Human Powered: High-performing agency & consultancy teams
Ready to build an agency or consultancy you’re proud of? You’re in the right place. In each episode, you’ll hear exclusive insights from agency and consultancy leaders who’ve built thriving businesses. Discover how they create high-performing teams and build high-performing and sustainable businesses. You can implement their suggestions in your business and see real results. Hosted by Trenton Moss, leadership coach, exited agency founder and author of the bestselling book, Human Powered.
Episodes
Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
Uniting a business around the value they create - with Sam Gregory
Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
How can you make a genuine and positive difference to the entire sector you operate within?
Sam Gregory is co-CEO of the PR agency Tangerine, leading a team of 110 people. She took over the business in 2011 and has overseen significant growth since then.
In this episode, Sam shares how she:
Puts entrepreneurial spirit and courageous thinking at the heart of everything they do
Embeds a culture of bold, brave, and creative work aligned with clients' business objectives
Prioritises a clear vision and overarching business plan as her number one focus
Maintains full transparency internally with their business plans, decision-making and financials
Strongly believes in the benefits of their Employee Ownership model
Actively recruits apprentices to access raw young talent and keep the business at the cutting edge
Sam is dedicated to creating a workplace where everyone feels genuinely valued. And it’s working - last year, Tangerine was featured in Campaign’s Top 100 Best Places to Work.
Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
Merging two businesses to forge a united future - with Phil Fearnley
Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
How do you bring together two well-established businesses to create a new entity?
Phil Fearnley is CEO of the creative company, House 337. He led the creation of the business in 2022 by merging 200+ people from two separate businesses, ODD and Engine.
In this episode, Phil shares how he:
Brought together two businesses by leveraging their joint histories to forge a shared future
Set up seven internal teams to lead the integration and formation of the new company
Had the team create highly original core values - Alchemic, Inventive and Soulful - that the business could truly own
Personally ran workshops with every single team member to reinforce these values and their importance
Made 'House' central to their new name to reflect a culture of membership and belonging
Refuses to tolerate "Big I Am's" who undermine a team mentality
Phil is also a former Wales U21 rugby player. He applies team principles from his playing days to foster a true team ethos.
Tuesday Mar 11, 2025
Fostering togetherness with a global remote team - with Ranzie Anthony
Tuesday Mar 11, 2025
Tuesday Mar 11, 2025
How do you create a strong culture and community with a global remote team?
Ranzie Anthony is co-founder and CEO of Athlon, a global design & technology company. He’s been running the business for 14 years, with a team of 100 people across 4 continents.
In this episode, Ranzie shares how he:
Overcame cultural, language, time zone, and process differences to build a high-performing global team
Brings the team together to build cultural bonds and create enduring memories
Rewards and recognises positive behaviour whenever someone does something great
Sets a one-team culture, treating everyone equally, regardless of location or role
Fosters a sense of community where people care for each other and go the extra mile
Encourages team members to embrace change so they have maximum impact on the business over time
Ranzie believes strongly in a remote-first and global culture. It leads to better wellbeing for the team and a greater understanding of life in different parts of the world.
Tuesday Feb 18, 2025
Overseeing four agencies as Group CEO - with Andrew Southcott
Tuesday Feb 18, 2025
Tuesday Feb 18, 2025
How do you motivate diverse leadership teams across an agency group?
Andrew Southcott is the CEO of Captivate Group, overseeing 4 independent agencies and a team of 120 people.
In this episode, Andrew shares how he:
Adapts his leadership style to get the best out of everyone and get out of their way so they can excel
Pushes a DEI agenda because of the noticeable improvements to their work
Takes what he's learnt from his stand-up comedy side hustle and applies this to leading the group
Encourages senior team members to look ahead and proactively work out how to apply their finite resources to solve problems
Focuses on operations as each agency scales to ensure consistency in delivery
Recruits different types of Managing Directors for start-up vs. scale-up phases for the group agencies
Andrew is passionate about building a great place with great people, delivering great work for great clients. And in this episode, he breaks down exactly how he does it.
Tuesday Jan 28, 2025
Building AI workforces - with Fergus Dyer-Smith
Tuesday Jan 28, 2025
Tuesday Jan 28, 2025
How do you continually embed AI to create a high-performing business?
Fergus Dyer-Smith is founder and CEO of Wooshi, an AI-enabled content business. He got early access to the original GPT from OpenAI back in late-2020.
In this episode, Fergus shares how he:
Realised the potential of AI early on and created automated solutions for most business processes
Built an AI-powered creative ideation product that ended up replacing their Creative Director
Developed an AI tool that enables their sales team to generate client proposals without input from the creative team
Advocates for widespread AI adoption to save time, encouraging people to reinvest that time to find new ways to add value
Expects us to deliver up to 100 times the output compared to a pre-AI world
Proactively prepares for AI to potentially replace him, ensuring he's ready for whatever’s next
Fergus firmly believes that AI will lead to opportunity and abundance for all of us. While its adoption can feel scary, he feels great excitement about the possibilities.
