The ActionCOACH Podcast

Are You Ready for the Future? The 5-Year Goal Setting Strategy | Dominic Baldwin Xantum Interview Most business owners start financial planning with the money. How much have I got, what should I invest in, how do I save tax? Dominic Baldwin starts somewhere else entirely: what matters to you, and why. In this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by ActionCOACH UK, he shares the exercises he uses to help families make good financial decisions before an exit, retirement or inheritance changes everything. Dominic has spent 35 years guiding families with their wealth and today he and the team at Xantum look after business owners planning a capital event in the next three to five years, as well as high-performing athletes. His purpose comes from a personal place. His father, a Lake District farmer, inherited money in his late 20s and lost it through poor advice. Nobody ever asked him what mattered to him. What You'll Learn: - The Eight Priorities Exercise: How to name the eight most important areas of your life, score each one out of 10, and be honest about where you're falling short. - Finding Your Real Values: A simple way to uncover your core values by thinking about someone you love and admire, and how they behave. - The Five-Year Vision: Why writing down a day in your life five years from now, from the curtains to breakfast, gives you clarity on where you're heading. - Your Enough Number: How to reverse-engineer the price you need for your business from the life you want afterwards, instead of picking a round figure like £10 million. - Planning With Probability: How modelling shows the odds of funding your future at different sale prices, and why an extra £1 million can move you from 62% to 72% certainty. - The Post-Sale Trap: Why owners become more risk-averse after a sale, and what happened to one client who rolled the dice again straight away. - Avoiding Conflicted Advice: Why advisers who walk in with a product already in mind can leave business owners with unsuitable products and charging structures. Dominic Baldwin has spent 35 years helping families plan and protect their wealth. He grew up on a farm in the Lake District, spent his first 15 years in the industry driven by sales and numbers, then rebuilt his approach around values after losing his father. Now a CEO, he and the team at Xantum work with business owners approaching a sale or retirement and with high-performing athletes, focusing on removing conflicts of interest so they can act as true guides. He has looked after some families for around 30 years. Action Steps: If You Haven't Started: Pause this episode and write a detailed description of a single day five years from now. Where you wake up, who's with you, what you're excited about. Then draw a circle, split it into eight segments, and write down the eight things that matter most to you. If You're Already Planning an Exit: Work out what life after the sale will actually cost, then turn that into your enough number. If your business isn't worth that yet, sit down with your coach and build the plan to close the gap. For Everyone: Check your recent decisions against your priorities and values. If you've just had a capital event, take time to pause before taking on any new risk. Whether you're a business owner thinking about an exit, planning retirement or just want your money to serve the life you want, this conversation will change how you think about wealth. Subscribe for weekly conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Truth About Building a Business People Actually Trust | Adam Willcox 55 Group Interview Energy suppliers are about as trusted as politicians. Most businesses in a low-trust industry accept that and compete on price. Adam Willcox built his business to do the opposite. Adam runs 55 Group, a family-run energy business with 12 staff that has grown to almost £10 million. In this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by ActionCOACH UK, he explains how his team lifted customer retention from 84% to 92%, won a customer service award, and why he now attends just four meetings a month. The secret? Deliver what customers expect, plus a little bit more. Then let your team own it. What You'll Learn: - Agility as an advantage: Why a small team that can decide on Monday and deliver by Tuesday afternoon beats big competitors tied up in red tape. - The WhatsApp service system: How customer WhatsApp groups with directors, sales and service staff mean a message at 9:30pm still gets a reply. - Good is not world-class: How Geoff Ramm's "celebrity customer service" talk at BizX 2025 showed Adam's team they were good but not yet world-class. - Team-led change: Why the improvements came from the whole team, not management demanding from the top, and what that did for the culture. - Retention economics: Why moving retention from 84% to 92% matters so much when onboarding a new customer is expensive and margins are tight. - Relationship-first rules: Why 55 Group won't take on a customer it hasn't met face to face, and how six days of personal Christmas videos reached almost 1,000 customers. - Stepping back: How hiring an MD with an energy auditing background moved the business beyond a pricing desk and gave Adam the option to step away. - Enter the award: Why putting yourself forward for recognition can be the catalyst that changes the business. Adam Willcox founded 55 Group to turn the energy sector's poor reputation for service on its head. Over 10 years he has grown it to almost £10 million with a team of 12, with some customers now 10 years in. Working with his ActionCOACH, Gary Crosby, Adam has handed day-to-day running to MD Chris and expanded into energy auditing, solar and LED lighting. At 35, he is now building an industrial estate off the A1 near Stamford. If You Haven't Started: Ask your customers what you do well, what you could do better and why they would stay or leave. Look for the odd nugget in the generic answers. If You're Already Delivering Good Service: Spend a full day with your whole team working out the gap between good and world-class, then let the team build the plan. For Everyone: Run an exit interview with every customer who leaves. Then pick something you want to be known for and enter an award for it. Whether you run a service business, a family firm or a lean team competing with much bigger players, this episode shows how trust is built one relationship at a time. Subscribe for weekly conversations with business owners who are doing it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leadership: The Truth About Leadership Insecurity (And How To Fix It) | Thriving in Toxic Culture with Natalie Abou-Alwan Most people think the loudest person in the room is the most confident. Natalie Abou-Alwan has spent her career learning the opposite. In this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by ActionCOACH UK, she explains why "insecurity