Behind The Growth

He started his first business at 12 a clothing brand called Coldest Clothing, selling hats at a market in Iceland. One ended up on Justin Bieber. That's when he realised social media had legs.In Episode 10 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Joel Mallinson creator, social media strategist, founder of Coldest Creative, and the man known online as the Weatherman of Marketing. Joel forecasts trends before they happen, advises brands and creators on what's coming next, and has built a business on the back of a cold email he sent to Amelia Dimoldenberg during his A-levels.Joel is sharp, self-aware and refreshingly honest about the gap between the personal brand and the business behind it. He talks about saying yes to everything early on, the invisible cost of distractions, and why content has always been a vehicle for him never the destination.He also gets into why most founders are creating content for other founders instead of their actual customers, why he thinks there's an unspoken shelf life to influencers, and why building something that outlives the algorithm is the only goal worth having.In this episode:* Selling hats at 12 and getting Justin Bieber to wear one the origin story* Cold emailing Amelia Dimoldenberg during his A-levels and what happened next* "Opportunities start looking like distractions" the invisible ceiling every founder hits* Is it going to make you rich, happy or famous? The framework he uses for every decision* Personal brand vs business when your face becomes the ceiling* Why founders are making a massive mistake creating content for other founders* The unspoken shelf life of creators and what happens to the other 50%* US expansion, a book and what comes next for Coldest Creative* "I didn't set out to be an influencer forever" on building beyond the platformsFollow Joel Mallinson:Instagram: @coldestjoelTikTok: @coldestcreativeJoin The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious marketeers thegrowthcollective.appFollow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod

She was 26, struck down with a chronic illness, passed between ten GPs with no answers, and told by Western medicine there was nothing they could do. Six months of traditional Chinese medicine later, she was fully recovered. Then pregnant. Then on maternity leave and that's when the idea started.In Episode 9 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Giselle Boxer, founder of East Healing, the wellness brand built on ancient Chinese medicine practices that became a household name overnight, thanks to a two hour pitch that aired as fifteen minutes on Dragons' Den.Giselle is warm, honest and completely matter of fact about one of the wildest founder journeys we've heard. She talks about launching with £5k and a £5 logo, walking into the Den pregnant, becoming the first entrepreneur in the show's history to receive all six offers and then watching 30,000 orders land while she was the only person in the business, answering customer service emails at midnight.She also opens up about the bad press and trolling that followed the episode, the year she spent silent online, the therapy session where she broke down, and why she came back louder than ever.In this episode:* Being diagnosed with M.E at 26 and what Western medicine couldn't tell her* How traditional Chinese medicine changed her life and became the business* Launching with £5k, a Fiverr logo and 500 units on maternity leave* Walking into Dragons' Den 18 months later and leaving with all six offers* Seven months pregnant, one person in the business, 30,000 orders and a warehouse crisis* The bad press, the trolling, and the year she went silent* "Every time a Daily Mail article came out — boom. More orders."* Getting a DM from Jay Shetty's wife. Flying to LA. Then Spotify HQ in New York.* The supermarket deal she walked away from to protect the brand* What she'd do differently and why PR agencies cost her more than they made herFollow Giselle Boxer:
Instagram: @easthealing @giselle_boxerJoin The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious marketeers thegrowthcollective.appFollow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod

He started as a professional poker player. Then built a bootstrapped software company in the northeast of England. Then raised £8M before a single product existed and built Skin + Me into a business with over a million customers and well over £60M in revenue.In Episode 7 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with James Mishreki, founder and chairman of Skin + Me, Hair + Me, and his latest venture S3 Sensitivity Science, the man quietly building a portfolio of consumer health brands on one founding principle: build it, hand it over, do it again.James is level headed, precise and completely unbothered by the fact that most people think founders should run their own companies. He figured out early that founding and running are two different jobs and that knowing which one you're good at is the whole game.He also talks about spending £60k on a brand name only to throw it in the bin, why you can never get internal validation from external achievement, and why as he turns 40, he wants maximum two paragraphs of his obituary to be about work.In this episode:* Poker to founder - the one thing he still takes from two years at the table* Raising £8M pre-product and why conviction is what investors actually buy* Why he bootstrapped his first company and why he'd never do it again* "You can never get internal validation from external achievement" - the advice that hit him at 19* Founding without running - what that actually looks like day to day* How he finds and hires a CEO, and why it's the hardest part of the whole playbook* Spending £60k on a brand called Gleam. Throwing it in the bin. Doing it again with Life Supplies.* Buying back time - the chef, the PA, and why writing off £10 is a skill* "I felt most out of my depth when I raised £8M and had to hire 20 people in a month"* Two obituary paragraphs maximum. Why he's heading into his 40s differently.Follow James Mishreki: @mishreki
LinkedIn: James Mishreki Join The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious marketeers: thegrowthcollective.comFollow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod

She spent 15 years building other people's brands. Then she quit a six-figure job, saved £60k, and launched a supplement brand about poo with her best friend of 20 years.In Episode 6 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Holly Brooke, co-founder of We Are Regular, the bootstrapped, Boots-stocked supplement brand on a mission to get women talking about the thing nobody wants to talk about, poo.Holly is funny, honest, and completely unbothered about the raised eyebrows. She spent a decade at the top of premium beauty, watched the influencer industry go from chaotic to corporate, and still chose to launch a lilac poo stick because it was the problem she actually wanted to solve. She talks about the toxic workplace that broke her and built her, why she thinks hustle culture is a lie and what it really took to go from commercial director to co-founder.She also gets into losing £45k when REGULAR sold out in it’s first month, why she's never not paid herself, and why building a £1 billion brand starts with genuinely believing it's possible.In this episode:* 15 years in premium beauty and what you only learn by doing it for someone else's brand* Quitting a six-figure job nine months before the business even launched* "I was on £60k savings and I'm not even that frugal" on bootstrapping honestly* Selling out in six weeks, losing £45k, and doing it again twice after that* Landing Boots in year one and why a big PO isn't always the win it looks like* The toxic workplace in Australia that sent her to therapy and shaped the leader she became* Why she refuses to sacrifice her salary, her lifestyle, or her sanity for the business* Anti-hustle culture, burnout, and building for the long game* "Delusion is the greatest asset I have" on ambition, billion-pound goals, and why she says it out loud* Fear and excitement are the same thing. It's just that fear forgot to breathe.Follow Holly Brooke:
Instagram: @@hollyvictoriabrooke)
Brand: @wearegularJoin The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious people doing the real work → thegrowthcollective.comFollow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod

She started her career writing about sex and relationships at Australia's biggest women's media company. Then she built the agency she thought should already exist, for the women no one else would represent.In Episode 5 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Emma Gillman, founder of The Siren Group, a 7-figure PR agency representing the top 1% of adult content creators globally, including some of the most famous names on the internet.Emma is sharp, funny, and completely unfazed by a room full of people who don't take her seriously. She built her agency at 21, relocated from Sydney to London to grow it and has spent every year since proving that the business model is serious, the results are real and the criticism is almost always rooted in something much simpler than people admit.She talks about what it actually takes to build credibility in an industry that doesn't want to give it to you, why she'll always ask "do you watch porn?" when someone says they don't respect her work, and why the real conversation we should be having about women's sexuality isn't the one that's actually happening.In this episode:Writing about sex at 19 and deciding it was more interesting than anything elseBuilding The Siren Group at 21 — and why youth and rebellion were the whole point"Women's sexuality has always been monetised. It's just not usually women who are doing that."Sitting next door to a shoot with a cup of tea. What that's actually like.Why being taken seriously is harder when you're a young woman — and harder still when your clients are OnlyFans creatorsHow mainstream media coverage changes everything for adult creators — and why PR is the missing pieceManaging a team of 5 when you desperately want everyone to be happy all the timeNearly accidentally committing tax evasion. A £10k lesson."I want to be known for changing the way people perceive women and sex work."00:00 Coming Up01:02 Meet Emma: Making OnlyFans Creators Famous03:23 From Journalist to Adult Creator PR06:20 Why We Love to Hate Women Online10:19 Building a Business Around OnlyFans13:53 Why Adult Creators Aren’t Taken Seriously19:42 “Do You Watch Porn?” – The Double Standard23:22 Women, Money & Power in the Sex Industry28:51 Working With Lily Phillips & Changing Public Perception35:06 Platform Risk, Business Lessons & Emma’s AdviceFollow Emma Gillman:Instagram: @emma.gillmanBusiness: @thesirengroup.coJoin The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious people doing the real work: thegrowthcollective.comFollow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod