The Next 100 Days Podcast Podcast By Kevin Appleby & Graham Arrowsmith cover art

The Next 100 Days Podcast

The Next 100 Days Podcast

By: Kevin Appleby & Graham Arrowsmith
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The Next 100 Days Podcast is a leading UK business show. Through this podcast, Kevin and Graham reveal strategies you can use to improve your business and take it to the next level. In addition to featuring their own advice, Kevin and Graham host amazing guests from across the business world. Often the guests are successful, but lesser-known business owners and entrepreneurs, enabling the show to bring fresh content and stand out from many of the US based business shows. Graham and Kevin believe that business change comes about when a business owner focusses on just one thing that will make a real difference to his business. That might be product development, a new product launch or a marketing campaign. Focussing for less than 100 days, or focussing on too many things generally won't deliver the results you need, Equally, its difficult to maintain effective focus for much longer than 100 days without re-assessing priorities. The Next 100 Days Podcast is your source to learn how to move your business forward, with practical advice and guidance that you can put into action and make a difference in your own organisation within the next 100 days.Copyright 2026 Kevin Appleby & Graham Arrowsmith Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership Personal Finance
Episodes
  • #517 Adam O'Leary - Lead Generation

    #517 Adam O'Leary - Lead Generation
    Mar 20 2026
    This is a lead generation focused podcast about a novel B2B sales follow-up strategy.Summary of PodcastKey TakeawaysNovel Follow-Up Strategy: A third-party "good cop" provides hyper-relevant value (e.g., podcast intros) to prospects, bypassing their AI-filtered inboxes and achieving 70–80% reply rates.AI-Proofing Business: The strategy is designed to be AI-proof by focusing on human connection, a core element Adam believes AI cannot fully automate.AI's Primary Blocker: Kevin identified legacy systems as the main barrier to AI adoption in finance, not resistance to the technology itself.Podcast Book Opportunity: The podcast's 500+ episodes offer a rich source for an AI-assisted book, distilling key lessons and future-casting.The Problem: Ineffective Sales Follow-UpStandard "just checking in" emails are ineffective, especially with high-value prospects ($5M+ revenue) who use AI-powered inbox filters.These filters learn to ignore senders after 2–3 unanswered emails, causing messages to be routed to spam.Result: 66% of marketing-qualified leads are lost because they are not ready to buy immediately.The Solution: A "Good Cop" Follow-Up StrategyAdam's firm, SimpleWins.io, acts as a third-party "good cop" to maintain engagement with prospects outside the main sales cycle.Process:Web Listening: A team monitors public signals (news, podcasts, blogs) to identify a prospect's current, hyper-relevant goals.Value Delivery: The team offers non-sales-related value aligned with those goals (e.g., podcast intros, affiliate partnerships).Expert Positioning: The "good cop" builds a separate relationship, subtly reinforcing the client's expertise until the prospect is ready to buy.Result: This approach achieves 70–80% reply rates, far exceeding the typical 0–20% for standard sales emails.AI's Impact on Business & AutomationAdam's Perspective:AI will automate most administrative tasks, creating "super soldiers" who manage large pipelines with AI assistants.The core human element of understanding business needs will remain essential.Adam is in a "race" to automate his own business, noting AI reduced a software development task from 3 months to 14 minutes.Kevin's Perspective:The main barrier to AI adoption in finance is legacy systems, not human resistance.Integrating AI requires a major transformation, not a simple bolt-on.AI enables advanced capabilities like continuous, multi-scenario forecasting (e.g., Monte Carlo simulations) that are impractical for humans.The current focus in finance is on governance, data security, and fraud prevention. The Next 100 Days Podcast Co-HostsGraham ArrowsmithGraham founded Finely Fettled in 2014 to provide data from The UK High Net Worth Database to marketers targeting affluent and high-net-worth customers. He's the founder of MicroYES, a Partner for MeclabsAI, creating lead generation AI Agents & Workflows and introducing the MeclabsAI Platform. Graham also provides an Answer Engine Optimisation solution to get your website in shape to be found by LLMs.Kevin ApplebyKevin specialises in finance transformation and implementing business change. He's the COO of GrowCFO, which provides both community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.com
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    51 mins
  • #516 Ricky Ho - Sourcing Products

    #516 Ricky Ho - Sourcing Products
    Mar 13 2026

    Ricky Ho is a young entrepreneur, already on his second start-up company that is set to dominate the sourcing products arena. Yes, he has Alibaba to outmanoeuvre, but the signs are good, and his AI-inspired model has much to recommend it to SMBs/SMEs around the world.

    Summary of PodcastIntroductions and background

    Graham, Kevin, and Ricky (from SourceReady) introduce themselves and provide background on Ricky's career and the inspiration behind starting SourceReady, a platform that uses AI to help businesses find and vet suppliers outside of China.

    SourceReady's unique approach

    Ricky explains how SourceReady differentiates itself from platforms like Alibaba. They do this by using a data-driven, objective approach to ranking suppliers based on factors like quality, compliance, and customer relationships - rather than just supplier advertising. This helps democratize access to supplier information for small and medium businesses.

    Addressing supply chain risks

    The discussion shifts to the importance of managing supply chain risks. They discuss such as compliance issues, supplier financial health, and reputational risks. Ricky highlights how SourceReady's tools can help businesses proactively screen for and mitigate these risks, which is especially critical for smaller companies that may lack dedicated procurement teams.

    SourceReady's growth and future

    Ricky shares his vision for SourceReady to become the go-to platform for businesses of all sizes to discover and vet suppliers globally, beyond just China. He discusses the challenges of changing user behavior and the need to provide a significantly better experience than existing options to drive adoption. The group also touches on the favorable market trends, like supply chain diversification, that could benefit SourceReady.

    Recap and closing thoughts

    Ricky provides a brief testimonial on his experience being interviewed, and the group wraps up the discussion, with Graham and Kevin expressing optimism about SourceReady's potential for success.

    The Next 100 Days Podcast Co-Hosts

    Graham Arrowsmith

    Graham founded Finely Fettled eleven years ago to help businesses market to affluent and high-net-worth customers. He's the founder of MicroYES, a Partner of MeclabsAI, providing AI Agents, workflows, and Phone-to-agent delivery systems. Now, Graham offers Answer Engine Optimisation so you get found by LLM search and Enterprise-level AI Solutions.

    Kevin Appleby

    Kevin specialises in finance transformation and implementing business change. He's the COO of GrowCFO, which provides both community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.com
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    45 mins
  • #515 - Martin Booth - AI Copywriting

    #515 - Martin Booth - AI Copywriting
    Mar 6 2026
    How can AI Copywriting help Martin Booth, who has worked as a journalist and copywriter, but traditional clients are turning to large language models to draft their copy nowadays? An answer emerges during the conversation.Summary of PodcastThe rise of AI copywritingMartin shares his perspective on the growing impact of AI tools like ChatGPT on the copywriting industry. He explains how clients are increasingly turning to AI-generated content, which has reduced the demand for his services. The group discusses strategies for copywriters to adapt and remain relevant in this changing landscape.Opportunity in Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)Graham introduces the concept of Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) as a potential solution for copywriters to differentiate themselves. He explains AI copywriting is how AEO focuses on crafting content that is optimised for how AI language models like ChatGPT search and surface information, rather than traditional search engine optimisation (SEO) tactics. The group explores the technical and creative aspects of AEO, and the potential for Martin to position himself as an expert in this emerging field.Recap and next stepsKevin and Graham summarise the key insights from the discussion, emphasising the need for copywriters to adapt to the changing landscape and leverage AI tools in strategic ways. They express optimism about Martin's ability to capitalise on the AEO opportunity and become a thought leader in this space.The Next 100 Days Podcast Co-HostsGraham ArrowsmithGraham founded Finely Fettled eleven years ago to help businesses market to affluent and high-net-worth customers. He's the founder of MicroYES, a Partner of MeclabsAI, providing AI Agents, Workflows and Phone to Agent delivery systems. Now, Graham offers Answer Engine Optimisation so you get found by LLM search and Enterprise-level AI Solutions.Kevin ApplebyKevin specialises in finance transformation and implementing business change. He's the COO of GrowCFO, which provides both community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.comNOTE: Here's What Claude ThinksWhy copywriters are well-positioned:LLMs don't just scrape keywords; they evaluate coherence, clarity, and authoritative structureAnswer engines prioritise content that demonstrates expertise through well-reasoned arguments, not just SEO tricksCopywriters understand persuasion architecture - how to build credible cases that convince readers (and now, AI systems evaluating on behalf of readers)Direct response copywriters especially understand question-answer flow and anticipating objections - precisely what LLMs look for when synthesising answersThe critical shift required:Traditional copywriting optimises for human conversionAEO copywriting must optimise for AI comprehension then human conversionThis means explicit structure: clear topic sentences, logical progression, supporting evidence, contextual markersLess "clever" wordplay, more semantic clarity and entity relationshipsWhere copywriters have genuine advantage over AI-generated content:Domain expertise translation - taking complex client knowledge and structuring it authoritativelyEvidence marshaling - knowing which proofs, testimonials, data points establish credibilityQuestion anticipation - your direct response background means you already think in terms of buyer journey questionsUnderstanding what makes content citable and quotable by LLMsThe reality check: Those copywriters who were primarily executing formulaic landing pages or generic blog content were always vulnerable to AI displacement. But copywriters who can architect information authority - structuring expertise so AI engines recognise and cite it - that's a defensible, valuable skill.You're essentially asking: "Can craftspeople who've been building for human readers pivot to building for AI intermediaries who serve human readers?" The answer is yes, because the fundamental skill - persuasive information architecture - transfers directly.
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    53 mins
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