Habitz

Kirsty Lewis joined us in the studio to talk through how to create impactful workshops. When creating and delivering people centred workshops, learning or meetings, people often forget to put those participating in the middle of it all. This means people don't take in your points, they're less engaged and you don't get the desired outcome. But id you start bringing in some of Kirsty's ways to bring your workshops together, you'll find everyone is much more engaged and ready to take what they learned to the outside world.

James Slater joined us in the studio to talk through how to create a better workspace. James works in workplace design and technology, and helps businesses create intelligent workspaces that connect people, technology and environment. People get stuck working in offices and spaces that don't work, so why don't they fix this? It causes a disconnect between your teams and can be used much more effectively.

Chris Dawson joined us in the studio to talk through how to make better sales calls. Most people probably dread them, even those who chose to work in sales and make cold calls every day – but you can make them easier and work for you better if you know how. Chris has held nearly every sales role in the last 25 years, from door to door sales to sales for FTSE 100 businesses, so now shares his sales experience, skills, and enthusiasm to sales teams looking to improve their process. Selling doesn't need to be overcomplicated, so here are a few easy tips and tricks from Chris to implement to improve your sales and cold calls.

Graham Allcott joined us in the studio to talk about how to be more productive. You see productivity hacks being thrown around everywhere now, but do they ever work? Graham has been in the learning and development/productivity industry for years and advises some of the biggest businesses how to increase productivity. Being too busy is only going to cause burnout. So here are a few tips and tricks from Graham to improve your productivity and prioritise your workload.

Jon Buchan joined us in the studio to talk through how to write cold pitches that work. Jon is in digital business outreach and copywriting and knows a few ways to get the attention of your prospects. After once writing a drunk, cold email that led to countless meetings with big brands, he's since taught the method (sober) to thousands of customers who find as much success with their pitches now. Standing out is easy when you know how, and Jon's here to give you a few pointers. Gone are the days of a wasted sales email that gets deleted before it's opened.

Christopher Smith joined us in the studio to talk through how to create promotional merch that works. Chris has been working with small businesses for years creating clever promotional merchandise and long before that has been involved in creative communication. Christopher understands it's all too easy to fall into the trap of cheap, poor quality brand design or promotional merchandise, meaning he's well versed in the hows and whys of creating decent merch that actually works. From personalisation to who to send them out to, here's a few merchandise mistakes to avoid.

Mike Herberts joined us in the studio to talk through how to get the attention of clients you want. Businesses struggle to attract new customers because the methods they use are the same ones used by everyone else trying to attract the same customers. Mike works with people wanting to improve their outreach and prospecting. Rather than reeling off script or sending over the same boring message they receive day after day, you need to stand out and know the industry you're trying to get in to. How? Watch and find out.

Steve Corwood joined us in the studio to go over how to take the hassle out of buying a vehicle. It's a long winded process and unless you've got endless cash and know exactly what make, model and spec you want, it can be a bit overwhelming as a buyer. So, Steve believes those in the automotive retail space need to do more with their processes and tech to be more trans parent with their customers. Improving your tech, data and marketing will take you further, but until you're transparent with your customers you'll always be behind the curve.

Richard Smith joined us in the studio to talk through how to handle objections on cold calls. Richard is a VP Sales who still makes cold calls to build his pipeline, runs his own end to end sales cycles and coaches his team to do the same. Through years of making cold calls and knowing exactly how much to talk on sales calls, how many and what kind of questions to ask, and how to handle objections, Richard can help you banish the jargon and start closing more sales conversations.

Amy Stokes-Waters joined us in the studio to talk through how to protect yourself against cyber attacks. Every day we are all targeted in one way another and most of us underestimate the risk of ransomware or other cyber attacks, especially in business. Amy has been working in the info sec space for a while now helping translate complicated security concepts to customers in a way they understand and can use to protect themselves. Every business needs to ensure it has a proper security update process in place, uses multi-factor authentication and regularly assess their security posture. As with most things, prevention is cheaper than reaction.

Jane Ferre joined us in the studio to talk through how to get your dream role. Job seekers often find themselves at the mercy of job boards and just applying for any job vacancy they come across, or people stay stuck in jobs they hate because they're comfortable. Once you've nailed your CV, leveraged your LinkedIn profile and clearly defined your goals, you'll be able to make better career decisions with businesses you're genuinely interested in working with.

