Unscripted with Spencer Lodge

What do you do in a world where massive billboards on motorways are ignored in favour of a smartphone screen, and nobody believes that your product actually looks like the one on your website? Andrew Burgess is an expert in helping brands to incorporate User Generated Content into their marketing and communications. He proves that there is an entire world of content at your consumer's fingertips and the content they truly value the most is made by other consumers - so it's about time businesses start taking advantage of it.

This interview is one that I was really excited about, because it gave me the chance to really dig into the world of podcasting with two other podcasters who are a bit further along in their journey than I am. It was amazing to have the chance to speak to them about the role that podcasting has played in their business and why they believe all businesses need to be using this and other content platforms to grow and develop! Siddharth is an established player in the startup ecosystem in the UAE, as well as a youtuber with 24,000 subscibers - well known for tech reviews and living in Dubai. Mamta is a very recognisable face on the agency marketing circuit here in Dubai, speaking at various conferences and leading campaigns for huge brands.

It's a first, but I wanted to break up the show after 10 episodes and bring you an interview where I was the subject at a local radio station here in Dubai called Dance FM. I went in at the beginning of the year to speak about why the sales industry is a bit of an orphanage, maintaining New Year’s Resolutions and goals in general, as well as advice that I still give to the senior leadership teams that I hire or report to me. I really enjoyed this interview at Dance FM and a special thanks to Gemma Sexton and the team for welcoming me on to the Beats & Bloggers segment of The Vibe with Gemma.

Last week I spent some time catching up with a good friend of mine, Mat Wilson, CEO of Einstein Marketer; in Meribel in the French Alps. Skiing has always been something that we both gravitated towards, so it was wonderful to get the chance to meet up with him on the slopes. As you'll hear in the interview, we're in our hotel room in our ski gear, fresh off the slopes - discussing the state of the union of digital advertising through social media, using funnels, awareness campaigns, and lead generation tools. Mat is always going out of his way to shed some light on an industry that's often pretty mysterious - so make sure you're taking notes! I hope that you enjoy this interview as much as Mat and I enjoyed making it!

Harvey Bennett is the Co-founder of an Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning based Recruitment tool used to determine whether or not a candidate is a good fit for an organisation, in terms of values, behaviour, or even work ethic. Harvey brings past experience as a startup founder with experience in scaling businesses through securing massive clients, high-quality investors, as well as building successful teams to do it. Harvey's approach to business, innovation, and mindset is a refreshing break from the modern-day belief that anyone is an entrepreneur. Harvey's journey of building this business from the ground up with his wife is an incredible story and I was so excited to have him on the show!

Gaining 250,000 organic followers in only a few years is no easy feat. Neither is moving to a new country as a teenager and being forced to learn two new languages. Eljammi Gozalli is no stranger to hard work, and it's clear that in her life and businesses, she is willing to put in the work to gain the reward. I loved doing this episode as Eljammi is a close friend of mine, and someone in whom I see a lot of my own traits when I was beginning my career. You'll get some great insights into her life, her successes and some of the hardships that came with it.

As a football fan myself, having seen Mikaëls successes over the years as a professional athlete, I was so excited to get the chance to dig deeper into the psychology behind that success, and what it meant to retire from his profession at such a young age. After having played professionally across the globe in France, England, Italy, Germany, the US, and India - Mikaël's story has taken an amazing turn as he breaks the mould for retired athletes with a few of his own entrepreneurial ventures.

This episode is a very exciting one. I had the opportunity to interview someone that I respect greatly about a topic that I find fascinating and am still learning about to this day every time I speak to her. Heather Wilde is the CTO of multiple conglomerates, a coach, TEDTalk specialist, and above all things incredible entrepreneur. Her wisdom and experience range from training to be an astronaut to studying literature at the University of Cambridge. I know that you'll enjoy this episode!

It was an absolute pleasure to do this interview with Iman Oubou, Founder & CEO of Swaay Media, a media agency creating content that is focused at women that are looking for executive, and business content on a beautiful and engaging platform. I loved getting to know more about her story and understanding how her journey from Morocco to the US at 15 lead her to the incredible entrepreneur she is today!

I can't say how much I enjoyed this interview with the absolute character that is Omar Al Busaidy. He's an incredibly talented, and charismatic entrepreneur from the UAE and his story is so inspiring. I'm very glad that I had the opportunity to chat with him and find out how he sees the world of business and personal development. Omar Al Busaidy is an author, entrepreneur, member of World Economic Forum's Global Shapers Community, and radio host on Sharjah's Pulse95 Radio.