A mother and daughter duo with a thirst for knowledge on the stories, values and traditions of other family and multi-generational businesses have reached listeners in 21 countries, across five continents, with their new podcast.
Launched only six months ago, It Runs In The Family is making its mark in the podcasting arena and hitting the charts, reaching number 17 in top family business podcasts and making number 77 in the top entrepreneurship podcasts for Great Britain.
Founder and managing director of Poole-based PR and communications agency Liz Lean PR, Liz Willingham, and her daughter Leila, who is business and PR account manager at the agency, are on their own journey into the delicate world of the family business and launched their own podcast, ‘It Runs In The Family’, in February.
Featuring a different family business in each episode, the duo explores the history and share the learnings from their guest’s experiences over the years. From breweries to garden centres, drink brands to car dealerships, family organisations come in all shapes and sizes and this podcast reveals the stories and lessons from within them.
Guests have included high profile chef, restaurateur and television presenter Marco Pierre White and his son Luciano, Warren Haskins, chairman of 100-year-old Haskins Garden Centres, Jill Stein OBE and her son Jack of the Rick Stein business empire, father and son Anthony and Matt Woodhouse of Hall & Woodhouse and
Paul and Will Hendy of the motor dealership firm the Hendy Group.
Liz says: “We launched the podcast hoping that it would become a place where listeners can learn from family businesses, either as a family organisation themselves or as individuals interested in this unique way of operating. It has been great to see the podcast achieve this not only in the UK but across various countries, including the United States, Canada, Russia and France. We even have a handful of listeners tuning in from as far afield as Australia which is incredible!
“We’re thrilled that our global listener base is enjoying the stories as much as we are and look forward to producing even more episodes with some of the biggest and intriguing family brands. Curiously, we’ve also reached number 32 in the Estonian charts for entrepreneurship!”
Leila adds: “As we know from personal experience, there are real joys and also real challenges when working with family business. We have loved hearing the stories of those who have been there and done it. From Double Dutch, highly successful tonic brand established by twin sisters, Raissa and Joyce in 2015, to Balson’s Butchers, the UK’s oldest family business that can be traced back to 1515, we’re covering a lot of business and family ground in this podcast.
“It Runs In The Family has proven to be a treasure trove of family business experience, with companies passed through generations, sibling connections on an almost telepathic level, and an incredible degree of humility from all of our wonderful guests.”
A new episode of It Runs In The Family is released every other Wednesday and is available to download and stream on all major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
To never miss an episode or to discuss recording a family business story, please visit lizleanpr.co.uk/podcast-runs-in-the-family/.