This week, Lee talks to Paralympic athlete, coach and podcast host, James Owen Roberts, about what it really takes to become a champion, both in business and in life. KEY TAKEAWAYS We must always follow our hearts and our instincts, even when others try to steer us down a path we are not comfortable with. Your destiny is your own. All we can do is give others the tools that will lead them to success. The will to win has to come from inside. We must decide if the competition is between us and oth...
Feb 22, 2021•51 min•Ep. 120
This week, Lee talks to Ron Pereira, the man behind the Gemba Academy, who help people to grow personally and professionally by building an organisational culture of continuous improvement. KEY TAKEAWAYS Solutions are driven by the desire to implement and invoke real change. Gemba was born out of a need to make solutions better. We do not make organisations better by simply training our people. We make it better by going out into the organisation and invoking change. We can make ...
Feb 15, 2021•31 min•Ep. 119
How many communities are you a part of? And are you an active member of those communities? As business leaders and change agents, we should seek to create more communities and collaboration between others. But how do we go about doing this? In this week's episode, Lee talks to Julie Creffield, a community engagement expert, who's here to tell you how to get started, and why it matters so much. KEY TAKEAWAYS Many talk about tribe building, but what they really mean is building a customer base. Tr...
Feb 08, 2021•41 min•Ep. 118
Lee talks to Andrew Miller, founder of Business Enjoyment, about the fascinating subject of the very real enjoyment we get from being in business, and we can make sure that our workplaces provide that sense of excitement. KEY TAKEAWAYS Money is almost never the main driving factor behind personal endeavour. Happiness is a far more common driving force behind people's intent to do well. Every single day should be spent in taking your business forward in some way, and also understanding how this f...
Feb 01, 2021•47 min•Ep. 117
What are you doing? Or more specifically, what are you doing, about what you are doing? In this week's show, Lee talks to the founder of Diary Detox, Paul Holbrook, about the ways in which we can become more aware about the activities you engage in, in order to improve. KEY TAKEAWAYS The quality of answers you get from someone entirely depends on the quality of the questions being asked. Valuable questions lead to invaluable answers. Many people spend their time doing things that aren't required...
Jan 25, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 116
After being inspired recently by watching the film, 'Making Shankly', Lee has recognised some of the valuable, transferrable lessons that we can take to other areas of our lives. In this week's show, Lee tells you all about them, and how best to apply them. KEY TAKEAWAYS As a working community, the village of Glenbuck believed in working hard. If people didn't then they didn't prosper. Community provides direction. Teamwork was incredibly important across the entire community of Glenbuck. People...
Jan 18, 2021•12 min•Ep. 115
It's a new year, and time to look ahead! With this in mind, Lee is here to talk about the four biggest challenges facing businesses in 2021, and how best to make sure you're prepared to face them. KEY TAKEAWAYS Hindsight is all very well, but it doesn't help in the present. Focus on the vision, the reason that drove us to begin in the first place, and make this the driving force behind your year ahead. Customers' needs change. Always be ready to pivot when required, and learn to evolve with your...
Jan 11, 2021•21 min•Ep. 114
Nothing comes without hard work. Those who reach the pinnacle of success have put in the time in order to get there. In this week's show, the first of the new year, Lee's here to talk about why putting in the hard work is worth it, and to reassure you that there's really no such thing as an overnight success. KEY TAKEAWAYS No one has a foolproof formula for instant success. Everyone has to work hard at something in order to find success. Never believe that people get there without effort. When e...
Jan 04, 2021•9 min•Ep. 113
Lee talks to Ayesha Murray, host and creator of The Parent Equation Podcast, as well as a coach for working parents who joins the conversation to discuss the ways in which the world of work changes when children arrive in our lives, and the best way of striking that work/life balance. KEY TAKEAWAYS It is often difficult to view our own careers and achievements with the necessary perspective required, in order to properly steer us towards where we need to be. The main challenge facing working par...
Dec 21, 2020•43 min•Ep. 112
Many people are advocates of starting with "Why?", but in this episode of Business Problems Solved, Lee offers another layer to this fundamental question that might just change your thinking... KEY TAKEAWAYS In order to best motivate someone you must feel something. You cannot discount the power of emotion. it is the difference between good and great. Are you chasing a goal that is pleasurable? If not, then is there enough of a reason for us to chase that goal at all? It's important that our mot...
