Stories of Success Podcast

This is the end of season 5 episode. You might think it's earlier than anticipated, but there is a reason. There is always a reason.

I say thank you.

Please stay in touch and add me on Linkedin or subscribe to my newsletter.

 

Volker is a sales, strategy and leadership consultant working as an interim CRO. Find out more on his website or subscribe to his newsletter.

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Today's episode is with Tom Glason. Tom is the co-founder and CEO of Scalewise which helps ambitious B2B tech scale-ups accelerate growth by providing unique and flexible access to a community of world-class Scale Experts. He's also the founding member and Chair of the London chapter of Pavilion - a private community for high-growth revenue leaders.     I am a big fan of Scalewise, the Sales Impact Academy and I recently joined Pavillion. Tom definitely created a lot of value for people like myself, but also for companies in the start- and scale-up world.   Topics we discussed, and unfortunately, we ran out of time:  

• How he stumbled into sales
• The hard lessons you learn from telemarketing and picking up the phone
• Hard work paying off
• His background and degree in sports psychology
• How he met his wife when she offered him a job
• His experience launching a juice bar
• Tech and enterprise sales
• How he founded Pavillion (formerly Revenue Collective) to build a community around tech sales
• The latest report on interim and fractional leadership
• How this lead to him founding Scalewise and building a platform to get companies and interim and fractional revenue leaders together
• The average tenure of a CRO being 18 months
• The change of work patterns for C-Levels pre Covid but then the accelerated change due to Covid
• Redundancies and recession
• Flexibility and work life balance
• Sales Impact Academy - creating content and qualifications for sales leaders
• Tom on Linkedin if you want to get in touch Volker is a sales, strategy and leadership consultant working as an interim CRO. Find out more on his website or subscribe to his newsletter.

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Martyn Baker and I got introduced back in the days when he left Twitter and I started my consulting career. We have since worked together on projects under his brand Gardn. He looks back at a corporate career, working with big clients like adidas, Twitter, Telefonica and Microsoft. That wealth of experience lead him to found Gardn as a company helping businesses to position themselves, get their storytelling right and make sure every company he works with operates at its most efficiency. I invited him to speak about how he can help freelancers and interim and fractional professionals to tell a better story, and how he launched himself into this world. Looking at the space from both ends. But who would be better to go into more details than Martyn himself.   Topics we discussed:

• Companies Martyn worked for and how they lead him to do what he loves
• How is storytelling skills apply to entrepreneurs, interim and fractional leaders or any portfolio professional
• Why he started his own business www.gardn.co
• Wanting to be more hands-on
• Interim and fractional commercial roles
• How he scales Gardn
• Working with both scale-ups and big established companies that want to go to market with a new product
• Sales narrative
• Pitch decks
• Breath and depth of positioning
• 50% of business is coming through recommendations
• Establishing a single narrative to talk to all people
• You can't be all for all people, you have to narrow your focus
• Negotiations
• Value propositions
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martynbaker/

 

Volker is a sales, strategy and leadership consultant working as an interim CRO. Find out more on his website or subscribe to his newsletter.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode I welcome Ollie Henderson. It's another expert talk episode, where Ollie and I talk about the future or the state of work.   Ollie creates insights and systems for first-time founders and CEOs who want to attract clients and the best talent by sharing their ideas with the world. As a former start-up founder and CEO, he understands what it takes to grow a business while operating under pressure and time constraints. He is doing all that whilst having a family with 3 kids!   In May 2020, he launched "Future Work/Life" as a newsletter to document the fast-evolving relationship between our work and personal lives. This lead to a podcast and Ollie is currently writing a book called Work/Life Freewheel.   Things we discussed:  

• Ran a digital advertising agency for over 10 years
• Exited in 2020 to start a new business when the pandemic hit
• Started his newsletter to figure out what to do next
• Created a system for work-life
• He got a book deal and started working on his book which will be published January 2023: Work/Life Flywheel
• Interviewed 100s and surveyed 1000s for his book, listen to the interviews on his podcast
• You can subscribe to his newsletter on his website
• He works as a fractional CEO 2 days a week
• Hybrid working
• How to get more out of people: does collaboration IRL work?
• If we improve collaboration by 20% meeting in person, does that balance the opportunity to get top talent from around the world dialling in, improving collaboration by more than 20% virtually?
• Access to specialist skills
• How IRL meeting helps with resolving conflict
• Networking as a graduate
• Selling oneself as a freelancer/interim/fractional person
• The future of work being personalised work which gives the individual more choice
• Marketplaces for freelancers
• What happens when the economy slows down
• Unbundling the workforce
• Creating virtual teams of experts
• Aggregation and re-bundling in verticals
• Idea generation - put them out there!
• Is Work Life Balance possible
• Connect with Ollie on Linkedin

Volker is a sales, strategy and leadership consultant working as an interim CRO. Find out more on his website or subscribe to his newsletter.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I learned about Simon and his business when listening to another podcast, and loved his business idea: coaching and consulting businesses on the back of successful blueprints. So I bought his book 'Strategy Sprints' and I reached out to him. We hit it off, and I thought it would be great for him to share his journey  and his programme for solo entrepreneurs. In my series about fractional and interim leadership, Simon can help us to explore what individuals have to do in order to stand out and get more business.   Things we talked about:  

• Doubling revenue in 90 days thanks to business blueprints
• His sprint coaching programme
• www.strategysprints.com
• Enjoying business instead of the business running you
• Pattern of solo entrepreneurs feeling guilty
• Making the how happen
• Increased LTV (life time value)
• Taking holidays and switching off
• We know what's right but don't know how to put it into practise
• Focus on sales, and how to sell
• Work out your go to market
• Onboarding
• Do the magic
• Forget about lead generation, play instead!
• Talk to people!
• Create value
• How to have skin in the game
• Business models:
• Exchanging money for time
• Packaging things up as a retainer
• Charge upfront and outcome based
• Cash flow vs. profitability
• His book, Strategy Sprints
• His YouTube channel
• You find lots of free open source blueprints on his website

 

Volker is a sales, strategy and leadership consultant working as an interim CRO. Find out more on his website or subscribe to his newsletter.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast is with copywriter and content strategist David Pawsey. He helps freelancers, interim and fractional leaders, and companies to position themselves. He actually helped me with my positioning and my website content. David is a former  journalist, so he is naturally inquisitive and creative. He also works for himself, so can look at the space from an expert and contract perspective.   Topics we discussed:

• Being a wordsmith
• Getting your story across
• How to position yourself and tell your unique story
• Juggling work and life, particularly as a freelancer and stay at home dad
• Content is king
• Direct response and sales copywriting
• Playing to people's psychology
• Email marketing workshops
• SEO content writing
• Relationship building
• Finding work through Linkedin and networking
• Pricing dilemma and selling services
• Putting a price on passion
• It shouldn't be about money
• Do what you enjoy and what is sustainable
• Be the thought leader
• Be yourself
• Get yourself know, get yourself liked, get yourself trusted
• Personal content
• www.deepsocial.co.uk
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-pawsey-45496b2b/

Volker is a sales, strategy and leadership consultant working as an interim CRO. Find out more on his website or subscribe to his newsletter.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I am honoured to welcome Jonathan Younger on my podcast. Jon and I met when I reached out to him on Linkedin about some of the articles he has written about the new way of working on Forbes. He is an HR thought leader, author, teacher and early stage investor. He writes about the freelance revolution and the future of work. Jon's books include HR From the Outside In, HR Transformation, and Agile Talent.   We discussed:

• Him learning from an early age about productivity and freelancing, bettering processes in a factory
• How he defines freelancing and a portfolio career
• The variety of freelance job boards
• Differences in demand for consultants, marketing and tech workers
• His involvement in the space since 2012
• How the pandemic changed the freelance work even further
• 40% of US workers having a side gig
• How companies should appreciate those workers developing new capabilities and skillsets
• 'Freelancer Light' - the ones that still have a full time job
• The Great Awakening vs. The Great Resignation
• Survey on Freelancing and some key incomes
• The need for a portfolio for freelancers
• Challenges for freelancers to sell themselves
• Advantages for companies to employ top talent as freelancers
• Open Assembly
• The Center for the Transformation of Work
• Jon's profile on Forbes
• Jon's Linkedin

Volker is a sales, strategy and leadership consultant working as an interim CRO. Find out more on his website or subscribe to his newsletter.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a very exciting episode with Ben Legg. Ben was the former COO of Google Europe and turned to being a successful portfolio professional. I actually met Ben a few years ago in Cannes, talking digital marketing. In his portfolio career, Ben focuses on supporting founders and investors in the startup and scale-up ecosystem. He is also CEO and co-founder of The Portfolio Collective, a global community of thousands of portfolio professionals, which is why I asked him to join me as an expert on the topic of interim and fractional leadership. So in this podcast we will learn not just from Ben's personal experiences, but also from the diverse learnings captured from members of The Portfolio Collective.   On the show we discussed the following:

• The differences and sameness of Portfolio Professionals, fractional and interims, as well as freelancers
• How a lot of the change in work style start with a side hustle
• How the pandemic triggered more people to look at their lifestyle, and side hustles
• Lockdown influencing the way we are working, and that hybrid is now the norm
• Focused experts
• The Portfolio Collective platform he founded
• 2030 will see 50% of the workforce having more than one job
• NEDs
• Hedging bets with equity and jobs
• Not putting all your eggs in one basket from a job/career and income perspective
• Ben's journey from army to corporate to portfolio
• A book about the portfolio career written by my former guest Katie Ledger
• Leapers.co - a community for freelancers
• TPC community and how it can help you to become better at your portfolio career, including insights, networking and jobs
• The future of work: hybrid working, economy of offices
• The dreaded commute
• His piece of advice: Know how to tell your story and identify your ninja skills
• Ben on Linkedin

 

Volker is a sales, strategy and leadership consultant working as an interim CRO. Find out more on his website or subscribe to his newsletter.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode is with Adrian Cockle. Adrian and I met through Leapers which is a community and support group for freelancers. With our own slack channel we have a great community spirit and I encourage anyone going on their own to join! Adrian is a freelance digital strategy consultant and fractional head of digital - an interim and fractional CDO. Freelance on and off since 2016, previously spent 9 years as head of digital for WWF-UK and WWF International. He has  been doing digital in various forms since working in the UK’s second Internet cafe back in 1995! Currently working with a tech startup, two philanthropic foundations and providing mentoring and due diligence services to an investment firm representing sportspeople.  Outside of work, he is a father to two kids, cyclist, swimmer and mildly obsessive coffee nerd.   Things we discussed:

• 🙂 Coffee: www.chimneyfirecoffee.com
• Leaving the corporate world or staying there forever
• Finding confidence as a freelancer
• Old school managers not allowing a hybrid approach (4/1)
• How important accountant s and finances are when going freelnance
• Transitioning back into a full tiime role and transitioning out again
• Being an internal consultant
• The meaning of interim, fractional, non executive, advisor, mentor
• How to find a job as a freelancer
• The importance of networking
• Lunchclub.com
• Managers looking for output rather than processes to be followed
• Selling time vs. output/projects
• Selling a proportion of your brain
• Working life, family life, work life balance and holidays
• How to structure your work week
• Growthmentor.com
• It's all about the fit
• Think about your workplace, make it yours and efficient
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriancockle/

Volker is a sales, strategy and leadership consultant working as an interim CRO. Find out more on his website or subscribe to his newsletter.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I welcome Damien D‘Souza on this episode who is a business and technology transformation leader. His CV states COO, CIO and CCO experience, yet he markets himself as an interim and fractional ‚CTO‘. With his vast years of experience across multiple industries, he has worked in his portfolio career since 2019.   Things we discussed:

• Whilst he started his portfolio career in 2019, he started working for himself in 2012
• He left the corporate world after 30 years after taking redundancy and money for a runway to try 'self-employment'
• Work is all about what you want to do, not why you do it
• Damien started with IBM, then worked for Ericsson, Hutchison and Nokia
• The corporate world is about politics and if someone says jump, you ask 'how high'
• Most jobs come through his network
• Whilst he is a technology leader he is also a COO but has done work in sales and marketing and supply chain in senior roles
• It's not what you do but how you market yourself
• Working with start- and scale-ups
• How to help businesses to evolve and deal with things
• It's like being a 'father', a business mentor as much as doing the job
• It's about value add and outcomes
• He prices based on projects and outcomes, with regular milestone reviews
• Key principles he learned early in his careers:
• Listen not hear
• Never turn up late or unprepared for a meeting
• Don't waste anyone's time, get the terms of reference right
• People need to understand what you deliver (bring people along on the journey)
• Interim and fractional CxOs are equal in the C-Suite rather than being a contractor
• You constantly pitch for opportunities
• Going to work for something one loves with people you like
• Satisfaction through using one's skills
• Reward is the flexibility, and pay is just as good
• Priority is always oneself, not the work - a life work choice he made (Life-work balance NOT Work-life balance)
• Younger companies benefiting from experience and an external viewpoint
• Skill transfer and knowledge capital being important for the future
• New business models emerging
• Get out there and engage!
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damiendsouza/

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