is loud", how to handle a toxic boss without wrecking your career, and what to do when you realise the insecure leader might be you. Natalie is an Oxford graduate who has worked as general counsel across several businesses, including JPMorgan Chase and BP. She was named a Rising Star on the Legal 500 Powerlist and is the author of How to Navigate Your Career Like a Legend. Her core insight is simple. What looks like ego is usually insecurity, and humility is what separates real legends from bad bosses. Natalie Abou-Alwan is an Oxford-educated lawyer who has worked as general counsel across several businesses, including JPMorgan Chase and BP, and spent more than 20 years working on trading floors. She has been named a Rising Star on the Legal 500 Powerlist. Her first LinkedIn article, on women who don't help women in the workplace, drew tens of thousands of views and is included in her book, How to Navigate Your Career Like a Legend, which uses real-life stories to help people handle toxic cultures and build resilience. If You Haven't Started: Take Natalie's first action. Find a quiet moment, take the noise out and have an honest look at yourself. Ask what is worrying you and which parts of it you can actually control. If You're Already Leading A Team: In your next meeting, listen for the quieter voice with the smart idea and credit them publicly. If you've handled something badly, go back to the person and say so. For Everyone: Build your personal boardroom. Pick a handful of people who will tell you the truth, not just cheer you on, and check feedback with them before you take it to heart. Whether you're dealing with a toxic boss, leading a team or working on your own insecurities, this conversation will help you lead with more humility. Subscribe for weekly conversations. This episode is sponsored by Initium Corporate Finance: Initium is a specialist sell-side corporate finance advisory, providing valuation, consultancy, and business sale transaction services. Find out how Initium can help you at www.initium.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Business Growth Isn't About Sales, It's About Empathy | Jason and Nicola Threadgold Funeral Directors Interview Most businesses say their service is what sets them apart. Very few get publicly recognised for it. Jason and Nicola Threadgold did, in an industry where trust is hard to earn and every family arrives at the worst moment of their lives. In this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by ActionCOACH UK, the husband-and-wife funeral directors explain how they grew from one funeral home to five in 12 years, built a team of 30 and won a customer service award. Their answer is simple and hard to live by: stop selling and start solving people's problems. What You'll Learn: - Communication Starts With Listening: Nicola breaks trust down into listening, caring, understanding and going beyond what people expect. - Be Impeccable With Your Word: Jason explains why doing what you said you'd do, on time, is where trust is won or lost. - Solve the Problem, Don't Sell the Product: Why every customer arrives with a problem, and why treating it as a challenge to exceed turns clients into lifelong friends. - Working as a Husband-and-Wife Team: How one comment in the wrong tone taught them to work as equals, not manager and employee. - Scaling With Research: Census data, age demographics and getting the model right before opening a new location. - Knock on the Door: How asking owners directly landed them 3 buildings, including one that took nearly a year to come through. - Cross-Training Your Team: Why everyone learns everyone else's role, and why an administrator has stepped in as a hearse driver. - The COVID Cashflow Lesson: Why even a funeral business felt the pinch, and why you need to know your numbers inside and out. For Everyone: Audit the promises your business makes and keep every one of them. Then send one team member to spend a day in another department and see what changes when they come back. Whether you're running a family business, leading a team or planning your next location, this episode shows why care and trust are the foundations of growth. Subscribe for weekly conversations with business owners who've done it. This episode is sponsored by Yes Foundation UK, helping 12 to 22 year olds build confidence, understand money and develop real entrepreneurial thinking. Find out more at yesfoundation.org.uk. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Business Vision - From Nursery Fire To Empire | Andy Nimmo Muddy Boots Nurseries Interview Most business owners get so buried in the day to day that they can't see where the business is actually heading. Andy Nimmo built Muddy Boots Nurseries by learning that lesson the hard way, more than once. Andy co-founded Muddy Boots Nurseries with his wife Anna 15 years ago, starting from a combined household income of £18,000 and a dream of reaching £60,000 a year. Today the business runs multiple sites shaped around outdoor adventure and childcare, after surviving a building budget that ballooned from £450,000 to £1.2 million, a 3am fire that shut a nursery down overnight, and a near-bankruptcy caused by not understanding the difference between profit and cash. What You'll Learn: - The £18k To £60k Vision: How a back of a napkin income goal became the founding plan, and why having any clear number beat having none at all. - Why Vision Gets Bigger As You Grow: How the plan evolved from pure survival to a 10-nursery ambition, using Gino Wickman's Traction and EOS to set a 10-year target. - Purpose From The Infinite Game: How Simon Sinek's book reframed growth as an ongoing standard to keep raising rather than a race against competitors. - The £450k Build That Became £1.2m: What happened when the first nursery build blew its budget and nearly got shut down by the bank. - Profit Versus Cash: How acquiring a second site without understanding profit versus cash nearly bankrupted the business. - The Five Pillars Of Systemised Growth: Team, customers, quality of care, environments, and finances - the framework Andy uses to scale. - The Hire That Changed Everything: Why bringing in a dedicated finance director, years later than he should have, was the most transformational decision Andy made. - Daily Numbers Beat Annual Numbers: How moving from once-a-year account reviews to daily habits let Andy course-correct before problems became crises. Whether you're weighing up your first hire, wrestling with cash flow, or trying to work on your business instead of in it, Andy's story is proof that setbacks don't disqualify you from building something exceptional. Sponsored by YESS Foundation UK: this episode is sponsored by YESS Foundation UK, helping 12 to 22 year olds build confidence, understand money, and develop real entrepreneurial thinking. Find out more at yesfoundation.org.uk. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.