Dec 14, 2020•10 min•Ep. 111
This week, Lee interviews Jordan "The Wanderer" Reynolds, a British pro-Boxer whose message really is that you can achieve anything if you have the mindset of a champion! It's an incredibly empowering conversation that'll make you believe that if you can change the way you think, you can achieve anything. KEY TAKEAWAYS Trauma in life, especially in our young years, may seem cataclysmic, but it also prepares us for the rough waters of life. Positivity can be achieved by visualising the future we ...
Dec 07, 2020•40 min•Ep. 110
In this week's show, Lee revisits the topic of confidence, and how you can grow and develop your own confidence levels by breaking it down into three areas, and working on each one in small, incremental ways. However, after a recent challenge, Lee returns to re-examine the subject with a new element in mind... KEY TAKEAWAYS Confidence can be broken down into three CUEs. By scoring each out of ten, we gain our confidence score, and can focus on incrementally raising each score up to gradually inc...
Nov 30, 2020•11 min•Ep. 109
Please be upstanding, as Business Problems Solved welcomes a real-life member of the nobility to the show. Lord Simon Jacobs joins Lee to discuss his journey through business, which led to the founding of Professional Weirdos, a creativity training company designed to encourage the unique gifts in everyone, and which help to create an effective business culture. KEY TAKEAWAYS Many people find themselves hired for their creativity and unique abilities, only to have these singular qualities lost a...
Nov 23, 2020•40 min•Ep. 108
In this week’s show, Lee talks to Katie Anderson, a leadership coach, independent consultant, author of ‘Learning To Lead: Leading To Learn’, and a passionate advocate of helping to develop individuals’ confidence and capabilities in improving themselves and their organisations. Katie discusses the incredible journey that led to the insights she now uses to empower others, the value of recognising your purpose from moment to moment, and why balance might be the ingredient you’re missing when it ...
Nov 16, 2020•43 min•Ep. 107
Tom Morley was the original drummer and a founder member of Scritti Politti, the 80s band who were pioneers of DIY music before appearing successfully on the dance scene. Unlike other bands Scritti Politti used to make half their songs up on stage, so from an early age Tom got used to taking risks in public. Through a scientific method, Tom has developed an entirely unique form of team building known as INSTANT team work, which he has been pioneering with great success in order to bring teams cl...
Nov 09, 2020•53 min•Ep. 106
How often do you celebrate success? In this week’s show, Lee talks to Neil Skehel, the CEO and founder of Awards International, dedicated to helping success in others to be celebrated! Neil discusses the importance of honouring positivity and achievement, and how the act of recognising success can be truly life-changing and empowering. KEY TAKEAWAYS Recognition reinforces self-belief. Rewarding achievement should be commonplace, allowing our people to prosper, and leading to transformation. Soci...
Nov 02, 2020•43 min•Ep. 105
We are so intent of teaching our children about the world that we sometimes miss the things that they can teach us. In this week’s episode, Lee tells you about the five most valuable lessons he’s learned from his own children and his own childhood. KEY TAKEAWAYS It takes around 3000 attempts for a child to learn how to walk. They fail often, but we encourage them to try again. We are instilling a positive learning ethic, and yet this ethic is lost as education develops. We must create an environ...
Oct 26, 2020•12 min•Ep. 104
This week, Lee talks to “Mr Habits”, Anish Hindocha, the founder of Jigsaw Consulting, and a lean consultancy expert devoted to driving improvement through teams. Anish discusses the importance of reflection in every business journey, how we can shape the habits that will lead us to success, and how we can gain back focus and see through distractions when we need to. KEY TAKEAWAYS Every step we take is a learning experience. Especially in the beginning of a business journey, when we are left to ...
Oct 18, 2020•53 min•Ep. 103
Lee talks to Julian Roberts, an expert leadership and business consultant (and now fellow podcaster), about how he helps organisations to thrive, and how through listening and employing a technique known as “inner wisdom", he has helped senior and emerging leaders to build resilience, facilitating them to their next level, creating deep self-awareness along the way, and enabling them in times of company growth. KEY TAKEAWAYS Coaching and consulting is the art of listening, and using the “inner w...
Oct 11, 2020•44 min•Ep. 102
Lee talks to Mark Rice, the Group Chief Information Officer for The Big Word, a market leader in translation, interpretation, localisation and language technology solutions. Mark discusses his business philosophies, the “Larry” rule and how it can help your business ideas, and how The Big Word are adapting to a new business landscape. KEY TAKEAWAYS Most ideas that enhance or upgrade a business are essentially re-runs of older ideas. It is the interpretation of these ideas, and the adaptation int...
Oct 04, 2020•36 min•Ep. 101
To celebrate the extraordinary achievement of reaching the 100 episode milestone, Lee has turned the reins of the show over to you, the listeners, and some very special guests, for a truly interactive episode where Lee answers as many of your questions as possible! Join Lee in the hot-seat then, for this peek behind the curtain of your host and guide. Welcome to the epic, 100th episode of Business Problems Solved! KEY TAKEAWAYS Always do your best for your organisation, but always remember that ...
Sep 27, 2020•2 hr 6 min•Ep. 100
As we approach the special 100th episode, Lee reflects upon the journey so far, and more specifically, tries to figure out which of the 99 that precede it, is his favourite so far. The answer may surprise you... KEY TAKEAWAYS Each episode represents a challenge or question that Lee has asked, or been faced with. And each episode has represented the solution to that problem. Sometimes we only remember the larger outcomes to which we are emotionally attached in some way. We may often miss the incr...
Sep 20, 2020•10 min•Ep. 99
We meet people every day, online and in life. But how meaningful are these connections? And how much more powerful could they be if we took the time to get to know people better? In this week’s show, Lee talks to a relatively new connection, but one that has made a marked impact upon his life - Victoria Hamilton, who joins the show to discuss the benefits of spending more time getting to know people. KEY TAKEAWAYS In the new landscape of the business world, it’s the companies who focus on people...
Sep 13, 2020•39 min•Ep. 98
Lee has recently embarked upon a course in stand-up comedy in order to not just hone his sense of humour, but also his skills in communication. Stand-up comics are masters of delivering messages through an entirely different form of story-telling, and in this week’s show, Lee tells you all about it. KEY TAKEAWAYS The three most important elements of stand-up comedy are Connection, Performance, and then Material, meaning that jokes are actually the third most important part of being a comic. In b...
Sep 06, 2020•10 min•Ep. 97
Opera singer, author, coach, and founder of ’The Voice of Your Mind’, Emma Buratti, joins Lee on this week’s show, to talk about how we can instantly optimise our body language and our voices in order to maximise our communication potential. KEY TAKEAWAYS We are immediately attracted to those who speak well. The voice is like a diet - it requires work and training in order to optimise it. Often, when trying to improve the voice, the aim is not to minimise the dialects or regional inflections, bu...
Aug 30, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 96
What do the great ones in business have in common? Those who succeed are not always the most talented in the room. But they do have willpower. Perseverance and clarity about people and ourselves are the forces that can take anyone towards their goals. KEY TAKEAWAYS Knowing ourselves is the first step in understanding each other. By tapping into ourselves, we unleash a new level of creativity. The message and the content aren’t always the most important step. We need to create a connection before...
Aug 23, 2020•11 min•Ep. 95
Lee talks to Tom Lock, the founder of The British Snack Company, one of the most popular snack brands in the country. Tom discusses the importance of brand identification, perseverance, and the lessons he learned while scaling a small business concern to one of national importance. KEY TAKEAWAYS Perseverance is the secret to success. If the idea you have is a viable one, then keep pushing. Eventually, your product will reach the right person. Whether you’re selling to a single pub or a chain of ...
Aug 16, 2020•33 min•Ep. 94
Lee talks to Oliver Burton of Forbes Solicitors about the importance of people, the true meaning of leadership, and why the wisest and most influential minds in business are the ones who keep the individual front and centre. KEY TAKEAWAYS Understanding what makes ourselves tick and what makes others tick, allows us to get the best out of everyone, and subsequently improve the business. Wins should always be celebrated. It is acceptable to look to the future, but we must never sacrifice our time ...
Aug 09, 2020•38 min•Ep. 93
Lee talks again to Emily Leyland, the Operations Director for Fresh Perspective, an innovative recruitment agency, specialising in helping businesses to find their ideal candidates by offering highly bespoke, internal solutions. In this episode, Emily talks about what makes her tick, the importance of personal branding, and how she’s developed the will and the determination to rise to the crest of business. KEY TAKEAWAYS Self-belief begins with your own authenticity. By determining our own happi...
Aug 02, 2020•40 min•Ep. 92
Lee talks to Emily Leyland, the Operations Director for Fresh Perspective, an innovative recruitment agency, specialising in helping businesses to find their ideal candidates by offering highly bespoke, internal solutions. Emily talks to Lee about Fresh’s unique outlook on recruitment, and how they are disrupting the industry with empowering alternatives and forward thinking. KEY TAKEAWAYS Typical recruitment agencies will generally accept a job spec from a company and find candidates that fit t...
Jul 26, 2020•33 min•Ep. 91
