The Soap Box Podcast

Grab her attention, remind her of her problem, twist the knife, then introduce your solution when she’s at her weakest. If you’ve ever filled in a sales page template that said something like that (and ignored the uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach while you did it), this one’s for you. 

In this episode, it’s just me. I’m talking about where those formulas come from, and what selling looks like when you don’t have to make anyone feel worse before you can help them feel better. 

I get into how P...

Come and rage against the online business machine with me. (Slightly rich coming from someone who runs an online business and works with a lot of online business owners, but bear with me.) 

In this episode, I’m talking to Ruth Tsui, a strategic thinking partner and implementation coach for solo service providers who want to remain a delightfully small company of one, without having to go it all alone. Her soapbox is online business bullsh*ttery. That covers everything from guru playbooks built for seven-figure businesses and handed to people who just want to do t...

Most of us, if we think about course accessibility at all, think captions and alt text. Pop them in, tick the box, move on. Except most of the course platforms Catrina reviewed don't even give you somewhere to put the alt text. And a PDF exported from Canva can get read out by a screen reader in whatever order you happened to drop things onto the page. 

In this episode, I'm talking to Dr Catrina Mitchum, a recovering academic and learning designer who helps businesses create courses like they give a shit about client outcomes. He...

What do you say when someone asks what you do, and the honest answer has four parts?

This week's episode is a solo one, adapted from a live workshop I ran in September. It's for anyone who's been handed the "I help X do Y so they can Z" sentence and felt the best bits of their work fall off the edges as they filled it in. When I asked a room of ten business owners whether their thirty-second answer did their work justice, not one of them said yes.

So i...

 There's a story that we tell ourselves about who gets to do good in the world. So, charities, nonprofits, the third sector, they're framed as the moral ones, so the people who care. But that means that business is often cast as something that you tolerate at best and mistrust at worst. It's necessary, like we've gotta make money and keep the world spinning, but it's a little bit suspect.

They're always out for profit and not really caring about people. That's the idea. And look, I understand where the story comes from. I spent 15 years working i...

If social media is pay-to-play, and your website is a slow burn, where are people meant to build genuine community now?

That question sits right in the middle of this episode with Sally Burns, founder of The Portal, a platform trying to fix two things at once: the way online learning works, and the way creators find each other without shouting into the algorithm void.

We get into interactive learning, course overwhelm, cross-pollination between creators, and why “community” isn’t a Facebook group with a few emojis and a weekly prompt.

Find...

 Networking doesn’t have to feel like business speed dating. 

In the latest episode of the Soapbox podcast, I’m chatting with Emma Ahlert, founder of Elsie – a networking space for people working in female and sexual health that actually feels good to be in. 

We talk about:
 • Making friends before making sales
 • Why some rooms feel instantly wrong (AI + golf, anyone?)
 • Online communities that don’t drain your soul
 • And building something ethically, without fear-based messaging 

If networking has ever made you want to fake a phone call and le...

Running your own business requires more than good ideas and solid strategy.

It asks for energy, emotional regulation, focus, and the ability to make decisions when things feel uncertain. When those start to wobble, everything else gets heavier too - marketing, consistency, confidence.

This episode explores health through a longevity lens. How strength, sleep, and taking care of your body support the kind of work entrepreneurs are doing every day, especially over the long term.

I’m joined by Laura Caddy, an online fitness coach who works with professional women over 35, to talk ab...

Today on the Soap Box, I’m talking to Jacki Hayes, a systems geek for creative service businesses and someone who’s quietly building a very different kind of company. Jacki helps creative service providers stop duct-taping their systems together and build businesses that actually work, with more ease, clarity and flexibility.

In our conversation, Jacki makes a simple, slightly spicy point, the kind I like. Running a business is political, not party political, but human political. The way we pay people, the policies we set, who we hire and how we hire them all send a mess...

Today on The Soap Box, I’m talking to Louis Watkins, the founder of Clear for Men, a skincare brand designed to do more than clean your face — it’s a daily reminder to take five minutes for yourself. It sounds simple, but Louis is genuinely an inspiration (and I don’t say that lightly).

Louis is on a mission to normalise mental health conversations among men. He’s a huge advocate for men’s mental health, and after personally struggling with his own challenges around 2020, he became determined to break the stigma that so often keeps men silent o...

Thoughts on where I'm falling short, why that's ok, and what to do instead. 

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Today's guest is Crystal Whiteaker, founder of Crystal Lily Creative, an inclusive leadership and brand development consultancy. Crystal is also the author of Brave Leadership is a Choice: An Inclusive Guide to Creating Belonging, and she works with mission-driven founders over meaningful stretches of time – starting with who you are as a leader, then aligning your messaging and your backend systems so the experience you promise is the one people actually get.

With 20 years of experience across creative and process-driven industries, Crystal brings a unique blend of strategy, empathy, and creativity to her work. She helps leaders ma...

Today’s Soapbox is for anyone who’s ever tried to make things better, but found themselves wondering if it’s really making a dent. (I know that’s been me at times.)

My guest, Sarah Fox, has spent years at the messy human end of change – community arts, small charities, and now coaching and supervision for leaders. She’s an accredited coach, coach supervisor, trainer, and action learning facilitator, supporting socially minded leaders, founders, freelancers, and organisations to clarify their vision and lead with impact so that they and the people around them can thrive. She also hosts t...

Today on the Soap Box, I’m joined by Tarrah Nhari, CEO and co-founder of Tammwe, a platform that connects African and displaced freelancers with global opportunities. Through Tammwe’s enterprise services, Tarrah also partners with tech teams across the African continent, helping them land bigger projects while championing fair pay, skills development, and economic growth.

But as is often the case with my guests, that’s just one part of her story. Tarrah is fiercely driven by equity – whether she’s tackling stereotypes in the freelance market, building spaces for Black and non-binary founders, or writing about auth...

Today’s guest, Ettie Bailey-King, is an inclusive and accessible communication educator who’s on a mission to change the way we think about language. And you know me, I love a good ramble down a rabbit hole into the words we use every day.

Ettie teaches people to understand and use inclusive language (how to talk more accurately and inclusively about age, class, disability, gender, race, sexuality and more) and to communicate accessibly in ways that work better for everybody, whether they’re ADHD, autistic, blind, d/Deaf, dyslexic, tired or just distracted.

In our co...

I like to think of branding and marketing as tools for connection – ways to build trust, grow communities, and reach the right people. But what if the way we’re marketing is actually widening the gap instead of closing it? What if it’s making real connection less likely?

This week on The Soap Box, I’m speaking to Emilia Kireli-Reed, founder and creative director of Kireli Studio, one of the few branding studios solely focused on social and ethical impact, about how the creative industries can unintentionally (and sometimes very intentionally) feed division.

Whether it's the...

You know that moment when someone stands up to speak and you can feel the disconnect? Their words are polished, their slides are tidy, their branding is on point, but something’s off. It’s like they’re performing at you, not speaking with you. They’ve planned every word, they’re sticking to their script, and they’d deliver it the same way no matter who was in the room.

This week’s guest, Stacia Keogh, has no time for that kind of stagecraft. She’s an embodied speaking coach, a traditional storyteller of over 40 years, and someone who...

Today’s guest is building something rare in the PR world, a business that delivers results without burning people out. Riannon Palmer is the founder of Lem-uhn, an award-winning B Corp and feel-good PR agency that works exclusively with companies that care. She launched the business in 2021 to fill a very real gap in the industry: an agency that actually puts people first.

Why? Because PR has a problem. 91% of PR professionals say they’ve struggled with their mental health in the past year, and the same results come up in surveys year after year. At the same...

Let’s be honest, for a lot of people in my world, AI feels like a bit of a villain right now. It’s been decimating creative industries, disrupting business models, and flooding the internet with content that’s at best soulless, and at worst, dangerous. I’m recording this just as the whole Grok-goes-anti-woke mess is playing out, so feelings are certainly mixed.

I’ve got plenty of thoughts about AI, and I’m happy to talk your ear off about them (do send me a DM). But today’s guest offers a different perspective. One that’s a littl...

Take my dulcet tones off speaker and pop in your earbuds because today, we’re talking about sex.

This episode is a deep dive into what it really means to talk about sex, health, and education in ways that actually land. And a lot of it might surprise you.

My guest is Dr Tristin Agtarap, a psychologist, researcher, and all-round brilliant human, who specialises in sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and the cultural factors that shape our well-being. Tris works at Brook, one of the UK’s leading sexual health charities, but her...

If you finally work out how to time block, then you’ll get everything done on that giant to-do list of yours, right? And once Amazon delivers that tomato-shaped Pomodoro timer, you’ll finally reach those big goals. You’ll get that offer written, create the thing, write the book.

Well… not necessarily, according to this week’s guest. Vikki Yaffe says we’ve created systems and norms that don’t work for 95% of the population. And instead of desperately trying to find the right tool to squeeze ourselves into the right shape, maybe we should be changing the g...

We think we know what it takes to market a business online. A bit of Instagram wizardry here, a five-step LinkedIn funnel there, a sprinkle of referral strategy and maybe a course by someone who talks like Alex Hormozi but wears a skirt suit – and boom, marketing sorted. Right?

Wrong.

This isn’t technically a marketing podcast, but let’s be honest, if you’re a business owner with a social conscience, you need a way to market that actually works without selling your soul. You want to reach people, make money, and further your mission...

Sustainability is on all of our minds right now. Whether it’s arguments about bin collections, fast fashion waste, or what the hell AI is doing to the planet, it’s everywhere. And let’s be honest, sustainability has also become big business. If people care about it in their daily lives, they’re definitely thinking about it when they make decisions about who to buy from and work with.

Which is all well and good if you’re a product-based business with compostable packaging and tree-planting perks, but what if you don’t make anything tangible? How do you s...

You know that feeling when you stumble across someone on social media and immediately think, yep – they’re one of my people? That’s exactly what happened when I found Lauren, aka L2, on Threads.

While most of the coaching world was busy copy-pasting their Instagram strategies onto this new platform (and wondering why it wasn’t working), Lauren stood out by doing the opposite: saying what she actually thought. Thankfully, she’s not just insightful – she’s also scathingly funny, allergic to bullshit, and one hell of a communicator.

Lauren is the founder of LBee Health, a...

What if the way you’ve been told to run your business isn’t working for you—not because you’re doing it wrong, but because it was never designed for you in the first place?

In this episode, we sit down with Pippa Parfait, co-founder of the Disobedient Business® Co., to unpack why traditional business rules often fail us and how to build a business that truly works for you.

We dive into the patriarchal origins of business norms, the pressure to follow so-called "best practices," and the guilt that comes when they don’t fit. Pipp...

What happens to your values as leaders and business owners when the rubber really hits the road?

In this timely and critical episode, we explore what it truly means for businesses to live their values—not just when things are easy, but when it really counts. Recorded just a week after Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, this conversation comes at a pivotal moment as businesses across the U.S. face unprecedented challenges. With new executive orders and shifting workplace dynamics, how can leaders ensure they’re supporting and protecting their teams in meaningful ways?

Our guest, Lisa-M...

What does it mean to belong, and why is it so important to us?

In this episode, we dive deep into the profound concept of belonging with Amena, a Belonging & Emotional Resilience Strategist and Coach, who helps high-impact, high-integrity leaders master the skills to foster cultures of belonging.

Together, we explore why belonging is so vital to our survival and well-being, the shifts in DEI language, and the challenges and complexities of creating inclusive environments. Amena shares her personal and professional journey, highlighting how the physical and emotional impacts of non-belonging can often be detrimental.<...

In this episode, we explore the intersection of politics, exercise, and social justice with Donna Noble, the inspiring Founder of CurvesomeYoga and a leading advocate for body positivity and inclusivity in wellness.

