The Beautiful Business Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Welcome to the Best of Season 3 of the Beautiful Business Podcast, brought to you by The Wow Company. This season has been full of rich conversations, eye-opening insights, and practical wisdom from leaders across the business, sports, design, and tech worlds.

In this special highlights episode, hosts Chloe and Paul look back at the most memorable moments from the season—covering everything from high-performance cultures to inclusive leadership and the future of work in the age of AI.

Mo Kanjilal – Co-founder, Watch This Space

Mo offered a fresh perspective on DE&I, encouraging leaders to look beyond box-ticking and see inclusion as a powerful driver of commercial success. Her insights on blind spots in leadership, silent feedback, and cultural listening left a lasting impact.

“If 60% of people respond to a survey, the real question is—why didn’t the other 40%?”

Tim Foster – Olympic Gold Medallist & Leadership Coach

Tim’s experience with elite rowing teams translates directly into business. His episode explored how trust and accountability fuel high-performing teams, and why culture allows even the most junior voices to be heard.

“Trust is the foundation that allows hard conversations to happen—without conflict.”

Dr. Jon Finn – Tougher Minds Founder & Performance Psychologist

Jon shared timely advice on how to “AI-proof” your business and build teams ready for the future. He outlined the new roles of innovators, automators, and elite cognitive performers—making the case that our brains are the most valuable asset in a tech-driven world.

“There’s been a race to roll out AI—but no one’s been thinking about the humans.”

Melanie Wendland – Co-founder, Sonda Collective

Melanie introduced us to the world of decentralised, self-managed teams and explained how structure, not hierarchy, is key. Her real-world examples from global design projects and holacratic governance made this episode a standout.

“We manage the process, not the person. That’s how self-management thrives.”

Listen Like a Leader

Creating an inclusive culture means paying attention to what isn’t being said—especially from those who stay silent.

Build Trust for High Performance

Whether in sport or business, trust is what allows teams to speak up, challenge each other, and raise the bar.

Prepare for the AI Era

Invest in the cognitive performance of your people. AI can handle tasks—but only humans can think, create, and lead.

Structure Empowers Autonomy

Self-managed teams don’t mean chaos. With the right systems in place, freedom and accountability can go hand-in-hand.

If you’ve enjoyed this season so far, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share your thoughts or guest suggestions with us—we’d love to hear from you.

About the Guest

Dr. Jon Finn is a renowned expert in performance psychology, leadership, and behaviour change. With over 20 years of experience working across elite sport, education, and business, Jon is the founder of the award-winning Tougher Minds consultancy and author of the best-selling books The Habit Mechanic and Train Your Brain for the AI Revolution.

Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and behavioural science, Jon helps individuals and organisations build sustainable habits, boost productivity, and thrive under pressure. His pioneering work focuses on developing "habit mechanics" a practical framework that empowers people to better understand their brains, change unhelpful behaviours, and unlock peak performance.

Through his extensive work with C-suite leaders, educators, elite athletes, and global businesses, Jon has positioned himself at the forefront of brain-based leadership and AI-readiness. His mission is clear: to future-proof people and organisations by helping them cultivate brain state intelligence and create cultures that support elite cognitive performance in a rapidly evolving world.

This Episode Covers

• The Power of Learning: Jon reflects on his own journey from struggling academically to becoming an expert in how people learn, adapt, and perform under pressure.
• What Makes or Breaks Performance: From professional sport to business, Jon explains why psychology and habit formation are more critical than talent or knowledge alone.
• Understanding Brain States: Discover the “three brain states” framework—recharge, medium charge, and high charge—and how balancing them is the key to health, happiness, and high performance.
• Brains Before Bots: As AI reshapes the workforce, Jon argues that your biggest asset isn’t your tech—it’s your people’s habits. Businesses must invest in helping their teams become AI-proof.
• The Habit Mechanic Framework: Learn how simple, science-based routines can radically improve sleep, stress, focus, and leadership.
• Why Knowing Isn’t Doing: We all know what we should do, but Jon shares how to actually make those changes stick.
• The Future of Work: From upskilling to creating brain-smart cultures, Jon lays out a roadmap for how leaders can help their organisations thrive through the AI transformation.

Links

• Website: Tougher Minds
• Free resources: Train Your Brain for the AI Revolution
• Books: The Habit Mechanic
• Social Media: LinkedIn

In this special edition of The Beautiful Business Podcast, we bring you exclusive insights from BenchPress Live 2025, hosted by The Wow Company at London's iconic Banking Hall. This episode merges the highly anticipated release of Wow's annual BenchPress report with an engaging panel discussion focused on building people-centred businesses.

Join your host, Chloe, alongside expert panellists:

• Mo Kanjilal, author of The Inclusion Journey and Co-founder of Watch This Sp_ce, providing actionable insights into embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) to enhance innovation and profitability.
• Kelly Goodship, Managing Director at The Wow Company, sharing first-hand lessons on building clarity of vision, effective communication, and nurturing a culture that prioritises people and performance.
• Nikki Gatenby, renowned author of Superengaged and Better Business on Purpose, offering practical strategies for creating measurable outcomes through vivid visions and lighthouse metrics.

Highlights from this episode:

• The vital link between DE&I and commercial success - why genuine inclusion attracts talent and drives innovation.
• How to define and communicate your business vision clearly to motivate your team and boost profitability.
• Practical steps to turn key business numbers into 'lighthouse metrics' everyone can understand and support.
• Effective strategies to balance work-life commitments, foster accountability, and promote wellbeing across your team.
• Navigating the remote vs hybrid office debate to maintain a strong company culture and attract top talent.
• Enhancing employee engagement by understanding and supporting neurodiversity within your agency.

Key takeaways:

• DE&I isn’t just a compliance exercise - it’s fundamental to innovation and profitability.
• Clear and continuously communicated visions inspire teams and drive measurable success.
• Profitability should be understood as fuel for growth, benefiting everyone, not just business owners.
• Success in modern business requires flexibility, empathy, and creative approaches to traditional work structures.

Dive into this episode for essential insights and inspiration from industry-leading experts to drive meaningful change in your agency.

Resources:

• The Inclusion Journey by Mo Kanjilal
• Superengaged (Nikki Gatenby)

For more practical tips on building your own Beautiful Business, visit our content hub at wowco.uk/hub.

Yiuwin Tsang from the Beautiful Business community meets with Lisa Seagroatt, the Founder and Managing Director of HR Fit for Purpose. Lisa’s particular expertise is around helping business leaders and the HR practitioners of the future understand why a healthy workplace culture will future-proof any business in terms of attracting and retaining good talent. 

Lisa is the Founder and Managing Director of HR Fit for Purpose. She launched her HR consultancy business in January 2017 following a mental health breakdown caused by bullying and workplace stress. She previously lectured in HR Management for Capital City College Group and has over 40 clients across the UK and internationally whom she supports with their HR needs.

Yiuwin Tsang from the Beautiful Business team chats to Chris Todhunter from Studio Republic about being a purpose-driven agency, the benefits of standing by your values and how employee wellbeing is integral to sustainable success.

Chris is a founder and technical director of the digital and creative agency, Studio Republic. Since starting out from his kitchen table almost 20 years ago, Chris has grown the agency to scoop awards from the likes of The Drum and the Third Sector.

Studio Republic has been a B Corp certified agency since 2019, and now focuses on sustainability and social justice, helping charities, non-profit organisations and ethical businesses with design and development of brand marketing tools, from brand identities to digital campaigns and websites. Their overarching purpose: to be a force for good and create impact in our everyday lives.

We spoke to James Sancto, CEO of We Make Change. He talks us through how the team built a network of ChangeMakers, connecting skilled people with social enterprises across the world. Listen on to find out how a simple concept has gone on to change the lives of many communities by using volunteer time effectively.  

Hosted by Yiuwin Tsang from the Beautiful Business community team.

In part two of our chat with Olivia Sibony she shares why businesses shouldn't rush in to help their local communities like ill-informed knights in shining armour, but rather listen carefully in order to deliver value and not just impose what we think is the best thing to do. She also discusses her work trying to create other incentive structures, to better align investors and corporates and other stakeholders to the long-term value of a business, particularly when looking at delivering impact to society and the planet.

Olivia Sibony is an award-winning entrepreneur (Making the Top 10 UK Women Entrepreneurs 2019, in the WISE 100 Top Women in Social Business), a trailblazing ethical investment champion who left a career at Goldman Sachs to launch her foodtech startup, GrubClub, which she sold to Eat With in 2017. 

She went on to launch SeedTribe, a platform focused specifically on connecting “impactful” businesses marrying profit and purpose, with investors.

She is a Board member of UCL's Fast Forward 2030, which aims to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to launch businesses that address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, as well as being Vicechair of the Mayor of London's Women in Cleantech Taskforce. 

She is also an advisor for the UK Department for International Trade, enabling more impactful entrepreneurs from around the world to scale their businesses, relocating to the UK. 

Liv is driven by the desire to see a world where all businesses marry profit and purpose; she feels that entrepreneurship and meaningful collaboration play a key part in achieving this goal.

Sameer Vaswani chats to podcast host Yiuwin Tsang about how running a successful confectionery manufacturing operation in Lagos, Nigeria led him to want to disrupt the chocolate industry and take on the big brands. B Corp certified Prodigy Snacks was born in 2018 with the mission to reinvent chocolate to be less damaging to our bodies, and to the environment. Join Sameer as he talks about learning leadership lessons, being planet conscious, and creating tasty, healthy, sustainable chocolate.

Sameer is the Co-founder of Prodigy Snacks. He originally started his career as a chef opening his first restaurant at the age of 25. Five years later, without any manufacturing experience, he relocated to West Africa to start a confectionery manufacturing business producing biscuits, candies, gums and chocolate.  After twelve successful years, he sold the business to a multinational before moving back to London in 2016 to start Prodigy because he wanted to effect industry change. 

Sameer continues to tackle the issues in the world of chocolate: health, sustainability, and ethics.

Joey Li talks to Yiuwin Tsang about doing good and feeling good, fostering human to human connection, and growing a sustainable purpose-driven business.

Joey is the co-founder and CEO of the social enterprise, Leiho. Leiho is a lifestyle brand whose mission is to provide vulnerable communities with the basic items they need like clean clothes, food and water. Every purchase of a Leiho product helps fund the essentials the team donates to charities and projects around London. Since launching in December 2019, they’ve donated over 10,000 items to over 37 different charities. This is just the beginning. 

Marcus joins host Yiuwin Tsang and shares an inspiring story of how not being able to breathe during a nasty bout of COVID led him to pledge to plant one million trees, and ultimately co-found The Million Tree Pledge. He urges us all to be good ancestors and shares the steps businesses need to take to get on the path to net zero carbon emissions.

Marcus Hemsley is the Founder of the digital growth agency, Fountain Partnership, winner of Google's Global Award for Growing Businesses Online. Marcus is also a Founding Member of The Million Tree Pledge. Launched on Earth Day in April 2021, The Million Tree Pledge is a collaborative initiative that’s brought together more than 60 inspiring businesses who have made the bold commitment to plant 41 million trees in the coming years, as well as to each find another two other pledgers, ensuring the initiative grows exponentially.