Making Business Matter (MBM)

E20 –  Effective Communication Skills: Interview with Suzie Parkus

Suzie Parkus is a sought after motivational and educational speaker, trainer and soon to be author. Her expertise lay in all things communication, from interpersonal skills, relationships, emotional intelligence, networking intelligence and most importantly in today’s day and age, how our state of mind affects how we act, react and interact. Good emotional hygiene is often overlooked, but once understood, unlocks the key to that all-important human connection. Today, we discuss all things communication.

You Can Read the Transcript of Our Interview Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Okay. I’m paper really, got my drink. Welcome to another Sticky Interview. My name’s Nathan Simmonds. I’m Senior Leadership Coach and Trainer for MBM, Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the soft skills’ provider to the UK retail and grocery industry. Now, the idea of these podcasts is to be sharing great thinkers, great approaches, concepts and ideas that are going to help you and your teams be the best version of their selves so that they can deliver the best possible results even in a time of crisis like this.

Nathan Simmonds:

Today I’m going to be speaking to friend, peer, coach, mentor, all of those things. Someone that I speak to regularly about communication and collaboration, Suzie Parkus. And reading her bio… although I’ve known her for some years, I want to read this bio. She is a sought after motivational and educational speaker, trainer, and soon to be author. Her expertise lay in all things communication, absolutely it does; from interpersonal skills, relationships, emotional intelligence, networking intelligence because we need to be intelligent when we’re networking.

Nathan Simmonds:

And most importantly in today’s day and age, how our states of mind affects how we act, react and interact. Good emotional hygiene is often overlooked. But once understood, unlocks the key to that all important human connection. Suzie, thank you very much for being here and part of this interview today.

Suzie Parkus:

Thanks for having me.

Nathan Simmonds:

I’m looking forward to asking you some questions about this because we met, three years ago? Two years ago. Three, it must be three years ago now.

Suzie Parkus:

February, 2018.

Nathan Simmonds:

There you go. Okay, two, in personal development seminar and we got talking eventually after that event. One of the key things that I’ve always struggled with is how I communicate intentionally, how I work with people, how I offer my services, and how I make contribution first rather than about what I can take from people. And there’s a lot of that going on. So my key first question for you is, why do you do what you’re doing?

Suzie Parkus:

Why do I do what I do? I think this kind of came to me when I was doing a talk last year, if I’m honest. I was given the opportunity to just take the floor and they changed the nature of the interview. In this opportunity to just kind of talk from my heart, I said something that has never left me, which is that I nev

Episode 20 - Effective Communication Skills: Interview with Suzie Parkus

Suzie Parkus is a sought after motivational and educational speaker, trainer and soon to be author. Her expertise lay in all things communication, from interpersonal skills, relationships, emotional intelligence, networking intelligence and most importantly in today's day and age, how our state of mind affects how we act, react and interact.

Good emotional hygiene is often overlooked, but once understood, unlocks the key to that all-important human connection. Today, we discuss all things communication.

You Can Read the Transcript of Our Interview Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Okay. I'm paper really, got my drink. Welcome to another Sticky Interview. My name's Nathan Simmonds. I'm Senior Leadership Coach and Trainer for MBM, Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the soft skills' provider to the UK retail and grocery industry. Now, the idea of these podcasts is to be sharing great thinkers, great approaches, concepts and ideas that are going to help you and your teams be the best version of their selves so that they can deliver the best possible results even in a time of crisis like this.

Nathan Simmonds:

Today I'm going to be speaking to friend, peer, coach, mentor, all of those things. Someone that I speak to regularly about communication and collaboration, Suzie Parkus. And reading her bio... although I've known her for some years, I want to read this bio. She is a sought after motivational and educational speaker, trainer, and soon to be author. Her expertise lay in all things communication, absolutely it does; from interpersonal skills, relationships, emotional intelligence, networking intelligence because we need to be intelligent when we're networking.

Nathan Simmonds:

And most importantly in today's day and age, how our states of mind affects how we act, react and interact. Good emotional hygiene is often overlooked. But once understood, unlocks the key to that all important human connection. Suzie, thank you very much for being here and part of this interview today.

Suzie Parkus:

Thanks for having me.

Nathan Simmonds:

I'm looking forward to asking you some questions about this because we met, three years ago? Two years ago. Three, it must be three years ago now.

Suzie Parkus:

February, 2018.

Nathan Simmonds:

There you go. Okay, two, in personal development seminar and we got talking eventually after that event. One of the key things that I've always struggled with is how I communicate intentionally, how I work with people, how I offer my services, and how I make contribution first rather than about what I can take from people. And there's a lot of that going on. So my key first question for you is, why do you do what you're doing?

Suzie Parkus

 

Suzie Parkus:

Why do I do what I do? I think this kind of came to me when I was doing a talk last year, if I'm honest. I was given the opportunity to just take the floor and they changed the nature of the interview. In this opportunity to just kind of talk from my heart, I said something that has never left me, which is that I never got seen, heard and noticed when I was younger. It just came out as unconscious stream of thoughts. Then it got me thinking that now I do get seen, heard and noticed and part of what I do is helping other people do the same. But it's not just that PR publicity piece. It's about interacting with sort of class and confidence and consideration. I've never been interacted with like that growing up.

Suzie Parkus:

And so, I'm very sensitive to what it feels like not being, I didn't know, not having my feelings taken into consideration when being approached, I guess. I'm very sensitive towards others when I'm communicating with them. And that's actually the biggest piece. That's the IQ, well, the emotional intelligence. I try and ask people to get their head around first before opening their mouth so they can make sure that they are aware of not just how they're coming across but how they're making other people feel. And I think that's really where it came from. If I dial it all back, it's very much about my own experience. It's just ironic that I have a degree in communication studies when I actually wants to be a lawyer. So, it pretty always cuts out for this work.

Nathan Simmonds:

There is that class that you talk about and the presence that people come to. And it doesn't matter whether you're in a network, an event, building a relationship with a future spouse or working in a retail factory environment. You want to get a message across and you need to be taking into account people's feelings. And it's, people just don't do it. They don't think about it. On MBM, we have a... Darren started to talk about the don't shout campaign.

Nathan Simmonds:

What he meant by this is when we're giving feedback, now we don't stand there and scream at people. We don't shout at them and tell them what to do because no one likes being told what to do. You go over there and you have a level of respect for that individual's feelings and you approach them and make them the most important person in the conversation first and foremost, and then develop the relationship so that actually you can work together.

Suzie Parkus:

I would say first of all feedback is always great. That's kind of how our relationship started, giving you feedback on stuff, bearing in mind that we'd gotten to know each other first before asking for that. So yeah, constructive feedback is awesome, unsolicited feedback is not. That's where you start hurting people. You said about intention before. So, all forms of communication has an energetic charge. And this might sound a little bit on the woo-woo spectrum for some, but we feel a charge behind people's words. Two people could say the same thing and depending on what you're wanting to achieve when you're expressing it, it can hurt or it can elevate.

Suzie Parkus:

So that intention behind what you're saying has as much impact as what you're saying. That constructive feedback you're talking about. If I'm giving you some feedback and I want to see you develop yourself into the best version of you, it's coming from a nurturing, loving place. So my energy behind that is only going to be of a nurturing feeling. But if I was say jealous, judgemental, intending to pull you down, you're going to feel small as a result of that constructive feedback.

Nathan Simmonds:

Agreed. Every conversation has an emotional charge behind it. I've learned, and this is in various different religious texts from thousands of years ago. In short, it says what you think of people is how you treat them. That thinking might be based on a situation or a stress that you've got, but when you front load that conversation and then run into it and scream or make it unsolicited. Even asking for permission is vital. It might not be solicited. Gaining that person's trust to build the relationships, I've got some information that's going to be vital to support you and your successes. Is it okay that I give you that information? When that person says yes, then we can approach them. We can give that feedback.

Nathan Simmonds:

But if we're going in as a point of judgment and I'm thinking, you're an idiot, you're not good at your job, it doesn't matter what I think I'm saying; people can read between the lines, they can feel what you're thinking before you even say the words. They did a science test. They did it with plants where they subjected one plant to abuse and one plant to love and attention.

I think it was in a school. So they actually tested it with bullying in a school to prove a point. And the plant that was subjected to the bullying and abusive language actually died. It's just, it's incredible. So bearing in mind that we actually hold quite a lot at a cellular level, similarities to plants, when you're giving someone that intention, that abuse, that language, that shouting behavior, it's going to have a negative impact on you in some way, shape or form. And it's not okay to be treating people like that.

Suzie Parkus:

So can I go a bit scientific with you?

Nathan Simmonds:

Absolutely you can.

Suzie Parkus:

Okay. There's a very famous that go [inaudible 00:07:33] in water. I think I might have even told you about it before. And so, that experiment you're talking about, yes, it's been done on plants. Yes, it's been done on an apple. It's been done on lots of things. Where there is a high concentration of water, basically as beings we are 70% water and in that experiment that Masaru Emoto does, there's love written on a piece of paper with a Petri dish of water. One that says hate, same thing with the Petri dish of water. As the water evaporates, crystals are left behind. And then what's left is beautiful crystals above the love and ugly ones above the hate.

Suzie Parkus:

His whole point is, our words carry a charge, exactly what you're saying. So it's exactly what I said before, because if I'm saying something to you from a bad intention, I'm actually sending negatively charged particles your way, if you like, and it will hurt. The same is true about how we talk about ourselves. If we're not feeling good in ourselves right now and we're giving ourselves negative self talk and then we go to communicate with someone else, we're then projecting what we feel about ourselves onto somebody else as well. So this points a lot going on internally that we then start to project externally.

Nathan Simmonds:

Great. And chronically we could go down a really sciency route with this. I am aware of the water test where they did with that and it showed that when the water crystals under love and positivity, the elements froze or formed symmetrically, whereas under the stress they formed asymmetric. Like you say, in ugly shapes and forms. Then you talked about kind of the negative self talk.

But it doesn't matter if someone else is projecting th

E19 – Team Building and Teamwork: Interview With Oliver Bailey from Harvest for Heroes

The son of publicans from South London, Oliver Bailey attended Dulwich College school, leaving in 1994. Beginning his career in Recruitment, he founded his first businesses in 1998. He has since owned and acquired further businesses in varying fields, including Information Technology, Construction, and Energy. In recent years, Oliver has focussed on Healthcare, where is an owner and Director of Remedy Healthcare Solutions, a leading provider of insourced and outsourced diagnostic services to the NHS. He recently founded Harvest For Heroes, a fundraising initiative to supply free, fresh produce to our NHS front line workers. Today, we discuss teamwork in more detail.

You Can Read the Transcript of Our Interview Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Welcome to Sticky Interviews. I’m Nathan Simmonds, Senior Leadership Coach and Trainer for MBM, Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the provider of leadership development and soft skills training to the grocery and manufacturing industry. The idea of these interviews is to share great ideas, great concepts, and great ways these skills are being used to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do. Welcome to the show.

Nathan Simmonds:

Today I am speaking with an interesting, exceptional, and very focused individual. I’ve seen some of his posts on LinkedIn, I’ve seen the interviews on the BBC News, and I had to reach out and have a conversation with this gentleman about his work, what he’s doing right now in the midst of COVID-19, if we’re in the middle of it, the beginning of it, the end of it, I have no idea.

Nathan Simmonds:

With the stresses that the services, our national services are experiencing, Oliver stepped up in this, pivoted with his business idea, and he’s supporting them with fresh fruit and vegetables, and providing this to NHS workers because they’re under so much stress they’re not able to think and make healthy decisions about what they’re doing in their grocery shopping. He’s stepping in with a charity organization that makes this happen for them at their doorstep, delivering them fresh fruit and vegetables at the hospitals, at source, at location to help them so they can focus their thinking onto the most important task, which is making sure people live. I don’t think I can be any more explicit about that, to be honest, Oliver.

Oliver Bailey:

No, that’s pretty good.

Nathan Simmonds:

I said this before, and I was going to say it again, from me, and from everyone already you’re helping no doubt you’re getting loads of thanks for this, I want to say thank you from us, from everyone else that you’ve touched. You’re doing incredible work. Please, explain why you do what you do, what you’re doing in probably a clearer way than I could ever imagine to.

Oliver Bailey:

Well, I appreciate your support on this, Nathan, and anyone

Episode 19 - Team Building and Teamwork: Interview With Oliver Bailey from Harvest for Heroes

The son of publicans from South London, Oliver Bailey attended Dulwich College school, leaving in 1994. Beginning his career in Recruitment, he founded his first businesses in 1998. He has since owned and acquired further businesses in varying fields, including Information Technology, Construction, and Energy. In recent years, Oliver has focussed on Healthcare, where is an owner and Director of Remedy Healthcare Solutions, a leading provider of insourced and outsourced diagnostic services to the NHS. He recently founded Harvest For Heroes, a fundraising initiative to supply free, fresh produce to our NHS front line workers. Today, we discuss teamwork in more detail.

