Jeff Weigh

On this episode I share my interview with Gavin Bell, Facebook Advertising Consultant, Vlogger and Speaker. Gavin talks passionately about 'what do you want your life to look like'.

Gavin works with brands across the world and helps them with their Facebook Advertising. When he's not doing that or speaking he can often be found doing some creative videos, like going down the street in Edinburgh in his boxers!

Gavin came into the social media world 5-6 years ago having worked with Personal Trainers; who in his words were pretty poor at marketing. Whilst it didn't work out as planned, he was able to learn from this and was approached by a company to look at their Facebook Advertising.

By his own admission;

Gavin literally didn't know a thing before moving to Edinburgh and everything has been learned from scratch.

His own philosophy for advertising is;

Do you really enjoy what you do?

Well, Gavin absolutely loves the work that he does. When he's working it doesn't feel like work. It feels like a hobby.

Because it doesn't feel like work he's able to do it for longer and not burn out.

A typically day for Gavin involves exercise first followed by a healthy breakfast. He deliberately puts an emphasis on his morning activities. He priorities the most important task first.

Gavin does his best to protect his time and remove distractions.

Some of the things he does include;

Finally if you would like to start a conversation with Gavin, you can find him on;

Twitter

LinkedIn

YouTube

More details can be found about the Funnel Academy on his website.

If you enjoyed this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.

On this episode I share my interview with Michel Falcon, entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author of People First Culture. To date, Michel has built his career off 3 topics; company culture, employee engagement and customer experience.

By his own admission Michel is not a great academic learner.

He did however, want to learn how to be success in business and this led him to 1-800 Got Junk. It was during his 5 years here that he learned the importance of company culture, employee engagement and customer experience. In his own words;

As a result of the experience Michel left to set up an advisory firm focused on company culture, employee engagement and customer experience.

Michel started out working with very small companies and at times he was struggling to find clients.

Back in 2012 people didn't always understand what these topics were. Undeterred Michel continued on this path and as awareness started to grow he moved to Toronto in 2016.

During 2016 he joined his current business partners to start a hospitality company. It's here where Michel has been able to bring his 'People first' strategies to life.

This is about building an organisation that your people and customers admire.

In Michel's words; most companies fall short even when they set out with the intention of being admired.

People and customers are often looked at separately whereas Michel sees them as 2 peas in a pod. He goes onto explain that he coaches his managers to spend 80% of their time focused on employee experience and 20% of time on the customer experience.

One is the outcome of the other.

Michel sights 3 reasons why a company won't become people first;

Michel is on a crusade to bridge the gap between our personal lives and our professional lives.

Finally if you would like to start a conversation with Michel, you can find him on;

Twitter

LinkedIn

More details can be found on his website.

If you enjoyed this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.

On this episode I share my interview with Aimee Bateman, Founder and CEO of Career Cake; a company pioneering the way we learn and enabling others to be seen, heard and valued.

Winner of several awards since 2010, Aimee was recently awarded by Wales online the Entrepreneur of the Year.

Doing what you love and enjoy is the reason why I started my company.

Aimee started off as a commercial recruiter. In 2010 there were an extreme amount of talented people who found themselves out of work in South Wales. The focus of the recruiter (at the time) was on placing people in roles for companies; not necessarily focusing on the people themselves.

This didn't sit well with 29 year old Aimee who was about to earn a big commission on the back of placing someone in an Financial Director role! In that moment everything changed.

On the back of that moment, Aimee went home and bought a cheap camera on eBay and started making videos in her kitchen. Videos that would teach people how they would not need people like her. These included 'How to';

All with a view to helping people power themselves and take control of their own situation.

It was 2010 and no one was really doing anything with videos at that time.

In 5 years Aimee received over 42 million views on YouTube.

Today, people and organisations are paying for subscriptions in 42 different countries.

Careercake is helping people to be awesome; how to be seen, heard and valued in their job.

What you see is what you get with Aimee.

Most of her teenage years were spent in foster care. This had an effect on her self esteem and has driven her onward in her life. Having been to university and got her first job in recruitment, her self esteem changed completely. To the point that it was oozing out of her! A lot of that came through being in a job where she was valued.

Admittedly, Aimee lost her way a little bit. For a couple of years she lost her 'why' she was doing it.

Having celebrated her 30th birthday in Ibiza with her friends, she returned and registered the domain Careercake.

Finally if you would like to start a conversation with Aimee, you can find her on;

Twitter

LinkedIn

More details can be found on the Careercake website.

If you enjoyed this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.

On this episode I share my interview with Jordan Gross; executive coach at Cloud Nine Living whose purpose is to light people up.

A 2 time author, 3 time company founder and also a tedx speaker.

Jordan seemed set for a great career having obtained a management role in a prestigious restaurant. However, 4 months in he took a step back and realised he wasn't having the impact that he wanted to have.

He left that job and decided to write his first book (which he self published) titled; 'Getting Comfy' - your morning guide to daily happiness. It focuses on optimism and positivity.

Jordan has recently set up Cloud Nine Living (a business) where he works with people and walks them through a process that truly 'light people up'.

The journey to Cloud Nine is also a fiction book; allowing the reader the opportunity to interpret it for themselves.

Consequently as part of his research, Jordan has interviewed lots of people to understand their 'cloud nine' moments.

Many of us are obsessed about having an 'aha moment'.

Jordan's 'aha moment' was the realisation that he didn't need an 'aha moment' to take control of his own life and get things started. That's exactly what he did when he decided to write Getting Comfy.

However, with Cloud Nine there was an alignment of the stars that got him going. But you'll have to listen to the episode to find out!

What I will share is that it involves Jordan having a conversation that involves an example of a cloud nine moment. Light people up is exactly what Jordan did to me during our conversation and this is now core to everything he does.

Finally if you would like to start a conversation with Jordan, you can find him on;

Twitter

LinkedIn

More details can be found on his website.

If you enjoyed this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.

On this episode I share my interview with Clare Moore (Head of Marketing) and Mark Williams (Chief Product Officer) at People First; a company revolutionising the way we work.

The way we work

People know that there is a problem with work and as a result that's why people are gravitating to what People First are doing.

We are at our most unproductive at work right now. This leads to disengagement. There has been a lot of research into this area and their mission is to help people find more meaning at work.

More tech isn't going to be the answer. Tech becomes the enabler to change the dynamics of the relationship between employee and employer.

The way we work suggests that there isn't going to be a job for life anymore.

People First have developed a platform to enable adult conversations to happen. This will allow the person and organisation to stay aligned for a period of time until one or the other decides to change.

The research coming out at the moment is pointing towards the 'work' that we do as being important. Therefore, achievements tend to be linked to work rather than people's personal lives.

Finding what you're good at and being able to do that 'work' in work is going to be crucial.

Everything is centred around a conversation. As a result employees are able to 'check in' each day and capture moments of 'flow' similar to keeping a journal.

Therefore by having more regular conversations it facilitates better relationships and understanding.

Productively and engagement are higher when an individual and organisation are aligned.

Finally if you would like to start a conversation with Clare & Mark, you can find them on Twitter;

Clare

Mark

Alternatively, find out more about Clare & Mark by reading the latest Ignite blog; People First

More details can be found on the People First website.

If you enjoyed this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.

On this episode I share my interview with Cody Royle; author and host of Where Others Won’t, challenging the norms and going where others won't.

Cody is also the managing editor of Inner Voice with the goal of utilising the power of endurance sports to inspire change.

When he's not writing or speaking, Cody is working with Australian Football League Team Canada as their Head Coach.

The first part of Cody's career was in the corporate world. He was an account executive in sales and recruitment. He was a 'job title' and this never really sat well with him.

The point of discovery for him was having the confidence to flip over. He walked into his boss's office one day and quit. He'd been writing and blogging for a while. It quickly became apparent to Cody that he could do this all day long and he absolutely loved it.

The book became Cody's exit from the corporate world. Built on 10-12 years of frustration with the way teams were built in the corporate space; married with the conversations he'd been having with others in the sporting world.

Full of insight from leaders in sport and business, the book is challenging norms around everything that we've built competitive advantage on in the past.

Most organisations are now realising that their people are their competitive advantage.

Things haven't always gone to plan for Cody. He played Aussie rules at a high level and didn't quite get drafted. By his own admission he was just outside that level.

At 18 he was basically;

Since then it's been a series of making decisions and walking through doors. One was to leave Melbourne at 25 and pack up and move to Canada. He restarted his career selling mobile phones at the Blue Jays stadium and since then that same methodology has served him well.

If you would like to start a conversation with Cody, you can find him on;

Twitter

LinkedIn

Alternatively, find out more about Cody by reading the latest Ignite blog; Where others won't 

More details can be found on his website including details of his latest book; The Tough stuff.

If you liked this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.

On this episode I share my interview with Jeremy Snape; Managing Director of Sporting Edge - a company helping leaders in sport and business to succeed.

He's also a former England cricketer, MSc sport psychology, conference speaker and coach.

On work-life balance Jeremy says;

One of the hottest topics in performance. Everyone is debating it because it's so illusive. Trying to find balance is becoming harder and harder. I love doing what I'm doing and wouldn't change it. Partly it's about energy balance rather than time management.

Jeremy spent 19 years as a professional cricketer. He played with some very talented people and was privileged to have represented his country. On his debut tour of India at Eden Park in front of 120, 000 people the pressure got to him. In his words, he failed in front of that huge crowd.

Not being beaten by India, not being beaten by a particular difficult delivery to hit; it was the voice in his head. After years of practice and playing, no one had told him what to do with his head. He thought he was the only one under pressure.

This set him off on a bit of a quest to discover what could be done to support similar people in similar situations in the future. Having retired from Cricket Jeremy studied a masters degree in sports psychology and then set up Sporting Edge.

Sporting Edge is high performance consultancy that works with elite sport and business teams on this winning mindset.

Jeremy has worked with Shane Warne in the IPL, South Africa Rugby and Eddie Jones and England Rugby, Most recently he has worked with Pep Guardiola at Man City.

When you're playing international sport, with lots of cameras on you it's pretty transparent and you have to be honest. In your own mind you know if it's a technical issue, a fear or lack of skill.

Every step of the way during his career has been failure. It's been more like snakes and ladders; using the motivation as fuel to navigate choices. It's definitely been a key driver in his career.

If you would like to start a conversation with Jeremy, you can find him on;

Twitter

LinkedIn

If you liked this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.

On this episode I share my interview with Karen Spenley, a champion for women in STEM with over 20 years in engineering solving problems and coming up with solutions for employees. STEM focuses on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

On work-life balance Karen says;

I think it's one of those things that's banded around but I'm not sure anyone understands what it is. I liken it to the Harry Potter partonus spell, that's different for everyone.

Background

Karen has been working in engineering for over 20 years and more recently in human resources. Her focus centres on improving different areas of peoples lives.

Working part time for the last 7 years, Karen has been juggling her own work-life balance with commitments and home and work. Her husband describes her as 'brutally efficient'.

Passionate about changing a number of things, including the climate Karen was startled when she did some initial research into the number of women involved with STEM.

Karen is a member of Homeward Bound (Team HB4);a ground-breaking leadership initiative, set against the backdrop of Antarctica. It's a leadership programme aimed at women working in STEM. The community aims to heighten the influence and impact of women in making decisions that shape our planet.

It's also aimed at training up more women and developing them into leadership roles so that they can be more involved in organisations.

If you would like to start a conversation with Karen, you can find her on;

Twitter

LinkedIn

If you liked this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.

On this episode I share my interview with Ian Braid, Founder and Managing Director of DOCIAsport and we talk about the lessons learned through his own journey with mental health and why 'take and give care is important to him and all of us.

On work-life balance Ian says;

I suppose the headline is; it's very difficult. It's more difficult if what you do is your passion. It's very difficult to realise that you do need to switch off in order for you to able to fulfil what it is that you're trying to do.

Background

Ian has significant experience in sports leadership having held senior positions in executive and non-executive roles. As CEO of the British Athletes Commission he gained considerable knowledge of the infrastructure of sport and its governance.

He made important contributions to the development of sport – for example informing the DCMS report into “Duty of Care” in sport; the selection policies and processes for the Commonwealth Games 2018 and ensuring sport took more responsibility for “adults at risk” by securing Sport England funding for the Ann Craft Trust.

Sport is at a crossroads. In terms of performance this is because of a series of damaging allegations and protracted investigations into the culture at the top. Participation numbers continue to decline, and this will have an adverse effect on society with decline in physical and mental health.

Without volunteers and officials sport will struggle and these valuable contributors must be developed and grown. DOCIAsport is here to help by working in collaboration with others to deliver sustainable effective solutions.

Mental health is so important and sport or physical activity can help individuals both prevent mental illness or be a critical part of recovery and relapse prevention.

If you would like to start a conversation with Ian, you can find him on;

Ian - Twitter

DOCIAsport - Twitter

DOCIAsport

Fred the Ned - Twitter

Check out the guest blog post written by Ian; My search for 'perfect imbalance' in my life and why it matters here

If you liked this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.

On this episode I share my interview with Greg Searle, Bronze medal winner in London 2012 twenty years after winning a Gold medal in Barcelona 1992 and we talk about the lessons learned through enthusiasm and wisdom.

On work-life balance Greg says;

I've managed to get myself at the age of 46 where I've been passionate about sporting goals, passionate about business goals and through experience I've got perspective. I've got a reasonable balance in my life.

Background

At 20 he won an Olympic Gold medal and 4 years later he won an Olympic Bronze medal. By the time the next Olympics came round Greg was newly married, with his wife expecting their first child. A home owner with work responsibilities as well; Greg's focus and energy towards rowing had shifted as result. Because of these competing things got in the way and he finished in fourth position at his 3rd Olympics.

Similarly at 28 he believed he was capable of better and probably at the peak of his physical powers.

Greg is the founder of the company 2040 inspiring peak performance in teams and individuals. This is achieved through sharing the behaviours required to bring the 'enthusiasm' he had at 20 coupled to the 'wisdom' he had at 40. He's also the Chief Innovation Officer for Keys Business a concierge company.

London 2012;

Greg had a lot of interest from others at the first trials. He overcame the first hurdles and then got closer and closer to being invited into the team. His reception was largely warm. Over the course of time it didn't become much of a factor. He was 'old Greg' and the others were a bit younger!

They (the 8) went out to win. It was in Greg's words; something to be proud of.

Over the course of the next week, they celebrated and commiserated in different ways.

As a result of the interview with Greg if you would like to start a conversation with him, you can find him on;

Twitter

Furthermore if you liked this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.