Vic's Take On

In this episode of Vic's Take On, I have a special guest business leader and entrepreneur, Helen Lacey.

Helen started her business, Red Berry Recruitment, in 2007 which she grew to 4 branches covering Shepton Mallett, Yeovil and Bridgwater.  In 2019, she sold 51% of the business to HRGO Plc and is now the Director heading up Shepton Mallett and Yeovil for HRGO Recruitment.

In this episode, Helen talks honestly about building a business, the triumphs, the stresses the failures.  She also talks about selling a large part of what she had built and the reasons behind that move, as well as the challenges the transition has created.

I have known Helen for about 7 years and have always been inspired by her drive, her tenacity, but most of all her care for her staff and customers.

Contact Helen:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenlacey/

https://www.hrgo.co.uk/branch-finder/...

In this episode of Vic's Take On, I have coach and practice growth expert to accountants Ashley Leeds as my guest.  

Ashley has been in sales for nearly thirty years and in that time he has worked in a variety of industries before settling for the complex world of accountancy 13 years ago. During this period he has met and spoken with many accountants from every size of practice and has built an enviable knowledge of the inner workings of these businesses.  He works with accountants to help them grow their practices with 1:1 coaching and filling with them with confidence to get those difficult jobs done, by using his vast experience.  

All delivered with a sense of fun, passion and always a smile.  Because of his time working with software companies he is an expert on systems and knows his way around the sales process.  He has recently written the book, Pricing with Confidence with Heather Townsend and runs workshops on these subjects.  

Since the beginning of the Coronavirus lockdown in the UK, Ashley has done a Facebook Live at 1:30pm where he entertains sing some amazing songs which have brought joy and happiness to many.  

I have developed a very good friendship with Ashley over the past few months and have come to know him as a man of immense integrity, thoughtfulness and fun.  I think you will gain a lot from Ashley's insight and thoughts.

Contact Ashley:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/accountants-coach-ashleyleeds/ 

https://accountantsmillionaire.club/

In this episode of Vic's Take On, I have recruiting expert, entrepreneur and business leader Sarah Knight as my guest.  

Sarah has worked in the recruitment industry for over 20 years and has been running her own business since 2005.   Sarah personally manages Management/Senior Management and Executive level recruitment projects - the rest of the Sarah West Recruitment team manage office, sales, marketing and technical recruitment up to this level.   

I have known Sarah for a few years, but have recently have developed and closer business relationship and have over this period come to see Sarah as not only a top-class businesswomen and entrepreneur, but also as a caring, fun-filled person. 

 We have had some great laughs over the past few months and I am sure you will see that in this chat.  I have also come to recognise Sarah as a deeply thoughtful and driven person and I am sure you will learn a huge amount from this great interview.

Contact Sarah:  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarknight/ 

https://www.sarahwest.co.uk/

In this episode of Vic's Take On, I have a special guest business leader and entrepreneur, Helen Lacey.  

Helen started her business, Red Berry Recruitment, in 2007 which she grew to 4 branches covering Shepton Mallett, Yeovil and Bridgwater.  In 2019, she sold 51% of the business to HRGO Plc and is now the Director heading up Shepton Mallett and Yeovil for HRGO Recruitment.  

In this episode, Helen talks honestly about building a business, the triumphs, the stresses the failures.  She also talks about selling a large part of what she had built and the reasons behind that move, as well as the challenges the transition has created.  

I have known Helen for about 7 years and have always been inspired by her drive, her tenacity, but most of all her care for her staff and customers.  

Contact Helen:  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenlacey/ 

https://www.hrgo.co.uk/branch-finder/...

Vic's Take On is focused on the new world of work as it is developing in a post-pandemic world.  I talk with industry and subject experts, business leaders and entrepreneurs, as well as business thinkers, innovators and inventors.  I also share my own opinion on many of the subjects and topics relevant to the new world of work.  

In this episode of Vic's Take On, I have business leader and entrepreneur, Rachael Howourth as my expert guest.  Rachael spent 17 years of her career with automotive market leader, Auto Trader Plc, where she held a number of Sales Manager and Director roles. Most recently, Rachael ran a team of 60 sales staff, achieved a revenue budget of £97million and played a significant role during the year Auto Trader went through IPO and became a Plc. 

Rachael now uses her skills and experience to train businesses on Sales Strategy, Consultative Selling, Building High-Performance Teams and Sales Pipeline Success.  

I have known Rachael for about 6 years and have recently spent every weekday morning co-hosting the Empowerment Group with our friend Ashley Leeds (who will be on the show in a few days time).  I have grown to know and understand the business she has developed and have come to recognise her as an expert in the field of sales, management and leadership.

In this interview, we talked about Rachael's perspective on what I am calling 'The New World Of World.  What new skills sales professionals will need, what are the jobs which will change and how they will change.  It was a fascinating discussion and I know you will get massive value from it.

You can contact Rachael by following the links below:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-howourth-50b46716/ 

https://www.momentumsouthwest.co.uk/

Episode 15 It's Time to Fightback

This is the first episode of a series I will doing called the Fightback series.  We have all felt the effects of this novel virus which has swept the world and has wreaked havoc on economies, businesses, families and individuals.  It began in a Chinese market and has spread like a wildfire across the globe.  To date, there is no cure and there likely will never be.  

Most people are filled with a paralysing fear of this unknown and unsee enemy.  They are acting in the most outrageous ways in many cases doing the very thing which, under normal circumstances, they would abhor in others.  Bulk buying products in quantities which defy understanding, in the mistaken belief these things will run out.  From toilet paper to pasta, with no concern for their fellow man and no consideration of, in the case of pasta, what they will add to it!

