The Alternative Business Review Alastair Swindlehurst

Welcome to the final episode of The Alternative Business review for this run. 

On this week's episode, we have Jennifer Tessler & Stefana Bosse the Co-Founders of Alalaho. Alalaho is a Company, but I'm hesitant to call it a company as their purpose is to offer a holistic psycho-spiritual approach to personal and societal development. This approach integrates the safe and legal use of psychedelics and other peak states.

In short, psilocybin is part of a broader retreat to look at how you drive your self-development personally and as a business leader. 

When I started this project a year ago I said I wanted to be different, and engage with every view of the mountain. A previous guest approached me on the pod, Paulina Tennar, and she suggested that I should speak with Jennifer & Stefana. 

What has been more interesting for me as I prepped for this is how this challenged some of my preconceptions, and I strongly suggest starting with the book and Netflix series from Mike Pollan. 

The Netflix series is here https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80229847
You can get the book here https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-to-change-your-mind/michael-pollan/9780141985138

This is a more wide-ranging conversation than we have, I hope you enjoy the journey...

You can find more on Alalaho here https://www.alalaho.org/

On this week’s podcast, we speak to Amy Newton, again!
The last time we spoke to Amy she mentioned that she was starting a tech festival in Manchester, and she has.
In fact, she has curated and delivered a week-long series of events and talks from some of the biggest names in the tech scene which is entirely free to attend.
We pick up with Amy to talk about why she’s done it, how she’s done it and what to expect.
If you want to get involved the event starts on 17th October and some tickets are still available.
You can find the details here https://www.manchestertechfestival.co.uk/
Please subscribe, like and share. Plus, if you want to get in contact find me on LinkedIn at Alastair Swindlehurst, email at host@theabr.co.uk or find me at either Instagram or Twitter on @theABRpod

On this week’s podcast we have Steph Buttery from ChuLo. 
Steph is genuinely fascinating; she is one of the most determined and thoughtful founders that I have come across. The work she has done with ChuLo is fascinating, as a founder not only does she understand her product but she understands the people she is talking to. 
As a business they are walking their own path, whether its being early adopters in Twitch and TikTok or appearing on a BBC show Future Food Stars. Steph is someone who knows what needs to be done and will do it. 
This is absolutely worth your time. 
On this week’s pod we talk…
🎙Being captain of your own literal ship 
🎙Knowing your market 
🎙The power of TikTok 
🎙Vanity does not keep you in reality
If you want more information on ChuLo you can find their delicious drinks here… https://www.chu-lo.com/ plus there handles on Instagram and TikTok are @Chu_Lo 
Additionally we talk here are some links to the following: 
Virgin start ups https://www.virginstartup.org/start-up-loans 
Gordan Ramsey Future Food Stars https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0015yj3 
Twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/chulo_drinks 
Guide to Twitch https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/twitch 
TikTok Shop https://shop.tiktok.com/business/en 
Please subscribe, like and share. Plus, if you want to get in contact find me on LinkedIn at Alastair Swindlehurst, email at host@theabr.co.uk or find me at either Instagram or Twitter on @theABRpod

On this week’s podcast we have Lee Eldridge, the Founder and Performance Director of Cognitive Athlete. They are a bespoke human performance coaching company, on a mission to lead elite business executives towards obtaining and sustaining optimal results over the long term. 

I met Lee though another guest on here and what really grabbed me was his views on how Founders load and what you can bring across from the sports world on load injuries into the world of start-ups. 

On this week’s pod we talk about: 
🎙Load management (obviously)
🎙How open are people to feedback 
🎙Resting like a champion
🎙Being present in the washing up 

Additionally, here is the link for the High-Performance Podcast with Johnny Wilkinson https://podfollow.com/highperformance/episode/07eac70084fcb3608b22f93cbe699103e5c7a5ba/view & a link to the (very shorty) video of Tom Hanks talking about how it too shall pass… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ5U37MkA2E     

If you want more information check out the website here https://cognitiveathlete.co.uk/ & you can find out more about his Business Dads Pathway here https://cognitiveathlete.co.uk/business-dads-pathway/ 
Alternatively, you find Lee at LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-eldridge/ or drop him an email at lee@cognitiveathlete.co.uk 

Please subscribe, like and share. Plus, if you want to get in contact find me on LinkedIn at Alastair Swindlehurst, email at host@theabr.co.uk or find me at either Instagram or Twitter on @theABRpod

On this week’s Alternative Business Review podcast we have Martin Drake. Martin is the founder of Higher People a recruitment agency owner using tech to help make a more frictionless process, and we don’t even talk about their tech, and podcaster (hence why I talk more) of Is this room free? 
We got introduced to me following a piece of work that I did with a client, the thing that stood out for me is the way they have tried to enhance the client and candidate experience with the use of video and looking beyond the tried and tested. 
I connected a lot with what Martin said, certainly as I talk to more service-led offerings, the sense of community you need to make appears critical to how you can demonstrate your values and create buy-in to who and what your business is. 
On the pod we discuss 
Building your brand and values 
How do you establish a community 
How do you do sales without being salesy 
and gambling
If you want to connect with Martin you can find him  on LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/martindrake/ or email him on martin@higherpeople.co.uk 
Or you can Is this room free? here https://podfollow.com/1523914369
Also, if you want to know more on the Simon Sinek Why Theory here is the TED Talk on it https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en
Please subscribe, like and share. Plus, if you want to get in contact find me on LinkedIn at Alastair Swindlehurst, email at host@theabr.co.uk or find me at either Instagram or Twitter on @theABRpod

This episode of The ABR is with Richard Few, Founder & Chief Geek at Sales Geek. 
The OED defines a “Geek” as a person who is very interested in and who knows a lot about a particular subject which is something Richard clearly is, especially about sales. 
Sales Geek was founded with the challenge of changing the way the world perceives sales and make world class sales leadership available for everyone not just large corporations. 
Before setting up Sales Geek Richard was the global sales director for a large North American corporation Sales Geek. 
He saw that there was an opportunity for straight forward support by providing “Your Sales Director” on a fractional basis to small and medium-sized companies.  
On a podcast that probably could, and should have gone on for hours we talk about: 
Having to make it Spotting a niche How creating values and behaviours lead to brand Making yourself useful and spending £250k on a free appRealising you’re right at the start Dung the pod Richard talks about the Infinite Game by Simon Sinek, you can find the book here https://simonsinek.com/books/the-infinite-game/ or if you have my level of concentration you can find a summary of it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tye525dkfi8 
If you want to know about Richard or Sales Geek you can find them here 
Sales Geek website https://www.salesgeek.co.uk/ 
Richard’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardgfew/