What We've Learnt: Learning from great minds in the world of business & marketing and beyond

What better way to wrap up this series of WWL than going back to where it started? We pick some of our favourite rules from Wine Bar Theory - the brilliant book written by episode 1 guest, David Gilbertson. We talk about what those rules mean to us, what we heard from other guests during the series and how their thoughts weave into David's rules. Finally we also try and build the perfect leader by considering the characteristics that they think make up today's best examples, again reflecting on what our brilliant guests have shared and demonstrated in their own careers.

A chance to hear from the brilliant Richard Fitzmaurice this week. Richard shares his experiences on leading a high-performing team and how surrounding yourself with talent is so key to success. We start with his university years and being brave about the path he ultimately took and along the way to the presence day, where he is not only leading the team at Intertrust Group, after a successful rebrand and positioning programme, he makes time to talk about the world- greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes (or "Ran" as he is to Richard!) and how they ended up having a successful side hustle together in the world of Rum. An engaging and inspiring person, Richard is very open and honest about what he has learnt from others and how that has served him so well in his career to-date.

We chat with the brilliant Gemma Davies. She now resides in California, working at ServiceNow as Senior Director, Head of Global ABM & CXO Engagement. Gemma is a well known and respected figure in the B2B Marketing community. She shares her journey thus far – starting with a passion for consumer behaviour, that she pursued at university. The thread of that learning runs through her fast-paced rise through agencies and then on to a range of client-side marketing roles. During that time she has found herself pioneering ABM (before ABM was a thing!) and championing women in marketing as well as the continued improvement of the wider state of marketing. She made the move to the US from the UK last year (after clocking up far too many air miles beforehand) and shares her take on not just that stellar career, but the now and the future.

Emma is the Development Director at Eastbourne College. She describes her career as ‘squiggly' but wouldn't have had it any other way, and believes that her varied experiences as a mother, entrepreneur, business owner, volunteer, charity fundraiser and Deputy Lieutenant in the county of Bedfordshire have all been invaluable, pieces of the jigsaw that create the picture of who she is today. Emma is a do-er, her glass is always half full and she never takes no for an answer. Indeed if the answer is no, she just phrases the question in a different way. Her forward thinking, tenacity and perseverance were crucial when she decided to renovate disused buildings in Bedford and convert them into thriving award-winning cafés and community hubs. Emma studied English and Theatre Studies at University and worked in television before starting a family. She took some time off from work but it is hard to keep a good woman down, and if she wasn't running the school PTA, she was putting on events for charity. She lived abroad for many years before settling in Bedford with her husband and 5 children. Emma ran a social media business alongside her park Cafés providing training and social media management for SMEs and charities. She was also President of the Bedfordshire BusinessWomen's Networking Group and Pavilion at the Park, one of her cafés was mentioned in the Good Food Guide as well as being chosen as one of 100 SMEs recognised in the 2018 Small Business Saturday Campaign. She was also recognised by f:entrepreneur as one of 100 female entrepreneurs in the #ialso Campaign in 2019. She is a Vice Patron for Autism Bedfordshire and an Ambassador and on the Senior Management Team for the Schoolreaders Charity. She is the founder of the SoupFest Fundraiser in Bedford and sits on the Bedford Homeless Partnership Executive committee.

A fascinating chat with the great Iain Lovatt this week. Iain shares his journey. Starting with a redundancy and a need to pay bills and how that ultimately gave birth to the biggest chapter of his career and world-leading data business Blue Venn, where he was founder and chair until their recent acquisition. A passionate educator, he talks about his roles in academia as well as how he sees leadership - a refreshing view on empowering those from within and how to surround yourself with the right talent and people to succeed. Lots of great insight and wisdom shared, another excellent listen.

