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Today we're joined by inspirational entrepreneur, author and campaigner Sahar Hashemi OBE. Full of wit and wisdom, Sahar says the key to success in business is to dream big, but start small. She describes her own journey from a discontented solicitor to setting up Coffee Republic, the hugely successful coffee chain.

Having written a book called Anyone Can Do It, it was during the Covid lockdown that a simple tweet provided the catalyst for her to champion female entrepreneurship and find a way to educate people about brands built by women. Buy Women Built is now a thriving network for female founders, with 160 Buy Women Built brands on Ocado, 100 in Wholefoods, and growing every day. Alice is proud to be a member of this incredible movement, which includes some of the best and most recognised brands in the UK today.

Disciplined and organised, Sahar is a fan of decluttering in the summer and winter, but has some special sentimental pieces she holds close, including her father’s reading glasses, a chunky gold Celine bracelet she bought in Paris, and a miniature angel gifted by her mother. The angel sits by her bed as a daily reminder that her mother is watching over her.

She says that if anything is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly — just give it a go. After all, we’re here for such a short time, we might as well go at a hundred miles an hour with our hair on fire.

For more of Sahar’s wise words and business tips follow her on Instagram and LinkedIn @saharhashemiOBE.

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This week we’re having a touching talk about the things that money can’t buy with our special guest, Donna May. Make-up artist to the stars, she’s worked on Loose Women and a host of ITV shows, but after a foot operation left her with some time on her hands, a business was born after she made a make-up bag with her trademark red lips on it for a friend. A make-up mat followed and, after meeting a web designer, who became her business partner, Donna May London was up and running. Inspired by her 12,000 strong Facebook community, she makes things women actually want at an affordable-luxury price-point, from travel mirrors, to a perfect red lipstick. Inspiring and down-to-earth, Donna maintains that the difference between someone who succeeds and someone who doesn’t is that the first one just keeps on going, even when things get tough. She says she’s utterly sentimental and the only thing that really matters to her are memories, photographs and telling her family how much they’re loved. She shows us the jewellery that has particular sentimental value, including a keepsake from her Dad and her twenty-first birthday present from her Nan, still with the note inside. To choose your perfect shade of red lippy and much, much more visit donnamaylondon.com www.poshtottydesigns.com

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Bespoke tailor to the stars, Gresham Blake is our special guest this week. With his iconic shop in Brighton, Gresham tells us about his journey into tailoring and how he’s grown his business, diversifying  into corporate wear for big hotels like The Standard Hotel group, Fortnum and Mason, The Grand in Brighton to name but a few.  He hates ornaments, but is a collector of antique curiosities and brings a piece of a space rocket to show us. He also tells us about his pride and joy - an antique petrol pump which is the centrepiece of his house. Sporting a huge signet ring  with a rose gold sovereign made by Jeremy Hoy, Gresham says it was a gift from his friends for his 50th business. Championing customer service and loving hearing people’s stories, Gresham says that the life hack that has seen him through is to just be honest. Dapper, irreverent and funny, find out more about Gresham's fabulous work at www.greshamblake.com www.poshtottydesigns.com

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Chelsea Green’s ‘Felt’ is one of London’s original mini boutiques. Founded by our guest Eliza Poklewski Koziell and fashion director Jayne Pickering, Felt is favourite of editors and celebrities alike. Eliza curates an eponymous collection that is a must for magpies searching for fabulous costume jewellery,

fine jewellery both contemporary and vintage and even ditsy diamond studs.  Eliza talks candidly about the challenges of running an independent small business and keeping control. The trick is to recognise your skillset and to get people on board for your weak areas. Also, not to over-think it. She loves working and says she’ll be dealing until she drops.  Always on the move and gardening, Eliza shows us her robust ring with her family crest which has brought her love and support. She says people commission it off her hand. She also shows us cherished heirloom rosary and a classic watch.

Dressed head to toe in vintage clothes, Eliza loves a knitted hat as well as her apron which she says is her comfort blanket. 

Visit Eliza at Felt London at 53 Godfrey Street (Tues-Sat) and online @feltlondon and www.feltlondon.com

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Spring is here and Alice and Josie are on the beach, with a natter about their latest beach antics and are getting excited about the Brighton festival. Josie is fresh from a Spring cookery course in the old kitchen at Parham House with friend-of-the-podcast Valentina Harris, whilst Alice has given her shop an entire makeover, thanks to a colour scheme invented by her new best friend, Chat GPT. Join us for a lively debate about AI, and a look forward to our fabulous guests this season from the world of fashion, beauty, the environment and, of course, the festival. If you’d like to be a guest on the show, or know anyone who would like to be, please do get in touch with us @showusyourbitspodcast on Instagram and Facebook. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes each Friday. @poshtottydesigns @josielloydwriter

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Straight-talking, inspiring entrepreneur Sarah Willingham tells us about being a curious child, but when her Dad wouldn’t let her have a gap year, she set off to pursue her love of food and international travel in business. After learning the ropes at Pizza Express, she realised she wanted a large family and  that she’d have to create her own career to make her life work with small children. She says she loves chaos and having four children in four years has meant she’s had to accept that having it all has to be a giant compromise. After recording Dragon’s Den she took off around the world with her kids and Michael her husband for three years and found clarity once the adrenalin had left her system. She says her life hack is to get back to nature and she walks to empty her mind.Now settled in Brighton, she runs Nightcap, a big hospitality business, with Michael, but when the opportunity came just before Christmas to buy the i360, she stepped in at the last moment and bought the iconic landmark, saving it from being dismantled.  Sarah is passionate about regenerating the i360, particularly the building beneath the tower and she’s buzzing with plans. Fresh from the amazing Brighton marathon weekend, Sarah says the middle of the prom deserves to be activated and we couldn’t agree more. Whilst she’d be happy living in a caravan herself and not being at all materialistic, Sarah shows us a special ring that reminds her of her soul mate, Richard, and a romantic small red book she made for Michael. Follow her on instagram @sarahwillingham @poshtottydesigns

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Chef, broadcaster, food judge, teacher and prolific writer with 56 cookbooks to her name, Valentina Harris joins us for a mouth-watering chat about her extraordinary life and career. Full of wit and wisdom, Valentina shares her love of regional Italian food, the importance of not serving an Italian an incorrect dish and her fury at the current trend of frying gnocchi. Called the ‘Queen of Risotto’, she shares her secrets of Italy’s iconic rice dish, as well as answering many other foody questions, although her experience with roasted stuffed horse penis was somewhat hair-raising! Her special keepsakes include her first award for cookery writing, her grandmother’s jade balls used for hand exercises, a note from Stanley Tucci with his recommendation of a recipe for the spectacular ‘Timpano’ dish as well as her mother’s unusual silver bangle. We were ready to pack our bags for Italy straight after our chat. Fortunately, Valentina runs cookery courses closer to home in the old kitchen at Parham House. For more details join her on instagram @chef_valentina

@poshtottydesigns

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Our guest this week is legendary food writer, illustrator and broadcaster Elisabeth Luard. Joining us from London, Elisabeth candidly recalls adventures from her extraordinary life, describing how, after growing up in Uruguay and boarding school, she was a young journalist on Private Eye, when she met her husband, Nicholas Luard. Marrying at 21 and having four children in quick succession, Elisabeth decamped to rural Andalusia, finding a way into food writing and the traditional recipes via the locals at the school gates where her kids learnt to trap and skin rabbits. After a couple of shows in a top wildlife gallery exhibiting her natural history paintings, she started writing about food in 'The Field' magazine accompanied by her own illustrations, but her passion was to write a book about real peasant cookery and the importance of knowing the land, the limitations of fresh produce and only using what's seasonal and local. A concept that seemed transgressive at the time, but has, as she says, come full circle. Full of wisdom and wit, Elisabeth has travelled all over the world and enlightens us about some of the foods she's encountered along the way, such smoked reindeer tongue, as well as making a case for bringing back salep, a powdered dried orchid root. She doesn't 'do' jewellery as she's always cooking, but she shows us two of her treasured rings - a sapphire ring belonging to her late daughter, Francesca, as well her welsh gold wedding ring. Writing regularly on Substack (elisabethluard@substack.com)

Elisabeth's fascination with the natural world as well as the world of food and its interconnectivity with culture continues. She says that like the wood-wide-web, we're all 

connected and that to forget that would be a terrible mistake. Wise words indeed.

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Brighton maker, artist, business woman and entrepreneur Sophie Darling joins us for a fascinating chat about sustainability and slow fashion, describing her creative process and how she creates her signature hand-printed jackets, which are all art pieces in themselves. 

Sophie describes how a surprise trip to Mississippi nurtured her creativity when she was young, but that it wasn’t until she’d done a screen-printing course that she found her passion, leading to a  hugely successful label Kimchi with her friend Holly Atelier. Now running a creative hub in her Brighton studio, Sophie does workshops and feels passionately about nurturing younger creative talent. Unable to wear rings anymore, Sophie shows us her lovely necklaces. A (possibly Tiffany) silver locket bottle for perfume on a chain gifted by her father to her mother and now has been passed onto Sophie’s daughter. The funny story behind her wedding ring with braille on the outside because ‘Love is Blind’, as well as a beautiful ‘Darling’ necklace, which is a collaboration with a local tattoo artist and self-taught jeweller James Robinson. She says that it’s her resilience, determination and passion that has seen her through. Inspiring, funny, lively and yet very down to earth, Sophie continues to thrive creatively. Find out more on her website, sophiedarling.com, catch her on Insta @sophie_darling_. She runs an open studio once a month and will be part of the open studios in May for Brighton festival.  

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