Podcast
Peer Effect
Hosted by James Johnson · EN
Best way to scale? Your peers have the answers.
This is the podcast for scaleup founders looking for insightful, actionable wisdom from some of the best operators around. Each week we’ll explore one secret that other founders and experts are using right now and how to implement it.
It’s practical wisdom to build the company AND life you want. Hosted by renowned founder coach and advisor James Johnson.
You’ve survived to £1m, now let’s scale to £10m+.
55episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Your Team Isn't Slow. You're Not Clear.
1w ago00:14:26Tap to summarizeA founder writes in asking why their team won't move faster. James Johnson and Freddie Birley take the question apart, and the real answer has almost nothing to do with the team.They get into what actually causes execution to stall at Series A, the trap of being responsive instead of intentional, and why giving up control feels comforting right up until it costs you your business. Practical, direct, and probably not the answer you were expecting.More from James:Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
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Why Your Team Hides Problems Until It's Too Late: Ryan Saridar, Elryan.com
2w ago00:41:02Tap to summarizeRyan Saridar runs Elryan.com, one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in Iraq, and he's built a rule that changes how his entire management team handles bad news. Nobody on his team gets to sit on a problem and hope it resolves itself.Ryan breaks down the exact line he uses to separate a genuine excuse from a simple update, why he hires for behavioural fit before skill, and what changed the moment he stopped trying to control outcomes and started building a team that tells him the truth first. If your management team only flags problems once it's too late to fix them, this is the one to send them.More from James:Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
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The Pattern That Predicts Whether Coaching Actually Works
2w ago00:16:07Tap to summarizeJames Johnson and Freddie Birley answer a listener question on how to actually get value from coaching, not the version you perform for LinkedIn, the version where you say the thing you have been avoiding saying out loud.They cover the line between reflection and procrastination, why a pattern of last-minute rescheduling is rarely just about being busy, and why watching what someone does with their time tells you more than what they say they care about. Founders who are coached, or considering it, will hear something they recognise.More from James:Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
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Building Trust With Your Number Two as You Scale
3w ago00:34:53Tap to summarizeClare coaches the role nobody talks about: the COO or CFO sat next to a founder CEO, expected to challenge the person who built the company and signs their pay cheque. Most coaches work with the founder. Clare works almost exclusively with the number two, which gives her a different read on why these relationships succeed or quietly fail.In this episode she breaks down what "permission to challenge" actually requires beyond the sentence itself, why founders should look at their own behaviour before blaming a number two's performance, and the question every founder should ask if they're not sure they've got the right person in that seat. If you've got a strong number two who's still holding back, this is the conversation that explains why.More from James:Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
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Keeping a Sense of Self When Everything Feels Uncertain | Peer Effect Post Bag
3w ago00:12:55Tap to summarizeJames and Freddie tackle a question most founders won't admit they're sitting with: when the business is in flux and you're in performance mode around the clock, how do you stay connected to who you actually are?This isn't about rest. It's about what happens to your judgment, your team, and your business when you've drifted so far from reality that you stop seeing what's actually in front of you. James and Freddie work through why performance and authenticity aren't opposites, what it costs founders when they treat them as if they are, and why the pattern underneath burnout, co-founder blowups, and bad hiring decisions is often exactly this.New Post Bag every Monday. Full episodes every Wednesday. Find everything at peereffect.com.More from James:Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
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What a Hired Operator Sees That You Can't | Bethany Ayers
4w ago00:38:28Tap to summarizeBethany Ayers, CEO of Metomic, has scaled businesses from the inside - as COO, CRO, and now CEO - and she has a very clear view of what founders get wrong when they think they need to hand the keys over. The insight she shares here will make most founders rethink the decision they're about to make.What does an experienced operator see that a founder typically can't? Bethany and James cover the vanity activities that distract from fundamentals, why senior hires fail more often than you'd expect, and the single question you have to answer before you bring anyone into the C-suite. The episode ends with a practical framework for choosing between a COO and a CEO and it starts with your shit list.More from James:Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
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How Do You Stabilise Your Team When Nothing Is Certain? | Peer Effect Post Bag
4w ago00:13:56Tap to summarizeBen asked how you hold a team together when you can't give them certainty. James and Freddie get into why that framing is already part of the problem - and what good leadership actually looks like when everything is shifting.If you've been avoiding the harder conversations with your team because you don't have all the answers yet, this is the episode to listen to before your next all-hands.More from James:Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
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How to Know If Your Marketing Is Built on Guesswork | Will Gadsby Peet
Jun 1700:33:14Tap to summarizeWill Gadsby Peet has been a fractional CMO across hundreds of business models. The pattern he keeps coming back to has nothing to do with channels, budgets, or agencies.Most founders lose touch with the one thing that made their early growth work — and then wonder why the expensive new hire isn't delivering. Will and James get into what that thing is, what it looks like when a founder gets it right, and the practical system any founder can build right now regardless of where they are with marketing. Specific, a little uncomfortable, and worth it.More from James:Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
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Overwhelmed by AI? Here's How Founders Are Actually Dealing With It
Jun 1500:16:10Tap to summarizeBeth asked what most founders are thinking but haven't said aloud: how do you make decisions about the future of your company when AI is making everything feel uncertain?James and Freddie get into what's really sitting underneath that question — and what the founders who are handling this well are actually doing differently. Not theoretical. Not a toolkit. The practical reality of leading a business through the biggest technological shift most of us will ever see.More from James:Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
Transcribe →What 19 Founders and CEOs Taught Me About Scaling | Season 6 Mid-Season Breakdown
Jun 1000:15:41Tap to summarize19 founders. Rockets, guinea pigs, co-CEO structures, a community of 200,000 built in two years. Every conversation different. Three patterns kept coming back.James breaks down what's actually moving across Season 6 — why the founders gaining ground are stripping back rather than adding, why your performance metrics might be hiding your biggest team problem, and why the most useful thing a vision can do has nothing to do with investor decks. If you've found product-market fit and things still feel harder than they should, this one is worth 16 minutes of your time.More from James:Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com
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