The Six Sells Podcast

In Episode Fourteen of The Six Sells Podcast, we talk to three stellar guests about InHousing.  Mike Nicholson from Six Sells speaks with our special guests today who are: 🎙 Nicola Wardell, MD at The Agency, Specsavers 🎙 Richard Kanolik, Head of Programmatic at Vodafone 🎙 Rich Coles, Owner, Traffic Rich We talk about lots of things including: The cultural differences of working in external and internal agencies? The key business challenges brands are trying to solve by in-housing? Who owns the relationship with media owners? How internal and external agencies work together Much more as well ...

In this episode, Mike Nicholson talks to Rob Hall, CEO of Playground XYZ about the difference between viewability and viewed as it related to digital advertising. Please subscribe to The Six Sells Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can download the whitepaper Rob mentions in this podcast here - https://playground.xyz/#whitepaper

Jon Mew is a bloody legend, but if you don't know who he is then this is for you: Jon Mew is CEO of the IAB in the UK. In this podcast, he delivers 6 key insights, in 6 minutes, and in a format that as the founder of Six Sells, I wish I had thought of earlier but may yet steal in the future! In this episode, Mike Nicholson, founder of Six Sells, provides the filler and Jon tells us what to look for this year. You can join the conversation with Jon via Linkedin by clicking on this post.

Welcome to the very first micro-podcast from Mike Nicholson at Six Sells. In this first episode, Mike Nicholson spoke to Peggy Anne Salz about personal branding.  The idea for the '6 minutes with' series is this - I will briefly introduce the guest and the topic, and then my guest will have around 6 minutes to give their thoughts, ideas, and insights. That means that the whole episode will be less than 10 minutes, making it easier for you to squeeze it into your busy schedule. The shorter format will, I hope, lead to more smart people sharing more insights, more often!  Hope you enjoy it! Mike

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson, founder of Six Sells, talks to Jonathan Waite, Global Head of Activation, at Havas Media Group, and Michael Follett, Managing Director, of the eye-tracking company, Lumen Research.  In this episode, we talk about the attention economy and dig into what it means to be able to measure actual consumer attention to ads. Please hit subscribe and follow Six Sells on LinkedIn for news of future episodes, which will include conversations with: ⦿ - Kai Henniges, CEO, video intelligence, talks about context as a key driver of attention and recall with online video advertising. ⦿ - Prof. Karen Nelson-Field, Founder and CEO, Amplified Intelligence, and Lisa Cowie, Head of Agency Research, Twitter talking about measuring attention and some of the key findings of research to date. ⦿ - Simon Kvist Gaulshøj, CEO, at Adnami, about high impact creativity and the advantage that lends to brands in an attention economy. ⦿ - Lisa Hale, Head of Social Media, at Specsavers, on using humour and distinctive brand assets to attract and maintain consumer attention. Please feel free to follow Mike Nicholson on LinkedIn for info on future episodes ****** About Six Sells: Our mission at Six Sells is to help your sellers to get the attention of more of your ideal clients, more often, using social media and content in the shape of short stories that lead towards your products and services. Sellers is a term that refers to anybody from the CEO down, with a client-facing role and an interest in the revenue number. Our training and content support helps your sellers to build their personal brands, which leads to professional success. How do we do it? (1) – Training: Helping your client-facing people to better leverage social media to identify, connect and engage with the people who have influence over the decision to buy from you. (2) – Content Strategy: We help you to create a client-focused content strategy that gives your messaging consistency across all of your sellers. (3) – Ghost-produced content: We ghost-write bespoke content for your sellers on a consistent, frequent basis, which helps them deliver your content strategy in their own voice. www.sixsells.co.uk

Marco Bertozzi has been in the media and advertising industry for 25 years, working at media agencies and most recently, Spotify, before launching his own company, Bertozzi49. Marco describes his career as being signposted by multiple periods of taking something nascent and going on a journey to scale. Whether that be the digital revolution, the programmatic transformation of our industry, or the growth in audio at Spotify. In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson talks to Marco about high-performing media sales teams. The conversation is wide and varied, and we cover why the focus of your sellers shouldn't only be on the people who 'sign the cheques'. It is important to get as many touches, across different channels as possible within the people who have influence over buying, both agency and client-side.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson talks to John Wittesaele, EMEA CEO, at Xaxis. Lots of great insights from John including how Xaxis are thinking about context and first-party data as a replacement for 3rd party cookies, Apple's IDFA privacy changes, e-commerce, video and more. The 10 Trends from Xaxis that Mike and John reference in this podcast can be found here - https://www.xaxis.com/insights/blog/top-10-trends-in-programmatic-2021/

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson talks to Nick Hewat. Nick has previously held senior roles at Capital Radio, Virgin Radio, Absolute Radio before popping down the headphones and picking up the broadsheets - formerly at The Telegraph, and most recently at The Guardian. In this episode Nick shares some of his hard-fought lessons, and also talks about his views on the current media and advertising landscape. Some of the areas we talk about include: The promise of premium media v the reality? Contextual targeting and first-party data, the answer to the cookie-pocalypse for the Washington Post and others? The rise of e-commerce and direct to consumer selling. How some people with the word marketing in their title can’t define clearly what it means. The advice that you should never move jobs for more money. Why you should never ask for your gazpacho soup to be heated up in front of clients.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson talks to Damian Corbet, the author of the book 'The Social CEO' Today, we live in two worlds, the physical world and the digital one. The attention being paid to social media channels in the digital world is huge, and having a human voice or voices that represent your company on these platforms is so important. People like people, they listen more when other people talk, they engage more with other people (than with brands) and they buy from people. Listen to Damian and Mike talk about the many benefits a 'People-Shaped' approach can offer your b2b business.

Episode eight of The Six Sells Podcast welcomes not one, not two, but three special guests to talk about their new book. Belonging is a book about working together to build a better, kinder workplace. Our special guests in this episide are: Sue Unerman, Chief Transformation Officer, Mediacom. Kathryn Jacob OBE, Chief Executive, Pearl & Dean. Mark Edwards, Mindfulness, Creativity, Storytelling and Pitching consultant, trainer and coach ****** Mike Nicholson from Six Sells hosted as usual, and we discussed a number of topics including: What does a better, kinder workplace look like to you? Communication - do people know what they can and can't say? The possible danger that hiring managers are hiring in their own image, and trying to fit into the culture they have today, not the culture they want tomorrow. The importance of listening, empathy, and understanding. What can today's leaders do to build a diverse workforce?

Rory Sutherland was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, before founding Ogilvy’s behavioral science practice He is the author of two books, Wiki Man and Alchemy, and has given three absolutely fantastic TED Talks in Life Lessons from an Ad Man, Sweat the Small Stuff, and Perspective is Everything. Rory is also a Fellow at The B2B Institute and coined the phrase 'marketing is a mindset' (not a department or cost centre).

Liam Brennan has spent 15 years working in media agencies and is currently the Global Director of Innovation at Mediacom in London. In this episode of the Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson talks to Liam Brennan about how sales and marketing to agencies has changed during the lockdown as face-to-face opportunities went away, and how to be successful.  We talked about automated emails at 11am on a Tuesday and how that might be the wrong strategy, and also about innovation, the need for diverse agencies teams and lots more.

Does childhood adversity create entrepreneurs?  What do Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk have in common? How big a marketing opportunity is social media for businesses, and how can you build your audience from scratch? In this episode, we talk to multi-millionaire Rob Moore, who is an entrepreneur, author, CEO, mentor. A fascinating insight into Rob from childhood to today, and how he used social media to build millions in revenue.

We live in an attention economy.  If you are in and sales, marketing, or communications role, your first job is to capture somebody's attention. Without attention, no communication can take place. In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson has a fascinating conversation with Mike Follett from Lumen Research about attention.  

Welcome to episode two of The Six Sells Podcast. In this episode, we talk to Mark Challinor about the past, present, and future of news media publishing. Mark has held senior roles at Trinity Mirror, Associated Newspapers, and The Telegraph as well as within the trade organisation INMA (International News Media Association). This conversation starts off talking about Mark's recent battle with the COVID-19 virus before taking us back to news media in the 1990's, before bringing us up to 2020, and then thinking about what the future holds. Follow on Twitter - Mark Challinor, Mike Nicholson or Six Sells

Welcome to episode one of The Six Sells Podcast. In this episode we talk to Matt Stockbridge, former Growth Analytics at Mondelēz International (think Cadbury's). Matt spent 15 years the first 15 years of his career at Taylor Nelson/ AGB / Kantar and his work included U&As, Conjoint, Pricing and Portfolio management looking after clients including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, McVities, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, and GSK. Ten years ago Matt moved to Cadbury, which became Kraft and is now Mondelēz International. At Mondelēz, Matt was asked to set up the analytics practice for their chocolate business in Europe and was also pivotal in the partnerships built with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Oath, and Snap. Today Matt runs his own business, Trinity Projects, and is focussed on helping brands to make better evidence-based decisions.

At MAD//Fest North in 2026, Rory Sutherland shared a top marketing tip with Mike Nicholson. Here it is in just over one minute.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to Dean Harris, Head of Co-Op Media Network, accountable for commercial strategy, proposition development, marketing, operations. Innovation and team leadership. Here are some of the topics we discussed in this episode.The decision behind creating a retail media networkSeparating the proposition away from supermarket grocery retail media towards convenience retail mediaThe big punch of a small shop Treating the network as a brand  The importance of positioning Challenging the status quo about small baskets Trust and the importance of people Events that signal credibility Easy to buy, easy to serve and easy to sellSharing the proposition, the evidence, creating curiosity and having the conversation. The importance of relationshipsVaried purchase cycles and the serendipity of B2B The importance of being visible on LinkedIn with your personal brand Familiarity, trust and credibility The convenience environment and the shopping mindsetBrand equity, loyalty, trial and non negotiables The mission based approachAbout The Six Sells Podcast:The Six Sells Podcast is for people working in marketing, media, advertising and adtech.There are over 100 episodes and counting, and the biggest episodes have achieved 30,000 views across all platforms.Want to get in touch? Email hello@sixsells.co.ukWho is Six Sells?Six Sells is an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to Lucy Verby who has 20+ years of experience in the agency sector heading up strategy at PHD, Dentsu and Carat before founding her strategic consultancy We Are Masterplan - teaching everything from critical thinking, to pattern recognition and tailoring approaches to both customers and clients. Lucy is also the Founder and Chair of UN//SCENE a creative and marketing festival designed to platform fresh thinking and new voices. Here are some of the topics we discussed in this episode.The whisper becomes a shout - the transition to running a company and the reformation of prioritiesThe powerful, the powerless and the pointless - the importance of shaping and reclaiming the media narrative Defining strategy and lining up behind a definition that works The optimal path to your goals within your resources Articulating your strategic platform and avoiding word salads Shifting mindsets and getting from point A to point BThe importance of teaching strategy and reflecting consumer mindsetsThe myth that only certain people are good at strategy and avoiding gatekeeping Unlocking the potential of your whole team The process and the practice of strategy Strategy as a team sport and taking the pressure off Finding the opportunities to drive growth and uncover what is useful Critical thinking and pattern recognitionWhat growth looks like and differentiation in the marketplace Accepting and absorbing AI and the importance of critical thinking About The Six Sells Podcast:The Six Sells Podcast is for people working in marketing, media, advertising and adtech.There are over 100 episodes and counting, and the biggest episodes have achieved 30,000 views across all platforms.Want to get in touch? Email hello@sixsells.co.uk‍Who is Six Sells?Six Sells is an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to advertising royalty Patrick Collister, Custodian of The Caples Awards, creative guru, ad trainer, honorary Fellow of the IPA and author extraordinaire about his distinguished career.Here are some of the topics discussed:Writing the ‘Accrington Stanley, Who Are They?’ Milk ad and the story behind itHiring planners to test a hypothesis and test patterns within data to drive insightsGetting signoff from everyone including Ian Rush, to Liverpool FC to Margaret Thatcher The proudest ads of Patrick’s career from ‘The Water in Majorca’ to Heinz Baked Beans Making ads memorable and the difference between the 80’s and todayLeft brain advertising and the importance of featuring relatable characters and peopleThe process of writing a TV adThe ingredients of the perfect ad and the three P’s - people, plot, placeImportance of creativity and changeAbout The Six Sells Podcast:The Six Sells Podcast is for people working in marketing, media, advertising and adtech.There are over 100 episodes and counting, and the biggest episodes have achieved 30,000 views across all platforms.Want to get in touch? Email hello@sixsells.co.uk‍Who is Six Sells?Six Sells is an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business.