The Progress in Practice Podcast brings together successful service-based business owners for honest, high-impact conversations about growth, purpose, and the lessons learned along the way. Each episode is just 20 minutes of real wisdom from people who've built something worth talking about, brought to you by The Trusted Team. Listen in, and take something useful away every time.
Season 1: From Footballers to Founders: Sam Sloma on Lifestyle Financial Planning
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading sits down with Sam Sloma, founder of Engage Financial Services - a fixed fee lifestyle financial planning firm based in North London serving professional footballers, entrepreneurs, and those approaching retirement. Sam's journey to building his own firm is rooted in two very specific moments of clarity: a client who couldn't understand why his fee doubled when he simply added more money, and the realisation that his clients were loyal ...
15 Jul 2026
Season 1: Control the Controllables: Simon Dent on Building Brands, Businesses and Ultramarathon Resilience
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading sits down with Simon Dent, Chairman of Firmative, the creative company that puts brands in culture, working with the likes of Netflix, Atlantic Records, Sony and Universal. Simon is the first guest to bridge Charlie's two podcasts, The Business of Endurance and Progress in Practice, and the conversation shows exactly why. From cutting his teeth as a London club promoter to founding sports creative agency Dark Horses, and from hitting ro...
8 Jul 2026
Season 1: From Near-Death on Honeymoon to Award-Winning Estate Planning Practice with Matt Smith
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading sits down with Matthew Smith, founder of Buckingham Gate Chartered Financial Planners, to explore how he built an award-winning estate planning practice and then turned his competitors into his clients. Matthew shares the extraordinary story of nearly dying on his honeymoon and how that experience inspired both the launch of his business and his passion for estate planning. He explains why Inheritance Tax is rapidly becoming a mainstrea...
1 Jul 2026
Season 1: Beyond the Block: Rewiring the Beliefs Beneath Your Limits with Jill Martin
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading sits down with Jill Martin, founder of Impact Business Consultancy, to get under the bonnet of how we really operate as humans and why the founder is always the biggest block in the business. Jill works with impact and purpose-driven entrepreneurs who are already high-achieving, but know they're not accessing everything they have to give. Rather than managing limitations or working around them, her approach undoes the beliefs beneath th...
24 Jun 2026
Season1: Free Management, Five-Year Guarantees, and Getting Out of Your Own Way with Felix Mead
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Felix Mead, founder of Sliq Homes- a London-based property management business built on a model that still raises eyebrows: free management, free maintenance, free refurbishment, and a guaranteed rent for five years. The model works because Sliq Homes converts three and four-bed family homes into high-quality HMOs for working professionals, creating the margin that makes the free service possible. But the business behind th...
17 Jun 2026
Season 1: Promoted Because You Were Good: Eradicating Bad Management with Mark Stanton
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Mark Stanton, co-founder of Develop People- a leadership and personal development practice working with manufacturers, engineers, regulated industries, and professional services firms to help technically excellent people become genuinely effective leaders. Mark spent nearly three decades in policing, retiring at a senior level having led teams of up to 600 people, before joining the business his wife Emma had founded ...
10 Jun 2026
Season 1: The One Minute Healer: Making Wellness Work for Busy People with Lakhmi Bhambra
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Lakhmi Bhambra- also known as The One Minute Healer- founder of the 111 Approach, a wellness practice built around a simple but powerful premise: one thing at a time, one minute to do it properly, one day at a time. Lakhmi's path to wellness is anything but conventional. With a science degree and a background in the medical field, she spent years dismissing energy healing as woo, right up until a Reiki session with her aunt...
3 Jun 2026
Season 1: No Mission Reaches Orbit by Accident: From Rocket Scientist to Career Coach with Amanda Regan
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Amanda Regan, founder of Ignite Your Career- a coaching practice helping high-performing mid-career professionals reposition their careers deliberately so they can step into the person they've already become. Amanda's path to coaching is extraordinary. Streamed wrongly at secondary school, told she wasn't A-level material, and rejected by every advanced school she applied to, she went on to spend 20 years at the European Sp...
27 May 2026
Season 1: Stop Fearing the Fall: Building an AI-Powered Marketing Platform from the Ground Up with Charles Maloney
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Charles Maloney, founder of ClearView — an autonomous sales and marketing intelligence platform designed to automate up to 85% of the manual execution behind SEO, paid ads, and analytics for small and medium-sized businesses. Charles brings a fresh perspective to the podcast as a founder right at the start of his journey — building, raising capital, and refining a product he believes can transform the odds for the 82% of bu...
