Sparks by Ignium Podcast
Mon, 14 Apr 2025
Hello, and welcome back to the Sparks by Ignium podcast. I am Phil Rose, and yet again, I am the host of this 100th review of our shows. Yes, 100 episodes of Sparks by Ignium over the last five years. And today, I'm going to be thinking about the time that we've had in 2023 and the edge of 2022 in terms of these podcasts. I wanted to mix that a little bit with some of the things that are going on in 2025. For those that are listening to the future, you'll understand what we've been through and what we're going through. It's actually a volatile time for business owners. It's a volatile time for non-business owners as well. There's so much going on and I believe now is the time that business owners need to step up and look at how they can develop their talent around helping them manage those things that really help them drive their business over the next period of time. And there's three key things I really want to bring out. And the key here is obviously we know we're in an unpredictable time. The market's dropping down, inflation's up, supply chain friction, the tariffs that are being put on everything around the world are really changing the impact that business owners need to have. And it's also impacting their own worth as how they move their businesses forward. This puts more pressure on them as leaders. The higher pressure is creating more stress and wellbeing is part of everything we try and do. So how do we connect those things? And then finally, there's something around the workplace trends. We've seen the impact of the Great Resignation coming out of the back of COVID. We've seen the trends with people wanting to work from home and now people being driven back into the offices over periods of time. This remote and hybrid environment isn't going away, but it's changing dramatically. So this is all the things that really start to drive us to think about mindset, communication, the financial discipline in your business to manage your cash and obviously strategic purpose at the core. How do we equip you as business owners with the things you need to do to drive your business and be successful in 2025 and beyond. So with that in mind I've got seven key tips I want to share with you that I've learned from the podcast and looking through the review of what we've seen over the last year and a half up to the end of 2023. I'll be doing this again for 2024 so watch out for this next review as this leads on from this. But this key point here, how do we help you, the business owner, the every person out on the street worldwide, manage your business? I say every person out on the street because actually this is what's happening. We're not the corporates, although there are some corporate listeners to this podcast. Most of you are scale up on small businesses, trying to drive your business, trying to develop your teams. You're trying to grow in scale, which is what we do at Scale Up.

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So how do we help you do that?

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Well, actually, let's think about it. I always talk about the one page personal plan created by Verne Harwich at Scaling Up originally. The one page personal plan covers those key things of finances, fitness, faith, friends, and ultimately, the key there is family as well. But I remember I always add on that sixth, fun, because if you're not having fun, stop. When the fun stops in business, get out and do something different. You're going in the wrong track. But let's think, the key to this here is managing your own fitness, and fitness is It's not just about physical fitness. It's about mental wellbeing as well. Because what we're seeing over the last period of time is stress building.

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Business owners are struggling.

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We know that insurance rates are going up. We know that business interest rates are going up. We know that in the UK specifically, employment costs are going up with regard to employees themselves. So how do we manage all those things? Well, actually, if I go back to Dr. Nicole's podcast, way back in 2022, she used the phrase, And my view is there are lots of opportunities here for us to manage our own mental health and physical well-being. When I was in Boston last August for our Scaling Up CEO Summit at Harvard, I had a number of blood tests done to look at where I was. It provided me with that baseline health assessment to understand what I needed to do. At that time, my cholesterol was slightly high. I then went on a strict diet. It wasn't really a diet in the sense of nutritionally, but it was about managing the input into my body. And I managed to bring that cholesterol down within six weeks of managing that. But the key is I knew what to look for. I used an app at the time and through that in an inside health app, I managed to track what I needed to do. So I go back to what Dr. Cole said, don't guess, test. Actually, to manage your own personal well-being, get those regular checkups, get the stress testing managed. Look at what you need to do to maintain your health, because actually that's the key. Remember you turn up and your employees see the state you're in. You've got to meet your tip-top form and that stress is going to be a mental thing on you. If I link up what I do at the moment, I look at actively managing my sleep, I manage my health and fitness, and I'll come on to that later on in terms of some injuries I've been carrying, and I manage my diet healthily. Now I say healthily, I take the view that everything in moderation. Now that means that I do sometimes do other things, but actually I manage and maintain a healthy diet throughout to make sure I can be on tip top form for what I need to be doing. I track my health and fitness through a number of different apps. I use my Garmin watch as one of those. I use my Morpheus heart rate tracker to track my HRV to manage my heart stress and I actively manage my sleep so I know what I should be doing at any one point in time. But the key here is managing that holistic ability because we know that with leadership we have to be showing up in the right way. Juggling all these things helps us manage what we need to do so fitness becomes key, mental and physical. And remember, stress affects everyone in different ways. So look at what you need to be doing to manage your stress levels. What is it you need to do to take time out? I've adopted a meditation and a yoga practice recently. I've been doing yoga for many years and I've been meditating for many years, but I've had to do it because of the injury I've been carrying to my neck, which means I've had to stop running and swimming as extremely as I used to. I will get back to that at some stage, but I've had to do something different. But that has helped me really manage things. I'm also doing a lot of breath work to really help me manage my mental state as well. Now, mindset is one thing, but actually it also helps you manage those other things in life. Last time we talked about the work that Jackie Jarvis had done with her books around walking the Camino trails and changing that mental attitude from the speed of the fast-paced world of business to look at how you slow down a bit on what you can differently. And one of the things that we picked up from this last year of podcasts, I talked to Matt Cox and he had something really interesting to say. He was looking at his own self and how he'd been labelled at the time as slow. That was a mental label because of how he was at school.