Donna has been a yoga teacher since 2011, teaching all over the UK, India, and the US, and is known for her immersive yoga experiences that prove everyBODY is a yoga body. She’s also the author of Teaching Body Positive Yoga, a Wellbeing Coach, and a public speaker with over 20 years of corporate experience, bringing a unique perspective to wellness for high-achievers. Her work has be...

What comes to mind when you picture a leader? For many, it’s the same old stereotype: a white man in a suit, speaking and acting in a particular, "traditional" way. This narrow vision of leadership shapes how we see ourselves, particularly if we're women, and whether we even see ourselves as leaders at all. But what if there’s a different way?

In this episode, I’m joined by Sarae Pratt, a coach and trainer for women in traditional male or male-dominated roles and industries. She helps them thrive with joy and confidence, free from self-doubt and bu...

With rumours circulating, often planted by right-wing media, suggesting that everyone's taxes are going up and that Labour had lied in their campaigning, there's a notion that we’re heading back to the 1970s in some vague way. In light of this, I thought it best to hop on my soapbox and share my thoughts on the matter: taxes are awesome. Yes, I said it.

As we approach the budget announcement where the chancellor will set various tax levels, there’s another frustrating semantic debate about what “working people” actually means. We shouldn’t be arguing over whose clas...

What does your bookshelf look like? Is it a towering stack of paperbacks you bought with the best intentions, or are you more of a digital reader with a Kindle full of interesting titles? One side of my house is pretty much completely covered in books, and while I’ve read a lot of them, a good chunk are there just waiting to be cracked open. And amongst those books are a lot on allyship and anti-racism, some of which were bought around the Black Lives Matter protests.

In this episode, I talk to Lucy Lucraft, a pa...

Sometimes, it's the most unlikely personal circumstances that push us into the careers we end up in. I never thought I would go into business and marketing, but a pandemic and a blog about being widowed set me on this path—right here in your earbuds, discussing how you can champion the causes you care about in your messaging.

In today’s episode, our guest’s journey toward their current career also began with grief. Stella Gold is a rebirth and wealth coach for changemakers, coming from a lineage of activists. They are the founder of My Gold S...

How comfortable are you telling your story? I talk with a lot of creatives, copywriters, messaging strategists, and coaches—people who are really comfortable sharing stories about others as part of their work. They're comfortable at helping others tell their own stories, and are really happy to be advocates for them too. In my circles, there are a lot of individuals for whom advocacy and being other people's voices is a huge part of their personality and their passion. But how comfortable are you telling your own story?  

Today, I'm speaking to Siobhan Strode, an incredibly wonderful and...

In today’s episode, I got the chance to geek out with a fellow youth professional, Lisa Kissane. Lisa is a website and sales page copywriter for service-based businesses that are dedicated to doing good for others. With her background as a social worker, we bonded over the importance of having a sense of purpose in our work.

Lisa shared her experiences of feeling unrepresented as a woman without children—in literature, community, and even in language. She took us through her inspiring journey of developing a book club for non-mothers and the wider community she’s buildi...

How do you feel about money? In this episode, we dive deep into the emotional aspects of money and financial literacy with Jess Walker, a financial advisor and the founder of Bare Naked Money.

Jess has been featured in The Times as one of the top 100 advisers to watch out for and is the author of Get Financially Fearless, a book that gives people the practical steps to harness their subconscious and grow their wealth.

But, what truly excites Jess isn’t all those awards or recognition—it’s seeing that "light bulb moment" when people...

Lorena Banda is a Latina leader in sex positivity, a speaker and an advocate. 
In this episode we talk about her experience as a daughter of immigrants, all the way to working on Senate and Congressional races and launching the P. Files -  her newsletter looking at the intersection between sexuality and politics.  

Lorena and I also talk about the importance of being authentic in politics. And how hard this is for women especially to navigate.

And how opening up positions on campaigns to people from new generations and div...