Building your LeaderBrand - Personal Branding, Digital Marketing, Sales, Leadership & Linkedin for Expert Business Owners & Executives.

Hosted by Bob Gentle Personal Branding & Monetization Coach

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Aug 2026

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Building a business around your personal brand comes with its unique set of challenges, but it’s also an opportunity to create massive impact. Join Bob Gentle as he sits down with leading Entrepreneurs, Consultants, Creators, Leaders and Marketers from around the globe to uncover the strategies behind their successful Personal Brand Businesses. You’ll hear real stories of what it takes to thrive in today’s market—without the fluff. This isn’t just another podcast about business success. Every guest is a trailblazer, redefining traditional business models and discovering innovative ways to deliver value, scale their brands, and make a lasting impact—all while building wealth and influence through the power of their personal brands. From up-and-coming entrepreneurs to industry veterans, every episode opens a new window into the dynamic world of expert business owners, creators, and leaders. Each conversation offers fresh insights, actionable takeaways, and the inspiration you need to continue your journey as both a business leader and a person. About Your Host: Bob Gentle is a globally recognized Personal Brand strategist, coach, and the driving force behind AmplifyMe, helping expert business owners scale their brands and businesses worldwide. He’s also the creator of the Personal Brand Business Roadmap™, a step-by-step guide to starting, scaling, or refining your expert business. Download it for free at amplifyme.agency/roadmap. Tune in to Building Your LeaderBrand, rated in the top 2.5% of podcasts globally by ListenNotes, and discover how you, too, can lead with impact and grow your personal brand into a powerful business.

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August 17, 202651 min

Free your Framework SuperPowers, with Susanna Reay

If you've been producing content, speaking, consulting, or coaching for a while, you probably know your stuff inside out. But knowing it and being able to transfer it - to clients, audiences, or products that work without you - are two very different things. That gap is exactly what this episode is about. Susanna Rea is a visual framework specialist, author of Framework Thinking , and one of the clearest thinkers I know on how to turn what you already do into something that genuinely scales. This conversation went places I didn't expect, including some honest reflection from me about the times I've left value on the table by not leaning into my own framework when it mattered most. If you're sitting somewhere between being good at what you do and being properly known for it, this one's for you. Visit her website : https://susannareay.com Three things we got into: ✳️ A framework isn't a rigid process map - it's a way of connecting your ideas so your audience understands your value at a glance, stays in your world longer, and can follow the journey without you having to explain it from scratch every time. ✳️ The four elements of Susanna's Framework Thinking model - impact detection, boundary setting, visual recognition, and transfer integrity - with transfer integrity at the centre, because a framework that only works when you're in the room isn't really a framework. ✳️ Why AI is useful at the edges of framework development (spotting patterns in your data, suggesting names) but cannot do the excavation work in the middle - that part has to come from your lived experience, or it'll fall flat the moment someone asks you to speak to it. Susanna's amplifiers: ✳️ Know your way - stay true to your own values and inner wisdom rather than mimicking what others are doing. Intuition is just your gathered thoughts over the years. Trust it. ✳️ Block time to think with pen and paper - step away from screens and give your brain the space to percolate. No agenda. Just see what comes up. ✳️ Lean into persistency over consistency - keep your eye on the goal, but experiment with how you get there. Doing the same thing every day and expecting different results is a trap. If you want to take the next step with Susanna, connect with her on LinkedIn and take her free Natural Authority Style Quiz - it takes under 3 minutes and gives you a personalised starting point for framework thinking. And if this episode has you thinking about your own positioning and how you get known for what you do, the Leader Brand Business Roadmap is a great place to start. It's 50 pages, completely free, and it begins exactly where Susanna does - with the foundations. Follow or subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and what a visual framework actually is 04:17 - How frameworks give your business a competitive edge 07:04 - Bob's storey: what happens when you stop using your framework in a sales call 11:11 - Why simplicity is the superpower in framework design 13:13 - Frameworks as a point of competitive difference 15:04 - The four elements of Framework Thinking: impact detection, boundary setting, visual recognition, transfer integrity 20:38 - How to start building your framework (the artist approach) 21:26 - Susanna's SPARK process explained 26:46 - The danger of being everywhere without an anchor 28:18 - Why codifying your thinking eliminates creative and decision fatigue 35:55 - Where AI helps and where it gets in the way 42:04 - How to use the book under deadline pressure 43:19 - Amplifier 1: Know your way 44:19 - Amplifier 2: Pen, paper, and blocked thinking time 46:06 - Amplifier 3: Persistency over consistency 48:43 - How to connect with Susanna ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me. Mentioned in this episode: Signature Studio Get started today - signtaturestudio.me

August 10, 20261 hr 8 min

You need Factory Workers & Free Thinkers. Which are you? - with James Drury

If you've ever felt like AI is something that's happening to your organisation rather than something you're steering, this episode is for you. James Drury spent a decade rising through the ranks of one of the Middle East's original e-commerce agencies, eventually running operations and AI strategy end to end. What he brings to this conversation is rare - a genuine understanding of how AI works at the enterprise level, and an equally sharp eye for how solo operators and small teams can use it to punch well above their weight. This is a practical episode. No hype, no hand-waving. Just how to actually build something useful. Three key areas we covered: ✳️ The free thinker versus factory worker distinction - not everyone in your organisation will go down rabbit holes with AI, and that's fine. The mistake is expecting them to. Find your free thinkers, let them build the systems, and let your factory workers use those systems to produce. ✳️ Context is the unfair advantage - what separates a mediocre AI user from a genuinely effective one isn't the tool, it's the context. James's approach of running a personal interview with Claude - talking for an hour or more about your goals, your business, your working style - and embedding that into your folder structure is one of those things that sounds obvious once you hear it and completely changes how you work. ✳️ AI as strategist and operator - the goal isn't to use Claude for one-off tasks. It's to wire it into your actual systems via MCP connections and APIs so it can think alongside you as a strategist and execute as an operator. James does this with his accounting, his content system, his calendar - the lot. James's three amplifiers: ✳️ Manage your internal feed - be ruthless about what you consume. The algorithm is not your friend. Curate what's coming in - business, gym, whatever fires you up - and protect your mental state the same way you'd protect your calendar. ✳️ Decide on your trade-offs - if you want abnormal results, you have to make abnormal choices. That means being clear about what you're optimising for and being at peace with what that costs. Less scattered, more locked in. ✳️ Learn AI, every day - not in a burst, not when you feel like it. One session a day, cap your tokens, build something. Do that for six months and you won't recognise how capable you've become. If this episode sparked something, follow or subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you've got a guest recommendation, I'd genuinely love to hear it. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction 01:55 - James Drury's background: from junior analyst to COO and Chief AI Officer 05:24 - Free thinkers vs factory workers: finding your AI heroes in a large organisation 09:30 - Why AI amplifies what's already there - systems first, tools second 11:14 - How to drive AI adoption through cultural pull, not top-down push 14:32 - How personality shapes the way you use AI - and where to start 15:50 - Setting up Claude Code: the context interview and building your AI brain 19:28 - Daily strategy sessions with AI: how James uses Claude to decide what to execute 22:36 - MCPs, APIs, and connecting your tools without the technical terror 25:15 - Decision fatigue and letting Claude make the call 27:00 - Building skills in the open: the video game analogy for AI learning 30:31 - How to reorganise a messy Claude Code folder structure 33:40 - Voice vs typing: what works for different kinds of AI users 37:00 - AI slop vs AI-supported content - there's a difference 38:30 - Building a content system: design documents, image generators, and automation 45:35 - Hiring for what you're not good at: the case for a creative director 47:13 - One tool recommendation: Motion AI for time blocking and project management 50:58 - Image generators: James's pick and why 55:16 - Amplifier 1: manage your internal feed 58:14 - Amplifier 2: have fewer commitments, get obsessed with the right things 01:01:15 - Discipline defined: how far you fall, how fast you climb back 01:03:13 - Amplifier 3: learn AI, every single day 01:05:40 - Where to find James Drury and Tattoos and Typewriters podcast ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me. Mentioned in this episode: Signature Studio Get started today - signtaturestudio.me

July 27, 202640 min

How You Spend Your Time Builds Your Future, with Gordon Callum

If you've spent decades building a business, leading organisations, or establishing yourself as the go-to expert in your field, retirement can feel like a cliff edge rather than a launchpad. Gordon Callum knows this territory well. He built Changing Point into a respected change management consultancy over 20 years, then realised - during the pandemic - that he'd done almost no thinking about his own retirement. That moment of clarity led to Retiring Point, and this conversation. This one isn't just for people looking ahead to retirement. The themes here - identity, purpose, planning for transitions, and how you invest your time - apply at every stage of a career. ✳️ The financial side of retirement gets all the attention, but the non-financial side is what determines whether it's fulfilling - identity, purpose, relationships, and the emotional rollercoaster of the transition all need the same planning rigour you'd apply to a business initiative. ✳️ Gordon's behavioural change cycle - awareness, thinking differently, application, and follow-through - transfers directly from change management to retirement planning, including building a rolling 12-month plan towards a clear vision rather than a single grand plan. ✳️ Personality type shapes what a good retirement actually looks like. Extroverted thinkers need goals and competition; extroverted feelers need variety and multiple projects; introverted feelers need a cause to align with; introverted thinkers need structure and rhythm. Gordon's Amplifiers ✳️ Balance the non-financial with the financial - give real attention to purpose, identity, relationship dynamics, and emotional wellbeing, not just the pension pot. ✳️ Retire into something, not from something - spend the 2-3 years before retirement experimenting with projects and possibilities so you have something to run towards from day one. ✳️ If you have a partner, create three retirement plans - your own individual plan, theirs, and a shared plan for what you genuinely want to do together. Communicate all three openly. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and welcome 01:55 - Meet Gordon Callum - from Changing Point to Retiring Point 04:10 - Why most senior leaders arrive at retirement unprepared 05:06 - Identity, purpose, and the non-financial side of retirement 07:19 - What does a healthy retirement actually look like? 09:07 - The cliff edge vs the easing-off approach 12:00 - How personality type shapes what fulfilment looks like in retirement 15:50 - What drove the success of Changing Point 18:18 - Client acquisition and the long-term client strategy 19:59 - The frameworks Gordon has brought from Changing Point to Retiring Point 22:27 - The imagination gap and creating a retirement vision 24:21 - How you invest your time today builds your future 26:01 - The danger of going harder in your final 12 months 28:06 - Changing Point to Retiring Point - the shift to a global virtual model 30:58 - Amplifier 1: Balance the non-financial with the financial 33:06 - Amplifier 2: Retire into something, not from something 34:36 - Amplifier 3: Have three retirement plans if you have a partner 37:45 - The Retiring Point scorecard and how to connect with Gordon 39:11 - Wrap-up and close If this episode made you think differently about how you're investing your time right now, hit follow on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Spotify. A review takes 30 seconds and makes a real difference. ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me. Mentioned in this episode: Signature Studio Get started today - signtaturestudio.me

July 20, 20261 hr 3 min

You Need to Think Like a Magazine to Grow Your Personal Brand, with Rachel Extance

If you've ever stared at a blank page wondering what to write about, this one's for you. -- This weeks show is brought you by signaturestudio.me -- This week I'm back with my friend Rachel Extance, an award-winning blogger and one of the best thinkers I know on how to make complicated things simple. We first spoke years ago about blogging. This time the conversation goes much further - AI, opinions, personal brand, and what happens when your content starts living in too many places at once. If you're a leader, consultant, coach or founder trying to build authority, this gives you a proper structure for what to say and where to say it. ✳️ The imagination gap - Rachel's "editorial expansion prism" splits your business into five areas: identity and purpose, updates and activity, knowledge and insights, work and projects, and community and participation. Look there first and you'll never run out of things to say. ✳️ Own your platform first - a blog post you create once can become an email, a LinkedIn post, a newsletter or a video script. Post it anywhere else first and you're stuck on the hamster wheel. Post it on your own website first and you're building an asset. ✳️ Treat your business like a magazine - as things grow more complex, think in sections instead of one long list. Clear labels, search boxes and internal links stop people getting lost, and stop your own team duplicating each other's work. Rachel's amplifiers: ✳️ Don't assume people know what you know - share the basics. What feels obvious to you is new information to most of your audience. ✳️ Repeat yourself - only a small slice of your audience sees any single post. Say the same thing again. Nobody's counting. ✳️ Jot things down as you go - keep a simple running list of conversations, questions and moments from your week. Rachel recommends Show Your Work by Austin Kleon if you want a nudge. If this one helped, hit follow or subscribe so you don't miss the next. Timestamps 00:00 Welcome back and introducing Rachel Extance 02:49 Who is Rachel Extance 05:18 AI as an amplifier, not an idea generator 07:15 The imagination gap and the editorial expansion prism 12:23 Why your blog is an owned asset 14:35 Create once, repurpose everywhere 15:07 Finding your voice and having an opinion 21:13 The rule of thirds 22:19 You don't have to be polarising to be distinctive 25:50 Why personality is harder on a blog than on video 27:05 Bringing your audience along on the journey 32:37 Whose story is it to tell 35:41 Managing a complex content ecosystem 41:23 Editorial thinking as a competitive advantage 44:44 Serialisation and Rachel's Coffee House 47:10 Why AI can quietly switch off your own thinking 52:01 What to do when you still can't start 56:24 Rachel's three amplifiers ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me. Mentioned in this episode: Signature Studio Get started today - signtaturestudio.me

