King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights

Ademola Isimeme Odewade, MBA, ACA, BSc. (Economics)
  • 4.7 (26)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

The King Dems Podcast is a global Top 2% podcast for ambitious leaders, founders and professionals navigating growth, leadership and the future of business. Hosted by Ademola Odewade, MBA, ACA, each episode features world-class CEOs, CFOs, entrepreneurs, futurists and thought leaders sharing practical insights on growth mindset, AI in business strategy, financial literacy, innovation, resilience, wealth and personal development. Expect bold ideas, powerful stories and actionable strategies to lead better, build smarter and grow sustainably. Instagram: @king_dems1 | TikTok: @kingdemspodcast

  1. 6d ago

    Why Great Leaders Sound Different (BBC-Trained Voice Coach Explains)

    The voice you hear when you speak is not the one your team hears. Cop a copy of my new book NOW: https://ademolaodewade.com Turn communication expertise into paid advisory work: Ethos (paid link): https://agent.askethos.com/refer/nd01w7e2eelw AI labs pay highly skilled experts: Mercor (paid link): https://t.mercor.com/neABb Build your next keynote deck in minutes: Gamma (paid link): https://try.gamma.app/f2d4kygskm1h Automate the admin and spend the time rehearsing: Make (paid link): https://www.make.com/en/register?pc=kingdemspodcast David Pope is an executive voice coach who has been based in Hong Kong for 32 years. He began in 1980s London at a Soho production company making music videos for Wham!, Dire Straits and A-ha, then joined the BBC as an assistant film editor. In 2010 he founded All Voice Talent, where he is Managing Director. He has spent more than 30,000 hours in recording studios as a producer and director, produced the English-language teen radio drama Songbirds for RTHK and now coaches leaders from law firms, financial institutions, hotels and fashion brands in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Australia, the Middle East and London. About 20 years ago he was told that growing his business meant leaving the quiet of the studio for stages, workshops and online video. He faced that fear, made mistakes in public and built the self-belief he now teaches. In this episode: - The three communication mistakes that weaken executive presence: speaking too fast, a monotone delivery and filler words - A slightly slower pace reads as authority; rapid delivery reads as nerves - The emphasis pause before a key figure and the rhetorical question pause before the answer - Chunking: mark a script with slash marks and stress one word per chunk, what Pope calls "audio punctuation" - Speakers who think they paused for five seconds usually paused for half a second - Gravitas is a balance of authority, energy and warmth, not a booming voice - In 2012 Center for Talent Innovation research, 5 per cent of senior executives named appearance and 28 per cent communication as core to executive presence; 67 per cent named gravitas - Pope's Voice Influence Framework: voice, presence and messaging - Why communication becomes more valuable as AI spreads: voiceover artists are already losing work to AI, but live, bespoke human feedback cannot be replaced - Pope says charisma can be developed; Ademola argues it is largely natural David Pope, founder of All Voice Talent, on executive presence, gravitas, communication in the AI era and his Voice Influence Framework, on The King Dems Podcast with Ademola Odewade. How can I sound more confident in meetings? Slow down slightly, vary your intonation and drop filler words. Record yourself first to find out which one you need to fix. What is gravitas in executive presence? A voice that balances authority with energy and warmth. It is not a low, booming voice. More from David Pope: https://www.allvoicetalent.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/popedavid Hosted by Ademola Odewade: chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich) and Founder of K-DEMS Consulting. The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts. Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts. This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #ExecutivePresence #PublicSpeaking #DiaryOfACFO #KingDemsPodcast

  2. Sep 14

    She Left Audit at KPMG, PKF Littlejohn and RSM to Rebuild How Finance Works | Esther Adeogun

    Most finance teams start closing the month before the month has even finished. Cop a copy of my new book NOW: ⁠https://ademolaodewade.com⁠ Turn audit and finance expertise into paid advisory work — Ethos (paid link): ⁠https://agent.askethos.com/refer/nd01w7e2eelw⁠ AI labs pay highly-skilled experts — Mercor (paid link): ⁠https://t.mercor.com/neABb⁠ Build the design partner deck in minutes — Gamma (paid link): ⁠https://try.gamma.app/f2d4kygskm1h⁠ Esther Adeogun spent over a decade in audit and assurance across KPMG Nigeria, WYZE, Sapro, PKF Littlejohn and RSM UK, working between Lagos and London. She audited multinationals with US, Canadian and Australian parent structures. She then left professional services to found Valdore Systems and Intelligence Limited (VSIL), a pre-product platform building what she calls an intelligent operating layer: financial intelligence, controls and real-time visibility embedded directly into business workflows rather than applied after the fact. The pattern that convinced her was not jurisdictional. Across Lagos, London and multinational engagements she kept meeting the same problem. Organisations had invested heavily in software, yet finance teams still ran on spreadsheets, manual reconciliations and judgement applied outside the system. Some of her design partners begin their July month-end work in the second or third week of July in order to report to management by 4 August. That is time taken away from professional judgement and scepticism, and Esther argues the gap between activity and visibility is the thing worth closing, not the accounting concepts underneath it. In this episode: The one sentence she would give a Fortune 500 CEO: an intelligent operating layer embedding financial intelligence, controls and real-time visibility into business workflowsThe exact shift from auditor to founder, moving from "what went wrong" to "why did the system allow this to happen in the first place"Why real-time reporting does not overturn the historical cost concept, and what she actually means by real-timeWhat SAP, Oracle and Microsoft would say in response, and where the design philosophies genuinely divergeWhere AI earns its place, and the deterministic, rules-based work that should stay conventional software"Consulting is largely constrained by people and time" and why that pushed her to SaaS instead of another consulting firmThe four eras of accounting: paper, spreadsheets, ERP, and AI-assisted decision-makingWhether the Big Four look the same in 2035, and why she thinks firms evolve rather than disappearNigeria rewards technical skill, the UK rewards relationships, and what that cost her to learnWhy she no longer believes progress is linear, and what experimentation replaced it withRapid fire: the biggest misconception about AI, the biggest misconception about accounting, and the technology she is watchingHer legacy test: not to be remembered for building software but for helping build better businesses More from Esther: LinkedIn (personal): ⁠linkedin.com/in/esther-adeogun-0b9118125⁠ LinkedIn (company): ⁠linkedin.com/company/valdore-systems-intelligence-ltd⁠ Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting. The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts. Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts. This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #AIinAccounting #ContinuousAssurance #DiaryOfACFO #KingDemsPodcast

  3. Sep 11

    Why Transformation Programmes Fail — The Inner Game of Organisations | Zhanna Zhuravleva

    Why Transformation Programmes Fail — The Inner Game of Organisations Most transformation programmes fail because the organisation is quietly protecting the very thing you are trying to change. Cop a copy of my new book NOW: ⁠https://ademolaodewade.com⁠ Turn transformation experience into paid advisory work — Ethos (paid link): ⁠https://agent.askethos.com/refer/nd01w7e2eelw⁠ AI labs pay highly-skilled experts — Mercor (paid link): ⁠https://t.mercor.com/neABb⁠ Build the culture diagnostic deck in minutes — Gamma (paid link): ⁠https://try.gamma.app/f2d4kygskm1h⁠ Zhanna Zhuravleva grew up in Georgia and lived through war as a child, then built her career across Russia, Israel and the UK. She completed two master's degrees — finance and human resources — followed by postgraduate study, and taught finance, management and philosophy at a university in St. Petersburg. She started in industry as a Kaizen team leader and went on to lead HR and cultural transformation across organisations of more than 1,000 people in 40 countries. She is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, has run over 3,000 sessions with leaders, and founded Awake Conscious Play, a school of conscious leadership and leadership transformation. Early in her career she ran a textbook transformation — designed framework, defined KPIs, strong governance. Six months later almost nothing had changed. The organisation was not governed by its processes; it was governed by informal power. Everything since has been built on that finding. The 30% improvement in employee satisfaction and 10% reduction in turnover she reports came from no single initiative — a culture hub that put interns and juniors into the improvement process, people partners trained in coaching, and one-to-ones where the feedback actually changed the next decision. In this episode: Change fluency — why transformation is not a project with a start date and an end dateThe "inner game": why a fintech's people-first programme stalls because the tension is giving leaders their identity Three signals that tell you inside a week whether a culture is healthy — quality of disagreement, speed of bad news, and the gap between the official story and the underground story Diagnosis before prescription: the first 30 days run across Ken Wilber's four quadrants, not a rush to launch programmes Three types of values — declarative, conscious, unconscious — and which layer actually decides Why Meta making AI token consumption a performance metric produced engineers burning tokens instead of better decisions WEF Future of Jobs: 170 million roles created against 92 million displaced — recalibration, not replacement"AI is electricity with intelligence" — why this is an electricity moment rather than an internet one The 4D Compass for building trust: self, soul, soft, spiritWhy engagement surveys measure compliance — a purple, tribal culture scores high on engagement and low on trust What she protects if the HR budget is halved: leader development, and a culture diagnosis every year The mistake founders make at 100 employees — still leading as though there are 20Zhanna's recommendation for every CEO is Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan. Her conscious leadership programmes — including Lila, the transformational game she has adapted for leaders and runs offline and online — are at: ⁠https://awake-play.co.uk/⁠ Upcoming cohorts: ⁠https://awake-play.co.uk/upcoming⁠ Connect with Zhanna on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhanna-zhuravleva-chartered-fcipd-03a0a622a/⁠ Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting. The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts. Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts. This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

  4. Sep 2

    Business Valuation: Why Buyers Ignore Your EBITDA Multiple - Mark Mills, OBE

    Business valuation isn't a multiple of EBITDA. Cop a copy of my new book NOW: https://ademolaodewade.com Turn expertise into paid advisory work — Ethos (paid link): https://agent.askethos.com/refer/nd01w7e2eelw AI labs pay highly-skilled experts — Mercor (paid link): https://t.mercor.com/neABb Build the buyer deck in minutes — Gamma (paid link): https://try.gamma.app/f2d4kygskm1h Mark Mills OBE started Cardpoint plc from scratch in 2000. Two years later it floated on AIM at a £7 million valuation. By 2006 it was turning over £100 million a year on £19.8 million of EBITDA, and he exited in 2007 at £175 million. He now sells other people's businesses. One owner was told his company was worth £3 million. Mark sold it for just over £10 million. Nothing changed in the accounts — what changed was who the business was presented to, and why they needed it. In this episode: - Why bids from strategic buyers don't resemble a multiple of EBITDA - The £3m-to-£10m sale, and the buyer maths that produced it - Rule one of any business model: recurring income — learned from a payphone business that died in the 1991 recession - How Mark and his CFO reverse-engineered £100m of revenue onto a sheet of paper, then landed within 2% - Why "in three years" is a useless target and "by 31 August 2029" is not - Solving a working capital problem by finding a bank with too much physical cash - The one metric he never ignores when assessing a company for sale - FARM — why people work for Fun, Achievement, Recognition, then Money, in that order - Selling to strangers, and why referrals cannot scale a business - What AI actually changes about client acquisition and KPI monitoring - Realistic exit timelines: 12 to 30 months, not six Mark's book is Making Your Mark: How I Built a Fortune From £1.50 — and You Can Too. He offered listeners a free signed copy — email him at mark@mark.co.uk with your address and he'll send one out. More from Mark: www.mark.co.uk · linkedin.com/in/markrichardmills Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting. The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts. Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts. This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #BusinessValuation #ExitStrategy #DiaryOfACFO #KingDemsPodcast

  5. Aug 21

    The Neuroscience of Leadership, AI and Better Decisions with Dr. David Rock | Ep. 200

    How can leaders use AI without weakening the judgement, creativity and critical thinking that leadership requires? Dr David Rock explains what neuroscience reveals about decision-making, cognitive bias, uncertainty and human performance. This conversation is for leaders navigating a world of rising information overload, faster technology and increasing pressure. Dr Rock, Co-Founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute, coined the term neuroleadership and has spent decades translating cognitive science into practical tools for organisations and executives. In this episode, you will learn: Why leadership creates three recurring cognitive challenges: capacity, self-regulation and social cognitionWhy intelligent leaders can still make poor decisions under pressureHow uncertainty affects the way people think, regulate emotion and understand othersWhy David argues that AI should keep the human in the lead, rather than outsourcing critical judgementWhy recognising your own cognitive bias is harder than most leaders assumeHow the SEEDS framework helps teams identify recurring categories of biasHow the SCARF model explains Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and FairnessWhy useful leadership frameworks require both scientific credibility and practical simplicity About Dr David Rock Dr David Rock is Co-Founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute and the originator of the term neuroleadership. His work applies cognitive science to leadership, organisational change and human performance. He is the author of Your Brain at Work and the forthcoming Good with Humans, which explores the SCARF model and the neuroscience of social motivation. Connect with Dr David Rock NeuroLeadership Institute: https://www.neuroleadership.com NILES: https://www.askniles.ai/ Book: Good with Humans by David Rock Explore The King Dems Podcast Website: https://kingdemspodcast.com Explore the tools behind our podcast network: https://kingdemspodcast.com/tools The King Dems Podcast ranks in the Global Top 2% on Listen Notes and reaches audiences in 130+ countries. Our mission is simple: Educate. Inspire. Empower.

  6. Aug 16

    Your Career Isn’t Linear: Ashley Stahl on Reinvention, AI & Personal Branding

    Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growth journey with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at ⁠⁠https://betterhelp.com/kingdems What if the career you worked hardest to build is actually keeping you from the work you were meant to do? In this episode of The King Dems Podcast, Ademola Odewade sits down with Ashley Stahl, bestselling author, TEDx speaker, career expert and Founder of Wise Whisper Agency, for a powerful conversation about career reinvention, artificial intelligence, personal branding, leadership, intuition and the future of work. Ashley’s own journey took her from national security into career coaching, entrepreneurship, authorship and public speaking. But this conversation goes far beyond the polished career-pivot story. Ashley explains why careers are not supposed to be linear, why the skills you developed in one chapter of your life can become your competitive advantage in the next and why sometimes “backing up” in your career is not the same as backing down. We explore: How to recognise when your career is genuinely misalignedWhy your values and your skill set serve different purposesWhy clarity comes from exploration, not endless thinkingHow to experiment with a new career without immediately quitting your jobThe transferable skills Ashley carried from national security into entrepreneurshipHow intuition can improve leadership and business decisionsThe difference between intuition and impulsivenessWhy busy calendars can destroy creativityHow storytelling and a signature talk can transform a personal brandWhy follower count may be one of the most overrated measures of influenceHow AI is changing careers and the future of workWhy professionals who know how to leverage AI may have an advantage over those who resist itWhat every executive should ask before stepping onto a stage Ashley also shares how a TEDx talk became a turning point in her career and revealed the extraordinary power of combining your story, expertise and message to create meaningful impact. One of the biggest ideas from the conversation? You cannot think your way into clarity. You have to explore your way into it. And when it comes to AI, Ashley offers an equally important challenge: the greatest risk may not simply be AI replacing people. It may be people who understand how to use AI replacing those who refuse to adapt. If you are navigating a career transition, building your personal brand, leading through disruption or wondering how to remain relevant in the AI era, this conversation is for you. 🎙️ The King Dems Podcast explores growth mindset, leadership, AI, business, entrepreneurship and the ideas shaping the future of work. 🔗 Connect with Ashley Stahl:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleystahl/ 🛠️ Explore the tools we use to create, grow and scale our podcasts and digital ecosystem:https://kingdemspodcast.com/tools Subscribe, follow and share this episode with someone navigating their next chapter. Mindset > Skillset > Toolset. #AshleyStahl #CareerReinvention #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #Leadership #PersonalBranding #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #AI #KingDemsPodcast

  7. Aug 5

    She Left EY to Bet on Herself: The Human Skills AI Can’t Replace | Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico

    Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growth journey with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at ⁠https://betterhelp.com/kingdems What human skills will leaders need to remain valuable in the age of artificial intelligence? Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico, Founder and CEO of Fully Bossed, joins Ademola Odewade on The King Dems Podcast to explore AI leadership, organisational transformation, executive presence and the human capabilities technology cannot replace. Oluchi spent nearly two decades advising CEOs, boards and financial institutions on major transformation programmes. Her career includes senior leadership roles at Accenture and EY-Parthenon, more than 30 transformation and M&A programmes and transactions with a combined value exceeding $15 billion. In this episode, Oluchi explains why effective AI adoption is not simply about purchasing new tools. Organisations must change behaviours, strengthen leadership capabilities and connect technology investments to measurable business value. You will learn: Why human skills become more valuable as AI capabilities expand• How leaders can move from AI adoption to genuine AI enablementWhy many organisations invest billions in AI without achieving the expected ROIHow to measure transformation through revenue growth, cost reduction and operational efficiencyWhy mindset, storytelling, personal branding and orchestration matter in modern leadershipHow resilience and self-belief helped Oluchi succeed as a Black female executiveWhat it takes to lead major mergers, acquisitions and organisational transformation programmesHow executives can communicate, influence decisions and hold the boardroom in the AI eraWhy leadership is defined by impact and followership rather than job titleHow Oluchi evaluated the risk of leaving an EY partner role to build Fully Bossed Oluchi’s central message is clear: AI can generate the report, but it cannot replace your ability to defend the analysis, influence the boardroom and lead people through change. This conversation is essential listening for CEOs, CFOs, founders, consultants, transformation leaders and executives developing an AI strategy for their organisations. Connect with Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico:https://www.linkedin.com/in/oli-ikechi/ Discover Fully Bossed:https://fullybossed.com/ Explore the tools and resources I use to power my podcasts, business and content at: https://kingdemspodcast.com/tools Subscribe, follow and share this episode with a leader navigating AI adoption or organisational transformation. What is the most important human skill leaders must develop to remain valuable in an AI-powered workplace?

  8. Jul 27

    Will AI Replace Investors? A CFA's Answer | Eric Chu

    Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growth journey with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/kingdems Eric Chu, CFA, CEO and co-founder of TradeDesk Securities, joins The King Dems Podcast and Diary of a CFO to explain how busy professionals can use AI to research smarter without outsourcing their judgement. If you have investable income and limited time, this conversation gives you a clearer way to think about AI, regulation and long-term investing.Eric built his career across investment banking, hedge funds and data centre development before co-founding a SEC registered broker dealer built specifically for working professionals in their 30s and 40s. His path through the 2008 financial crisis, including a job offer at Bear Stearns that evaporated when the firm collapsed, shaped a disciplined view of risk that now underpins TradeDesk Securities. You will learn in this episode: Why AI's biggest advantage for investors is time, not information (23:11)What actually happens inside a data centre when you send an AI prompt (20:38)Why Eric calls the Bear Stearns collapse his first real lesson in humility (14:27)The regulatory requirements TradeDesk Securities follows as a FINRA and SIPC member (18:17)Why individual investors hold a structural advantage over professional fund managers (28:03)How Eric and his team build trust in a regulated industry through direct expertise (31:44)Where AI in finance goes next, including sector-specific AI engines (33:58)His honest, non-committal take on crypto as an asset class (38:07) Guest: Eric Chu, CFA, is CEO and co-founder of TradeDesk Securities, a SEC registered broker dealer built to help working professionals invest with AI powered insights and portfolio tools. He holds an MBA from NYU Stern and has spent almost 20 years across investment banking, hedge funds and public company finance, including senior roles developing and financing data centre platforms across Asia. Links Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-chu-cfa-7159567/Guest company: https://www.tradesk.co/ The King Dems Podcast ranks in the Global Top 2% on Listen Notes and reaches audiences in 120+ countries. Explore the tools behind our podcast network: https://kingdemspodcast.com/tools #Investing #AIinvesting #TheKingDemsPodcast

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The King Dems Podcast is a global Top 2% podcast for ambitious leaders, founders and professionals navigating growth, leadership and the future of business. Hosted by Ademola Odewade, MBA, ACA, each episode features world-class CEOs, CFOs, entrepreneurs, futurists and thought leaders sharing practical insights on growth mindset, AI in business strategy, financial literacy, innovation, resilience, wealth and personal development. Expect bold ideas, powerful stories and actionable strategies to lead better, build smarter and grow sustainably. Instagram: @king_dems1 | TikTok: @kingdemspodcast

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