Make Time: A business podcast by 25eight

About Make Time: A business podcast by 25eight

For capable business owners who want to make better decisions, build stronger systems and use AI intelligently, while keeping sight of the life they're building the business for. Hosted by Samantha Hurley, CEO of 25eight, each episode delivers research-backed thinking on human potential, business capability, AI adoption, leadership development, and small business growth. Practical actions that you can use immediately helping you lead a business on your own terms.

Publisher

Sam Hurley | 25eight

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Mar 2025

Latest episode

17 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

43 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Sept 2026

   How to Build an Intentional Business That Works for You

   What is an intentional business, and how do you build one that works for you? Sam Hurley explains why effort eventually stops moving a business forward, how disconnected systems make the owner the system, and why your vision for life should shape the business you build. You'll leave with a practical 15-minute exercise to identify what needs to change next. An intentional business is designed around a clear relationship between what the owner wants and what the business needs to become. It does not rely on the owner’s constant effort to hold everything together. Its decisions, systems and use of technology support the owner’s definition of success, whether that means international growth, a stronger team, more meaningful work, a future sale or more time away from the business. In the first episode of The Intentional Business, 25eight founder and CEO Sam Hurley explains why the former Make Time podcast has evolved and introduces the central idea behind the new series: The question is not how much more you can do. It is what you want your business to make possible, and what needs to change for that to become true. In this episode, you will learn: Why working harder eventually stops moving a business forward What it means when the owner has become the business system The difference between a reactive business and an intentional business Why success must be defined by the owner How marketing, capacity, cash flow, leadership, customers and technology affect one another Why the most visible business problem is not always the real constraint How poorly directed AI can produce confusion faster Why human judgement becomes more important as technology becomes more capable A 15-minute exercise to clarify what you want your business to make possible 25eight looks at business through six connected systems: Human: the people, human capabilities, energy and potential within the business Leadership: the ability to set direction, make decisions and lead change Business: the strategy, commercial model, financial foundations and operating structure Community: customers, partners, networks and the wider community around the business Capacity: the time, energy, people and resources available to perform and grow Digital & AI: the technology, data, workflows and AI that support how work gets done These systems are interconnected. Marketing affects capacity. Capacity affects customer experience. Cash flow affects decision-making. Leadership affects the team. Technology changes how work is completed. A weakness in one area can appear as a problem somewhere else. Useful links Take the complimentary 25eight Capability Snapshot See what is working, where your business needs strengthening and whether your foundations are ready for AI. https://www.25eight.co/snapshot (https://www.25eight.co/snapshot) Join The Intentional Business newsletter Get one practical weekly email to help you make better decisions, build stronger systems and use AI intelligently. https://www.25eight.co/subscribe (https://www.25eight.co/subscribe) Explore 25eight https://www.25eight.co (https://www.25eight.co) About Sam Hurley Sam Hurley is the founder and CEO of 25eight, a certified B Corporation that helps capable small business owners build the systems, confidence and judgement required for their next stage of growth. Her work sits at the intersection of business systems, human capability and AI, drawing on more than 20 years of international commercial and digital transformation experience, a Master of Teaching and her work as a coach. The Intentional Business is a podcast for capable owners who want to make better decisions, build stronger systems and use AI intelligently while keeping sight of the life they are building the business for.

2. 

   22 Jul 2026

   AI GIves You Time: But Only You Can Decide What To Use It For

   AI Can Save You Time, but It Cannot Decide What That Time Is For One of the biggest promises surrounding AI is that it will give us time back. It can draft the email, summarise the meeting, analyse information, update systems and complete in minutes what may previously have taken hours. But saving time is not the same as having more time. When technology removes one task, many of us simply replace it with another. We answer more messages, create more content, take on more clients, attend more meetings and increase the amount we expect ourselves to achieve. In this episode of Make Time, Sam Hurley explores why greater efficiency does not automatically create greater freedom, and why AI may make us even busier unless we consciously decide what we want the time it creates to be used for. Sam reflects on her own experience of building an AI-enabled business system designed to reduce her workload, only to find herself filling the newly created space with more work. She examines how busyness can become connected to identity, value and status, particularly for business owners who have no external limit on what counts as enough. Our workplaces often reward what is visible and easy to measure: hours worked, emails answered, meetings attended, reports produced, content published and tasks completed. But the work that creates the greatest value may be less visible. Preventing a problem may attract less recognition than fixing it. Designing a business that works without its owner may feel less validating than being constantly needed. Taking time to think carefully may look less productive than responding immediately. The episode also explores what previous time-saving technologies can teach us about AI. Washing machines reduced the effort involved in doing laundry, but expectations around cleanliness and washing frequency increased. Email made individual communication faster, but created an enormous new volume of communication. Smartphones gave us flexibility, while also allowing work to follow us everywhere. The recurring pattern is clear: technology creates capacity, but people, culture and expectations determine where that capacity goes. AI may reduce the time required to complete an individual task while our expectations consume that time across the wider system. The real opportunity is not simply to do the same work faster. It is to reconsider the work, the business and perhaps even the life we have built around it. Why saving time does not necessarily mean having more time How efficiency can lead to increased expectations and workloads Why business owners are particularly vulnerable to filling every available space How busyness can become tied to identity, value and status The difference between visible output and meaningful contribution What washing machines, email and smartphones can teach us about AI Why lower production costs often lead to greater demand and volume How AI can amplify both intentionality and overwork Why agency must be part of the conversation about AI adoption The questions to ask before filling the space AI creates How AI could support a more meaningful business and life Before deciding what to automate, ask: What am I actually trying to create? Is producing more genuinely the goal? What role do I want work to play in my life? What would enough look like for me? What would I do with more time if my value were not measured by how much I produced? AI can help us explore these questions, identify patterns and consider different possibilities. But it cannot decide what a meaningful life or successful business should look like for us. Subscribe to the Make Time podcast and the 25eight weekly newsletter for practical insights on leadership, decision-making, business capability and intentional AI adoption. For business owners ready to develop themselves and their business while building an AI-enabled business system, explore the Next Level Growth Program. https://www.25eight.co/next-level-growth-program

3. 

   16 Jul 2026

   Why Clarity is Your Secret Weapon with AI

   You signed up for the AI tool everyone was talking about. You experimented with prompts, produced some useful outputs and felt that initial spark of possibility.Then, a few months later, you realised the business was still operating in much the same way. You still felt busy, the results were inconsistent and the promised productivity gains had not quite appeared.In this episode of Make Time, host Sam Hurley explores why adopting an AI tool does not automatically create meaningful change within a business.The problem may not be the tool, and it does not necessarily mean you are using AI incorrectly. More often, AI has been added to processes, habits and ways of working that were never designed to support it.AI does not fix the process underneath. It operates on top of it and inherits whatever is already there.Sam explains why successful AI adoption is primarily a leadership, capability and change-management challenge rather than a technical one. She explores the foundations that need to be in place before AI can consistently improve the way a business operates.These include having clarity about the outcome you want to create, understanding and documenting the process underneath, and ensuring that the people involved are supported to work differently.You will also learn why a messy or undocumented workflow can lead to fast but inconsistent results, why relying on one enthusiastic AI user limits business-wide value and how unclear expectations force AI tools to make assumptions about what good should look like.The clearer your processes, decisions, data and desired outcomes become, the more effectively both your people and your AI tools can operate.An unclear business can use AI to amplify its chaos. A clear business can use AI to amplify its capability.### In this episode:* Why useful AI outputs do not always translate into business results* The risks of bolting AI onto an existing process* Why AI adoption often stalls after the initial experimentation stage* The connection between AI adoption and organisational change* Why clarity about the problem must come before choosing the tool* How undocumented processes create inconsistent AI outputs* Why AI adoption is a leadership and capability challenge* How to identify the underlying capability gap affecting your results* Why people, processes and decision-making matter more than prompting alone* How business clarity allows AI to create greater value### Assess your business’s readiness for AIThe **Small Business Capability Snapshot** is a complimentary diagnostic designed to help you understand whether your business has the foundations needed to adopt AI effectively. https://capability-snapshor.25eight.coIt takes approximately eight minutes to complete, and you can return to your results at any time.The snapshot can help you identify whether your next priority should be improving your processes, data, decision-making, delegation or another foundational business capability.### Stay connectedSign up for the 25eight weekly newsletter for practical guidance on strengthening your business foundations, building capability and integrating AI intentionally. https://www.25eight.co/newsletter-signupBecause the clearer your business becomes, the more effectively AI can help you aim further and achieve more.

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.