Scale Her Up

About Scale Her Up

If you are a female business owner, self-employed freelancer, or girl boss who wants to build a successful business i.e. work less hours, make more money, and get better results from your staff, then this is the podcast for you. Hosted by Dr Brenda Hector MBA from ActionCOACH UK, this podcast provides relatable and accessible business advice and inspiration from successful businesswomen who have been there and done it before you. This podcast is where you can • hear female business stories • share business success • learn how to overcome business challenges • get advice for businesswomen aspiring to success • find out what needs to change • discover how we can bring about that business revolution Only 1 in 3 UK entrepreneurs are female. UK men are 5 times more likely than women to build a business of over £1million turnover If UK women matched UK men in starting and scaling businesses, it would add £250 billion to the UK economy (Alison Rose, The Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship 2018) As a woman in business, a business coach, and a business growth expert, Brenda’s mission is to help business owners grow their companies, achieve their goals and live the lifestyle of their dreams. She's the help you need to grow your business.

Publisher

Brenda Hector

Category

business · business · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

5 Feb 2021

Latest episode

9 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

190 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   9 Oct 2026

   Her Mum Spotted a Job Ad in the Newspaper — Now She's MD of an Employee-Owned Company That Works for the UN and the EU: Lucy Harrier of Prepress Projects

   In this episode of Scale HER Up, I'm joined by Lucy Harrier — managing director of Prepress Projects Limited, a copy editing, proofreading, and publishing services company based in Perth, Scotland. Prepress Projects has been going since the early 1990s, started by a husband and wife team. In 2022, it transitioned to employee ownership — a succession model that kept the business and the jobs in Perth. Fourteen of the 16 staff are women. Their clients include UNICEF, UN Women, the UN Population Fund, and the Publications Office of the European Union. Most of their work is with overseas clients — they've worked with over 53 UNICEF country offices across the world, from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Uzbekistan. Lucy came to Prepress from a completely different direction. She had a PhD in plant molecular biology and spent nearly a decade as a lecturer. Her mum spotted a small ad in the Courier and suggested she apply. She joined as a publishing assistant, enrolled in an MSc in publishing at the same time, and 20-plus years later is the MD. We cover: What employee ownership actually means for a business — and why it was the right succession option for Prepress Brexit: how it wiped out ~15 EU agency contracts overnight, and the creative solution (a Luxembourg partnership with Lexilux) that got them back in Trump-era UN funding cuts: what geopolitics does to a small company in Perth with a global client base AI and copy editing: not a threat, but potentially a bigger opportunity — because AI-generated text still needs a human to check it The Institute of Directors: why becoming a Chartered Director transformed how Lucy approaches her role, and why she recommends it to anyone stepping into a directorship Resilience: navigating Brexit, a lost major UK contract, and personal bereavement at the same time The Monday Motivation: what Lucy publishes to the team every week A meeting in 2026 where a business contact spoke to her male colleague and ignored her entirely — and what happened next Quote of the episode: "Treat people how you want to be treated yourself." — Lucy Harrier Playlist song: Human — Rag'n'Bone Man ("It doesn't rev me up, but it gives me peace.")

2. 

   6 Oct 2026

   She Was Told She Was Their Best Performing MD — But She Didn't Fit In. So She Built Her Own Agency: Rowan Morrison of We Are Rationale

   In this episode of Scale HER Up, I'm joined by Rowan Morrison — co-MD and co-founder of We Are Rationale (or Rationale, day-to-day), a brand agency based in Edinburgh specialising in regulated markets — financial services, healthcare, health tech, med tech. They're also a B Corp, which means values-driven impact isn't an afterthought. It's built in. Rowan set up Rationale with her co-founder Sven Clouston six months before the pandemic. She is a Women's Enterprise Scotland ambassador and a member of the 93% Club — and this conversation goes into both. She dropped out of school. She was the first in her family to go to university. Entrepreneurship wasn't something she saw people like her do. She came up through marketing, landed in a senior role she didn't ask for, was dragged into it by a mentor who saw something she didn't, and eventually broke out to set up something of her own. She was also told by a previous CEO, in what was apparently intended as a pep talk, that she was probably his best performing MD — but that she didn't fit in. She was delighted. We cover: What Rationale does: brand and creative strategy in regulated markets, emotional connection even in B2B and insurance Setting up six months before the pandemic and growing steadily through it How a female mentor saw something in Rowan before she saw it in herself — and dragged her into leadership kicking and screaming Dr. Martens at board meetings, challenging authority, and not being anyone else's version of a managing director The 93% Club: 93% of the UK went to state school, but a very small percentage own the wealth or run the businesses — and what that means in Edinburgh specifically Hiring for diversity of thought: why she wants people in her team who take things in directions she wouldn't have AI: where it's useful, where it's not, and why using AI to do your creative work is "feeding the lion that will eat you" Being proud of yourself as a mum and a business owner — and her sons telling her they're proud of her The David Bowie quote that sums up her philosophy Quote of the episode: "You don't ever have to be someone else's version of who you are." — Rowan Morrison

3. 

   2 Oct 2026

   She Started Cleaning Houses to Work Around Her Kids — 12 Years Later She Has 30 Staff: Kerryann Martin of K&M Cleaning Services

   In this episode of Scale HER Up, I'm joined by Kerryann Martin — owner and managing director of K&M Cleaning Services Limited. Kerryann started in 2014. Her son was only months old. Her daughter was in nursery. The plan was simple: go out and clean some houses, work around the school hours, answer to nobody. "Oh, how that changed very quickly." Twelve years on, K&M Cleaning Services has 30 staff and a service list that now includes domestic cleaning, deep cleans, tenancy cleaning, commercial contracts, carpet and upholstery cleaning, laundry, and biohazard cleaning. None of that was the original plan. Most of it was opportunistic at first, then strategic, then (as she puts it) all at once because she couldn't help herself. We cover: How K&M grew from domestic cleaning to biohazard — which bits were planned and which weren't What she wishes she'd known about running a business at the start — and why she's glad she didn't know it The growing risk appetite that took over the last couple of years ("I never done it in small doses either") The goalpost problem: getting the commercial client, the office, the van, the staff — and then needing more What she's learned about herself: patience, not taking it personally when staff leave, surprising herself The husband who picks her up when she wants to throw in the towel Learning from networks: Growth Nation, BNI, coaches Faye Mack and Strategy One Advice for her 18-year-old self: set goals, make a plan, go for it Quote of the episode: "As long as you're doing better than what you were doing yesterday, that's all that matters." — Kerryann Martin

Who has been a guest on Scale Her Up

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Kirstin Ejsmont
• Sarah Leigh
• Jenny Junnier

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 28 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

32

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

60

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

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

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