You Can Read the Transcript of Our Interview Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Welcome to Sticky Interviews. I'm Nathan Simmonds, Senior Leadership Coach and Trainer for MBM, Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the provider of leadership development and soft skills training to the grocery and manufacturing industry. The idea of these interviews is to share great ideas, great concepts, and great ways these skills are being used to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do. Welcome to the show.

Nathan Simmonds:

Today I am speaking with an interesting, exceptional, and very focused individual. I've seen some of his posts on LinkedIn, I've seen the interviews on the BBC News, and I had to reach out and have a conversation with this gentleman about his work, what he's doing right now in the midst of COVID-19, if we're in the middle of it, the beginning of it, the end of it, I have no idea.

Nathan Simmonds:

With the stresses that the services, our national services are experiencing, Oliver stepped up in this, pivoted with his business idea, and he's supporting them with fresh fruit and vegetables, and providing this to NHS workers because they're under so much stress they're not able to think and make healthy decisions about what they're doing in their grocery shopping. He's stepping in with a charity organization that makes this happen for them at their doorstep, delivering them fresh fruit and vegetables at the hospitals, at source, at location to help them so they can focus their thinking onto the most important task, which is making sure people live. I don't think I can be any more explicit about that, to be honest, Oliver.

Oliver Bailey:

No, that's pretty good.

Team building and team work with Oliver Bailey

 

Nathan Simmonds:

I said this before, and I was going to say it again, from me, and from everyone already you're helping no doubt you're getting loads of thanks for this, I want to say thank you from us, from everyone else that you've touched. You're doing incredible work. Please, explain why you do what you do, what you're doing in probably a clearer way than I could ever imagine to.

Oliver Bailey:

Well, I appreciate your support on this, Nathan, and anyone's interest in it. That's great and it really helps keep us all going. This all started off at Harvest for Heroes, well, I found myself, like lots of people at the moment, with a fair bit of down time that'd been imposed on me, or I should say working from home, and with working from home, a real slow down in my business. As you know, with all the weight of the world, there's only so much you can do at this time because everyone else is busy. I work with the NHS in my professional life, so they've all been dragged away on things far more important than talking to me.

Oliver Bailey:

So I found myself with a bit of time on my hands, and I wanted to do something for my local hospital, which is here in London, Kings College Hospital. I've got a lot of love for them. Two of my children were born there. My son, Henry, was born a couple of years ago there with a rare form of spina bifida, and a really stressful time for us all looking back. When he was a year old, he was taken in to be operated on, when he was a bit stronger, and their rock star neurosurgeon, [Azul Zabian 00:03:05] and his team fixed him. A seven hour operation. Henry's downstairs running around now. So just amazing, just amazing.

Oliver Bailey:

I'm always, I would say of all of the professions that I watch, I think surgeons are right up there in terms of me talking to someone who struggles to wire a plug or hang a picture, the amazement for these people, and when it's your own kid it's even more so. They fixed him. I've got a lot of love for the hospital.

Oliver Bailey:

I literally phoned them up one afternoon and just said, "Look, what can I do for you? I'm sitting here, the family, we're all driving each other mad. Can I come down and do something? Do some driving, volunteering? Can I bring you some cakes? Coffees? Anything? I don't suppose you want [inaudible 00:03:54] the hospital." They came back to me, and the feedback I got was that they're being inundated with very lovely but not very healthy stuff. So they were overdosing on grapes and donuts and stuff like this, which is all well and good. But they said what they were short of was general fresh produce, fruit, vegetables, and general groceries. That was, if I was going to make a contribution of some kind, then that would be very much welcomed.

Oliver Bailey:

Well, in my ignorance I said, "Well, how does that work? Where are you going to cook all this stuff? You're not cooking there." They rightly pointed out that it was after the long, laborious shifts with frontline doctors, nurses, and anyone else, if I have some stuff to take home with them. We all saw the crying nurse on TV the other day that couldn't get any groceries, they finish all sorts off hours, so that was the thinking.

Oliver Bailey:

But I got [inaudible 00:04:52] from Rachel, my partner, who said to me, "We've just got one of these lovely fruit and veg boxes from New Covent Garden Market," where all of the traders are sitting around because the restaurants, parks, and hotels are shut, so they're now trying to keep their businesses alive by directing into people's homes. And we had this lovely box of produce. Well, I could send them one of those, then.

Oliver Bailey:

So that's what kicked it off, really. I then remembered that I had a friend who I worked with sometime ago, Darren Boroughs, who him and his father had worked in New Covent Garden Market, the biggest fruit and veg market in the U.K. for a couple of generations there. So, I phoned him up and I said, "Look, have you got any ideas around this? I see a demand there, I want to do a good thing, but I just don't know how any of this works." Additionally, I reached out to a couple of suppliers, some who were more enthusiastic than others, some I had to chase, and some who came back to me.

Oliver Bailey:

Anyway, Darren knew lots of people in the market. I basically said, "Well go away and see what the most fresh fruit and veg provisions that you can get in a box for the lowest amount of monies," and he went off and did that. That afternoon, I had thought of a name, Harvest for Heroes, which that's one of the things I pat myself on the back for, I think it's got quite a ring to it.

I sort of got a Zoom thing going, I wrote a few mates in, so I got Darren on the Zoom, and I got chap who's doing the website for our business at the moment on there, and I got a friend of mine who'd worked for Facebook, and another chap who's a management consultant. And they also have got loads of time on their hands like me. I just thought, "I'll get a few brains together and give them my idea, and see what they think."

Oliver Bailey:

Well, I was used to talking to hospitals all day, Darren's used to fruit and veg, something [inaudible 00:06:38] than me with social media. And the chap with the website and branding, he was really keen because he said, "I'd love to get involved with a project like this! This is what I want!" We were all loving to get involved in a project that doesn't make us any money but has got this feel good factor. That's what was great about this. You know, I've run the marathon for charity, and raised a few quick for bowel cancer, and done a few things, but I had never done anything like this, I'm not a serial fundraiser.

Oliver Bailey:

But I think looking at everyone's pictures on Zoom, I've never seen everyone so excited about something that wasn't a massive commercial venture for us all. But everyone said the same thing, "Oh, we want to get involved in something like this." And we did. We had a chat, we formed it, we got a domain, Ollie went off and started doing the branding and the website and whatnot, I started a Just Giving page, and we started speaking to family and friends.

Oliver Bailey:

That's a little over two weeks ago, and we have now raised somewhere in the region of 27,000 pounds. We've been out to see 16 hospitals delivering these fruit and veg boxes. It seems to be being received really well. We have been on BBC News, we've been a couple of radio things, had a couple of articles on us, and it's quite a simple idea, but it seems to be being received really well, and we're having a blast doing it. I've got a new baby to carry now, so I started to realize that, but it's a nice challenge. So that's us, yeah.

Nathan Simmonds:

The bit that gets me is the team building bit and how quickly everyone's moved on it. One of the things I do a lot of coaching on is talking to people that are doing jobs that actually doesn't fulfill them. They're doing it for the paycheck, and they get to a certain point in their life where they don't feel like they're creating an impact with their lives, or they want to get promoted or whatever it is. And like you said, you just got a group of professional people that have got different expertise in different places and put them in a room, come up with this idea, and everyone's going, "This feels really good. I want to do this,...

E18 – Effective Presentation Skills: Interview With Paddy Willis from Mission Ventures

In this episode, I interview Paddy Willis. Paddy is Founder and CEO of Mission Ventures and has a passion for building better challenger brands. He was co-founder of disruptive baby-food brand Plum, which was sold in year five to Darwin PE in 2010 on retail sales of £15m. Since then he has been mentoring and supporting start-ups across the industry, with the first UK Food accelerator launched in January 2015. Recently, Mission Ventures announced their partnership in The Good Food Fund, a £1.8m fund established by Big Society Capital with Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity to tackle childhood obesity with market-led solutions. Today, we discuss effective presentation skills.

You Can Read the Transcript of Our Interview Below:

Nathan Simmons:

We are in. Phenomenal. Welcome to another Sticky Interview. My name is Nathan Simmons. I’m senior trainer and coach for MBM, Making Business Matter, the training provider, soft skills provider for the U.K. grocery and manufacturing industry. The idea with these interviews is to be sharing the thoughts and concepts of great people in great spaces doing great work to help you be the best possible version of yourself. Today, I’m speaking to a gentleman I got to meet last week by the name of Paddy Willis.

Nathan Simmons:

Paddy, I’m going to read his bio here. I’m going to tell you why some of this is so engaging for me, though. Paddy is the founder and CEO of Mission Ventures, and has a passion for building better challenger brands. He was co-founder of disruptive baby food brand Plum, which was sold in year five to Darwin PE in 2010 on retail sales of £15 million, which on its own, Paddy, is pretty phenomenal.

Since then, he has been mentoring and supporting startups across the industry with the first UK food accelerator launch in January 2015. Recently, Mission Ventures announced their partnership in the Good Food Fund, a 1.8 million fund established by Big Society Capital with Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Charity to tackle childhood obesity with market led solutions.

Nathan Simmons:

This is where it got interesting for me, why I wanted to, and when I reached out to Paddy, so there’s three elements of this. One is challenger brands. I thought that’s really interesting, disrupting markets. Two, childhood obesity, this is a huge thing that’s going on with the way that the industry is moving.

Then I got thinking, those two facets on their own are difficult enough. What do effective presentation skills… What is a great presenter in that space where you’re talking to companies about challenger brands that may put them out of business potentially or disrupt their market, and also getting people to make moves on the amount of sugars, and salts, and fats, et cetera, they’re putting into their foods, and what sort of skills have you got to have in order to present to that level, to get people to make those shifts?

Nathan Simmons:

I thought, “This is a person I need to get to know. This is a person I need to ask some questions to, and this is a person [inaudible 00:02:22] interview.” Paddy, thanks for being here.

Paddy Willis:

Thank you for the invitation

Episode 18 - Effective Presentation Skills: Interview With Paddy Willis from Mission Ventures

In this episode, I interview Paddy Willis. Paddy is Founder and CEO of Mission Ventures and has a passion for building better challenger brands. He was co-founder of disruptive baby-food brand Plum, which was sold in year five to Darwin PE in 2010 on retail sales of £15m. Since then he has been mentoring and supporting start-ups across the industry, with the first UK Food accelerator launched in January 2015. Recently, Mission Ventures announced their partnership in The Good Food Fund, a £1.8m fund established by Big Society Capital with Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity to tackle childhood obesity with market-led solutions. Today, we discuss effective presentation skills.

You Can Read the Transcript of Our Interview Below:

Nathan Simmons:

We are in. Phenomenal. Welcome to another Sticky Interview. My name is Nathan Simmons. I'm senior trainer and coach for MBM, Making Business Matter, the training provider, soft skills provider for the U.K. grocery and manufacturing industry. The idea with these interviews is to be sharing the thoughts and concepts of great people in great spaces doing great work to help you be the best possible version of yourself. Today, I'm speaking to a gentleman I got to meet last week by the name of Paddy Willis.

Nathan Simmons:

Paddy, I'm going to read his bio here. I'm going to tell you why some of this is so engaging for me, though. Paddy is the founder and CEO of Mission Ventures, and has a passion for building better challenger brands. He was co-founder of disruptive baby food brand Plum, which was sold in year five to Darwin PE in 2010 on retail sales of £15 million, which on its own, Paddy, is pretty phenomenal.

Since then, he has been mentoring and supporting startups across the industry with the first UK food accelerator launch in January 2015. Recently, Mission Ventures announced their partnership in the Good Food Fund, a 1.8 million fund established by Big Society Capital with Guy's and St. Thomas' Charity to tackle childhood obesity with market led solutions.

Nathan Simmons:

This is where it got interesting for me, why I wanted to, and when I reached out to Paddy, so there's three elements of this. One is challenger brands. I thought that's really interesting, disrupting markets. Two, childhood obesity, this is a huge thing that's going on with the way that the industry is moving.

Paddy Willis - Founder and CEO of Mission Ventures

 

Then I got thinking, those two facets on their own are difficult enough. What do effective presentation skills... What is a great presenter in that space where you're talking to companies about challenger brands that may put them out of business potentially or disrupt their market, and also getting people to make moves on the amount of sugars, and salts, and fats, et cetera, they're putting into their foods, and what sort of skills have you got to have in order to present to that level, to get people to make those shifts?

Nathan Simmons:

I thought, "This is a person I need to get to know. This is a person I need to ask some questions to, and this is a person [inaudible 00:02:22] interview." Paddy, thanks for being here.

Paddy Willis:

Thank you for the invitation, Nathan, delighted to join you.

Nathan Simmons:

Thank you. So look, one of the first things is, and we talked a little bit about this before, that necessity to create a brand. Why do you do what you do? Originally, it was Plum baby foods, but now you're helping other markets do that disruptive thing that you do. Why do you do what you do?

Paddy Willis:

Well, they always say that if you do what you love you'll never have a job in your life. I think I've probably got that wrong, but you know what I mean. The principle is that if you do what you love, then every day is a great opportunity and great fun. I do what I do, and that's in terms of working with founders and entrepreneurs of, in this case, food and drink businesses, but I have worked with a whole broad range of different sectors over the years because I'm drawn like a moth to the passion and the commitment and the vision of these individuals who often don't...

Paddy Willis:

Particularly, this is very true in the food sector, and this is completely an unscientific observation, but it's based on having worked with food and drink startups over the last five-plus years on our business accelerators is that I would say 85, if not possibly 90%, of founders do not come from within the industry. The reason I think that is, is because if they did come from the industry, they probably wouldn't start because they would realize just what a challenge it is to succeed in this market. It's also been helped by the fact that a lot of barriers to entry have come down.

Paddy Willis:

It's become much easier and resources to things like shared kitchens and consultants, everything else, has become much easier. When we set up Plum back in... We launched in 2006. So it's about the passion for the people and the purpose that they have behind what they do. I'm sure we'll talk a bit about that in some of the context the challenger brands. The other thing, and this we'll come back to, it's irrelevant to the concept of what makes for a good presentation because really it's about story telling, and a good brand is about telling a good story. I always remember. There's a guy called Daniel Priestly, an Australian entrepreneur who I try and think when I heard him speak. It was at a small event for founders. I don't know what it's called. It was 10 years ago.

Paddy Willis:

He talked about the fact that he is a very keen mountain walker, and it's a thing. When you go mountain walking, you know where you're going and you set off up this hill. Which the hill becomes a mountain, and you get to the top, and you eventually get there, and you take in the view around you, but inevitably your eye is drawn to the ridge that it's going to the next peak, and that's going to take you onto the next part of your journey. He says, "But if you were to look down where you've just come from, you would see that inevitably there are going to be people following you in your footsteps, following the paths that you've trodden." He says, "It doesn't really matter what you do," and this isn't exclusive to an entrepreneur.

Paddy Willis:

It could be anybody in a career, and in life in general, is that you will at all different stages in your life, you're starting on a mountain of value, and that's everything that's helped you get to that point in your life. He says the simple thing to do and the pleasurable thing to do is to look behind you and say, "Actually, do you know what? I wouldn't go left there. I'd go right because I tried left and it was a bit tricky. I went right and I'm here." So it doesn't really matter whether you're five minutes ahead of somebody, or five hours ahead of them or five years ahead of them, or 50 years ahead of them. There is always this concept of being able to share with people what you've learnt on that pathway, and that's what I love doing.

Paddy Willis:

I do a lot of mentoring, do a lot of activity particularly around helping our young students to understand the world of entrepreneurship, open their eyes to possibilities as and when they eventually get into the workplace. So it really comes down to working with people with passion, and wanting to try and share that journey, share what I've learned from standing on whatever mountaintop I might be on, or even the mountain I might be halfway up. Wherever you are, it's just helping to pay that back.

Nathan Simmons:

Exactly, and that is why I do what I do. With 23 years in leadership positions, I have made a lot of mistakes. I've made a lot of errors. I've failed countless times of being knocked back from interviews, by being frustrated at myself, and it's not about denying, and I've learned the difference between pain and suffering. It's not about denying people the pain because you need the pain to make the movement, but it's helping people to make the movement faster so they don't wallow in it, and then it becomes suffering.

They don't do anything, and then it takes them longer to extract that goodness out of where they're going. If you can pass that back one year, two years, five years, 20 years to someone else that they're at a turning point in their journey at 23 rather than 43, and I say that leadership and parenting are not two sides of the same coin.

Nathan Simmons:

They're exactly the same thing, and you want the people in your care to supersede you. No parent in their right mind wants their child to be equal to less than them. They want them to supersede them. So when you go and mentor and business coach or do all those things, you want that person to supersede you, so they can go do something incredible. That comes from people like you, by sharing some of that wisdom to help them go left instead of right at the right time, phenomenally powerful.

Paddy Willis:

I'm a great believer in karma and what goes around, comes around, and all these other phrases that basically mean that you treat others as you wish to be treated. So everyday I'm learning something new. I wish I'd been braver to ask for help and mentorship when I was younger, but there was sort of a sense that I had in my head, if no one else has it, just in my head that I just got to figure out for myself, and the reality is that there are so many things that I don't...

You're absolutely right. You learn far more from the failures than you do from the successes, and successes you just think, "Oh, that was good." And then you carry on and do a bit more, but actually, when it doesn't work out, that's when you sort of think, "Well, why didn't it work out?" You're forced to rethink about it and readdress it.

Paddy Willis:

Yeah, so I think for anyone in leadership positions or aspiring to a leadership position,...

E17 – Situational Leadership: Interview With ‘The Magician’, Jay Raham

In this episode, I interview Jay Raham. Jay is an award-winning lecturer, consultant, and public speaker. With a vision to enhance the practice of leadership at a global level, so far he’s worked with 7000+ aspiring managers in Mauritius, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Morocco. He refers to himself as ‘The Magician’, creating magical moments impacting innovation, creativity, and sustainability. Recently, Jay has been pushing what he sees as ‘professional excellence’ to another level; achieving 5 Fellowships, a unique accomplishment taking his skill set to a new level and helping others to think outside of the box. Here, we discuss situational leadership.

You Can Read the Transcript of Our Interview Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Welcome to Sticky Interviews. I’m Nathan Simmonds, Senior Leadership Coach and Trainer for MBM, Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the provider of leadership development and soft skills training to the grocery and manufacturing industry. The idea of these interviews is to share great ideas, great concepts and great ways these skills are being used to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do. Welcome to the show.

Nathan Simmonds:

We’re digging into some different territory with this next conversation. So I’ve got the pleasure of speaking to Jay Raham. We’ve had a bit of a conversation to and fro through LinkedIn. We’ve had a little bit of a look at each other’s leadership aspirations and we are both super-enthusiastic about leadership as a whole and have big visions about what we want to create and what, but I’m not going to spoil that part yet until we get into that. I’ll let Jay share that one.

Nathan Simmonds:

First of all, let me introduce him completely by some of his accolades and his current celebratory points along his journey. So he’s an award-winning lecturer, consultant and public speaker. He has the vision to enhance the practice of leadership at a global level and he’s already doing this through his training of aspiring managers in Mauritius, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Morocco which, in itself, is pretty astounding for any leadership trainer. In fact, he’s already clocking up over 7,000 leaders so far that he has supported, guided and mentored. Amongst all this, he’s also achieved five fellowships which, in itself, is a unique accomplishment. And one of the interesting places that he likes to start his conversations is about how he likes to introduce himself as the magician. But we’re going to get into that in a minute. We’re not going to cover that yet.

Nathan Simmonds:

But first of all, Jay, I just want to say a massive thank you for being here. Really appreciate you taking the time to have this conversation with us and develop up some of these ideas for the listeners. Thank you very much.

Nathan Simmonds:

So why do they call you, they don’t call you, I don’t think they call, I think you started this somewhere. Why do you call yourself the magician?

Jay Raham:

Before I got into that Nathan, I just want to say thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to come on the show and it’s always great to work with like-minded professionals and I appreciate you taking the time out

Episode 17 - Situational Leadership: Interview With 'The Magician', Jay Raham

In this episode, I interview Jay Raham. Jay is an award-winning lecturer, consultant, and public speaker. With a vision to enhance the practice of leadership at a global level, so far he's worked with 7000+ aspiring managers in Mauritius, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Morocco. He refers to himself as 'The Magician', creating magical moments impacting innovation, creativity, and sustainability. Recently, Jay has been pushing what he sees as 'professional excellence' to another level; achieving 5 Fellowships, a unique accomplishment taking his skill set to a new level and helping others to think outside of the box. Here, we discuss situational leadership.

You Can Read the Transcript of Our Interview Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Welcome to Sticky Interviews. I'm Nathan Simmonds, Senior Leadership Coach and Trainer for MBM, Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the provider of leadership development and soft skills training to the grocery and manufacturing industry. The idea of these interviews is to share great ideas, great concepts and great ways these skills are being used to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do. Welcome to the show.

Nathan Simmonds:

We're digging into some different territory with this next conversation. So I've got the pleasure of speaking to Jay Raham. We've had a bit of a conversation to and fro through LinkedIn. We've had a little bit of a look at each other's leadership aspirations and we are both super-enthusiastic about leadership as a whole and have big visions about what we want to create and what, but I'm not going to spoil that part yet until we get into that. I'll let Jay share that one.

Nathan Simmonds:

First of all, let me introduce him completely by some of his accolades and his current celebratory points along his journey. So he's an award-winning lecturer, consultant and public speaker. He has the vision to enhance the practice of leadership at a global level and he's already doing this through his training of aspiring managers in Mauritius, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Morocco which, in itself, is pretty astounding for any leadership trainer. In fact, he's already clocking up over 7,000 leaders so far that he has supported, guided and mentored. Amongst all this, he's also achieved five fellowships which, in itself, is a unique accomplishment. And one of the interesting places that he likes to start his conversations is about how he likes to introduce himself as the magician. But we're going to get into that in a minute. We're not going to cover that yet.

Nathan Simmonds:

But first of all, Jay, I just want to say a massive thank you for being here. Really appreciate you taking the time to have this conversation with us and develop up some of these ideas for the listeners. Thank you very much.

Nathan Simmonds:

So why do they call you, they don't call you, I don't think they call, I think you started this somewhere. Why do you call yourself the magician?

Jay Raham:

Before I got into that Nathan, I just want to say thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to come on the show and it's always great to work with like-minded professionals and I appreciate you taking the time out and making this happen, so thank you.

Situational Leadership, 'The Magician', Jay Raham

 

Jay Raham:

So, going back to your question if you like Nathan and why I like to introduce myself as the magician. Sounds weird, bizarre, strange. People have said things in the past. But there's a reason behind it; there's an explanation behind it. And yes, it is part of my personal branding. And I believe it presents me in the best possible way. So the reason why I consider myself a magician, so with all my clients, it might be individuals I have developed from the leadership program over the years, what I like to do is create moments that allow them to find that inner voice, that confidence boost and then take that away with them to their office and experience those magical moments where they are able to inspire the team members, they are able to take them on an inspiring journey.

Jay Raham:

And also connect with their clients, their customers. So that is my explanation why I like to introduce myself as the magician. So if you ask me, I do like to create those moments where everyone in the session or an individual level, they feel there's a positive energy to work with and there's something to take away.

Nathan Simmonds:

That's amazing. How much do you know about the Jungian archetypes?

Jay Raham:

Sorry, just say again, please?

Nathan Simmonds:

How much do you know about the Jung archetypes?

Jay Raham:

Not much.

Nathan Simmonds:

Good. So this is the interesting part of it, is Jung says there are four kinds of main archetypes. It's the warrior, the king, the magician and the lover. And actually the magician is the creative energy. He comes up with new solutions, new ideas. He comes with that sort of energy. So even without you realizing it, you say you like to introduce yourself as a magician because you like to create these magic moments, but it is about that creation. So you're channelling that inner-magician which, as you know, is a really nice thing. Whether you're doing it consciously or subconsciously doesn't matter. Because it's all about the people in the room experiencing that, then carrying it and going and doing something different.

Nathan Simmonds:

And I also know about you is that you pride yourself on thinking outside of the box.

Jay Raham:

Yeah.

Nathan Simmonds:

Now, again, it's that magician energy, that magician archetype that creates the new solutions of being outside of the box. That's super important. So it's really nice that you introduce yourself that way because it then sets kind of, not a precedent, you're setting an intention about what you're going to bring to that room, what you're going to bring to your clients and what those people are going to carry when they walk out of that room as well. So that's super important, I like that a lot.

Jay Raham:

Thank you for that. Something I have experienced with my interaction with my clients and learners and all the rest; it's important to set the boundaries; it's important to set the scene. And from my perspective, it's always beneficial when I can share a little bit about my success, what I have achieved with regard to my journey and I do believe there is still so much more I would like to do and achieve over the years. But it's a great way to get a reaction. I've had so many people asking, Jay, why do you call yourself the magician and I'm like, "Give me a minute and I'll explain myself."

Jay Raham:

And it's interesting, once I've had the chance to explain and go over it, often people would approach me and say we really admire your confidence level. We admire the way you present yourself. And it makes sense. So it's just a cliché. It is a part of me.

Nathan Simmonds:

Absolutely that. And I think it's when you're setting that intention as a trainer. And for us, it's all about behavioural change and we'll get into that later on. When we, as trainers and consultants, as speakers, walk into a room, we come with a reason. We come with a sense of purpose. We have our own internal dialogue. And when we walk into that room, we are going to do a certain kind of thing, in that space, based on what we're bringing. That's the reason why we were invited to that room. That's why companies pay us, that's why people invite us to speak and that do the thing, because we come with that reason.

Nathan Simmonds:

For me, my purpose, when I articulate, is I am challenging people's thinking so they can become more incredible than yesterday. That's the first words that come out of my mouth every morning and it's the reason I get up. So when I walk into a training room and I tell people, I am going to challenge your thinking so that you can become more incredible than yesterday. And people look at me like, who's this madman?

Nathan Simmonds:

And then, you can see some of the people, they're like that. Oh, not sure about this fellow, what's going on. And then I ask them, is it okay that I challenge your thinking so that you can become more incredible than yesterday. You know what, it's a loaded question. I know what the answer's going to be. If you say no, then you're in the wrong room. But by doing that, you already prepare the room. You're already creating that atmosphere, that ambience as you as the speaker and the trainer. So people can decide whether they're going to buy into it. And then you go in because you've always set your bar, your expectation, you deliver your content and you want to bring people to that level, to that bar.

Jay Raham:

Absolutely.

Nathan Simmonds:

So when you turn up as the magician, you're there to create magic. Do you know that? I love it. I think it's genius.

Jay Raham:

It hasn't let me down. It's been with me for the last seven years.

Nathan Simmonds:

Nice.

Jay Raham:

And initially when I considered it, yes, it made me feel uncomfortable and I wasn't too sure about myself. And I was on an interesting journey, partially I was developing myself and also looking at ways to enhance my brand, achieve awards and also build my credibility. But the last two years have been absolutely amazing with regard to achieving the fellowships. I believe I'm the only one in the UK who's achieved five and my target is seven, so I've got two more I'm working towards.

Jay Raham:

So it's been an interesting journey and over the years I've found greater confidence in the brand and why it's become a part of me. So, yeah, it's been an interesting journey.

Nathan Simmonds:

I think you have to discover who you are, almost. You have to go into that self-reflection. Who is it I'm bringing and what's the reason I'm bringing it....

E16 – Change Management: Interview With Bestselling Author and BBC Television Personality Geoff Burch

Dynamic, exciting and fun, Geoff Burch is a business expert like no other. He is internationally known for taking a walk on the wild side of business and turning it into an engaging, entertaining and humorous presentation that will lift and delight your audience.

Geoff is the author of six best-selling business titles, is a regular presenter on BBC television and was voted Business Communicator of the Year by the Speechwriters’ Guild. Whether he is speaking on customers, sales, leadership, or change, once seen Geoff is never forgotten. Today, we discuss change management.

You Can Read the Transcript of Our Interview Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Welcome to the MBM interview series. This is the sticky interviews. Today I’ve got the pleasure of interviewing Geoff Burch. He is a best selling author. He’s got six books out already. He is a TV presenter for a business presenter for the BBC. He’s got tailored presentations that have helped motivate and inspire change within organization, a blend of motivational message and humor. And I’ve had the pleasure of talking to him before. Yes, there was a lot of humor. I can’t divulge a lot of what we talked about because the phrase effing and Geoffing may have been written about Geoff. So, we’re going to try and keep it business correct.

Nathan Simmonds:

His demand as a speaker has been voted Business Communicator of the Year by the Speech Writers Guild. And amongst that, he makes time to make his delivery entertaining, funny, digestible so that the normal man in your business can understand what is happening and effect change for themselves from the inside out. Now, the quote that resonated with me, Geoff, when we spoke last, “A change inflicted is a change resisted.” Geoff through his words makes change possible. So, thank you, Geoff, for being here. Welcome.

Geoff Burch:

Pleasure.

Nathan Simmonds:

First and foremost, why do you do what you do?

Geoff Burch:

Accident. No intention at all, absolutely not. Literally hurled into it. I feel like Brian in the Life of Brian, you know? I expect my mom to be at the window going, “He is not a guru. He’s a very naughty boy,” you know? Absolute total utter accident completely and utterly. And if I could understand how I do it and bottle it, I would be a lot richer than I am. But I have … I travel. I sort of travel like a comet. I think all the ancients would sort of … All the ancients would look at a comet and think that it imbued some sort of portent to something or other. But the comet is just a bit of frozen rock and frozen dinosaur poo sort of whistling through the universe. I feel like that, really. People interpret great portent from my things. And I’m just this piece of sort of deep frozen sort of archeology hurtling about the place really.

Nathan Simmonds:

I thought you were going to say you were a piece of dinosaur poo then. I was going-

Geoff Burch:

I was going to say that. But I noticed your sort of reservations about bad language, so I’m being extremely careful. Yeah.

Nathan Simmonds:

It may

Episode 16 - Change Management: Interview With Bestselling Author and BBC Television Personality Geoff Burch

Dynamic, exciting and fun, Geoff Burch is a business expert like no other. He is internationally known for taking a walk on the wild side of business and turning it into an engaging, entertaining and humorous presentation that will lift and delight your audience.

Geoff is the author of six best-selling business titles, is a regular presenter on BBC television and was voted Business Communicator of the Year by the Speechwriters’ Guild. Whether he is speaking on customers, sales, leadership, or change, once seen Geoff is never forgotten. Today, we discuss change management.

You Can Read the Transcript of Our Interview Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Welcome to the MBM interview series. This is the sticky interviews. Today I've got the pleasure of interviewing Geoff Burch. He is a best selling author. He's got six books out already. He is a TV presenter for a business presenter for the BBC. He's got tailored presentations that have helped motivate and inspire change within organization, a blend of motivational message and humor. And I've had the pleasure of talking to him before. Yes, there was a lot of humor. I can't divulge a lot of what we talked about because the phrase effing and Geoffing may have been written about Geoff. So, we're going to try and keep it business correct.

Nathan Simmonds:

His demand as a speaker has been voted Business Communicator of the Year by the Speech Writers Guild. And amongst that, he makes time to make his delivery entertaining, funny, digestible so that the normal man in your business can understand what is happening and effect change for themselves from the inside out. Now, the quote that resonated with me, Geoff, when we spoke last, "A change inflicted is a change resisted." Geoff through his words makes change possible. So, thank you, Geoff, for being here. Welcome.

Geoff Burch:

Pleasure.

Nathan Simmonds:

First and foremost, why do you do what you do?

