The Impact Files

Each episode of The Impact Files podcast explores the personal stories and leadership challenges behind meeting a business’s near-term financial needs, while creating lasting wellbeing for people and planet. We examine the roles that marketing, media and communications play in shaping trust, demand and impact. Our objective is to provide insight and encouragement for business leaders on a purpose-led journey, showing how financial performance can be aligned with long-term sustainability. Hosted by Ned Wells alongside a sustainability expert co-host, each episode features one guest: an experienced decision-maker in either a ‘green brand’ – founded as purpose-led – or an ‘amber brand’ – not founded as purposeful but now on the journey.

The Impact Files is a business podcast hosted by Ned Wells, with 25 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Ned Wells hosts The Impact Files, a business show with 25 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #10

  S3 E10, Sustainable sales: creating mutual value, with Martin Knowles, Sales Untangled®

  Aug 10, 202638 minS3

  Martin Knowles, Co-Founder of Sales Untangled®, tells us about a career in which he’s moved from ‘avoiding sales roles’ to building a successful consultancy focused on ethical, relationship-led selling. In this episode, Martin provides a thoughtful definition of ‘sustainable sales’. He shares his experience of the way many business owners struggle with sales because traditional approaches often feel pushy and transactional. Through Sales Untangled®, Martin helps organisations develop more effective sales cultures by focusing on listening, understanding customer needs, and creating mutual value rather than simply pitching products or services. Martin’s definition of sustainable sales includes the building of long-term relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, and communities. He argues that lasting business success comes from trust, curiosity, and genuine human connection. The conversation also explores: Building sales functions that support sustainable growth The role of B Corp principles in responsible business practices How repeat business and referrals are driven by strong relationships The opportunities and challenges AI presents for sales and customer engagement Why human connection will remain essential despite advances in technology Visit Sales Untangled® at: https://salesuntangled.co.uk/ Connect with Martin at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinknowles/

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  Episode #9

  S3 E9, 'Best at being human': building trust in environmental consultancy, Jon Berry, Tyler Grange

  Jul 23, 20261h 9mS3

  Our guest Jon Berry’s personal story shines through everything he does as Managing Director of environmental consultancy Tyler Grange, which he co-founded 15 years ago. The phrase ‘origin story’ is overused, but Jon’s reflection on his experience of being born prematurely with low survival odds, has instilled in him a deep sense of purpose and giving back. Inspired by a passionate geography teacher, Jon determined to pursue landscape architecture, kickstarting his career with a creative, self-made CV road trip that landed multiple job offers. A later period of burnout and isolation, after working for a large PLC where culture and purpose had eroded, became a turning point, motivating him to build a workplace centred on wellbeing, trust and community. What began as a desire to ‘enjoy work again’ has grown into a 130-person business focused on ecology, arboriculture, landscape planning and green infrastructure, helping clients navigate planning while restoring nature. Tyler Grange operates a triple balance sheet for people, planet and profit. A certified B Corp, it uses the framework to improve accountability and reshape its supply chain towards ethical providers (e.g., Honest Mobile; refugee-led soap makers in Orkney), while introduction of a four-day work week has increased productivity and reduced sick leave significantly, demonstrating how purpose-led initiatives can drive commercial performance. Culture is key: a ‘loud leadership’ model encourages all voices, while recruitment focuses on storytelling (‘ditch the CV, recruit a human’). The business invests heavily in wellbeing support and transparent communication, including open financial discussions and visible strategy. Jon also leads The Kindness Forecast, a social experiment linking small acts of kindness to wider behavioural change. Jon cites among his influences The Second Mountain by David Brooks, and the work done by ‘nature on the board’ pioneers Faith in Nature. Visit Tyler Grange at: https://tylergrange.co.uk/ Connect with Jon at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-berry-65816510/

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  Episode #8

  S3 E8, Peppermint and purpose: blending craft, nature and regeneration, with Jo Colman, Summerdown

  Jul 13, 202657 minS3

  Our guest this episode is Jo Colman, Chief Mint Officer at Summerdown, and fourth-generation member of the family to steward their Hampshire farm. Jo’s career is rooted in heritage and reinvention: his grandfather, the last family member involved in Colman’s Mustard, revived the long‑lost Black Mitcham peppermint variety in the UK after sourcing cuttings from US growers. What began as a half‑tennis‑court‑sized experiment has grown into around 100 acres of single‑estate peppermint, the foundation of Summerdown’s award‑winning chocolates, teas, bodycare and home fragrance. Jo describes Summerdown as ‘the peppermint people’, but the business is far more than a brand. It is a vertically integrated farm‑to‑product operation: the team grows, harvests and distils peppermint on site, alongside chamomile, lavender and cereals. Their oats are produced through a nature‑positive partnership with Jordans, requiring wildflower margins and land set aside for biodiversity. Manufacturing is carried out by long‑term UK partners before products return to the farm for fulfilment and distribution. A defining theme of Jo’s leadership is the idea of ‘right‑sized growth’. He likens it to an oak tree: expansive in its early years, then regenerative rather than extractive once mature. Summerdown’s strategy focuses on cutting carbon, connecting people with place, and cultivating natural stewardship - an approach reflected in its 75 km of hedgerows, rare wildflowers, and the return of species such as stone curlew. When a long‑standing manufacturing partner collapsed, Summerdown faced a choice between cheaper commodity chocolate and a higher‑quality single‑origin chocolate from a fellow B Corp. The latter reduced margins but strengthened ethics, flavour and carbon performance—an easy decision once viewed through their value lens. Two themes stand out: Jo’s belief that place is the heart of the brand, and his conviction that regenerative business requires taking the harder, longer‑term path to create shared value for land, people and partners. Visit Summerdown at: https://summerdown.com/ Connect with Jo at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-c0/

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  Episode #7

  S3 E7, Changing your pants and changing the world, with Sarah Jordan, Y.O.U. Underwear

  Jul 1, 20261 hourS3

  Sarah Jordan, our guest this week, is the founder and CEO of Y.O.U Underwear, an ethical underwear brand created in 2016. Her mission? ‘Changing the world, one pair of pants at a time’! While volunteering with the Uganda International Marathon, Sarah discovered that girls were missing up to 25% of their education because they didn’t own a pair of underwear. The realisation that something many of us take for granted ‘has such an impact if you don’t have it’ became the catalyst for her work. Sarah’s background is in the charity sector, including at Oxfam and the MS Society. Once she began researching how underwear is made, she was confronted with fashion’s toxic supply chains — pesticides, pollution, and widespread exploitation. She refused to ‘solve one problem and create another’, and built Y.O.U Underwear on a different foundation: Fairtrade‑certified organic cotton, SEDEX‑audited factories, and a commitment to paying everyone in the supply chain properly. Y.O.U. operates a clear buy‑one‑give‑one model, donating each purchased pair through Smalls for All, to vulnerable women and girls in the UK and across Africa. Some collections also support communities in Kenya and Tanzania, and a pink range raises funds for breast cancer charities. A defining theme in Sarah’s story is her personal and financial commitment. She has bootstrapped the business entirely, working freelance for years and returning to paid work recently. Stock purchase requires up-front spend, with Fairtrade cotton minimums and long lead times. Growth has been slow by design, but steady: Y.O.U Underwear now has a shop in Oxford, a second opening in Brighton in summer 2026, and annual turnover of around £350–370k, with over 10,000 pairs of underwear sold last year. Sarah’s experience shows that slow fashion is structurally hard — but for her, doing things fairly is ‘the only way she can sleep at night’, and the only way business should be done. Visit Y.O.U. at: https://www.youunderwear.com/ Connect with Sarah at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbjordan/

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  Episode #6

  S3 E6, Balancing AI and humanity, with Sophie Howe, Comtec Translations

  Jun 30, 202645 minS3

  Our guest this episode is Sophie Howe, CEO of Comtec Translations. Comtec was established in 1981 by Sophie’s mother, Dr Isabella Moore. The company was sold at one point, but Sophie and her husband later bought it back, and have led it together since 2007. Today, Comtec operates with an internal team of 16 project managers and a global network of around 4,000 linguists, reflecting both the breadth of languages they cover and the depth of subject‑matter expertise required. Sophie’s route into leadership has been shaped by a long‑standing belief in the value of cultural understanding and human expertise. Comtec provides localisation and translation services across more than 200 languages, working with clients in B2B and B2C sectors, as well as creative, marketing and learning agencies. Sophie believes localisation is about creating an experience that “really resonates and connects with the audience,” going far beyond direct translation to consider cultural nuance and context. A major theme in our conversation is how Comtec balances purpose and profit in an industry transformed by AI. The company was the first translation business to become B Corp certified, a framework Sophie says aligned naturally with their long‑held values. Even as AI opens opportunities to localise at scale, Sophie is clear that human linguistic and cultural expertise remains central to quality and fairness. We explore Comtec’s tools such as Pronto (a self‑service machine translation platform) and Clara (a content‑generation tool), and how transparency with clients — showing the difference between AI‑led and human‑led outputs — has become a defining part of their approach. Two things to take away: AI has reshaped the translation sector at extraordinary speed, and Comtec’s human‑centred approach has been essential to navigating that shift. Not all languages respond equally well to AI — and guiding clients through those nuances is now a critical part of Comtec’s value. Visit Comtec at: https://www.comtectranslations.co.uk/ Connect with Sophie at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiehowecomtectranslations/

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