The NXTGEN Show

Welcome to the NXTGEN SHOW, my name is Benjamin Brain – performance and leadership coach to next generation leaders in family businesses - and it’s my mission to share with you the stories, experiences and lessons learned of other accomplished next generation leaders from across the UK.

On today’s show, I was joined by Gavin Howarth of Howarths.

Howarths, a successful HR and Employment law firm in West Yorkshire, was launched by Gavin’s parents back in 2003, after his father retired from a successful 30-year career in the police force. 

After studying Law at University and completing two years practicing as a trainee Solicitor at one of the UKs largest law firms, Gavin joined the family business and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming Managing Director of the firm 9 years ago, at the age of 27.

Since then, the business has grown year on year to become an outstanding example of a successful, values led family business that has built an excellent reputation for itself not just in the industry and with clients but also in the local community thanks to the Howarth Foundation, a charity set up by the family in 2017 to help the homeless get back into employment.

This was a brilliant no-holds-barred interview into leadership in a family business with an ambitious, passionate and people focused M.D. who’s not afraid to lead from the front and is quickly becoming a voice of wisdom and inspiration to other aspiring leaders in business. 

So without further adieu, this is Gavin Howarth...

Enjoy 🎙🔥

Welcome to the NXTGEN show, my name is Benjamin Brain, Performance & Leadership coach, and it’s my mission to share with you the stories and experiences of accomplished, "next generation" leaders in family run businesses from across the UK.

In this episode, and in a first for the show, I was joined by father and son duo, Adam and Kevin Pritchard of Linford Grey Associates in Coalville, Leicestershire.

Adam, the Founder and Managing Director of Linford Grey Associates, began his career in the creative industries, working for film and theatre companies after being on stage in the West End, before taking a role as a management consultant in a small London consultancy firm.

From there, it became clear to Adam that the advancements in technology meant that in order to stay relevant, accounting and accountants needed to change.

His vision for Linford Grey Associates was to build  a practice that looked and felt more like a fintech company. An advisory led practice with an impressive tech stack that is leveraged to add value for clients

Kevin, Adam’s father, is an experienced business turnaround expert passionately committed to the growth and development of UK businesses regardless of their size.

Kevin sits on the board as Chairman at Linford Grey as well as several other companies as a non-executive director and over the course of his career has built and sold several businesses. The most recent of which was the multi-million pound sale of a manufacturing company to an AIM-listed company. 

So, for a brilliant insight into disrupting an industry and what it takes to forge a great father and son partnership in business, let’s get into it.

This is Adam and Kevin Pritchard 🎙🔥

Welcome to The NXTGEN Show. My name is Benjamin Brain and it’s my mission to share with you the stories, experiences and insights of accomplished "next generation" leaders in family businesses from across the UK.

On today’s episode I was joined by Ben Wilson, Managing Director of MPM - an award-winning, Leeds based manufacturer and supplier of composite and fiberglass tooling and products.

The business was launched by Ben’s dad back in 1978. He retired in 2010 when, alongside his two brothers, Ben took over the running of the business and has since taken it to great heights, increasing revenue by over 700%.

But that’s not come without it’s challenges. Back In 2018 (their 40th anniversary!) a devastating fire ripped through the factory and burned it to the ground, only then soon after to be hit by the challenges brought about by coronavirus which impacted so many other businesses, worldwide.

But as you’ll find from this interview, resilience is part of the DNA at MPM and Ben and the team always find a way to come back bigger and better.

This was another brilliant business interview with an inspirational next generation leader – so without further ado, let’s get into it...

This is Ben Wilson! 🎙🔥

Welcome to The NXTGEN Show, where it's usually my mission to share the stories and experiences of next generation leaders in family run businesses from around the world.

This week’s episode of The NXTGEN Show is a slightly different format to the usual.

For regular listeners, you’ll know that this show is all about great conversations with the next generation leaders of family businesses – and that’s going to continue. I’ve got some AMAZING guests lined up ready to share their own story, insights and experiences.

But on top of that, if the opportunity to share some useful information that might be of service to next generation leaders in their first senior management or leadership role comes up, I’ll be sharing that through the podcast too!

For any business, recruitment plays a key part in it’s success. And one of the activities that you might start having to engage in as a leader of the business, is interviewing potential candidates. If you’ve not had to do that before, that can be quite nerve-racking, all the more so for your first one.

And especially when you understand that this isn’t just an opportunity for you to interview your candidate, it’s also THEIR opportunity to interview you and get an idea of what you’re about as a business and whether they’d fit in.

So in this 15 minute episode, Eddie Smith from Euro Projects Recruitment – who work with a number of family run businesses to help them recruit and build a winning team – shares with me some of his top tips for facilitating a first class interview that gives you all the information you need to make an informed decision and leaves a really positive impression of you and the business on your candidates that stands you head and shoulders above of other businesses competing for the best people.

There’s some great tips in here that I would have loved to have know back in the day when I was interviewing candidates for the family business, so let’s dive in!

Welcome to the NXTGEN show where it’s my mission to share the stories of next-generation, business owners, CEOs and leaders from family run businesses of all shapes and sizes around the world.

In this episode of the NXTGEN show I get to pick the brains of Chris Black.

Chris is the managing Director of Sound Leisure who hand-make the most incredible 60’s and 70’s style jukeboxes that you’ve ever seen and they’re on of only two businesses on the planet that make them.

Chris’ father, Alan, first launched the business back in 1978 and with nothing but a vision, hard work, determination and a whole bunch of passion, the business has now grown into an incredible family business that employs over 70 people with a Main factory in leeds and manufacturing plant in Nottingham and now exports their show-stopping jukeboxes to over 30 countries with an amazing roster of clients.

Chris gives us an amazing insight into how to build a successful family business. And he should know, Chris works alongside his father, brother, wife and eldest son! And we also hear how the company has had to continue to innovate and reinvent itself over the years as music trends change from vinyl, to CD, to digital and all the way back full-circle to vinyl again.

So, without further adieu, let’s get into another brilliant business interview with an inspiring, passionate, next generation leader and champion of UK manufacturing.

This is Chris Black! 🔥

Welcome to the NXTGEN show where it’s my mission to share the stories of next-generation, business owners, CEOs and leaders from family run businesses of all shapes and sizes around the world.

In today’s episode, I was joined by Chloe Wright.

Chloe started out by almost reluctantly helping out in a number of the family businesses after she finished up at university whilst she figured out her own direction.

She ended up sticking around and since then has gone on to launch a number of her own businesses with her partner Louis. Most notably a successful fulfilment business and Avocardo - an online sustainable greeting card shop which plants a tree for every card that’s bought.

From day one, Chloe and Louis' intention was to build businesses to support their lifestyle, and not have their lives dictated by their businesses.

And because of that, in 8 weeks time they’ll be setting off around the world with no return date – whilst still maintaining complete control of their growing business empire, remotely – wherever they are on the planet.

So, to find out how they managed to do that, to discover the perks of having a successful business coach for a father and soak up some brilliant insights that Chloe shares from her business journey so far – which is only just getting started – let’s jump in to another brilliant interview with a trail blazing, next generation entrepreneur.

Enjoy!

Welcome to The NXTGEN Show, this is Benjamin Brain and it's my mission to share the stories of next generation, family business owners, leaders and entrepreneurs from businesses of all shapes and sizes around the world.

On today’s show, I had the pleasure of being joined by Helen Wathall MBE. 

So, a quick introduction to Helen.

She’s the fifth generation of her family to run Wathall’s which was established in 1858 by her great great grandfather, over 164 years ago, and today are Derby’s longest-established independent funeral directors.  

Helen had originally planned a career in farming, she joined the business for what she thought would be ‘temporarily’ when she was 18 but ended up sticking around and went on to gain experience in every aspect of the business before unexpectedly having to takeover as managing director aged just 29. 

Since then, She has been one of the industry’s vanguard female leaders – including becoming the first woman president of the Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF) which represents more than 1,000 family-owned firms and the first female director of Golden Charter – the UK’s largest funeral plan provider, a post she held for 6 years, finishing in December 2021. 

During her tenure as managing director of Wathall’s, Helen has expanded the branch network to 7 offices and has developed new areas of the business – most notably the award-winning Dandelions Bereavement Support programme, and buying Art Stone Memorials.  

This is part of her goal to provide families with the full service from pre-paid funeral plans and arranging funerals to providing bereavement support and designing and erecting burial and cremation stones.

And if that wasn’t enough Helen is also Board chair of St Peters Quarter Business Improvement District.

This turned out to be another brilliant business interview with a forward thinking, ambitious and super successful next generation family business owner

Enjoy!

