Behind the growth by House of Performance - Sharing secrets to growth

House of Performance
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House of Podcast brings together senior people to talk honestly about the decisions, tensions, and mistakes that shape real growth in their career and businesses. No buzzwords. No surface-level takes. Just what actually moves the needle.

  1. 3d ago

    Lucy Litwack: Owning Coco de Mer, Smashing Taboos & The Fight for Female Pleasure

    What if the lingerie you wear was never about someone else but about your own power? Lucy Litwack has spent 26 years in the lingerie industry, working everywhere from Victoria's Secret in New York to David Beckham's bodywear line in LA, before buying Coco de Mer - the luxury lingerie brand that inspired Fifty Shades of Grey's infamous "red room." As CEO and owner, she's turned it into a platform for female empowerment, pleasure, and activism.In this episode, Lucy opens up about:The female gaze revolution - why every Coco de Mer shoot is shot entirely by women, and how that changes everythingBeing banned from social media - how platforms censor female pleasure while allowing ads for Viagra and penis pumpsThe Fifty Shades connection - how E.L. James's red room was inspired by the Coco de Mer store, and how the franchise changed the industry overnightFighting FGM - partnering with supermodel Waris Dirie and working as chair of trustees for the Five FoundationCollaborations that matter - working with Pamela Anderson, Helena Christensen, the V&A Museum, and launching sexual wellness at John LewisHer 79-year-old mother selling sex toys on the shop floor (and the text messages that came with it)Running an all-female team and what it really means to lead with purposeThe case for the office - why working from home might be robbing a generation of career-defining relationshipsEnclothed cognition - the science behind why what you wear underneath changes how you show upWhether you're a founder, a marketer, or someone who cares about how brands can drive real cultural change, this conversation will make you think differently about pleasure, purpose, and what it means to build a business on your own terms.🙏 Support the fight against FGM: Lucy serves as chair of trustees for the Five Foundation, an organization dedicated to ending female genital mutilation worldwide. If you'd like to support their life-changing work, you can donate here: https://thefivefoundation.org/donate/

  2. Oct 19

    From BHS to Kew Gardens: Hannah on Trusting Your Gut, Purposeful Retail & Life After Alcohol

    Hannah's career has taken her from fashion buying at BHS to product development at Tate, to her current role as Head of E-commerce and Retail at Kew Gardens. She shares how trusting her gut led to landing her dream job, why the cultural sector welcomed her commercial skills, and what navigating retail through a pandemic at a botanical garden really looks like.Beyond the career story, Hannah opens up about giving up alcohol nearly three years ago through SMART Recovery, how it cleared the fog and made her a more present leader, and why she's now studying nutrition alongside her full-time role. A conversation about squiggly careers, purposeful retail, being present, and the growth that comes from removing rather than adding.

  3. Sep 21

    From Building Jets to CMO: The Squiggly Career Path of Jon White

    Jon White never set out to be a CMO - and that's exactly what makes his story so compelling.In this episode, Jon walks us through his unconventional "squiggly career," starting as an engineering apprentice at British Aerospace building jets, to running manufacturing plants at Kimberly-Clark (home of Kleenex, Huggies, and Andrex), to leading marketing agencies like Elmwood Design, and ultimately becoming the first-ever CMO at RS Components.Along the way, Jon shares how his engineering roots gave him a unique perspective on marketing, why he transitioned from manufacturing to commercial roles, and how seeing the business from every angle — product, agency, and client side — shaped him into a more rounded leader.

  4. Sep 7

    The Unconventional CMO: Purple Bricks' Nush Grover on Autonomy & Turnarounds

    From startups to the C-suite: Nush's unconventional marketing journeyThis week we sit down with Anoushka "Nush" Grover, CMO of Purple Bricks and by her own admission, not your typical CMO. No corporate grad scheme, no big-brand pedigree. Instead, Nush cut her teeth as Too Good To Go's first UK marketing hire, scaled with Dame and Deliciously Ella, and now leads the turnaround at one of the UK's best-known estate agents.In this episode, Nush opens up about learning fast in founder-led environments, why she thrives under leaders who give autonomy instead of micromanaging, and how she built her own commercial instincts from the ground up. She shares candid stories about taking risks with real budgets, joining a business in recovery, and why sharing the numbers with your whole team - not just performance marketers - builds a stronger, more aligned culture.If you're curious about leading with autonomy, thinking commercially as a marketer, and finding purpose in your work even in unexpected places, this conversation is for you.

  5. Aug 24

    Is It Luck? Building Future Chateau From Scratch

    What does it actually take to launch a wine brand when you have no money, no traditional wine background, and a category full of rules? In this episode, we sit down with Tom Benn, founder of Future Chateau, to unpack how he built a modern wine brand from scratch, from creating a scrappy first vintage to launching in Selfridges just 10 days after his son was born. Tom shares how his distribution strategy shaped his marketing, why the founder of Pip & Nut told him to lower his standards, and how radio is still having a surprising impact in 2026. We also get into who is actually buying Future Chateau (spoiler: it isn't Gen Z), why so much of the wine category is built around people being afraid of looking stupid, and whether the company's biggest breaks really came down to luck. Plus, Tom explains why he became obsessed with the strength of modern wine, how opening a bottle became a ritual for better evenings, and why your opinion on wine doesn't need to be any more complicated than one question: is it yummy or not yummy? A conversation about building a brand differently, making an intimidating category more accessible, and knowing when "good enough" is exactly what you need to get started.

  6. Aug 10

    Latties Sea Moss: Retail-First, Funding-Free, and In Holland & Barrett from Day One

    What does it take to launch a brand in a category most people have never heard of and land one of the UK's biggest health retailers on day one?Alex, Co-Founder and Commercial Director of Latties Sea Moss, joins us to share the unfiltered story behind building the UK's only ambient sea moss gel. From leaving a corporate sales career to surviving a Jamaican hurricane that nearly tanked their Holland & Barrett launch, Alex breaks down exactly how focus, honesty, and the right manufacturing partnership made all the difference. In this episode: - Why ambient shelf life was the unlock that got them into Holland & Barrett - How they handled a supply chain crisis with radical transparency and kept the listing - The lessons from a previous food brand that failed (and what they fixed this time) - Why they chose retail over D2C, and where Amazon fits in nextHow to stay focused when sea moss could solve a hundred different problems - Whether you're building a food and drink brand, navigating your first retail listing, or just want to understand what bootstrapped growth actually looks like - this one's for you.

  7. Jul 22

    How to Overcome the Fear of Starting a Business | Katy Cottam, CEO & Co-Founder, Luna Daily ⭐

    What does it really feel like to leave a successful corporate career and start the business you've always dreamed about? In this episode of Behind the Growth, Emma Welland and Kat Sale sit down with Katy Cottam, CEO and Co-Founder of Luna Daily, to discuss the realities of building a disruptive consumer brand. From her career at Red Bull, L'Oréal, Bol Foods and Charlotte Tilbury to launching Luna Daily during 2020, Katy shares the lessons she's learned about confidence, resilience, fundraising and building a brand with genuine purpose. The conversation also explores the challenges of talking about women's health on social media, why education is just as important as selling products, and what it takes to create lasting impact as a founder. A brilliant episode for anyone thinking about starting a business, building a consumer brand or looking for an honest insight into the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.

  8. Jun 15

    Success, purpose & why growth isn't always the answer

    In this special episode of Behind the Growth, House of Performance founders Kat Sale and Emma Welland turn the microphones on themselves for an honest conversation about purpose, ambition, mental health, AI, societal expectations and what success really means. From questioning why so many of us make career decisions based on money and external validation, to discussing the impact AI is having on creativity and critical thinking, this episode explores some of the conversations we don't have often enough. Kat and Emma also share their perspectives on therapy, personal growth and why waiting until a crisis hits might already be too late. In this episode:• Why money can distract us from purpose• How societal expectations influence our biggest life decisions• Whether AI is making us less creative• The importance of protecting original thinking• Why therapy should be proactive, not reactive• The role of human connection in personal growth• How to navigate ambition without losing yourself along the way If you've ever questioned what success really looks like, struggled to balance ambition with fulfilment, or wondered whether growth is always the answer, this episode is for you. 🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. #BehindTheGrowth #HouseOfPerformance #Purpose #PersonalGrowth #Leadership #MentalHealth #Creativity #ArtificialIntelligence #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth

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House of Podcast brings together senior people to talk honestly about the decisions, tensions, and mistakes that shape real growth in their career and businesses. No buzzwords. No surface-level takes. Just what actually moves the needle.

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