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But he looked at putting in place strategies to help him manage that, to help him do things.

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And my view is whether you're Matt Cox taking that position or others, it's about understanding how we step into the world confidently knowing who we are and the key that comes to this is the episode I recorded with Mason Harris he used the word chutzpah and actually that was the key we need to be out there we need to be pushing ourselves forward showing up confidently and that's about faking it till you make it in some cases but realistically believing in yourself because faking it to make it will only get you somewhere if you've got to manage it on some place in the future but the key here is to manage what you have about your confidence. How do you build that in yourself?

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To me, that chutzpah and that confidence matters more than ever in 2025.

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We've got to show up. We've got to be confident for our teams. We've got to drive them forwards in the way we are. And remember, your teams go home in the evening the way you show up in the morning. So show up in your best form. Why wouldn't you? Now, this links into some of the other things. We'll come on to Verne Harness's points earlier. But are you playing defense or are you playing offense? Are you out there they're trying to drive the market forward. Are you just in a defensive state? Many companies freeze in uncertain climates. Remember, it's a natural state. Flight, fight, or freeze. And remember, we've got to make sure we've got the ability to drive our businesses forward. And that comes down to your energy and your health and well-being, which is how we connect that together. So I encourage all entrepreneurs to reimagine themselves, to think about what they need to do, to understand how their mindset really drives them in their business at this point in time, thinking about seizing opportunities that come up. There are amazing opportunities out there. When the world's in a downturn, the small business entrepreneurs will make money. We can build things, but if nothing else, we can build our communities together and that will help us see through these opportunities and move to the other side. And that's the key. And this is one of the things I think with the leadership that we need to be putting in place to manage our hybrid models and the labour shortages that we know are changing things. Labour shortages, hey, that's a big issue. We know that there's big issues in terms of costs on businesses, but thinking about some of the things that we need to put in place. How do we really drive the leadership in our business to communicate the right message? Vern Harnish sends us coaches a message every Friday as coaches. I take it on board and listen to what Vern has. And one of his big things is about communication. We all know this. And if I go back to the podcast we recorded with Vern, but also with Dean Hefter back in 2022, we talked about the feedback loop. How are you bringing your teams together on a regular basis? What are you talking about? We always talk about three key things in scaling up. What am I working on? Where am I stuck? What support do I need? These are the key things. There's nothing you can put in there, but once you understand the support you need, people can rally around. The daily huddle should take no more than 15 minutes, but it really helps you to get grip on your business and help get that message out to the teams about what they need to be doing at any point in time.

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So I urge you to think about think about how you can bring that in.

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Now, when we think about team members and the operating in different time zones and think about hybrid working, this is a major thing as well. With the power of Zoom, with the power of Teams, with the power of Google Meet, we can actually meet anywhere in the world. We all know that. We learned that massively during the pandemic. And now we can use this also to make sure we're communicating. As a CEO, make sure you're recording a message for your teams on a Friday or a Monday, but putting out a message once to say, hey, this is what we're up to.

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What am I doing? Where's the business at?

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Because people will be worried as well, whatever size of business you're in. Make sure you're getting that message out to them. Make sure they're understanding what needs to be happening. As prices go up, as supply chains suffer, we've got to make sure we stabilize the ship. That's another subject which I'm going to come back to a few times as I talk about ships and yachting and how we set our compass course in turbulent times at a later stage. So watch this space. The key here, though, is comes down to strategy and strategic execution. So how do you build that into your business? How do you build the purpose in the turbulent markets? How do you keep yourself there, even under pressure? Remember, I came back to that thing earlier about are you playing defense or are you playing offense? Verne has the phrase, playing to win versus playing not to lose. That's a critical thing in 2025. Many businesses are really trying to look at how they can build their business. So we come back to the word of the SWT in scaling up strengths, weaknesses, and trends. Look what's happening. But look at your strengths. Look at your strengths as a leader.

