The Root of All Business

Lydia McCarthy-Keen is UK’s most ethical wholesale diamond dealer and leading expert in the lab grown diamonds. Every sale she makes provides a prosthetic limb to an amputee of Blood Diamond victim of which there are estimated 27,000 West Africa.

Who’s your one person that you know, if you had, if you had them on speed dial for any advice? Who would it be?

Probably Sheryl Sandberg, I think she’s she just epitomizes female strength because she’s working in a male dominated space. And honestly, she just takes so much crap. It’s like she can’t say anything without getting a load of crap for it. And she just says it anyway. And I love that.

 Where to find Lydia:

* Visit Lydia’s website

* Connect with Lydia on LinkedIn

* Follow Lydia on Facebook

* Check out Lydia’s Instagram

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Michael is a highly successful serial technology entrepreneur & pioneer with over 30 years’ experience in the telecoms & technology sector.

As Chief Executive, Michael Tobin OBE led TelecityGroup plc, a leading FTSE250 Technology company from 2002 to 2014, transforming the company from £6m market cap in 2002 to being a top performer in the FTSE250 worth over £2.5Bn, being recognized as Britain’s Most admired Tech Company in 2012.

Other awards include the London Business Awards “Business Turnaround of the Year” award in 2005, UK Innovation Awards IPO of the year 2008 & the techMARK Personality of the year in the same year.

As a Non Exec Director, Tobin was instrumental in transforming PACNET in Hong Kong from a Sub Sea Cable operator to a successful Datacenter operator culminating in its sale in 2015 to Telstra for $800m. In 2017 he was the key driver of the sale of Itconic in Spain to Equinix generating over 8x money for Carlyle in just 22 months, and as a NED oversaw the sale of Datapipe in New York to Rackspace and Basefarm in Norway to Orange on behalf of Abry Partners. In 2019 his partnership with Permira culminated in the 6x return sale of Teraco in South Africa.

Tobin is currently on the boards of Park Place Technologies in the USA , Eurodiesel in Belgium, Chayora in Hong Kong, IXCellerate in Moscow & Instrumental Ltd and HPF Group in London & is the Chair of AIM listed Audioboom and BigBlu Broadband plc, and also Pulsant and Ultrahaptics in the UK.

Michael’s was named ‘UK IT Services Entrepreneur of the Year’ by Ernst & Young in 2009, 2010 & 2011; PWC Tech CEO of the Year 2007; London Chamber of Commerce ‘Business Person of the Year’ for 2009 & 2010; In 2007 & 2009 he was the winner of the DCE Outstanding Leader of the Year, & in 2008 won ‘Data Centre Business Person of the Year’ at the Data Centre Leaders awards. He was awarded ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Data Centre Industry’ at the Data Centre Europe awards & in 2011 received a Lifetime Achievement Award for services to the industry.

In 2005 he was named number 31 of Britain’s Top 50 Entrepreneurs & in 2014 he was honoured in the Queens New Years Honours List with the Order of the British Empire (OBE) medal for Services to the Digital Economy.

In 2016 he  received business awards for Outstanding Non Executive Director of the year in the Best Business Awards 2016 and  the Global Business Excellence Awards 2016, and Chairman of the Year at the Stevie Awards in the USA. In 2017 he was recognized as Datacentre and Cloud Influencer of the Decade in Monaco at the Broadgroup Industry Awards and named in Smith and Williamson’s Top 25 Power Individuals of Industry.

Key highlights and tips in the interview:

On starting your business

I would suggest that anybody starting a business starts with finding out What you didn’t enjoy in your day yesterday? What problem would you solve that you have had? And if you can fix that, then the chances are, there’s millions of other people that didn’t enjoy the same thing. So if you can fix that type of dynamic, then you’ve got a business.

On going the extra mile

There was an old man sitting next to me who I’m sure couldn’t even read the letter that I was reading, but he could see the smile on my face. And he put his hand on my shoulder. And he said, son always go the extra mile, because there’s less traffic there.

Where to find Michael:

* Michael’s website

* Follow him on Twitter

* Connect with Michael on LinkedIn

Business is Personal

“Do we want to see the glossy side or the real side of people?”

Penny Power has a glossy image, her family, her OBE, her business brand; the Founder of three businesses, one global and recognised as the first Social Network for Business, pre-dating LinkedIn by 4 years. and the other a National Education Company that launched the UKs first Digital Marketing Apprenticeship that helped over 1000 young unemployed people into their first jobs. Now on her third, The Business Café. Happily married, three children, holidays, travel… all looks so good. The reality is that there is a lot of pain, challenges, adversity and loss of self-worth in her business and life journey.

In November 2017 Penny realised she was broken and needed to press the stop button and reassess her business mind and decide if she wanted to be as ambitious as she has always been. Penny believes it is time that the human side of business is openly shared and, in her book, she describes herself as a torch bearer on the subject of Emotional and Mental Wellbeing in Business.

In a world of shiny images and the issue of ‘compare and despair’ brought on my by our time online, plus the vortex of ambition that we have programmed ourselves with, Penny shares her lessons and journey in her new book “Business is Personal”. She believes strongly that we have to have a deep sense of the life we want to lead and an understanding of our own desires and definitions of success.

Penny motivates people through her honesty and complete desire to set a benchmark that anyone can reach. He talks are emotional and vry relevant to anyone that strives, juggles life and would like to know the way others are dealing with thing – honestly.

Where to Find Penny on the Web

* Penny’s Website

* Twitter – @pennypower

* YouTube – Penny Power

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MICHAEL JACOBSEN IS AN ENTREPRENEUR, AUTHOR, KEYNOTE SPEAKER AND HIGH PERFORMANCE BUSINESS COACH TO ENTREPRENEURS, CEO’S AND BUSINESS LEADERS.

Michael is active as an entrepreneur in entertainment & leisure property and holds investments in technology companies.

He is considered one of the world’s leading High Performance Coaches for Entrepreneurs, business owners and corporate executives.

He also acts as a consulting advisor to corporations and Governments on entrepreneurialism and innovation.

He has delivered programmes for many large corporations in addition to being a formal Advisor to the Minster of Economy of the Slovak Republic during their recent European Union Presidency, has advised government agencies in the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland and the UK. As an entrepreneur he Co-founded an entertainment and leisure property empire which owned the international Intellectual property rights to produce the household name brand of Dirty Dancing on stage. He developed, owned or operated many of the worlds leading entertainment and leisure properties (arenas, convention centres and theatres). Some of these assets have been sold and he is currently building a new leisure property company, which he founded in 2016, based in Europe.

The author of The Business of Creativity and Entrepreneurs, Mavericks and Empire Builders, he is also the Co-Host of Nothing Ventured on Australia’s Your Money Network and Foxtel Channel 601.

Michael acts as a Non-Executive Director to Boards, has delivered lectures at London Metropolitan University, University of Westminster and Central Middlesex University London and is a Judge of the esteemed Great British Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

Where to find Michael

* Michael’s website

* On Twitter @1Jacobsenm

* Connect with Michael on LinkedIn

* Check out his videos on YouTube

Andrew is a qualified business leadership coach and was ranked in the top 100 UK entrepreneur mentors 2017. He is the author of three best selling business books and works with clients worldwide.

Key Takeaways in this episode:

Five Core Values of Successful Businesses 

The companies that stand for something that are clear on the value, outperformed every other type of business, right, and he identified five core values. And that joy, connection, discovery, respect and impact.

Why Core Value is important

If you don’t know what your core value is, for your business, it’s very hard. It’s, it’s hard to correct craft a message that resonates with with the consumer, because customers particularly now want to identify, they buy from people that they can identify with and resonate with,  particularly if the core value is strong.

Andrew’s advice to those who are just starting out

Get your voice recorder and talk about and talk about and talk about talk about why do I want to do this business.

Where to find Andrew:

* Andrew’s website – https://andrewpriestley.com/

*  on LinkedIn – https://uk.linkedin.com/in/andrewpriestley

Welcome to another episode of only the brave, have fun. I’m your host Jasbir. And today’s guest is Alison Reeves. Alison is a bid writing professional expert who helps businesses with their improve rate when tendering for more business, and in this episode she’s going to share her personal journey, her clients journey and also how to improve your win rates.

Where to find Alison

* https://thebidwriter.com/about-alison-reeves/

* https://www.facebook.com/thebidwriter

* https://twitter.com/TheBidWriter

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonreeves/

Welcome to another episode of Only the brave Have Fun. Today’s guest is Jan Reeves. Jan is an author, business owner, and a cash flow expert. She’s going to share how strong cash flow and high profitability can make a massive difference to the value of any small business. Having sold her business for record sum, Jan now shares her proven get paid systems and strategies with other businesses with her Get Paid book and masterclass. Her mission is to help small business owners get paid on time, increase their cash flow, profit and business value.

The Get Paid book by Jan Reeves

UK:   https://amzn.to/2B9OpqI

Australia:  https://amzn.to/2GhDgtY

Globally:  https://amzn.to/2Uz20AM

Where to find Jan

* Jan’s Website

* Follow Jan on LinkedIn

* Check out Jan on Facebook

 

Welcome to another episode of Only the Brave Have Fun. Today’s guest is Anita Brightley Hodges, specialist advisor to family on businesses. Anita is the founder and chairman of Family Business Place, a nationwide network dedicated to promoting and supporting British and Irish family owned businesses.

For over 20 years, Anita has guided independent businesses through some of their most exciting and challenging times. Her expertise lies in helping businesses plan for succession to the next generation as well as resolving family disputes and getting family members talking again. She has been interviewed on BBC Radio Today Program, BBC Radio London, and BBC Canada as well as being featured in The Guardian, the Telegraph and many other national and local titles. Let’s welcome Anita.

Where to find Anita:

* Anita’s Website

In today’s episode we’re going to talk to Barbara Gray. Barbara is the founder of Clarity Stamp, an arts and crafts company which has won five awards this year, including blogger of the year and designer year, and product of the year. We’re going to explore what makes her tick. And what’s the secret to her success, how she built her team. And how she thrived through the recesession and her journey where she started from nothing to building a company worth 3 million.

Episode Highlights

0:49 An intro to who Barbara is

02:11 It’s not an overnight success

05:20 Gender prejudice in the workplace

07:58 Why it matters how you speak in the 80’s

10:20 How I went from Germany to California

13:02 The challenge of running a business and having a baby

13:54 Racial tension and the opportunity to move to the US

16:13 Clarity Stamp’s inspiration

18:31 How giving up two vices gave birth a company

20:10 Why Barbara was so grateful to her dad for insisting she go to university

21:16 The 80’s business versus today’s modern business model

24:16 What is your security

27:34 Barbara’s biggest lesson in Germany

28:09 Why I don’t have a credit card

32:52 “People think a successful business is a big business.”

34:41 “Turnover is for vanity, profit is for sanity.”

37:56 How to find the right people for your team

42:50 Pay your people well

44:06 How to keep your employees from leaving your company

49:50 The vision for the company and the next big thing

52:44 Why money is a poor motivator

55:40 The highs and lows of her business journey

Where to find Barbara

* Facebook @BarbaraGrayArtist

* Barbara’s Blog

Samantha Houghton is the award winning author of The Invisible Girl: A Secret Life (won award for writing style). She is multi published ghostwriter for articles/blogs in print and online for magazines, clients etc. Co-scriptwriter of upcoming inspirational film. Samantha grew up with alcoholic parents, experienced bullying in her early years, which resulted to her introverted and often loner type lifestyle where writing became her primary avenue to release her anger, fears, and frustrations in life.

She became a prolific writer yet never really recognized that it will be the career she will have and will be known for. In this interview, we’ll get to know Samantha and how she has transformed her life, from a silent, lonely, and bullied student to become an award winning writer, coach, podcaster, and more.

Episode Highlights

1:39 Who is Samantha Houghton

5:52 Samantha’s writing inspiration and genre

8:40 Why Samantha loved writing

10:51 How bullying turned her away from school

17:23 How a hospitalisation turned her life around

19:57 A weight lost solution that became an eating disorder

21:02 Why her writing skill remained an unrecognised talent

22:30 How her son became a life changer for me

24:58 How leaving a job rekindled her passion for writing

28:48 The day she started writing my book

29:20 Why social media became an important ingredient in her writing success

34:36 What it felt like to do something ordinary to you but others praise you for

38:23 How she goes into her creative zone

41:12 Want to write? Here are some tips

47:08 Key lessons in Samantha’s writing journey

51:32 What’s next for Samantha

Where to check Samantha’s works

* Visit Samantha’s website: http://www.samanthahoughton.co.uk/

* The Invisible Girl ~ A Secret Life: A True Story

Where to follow Samantha on Social Media

* https://twitter.com/InvisibleSamH

* https://www.facebook.com/TheInspiringWriter/

* https://www.instagram.com/visiblegirlsam/

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-houghton-35a9635b/