Film producer Peter Samuelson recounts the story behind the founding and growth of The Starlight Children’s Foundation, and the First Star charity.

When Hollywood film producer Peter Samuelson received a telephone call from his cousin, the actress Emma Samms he did not expect to be setting up The Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Even if you have never heard the name, you will know what Starlight does. It is the charity that makes the dreams of seriously sick children come true.

In this episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds Peter recounts that phone call, and describes to host Michael Millward the meetings with Steven Spielberg and then General Norman Schwarzkopf that resulted in a Foundation that has raised and spent over a billion dollars on making sick kids happy.

Peter describes his negotiation with Steven Spielberg and the management lessons he learnt from General Schwarzkopf.

By any measure this is an inspirational story told in an entertaining way.

Read more about the founding of Starlight, and the other charities that Peter has founded in his book Finding Happy.

Peter also talks about First Star and the support it provides to children who are growing up in care to create better life chances.

Watch Michael in The Magician.

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Hair transplant specialist Dr Matee Rajput explains how he built a successful hair transplant business by normalising a medical treatment that many people did not want to admit they had had.

Dr Matee Rajput is a specialist in hair transplant and the creator of the MinSim FUE™ technique, and founder of a chain of hair transplant clinics.

He was training to be a neuro surgeon when a random request to help another doctor perform a hair transplant led to a fascination with the impact hair restoration had on patients.

In this episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds Dr Matee explains to host Michael Millward how that fascination led to a change of specialism and then frustration with how the hair transplant industry operated. He resolved to change the way hair transplants were performed in the UK and how patients experienced the process.

Dr Matee describes how he

• Converted his passion into a consistent process that could be replicated by others.
• Designed a patient experience that focused on why the person wanted the treatment
• Used lessons from retail to ensure customer satisfaction
• Changed perceptions of hair loss with younger people to normalise treatments options
• Devised payment options to give more people access to treatments

More information about Dr Matee and Michael Millward is available at abeceder.

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The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

If you would like to try podcasting using Zencastr visit zencastr.com/pricing.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices on flights, hotels, trains, and many more travel related purchases.

Fit For Work We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test; a 39-health marker Annual Health Test conducted by an experienced phlebotomist with hospital standard tests carried out in a UKAS-accredited and CQC-compliant laboratory.

A secure Personal Wellness Hub provides easy-to-understand results and lifestyle guidance

Visit York Test and use this discount code MIND25.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

If you are a podcaster looking for interesting guests or if you have something interesting to say Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

How to protect the commercial value of your brand.

Anita Mar is a trademark agent and the founder of Trademark Angel, a company that helps entrepreneurs and businesses around the world to protect their intellectual property including their brand names.

In this episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds Anita explains to host Michael Millward what a brand is, the commercial advantages of having a recognisable brand and the process of registering a brand name or trade mark. She also explains some of the limits on trademark protection.

Anita describes the Abeceder brand name as brilliant and invites Michael to share how he created it.

More information about Anita Mar and Michael Millward is available at abeceder.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds – Please help us to keep The Independent Minds free to listen to.

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

If you would like to try podcasting using Zencastr visit zencastr.com/pricing.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices on flights, hotels, trains, and many more travel related purchases.

Fit For Work We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test; a 39-health marker Annual Health Test conducted by an experienced phlebotomist with hospital standard tests carried out in a UKAS-accredited and CQC-compliant laboratory.

A secure Personal Wellness Hub provides easy-to-understand results and lifestyle guidance

Visit York Test and use this discount code MIND25.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

If you are a podcaster looking for interesting guests or if you have something interesting to say Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.