The King Dems Podcast is a global Top 2% podcast for ambitious leaders, founders and professionals navigating growth, leadership and the future of business. Hosted by Ademola Odewade, MBA, ACA, each episode features world-class CEOs, CFOs, entrepreneurs, futurists and thought leaders sharing practical insights on growth mindset, AI in business strategy, financial literacy, innovation, resilience, wealth and personal development.
Expect bold ideas, powerful stories and actionable strategies to lead better, build smarter and grow sustainably.
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Données mises à jour le 15/09/2026
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Esther Adeogun spent over a decade in audit and assurance across KPMG Nigeria, WYZE, Sapro, PKF Littlejohn and RSM UK, working between Lagos and London. She audited multinationals with US, Canadian and Australian parent structures. She then left professional services to found Valdore Systems and Intelligence Limited (VSIL), a pre-product platform building what she calls an intelligent operating layer: financial intelligence, controls and real-time visibility embedded directly into business workflows rather than applied after the fact.
The pattern that convinced her was not jurisdictional. Across Lagos, London and multinational engagements she kept meeting the same problem. Organisations had invested heavily in software, yet finance teams still ran on spreadsheets, manual reconciliations and judgement applied outside the system. Some of her design partners begin their July month-end work in the second or third week of July in order to report to management by 4 August. That is time taken away from professional judgement and scepticism, and Esther argues the gap between activity and visibility is the thing worth closing, not the accounting concepts underneath it.
In this episode:
The one sentence she would give a Fortune 500 CEO: an intelligent operating layer embedding financial intelligence, controls and real-time visibility into business workflows
The exact shift from auditor to founder, moving from "what went wrong" to "why did the system allow this to happen in the first place"
Why real-time reporting does not overturn the historical cost concept, and what she actually means by real-time
What SAP, Oracle and Microsoft would say in response, and where the design philosophies genuinely diverge
Where AI earns its place, and the deterministic, rules-based work that should stay conventional software
"Consulting is largely constrained by people and time" and why that pushed her to SaaS instead of another consulting firm
The four eras of accounting: paper, spreadsheets, ERP, and AI-assisted decision-making
Whether the Big Four look the same in 2035, and why she thinks firms evolve rather than disappear
Nigeria rewards technical skill, the UK rewards relationships, and what that cost her to learn
Why she no longer believes progress is linear, and what experimentation replaced it with
Rapid fire: the biggest misconception about AI, the biggest misconception about accounting, and the technology she is watching
Her legacy test: not to be remembered for building software but for helping build better businesses
Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting.
The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts.
Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts.
This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Zhanna Zhuravleva grew up in Georgia and lived through war as a child, then built her career across Russia, Israel and the UK. She completed two master's degrees — finance and human resources — followed by postgraduate study, and taught finance, management and philosophy at a university in St. Petersburg.
She started in industry as a Kaizen team leader and went on to lead HR and cultural transformation across organisations of more than 1,000 people in 40 countries. She is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, has run over 3,000 sessions with leaders, and founded Awake Conscious Play, a school of conscious leadership and leadership transformation.
Early in her career she ran a textbook transformation — designed framework, defined KPIs, strong governance. Six months later almost nothing had changed. The organisation was not governed by its processes; it was governed by informal power. Everything since has been built on that finding.
The 30% improvement in employee satisfaction and 10% reduction in turnover she reports came from no single initiative — a culture hub that put interns and juniors into the improvement process, people partners trained in coaching, and one-to-ones where the feedback actually changed the next decision.
Business Valuation: Why Buyers Ignore Your EBITDA Multiple - Mark Mills, OBE
Épisode 201
mercredi 2 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:39:31
Business valuation isn't a multiple of EBITDA. Cop a copy of my new book NOW: https://ademolaodewade.com
Mark Mills OBE started Cardpoint plc from scratch in 2000. Two years later it floated on AIM at a £7 million valuation. By 2006 it was turning over £100 million a year on £19.8 million of EBITDA, and he exited in 2007 at £175 million.
He now sells other people's businesses. One owner was told his company was worth £3 million. Mark sold it for just over £10 million. Nothing changed in the accounts — what changed was who the business was presented to, and why they needed it.
In this episode:
- Why bids from strategic buyers don't resemble a multiple of EBITDA
- The £3m-to-£10m sale, and the buyer maths that produced it
- Rule one of any business model: recurring income — learned from a payphone business that died in the 1991 recession
- How Mark and his CFO reverse-engineered £100m of revenue onto a sheet of paper, then landed within 2%
- Why "in three years" is a useless target and "by 31 August 2029" is not
- Solving a working capital problem by finding a bank with too much physical cash
- The one metric he never ignores when assessing a company for sale
The Neuroscience of Leadership, AI and Better Decisions with Dr. David Rock | Ep. 200
Épisode 200
vendredi 21 août 2026 • Durée 01:38:20
How can leaders use AI without weakening the judgement, creativity and critical thinking that leadership requires? Dr David Rock explains what neuroscience reveals about decision-making, cognitive bias, uncertainty and human performance.
This conversation is for leaders navigating a world of rising information overload, faster technology and increasing pressure. Dr Rock, Co-Founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute, coined the term neuroleadership and has spent decades translating cognitive science into practical tools for organisations and executives.
In this episode, you will learn:
Why leadership creates three recurring cognitive challenges: capacity, self-regulation and social cognitionWhy intelligent leaders can still make poor decisions under pressure
How uncertainty affects the way people think, regulate emotion and understand others
Why David argues that AI should keep the human in the lead, rather than outsourcing critical judgement
Why recognising your own cognitive bias is harder than most leaders assume
How the SEEDS framework helps teams identify recurring categories of bias
How the SCARF model explains Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness
Why useful leadership frameworks require both scientific credibility and practical simplicity
About Dr David Rock
Dr David Rock is Co-Founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute and the originator of the term neuroleadership. His work applies cognitive science to leadership, organisational change and human performance. He is the author of Your Brain at Work and the forthcoming Good with Humans, which explores the SCARF model and the neuroscience of social motivation.
Your Career Isn’t Linear: Ashley Stahl on Reinvention, AI & Personal Branding
Épisode 199
dimanche 16 août 2026 • Durée 38:27
Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growth journey with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/kingdems
What if the career you worked hardest to build is actually keeping you from the work you were meant to do?
In this episode of The King Dems Podcast, Ademola Odewade sits down with Ashley Stahl, bestselling author, TEDx speaker, career expert and Founder of Wise Whisper Agency, for a powerful conversation about career reinvention, artificial intelligence, personal branding, leadership, intuition and the future of work.
Ashley’s own journey took her from national security into career coaching, entrepreneurship, authorship and public speaking. But this conversation goes far beyond the polished career-pivot story.
Ashley explains why careers are not supposed to be linear, why the skills you developed in one chapter of your life can become your competitive advantage in the next and why sometimes “backing up” in your career is not the same as backing down.
We explore:
How to recognise when your career is genuinely misaligned
Why your values and your skill set serve different purposes
Why clarity comes from exploration, not endless thinking
How to experiment with a new career without immediately quitting your job
The transferable skills Ashley carried from national security into entrepreneurship
How intuition can improve leadership and business decisions
The difference between intuition and impulsiveness
Why busy calendars can destroy creativity
How storytelling and a signature talk can transform a personal brand
Why follower count may be one of the most overrated measures of influence
How AI is changing careers and the future of work
Why professionals who know how to leverage AI may have an advantage over those who resist it
What every executive should ask before stepping onto a stage
She Left EY to Bet on Herself: The Human Skills AI Can’t Replace | Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico
Épisode 198
mercredi 5 août 2026 • Durée 01:11:31
Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growth journey with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/kingdems
What human skills will leaders need to remain valuable in the age of artificial intelligence?
Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico, Founder and CEO of Fully Bossed, joins Ademola Odewade on The King Dems Podcast to explore AI leadership, organisational transformation, executive presence and the human capabilities technology cannot replace.
Oluchi spent nearly two decades advising CEOs, boards and financial institutions on major transformation programmes. Her career includes senior leadership roles at Accenture and EY-Parthenon, more than 30 transformation and M&A programmes and transactions with a combined value exceeding $15 billion.
In this episode, Oluchi explains why effective AI adoption is not simply about purchasing new tools. Organisations must change behaviours, strengthen leadership capabilities and connect technology investments to measurable business value.
You will learn:
Why human skills become more valuable as AI capabilities expand • How leaders can move from AI adoption to genuine AI enablement
Why many organisations invest billions in AI without achieving the expected ROI
How to measure transformation through revenue growth, cost reduction and operational efficiency
Why mindset, storytelling, personal branding and orchestration matter in modern leadership
How resilience and self-belief helped Oluchi succeed as a Black female executive
What it takes to lead major mergers, acquisitions and organisational transformation programmes
How executives can communicate, influence decisions and hold the boardroom in the AI era
Why leadership is defined by impact and followership rather than job title
How Oluchi evaluated the risk of leaving an EY partner role to build Fully Bossed
Will AI Replace Investors? A CFA's Answer | Eric Chu
Épisode 197
lundi 27 juillet 2026 • Durée 43:13
Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growth journey with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/kingdems
Eric Chu, CFA, CEO and co-founder of TradeDesk Securities, joins The King Dems Podcast and Diary of a CFO to explain how busy professionals can use AI to research smarter without outsourcing their judgement. If you have investable income and limited time, this conversation gives you a clearer way to think about AI, regulation and long-term investing.Eric built his career across investment banking, hedge funds and data centre development before co-founding a SEC registered broker dealer built specifically for working professionals in their 30s and 40s. His path through the 2008 financial crisis, including a job offer at Bear Stearns that evaporated when the firm collapsed, shaped a disciplined view of risk that now underpins TradeDesk Securities.
You will learn in this episode:
Why AI's biggest advantage for investors is time, not information (23:11)
What actually happens inside a data centre when you send an AI prompt (20:38)
Why Eric calls the Bear Stearns collapse his first real lesson in humility (14:27)
The regulatory requirements TradeDesk Securities follows as a FINRA and SIPC member (18:17)
Why individual investors hold a structural advantage over professional fund managers (28:03)
How Eric and his team build trust in a regulated industry through direct expertise (31:44)
Where AI in finance goes next, including sector-specific AI engines (33:58)
His honest, non-committal take on crypto as an asset class (38:07)
Guest:
Eric Chu, CFA, is CEO and co-founder of TradeDesk Securities, a SEC registered broker dealer built to help working professionals invest with AI powered insights and portfolio tools. He holds an MBA from NYU Stern and has spent almost 20 years across investment banking, hedge funds and public company finance, including senior roles developing and financing data centre platforms across Asia.
How Great Leaders Build Lasting Impact | Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lameen Abdul-Malik
Épisode 196
mardi 21 juillet 2026 • Durée 02:16:15
Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growth journey with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/kingdems
What does it take to create impact that outlives your career?
In this episode of The King Dems Podcast, host Ademola Odewade sits down with Lameen Abdul-Malik, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, transformation advisor, lawyer and former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) leader, for a masterclass on leadership, growth mindset, legacy and transformational impact. From Nobel Peace Prize-winning work to Africa's development, healthcare innovation and systems thinking, this conversation is packed with timeless lessons for leaders, founders and anyone determined to make a meaningful difference.
Drawing on more than 25 years of international leadership, Lameen shares lessons from helping establish Zambia's first cancer hospital, contributing to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning work of the IAEA and advising governments, CEOs and institutions across Africa. He explains why true leadership is not measured by titles or recognition, but by the lives transformed and the systems left behind.
