Episode #573 - ScaleUp Radio Shorts: The Pivot Point: Moving from Busy to Impactful
Release Date: 02/13/2026
ScaleUp Radio
Hi there and welcome back to another edition of ScaleUp Radio, the podcast brought to you by Smart90, inspired by the Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System and designed to make navigating our ScaleUp journeys that little bit easier by learning from others’ experiences. I’m Kevin Brent and in today’s episode we are doing something slightly different. This episode was recorded live during one of our ScaleUp Club sessions, where we bring together founders and leadership teams to explore the real challenges of scaling a business. The session included our regular AI Pulse update, a live Q&A...
info_outlineScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio Shorts, Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt dive into two seemingly contrasting, but ultimately aligned, scaling philosophies from recent guests Jeremy Middleton and John Hibbs. On the surface, one is a data-driven investor focused on predictable growth and cash flow. The other is a people-first founder measuring culture, wellbeing, and connection. But the real insight? 👉 You cannot scale what you do not measure. This episode unpacks why both financial discipline and people metrics are essential if you want to build a resilient, scalable business. What...
info_outlineScaleUp Radio
Hi there and welcome back to another edition of ScaleUp Radio, the podcast brought to you by Smart90, inspired by the Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System and designed to make navigating our ScaleUp journeys that little bit easier by learning from others' experiences. I’m Kevin Brent and in today's episode I’m joined by John Hibbs, founder of Coefficient, a platform designed to help leaders measure the human side of their business — things like culture, psychological safety and engagement. In this conversation John explains why so many businesses track revenue and profit but struggle to...
info_outlineScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Jeremy Middleton. Jeremy is best known as one of the early backers of HomeServe, a business that grew from a struggling plumbing service into a FTSE-100 company before its eventual acquisition. Today he leads Middleton Enterprises, investing in profitable founder-led businesses and helping them scale from around £500k profit to £5m and beyond. This episode explores the real lessons behind scaling successfully: pivoting business models, building predictable revenue, hiring the right people and...
info_outlineScaleUp Radio
In this special ScaleUp Radio Shorts episode, Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt distil some of the most powerful insights from three recent interviews with founders working at the cutting edge of marketing, AI, and business growth. Featuring lessons from Andreas Voniatis, Benjie Hughes, and Serge Nguele, the discussion explores what really drives successful scaleups and where many businesses go wrong when trying to grow. While each founder operates in a different space, a common theme runs through all three conversations: clarity of strategy beats blind activity every time. From diagnosing...
info_outlineScaleUp Radio
What happens when a former medical student applies diagnostic thinking to marketing? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Serge Nguile, founder of Your PPC Doctor, a PPC and digital strategy agency built around one powerful idea: diagnose before you prescribe. Serge shares his fascinating journey from medical studies in Ukraine to becoming a PPC Director, and ultimately launching his own agency after redundancy. He also opens up about founder burnout, mindset shifts, and why purpose now sits at the heart of his business model. As always, our discussion is structured in...
info_outlineScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent sits down with Andreas Voniatis, founder of Artios.io, to explore what might be the biggest shift in search since Google began. Traditional SEO as we know it is fading. AI search is changing how content is discovered, prioritised, and rewarded. And Andreas saw it coming early. In fact, Artios built its own Large Language Model back in 2019; years before ChatGPT entered the mainstream. This conversation dives into: Why traditional SEO is becoming a back-office function Why most AI content strategies are fundamentally flawed What “information...
info_outlineScaleUp Radio
This ScaleUp Radio episode is a ScaleUp Club special — recorded live in February — and it’s packed with practical ideas you can apply immediately. Kevin Brent opens with the month’s theme: gaining control of your week, moving away from reactive firefighting and towards deliberate, high-value leadership time. You’ll hear a simple framework to help you protect the work that really moves the business forward, rather than letting your diary become “a democracy”. Then we switch gears into a short AI Pulse update from Paul Rhodes, founder of Green Gorilla Software, who shares a...
info_outlineScaleUp Radio
Hi there and welcome back to another edition of ScaleUp Radio, the podcast brought to you by Smart90, inspired by the Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System and designed to make navigating our ScaleUp journeys that little bit easier by learning from others' experiences. I’m Kevin Brent and in today's episode I’m joined by Benjie Hughes, founder of Hopeless Marketing. Benjie works with B2B service businesses turning over between one and thirty million pounds who feel stuck, plateaued or unclear about their positioning. His philosophy is simple but powerful; hope is not a strategy. Most businesses...
info_outlineScaleUp Radio
Welcome back to ScaleUp Radio Shorts, where Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt distil the best insights from our recent full-length interviews and turn them into practical, actionable takeaways for ambitious business owners. This week, we’re bringing together two very different voices with a surprisingly aligned message: Jack Molyneux – former Merchant Navy Master Mariner turned tech founder, building a disruptive superyacht platform, IDOSY. Lindsey Burden – Intuitive Business Coach with over a decade of experience helping founders stop overcomplicating and start executing. Different...
info_outlineThis week on ScaleUp Radio Shorts, Kevin and Louise unpack two fascinating recent conversations, one with Samantha Thurlow of In Collaboration, and one with Graeme Tennick of Tennick Accountants.
Different sectors. Same pivotal moment.
Both guests hit a point where “business as usual” stopped working, and had to rethink structure, mindset, and action to move forward.
🔎 What We Cover
1️⃣ The Associate Trap
Samantha built her agency on a flexible associate model. It worked, until it didn’t.
Growth meant more work… but not more profit.
Flexibility became a ceiling.
Her pivot? Moving towards an employee model to build stability, culture, and long-term asset value.
Lesson: Convenience can quietly cap your growth.
2️⃣ Strategy Over Volume
Samantha also shared a key observation about marketing.
AI-generated content is everywhere. But engagement is dropping when there’s no strategy behind it.
More posts ≠ better marketing.
Clear positioning and thinking wins.
3️⃣ The Real Reason Businesses Don’t Scale
When Kevin asked Graeme the biggest barrier to growth, his answer wasn’t cash flow.
It was procrastination.
We are drowning in knowledge but starved of action.
His advice is simple:
Identify the biggest challenge in front of you, then take one immediate action to move it forward.
One action is progress.
4️⃣ 10x Requires Reinvention
Graeme referenced 10x Is Easier Than 2x, the idea that small growth can come from working harder, but exponential growth requires fundamentally changing how you operate.
You cannot 10x with yesterday’s structure.
🎯 The One Key Thing
If you feel stuck, don’t just push harder.
Change the structure or behaviour that’s holding you back.
🎧 Want More?
To hear Samantha’s full transition story and Graeme’s Client Impact Tree framework in detail, listen to their full episodes of ScaleUp Radio.
Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode.
This episode was created using AI