• No Time For Timidity: Brand Strategy in B2B with Tara Cloak
    2026/09/09

    Are you finding it harder and harder to cut through the marketing noise? More channels. More content. More options. How can businesses stand out and connect with people who need their help? What’s certain is that it’s no time to be timid when it comes to brand strategy.

    Tara Cloak is Strategy Director at HB, a 25-year-old independent B2B marketing and creative agency working with clients including Microsoft, CBRE and Grant Thornton. She came to brand strategy through design, driven by a conviction that creative work without strategic intent doesn't have meaning. When a former marketing director colleague told her that design was just "colouring in", she set out to combine the magic and logic in everything she does.

    In this conversation, Tara draws on HB's own recent rebrand - trying to escape the pigeonhole of their own success. She argues that the most important brand work happens long before and long after the guidelines are handed over. If you're a leader, marketer or entrepreneur rethinking your brand strategy and trying to stand out, this episode is for you.

    Listen to this episode to learn:

    • Why "I need a new website" is almost never the real problem
    • What Veuve Clicquot reveals about the most dangerous decision in any rebrand
    • Why a ‘big reveal’ is usually the wrong approach to internal alignment
    • Brand results may take years to show up in tracking data, so what are the early signals to look for?
    • The one question to ask at your next board meeting that tells you whether your brand is in good health
    Links:

    HB: https://uk-hb.com/

    Connect with Tara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taracloak/

    Chapters:

    0:00:59 - From ‘colouring in’ to brand strategy

    0:07:07 - The Driving Idea: what guidelines can't do

    0:09:01 - When your people are your brand - and why that's a risk

    0:12:08 - Logic and magic: what the research process actually looks like

    0:13:52 - Why you should talk to your client's clients

    0:18:22 - Why clients rebrand - and whether they should

    0:21:55 - Familiarity breeds contempt

    0:23:47 - The hidden work: change management

    0:26:14 - Limit the ta-da moments

    0:29:03 - AI and the end of production value

    0:31:37 - What makes a rebrand meaningful

    0:32:08 - Rebranding the rebranders: did it work?

    0:33:17 - The metric Tara actually trusts

    0:35:36 - Brands live in brains

    0:36:31 - The boardroom test

    -- Thanks for listening.

    Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. Listen to more episode via https://pod.link/1783648578. My name is Stephen Morris and I help you start a fire in your marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.

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    37 分
  • Building a Business with Meaning | Nish Sharma's founder story
    2026/08/12

    Is what you're building actually connected to who you are? And would you know if it wasn't? Nish Sharma knew. He had the banking career, the best car, the best house, four holidays a year - and a question he couldn't shake: what am I actually doing?

    The answer arrived at his grandmother's funeral. In the grief that followed, he found a 100-year-old family story nobody had ever finished: a bootlegger great-grandfather who started an alcohol enterprise with a Scottish army officer in 1940. Nish decided to finish it — in Edinburgh, with a Scottish gin and rum that carries both worlds in, and on, the bottle.

    What followed was anything but straightforward. Near-bankruptcy. A wall of silence from UK retailers despite offering to pay for the shelf space himself. He survived a heart attack and put it in an email to a buyer who kept saying no. He chased one contract for five years and felt flat when it finally landed. The private jet he always dreamed of? There's a model one on his desk. Now he drives a van.

    Listen to this episode to find out:

    • What he actually wrote in an email to a buyer who'd repeatedly rejected him
    • How a bootlegger, a Scottish army officer, Indian passport holograms and the Gaelic word for tea ended up encoded in his bottles
    • Why angel investors who demand revenue proof before investing have got it backwards
    • Why his philosophy is "it has not worked, it is working just now" and what it means if you're building for the long term
    • What shaking hands with seven or eight billionaires taught him about wealth, success and what you actually need

    Connect with Nish:

    • Rutland Square: https://www.rutlandsquarespirits.com/
    • On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishantsharma08/

    Chapters:

    00:55 — The business, the products, the team 02:25 — "Who am I?" Assam, Punjab, Edinburgh 04:59 — Banking: paid the bills, didn't serve a purpose 07:13 — Four businesses that failed before this one 08:44 — "It has not worked, it is working now" 10:43 — What a decade in banking actually gave him 14:15 — The global palate argument 16:41 — The shelf space offer retailers turned down 18:08 — The funeral and the 100-year legacy 19:28 — "Stories live forever. Products don't." 20:03 — The bottle: passports, tartan, 1940 and 2020 23:13 — Near-bankruptcy and the angel paradox 25:14 — Why Scotch whisky is a generational business 26:36 — How tech broke investor psychology 27:07 — The bigger plan 30:57 — "Elon Musk is going to Mars. I'm just building on Earth." 31:31 — The van, the model jet, the payroll 34:53 — The one thing he'd do differently

    -- Thanks for listening.

    Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. Listen to more episode via https://pod.link/1783648578. My name is Stephen Morris and I help you start a fire in your marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.

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    35 分
  • What is an Entrepreneur in Residence and B2B2B with Andrew Allen
    2026/07/29
    What exactly is an entrepreneur in residence, and why would one of the UK’s largest food distributors deliberately plant a founder inside its business? What experience do you need, what is the host looking to achieve, and what do you actually do day-to-day? In this episode of Curious Business, Stephen Morris sits down with Andrew Allen, a founder who built, bootstrapped and burned out through two food startups, and now bridges the gap between founder insights and enterprise strategy. Discover how a single advocate inside a large distributor joins dots, shapes go-to-market decisions, and reveals what actually works in B2B relationships when you're embedded in the system. Whether you’re a founder trying to find growth, a leader pondering how to keep your organisation curious and creative, or simply fascinated by how big food can be a force for change, this episode explores how entrepreneurial thinking can influence the levers of scale. Listen to this episode to find out: Why getting your margin structure right on day one guarantees your product never sellsWhat "low barriers and high hurdles" really costs a founder What an entrepreneur in residence actually does all dayWhy "what's in it for me?" is a stupid question in a startup but a completely valid one inside a corporateThe one-seat-one-vote system that lets a risk-averse business place more bets on new products and suppliers The overlooked kind of waste that Andrew says is bleeding food startups dry — and the two-hours-a-week fix Links: Andrew Allen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmichaelallen/Bidfood's Open Doors accelerator: https://www.bidfood.co.uk/about-us/open-doors/ Related episode: Getting a Business Through the Messy Middle with Jane Hales: https://podcast.curiousbusiness.co.uk/e/co-founder-conflicts-jane-hales/ Chapters: 02:20 — First meal to last meal: the channel nobody thinks about03:26 — "Start from stupid" (and why you need to)04:39 — Am I done founding? The honest answer06:20 — The margin paradox that kills good products07:00 — Snuffling Pig, Biffs, and low barriers / high hurdles08:21 — The Selfridges trap12:08 — What an entrepreneur in residence actually does17:47 — The supplement that almost died on the shelf20:35 — Why the big players man-marking the shelf isn't winning23:45 — The corporate question startups never ask28:49 — One seat, one vote: how to bet 50:50 on purpose30:05 — Reframing a failed launch as validated feedback31:27 — Bold Bean, and the power of joining the dots37:21 — The real waste in food isn't food waste39:51 — Two hours a week that would change the game40:49 — Should every company have one of me? -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. Listen to more episode via https://pod.link/1783648578. My name is Stephen Morris and I help you start a fire in your marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.
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    43 分
  • Co-Founder Conflicts | Getting a Business Through the Messy Middle | Jane Hales
    2026/07/15
    Two-thirds of co-founded businesses will lose a founder at some point. Sometimes it's dramatic, maybe even existential - businesses sold amid conflict go for circa 40% less. However, the personal toll - the sleepless nights, the stress - rarely gets mentioned because of the NDAs... Jane Hales is trying to stop it getting to that point. After stepping out of a three-founder business herself, Jane now works with founding teams in what she calls the "messy middle" — the point where the original excitement has faded, something feels off, and nobody's quite sure why. You might call it marriage guidance counselling for co-founders. The more she explains it, the more obvious it becomes that this is a gap nobody else is filling. In this conversation, Jane makes the case that most co-founder conflict isn't a strategy problem. It's an emotional problem — and most of us make it worse by trying to treat it with business tools. Listen to this episode to find out: What the Partner Hype Cycle is, and why the "trough of disillusionment" is normal — not a sign things have gone wrongWhy 50/50 equity feels fair, but can become a structural time bomb Which three legal documents every founding team should have — and what the crucial fourth one isWhy VCs treat a co-founder departure as a red flag, and what it does to your valuationWhat a "conflict entrepreneur" is — and why you should be wary of themHow to tell the difference between good and bad conflictWhy the most important meeting in your co-founder calendar has nothing to do with the business Chapters: 1:44 — Marriage guidance for co-founders and the Partner Hype Cycle4:42 — The symptoms: unmet needs, poor communication, somatic signs6:30 — The business prenup: worst-case questions and the 50/50 trap9:32 — Three legal documents and the fourth emotional contract11:20 — When friendships aren't enough: the funeral story12:49 — Good conflict vs. bad conflict: trust, dissent and psychological safety14:31 — Jane's own story: "I tried to solve an emotional problem with business tools"17:26 — Beware conflict entrepreneurs22:36 — Early warning signs and the checklist27:18 — War stories: the £7m bankruptcy and the dropped trousers29:42 — What to put in place: the prenup questions and the alignment rhythm Get in touch with Jane: Website: https://janehales.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-hales/Grab Jane's co-founder conflict early-warning checklist: https://janehales.com/executive-alignment-gap-checklist-form/Join the waitlist for Jane's book (working title) 'From Dream Team to Divorce?': https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScH972r9KhOB6UUGV2Bd6sxM9iHI-uFbbyln1Gw7h3kWoZ16w/viewform -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. Listen to more episode via https://pod.link/1783648578. My name is Stephen Morris and I help you start a fire in your marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.
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    33 分
  • Lean Teams & Freelance Workforces | Matthew Knight, The Independency Company
    2026/06/30
    Work is fragmenting - but are B2B leaders ready? Matthew Knight has spent a decade studying lean teams and project-based freelance workforces. In this episode, we explore the real gaps between theory and practice: the hidden skills, processes, and mindset shifts companies overlook. If your business is going lean, you need to hear this. Matthew Knight has spent the last decade studying exactly that question. He's an independent strategist, founder of the Independency Company, and through his research organisation Leapers he's worked with over 250,000 people navigating life outside permanent employment. He knows this world from the inside - and he has a few things to say about how most organisations are getting it wrong. Matthew tells a human story: why people step into self-employment for control, flexibility and purpose, but how the reality often brings isolation, financial stress and a brutal learning curve. He shares how a Slack channel that became a community, and then Leapers research that has reached hundreds of thousands of freelancers. He argues the smartest companies are those that design for relationship, not just transaction - and that this design yields commercial as well as moral returns. Listen to this episode to find out: Why the biggest barrier to effective freelance relationships isn't contracts or money - it's something most organisations already struggle withWhat "the Tinder-fication of talent" means, why it happened, and why it might be unwindingWhat "lean core plus extended network" looks like as a deliberate operating model rather than an emergency stopgapThe difference between outcomes and outputs - and why it matters more when teams are assembled per projectWhat's happens to mentoring when senior talent ages out of agencies and junior roles started disappearing References and links Matthew Knight on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkplaymakeThe Independency Company: https://the.independency.co/Leapers annual research and resources for people working independently: https://www.leapers.co/ Related Curious Business episodes: #27: Matt Ballantine on randomness and how organisations adapt https://podcast.curiousbusiness.co.uk/e/matt-ballantine-random-the-book/#24: Neil Mullarkey on improv as a frame for how people work together https://podcast.curiousbusiness.co.uk/e/neil-mullarkey-improv-your-business/ Chapter list 0:01:00 — From developer to independent strategist 0:03:08 — The trigger: one job, one Slack channel, one gap nobody was filling 0:06:15 — From community to research to advocacy 0:07:03 — Something like a union? Why one model can't solve it 0:08:10 — What stops agencies and freelancers working well together 0:10:41 — Why freelancers are better at navigating uncertainty 0:12:31 — Why people choose to freelance: control, flexibility, and necessity 0:15:09 — The lean core and the extended network 0:15:53 — Does the Chief Freelance Office already exist? 0:16:56 — The three Cs of contingent workforces 0:19:52 — From cost-minimisation to ROI: a new mindset 0:21:19 — Should freelancers push back on being told where to work? 0:22:13 — Outcomes vs. outputs: what freelancers can and can't control 0:24:17 — How the freelance market has changed in 10 years 0:25:06 — Tinder-fication of talent: platforms, commoditisation, and what next 0:26:03 — Accessibility, oversupply, and the changing freelancer demographic 0:27:23 — The Leapers survey: what the data actually shows 0:29:15 — Isolation, loneliness, and the knowledge gap 0:32:04 — A holistic approach: L&D, mentoring, mental health for everyone 0:32:48 — AI and the junior talent problem 0:33:38 — Are freelancers being used as mentors? What's actually happening 0:35:34 — "It has to be designed" — and why that's harder than it sounds 0:35:40 — The skills warning: 10, 12, 15 years until nobody has any 0:37:30 — Policy, the DCMS and the long game -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. Listen to more episode via https://pod.link/1783648578. My name is Stephen Morris and I help you start a fire in your marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.
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    40 分
  • Why Chance Matters More Than Business Strategy: Getting Random with Matt Ballantine
    2026/06/10
    How many of the companies or people you admire got where they are by following a process? And how many took advantage of a lucky break or serendipitous pivot? We almost never think about the influence of chance on business strategy — the randomness in the path to every success. What if the biggest competitive advantage isn't better planning - it's embracing randomness? Looking for the serendipity in business? Matt Ballantine, sociologist and co-author of 'Random: How to Thrive in an Unpredictable World,' reveals why the business strategy playbooks overlook the chance encounters that actually shape breakthrough growth. Matt has spent thirty years helping organisations try to change. In this conversation, he explains why organisational barriers tend to have deeply entrenched roots, why best practice is almost always survivorship bias in disguise, why the most exciting sports tend to have randomness built into the rules, and why pattern-spotting is both an asset and a blind spot for us humans. Listen to this episode to learn: Why the laminated notices in a company toilet tell you so much about its valuesWhy best practice is something you think you can install - and good practice is something you have to arrive atWhat German researchers found when they studied the coin toss in penalty shootouts Why LLMs give you a different answer every timeThe first act of randomness leaders should embrace Links Order Random the book: https://securityblendbooks.com/products/random Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattballantine/ Related episode: #24 with Neil Mullarkey: https://podcast.curiousbusiness.co.uk/e/neil-mullarkey-improv-your-business/ Related episode: #6 with Dan Klein: https://podcast.curiousbusiness.co.uk/e/dan-klein-gen-ai-curiosity/ Chapters 00:54 — Sociologist or technologist? Why the distinction matters 01:56 — Baudrillard, McLuhan and the blurring of reality 04:15 — Why change keeps failing 05:26 — What grows back when you only deal with the surface 07:31 — The toilet test: reading company values in laminated notices 11:46 — Why Matt isn't a fan of best practice 13:08 — How a book about Random-ness came about 14:28 — Cards as a facilitation tool 16:48 — Apophenia: the compulsion to find patterns where none exist 18:34 — Who is the book for? Why is the book for? 19:12 — The format: why it's not really a book 25:03 — How the book can be used 25:56 — The five meanings of "random" 27:56 — Three reasons randomness is useful 28:34 — Facebook, Friends Reunited and survivorship bias in tech 30:06 — Businesses ofter don't like uncertainty — but they should 31:48 — The ovoid spheroid and randomness in sport 33:39 — Does randomness fly in the face of AI? 35:54 — The Watford employment agency: October 1993 38:15 — The first act of randomness every leader should embrace -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. Listen to more episode via https://pod.link/1783648578. My name is Stephen Morris and I help you start a fire in your marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.
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    40 分
  • The Price is Wrong: Redesigning B2B SaaS Pricing Strategy with Roee Hartuv
    2026/05/27
    Most B2B software companies are leaving serious money on the table — not because the product isn't good enough, not because the sales team needs more training. It's the pricing strategy. It's not the number you choose, it's everything that comes before it. Roee Hartuv is the founder of Willingness to Pay, a consultancy that helps B2B SaaS companies redesign product pricing and packaging from first principles. His philosophy is simple: stop pricing the product, start pricing the customer. B2B SaaS pricing strategy is the silent revenue multiplier most founders ignore. Discover how value-based pricing and packaging can transform your go-to-market strategy. In this conversation, we get into: Why the actual price you charge is probably the least important pricing decision you'll makeHow the shift from SaaS to AI is destroying gross margins in ways most businesses aren't trackingWhat 'operational debt' looks like and why bad pricing makes it harder to manage renewalsWhy value selling as a sales methodology needs the right packaging to support itWhat the shift from seat-based to usage-based pricing means for finance, investors and customersWho's most likely to be getting pricing wrong Whether you're setting prices for the first time or running a mature product business that hasn't revisited its model in years, this episode will make you think differently. Connect with Roee: On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roeehartuv/ Willingness to Pay YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SaaSPricing/videos Chapters: 00:58 — What is Willingness to Pay, and why does the name matter?03:12 — When should a company start thinking seriously about pricing?03:58 — Is changing your pricing as risky as it feels?09:43 — What triggers companies to seek help with pricing?14:20 — Is there a "right" price — or is pricing always a moving target?18:14 — How AI is collapsing gross margins in real time20:32 — The pricing stack: packaging → metric → structure → number24:36 — Why value selling doesn't work without the right packaging28:27 — 5x revenue in 18 months: what actually changed?31:29 — The most counterintuitive thing about B2B pricing37:01 — The one thing to do if you're moving into AI -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. Listen to more episode via https://pod.link/1783648578. My name is Stephen Morris and I help you start a fire in your marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.
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    35 分
  • Predicting Startup Success | Measuring Team Dynamics with Soma Pirityi
    2026/05/13

    We Invest In People is the oldest principle in venture capital. It's also, Soma Pirityi argues, the industry's longest-running paradox. 65% of startups fail due to team-related issues, not because they can't sell or find product market fit. So why can't we better measure, predict and guide startup teams to success?

    Soma is the founder of ETA Technologies, the Cambridge-based company that's on a mission to measure, model and inform team dynamics. They've analysed over 10,000 startup teams and built mathematical models to spot the patterns of success - and failure - and realised that the team is the soul of the company.

    In this episode, we get into the data behind startup failure, the sometimes counterintuitive dimensions of what makes a great founding team, and why the single most predictive factor in startup survival is something most founders have never heard of.

    Listen to find out:

    • Why VCs are beaten by a stock-picking algorithm when it comes to early-stage investing
    • What the team slide in a pitch deck actually tells investors
    • Why too much resilience can kill a company as surely as too little
    • What is the single most predictive factor in founding team survival
    • The one story that proves why ignoring a data model can cost you everything

    Chapters:

    • 0:00:54 — The founding paradox: investing in people you cannot measure
    • 0:04:07 — From VC to founder: what crossing the table teaches you
    • 0:05:59 — The negotiation nobody teaches founders
    • 0:09:17 — Building ETA and why Cambridge beat Silicon Valley
    • 0:12:35 — 65%: the startup killer nobody talks about
    • 0:16:00 — The lone genius myth and the teams behind the icons
    • 0:19:45 — Survivorship bias: why ETA studies failure, not success
    • 0:26:29 — The Big 20: what ETA actually measures
    • 0:32:37 — Synergistic support: the most predictive factor nobody has heard of
    • 0:35:50 — Jim Simons: the mathematician who changed finance
    • 0:41:12 — The death of the pitch deck
    • 0:44:50 — The Frankenstein moment: testing their own team

    Links:

    • ETA Technologies: https://eta-technologies.com/
    • Connect with Soma on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soma-benedek-pirityi/

    Book recommendations:

    • Peter Thiel with Blake Masters 'Zero to One' https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9780753555200 (affiliate links)
    • Gregory Zuckerman 'The Man Who Solved the Market' (Biography of Jim Simons and Renaissance Technologies) https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9780241309735
    • Ashlee Vance 'Elon Musk' https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9780753555644

    -- Thanks for listening.

    Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. Listen to more episode via https://pod.link/1783648578. My name is Stephen Morris and I help you start a fire in your marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.

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    41 分