This week Holly meets Roger Wade, the founder of Boxpark, - to hear about his mission to use his business as a force for good, to bring together communities and make them thrive, safer and happier. Holly & Roger discuss the future of the high street, their shared passion for independents, and how though his visionary concept for Boxpark, Roger is disrupting the world of retail. Roger started his career in advertising, being fired twice before moving to the US where he discovered his passion ...
Jun 24, 2019•1 hr 12 min
This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in Bristol for the second date on our live tour of Conversations of Inspiration, in partnership with NatWest. In this conversation, Holly & Levi discuss his difficult early years, the decision to turn his life around and the passion and determination that powered him to success today, as well as, of course his unforgettable appearance on Dragons Den which would go on to supercharge his brand. Born in Jamaica, he came to the UK at the age ...
Jun 17, 2019•50 min
This week on Conversations of Inspiration, Holly speaks to jeweller Alex Monroe at his ‘buzzing’ headquarters boutique in London. With 30 successful years in the business, Alex’s insight and attitude will provide a huge source of inspiration and advice for creative small businesses looking to combine creativity with commerciality. With fans such as Emma Watson, Sienna Miller and a regular in Vogue - Alex Monroe is a masterclass in growing your brand whilst maintaining your integrity and creativi...
Jun 10, 2019•1 hr 16 min
In this episode, Holly meets the legendary Sir John Hegarty, founder of BBH advertising agency and The Garage Soho. With a phenomenal creative career, John was the first ever person to be Knighted for his services to the advertising and creative industries and his BBH agency has been named Agency of the Year more than six times. John started out in the advertising world in the 60’s, moving up the ranks quickly and helping to set up agencies TBWA and the infamous Saatchi and Saatchi. Then foundin...
Jun 03, 2019•1 hr 16 min
This week Holly talks to the incredible Sahar Hashemi OBE, founder of Coffee Republic. Launched in 1995, Sahar co-founded Coffee Republic alongside her brother Bobby, becoming the UK's first coffee bar. Scaling her business up to 110 coffee shops within 5 years, Sahar’s success was astounding. After struggling to get investment because the bank managers stated that Britain was a nation of tea drinkers, Sahar's determination paid off and saw Coffee Republic at the forefront of coffee culture, cha...
May 27, 2019•1 hr 6 min
This week's episode was recorded in front of a live audience of 300 people in central London for the first ever Conversations of Inspiration Live event. Thomasina Miers OBE is best known as co-founder of restaurant chain Wahaca and winner of Masterchef. Thomasina’s journey has not been easy, with a ten-year spell of depression, it was a chance meeting that set her on her path to happiness, founding a business doing exactly what she loves. It was whilst traveling around Mexico, her love affair wi...
May 20, 2019•1 hr 4 min
This week on Conversations of Inspiration, Holly speaks to Eleanor Tattersfield, founder of Marby and Elm. A fellow stationary addict, Holly joined Eleanor in her east London emporium like shop to hear her journey from student and waitress to Liberty stockist and business founder. This episode covers everything from where Eleanor finds her inspiration, to running a high street space, customer experience in retail and the importance of community. So open, funny and self-deprecating - Eleanor offe...
May 13, 2019•1 hr 6 min
This week, Holly meets Asma Khan, founder of the restaurant Darjeeling Express. An episode filled with spectacular advice and insight, Asma shares her early life experiences in India and how they shaped her journey to this point. Born a second daughter in India, Asma felt the intense impact of feeling unwanted which she now sees underpins her belief in using her business as a force for good and helping other women feel valued. Asma has had an extraordinary journey, starting in India with an arra...
May 06, 2019•1 hr 9 min
This week Holly speaks to investor Tom Teichman, the founder of Spark Ventures & The Garage Soho. Known as ‘Britain’s most-successful digital start-up backer’ Tom has invested in companies such as LastMinute.com , Moshi Monsters and Made.com . He also played a key role in Holly's business journey, when he invested in Notonthehighstreet. Together they recount the serendipitous way in which Tom and Holly met, and the incredible journey they embarked on. Now Tom runs his latest venture from his...
Apr 29, 2019•1 hr 1 min
This week on Conversations of Inspiration, Holly meets Alice Gabb - a self taught calligrapher who now creates commissions for some of the UK biggest brands. In this conversation, Alice shares lessons from her journey so far, the power of knowing your numbers, as well as the need for communities in this digital age. Alice's letter to her younger self is particularly powerful - and a must listen for any teenage girls in your life. Alice started her small business selling hand printed fine station...
