Founder & CEO @ Mint & Lemon 🍋 | Building personal brands for startups founders and CEOs | Speaker | Startup Advisor

Hi, I’m Elisabetta 🙋🏻‍♀️ My journey has been defined by resilience, self-belief, and a commitment to continuous learning. From navigating language barriers to building and leading teams in successful startups, I’ve proven that determination and grit can take you anywhere.

I’m passionate about personal branding and the power it has to transform careers and open doors. LinkedIn has been a game-changer for me, and I believe it can do the same for you.

Here’s what we can help you achieve:

- Attract inbound sales
- Spark investor interest
- Attract and keep top talent
- Land speaking gigs and podcast invites
- Expand your network and business opportunities

Ready to take your personal brand to the next level?

✋🏼 Book a call here to work with us: https://shorturl.at/PuMgl

✋🏼 Want only a one-off LinkedIn power session? Book a call here: https://shorturl.at/oih3f

✋🏼 Brand Partnerships - Work with me on an influencer campaign: https://shorturl.at/7Syv7

Elisabetta Torretti

POV: It’s 2026 and you stop caring about impressions.

You post what you want.
What you think.
What actually matters to you.

Not for the algorithm, not for the reach, not the vanity numbers everyone is still obsessing over 🤷🏻‍♀️

At some point, I shifted my mindset.
From:
“How many people saw this?”
To:
“Who did I actually connect with?”

Because impressions don’t pay the bills, followers ≠ impact, and reach means nothing without real connection.

What does REALLY matter?
• The conversations you start
• The people you meet
• The relationships you build
• The opportunities that come out of it

Business, collabs, friendships, that’s the real ROI 👌🏼

And because of LinkedIn, I’ve met some incredible humans: people I now call friends, partners, opportunities I’d never planned for.
(Some of you know who you are - tagging a few below 👇)

So if you’re still refreshing your analytics every day…
try this instead
STOP looking at the numbers and START looking at the doors that open.
That’s the only metric that matters 🤷🏻‍♀️

Oana Leonte Jessie Schofer Asim Amin Shoaib Ahmed Raffaella Vota Giuseppe Baidoo Arran Kingston 💜

Everyone is saying reach is down for women on LinkedIn.

No idea if this is true or not but here are 10 female creators you should follow 👇🏻

1. Mariya Valeva - your Finance queen☝🏼
2. Brianna Doe - my influencer marketing guru ✌🏼
3. Jessie Schofer - THE HR queen 👸🏼
4. Aoife Spillane - women’s health 💓 
5. Amelia Sordell 🔥 - she needs no introduction 💁🏻‍♀️
6. Laura Notaro - the UK immigration lawyer 🇬🇧
7. Anastazja Debowska - YouTube and influencer guru 👀
8. Raquel Gomes - women empowerment 👌🏼
9. Flavia De Prezzo - egg freezing journey expert 💙
10. Sophie Miller - I just love everything you write 😆

Ciao 👋🏼

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So my dad asked me to make a post today...

Today is a really special day..

Because today is International Pizza Day 🍕
(And yes, he’s right, pizza deserves a post)

Pizza has always been part of my life, and of so many people’s lives.
(Although… let’s agree not everything called “pizza” actually is pizza, unless it's proper Italian pizza 😉)

Because pizza is memories.

It’s my mum making amazing homemade pizza.
Making together with grandmas when I was a little girl.
It’s taking it out of the oven too early.
Trying just a slice, burning your tongue.
Every time.

It's that winter afternoon snack, eaten in the car while it’s still warm (still burning my toungue lol).
It’s also shared lunches.
Time with colleagues.
Tables where conversations matter more than phones.

Pizza is never just food.
It’s time shared. Togetherness.
And a way of living.

And yes, it makes me proud that this is such an Italian thing.

Happy International Pizza Day everyone 🍕
Hope you eat some pizza today!

PS: special thanks to my dad for the post 😉
PPS: kudos to my mum for making an incredible homemade pizza 👌🏼

"You don’t need to post consistently"

That’s the biggest LIE.

And I’m tired of it.
If you’re trying to grow and you don’t already have an audience, that advice does nothing but slow you down.

I got to 130,000 followers by posting.
A lot.
Even when it felt repetitive.
Even when no one noticed.
Not by waiting for the perfect idea.
Not by “posting when it felt right”.
(And no, this isn’t about posting rubbish every day.
That’s pointless.)

But good content posted occasionally?
That’s invisible.

Most people giving the “you don’t need to post” advice 
already have reach.
Already have attention.
Different position.
Different rules.

If you’re starting out or still building,
consistency is the work.
You earn the right to slow down later.
Not before.

There was a point in my life where I genuinely believed I was stupid.

Not joking.
I really believed it.

I felt stupid because I didn’t speak English,
Then when I started learning the language, I felt stupid because I couldn't understand certain English words
or I could not pronounce some 
(still can't pronounce "paths" properly
or "beach" - everyone usually hears THAT other word 😅
or missing to pronounce all the H lol)

I felt stupid because I couldn’t follow how work actually worked.
Stupid because everyone else seemed to “just get it” - and I just didn’t 🤦🏻‍♀️

I even felt stupid in the supermarket.
Standing there, staring at labels I couldn’t fully understand.
Buying the wrong things 
(I'm still doing it lol)
Going home frustrated 😔

And every single time, I blamed myself.
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Why is this so hard for me?”

What no one tells you is this:
Learning doesn’t feel empowering.
It feels humiliating sometimes.
(or most of the times)

There’s a phase where you feel lost.
Slow.
Behind.
A phase where your confidence takes a hit.
Where you doubt yourself daily.
But that phase?
That’s not failure.
That’s growth in disguise.

Because every time I felt “stupid,” I was actually stretching.
Learning.
Rewiring my brain 🧠
And slowly (painfully slowly) things started to click.

So if you’re in that phase right now…
Feeling like you should be further ahead.
Feeling like everyone else is smarter than you.
Please hear this:
You’re not stupid.
You’re brave for being in the room.
And this part?
It’s supposed to be hard 💛

As a little girl, I didn’t need anyone to tell me what girls were “meant” to do.
The world around me made it obvious.

I grew up in a small town.
The kind where everyone knows your name..and exactly what you should be.

There was a sort of silent script, especially for girls:
Be helpful, be polite, be smart, but not too smart.
Dreams were fine, as long as they didn’t disrupt anything or were too much.
Ambition? That was harder to explain.

At school, it got reinforced.
The boys were encouraged to be engineers or entrepreneurs or doctors or lawyers.
The girls were somehow expected to keep things running quietly in the background.

It was subtle, but constant.
And it works.
- By age 6, girls already start doubting their intelligence.
- By adulthood, only 27% of STEM roles are held by women.
- And only a fraction go on to lead companies or raise capital.

But at home, the rules were different.

My parents never told me to be careful.
They never warned me to tone it down.
They didn’t ask me to choose the “safe” path.
They raised me like the world didn’t get to decide who I’d be.
There were no big talks about feminism or empowerment.
Just small, consistent signals:
→ Your ideas matter
→ You’re allowed to want more
→ Your path doesn’t need permission
→ Build your wealth and never depend on a man's money

That gave me an edge that didn’t look like confidence at first.
It looked like discomfort with limits.
I felt like I didn't belong, like the reality I was in was too tight compared to what I was living in my household..
And that's also why 13 years ago I packed my bags and left the country for good..

But now I know, that safe home environment gave me everything.
Because before I ever knew what I wanted to be,
I was raised to believe I could choose.

That’s what changed my life.

And it’s why I don’t wait to be invited in..
I build the damn room ✌🏼

PS: special thanks to my parents for being my forever cheerleaders 💜

My mum always told me "Don’t talk to strangers!"

So naturally… I invited 3 of them to lunch at Honest Greens 😆
(Sorry, mum)

We met on LinkedIn.
Comments. DMs. Voice notes. You know the drill.

But meeting in real life?
Different game.

We sat down at the new Honest Greens London spot.
Busy. Bright. Full of life.

Because the space sets the tone.
Relaxed. Open. Unpretentious.
Not your average restaurant where you rush, eat, leave.

The food was honestly 🔥
Fresh. Clean. The kind of meal that doesn't make you crush after 2pm 🤷🏻‍♀️

And then something really nice happened.

The “strangers” part disappeared.
The conversations flowed.
No awkwardness.
No agenda.
Just real talk, laughs, and that easy feeling you get when you’re exactly where you’re meant to be.

There’s something about sharing food.
It makes things more open. More human.

Honest Greens nailed that vibe 👌🏼
Good food.
Good energy.
Good people.

Turns out, talking to strangers isn’t that dangerous after all 🤷🏻‍♀️

👇 If you’re planning a lunch with friends, colleagues, family, or someone you want to get to know better, try Honest Greens. Download the app and get money off your first meal: https://lnkd.in/eRwxmMrc

#Ad

Brand partnership • Founder & CEO @ Mint & Lemon 🍋 | Building personal brands for startups founders and CEOs | Speaker | Startup Advisor

In 2017, I took 68 flights.

I was everywhere.
Different countries. Different time zones.
Working from cafés, airports, hotel rooms. Wherever there was Wi-Fi.

From the outside, it looked great.
Remote work. Freedom. That whole “living the dream” thing.
And yes, parts of it were amazing.
But I was also completely wrecked.

My routine was all over the place.
Sleep didn’t exist properly.
Food was whatever I could grab.
Training was inconsistent, if it happened at all.
My body never caught up.
I was tired in a way rest didn’t really fix.
Always slightly jet-lagged. Always a bit off.

What I didn’t realise at the time is how hard that lifestyle actually is on you.
Mentally and physically.

We glamorise “working from anywhere” so much.
But your nervous system doesn’t care about the view from your laptop.
It cares about rhythm.
Consistency.
Predictability.
Same wake-up time.
Same meals.
Same gym.
Same walk.
Same bed.

Sometimes the life that looks boring from the outside is the one your body has been asking for all along 👌🏼

Dear LinkedIn,
Can we please have FOLDERS for saved posts?
Thank you.
Kindly,
Everyone 😅

It’s Friday. Maybe I’ll call in sick.

Sh*t. I forgot I’m the boss.

Oh hello, 24/7 work-life balance 😆🤦🏻‍♀️

Last month I spent more time talking about a meeting than being in the meeting.