We know that life will undoubtedly be very different when this crisis ends, but we also know that it will end.  And, I think, it is time to fight back.  To fight back for our lives, our businesses, our futures, our families, our culture.  I am NOT advocating anything illegal, but we need to regain control of our circumstances.

Please follow the government's guidance to stay at home, to work from home and to stay safe.  But we can fight back and regain control of the things we can control, so in this episode, I want to share 3 things that you can do to begin the fightback.

Please follow me on LinkedIn for more details on what I can do to help you and your business.

Until a few weeks ago, I did the vast majority of my business outside of the UK.  Probably as much as 80% of my work was in countries like Oman, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Malaysia.  Obviously that meant a large amount of airline travel, in and out of airports, dealing with customs officials, living out of a suitcase and eating hotel food.

As a professional speaker, it meant standing on stages in various countries speaking with crowds from 80 to 2000 people on my core topics of Change and Change Leadership.  As a trainer, it meant being in a training venue with anything from 5 to 40 delegates discussing topics from Change Management and Business Process Re-Engineering to Selling Skills and Leadership.  And as a consultant, it meant sitting in the boardrooms of large, multi-nationals or in a small business owner's office, discussing strategy for change and transformation.

Well, all that has changed and while some of it may come back in the next few months, the majority of the planned work for this year is gone forever.  But, as we know the same is true for most businesses in most countries around the world as we deal with this pandemic now sweeping the world.  And so many people will if not already, will shortly be working from and for many people, they will be self-isolating due to symptoms of this virus.

Consequently, there is all manner of people coming out of the woodwork with advice on working from home or working remotely, many of whom have never worked from home or worked remotely, but there is now w plethora of information some very good and some not so good of how to cope with working from home.

And so, I thought in this episode, I would look at a slightly different angle rather than what is becoming the norm.  So today I want to chat about Flattening the curve and 4 things you can do to help, while at the same time saving your sanity and consequently yourself.

Now I do speak from experience as I have worked from home for the best part of 30 years and have experienced most of the challenges and successes of this lifestyle which will soon become a new reality ........ 

Well here are 4 things you can do which will set you up fairly well and will, hopefully, prevent you from dealing with those consequences I spoke of earlier.

#1

Be truthful with yourself, your family, your friends, your company and your clients, if you deal directly with clients.

#2

You will need to be disciplined in a way that is very different from the disciple you apply at work.  I have worked from home for a large part of my working career and know that it takes on a different level of discipline to that at the office.

#3

Work in short, focused sessions and take regular breaks.

#4

Remain connected.  Isolation does not have to mean isolated.

To find out more about how I can help you and your company during this challenging time please email me directly [email protected]

#flatteningthecurve

#FlattenTheCurve

#SocialDistancing

In this episode, I speak with my first international guest on the podcast, Vicki O'Neill.  We had a fantastic time talking about her business and the move she made from the corporate environment to being self-employed.

For me, it is an inspirational and empowering interview and I think you will gain a huge amount from the interview, so much so that I am hoping to have Vicki back on the show in a few month's time.

Vicki O’Neill is a Fractional CMO whose passion is helping small business owners and leaders achieve success through consistent, action-driven marketing strategies. Vicki started her own business, KenKay Marketing, in 2011 as a ‘side hustle’ to fulfill ad hoc marketing requests. She turned it into a full-time marketing consulting business in 2018 and helps business leaders go from 'plateau to grow' with strategic marketing specifically targeted to reach business goals. She reminds business owners and leaders to continue working their ‘why’ and leave the marketing passion to Vicki and her 20+ years of marketing and sales experience.

You can find Vicki actively posting and engaging in conversations on LinkedIn and Twitter where she shares content, videos and tips on how to create a better marketing presence.

Vicki also hosts the Connect the Dots podcast to help busy marketing and sales leaders connect the dots between marketing and other teams in the organization.

Connect with Vicki:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickioneill/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vickioneill

Subscribe to her email:  www.vickioneill.com/subscribe

Podcast:  www.connectthedotspodcast.com

Today I want to talk with you about self-confidence in business, in leadership, in management and in life.

Have you ever gone to a meeting and the person running the meeting seems to easily make decisions without second-guessing themselves or there is a person who just seems to have the right answers every time?

Or you have attended a conference or a networking meeting and the person on the stage or in the front seems super comfortable in their own skin?

These and so many other people seem to have a supreme level of confidence in themselves and their abilities.  They appear not to be put off by challenges or difficult questions or situations.

In fact, you will find that most good entrepreneurs and leaders are like this.  They have this high level of self-confidence and on some occasions, it can appear as over-confidence.

So how can you get this thing if you can?  Is self-confidence something you are born with or is it something you can develop?  Is it something that is inherent in certain types of people?  Are leaders naturally endowed with this ability?  And is there and age at which self-confidence dies?

I think it was Denis Waitley who said, 'No one is born with self-confidence.  Self-confidence is learned and earned with experience.'

So let us have this discussion.

It would be great to hear from you, so please leave a comment where you listen to this podcast and give me your feedback on this.

Episode 11 of Vic's Take On podcast and today I am with Drew Ellis who is the founder of Eyetoeye Digital & Like Minds Thought Leadership Platform.

I had a fantastic time chatting with Drew who has a fascinating background in the music and digital environments and shared so many stories that we have decided to do a second recording fairly soon.

There are number of things which stood out in this interview for me which I think every business person can learn from.  These include:

A fascinating interview which I think you will gain a massive amount from.

If you want to know more about Drew, Eyetoeye or Like Minds, please click on the links below.

LinkedIn

Eyetoeye

Link Minds