Mar 2, 2026
Hi there and welcome back to another edition of ScaleUp Radio, the podcast brought to you by Smart90, inspired by the Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System and designed to make navigating our ScaleUp journeys that little bit easier by learning from others' experiences. I’m Kevin Brent and in today's episode I’m joined by Benjie Hughes, founder of Hopeless Marketing.
Benjie works with B2B service businesses turning over between one and thirty million pounds who feel stuck, plateaued or unclear about their positioning. His philosophy is simple but powerful; hope is not a strategy. Most businesses do not need more marketing. They need more clarity.
In this episode we explore his Ice Pick Strategy; why being focused and sharp beats being broad and busy; and we talk honestly about the challenge of separating the founder from the business. Benjie shares how he scaled his first company to run without him, and why his current business requires a very different approach, including hiring a fractional COO for accountability.
As always, our discussion is structured in three parts. First, we look at the business, the model and where it sits on the ScaleUp journey. Second, we explore Benjie’s perspective on the challenges of scaling, including growth plateaus and founder psychology. And finally, we close with a few quickfire questions.
One standout message from this episode is this: most marketing problems are not visibility problems; they are clarity problems.
Quick heads-up; we’re looking for a handful of founders to test our new AI-powered Smart90 Lite app. It’s built to help you stay accountable and actually deliver on your goals in just a few minutes a day. It’s free while we’re in testing, and your feedback will directly shape the final version. You can get access by emailing kevin@biz-smart.co.uk.
Make sure you don’t miss any future episodes by subscribing to ScaleUp Radio wherever you like to listen to your podcasts - and why not give us a follow.
For now, continue listening for the full discussion with Benjie.
Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.
If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here:
https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/kevin
You can get in touch with Kevin here:
Kevin's Book Is Here!
Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brent explores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.
More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/
Benjie can be found here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjiehughes/
https://hopelessmarketing.com/unvisible
Resources:
E-Myth Revisited by Michael E Gerber - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-e-myth-revisited-why-most-small-businesses-don-t-work-and-what-to-do-about-it-michael-e-gerber/82114?ean=9780887307287&next=t
Predictable Success by Les McKeown - https://www.waterstones.com/book/predictable-success/les-mckeown/9781608320318
Getting Things Done by David Allen - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/getting-things-done-the-art-of-stress-free-productivity-david-allen/2593335?ean=9780349408941&next=t
Remarkable - https://remarkable.com/