Emails.
Reschedules.
“Sorry just catching up.”
“Does next week work instead?”

What’s funny is that almost everything else in my work is automated now.
Sales. Ops. Growth. Brand.
Except time.
Which is probably the one thing that should be handled better.

No secret I’m a founding creator partner at Meet-Ting 💁🏻‍♀️
And simply because it's a tool I love (and DESPERATELY NEED for my everyday life 😅)

It doesn’t just book meetings.
It learns how you make time decisions.
Who you prioritise.
What you delay.
What you protect.
What you never say yes to twice.
I don’t manage it.
I just CC it in an email or WhatsApp.
It plans and books the call. 
Adds an agenda.
Sends me a short brief before the meeting.
Spots no-shows.
Offers to follow up.

The goal isn’t efficiency for the sake of it. It’s judgment.
A schedule that makes the decisions you’d make if you actually had the time to think.
Because work keeps scaling.
But the day doesn’t 🤷🏻‍♀️

If your calendar feels heavier than it should, this might be worth handing off 👉 meet-ting.com

If you haven't watched this video yet, then do it NOW 👇🏻

If you are a woman, this is something you know (unfortunately) very well.
If you are a man, how does this make you feel?

If you have any female colleagues, remember they worked bloody hard for that role, pushing through all the nasty questions they have been asked, and pretending it's normal.

Let's not do this only for our daughters.
Let the change happen now.

PS: Kudos to BOL for this amazing campaign 👌🏼

I got my Top Voice badge taken away.

Unfortunately, for one reason.

I never had one 😆

You want to come and have lunch with me?
Not joking.
On me.

Food has always been my thing.
I grew up in a house where ingredients mattered.
My family had an olive oil business. Fruit trees. Veggies in the garden.
Very Italian 🇮🇹
Very normal.
Very “you don’t mess with food.”
(Thanks Dad, for making me extremely picky with restaurants 😂)

When I was living in Barcelona, Honest Greens became that place that you could trust. It’s clean, nutritious, delicious food. Simple. And Real.

So when I heard they were opening in London,
my immediate reaction was: “Take me there. Now.”

If you’re in London and fancy a proper lunch with me,
Download the Honest Greens app and drop a comment below 👇🏻
👉 https://lnkd.in/ebXW4MWt

I love meeting new people.
And we Italians meet around food 🤷🏻‍♀️🍝
So be Italian with me 💁🏻‍♀️🇮🇹
(Limited spots)

PS: If you’re in Soho and want a proper lunch, this is the place. But fair warning: it’ll become a habit 😆

#Ad

POV: you’re a bit of a control freak 🙃
But you call it “just staying on top of things” 😆

Because you care, you want things done properly.
So you check. Then you check again.

And somehow…
You’re involved in way more than you planned.

For years, I told myself this was just being responsible.
That this was leadership.
That this was what “good” looked like.

In reality, I was slowly losing my headspace.

Marketing wasn’t hard.
It was just never off.

It followed me on walks.
Popped up in the shower.
Sat with me at dinner.

Always that background noise:
Did that go out?
Is that still running?
What if something breaks and I don’t see it?

People would say,
 “Just automate it.”
Which sounds great… Until automation feels like letting go… and hoping nothing goes wrong.

So instead, I hovered. Tweaked. Checked dashboards “just in case”.
More tools.
More systems.
More mental tabs open 🧠

At the start of this year, something clicked.

The problem was carrying everything in my head.
I needed breathing room.

That’s when I realised what had been missing all along.
Not automation that just runs.
But automation that actually thinks.

That’s where ActiveCampaign came in.

It doesn’t just execute. It learns. It adapts.
And it shows you what genuinely needs attention, and what doesn’t.

That’s Active Intelligence. That’s Autonomous Marketing without the low-level anxiety 😅

Ironically, trusting the system gave me more control back.
Less checking.
More headspace.
Better decisions.

And this year, I’m leaning into that shift.
I’ll be sharing what changes, month by month, as I get further out of the weeds 🌱  and let marketing work with me, not against me.

If you see yourself in this…
You’re probably closer to the weeds than you think.

Try ActiveCampaign and see what happens when your brain finally gets a break 💁🏻‍♀️ https://lnkd.in/eXpD_viZ 

#Ad #ActiveCampaignPartner #OutOfTheWeeds #AutonomousMarketing

ActiveCampaign

"Post 7 days a week"
"Don't post every day"

"Use carousels"
"Carousels are dead, use cheatsheets"

"Videos are the future"
"Videos are dead"

"Post every day at the same time"
"Posting time doesn't matter"

"Pictures don't perform anymore"
"Pictures are the stronger visual"

..wtf 🤷🏻‍♀️
You do you and don't follow the gurus
remember you are unique, your job is unique, your industry is unique, your geography is unique, so whatever works for you doesn't work for other accounts..

you do you and forget the nonsense 🤷🏻‍♀️

He clearly didn't check my website..

..because I don't have one 😆

And yet I’ve built a business that works.
Clients. Revenue. Referrals. Repeat work.

And before anyone jumps in,
I’m not saying websites are useless.
They’re not.
But before you spend months on a website, fix your damn LinkedIn profile!