Tuesday Jan 07, 2025
Tuesday Jan 07, 2025
How do you create a performance culture whilst maintaining warmth and affection?
Ian Finch is founder and CEO of Mando Group, a digital consultancy that makes technology work for everyone. He’s been running the business for 27 years.
In this episode, Ian shares how he:
Moved away from decision-making led by informal watercooler moments to being highly metric-driven
Uses the VMOST framework to cascade business goals into team, department and individual goals
Profiled his superheroes internally and built out values and core competencies from their behaviour
Realised that his workaholic tendencies and high expectations meant that his team couldn’t thrive
Uses NLP coaching with his team so they come up with the answers themselves and get into a performance state
Moved away from having a ‘duty obligation’ by realising that just because he can do something, it doesn't mean he should do it
Ian candidly shares the story of his major burnout and having to step away from running the business for 3 months. He gradually reintegrated and transformed his leadership style to become an enabler to his team.
Tuesday Dec 03, 2024
Tuesday Dec 03, 2024
How do you become truly self-aware as a business leader?
Nikki Gatenby is a Non-Exec Director, Cognitive Behavioural Coach and bestselling author of 2 books. She has 25 years of agency experience including 10 years running the agency, Propellernet.
In this episode, Nikki shares how she:
Articulates business visions in a novel way so they’re memorable and easy to understand
Pushes for a culture where everyone can say when things aren’t working so they all develop and grow
Looks after people's wellbeing and avoids them burning out by regularly asking 4 simple questions
Brings in backward reflection and retrospectives so teams always learn from their experiences
Enables personal growth by getting everyone to be learn-it-alls (and not know-it-alls)
Uses working style analysis so teams understand how best to work with each other
Nikki talks openly about her 25-year career - including how she self-manages to prevent her two previous burnout events from ever happening again.
Tuesday Nov 12, 2024
Tuesday Nov 12, 2024
How do you achieve rapid growth with a diverse team across 3 continents?
Hannah Springett is Founder & CEO of HLabs. She started her no-code creative agency just 4 years ago and has rapidly scaled to a global team of 40 people.
In this episode, Hannah shares how she:
Instills a growth mindset within the team so they believe anything is possible
Places authenticity at the heart of everything she does - including being open about her endeavours going wrong
Has learnt to supercharge her empathy skills - especially to get the best out of introverts
Values diversity and intentionally recruits globally to increase this even more
Spends quality time with team members to properly understand their ambitions and motivations
Maps out her 10-year vision for each pillar of the business, aligning everyone around a set of big lofty goals
Hannah is deeply committed to changing the lives of each of her employees. She shares how she does this in our open and authentic conversation.
Tuesday Oct 22, 2024
Focusing on culture and diversity to grow to 300 people - with Tamara Littleton
Tuesday Oct 22, 2024
Tuesday Oct 22, 2024
How do you grow to 300 people globally with a laser focus on people and culture?
Tamara Littleton is Executive Chair & Founder at Social Element. She started the agency as a remote-first business 22 years ago.
In this episode, Tamara shares how she:
Puts attracting and retaining brilliant talent at the top of their flywheel and as their key business objective
Used her corporate background to apply strategic thinking from day one and grow into a large business
Leads from the back to keep out of people’s way and allow them to take the business forward
Appointed external auditors to measure how well they’re doing for diversity and help them continuously improve
Rolled out DISC training across the business so everyone better understands each other, is more respectful and challenges ideas
Takes it as her personal responsibility to retain the culture so the team keeps turning up every day and doing a great job
Tamara openly shares her 22-year journey from sole founder to handing over the running of the business and appointing two co-CEOs.
Tuesday Oct 01, 2024
Leading an agency group so everyone loves what they do - with Becky Simms
Tuesday Oct 01, 2024
Tuesday Oct 01, 2024
How do you set the weather in your business and get everyone to love what they do?
Becky Simms is Founder and CEO of the agency group, Human First Collective. 14 years ago she founded her agency, Reflect Digital, which she integrated into the group last year.
In this episode, Becky shares how she:
Is driven by the mantra, “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”
Has a robust, clearly defined recruitment and onboarding process, ensuring every hire is a great cultural fit
Uses a ‘Vivid Vision’ and working groups so everyone deeply buys into the company direction
Brings their values to life with external speakers, including a Gold-winning Olympian
Invested heavily in tech to make team meetings fully inclusive and engaging for remote participants
Transitioned the agency to a flexible 4-day workweek - and has never looked back
Becky firmly believes that the leadership team sets the weather for the agency. This philosophy guides all her communications.