst E-Sports Solutions, an end-to-end E-Sports marketing agency with past and present clients including Lenovo, Corsair and the Singapore Government.

As a former professional gamer, Drew moved from the UK to Singapore 10 years ago as the former Head of Global E-Sports at Razer, and since has worked across nearly every facet of the E-Sports industry. He combines his global E-Sports expertise and network with an intimate knowledge of how the South-East Asian E-Sports industry works from within. Drew is also one of the founding board members of the Singapore E-Sports Association which is the official National Sports Association in the country.

And to top it off, Drew is also a qualified mental health counsellor in Singapore and runs a youth charity which focuses on gaming and device addiction as well as other wellness issues that youths face in Singapore.

Drew talks us through the world of E-Sports, how marketing actually works in the industry and how it differs from traditional marketing as well as answering our staple BWB questions relative to E-Sports and marketing. We also speak about the effects of Gaming on mental health, a subject which Drew is passionate about, which we will elaborate on much more in our Extra episode next week.

In the meantime, pull up a chair and press play on our first show for 2022.

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This week on BWB Extra we continue our conversation with Yeastie Boys Founder and Benevolent Dictator Stu McKinlay who unpacks the reality and intricacies of running what he and the team like to call "the world's smallest multi-national" craft beer business.

We discuss big brewery competition, consumer loyalty versus promiscuity, the importance of good branding and how Yeastie Boys like to approach theirs to make it NOT boring, as well as shine a nostalgic light on the UK's beloved social institution, the good old English pubs.

Welcome, to Being a Yeastie Boy.

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Joining us this week is Stu McKinlay, Founder and "Benevolent Dictator" at Yeastie Boys Beer.

After working in Public Health for 15 years, Stu thought it was time for a career change in 2008 when he kick-started Yeastie Boys, originally in New Zealand and Australia and then in the UK in 2015. Yeastie Boys has now become what he and the team like to call “the world’s smallest multinational brewing deliciously irreverent beer”.

The conversation takes us through Stu's epic life journey so far: from being an aspiring golfer to acting in Lord Of The Rings where he met his future wife and business partner, Fritha, to then working in Public Health and eventually founding Yeastie Boys Beer, a career choice which Stu thought would make much better conversation at dinner parties ;)

We also talk about how Stu got the company started, why he's built it the way he has, why he wants to keep his team small and family-like as well as reveal the big partnership deal which will put Yeastie Boys Beer on shop shelves all over Europe! And ofcourse, we work through our staple BWB questions to find out how the entreprenuer in Stu has dealt with all of the challenges along the way.

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This week's BWB Extra continues our conversation with Ben Fogarty, Founder and CEO of Xpon Digital who jumps at the chance to off-load his annoyance about the time it can take clients to make a decision about a project, only to then expect work to get going immediately once agreed!

He also shares his frustrations about the complexities of deciding whether it's a good idea anymore to move to the UK and set up a business, all things considered .. is it going to carry on getting harder and harder? can the process be improved?

2 bugbears with one thing in common. Welcome to The Decision Factor.

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