Are you ever too old to turn your favourite hobby into a brand-new business venture?

In this very special episode of All About Business, James Reed is joined by his wife Nicola, founder of the successful drinks company, Beeble.

Nicola shares how she turned her husband’s birthday gift into a thriving business, the ups and downs of bootstrapping a company with her daughter’s friend, as well as some rather disturbing facts about her bee colony.

Nicola is an artist, teacher, beekeeper and entrepreneur. She owns Beeble, a B-Corp that makes a wide variety of spirits with honey from her very own hives. Nicola has a Master's degree in Fine Art from St Martin's School of Art, a PGDip from Chelsea College of Arts and a teaching degree from University College London.

01:37 Introduction

02:27 Nicola Reed's Beekeeping Journey

04:43 Turning Honey into Spirits

07:45 The Beeble Brand and Business Growth

13:22 Balancing Business and Passion for Bees

23:54 Insights and Lessons from Beekeeping

27:07 Beekeeping Courses and Techniques

28:31 Personal Experiences with Bee Stings

30:39 The Undertaker Bee and Bee Communication

32:49 Challenges in the Spirit Business

36:11 Marketing Strategies and Customer Feedback

41:36 Beekeeping in Prisons

43:17 The Joys and Challenges of Beekeeping

46:03 Future Plans for Beeble

48:25 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Try Beeble’s delicious honey whisky

Take a beekeeping course

Follow Nicola Reed on LinkedIn

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All About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more at: www.reed.com

This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk

Climbing to the top of the ladder can be tough. With competition from peers, how do you stand out so you can get that promotion and even become Managing Director?

In this episode of All About Business, James is joined by Donna Murrell, Managing Director of Reed in Partnership. Donna began her career at Reed as an entry-level employment advisor and worked her way up to the very top. In this conversation, she shares little known strategies for boosting your career, explains why diversity in leadership is so important and gives actionable advice for building your confidence no matter where you are in your career.

Donna is the Managing Director of Reed in Partnership, a branch of Reed which delivers public services such as employment support, wellbeing advice and DVSA testing. Donna has been at Reed for over 20 years, starting as an Employment Advisor.

00:58 Introducing Donna Murrell

07:47 Expanding Reed in Partnership

09:54 Leadership and team building

13:08 Donna's management philosophy

20:44 Going from Operations Director to Managing Director

25:16 Advice for aspiring leaders

29:51 Spotting and nurturing talent

31:25 Creating Opportunities for Employee Engagement

37:01 Embracing curiosity and learning

39:30 Women in leadership: challenges and progress

49:34 Preparing for career progression

52:05 Building confidence and overcoming anxiety

54:49 Reed interview round

Follow Donna on LinkedIn

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Learn more about Reed in Partnership

All About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more at: www.reed.com

This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk

With seventy percent of online buyers abandoning their shopping before checkout, how can you create a frictionless customer journey that only takes ten seconds?

In this episode of All About Business, James Reed speaks to customer experience expert Todd Unger.

Todd reveals why most customer journeys don’t work, how low-cost AI can help you understand your customers better, and the hit Ariana Grande song that could transform your approach to customer experience.

Todd Unger is the Chief Experience Officer at the American Medical Association, overseeing membership, marketing and customer experience initiatives. His book, the ten-second customer journey explains how you can rapidly convert customers online, drawing on Todd’s 30 year career in marketing and customer experience.

02:00 Meet Todd Unger: Chief Experience Officer

03:27 The evolution of Customer Experience

08:04 The four points of CXO

10:50 The importance of frictionless experience

18:07 Building effective digital services

24:10 Building a culture of testing and experimentation

26:17 The role of AI in modern testing

26:44 AI's impact on the 10 second customer journey

28:03 Leveraging technology partners for AI

34:29 Practical applications and future of AI

45:17 Customer experience advice for entrepreneurs

48:27 Reed interview round

Follow Todd Unger on LinkedIn

Visit Todd Unger’s website: https://www.toddunger.com/

Buy Todd Unger’s book

Follow James Reed on LinkedIn

All About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more at: www.reed.com

This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk