Leaders Circle Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:54:56 +0000 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2650253 en-gb © 2026 Leaders Circle yes 0bfb6841-7f76-5a05-9482-f2c283b3f5f7 Paul Dutnall episodic false The Leaders Circle is Work.Life’s invite-only community for founders and CEOs.


The podcast brings those conversations to a wider audience, covering leadership, culture, self-motivation and scaling. Hear senior leaders share what’s working, what isn’t, and what they wish they’d known sooner.

]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) Paul Dutnall https://storage.buzzsprout.com/e4p70gcvdjs1q5yr6f8kvupf7l5t?.jpg Leaders Circle https://www.buzzsprout.com/2650253 #5: A founders take on flexibility vs commitment, with Ryan James, Founder of Rocket SaaS #5: A founders take on flexibility vs commitment, with Ryan James, Founder of Rocket SaaS Ryan James is the founder of Rocket SaaS, a demand generation marketing agency for B2B SaaS companies. He spent his first eight years in business industry agnostic, and growth stayed largely flat throughout that time. The turning point came when he niched exclusively into B2B SaaS. From there, Rocket SaaS scaled to £7m ARR and 70 employees in five years. Ryan now hosts a top-rated SaaS marketing podcast alongside running the agency.Ryan talks openly about what happened when he closed Rocket SaaS’s office and his team asked to come back. He explores the connection between workspace, culture, retention, and what businesses risk losing when teams are fully remote.Key takeaways:Your team might value the office more than you realise. Ryan closed Rocket SaaS’s office, only for his team to ask for a shared workspace within months of going remote.Culture is built in the everyday. Regular interactions keep people connected in ways big annual events can’t replicate.Culture affects the bottom line. Ryan links Rocket SaaS’s low staff turnover to stronger client relationships, productivity, and profitability.Friendships give people a reason to stay. Ryan sees the relationships formed at work as a major part of what keeps his team connected to the business.Junior employees learn by being around experienced people. Shared spaces create informal opportunities to observe, learn and build confidence.Workspace shapes culture. Ryan now sees a clear connection between where people work, how they interact, and how the business performs.Subscribe to the Leaders Circle Podcast.Take a look at what Work.Life can offer your business here: https://work.life/ 

]]> Ryan James is the founder of Rocket SaaS, a demand generation marketing agency for B2B SaaS companies. He spent his first eight years in business industry agnostic, and growth stayed largely flat throughout that time. The turning point came when he niched exclusively into B2B SaaS. From there, Rocket SaaS scaled to £7m ARR and 70 employees in five years. Ryan now hosts a top-rated SaaS marketing podcast alongside running the agency.Ryan talks openly about what happened when he closed Rocket SaaS’s office and his team asked to come back. He explores the connection between workspace, culture, retention, and what businesses risk losing when teams are fully remote.Key takeaways:Your team might value the office more than you realise. Ryan closed Rocket SaaS’s office, only for his team to ask for a shared workspace within months of going remote.Culture is built in the everyday. Regular interactions keep people connected in ways big annual events can’t replicate.Culture affects the bottom line. Ryan links Rocket SaaS’s low staff turnover to stronger client relationships, productivity, and profitability.Friendships give people a reason to stay. Ryan sees the relationships formed at work as a major part of what keeps his team connected to the business.Junior employees learn by being around experienced people. Shared spaces create informal opportunities to observe, learn and build confidence.Workspace shapes culture. Ryan now sees a clear connection between where people work, how they interact, and how the business performs.Subscribe to the Leaders Circle Podcast.Take a look at what Work.Life can offer your business here: https://work.life/ 

]]> Paul Dutnall Buzzsprout-19880957 Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 3163 1 5 full false Scaling a Team Without Losing It, with Sanjay Mackintosh, Founder & MD of Roretti Scaling a Team Without Losing It, with Sanjay Mackintosh, Founder & MD of Roretti Sanjay Mackintosh grew Roretti from four desks to nineteen in eighteen months. Hiring the right people from the public sector was one thing. Keeping them feeling like one team, rather than a collection of talented individuals he'd gathered, was the harder job.
In this conversation with Paul, Sanjay is honest about his team pushing to find a shared space because something was missing when the only time together was online, at home, or on a client site. He talks about the twice-weekly hub that came out of it, the informal moments that don't show up on any P&L, and the thing he never saw coming - clients wanting to come in too.

Key takeaways:
Hiring great individuals doesn't automatically give you a team. As you grow, the connection between people is the thing most at risk, and the easiest to neglect while you're busy.

Time together on calls or at a client's site isn't the same as time together. Without somewhere of your own, the informal moments that bond a team never happen.

Your team often feels the cracks before you do. Sanjay's people flagged what was missing while his instinct was still to weigh the cost.

The things that hold a growing team together don't show up on a P&L, which is exactly why they're easy to underinvest in until something breaks.

How and where you work isn't just an internal matter. As you scale, clients and candidates start reading it as a signal of who you are.

Subscribe to the Leaders Circle Podcast.

Take a look at what Work.Life can offer your business here: https://work.life/

]]> Sanjay Mackintosh grew Roretti from four desks to nineteen in eighteen months. Hiring the right people from the public sector was one thing. Keeping them feeling like one team, rather than a collection of talented individuals he'd gathered, was the harder job.
In this conversation with Paul, Sanjay is honest about his team pushing to find a shared space because something was missing when the only time together was online, at home, or on a client site. He talks about the twice-weekly hub that came out of it, the informal moments that don't show up on any P&L, and the thing he never saw coming - clients wanting to come in too.

Key takeaways:
Hiring great individuals doesn't automatically give you a team. As you grow, the connection between people is the thing most at risk, and the easiest to neglect while you're busy.

Time together on calls or at a client's site isn't the same as time together. Without somewhere of your own, the informal moments that bond a team never happen.

Your team often feels the cracks before you do. Sanjay's people flagged what was missing while his instinct was still to weigh the cost.

The things that hold a growing team together don't show up on a P&L, which is exactly why they're easy to underinvest in until something breaks.

How and where you work isn't just an internal matter. As you scale, clients and candidates start reading it as a signal of who you are.

Subscribe to the Leaders Circle Podcast.

Take a look at what Work.Life can offer your business here: https://work.life/

]]> Nat Rakowska Buzzsprout-19790902 Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000 3025 1 4 full false Why Your First 50 Hires Define the Culture Forever with Alex Ayin, Founder of Tomorrow's Potential Why Your First 50 Hires Define the Culture Forever with Alex Ayin, Founder of Tomorrow's Potential Paul Dutnall is joined by Alex Ayin, founder of Tomorrow's Potential. Alex helped grow Social Chain out of an early Manchester office into a global agency alongside Steven Bartlett, then joined the executive team at THG through the country's largest ever tech IPO at £5.4bn.
What comes out of the conversation is how much of Social Chain's early growth came down to environment. The team filmed the office and put it on YouTube and Instagram so candidates could see the atmosphere before ever walking into an interview. This episode gets into why the first fifty to a hundred hires define the direction of the business and why the culture leaders build around those hires decide whether the next hundred strengthen it or dilute it.

Key takeaways:
Your first fifty hires define the culture the next hundred will inherit. Prioritise generalists with a bias for action, and test coachability in the interview itself.

High standards need psychological safety underneath them because people rise to what you expect of them, but only when they feel safe to admit when they're struggling.

Plan in decades and deliver in quarters. Decide where you want to be in ten years, then work back to quarterly milestones.

Early-stage businesses run on setbacks. Share wins publicly and often, so the team feels the direction and momentum even when a specific week is hard.

Tie half of every bonus to company goals because individual targets teach people to protect their own patch, whilst shared outcomes build culture.

A founder's physical well-being establishes the ceiling for what the company can achieve. Adjust daily efforts accordingly, focusing on shifting one habit at a time.

Subscribe to the Leaders Circle Podcast.

Take a look at what Work.Life can offer your business here: https://work.life/

]]> Paul Dutnall is joined by Alex Ayin, founder of Tomorrow's Potential. Alex helped grow Social Chain out of an early Manchester office into a global agency alongside Steven Bartlett, then joined the executive team at THG through the country's largest ever tech IPO at £5.4bn.
What comes out of the conversation is how much of Social Chain's early growth came down to environment. The team filmed the office and put it on YouTube and Instagram so candidates could see the atmosphere before ever walking into an interview. This episode gets into why the first fifty to a hundred hires define the direction of the business and why the culture leaders build around those hires decide whether the next hundred strengthen it or dilute it.

Key takeaways:
Your first fifty hires define the culture the next hundred will inherit. Prioritise generalists with a bias for action, and test coachability in the interview itself.

High standards need psychological safety underneath them because people rise to what you expect of them, but only when they feel safe to admit when they're struggling.

Plan in decades and deliver in quarters. Decide where you want to be in ten years, then work back to quarterly milestones.

Early-stage businesses run on setbacks. Share wins publicly and often, so the team feels the direction and momentum even when a specific week is hard.

Tie half of every bonus to company goals because individual targets teach people to protect their own patch, whilst shared outcomes build culture.

A founder's physical well-being establishes the ceiling for what the company can achieve. Adjust daily efforts accordingly, focusing on shifting one habit at a time.

Subscribe to the Leaders Circle Podcast.

Take a look at what Work.Life can offer your business here: https://work.life/

]]> Nat Rakowska Buzzsprout-19790458 Tue, 22 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000 2709 full false How to Build a High-Performing Team Without Burning It Out with Bianca Errigo, Founder of Human OS How to Build a High-Performing Team Without Burning It Out with Bianca Errigo, Founder of Human OS Paul Dutnall is joined by Bianca Errigo, founder of Human OS and a leading voice on sustainable high performance. A lot of leadership advice focuses on ambition, results and pushing for more. Bianca is interested in what happens after that and how you keep performing at that level for a decade rather than just having a good quarter.
After more than 13,000 hours coaching everyone from FTSE CEOs to professional athletes, she’s seen the same thing again and again. From the outside, the people at the top often look like they’ve figured it all out. But underneath, something is usually missing.
In this episode, Bianca gets into what that missing piece is, why psychological safety plays such an important role in team performance, and how leaders can build a culture where people can perform at their best without burning themselves out in the process.

Key takeaways:
Leaders who perform well for decades treat their week like a race with pit stops rather than one long sprint. Put recovery in your calendar and take it as seriously as your meetings, or your body will eventually force you to through burnout.

Small, regular routines, like a weekly one-to-one that actually happens or protected time for focused work, do more for performance than any big quarterly push. Set the pace you want your team to follow.

Psychological safety is built in small moments. The first time someone challenges you, admits a mistake or raises something difficult, how you react sets the tone.

If your whole identity sits in the business, you lose the distance you need to think clearly about it. Protect something that is genuinely yours outside of work.

A perfect split between work and life rarely exists. Give people the freedom to shape their own week around what they need, then trust them to deliver.

One-size-fits-all wellbeing misses what people actually need. What helps someone in month one may be different by month twelve and different again from what their colleague needs.

Subscribe to the Leaders Circle Podcast.

Take a look at what Work.Life can offer your business here: https://work.life/

]]> Paul Dutnall is joined by Bianca Errigo, founder of Human OS and a leading voice on sustainable high performance. A lot of leadership advice focuses on ambition, results and pushing for more. Bianca is interested in what happens after that and how you keep performing at that level for a decade rather than just having a good quarter.
After more than 13,000 hours coaching everyone from FTSE CEOs to professional athletes, she’s seen the same thing again and again. From the outside, the people at the top often look like they’ve figured it all out. But underneath, something is usually missing.
In this episode, Bianca gets into what that missing piece is, why psychological safety plays such an important role in team performance, and how leaders can build a culture where people can perform at their best without burning themselves out in the process.

Key takeaways:
Leaders who perform well for decades treat their week like a race with pit stops rather than one long sprint. Put recovery in your calendar and take it as seriously as your meetings, or your body will eventually force you to through burnout.