In this episode, you'll learn:
• Why impact matters more than outputs and activity • How world-class leaders build systems instead of chasing recognition • The leadership lessons behind the Nobel Peace Prize journey • Why succession planning determines whether leadership truly succeeds • How to measure qualitative impact alongside quantitative metrics • Why mindset always comes before skillset and toolset • Lessons from building Zambia's first cancer hospital • The biggest opportunities for Africa's future development • How to define success on your own terms instead of society's expectations • Why humility, service and courage are competitive advantages for modern leaders
Why Great Strategies Fail: Culture, Accountability & AI | Dr. Suzy Burke
Épisode 195
lundi 13 juillet 2026 • Durée 01:02:17
Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growth journey with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/kingdems
Why do brilliant strategies fail inside organisations?
Dr. Suzy Burke argues that strategy may live in a slide deck, but culture lives in what happens on Tuesday morning.
Dr. Suzy Burke is an organisational psychologist, four-time founder, former Fortune 20 executive, co-founder of Accountability Inc. and lead author of Headamentals: How Leaders Can Crack Negative Self-Talk.
In this practical conversation with Ademola Odewade, she explains how leaders create accountability without fear, recognise unhealthy culture, build psychological safety and translate strategy into daily behaviour.
In this episode, you will learn:
Why a brilliant strategy fails faster and more expensively inside a broken culture
How healthy cultures surface bad news before problems become expensive
Why accountability should be a daily operating habit, not a disciplinary tool
The three areas to examine when inheriting a struggling organisation
How clarity, visible scorecards, named owners and weekly check-ins improve execution
Why senior leaders receive less honest feedback
Why listening becomes more important as leaders rise
How ambition and humility can strengthen each other
Why measurement bridges the gap between vision and execution
Which human capabilities AI cannot replace
How leaders can use AI to remove administrative work and protect time for relationships
Why negative self-talk can spread through a team
Dr. Burke also shares lessons from Xerox, her approach to sustainable culture change and the legacy she hopes to build by making the invisible parts of leadership, culture and self-talk visible and actionable.
Connect with Dr. Suzy Burke:
Becoming a Strategic CFO: AI, Boardroom Trust and Visible Authority with Wassia Kamon
Épisode 194
vendredi 10 juillet 2026 • Durée 01:42:14
Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growthjourney with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/kingdems
What does it take to become a strategic CFO inthe AI era? Wassia Kamon explains how finance leaders earn boardroom trust, guide business strategy, build visible authority and keep humans accountablewhen technology accelerates the work.
Wassia is a CFO, finance educator and 2025 Atlanta Business Chronicle CFO of the Year. In this candid conversation with Ademola Odewade, she moves beyond technical finance to reveal the judgement, relationships, resilience and intentional visibility that shape trustedexecutive leadership.
In this episode, you will learn:
Why the modern CFO must understand marketing, HR, technology and the wider business model, not only accounting and reporting.
How CFOs earn trust by listening first, understanding why existing processes exist and connecting finance to business priorities.
Why visible expertise can shorten the time required to build credibility before an interview, board meeting or business conversation.
How joining a nonprofit or professional board can reduce boardroom fear and develop executive judgement.
Why founders should treat debt as a strategic tool while understanding its cost, risk and purpose.
Which finance activities AI can automate and why accountability, controls, explanation and final judgement must remain human.
Why professionals who ignore AI may face the same disadvantage as finance graduates who never learned Excel.
How executive presence can be learned through observation, listening, composure and disciplined focus.
Why mentorship, continuous learning and intentional personal branding accelerate career progression.
How ambitious leaders can pursue impact without allowing achievement to consume their health, family or identity.