Because that’s where people actually go first.
That’s where they decide if you’re credible.
That’s where they decide if they want to talk to you.

Your link in bio matters more than your website early on.
Not as a list of links, but as a landing page.
Clear:
– who you help
– what problem you solve
– why you’re worth listening to
– what to do next

I’ve closed business with:
– no website
– no funnels
– no “perfect setup”
Just me, myself and my LinkedIn 💁🏻‍♀️

If you’re stuck building instead of selling,
...you’re really overthinking it.

Fix LinkedIn first.
Website later.
That order matters.

Heart disease causes around 25% of all deaths in the UK.

But this isn’t just a statistic, it’s not something that happens “to others”.
Most of us have been touched by it in some way. Maybe a parent, a friend, or our own body.

That’s why the British Heart Foundation’s In Living Memory campaign is so powerful.
The people behind it didn’t just tell a story, they captured the emotion behind it.
The love.
The hope that still remains.

It doesn’t just raise awareness, it gives hope.
And sometimes, hope is exactly what people need.

Heart health isn’t a future problem.
It’s a now problem.
And it touches far more of us than we realise ❤️

MrBeast working with Salesforce on a Super Bowl ad should shake up every B2B team.

It deeply challenges how old-fashioned B2B thinks about creators.
There’s this idea that creators sit in a separate box.
Great for consumer brands.
Interesting, but not really relevant for “serious” B2B.

I’ve worked with large B2B brands (Notion, AWS, Semrush, Hubspot, etc..) that are genuinely ahead of the curve when it comes to marketing.

The common thread isn’t how polished they are or how carefully they manage brand voice, it’s that they understand attention.
And they’re realistic about where it comes from.

The people buying B2B products don’t suddenly become different humans at work.
They consume the same content.
They follow people they trust.
They form opinions long before they ever speak to sales.

B2C got comfortable with this years ago.
B2B stayed cautious and procedural.
Salesforce stepping into this space is a sign of where things are already moving.

A lot of B2B opportunity sits in plain sight right now.
I'm pretty sure we'll see more B2B brands stepping up ⬆️

Has anyone else clocked what the Ritz Paris has been doing on social lately?

This is a brand that could afford to stay untouchable.
A heritage brand.
World-famous.
Old-school luxury.

Instead, they’ve gone the other way.
And not just on Instagram. On LinkedIn too.

The tone feels current.
Not stiff.
Not corporate.
Not “we’ve been here since 1898, therefore we don’t need to try”.
And the engagement is honestly kind of mad.

And they’re doing it without trying to be cool or trendy.
They haven’t diluted the brand.
If anything, they’ve made it feel more alive.

If Ritz Paris can evolve without losing its soul, no brand gets a free pass to stay static.
Luxury doesn’t mean silent.
Heritage doesn’t mean boring.
Credibility doesn’t come from hiding.

Some brands move. Some just hope their name still does the work..

Asim Amin

Founder & CEO at Plumm | Empowering Minds & Building Thriving Workplaces | Passionate Mental Health Advocate

I’m the Founder & CEO of Plumm, the all-in-one HR platform with mental health at its core.

HR today is fragmented, companies juggle payroll, performance, compliance, and wellbeing across too many tools. Plumm brings it all into one platform, helping organisations cut costs, save time, and look after their people. Because no HR strategy is complete without mental health.

Plumm started as a mental health solution and has grown into a full-service HR platform, used by companies worldwide. Our mission is clear: make workplaces more productive, inclusive, and human.

I’m also the host of the Immigrants Building Companies Podcast, where I speak with immigrant entrepreneurs who’ve built companies against the odds, sharing lessons on resilience, growth, and leadership.

If you’d like to:
🚀 Book a demo with Plumm: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0mJb040 
🎙️ Discuss podcasts, speaking, or media features: taslynn@heyplumm.com

International Trade Program

Poor mental health costs UK employers up to £56 billion a year.

And yet, when employers invest even just £1 in preventative employee wellbeing, they see an average return of £5.30.

We’ve seen case after case, that happier employees make for a healthier business.

It’s why we developed Plumm: a seamless all-in-one, evidence-backed mental wellbeing solution for employers and their teams.

We support your team through our global and diverse pool over 200 accredited therapists and coaches, who can cater to their individual needs, preferences, and circumstances, regardless of where they are in their wellbeing journey.

Whether they can benefit from group learning, need professional help and personalised 1:1 therapy or coaching, or self-help resources, we've got it covered.

Ready to level up your team's wellbeing? 👉 https://www.plummhealth.com/request-demo

You’ll spend £4 a day on a latte without blinking.
But £27 a month for your health?
“Too expensive.”

That’s roughly what a WHOOP costs.
And no, not everyone needs a WHOOP.
It could just as easily be a gym membership. Plenty in the UK cost £20–£30 a month.

The number isn’t really the point.
It’s where the line gets drawn.

Some spending feels automatic.
Other spending gets questioned, even when it’s about your own health, energy, and how you want to feel day to day.

That says a lot about priorities.

Because health isn’t a one-off decision.
You don’t choose it once.
You choose it in small ways, over and over again.

Those choices compound.

And one day you realise how you’ve been feeling for a while now
more tired, less resilient, lower energy
or the opposite.

That’s why what you prioritise today matters more than it seems 👌🏼

PS: I still love coffee, but I’d rather have it home ;)

Founder & CEO at Plumm | Speaker | Advisor

Let’s be honest.
 
Most of us f*cked up over the holidays.
 
Too much food.
Too much sugar.
Too much wine.
 
And now everyone’s pretending they “reset” on Jan 1.
BS.
Here’s what actually happens:
You enjoy yourself.
Then you feel guilty.
Then you convince yourself you’re already behind.
You’re not behind.
You’re human.
 
What’s messed up isn’t December.
It’s the idea that one month can “ruin” you.
Your body didn’t suddenly forget how to function.
Your discipline didn’t disappear.
Your year isn’t over because you ate more than planned.
 
The real problem?
People think progress has to be perfect.
It doesn’t.
Balance beats punishment.
Every time.
 
You don’t need extremes.
You don’t need to suffer.
You don’t need a diet built around how you look.
You need habits built around how you feel.
 
Energy > aesthetics.
Focus > abs.
Consistency > guilt.
 
So no, you didn’t fail January.
And no, you don’t need to “start again” next Monday.
You start today.
You eat better because it helps you think.
You move because it gives you energy.
You sleep because you perform better.
That’s it.
 
Just show up.
Again.
And again.
That’s how it actually works.
 
Happy 2026 everyone ✌🏼

Perfection is how average founders justify being slow.

I’ve done it.
Watched others do it.
Same outcome every time.

Early on, I hid behind “not ready yet”.
What I really meant was: “I don’t want the market to tell me I’m wrong.”
So I delayed.
Refined.
Overthought.
And nothing happened.

In the first 3–5 years, your product isn’t supposed to be good.
It’s supposed to move.
Because movement creates:
- feedback
- revenue
- momentum
Perfection creates meetings.

I’ve launched things that made me cringe.
They still taught me more in a week than months of planning ever did.
Most features I was obsessed with? Nobody cared.
The market told me that. Fast.

And the reality is, most founders fail because they wait until they feel confident.
Confidence doesn’t come before action.
It comes after exposure.

If you’re still polishing:
You’re not protecting quality.
You’re protecting ego.
Speed doesn’t mean sloppy.
It means honest.
And honesty compounds faster than perfection ever will.

DO NOT hire people who are good on paper.

The strongest hires I’ve seen recently weren’t the neatest on paper anyway.
A few gaps.
Not every box ticked.
Some rough edges.

But when things shifted, they didn’t stall.
That’s what stood out.
Work is changing faster than job descriptions can keep up.
By the end of this decade, around 39% of the skills people use today won’t be relevant anymore.
Most roles won’t disappear.
They’ll mutate.
Which makes “tool knowledge” a short-lived advantage.

In practice, I’ve learned to watch for different signals:
Who asks better questions once the brief gets fuzzy.
Who notices second-order problems, not just the task in front of them.
Who can disagree without becoming defensive.
Who recovers quickly after being wrong.

Those things don’t show up on a CV.
And they matter more when pressure is real.

Nearly 6 in 10 people will need reskilling in the coming years.
Yet the global workforce is still expected to grow.
So the edge isn’t experience alone.
It’s adaptability over time.

You can train systems.
Rewrite processes.
Roll out new tools.
What’s harder to build is judgement.
Curiosity under uncertainty.
The ability to stay useful when the rules change.

As automation takes care of the predictable, these qualities surface.
Not because they’re “soft skills”
But because they’re the difference between keeping up
and actually moving forward.

BREAKING 🚨 Europe just made its boldest move for founders in decades.

Yesterday at Davos, Ursula von der Leyen announced EU–INC.
A single, truly European company structure.
This matters. A lot.
For years, Europe hasn’t lacked talent, it’s lacked simplicity.
27 countries.
27 rulebooks.
Different equity rules.
Different compliance hoops.

So founders did the rational thing.
They incorporated elsewhere.
(Usually Delaware)

EU–INC changes the equation.
One corporate framework across the EU.
Incorporate online in 48 hours.
No mandatory notaries.
One legal entity, valid in all 27 countries.
Taxes and labour laws stay national.

The corporate layer goes European. That distinction is critical.
Because Europe’s biggest problem was never ambition. It was friction.

Scaling shouldn’t mean:
– Setting up new entities per country
– Reworking equity structures
– Burning seed capital on legal fees

If executed properly, EU–INC could unlock:
– Faster company creation
– Founder-friendly equity
– Easier cross-border scaling
– A real Single Market, not a theoretical one

Most importantly?
This is the first time Europe has clearly chosen builders over bureaucracy.
Execution will be everything.
Speed will matter.
Consistency will matter.
But the signal is loud and clear: Europe is finally building for founders 🇪🇺🚀

I didn’t wake up one day and decide to rethink health.
Life did it for me.

What surprised me wasn’t the moment itself.
It was what changed afterwards.

How quickly your definition of “healthy” shifts when it’s no longer abstract.
When it’s not about performance, or numbers, or discipline.
You start paying attention to different things.
How stress shows up in your body.
How sleep affects your mood, not just your energy.
How recovery isn’t optional if you want consistency.

Longevity stops being about adding years.
It becomes about protecting capacity.