Quite simply, Ruth is a tour-de-force. A true pioneer as well as an inspiring leader. A wheelchair user from the age of seven, Ruth is a passionate advocate of disabled people's rights, and acknowledged for her delivery of innovation in the disability sector. She was awarded an OBE in 2012, in recognition of her services to disabled children and young people. Ruth joined Leonard Cheshire from Whizz-Kidz, where she was CEO. Under her leadership, Whizz-Kidz has become the biggest provider of powered and light weight manual wheelchairs for disabled children outside of the NHS, and a leading campaigning organisation in the sector. Prior to Whizz-Kidz, Ruth had a successful career in the private sector, in technologies, eventually setting up and running her own IT company for ten years. For several years, Ruth was a Trustee of children's charity Barnardo's. In 2018 she was appointed as a non-Executive Director of Motability Operations Group Plc, and in 2019 was selected as a member of The Mayor of London's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group. We will run out of space to list all of what Ruth has achieved and, as you will hear, she isn't done yet!

This week we speak with Joel Harrison. Editor-in-chief at B2B Marketing and a very well-known (and respected) non-marketer in the world of marketing! Seventeen years ago he co-founded the aptly named B2B Marketing – a specialist industry publisher in the beginning that has flourished to be the centre point of the industry. Joel shares lots on both the history of the B2B market and how it has changed (and happily shed its confidence crisis) and what the future looks like – particular around forging a marketing community for the future - their vison with Propolis.

An insightful and enjoyable chat this week with Dom Hawes, CEO of independent agency network Selbey Anderson. Not only do we hear from Dom on his vision for Selbey Anderson and how his previous experiences running an agency shaped the culture and values of Selbey Anderson, but we talk about leadership – what his time in the military taught him and how that transfers into the corporate world. An avid reader (and learner) Dom talks about recent books that have inspired him, including the other contributors to the recently published book "Purposeful People: Business Leaders Making A Difference" . Dom's chapter in the book is all about Makers and Takers and how to surround yourself with the former and avoid the latter. A really insightful episode, chatting with an equally passionate and considered leader.

We turn the tables this week and rather than taking her usual role as the interviewer, the spotlight (or podcast mic in fact!) is directed towards Rachel Tranter. Rachel has spent the best part of the last decade launching and running Women On Boards in the UK and we talk through that journey and the important work they do to help more women join more boards - interviewing and preparing them for their NED and board roles, but we also chat through leadership, what it takes to be a good board director (and just how talented women haven't yet realised how much they could offer a board – be it on a paid or voluntary basis) and how the world looks now compared to a decade ago when Rachel and her colleagues started the business.

We're back! Series 3 of WWL and this series is all about leaders and pioneers. We chat with a range of fascinating people, none more so than David Gilbertson. Highly regarded leader, ex and current chairman of a host of businesses and acclaimed author. David takes the time to share his knowledge and wisdom on a range of topics as well as guide us through his brilliant book: Wine Bar Theory.

With a little help from a number of previous podcast guests, we say goodbye to 2020 and hello to the new year - by way of reflection on what we have learnt as well as some trend spotting and future gazing for the year ahead. Thanks to the likes of Lawrence Mitchell, Sam Hill, Scott Stockwell, Ian Hughes and others for their wisdom and thoughts for what comes next.

A fascinating and insightful chat with Herman this week. We hear from this true visionary about data and how to think beyond "data-led". He shares wisdom on the far-reaching opportunities and value of this still greatly under-valued commodity. Through not only his extensive career arc but also the learnings that Anmut have reported on the commercial value of data, we start to see the full spectrum of what data enables across organisations, governments and the globe.

This week we chat with Sam Hill, Director of CX at Infinity. We hear how a love of music ultimately led Sam on a journey through social media, broader digital marketing and in to his current home. Given his role and passion for CX, we make time for that fascinating topic, but also make time for insight, especially given what Infinity specialise in. A thoughtful chat with a talented and inspiring young talent.

A wonderful and engaging chat with Sarah this week. Sarah founded Tribal Impact in 2015 and talks not about the journey of that business and what it does (all things social media and influencer marketing for business brands) but her career journey and how she arrived where she is today. That journey takes in product design, licencing, Norway, giant global tech brands, how a blog can make you a digital expert in the eyes of your colleagues, even designing a hairbrush! A really honest and informative chat with somebody at the top of their game who shares some excellent advice on how to spin many plates and how she sees the value of social media for businesses and leaders.

We have the absolutely pleasure of hearing from Estelle this week. We not only hear about how her career in marketing and advertising has ultimately enabled her into the role of MD at Club Med, an all too rare move for senior marketers, but we also have time to hear what her journey can teach other marketers – lots of great tips and advice from somebody who has excelled throughout her career. Chuck in some chat around leadership, teaching, literature, international trade and Brexit and you have yourself a fascinating 45 minutes of podcast!

We caught up with the brilliant Julia Porter this week. She shares thoughts on how her roles within advertising, publishing, broadcast and media has helped her gather skills for later stages of this impressive career. Alongside hearing what it is like to launch a start-up during lockdown, we talk to Julia about her other passions – Women in Business, diversity and equality, plus pet dogs! Julia shares tips on networking (especially for those don't naturally like to network) and other tales from her times at the likes of ITV, the Guardian, Getty, Thinkbox and latterly the Data Protection Network (DPN) Inspiring stuff.

Where chemistry and data meet. A fascinating chat with the highly experienced marketer, Tony Lamb. Tony not only shares his vast knowledge on data-led marketing and business, but his successes in the world of training. During 2020 and Covid-19 Tony has become one of the go-to people on how to not just run but excel at Zoom-based training and events.

We have the pleasure of chatting with Victoria this week. She shares he knowledge and passion for Client Experience in b2b marketing. She not only shares more on her roles at Capita (Head of Client Experience and now latterly Head of Insight and Analytics since we recorded our chat) and the role marketing has alongside other function such as B2B sales, but how her background in consumer marketing serves her well in these new roles.

When the student becomes the tutor. We had the delight of chatting with Youvraj this week. Somebody both Shane and Steve got to know well during his time as a student of the IDM (famously alongside one of his sons) who they both taught. A thoughtful and intelligent man, who shares his story - of how he has continued to learn and educate - himself but many others that he works with or get the chance to hear him speak at industry conferences. A genuinely warming experience to hear Youvraj talk about his part, present and future (and share some excellent ideas on areas such as Machine Learning, AI and robotics along the way.

This week we had the pleasure of chatting with Lawrence Mitchell. A well known figure in not just the world of B2B marketing, where he spent a large chunk of his career, but more commonly these days in the world of wellbeing. Lawrence is the Founder and CWO at RAW Energy, and former Chief Customer Officer of SumoSalad and Chief Marketing & Wellbeing Officer of RELX Risk & Analytics. As we hear in this episode, after some health challenges in his early 20's, Lawrence became aware of the power of food and lifestyle choices to not only heal the body and mind, but to build resilience and enable high performance. He now helps coach and advise leaders, individuals and whole organisations on how to find their balance and equilibrium – an incredibly relevant and important focus for such changeable and stressful times. Lawrence perfectly blends the two worlds – business and mindfulness and his thoughts and ideas are inspiring. We thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him, a session that leads on so neatly from our first episode of last week, where we talked about cultures and values.

To kick off series 2 we had the pleasure of chatting with Ian Hughes. Not only did he share his thoughts and experiences on 2020 and what that means to him in terms of focus on cultures and values, but his career and what he has learnt along the way. We also chat with Ian about the future and how he see a brand's cultures and their values for being even more important after the year we have had. Not only does he share knowledge on what that means as CEO of Consumer Intelligence, but the lessons for any organisation – be those in the financial services markets that he knows so well and cites throughout, or further afield. A great way to kick off series 2 of What We've Learnt.

Our last episode of series 1. We take our time to reflect on what we have learnt during "What We've Learnt"! We are expertly guided through the review by Scott Stockwell, Editor-in-chief Europe at IBM. Scott has been a WWL listener and using design thinking and review techniques such as Retrospective Sailboat we all three share thoughts on the good and could-be-improved of not just this first series, but the wider world of business and marketing that we are all experiencing right now. A fitting heavyweight guest for our last episode of this current series.

This week we chat with Andrew, who shares how his decades of experience in both agency and client-side roles have steered his recent work within Fleetsolve, part of SIMEC. He shares how marketing has yet again helped in a broader role across the global business, as they rapidly adapt their commercial models for the changing environment, we learn how marketing has had a key influence on supporting immediate and longer term opportunity. It is ok to still be selling and generating leads right now!

This week we hear from Phil, who shares his recent experiences on how marketing can (and should) be front and centre when it comes to tackling business-wide challenges. He tells us about how manages to put insight at the heart of that process. Far from being a time for naval-gazing or self-doubt, we discuss how pivoting (sorry, that word again!) has given marketing a chance to show its wider value to the business. We also have time to talk about the inspiring marketers who we greatly admire.

This week we talk with Robert Norum on Account-Based Marketing - ABM – or is it ABMS or maybe even ABE? Robert has 3 decades of marketing experience and has been at the forefront of ABM best practice for nearly a decade of that time. He is a tutor and advisor to many brands on how to effectively implement account-based activity to deliver results.

This week it's all about customer experience (and personalisation) and how the marriage of human and technology is now more important than ever. We chat with Joe Bush on customer experience and how technologies, like chat, can help focus you on the valuable traffic you don't manage to covert on your website. We also hear from Kirsty Dawe, who not only shows her experiences of late on how sales and marketing have changed but also on how personalisation on your website is the (obvious) missing piece of the puzzle and how relevance comes from segmenting your content to help busy buyers buy more easily. Practical and insightful, both Joe and Kirsty offer an array of bright ideas on how to ensure you are offering the best possible experience online.

This week we focus on Social Selling – thoughts on the subject, led by Shane, who regularly trains and advises businesses on the principles Although the name may be misleading, this is methodology that anyone (in departments other than just sales) should look to understand and implement – to help them and their organisations stand out and attract potential new connections, customers and followers. We talk through the steps to get started, what to avoid, how to improve what you are doing and who to get ongoing inspiration and ideas from on how to build your profile online and become a more connected digital professional.

This week we focus on a shared passion - training and education. We hear from Debbie James at BP and Matt Darmon at Circus Street – both chat about their experience of training and learning and how marketers can embrace digital learning. They also share the balance that is needed – to keep the learner on an even keel and how formats, lengths and the approach must be adapted.

Shane and Steve turn their attention to one of the most over-used acronyms in the industry right now, ABM. They chat with the Zen master of the subject, Andy Bacon, who explains what it is and where to start or focus your time. The episode even has time for top takeaways to start you on your journey.

In the week that the Martech 5000 became the Martech 8000 and in the week that we attended (and Shane co-chaired) a two digital conference on Marketing Tech, it seemed the ideal topic to chat over this week.

We hear from Paul Cash, Rooster Punk front-man and all-round B2B marketing star. He shares thoughts on what storytelling means for brands and why B2B should see right now as the chance to think differently about how they communicate and stand out.

Thoughts from Shane and I on the past week of business and marketing, interviews from the brilliant Komal Helyer and Ruth Connor F IDM, plus great ideas from Jennie Holmes. Thanks to them and the other contributors to an episode where we get practical on areas such as: Free B2B software, Business grants from tech giants Email marketing Data analysis Customer journey mapping Data audits Marketing metrics that matter (now) Propensity modeling Custom audiences

Episode 2 - The one where Shane disagrees with Steve on storytelling! A podcast where we cover three main topics - Leading The Way, Who's Winning and What We're Doing Next, alongside the headline topic of what we have seen in the world of business and marketing in the past week.

Thoughts from us on what's happened in the past few days in marketing and the wider world of business: Strategic Planning - It's all about contingency Who's winning? - Which industries are doing well? Top Tips - Balancing the workload The week ahead - Where is the focus for us in the coming days