Business special: Business, leading and burnout with Alex Depledge, MBE

Explicit content warning

03/20/23 • 41 min

Steph chats with businesswoman Alex Depledge for a Business Special episode of the podcast.

Alex is undoubtedly a brilliant entrepreneur, having co-founded, grown and sold first business Hassle.com for €32m, before starting another tech platform – Resi.co.uk – the UK's largest and only nationwide residential architectural platform. Alex’s ‘thing’ is disrupting with a tech solution, and cutting deals, both of which she’s very good at. She appears to have no fear, has been involved with a number of bodies, boards and think tanks, and is passionately championing women in a male-dominated industry.

Alex is incredibly straight-talking but doesn’t shy away from being vulnerable, about the challenges of being the boss, including the stress and emotion of leading a business through Covid, trying to balance work and family. Alex also says that she’s grateful for the burnout she went through at 27, because it taught her a lot early on that most people experience a bit later while also trying to manage a family and having greater responsibility to juggle.

This episode is sponsored by HR consultancy HR Star, who want to reinvent the poor reputation of HR. Visit http://www.hr-star.co.uk/ for more information and quote DBHF for 10% off their People Strategy Session.

Resi.co.uk

Alex talks about starting and selling Hassle.com on the Secret Leaders podcast

Alex on Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future podcast

Alex’s Instagram

Steph’s Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steph chats with businesswoman Alex Depledge for a Business Special episode of the podcast.

Resi.co.uk

Alex talks about starting and selling Hassle.com on the Secret Leaders podcast

Alex on Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future podcast

Alex’s Instagram

Steph’s Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

New To Mum Hood? Illiyin Morrison and Sophie McCartney talk us through it

Steph speaks with Illiyin Morrison and Sophie McCartney (AKA Tired and Tested) about those early days and months of motherhood, as part of the Lost For Words series. Rather than gloss over it, Sophie and Illy both have careers that centre on being reassuringly honest about motherhood, and in turn offering support to women who may be finding it tougher than expected. Illy trained as a midwife and now helps women debrief after birth, and Sophie is a comedian and bestselling author with a huge Instagram account sharing the trials (and hilarity) of motherhood.

Illy and Sophie talk about the early days, their feelings of failure and guilt about not doing it ‘right’, whether that’s the birth, breastfeeding, or just being a mum. They talk about obsessing about sleep and feeding, sweaty weigh ins, baby groups and having babies at the same time as Kate Middleton. They also discuss comparison and expectation, and the impact babies can have on a relationship. This conversation will make new mums feel better, or if someone further down the line thinks they did a terrible job, it will let them know that none of us knew what we were doing.

Thank you to Naturalmat for sponsoring this series, handmakers of organic beds and mattresses, and DBHF podcast listeners can get 15% off with the code DBHF15

Tired and Tested: The Wild Ride into Parenthood by Sophie McCartney
The Birth Debrief by Illiyin Morrison (out 16th March 2023)
Mother Hens by Sophie McCartney (out 30th March 2023)

If you’re struggling with parenthood, try contacting Home-Start UK

Illy’s Instagram

Sophie’s Instagram

Steph’s Instagram

The NEW Create a New Mum Gift Box at Don’t Buy Her Flowers

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Biz Ep: Turning a food blog into a business with Sarah Rossi AKA Taming Twins

Sarah Rossi and Steph talk about how Sarah’s online profile, where she’s known as ‘Taming Twins’, has rocketed in the last 12 months. She talks with Steph about her career so far, from starting a bakery that she loved, and recognising that she couldn’t scale the business because it relied on her being physically there too much. Sarah’s blog Taming Twins started out as a creative outlet to share about her life with twins, until she noticed that recipes she shared were getting more traction.

Sarah talks about blogging for ten years, growing a steady following and then pausing after a book deal came along, when she asked herself and her followers ‘what do people actually want?’. Simply, the feedback told her what they wanted was help with dinner. What ingredients did they need? What could they cook that everyone would eat? And make it quick! Off the back of that renewed focus on her customer, Sarah’s following on insta alone is over 350k, she has written Sunday Times bestseller ‘What’s for Dinner?’, quick and easy fuss-free family meals, and has a second book out in September 2023.

Sarah talks about her income, becoming very strategic with her use of SEO and display ads and not relying on sponsorship and avoiding having to flog something to her followers that they don’t want, now that she is clear on her mission that she wants to be useful to families and take the stress out of the question ‘What’s For Dinner?’.

Sarah’s book What’s for Dinner?

Preorder Book Two What’s for Dinner in One Pot?

Sarah’s Instagram and TikTok

Sarah’s website Taming Twins for fuss-free recipes and meal plans

Steph’s Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.