Podcast highlights from 2024

The Business Behind Your Business had some incredible guests over the past year. I have been lucky enough to interview people from many different industries, including many international guests!  It is a real privilege to hear their stories and to share them with our podcast audience.

Here are some of my favourite highlights from 2024:

Tackling burnout in business (Ep 152)

Trudy MacDonald from Talent Code HR explores the issue of employee burnout and how this affects accountability at work. Trudy looks at the business world post-COVID and explains, “We’ve invested more in health and well-being initiatives than ever before, yet burnout numbers keep rising. That tells us something deeper is at play.”

“Hybrid and remote work have given employees flexibility, but they’ve also led to a loss of connection—one of the root causes of burnout,” says Trudy. She then goes on to look at this modern leadership challenge – of balancing empathy with accountability, “Many leaders have leaned so far into empathy that they’ve lost their accountability muscle—without accountability, high performance suffers.”

So what can business owners and leaders do? Trudy says, “If you’re feeling burnt out, your team is too. The first step toward change? A reset—redefining roles, priorities, and ways of working for a sustainable future.” Listen here

Benefits of systemizing  your business

“If you’re the only one who knows how your business runs, then you don’t own a business—you own a job.” (James Brown, on the power of Systemization, Ep 151) Listen here

How certification can help your business (Ep 149)

John Mason from QualityIQ shares his thoughts on quality certification – “ The main crux of any good quality management system is one source of truth. That’s basically it, how you package it up and deliver it to your people is subject to your resources and your budget and so forth. But what you need to do is to have confidence that if anyone needs to validate or verify a particular aspect of their commercial activity, it’s only 1, 2, 3 mouse clicks away.” Listen here

Why 80% of marketing fails (Ep 148)

Kerim El Gabaili from OnePoint shares some of the common mistakes done by business owners – the biggest one is not starting with an overall strategy. “You wouldn’t build a house by calling the plumber first—you’d call the architect. Marketing works the same way: start with strategy before choosing your tools.”

Kerim also says that many businesses are too focused on their own services, “Bring your customer to the centre of your business—don’t build your business first and then go looking for them.”

So how do you know if your marketing is working? Kerim explains, “Marketing isn’t about using the latest tools—it’s about delivering commercial results. If it’s not bringing in customers and revenue, it’s not working.” Listen here

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Becoming the architect of your business (Ep 146)

Bradley Hamner from Blueprint OS shares strategies to help business owners take control of their businesses. He says, “I had heard ‘systems and processes’ for years, but I never did anything with it. The real change happened when I started to see myself differently—as the architect of my business.”

Bradley explains that many business owners lose sight of why they went into business in the first place, “If you’re working 7 days a week, all day, every day—what’s it really worth? The goal isn’t just revenue growth; it’s building a business that gives you freedom and flexibility.”

In business, it’s important to have realistic expectations. Bradley states, “Business is hard. Thinking it’s easy is what makes it harder. If you want to scale, you need to shift from being the rainmaker to being the architect.” Listen here

How to spot employee red flags (Ep 143)

James Frank from Frank Law and Raj Nathoo from Keystone Consulting explore many of the issues that crop up with employees.  “Employees are your biggest strength, but also your biggest weakness. Get it wrong, and it can be really damaging—get it right, and it can transform your business,” explains James.

They look at the systems that business owners can put in place to improve employee performance and engagement, like training. Raj says,”One of the biggest mistakes SMEs make is treating training as a dead cost, rather than an investment that pays off in productivity and retention.” Raj goes on to stress, “Prevention is better than cure—most employee red flags can be avoided with clear communication, good hiring practices, and proper onboarding.”

It’s crucial to have learning and HR systems in place. James states, “If you don’t have the right systems in place, small workplace issues can quickly turn into bushfires—and by then, it’s often too late to fix them.” Listen here

I hope you have enjoyed these excerpts from our interviews. With so many interviews over the year, it was hard to highlight just a few! For more business strategies and advice, check out the full podcast episodes.

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