1 million conversations

Quint Boa has spent over 25 years running Synima, a video production and animation company he built from a bedroom in 2000. He's also a qualified psychotherapist. And he's deep inside the AI wave hitting the creative industries, while being one of many that is genuinely worried about where it's going. In this conversation, James sits down with Quint to talk about running a creative business and navigating 25 years of technological change, through betamax cameras, the DSLR revolution, 4K and now AI. He discusses why he keeps an urn on his desk, and how the real frontier of AI isn't the technology, it's whether we'll still be able to trust what we see or hear. Quint is frank about being inside a wave he has real reservations about, about protecting the craft of animation, and about why the premium is going to fall to face-to-face human interaction in the years ahead. Along the way Quint shares a philosophy for how to live when you know the clock is running, why authenticity will ultimately win out, and a challenge for anyone thinking about building something themselves - just give it a shot, and use AI to go further than you would alone. Connect with Quint Learn more about Synima - https://www.synima.com/ Quint’s personal work - https://quintboa.com/animation-production-for-mental-health/ Connect with Quint on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/videoandanimationproductionlondon/

Ella Halliday spent 15 years in corporate HR watching organisations spend a fortune on ping pong tables and pizza Fridays, while the people inside them had no psychological safety, no trust, and no real culture to speak of. So she left… with nothing to go on to. At the same time she was dealing with a separation, three children under six, a mortgage and no income. Yet this decision would pave the way for her future success. Wanting to truly make a difference, she started her own HR business, gave herself six months and threw everything at it, and somewhere along the way she started a second brand, for a sector she'd watched give everything for almost nothing in return. That second brand, Childcare HR, exists because Ella genuinely cares. About the people who shaped her children's earliest years, but who are chronically underpaid and undervalued. About small providers trying to do right by their staff with no support and no roadmap. And about working mothers who are still quietly written off in interview rooms before they've said a word. This is a conversation about what it actually takes to back yourself and make something happen when you have no other option. About building something with purpose rather than just ambition. And about why the things most worth fighting for are usually the ones everyone else has already walked past. Ella is funny, direct, and completely without pretence. By the end of this conversation, you'll want to go and do the thing you've been talking yourself out of. Connect with Ella directly - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-halliday Learn more about Six HR - http://www.six-hr.com Learn more about Childcare HR - https://www.childcarehr.co.uk Learn more about Pregnant Then Screwed - https://pregnantthenscrewed.com

Kelly Drewett started building websites at 19, at a time when most people didn't know what one was. Twenty-five years later, she's still doing it - and loving it! Not many people can say they knew what they wanted to be from so early on and many change course. Kelly has watched the web design industry transform completely, multiple times over - from HTML and dial-up connections, to WordPress, mobile and now AI - and her relationship to that change is what makes this conversation worth your time. She's not anxious about it. She's curious. Some of that curiosity was inherited. Kelly's mum bought a computer before most households had one, taught her daughter to type, and when Kelly said she wanted to leave her first job in illustration to build websites, she gave her blessing and her computer, despite saying “why would anyone use a website”. That kind of belief at the beginning of something, from the people we most want it from, matters more than most people admit. For most of those 25 years Kelly worked entirely alone, keeping the business deliberately small so she could travel the world as one of the OG digital nomads! Now, for the first time, she's building a team and finding new passions in leadership. This is a conversation about loving your work across the long run. About staying relevant and understanding disruptions without chasing every trend. And about what it means to have someone in your corner from the very start. Connect with Kelly directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellydrewett/ Learn about her business Kaydee Web: https://kaydee.net/

What does it take to build something from nothing - a feature film, a tech company, a political career? Steffan Aquarone has done all three.  In this episode of One Million Conversations, I sit down with the Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk to discuss an extraordinary career - from producing a low budget, community-made, British feature film in an Oxfordshire village, through building and advising tech businesses, to winning a parliamentary seat he spent years working towards. Steffan talks about growing up in a single parent family, running a pub at eighteen, closing down a startup the night Brexit unravelled his funding round, and why the UK Government needs to find a way to encourage constructive conversations with people from all sides with all manners of viewpoints, to find a way forward as a country. But this conversation is ultimately about something bigger than one person's career. It's about why community matters, what it takes to make something happen and how to rally people together in support of an idea. Connect with Steffan directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steffanaquarone/ https://www.instagram.com/steffanaquarone/  https://bsky.app/profile/steffanaquarone.bsky.social  https://www.libdems.org.uk/mps/north-norfolk  Our conversation at a glance: Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction 00:05:22 Making things happen - a passion for community projects 00:10:37 The early experiences that informed his leadership style and confidence 00:13:58 Do entrepreneurs make good politicians? 00:16:07 Stepping out of the boardroom and into Politics 00:23:19 Closing down a business 00:25:21 The state of the UK tech industry 00:32:24 How do you actually become an MP? 00:36:50 The role of social media in reaching constituents 00:40:52 What makes Norfolk special 00:44:32 Steffan’s hopes and visions for the UK 00:47:44 Quickfire Questions

What if the way we've been running workplaces has been wrong all along? Sarah Dena spent 25 years working inside the HR profession, only to come to a painful realisation - she'd probably contributed to some of the very practices that make workplaces feel dehumanising. In this conversation, Sarah, Managing Director of New Wave Learning and founder of The Culturevators, makes a compelling case for emotional culture - the idea that how people feel at work determines how they behave, and that leaders who ignore this are leaving their most valuable data on the table. We get into what culture actually means, the gap between a leader's intent and the impact they create, why returning to the office is really a conversation about trust, and what it means to bring your whole self to work without it falling apart. Sarah also reflects candidly on leaving corporate life, building a business from scratch, raising emotionally confident daughters, and why she believes the window to make workplaces more human is right now. This is a conversation about leadership, connection, and what it really takes to create conditions where people can do the best work of their lives. Learn more about The Culturevators: https://www.culturevator.co.uk/ Learn more abont New Wave Learning: https://www.newwavelearning.com/ Connect with Sarah directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdena/ Our conversation at a glance: Chapters 00:00:00 Intro to Sarah and New Wave Learning 00:04:24 How The Culturevators started from pain 00:07:03 What do we mean by culture in the workplace? 00:12:23 How to get people on board with company values 00:15:20 How much of yourself should you bring to work? 00:23:05 The next generation of leaders are changing things 00:28:21 Accepting that we all have biases 00:33:54 How to create culture when our teams are spread across the world 00:39:02 Should working hours matter? 00:46:15 The problem with the term "human resources" 00:48:08 Why Sarah left her HR career 01:00:03 Sarah's vuision to help parents raise emotionally intelligent children 01:12:13 Future workplaces - will we have AI managers? 01:19:12 Quickfire Questions

In this episode of 1 million conversations, I speak with Peter Mols, Co-Founder of Mastermind 9, a mastermind group for business owners looking to grow. Peter has been a life long entrepreneur and advocate of entrepreneurship, but he’d be the first to admit that he’s had his fair share of struggle along the way. We talk about what Mastermind9 is and how he’s building it - alongside his wife and Co-Founder Sarah and what it’s like working as a husband and wife duo. We discuss his journey with depression after the failure of his first company, and how he’s learned to stay focused whilst living with ADHD. Peter is also an intrepid traveller and makes some great suggestions in our Quickfire round, so stay tuned until the end! Thank you so much for watching and listening. If there’s someone you know who’s building something special, let us know and we’ll see what we can do. James Our conversation at a glance: Chapters 00:05:46 Grow so big you’ll need a bigger dream 00:10:40 Being a business owner is hard 00:13:56 Should you aim to scale your business beyond just yourself 00:21:33 When should you go and get your first employee 00:26:03 Finding honest feedback and why your friends and family won’t tell you the truth 00:34:21 Staying focused whilst managing ADHD 00:38:23 Working with a romantic partner 00:46:57 Peter’s first business and why it failed 00:52:44 Depression after failure 00:56:10 Overcoming failure and never giving up 01:00:35 Finding purpose beyond money 01:10:05 How to find motivation when you’re feeling low 01:13:59 Sarah (Pete’s wife) interrupts, and shares her take on working together 01:18:27 Quickfire Questions Connect with Peter Learn more about Peter’s company Mastermind9: https://mastermind9.com/ Connect with Peter directly https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermols/