The NXTGEN Show

In this week’s episode you’ll discover…

1. How to build an engaged team and some insider tactics for getting some serious core values buy-in

2. Why fear of missing out at the launch of a business can hinder progression by chasing too many avenues, instead of really picking a lane and focusing on the few, not the many – which sounds counter intuitive.

3. Why we can never take a job for granted. Even if we’ve been with a huge corporate multiple billion dollar business for over two and a half decades.

So listen below for all of that and much, much more on this week’s episode of "The Truth About Business"....

In this episode I talk business with Andrew Deighton.

Andrew is the owner of AWD Development Solutions which specialises in improving focus, productivity, and capability by helping to build exceptional teams and develop exceptional team members and leaders.

After an accomplished and impressive 26 year career at Rolls Royce which included a four year stint in Singapore and delivering an HR service to over 2,000 people across 34 global locations, Andrew’s position was unexpectedly made redundant and he was faced with two choices.

Either take up another position within the company, or use his expertise, skillsets and passion to set up in business for himself.

He chose the latter and not only went on to build a successful business, but has also become a published author in the process and in this brilliant interview, we get into it all.

To find out more about Andrew and his services, all of Andrew's contact details can be found in the "Connect With Andrew" section below. 

You know, success leaves footprints..

So let’s take a walk with a published author and team building expert, Andrew Deighton.

Click the play and get ready for “The Truth About Business“… 

Welcome to the truth about business where it’s my mission to seek out real life business champions and explore and share their journey’s, experiences and lessons to serve as inspiration, motivation and help other like-minded business people and entrepreneurs like us to fast track our own success...

In this week’s episode I talk business with Jonny McPhee

Jonny is the founder of Invictus communications who provide telecoms services to many of Derby’s best-known businesses.

After spending his early career honing his telesales skills, Jonny launched Marketing Mole, a specialist appointment booking business which grew to a team of over 22 people, which he eventually sold at the age of 26. 

After returning back to employment, Jonny took stock of the lessons from his previous entrepreneurial adventure and made a conscious effort to build a business that suited his own skills, his lifestyle and one that he can wake up and be passionate about every single day. 

Amongst many other things in this episode, you’ll discover these three golden nuggets:

1) Some of Jonny’s closely held secrets for getting past the “gatekeepers” on the phones

2) How he won clients and built his business in a fiercely competitive market

3) Why Jonny believes that we should all buy, sell and support local

And there is SO much more!

To find out more about Ed and the team, visit http://www.invictuscomms.com or find him on LinkedIn under "Jonny McPhee".

This was another brilliant interview with yet another inspirational business champion that I thoroughly enjoyed and I hope you do too.

You know, success leaves footprints…

So, let’s take a walk with telesales veteran and well-known telecoms entrepreneur, Jonny McPhee. 

Get ready for "The Truth About Business"!...

Welcome to "The Truth About Business", where it’s my mission to seek out real-life business champions to explore and share their challenges, setbacks, failures and triumphs to serve as inspiration, motivation and help other like-minded business people and entrepreneurs like us to fast track our own success...

This episode is a summary of the seven key “truths” that I’ve collected from spending countless hours over the last ten weeks talking with and listening to inspirational business champions.

These brilliant entrepreneurs all started from scratch and, against the massive odds that are stacked against them, have gone on to build fantastic businesses of all shapes and sizes. 

For those of you who are thinking of starting out in business, I hope that this serves as useful information that may better prepare you for what’s to come.

And for those already in business, I would like to think that there are some useful reminders of important fundamentals that we could all do with a refresher on every now and again.

I’d like to take a moment to say a huge “Thank you” to all of the guests who have featured on the show so far. 

It's been a truly humbling experience and I will be forever grateful that you have all taken time out to talk business with me and share your experiences so honestly!

So, without further ado, let’s get in to my seven business truths that I’ve discovered from my interviews with nine inspirational entrepreneurs – and I’ve saved what I feel is the most crucial, until last!

Get ready for "The Truth About Business"...

This is the truth about business where it’s my mission to seek out real life business champions and explore and share their challenges, setbacks, failures and triumphs to serve as inspiration, motivation and help other like-minded business people and entrepreneurs like us to fast track our own success.

In this week’s episode I talk business with Ed Hollands

Ed is the founder of the truck advertising specialist firm Driven Media who help to get their advertisers in front of over 55,000 people per day in an innovative and eye-catching way.

Having just been named as the creative industries entrepreneur of the year for the Midlands region, Ed also belongs to the exclusive club of entrepreneurs who not only makes it on to Dragons Den, but also walked away with a deal and an incredibly experienced Investor as part of his team.

 After Ed had received a number of compliments about his entrepreneurial ambitions from all of the dragons, it was Northern Girl, Jenny Campbell, who decided to back Ed and invested £30,000 for 20% of his company.

The video of the pitch on the Dragons Den channel has recently been republished on Youtube and already has almost 640,000 views.

Amongst many other things, in this episode, you’ll discover

1) Some of the misconceptions about being on the Dragons Den

2) Ed’s top three tips for pitching to investors 

3) The difficulties of being a young entrepreneur

And there is so much more.

To find out more about Ed and the team, visit www.drivenmedia.co.uk or find him on LinkedIn under "Edward Hollands".

This was another brilliant interview with yet another inspirational business champion that I thoroughly enjoyed and I hope you do too.

You know, success leaves footprints…

So, let’s take a walk advertising trail blazer and famed dragon tamer, Ed Hollands.

Get ready for "The Truth About Business"...

This is the truth about business where it’s my mission to seek out real life business champions and explore and share their challenges, setbacks, failures and triumphs to serve as inspiration, motivation and help other like-minded business people and entrepreneurs like us to fast track our own success.

In this week’s episode I talk business with Owen Conti.

Owen is the Derby entrepreneur and businessman behind IT services provider Code 56. Owen’s ethos is that IT is not just about technical equipment, like much of business, it’s about solving problems and he believes big things can happen when business owners start to realise that technology should be viewed as a force multiplier, rather than a necessary evil.

As well as being awarded the Marketing Derby rising star for 2018, Code 56 is also a UK Small Biz 100 in this year’s nationwide celebration of small businesses.

Amongst many other things, in this episode, you’ll discover

1) Why growing as quickly as possible is not always the best option for new businesses

2) The common mistake that businesses of all sizes make when it comes to their IT

3) Why it’s important to strive for your definition of success, rather than everybody else’s

And there is so much more.

To find Owen and the team, ou can check out all the links to her social media accounts and contact details in the show notes at www.benjaminbrain.co.uk/owen-conti

This was another brilliant interview with yet another inspirational business champion that I thoroughly enjoyed and I hope you do too.

You know, success leaves footprints…

So, let’s take a walk with IT whizz and incredibly astute businessman, Owen Conti.

Get ready for "The Truth About Business"...

Welcome to the truth about business where it’s my mission to seek out real life business champions and explore and share their challenges, setbacks, failures and triumphs to serve as inspiration, motivation and help other like minded business people and entrepreneurs like us to fast track our own success...

In this week’s episode we talk to Chloe Maudsley.

Once a high-performance athlete herself competing at a world level in Karate, Chloe now heads up the operations at the Derbyshire Institute of Sport which hunts down the best amateur sporting talent in the county and pushes them through to the very top of their sport – competing in world level competitions, the Olympics and beyond.

Being the only business of its kind in the UK, the D.I.S relies on sponsorships from businesses to support their roster of 30 elite athletes and with big plans to take their model nationwide, this conversation is a fascinating look at the parallels between the high-performance sporting world, and business.

Amongst many other things in this episode, you’ll discover;

1) The beliefs and attitudes that separate truly high-performance individuals from the rest of us.

2) If being a high-performer is something you are just born with or whether you can develop it later on in life.

3) How the team approaches telling athletes who have dedicated their life to their sport that they’re no longer good enough to be on the programme.

And much, much more.

To find out more about Chloe and the team, you can check out all the links to her social media accounts and contact details in the show notes at www.benjaminbrain.co.uk/chloe-maudsley

This was another brilliant business interview with an inspirational business champion that I thoroughly enjoyed and I hope you do to.

You know, success leaves footprints…

So let’s take a walk with former elite athlete and head of operations at the Derbyshire Institute of Sport, Chloe Maudsley.

Get ready for "The Truth About Business"...

Welcome to the truth about business where it’s my mission to seek out real life business champions and explore and share their challenges, setbacks, failures and triumphs to serve as inspiration, motivation and help other like minded business people and entrepreneurs like us to fast track our own success...

In this episode, we talk to Tina Clough.

As well as being a fantastic, award-winning entrepreneur and passionate businesswoman, Tina is the founder and owner of the well known and highly regarded PR Agency, Poppy PR.

After quitting her job in the midst of the recession and starting with nothing, almost a decade later Tina and her poppies are thriving, despite not receiving the support initially of family and friends around her.

This is a brilliant story of determination, a huge will to prove others wrong and a shining example of what can happen when you believe in yourself and are prepared to put in the work.

Amongst many other things in this episode you’ll learn:

1) The biggest mistakes businesses make when it comes to PR and how to give your own a healthy boost. 

2) The advantages of starting a new business in the middle of a recession

3) How Tina got her mojo back after the difficult birth of her daughter and the misconceptions people have about women in business once they’ve given birth 

And there is so much more...

This was another brutally honest and candid interview with an inspirational business champion which I thoroughly enjoyed and I hope you do too.

To find out more about Tina, you can check out all the links to her social media accounts and contact details in the show notes at www.benjaminbrain.co.uk/tina-clough.

You know, success leaves footprints…

So let’s talk a walk with a great entrepreneur and PR Guru, Tina Clough.

Get ready for "The Truth About Business"...

In this episode, we talk business with Tamsin Wheatcroft of Tamsin Wheatcroft Property & Financial Services Recruitment. 

As the owner of a dynamic and fast-paced recruitment business, Tamsin helps owners of some of the top independent estate agency and financial businesses in the region to hire the very best people and save huge amounts of time in doing so. 

This isn’t Tamsin's first business. 

Since the age of 21, Tamsin has been a serial entrepreneur and has defied the odds to build three successful businesses. She’s clearly doing something right and that’s all revealed in this brilliant interview with another great entrepreneur and real-life business champion who is out there making it happen right now.

Amongst many other business gems dropped in this conversation, you’ll learn three things including:

1) The key attributes that are required to start and maintain a successful business

2) How to make better decisions when it comes to recruiting

3) How Tamsin stands out and wins in an extremely competitive industry

And there’s much more too!

You know, success leave footprints..

So let’s take a walk with seasoned businesswoman and recruitment extraordinaire, Tamsin Wheatcroft.

Get ready for "The Truth About Business"...

In this episode, I talk with Estelle Read, sole owner of “beee”, a fantastic, results-driven business that she runs from the comfort of her own home in Lount, Derbyshire.

As a seasoned and highly knowledgeable Executive coach and trainer who works with businesses of all shapes and sizes and the executives within them, Estelle’s mission is to bring out your brilliance, something that she believes is within every single one of us.

This was a truly fascinating interview and for anybody out there who feels that they have so much more to give but just can’t seem to unlock their full potential, this is most definitely one for you.

Amongst many other business gems included in the interview, my own top three takeaways include:

• Estelle’s journey to becoming her own boss
• Why it pays to listen to feedback, but always stay true to yourself
• And some of the incredible technologies, as Estelle puts it, that are at your disposal to help you free yourself from the mental shackles that are holding you back and become unstoppable

To find out more about Estelle, you can check out all the links to her social media accounts and contact details in the show notes at www.benjaminbrain.co.uk/estelle-read.

And there’s a whole lot more, Estelle really delivered in the hour we spent together so get yourself ready with a notepad and pen handy because you’re going to need it.

You know success leaves footprints…

So let’s take a walk with Executive Coach & Trainer and literal “magician of the mind”, Estelle Read.

Get ready for "The Truth About Business"...

Espisode four's guest is Sarah Moore, founder and co-Director of the Derby based business, Juggling Octopus.

Sarah and her team provide tailored, remote support to businesses - taking care of the projects, tasks and work business owners don’t know how to do, don’t have the time to do or simply don’t want to do. 

Having spent a number of years in in the fast paced and high-pressure world of corporate London, Sarah decided that it was time to take control of her own destiny and launched her business from scratch in Jan 2018.

20 months on and the business is going from strength to strength, providing a number of tailor made and high-quality solutions which are enabling businesses from all over the UK to focus on what matters and reach their full potential.

This was another great, wide ranging conversation where we covered how Sarah managed to get the business off the ground, top tips for hiring remote workers, some of the many lessons she has learned along the way and much more.

You know, success leaves footprints. So let’s take a walk with Derby entrepreneur, Co-Director and founder of Juggling Octopus – Sarah Moore...