This week on the Giig It A Rest podcast, we are finally talking about the Ironman! After six months of grueling training, Andy successfully crossed the finish line at Ironman Wales, and we break down the highs (the Tour de France-style crowds on Heartbreak Hill) and the lows (the mental battle at the 30km mark of the marathon). Even better, together with the Giig community, we raised nearly £5,000 for charity!With the Iron Man out of the way, we dive back into the realities of running a bootstrapped software company. Luke reflects on his trip to the Winston Churchill War Rooms and how Churchill’s quote—"success isn't final, failure isn't fatal"—perfectly mirrors our own three-year journey of building and rebuilding the Giig CRM.We also pull back the curtain on some major UI updates hitting the platform this week. Luke explains why moving the Tasks menu to the new right-side panel is a massive workflow upgrade, and we discuss the realities of balancing product development, marketing, and a packed demo schedule as a small team.00:00 - Intro, hydration tablets, and post-Iron Man pints02:30 - Iron Man Wales Recap: Heartbreak Hill & the Tour de France atmosphere08:15 - Crossing the finish line (and ruining the professional photos)14:30 - Surviving the 2-mile sea swim and getting kicked in the face20:45 - Winston Churchill’s 18-hour work days & the War Rooms visit24:20 - "Failure isn't fatal": Looking back at the early days of Giig Plus29:50 - Bowling nights, Montenegro prep, and the official AI Plan launch38:15 - Major Product Updates: The new right-side panel & Tasks menu overhaul42:40 - The founder struggle: Balancing product development, demos, and YouTube content

"I made a pair of shoes with Jamie Oliver."

"I built a recruitment agency without making a single cold call."

"I cuddled pandas in China."

Those are Michelle Flynn's three statements this week. One of them's a lie. Our job was to figure out which.

I headed down to Michelle's for the weekend with Kate O'Neill and Saeed Bor: breath-work on the beach in the morning, podcast in the afternoon.

So there's a full debrief on the breathwork, including a move called "dragon peering out of the cave" and a Labrador that gatecrashed the whole session. Saeed's also joined the Shoreham-by-Sea Facebook group to keep up with his new beach mates.

Michelle tells us she puts Giig It A Rest on when she doesn't want to learn anything, and that KOSI is her favourite podcast.

Cheers, Michelle.

We also have a proper catch-up on how everyone's finding the recruitment industry right now (spoiler: mixed). Perm placements have been dropping since October 2022, yet somehow we're all having our best years.

We get into why that's not luck, just a lot of graft and a fair few lows along the way.

Then it's Kate's turn to try and fool us:

"I was in a theatre production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as a child."

"I have slept with a Grand Slam Welsh rugby player."

"I will not wash my hands unless I have access to hand cream."

We wrap up with the "Are you okay, hun?" lunchbox question, which gets interrupted by a dragonfly flying into the fan.

It survived. Just.

Enjoy x

We are taking a deep dive into the psychology of recruitment marketing this week with Sam Rasdall, founder of Potent Marketing!Sam has one of the most interesting backgrounds of anyone we've had on the pod. Armed with a master's degree in psychology (where he studied the effects of psychedelics), he jumped into recruitment at S3, quickly pitched management to let him run his own training academy, and later built a sales and marketing team that took an agency to seven figures in just one year.In this episode, Sam rips apart the traditional idea of a recruitment "USP." He explains why relying on generic values like "trust" and "transparency" is actually damaging your brand, and how to use your genuine personality as your ultimate differentiator.We also get into the weeds of practical marketing for small agencies. Sam explains why you shouldn't just post on LinkedIn for the sake of it, and shares his exact framework for turning one piece of content into a high-converting business development campaign.I felt like I spent the whole hour picking his brain for marketing advice.. If you're running a small business there's plenty of actionable tips in here! Enjoy x