Small, regular routines, like a weekly one-to-one that actually happens or protected time for focused work, do more for performance than any big quarterly push. Set the pace you want your team to follow.

Psychological safety is built in small moments. The first time someone challenges you, admits a mistake or raises something difficult, how you react sets the tone.

If your whole identity sits in the business, you lose the distance you need to think clearly about it. Protect something that is genuinely yours outside of work.

A perfect split between work and life rarely exists. Give people the freedom to shape their own week around what they need, then trust them to deliver.

One-size-fits-all wellbeing misses what people actually need. What helps someone in month one may be different by month twelve and different again from what their colleague needs.

Subscribe to the Leaders Circle Podcast.

Take a look at what Work.Life can offer your business here: https://work.life/

]]> Nat Rakowska Buzzsprout-19790451 Fri, 18 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000 3176 1 2 full false Why Happiness Is a Great Metric but a Poor Target with Matt Phelan, Co-Founder of The Happiness Index Why Happiness Is a Great Metric but a Poor Target with Matt Phelan, Co-Founder of The Happiness Index In this first episode of the Leaders Circle podcast, Paul Dutnall sits down with Matt Phelan, co-founder of The Happiness Index, to unpack findings from the newly released Global Workplace Happiness Report. Built on 11 years of research covering more than 80,000 employees across 115 countries, the report shows how people feel at work is one of the clearest signals of business performance and one of the easiest things to get wrong.
Matt breaks down the true workplace priorities of younger employees, illustrates how the remote-versus-office debate overlooks the fundamental need for human connection, and outlines how investor decisions are increasingly driven by employee sentiment data.
He also shares useful starting points for any leader who wants to take the subject seriously without turning happiness itself into a target.

Key takeaways:
Happiness is useful to measure, but once you make it a KPI, people start managing the number rather than the experience behind it.

The real value of the office is the connection that happens when people are together. Without it, the informal learning and relationships that build belonging are easy to lose.

Younger employees feel that loss most. Early careers depend on being around people who can teach you things you won't find in a handbook.

Employee sentiment can be an early signal of business performance. Investors are already looking at how employees feel, because what happens inside a company eventually shows up outside it.

AI makes every hire matter more, having smaller teams puts more weight on each person, while the strongest candidates have more choice about where they work.

Daily happiness moves with life events because what matters underneath is whether people feel safe to speak up. Do they feel connected to the people around them and clear on why their work matters?

Subscribe to the Leaders Circle Podcast.

Take a look at what Work.Life can offer your business here: https://work.life/

]]> In this first episode of the Leaders Circle podcast, Paul Dutnall sits down with Matt Phelan, co-founder of The Happiness Index, to unpack findings from the newly released Global Workplace Happiness Report. Built on 11 years of research covering more than 80,000 employees across 115 countries, the report shows how people feel at work is one of the clearest signals of business performance and one of the easiest things to get wrong.
Matt breaks down the true workplace priorities of younger employees, illustrates how the remote-versus-office debate overlooks the fundamental need for human connection, and outlines how investor decisions are increasingly driven by employee sentiment data.
He also shares useful starting points for any leader who wants to take the subject seriously without turning happiness itself into a target.

Key takeaways:
Happiness is useful to measure, but once you make it a KPI, people start managing the number rather than the experience behind it.

The real value of the office is the connection that happens when people are together. Without it, the informal learning and relationships that build belonging are easy to lose.

Younger employees feel that loss most. Early careers depend on being around people who can teach you things you won't find in a handbook.

Employee sentiment can be an early signal of business performance. Investors are already looking at how employees feel, because what happens inside a company eventually shows up outside it.

AI makes every hire matter more, having smaller teams puts more weight on each person, while the strongest candidates have more choice about where they work.

Daily happiness moves with life events because what matters underneath is whether people feel safe to speak up. Do they feel connected to the people around them and clear on why their work matters?

Subscribe to the Leaders Circle Podcast.

Take a look at what Work.Life can offer your business here: https://work.life/

]]> Nat Rakowska Buzzsprout-19790424 Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000 1517 1 1 full false