The ability to think clearly under pressure.
To regulate stress instead of living in it.
To train, work, and live without constantly borrowing from tomorrow.

I’m reading Outlive at the moment.
What resonates most isn’t the science, it’s the reminder that decline accumulates through small decisions repeated daily.
Ignoring signals.
Normalising fatigue.
Treating rest as a reward instead of a requirement.

Perspective changes how you move through life.
You become less reactive.
More intentional.

Longevity, in that sense, isn’t about fear.
It’s about responsibility.
And once life forces that lesson,
you don’t approach health the same way again.

STOP focusing on your personal brand.

(I know, coming from someone who posts 5x week lol)
But hear me out.

A lot of people start building their personal brands, and then visibility comes:
the likes, the comments, the impressions, DMs
you somehow get momentum

but something doesn’t quite add up..
All those vanity numbers..all the likes, all the followers..
CAN’T fix a sh*t product
(or service)

The issue is that attention doesn’t give you breathing room. It does the opposite.
Once people are watching, they’re not just reacting to your ideas. They’re experiencing everything. The product. The service. The follow-up. The bits you were hoping to fix later.

If that experience is weak, people don’t argue about it. 
They just disappear.

I’ve seen people with impressive visibility struggle to keep customers.
I’ve also seen founders with no presence at all build businesses people stick with because the thing actually does what it says.

A personal brand doesn’t create trust. 
It spends it.

Does that mean you should not work on your personal brand? Absolutely not, you should.
But that shouldn’t be your priority.

Building an amazing product should be.
Building a fantastic service your customers can’t stop talking about should be.

Once you have that, then you can build your personal brand on top.
Just get your priorities straight.

And btw, sometimes the best move is to shut up, build properly, and let people talk later 👋🏻

If your best people are leaving..
it’s probably NOT about MONEY.

It’s about growth.
Companies that invest seriously in L&D see up to 50% higher retention.
Yet most still treat learning as a perk - or worse, a cost.

That’s not a people problem.
That’s a leadership one.

High performers don’t quit bad jobs, they quit stagnation.
When people stop learning, they don’t argue.
They don’t disengage loudly.
They don’t ask for more.
They just start planning their exit.

The data is blunt:
- 94% would stay longer with better development
- Growth opportunities now outrank pay for many senior performers
- Teams with weak learning cultures lose their best talent first

And yet we keep trying to fix retention with:
Bonuses.
Perks.
Offsites.

None of those solve stagnation.
Real L&D is whether someone leaves a year later with better judgment, broader scope, and more confidence than when they arrived.
If the answer is no, they’ll leave.
Eventually.

That’s why we don’t treat L&D as HR hygiene.
We treat it as leadership responsibility.
Because people don’t stay loyal to companies.
They stay loyal to growth.

“Go to HR.”

People hear it the same way they heard “go to the headteacher’s office” at school.
Somewhere you end up once things have already gone wrong.

That perception didn’t come out of nowhere.

HR usually gets involved after weeks of small things being left unsaid. 
Feedback is usually avoided. 
And, expectations are left vague. 
Managers hoping issues fix themselves. 
By the time HR shows up, there’s history, emotion, and momentum.

From the outside, HR looks like enforcement.
Inside, HR is dealing with accumulated silence.

Most problems don’t start as formal issues. 
They start as ordinary moments that weren’t handled early, when the cost was low.

When managers treat HR as the place difficult conversations go, people learn to associate HR with punishment instead of support.

If you want HR to feel human, managers have to do the human work first.

Clear expectations early. 
Feedback while there’s still room to adjust. Intervention before frustration hardens.

HR isn’t the headteacher’s office.
It just inherits what wasn’t handled sooner.

2026 HR trends you need to know:

1. HR will end up owning problems no one else wants
Because they sit between leadership intent and lived reality.

2. AI will finally expose how little most companies understand their own workforce
HR has been saying this quietly for years.

3. “Hiring shortages” will keep being blamed on the market
When the issue is internal talent stuck in the wrong places.

4. Job frameworks will keep getting rewritten
Work will keep changing faster.

5. Hybrid work will stay unresolved
Because many leaders still don’t know what good work looks like.

6. Burnout won’t be treated as a crisis
Until it hits delivery timelines.

7. As usual, HR will be looped in late,
then blamed early.

HR isn’t late. 
It’s just been convenient to ignore.

There’s one kind of decision
I never got used to making.

It wasn’t about direction or priorities.
It was about people, and knowing that whatever I chose would follow them home.

Later, it gets called a pivot. 
In the moment, it felt like sitting across from someone and realising you were about to change something you couldn’t take back.

I’ve been laid off before. 
I remember the shock, the quiet afterwards, the way it made everything outside of work feel suddenly uncertain.

I’ve also had to be the one delivering that news.
What stays with me isn’t what I said.
It’s what I saw.
The pause before someone replied.
The way they nodded, even when it hurt.
How often they asked about everyone else instead of themselves.

There wasn’t anger.
There was care.

People checking in on teammates.
Worrying about how the team would manage.
Trying to make sense of what came next.

That kind of response doesn’t come from policies or values written on a wall.
It comes from how people have been treated all along.

You don’t really understand leadership when things are moving fast and going well.
You understand it when something breaks and there is nowhere to hide.

We talk a lot about growth.
But responsibility shows up differently.
It sits with you long after the meeting ends.
Long after the decision is made.

Those moments are uncomfortable, and they should be.
Because once the decision is made, there’s nowhere else for it to land but on you.
You don’t get to soften it with language or hide behind process.
All you can do is stand in it, be clear, be honest, and make sure the people affected are treated with as much care as possible.
Not because it looks good.
Because you owe them that.

If things get hard → raise.
If growth slows → raise.
If you’re unsure → raise.

There’s a weird default in startups…
Everyone’s obsessed with raising.
But no one really stops to ask the boring question:

What exactly are we trying to buy with this money?

Not the pitch-deck version.
The one you’re honest about when it’s just you and the numbers.

Some of the best decisions I’ve made at Plumm didn’t happen after a round.
They happened when there was little (sometimes VERY little) money in the bank.
Because that’s when you’re forced to think differently.
You get creative.
You stop hiding behind “we’ll fix it after the raise”.
You really ask: what actually moves the needle?

Scarcity sharpens you.
It forces out-of-the-box thinking.
It makes you ruthless about priorities.
Sales matters more.
Focus matters more.
Every spend suddenly has to earn its place.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve been sold this fundraiser lifestyle.
The press.
The LinkedIn posts.
The idea that raising equals success.

But money isn’t success.
It’s just fuel.
And fuel on a bad engine doesn’t fix the engine.

There were moments where raising felt like the obvious next step.
And then we realised it wasn’t.
The better question became:
How do we push revenue?
How do we sell better?
What can we do without more capital?

Raising can make sense, I’m not anti-fundraising, but raising by default is a trap.
And sometimes, having less is exactly what makes you a better founder.
Because when there’s no safety net, your instincts show up properly.

You can’t make an A-player out of a B-player.

I know people hate hearing that.
I used to, too.

For a long time, I thought the right coaching, enough time, or “the right environment” would change people. It doesn’t. Not in the way founders hope it will.

I’ve tried. 
More than once. 
And every time, it cost the business.

Ash didn’t step up because he was promoted. 
He was promoted because he was already acting like it mattered to him personally.

No one had to chase him. 
No one had to spell things out twice. 
No one had to convince him to care.

He already did.
That’s the difference.
Some people feel ownership naturally. 
Others wait to be told what to do, how to do it, and when it’s “enough.”

You can train skills. 
You can’t train that internal bar.

At some point, I stopped trying to turn the wrong people into the right ones. And started backing the people who were already wired differently.

Everything got easier after that. 
Decisions. 
Trust. 
Progress.

Ash is a good example of this.
He is THAT person who takes responsibility even when no one is watching.
He cares.

If this makes you uncomfortable, good. 
It should.

PS: Choose carefully. 
And stop lying to yourself about potential.

The worst way to start a business:

	1.	Decide you want to be a founder before knowing what you want to build (because you like the “lifestyle”..)
	2.	Reverse-engineer a product that sounds good to investors, not customers
	3.	Build an MVP to justify a deck, not to solve a problem
	4.	Avoid talking to users because “we already know the market”
	5.	Call early confusion “vision”
	6.	Ship features no one asked for because they look impressive in demos
	7.	Measure success by meetings booked, not problems solved
	8.	Sell discounts as “traction”
	9.	Hire sales to compensate for unclear value
	10.	Blame sales when customers don’t convert
	11.	Add more features instead of fixing the core problem
	12.	Call lack of focus “moving fast”
	13.	Run internal meetings about growth instead of external conversations with users
	14.	Burn cash to protect the narrative
	15.	Pivot quietly, rebrand loudly 
	16.	Tell the team profitability comes after scale
	17.	Run out of time, not ideas
	18.	Buy PR articles to boost you ego

Remember: Build something people would miss if it disappeared.

Everyone wants the quick win.
The overnight success.
The shortcut.
The “one good idea”.
What they don’t want is the part before it.

It took me 10 businesses
and 27 years
to get here.

Because that’s how long it took to actually understand what works.
Most of those businesses didn’t fail, they just… faded.
Wrong timing.
Thin margins.
People problems.
Ideas that sounded good but didn’t survive reality.

Each one taught me something small and painfully specific.
How fragile cash really is.
How quickly momentum dies.
How often “almost ready” is just fear in disguise.

There was no big moment where it all clicked, just fewer mistakes over time.
The Plumm people see now isn’t the result of a breakthrough, it’s the result of repetition, and the sum of all the hard lessons learnt in those 27 years.

Everyone wants the result.
Very few want the years it takes to recognise one.
That gap is where most people disappear.

We all say we hate talking about money.
What we really hate is being exposed.

Because money has a way of cutting through the BS.

The biggest mistake I see some founders make is stepping away from numbers too early.

Because staying close to revenue forces uncomfortable conversations.

Sales conversations.
Pricing conversations.
Reality conversations.

Top line tells you if anyone actually wants what you’re building.
Bottom line tells you whether the way you’re building it is sustainable.

Ignore either, and you start lying to yourself.

I’ve seen founders obsess over growth while margins slowly collapse.

I’ve seen “strong pipelines” with no cash to show for it.

By the time they re-engage with the numbers, the options are already limited.

Spreadsheets aren’t finance work. They’re where the truth shows up first.

If you know your numbers, you feel in control.
If you don’t, you call it stress.

That’s the difference.

“Is there still a future in HR?”

That question keeps coming up because a lot of HR work is disappearing in plain sight.

AI is already handling the volume work.
Questions. Admin. Scheduling. Screening.
The things that kept teams busy and roles full.

That part isn’t coming back.

But much of that work was never the value.

For years, HR became the place unfinished thinking was sent.
Vague roles. Avoided conversations. Poor decisions dressed up as process.

AI exposes that.

Because once the admin goes, what’s left is judgement.
And judgement is harder work.

The future of HR belongs to people who can design work that still makes sense as organisations change.
Intervene early, before silence turns into resentment.
Support leaders when there is no policy to hide behind.
Read patterns humans feel long before data shows them.

AI can answer questions.
It can’t rebuild trust.
It can’t decide what “fair” looks like in a messy situation.
It can’t carry the weight of a hard call.

Teams using tools like Plumm are already shifting this way.
Less firefighting.
More thinking.

So yes, there is a future in HR.

But it belongs to those willing to step away from owning process
and into helping organisations make better decisions about work.

Cognitive decline starts earlier than what you think 
(and if you are 30+, you should be reading this..)

Yep, the decline starts in your early 30s..
way earlier than you expected, right?

And interesting enough, the other day I was reading how some studies put the difference between people who actively challenge their brains and those who don’t at 2–3 years of memory decline.
In some cases, closer to a decade…

So, I was like “Hold on a minute.. I need to do something about it..”

So I’ve been trying to go back to basics lately.
And yesterday, instead of doing anything particularly “CEO-productive”,
I did a puzzle.
No phone nearby.
No background noise.

What surprised me wasn’t that it was calming.
It was how unfamiliar it felt to concentrate like that.
Holding pieces in my head.
Remembering what didn’t fit.
Staying with the problem instead of jumping to something else.
That kind of effort used to be normal.
Now it’s rare.

The data on brain longevity is pretty consistent on one thing:
it’s not about consuming more information.
It’s about effortful thinking.
Puzzles, crosswords, problem-solving tasks - they show up again and again in studies on cognitive reserve.
They force the brain to slow down and work.

Kids do this instinctively.
Adults engineer it out of their lives.
Shortcuts.
Assistance.
Constant input.
The brain adapts.

I’m not claiming puzzles are a solution to anything.
But they’re a good reminder.
If brain health matters - not just now, but over time -
it’s worth paying attention to how often we actually ask our brains to do something hard.

Sometimes going back to basics isn’t regression.
It’s maintenance 👌🏼

PS: What was your weekend “brain activity”?

“Graduates should work for free.”

That’s not a hot take.
It’s exploiting the market while pretending it’s common sense.

What it really says is this:
We want output without accountability.
We want talent without doing the work of building it.

Entry-level roles were never meant to be efficient, they were meant to be formative.
You hired for raw potential.
You tolerated mistakes.
You invested time before expecting judgement.
That’s how people got good.

Now?
Many companies want graduates who arrive finished.
Tool-ready. Confident. Immediately useful.

And when they don’t?
The gap gets filled with unpaid labour.
“Trials.”
“Exposure.”
Open-ended internships with no real intent to hire.

The cost moves from the balance sheet to the individual.
Income disappears.
Waiting becomes the price of entry.
At that point, talent isn’t about ability, it’s about who can afford to be patient.

AI is making this worse.
The low-risk learning work is vanishing.
Junior roles are fewer.
The remaining ones demand judgement before judgement has time to exist.
Instead of redesigning how people grow, many companies opt out altogether.

Pay matters.
Not as a moral argument.
As a forcing function.
Pay creates obligation.
Clear expectations.
Feedback.
Actual management.

Without pay, there is no graduate role.
There is only unpaid labour with nicer language.

If you hire graduates, you’re making a choice.
Either you build capability, or you extract value and avoid responsibility.

We’ve always paid interns, because serious companies invest in the pipeline they depend on.

If you hire graduates, pay them.
That’s the line between developing people
and taking advantage of them.

He travelled the world building businesses. 
Then he came back to the UK.

James went to China at 18. 
1997. 
Six months to teach English.

He picked China because it felt hard. 
New system. 
New rules. 
Nothing familiar.
That choice shaped everything.

Working abroad showed him that business isn’t just about competence. 
It’s about knowing how things really work. 
What’s said. 
What isn’t.

In China, contracts were flexible. 
In the Philippines, age mattered more than ability. 
At 26, being young made selling harder.

He moved across Asia through a management programme. 
Different countries. Different businesses. 
Sometimes with a week’s notice.

Family brought him home.
He built a bike marketplace. 
It looked successful. 
Awards. Partners. Press.
But it didn’t work. 
Ethical supply couldn’t scale.

When his family needed him, he stepped in. 
He grew the recruitment business. 
88 people. Five countries. 
Sold in 2020.

He’s not an immigrant in the UK. 
But immigration shaped everything he built.

Today, he works with founders who are already carrying a lot. 
Helping them think more clearly. 
And make better decisions under pressure.

🎙️ Watch the full episode below. 
Link in the comment section.

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Asim Amin

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The Battle

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