Confidence is overrated, so says returning guest Susana Serrano Davey. This lovely Spanish lady has written a book entitle Confidence is Overrated which comes out March 2025.

• Graham and Kevin welcome back returning guest Susana Serrano-Davey, who has written a new book called "Confidence is Overrated" that will be released in March.
• Susana explains that the book challenges the traditional view of confidence and explores how to feel more at ease with oneself even without constant self-confidence.

• Susana delves deeper into her perspective on confidence, distinguishing it from self-esteem and imposter syndrome.
• She shares her own journey of not always feeling confident, and how she has learned to be more at peace with herself even in moments of self-doubt.

• The example of Malala Yousafzai was used to illustrate how challenging one's cultural and personal beliefs can lead to finding the courage to do things previously thought impossible.
• The importance of being open to new possibilities beyond one's career and preconceptions.

• Susana explains that her goal is for readers to enjoy the book, connect with her personal stories, and be inspired to reflect on their own lives and values.
• Her ultimate aim is to help people find a sense of inner peace and contentment, rather than constantly chasing confidence or external markers of success.

• In the closing discussion, Graham and Kevin reflect on their own journey of starting the podcast 450 episodes ago, when they had little confidence but took the leap anyway.
• They discuss how the podcast has evolved and the value of continuing to do it, even if it means letting go of reaching a specific milestone.

Graham Arrowsmith

Graham founded Finely Fettled ten years ago to help business owners and marketers market to affluent and high-net-worth customers. Graham founder of MicroYES, a Partner for MeclabsAI, which combines the world's biggest source of 10,000 marketing experiments with AI. Find Graham on LinkedIn.

Kevin Appleby

Kevin specializes in finance transformation and implementing business change. He's the COO of GrowCFO, providing community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.com

OPDSure (Outpatient Department) is India's first OPD benefits plan for employees and families. Graham met Umesh, the founder of OPDSure, in November 2024 in New Delhi, India.

• OPDSure offers affordable outpatient healthcare coverage to Indian companies for their employees, focusing on preventive care.
• The Indian healthcare market is underserved, with long wait times at public hospitals and expensive private care.
• OPDSure initially targets small to mid-size companies, charging 3000 rupees (£30) per employee annually.
• The company is seeking $500k in initial funding to scale operations and plans to raise $5-10M from VCs later.

• Provides outpatient department (OPD) coverage not typically included in insurance.
• Targets corporate clients, offering as employee benefit.
• Flexible payment models: employer-paid, 50/50 split, or voluntary employee-paid.
• Annual cost 3000 rupees (£30) per employee.
• It allows visits to any doctor/clinic, not a restricted network.
• Includes alternative medicine (Ayurveda, homeopathy).

• 1.4 billion population with an overburdened public system.
• Long wait times at free government hospitals.
• Private care is unaffordable for many (£10+ per consultation).
• Average life expectancy is 60-65 years vs. 80+ in the UK.
• Lack of preventive care culture, especially among young people.

• The OPD market is estimated at $22 billion, growing to $40 billion by 2029.
• Initially targeting Delhi/NCR region, plans to expand nationwide.
• Focus on the 20-35 age group (70-80% of the corporate workforce).
• There are some competitors, but the market is large enough for multiple players.

• Seeking $500k initial investment for team expansion and marketing.
• A later round of $5-10M is planned for nationwide scaling.
• Founder has an MBA from Sheffield Hallam University.

Graham Arrowsmith

Graham founded Finely Fettled ten years ago to help business owners and marketers market to affluent and high-net-worth customers. MicroMailings is his new low-risk, done-for-you marketing solution for companies seeking high-net-worth leads. He is also the founder of MicroYES, a Partner for MeclabsAI, which combines the world's biggest source of 10,000 marketing experiments with AI. Find Graham on LinkedIn.

Kevin Appleby

Kevin specialises in finance transformation and implementing business change. He's the COO of GrowCFO, which provides both community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.com

Graham Arrowsmith visited India with his wife, Dawn, in November 2024. This podcast recollects the experience and discusses MeclabsAI's Customer-Facing Devices.

This podcast discusses Graham's trip to India and explores applications of MeclabsAI, particularly Customer-Facing Devices (CFDs).

Key Takeaways

• Graham visited India, observing stark contrasts in urban development, pollution, and economic growth.
• Through CFDs, MeclabsAI offers powerful marketing, data analysis, and customer interaction capabilities.
• The technology has potential applications in finance, due diligence, and enhancing customer experiences.
• Security and data privacy are prioritised in MeclabsAI's approach, addressing concerns about data usage.

India Trip Observations

• Delhi: Estimated 35 million population, severe smog issues impacting health
• Chandigarh: Planned city by Le Corbusier, more organised than other Indian cities
• Traffic: Chaotic, with various vehicles weaving through lanes.
• Economic contrast: Educated professionals alongside significant poverty in slums.
• Growth: India is recognised as one of the fastest-growing economies globally.

MeclabsAI Capabilities

• Customer Facing Devices (CFDs): Advanced AI agents that can replace traditional chatbots.
• Data analysis: Can process financial reports, identify trends, and provide insights.
• Content creation: Ability to generate podcasts, articles, and marketing materials.
• Personalisation: Can create tailored experiences for customers, e.g., in jewellery shopping
• Integration: Potential to replace or enhance existing website functionalities.

Business Applications

• Due diligence: Analysing pitch decks and financial data for investors.
• Finance presentations: Improving how financial data is communicated to non-finance audiences.
• Marketing optimisation: Leveraging 30 years of marketing research to enhance conversions.
• Lead generation: Creating engaging user journeys that capture customer information effectively.

Technical Aspects

• Security: Emphasis on data privacy and secure handling of uploaded information.
• Customisation: It is easy to add proprietary information to create tailored AI libraries.
• Ongoing development: Regular updates and improvements to the system's capabilities

Graham Arrowsmith

Graham founded Finely Fettled ten years ago to help business owners and marketers market to affluent and high-net-worth customers. MicroMailings is his new low-risk, done-for-you marketing solution for companies seeking high-net-worth leads. He is also the founder of MicroYES, a Partner for MeclabsAI, which combines the world's biggest source of 10,000 marketing experiments with AI. Find Graham on LinkedIn.

Kevin Appleby

Kevin specialises in finance transformation and implementing business change. He's the COO of GrowCFO, providing community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at

Financial advisor Kostas Stylios joins The Next 100 Days podcast to discuss the differences between financial advisors and wealth managers and the conversation moves towards AI and robot-investing.

• Kostas Stylios provides an overview of the key differences between financial advisors and wealth managers.
• He explains that while they often perform similar roles, wealth managers are typically associated with serving a wealthier clientele.
• Meanwhile, financial advisors may work with a broader range of clients.

• The conversation shifts to the debate around active versus passive investing strategies.
• Kostas and the hosts discuss the pros and cons of each approach
• These include: the higher fees associated with active management and the potential for active funds to underperform their benchmarks.

• The group explores the potential impact of AI and automation on the financial advice industry.
• They discuss the possibility of AI-powered “customer-facing devices” that could enhance client engagement and the challenges of maintaining the human element of financial advice in the face of technological advancements.

Difference between Financial Advisor and Wealth Manager

https://thenext100days.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Kostas-Stylios-Difference-FA-and-Wealth-Manager.mp4

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https://thenext100days.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Kostas-Stylios-Restricted.mp4

https://thenext100days.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Kostas-Stylios-Testimonial.mp4

Graham Arrowsmith

Graham founded Finely Fettled ten years ago to help business owners and marketers market to affluent and high-net-worth customers. MicroMailings is his new low risk, done for you marketing solution for companies seeking high net worth leads. He is also founder of MicroYES, a Partner for MeclabsAI, which combines the world’s biggest source of 10,000 marketing experiments with AI. Find Graham on LinkedIn.

Kevin Appleby

Kevin specialises in finance transformation and implementing business change. He’s the COO of GrowCFO, which provides both community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.com

Siam is the Chief Investment Officer for the DSV Fund. He is an ex-RAF Pilot who also started Trading at the age of 18. Over the last 20 years on the markets he’s publicly called many major economic events and profited from them such as the 2015 Black Monday crash where he made £422k in 30 minutes and the 2020 Oil crash which he shorted from $80 down to $10. He’s also made multiple thousand % ROI gains in the last 2 Crypto cycles since 2017.

In 2015, Siam was the best-performing Fund Manager in the UK, attaining 60% ROI in the 11 months that his AR PAMM fund was running.

In 2016 he set up a Private Equity firm and promptly bought over 12 businesses. Unfortunately, this venture was peppered in misfortunes. Which is one of the risks when acquiring distressed businesses! But this firm is now on the up thankfully. He also recently sold his Crypto PE firm for £10.75m and is currently in the earn-out phase.

• The meeting begins with casual conversation between the participants, Kevin Appleby, Siam Kidd, and Graham Arrowsmith.
• They discuss the weather, politics, and some personal anecdotes.

• Siam Kidd explains his journey into investing, starting with a gold and silver bullion business.
• He discusses the importance of beating inflation, which he estimates at 15% annually, and how traditional assets like stocks and real estate have struggled to keep up.
• his led him to discover Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a way to outpace inflation.

• Siam describes the DSV Fund, which focuses on investing in open-source AI and the intersection of AI and crypto.
• He emphasises that the fund is targeted at high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and fund managers, not retail investors.
• He explains the rationale for investing in these emerging technologies, noting their potential to be the fastest growing sectors.

• The discussion turns to the potential for tokenising real-world assets like real estate on the blockchain.
• Siam and the others explore the benefits and challenges of this concept, such as ensuring homeowner rights and preventing large investors from dominating local markets.

• Siam shares his approach to investing, emphasising the importance of having a predictive mental model and closely following market cycles.
• He explains his belief that the crypto market follows a 4-year cycle that is aligned with a 5.5-year global liquidity cycle, and predicts a potential “blow-off top” in the crypto market in Q4 2025.

• When asked about options for investors with smaller amounts to invest, Siam emphasises the importance of self-education, particularly in areas like crypto and AI.
• He discusses plans to publish a book to help guide individual investors, and suggests ways they can leverage AI and digital tools to enhance their investing knowledge and capabilities.

• The meeting concludes with a discussion of potential collaborations and next steps, including the possibility of integrating Siam’s book with AI-powered tools to enhance the learning experience for readers.

Global Expansion of Fiat Currencies

The Business Explorer is Dave Rogers’ new book. It’s out 21st November.

• The participants engage in casual conversation, discussing Dave’s Lego collection and his upcoming book release.
• hey express enthusiasm for the book and the insights it will provide.

• Dave explains that the main purpose of the book is to serve as a business card and introduction to his expertise.
• The book is divided into three sections covering redefining success, developing “softer” business skills, and strategic planning.

• Dave shares that the book features examples from younger, more modern business leaders and entrepreneurs,
• He does this rather than the typical historical figures, to make the content more relatable and impactful for the target audience.

• Dave highlights three key insights from the book:
  • redefining success beyond just financial metrics,
  • developing a growth mindset and overcoming imposter syndrome, and
  • taking a holistic approach to business planning and strategy.
  
  

• The group discusses the potential to leverage AI technology to create an interactive experience around the book.
• This would allow readers to have personalised conversations and get tailored insights based on the book’s content.

• Kevin and Graham share their personal experiences of leaving corporate roles to pursue entrepreneurship, highlighting the challenges and rewards of that transition.

• The participants wrap up the discussion, expressing enthusiasm for Dave’s book and the potential opportunities to further leverage technology and AI to enhance the reader experience and generate new business leads.

Surrounded By Nerds

The Business Explorer – Dave’s New Book

The Unsexy Side of Business

MicroYES is the brand name Graham Arrowsmith is using to promote his authorised partner status to promote MeclabsAI. His main focus is to bring Customer Facing Devices to businesses who want to achieve improved engagement from their websites. Graham’s MicroYES offers strategies to leverage cutting-edge AI marketing tools to elevate your brand presence.

• Graham discusses the challenges of managing meeting schedules across different time zones.
• Especially as Graham is about to travel to India.
• He is considering setting all his meetings to the Indian time zone to avoid confusion.

• Graham introduces MeclabsAI, a marketing AI tool that can analyse data and provide insights and recommendations to help businesses improve their marketing efforts.
• He highlights how Meclabs AI is built on extensive research and experimentation, making it more powerful than typical chatbots or language models.

• Graham explains the “MicroYes” framework developed by MECLABS, which outlines 8 key steps in the customer decision-making process.
• This framework is used to structure effective marketing pages and customer-facing experiences.

• Graham discusses his upcoming trip to India, where he will be meeting with various businesses in cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, and Chandigarh.
• The goal is to demonstrate MeclabsAI and in particular Customer Facing Devices (CFD) technology.

• Graham wraps up the discussion, encouraging listeners in the target Indian cities to reach out if they are interested in meeting.
• He also mentions that Faiza will try to create some sample CFDs for those who book a meeting ahead of the trip to showcase the technology.

MeclabsAI – including marketing AND finance

MeclabsAI: The Best of the Best in Marketing

Are Your Throwing Tries at Your Webpage?

Ian Pilbeam left a corporate HR role in the public sector, formed his own business, The HR Dept, then made it run without him so he can travel the world

• The meeting begins with Ian, Kevin, and Graham introducing themselves and getting their video and audio setups working.
• They discuss some technical issues like camera orientation and lighting.

• Ian shares how he transitioned from a career in public sector HR to starting his own HR outsourcing business called The HR Department 10 years ago.
• He describes the process of building the business to operate without him, including hiring talent, implementing systems, and cultivating the right company culture.

• Ian emphasises the critical role of company culture in enabling his business to run smoothly without him.
• He explains how he involved his team in defining the company’s core values and ensures they are actively lived by the employees.

• Ian discusses the challenges of transitioning leadership and fully stepping away from the business he founded.
• He shares how he built trust with his successor through hands-on training and scenario planning, and how events like the COVID-19 pandemic required him to temporarily step back in.

• Ian describes his current lifestyle, which involves spending about a third of the year in Edinburgh, a third in Italy, and the remaining third traveling to various destinations.
• He explains how this lifestyle is enabled by the self-sustaining nature of his HR business.

• Ian discusses how the HR landscape has become more complex in recent years, with increased focus on mental health, work-from-home policies, and upcoming legislative changes.
• He explains how this has increased demand for the outsourced HR services his company provides.

Escape Story

Graham Arrowsmith