Leading 4 Life "Stories"

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This episode is also available as a video podcast on my YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/5tWESWMJkRc
It was a real delight to interview Maria Franzoni for the show.  Charismatic and lively, Maria is full of great ideas and thoughts that made this a really interesting episode.  She has been in the speaking industry for much of her working life but she has prior experience as well and she draws on that extensively during our discussion.  

Within the speaking world, Maria has worked with many household names, initially as a booking agent / agency owner, and now as a mentor and coach, helping speakers to improve their businesses.  She has written an outstanding book, "The Bookability Formula" that is a must read for anyone who is interested in professional speaking in any capacity.

Maria certainly doesn't hold back in this episode; she is very open about a wide range of issues, including some deeply personal ones and I found it a fascinating conversation.  I hope you enjoy it too - please do let me know once you have had a watch!
Footnote: During the recording, Maria mentions Ravi Rajani but not by his full name so we wanted to credit him here for completeness. 
You can find Maria here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariafranzoni/
Website: https://www.mariafranzoni.me/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMariaFranzoni or https://www.facebook.com/groups/SpeakingBusiness
Support the show
Thank you for listening!  If you value the content I produce, please consider supporting the show financially by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/leading4life/ or clicking the "Support the Show" link above.

You will have the choice of becoming a Supporter, a Champion or a Patron of the show and any contribution you feel able to make will be hugely appreciated.

You can find more about me here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

X: https://x.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Leading4Life

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message
Before you do anything else, please hit the subscribe / follow button in your podcast platform to ensure you get immediate notification of future episodes, and to help boost this show within the algorithms.
This episode is also available as a video podcast on my YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/5tWESWMJkRc
It might be a personal view, but I believe that integrity and trust and two of the most important leadership traits and both are sine qua non for any good leader to have.  
Sadly, however, we all too often see leaders in pivotal positions who seem to have forgotten the importance of demonstrating integrity, building trust with those that work with them, and trusting those same people to do their very best for the team as a whole.
I use political leadership as an example of where I believe this is going wrong, but I do not cite any particular individuals as I don't believe that would be helpful.  The problem is certainly not unique to politicians though; there are plenty of leaders across all walks of life who fail to demonstrate adequate integrity or trust.
In this episode, I take a deeper dive into integrity and trust.  I look at a couple of really valuable models that help leaders to think about trust in particular: "5 Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni, and the Trust Equation by Trusted Advisor Associates.  
Hopefully I will also stimulate you to think about your own "score" in these areas - passing the "look in the mirror" test is something every leaders should be able to do on a routine basis - when did you last do yours?
I really hope you enjoy the episode and, as ever, I would really appreciate your feedback.  This is an area that is too important for us to ignore!
Support the show
Thank you for listening!  If you value the content I produce, please consider supporting the show financially by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/leading4life/ or clicking the "Support the Show" link above.

You will have the choice of becoming a Supporter, a Champion or a Patron of the show and any contribution you feel able to make will be hugely appreciated.

You can find more about me here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

X: https://x.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Leading4Life

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message
Before you do anything else, please hit the subscribe / follow button in your podcast platform to ensure you get immediate notification of future episodes, and to help boost this show within the algorithms.
This episode is also available as a video podcast on my YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/_zMu2uG7Hbs
It was a real delight to interview the wonderful Leigh Bowman-Perks for this episode of the podcast.  Although she is perhaps best known as the Founder and CEO of the Inspiring Leadership Foundation, her story and career portfolio is much broader.  
She is a business performance coach, motivational speaker and a published author and, as becomes clear in the episode, Leigh has also had a multi-faceted corporate career.  As if that wasn't enough, she had to overcome some very challenging early life events, and so her story is both fascinating and emotional in equal measure!
Leigh's Inspiring Leadership Foundation is doing outstanding and very important charitable work. It has delivered transformative programmes across 7 countries and has a particular focus on under represented communities.  
You can find Leigh here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leigh-bowman-perks-82082910/
Website: https://inspiringleadership.foundation/
May 2026 will also see the Foundation's second "Ride to Inspire" charity cycling event, which aims to raise the profile of the charity still further using sport, leadership and philanthropy to unite communities and celebrate inspiring role models. If you are interesting in learning more or supporting the Ride to Inspire you can get the full story here:
https://inspiringleadership.foundation/ride-to-inspire/
As ever, I hope you enjoy what I thought was a great discussion; please do let me know what you think as I really value your feedback.
Support the show
Thank you for listening!  If you value the content I produce, please consider supporting the show financially by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/leading4life/ or clicking the "Support the Show" link above.

You will have the choice of becoming a Supporter, a Champion or a Patron of the show and any contribution you feel able to make will be hugely appreciated.

You can find more about me here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

X: https://x.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Leading4Life

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message
Before you do anything else, please hit the subscribe / follow button in your podcast platform to ensure you get immediate notification of future episodes, and to help boost this show within the algorithms.
This episode is also available as a video podcast on my YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/JMjhvV7Rj7E
Dom Wilkins has had a long and impressive career in the world of broadcast media.  His credentials include roles at the BBC, Sky TV and most recently with OSN in Dubai.
In this fascinating episode we explore Dom's personal journey but we also get well behind the scenes of the broadcast media world, an area which will be largely unknown to most, since most of us simply view the end product of the TV production process without any real knowledge of all the issues that sit behind that final output.
Expect to be surprised by some of what Dom says - I certainly was - but I'm sure you will also learn a lot, and I really hope you enjoy this terrific conversation.
Support the show
Thank you for listening!  If you value the content I produce, please consider supporting the show financially by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/leading4life/ or clicking the "Support the Show" link above.

You will have the choice of becoming a Supporter, a Champion or a Patron of the show and any contribution you feel able to make will be hugely appreciated.

You can find more about me here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

X: https://x.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Leading4Life

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message
Before you do anything else, please hit the subscribe / follow button in your podcast platform to ensure you get immediate notification of future episodes, and to help boost this show within the algorithms.
This episode is also available as a video podcast on my YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/v7FfWJVAbug
When I joined Deloitte after my time in the Royal Air Force, I had no idea whether this would be my new "job for life" or just a lilypad to land on before jumping on to the next thing.  As it turned out, it was the latter and after 3 1/2 years of great experiences, wonderful people and a huge amount of learning, I moved on once again to start my own company and begin the journey that I am still on today.
In this episode I explain the thought process behind that decision and the steps I took to make the subsequent transition.  There are lessons in here for everyone because, whilst I took a huge amount from my time at Deloitte, I certainly didn't get everything right in terms of my own career management.  As with so many of my personal stories, I very much hope that by sharing some of my own experiences, I can help others to avoid similar pitfalls in their own lives.
I really hope you enjoy the episode; please do let me have some feedback if you have the time.
Support the show
Thank you for listening!  If you value the content I produce, please consider supporting the show financially by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/leading4life/ or clicking the "Support the Show" link above.

You will have the choice of becoming a Supporter, a Champion or a Patron of the show and any contribution you feel able to make will be hugely appreciated.

You can find more about me here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

X: https://x.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Leading4Life