The Business Strategist With Adam Strong
The Business Strategist is the ultimate podcast for entrepreneurs, founders and business owners looking to scale, grow, and exit their businesses successfully.
Hosted by Adam Strong, an award-winning strategist with over 30 years of industry experience and three times best selling author.
Each episode delivers actionable business advice, practical tools, and insights to help you build a thriving enterprise. Whether you want to master leadership, craft a winning exit strategy, or implement proven scaling techniques, this podcast has you covered.
With expert interviews, real-world case studies, and a focus on achieving business freedom, the business strategist is your go-to resource for taking your business to the next level.
Tune in every week for new episodes designed to inspire, educate, and empower your entrepreneurial journey.
Adam's Contact details
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamistrong
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/adamstrong
Is your business ready to run without you?
Take the 2-minute Exit Readiness Assessment — a fast, strategic scorecard for founders who want to scale, sell, or step back without becoming the bottleneck. Get instant insights across leadership, systems, marketing, and more. Click here to take the assessment: https://readytoexit.scoreapp.com
1
The 24 Year Old Who Built a £1M LinkedIn Agency...
What if two broke brothers with just £18 between them could build a multi-million pound agency in under three years, almost entirely through LinkedIn? I sat down with Niall Ratcliffe, 24, who along with his brother Morgan did exactly that, starting from a spare room in Burnley with no investors, no fancy degree and no safety net. In this episode Niall pulls back the curtain on the exact LinkedIn strategies the fastest growing B2B brands in Europe are quietly using behind the scenes, and nobody is talking about online. We also do a live profile roast, and yes, my own LinkedIn takes a few hits along the way.
71 min
2
Unlock Your Leadership Archetype: The Key To Dr...
Have you ever noticed how your leadership style flips under pressure—sometimes you micromanage, sometimes you retreat, sometimes you charge ahead like you're putting out fires? That reaction isn’t random. It’s driven by an invisible operating system that's been with you since birth. In this eye-opening episode, I sit down with Rory Kilmartin—relationship researcher and founder of the Archetypal Relationship Academy to explore a groundbreaking framework for decoding human behaviour through four archetypes: the gorilla, the wolf, the fox, and the sheep. Rory’s 19 years of research reveals how your dominant archetype influences your leadership, relationships, and even who you hire (or fire). If you’re serious about improving the way you lead, communicate, and understand your team—and yourself—this one’s a game-changer.
67 min
3
The LinkedIn Top Voice Badge Is A Lie (Here's W...
The LinkedIn Top Voice badge is the most addictive distraction on the platform. The real question is how much time, energy and opportunity have you already lost chasing it? I held the LinkedIn Top Voice badge for over two years and recently lost it. My first reaction? It felt like my credibility had been stripped away overnight. But then something unexpected happened. My business grew. Better clients, more conversations, more revenue. So I started asking myself whether being part of the top voice programme had any real benefits at all. In this episode I pull back the curtain on the biggest myth in LinkedIn marketing and share exactly what I've been doing instead to turn organic content into real business growth.
25 min
4
How to Build an Uncopyable Business No One Can ...
What if the reason you are not growing has nothing to do with your product and everything to do with the fact you sound like every other business in your space? In this episode, I sit down with my good friend Les Evans, who I have called the marketing disruptor for years. He has spent two decades transforming misfits, mavericks and outsiders into businesses that cannot be duplicated. We unpack why most founders have nothing new to say, why shouting louder is not the solution, and how one small distinction can change how the market experiences you. If you feel like the best kept secret in your industry, this conversation will challenge how you think about differentiation, positioning, and building a true category of one business. This episode is for you
79 min
5
More Connected, More Lonely: The Leadership Cri...
Why are we buried in Slack messages and back-to-back Zooms but feeling lonelier than ever? Dr. Michelle K. Johnston just co-wrote a book with Marshall Goldsmith that exposes the hidden crisis destroying teams—and it starts with you. Dr. Michelle K. Johnston's back with a warning: we're going down a dark path. She just co-wrote The Seismic Shift in You with legendary executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, and they reckon most leaders are sleepwalking into disaster.
42 min
6
The Hero Trap: Why You Are The Problem
What if the thing making you feel most needed in your business is actually the thing stopping it from growing? I sit down with Bill Flynn, someone who's survived IPOs, acquisitions and proper business chaos, to unpack the hero trap. If you're the one who fixes everything, closes every deal and makes every decision, this one's for you. It feels productive. It feels like leadership. But it quietly turns you into the bottleneck. We talk about why leaders default back to control mode when pressure hits, why most leadership advice doesn't work in the real world, and what it looks like when your team stops waiting for permission and starts running things without you.
66 min
7
The HR Lie Founders Keep Buying That Stalls Growth
Most founders are wasting a fortune on tools promising to shift the needle but instead it is quietly killing their growth. This episode exposes why personality testing, competency models, and culture fit interviews often fail and what to replace them with if you want a team that actually delivers. In this episode, I sit down with Barry Wolfe, an HR veteran with 30 years in the trenches helping founders and CEOs solve the people problems that stall growth. We go beyond generic HR and get into why businesses keep hiring great people who still do not perform, why teams break at certain revenue ceilings, and how leaders accidentally become the bottleneck.
44 min
8
How To Break Stagnation and Drive Fast Growth
Let’s be real for a second: Law school, the accounting bodies, the professional exams they never actually taught you how to run a business. They taught you how to be a technician. Now, you’re stuck in the trading time for money trap, thinking that being hardworking and professional gives you an edge over the competition. It doesn't. That’s just the baseline. In 2026, relying on those standards is the quickest way to get left behind. I joined Dan Warburton to talk about the shift from being a late-stage service provider to an early-stage strategic partner. We’re moving past the ego and getting into why your clients really buy from you—and it’s probably not what you think.
36 min
9
The Relationship Recession: Why “Fine” is Killi...
Fine is the most expensive word in your business. When your team tells you they’re fine, they aren’t being polite. They’re checking out. We’re in a Relationship Recession, and it’s the silent tax stripping productivity, slowing decisions, and shaving value off your company from the inside. In this episode, I sit down with Morag Barrett, leadership expert, member of the Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches, and the person CEOs call when trust is breaking and performance is slipping.
54 min
10
Your Hustle Is Killing Your Metabolic Health
I spent years chasing the myth that the harder you work the bigger the rewards. I was obsessed with growing my company to find freedom but it was a failed experiment. My business was scaling while my body was screaming a question I could not answer: how long can you actually sustain this for? I was winning on paper but my biology was being liquidated behind the scenes. Can you relate?
39 min
11
2026 Business Trends: My Strategy for Winning t...
Stop planning for 2026. If you are still preparing for the future, you have already been overtaken by those of us who are already living in it. Most people are waiting for a signal to move, but I am already executing the plays that will define the next twelve months. I am not here to give you a forecast; I am here to give you the exact moves I am using to dominate while everyone else is still waking up. The gap between the leaders and the crowd is widening, and the old rules of growth are officially dead. While the majority are distracted by vanity metrics and outdated hacks, I am betting everything on five specific shifts that are currently transforming my business.
22 min
12
The M&A Playbook: Navigating the Identity Crisi...
The deal closes. The champagne goes flat. And suddenly you're staring in the mirror wondering who the hell you are anymore. Your company's gone. Your title means nothing. The identity you wore for a decade has been stripped away. Did you just make the biggest mistake of your life? I sat down with Jennifer Fondrevay, the M&A Whisperer who's lived through three multi-billion-pound acquisitions and consulted with over 60 CEOs on the hidden psychology of business exits. This conversation revealed the exact emotional stages you’ll face post-exit and gave you the strategic playbook to rebuild your identity before a crisis hits. If your planning an exit in the next 2-5 years, this is a must listen.
64 min
13
How to Buy Your Competitor with Zero Money Down
What if you could eliminate your biggest competitor without spending a penny upfront? While most business owners throw money at marketing and AI tools, there's a silent weapon hiding in plain sight: buying the competition that's stealing your clients. In this episode, I’m joined by Jeremy Harbour, Wall Street Journal bestselling author and founder of The Harbour Club. We get practical about growing through acquisitions by buying your competitor.
61 min
14
Stop Writing Content, Start Positioning: How to...
Stop feeding the content monster. LinkedIn doesn’t reward volume; it rewards positioning. If you are a founder with decades of experience but your posts are being ignored, the problem isn’t the algorithm. It is your structure. You don’t need 100,000 followers to dominate your niche; you need a framework that turns your specific life experience into a strategic asset. In this episode, I am handing you the blueprint to my personal content strategy.
14 min
15
How To Use Licensing To Scale Your Business
What if the fastest way to scale this year is to stop selling your time and let other people sell your method for you? If your calendar is full, your revenue is capped and you think another course or mastermind is the answer, this episode will flip that thinking on its head. We break down what licensing really is, when you are ready for it and why it is the step after courses, masterminds and memberships. April walks through simple licensing models you can plug into your existing business and even coaches me live on how to licence my own exit framework, so you can apply the same thinking to your offers.
55 min
16
The Human Edge in an AI World
What is the real competitive advantage for founders of small and medium sized businesses right now, smarter AI or leaders who know how to be deeply human. In this episode, I sit down with executive coach and former COO Chris March to explore the human edge in an AI world and why treating AI as a shortcut instead of a multiplier is quietly damaging trust, culture and credibility in smaller businesses.
42 min
17
Survive Reset Thrive: Growth Strategies for Unc...
What if the economy is not the problem? What if your strategy is? I sit down with Dr Rebecca Homkes to blow up the doom narrative and show founders how to grow when everyone else is stuck. We unpack why uncertainty favours the bold, how to swap rigid plans for belief driven preparation, and the simple loops and huddles that create aligned speed. If you want to steady the ship and pull away from the pack, this one is the episode to listen to.
58 min
18
Breaking Free From Reactive Leadership
You are not leading. You are firefighting. And it is costing you growth. In this episode I talk about the trap founders fall into when the business starts running them. If you are answering every email, fixing every mistake and your team will not move without you, this is for you. I break down why we slip into reactive leadership, what it does to your energy and momentum, and how to shift into a role where you lead, think and build. It is practical, honest and based on what I had to change myself.
19 min
19
Why Culture-Strong Companies Sell for More
Culture doesn’t sit on your balance sheet — but it’s the reason some businesses sell for millions more than yours. In this episode I sit down (for the third time!) with WSJ bestselling author Alex Brueckmann to unpack something most founders completely miss in their exit plan: buyers don’t just buy your numbers — they buy your culture. We break down his 9 Elements of Organisational Identity, talk about why two companies with identical P&Ls sell for totally different prices, and how to show culture in due diligence so you can justify a premium. If you’re planning to scale and exit in the next 24–36 months, this is the lens you need.
64 min
20
Stop Letting Talent Slip Away
The next hire you’re avoiding is costing you millions—and your peace of mind. In this episode, I sit down with Talent Maximizer Roberta Matuson to unpack the real reason founders stall: people. We get honest about 3 a.m. recruitment anxiety, the fear of hiring someone better than you, and the scarcity mindset that keeps teams mediocre.
55 min
21
The Emotional Driver Playbook: 5 Steps to Valid...
Stop launching to crickets. What if the secret to a 7-figure launch isn't your product, but a hidden emotional driver you've completely missed? I'm sharing the 5-step framework that creates the demand and not the desperation. What if you knew precisely what makes your ideal client buy... before you even built the product?
16 min
22
Growing 160K followers with AI content strategy...
What if the secret to building a audience of over 160,000 followers wasn't about grinding out content for 10 hours a day but instead it was about finding the 20% of AI prompts that generate 80% of the results, effectively creating an artificial version of yourself to do the heavy lifting? Listen how to leverage AI to build a personal brand
66 min
23
How to Build a Top 1.5% Globally Ranked Podcast
In this candid conversation with my long-time friend and leadership powerhouse Chris Salem, I share exactly how I built a podcast that’s stood the test of time while others faded out. Whether you're a founder, leader, or future podcaster, this episode will show you how to build something that lasts and grows with you.
38 min
24
10 Hidden Pitfalls That Sabotage Business Growt...
Scaling a business is simple—until it isn’t. Most founders sabotage their growth without even realising it. Are you making the same mistakes that could be quietly killing your scale-up? In today’s episode of The Business Strategist, I’m sharing the 10 most common pitfalls that derail founders when scaling—and more importantly, how to avoid them. These aren’t theoretical ideas. They come directly from my own journey and client conversations, along with stories and strategies you can apply immediately.
24 min
25
9 Client Archetypes to Avoid if You Want to Sca...
Discover the 9 types of clients that drain profit and energy—and the 7 traits of clients you should attract instead. In this episode of The Business Strategist, I share hard-won lessons and a simple framework to filter out toxic clients, protect your time, and scale your business without burnout.
25 min