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174: Oli Barrett on making the connections that matter most
Episode 174
Thursday, 26 March, 2026
This week we spent all our time pressing the flesh (until finding out we’d misunderstood what that means and getting very firmly asked to leave Subway) all in order to win the approval of this week’s guest, the master networker Oli Barrett MBE. Blessed with the ability to bring together the right people with the right ideas at the right time, Oli has built a reputation for being the nation’s ultimate connector. But, being a fine fellow as well as a canny-business operator, he has used his powers for good – forming remarkable social change initiatives like ‘Tenner’, the UK’s largest schools entrepreneurship competition and ‘Turn On The Subtitles’, a global children’s literacy campaign. Deftly uniting the worlds of entrepreneurship, innovation, education and social impact, Oli has been rightly lauded and awarded for his considerable efforts – bagging, among other accolades, the title of ‘Most Connected Man in Britain’ from Wired and a place in GQs ‘Top 100 connected figures’. Plus there’s the small matter of being awarded an actual MBE from the actual Queen who, we assume, Oli was able to successfully introduce to an off-the-grid artisan driving-goggle manufacturer based in the Peak District. In a chat where Oli reveals the magic behind all his connective conjury, we ponder everything from the value of active learning to the magnetic powers of a well-built network.Follow Oli on LinkedIn ////Timestamps 02:27 – Quick Fire Questions 05:18 – The Zigzag Journey: Dropping Out and Moving On 11:04 – Disney World vs. Lecture Halls: The Awakening 12:01 – Networking: Chance Encounters vs Intentional Connections 14:40 – The First Business: Amazing You 18:05 – The £10 Challenge That Took Off 24:22 – The Power of Defaults: Small Changes, Big Impact 26:04 – Permission to Create: The Entrepreneurial Mindset 30:08 – Connecting the Dots: How to Build Real Networks 35:45 – The Art of Introduction: What Actually Makes It Work//// Oli’s book recommendations are: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Reflections on Success by Martyn Lewis The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger ////