July 6, 20261 hr 4 min

The profits in the imagination gap, with Jay Samit

If you're an experienced leader, founder or consultant, there's a particular kind of quiet risk you might not be tracking. The world you built your career in is being rewritten, and the tools that used to belong to well-funded companies now sit on your laptop for free. This week I'm joined by Jay Samit, author of Disrupt You, Future Proofing You, and his latest book, The Second Act Advantage. Jay was in the room when Reid Hoffman launched LinkedIn, helped monetise Facebook, ran EMI through the Napster years, and has been a futurist for more than half a century. He is not a hype merchant. He is someone who has watched every major technology shift up close, and he thinks this one is different. Our conversation is a wake-up call, but not a doom scroll. It is about where the real opportunity sits for people who are already good at what they do, and how to move before the ground shifts under you. ✳️ Why AI is not another industrial revolution. It is closer to fire, and this time it comes for knowledge workers first. ✳️ The illusion of job security. The original Fortune 500 has lost 90% of its members, and the safety net you think you have is thinner than you realise. ✳️ How ordinary people are building global businesses off the "crumbs" the trillion-dollar companies leave on the ground, using tools they never had to pay for. Jay's Amplifiers ✳️ Speak to yourself in the mirror every morning. Two lines only: "Today can be better than yesterday. And I have the power to make it so." Your brain does not know you are talking to it. It just responds. ✳️ Do not retire, in any sense of the word. Keep learning something that requires muscle memory, protect your purpose, and treat autophagy and sleep as seriously as you treat your calendar. ✳️ Be unique on purpose. Everything else is already taken. Whatever you create, think or build is now being absorbed by a system that will outlast you. That is a legacy opportunity no previous generation has had. If this is your first time here, hit follow so the next episode finds you automatically. And if you already listen, thank you. It genuinely matters. Timestamps 00:01 - Sponsor: Granola 01:15 - Cold open with Jay 01:59 - Welcome and why this episode matters 03:02 - Introducing Jay Samit 04:14 - Jay's story, from nerd to billionaire whisperer 07:41 - Why this AI shift is different from every other one 10:00 - Playing Pygmalion with a young millennial 13:05 - The illusion of corporate security 20:41 - AI as amplifier, not replacement 23:05 - The difference between chasing AI and mastering it 27:33 - Why most people freeze when it is time to reinvent 35:19 - Vibe coding explained without the jargon 39:45 - Competition is not the enemy you think it is 41:28 - What actually drives Jay's decision to move on 47:47 - Curiosity, effort, belief, and the right tools 49:19 - Amplifier 1: The mirror trick and the Pygmalion effect 53:06 - Amplifier 2: Longevity, purpose and the lazy nerd's guide 57:21 - Amplifier 3: Be unique, because everything else is taken 01:02:00 - Where to find Jay and the Second Act Society 01:03:31 - Close and the Personal Brand Business Roadmap ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me. Mentioned in this episode: Signature Studio Get started today - signtaturestudio.me

June 29, 202658 min

The Power of You Encoded Content, with Jodi Kay Edwards

Your content is sitting in your phone right now. You just haven't extracted it yet. That's the heart of this conversation with Jodi Kay Edwards - a marketing and communications strategist who has spent years helping influential brands and personalities communicate with clarity in noisy markets. If you've ever sat down to create content and felt like you had nothing to say, this episode is going to reframe that entirely. What Jodi introduces here - her You-Coded Content framework - isn't about producing more content. It's about recognising that your most powerful material already exists. It's in your voice notes, your shower thoughts, your conversations, and your stories. The problem isn't a lack of ideas. It's a lack of extraction. For senior leaders, founders, and consultants trying to build authority, this matters enormously. You don't need to become a content machine. You need a system that reflects who you actually are. Three things we explored in this episode: ✳️ The Content Code starts with you, not AI - Jody explains why using AI as your starting point rather than your filter produces generic output, and how feeding it your own voice notes, thoughts, and lived experience changes everything. ✳️ Editing yourself out is costing you - From hiding her immigrant background to managing the tension between polish and authenticity, Jody makes a strong case that the stories we've been avoiding are often the ones with the most reach. ✳️ Consistency isn't about volume, it's about system - Whether you're a solo founder or leading a large team, having a content system that works with your natural rhythm - not against it - is what makes the difference between showing up and burning out. Jodi's three amplifiers: ✳️ Personal development first - Before strategy, before tools, before AI - clear the internal noise. If you can't see past your own limiting beliefs, no content system is going to save you. ✳️ Practise solitude - The ideas that will define your brand aren't coming from LinkedIn. They come from time spent quietly with your own thoughts. Build that time in deliberately. ✳️ Hold yourself accountable to your current experience - If you don't love where you are right now, that's data. Use it. Your brand, your content, and your business should reflect the life you're actually building, not a performance of one. If this episode gave you something to think about, the best thing you can do is follow the show so you never miss a conversation. And if you're not already on the mailing list, the Personal Brand Business Roadmap is a free 50-page guide to starting, scaling, or fixing your expert business. Link in the show notes. Connect with Jodi on Linkedin. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and Jodi's AI content revelation 02:00 - Who is Jodi Kay Edwards? 03:25 - Why she stopped working with clients and what changed 05:00 - Owning your story - from editing yourself out to amplifying your voice 07:08 - What is You-Coded Content and the Content Code? 09:53 - How to build your content from the inside out 12:17 - Using voice notes and phone recordings as your content base 14:22 - Bob's capture system and the subconscious as a creative engine 15:30 - Building a personal lexicon with AI 16:38 - Working with your natural rhythm, not against it 18:56 - Scaling your content - from solopreneur to larger teams 21:50 - How content scales when your messaging is crystal clear 26:09 - Your face is part of your brand - visibility, polish, and authenticity 27:22 - B-roll, sets, and how Jody creates content without a camera crew 33:14 - Engagement and why it comes from intentionality, not volume 38:34 - Using Claude as a conversation partner for content creation 43:15 - The hidden genius problem - reaching people who resist visibility 50:40 - Jodi's three amplifiers: personal development, solitude, accountability 56:14 - Where to find Jodi Kay Edwards ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me. Mentioned in this episode: Signature Studio Get started today - signtaturestudio.me

June 22, 202656 min

The trust you can't build, with Greg Hoffman

If you've ever walked into an organisation and immediately sensed something was off - a kind of low-level tension, a lack of direction, people moving fast but not together - you've experienced what Greg Hoffman would call a leadership gap. And if you've ever been part of a team where everything clicked, where people were trusted, empowered, and genuinely cared about the work, you've experienced what his framework is designed to create. Greg is a lawyer by training, an executive by career, and a leadership thinker by deep conviction. He's worked inside companies like General Electric and Whirlpool, led teams across legal, IT, cybersecurity, and HR - often without a technical background in any of them - and he's spent the last two years channelling everything he knows into a book and leadership development programme called Performance Through People . This conversation is a very practical one. Greg doesn't describe what good leadership looks like from a distance. He shows you the mechanism. Three areas we explored... ✳️ Culture doesn't build itself - at least not in a positive direction. If leaders don't intentionally build a common culture every day, confusion fills the space. Misalignment creeps in, and misalignment becomes toxicity. ✳️ The five elements of the Performance Through People framework - leadership-first mindset, operational clarity, capability, empowerment, and impact - give leaders a system for building the conditions where trust emerges naturally, rather than something you try to manufacture. ✳️ Empowerment is a dial, not a lever. How much you empower your team should be calibrated against the level of trust present - and trust is a function of operational clarity and capability, not personality or intention. Greg's Amplifiers... ✳️ Care about and invest in the people around you. Look at who is in your sphere of influence and find someone you can help grow. Not because it's a strategy - because it matters. ✳️ Read Performance Through People - out now on Amazon. The book follows a CEO using the PTP framework to turn around a struggling company. It's written as a parable, and Greg says the best feedback he gets is from readers who want to know more about the characters. ✳️ Go live your why. Not someone else's. Greg spent years chasing other people's goals before stepping back and building something aligned with his own. There's a season when it's time to take the swing - and waiting until you're 70 isn't the plan. Follow Greg on LinkedIn or reach him at greg@ascensionpg.com . Find out more about the programme at ascensionpg.com . +Order Greg's Book : Performance Through People If this episode was useful, follow Building Your Leader Brand wherever you listen - and for bonus points, hit the auto-download button. It genuinely helps. Timestamps 00:00 - Culture doesn't build itself 00:44 - Welcome and introduction 01:52 - Who is Greg Hoffman? 04:07 - Why go big instead of consulting? 06:21 - The business model behind Performance Through People 07:05 - Why the world needs this leadership book 08:59 - How individuals actually change 09:34 - The five elements of the PTP framework 11:42 - Purpose architecture explained 14:27 - Capability - the four-quadrant model 15:36 - Empowerment as a dial, not a lever 18:35 - Making complex leadership simple 23:14 - Culture as connective tissue 28:06 - Why culture is a competitive advantage 29:56 - Who the book is for 33:53 - The story behind the book 36:23 - The licencing model and business vision 41:14 - The hardest part of going out on your own 47:57 - Greg's three amplifiers 53:31 - Where to find Greg ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me. Mentioned in this episode: Signature Studio Get started today - signtaturestudio.me

June 15, 202653 min

Be More Strategic: Habits That Separate Direction from Busyness - with Charlie Curzon

Strategy Isn't a Plan - and That Difference Could Change Everything Most of the people I speak with on this show are smart, capable, and deeply experienced. And yet a surprising number of them are working without a clear strategy - not because they don't care about direction, but because no one ever explained what strategy actually is, and how it's different from the planning they do every single day. That's exactly what this conversation with Charlie Curzon is about. Charlie is a coach, strategist, and advisor with more than two decades of experience helping leaders, teams, and organisations think more effectively. His book, Be More Strategic: 12 Essential Practises to Build the Life and Career You Want , turns one of the most overused words in business into something genuinely teachable, practical, and personal. Three things we got into: ✳️ Strategy is about choices in uncertainty - not a five-year plan. Charlie draws on Roger Martin's strategy cascade to show how winning aspiration, where to play, and how to win work together as a thinking triangle that sharpens decisions before you ever get to planning. ✳️ The Strategy Mastery Framework is a four-level circular model built from years of working with real leaders in business, sport, and the military. It begins with self-awareness - because state precedes strategy - and builds through open-mindedness, strategic skills, and the ability to bring others on board. ✳️ Being strategic isn't just for work. Charlie makes the case that surfacing assumptions, asking "what if," and tracking how those assumptions shift over time are daily practises that apply just as well to life as to any boardroom decision. Charlie's amplifiers: ✳️ Read The Go-Giver by Bob Burg - a short, parable-style book about generosity of spirit that Charlie credits with reinforcing the relational approach behind much of his work. ✳️ Track your energy, not just your time. Based on Jim Loehr's book On Form , Charlie recommends keeping a three-day energy diary - logging what gives you energy and what drains it - to uncover patterns and improve your capacity for clear thinking. ✳️ Journal daily, ideally with pen and paper. Even a couple of minutes. Charlie does it twice a day and notes the growing evidence that handwriting engages the mind differently to typing. If you're ready to go deeper, try journalling through a values lens. If this conversation got you thinking about how you're making decisions - at work or in life - then I'd love it if you took a moment to follow or subscribe. That way you'll never miss an episode, and it helps me keep bringing guests like Charlie to the show. Timestamps: 00:00 - Preview: the winning aspiration 00:38 - Welcome and guest introduction 01:49 - Charlie's world: a typical week 03:12 - Strategy vs planning - what's the real difference? 05:06 - Why strategy raises anxiety and planning feels safe 06:54 - Roger Martin's strategy cascade: aspiration, where to play, how to win 10:56 - Strategy as subtraction - ruling things out 11:29 - The Game Changer Index and natural vs learned strategic thinking 15:18 - The power of asking "what if?" and surfacing assumptions 16:52 - The Strategy Mastery Framework explained 19:33 - Level 1: self-awareness - state precedes strategy 20:41 - Level 2: open-mindedness and critical thinking 20:41 - Levels 3 and 4: future focus, influence, and collaboration 21:51 - The testimonial story: senior leaders surprised by Level 1 24:03 - What separates those who thrive from those who bump along 25:04 - Strategic capability under pressure 27:16 - The CEO who had a strategy but didn't know it 29:13 - The 12-month trap and what a longer horizon changes 33:27 - Building a personal practise of strategic mastery 34:45 - Living strategically - what that actually looks like 36:44 - The Lego castle story: articulating a hidden aspiration 38:00 - Tracking assumptions as a daily life practise 40:08 - Journaling as a strategic tool 41:12 - How Charlie builds his business - relationships first 43:49 - Why content is for staying present, not finding strangers 45:21 - Amplifier 1: The Go-Giver 47:34 - Amplifier 2: On Form and managing energy not time 48:08 - Amplifier 3: Journaling, values, and pen and paper 49:24 - Where to find Charlie and upcoming masterclasses 51:40 - Close and Bob's final CTA Visit Charlie's website. https://www.teammandarin.com/ ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me. Mentioned in this episode: Signature Studio Get started today - signtaturestudio.me