Daniel Cohen joined us in the studio to talk through how to improve your market research. People nowadays don't fully understand who their clientele and target market are. So how can you create a strategy that works or achieve goals you set for your business. Daniel goes over a few easy ways you can understand your market and improve your business awareness.

Camilla Ainsworth joined us in the studio to give her top tips for young entrepreneurs starting their own business. Camilla grew her name on BBC One's The Apprentice and ended up being the youngest finalist on the show, then successfully launching her business afterwards. So, she knows a few things about how to start your own business and how to become an entrepreneur – without all the fluff. She gives a few things she wishes she knew and avoided when starting a business and things to do from the beginning to get off on the right foot. There's a lot of information out there from people who have never successfully launched their own business telling you what to do and what not to do – so it's probably better you hear it from someone with the experience.

Kelly Goss joined us in the studio to talk through how to improve business productivity with automation in business. Kelly is a business process automation and productivity consultant who helps small and medium sized businesses automate their processes to make their business become more efficient. Working with people all over the world in various different industries, she specialises in automating processes with Zapier to help your business remove unnecessary steps which cost time and money and improve productivity through harnessing technology.

Lucy Werner joined us in the studio to talk through how to do your own PR. Lucy has worked in publicity for 17 years and is the author of the bestselling book Hype Yourself – a PR toolkit for small businesses. She's used all these tips and tricks to grow her own business and teach entrepreneurs how to do it for themselves. From knowing how to pitch to journalists, podcast hosts, event organisers etc to how to perfect your press release strategy, Lucy knows how to get in front of the right media and nail your PR pitch to win people over. You don't need to leave your entire public relations strategy in the hands of someone else – there's loads you can be doing yourself to leverage your network and build a brand.

We had Alex Leslie join us in the studio to talk through how to improve your sports coaching. He's a professional tennis coach and author of The Players' Box who has been involved in sports since childhood. After studying some of the world's best sports coaches and analysed what makes them so great, he knows what kind of guidance, support, and coaching creates top class players. Alex gives his tips on how to structure your training session, and as a coach how to encourage your player to be at the top of their game.

We had Maxine Berry in the studio to talk through how to improve your cold call conversion. Making cold calls and being in sales is a bit of a refined choice and a lot of people fall into the sales industry without meaning to. So you might find it difficult to pick up the phone, not know how to get past the gatekeeper, or not ask the right questions. But cold calling doesn't need to be a low level sales tactic, it can be your best friend when it comes to making professional relationships and building new business. You just need to know how, and Maxine talks you through it.

Christine Ditchfiled joined us in the studio to talk through how to turn your passion into a business. For what was once just a favourite drink on a Friday night, Christine turned her love of gin into a business and now give you tips on how to turn a passion project into a full time job. From being consistent with your marketing approach, understanding your industry and market, and finding support you need along the way, turning your hobby into a business isn't easy. But it's doable. Networking, strong branding and a marketing strategy that sells will be your best friend.

Ryan Lisk joins us in the studio to talk about how to keep your business out of legal trouble. From drafting contracts that help businesses protect their relationships with their clients and protecting their intellectual property (IP). Googling how to write a contract and copying one off the internet is never going to be best practise – get yourself a lawyer. People assume lawyers are expensive, but they are going to be there when something inevitably comes up and they'll understand your business already inside and out. You'll only end up paying more than the legal fees if you feign ignorance from the beginning.

Matt McCall joined us in the studio to explain why you're paying more for your insurance. Business owners will always want to know how to save money on insurance, and find the best insurance deals for their company. Matt is a commercial insurance broker who explains in layman's terms how using a broker, whatever your industry, is going to make your life easier and find you the best insurance policies.

Claire Sewell joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk through how you can increase your sales and build better relationships. Building relationships is the biggest thing in sales, yet so many salespeople go straight in for the kill without building those foundations. You need to be adding value and looking to solve problems, rather than pitching a solution you don't know will work. Sales isn't the easiest industry to do well in, but when you stop making it all about you and start paying attention to the businesses or people you're selling to, it will come much more naturally.

Rav Panesar joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk through how to improve and power your projects. Whether you're in project management or not, you'll at some point be involved in making sure a project or programme gets delivered properly on time and as planned. But when there are so many factors in project and programme management that can lead it to go wrong, people get stuck in bad habitz and end up losing sight of their objectives and aren't able to identify risks as they appear. Rav has over 20 years experience, 10 of which he's run an independent business consultancy that has delivered 27 projects on £166m worth of business transformations.

Tim Duncombe joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk through ways to get a better telecoms deal. In the telecoms industry there's a lot of unethical practise. Between lengthy contracts, hidden charges and misselling, you're more often than not bound to come up short against the companies you buy from. When you're working with technology you're always going to want to be up to date and future proof. But when businesses have sales goals and often very little interest in your actual needs, you're not guaranteed to be sold to properly. Tim gives some good tips for how to decide what is best for your business and not be swung a deal you didn't sign up for.

Stuart Clark joins us in the studio to talk through some mistakes you're making with your business accounts and how to manage them more effectively. When it comes to managing your business accounts, taking the easiest and cheapest accounting options may seem like the best choice, but usually it'll come back to bite you. Likewise with tax, you want to find out how to pay less tax and end up running your business from your bank account with account books that are 8 months out of date and only look at your profit margins and tax figures – all rookie mistakes but easily rectified. Stuart explains some easy ways to understand your business accounts.

Graham Hawkins joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio talking through how to improve your social selling skills. Graham works with salespeople who are looking to improve their social selling technique and survive in the industry. Considering people claim to be in sales, their go - to B2B sales techniques are arguably, well, terrible. LinkedIn pitch on connection, no re search on who they're selling to, and just a general spray and pray – the likelihood of any of these working is so slim you're almost better off not trying at all. But if you want to, Graham has some good habitz to start implementing.

Joe Glover joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk you through how to build a community people care about. Marketing has never been as big of a focus in business as it is now. Joe has built a community of 21,000 engaged marketers from across the world on the premise of looking after each other just a bit more. Whether you're a seasoned marketing director or a social exec starting out, Joe has some decent tips to keep in mind when planning your marketing – and some things to avoid. People should always be central to everything you do as a marketer, so take your time to sort your values and know that the rewards aren't instant, but always worthwhile in the long run.

Becky Lodge joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk about how to build a successful start up. Being a first time business owner or entrepreneur isn't easy. Trying to learn how to manage different projects at once, wear 10 different hats and make your business profitable is hard. And that's why most start ups fail. With the right funding and good people around you, there's no reason your business can't be a success. From hiring a business coach or mentor to focusing on your mental health and mindset, Becky talks through some simple ways to make your start up successful.

Jamie Dixon joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk about how to make training practical. It's all well and good spending hours on a training module for it to go in one ear and out the other. Making your training practical is another story. Most people focus on the wrong things when training, like focusing on a topic instead of finding a solution. So find your goals, set your targets and train towards them, not around them. Learning and development is never going to be a one size fits all, but L&D coaches and trainers know how to get the best out of people. Listen to some of Jamie's tips to improve your training.

Katie Thompson joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk about content marketing and how to build better communities. Since Katie trained with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and the Chartered Institute of Marketing, she's worked with some of the biggest global brands. She knows the dos and don'ts when it comes to creating content and marketing both with old school editorial standards and the new age digital techniques. Building brands and communities online isn't easy, and will never be an overnight win, but with some of these good and bad habitz to pick up and drop, you'll be a step closer to creating some thought provoking, and decent content that makes people buy.

Chris Williamson joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio giving you his tips on starting a podcast. Chris has his own successful podcast called Modern Wisdom which has had over 10 million plays in the last few years. Everyone listens to podcasts now, so people see it as an easy way to get noticed. But it's a hard platform to launch on when you're not sure on the direction. It's more than just speaking into a microphone. You need to be speaking about the right topics for your audience, interviewing people, giving value that can't be found elsewhere. Putting out content needs to have half a thought behind it, so take some of Chris' tips if you've just launched a podcast or you're wondering how to start one soon.

Frankie Lee joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk you through some good ways to protect your brand online with content removal and reputation management. There's always going to be content online that can damage sales, revenue, and your reputation, so why do so few people have a removal plan in place to protect themselves? Frankie has been helping entrepreneurs and business owners for 5 years protect their brands. From trademarking your brand name across socials, protecting your IP, and managing content that shouldn't be in the public domain, there are loads of easy ways to protect yourself online.

Fifi Mason joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio where she talks through how to grow your personal brand as an introvert. Introverts face different obstacles when it comes to putting themselves out there online to grow and build their brands – but unfortunately, if you don't do it yourself, nobody will do it for you. So Fifi gives personal brand and visibility coaching to introverted business owners. Developing a personal brand is hard anyway, let alone with the difficulties you face as an introverted personality type. But with a few of these good and bad habitz, you'll be on track to find what works to build your brand soon enough.

Eddie Whittingham joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk through how to start and sell a successful business. Eddie built his business with no investment, just by focusing on the important things and avoiding the rest. If you focus on chasing revenue over profit or seek out constant investment to make your business look the part before it is the part, you're going to end up losing valuable money and risk everything. Rather than taking advice from fake online gurus and business coaches who haven't got experience, have a listen to this and connect with Eddie on his social media.

Andrew MacAskill joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio and is talking through how to be successful with your job search. We're all at some point going to be looking for a new job. Need to prepare for an interview. Apply for a job. All of those things can be pretty scary, and pretty disheartening when it feels like you're having no success. Job searching doesn't need to be a chore. Andrew talks through how you can get seen on your job hunt and stand out when you apply. He's worked in recruitment for years and helped numerous people into work, so he knows a few good tips for securing a job offer.

Libby James joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk through how to make card payments work better for your business. Merchant services is a complicated world that most business owners don't understand. So when it comes to payment processing and choosing your payment facilities, things get overlooked. If you take card payments, you might be falling into the categories Libby talks about in her bad habits, from not following the latest trends to ignoring PCI compliance. Lots of people have issues with card payment companies, especially when looking to streamline facilities, so knowing how to overcome problems is going to set you up for a winner. And who doesn't like to win?

Lianne Sykes joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk you through getting featured in the press. PR and Marketing are two pretty saturated industries, but that doesn't mean you can't navigate them yourself. If you're looking to create a brand identity, have organic lead generation through social media platforms and get yourself in the press, Lianne has some simple tips how. Creating content is hard but creating content other people want to feature, share and link to is harder. So clearly defining your goals and deciding your social and PR strategies will help you in the long run, plus the three good habitz Lianne recommends you follow – have a listen.

Stuart Clark joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio talking through the importance of management accounts. Most business owners don't understand their numbers but it's so important they do. Understanding everything that goes on in your accounts should be priority, from the tax you pay, your key figures (gross profit, discounting etc) and what it is you pay as a business. You need to know the ins and outs of your key financial numbers. Only looking at your profit and tax figures won't get you anywhere, so Stuart is here to explain a few easy ways to understand your management accounts from an accountant and business advisor view.

Mark Tilbury joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk about how to go viral on TikTok. Mark started his TikTok less than a year ago and has grown his following to over six million in that time, becoming one of the UKs top 100 TikTok creators. Social media is a powerful tool in business if used right, and TikTok definitely shouldn't be a social platform you disregard for its reputation of viral dances and strange lip syncs. If used right, you can grow a huge following and build a brand from scratch... sometimes in days. It's shown a new level to virality that hasn't been achieved on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook before, so if you want to learn how to grow a TikTok following, have a listen to Marks tips.

Louise Harman joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk through how to get the most from a Virtual Assistant. A lot of business owners are too busy to do the tasks not in their remit. Outsourcing to a VA has endless benefits. They often come from a diverse working background and have a large network pool at hand to offer help and support to all industries. Whether you outsource your admin, your calendar, your calls, online client meetings or any other task you find less productive, having a virtual assistant to over see these things for you alleviates the stress and means you can focus on running your business. Louise knows all the best tips for getting the most out of a VA.

Markie Reeds joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio talking through digital marketing and social media strategy tips. Social media doesn't need to be difficult; you just need to know your audience. Engaging with people on social media is all about building a relationship with your customers and getting their buy in, so you need to be human and you need to be relatable. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or TikTok – people buy in to people. So, you need to reflect this in your social media content plan. Markie has spent the years in everything from bidding, marketing and building brands so you can trust her simple tips for an easy social strategy.

Ian Murphy joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio talking through how to be more engaging when delivering cyber awareness training. Cyber awareness training is hardly lighting the world on fire, but it's important for all businesses to ensure their employees are aware of cybersecurity dangers and cyber threats that come along with it. Educating your team can be difficult, but Ian has found using humour to be the best tool for engaging training and spreading awareness in the cybersecurity industry.

Erica Farmer joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk through how to increase engagement in virtual learning. Everyone is on the online training and virtual learning train now, so it's important you get it right. But how do you get people's attention online? Erica has 20 years of experience in corporate learning and development with businesses such as British Gas, Virgin, LV and Specsavers so she knows the industry well. She's been delivering interactive, online learning sessions since 2014 so knows how to engage people and get them involved with their L&D.

Deborah Fleming joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk about how to run a successful team building event. Taking the team for a staff day at laser quest as a team bonding experience is never going to bring in great results. Sure, it will motivate your team for the time they're there, but all it really is, is your staff and team using it as a fun day out to get out of the office and let their hair down. But there are more efficient ways to get the most out of your team and bring the investment back into the business without wasting company time and money.

Paul Gosnell joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk about wellbeing in the workplace. Companies need to be on it when it comes to their employee's wellbeing, but still they sit on it and take the reactive approach. Which is fine, it's better than nothing – but putting the steps in to avoid burnout, stress and unhealthy habits forming is way easier than fixing it after. Having a more engaged team is easy, you just have to try. And the more engaged your employees are? The bigger your company turnover. So whether it's a company-wide policy to not sit at your desk over lunch, maybe it's a step-counting challenge, exercise incentives – Paul has some tips to make your workplace healthier.

Chris Aldridge joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio talking through how to patent ideas when launching a new product. Not many people know much surrounding intellectual property laws (IP). But it's important to ensure you've got the right legal protection when you startup with a new idea, product or brand to avoid it being copied and you being kicked out the market. Chris has helped patent grants go through for 1000s of businesses (including Google and BMW) so he knows his stuff when it comes to legal protection and patenting your idea.

Andy Fleet joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk about how to write a better job advert. Whether you're a recruitment agency or business owner who is hiring, being able to write a good job advert is invaluable. Finding candidates who might not usually apply, candidates who have the skills required for the job specification or who think it sounds interesting enough to send to a friend. Rather than copy and pasting a job description and posting it on a job board, have a bit of creativity and write better job adverts. Andy gives a few easy ways how. Recruitment isn't easy, but you can attract some better candidates with a good job advert.

Katrina Fouracre joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk through how to improve your website. Most businesses have a website for one reason or another. Data capturing, eCommerce, lead generation… whatever it is, they have a website. But how many people keep their site updated? How many people understand website hosting? Or how to use WordPress? Very few. People often overlook the customer journey on their website and focus on themselves and how important they want to feel. So if you're looking to improve your user experience on your website, Katrina has a few easy things to start doing.

Hope Mckellar joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk to you about PR (public relations) and how to promote your business through the media. As a former journalist, Hope runs a PR firm to help businesses get published in various media outlets from the BBC, ITV and Mail Online to smaller local publications. PR is a hard ladder to climb, but being consistent with your press releases, sending stories to journalists that benefit them and provide value are all good places to start. Getting media coverage is hard when it's so saturated, but with a few of these tips from Hope you'll be on your way to nailing it soon. Whether it's newspaper, online, social media or television – getting your businesses name out there is always good.

Sean Toomer joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk through how to improve your business cash flow. Having cash sat in the bank and having a good cash flow are very different. Knowing you can break even or make enough profit to pay your monthly direct debits and invoices will help you sleep at night, but getting the cash in the account in the first place is hard. Sean gives you some tips to improve cash flow and create business strategies that will keep your accounts looking better.

Cheryl White joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio to talk through how to franchise a business. Cheryl has helped franchise over 50 businesses as a franchise coach and has grown her own business to 13 across the UK. Franchising doesn't need to be difficult, but people fall into the trap of trying it themselves without guidance from someone who has done it before. Knowing what to charge as a franchise fee, who to onboard and even how to onboard them aren't things you're taught at school – which is why Cheryl runs Mercury Franchise School to go through all those questions you have and make your business franchise ready.

Katie Maycock joins us in the Habitz Podcast studio and talks about how to stop stress from killing your business. Wellbeing and mental health have never been so talked about, so if you want a couple of tips on how to avoid burnout, Katie has some. With her background in nutrition and physiology, she knows how to get fit and the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle to combat stress. Diet, exercise, and sleep are important, but how do you incorporate these changes into your business? You need to be pivoting and redesigning your business to be more sustainable – and healthier for you.