Apr 22, 2019•1 hr 2 min
This week on Conversations of Inspiration, Holly meets Keith Abel, founder of Abel & Cole. A successful and well loved entrepreneur, Keith started his entrepreneurial journey as a salesman selling potatoes door to door, where a chance encounter led him to discovering organic vegetables. At a time when everything grown was covered in chemicals, Keith quickly realised people would pay more for organic, chemical-free produce and so Abel and Cole was born, over 30 years ago. Leading the way in s...
Apr 15, 2019•1 hr 5 min
This week on Conversations of Inspiration Holly meets the ‘Queen of Brand’ Rita Clifton CBE. Rita is the ultimate expert in brand and offers such an expert and unique insight that will be invaluable to all small business for this aspect of their business. In this conversation, Holly and Rita discuss what it takes to build a powerful and long last brand, she shares her tips for small business and ways they can implement her decades of industry knowledge into their own businesses, as well as her e...
Apr 08, 2019•1 hr 17 min
In this episode, Holly meets one of her business idols - Chrissie Rucker OBE, founder of The White Company. In this conversation, they discuss Chrissie's incredible 25 year journey, how she has weathered the storms of retail, juggling a business whilst raising a family (with an entrepreneurial husband to boot!) and her work with the Princes Trust ‘Women Supporting Women’ and how we can all help encourage, inspire and champion women to start their own business. Chrissie founded The White Company ...
Apr 01, 2019•1 hr 7 min
This week Holly meets Joe Wicks, aka the Body Coach, to discuss building a huge social following and a brand, with a purpose. Now a TV presenter and author, specialising in cooking and fitness books, Joe started his career as a personal trainer, but he only experienced success when he started posting 15-second recipe videos on social media. Joe grew his brand to become one of the most followed fitness accounts on Instagram, his first published cookbook Lean in 15 was one of the best-selling book...
Mar 25, 2019•1 hr 1 min
A fascinating insight, into the rollercoaster journey of someone who is right in the midst of scaling her business. This week, Holly speaks to the ‘Queen of Nut Butter’ Pippa Murray, founder of Pip & Nut. A must listen episode for anyone who dreams of starting their own food or drink business, especially those future female founders who can look at Pip’s journey and be inspired to start theirs. Holly & Pip discuss scaling from the kitchen table, investment and building a team. As a runne...
Mar 18, 2019•1 hr 6 min
In this episode, Holly explores the rich heritage and history of signwriting with Ash Bishop - founder of The Brilliant Signs Company. Ash started out in the Army at Sandhurst, until he decided that it was time to walk in his great-grandfather’s footsteps and followed the family trade of sign-writing. He decided to resurrect one of his most admired sign businesses, ‘The Brilliant Signs Company’ which was originally founded 1888, but fell into disrepair. Ash ‘reclaimed’ it in 1999, where he learn...
Mar 11, 2019•59 min
This week Holly sits down with Joanne Hawker, cards and accessories designer, to talk community and small business - two of her favourite topics. A designer by day, Joanne is also well known as the brains behind the Instagram challenge and phenomenon, ‘March Meet the Maker’. ‘March Meet The Maker’ is a tool to help shine a light on the makers across the world, by challenging them to share their ideas, favourites and what inspires them. In this conversation, Joanne discusses her journey from work...
Mar 04, 2019•49 min
This week Holly speaks to Rowan Gormley, founder of Naked Wines and CEO of Majestic Wines. Rowan grew up in South Africa, but moved to the UK, after following his wife to London where he worked for none other than Richard Branson! After setting up Virgin money, and then Virgin wines, he was unceremoniously fired, leading him to start his own company Naked Wines. Disrupting the world of wine with his business, through his crowdfunded platform - Rowan’s mission is to change the wine industry so th...
Feb 25, 2019•1 hr 2 min
Will Butler-Adams is a CEO with a refreshingly down to earth, humorous and purpose driven attitude to building a business. In his 17 years leading the company, Brompton Bikes has grown 15% year on year, but despite its growth, Brompton has fiercely retained its company culture. After taking an unexpected spin around Brompton HQ, Holly & Will sat down to discuss how to build a company with purpose beyond the product, how to lead a team and what defines a great leader. Enjoying listening to th...
Feb 18, 2019•59 min
In a truly soulful and enlightening interview this week, Holly meets Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer. Lord Bilimoria founded Cobra Beer after spotting a gap in a market that had hardly changed in over 200 years, with a student debt of £20,000 in hand - and not much else. His story of building this iconic brand, as well as the ethics and values he places at the heart of everything he does, is truly remarkable. With a rich heritage of successful relatives, Lord Bilimoria has harnessed ...
Feb 11, 2019•1 hr 2 min
This week Holly speaks to artist and illustrator Veronica Dearly. Veronica brings joy to the world with her smart, relatable, funny and very real illustrations, which she prints onto cards, gifts and shares daily, with her Instagram community. Her well-timed, highly empathetic posts often go viral and are shared with thousands of people around the world - not bad for someone who didn’t have any conventional training, was a young mum and had started life as one of the shyest people she knew! In t...
Feb 04, 2019•1 hr
This week, Holly meets Tamara Lohan MBE, founder and CTO of Mr & Mrs Smith: a travel company that's grown from a single curated book of 35 hotels in 2002, to an online community of over 1.5 million members with offices in London, New York and LA. With the competition high and automation the current currency, Tamara explains what it's taken to grow a brand that focuses on the details. In this meeting of minds, they discuss the early days of building Mr & Mrs Smith, what it's really like b...
Jan 28, 2019•58 min
This week, Holly meets Bill Collison, the founder of Bill’s restaurants. In this episode, Bill shares his journey from the very early days as a barrow boy all the way to taking on investment to grow the business into what it is today. As a Romany gypsy, Bill grew up planting and foraging, which helped fuel his love for fresh, seasonal produce. It was this love of fruit and vegetables which led Bill to work for a brief time as a chef, before going back to work for his dad. Together, they started ...
Jan 21, 2019•50 min
This week Holly meets Freddie Garland, founder of Freddie's Flowers. Fresh out of university, Freddie started work as one of Abel & Cole's delivery drivers. Cutting his teeth selling subscription models and having parents who were florists - Freddie spotted the potential for a floral subscription delivery service. With little knowledge of the mechanics of running a business based in subscriptions, Freddie set out on his journey to success. Despite a few hard learnt lessons along the way; an ...
Jan 14, 2019•43 min
By her own admission "an accidental jeweller", Annoushka Ducas has built an empire that revolutionised the jewellery industry. Links of London was the first brand to bring personalised, well crafted and highly gift-able jewellery under one beautiful brand to the high street. Annoushka and her husband John launched Links of London in 1990 and built the brand over 15 years until they made the difficult decision to sell. Within 18 months Annoushka launched her second brand, Annoushka Jewellery. In ...
Jan 07, 2019•54 min
This week, Holly meets Richard Reed CBE, co founder of Innocent and now co founder of JamJar Investments. The story of Innocent is a phenomenal one - simply built on 3 friends deciding at university they wanted to start a business together that allowed them to hang out everyday. They settled on smoothies as 'the product' (decided on a hangover!) and the entrepreneurial rollercoaster ensued. With numerous highs along the journey, as well as epic lows during the financial crisis, Richard shares hi...
Dec 24, 2018•1 hr 8 min
You might not immediately know the name Dave Buonaguidi or be able to pronounce it, but he's truly one of a kind, and the ultimate pin-up in the world of advertising. He's made it his life's work to go against the grain and shake up the creative world. This straight talking, creative and expletive-ridden interview is one of life's one of a kind conversations! After many years in advertising, Dave set up St Lukes, the world's first advertising co-operative, which was ahead of its time. After leav...
Dec 17, 2018•1 hr 11 min
This week, Holly meets founders of F equals, Danielle and Natalie. As twins, they were natural co founders and, 4 years into building their business, are going from strength to strength as they find themselves in a political landscape which is crying out for a brand such as F equals. The company was founded when both sisters found themselves at a cross roads and decided to bring together their individual skills, expertise and belief, that women in business, were under represented. The F equals s...
Dec 10, 2018•1 hr 7 min
In this episode, Holly meets Zack - a phenomenally talented maker, who crafts lifelike and delicate birds by hand out of little more than paper and wood. In his deeply personal conversation, Zack reveals why birds became his source of inspiration, the journey from struggling as a maker to the beginnings of becoming successful, and how ultimately his urge to create, set him free. This episode is truly inspiring and Zack is a testament to the powerful belief that the combination of talent, craft a...
Dec 03, 2018•53 min
This week, Holly meets Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of LEON. Sharing his journey from gossip columnist and business consultant to restauranteur, Henry discusses the importance of being a founder with purpose. He talks about his huge ambition from day one at LEON to build as a global brand, as well as how to navigate the difficult transition that is being a founder exiting a business. With entrepreneurial spirit in his blood, Henry was never going to sit back after handing over the reins, and his p...
Nov 26, 2018•1 hr 2 min
