He built a 1,000-person festival in 7 months with no audience

Andy Coleman has spent the last 21 years starting things, breaking things and fixing them, on rinse and repeat. He became the youngest landlord in the Greene King estate in his early twenties, went on to build and run pubs, bars, a roofing business, a women's clothing chain, an events company and a content creation agency, and most recently launched BizzFest, a festival-style business event that went from an idea on a retreat to 1,000 people, three stages and 40 speakers in a field within seven months. Andy Coleman joins hosts Jack Frimston to talk about what actually happens when you build a career out of jumping into things other people would call reckless. He explains why he never learned to delegate until a manager called Ben forced the issue, why the smoking ban was the moment he learned to "jump before you're pushed" in business, and why the businesses that failed for him were never killed by some outside disaster, they just got dragged on too long after he already knew. He breaks down the exact framework he uses to decide whether to pivot or shut something down, why he refuses to call it quitting, and why giving someone terrible food poisoning taught him more about customer trust than almost anything else in hospitality. Then he gets into how BizzFest actually got built: why he spent money before the brand had any trust to spend it on, why ticket sales for a first-time event barely move until the final 48 hours, and what it was like hosting a fireside chat with Andy Coulson and Jamie Laing having never done one before in his life. Along the way: the ChatGPT prompt Andy wrote in the bath the night before interviewing Jamie Laing on stage, the "burn the boats" story that talked him into doing it anyway, why he thinks most business failure feels like getting cut from the school basketball team, and the charity worker who told him a single day at BizzFest changed his life. Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Andy Coleman, Serial Entrepreneur 00:01:37 The Youngest Landlord: Starting a Business at 21 00:04:51 The Resilience Factor: Why Andy Didn't Fail 00:06:09 Learning to Delegate: The Seven-Year Struggle 00:07:20 The Smoking Ban Pivot: Knowing When to Jump or Be Pushed 00:07:55 Building an Ecosystem: From Pubs to Bars to Clothing Shops 00:10:15 Customer Experience Masterclass: The Power of Fixing Mistakes 00:15:12 Defining Success: Happiness Over Everything 00:19:56 The Month Off Challenge: Working Yourself Out of the Business 00:26:59 The BizFest Origin Story: Born in a Bath in Portugal 00:31:01 The Only Real Risk: What If Nobody Shows Up? 00:33:16 Sales and Marketing Lessons: Throw Money at the Problem 00:35:11 The Ticket Sales Spike: Why Events Come Together Last Minute 00:41:30 First Time on Stage: The Andy Coulson and Jamie Lang Interviews 00:46:36 The Future of BizFest: Scaling Across the UK and Beyond 00:47:33 The Life-Changing Moment: When BizFest Led to an Adoption #AndyColeman #BizzFest #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #Hospitality #EventsIndustry #PersonalBranding #FounderStory #SmallBusiness #BusinessLessons #SalesAndMarketing #CustomerExperience #StartupFailure #Resilience #WeHaveAMeeting Connect with Andy: BizzFest: https://www.bizzfest.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theandycoleman/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-coleman-6343aa49/ Hear more from the hosts: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Mark Bowden has spent his career reading the eight seconds before anyone says a word. He's the founder of Truth Plane, and he's coached leaders at the G7, elite athletes and Fortune 500 executives on how to win trust and credibility the moment they walk into a room, long before their content, their numbers or their pitch ever gets heard. Mark Bowden and hosts Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson get into why your brain decides whether to trust someone in seconds, and why that decision has almost nothing to do with what's actually being said. Mark delivers the same five-million-pound pitch twice, live, with two completely different sets of body language, to prove that identical words land completely differently depending on how predictable your movement is. He breaks down why "you can never change a first impression" is a myth, and gives the exact script for rebuilding trust once it's broken. He explains why the brain isn't a computer but a chemical system that changes its own thresholds day to day, why a nervous read and a lying read can look almost identical, and why Donald Trump's handshake theatre with world leaders is a deliberate performance for an audience, not an instinct. Along the way: why one person's charisma is another person's arrogance, the exact question to ask at any networking event instead of pitching yourself, how to build real rapport without turning someone else's story into your own, the cold call line that stops a "no" before it starts, and the story of how Zac's brother accidentally avoided being mugged by his trousers falling down. Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Mark Bowden, Body Language Expert 00:00:30 The Trust and Credibility Problem: Why Everyone Needs Help 00:01:25 The Anxiety Factor: Who Mark Helps and Why 00:02:57 First Impressions in the Boardroom: The Predictability Principle 00:07:38 The Likeability Paradox: When Being Difficult Still Works 00:11:13 Can You Change a First Impression: The Real Answer 00:13:40 The Persuasion Transparency Technique: Telling Them You're Persuading Them 00:20:44 The Brain Is Not a Computer: Why Complex Systems Need Simple Tools 00:26:20 Trump's Handshake Strategy: Performing for Your Audience 00:30:47 The Networking Event Masterclass: How to Win Without Selling 00:38:27 The Hierarchical Evaluative Question: Finding What People Really Value 00:47:52 The Cold Call Pattern Interrupt: When They Say No, Say Thank You 00:50:33 The Duty to Persuade: Why Letting People Go Is Failing Them 00:51:51 The Closing Question: What Will You Do Immediately and What's in Your Way #MarkBowden #TruthPlane #BodyLanguage #BodyLanguageExpert #NonverbalCommunication #TrustAndCredibility #FirstImpressions #Charisma #Persuasion #SalesPsychology #ColdCalling #Networking #PublicSpeaking #ExecutivePresence #CommunicationSkills #SalesTraining #B2BSales #WeHaveAMeeting Connect with Mark: Truth Plane: https://www.truthplane.com Hear more from the hosts: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Will Perez is the lead filmmaker and editor behind Behind The Diary, the documentary series following Steven Bartlett's day to day running Flight Story and hosting The Diary of a CEO. His work on the channel has passed 12 million views and helped build an audience of over 400,000 subscribers, and in 2025 Forbes named him to its 30 Under 30 list for Media and Marketing at just 24. Will Perez joins hosts Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson for an honest conversation about what it's actually like working that close to one of the UK's most recognisable entrepreneurs. They get into ego, his own and the ego that comes with being permanently embedded inside someone else's brand, the parts of working for a high-profile founder that never make it into the polished footage, and the reality behind building a career off the back of someone else's fame. #StevenBartlett #DiaryOfACEO #FlightStory #BehindTheDiary #WillPerez #Ego #Filmmaking #ContentCreation #CreatorEconomy #PersonalBranding #WorkingForACelebrity #PodcastProduction #WeHaveAMeeting Connect with Will: Website: https://www.willperez.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/btswithwill Substack: https://btswithwill.substack.com Hear more from the hosts: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Anna Cairns and Kerry Collinge are the co-founders of Illuminari, the marketing collective they launched in 2026 alongside Rory Sutherland, Les Binet, Karen Nelson-Field, Orlando Wood, Richard Shotton, Margaret Heffernan, Tom Goodwin and Adam Morgan. Anna spent 22 years agency-side. She ran Nudgestock, the behavioural science festival, for a decade, and spent eight years building Rory Sutherland's fame and stage presence around the world. Kerry spent 25 years in marketing at Carlsberg, AB InBev and Mondelez, then ran marketing at System1 and took Uncensored CMO to Marketing Week's B2B Brand of the Year as its Managing Director. Between them they have sat in most of the rooms where marketing decides what it thinks. Their view is that the industry has hidden behind measurement. Everyone uses the same dashboards and the same frameworks, so everyone gets the same answers, and nobody is accountable for whether any of it worked. Along the way: why Anna's daughter believes Elvis is still alive, the Joe Rogan cat litter story and who gets paid when misinformation spreads, why you can line up ten beers blind and nobody can tell the difference, why a CEO will believe a stranger with a slide deck over the team he already employs, and why marketing still gets treated as the colouring in department. Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Kerry and Anna, The Founders of Illuminari 00:01:41 The Data and Fear Problem: Why Marketing Lost Its Humanity 00:09:21 The Cannes Dinner Party: How Illuminari Was Born 00:14:52 The TikTok Generation: Misinformation and the Need for Real Conversations 00:23:50 The Three Martini Lunch: Bringing Back Joy and Connection 00:39:11 The Organ Transplant: Moving from B2C to B2B Marketing 00:55:08 The Rory Effect: Why Simplification Beats Complication 00:56:50 The Wall of Shame: Why Great Work Comes from Shaking the Tree 00:59:07 The Avengers of Marketing: How to Work with Illuminari 00:59:53 The Closing Question: Are You Bringing Your Whole Self to Work? #RorySutherland #Illuminari #UncensoredCMO #Nudgestock #System1 #Marketing #BrandBuilding #MarketingStrategy #CMO #B2BMarketing #MarketingEffectiveness #BehaviouralScience #Advertising #WeHaveAMeeting Connect with Anna and Kerry: Illuminari: https://www.theilluminari.com Anna Cairns: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-cairns-70284220 Kerry Collinge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-collinge Uncensored CMO: https://system1group.com/uncensored-cmo Hear more from the hosts: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Will Perez is the filmmaker who spent three years documenting Steven Bartlett from inches away. As lead filmmaker and editor at FlightStory, he built Behind The Diary, the behind-the-scenes channel following The Diary Of A CEO, from zero to 400,000 subscribers and more than 12 million views. In April 2026 he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list for Media and Marketing, at 24. He got there by dropping out. At 21, in his second year at Edinburgh University, Will texted his mum to say he was leaving to take a job with Steven Bartlett. Her reply, in Spanish, was blunt: are you crazy? He'd stolen his dad's camera at 16, shot weddings in Velcro Spider-Man shoes, and sent close to a thousand cold pitches that went nowhere. Gymshark said no. HBO said no. Then a referral put him on a call with Jack Sylvester, co-founder of Diary Of A CEO, and four days later he'd quit his degree and moved to London. What followed was three years inside one of the biggest media operations on the planet. Last year alone that meant 54 flights in 54 weeks. He has since left to build his own studio, telling stories for founders, artists and brands. He joins Jack and Zac for an unusually honest conversation about storytelling, YouTube strategy and what it actually costs to work at that level. Why nobody cares about your story, how a DOAC video gets packaged before a single frame is cut, the two hours after you hit publish that decide everything, and what Steven Bartlett does backstage that nobody films. What you'll learn in this episode: Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Will Perez, The Man Behind Diary of a CEO 00:01:55 Nobody Cares About Your Story: The Three Assumptions That Kill Content 00:04:00 Brand vs Founder Storytelling: The Red Bull Strategy 00:07:08 The Story Seller Framework: How Real Estate Agents Hack Your Brain 00:11:09 The Dropout Decision: Texting Your Way Into Your Dream Job 00:17:34 Data Before Creative: The Title Testing Process That Changes Everything 00:22:15 The First Two Hours: What Happens After You Hit Publish 00:26:13 54 Flights in 54 Weeks: The Reality of Working for Stephen Bartlett 00:33:21 The Steve Jobs Headphone Jack Story: How Much You Care Equals How Much You Win 00:52:39 Going Full-Time: The Bet on Himself and What Comes Next #StevenBartlett #DiaryOfACEO #DOAC #YouTubeStrategy #VideoEditing #Storytelling #ContentStrategy #ContentCreation #Filmmaking #PersonalBranding #YouTubeGrowth #BehindTheDiary #WeHaveAMeeting Connect with Will: Website: https://www.willperez.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/btswithwill Substack: https://btswithwill.substack.com LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/will-lindsay-perez Hear more from the hosts: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting Subscribe to We Have A Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, says empathy is the hardest skill to learn, and the one that matters most. In this clip, Jack and Zac break down why empathy is the single most underrated sales skill in B2B, and how it changes everything about the way you cold call, handle objections and close deals. Most salespeople think empathy is soft. It isn't. It's the difference between a prospect hanging up in four seconds and a prospect actually telling you the truth about their situation. Empathy is what turns a cold call into a conversation, a pitch into a diagnosis, and a "not interested" into a real objection you can actually work with. If you're learning how to sell, how to cold call, or how to build a sales career that doesn't rely on being pushy, this is the skill to start with. Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: The One Skill Every Salesperson Needs 00:00:36 The Microsoft CEO Quote: Why Empathy is the Hardest Skill 00:01:48 Can Empathy Be Taught: Nature vs Nurture 00:02:42 The Home Test: When Problem Solving Kills Connection 00:04:01 Beyond the Transcript: Reading Tone and Body Language 00:04:47 The Ten Out of Ten Problem: Testing Real Empathy 00:05:49 The Summary Technique: Your First Empathy Skill 00:07:49 Nooks Ad: Stop Cold Calling on Your Mobile 00:08:21 Labeling and Mirroring Masterclass: The Theory 00:10:21 Live Role Play: Empathy Skills in Action 00:13:41 Common Mistakes: Mirroring the Wrong Phrases 00:15:03 The Low Stakes Practice Game: Try This at Home 00:15:47 Active Listening: The Foundation of Empathy 00:16:44 Secret Mission: The Wham Challenge for 850 Pounds What you'll learn in this clip: Why Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calls empathy the hardest skill to learn How empathy actually works on a cold call, and what fake empathy sounds like to a prospect The difference between empathy and being "nice" in sales, and why nice salespeople lose deals How to use empathy to handle objections instead of fighting them Why empathy is the fastest way to build trust with a stranger on the phone How to train empathy as a sales skill, not a personality trait Whether you're in cold calling, SDR work, account executive sales, recruitment, or you're a founder doing your own outbound, this is the skill that compounds. #Sales #ColdCalling #Empathy #SalesTraining #B2BSales #SalesTips #SatyaNadella #Microsoft #HowToSell #SalesSkills #ObjectionHandling #SDR #Prospecting #WeHaveAMeeting Hear more from the hosts: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting Subscribe to We Have a Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Tom Hunt is the founder and CEO of Fame, the B2B podcast agency he's bootstrapped to around $4.5m ARR with 70+ full-time staff and $0 raised. Fame now starts and grows 300+ B2B podcasts around the world. Before Fame, Tom quit management consulting in 2014 and, by his own count, tried and failed with 17 businesses before one finally stuck. Those failures taught him more about attention, distribution and demand than any of the wins ever did. Today he's one of the most-watched voices in B2B marketing. A LinkedIn Top Voice, host of Confessions of a B2B Entrepreneur and Cash Machines, and the founder most other founders quietly copy the day they decide to start posting. He joins Jack and Zac for an honest, tactical chat about how to become impossible to ignore online. How to build a personal brand that actually generates pipeline instead of vanity likes, why most founder content gets scrolled past, what B2B podcasting really does for a sales team, and how he built a 70-person company without a penny of outside money. What you'll learn in this episode: Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Tom Hunt, Founder of Fame 00:02:25 The Fame Formula: How Taylor Swift Built Her Brand Twice 00:03:29 The Three Ways People Mess Up Their Podcast Launch 00:05:32 The Top Podcast Lists Strategy: Free Organic Traffic 00:09:53 The Intercom Deal: How One Guest Paid for the Podcast 9X Over 00:18:05 The Rollercoaster Years: 15 Failed Businesses Before Fame 00:24:44 The SaaS Hacker Newsletter: Building the Audience First 00:29:16 The Anatomy of a Viral LinkedIn Post: Face, Hook, and Rage 00:33:43 The HR Content Switch: Trading Relevance for Numbers 00:39:46 Building Culture Remotely: The Four Values That Drive Fame #B2BMarketing #PersonalBranding #FounderLedMarketing #LinkedInGrowth #ContentMarketing #Podcasting #Bootstrapping #Entrepreneurship #B2BSales #WeHaveAMeeting Connect with Tom: LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tomhuntio X: https://x.com/tomhuntio Fame: https://www.fame.so Cash Machines newsletter & podcast: https://www.tomhunt.io Hear more from the hosts: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b Brought to you by Nooks: the AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting Subscribe to We Have a Meeting: new episodes every week with founders, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

