ScaleX™ Insider Podcast

Scaling your business brings plenty of questions.

Are your meetings helping people move forward? Where could AI make a useful difference? And how do you keep learning while managing the demands of leadership?

In this Season 21 wrap-up of ScaleX Insider, Brendan McGurgan and his business partner, Claire Colvin, revisit the guests, conversations and practical insights that stood out across the season.

For SME leaders with full diaries and ambitious plans, there is plenty to take back into the business. From Stephen Rogelberg's insights on better meetings to Paul Cheek's guidance on exploring and...

What makes someone truly remarkable? Is it their success, their personality, or the impact they leave behind?

In this 5-minute clip from ScaleX Insider, Brendan McGurgan speaks with Guy Kawasaki about his experience working with Steve Jobs and what separates remarkable leaders from the rest.

Guy shares his candid perspective on Jobs' brilliance and difficult personality, explains why Canva founder Melanie Perkins proves that success doesn't require being difficult to work with, and challenges the idea that remarkability can be judged by a single moment.

His message? Being remarkable isn't about copying successful...

What if the secret to scaling your business is to stop worrying about scaling?

In this 7-minute clip from ScaleX Insider, Brendan McGurgan speaks with Guy Kawasaki, former Apple chief evangelist and current Canva chief evangelist, about what businesses should focus on before pursuing growth.

Guy explains why doing things that don't scale is often essential to winning your first customers, why smaller businesses have an advantage when experimenting with new ideas, and how his simple two-by-two framework can help entrepreneurs create something both unique and valuable.

Using Apple's iPod as an example...

What does it really take to build a business worth scaling?

Guy Kawasaki on scaling, entrepreneurship and what makes a business truly remarkable. In this episode of ScaleX Insider, Brendan McGurgan sits down with Guy Kawasaki, former Apple chief evangelist, current Canva chief evangelist, bestselling author and host of the Remarkable People podcast.

Drawing on decades of experience working alongside some of the world's most influential entrepreneurs, Guy challenges conventional thinking about business growth. His message is simple: before worrying about how to scale, focus on creating something people genuinely want.

From Apple's...

Becoming a scaling leader starts with how you see yourself and the habits you build. In this clip from ScaleX Insider, Brendan McGurgan and JL Holdsworth explore the connection between identity, consistent action and leading a growing business.

Drawing on his experience as a powerlifter, JL shares his perspective on why new leadership practices can feel uncomfortable at first. They discuss how habits and meaningful coaching conversations can help leaders build confidence in their ability to scale.

Timestamps

00:00 Do you see yourself as a scaling leader?
00:40 How practices and habits shape leadership...

Staying calm once felt unfamiliar to JL Holdsworth. In this clip from ScaleX Insider, he tells Brendan McGurgan how a four-day workshop in South Africa led to an unexpected change that his wife noticed in just four words.

JL had travelled there to improve his performance. Instead, he describes finding himself responding calmly to a conversation that would previously have triggered anger. That experience began an 11-year exploration of the relationship between his nervous system, internal state and behaviour.

For business leaders, his story raises a relatable question: how does the state you bring into...

Leadership under pressure can mean dealing with a key employee leaving, a difficult customer or an unexpected setback. In this episode of ScaleX Insider, JL Holdsworth joins Brendan McGurgan to explore how leaders can stay calm, think clearly and lead through uncertainty.

A world champion powerlifter, entrepreneur and performance coach, JL shares how a serious back injury led him to explore human performance beyond physical strength. He describes how a four-day experience in South Africa changed his behaviour, relationships and approach to life.

Brendan and JL discuss why lasting habits matter more than willpower, how...

Will AI replace the people currently providing remote support to businesses?

In this clip from ScaleX Insider, Brendan McGurgan asks Anne Lackey, Co-Founder and CEO of HireSmart Virtual Employees, how she sees AI and remote work evolving as digital agents become more capable.

Anne isn't ignoring the potential disruption. But she also believes businesses need to look beyond the hype and consider the real cost, reliability and risk of replacing people with AI.

For many tasks, having a trusted person who can make decisions, respond and take ownership still provides significant value.

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make when managing people isn't hiring the wrong person.

It's failing to tell them what success actually looks like.

In this clip from ScaleX Insider, Anne Lackey, Co-Founder and CEO of HireSmart Virtual Employees, explains why leadership clarity matters regardless of where your team is based.

People can't perform against expectations they don't understand.

Anne believes every employee should know why they were hired, the problem they are there to solve, their priorities and how their performance will be measured.

That's why her...

What if scaling your business isn't about doing more, but getting the right people doing the right work?

In this episode of ScaleX Insider, Brendan McGurgan is joined by Anne Lackey, Co-Founder and CEO of HireSmart Virtual Employees, to explore how remote staffing can help business owners create capacity, delegate effectively and build a business that doesn't depend on them for everything.

Anne's entrepreneurial journey began more than 20 years ago after watching a close friend become seriously ill and seeing the financial impact on his family.

It changed how Anne and her husband...

Growing a small business doesn't always mean spending more, hiring expensive executives or raising outside capital.

For Jeremy Middleton, the priority is proving that the business already works.

In this clip, Jeremy explains why small businesses need people who can execute, not simply more strategy, and why raising early-stage capital can be an expensive way to fund growth.

Before scaling, he looks for a cash-generative model, repeatable unit economics, a clear competitive edge and a founder with realistic ambitions.

Because sustainable growth doesn't have to happen overnight. Get the model right...

What makes a business partnership work as the company grows?

For Jeremy Middleton, it starts with trust, alignment and clarity — but the original agreement shouldn't necessarily be set in stone.

In this clip, Jeremy shares how his 50/50 partnership with Sir Richard Harpin evolved as HomeServe grew, and why Jeremy himself suggested changing the deal when Richard became the driving force behind the business.

For Jeremy, protecting a business partnership isn't about holding tightly to your original share of the cake. It's about recognising when circumstances have changed and finding an arrangement that continues to...

What does it really take to build a business that can keep growing for decades?

In this episode of ScaleX Insider, Brendan McGurgan is joined by Jeremy Middleton, co-founder of HomeServe and founder of Middleton Enterprises, to explore what long-term business growth looks like from someone who has experienced it first-hand.

Jeremy co-founded the business that would become HomeServe alongside Sir Richard Harpin, beginning a journey that would span around 30 years and ultimately create a multi-billion-pound business.

But Jeremy's role in that journey was different from Richard's.

As HomeServe developed, Jeremy...

After interviewing around 1,000 people, Jordan Harbinger has heard thousands of stories. But some conversations have stayed with him long after the recording ended.

One was with former Soviet spy Jack Barsky, whose story forced Jordan to think about what happens when work and duty are prioritised over family.

Another was with Kobe Bryant.

After their interview, Jordan expected Kobe to move quickly on to his next commitment. Instead, Kobe stayed to talk about their children.

What struck Jordan was how little Kobe seemed concerned with fame, money or what came next...

Networking often falls to the bottom of a founder's to-do list.

Not because relationships aren't important, but because "networking" can feel vague, time-consuming and difficult to turn into a practical habit.

Jordan Harbinger argues it doesn't have to be.

His approach is something he calls Connect Four.

Find one to four people you haven't spoken to in a while and send them a simple message. Remind them where you met, share a quick update about what's happening in your life and genuinely ask how they're doing.

No pitch. No...

Business networking, relationship building and scaling with purpose are more connected than most leaders realise.

In this episode of ScaleX Insider, Brendan McGurgan sits down with Jordan Harbinger to explore how relationships, ambition and clear goals shape the way we scale.

Jordan is the host of The Jordan Harbinger Show and has interviewed around 1,000 guests across business, psychology, science, geopolitics and culture.

His argument is simple: success becomes dangerous when you never define what "enough" looks like.

If every target moves the moment you reach it, you can end up constantly...

Paul Cheek explains why simply giving everyone access to ChatGPT isn't AI transformation.

The real opportunity isn't a 10% productivity boost. It's moving towards 10x efficiency by deeply embedding AI across the business.

But before SME leaders start building AI agents and automating workflows, Paul says there's one place they need to start: AI literacy.

His advice? Set aside some "Tinker Time" to experiment, learn what's possible and understand both the opportunities and the risks.

[00:00] – How AI could help SMEs think 10x bigger
[01:05] – Why using ChatGPT isn't the end game
[01:45] – Moving...

Paul Cheek explains why AI is creating an entirely new model for how businesses scale.

Traditional SMEs can start with limited upfront investment, but their growth often remains linear. Innovation-driven enterprises can achieve exponential growth, but typically require significant risk capital.

Paul's AI-Driven Enterprise model brings those two worlds together — combining lower upfront resource requirements with the potential for exponential scale.

And it isn't just for tech companies. It means embedding AI across the entire business to remove the limits of "human time" and increase the speed at which an organisation can operate.

Stop using AI just to save a few minutes.

Paul Cheek, MIT Senior Lecturer, entrepreneur and author of No One Works Here, joins Brendan McGurgan on the ScaleX Insider podcast to explain why the real opportunity with AI isn't a 10% productivity boost — it's building an AI-driven enterprise capable of unlocking 10x efficiency.

They explore where SME leaders should actually start with AI, why every team needs "Tinker Time," how leadership changes when humans and AI agents work together, and why AI literacy may determine whether your business can compete in the years ahead.

00:00 Wh...

Eighty percent of employees are disengaged. Benjamin Granger, organisational psychologist and author, tells Brendan McGurgan on the ScaleX Insider podcast that dominance and prestige are the only two strategies humans use to achieve social status, and only one of them builds a business worth scaling.

Dominance works in the short term. Every social animal uses it, from crickets to chimps to boardrooms. But the alpha never stays the alpha. Prestige is different. It is a uniquely human strategy built on knowledge, skill and talent applied for the betterment of the group, and it is the only leadership...

Dr Benjamin Granger explains why he would hire for EQ over IQ when choosing leaders — but why gut instinct alone is never enough.

The best hiring decisions combine validated assessments, structured interviews, human-to-human conversations and a clear definition of what success looks like.

And once you've done the due diligence? That's when Dr Benjamin believes you should listen to your gut.

00:00 – Why Ben would hire for EQ over IQ
01:05 – Don't replace human interviews with AI
01:50 – Look at how candidates achieved results
02:30 – When to trust your gut
03:35 – Why gut instinct alone is dan...

On ScaleX Insider, Dr Benjamin Granger explores the leadership skills that make someone worth following — from self-mastery and emotional intelligence to communication, body language and the ability to influence others.

Benjamin is Chief Workplace Psychologist at Qualtrics Experience Management Institute and two-time best-selling author of A Leader Worth Following. His work explores the psychology behind leadership, employee experience and human behaviour.

Benjamin explains the difference between dominance and prestige leadership. Dominance uses authority and pressure to get results and can work in the short term. Prestige is earned through knowledge, skill and contribution to the gr...

Most leaders assume that having an agenda automatically leads to effective meetings. Steven G. Rogelberg's research shows that it doesn't.

In this clip from the ScaleX Insider podcast, Brendan and Steven explore why traditional meeting agendas can become a "hollow crutch" and reveal a simple shift that can completely change the quality of a meeting: stop listing topics to discuss and start framing your agenda as questions to answer.

Steven explains how this approach creates greater strategic focus, makes it clearer who actually needs to be in the room and gives every meeting a measurable...

Most leaders think they know how to run effective meetings. But according to Steven G. Rogelberg, only around 25% of managers are actually trained to do it.