20 May 2026
Season 1: Trust Your Gut, Follow Your Love: Building a Luxury Interior Design Business the Unconventional Way with Annie Allison
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Annie Allison, founder of Allison & Co — a luxury interior design studio working on high-end residential projects across the UK and Europe. Annie's path into interior design wasn't traditional — it grew organically from creativity, curiosity, and a willingness to follow what she loved. In this warm and honest conversation, she shares the story behind a landmark project in the south of France, the importance of not being...
13 May 2026
Season 1: Doing It Right Since 1998: Fee-Based Financial Planning, Cash Flow Modelling, and the Power of Doing What You Love with Paul Spires
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Paul Spires, founder of Sound Financial Planning — a firm he built from the ground up in 1998 with a clear mission: to give clients proper, fee-based financial planning at a time when the rest of the industry was still focused on flogging products. Paul brings 36 years of experience to a conversation that is warm, wise, and packed with practical insight. He talks about the courage it takes to charge what you're worth, the t...
6 May 2026
Season 1: From Human Robot to AI Pioneer: Cutting Through the Noise on Vertical AI with Chetan Joshi
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie sits down with Chetan Joshi, founder of coglateral.ai, a specialist firm helping business owners, entrepreneurs and financial services firms move from AI experimentation to real-world execution. Chetan unpacks the difference between generative AI and vertical AI, explains why most organisations are paralysed by choice rather than by a lack of technology, and shares the seven-step vertical AI A.U.T.O.B.O.T. framework he built to help businesses ...
29 Apr 2026
Season 1: Stop Settling, Start Leading: Championing the People Who Run Businesses from the Inside with Michelle Hoskin
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Michelle Hoskin, founder of Standards International and the Business and Operations Management Network, known as BOMS Michelle shares how nearly three decades of working with business owners led her to a bold pivot: walking away from coaching business owners to champion the operations managers, practice managers, and business managers who are the unsung backbone of professional service firms. This is an energetic, honest, a...
22 Apr 2026
Season 1: Turning Complex Cases into Yeses: Building a Specialist Mortgage Business with Ross Jones
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance. Ross shares how his business was born out of adversity, why he is passionate about helping clients whose income does not fit the standard box, and how specialising in more complex mortgage scenarios has allowed his firm to create real value. This is a candid conversation about entrepreneurship, mistakes, patience, bravery, and the reality that in most busi...
15 Apr 2026
Season 1: Beyond Compliance- Using Your Numbers to Build a Better Business with Steve Price
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Steve Price from Inspire, an accountancy firm with a very different approach. Rather than simply helping business owners stay compliant, Steve and his team focus on helping owner-managed businesses understand, use, and improve their numbers so they can build a business that serves their life, instead of becoming a slave to it. This conversation explores the deeper role accountants can play, the power of mentoring and accoun...
10 Apr 2026
Season 1: Health, Performance & Longevity: Building a High-Performance Life with Claire Fudge
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Claire Fudge, founder of Fourth Discipline, clinical dietitian, performance nutritionist, and elite athlete. Claire shares how she helps business professionals, founders, and executives who are also athletes optimise their health, nutrition, and performance - not just to feel better, but to compete and thrive for decades to come. This is a conversation about far more than food. Claire opens up about growing up in a family b...
9 Apr 2026
Season 1: Integrity Under Pressure: Navigating Complex Deals & Building Resilient Businesses with Bhavik Shah
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading is joined by Bhavik Shah, founder of Providus Capital - a specialist in complex, time-sensitive property finance. Bhavik shares how his business supports developers facing challenging situations where traditional funding falls short, and why thinking like a principal (not a lender) creates a powerful competitive edge. This conversation goes deeper than deals. From experiencing insolvency to rebuilding with stronger foundations, Bhavik o...
8 Apr 2026
Season 1: Stop Being the Bottleneck: Matt Baird on Outsourcing, Optimising, and Getting Your Life Back
In this episode of Progress in Practice, Charlie Reading sits down with Matt Bird from Accelerate Advisor Solutions to explore what it really takes to grow a professional services business without sacrificing your time, team, or sanity. Matt shares how financial advisers across the UK are reclaiming hours each week by outsourcing and optimising their operations and why the real transformation isn’t just increased profitability, but getting their life back. From navigating self-doubt as a youn...
Contact Progress in Practice Podcast
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Progress in Practice Podcast?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