Geoff Burch:

Accident. No intention at all, absolutely not. Literally hurled into it. I feel like Brian in the Life of Brian, you know? I expect my mom to be at the window going, "He is not a guru. He's a very naughty boy," you know? Absolute total utter accident completely and utterly. And if I could understand how I do it and bottle it, I would be a lot richer than I am. But I have ... I travel. I sort of travel like a comet. I think all the ancients would sort of ... All the ancients would look at a comet and think that it imbued some sort of portent to something or other. But the comet is just a bit of frozen rock and frozen dinosaur poo sort of whistling through the universe. I feel like that, really. People interpret great portent from my things. And I'm just this piece of sort of deep frozen sort of archaeology hurtling about the place really.

Geoff Burch

 

Nathan Simmonds:

I thought you were going to say you were a piece of dinosaur poo then. I was going-

Geoff Burch:

I was going to say that. But I noticed your sort of reservations about bad language, so I'm being extremely careful. Yeah.

Nathan Simmonds:

It may happen. I think, to be honest, if we're working in business at some point, the swearing is a natural part of what we do.

Geoff Burch:

Yeah.

Nathan Simmonds:

Especially in times of crisis now. When you don't see these things happening, the first words that often come out of your mouth is, "Shit." That is just the way it is. You say that you got to where ... And I spoke about your speaking career because I'm avidly interested in a speaking career for myself in the future. And you said, again, it was accident. And I guess it's about being in the right place at the right time, saying the right words and having the right people to listen to you, which makes it happen. What inspired you then to keep going down this road, even by accident?

Geoff Burch:

Money. Lots and lots of money. I think, again, I have all sorts of weird mental problems because I was brought up by a psychiatrist, you know? It ensures that you're going to be round the twist, you know? An old Viennese psychiatrist. And I kind of feel this about these rock stars that end up sort of dying at 27 and stuff. They had something that they enjoyed doing, you know? They enjoyed doing it, whatever it was. But they enjoyed doing it. And somebody said, "I like listening too you doing what you're doing. Here's wads of money and we're going to fill a football stadium with people. But don't be ill. Don't fail to turn up. And then we're going to take you to another football stadium and another football stadium and another football stadium."

Geoff Burch:

You go, "Well, I'm tired. I don't want to." You can't stop because you've got a contract, you know? And these guys just erupt, but that's not what they were doing it for. They were doing it because they like playing their guitar or mouth organ or whatever it was they did, you know? And kind of, I've enjoyed talking bollocks all my life. And then, just one day somebody pressed money in my hand and said, "But you've got to be in Singapore in two days' time." "But I don't like flying and I don't like being away from home." "Well, I don't care. How much money do you want to be in Singapore in two days' time?"

Geoff Burch:

And kind of people go, "Yeah, we love what this guy says." And you kind of go, "Well, I would have said it anyway," you know? I say it in the shower. I say it to the rats that live in my loft. It doesn't really ... You know? And I'm fascinated by business and the weirdness of it and the stupidity of it. I mean, Einstein said, and I love Einstein, he's my hero. Einstein said that, "There are only two genuinely infinite things. One of those is the universe, and the other is the stupidity of mankind." And he said, "And I'm not sure about the universe."

Nathan Simmonds:

So, which ... Then probing into that, which parts of business do you find the most stupid?

Geoff Burch:

Well, I think the sort of ... Again, Life of Brian, again it's one of my key things is the finding of the holy sandal, you know? "I am healed by the holy ..." They have these business plans, the gurus, you know? You can be top guru one day and not the rest, Tom Peters et al. Then there's Agility, there's Six Sigma, there's the Toyota Manufacturing Method. There's the this, that, and the other. And I'm sure there's a lot of listeners out there who are screaming at me going, "But I've lived my life by the KPIs," and stuff like that. And you can always find some marvelous stupidity in it.

Geoff Burch:

Whether people want to really pay me to be told that they're stupid, I don't know. I think, again, it's the kind of gesture job thing. I think Henry the Eighth at the slightest insult would chop your head off. But his jester was allowed to do what he liked. And I think ever monarch, every ruler, every chief executive ... I mean, what was it? One of the Roman emperors used to have this guy who was paid to stand behind him to say, "You remember you're mortal," you know?

Nathan Simmonds:

Yeah, Marcus Aurelius. I was thinking that as you were saying it.

Geoff Burch:

Yeah. I think every major leader, if he values his company, needs to hear the negatives. My thing is, I'm unemployable. And that is actually a key benefit because I don't work in people's businesses. They don't want to employ me. There's absolutely no way. You don't want a person like me in your organization. So, if you have like-minded people around you, they will share the mistake.

Geoff Burch:

I mean, one of the things with aircraft systems and one of the reasons the French managed to crash an airliner was because you double up the systems. Now, because they were French, they bought all the systems from the same factory. So, after 27.5 hours, this particular part would malfunction. And because it was an identical part, the two parts malfunctioned at the same time, and the thing plunged into the sea. Whereas, all the other aircraft manufacturers buy them from two different companies.

Geoff Burch:

So, you know, you do have to employ this contradictory point of view to what you're doing. You don't have to abide by it, but you do need to kind of see what there is. And the other thing is, I often express the emotional intelligence of the frontline people, the people in the wellies and the orange jackets. So, whereas the people who live in the sort of holy place that's built on a rainbow somewhere in far Asgard, you know? I probably would understand how that just in time Agility model could be translated into the guy with the steering wheel in his hand. And I suppose that I do have a talent for being able to sell that. So, I tend to be wheeled out at company conferences.

Geoff Burch:

And I suppose, if I have any skill at all, it's to sit with the pointy heads where they talk rubbish, and then I can actually say, "No, no, no. What that actually ..." Because somebody was trying to ... Let's take Six Sigma, right? Six Sigma comes in 27 volumes of 5,000 pages each and it's a manufacturing excellence model or something, quality model. But what it is, is actually ... What it is, is you take a target and a bow and arrow and you say, "If I want to hit the bullseye, what do I aim for?" And you say, "Well, the bullseye." And say, "Well, how much away from the bullseye can we tolerate and call that the middle?" And Six Sigma says, "None of it. If you want to hit the middle, aim for the middle." And that's it. That's all 50,000 pages condensed, basically saying, if you want to get things right, you ought to try and get them right. If you have tolerance 10% either way, everybody will make it 10% either way.

Geoff Burch:

If somebody says, "Look, count the money. There should be 5,000, but I won't be upset if there's 4,900," that's what you'll get every time is 4,900 because the bloke knows he can nick 100 quid, you know?...