Never Settle Podcast

Caroline McKenna is the founder of Social Good Connect, an organisation helping charities and social enterprises to develop, grow and prosper. They're on a mission to build connected communities through an online platform that connects employees with charities to positively impact the communities in which we live and work. In response to the Coronavirus crisis and the demand for volunteering across Scotland, Social Good Connect accelerated their digital platform to launch during the Coronavirus lockdown. In this episode, we’re digging into the story behind Social Good Connect, Caroline's journey in the world of social entrepreneurship, and how that's brought her to where she is today. If you’d like to connect with Caroline or Social Good Connect, you can email her at caroline@socialgoodconnect.org or head to their website at socialgoodconnect.org.The Never Settle Podcast is brought to you by Ashton McGill, a team of accountants and designers who help people build better businesses. You can foll

La Fabrica is a cycle cafe in the heart of Girona, merging the passions of its founders, husband and wife Christian and Amber, their vision and heart. Amber and Christian moved to Spain over 12 years ago when the promising career of a professional cyclist was offered to Christian in Girona. Starting as a Stagiaire, he was able to work his way to the top tier of the peloton, riding in races he had only dreamed of as a child. World Championships, The Classics in Europe to the National Championships in Canada… he was riding them all. While Amber was happy to support him, travel and live an enjoyable life of early retirement, she knew Christian’s cycling career was only going to be a long journey. So she decided to follow her dream of opening a a small, specialty coffee shop in their adopted hometown of Girona. After just 2 years, they were the owners of 3 incredible businesses at the forefront of cycling and coffee culture in Spain. In this episode you’ll hear the incredible story behind La Fabrica, Christian&ap

Goose's Quizzes are an Edinburgh based pub quiz company, taking a design-led approach to the world of pub quizzes. Since the Coronavirus lockdown, founder Goose has moved Goose's Quizzes entirely online, hosting pub quizzes every night on Twitch. In the space of just a few weeks, Goose’s Quizzes gained thousands of new followers, built a growing online community and created an entirely new revenue stream overnight, all driven by their purpose of bringing joy to viewers every single day. Join us as we delve into the fascinating story behind Goose's Quizzes. We discuss Goose's background in service design and how he's applied this to pub quizzes. You'll also hear how Goose has innovated his business model in a time of crisis with a focus on spreading joy. You can connect with Goose's Quizzes at goosesquizzes.com and you can listen to all their online quizzes at twitch.tv/goosesquizzes.The Never Settle Podcast is brought to you by Ashton McGill, a team of accountants and design

Vero are an Aberdeen-based recruitment agency disrupting their industry with an approach that's transparent, trusted and, most of all, human. Vero are unashamedly selective in their recruitment process and are amazing at what they do, taking a content-led approach to finding the right people for organistions. In this episode, you’ll hear co-founder Andrew Ferguson’s story, his forward-thinking approach to recruitment and his insights on finding the right people for your organisation. You can connect with Vero on Instagram @verorecruitment and check out their website verorecruitment.com.The Never Settle Podcast is brought to you by Ashton McGill, a team of accountants and designers who help people build better businesses. You can follow us here: Twitter https://twitter.com/ashtonmcgilluk Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ashtonmcgill/ Website https://www.ashtonmcgill.com 

To round off Season 3, we’re chatting with Illustrator and Ink Evangelist Johanna Basford OBE. Johanna’s illustrations are hand-drawn, predominantly in black and white. She has designed colouring books, wallpaper, beer labels, tattoos and even drawn on cars! But Johanna is perhaps best known for pioneering the adult colouring book trend. After studying at DJCAD, she was quickly noticed for her distinctive style, and since then has worked with global brands the likes of Starbucks, Penguin and Staedtler. Johanna’s story is a fascinating one of innovation and tenacity. And she doesn’t play by the rules. In this episode, we dig into the incredible journey from starting off as a young design student to now selling over 21 million colouring books worldwide and being awarded an OBE. Johanna has a real passion for giving people the tools to be creative in their own way, and she has just launched her own online course, Inky Art School, where she offers people a unique art school experience. Johanna also tells us about

Sarah Downs and Yekemi Otaru are cofounders and directors of Doqaru, a business management consultant based in Aberdeen. In their first eight months, they’ve hit the ground running. They’re now a team of 5 with award nominations, including a nomination for Scottish Startup Entrepreneurs of the Year in The Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Based in Aberdeen, the oil capital of Europe, Sarah and Yekemi talk about their experiences of running their separate businesses during the oil downturn and what it’s like running a business together in the energy sector of Aberdeen today. Before Doqaru, Yekemi also wrote a book, 'The Smart Sceptic's Guide to Social Media in Organisations', which reached the top 100 in 5 categories on Amazon. By merging together, they were able to offer a unique content marketing service to other technology and engineering businesses and provide a vertical alignment to an industry that didn’t have that. We dig into the journey of building a brand from a joint merger and how t

In this episode, we’re in conversation with the fabulous Deirdre Robertson, CEO of Dundee Heritage Trust. Dundee Heritage Trust runs 2 globally renowned 5 star visitor attractions in Dundee, both recently awarded a Certificate of Excellence in Trip Advisor’s Hall of Fame. Deirde and our podcast host Alasdair first met back in the 80s at Ernst & Young in Dundee, when the city was a very different place. We dig into the gradual regeneration of the city over those years, how Deirdre has seen the transformation of her hometown, and the impact of the new V&A Museum as it spreads outward. Very much epitomising the attitude of Never Settle, Deirdre has had a hugely varied career spanning many roles, from finance to art, which we begin to unpack in this episode. Her lifelong passion for art and for the City of Dundee have combined to form a fascinating journey, including a role in the Damien Hirst show at the Tate, the museum’s most commercially successful exhibition at the time, and a Masters Degree at DJCAD

In this episode, we chat with Ed Molyneux, Founder and CEO of FreeAgent. FreeAgent is an award-winning accounting platform that puts businesses in charge of their finances, with over 200 employees and more than 60,000 users worldwide. You’ll hear how Ed cofounded FreeAgent back in 2007 without any background in accountancy, and how the power of ignorance played a central role in the early days of the FreeAgent journey. It was a pivotal time for a lot of new businesses coming to market, and a pivotal time for the evolution of tech too, and we chat about how much the internet’s capability played a role in Ed deciding to do what he did in those early days. We also chat about building a culture and a brand and how Ed encouraged people to buy into what he’d created. Despite FreeAgent’s worldwide success, Ed isn’t one to rest on his laurels. He’s determined to Never Settle, always looking for new and innovative ways to grow the business, which he shares with us on the show. Finally, we delve into the future of Free

Colin Hewitt is cofounder and CEO of Float in Edinburgh, cash flow forecasting and financial management software for businesses. He’s disrupting the tech ecosystem on a mission to help people with the numbers so they can drive the right decisions for their business. In this episode, we delve into the early days of Colin’s first business, a web design agency If Looks Could Kill, and dig into the Float journey. You’ll hear how Float went from a solution for paying off Colin’s student debt to a Xero app partner and central dashboard for small businesses, with plans for international growth. We chat about the pivotal role of Edinburgh’s start-up culture in the development of Float, as well as the different ways businesses can get funding, from angel investors to crowdfunding. Colin tells us why it’s so critical for businesses to manage their cash flow and how they can do it. And finally, with Sweden set to become the world’s first cashless society by 2023, we delve into the future of cash flow management and FinT

In this special episode, you’ll hear from Ashton McGill, the faces behind the Never Settle podcast. We’re a team of accountants and designers who help people build better businesses, and in this episode, we explore the theme of bridging gaps between education and industry, and between accountants and business owners. Based on our accountant Alicia’s dissertation project, we also discuss the core skills an accountant should have in the 21st Century: communication, empathy, and curiosity, and the shifting role of the accountant in guiding you through the business landscape. And finally, we dig into the future of work, exploring the shift from the traditional 9-5 and what role technology will play in the near future. Never Settle is brought to you by Ashton McGill, a team of accountants and designers who help people build better businesses. You can follow us here:Twitter https://twitter.com/ashtonmcgilluk Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ashtonmcgill/ Website https://www.ashtonmcgill.com 

Rebecca Reid introduces Season 3 of the Never Settle Podcast and hints at some of our upcoming guests. Never Settle is brought to you by Ashton McGill, a team of accountants and designers who help people build better businesses. Follow us here:•Twitter: https://twitter.com/AshtonMcGillUK •Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashtonmcgill/ •Website: https://www.ashtonmcgill.com/

Vanilla Ink is Scotland’s unique Jewellery School and Studios. Established in Dundee in 2009, Vanilla Ink moved to Glasgow in 2014 and set up in their current home of The Hidden Lane in 2017. An environment that focuses on educating, inspiring and empowering the jewellery industry. Built on transparency and honesty, Vanilla Ink responds to the needs of the trade, giving makers the best opportunity to learn to be a jeweller/silversmith in today’s landscape. We chat to the Vanilla Ink team about the story of Vanilla Ink and where it's heading in the future. https://www.vanillainkstudios.co.uk

Rod Mountain is a specialist ear, nose and throat surgeon who operates and teaches at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. He is also championing the role that design, and the creative industries, can play in improving all aspects of care. “I consider myself as a mature ‘student of design’,” he says, looking to design and other areas of creativity for “helping society completely rethink, reinvent and redesign what is meant by health and social care”. If you want to hear more from Rod, then check out: his TEDxDundee Talk at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on3KttMgbZE his Pecha Kucha talk at https://creativedundee.com/2015/03/rodney-mountain-pkn/ and this interview that we did with him back in 2016 https://youtu.be/9hNMGCZVUZY

Not many people know Kallum Russell as Kallum Russell. To most, he’s Kallum with a K! That’s how you’ll find him on twitter, it’s also how he introduces himself, and how others introduce him. Kallum is Chief Enterprise Officer and co-founder at Acorn Enterprises, the now Dundee-based business accelerator programme. He’s won awards for his work from all sorts of people and was recently included on the Times Maserati 100 list. He didn’t get a free car though. We discuss Kallum’s journey, the growing ecosystem in Scotland that now supports entrepreneurship, why Acorn is different from the rest. And we talk about books. Kallum’s a voracious reader and shares some of his favourite books with us. Find Kallum on twitter @kallumwithak and on Instagram at @kwithakallum, you can also find Acorns at https://twitter.com/AcornEnterprise

Karen Reyburn is the founder of The Profitable Firm, a creative agency that works exclusively with accounting firms. She’s also an accountant. Not many people know that. She moved to Scotland in 2001, supposedly for 3 years, and never left! After joining an accounting firm, she moved into a Business Development role. This led to more creative roles within the accounting industry, before taking the plunge into entrepreneurship. Over the past few years she’s built PF into a specialist creative agency, working with accountants all over the globe. It’s built upon four pillars – creativity, integrity, generosity & rest. We explore all of these in detail, and how combine into creating something very special. You can follow Karen at: https://twitter.com/karenlreyburn https://twitter.com/ProfitableFirm https://www.instagram.com/karenlreyburn/

Julie Christie is the owner of online membership site Togs in Business, where she helps professional photographers run better businesses. Julie’s is an interesting story. Originally from the west coast of Scotland, where she trained and worked as a school teacher, Julie and her family moved across the country to the east after her husband got a job in Aberdeen. After deciding that she didn’t want to go back to teaching, Julie decided to see if she could make some money as a photographer. The rest is history! This is a fascinating listen, as Julie learned the ropes and pivoted to an online business. There’s so much to learn in this hour-long conversation. You can connect with Julie at: https://togsinbusiness.com/

DJCAD is rightly lauded as one of the top art & design schools in the UK. On today’s episode we speak to 4 final year Design students - Julie Cumming, Cameron Malcolm, Cameron Watt & Finlay Clark. All four are studying Product Design as part of DJCAD’s Social Digital programme. We discuss what brought them to Dundee, what they’ve learned during their time in the City, some of the exciting opportunities and projects they’ve been involved in, and where they look for inspiration. You’ll also be surprised to hear about their plans for the future. Support Social Digital’s Indiegogo campaign https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/social-digital-18-design#/ Follow the guys online at: Julie - https://twitter.com/juliecreatdthis Cameron M - https://twitter.com/CMalcs Cameron W - https://twitter.com/CWatt_PD Finlay https://www.instagram.com/fclark_designs/

Gary Turner is co-founder and managing director at Xero UK and is responsible for Xero's business operations across Europe, Middle East & Africa. Xero is the multi-award-winning global leader in online accounting software with more than 1.2 million paying subscribers around the world. Under Gary's leadership, Xero UK has scaled from a three-person startup with annual revenues of £50k to what will surpass £30m during 2018. A native of Glasgow, Gary previously held executive roles at Microsoft, Systems Union and Pegasus Software. In this episode we hear about Gary’s journey in the world of accounting software, explore what makes him tick, and talk about delivery robots in Milton Keynes! Follow Gary on Twitter at https://twitter.com/garyturner Follow Xero at https://twitter.com/Xero You can find The Cluetrain Manifesto, which Gary talks about and which was also a hugely influential book for me at http://www.cluetrain.com/ Finally, here’s a link to a story about the delivery robots in MK https:

Kev & Gillian O’Neill are the co-founders of video marketing agency 29 Studios. I’ve been lucky enough to work with them several times over the past dozen years or so. In this episode we explore their journey as video pioneers and hear about their experiences working in Silicon valley with brands like YouTube and Google. They share their passions for travel, for exploring the world, for pushing the boundaries, and we talk about creating culture within a business. You can connect with them via the website at https://www.29studios.com/ or on twitter at https://twitter.com/29studios, https://twitter.com/kevoneil & https://twitter.com/gillianoneil You’ll find their 29ers Show on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/29studiosUK

Ryan McLeod is a Dundee-based Designer. He’s also the host of the popular Creative Chit Chat Podcast. After graduating from DJCAD, Ryan did a Masters in Design before spending time in Canada. After returning to Scotland, he did a stint working in one of the country’s biggest agencies before moving back to Dundee and setting up his own design studio, Slurpp. In 2017 Ryan launched the Creative Chit Chat podcast, which tells the stories of Dundee’s thriving creative sector. In this episode we talk about Ryan’s journey, dig into the design process, solve the problem of Dundee’s taxi service, and explore the benefits of side projects. You can follow Ryan on twitter at https://twitter.com/madebyslurpp, find his websites at http://madebyslurpp.com/ and http://cccdundee.com/ and of course you can subscribe to Creative Chit Chat on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/creative-chit-chat-dundee/id1173354319?mt=2