What does it take to put your people before your clients, even when there is money on the table?

In this episode of Highest You, Kate King speaks with Jamie Hosie and Lloyd McMillan, Managing Directors of M+C Saatchi Sport + Entertainment Middle East and co-founders of DUNE | 23. In just over three years, they grew DUNE | 23 from two founders around a kitchen table into a recognised regional sport and entertainment agency, before its acquisition by M+C Saatchi Sport + Entertainment.

Jamie and Lloyd share how they hired people better than themselves, why they turned down significant work to protect their team, and how they have kept the soul of a homegrown agency alive inside a global creative group.

🧠 Key Themes:
● Why people are the real leadership lesson of building a business at speed
● Hiring those who want to achieve rather than those avoiding failure
● Trust, honest disagreement and friendship between co-founders
● Choosing staff over clients, and the culture line item that never appears on a P&L
● Standing by the team through a challenging time when others cut jobs
● High performance without burnout, and the cost of never switching off
● Protecting the DNA of DUNE | 23 through acquisition
● Following gut instinct in a data-led organisation

🔔 Listen now and subscribe for more soul-led leadership conversation

What if being a good leader simply starts with being a good human? What if kindness in business is not a weakness, but the most demanding and courageous thing you can do?

Kate King speaks with Sabahatt Habib, Chief People and Culture Officer at The Giving Movement and LinkedIn Top Voice, on what it really means to fight for humanity in a high-pressure, metrics-driven world.

🧠 Key Themes:

• Why kindness is the most demanding form of leadership
• Spiritual intelligence: why IQ and EQ are no longer enough
• Emotional mislabelling: stressed vs overwhelmed vs burnt out
• Losing her father as the turning point
• How workplaces ripple into families and communities
• Journaling as a leadership practice
• The quiet danger of false positivity

An honest conversation for leaders who want to honour their people and lead with the courage to be kind.

🔔 Subscribe for more soul-led leadership conversations.

What if the drive that made you successful is the same thing holding you back? What if the ten-year-old version of you is still running the show in the boardroom?

In this episode of Highest You, Kate King speaks with Ruban Shanmugarajah, CEO of Baby Shop, the iconic Landmark Group omnichannel retailer with over 53 years of heritage across the Middle East and beyond. With 18 years in executive leadership at Landmark Group, Ruben has built a people-first culture rooted in trust, humanity, and sustainable performance.

From surviving a South London playground as a child who could not speak English, to leading one of the region's most recognised retail brands, Ruben shares how the survival patterns forged in childhood drove his success but eventually became its ceiling.

🧠 Key Themes: ● Why calm is not the same as slow, and how stillness actually accelerates leadership ● How a childhood survival pattern was quietly running his boardroom decisions ● Why people-first culture is the true competitive advantage in retail ● The difference between compliance and commitment in teams ● Intentional vulnerability vs dumping on your team ● Why the shift from having answers to asking questions changed everything ● Leading with humanity: behind every KPI is a human story

This is an honest, reflective conversation about what sits beneath leadership performance, not corporate theory. It is for leaders ready to look at the patterns driving their success and ask whether those patterns are still serving them.

If you are navigating growth, imposter syndrome, or the pressure of leading at scale, this episode is a reminder that awareness and acceptance are where everything starts.

🔔 Listen now and subscribe for more real, soul-led leadership conversations.