Listen on Spotify HERE
Listen on Apple podcasts HERE
Watch on YouTube HERE
Great clients. A growing team. Lovely offices. Healthy numbers.
On paper, our first business was a success.
So why did we walk away from it?
In this episode of The WildEdge Podcast, we tell the story of our first business, Adesse Search, and what it taught us about the messy middle.
We talk about the early days around the dining room table, growing a team, trying desperately to get out of the weeds, and discovering just how much running a growing business demanded from us.
We reflect on some of the mistakes we made along the way, particularly around people, leadership and letting go. And how, without really noticing it, we'd gone from doing work we knew and enjoyed to becoming accidental CEOs of a very different business.
Eventually, we gave ourselves permission to ask a much bigger question:
Is this actually the business we want to build?
Because growing a business doesn't just require the business to change.
At some point, it requires something different from you too.
In this episode
How our first business started and grew
What happened when we hit the messy middle
The painful transition from doing the work to leading the business
The mistakes we made with people, leadership and letting go
Why following somebody else's blueprint didn't work for us
The moment we realised a successful business could still be the wrong business
What we've carried into WildEdge from that experience
Why growing your business also requires you to grow
Claire’s Coaching Corner
If there's a gap between where you thought you'd be in 2026 and where you actually are, start by separating the facts from the meaning you're attaching to them.
Then ask yourself: who are you being in the story? The hero, the victim or the saboteur?
And finally, re-architect the next chapter.
What do you actually want? And who do you need to become to create it?
We've opened a small number of complimentary 2027 Strategy Breakthrough Sessions for founders ready to explore exactly that.
Book your 2027 Strategy Breakthrough Session
Peak of the Week - Great Knoutberry Hill
This week Ant takes us to Great Knoutberry Hill in the Yorkshire Dales, a quieter peak with beautiful views across Dentdale and towards the Lake District.