About Wassia Kamon
In this episode:
Change fluency — why transformation is not a project with a start date and an end dateThe "inner game": why a fintech's people-first programme stalls because the tension is giving leaders their identity
Three signals that tell you inside a week whether a culture is healthy — quality of disagreement, speed of bad news, and the gap between the official story and the underground story
Diagnosis before prescription: the first 30 days run across Ken Wilber's four quadrants, not a rush to launch programmes
Three types of values — declarative, conscious, unconscious — and which layer actually decides
Why Meta making AI token consumption a performance metric produced engineers burning tokens instead of better decisions
WEF Future of Jobs: 170 million roles created against 92 million displaced — recalibration, not replacement"AI is electricity with intelligence" — why this is an electricity moment rather than an internet one
The 4D Compass for building trust: self, soul, soft, spiritWhy engagement surveys measure compliance — a purple, tribal culture scores high on engagement and low on trust
What she protects if the HR budget is halved: leader development, and a culture diagnosis every year
The mistake founders make at 100 employees — still leading as though there are 20Zhanna's recommendation for every CEO is Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan.
Her conscious leadership programmes — including Lila, the transformational game she has adapted for leaders and runs offline and online — are at: https://awake-play.co.uk/
Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting.
The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts.
Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts.
This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
- FARM — why people work for Fun, Achievement, Recognition, then Money, in that order
- Selling to strangers, and why referrals cannot scale a business
- What AI actually changes about client acquisition and KPI monitoring
- Realistic exit timelines: 12 to 30 months, not six
Mark's book is Making Your Mark: How I Built a Fortune From £1.50 — and You Can Too.
He offered listeners a free signed copy — email him at mark@mark.co.uk with your address and he'll send one out.
More from Mark: www.mark.co.uk · linkedin.com/in/markrichardmills
Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting.
The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts.
Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts.
This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
The King Dems Podcast ranks in the Global Top 2% on Listen Notes and reaches audiences in 130+ countries.
Our mission is simple: Educate. Inspire. Empower.
Ashley also shares how a TEDx talk became a turning point in her career and revealed the extraordinary power of combining your story, expertise and message to create meaningful impact.
One of the biggest ideas from the conversation?
You cannot think your way into clarity. You have to explore your way into it.
And when it comes to AI, Ashley offers an equally important challenge: the greatest risk may not simply be AI replacing people. It may be people who understand how to use AI replacing those who refuse to adapt.
If you are navigating a career transition, building your personal brand, leading through disruption or wondering how to remain relevant in the AI era, this conversation is for you.
🎙️ The King Dems Podcast explores growth mindset, leadership, AI, business, entrepreneurship and the ideas shaping the future of work.
Oluchi’s central message is clear: AI can generate the report, but it cannot replace your ability to defend the analysis, influence the boardroom and lead people through change.
This conversation is essential listening for CEOs, CFOs, founders, consultants, transformation leaders and executives developing an AI strategy for their organisations.
Power Your Growth With The Same Tools We UseWe run The King Dems Podcast ecosystem using best-in-class AI, business, productivity, finance and media tools trusted by founders, executives and high performers.
Hosted by Ademola Odewade, MBA, ACA, BSc (Economics)
The King Dems Podcast is ranked in the Global Top 2% on Listen Notes and reaches audiences in 130+ countries. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and leave a rating. Your support helps us educate, inspire and empower the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs and changemakers.
Wassia Kamon, CPA, CMA, MBA, is Chief Financial Officer at Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs. She was named the 2025 Atlanta Business Chronicle CFO of the Year in the community service category and is a two-time CPA Practice Advisor 40 Under 40 honoree. She serves as Guest Faculty for the Wharton Online FP&A Certificate Program and hosts The Diary of a CFO.
The King Dems Podcast ranks in the Global Top 2% on Listen Notes and reaches audiences in 120+ countries. Help us move towards the Global Top 1% by rating the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Affiliate disclosure: Some links may be affiliate links. We may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Sponsorship does not determine our editorial conclusions.
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