Changing a manager’s behaviour isn’t just good leadership — it’s the fastest way to rescue a failing culture and unlock real profitability.

In this episode of The Independent Minds, host Michael Millward meets revenue strategist Debbie Longo, from Life in Bloom NY, to explore a deceptively simple idea: if you change the behaviour of managers, you can change the profitability of the entire organisation.

Debbie began her career in criminology before moving into commercial coaching, and she brings that sharp behavioural insight into the boardroom. She explains how negativity, ego, control, and manipulation quietly erode trust, damage team cohesion, and ultimately drive good employees away. As she puts it, even small moments of frustration can snowball into major organisational problems — “I drop a pen… the ink goes all over the floor…” — and unless leaders learn to interrupt these patterns, the business pays the price.

Michael and Debbie unpack why managers often cling to past successes, how ego distorts decision‑making, and why one person leaving can trigger a domino effect across a team. Debbie shares her practical method for breaking the cycle: a behavioural audit that helps leaders see their own actions clearly, often for the first time. She argues that sustained positivity isn’t naïve — it’s strategic — and that the most successful companies are those whose leaders continually examine and adjust their own behaviour.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Perhaps a better way to move from Thought to Thing?

In this episode of The Independent Minds, host Michael Millward sits down with entrepreneur and author David Carson to explore a counterintuitive idea: sometimes the smartest way to solve a problem is to think dumb.

Drawing on examples from history like Ignaz-Semmelweis, innovative businesses and his own career building design‑led media businesses — and from the mental models behind his book Dummify: How Ridiculous Thinking Can Solve Big Problems — David explains why unconventional, naïve, even “ridiculous” ideas often outperform the polished, over‑engineered ones. As he puts it: “The things that felt silly or counterintuitive tended to be the things that worked more often than not.”

Together, Michael and David unpack why workplaces suppress these ideas, how fear and conditioning make people hide their curiosity, and what leaders can do to build cultures where “dumb thinking” becomes a powerful creative tool. From Airbnb’s air mattress origins to the accidental invention of the chocolate chip cookie, the conversation shows how breakthroughs often come from mistakes, missteps, and moments most people would dismiss.

This episode is for anyone interested in innovation, organisational culture, or simply rethinking how ideas become reality. As Michael notes, “We won’t be telling you what to think, but we are hoping to make you think.”

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Fix the root cause, not the symptoms: a smarter way to train.

Most workplace training doesn’t fail quietly — it fails expensively. In this explosive episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds, learning architect Dr. Carrie Graham and host Michael Millward identify why organisations keep pouring money into training that never changes behaviour, never fixes the real problem, and never delivers the results leaders expect.

Carrie brings the precision of a healthcare diagnostician and the insight of a seasoned professor to expose the hidden mistakes companies make: treating symptoms instead of causes, forcing everyone through “sheep‑dip” learning, ignoring how people actually learn, and preaching values they don’t live.

If your training feels like theatre, if your people aren’t improving, or if your organisation keeps repeating the same mistakes, this conversation will hit uncomfortably close to home — and offer a smarter, more strategic way forward.

Bold, honest, and packed with practical insight, this episode is a wake‑up call for employer that wants employee training that actually works.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

How to prepare for what you don’t see coming - Marketing Edition

Like most entrepreneurs there came a time in Brady Dahmer career as a business owner when he looked back and relived the trauma of the mistakes he had made in building his business Tropoly a brand studio.

Brady lamented that there had not been a way for him to learn how to avoid the mistakes he knew he had made. So, Brady decided to create the Blind Spots Handbook: How to prepare for what you don’t see coming - Marketing Edition.

In this episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds, Brady discusses his book with host Michael Millward.

Sharing their experience prompts frank exchanges that make for an informative and entertaining conversation about the marketing blind spots that can stop a business from scaling.

They discuss

• What a blind spot really is, and how they can impact a business
• Accepting that the problems blind spots cause, do not just happen to other people
• Real case studies that highlight how easily mistakes can be made, when you assume
• Accepting that you cannot learn everything and identifying what you really need to learn.
• The value that an expert can provide
• How to deal with someone who says that they know

This episode of The Independent Minds delivers implemental communication solutions for new and experienced leaders.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Untangling Communication So Teams Can Get Things Done

Maria Garaitonandia is a leadership communication strategist, which means that she helps leaders in any organisation plan how they are going to communicate with their teams. The outcome is, in many ways, that team members can answer the ‘what’s in it for me question’.

In this episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds, Maria discusses her book Untangling Communication with host Michael Millward.

They explore the elements of communications that create a team that gets things done and those that make it more difficult for teams to function.

Their conversation covers

• The different interpretations that a word can have in different places
• The problems of not understanding cultural, generational, geographic and socio-demographic differences
• How different body language can be interpreted differently
• How humour does not always travel well
• The role of emotional intelligence
• Applying situational communication theory

Maria mentions how understanding the Johari Window might help leaders to build stronger communication strategies.

They also discuss Maria’s Four Pillars of communication and her C.L.E.A.R approach to delivery.

This episode of The Independent Minds delivers implemental communication solutions for new and experienced leaders.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

A conversation about leading consciously at work and in life

Being led and being a leader can be something that happens to you; when it should be an activity that happens for you.

In this episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds Diane Taylor from GLOW Leadership explains the difference to host Michael Millward.

During their conversation Diane and Michael discuss

• How she helps leaders to lead consciously
• Why leaders need to understand themselves better
• How lived experience can be something that happens to you; or it can be something that makes you a better leader.
• What really happens when a leader points the finger of blame at a team member

Diane Taylor is the author of ELEVATE POTENTIAL: A Conscious Approach To SUCCESS a book that she describes as being for high achievers who want more success and balance in their career and personal life.

This podcast is essential listening for leader who wants more from every aspect of their life.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Management Learnings from the Sports Field

Jay Paterno was a very successful college American football coach before he became an international sports pundit, writer, and podcast host.

Following the publication of Blitzed! The All-Out Pressure of College Football's New Era, his third book Jay joined Michael Millward on the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds to discuss the lessons business managers can learn from the world of elite sport,

The obvious thing to learn is that running a sports team with talented elite athletes is very similar to running a talented business team. The difference is in how sports coaches like Jay manage the challenges so that the team performs well each week

They discuss

• Building relationships based on shared values
• Making the correct hiring decisions
• Balancing individual egos with teamwork by turning Me I individuals into We Us people
• Making rewards work
• Managing external influences
• Being a role model to the team

This podcast is essential listening for every manager who are building a team.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Successful selling depends on building trust, but how do you build trust?

Scott Schilling is an internationally successful sales person who became a much in demand international sales trainer and speaker.

In this episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds Scott explains his approach to successful selling to host Michael Millward.

Scott explains how he encourages sales people to become assets to their customers, by helping their clients to identify problems and find the right solution.

They discuss

• The importance of human-to-human communication skills in building trust
• Developing a unique personal selling proposition to facilitate people to people business
• Why selling is a people helping activity
• Why selling is an education process
• Scott’s definition of what makes a sales person a sales professional
• Why the long-term view is always a good idea
• The difference between building trust and being trust worthy
• How every conversation is a sale regardless of context
• The decisions potential sales people must make when embarking on a sales career

This podcast is essential listening for every sales person who wants to build a successful business.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.