In this clip from the ScaleX Insider podcast, Brendan and Steven explore why meeting effectiveness remains a major leadership blind spot, despite the enormous investment organisations make in meetings through time, salaries and lost opportunity.

Steven explains why scaling businesses need to measure what is and isn't working, listen to their people and treat collaboration as a critical business process. Because effective meetings aren't just about saving time. Done...

Most leaders accept bad meetings as the cost of doing business. Steven G. Rogelberg says they don't have to.

In this episode of the ScaleX Insider podcast, Brendan sits down with the internationally recognised organisational psychologist, meeting scientist and bestselling author of The Surprising Science of Meetings to explore the science behind effective meetings and why the way we meet can either accelerate a scaling business or quietly drain its time, talent and performance. They break down why agendas should be framed as questions, how to decide who really needs to be in the room, and why...

Leadership performance isn't just about strategy, decision-making or execution. What happens when the biggest thing holding leaders back is simply a lack of energy?

In this clip, Brendan McGurgan and Adam Kingl explore the growing connection between leadership wellness, energy and sustainable business growth. Adam explains why exhaustion has become such a common challenge for executives, as longer working weeks, constant connectivity and a culture of overwork push leaders towards an unsustainable "macho" work ethic.

They discuss why scaling a business is a marathon, not a sprint, and why leaders need to think differently about...

What if the food you eat could play a role in how well you focus?

In this clip, Brendan McGurgan and Adam Kingl explore the connection between nutrition and concentration, looking at how certain nutrients can support the brain and help leaders maintain focus under pressure. Adam highlights eggs as one example, explaining the role of choline and lutein and why these nutrients are relevant to concentration, stress and fatigue.

They discuss how stress and fatigue can affect our ability to concentrate, and why antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients may be worth considering as part of...

Founder mindset can play a major role in determining whether a business can truly scale.

In this clip, Brendan McGurgan and Dre Baldwin explore why founders can struggle to let go of being the "star of the show"—even when their team is capable of taking ownership and moving the business forward without them.

Dre explains why being needed can become almost addictive. When every problem comes back to the founder, it creates a powerful feeling of importance. But as a business grows, that same dependence can become a barrier to scale.

They di...

Discipline is often seen as a character trait. But what if it's actually a product of structure?

In this clip, Brendan McGurgan and Dre Baldwin challenge the idea that some people are simply "disciplined" while others are not. Dre explains why discipline is a byproduct of structure—and how clear routines, instructions and consequences can create consistent behaviour.

They explore why people who struggle with discipline often don't lack motivation or ability. Instead, they may lack the structure needed to keep them moving in the right direction. Dre also breaks down how everyday "drift"—from stay...

Dre Baldwin didn't come out of college with agents chasing him.

He came out of a Division 3 basketball programme with no professional offers, no obvious route into the game and very little proof that anyone should take a chance on him.

So he created the opportunity himself.

He cold-called 60 basketball agents. Twenty asked to see his footage. One eventually became his agent and helped him secure his first professional contract overseas.

That story tells you a lot about Dre, but it also sets up the central idea in this episode of...

Trust, unique ability and the courage to lead differently emerged as the defining themes of Season 20. In this wrap up episode of the ScaleX Insider podcast, Brendan McGurgan sits down with co-founder Claire Colvin to reflect on 200 guest episodes, three standout conversations and the lessons every scaling leader needs to hear.

00:00 Season 20 reflections and the 200th episode milestone 04:30 Patrick Lencioni on vulnerability based trust and Working Genius 09:15 Damien Hughes on storytelling as the ultimate leadership tool 14:40 Jason T Smith on scaling a physio from a carport to millions 19:20 Theme one: why trust is the foundation every scaling...

Leadership self-awareness is one of the most valuable qualities a leader can develop. In this clip, Brendan McGurgan and Claire Colvin explore why so many business leaders feel they need to have all the answers, and why genuine leadership self-awareness comes from understanding both your strengths and your limitations.

Using examples from Taki Moore, Jason T. Smith and former WD-40 CEO Gary Ridge, they discuss why authentic leadership isn't about showcasing your achievements. It's about knowing your unique ability, recognising where others are stronger, and having the confidence to say, "I don't know."

If you're...

Scaling a business is never just about revenue. Scaling a business, business growth, leadership development, SME growth strategies and organisational scaling all begin with the people leading the organisation. In this special Season 20 wrap-up, Brendan McGurgan is joined once again by Claire Colvin to reflect on the biggest lessons from another remarkable season of the ScaleX Insider Podcast.

Celebrating the milestone of 200 episodes, Brendan and Claire revisit conversations with world-class guests including Patrick Lencioni, Damian Hughes, Jason T. Smith, Salim Ismail, Greg Merrilees, Alex Smith, Taki Moore, BJ Fogg, and many more.

Across every conversation...

Gratitude is one of the fastest ways to improve your mental energy and emotional wellbeing.

In this clip from the ScaleX Insider Podcast, Simon Alexander Ong shares a simple 3-step gratitude exercise that can instantly boost your mindset, strengthen your relationships, and help you feel more connected.

Rather than keeping gratitude to yourself, Simon explains why expressing it, especially through your voice, creates a powerful emotional impact for both you and the person receiving it.

Timestamps:

00:00 A simple way to boost your energy

00:18 Step 1: Choose one person you're grateful...

Imposter syndrome isn't always a sign you're not ready—it can be proof that you're growing.

In this clip from the ScaleX Insider Podcast, Simon Alexander Ong shares why leaving a secure career in finance for coaching taught him that when everything is uncertain, anything is possible.

He explains why stepping outside your comfort zone naturally creates imposter syndrome, how uncertainty opens the door to opportunity, and why real-world feedback matters far more than the stories your mind tells you.

Timestamps:

00:00 Why Simon left a secure career in finance

Energy management for leaders is one of the most overlooked drivers of business success. In this episode of the ScaleX Insider Podcast, Brendan McGurgan sits down with Simon Alexander Ong, bestselling author of Energize, to explore how energy management, leadership energy, personal growth, and purpose-driven leadership help entrepreneurs and SME leaders perform at their highest level without burning out.

If you're leading a growing business, scaling an SME, or building a high-performing team, you'll discover why energy management matters more than time management, how to build sustainable leadership habits, and why purpose is the foundation of long-term...

What is stress? Most people think stress is something to avoid, but according to human performance expert Dr. Lauren Hodges, that's one of the biggest misconceptions. In this clip, Lauren explains what stress is, why stress isn't inherently good or bad, and how stress management begins by changing the way we think about pressure.

Whether you're a business leader, entrepreneur, or professional, understanding what stress is can help you make better decisions, improve resilience, and avoid chronic stress before it affects your performance.

✅ Stress is a natural response. It's a biological, psychological, and ph...

Signs of chronic stress can be easy to miss, especially for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and high performers who believe they're managing everything well. In this clip, Dr.Lauren Hodges shares the personal story that changed her perspective on resilience after a visit to a cardiologist revealed she was ignoring the warning signs of chronic stress.

Lauren explains why checking all the "healthy habits" boxes doesn't always mean you're truly resilient, how chronic stress can show up physically and emotionally, and why regular self-reflection is one of the most powerful leadership habits you can build.

If...

Stress management is one of the most important leadership skills for business owners, entrepreneurs, and SME leaders. In this episode, stress management, resilience, recovery, leadership performance, and stress resilience take centre stage as Brendan McGurgan is joined by human performance expert Dr. Lauren Hodges, author of Less Stress, More Calm.

If you're leading a growing business, scaling a team, or feeling the pressure of constant decision-making, this conversation explores how stress management can become a competitive advantage instead of something that holds you back. Discover why stress isn't the enemy, why recovery is essential for growth, and...