Episode Details

If you've ever wondered why your content isn't converting, why your pitch isn't landing, or why people scroll past your posts without stopping, this episode is going to change the way you think about communication forever.

Lisa sits down with local star Alfie Joey, BBC Radio Newcastle presenter, impressionist, stand-up comedian, and communications expert who's spent nearly 30 years mastering the art of storytelling, performance, and connecting with audiences.

Alfie's career has taken him from training to be a priest and living with a religious order, to hosting breakfast radio for one of the most listened-to stations outside London, to performing on Britain's Got Talent, to coaching business leaders on how to communicate with confidence.

This conversation goes deep into what it really takes to become a great communicator. You'll hear why confidence is a skill you earn, not a gift you're born with. Why rehearsal and repetition matter more than talent. Why stories beat statistics every single time. And why your business won't grow if you can't tell people what you do in a way that makes them care.

Alfie shares the exact techniques he learned at the BBC to critique and improve his own work every single week, why he still rehearses even after decades of performing, and how he got a free suit from a company who recognised him from LinkedIn, not the radio.

This isn't about becoming a performer. It's about understanding that communication is the most important skill you can develop as an entrepreneur, and that if you're not telling your story, someone else is telling theirs.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why Alfie trained to be a priest, lived with monks, and then left to pursue comedy and radio
• How he went from being invisible at school to becoming one of the most recognised voices in the Northeast
• The teacher who changed Alfie's life and why he sat through every rehearsal just to get in the room
• Why confidence is a skill you have to earn, not something you're born with
• The myth of natural talent and why everything is skill-based
• Why coaching and feedback will take you further than practicing alone ever will
• The exact BBC technique Alfie used every Wednesday to critique his own work and improve faster
• How to know if you're more interesting than you think and what behind-the-scenes content people actually want to see
• Why your message needs to be clear and how to make sure your audience knows who you are
• The difference between audience building and selling, and why one matters more than the other
• Why stories beat statistics every single time and how to start telling stories in your business
• How Alfie got a free suit from a company who recognised him from LinkedIn, not from his radio career
• Why networking usually goes wrong and what to do instead
• The power of showing up on LinkedIn and being visible every single day
• Why you should give first and sell later, and how that creates unexpected opportunities
• How much you should script a talk and why Alfie always rehearses, even after 30 years
• Why experienced speakers still need practice and how to handle fear on stage
• What it's really like to do stand-up comedy and why it's one of the hardest forms of communication