June 8, 202645 min

WTF do I do now? ( It's not what you think ), with Danielle Sprouls

Most leaders I speak with aren't struggling because they lack skill or experience. They're struggling because when things shift - when the market moves, the strategy stalls, or something just stops feeling right - they don't have a reliable process for navigating that moment well. They wing it. Or they freeze. Or they fall back on what worked last time, even when last time no longer applies. This conversation with Danielle Sprouls cuts right to that gap. Danielle spent over 25 years in commercial real estate, has a background in law, and has been involved in over $20 billion in transactions. Today she's the founder of Unscripted Pivots, an executive coaching and advisory firm, and the author of WTF: Women That Flourish. Her second book, The PIVOT Advantage, is out soon - and in this episode, she walks us through the framework that sits at the heart of it. Three areas we explored... ✳️ Reframing disruption before you respond to it - Danielle's WTF framework redefines what's happening before you act on it: Where to Focus, Wake That Flame, Wisdom Through Failure. When you change the language, you change the experience. ✳️ The PIVOT Advantage framework - a five-step decision sequence (Pause, Identify, Vet, Outreach, Test) that takes a leader from chaos to clarity without skipping the steps that most people rush past. ✳️ The identity work behind operational change - Danielle's observation that most pivots get hired as operational problems but are almost always rooted in identity. You have to treat the person moving through the shift, not just the shift itself. Danielle's amplifiers... ✳️ Reframe what's happening - when something disrupts your autopilot, stop and ask whether this is happening to you or for you. The opportunity is often buried in the disruption itself. ✳️ Run a 24-hour self-audit - when you're being indecisive, take time to assess what not making a change is costing you - energy, relationships, confidence - not just money. ✳️ Use the PIVOT sequence - Pause, Identify, Vet, Outreach, Test. Apply it to any decision under pressure. The steps are simple. The discipline to follow them is where the real work lives. Danielle's website and her book WTF: Women That Flourish. When The PIVOT Advantage lands, she'll be back. Keep an eye out for that one. If this episode gave you something useful, the best thing you can do is follow or subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction 00:32 - Welcome and show overview 01:47 - Danielle Sproles - background and introduction 03:04 - Unscripted Pivots, the WTF book, and what Danielle does today 04:03 - Pivoting from commercial real estate - what makes it work 05:43 - Selective restraint - why saying yes means saying no 07:12 - Moments of impact and why most pivots go badly 08:49 - Reframing disruption before you act on it 09:58 - The PIVOT Advantage framework introduced 13:07 - Why pause leads to paralysis without a deadline 15:05 - Pause as strategy, not stillness 16:55 - Types of pivots - operational, identity, and existential 17:55 - Why the identity work is always at the heart of it 20:04 - The competitive advantage of a decision process 21:01 - Applying PIVOT to solo businesses and personal decisions 22:58 - Outreach as perspective, not weakness 25:12 - Asking for help is a gift, not a burden 28:02 - Asking better questions - the I in PIVOT 29:51 - Full walkthrough of the PIVOT framework 33:18 - Strategy as a series of decisions, not a fixed plan 35:34 - Fear as a signal, not an obstacle 38:21 - Overcoming fear of public speaking - Danielle's own story 40:25 - Skydiving, saying yes, and being willing to be a beginner 42:00 - Danielle's three amplifiers 43:39 - Closing and where to find Danielle ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me. Mentioned in this episode: Signature Studio Get started today - signtaturestudio.me

June 1, 202649 min

The Secret to being a Timeless Presenter, with Andrea Pacini

If you've ever watched someone stumble through explaining what they do - or caught yourself doing it - this episode is for you. The ability to communicate your ideas clearly isn't a nice-to-have. It's the difference between being good at what you do and being known for it. For senior leaders, consultants, and founders, that gap is often where opportunity gets lost. Andrea Pacini runs Ideas On Stage UK and has spent 16 years coaching business leaders - including over 500 TEDx speakers - to become more confident, more effective communicators. His new book, Timeless Presenter, draws on principles that have worked for 2,000 years and will keep working regardless of what AI does next. Three areas we explored: ✳️ Nerves before a presentation are normal - the best antidote isn't confidence tricks, it's preparation. As Kobe Bryant put it, confidence comes from having done something a thousand times before. ✳️ Every presentation is a sales presentation - whether you're pitching a product or updating colleagues on a project, you are always asking someone to buy in to an idea. If you can't make clear why they should care, they probably have a point. ✳️ AI makes human communication more valuable, not less. Because everyone can now produce polished content with minimal effort, the people who show up with authenticity, story, and connexion will stand out even more. Andrea's Amplifiers - three things you can apply straight away: ✳️ Know your 1% - your audience will forget 90% of what you say. Be ruthlessly clear about the one big idea you want them to walk away with. If you don't have that clarity, they won't either. ✳️ Raise the quality of your examples - the fastest way to improve as a communicator is to use better stories and examples. Stop leading with facts and data. Wrap your ideas in something human and memorable. ✳️ Simplify without dumbing down - complex topics don't require complex language. If you can only explain something in jargon, you haven't mastered it yet. Use the shortest, clearest word that does the job. If this episode gave you something useful, the best thing you can do is follow or subscribe so you never miss a conversation. And if you're new here, grab the Personal Brand Business Roadmap - 50 pages of everything you need to start, scale, or fix your expert business. Completely free. Link in the show notes. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction 00:37 - Welcome and episode context 01:48 - Who is Andrea Pacini and what is Ideas On Stage? 03:38 - About the new book, Timeless Presenter 04:54 - The first barrier: nerves and emotional readiness 07:55 - Why preparation is the foundation of confidence 08:30 - What's on the other side - the ROI of better presenting 12:16 - Getting over the bridge - overcoming fear of negative consequences 13:10 - Making communication about the audience 17:17 - Bob's CIA tangent and the quantum effect of attention 18:32 - Deep dive into Timeless Presenter 20:03 - Why timeless principles matter more in the AI era 23:17 - Authenticity as a competitive advantage 24:28 - What drives Andrea's business - passion and purpose 30:15 - How opportunities come in - relationships, content, and outreach 33:27 - Amplifier 1: Know your 1% 36:36 - Amplifier 2: Raise the quality of your examples 39:56 - Amplifier 3: Know how to simplify 44:28 - Expertise shows in simplicity, not complexity 46:15 - How to connect with Andrea and find the book 47:01 - Wrap-up ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me. Mentioned in this episode: Signature Studio Get started today - signtaturestudio.me