Welcome to the NXTGEN Show where it’s my mission to share the stories of 2nd and 3rd generation family-business owners, leaders and entrepreneurs from businesses of all shapes and sizes. 

Today’s guest on the show is Jonathan Morgan.

At 33 years old, Jonathan is a Partner and Director of Sales, Lettings & Financial Services at Peter Morgan Estates - A successful property business in South Wales that’s now been operating for over forty years.

Jonathan walked into the family businesses at 16 and has been there ever since.

When the UK property recession hit in 2008, despite still not knowing in which direction he wanted to take his career, he decided to stay on with the business and do whatever he could to help it weather a nationwide storm and come out of the other end stronger.

He quickly progressed through the ranks, managing his first office at the age of 22 and also has some serious achievements under his belt along the way including being a finalist for the 35 under 35 for Wales Online and being shortlisted as a “Manager Of The Year” at the prestigious “ESTAS” industry awards.

He became a father at 30 and that same year, decided to climb Kilimanjaro and in 2021 cycled from John O Groats to Land’s End – a total of 860 miles - to campaign and fundraise for men's health.

He’s a top mentor to other business owners through the industry foundation Agents Together and as if that wasn’t already enough, he’s also successful property investor...

Enjoy!

*** About Me ***

My name is Benjamin Brain and I'm the CEO of NXTGEN Business Coaching.

We work with ambitious 2nd & 3rd generation owners, leaders and entrepreneurs of small to medium sized family businesses in the service, retail and online sectors from around the world to take their business, their time, money and freedom to the next level.

In our podcast series, The NXTGEN Show, we go deep into the journeys and experiences of "next-generation" leaders from businesses of all shapes and sizes to share with you the challenges they faced and the lessons they learned being a part of a family business.

Make sure you subscribe so you never miss out on an episode and if you'd like to find out more about appearing on the show, get in touch!

*** Connect With Me ***

Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminbrain/

Check us out online - https://nxtgenbusinesscoaching.com/

Find us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NXTGENBusinessCoaching

Subscribe on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVbN7VBoxdNusptbo8QHVbg

In this roundtable discussion episode of Adversity To Prosperity, Neale Lewis and I were joined by systems and processes experts from manufacturing and construction to talk about how they use effective systems and processes to build highly efficient, productive and lean businesses...

For this mini-series I've teamed up with business coach extraordinaire and scaleup expert, Neale Lewis and we'll be tackling the many challenges for business owners and entrepreneurs brought about by the Coronavirus.

Neale has vast business experience, working alongside some of the top business minds in the world such as Verne Harnish, working with a variety of high performance business leaders, executives and entrepreneurs and going in deep behind the scenes of multi-million pound businesses across a wide variety of sectors, helping them to achieve their most ambitious big hairy audacious goals.

Neale shares PLENTY of actionable, practical and extremely sound business strategies, tactics and insights that could see you coming out of the other end of this approaching storm in a stronger position.

So, get your pen and paper or your Evernote ready and let's dive in!

Welcome to episode 43 and in this week’s brilliant business interview you’ll discover the following three business insights;
 
1) Which famous Rocky quote is just of true of business as it is of boxing.

2) Why a trade like bricklaying can literally take you anywhere in the world if you want it.

3) And why it’s not always about what a successful business can do for you, but what it enables you to do for others.

In today’s episode, I talk business with Ian Hodgkinson.

After being inspired by his father in his younger years, Ian finished school at 15 and wasted no time in getting involved in the building trade with aspirations of one day being able to build his own house.

For the next two years he immersed himself in his work, perfecting his skills and mastering his craft when at the age of 18, as well as being one of the youngest ever lecturers at South East Derbyshire College, he decided to go it alone and became a self-employed builder.

Over the next three decades, Ian and his team worked hard to build an incredibly successful business which is on track to build 180 houses this year, has many impressive one-off projects under its belt, has been a regular feature on reality TV shows like DIY SOS and scrap kings and has also been involved in some fantastic charity projects that have made a real difference to the community. 

As Ian so poetically puts it, this is the story of the bricklayer who got to meet the Queen.

This was another brilliant interview with an inspirational entrepreneur who demonstrates what can happen when you work hard, have a positive attitude and take full advantage of the opportunities that life presents. 

You know, success leaves footprints...

So, let’s take a walk with a businessman that will leave a lasting legacy not just with the houses he builds, but with the opportunities he creates for the people within his business and the communities he serves – Ian Hodgkinson.