In today's busy and noisy world how do you stand-out and get noticed for who you are, what you can do? In this episode, I sit down with headhunter Nick Diprose to discuss a profoundly simple yet often overlooked strategy: authenticity. Join us as Nick explains why your CV is just the beginning and how building a genuine, personal brand can transform your career, allowing you to connect with recruiters and clients on a much deeper, more effective level.

I am very pleased today to be in conversation with Nick Diprose.

Nick started his career with British Steel working in large infrastructure projects, and has spent the last 20 years growing professional services businesses. He founded Holdsway in 2013 with the goal of promoting interim executives as the ‘expert game changers’ of the economy. Nick is a familiar guest on the podcast, his previous episode is one of the most popular called “Negotiate your day rate”.

· The CV as a Starting Point: Nick clarifies that while a clear and well-written CV is essential, it's merely a starting point. In a "busy, noisy world," a professional needs to go beyond the resume to truly stand out.

· Defining a Personal Brand: A personal brand isn't just a name or your last few assignments. It's about a person's identity: who they are, what drives them, what they do, and how they do it. It's a "you brand" that helps others instantly recognise what you stand for.

· Relationships Over Transactions: The conversation highlights a common misconception among interims that the recruitment process is a transactional, numbers game. Nick argues that a successful approach is built on relationships and mutual investment. Recruiters are busy people, but a proactive interim should seek to build a genuine connection rather than just tick boxes.

· Nick offers concrete and practice advice for interims. He emphasizes the need to know yourself first, understanding your motivations for being an interim and your core value proposition. This self-awareness allows you to be clear, confident, and genuine when engaging with recruiters. He encourages interims to be prepared, proactive, and accessible, focusing their efforts on a select group of recruiters who align with their style and market.

· The Benefits of Building Relationships: The tangible benefits of investing time in relationships with recruiters include expanding one's network and gaining access to opportunities faster. Nick also highlights that these relationships are a two-way street; a good recruiter will invest in you, helping to refine your CV and providing valuable feedback, while you should also invest the time to get to know them.

· Authenticity and Consistency: The episode concludes with Nick's core message: be you. He advises that a person's brand should be their authentic self—"warts and all"—and not a polished, inauthentic facade. Being genuine helps a person attract the right work with the right people at the right rate. Nick asserts that if you're not authentic, you're "acting," and this can lead to unfulfilling work.

Referenced: Tony Martin, Robert Cooper, Al Hall, Tim Fulton, Mark Cooper, Kevin Paterson.

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In this inspiring episode, we chat with Tim Mattos, who recently made the courageous leap from a 14-year career as an IT Director at Aldi to the dynamic world of interim leadership. Discover what it takes to transition from a long-term successful permanent role to a flexible, high-impact interim career, and how embracing uncertainty can lead to incredible personal and professional growth. Tim's insights on rediscovering confidence, navigating challenges, and the unexpected joys of independent work will leave you re-evaluating your own career path. Tune in to learn why fortune favors the brave and how you can increase your "surface area for luck" in your own professional journey!

Tim has recently become an Interim, he's just completed his first assignment after it was extended. Previously he was an IT Director at Aldi where he worked for 14 years. It's a huge achievement to make such a transition from being a long-term permanent employee to being an Interim and it demonstrates Tim's determination, agility, flexibility and courage. With the new experiences fresh in his mind, I'm looking forward to a colourful and fascinating conversation.

• Seeking Entrepreneurship and Flexibility: Tim realized that he was no longer a natural fit for Aldi’s evolving shape and that it wasn't authentically him. He wanted to be entrepreneurial and wanted a flexible future where he could leverage his 20 years of operational leadership. A key attraction to the interim world was the opportunity for accelerated learning through diverse exposure and repeated experiences across different organizations and sectors. Thinking of the interim role as a "next chapter" rather than a final destination helped unblock the decision-making process.
• Reframing Skills: Tim quickly realised that his long tenure at Aldi had already equipped him with extensive experience in leading transformations; he just needed to reframe his existing skills for the interim market. He had to build an external professional network from scratch, a process he thoroughly enjoyed and found crucial for success in the interim world. Similarly he had to tackle the administrative work of setting up a limited company, registration, insurances, and managing periods between assignments, all of which are foreign to permanent employees. Inwardly, the transition was about rediscovering lost confidence and backing himself. Tim found immense empowerment in having a client rather than a boss, which allowed him to set boundaries, speak more plainly, and stand by his opinions.
• Embrace Challenge and New Experiences: Tim's love for challenge, new experiences, and curiosity, makes him a natural fit for the interim lifestyle.
• The Vast Market for Interims: Tim realized the sheer size and dynamism of the job market, particularly the 80% comprised of SMEs, where significant opportunities for interims exist.
• Increasing Your "Surface Area for Luck": Success in landing interim roles comes from being the right person with the right skills on the radar of the right people at the right time. Proactive networking and being prepared for opportunities are crucial.
• Agility and Decisiveness: Interim professionals need to be super agile, able to move fast, understand their financial implications and make quick decisions with available information.
• Emotional Resilience: Closing contracts and handing over to permanent hires can be emotionally challenging, as it means becoming no longer needed, and it is helpful to recognise that it is a sign of successful completion of an assignment.

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What if we told you that one of your greatest assets isn't just your skills, but your confidence? Join us as we sit down with Lauren Curry a global voice on confidence as a tool for personal transformation.

This episode is packed with insights for anyone looking to amplify their impact, especially those navigating the unique challenges of interim roles. Lauren will share actionable strategies on building self-trust, leveraging visibility as economic power, and challenging outdated notions of what confidence truly means.

• Confidence is a Muscle: A central tenet of Lauren's philosophy is that confidence is a muscle to be built and stretched through practice, rather than an innate personality trait. She defines confidence as self-trust – trusting one's ideas, voice, experience, and the ability to recover from mistakes. She highlights that confidence comes in "all volumes" and can be quiet, kind, or gentle.
• The Importance of Introspection and Progress Tracking: Lauren advocates for regular reflection as a crucial aspect of growth. She shares her personal practice of a weekly "meeting with myself" to document achievements and learnings.
• Visibility as Economic Power and Personal Branding: A powerful theme is Lauren's assertion that "visibility is economic power" and that "good work alone is not enough." She urges professionals, particularly interims, to actively and deliberately build their personal brand, likening oneself to a "product." Key strategies for branding include: Showing up where target audiences are (LinkedIn, podcasts, panels, etc.); Having a clear, memorable headline or theme for what you're known for; Sharing work in progress and learnings openly and starting to build a reputation before it's needed, as it serves as a "runway" for future opportunities.
• The Cost and Reward of Independent Operation: Reflecting on 15 years of self-employment, Lauren describes being an independent operator as the "most expensive confidence exercise you'll ever do," due to financial uncertainty, unseen effort, constant self-promotion, solitary decision-making, and continuous risk-taking. However, she emphasizes that the reward – freedom, ownership, and personal growth – is immense.

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