Podcast listeners -> customers in less time. | Listen to "The Podmaster" for free tips and insights | Podcasting 'OG' (since '01) | One of Rephonic's "6 Must-Follow podcast coaches" (stalk featured section).

You'll already be a guaranteed top 5 percent podcaster just by working with my company, Podknows Podcasting.
Did you know, 92% of new podcasts fail before they’ve even started?
Ours don’t. We don’t leave success to chance. We make it happen.

Podcasts don’t fail because people aren’t trying. They fail because they’re missing strategy.

That’s where Podknows Podcasting is different.

We don’t hand over a checklist of tips and leave you to figure it out for yourself.
We don't just get you to send your audio to us, chop it up, and then return it to you saying "here ya go mate."

We take charge.
We create strategic, results-driven podcasts that grow audiences, attract sponsors, and position you as a trusted authority in your space.

Audio quality is a given.
What matters is the outcome: brand growth, stronger relationships, and measurable return on investment.

Here are just a few examples:

A B2B client in the outdoor industry grew their audience one hundredfold and secured thirty thousand dollars in sponsorship within twelve months (The Rock Fight)

A mental health brand reached the top five percent of podcasts in just a month, landed speaking engagements, and built her entire offering around the podcast (Different, Not Broken)

A travel business used their podcast to secure luxury bookings and national television appearances

Who we work with includes brands and founders who want their podcast to be a strategic asset, podcasters ready to grow their impact, influence, and income, and businesses that want expert help avoiding being one of the 92 percent who fail.

We begin with a detailed audience blueprint, build a custom strategy, and produce weekly content designed for growth and easy repurposing across email, social media and even books!

We are a small team of expert creatives, but I personally lead every project.
I direct your strategy, guide your recordings, polish your production, and run the campaigns that turn listeners into leads.

Why trust me?
I’ve been podcasting since 2001, long before it became a trend.
I also bring more than two decades of radio experience and award-winning audience expertise.
My clients have landed major sponsorships, multiplied their audiences, and been featured on national television.

I don’t just help you launch a podcast.
I make it work for you.
Let’s talk.

Neal Veglio

You know what? 2026 might be the year you actually decide to work with me on your new or existing podcast. The next 12 months are gonna 'hit different'. Here's just a quick rundown of what we're cooking up.

We're introducing an in-studio option for larger businesses, just off the M4, smack bang between Wales and London. 
Yes, this means you too will be able to magpie the look and feel of Steven Bartlett's dreadful show with all the almost comical cutaways and trite transitions your little heart could desire. 
🎤You'll forgive us for trying to steer you away from that, and actually make something worth engaging with though, yeah? Particularly since you're paying us 5Gs for it.

Our hugely successful international remote podcast service will continue, albeit with a slight price increase in the new financial year to reflect the phenomenal real-world results we've been getting for clients over the past 18 months. 
🎤Did we mention that 90% of our podcasters covered the costs of producing their shows last year, thanks to the massive highly engaged communities we've helped them build around them?

I'm still offering my super popular podcast audits — see LinkedIn recommendations — but they're about to be soooo 2000 and late.
Why just optimise what you've already been doing, when you could have me guide you to what you should be considering doing, to maximise your returns. That's exactly what my Podcast Growth Diagnostic is designed to do.
🎤When you've finished salivating over the idea of being able to take full credit with your CMO for having the savvy to get an actual expert on the case with your underperforming podcast so you can properly strategise it, HMU, boo.

Brand new for this year – so new, in fact, our first episode went out this week – the ad supported ICN. The "Podknows Powered Indie Creator Network" offers creators and influencers of all shapes and sizes the opportunity to get us putting our stamp of quality on their content, without the agency pricing.
Yes, it means you have to tolerate a couple of our ads here and there.
But hey, it's this or keep paying that Fiverr editor to continue churning out mediocre cack that nobody'll ever wanna listen to, and then you STILL have to do all the work getting it published, anyway.
🎤Wanna remove ads, and just benefit from how sexy we make you sound? Sure, we'll do that. If you're willing to pay us a little more.
Hey, I've got two French Bulldogs to feed you know.

I'll be starting up the Podmastery Mentorship Programme. Yeah, this one's gonna be sexy. It won't be one of those icky glorified Slack groups where it's all about the community lead's ego. Nah mate, this is going to be a vibrant learning and networking space for anyone in podcasting, from freelance editors all the way up to agency founders.
🎤The best news is, now all my peers who keep sliding into my DMs wanting me to give them free advice on how they can compete with me will have a place to hang out, cheeky bastards.

Podcast strategy for B2B podcasts aiming for clarity, not more content. I help businesses decide what their podcast should actually do. 20+ years in the industry. 🎧= “B2B Podcasting Insights.”

That awkward moment when you realised you wasted a day, back in May 2025, writing your acceptance speech for being inducted to the Podcasting Hall of Fame.

Ah well I'll keep it open in a chat in my marketing projects in Chat GPT for next January...

It's one thing to secretly like Steven Bartlett and his awful podcast.

It's next level to defiantly and publicly plant your sword in the fact and insinuate that people who don't also like him, and it, are inferior to yourself and himself.

Check your face in the mirror, loves. You might want to touch up the desperation that's showing.

If you're gonna position yourself as a 'podcast expert' on LinkedIn, please, for the love of all things Rodecaster, remember to plug your Blue Yeti in when talking 'into the end of it', telling people why they need to follow your advice...

When I first started posting about podcasting on LinkedIn, there were only a handful of us doing it openly. And that includes the already 'famous' ones.

Most of these were:

People who’d actually made shows. (Whom I've since met and verified legit.)
People who'd broken things and learned from it.
People who'd then fixed things and put in place systems to repeat that.
People who'd watched audiences grow slowly, but measurably.

It was a small corner of the platform, and it felt more like we were sharing notes than selling expertise.

Fast forward a few years and… it’s very different.

I’m seeing a lot of opportunists offering advice on how to 'win at podcasting' who I’d never come across before. 

No shows I recognise. 
No track record I can trace. 

Often, no podcast of their own at all. Which isn't a dealbreaker, but it's definitely a credibility factor.

No word of a lie, for a few of these people I've actually Googled "(insert name) podcast consultant" and yielded no results, even though that's their LinkedIn headline. And more than once just this week alone.

I don’t say all this to be a gatekeeper. 
New people should absolutely enter any industry. That’s healthy.
But podcasting isn’t theory.

It’s not something you master by reading a Reddit thread or running a few clips through the algorithm.

The best podcast experts sit with:
Consistency earned over time
Trust you can’t fake
Mistakes you only make once you’ve actually published
And an audience that ditches-tha-eff-out if you get it wrong

So if you’re a brand boss or small business owner thinking about starting a podcast, or hiring someone to help you with one, here’s the bit that matters when it comes to making your decision on who to trust.

Don’t ask how confident someone sounds.
Ask what they’ve made.

Investigate what shows from others they've worked on?
Try to figure out if those shows have been working or if they're just slop.

What decisions they got wrong (and learned from) early on?
What they'd do differently now?

Also, most importantly, how do they define success beyond downloads and clips being posted to social media?

Podcasting rewards people who’ve spent time in the medium, not just around it.

That doesn’t mean you need the longest serving expert.
It just means you want someone whose advice is shaped by reality, not trend cycles.

Because starting a podcast isn’t hard.
But making one that’s actually worth your time and financial investment is a serious challenge.

And it's not helped if you hire a try-hard who decided to try and sell podcasting expertise because TikTok fame didn't work out for them.

Marketing: “We need more authenticity in our content.”
Also marketing: "Let’s get ChatGPT to write all our CEO’s podcast scripts.”

And this is why I throw shade at most internal marketing teams handling their own podcasts. If they can't even figure out their wider marketing strategy, how the hell you reckon they can get their heads around sorting out a podcast that isn't a complete waste of time.

Look, podcasts are the one place your audience still expects (and respects) real voices, not marketing robots.

But too many B2B brands are out here publishing 20-minute monologues that sound like someone hit 'record' on a whitepaper. 
Just because they're trying to protect the time of their seniors.

Worse still, they're getting seduced by some awful icky companies that are quickly getting set up to allow brands to do that without even being present, by automating the whole process using AI presenters who pretend to not only exist, but actually work for you.

Yeah, you know who you are.

Here’s the truth:

Your podcast shouldn’t sound like someone published your Monday group huddle.

It should sound like your smartest people having the conversations your buyers wish they could be in the room for.

So if you want to get a B2B podcast actually working for you in 2026...

✅ Ditch the CMO approved scripts.
✅ Invite real conversations to take place.
✅ And for Christ's sake say something worth listening to!

If you’re going to start a podcast, make sure it’s not just content. 
Make sure it truly does offer you a competitive advantage.

Otherwise, ChatGPT, Eleven Labs and AI agent connected to a hosting account could’ve easily done it for you. 

And none of us want to listen to content that's THAT bottom of the barrel.

I've got room for just two corporate sized brands that want to do a podcast properly, for the coming quarter.

If that sounds like you, we should probably talk.

But if you're the kind of berk who'd rather pay some opportunists who've figured out how to use subpar AI voices to publish 3000 episodes a week and call it content, then I wish you luck. 

Let's face it you're gonna need it when you jump through hoops to recoup your content after they go bust, only to realise it wasn't worth your efforts to begin with.

FirstWoman

FirstWoman works with female professionals looking to be promoted into leadership roles and female founders who want to be more effective at promoting themselves and their businesses 

Services include 
🔹 One-on-one private coaching using the proven Personal Brand Elevator programme 
🔹 Pitch yourself and your business with confidence, 2 hour Founders programme
🔹 Customised workshops for Women's networks 

Message me here or visit the website www.FirstWoman.co.uk to find out more  🙌https://linktr.ee/firstwoman

Personal Brand & Career Development Coach

Award winning guest speaker for Women's networks, conferences and LinkedIn Lives including
🚺 Women in Fire Engineering Conference Feb 2023 
🚺 WACL(Women in Communication London)
🚺 Women's Business Club (UK)
🚺 BUPA Women in Data network 
🚺 Travelers Europe Gender Inclusion Network 
🚺 Thrive Network. Pitching yourself and your Business with Confidence & Conviction 

Topics include:
Why women need a Personal Brand more than men 
Developing a Personal Leadership Brand as a professional woman
Confidence Strategies for ambitious women
Leveraging your Personal and Business Brand for greater Visibility and Impact

Motivational Speaker

The Success Strategies for Professional Women podcast is a resource for both women leaders and organisations looking to promote more women into senior leadership. 
Episode formats include specific leadership challenges and inspires women to overcome self-doubt and lead with confidence, integrity and impact

Podcaster

Mel Stanley Limited

Freelance Marketing and Brand Strategy for various Agencies and Private clients

🔹 Marketing and Brand Strategy and execution for Satisfied Snacks a female founder start up,  building and retaining a customer base using social selling and paid for advertising 
🔹 Brand Strategy and positioning, ongoing comms architecture and content provision for female business owners, e.g a specialist recruitment consultancy and a pre/post natal e-commerce business 
🔹 Proposition Development for Vodafone 5g (Ogilvy) 
🔹 Brand Positioning for Vodafone Carrier Services (Ogilvy) 
🔹 Dubai Expo launch and communications planning (Ogily Mena)

Brand & Marketing Consultant

EDF (UK)

I joined EDF as Head of Marketing Communications across B2B and B2B marketing in 2016. By the time I left my remit had increased three fold as responsibility for Customer Research and Insight and Corporate Brand was added to the mix
Key Achievements
- Led a team of 40 individuals with 5 Senior Manager direct reports in a marketing transformation programme taking EDF from an analogue to customer centric digital brand 
- Created and implemented the new company wide Brand strategy and creative platform 'Generation Electric'. Secured budget and buy in across all UK Business units and EDF Group in Europe. 
https://www.marketingweek.com/edf-marketing-campaign-low-carbon/ 
- Improved efficiency and ROI by adopting a digital and data first approach focused principally on digital media; Paid, Programmatic Display and Radio, SEO & Content, Social Strategy and Community Management. 
-Sponsored Customer Data Platform managing the integration of EDF Customer data to deliver a single customer view and data informed CRM programme designed to increase customer value and tenure. 
- Transformed B2B Preferential Client marketing experience through face to face Peer to Peer thought leadership events 'Talk Power'  and devised and implemented a content marketing strategy for the business community
- Successfully completed the EDF Leadership Talent Assessment within the first 6 months of joining and subsequently the Advanced Leadership course facilitated by The Centre of Creative Leadership 
- Supervised and managed the team through an organizational restructure in 2018 which saw the merger of the Corporate marketing function with that of the Retail Division

Head of Brand & Marketing

Smart Energy GB

Representing the UK Energy Suppliers in the delivery of the Government Smart Metering programme. The Board was comprised of Supplier and Independent Non-Execs, Consumer Groups, BEIS and Ofgem. I was also a member of the Marketing Planning Committee and Board Advisor for the Performance Measurement Forum which set the targets for the programme
- Financial Governance
- Regulation and Risk Management
- Data led Marketing and Operational Strategy
- Programme Performance
- Leadership and influencing

Non Executive Director SEGB Board 

Ogilvy UK

Dec 2013 promoted to Director of Customer Engagement a new strategic position created to reflect OgilvyOne’s repositioning as a Customer Experience Agency, developing and training internal teams in the associated IP 
- Led an integrated agile agency and client team to build out and implement a new Customer Segmentation strategy for Barclays Wealth, an approach later successfully adopted by BT Broadband and News UK
- Blackrock Broker digital transformation and cultural change programme. Moving Blackrock from an analogue to customer centric digital brand within the Broker and ETF division demanded a host of internal stakeholder sessions to achieve support for the initiative plus subsequent training in agile methodology 
- Completed the WPP Group PACE Leadership Academy programme

Head of Planning & Director of Customer Engagement and Board member

Joined OgilvyOne to lead the Strategic offering for British Gas for which we won an IPA Effectiveness Silver in 2013 for 'Planet Home' as part of a combined Agency submission

Planning Partner

VCCP

An integrated Strategy role leading a team of 4 at VCCPMe a growing subsidiary of VCCP
- 2009 won DMA Gold for More Th<n Customer Acquisition brand campaign 
https://www.marketingsociety.com/the-library/2009-more-thn-creating- loyal-relationships-casestudy 
- Grew O2 SIM only trading account threefold in 2 years to exceed £15m revenue

Head of Account Planning

BT Group Marketing and Brand

A Head of Planning in the central Retail Marketing team I had 2 direct reports and managed the strategic output from Agency partners. During this time we
- Launched BT Vision, BT’s response to the Sky Box 
- Launched the first BT Home Hub to the Broadband Market 
- Developed a wifi enabled mobile positioning for BT Mobile 
- Stemmed attrition amongst the Customer base for fixed line through developing premium call packages

Head of Consumer Planning

MIKE COLLING AND COMPANY LIMITED

Planning Director

Proximity London

I joined what was then BHWG just as the agency combined 4 other marketing disciplines to form Proximity. My principal role was to lead BT Business which was one of the Agency's flagship accounts. 
I managed a team of 10 account handlers and was responsible for the strategic and creative output. Some of the key projects we under took during the period were the 'Big Number' change when London moved to the 07 and 08 prefix, the launch of BT Business Broadband, known then as Openworld and a number of SME and Soho business initiatives. In addition we launched the WAP platform Genie for BT Cellnet.

Managing Partner and Board Director

Hi  👋

I'm Mel, Personal Brand Strategist, Career Development Coach and soon to be Author! 

I’ve spent the last 5 years helping mid-career women unstick themselves from roles that do not reflect their talent or worth and reclaim their careers

Often these women have reached an impasse. They are under-valued, under-paid and overlooked despite their experience, capability and competence

We all know why this happens, suffice to say you’d have to have been living under a rock the last 10 years not to realise that work place cultures, ('the system') are set up by men, for men, and this has had a largely negative impact on the career progression of women

I absolutely believe the sustainable solution is not to fix women but to fix the system however that isn’t happening anytime soon. Indeed if recent research is to be believed, there is going to be a whole lot of younger men, who believe feminism is a bad thing, inheriting the power from their fathers & grandfathers and this will impact the next generation of women leaders 

Inspired by the quote from William Blake: "Hindsight is a wonderful thing but foresight is even better" 
I asked myself: 

👩‍💻 What would the world of work look like if all these women who are languishing in middle management, didn’t get stuck in the first place?

🧑🏽‍🚒 What if through increased awareness and foresight, young women entering the work place didn’t fall into the same traps as their predecessors, didn’t make the same unconscious mistakes that I know I did?

👩🏻‍🔬 What if we set the next generation of women up for career success from Day 1?

That is the purpose of Success Without Compromise 

A book that helps empower the next generation of female leaders; helping to ensure they are more aware and better prepared for the challenges ahead: More mindful of the double binds and less naive, they enter the work place ready to navigate the system, on their terms

A book that doesn’t theorise but is practical and pragmatic, backed up by evidence and stories, supported by proven transformative strategies & frameworks

Here's how to get involved: 

1️⃣ Be a Contributor 
2️⃣ Share your Story
3️⃣ Tell me what you'd tell your 25 year old self

📧 melstanley@firstwoman.co.uk or send a DM to find out more

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Neal Veglio

Mel Stanley

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The Battle

Neal Veglio

Mel Stanley

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Neal Veglio's LinkedIn Performance

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