Josh White is the co-founder and CEO of Cano Water, the UK drinks brand that helped pioneer canned water as an alternative to single-use plastic bottles. The idea was born after a trip to Thailand with friends, where he witnessed the scale of plastic pollution firsthand — a moment that turned into a mission and, eventually, a business. Before water, Josh ran an events company bringing together some of the biggest names in grime and electronic music across the UK. In this episode, Josh joins Jack and Zac for a candid conversation about building Cano Water from an idea people initially dismissed into one of the UK’s fastest-growing drinks brands, the reality of bootstrapping a physical product business, and how his own personal struggles growing up shaped the way he leads and builds today. What you’ll learn in this episode: Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Josh White, Founder of Cano Water 00:01:39 The Troubled Kid: ADHD, Addiction, and Rehab at 15 00:12:15 Finding Purpose Through Music: The Events Company Journey 00:17:40 Rock Bottom to Reborn: The Turning Point at 21 00:19:43 The Thailand Trip: How Cano Water Was Born 00:37:48 The ADHD Superpower: From Problem to Solution in Seconds 00:33:49 Wrapping Cans in Mum's Kitchen: The Scrappy Early Days 00:35:36 The Selfridges Miracle: Perfect Timing and Saying Yes with Nothing 00:48:12 Taking On Liquid Death: How Cano Survived the American Giant 00:57:37 The Future of Cano: Staying True to the Mission #Entrepreneurship #BrandBuilding #FounderStory #CanoWater #SustainableBusiness #ProductInnovation #Marketing #Bootstrapping #WeHaveAMeeting Connect with Josh: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/joshwhite2201 🔗 Cano Water: https://canowater.com Hear more from the Hosts: 🔗 Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b 🔗 Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b Brought to you by Nooks: The AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting Subscribe to We Have a Meeting: New episodes every week with founders, sales leaders, and entrepreneurs who’ve built it from the ground up.

From Bartender's Verdict to 2 Billion Bottles: The Man Who Invented Baileys - David Gluckman David Gluckman is the drinks industry legend who created Baileys Irish Cream, Tanqueray Ten, Cîroc, The Singleton, Sheridan's, Aqua Libra and more during his 40-year career at IDV (now Diageo). He's the author of "That Sh*t Will Never Sell" — the book named after the verdict a colleague gave when he first tasted the muddy-brown liquid that went on to sell over two billion bottles. In one of the most candid, funny, and idea-obsessed founder conversations we've had, David takes us inside the real, messy process of inventing the brands that ended up in millions of homes worldwide — including the flops nobody remembers alongside the wins everybody does. What you'll learn in this episode: Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet David Gluckman, The Man Behind Baileys 00:02:31 The Fear Factor: Why Creative Work is a 24-7 Obsession 00:03:56 The One Answer Philosophy: Why 48 Ideas is 47 Too Many 00:06:00 The Hard-Looking Bastard: Designing for the Sales Force 00:07:41 Ciroc and Grape Vodka: The Story That Got Away 00:13:19 The Consumer Research Problem: Why 9 Out of 10 Means You Have Crap 00:15:53 The Singleton Strategy: Selling Single Malt to Blended Whiskey Drinkers 00:18:00 Burn the Boats: Why Plan B is for Losers 00:19:12 The Smirnoff Black Challenge: Getting a Michelin Star for KFC 00:24:35 The Australian Rum Disaster: When Ego Kills a Great Idea 00:29:24 The Power of One Word: Finding Vitality in Roger's Thesaurus 00:33:48 Setting Trends Not Following Them: The Birth of Alcopops 00:37:12 The Baileys Secret: Why Passion Beats Product Every Time 00:39:53 The Baileys Mystery: How a Brand Survives 51 Years of Bad Marketing 00:41:47 The Final Question: Is Your Product Really Good Enough #Entrepreneurship #BrandBuilding #FounderStory #Baileys #DrinksIndustry #ProductInnovation #Marketing #Bootstrapping #WeHaveAMeeting About David Gluckman: Creator of Baileys Irish Cream, Tanqueray Ten, Cîroc, The Singleton, Sheridan's, Aqua Libra and more. Spent 40 years at IDV (now Diageo) building some of the world's most recognisable drinks brands from scratch. Author of "That Sh*t Will Never Sell" (2nd edition), a book about the ideas behind the brands, told by the person who had them. Connect with David: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-gluckman-7a7bb29 🔗 Book & more: https://www.thatshitwillneversell.com 🔗 Author site: https://davidgluckmanauthor.com Hear more from the Hosts: 🔗 Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b 🔗 Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b Brought to you by Nooks: The AI-powered platform helping teams automate outbound sales and book more qualified meetings. Learn more at https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting Subscribe to We Have a Meeting: New episodes every week with founders, sales leaders, and entrepreneurs who've built it from the ground up.

How to sell your business: James Ashford built GoProposal from a WordPress plugin and exited to Sage. This is the full story. For founders, agency owners and accountants who want a business that runs, grows and sells without them. James Ashford turned a pricing problem in one accountancy firm into GoProposal, software that let the most junior team member price and sell complex services in under five minutes. In this episode he answers the questions every founder types into Google at 2am: how do I know if I have a business or just a job? How do you actually sell a software company? And what happens to your mental health after the exit? He also opens up about the breakdown that followed the sale, and the inner child work that rebuilt him. Buy his book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781339872?ref=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_GQR6D38EGKM6069R9J0J_3&ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_GQR6D38EGKM6069R9J0J_3&social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_GQR6D38EGKM6069R9J0J_3&bestFormat=true Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet James Ashford, Serial Entrepreneur 00:03:19 The Sales Problem: Why Business Owners Can't Let Go 00:05:59 The Restaurant Analogy: How Accountants Price Like Amateurs 00:08:05 The Accountancy Breakthrough: Solving the Same Problem Over and Over 00:14:01 The Four Grand Launch: Building a SaaS Business on WordPress 00:16:32 The Waiting List Strategy: 100 Customers in 30 Days 00:19:54 The Shock and Awe Pack: Customer Retention Through Physical Gifts 00:22:03 The Five Million Pound Goal: Getting Your Wife on the Journey 00:23:49 Taking Over the Space: The Conor McGregor Mentality 00:27:07 The Discounting Problem: How You Train Bad Clients 00:29:30 The Sticking Points: When Revenue Hits a Wall at 18K and 53K 00:34:21 The Competitor Blindside: Losing 25 Percent of Customers Overnight 00:37:11 The Oversuite Launch: Turning Crisis Into a New Product Line 00:38:12 Built to Sell: Manifesting the Acquisition From Day One 00:40:26 The Negotiation That Started Everything: Could We Buy You Instead 00:44:03 Putting On Your Best Suit: Going to Market With an M and A Firm 00:46:02 The Day the Money Hits: Why Everything Felt Exactly the Same 00:47:40 The Loss No One Talks About: Purpose, Team, and Identity 00:48:42 From Apple Tree to Apples: The Shift From Making to Managing Money 00:49:14 Playing to Win Versus Playing Not to Lose: The Corporate Shock 00:51:31 The Breakdown: On Your Hands and Knees at the Side of the Road 00:57:57 The Inner Child and Small T Trauma: Understanding What Drives Us 00:59:49 Equine Therapy and Breath Work: The Journey to Healing 01:00:45 The Final Question: Where Is the Gift in This Moment FRAMEWORKS COVERED The Restaurant Pricing Method | Built to Sell | "Where's the Gift?" | "Who Do I Need to Be?" | The 2-4% Finance Rule | Small t Trauma and Inner Child Healing ABOUT JAMES ASHFORD James Ashford is the founder of GoProposal, the pricing and proposal software acquired by Sage. He now invests in businesses and mentors entrepreneurs, with a focus on founders raising young families. Find James on LinkedIn and Instagram, and @thejamesashford on TikTok. https://jamesashford.com/ YOUR HOSTS Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson are the co-founders of We Have A Meeting, the B2B sales agency behind the Sales Is Therapy method. 🌍 https://wehaveameeting.com 📖 Get the book: https://salesstherapy.com THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY NOOKS The AI dialler that helps your sales team have more conversations: https://www.nooks.ai/wehaveameeting SUBSCRIBE for weekly conversations with founders, sales leaders and psychologists: https://www.youtube.com/@wehaveameeting?sub_confirmation=1 If you're searching for how to sell your business, how to build a SaaS company with no funding, how to price your services, or what a business exit actually feels like, this episode covers it all. James Ashford shares the GoProposal story from WordPress plugin to Sage acquisition, including value pricing for accountants.