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Look at your strengths as your leadership team. Look at your strengths as your business.

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But then also look at where you're weak. Understand what needs to be done. Understand what you can do to build that. It may not be about you improving your own capability, but it could be about improving your bench strength. Remember, we talked about your A team. Who are the A players you have on your pitch at any one time? We need the A team out there doing their best work, led by you at the top. This is the key. And how do we do that? Hey, there's a number of things. But one of the key things is having a bold vision. And as Jim Collins always says, a big, hairy, audacious goal. That's the thing that's going to drive you. It's going to attract talent, it's going to attract investors, and it's going to attract partners. And that's what we need. We need to be building this together. So how do we help that come together? Well, this is the key. And again, I come back to scoreboards. Remember I had that conversation with Eugene Turk from a line, we talk about the scaling up scoreboard, making sure you know where you are at the end of every day. What's the KPI you're targeting on? What's your metric?

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Because actually, once we have a big, bold vision, we have our big, hairy, audacious goal, we need to understand how we're getting there.

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And remember, it's about breaking that down. What's your three to five-year goal? What's your 12-month goal? And what are the key quarterly activities you're working on? What are the rocks, as Stephen Covey says, in the glass drive it. And then specifically, what's everyone's accountability? The scaling up scoreboard is a brilliant way of tracking this on a regular basis. Without it, you have nowhere to be able to manage your time and your KPIs will drift. So be really clear about what is it you're focusing on. That helps you manage it. And above all, come back to your purpose. Stick to the key reason you're in business. The world's changing, but it doesn't mean your business purpose has to change. It just means the way you might strategically address it changes. But we're still along that goal, we'll still be driving to move those things forward, because that's what's going to drive the morale in your business. So point five in my list so far, financial discipline and cash mastery. I was talking to a client this morning about the cash flow story tool that we use as coaches to help people tell the story of cash in their business. We all know the phrase about profit and revenue and cash. In today, cash is king, and we need to understand it in our businesses today. So focus on the cash velocity. Again, I've had a number of conversations here, come back to Verne's phrase, growth sucks cash. So does recessionary pressures. So understand that even at this point in time, how do we manage to cash up in our business? Nikki Kinton was a prime guest on the show when we talked about building your ability to bring in those accounts receivables, manage your day sales outstanding, to reduce the payment period for people. So actually, you can manage your cash. You'd rather have it in your bank account than someone else's. What we do with Cashflow Story is help us understand the impact every day that somebody holds cash in their bank account rather than yours, and how that will cripple your business if you do not manage it. So get a grip of your cash right now. That's why we use our Power of One tool within Cashflow Story. Remember, I talked here about Cashflow Story and how that works.

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But actually, Power of One helps you manage the margins.

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Jonathan Mond, my friend from Australia. Jonathan, if you're listening to this, We always talk about how we drive cash in the business, but it's those incremental changes.

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1% up on price, 1% up on volume, 1% decrease in overheads.

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Think what it does to your margin. Because this is the key that Jonathan talked about in a big time. Managers' costs go up. How do we manage those overheads? We have to work smarter. And this is my talk about capacity and making sure everyone's got the skills and capability to do the things they want to be doing and are able to do in a timely fashion. Now, there's a lot of other things motion goes around this. Money is energy. We know this.

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Fear of losing clients, economic instability, uncertainty.

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It leads to lots of other issues. So how do you manage your money? How do you manage the health of your business? Because remember, we talked about stress as point one. Cash causes stress or lack of it more to the point. So how do you manage that? How do you make sure you've got your fund available to dip into when you need to when customers aren't paying or when customers drop off, the key is to change your offering. Focus on what your customers need. Look at what you can do to support them. What can you do to support your suppliers? How can you build a better community to drive things together? So that's where point five helps you manage that financial discipline and specifically cash mastery. And one of the keys we do this, point six, is around the systems and tools we put in place. I mentioned the word capacity. What's your capacity for driving revenue on your business today? There are so many tools we have out there. We've talked about AI, and we've driven how that, known how that's driven things in the market in the last few years. There's going to be more opportunity to do more of that. A number of businesses are now demanding every employee uses AI to help them do their business better. It's not about not using it, it's about how you can best use it now. We talked about Align, we talked about Cashflow Story, but actually it's about streamlining what you do. Are you using cash tools? Are you using labor tools? Are you using AI to really help you make better decisions? Because this is helps you free up the human capital to do the higher value work that really drives your business. Hey, and here's another idea. I talked about the one page strategic plan, and we think about as we work on that from right to left. One of the key things here is actually managing your quarterly energy. 13 weeks of time, 90 days. How do you manage that to really focus on the goal, have a theme in place that will drive your business right now? Think about that theme, think about what it can do for your business, generate motivation and energy. And actually you get really quick feedback. We talked about OODA loops in the past. I remember talking about that with John Ratliff. What's the thing you observe, you orient, you decide and you act. That's the thing to do things because you can get feedback quickly on a 90 day cycle. So do that regularly. And finally, point seven, what do you need to do? Wait, while I talk about some of the guests we have here. We've had some amazing guests come across in that first period. I'm going to cover some of the next ones 2024 as well. But actually think about the personal lessons. Be clear on the seeds you're planting. Remember, the seeds you planted today will grow into flowers tomorrow. Carrie Kaufman was an amazing guest talking about nurturing the seed you've already planted. Just because there's turmoil in the world doesn't mean your seeds are not going to grow. It's just to care about understanding how you can nurture them in your business.

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What is it you need to do to adjust to those macroeconomic changes.

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How do you modify those things? I look out on my garden today and I think there's things that we need to do. We're having a dry, dry spring in the UK at the moment. We've had about three weeks of no rain where I live, which is unusual for us in the springtime. So we have to understand the type of flowers we're planting, understand how we're managing those, understanding the watering cycle and the feeding cycle. Your business is the same. It's just about nurturing it. And I urge you to think about that. Be selective about the plants you work with. Be selective about the customers you take on, the understanding of how you manage them. You really want to work with those best teams, your A players, in times your employees, and your customers are key to this here, because that's going to drive the best return on your investment in the future. And the key to this is coaching.

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How can you coach your team to do a better job?

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How you can coach yourself? I've just taken on my coach in 2025. I'm looking forward to working with Chris over the next six months to help me build my resilience, to help me build my own in place. And I'll talk about this again later as to why I've taken on a new coach. But to me, it's really important, because I know that I need support on the side behind me to shout for my name, in the same way that you need the coach on the side of the pitch to shout your name. And this is what it's about.

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In a climate when there's so much disruption around us, we need that trusted partner, that somebody who can uncover our blind spots, guide our strategic pivots, and really bolster the mental game.

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And that's the key to this here. So as I gander through these seven points here, let's just recap on where we've gone. I've gone through this very quickly to make this a 30 minute episode. Number one, manage your own health and understand how you can manage your stress physically and mentally over a period of time. Think about the holistic leadership. Number two, think about your mindset and how you understand the labels you put in place and how those can shift your mental perception of those. Number three is around your leadership and your communication. The hybrid models and the labour we have to manage in the business today. Number four is about strategic execution and managing your purpose in a turbulent market because, hey, purpose guides us all the way through. Number four links into that in terms of the purpose as a stabilising force for us. Number five is around financial discipline and cash mastery. Make sure you've got the cash in the bank because that's going to help you manage your inflationary environment even better. Number six is about the tools and the systems we put in place to make life easier, to get more out of every hour we can. And number seven helps us manage that. Managing your personal lessons, managing your coaching, taking forward the action steps in your own 90 day sprints. Because here we said that I'll record this on 14th of April 2025. Think about the 90 day sprint for me. What's it going to do for me as I move forward over April, May and June driving into July? Where do I need to be by the end of that? So I come back to the end of this podcast now, which is a quick episode to help me understand what is it I need to have in place. But I put these seven points out to you, as I believe there are seven critical steps you need to be thinking about that become evident from the podcast we've recorded in this period of time. Have a think about them. And as always, I always say this, I can't hold you to account, but I'd urge you to find a coach you can. Find out who's going to walk along your side as you scale. Because actually, it's a tough time out there if your mindset isn't right. So the key is get your mindset it right, work with a scaling up coach, find them in your territory, work with them. That's what we're here for. We help you drive your business. And if nothing else, find a way of managing your own team, because they're looking to you to coach them. Good luck. And as always, let me know who you think would be a great guest on this show as we go beyond 100 episodes. I've set a vision for the next five years of my next 100 episodes. I don't want to stand here on the 14th of April, 2030, telling you how well we've done, by which time almost 60 years old. When I think about that, that scares me but that excites me at the same time because I know we've got an opportunity here to change the world as we scale businesses to grow the value and help you achieve your lifetime goals. Good luck.